Friday, July 1, 2011

The Painted Nail by Nubar Spring/Summer 2011 Nail Polish Collection

By now I'm sure everyone is familiar with The Painted Nail- the Los Angeles nail salon owned by Katie Cazorla in the TV Guide Network reality series, "Nail Files". The Painted Nail has one thing most salons don't have: their very own line of nail polish! They've just released their spring/summer 2011 collection and I'm very excited about it. It's six gorgeous glass-fleck-esque sparkling brights and a coordinating glitter topcoat. The Painted Nail's polishes are manufactured by one of my favorite brands (Nubar!) so you know the colors are going to be good.

The shades are:

Citrus Sparkle. This is an extremely cheerful color. It's a medium tangerine orange jelly base with yellow-gold duochrome flaky sparkle. I would call it a glass fleck if the shimmer particles were more round and crystal-like (like China Glaze's iconic glass fleck finish) but these are more of a flat metallic flake. Still provides the same gorgeous bright duochrome shimmer as a glass fleck.




Fairy Wings. These must be the wings of the green fairy, because this is a lovely Absinthe green. Perhaps a little more yellow-toned than Absinthe, making it more of an apple green, but still lovely either way you see it. It has a sheer light green base with lots and lots of duochrome green/yellow-gold/blue flaky sparkle to making up the bulk of the polish. It's a little on the sheer side, requiring at least three coats (pictured here) but the color is so pretty it's worth the extra effort.


Electric Blue. According to the press release I have, this one was actually named by Debbie Gibson! Normally I'm not into the whole celebrity-ooh-aaah thing, but I have a bit of a soft spot for 80's icons. Plus, she was in Mega Python versus Gatoroid alongside another 80's icon, Tiffany. Aaaaanyway, Electric Blue is a medium blue with greenish reflects and purple duochrome shimmer. This is closer to a true glass fleck finish- round, shiny pearls of glassy shimmer.

Legendary Lavender. This one is named in honor of Elizabeth Taylor. According to the press release, proceeds from the sale of this shade go to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. It doesn't specify what percentage of the proceeds, so I'm not sure if it's all or a portion or what... But still, I love a polish for a good cause. This is my favorite of the collection because it's so stunning. It's a rich royal purple base with glass fleck shimmer and dark pink duochrome. There are sparkling glints of gold, red, blue, bright violet and deep pink running all throughout the polish. This is just... superb.


Malibu Dreams. It's not often that I fall in love with a pink polish... But this one? GORGEOUS. It's a deep hot pink, on the warmer side, but it has contrasting cool blue-violet and gold flash and is extremely sparkly. The combination of the super vibrant color with the shiny, glassy sparkle is just really eye-catching. Every time I see the name, I can't help but think this was designed for Malibu Stacy.


(Image source: Simpsons Wiki)




Mestiza. This one was named by Vanessa Hudgens after a name her grandmother used to call her. She says that mestiza is a Filipino word that means "golden child". I always thought that Mestiza was an old term that meant a person of mixed ancestry, so it's neat to hear it used as a term of endearment. Learn something new every day! So, the color... It's a bright, sunny yellow with glints of gold and translucent yellow flakes with the tiniest hint of red-orange reflection here and there. So beautiful. I know a lot of people are afraid to wear yellow, but this is so easy to wear and so flattering, I can't imagine it looking bad on anyone.


Moon Drops. This is intended to be a topcoat for the colors in this collection and I'm really fascinated by it. I don't have another glitter quite like this... It's a clear base with tiny opal and clear glitter plus large translucent pearl white hexagon-shaped glitter. It's very sheer (and extremely thick, I thinned mine with a full dropper of Seche Restore) and layers beautifully over every shade I've tried it on. I'm not so crazy about it alone because it's so sheer, but it's not really meant to be worn alone, so... Don't try it unless you have perfectly un-stained nails because it will show everything!

Here's what Moon Drops Glitter Topcoat looks like over the shades in this collection:


One coat of Moon Drops over Citrus Sparkle.


One coat of Moon Drops over Electric Blue.



One coat of Moon Drops over Fairy Wings.


One coat of Moon Drops over Legendary Lavender.


One coat of Moon Drops over Malibu Dreams.


One coat of Moon Drops over Mestiza.


See how it applies the glitter in a random arrangement? I love that. The white glitter in this looks so cool over the bright colors, like snow flakes or opals. Love a unique glitter.


The formula on these was great. The polishes are all on the sheer side, so I used three coats in these pictures. Three coats was pretty much perfect on all the shades, though Fairy Wings might have looked more opaque with four. The texture is on the thick side, but not gooey-thick. Nubar thick. This really feels like typical Nubar formula, so I'm quite happy with it because Nubar is one of my favorite brands for formula quality. Dry time is longer than average, but not long like Diamond or Revlon.


I think this collection rocks. Not a bad polish in the entire set. The colors are bright and fun, the sparkle is amazing and they all have some degree of duochrome or flash to them. I have nothing but praise for the colors. Everything about them is good. I even like the The Painted Nail logo printed on the bottles, it looks very pretty. The outer boxes even have a cartoon caricature of Katie on them, which I thought was a cute touch. The only criticism I have about this collection has nothing to do with the polish. It's about the bottles- they have no labels! I had to keep referring to the press release to remember the names of the colors. I have them all memorized now, but still... Labels are good. I like labels.

You can buy these in person at The Painted Nail, but they're also available online at The Painted Nail's website. Each shade costs $12.50 (which is a bit of a markup from the standard Nubars) and is Big 3 Free. Looks like they have a lot of really good colors besides these spring/summer ones... I have my eye on H-Bomb.

(This was sent to me for review.)


38 comments:

  1. sad we can't watch the tv show here in the philippines! nothing in torrent too! (oops!)

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  2. Oh my god Lengendary Lavender!!! Love it.

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  3. Ugh, I have been eyeing up this collection for a few weeks now and I want all of the colors! I'm not super sold on the Moon Drops top coat just yet, but the rest of colors need to be mine. :D

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  4. I relly like Citrus Sparkle and the top coat!!

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  5. What delicious vibrant colours

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  6. Ohmygosh Fairy Wings and Moon Drops -- I must have!

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  7. zomg la la love moon drops on it's own! need it just to try that look out!!!

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  8. I've never heard of this polish, but I love it. I neeed Moon Drops!

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  9. Those are (pretty much) all amazing!

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  10. Legendary Lavendar, Metiza, and Moon Drops are great. And yes, Metiza (feminine) does mean a woman of mixed ancestry. Even by philipino standards. But I agree, it is nice to hear as a term of endearment. UGH, I just sounded so political. gross.

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  11. Ooooh I have to have Fairy Wings and Citrus Sparkle. I want them all really.. hah!

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  12. OMG I need that orange and the purple!!!! I will have to see if I can get them ♥

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  13. The orange and yellow look perfect! I've been on the search for my "perfect" yellow and orange polish and have yet to be satisfied. I can't stand VNL and alot of orange and yellows I've tried are too sheer, and I want something with some shimmer or sparkle, not a creme.

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  14. Legendary Lavender looks a lot like OPI's recent Grape.. Set.. Match. I really love Mestiza. It's a lovely golden tone.

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  15. The glitter ... I must have that glitter!

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  16. Wow, love the citrus sparkle and fairy wings! Great summer colors <3

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  17. Buh!! If only these were available in the UK!

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  18. Moon Drops is to die for! The rest are pretty, but I have to have Moon Drops.

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  19. These are definitely going to find their way into my stash...at least three of them, Moon Drops for SURE. (I watched the show last night - hated it.)

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  20. I just decided on 3 of these but for $20 shipping to norway I have to pass... :/ What a bummer. The orange is killer!

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  21. holy cow! moon drops over legendary lavender is jaw dropping. neeeed.

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  22. I want every single color and am seriously considering blowing my paycheck on them. I love Nubar polishes, I love bright colors, I love glitter, I NEED THESE.

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  23. WOW! This looks like a brilliant collection. Nubar makes great polishes...I'm going to have to get my hands on this collection for sure! :D

    Thanks for writing a great review and supplying wonderful swatches as usual!

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  24. These are super glowing and sparkling. Citrus Sparkle is my favorite.

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  25. Sooooooooooo pretty! My favourites are Legendary Lavender and Moon Drops. Too bad they aren't priced the same as Nubar polishes or I wouldn't have to hesitate to get these.

    Thanks for swatching them. You pull them off so well!
    - Mary

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  26. These look gorgeous! But the funny thing is...they look similar to the L'oreal Summer Siren collection to me! How odd. The yellow, the orange, the pink, and the blue all look very much like the 4 l'oreal colors-I wonder if I'm hallucinating or if they are dupes?

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  27. OMG! I'm in love with the green one! They are all beautiful though

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  28. Is it just me or does Moon Drops look a lot like Lynderella's Snow Angel? I can't help but wonder if they saw her franken and copied since it was such a unique polish.

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  29. Moon Drops is lovely! Both the name and the polish!

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  30. Kara, oh, I haven't seen that collection! I'm going to have to go looking for it, cheaper dupes are awesome!

    Ghoulina, I'm not familiar with that! Wonder if I can find a picture of it...

    Thanks guys :D I thought these colors were so nice and bright and sparkly... Not a bad color here!

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  31. There's something magical about Legendary Lavender + Moon Drops. I've resisted Nubar so far, but this may be the collection to dive into.

    My name is Debby, so I always thought I was SO cool in elementary school because I had the same name as Debbie Gibson.

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  32. Lend. Lav. & Malibu Dreams have my name all over them. Like the over lay with it's mix of glitter shapes too. I might be more attracted to all of these if I had not bought the entire Zoya Summertime (sparkle) collection - actually got it free on that one day order the entire color lock system and get 1 of either of the 6 bottle summer collections free. That WAS a GREAT deal.

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  33. I totally think moon drops is a snow angel rip off! what the frick!? Lynnderella will always be the original genius behind this color.

    hey scrangie- can you swatch 2 coats of Moon Drops over a fresh mani of Essie marshmallow? Then I could tell for sure how close they are to eachother... would love to see those pix. *sigh* at least ppl who lem snow angel super bad can pick up this nubar tho! ;)

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  34. OMG I love fairy wings. I have two bottles of china glaze G8R L8R and when I were it, I can't get any work done. I just stare at my nails all day. If everything in my life was green I would be so happy. I really really love Zoya Yara, it's the most interesting color. You could do some really cool Konad with it. I want some carpet for my bedroom that color.

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  35. Lacquerish, interesting, you're the second person to say that! I've never seen Snow Angel! I'm going to try Moon Drops over white and you can tell me how close it is!

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  36. Moon Drops over Legendary Lavender is the most amazing thing I've ever seen! It really reminds me of pictures we always see of the galaxy, haha! :) This combo is going on my wish list for sure! <3

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  37. Hi, Where do you buy Nubar in the US?

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