Gunmetal is a dark blue-gray with tons of shimmer. It is what I would call steel gray which makes the name rather appropriate. There is alot of shimmer but not so much that I would call this frosty. But it is definitely inching in that direction.

The formula is good. I did use 3 coats but realistically I could have gotten away with two. And as with all of the polishes from the Xtreme Wear line, it wore extremely well.

This does remind me a bit of OPI Light My Sapphire just quite a bit lighter.

Make sure to check out the macro shot below the jump

Alli and I have talked several times about trying Konad but neither of us have, so we’d like the winner to review it for us – whether you’d like to guest post or just email us after you try it and share your thoughts – entirely up to you!

The winner will also be entered to win $200 worth of Konad products!

Contest Details:

• This is open to US and Canada residents only – don’t worry, our next giveaway will be international!
• Like The Daily Varnish on Facebook.
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• Contest will end at Midnight on February 3rd.

Have a great night!

I used 2 coats of Go Overboard and 1 coat of Yodel. I quite like the way it turned out. Yodel didn’t change the color much but it added just the right amount of sparkle.

Check out the macro shot below the jump!

Metallic 4 Life has multi sized silver glitter suspended in a charcoal gray jelly base. I don’t really get the name on this one. It’s obviously a reference to Nicki Minaj’s song “Moment 4 Life” but this polish isn’t metallic! Anyway, I kind of hate this polish. In order to wear it alone, at least 4 coats are required. And it chips like CRAZY.

I have used this as a top coat once over Essie Smokin’ Hot. That is definitely the way with this polish, but I still didn’t love the way this polish looked. I will continue to try this as a top coat to see if I find a combination I like. But, for now, if I want a black polish with silver glitter I will stick with Orly Goth.

More swatches below the jump.

Lilacism is always a polish that catches my eye but not one I wear often. It is from Essie’s Spring 2010 The Art of Spring collection but is now part of the permanent line. I purchased it when the collection was originally released but I’ve only worn it once or twice. I decided it was time to give it another go. It looks gorgeous in the bottle, after all.

Essie describes this polish as a satiny smooth lilac. That’s more or less accurate. This is a blue based lilac with quite a bit of white in it. It lacks the dusty quality of OPI Done Out in Deco and Essie Nice is Nice. I have nothing but good things to say about the color itself, but the formula is an entirely different story.

Application of Lilacism was a headache. The formula is so thin and runny and quite sheer. I used 4 coats (on some nails 5 coats…) before I had an opaque color. You have to be very careful when applying coats to avoid streaks.

Due to the application issues I can’t say I recommend this polish. Yes, the color is gorgeous but it’s alot of work to get the color to look like it does in the bottle.

Purple Pulse is a blue based purple with blue and red microgitter. The color is really quite gorgeous. And the formula is also fantastic. Two coats were all I needed for an opaque, even application.

One of the reasons I was drawn to this polish is that it looked very similar to Avon Matte Violetta. Matte Violetta is a GORGEOUS color but is an awful polish. So while Purple Pulse isn’t exactly unique, I’m glad I picked it up.

There is a macro shot below the jump

Rhapsody in Blue is a steel gray packed with shimmer but it is only slightly frosty. Just frosty enough to look glowy on the nail. The formula is not fantastic; it’s a bit on the thin side and can be patchy. That of course won’t matter if I’m topping it with glitter, but it is quite noticeable. You can really see it on the macro shot below the jump.

This is certainly not my favorite Confetti polish (that goes to Happy Birthday!), but I think it’s a nice addition to my collection.

Yesterday I decided it was finally a time to give this nail polish rack a try. I tweeted last night that I was going to attempt to make it . As skeptical as I was the rack turned out great! And cost me less than $15 (which includes buying a hot glue gun). While I am rather crafty, prior to this experience I had never used a glue gun or foam board. Or a box cutter. So if I can do it, anyone can!

Info on how I made this rack and lots of pictures below the jump!

What you will need:

• 3 foam boards. I used black foam board because the wall where I was going to put this rack is white.
• A yard stick (or ruler)
• Hot glue gun and refills
• Pencil
• Box cutter

I followed the directions in this YouTube video. The girl who made the video explained the process very well.

To build just the rack it took me 2 hours. For the life of me I cannot cut a straight line with a box cutter so it kind of looked like a 5 year old made the rack. In attempt to remedy this problem I hid these imperfections with some fabric I had in my closet. I love how the fabric looks against the black foam board.

Despite the fact that this rack is made from foam board and hot glue it is very sturdy. I used 5 nails to put it on my wall and filled it up entirely with polish and it hasn’t budged.

This rack will hold 84 bottles of OPI polish. Clearly my entire collection cannot be displayed on this rack so I still keep most of my polish in Melmers. I still love my Melmers and I think they are a fabulous way to store nail polish (for more info on Melmers click here!). But recently I turned a spare bedroom in my house into what I call the Beauty Room and I really wanted to be able to display at least some of my nail polishes.

What polishes I’m going to keep on the rack is still up in the air. I’d like to just keep my favorite polishes on the rack which means alot of the OPI bottles will go back in the Melmers. When I finally get a nail polish storage set up that I like in my beauty room I will do an updated post. And maybe I’ll do a post about the polishes that end up in the rack if that’s something y’all might be interested in.

I hope this post was helpful and that some of y’all will try this! It really isn’t difficult and the results are fabulous

The toughest part of making this nail polish rack was trying to keep Kitty off the foam board!

Essie describes Go Overboard as a “limitless sea blue.” Well, ok. I guess that works. I’d say something more along the lines of a teal blue creme but that doesn’t sound near as fancy! However it is described, Go Overboard is a GORGEOUS color. As if that wasn’t enough, the formula is also fantastic. It  is opaque but not thick. I probably could have gotten away with 2 coats, but I  did use 3.

Surprisingly, I don’t have anything that is comparable to Go Overboard in my collection. This falls somewhere between Essie Going Incognito and OPI Ski Teal We Drop.

This is not limited edition so don’t fret if you haven’t found the Go Overboard display in your area yet. It should be popping up very soon.

Meet me at Sunset was originally released as a part of the Brazilliant collection (Summer 2011). When I put it on I instantly fell in love with it! It fit my need perfectly- bright and cheerful! Though essie’s description calls this “a deep vibrant orange.” However, I think we could initiate a red-orange vs. orange-red debate a la Crayola… Either way, it’s lovely.

Obviously from the bottle, this is the retail not the salon version – and while many of you hate the white logo – I think it’s kind of cute, as long as the glass logos are still there, I’m okay with it.

In my shopping spree, I also picked up 2 polishes from Fingerpaint’s Special Effects collection: Asylum and Twisted. I’ll do a full post on both of them, but wanted to give you a sneak peek of Meet Me at Sunset + Twisted. So gorgeous! It makes me think of dancing flames (and brings to mind The Hunger Games…).

Happy Monday!