I will preface this post by saying that Barielle is not my favorite brand of polish. They have a few really nice shades but the 5 or 6 Barielle polishes I have seem to be problematic. Part of it could be my body chemistry, but I know that their formula could use some work as well. So this is not only a review of Aura Angora but it's also partly a review of Barielle polish in general.

Color:
Aura Angora is a delightful shade of Ochre/Bronze. Creme finish.


Application:
Streaky, but pigmented enough that only 2 coats are needed. It's also on the thick side and will probably need thinner added to it sooner than later.


Downside:
Okay, here it comes. I almost never talk about chipping issues because chipping almost never occurs for me. This could be due to the fact that I change polishes every day, but occasionally I do get chips with really cheap polishes like Wet n Wild or the random no name polishes that you can sometimes get in sets at dollar stores. Almost never do I get chips with mediocre-good quality polishes. Barielle is the exception. This chipped within HOURS of wear on my right hand (which is not pictures in the photos) and I used a nice thick coat of Seche Vite as well. Aura Angora is not the only one of their polishes to do this for me.



Bottom Line:
I love the color to death. Anything mustardy is a win in my book. But the formula definitely needs some work. And at $8 a bottle I'm just not sure it's worth it for their other colors. I would still shell out another $8 for Aura Angora if and when it should run out on me, but will likely never buy any of Barielles other colors again (yes, even Elles Spell!).

It looks a little Batmanish, right? That's completely accidental, but a welcome outcome nonetheless. This took forever to finish and by the time I was done with my right hand, I had no energy or patience to do my left hand :P

I have loads and loads of nail mail coming my way. I couldn't even begin to count just how many bottles I'm expecting this week. Let's just say that this blog is going to be in swatch overload for quite some time.

Last week I took advantage of a promotion that Zoya was having, where you got 2 free polishes of your choice with any purchase. A pretty incredible deal considering each Zoya polish costs $8. In the end I bought a 2 oz. bottle of Remove + for $4.50 (I think?) and my total came to $11.50 with shipping. The 2 free colors I chose were Tanzy and Pippa. I'll swatch Tanzy another day, because I could not wait to try Pippa.

Pippa is a super bright yellow creme. A true yellow. A smiley face yellow. The type of yellow that makes me proud to say that yellow is hands down my favorite color in the spectrum.

Application was iffy, as with all yellow cremes. It required 3 coats, not so much for opacity, but for streakage. I am happy to say that it's no worse than any other yellow I've tried in terms of application though. It's certainly far better than Hard Candy's Splendid (which I think is probably a good dupe for this).

Drying time was excellent. I never expect any creme that requires 3 coats to dry quicker than 30 minutes at the least. This was dry to the touch in 10 minutes with the help of Seche Vite. Awesome.

Overall, I would say this is in my top 3 yellow cremes. I'm still looking for the holy grail yellow creme that requires only 2 coats with minimal streaks and dries just as fast as Pippa does. Any suggestions?

The yellow I used is Lemon Icecream from Barry M. As I mentioned before (and as you can see), I did get a good deal of cuticle drag with this one. The consistency on all of the Barry M Icecream colors is a bit odd. They're kind of a combo of a jelly and a creme, which ends up being sort of....milky? They cover exceptionally well though and the colors are fantastic. The purple I used for my ring finger and as one of the colors on the roses is Cheshire from Funky Fingers. It's a gorgeous color with a neon finish, which makes it difficult to photograph. The lighter purple color that I used on the roses is Berry Icecream from Barry M.

Are any of you partial to the floral manis? Show me some links of your work! :)

try to ignore the little white baby hairs on my thigh in this one...

I actually swore off gradients a few months ago because I did one that required literally over an hour of clean up. Fuck that! I love the look, but I'm just not patient enough to deal with all that. But then I remembered that I used a totally different technique that time and that my old trusty technique never left me with such a horrible mess to clean up afterwards. So I tried again, with pretty awesome results (if I do say so myself). The only real issue I have with this mani is the fact that I got extreme tip wear and lifting on my middle finger, which is likely due to the massive chip I have in the side of the nail.

I used Funky Fingers' Cayman Island for the yellow base, N.Y.C.'s Times Square Tangerine Creme for the orange overlay and a coat of Sinful Colors' UFO for the glitter. I then topped it off with 2 thick coats of Seche Vite.

I went out to water my moms gladiolas last night with bare feet. I never wear shoes around the house and I'm pretty lazy, so if I need to run out to get something from my car or let my dogs out or whatever, I usually just go out with no shoes or socks on and brave the various twigs and tough gravel. So I grabbed the hose and walked over to where the flowers are and started thinking to myself, "I don't know why everyone thinks I'm dumb for coming out here in bare feet all the time. It's no big deal!" when all of a sudden I stepped on a bee.