Va-Va-Varnish

Barielle Elle's Spell over Essie Midnight Cami

2011-10-24T12:46:00.001-04:00

It was a flaky sort of day. Love this combo!

Newspaper nails

2011-09-13T08:41:00.000-04:00

This is a little bit of nail are that I've been wanting to try out for a while. Seeing as I work at a newspaper, it seems very appropriate!

Newspaper print transferred onto Brucci Alexandra's "Hot" Gray.

This one's for Allison!

2011-08-31T21:42:00.001-04:00

Love ya!

E.L.F. Royal Purple, marbled with OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender on ring finger.

Silver Shatter and Coat Azure

2011-07-11T15:42:00.000-04:00

This one's for Terni!

Essie love

2011-05-26T10:29:00.000-04:00

Finally went and got a much needed pedicure, and decided to treat myself to a manicure as well!

Toes: Essie Mesmerize, Fingers: Essie Lapis of Luxury.

I love the corresponding blues!

Snap Crackle Pop

2011-03-22T11:02:00.000-04:00

I've jumped on the crackle polish train! My brother's adorable girlfriend Nina gifted me OPI's Black Shatter and I couldnt wait to try it. This is a coat of Shatter over two coats of one of my favorites, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue. Results? Pure awesome.

Leopard

2011-03-11T12:22:00.002-05:00

I'm loving Sally Hansen nail strips! They're so easy to use and look AWESOME!

All I see is green

2011-03-03T21:46:00.000-05:00

St. Patty's day celebrations are kicking off as early as Saturday and I will be celebrating in syle!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Orly Goth

2010-12-11T17:43:00.000-05:00

Well hello! Just a quick post today, I wanted to share a polish I swatched a while ago but never got around to posting. It's Orly Goth!

I like this polish because it'd different than your normal glittery black creme. I wouldn't even call it glitter, I'd say this is more like large silver glass flecks.

See what I mean? They're on the larger side and scattered throughout the polish. They look like stars scattered in the sky!

Galaxy Girl

2010-12-05T16:01:00.000-05:00

This is a polish I had a huuuuge lemming for for agess. You can imagine how happy I was when I finally saw it at my local Ulta after it was out of stock for weeks. I actually went there planning to pick up some new China Glazes, but ended up leaving with three new Orly's to add to my collection; two of which were Cosmic FX's :) Here she is:

Oh Galaxy Girl, you are everything I've dreamed of and more. Your vampy plum base, your eyecatching blue/pink duochrome...you set my heart aflutter when I look down at my fingertips! This first photo is inside under artificial light, and see how gorgeous you are!

And just as beautiful in the dim morning light of my office parking lot!

But really, Orly did a beautiful job with Galaxy Girl, as well as all the polishes in the Cosmic FX collection in my opinion. This, like it's siblings, applies smoothly and easily and wears like freakin' iron. No joke, I'm on day four right now with a tiny bit of tipwear. Love!

ASOS Curve giveaway!

2010-11-29T12:32:00.000-05:00

Click here to enter a chance to win my ASOS Curve giveaway on my style blog, Fatale Fashion! Hurry, it ends 11:59pm on Tuesday, Nov 30th!

I'm back!

2010-11-24T11:35:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! I've been neglecting the blog I know, but I'm back with a polish from one of the most talked about collections this year.

This is Orly Out of This World from the Cosmic FX collection.

The weather's been pretty drab here in Jersey - I wish I had full sunlight for this photo because this doesnt do it justice. OOTW is gorgeous; you can't really see the beautiful fuchsia glass-flecks that run through this polish in this pic, but trust me, it's a stunner in real life.

Again, the picture does it no justice, and please excuse the ouchie on my ring fingre. Grr, that's one of the reasons I havent posted, this cold weather makes my hands a mess!

Application is great on this polish - 2 easy coats for full opacity. I love that this polish is not one of those almost-blacks, you can still it in its purple and pink flash glory indoors in artificial light. Day two brings some minor tip wear, but nothing worse than any other normal polish.

Pretty :) What's your favorite Cosmic FX? I'm still lemming for Galaxy Girl, Space Cadet, and Lunar Eclipse.

Andi of Viva Polish, Ina of Hysteria of Decay, Daniela Alston, and Gabi of Hungry for Fashion, thanks for joining us <3

Limited Addiction

2010-11-10T12:30:00.000-05:00

I used to rarely wear red polish. Like, next to never. I don't know what is going on with me lately, but I do know that, when faced with Essie's Fall 2010 collection in Face Values last night, I picked Limited Addiction over all the other colors. I'm a red convert, so shoot me!!

This is the kind of gorgeously classic color that almost makes me want to forsake all my other nail polishes and make red nails my signature. Almost.

Can you blame me though? Limited Addiction is one of those jelly-cremes, which means that application was flawless and clean up a breeze, especially for a red. You could definitely get away with two coats but I went with three just to make sure they looked perfect. I love this type of blue-based red, it suits my skin tone and doesn't make me want to scream (like Nars Dovima does).

The above two shots are in natural light, and Limited Addiction, like a lot of reds, looks much brighter there than it does under artificial light.

Still love it to bits though!! Absolutely gorgeous. I'm so glad I picked this up rather than going for one of the trendier shades. I'll be wearing this for years and years to come. For me, this is a backup bottle kinda color.

Is there a color that you always gravitate towards?

Welcome to Cindy of Nail'd & Polish'd!

This is what happens...

2010-11-09T11:07:00.001-05:00

This is what happens when I'm bored on a long car ride...

It's like my own version of Minx! I even did nail art with the zig zig edge! And yes, that is a gum wrapper. Fabulous color, isn't it? Lol!

Celestiale Silver

2010-11-08T14:54:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty polish called Celestiale Silver that I picked up back in my college days, before I became the giant polish fanatic I am now. It's funny that some of my favorite and hard-to-find polishes, like OPI My Private Jet and Loyalty Island Lilac were picked up when I was oblivious to their rarity. But, I digress. Back to Borghese...

I've been wearing this oldie but good from for about 6 days now, and with the exception on one nail (which has a tendany to peel), it's pretty much chipless! Man, this wears like iron! This silver went on relatively sheer, so this is 3 coats, but application with Borghese polishes are a breeze. They have a super wide brush, even wider than the OPI brush, which is perfect for me and my wider nail beds. I can do my pinkie in a single swipe! Some people who have narrower nails may have some problems with this brush though.

I can't bear to put another photo with the ouchie on my pointer :( That was a few days ago though so it's mostly healed up :) I'm ready for a new mani tonight, so stay tuned! Welcome to An from An's Life and An's Photo Shoots, and Sonidlo from Sonidlo's Nail Polishes!

Eggplant Frost

2010-11-02T08:44:00.000-04:00

Well hello there! Sorry for being MIA, but I'm back with a gorgeous new color to make it up to you :)

Say hello to Wet 'n Wild Wild Shine in Eggplant Frost.

I am in freakin LURVE with this color. At first I was a little angry at it - You need to do relatively thick coats with this or it streaks and lumps in a major way. After making a mess of my thumb and redoing it, I got the hang of it and the rest of application was fine. I used three coats fir depth.

I was using and old bottle of nail polish remover for cleaning up, and couldn't for the LIFE of me understand why it was nearly impossible to get the polish off my cuticles and edges. Had I inadvertently bought some sort of super polish that could only be removed with pure acid or something?? Then I realized that the remover I was using must be older than I thought and all the active ingredient must have evaporated. Sure enough, I got another bottle and all was well. Phew!

But besides that debacle, this polish is totally fine. I bough it because it looked cool, and it wasn't til I put it on that I realized just how ridiculously awesome and beautiful and SHINY it is! It's hard to describe the sort of electric glow it gets from having this aqua blue shimmer/metallic over the deep purple. It's reminiscent of Elf Royal Purple but about 10x the awesomeness.

Do you love?!

Welcome Lois S., Andrea Trenary, and to my biff Erin of Frame of Reference!

Love&Beauty

2010-10-27T11:59:00.000-04:00

I realized that I've been doing lots of cremes/jelly's lately and have turned my back on shimmers and sparkles. To rectify that today, I chose another color I picked up during one of my forays into Forever21's Faith section. I don't have the bottle in front of me at the moment and can't remember the name, but I have a sneaking feeling that, like it's other polishes (see brown), it's simply Teal or some other generic name. Anywho, I've been slacking on posts so I wanted to get this up for you guys.

So here's what I'm tentatively calling Teal. It's a pretty jewel-toned blue shimmer, that looks metallic even though it really isn't. I didn't really care for it in the bottle, to be quite honest, and just did this mani because it's been sitting in my untrieds for a while. But I have to say, the longer I wore it, the more I warmed up to it. It's a chameleon polish that looks a bit different in every light. In the sun it's even got a bit of light blue/violet flash, but most of the time you get this pretty metallic peacock color that's slowly grown on me.

Application, like Brown, was really smooth and easy - I thought this would be super sheer, but it was acutally much more opaque than I thought. You could get away with two coats, but I went with three to really get that depth of color. Clean up was a breeze, and it's been wearing impressively well- I'm on day three at the moment with minimal tipwear.

What do you guys think of Forever21's Love&Beauty line?

Red Hot

2010-10-25T14:40:00.001-04:00

"Reddd hot, our team is reddd hot, our team is r-e-d red h-o-t and once we're hot we can't be stopped red hot!"

Wow, when I looked at the label of the Brucci polish I was instantly thrown back to middle school, where I spent two fall season cheerleading "cause everyone else was doing it". That didn't last very long, but that chant sure did, because I'm reminded of it everytime I hear the words "red hot"

Funnily enough, this isn't really a color I'd categorize as red hot. More like, reddish-pinky hot. It is bright, that's for sure, but has a definite tinge of pink to it rather then a full on red.

See what I mean? Definitely a hint of fuscia.

I did quite like this. My Brucci polishes have yet to let me down. This was one of those jelly-cremes, so it required three coats for full opacity. Also, cleanup and removal were amazingly easy and mess free - win/win!

What do you guys think?

Hunter

2010-10-21T13:14:00.000-04:00

Since acquiring the much sought after Nars Zulu, I've been on the hunt for another polish that would satisfy my green jelly craving. I love Zulu, but it borders so much on black that I wanted to find a jelly where the green is much more apparent.

This isn't a jelly, but the shade of green is divine. Hunter is the last American Apparel polish in my mini haul from a few weeks ago.

Just like it's fellows, the formula is a dream and beautifully opaque in 2 coats.

Is it possible to franken a jelly? Do you just add clear polish to a cream?? Has anyone done this??? I think I'm going to buy another Hunter and a cheap clear to try this out...

Peacock

2010-10-19T10:10:00.000-04:00

Isn't that the name of a dirty new Katy Perry song? Anyway...

Here's another one of the American Apparel polishes I picked up last week. This is Peacock, a dark, dusty teal/blue creme.

Natural light.

Inside.

You can see it pulls a little darker inside under florescent lighting, and lighter and more teal under natural light. Either way, it's a pretty color, and application, like all my other AA polishes is a dream. Great quality polish for $5, I definitely recommend them :)

RIP

2010-10-18T15:06:00.000-04:00

Cleo

1993-2010

Thank you for 17 years of joy. You were not only my pet,

you were my sister and best friend. I'll miss you.

Berry

2010-10-14T16:10:00.000-04:00

Listen guys. I need to be locked up. I've been shopping NON STOP. Online shopping, in-store shopping, window shopping (the most harmless of the bunch); any kind of shopping that you want. Yesterday I went to Forever 21 ONLY TO EXCHANGE a dress...and I ended up taking home and additional dress and 2 pairs of jeans.

Sigh.

I popped into American Apparel on my way out to see if they had any new colors...they didn't, but that doesn't mean I could resist their 3-for-$15 deal on nail polishes. This is one of the babies I picked up, a smooth creamy berry color appropriately named - you guessed it - Berry.

American Apparel really does a great job with these cremes - they're so saturated with color and completely opaque with one coat. I do two out of habit but you could easily get away with one if you're careful.

No cons here at all. The polish was easy to apply and went on like a dream, and clean up wasn't bad at all for a red - they usually stain my cuticles like woah.

The color lightens up in the sun, as you can see in the first two shots, but inside or in the shade it'll look more like my Dunkin' Donuts coffee pic - darker but still beauteous :)

What's your favorite American Apparel shade? Berry is gorgeous for fall/winter, but for summer my very favorite is L'Espirit, a crisp lavender-periwinkle. Can't believe I haven't swatched it yet! It's on my list :)

Also, welcome xnosugaraddedx!

Giveaway at Nail Galore!

2010-10-13T11:11:00.000-04:00

If you've been lemming the three polishes MAC released with their Maleficent collection like I have, then head over to Nail Galore, where Nisha is giving away all three to celebrate 100 followers! Congrats girl!

Could it be?

2010-10-11T13:33:00.001-04:00

Is it...

It is!

Say hello to the illustrious Nars Zulu!

Nars Zulu is a beautiful dark, dark green jelly that cause quite a frenzy when it first came out as a limited edition color a few years ago. It was extremely hard to find until Nars re-released it this year as part of their Vintage Nail collection for Fall 2010.

I snapped pics in all different lights so you guys could see how it would look indoors and out. You can tell it most definitely tip toes that "almost black" line and does look mostly black, especially indoors. But you'll catch the green around the edges of your polish and it comes out much more in the sun. Jellies are my favorite so I love that, even though it's so dark, you get that delicious jelly squishiness.

Application was like most jellies - a little streaky/bald spotty on the first two coats, but smooth and perfect by the third. I found that using more polish on your brush rather than less reduces the streak factor - If you're SUPER careful you might get away with only two coats, which would give you much more green and less black...my hands aren't the steadiest so three it was, but I love the "almost black" effect. Drying time is really good on this, even with three thicker coats, and it's super shiny even on it's own - I have a coat of Seche as usual here. Wear was great for Nars Jungle Red so we'll see if Zulu can compete.

I was lucky and have a friend who works and Nars, and who was able to pick this up for me when it was released a few days ago (and on discount!). WARNING - If you have your heart set on Zulu, DON'T WAIT - these babies are flying off the shelves! Have any of you taken the plunge to snatch up Zulu? Do you think it's worth the higher price tag?

Black Emerald

2010-10-08T15:58:00.000-04:00

You guys have already seen this so I won't go crazy...

It's just so gorgeous!

Welcome to some newcomers! Mína, Anna, Erika, NEM1976, Jamie K of (Squoval)icious, and I THINK the last one was Tessa, but if I missed you let me know!! I love you all!

Brown

2010-10-05T10:41:00.000-04:00

It's been a week of crazy!! Sorry I've been MIA guys. Missed you all!

Would you believe that my Nars Jungle Red manicure lasted a full five days with nary a chip? The pros to that polish just keep adding up - I'm definitely going to have to put out for the full size (pay for it, not put out - get your minds out of the gutter!)

Today I'm talking about a polish I bought over the weekend, one that I didn't have very high hopes for. It's from Love&Beauty, a cosmetics brand that you can find at your local Forever 21. I really like these taupey brown colors, but in the store it looked to have almost a greenish tinge and I thought on the nail it'd fall as flat as it's name: Brown.

They couldn't come up with anything better?? It's a shame because I actually really really like this. I have to apologize for my bad cuticles and scratched up polish - I did this mani yesterday but the weather was so bad I couldn't get a single good pic. My hands are disagreeing with this weather and just withering up - I need to moisturize every 5 seconds! Le sigh.

So you may be looking at this saying, "This is looks mighty close to a little polish by OPI called You Don't Know Jacques...". I agree! It does look very close. I did a quick swatch just on a piece of paper and they're looking almost identical. YDKJ might be just a tiny bit warmer while Brown leans more toward grey, but I won't know til I try it on the nail. What I did notice was that, surprisingly, Brown's applications was wayy way smoother and more streak-free than YDKJ. I'm wearing only two coats at the moment, while I distinctly remember having used three of YDKJ in the past.

Besides that, application was really easy, as was cleanup. Brown dries really shiny on it's own, and is gorgeously glassy with Seche Vite. My pics are color accurate but don't do the shine justice. If you see it, grab it!

What's your favorite taupey-brown?

Welcome to my 24th and 25th followers, Jen of Jenilee's Beauty Blog, and Jessica Vaquiant! Honestly, I'm blow away that there's even 25 of you who have read let alone follow my blog. I appreciate every single one of you and love all your comments! Hopefully we keep growing - I want to have a big giveaway for 100!

Exciting news!

2010-09-29T10:11:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! I'm so excited to announce the start of my new blog, Fatale Fashion!

It's a blog dedicated to plus size fashion, where I'll be sharing my outfits, where I shop, and my tips and tricks for looking good! Take a look if you're interested! I'd love to see you there :)

Jungle Red

2010-09-28T11:34:00.000-04:00

Ok, I lied. I may have said that OPI Keys to my Karma was my favorite red. I take it back! I have a new favorite red!

This is my last Nars mini, Jungle Red.

Not surprisingly, it's another red jelly. I dunno what it is about the jellies! Jelly polishes have become my absolute favorite. Something about the squishiness, the clean lines, and the shiny goodness melts my heart.

As I'd expect from any Nars polish, application is a dream. This is 3 smooth and easy coats, and they dry to a super shiny finish. I always add Seche for it's superfast drying power, but if you had the patience to leave it on it's own, topcoat is really not necessary for shine factor.

Another thing I really love about this? It's a chameleon! The shot above was outside in semi-decent light (it's been raining all week, yuck), and the shot below is inside:

So different, but still gorgeous!

For this, I'd shell out the $16 for the full bottle. And with this mini, having already been used for a mani AND pedi, I'm going to have to.

Welcome to the lovely gals of New York Lady! Check them out!

What's the one polish you plan to or already have shelled out big bucks for??

Marble Monday!

2010-09-27T10:29:00.000-04:00

Finally, an on time Marble Monday! I've been slacking guys, I know. But here it is for your viewing pleasure!

Not my very best marbling work, but I do love the colors together! This is E.L.F. Royal Purple marbled with OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender over a coat of Royal Purple. The bast coat of RP is definitely necessary as it's relatively sheer with just one coat. The base coat plus the marble gave royal purple that depth of color.

I'm still using the vaseline method and I'm really quite please with how easy it makes clean up. I've started putting a little vaseline on the tips of my fingers during regular manicures as well so that any polish that gets on my skin when I wrap my tips will wipe right off. Works like a charm!

Weather's terrible today, so these are just a few quick shots I snapped at my desk. Hope you like :)

Welcome to some new followers! Christine of Randomness, a la Mode, Cydonian of Turtle Beauty, and Sissy of the hilarious My Kids Might Be Martians. Check them out!

Wicked

2010-09-22T14:58:00.000-04:00

Today's manicure is one of my all time, go to, never fail colors: Essie Wicked.

Here's Wicked in natural light. I know many people aren't fans of the "almost black" look, which this deep, dark burgundy jellyish creme most definitely is. I don't care though, I love this shade. Even though it does look black, it has a depth to it, you see a little of the burgundy peep out around the edges, and in direct sunlight, it shows up a lot more.

In sunlight. Even so, I don't think that this is really a good representation of the color, because unless you're on the beach, you're going to get that black look. I love it, it's super classy and gorgeous.

The only bad thing about this polish is that cleanup is a complete bitch. If you happen to get it on your cuticles, they'll be pink no matter how much you try to clean those edges. I'm actually sort of dreading taking off the whole mani because I know my fingers will be pink and I'll probably need half a bag of cotton.

This girl definitely runs on Dunkin'.

Royal Purple, a dupe for So Rich So Pretty?

2010-09-21T09:15:00.000-04:00

I can across these swatches of MAC So Rich So Pretty at The Swatchaholic, and it looks miiiiighty similar to what my E.L.F. Royal Purple looks like IRL (as is the case with many purples, I had trouble capturing the full depth and richness of Royal Purple). I'd love to get my hands on a bottle of SRSP to test them out.

Does anybody have both, or know how these two compare?

BTW, welcome to new friends kittytokaren and Cyan of Blue Tape And Nails. Check her out!

Speechless.

2010-09-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

Wow. Wow, wow, wow. That's all I could think to myself when I saw this pictures of MAC's Venemous Villians Maleficent collection over at Temptalia.

Honestly, I'm feeling a little weak in the knees at the moment. These are like Orly Cosmic FX on crack. I wouldn't even care what they looked like on, the bottles are so gorgeous they're like little pieces of art by themselves! But don't tease yourself, head on over to Temptalia to see swatches and read Christine's review of these polishes, as well as the other cosmetics in the collection.

I don't know about you guys, but these WILL be mine; either by my own purchasing or on my Christmas list :)

Midnight Affair

2010-09-17T14:47:00.001-04:00

Today's mani is grandma in my collection, the beautiful but beat up Revlon Midnight Affair (791). Man, this bottle looks like it's been through hell and back!

In direct sunlight.

Nothing wrong with the color though! Not sure how this polish came to me but I'm going to assume it was my sister's. This is a beautiful dark navy shimmer that's definitely quenching my dark and vampy polish urges. While watching the Big Brother finale on Wednesday, I kept seeing Kathy's dark tips and knew I had to make a switch from my recent reds.

Indoors, this polish is dark enough that it could be mistaken for black from far away, but up close you can still see the blue shimmer. Outside or in bright lights though, the blue definitely jumps out more and is just gorgeous.

With flash.

Application was easy, just two coats for bottle opacity, but I would let each coat dry in between or you may risk getting a bald spot or two. The only thing I don't like so much about this polish is that it doesn't have much of a shine to it by itself. A thick coat of Seche Vite was necessary, and I'll probably apply another when I'm home later today.

I'm wondering how close Midnight Affair is to my beloved Essie Midnight Cami. Similar names and colors, I'm thinking they're dupes. We'll see!

Keys To My Karma

2010-09-16T12:45:00.000-04:00

I've been wearing a lot of reds lately, which is so out of character! Dunno what's going on with me! But with a red like OPI's Keys To My Karma, I don't know how anyone could blame me.

In natural light

KTMK is a beautiful bright red jelly. The jelliness of it is what makes me love this polish so much, and what sets it apart from other reds I have, like Nars Dovima. If you guys remember, I really was not feeling Dovima at all on me. It's a touch more orange than KTMK and also a creme, and it made all the difference.

Indoors

This, on the other hand, I like a lot. It's so chic and classic, and might be my perfect red. The fact that it's jelly makes it that much better in my eyes. It's a little softer and less severe than a creme like Dovima.

What do you guys think?

Halley's Comet

2010-09-14T11:00:00.002-04:00

I was so excited to get my butt over to Ulta the other day and snatch up a few of my favorites from Orly's Cosmic FX collection. Would you believe that when I got there, there were only THREE CFX's left?? And I don't mean three different colors left, I mean literally only three bottles! And of course, neither Space Cadet or Galaxy Girl, which I was really lemming for, were there. But, they were 2-for-1 so clearly, like any polish fanatic, I snatched up the remaining colors anyway. Two I kept for myself, and one went along with the two China Glazes as a birthday present for my lucky friend.

Here's Halley's Comet.

Wow. I've seen plenty of swatches of this as well as it's sister OPI Catch Me in Your Net, but until I got it on the nail I didn't fully get it. I do now. There's just so much depth and shimmer and glitter to this, it's hard to keep your eyes off it. These pics are in sunlight which make it really shiny and bright, but unlike other shimmers and glitters, the "wow" factor doesn't diminish from these when you're inside or in low lighting. The color just gets deeper and richer and continues to glimmer like mad. Even one of my 50-something male coworkers told me yesterday he loved my nails! Lol!

Application was a breeze, three quick coats topped by Seche, and it dried in great time. Although I'm not hugely partial to Orly's rubber handle, I do appreciate why people like the bottle so much. At a hefty .6 oz, which is a bit more than a normal polish (OPIs are .5 for example), it feels substantial and you're definitely getting your money's worth. Especially if you get them 3 for $20 at Ulta like I did!

Here's a closeup of the glass-flecky shimmer.

Do you have a favorite from Orly's Cosmic FX Collection?

Big welcome to Kristine! Stay tuned for swatches of my other FX purchase :)

Stroll

2010-09-13T11:50:00.000-04:00

I hit up Ulta the other day to pick up a little something for a friend's birthday. Nailpolish is always appropriate. I didn't at all use my friend's birthday as an excuse to go hunt for Orly Cosmic FX...not at all...

Ulta had a great Buy 2 get 1 deal on China Glaze, so I finally picked up my first China Glaze Polish! This is Stroll, a deep glass-flecked red.

I love this! The color is classic and beautiful and the red is good for my skin, and the glass flecks running throughout the polish give it a twist without being too over the top. Here's a close up of the bottle so you can see the flecks

Application was SO nice, it practically applied itself. Super easy to control and nice coverage with only two coats. I can see what all the fuss over China Glaze is about!

The other two China Glazes I picked up I gave to my friend. One was Ingrid, a taupey brown with gold shimmer, and the other was a neon turquoise shimmer, whose name I didn't catch.

What's your favorite China Glaze shade? Do you think it lives up to the hype?

Royal Purple

2010-09-09T21:51:00.001-04:00

Today I've got a really beautiful polish that I got in my E.L.F. haul a few weeks back. This is called Royal Purple, and let me tell you, it's royal for a reason!

I absolutely LOVE this color. It was super hard to catch it on camera. In person the shade is even deeper and richer. From some swatches I've seen, it's very much like MAC So Rich So Pretty. And guess what guys...this polish is A DOLLAR. ONE DOLLAR. So really, there's no excuse not to have this baby in your collection!

This one's a tad blurry but I really wanted you guys to see the blueish flash it has. This is one of those polishes that has that "glow from within" thing going on. It's pretty shiny on it's own, but with topcoat it just shines and shines.

E.L.F. polishes are on the small side at .35fl oz., so expect a smaller brush, but besides that, application was smooth and easy. It's a bit sheer on the first coat, but with the second you get that deep beautiful jewel-toned goodness.

Marble...Thursday

2010-09-09T15:44:00.000-04:00

Yet another midweek Marble for you guys.

Boyfriend and I are kaput so I had a pretty crappy night and needed a little something to cheer me up. I used Sinful Boogie Nights and Sinful White over the existing Essie California Coral. The two Sinfuls were really creamy and very easy to marble with. I love the contrast of the juicy coral with the stark white.

I can't really muster up too much excitement today, but I hope you guys enjoy this one. Thanks for reading!

California Coral

2010-09-08T12:07:00.000-04:00

I was inspired by yesterday's dupes post and couldn't help but paint my nails with one of my favorites, Essie's California Coral.

And yes, I went for the nubbins. It is a bit sad, as a reformed nail biter that was the longest I had ever grown my nails and I will miss them :( But it couldn't be avoided. A few of the nails had started peeling badly and chipping that I knew it was time to start fresh. And anyway, I'm eager to start wearing my beloved dark polishes and I like them better on short nails anyway :)

In direct sunlight

In shade

I can't help it, I love this color so much! It's got that squishy almost jelly quality, even though I wouldn't call it a true jelly. The first coat was pretty sheer and I thought I'd need three, but two worked out just fine. There's not much else I can say about this but that it's a beautiful, bright happy color and everyone should get it (or it's less expensive Sinful counterpart)!

Some Dupes

2010-09-07T13:21:00.000-04:00

With my day off for Labor Day I finally got around to swatching some polishes that were suspected dupes. Take a look and see for yourself!

First were three of my beloved corals. I don't know what it is, I just have a soft spot for these juicy shades!

Pointer and ring finger: Essie California Coral; Middle finger: Brucci Mango Taffy; Pinkie: Sinful Boogie Nights

Right off we can eliminate the Brucci (middle finger). I can see it's a bit lighter than the other two and a bit more pink.

As for the Essie (pointer, ring) and Sinful (pinkie) - I wouldn't say they are EXACT dupe - it looks to me like the Sinful is a tiiiiiiiiiiny tiny bit more saturated, a little more rich. But I'd say that if you have the one, you don't need the other. Considering that the Sinful is only $2 while the Essie is around $8, I'd grab the Sinful and be done with it.

Next up is are my two mint greens.

American Apparel office (pointer and ring) vs E.L.F. Mint (middle and pinkie).

In this case, I'd chance it to say that these two are exact dupes as far as color. They're the exact same shade of pastel green and pretty much indiscernible on the nail. The formula is a different story. I found the American Apparel polish to apply much smoother and much more opaque. You can see how lumpy and streaky my middle and pinkie fingers look with the E.L.F. polish. If you're going for value, I'd grab the E.L.F. as it's only a dollar, and should be fine with a third coat. The AA is only $5 though, and for me would be worth the extra dough for easier application.

Lastly are the taupes.

Color Club High Society (pointer and ring), vs H&M Grey Sky (middle and pinkie).

Overlooking the shimmer, these are not as close in color as I thought they were. High Society is a bit warmer while Grey Sky leans more toward it's namesake grey shade. Factor in the shimmer and these two are different enough to justify owning both. Lucky for me I love love love my taupe polishes! They're some of my favorite and definitely some of the classiest of my collection.

Hope this was helpful! I'll keep an eye out for any more dupes in my collection :)

Morbid

2010-09-07T10:48:00.000-04:00

Hey all! Hope you had a lovely Labor Day weekend! Mine was great! I went out and caused some havoc with friends, went to a bbq with my boyfriend, and spent a lazy Monday doing some swatches and catching up on my TV. Perfect weekend!

Below is a Wet N Wild color I picked up in one of my Rite Aid hauls over the summer.

In direct sunlight

This dark shimmery polish is hard to describle - it's neither green nor blue, but sort of a blackened mix of both. It's name, Morbid, is perfectly suited to the color, and probably one of my favorite things about it. Application was streaky on the first coat, but covered up with a second.

Inside with flash.

I was sort of disappointed because even with my usual thick coat of Seche, this polish just refused to give me that glassy shiny finish I love. As promising as it looked in the bottle, I think that on the nail, it fell a little flat :( I think I'll give this another try when my nails are shorter - I tend to like darker colors better on nubbins.

Also, big welcome to Nisha of Nail Galore! Click the link to check out her blog :)

Finally!

2010-09-02T14:44:00.000-04:00

Great news everyone! I FINALLY got myself a brand spankin' new Canon PowerShot!

Isn't she beautiful! Can't wait to use it! I'm still rocking my taupe marble so it may be a day or too 'til I try something else.

Until then, here's a warm welcome to MissMidnightBlue! Hi!

Marble...Wednesday

2010-09-01T10:19:00.039-04:00

Finally! A marble I like and am actually wearing! Woot woot!

I give you my uber-posh taupe marble!

Bask in the glory, readers. Bathe in it.

Aaaand the other hand. I was going to save this for Monday, but I was so excited about it, plus I've skipped Marble Monday the last two weeks or so, so I just had to put it up today.

And thumbs. Excuse my cuticles please! For this marble, I used H&M Grey Sky, OPI You Don't Know Jacques, and OPI Glamor Game, which is the shimmery gold. First I put on a coat of Color Club High Society. Because Grey Sky is such a tiny bottle, and the colors are so close, I figured it'd be fine as a base. This marble was pretty easy to do, all three colors spread well in the water and were easy to swirl. I did notice that when my AC kicked in it got a little more difficult as the polish started drying quicker on the water. Little things like that make a huge difference! Also, I used a different method of protecting my skin this time. Usually I wrap my finger in tape to keep the polish off my cuticles and fingers. Though this works well, it's a HUGE pain in butt. This time, I used vaseline around my cuticles and on my fingers. It's very easy to do with just a Q-tip, and once your nails are dry you can wipe the vaseline along with excess polish right off. I got this tip from a fellow blogger, but can't remember who!! I know I commented how great of an idea it was, so if it was you, please let me know so I can give you the proper credit!

What do you guys think of this combo? Yay or nay?

Giveaway at You've Got Nail!

2010-09-01T10:14:00.000-04:00

Heads up, everyone! There's a great giveaway going on at You've Got Nail to celebrate Jacie's one year anniversary in the blogosphere! Congrats Jacie!

Check it out!

Zoya Color Spoons

2010-09-01T10:11:00.000-04:00

I'm sure you've seen this on a million other blogs, so I'll be brief. The good people over at Zoya have come up with an genius new way for us polish lovers to get what we're paying for when it comes to our polishes.

One of my biggest pet peeves is ordering a polish offline and when it arrives, it looks NOTHING like the "swatch" on my screen. Zoya's solved this problems with their new Color Spoons, which you can order off their site for 50 cents apiece. It's a little clear spoon dipped in or filled with actual Zoya polish so that you can see exactly what your choices will look like - how they sparkle, shine, and how they'll look with your skintone. The best part about this deal in my opinion, is that every cent you spend on Color Spoons can be applied to your next Zoya order with the "Spoon value code" provided to you with your Color Spoon order. No wasted money, and exactly the polishes you want. Ingenius!

Will you be taking advantage of this great new feature on the Zoya site?

Summer Fresh

2010-08-31T11:52:00.000-04:00

Today I have another swatch from my H&M mini mini haul. This is Summer Fresh, and light peachy creme with a very subtle silver shimmer.

This is two coats. Application, like Grey Sky, was good, and the color is OK, but it's definitely not my forte. Though I originally planned to do a full mani of this, I only ended up doing one hand for a swatch and it came off. Good thing this little guy was only $1.95.

This was the second polish in a nail nightmare that took almost FOUR HOURS of my night people. Four hours!

My original intention was a marble over yesterday's Grey Sky, which I really loved. I used Grey Sky, OPI You Don't Know Jacques, and an OPI shimmer I can't remember at the moment. I really liked the combo, but messed up a few nails so I decided to swatch Summer Fresh instead (I will definitely do that marble again because it was really cute! Stay tuned). After deciding NO on Summer Fresh, I went to a favorite of mine that I haven't yet featured on here, American Apparel L'Espirit, and beautiful lavender/periwinkle cream that applies like a one-coat wet dream. I was good to go until I was enlisted to help the 'rents drag some luggage and other such things into the house (they just came back from vacation last night). Some terrible nicks and smudges made me bid L'Espirit adieu.

So THEN, I thought it might be good to go back to my E.L.F. haul and swatch Pearl, a shimmery white. BIG mistake. Guys, don't wait for a pic, take it from me. This is one of the worst, streakiest, brush-strokey mess I have ever applied. I can't ever promise you'll see it because I don't know if i can bear putting that monstrosity on my hands again. We'll see.

I tried to save that garbage with a coat or two of a bronze shimmer, but it was hopeless. I lost all faith in my collection then, and, deflated and downtrodden, I put on 2 coats of Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle (A strengthening and lengthening treatment I've used for years and swear by) and a coat of Seche and went to bed.

It's not a happy morning when you wake up and realize you have to go to work like this:

For the sake of your own retinas, DO NOT click for a close up.

Pray for a better nail day for me today, dear readers. I can't go on like this!!

H&M Haul and Grey Sky

2010-08-30T10:30:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a lovely weekend :) I had boyfriend over for the weekend so couldn't do my normal manicure routine for fear of boring him to death lol! Saturday I took him over to the Garden State Plaza for a celebratory treat because he finally took his Bar exam. I made an appointment at The Art of Shaving for him to have the "Royal Shave" - a straight razor shave with all kinds of face masks and lotion and other goodness. Guys like getting pampered too! If your man has a special occasion or you just want to do something nice for him, I definitely recommend taking him to their Barber Spa for special shave :)

Anyway, boyfriend wasn't the only one who got treats! I dragged him into H&M and did some browsing, and picked up 3 mini polishes along with my two tops!

From left: Summer Fresh, Grey Sky, Blue Sky.

Of course the first color I wanted to try was Grey Sky, a pretty taupey-grey with a very delicate, fine silver shimmer. I really just can't get enough of these colors. They're just so classy and sophisticated!

I was VERY pleasantly surprised with the application of this polish. The bottle is teeny tiny so I was expecting a pain in the ass tiny brush, but it actually applied really well! The brush was short, yes, but the bristles were soft and the brush pretty wide which made application easy. I wasn't expecting very much from the formula either, but it was smooth and easy to work with, no cuticle drag and minimal streaking on the first coat - this is two and the color is smooth and opaque. I wish I had taken a pic of just one coat. I actually liked it a lot, it was just a sheer wash of a light mauvey color.

This shade reminds me a lot of one of my other favorite taupes, Color Club High Society. I'll need to do a comparison soon and see just how similar they are side by side. HS doesn't have the shimmer GS has, but the shimmer's so subtle that if they're the same shade, I think it'd be fair to call them dupes. We'll see!

I just thought this was fun :)

Stay tuned for swatches of Blue Sky and Summer Fresh!

M. Butterfly

2010-08-26T11:03:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! Today I've got another one of my red Nars minis to share with you. The last one, Dovima, was a gorgeous bright red creme but not my shade. M. Butterfly, is much more my speed.

Can I get a hell yea! I absolutely love this deep almost mulberry red shade. It's definitely much more suited to my skintone. This was taken in direct sunlight.

Can you tell that I'm ready for fall and winter colors? I'm slowly delving back into the dark, vampy section of my collection. This is M. Butterfly in the shade.

And in artificial light with flash.

This was three coats of Nars' smooth formula. It's easy to apply but I found the color a little sheer - even with three coats I can see a few bald patches on my nails. I think this may be due to the stiffness of the mini brush; you may not have that problem with a full sized bottle. Even so, the color is beautiful and glossy. I would recommend letting the coats dry a little in between to avoid bald patches, or you could always slap on another coat if it's really needed.

I've got one more Nars mini left, a red shade somewhere in between Dovima and M. Butterfly. Stay tuned!

Every say hello to our newest friend, Lauren! Check out her Youtube channel, Lovely's Instict which is dedicated to all things nail polish. Her newest video is all about Shellac, which you guys know is very near and dear to my heart :) Welcome Lauren!

Mount Royal

2010-08-24T11:32:00.001-04:00

Hey all! Sorry I've been MIA. Just so much stuff going on!

Today I've got a beautiful blue creme for you ladies. This is American Apparel in Mount Royal:

I'd describe this as a dusty navy. It's really pretty - AA does a really good job with these opaque cremes. This is two coats to smooth everything out, but you could probably get away with one thick coat if you were careful enough. Application is pretty good; sometimes I find that AA polishes thicken up as you're using them - weird, but I guess they start drying on the brush as you go. I didn't find it too much of an issue, but if you do, a drop or two of thinner should take care of the problem.

These were both taken inside in artificial light. You'll find that the color is a little lighter in natural light; unfortunately the weather has been so bad here the last couple days I didn't get a chance to shoot outside :( If by chance I catch a ray of sunshine I will update.

Have any of you ladies used a polish from American Apparel? What's your favorite shade?

Welcome to Leeblee of Belly Full of Nail Polish and Deanna of Lorraine Nails! Check them out :)

E.l.f. Haul!

2010-08-19T12:26:00.001-04:00

After only about 6 days, my order from E.l.f. came! Check it out:

from left: Royal Purple, Bubble Gum Pink, Mint Cream, and Pearl.

Mint Cream looks like a dead dupe for my American Apparel Office - I'll need to do a comparison. I think of the four, I'm most looking forward to trying Royal Purple, it's totally different from any other purple shades I have.

I also ordered two tinted moisturizers to try out. I used to use Oil of Olay tinted moisturizer, but that stuff is almost IMPOSSIBLE to find nowadays, so I'm searching for a replacement product.

Did I mention every single one of these products was ONE DOLLAR?? With shipping, I paid $8.37 for all this stuff! Win!

Have any of you ever tried E.l.f. Cosmetics? What did you think?

And just because it's gorgeous and I can't stop looking, here's another shot of my Nfu Oh mani :)

See the gorgeous turquoise flash in the sun?! **swoon**

Welcome to Oooh, Shinies! Check her out :)

Finally - Nfu Oh 52

2010-08-18T13:07:00.000-04:00

I ordered Nfu Oh 52 about a month back, and I won't lie; at first, I was stumped. I didn't know what to do with it! I know it had these gorgeous flakies I was dying to get on my nails, but I hated the purple jelly base they were floating in. I tried it by itself, I tried it over purple, over blue, over green, all lighter colors. It just wasn't working for me. So, poor Nfu Oh 52 was banished to the back of my polish drawer, not to be touched for many, many days.

So finally last night, I had had it. That polish was $12 goddamn it, and I'll be damned if I can't make that flaky goodness work for me! So I slapped on a quick coat of an oldie but goodie, Revlon Dark Pleasures in Patent Leather, a dark, dark charcoal grey almost black polish with very fine silver glitter/shimmer. Then I grabbed my Nfu Oh, took a deep breath, and applied.

Behold the blingtastic results!!

How had I ever contemplated giving this away?!! Swapping it?!? Let's view a closeup:

I want to blow that up and wallpaper my walls with it. Paint it on fabric and wear it. Turn it into jewelry. ANYTHING. It's glorious! I love, love, LOVE how the flakies flash from green to turquoise, to dark blue depending on the light. The flakes and shine give this polish so much depth. It makes me think of being on the beach, and looking down through the water at a shiny treasure on the ocean floor.

Apparently I was feeling extra creative and daring last night. I decided to use the matte topcoat I picked up at Icing over one of my nails. And lo and behold, I love that too! I love how the matte makes the individual flakies stand out. I also love how Icing ripped off Essie's matte topcoat's name: Matte About You. Sneaky, sneaky, Icing!

Do you have any other Nfu Oh's? What's your favorite way to wear it?

PS. Big welcome to Vettelicious! Thanks for joining us :)

Matte Green 7

2010-08-17T10:24:00.000-04:00

Today I've got a polish I picked up while perusing through my local Urban Outfitters. No name for this, it's simply called Matte Green 7.

I really love the color of this polish, a pretty light tiffany blue. Unfortunately, it was a bitch and a half to apply. This polish is semi-matte, drying to a satin finish. It does this weird thing where it dries just enough to be unspreadable on the nail, but not enough to avoid smudging and nicking. Sometimes I was lucky to even cover my whole nail before the polish started drying right on the brush. Again, really really weird, one of the most difficult formulas I've ever worked with.

This is three coats as the first two streaked horribly - three was absolutely necessary to even things out. I was REALLY not feeling the satin finish as it showed every imperfection in the mani, so I slapped on a thick coat of Seche, which made the pretty color shine and definitely saved my nails many more smudges than are already there.

I have one other color from Urban, a sheer lime so creatively called Green 1, which has been sitting in my untrieds for ages. It's not a matte so hopefully application will be better. I wonder how this sheer polish would work for a gradation mani? Hmmm...stay tuned!

Marble Monday!

2010-08-16T10:37:00.002-04:00

I was really hoping I would get a chance to do another marble before today, but alas I had no time so here's what we have:

I used two different shade of purple, Rimmel Play Fast in Night Before, and Color Club Electronica, marbled with the Brucci Alexandra's "Hot" Gray.

I had high hopes for this marble but it came out wayy to thick. Pointer to ring finger I alternated Brucci, Rimmel, Brucci, CC, etc. I thought it was very grey heavy so for the pinky, I did CC, Rimmel, Brucci, CC, Rimmel, Brucci, - you get the picture. There's clearly more purple on my pinky but it really didn't help with the goopiness.

Another marble that came off right after the swatch. :(

No worries! I've got a really pretty color coming up tomorrow :)

Welcome to Tessa and Kasiuchetka! Click the links to check them out!

Giveaway at Ooo, Shinies!

2010-08-13T14:35:00.000-04:00

It's our lucky day! A great giveaway is going on over at Oooh, Shinies! Check it out and enter to win a great haul :)

Alexandra's "Hot" Gray

2010-08-13T14:27:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone! It's been a couple days. Today I've got a beautiful grey creme from Brucci called Alexandra's "Hot" Gray.

Pretty, right! This is a really nice cement grey creme with a bit of a blue undertone to it. Application was just like my other Bruccis - a bit of streaking on the first coat, but slap on a second and you're golden. It dries smooth and glossy and wears for days with no chips. Every new Brucci polish I try, I love them more and more. The quality of this product for the price is phenomenal. If you see these in a drugstore, please don't hesitate to give them a try, it'll be SO worth your two dollars and change!

I've got a mini haul from Eyes Lips Face (or E.L.F., as it's known) coming my way. I've heard some great stuff about these products, and at $1-$3 bucks a pop, it's hard to resist! Stay tuned :)

Also, a big welcome to K of Glazed Over! Go check her out!

A late Marble Monday

2010-08-10T08:33:00.001-04:00

This is really frustrating guys. I just can't get back into the groove of marbling! I don't know what's wrong with me! And I'm even more mad becuase this marble just completely ruined the gloriousness of Black Emerald for me. I'm gonna take it off today after work and just start fresh.

Le sigh.

Brucci Black Emerald

2010-08-09T15:48:00.000-04:00

GASPPP...

...

...

...HOW. GORGEOUS. IS. THIS???!?

Oh my goodness. I knew I liked this shade in the bottle, the shimmery green with flashes of gold and red was right up my alley, but I had no idea just how ridiculously orgasmic this was on the nail. I could literally make out with my hands right now.

Brucci Emerald in all its blackened, glowy glory is just fantastic. Brucci has once again reinforced my love for the brand with another fantastic polish. It's a little streaky and bald-patchy on the first layer, but slap on a second coat and you are good to GO. Honestly...in love.

Ps. A random eBay listing for this polish I came across claims its a limited edition shade, but I'm not sure how much truth there is to that statement. What I do know is that you need to RUN to your nearest Rite-Aid, CVS, or whatever drug store you prefer and pick up this beauty STAT.

Vamper Sunday

2010-08-08T23:54:00.002-04:00

Here's a Nars mini I got from a friend who does makeup for Nars. Dovima is creamy and luscious, and as red as red gets.

The formula on this was so great, almost opaque in one coat, and perfect in two. I feel like $16 is almost worth it when the formula is as easy to use as this one. This is inside with flash.

This is indirect sunlight. It makes me sad that I really just don't like this shade of red on me. In person it brings out the yellow undertones of my skin and I cringe looking down at my hands. A red with more of a blue undertone suits my skin better. I have two more Nars minis in shades of red, so I'll have to give them a test run next Vamper Sunday.

Did you watch Trueblood today? Who's your favorite character this season? I always have a soft spot (or a "I want to rip off your clothes" spot) for Eric lol!

Gradation Mani

2010-08-06T21:55:00.000-04:00

After seeing Michelle's gradation mani over at All Lacquered Up, I've been obsessed with trying to find the best polishes in my collection to do my own version. A gradation manicure is when the color fade down the nail, creating an ombre effect on each finger. Michelle used a Butter London jelly to achieve her look, but I've got nothing like it in my collection. I decided to give it a go using my one and only holo, OPI My Private Jet.

My results! I layered MPJ over one coat of American Apparel Mount Royal. MPJ is pretty sheer on its own, but I decided to mix it with some clear polish for the first coat so the blue would still show through pretty strongly. Then I did two more normal coats of MPJ, moving further down the nail with each coat, and topped with Seche Vite.

What do you think? I like this a lot! I want to try it again with a lighter color on the base so the gradient really shows. A true jelly, like what Michelle used, is going to be my next polish purchase so I can try it out with sheer color rather than holo. But still, I like it! Has anyone else tried this mani?

Deborah Lippmann at Gilt.com!

2010-08-05T14:48:00.000-04:00

I know a lot of you are like me. I sit and drool over Deborah Lippman's gorgeous polishes - the pretty colors, the even prettier bottles, but I just caaaaan't quite bring myself to shell out the $16-$20 per bottle. But alas, ladies, Gilt.com to the rescue!

Gilt.com is an invitation only shopping site which gives you access to designer and luxury brands at up to 70% off. Lucky for us polish addicts, Deborah Lippmann nail and beauty products on sale there today! You can find deals like $10 for a $16 polish, or $20 for a $34 hand scrub.

Click here to get your invitation to Glitz.com goodness! I think I'm going to grab Kiss From a Rose and Stardust. Which products will you be picking up?

Also, welcome Carli and Parokeets! Hope you guys enjoy my blog :)

Revised Marble

2010-08-03T16:18:00.002-04:00

Here's the marble I tried over Gianna's "Rockin" Blue. I wanted to go for really subtle so I used GRB in the marble as well so only OPI Go On Green would really show up on the nail.

I actually really like how this came out and would do it on my whole mani - it's a classy way marble with this color without making the already bright mani too obnoxious.

On an slightly unrelated note, can we talk about how last time I tried to swatch GRB, it took me HOURS to get a shot that was even CLOSE to the real shade - this time, it comes out no problem!! The color on this photo is right on; and its gorgeous!

On a very unrelated note...

Look at my charge for the week! I'm babysitting my sister's BF's doggie for the week, and she is just the cutest, roundest, fattiest little mush ever!!

Marble Monday!

2010-08-02T11:05:00.002-04:00

Well, now that I'm Shellac free, on to a Marble Monday!

My first in a while, but not really my favorite. I did this marble on bare nails, and I think it would have looked better if I did it over a color. This is Brucci Gianna's "Rockin" Blue marbled with OPI Go On Green.

I think this nail came out the best of all. I took this marble off after I finished taking pics and put on Brucci Gianna's "Rockin" Blue on all my nails, so I think I might try to marble again tonight but this time over the color. We'll see how it goes!

Shellac removal

2010-08-02T10:59:00.000-04:00

So my Shellac was onto Day 9, and though it still looked perfect (no joke, PERFECT), I was sick of looking at french on my nails and on my blog.

Removing the Shellac was much easier than I thought. All you need to do is put an acetone-soaked cotton ball on each nail and wrap it in foil.

Let it sit for 10 minutes, and voila! They flake right off! Any residual Shellac left behind can easily be pushed off using an orange stick or cuticle pusher. The best part? No nail damage WHATSOEVER. I am true believer in Shellac and have/will recommend it to anyone interested in a pretty mani. I will most definitely be going back for another Shellac manicure for my next special occasion :)

Shellac french mani - Day 8

2010-07-31T12:06:00.000-04:00

This is 8 days of wear for my Shellac french manicure. Still utterly perfect. I can't bear to take them off when they still look so good! Super shiny, no tip wear, a tiny bit of growth at the nail line, but you can hardly see it. It's great because my nails are getting a chance to grow worry-free and without the wear and tear of swatching and multiple manicures a week. Could these last another week?? We'll see!

Another Rite Aid haul

2010-07-29T09:32:00.000-04:00

This one wasn't too bad though, just two polishes.

It seems I can't resist the Brucci polishes. They have some great colors and a really great price: only $2.79 each. I have a couple different taupe-y shades, but no plain old flat greys, so I grabbed Alexandra's "Hot" Gray. And when I saw the shimmery green/burgundy goodness of Black Emerald, I couldn't resist.

As you can see, my Shellac is still going strong at 6 days of wear. I'll post another picture of them in a few days time. I love how gorgeous and low maintenance they are, but I'm also eager to get some bright colors on my nails. We'll see how long they last!

I know I made promises...

2010-07-27T11:41:00.001-04:00

I know I promised a Marble Monday, but look everyone!!! I've been Shellac'd!!

Isn't it just gorgeous! I went to the nail salon on Saturday to get a mani/pedi for my cousin's wedding the next day. I had heard of Shellac before, but I was concerned that, like regular gels or acrylics, there would be a lot of nail damage because of filing and buffing of the top of the nail. My nails are fragile as it is, and the last thing I wanted to do was weaken them anymore. The nail tech assured me that with Shellac, there is no filing or buffing of the top of the nail, you just have the regular filing of a manicure.

If you've never heard of Shellac, here's the description from CND's site:

"Say Hello to the future! Shellac is the breakthrough, patent-pending UV3 technology that combines the ease of polish with the permanence of gels. A true innovation in chip-free, extended-wear color.

Shellac applies like polish—no pots—just a bottle and brush. And removal is just 10 minutes! No filing. No drills.

The results? 14-day, glorious, high-gloss shine that’s truly addictive!"

They're not kidding guys. No drilling, no filing. Shellac is a normal manicure, with the exception of the fact that you're puttting your hand under a UV lamp after each coat. And the shine to these babies is truly high gloss! It would be hard to get nails this shiny even with multiple coats of Seche Vite. Best part about it? After I took my hands out of the last round of UV light, I went digging through my purse for my wallet and keys with no worries! I really love the base coat for this french as well, it's really natural looking, with the most subtle blue and pink shimmer if you look really really close.

This is after two days of wear. No scratches, no tip wear, still super, super shiny. Regular french manicures ALWAYS chip for me after just a day or two. The normal french on my toes is not in nearly as good shape!
The Shellac manicure is supposed to last at least a week and a half, so I'll be updating with pics every few days.

Has anyone else had Shellac done? What color did you choose? Did it live up to your expectations?

Thanks for reading!

The Icing purchases

2010-07-27T10:54:00.001-04:00

These are two polishes I snagged at the "The Icing" over at the Garden State Plaza. Apparently, The Icing is the "big girl" version of Claire's, which caters to younger girls. I was informed of this differential by the teenaged cashier, who seemed quite offended when I held up a bedazzled flask, laughing, and joked that it was kind of inappropriate for a young girls store...chill out chica!

Anyway. On the right we have a matte top coat! At first I really wasn't feeling the matte trend. The neons I have, like Essie Bermuda Shorts, dry matte and I hated the way they look. But as I've seen other bloggers use matte top coat over different polishes, especially sparkles and shimmers, it's kinda grown on me. I love the idea of the top coat rather than a matte polish itself, as you can make any color you want matte! I'll have to try it out soon!

On the left is a pretty light green shimmer that flashes pink and purple, called Peacock. It looks pretty sheer so we'll have to see how it looks on the nail.

I don't own any China Glaze's yet, but isn't this bottle shape similar? I thought the racks of polish I saw from outside were China Glaze, which is why I went running in! Good thing I still found these two that peaked my interest :)

On an unrelated note...I need to feel the love guys! If you're reading this, consider giving me a follow! I've just my one follower and I'm not feeling the love :( Let me know if you're out there! Thanks for reading :)

Just checking in...

2010-07-23T10:03:00.000-04:00

No reviews today, but just popping in for a quick update! I've got some good stuff coming up including a pretty new polish called Peacock (sounds promising), a matte top coat, and a yet-to-be-determined demure mani for my cousin's wedding this Sunday. I'll be passing on Vamper Sunday this week because of the wedding, but I'll definitely be doing a Marble Monday, though it will most likely be posted Monday night. Stay tuned!

Night Life

2010-07-21T17:08:00.001-04:00

So my marble attempt last night was once again a bust. But I won't give up! I'm going to try again when I get home tonight, and hopefully I'll finally get up a marble for this week, even if it is 3 days late.

Anyway, today's polish is part of my Harmon's haul from last week. This is Rimmel Night Life.

I don't own Chanel Paradoxal, but is it just me or is this in the same dusty purple/taupe/shimmer family? Paradoxal seems to have more blue and less gold to it though. I feel like I could definitely franken a Paradoxal dupe with this as a base! Hmm...

I really like this color. It's a chameleon - sometimes it's more on the brown side, especially in the fluorescent lighting of my office, but out in the sun the purple shines through. You can see the pretty gold shimmer in every light and it's just gorgeous. This is three coats, but I think that mayyy have been one too many. The first coat I thought felt pretty thin but it seem to thicken up as I went along. Next time I'll either wait longer between coats or only use two because this was a little gummy and took a while to dry, even with Seche Vite. Hmm, I'm thinking I need to invest in some polish thinner...

Office

2010-07-20T10:19:00.001-04:00

It's been a few days! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend full of fun in the sun, but hopefully you didn't get as sunburned as I did. I'm a little crispy!

I did this manicure Sunday night, so unfortunately I had to snap a few pictures inside and they didn't come out too great. But until I get a chance to redo this, here is American Apparel Office.

Office is a pretty pastel minty green creme. I had some trouble with application; the formula is a little runny and had some cuticle drag and bald spots. This is two coats with Seche top and base, but I definitely should have gone for 3 coats as looking down at my hands now, it's a bit streaky. Otherwise, the color is beatiful, and at $5, an inexpensive alternative for Chanel's Jade.

Didn't get a chance to do a Marble Monday this weekend :( I'll try my hardest to take some time tonight to do one and make it a Marble Wednesday!

Thanks for reading!

Warhol

2010-07-16T14:06:00.000-04:00

Don't let the bright-but-nothing-special-ness of this photo fool you. This was the closest that any camera I own, whether it be blackberry or digital, could get to capturing the out of control, retina-searing neon that Color Club Warhol is. It is complete, even, smooth, opaque neon awesomeness.

This is three thin, beautiful coats of Warhol with Seche base and top coat. I am really loving Color Club, they have a great formula and beautiful colors. If you're looking for a WHAM, BAM, LOOK-AT-ME-WOW-THAT'S-REALLY-PINK color like I was, this is it, people.

Harmon's haul

2010-07-16T12:35:00.000-04:00

Guys, it's a sickness. Seriously.

Left to right: Color Club Wild and Willing, Rimmel Night Life, Color Club Electronica, Rimmel Scene Stealer, Color Club Warhol.

Happy Birthday!

2010-07-15T13:19:00.000-04:00

Happy one-year anniversary to the ladies over at Polish or Perish! Check them out here for some great swatches and a chance to win an awesome 30+ piece haul!

Essie Morticia's Nails

2010-07-13T13:27:00.000-04:00

Two of my favorite things team up! Nail polish and Broadway! Tony award winner and star of Broadway's The Addam's Family, Bebe Neuwirth, has collaborated with Essie to create a three-piece collection inspirited by her character Morticia. Midnight Tango, Bone Chilling White and Blood Curdling Red, will be available as a limited edition set with only 5,000 sets made, and will retail at $30. All proceeds from Morticia's Nails will benefit The Actors Fund. The collection will launch on July 15th, so don't miss it!

UPDATE - The article I found said July 15th, but it looks like you can buy them online here.

Special Delivery!

2010-07-13T10:49:00.000-04:00

My order from Fabulousstreet.com arrived, after only four days!

Here's my goodies: Nfu-Oh 52, which is green/blue iridescent flaky in a light purple jelly base, and Nfu-Oh Cuticle Remover.

The cuticle remover is what I was most excited about, as mine get really dry and usually look even worse when I try trimming or simply pushing them back.

Like I said, you can see above that the cuticles are really dry, stuck to the nail, and you can see spots on my pointer and pinky where picking at them as has cause little cuts and irritation.

I followed the instructions of some fellow bloggers and got to work with the Nfu-oh. I pushed back my cuticles a metal pusher I have (really not the best tool, but I was too impatient to go out and get an orange stick or wooden cuticle pusher) then applied two liberal coats of the remover. I did both hands at the same time but I think the next time I do this I will work on one at a time, so the remover doesn't dry by the time I get to the second hand. I then used the cuticle pusher and rubbed it over the cuticles and on the surface of my nails where I noticed my cuticles were sticking.

Here's after. I think most noticeable thing in my case is that my cuticles look much neater and moisturized, but most off all, there is no more cuticle stuck on the surface of my nail. I think this is a product that will be more and more effective as you use it with your regular manicure routine. I certainly plan to use it on a regular basis to keep my cuticles in check rather than wait til they're out of control. I'm also going to get the proper tools, because I feel an orange stick would be more effective and much more gentle than the metal pusher I was using. Also, I sort of wish it came with instructions.

Now, anyone know of a product the help with the horrendous nail peeling I have going on??

Stay tuned for swatches of Nfu-Oh 52!

Marble Monday!

2010-07-12T10:22:00.002-04:00

Happy Monday everyone! Ohh, the start of another joyous workweek -- yuck! At least I've got this pretty little treat on my nails to gaze at all day. Marbles are so fun!

Apparently I am really feeling the blues lately because that is all I seem to be putting on my nails. I've never worn blue polish before the last month or two and now I'm in love! And how could you NOT be in love with that absolutely gorgeous cornflower blue creme I'm rocking?? That's Hally hansen Hard as Nails X-Treme Wear in Pacific Blue, marbled with American Apparel's L'Espirit on my ring finger. Above is indirect sunlight.

And this is inside with flash. I'm in love with this color. It's so bright and cheerful and unbelievably glossy and shiny. It's so cute with AA's light lavender/periwinkle creme. Sally Hansen may be a drugstore brand, but this formula was just perfection. It was pretty opaque with one coat, but I always go with at least two just to get that perfectly smooth finish. It went on really nice, just thick enough and the brush gave really nice control. This polish gets an A++++++ in my book! It's a must have for anyone with a hard-on for blue polish.

I got my marbling groove back! I was having some issues for a while, not really sure why. Perhaps you can have marbling block just like writer's block. I'm really loving the results of this one, I love the colors together, the two cremes are in such nice contrast with each other. I usually like to have some shimmer in my marbles but I like this one just the way it is. I was entirely too lazy to do my whole mani marbled, I've just got the one nail out of all ten, but I think just one is such a cute accent. I promise I will be posting a how-to soon, I just need to find the time to do it!

Nail Addicts Anonymous giveaway!

2010-07-12T00:27:00.000-04:00

Nail Addicts Anonymous is giving away $60 gift certificate from CSN stores to spend on any of their multiple web stores! Sound good? Click the link to visit their blog and enter to win! Thanks Lissi!

Blood-sucking Sunday

2010-07-11T23:40:00.002-04:00

In honor of one of my favorite shows, TrueBlood, I've decided to start Blood-sucking Sundays. Every week I'll show you some dark, vampiric, blood-sucking themed polishes! For the record, I am not a vampire-obsessed, twilight-humping weirdo. TrueBlood is my only vamper love, because Alexander Skarsgaard and all the other men on it are disgustingly, droolingly, mindblowingly hot, and there's lots of dirty sex scenes ;)

This week I thought I'd do a comparison of three colors in my collection that look like perfect dupes.

From left to right: Brucci Black Cherry, Nicole by OPI Deeply in Love, Essie Swing Velvet. In the bottle they look very, very similar; only Essie stands out with what looks like a bit more gold shimmer than the other two.

Same order from pointer to ring. It looks to me like Black Cherry and Deeply in Love are almost exact dupes color wise. They're the same shade of dark burgundy with a hint of magenta shimmer. Application, on the other hand, was completely different. I had a lot of trouble with the Brucci polish - it was thin and had tons of cuticle drag. Worse of all, it was a complete bitch to get off. It stained my fingers pink and wouldn't come off for anything! I was really surprised because the formula of Gianna's "Rockin" Blue, the Brucci I wore all last week, applied really well, I had no problems at all. The Nicole shade was the opposite, but I can't totally blame the formula as the bottle is three-quarters of the way empty and has thickened up a bit.

Swing Velvet is an old favorite from back when I used to have acrylic nails as a teen. I'm wondering if I got this bottle from a salon, and thats why there's no Essie stamp on it? Seems odd. Anyway, SV is a little richer in color and definitely has lots more gold shimmer. I like this more than BC and DiL, I think the gold gives it a more sophisticated feel. No surprise, the formula is much better too. It went on nice and smooth and was very easy to control. It also looks more blood-like than the others. Care for a taste, Eric Northman?

Stop by tomorrow for a new Marble Monday!

LOLhan!

2010-07-08T14:48:00.002-04:00

Everyone's seen this, but I find it hilarious!

If you can't see it, it's Lindsay telling the judge at her court date on Tuesday how she really felt via secret nail message..."F*ck U!" What a trainwreck!

Happy Thursday!

2010-07-08T14:15:00.000-04:00

Hey all! Happy Thursday!

Isn't it so nice to have something to look forward to at the end of a work day? Today I've got two things after work that give me the strength to make it to 5:00pm without throwing myself off the top of our 10 story building. First, a hair cut and color! Yay! I don't know about you guys, but getting my hair done makes me soo relaxed and happy (as long as they're not effing it up!!).

THEN, dear readers, is something that I've been looking forward too since the end of last year...duh duh duh...the new season of Big Brother!!! I freakin' love that show so much! The lies! The deceit! The scheming! What a great way to fill up 3 nights of normally boring summer TV.

Anyway, back to important stuff. I tried to shoot my step by step photo instructions for water-marbling last night but I was having big issues.We've been having a crazy heat wave here in Jersey the last few days (over 100 degrees!), so I'm blaming the AC we had going at full blast for my polishes drying so quickly on the water. After an hour of frustration I decided to call it a day and just soldier on with a normal mani of one of my yet-to-be-worn polishes.

This deliciousness is Color Club's High Society. I am absolutely in LOVE with the taupe/mushroom/neutral trend that 's going on right now. This is reminiscent of one of my favorite colors, OPI's You Don't Know Jacques, but much lighter and much more appropriate for summer (and for work, unlike my last few manis...voopsies?). Also, it's got sort of a purple undertone that I think makes it really unique. One of the marbles I attempted last night was actually those two together along with a browny-green shimmer (forget which I was using). I'm definitely going to have to give it another try.

Formula and brush on this was standard. It's a little sheer, not quite a creme - this is two coats over Seche base and it almost looks jelly, so I'd go for that third coat if you want it truly opaque. It's pretty shiny on it's own, but I always top with a coat of Seche Vite because I love the glass-like finish you get.This is my first Color Club polish and I quite like it, it's definitely a brand I'll be visiting again.

On a related note, I gave myself a treat yesterday and ordered Nfu Oh cuticle Remover and Nfu Oh 52 from Fabulousstreet.com!

I'm especially excited for the cuticle remover. I've been trying reallyy really hard not to cut any cuticles as I've heard it's not good for your nails, and plus it never looks as good as when they do it in the salon. I've just been pushing them back but they still don't look great :( I'm hoping this will take away the need for any snippers! Also really looking forward to 52, a flaky that i've seen on a billion blogs and looks just GORGEOUS. Stay tuned for swatches of 52 over various colors, and a cuticle before and after.

Thanks for reading :)

Holiday weekend!

2010-07-05T23:47:00.001-04:00

Hope everyone had a great fourth of July! Besides loving fire works, having a reason to party, and Monday off, the holiday is special to my family as it's my parents' wedding anniversary! They've been married 28 years and going strong. What an inspiration!

To celebrate the happy day, I chose one of the polishes I got from my Rite Aid raid. Wet 'n Wild's Wet Shine polish in Night Prowl was perfect for the holiday.

Forget everything else for a second, can we start with how much I love the name of this polish? LOL! Night prowl, rawr! When I saw this on the rack, I knew I had to snatch it up. It reminded me of the New Deborah Lippmann shade, Bad Romance. This is what I thought Bad Romance looked like before I saw the swatch over at All Lacquered Up where you could see the hexagonal glitters.

In any case, I liked it! Not exactly a summer shade but I thought the bright glitter was perfect for Fourth of July. This is magenta glitter in a black jelly base. It went on easily enough not too thick or thin Three coats made it nice and opaque, but even with 2 coats of Seche Vite to get it smooth, it wasn't quite and I think it could have even used another coat. Also, I had some small chips on a few nails after a night of wearing it, so the next day was a new nail color. Taking it OFF was the worst part though, like most glitters it was a pain in the butt and resulted in me with ripped up strings of cotton attached to my fingertips. Le sigh. Still, worth the $1.99 that I paid for it.

This morning I was in the mood for something more fun and summery, so I chose another of my Rite Aid purchases.

This is a Brucci nail polish, a brand I didn't even realize was still around! I remember this brand from wayyy back when, and I still have a few oldies but goodies in my collection.

Gianna's "Rockin" Blue is a supremely hard color to catch on camera, and it's not even my blackberry's fault this time. It's a bright turquoise-green creme that just pops. This is pretty close to the correct shade, but it's juuuust a hint more green in person. Formula was a dream - gorgeously opaque in two coats, and super duper shiny with a coat of Seche. I wore this in the pool for hours with no damage, so I'm pretty impressed. I love this shade so much it's on my fingers and toes at the moment. For the $2 and change I paid for this, I'd definitely recommend it to anyone. I have another new bottle of Brucci polish and a few old ones, so we'll have to see if they're all as good quality as GRB.

I was fiddling with my old Canon which had what I thought was a broken screen, when suddenly it turned on! Just like that!! I tried it out to see if it would give me better results with the color than my Bberry did, but it no luck, so I stuck with the Bberry pics.

On a side note, this reminds me of pics I've seen of China Glaze's For Audrey. I'll need to get my hands on a bottle soon and see if they're dupes...

...until next time :)

Inaugural Marble Monday!

2010-07-05T23:26:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone! This is the my first official "Marble Monday" post. I first saw this technique on Sarah and Jason's blog CrystalPolish, and I've been obsessed ever since!

This was my second ever attempt at a marble, using Essie Midnight Cami, a deep, deep shimmery blue (which, by the way, is perfection in a bottle - but that's for another day), and OPI Go on Green, a sheer, irridescent blue-green. MC is also on the rest of my nails in these photos.

The next day I decided to take the plunge and do my whole mani marbled. It's surprisingly not as BAM, OUT THERE as I thought it would be, it's actually sort of subtle. I used the same colors, Midnight Cami and Go on Green, but oddly enough they came out a lot lighter than the first time. Not really sure why? The colors seems like they were spreading more in the water this time, but I couldn't give you a reason for that. I guess as I do these more and more I'll get the hang of the quirks. Both mani's have Seche base and top coat.

A lot of people have asked my how I did this, and I know it's hard to explain with just words. One of these Monday's I'll post picture step-by-step instructions, or maybe even a video! (eek!)

Until next time :)

Rite Aid=Heaven/Hell?

2010-07-05T19:40:00.001-04:00

Why is it that when you go to a pharmacy to pick up a prescription that they have in-stock, you still need to wait 15-20 minutes (which really means at LEAST half an hour)?? Don't they know what's going to happen if I have 20 minutes to wander about the store?

That's what happens. I need to be put on a leash.

The Lone Holo

2010-07-02T12:00:00.001-04:00

Ok polish fanatics, prepare yourselves for the statement I'm about to make. Ready?.....OPI's My Private Jet is the only holo I own. NOT ONLY THAT, this is the first time I ever used it. EEK!

For those of you that haven't left yet, Here's My Private Jet, a dark grey/black holo, no top coat. Wow, I can see why people love holos so much! Look at the sparkle on this bad boy!

Application was...long. This is four coats to get near bottle color. The first coat was so sheer it was almost hard to see - The good part is that the coats are so thin and dry so fast it's no issue to do four. This could be interesting to layer over another color, I'll need to try that in the future. I even liked how it looked with 2 coats...it was a softer shade, almost brown, which is nice if you're not looking to go too dark on your nails (it is summer after all). Besides the sheerness of it, the formula was good, and the wide OPI brush gave really nice control. I definitely see more holos in my future!

FYI, my cuticles look like that because this one was of the last polishes I swatched of five. Unfortunately none of the other photos are usable because my blackberry's interpretation of them were not quiiiiite correct lol. I need a new camera and STAT!

To New Beginnings

2010-07-01T13:53:00.000-04:00

Welcome fellow nail polish fiends! I decided to start this blog after coming across so many others run by women such as myself (and yourselves) who are obsessed with polish! After moving home from college and unpacking countless boxes, paired with a thorough dig through my room and a fight with the sister (don't ask how that resulted in me acquiring MORE polish, but it did), I realized that I have a freakish amout of nail polish! What better way to showcase them (and what better excuse to buy more?)! So let's get into it!

I know that looking down at my hands and seeing a pretty color makes me smile, so I'm going to start with an old hard-to-find favorite of mine.

This is OPI's Loyal Island Lilac. This polish is from the 1997 South Seas collection, and it's a gorgeous soft shimmer gray with teeny tiny silver sparklies and just a hint of lilac when the light hits it a certain way. My bottle is more than half empty so application was a little thick, but still good. This is two coats of a pretty sheer polish, so it's not totally opaque, but for a color like this that works for me.

Funny enough, I had no idea JUST how hard to find this polish was til recently! To be totally honest, I don't even know where I got it. Did I buy it? Did I swipe it from my sister, mom, or a friend? Did I dream this polish into existence?? I've no clue, but I do know it's been a fave for years. I was doing some Googling recently in search of a new bottle, and imagine my complete anguish when I found out it was from 1997 and discontinued!! I'm going to have to stalk eBay and probably spend a pretty penny to get another one :(

Hopefully my pics will get better soon as I'm out a camera right now and working off Blackberry pictures. Bear with me! Thanks for reading :)