Exciting news!

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

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!

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

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?

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.

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

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

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

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

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?