Newspaper nails

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.

Some Dupes

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 :)

H&M Haul and Grey Sky

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!

Marble Monday!

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!

Alexandra's "Hot" Gray

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!

Another Rite Aid haul

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!

The Lone Holo

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!