Limited Addiction

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!

Red Hot

"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?

Berry

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!

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??

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? 

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?

M. Butterfly

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!

Vamper Sunday

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!

Blood-sucking Sunday

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!