Recent Fauxnadicures

Wow, Fauxnadicures totally gets the red squiggle underliney thing.

So, I've been having a ton of fun stamping lately since I ordered the Bundle Monster plates. I really prefer the full-nail stamps. I do hate that the Bundle Monster full nail stamps are so narrow. I have fairly narrow nails, but they don't cover my entire nail width. I bet these things would be really horrible for the ladies with wider nail beds than mine. STILL, I've been stamping away. Here are some of my recent looks. I'd tell you what plate the images came from, but I'm way too lazy to go look. However, all of the stamps came from the Bundle Monster plates, and not my Konad or other Fauxnad plates.

Here is Essie Splash of Grenadine with Konad Violet Pearl on top.


China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy with Konad Special Polish in Black. This one got me a LOT of comments. The neon-y-ness of Flip Flop Fantasy is really hard to capture in photos, but this was BRIGHT.


This was OPI Who The Shrek are You with Konad Violet Pearl for the checkerboard tip pattern. This was my first attempt ever at stamping tips, and let me say... it is NOT easy to get it straight. My right hand was pretty crooked, but I wore it anyway. My pointer finger was a casualty of my job.


This is Essie Lapis of Luxury with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White for the stamp. I think I'm going to have to break down and buy the special Konad white polish because I cannot find a white that stamps decently to save my life.


I didn't have adequate sunlight to capture this one, and it was very, very subtle, but I liked it. It reminded me of, say, curtains in a funeral home. LOL. The base is Rimmel Hard Edged stamped with Nina Ultra Pro in Viva La Velvet.


This is what I'm wearing today and I LOVE IT. It may be my favorite one yet. Then again, I love the color combination of aqua and dark brown. This is a base of Orly Gumdrop stamped with Kleancolor in Dark Brown. OH... Kleancolor. I had no idea where to get this stuff, but I went to an asian beauty supply store close to my house, and they had a TON of it for $1 apiece. This is some GOOD STUFF. I actually have another post planned about my trip to the asian beauty supply. :)

Green, Blue, and Purple comparisons

So I woke up early this morning and sat in bed with a glass of mango iced tea, watching Saved By The Bell and then Zoolander and doing nail polish comparisons. It's nice to be a lady of leisure. :)

Anyway, there are colors in the OPI Shrek minis and in the Essie Resort Collection minis that reminded me a lot of other colors I already had, so I decided to do some comparisons. Unfortunately, it's super cloudy today, but I think I got some decent pictures.

First up, the greens... well, blue-greens. Turquoises, if you will. Pardon the bottle shots, they were all taken on my bed. :)

From left to right: Essie Turquoise & Caicos, China Glaze For Audrey, Orly Gumdrop, Revlon Minted, Essie Mint Candy Apple

The polishes are on my fingers in the same order, from thumb to pinky.

The greenest ones are Turquoise & Caicos and Minted.
I still say Gumdrop and For Audrey are dupes, or at least near dupes. For Audrey may be a TINY bit bluer.
Turquoise & Caicos is actually a jelly. I thought it was a creme til I put it on. Nope, it's a jelly. It's also three coats. Minted is also three coats.
Gumdrop was opaque in one coat.
The rest of the colors are all two coats.


Now on to the blues!

From left to right: Orly Snowcone, Essie Lapis of Luxury, L'Oreal High Tide, Finger Paints Blissfully Blue, OPI What's With the Cattitude.

The polishes are in the same order on my fingers, from thumb to pinky.

Snowcone was opaque in one coat.
Lapis of Luxury is another jelly, another three-coater, and I think it may be a jelly dupe for Snowcone, which is a creme.
High Tide is completely different from the rest of them.
Blissfully Blue and What's With the Cattitude are similar, but not dupes. Blissfully Blue is way more stark, while WWTC is a deeper blue. Blissfully Blue was opaque in two coats, while WWTC took three coats.
Here's Snowcone on my thumb and Lapis of Luxury on my pointer. They are SUPER close.



And now for the purples!

From left to right: Essie Lilacism, China Glaze Light as Air, OPI Rumple's Wiggin.

On my hand, they are in this order:
Pointer - Rumple's Wiggin
Middle - Light as Air
Ring - Lilacism
Pinky - Rumple's Wiggin

Light as Air was opaque in one coat.
Lilacism took three coats. Rumple's Wiggin took two coats.
Light as Air is considerably lighter and grayer than the other two. To my eye, Lilacism and Rumple's Wiggin are absolutely dupes. There may be a tiny difference between the two, but you'd have to really be looking for it to see it.


So there! I hope this is informative and helpful. Now back to Zoolander. :)

Three Day Weekend! Hooray!

Who knows, maybe I'll do some swatching this weekend. I have THREE DAYS, after all. :D
I haven't actually swatched in awhile. All the pictures I've posted lately were full manis, worn for at least a day (if not two or three).
In the meantime, here are three pictures I haven't posted here.

This is one of the Zoyas I got in the Polish Exchange. Anastasia. It's very fall-like. In fact, I could see myself wearing this a lot during the fall. I got a compliment on this from my friendly neighborhood Rite Aid cashier. :)


This is Rumple's Wiggin (dumbest polish name ever) from the OPI Shrek collection. I'm really glad I picked up the mini set, because almost every polish in that collection reminds me a lot of something else I have. Maybe I'll do some comparisons.


And this is Playa Del Platinum from Essie's Resort Collection. It's meh. I put some Illusion D'Or over it the next day and I really liked the way it looked. However, I failed to take a picture of it.

Pics!

I'm behind on posting pics here... AGAIN. I just don't feel like doing anything lately. I think it's mostly post-wedding blahs.

I broke down and ordered the Bundle Monster plates. They've been hugely popular on the nail blogs lately, and I had to jump on that bandwagon. Also, way cheaper than Konad. I've been stamping every night lately. :) You can get the plates here. BUT... I haven't uploaded any of those pictures yet, so you'll have to make do with plain ol' nail polish pictures.

And another thing... I don't use makeupalley.com. I mean, I have an account there. But the site's interface is horrible nearly to the point of being unusable, in my opinion, so I've logged in maybe a grand total of five times. Seriously, the site looks like it's still in the early days of the interwebs -- have they not redesigned since 1998? There's better technology now. You should use it. I've never posted there. Whew. Just had to get that off my chest.

Here is one of the mini Essie's I got in the $5 clearance set from last fall. Pink Parka. Okay. I LOVE THIS COLOR! It's bright but not neon. I can't wait to wear this again and stamp all over it. Then again, I love hot pink and black together. I always have. In my mind, 1989 never ended.


This is China Glaze Something Sweet, which I picked up on a whim, I guess. I didn't have a good pale pink. Now I do. Unfortunately, this polish did not hold up to the rigors of my job. Check out my thumb. This also happened on my right pointer finger, but I didn't take a picture of that hand.


And last but not least, we have Zoya Ivanka. This is another one from the Sparkle collection. I like it, but not as much as I like Charla.



I have only three more unblogged pictures. I'll try to post them tomorrow, and then get to uploadin' the ones I haven't yet. It's a three day weekend! Maybe I can do some swatching. :)

Comparison post

So, I was at Old Navy the other night, and I saw a Tip Toe polish called "Orchid Fever." It's a bright red-leaning purple with a lot of blue and pink glitter in it and it immediately reminded me of China Glaze Flying Dragon. Since I have a problem, and since I really like Flying Dragon, but it has some issues, I had to grab it.

As you can see, in the bottle, Flying Dragon is a lot more pink than Orchid Fever.


But Orchid Fever has a lot more glitter.


On the nail, well, they're not all that different. Flying Dragon is more opaque. Also, I think my bottle of Flying Dragon has thickened up quite a bit (which is a good thing, it once was way too thin), because when I did my comparison, I was able to get it opaque in two coats.

Orchid Fever is WAY sheer. I had to use four or five coats to get it opaque.

Here's Orchid Fever on its own. Pardon the tipwear, this was after three days of wear. The last few days have been a bit busy. :D


In this photo, I have Orchid Fever on my pointer and ring fingers. Flying Dragon is on my middle and pinky fingers. They ARE quite similar. I sort of prefer Orchid Fever, even though it's really sheer, simply because the glitter is more apparent.

One! Two! Three! Three Polishes! Ha ha ha!

I was channeling The Count. You'll have to excuse me.

I just had an involved discussion with the cashier at my friendly neighborhood Rite Aid about nail polish. I love it when I can randomly inform strangers of my obsession. I told her all about Hidden Treasure and the Zoya polish exchange. I feel like I fulfilled my civic duty for today.

So on to the polishes!

This is a CHI polish I picked up at Ulta. It's a blue/green duochrome called Hot Ring Illusion Around Saturn. This polish is the hotness! I'd never bought a CHI polish before, but I remember seeing this collection when it came out. I sort of wish I'd picked up all of them then because this is awesome!


This is a Del Sol polish called Rock Star. It's a sheer blue glitter. I think I screwed up here because I applied four coats to make it opaque and then barely got any color change at all in the sun. :/
This is in the shade:


And in the sun. You can KIND OF see where it's turning more green, but it's really pretty unnoticeable.


And another in the sun.


The least sparkly of the Zoya Sparkle collection: Nidhi. I don't usually go for tomato reds, but I really liked this polish. The gold sparkle is unique. I got bored with it, though, and konaded over it with a sheer gold polish. Don't ask me what plate I used, because I'm way too lazy right now to look and see. :)


And another!



I actually have no more pictures uploaded, so I guess tomorrow I'll have to upload some more. It's cool having a photo backlog because it makes churning out posts easier. :)

Two polishes!

Today in my photo backlog, I have for you Sinful's Daddy's Girl and Orly Pixie Dust.

I was sorely disappointed in Daddy's Girl. I expected a much darker base, but this was definitely a bright purple with purple glitter.


Pixie Dust was a gorgeous blue-grey with shimmer/glitter. I loved this shade! It's unique to my collection. :)


And I had to slap some Hidden Treasure on it...

Three little polishes

So here are some of my new polishes. I really have ended up with a buttload (buttload should be a scientific unit of measurement) of untried polishes lately. I even have 8 mini Essies to try, even though I HATE Essies (generally, but not always). I found a four-pack of minis for $5 at Ulta from Essie's Fall 09 collection, and JJ bought me the four-pack of minis from their new Resort Collection. That man has to love me if he's buying me more nail polish. I know he thinks my collection is a bit ridiculous now, but he bought it for me anyway. Aww. :)

You know what else is ridiculous? My collection of shower gels and lotions. I have no idea why I buy so many. Even if I bought no more shower gel or lotion, I probably have enough to keep myself clean and moisturized until at least 2015. Hoarder much? Actually, it's more like I shop at Bath and Body Works twice a year -- during the semi-annual sales -- and stock WAY up then.

So anyway. Swatches!

First up is Zoya Alegra. This is pretty, sparkly, and foily, just like Charla and Mimi were. I like this dark, reddish shade of pink on me.


I kept reading about this color on a bunch of different blogs, and it was one of the main reasons I even stopped in at Ulta. The brand is LA Splash, which I'd never heard of before. I did see a LA Splash display in a Walgreen's recently, but it was all eyeliner and no nail polish. Maybe it'll be available at Walgreen's soon. This shade is called Golden Seahorse, and it's a seafoam green with gold glitter in it. It's really a unique color, but I'm not sure it's for me.


And this was my, "I'm bored and I found Hidden Treasure" mani. This is actually a base of Finger Paints "Tough Art to Follow," which I THINK is one of their new shades. It's a really dark olive green. I thought it'd be more forest green, but definitely has more yellow tones than blue, so I say it's dark olive. I was underwhelmed by this color. I didn't even take a picture of it by itself. So here it is with Hidden Treasure over it. Heh.



And there you go. I'm slowly whittling down my backlog of photos. :)

Hellooo!!!

So, I felt completely swamped this last week. I took a lot of pictures, but didn't post at all! So, I'm going to try to do a post a day for awhile. At least for a couple of days, to get through the backlog of pictures. :)

I never actually took a "hand" shot of this polish, but this is me wearing it while in Florida to get married. This is me, unwashed, with no makeup, first thing in the morning, waiting in a cafe for my coffee, so be prepared... but my NAILS are FABULOUS! LOL! I'm wearing Zoya Mimi. And no, that's not the polish I wore to get married in. :)


So I had to go hunt and see if I had any pictures of my NAIL POLISH on my wedding day for this blog. I wore OPI DS Illuminate. This picture was taken after the wedding -- that's my husband next to me. :) We had already started to take shots of tequila at this point...


So yay! Nail-polish related reason to show off pictures. :) We had a super casual beach wedding, but a lot of our friends and family came. Our wedding day was spent, well, getting married, and then going to a restaurant and drinking/eating/socializing. Then a bunch of our friends got together on the beach in the dark and hung out for hours and hours. It was really a great, memorable night!

I'll post again tomorrow with actual nail-of-the-day pics from the past week. This'll be my wedding post!

Giveaway Winner!

Sorry for not doing this earlier, y'all, but I took a nap!

Okay, so I had 175 entries in the contest, and random.org picked for me...



Number 123! Sara!


I will be emailing to get a mailing address... if I haven't heard back from you by Wednesday, I'll pick another winner.

Congrats!

Giveaway ENDING and nail polish haul

Ok, so I'm supposed to pick a winner for my giveaway today. I just got my spreadsheet caught up with my blog comments, so let's say that I'll count anyone who enters until 5pm Eastern time today (about 3 hours from now). Then I'll pick someone. YAY!

Oh yeah, and I GOT MARRIED ON SATURDAY! YAY! I had a really good time, and hey! I got married! We aren't taking a honeymoon at this time, so no, I'm not posting this from my honeymoon. :)

I also hauled on some nail polish while we were down in Florida. I also finally found Hidden Treasure! YAY! We drove from Athens to down in Florida where we got married. I stopped at a random Walgreens in Montgomery, AL, and there it was! FINALLY!

I wanted to go to the Del Sol store in PCB to get some more of their color change polish, but I didn't have time. But on the way back home, we stopped in another random Walgreens in Florida and they were selling Del Sol! Yay!

And then I hauled in the clearance aisle at Ulta.. and I picked up some other stuff there too.

So, I have all of that plus all the Zoya I got last week. I have a LOT of stuff in my untried drawer right now. This is a picture of everything I picked up on my travels. I also don't really have time to swatch right now, so I guess I'll be doing a nail a day for a bit. :)



And, just because I know I'm going to get terribly backlogged with my nail pictures, let me just go ahead and show you what I've got unposted pictures of. Enjoy!

So, I tried Illusion D'Or over everything for a few days. Here it is over black:


And here it is again over L'Oreal's High Tide.


And here it is over Rimmel's Milk Chocolate!


This is La Playa from the new Orlys that are out now.


Sinful Colors "Rise and Shine," which JJ declared "hideous."


Minted, one of the new Revlons.


Orly Glam, which I found on clearance at Sally..


And the ONLY Zoya Sparkle I've photographed so far, Charla. I really loved this color!!

Hiatus!

I know I haven't posted in a week. Bad blogger! BAD! Get in the corner!

BUT.. I'm getting married in four days. I worked last Saturday. I'm just super busy right now, and more than a little stressed out.

I have a horrible backlog of photos to post, and am still keeping up with entries in my giveaway. Don't fret!

I have a buncha polishes I haven't shown here yet, and I just got my package from the Zoya polish exchange today (I got the whole Sparkle collection! So pretty!). I think I may need to do another exchange before it ends in June. I dig trading in my old, icky polish for new, pretty polish. So cool!

Anywho, you guys may not hear from me again til after this weekend. At which time, I'll choose the winner of my giveaway, and start posting again like a madwoman. :)