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Showing posts with label l'oreal bijou. Show all posts
Showing posts with label l'oreal bijou. Show all posts

Friday, April 23, 2010

Black Holos

My fiance had surgery Thursday, so I'm caring for an invalid. He tore his left achilles playing soccer last weekend. He will be hobbling down the aisle in a boot at our wedding in two weeks. Poor guy! He came home from the hospital today and is slowly trying to get around with crutches. That has nothing to do with nail polish, just thought I'd mention it.

Ok, so if I had a favorite type of nail polish, it would probably be the black/charcoal holographic, since I keep buying them. I never have owned the original OPI MPJ, and probably never will (I'm not too keen on the idea of trying to track it down, but if I happened to see it someplace - HAHA - I'd pick it up).

I do own a few black/charcoal holos. I know I don't have Diamond Cosmetics' Chainmail Charm. I need it. I really should grab it since it's only a couple of bucks or so on their website, and I've liked the swatches I've seen of it. One day I will.

When I was out and about trying to track down the new Sally Hansens (I just want the flaky one... but nowhere here seems to have it), I saw the new Petites Color Fever line. They have a color called Black Diamond, which is really pretty close to Color Club Revvvolution. I was skeptical about paying $4 for a Petites nail polish, since their quality hasn't really been the best, and their original line costs what? A dollar, maybe two? However, I was really pleasantly surprised with Black Diamond. Observe!

The holo effect is fairly weak with this one, but it IS there. This is in indirect light. It didn't really come out much better in direct light. :/
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You can at least see the effect a bit here.
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Then I decided to do a comparison. Then I ran out of time to remove it, so I've actually been rocking a black holo "skittles" manicure for the last two days.. LOL.
Here's what I compared:
L'Oreal Bijou Crystals in B.Rebellious, Color Club Revvvolution, Icing Blackout, and Petites Color Fever Black Diamond.
Icing, your brush sucked. I love this shade, and the formula isn't bad, but the horrible mop-like brush makes this polish nearly impossible to use. I have some spare clear polishes lying about, and I think I'm going to try dumping the clear polish out and decanting the Icing polish into a bottle with a less shitty brush.
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I had a terrible time trying to get a good picture of these four. Part of this is because I've been at the hospital a LOT in the last couple of days and just haven't had time.
My observations are this. The L'Oreal polish is probably my favorite of the four. It is the sparkliest. It isn't a "smooth" holo, but is a dark, dark grey that is interspersed with a TON of holographic glitter.
The Icing polish is the only one of the four that is actually BLACK. It also isn't a smooth holo, but is interspersed with holographic glitter.
Color Club's polish has the smoothest holographic effect and also the hardest to capture.
The Petites polish isn't technically a "smooth" holo, but it is smoother and the glitter is finer than in either the L'Oreal or the Icing polish. It is REALLY close to Color Club Revvvolution, and I think that if a person owned one, they wouldn't need the other.

Now for the pictures! Clicking on any of these to get a larger image might be helpful.
On my thumb and pinky are Petites Color Fever Black Diamond
On my index finger is L'Oreal Bijou Gems in B.Rebellious
On my middle finger is Color Club Revvvolution
On my ring finger is Icing Blackout
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And again... this one shows the holo-ness a bit better.
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Also, I had to run to Sally's this afternoon and found that they now have the China Glaze Poolside collection. They also still have all polishes buy 2, get 1 free. So I picked up half of the collection. I got Pool Party, Sun Worshipper, and Towel Boy Toy. The yellow and green didn't much appeal to me (neon yellow looks icky on me), but I was torn between the pink and the coral. I might go back later this weekend and pick up the other three, but I'm going to sleep on it first. :D
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Our Sally's hired a new girl to work there, and while I was talking polish to the cashier, she butted in and was trying to inform me of the "new mint green trend" in nail polish. I wanted to LOL. "Excuse me, missy, but DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA how many nail polish blogs I read?!?" Also, mint green is SOOOOO last season. I dunno, it was just funny. But I'm not a bitch, so I said, "Yeah! I have a bunch of mint greens and I really like them!"

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Maybelline Go Go Green vs. Bijou Gems in B.Strong

Good morning!
One of the polishes Jill sent me last week was L'Oreal Bijou Gems in B.Strong. When I put it on, I thought, "This looks JUST LIKE Maybelline Go Go Green!" So I decided to do a comparison.

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I don't have hundreds of bottles of nail polish, so I don't think I have many dupes, but these are almost exact dupes of each other. Go Go Green may have just a LITTLE more yellowy shimmer in it, but not much.

Here is my original photo of Go Go Green:
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And here is my photo of B.Strong:
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So, to compare, I put Go Go Green on my middle finger and pinky. B.Strong is on my index finger and ring finger.
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Can YOU tell a difference?

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Wow!

Let me interrupt my swatching to show you this color! Holy crap! It looked cool in the bottle, but OMG it is terrific on my nails!

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L'Oreal Bijou Crystals in B.Rebellious

I could see that it looked black with multicolored glitter. When I opened the bottle, the polish was very, very thickened, so I used some Poshe Polish Reviver to thin it out some. Speaking of polish reviver, I WISH I'd known such a product existed years ago when I would throw out nail polish that had gotten thick or goopy, like nail polish does when it's old.

I probably used 30 drops of reviver in this bottle, but it was SO worth it.
This polish is a charcoal jelly with holographic glitter! It's so pretty! It was opaque in two coats. Check it out:
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Ahhh!!! I love it! Why doesn't L'Oreal make cool colors like this anymore? Every time I look at their polish now, it's all reds/nudes/pinks. Maybe a brown and a vampy red, but nothing like this stuff.

Thank you, Jill!!!

So my friend/future sister-in-law, Jill, told me several days ago that she was going to mail me a package of nail polish. I got it today!

BACKSTORY! Jill is my fiance's sister. She is also awesome. I met her when I lived in Nashville. She introduced me to her brother in March of 2007, we dated long distance for a year, then I moved to Georgia to be with him. He and I will be getting hitched in May of this year (awwww).

Anyway, look at all the good stuff she sent me!!
(Also, pardon my junky table -- it's been a hectic couple of days here and I was so excited to take a picture that I didn't bother to clear the junk away.)

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From left to right:
Scherer Petites in Dare
L'Oreal Bijou Gems in B.Strong (man, I used to have a bunch of these Bijou polishes years ago and I threw them away!!!)
Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Diamond
OPI in Significant Other Color
OPI in Lincoln Park After Dark
OPI in Midnight in Moscow
OPI in Oh...to be 25 Again (indeed)
Maybelline Express Finish in Bolt of Blue ("every time I think of you, I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue"... I'm totally going to have that song going through my head the rest of the night)
L'Oreal Bijou Crystals in B.Rebellious
And a cute little OPI mini in My Chihuahua Bites


So awesome! I have so much swatching to do!

AND!!! I went to a thrift store today and bought these awesome giant pink sunglasses with white polka dots. Off topic, I know, but I LOVE them and don't want to take them off!
sunglasses