Comparisons and blues

So, I've had a few polishes in mind that I'd wanted to do comparisons of. I finally got around to swatching them last weekend, and I guess I'll finally get around to posting the pictures this weekend. ;)

In other (but somewhat -- you'll see in a minute -- related) news, have y'all seen the new Finger Paints display at Sally's? It's like four blue shades with a sheer iridescent topcoat and a silver... topcoat? foil? I can't quite tell and didn't want to buy it to find out. But the blues are LOVELY. I bought two of them.

The first is a pastel creme, called Blissfully Blue:


The second is a medium blue shimmer, called Add and Abstract... or is this blue? It's really sort of teal. There is some definite green in this and I think it's GORGEOUS.


BUT... both of these reminded me of other colors. So now, on to the comparisons.
From left to right: Finger Paints Blissfully Blue, China Glaze For Audrey, Orly Gumdrop, Essie Mint Candy Apple.


The nails are in the same order (I have Blissfully Blue on both my thumb and pointer here). As you can see, Gumdrop and For Audrey are the closest. Blissfully Blue is much more, well, BLUE than the others.


THEN... Add and Abstract vs. Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in Marine Blue.


I have the Rimmel on my middle finger and pinky, Add and Abstract on my index and ring.

Those are really so close you don't need both.

So then I wondered what the difference was between China Glaze Lubu Heels and Milani Garnet Gems.


The difference is MINIMAL. I have China Glaze on my index and ring. Milani on my middle and pinky.



Seriously, you only need one of these. Not both.


And that's it for comparisons today. I have some good news to post here, but probably won't get to it til Sunday. I'm sure you'll all be on pins and needles. :D

Greens for Friday and Saturday

Y'all, really, I am super tired of wearing green. But I'm gonna stick it out. :D

I also have a confession...
I cheated and bought nail polish today. Not much. But some. I confessed to JJ and he didn't seem to remember that I was going to quit buying it til May. So, I won't remind him. :D

Anywho! Yesterday, I wore Milani's green holo, Hi-Tech. I really love this nail polish! I couldn't take a great picture since it was cloudy and rainy all day. Meh.


Today, JJ picked out OPI's Jade is the New Black for me. I stuck a St. Patrick's Day nail sticker VERY CROOKEDLY on my pointer finger. It was so freakin' ugly. Bah. Oh well, whatever, it was just for a day.

Boring Sunday at work

So, I probably shouldn't admit this, but I swatch nail polish for my blog during slow weekends at work.

Today has been EXCEEDINGLY slow. I think I've answered 5-6 calls in the last 9 hours (I still have three hours left in my day). I didn't get my first call til after 10am. I got here at 7.

So, as a result, I swatched all the stuff Jessica sent me! I'm going to post all of those and two randoms I'd already taken pictures of but failed to ever post.

This is my last weekend to work, ever. Well, maybe not EVER, but it's definitely the last weekend I'll be expected to work a 12-hour shift on both Saturday and Sunday. I should celebrate tonight.

So, here we go.

First up is Sinful Colors in Tokyo Pearl. It's a pearly white. Application was pretty good for a Sinful polish, especially in white -- they are usually so sheer, but this was good in 2 coats.
This is indoors.


And this is outdoors (well, not really outdoors, but by a window in natural light).


This is L'Oreal Wear Extraordinaire in Sheer Breathless. Okay, so when I saw this I thought, "Ehhhh... it's sheer. It's peachy-colored. Meh." But this is really pretty! And not too sheer! I had no visible nail line after three coats, and that's good enough for me. I really like the shimmer in this.


Jess also sent me this, which I didn't swatch because, well, it's a nail art brush. It will get used at some point... I thought the bottle was super cute. :)




This is Milani Garnet Gems, which I'd actually been wanting to buy! It's funny that Jess sent it to me, because I've never once mentioned to anyone that I was looking for this. The spot for it was always sold out in every store I went to, so I was pleasantly surprised to get it yesterday. I do wonder how close it is to China Glaze Lubu Heels, though. I was tempted to find my bottle of that this morning and do a comparison, but being up before dawn at ass o'clock in the morning didn't really make me feel too compelled to hunt for Lubu Heels. Maybe tomorrow. :)


THEN... she sent me four Goldie polishes. I kept seeing these Goldie trios at TJ Maxx last year but never did pick any of them up. I sort of wish I had now -- the formula was pretty good on all of these, and the glitter one looks like the lovechild of Dorothy Who? and Sinful's Nail Junkie. I wanted to try the glitter over the royal blue, but I was too lazy.. Maybe tomorrow. :)
Anyway, she sent me a nude color, a shimmery rose color, a royal blue with some shimmer, and a blue glitter. Man, I really need to do a blue glitter comparison, I seem to have a lot of those.
Nude shimmer:


Rose shimmer (this is really pretty):


Glittah! This is actually silver iridescent in a blue jelly base.


And this is the royal blue. I banged my middle finger into something when someone startled me so, well, there ya go. This is also pretty.


This!!! This is a polish Jess picked up in Taiwan. The brand is Kate and perfunctory googling turns up... absolutely nothing. But it's flakies! I layered it over black, and while it looks cool over black, I think it might look even better over a lighter color. Jess said that she thought it might be close to Nfu-Oh 40, and I think she might be right... not that I have Nfu-Oh 40 to compare it to. :) The Nfu-Oh may have more duochrome effect than this. I dunno. This is two coats of flaky goodness over Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine in Lustrous.




And that's it for the polishes from Jessica's box-o-stuff!

I also have two random polishes that I just never posted, so here you go:
This is Pure Ice in Rio. It's a purplish magenta with blue shimmer and it wasn't really opaque in three coats. Next time, I will use this tip for doing away with the dreaded visible nail line.


And this is OPI Shim-merry Chic. I picked this up impulsively at Kroger because it had flakies in it. Somehow that little fact escaped me when I'd seen swatches of this before. I was afraid it was going to be too bronze (not my color, not at all), but it was a really nice deep antique gold. Much like Merry Midnight, it coulda been flakier, but is still a nice polish. I took a few pics of this and still didn't feel like I adequately captured this color. It's a shimmery antique gold with glitter and flakies... there's a lot going on. :)

Holos Holos Holos!

Yay! I finally put on my last holographic polish this morning and snapped a pic, so I can make my holo post!

I have one more polish to swatch, but that may not happen til early next week because I need to clean my messy apartment ASAP. I have a friend coming in from out of town next weekend, but I have to work this weekend. Priorities, meh.

I swatched most of these on a rainy, gray day here last week (was it last week? it seems like ages ago), and should probably re-swatch them today, while it's sunny, but I simply do not have time.

So... here we go.

First up is China Glaze OMG. It's a lovely holographic silver. I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I should just pick up the rest of this collection (or as much of it as I can get -- it's a couple of years old). I have OMG and DV8.
This is OMG outdoors in crappy light.


This is in my kitchen -- you can actually see the holo-ness better here.


This is Color Club Wild at Heart. It's a very nice purple holo. Also in my kitchen. I really do need to re-do these. ONE DAY...


This is Color Club Revvvolution. It's a charcoal gray holo that didn't come out nearly as holo as I wanted it to on my nails. This is also indoors.


This is Icing Blackout. It's not really a holo, per se, but is a black polish with holographic glitter. I loved this in the bottle, and it was nice on my nails too, but holy crap that brush was bushy and hard to work with. It was like trying to paint my nails with a tiny mop.


This is the first Milani holo I tried -- Cyberspace. I snapped this early in the morning before leaving for work on Monday. I really liked this one! It looks most holographic under fluorescent light. I just took it off this morning, so I could put on my other Milani holo.


And this is what I am currently wearing. Milani in Hi-Tech. Also... see how short my nails are now?!? I need to get to crafting... house cleaning first. Yech. This one had a really strong holo effect in direct sunlight.


Til next time! Hopefully I won't dawdle on my house cleaning and will have more interesting nail stuff to show you soon. :) Also -- I think my craving for holos has been thoroughly sated now.