Mrs. Claus

Ok... so after I removed this from my nails, I tried to think of a unique way to make this polish work for me.

It's still not working for me, but at least I have a photo.

I thought that using a blue as a base would be interesting under the sheer pinky-red base of Mrs. Claus. It sort of is, but I'm still not feeling it.

I used one coat of Orly Snowcone (best. medium blue. ever.) and two coats of Mrs. Claus on top of that, and got this:




Meh. And what's with the bald spots? Still classifying this as a nail polish fail.

More nail painting fun

My sister-in-law came to visit and we painted our nails.

She used Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe over a coat of Orly La Playa.

I used Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure over Finger Paints Icy Iris.

Hers:

And all together now!

And now for your standard ending...

Also! Don't forget to click here to enter my Giveaway!

And! Click here to check out my stuff on my blogsale!

Orly Galaxy Girl

I've already posted my photos of Space Cadet. This is the only other color I picked up from the Cosmic FX collection.

I really liked this shade! At first I thought it was going to be dupish to Maybelline Vanishing Venus or Misa Embroidered Emerald, but it really isn't, although they are in the same color family.

Here is an outside shot:


And here is an inside shot (where you can really see what I mean by being in the same color family as VV or EE):

Orly Space Cadet

Ok, so this is the one color from the Orly Cosmic FX collection that everyone is going nuts over. I can see why. I must say, though, that I am disappointed in the bulk of the collection. Bummer. I had such high hopes for you, Orly Cosmic FX!!!

But this color!!! This color is duochromatic awesomeness. I took a billion pictures and a couple of videos.

The colors, but not the finish, reminded me a LOT of another duochrome I have, Rimmel Zeitgeist. The colors are much the same, but Orly is more glittery and sparkly, whereas the Rimmel is almost metallic.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

These are all just Orly Space Cadet on its own.












And here is Space Cadet vs Zeitgeist. Space Cadet is on my thumb, middle, and pinky. Zeitgeist is on my pointer and ring fingers.





And here are a couple of videos to show you what I mean when I say there is a definite resemblance.

Orly Plastix

So, since I'm way backlogged, here's a polish I bought a hundred years ago and am just now posting.

It's Retro Red from the Orly Plastix collection. This is the only color I bought from this collection and it makes me go, "Eww."

I don't like the finish. It's satin-y. I don't like the color. Non-descript red-orange. I'll be getting rid of this one eventually.

Two (somewhat) similar blues

I wore these polishes, like, two days apart and didn't realize til I uploaded the pictures (and had a hell of a time telling them apart) how similar they are.

This is China Glaze Frostbite. True story -- my hubs went to Sally's with me several weeks ago and picked this one out for me. He's so precious! :) This was two coats, but it probably coulda used three.


And this is one of Orly's new polishes, Royal Navy. I wouldn't exactly call that base color "navy," but the blue-green shimmer in this is really gorgeous. I love it! It's what made me able to tell these two polishes apart.

Funky French

Ok, so I don't usually do french manicures of ANY kind. I can never seem to get the tips straight, so I just don't do it.

I caved and did this one a couple of weeks ago. I really liked it! I used Orly Liquid Vinyl for the tips, Essie Blushing Bride for the nailbeds, and covered it all up with some Seche Vite and Cover Girl City Lights topcoat.



We also finally got our wedding rings last week. Yes, we've been married for nearly two months, but we waited til the last damn minute to order our rings from http://www.etsy.com/shop/fabuluster. Like, seriously, we ordered them the week before our wedding. So we got married with the cheapest bands we could find and ordered these to replace them. I LOVE THEM! Mine has J's fingerprint on it and his has my fingerprint on it. :)

More comparisons

You know you have a problem when you keep seeing dupish colors in your collection and yet you keep buying more nail polish. I'm hoarding for beauty armageddon.

Here are some taupes (and one brown).

From L to R:
Zoya Dea, Essie Mink Muffs, Orly Prince Charming, Sally Hansen Commander in Chic, and Maybelline Touch of Taupe.

They are in the same order on my hand, from thumb to pinky.


Dea is OBVIOUSLY way different from the rest. (One of these things is not like the others!) So here's a shot of just the four fingers.


As you can see, Mink Muffs and Prince Charming are similar, with Mink Muffs being just a titch darker. Commander in Chic is less brown and more grey. And Touch of Taupe is completely different, and I actually love this color for that reason. It's taupe without being just like every other taupe. And I got it for a dollar at the Dollar Tree. :)


Then I was looking at another mini from that Essie set, and thought that Angora Cardi looked a LOT like Butter London's Teddy Boy. They are quite similar in the bottle.


I just alternated fingers -- Angora Cardi is on my thumb, middle, and pinky, while Teddy Boy is on my ring and pointer fingers.


And in more direct lighting:


They are similar, but not exactly the same. Angora Cardi is more purple and a little deeper. I have no idea what to call this color. Mauve? I dunno. I do like it, even if it is a little boring.

So there you have it. I have one more post planned re: the asian beauty supply, but I probably won't post it til tomorrow or Saturday!

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. :)

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...

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!!