Jesse's Girl High Intensity Nail Color

So, I saw these new Jesse's Girl polishes at Rite Aid, and they were BOGO 50%, so I grabbed two. These polishes don't have names!! DRIVES ME NUTS!

Anyway, I grabbed one that I suspected was yet another Zoya Charla dupe, and another that was Scrangie-esque.

What do you know... we have YET ANOTHER Charla dupe. Really? REALLY?! Isn't this like the fourth iteration of this color in the past year?

Observe.
Bottles:


On the nail.
2 coats of Zoya Charla on index and ring.
2 coats of Jesse's Girl on middle and pinky.
The application on both was exactly the same. They are indistinguishable on the nail.

Purple!

Here is a purple mani I did one day. China Glaze Grape Pop with Zoya Mimi on my ring finger. :)

2 OPIs and a Zoya

I'm trying to update every day... again... Hee hee.

So today, I have, from my vault of unposted pictures, 2 OPIs and a Zoya. I THOUGHT I'd posted all my Zoya, but I actually hadn't. Maybe it's because I have too much nail polish. Nah, perish the thought.

This is OPI Here Today Aragon Tomorrow Suede. It's nice enough, typical OPI Suede (matte with shimmer). Dries very fast, but not so fast you can't get your nail covered first.



This is one of those shades, though, that I really prefer with topcoat. The shiny makes it pop!
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And here is an OPI I picked up on impulse because it was on clearance. No Room For The Blues! It's very dupe-y with Zoya's Yummy. I'll do a comparison sometime.


And here is my lone remaining Zoya, Kalista. It's a beautiful shimmery dark red/brown. I am really digging these types of colors lately. I guess it's cause I know fall is on its way. :)

Catching up

Sooo... you remember how I ordered some more Zoyas before the exchange ended in June?
Yeah, these are the last two I ordered. I am THAT backlogged. This summer has been epically busy.

This is Indigo. I was so disappointed in this shade. It is a deep, dark blue with holographic glitter that shows up PERFECTLY in the bottle and not at all on the nail. :/ You can just BARELY see it in this pic.


And this is Tart, a metallic-y medium blue that is actually quite lovely. :)

I'm hoooome!

Wow, I've barely had time to post here for the last couple of weeks. My dad had cancer, and had to have his kidney removed, so I had to drive down to Florida to be with my mom, since we have NO family there and I couldn't have my mama going through this alone, you know? My dad was in the hospital for six days, but he's recovering amazingly, and the doctor thinks that they've got all the cancer. So we're cautiously hopeful right now.

Anywho, I hit up Ulta in a BAD, BAD way while I was down there (I actually hit two Ultas... jeez). Holy cow, I'm glad that we don't have an Ulta in this town. I'd always be broke. I found SO MUCH STUFF I'd seen online and had been lemming and HAD TO HAVE. I got the Essie Fall Collection minis, I got the Urban Decay Naked Palette, I got the one color I wanted from the OPI Swiss collection (Ski Teal We Drop, it's the only one that appealed to me). I picked up two of the Orly Cosmix polishes, which I thought weren't coming out til September, but I walked into Ulta and THERE THEY WERE. Maddening!

But I'm not posting ANY of that today! Instead, I'm going to dump a whole bunch of photos that have been sitting in my Flickr for weeks. I'll get to the new stuff, uh, like when I have real photos and they've been uploaded to my Flickr. :D

Enjoy the photo dump! I am going to nix the commentary, unless something was particularly awesome or particularly terrible.

Zoya Heather:


Zoya Kalmia:


Zoya Barbie:


Zoya Annie (I gave this one away. The formula was fine, but this shade of orange is NOT for me):


OPI Ink (Why have I never purchased this before? I love it! It's FABULOUS!)


Essie Pretty Edgy (Oh look, it's the day I shortened my nails):


China Glaze Sacred Heart (found for $1.99 at Sally, woot):

Zoya Ki

Man, I really wanted to love this polish and I really didn't.
I've seen better greeny-purple duochromes. I did get a couple of compliments on it, but I had a really hard time capturing the duochromey-ness on camera.
Here are four pictures. Enjoy! Pardon the tipwear, this was after a couple of days of wear.

Cleanin' out the ol' Flickr

Hey! Guess what, you guys! Transdesign has Vintage Vixen up. I decided to take some of my birthday money and order all the colors I wanted out of that collection. I've been stalking Sally's to see when they'll get it in, but it's cheaper to buy from TD (at least, it is if you're ordering enough to justify the $7 in shipping). Just thought some of y'all might wanna know. :)

I have a TON of stuff to post! Today, though, I'm just going to post what's in my Flickr and hasn't been posted yet.

I made another Zoya order before the end of June, and honestly? I shouldn't blindly order nail polish off the internet. A lot of what I got in that second order was nice enough, but wasn't an appropriate shade for my skintone. I have a friend at work who's into nail polish. She's black, I'm white, and I showed up one day wearing Zoya Annie, which SO did not look good on me, but would SO look good on her. So I brought it to her the next day and she brought me some stuff that didn't look good on her. So it ended up okay that I cannot order appropriately for my skintone! LOL.

So anyway, today's post is unposted things, and Zoyas, Part I.

First, the RANDOMS.
So I found this 4-pack of mini Borghese polishes on clearance at Walgreens for $5. I'm pretty sure this was a holiday collection. It had a mini of Stellare Notte, two glitters, and a nice burgundy that unfortunately exploded on me so I never got to swatch it. Nail polish catastrophe, y'all!
Anyway, this is one of the glitters. It is, honestly, one of the butt ugliest, least sparkly glitters I've ever used. A brown jelly base with silver and red glitter that didn't SPARKLE. BLAH.


This is another of those discontinued Rimmel Play Fast polishes in a shade called Push It. It's a little frosty for my liking.


And now on to the Zoyas!
This is Kotori. It's a black, or maybe dark grey, jelly base with tons of blue microglitter. I LOVED this! It's gorgeous! The first coat had me a little nervous, 'cause it was way streaky and gross. I think I used three coats for this, but I was very pleased with the end result.


This is Gaia, which was described as white with gold shimmer. I just wish the gold shimmer had been more apparent, but I didn't hate this color.


And this is Yummy. I really liked this one, too. It applied nicely, but it reminds me a LOT of Orly Snowcone and/or Essie Lapis of Luxury, and I have both of those. I should do a comparison.



And now I'm caught up! So I can dump my memory card onto Flickr and not get confused about what I have or have not posted here! YAY!

Happy Fourth of July!

Also, happy 10-days-til-my-birthday! If I'd been born in France, my birthday would be a holiday.

So, here's my July 4th manicure. I wore this to a get-together my husband and I went to last night. We came home with a new kitten. I'm a sucker for baby animals. Our other two cats are... lukewarm towards the new kitty, at best. But we're working on it. We have sweet kitties, so I feel sure that with some patience we'll have them all hanging out together in no time!

Oh wait, I was gonna show you a manicure. Here you go! I used Zoya Blair for the red, unnamed Goldie blue for the blue, and I stamped the stripes from one of the Bundle Monster plates and the stars from another Bundle Monster plate using Sally Hansen Whirlwind White. I had to go back over the stripes with my Art Deco nail art polish in white, because the Sally Hansen wasn't opaque enough.


And check this out. This is OPI No Room for the Blues, which I found on clearance at Trade Secret. ALL of the bottles were marked with this price. I had to ask the cashier, "So, how much is this nail polish... REALLY?" (By the way, it was $4.99.) I should try to sell this on eBay for like $75. I mean, it was ORIGINALLY $120, so clearly $75 is a deal, right?!



And because I can't resist... here's a picture of our new baby. I've yet to choose a name. I really like Jezebel. I also like Dobby because she reminds me of a house elf, and the other HP house elves had stupid names. Also, Dobby was awesome. :)

Weekly post!

Man, I seem to have so little free time lately. But I'm still taking pictures of my hands every day, the pictures are just slow in coming. :D My apologies!

Sooo, today I have my last Zoya I got from the exchange in APRIL (yeeeah, I realize it's nearly July). This is Freja, which I thought I'd like but really didn't. Also, I had middle nail issues. I smudged it the first time around, then I redid it really quickly, which caused MASSIVE BUBBLING. Check it out. Also, I'm not sure why my cuticles look so icky in this picture. They're looking pretty good right now, actually.


So then I hated the bubbling, but didn't want to take off the polish. So I put Sally Hansen HD in DVD on top and I fell IN LOOOOVE.


You can see the duochromey goodness in this pic. :)


This one too!


I really hate that DVD is so sheer. But I really love that it layers so well and turns any polish into sparkly gorgeousness!

Random swatchery

Yo! Sorry I haven't posted in a week. I've been, uh, busy. Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket. Busy.

Lately I've been on a search for the perfect coral and the perfect off-white polish. I have no idea why. Those aren't usually "my" colors, but to be honest, coral is totally growing on me.

Sooo... today I just have some photos of some random polishes. There is no rhyme nor reason to this, just stuff I've worn lately and have never posted here. Enjoy! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have more... I'm backlogged once again!

So I finally got around to wearing the last Zoya Sparkle. This is Gilda. Color me underwhelmed. To be honest, the only colors from this collection I NEEDED were Charla, Ivanka, and Mimi. The pinks and reds were just meh.


OMG. This was another polish I didn't like at all. This is OPI Fiercely Fiona from the Shrek collection. Okay. A) Terrible color for me. B) Three icky coats. I put this on, took a picture, and immediately took it off. Like, before it dried. Thank god it was only a mini.


This was an unexpected surprise. First of all, it's orange. Second of all, it's Petites, which is hit or miss, but you can deal with a miss if it only cost $1.50, right? I LOVED this color on me. I think this is what set me off in search of the perfect coral. As you can see, despite the fact that this is called "Passion Orange," it's really more coral than straight orange. I think this was three coats.


This was my first attempt at finding the perfect off-white. This ain't it. This is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Beige Blast. Three coats, I believe.


Beige Blast alone was boring as hell and a little too sheer, so I Hidden Treasure'd it up.

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!

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. :)

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. :)