Cuckoo About Shatter

So today at work a girl came in and was showing her nail polish to the cashier. Me, being the polish crazed addict i am immediately realized she had on OPI's Silver Shatter and promptly asked her "Where did you get it?!". She told me it was the salon across the street from the coffee shop i work at, so right after i got off work i high tailed it over there and snagged a bottle of Silver Shatter and Stranger Tides. Needless to say i was super excited and immediately removed my current nail polish (China Glaze Shocking Pink w/ Black Shatter) to play with Silver Shatter. In fact, i'm typing this post with my nails still wet! I didn't like the combinations of SS with any of the rest of the collection, so i rummaged through my dark colors to find a pretty shimmer that would look great under the shatter. I settled on OPI's Cuckoo For This Color- a dark teal green with bright teal shimmer. This is two coats of CFTC with one coat of SS. 

Overall, i like Silver Shatter. However i think it's a bit too sparkly to really be able to see the crackle effect like you could with Black Shatter, or the China Glaze Crackles. 

Have you gotten your hands of Silver Shatter or the rest of the Pirates Of The Caribbean Collection? Thanks for reading!

OPI Swatches Pinks & Reds

And the swatches continue...... with my OPI pinks and reds! I'm actually surprised at how much i liked these colors since i usually don't consider purchasing very many pink polishes. All three of the OPI pinks i own were given to me by my mom, and the one red OPI i own was a gift from her as well.

First up is Strawberry Margarita, my mom's favorite summer color. It's a fun Barbie pink with a smooth formula that is opaque in three coats. I think this came from OPI's 2008 summer collection, although i'm not positive.

Party In My Cabana is a dark bright bright pink that covers in just two coats. No issues with application. I couldn't quite get this to photograph correctly, so it's a tad dark in the picture. On a side note, every time i type the name of this polish i somehow end up typing "Party In My Banana" which i then have to go back and correct. 

To round out the last of the "pinks" i have I'm His Coral-Friend. OPI, i sometimes don't understand why you name your polishes certain things. Honestly, i don't even understand what this polish name is supposed to be a play on words of. no clue. Anyway, I'm His Coral-Friend is hot pink-coral jelly that i think is borderline neon. It definitely isn't quite as orange as it looks in the below swatch, in reality it is a much pinker, brighter polish. 

And last but certainly not least is the beautiful gem that is The Show Must Go On!. Thank you, thank you, thank you mom. I love this color- love love love it! It is one of those polishes that photos just can't do justice, so you'll just have to see it in person. This is a shimmery burgundy pink red with a sparkling golden duochrome and tons of dense magenta shimmer. Three coats to opaque. 

Weird lighting to show the pretty golden duochrome!

What's your favorite pink polish? Are you a fan of pink nail polish, or are you a lover of another color? (i have to admit that made me giggle a little!) Thanks for reading!

Essie Swatches

There's something so addictive and lovely about Essie polishes. Whether it's the cute, simple bottle or the myriad of pretty colors i'm always drawn to the Essie rack of polishes whenever i visit Walgreens or ULTA. However usually the excitement wears off by the time i remember how much each bottle is. Oh well. Today i'll be showing you swatches of the Essie colors that i do own, and like most polish addicts the collection has grown already since i swatched and took pictures of these. I'm not sure if it's just the typical Essie finish or not, but all of these colors except one had the squishy, jelly feel to them.

First up is French Affair- a pretty pastel marshmallow lilac pink creme. I say marshmallow because there is something about this color that reminds me of those tiny mini pastel colored marshmallows. There was a little dragging with this polish, but after the third coat it looked alright. If i hadn't been in a hurry i probably could have applied it better to get a smooth even finish.

Cute As A Button is a bright coral pink, perfect for summer. This looks super cute with white polka dots from the BM plate on top! It certainly lives up to it's name. This is three coats.

Oh Lollipop, you are the perfect summer red- I'm so glad you came home with me! I love this color. It's a delightfully squishy, jelly, bright red-orange that just makes me smile. I originally saw this when my sister pulled it out of her little nail polish bag, and i had to have it after seeing it on her nails. If you aren't big on Essie's but want something fun to try, definitely snag this color. 

Speaking of my sister's nail polish bag, this is one she gave to me! She purchased it only to realize that it was pretty close to another Essie polish she already owned, except without the shimmer. Of course if it had been me i would have kept both because c'mon- shimmer and no shimmer is totally a huge difference and it makes total sense to own both, right? right? just say yes. This is two coats of Big Spender, a bright fuchsia with grape undertones. 

Merino Cool is just that- cool. I love this polish for it's effortlessly chic feeling it gives me when i wear it. It's a dusty purple gray, and i feel like it's one of those sophisticated yet slightly edgy colors. This is three coats. Please excuse how dreadful my cuticles look in this picture- direct sunlight is unforgiving.

Do you own any of these colors? Are you as drawn to the cute little Essie bottles as i am? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!

Hard Candy Beetle

I originally bought this polish because i couldn't get my hands on Orly Space Cadet, and i had seen that Hard Candy Beetle was a good dupe. However a few weeks ago i stopped in at ULTA and not only did they have the entire Orly Cosmic FX collection, they had multiple bottles of everything, including Space Cadet. I plan on going back soon armed with coupons so i can get the best deal for completely that collection! Anyway, onto the swatches! This is three coats of Beetle, and it is gorgeous, seriously seriously gorgeous! I love it! No issues with application either, which makes it even better.

After a few days i started to see a little wear, so i just painted some OPI Black Shatter over it, and voila! instant awesome. The colors of Beetle really shine through and look amazing under the shatter- i'll definitely be pairing these two polishes again. 

Do you own Space Cadet or one of it's many dupes? Thanks for reading!

OPI Mattes

So i feel like i have to explain myself a little, since i didn't post yesterday. Normally, i would just continue on and not mention it, but i feel like maybe some of you will do the whole "ohhhhhhh totally makes sense- i get it!" thing. See, yesterday i received The Sims 3 as a gift. And consequently lost about five hours of my life. So.. yeah. Sorry about not posting!

Anyway, onto the nail related portion of this post! Today i'll be showing you those OPI Matte polishes i got back when i was on vacation- at an outlet mall for get this... $3.50!! crazy, right? Now, i had read several not so favorable reviews of this collection, but for that low a price i just couldn't pass them up. I picked up Gargantuan Green Grape Matte, Russian Navy Matte, and Lincoln Park After Dark Matte. Now i'm wishing i would have picked up the pink one as well (the name escapes me)! Despite negative reviews, i didn't have any real problems in application and they all shine up beautifully with a layer of topcoat. All application was typical of matte polishes, and dried quickly between coats.

Gargantuan Green Grape Matte is a bright, fun, and funky pastel lime green. This makes me wish i had the original GGG, but the matte version will quench that need for me for now. This was the first color i swatched, and it made me remember just how much i love the Pro-Wide brush- it just makes application a breeze for me!

With Topcoat

Well, i can tell you that Lincoln Park After Dark Matte certainly didn't live up to my excitement of finding it. I've heard some serious raving about this polish, but to me it just doesn't venture far enough away from black for me to enjoy the deep plum red color. If it had been just a tad lighter, i probably would have loved it. But it's just a tad too dark and would look black in most lighting.

With Topcoat

Russian Navy Matte is lovely. It's just that- a true navy blue. This color doesn't look black like LPADM, and you can really appreciate the navy of this color. With topcoat, it's just.. so. nice. But i'm a sucker for a dark color, and i think i will find myself searching for the original- i'd love to have a great navy blue for stamping!

With Topcoat

Overall, all three were definitely worth the impulse buy, and i'm happy i own them. Do you have any of the OPI Mattes, or the originals? How do you think they compare? 

Zoya Joy & Harmonie

Okay, i want to start this post of by saying that i seriously love Zoya polishes. I only own four, but they are some of my favorites. Plus the huge range of Zoyas that are available- there are some seriously gorgeous colors i'd love to have! Here are the other two polishes by the brand that i own- Harmonie and Joy. No base or top coat on either swatch.

Harmonie is a lovely medium purple with magenta shimmer. It goes on perfectly with just two coats, and i couldn't be happier- i mean, look at her! Purple favoritism aside, this is one pretty color. I actually got this polish from my sister's old stash way before i really got into nail polish.

I picked up Joy during Zoya's three free promotion a while back, and i love it. Usually i'm not a pink nail polish type of gal, but how could i possibly resist this dark pink with tons, and i mean tons, of golden shimmer? And it's not just golden- it has this warmth to it that's just stunning. Definitely will be using this color for some summertime manicures! Again, a perfect two coater.

Do you own any Zoyas? If so, which are your favorites? Personally, i'm having a super hard time resisting the urge to get almost every single color in the Intimates collection- i need them all!!

Sinful Colors Part Two

This post will be short and sweet today, with lots of swatch spam! So if you like checking out pretty and cheap colors, read on! Today is the second half of my Sinful Colors swatches, and this concludes the polishes i currently own of this brand. These are the cooler toned colors. 

Love Nails is a bright blue with a gorgeous aqua green shimmer- it reminds me of the ideal swimming pool blue that always makes me think of summer. This is four coats.

Next up is Fiji, a very lovely medium purple base with magenta and light blue shimmer. Please pardon the strange lump on my ring finger- not quite sure what that is! haha! Anyway, this is four coats. I acquired this polish pre-blog/obsession, and it was a gift from my college roommate because my favorite color is purple. Little factoid there for you. 

This glitter goes by the name of Frenzy, and she's a funky little gal made up of small hexagonal light blue and magenta glitter in a clear base. It's a medium density glitter, and this is just two coats. I previously wore this polish alone and got it to be opaque within four or five coats. 

Daddy's Girl is a dark purple jelly mixed with magenta glitter that is fairly sparse, but builds over time. This color looks really nice layered over black.

And last but certainly not least is fan favorite San Francisco. This is in my opinion, a perfect green- one that doesn't lean too yellow or too blue. I can certainly see why this color is loved, because the green shimmer is simply gorgeous on the nail. For two buck polish, this one is a definite winner and way worth that. This is three coats.

Tired of swatch spam yet? I hope not, because there's lots more on the way. I'll try to break it up by throwing in nail art and maybe some frankens (yay!) along the way. Thanks for reading!

Sinful Colors Swatches Part One

Let the swatches begin! I decided to swatch my entire collection so that i wouldn't feel bad about going to Ulta later today and buying new polish. I figured that if i had already swatched every color i had, then that was totally a good reason to go get more polishes, right? Uh.. yeah. So anyway, today i'm posting the first half of my Sinful Colors collection, the warmer colors, plus a green because it just split evening if i had five polishes each day. A little note that goes for pretty much all the following polishes- If you know Sinful polishes, you know that most of the polishes are sheer. With very few exceptions most of their polishes are great for layering, but require several coats for full opacity. All swatches are with no topcoat, and most are without base coat (i used a base on some i thought that might cause staining when i removed them).

This first polish is Sinful's Nirvana. It's a nice mushroom brown, just the right mix between chocolate brown and gray to fit with the trend. I didn't have any issues with application- this is three coats.

Sinful's Vacation Time is a surprisingly pretty dusty cherry brown. In the bottle i wasn't really impressed or wow'ed by the color, but on the nail i thought it was really flattering! I definitely lean towards dusty or muted colors more than brights, so for me this was a great way to have a "fun" muted color. This is two coats, which is pretty rare for a Sinful polish.

Oh Unicorn, i thought we would get a long so much better than we did. Holy stain city with this color! I actually did a full manicure with this as the base (Audrey's Spring Fling), and when i took off this polish i was disgusted. It left nasty dark yellow stains on my nails, and was a pain to remove. Not to mention the four thick, gloopy coats it took to try to even it out, and even then there were still bald spots. Oy Vey! Definitely a polish that i'll probably only reach for when i'm stamping or doing dots. To give you an idea of how bad the staining was, i did the Spring Fling manicure March 28th, and my nails still aren't back to the normal color. blech. 

Let's Meet is the nicer, less awful, prettier sister of Unicorn. A gorgeous golden lemon yellow jam packed with pretty gold shimmer, and easy to apply. Since i only swatched it i can't say if it will stain or not, but it doesn't really matter anyway because this color is a bit too sheer for me to wear alone. This is four coats and there is still a ton of VNL. I'm not super picky about a little VNL here and there, but i prefer it to come in the form of sheer pinks or more natural colors.

Show Me The Way is a medium olive green that is accented by a pretty golden green shimmer that makes it sparkle and glow like crazy on the nail. It's on the sheer side though- this is four coats. I'll definitely be keeping it around for layering over other greens. 

Overall if you don't mind layering or some VNL, you can't beat the price of Sinful polishes. At just $1.99, you get a nice color, workable brush, and now and then a real gem of a polish. I'll post part two with five other Sinful Colors tomorrow! 

Blue Glitter Comparison

Happy Friday everyone! So a few days ago i noticed that there are quite a few blue glitters that are out right now and that are pretty similar, so i figured i would do a comparison post. I compared Milani Blue Flash, Pure Ice Strapless, and China Glaze Dorothy Who?. Blue Flash prices in at about $5, Strapless was $2, and Dorothy Who? was around $5.

Milani Blue Flash is part of the One-Coat Glitter collection, and it certainly didn't live up to the bottle's claim. Its made up of blue and black glitter in a clear base, and although it is very dense, it requires at least two coats to be opaque. I didn't have any major issues with application, although it was difficult to get the polish to stay on the tip of the nail and extremely gritty, so I would recommend layering this over a solid polish to avoid bare spots where the glitter doesn't cover completely. Pure Ice Strapless is made up of very dense super fine bright blue glitter in a clear base. It was smooth to apply, not gritty, and required four coats minimum to be mostly opaque. If you're familiar with Pure Ice polishes than you're already aware of how sheer most of them are, and Strapless certainly isn't an exception. It was challenging to get the polish to be opaque around the sides and tip, so again i would say this polish would look best over a solid base color. China Glaze Dorothy Who? is a gorgeous fine, semi-sparse silver glitter in a medium blue base and took four coats and still had some VNL. I didn't have any issues with application, and out of the three polishes it applied and covered the best. 

Overall there weren't any exact dupes out of these three. My favorite was by far Strapless, because it just glows when it's on the nail- it has that awesome quality where you just can't stop staring at your nails even after a day or two! If you're looking for a good blue glitter that won't eat your topcoat and is on the cheap side, i recommend going with this one rather than the other two. I also included a little swatch of it over another color, just so you could see it a little better. 

Three coats of Strapless over Essie's One Day Without Blues

I apologize for being kind of lazy with posting this week- i was a busy bee swatching over 44 polishes from my collection! I'm trying to get my whole collection swatched and photographed so that i don't feel too guilty about indulging in new polishes! But that also means you'll probably be seeing lots and lots of swatch spam next week. Thanks for reading!

p.s. if you could spare a vote for me in Bundle Monster's facebook contest, it would be greatly appreciated! 

Spare a Vote?

Now that voting has finally started, i'd be really grateful if you could take a second and vote for me in Bundle Monster's Facebook Plate Contest! If you like my design, of course!

You can click HERE to vote! Thanks :)

I'll be back to regular posting tomorrow. I swatched over twenty polishes from my stash today, so that should give me some time to devote to nail art in upcoming weeks! 

One Day Without Blues a.k.a. Coat Azure

Recently TOMS shoes had a promotion where if you liked their Facebook page, you could receive a free bottle of Essie polish. The color was marketed as a special shade for the event, but was really just a re-packaged bottle of Coat Azure. Either way it was a gorgeous blue that i didn't yet own, so i'm happy. One Day Without Blues is sort of a dark cornflower blue base with subtle golden shimmer. It applied easily, and required three coats to be opaque. I probably could have gotten away with just two coats if i had been more careful in my application.

Did you take advantage of this Facebook promotion? Did you already own Coat Azure? Personally i was a bit disappointed when i found out it wasn't actually and exclusive shade just to the promotion. But i didn't own Coat Azure already, so i wasn't really very upset. Hey, a free polish is a free polish, am i right? 

Bada-Bling Bada-Bloom

So i'm sure you've all heard about Bundle Monster's nail design contest on Facebook by now. And if you haven't, go check it out on their official Facebook page- you could win the full brand new set of plates! Anyways, i recently bought and received the current set of plates because i wanted to enter and i didn't already own them. I decided that i wanted to enter with a skittles manicure (i think that is what these types of manicures are called.. please correct me with the correct term if i'm wrong!) since i feel like i do a pretty good job at those. I wanted something spring-y and fun, and i knew i wanted to use the new Milani polish i purchased. The final colors i decided on were Essie Cute As A Button, Turquoise & Caicos, Milani Jewel FX Silver / Zoya Trixie, and Pure Ice Naughty Girl.

On the index finger i used three coats of Cute As A Button, then used Sinful Colors Snow Me White and BM19 to stamp the polka dot design. On my middle finger i used three coats of Turquoise & Caicos, and stamped the daisy design from BM16 in OPI's Ski Teal We Drop and added teal half pearls in the centers of the daisies. On my ring finger i used two coats of Trixie, followed by several coats of Jewel FX Silver until it was mostly opaque. On my pinky finger i used three coats of Naughty Girl, and stamped the diagonal lines from BM20 in Snow Me White. And finally on my thumb i used three coats of Naughty Girl and added a clear rhinestone and two white half pearls.

Personally i love this design, and it's definitely the fun and girly spring manicure i was looking for! If you like my design, please do me a huge favor and like it on Bundle Monster's Facebook Contest Page when voting starts April 13th. I would really appreciate your vote! 

What's With The Cattitude?

A quick swatch today of a wishlist polish that i finally own! I bought this little beauty from a blog sale, and i couldn't have been more excited when it finally showed up at my door. I'm talking about the perfect light blue polish, OPI's What's With The Cattitude? from the Shrek Collection. Application wasn't incredibly difficult, but could have been easier. This is three coats of WWTC. 

I just absolutely LOVE this color. I'm such a sucker for a pretty light blue. I like wearing lighter blues more than darker blues just because light blues don't tend to stain the cuticles or nails when you remove them. At least what i've experienced from them. 

Do you own this pretty polish? Are you a fan of blues?

Dorothy In Denim

So today i'm showing you two polishes- one that i love, and one i had to grow to love. Surprisingly, the one i instantly loved isn't the more popular of the two! I'm talking about N.Y.C.'s Skin Tight Denim Creme and China Glaze's Dorothy Who?. 

This is two coats of Denim Creme, and it applied smoothly and easily with no issues. This is a lovely dark blue polish with subtle shimmer. It's dark without ever venturing into "looks like black" territory. Next up is Dorothy Who? which is a blue and silver glitter polish. I thought this would be the navy blue sister to Ruby Pumps, but when i saw it swatched, it wasn't. I was kind of disappointed, but Dorothy Who? grew on me after a while with all of it's glittery goodness. This is two coats over Denim Creme. 

Pretty sparkly huh? Maybe one of these days i'll find a polish that's the blue twin of Ruby Pumps, or i'll franken one. I seriously can't get over how gorgeous that polish is- definitely a favorite! Do you own either of these colors? Have you created a franken for a polish that you've been dreaming of, but haven't found to exist? Leave me a comment and tell me about it!