Browsing Tag

pink

Orly – Space Cadet

Monday, 23 August, 2010

I am the first to admit that it takes a lot to wow me…especially in the nail polish department. I rarely swoon. It’s just how I am. It’s not that I’m jaded, it’s just that I’m truly fortunate to be able to have a great collection. Plus, I’m a huge fan of cremes. If I ever turn my head on glitters or shimmers, it really has to be a stand out.

Fall 2010 is that collection for Orly…well, this one is – Space Cadet.

Where can I even begin? I was rendered speechless on the first coat. Then on the second? I just could not stop staring. The color change, the glitter, the glitz oh my!

The formula was really one that I think a lot of polishes should strive for if they’re going to do something like this – fast drying and easy to work with. I did 3 coats because I was really curious to see how it would look past 2 and it really was just flat out gorgeous. I didn’t need a third coat. It was like gilding the lily.

Ok, I’ll stop raving and just show you the mother lode of pictures I took.

Small note – I honestly thought that this was close to a Nubar shade called Wildlife…Wildlife is this awesome duochrome color that is gorgeous in and of itself and I felt that Space Cadet is the pumped up rocker chick sister version of it.

Pic spam commences…NAO!

What wasn’t conveyed in the sunlight shot was this freaking AWESOME play of black and pink/purple glitter. It was really hard to capture.

Nubar’s Wildlife is below – the shade shots of Space Cadet above is what made me think of this color.

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BB Couture For Men – Drive Shaft

Thursday, 5 August, 2010

This color looks a bit coppery, a bit peach, a bit pink and a bit bronze on me – all around awesome sauce. It does lean slightly towards the warmer side so I have to be careful about what I wear with this.

BB Couture has, once again, nailed it with their formula. Two applications and this didn’t bubble. If only all polishes could be like this. Polish brush isn’t jacked up like that-company-that-shall-not-be-named. 😉

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Essie – Demure Vixen

Friday, 16 July, 2010

A nail polish fairy sent this to me the other day and I swooned…I haven’t been able to get my hands on Chanel’s Paradoxal and I know there is a huge difference between the two, but I was honestly hoping that this would kill any lemming moments I would have for Chanel. It didn’t. I am hoping that the nail polish fairy gods will hear my cry for Chanel Paradoxal soon…but I digress…

Demure Vixen is definitely demure, but in my opinion, no vixen. To me, vixen implies a steely sexy edge…this color doesn’t have it. This is one of those colors that I would call a lovely safe shade for work.

See below to understand what I mean.

Don’t get me wrong…this is a lovely shade. I adore this shade – it’s the lighter sister of  Sephora by OPI (aka $OPI)’s  Call Your Mother with a violet shimmer through it. This color was almost a sheer. This was it after three coats. As always, Essie’s formula was like butta!

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china glaze nail polish swatches

China Glaze – Sex On The Beach

Thursday, 15 July, 2010

This swatch is for a reader who wanted me to do more sheers…so I’m starting now. 😀

I’ve had this color for ages and was never really motivated to try it. I thought it looked beautiful in the bottle but was worried it wouldn’t translate well into real life. I hate it when a polish does that and it so often happens with shades like these once on me.

This wasn’t a huge disappointment, but it did transfer almost perfectly – it’s a peach shimmer with a lovely gold undertone. Unfortunately, the shade is a bit too warm for me. 🙁

It’s a gorgeous color nonetheless – see below.

It looks so ho-hum boring in the shade, doesn’t it?


Sunlight brought this baby to life, showing flashes of peach, pink and gold shimmer. It’s very pretty, n’est-ce pas? I know I don’t have a color similar or even remotely close to this, so even though it’s a bit on the warm side for my skin I’m going to keep this!

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Chanel – Violette

Sunday, 11 July, 2010
Chanel Violette

Happy Sunday!

Whilst going through a moving box that was innocuously labeled “Bathroom Junk” from three years ago (shhh….), I discovered this little gem – Chanel’s Violette. Released in early 2000, I’d actually venture to say about 2003 since that was when we were living in Scotland and I know that this is where I purchased this color, I had high hopes for this to be a dupe of my infamous lemming/lust/must have/WILL KUT YOU FOR of Chanel’s Brown Sugar nail polish. Released about six months after Rouge Noir – the original – in 1994, I went nuts for it. Loved it so much I scrimped my pennies to share it with friends because I’d buy them a bottle for their birthday.

Brown Sugar is a polish I can definitely wax lyrical on for…well, ever. Four years ago I saw a bottle of Brown Sugar on eBay. I stopped bidding at $40. It ended up selling for $60. To this day, that is one of my true nail polish regrets. I would, in all honesty, trade in all my bottles of nail polish just so I can have a good bottle of Brown Sugar. That is how much I loved that color.

While Violette hits the spot, it’s like eating a banana when you really want chocolate – you get the potassium you wanted, but it’s not the flavor or texture that would send you into your own happy place.  There are also some very subtle differences – Brown Sugar was bit more beige-y, slightly mushroom-y and a tinge more purple. Violette is…well, more violet colored and a lot lighter. I felt Brown Sugar was truly the best neutral nail polish out there. It flattered all my friends’ skin tones.

All right, enough. I’ll stop. Here are the pics.

Formula on this was terrible! But I think this was one of the first bottles of 3 Free, but I could be wrong so don’t quote me on it. These were two thin coats with no top coat put on. It bubbled and I was immediately reminded why I had thrown this color into a box and conveniently forgot about it. My Brown Sugar never bubbled, but it took forever and a millennia to dry.

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OPI Flutter Collection – Part 2 – Summer 2010

Monday, 7 June, 2010

The other two were probably the more attractive ones. I’m a huge fan of cremes. I make no excuses for it. Cremes have always been my favorite. That said…I really don’t know what to say about these cremes aside from they were bright. Really bright. So bright that I am going to send these colors to a friend kind of bright because I think they make my collection glow and I can see it in the middle of the night.

A reader asked me to do more pinks, corals (*barfs*) and sheers. I’ll start doing that. 🙂 Even down to the corals. *cries*

With that out of the way, here are the final 2 colors of the Flutter Collection.

Application was a bit runny, but if I had to pick between this or the pink…I’d choose this. It looks a gorgeous, almost burnt orange here but it’s not. It’s really bright. The pictures make the color look a lot more mellow than what it really is when you see it in person.


These pictures belie the brightness of the polish. There is a subtle amount of glitter in it that really doesn’t quite show up. I look at these photos I took and I think, “Wow, what a pretty shade of pink!” Don’t fall for it. If you don’t like brights I suggest getting Catch Me In Your Net. It’s the only one in this entire collection that stands out.

I’m pretty much disappointed with OPI’s colors for summer. I loved the Shrek collection but that’s because it appealed to the girl in me that loves funky and unusual colors. I am still loving Fiercely Fiona and Who The Shrek Are You?

The formula on this was also difficult to work with. I found it incredibly runny and slow drying. I think for the slow drying thing I’ll have to factor in the awful rise in humidity right now. Either way, I wasn’t a fan of this formula or the colors.

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China Glaze – Strawberry Fields

Tuesday, 25 May, 2010

For some inexplicable reason, I was completely enamored with this color when I saw it in the store. I had to have it.

I think secretly in my mind I had a vision where it would be this stunning pink with gold shimmer on me. The kind that was so flattering that people would stop me and ask, “What color *is* that? It looks so wonderful on you!”

Sadly, I was mistaken. It aged me. Yes, that is exactly what happened. It aged me. Made my hands look more like old lady than cool hip chick.

What a pity. It’s still a gorgeous color. I may reserve it for my toes, but even then I worry I’ll look like I’m 80, not 30-something.

See the pretty golden glitter in the shade shot? You can actually see the pool of gold glitter where it says Oz. on the bottle. The color looks much better in the shade than in the sunlight shot below. Sunlight just completely wiped it out.

Formula was so good – fast drying and only a 2 coater.

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china glaze nail polish swatches

China Glaze – Channelesque

Thursday, 20 May, 2010

I found this in a clearance bin for $1.50. Had I known how truly and deeply I’d fall for this color, I’d have purchased all of them. Yea, I get kind of like that. I know that Channelesque has been discussed many a time, but I love how it looks on me.

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