Browsing Tag

purple

comparison

Essie – Smokin’ Hot vs Zoya – Kelly

Wednesday, 17 November, 2010

Essie’s Smokin’ Hot is literally, smokin’ hot. It’s gorgeous. It’s plummier, yummier. So gorgeous. Hotter. It’s a great way for Essie to say hello to the Holidays for 2010. Zoya’s Kelly holds its own quite well and is gorgeous, but when pitted against Essie, I definitely prefer Smokin’ Hot.

While Essie shines in color, it is, quite sadly, deficient in application. A bit moody – in that godawful once a month kind of way. It took three coats to get it to the color you see in the pictures and it took forever and a day to dry. It held me up for the day I had allocated for swatching. Zoya dried quickly and only needed two coats.

I really should’ve had taken a picture of these colors in artificial lighting because that’s where they both fall extremely similar – you would almost never be able to tell the difference.

Anyway, come see what I mean below. I also tested for wearability on both and found they held their own after 3 days – all you’ll see is tip wear and my ghetto cuticles. It’s my right hand – what can I say?

Essie Smokin Hot Zoya Kelly

.Essie Smokin Hot Zoya Kelly

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Nubar – Moonshadow

Tuesday, 26 October, 2010

I loved this color in the bottle. It promised great splashes of duo chrome-y goodness. I was disappointed that the duo chrome was so tame. I have Nubar’s Wild Life and that sucka throws off so much goodness I tend to get mesmerized by it when I wear it!

Nonetheless, this polish is beautiful…and I’d recommend it to anyone because it is a gorgeous purple in its own right. Please excuse tip wear – I had been wearing this color for a few days before I snapped the pics. Furthermore, I apologize for the misspelling of Moonshadow on the pics. I had done this a while ago and had thrown away the .psd for it.

It looks raspberry-ish in this shot, but it’s really a lovely purple.

Extreme shot and angle of MS to get the duochrome.

Hai, sun. You washed out the duo chrome!

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Deborah Lippmann

China Glaze – Awakening Collection, Halloween / Fall 2010

Thursday, 21 October, 2010

I can’t believe I’ve been sitting on this…but I also know it’s been shown by a slew of other people. I don’t care. Here are my swatches.

Formula was awesome – quick drying and flawless. All of these were two coat applications.

China Glaze is seriously knocking it out of the ball park with their seasonal collections. I enjoyed Awakening and I’m seriously looooving their Christmas Collection – Tis the Season To Be Naughty and Nice. That is up for Friday. All 16 colors.  Anyway…

Here are the three colors from Awakening with a comparison of Mummy May I to Deborah Lippmann’s Bad Romance.

Warning: This is an image heavy post.

 

A black jelly nail polish packed with orange glitter. Very Halloween. Very fun…and I may be rocking it the next few days to support the Giants. Yea, I’m a Bay Area sports girl – born and raised so I feel a lot of loyalty to my home teams.

 

Really liking this green because I don’t have anything like it. I’ve heard it’s similar to SpaRitual’s Optical Illusion, but I haven’t had the chance to compare it because I don’t have OI and SpaRitual is a lot harder to get ahold of than most nail polishes. Pity SpaRitual doesn’t sell on their site because I’d rather purchase through there.

And finally…oldie but goody comparison of Mummy May I and Deborah Lippmann’s Bad Romance. BR is a collaboration she did with Lady Gaga. You can also read the original review here.

Bad Romance has different shapes of glitter and the base is a deeper, denser black. Had I not done a side by side comparison, I’d never have even thought that these were even different aside from the glitter size. Mummy May I is a cute name! I just looked back on my notes when I swatched these and BR and MMI are 3 coats.

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Essie – Merino Cool

Wednesday, 6 October, 2010

I love colors like this. Part of Essie’s Fall 2010 Collection, this color is one of my favorites out of all the polishes I have right now. Colors like this have always had a special place in my heart.

Formula was good – dried fast and was opaque in 2 coats.

 

 

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Inglot – 709

Tuesday, 5 October, 2010
Inglot 709

I bought this color for my friend Kelly when I was living in India. This was my introduction to matte nail polishes and this was a fall 2008/spring 2009 color. I love it and the coverage was a dream. This dried quickly and was opaque in two very easy coats.

I wish Inglot was here in Northern California. I miss the store! 🙂

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MAC Cosmetics – Rain of Flowers

Thursday, 30 September, 2010

This color was another one that I was looking forward to when I first heard about MAC’s fall 2010 collection which they called Nail Trend. I don’t know if it’s really a trend…nor do I know if it’s really a collection I’m pleased with. I’m a creme kind of girl and I was hoping for one stand out, much like last year’s much beloved (by me!) Dry Martini. I regret not getting a back-up bottle of that. I’m just grateful I got a bottle.

Anyway, this color was so promising in the bottle. But in the back of my mind, I kept hearing, “OPI did it better with Russian Navy…OPI did it better with Russian Navy…” And ya know what? OPI did it better with Russian Navy.

The one thing that MAC got right over OPI was the formula. It wasn’t a pain to deal with. If anything, it made me really sad because the formula was so wonderful while the color itself was kind of…meh and uninspiring.

From far away (and at night) the color looks like a dark creme.  Even in fairly direct lighting, it still looks like a dark creme. Heck, even in my pictures it looks like a dark creme that had some glitter spilled into it purely by accident.

Please overlook the tip wear – it’s going on…day three (I believe) in the picture.

*cough* very OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, don’t you think?

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comparison

Deborah Lippmann – Bad Romance and Bad Romance v China Glaze’s Mummy May I

Tuesday, 28 September, 2010

I won’t go busting into a rendition of Bad Romance for you. I will show you pictures instead.

Deborah Lippmann’s formula was a bit more jelly-like than China Glaze’s. However, in three coats BR was a bit more opaque and darker, coming across more on the black side than a jelly. China Glaze’s came off as a dark brown. The colors of the purple glitter are similar, but BR has the awesome hexagonal shapes while MMI has plain circles.

Good news on both colors? Fast drying. No jacked up brushes. However, both were three coaters because I didn’t get the initial color I wanted.

Picture spam begins now…

 

Both of these applications were three coats.

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A Tale of Two Catherines by Rescue Beauty Lounge

Monday, 20 September, 2010

These landed on my doorstep today, bumping back poor Deborah Lippmann’s Bad Romance vs China Glaze’s Mummy May I. Those colors should show up on Wednesday.

The two colors that bumped it back? Rescue Beauty Lounge’s The Real Housewives of the Tudor Dynasty – Catherine and Catherine H. These 2 colors are part of their Fall 2010 collections.

The formula was quick drying but not as high gloss as their cremes. No worries, out of the 4 colors (the other 2 will be posted tomorrow) these two are really my favorite!

See below for the yumminess!

This beautiful blue grey purple is what I was hoping Zoya’s Kelly would’ve been on me. This color was gorgeous, even with the shimmer that ran through it.

I love this purple grey…it’s gorgeous. What do you think?

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