red

Essie – Limited Addiction

Friday, 19 November, 2010

I haven’t worn red nail polish a lot in the past few years. I think it’s mostly because I wore it for 6 years straight. Loved red nail polish…no other color would do.

Then Chanel’s Rouge Noir (aka Vamp) came along, relegating all my reds to the end of the line.

Lately, I’ve been feeling the need for red again. Like I’m going to seriously binge on red nail polish until I feel I no longer need to wear it again.

That said, I’m wearing Essie’s Limited Addiction in these pictures. LA is part of Essie’s Winter/Holiday 2010 collection. *swoons* I loved how it looked on me – it was lovely and so seductive, but not in a trampy way! Application was flawless – dried quickly and was opaque in two coats, despite my heavy handed application. See for yourself!

0 Comments

OPI – Color So Hot It Berns

Friday, 5 November, 2010

This color is part of OPI’s Swiss Fall 2010 Collection.

I was a bit dubious when it came to this color, but I had such fond memories of Rescue Beauty Lounge’s Bangin’, I thought I’d slap this on my nails and see.

I’m also working on getting my left handed skills up and running again, so I’m going to start swatching with my right hand more often. Please be prepared for bad cuticles because I am very rough on my hands.

Formula was fast drying for this and frankly, the opaqueness really was wonderful. Two ultra thin coats was all it needed.

What I loved about this color is that it reminded me of old Hollywood Glamour. Would you agree?

0 Comments

Nubar – Midnight Rendezvous

Thursday, 4 November, 2010

Nubar said this was a blood red/deep red with a hint of purple in it. It looked fabulous and it was a CREME! *swoons*

Meh. I think in my excitement I did a bad application and you can see VNL.

It looks decidedly vampy on me, doesn’t it? Like I said earlier, I can’t miss my old Chanel Rouge Noir when all the vampy colors are out and killing my lemming for it.

What do you think?

Looks flawless here.

Flawless? Not so much.

0 Comments

Zoya – Maura and a small Project Runway Rant – don’t worry, you won’t see it unless you want to

Friday, 29 October, 2010

Note: I’ll try to post pictures this weekend to make up for the past 2 days of no blog entries. I simply wasn’t motivated to do anything. >< However, I had a request for a pink and I found one I had yet to swatch! So if the weather permits, you will find it here on the weekend. =)

SPOILER WARNING/AVOIDANCE — To read my rant, highlight the paragraph below that you can’t see!

Small diversion/rant: I am not happy with Gretechen aka WRETCHED being the winner that was chosen for Project Runway. Furthermore, I don’t feel the clothing of said designer is now and hip. It’s frumpy. It’s dated. It lacks the wow factor I want in my clothing. It’s effortless dumpy. I don’t like hobo chic. That’s not boho chic. That’s right, I said it HOBO. That clothing is suited for coat rack built girls, not hourglass girls like me. Patterns were awful and I felt the collection was so bland. If that is where fashion is heading, I’m sitting out the next few seasons. Hopefully people won’t fall for the dumpy frumpy look of said designer.

Anyway, rant over…

Part of Summer 2010’s Flash collection, Maura is this wonderful cherry tomato red.

It’s funny because Maura on me looks red while I’ve seen it on some friends and it looks like a coral. OH MY! Friends don’t let friends wear coral. 😉 Just kidding! I’m always jealous of people who can sport colors like that and not look like they’ve aged themselves by 30 years. It’s the green eyed monster in me…pure and simple.

Now what I truly love about this color is that the moment I put it on, it was true to the color in the bottle – bravo! It didn’t have that odd undertone of when you sometimes put on some polishes and go, “Uh, I swear I thought I bought a RED, not a pink.”

Zoya’s formula, as always, is friggin’ fabulous – fast drying and perfectly opaque in 2 coats.

2 Comments

China Glaze – Holiday 2010 – ‘Tis The Season To Be Naughty And Nice

Friday, 22 October, 2010

This is a seriously image heavy post…28 pictures. I didn’t want to break it up because…well, I didn’t want to. 😉 It’s my eye candy and Friday Red. Enjoy!

All of these were two coaters and they dried in record time.

BOOM! Right out of the gate…this is my favorite red this season. Beautiful. Opaque in 2 coats.

I liked this, but it’s not my favorite red. It’s a bit too light for me. I am sure it would look better on someone else where it looked ok on me.

A gorgeous mulberry with a shimmer that makes it a perfect holiday shade.

I didn’t think I would like these, but I do. CTY is a lovely metallic foil that some other brands didn’t quite get right. This really sparkled and shined, truly reminding me of tinsel. MK was a lovely rich foil gold…absolutely gorgeous and I kept thinking it was a wonderful shade of almost 18k. Jingle bells is a bronze that doesn’t quite shimmer like CTY and MK, but it is very subtle. While not flashy, it’s still a pretty shade to behold.

A sheer white base with white glitter thrown in…it reminded me of snow.

This is a wicked shade of green…it glows. I swear, it generates its own electricity! Wouldn’t you agree? I mean, just look at it.

A wonderful blue, but it really reminded me of OPI’s Yoga-ta Get This Blue.

The jury’s still out on this color. I can’t decide if I like it or not. It’s a pinky/red jelly based color with pinky/silver glitter. Removal was a pain, but I’m not sure about this.

I no longer mourn the loss (that much) of my beloved Chanel Rouge Noir. How can I with these fabulous dupes that are 3-Free?

Oh the glitter…the humanity. THE SHINY! I like it a lot, but ugh…the removal. The removal is a pain.

How pretty is this? I love that it’s an olive green tossed into the mix…to make it even 700 shades more awesome, they made this a shimmer. Fabulous!

White creme…’nuff said. I think of this as a base for nail art and not just a color to be worn on its own.

This is China Glaze’s answer to OPI’s Tease-y Does It. I like both and I like that this is lighter and has a fine micro glitter.

Of course, I had to include Mistletoe Kisses because it’s part of the collection, even though I had done a comparison earlier in the week. FYI: MMUTM = Meet Me Under The Mistletoe.

And there we go…all 16 colors swatched. Yay! Hope you enjoyed it.

1 Comments

OPI Tease-y Does It vs Nubar Raspberry Truffle

Tuesday, 12 October, 2010

Got my Burlesque glitters. Got the rest of the Burlesque collection, too. I was thrilled because OPI really outdid themselves on the glitter collection for Christmas 2010. I hate glitter, but I had to have these. Anyway, the one color that really had me holding my breath was Tease-y Does It.

I was so happy to have finally been able to put Tease-y Does It on my nails. It looked totally gorgeous in the bottle, but in the back of my mind a tiny voice was saying, “You have something like this…You have something like this…”

I was like, “Shut up. Shut up. No, I don’t.” Conversations with yourself really doesn’t bode well, but at least I wasn’t talking out loud.

Then I started doing a re-org of my 2 Helmers (I am going to need a 3rd now, btw) and started a drawer for Nubar…What is this? Raspberry Truffle? It looks like…No, it can’t be. Ce n’est pas vrai! Non. Mais oui, mes amies. Mais oui.

I actually dare to call OPI’s Tease-y Does It a dupe for Nubar’s Raspberry Truffle.

Don’t weep if you can’t get Tease-y Does It. Nubar still has Raspberry Truffle on their site.

OPI’s formula was the winner of the two. While both were easy to apply with no problems, RT tended to take about five minutes longer to dry than TDI.

Check out the dupeness for yourself – RT is on the pointer and pinky while TDI is on the ring and middle fingers.

0 Comments

Orly – 'Tis the Season – Holiday 2010

Friday, 8 October, 2010

Orly’s Holiday collection is filled with some pretty fun colors. I love the application and the glitter. The red creme and the color Naughty Or Nice is just wonderful. What I’ve done is try to layer some of the glitters over the cremes. It’s an epic fail, but you’ll still see it. 😀

All the colors dried quickly and were opaque in 2 coats. The glitters were wonderfully dense and very fun to look at on their own.

This is an image heavy post – beware.

How awesome is this red? It is freaking gorgeous and I’m happy to include it in Red Nail Polish Friday. On the middle finger is one coat of Winter Wonderland and on the ring finger it’s 2 coats.

2 coats of Winter Wonderland on three fingers and 2 coats of WW over Naughty or Nice. I love how WW really does remind me of snow.

Normally I don’t like golds like this, but for some reason I found I liked this a lot. Naughty Or Nice is on three fingers while G&G is on my pointer finger. G&G is a dense, heavy glitter. Removal wasn’t so bad! One coat of G&G over NON to see how it would look. Meh.

I thought this color was so fabulous in the bottle. Then I put it on me. All the initial beauty of it was washed out by my skin and the sunlight. It’s much, much prettier in person and the shimmer/glitter is well done.

I’ve heard that MMUTM is a dupe for Zoya’s Ivanka. I don’t think so. Below are pictures of Ivanka. Ivanka is lighter while MMUTM is darker, more of a holiday green.