Some Maybelline, China Glaze, Dior, and ORLY Swatches

So while browsing through my "Nail Polish" folder, I realized I have a few polishes that I've swatched but never posted or did a review on them. And instead of doing each brand one by one, I've decided to just include it all in one post. I have two New Maybelline for the Fall, one old China Glaze, Dior, and two old ORLY's.

Maybelline


Grand in Green is a blackened green which is quite similar to OPI's Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow. Grand in Green is darker than HTAT (in which HTAT shows more green)


Grey-T Glamour is a gray creme with little silver flecks. I really like this one :)

Applications for both of these were good. No complaints

China Glaze


Sunset Glow is a rosey pink mauve with hints of golden shimmer. Gorgeous color but some reason dry time was a little slow

Dior


Black Sequins is a black creme with silver glitter. I got this when it was restocked at Nordstrom, I believe it is not available anymore, but don't quote me :x

Orly


Bailamos is a bright aqua shimmer


Wild Wisteria is a deep purple creme

I've always loved Orly's formulas. Perfect and flawless

Well that's all I have for today, and as a bonus, since this post is so short, November 2nd was my dog Bebe's 10th birthday. And here is a picture of her "making a wish" on her birthday cake :D

ORLY Cosmic FX Collection

Today I have the Orly's Cosmic FX collection. This collection is freaking AMAZING. That's all I have to say. But it is by far the hardest collection to capture in picture. These have to be seen in person to appreciate the beauty. And I'm sure majority of you already have these in hands? lol I'm just very late in posting these. But I've tried my best

Below: Space Cadet. It is a brown, green, purple duo-chrome. Very strong duo-chrome. My first picture is in natural lights and shows the duo-chrome at its best. Second picture is in an angle to show the green. And third picture is in artificial light which shows the brownish purple. And last picture is in direct sunlight.









Below: Galaxy Girl. It is a plumish purple with silver and turquoise blue flecks. First picture is under natural light which shows most of the colors. Second picture is in direct sunlight, and last picture is under artificial lights.







Below: Lunar Eclipse. A vibrant blue with silver flecks and slight purple/pink duo-chrome. First picture under artificial lights shows all the blue. Second picture in direct sunlight and last picture is natural light to show the slight pink and purple, which is barely noticeable in the picture.







Below: Halley's Comet. A turquoise with silver flecks. Very nice and shimmery, almost metallic like.



Below: It's Not Rocket Science. A swampy green with silver flecks. Yes, same as China Glaze Zombie Zest, and SpaRitual Optical Illusion. But I *feel* that this one is a brighter green.



Below: Out of This World. Vampy purple with silver and purple flecks.



Formula on these were perfect. All of them were done under three coats, though it was good with two. But I like it to have more depths to photo better and look better. I have a little more patience when it comes to my nails. I had no problems with application at all. No mess no fuss. My favorite is Space Cadet, Galaxy Girl, and Lunar Eclipse. The three duo-chromes in this collection, what do you know? Haha.

Well that's all I have for today, enjoy your weekend!

My First Watermarble

Hi all!

So today I decided to try something new - well, it was new to me. I've never watermarbled before but it looks so pretty when I see it on nails, so I decided to try it.

I grabbed a plastic cup, room temperature water, a orangewood stick, some paper, tape and of course polish. I picked Orly Lollipop and OPI Funky Dunkey for my first time of marbling. I painted my nails in white polish (H&M Love At First Sight), because I was planning on doing a white/purple marble, but changed my mind. Anyway, this is the result of some watermarbling!

I think I did do alright for a first time of watermarbling! The colors play nicely together, it's balanced. I should practice on aiming in the cup though lol!

I've been following Colette's blog - My Simple Little Pleasures for a while now and I love her tutorials. This is the queen of marbling people! I used her method for taping while I was marbling so I wouldn't have to spend ages cleaning up the polish from halfway down my finger.

See? I could just peel of the tape while I was done. Colette has a great tutorial on the taping as well, so check that out if you don't want to clean up your whole finger afterwards ;) I've heard that oiling with cuticle oil will work too to make your cleanup easier, but since this was my first time, I haven't tried that.

What do you think of my marble?

Thanks for stopping by!

Orly Snowcone

Hi all!

Today I have Orly Snowcone for you. It's part of the Orly Sweet collection that contains six sweet colors, and I bought all of them.. And I love all of them! Anyway, this is Snowcone :)

Orly Snowcone, three coats in daylight. Snowcone is a lovely shade of pastel-ish blue. It's a soothing color, it makes me calm, just as Cashmere Cardigan does.

Application was good. The polish went on smoothly. While I was prepared to have issues with the polish being streaky, this one didn't have the typical pastel problems. It was dry in no time so that was great as well!

Thanks for stopping by!

Comparison Wednesday

Hi all!

I've had a couple of requests for comparisons and I found some polishes in my stash that were a lot alike, so Comparison Wednesday it is! I apologize for the variety in backgrounds, but some colors wouldn't be accurate on a white background and some didn't like the black background. I did the best I could with it since lighting wasn't really coorperating either..

Anyway, I have no less than four comparisons for you today! Here's a little overview.

Some colors are way darker irl, but again, that's due to the background..

Left Misa Dirty Sexy Money, right Catrice I Sea You! The colors are a little too dark, but you can see that they're pretty much identical. Dirty Sexy Money is a tad bit more blue, but I don't think you could tell these apart when I wore them together as a mani.

Left Color Club Electronica, right Nfu Oh 117. Both are deep purples with red and blue shimmer particles, but Electronica is a bit darker so I'd say these are no dupes of eachother. They are siblings though, so if you own one of these two, you probably won't need the other.

Left OPI Dating A Royal and Essie Mesmerize on the right. I would call both of them medium blues, but they are no dupes. I've read somewhere that these are deadon dupes, but they're obviously not. Dating A Royal is more intense, colorwise, than Mesmerize. The latter is a bit brighter. No, these are not dupes. If you're not really into blues, you probably won't need both though.

This one is not as faded and light as my picture let's it appear, but I couldn't get a proper shot. I will try again later this week and add a better picture when I managed to take a more accurate picture.. Anyway, left is Orly Prince Charming and right is Essie Mink Muffs. Both are taup-ey cremes, but Mink Muffs is more pigmented and is warmer than Prince Charming. Mink Muffs and Prince Charming are not dupes of eachother.

Left RBL No More War, right Pieces It's a Camouflage. They are both in the army green category, but that's all they have alike. No More War is way darker and greener than It's a Camouflage so no dupes here either.

I hope this was helpful :) Again, if you have suggestions for a comparison, please let me know and I'll see if I can do one for you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Orly Lemonade

Hi all!

I just realized I haven't written a post about Orly Lemonade alone! Whoops.. Well, here it is :)

Orly Lemonade, three coats in daylight. Lemonade is a pretty pastel yellow creme, a little more yellow irl. Pastels tend to be streaky at first and this one was no exception, but all evened out in three coats.

Orly Lemonade, three coats in the shade. The color is more accurate in this picture since it isn't as washed out. I'm really starting to like pastel yellow polishes, they sure as hell are growing on me!

Application was good. I like the Orly brush; it's not as big as the OPI ProWide brush but it's easy to work with. Drying time was good.

And because I like it so much, here's my sugar sweet summery mani again:

To read about the products I used in this mani besides Orly Lemonade, please read Sugar Sweet Summer Manicure.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gothic Lavender

Hi all! I'm glad you like my Lolita inspired nails in my previous post! Thanks for all the sweet comments! and as I promised to Miss Locke of locofashion when she requested that I do more lace design.. So here it is, miss Locke! Hope you like it!
In my design, I used more dark color compared to my previous mani...
I used purple and black combination in diagonal pattern, then I used lace sticker, fimos and rhinestones...that's it! :)
P.S
wow I had 282 followers 18 more and I will reach 300 followers! Thanks to all...
God Bless you all!

Materials Used:


Thanks hueandme-jan for tagging me as Cherry on top Award!

Comparison Time

Hi all!

It's time for some comparisons again! There are three comparisons again this time, so let's get started.

A little roundup

First up is a comparison between Chanel Nouvelle Vague and Orly Gumdrop.

Left Orly Gumdrop, right Chanel Nouvelle Vague. As you can see, they are dupes! The only difference is the really subtle shimmer that Nouvelle Vague holds and Gumdrop is a teeeeenie bit more blue, but the difference is barely visible. Gumdrop is easier to get your hands on and it's a budget friendly alternative if you want Chanel Nouvelle Vague.

Next up: a coincidental dupe! I bought Kinetics Shall We Dance? at Alice and Jo's havesentials and found out it looked really close to GOSH Purple Heart.

Left GOSH Purple Heart, Kinetics Shall We Dance? on the right. The only difference is the way the light hits these polishes. These polishes are identical. They're both evenly duochrome-y (which I couldn't really capture on the wheel) and have the same smokey dark purple, mossy green colors. These are dupes.

Last but not least of this comparison post, I have two periwinkle cremes for you; China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle and Orly Cashmere Cardigan.

Secret Peri-Winkle on the left, Cashmere Cardigan on the right. Please imagine this is more periwinkle (a tad bit of purple), because the color freaked out my camera. These are not dupes. Secret Peri-Winkle is lighter and a bit dustier than Cashmere Cardigan, while Cashmere Cardigan leans more towards purple. The difference is big enough to justify you owning both ;) These are not dupes.

And of course, to round it all up.. A little summary in the form of a shot of the nailwheel;



These were the comparisons I had for you, dear reader! If you have requests for more comparisons, feel free to ask me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sugar Sweet Summer Manicure

Hi all,

First of all I would like to thank all of you who was so kind to either tweet or comment on my blog because of the loss of my dear cat. It means a lot to me to read everything and it feels good to be comforted, even though it's by words through the internet. Thank you for that.

Today I have the post for you that I prepared for yesterday. I got a package from Viva La Nails in last week and I decided to do a summery mani with something they sent me.

I used Orly Lemonade as a base and Orly Pixy Stix for the pink triangle near my tips. I used Viva La Nails Hex glitter on the line between the two polishes. The hex glitter that came in my package were perfect for the color combination!

The hex glitter actually changes color in different lighting between a pinkish gold and yellow green flash. Nice! They are really easy to use, just dip your dotting tool in a bit of topcoat and gently press the hex glitter in polish that still is a bit wet.

Here's what I used to do this mani (OPI Nail Envy Matte as a basecoat not included)

Orly Lemonade, Orly Pixy Stix, Nubar Diamont as a glue to put the hex glitter on my nails, a dotting tool and of course the Viva La Nails Hex glitters.

Viva La Nails is sold at their own website, which you can find here: Viva La Nails Webshop. They have a great variety of different nail art products, which include different kind of glitters, stickers, water decals and Konad. Here's what Viva La Nails sent to me:

I actually forgot two packages (teardrops and stars) in the picture, but as you can see they were very generous! I will be reviewing more of their products in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for stopping by!

New Orly Collections: Plastix and Cosmic FX

Hi all!

Today I have two new collections from Orly to share with you.

Old School Orange: classic orange
Retro Red: traditional red
Purple Pleather: shiny purple
Viridian Vinyl: glossy blue-green

This is what Orly has to say about their Plastix Collection:

ORLY, the company that continually pioneers the Nail Lacquer arena with the most cutting edge colors, technology and textures, introduces the Plastix Collection. Complementing the Fall 2010 runway looks that featured bright neon colors amid shiny black plastic, latex, and rubber reinventions of vintage must-haves, Plastix evokes the vintage classic trend with four new lacquers and a unique new formula that coats the nails with a smooth glossy matte “plastic” finish. The exclusive finish and texture is a first in the nail category, delivering a monochromatic, shiny and rubbery look that takes experimentation to an entirely new level, with the focus being on both the distinctive nail surface, as well as the latest in color trends. The unique look can not be achieved with color alone as the finish is a must for recreating the true “plastic” statement.

All ORLY Nail Lacquers including the Plastix Collection are free of DBP and all traces of Toluene, Formaldehyde and Formaldehyde resin.

The Plastix Collection Lacquers will be available beginning July 2010 for $7.50 each. ORLY Nail Lacquers and Treatment products are available at orlybeauty.com, Sally Beauty, Ulta and fine salons and spas throughout the U.S. and in over 70 countries worldwide.

But wait, there's more! The Cosmic FX Collection:

Lunar Eclipse: Blue with Pink Purple Fx
Galaxy Girl: Purple with Blue Green Fx
It’s Not Rocket Science: Green with Gold Blue Fx
Space Cadet: Green with Purple Gold FX
Halleys Comet: Turquoise with Green Yellow Fx
Out of this world: Purple with Pink Silver Fx


This is what Orly has to say about their Cosmix Collection:

As ORLY continues to pioneer the nail category with distinct and trend setting finishes and color, the brand introduces its latest addition to its portfolio of textured finishes with Cosmic FX. The new, limited-edition collection delivers multi-dimensional flashes of intense shimmering shine that is so electrifying your nails will explode with color! This lighting phenomenon is achieved by ORLY’s exclusive MINERAL FX technology.

The innovation infuses natural rock minerals, crystals, and glass to give nails a special optical effect with extreme luster, rich pearlescence, and a smooth, sparkling spectrum of concentrated color.

The MINERALFX technology includes specialty mica, that allows for a clearer, vibrantly bright lustrous shimmer. Crystals allow for a multi-dimensional color transformation. Glass particles carefully controlled in shape and size create a luminous phenomenon. This combination infused with the Silica and specific colors selected create this exclusive technology that gives nails a unique optical effect that’s magnified as the lighting source intensifies or viewing angle changes.

Cosmic FX perfectly accentuates the looks seen in the Fall 2010 runway collections – from the futuristic Audrey Hepburn at Miu Miu to Ann Demeulemeester’s feathered and metal cuffs and Issey Miyake’s colorful leggings.

All ORLY Nail Lacquers including the Cosmic FX Collection are free of DBP, Toluene and all traces of Formaldehyde and Formaldehyde Resin.

The Cosmic FX Lacquers will be available starting September 2010 for $10.00 each. ORLY Nail Lacquers and Treatment products are available at orlybeauty.com, Sally Beauty, Ulta and other purveyors of beauty throughout the U.S. and in over 70 countries worldwide.

I'm so excited for the Cosmic FX Collection! September is a couple of months away but I'm already looking forward to this collection. I'm also curious to see the Plastix, will it actually look like plastic? :D

Thanks for stopping by!