Reader Requests

I am trying my best to catch up on my requests. Please be patient with me. Thank you :)



Essie Blueberry Crumb. Quite sheer, this is five coats.



Index and Ring: China Glaze Agent Lavender
Middle and Pinkie: OPI Done Out In Deco
Not dupes!


Index and Ring: OPI Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not
Middle and Pinkie: OPI Overexposed In South Beach
They looked more similar to each other in the bottle. Not dupes, I'm afraid.



Dior Bleu Poison. AKA Poison Blue. Very dark, looks nearly black in most lighting.


CND Plexi Pink. Sheer hot pink tint with blue/purple iridescence. Makes a great layering polish, especially over blue.


China Glaze Yell-O-Neil. A medium yellow with glass fleck shimmer. Beautiful color, painful application.


NARS Orgasm. Very sheer, needed five coats.



China Glaze Celtic Sun. Neon highlighter yellow jelly. This is a pretty bad picture of it- it's closer to the color in the bottle. It is the color of a highlighter in real life. Very, very, very bright.


OPI Think Merry, Pink Merry! You may want to view this beauty full size. Shimmering frosty pink metallic with silver microglitter. Ulta Exclusive, holiday 2008.


OPI Breathe Life- sunlight. It lights up with blue sparkles in the sunlight.

Essie Love, Beverly Hills xx

Eek, I'm quite late in posting this! But hey, better late then never, right?

Essie Love, Beverly Hills xx

This is a vibrant glowing red with hints of gold shimmer that comes from the real 24 karat gold in the polish. Amazing formula and application, no running, dripping, streaking or bubbling. Dries quickly even without quick dry topcoat.

Here's Essie's official word on it:

"Trends come and go, but when it comes to making a statement, few brands know how to consistently pave the way for the fashion elite more than essie cosmetics—famous for its bold color palettes and trend-setting clientele, and Beverly Hills—a destination that has long dressed the movers and shakers of Hollywood. This coming awards season, essie and the Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau have teamed up to debut Love, Beverly Hills xx, an exclusive, limited-edition nail polish sure to land on every “Best Dressed” list from East to West, and turn heads along the way.

Love, Beverly Hills xx is an opulent red polish with an authentic shimmer thanks to the polish’s special ingredient: 24 karat pure gold. Just in time for Valentine’s Day and ready to twinkle on the red-carpet, Love Beverly Hills, xx has a subtle glow and perfectly compliments every skin tone.

“When I thought of the color red in Beverly Hills, I knew it had to dazzle,” said Essie Weingarten, founder and president, Essie Cosmetics, Ltd. “Love, Beverly Hills xx is what happens to red in Beverly Hills – pure 24 karat gold shimmer. We are thrilled to partner with the Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau to create this gorgeous color.”


Okay, as much as I love Essie, this line made me scratch my head a little- "famous for its bold color palettes".... I'm not sure that Essie is the company that comes to mind when I hear "bold color"! Haha! But, as we've all seen, the Queen of sheer pinks and nudes seems to be breaking out of the 'safe color' box a lot more lately. I sincerely hope that this continues to be the case with Essie, as I really have fallen in love with their new improved formula and flawless brushes. I'd love to see more colors like Mesmerize, Greenport, Bermuda Shorts, Sexy Divide and so on....

Anyway, getting off track here... This limited edition polish retails for $18 on essie.com but I have heard that you can get it for half price on other sites which I have not personally had any experience with so I can't vouch for them. But, if you don't want to pay full retail, shop around, it's out there :)

Preview: OPI Breathe Life

OPI Breathe Life. Four coats, indoors.

Just a quick shot of it for now- it's stormy outside so I can't get a nice, sparkly sunlight picture. Not that I'm complaining- I love the rain! Only... not when I want to take pictures of polish. I'll do a more detailed picture of this as soon as the lighting cooperates.

Here's what OPI says about this gorgeous shade:

So We Can All Breathe Easier …

New OPI Breathe Life Nail Lacquer Supports

New Lung Cancer Foundation of America

The facts can leave you breathless: Lung cancer is the #1 killer of women, making it more deadly than the six next largest cancer killers combined. And 60% of new lung cancer victims will be non-smokers.

For these reasons, OPI is proud to join with the Lung Cancer Foundation of America (LCFA). LCFA’s primary goal is not just to prevent lung cancer, but to cure it. To help “breathe life” into raising funds for early detection, diagnosis, and a cure, OPI has created an exclusive new Nail Lacquer called Breathe Life – a fresh-air, silvery-blue.

“The statistics are shocking. Lung cancer has stopped our breathing long enough, and we need to stop it now,” says Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director.

In addition to this new Nail Lacquer, OPI has also made a donation to LCFA. “Because LCFA is a new organization, working on the frontlines at the grassroots level, every dollar contributed makes a tremendous impact,” Weiss-Fischmann says.

Release date is April 1.

MAC Sugarsweet Polishes: Seasonal Peach and Peppermint Patti

I'm sure you've all seen these a bajillion times already, but I've been wearing Peppermint Patti since it arrived on my doorstep on Friday and I snapped a few pics.

It is super hot. Seriously.



MAC Peppermint Patti, in sunlight and indoors. It's not 100% accurate in these pictures, it's a bitch and a half to photograph! It's not as blue as these pictures suggest. It's a soft minty, nearly turquoise green. I had no application problems- it was smooth, dense and creamy. This is two coats. Very pigmented. Excuse the tipwear, I've been wearing it since Friday.

The decal is by Fing'rs EDGE Royal Punk Nail Art. Isn't it awesome?!



MAC Seasonal Peach. A creamy, milky retro peach. I bought this when it came out last year, so I'm not sure if there are any formula or color differences between this and the one released with Sugarsweet. I love this color. It's so retro! It's very flattering and feminine on my hands, but it's not boring. I think the starkness of it gives it an edge. I don't have very many colors like this in my collection and I can't think of a single duplicate.

I also had no problems applying this one. It's streaky on the first coat like any other light milky color would be, but it was pretty much entirely even on the second coat. I do three coats when I wear it, just to make sure it's entirely opaque. Many people complain that this is a nightmare to apply- it wasn't for me. It was actually really nice. So, your mileage may vary.

I think these would look even better together. I was going to do Peppermint Patti on all fingers but my ring finger and then do Seasonal Peach on my ring finger, but then I decided I wanted a decal instead. I'm definitely doing it next time!

I'm also testing out a few new things- a fake nail that promises 10 days of wear and topcoat that promises not to chip or peel, so we'll see how that works out. I look like I have Frankenfingers- one nail is short and french, the rest are long and green with skull decals. I feel like I have someone else's thumb attached to my hand, it's so bizarre. Stripper thumb transplant FTW!!

Essie Summer 2009: The North Fork Collection

This is the first installment of Essie's summer 2009 releases, and I am quite excited about it for two reasons:

This collection consists of all blues. This is Essie we're talking about. Yes, BLUES!

This may be a sign of things to come- Essie doing blues? Three of them? What other cool colors does Essie have planned? I hope no more sheer pinks and nudes like usual!


I'll get to my review in a moment, but you can also check out reviews for Essie North Fork at The Nailphile, and here at The Crystal Files.

One more thing I'll say about this collection before I post the pictures- These colors resemble the three turquoise shades from the 'mystery' imaginary collection than they do the ones in the press release. YES!!!!



Greenport, full sunlight and indoors. A relaxed yet vibrant turquoise creme. Can you believe this is an Essie polish?! It's so hot! It has some similarities to Misa Dirty Sexy Money and Barielle Sweet Addiction, but it's not a duplicate of them. I hoped that I would see a color like this in OPI's South Beach collection, but I'm content with having it from Essie.



Shelter Island, sunlight and indoors. A bright, cheerful sky blue. Another shocker! A bright blue, I almost can't believe my eyes. Essie did a bright blue. Hallelujah! I love this color a lot, but it is very similar to a lot of other bright blues like Barielle Swizzle Stix, OPI Just Groovy, Zoya Yummy, Misa something-with-a-really-long-name-I-can't-remember.... But still, it's hot and you won't hear me complaining about another beautiful blue.




Sag Harbor, sunlight and indoors. A light, slightly greyed pastel blue shimmer. I don't think I have very many colors like this. It is a little similar to some of Essie's discontinued blues like St. Barth's Blue, but at the moment I can't think of another color that looks like this. The name Sag Harbor always makes me laugh. There is this clothing brand called Sag Harbor that has styles mainly geared for the retirement-age crowd and I always thought that was a funny name for the brand. I never realized it was the name of a place. Sag Harbor... tee hee.


The formula on these is fan-freakin'-tastic. All are opaque in two coats, no streaks, no sheerness, no bubbles, no runny globby three-free formula, NOTHING! Just pure smooth creamy pigmented polish. They dry super fast even without topcoat- this could be due to the fact that the polish doesn't require more than two thin coats or it could be the formula. Either way, I love it. Three-free formulas seem to be improving.

From the moment I saw the first promo image of these I knew I'd like them, but I didn't think I'd like them as much as I do. Like I mentioned before, these resemble the set of blue imaginary polishes more than the 'real' image from the press release. Observe:


This is the image from the press release, which is the 'official' correct image from Essie.




This is the mistake image that was sent in error along with the press release.


See what I mean?? It was the imaginary ones after all!!! Now if they would only release the trio with the green, golden-white and yellow....

By the way, Shelter Island, Sag Harbor and Greenport are all limited edition shades which are officially available starting in April and will retail for $9.

Essie Summer 2009: The North Fork Collection

Here's a quick look at Essie's upcoming collection of blues, The North Fork Collection.

This is what Essie says about it:

"Within the soft palette of hues that floated down this season's runways, one color stood out among the rest... blue. Dreamy blues reminiscent of bright open skies and deep welcoming waters lead Essie founder Essie Weingarten to create The North Fork Collection - named for the quaint vacation villages perched around the waters of Long Islan's East End.

"The new nail colors remind me of the most beautiful blues that surround The North Fork," says Weingarten.
"Tranquil yet playful, the colors cross over in fashion and nature."

The nail colors in The North Fork Collection capture the essence of blue. The fashion-or azure fingertips lounging under the sun.

Greenport, Sag Harbor and Shelter Island, each named after areas around The North Fork and Long Island Sound, are an homage to the beauty of nature."

GREENPORT - Dreamy aquamarine paradise

SAG HARBOR - Cool silver blue

SHELTER ISLAND - Sky blue radiance

Wow... Essie, is that really you??? A collection of all blues??? Rock on!

MAC Polishes and Purple By Night Dupe..?

About that Givenchy Purple By Night frankenpolish idea I had... I had an epiphany! Givenchy Purple By Night = OPI Ink?

Last night I wanted to do a purple color for my mani, and I grabbed my all-time favorite polish: OPI Ink. It's so close to Purple By Night but better! I don't have a good picture of it because for some reason it turns blue in every picture I take. I don't know why it does that- it's very clearly and obviously purple on my nails. I will get a good picture of this color if it kills me!

So why do I like OPI Ink better? It's more purple. It has DEPTH. It's super shimmery and it makes me happy.

But, it's not an *exact* match to Purple By Night. It's pretty flippin' close though. I think adding a touch of pastel shimmer and maybe a little black would make it exact. I'll find out when I get another bottle- I can't sacrifice my precious bottle to duplicate a polish I don't like as much.

After a while I got curious and added a coat of Misa Confection Section on top. Not a match, but it sure looks cool. Great combination for you layering lovers out there- OPI Ink and Misa Confection Section.


Now that that's out of the way, how about some pictures?

Here's my entire MAC polish collection. As you can see, I really don't have very many. This is because of the experiences I've had with MAC polish. It's very hit-or-miss, formula wise.

The old formula was pretty bad, watery or sometimes too thick, takes too long to dry, hard to apply. As a result of the formula issues, for quite a long time I completely avoided MAC polish. I regret that now, because I passed up some very cool colors.

I'm happy to say that the new formula MAC polishes are 100% better. I have not had any problems with the polishes released in the past two or three years.



Blue Sprinkles. Silvery blue shimmer with slight rosy duochrome and copper squares. Sweetie Cake collection.


$$$$$ Yes. Smooth, foil metallic silver. Heatherette collection.


Dark Angel. Deep cream purple. I'm not sure which collection this is from, but it's a few years old. I bought it because it's the name of a VNV Nation song.


Gold Veneer. Perfect metallic light gold. Antiquitease collection.




Illegal Purple. Deep, dark vampy brownish eggplant. Cult of Cherry collection.


Kid Orange. Impossible to photograph properly- it glows. Bright orange red. No idea what collection this was from.



Lola Devine. Gorgeous squishy-looking peachy pink cream. Heatherette collection.



Metalist. Smooth and highly reflective coppery gold metallic. Neo Sci-Fi collection.


Neon 8. Bright orange shimmer with slight pinkish duochrome. Neo Sci-Fi collection.



Naughty Nautical. What a horrible, horrible picture of this! I'm ashamed. It's a deep blackened-blue shimmer. Naughty Nauticals collection.


Phosphor. Amazingly gorgeous glowy golden yellow shimmer. Neo Sci-Fi collection.


Plasma Blu. Hot turquoise blue shimmer that practically lights up on your nails. Neo Sci-Fi collection.


Rainy Day. Blue-grey gunmetal metallic shimmer. Blue Storm collection.


Seasonal Peach. Drop-dead gorgeous vintage pinky-peach cream. Cremesheen collection.


Silverstruck. Antique metallic with a hint of reddish tint. Cult of Cherry collection.


Wildfire. Seriously watery blackened purple shimmer. Smoke Signals collection (I think...).

I might be wrong on a couple of the collections, so please feel free to correct me if you see a mistake!

That's my MAC polish collection (minus Nocturnelle because it seems to have escaped!) as of now. I plan to expand this at every chance I get! Most of these colors are discontinued but I've seen almost all of them at Cosmetics Company Store outlets fairly recently. They run about $10 retail and from $7 and up at the CCO.

Chanel Haute Chocolat: Meh.

This is a polish that I was pretty excited about, despite my vow to not spend any more money on Chanel nail polish.

It's brown! It's sparkly! Ooh, aah! How perfect!

At least, that is, until I put it on.


Chanel Haute Chocolat.

It looks so sparkly and delicious in the bottle, but on my nails it falls flat. It doesn't look like it does in the bottle. It just looks like weird brown with dust on it.

The formula is consistent with the other Chanel polishes I have (besides the Robertson ones which were a nightmare)- a little on the thick side, but otherwise decent. It applied well, dried quickly, all that good stuff. Chanel polishes usually chip the same day for me, but I didn't leave this on long enough to find out.

I may even be the only one who isn't impressed by this color, as I've heard nothing but rave reviews of it. Call me crazy- I don't think this is anything special.

As much as I wanted to love it, and as much as I hoped it would look like it did in the bottle, I just can't convince myself that I'm happy with it. I'm disappointed, that's all. Which brings me to this thought- this is another $20 (or was this one $25? I can't remember) nail polish that I don't love. I can't afford to keep buying $20 nail polishes that I'll probably never wear. There are a few Chanel polishes that I *love*- Kaleidoscope, Azure, Gold Fiction, the ever-elusive Cobra which I don't own but have lusted after ever since I first saw it- but how many more Chanel polishes have I purchased that have been a total disappointment?

So, my opinion on this? Chanel Haute Chocolat- sure, it's a nice color, whatever, ho-hum. You would be better off buying China Glaze Prize Winning Mare. While the two colors aren't matches, Prize Winning Mare definitely satisfies my craving for a sparkly, dimensional earth-toned polish, while Haute Chocolat leaves me wanting more.

A Little Nordstrom Anniversary Sale Action....

I hit the Nordstrom anniversary sale and picked up a few pretty things.... First, the polishes!


Dior Liquorice

and


Chanel Rose Tourbillon.

And some of the MAC Colour Forms collection....



Outer boxes...


Closed palettes...


Cool Eyes x5 Palette



Warm Eyes x5 Palette....


Naked To The Core lipstick...


Pop Circle lipstick, and



Play Around Pink Colour Forms powder.


Mmm, MAC and nail polish.... what more could you want?