Reader Requests

Index: NARS Zulu
Middle: Illamasqua Rampage
Ring: BB Couture Green Goblin
Pinkie: Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle
None are dupes of each other.

Index and ring: OPI Pearls Night Out
Middle and pinkie: Color Club Front Row Diva

Index: Misa Dirty Sexy Money
Middle: Essie Greenport
Ring: Barielle Sweet Addiction
Pinkie: China Glaze For Audrey
None are dupes of each other.

Index: OPI I'm India Mood For Love
Middle: OPI That's Hot! Pink
Ring: OPI Strawberry Fields
Pinkie: OPI Feelin' Hot-Hot-Hot!

Index: Barielle Swizzle Stix
Middle: Misa Right Here Now, No More Later
Ring: OPI Just Groovy
Pinkie: Zoya Yummy
All but Swizzle Stix are very, very similar to each other.


Index and pinkie: Essie Short Shorts 2008
Middle: Essie Flirty Fuchsia 2009
Ring: Essie Punchy Pink 2009


Index: Essie Perky Purple 2009
Middle: Essie Bermuda Shorts 2008
Ring: Essie Funky Limelight 2009
Pinkie: Essie Shorty Pants 2008

This year's Essie neons are *much* more neon and bright than last year's shades. In fact, compared next to each other, last year's neons don't even look neon.

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.

Reader Requests

I've been sooooo behind on my swatching and requests, but I managed to finish a few today!



OPI Golden Rules! From one of my favorite OPI collections of all time, Night Brights. A soft metallic gold with a brushed-metal type finish.



OPI Cozu-Melted In The Sun. A shimmery peachy metallic with large particle shimmer. Super pretty. It looks darker in the bottle than it does on my fingers... Strange!


Lippmann Collection Rhapsody In White. I didn't think I had this one, but it turns out I did! A very pearly bright white. Easier to apply than Icing On The Cake, but still not easy to work with. Very brushstroky.



China Glaze Aqua Baby. A bright blue creme. If I recall correctly, this is practically identical to China Glaze Shower Together from the Eco Collection, but I couldn't find my bottle to compare.

I finally got a chance to swatch the Essie 2008 Bridal Collection and the OPI Princess Charming collection, as well as a ton of old and brand new polishes, so keep an eye out for those. I have comparisons on the way also. Whew!

Reader Request: OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple Comparison

In all my time swatching and doing comparisons, I've almost never found a pair of polishes to be an exact match.... Until now! Extra-special-huge thanks to reader Gladys for requesting these polishes for comparison!

Index and ring finger: OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple
Middle and pinkie finger: Orly Midnight Star

If there's a difference between these two polishes, I sure as hell can't see one. In my opinion, this is an exact match. If I didn't write it down, I would have had a hard time remembering which finger was wearing which polish!

Now, despite the color match, these polishes do have a few formula differences. OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple is quite sheer and needs three coats. Orly Midnight Star is fairly opaque and is perfect in two coats. OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple is old formula OPI, which contains the lovely "Big Three" and is slightly thinner than your average polish. Orly Midnight Star is Big Three-Free, which means it is a little thick and goopy and takes quite a while to dry. Application issues with both polishes were minimal- just keep in mind what type of formula you are trying to apply and you will have no problems.

Finding an exact match of OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple is truly awesome. Originally released in 1996 as part of the OPI Rocky Mountain collection, OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple is extremely hard to find, and to the best of my knowledge was only released with that collection and never again produced. OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple is über-discontinued and quite ancient, you would have an extremely hard time trying to track down this "antique" polish. Orly Midnight Star just came out a few months ago and is readily available at numerous retailers and etailers - I've even seen the whole Orly Gems collection display at my local grocery stores and CVS Pharmacies!

So, to sum it all up: OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple = Orly Midnight Star.

Awesome.

Reader Request: Blues / Essie Mesmerize Comparison

Index: Essie Mesmerize
Middle: Nocti Flying Naked
Ring: OPI Dating A Royal
Pinkie: Misa Pour Me Something Tall And Strong

As you can tell from the picture, Essie Mesmerize is most similar to OPI Dating A Royal. The main differences are that Essie Mesmerize is lighter, a little less vibrant and much more opaque. OPI Dating a Royal needs at least two coats and looks best at three, while Essie Mesmerize is nearly perfect in one coat.

Nocti Flying Naked and Misa Pour Me Something Tall And Strong look more similar to Essie Mesmerize in the bottle than they do on the nail.

Essie Mesmerize is from the Spring 2009 collection, OPI Dating A Royal was released with the Mod About Brights collection in 2008, and Misa Pour Me Something Tall And Strong came out with the Misa Look On The Bright Side neon collection in 2008. I don't know when the Nocti polish was released, but all of these colors should be readily available and easy to find.

Reader Request: Yellow Comparison

I have a serious 'thing' for yellow nail polish. It seems to be a pretty rare color- most lines have only one or two shades of yellow, and sometimes none at all. I love all of them. As I've said before, yellow polish rocks. Seriously.

Anyway, an awesome reader sent in a request for a comparison between two of my most favorite shades of yellow: OPI Need Sunglasses? and OPI The "It" Color.

As you can see, my cuticles are in pain- sub-zero temperatures have taken their toll on my poor nails and cuticles... Please pretend that you can't see them :)


Index and middle: OPI The "It" Color
Ring and pinkie: OPI Need Sunglasses

And here's a shot indoors, the colors seem even brighter in dim indoor light:




There are two main differences between these polishes. OPI The "It" Color is much more opaque, only needing two coats to be completely so. OPI Need Sunglasses? requires three or more coats for total opacity- these pictures are three coats.

The second difference that I notice is that OPI The "It" Color is more of a yellow mustard shade, a touch darker than what I would consider to be "bright" yellow, and it almost has a hint of orange to it. It has a retro 60's-70's avocado-colored-appliances sort of vibe to it.

OPI Need Sunglasses? is about two steps down from neon- bright, but not retina-burning yellow highlighter bright. It's a cleaner looking yellow, and while it is bright and cheerful, seems to have a more mellow look to it compared to some of the other yellows I have.

Application-wise, they're both three-free (though I could have sworn I had a nice 'old' formula bottle of Need Sunglasses? somewhere...) but OPI The "It" Color applies a bit more smoothly than OPI Need Sunglasses?.

Both are amazing, I wouldn't give up either one. I feel that they're different enough to own both.

Reader request: Silver Holographic Comparisons

Ack! I've been meaning to post this for over a week, but my life has been crazytown and I just haven't gotten a chance.

Here's a couple of comparisons between some silver holographic polishes.


Index and middle: Color Club Magic Attraction
Ring and pinkie: OPI Paris Couture For Sure


Index and Middle: OPI Paris Couture For Sure
Ring and Pinkie: OPI Designer Series Coronation

The biggest difference between Paris Couture For Sure and Coronation is that Coronation is slightly darker and more grey with more scattered looking holo, while Paris Couture For Sure is more silvery with somewhat more uniform holo .



Index: OPI Designer Series Coronation
Middle: China Glaze OMG
Ring: Sally Hansen Magical Nail Makeup Crystal Ball
Pinkie: OPI Paris Couture For Sure.

Sally Hansen Crystal Ball is by far the most "holo" holo I own. I don't own Chanel Holographic, but I can see them being close in level of holographic awesomeness. I don't even know why I put the two OPIs in this picture because, as you can see, they don't even begin to compare.


Hope this is helpful! I have a lot of things I want to post this week. Let's hope I can actually be able to sit down and post them :)

Failure

I've been debating whether or not I wanted to post this, but I think I should. So, here goes.

You all know how much I love doing reader requests, right? I do. However, I've gotten a few that I've just totally failed. Pictures didn't turn out right. My photography sucks.

If you've been waiting on a request from me that I haven't fulfilled, I didn't forget about you. I'm just a big freakin' failure! Arghhhh.

Here are a few of the requests I've totally bombed on:

China Glaze OMG collection along with the rest of the Kaleidoscopes: I lost them! I can only find the couple that I use regularly. I have no idea where they could be. I have re-purchased the whole set of both, so I should be able to finish this request soon.

Mood Polishes: I have a bunch of these, and one day I sat down to photograph them all. Problem is, only one of them actually changed colors. I must be doing something wrong. The one that changed colors is up on NailGal (I think it was Toma Green Glitter to Gold Glitter?), but the other pics ended up in the trash. Anyone have any experience with mood polishes? Do they just stop changing after a certain age, do they go bad? I even put my hands in hot water and cold water and nothing.

Dupes for CND AB Positive: This one seemed easy, but I haven't actually been able to find a bottle of AB Positive or even a picture of AB Positive to compare things to! And on top of that, I find it next to impossible to photograph reds properly- they end up all weird and radioactive looking. Does anyone have this polish, and if so, can you take a picture of it for me? Pretty please?

Essie Bridal Collection 2008: I have had this sitting on my kitchen counter waiting to be photographed for months. I think it even has dust on it now. I have a hard time photographing sheers like those because they always come out looking white instead of whatever shade of off-white they are in real life. I'll have to try harder on this one.

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms / Other Duochromes: These are just really hard to capture and I haven't been happy with any of the pictures I've taken of these. I'm still trying to figure out what type of lighting and angle works best to show the multichromatic properties of these. Right now I've only been able to get one color in a picture, and that's lame.

Neons: These are the hardest things of all to photograph. Orange and green are the most difficult. I have a few great shots of a variety of neons- the Color Clubs, the Misas, the Essies- but I think those were just luck. I've tried quite a few times to get entire hand (not just 'skittles') shots of the China Glaze neons, the New York Summer neons and all the other random neons I have in my collection and they pictures just come out bizarre and warped and freakish looking, like nuclear nails on charred black fingers. I'm still practicing photographing these.

There are a couple more requests that I haven't been able to get just right, but you get the idea.


So... there. I did it. I've admitted failure, but not defeat! I haven't been able to get these pictures right yet, but I'm going to keep trying until they're perfect! Thank you for all your requests and also for your patience. You guys ROCK!!!!!

Comparison: OPI Paris Couture For Sure and Color Club Magic Attraction

I'm pretty crazy about holographic polishes, and just as crazy about glitter, so when a holographic glitter polish comes out, I snap that sucker up without even blinking. Holo. Glitter. Good stuff.

Anyway, I got a request to compare these two holo glitter polishes:


Index and middle finger: Color Club Magic Attraction
Ring finger and pinkie: OPI Paris Couture For Sure

Slightly different angle and lighting:



OPI Paris Couture For Sure is one of my favorite polishes of all time. It's a smooth holographic silver glitter. It's different from other holo silvers like China Glaze Sexagon because it's definitely glitter particles as opposed to the smooth foil-like particles that make up the China Glaze Kaleidoscopes and OMGs and OPI Designer Series.

Color Club Magic Attraction, the star of the Color Club Glitter Vixen collection, is a dense, thick, chunky holographic silver glitter with a hint of lavender or lilac tint to it.

The biggest difference between these to is the density. OPI Paris Couture For Sure is thin and smooth and requires three coats for opacity. Color Club Magic Attraction is extremely thick and dense and only really needs two coats, but is really pretty opaque with just one.

The size of the glitter particles is also different- Paris Couture For Sure has very fine, irregular shaped particles, and Magic Attraction has larger round glitter pieces.

Magic Attraction appears to have more 'fire' in these pictures, but Paris Couture For Sure is just as sparkly. Paris Couture For Sure will sparkle more in low light than Magic Attraction, which is one reason why I love Paris Couture For Sure so much. In low light, Magic Attraction can seem like a flat silver/lavender glitter.

Both are extremely nice polishes, but you'll have much better luck finding Magic Attraction. OPI Paris Couture For Sure has been discontinued for quite a long time, but it still shows up in stores and online every now and then. Magic Attraction was just released in Color Club's fall/winter 2008 Glitter Vixen collection, so it's readily available and as far as I know, not limited edition.

Some requests and some nail art.

I don't have a whole lot of time to post this morning, but I'm really behind on my requests and I wanted to make sure I got these posted!

Here are a couple reader requests:

(As always, click the images to view full size. These puppies are huge!)


Index to pinkie: OPI Parlez-Vous OPI?, China Glaze Who's Wearing What, China Glaze Channelesque, Pure Ice Taupe Drawer.

They all look really similar in the bottle, but they're much different than I expected when you apply them! And, in all my infinite wisdom (*snort*), I forgot to include OPI You Don't Know Jacques and Sephora By OPI Call Your Mother and Metro Chic in the comparison! D'oh.


Thumb: (left) OPI Tickle My France-y (right) Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge
Index and middle: OPI Tickle My France-y
Ring and pinkie: Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge

Another great request for a comparison I wouldn't have thought of myself! These look nearly identical in the bottles, but as you can see, they're quite different on the nail. Both are gorgeous, do I don't know if I'd ever be able to pick between the two!




Urban Decay Book Of Shadows.

The eyeshadows are excellent. Absinthe is the standout color, a very bright golden green with shimmer. No complaints there. The packaging, however, is really crappy. The eyeshadows are in a pull-out drawer that fits so tightly it's a struggle to open. You have to open it by a tiny little ribbon, and since you have to pull so hard to get the drawer open, I can imagine that delicate little ribbon getting torn off pretty easily.

The brushes are floppy and useless. Bah. And, my major irritation with this is the stupid "pop-up" top flap.... WTF are you supposed to do with that?? It doesn't stay open so you can't use it as a mirror.... It's just.... useless! They should have put the shadows up there instead of in the stupid drawer!

So, final verdict: Awesome shadows, crappy packaging.


Chanel Rouge Noir.

I tried taking the picture in a different part of the house, but I think the lighting turned out weird. Hm.


Chanel Tulipe Noire.

That's it as far as requests go- I'm working on a really big project right now, but I think it will help me respond to requests a lot quicker! I know a lot of you are still waiting on requests, but I didn't forget about you, I promise!


And, for fun, here's a little nail art.





China Glaze Gypsy Girl, China Glaze Fairy Dust, Art Club Black Hologram. This was a touch darker in real life, and it looked awesome. Sparkly and eye-catching!

For some reason I can never photograph reds. They always come out looking weird and too bright and glowy. Reds, oranges and neons. I don't know what it is! Argh.



China Glaze Blue Sparrow, China Glaze Emerald Sparkle and Art Club Black Hologram.

I really like this shape- it's not quite a french but it's not quite half-and-half either. I love the way this looks when the light catches it too- tons of sparkle.

Reader Requests, Part 1!

Here are a couple of reader requests! Please ignore my broken nail in some of the pictures- I've been trying not to swatch until the broken nails grow out a little bit, but I got impatient!

In no particular order....

For lovely Karman, some comparisons. I've tried labeling them, but I'm not sure if it makes the picture too confusing. Should I keep doing comparisons with text, or ditch it?


Thumb to pinkie: Lippmann Bitches Brew, China Glaze Heart of Africa, China Glaze Metropolitan, China Glaze On Your Knees!, CND Dark Secret.


Thumb to pinkie: China Glaze Red Stallion, OPI Apple Of My Eye, OPI Never Lon-Done Shopping, OPI Red-y For Anything, Essie Valentine Red.

These two were a challenge! I thought there would be a lot of close matches, but after pulling pretty much every similar color out of my stash and lining them all up together, I only came out with a few close ones. Oddly enough, the nearest matches are all discontinued colors.... Maybe it's a sign? Then again, these are only dupes I have in my stash, I'm sure someone who has more of these types of colors would have more matches?

Another comparison, this one for the wonderful Grace:


Thumb to pinkie: OPI Espresso Your Style, Borghese Espresso Brown F, China Glaze Unplugged, Orly Golden Maharaja, Lippmann Brown-Eyed Girl.

I could do these brown comparisons all day. I love browns, and I couldn't choose just five.... I should do another picture! Anyway, these are all similar to each other, but different enough to justify owning them all. The shimmer in these are all different textures- some are more sparkly, more frosty, sparse, glowy... I love them all.

A purple comparison for the fabulous Tink:


Thumb to pinkie: Misa Fatal Affair, Color Club Electronica, Misa Forbidden Lust, China Glaze Drama Queen, China Glaze Coconut Kiss.

The request was originally just a comparison of Fatal Affair and Electronica, but these other purples were sitting in front of me and looked similar, so I included them as well. They all look much closer in color in the bottle- they're much different on the nail! All gorgeous, but an indication that sometimes bottle color can be deceiving.

A beautiful swatch for dear Tiffany:


Essie Starry Starry Night.

I think Starry Starry Night is a perfect name for this color. It's spectacular!

I'm working on editing the rest of the request photos, so I should have them up soon.

Thanks for the great requests, guys! I had fun doing these!

Let's Talk About Acrylics

I have seen a lot of nail enhancement "bashing" (maybe not quite bashing, but definitely no love) lately, and I think it's a little unfair.

Acrylics and gels and other forms of nail enhancements seem to have such a bad reputation for ruining your nails, and that's understandable, as your average nail tech usually does ruin your nails. It's not the enhancement's fault- it's the lazy nail tech.

Acrylics can actually be very good for your nails. It keeps them protected and helps them grow without fear of breakage or staining.

I don't know if any of you saw my post on Makeup Alley a couple weeks ago about making finger soup, but I had a little accident with my left index fingernail.


I was using one of these handy utensils to cut vegetables over a giant pot of vegetable soup. It was a wedding gift and I recently fell in love with it. It was so handy! You didn't need a cutting board at all, just like food scissors! Anyway, I was cutting carrots when all of a sudden something caused my hand to slip and SNIP!! I take a giant chunk out of my nail, nearly cutting off my finger. It cut down so far that the nail bed was exposed with only a thin layer of nail to keep me from bleeding all over. It was terrifying! And no, the nail didn't go into the soup- it flew across the kitchen and oddly enough, landed in the sink.

So, now I had a nail that was so short I couldn't file it down to even it out, it hurt and was on the verge of bleeding. What was I to do? Have a sharp, jagged, painful monster nail until it grew out? No way!

This is where acrylics save the day.



(Check out the wicked burn on my ring finger- I blame YOU, roasted asparagus!!!)

I used some clear acrylic and a tip to make myself a new fingernail until my real nail grew out enough to file. It was clear in real life, for some reason it looks really cloudy in these pictures. It was only a tiny bit thicker than my natural nail, and you would never know it was fake unless I told you. Not huge and thick, but thin, clear and natural looking.

And remember how I said a few posts back that I was having trouble with China Glaze? I'm wearing Passion In The Pacific on my nails in this picture. It's only about, say, 14 hours old in these pictures and look how damaged it is! It never fully dried, and I was chipping and denting it despite being very careful.

Back on topic. I don't do acrylics often (I really hate the way they feel- you can't scratch with them!! I really don't need them, my natural nails are very nice!) but sometimes I find myself needing one to repair a broken-down-too-far-to-file nail. I know that when I remove the acrylic nail, my natural nail will be in the same good condition as it was before I applied the acrylic. In fact, it may be in even better condition because it won't be stained by polish, it won't chip or break and it may even be a little stronger from the weight of the acrylic.

My natural nail had finally grown out enough to file down the jagged edges without making myself bleed, so I removed the acrylic yesterday. It came right off with a little acetone- about 30 seconds and it was gone! And underneath? My nail was smooth, strong, shiny and not one bit stained like my other nails.

The myth is that acrylics will severely damage your natural nail. What really damages your natural nail is a nail tech filing and drilling the hell out of it with an e-file, or YOU damage your natural nail by biting or peeling off the acrylic instead of removing it the right way (soaking).

Acrylics aren't evil- they're really not! They're great for repairs, or just to wear. If you can't get any length on your natural nails but want long nails, acrylics can do that. Or, maybe you want a french manicure that never chips? Acrylics. Maybe you want some really wacky, over-the-top nail art? Acrylics!

Hopefully I've helped to remove some of the stigma surrounding acrylic nails.

As a bonus, here's China Glaze Passion In The Pacific for lovely reader Sigrun: