Sephora by OPI Revisited

I have two new Sephora by OPI polishes that I want to swatch, but my nails are in no condition for swatching right now. I always break them doing stupid things! Opening cabinets, car doors, doing laundry... Ugh.


So, instead, let's revisit the Sephora by OPI line. When it was originally released, I did a bunch of swatches with all the polishes I bought. The formula was so thick and awful that the swatches suffered. Now I've added some thinner to them and they've come out quite a bit better.




Beauty Junkie. I admit that I only bought this for the name. It's kind of a vampy-brown-red-plum creme, too red to be chocolate.



Brainiac. One of the biggest disappointments. It was described as spiced pumpkin, but does this look like spiced pumpkin to you? No! It's kind of a weird burnt-salmon...



Cab Fare. Yellow with shimmer. It's pretty sheer in addition to being thick, stringy and goopy. All yellows are streaky and thick to some extent, but this one seems worse than others. The color is pretty nice and I like the sparkles.



Call Your Mother. Very pretty muted taupe-purple creme.


Charge It. Metallic gold. This one is pretty similar to Chanel Gold Fiction. I haven't done a side by side to see if they're exact dupes, but they have a very similar shade and texture.



Domestic Goddess. Bright candy grape purple creme.




Don't Go There. Another nice muted purple creme.



Metro Chic. Hard to describe... Mousy, grey taupe creme? I do love this color. It's the only Sephora by OPI polish I've worn since doing my original swatches...



Never Enough Shoes. Black with multicolored glitter. The glitter in this is small and subtle.



Queen Of Everything. Gorgeous metallic platinum-silver.



Run With It. Warm grey with coppery speckles. Reminds me of wet cement. Sort of similar to Zoya Harley.


Like I said before, I was not impressed with the formula of these. It's not consistent with OPI's formula, it seems like a completely different brand. Not all of the polishes were bad- some were a normal texture. The rest were insanely thick and gooey. I added thinner to them and it helped tremendously. Also, a lot of them have streaks of unmixed pigment that never mix back in no matter how hard you shake it. The streaks will occasionally transfer to the nail.

I don't like the way the bottles look, either. They look cheap and strange. The plastic they use to seal the bottles is also difficult to remove.

Nice colors, but I feel like they need to to a little quality control on these before they sell them.

Hopefully my nails will grow back soon so I can swatch my new ones!

Summer Colors from Sephora by OPI!

Someone directed my attention to these beauties just added to Sephora.com:




They look incredible! Green! Blue! Silver! I am SO happy this blue/green polish trend is catching on.

Mermaid To Order
(shimmering deep green blue)

Blue Grotto
(deep ocean)

Just a Fairy-tail
(silver and iridescent shimmer)

Underwater Fantasy
(shimmering light cornflower blue)

Water Baby
(opaque molten silver)

Lagoon-a Beach
(shimmering pale blue)

As soon as I can get my hands on these I'll do swatches, but for now they're out of stock!

Here's the link from Sephora's website.

Scrangie on Sephora's Beauty And The Blog

How cool!  The look I did using Kat Von D's Beethoven palette is featured today on Sephora's Beauty and the Blog!

The shades I used were all from the left side of the palette- Speed Blue, Raxor Gray and Tequila.

Thanks, Sephora!  I am honored!

Sephora Brand Glittering Nail Polish

When I saw these on Sephora.com, I knew I had to have them. Glitter nail polish? Click!

I ordered four shades- Pink Agate, Fuchsia Quartz, Blue Sapphire and Violet Amethyst. So far, I've only swatched two of them. Pics first and then my review.



Blue Sapphire. A truly spectacular dark blue jelly with varying sizes of silver glitter. I almost prefer this shade over the beloved Essie Starry Starry Night. The jelly-like finish of the polish makes some of the glitter appear blue, while the glitter at the top layer of polish appears silver. It's beautiful.



Violet Amethyst. I don't know about you, but this isn't really what I have in mind when I think "violet" or "amethyst". It's a super dark purple, more brown than purple in most lights and it contains NO GLITTER. :( Just a glass-fleck-esque type shimmer. It is very dark, not very sparkly and not very purple.


Now, I really, really wanted to love these polishes, but they're just too flawed to get a glowing review.

First of all, the name of the polish is misleading. They are called "Glittering Nail Polish" and the shade descriptions mention each polish containing glitter. That is not accurate. As far as I can tell, only three of the eight shades contain actual glitter, while the rest have a sort of chunky-type shimmer. When I received my polishes, you can bet I was one sad little glitter addict. No glitter. I think I pouted.

Second, these shrink more than any polish I have ever worn in my life. I can't figure out what's causing it. I know that quick-dry topcoat like Seche Vite or Poshe are usually to blame for polish shrinkage, but I didn't use any topcoat on these! You can tell from my pictures that there is severe shrinkage happening. Why??? Why is this happening? The shrinking was so bad that I had to stop and do another coat of polish to cover it up before I photographed these. Bizarre.

Third, the formula is.... lacking. I don't want to say the formula is bad, it's just weird. It seems dry, if that makes any sense. It was hard to get enough polish onto the brush for it to glide smoothly across the nail. It felt sticky and it was awkward to try to get a smooth, even coat. The brush is very square shaped which makes it difficult to get that perfect curve along the cuticle.

Also worth noting: These are mini sized. They are not full sized polishes. I don't know the exact volume of these, but they are very small.


I will eventually get around to swatching the other two, along with the one Sephora Metallic nail polish I ordered. I think seeing that there was no glitter in half of them kinda took the wind out of my sails and I haven't been motivated to swatch them.

Final verdict: See these in person or at least find swatches online before you buy. Otherwise, you may be surprised when they arrive. Blue Sapphire is a truly gorgeous polish despite its formulary flaws (I think I made up a word!). Violet Amethyst is neither violet nor amethyst and does not actually contain glitter. If I had known this, I probably would have spent my money elsewhere!

Blue...

I'm feeling pretty sad today, so I thought I'd post some swatches to match my mood.



China Glaze Blue Sparrow


China Glaze Blue Without You



China Glaze Drinkin' My Blues Away (Which may or may not be what I'm doing...)



China Glaze Martini Pedicure


China Glaze Rain Storm



Nicole by OPI It's Up To You



Lippmann Collection Rehab


NARS Midnight Express




Misa Pour Me Something Tall And Strong


Misa On The Edge


Sephora Brand Glittering Nail Polish Blue Sapphire



OPI Glacier Bay Blues


OPI Blue My Mind


OPI Blue Moon Lagoon


Naturistics Crystal Blue Pearl


OPI Midnight Blue Glitter



Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm



Sally Hansen Magical Nail Makeup Blue Aura



And now I'm going to go listen to...



Clarins 202 Metallica.....


.... Damn it, where's my picture of Lippmann Collection Fade To Black when I need it?!?!


*sigh*

Too Faced Smurfette Collection: Smurf You Starry-Eyed Liner

I'll admit, I have never seen a single episode of The Smurfs. I know absolutely nothing about The Smurfs, other than that they are blue and appear to spend a lot of time around giant mushrooms.

That being said, when I saw this Too Faced Smurfette Collection Starry-Eyed eyeliner on Sephora.com, Smurf-fan or not, I had to have it. The shade is called, "Smurf You." Is that supposed to be as naughty as it sounds?



Pretty metallic blue cap!


Quick, blurry swatch. It's a vibrant medium blue with a little bit of silvery blue glitter mixed in for contrast. Looks extremely hot over black eyeliner.

Too Faced Starry-Eyed glitter liners are my favorite glitter liners ever, and this color is a perfect addition to the line. I didn't get the other shade, but I probably will soon. Everything about this liner rocks, so the other one has to be good!

Givenchy Vernis Please! Purple By Night

I'm back! Did anyone miss me? Hee hee.

Let's talk about Givenchy Purple By Night.

When I first saw this beauty on Sephora.com, I knew I had to have it. It seemed like the purple polish to end all purple polishes. That little product shot on Sephora.com showed the most mesmerizing purple that ever existed- deep but not blackened, loaded with mother of pearl, iridescent and holographic particles. It looked like the Milky Way.

My hopes and expectations were sky-high for this polish. This is what I got:


Givenchy Purple By Night.

A sparkly blackened purple.

The polish was out of stock for what seemed like an eternity. I kept the page open on Sephora.com and clicked reload over and over again until one day the "Add to cart" button appeared! Hurray!! Finally, it was mine!

I was sooooo disappointed when I finally wore this. Yes, I like it, it's a pretty nice color, but it's not amazing! There are no fireworks! No depth! Just flat, almost black sparkly purple. You really only get the full effect of the sparkle under bright lights.

I was hoping this would be the purple version of Givenchy Dandy Moire, which was incredible, unique and stunning. It's not.

It's not a bad polish. It's quite pretty. The formula is a little weird- it's super thick, which makes it a bit harder to apply, and takes a long time to dry even with Seche Vite on top.

If this didn't cost $15, I wouldn't have a problem. But for a .18 oz bottle of polish that's not amazing, the price is absurd. For reference, OPI minis are .13 oz. This is slightly more polish than an OPI mini. That's more than $80 AN OUNCE. That's like buying a regular bottle of OPI that costs more than $40. INSANE!!! Would you pay $40 for a bottle of OPI that you didn't love?

I'm going to try to mix my own version of Givenchy Purple By Night and see how it turns out. Right now it looks to me like OPI Who Are You Wearing with a coat of sparkly topcoat, maybe like Misa Lolli Jolly or Confection Section.

Review: Demeter Fragrance Library Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

I'm a huge fan of foody fragrances- vanilla, marshmallow, almond, honey, all that good stuff. Every time I see a new fragrance with some sort of foody or gourmand note listed, I have to try it. So, when I saw Demeter's new Reese's Peanut Butter Cups fragrance, I immediately bought it without a second thought. It's supposed to smell like Reese's, how could that go wrong??

Well, unfortunately, what I thought was going to be an awesome scent turned out to be one of the worst fragrances I have ever smelled.


I did have my qualms about smelling like peanut butter- chocolate I have no problems with, but smelling like peanut butter is a little weird, unless you're Iggy Pop or something. But, I like the smell of Reese's, so it was worth a try.

The minute I sprayed this fragrance, my nostrils were filled with this horrible stench of burning plastic and breakfast sausage coated in Ovaltine. Yum.

Once the alcohol had evaporated, I was left with this frightening fake plastic pseudo-foody bitter rancid smell.

I didn't immediately wash it off- I understand that fragrances need time to develop, but this one didn't change. Unlike other Demeter fragrances which last no longer than five minutes, this one lasted for hours. Yippee.

Not only does it not smell like Reese's, it doesn't smell like chocolate, and hell, it doesn't even smell good! It's sharp and bitter, and while the 'idea' of chocolate is hiding in the background of the fragrance, there's no comparison to the real thing. No peanut butter, no chocolate, just weird melted plastic stink. The closest scent I can compare it to would be those Creme Brulee type fragrance oils, where it has this bad burned plastic smell, like when you accidentally melt Tupperware.

Demeter is usually excellent at duplicating lifelike scents in perfume- I have tons of Demeters that are lovely- Tomato, Riding Crop, Mesquite, Ginger Ale, Flower Shop. All of those are really realistic and quite pleasant. Why they released this tragedy of a fragrance, I'll never know.

This is a truly horrible fragrance and you can bet I'll be returning this to Sephora. I rarely return things, but this is just bad news.

Kat Von D Metal Orchestra Palette and Lightning Lipgloss

If you can recall, when the Kat Von D for Sephora makeup line first came out, I was extremely skeptical about it. Sephora house brand items have never been known for their quality, but the Kat Von D line is different. The shadows are silky smooth and pigmented, the glosses have the perfect light texture and the eyeliners are unique and easy to use.

What I also like about the line is that it fits my personal taste. I'm not really a frou-frou flowery pink-feather-boa kind of girl, if you haven't figured that out by now... ;-)

Anyway, two new additions to the line are the Metal Orchestra palette and the Lightning Lipgloss.


First Class, Techno, Thrasher, Dagger, Lucifer, Glock, Razor Gray, Slayer.


First Class, Techno, Thrasher, Dagger, Lucifer, Glock, Razor Gray, Slayer.

I'll admit, I don't wear blue or grey often, but I HAD to get this palette just for the names. Thrasher? Slayer? There's an eyeshadow called GLOCK for Pete's sake, of course I had to have it!

The shadows are really nice and dense, not at all flaky or chalky. The ones in this palette are a combination of shimmers and metallics and all are super soft and smooth. Very velvety. The pigmentation is great. The only one I'm not crazy about is Lucifer- it's smooth but not very rich. It looks like a deep black but it's hard to build the color. This color has also been included in every Kat palette so far. I think they should tweak this shade a little bit, but that's just me. And, once again, this palette includes two completely useless double-ended brushes (though they would make excellent lip brushes!).

One thing that surprised me is that there's a cream shadow in this palette- Slayer. It's a super smooth and light textured cream with a heavy metallic silver finish. I think this would make a great base for the shadows in this palette, but I haven't tried it yet. Cream shadows are usually a disaster, so I'll have to see how this one turns out.

As for the lipglosses, I had already purchased Bam, but then decided to get the set instead of buying the full sizes.


HOW METAL IS THAT?!?!?! I'm in love.


Saint, Bam, Fierce Red, Gunshine, Stormy.


Saint, Bam, Fierce Red, Gunshine, Stormy.

Saint is a sheer silvery white loaded with multicolored pastel shimmer. Bam is a sheer grape with red, blue and purple shimmer. Fierce Red is not really very fierce- sheer red with shimmer. Gunshine is a sheer charcoal that leans brown and is packed with multicolored shimmer- it's like the lipgloss version of OPI My Private Jet. Stormy is a slightly less sheer purple-burgundy shade with tons of multicolored shimmer.

These all have tons of microshimmer (not glitter) in them. It is extremely reminiscent of MAC Dazzleglass, my favorite gloss ever, but not sticky and with very little pigment.

The texture of the glosses is super light and smooth. It's not oily and it's not thick, I'm not sure what to compare it to, as I don't have any other glosses this texture. It's thin and smooth and extremely sheer.

The glosses have a nice yet unidentifiable scent. Sort of a vague fruity vanilla? They smell... purple. That's all I can think of. Purple.


I really like these products. I'm really glad that someone has a line that's a little more edgy, a little less trendy and definitely more fun than the rest. It's like the Kat Von D line is making up for Urban Decay's miserable failure at being edgy. Thank you, Kat, even though I know that you wear MAC.

These are available exclusively at Sephora.

Review: Dylan's Candy Bar

I've been dying to smell these ever since I first heard mention of them on Sephora's Beauty And The Blog. Now they're finally here and I can actually say that they haven't just lived up to my expectations, they've exceeded them!

I tried:

Body Smoothie Lotion in Birthday Cake Batter: This lotion comes in a bottle, unlike the butters which come in a tub. I do like the bottle style, I feel that it's more sanitary when you don't have to stick your fingers in the container. The texture of the lotion is perfect. Absolutely perfect. Usually body lotions are too thin and not very moisturizing (think Bath and Body Works body lotion) but this is actually very moisturizing and not too runny. It's definitely not thick, which is good because otherwise it would be hard to get out of the bottle. It doesn't feel sticky, it just feels smooth and soft. Genius, I tell you!

As for the scent.... WOW. How can I even describe this?? It smells exactly like white cake batter. Not fakey weird chemical cake batter like most cake batter scents are. It is a *true* cake batter scent- like smelling a bowl of just-mixed white cake mix. It's not almondy or coconutty, it's not too sugary sweet and overwhelming, and it's not just plain vanilla. It smells edible.

I'm a huge fan of lots of etailers, and I have pretty much every cake / cake batter / frosting scent they carry, and none of them smell anything like this.


Candy Butter Cream in Chocolate Cupcake: The texture of the Candy Butter Cream is everything a body butter should be- super thick, rich and very moisturizing. It's quite a bit heavier than the lotion, but not gross-oily-sticky heavy. It's like The Body Shop body butters would be if they were half as oily. It takes a little while to soak in, but not all day like The Body Shop. It's a good balance, and it's now my favorite retail body butter. Excellent.

The scent (Chocolate Cupcake) is delicious. It's nothing like most retail chocolate scented bath and body products. I can't say it's a 100% true to life chocolate scent, but it's definitely the most realistic chocolate scented product I've tried.

The scent isn't overly sweet or chemical like other chocolate scents (Bath and Body Works Wickedly Hot Chocolate comes to mind), and it has more of a chocolate cake scent than a straight chocolate scent. I think the fact that it isn't too sweet of a scent is what I really like about it. It smells like chocolate cake, buttercream frosting and a hint of pure almond. Almond isn't the dominant note, but it really helps keep the chocolate scent from being artificial. After about ten minutes of wearing it, I get the slightest hint of base scent from the lotion- it's hard to describe- not quite like plastic, but not like chocolate either. It's not strong and it's not bad, but it's definitely there. Again, I'm super-impressed with this scent and it's easily my favorite chocolate cupcake scent now.


Candy Butter Cream in Strawberry Licorice: Same formula as the Chocolate Cupcake Candy Butter Cream, different scent. I had expected this to smell like Twizzlers or perhaps Raspberry Panda licorice, but it really doesn't.

It smells like sweet candy strawberry. It's an amazingly good scent, light, fruity and quite sweet, just not what I had anticipated. It reminds me more of the red Starburst than it does of strawberry licorice. It's not a fresh strawberry scent- it's definitely candy. It's lovely. If you're into candy-scented things I bet you'd really love this. I like it a lot, but I'm more into bakery scents than candy scents. I think this would layer really well with Philosophy's fruity scents, like Sugar Plum Fairy, Cherry Cola and Fruit Punch.

I also ordered the Soda Pop Shower Gel in Coconut Bon Bon, but I ordered it separately and it hasn't arrived yet. I'll be sure to review it when it gets here!

I'm now obsessed with this line. I really hope they release more products (a body spray or eau de parfum would be especially nice!) and more scents, because they're spot on with everything. I did not expect them to be this awesome. I'm really, really, really happy about that. I wish the prices were a little lower, but you really can't get any bakery-scented products that are this nice from any retail store, so that might be why they cost a bit more.

Compared to a line like Dessert Beauty, which was also a favorite of mine, the quality is beyond compare. These lotions aren't sticky, they're way more moisturizing and more heavily scented. The scent lasts on the skin and has a fairly decent amount of throw. The scents are also realistic. Even compared to Aquolina's body products (like the Creme Caramel body milk I'm hoarding), it just completely blows them away. The. Best. Period.

Foodie people, you have to try these. Go to Sephora and sniff, I command you! You will love this line!

Sephora reviews- WTF?

Okay, so, I just went to use Sephora.com's bogus new rating system and apparently the name SCRANGIE was taken! WTF?!

Impostor!!!


I wonder if there's someone on Sephora.com pretending to be me.... Hmph. Jerks.

Givenchy Dandy Moire

I saw this lovely little gem on Sephora.com and I knew I had to have it. It looked so amazing in the picture, like a shimmering deep blue/green duochrome.

When it arrived, I felt a little shocked- from the picture it appeared to be a normal-sized polish, but it's actually extremely small- .18fl oz!! That's mini-size! And for $15? Damn! Is that somewhere around $80+ an ounce?? I admit, math is not my strong point, but something seems wrong.

Despite the small size and absurd price tag, this is a very pretty polish. In the bottle it shows a strong blue and green duochrome effect, but it (sadly) doesn't appear on the nail. The brush is very difficult to work with, and the formula is a little thick. Even with all of those flaws, the color still seems worth the headache. It's beautiful.


Dandy Moire.

It's a deep, dark midnight blue with blue, silver and green shimmer and just the tiniest hint of green reflection. It's quite stunning to look at in bright sunlight- very shimmery but not glittery. It looks almost like velvet with a dusting of iridescent sparkles.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm finishing up a bunch of your requests and should have them posted soon. I didn't forget about you! Every request is important to me, and I love doing them. I love doing them so much that I realized I have been spending a crazy amount of time playing with nail polish and sitting in front of my computer, and neglecting things that I should be doing... Like, oh, I don't know, folding the laundry that's been in the dryer for a week? LOL. Nail polish is much more fun than mopping, more fun than working out, more fun than making dinner or reading my growing stack of unread books...

Anyway, I'm babbling. I just wanted to let you know that I love doing your requests, even if it takes me a little while longer than I'd like to get them done. :)

Sephora By OPI Swatches!

So the UPS man just surprised me with a box of nail polish from Sephora! I didn't even get a tracking number, they just mysteriously showed up! Hooray, another pleasant surprise!

Swatches first:


Brainiac. Sephora described this as "spiced pumpkin." Whenever I see the word "pumpkin" it's like an alarm goes off inside my brain that says BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY!!! Unfortunately, this doesn't look very pumpkiny to me. It's like a weird muted salmon-coral, or pinkish burnt orange. I still like it, but it's NOT PUMPKIN :(


Cab Fare. I love the color- a bright yellow with yellow-gold shimmer, like Orly Live Wire but not as bright. However... This polish was extremely thick and impossible to work with. See how thick it looks on my nails? That's two coats and it's uneven and lumpy. This was even, dare I say, stringy?


Call Your Mother. Oooh, I like this. Another muted purple. I'm happy that these colors are appearing more often. They're very unusual and I find that exciting!


Charge It! If you don't want to spend $30 on Chanel Gold Fiction, get this! It's not an exact match but the finish is the same. It's a bright, shiny, metallic, polished gold. Love this.


Domestic Goddess. Bright purple creme, woot!!


Don't Go There. Brighter than Call Your Mother, but I don't like it quite as much. It just doesn't do anything for me. Pretty, but meh.


Metro Chic. Another one of these weird colors! I love 'em! Quite similar to You Don't Know Jacques, and I'm perfectly fine with that.


Never Enough Shoes. Not exactly what I was expecting. I had expected more obvious glitter, but this is actually really subtle. I can see red, gold and silver glitter, but it's super-tiny microglitter. I was hoping for something like Petites Black Star.


Run With It. WOO! This is wicked cool! I think they should have named it 'wet cement' because that's what it looks like. It's a muted light grey with the tiniest tinge of red, it looks like. It has a fine shimmer running through it that gives the appearance of concrete- all those little sparkly crushed stones. I really, really love this. A lot. I hope this isn't limited edition!


Truthfully, I wasn't impressed by the quality of these. The main problem I had is that every creme shade I bought has ribbons of unmixed pigment running through it. I normally don't have a problem with this, a little shaking is enough to take care of it most of the time. But, even after a moderate amount of shaking, the ribbons were still there, and worse, created pigmented streaks on the nail!

Formula-wise, about half were good and half were a horrible, thick, gooey, streaky mess.

The brushes are nice, a nicely shaped standard nail polish brush, no Pro-Wides here. I am not a fan of the bottles for three reasons: One, they look like they'll be insanely hard to open if a little bit of polish dries in the threads. Two, they look cheap. And three, they look more like something you'd find in an, um, adult store than a bottle of nail polish.

I'm happy with all the colors I ordered, even if they weren't exactly what I was expecting.