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.

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.

Autumn 2008

It's getting colder here... Darker and wetter. Winter is at our doorstep. Yet... I won't see it :-) I will be leaving soon to some warmer place 10.000km away - to Malaysia. I'm excited. And yet, so not ready for the crazy heat and humidity. I will go from one extreme into another. Wow. Will post some photo soon to compare these extreme oppoistes. Good luck to me! ;-)

[Photo by MKL, 2008]

Interesting nail-related articles!

While I'm on vacation, how about I link you to some nail posts written by someone else? I just read these articles by Darren Garnick and I found them to be very interesting!

While I don't do politics here, this article that features the fantastic Stephanie of Polish Addict is quite interesting! Did Pro-Obama Manicures Sway the 2008 Election?

Another nail-related article is: Are Fish Pedicures Cruel To The Fish?
I've always been on the "it's not cruel, fish like eating that stuff " side, but lately it seems I'm in the minority. And for the record, I would totally get a fish pedicure. It sounds too wacky not to try. Snake massage as well.

And here's a cute blurb on OPI's Russian Collection.

I love seeing nail-related content on decidedly not beauty-related blogs!

Vacation!

Okay guys, I'm officially on vacation! I'll still have internet, so I'll be dropping in every now and then.

Also, today is Veterans Day. If you get a chance, please take the time to thank a vet.

...And one more thing- a quick observation- Bare Escentuals Extreme Glimmers = MAC Solar Bits.

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.

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.