Browsing Tag

blue

Barielle Swatches

Tuesday, 9 March, 2010

More swatches of Barielle swatches…absolutely gorgeous!

So I love this shade of blue…but I’m telling you, this copper glitter totally mars it. I think this color could’ve been much much prettier without that odd color of glitter thrown in, don’t you? IMO, this would’ve been the perfect shade of blue ever on the face of the earth…aside from that awful shade of copper. Then again, I guess there is a reason it’s called Falling Star.

Now this is an awesome shade of green…I love that it’s got a lovely shimmery sheen running through it. It keeps it on the cooler side of warm. I love it!

Nubar – Peacock Feathers and Indigo Illusion

Tuesday, 2 March, 2010

I’ll just let the pics speak for themselves!

Super pretty denim blue with a duochrome shimmer that flashes purple and bronze. Very hard to capture, but definitely quite gorgeous!

Super pretty purple/blue…kinda…blurple with a fabulous duochrome that makes it look like it has a green sheen running over the polish. Very eye catching! One worth keeping in your collection. Grab it before Nubar discontinues it.

china glaze nail polish swatches Fall 2008 Rodeo Diva

China Glaze – Fall 2008 – Rodeo Diva Collection

Wednesday, 24 February, 2010

I remember seeing this back in 2008, before leaving for India. I was so tempted to buy it, but didn’t. I really didn’t want to buy it, then try to lug it to India or worse yet, leave it behind. So I didn’t buy it.

The nail polish guy I go to here in AZ had these puppies on CLEARANCE for a mere dollar. HOLLA!!! I grabbed as many as I could, but sadly, not all colors are here. I’m not about to go and buy from an e-tailer because the colors I’m missing aren’t ones I think I really I want, anyway.

This was definitely one where I went, “I don’t like this color in the bottle, but boy do I love it on me!” It’s a super rich raspberry tone that’s broke up with a lovely frost.

I love green nail polish and this is no exception. I didn’t understand the fuss, now I do. Definitely one that I am happy to have in my collection!

Now this…this really stole my heart – can you see why? I swear it reminds me of my favorite colors from my junior high days. This color was flattering on my skin tone – definitely a keeper, too!

So the girl who loves dark nail polish (that’s me!) loved this, too…despite the faint shimmer running through this. This was such a deep dark eggplant kind of purple that I ended up liking the faint shimmer. It brought a kind of depth that I didn’t know I’d truly appreciate until I saw it on me.

A lovely ocean blue nail polish with a shimmer and and some subtle micro glitter thrown in for good measure…and what a difference that makes!

This is another eggplant-y shade that they had…but they threw in some warm gold micro glitter that really…really made this color seem slightly bronze-y and just a beautiful shade to have on your nails.

Ok, now this…this is the total surprise for me of the collection. Not quite a black nail polish, but the base was so dark a green it appeared black. Then they had put some shimmer to it that was gold. The result? A gorgeously mysterious dark green nail polish with some beautiful gold/bronze shimmer. A real gem!

bahama blues collection

China Glaze – Bahama Blues Collection – Fall 2008

Monday, 22 February, 2010

Lots of hits here! I liked this collection save for the very dark colors…when did that happen?! Who knew that my dark loving nail polish self would actually not be cool with dark blues.

You’ll see why below…

Bermuda Breakaway
Shade (Top), Sunlight (Bottom)
This color wasn’t bad, actually. It was very pretty. A nice royal blue creme. Fabulous!


Calypso Blue
Not one of my favorite colors, to be honest. It was just so dark and the creme was a bit streaky. I thought it would be worth it, but it really wasn’t. I’d say skip this.

Bahamian Escape
Super pretty and not quite robin’s egg blue,  but it’s a gorgeous shade that was surprisingly pretty on me. It’s cool toned enough to actually look quite nice.

Blue Island Iced Tea
Yet another gorgeous color from the collection. It’s a nice light, almost sky blue that has some serious silver micro glitter thrown in…making this totally sparkly, shiny and yet somehow incredibly refined and tasteful. Definitely one that I’d enjoy wearing again…despite the glitter.

Blue Paradise
This color seriously surprised me…why? Because I thought the blue frost in the shade was so unappealing and utterly forgetful. Then I put this sucka under some sunlight then BLAM! this was such a gorgeous color that I had to just admire it for an hour before I removed it from my nails.
Caribbean Blue
Normally I would have hated this right off the bat…because of the glitter. I hate glitter in nail polish. I hate glitter polish. It’s only recently that I’ve been able to barely tolerate shimmers. I’m a creme kind of girl…shimmer and sparkle is for my face, ok? 😉 Anyway, this color is an awesome close to turquoise blue with some glitter thrown in, but it’s not an in your face kind of glitter. It’s very subtle and I think that’s why I liked it. It’s also got a hint of shimmer in it, too, so I think that really downplayed the glitter factor.

Rebel Debutante spring 2010

Color Club Spring 2010 – Rebel Debutante

Wednesday, 17 February, 2010

This is actually the first time I’ve willingly purchased Color Club. My fellow nail polish girlfriends have sent me bottles of the stuff and in turn, I’ve forwarded them on to other people.

I made the decision to buy when I saw the swatches on Scrangie’s blog…and I’ve got to say, I’m not impressed by the colors. Well, there are two that I like. There were 9 colors, but I only bought the 7 that enticed me the most…and if I could do it all over again, I’d probably only get 5.

Just a note – these pictures were taken with a mixture of sunlight and indoors. Normally I do my swatching during the day, but the sun set and I decided to finally try the light box set up hubby used for my jewelry. I used my same lil old camera and maybe it’s time for me to graduate to the big kids stuff…but anyway, this is my first time using the light box so please don’t be so harsh on me.

Who Are You Wearing?
Not one of my favorite colors. When I saw it in the bottle, I thought it could quite possibly be a dead ringer/sister/twin/dupe to my all time favorite OPI’s Tickle My France-y. Nope. Not a chance. While I appreciated the efforts put forth by Color Club, this didn’t do it for me.
Rebel Debutante
This is the name of the collection and I thought the signature color would be…well, kind of stand out. I was disappointed that it was a close to but not quite neon. I mean, it’s green and it looks pretty, but it wasn’t my cuppa.
Best Dressed
It’s a little too much brown going on for me…I can do my best mannequin hands impersonation with this color!



High Society
A very pretty mellow mushroom taupe color! I love these kinds of colors.


Uptown Girl
You can’t really see how pretty this color is – it’s a beautiful, rich purple creme…and I totes blew it with my incompetent light box skills. Sorry.


Ms. Socialite
Yea, I messed up on the name on the pic. Oops. 🙂 If I had been able to use the light box properly you would see this as a gorgeous purple plum. My bad.
Gossip Column
An epic fail on my part in trying to capture the prettiness of this color…it reminded me of a peacock kind of blue. Actually, I’ll take it back, both of the swatches are very true to life despite my ineptness with a light box.


Loved a handful of colors and the formula for that green wasn’t the best. For the most part all of them needed 3 coats but only Gossip Column and High Society were the ones that could get away with 2 coats.
For my first time with Color Club, I’m pretty happy.
Hong Kong Collection OPI Spring 2010

Spring 2010 – OPI’s Hong Kong Collection

Saturday, 13 February, 2010

13 February, 2010
4:29PM

Let me first start out by saying that there hits and misses for me in this collection. There are some bright colors in here and that’s what I’ll be showing first. They hurt my eyes…big time. I definitely enjoyed the rest of the collection, too. Very pretty and very not what I expected. I had seen it on some other people, but on me…I fell in love. For once, there was no black nail polish involved. 😀

The formula itself was pretty good, too…I normally have issues with cremes because I am little miss heavy handed in application. You’ll see it here and there throughout the pics but overall no problems. Please excuse the messiness of the manicures. I’m normally a lot more careful in application, but all the colors and the excitement got to me. Haha. Sad, but true.

As always, click to make the pics bigger!

A Good Man-Darin Is Hard To Find
Shade (L), Sunlight (R)
Yea, this was the brightness I was talking about…ouch. My eyes. They feel like burning!
Chop-Sticking To My Story
Shade (L), Sunlight (R)
Ok, for some reason, I loved this color…a lot. It’s not quite pumpkin orange on me and there is enough orange mixed in with a hint of brown that makes it very appealing. I normally would never wear something this color, but for some reason, this really made me excited!
Dim Sum Plum
Shade (L), Sunlight (R)
While it wasn’t my favorite color, I was having flashbacks to their previous Fall 2009 collection’s color Ate Berries in the Canaries. I’ll do a comparison side by side if I remember to after I do a write up on all of these. 😀 I won’t swatch it but I will put my previous pics up. DSP is a pink that I think will go well with people who love these kinds of shades. I really have to be in the  mood for this sort of color. While it’s fun to swatch, it’s not one I’d actively wear if given a choice.
Hot & Spicy
Shade (L); Sunlight (R)
Wow. In the bottle it looked like a bit of an orange coral. Out of the bottle and on me it looks like…an orange coral. Not me. So not me.
Red My Fortune Cookie

Shade (L) and Sunlight (R)
It’s not quite tomato and not maraschino cherry…It didn’t look bad on me, but it didn’t look good either.

Pearl of Wisdom
Shade (L); Sunlight (R)
Even in the shade the polish was able to capture a beautiful shimmer and give off a slight hint of the pinkness within. In the sunlight you can really see the prettiness. This is a sheer color and I think wearing it over a darker color would definitely be the best thing you can do with it.
Now this is where I think the Spring Collection starts to really shine…
Lucky Lucky Lavender
Shade (L) Sunlight (R)
This wasn’t quite as lavender as I was expecting. It’s really kind of…well, a pink lavender, don’t you think? I don’t know why, but the sun really washed out any hint of lavender in this color.
Panda-Monium Pink
It’s actually even prettier in person. I thought I had this confused with Lucky Lucky Lavender, but no…this was the correct bottle and swatch. I’m not a fan of pinks or pastels, but this didn’t stand out on my fingers like spring colored M&Ms. (BTW – love that I went a little nutso with the cleaning of my cuticle on my index finger?! Haha. Silly little Sally Hansen manicure clean-up pen.)
Meet Me On The Star Ferry
Shade (L) Sunlight (R)
Now this color…blew me away. Only because waaaay back in the mid 80s, I found a color by Sally Hansen that was very similar to this. I used it until it dried out and I threw it away. I never was able to get another bottle because for some reason, the jr high kid in me had managed to pick the ONE color that was a limited edition. That alone should’ve been an indicator on my nail polish obsession…anyway, here it is, looking just as good, if not better than what I had in high school. Beautiful berry with a lovely shimmer running through it. The shot of it in the shade reminds me of my much loved and much lamented Chanel’s Brown Sugar. This color really defines the collection for me.
Bling Dynasty
Shade (L); Sunlight (R)
I LOL’d mightily at the name of the polish. I cringed when I saw it in the bottle, but I fell in love with it when I put it on. What a gorgeous shade of gold this is. Definitely a keeper in my book!
Jade Is The New Black
Shade (Top); Sunlight (Bottom)
What rockin’ shade of green this is…I have a dark green that’s more forest green and a light green…and a minty green. I don’t have this kind of green…and I’m in LOVE. Very very pretty.
Suzi Says Feng Shui
Shade (L); Sunlight (R)
This is a gorgeous teal/dusty blue. In fact, it was a color I wanted to paint the walls of our bedroom in but Colin said no. I guess I’ll have to settle for it on my fingers! 🙂
arabian night commander in chic done out in deco drugstore polishes marine blue revlon rimmel scheming street wear

Drugstore Stuffs

Thursday, 11 February, 2010

10 February, 2010
11:23PM
So I made a trip to the drugstore and my friend also sent me some drugstore polishes…
I also did a comparison of OPI’s Done Out In Deco and Rimmel’s Commander in Chic.
Index and Pinkie: OPI’s Done Out In Deco
Middle and Ring: Rimmel’s Commander in Chic
I love mushroom-y taupe-y colors and was thrilled when I saw Commander In Chic. It cost $3.99 and was well worth it. It’s not breaking the bank, but I know some people have issues with paying more than 99 cents for a bottle of nail polish. I don’t know why I thought CIC was similar to OPI’s Done Out In Deco, but I put whatever it was I was smoking down and saw it all clearly. I’ll have to compare OPI’s You Don’t Know Jacque with CIC and see how it stacks against it each other.

Street Wear by Revlon: Scheming
I was so surprised that I really liked this color…I mean really liked this color. There are little gold sparks that show up when in direct sunlight. Application was mega easy and dried quickly. Pity this line was discontinued.
Rimmel’s Marine Blue
These types of shades always reminds me of the ocean…I know it’s meant to, but I love colors like these. It’s a pity they don’t look good on me, though. Ugh. I am going to be sending this color to my friend Lauryn.
Sally Hansen’s Arabian Night
A gorgeous purple polish with some rockin’ gold glitter to break up the purpleness. To be honest, I think the purple would’ve been really pretty without the gold glitter. Nonetheless, it’s still a gorgeous polish all together…pity it’s a real pain in the butt to remove thanks to the glitter. Not as bad as China Glaze’s Dorothy Who? in removal, but darn close!
Orly Spring II 2010

Orly Spring 2010 – Part II – Sweet

Friday, 5 February, 2010



As always, click the thumbnails to see the bad cuticles up close. 😉

I’m not partial to pastels and I guess Orly had to put up some pastels because well, it’s spring and what is that season without pretty happy colors for me to throw up on?

I did have problems on most of them. I tried different base coats and they still had a tendency to be a bit chalky and unpredictable. All were 2 coats aside form Cotton Candy. I think I had a bunk bunch of bottles. Oh well. *shrugs*

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Pixy Stix – Shade (L) and Sunlight (R)
Not quite as bright as some other pinks out there, but…it’s got a pretty darn close neon factor.

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Cotton Candy – Shade (L) and Sun (R)
Dunno why, but I think ‘coral’ when I see this on me.

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Gumdrop – Shade (L) and Sunlight (R)
I thought of China Glaze’s For Audrey when I put this on. Will amend post later to add in a comparison swatch

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Lemonade – Shade (L) and Sunlight (R)
Just reaffirms my belief that I was never meant to wear pastel yellow OR yellow nail polish, period. Ever.

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Lollipop – Shade (L) and Sunlight (R)
This reminds me of a lavender shade that’s been liberally doused with pink…

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Snowcone – Shade (L) and Sunlight (R)
I thought it was a periwinkle color, but it’s more along the lines of a light turquoise.

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Snowcone vs China Glaze’s Secret Peri-wink-le
Pinkie and Index finger – Snowcone
Middle and Ring Finger – Secret Peri-wink-le