shimmer

Nubar – Moonshadow

Tuesday, 26 October, 2010

I loved this color in the bottle. It promised great splashes of duo chrome-y goodness. I was disappointed that the duo chrome was so tame. I have Nubar’s Wild Life and that sucka throws off so much goodness I tend to get mesmerized by it when I wear it!

Nonetheless, this polish is beautiful…and I’d recommend it to anyone because it is a gorgeous purple in its own right. Please excuse tip wear – I had been wearing this color for a few days before I snapped the pics. Furthermore, I apologize for the misspelling of Moonshadow on the pics. I had done this a while ago and had thrown away the .psd for it.

It looks raspberry-ish in this shot, but it’s really a lovely purple.

Extreme shot and angle of MS to get the duochrome.

Hai, sun. You washed out the duo chrome!

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China Glaze – Holiday 2010 – ‘Tis The Season To Be Naughty And Nice

Friday, 22 October, 2010

This is a seriously image heavy post…28 pictures. I didn’t want to break it up because…well, I didn’t want to. 😉 It’s my eye candy and Friday Red. Enjoy!

All of these were two coaters and they dried in record time.

BOOM! Right out of the gate…this is my favorite red this season. Beautiful. Opaque in 2 coats.

I liked this, but it’s not my favorite red. It’s a bit too light for me. I am sure it would look better on someone else where it looked ok on me.

A gorgeous mulberry with a shimmer that makes it a perfect holiday shade.

I didn’t think I would like these, but I do. CTY is a lovely metallic foil that some other brands didn’t quite get right. This really sparkled and shined, truly reminding me of tinsel. MK was a lovely rich foil gold…absolutely gorgeous and I kept thinking it was a wonderful shade of almost 18k. Jingle bells is a bronze that doesn’t quite shimmer like CTY and MK, but it is very subtle. While not flashy, it’s still a pretty shade to behold.

A sheer white base with white glitter thrown in…it reminded me of snow.

This is a wicked shade of green…it glows. I swear, it generates its own electricity! Wouldn’t you agree? I mean, just look at it.

A wonderful blue, but it really reminded me of OPI’s Yoga-ta Get This Blue.

The jury’s still out on this color. I can’t decide if I like it or not. It’s a pinky/red jelly based color with pinky/silver glitter. Removal was a pain, but I’m not sure about this.

I no longer mourn the loss (that much) of my beloved Chanel Rouge Noir. How can I with these fabulous dupes that are 3-Free?

Oh the glitter…the humanity. THE SHINY! I like it a lot, but ugh…the removal. The removal is a pain.

How pretty is this? I love that it’s an olive green tossed into the mix…to make it even 700 shades more awesome, they made this a shimmer. Fabulous!

White creme…’nuff said. I think of this as a base for nail art and not just a color to be worn on its own.

This is China Glaze’s answer to OPI’s Tease-y Does It. I like both and I like that this is lighter and has a fine micro glitter.

Of course, I had to include Mistletoe Kisses because it’s part of the collection, even though I had done a comparison earlier in the week. FYI: MMUTM = Meet Me Under The Mistletoe.

And there we go…all 16 colors swatched. Yay! Hope you enjoyed it.

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China Glaze – Out On Safari

Wednesday, 20 October, 2010

This is a wonderful shade of green – it’s shimmery, it’s pretty…BUT it took 3 coats to get it this opaque and it took forever and a day to dry. Plus, it’s the old formula and the fumes nearly killed me as I applied this. I swear I smelled the formaldehyde and I was so close to retching. I need to wear a mask next time I apply this.

However, despite the delay in drying time and the overall fun-kay smell while applying, this color made it worth it.

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OPI – Burlesque, Part II, Holiday 2010

Friday, 15 October, 2010

If I had to choose, I would definitely pick the glitters over this part of the collection. I’m not saying this half is not up to snuff, but when I think Burlesque, I do think of sequins and shiny under the lights…a lot of sparkle and flash.

This half is subtle but still gorgeous.

This post is image heavy…you have been warned!

Hello, Friday Red. What isn’t visible in the picture is the pink undertones. I’m looking at the bottle right now and the pinkness isn’t shown. I love the faint shimmer that makes if glow. Bravo, OPI!

Bronze-y orangey goodness…I can’t believe this actually looked good on me!

It looks so different in these two pictures, but I assure you they’re the same ones. Sunlight made it appear a more deeper gold. Absolutely gorgeous!

A hot magenta.

I honestly thought this color from OPI (The Show Must Go On!) would be a clone for MAC’s Bad Fairy. It’s not. Not even close. BF is more on the orange side, while TSMGO is more on the pink/magenta side. Both share the same orange glass flecks. I had to do 3 coats of BF while OPI’s formula was wonderfully opaque in 2 coats. Though vastly different, there are enough similarities to make them seem almost identical. Owning both would be wonderful, but owning either of the two is still good enough.

I’ve posted this comparison before, but to not include it would be silly because Tease-y Does It is part of the collection. You can read more about Tease-y Does It here.

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OPI Tease-y Does It vs Nubar Raspberry Truffle

Tuesday, 12 October, 2010

Got my Burlesque glitters. Got the rest of the Burlesque collection, too. I was thrilled because OPI really outdid themselves on the glitter collection for Christmas 2010. I hate glitter, but I had to have these. Anyway, the one color that really had me holding my breath was Tease-y Does It.

I was so happy to have finally been able to put Tease-y Does It on my nails. It looked totally gorgeous in the bottle, but in the back of my mind a tiny voice was saying, “You have something like this…You have something like this…”

I was like, “Shut up. Shut up. No, I don’t.” Conversations with yourself really doesn’t bode well, but at least I wasn’t talking out loud.

Then I started doing a re-org of my 2 Helmers (I am going to need a 3rd now, btw) and started a drawer for Nubar…What is this? Raspberry Truffle? It looks like…No, it can’t be. Ce n’est pas vrai! Non. Mais oui, mes amies. Mais oui.

I actually dare to call OPI’s Tease-y Does It a dupe for Nubar’s Raspberry Truffle.

Don’t weep if you can’t get Tease-y Does It. Nubar still has Raspberry Truffle on their site.

OPI’s formula was the winner of the two. While both were easy to apply with no problems, RT tended to take about five minutes longer to dry than TDI.

Check out the dupeness for yourself – RT is on the pointer and pinky while TDI is on the ring and middle fingers.

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MAC Cosmetics – Ming Blue

Wednesday, 29 September, 2010

I’m currently wearing this blue on my nails. I have been for the past few days. I neglected to take a picture until yesterday so please pardon the tip wear.

I like blues like this and the only thing I wish MAC had done was make this polish bolder. Maybe the glitter in it a bit more big and boomin’, ya know? This was opaque in two coats and it dried quickly. However, much as I did enjoy this color, it didn’t live up to the hype I had put in my head for it. Don’t get me wrong – I do like it. I just wish it had wowed me a bit more.

As always, keep clicking the pictures to enlarge until they can enlarge no more! The actual sizes are huge and these are just thumbnails.

Bottle shot!

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Orly – Lunar Eclipse

Monday, 27 September, 2010

This blue is amazing. I wasn’t able to capture the gorgeous purple shimmer that was in it. I get compliments on it – even from people who don’t like blue nail polish. I love this color and I wear it whenever I can, even bumping aside tried and true colors that I wear. I have to get a back up for this one, too!

This lovely polish is part of Orly’s Cosmic F/X for Fall 2010.

The formula is amazing – quick drying and opaque within two coats.

In the shade shots you can see the gorgeous purple shimmer in the bottle, but it didn’t translate well into the picture, but in real life the purple shimmer/flashes were just…amazing. This is definitely a color that’s well worth the purchase.