Chanel Mimosa Comparison + Easter Mani

Yay I'm on vacation this week!  :D  However, I always get sick when I'm on vacation and this time is no exception.  I stayed at work much later than I should have Friday night trying to get everything done and by the time I left, my throat was the tell-tale gritty that means a cold is imminent.  :(  I felt crappy Saturday and most of yesterday, but I seem to be feeling a bit better today.  A little stuffled, but the grittiness has finally went away!  So I guess I'm not sure I caught a cold... maybe it was just my allergies going crazy?  Or maybe my body is fighting off a cold and it never got farther than gritty throat?  Whatever happened, I'm just glad I'm not going to spend my vacation sick, like I usually do!

So, since hubby and I are off this week, I'll try to stop in with some posts, but they might be random and kinda disorganized - like this one!  ;)

I broke down and bought Chanel Mimosa this past week... my first Chanel.  I was really drawn to this shade, more so than any others they have put out.  It got here super-quick and I was not disappointed.  It's a beautiful yellow with a unique shimmer and the formula is not as bad as I've heard it to be.  I haven't had a chance to wear it as a full mani yet (planning on putting it on tonight or tomorrow!), but I did a little comparison between it, Revlon Top Speed Electric, and NYC Taxi Yellow Creme (which has shimmer, so technically it isn't a creme!).  I noticed a lot of people on the NB are talking about Electric possibly being a dupe, so since I had both, I figured I should swatch.

Mimosa is on my index finger (far right), Electric on middle, Taxi Yellow on my ring (far left).  You can really see Mimosa's shimmer here, and see how the other two's shimmer is much less noticeable.

I know that pic is kinda small, so here is a HUGE one that might help a bit more - please forgive all the dryness and cuticle disaster!!  Click on it for full size!

Edit: this pic makes Mimosa and Electric look closer than they are.  Photobucket has done some kind of compression here that has fuzzed out a bit of the details.  They are not dupes!!  Similar, but different enough to own both - or only one, depending on your tastes/budget.

You can see, Mimosa and Electric are close, the amount of shimmer is really what sets them apart.  If you never wear yellow or you are just not sure, get the Revlon and save yourself $20.  If you LOVE yellow polish (or are a Chanel collector), get Mimosa.  It's beautiful and unique, plus it's LE.  I figured that even if I didn't love it, I could swap it pretty easily once it isn't available anymore.  I love it though, can't wait to wear it!  I liked it so much that I ordered Morning Rose last night, so you'll be seeing that one too.  I don't normally do pinks, but it's a  yellow-based pink, which isn't all that common, and I think I can actually pull it off - it *hopefully* will be the first light pink I can wear!

And since it was Easter yesterday, I couldn't resist wearing Glitter in the Air, by Deborah Lippmann.  I was rather torn on ordering it, since seeing My Lucid Bubble's review, but I finally decided to bite the bullet when I had a 20% off Beauty.com code and some Drugstore.com Dollars, so I ended up getting it for around $12.  The glitter is really sparse and the base color doesn't show up at all, so be warned before you try it.  I tried it over ButterLondon Lady Muck, but didn't really love it that way, so then I tried again over OPI's What's With the Cattitude and it looked fab for Easter!  Next time I'll try it over something a little closer to the base color.

This is 3 coats of WWTC and 2 coats of GITA.  It looks so simple, but it really was a lot of work!  :P  It was fitting for the holiday, though I didn't get any comments on it.  >,<  I thought about mattifying it, so it would look more like an eggshell, but didn't ever do it.  Maybe I will before I switch to Mimosa?

In some other news, I finished my spreadsheet this weekend - woo woo!  I do have a few more polishes than I thought, but I wasn't that far off, plus/minus 50 from what I was estimating.  However, there are a ton of them that I don't love, so I'll have to either put them up for swap or have a blog sale or something to make room for new pretties that I do love!  I'll be posting my spreadsheet sometime soon and ya'll can tell me what you'd like to see next.  I have sooooooo many untrieds, so I'm looking forward to working my way through them.

Also... I'm looking for a few ladies to possibly go in with me on an order at Nailite - they sell some really cheap polishes (and an exact dupe for Essie's Starry Starry Night for only 99 cents!), but they have a $25 minimum.  I don't mind spending $25 somewhere, but I figured it might work out for several people if we made 1 order - then lots of us could have our lemmings fulfilled!  :)  Anyone interested??  Email me at: threnodynx @ gmail . com if so!!  :)

 

Zoya Ivanka - My St. Patrick's Day Mani (a little late!)

My mom was still in the hospital on St. Patrick's Day, but I did manage to squeeze a mani in - White Kwik Silvr was looking so terrible by then that I had to do something, and I couldn't resist painting my nails green!  I had a ton of bottles sitting out on the coffee table and was having trouble deciding.  I asked hubby, but he doesn't care, so finally I started looking through clothes to figure out what I was wearing and which green would match it the best... and suddenly I thought of Ivanka.  I've had it since the summer and it is still untried (I'm embarrassed at how many untrieds I have!), plus it was a perfect match to the cardigan I was wearing.

In the bottle, Ivanka is gorgeous.  On the nail... I was speechless!

WOW.  No words to describe her beauty!  I couldn't stop staring at my nails for 2 days straight.  It is such an intense, vibrant color that practically glows.  Check out this low-light pic to see what I mean!

Even in super-crappy lighting, Ivanka still glows and stuns.  The finish is amazing too - it's sparkly like glitter, but flat particles that are extremely foily.  The Sparkles collection by Zoya is full of these, but Ivanka (and Charla) are truly the stand outs.  My macro setting isn't as amazing as some peoples *looks over at Cilucia at Spaz & Squee* but I did get a close up of these flat foil flecks...

I normally have a bit of trouble with the Zoya formula - almost all of them are pretty runny and I don't know that I have any that are one coaters (I don't even know of too many two coaters!), but this one wasn't too bad.  I believe this was 3 coats, dry time was great, and it looked great for 2 days.  I ended up slapping Black Shatter over it on day 3 and it looked pretty cool.  No pics of that though, my Shatter job wasn't so great!

It doesn't seem like Zoya does many limited editions, so this one should be available for quite awhile.  If you don't have it, I suggest picking it up during the next Zoya promo - Zoya Exchange perhaps?  *crosses fingers*

Basecoat: Essie Feed Me + Instant Artificials

Topcoat: Poshe

Number of coats: 3... I think!

OPI - Gift of Gold (Ulta Exclusive)

I don't have an Ulta in my town, so when I saw pics of the OPI Holiday Ulta Exclusives, I began to plot how I was going to get my hands on them.  There are only 3 Ultas in downstate Illinois and the closest is over an hour away (and they never have anything good!), so I don't really have a lot of choices.  Fortunately for me, my mom went shopping in the Chicago area and just happened to find an Ulta next door to the scrapbooking store she was visiting!  She called me, I told her what I wanted, and she came home with all 3 exclusives, buy 2 get 1 free!  :D

The only one I've worn so far is Gift of Gold and it is an absolute stunner.  Let me preface this by saying I don't really like gold.  I don't own any gold jewelry and after I started swatching my stash, I realized this was the only gold polish I owned!  (I have since rectified this situation by purchasing OPI's Glitzerland and China Glaze's Midnight Kisses)  Something about this one just blew me away.  Would you like to see?

It's so blingy!  Your nails WILL be noticed in this one!  Can you see the tiny red glitter peeking out between the gold?

It's really hard to capture Gift of Gold's allure in pics.  It looks amazing.  It sparkles and catches every bit of light so you are always getting noticed.  I had so many compliments on this one, and I usually don't hear a peep about my nails, except from the other obsessed gals at work.

As for the formula... this one is THICK, but in a good way!  I think it's supposed to be a 1 coater, but I did two here to make sure there were no gaps.  It likes to eat top coat, so I am wearing a couple of coats of Gelous over it to make it smooth and shiny!

The best part for me was how long this lasted!  I was able to get a full week out of it, only touching up a couple of chips after 5 days.

I know China Glaze's Party Hearty was most people's choice for best 2010 holiday color, but I think Gift of Gold definitely gives it a run for its money.  I don't even like gold and I was absolutely smitten with this one!

If you love it and don't have it, you better get to Ulta quick - it *might* be on clearance there.  Don't fret though, I think the new Milani One Coat Glitter in Gold Glitz is a pretty close dupe.  I don't have it, but I have seen it and it looks pretty similar - it's also core, so it will be easy to find!

Number of coats: 2

Basecoat: Beauty Secrets Moisturizing Basecoat

Topcoat: Gelous + Essie Good to Go