Finger Paints – Peace, Love & Color Collection - Summer 2011

I wasn’t so sure about this collection, so I waited until Sally’s put it on clearance before I bought.  I have only bought a few Finger Paints before, and they haven’t really thrilled me (swapped one, two awaiting new homes!), but this collection seemed special, so I couldn’t resist for $.99 each!

Before I post the swatches though, I gotta tell you guys about my experience in purchasing these.  I got an email from Sally’s saying their clearance stuff was 1/2 price online and I’d been eyeing these, so within 2 minutes of getting the email, I had placed my order for 8 Finger Paints (Artistic Azure, Give Pink a Chance, Psychedelic Sunshine, All You Need is Color, Outta Sight Orange x 2, and Peaceful Purple x 2 – extras for a co-worker), so $7.92 for 8 polishes, plus $5.95 shipping.  The shipping was really hard to swallow, but I wanted to make sure I got them all, so I just went ahead and paid it.  Who knows what would be at my store?

I got a shipping notice from Sally’s a few days later, nothing unusual looking – it didn’t have any notes or anything, so I just tracked the package.  When it arrived, it only contained 4 polishes – Give Pink a Chance, All You Need is Color, and Outta Sight Orange x 2.  I checked my invoice and it said “w93” in the spot for the other polishes, which was printed at the bottom saying "item was not available in warehouse at time of shipping” or something really similar.  I was like WTF… are they out of stock or something?  I checked their website and they were all still listed and I could add them to a cart.  I then looked at my shipping notice again and sure enough, it only listed the polishes I received, not the other 4 I had ordered.  Nothing was stated in that shipping notice to say if they were out of stock or anything.

I started looking around on Sally’s website and found that if an item is out of stock at the time of shipment, Sally’s will notify you, but they will not ship backordered items.  They are dropped from your order and if you would like them, you will have to place a separate order when they are available again.  That is about the craziest policy I have ever seen.  Most places will contact you, and then give a choice of holding your order or cancelling the items, and some nice companies will even ship backordered items later.

The thing that really bugged me is that Sally’s never notified me that they did not have the items I ordered.  No little note in the shipping notice, nothing.  I was furious at this point – I paid $5.95 for shipping on $3.98 worth of merchandise?  If I knew I was only going to be able to get a couple, I would have just went to the store and taken my chances!  I shot off an email to their customer service – not too mean, but I complained that their website says customers will be notified of OOS items and that I found it unethical to cut over half the merchandise from the order without informing the customer.

I didn’t expect a response, but I got one within 24 hours – and a refund of my shipping charges!  I am usually not one to complain to companies about how bad they suck, but I might have to start, since Sally’s worked to fix their mistake.  The letter I got back apologized and said they would be speaking with the shipping department to find out why I wasn’t notified.  I don’t know if anything will change, but at least they are now aware that customers are NOT happy.

Fortunately, I did stop by my local Sally’s later and found the missing polishes.  I do have a gripe there too though – the summer display was still out with the new stuff and was not marked clearance in any way, so I assumed I would be paying full price.  Finger Paints were buy 2, get 1 free in July, so I got Psychedelic Sunshine and Peaceful Purple from that display, then chose Sketch n Etch from the regular display, since it seems to be dupish to Essie’s Dominica Green.  I figured getting 3 for $10 wouldn’t be that bad, so I trudged up to the counter and paid.  My total seemed really cheap, but I hadn’t really paid attention to the Beauty Club prices on a couple of the items I picked up, so I didn’t really look at the receipt until I got home.  Those summer Finger Paints were clearanced for $1.98, so I paid $4.99 for the regular one, $1.98 for 1 summer, and got 1 summer free.  It seems like a great deal, but had I known the summer ones were that cheap, I would have picked up one more clearance polish instead of the one from the regular display and would have gotten 3 for $3.98!  Argh!!!

Sally’s sucks!  >:P  Anyhoo, thanks for reading my rant (if you did – if you didn’t, I don’t blame you!), here are swatches as a reward!  ;)

Give Pink a Chance is a pinky-corally crème – I think it really depends on your skin tone what color tis one is on you.  For me, It’s pretty pink, but Scrangie said it was red-orange-coral on her.  Formula on this one was pretty smooth and opaque in 2 coats.  Maybe a hair thick.

I do have some similar colors in my collection – Essie Too Too Hot (ring) and China Glaze – High Hopes (index).  They aren’t dupes though, surprisingly enough.  Too Too Hot is a bit more red and is more of a jelly finish, while High Hopes (which I hate, btw… one of the worst formulas I’ve dealt with!) is brighter and more orange.  Give Pink a Chance is a great pedi color for me, I will use it often!

Outta Sight Orange is a glass fleck orange with almost duochrome flecks – sometimes it’s gold, sometimes it’s red!  I <3 it!  I’m sorry for the glare on the pic, my camera hates me.  It’s dead now though, so haha, I get the last laugh.  Or maybe it does, cos now I have to buy a new one.  Ugh, read on for more info on that situation.  Anyway, back to Outta Sight Orange… the formula on this one was fantastic.  2 coats to opacity.  If this one looks familiar to you, that’s because it is VERY similar to Nicole – Fresh Squeezed in the bottle.  However, Outta Sight Orange is the winner of the two.  It is what I hoped Fresh Squeezed would look like!

4 coats of Fresh Squeezed on the index and it still isn’t opaque.  I’ve went up to 6 before, and I don’t think it ever got there.  It’s streaky too – not a fave.  I also put China Glaze – Orange Marmalade on the ring so you could get an idea of what the base color looks like.  Outta Sight Orange has become a fave orange for me, and I <3 oranges!  :D

Psychedelic Sunshine is a really gorgeous and unique color – sunny yellow jelly with iridescent glitter.  I don’t have anything in my stash like it.  I’m not sure there *is* anything like it out there!  The glitter is small and sparkly and the yellow is such a happy color.  Gorgeous!

Slightly less blurry to see the glitter bits.  My camera did not like how sparkly this one was!  I don’t have anything similar, so I didn’t compare it to anything.  In my pics, it kinda looks like China Glaze – Lighthouse, but next to each other, they aren’t very similar, especially since this is glitter and the ChG is glass fleck.

This one has some big flaws though… it is so thick, I don’t think it would be useable if you didn’t own thinner.  I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a polish so thick before.  It’s syrupy and chunky and kinda gross actually.  I have added a TON of thinner, I even have had the bottle overflow twice and it still is really thick.  I dunno if it isn’t making it all the way into the bottle or what, but it is a mess.  It also dries extremely lumpy.  I dunno if you can tell in this pic or not, but it is dull and gritty.  It looks beautiful until it dries and then it’s like WTFBBQ IS THAT?!?!  A coat of Gelous before your regular topcoat will fix the problem, but it’s pretty blechy until without topcoat!

Next up in the collection should be Groovy Green, but it looked frosty, so I skipped it.  Frosty is icky!

All You Need Is Color is a gorgeous glitter, pretty opaque too.  I don’t have another teal glitter to compare it to, can you believe that?  However… I’m pretty sure this is a dupe to Butter London’s Henley Regatta.  I purchased it for a swap and noticed that it had a mix of teal, green, and cerulean glitter – I really wanted to keep it at that point, but sent it off.  When I got All You Need Is Color, I noticed it had the exact same colors – it isn’t just a straight teal glitter!  Woo hoo for cheap dupes!  :D  This one is also very thick, though it has taken well to being thinned and is perfect now.  This is 3 coats and a topcoat.  It’s a bit gritty without one, but it isn’t a hungry glitter, so one topcoat should be enough!

Last up we have Peaceful Purple, an opaque purple glitter.  This one is just straight purple, no other colors hidden in there.  This is two coats, but it looks a bit patchy on the edges, I probably should have done 3.  Also very thick, but was perfect once thinned.  Again, I didn’t have a purple glitter that was similar.  Weird, eh?  Scrangie says it is a dupe for Urban Decay’s Xanadu, which is in that new Rollergirl mini set I refuse to buy.  I got one the Apocolyptica one and felt like it was a rip off.  Those bottles are TINY!

This collection was perfect for summer – now I’m a bit said I didn’t pick it up until summer was almost over!  If you can still find some of these at your Sally’s, get them – they should be cheap and they are all gorgeous.  Make sure you have thinner though!!!  If you don’t… well, don’t bother.  You won’t enjoy them at all.

This might be my last post with lots of pics for awhile – my camera (which is less than 2 years old, I might add), worked fine on Tuesday this week, but would not turn on on Wednesday morning.  It won’t even charge.  I bought a new battery thinking that would fix the problem, but it still won’t charge.  The only other thing I can think to try is to buy a new cable for it.  I’ve contacted Kodak to see if they have other suggestions, but I doubt they will.  Of course, I am broke (as usual!) and really didn’t want to spend money on a camera.  :P  I kinda need one though… do you guys have suggestions?  I am trying to spend less than $150, looking for a good macro setting and something that can actually take decent indoor pics – I haven’t had a camera that could do that yet.  :P  I’m thinking about the Canon Powershot A3100 IS – what do you guys think?  Let me know if you have any experience with it, or if you know of something else in my price range that you think will work well!  :)

China Glaze–Metro Collection

I picked up a few polishes from the Metro collection this week – yay for not buying an entire collection!  *pats self on back*  I have been so overwhelmed with life (and polish) that it is honestly a relief to only be getting 4 from this collection.  Normally the fall collections kill me, but this year doesn’t look like it’s going to be too bad!  I’m planning on getting 4 from Zoya (Neeka, Yara, Petra, Cynthia), 3 from OPI (A Color to Diner For, I Eat Mainely Lobster, Uh-oh, Roll Down the Window), one from Finger Paints (Cordur-Orange), and nothing from Essie or Color Club – woo hoo!  :D  I’m sure I’ll end up with a couple more than I named, but at least I’m not planning on buying all of them from the start – that’s an improvement, right?

I’ve lured a couple of the girls I work with into the addicting world of nail polish, so now I have ladies to split the shipping with, and I can pass on a bit of knowledge here and there.  It actually makes it harder NOT to buy more stuff, but I am doing ok.  I received my biggest lemming a couple of weeks ago and since then, polish buying has tapered.  I purchased the Metro polishes on Thursday, received Monday… and I haven’t bought anything else since Thursday.  I also didn’t buy anything for over a week on Thursday when I purchased these.  Maybe I’m finally starting to get a handle on this mad, mad, mad, mad hobby?

Trendsetter is one of those ugly polishes that you either love or hate.  I tend to like these really funky ones, they are so unique that I can’t help but buy it.  It’s a baby-poo greenish mustard color with a heavy dose of multi-colored shimmer.  The shimmer leans gold, but it also flashes green and a bit of red, so I don’t think I can truly call it a gold shimmer.  It also has a bit bigger particles than the typical shimmer.  Formula-wise, this one is pretty danged thick – but not unmanageable.  It did have some self-leveling issues (which you can see in the pic), but it has been insanely hot and humid in the Midwest, so I won’t write it off just yet – maybe it will be ok when the weather normalizes.  The idea of this polish is very similar to Classic Camel from last fall, but the color is quite a bit different.

I went searching my stash for similar things and didn’t really find a lot.  I even pulled all my uglies, but this one is pretty unique!  I ended up going with American Apparel – Mac Arthur Park (ring), and since I mentioned that Trendsetter is this year’s Classic Camel, Classic Camel (index).  Classic Camel is a totally different color, but they both contain the same kind of shimmer.  Mac Arthur Park has a swoon-worthy formula and is actually the closest thing in my stash, though they are pretty different.  I wonder if you mixed Classic Camel and Mac Arthur Park, you would get Trendsetter?  I’m not a frankener, but it is an idea!  I also pulled Butter London - Bumster and Barielle – Aura Angora – both are too yellow to really compare, more yellow than Classic Camel.  In the bottle, China Glaze – GR8 is similar in hue to Trendsetter, though it is a totally different finish.  However, on the nail, GR8 shows much more gold compared to Trendsetter’s green, and the finishes are so different, I didn’t include it in a pic.

Traffic Jam really isn’t all that unique looking – a berry crème – but I don’t have a dupe and the formula is fabulous.  I only wear pinks, reds, oranges, corals, berries, etc., on my toes – no crazy colors!  I’m weird like that… most people will try the odd ones on their toes, but not their hands, and I am the exact opposite.  I painted my mom’s toes green recently and it was so weird!  It looked cute on her, but I couldn’t handle it.  I’m pretty much crème only on toes too.  Occasionally I can handle a shimmer, but usually I take it off before it even has a chance to dry.  *shrugs*  I bought this polish for pedis, and I think it will get A LOT of use.  It’s a great non-seasonal color and I think it would flatter just about every skin tone.

I was sure I was going to find a dupe in my collection, but surprisingly, I didn’t.  Apparently it is a bit more unique than we think.  The closest I had was OPI – Dim Sum Plum (ring) and OPI – Houston, We Have A Purple (index) – actually, HWHAP and Traffic Jam look nearly identical when you compare the bottles.  However, HWHAP is a jelly and Traffic Jam is a crème, so they don’t turn out to be dupes at all.  Here’s a bottle pic though, just to prove I’m not crazy!  ;)

Next up is one of the more anticipated polishes in this collection…

Skyscraper has been getting a lot of buzz as a possible Starry Starry Night dupe, but they are really just similar ideas, not really similar in look.  Skyscraper has a deep blue (with slight purple leanings) jelly base and is packed with silver glitter.  The first coat looks like it is going to be really sheer, but 3 coats makes it totally opaque.  I have a slightly wonky brush, so it doesn’t really want to apply evenly at the tips, but it really is a nice formula and wonderful polish.  It isn’t an SSN dupe, but it might satisfy lemmings for some!

The color of the jelly base makes this a hard polish for me to compare.  I don’t have anything similar to that color with glitter, so I chose two other blue with silver glitters to show you how different Skyscraper is.  Deborah Lippmann – Lady Sings The Blues (ring) is obviously darker with different shaped glitter, and CM – Midnight Imposter (index) also has a darker base with different glitter, but the differences are more than just that.  The glitter in Skyscraper is quite small – not as small as SSN (which I do not have, but I do have Essie – Bonded, which is the red counterpart to SSN, so I have seen the tiny glitters), but still quite a bit smaller than the usual glitter polishes out there.  It also has a jelly base, so the glitter really does show and doesn’t get buried in the base like LSTB and Midnight Imposter.  The are all beautiful, but Skyscraper is more like the midnight sky in a big, busy city with tons of lights.

The last of the Metro collection I have is Midtown Magic – a very deep burgundy/brown with that same gold / multicolored shimmer that appears in Trendsetter.  Another great formula – you might be able to get away with one coat, but I suggest two for this amazing color.  I am totally smitten and this will be on my nails often this fall.  When I initially saw promo pics, I swore this was going to be a dupe to Side Saddle, from the Rodeo Diva collection, but was proved wrong when I saw swatches.  Then I decided it was a dupe to OPI – DS Mystery.  Again… wrong!

While DS Mystery is definitely similar, the base color is different, plus the shimmer is more like little flakes and is more sparse.  It is that same color though – gold that leans green and flashes a bit of red.  Mystery’s base is a deep royal purple, while Midtown Magic’s is more brown.  Side Saddle is a burgundy / purple with a gold shimmer that is the typical shimmer size in comparison.  Midtown Magic is more what I wanted DS Mystery to look like – it really is gorgeous and is a perfect fall color.

Since I don’t have all the polishes from this collection, I can’t really make an overall opinion, but I did only buy 4… and I think that is my statement.  I love the ones I have, but I wasn’t overly thrilled with all the colors China Glazes went with this fall.  I have the entire Spring and Summer collections by them for this year, so I was a little disappointed with this collection.  I can’t really put my finger on it – I have dupes to a couple, and I’m sure a few won’t look so good with my yellow/green undertones, but overall, this collection was just meh to me.  I have seen CG In The City in person and wasn’t wowed, even though it does seem to be a unique glitter.  It’s just kinda dull and all the colors just blend together, at least in the bottle.  One of my co-workers bought it, so I’ll let  you know if that opinion changes when she wears it.  Formulas on all of these were nice – thick, but not too thick, though I did have some trouble with Trendsetter self-leveling.

Any you are lemming?

Basecoat: none
Topcoat: Beauty Secrets Fast Finish on all but Traffic Jam, which has no topcoat
Number of coats: 2 except Skyscraper, which was 3

OPI–Miss Universe

 

Woohoo, a post during the week!  Daniel went to bed early, so I had a couple of hours to do what I wanted without feeling like a jerk for not spending time with him!  :D

I bought the Miss Universe collection on eBay before seeing any swatches and honestly, I don’t regret it!  I love these mini collections that are only a few polishes, it makes it so much easier to pick them up!

I’ll start with It’s My Year, since it was the one I was most looking forward to.  Purple/Pink base with TONS of gold shimmer.  It’s not a glitter and it’s more like glass fleck foil than regular shimmer – think the Zoya Sparkle collection (and Sunshine collection).  Very similar to Rally Pretty Pink and Zoya’s Faye, but with a bit more purple to the base.  When I say a bit, I mean it.  When I pulled it out of the envelope, I was sure they had sent me the wrong shade.  Even compared to RPS in my living room, I couldn’t tell the difference between them.  However, on the nail, side-by-side, under my OTT light, they are a bit different.

I *think* RPS is on my ring finger and Faye is on my index, but don’t quote me on that.  Those two are pretty much dead-on dupes and I took these pics last weekend, so I can’t really remember.  It’s My Year is a bit different, but not a ton.  I know a lot of people were looking forward to Faye being more purple than it turned out to be, and if you are one of them, It’s My Year is for you.  If you already have RPS and Faye and are happy with the warm mauve base… well, you might be a bit disappointed here, as It’s My Year isn’t as different as I thought it’d be.

Sorry for the desk shot, but Congeniality Is My Middle Name was extremely hard for me to capture.  It is a deep berry color with a foily shimmer that hides a bit in the base.  It will be gorgeous for fall – a bit of bling, but subtle enough to wear to work easily.  I have seen a lot of speculation that this is a dupe or similar to The One That Got Away, so I have compared it below, along with Lourve Me, Lourve Me Not.

If The One That Got Away (ring) and Lourve Me, Lourve Me Not (index) had a baby, it would be Congeniality Is My Middle Name (middle).  It has the deeper color like LMLMN, but the foily sparkle of TOTGA.  There is a bit of shimmer to LMLMN, but it’s not very noticeable.  I was surprised to see other blogs showing TOTGA and CIMMN as dupes or close… either their lighting is way different than mine (OTT for me!), or we have different bottles – they are VERY different!

I was expecting Crown Me Already to be a layering glitter, a pure silver version of Spark de Triomphe, but it really is it’s own thing.  It is a silver glitter, but it really isn’t good for layering – there is SO much glitter here, it will cover up whatever is under it.  This is just two coats and it is almost opaque.  If you put it over a silver foil, you might even be able to get away with just one coat.  It is full of different sizes of glitter – including some very large hexes you can see on my ring finger.  This one is crazy blingy – beware if you are in the sun!

I was going to compare this to Sephora by OPI’s Flurry Up, as it is also a silver glitter with different size particles, but it truly is a layering glitter and it would take A TON of coats to ever get it this opaque.  Instead I compared with Spark de Triomphe (middle), just to prove that they aren’t dupey in any way.  No huge hexes!

I am saving the best for last here… honestly, Swimsuit… Nailed It absolutely blew me away.  I am not a crazy huge fan of blues and hardly wear them, but this one knocked it out of the park for me.  It looks so amazing in the bottle – there are all these little tiny shimmers.  I don’t really know how to describe it, but if you see a bottle, just pick it up and look at it.  It doesn’t look anything like any other bottle of polish I have.  The shimmers are all one color, so it’s just… wow.  Even my hubby, who cares nothing for polish and barely tolerates my obsession, took a look at it in the bottle and said “hrmph, that’s kinda neat looking.”  That’s a big deal for him, trust me!  Usually I just get an eye roll and a snort.  :P

Anyhoo…. Swimsuit… Nailed it is an awesome blue foil that could easily be a one coater.  I did two, but it wasn’t necessary.  It is an absolutely stunning color.  I did not want to take it off.  Hell, I didn’t, even when I should have.  I went to a wedding this weekend and was planning on changing my mani to Essie – Braziliant, but I just couldn’t bring myself to take this one off, so I went with blue nails.  I have seen a lot of people say this one isn’t all that unique, but I beg to differ… I have nothing like this in my stash.  I would love to see someone pull out an exact dupe – I might need a back up here!  Honestly, this one entered my top 20 before the topcoat was even dry.  One tiny downside… smurf fingers and major staining.  After wearing this over 2 basecoats for 3 days, my nails were a lovely green.  o.O  I was able to get it off by scrubbing with a nail brush in hot soapy water for 10 minutes or so, but I don’t recommend removing this one if you are in a hurry!  I have seen questions as to whether it is similar to China Glaze – Blue Iguana (and its dupe, Nicole by OPI – S-Teal the One), but the medium blue hue is all that they have.

I changed things up a bit this time and so Swimsuit… Nailed it is on my ring finger, Blue Iguana is in the middle, and GOSH – Blue Monday is on my index.  This is two coats of the OPI, 2 coats of China Glaze, and 3 coats + a bunch of blobs of GOSH.  Seriously, that is one of the sheerest polishes ever.  Gotta remember to layer that puppy from now on.  Swimsuit is a fabulously opaque foil, while Blue Iguana is a much more sheer glass fleck with a hint of pink flash, and Blue Monday is a really sheer glass fleckish (not quite, but almost?) with pink and purple flashes.

Overall, I’m quite happy with this collection.  No dupes, though I was a bit disappointed It’s My Year wasn’t quite as purple as I expected.  I am in LURVE with Swimsuit… Nailed It and might even be looking for a backup.  Congeniality Is My Middle Name will be worn a lot in the fall, and Crown Me Already will be great when I feel the need for bling!  Formulas were great on all of these, just 2 coats on each.

How do you feel about this collection?  Any you are really loving or hating?

Basecoat: none
Topcoat: none
Number of coats: 2

A letter to my lovelies…

Hi gals -
First off… I’m pretty sure I’m the worst blogger on the face of the earth.  I’m constantly gone for LONG periods of time and come back and say “I won’t do that again!”, just to follow it up with another long absence.  How the heck do you guys find time to blog?!  I know most of the other bloggers out there have jobs and families and lives – how do you do it?  Do you do everything on your days off and then schedule for the rest of the week?  Please, let me in on your secret, because I am really struggling over here!
Secondly… I finally got around to making a light box.  I was so excited and spent a whole afternoon swatching and taking pics.  I just uploaded all of them today and wow… they suck.  There are hardly any pictures that came out ok since I started using the light box.  They are all darker than they should be, all polishes look matte, everything is a little fuzzy and grainy.  Do you guys have any suggestions?  It looks great IRL, but when I take the picture, it looks like not enough light is getting in.  I thought about poking some holes in the top, but I have hesitated – seems like that would just make the light weird, ya know?  Kinda spotty?  Those of you that use them – do you just have your light from the top or do you do side lights too?  I just have one OTT light, and I put it at the top.  The light looks fine when I’m looking at it, but my camera won’t pick it up.  I’ve tried adjusting the white balance with no significant difference.  Apparently until I get this figured out, I’m going to have to ditch the light box.  :(
And finally… wow, my hauls have been out of control recently!  I have been using gift certificates, Groupons, codes, etc., so it doesn’t seem like I have spent that much at once, but overall, it’s killer.  And my desk is almost completely covered in polishes I have received in the last month.  I have a few more on the way too!  *hangs head*  I had a couple of fab swaps recently – one from Canada (hello if you’re out there!) and one from the UK (to get a US polish!  Crazy!), plus there was that AveYou flash sale, I finally used my BeautyBar Groupon, I won an awesome giveaway over at Polished Pirate (*hugs Jaybird*), I used my Apothica gift certificate I won at My Lucid Bubble (*hugs KrisinPhilly*), finally pulled the trigger on my Essence haul at Ulta, plus there are all those random polishes I keep picking up!  SO MANY PRETTIES!!!  O.o
Anyway, I am a bit overwhelmed right now – with life, blogging, polish, all of it.  *sigh*  My schedule is going to be changing a bit in the near future, so I might actually get two days off in a row… which means I *might* get to spend more time swatching and such.  When you never have 2 days off in a row, it’s really hard to spend time doing stuff like that.  Especially when Daniel is home.  He does not understand my nail polish obsession and never will.  He says they all look the same, but they are just different colors.  He sees no difference between shimmer and glitter, crème and jelly.  *sigh*  I love that boy to death, but sometimes… lol.
So, yes, overwhelmed – where do you start when you begin to feel like this?  I looked at my spreadsheet and nearly died when I saw the total (which is missing a ton of new stuff) and the % untried.  Do you go on no buys?  Can you stick with it?  I have no self control or will power when it comes to NOT buying stuff.  Even low buys don’t work out that well.  I start off ok, and then someone has a code and all hell breaks loose.  Those of you who have had blog sales to get your stashes more manageable – did it help?  How did you go about purging?  Any regrets?  I’m not sure I have the time / energy for a blog sale (hell, swapping is almost too much for me sometimes), but I’m willing to look at whatever might help. I’m not sure how well I’ll do at culling the herd – I have a hard time saying no!  I have been seeing a lot of people on the NB talking about purging and how if they don’t LOVE it, they aren’t keeping it, but that is hard.  What if you LOVE the color, but the formula kinda sucks?  What if it isn’t your fave, but it does work great for when  you need to look like a muggle?  What if it was a gift?  HTF?  The only one from a collection you don’t LOVE?  Blargh – stressed out even thinking about it!
Please let me know what you do when polish mania starts getting you down… I really need to know!
And, since I can’t leave you without swatches, here are pics of the American Apparel neons.  I took these in my light box, so they are sux0r! 


Bottle shot – woo woo!  I felt fancy taking this one!  ;)


This is Neon Red.  It’s not really red – much more pink / coral.  I really like it though.  Best formula of the collection.  It does dry matte (they all do), so I’m wearing a topcoat here.  I actually think I took this one outside the box, so it isn’t too bad.  More pink than China Glaze’s Flip Flop Fantasy.


Neon Yellow.  I’m just going to be honest here… this one sucked.  Big time.  I have been searching for a neon yellow and I knew they were troublesome, so I shopped around quite a bit before finally purchasing one.  AA is known for their excellent formulas, so I though this one would *have* to be better than the usual neon yellow.  I guess I’ve only tried one… but if the others are worse, I would say they were unworkable.  This was thick, gloopy, streaky, gummy, and never dried.  It also flooded my cuticles even though it was so thick and left my skin super-stained.  It doesn’t self level.  It almost seemed to be… chunky?  Is that possible?  I’m wearing a topcoat in this pic to try to even it out, but it didn’t help, plus you can’t tell because of the weird light box problems I’m having.  I think this was something like 5 coats.  I tried thinning it quite a bit and starting over, but it still took 5 coats to get close to even.  I guess I’m still looking for a neon yellow.  Suggestions?


Neon Green is also not the best example of what a polish should be.  Thick and goopy, unable to self-level, streaky, and not all that opaque.  I think this one is 4 coats.  Again, topcoat didn’t help.  Such an awesome color, but SO hard to work with.  It’s like… the opposite of China Glaze In The Limelight.  I mean, they both kinda suck and look similar at the end, but where Limelight is so hard to control because it’s so thin and watery, Neon Green is so hard to control because it is so damned gloppy.  Again, thinning didn’t really help.  This was one of the really grainy pics, I tried to clean it up as much as possible, but I know it still is pretty rough.  :(  Brighter and yellow-er IRL.

Neon Violet… ugh, this picture is so bad it is embarrassing.  I will eventually re-swatch this one and replace this hideous thing.  Fuzzy because of the box.  I didn’t realize my clean up sucked so bad until I started editing.  Anyway, the formula on this one was much improved from the previous two, but not as nice as Neon Red.  I believe this was 2 coats.  Pretty smooth and easy to work with, though still a bit streaky.  This is brighter IRL, you know how neons are.
I didn’t get Neon Orange and Neon Coral, I might try to get those sometime in the future.  Vampy Varnish didn’t have nice things to say about Orange, so I dunno if I’ll get it.  And… wait, there is a Neon Blue now?!  Where the heck did that come from?!?  I’m not crazy, right?!  That wasn’t in the original press photos?!  *sits on hands to keep from ordering*
Thanks my dears.  I really appreciate all of you.
<3 -
Rachel

Essie Braziliant Collection… and a long update… ermm… thing!

No, no, I’m not dead… life has just been kicking my ass lately!  Let me give you a little recap of my world since I last posted:

May 2nd – Went back to work, which was killer.  We were super-short-handed, so I worked a ton of hours this week and absolutely wore myself out.

May 4th – Our car wouldn’t start in the evening when I went to pick Daniel up from work.  He had to find a ride home and my dad had to come down to look at it.  They eventually got it started, and everything seemed ok, battery and alternator were both working fine… couldn’t figure it out.

May 5th – Car almost dies when I stop at a stoplight on my way to work.  I had to floor it to get it to go, which then caused a ton of smoke to shoot out of the back and it overheats.  Then again at the next stoplight.  All in the < 7 minutes it takes to get to work.  I made it there, but car was smoking and the temperature was way too high by the time I got parked.  Checked it out after work and sure enough, the coolant is leaking into the oil.  Looks like a chocolate milkshake.  This explains why it wouldn’t start the night before, and why it had been giving off white exhaust instead of the normal exhaust.  Had to find a ride home and Daniel’s parents loaned us their van.  Car needs a whole new engine – about $2000.  Car’s value is less than $1500.  Car becomes a permanent fixture in the bank parking lot and we begin looking at our options for financing another vehicle.

May 9th-13th – I have jury duty – yay.  :P  Pretty much the worst experience of my life.  I have absolutely no desire to judge anyone or hold their fate in my hands.  I had to attend every day, much to my dismay.  Fortunately, all but one of the trials I was in the jury pool for settled, but I did have to go through the selection process for one.  I was hoping they would choose their jurors before calling my name, but no, they called me.  I think I would have been excused either way – the prosecutor questioned me first and I was excused based on our close friend who is currently in prison (and I had visited the week I was on vacation), but I think the defense would have excused me based on my husband’s best friend being a police officer, my dad working for the police department for 15 years and me being around cops my whole life and some of them like family.  So, I never ended up on a jury, but I was so stressed out by the whole thing that I basically came home and hid for an entire week.  Also wore the same polish for 7 days straight – OPI’s Hot & Spicy.

May 16th-20th – Work is basically kicking my ass again.  Hired someone based on a phone interview because I never could actually meet her face-to-face – too busy!  :P  She had been interviewed by two other managers though and was hired both times, but on the first they had an internal application at the last minute and it is nearly impossible to turn those down (no training!), and the second upper management decided to split the full-time position into two part-time.  So, she comes well recommended, but it’s still a bit scary.  I run a drama-free zone, and I explained that to her – hopefully she doesn’t mess that up!  Also currently training a new employee, and having to issue verbal warnings to others, based on that new sales program I have mentioned before.  And looking at cars every evening when I get off work.  Realizing that they are EXPENSIVE!  My mom keeps telling me I can get her car (2002 Chevy Impala, 84k miles) for $5000, but that is absolutely not true.  The only Impala I found under $6000 had 175k miles.  Have one hopeful, but everything else has been a bust.  Stressful week!  I did manage to wear a different untried every day this week though!  :D

May 21st – Go to visit hopeful car in a town about 30 minutes away.  Very short on time – have a wedding to be at early in the afternoon.  Test drive car, ask lots of questions, decide to buy.  2002 Oldsmobile Intrigue, 104k miles.  Silver.  Good price.  Try to hurry very nice salesman as I now have less than an hour before the wedding starts.  Eventually get papers signed, hand over check, and tear out of the lot, flying to get home.  Have to stop for gas because, of course, no car on a sale lot has any gas in it.  Have less than 15 minutes to get ready for wedding.  We did make it, and we weren’t the last couple into the sanctuary, but it was close.  Thank god there was a long line at the guestbook, so the wedding did not start exactly on time!  So stressed about buying the car and trying to get to the wedding that I get a little bit drunk at the reception – just the nice buzzy drunk that doesn’t make you do stupid things or have a hangover!  Collapse on couch at 10pm.

May 24th – My brother and sister-in-law welcome their new baby, Bradley!  This is baby #3 for them.  They already have Nathaniel, 4, and Lorelei, 2.  Planning on another baby in the next 2 years – yikes!  We also have a nephew from Daniel’s brother (Sam, nearly 2), so this makes nephew #3!  Hoping there is at least one more girl so poor Lorelei doesn’t grow up being a complete tomboy – and I need someone’s nails to paint!  ;)

Soooo… yeah.  Thank you for reading all of that, if you made it through.  I won’t hold it against you if you scrolled down to pics – it was a loot to read!  ;)  I have lots of polishes photographed and lots more to swatch, so hopefully I won’t be taking such a huge break again!  Are you ready to finally see some swatches?

I fell in love with the Braziliant collection as soon as I saw promo pics.  I love bright oranges, and who can resist perwinkles and pale greens?!  This one did not disappoint.  Fab summer collection!

Absolutely Shore is a gorgeous pale green – it’s almost white with a green tint.  I really see this more as spring than summer, but I love it either way.  Didn’t really love the formula though… streaky, streaky, streaky!  This was 3 coats, and the last one was rather thick.  I’m pretty sure I used topcoat on this one to even out the application.  I don’t have anything in my stash comparable to this, but it might be similar to Nubar’s Baby Sprout, from the Spring 2011 collection.  I think it’s less white and more blue tinged.

Braziliant is a deep orange with a really dense pink shimmer that I have found nearly impossible to photograph.  I swear, it’s not a crème!  The shimmer is so dense that it doesn’t show up well unless you hit the right light… so kinda secret shimmer-ish?  If you really want a good look at the shimmer, check out Temptalia’s post here.  She really captures it in the last 2 pics she took.  I’m jealous, I never could capture it!  It is a gorgeous color, I went looking for it specifically when I started searching for this collection.

I LOVE Meet Me At Sunset – I am a sucker for these reddish-orange jelly-ish things!  This is the most color accurate pic, most of them came out more red than it actually is.  I have seen others refer to it as a red, but it’s orange – orange, I say!!  Similar in base color to Braziliant, just a touch more red.  Actually, when I bought these, the clerk thought they were the same and looked at the tops to be sure they weren’t.  To any polish-a-holic, they aren’t very comparable (hello?!  one is a shimmer, the other a crème!), but muggles just see orange.  The formula on this one is incredible.  It’s a little more opaque than a jelly, but sheerer and shinier than a crème.  Two coats to perfection.

Here you can see how amazingly shiny it is – no topcoat!!  :D  I really do love this one, but it is the one I have something quite similar to.  I compared it to OPI’s A Good Man-darin Is Hard To Find because I thought they looked close, but as you can see in the pic below, they really aren’t that close.  AGMIHTF (wow, what an acronym!), middle, is pinker and more crème-like than MMAS.

Once it was on the nail, I realized that MMAS is pretty darned close to Revlon Top Speed in Chili, which is one of my faves.  They aren’t quite dupes, but very very similar!  Chili is in the middle again.  It is a bit redder, but the finish is the same, and both polishes had fabulous formulas.

Finally moving on from Meet Me At Sunset… ;)

The finish and formula of Too Too Hot is the same as Meet Me At Sunset, so this was an instant love for me.  It’s an orange based pink that will look lovely on tips and toes.  It reminded me of Essie’s Watermelon, which I don’t actually own.  However, I do have Essie’s Rose Bowl, which is almost a dupe, just slightly warmer – I compared them in store before purchasing Rose Bowl and I could barely tell the difference.

So, Too Too Hot is not as close to Watermelon as I thought, seeing how it is warmer (and oranger) than Rose Bowl, which is a warmer version of Watermelon.  I have been loving Rose Bowl lately, even wore it as a pedi for over a month, but I think I prefer Too Too Hot after comparing them!

Super Bossa Nova was the hardest one for me to track down, which seems so bizarre – it’s a shimmery pink, I never dreamed it would be the first to go!  I went to 4 different stores before I finally found this one at Target.  Every other display I found, Super Bossa Nova was the only one gone!  I can see the allure though – a bright shimmery pink that will look great on almost all skin tones, plus it is super-pigmented, so you can get away with one careful coat.  I’m wearing 2 in the pic, but not because I had to… but because I’m weird and always do at least 2 coats!  It has a purpley/blue shimmer that is quite dense, but like Braziliant, it doesn’t always let itself be shown.  It isn’t quite as subtle, but she really sparkles when in the spotlight.  Because of the color of the shimmer, I thought I’d compare with China Glaze – 108 Degrees, middle.

When compared to 108 Degrees, the already kinda subtle shimmer in Super Bossa Nova looks almost invisible.  The base colors are similar, but the blue shimmer in 108 gives the color a blue cast Super Bossa Nova lacks.

I almost passed up Smooth Sailing – it’s gorgeous, but I was just sure it was a dupe for RBL’s Catherine H.  I picked it up and put it down about 5 times in the store before I finally just grabbed it and went to the register.  It’s a bright periwinkle / cornflower blue with tiny little flakes in it – the finish is the same as Mochacino from the retail collection.  I love this finish and hope Essie keeps using it!  It reminds me of little rain drops, all irregular shaped.  It might even be similar to the little flecks in Illamasqua’s Raindrops, but I have only seen pics, so I’m not positive on that one.  I’m lusting after it big-time though, so if anyone has it available, please let me know!

Back to the real question… is this a dupe for Catherine H?  Sorry to be a bummer to those of you who didn’t get your hands on the RBL before it sold out, but they aren’t that close.  Depending on your level of obsession, it might hold you over until Catherine H is available again, since it did get chosen in the Bring it Back vote, or it might kill your lemming altogether.

Catherine H is much deeper, dustier, and has a pink shimmer that is quite a bit different from the little flakes in Smooth Sailing.  However, the flakes in SS seem to have a bit of pink and blue in them, so it’s almost like a toned down version.  I love them both, but will probably not wear the RBL in the summer, since it is dusty and kinda murky looking.

Overall, the formulas on this collection were outstanding – the only one I had any trouble with was Absolutely Shore, and we all know how those white-based shades are.  I used 2 coats in all the pics above, except AS.  I love them all, but my top pics are Smooth Sailing and Braziliant for originality and Meet Me At Sunset and Too Too Hot for formula and perfect summer shades.

This collection is being spotted in Walgreens and Targets across the country, but Cilucia heard from Essie that they won’t be available at Ulta and other salon retailers until June 1st.  For those of you who need your e’s on the caps, there is still hope!  ;)

What do you think of Braziliant?  Any favorites?

Basecoat: none
Topcoat: none, except for Absolutely Shore – Beauty Secrets Fast Finish
Number of coats: 2, except for Absolutely Shore, 3

China Glaze - Island Escape Collection

I had planned on posting Chanel Mimosa next, but umm... you're going to have to wait on that one.  I did wear it, but ugh, application was terrible and it didn't look good.  It didn't seem so bad when I initially swatched it, but a full mani was not good.  I'll try it again when I get over being angry with her!  ;)

I knew I had to have the entire Island Escape collection the first time I saw swatches, but I've been lazy and haven't gotten around to posting it, though I've had it for, umm... at least 2 weeks.  Oops!  I really like the collection as a whole, though a couple of the formulas were a bit disappointing.  There is nothing earth shattering here, but it is a great summer collection that I will get a lot of use out of!

108 Degrees is a glass flecked pink, perfect for summer.  A bit on the sheer side, but I don't mind VNL when it's crazy-hot out.  I don't have an exact dupe in my stash, but it didn't seem all that original.

Seniorita Bonita is mostly purple, but it has some heavy pink shimmer, which is quite hard to capture.  This was the sheerest of the collection, and slightly disappointing because of it.  I really had to layer this one on to get it to show up.  It did dry though, and super-shiny at that, so maybe I shouldn't complain?

Blue Iguana is the last of the glass flecks in this collection, and I really love it.  I have seen a lot of complaints of how sheer it is, but I've seen worse.  It's a bit of a stainer, so be careful!  I can't wait to wear this one!  There is a slight pinkish duochrome to it, which makes it awfully similar to Nicole's You're S-Teal the One - I've compared them below - NOPI is in the middle.

These two are pretty much dupes.  Blue Iguana is much more pigmented than You're S-Teal the One, so if you're torn, I suggest it.  You can usually get China Glaze's cheaper too!  :)

Cha Cha Cha is the lone shimmer in this collection, supposedly similar to the famous Moonpool.  I don't own it, so I can't compare, but I prefer this to the pics I've seen of Moonpool - less frosty!  However, the application on this one wasn't great.  You can see some bald spots on my index nail, and this was 3 coats.

Electric Pineapple is a bright green/yellow creme which applies easily, especially after the sheerness of the previous polishes.  It looks similar to OPI's Fiercely Fiona, but they aren't dupes, as you can see below.

Fiercely Fiona is much more yellow than Electric Pineapple, but I love 'em both!

Papaya Punch is the last of the collection, and the best formula.  It's a gorgeous bright orange, not neon at all, but it will get attention!  It leans to the yellow side of orange, so depending on your skintone, this one might be troublesome for you.  I am addicted to oranges - it seems like I gotta have every one I see!

The cremes in this collection apply much better than the glass flecks, but the only real problem children are Seniorita Bonita and Cha Cha Cha.  SB was kinda watery and extremely sheer, CCC is prone to balding.  I <3 the colors, so I will deal, but if you don't have much patience, you might want to avoid these!  I LOVE Papaya Punch and Blue Iguana - both of them were stunning and pretty easy to apply.

Are you thinking about picking up any of this collection?  Tell me which ones you like!  :)

In other news, I head back to work tomorrow... ugh.  Can't vacations last forever?

Basecoat: none

Topcoat: none

Number of coats: varies, 2-3

Chanel Morning Rose

I received my second Chanel in the mail today and I just love it!  :D  I don't normally like pinks on me, but especially not lighter pinks - they always look funny with my yellow undertones.  However, Morning Rose is a yellow-based pink and I think it looks great!

It's a salmon-y pink with little gold flecks in it - totally unique to my collection, though to be honest, I don't have much in the way of these kinds of colors since they usually look so bad on me.

This one has a little bit less light, so you can see the little flecky shimmers a bit better.  I also have a close-up!

You can click on that for a bit of scariness!  ;)

Formula-wise, this was kinda on the sheer side, but I didn't mind.  What you are seeing is 4 coats.  I didn't have any trouble with bubbling or dry time, I used Posche as my topcoat and it dried pretty fast.  I've only been wearing it 12+ hours, so I can't really comment on wear, but it looks good right now!  ;)

If ya'll can think of similar things, please post them so I can be on the lookout!

Basecoat: Essie Feed Me + Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler

Topcoat: Posche

Number of coats: 4