[Review+Swatch] China Glaze Apocalypse of Colour Collection for Halloween 2014

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Hi! I have another Halloween collection for you today. This one's from China Glaze and is ominously named the Apocolypse of Colour - enjoy! :)

[Review+Swatch] OPI Peanuts Collection for Halloween 2014

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Hi! I have a quick review of OPI's Halloween collection for you today. This year's collection is inspired by the Peanuts! Who doesn't love Peanuts? Plus, I couldn't wait to try the glitters. :)

Good Grief, 3 coats: medium yellow creme. I found the formula very watery and thin. It's still controllable, but you have to be more careful. Application was a little streaky, but not too bad for a yellow.

To Be or Not To Beagle, 1 coat over Good Grief (left): black hex and bar glitters with matte multicolored hexes. The multicolored glitters are: pale pink, light green, light blue, medium blue, light yellow, light orange, and red. It's very dense so glitter payoff is great. It applies evenly without any problems. Love!

Where's My Blanket, 1 coat over Good Grief (right): black glitter with colored hexes in light orange and pale yellow. It's less dense than To Be or Not To Beagle, but still has good glitter payoff. The consistency is great and it applies evenly.

Who Are You Calling Bossy?!?, 2 coats: black creme. The formula is great - great consistency and good pigmentation. It's not a one-coater, but I can see it becoming one with use after it thickens up a little bit. I'm just guessing though, so don't hold me to it. ^^

Verdict: The cremes for the most part, applied easily without too much trouble. They're not crazy unique, but if you need a nice black or yellow, they're good options. The highlight of this collection are the glitters. Those are definitely unique and perfect for a fun, colorful mani. :)

Availability: Peanuts by OPI and Little Peanuts mini pack can be found at Professional Salons, including Chatters, Planet Beauty and ULTA. Peanuts nail lacquers will retail for $9.50 ($11.50 CAN) each; Little Peanuts mini pack will retail for $13.95 ($17.50 CAN).

[Review+Swatch] OPI Ford Mustang Collection

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Hi everyone! I have a quick review of OPI's limited edition Ford Mustang collection for you today. :)

[Review+Swatch] Icing Witch's Brew

Good morning! Today I'm showing you an untried that I finally got around to wearing. It's been gathering dust in my helmer, so I pulled it out for my northern lights mani. I can't believe I haven't worn it yet. I have so many untried like this that I need to wear. Must work on this!

[Review+Swatch] OPI Gwen Stefani Collection

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Hey guys! It's already Friday - TGIF! Today I have swatches of the new Gwen Stefani for OPI collection. This collection features several different finishes, so there's something for everyone. There's also nail art at the end, so keep reading!

Butter London Black Knight Rises

Black Knight, 3 coats: a black jelly base filled with fine silver, red, blue, fuchsia/pink glitter.  I don't know why, but when I first got this I wasn't as enthralled by it as I am now.  At the time I didn't think the colored glitters showed up as much as I thought it would.  Maybe the lighting in that room was bad, or maybe I was blind?  I finally pulled out Black Knight again today and did a full swatch.  I'm so glad I did, because it's really gorgeous!  And yes, all the colored glitters show up well in all their sparkling glory.

It's so sparkly, it's blinding my camera!  You really have to see it out in the sun. :)  Next time, I'll probably just layer 1 coat of Black Knight over a black creme.  The glitters are really dense, so I think it'll look the same.

What do you think of Black Knight?  Do you own this beauty? 

♥ Liz

Sally Hansen Loves Me Not

Today I have for you a polish from Prabal Gurung's Spring 2012 line for Sally Hansen.  Here's some background information on this line:

Prabal Gurung’s three-color Complete Salon Manicure collection features eye-catching brights and creamy pale hues with an edge that reflects the designer’s spring collection inspired by Nobuyashi Araki’s photographic series, “Sensual Flower.”On Prabal Gurung’s fall runway, models sported Loves-Me-Not, a deep plum.

2 coats, Loves Me Not.  First of all, OMG is this not absolutely gorgeous?  Loves Me Not is a black base packed with duochrome flecks that shift from blue-purple to pink-purple.  The flecks are so dense that the polish looks more purple than black.  I would actually classify this as a purple polish despite the black base.  When applying the polish, the polish actually looks gritty.  However, I didn't find it gritty once it dried.  With top coat, everything was smooth and removal was painless.

Overall, I love this polish!  I'm so pleased that...
a) the shimmer is strong
b) and clearly duochrome (no squinting required!)

I literally stood in my driveway and twirled.  I probably looked crazy, but you can see clear changes in the shimmer depending on how the sun hits it.  It's fun, I tell you.  Believe me, you need this. x)

WHAT THEY COST: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, $7.99 each.

WHERE TO FIND THEM: Sally Hansen products are available at chain drug stores, food stores and mass merchandisers nationally.

Will you be getting this?  Or if you already own it, what are your thoughts on it?  Let me know in the comments! :)


Liz

*The polishes reviewed in this post were sent to me for my honest review.
Please view my Disclosure Policy for more info.

NOTD: Jewelled Mani

Lately I've been wanting to do something super sparkly and jewel-like.  So here's what I came up with.

Deborah Lippmann: Get This Party Started Swatches

My first Deborah Lippmanns, and I'm so in love with this set!  Muchas gracias to the bf for getting these for me! <3

Black: Forget You  // Pink: Candy Shop

BYS Wonderland Collection

Minus one.  I got two out of the three in a swap with Ame of GiMiKd Girl!

L to R: Down the Rabbit Hole, Through the Looking Glass

Down the Rabbit Hole is a black jelly base with tons of holographic micro glitter.  This one is really gorgeous in the sun and super sparkly!  I think this was opaque in 3 coats.

Through the Looking Glass has a clear base filled with blue and yellow micro glitter.  This one's apparently a close dupe to OPI's Absolutely Alice.  I think the difference was that Through the Looking Glass had less yellow glitter, which is a shame because it would be perfect with a bit more yellow glitter!  For some reason while I was swatching this, I was determined to get it opaque.  5 coats later it wasn't anywhere near opaque, but I didn't want to take pics of my stained nails.  I noticed China Glaze Blue Iguana is a similar blue to the glitter in here, so I did one coat over the glitter, then another coat of TTLG.  The result?  Amazing!  The blue is a perfect match and you need only one coat as a base.  It actually makes it just look like it's opaque from the blue glitter, not like it has a jelly base.  So I was pleased.  I suggest doing one coat Blue Iguana, than 2-3 coats TTLG. :)

Galaxy Nails: An Explosive Combination :)

Hello~!

I'm finally back at home after a grueling finals week.  After some vigorous packing, moving all my things out, a 3 hour drive back home, and a good night's sleep- I'm up for some major posting.  I also have so many polishes to show you!  I had a lot of polish packages sent home, just in case they didn't come to my dorm before I moved out.  I have a giveaway I won, a swap package, and a Ozotics I purchased waiting to be swatched.  That's 18 polishes in all, not including the ones I purchased in store, and I still have the 10 polishes I recently won from another giveaway on its way to me.  It's going to be a great month! :)

And here's finally the long awaited galaxy nails post.  Here's the un-cropped pic from the teaser.

If you guessed Nfu Oh, you were right!  Here's what I did, I applied two coats of Sinful Colors Black on Black as my base.  Then I applied 2 thin coats of Sinful Colors Hottie.  Hottie is a glitter polish with a clear blue base.  Actually when I purchased it, my bf said it's like your Nfu Oh, at which I vehemently shook my head and said, "No way! Nfu Oh is a flakie! This is glitter."  He probably thought I was crazy, but that gave me the idea of pairing them together.  First here's a pic with just Hottie over black.

I think Hottie has been compared a lot to OPI Last Friday Night, but I'm not sure if they are dupes.  This had a lot of blue/green and orange/gold glitter.  There's a lot of glitter, so actually one thick coat should be enough.  I just used a thin second coat to get some of the edges I missed.  You should make sure the black has been covered sufficiently.  Next, I added a coat of Nfu Oh #53.  The dark blue glitter in the polish really added depth and a pretty blue flash.  The flakies also added red and pink into the mass of colors.  Finally, I finished off with two coats of Seche Vite for extra shiny smoothness.  One coat is fine- it won't be bumpy, but the second coat gives it a glassy finish.

And since I talked a lot, I will now picture spam you.  I honestly couldn't pick pics, so  I apologize if you feel they're all the same. -_-

Indoor pic!  Look at all that color!

Indoor Pic

What do you think?  I thought it was absolutely gorgeous. :)
Oh and don't forget to click those pics for some super close-ups!


Liz

Gray's Anatomy loves black

I've already done a review of Wet n Wild's Gray's Anatomy, but who knew it looked amazing over black?  This is one coat of Gray's over two coats of Sinful Colors Black on Black. 

Lovely, yes?  Layering it over black made the colors really pop and strengthened the duochrome effect.  Plus, only 1 coat!

Yummy olive green :)

duochrome!

It's almost Easter!  Sorry this is kinda dark for Easter.  I have pics of my Easter mani ready, so I'll show you guys that tomorrow.  :)


Until then, Happy Easter!  And goodnight.


Liz

YNOTD = Yesterday's Mani ^^

This is going to be quick!

So I put on two coats of China Glaze Techno Teal from the Tronica Collection.  I figured out how to apply it without having any drag.  I put enough polish on the brush to cover the nail and did one swipe.  For the second coat I went back and covered any spots I missed.  I did this real quick so I didn't cover the whole nail.  Dry time is really fast!  Then because I wanted my nails to be more complex, I dabbed on Zoya Faye with my brush, trying to do a gradient.  This is the result.



It looked a lot better in my head.  It wasn't much of a gradient but more like I dipped my tips in Zoya Faye.  I thought about erasing it, then decided to do one more thing to see if I could save it.  PS- Do you see the tiny bit of holo in Techno Teal on my ring and pinkie?  (Please say yes.)

Using Sinful Colors Black on Black and tape, I did a diagonal peek-a-boo look and added white streaks on my accent nail.  I still wasn't satisfied, but it got rid of the 'I have to erase this now' urge.  While I was taking pics it did grow on me.  I probably should've sponged Zoya Faye on, but I'm still not sure about this color combo.  With the black it did look better.  Oh and on the places where I did a better gradient the color changed from Teal to Indigo to Violet. 

Okay, now I'm off to study!

Liz

Sinful Colors Haul

Second post for today!

Here's my Sinful Colors haul of 6 polishes.

From L-R: Unicorn, Black on Black, Social Ladder, Timbleberry, Mint Apple, Green Ocean

This was my second time buying Sinful Colors.  The first time I bought Let's Meet (a shimmery lemon yellow) and What's Your Name? (black with teal glitter).  Both didn't quite live up to my expectations in terms of color and formula, but since these are sold at Walgreens for $1.99, I guess I shouldn't have expected too much.  However, Sinful Colors has some really cute colors and there are some colors that are total gems.  You just have to find them. ;)

From L to R: Social Ladder, Unicorn, Timbleberry, Black on Black, Mint Apple

I used three coats for all of these.  Social ladder is this pale pink tinted white with pink and green shimmer, although the green doesn't show up as much on the nail.  It's pretty and opaque in three coats, but can be a tiny bit streaky.

Unicorn was my least favorite from this haul.  It's a bright light yellow and extremely streaky.  Even after three coats I wasn't satisfied.  Seche Vite did make it more even, but still streaky.  Yellows are known to be streaky, so if you're looking for a good yellow, I'd suggest spending a few more bucks for one with a better formula.  The yellow was also bit too bright for me.  I was expecting a more soft, pale yellow.  This polish also stained my nails yellow! Yuck :(  Be sure to use base coat with this one!

Timbleberry was my favorite out of these and all Sinful Colors polishes I own.  (Hint: This is one of the gems!)  The formula was great and the color was extremely pigmented.  It's this gorgeous bright hot (x100) pink coral.  I could have used 1 coat for this, but two is better.  In the swatch I did three for consistency.  Also...timbleberry?  I don't know if it's supposed to be spelled like that or if was a typo.  It looks like it goes by both Timbleberry and Thimbleberry, but my bottle's label is missing its "h."

Black on Black also had a nice formula like Timbleberry.  I was a bit hesitant to buy it, but Erika from Chloe's Nails seems to love it so I had to give it a try.  And I'm glad I did!  This was also a potential one coater, although I recommend two.  I also layered Green Ocean over it as seen below.

Green Ocean is a clear base with green flakies and regular green, blue, and orange glitter.  The orange seems to be more of a flash but I'm not sure.  I'll let you know once I do a full manicure with it. This is so pretty against a black base, BUT it's so lumpy!  And won't smoothen out. :(  Otherwise, I love it.

Finally, Mint Apple, a shimmery mint green with a subtle gold shimmer.  I've heard a lot about this one, so I bought it to see if it lived up to the hype.  The formula was a bit sheer, but overall it was okay and not streaky.  My swatches aren't showing the exact color of Mint Apple.  This color just wouldn't photograph and my pics are making it bluer than it really is.  It's a lot greener and minty-er...(well, duh).  It's a nice color, but I don't know if I'm loving it as much as the other bloggers.  I think I prefer the more blue Ocean Love Potion from Sephora by OPI.  I haven't done a full mani with this color yet, so maybe my opinion will change.  I'll also do a comparison when I get the chance.

Unicorn was in the Polka Dots display for Sinful Colors, so I tried using it for the dots with Timbleberry as the base color.  As you can see, I suck at doing polka dots.  Next time I'll make them smaller and more spread out.  I also decided it looked too summery for right now, so I tried this:

This is Unicorn topped with Nicole by OPI Make a Comet-ment.  The dense holo glitter did a good job of hiding any streaky-ness.  It looks nice in this pic, but I really did not like this.  Because the glitter is so dense, it looked like gray dust against the light yellow.  I think Make a Comet-ment looks better with dark colors, or if you do top a light color, don't do the whole nail.  Instead do something like this:

This is a mani I did for my little sis before leaving for school.  The blue is China Glaze First Mate; the light blue is Essie Coat Azure, and the glitter is Make a Comet-ment.


Whew!

Hope you all enjoyed your Saturday, and I'll see yous tomorrow! :)


Liz

Nicole by OPI - Make a Comet-ment

Here's a quick post before I leave for class.

This is Nicole by OPI's Make a Comet-ment (a silver holo glitter) over Sinful Colors What's Your Name (a black with teal micro glitter).

 Hm... I see why people don't include thumbs in their pics.  They look fat and ugly. -_-

  And because I couldn't leave it alone, I did Erika from Chloe's Nails 's diagonal tape mani.

Enjoy your Tuesday! :)


Liz