[Review+Swatch] Zoya Naturel Satins Collection for 2015

Press Sample

Hi, everyone! Can you believe it's already February? Today I have the rest of the Zoya Naturel Satins collection for you. If you missed my first post, head on over here for more info on the satin finish and my in depth review of Ana. The rest is all below, and the swatches are all shown without top coat to show the semi-matte finish.

[Review+Swatch] Zoya Entice Collection for Fall 2014

Press Sample

It's Monday again! Seems like the days are just flying by. Today I have the new fall creme collection from Zoya - Entice!

[Review+Swatch] NYC Rule The City

Press Sample

Hi everyone! Today I have an NYC polish to show you from their new Fashion Queen collection for fall 2014. I'm surprised that this is actually my first color polish from them. I think I have a top coat, but no colors. I'm glad I got to try them out this time, because this color is gorgeous!

Rule The City, 2 coats: dark grey base with shimmer like silver micro glitter and fine red glitter. The overall look of this combination is that of a gunmetal polish flecked with red sparkles. Particularly in the sun, the red is more subdued and glistens like rubies. It only look two coats to become opaque, and the formula was excellent.

In the shade, the red glitter becomes more noticeable. I took the above pic in my lightbox, which makes metallics and glitters look lighter. The sun pictures above are more accurate in showing the dark base.

One thing I want to mention. I noticed that the mouth of the NYC bottle has a flat edge that slants slightly inwards. I was going to take a pic, but forgot. I thought this was a nice touch, since it prevents polish from coating the outer rim and gluing the cap shut. More brands should do this!

Verdict: Overall, Rule The City is a wonderful color to wear for fall and Halloween! I don't own the others, but the Fashion Collection has five other polishes in beautiful jewel tones. At $1.99 each, they're definitely worth checking out. :)

Availability: NYC polishes are available at chain drugstores and mass merchandisers nationwide.


Do you own any of the polishes from this collection? Let me know in the comments below!

Liz

OPI DS Raw Granite Series Review + Swatches

Press Sample

Hey all!  Today I have the new OPI DS Raw Granite shades to share with you.  According to OPI, these granite-inspired hues feature a "matte textured finish with mineral-like reflections."  While these do dry matte, they are not the same as liquid sands.  They don't contain any of the grainy "sand" textures.  Instead they dry down like a regular matte glitter polish.

OPI DS Pewter, 2 coats: matte pewter gray packed with very fine and small silver glitter.  Above you can see how it looks on its own and with top coat.  Personally I like it with top coat, because it brings out all the glitters.  But when it's matte, it definitely has a much softer feel.  This is one of those shades that I'll probably wear differently depending on my mood.  In terms of dupes, it does feel very similar to OPI Metallic 4 Life (Nicki Minaj), which I actually prefer.  Again, it's really up to preference. ^^

no top coat

top coat

OPI DS Lapis, 1 coat: matte denim-blue with very fine silver glitter.  This is so pigmented, it really only needs one coat!  It's also my favorite of two, both matte and with top coat.  But I have to say that it's super gorgeous with top coat!  This one reminded me of China Glaze Skyscraper (Fall 2011), but it's much more blue while Skyscraper leans a bit more purple.

no top coat

top coat

Verdict:  They're both perfect for fall since they're darker colors, but they still lend some softness due to the matte finish and silver glitter.  Both shades had excellent formulas that covered in 1-2 coats.  If it wasn't clear in my review, my personal favorite is OPI DS Lapis.

Availability: OPI DS Pewter and DS Lapis are now available at professional salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, jcp Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, ULTA and ulta.com for $12.50 ($14.95 CAN) suggested retail for each nail lacquer.


What do you think?  Do you like these matte or with top coat? :)

Liz

Essence Grey-t To Be Here

Wow, it's Thursday already!  It feels like this month is just flying by.  Today I have another polish I bought from Ulta last week.  I've had my eye on this polish for months now, but only just got it.  My timing couldn't have been any better, because all of the Essence polishes were on sale for 99 cents!

Grey-t To Be Here, 2 coats: grey creme-jelly with warm pink shimmer.  Gah, I'm seriously in love with the pink shimmer.  I was afraid the shimmer might be subtle, but it's not. :D  Application was lovely as well - two smooth easy coats with quick dry time.

 
Isn't it so soft and pretty?  I don't know why it took me so long to get this.  I also think I need more grey polishes.  For some reason, I don't have many.  Any recommendations?

Also, does anyone know if Layla is being discontinued at Ulta?  I couldn't find their display, and the sales girl helped me find it in the clearance section.  She said it looks like they might not be carrying them anymore.


Availability: You can find Essence polishes at Ulta for 1.99 each.

Liz

Rivka Holographic: Jenny

Today I'm reviewing one of the four Rivka polishes I got in my swap with Sarah of Them Pretty Colors.

 

$OPI: Caught With My Khakis Down

Today I have Sephora by OPI's Caught With My Khakis Down. 

Franken: The Other Heather

Hey all!

Yesterday was really sunny!  Max got to run around outside, so he was happy little dog.  And while I was outside, I took some pics of this polish.  Meet The Other Heather.  :)

Chubby pinky -_-

Don't mind the white doodles I did.  After taking some pics, I got bored and drew on them because I didn't think I was going to be taking more pictures of it.  But after uploading my pics and seeing that the camera didn't pick up the true color at all, I went back out to give it another try.  And yes, this is a franken made by yours truly.  This was my first time making a franken, and I can understand why people do it.  It's so calming to watch polish (especially glitter) pour into another bottle, and so exciting to shake it up and watch it mix. :)

The Other Heather is a dusty greyple with multicolored shimmer and glitter.  What is a greyple you ask?  A greyple is short for grey blurple (blue-purple).  I just made that up.  No matter how hard I tried to get the true color to show up, I really couldn't.  It's definitely an interesting color.  In some indoor lighting it looks like a grey indigo.  In others it looks dark grey.  Most of the time it looks grey blurple.  Outside in the sunlight, it looks grey purple with some blue undertones.  For the most part, I classify this as being more purple than blue.  The shimmer in here is multicolored, but white and blue are the most dominant.  The pink shimmer seems to be only visible in sunlight.  For the glitter I used mostly Wet n Wild's Party of Five Glitters, but I also added a little bit of Milani Gems.  The polish also contains some blue, green, and yellow micro glitter.  If I were to make this again, I would probably skip adding Pof5 and Gems.  They look a bit random.

And...I talked a lot.  Again.  So here's some picture spam. :)  I recommend clicking on the pics to see the shimmer.  These were all 3 coats, but it was opaque in two.

They should make anti-stick polish bottles.  I hate how the glitters sticks to the sides.  Makes me want to scrape it off!

Indoors

How'd I do?  My 10 year old brother thought it only looked nice in sunlight.  It does look nicer in sunlight, but I thought the color wasn't too bad.  I think it's surprisingly soft and girly for a dark dusty color.  I may be biased cause I made it though. :P

Oh yeah, and I named it The Other Heather because it reminded me of Heather flowers and Heather grey.  I don't know, I associate the name Heather with grey. -_-  The color is clearly not anything like that of Heather flowers or Heather grey...so it's The Other Heather. :)


Liz

NOTD: Rain, Rain, Go Away

It hasn't been that sunny these past few days, so I haven't really been swatching much.  My pictures don't come out that great unless I have plenty of natural lighting. :/  Today was no exception.  It's dark and gloomy out and earlier there was a crazy downpour of rain.  In hopes of sunnier days, I did a mani that I hope would appeal to the weather gods. :P

I wanted to do an ombre mani, but didn't have enough similar blues.  So I tried my best to lighten some colors with glitter. :P  See how the sky and clouds "gradually" get lighter. :)  On my pinky I drew a nice summery sun.  On my ring finger (third from the right), I used BYS Color Change Royal Blue.  It's actually really nice because it changes lighter or darker, so depending on my temp it gives the ombre a different transition in color.  My favorite is when it's darker toward the tips, cause then it's like the sky is turning lighter...quite literally.

With flash

Here's a complete list of polishes I used for this mani: China Glaze First Mate, BYS Color Change Royal Blue, Essie Coat Azure, Sally Hansen Gray by Gray, Revlon Cloud, Revlon Sheer Cotton, Hard Candy Hick, Sinful Colors Hottie, SC Unicorn, LA Colors Wave Length, Milani Nail Art white.  If you look closely in the flash pic, you might notice a very subtle pink shimmer.  That's from Hard Candy Hick, which I'll review once it gets sunnier.

Hopefully you guys are experiencing better weather!  Max and I are so ready for some more sun.

That window needs some cleaning...

Liz

--
PS. Check out this nice giveaway! :)

Beauty Fulfilled's Blog Birthday- Kaushal's giving away a lot of goodies like nail polish and make-up!

Sephora by OPI: If You've Got It, Haunt It

Hi all :)

This is the second polish I promised to review.  $OPI If You've Got It, Haunt It is from the limited edition 2010 Halloween collection.  It has a sheer charcoal base packed with silver micro glitter.  It also has fine black and multi-colored glitter.  The consistency of the polish is a bit gloopy because it has to hold onto all the glitter.  I used to shy away from this polish because it wouldn't come off!  But I tried out the foil-method and it just slipped off.  So now I don't mind using it. :)  The finish is rough, so if you want it to be smooth you'll have to use tons of top coat.  I personally don't mind.  I used two coats, but it was a tad bit sheer.  I would recommend two thick coats or three thin ones.

Sorry, this is the only pic I had of it alone.  So yes I re-used it from the last post.

I wanted to freshen it up the next day, so I decided to experiment with Zoya Faye.


Mostly the gold shimmer in Faye stood out, but there was still that brownish purple tint left.  I think it provided a nice contrast that is a bit more complex than what a normal gold would have given it.

This pic makes me think this would have looked amazing matte!

Indoor pic

At certain angles you can see the purple more.  It did have a bit of a reddish hue, although not as much as this picture implies.



Overall, I thought this was a nice combo.  What do you think?


Liz

NOTD & Update

Hi!  Sorry I haven't updated in like a week, and I missed Pink Wednesday too! :(  May is not a fun time for a college student. *sigh*  Thought I'd just share what I've been up to (besides finals and 12 page papers), so I guess this post will have more of a personal touch.

Last Tuesday was the 100th day anniversary for me and my bf, so he sent me flowers!  This wasn't the first time, but it was the biggest yet, so I was pleasantly surprised. ^^

Too pretty

He also got me OPI Teenage Dream and Black Shatter, which I've been lemming.  I know I didn't run out and get those when they came out, but I've been meaning to.  I'm currently wearing this combo right now, because it actually came in the mail today.  It was supposed to come last Tuesday, but there were some problems with shipping.  So I'm actually getting another set free!  Not sure if I'll be swapping those or giving them away.  We shall see. ;)

These were taken in weak, indirect sunlight coming in through the window, so they're not the best pics.  I'll snap more pics outside tomorrow to show you the amazing holo and glitter.  I also should've done another coat of Teenage Dream, but I was too excited and wanted to see it with the shatter right away.  Doesn't look nearly as sheer in person though.

The day after our anniversary was his birthday, so I made a surprise late night meal for him.  I'd post pics, but I forget to take pics after plating it.  Basically, I made kimchi fried rice rolls wrapped in bacon, whisked egg rolls, and some veggies on the side.  I made this off the top of my head, so I was glad they were edible.  The bf said they were good, but who knows. :P

Since we couldn't really celebrate our anniversary and his bday, he celebrated this past Sunday.  I treated him to a late birthday dinner at a Japanese restaurant.  We had soup, salad, duck spring rolls, and sushi, which was pretty good since we're in the middle of cornfields. -_-

Yes, that's my bf's arm.  He didn't want to be in the pic. ^^;

Yum!

For this dinner, I went with the less conventional date shade...grey/silver.  I did think about wearing some thing pink and red, but settled on this.  It's $OPI If You've Got It, Haunt It, which was the first polish the bf has bought me.  He likes it when I wear it, so I chose it over the pinks.

So, that's all the fun stuff that's been happening in my life in a nutshell.  Hopefully I'll be able to post a bit more, especially during the weekend.  After that I might be MIA again, since it's finals week for me.

Anyhow, sorry there wasn't much nail stuff in this post.  But I hope you enjoyed this more personal post too.  I'll be reviewing the $OPI and OPI polishes featured in this post in more detail tomorrow, so don't forget to drop by! :)


Liz

Wet n Wild - Gray's Anatomy

Hope everyone's Saturday is going well.  This is my first post for today, and I'll be posting another one before the day ends.

Here's Wet n Wild's Gray's Anatomy.  It's a silvery duochrome of predominantly purple and green, but also blue.  It's a bit sheer, so I used 3 coats for these swatches.  Application was pretty good and dry time was fast.  It's fastdry, so it should be... right?  I assess dry time by if the polish is dry enough to allow me to put on a second coat after finishing my first coat on the other hand.  I didn't have any problems, so dry time is at least normal. 

Apparently this a dupe for Deborah Lippman's Wicked Game.  I don't own Wicked Game so I can't do a comparison, but Scrangie did one and you can see it here.  The duochrome effect is most visible under low light, but you're nails will shift from purple to green depending on the angle the light hits it.  Overall, I think this is a nice polish, and a much cheaper alternative if you don't want to spend $16-18 on Wicked Game.

If you didn't know, Imperfectly Painted is holding a 1 year blog-o-versary giveaway.  There are 3 prize sets, so go enter!
You can also win a set of 7 BYS Colour Change laquers by entering You've Got Nail's giveaway.

Well, that's it for now.
Don't forget to check back later for the second post. :)


Liz

Misa- Genie in This Bottle

Yay it's finally the weekend!  I have so many polishes to show you, so I might start posting more than one a day this weekend.  The swatches I've been showing you lately were from last week, when I couldn't upload them.  Since then I've swatched a bit more, so I want to be up to date on my pictures.  That way I can show you my NOTDs.  :)

Today I present you with Misa's Genie in This Bottle.  This is my first Misa polish and I'm hooked.  Genie in This Bottle is a pale gray base with pretty purplish pink shimmer.  It's really gorgeous in the sunlight.  I've done gold tips with this polish  before and it looked so angelic.  (I'll try to do it again and post it sometime.)  The application for this polish was excellent, and even though it's light it was pretty opaque in two coats.  All my swatches are two coats and you can see VNL, but I personally like it because it kind of looks like a french.  If you don't want VNL, I'm guessing 3 coats will be sufficient.

And finally, here are a couple more giveaways:

Polish this!

Lovin Nailz


Enjoy your Friday!

Liz