A couple of Owls!

I have a bit of a bird phobia, but these are two owls I can appreciate!

Orly Nite Owl (pointer and middle finger) is a lovely taupe with shimmer - quite similar to Essie Mochachino, but more flattering on me as it seems a little warmer on the nail. Definitely one of those polishes that is appropriate in most situations, but isn't a complete snoozefest. I love having polishes like this in my collection!

L'Oreal Owl's Night (ring and pinky finger) is truly gorgeous . It contains the most beautiful gold shimmer - that is very apparent on the nail - in an olive-y green-brown-grey-something base. It's unique, murky, mysterious, but the gold shimmer is so fantastically vibrant! A winner.

That's all for today - short and sweet! I hope all of you lovely PoP readers are doing well!

kittytokaren

L'Oreal Bijou Gems B. Daring

This cost me $0.00. Freecycle is awesome.

L'Oreal B. Daring

This is possibly one of my favorite red polishes ever. And I hate red polishes. But this one: glittery, holo and jelly! ALL AT ONCE. The photos are a little bit off: it's actually a deeper, richer red (and it's a lot more holo) in person.

Video of B. Daring

Some drugstore yellows: Maybelline Banana Bamba and L'Oreal Yellow Buzz L'Oreal

Maybelline Banana Bamba

Cool yellow. I love yellow cremes. But not this one. This is four coats and the formula had a weird gritty, bumpy texture that kind of gave me the creeps. I think this was part of the Sun Salsa collection from earlier this spring.

L'Oreal Yellow Buzz

Warm yellow. Eh. The formula was kind of thick and sticky and it took four coats to even out. Also not a favorite.

L'Oreal Passport to Paradise (Summer 2010) vs. Essie North Fork (Summer 2009)

No, I'm not officially back but I just had to swatch these today and because I was swatching, I thought I might as well post. :) (A challenge considering that my medication is making me tremble today and painting my nails usually requires me to have a steady hand. Usually.)

North Fork is one of my favorite color collections in all nail-polish-dom -- and is my ultimate favorite Essie collection -- so it was worth it to me to pick these up to use as backups. Because these are good backups.

In these swatches, three fingers are the L'Oreal Passport to Paradise Colors and one finger is its Essie counterpart. Can you tell which fingers are the Essie swatches?

L'Oreal High Tide (and Essie Sag Harbor)

Dusty light blue with silver shimmer. In this case, the L'Oreal applied a bit better than the Essie in terms of coats: the Essie needed a fourth coat to even out the ridiculous cuticle drag I got but I got perfect coverage in three with the L'Oreal. In terms of settling down nicely on the nail, the Essie was definitely better. The shimmer is also just slightly more pronounced in the Essie.

L'Oreal Ocean Breeze (and Essie Shelter Island)

This is a slightly more muted bright blue IRL than my camera portrays it. Also, there's topcoat on this because it's my NOTD. That's how dupey these colors are: I'm actually wearing one polish on nine fingers and the other on the remaining one. The L'Oreal was a pain in the ass to apply: four goopy coats. Luckily, topcoat evened it out prettily. Definitely one where I prefer the Essie. Although looking at my nails now, I wish I could say, "Oh, my fine discriminating eye can totally see the difference... it takes a connoisseur to tell!" but I really can't. I keep looking at my mani in different lights and sometimes I think one appears darker than the others... but then I move my fingers and another finger appears darker than the other (and it's not the one I painted the Essie on).

L'Oreal Waters Edge (and Essie Greeport)

Not quite turquoise... verdigris perhaps? This one dried quick! Usually when swatching, I can take off most of a polish with a swipe of a paper towel (followed by a wiping with acetone) but this one barely came off with the paper towel. The Essie applied smoother but I had to be more careful about cuticle drag while the L'Oreal was thicker and a bit harder to apply. Three coats. I prefer the L'Oreal in this case... I despise cuticle drag.

So there it is. L'Oreal North Fork... I mean, Essie Passport to Paradise... yup. If you missed out on North Fork, definitely get these polishes because they are beautiful colors and on balance, not bad to apply. (I like the L'Oreal brush too: it's thicker and flat but smaller than the Pro Wide.) If you have North Fork and want slightly cheaper backups that are more readily available currently, definitely pick this up. This collection is offering you absolutely nothing new over North Fork though. I do not think it's just rebottled North Fork though because the formulas do feel different -- Essie's seems thinner, smoother while L'Oreal seems slightly more pigmented and thicker -- but who knows how this came about.

...oh, and the Essie polishes were on the third finger from the left (the ring finger) for all of the photos.

Quick and dirty swatch: L'Oreal Star Magnet Purple

Today has been a big growth day for Publish or Perish! We've added our FIFTH blogger, Jess, who has already introduced herself. Five geeky lacquer loonies who aspire -- at least, in the short term -- to the Ivory Tower. Five students posting about nail polish while procrastinating from their academic pursuits. If that doesn't guarantee a new post on most days, I don't know what will.

(By the way, if you love academia, nail polish and photographing your lacquered tips and toes, consider blogging with us! Email us at polishorperish@gmail.com for more details.)

In other PorP news, Kathleen at OCNailArt.com has provided our blog with our very own coupon code: type in "polishorperish" in the promo/coupon code box during checkout and get 20% off your entire order! Shipping is free for domestic and international orders over $20 (after discounts). This is a great resource for Konad kits and accessories!

Anyway, back to business:

Thank heavens it's summer vacation because I can keep an eye on Nail Board for when some enterprising NBer posts about some terribly irresistible eBay ("evilBay" in NB parlance) auction for an HTF polish. I finally got my little lacquered paws onto some L'Oreal Star Magnet polishes (AKA cheapie Lancome Le Magnetique).

For those who aren't familiar with these magnetic polishes, Boing Boing has a nice summary. You gotta love a nail polish that gets mentioned on Boing Boing. Synopsis of the BB post: polish has metal filings, polish bottle has attached magnet, put freshly lacquered nail up to the magnet and voila, metal filings in the polish create a starburst pattern. Instant geek sexy.

The colors aren't special but the magnetic part is. The bottle is terribly small (0.3fl oz as opposed to the typical 0.5fl oz) and the brush is terribly big. (Exactly how many times have I used the word "terribly" here? Too many.) I'm sure the brush would work better on big nailed gals but I have sadly small nails and polish cleanup around the edges of my nail post-application was a bitch.

But it's got magnetic filings and it creates a starburst pattern! Behold!

L'Oreal Star Magnet in Purple:

I'm not sure why L'Oreal decided to use an '80s space age computer game-like font for their logo here but never judge a book by its cover, right?

What was pretty nifty to me was that I could see the the magnetic filings being drawn into the starburst pattern while it was held up close to the magnet: a little dollop of polish even flew off of my nail onto the magnet.

On the topic of dollops, because Star Magnets are HTF, I usually do my nails in another (regular) polish to achieve maximum opacity with only one layer of the Star Magnet. That way, opaque but I'm not wasting the precious polish. Once the polish is dry, the filings are no longer mobile enough to be pulled in by the magnet so doing two coats with it is tantamount to wasting the polish.

I decided to further jazz my nails up with a couple of nail art rhinestones. Not the most interesting pattern -- or the greatest execution -- but you guys get the general idea. This is my first foray into 3D nail art. Or maybe just sticking stuff on my nails on top of my polish.

You know what I'd love to try but would probably suck at? Acrylic 3D nail designs! It's not really the sort of thing I can wear while teaching and holding office hours but seems like a lot of fun to try out!