Smitten Polish: Butter Mint

I'm going to apologize for this photo. My camera hates taking pictures of mint polish, so I had to attempt to tweak it a bit in Photoshop. Even then it's not right :(

Butter Mint was a polish that applied very easily and I love black glitter :) it added a little something to the already awesome mint polish!

Anyone have any tips for photographing mint polish? help! haha

Information: Facebook

CrowsToes: Green Thumb of Doom

Before turquoise, I loved mint green. I had this thing about collecting all of the mint green polishes that I could possibly collect (because back then, it wasn't as common) and it still holds a soft spot in my nail polish heart.

CrowsToes: Green Thumb of Doom is perfect layered over mint green. It's a shimmery green that has a multichrome effect from green to blue to gold. The gold shimmer really shows well on the nail. I don't think my pictures quite got it, but even with my love of glitter I didn't get tired of this polish for the week that I wore it (sorry about the nail growth, heh).

Also it's showing up a little bit more aqua in these pictures, but because I used a mint green base, it was more mint green. Not sure why it's not showing up correctly, but you can definitely see the gorgeous shimmer!

Information: Facebook // Llarowe // Overall Beauty

Smitten Polish: Pink Goes Good with Green

I love mint green! I think mint green was the first "odd" color that I loved.

Smitten Polish: Pink Goes Good with Green is part of their newly launched polish line inspired by the Wizard of Oz. I love the details in this polish, it's filled with different shapes of magenta, pink and light green glitter.

This is 3 coats by itself -- I do sort of wish I had layered it over a mint green to have it lean more green (versus blue, although this picture looks more blue than it really is). Either way, it's a very lovely polish with awesome application, this is no cleanup!

One can find Smitten Polish on their Facebook here, their Etsy here and also at Llarowe here.

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Sally Hansen Oxide and Green Tea (Tracy Reece, Fall 2011)

I'm warming up to the Sally Hansen Complete line. I find that I really like the ones that I like (and I just don't buy the rest). I'm getting used to the ginormous brush and I've learned to save up my CVS ExtraCare coupons for the price.

Sally Hansen Green Tea

Some things don't change. Like my love of minty greens. I have a thousand of them but I'm still buyin'. Three coats. Wish it was glossier but it applies fine. :) 

Sally Hansen Oxide

This one blew my mind. This is one freakishly shimmering gunmetal. So, so good. Also three coats, a bit thinner than I thought it would be but turned out very, very nice. The shimmer is slightly iridescent so it does mostly look like silver but it glistens a bit purple and a bit blue as well. 

Closeup of Oxide

Hello Kitty Banana Cream and Minty

So I've really gotten into jewelry making lately. (I don't know why I'm taking up all these craftsy hobbies lately: first crocheting and knitting, now jewelry making... I REALLY don't have time for this sort of hobbying.) And I was on FireMountainGems.com, contemplating a huge order.

See, this is how Fire Mountain seduces you: every item on their website has four prices. There's the price for if you buy 1-14 units of anything on the website, then between 15-49, then 50-199, and then 200+. The prices are highest if you buy the least amount of stuff but then it gets lower and lower the more you buy and buy (in one sitting). The prices of popular and expensive stuff, such as Swarovski crystal beads or things made out of real 14k gold, barely budges a dollar but, for the majority of items, by the time you have 50 items in your cart, cost between 1/4 to 1/2 the original price! (Man, if they sold nail polish like this... yikes.)

Anyway, the reason I brought up Fire Mountain was because they have a lot of handy dandy guides, such as Pantone's "Color Forecast" for the upcoming seasons. I don't really get how the Color Forecast thing works but here the projected hot colors of Spring/Summer 2011. I was struck at how many of the spring and summer polish collections had colors that can be found in this palette. Maybe there really is something to these "forecasts"? Or maybe more people pay attention to them than I had thought.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because it looks like the Hello Kitty "Liquid Nail Art" polishes are taking some cues from some of these...

Hello Kitty Banana Cream

The one saving grace of these polishes: they come in cute little Hello Kitty head bottles. This basic pastel yellow creme was hell: four coats, still bald patches here and there. Some cuticle drag. Yellows are always hell but this was an especially intractable one.

Hello Kitty Minty

This one had slightly less cuticle drag but it was also pretty streaky and uneven. The above is four coats, which is too much for a minty creme. Plenty of other minty cremes out there that apply beautiful in three coats tops.

These aren't quite sending me back to Sephora to pick up more. Definitely regretting spending money on them. $10 each and not even the standard 0.5 fl oz!

Models Own Jade Stone: Mermaid's Tears' more cheerful sister

After placing my OPI pirates order, it occurred to me that I might have a dupe for one of the colours in my order. (Buy first, check later, that's my motto). Anyway, I had no qualms about potential twinning, since I own about a million billion mint greens and still I buy more. This one's a particular pleasure to wear. I present: Models Own Jade Stone.

A very pretty minty green creme, this is opaque in two coats. It's in the same vein as mint candy apple but a couple of shades darker/more intense. The finish is good and it's nice to use (fairly average brush, probably most comparable to china glaze, but all the MO cremes I've tried have been good quality and very easy to manipulate). Dried quickly and lasted with no tip wear at all for three days before I got bored and took it off.

I kept it on long enough for my Pirates haul to arrive, and long enough to compare the two. It's definitely not a dupe (phew!). As you can see, they're similar, but Mermaid's tears has a murky, grungy quality to it that Jade Stone doesn't share. It's a simpler, more cheerful rendition of minty green. Love them both, but then, I would.

Essie Summer 2011 Sneak Peek!

*****Don't forget to enter my Spring Things GIVEAWAY with Essie and Pradman Jewelry! Check out the post here or just enter in the sidebar!*****

OK so I managed to score a couple of the Essie Summer colours - no, Essie didn't send them to me *cough*wouldlovetoreviewResort*cough* - but I was really excited to get them! I first saw a picture of the Essie Summer colours on Musings from Manhattan and I was lucky enough to get my hands on bottles of the three that I was most interested in. Check it out!

Meet Me At Sunset:

I unexpectedly LOVED this one! I've always kind of wanted an orange polish - but one that I could still pull off with say a grey suit and not look like a crazy person that just came from a kids birthday party. I think this is it - it is a little more subdued in person than in the picture. It has quite a few drops of red in it, which I think make it more wearable.

Brazilliant:

And I unexpectedly HATED this one! I thought this was going to be my orange winner, but no. I thought from the initial photos that this one was a cream, but it actually has pink shimmer running throughout that you can see on the bottle, but is quite imperceptible on the nail. I am just not loving this with my skin - it looks like carrot paste. I can see this looking *fabulous* on someone with darker skin though. This needs to find a new home.

Absolutely Shore:

I saved the best for last!!! I've never done well with minty greens - they give me lobster hands and tend to look really garish. This one however, is a total winner! It is the palest of pale mint greens with a dab of blue and a touch of grey. It is so delicate and pretty and I love the way it looks with my skin. I can't wait to wear this over and over! Heck, I'll even be sporting it in winter!

The collection drops in June - any of the Essie Summer colours speaking to you??

kittytokaren

Revlon Jaded

Revlon Jaded

Mint green with white shimmer. Three coats, didn't really dry at "top speed" but it dried in a reasonable amount of time.

The new quarter starts today. Argh. Vacation = too short. And too stressful.

Milani Dress Maker (Chanel Jade dupe!)

When Chanel Jade came out, I was in my "I don't buy nail polishes over $12! :P" phase.

That was a dumb phase.

I've been lemming Jade ever since. And on eBay, it's unaffordable. So I've pounced on the dupes I've heard are very close, such as Claire's Dream Catcher (which I love) and Charlotte Russe Jade (which is still in my untrieds).

Recently, a new dupe has been identified: Milani Dress Maker. As soon as I saw comparisons on Nail Board, I ran out to CVS (with a wish and a prayer) to find it. And I did. And here it is! :D

Milani Dress Maker

The photos at these size all look virtually identical. And they are. But the shimmer looks different in all three. Sort of. There's a certain amount of insanity that you engage in when you have this many nail polishes and have a blog devoted to nail polish. Mint green with green shimmer. This took me four coats (and I still have marginal VNL). Somewhat easy to apply. I'm not a big fan of Milani but this was a decent one.

This may be the next Hidden Treasure of NB. Only time will tell.

Avon Olive Green and Jade

Urgh, the last half week has been terrible. I spent most of the July 4th weekend feeling sick to my stomach and literally spent 20 out of 24 hours of July 4th in bed, asleep. Still feeling under the weather but I have to pull it together this week, that's all there is to it...

Avon Jade

I just love Avon's Nailwear Pro line. They have some really nice colors, apply very well, dry relatively quickly and you can get some great wear out of them depending on the basecoat/topcoat combo you use. Also, they are inexpensive, especially if you catch one of the many Avon sales. This pretty minty green only needed two coats.

Avon Olive Green

I don't think olives are this color. I'd call this more of a forest green but what do I care? It's a great polish. If you apply one thick coat carefully, this could be a one-coat-wonder. It's that pigmented and smooth. But I did two coats here. Apparently, this is a dupe for RBL Orbis Non Sufficit... a much cheaper dupe too. :)

Old NOTD: OPI Damone Roberts 1968

This week has been craaaaaaazy. I thought I'd be off on happy relaxed vacation lala-land this week but as it turned out, I forgot that I had a final paper that was due on Monday (though I did know about the final presentation) and as a result have been writing furiously to make up for that. Finally got the damn thing in yesterday.

Not that I could have done many swatches anyway because my nails are in horrible shape. My suitcase slipped from my hands while I was taking it down from the overhead compartment and got caught briefly on my pinky nail on Sunday. I was so relieved to see that the nail didn't seem to break but the pinky was sore for day afterward. Because I was so busy and tired, I didn't change my nail polish until Wednesday night. When I removed my nail polish (American Apparel Berry, which is such a pretty berry shade), I saw that there was something dark caught under my pinky nail... it took me a few minutes of poking and prodding at it with a cuticle stick before I realized that it was dried blood. :( Then I looked closer at my nail and realized that it was half torn at the smile line. If it weren't for the nail polish, it would have ripped clean off. But the combination of Nail Life Gripper, AA Berry and Diamont actually stayed whole even though the nail itself was damaged. Color me impressed!

I've pasted a teabag on the nail and will let the damage grow out a few days before I chop off my nails. (Waiting a few days so they're a little more than nubbin.) I have the feeling that I'm going to have an ugly scab on my pinky for awhile... and I'm NOT in the business of grossing you all out, so I think I may be three-fingered swatches until the finger heals completely. I could do right hand swatches but it's likely that you'd be getting ugly application and ugly photos if I do that...

But before I start posting three-fingered swatches, I do have a small stock of old swatches that I hadn't posted before... like this one!

I was so excited when I saw that Damone Roberts would be offering his limited edition OPI polish again. Love those minty, soft greens!

OPI Damone Roberts 1968

Excuse the weird little gap issue I had on my index finger. That's a case of "too much acetone, not enough attention". I LOVE this color but the application was a bit of a pain. It was opaque in three coats but it was very thick and goopy and I had to glop on the third coat because I thought it might be streaky and uneven otherwise. I am glad I finally got to squelch my longtime lemming but as usual, it wasn't as amazing as I thought it'd be. (It also started chipping with Nubar Nu Nail and Diamont during the first day.) Still, I adore this color.

Cheap drugstore thrills: Sinful Mint Apple and Wet n Wild Night Prowl

Evidence that nail polish can be good without being expensive or hard-to-find!

Sinful Mint Apple

I'm going to pretend like the name of this polish doesn't sound like the Essie polish "Mint Candy Apple". But who cares about non-creative borrowing when a polish is as fantastic as this? Blue-leaning mint green with silver shimmer. I'm used to Sinful polishes being a bit on the thin side but this was a surprising two-coater. Often, I don't think of Sinfuls as a great use of $2 but this was definitely worth it. The shimmer is really what makes the polish: it never quite looks like a creme but the shimmer becomes very obvious and extremely pretty when the light hits it.

Wet n Wild Night Prowl Blue Moon

How do you beat 99¢ polish? You don't! This was a bit on the thin side and required three coats for me to get to completely opaque (though it would have been passable at two). The gold-highlighted light blue shimmer in the polish sort of disappears on the nail but it still remains a solid blue shimmer. Honestly, I was a tad disappointed in this polish: I have had great experiences with Wet n Wild Shine polishes and I was hoping it would look more like the bottle color.

On a red-eye to NYC tonight. Sigh. I hate red-eye flights but it's usually 1. a direct flight and 2. the cheapest to boot. So... plan for tomorrow... get into NYC at 6:30am, nap for a couple of hours and then a day full of talks on sentence processing.

Old NOTD: Claire's Dream Catcher

This polish satisfied my lemming for Chanel Jade. Thank goodness. (I also swapped for the Charlotte Russe Jade, which I hear is even more dupey. But that's still in my untrieds box[es].)

Claire's Dream Catcher

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this polish. Claire's has been severely hit-or-miss for me: some polishes are magnificent and others make me want to stab my eye with the nail polish brush. (Ouch. The image.) I've heard a lot of complaints about this polish being hard to apply but it applied beautifully for me: it was even a little bit on the thin side and needed three coats. Either way, it went on like a dream. The above is two coats with Diamont topcoat; the picture is about a day into wear (with no shrinkage or tipwear). Such a lovely minty green with green shimmer. I don't want to backup polishes that often but I kind of have the urge to buy a backup of this one.

Tardy for the Party

So last night I was watching the Olympics when Essie Mint Candy Apple arrived at my door (from a swap)! I felt compelled to try it out, so I applied it on the couch in the dark (so please excuse the application). I know I'm a little tardy for the party on this one - it's from Essie's Winter Collection and was a huge hit last season! I just saw it as more of a spring colour and didn't really think about it much until I started to think spring pastels...

This is my first-ever mint green, and probably my last - this just doesn't seem very 'me'. I do love the Mid-Century Modern vibe that this colour is giving - its a blue mint-green, but on my nails....ehhh.....

As far as application goes, I was seriously impressed!! Usually these pastels are a pill to apply and I've heard a lot of people complain about the formula, but I had no problems (especially seeing as I applied it on my couch, in the dark, balancing my hand on my knee with the bottle clamped in between my splayed fingers....). It had good coverage in one coat, flowed nicely but didn't come even close to cuticle-flooding. In two it was perfect and even. I think I like it better in the bottle than on me - it dried more than a smidge darker on my nail than in the bottle.

On another note - I think Essie bottles are just so cute! I'm great at whittling down the OPIs and other brands in my collection, but I have a hard time getting rid of Essie's - they just fit so nicely together in their little bin...how can I take them away from their brothers and sisters?!

See, look! Adorable:

Mint Candy Apple (R) is posing with Put a Ripka Ring On It (M) and St. Lucia Lilac (L).

What do you guys think of this colour? Have you hopped on the mint-green bandwagon yet?

kittytokaren

China Glaze Up & Away, Part I of II

I feel like I've been waiting forever for this set but I have to say... kinda disappointed. I don't know why. I think it's partially because I've already gotten bored of what feels like the endless barrage of spring pastels. And partially because I'm pissed at the eBay seller, who not only mailed a bit late, but was actually from a different location than was stated in the auction. (Part of the reason I bought from that seller was because they said they were two towns over... and not, like, at the other end of this rather big state.)

Starting from one that I've already posted...

China Glaze Lemon Fizz and Orly Lemonade (from L to R: Orly, ChG, Orly, ChG)

As stated in my Orly Sweet review, these two colors are pretty much dupes, color-wise. In terms of application, the China Glaze is much better (streaky at two coats, smooth and gorgeous at three). I love this color: a bright but soft springy yellow.

China Glaze Something Sweet

Something Sweet is a darling carnation pink that just starts to lean a bit lavender. It's actually pretty stark against my skin. Application was so-so: streaky at two coats, needed a third to smooth it out. (This is darker than Essie Neo-Whimsical, though not by that much.)

China Glaze Light As Air

Another pretty stark color for my skin but I absolutely love this dusty pastel lavender shade. This one was a breeze to apply: two coat perfection. (It's lighter and pinker -- a bit more mauve -- than Essie Lilacism.)

China Glaze High Hopes

The photo doesn't make it as neon as it actually is. It's actually a very bright, saturated coral-y orange. Super easy application (two coats) but I wish I liked the color better. Then again, this sort of color rarely looks good on me.

China Glaze Heli-Yum

I love the name of this one. Unfortunately, not a fan of the color when it's against my skin and the application was strangely difficult: very thick and goopy on me. Still, it evened out in two coats and the color, a bright creamy magenta, was beautiful.

China Glaze Refreshmint

Eep! Eep! Minty green! Minty green! I LOVED this polish. It applied PERFECTLY: two coats, smooth glossy gorgeousness.

So that was just half of the Up & Away collection. I'll be posting the second half in a few days. :)

Old NOTD: No Miss Gainsville Green and layered with China Glaze Doll House, Or: Mani Fail

My love of minty green continues. My love of No Miss pretty much died before it began.

No Miss Gainsville Green

I love the delicate, milky, jelliness of this very light mint green. Unfortunately, this was hell to apply: streaky and sheer until the fifth coat... and gloopy to boot! Not fun at all. But I love the color so much, I've decided to keep it for a bit (usually, adding thinner and Wet N Wild clear works wonders on difficult polishes). I bought a whole bunch of No Miss online and have promptly regretted that decision. (Stay away from the glitters: they are very sparse.) I have other No Miss polishes but after the exceptionally difficult application of this one (and the disappointment of seeing the glitters in person), I don't have much of a desire to try any of them anymore. Still! This one is super pretty, if you have the patience for it.

No Miss Gainsville Green with China Glaze Doll House

This whole experience was just one big mani fail. I wanted Doll House so badly but it really doesn't look that great on me... especially over Gainsville Green. It's large warm pink hex glitters in a clear base with some warm pink microglitter. I love the way this looks in the bottle though.

Right after I put on this mani, I realized that I had a meeting with two of my RAs. Way to look professional, huh? I looked like my nails had caught some sparkly weird pox of a disease.

Random swatch: RGB Minty

Please excuse the glitter that's all over my nails! I was swatching glitter polishes before I swatched this one. 

RGB Minty

At $17 (with complimentary shipping -- it had better be complimentary at that price), a polish had better be fabulous for me to feel like I haven't totally wasted my money. Fortunately, RGB Minty qualifies. I have been a huuuuuuge fan of minty greens from the first moment I laid eyes on OPI Hey, Get in Lime several years ago. (I can't believe I missed out on Peppermint Patti and Chanel Jade, both of which I would kill to buy at their original retail price...) So when I saw RGB Minty, despite the sticker shock, I knew that I would eventually give in and buy it. I am SO glad I did. The application was superb: thick and pigmented, easy to control and apply... it made me sigh happily when I looked at my nails even though it was just a quick swatch. I have to do an NOTD with this sometime soon. 

I'd love to try more RGB polishes but at this price, that experience is going to have to wait for a sale. 

Quickie American Apparel swatches!

I've got a bad case of the winter frazzles this week, so apologies for that. Try to concentrate on the pretty creamy colors I'm about to show you. :)

I'm well aware of the reputation that American Apparel has and their voyeuristic soft-core porn-like advertisements. And I've heard tell of some questionable hiring practices. Unfortunately, this is a brand I happen to like for some clothing. (The jersey bandeau dress is my favorite thing to wear in the summer: I love being able to wrap it this way and that way and whatever way I fancy.) And now, I like them for their nail polish.

I snapped up seven of these the day they were available online (incidentally, the day that they put out a press release about their new nail polish line). Like American Apparel itself, these polishes are simple but colorful: a whole line of cremes in interesting shades. Not a speck of shimmer or glitter to be found anywhere (though I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually put out gold and silver polishes).

American Apparel Passport Blue

For you American citizens out there, this is a pretty damn descriptive name: it's the color of the US passport. Just a shade darker perhaps. It looks black indoors but in sunlight, it is definitely the dusty blue that ought to be recognized by immigration and customs officials. It was so pigmented, it was practically opaque in one coat. Smooth application and dried pretty quickly: it was still tacky when I put on Diamont but after twenty minutes with Diamont, it was pretty much dry. I wore this as an NOTD.

American Apparel Manila

It took me awhile to figure this one out. A Filipino NBer (I think) commented that she'd love to have a polish called Manila (the capital of the Philippines). I didn't think much of it until I was swatching this polish and my eyes fell upon some yellow interdepartmental envelopes sitting on my desk: manila envelopes. So called because they were originally produced using a fiber found in a plant indigenous to the Philippines. Anyway, this was a pretty great yellow: streaktastic in the first coat but pretty much evened itself out for the second coat. As good as most yellows get, in my experience! Someone on NB also asked about whether this resembled The It Color. Originally, I had thought The It Color to be more tangerine-leaning, but I think the real difference is more in the finish: The It Color is more jelly (and takes about four coats to get opaque) while Manila is more creme.

American Apparel Palm Springs

This was the first polish I swatched and you can tell I'm still getting used to the formula. Whenever I use a new brand of polish, it always takes awhile to "calibrate" my application technique to suit the viscosity of the polish and the amount of polish the brush can hold. AA ones tend to be on the runnier side and the brush, which is rather long, retains a lot of polish. So when I was applying this for the first time, I kept on overloading the brush and then having to clean up my flooded cuticles. Palm Springs is a peachy beige, surprisingly pigmented for a pastel: two coats (though those coats were somewhat thick). It does not suit my skin at all but is a lovely color.

American Apparel Hunter

Dark forest green that is feinting in the direction of teal. Two coats, very smooth application. This may resemble Orly Enchanted Forest but I'd have to do a direct side-by-side comparison to be sure about that. I wish it didn't have that blue in it; I really wanted this to be a very dark forest green like NARS Zulu.

American Apparel Office

A cool, blue-leaning green. This is the one I wanted the most and this was probably one of the bigger disappointments for me. I have a ton of minty greens now and as with any pastel, it's a little streaky going on but I didn't expect to have to put on three coats of it to get a smoothish surface... that would have been improved with a fourth coat. Is this the color the AA offices are painted? I always associated this color with mental institutions. You know, soothing.

American Apparel Coney Island

Light carnation pink, kinda like cotton candy (as the name suggests). Totally streaky for the first two coats and still kind of uneven (but passable) at the third coat. This is a very stark, bright pastel on me. I still like it a lot though!

American Apparel Peacock

I wish I had Illamasqua Muse because this looks like it would be similar. From pictures I've seen, I think Peacock is probably darker and more blue but it definitely has a teal slant to it. The easiest application out of all the polishes for me: went on perfectly and smoothly with no clean-up. One coat would have been okay but this is two coats. And it's perfect at two coats. I love this polish, even though I don't like this color as much as I do some of the others.

The 0.5fl oz bottles are $6 each on AmericanApparel.net. I LOVE the shape of the bottles: I really enjoy the tall rectangular bottles, even though I'm always paranoid about knocking them over. They feel great to hold and look so elegant and neat when stored. The brushes are a bit long with the typical brush bristle shape (i.e. not some flatter brush like OPI Pro-Wide or the new CND brushes). I really want to go pick up more of these cremes but I think I'll wait until my local AA gets them in.