Revlon Sparkle Aplenty

Revlon Sparkle Aplenty

The heck kind of name is "Sparkle Aplenty"? This is also another polish that I've bought during my attempted no-buy. I was waiting for a flu shot in a pharmacy and was right in my line of sight. I had to go home with something besides a sore arm. (I also bought some Good Humor popsicles.) Anyway... the polish. I found this combination of silver hex glitter suspended in black jelly kind of dull. It lacks the panache of the Lippmann glitters, which use similar combinations. The great thing about the polish is that even though it's jelly, it's pretty good to go after two coats; the above is three because I wanted more glitter. :)

Too Much Whimsy? Revlon Whimsical

Not sure why my fingers look like shriveled up raisins in this pic...oi. Anyways, this is Revlon Whimsical - a supposed dupe of Lippmann's Glitter in the Air - over Essie Absolutely Shore. Looks pretty ghastly.

I do like how the two base colours came together to create an ethereal seafoam green colour, and I do love some copper sparkle, but this just isn't doing it for me or looking anywhere close to nice with my skin tone. The large hex glitter chunks look kind of diseased to me, and the overall effect just isn't very elegant or pretty (in my eyes anyways). Oh well, plenty of other polishes in the drawer!

What was your latest polish disappointment? I can't be the only one!

kittytokaren

Revlon Grape Fizz

Revlon Grape Fizz is part of the limited collection of fruit scented polishes released last year. The particles in this are somewhere in between glass flecks and flakies in size... I'd classify them as flakies. Most of the shades require quite a few layers, but applying them over a creme works well. I layered Grape Fizz over a black creme - the black really brings out the different flakie colours. It's mainly medium purple and blueish-purple flakies, with a bit of red in there.

The polish starts to smell like artificial grape bubble gum almost as soon as it hits the nail - it's a nice change from butyl acetate! The scent hangs around for a few days too. I personally love the smell (it's kind of nostalgic), but if you don't, this polish is really not for you!

Another toned-back glitter for me! Revlon Scandalous :)

I like relatively subdued glitters, such as China Glaze Some Like It Haute, and I've found another! Lise suggested Revlon Scandalous (Lippmann Bad Romance dupe) as a toned down glitter - it's magenta glitter in a black jelly base, which really gets rid of the super shine. To my eyes, it's as blingy as a flakie topcoat, i.e. not eyecatching enough for people to comment during a serious meeting. The black base really tones it down too. This is 2 coats over a coat of black. Of course, I couldn't leave it alone, so a few days later, I did some diagonal taping and painted ulta3 Twilight Fever, a Paradoxal dupe (purple shimmer in purple-brown creme) on half:

I really like Scandalous, much more than I expected to! One of my top 5 glitters so far, for sure.

Another Crack at Cobalt - Revlon Royal

Thanks to fabulous PoP readers responding to my first cobalt post featuring Essie Mesmerize! Because of all of your suggestions (specifically Indoor Kitty, nailspiration and Jacqui), I indeed found the perfect cobalt colour! With one caveat...

This is Revlon Royal. It is undoubtedly gorgeous, and EXACTLY the colour I was looking for...but the formula is horrendous. HORRENDOUS! Not in that it is difficult to apply - no, that is fine - but in that it chips in about 2 nanoseconds. Which is very odd as polish does not tend to chip on me quickly. I tried several base/top coat combos and had the same issue every time. A first-world tragedy.

So I went back to the drawing board (sadly) and tried another reader suggestion...any guesses as to which cobalt I tried next? It's a winner...and you'll see it soon!

kittytokaren

layers of blue: Milani Blue Flash, Revlon Radiant, LA Girls Jostle

I recently went out with some friends to celebrate a friend's birthday -- I knew that her favorite color was blue, so I wanted to do a blue glitter mani. Little did I know I would be running SUPER late and had to do a mani in 10 minutes.

I had to think fast! And saw Milani Blue Flash on a side table and knew I should use it and so I did. It dries really quickly and is opaque enough in a couple of coats, so I'm really glad I picked it! Slap on a couple of coats of NYC Grand Central Station (my favorite topcoat) and we have blue sparkly goodness. Cleanup wasn't a pain, either.


What I originally wanted to do before was a glitter layering mani involving blue, but not quite sure what. I had Revlon Radiant to use but when I tested it out, it didn't show up too well over Milani Blue Flash. Then I saw LA Girls Glitter Addict in Jostle, a dark blue glitter, on the floor (lol)! And an Idea was born!

I did more of a gradient type with Jostle, so about 2 coats, and 1.5 coats of Revlon Radiant (dotting on more of the green/silver bigger glitters) and then dotted Jostle to let more of the dark blue show.


Lots of dabbing with these glitters, lol. But so pretty!

Two Revlon Top Speed polishes: Cloud and Electric

The funny thing about photos is that sometimes, the great polishes turn out looking kinda crappy... and the totally crappy polishes come out looking great.

Revlon Electric

Lemon yellow shimmer. The photo actually makes it look like it was a nice polish. Do not be deceived! It was not that much worse than the typical yellow shimmer (streaky, sheerish, hard to build) but I've tried enough yellow polishes to know that it's possible to have a good yellow that is perfect in two coats, three at most. This was four: it was a hot mess on my nails and I thought that maybe if I put on more layers, it would look better. That was not true.

Revlon Cloud

It's not quite as much of a baby blue as the photos make it out to be; it's more of a light lavender. This one applied beautifully... but it apparently needed a third coat. (I did this swatch in the demi-gloom of my apartment. I should maybe try turning on lights next time.) The above photos are just two coats. But even though there's a bit of patchiness, I think that it's obvious that it's pretty nice for a two coats of a pastel.

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.

Revlon Powder Puff

Revlon Powder Puff

This was released sometime in late summer but I think it's a perfect winter polish: reminds me of snow! Soft, sheer white with a gorgeous blue shimmer. REALLY sheer. I think this is five coats... and it's still not opaque. Luckily, the formula applies nicely so five coats wasn't as painful as it sounds. This was part of Revlon's Suede line, which means it dries satiny rather than glossy.

Revlon Galaxy Top Coat

I love a good drug store polish, but Revlon scares me.



Why, you might ask? Because it reminds me of my pre-quick-dry-top-coat-and-nasty-color-choice days, that's why! The days when you thought a pearlized light gold that dried in an hour was EDGY. Oh yes, those days.

*shiver*

Anyway, when I heard about these new glittery top coats, I just had to hunt them down. I came away with the silver one (whose name escapes me) and this one, Galaxy. Galaxy is a clear top coat that is packed with black, blue and silvery small glitter as well as silver hex glitter that is a little larger. Shown above is Galaxy layered gradient-style over China Glaze Awaken, a perfect complimentary polish for this top coat if I do say so myself. The good news is that it's a lovely topcoat that does add a little interestingly-colored sparkle; the bad news is that it took THREE coats just to get this opacity, which is not very much.

On the upside, it's surprisingly smooth - after one thick coat of SV, there's hardly any gritty texture at all.

What do you guys think of these top coats? Any takers?

Happy day, all!

Some Revlon Spring/Summer 2010 scented nail polish swatches: Gum Drop, Cotton Candy and Peach Smoothie

[Please help me with my research by completing my 15-20 minute survey! Go here for details:http://polishorperish.blogspot.com/2010/05/do-my-survey-and-enter-to-win-8.html. And after you've finished the survey, enter my giveaway for 8 polishes! Giveaway closes May 14th, 2010 @ 11:59PM EST.]

When I saw these at my local Walgreens on one of my bi-weekly pre-therapy retail therapy trips, I pretty much took the entire display and spilled it into my cart. Then I looked at the price tag and took some of the colors I knew I wasn't going to be a fan of and put them back (neatly) in the display. ...I wish I had left all of these in the display though.

Revlon Cotton Candy

Pretty, delicate, sheer... kinda streaky. This is three coats and it needs a fourth. Soft pink with gold shimmer that kind of disappears on the nail. Not great application: too watery and hard to control at times. Smelled like a generic sweet candy smell.

Revlon Gum Drop

So I don't know what a gumdrop smells like. Does it smell like grape candy? Because this smelled like grape candy. I really loved this soft lilac creme but it was also on the sheer side (above is three coats and though VNL is not visible in this photo, I could see IRL). Also, I kind of have ten lilac cremes at this point so... why do I need another one? Even if it does smell like candy?

Revlon Peach Smoothie

This one I really loved but the application gave me a hard time. Again, sheer and watery... and it got bubbly! GRR!! This is a peach with gold/silver opalescent shimmer. Really very lovely but too much of a pain to apply. Four coats. Definitely smelled peachy! :)

I also tried Beach, a sheer lime green shimmer (kind of pearly) but it looked terrible on my stained nails that I didn't let it sit long enough to dry and for the scent to come out. Ocean Breeze didn't last very long either: it's also kind of pearly, very thin teal shimmer. I liked the scent, though it was weird: watermelon taffy and "ozone" (you know, the scent that companies use when they want to evoke sky and wind and the color blue).

If you don't have any access to Orly, OPI and China Glaze (all of whom have beautiful pastel cremes and shimmers) and like your nails to smell pretty, sure, these might be worth it for $4.50 (though try to get them on sale). Otherwise... there are much better non-scented polishes out there in similar colors.

OPI Brand New Skates - Uncovering a Childhood Lemming

I was 11 years old when I had my very first polish lemming. My family was on one of the numerous trans-Atlantic flights we took every year and I was bored and flipping through the duty-free magazine. And there it was - a set of three Revlon Streetwears in a little metal box that snapped shut. I don't totally remember which polishes were in the little box - Gunmetal, Drab, and something else...It doesn't really matter because the one I was after was Gunmetal - a liquidy silver. (Flinty probably has at least three of them at this point!)

I remember telling my mother around that time that my favourite colour was grey. She told me to stop being such a morbid little kid and put down yellow or something less depressing as my favourite. Too bad Mom, it's still my fav! Despite her reservations, my mom bought me that little box of polish (probably just to shut me up and spare the other passengers) and I proceeded to apply it right on the plane! (I'm sure the other passengers loved that too...) Gunmetal was more sheer that you would expect it to me, but the result looked like molten metal on your fingertips (and since I was 11, I'm sure there was molten metal on my cuticles too...)!

Flash forward far too many years - my Gunmetal, like the rest of my preteen to teen polish collection, is gone. I still love polish, and I still love grey. Grey polish you say? I'm all in. When I caught sight of OPI Brand New Skates one day I knew I needed to have it and another lemming was born. When I finally got it (after a long, drawn-out series of being swaplifted, swaps that didn't work out, etc.) I laughed out loud - it reminded me so much of my first love Gunmetal! Like Gunmetal, it is quite sheer and requires many coats. It's not quite silver, but not quite grey - it just makes your nails look like a buffed piece of stone or metal. Unlike Gunmetal, Brand New Skates has a fabulous gold/green microglitter in it that just makes this polish so very special.

OPI Brand New Skates in the shade:

Side view in the sun:

Trying to show you the shimmer:

This polish is notoriously hard to capture on camera - it really is 10x more stunning in reality. It is odd to me, but the shimmer in Brand New Skates seems to be the exact same shimmer that is in another favourite polish of mine - Essie Tennis Corset. It is the same size and has the same green/gold flash. Maybe I'm just crazy.

The formula on this is easy to apply, but very sheer. This is about 3-4 coats. I often put it over another polish (like OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees) but I wanted to show this to you in all its raw glory!

I really love this polish - it reminds me that no matter what happens, where I go, or how much older I get, I've always been myself - and that is a good thing.

What was your first polish? First lemming?? I love hearing people's life stories!

kittytokaren

Happy Chinese New Year + Valentine's Day!

I decided about a month ago that for February 14th, I was going to present you with over-the-top fimo nail art manis. That or manis in red and/or gold polishes. I decided tacky-ass fimo nail art was a more fun idea. I mean, what on earth was I going to do with all of these fimo canes I got off of eBay??

You know what's weird? I want MORE!! The cuteness, it seduces! (I think the little critter underneath the watermelon is supposed to be My Melody.)

Unfortunately, I had a recent break in my index finger and had to shorten my nails. My nails are pretty tiny to begin and it is hard to do truly OTT fimo designs on itty bitty nails. So I did it on some nail wheels instead. (Sorry it's such a cop-out. When my nails get long again, I'll actually put, like, fruit and dragonflies on them.)

For those wondering about how thick these things are, they're not that thick and most of them are not that big. This leaf is about 75% the normal size of a lot of the fimo canes I have:

Behold, a dime. And a fimo leaf.

I bought whole canes and sliced them myself: some of them are sliced thicker than others but some are sliced pretty thinly. Using a tissue blade, I can get some very thin slices. However, the thinner I try for, the more likely I'll mess up the slice.

Behold, the same dime. And four fimo leaves. The thickest slice is less than one-half the thickness of the dime. The thinnest slice is pretty much as thin as paper.

It's not always desirable to get them paper-thin though because then the color of the slice will be translucent and be less vibrant on the nail. I'll try to put together a tutorial on how I sliced my fimo canes since I used a slightly different technique than a lot of the YouTube tutorials I watched. (Hoping to get that posted before the month's out.)

Anyway, onto the (fake) nails. Go easy on me: I'm just a beginner! ;)

Chinese New Year #1

When the heck else would I ever get a chance to use these opera mask fimo canes? The background is Color Club Feel the Beat and I used some gold foil... badly. But I kind of like the effect: sort of like gold leaf. (Gold and red are traditional Chinese colors.)

Chinese New Year #2

Here I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White and Misa Secrets. The "branches" are Orly Solid Gold. I also tore off the leaves off some nail art stickers and used them as leaves here. Why is this spring-y design included? Because Chinese New Year is also the Spring Festival. (Growing up, when using Mandarin, I referred to the Western New Year holiday as "New Year's" and the Chinese New Year holiday as 'Spring Festival'.)

Chinese New Year #3

I like the use of the masks much better on this one. The base color is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening. The failed-gradient glitter is a Fasio glitter (but I'm not remembering the number right now).

Valentine's Day #1

Base color is Cetuem 163. I had these foil heart nail decals so I decided to jazz up an idea that might have turned out alright if I had used heart slices of substantial and uniform thickness. A good illustration of why cutting the fimo cane too thin is sometimes going to backfire: it becomes translucent and curls when the glue/topcoat dries.

Valentine's Day #2

I have no idea when I amassed so much nail art crap. I am totally forgetting which pink I used (Orly Polo Princess, possibly) and some nail art stickers, gems and, of course, fimo hearts. I didn't even realize that the middle layers of the heart matches the base color I chose until I looked at the pictures I took.

Valentine's Day #3

I liked the effect with the opera mask tips on the other one enough to try it again with a V-Day (or rather, anti-VDay mani). The base color is Revlon Street Wear Tar, which needed more coats than seemed necessary to achieve opacity.

Valentine's Day #4

The base color for this one was a gold holo Icing mini. This one started out as a CNY design but then I changed my mind on it and made it into a... sort of V-Day design. There was a single lonely fimo opera masks on each nail, surrounded by some magenta mylar flakies but it looked boring and dumb so I scraped off the masks and then glued some rose and leaf fimo slices on. I actually think it's very useful to have fimo slices that aren't uniform in thickness and partial slices: it makes layering a bit easier and more interesting.

Well, that's it for now. I really enjoyed making these and will probably do more of them in the future. (That and I bought, like, 50 more fimo canes. And more nail art stickers. So I should use them.)

Old Color Club NOTDs: Magic Attraction + Oooooo La La & Reader Request: a Revlon scented polish

For the first NOTD, it was a pretty straightforward Color Club Oooooo La La (I have no idea what the correct number of "o"s are -- too many). Stark white alleviated by shimmer, smooth application. Really, quite a lovely white.

Color Club Oooooo La La

The following day, I decided to layer it with Color Club Magic Attraction.

Color Club Oooooo La La with Color Club Magic Attraction on top

Looks dull and drab as still photo but the video illustrates the holo glitteriness of it. This could be built up to opaque in four coats, I imagine.

In a different vein/company/color/gimmick:

I only recently saw (and bought) my first Revlon scented polish -- I wouldn't have even paid them any attention if it weren't for a P or P reader request! -- and I am very pleased with it! Admittedly, at first, I was skeptical: a scented polish? I had just gotten out of Inglot where they claimed their (oh-so-painfully slow) non-acetone polish remover ($7 for a small bottle) smelled like "orange blossoms". (It smelled like polish remover.)

But behold, my Revlon Not So Blue-berry smelled like fake candy blueberries! It doesn't smell as much when wet but it gives a distinct candy scent when dry. Surprisingly enough, the scent even lingered for awhile. The polish itself was also quite pretty: a light blue foil with a very slight blue-purple duochrome effect. I'm not a huge fan of Revlons (or of foils, for that matter) but if I find any more of these, I will probably be tempted to pick up a few.

Revlon Not-So-Blueberry scented polish

Revlon Scented Fruitful Temptations

Hellooooooo taking a break from studying. GMAT examination is in about 2.5-3 weeks?? Something like that. I have been improving on my practice tests which is good, but my quantitative score has lowered :( Boo don't know how that happened, but seriously need to figure out how to fix it, and quickly as I don't have much time left!!

Soooo i have two swatches here from the Revlon scented Fruitful temptations line. I spotted them umm like in April lol which is a long time ago. Not sure if they are still readily available in stores. But here they are!

First up is, Passionate Fruit

This is not an incredibly unique color, but at the time I bought these it was B1G1 at Ulta and I got greedy and bought four that I shuoldn't have =x. This is shown as two coats over a base without topcoat.

Next, Sublime strawberry

This is also two coats over a base coat without topcoat. OK I know that this one is very messy lol It could have used a third coat. But I was lazy and in a rush, i probably could have even gotten it in two coats if I wasn't being lazy. I think this one is pretty, it's a pink with shimmer!

These did smell sweet after they dried, they didn't smell like their names. They just smelled sweet to me and weren't overwhelming to me. They did dry in good time too! I hope everyone has enjoyed their weekends!

Scented Polishes: Revlon Fruitful Temptations Review.

One of our readers asked about the Revlon scented polishes in the sidebar, so here's my little review. I know a few of the other P or P girls have these, so maybe this can be a two or three part thing. :)

I found these at Walgreen's a few weeks ago, hidden on the bottom shelf in the back. The display wasn't terribly special, so make sure you look closely if you're looking for these! I almost missed them! I got two of them, Pretty in Papaya and Raspberry Rapture (Both are extremely dupable. Then again, for most of these, they're about the scent, not the color. The exception is probably Not So Blue-Berry, which is a unique shade, but I'm not fond of shimmer polishes, so I passed.)

I really like the smell of both of these, they're very fruity and to me they're strong. They don't overpower me, though. I wore the papaya one without topcoat and the smell lasted about two days. I didn't leave it on longer because it began to chip.

The next time I tried them I wanted to use a topcoat. Putting on Seche Vite seemed to dull the scent, but not totally. However, I don't think I'd use a topcoat with these in the future. The scent is the best part and I change my mani so frequently that when it starts chipping I'm usually ready for something new.

I had no problems with application and overall I'm pleased with these. If you can find them and like the idea, they're definitely worth checking out!