Rimmel Misty Jade + glitter gradient

I swatched this a while ago but it's been languishing at the back of my photos folder, because winter is no time for pastels. But it's warming up just a tad here, and spring is finally around the corner... Rimmel Misty Jade, 2 coats with Seche Vite:

Misty? No. Jade? Well it depends what light it's in! I've never seen a creme change so much depending on whether it's wet or dry, or what topcoat it's under, or what time of day it is. Weird!

I did a gold glitter gradient on top of it a while ago by coaxing Essence Make It Golden on top with a cotton bud, here's the result:

I think it's a really nice shade to have, and quells the For Audrey urges somewhat... if only it'd stay one consistent colour!

Gold and purple all-over-the-place nail art explosion

Alanna of Pretty Purple Polish recently celebrated her first blogiversary by holding a nail art competition with a purple theme. She was one of my first followers and co-created Artsy Wednesday with me, and has really nice swatches and is generally all-round lovely.

For my entry, I decided to showcase a bunch of my favourite purples. I have a lot of purple polishes! I also had some big iridescent hex glitters, so I decided to explore a number of different nail art techniques on my nails. I only had 3 nail designs in total, because... I'm lazy :(

Thumb and ring finger: China Glaze LOL (Alanna grabbed this HTF for me from the mythical Bankstown nail supply shop - told you she's lovely! :D), glitter gradient with Essence Make It Golden, applied with a Q-tip

Index and pinky: These nails were the first I came up with. I wanted it to look like mermaid scales. The base is ulta3 Berry sponged over Rimmel Lively Lilac, then stamped with Mash-39 in ulta3 Gold Rush Fever and mattified with Rimmel Lycra Pro Mattifying Topcoat. I then stuck on hexes with clear polish.

Middle finger: one of my favourite but time-consuming and hard-to-get-right techniques - drag/needle marbling. I painted the entire nail with a thick coat of ulta3 Orchid, spotted some Gold Rush Fever on top, then dragged loops in the polish with the needle of a compass. Finished with Rimmel Mattifying.

For everyday wearing this felt over-the-top, but I think each of these would make good manis on their own, and I'll probably revisit them. What do you think?

Nail Art: freehand chevrons :)

I don't wear cremes by themselves that often because they don't keep my attention like glitter does. I love cremes on other people but I need a bit more "pizzazz" for my own nails... but I was going through my polishes that I had received recently and saw a few Zoyas that looked so good next to each other and I wanted to incorporate them somehow. Dots? A gradient? Or some kind of line nail art?

And then chevrons came to mind :)

The colors:
light green: Zoya Tracie
gray: Zoya Carey
orange: Zoya Arizona
teal: Essence Bella

The only color I had a little trouble with (because it wasn't as opaque) was Zoya Arizona but a couple of coats fixed that. I love how the colors work out together and happy how steady it came out for a freehand attempt! It really is easy :) I'm going to have to do something like this for all my cremes, haha. I actually ordered some striping tape from ebay, so expect some manicures using that coming up :D

Have you tried a chevron manicure? If not, try it freehand, it's really easy! My tips are to have your hand on a surface and just move the polish across the nail, and to use opaque polishes. Also be patient between layers! Good luck!

Woohoo! 1L done Glitter Spam! :)

Yay for my 1st year of law school being finished! Although by the time this posts, it'll have been over for 3 weeks and I'll be 2 weeks into summer school, it still calls for a celebratory glitter spam :) These are just some of my favorite glitter combinations within the past year or so. I'm leaving out the indie brand glitters because I'm making a separate post for that soon :D

And so here it goes!

my first try at layering glitters!
For the gold, I used CC Sultry
then Sinful: Call You Later
then NYX Girls: Turks and Caicos
then Nicole by OPI: Nicole... Spotted!
my base was NYX Girls Sea of Cortez

LA Splash Golden Seahorse + Brownie gold glitter thing (Japanese) + Milani FX Gold

American Apparel Hassid + OPI Divine Swine + LA Girl Glitter Addict Nostalgic

Butter London: The Black Knight + Butter London Tart with a Heart

Fingerpaints: Vintage Velvet + LA Girls Glitter Addict: Provocative

OPI Warm & Fozzie, Spoiled: Jewelry Heist (the bronzey glitters) & Essence: Edward (green glitter)

Piggy Polish: Among the Stars + Color Club: Very Merry Berry

OPI: Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous + OPI: Crown Me Already! on ring finger

Nerd Lacquer: Warrior Ethos + NYX Girls Frizz Spots gradated

Hope y'all enjoyed seeing those as much as I enjoyed wearing them!

THEME WEEK - My Favorite Neon :)

I admit, with my life being filled with glitters this past year, I haven't had time to look at neons. But I figured, with it being summer, I should give them a chance! So, this is pretty much the first neon I've almost ever tried (I'm sure) but I love it already! I went with the classic neon YELLOW. Nice, bright and obnoxious in a good way.

China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. Trust me, it's bright. And totally matches neon yellow highlighter. It's super lovely and bright and may I say, vivacious? I'm not sure if people were complimenting me when they would comment that it was REALLY bright, but I'll take it as such :P It was overcast when I took this picture but this just goes to show the true neon-ness of it.

And of course, the add on of glitter. I did one coat of Essence - Edward. I love the teal/green square glitters! The yellow and the green matched so well together, I loved looking at it.

edit: Sorry! I must have been half asleep when I wrote this post, it's China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini :)

THEME WEEK - My Favourite Nude

Sit down, boys and girls, it's story time with Lab Muffin...

My first ever manicure was a discount deal early last year - $30 for a mani-pedi and a set of eyelash extensions. I wanted the extensions for a photo shoot, so the mani was just a pleasant extra. I had my nails done using an OPI nude, and being me, I forgot to ask the name. For the next week, I smiled every time I looked down and saw my pretty fingers.

Then it chipped off, and THE HUNT BEGAN. Of course, it would've been easiest to just go back to the salon and ask for the name. But the lovely ladies there were Korean and didn't speak English very well, so that would've been awkward, and I spend most of my waking hours avoiding teh awkward. I went to the department store and tried to match a bottle to my nails - no luck. I scoured countless nail blogs, opening a plethora of new tabs that promised "OPI - nude". I went through MakeUpAlley and stalked anyone with skin shade NC25.

Eventually I narrowed it down to the two most likely candidates: Malaysian Mist and Cuddle by the Fire. Since CbtF was discontinued, I bought them off the evilBay. After impatiently waiting two weeks, they arrived... and they were Not. The. Colour. Ah, the crushing disappointment that only comes when you wait two weeks for a lemming and it doesn't perform!

I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm probably never going to find that nude again, and even if I did, it wouldn't be anywhere near as pretty as I remembered. So I've grown to love Malaysian Mist (struggling with CbtF) - I'm still on the hunt for more awesome nudes, since Malaysian Mist is the only one I can wear without thinking "bleh". So here it is:

OPI Malaysian Mist - 3 coats. It starts off sheer, but I prefer it when it's opaque. Drying takes forever, but that seems to be standard with milky polishes.

I love glitter-on-nude manis, and gold is my favourite - here's Essence Make It Golden layered on top:

So... does anyone have NC25 skin? Recommend me some nudes? :P

Essence Ultimate Pink

I'm telling you, Essence and Ulta are fighting it out as to which one should receive all of my love.


For 99 cents, how do you pass these little buggers up?

This is Essence Ultimate Pink, a pure bubblegum pink if I ever saw one. Think Barbie... lots of Barbie. It was a tad bit sheer and took maybe three coats to build up, but it dried like a champ and wore really well. And for 99 cents, I'll slap that third coat on with a smile.

Now if only I could get my hands on more interesting colors of Essence. My Ulta seems to roll out the same colors all the time and never dabbles in collections. Does anyone else have that problem?

Happy day, all!

Layering Love - Essence Choose Me

Well all know that this was the Year of the Dupe, right? Case iwhatn point, Essence Choose Me, also know as OPI:CMIYN/Zoya:Charla/Orly:Halley'sComet.

So what do you do when you have a lot of dupes? See what they look like over other polishes, that's what.



Shown above is Essence Choose Me over a black polish - China Glaze Black Diamond, I believe. The darker base allows this the foil surface to really shine and gives your nails a dark, brooding look. Super sassy!

Give it a shot, ladies!

Happy day, all!

A Grey Comparison

It's comparison time again!  This time I thought I'd compare some of my grey polishes.  Here's the cast of characters:

I applied three coats of each in the same order as above, from thumb to pinkie.  I took this picture in the sun.

I took this picture in the shade.

And I took this picture with the flash.

I was hoping to find a dupe for Waking Up In Vegas, but I didn't.  What I actually found was that it's probably my least favorite of these polishes.  It just seems to not go as well with my skin tone, unfortunately.  Oh well, I still needed to have it for the name.  It seems like a lighter version of Recycle, but I prefer Recycle with my skin tone.

High Society and Vintage Gray are very similar in color, but Vintage Gray is lighter.  There's probably no reason to own both since they're quite similar, though if you like this type of color, then owning both might be a good thing for you since they aren't dupes.

Point Break and Recycle are the darkest greys in this comparison.  Point Break leans blue whereas Recycle seems to lean a bit green.

Essence Sun Dancer

Oh, yellow. You do make me happy.


Happy, yes, ecstatic, no... and I was really excited to be ecstatic.

Don't get me wrong, I love Essence polishes, and this is a decent one. The best way for me to describe this one is taxi yellow; not too bright, but you can't say this one is subtle at all. It went on like a dream, too - three coats and little to no streaking. If I was Konad-minded, I would totally checkerboard this one. Get it? Checkerboard? Like the taxi? Ah, I kill me.

I have this fear that I am flying through the Essence polishes too quickly! Come on, Essence, give me something to sink my teeth into! Anyone out there have some good Essence colors or similar brands to this one that I should try?

Happy day, all!

Essence - Everybody's Talking About : A Math Problem!

Two coats of Essence chic berry pink polish Everybody's Talking About (which I was prepared to find incredibly boring but was shocked that I loved) -


... plus one coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (which I am still so-so about, even though everyone else seems to crave it like I crave Cadbury Eggs) ...


... plus one coat of Essie Matte About You, and VOILA!


What it added up to was a manicure that I absolutely LOVED! The final result was a smoldering fire-like effect that I couldn't take my eyes off of; it really was pretty captivating. I'm telling you, I enjoy these flakie polishes like Hidden Treasure on their own, but slap a matte top coat on them and these babies just shine.

Also, on a side note, this manicure lasted forever, which was a total bonus.

I do have a question, though; what's the big draw of Hidden Treasure? Aren't all of the flaky Nfu Ohs basically the same as this polish but in different hues? Is it just the fact that they were sold as Walgreens and you didn't have to sell a kidney to cover the cost of shipping? Could I ask any more questions?

Okay, one more - what layered looks have you tried that have added up to success?

Happy day, all!

Essence Check Me Out

We’ve all got certain soft spots for particular polishes, don’t we? Perhaps you’re always looking for the perfect red and can’t help but picking up every bottle of red you see, or perhaps you are a glitter gal and can’t help but run to the cash register holding every bottle with the slightest bit of sparkle. My mother is one of those women who can’t pass up a sheer yet has a box of eerily similar looking polishes that she SWEARS are different, and here is the kicker – she hates all of them. One is too pink, three are too brown, etc. Hysterical.

If I have a soft spot for any particular KIND of polishes, it is the polish that I refer to as a Perfect Storm. For me, the Perfect Storm is both affordable (read: cheap) and a fabulous, striking color. I’m sick of affordable (read: cheap) polishes all looking similar (read: pink). I don’t have a problem with pink polish, mind you, I just wish there were affordable (you know the drill) polishes that were more unique.

Because of my love of the Perfect Storm, I was immediately drawn to the Essence polishes and their interesting palette when I first read about them on the nail blogs. Due to the fact that I am geographically challenged when it comes to being close to an Ulta, it took me a little while to get my hands on one of these lovelies. When finally able to confront an Essence display in real life, I found myself grabbing “Check Me Out” without a second’s hesitation.

Essence - Check Me Out (lamp)

Essence - Check Me Out (sun)

Check Me Out is a lovely spring green in the bottle and on the tips that reminds me of wiggling my toes in freshly cut grass. (wiggle wiggle… you know you can picture it) It's not as deep and posh-looking as Essie's new Pretty Edgy, but instead has more of an Easter-green feel to it.


Two coats were all it took to achieve fairly-even, fairly VNL-free coverage, and I am more that 99 cents worth of happy with it. I love the unique hue and small size; it's perfect for a polish change with a kick while traveling. Granted, the wear wasn't the best - I'm rocking a little tip wear and a small chip that was probably my fault after 24 hours, but repeat after me... 99 cents. 99 cents. It's the Perfect Storm!


Happy day, all!

Two more Essence swatches: Pool Party and No More Drama

[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! Contest closes May 14th, 2010 @ 11:59PM EST.]

These are my two favorite polishes from my Essence haul.

Essence No More Drama

Lilac creme. Isn't this just the sweetest color ever? It's just so girly, I could eat it with a spoon. (That didn't even make sense but I think you know what I mean.) Three coats, a bit thick but went on just fine.

Essence Pool Party

This needed a fourth coat and I totally regret not doing it. I love this color. Look at how bright and vibrant the blue is! And the silver microshimmer (kind of almost glass-flecky)! Such an awesome color. :D Applied beautifully, if a bit sheer.

Cheap thrills: Essence swatches

[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.]

And now... polishes!

Not bad at all for 99¢ each. Not fabulous but not bad.

Essence Just in Case

Cool bronze metallic. Goopy, brushstrokey, three coats. Cheap and I'm not thrilled.

Essence Get the Fever

Bright orange creme. Three coats, went on sort of thick but ended up looking quite nice.

Essence Check Me Out

Near-neon green creme. Three coats, needed four. Except it was thick and I would've needed to wait for this to dry before putting on a fourth coat.

Essence Break Through

Color's more vibrant IRL: reddish purple creme. Wonderful polish: pretty much opaque in two coats. Now that's a great use of 99¢!

My Quest for Coral: Part 1 of...Many?

I've never been able to find my perfect coral polish. Every summer I give it a haphazard stab and typically end up giving my coral duds away. I think because I am super pale it is hard to pull them off - corals always seem to look better with a tan!

This summer I've decided that I am going in whole-hog on my quest for coral! Here are my first two stabs at it. I like things about each of these colours, but neither of them are my Holy Grail.

Attempt #1:

First up we have Essence What Do U Think? (hate that name...) that I picked up at Ulta for $1:

This is widely known to be a Chanel Orange Fizz dupe. I saw Orange Fizz in person at the Nordstrom counter and thought it might work for me, but this was the easy $1 way to try it! While I like the colour, and would probably really love it on my toes, I think its too bright and sha-POW! on my tips. There is something I find appealing about this colour - I love that it's a creme and there's something downright juicy about the melon hue - but in a lot of lights it looks like neon orange, and that's just not my bag.

That being said, I loved the little Essence bottle - so cute! And the brush was nice and wide and worked great, formula was quite nice as well - for a dollar it was a great purchase. If you're looking for Chanel Orange Fizz, I'd point you to this lovely.

Attempt #2:

Next up in Essie Brandie Alexander. I have been really loving this on my toes for a while now, and it makes me really happy to see it on my piggies, so I thought I'd give it a shot on my tips:

I felt a little uncomfortable with this on my tips - again it just feels like brightness/colour overload for me...I'm just too demure with my nail colours I guess! But I received a *ton* of compliments on this one when I wore it! I might have to take it for another spin when I get a bit of colour on me (which is a long, slow process).

The formula was typical of Essie for me - two easy coats of deliciousness - but then again this is the black label version with all of the lovely chemicals in it. It has a light shimmer to it that isn't all that obvious but adds a depth to the colour. It leans more pink than the Essence, but in other lights it is most certainly coral. I wore it for several days and I have to say the wear was amazing - not a ding or chip in sight!

All in all, I have to say I haven't found my coral for my tips yet. I need something softer, I think. But both of these colours are really pretty and I will really enjoy wearing them on my toes this summer!

What is your perfect summer coral??? I would be very curious to hear any suggestions!

kittytokaren