My First Stamping

Base: OPI Mod About You
Stamping: Avon Blaze
Top: OPI Significant Other Color

CND Night Factory Funky French

CND Urban Oasis and CND Teal Sparkle

Happy Halloween!

Base: Ulta Twilight (It looks like dirt!)
Blood: OPI Big Apple Red

OPI Opening Night Gold

I borrowed this from a co-worker. I wish I started collecting earlier!

Orly Space Cadet

I really need to wear this again so I can take better pictures!

Essie Winter 2012 Collection Swatches and Review

Huzzah! My first full collection review! Swatching is hard! Anywho, here's Essie Winter 2012 (or, the Leading Lady Collection. Not sure which is official. The display says Winter 2012):

Beyond Cozy is an antiqued silver micro glitter in a clear base. Super dense, it only took two coats to be completely opaque. Since it's so opaque, it's not the best layering polish. It totally overtakes the base color you layer it over. Super pretty.

Butler Please is medium blue creme. This one was hard to capture. It's got a bit of purple in it, but it's not blurple. It's also slightly dusty. It dried to a satin finish, so perhaps there's some neon pigment in there, too. I used top coat to make it shiny. Three coats.

Leading Lady is a red glitter in a red base. It looks a little pink to me, so it's a raspberry red. Two coats. You can see my comparison between this and Ruby Slippers here. If you have Ruby Slippers, you probably don't need this.

She's Pampered is a pink-leaning red jelly-creme hybrid. I love this. It's totally appropriate for winter. Two coats.

Snap Happy is a tomato red-orange jelly-creme hybrid. Hot damn, this is awesome. It's so bright and squishy. Three coats.

Where's My Chauffeur is an aqua creme. Leans blue. Way gorgeous. It changes in different light, hence millions of pictures. Three coats.

The formula on these were amazing. The cremes flowed wonderfully, spread evenly, and were not streaky. The jelly-cremes applied like butter. The glitters were opaque and not lumpy. They are thick though, so you may have to thin them after each use.

I really love this collection. It doesn't feel totally "winter" to me, but I think it works. The vampy and jewel-toned colors that usually saturate winter collection start to get repetitive after a while. If I was forced to pick only two, I'd go with Beyond Cozy and Snap Happy, with She's Pampered as the runner-up.

I found these at the brand-new City Target (seriously, that's what it's called) in the Chicago Loop, so I don't know what the availability of the collection is at this time. I haven't seen it anywhere else yet, nor have I heard of anyone finding it yet.

I'm planning a comparison post within the next couple days, so feel free to make requests on anything you'd like to see! Thanks for reading!

Essie Ruby Slippers v. Essie Leading Lady

So, I found Essie Winter 2012 at Target today. I grabbed the whole collection, and I noticed that Leading Lady reminded me a lot of Ruby Slippers. So I did a quickie comparison.

RS on the left, LL on the right. Three coats of each.

Not dupes, but EXTREMELY close. LL is a tinge more pink and is more of a jewel-toned red. LL is also a hair more opaque, but otherwise the formula is identical.

Grab Leading Lady if you see it! It's a stunner, and will probably kill your lemming for Ruby Slippers!

OPI Save Me

One coat over...a pink. Sorry, I don't remember at all. Anyway, Save Me is a bar glitter and it's totally awesome.

The name "Save Me" is quite appropriate because I've been totally bummed lately. You guys, the NHL is locked out right now. Only preseason games have been cancelled at the moment, but things are not looking good. I don't know HOW I'm going to get through the winter. (Sidebar: I hate snow, cold, and weather in general.) I hope we will at least get a shortened season, which would be better than nothing at all.

Butter London All Hail The Queen

Oh, hello there. I was dealing with a federal court deadline on Monday (and dealing with the aftermath yesterday), but here I am! I've made it out alive. I've been (slowly) taking care of all the things I've had to push aside for the past week. Now that I'm not so insanely busy, I feel... off. Ever feel that way? Things are back to their normal pace but it feels extra-slow in comparison.

Let's check out this baby:

Yowza.

I think this was probably three coats. Also, what the hell is my problem for only taking ONE picture?! And a cell phone picture, at that.

AHtQ is one of those work-safe polishes I love. The scattered holo really keeps things interesting. It's not intense and in your face though, which is great for looking professional.

Butter London is a brand that doesn't really grab my attention. Sure, they might have a great formula, but at $14 a pop, I'm extremely picky with what I purchase from them. They just seem a bit basic to me.

Guest Nails ft. My Sister & China Glaze

My sister is way more creative & better at nail art than I am. Here's a little something she did not to long ago:

She used China Glaze Life Preserver and China Glaze Aquadelic.

Essie Jazz

2 careful coats - 3 is probably a better idea. I totally fell in love with Jazz ever since I saw k2k wear it -- twice. She totally fuels my neutral fire and I love that.

I'm not totally sure how I feel about the color of this when I'm actually wearing it. In some light, it looks awesome and totally compliments my skintone, and then sometimes it pulls way warm & clashes. I'm on the fence.

I really enjoy serching for nude polishes that work on me. It's so exciting - you don't know if it'll compliment or clash until you actually have it on, and those moments are wonderful (or maybe not so wonderful if it clashes). I can't wait to wear the nudes in OPI Germany. Anyone else love the hunt of trying to find the perfect nude?

Jelly Sammich ft. RBL and NYC

My first jelly sandwich. I was inspired by an indie (Candeo Jellybean, I think) and I'm super happy with the result. I used Rescue Beauty Lounge Squarepants and NYC Starry Silver Glitter. To achieve depth, this is how I layered them:
1 coat RBL
1 coat NYC
1 coat RBL
1 coat NYC
1 coat RBL

So squishy and awesome.