NOTD: Rimmel Milk Chocolate and Down Days

The weather in my part of the world has been pretty dreary and miserable lately, very typical of Canadian fall: rainy, windy and cold. Also, I have been dealing with some personal issues over the past few days which have made me feel a bit depressed and down. My bf landed in the hospital for pancreatitis. He was admitted exactly 3 years ago for the same thing. The doctors don't really know why he keeps getting it, it's common in heavy drinkers, or those with gall stones. He doesn't really drink and his gall bladder was checked and nothing. He is on painkillers and loads of xrays and tests are being done to try and figure out what is wrong. He'll be in the hospital for a week. It makes me really sad that this keeps happening to him because health is so important and when you don't know what is causing your illness, it's hard to prevent it from happening again.

Also, we've been trying to get an apartment in Toronto for past three months and it's been a really hard time. So many places have fallen through or rented out before we got to them. That current place is fine, view of the lake, pretty large, but the owners do not want pets in the unit. We have two cats. We are going through a real estate agent and he assures us that it will be fine, just not to tell the owners. Before the hospital stuff happened we were in the final stages of the lease process. This is slowing things down, but maybe for the better. The owners keep making changes to the lease, adding clauses about being able to inspect the place whenever they want and us insuring that no pets will occupy the unit during the lease. I feel uncomfortable lying to them because if they do ever need to come by and repair something in the unit, my one cat will greet them at the door and it will not be a good scene. Also, the real estate agent is pushing us to hurry this along, despite me explaining to him that my bf is in the hospital and this is not our priority right now. I think he is just trying to get his commission and be done with it. I feel bad giving up this place, but I think we are going to have to. If only I had tons of money and could rent out any place that I wanted.

Anyway, enough about my life and onto the nail of the day. I painted my nails Rimmel's Milk Chocolate. This is a fairly nice drugstore colour. It's a beige nude colour, I think it resembles a light version of chocolate milk more than milk chocolate. It takes two coats and is very creamy. I think it's a good everyday colour. And for me it gives me that almost mannequin hands look. Since it's in the Lycra Wear 10 line it promises up to 10 days of wear, no base or topcoat needed. However, for my needs I did use both a base and topcoat and will change my polish within a few days so longwear is not a concern of mine.

I've also compared it here with similar colours in my collection. Orly's Country Club Khaki is on the left, which is   more grey and OPI Tickle My France-y on the right, which is more beige. Milk Chocolate is much more pink than these other two.

Do you have this polish?

Nail Comparison: China Glaze For Audrey and Orly Gumdrop

China Glaze For Audrey is one of the most popular colours of nail polish ever I think, at least since I've been into nail polish. It's gorgeous and definitely one of my favourites. However, another favourite of mine which is very similar is Orly's Gumdrop which came out in the Sweet collection. I actually just got Gumdrop this week, I had a hard time finding it. When this collection was out at Sally's, every Sally's, I mean every one that I went to was sold out of this colour and I can see why. I recently stopped ordering nail polish from etailers, specifically Transdesign and I limited myself to Amazon, I have a favourite seller and they had Gumdrop recently, so I picked it up

For Audrey is that classic Tiffany & Co aqua blue colour, it is very recognizable and I get compliments every time that I wear this polish. This is a creme that applies well and doesn't look much darker than the bottle after two coats. This polish is an homage to Audrey Hepburn and Tiffany & Co. It is available in the core China Glaze line at Sally's Beauty Supply.

Gumdrop is a light blue/green creme, the application was not as smooth as the China Glaze For Audrey, but not terrible, the formulation is very thick. This is my right hand, and since I am right handed it is difficult to paint this side.

As you can tell, Gumdrop is slightly more green and For Audrey is more blue. They are both pretty colours however and are the same pastel, light tone. They are more flattering on all skin tones as well.

Another picture to show you just how similar they are, if you wore them on different days, you wouldn't notice the difference and I doubt that others would either. Side by side, they do look different though. These are almost perfect dupes of each other,

Do you have either For Audrey or Gumdrop, which do you like better?

Mint Nail Polish Comparisons: Bottle Pictures and Swatches

Continuing on with the comparison blog posts, I hope you guys like these. All of these posts over the course of the next 5 days or so were written previously and scheduled since I am away on vacation.... Onto my mint family of polishes!

From Left to Right: Orly Mint Mojito, OPI Hey Get in Lime, Revlon Minted, Essie Mint Candy Apple, China Glaze Re-freshmint.

The Orly Mint Mojito is totally different than the rest, it's a bright green, not minty like the others at all. You can tell that the last three are all similar tones, pale, light pretty mint greens. 

Index to Pinky: OPI HGIL, Essie MCA, China Glaze Re-freshmint and Revlon Minted.

From the swatches above you can tell that OPI HGIL is a yellow lime green, my bottle is a bit weird the yellow at the bottom doesn't really mix in right regardless of how much you shake it. Essie MCA is a pale, stark white mint with blue undertones, China Glaze Re-freshmint is more green than MCA, the Revlon Minted is similar to the China Glaze. HGIL is very sheer, requires a lot of coats 3-4, the Essie is pretty nice, my favourites out of all of these. 

Thumb to Pinky: Orly Mint Mojito, OPI HGIL, Essie MCA, China Glaze Re-freshmint and Revlon Minted

Mint greens are cute and great for spring/summer. What's your favourite mint polish?

ORLY: Spring Sweet Collection Pictures and Review

Orly's Spring collection is called "Sweet", it's a collection of vibrant pastels. It came with 6 colours. I have 5 of them here to show you. As you can probably tell, Gumdrop (the aqua colour) is missing. I liked that one the best from all of these colours, but the Amazon.com retailer that I bought from did not have that colour for some reason. 

Every nail polish in this collection comes with a co-ordinating lipgloss attached to it, which is cute. These colours remind me of candy. They are all cremes, which I love. Orly polishes always have the rubberized tops, which makes it easier to open the polishes if they get stuck or something. This collection is great for those that like pastels, but want them to have more life, these are more on the vibrant side. The application on these was better than the China Glaze's Up and Aways in my opinion, the formulation was thicker and less runny. The majority of these swatches took 2 coats only. There is no topcoat on any of these.

(Light to Right) Cotton Candy, Pixty Stix, Lollipop, Lemonade and Snowcone

Orly - Cotton Candy

This is a pink, with peach undertones in it. I really like colours like this. Unfortunately, the brush on this one was quite frayed when I received it. I had to trim the bristles to get it to work right. I had to take this picture in darker light to really capture the colour correctly. It is a great summer colour, I can see myself wearing this one a lot.

Orly - Pixy Stix

I love the name of this one. Pixty Stix is a feminine, very glossy pinky-red.  This one is a lot darker than the previous colour, Cotton Candy. I think this colour would flatter a variety of skintones. 

Orly - Lollipop

Lilac purple, very light. I love purples, but this one didn't really move me. 

Orly - Lemonade

Soft yellow. As any yellow pastel nail polish, they are streaky and hard to apply. This was alright after 3 coats, almost opaque in 2. This one is very similar to China Glaze Lemon Fizz, too similar to have both (I do).

Orly - Snowcone

Cornflower, pastel blue. This one applied really well, 1-2 coats needed only. Beautiful colour, like nothing else in my collection. Next to Gumdrop, I think this one is a must-have.

Here are all the colours together, (thumbs to pinky) Lollipop, Snowcone, Pixy Stix, Cotton Candy and Lemonade.