OPI Shrek Collection Revisited and Dupes

The OPI Shrek collection came out this past spring, but it still available in stores readily. It came with 6 colours, this collection was really unique in that it had no reds or pinks in it, which is pretty standard for OPI. The colours in this were a mix of greens, blues and purples. I thought the colours were really cute, but I also noticed that it was full of dupes, that's why I only picked up two. I compared blogger swatches a lot (as I would with any collection) before I decided which ones to get, and will share these comparisons with you.

Having said that, I think I need to go on a polish ban, or something like that because I think I seriously have a problem. The girl at Trade Secrets had to talk me out of getting Rumple's Wiggin, I was totally set on getting it and she talked me out of it, weird aren't sales people usually trying to get you to buy, not not buy? I was comparing Rumple's Wiggin to Done Out in Deco, which I already have, of course the store did not have it, since it's discontinued, but the girl told me it was the same, and that OPI often does that, puts out discontinued colours out again, just changing the name, and changing the colour slightly. Being a nail polish hog, I can spot differences in polishes, and have many polishes that look the same, but do not translate the same on the nail, in different lighting etc. And I love pastely purple colours, I think I may go back and get it bhahahaha I am terrible.

Ogre The Top Blue is in my opinion is the must-have from this collection. It is just gorgeous and has a smooth, beautiful formulation. This is two coats, but you could get away with one coat. This is a beautiful vibrant medium blue. I am sporting this one right now and loving it.

Fiercely Fiona is a soft yellow with green undertones, which you can't see this in this picture, but it is there in real life, not anything stark however. I had read that this applied well for a yellow. I found it very watery and thin, and you can tell I overdid it with the application. This is three coats I think, if you're patient you can do it in two coats.I think it's cute, but you can tell just by looking at the bottle titled, that it's watery.

Now for the dupes. All Lacquered Up's blog had awesome swatch comparisons of the polishes in this collection and she always does great ones. I have a polish to account for each of the other shades in this collection and here are my not so perfect swatches. The problem with dupes like these is that it is easier to just get the Shrek colours, as most of these are discontinued, but in case you do have these, you do not *need* to get another one that looks the same.

China Glaze Bahamian Escape is basically an exact dupe for What's Up With The Catitude? it's a light pastely blue. I would totally recommend getting this one if you can. My swatch sucks cause going back and forth between the OPI brush and the CG confused me and I picked up way too much polish. Anyway you get the idea. I have this polish and it applies really opaque in one coat only.

Sally Hansen's Lickety-Split Lime is extremely close to Who The Shrek Are You? And because this isn't a colour that I see myself wearing very often, I am content with just the SH dupe.

 (image credit All Lacquered Up)

Done Out In Deco is very close to Rumple's Wiggin, it's a light lilac purple. As you can tell in ALU's swatch above, DOID is much darker than RW... damn you Trade Secrets girl!!!! just kidding.

China Glaze Grape Pop is a dupe for Funky Dunkey from this collection. It's a pretty vibrant purple colour, resembles purple grapes. This one is a touch darker than FD, but pretty much the same.

So... do you settle for the dupes you have, or do you like getting every OPI polish that you like? Should I go back for Rumple's Wiggin?

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Swatches Pt 2

 Some more Sally Hansen Insta-Dri nail polish swatches coming your way. There are sooo many of these and I am always finding ones that I want.

 Blue Blast is a  pretty pale blue, lighter than Brisk Blue which I had in my last swatch post. This is 2 coats.

Urgent Orchid is gorgeous, probably my favourite Insta-dri colour. This is a purple, similar to OPI's A Grape Fit, which I do not have. This is 2 coats as well.

Sea Breeze is a turquoise, really pretty as well. This is 2 coats. This one experiences the same awful staining that Mint Sprint had.

Mango Motion is another beautiful colour from Sally Hansen. This is 2 coats as well. I took this picture with no flash as the colour did not show up true to life at all with flash. This one is a creme coral colour.

I think these polishes are meant to be applied as ONE thick coat, it is really difficult to get the brush to apply the amount of product that you actually want, it always applies more as it drips down the brush. I still have to master the application on these, my swatches are super messy, but I hope they gave you a good idea of what the colour applies like.

Collective Haul #1

Some items that I've picked up throughout the past few weeks. I am a total sucker for bargains and I will always look in the makeup section of grocery stores and scourer the racks for sales. I use coupons regularly too, cause it's always nice to not have to pay full price for stuff. I will try to include the prices below.

Just a quick rundown:
- Neutrogena Moisturizer SPF 20 and cleanser was $11 together on clearance (50% off, with the cleanser being a free bonus)
- Aveeno Moisturizer SPF 30 was 50% off reduced $13.
- Maybelline Lash Stiletto Voluptuous $8 - $1 coupon
- Maybelline Age Rewind Foundation $6 reduced - $3 coupon
- Maybelline Age Rewind Double Perfector $4 reduced - $3 coupon
- Maybelline Peach Satin Blush $7 - $3 coupon
- Maybelline Dream Mousse Concealer $7 - $3 coupon
- Benefit Erase Paste $30 full price
- Benefit Lemon Aid $14 plus shipping on Amazon (free with swagbucks)
- L'oreal Insta-Dri nail polishes $6 each
- Maybelline The Falsies Mascara $3.99 on sale - $1 coupon

This isn't to brag, just to use you guys what I've been purchasing lately and to get an idea of what you'd be interested in seeing reviews of, if you want me to review anything, just comment below thanks.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Swatches and Review

Here are the promised swatches from yesterday's Pharma Plus haul. First my review of these...

The insta-dri's are Sally Hansen's quick-dry formula polishes, they promise "one coat, one stroke, for quick and easy application." First off, the brush, it's flat and wide... I like the brush, I'll give them that, but the brush can be hard to work with, and my main problem is, the brush picks up A LOT of product and yes, you can get one coat out of this one glob, but it's a big glob and it can flood the sides of your nails and your cuticles very easily, so I find that I have to really clean off the brush before I use it. Also, some of these, including Mint Sprint really stained my nails and you can see the remnants of this polish on my swatches below, Mint Sprint was the first that I tried before I was familiar with the consistency of these. This formula is thick too and can be hard to remove, I guess that's what you get for quick dry.

I had a really hard time finding the colour names for these polishes, I even asked the sales girl about it, Presto Pink had the name visible on the side label, but the rest nothing. The sales girl was clueless. Anyway, after reading up on MUA, I found that the label has 3 layers to it, and if you flip through to the last layer, there is a name there!! I don't know why they are hiding the names of these polishes. I like knowing the names because if I find a swatch online that I like, I go to the store and find it right away, I definitely don't want to flip through layers of a label to find which one it is. Silly Sally.

Also, Sally recommends using their top coat for these polishes, I don't have that, but my China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat on top of some of these made them change colour, which I hate. This topcoat does not normally do this. Specifically, this happened with Mint Sprint, it became lighter with top coat over it. So I would recommend not using a topcoat with these, they dry fast and they do come out looking pretty shiny.

I find these hard to shake up too, I swear some of the bottles do not have balls in them, which is a problem if you keep these around for a long time. The polish on the Snappy Sorbet specifically is separating and I can't really do much about it. I shake it and nothing happens. 

The colour selection is great, I don't know what collections these particular polishes came from as they were just all over in the display wall. I like that a lot of them are cremes cause that is my preferred type. If you are in a rush, these are good polishes, I just don't see myself choosing these over my beloved OPI or China Glaze polishes. Actually, now that I look, apparently there was a collection for spring /summer 2010: Speedy Sunburst, Lively Lilac, Likety-Split Lime, Grape Going, Mint Spring, Instant Iris, Snappy Sorbet and Brisk Blue, so I did get some of the new colours. Onto the swatches...

Presto Pink - A pretty creme pink, one coat. Great for summer, really cute on the nail. Did not experience any staining with this one.

Snappy Sorbet - Orangey, coral creme with sheen, two coats. This one was hard to photograph, it is not bright, more of a pastel almost. The sheen does not really show up on the nail in real life. If you can tell on the left of the picture, the orangey tint is kind of separating the bottle and I can try shaking it all I can and nothing happens. I thought I would love this colour, judging by the bottle, but on the nail, it's not really impressing me.

Speedy Sunburst - This one is a bright, red with fuschia undertones. Very smooth application, one coat, great colour.

Brisk Blue - A bright, vibrant sky blue. I love this one, it's my favourite from all the ones I got. This is one coat as well. This one is very similar to a colour from the regular Sally Hansen Xtreme wear line, "Blue Me Away."

Mint Sprint - Doesn't look mint to me at all, more of a teal green. I really liked this one, took one coat too. But, it left my nails quite stained.

Uptempo Plum - This is a dark purple with purple and red shimmers. It doesn't really show on the nail, but in bright camera flash, you can see it quite well here. It resembles OPI Merry Midnight in the effect. This is two coats, a good fall/winter colour.

Did have any of these? what do you think of the brush and formulation?

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Haul, 50% off Nail Polishes at Pharma Plus

If you're in Canada, check out Pharma Plus this week for 50% off all nail polishes! I picked up 6 of the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri's. I hadn't tried these before because I heard the brush was really wonky and weird. But I am quite pleased with them so far, the applicator is big and wide, so it makes it easy to apply, or really difficult if you aren't great at it. You only need one coat (or two if you do thin coats). My problem is grabbing too much on the brush and then it pools and gets everywhere, for that reason, swatches will be coming tomorrow since they came out pretty bad today!

Here is the little haul that I did...

Left to Right: Uptempo Plum, Mint Sprint, Speedy Sunburst, Brisk Blue, Presto Prink and Snappy Sorbet

Taupe Nail Polish Comparisons: Bottle Pictures and Swatches

Taupe nail polish is more "in" for the fall and winter, but I love this colour either way. I have 8 here that are quite similar, all in the taupe family. Let's see how different they really are, and if they are dupes.

My Little/or Big, Depending on how you Look at it, Taupe Army:

Left to Right: China Glaze Channelesque, Sephora by OPI Metro Chic, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Commander in Chic, Essie Mink Muffs, OPI Over The Taupe, OPI You Don't Know Jacques!, Orly Prince Charming, Orly Country Club Khaki.

Walmart Haul: Sally Hansen Complete Salon, Rimmel VolumeFlash and L'oreal HIP

I had a gift card for Walmart that I got for my birthday. So I picked  up a couple of things yesterday.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon in Commander in Chic, Gray by Gray and Fairy Teal. Rimmel VolumeFlash Mascara and L'oreal Metallic Hip shadow in Sculpted (these are expensive, even at WM, like $8.50!)

And a quick swatch of the Sculpted shadow:

Umm... the pink side looks like a lot more reddish in person, the purple looks pretty good, it has little red shimmers, maybe a MAC Beauty Marked dupe?