NOTD: Easter Manicure

Happy Easter Everyone! This year I thought it would be cute to do an Easter manicure with a different pastel spring colour on each nail.

Here are the nail polishes that I used, they are all from China Glaze and all from the "Up And Away" collection minus the blue. The blue was a tad darker than the rest, but it works, and I wanted to keep it all the same brand.

On the pinky I have China Glaze Lemon Fizz, ring finger China Glaze Light As Air, middle China Glaze Refresh Mint, index China Glaze Something Sweet and thumb China Glaze Bahamian Escape. If you're wondering how I managed to take that last picture, my boyfriend snapped it for me!

What's your on your nails for Easter?

China Glaze: Anchors Away Collection Review and Swatches Pt1

China Glaze recently came out with their 'Anchors Away' collection, nautical-inspired with some pastels and rainbow brights. This collection can easily be split into two categories, as in the picture above, the first half sort of light and dreary polishes and the other half more bright and fun. I was instantly attracted to the light and dreary at first, but upon getting the polishes in the mail, I noticed they are very dreary! But there is something chic and sophisticated about these I think. I am calling this Part 1 because I am planning on ordering some more colours from this collection, I think it's a really nice one.

NOTD: Fortune Teller China Glaze

Happy Halloween everyone! Today I decided to do a Halloween themed nail of the day using China Glaze's Fortune Teller. This colour screams Halloween to me, and frankly I only wear it around Halloween because it is pretty out there. I got this last year as part of China Glaze's Halloween limited edition line.

It's a gorgeous polish with a black base and shiny, orange different sized glitter chunks throughout. I love how the entire bottle is packed full of the glitter bits so when you add multiple coats you can get lots of glitter on your nails. It takes 2-3 coats to get it totally opaque, but it really is super cool on the nails. I find glitters are a pain to take off sometimes, but this one is totally unique and worth the hassle for one night of wear.

What is your Halloween manicure for tonight?

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?

China Glaze: ECOllection Spring 2008 Revisited Swatches and Review

Do you remember China Glaze's ECOllection? It was released in spring 2008 and was inspired by the earth's colours. This collection came with 6 shades, I have 5 of them to show you here and review. I liked the colours in this, but I am more of a creme finish kinda girl, so anything with shimmer I find that I don't wear much.

Unplugged is a rich, reddish brown with gold shimmers. This one is pretty, quite a fall colour as well. It has good coverage, this was two coats. 

(can't find this one at the moment, will update later)

Treehugger is like a green apple green colour, with green shimmers. This is definitely a unique colour and totally belongs in this collection.

Solar Power is bright yellow with gold shimmers. I am not a huge fan of this, I prefer my yellows to be creme, and my polish in general to be. This one has yellow shimmers in it. It takes several coats to get it opaque too, this was 3 and you can still see patches.

Shower Together is grayed teal blue (more teal than appears in picture) with shimmers. This is my second favourite in this collection. I love blues and this one is no exception. This one though is a major stain offender, this one makes your fingernails very blue when you take it off, so beware. 

Recycle is a creme light grey and definitely the standout for me in this collection. I think this colour is perfect for the fall season. This one is very unique and I really liked it.

Did you pick up any polishes in this collection?

China Glaze: Summer Days Summer 2009 Collection Revisited

We are nearing the end of the summer, I really wanted to get this collection out there before the end hits. A really pretty collection that came out last Summer was the Summer Days collection from China Glaze. This came with 6 colours, I have four here to show you. The polishes have a jelly feel with shimmers, the shimmer colours vary polish to polish too, making them really cool and unique.

My Favourite Green Nail Polish: China Glaze Four Leaf Clover

How awesome is China Glaze's Four Leaf Clover? I am saying it now, this is my all-time favourite green polish. It came out with the "Up and Away" collection (a collection that was perfection in my opinion). I didn't get it right away because I thought eww green? But then I saw swatches on other nail blogs and just had to have it. It's a vibrant green (kelly green) creme, but a lot more green than teal, it just leans teal a little. This photographs really bizarre, the colour changing a lot with different lighting, but in direct daylight is is gorgeous.

not true to life colour

this one is true to life basically - it's less blue, more green.

I've worn it for two days now and like rotating colours as much as possible but don't want to take it off. Apparently it stains your nails too, but I find most greens/blues do. This takes two coat and applies nicely, remember to use a basecoat if you are worries about staining.

What's your fave green nail polish??

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?

My Nail Polish Collection (as of June 4, 2010)

This was requested from a follower of mine... eleventhofapril... :D

I started collecting actively a year ago or so, I bought the odd polish here and there earlier, but it has been an obsession for about that long. Once I found nail etailers like Transdesign and Amazon ones too, the stash grew steadily. I need better organization for sure and am still working out how to store all my babies. How do you store yours?

I tried to categorize these into colour groups, thought that would be easiest, but as I went along, I saw that some should of been added to other piles and so on. You can click on the image to enlarge it.

Also, my OPI Pamplona Purple rolled off the bed and smashed into pieces on the floor, so that sucked.. these bottles are not very thick, the smashing sound was pretty good too, so RIP Pamplona Purple :(.

Blues:

(whoops reverse the labels om OPI no room for the blues and Suzy says feng shui pleasee!)

Teals:

 

(that should read CG blue sparrow and sexy in the city, not SH)

Light Purples:

(ignore the dark purple on the bottom, it shouldn't be there and thus not labelled)

Peaches:

Yellows:

Berry:

Pinks:

Corals:

Greens/Mint:

Taupes/Mauve:

Browns/Gray:

Purples:

Reddy Purples:

Glitters:

Golds:

Darks:

(on far right, is orly Goth, not CG)

Neutrals:

Reds:

(the last two on the top, shouldn't be in this group!)

Plums:

(my biggest category I think, I love my plums)

That took ages to put together.. that's like 98% of my polishes, I think I may have forgotten a couple. Also it was my first time using Gimp for imac so I had some issues getting this together. I count..223! Eek.

You know you are polish-obsessed when:
- You see a new OPI/China Glaze/Essie colour and immediately can think of 3-4 colours already in your collection that look just like that one.
- You look forward to new collections and seek out swatches online constantly.
- There are always upcoming packages that you are waiting for in the mail.
- You don't know where to put it all
- You have "backups" or accidental multiples of the same colour.