OPI Burlesque Shimmers (Part II)

The second part of the OPI Burlesque collection is made up of various shimmers from foily shimmers, to glass-flecked shimmers and more. Take a look >>>

Ali's Big Break - This is a bright, candy apple red with irregular shaped shimmer. This is bold and spicy and I loved wearing this.

Tease-y Does It - This is a brownish purple with a glowy shimmer. It's vampy but not so dark it doesn't have it's own color and character. I love this.

Rising Star - Bold, slightly foily, shimmery yellow gold. It looks like what you would get if you crossed Nubar - Caramello and Nubar - Oro from the Venetian Glass collection.

Take The Stage - Burnt orange, slightly foily shimmer. Also similar to the oranges in the Venetian Glass collection.

Let Me Entertain You - Glass-flecked fuchsia. Very pretty and hot! Super similar to Zoya - Allegra. Like, practically dupes. It just seemed to me like Allegra was thinner, or it just took more because it has a smaller brush than the OPI but I got LMEY on in two coats and it took 3 with Allegra.

The Show Must Go On - This is my favorite!! I may even like this one more than all the glitters! :cO This is a hot pink foil with a gold/copper duochrome shimmer. It's much like MAC - Bad Fairy, but better! They are not dupes, but they have similar properties which makes me compare them. For all the days I was wearing this all I could think is "This is so much better than Bad Fairy!" The colors differ because Bad Fairy is deeper and more cranberry and The Show Must Go On is more like a hot strawberry. The similarities are the finish and the gold/copper duochrome, but the base color is much different. They do look similar in the bottle though don't they?!>>
What do you think of Part II of Burlesque?
:c)
-Elaine

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

MAC - Bad Fairy

I know we've all seen this already but I love it! I didn't get the other two in the Venomous Villains Collection because they were dupes to Orly Cosmic FX shades, but Bad Fairy enticed me. And damn MAC for making limited edition stuff super limited so it makes me panic and run to buy!

Bad Fairy is really pretty. It is a strawberry-red with duochrome shimmer that is copper at the edges and at angles. The polish has a near-foil finish and is flashy, but not so much I felt I couldn't wear it to work. Really cool. Too bad it took 3-4 coats, but I love it. Glad I took the plunge and ran to my Macy's MAC counter to snag one of the last bottles.

If you like Bad Fairy run before it's too late. This sold out on the website super fast (as cool LE polishes from MAC usually do)

A Couple New Sally Hansen Insta Dris

So you know how I said that the Borghese shades I posted were buy one get one at Rite Aid? Well so were Sally Hansen's apparently. At least the Insta-dris for sure. Because I bought two and one was free! They were from a brand new display of metallics. Here are the colors I got:

Golden Flash - This is a rose with.... you guessed it! A golden flash! Lots of it. The golden shimmer in this is very pronounced and makes a boring rose not boring at all.

Metallic Momentum - Wow wow. This is a chrome gold with a aged olive tint. I think this may be a close dupe to BB Couture - Blind Love and Chanel - Kaleidoscope, but I don't have either to compare myself. Hopefully a comp pic will pop up from another blogger.

This is also great for Konading/stamping:

Chromes usually are good for this and this is no exception.

These retail for $4.95 and like I mentioned they are BOGO at Walgreen's this week. I meant Rite Aid! Ooops.

What do you think?
Elaine
:c)

OPI Swiss Collection, Fall 2010

For Fall this year, OPI went for another one of their signature "location" collections. This time the theme is Switzerland. I would love to go to Switzerland. Do some skiing! It's on the list of places to visit. Hope I get there one day. For now I will wear these and pretend.

Glitzerland - This is a super shimmer, foil-ish finish shade that we have been seeing a lot of lately. This is a very flattering slightly yellow, warm gold. This swatch is three coats. I thought at first it might be a dupe to China Glaze - Swing Baby, but it's not:

They have the same finish, but Swing Baby is a neutral, champagne color, and Glitzerland is a yellow gold. Different enough to own both.

Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous! - Oooh! This is a foxy charcoal shimmery, foilish shade. It is so seductive! I love the deep charcoal color but it is also so sparkly! Awesome shade. This swatch is three coats.

Yodel Me On My Cell - This is a mesmerizing aqua shimmer It is definitely blue, but has the slightest smidge of green to it too. I really love this. I believe I did three coats for this swatch because a couple nails had bald spots after two.

Ski Teal We Drop - This is a dreamy smooth, medium to dark teal creme. Not much more to say but AWESOME.

I'm Suzi & I'm a Chocoholic - I thought this was going to be the shade I liked the least, and it is actually the one I like the most! Weird. I love this shade but hate the name! Chocolate is brown, not red! The first coat is more red and by the second coat it is much more brown, which I liked. It is so smooth and dreamy. I love it! The pic makes it look more red in the bright sunlight, but it was pretty brown otherwise. The pic also doesn't make it look as creamy and dreamy as it should because I smudged my topcoat.

The Color to Watch - This color I didn't have high expectations for. It was thin and needed three coats, which I expected. I did end up liking this on my nails and actually wore it, which I did not expect. It is delicate, interesting, pretty but not flashy.

Overall I am impressed with these shades. I would wear them all. Great shades for fall, which is right around the corner. I wish there were more two coaters than three coaters, but for a great color it's worth it. Plus the Pro-Wide brush helps speed up application so doing a third coat isn't so bad.

Other shades in OPI Swiss:

• Color So Hot it Berns
• Cuckoo For This Color
• Diva of Geneva
• From A to Zurich
• Just A Little Rösti At This
• William Tell Me About OPI

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Nubar Venitian Glass Fall 2010

I hate to tell you guys, but the days are getting shorter. It may be hard to believe. I know I don't considering it is 90 degrees outside right now, but trust me! The days of Fall are coming and Nubar's newest collection is making me wish it would come faster! ...Only for polish... I really love summer

Inspired by traditional Venetian Glass, Nubar's Venetian Glass Collection captures the brilliant colors and flawless craftsmanship of the ancient, traditional handmade glass of Venice. With vivid hues, a strong glass-flecked shimmer, and rich color saturation, these shades are as memorable as their inspiration.

Arencia - ORANGE! This is a glowing, bold orange. It reminds me of my fave: Sinful Colors - Courtney Orange, but glass-flecked instead of shimmer. Really, really hot. This could pass for a summer shade, but it did remind me of pumpkin patches when I put it on.

Bronzo - This is a more mellow shade than Arencia. It is a sort of toned-down, slightly burnt orange, copper color. Very Fall. It does look a lot like the A Perfect "10" shade I posted.

Caramello - This is a very deep, bold gold that looks just like it's name: caramel. It's like glass-flecked caramel sauce with a bit of a foil finish. This feels very dramatic, and antique-y. I really like this shade.

Oro - Whoa! This is a very, very bold, yellow gold. This is serious, attention getting shade. It reminds me of Zoya - Goldie, but on steroids. This was my first official mani from this collection.

Rosso - This is a red glass-fleck and although I would normally say "it's red, move on," I really like this red! It is very shimmery and pretty and I will definitely wear it.

Vino - Ooh. So sexy! This burgundy is the deepest of the bunch, but not too dark. It can be appreciated for it's color and I love the way it has glints of purple.

Verde - THE STAR OF THE SHOW! I love this! It's probably a given that this would be the fave of this collection. It's a blue sided, evergreen tree green with loads of gold glass-fleck shimmer. I have it on now and it's mesmerizing. I don't have Zoya - Edyta to compare, but they appear to be the about the same. I also hear that's true from a favorite, trusted blogger.

Vaso - The oddball. I love it for that reason. I mean really, where does a light lavender fit into this collection? It is very pretty though. I was worried prior to trying it that I wouldn't like it because it has this weird frosty look. Do you see it? Instead of looking like a super shimmer, glass-fleck like the rest of the bunch, the white shimmer in it makes it look sort of... crinkled? It's a strange effect, but I still like it on my nails.

The formula on these is fantastic. If you do really thin coats you'll have to do three, but a thin to medium coat will give you two-coat coverage for every shade. This are all very well pigmented, have an easy to control formula (I didn't have to do any clean-up for any of these swatches) and they all have a serious glass-fleck to even almost a foil finish. These are probably even better in person. I did the best I could to get good, clear swatches in strong sun but even then I couldn't capture all the beauty. This is a top-notch collection. I was slightly miffed at the 5 colors all in the red/gold/orange family, but they all are different, and they all capture the essence of Fall along with Vino and Verde so it makes a great Fall collection. And I am assuming since this is based on ancient Venetian glass making, this were the prominent shades used in that time, so it makes a lot of sense that those are the colors in this collection.

What do you think about Venetian Glass?
This collection is available now at www.bynubar.com. It retails for $7.49 a bottle or $49.95 for the eight piece set. Also, for a limited time, if you order the 8 piece set you get a bottle of Nubar Diamont Top Coat (which is a great top coat) and Foundation Base Coat free.

-Have a great weekend!
-Elaine
:c)

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Gold and Diamonds

Hello!

So I think I am just too cute. Look what I came up with using an Orly Foil FX shade, Rage:

So what I did: I started with Rage which is this incredible, shimmery, molten metal, foil, rose gold. Then I stamped "twinkles" and diamonds with black polish and Konad plate M14. "Big deal, Laine. What is so damn cute about that?" WELL!! This is what. I added prismatic glitter to the diamonds with Cover Girl - City Lights top coat and that made the diamonds look like they are twinkling! CUTE!

(Blurred to show the holographicness)

What do you think?

:cD
-Elaine

Zoya Sparkle Collection with Close-Ups!

Half of Zoya's summer release this year, as I am sure you know, is the Sparkle collection. The "sparkle" in these isn't really glitter, but it isn't really shimmer. If you are around here regularly, you have probably seen my glitter close-up shots which make it really clear how glitter looks. They are usually larger particles that are regular geometric shapes like squares and hexagons. The sparkles in the Zoya Sparkles are smaller than typical glitter and they are irregular in shape. They are more like a shimmer, but shimmer to me is very, very fine like a dusting of shimmery particles and Zoya Sparkles are much larger than typical shimmer. So I have been calling what is in these "sparkles" as opposed to "glitter" or "shimmer". All these swatches are three coats.

Charla - sun/shade/close-up - Ooooh. This is a bright sky blue jelly crammed with gold sparkles. The gold in the blue gives a green to teal tinge to this shade. Really pretty.

Ivanka - sun/shade/close-up - Charla is something special, but I think I like the look of Ivanka on my nails more. I love the jewel green with the bright, dense, gold sparkles.

Allegra - sun/shade/close-up - This is a hot (not neon, just hott!) fuchsia jelly with pinkish, purplish sparkles.

Mimi - sun/shade/close-up - This is a bold, royal purple jelly with purple sparkles that have a slight gold duochrome.

Nihdi - sun/shade/close-up - This is a tomato-red jelly with gold sparkles. I really like this red/gold combo. The base is slightly different than the others as it seems to be closer to a creme than a jelly. It also looks like the sparkles are less dense than in others. It's probably the only one that I would have let get away with two coats, but this swatch is three.

The formula of these is pigmented enough that if you did a thicker coat you could do two coats, but I did three for all because in the strong sunlight there was VNL.

Unfortunately when I ordered these I somehow forgot about Gilda! I intended on getting the whole collection and just missed! Gilda is a bright pink sparkle. If I get it one day I will swatch it but there are no promises at this point!

What do you think of the Sparkles? Still waiting to pull the trigger on your Zoya Exchange? That is how I got mine... and 11 other Zoyas...
:cD

Illusion D'or Layered

Hi! I wasn't going to post this as I felt it may be cruel and unusual because I hear Illusion D'or was sold out, but I think that claim has been reversed so here it is! I did a swatch of Illusion D'or layered over several different cremes so you can see what this baby can do.

I did two coats of I.D. over blue, black, red and green:

L to R: Illusion D'or +

• Rescue Beauty Lounge - Dead Calm
• Tropez - Black Satin
• Rescue Beauty Lounge - Bangin'
• BB Couture - Green Goblin

Dark shades really make that "illusion glitter" pop!
For my original swatches go here.

What do you think?
-Elaine

Chanel - Illusion D'or...

... is my new obsession! This is so pretty that it had to be my first Chanel polish ever. So let's get into some pics so I can help you understand the power--->

(*Don't forget to click the pics!)

Chanel - Illusion D'or

Check out this bottle shot! This is a shimmery sheer gold with what I thought were going to be holo glitter but it is not. There are very thin, iridescent particles that are sort of like a flakie but they aren't flakie either! They are their own category. I guess you can call them "magic". Or "Illusion glitter" but I must say again... it's not glitter. It's awesomeness.

Here it is next to Claire's - Goldmine, which is a gold with holo glitter. See the difference? The glitter is holo and flashing all colors, while the Chanel "illusion glitter" is more iridescent and flashes mostly blurple and blue. Also the glitter are dense, metallic particles while the Chanel has these very thin, fairy dust-ish pieces.

This is Illusion D'or alone in 4 coats. It is rather sheer. You'll probably want to layer it. You could layer it over gold, or black if you want the iridescent pieces to pop more, or white, or pretty much whatever you want.

For today's mani I decided to rock it over a soft white: Essie - Marshmallow. Here is 3 coats in my daylight bulb.

Here it is in the shade outside. (definitely click on this one!!)

And here it is in the sun!

Edit: I wanted to see what "illusion d'or" meant and I found out it translates to "gold phantasm" and phantasm is:

phan·tasm

 /ˈfæntæzəm/ Show Spe[fan-taz-uhm] Show IPA

–noun

1. an apparition or specter.

2. a creation of the imagination or fancy; fantasy.

3. a mental image or representation of a real object.

4. an illusory likeness of something.

pretty cool......

I am totally putting this over RBL - Bangin' next!
What do you think?
-Elaine
:c)