China Glaze Specialty Polishes

Hello all! I are you all getting ready for Thanksgiving?! (To those in the US!) I am going to get to work on that as soon as I can, but I still have to work work work! And I have to bring you some nail pics, don't I?
:c)

Today I thought I would show you the handful of China Glaze Specialty Glitters that I have. The specialty glitters are the ones recently released that were 50 limited edition colors. I wanted to get as many as possible before I posted them but I haven't gotten around to getting more yet so I will just show off what I got!

Medallion - This is awesome! This polish has gold glitter, and tons of different sized holographic glitter suspended in a clear base. I just wish the coverage was better. This swatch was 4 coats.


Atlantis - This is a turquoise jelly polish filled with mono-sized holographic glitter. Gorgeous! It's like swimming in the Caribbean with the sun shining through the water giving off flashes of the rainbow. This swatch is 3 coats.


Dreamsicle - This is a creamsicle-orange packed with iridescent glitter that flashes orange, green, blue and purple. With a topcoat it is decently smooth.


Meteor Shower - I love the base of this dark blue. It is like a dark denim that pulls slightly purple, like Naturistics - Crystal Blue Pearl. The glitter is the iridescent type in Dreamsicle, but this one doesn't look smooth even with a big thick coat of Seche Vite top coat. It still looks lumpy. I would still wear it. Maybe I should try another layer or two of top coat.


Ginger - This is a smooth, well pigmented, burnt orange with small and larger but more sparse, holographic glitter. This picture is slightly blurred to show the holo goodness!

Have a great day and a nice holiday!
-Elaine

NOTD - Love Your Life

I know this is very Valentine's Day-esque, but I guess I was in a lovey-dovey mood! This is Sinful Colors - Sugar Sugar (Ones of my favorite reds) topped off with Nicole by OPI - Love Your Life, a clear with iridescent glitter and pink hearts suspended, much like the Nicole I showed you recently here, Let's Get Star-ted.

I saw Love Your Life on sale at Walgreen's and screamed "mine!" and bought it. I later checked out the name and I loved it even more! It's so positive. I have to sometimes remind myself to be happy. You know how sometimes you're just in a rut, or down or blue? And you get those "my life sux" thoughts? Well, if you don't that is really awesome, but if you do, I feel ya. It may seem silly to think a nail polish can change your mood or day but a positive little message like that does help!

Have a wonderful day!
-Elaine

Update on Lippmann Collection Anniversary Set

Lippmann Collection - Ruby Red Slippers

Lippmann Collection - Superstar

Great news! You know how when I posted swatches of the Anniversary Collection in the summer it was only available as a set? And you were all thinking, "Geez, that Ruby Red Slippers and Superstar are sure ruining it for me! I don't want to have to buy the whole set just to get that lovely Funky Chunky!" HAHAHAHA!!! Yeah right. Everyone hates FC. I actually try to give it a chance, but I am one of few.

Anyway, in case you were not aware, they are all available separately now on Lippmann's website, and retail for $18.00 a piece.

Love,
-Elaine

Canada Exclusive - Sally Hansen - Project Runway

Well the lovely ladies in the north don't have it bad at all. Check out one of the most to-die-for green and gold combination polishes I have ever seen:

(Please excuse my boo-boo!)
It's Sally Hansen - Project Runway and it is a Canadian Exclusive. I hate things being country exclusive! Don't do that! And especially with a color as mouth-watering as this! This is a slight blue, green base with irregular shaped gold glitter particles. Like crushed up gold. Stunning.

If you're not in Canada, then I don't know where to tell you to get this! If you are, I am very happy for you! I was able to swap Sally Hansen HD minis to get this sent over the border to me. And I am sure glad that I did!

Borghese LE set: Serena

So, it's taken me a bit to get these to you! But here they are... at least half of them! This is the Borghese polish collection, Serena. The other set, Allegra, is posted on Vampy Varnish, with my pictures and review! It's so nice that Kelly featured me as a guest blogger!

Serena has four mini polishes and they are very pretty! They do not have individual names for the colors though, which I can't stand! They don't even have a number!


This is a brown with gold and red glitter! I had to have this color. It's so unique! It also has little flecks of silver in there too. We do have another holiday polish that is similar: OPI - Holiday Glow. Let's see how they compare:The gold in the Borghese color is bigger and I think the red is more pronounced too. I would pick the Borghese.

This duochrome is deep and beautiful. It is a blue-gray base that shows colors from green to blue to teal to plum. It is much better than my pictures can show. A close match if you would like a full sized bottle, is Savina - Black Pearl.

This glitter in the bottle looks identical to Sally Hansen - Rockstar Pink which is one of my favorite colors. But, it is not. The glitter is the same, but the density is not. The Borghese polish is much less dense. It takes 3 coats of it to match just one of Rockstar Pink:

This doesn't make it a bad polish. It's just not a full coverage glitter. It's good for layering.


And finally, we have a very sweet, deep purple/plum. 2 coats, and looks fantastic!


This set, along with Allegra, can be found in drugstores and Ulta and goes for $9.99.

Don't forget to check out the compliment to this series on Vampy Varnish! THANK YOU KELLY!

Lacquer Laine's Guest Appearance

Hi all! I am just writing to let you know that you can find a post from me today on the amazing and fabulous nail blog, Vampy Varnish!!! Kelly kindly agreed to let me do a guest post for her! I am sooo excited!

Kelly's blog, Vampy Varnish, to me, is one of the top biggest and best nail polish blogs you can come by. She always has new collections to show us, she takes beautiful, sunny pictures (jealous of her California sun!) and she includes a lot of herself on her blog like her furry companions, and I really like that. Speaking of which, I haven't shown of recent pics of my furry buddy. I will have to fix that.

ANYWAY.... Vampy Varnish was recently selected as a HLMN Hot 100 finalist. So I am not the only one that thinks she is one of the best!

You can see me (well, my hands!) over there today, and I will be posting again here later today as well!

Have a wonderful Friday!

-Elaine

Essie Starry Starry Night? Is that you?

NO! But it looks like it! This is Naturistics - Crystal Blue Pearl and it is supposed to be a dead dupe for Essie - Starry Starry Night which I have come to terms with not ever owning. It was very exciting to learn that there was a look-alike to SSN available, but the excitement soon faded when I learned Crystal Blue Pearl is also a hard to find shade. Well, the polish gods smiled on me and sent me an angel. Liz of Iceomatic's Nails kindly gifted this to me. How sweet!! I still can't believe it.
And of course, I had to see it matte.
You may recall a while back I did a post about a franken for Essie - Starry Starry Night and I thought I did a pretty good job on it.


This was the photo of my franken, Evening Twinkler, which consisted of half Wet and Wild - Nocturnal and half LA Colors - Silver Glitter. Now that I had almost the real SSN in my hands, I can see that I was a bit off in the shade of the polish. Crystal Blue Pearl, or SSN, is not as cobalt blue looking as my swatch. It's more of a cool, dark denim color. Almost pulling purple. So I added some purple! I dropped in some Zoya- Pinta and I made Evening Twinkler 2.0:


You can see the shade is now pretty much exact. The only thing it needs now is a bit more glitter and it is perfect. So if you tried it before and want to get closer, throw in some purple!

Have a great day!
-Elaine

Nfu-Oh #40

Whoops!!! Wardrobe malfunction!!!

Okay okay. It wasn't a malfunction. I confess. I did it on purpose because I am just so pround of my little nails! They make me so happy! Look how they grow!

I never actually had too much trouble with the growing part. It was more the not breaking part. Now that I keep my nails polished and use strengthening base coats I have a lot less breakage.

On to the polish!


Today I am bringing you an Nfu-Oh nail polish; #40. It is what is called "flakie". It has these thin, opalescent flakes that shine several different colors. Nfu-Oh - #40 is a clear base with flakes from different shades of green to all sorts of shades of blue. It reminds me of the tropical blue ocean and of swimming in a warm, secluded lagoon or cove. It doesn't have the same effect by itself but if it is layered it is out of this world. For these swatches I have it layered over black.

Sun:
Shade:

Here are some shots of the greatest thing to ever happen to flakie nail polish: a matte topcoat:


Oh, the magic that is Nfu-Oh

Ozotics Pro 505: Holy Duochrome! I Musta' been Good This Year

I was recently involved in a secret Santa swap and was a very lucky girl! I must have been good this year! My secret Santa lives in Australia, and she very very thoughtfully sent me a major lemming, Ozotics Pro.

Ozotics Pro, from what I have seen, makes the most uh-mazing multichromatic polishes. She sent me 505, and holy cow it is beautiful! I shows colors from a bright glowing dragonfly green, to teal, to royal blue, to purple, to magenta, to amber. It is so stuning. I have a lot of pictures to help you grasp how much you see in this polish. It is so fun to look at. I looked at my hands while wearing this and thought, "Why do I ever have to wear any other polish?" It is that incredible. The only problem with it is that it is a bit sheer, so I layered two coats of it over one coat of Zoya - Pinta, a dark purple creme, and that really made it. Take a look:

I understand that I have just done a very bad thing to you guys. You (unless you're in Australia!) are now going to want this, and it's going to be hard to get! It really isn't that hard, it's just that shipping will be expensive. I believe that this website sells internationally, but you'll have to pay a pretty penny for it. Maybe at least $15. I don't know for sure, I'm just guessing. I am sorry for being so evil!
:c)