Showing posts with label gold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gold. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Dreams by Neihule Swatches

I recently had a chance to try a pretty new nail polish brand: Dreams by Neihule. The nail polish shades have inspiring names like "I Believe" and "Dreamz of Hope". They come individually boxed and when you open the box you find a rainbow ribbon with a little message like "It's not over 'til it's over" and "You are loved and needed".



Dreams by Neihule Nail Lacquer is a new nail polish line that was launched early this year. Since the launch of our line, we have been apart of some of the biggest events in Hollywood, events such as The Oscars, The Grammy’s and an event for mother’s day titled “Mother’s day in Hollywood”.

Dreams by Neihule Mission Statement

Heavenly - This is a dreamy, creamy, baby blue creme. The formula on this was one of the best I have seen for a pastel blue. I don't find it terribly unique, but it is super beautiful and this type of bright, sky blue/baby blue/pastel blue is one of my favorite polish shades so I love this.

Glamtastic - Aw yeah! When I first opened this up I thought it was a gold glitter in a black base and I thought it looked awesome. Then I put it on and realized it was gold AND black glitter in a clear base and I thought it was even more awesome! This is mega-hott and ridiculously awesome and probably going to make my Best of 2011.

Prayze - This is a fine pink, full coverage glitter. Very pretty and delicate, but super sparkly and fun at the same time.

Crown Jewels - This is an awesome glitter. It is a full coverage shade, made up of small glitter pieces but the thing I like the most is that the overall color is achieved using silver, gold and copper glitter.

Overall, I am pleased with these shades! The formula is fantastic. The glitters are full coverage and the creme, although being pastel was well pigmented but still easy to apply. I don't doubt you can expect the same from the other shades they have to offer.

Dreams by Neihule shades can be purchased here and they retail for $12 a bottle. One thing I was thinking is that they would be great for a gift for a special occasion since they come in pretty boxes and have the inspiring little message ribbon. There are also some other gorgeous looking shades I want to get for myself!!

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.





Sunday, May 29, 2011

SUNDAY SPAM

Sally Hansen - Antique Gold (over Wet n Wild - Nocturnal)

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Bangin'

Sally Hansen - Chartreuse Chase

Borghese - Almondine

Essie - Smooth Sailing

Color Club - High Society

China Glaze - Let's Do It In 3D

Zoya - Gaia (over white)

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Nicole by OPI - One Less Lonely Girl Collection

The One Less Lonely Girl was conceived to raise awareness for Pencils of Promise, and organization that builds sustainable schools for underserved children in the developing world. In addition to educating consumers about this non-profit, Nicole by OPI has committed to building two such schools.

Not A Gold Bigger - This is a gold foil. Is it pretty? Yes. Is it unique? No.

I've Got Bieber Fever - This is a dark plummy purple with a subtle shimmer. This is very beautiful and I want to believe I have other shades like this, but I still have a spot for this one in my heart.

Make U Smile - This is a chunky silver/blue glitter in a clear base. It is shown over My Lifesaver. At first glance I thought maybe this was a dupe to Deborah Lippmann - Today Was A Fairytale, but it's not. TWAF has a blue base and although this looks blue in the bottle, it's clear on the nail. Also the glitter in TWAF is more dense.

Red-y To Runaway Love? - This is awesome. How could a plain red creme be so awesome you say? First thing is the formula. It's thin but pigmented. It glides on effortlessly in two coats. Next the color is so bright and amazing. I know, I know. This is a red creme. That is what I thought too until I put it on. I was actually going to wear this to work because I thought it would be boring, and I quickly realized I had to take it off because it is just SO DAMN BRIGHT!

I'm A Belieber - Hott damn. This a bright purple creme. It has the slightest bit of jelly finish. It is so bright a purple it makes me real happy. It makes me think of grapes. I feel like it should smell like grapes. I don't have anything like this.

My Lifesaver - This is a bright mint creme. Another winner. At first I wasn't excited because I assumed I had a dupe but its honestly not like any other mint cremes I have. It is more blue than most mints. The bluest mint I have is Essie - Mint Candy Apple but My Lifesaver isn't at all like it because it is more saturated and not pastel like MCA. It is awesome.

One Time Lime - This is another winner from this collection. This is a bold, saturated lime creme. I don't have anything like this in my collection.

"Baby" Blue - Cute name. And yet another winner. This is a bright sky blue creme. Another saturated, rich creme in a beautiful shade.

Overall this is a very fun collection. I feel a bit luke-warm about the non-creme polishes in this set but the creme shades: Oh my. I love every one of them. They are all incredible on and have great formulas, especially Red-y To Runaway.

These are all available now at Wal-Marts, select Targets, Sears and Ulta.

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.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Metal Mash Up

Silver and gold clash? NEVER!

I came up with this mani on New Year's Eve. I really couldn't get any ideas for my mani out of my head except for silver and gold. But I didn't know which. And Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: BOTH!

I started with China Glaze - Cheers To You, a silver foil. Then I added a coat of Nubar - Heavy Gold Glitter and to finish off the fantasticness, I threw on a coat of my favorite holo glitter, Icing - Glamorous.

What do you think?!
-Elaine
:c)

Monday, January 24, 2011

Nicole by OPI - Liquid Metals

For the new year Nicole has released a set of shades for some "notice me nails"! This is a collection of for foil finish, flashy colors giving the look of liquid metal on your nails.

Rich In Spirit - When I first saw this bottle I though "blue foil". But once I got it on it looked more like a silver foil tinted a bit blue. However you look at it, it's pretty.

Miss Independent - This is a cool pink foil with undertones of lilac. Very different from any other pink foil I have ever seen. I love how cool and purple it is. It could have been a girly pink but instead it is edgy and hott.

The Next CEO - This is a gold foil, which isn't really unique, but it at least is a more neutral gold thanks to the loads of silver in it instead of being real warm and yellow such as China Glaze - Midnight Kiss.

It Starts With Me - This is a peachy, warm foil. It actually, against my skin tone, made me feel like I was wearing a polish that matched my skin but was foil finish. Weird.

Liquid Metals are available this month and retail at ULTA, Walmart, Target, Sears, Harmon, HEB and Wegmans.

What do you think?!
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.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Holiday Jewel Basket by Nubar

For the holiday's Nubar has released a gift set of seven shades, including lots of glitter, Diamont top coat and base coat all wrapped in a little cube with a little basket that you can put nail tools and things into. Let's take a look at the shades>>>

Competition Red - Dreamy, creamy, red, red red. Is it just a red creme? I guess. It is a very nice rich red and I like the formula in comparison to other red cremes I have been trying lately because it is more like a true creme than jellyish.

Pixie Dust (over Competition Red) - This is a super shimmery, white/silver dusting of little particles. This is meant to be worn as a top coat. This won't get you full coverage but it is beautiful.

I love looking at the bottle. It's like a magical snow globe.

Silver Glitter - This is a dense, full coverage silver glitter. This is three coats.

Grass Green Glitter - This is a full coverage green glitter with little flecks of gold. This is 4 coats. I wasn't terribly impressed with the formula. It's still patchy after 4 coats. I am looking forward to wearing this over Nicole - Fell From The Tree.

Ruby Red Glitz - This is a red jelly with little red glitter. I love this! I had it on for 5 days which for me is like a decade.

Heavy Gold Glitter - This has to be the best formula for a glitter, EVER. This is two coats, it is full coverage, it was even, smooth and just perfect.

NOT Pictured: Nubar - 2010. 2010 is a flakie in a clear base that was released in the summer and is a close dupe to Sally Hansen - Hidden Treasure and GOSH - Rainbow. It accidentally was forgotten in my samples but if it shows up I will post it.

This is a the basket. You could put about 5-6 bottles in it, but not close it, or you can keep little manicure tools in it.

The Holiday Jewel Basket retails for $49.95 on bynubar.com

What do you think?
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.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

China Glaze 'Tis The Season to be naughty and nice

For the holiday collection this year China Glaze has released a beautiful set of 16 SHADES! I am stunned. This is not only amazing because it is 16 polishes, but it is amazing because they are gorgeous colors. I have swatched all of the shades and did a couple comparison swatches. Swatches and reviews first and comparison s second. Let's take a look!>>>

Ruby Deer - Bright, bright tomato red. Sort of jelly in finish and has a fantastic smooth formula. So, so smooth. Amazingly smooth.

Phat Santa
- Another bold red creme but darker than Ruby Deer.

Mrs. Claus - This is very interesting! This is a sheer red with silver glitter. I am so intrigued by this because it seems soooo sheer but with three coats, the color and the glitter still hide any VNL. Very impressive. This reminds me of candy canes. It also reminds me of Zoya - Astra, although it is absolutely not a dupe.

Mommy Kissing Santa - Deep, burgundy red shimmer. This is velvety and smooth and delicious. I love this! I had a client comment that it was gorgeous and very Christmas-y. I said that it was funny she should say that because it was from a Holiday set!

Sugar Plums -Wine shimmer with sparse, tiny holo specks. Similar to a discontinued China Glaze fave, Crystal Ball, but not a dupe.

Naughty and Nice - Deep, deep, almost black, burgundy creme with a jelly finish. I loooooved wearing this. This is three coats, although when I did a mani I did two. When I did this swatch I guess I forgot how to paint my nails and needed to do a third coat to even things out.

Little Drummer Boy - Navy/denim shimmer. Very nice. I wanted to say that this isn't terribly unique/exciting, but I also don't have anything close to it. What did excite me about it, though, is that it has an out of this world formula. Super pigmented and smooth. You can get away with one coat with this one.

Jolly Holly - Wow! This blew me away. This is a rich green with golden shimmer. So beautiful. Just like Little Drummer Boy this is an amazing, smooth, super-pigmented one coat dream.

Mistletoe Kisses - What a cool polish! It makes me smile when I look at it! This is a mix of a really neat, soft green that is sort of between emerald and jade, completely packed with super small silver glitter. Very pretty. I couldn't decide if this is a two or three coater. I guess it's two but I did a third to be sure. I probably could have just stayed at two. This swatch is with top coat and one coat makes this polish smooth. It's not too grainy.

Peace On Earth - Wow! Striking, olive shimmer. This is one of my faves of this collection. I did a comparison with a few other olive shimmers below.

Jingle Bells - Classy gold. This isn't a very yellow gold. It's more or a neutral gold. Very pretty. The finish is hard to describe. It isn't quite a foil. It's sort of a chrome, but not as chrome as a chrome... if that makes sense! It's like a pearlish chrome.

Midnight Kiss - Partying yellow gold foil! There is no ambiguity here. This is definitely a gold foil. This is two coats.

Party Hearty (over white) - Fun! This is a clear base with large red hexagon glitter, smaller green hexagon glitter and even smaller gold and silver glitter. This is two coats over white.

Snow - White Cream. Nothing noteworthy. I am always interested to try a new staple like white creme to see if it may be like, the best white cream ever. But this one isn't . It a standard three coat, sort of difficult to apply, white creme. This is three coats with top coat.

Frosty - Pretty, delicate, snowy, pearly shimmer. It's not like a typical shimmer. The particles are sort of like small pearly pieces. I really, really like this on. It is sort of sheer so it needs at least 3 coats unless you want to layer it over something. This is actually 5 coats but that is because I kept getting my middle finger uneven and had to add more to fix it, but then it was way off then the rest. I do like the look of 5 coats though.

Cheers to You - Silver fun foil. Very pretty and flashy and awesome, but not unique.

And as promised here are a couple comparison swatches:

Sugar Plums on index and ring and China Glaze - Crystal Ball on middle and pinky. Crystal Ball is thinner and has more holo glitter. Sugar Plums only needed two coats, but Crystal Ball needed three.

Peace On Earth comparison. From left to right:
  • Peace On Earth
  • China Glaze - Cat's Eye
  • OPI - At Your Quebec & Call
  • Peace On Earth
I was hoping that Peace On Earth would be close to an amazing discontinued olive from China Glaze: Cat's Eye. Cat's Eye is more metallic and not as green.

Midnight Kiss on index and ring. Orly - Luxe on middle and pinky. Close, but not dupes. Luxe has more silver particles giving it a less yellow gold look then Midnight Kiss.

'Tis The Season is available now online and at retailers. What do you think?! :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.