Max Factor - Fantasy Fire AKA Amazeballs

Ah, I'm back! I took an impromptu break and didn't mean to stay away so long!

I've got something super fun and awesome to show you:

Max Factor Fantasy Fire.

This was released in the UK back in the spring, and in an instant a lemming was born. I was ridiculously upset that I wouldn't be able to buy this in the States, but I was determined to get my hands on it, so a few months ago I bought it off a very nice seller on ebay for a pretty reasonable price.

I die.

I've layered 2 coats of Fantasy Fire over Revlon Royal. The VNL is completely unnoticeable in real life, I don't know why my camera does that. And I did get some minor shrinkage because I think I waited too long to put on the top coat.

But wow. It is just so goddamn pretty.

Using my camera flash helped bring out some of the orange/purple shimmer:



Getting it at an angle to show you the color-shift was a little difficult, but it's there.  :3



Just awesome. I'm so so happy I grabbed this when I could. It's an instant mood-lifter.

Wet N Wild - I need a Refresh-Mint

It's Monday!!
Going to the grocery is getting difficult because it's so hard to avoid the candy isles.  I bought a small packet of caramels, ate the entire bag accidentally, then had to go out and purchase more. The second packet of caramels is now gone as well.

woops

Today I have a Wet n Wild polish to show you, I Need a Refresh-Mint. First off, that is a stupid name for a polish. The color is not mint in the slightest.





It's really more of a light teal blue. It looks extremely similar to China Glaze's For Audrey, so I've included a comparison.

On my pointer finger is OPI's What's With the Cattitude, a light pure baby blue, followed left to right with I Need a Refresh-Mint, China Glaze For Audrey, and  OPI Mermaids Tears,  for a green comparison.



As you can see, Refresh-Mint is a bit more blue and more vibrant than For Audrey, but definitely not as blue as WWTC. For Audrey is lighter, more dusty, and a tad more green

As far as formula goes, they are relatively comparable. They're both creamy and require two coats minimum, but I think I prefer For Audrey as a matter of personal taste. The color is more subtle, delicate, and has a much more preferable brush. Wet n Wild has unfortunately has taken a leaf out of Sally Hansen's book as their brushes resemble gigantic paddles. This makes the polish difficult to work with, which is quite unnecessary.

What do you think about I need a Refresh-mint and For Audrey? Which polish do you prefer?

Rescue Beauty Lounge - IKB:2012 and Comparison

Can you believe it's nearly October!? I know I say that every single time the month changes, but I'm still gobsmacked.

Today I have a lot of preparation to do! Craig and I are taking a long weekend to Portland, Oregon for a wedding, and I am super excited! I love the west coast and cannot wait to go back, and we leave tomorrow!
ahhh....it's now 3PM and I haven't gotten anything done :/ Oh Pinterest, I blame you.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have nothing on my nails right now. Zilch. The pictures below of Rescue Beauty Lounge's IKB:2012 were taken a few days ago:





How GORGEOUS.
I swatched these without a top coat because I wanted to show you the texture of the polish itself. It does not dry shiny but has an odd, suede finish. The formula is workable, but not what I've come to expect from RBL unfortunately. I think this has something to do with the fact that the polish is almost pure pigment.

This post is really painful to write. IKB:2012 is unfortunately no longer available from Rescue Beauty, and I feel horrible for posting about a polish you can no longer get (unless you were to succumb to Ebay scalpers).
I not only regret that, but also because this color brings up evocative memories of a certain special mad man and his little blue box. And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Because yes, IKB:2012 is TARDIS blue perfection.

HOWEVER I have an alternative!

Revlon's Royal is not (in my books) remotely close to IKB:2012, but I think for the price, the differences can be negated. ($6 vs $20? I think so)


Royal on index and ring, IKB:2012 on middle and pinkie

At any rate, Royal is much more jelly-like, darker and deeper, and more purple to my eye. I almost regretted buying IKB:2012 when I purchased Royal because the formula is miles better, and the color is so much richer. I think that for some, Royal might be an acceptable alternative.

Dupe? I would say not a chance in hell, but an alternative certainly.

See you guys on Friday! I'll be trying to update while in Portland, but I can't make any promises. I'm notoriously bad at blogging while away from my desktop!

Nicole by OPI - Iceberg Lotus

Hello friends! I hope you all had a great weekend :) My birthday was wonderful, and I woke up to Craig trying to figure out the food processor to make a carrot cake. Adorable.

This is a polish from Nicole by OPI, Iceberg Lotus. It took me longer than I'd like to admit before I got the pun in the name, and for a while I sat there thinking, what? Lotus? This looks nothing like the color of an iceberg!

Ah me. 

I wish the duochrome element was more apparent in my photos than it appears to be. This is such a bright, vibrant, insane color and my camera just absolutely hated it. The base color is a bright teal-green, but at the edges it flashes blue and purple and unfortunately my photos just don't do it justice. The formula was on the thin side, so these swatches required about 3 coats to bring out the vibrant green but that seemed perfectly fine to me. 

My only problem with this is that it has the most ridiculous brush. I know this is a sore spot for a lot of people, but this was my first Nicole by OPI so I was really surprised. The brush is slightly wider than the new-ish OPI Pro-wide brush, but thinner than the Sally Hansen brushes (which are on whole other level of terrible), and it just makes for sloppy application. It was not pleasant.

(On a side-note, I also find the bottle shape to be silly.)

 So what do you think? I believe this is from the Something about Spring 2011 collection, and I picked mine up at Target about a month ago so I'm sure you can still find it there. I don't pay any attention to Nicole brand polishes, but they appear to be coming out with some interesting colors that look worthwhile. If only I could get over that silly brush...

See you on Wednesday!

TGIF

Hey guys, guess what? IT'S FRIDAY.
Thank goodness.

This is Navy, a polish from Love and Beauty, the Forever21 brand. I've also seen this called Sunlit Waves, but my label says Navy. I remember seeing this one the Forever21 website, and needing it. When I finally got my hands on it, it sat in my box for ages. (Did I forget about it or something??)

The gold and green shimmer is unfortunately not as apparent as it is in the bottle, but it comes out in sunlight. Normally it looks like a glossy, dark slate blue and it's lovely.

I don't have anything else to say, other than I'm ready for the weekend, my birthday, and an upcoming trip to Ohio to visit my family. :D

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

Plastic Wrap Nails

Hey guys! I hope you are all having a great Monday, and to start off the week I have some nail art that I'm really excited to show you!

I got the idea from a tutorial that Anna from Glitter She Wrote posted here. The idea is that you use crumpled plastic wrap to blot wet polish over a contrasting color to create a marbled effect, and I love it! For my attempt, I tried to recreate the look Anna made by layering a navy blue over white. Specifically, China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway for the blue and Essie Bone Chilling from the Morticia's Nails collection as the undercoat color.

Now, I  love blue patterned anything. If I could, my entire house would be covered in blue-patterned china, tablecloths, cookware, you name it. So you can understand that when Anna's photos showed up on my Pinterest I had to try it out right then and there. I experimented with one nail last night, and then finished up the rest this morning. 

The tutorial suggests waiting until the bottom coat color has dried completely, but I was able to get away with using a coat of Seche Vite over the white and waiting a few minutes. I was also pretty gentle with the plastic wrap. I found that the design got muddied easily if I went over the color too many times with the plastic, so try to keep to blotting once or twice only. 

What do you think? Is this fantastic or what!? I'm loving it, and I can't stop looking at my nails. I've tried my hand at nail art before and I'm a little clumsy with it, but I found this to be really easy! To follow Anna's tutorial, visit her website and let me know how it goes!

China Glaze Deviantly Daring

Hello friends, did you all have a great weekend? I spent my weekend repotting some poor root-bound houseplants of mine, and we had friends over for dinner last night which was a lot of fun.

To start off the week, I have a polish from China Glaze's Bohemian Luster Chrome collection for Fall 2012 to show you! Deviantly Daring.

This is a bold, turquoise blue that flashes green and deeper blue in certain angles. It's very thick and so pigmented I only needed 1-2 coats to get full coverage. The duochrome isn't as strong as it could be, but what the polish lacks on that department it makes up for in vibrancy. My camera freaked out a little over the color.

The bottle flashes purple at the edges, and I was really hoping that this would translate onto the polish, but it doesn't unfortunately. I tried to capture the color shift, but it's much more noticeable in person.

So what do you think about Deviantly Daring? I also picked up Rare and Radiant and Unpredictable and I'll be posting them soon!

I was able to pick my bottle up at Sally Beauty Supply for about $7.00, but they're also available online for purchase here and here.

Have a good Monday everyone!

OPI Mermaid's Tears

Hello my friends!

Way back in January I showed you OPI's Steady as She Rose here, and today I have another polish from that collection, Mermaid's Tears. 

This is a beautiful dusty turquoise-green cream, and it applied really well. This flattered my skin-tone much better than Steady as She Rose, and as a side note, my mother loved this color on her toes. 

Not much else to say today. I hope you are all having a great week so far and I'll be back on Friday with another post!

RBL Bikini Bottom

The last time I ordered from Rescue Beauty Lounge (which was a long time ago), I purchased two super special polishes, IKB:2012 and Bikini Bottom. This is the latter:

Bikini Bottom is a sheer, blue jelly with a drop of something murky. This is 3 coats, and you can still see VNL, but I actually think it looks best that way. It has a watery, ethereal quality to it that makes everything look fresh and breezy to me. 

When I ordered this I wasn't entirely sure I wanted it, but I purchased it anyway and I'm sooo glad that I did. I really wanted to purchase Starfish Patrick as well, but unfortunately it's sold out. Bikini Bottom is still available so if you're on the fence about it, I would probably snatch it up if you can spring for the $18 price tag. 

Happy Monday everyone!

butter LONDON Victoriana

Another butter LONDON to show you today!

I bought two over Christmas, Marrow and this one: Victoriana.

 (Warning, this post is very picture-heavy)

I really fell in love with this one. (Can you tell? I couldn't leave any photos out!) The formula was pretty fabulous, not like Marrow which was thick and globby. This was smooth, pigmented, and sparkly without getting gritty.  It photographed more blue than it is in real life. In actuality has a nice green tint in some lights which turn it a murky lagoon color. 

Removal however...was a pain. The glitter was really stubborn and did NOT want to come off. I could have been patient and just let my nails soak under an acetone-dipped cotton ball, but instead I just scrubbed...and scrubbed...and scrubbed. (Probably wasn't good for my nail bed, which is why I've been taking a small break and letting my nails just grow a bit without polish for a week or so :)

In other news I have my first midterms of the semester tomorrow! I get very nervous before and during tests, and I really don't know how to deal with test anxiety. Does anyone have any good tips for handling this? I try to study a lot before exams so that I really know the material, but I still panic during the exam and do poorly :(

Essie Midnight Tango

There are only 4 weeks left in the semester (not including the week of Thanksgiving) at my University. I think it's fair to say I am freaking out!

This is Essie's Midnight Tango from the "Morticia's Nails" collection released in 2010 (I think) for the Addams Family Musical. It's a very deep navy with blue shimmer, but it's not really apparent until you get into full sunlight. Normally it just looks like a really dark navy.

Isn't this so super gorgeous?! I die.

I'm a big fan of Essie's polish, and Midnight Tango is no exception. This polish is extremely pigmented and smooth. I'm anticipating having smurf fingers once I take this off. I've worn this polish for a exactly 7 days and no chipping! Only minor tipwear, and the combination I used is ULTA's Professional Base Coat and Seche Vite. 

Now, the bottle says Midnight Tango but I am 100% certain this is a rebottled Midnight Cami. Lauren over at Dizzy Nails has a great comparison here, along with a thorough look at the entire collection. I bought the collection as well and didn't have time to do a full post on it, but it's in the works ;)

I don't know if many people heard much about this collection? They only produced about 5,000 sets to benefit The Actors Fund. I'm not sure if every color in the set is a rebottled formula, but I wouldn't doubt it, merely because of the small production.

I'll post the rest of the collection later, once I've swatched the rest of the polishes :) What do you guys think of this one?

Sag Harbor

I feel like I need to give ample warning and a sincere apology for the state of my cuticles/nails. I did a crummy job this time around on my manicure, and it looks awful. I didn't realize how bad it was until I looked at the photos on my computer, and my first reaction was "EWW". I'm slathering on cuticle cream as I write this in a vain attempt to moisturize.

So, I apologize for the haggard pictures. When I get stressed, I tend to pick at my cuticles, often until they bleed. Which is horrible. And it hurts! I can't figure out how to stop doing it. Any thoughts or advice?

Anyways, may I present Essie's lovely lady, Sag Harbor.

This is the prettiest, dusty powder blue that I have ever seen. There is a very light shimmer that's not entirely noticeable until you get into the sun, but unfortunately the sky was funky today and I didn't get any sun in my apartment at all while I was there. I think it gives me a slight case of lobster hands, but I do not care. Not a little bit. My roommate commented that it reminded her of Easter, but it makes me think of the dusty blue that the sky gets when it starts to mist. Lovely.

It's also the exact shade of one of the BF's t-shirts, which I just noticed today. We were chatting and I looked at my hands, then at his shirt, and put my nails up against his arm and said "My nails match your shirt!! Isn't that cool?! Wow!"

He wasn't as excited about this as I was, haha. He was also confused about the name, but Sag Harbor is a place in New York (here), it doesn't have anything to do with sagging....haha.