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?

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 Rare and Radiant

Guess what, it's Friday!! As promised, I have my last polish from China Glaze Bohemian Luster Chrome collection. Rare and Radiant. Soo many brands have been putting out their version of this color, a yellow gold duochrome that flashes green, but I hadn't been able to get my hands on any of the previous polishes until now.

The duochrome is pretty evident in this polish, but (and you may whack me over the head for saying this) I was not impressed with this polish. The formula was fine, the color is pretty, but it doesn't work on my skin and I found it boring. Mayhaps I'm a little jaded with all the green-yellow duochromes coming out as everyone tries to get their fingers in the Chanel Peridot pie. All I know is, this was the polish I was most excited to get my hands on, and my least favorite in the bunch. And that's disappointing. 

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people who really like this polish, and that's fantastic. I'm just really not feeling it today. I think on another day, I might actually be fond of it! Perhaps the problem is I scheduled this polish for today specifically to complete the week, when I normally grab whatever suits my fancy for the day. So the moral of the story is: don't let this whinging grouch spoil your fun on this polish!

What do you think? Are you tired of the Peridot dupes?

Have a great weekend everyone! 

China Glaze Unpredictable

Hi guys! I hope you are all having a bearable Wednesday. I have a few things on my to-do list today, so I need to get cracking!

To continue the China Glaze theme from Monday, I have another polish from the Bohemian collection, Unpredictable. 

This is a yellowish-green duochrome with hints of blue. As I tried to capture in the below photo, the duochrome element is much stronger in this polish than in Deviantly Daring. This is also relatively sheer in comparison, requiring 2-3 coats. The one downside is that it took absolutely ages to dry.  Maybe it was my application, but I spent an absurd amount of time trying to work with this polish. I think with a good quick dry topcoat you'd normally be fine though. 

My thoughts? I hemmed and hahhed over this at the display at Sally's and I'm pleased that I grabbed it in the end.  I haven't tried a lot of chrome-y polishes, and this collection is quite satisfactory. A couple of collections already released and/or coming out for fall are chrome (Essie anyone?) so this collection doesn't seem groundbreaking. I'd still pick it up though, there are a few Chanel and Deborah Lippmann dupes to be found and the colors really are lovely.  

That's all for today! On Friday I'll wrap up the week with another China Glaze so check back!

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!

For Audrey

Here is China Glaze For Audrey. I was pining after this baby for ages after I found out it existed, and was terribly worried I wouldn't ever get my hands on it. But I did! As you can see...

Anyways, this is a lovely robin's egg blue creme. My camera didn't like it at all though :( I think I am going to be in the market for a new camera soon, because mine just refuses to cooperate. It takes ages to focus and can't take a color accurate photo to save it's soul. If it had a soul. It definitely has personality though, I'll give it that. (stupid bugger)

This isn't my best application, I was swatching between classes, so this is super rushed. I've also been super mean to my hands lately, so please disregard their horrible state. The 3rd photo is the most color accurate. It's a lovely dusty Tiffany's blue, not baby blue or bright turquoise. Its really quite subtle in a chic sort of way. The formula was pretty on-par with China Glaze I've come to find, smooth and pigmented. Two coats = perfection.

At the moment though, my nails are totally naked. I'm letting them grow and do their own thing because they're getting super funky. As in, peeling like crazy and looking warped. Either I'm not resting them enough between polishes (do you even need to do that? probably not) not getting enough water, or not getting the right nutrition. My vote is for the last suggestions, as I've been eating crap food lately. My schedule has been thrown out of whack by my own procrastination, and this week it's my goal to get back on track.

For a update on the flooding issue, our house is pretty much back to normal. The gigantic fans are finally gone, and they've replaced the baseboards! The third floor is still chaos though, so maintenance still has a lot of work to do. They're troopers.

So what do you think of For Audrey? I wish my camera was better at capturing color. Anyone have any suggestions for good quality cameras that aren't extremely expensive?

Haulage!

This is pretty late coming, so here it is finally!

The lacquer haul from over Christmas break (and some from before Christmas):

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway, Sun Worshipper, and For Audrey

Essie Sag Harbor and Lapis of Luxury

Package Irony, Lapis of Luxury was in the big pack,
and Sag Harbor  was in the tiny one. So weird

From OPI's Shrek Forever After Collection,
 Who the Shrek are You?and What's with the Cattitude?

Sally Hansen's  Grey by Grey, which was a consolation
for not being able to buy MAC's Blue India, but I love it
just on its own.

ULTA polishes, from left to right: Grin and Berry It,
 Sweetheart Pink, Vintage Violet, and The Jungle Look

Christmas presents from my wonderful roommate:
Finger Paints Silver Sculpture, Orly Girly,
 and China Glaze Frostbite

I'm pretty stoked about Frostbite, The Jungle Look, and Lapis of Luxury, which I haven't tried yet. I've worn a good number of them, but forgot to take photos, so I will have to swatch them again for you :) I'm going to do a series from this haul, starting yesterday with Who the Shrek are You? so keep posted!

What about you, any of these strike your fancy?