Dahlia Darling

I do not like Sally Hansen's bajillion different nail polish lines. It makes life incredibly difficult sometimes. It would be so brilliant they were just condensed into just one line. Then again, maybe we wouldn't have like 80,000 variations of pink or red available for us.

Even though I give SH a lot of flack, it's easily one of the best and usually affordable drugstore nail polishes. That's because while I adore cheapo brands, Sally Hansen usually has a lot of variety, especially of late. But really, sometimes pink is just pink. And I say that as a polish whore with about 50 different shades of the same pink or red. But then again, I easily every color in the rainbow, even the colors I can't see.

Anyway, I LOVE Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine in Dahlia. It's one of the most multifaceted, "sophisticated" (read: not crazy BLING BLING IN YO FACE) glitter topcoats around. It's multicolored, fine shimmer with tiny gold flakes. I tried it over, what else, a pink Sally Hansen color, and fell in love. It was cloudy that week so I don't have fabulous pictures but you can see the results:

Oh, and True Tulip is a straight creme, so all this beauty is all Dahlia

See what I mean about the sophistication? It's so subtle, but wonderful.

As with all good things though, there is a downside. Dahlia is not a clear glitter topcoat, so it will slightly alter the base color to be a bit lighter. So, it works best with lighter colors and black. You can layer anything over black.

Here it is over a darker color, LA Flare Green (a beautiful green creme PS)



As you can see, the glitter also shows up a bit differently over LAF green. It's not unpleasant, but it does make a difference in color. That's really the only downside to this. But then I think about how great it goes over black and over lighter colors and I'm won over again. I'll have to play around some more but I'm definitely loving Dahlia.

Confessions of a Polishaholic

I have a thing for redheads. It's the combination of the hair color and the fair skin that's so classically beautiful. It's why I love Nicola Roberts, Amy Adams (even though she's a natural blonde, homegirl rocks the red!), and Isla Fisher.

Isla has a new movie coming out, Confessions of a Shopaholic, so she's starting the press stuff. Here she is on the cover of UK's InStyle magazine:

It's a little hard to tell but she's rocking a fab muted pink that actually kind of matches the shade of the pink flowers on the dress (except the polish is a little lighter). It's a simple color, but magazine covers usually don't feature dramatic nails or dramatic colors.

Suggestions: China Glaze IV, Essie Sweetie Pie, OPI Fair Dinkum Pinkum

Also, if you guys are excited about this movie, Facebook has an application for it:
http://apps.facebook.com/shopaholicmagazine/

Hey, if it has more of the stunning Isla, I'm down.

Cheap + Good = Satisfying

Petites polishes are the cheapest at Walmart ($1.24), and they are oh-so-satisfying. For a tiny bottle, .25oz (half the size of a full-sized Essie polish), it sure delivers and there is quite a bit of product to go around. Another reason I love Petites? Some of their polishes have gorgeous flaky glitter that is unique and fun, but flat so it still looks professional and very "together" from far away. I'm a big fan of bringing out the inner childish delight in everyone, can't you tell?

I've showed a preview of Juke Box before, but here is a proper mani of it. The base is a pinky-rose color and once enlarged, you can see the flaky glitter. This is three coats, and naturally my application turns out well when I'm not really paying attention to it. Such a pretty color.

Unfortunately, I revisited Walmart and it seems as if Petites have remodeled and reformulated a bit. The Petites label is no longer sideways, the font is right-side up and it seems as if all the flaky glitters are gone =(. Peach Orchid used to have gorgeous flaky glitter in a milky pinky-peachy base and now it has regular gold shimmer.

Today I saw the OPI France collection in real life at Ulta and was pretty disappointed. Nothing really called out to me and I realized to my horror that I haven't gotten anything from the Russian, Hollywood, India, Softshades, or France collections....making it FIVE collections in a row that have underwhelmed me. Ahhhhhh! Luckily, China Glaze's Rodeo Diva collection includes some yummy numbers, don't forget to check out Scrangie's amazing swatches on her website. I'm definitely gonna add more ChGs to my collection in the future.

Tomorrow I will do a bit of swatching, and I'll have to swatch some cool flaky glitters for everyone! They are super cool and fun. I still have to decide what polishes I'm going to take to China other than OPI Shanghai Shimmer, not to mention what polish I'm gonna use for a family trip to Niagara Falls from the 14th to the 17th. I'm getting so excited for all my traveling this summer!!!! It's going to be hard to part with my polishes for four months when I study abroad though....

Hello Pretties, Goodbye Money

As I mentioned I would, I got Chanel Rose Tourbillon today, the Nordstrom exclusive Chanel polish for their annual anniversary sale. It actually had been an Asia-exclusive earlier, which is why and how ebay scalpers have been able to get their hands on it. I can hardly blame them though, this color is absolutely amazing. It's delicate and a must-have to pink lovers, I think. I really can't think of a dupe for this color off the top of my head. It's sheer with the first coat, but buildable and opaque at 2 coats. I did 3 coats just to bring out the color more. It's a light pink with incredible light shimmer that is really cool. I have to say even though I was unimpressed with Gold Fiction, Fantastic, and Kaleidascope, Rose Tourbillon was really worth every penny (I ended up not getting anything from the Robertson collection. I wanted LA Sunrise and Sunset but budget-wise at this time it's just not feasible and I didn't want them that badly. Ok, kind of but I have to be realistic with my money).

Here it is in the bottle, it actually looks pretty plain:

On the nail it's just so pretty though!

I'm not going to lie, I really love this polish and I'm happy with the money I spent. Maybe for some people they will think it's too conservative and blah, but I think it's very versatile. It's work appropriate but sparkles like no other close-up. It's also one of those perfect pinks that can go with any outfit because it's a very light pink. I'll be attending a wedding in August so you better believe that I'm going to be wearing this!

After enduring the madness that was the Nordstrom anniversary sale, I dropped by a nearby Sally's Beauty to see if I could find either China Glaze For Audrey or Turned Up Turquoise. The one I went to didn't have many ChGs, though I think they added some more Orly polishes. I ended up getting ChG Rainbow and Fairy Dust, as well as Nina Pro Out of the Blue.

Rainbow is really pretty in the bottle, a light pink with a blue flash. But translated onto nails? Ehhhh...I don't like how I can see the brush strokes.
You can see the bit of duo-chromeness happening, as my pinky is pretty pink while the rest have that blue flash. I like the color, but I'm iffy on whether to give it another chance. I was really rushing with this swatch so maybe I should be more patient? Anyone else have this color? Thoughts?

I was much happier with Nina's Out of the Blue, which is an inky blue with blue microshimmer. It actually reminds me a lot of Chanel Blue Satin, except maybe a bit more lighter since Blue Satin is pretty dark. And has more shimmer. But this is a pretty good, and much cheaper alternative:

These pics are with two coats, though the application was a bit gloopy. I've added some thinner because I plan on using it tonight.

Yesterday, I went to Ontario-Mills and Victoria Gardens (both in Rancho Cucamonga, CA) which I must recommend for anyone in the area who wants to do serious damage with their credit card. Ontario-Mills is HUGE and has some great stores, though after the first couple of times the excitement wears off. Victoria Gardens is really chill and kind of a romantic place to shop actually, because it's all outdoors and very quaint, despite the huge crowds of people. Victoria Gardens has both a Sephora and an Ulta actually...but I was good yesterday and resisted the pull of Ulta because of the Chanel price tag.

Anyway, I ducked into the Hot Topic at Ontario-Mills yesterday to get their Kelly Green polish after seeing pictures of it from my amazing friend Jen. It looks so....blah in the bottle. Look like an average green right?

I think the lovely Stephanie (aka Polish Addict) will LOVE this one, it's a gorgeous dark green creme

Soooooo opaque, this is two coats! It's so rich...so dark....so GREEN

It really is a beaut. I'm sure Stephanie can tweak this into a NARS Zulu dupe since it's pretty close to the base color I think. I do have a bit of a gripe with this polish though: the formula is super gloopy/thick, and the brush is a bit more difficult to deal with. Some polish ended up dropping onto the palm of my hand from the brush "stem'. Really, I think the easiest way to deal with these problems is to add some thinner and pour it into an empty bottle. Otherwise, you really have to be careful while putting it on because luckily the polish globbed on my hand instead of the carpet or my friend's wooden desk! Ahhh! I had to dip the brush against the sides a LOT to prevent more polish from free-falling everywhere. Also, the name 'Kelly Green' comes from the website, the bottles are NOT labeled with names.

And, because I'm a Nintendo geek, look what followed me back from Victoria Gardens:
It's 1-up mushroom candy tin! It has mushroom-shaped sour candies inside, which is so cool.

Oh, I also saw China Glaze Naked in Sally's today, for anyone looking for it. Have a great night everyone!

Pinktastic!

I know I've mentioned a couple of times that I used to not be adventurous with my nails at all...I used to ONLY wear pink nail polish. But, well, given this batch of swatches can ya blame me? Pink is pretty hot!

Sinful Forget Now is a bit more on the fuchsia side, but it's still a gorgeous color with sparkles:


Sally Hansen 10 Day in Forever Mango is a pinkish mango color:

If you want a lighter pink, Sally Hansen Salon in You-Gurt Style is perfect, though it was a bit streaky. It's a great milky pink though, just requires a bit of patience:


L'Oreal Trust Fund Baby is a great slightly pearly pink, not super frosty but adds a bit of extra shine, a very classy pink:

Boots Rendezvous is a dark rose-pink with a punchful of gold shimmer:


Naturally, I saved the best for last. Rimmel Pop Apricot is a truly juicy pink color with a bit of pretty gold glitter:


I hope you enjoyed this mini picspam of delicious pinks. This post is dedicated to the very kind and very sweet duffimac over at MUA, who used to not like pinks at all! Hopefully this post will inspire her to give pinks a chance =)

Drugstore Gems: Wet N Wild

Yes, I like my salon brands like OPI and Essie but well, nail polish obsession doesn't have to be an expensive habit. There are plenty of great drugstore brands out there. Previously, I mentioned Black Radiance and Sinful Colors, but Wet n Wild has great color selections and their cheapest polish is 99 cents! It's really a great deal. Not only that, their polish is definitely the best cheap polish you can get (sorry NYC, I'll point out your minor flaws a bit later). WnW Black Creme is my resident favorite pure black polish because it's opaque in one coat and so cheap, which makes it great for frankens too.

Dreamy Poppy is another standout, a bright pink color that's fun and great for summer. I used to not like straight cremes but they've really grown on me


Talk about getting your bang for a buck!

I think this is the fastest that I've ever edited pictures and gotten a post up lol (within 20 minutes). It usually takes me a while because I'm very easily distracted. I had to get up early today to take one of my roommates to school because he's going to be carless for a while, and I'm sitting with my chem book open while listening to another roommate play on a PS2. But the main reason I wanted to post fast is because I have another midterm this Thursday, which means I really only have today to justify a bunch of posts. Anything past today is a bit shameful because I'm obviously procrastinating! I do have a ton of swatch pics still to edit so today might be super megapost day

These Boots Were Made for Paintin'

Boots is a powerhouse British cosmetics/beauty/health brand that in recent years has expanded to the U.S. It's most commonly found at Target and CVS stores. Their nail colors have always been pretty basic, but they started adding some new ones that are pretty hot. One of them is Sunset, a bright-ish rose pink with gorgeous silver shimmer.


The application was very smooth but my only gripe is that the neck of the bottle is a bit narrow and tall. I feel like if I'm not too careful dipping the brush back into the bottle, I could easily mess up the brush by jamming it too hard against the sides. I'm hoping they'll release other new colors soon too, because for $4.99, it's not very expensive and I loved the application. I already scooped up another one, Rendezvous (a dark pink with gold shimmer) while they were on sale at Target, and there's a pretty hot dark purple one that's very pretty too.

Back to Basics: Frankening

Picture this scenario: You've suddenly started to like grey polishes but you can't find a good one that's dark enough. You remember that black + white = grey, and so you decide to mix the two together to create the perfect grey.

Congratulations, you just made a frankenpolish! As the name implies, it's pretty much blending polishes or pigments or glitter together to make custom colors (much like the monster Dr. Frankenstein created out of old body parts).

Making frankens is pretty fun, though sometimes they don't always turn out how you planned. Therefore, it's really best to franken only with cheaper, drugstore brands or colors that aren't too hard to find. Sometimes there can be clear recipes with frankens, other times it's a product of several polishes at all different dosages. It's always cool to play with polishes, but like with any fun activity, there are some hazards:

1. If you're not careful, it can get messy. I always lay a tissue on my desk for safety, so you definitely want some sort of precaution. After all, getting nail polish on that $2000 antique heirloom table would be heartbreaking.
2. Some formulas react horribly together. For many girls on the nail board, there have been...incidents where the glass in the bottles have shattered/minor explosion (not the explosion of the great balls of fire kind, more like of the crap-there's-nail-polish-everywhere! kind) when shaken. Though it's never happened to me, knock on wood, if it's a concern, mix only with the same brand.
3. Because sometimes the bottles are open to longer periods of time, there is more secondhand fumage (not a word) from the polish. Like I'm always stressing, well-ventilated areas!

Even if you can't think of an original color to create, you can still franken when you "tweak" existing colors. For example, I had a pale pink Jordana polish with glitter that was sooo pretty...except when I put it on it was super sheer. So, I decided to make it more opaque by adding 7 drops of Orly Soul Mate. The result?

Same light glitter, but with a slightly darker base. I named it Chatty Kelly, after the fabulously chirpy, rah-rah customer service rep Kelly Kapoor on the American version of The Office. I think she would approve.

Early Morning Hotness: Essie Neons

I apologize for the delay in getting these pictures to you guys, it's been a very hectic week. I rarely get chips in my polish but I actually did get two while moving on Saturday. I felt like I had crossed an important milestone in my life, hehe. I haven't even caught up with my daily readings of the nail board at MUA and CNN/BBC in the past four days. It's been quite a week.

Anyway, onto the neons! I normally swatch without a base or top coat but since neons dry so matte due to the pigmentation in them, I added a topcoat to truly represent the color. Here they are all together:

L-R: Bermuda Shorts, Shorty Pants, Mini Shorts, Short Shorts

First, although I'm not a purple girl I must say that I really liked Bermuda Shorts. It had one of the best applications of the four, and it made my skin look very pale (always a plus in my look, I hate that I tan so easily). It's a great vibrant neon purple.
Now, I love yellow polish, but it does make my fingers look extremely tan. The contrast is nice but it doesn't photograph well. Anyway, Shorty Pants is a gorgeous neon yellow creme that is a true yellow, it doesn't turn out mustard-y like Icing Smooth Like Butta does. However, I must say that the application on this one wasn't the best. Maybe it was finicky because it wanted to have a name ending in 'shorts' too? It might be a yellow thing (NYX Carnation was also very streaky, NYC Taxi Cab Yellow was too watery/streaky until I let it dry out), but this one does require a lot of patience.

Ahhh it makes my hand look so dark! But honestly the contrast is awesome. I gave a sneak peek of Mini Shorts earlier, but with topcoat it definitely gives it that extra kick of neon. This one also had a good application

And finally, Short Shorts. I didn't think it was very neon until I looked at it on my computer screen (disadvantages of having a crappy digital camera and being colorblind). Just....wow. Definitely a pink that makes a statement. The application on this was ok, not perfect but workable like most other polishes.

Neons are hard to photograph but hopefully I did ok. I had to slap Orly Live Wire over Shorty Pants though to make it even more gorgeous (I love shimmer)...hopefully everyone can see the glorious golden shimmer...if not, click to enlarge.


And yes, I've graduated from tagging my pics with my MUA name to the blog URL. Does it look ok?

My nails are actually bare now, one because it's easier to swatch on whim whenever I please but also because my nails are recovering from using a SH basecoat (more on that later) which completely dried out my nails and stripped them completely of their natural oils and made them peel a bit. Ugh. More on that later, I'll have a complete product review. I've also been really good on not spending too much on polish lately but I did haul quite a bit today. I got my first Nubar polish (Cotton Candy), my second Zoya polish (Akyra), my first SH Salon line polish (You-Gurt Style) and my first Borghese polish (Capri Coral). But those are not the only polishes I got, which is quite terrible!

Anyway, even though I had some application issues, these neons are still really hot and perfect for summer!

Not For the Color Shy....

Is there a certain polish that brings you good memories? The one I can think of most prominently is Orly Passion Fruit. It's the color I was wearing to support one of my favorite tennis players, Novak Djokovic, during the finals of the 2008 Australian Open (I didn't have any of the Australian OPIs, so I just went for the word 'passion,' hehe). Ok so yeah, Nole's a little arrogant and sort of bends the rules sometimes when it comes to his excessive ball bouncing and whatnot. But that boy definitely has potential. And at least comes off as very charming in interviews. Hey, at least he gets put in his place too by Nadal and Federer. No matter how much he tries, I don't think he's going to advance much further than where he's been at for almost a year. Not yet, at least. Federer's poor performance at the French Open might foreshadow the end of his reign. But all three of them are amazing players!

Sorry, tennis tangent. Anyway, Passion Fruit. It's what I was wearing when Djokovic won his first (and hopefully not last!) Grand Slam title. Kind of a big deal, yes, but let's hope that he doesn't take the route of Andy Roddick (never really been a Roddick fan, sorry) and stays consistent. Well I figured this week I could use some luck, because clearly my polish helped Djokovic win....it's like he knew my passion for him. Ok, toning down the crazy, I promise...though that was also half-sarcasm there too. Half. I still love him. Seriously though, Passion Fruit is NOT for the color-shy. It's noticeable and is one of those statement polishes. It's a very bright, hot pink. Surprisingly I was able to capture the color pretty well.....


Also, as a favor for hill78 on MUA, I swatched Essie Mini Shorts yesterday when my nails were bare (I was getting ready to paint Passion Fruit but one swatch doesn't hurt!)....as with all neons it does dry matte. I tried to take the pictures as soon as I could but they still dulled a bit. The color is definitely brighter in real life. I've never been much of an orange girl but this could be a cool color to rock during the summer.


Also, I would like to thank the many of you who responded to my post Wow!, I've received a lot of great info about nail trends and colors in other countries! When I have a few more I'll be sure to post their thoughts. Thank you all!

What a Tease!

After a long and exhausting week, I'm ready to relax.....by studying for finals next week. I've given into the fact that the first half of June has/is going to be a lose-lose situation. But look what beauties decided to drop in today:

L-R: Bermuda Shorts, Shorty Pants, Mini Shorts, Short Shorts

Yep, the new Essie Neon collection. They released a LE neon collection last year too, but those were much sheerer. From the pics I've seen on MUA and 15 Min. Beauty Fanatic, these are highly pigmented. I'm eager to try these, but I will have to wait...but instead of just being a tease, I present you with pics of another polish.....Pure Ice Tease. It's a perfect summery color, a bright fuchsia with a hefty dose of blurple shimmer. I'm not sure how to classify the shimmer in this but it's so nice!


Pure Ice polishes can be found at Walmart for fairly cheap, I've forgotten the exact price. But they are good quality polishes for the money. Everyone over at the nail board has gone crazy over Pure Ice Heartbreaker, which is a great polish for layering over cremes because of the gorgeous shimmer in it. Also, occasionally these polishes will be out of stock...don't resort to the internet! Eventually they will be restocked, sometimes in a matter of days. Patience, patience.

With Essie's new neon collection as a direct competition with MAC and Chanel's neon collections, what do you guys think? It's definitely the cheapest alternative compared to the rest, but they are all different enough to justify (in my world at least), having them all. MAC's Phosphor, for instance, is a bit more frosty than Chanel's LA Sunrise or Essie's Shorty Pants. LA Sunrise is also lighter, and Shorty Pants is the only out of the three to be a straight creme.

Also, given Essie's surprising hit with their summer collection, and now a collection of neons, do you sense that they're branching out from their usual conservatism? Granted, the neon collection is limited edition but the pigmentation is a departure from the demure Essie polishes of the past. This could be the evolution of something great....perhaps a collection of sheer holo's? Something that incorporates their signature soft, workplace-safe colors with an infusion of holographic glitter for a bit of edge. I could easily see a nice nude holographic version of Congo Bongo, a pretty soft pink holo version of Charmeuse or My Place or Yours, or a pretty white holo with Intimate. China Glaze and OPI have all released holo collections, what do you guys think? I'm always in favor of progression while not completing leaving behind the basics. I think it's possible that Essie's color selection could become more daring without alienating their original fan base. After all, their tag line is that Essie is a color-holic. It's nice to see that becoming more of a reality now.

Early Morning Hotness: Chanel LE Robertson Blvd. collection

Get ready you guys, this one's a doozy. From the pics of Chanel's Robertson Blvd. collection, it's obvious that everyone's hopes that it would be exactly dupish to Essie's Neon Shorts collection were wrong. These colors are all gorgeous, not TOO neon but not too blah either. After seeing these pics, I really wish Chanel would add them to the permanent collection. And also because that would mean that we wouldn't have to pay $6 more for these stinking beauties.

Special thanks to the amazing Eve from MUA's nailboard for these pics! Please do not steal these pics (which is why I've watermarked them to death), she worked very hard on taking these. If you want to use these pics, please either link back to this blog or PM Love8Brain over at MUA for permission. I know there are Ebay scalpers out there already hawking these polishes for crazy high prices. I have to stress that unless you are from outside the US, usually buying these types of polishes off Ebay are a rip-off. However, especially for the girls in the UK, sometimes you can find really great deals on these things when you factor in the currency exchange. Just use some common sense before falling over backwards to bid! And as always, click on a pic for an enlarged and more detailed version.

Box pictures, just to be a tease...you would think that the numbers would be sequential since they're from the same collection, but they're not....maybe that's how they do it in high fashion:

Bottle pics:


Rodeo Dr, an actual likable purple for me (and I usually hate purple!):



Melrose...I'm actually not a fan of this one, looks too Pepto-Bismol for me. Eve however swears that it's not too bright/ostentatious in real life, and I guess she could be right. Bonus: it has a bit of a jelly finish.




L.A. Sunrise, looks like a paler version of NYC Taxi Yellow. I love it already:




And finally, L.A. Sunset, a gorgeous orange-coral:





Thoughts? Well LA Sunset and Rodeo Dr. definitely exceeded my expections, and I'm glad my fanaticism over LA Sunrise has been totally justified. I think I'd have to see Melrose in person before passing on it. All in all, these colors are pretty, yes, but with the $25 price tag in mind I would probably only get the LA's. Although, from these pics I like LA Sunset's bottle color more so than the color it is on nails. But like I said, I'd have to see them in person first.

Unfortunately, according to my friend Jen who went earlier today, LA Sunrise is SOLD OUT at the Robertson Boutique. So if that's the only one you were going to get, save your gas mileage. Word is that these LE polishes will be available for order online at chanel.com late June/early July. Hopefully by then there will be more LA Sunrise's to go around. Also, because finals week is next week and I'm actually running a slight fever right now, expect very few, if any posts until June 13th. I will at least finish writing my opinion piece on Chanel polishes and why people are willing to pay for them.

Again, thanks to Love8Brain over at MUA for letting me use her fabulous pics!