Polish Props: China Glaze Reggae To Riches

Here's another Polish Props post!  The purpose of these posts is to feature colors that don't get nearly enough of the attention that they deserve.  Today's Polish Props shade is China Glaze Reggae To Riches.

This polish blew my socks off.  I mean that literally - behold my dumb feet!

Indoors with flash.

Indoors without flash.  You can really see the blue flicker on my big toe in this picture.  I can't believe it remains stunning even in dim lighting.

I never intended to feature my dumb feet in any of my swatches when I created this blog.  However, this was the first time I tried Reggae To Riches and I loved it so much that I just had to share it with you.  This color is really unique.  I guess I would describe it as a bright fuchsia with a blurple duochrome.  It's so awesome - I mean a purpley-pink that flickers blue???  YES PLEASE.

I'm ashamed that I didn't stumble upon this beautiful color sooner.  We could've had so many good times together!  Seriously, if you like purples, pinks, and blue duochromes individually, you NEED to have this polish in your life.  There's nothing like it in the polish world!

OPI DS Ruby

Hello lovelies!  I come bearing another dose of the miscellaneous for you all to enjoy.

Let's talk OPI DS Ruby.  It's part of OPI's earlier Designer Series releases that were actually holographic.  You don’t see a lot of linear red holos out there (at least I don’t, except for Nubar Prize, but that is more of a scattered holo), so it’s refreshing to have a holo that’s not purple, blue or silver for once.  All of my pics have 2 coats of DS Ruby with Seche Vite top coat.

As with most holos, the rainbow really appears in the sun.  You'll see in the next picture that the rainbow doesn't show up in the shade at all.  Under indoor artificial lights, the holo is more visible than in the shade, but not as brilliant as it is in the sun.  I think I just told you what you already know - you're welcome from Captain Obvious.  :)

Sorry for the slight blurriness of this picture.

Just for kicks I took a picture in the sun WITH a flash in the hopes of blinding myself permanently.  It's an interesting image at least.

Indoors, the holoness is more noticeable in the bottle than it is on the nail, even before I applied the top coat.  I think I've said in my DS Sapphire post that I don't think Seche Vite really lessens or dampens OPI holos, and I still find this to be true. 

Have you girls noticed that the Designer Series polishes don't last as long as OPI's normal line?  It seems like every time I wear a DS shade it ends up chipping a lot sooner.  I don't know if that's just for me or not.  Even so, it won't prevent me from sporting them!

Random Swatches Continued

Next up is OPI Be A Dahlia Won’t You?  This bright fuchsia shade is part of their Summer 2011 Nice Stems collection.  It flashes a shimmery light blue and purple under some lights!

I don’t recall having any problems with the application.  I believe this is all 2 coats, which was all I needed to reach opacity.  I really like this polish!  Of course, I love all shiny pink polishes in general, so I suppose I’m a bit biased.

Even in the shade it still appears bright and doesn’t lose any of it’s brilliance!

OPI Ogre-The-Top Blue

There are a lot of shimmers, metallics, foils, and glitters in my collection, but not a lot of crèmes.  I’m not a huge fan of crèmes for 2 reasons:

1. My eye is more attracted to shiny, sparkling colors in general – just my preference.

2. My application of crèmes is never perfect and sometimes it can be downright bad.

When I had the opportunity to purchase OPI’s Ogre-The-Top Blue from the Shrek collection, it was such a stunning color that I couldn’t pass it up, crème or not.  

The formula on this was pretty opaque after 2 coats and it didn’t really turn out too streaky like other cremes.  I’m a sucker for blue polishes and this one didn’t disappoint.  I love how bright but sort of soft it is at the same time, if that makes any sense.  Before I tried it I thought about swapping it.  I’m glad I decided to wear it at least once because there’s no way I’m letting go of it now! 

Zoya Yara

Zoya releases some great colors in the fall.  I’m rarely dissatisfied with their selection of colors in any of their collections.  Yara is from their Fall 2011 Smoke & Mirrors collection.  Of course I purchased only polishes from the Mirrors range, due to my previously mentioned apathy toward cremes.  Yara is a pretty olive green with tiny gold shimmer particles.  I tend to gravitate toward colors with golden shimmers or glows.  I have a lot of those types of shades, like OPI Love Me Tender and Oh So Glam, Zoya Neeka and Zara, etc.  Take a gander at this gorgeous sucker:

Yara is a great color to sport during autumn!  I love how olive greens look on me – I’m guessing it’s the Italian heritage.  I think Zoya’s formula is one of the best and easiest to apply.  This shade was almost opaque in just one coat!  I applied 2 just to even if out though.  I rarely have difficulty with streaking or bald spots when I use Zoya.  And their polish remover is really good too! 

That's the end of the swatches I have for now.  Hopefully it won't take me more than a few days to bring you another post, especially because there were 2 reader requests that I need to get to!

Deborah Lippmann Forget You

Wow, I am a horrible nail polish blogger.  It’s been like a week and a half since I’ve posted anything.  I’ve been lacking the time and energy to write.  I also haven’t gotten a chance to swatch OPI Uh Oh, Roll Down The Window or OPI & Apple Pie because I’m lame.  But I have been taking pictures when I change my polish, so I have a few random swatches for you.

The first one is Deborah Lippmann Forget You.  I don’t really understand why they named it Forget You.  It makes me giggle because I think of Cee-Lo’s song every time.  It has a sheer black jelly base with tons of multi-colored glitter in various sizes.  As far as I know, this polish is only available in the limited edition Get This Party Started Set that also includes Happy Birthday and another new shade, Candy Shop.  Forget You and Candy Shop both have the same Happy Birthday glitter in them, but one base is a black jelly and one is bubble gum-pink.  I haven’t tried Candy Shop yet, so I don’t know if it’s also a jelly or not.

Once again, my pictures suck.  I told you I'm a terrible blogger.  You can click on them to enlarge.

This is 3 coats of Forget You.  You’d think after wearing nail polish every single day for the past 2 years I would have mastered the art of application.  But alas, I’m still learning.  I had to use 3 coats to evenly disperse the glitter particles and I still ended up with clusters of glitter in certain places and bald spots in others, mostly on the sides.

Like other glitter polishes, this one was a (pardon my French) bitch to remove.  But to me it seemed a lot more difficult to get it completely off compared to other glitters I’ve worn.  I had glitter all over my hands and also on my legs and clothes!  It was worth it though.  If you like glitters, the entire Get This Party Set is made especially for you.  

I didn’t realize I had so much to say about this swatch!  I think I’ll separate this post from the other 3 polishes I wanted to show you.  In the words of Ghost Hunters: onto the next!

Birthday Giveaway Winner!

The winner of my birthday giveaway has been chosen!  Congratulations to Jen B.!!!!  She is the lucky recipient of this awesome package:

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest and to everyone who takes the time to read my measly little blog.  I appreciate all of my followers and readers more than you know!  I'm sorry it took longer than I expected to announce the winner.  I hope to be giving away more goodies again in the future, so keep your eyes peeled!  :)

Polish Props: Zoya Jules

I'm baaaaccckkkkkk!! 

Once again, THANK YOU!! for all of the birthday wishes and kind words!  Turning 30 wasn't so bad, it was just...strange?  It's a whole new decade to get used to.  I had a fantabulous birthday though and enjoyed the time with my family and friends.  Unfortunately they left today so I'm a little sad and lonely.  As a distraction, I'm going to "bury my head" in nail polish.  :)

This post is the first in a new series I like to call "Polish Props!"  You hear so much about the special limited edition colors like OPI's Catch Me In Your Net or Merry Midnight, but how often do the shades that also deserve attention ever receive it??  The point of these posts is to bring to light the colors that get overlooked and that no one talks about.  Today's Polish Props features Zoya Jules!

Jules is a sparkling, metallic champagne with a golden shimmer - a perfect color for autumn in my opinion, even though it's not fall yet.  It's not your traditional gold because it has more silver and taupe undertones in addition to the gold shimmer.  The formula wasn't streaky per se, but imperfections are slightly noticeable where I know I fowled up.  I like working with Zoya's formula.  It applies smoothly and fairly evenly as most Zoya polishes do, and opacity was reached in two coats.   

The last picture is kind of crappy, but I thought I'd include it anyway to show what Jules looks like under dull light.  I'm not great with my camera, but I hope to get better at taking polish photos.

As most of you know, my birthday giveaway has ended!  Thank you to all who entered - I had over 60 entries!  I'm busy right now going through all of the comments and then I'm going to pick the grand prize winner!  I should know shortly who won and I will be contacting the winner tonight.  It was really fun for me and I'm so glad it was successful.  There will be plenty of giveaways in the future, so stay tuned!

OPI Skull & Glossbones

I wanted to thank you girls for all of your birthday wishes and for all of your kind comments about my blog.  I love how the polish community is so friendly and generous to other people who are just as passionate about nail polish as they are.  You girls are great and I couldn’t ask to be part of a better community!  My birthday giveaway has sparked a huge response so I’m very excited about it!  Keep those references and comments coming, and if you just stumbled upon this blog and haven’t entered my contest yet, you can do so here.

Before I get too busy, I wanted to share a quick swatch with you.  I’m a little late to the OPI Skull & Glossbones party.  I bought it when the Pirates of the Caribbean Stranger Tides collection was first released, but this is the first chance I got to wear it.  I was hesitant to pick this polish up because it looked kind of boring in the bottle and I was worried it wouldn’t look great with my skin tone.  But I got it anyway and I’m so glad I did!  It didn’t clash with my skin like I thought it would.  It’s a perfect shade if you need a subtle, conservative color for work but you’d also like it to be noticeable.   

All of these pictures were taken inside with artificial light - first 2 without a flash and last 2 with flash.  As usual with OPI polishes, the name describes the shade perfectly.  It definitely reminds me of bones, as morbid or weird as that might be.

I'm sorry if my posts will be few and far between for the next 2 weeks or so.  I will try to update when I have some downtime, as I have an idea for a series of posts that I think you'll enjoy.  Until next time...Happy Polishing!

Party Time!

Unfortunately in the game we call life, most people get older as the years pass.  And unfortunately I am one of those people – I’m still working on perfecting my Elixir of Immortality and one day I vow to get it right!  Until then, every time August rolls around, it punches me in the face (which I’m pretty sure causes more wrinkles) and adds another year to my fragile bones.  I’ll be turning 30 (in reality - 20 in my mind) on the 21st.  And to celebrate my 30 20 years of existence, I’m having a free giveaway! 

It’s my birthday and YOU get a gift!  How many other people can say that, besides Eric Cartman (random South Park reference)??  This is also to show my gratitude to those of you that are following or reading this blog.  What can you win, you ask?  I’ll quit stalling and tell you – bring out the goodies!

Everything here is brand new, except for the Extra Touch Wipes.  It turns out I didn’t really like the wipes, so I’d rather give them to someone who will actually use them.  This free package includes:

Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday glitter polish

Deborah Lippmann On A Clear Day Top Coat

Sinful Colors San Francisco (I wanted to include something that Happy Birthday would layer over quite nicely.)

OPI Extra Touch Wipes – box of 200 count (Minus the few wipes that I’ve used.)

Zoya Remove +  Polish Remover – 2 fl oz.

A pair of toe separators

It’s really easy to enter.  All you have to do is comment on this post with your name and your email address where I can contact you if you’re the winner.  Comments will be moderated for privacy so that only I can see them and they won't be published.  And don’t worry - I will not use your email address for ANYTHING other than notifying you that you’ve won the giveaway.  

And here’s where the odds of winning can increase.  If you refer someone to this page and they enter the giveaway by commenting with their name and email address, AND they say that you referred them, BOTH of you will get an extra entry into the contest!   They don’t have to officially follow the blog to win and neither do you.  So the more people you send to this page, the more chances you have to win!  

The deadline for submitting entries/comments is Wednesday August 24^th at 11:59pm CST.  I will draw the winner at random the next day, Thursday, August 25^th.  

Thanks for checking out my blog!  I know it’s not much, as I just started, but it’s been really fun so far, especially since I get to meet awesome ladies like you all!  I have family coming in from out of town to spend my birthday with me, so I’m not sure how much I will be able to write.  But the blog sale and the contest will still be going!  So gather up your fellow nail polish lovers and win something for free!  Good luck!  :)

Sapphires Are (Not) A Girl's Best Friend

Recently I caved and forked out money for OPI DS Sapphire.  I figured everyone wants it and therefore I must want it too!  I was so excited to get it because it looked gorgeous in swatches I’ve seen.  I bought it on eBay for a reasonable price and tried it on last night.  Unfortunately, I’m a bit disappointed.  Don’t get me wrong - it’s still a pretty light blue holo, but I don’t think it looks right with my skin tone.  It makes my hand look…washed out?  It just doesn’t stand out on me.  Here are a few photos:

Do you guys agree with me, or am I insane?  It was difficult to capture the holo effect, so these pictures aren’t the greatest.  I used Seche Vite top coat and it didn’t seem to mute the holo too much.  I thought maybe that was the problem, but I’m convinced that DS Sapphire is just not for me.  (FYI, the Seche Vite top coat DOES ruin the Nfu Oh holos – the rainbow completely disappears when you slap it on top.  But I’ve noticed on OPI holos that Seche Vite doesn’t really alter the appearance much.) 

 

I purchased 2 bottles of DS Sapphire so that I had a backup because I liked it a lot.  I guess I will be selling my backup bottle when I update my blog sale since I’m not too crazy about it now. 

Keep an eye on my blog - I will be revealing another giveaway and I’m pretty sure you’re gonna love it!  Until next time - happy polishing!

Colorful Inspiration!

Before I start, I want to extend a congratulations to Kristen M. for correctly guessing the inspiration behind my blog title!  The answer was Rainbow Brite, my favorite cartoon from the mid 1980's.

Rainbow Freakin' Brite

Rainbow Brite has a magical color belt that she uses to bring color to the land and to summon rainbows!  Kristen receives a free bottle of OPI Dating A Royal for being awesome.  Good job, Kristen!

Speaking of the 80's and rainbows, I bought something today that I'm totally excited about.  Three words:  Neon. Eyeshadow. Palette.  Milani's July 2011 limited edition Paint Eyeshadow Palette to be exact! Welcome back, 1980's!

Image from Scrangie

I've been trying to wear more makeup lately and when I saw this on Scrangie's blog, I nearly crapped myself with joy.  The inner little girl in me screamed "PRETTY COLORS!" and the adult impulse buyer in me went straight to Milani's website and bought that sucker.  Apparently it is only supposed to be available at CVS during the month of July, but I've heard that a lot of people can't find it in their local CVS stores.  I didn't bother running out and looking all around for it, especially if it's limited edition.  That's what the internet is for, silly!

I don't care if I turn 30 next month - I will wear bright, neon colors on my nails and face no matter what my age.  Societal norms can suck it!  I can't wait to try this eyeshadow and blend it with my Urban Decay Naked palette to see what kind of crazy concoctions I can come up with.  So if you're not a teenager and you're a little timid about wearing neon, flashy colors - who cares?! Let your neon flag fly, ladies!  As one of my friends always says, "you're only as young as you feel."  Now slap that hot pink eyeshadow on and flaunt it, girl!

Elvis Is Alive!

Howdy all!  Before I post my first polish sale, I wanted to share some photos of an awesome shade that I recently came across.  This is OPI’s Love Me Tender from the Elvis-inspired Summer 2005 collection “All Shook Up.”  I tried it last night for the first time and needless to say, I love it!  It looks gorgeous, especially in the sunlight.  Just so you know, I braved the 95 degree weather with a sweltering heat index of 105+ degrees to capture this unique polish for you.  I hope you realize how much you all mean to me.  Now onto the goodies!

Love Me Tender consists of the old, non 3-free OPI formula with the non Pro-wide brush.  It’s a peachy pink coral color with a gold shimmer prevalent mostly in the sunlight, but under brighter indoor lights as well.  It looks like a light peachy pink when the gold isn’t highlighted.  These pictures were taken in the sunshine to capture its awesomeness.  Any pictures I took inside turned up blurry and useless.   

I’ve heard people say the old OPI formula is easier to apply than the new 3-free formula.  I have several black label OPI’s but I haven’t used them enough to come to my own conclusion on that front.  However, Love Me Tender applied pretty flawlessly and without any streaking!  I got full coverage with just 2 coats - I didn’t have any trouble making it opaque.  For myself, I prefer the non Pro-wide brushes because I have small, stubby hands and nail beds.  Therefore, I make a lot less of a mess on the surrounding skin polishing with the thinner brush.   

If you ladies ever want me to try to find you a discontinued color (or any color for that matter!) I'd be happy to help.  I love the thrill of the polish hunt!  Just send me an email at amsherbles at gmail dot com and let me know what shade you're looking for and I can try to track it down at a reasonable price.  I know I can get Love Me Tender for you if you're interested.  I love finding coveted, retired polishes for people - it makes me happy!

Hopefully I'll get around to posting my first polish purge within the next day or so, so stay tuned!  Thanks for reading and happy polishing!