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Thursday, July 28, 2011

Revlon Modern Grace and Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air

I had seen Modern Grace just once in the wild and I didn't pick it up. I had regretted it ever since, and while lamenting on the NB, the lovely Noelie offered to buy me on she had seen at her local Riteaid! Ahhh what a sweetheart! :) Thank you, Noelie!!

I believe this was in a limited edition Top Speed display with some other summery shades. The formula on this polish is amazing It is a 1 coater!

Revlon Modern Grace - 1 coat!


Here are some comparisons to other purpleish-periwinkle polishes in my stash. I had a sneaking suspicion that this may be dupish to Orly Cashmere Cardigan, but I do not own that polish! I asked on NB, and a couple girls posted bottle pic comparisons for me. If they aren't dupes, then they are insanely close.

Revlon Modern Grace vs. Zoya Caitlin


Revlon Modern Grace vs. OPI Done Out in Deco and Planks a Lot


For my NOTD, I wore 1 coat of Revlon Modern Grace and topped it with 2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air. The light blue base of GitA lightened up Revlon Modern Grace. I absolutely love the result!! I usually don't wear glitter polishes to work, but screw that :D!! I used Barielle Manicure Extender and SV as my topcoat to give it extra shine. I have a tiny bit of shrinkage, but I hardly ever wrap my tips... out of laziness.





By the way, I've heard that Nordies is having a B2G1 sale on Deborah Lippmanns and Butter London this Saturday and Sunday, in store only. You may want to call your counter to confirm, though! Luckily, there are not 3 DLs or 3 BLs that I am lemming, so I will be saving my pretty pennies. But if you have been waffling on getting anything from these two brands, this weekend would be a good time to take the plunge!

DBF's mom, aunt, and youngest brother are coming to visit this weekend, so this will probably be my last post until the weekend is over. So, enjoy your weekend! :)

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Borrowed: American Apparel Peacock and Zoya Sooki

Here are the last two polishes that Noelie lent me to swatch.

American Apparel Peacock - Nice formula. This is two coats.


Comparison: American Apparel Peacock vs. Orly Sapphire Silk and Illamasqua Muse - The closest teal I (still) own is Orly Sapphire Silk, but they are not really dupes. I'm glad I got to borrow this shade from Noelie!


Zoya Sooki - 2 coats, but nearly opaque in 1. I liked it, but it was still a little on the warm side for me. Also, I'm not much of a True Blood fan (and when I did watch season 1, I found Sooki to be incredibly annoying LOL)


Comparison: Zoya Sooki and American Apparel Poppy - Poppy has some white in the base, I think.


Comparison: Zoya Sooki and RBL Chinoise - these photographed closer than they are in real life... but I've waited too long since swatching them to remember what exactly the difference was :p I used 3 coats for the RBL and 2 for the Zoya.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Borrowed Orly Spam

Thank you to everyone who purchased from my blog sale! I was quite surprised at how fast most of the polishes were sold. There are still a couple items left, and I've highlighted them in blue text so they are a bit easier to see. To those who paid on Saturday, I have already shipped your packages out today. For those who paid on Sunday, I will be shipping them tomorrow!

A couple weeks ago, Noelie (from Noelie's Nails) and I did a "swatch swap". We each picked 8 polishes from each other's spreadsheets, and exchanged them (temporarily!) so we could swatch them! I choose mostly Orlys from her stash, so I'm going to show you those today.

Orly Lollipop - Good formula, but not as great as some other Orlys. It leans towards the purple/lavender side on me. I've already purged OPI Panda-monium Pink and Lucky Lucky Lavender, but I think this would have been somewhere in between those two.


Comparison: Orly Lollipop vs. Essie French Affair - I have very few pastel pinks remaining, so here is the Orly compared to Essie French Affair.


Orly Frisky - This is a very vibrant blue, almost turquoise leaning. I think this was 2 coats (I should really make notes while I'm swatching rather than relying on memory, huh?)


Comparison: Orly Frisky vs. Essie Greenport - I really thought I would have something close, but I don't!


Comparison: Orly Frisky vs. Essie Greenport, Turquoise & Caicos, Orly Gumdrop - Seriously, Frisky is surprisingly unique!


Orly Ancient Jade - Beautiful formula again! Nice colour.


Comparison: Orly Ancient Jade vs. OPI Mermaid's Tears - When I picked up OPI Mermaid's Tears, people were saying it was dupeish to this Orly. I had to see for myself. I do not think they are dupes. The OPI seems dustier to me. I'm glad I didn't buy this, because then I would be agonizing over which one to keep. It's much easier to resist buying it knowing how close they are, though :p


Comparison: Orly Ancient Jade vs. Essie Greenport, Turquoise & Caicos - Some more comps to help you get an idea of what the colour is like.


Orly Royal Velvet - I didn't buy this myself because I was highly suspicious that it would clash with my skintone. So I borrowed it from Noelie to confirm this :p It's not as bad as I'd imagined, but I don't think it's particularly great on me (though it is an amazing polish!!)



Comparison: Orly Royal Velvet and Zoya Ki - not that they are similar, but Ki is another duochrome, so why not.


Orly Wild Wisteria - 2 coats, great formula! I wanted to see how close this was to Zoya Pinta.


Comparison: Orly Wild Wisteria and Zoya Pinta - I heard these were exact dupes, but I think the Zoya is a tiny bit bluer. Both are nice. Again, I'm glad I didn't buy the Orly and have to choose which one to keep :P


Orly Luxe - I've already shown you this in the OPI Glitzerland post, but I should probably keep this with the rest of Noelie's polishes! This is an amazing pale, gold foil. Two coats and totally opaque. I fell in love with this, said so when I posted these pics on NB, and Noelie generously told me to keep it!



Comparison: Orly Luxe vs. OPI Glitzerland - Just to remind you, the Orly is only 2 coats, and the OPI is 4 coats :'( I actually slightly prefer the colour of Gliterland, but not enough to endure two additional coats :p


I have two more polishes I need to show you, but I'll save those for the next post!

Big thanks again to my nailbed-twin, Noelie! I had a great time swatch-swapping!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Illamasqua Phallic and New Additions to my blog sale!

I decided to amp up my purging and added about 70-80 polishes to my blog sale. OPI month will be coming to a pre-mature end since I made a lot of quick decisions, lol! I hope you guys can forgive me!

I ordered a few Illamasquas a couple weeks ago and am wearing this for the weekend:

Illamasqua Phallic - 2 coats and lovely formula! It is rather dark indoors, but I'm hoping it'll knock my socks off in the sun tomorrow! I will edit this tomorrow and let you know! :) It is still darkened, even in the sun. But... I still like it.



Have a good weekend, guys! Stay cool!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

OPI Month: Chapel of Love

Hey guys! It's Wednesday and I finally have a pink to show you (in accordance with "We Wear Pink on Wednesdays", haha).

If you've been hanging around NB lately, you know I'm in one of my purging moods. I'm about 70% of the way through my stash and I've already set aside 46 bottles for swap or blog sale! It is INSANE. Since I had no regrets from my last purge, I decided to continue on with the main purge question being "Do I love it?".

So today, I'll show you OPI Chapel of Love. This polish is from the Las Vegas Collection. It has the old skinny brush (no pro-wide here!)
  • Formula: Sheer, but not watery. It took 4 coats to build to this level of opaqueness. I assume the formula is sheer so you can actually see the shimmer, but it's still a bit too much work for me.
  • Colour and Finish: Medium pink with tiny gold shimmer. I think the colour is gorgeous!!
OPI Chapel of Love



Comparison: OPI Chapel of Love vs. Revlon Sublime Strawberry - The shimmer in the Revlon is silver rather than gold, but the base colour is very similar. The Revlon is opaque in 2-3 coats and has an intoxicating artificial strawberry scent that I cannot get enough of.


Since I am a slave to the scent of the Revlon and don't particularly enjoy applying 4 coats of polish, Chapel of Love is going in the purge box :( I hope I can find it a good home!

Anyone else doing a big purge right now?

Monday, July 18, 2011

OPI Month: At Your Quebec and Call

Hope you had a great weekend, guys! Mine was nice and relaxing. The Season 4 premiere of Breaking Bad was on last night and it was intense! I love that show. Any of you guys watch?

Today I'm wearing OPI At Your Quebec and Call from the old Canada collection. My friend Nise from NB sent it to me for my birthday in May (*hugs*).
  • Formula: Kind of sheer, but builds up to an opaque finish at 3 coats.
  • Colour: An olivey-antique bronze. I'm not sure if it's flattering on me, but I don't really care! :)
  • Finish: Shimmery with darkened edges. It's almost brush-strokey, but hard to notice.

OPI At Your Quebec and Call



Since it is unique to my stash, a gift from a friend, and part of the Canada collection, I love this polish. Keep!

Friday, July 15, 2011

OPI Month: Glitzerland (and Orly Luxe)

It's Friday, hooray!!

My dentist visit yesterday went well. The hygienist was very nice, as was the dentist. I really wish electric toothbrushes were more affordable when I was growing up. Ever since I started using one, my dentist visits have been way better!

...Anyway, today's OPI is Glitzerland from the Swiss collection.
  • Formula: Very sheer polish, but the formula is not watery. I needed 4 coats for opaque coverage. BOO.
  • Colour: A pale gold. I think this type of gold suits me better than the more orange-y ones.
  • Finish: Very shimmery and sparkly! I like it a lot.

OPI Glitzerland



Comparison: OPI Glitzerland and Orly Luxe - They are not dupes. I think OPI is a tad more flattering and it's quite a bit more sparkly. However, what you're seeing is 4 coats of OPI and just 2 coats of the Orly.


Orly Luxe - I haven't shown you this before, because it was lent to me by my friend Noelie when we did our "swatch swap" (more on that after OPI month is done). Two coats.


Since Noelie generously said I could keep Orly Luxe, I am going to purge the OPI.

Have a great weekend, guys! I think I'm going to wear my crab manicure this weekend since we are going to a pool party tomorrow night.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

OPI Month: Funky Dunkey

Today, I'm wearing OPI Funky Dunkey from the Shrek collection last year. Let's just get this out of the way: the name makes no sense!

I liked the format I used last time to discuss the polish, so I'm going to keep going with that.
  • Formula: Beautiful formula; 2 coats for full coverage
  • Colour: Mid-tone purple on the warmish side. I think it's flattering on my skin tone. It's not always work-appropriate, but since it's summer time, I'm wearing it anyways.
  • Finish: Creamy and glossy. I love cremes.
  • Uniqueness: Ok, here's where the polish falls a bit short. There are a million similar polishes to this (Orly Charged Up, ChG Grape Pop, RBL Mismas just to name a few). I own American Apparel African Violet, which, while not an exact dupe, is pretty darn close. I have yet to decide which polish I prefer, as I feel I should probably purge one of them.

Below are repost swatches of Funky Dunkey, as well any comparisons I've done in the past.

OPI Funky Dunkey



Comparison: American Apparel African Violet vs. OPI Funky Dunkey - To be honest, this picture makes them look closer than they do in real life, but they are still super super close. The American Apparel is a bit more opaque (almost a 1 coater), and the colour seems to have a bit more red in it.


Comparison: OPI Funky Dunkey vs. Zoya Malia - Purples are so hard to capture! Both of these should be warmer than pictured. By the way, Malia is a very pretty purple.


Comparison: Zoya Savita vs. OPI Funky Dunkey - I had done this comparison to show the relative base colour of Savita. Which reminds me, I really need to wear my Zoyas. I think Zoya month is going to follow OPI month.


I think I'm going to keep OPI Funky Dunkey in my stash. It's just a nice polish to have. I think this means I need to purge the American Apparel... but I will defer that decision for now. LOL!



I'm going to the dentist tomorrow morning. I haven't been for a year (bad me!) because I cancelled my last cleaning 6 months ago at the last minute, and then never rescheduled >

Monday, July 11, 2011

OPI Month - Japanese Rose Garden

I don't think it's any big secret that pinks are not my favourite nail colour. However, I do own a significant number of pink polishes. Approximately 10% of my stash is pink (howwww does this happen?!). So, I definitely need to decide which pinks are worth keeping and which ones need a new home.

To continue with my OPI month, I picked out OPI Japanese Rose Garden to give another chance. The swatch pictures are reposts, but I'll add my commentary now:
  • Formula: Nice 2 coat formula. Surprisingly nice.
  • Colour: Reminds me of a tea-rose pink. It's rather subdued and conservative. I think it is flattering to my skin tone.
  • Finish: The silvery finish looked a little brush-strokey going on, but once dry, the shimmer is almost invisible indoors.

Overall, I have to say that I quite like this shade. Why I am so mean to pink in general? Eh. Keeping this one!

OPI Japanese Rose Garden




Comparison - OPI Sparrow Me the Drama vs. OPI Japanese Rose Garden : I originally thought SMtD would be very close to JRG, but I was quite wrong. I think I may prefer JRG to SMtD, now that I think about it.




In other news, I found out on Friday that I passed the exam I mentioned in April. Hooray! that means I have completed all the exams necessary for my accreditation! There are some online modules and other stuff I still need to do, but the hardest part is over! To celebrate, I purchased a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tab :D I can't wait to play with it!

I was going to haul some polish, but I don't really have any lemmings right now, so I'm going to save that as a "get out of jail" free card for hauling haha.

Hope you guys had a great weekend!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Sharing the blog love!

I am terrible when it comes to participating in awards and memes. I am so sorry! I'll be honest... I am lazy when it comes to downloading and then uploading the award pictures LOL. Oyeeee. *hangs head* I hope you guys will forgive me!

I would like to thank the following lovely ladies for tagging me with awards:

I'm going to pass on the love by sharing some fabulous blogs with you!
  • Noelie's Nails - My nailbed twin from Nail Board. Her nails are so pretty and she takes fabulous pictures! Definitely check out her blog!

  • Hedonism Limited - Nola's nails are to. die. for. She takes great pictures as well... so lovely!!

  • Steffels - Stef's nails and pics are SO GORGEOUS. Her pics blow me away... So many lemmings prompted by her posts!!

  • Normal Girl Nails - Fabo pics and comparisons! She's been a little busy lately, but her older posts are worth reading!

  • Suburban Beauty - Lola has such beautiful nails and takes gorgeous pics. Love this blog!


I just realized how many exclamation points I used... O_O

Saturday, July 9, 2011

OPI Month: Suzi Says Feng Shui

I kept OPI WWTC on for a couple days (I layered DS Sapphire over top), and decided the next OPI polish for me to re-wear was Suzi Says Feng Shui.

For some reason, I've only worn this shade maybe 2 times and I never really had an opinion about it. But after applying it today, I can say that the formula really is lovely (2 easy, smooth coats) and the colour is flattering on my skin tone. This is a keeper!

Sorry again that these pics are all re-posts! The comparisons mostly show how different it is from other polishes, hehe.

OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui - 2 coats. Zoya Breezi is a known dupe.



Comparison: BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan vs. OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui


Comparison: American Apparel Cameo Blue vs. OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui


Comparison: Orly Sapphire Silk vs. OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui


Ahhh I love blues.