NYE Mani: Lynnderella The Glittering Crowd over Zoya Trixie

I'm wearing this through to the new year! :)

Lynnderella The Glittering Crowd (2-3ish coats) over Zoya Trixie (2 coats) + lots of topcoat to smooth it over




Happy 2012, folks! :D

Edit: Some post-Xmas shopping yielded these cuties from Crate and Barrel for $10... I just noticed now they are only $5! Aghhh!!

NOTD: Speciallita HITS Apolo

I broke down and made a Hits (or is it Speciallita?) order from Llarowe before I left for Christmas, and came back to a super sexy package including this guy!

Just a quick NOTD pic. My cuticles are looking ragged from being in Canada for just four days (*eats Coffee Crisp*). I'll take better swatch pictures of this and the others I ordered when my cutes are back to normal!

Speciallita Hits Apolo over CND Midnight Sapphire (1 coat each)

Joe Fresh swatches (incl. RBL 360 dupe!)

As you might have heard from Gotham Polish, Joe Fresh has opened a few stores in NYC this fall. Joe Fresh is a Canadian brand of clothing that also has a cosmetics line, including polishes!

In Canada, the brand was actually sold inside of a chain of supermarkets (the mega-supermarket-style ones), but they also have stand-alone stores. Every time we drove back to Canada, I would stop by Loblaws and grab a few polishes, since they were only 3 for $10 (or $4 each). The bottles are on the small side, though, at 0.2oz.

A couple weeks ago, I was in the city and decided to stop by the 5th Ave location (apparently, this is the only store that has cosmetics at this time). The pricing is the same, at 3 bottles for $10 or $4 each. There was a nice selection of polishes. I grabbed the following ones without having seen swatches beforehand:

Joe Fresh Teal - I love this polish! 2 coats, super easy to apply.


Comparison: Joe Fresh Teal and RBL 360 - When I saw it in the store, I immediately thought it was similar to RBL 360. I was ecstatic to find they are extremely close! IRL, I think you could tell them apart side-by-side, but this is definitely the closest "dupe" I have ever seen. I think the formula (or at least the brush) is better than the RBL, too.



Joe Fresh Persian Blue - A gorgeous blue creme, 2 coats.


Comparison: Joe Fresh Persian Blue and Orly Sapphire Silk - Turns out I also have a close dupe of this one as well! Oops!


Joe Fresh Khaki - This jumped out from the display at me. Had to have it. 2 coats, but almost 1!



Comparison: Joe Fresh Khaki and Essie Sew Psyched - DUPE, again. DOH. This is why I can't buy without looking at swatches first!


Joe Fresh Slate - This one really spoke to me too! 2 coats.


Comparison: Joe Fresh Slate and Misa Office Polish-tics - Similar feeling, but not dupes. I like both, but I feel like I should probably only keep one. I will defer this decision for a while, because I cannot decide now!


Joe Fresh Denim - A deep, dark blue, almost jelly-ish feeling. 2 coats.


Comparison: Joe Fresh Denim and Essie Bobbing for Baubles - Again, similar feeling, but not dupes. I don't have a lot of darker blues like this, to be honest.


I love the formula on these Joe Fresh polishes. 2 easy coats, and the brush is like a smaller-OPI pro-wide brush. The stem is a bit on the short side which can make things a bit tricky, but I think it's easy to get used to. There are probably polishes in this line that have lousy formulas (I'm thinking pastels), but all of the ones I have tried have been lovely!

The 2-3 times I've been to the 5th Ave Joe Fresh store, business has looked pretty good. Hopefully this means more stores will open in the future around the US! :D Wouldn't that be snazzy?

China Glaze Glittering Garland

I don't think I posted this yet. I am such a hoor for greens, and this one is gorgeous.

China Glaze Glittering Garland - Swapped for this on a whim, I really love it!!


There are already comparisons out there with China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, so I compared it to the polish that first came to my mind when I started seeing swatches of Glittering Garland.

Comparison: ChG Glittering Garland and Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe - I thought it was a dupe for MMutM, but it turns out they are a bit different. MMutM is cooler toned and needs 3 coats, whereas the ChG only needs 2 coats.


I am alarmed at how soon Christmas is. This is what happens the one year we don't get advent calendars!

China Glaze 2NITE

One of my lovely nail-buddies actually sent this polish to me! We had arranged a little swap, and she decided to "throw in" her backup of this gorgeous polish. WUT??? Insanely sweet of her.

It almost didn't make it to me though, as the delivery confirmation showed "Delivered" and it was not in my mailbox. I called the USPS help number and filed a ticket; nothing came of that. I went to the local USPS office and asked if the package was there; I was told it was not. I called about 10 times over three days trying to get information from my mail carrier. The PO insisted the package was delivered to my building and must have been stolen.... from inside my locked mailbox. Ummm ok. I got no help at all, and after two weeks gave up hope.

I filed a mail theft claim here, and the package showed up the next day. It had been opened and resealed with white electrical tape. I don't know if it was related to the claim I filed, but either way, it was very suspicious, considering it was "Delivered" two weeks ago.

Anyways, I am so super grateful that my friend sent me this polish AND that it was returned to me from whoever had taken the package. I like to imagine the person opening it thinking, "I bet there's jewelry or something of value in here!! Wait.. what is this? Nail polish? What????"

China Glaze 2NITE






Do you guys have any mail horror stories?

Christmas NOTD: ChG Party Hearty over ChG Glittering Garland

Sorry for the sporadic posts lately. Busy at work + busy at home = tired as heck. The four days off I get over the holidays cannot come soon enough. I have a whole bunch of polishes that need to be swatched and compared, and purging to do! I just want to relax with my stash, but instead there's holiday shopping, holiday baking, and last-minute work to do! Arghhh!

Here's a quick pic I took of my holiday NOTD, which I have been wearing for four days now. I have a tiny chip on one thumb and a litte tip wear, but otherwise it has held up pretty well. The surface is getting a bit roughed up, so I may throw on a coat of Barielle Manicure Extender tonight.

ChG Party Hearty (1 coat) over ChG Glittering Garland (2 coats). I love both these polishes! So happy it's Xmas time and I can bust out the Party Hearty... even at work! :)


Back to the craziness! Hope you guys are stayin' sane!!

Orly Fowl Play

I'm still in denial that the long weekend is over, LOL. I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving (or non-holiday weekend).

I had Thanksgiving dinner with a friend from college, and one of her other guests had a baby girl (14 months). While I was playing with the baby, my heart fluttered when she grabbed my nails and looked at them!!! I was wearing Lynnderella Very Pretty Vampire over Zoya Valerie that day, so baby-girl has good taste! Haha, I feel like such a dork :3

Today I'm wearing Orly Fowl Play, which my friend had sweetly RAOKd to me before I went on vacation in September. I had spent two or three weekends trying to find it before I gave up and had to start packing, LOL. I took the swatch pictures as soon as I got it, but just this weekend decided to wear it as a full mani (I consider it a full mani if I wear it out of the house, LOL).

I really like it! The formula was not troublesome to me, and it built up in 3 coats without any streakiness. IRL, it looks a bit darker and more subdued, but I love it all the same. I think it looks great when I catch a glimpse of it in the mirror ^^

Orly Fowl Play - 3 coats by itself. I really like the blue flecks; they aren't as apparent in real life, but you do see glints of blue-violet in bright lighting.







Of course, this is the anticipated OPI Merry Midnight dupe. As far as I know, it is super close to the OPI, but the base colour is a tiny bit different. There are many comparisons to OPI MM out there, but since I don't own the OPI, I can't join in the fun :) I do own Nfu Oh 51, and since it's a flakey in purple base, it seemed to make sense to throw in this comparison:

Comparison: Orly Fowl Play and Nfu Oh 51 over Zoya Pinta - I think I prefer the Orly! I was unable to build up the Nfu Oh by itself, so I quit trying ^^;

And now some off-topic blabbery you are free to skip:

We picked up our Christmas tree from Home Depot on the long weekend, but haven't had time to fully decorate yet! We chose a 7-8ft Frasier Fir. Here is "Piney" (II) with lights and a couple ornaments so far:



I loooove the holiday season. DBF and I had our first Xmas tree together last year, and it was so wonderful how it transformed our dull apartment into a home. We were sad to see Piney (I) go last year... we threw him on the curb after the New Year, and then he was prompty buried in two feet of snow. imo, NJ doesn't handle snowstorms very well, so the tree collection was put off for a couple weeks. Everyday I drove passed the pile of trees my heart sunk a little, LOL. Poor Piney!

Anyway, have you guys started celebrating the holiday season yet?

Lynnderella All Hallow's Eve

Here's a few swatches of Lynnderella All Hallow's Eve. I don't think I found a combination I adored, though. :( What do you guys think?

Lynnderella All Hallow's Eve over Illamasqua Rampage - This is two coats of Illamasqua and 2 coats of Lynnderella.







Lynnderella All Hallow's Eve over a variety of polishes: Based on a bunch of your suggestions, I tried out these combinations. I think I like it over Essie Power Clutch the best.




Happy Thanksgiving to my American peeps and happy Thursday... to everyone else ;)

Revlon Royal Cloak

I recently got this in a swap!

Revlon Royal Cloak - 2 medium coats. The flecks show up pretty well IRL, but not as clearly as these photos (since I use flash). Nice, easy to use formula, though.



Comparison: Revlon Royal Cloak and Zoya Neeka - I know some people were curious about these two, so here's the comp. I love Zoya Neeka! You can see it has gold flecks compared to the Revlon, and again, they show up better in my pics than IRL. Both are pretty.


Comparison: Revlon Royal Cloak and OPI Funky Dunkey - And to give you an idea of the base colour, Revlon is quite a bit brighter than the Zoya when you look at it next to OPI FD.


Personally, I prefer the Zoya because it's dustier, but the Revlon is also quite nice :)

Hope that helps someone!

Lynnderella Snow Angel and Blog Sale Updated

Edit: I have been getting a lot of questions on how to get this polish, so I'm editing this original post.

Lynnderellas are currently only sold at two websites:

LLarowe (It may be out of stock, though)

and

Directly from Lynn herself (But she is not accepting new orders until the new year)

I hope that helps someone!

--

Hi guys! I updated my blog sale with some new items (including some makeup from Korea). Please have a look if you're interested :) I will be shipping out the first batch of packages on Monday.

So here is one of Lynn's most famous polishes, Snow Angel. I wore it over Orly Pure Porcelain at first, but really didn't like how it looked, so tried it over the jellier Essie Marshmallow. I like how this looks, but it was still a bit bumpy on me and didn't really dry. It looks so ethereal, though, right?


Lynnderella Snow Angel over Essie Marshmallow - 1-2ish coats of Lynnderella over 3 coats of the Essie. I used SV between my Essie and Lynn layers though. Also topped with Barielle ME and another layer of SV to smooth out the glitter.

Orly Pure Porcelain and Orly Nite Owl

Hey guys, here are a couple Orlys I tried recently.

Orly Pure Porcelain - I had heard about how awesome this polish was and needed to try it for myself. The formula is quite good for a colour like this; 2 coats, not streaky, but not self leveling either. Unforunately, I think it's a little bit too stark for my skintone.


Comparison: Orly Pure Porcelain and OPI Let Them Eat Rice Cake - I think LTERC is a bit better on me, no?


Comparison: Orly Pure Porcelain and OPI Steady as She Rose - Here it is compared to SaSR... I'm not really digging that one anymore either, since it seems to dry darker than bottle shade.


Orly Nite Owl - I wanted to try this because it looked like it might be a dupe for SH Fedora, one of my favourite nudes ever. Turns out this is actually closer to Essie Mochachino, though (I don't have it yet!). Two coats.



Comparison: Orly Nite Owl and Sally Hansen Fedora - Not a dupe. I'm stuck with that SH-paddle brush, dang it!

China Glaze DV8

Guys, just a heads up, I will be updating my blog sale this Friday morning! I'll post again on Friday when it's up! :)

I got into polish pretty late, so I never really allowed myself to lust for the OMG collection. However, I was able to secure this polish in a swap with a wonderful lady :) It's just as lovely as swatch pictures, if not lovlier! I'm very happy to have this polish in my collection now! and with minimal angst!

China Glaze DV8 - 2 coats, excellent formula!

To be perfectly honest, though, I find the names in this collection to be horrible. My teenage years were rife with shorthands such as "u", "r", and "gr8". I never understood why kids used those shortcuts; it really was not that much harder to type the rest of the word out, even on an old-school cell phone. I'm glad that trend passed, but I'm a little annoyed it has been immortalized in a beautiful nail polish collection, LOL.