Illamasqua Milf (and French Macarons!)

I tried to deny myself this lemming for a long time, but eventually caved. So glad I did!

Illamasqua Milf



I think it's one of the few mints that works with my skintone! The other mint I was interested in trying was DR1968, but I try not to let myself have HTF lemmings. In any case, this Illamasqua is terrific!

I've read that a good franken recipe for Milf it is half OPI Banana Bandana and half American Apparel Office.

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And, not to start a trend of posting about baking here, but I am too excited to keep my mouth shut. I had success with making macarons this weekend!

Green tea macarons w/ white chocolate ganache filling.







I'm so thrilled they have macaron feet :) I used the following recipe/tutorial: Demystifing Macarons by Tartelette.

NOTD: Prorance S21 and CND Effects (Sapphire Sparkle, Jade Sparkle)

My left eye hurts today for some reason. I think DBF must have hit me in his sleep... but he denies everything. LOL. Hopefully my right eye won't be injured tomorrow haha!

Anyway, NOTD is this awesome polish I received from my friend back home in Canada, though I believe it is a Korean brand.

Prorance S21 - Awesome one coater; black with metallic shimmer. Really nice...





Since I'm about to take it off, I layered my new CNDs overtop just to see how it looks:

CND Effects Jade Sparkle and Sapphire Sparkle


I like! :)

Reader Request: Comparison of Zoya Marley and OPI Rumple's Wiggin'

My first reader request ^_^ Here's Zoya Marley vs OPI Rumple's Wiggin'.





The OPI is cooler and Zoya Marley is lighter with a pearl finish.

Hope this helps!

Essie Mod Squad and Watermelon

Thanks to Danielle at Polish Obsessed for tagging me with my first Blog Award: A Blog With Substance. I think this is award has made it rounds for several months now! Hard to find someone with an even newer blog than mine, right? ^^;

I don't know if I have much of a philosophy when it comes to blogging, but I am trying to post every day! I try and post what I like to see in nail blogs (which is just swatches and comparisons), so that's what I do :)

Here are a couple of Essies I got recently:

Essie Mod Squad - My friend from university/college sent me this, and I adore it! A pink that works on me (I think)! It's a bit brighter in real life, though.



I don't have a lot of bright pinks in my stash, so not sure if this comparison is particularly helpful -.-

Comparison: Essie Mod Squad and Zoya Dana



Essie Watermelon - Picked this up a few weeks ago and loving how juicy it looks. This has a wicked formula, 2 coats!


Again, hope these aren't completely useless comparisons XD Actually, now I am wondering why I didn't compare Watermelon and Mod Squad LOL..

Comparison: Essie Watermelon and Zoya Dana



Comparison: Essie Watermelon and ChG Strawberry Fields



Happy Friday!!

Zoya Yummy

Wow, we sure got a pile of snow here in NJ!! It's a winter wonderland out there, haha. I was going to study at home this morning anyway, but now I'm going to work from home for the afternoon as well.

Let's talk about summery blues, shall we?

Zoya Yummy – I resisted getting this for a while, but last time I was in a beauty supply store that carried Zoya, I couldn't resist any longer!



Comparison: Zoya Yummy and Zoya Robyn – I remember someone on NB asking whether these two were close during the Facebook promo; so here are some pics in case anyone else was wondering. They look pretty close in the pictures here, but Robyn is definitely a brighter blue, while Yummy is a little bit periwinkle (kind of in the vein of Essie Lapis of Luxury)


This picture without flash shows the differences a bit better!


Anyone else snowed in today?

OPI Dating a Royal

Back in the summer while on vacation in the UK (Edinburgh, to be specific), I stumbled upon a Sallys going out of business. There were clearing out their OPI at 3 GBP a bottle, which is a great deal (even by US prices)! I picked up two bottles of Absolutely Alice which were laying by the cash register. When I was about to check out, DBF pointed out a huge OPI display in the corner... I was already overwhelmed, but I took a quick look. I saw a lot of core colours, and looked at Dating a Royal. I had heard a lot of good things about the polish on NB, but at that time I was still weary of blues like that! I didn't get it then, but while I was visiting family a couple weeks ago, I did pick it up :)

I was a little apprehensive, because it reminded me of American Apparel Cameo Blue (which I ADORE), but I was wrong! Yay! No Dupes!

OPI Dating a Royal - Beautiful blue jelly!



Comparison: OPI Dating a Royal and AA Cameo Blue - They are in the same family of dusty blues, but obviously Cameo Blue is lighter and a creme.

Revlon Stormy and Rimmel Steel Gray Comparison

How about a little drugstore mushrooms?

Revlon Stormy - Got this in a swap recently. I thought it would be a good replacement for Rimmel Steel Gray that I'm purging (it pulls a bit purple on me under fluoro lights; hopefully the Revlon does not)

Comparison: Rimmel Steel Gray and Revlon Stormy. The Revlon is a bit darker, but probably not as much as these pics imply!

Rimmel Steel Gray – Here's the Rimmel on its own. I like how it looks here, but at work it looks really purple on me!

OPI Tease-y Does It

I hauled quite a bit last week to celebrate my exam results. One of the polishes I picked up has been a long-time lemming:

OPI Tease-y Does It




This is the only polish that interested me from the Burlesque collection; I am surprised I managed to wait so long for it!

It reminds me of a more glittery Sinful Colors Rich in Heart or DC Cherry Tobacco (dupes!), but I wasn't able to do a comparison with these because I actually just gave away both a couple weeks ago ^^;;

Still, I looked through my (now smaller) stash and found NYC Cognac Sparkle (hopefully that is the correct name, my bottle only has 249B labeled on it).

Comparison: OPI TDI and NYC 249B (Cognac Sparkle?)



They are quite similar, but the sparkle in the NYC polish is more apparent. I may actually like it better :O

China Glaze Pelican Gray, Sea Spray, and White Cap swatches

From Anchors Ahoy, I picked up Sea Spray, Pelican Gray, and White Cap.

ChG Pelican Gray - The formula on this is amazing; just two coats and super easy to apply. Definitely recommend this one if you're into grays.

Comparison: ChG Pelican Gray and DC Concrete Jungle - You can see it's not dupeish to DC Concrete Jungle (which is a dupe for RBL Concrete Jungle). The previous post on the Zoya Intimate collection has a comparison of Pelican Gray and Dove, if you are wondering about that.

ChG Sea Spray - I absolutely adore this colour! The formula is a little difficult (goopy, thick), but not unmanageable. I will probably thin it a little the next time I wear it. I suppose it suffers from what all pale blues do... but love the colour like crazy! It's allegedly a dead-on dupe for Essie Sag Harbor, so you can skip this if you already have that :)

During my weekend hauling, I also picked up CND Jade Sparkles and thought it looked similar to ChG White Cap.

Here they are layered over ChG Sea Spray...

Hopefully you can see that White Cap is much more dense than the CND, but it gives a similar effect.

However, White Cap has a bit of a milky base that is more apparent when you layer it over something darker, such as Orly Enchanted Forest, below:

ChG White Cap over Orly Enchanted Forest

Personally, I think CND Jade Sparkles is more versatile, but White Cap is pretty gorgeous over lighter colours. NB has mentioned that White Cap looks very similar to Jesse's Girl Firefly (in the squareish bottles) that have been showing up at Rite-aids lately.

Hope this helps! :)