Maybelline Sapphire Masquerade

This is my only Maybelline nail polish at the moment. I don't find myself at the drugstore much lately, so I don't even have that many drugstore nail polishes in my stash anymore! I remember the good ol' days of hitting up every CVS, Walgreens, and RiteAid in a 15 mile radius trying to find certain polishes... *wistful sigh*

Maybelline Sapphire Masquerade (2 coats) - Very textured and thirsty glitter, and is warmer IRL than pictured. I think it is so pretty! I like it more than I thought I would based on how it looked in the bottle :)




I'm not sure if it'll make it through the next round of purging, though, as I've been tending to drift away from glitters!

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I'm taking tomorrow and Tuesday off work for a long-weekend trip out to the SF-Bay area. We are going to see some friends, family (my sister-in-law is about the pop, though! I think her due date is over the weekend! So I'm not sure if we will be able to see them), and take a couple trips up to Napa to meet with some vendors for the wedding. We've lined up appointments with a bakery and 2 florists. Hopefully we'll have both those vendors booked by the time we get back!

Hope you all (North American readers, anyway) have a great long weekend!

Some miscellaneous OPI swatches

I had these sitting on my computer for a while, finally decided to post them! Sorry the pics are a bit washed out. I thought there was something wrong with my camera lately, but it just turned out my lenses were incredibly dirty XD

OPI Ali's Big Break - 3 coats for the pic, good in 2 IRL. Very pretty, but I need to admit to myself that I rarely ever reach for red, so I probably shouldn't keep this. I like that this is a pinky-red. Very, very pretty.




OPI Not Like the Movies - 3 coats on its own (I think it was 3 coats, anyway). I wasn't interested in this polish originally, but a swap-ortunity arose and I decided to see what the fuss was about myself. Eh, I don't care for it. Then again, I am not really a big fan of duo/multichromes for some reason.





OPI Fly - 3 coats for the pic, but nice in 2 IRL. I loooove this. It's a lot more vibrant in real life. I really dig this colour, but I think I should have done a comparison with Nails Inc Warwick Way. I probably don't need both...



OPI Metallic 4 Life - I can't remember if this is 2 or 3 coats. Sorry there's a moustache in the second pic - I got a dent and didn't realize until I started processing the pictures. I like this polish in theory, but it's one of those polishes that I only like if it's completely smooth. That means lots of topcoat and more chances to ding it up (like I did). Thus, I am still on the fence.




Happy Hump Day!

Essie Fall 2013 Vested Interest and Cashmere Bathrobe

It's been a busy summer, but I won't bore you with excuses about where I've been.

I bought two new nail polishes this weekend, which is pretty significant considering my last nail polish purchase was in early March (O_O)!

I was in the city for some wedding dress appointments, and decided to check out a beauty supply shop that sold Essie and OPI. Essies were $5.99 and OPI were $6.99. Not great deals, but any discount is a good discount! Here's the store I went to, in case you are in NYC: Nicka K.

I picked up two green-grey shades, as apparently they are my weakness. I went with Vested Interest and Cashmere Bathrobe from the Fall 2013 collection.

My line-up of Essies in this colour family:


Essie Vested Interest (2 coats) - Very nice formula.



Comparison: Essie Vested Interest and Misa Dirty Sexy Money (2 coats each) - I could have sworn I had a shade similar to Vested Interest, but the closest thing I could find was this Misa. Obviously not dupes :p

Edit: someone reminded me about Essie School of Hard Rocks, which I had at some point but looks like I purged already. Here's my post with that swatched from a couple years ago: Essie School of Hard Rocks


Essie Cashmere Bathrobe (2 coats) - Also a fantastic formula. The flash makes the shimmer stand-out, but in normal indoor lighting, it is not really apparent. Still, I like it.




Comparison: Essie Armed & Ready, Cashmere Bathrobe, Power Clutch (2 coats each) - Again, the flash shows shimmer much better, but in normal lighting, all three of these look very similar on the nail. Power Clutch and Armed & Ready are more similar to each other, in terms of base colour, though. Cashmere Bathrobe is decidedly cool-toned on me.


I'm glad I picked these up!

I hope you are all having a great summer so far! Until next time :)