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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Bottle Spam: Lynnderella Lovely is as Lovely Does

Bottle spam first. Swatches and comments to come later this weekend! Bottle pics don't do this collection any justice.

with flash



without flash









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without flash








Friday, January 20, 2012

Stash Control and Orly Stone Cold


Nail polish is so fun, but mid-last year I was starting to get overwhelmed with my stash. I had around 250 bottles at that time, and while that is not as many as a lot of polish addicts, I don't consider myself to be a collector. So I asked around on NB and based on their input, I decided I wanted to only keep polishes I loved.

I had so many polishes that I thought looked nice and liked, but had to schedule myself to wear them as NOTDs. I realized I would rather wear a polish I loved every day than make myself wear something that I merely liked. And let's be realistic, even if I try to adhere to this rule, I will still have a hard time letting go of certain polishes and I will never be able to get down to 100 polishes.

With my most recent purge and blog sale, I'm at 130 polishes. I know a lot of people think I have much more than this, and looking at my spreadsheet, it's true: I have owned more than 400 polishes in the last two years. But I think I have finally figured out my comfort zone, which is around 150 bottles.

So, that said, I want to show you one of my favourite polishes. One that I really love.

Orly Stone Cold - 2 coats! I liked the look of OPI Swimsuit... and this came out shortly after that. I liked the look of this one better, since it seemed a little deeper, but still super vibrant. I saw it at Sallys and plopped down the $8 for it. It is so beautiful!




What's the state of your stash? Do you have any guidelines for yourself?

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Belated Lynnderella spam

Since Lynnderella is about to release a new collection, as well as offering her prior collections for purchase, I thought I would dump some Lynn spam on you guys! You can also purchase Lynn's creations from Llarowe, but they are not in stock right now. Keep an eye out, since they sell out super fast!

In the pics below, I used 2-3 coats of Lynn's glitters over a base coat, and then 2-3 coats of topcoat (Barielle ME and SV, usually). I wasn't totally happy with the base colours I chose for these polishes, but I figured I would show them anyways!

Also, sorry for the strange nail shapes in these; I was going through a rounded-nail phase. I now realize the error in my ways XD


Lynnderella Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue over Illamasqua Phallic




Lynnderella Mercurial over Misa Office Polish-tics and CND Gold Sparkle - This is a really cool polish, but I'm not super fond of this gunmetal-ish shade on my skintone.




Lynnderella Love Potion 99 over Illamasqua Baptiste - There are little holographic glitters in this polish that don't show up well in my pics! Really pretty in real life!




Lynnderella Ruby Red Ruby over Illamasqua Throb - This is probably my favourite Lynnderella... boring, I know! These aren't good pics at all... I had a hard time capturing it properly! This is what Deborah Lippmann's "Jessica Rabbit" should have been. So gorgeous. You cannot go wrong with this one! I get sooo many compliments when I wear it.



My preferred base colour for RRR is OPI Smitten with Mittens. I don't have a proper pictures, so here's a shoddy NOTD pic I took around Christmas with my P&S camera:


I know how difficult it is to get a hold of Lynn's creations, but she's trying her best to churn out these little bottles of magic for us! Just try and be patient, it's well worth the wait! :)

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Speciallita Hits Poseidon

Thanks to everyone who purchased from my blog sale! I have shipped out most of the paid-for packages and will be sending DC# out as soon as I can! Our mail-room guy gave me a funny look when I dumped so many packages into the USPS box, though! XD If you've emailed me and I haven't responded yet, please try again!

♥♥♥

This is the last Speciallita Hits I ordered from Llarowe. This one is so pretty and holo-y!

Speciallita Hits Poseidon - 4 thin coats by itself. I didn't have a good base for this one, so I wore it on its own.




Comparison: Speciallita Hits Poseidon and OPI DS Sapphire - 4 coats each


You can see the OPI has a bit of a pink cast to it (where it's not holo-y). For that reason, I prefer the Hits! :)

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Speciallita Hits Dionisio and Zeus {plus Blog Sale updated}

I've updated my blog sale! Check it out if you're interested!

Here are two more of the Speciallita Hits polishes I purchased from llarowe. I didn't love these, although they are both quite holo-y. They are so pretty... I guess grape-purples and blacks just aren't my weakness ;)

Speciallita Hits Dionisio - 2 coats over OPI Funky Dunkey




Speciallita Hits Zeus - 2 coats over American Apparel Hassid




Happy weekend!! :D

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Revlon Whimsical (and comparison to DL GitA)

I own and love Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air. I told myself that it was ridiculous to buy the Revlon dupe and that I didn't need a backup. Then, I bought it anyway. Oye.

Revlon Whimsical (3 coats over a light blue jelly franken)




It's very easy to make your own light blue jelly: it's 1/4 white creme and 3/4 clear, plus a few drops of blue creme until it suits your taste!

Ok, so I'm sure you have all seen a million comparisons to GitA, but I wanted to see it for myself! Here are my comparison pics:

Bottle shot


Here's 4 coats of each, no base:


and a close up on a nail wheel:



My thoughts:
  • There are 3 sizes of glitter in these polishes: large hex, medium hex, and tiny circular (maybe hex, it's hard to tell).
  • The largest hex glitter is the same in both polishes (light pink and blue)
  • The medium hex glitter is the same size in both, but from what I can tell, GitA has both silver and pink medium glitter, while the Revlon only has silver.
  • The smallest glitter is the same in both polishes; an iridescent glitter that shines aqua and violet.
  • The glitter in the Revlon dupe is much more dense than in the DL. 
  • The blue jelly base is more opaque in the Revlon. This alters the colour of a base polish if you choose to layer it, though (for example, over Revlon Modern Grace)
In conclusion, if I didn't have the DL already, I know I would be more than satisfied with the Revlon dupe. I do like the DL bottle and brush better than the Revlon though, and I've already used up 1/5 of the bottle... so I'm going to keep both for now :D

Anyway, I hope you guys found this helpful and can get a bottle for yourself if you like it :) I found mine at Harmons Beauty Supply for $3.79. I've read that it's also been spotted at Kmarts!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Speciallita Hits Ares

Here's another one of the Speciallita Hits No Olimpo polishes; the coveted red holo!

I like it, but don't love it. This one is way less holo-y than Apolo and Hera. In normal lighting, when the holo effect is not as prominent, the shimmer tends to come off as coppery on me (and I don't like that look on my skintone).

I have seen gorgeous layering combinations of this over darker, vampier reds, but since I'm not a huge fan of red to begin with, I no longer own any really dark, vampy reds! Haha. I bet it would have looked nice over Essie Masquerade Belle!

Speciallita Hits Ares (1 coat) over Essie Limited Addiction (2 coats)




Also, the brush on this one was a bit wonky. It was fluffy/poofy one one side. Small annoyance.