It's not easy pickin' a green...

Hello!

It's good to be back posting again! I know I've been a little M.I.A for the past few months, but there are a couple good reasons for that. First, my nails have been in horrible shape. I really think the winter months did a number on my nails and cuticles. They're finally to a point where I can paint them and not be embarrassed (Thank You, Nail Envy!!!!!!). And second, I just recently got a new camera. My old Canon broke and I waited quite a while to replace it. So, now that my nails are better and I have a nice new camera, I can get back to doing what I love - blogging!

My first post back is going to be a bottle shot post. I'm planning on wearing green polish to work tomorrow for St. Patrick's Day, but I'm having a very difficult time choosing a green polish! Until tonight, I didn't really realize how many green polishes I actually own! Decisions, decisions!

My first bottle shot picture is of my green China Glaze polishes (with an Orly that I snuck in because I forgot to include it with the other Orly's!).

Left to Right:  China Glaze"Starboard", "L8R G8R", "Glittering Garland", "Westside Warrior", "Zombie Zest", "Holly-Day", Orly "It's Not Rocket Science"

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Next, is a picture of some lonely greens from various brands...

Butter London "British Racing Green", Essie "Pretty Edgy", Essie "Sew Psyched", Deborah Lippmann "Billionaire", Revlon "Mistletoe", Revlon "Emerald City", Orly "Meet Me Under The Mistletoe", Orly "Jealous, Much?"

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My first 3 Zoya's (and first 3 green polishes) came from Zoya's St. Patrick's Day promo last year (2011). In the promo were Shawn, Ivanka and Suvi

Zoya "Opal", "Bevin", "Gemma", "Yara", "Shawn", "Ivanka", "Suvi"

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And now some of my favorites....

Nicole by OPI "Green Up Your Act!", OPI "Jade is the New Black", "Call My Cell-ery", "Green-wich Village", "Gargantuan Green Grape", "Fresh Frog of Bel Air", "Zom-body to Love", "Don't Mess With OPI", "Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow - Suede", "Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow", "Cuckoo For This Color"

Now, the hard part - deciding which color to wear!

Check back here tomorrow to see which color I chose!

4 Swatch Comparisons - China Glaze, Zoya, L'Oreal and Revlon!

It's SATURDAY!!!! Yaaaaay! Except for getting a run in this morning, I have nothing else on my to-do list today! I love weekends like this!


I wanted to show you all a comparison I did of 4 polishes that appear to be similar to each other in the bottle, but that are actually quite different on the nail. I picked up Revlon's "Mistletoe" a couple of weeks ago at Walgreens and once I got home, I wondered how much it looked like one of my all-time favorites, China Glaze "Wagon Trail" (but I just never got around to comparing the two). Then, just tonight, I thought about two others that are kind of close: Zoya "Edyta" and L'Oreal "Owl's Night". So, while I was thinking about it and had time, I thought I'd swatch all 4 to show you how alike and different they are.

China Glaze "Wagon Trail", Zoya "Edyta", 

L'Oreal "Owl's Night", Revlon "Mistletoe"

Same order for the swatch photos below:

I used 2 coats of each color in the photos above (no top coat or base coat).

Which one is your favorite of these 4 colors? I'd have to say that my favorite is still Wagon Trail. Up next is Owl's Night, followed by Mistletoe, then Edyta.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone!

Thanks for stopping by!

Katie

OPI's "Parlez-vous OPI?" and China Glaze "Below Deck" Comparison

Well hello!


Today's post is going to be short and sweet...


A friend of mine on Facebook recently wanted to see a comparison of OPI's "Parlez-vous OPI?" and China Glaze's "Below Deck" to see how similar they are. As you may know, PVO was part of OPI's 2008 Fall Collection de France (one of my favorite OPI collections!). I purchased mine at my local grocery store (I know, total diversion...) and am so glad I snatched it up when I did. It's quite hard to find, and is going for some pretty crazy prices on Amazon and eBay. I purchased Below Deck recently from a local beauty supply store. This one isn't as hard to find (yet!), since it was part of China Glaze's 2011 Anchor's Away Collection which was released earlier in the year. 


I never realized how close the two were until my friend requested a side-by-side comparison.

Sorry about the messy painting. I literally just slapped on a couple of coats of each and snapped some pictures quickly. 

But as you can see, they are very close, but not dupes. PVO is much more "purple-y", where BD has a hint of taupe in it. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I prefer the color of Below Deck over Parlez-vous OPI. Normally, I'm all about the OPI's, but this time, CG wins! That said, I'm not giving my bottle of PVO up to anyone! 

China Glaze - "Wagon Trail"

Hey, kids! How's your weekend going, so far? Without TV, it's been hard for me to keep up with Hurricane Irene, but from what I've been seeing, it's one massive storm. To all of my friends and followers on the East Coast, please be safe! 


Tonight I decided to try an older polish of mine, China Glaze's "Wagon Trail". This beauty is from Fall 2008 Rodeo Diva Collection. Gosh, what a collection! I know I wasn't a polish hoarder back then, but from what I've seen online, this might be one of my favorite CG collections ever! I own 3 from this collection (Wagon Trail, Rodeo Fanatic and Gussied Up Green), but still want to get my pretty little hands on Midnight Ride and Side-Saddle!


I'm loving this polish for a million reasons. First, it's just the perfect color. If you know me, and could tell from my other posts, I love dark vampy colors - especially blackened blues and greens! The color *kind* of reminds me of OPI's "At Your Quebec & Call", but is darker and has more multi-shimmer colors in it. I also loved it's formula. It was a breeze to apply and clean up. It's just an all-around perfect polish; it's one that I'm glad to own and plan to wear again soon!


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
1 coat OPI Nail Envy Sensitive and Peeling Formula
2 coats of China Glaze "Wagon Trail"
Zoya Armor Top Coat
Zoya Hurry Up Speed Dry Drops

Do you have a favorite collection from China Glaze?


Thanks for stopping by and checking out this blog post! 
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!


<3,
Katie

China Glaze - "Midtown Magic" - Flakie-fied AND Matte-i-fied!

Just for fun, I decided to add a coat of Nubar 2010 to my China Glaze "Midtown Magic" manicure (man, say THAT 10x fast!). 

And as if that wasn't enough, I added a coat of China Glaze Matte Magic!

China Glaze - "Midtown Magic"

While I was at the local beauty supply store yesterday, I noticed they had just gotten the new China Glaze Metro Collection in! I love seeing new collections up-close for the first time! I ended up buying "Concrete Catwalk", "Skyscraper", "CG In The City" and "Midtown Magic". 

At first, I thought "Midtown Magic" was going to be a dupe of OPI's "Holiday Glow" (yes, the polish I JUST blogged about a couple of days ago!). But fortunately, I think it's a little more dark burgundy than brown (like "HG" was), so I can justify owning both!

"Midtown Magic" is a dark burgundy polish with little bits of gold and red glitter. The two glitters together almost make it look copper in certain light. Only basing this comparison on the polishes I currently own, I'd say "Midtown Magic" would be a close relative of both "Holiday Glow" and "Tease-y Does It" (from the 2010 Burlesque collection). 

Application:

Deborah Lippmann 2 Second Nail Primer

Seche Clear Base Coat

2 coats of China Glaze "Midtown Magic"

1 coat of Gelous Top Coat

1 coat Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Pictures taken indoors using artificial light, no flash:

Pictures taken outdoors:

What do you think of the new Fall 2011 Metro Collection from China Glaze? Are there any that you're anxious to get your hands on? I know I'll be going back for "Trendsetter", the yellow/mustard polish with glass flecks!


Have a great weekend, everyone! 

China Glaze - "Fortune Teller"

This is the moment I've been waiting for since the day I first saw a swatch of China Glaze's "Fortune Teller". I don't know where I was, or what I was doing. I don't even know whose blog it was that I saw it on. All I know is I fell in love immediately with this color and knew I had to have it right away!


Well, after doing a little research on the polish, I soon realized that this little beauty wouldn't be an easy one to find. Apparently, this color was a Sally Beauty exclusive color from 2009. I've been to quite a few Sally's and have NEVER seen it in stores. So I knew I'd either have to buck-up and buy it off of eBay, or find someone online who would want to swap it for something I had or could get.


What I learned quickly is that if you just speak up, and let others know what you're looking for, there's a good chance someone out in cyberspace might be able to help. Sure enough, a friend of mine in one of the Facebook groups I belong to happened to have an extra bottle and was willing to swap with me! Only about a week after I mentioned my love for "Fortune Teller" online, it was in my hands! I can't thank you enough, Neeka! I don't swap very often, but this was probably one of my favorite trades (next to my all-time favorite, "Unripened"!!!!!!).


"Fortune Teller" is a beautiful black creme polish with different sizes of orange/copper hex glitter. For this mani, I used 2 coats of FT and felt that I got full opacity and didn't need a third. I also needed 2 coats of top coat, because this puppy just soaked up the first coat. Even after 2 coats of top coat, it's still a little bit rough. I'm thinking it might be worth investing in a bottle of Gelous. I don't use glitter polishes very often, but when I do, I want high shine and smoothness.


Ok, enough with the babbling. You're probably here to see pictures, right?


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
1 coat of Seche Clear Base Coat
2 coats of China Glaze "Fortune Teller"
2 coats of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
1 spritz CND Solar Speed Spray

Have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo, Katie

China Glaze - "Mummy May I"

Hi, everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! And if the weather was anything like it was here (close to 90*!!!!), I hope you were able to enjoy a part of it outside! I even got a little bit of a tan on Saturday! :-)


I purchased "Mummy May I" this weekend at a small beauty supply store for $5. I had never seen this color before, and fell in love with it immediately. This color is from China Glaze's "Awakening" Collection from 2010. I wasn't too kicked about any of the other colors in this collection, so this was the only one I purchased.


I'd describe this color as "rock star-ish". It totally makes me think of the 80's and black and hot pink hair and clothes. I don't know, maybe it's just me.


Anyways, the color in the bottle looks like a black base with purple glitter. When you're applying it, however, you see that it's more of a dark plum jelly base with pink glitter. 


The polish wasn't particularly easy to work with, but I'm not blaming the polish completely. I don't know how long it had been sitting on the display rack, so it could be a little old (probably about 6 months, if I had to guess). And, since it was the last one, it could've been tested and used. I have no idea why I didn't think of it while I was using it yesterday, but I did add 3 drops of OPI Lacquer Thinner Drops once I was finished, and it looked "better" afterwards. 


I also noticed that this was a very difficult polish to clean up. When I tried to clean around my cuticles, I could never get every last piece of glitter off, which is why you'll see little pieces here and there in the pictures below. Trust me, I tried, I just didn't have good luck!


The polish is very rough and chunky once it's on your nails, so I do recommend putting at least 2 coats of top coat (preferably a thicker top coat, nothing thin), to even and smooth things out.


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
2 coats of OPI Nail Envy, Original Formula
3 coats of China Glaze "Mummy May I"
2 coats of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

China Glaze - "For Audrey"

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet tonight. I'm in the middle of watching the first episode of "Breaking Bad" and am loving it so far! Gotta love Netflix!


I realize that I've been wearing and swatching a lot of darker colors lately. Well, today we had some beautiful weekend weather, and I thought it would be fun to wear a bright, cheery color. I recently purchased China Glaze's "For Audrey", and decided to try it out today.


The polish was a little tricky to work with. I should mention that this was my first time using CG (except for the Top Coat last night). I've recently purchased a handful because both Sally's (2 for $10) and Beauty Brands (BOGO) have had them on sale. I probably could've gotten away with 1 coat of "FA". And after looking at my pictures, 2 coats look "goopy". I think, at least for me, this polish might take a couple of times wearing to perfect. I'm not giving up on it though!


I loved the color, and appreciate it's inspiration. It's a gorgeous Tiffany blue cream. I can definitely see myself bringing this back out again this Spring and Summer. I bet it would look so cute on my toes, too! 


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
1 coat OPI Nail Envy, Original Formula
2 coats China Glaze "For Audrey"
1 coat China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat
1 spritz OPI RapiDry Spray

The sun was shining today!