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!

OPI "Chatters Me Up" vs. Orly "Rococo A-Go-Go" - - - PICTURE HEAVY!

Happy Friday, everyone! I LOVE these 4-day work weeks!  :-)


I hope all of my US friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday! My day was pretty low-key, but quite long. I volunteered to be a balloon handler in the annual St. Louis Thanksgiving Day parade downtown. I even made it on TV (there was just a close-up shot of me walking, no interview!)! It's a lot of fun to be a part of, but it's very early in the morning, and it was reeeeeeally, reeeeeally cold yesterday morning. After that, my mom and I went and had Thanksgiving dinner at a nearby restaurant. After that, we went and saw The Muppets movie! It was so cute! I wish I had painted my nails in one of my Muppets polishes!


When I got home from work tonight, I had a lovely package from Canada from my friend Linda! She was kind enough to purchase a bottle of the Chatters exclusive OPI polish, "Chatters Me Up". I don't even know what a Chatters is (I'm thinking it's similar to a Trade Secret or Beauty Brands?), but I know that this polish was only being sold at the Chatters salons, so my only way of getting a bottle was if I knew someone in Canada - and lucky for me, I do!


Before my package arrived, I had heard that "Chatters Me Up" was a dupe (or very close dupe) of the new Orly "Rococo A-Go-Go", which I already had, but never tried. So, as soon as I opened my package, I knew I wanted to see for myself how close the two are.


Sure enough, they are almost exact dupes...

L to R on all hand pictures: Orly, OPI, Orly, OPI
(no base coat or top coat used)

What do you think? In the bottle, they don't look like dupes. But on the hands, it's my opinion that they do.


My reason for posting so many pictures is because there aren't a lot of pictures of "Chatters Me Up" online. Before I decided to purchase this, I wanted to check out swatch pictures, first. If I remember correctly, there was only one blog post which showed pictures of CMU. And at the time, there were no swatch comparisons of it with the Orly polish. 


Because I'm such an OPI hoarder/collector (just all-around FAN of OPI!), I'm not regretting buying CMU (even though it was the most expensive OPI I've ever bought!). I love it, and am anxious to wear it soon. That said, the Orly version *might* just have to go in the swap pile, since there's no need for me to own both.


Have a fantastic weekend, and thanks for stopping by to check out this post!


Love,
K

Orly - "Androgynie"

Hi!

Currently on my nails is "Androgynie" from Orly's new Holiday Soiree' Collection.

When I first laid eyes on Androgynie, I fell in love. I had seen pictures on The PolishAholic's website from when she went to Cosmoprof in Vegas in July. I was so anxious to see it for myself in person, I didn't think I could wait 3 or 4 months for it to be available!

So needless to say, when I did finally find the collection at Sally's a couple of weeks ago, I knew I needed Androgynie. The others in the collection, in my opinion, are very "passable", and I don't plan on buying any of them.

I've seen/heard some very mixed reviews of Androgynie from nail polish bloggers. Some are just head over heels for it, others are disappointed with the final results. I, myself, may have found a new favorite polish that will never - ever - go in the "swappable" pile! I LOVE it! It's so unique and unlike any of my other polishes!

Based on the pictures I had seen previously, I knew I wanted to layer Androgynie over a black creme polish to avoid it's jelly-like formula. My only complaint about this mani is that I didn't wrap my tips when I was applying the black creme polish. It looks like I have a lot of tip wear here, but I just forgot a step in my mani! Otherwise, this was a breeze to apply. I used 2 coats of Poshe' topcoat because it was still a little bit rough after 1 coat of top coat. Some have said that Orly polishes take longer to dry, but since I used the Poshe', my mani was completely dry within minutes.

Application:

OPI Chip Skip

2 coats of OPI Nail Envy, Original Formula

2 coats of OPI Black Onyx

1 coat of Orly Androgynie

2 coats of Poshe' Super-fast Drying Topcoat

OPI RapiDry Spray

What do you think? Are there any colors from this collection that you're anxious to get your hands on, or that you already own? Which ones?!

Orly - "Royal Velvet"

Happy Friday, everyone! I don't know about you, but this day couldn't come fast enough! I made a realization today while I was at work: This is the first complete week I've been in the office all 5 days since October of last year. I've been out of the office because of traveling for work, snow days, holidays, vacation days and my surgery in March. No wonder I'm so exhausted! :-) But I have to admit, I do like being in the office more. It's a lot easier to stay caught up when I'm not out traveling!


A few nights ago I wanted to try another Orly polish (I loved "Gilded Coral" so much!!!), so I wore a recent purchase, "Royal Velvet". I really, really love Orly. It's become a new favorite brand of mine. Their formula is great and very easy to work with (and very "forgiving"), I get very little bubbling (if any) and they dry pretty quickly. Plus, I love their gripper cap! Oh, and you get a whole ounce more in their bottles than most other polish brands give you! Bonus!


As much as I'm loving Orly, I didn't "love" this polish. I do enjoy duochromes, which was a big reason I purchased this (that, and it had purple hues in it!). But to be honest, it didn't look that great on my nails. When I wear this polish again, it will probably be on my toes, so that it doesn't look so "flashy". If you've read my other posts, you know that I do enjoy dark polishes, so that's not why I didn't care for it. Maybe it was just too bright blue for me in some lights. I did like the color changing effects depending on what light you had it in. For example, when I held my hand close to my lamp on my nightstand, the polish looked almost completely blue. But when I was driving around the other day and the sun was shining on my hands, the polish looked all-purple. Maybe it's the length/shape of my nails? I have very deep nail beds, as you can see, and that could've had something to do with it, too. Who knows?! 


"Royal Velvet" is part of the new Precious Collection from Orly which was released in March of this year. The other colors in this collection (including "Gilded Coral" which I reviewed earlier this week) are mostly "spring-y" colors. "Royal Velvet", to me, doesn't scream "SPRING!", but it's fun and cheery, so that counts for something! 


Final verdict: "Royal Velvet" isn't going to make it to any favorite polish list, but I'm sure I'll bring it back out when I'm looking for a fun polish when I get a pedicure.


So, here it is, "Royal Velvet":


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

I wonder why this keeps happening with Blogger??? This is not how the picture is saved, and there's no way for me to rotate it. Sorry!

Orly - "Gilded Coral"

I received this polish recently for my review. When I opened up the package I received and saw this polish, my eyes got big and my mouth dropped. It was quite a "flashy" color, in my opinion - a color I couldn't see myself wearing.


Last night I decided to try a much lighter color than what I've been choosing lately (you've probably noticed a lot of browns/coppers/grays/blacks/blues), so I decided to go with this one, since I needed to get my review done for it anyway. I was so skeptical about the color that I didn't even put on a base coat (I've never done that before!), thinking I'd be removing the color right after I got my pictures taken. Well, to my surprise, I loved the outcome! In the pictures below, I used 3 coats. Even after 3, however, I could still see some major VNL. Oh well, doesn't bother me! 


"Gilded Coral" is described by Orly as a coral gold shimmer, which is exactly how I would describe it, too. "Gilded Coral" is from Orly's new Precious Collection. I rarely say this about polish collections, but I could see myself owning every color from this group - they're all fantastic! In fact, on my lunch break today, I stopped by Sally's and purchased "Royal Velvet". I'm thinking about going back and purchasing "Sapphire Silk" soon, too!


Final Verdict: I am so happy I gave this color a chance! It's very feminine, and I found myself admiring my nails quite a bit today at work! I was very pleased with the formula. This was the first Orly polish I had ever used, and I've already purchased quite a few others (today on my lunch break!). Another thing I love about Orly is their award-winning Gripper Cap. Why can't ALL nail polish companies use gripper caps, too?!


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
3 coats of Orly "Gilded Coral"
1 coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

With Flash:

The Precious Collection Lacquers became available in March of this year. They retail for around $7.50 each and can be purchased online at Orly Beauty, Sally Beauty, Ulta, and other retailers worldwide.

*The product in this post was sent to me by the company or their PR firm for my unbiased review.