New formula for Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl...?

YES PLEASE.

I was poking around the polishes at a Midwest superstore called Meijer and happened to pick up a bottle of Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl.  I know that some bloggers have a lot of love for it, but I've always been on the fence.  However, what I saw yesterday completely changed my perspective.

 Please click the picture to get a better view of this gorgeous new shimmer!!

This picture is more subtle, but click away to see the neat duochrome of the microshimmer in the bottle.  Blue, red, gold!  That doesn't show on the nail, but my pictures don't even get close to capturing the beautiful colors coming from this bottle.

The formula that I found is on the left.  The original formula is on the right.

If you've seen Daddy's Girl swatched before, you know the drill.  It's a purple jelly polish, and near impossible to capture.  It comes through very blue in my picture, unfortunately.  In reality, it's a true purple jelly, with stunning red shimmer running through it.  I'm finding that the red-violet color really compliments my skin tone!

And here's the standard bottle shot.  This is a good one to click to see the red shimmer!  This is three easy coats.


I really hope that this is a completely new formula, but I can't be sure.  It could just be an odd batch.  It seems like their new polishes all have a raised "SC" on the cap, but this bottle doesn't have that.  I adore this red shimmer version.  It reminds me of Nfu-Oh 51 without the flakes. <3

So has anyone else seen this version floating around?


Thanks for reading!

TRONICA SWATCHES!!! *pic heavy post!*

What what!!!

My girl Janet sent me a text yesterday to say that she'd been to a beautician supply shop in town and that they had new nail polish.  Thinking that it was China Glaze's On Deck collection, I wasn't overwhelmingly excited.  The colors look nice, but nothing that I'm impatient for.  When she replied, though, she said that they had Tronica.

WHAT.

I had a miniature freakout before begging her to take me to pick them up today.  So this is a massive shout out to the totally awesome gal that never seems to get tired of feeding my polish habit.  Janet, hugs, kisses, and massive squishes to you!  Thank you!

My two little lovelies.  I may or may not have squealed like a wee girl in my car after I bought them.

Here is the China Glaze Tronica collection all together.  Don't mind the bracelets holding them in place.  Turns out polishes in round bottles like to roll over and hide their labels.


I'll apologize before I start for a few things.
A) It's winter in Indiana and I wash my hands 234238923 times a day.  All the lotion in the world can't save my skin right now, especially if I'm swatching.
B) Being winter in Indiana, there's no sun out. :(  I'm happy with a collection of holo polishes regardless, but you'll have to wait for another blogger to post sunny pictures.
C) Between my OttLite, my camera, and all of the negative sun going on here, I know that I didn't do these justice.  I really wanted to share the collection with everyone, though! :)

All of the pictures you see are two coats of polish with no top coat, in an effort to make the holo effect stand out more prominently.

Techno Teal

This is maybe my favorite polish of the bunch, but it's very hard to pick just one!  I feel as if this color is comparable to DV8, but I also believe that it's a darker hue of teal.

Hyper Haute

I really loved this color as well!  This was a deep, gorgeous raspberry holo that I can't wait to see out in the sunshine!  Comparable to QT.

 

Virtual Violet

A nice, dark purple holo.  This picture even picked up a bit of the holo effect.  I feel that this polish is comparable to LOL or Color Club's Wild at Heart.

 

Hologram

Silver holo.  This is the only one that I had some issues with.  I didn't feel that the holo effect in this one was as evident as the others.  Also, with such a light color, I did have some balding.  Comparable to OMG.

 

Laser Lime

Lime green holo.  Goes on a bit sheer at first, but can be layered up.  There will still be a bit of VNL with only two coats of the lighter colors, but an extra coat would do the trick.  Comparable to L8R G8R.

 

3D Fantasy

Mmmm, red holo. :)  Comparable to TMI.

 

Cyberspace

This is a light taupe holo.  Very work appropriate.  I wonder how it compares to Butter London All Hail McQueen?  Comparable to (though not a total dupe, in my opinion) FYI.

 

Electra Magenta

I don't know if I would call this one magenta.  I'd be more willing to call Hyper Haute magenta, not this.  I found this one to be a pinky-purple shade.  A purplink. :3  Comparable to BFF.

 

Digital Dawn

I suppose that this is a dusty rose color, but there was so much copper in it that it reminded me more of a certain brand of battery than of a rosy shade.  Not my type of color, but like the rest, the formula is nice and even.  Comparable to TTYL.

 

High Def

I would say that this is more of a medium blue holo.  It's not standard blue, but it's not dusty, light, or sky, either.  Comparable to 2NITE.

 

Gamer Glam

Light purple/saturated lavender holo.  Comparable to IDK.

 

Mega Bite

A gold holo.  Again, not my cup of tea as far as color goes, but everything else about it is just right.  Comparable to GR8.

I haven't yet seen these colors compared to the polishes in the OMG collection, but as I pointed out with each polish I swatched, I feel that they're basically either the same, or so similar that you don't need both.  I own most of the OMG collection, so it's a slight disappointment for me.  However, I think that the Tronica collection is going to be a great way for people to pick up colors that they missed out on when OMG was readily available.  Also, these China Glaze holo polishes look like they're fantastic for stamping, and I've seen some really amazing nail art where they're used.  For avid stampers, having this new-old collection back will probably be very nice.

I personally feel like the formula on these new Tronica holos is better than the formula from the OMG collection.  Maybe I'm imagining things?  I had many issues with streaking and balding with the OMG colors, and I didn't have those issues with these polishes.

Don't forget your holo polish basics!  Wearing a base coat with this formula of polish can be the cause of bald spots and drag, so it's advisable to not wear one at all.  Don't worry about nail staining, though.  Holo polishes seem to have a different pigmentation that doesn't (so far as I know) stain.  Two coats is sufficient for a dark color, maybe three for a lighter shade.  Wearing a top coat over the polish will reduce the rainbow effects, so if you can keep yourself from wearing a top coat, the polish will give you a greater show.

Which Tronica polishes will you be picking up?

Thank you for reading!

Color Club - Wild at Heart

Today isn't a very good day for me.  I knew it was coming, but how do you really prepare for it?

My boyfriend is originally from Ohio.  A couple months ago, he moved to the city where I live. :)  His hometown is about two hours away.  Not far, really.  One of old college friends decided to take a trip out to Brad's hometown to see a bunch of his friends there, so of course Brad wanted to see him.  I wanted Brad to go see his friends, too.  I'm not a ridiculous mouthbreathing clingfest, after all.  I do love him entirely, though.  These will be the first days in almost three months that we will be apart.  Since he's moved here, we've been together every single day.  I hope that he (and everyone else) can forgive me for being a little downtrodden and sad for these next few days.  It's harder than I expected.

I didn't much feel like doing my nails earlier.  I put a bunch of glittery topcoats over my current manicure (Misa Dirty Sexy Money), but that only served to make me more indecisive as to which I liked best.  Huff.  So I picked pictures from a manicure I did last weekend.

I wore this as a manicure over the weekend hoping to catch some sun at some point, but that never happened.  Darned Indiana winter!  I took these pictures hoping that I wouldn't have to settle with them, but eh.  What can you do? lol

This was two super easy coats.  As holographic polishes can sometimes leave bald spots when you layer on additional coats, I made sure that the first coat was completely dry before swooping in for a second.  And lucky me, being a holo polish, it didn't take long to dry at all. :)

I'm reeeeeaaaallllyyyy looking forward to wearing Wild at Heart when the weather warms up and the sun comes back out again.  It's still a beautiful color, but it seems a shame that the gray skies didn't give me a ray of sun to let this polish's true beauty shine through.  I still got a few compliments on it!


Soooo...  Back to doing, um...  Nothing, really.  I need to actually do my nails this time (not just glitterbomb them), so maybe I'll turn on some Buffy and then call it an early night.

Thanks for reading, even if it's all downer.  Please enter my giveaway!

Revlon - Perplex

I should have posted this first, but I really couldn't wait to put the giveaway up!  Please enter! :)  Clickity-click!

I have to say, the first time I saw Perplex, I wasn't super psyched.  But let me tell you why!  I was in the midst of buying some polish from Mary over at Body & Soul (seriously, if you're not already following her, do it now.  She's a really neat gal and she writes a stellar blog!), and through my own misunderstanding, I had expressed interested in Cover Girl Purplexed.  It's a very pretty purple, but oops!  Not what I was after!  (Also, ugh, cosmetic companies!  Why do you have to use such similar names!?).  So when I saw the full display at Ulta, I remember thinking "Too bad I already bought you!"

So anyway, I worked things out with Mary and ended up going back to Ulta to buy three bottles!  One for me, one for her, and one for a lucky reader! :)  The girls at Ulta thought I was crazy ("You already have every polish imaginable, and now you're buying three bottles of the same color?"), but that's pretty standard, I suppose.

Pictures!

A warm welcome to my new OttLite as well!  I'm not used to taking photos under such a great light source.  Unfortunately, a lot of purples still look blue.  Please use your imagination (seeing as my camera has none).  Do you see the streak of subtle shimmer there on the middle finger?  The bottle was gorgeous.  Swathes of the pure purple shimmer floated in the dusky purple cream.  It was a beautiful polish to wear!

This was two easy peasy coats.  I'm not unfamiliar with Revlon polishes, but it's not very often that I find a color interesting enough to buy.  This was a great color and wonderful polishing experience!

Definitely looking forward to wearing this again.  Once I get my swapped bottle of Paradoxal, I'll do a side by side comparison.

So what do you think of Perplex?  Is it on your wish list?


Thanks for reading!

Sally Hansen's "Purple Gala"

And we're back online!!

I'll say it a million times over, Bradley is amazing. :)  He wiped my whole buggy system clean and installed a fresh new copy of Windows 7 for me.  I'm still getting the hang of it, but I can understand why people love it so much.  I'm really just loving it right now for the fact that I can use my computer again!

I went to Ulta on Friday hoping to grab a few polishes from their new collection.  The new collection wasn't there (sadface), but while I was browsing around, I happened upon a new Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear display.  I believe there were ten new colors, but only half of them appealed to me.  I bought Plum Burst (a medium plum cream), Concrete (a super grayed out lavender cream), Fireberry Red (candy apple red with what looks like tiny gold and red glitter flakes), Purple Gala (purple base with gold glitter flakes), and Mystic Lilac (very sheer lavender polish with tiny iridescent glitter).  I was very unimpressed with the rest of them.  They all appeared to be pearly colors with very, very sparse glitter.  Yawn!

The one that I just couldn't wait to try was Purple Gala.  Looking at it reminds me of Hard Candy's "Mr. Wrong."  (I confess that while I own Mr. Wrong, though, I have yet to wear it.  After the horrible time I had trying to remove Lava, I wasn't eager to go through the same experience with Mr. Wrong).

Swoooon.  Can you see the deep purple beneath?  I tend to dislike golds (they're related to yellows, after all), but the purple and gold are really beautiful together.

When everyone was fawning over Opulent Cloud, I was disappointed with it.  Why?  Because this is the purple and gold that really appeals to me.  Deep yet shimmery.

This was three coats followed by a top coat.  Two would have done the trick, but I messed one of them up and decided to just go a third round.

What do you think?  Will you be picking up your own bottle of Purple Gala?

Ready for a triple play?

Instead of beating myself up over not posting every single day, I'd rather be happy that I can post two nails every other day.  I originally wanted to paint and post in a way that would let my pictures be posted a day after I wore the polish.  In the case that I royally mess up my polish at work (which is not at all unheard of), I wanted to have a slight cushion of time to put up my next pictures, instead of feeling pressured to repaint my nails to make my daily post.

And part of even wanting to post daily is to show that I can stick with something and be consistent.

Would you like to laugh with me? :D  HA HA HA HA!!

Well, I feel much better now. :)  Onto the polish?  Today has some good ones!!

Parlez-vous OPI? by OPI

Don't mind the little bubbles.  I'm still working out the tiff I've been having with top coats.

This was two coats to opaque.

Looking at it in the bottle, I expected a boring taupe.  It was rather un-boring, though.  Though it was still somewhat taupe-y, it leaned more toward a lavender greige.  If it were slightly more taupe and slightly less lavender, it would remind me of the frilly underside of a mushroom cap.

Parlez-vous OPI? is ultimately rather pretty.  Very workplace friendly as well.  It's not my personal cup of tea, but a) lots of bloggers rave about it, and b) it was on sale.  And let's not forget c), everyone needs a "grown up" color or two in their collection.  This is one of mine.

I still have some problems with OPI's wide brush.  Not all of my nails are wide, so it does pose a problem sometimes.  The polish's formula is pristine, though, which completely makes up for the big ol' brush.

Next up is Orly's Wild Wisteria!  Honestly, sometimes I just buy a polish because I love the name.  Once I put on Wild Wisteria, I adored the color.  I originally bought it, though, because I spent a lot of time writing for an online group with a character I created that I named (any guesses?) Wisteria.  Even though I don't have the opportunity to write with her in that forum setting anymore, I still can't help it that I really enjoy a persona I created.

This is the most recent picture I would have used for her. :)

(I do not own the pictured character.  Don't sue me. :P  She just looks so much like the Wisteria in my head for me to pass her by.)

So, without further ado, Orly Wild Wisteria

Hardest time ever capturing the deep, beautiful purple as anything other than blue.  The pictures I'm posting are the best I did. :(

This one would have been perfect in one coat, but I did two to ease my mind. :)

Also, I'm not wearing topcoat in these pictures!  Look how shiny it is!! <3

The polish in the bottle isn't far from the actual color.  My nails are just being stubborn.

I really liked this polish.  I have yet to try an Orly that I don't like, but for some reason, it's rarely my first polish brand choice.  Maybe it's because most of the colors I see are safe?  Not sure.  The ones I have are lovely, though, and the application is perfect.

Collectively with my now!:  "Oooooooooooo...!!"

I couldn't stop staring at them!

This is a Cosmo polish called "Lords of the Bling."  The name is ridiculous, I know.

BUT JUST LOOK AT IT!!! :D

You can see several of the different flashes in this picture.  Brilliant greens, teal, royal blue, shimmery purple.

Even when it's not shimmering other colors, it's pretty!

The only visual thing I didn't like about this combination was that it turned Wild Wisteria's deep purple into a navy blue color.  It was still lovely.  Just much less purple.

Orly Wild Wisteria and Cosmo Lords of the Bling

Until I started hitting up salons, I'd never seen Cosmo polishes.  I've only bought two so far (Lord of the Blings and I Found Nemo), which are both shimmery topcoat polishes, so I'm curious to see how the rest of the polishes look when applied.  I had some issues with this one, though.  First off, it smells like chemical death.  Secondly, the dry time on this is very, very long.  If I remember right, I got impatient and just put a speed dry top coat on it.  This didn't keep me from having to wait for the first coat to dry, though.  (This is two coats of Lords of the Bling, by the way.)

Critical application flaws aside, I really adored this look.  I kept them like this for at least two days (which is forever for nail polish, in my world) and was still flicking them around in the sun to see that glimmer.

What do you guys think?  Any Parlez-vous OPI? fans out there?  Any ladies ready to stalk their salons for Cosmo polishes?

-E

China Glaze: Grape Juice and Raspberry Festival

It's so hard to get back on track when I want to show you the polish I'm wearing today so much!  But after skipping the post that I had planned for yesterday to showcase Timbleberry, I feel the need to go back and cover what I missed.

Because let's face it.  China Glaze's glass fleck polishes?  TOO GOOD TO MISS!

Grape Juice.  Oh, how lovely!  Can I admit that this is the one polish from that collection that I thought I could live without?  I very humbly retract that statement!

Just look at this shine!  All of the light-refracting glass flecks in this polish make it gorgeous.  Packing jelly polish with these little babies was sheer genius.

Who could really decline to wearing something so shimmery and gorgeous out on a sunny day?

Though it looks rather blue in the bottle, it's not. :)  My nails in these pictures are a much better representation of true color than this bottle shot.

Cute enough to eat. <3

This was two coats of Grape Juice, and I felt it was a good amount.  In the sun pictures, I can see that it's still a bit sheer.  This doesn't bother me considering the type of polish being worked with, but if it bothers you, hit it with another coat.  I also feel the need to say that I do have very short nails compared to other blogging laides.  I didn't see a visible nail line under two coats, but you may.  Sweep on another coat or two until you're satisfied with the results. :)

So, onto China Glaze's Raspberry Festival.  I should just warn you now...

 

That's right.  I'm going out on a limb and showing you my pudgy little Hobbit toes.  But let me tell you.  Nobody in Middle Earth could resist these little tootsies. lol  I put this polish on Thursday.  After wearing open-toed shoes, spending too many hours in my work shoes, running around bare-foot, and just being a bit unkind to my feet in general, this polish hasn't budged.

LOOK AT HOW SHINY IS IT!!!

Raspberry Festival is my Preeeeciiioooouuuussssssssssss. <3

Not to mention that I was so darn lucky in finding it for $3.99 at Ulta a while back!

Oh my goodness, I love these polishes!  Of China Glaze's 2009 Summer Collection (consisting of Raspberry Festival, Cherry Pie, Orange Marmalade, Strawberry Fields, Grape Juice, and Watermelon Rind), I'm only missing Cherry Pie and Orange Marmalade.  And you can bet your sweet glass flecks that they're on my list to buy!  The collection is so perfect for the bright sun that I may forgo most of the new Pool Side neons to get my hands on this collection.

What do you think?  Are you in love with the glass fleck?  Which is your favorite color from the collection?  Should I just give my stubby toes back to the Hobbits already?

-E