Recent NOTD: Zoya Nevaeh

When it came time to take off Marina Dawn, I looked at my calendar and saw I was going to be busy enough that I might end up wearing the next color longer than usual, so I looked for something neutral so tipwear and chips would be less of an issue if they happened. I chose Zoya Neveah from my untrieds. This is described on their website as "soft fleshy pink with peach undertones and subtle champagne and copper metallic shimmer". Subtle is the key word there; the shimmer is very, very, very subtle. It is pretty in the bottle, but the base is opaque enough (I only used two coats, which is rare for a color this pale) that the shimmer gets lost on the nail.









This is perfectly work appropriate and also perfectly boring, at least on someone with my complexion. Just before I left on my trip, I put one coat of Orly Fifty-Four on top to try and spark it up, and that helped a tiny bit, but only in the sun. (No photos of that, as I applied it in my parked car before dawn and then got on a plane.) I haven't decided whether to swap this one, keep it to use as "underwear" with sheers, or try it with Hidden Treasure, which makes most things better.

*****

Not at all boring is the mega-swap I recently did with Tiana. She sent so many lovelies that I can't get here, just look:


Catrice Lucky in Lilac, Lost in Mud, Poison Me Poison You; Essence Show Your Feet Purple Magic, Essence Nail Art Twins Joe, Essence Crazy About Colour Think Pink.


s-he 439, 437, 454, 466, 376, 427, 204.


HEMA One Coat 210 & 208; HEMA High Shine 04 & 03; Essence Colour & Go Shining Star, Essence Pure Beauty Adorable.

Thanks so much, Tiana!

Return to Comps

I didn't mean to be gone from here for three days. I knew I was going out of town but thought I'd have a chance to update from the road; as it turned out I got busy with other things. Buying nail polish was not among them, though, since I was flying with just a carry on bag and the TSA seems to go back and forth on whether nail polish is allowed in the quart-sized bag of dangerous liquids and gels (at one point the TSA site specifically said nail polish was not okay for carry on but was okay for checked bags, but I just looked today and couldn't find any reference to it at all, and I flew earlier this year with nail polish in my carry on, so it's confusing). I did stop in a few Dollar Tree stores that I came across, telling myself if I found something really good (like Sally Hansen glitters) I could find a post office and mail them to myself, but there wasn't anything I hadn't seen before.

When I posted about the Finger Paints fall collection I said I'd share what I found when I went looking for dupes in my stash, and today I have the pewter, Winter's Whisper, and some of its relatives from other brands.



Left to right: Finger Paints Winter's Whisper, China Glaze Jitterbug, OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, Milani 2.0.

The first three in the lineup here are all from Fall 2010 collections: Winter's Whisper from Finger Paints Seduced by Fall, Jitterbug from China Glaze Vintage Vixen, and Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous from OPI Swiss, all released about the same time. The Milani is from Liquid Metal, which came out this past summer. It's almost as if there's a nail polish guru somewhere that decreed pewter shimmer-verging-on-metallic was a must have this season. They look pretty similar in the bottle; on the nail there aren't any exact dupes in the group, but the differences between most of them are very subtle.




Top to bottom: Winter's Whisper, Jitterbug, Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, 2.0.




Winter's Whisper (top) and Jitterbug (bottom).



Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous (top), 2.0 (bottom).

If we had to play "one of these things is not like the others", the Milani would be the odd one out, as while the finish is similar to the other three, the base color is noticeably darker. That makes it a keeper just from a uniqueness standpoint. The OPI has the warmest tone of the group; in some lights, it seemed to have a greenish cast, while the others were more blue. The Finger Paints and China Glaze are the two closest to being dupes, with the Finger Paints being just slightly darker. If I could only keep one of the non-Milanis, I'd go with the China Glaze, though it's a close call.

*****

Reminder: There's one week left to enter my Summertime Blues Giveaway.

Recent NOTD: Borghese Marina Dawn

Marina Dawn is one of those fuschia shimmer with purple flash polishes that were everywhere for a while; I think I must own at least five or six versions. I don't recall which Borghese collection this was from, possibly Isle of Capri.





This one is eye-catching; Mr. Karen, who usually doesn't have much to say about my polish choices, noticed this one and asked how long I was going to keep it on (he still doesn't quite get swatching other than he knows it involves changing my polish after what seems to him like no time at all), and when told probably a few days, exclaimed "you're going to work with bright pink nails?!" And yes, I did go to work with bright pink nails, and it made me smile to see them.

Wheel J: Teal and Turquoise Cremes

Wheel J: Teal and Turquoise Cremes

In the comments to last week's Nail Wheel Wednesday entry, Sara put in a request for teal cremes, so today we are jumping directly from Wheel E to Wheel J, which has most of my teal and turquoise cremes. Surprisingly, I didn't have enough of either to do a full wheel, so they have to share.



1. OPI Hey Get in Lime (3 coats) [probably would be more at home on the mint wheel]
2. Orly Gumdrop (3)
3. China Glaze For Audrey (3)
4. L'Oreal Waters Edge (3)
5. MUA 5 (3)
6. Catrice I Sea You (3)
7. Models Own Slate Green (3)
8. H & M Bella's Choice (2)
9. China Glaze Flyin' High (3)
10. Hard Candy Frenzy (3)
11. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Fairy Teal (2)
12. P2 Color Victim Dangerous (2)
13. OPI Ski Teal We Drop (2)
14. Rescue Beauty Lounge Teal (2)
15. H & M U Must Have This (2)
16. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away (2)
17. Wet 'n' Wild Craze Maui (2)
18. Maybelline Summer Splash (4) [this is one of the bad bottles, very gritty texture, thus the 4 coats trying to smooth it]
19. Essence Multi Dimension Groovy (3)
20. China Glaze Shower Together (4)

Edited 12-Mar-2012 to add bottle pics—

Bottles 1 through 5:


6 through 11:


12 through 14:


15 through 20:

Finger Paints Seduced by Fall

A few weeks back, my Sally Beauty put out the new Finger Paints limited edition display. There was a buy two, get one free sale on at the time, and there are six colors in the collection, so that worked out quite nicely, and today I have swatches of all of them.



Harvest Hues is a dark, but not too dark, green shimmer that covered in two coats. It's a bit brush-strokey—nowhere near as bad as the frosts of old, but it didn't settle quite as well as I'd hoped, either. It also requires a bit more clean-up than my regular level of effort (as you can see, I only used my regular effort, which left green smears). I do quite like the color, though, so I'll just be more careful with application when I wear it for a full mani.





Autumn Moonlight is a deep (but not too deep) blue with fine silver shimmer; this one was also two coats.





Winter's Whisper is a super shimmery pewter. I almost want to call it a micro glitter because of all the tiny flakes I had trouble cleaning up. This was three coats.





Shades of Fall, another three coater, is a deep (but not too deep—sense a theme here?) wine creme.





Autumn Blaze is a plummy wine two-coat shimmer.





Autumn Allure is a shimmery taupe that took two coats.





There's nothing jaw dropping here, but it's a nice collection, especially for people like me who are inclined toward cooler-toned colors. I have no doubt I will find some dupes in my stash if I go looking (and will of course share what I discover), but if one were just building a stash, a lot of these would be good additions, I think. My favorites are Autumn Allure, the taupe, and Harvest Hues, the green. I really like Winter's Whisper, the pewter, too, but I have the nagging feeling I already own a few others just like it.

Recent NOTD: Joe Fresh Fig

After I took off the bright and happy Pixy Stix, I switched to the quieter and somewhat more sophisticated Joe Fresh Fig, which I got earlier this year from Lately I'm Obsessed With (who really needs to get back to posting entries). It's a slightly dusty medium plum creme that only took two coats.





On the fourth day, I was ready for a change, but before I took Fig off, I tried stamping over it with Sally Hansen Chrome Nail Makeup in Ruby Chrome (which even though it's been long discontinued, I bought in a drugstore earlier this year) and one of the designs from Konad plate M21. You can see the tipwear on Fig wasn't too bad for four days of typing, and I only got a couple small chips on my non-photo hand (probably from distractedly using my nails to scrape off price stickers or something). I had some trouble getting the flower petals to transfer completely, and I still need to work on my centering skills, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks anyway.





*****

I also completed a couple of swaps with other bloggers recently. Smita of My Nailz got me some American Apparel polishes, which I appreciated since there aren't any AA stores along my usual polish hunting routes, and I've heard some bad stories about their packaging from people who've ordered online. She also sent some pretty shimmery red violet polishes (and some candy, which I ended up digging into before I got around to taking these photos, so rather than include ripped open wrappers, I just posed the polish bottles).


Left to right: AA Factory Grey, L'Esprit (which is more lilac than it's showing here), and Mouse; three Sweet Serenity unnamed shades.

Halifax of Sparkled Beauty sent Del Sol polishes, which change colors in the sun; I've got some old sun-activiated ones but haven't ever tried Del Sol so am looking forward to that. She also sent a Canadian exclusive Sally Hansen from the square bottle Salon days, the lovely Purple Heart.


Left to right: Del Sol Spike, Sally Hansen Purple Heart, Del Sol Island Fever.

Thanks, ladies!

Drugstore Report

One of the things I like about my camera (an ancient by today's standards Canon SD600) is that it fits easily in my purse or pocket, so I almost always have it with me when I make my rounds of CVS and Rite Aid and Walgreens and Meijer and can snap pictures of displays when I see them, like the ones I have today.

First up is the Milani Haute Value collection I mentioned when I swatched Bare it All. So far from this one, I've just gotten One of a Kind, a very deep green creme, and Dress Maker, which is the rumored Chanel Jade dupe. I don't have Jade, so I won't be able to confirm that with my own eyes, but it's pretty regardless.



Left to right: Fashion Design, Dress Maker, One of a Kind, Hot Hot Hot, Tailor Made, High Fashion.

I thought this Revlon display was interesting; it says "Re-Live Your Favorite Memories of Summer" and is stocked with some of this year's Scents of Summer shades, some of the pastels from Daydreamer, and some core shades and top coat. I like that they're not hiding the re-promote aspect of this, and think its nice that they're giving people another shot at the limited edition scented ones, though I noticed that neither of the purples is there. Maybe those sold out first?



Left to right: Beach, Ocean Breeze, Peach Smoothie, Orange Pop, Cotton Candy, Bubble Gum, Clear, Pure Petal, Sheer Pink, Peach Petal, Hushed Blush, Touch of Mauve, Teak Rose, Minted, Pink Chiffon, Lilac Pastelle, Tropical Temptation, Extra Life No Chip Top Coat.

I wish Sally Hansen would follow Revlon's lead; I'd love to see a "Re-Live Those Crazy Hunts for Our Wackily Distributed Limited Editions" display from them. It could have Opulent Cloud and Hidden Treasure for starters.

And finally, I came across the polish-only display for Maybelline Fall 2010, the companion to the makeup display with Gray-T Glamour in it. I realize now that I should have rearranged the colors before I took the photo so one of each would be in front, though it wouldn't have made that much difference, I guess, as most of these are very dark.



Front, left to right (2 bottles each): Grand in Green, Pretty in Purple, Chic Chocolate. Back: Charming Cobalt, Berry Fancy, Classic Black.

I haven't decided which ones of these Maybellines I'm going to get yet; probably the green at least.

Which ones would you get (or have you already gotten some of these)?

Summertime Blues Giveaway

***CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED***; winner will be announced soon.

I pleased to announce that I had such good luck finding the Maybelline Denim Collection (as swatched here) that I'll be giving away a complete set. All bottles are fresh from the Dollar Tree but due to their age many have suffered some evaporation. All have been removed from the cardboard and plastic packaging to save space when shipping. I am sorry to say that they do not all have the awesomely retro "Special Price $2.47" stickers that the ones I have in my own stash do.



To enter:

1) Be a follower.

2) Live somewhere on Earth with a mailing address.

3) Fill out and submit the form below by midnight Michigan time on Monday, September 6th, the traditional end of summer vacation time around these parts. Yes, I made a form; I thought it would be good to work out any issues before the giveaway I have planned should I reach 500 followers—that one will be more complicated than I want to manage from comments.



(form removed now that contest is over)


If you have any trouble with the form, leave a comment or e-mail me with details. Thanks for reading!

Summertime Blues

In contrast to yesterday's new drugstore polishes, today I have something old: the Maybelline Express Finish denim collection from back in the gold-cap era. These have been showing up at Dollar Tree stores over the last I'm not sure how long. I first saw them around here last fall and early winter, then they disappeared for a while, then showed up again in late spring and early summer. I would really, really like to visit a Dollar Tree distribution center to see if they've just got boxes and boxes of nail polish waiting to be dispatched to random locations at odd intervals. (And if I happened across some Sally Hansen glitters while I was there, I do believe would try to smuggle some out in my underwear.)

Blue Riders is a deep blue shimmer:



Indigo Blues is a navy creme:



Zip Fly is navy with silver glitter:



Boot Leg is blue packed with silver shimmer; it looks almost foil-y:



Jean Jacket is a dusty blue shimmer with just a hint of purple in it:



Jaded Blues is a blue green shimmer with a hint of gold; like Boot Leg, it's almost a foil finish:



Button Fly is an ever so slightly greyed blue creme:



Hip Huggers is a dusty periwinkle creme:



Five Pocket is a medium blue shimmer, almost a frost:



Stone Washed is a dusty light blue version of Boot Leg:



Most of these only took two coats; the exceptions were Jean Jacket and Jaded Blues, which took three. All swatches are without topcoat. I love the variety of finishes in this collection and think it would be great if they did a series like this for other colors. I guess I could probably assemble my own, at least for purples and reds.