Pink Wednesday: PRO10 - Shout (08/31/2011)

PRO10 Shout is a great Summer pink that I found at the Dollar Tree in a 2-pack that included a light blue called Moody which looks just like China Glaze's Moody Blue.  Score!


Color Description: A beautiful hot pink that shows off any tan.


Similar To: I have nothing exact but the hue (not finish) reminded me of Finger Paints I'm A Survivor.  Also, close to Revlon Bubble.


This Look: One coat of Starting Over After Artificials, two coats of Shout and one coat of Sally Hansen Mega Shine.


Price Point/Availability:  As mentioned above, you may be able to find this at your local Dollar Tree but other than that it is definitely discontinued.


Have a great Wednesday!

Zoya - Cynthia and Comps (08/28/2011)

Zoya Cynthia is from the Fall 2011 Smoke Collection, of which, I purchased two: Cynthia and Dree.  I now see that I can't resist a green in any form from dark to light from teal to olive, greens are great!


Color Description: Zoya describes Cynthia as "a smoky, blackened peacock teal with soft warm undertones. A very uncommon shade of blue for a subtle but funky look."  It also is a creme with the slightest hint of shimmer, so slight it's not a secret it's just abut non-existent.  And, it is true you don't find this shade of teal very often but I now have at least four versions of this color in my collection, wanna see?


Similar To: Cynthia is extremely dupish to two, if not three shades that I own: L'Oreal Mystery, Jessica Frost At All Cost and CQ Slate.  Of these the least similar is Slate (a bit more green than blue) but to the "normal" eye they are all pretty much the same. (see pic directly below - can you tell the difference?)

Slate (index), Frost At All Cost (middle),
Mystery (ring), and Cynthia (pinky)

This Look: One coat of Starting Over After Artificials, two coats each of the above four shades and then topped off the final look (first picture) with Zoya Cynthia; used Sally Hansen Mega Shine as the topcoat.


Price Point/Availability: The most difficult of the four to get your hands on would be Jessica Frost At All Cost because it's not as widely available as the others.  The easiest would be CQ Slate from you local Rite Aid (or drugstore) and L'Oreal Mystery, although Limited Edition, can still be found at many drugstores including Bed, Bath and Beyond.  Zoya Cynthia can be found online at Zoya.com for $8.


Hope this helps when deciding which deep teal lacquer to purchase next.  Have a great Sunday, y'all!

Slate, Frost At All Cost, Mystery, Cynthia

Chanel - Peridot

Chanel Peridot is the color I chose to wear for my one year blog anniversary and it's has been a week of wonderfulness!  I have been wearing this lacquer since Tuesday (8/23/2011) and can't seem to take it off...  


It's lasted through Disneyland and a host of other activities and is well worth the money.  These pics were taken today after close to four days of wear.


Besides a little dent on my index finger tip, Chanel Peridot has held up extremely well - for a Chanel.  Sad to say my Paradoxal did not hold up half as well, chippity chip chip chip was its theme song.


I love the venetian glass effect that Peridot has and that's why I had to save up a few ducats to make this purchase.  I know whenever I try to layer and franken to create a dupe the next thing is just to break down and buy it.


As you can see in certain lighting it looks like a foil and other lighting it has a duochrome pearlized finish, either way I'm in love.  See you soon!

Maybelline - Purple Trend (08/21/2011)

Coming at you really quick with my NOTD (albeit messy, I still ♥ it)!  I went back to Rite Aid to pick up Purple Trend from the new Maybelline Fall 2011 - Scene On The Runway Limited Edition Collection.

Color Description: To the naked eye this is just another dark plum creme but to the trained eye there's a blue shimmer that is to die for.  I would describe this as a prune bordering brown burgundy with as secret blue shimmer.

This Look: One coat of Instant Artificials, two coats of Purple Trend and one coat of Sally Hansen Mega Shine.

Some may say what's the point of a "secret shimmer" if you can't see it?  Well, even when you can't see the shimmer this type of nail lacquer is extra shiny and unique. 

Guess what tomorrow is?  My one year blog-i-versary!  And I know just the color I will wear...  Something very special! :)



Maybelline - Scene On The Runway Collection Swatches (Fall 2011)

The new Scene On The Runway Collection from Maybelline caught my eye on Thursday (yesterday) in Rite Aid and so I decided to "participate" in the BOGO50 promotion that was ending.  

These were the three that I thought I must have...

Cool Couture is a dark gray with fine turquoise blue shimmer
(Ott light w/ light box)

Here's another look at the shimmer
(incandescent lighting)

Natural Beauty is a nice deep tan creme and
is almost a dupe for OPI San Tan-Tonio.
From top to bottom: STT, NB, STT, NB - close, eh?
(NB is a shade or two deeper than STT)

And lastly, Be Scene In Green a medium green frost
(not special enough, IMO)

I am definitely going back for the purple shimmer that I overlooked called Purple Trend!  See it here on Nouveau Cheap as well as glimpse at the rest of Maybelline's new Fall 2011 line.  


So far, what do you think?  Have you seen this in stores yet.  My sales associate just put these out today and I'm glad I stopped by! :)

Pink Wednesday: OPI - Blushingham Palace

OPI Blushingham Palace is this week's choice for Pink Wednesday.  Originally from the 2003 British Collection, Blushingham Palace is fit to be worn to the Royal Wedding. :)

Color Description: Described by OPI as a cool light mauve, Blushingham Palace is a medium pink frost with mauve undertones.  Not too frosty, though, it's a nice balance of frost and shimmer.

OTT Lighting and Light Box

Similar To: Nothing I know of or own.  One of a kind...

Incandescent Lighting

This Look: Three coats of Blushingham Palace (no top or base coat)

Halogen Lighting

Price Point/Availability: Blushingham Palace is discontinued but can still be found at some brick & mortar stores and 99.9% of the time it will be clearanced out.  This can also be found online, if interested.

Thanks so much for stopping by...

Silhouette - Orchis w/ OPI - Fireflies (Chanel Peridot Re-mix)

Silhouette Orchis w/ OPI Fire Flies as topcoat

Never Enough Nails Blog Post
on Chanel Peridot - Absolutely gorgeous!

Silouette Orchis (alone)


p.s.  If you can't get your hands on Orchis or Khaki Fringe try CQ's Golden Green; also, I hear China Glaze White Cap has a nice layering effect that could replace OPI Fireflies.  
Whatever you do, JUST HAVE FUN!!!

Silhouette - Orchis (My Take on Chanel Peridot)

This is my take on Peridot...  I stumbled upon Silhouette Orchis with my friend at a beauty supply/wig shop yesterday and thought it reminded me a bit of Chanel Peridot. So today I tried a layering experiment:


This Look: One coat of Orly Golden Coral, on coat of Silhouette Orchis, one coat of Maybelline Colorama Give Me The Chills, one coat of Best Sence #89 and one coat of Sally Hansen Mega Shine.  If you have Revlon's Glimmer Gloss in Banana Blaze this could replace the #89 and if you have Maybelline's Khaki Fringe this could replace Orchis.  I had fun layering - thanks for looking!

I went to Macy's to test Peridot and this is a side by side comparison of Orchis/Peridot.  In certain lighting, Peridot turns into a beautiful light green duochrome reminiscent of venetian glass and Orchis does not.

Below is Chanel Peridot in all of its glory... :)

Chanel Peridot from Retail Therapy
http://retailtherapy.onsugar.com/category/Peridot

Milani - HD/Silver Holographic (08/14/2011)

Sunday's Best!  This is such a gorgeous color that I just had to revisit it (haven't worn it since February of 2010).  Milani HD is a great lacquer and I hear it's being discontinued, go figure?  So, I have a few back-ups one for me and one for swap.  Here are today's pics:

Color Description: Scattered holographic silver effect with a smooth finish.  Can take on the appearance of silver glitter in certain light and even from afar just a beautiful silver lacquer.

Similar To: An excellent comp post was done by beauty blogger Kayla Shevon of Milani HD and OPI DS Coronation.  I own both but Coronation is one of my untried and as she mentioned, though these are not dupes the are extremely close.  So if you can get your hands on HD I would say "run, don't walk" to your nearest drugstore (CVS, Walgreens, etc.).

This Look: One coat of Starting Over After Artificials, three coats of HD and one coat of Sally Hansen Mega Shine.  Some have used up to four coats of HD but since I've shortened my length the VNL (visible nail line) is not as apparent and 3 coats were sufficient. :)

Have an AWESOME SUNDAY!  And see you later on in the week, if not before.

Kleancolor - Chunky Holo Black (Bottle Pic)

Kleancolor - Chunky Holo Black

The Trifid Nebula is about 40 light-years across.

'Nuff Said!!!

Kleancolor - Holo Yellow/Catherine Arley #801 Comp

Just out of curiosity I swatched Kleancolor's Holo Yellow on my pinky so that I could compare it with Catherine Arley's #801.  As you can see the coloring is very close in color but the finish is totally different. 

The finish of the Catherine Arley is jelly and linear (very sophisticated), while the Kleancolor Holo Yellow is a bit more frosty and definitely a scattered holo.

Again, if you can't get your hands on Catherine Arley's version, Kleancolor will definitely do!

Pink Wednesday: Clarins 103 - Pink Shimmer

Okay, this is "pink" in namesake only - LOL!!! Let me introduce you to the demure lacquer named Clarins Pink Shimmer. I've always wanted to do a "naked nail" post so this does that (somewhat) and it has pink in the title...


Color Description:  Pink Shimmer is a  sheer milky nude creme with a very subtle pink shimmer that can only be seen in person.


Similar To:  This lacquer is nice but not very unique and can be compared in quality and color to many soft shades by OPI or Essie.


This Look: Two coats of Pink Shimmer (no base or topcoat).


Price Point/Availability:  I received the mini in my most recent swap but I'm seeing the regular size on Ebay for close to $20 (including shipping).


Well, I don't know about you but I'm getting a bit feverish for the Fall! Can't wait to start swatching a few new Touring America lacquers. Picked up Honk If You Love OPI and Get In The Expresso Lane yesterday and also scored the new Kleancolor Chunky Black Holo (see beautiful bottle pic here by The Swatchaholic), eye candy in the bottle alone.  


Have a great day ladies and see you soon! 

Catherine Arley - 801 (08/09/2011)

Before yesterday, I'd only seen pictures of Catherine Arleys and since I own over to 50 holograpic lacquers including 25 OPI Designer Series, 10 China Glaze OMGs, 11 Tronicas and a hand full of Color Clubs and Kleancolors, I don't get too excited anymore but behold Catherine Arley - 801 in all of its chartreuse golden jelly goodness.

Color Description: Can a lacquer be holographic and jelly at the same time?  Well, Catherine Arley figured away to combine the two and I'm thankful to have this in my collection.  Again, I would consider this a golden chartreuse with scattered holographic prisms in a jelly finish.

This Look:  Two coats of lacquer with no topcoat!

Similar To:  This is a very unusual holographic lacquer but also very similar in coloring to Kleancolor Holo Yellow.  If you can find the Kleancolor around this may satisfy a lemming for Catherine Arley 801.  However, the Kleancolor has somewhat of a frost finish to it.

Availability: Catherine Arley is manufactured in Turkey and can be purchased on the web, however, I've had no success getting a response from the online distributor.  So glad I got this in a swap!

 One last pic for the road!  Have you heard of Catherine Arley?  Which do you have in your collection?

iSwap: Nail Mail (08/08/2011)

I generally don't post my swaps but yesterday I received the last part of the largest most intricate swap I've ever experienced and thought it needed to be documented.  A lovely Englishwoman named Pennie at Conceptional contacted me about a swap about three weeks ago and here's what we came up with on my end:

Chanel Black Pearl, CA 801, CA 802

Clarins 220-Patient Pink, OPI Glacier Bay Blues, Golden Rose 105

NOPI Yellow It's Me, Orlane 92, Clarins 103-Pink Shimmer

I am so glad I did this because even though she's located in the U.S. it felt like an international swap!  Alrighty then, about to select one of the Catherine Arley's for today's mani.  Take care and what have you gotten in the mail lately or better yet, what are you waiting for?  It was once said that "anticipation is the purest form of pleasure" by Gustave Flaubert and I believe this to be so...  


Have an awesome Tuesday and remember, iSwap!  Check out my swap tab above for more information. :)

Forever 21's Love & Beauty - Coral (08/06/2011)

This post will be short and sweet!  Let me know you thoughts on this lacquer from Forever 21 - Love & Beauty Coral.

Color Description: The classic orange-red coral.

Price Point: $2.80 from Forever 21.

Similar To: A few in my collection are similar, including last weeks post.  Click here for relating posts.

Have a great Sunday!