Sally Hansen - Rockstar Candy (11/30/2010)

I'm not quite sure what kind of candy Rockstar's eat, but Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure's rendition, Rockstar Candy (RC), is gorgeous and is definitely eye candy for us nail polish fanatics!

Color Description:  As you can see in the pics, RC looks totally different in varying lights.  It can look like a soft shimmering mauve with purplish pink hues or it can look like a flat out raspberry frost in all of its glory.  IRL, however, it looks more like the first picture than the second.

Price Point:  This nail lacquer goes for about $8.00 in drugstores but if you wait for a deal and double up on your coupons you can get them for a steal.

Similar To:  I honestly can't tell you what this looks like to me because I don't have anything else like it.  I don't usually buy these types of pinks.  This is definitely a more mature and sophisticated pink, IMO.

CQ - Shimmering Bark (11/23/2010)

Color Description:  What's the 411? CQ's Shimmering Bark (SB) #411 is, to be exact! A beautiful mauve with a delicate dusty rose shimmer, SB is a very subdued and classic nail lacquer.  This color has been compared to Chanel's Paradoxal, and although they are in the same family (in the bottle), they are not even close when it comes to depth or color or application. Chanel is one coat to CQ's 3 or 4, with the Chanel being much, much darker on the nail.

Price Point:  This is a drugstore brand readily found at Rite Aid and can be purchased for a whopping $2.99.  Well worth the price!

Savina - Purple Confetti (11/18/2010)

Can you say, "party over here, party over there!"?  Savina's Purple Confetti is literally a PARTY IN A BOTTLE!!!  Pictures don't really show the depth of this color but here goes it...

Color Description:  Though this color has "purple" in its name, it's actually a magenta or raspberry and it's a JELLY!  A raspberry jelly with holographic glitter reflecting, gold, blue, red - every glitter color in the rainbow.

Price Point:  This nail lacquer can be found at Nordstrom Rack and only costs $3.97 before tax.  For this price you get so much bang for your buck.  I mean, bang, like firecracker bang!  Absolutely beautiful...

Nubar - Jewel (11/10/2010)

Outdoor lighting.

Nubar Jewel is very pretty but I will say that I think you would be able to get the same effect by using a medium brown frost and layer China Glaze Fairy dust over it.  

Nubar's holographic offerings are not my favorite but they do look like jewelry for the nails.   

(I really ♥ the China Glaze OMG Collection) 

Nail Expo in Review...

Hello All -  Jackie S. of CANDY COATED TIPS and I had a nice time perusing the aisles of the Nail Expo.  This Expo boasted over 30 exhibitors, including Nubar, OPI, Seche, CND, and many others.  However, it was geared toward nail art and not nail polish.

There were in-booth demonstrations, class room education, and competitions, but what we really wanted to see were the new collections (i.e. OPI Texas for Spring/Summer 2011, etc.) and that wasn't happening.  If you wanted to learn more about gel nails, this was your place.  Almost, every booth had some form of colored gel as an offering.

Nail art and crackle-effect nail polish in every color you could imagine, were all the rage.  I picked up a white and a silver - because crackle is really not my thing.  Boring, colors but I thought this would be a good place to start.

NAIL EXPO - Long Beach, CA (November 8, 2010)

UPDATE (11/9/2010): The Nail Expo was yesterday and I can now that I have a new nail buddy, Jackie S. of CANDY COATED TIPS! We had a great time and found some nice deals and ideas.  New pics and post to come soon...

The Plan: We'll meet up at the OPI booth, of course (lol).  If you're planning on going, please feel free to contact me for more details.  Now, the question is, what color nail polish should I wear for the occasion?

ORIGINAL POST (10/4/2010): 
To my California Girls!  Who's going to the the Nail Expo at the Long Beach Convention Center on Monday, November 8, 2010?  Here's a list of exhibitors, including, Seche and OPI... 

I've never been to one of these but wouldn't it be nice to have a Los Angeles Area round-up of all nail fanatics?

Let me know your thoughts...  I just might rearrange my schedule to attend this event.  Sounds like fun!

One more step on the road to being well-polished!  Have a great Monday :)

Finger Paints - Autumn Blaze (11/3/2010)

In this lighting a blue/magenta flash
is very visible :)

I'm a sucker for colors like this.  Finger Paints Autumn Blaze is special for its beautiful shimmer and blue/magenta flash.  These pics show the subtle differences. 

It looks different in many lights.  This Look: 1 coat each of base and topcoats and 2 coats of Autumn Blaze.  

Here's the magenta flash w/ burgundy hue

This color was one of the Limited Edition shades from Sally's Beauty Supply.  Funny thing is I purchased this one twice!  Once at full price and the other once it went on clearance.  I was almost certain that I didn't have this one in my collection and then when I got it home, I was a bit bummed.  

Shows a darker hue, here
(looks like this most of the time).

Off to the swap-box it goes...  Speaking of swaps, within the next few weeks ago, I plan to set-up swap tab on my page for all of my unintentional dupes and unloveds to find a good home.

Take care now, my well-polished lovelies and see you around the web!

Dare 2 Wear Mood Polish - Blue Charcoal 2 Green

My latest mani is Dare 2 Wear Blue Charcoal to Green and was an extra in a lovely swap package that I received a few months ago.  

I had this color well before I purchased Essie Sew Psyched and once compared it's surprisingly similar except with more shimmer, as you can see.  

The shimmer is not noticeable without the flash, but for some reason the flash makes this this color look like a frost, which it is not.

The mood polish blue to green effect is no longer working. EDIT: Though, I've seen no charcoal blue, there is a darker green that is apparent when my hands are in cold water. The picture to the right shows what "cold" does to the polish. This after one day and tip wear is showing.  I really do like it, though. :)

Thanks for checking me out and have a well-polished Sunday evening!

NYC - Empire State Blue (10/29/2010)

This is one difficult color to capture.  NYC Empire State Blue has that "lit from within" green shimmer happening and it is sooo pretty. 

I picked this up a few weeks ago at the CVS BOGO 50% off.  I purchased this and Love Letters, the sheer pink glimmer coat, which gives a similar finish as the CND Effects line.

Anyway, back to Empire State Blue, it's actually a bit more green than my pics are showing.  Again, very hard to capture but definitely worth checking out at this price point.  I would compare the color to the Sephora by OPI's Mermaid to Order.

This Look: no base coat (I know, shame on me!), two coats of NYC ESB, and 1 coat SH Mega Shine.

Alrighty, then off to start planning my weekend.  I will be doing lots of housework and possibly a little remodel work so I really am hoping not to damage my nails, at all.  The mani won't survive, I'm sure but will definitely try to protect the hands.

In real life, this color looks more like the picture to the left.  This is an extremely old Sally Hansen called Funky Frost topped with Pure Ice Heartbreaker. 

I have have been trying to create the look of Empire State Blue since July but now I found it and yay for only 0.99 cents...

Have an awesemely well-polished weekend and talk to you soon. :)

VERDICT: MAC Bad Fairy (to ♥ or not to ♥)

Here's an update to my post from a few days ago on MAC Bad Fairy.  

Well, I'm keeping her!  My thumb nail chipped today so I decided to re-do both thumbs in OPI DS Perfection.  While they are similar, on me, they are no where near dupes.  I'm almost embarrased to walk out of the house with a mismatched mani.  However, unless someone is really checking out my hands they won't notice a thing. 

This Look: 3 coats of each Bad Fairy on fingers and DS Perfection on thumb.  The OPI is much pinker and lighter than the MAC.  BF definitely has much more depth and range of color on me.

So with that said, while it's not ♥, it's definitely a keeper...

Hope this helps someone out there stay well-polished!