Vault 106: L'Oreal Pink Shells

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L'Oreal Pink Shells, two coats. Nice, glowy fuchsia jelly with hot pink glass fleck. These pics are from last summer, so I don't remember much about application or wear, but I do remember that it bubbled on me. I don't have many L'Oreal polishes, because they don't seem very exciting or unique, including this one. I'm a sucker for glass flecks and glowy polishes, though, and I must've gotten a really good deal on it, otherwise I probably would've skipped it.

Essie French Affair Glitterfied

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Essie French Affair, two coats with topcoat. Sweet and girly clear pastel pink that looks pretty good on me. It's a nice palate cleanser for anyone who usually wears much more outrageous colors.

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I added one coat of butter LONDON Tart With A Heart after a day, because everything is better with glitter! Especially this glitter. Nom. That is all.

Vault 106: Zoya Faye + comp

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The glorious Zoya Faye! This is a beautiful mauvey-pink with that lovely golden glass fleck that the whole Zoya Sunshine collection contains. I didn't take notes,  but I think this might be 2 coats, and definitely no more than three. So sparkly!

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The gold sparkle really comes to the forefront in indirect lighting.

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When I first saw Faye, I thought it looked a bit  familiar.

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If you ignore the copious gold glass fleck in Faye for a moment, you can see that it shares a base with Zoya Pru. Pru is also gorgeous, and has some sparkle, but not in-your-face like Faye. So, if you find Faye's finish overwhelming, go with Pru. If you can't live without bling, get Faye. But you probably don't NEED both. Hope this helps!

Vault 106: Pink Marble Flowers

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Best water marble I've ever done, before or since! And I blame Colette over at My Simple Little Pleasures. When you click the link, you'll see I totally ripped off her design (right down to 3 of her 5 color choices), but you'll also see a tutorial on how to do it yourself.  For my rendition, I used (in order from dark to light): Savvy Red Caviar, OPI Let Me Entertain You, China Glaze 108 Degrees, China Glaze Strawberry Fields and Savvy Fairy Twinkle.

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I really loved her matte version, too, so I copied again after a few days' wear. One difference that makes it my own is that I slapped on a coat of sparkly stuff ($OPI Wild About Shimmer) before the mattifying stage. The sparklies looked better in person, I think. I wore this mani for a whole week, and it was a wrench to finally take it off! Now that I've pulled it out of the vault, I will definitely have to do it again - maybe purples this time.

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I also used a different base under the marbling: Essence Hang Loose, probably 2 coats, but I'm not positive. Gorgeous color, and I'm a bit mad at myself for frankening most of it, as it was limited edition. Anyone know any dupes?
Incidentally, you must follow My Simple Little Pleasures, if you don't already! This is just one of MANY fabulous nail art designs, and she specializes in water marbling and video tutorials. Besides, Colette lives in my area, and I always support the local chicks. Hi, Colette! 

China Glaze Dance Baby

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China Glaze Dance Baby, 2 coats. Cheerful bubblegum pink, with just enough blue to keep it cool. I love pinks that have a touch of blue, making them a bit different from your standard Barbie pink. Formula is China Glaze's usual for crèmes: thick but not too thick, relatively well-behaved and very opaque. Appears to work well for stamping, on paper over both dark blue and plain white.

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And my favorite, the glitter option. This is Dance Baby with one coat of Jordana Fairy Dust. Love that bling!

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The comps, two coats each. As you can see, Dance Baby is lighter with more blue than Bubblegum Pink. It's also lighter, but less purple than Splash of Grenadine. French Affair is a true pastel pink, showing that Dance Baby is much brighter.

Disclosure: China Glaze Dance Baby was provided for review. All other polishes in this post were purchased by me.

Vault 106: Last Valentine's Day Mani

I was going through my photos (I have too many just waiting for editing and posting), and found last year's Valentine's Day mani. I broke out the fake nails, because my real ones were horrible stubs, and I wanted something GLAM for a change. First, the finished product:

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What you see here is 2 coats of China Glaze Sugar High, topped with one coat of LA Splash Be Mine, stamped in white with the rose from BM14, and OPI Black Shatter diagonally across the tips. (Remember those days when crackle only came in black? And only OPI? Yeah, WAY back then! XD)

These are the Broadway nails I used. They were on super-ultra clearance at Ulta last year, so I doubt you could still get the exact same ones. I'm still a n00b with press-ons, only using them maybe 2-3 times a year since my nail fetish started a few years ago. These came out pretty well, and lasted much longer than I expected (about a week, I think).

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Here is just the China Glaze and LA Splash layering, pre-art and pre-chopped. I had planned on cutting/filing them down immediately, but Hubby liked them this long, so I painted and wore them for a day. Hey, it WAS Valentine's Day, after all! LOL
Anyway, I really loved the hearts, even if I only got a couple, but the sparkle was definitely the main attraction. It may not look it from my photos, but the bling factor was out of this world! And it actually flashed green as much as gold. If you passed on this LA Splash collection last year, but now NEED this polish (everyone does!), they're still available at Cherry Culture.

China Glaze Classics

It's about time I did a bit more swatching, isn't it? And I have the perfect opportunity, thanks to China Glaze!

Recently, China Glaze was kind enough to send me these three polishes for review.

China Glaze Exceptionally Gifted. Classic pink pearl. 3 coats, no topcoat. This is the perfect classic, bubblegum pink - the exact shade of Hubba Bubba, IIRC. It's very cute, feminine and delicate, for girly-girls. ☺ It has the standard pearl brushstrokes, though, and is a little too sheer for my preference. All pictures are color-accurate, depending on the light you're in, so there's some depth and character to this polish. Pretty!

China Glaze Conga To My Cabana. 3 coats, no topcoat. Bright coral shimmer. This one surprised me - in the bottle, it's kinda blah (to me), but on - it's gorgeous! The color is deep and saturated, bordering on neon. I can't wait to wear this on my toes this summer. I would call it a candy guava color. Again, it's a little too sheer, but it lacks the pearly brushstrokes of EG, thankfully.

China Glaze Outta Bounds. 2 coats, no topcoat. Emerald green shimmer. This is a kissing-cousin to teal. It is definitely on the blue side, and more cool-toned than most greens. It's a great color, and won't ever look swampy like so many yellow-based greens can. It reminds me of a blue spruce or pine color, but richer.
What stood out for me on all three is how glossy they are - I had trouble photographing them, with all the glare. Wow! Opacity was only good on OB, though. The other two, even at three coats showed no sign of being opaque - so nude base color, here I come! No application issues, they all applied nicely. Not too thick or thin, just right. I just wish for wider brushes, as usual.
Bottom line: Would I have picked these out for myself? Probably not - they just didn't stand out to me. (After all, they're not holo, duochrome or flakies! LOL.) Am I glad I own them now? Definitely - they're all solid, beautiful colors that everyone should have represented in their stash, with great application besides. I'm very happy with them.

*Disclosure: This polish was sent to me by China Glaze for review purposes.

Moody

I know these are being swatched all over the blogosphere right now, but they're so amazing! So, I might as well throw in my oar and post the one that I got. So much for being unique and different. Oh, well - at least I can be trendy!
So, on to pictures:

Claire's Mood Wild/Calm. 2 coats with top coat. This is some of the coolest polish ever! It is a gorgeous purple with silver shimmer, that changes to pink when it gets warm. WOW. The effect is very strong and instantaneous. In fact, it was a little tough (and surreal) putting this on, because it would change as I was applying. Especially the second coat, which was purple going over pink, changing to pink as I went. 

This shows how quickly and easily this stuff works: I just covered the tip with my thumb for about 30 seconds, and it went completely pink.

Sorry these two are a bit blurry, but they're action shots! LOL. The first one is after running cold water, and the second after hot water. As you can see, they were already starting to change before I could get the shots. Yep, that's some water droplets on the first one; gives it more of that action feel, right? 

Most of the time, this is what it looks like. My husband will tell you that right around bedtime, my whole nail is dark purple. Just about the time I roll over and put my cold little paws on his nice warm chest.
Thanks for reading!

Hot (Pink!) Mess

I don't wear pinks very often, but last week my Mom requested pink for Valentine's Day. Well, Mom, here's the pink I chose:

OPI La Paz-itively Hot - Matte. Hot pink satin. Very cool! I like the matte finish of this one, it really adds a level of interest. What I didn't like was the FOUR coats, and there is still VNL! I wasn't expecting it to be so sheer, so I didn't use an opaque base coat - but next time I definitely will. Application was a bit difficult, too. I would consider this to be an advanced polish - fellow n00bs beware! It is truly a three-stroke ONLY polish, if you try to go back over a spot, you will get globs, drag AND brushstrokes. When I have improved polishing skills, this one will get way more use. (Oops, yes, that is a giant dog hair across my ring finger! How in heck did I not notice that?!?! And, egads, please to disregard the dry cuticles. kthx)
I wore it matte for a day, but the next day I noticed the usual tired matte thing happening, so I put a sparkly topcoat on:

Revlon Grapefruit Glimmer. I love this polish! It's very sheer, and I think the Glimmer Glosses are all intended for layering. This one has pink glass flecks in a pink grapefruit colored base. I think these have been discontinued, because I found this at Big Lots, in a two-pack with another Revlon. (If any of my family reads this, and happens to see some other colors at their Big Lots, feel free to pick some more up for me, okay? I'll pay you back. LOL ☺)
For what it's worth, I don't see a need for the new $5.50/bottle CND effects polishes when I can get awesome topcoats like this for $1!
Sorry for the craptastic pics today, I didn't take the time to clean up the gloss, because I had a limited sun window to take these. Even with sun, the pics still don't show the full awesomeness of the gloss. I think I should use it over a contrasting color next time, maybe blue or black, to really showcase it properly.
So, Mom, what do you think?
Thanks for reading!