Layla - Flash Black: Swatches and Review

LOOK AT THIS POLISH!

LOOK AT IT!

Layla Holo Effect - Flash Black

Holy rainbows, Batman! Isn't it incredible?! I can't get over it.  It's too perfect.  I've worn it three times in the last two weeks, which is a record for me!

Flash Black is an amazing charcoal linear holo.  It applies like butter in two easy coats over an aqua base coat such as Nfu-Oh Aqua Base or the Jessica Hologram Chic base (although I've heard it's a pain to apply without the aqua base).  It also doesn't dull with a topcoat!   In short, it's perfect, and I need a backup bottle.

*swoon*

And here's a shade (indirect sunlight) pic to show that it still has a holo effect even in lower lighting:

Layla Holo Effects can be purchased at Harlow & Co, as well as on Aveyou.  They run about $15-16, and there have been rumors that Ulta may carry them soon as well.

Gelish - Twinkle

This is my first ever Gelish manicure. Now I should start out by saying that I am NOT a professional nail tech (not licensed either). But since I bought a SensatioNail kit at Wal-Mart recently, I've been so excited to see which other products work with the mini LED lamp that it came with.

Now I've seen the Gelish Mini system at Sally's, so does this mean they are marketing it for DIY at home use? I have no idea, but their Mini selection is kinda limited so I went searching the internet for the more sparkly and unique Gelish polishes. This I bought from a seller on Amazon for about $12 (not bad considering the Mini's cost $12-13 each at Sally's).

Gelish - Twinkle

Let me tell you, I searched high and low for a good swatch that showed the true color of Twinkle (and Bronzed as well... I was deciding between the two) but hardly found one. I KNEW I wanted a gold glitter soak-off gel (we all know how I LOVE gold glitter!) and I figured it'd be reasonable to buy a full-size bottle.

OHMYGOOSES, I'm in love. This has that wonderful bronze-gold glitter that looks somewhat like Butter London West End Wonderland and Milani Gold Glitz (except this glitter is all one color, not a mix). As if that weren't awesome enough already it also has a tiny bit of IRIDESCENT GLITTER too! *GASP... SWOON* It's hard to portray just how captivated I am with this color, especially because I praise almost everything I put on my blog, but seriously, it's perfect. The only thing about it is that it takes four coats to look like this picture, and because of that it's a little bit thick.

So here's the deal.  I have no idea how this will wear or even how long I'll keep it on, but if it DOES chip or have problems, it's probably my own doing.  Again, I'm not a nail tech and as this is supposed to be used by a professional, I don't really think I can fault the Gelish itself if it doesn't last.  However, I will comment on the wear of it in the future just to give you an idea of how it lasts.

Here is what I used for this manicure:  SensatioNail clear base/top coat gel (1 coat), Gelish Twinkle (four coats), and Red Carpet Manicure Brilliance (top coat gel, 1 coat), each layer cured for 30 sec in the SensatioNail 3060 LED lamp.

I will be posting a review of the SensatioNail kit as a whole shortly, as well as giving away the starter kit and an extra shade for my next giveaway at 500 followers!

Pure Ice - Year of the Dragon Swatches and Review

I've been over the whole crackle thing for a long time now. In fact, I don't even know if I ever really liked it. I can only think of one time that I left crackle on my nails for more than a day. Somehow, this one blew me away! When I first got the press release email, I instantly loved it and hoped it was going to be awesome in reality. It is.

Here is the promo shot for the Year of the Dragon (ShowStopper - Crackle Duo Gold and Red) set by Pure Ice:

From the press release:

"In 2012, Chinese New Year Day will be celebrated on January 23. The New Year festival will start from January 22 (Chinese New Year' Eve) and end on February 6 (Lantern Festival). 2012 marks the 4710th Chinese New Year, and this time it is the Year of Dragon according to the Chinese zodiac calendar.

The Dragon is the 5th sign of the Chinese zodiac and it is regarded as an auspicious symbol which stands for power, good luck, success, and happiness.

Since ancient times, the Chinese New Year was considered as the time to honor ancestors and heavenly deities. In addition, it was the time to organize family gatherings and grand feasts.

There is a legend associated with the celebration of New Year in China. There was a monster named Nian who used to harass the villagers by eating their crops, cattle and taking away their kids. The villagers had no other option but to place food at the entrance to their homes so that the monster would eat it and go away without harming them.

One day, the villagers realized that the monster was scared of red color. So, they adorned their doors and windows with red paper cutouts and spring scrolls. The villagers also burst crackers to frighten the monster. Since then, Nian never came again to the village. Hongjun Laozu, a Taoist monk, was the one who captured the beast later on. Since then, the Chinese have been celebrating the capture of Nian on their New Year's Day."

Here is the gold from the set by itself:

Pure Ice - Gold

It doesn't have a proper name that I can find, but man this gold is pretty! Some may not like it as much because it's a very bright orange-yellow and it may not suit all skin tones as well. It took two coats and was quite easy to apply. This color makes me think of cooking with curry, and the bright yellow color that it turns when mixed in with oil. Now I'm hungry...

But it looks even better with the red crackle over top!

Pure Ice - Gold and Red Crackle

This just FEELS like the Chinese New Year to me. It makes me want to be wandering around Chinatown in San Francisco, observing all the colors and festivities. It's very vibrant and the metallic gold shows through the red just a bit to give it a lot of depth.

This red crackle works just like most of the others, but the result you see was just from a quick, simple application - no special thicknesses or stroke directions. I considered "waving" the brush around to get a more random crackle look, but I thought the normal vertical cracks would be perfect for the Chinese New Year look. So I would say it applies nicely and cracks pretty well.

I decided to try it with a matte top coat (Essie Matte About You):

Pure Ice - Gold and Crackle (with Essie Matte About You)

Very nice, too, though I was so in love with the shiny version that I'm just not as impressed with this. It still feels very "Chinatown" to me, and has an awesome effect.

Honestly, I can't believe how much this wowed me. I didn't think I'd find a single crackle combination I actually LIKED, much less LOVED. If all the other crackle polishes in the world disappeared, this is the one combination I'd want to keep.

This set is available on the Bari Cosmetics site as well as at Wal-Mart and Walgreens. I'm not sure on the retail price, but Pure Ice usually runs under $2 each, so I'm sure this one is reasonable as well!

Happy New Year of the Dragon!

(This item was sent to me for review.)

Butter London Tart with a Heart (layered)

First of all, I should give credit where credit is due: I didn't come up with this layering combo. The original creator of this masterpiece is Scrangie. In fact, if not for her post about these two polishes, I would never have bought or wanted Tart with a Heart at all.

If you remember, I had no interest in this set at all because I immediately deemed Black Knight "easily franken-duped." So I did just that, I frankened what I believe is a pretty close dupe (you can see it here on its own). But once I saw Scrangie's post where she layered the two, I just HAD to have Tart.

Check out the EPIC layered combo of Mid Knight (Black Knight dupe) with one coat of Tart with a Heart!

Mid Knight and Butter London Tart with a Heart

Incidentally, I had just a plain glossy black polish (China Glaze Liquid Leather) on for a couple days and it was showing major shrinkage from the China Glaze Fast Forward top coat, so I figured I'd quickly swatch this combo over it so I could put it up on the blog. Well, this is yet another example where I decided to go ahead and put it on every other finger and actually WEAR it for a couple days. Seriously, this combo is so awesome. Even though it made me spend $15 for Tart (on ebay), I love Scrangie for posting it. In my mind, it's worth every penny.

Incoco 24 Karats Swatch and Wear Test

Well, I'm in Loreto, Mexico right now and will be for nine days, so I figured instead of taking nail polish stuff with me, I'd try and do a wear test of the Incoco strips. I had this very same color, 24 Karats, on for a whole week before and they looked nearly perfect even when I took them off. Normally I'm too anxious to change my polish so I'm never able to do long wear tests, so I figured this vacation might give me a perfect reason to try out Incoco again.

Incoco - 24 Karats

When I first ordered a set of the 24 Karats strips I was disappointed because I thought the color was dull and plain, but once I put them on I realized it is the definition of a perfect gold glitter for me. I love these better than Milani Gold Glitz AND Butter London West End Wonderland, and that's saying something! Needless to say, I actually don't think I'll mind having these on for ten days straight. I've also gotten much more skilled at applying these after doing it a few times (with both Incoco and the Sally Hansen Salon Effects), and these were very quick and easy to apply. I got it right up against the cuticle and there are no bare spots around the edges at all. They look perfect, if I do say so myself.

Missha HGR01 (with Chanel Peridot comparison)

Remember how much I fell in love with Peridot? It's the only polish in my collection that I've worn three times within a couple months, and I noticed I've already used a noticeable amount. Well, instead of buying a backup bottle (too expensive!) I decided I'd try out this polish that's supposed to be very similar to Peridot: Missha HGR01 (I found it on ebay, and it's not too terribly expensive). I am SO happy I did! Check this out!

Missha HGR01

This has the same duochrome metallic finish that Peridot does - so shiny and pretty! Like Peridot, it shows some brushstrokes while it's wet but they disappear as the polish dries.  The color spectrum on this one seems to "begin" where Peridot "ends." The greenish teal that you see at the extreme angles on Peridot is very similar to how HGR01 looks straight on. Then HGR01 turns to a bright cyan blue and even royal blue at the extremes. If mermaids wore nail polish (I only assume they don't because it'd be hard to paint your nails underwater... heehee), I think they would DEFINITELY wear this color. This feels like a "mermaid in a bottle." Oh, and also it smells like roses (very nice).

Because of it's similarity to Peridot, I wanted to show the two next to each other. I love both of these so much, though the gold in the Peridot really suits my skin tone more.

Missha HGR01 (middle and pinky) and Chanel Peridot (pointer and ring)

See how the green on Peridot (pointer) kinda of matches the green of the Missha (pinky). So cool! Love it!

Chanel Peridot Swatches and Review

So I was all ready yesterday to swatch the Zoya Sunshine collection and declare my love for Zoya (and I still will soon).  But that was all before I ran into Scrangie's post about Chanel Peridot.  I had seen promo pics for it and figured "eh, it's not going to be as awesome they make it look."  But whoa, Scrangie's pics proved otherwise.  So I contemplated for awhile about whether I REALLY wanted to spend $25 on a single nail polish, but within the hour I had it ordered on Nordstrom.com with the in-store pickup option.  My other half ("Chief" we will call him) works down by the mall and he was awesome enough to offer to pick it up for me on his way home (awww).

So now I have it!  And it's amazing!  Let me show you...
 

 Chanel - Peridot

First off, I happen to have a puzzle ring with a peridot on it, so I wanted to see how the polish compares with the real thing.  If only the stone had the same color range that the polish does...  Still beautiful together!

(I sell puzzle rings at the Arizona Renaissance Festival, and if you have a faire near you my company may sell them there!  Norman Greene does amazing custom work which you can see at www.renaissancerings.com. Yes, they really do disassemble!)

Now to show you the amazing duochrome!  While it's not a very strong color change, it is a very beautiful one.  With light at a direct angle, it looks very gold (almost amber in places), but as the angle gets higher (with straight on being 0 degrees), the color shifts into leaf green, teal, and blue at the most extreme angle.

Coincidentally, peridot is Chief's birthstone, and he never liked it cause he thought it looked "booger green."  Well, if this is booger green, then I'm head over heels in love with snot.  Like Scrangie stated, when I first put it on I didn't like it, but as it dried, it started to "even out" and the streaks disappeared and the duochrome strengthened.  It DOES look nearly opaque in one coat, but I found that the more coats I did, the deeper it looked.  For these pictures I did three THIN coats.  The key that I found was to do nice thin coats with as few strokes as possible to minimize the streaks.  Don't take too much care on the first couple coats, but make sure to do a nice, thin, quick final coat.

Another note...  I can see why Scrangie was fascinated with it while typing - these are the moments where you see the blue/teal at the extreme angles, and it is quite mesmerizing  :o)

Do you like Chanel Peridot as much as I do?  Do you think it's worth the $25 retail price, or will you pass this one up?

Barielle Misbehaving Mistress

Today I have for you some pictures of Barielle Misbehaving Mistress. This has to be one of the most awesome colors I own. In some lights it looks just like beautiful dark pearls, while in other lights it looks more brown, and other times is looks more like a dark metallic charcoal. No matter what, it's AMAZING. Check it out!

Barielle Misbehaving Mistress

You can see in the second picture that it shows brushstrokes just a tid bit, but really, it's only SLIGHTLY noticable in certain types of lighting (like direct sun). Otherwise it just looks mostly like a smooth pearly or metallic finish. Such a unique color, and I own nothing even remotely close to either the base color or the finish of this polish, not to mention that it's very flattering on as well! I think this has definitely made it into my collection of absolute favorites!