OPI I Have a Herring Problem

Between China Glaze, Essie, OPI, and Zoya, we've seen a TON of spring collections, but I can't say many of them have piqued my interest. At all. I usually love spring collections, but out of all of them, I wound up with exactly two colors: Essie Ole Caliente (which I'll show you in a few days) and OPI I Have a Herring Problem. I love both! Herring Problem was a bit of an impulse buy, but I am happy with it. In the shade:

It's a dusty, warm blue with flecks of gold shimmer. I love blues, the dustier the better, and this one is no exception. Here it is under artificial light:

Loooove that shimmer. The  problem is, Herring Problem is a lot more sheer than I was expecting. This took four coats. Most of the swatches and reviews that I read depicted Herring Problem as a much greener color that would be opaque in 2-3 coats, and that is completely different from what I saw and experienced. I still really like it, I just thought what I saw online was inaccurate.

It pretty much looks like this all the time, but a bit warmer. Despite the differences between expectations and reality, Herring Problem really is great, and despite its sheerness, the formula was wonderful and needed minimal cleanup. Plus, look at the shimmer!

Thanks for looking!

China Glaze Sea Spray

Sea Spray was released with the Anchors Away collection, China Glaze's Spring 2011 offering. At the time, I was not too adventurous with my polish choices, and was pretty sure that this type of blue-grey, or any type of grey for that matter, would look terrible on my skintone. I was, however, totally smitten with Sea Spray, and wound up getting it anyway. I don't regret it at all! I love it, despite the slightly odd formula. 2 coats, no top coat, artificial light.

Sea Spray looks surprisingly bright and aqua-toned on me. Based on the swatches I looked at before buying, I was expecting something a lot more grey, but this was a pleasant surprise. It does actually look this blue against my skin, but with a touch less green in most lighting situations.

Now, about that shimmer. It's pretty visible in that first photo, but I've owned this polish for over a year, and have worn it many many times, and this is the first time I am actually seeing the shimmer in person. To me, that's not a bad thing, since I love cremes, but if you're expecting silver shimmer, you will probably be disappointed unless you constantly hold your hands up to a light.

Here it is in the shade:

This photo makes it look a little dustier than it actually is, but it's mostly accurate. Sea Spray takes 2 coats for opacity, which is great, but the formula is simultaneously thick and runny so you have to be careful while applying. I've heard that it is prone to patching and bald spots, but I have not had any issues with that.

Thanks for looking!

Essence Irreplaceable

Essence Irreplaceable is from the 99-cent Colour & Go line, which I've only seen at Ulta, but I've heard that they're also available at a store called Fred Meyer that doesn't exist where I live. They're marketed as fast-dry polishes, and I can attest to that, which is good because Irreplaceable took 4 coats to become opaque. Four. For a jelly or holo I'm usually okay with four coats, but a simple shimmer? That's too much, in my opinion, especially since the Colour & Go polishes are in mini bottles to begin with. As a result, 2 full manicures with Irreplaceable have used up a little over 1/3 of the bottle. At least it's only 99 cents, right? And Irreplaceable is actually a really pretty color. Take a look:

It's a sandy, beige-ish nude with tons of flecks of gold shimmer.

Yeah, my skin is definitely too warm for this, but look at that shimmer!

Since 1/3 of my bottle is already gone, I can probably just franken with it. I bet the gold shimmer would look great in a green base! If I remember to do it, you'll hopefully see it this Friday.

Thanks for looking!

Green Spam for St. Patrick's Day!

China Glaze L8R G8R - 3 coats, no base coat

Chanel Peridot - 3 coats, no top coat

China Glaze Glittering Garland

Color Club Snakeskin - 2 coats, no top coat

Don't Mess With OPI - 2 coats, no top coat

Illamasqua Rampage - 3 coats, no top coat

Illamasqua Rampage + Pure Ice Heartbreaker, 1 coat

Illamasqua Rampage + Pure Ice Heartbreaker + Nails Inc. the Wyndham, 1 coat

Illamasqua Rampage + Pure Ice Heartbreaker + Nails Inc. the Wyndham + Essie Matte About You

Hard Candy Envy, 2 coats, no top coat

Green Holo Franken, 2 coats, no top coat

Green Franken, 4 coats

Sinful Colors Mint Apple, 3 coats, no top coat

Ulta Tip the Scales, 3 coats, no top coat

Essie Pretty Edgy, 3 coats, no top coat

Thanks for looking, and I hope you had a great St. Patrick's Day!

Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers

Here's another one from my Top 20 post that I did at the end of December. Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers is comprised of small red hex glitter and big red glitter suspended in a black jelly base. In order to conserve the glitter polish, I layered 2 coats of Ruby Red Slippers over 1 coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black. Since it's a glitter polish, Ruby Red Slippers did dry with some texture, but it wasn't too bad. Here it is without any Gelous or top coat:

Still pretty shiny, despite the texture. Of course, it's even better with 2 coats of Gelous to smooth it out.

The glitter is a pretty interesting color. I figured it was a neutral red, but whenever it catches the light, the glitter turns this bright, fiery orange-red.

Man, I love this color. I know there are dupes out there, but this one was a present, so I like this one best.

Thanks for looking!

Claire's Poison Apple

Poison Apple is part of Claire's 3-piece collection meant to dupe MAC's Venomous Villains collection from Fall 2010. Poison Apple is similar to MAC Bad Fairy, Venomous is similar to MAC Mean & Green, and Evil Queen is similar to MAC Formidable. None of them are dupes, but they're close. Bad Fairy was the one I wanted the most, and Poison Apple is the closest approximation that I've found. It's so pretty, but SO sheer. 5 coats under artificial light:

Poison Apple is actually a duochrome, but the coppery shift doesn't show up unless you're in the shade.

A closer look, so you can see the texture of the shimmer:

Despite the ridiculous number of coats required, I like Poison Apple a lot, and so long as you wait between coats, bubbling isn't an issue.

Thanks for looking!