Revlon Chic + Essie As Gold As It Gets

Today I've got for you a layering combo that is a little different, but I'm pretty pleased with how it looks. 2 coats of Revlon Chic, and 1 thin coat of Essie As Gold As It Gets. Chic has a perfect formula, nearly opaque in 1 coat, and very smooth.

I know people tend to layer As Gold As It Gets over darker colors so the gold stands out more, but I personally like it best over mid-toned colors, especially dusty ones like Chic.

No sunlight pics today, because the sun just washed out all the shimmer, so I figured they would be sort of pointless.

I need to dig through my stash for more murky cremes to layer this over. I've definitely got Revlon Guest List and SHCSM Greige Gardens in mind...maybe I'll also try it over a light grey...

What are your favorite bases for As Gold As It Gets?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Crowstoes Maxxed Out

Crowstoes Maxxed Out is from the CROWSmas collection, which as you might have guessed, was her first Christmas collection!

DISCLOSURE: Maxxed Out was sent to me by Crowstoes for my honest review.

Maxxed out is a super flashy mix of gold and silver glitter, with lots of holographic sparkle. I really love this. It's tied with A Christmas Crow for my favorite Crow! You'll see A Christmas Crow on Friday. I layered Maxxed Out over Essie Brooch the Subject. 1 coat over 3 coats of Brooch the Subject.

I treated Maxxed Out the same way I did Absolum- by thinning the bejeezus out of it and wiping off the brush before beginning my application. Aside from the slight traffic jam of gold glitter on my ring fingernail, application wasn't bad at all.

I'm really liking the look of metallic glitter over a nude. And I actually remembered to try it matte! Check it out. I used Essie Matte About You.

How awesome is that?

Maxxed Out looks awesome matte. And I have another combo to show you. Remember waaaay back in January when I posted my favorite bases for layering? Yeah, I'm bringing Dorien Grey back.

After the first go with Maxxed Out, I was able to spread out the glitter better, and application was great.

I like this combination, but the glitter is sort of hard to capture while the mani is glossy, soooo I decided to add Essie Matte About You again.

Dat glitter.

I think this is my favorite way to wear it. Interestingly enough, yes, there is bar glitter in here, and while I'm still not enamored with it, it didn't affect my love for this super flashy glitter!

DISCLOSURE: Maxxed Out was sent to me by Crowstoes for my honest review.

Have you tried Maxxed Out? I'd also like to try this over some different base colors, and I'm curious as to what you'd recommend!

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Crowstoes Celaeno

Man, I have really been spoiled. For the last three semesters, I've managed to get myself four-day weeks, and I always had either Thursday or Friday off. Now that my internship is in full swing, I'm back to five-day weeks, and I am tired. Hear that? It's the world's tiniest violin, and it's playing just for me.

Anyway, Celaeno! Disclosure: Celaeno was not sent for review- it is one that I won in a giveaway. Out of the eight Pleiades, I have three favorites, and this is one of them. Actually, you're going to see them all in a row. Celaeno is a bronzey-gold-green duochrome, and it is just lovely. I told you on Monday that I don't like layering with black, and luckily, Celaeno does not need a black base. Like Asterope, it is super duochrome-y alone, but unlike Asterope, it is perfect in 3 coats.

Celaeno is great. I had no trouble with application.

Crowstoes are sold at Llarowe and Shoppe Eclecticco, and Aussie customers can buy them at Femme Fatale Cosmetics. I believe they are also sold on Overall Beauty, but interestingly enough, when I tried to access the page to link in this post, my antivirus marked it as unsafe.

I'm not that well-versed in duochromes, so my knowledge of possible dupes is pretty much limited to Ozotics, Sally Hansen Nail Prisms, the HITS Mari Moon polishes, and a few Luduranas. Being a gold/bronze-y color, I feel like there's probably a dupe or something similar somewhere, but between those ranges, I can't think of anything. Of course, there are lots of vaguely similar colors, but none that I think are close enough to warrant a mention here.

Have you tried Celaeno? What do you think?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Revlon Gold Coin + Orly Halo

Yaaaaay, I am free! My cast was originally supposed to come off four weeks ago, but my wrist was definitely not healed enough at that point, so I got a new one. Watch out for those skateboarders, y'all. I still have a bit of trouble with my right knee. :|

Picking up where I left off, here's Orly Halo. It's an awesome, flashy metallic glitter from the Naughty or Nice Collection that was released last winter. When I tested this on a single nail, I realized it's sheer as hell, so I opted to layer it over a cool gold foil: Revlon Gold Coin. I know I said I wasn't going to buy Gold Coin, but I didn't! I discovered it in my mom's stash. Apparently we both have weaknesses for gold and copper. :'D

Luckily, Gold Coin is really freaking opaque, so I only needed to use one coat for a base. Here it is with 3 coats of Halo on top. I did use top coat, but Halo is surprisingly smooth on its own.

And in the sun:

Yay! Sparkly metallic glittery awesomeness. This is a pretty flashy manicure, and I got several compliments on it from people, which was nice. Let's take a closer look:

Ok, well, you can't really see that much because it's so busy...but it's comprised of small silver hexes mixed with tiny cool gold glitters, and flecks of Gold Coin peeking out through the glitter. I should also note that the wear on this mani was great. 5 days, still super blingy, no chips or tipwear.

As far as dupes go, I can't think of any that I would consider exact, but OPI Spark de Triomphe seems pretty close. I think it has a veeeeery slight greenish tinge, but the glitter composition seems similar. I actually bought Halo to kill my Spark de Triomphe lemming, and it's close enough to suit my purposes.

Have you tried Halo, or any of the other Holiday Orlys? What did you think?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

SHCSM Guilty Pleasure

SHCSM Guilty Pleasure is one of the core colors from the Complete Salon Manicure line. It's also one of the colors that started my polish addiction. It's more of a muted gold, and one of those colors I reach for when I'm trying to be a little less obnoxious with my manicures. 2 coats, with top coat.

See that fill line? Right above the word complete. I'm going to need a second bottle of this, very soon...I love it for pedicures too. I know many people have trouble with the CSM brush, but it works very well for me so I had no trouble with application. It isn't frosty either. In the sun:

Love. I don't think there's a particularly well-known gold polish quite like this. Most golds are brighter, flashier, and yellow-er. I think the new version of A-England Holy Grail is similar, but it's a foil, and has some greenish undertones. Guilty Pleasure is core though, so no worries!

Have you tried Guilty Pleasure, or a similar gold? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

China Glaze White Cap

China Glaze White Cap was released with the Anchors Away collection for Spring 2011. It consists of yellow-gold flecks in a sheer white base. It works well as a layering polish, especially over Sea Spray (from the same collection), but I wanted to try to replicate the look in the bottle. I started with 3 coats of OPI Ridge Filler, and used 3 coats of White Cap on top. In the shade:

In the sun:

Totally not my usual kind of look, but I dig it.

For some reason, when I started writing this post, I figured, "Oh, White Cap probably has tons of dupes out there." Except now I can't really think of any? CND Jade Sparkle has a very similar look, but is in a clear base, so it's more versatile. Aside from that...I got nothing.

Thoughts? Have you tried White Cap, or anything similar? Did you like it? What kinds of base colors would you pair with it?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great weekend!

Top 30 of 2012! (part 3)

I don't post a whole lot of layering combinations, but that's mostly because I don't get around to photographing them. Here are the colors that I've reached for the most. First up, the base colors.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Dorien Grey

A nice, simple, clean light grey creme. It's so versatile!

Ruby Kisses Regaled Out Blue

Dark blue goes with a lot of things, and I can't resist a nice jelly.

China Glaze VIII

An excellent basic eggplant creme. Smooth formula, dries quickly, completely solid in 2 coats.

Nails Inc. Kensington

Inky teal jelly, almost black. Works really well for water marbling, too!

New York Summer Hot Sky Blue

Another squishy blue jelly! This is great for jelly sandwiches, and also looks awesome under flakies.

And my favorite layering polishes:

Lynnderella Connect the Dots

Yep, it's on two of my lists. It's that good. With black and white glitter, there are so many layering possibilities!

Nails Inc. the Wyndham

This has the distinction of being my first flakie polish, and it remains my favorite. The green is so vivid, and there is a very evident blue shift.

Finger Paints Asylum

It has blue flakies!! I have been lusting after a flakie with just blue, but since I loathe Nfu Oh bottles and find Inglot to be too much of a hassle to get ahold of, this is as close as I will get for a while. It is lovely though.

Essie As Gold as it Gets

Sheer gold flecks. This is really delicate and pretty, especially over dusty, mid-toned colors.

Essie Shine of the Times

A basic orange-green flakie. It's very dense, so you don't need  much at all for a single manicure.

So, there you have it! My 30 favorites from last year. Thoughts? Do you like layering too, or do you find it troublesome?

Purple & Gold Half-Moons

I wound up wearing Orly Luxe for a few days, and thought I'd try a half-moon mani. I figured, eh, I was planning to take it off anyway, so if I royally screw this up, no big deal. It wound up being...not as bad as I expected! I used China Glaze VIII for the tips.

VIII is a super opaque eggplant creme. It's nearly opaque in one coat, but the formula makes it tricky. It's globby and runny and a tad bit streaky, so I definitely needed that second coat to even things out. It was released in Fall 2007 with the X collection (intended to celebrate China Glaze's tenth anniversary, if memory serves).

I do love purple and gold together, but my half-moons could use some work. I used reinforcement labels, but I had some difficulty getting them to stick to my nails properly. In certain spots, VIII leaked under the labels, and in other areas, it smeared as I tried to remove the labels. Well, practice makes perfect right?

Have you ever attempted a half-moon manicure? Or any other sort of nail art? How'd that go down?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Orly Luxe

Orly Luxe, like Shine, was released as part of the Foil FX collection. There is a third color in the collection, a rose gold foil called Rage, but I don't like rose gold at all, so I didn't bother with that one. This is 2 coats of Luxe, no top coat, in the shade.

I prefer Luxe to Shine because of the opacity. It does need 2 coats for full opacity, but if I'm in a rush I can get away with one coat. Here it is in the sunlight:

It's a nice gold; not too cool and not too warm, so it should be flattering to many different skin tones.

I don't feel that this polish is terribly unique, but can't really think of any dupes off the top of my head either. I think Revlon Gold Coin is similar, but not quite the same.

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!

OPI Smitten With Mittens

OPI Smitten With Mittens was released as part of the Holiday Wishes collection in 2009. It consists of big gold glass-flecks/foil-y flecks in a red jelly base. As a result, it usually looks like a red glass-fleck or glitter, but sometimes when the light hits it right, you can see bits of gold. It's lovely, and opaque in 2 coats despite the jelly base. I think the opacity of the base is the reason that the gold isn't too visible. 2 coats plus top coat.

It's definitely on the cool side of red, but close enough to neutral that I think warmer skintones like mine can pull it off. It's a bit bold for me, but I love it. The formula is great, and I have no complaints about the drying time.

I think Zoya might have a few reds sort of like this. Jade or Delilah, maybe? I think those are actual glitters, and red ones at that, so the finishes are definitely not the same. It also reminds me of OPI Ali's Big Break from the Burlesque collection, but I think that one has a brighter red base, and red/pink flecks rather than gold.

They might be worth looking into though, since Smitten With Mittens has been discontinued, and seems to go for around $20 on Ebay. That said, it's not all that hard to find. I've seen several bottles at several different CVS stores in my area.

Thanks for looking and commenting, and enjoy the rest of your week!

Sinful Colors Open Seas + Essie As Gold As It Gets

Sinful Colors Open Seas is a polish that I showed you back in December, but since my original photo isn't accurate and my nails were in pretty bad shape at the time, I figured I'd reswatch for this post. 3 thin coats, no top coat, artificial light.

The formula is thin but smooth, and it levels itself out nicely. I just can't seem to leave cremes alone though, so I decided to put a thin coat of Essie As Gold as it Gets on top.

I had my doubts about mint green and gold together, but I actually rather like the result. It's subtle, but really cool.

I know the Essie stands out more against dark colors, but I like it much better over lighter ones like this, or Essence What Do U Think.

Thanks for looking!

Chanel Peridot

Chanel Peridot was released as part of the Fall 2011 Illusions D'Ombres collection. There were two other polishes released along with it, Quartz and Graphite, but Quartz looks weird and frosty, and Graphite isn't all that interesting to me. Peridot, on the other hand, is AMAZING! I know a lot of people were disappointed with the lack of a clear blue color shift, but that doesn't bother me too much. In the bottle:

The blue is really clear along the edges of the bottle, but you can barely see it on the nail, and only at awkward angles.

You can kiiiiinda see it at the very edges there, but not too well. At an awkward angle:

It's slightly more visible at the edges there, but it's still not prominent at all. Peridot is gold, but it's a really yellow, almost green gold. At first, I declared it ugly and decided that it would turn my hands into lobster claws anyway, so why bother. A few weeks later, I saw it in person and changed my mind completely. This is my only Chanel, but I'm very very happy with it. I know brushstrokes are a pretty big concern, but they weren't an issue for me at all. They showed a little while wet, but it dried quickly and the brushstrokes disappeared almost completely, so now it just looks like metal. In direct sunlight:

Sunlight brings out the green in Peridot, and I usually hate light yellow-greens but this is just awesome. The formula is almost perfect. It took 3 coats, but that's the only flaw. Each coat applied smoothly and dried quickly. I didn't even have to clean up this manicure after painting! I wore it for four days, and got neither chipping nor tipwear. This is Top 20 material. Maybe even Top 10?

So yeah. Peridot is great. It's a shame Chanels are so expensive though. I think Ozotic Pro, Chemistry, Missha, and Peripera have dupes or near-dupes, and OPI has a dupe in their upcoming Spiderman collection, called Just Spotted the Lizard. Based on the promo pics, it looks like we've got a China Glaze dupe on our hands in their New Bohemian collection, but there aren't any swatches or official press releases yet.

Thanks for looking!

Zoya Faye

Faye is from Zoya's Sunshine collection, the sparkly counterpart to the Summertime collection. It consists of gold foil-y flecks of sparkle in a dark pink/mauve base. Sounds weird, but it's actually really pretty. It's also identical to OPI Rally Pretty Pink and nearly identical to Orly Ingenue (which is the tiniest bit more purple). Here it is under artificial light:

Here you can see the base color really clearly, but in the shade, the gold is really prominent, and Faye looks coppery with pinkish edges.

Here's the bad news: Faye is super sheer. I used four coats for these photos, and you can still see my nail line in person, though I'm not sure just how visible it is in these photos. It could definitely use a fifth coat, which is kind of disappointing since Zoya has shown us several times how good they are with these foil/jelly-type colors. Just look at Ivanka and Charla! Those have a very similar finish, but they're good in 3 coats, not 5.

Yep, there's that visible nail line. Boo. I do still prefer this one to OPI Rally Pretty Pink, just because I hate the Pro-Wide brush. The Zoya brush is also a little tricky for me, but nowhere near as bad as that ridiculous mop that OPI provides for us. Still a lovely color though!

Thanks for looking!

Sally Hansen Gem Crush - Showgirl Chic and Big Money

Looks like we've had a ton of full-coverage glitters lately, like the Wet n Wild Ice Baby and China Glaze Eye Candy collections. Sally Hansen's take on the trend is the Gem Crush collection. Personally, I didn't find them to be particularly interesting, and many of them are dupes or near-dupes to glitters that already have been released by other brands. Showgirl Chic and Big Money, however, caught my eye.

Showgirl Chic consists of superfine square silver glitter and small blue hex glitter, and is very very similar to China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara. However, the blue hexes in Lorelei's Tiara are more aqua, and Showgirl Chic has hexes that are closer to a true blue. I didn't realize how dense these glitters are, so I chose to layer 2 coats of Showgirl Chic over 2 coats of Orly Shine, a silver foil that I'll show you some other time.

I didn't use any top coat either. The texture and sparkle are really cool-looking without it, so I decided to go without for these photos.

So flashy. So obnoxious. So awesome.

And here is Big Money. Cool-toned superfine gold square glitter mixed with small lavender hexes. I chose to wear this one on its own. 2-3 coats for opacity, depending on how thickly you apply it.

Interestingly enough, Big Money really changes when you look at it in direct sunlight or shade. Direct sunlight turns the gold glitter into more of a beige or champagne color, and the lavender hexes look like a dusty light purple rather than lavender.

Shade, on the other hand, warms up the glitter quite a bit. The lavender hexes look lilac and are much lighter now.

And here's the obligatory closeup:

Good stuff. I don't plan on buying any of the other Gem Crush polishes, but I'm very happy with the two that I've got.

Thanks for looking!