Orly Mash-Up Collection

Hey y'all! I am not 100% back yet, that should hopefully be happening in a week or 2 turns out I will need a cast until May at the earliest, but in the meantime I wanted to let you know about a new collection I spotted at the nail supply today. I have heard absolutely nothing about this collection, but a cursory Google search led me to some press releases from March, and that's about it. The colors are as follows:

Sparkling Garbage: light green scattered holo
Harmonious Mess: a very light, blue-toned lavender creme
Choreographed Chaos: a bright, Barbie-esque neon pink with subtle cool-toned pink shimmer (did not photograph accurately, since it is neon)
Mayhem Mentality: neon orange, no shimmer (also did not photograph accurately, damn neons)
Beautiful Disaster: warm purple shimmer, zzzzzZZZZzzzz
Pretty-Ugly: IMO the prettiest one of the collection, a light aqua with icy blue shimmer

I didn't buy any of them because they're not really my thing, but I did attempt to take some bottle shots on the sly.

L,R: Sparkling Garbage, Harmonious Mess

L,R: Choreographed Chaos, Mayhem Mentality

L,R: Beautiful Disaster, Pretty-Ugly

I took some closer-up pictures of Sparkling Garbage, since that's by far the most unique color. Sorry they are weird and blurry, LOL. For some reason it didn't occur to me to put down the Essie bottle I was holding before attempting to photograph the Orly. And I was also thinking, "AHHH HURRY UP DON'T GET YOURSELF YELLED AT ASDFGHJHGFDS" ....yeah.

The rainbow was definitely stronger IRL. It's an interesting effect. Sparkling Garbage is a pretty silly name though.

What do you think? Anything you might be interested in?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and thank you so much for sticking with me even though I haven't posted in a long time!

Taking a Short Break

*gasp* Posting on a weekend? I know.

Unfortunately, I had a bit of a mishap yesterday that resulted in a fractured left wrist and some sort of damage to that elbow (possibly fractured, not sure yet). I do keep a backlog of stuff to post from, but it's not enough to fill the gap until my cast comes off, so I'm just going to put my blog on hold for now. See you later, and thanks so much for reading and following! I hope my swatches have been helpful.

OPI Don't Touch My Tutu + Le Metier de Beaute Moon's Glow

Whoa, long title. As soon as I put on OPI Don't Touch My Tutu, my mom walked in, saw my manicure, and excitedly declared that it would be a perfect base for one of her recent acquisitions: Le Metier de Beaute Moon's Glow. Turns out they actually sell decently-sized  bottles of polish now. Anyway, I think she was right! I used one thin coat of Moon's Glow over 3 coats of Don't Touch My Tutu, which was in turn layered over 2 coats of Essie Fill the Gap.

*gasp* A frost. I know. It's so not my style. And yet, I kinda like it? It's a nice change, if nothing else. 

It kind of reminds me of those satin-y pillowcases. Or pearls. Or fairy princess nails, as my buddy Dana phrased it.

Depressingly enough, I think the Le Metier de Beaute brush is probably my new favorite. Y AN EXPENSIVE TASTE? Womp womp. It's so good though. Sort of like the OPI Pro-Wide, but a bit shorter and slimmer, so application is much much easier.

As for dupes, CND Gold Shimmer is the closest color I can think of, but the CND is a lot less frosty, and of course, cheaper, so you will probably prefer that. 

I was actually eyeing another Le Metier polish somewhat recently: Dream Maker. It's this crazy vivid blurple. Really glossy creme, and so cool. But I wimped out, and I also figured it would be a huge pain in the ass to photograph. If you like purple/blurple/indigo/whatever you want to call it, you need to check it out.

What do you think? Have you ever found a frost you actually kinda liked (and are willing to admit it)? Have you tried any Le Metier de Beaute polishes?

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

OPI Don't Touch My Tutu

OPI Don't Touch My Tutu is from the NYC Ballet collection, OPI's Soft Shade offering for 2012. Despite being comprised almost entirely of sheers, the Ballets were quite popular amongst nail addicts. The one non-sheer polish was a lovely silver and white glitter called Pirouette My Whistle, which for some reason I've still not been able to find! The vast majority of those sheers aren't my cup of tea, but I've been lusting after a nice white jelly, so I decided to try this.

And I don't know about you all, but my nails are crazy stained. I mean, I have this ~gorgeous~ yellow gradient thing goin' on at my tips, so I figured I couldn't pull off a sheer. WRONG. Check this out.

So fresh, so clean. And I gotta tell y'all, the formula on this was perfect. Zero cleanup, effortless application. I used 3 coats of Don't Touch My Tutu over 2 coats of Essie Fill the Gap. No top coat on in these photos because I layered over it, and you will be seeing the result on Friday. Here it is in the sun:

You can see some of the weirdness in my nails when there's direct sunlight on 'em, but luckily that is not the usual lighting condition.

Being a white jelly, Don't Touch My Tutu has tons of possible alternatives out there. OPI Funny Bunny is one, but based off of swatches that seems like a more stark white. Definitely more opaque, too. Essie Marshmallow and Essie Waltz are also pretty standard white jellies, but I've heard that Marshmallow has a nightmarish formula. 

I kind of want another one of these sheers now. You Callin' Me A Lyre, probably. The beige one looks too close to the white, and I would probably look dead in the lilac and grey ones, sadly...

Have you tried any of the OPI Ballets? What did you think?

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

Contrary Polish Anna Maria

Good morning! Today I'll be showing you my one of my favorite Contrary Polishes, Anna Maria. It was released in Fall 2012 with the Islands trio. The other two colors in the trio are Aruba and Santorini, which are a lighter bluish teal with green shimmer, and a bold royal blue with white shimmer. They're lovely, and definitely on my wish list, but in my opinion, Anna Maria is the standout.

Anna Maria is a gorgeous, slightly murky teal jelly with gold/yellow shimmer. Because it's a jelly, it needs 3 coats for opacity, but the formula is excellent. 3 coats, plus top coat, in the shade:

It's such a cool color! And so unique. The shimmer has a lovely texture. In the sun:

Come on, you gotta admit, this is pretty awesome. I can't think of any dupes for it.

Revlon Urban + Heavenly

Happy Friday!!! Today I have 2 fabulous polishes from Revlon to show you. Both Urban and Heavenly are from the Bubblegum Days/Urban Nights collection that was recently released by Revlon. I believe the colors are all still available in stores. By far, the most popular color from that collection seems to be Girly, a milky glitter that seems vaguely reminiscent of HARE Rad Cloud and Magic Mist, but to be blunt....I don't like it. It looks kind of messy and chaotic to me. I did pick up a third color from this collection, Eclectic, and you will hopefully be seeing that in a few weeks. Spoiler alert: it sucked. A lot.

Urban and Heavenly, however, do not suck! At all. Let's start with Urban. Urban is a lovely navy creme with purple-ish undertones, which is a nice contrast to the green-tinged dark blues I've been seeing lately. It's solid in 2 coats, not streaky, and dries nice and glossy on its own. In the shade:

Sorry about the dry hands. I did moisturize before taking these photos, I promise, but it's not doing me much good right now. Silly winter weather, making things difficult. In the sun:

Isn't it awesome? So rich and glossy. I didn't use top coat before taking these pictures, by the way. To this manicure, I added one coat of Revlon Heavenly.

Since Urban is dark, the glitter in Heavenly really pops over that base. And I think it's a fun change to layer iridescents over dark blue instead of black. I get bored of layering over black...

Heavenly suspends the glitter in a slightly milky base, but it doesn't interfere with the layering at all. I do think the glitter mix seems...unbalanced, somehow? But it's a fun combination.

Dat color shift. And, as you know by now, I love squares....I also love green-blue iridescent glitter...not quite as much as blue-purple, but it is still awesome.

Now, Heavenly is the latest in Revlon's series of high-end dupes and approximations, and this is apparently a dead-on dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Stairway to Heaven. Based on swatches, Urban looks similar to China Glaze Calypso Blue, but because swatches of the latter vary so much, it's hard to tell. I've never seen Calypso Blue in person though, since it was released before I became a polish addict, so take it with a gigantic grain of salt.

Have you tried any of the Bubblegum Days/Urban Nights polishes? What did you think?

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

Contrary Polish Firebrand

Contrary Polish Firebrand is one of the original six shades. According to Carrie, Firebrand is one of her top sellers, and I completely understand why! It seems like a pretty boring red, but it's really lovely.

I've told you countless times of my love for vampy reds, and this one is a shimmery jelly to boot! So pretty. I did use 4 super-thin coats, but they dried quickly, and zero bubbling. Bonus: it cleans up nicely! Most reds and vamps tend to spread their reddish pigment around when you try to clean up, so your skin looks angry and inflamed, but this is not an issue with Firebrand.

It has some berryish tones that keep it from being a plain dark red. This is such a flattering, classic color. Since it's a berryish red, I'm sure there's a dupe or something close out there, but I'm quite pleased with this one.

Have you tried Firebrand? What do you think?

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