Older Random Swatches!

Hi all!

I figured I'd show some of my older nail swatches. They aren't the best and my clean-up back then was lacking in some ways, but I figured why not. We all start from somewhere!

Butter London Fash Pack- 2 coats/OPI Rapidry Top Coat

Butter London Fash Pack- 2 coats/OPI Rapidry Top Coat

Finger Paints- Itsy Bitsy Spider- 3 coats/OPI Rapidry Top Coat

Finger Paints- Late Night Rendezvous- 2 coats/OPI Rapidry Top Coat

Finger Paints- Late Night Rendezvous- 2 coats/OPI Rapidry Top Coat With Flash

Pure Ice- Grunge- 2 coats/No Top Coat

Pure Ice- Grunge- 2 coats/No Top Coat

Notes:
- With Butter London Fash Pack, the bottle has noticeable golden shimmer. The shimmer doesn't translate well onto the nail and it's barely noticeable.
- Finger Paints Itsy Bitsy Spider has a blue/violet to pink shimmer, depending on the light. I had a hard time photographing the pink shimmer, but it is noticeable in person.
- Pure Ice Grunge was part of the Velour collection last winter. I believe this was limited edition. The polish is meant to have a velvet sort of finish, so I did not use top coat.
- I had no issues with formula with any of these polishes.

~Emily

Hmm, This Is Strange...

 Edit: This color is LA Colors Sea Green. I forgot to add that! Sorry!

So while I was shopping today, I stumbled upon a big bin of LA Colors nail polish at a discount store. Awesome! I like some of LA Colors' stuff so I browsed through them. I found two colors I really liked and I bought them.

Well once I got home and started swatching, I noticed something. These colors both had the same name! They were two different colors! One looks like it is older and the other looks like it is newer. Here's the photos. Take a look for yourself!

Old on the left, new on the right

Old on the left, new on the right

New on left, old on right

New on left, old on right

As you can see, the new one is more blue while the older one is more green. I shook the bottles and everything thinking it may have been discoloration, but then I remembered I saw a few of the new and old ones there and they were the same. I also thought maybe the stickers had been switched possibly, but they don't show any signs of it and are stuck on pretty normal. It seems like the newer color has less golden shimmer than the older too.

I also noticed that the newer bottles have less than the older. Hmmm... I had never noticed that before either!

It's really weird. I'm guessing the newer batches are made more blue. I prefer the green (older) but I like them both so they're staying with me! :)

SpaRitual- It's Raining Men

This will be a quick post. I got SO MANY POLISHES for Christmas I'm swimming in them. Yeah, it's totally not a bad thing, I'm not complaining!

SpaRitual's It's Raining Men is a periwinkle blue color that shifts pink/gold/light green. It's amazing. I've been lemming this for what seems like ages and I got it for Christmas. It is pretty sheer. This is 4 coats with Orly Won't Chip top coat.

Under bright lights

Under dim fluorescent lighting

I've seen that this is a dupe for Orly's Sky Blue Pink (which I was also lemming *crosses it off the list*). From what I can tell it is pretty dead on.

Sorry for the messy nails. My top coat is turning gross and thick and pretty much ruined my mani. I also forgot to do some clean up. Oops. After this post I'll be switching to OPI Rapidry top coat for my mani's.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Emily

Sinful Colors Cinderella & Sephora by OPI Natural Environ-ment

This is a quick post since I didn't get the greatest pictures of my mani yesterday. I painted them last night and the lighting in my house isn't the best for these pictures.

Anyway, here's my mani:

On my index and ring finger: 2 coats of Sephora by OPI Natural Environ-ment with 3 coats of Sinful Colors Cinderella.
On my middle and pinky finger: 3 coats of Sinful Colors Cinderella.

The formula with these two are totally different. Cinderella is a bit runny and very sheer. I love the color so I'll just live with the formula. Natural Environ-ment is kind of thick and a bit streaky. Two to three coats fixes it though.

I thought Natural Environ-ment was a good color for a base coat for this. What do you think? What's your opinion of Cinderella?

~Emily

Zoya- Zuza

Hi!

Today I have Zoya Zuza. I bought it from a seller on Copious with a $10 credit I had for only 1 cent!!! How awesome is that? (if you'd like to sign up on Copious and get a credit, feel free to click my invite if you'd like:  http://copious.com/invites/4fd984676058f17f7f00933d )

Zuza is part of the Beach & Surf 2012 collection. On the Zoya website they describe Zuza as a "Deep, saturated, oceanic turquoise with gold and silver metallic shimmer and a foil-like finish. A beachy, colorful, foil-like shade with the perfect balance between blue and green."

This is 2 coats of Zoya Zuza over China Glaze base coat and Orly topcoat to top it all off.

You can purchase this color here on the Zoya website.

~Emily

China Glaze- Blue Iguana

I picked up Blue Iguana when I was clearance shopping at Ulta. I found this for $3.99? (I think). It was part of the Island Escape collection from last year.

Blue Iguana is a medium almost dark blue with glass fleck shimmer that is blue and violet. This shade is pretty sheer. I usually don't go past my 3 coat limit (I make exceptions from time to time) and this was still sheer, although I really like it. The violet shimmer is hard for me to pick up in my photos, but it is there in person.  This is 3 coats with Orly topcoat.

I also apologize ahead of time for the messy nails. I finally found a brush for clean up that actually works, so they should get better with time.

 Indirect sunlight

 Direct Sunlight

This shows the shimmer better.

I believe I may try this color again over black. I think it would make it pop more. 

Thanks for viewing!

~Emily

Sally Hansen Ink Splatter Crackle Overcoat

Yo!

I bought the Sally Hansen Ink Splatter Crackle overcoat polish a few days ago and decided to try it out over OPI's Greece Just Blue Me Away. This is my first attempt at "crackling" (I guess you could call it that?) and I don't think I did too bad.  This polish is just a plain black crackle that starts to work almost instantly. I think it's awesome.  I haven't tried the crackle polishes from China Glaze or OPI yet, so if anyone has, let me know how they are!

This polish dried really quick and this is just one thin coat over my base. No topcoat.

Sorry I didn't take the time to clean it up a little! :( But you get the idea! Love this overcoat. I will deff. be using it a lot more now!

UPDATE: After a few uses of the black crackle, it became really thick and unusable. It also started to dry on the brush before I could get it to my nail. I don't know why it did this, but I think I'm going to switch to another brand for crackle polish. Any suggestions? I know there's OPI and China Glaze, anymore that's great?  

OPI Greece Just Blue Me Away

Hi!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you all! I've been super busy at work and I finally have a day off! Woo! So, to make up for it I will attach a picture of my cute "teenage" ducks in their swimming pool!

See? All better. :-)

Anywho, here is OPI's Greece Just Blue Me Away.  I believe this color is discontinued, but I love it so much! You can wear it on its own or over a color. Whatever works for you.  This is a sheer light blue with a sort of purple/pink sheen.  I think it's cool.  Of course my camera didn't really get the sheen.  Anyway, this is 3 coats.

Don't mind the mess up on the side...and the short nail on the ring finger... I hit it off of something and had to cut it. :(

China Glaze-Sexy In The City

So, I wanted something to match my cute top I was wearing today, so I decided on Sexy In The City from China Glaze.  It's a very pretty mermaid blue color with a green/blue shine to it.  Needless to say it matched my top very well with the teals and blues.

With this, I applied 3 coats just so it wouldn't be too sheer and let my nails/tips shine through.  They do still shine through, but not as bad as it would with 1-2 coats.  I did not use a base coat on this since I'm out, but my top coat is China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat.

I always buy my nail polish from http://www.8ty8beauty.com/ and if you'd like to buy this color, just search it on their website!  This is one of the websites I've found that have the polish for the cheapest!