NOTD: OPI It's My Year

OPI It's My Year, from the Miss Universe collection, is a gorgeous pinky-mauve with a heavy gold shimmer, that somehow ends up being a little bit coppery-bronzey in some lights:

But wait ... that description sounds so familiar ... all day on my nails I kept thinking ... deja vu ... I've worn this color before - I had to go back & search my blog to find the exact color, I remembered it was a Zoya & finally found that it was Zoya Faye (original post HERE).

Yes, the 2 are definitely close enough to be kissing cousins.  Not dupes but very very close =)  And then!  When I changed my mani I had the same thing happen again LOL, deja vu all day & had to come home & search ... stay tuned tomorrow to see my 2nd in a row nearly duplicate mani =)

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

China Glaze Crackle Metals & Ulta OPI Exclusives

It took me 4 Sallys to track down all 6 from the Crackle Metal collection, but it was worth it =)

Left to right China Glaze Tarnished Gold, Cracked Medallion, Platinum Pieces, Latticed Lilac, Haute Metal, Oxidized Aqua.  I didn't notice until I was taking pics for this post, that the bottles are 2 different styles!  Most have the "Crackle Glaze" bottle, but the silver & teal just have "Crackle" off to the side of the normal China Glaze. Weird.

I also picked up this on clearance at one of the Sallys - I don't even remember which one LOL, and I forgot to include it in the vid:

Finger Paints Amethyst Atelier.

Next OPIs from Ulta - as I mention in the vid, if you want more than one free bottle with their current promotion, talk with your sales rep because it is one free over $15.00, rather than buy 2 get 1 free ... it equals out to the same amount by with the dollar requirement it took 2 transactions for me to get my 2 free bottles:

Top:  Ulta Exclusive Shimmer into Summer collection - Glitter-ally The Best Silver Ever, Sparkle Teal Sunrise, I'm an Aqua-Holic, How You Blue-In?  Bottom:  from the Nice Stems collection - Be a Dahlia Won't You & I Lily Love You.

And from the Born Pretty Store:

I received this Violet Crackle from Laushine to review.  You can save 10% there using the coupon code "CWJ691" through the end of the year on any nail art or nail polish products from their site.

Here's the vid with some swatches & comparisons:

After the fact, I decided I really wanted to see if I could get I Lily Love You & Sparkle Teal Sunrise to look like they do in the bottle with some layering.  And with a colored base rather than plain, or over black or white, I was really quite pleased.

Right is I Lily Love You over Sally Hansen Digital, left over Be a Dahlia Won't You:

I like I Lily Love You over Be a Dahlia Won't You - maybe they were meant together since they're from the same collection.

For Sparkle Teal Sunrise I tried 4 different base colors - left to right layered over:  I'm an Aqua-Holic, How You Blue-In?, Zoya Charla & China Glaze Watermelon Rind:

I think it is closest to bottle color over Watermelon Rind, but I also really like it over How You Blue-In?  Which do you prefer?

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

(Some products were sent to me for review)

FAQ: Crackle/Shatter Comparison

It's really too bad that I don't have any of the crack polishes from back in the day, live Revlon, but I do have 4 different brands (China Glaze Crackle Glaze, OPI Shatter, Sally Hanson Crackle Overcoat & Kelier Crack Polish) & I finally got around to shooting this on Friday, editing yesterday & now uploading today =)  Enjoy:

 

 

Crack polishes are not my favorite, but they're kind of growing on me.  What do you think of them?

 

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy

The only real downside to Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy is that it starts out very sheer - I needed 4 coats to get it opaque, but boy was it ever worth it =)  Silver, purple, green, one of the nicest duo-chromes that I've worn in a while:

 

 

Here's a look in motion:

 

 

It's very close to OPI Not Like the Movies, from the Katy Perry collection, but they're not dupes - GA is more purple, and NLtM has some little tiny sparkles in it that as you can see at one coat - NLtM on the left, GA on the right:

 

In this pic, I used 4 coats for both - NLtM is also quite sheer:

 

 

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

Comparison Swatches: China Glaze Tronica vs. OMG & Kaleidoscope

I think this is the biggest swatching project I ever did =)  To avoid a crapload of unnecessary typing, see below with the swatches for all of the names, but to start out with, here are each of the collections laid out - I rarely get a chance to pull out my polish & just play, so this was kind of fun.  First pic is Tronica, then OMG, next Kaleidoscope, then all of them laid out together:

OK, everything is going to be in the same basic order for all of the following swatch pics - first polish is from the Kaleidoscope collection (3 coats each), the second is from the OMG collection (2 coats each), and the third is from the Tronica collection (2 coats each).  No top coat on any of them.  I did camera flash bottle shots, natural lamp nail wheel swatches, and sunlight swatches.  Enjoy =)

First the teals & dark purples.  This is the only set where the Kaleidoscope didn't match at all.  Let's Do It In 3D, DV8, Techno Teal - Octa Gone Wild, LOL, Virtual Violet:

Rose pinks & lighter purples.  How About A Tumble, BFF, Electra Magenta  - Visit Me In Prism, IDK, Gamer Glam:

Blues & silvers.  Kaleidoscope Him Out, 2NITE, High Def - Sexagon, OMG, Hologram:

Bright pinks & salmons (lots of pinks of one kind or another with all these collections).  Tickle My Triangle, QT, Hyper Haute - Don't Be A Square, TMI, 3D Fantasy:

Peaches & taupes.  Rated Holographic, TTYL, Digital Dawn - Spin Me Round, FYI, Cyberspace:

Yellows/golds & bright greens.  It's My Turn, GR8, Mega Byte - He's Going In Circles, L8R G8R, Laser Lime:

Here's an overview of the nail wheels - so pretty:

After I got done with all of those, and for the most part disappointed with the lack of holo in all of the Tronicas, I added a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust on them & this is what I got:

Overall - very pretty colors.  Vibrant, pigmented, good application.  Several I probably could have gotten away with just one coat.  Those I've tried work well for marbling & although I haven't tested yet, I have high hopes for their Konading potential.  But China Glaze still needs to re-release the OMG collection.  It's just not fair that they are no longer available.  Or, even better - new colors in the OMG formula.  DV8 & LOL are perfect examples of how awesome linear holos are in a deep vibrant color - I want a forest green, a true red, a navy blue - a real black holo.  Ah, well - we can dream, right?

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette