OPI Speak for Your-Elf!

First, my apologies for the sub-par pictures of this polish. I'm away from my lightbox, and the sun hasn't made an appearance where I am this week in several days. I did what I could with the lighting I have available to me, sorry about that!

So here we go. This is one of the OPI Ulta holiday exclusive polishes, Speak for Your-Elf! It's a cooler toned red with a glass fleck finish. Is it unique? No, not really. But I've learned my lesson with Ulta OPI exclusives the hard way, so I went ahead and picked this one up. 

This is two coats. I struggled with the application on this one a little bit, but I don't think it's so much the polish as the brush. My nails are narrow, and I always make a mess with the OPI Pro-wide brush. I know a lot of people love it, but the brush is wider than my pinky nail, so it makes it a little tough.

All in all, it really is lovely... just not terribly unique. I've read that the other OPI Ulta exclusives this year are pretty easily duped as well. I think it's kind of a shame that they're not making more of an effort to make these limited edition exclusives more unique, though I guess that my wallet is happy about that. 

So there you have it. Pretty, but do you need to run out and buy this one? If your collection has as many glass flecked reds as mine does... probably not!

Happy Monday, folks! Hope you all are staying warm and not running yourselves too ragged as the holiday season gets into full swing!

Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers

Words are failing me on this one. Ruby Red Slippers is one of the most beautiful and sexiest polishes I've ever seen. Red hex glitter along with normal red glitter in a black jelly base. I wore two coats of Ruby Red Slippers over one coat of FingerPaints Black Expressionism. 

Simply perfection.

Hope all my American readers had a great Thanksgiving, and that the rest of you are all having a great week! As always, thanks for stopping by!

A Couple of Blues

Today I have a couple of blues that I hadn't posted yet. The first is Zoya Noel, which is likely the closest thing I'll ever have to a polish with my name. It's a beautiful ice blue metallic polish, very reminiscent of Zoya Crystal, but without the flecks of gold. The application was quite good, two easy coats. Somehow I managed to ding the tips of a couple of fingers within just a couple of hours of putting it on. This worries me a bit because I didn't really do anything that could have caused that, so I hope this doesn't just tend to being chiptastic. =\

And the other is China Glaze Flyin' High. I was expecting this one to be more teal than it looks on me, but on me it's pretty much pure blue. In the lights indoors, it had a very tiny tint of teal to it, but yeah, mostly blue... which is fine with me. =) Great formula on this one though, not fussy whatsoever.

I'm so sorry that I haven't had much time to answer comments lately. I do read them all, and I appreciate every one. I've just been so busy with work, and then being sick and then being busy with work again that I feel like I barely have time to put together cognizant blog posts. So please, please know that I really do love all of your comments, even when I don't have time to reply!

Happy Friday!

The Many Faces of Sally Hansen Garnet Lapis

I don't have tons of time to write a post right now - I'm finally feeling better (thanks for all the well wishes, that was a truly terrible stomach bug), but of course now I'm drowning in work. So instead of babbling on and on, I'll let you entertain yourselves with way too many pictures of Sally Hansen Garnet Lapis. This is another longtime lemming of mine, finally slain by the kindness of a good friend. You know who you are! =)

All of these photos are two coats of Garnet Lapis over one coat of American Apparel Passport Blue.

Here she is in the sunshine.

And in the shade.

And in the lightbox.

Incredible, no? =)

Hope you all have had a very good week, and as always, I thank you for visiting!

China Glaze Winter Berry

I kept telling myself I didn't need another red creme. Turns out, I was wrong! =)

China Glaze's Let It Snow 2011 holiday collection features two red cremes (three if you count the vampier Velvet Bow), with Winter Berry being the one that is cooler in tone. I went back and forth about getting this one. I have a fair amount of red cremes. And honestly... I'm not even sure this is unique in my collection. But the lemming was there and it wasn't leaving, so I went ahead and bought it. And I'm so glad that I did.

Winter Berry is just perfect in every way. The formula is great - two easy coats is what's shown here. It's sort of halfway between a creme and a jelly, so it borders on that wonderful squishy quality of a jelly without any of the opacity or streaking issues that jellies sometimes have.

It's also just about the perfect shade of red for my skintone, which doesn't hurt anything either. =D So do I have a dupe in my collection for this one? Yeah, I probably do. But I love this so much that I'm not even inspired to go and check to see what I have that might be close. And when I do get around to de-duping my collection again (We all know it'll happen eventually!), I'm pretty sure this one will stay over whatever else I might have that's close to it. I just love it that much. =)

Just perfect. *sigh*

Thank you everyone for the well wishes with the bug I had earlier this week. =) I'm finally starting to feel human again, yay! 

And, as always, thank you for stopping by my little blog. =)

Color Club Untamed Luxury

I've been sick all weekend with a stomach bug, but I took these pictures before I got sick. I'm afraid I don't have a lot of witty commentary for this one, though. It's teal. It's glitter. It pulls WAY green on me. It's beautiful. Enjoy the pics. Hopefully I'll feel like a human soon!

BB Couture Dragon's Breath

BB Couture is a brand that's not really well represented in my stash. I had gotten two of them before and ended up swapping them away, but I'm finding myself drawn to them yet again. Dragon's Breath was one that got its claws in me and wouldn't let go. It's been perpetually out of stock at Overall Beauty (one of the only sources for BB Couture), so when I saw that a friend of mine had it on her swap list, I snatched that bad boy up. So here it is!

I would say that Dragon's Breath is a sort of raspberry red jelly that is absolutely packed with micro glitter - I think the glitter is red, blue and gold, but I'm not positive on that. What I am positive about is that this is one amazing polish.

I mean... wow, right? This is three coats. It was a little streaky at two coats, but not unmanageable. But at three coats I found that it really deepened the texture of the polish, so I'd be inclined to do three coats no matter what. (You can click on these to make them bigger, just in case you didn't know!)

These micro glitters are really where BB Couture excels. They pack these tiny glitters into these jelly bases, and it's just magical how much insane shimmer and sparkle goes on in these babies.

The best source for BB Couture polishes is Overall Beauty. Kim is also starting to carry Ozotic, Glitter Gal and Cult Nails, so you might want to hide your wallet before you go and look around there. =)

That's it for me for today. As always, thanks for stopping by my little corner of the web!

Catrice Blues Brothers Vol II

Did I mention that I love Catrice? Oh, that's right. I did! I love Catrice, and here's another example of why.

Blues Brothers Vol. II is a deep shimmery blue. I have lots of dark blues (well, I have lots of every kind of blue), but I particularly love this one because it's dark, but it never looks black. Dark polishes that look black are a huge pet peeve of mine. If I want to wear black, I wear black. 

The shimmer in this baby makes this polish just glow. It's blackened around the edges, but the middle of the nail is shimmery, glowy goodness.

The formula was great, as I've come to expect with Catrice. And I love the brush. It's a flatter brush, slightly wide, but not as wide as the OPI Pro Wide brush (which I despise because I have narrow nails). The Catrice brush is just perfect for me. If I could put a Catrice brush in every polish I own, I would. 

So there you have it. Blues Brothers Vol. II, glowy vampy blue perfection!

Thanks for stopping by! ♥

LA Splash Ocean's Fairy

I've had a bee in my bonnet (I love that phrase) about LA Splash polishes for months now. They used to carry them at Ulta. It's one of those things that you think is going to be easily accessible, so other lemmings take precedence. Then Ulta stopped carrying them. Oh, the horror. I did some searching and found that Cherry Culture carries them. Of course, the colors I want most have been out of stock at Cherry Culture for months. I finally gave up and did a small haul of them from the LA Splash website. The first once I've worn is Ocean's Fairy.

Can I get a wow? =) This polish is incredible. It's a green base with just a ton of fine green and gold glitter. It looks like there's two or three shades of green glitter in here, but it's hard to tell for sure.

This is one of those greens that pulls warmer in the lights in my lightbox (and in my house), and slightly cooler outside. I've included pictures taken both ways so that you can see both faces of this polish.

The formula is pretty good, a little on the thick side. I added about 4 drops of thinner before I did this mani, and I really think that it applied easier because of that. This is two coats. You could almost get away with one, I think, if you were careful and were so inclined.

It dries gritty, as I expected, but it wasn't as crazy thirsty as some of the glitters I've worn recently. One coat of Gelous followed by one coat of my Pro FX top coat pretty much took care of the grittiness. 

Ocean's Fairy is a stunner, this is for certain. The others that I ordered are quite beautiful as well. I have to say that I was hesitant to order directly from LA Splash's site because shipping was on the pricier side ($10 for 6 bottles). However, I ordered on October 31, and the polishes were here on November 5. That's not bad at all, and I felt better about the shipping cost when they arrived so quickly. And the other side of that is, of course, that they have all the colors in stock.

Be warned, though. The color blobs on both the LA Splash site and the Cherry Culture site are nigh useless for ordering. They pretty much look NOTHING like the polishes, so try to do some swatch research before you try to order. Swatches aren't plentiful on the web, sadly, just like any brand that's not widely distributed. These are seriously amazing glitters, though, and I do plan to get more as my budget allows.

Hope your weekend is going well. Thanks for stopping by!

Plum District Image Beauty Deal

Plum District is offering a $40 Image Beauty gift certificate for $20. Image Beauty offers tons of beauty supplies, including nail polish. (They have the China Glaze Let It Snow collection, by the way. Just sayin'!)

If you've never ordered from Plum District before, you can use my referral link to get a $10 referral credit to use on your first order, making this certificate only $10 for $40 worth of products. You can also use the code FABULOUS on Plum District's site to get another $2 off your order, so $8 for $40 worth of products. If you use my referral link, they'll also credit me with Plum Dollars (full disclosure).

My link is here. And thank you for clicking if you choose to do so! =D

Also, if you have trouble locating the Image Beauty deal, it's listed under Chicago: North Shore.

November 6 is the last day to purchase the Plum District deal. The Image Beauty gift certificate expires 03/31/12.

Wet 'n Wild Believe Me, It's Real

First of all, my Walgreen's never gets anything good. EVER. Seriously. So I almost passed out when I walked in there yesterday and they had a full display of the Wet 'n Wild limited edition holiday collection, Ice Baby. I was good and only bought one (on that trip to Walgreen's, at any rate), Believe Me, It's Real. Observe.

One coat over a coat of Revlon Royal. I probably could have gotten it opaque with several coats, but 1) That would probably have made it even thirstier and grittier than it already is, and 2) I must conserve the precious since it's limited edition.

It is so perfect. Primarily blue glitter with some purple glitter tossed in there. According to Scrangie this is a pretty darn reasonable facsimile of Nails Inc Connaught Square.

As I mentioned above, this is a thirsty glitter. I used Gelous and two coats of Pro FX and I still have a bit of bumpiness going on. Nothing I can't handle though, happily!

The sparkles kind of freaked out my camera a little bit here. I love it when a glitter has enough bling to make my camera unsure where to focus. =D

Bottom line... if you see these and you like glitter at all, grab them. This is a truly wonderful polish, and the price is right at $2.99!

Happy Friday, folks!