Wednesday, August 31, 2011

OPI Espresso Your Style, and Gold Shatter

Good Morning lovely readers! I have been thinking of all of you that may have been affected in one way or another by hurricane Irene. I hope this finds you well and safe and relatively dry. I do not live in a hurricane zone, and we have had really good weather. It's hard to imagine that while skies are blue here, there is an angry storm to the East unleashing her fury on innocent people. I expect we will see the tail end of it here with a few days of rain by the weekend. We are relatively unaffected by most natural disasters in this area, although this year has brought more tornadoes, and hail than I have ever seen in my life, and we have felt two earthquakes as well. By 'feel' I mean I could feel my couch swaying and see my bird feeder swinging. In no way were we ever at risk of any damage here at all. If I had not been sitting still chances are I would not have felt it at all. I really feel for all of you who deal with unsettled Earth on a regular basis.

I swatched OPI Espresso Your Style for a friend of mine, so I decided to show you as well. It is a beautiful rich deep warm brown with a lovely gold shimmer/microglitter. This was three coats, but I admit I was in a bit of a hurry so if I had been more careful I might have been able to get away with two.

 Espresso Your Style was originally released in the Kick up Your Heels collection in 2006, which I believe was a black label. Mine is from the re-release and is a green label.

This was taken outside.




I decided to throw my new OPI Gold Shatter over top just for fun.


Gold Shatter is pretty, and I can't wait to try it over other colours. It didn't shatter well here so I will have to experiment with it over completely dry polish vs slightly tacky polish.


Thanks for looking!
♥pam♥

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Monday, August 29, 2011

Nina Ultra Pro-Sailor vs Rescue Beauty Lounge-Dead Calm. Dupes?

How many times have you been polish shopping, and found yourself drawn to a certain beautiful or unique shade, only to bring it home and find out you  have 5 others that are the same? Having two or more nail polishes in your stash (especially if it is a large stash)  that are very similar, if not identical is a common occurrence. Sometimes though, one will have a better application, or wear time, or it holds a special place in our hearts. Perhaps it was a gift, or it's a hard to find brand and so we keep both. Sometimes, a company will release a 'new' shade and you think, Hmm that looks a lot like [name your dupe here] Being able to see comparison swatches can be helpful so you don't buy a dupe unnecessarily. It also helps to find colours in your stash that are close enough to a 'new' release that you realize you don't actually need the new one. Even better, money saved that can then be spent on future new releases that don't have dupes, without guilt. Do you like my reasoning? I thought so :)

So today I have a comparison of Nina Ultra Pro in Sailor, vs RBL (Rescue Beauty Lounge) Dead Calm. They are near identical in colour. opaqueness and application. Their biggest difference is in their price with the RBL at $18 and Nina Ultra Pro at around $4 depending on if you have a Sally card or not.
Both are a beautiful deep dark navy blue creme. Love at first sight.








These are both lovely polishes and I would be happy with either one. Another very similar polish is Essence Just Rock it! which is an even better deal at 99 cents, but it is a smaller bottle. 
I will be posting a swatch of that soon and when I do, I will link it here so you can compare.

Cheers!
Thanks for looking!
♥pam♥



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Friday, August 26, 2011

Avon Olive Green

You all know by now that I love a cost effective dupe to a much loved higher end brand. Well this one is sits among best in the dupe crowd in my opinion. Avon Olive Green is a dead on dupe for Rescue Beauty Lounge (RBL) Orbis Non Sufficit. For those of you who may not be aware, Orbis Non Sufficit (ONS) is a polish that belongs to a group of three (Scrangie, Mismas and ONS) that were created by bloggers for RBL in 2009. ONS was created by Steph at Polish Addict The other two were created by Scrangie, and Michelle at All Laquered Up. ( I believe her last name is Mismas?)
The name Orbis Non Sufficit translates to The World is insufficient, or The World is not enough.
Avon Olive Green is a grayed down dark army green creme that's murky and lovely. Not quite olive, but not quite sage. It is a highly pigmented polish with an exceptionally smooth formula. It is a dream to apply, and it's a one coater for even the most hurried of polishers. ONE COAT!!  In my experience it also has exceptional wear.
Olive Green rings in at about $5, while ONS is $18. In all honesty, the Avon polish is perhaps a little better on application so it is the clear winner in this comparison. Please scroll down for a link to a comparison swatch on My Lucid Bubble





This polish is, in my opinion something worth having in your stash,
 and sits in my top 20 favourite polish list.

Thanks for looking!
♥pam♥

**EDIT**
 Here is a link showing a side by side comparison of the two polishes.

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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Flower Power nail art

Quick post today just for fun.
When I was on vacation we had a rainy day, and luckily for me I had brought some of my nail polishes etc with me for just such an occasion. OK I really brought a LOT of nail polish etc with me. What can I say? I am an over packer.
This is what I came up with on that rainy day. Sorry for the sand battered cuticles. The beach and my skin do not get along well. They tolerate each other at best.
Sorry I did not do a tutorial for this look because it was not intended for my blog, but it turned out so pretty that I wanted to share. Enjoy.


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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

L.A. Girls Color Addict Blues- Delirious, Extreme and Idol

I love a good polish, and I love a good deal. Even more than that I love a good polish that is a good deal. I picked up several polishes at Garage clothing store, and they have yet to disappoint either my wallet or my taste in polish.
These all have a subtle gold shimmer, which is a nice change from creme (which I love) with out being 'in your face' shimmery.

Delirious is a pretty aqua blue, which I could not convince my camera to capture properly.



Extreme is an interesting periwinkle blue. It is not as frosty as it appears here.


Idol is my favourite of this bunch. It is a dark delicious grayed out denim blue
 with a great subtle gold shimmer which really compliments the navy well,.



And another shot of Idol because, well why not?


Thanks for looking!
♥Pam♥

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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Joe Fresh Mint, and simple nail art

Creative post title right? Ha! Oh well, I can't be creative all the time I guess right? >.<

Today's post features another Joe Fresh polish-Mint. It is a lovely mint green polish with a beautiful shine. It does require 3 coats for complete coverage, as is common with most mint greens. Mint green and yellow polishes are notorious for having a slightly streaky application and both will usually require 3 coats. Joe Fresh tends to have a fairly quick dry time, so I don't mind. Plus it's only $3.33 a bottle, so it earns extra points for being easy on the wallet.
Joe Fresh Mint


Joe Fresh Mint


Here I added a side swipe of Joe Fresh Cobalt,
 then three large-ish dots of white.
 (I used Sally Hansen White On)
Directly on top of the white dots, I added dots in Mint and Cobalt
 just slightly smaller
 so that some of the white dots peek out from below.



You could stop here and top coat if you like. 


But, you know me- I never stop there :)
Here I added even smaller dots on top of the Cobalt and Mint dots, in the opposite colours.

Here is the finished look.
Cute and simple.

If you do not have a dotting tool, a skinny arts and crafts paint brush with a rounded tip on handle end of it works well for the large dots. A skinny makeup brush, (the end, not the bristles) or the end of a BIC pen works as well. What you are looking for is something with a semi rounded/semi flat end that is a little smaller than the diameter of a pencil eraser. In fact, a pencil eraser that has been worn down a little would work well unless you have really tiny nails. For the medium size dots, if you open up a bobby pin and use the rubber end, it's perfect. For tiny dots, a tooth pic will work.

Happy polishing!
Do let me know if you try out this look, and please feel free to request any colour combinations or design ideas. I would be more than happy to accommodate your requests.


Thanks for looking!
♥pam♥

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Monday, August 22, 2011

Green is the word, is the word, is the word ♪♫♪♫

Happy Monday fellow nail polish lovers! I was gazing at my green polish collections earlier and decided to share them with you. I happen to love green polish, despite the fact that purple is my favourite colour ever, and as a kid I did not like green. At all. Who knew?

LA Girl Color Addict, in Urge is a lovely springy fun green with a hint of gold shimmer,
 and a great price at less than $3.

*sigh* So pretty.


OPI Hey! Get in Lime is one of those not quite mint colours that is quite unique and hard to describe. Looks great despite its finicky application which is typical of light greens.



Sally Hansen Green with Envy. A fun bright lime green that leans yellow. 

Le Sigh.
I just may have to bust this one out one more time before summer ends here.

Thanks for looking!
♥Pam♥






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Sunday, August 21, 2011

Joe Fresh Moss

TGITW (Thank God it's the Weekend)
It was a long and busy week, and I am glad to see the weekend visit. Although I hear it won't be staying long  :/
The trip to Cedar Point with the kids was a success. Good weather, and fair crowds. For the most part we were able to find rides with less than a half hour wait, and several with only a 15 minute wait. The longest one was for Top Thrill Dragster. The total wait time was about 2 hours.  It broke down while we were in line, and we were almost to the front, so we weren't about to leave. Unfortunately it's only a 17 second ride, but what a thrill indeed!!
Here is the official video for it, if you haven't been on one like this, or seen it. It reaches speeds of 120 miles an hour and goes straight up 400+ feet. CRAZY!

I think my favourite coaster was the Maverick and my favourite non coaster ride was the Max-Air.


On to the goodies.
I have lots of Joe Fresh polishes to swatch, so today I bring you Moss.
It is said to  be a dupe for Zoya Shawn. I do not have Shawn, but from the swatches I have seen, it sure looks like a dupe to  me.



As with most other Joe Fresh Polishes I have, the formula was smooth and easy to apply. These pics do not have top coat on them.

Thanks for looking!
♥pam♥



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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Joe Fresh

Today (Wednesday) I am taking my kids to Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio.   I LOOOOVE roller coasters. I mean I run from ride to ride like a maniac, and ignore my thirst/hunger/full bladder kind of love. The higher and faster the better.  The weather looks like it should be nice, so with any luck it will be a perfect day. The last time we went on a perfect day they had the highest attendance ever, and we waited in line for every ride for so long, that we only managed to get on three rides all day!!! THREE RIDES!! I live almost 4 hours from Cedar Point, so it's not like I could throw in the towel and head home ya know?

Here in Canada we are sort of behind the 8 ball on a lot of things. We don't have access to a lot of brands, and we don't get the releases as soon, and sometimes we just don't get the releases at all. But, we do have one brand that is exclusive to Canada for now ( I believe there is a store opening in NYC soon?) Joe Fresh. It's a great brand, with decent quality for the most part, and easy on the wallet as well, at $3.33 per bottle. Mind you they are small bottles at 6 mls ,but really how often do you actually use up an entire 15ml bottle of polish? And- they have a FLAKIE!! ( I will be posting about the Flakie (called Twilight) when I return to adulthood-AKA get home from Cedar Point.  Here are some swatches from their collection.

I previously posted some swatches of another Joe Fresh colour, Persian Blue here and I layered Pure Ice Heartbreaker over it, and it's gorgeous!!


Crush Orange


Crush Orange

Fog

Fog

Fog

Fog



Storm

Storm

Storm

Storm

Storm


All of these had great application, and amazing shine with no top coat. Of course I wear top coat with them ( my trusty Seche Vite) but I was impressed with their high gloss before applying it.

I picked up a few from the fall OPI collection Touring America, and I should have those swatched and posted for you soon.  I am actually just about to paint  my nails with I Eat Mainly Lobster. :)

Thanks for looking!
♥Pam♥

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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Rainbow Yin and Yang Nail art

Do you ever have have a great idea for some nail art late at night, and you hope you can remember it in the morning? That's what happened to me with this design. And it didn't turn out exactly how I imagined it, but that's the fun of free hand nail art- you just go with the flow and make it work. I wouldn't classify this as a total fail or anything, I just don't LOVE it.
Anywhoo.. On with the products and a little how-to.

Here is the finished product

These are the products I used
Sally Hansen White On, Wet n Wild Black Creme, Icing Purple Passion, 
Massini Orange Hot, Hard Candy Frenzy

China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, Joe Fresh Cobalt, Icing Lime Martini
 Sally Hanson Hidden Treasure, and Seche Vite are added later and are not in the design photo above. I had meant to put Hidden Treasure over the white before I did the black and the dots. But apparently the brain cells that help me do things in order are on vacation with my creative ones. Oh well. I improvised.
These are the dotting tools I used for this design, with my index finger for size reference.



First I applied two coats of Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear White On. I am often asked what my favourite white is. Whites are notoriously difficult to apply with out streaks. I have two the I can usually depend on, one being this one and the other is Sinful Snow Me White. I have also used OPI Alpine Snow with success in the past. One thing I always do when applying white, is do a thick coat in as few strokes as possible. I have also found using a base coat that is somewhat matte, gives you better adhesion and less drag.
*this is where I meant to apply Hidden Treasure*

I wanted to make a nice crisp line with the black polish, so I first drew a diagonal line with a black striping polish by Colour Club across each nail, then filled in half with Wet n Wild Black creme. Which by the way is THE best black cream Ever! It's a one coater, shiny, wears well and it's cheap. WIN


As it turned out, with the way I applied the dots and such later, I didn't need to make a really neat line with the black, so you don't necessarily need to do that step, and you and just go ahead an swipe the Wet n Wild black polish across your nail.

Then using my largest dotting tool, I applied three black dots directly where the black meets the white. I did three dots, but you can do whatever fits, and adjust the size of your dots to the size of your nail. You want to leave enough space in between the black dots to add white dots of the same size, to give the Yin and Yang effect.

Here I have added white dots of the same size  in between the black dots, and you can see the Yin and yang shape starting to come together. I went back in with a smaller dotting tool and some more black and neatened up some of the black dots that were crowded by the white dots. next time I would do the dots a little smaller.

Here I have used a medium size dotting tool and added white dots on top of the black dots, being careful to center them on the black dot so I left a little edge of black.

Then I added the coloured polishes listed above on the small white dots (that were placed over the black dots) as well as the larger white dots that were placed in between the original black dots. I mixed the yellow and lime green together because the yellow was too sheer. And I chose my colours in order of the rainbow with is ROYGBV. (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet)  Even though the colours are not exactly the rainbow colours, I usually find that if I used the ROYGBV format and whatever polishes fit the best in those categories, then the colours seem to flow the best. I often substitute pink for the Red in the spectrum, and Purple for the Violet.



Because I can't leave a manicure alone, I added Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. My original intention of applying it over the white only, would have been better I think.


And there you  have it. 
Thanks for looking!
♥pam♥






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