Sally Hansen Color Foil Titanium Flush Swatch

~purchased be me~


Remember that mini-haul I had recently with the color foils? I went back to that target and not only did they have more colors on clearance, they had dropped the price down to $2.08! I finally was able to get the Cobalt Chrome shade I wanted, yay! Now if I can only find Liquid Gold I'll have all the colors that I wanted from the collection. Don't you love it when limited edition collections work in your favor? ^_^

I know these say to apply without base or top coat but I've heard from others that if you do it that way, not only do you see all the ridges and lines from your natural nails but the mani only lasts a day or two before chipping. So! I just applied this over an old manicure. Worked like a charm! These will work great for when you want a mani change but don't have time to remove your old one. Nail polish sweatpants!

They apply very smoothly but shake them very well before use! When I put my first coat on and didn't shake it properly, it applied almost like an ombre effect on my nails. I used two coats here with no topcoat. The chrome mirror-ness is very nice. When you apply, lightly "float" the brush and try not to go over the same spot too much to reduce brushstrokes. Next, I tried to apply top coat. I used a fast drying one on my pinky (NYC Grand Central Station) and a regular one on the rest of my fingers. At first I was worried that I ruined the chrome effect because the polish became slightly...cloudy? when the top coat was initially applied but that went away when it dried.

Topcoat does take away a tiny bit of the chrome-ness but not enough to be really noticeable. I think the extended wear time is worth that little bit of shine you lose. I think the regular non-fast drying topcoat is better over this than the fast drying. I haven't tried it with Seche Vite yet but I imagine it will be the same.

Sunlight pic! Sorry for the weird angle but I was losing sunlight and had to chase it around my kitchen haha. I think these color foils are pretty cool and I'm glad I was able to snag them (on clearance no less!) before they disappeared. If you haven't gotten these yet, go run and see if you can still catch them at stores.

Neon Orange Comparison (think Traffic Cones!)

~purchased by me~


I like neon's an awful lot, especially in the summer. They make your skin look so tan! I ran across some Milani Neons at my dollar tree and picked up this lovely little orange shade. When I got home, I remembered that I already had some other neon oranges and so of course, comparison time!

Color Club Wham! Pow!, Milani Neon Awesome Orange and Misa Six Pack Summer. I gotta say, the Color Club and Misa have super cute names haha. I have some more really bright oranges but they are much lighter and more yellow than what you see here. These are all traffic cone orange colors.

Wham! Pow! (Thumb), Awesome Orange (I+M), Six Pack Summer (R+P) 

Holy wow, neon oranges are super hard to take pictures of! They all look really similar in these pictures but IRL, you can tell the difference between them fairly easily. The moment I put on the Color Club shade, I could tell it was way brighter than the other two. Definitely no dupe there. The Milani and Misa were a lot closer but they are still actually different with the Milani being a shade darker than the Misa. Not dupes but you don't need both. I would actually recommend the one that is the most different, the Color Club. It's the brightest with the smoothest formula. The whole Color Club collection (Poptastic) was a win. Three coats, no topcoat was used on all of these.

I thought maybe if I took a pic of them separately that you could tell the difference better, but no not really lol. You'll just have to take my word for it. You can tell that Color Club Wham! Pow! is a lot brighter so I guess that's all that really matters.

Milani Neon Dude Blue vs Color Club Chelsea Girl Comparison

~purchased by me~


I have a hard time seeing the "neon" in neon blue polish. I don't really know if a bright neon highlighter blue color can be captured by nail polish. I keep on trying to find one anyway ;)

These are the only two neon blue polishes that I have; Milani Neon Dude Blue and Color Club Chelsea Girl from their poptastic collection. Both are cream (creme?) neon colors. I decided to do a quick swatch to see if they were dupes.

Milani Neon Dude Blue (I+M) vs Color Club Chelsea Girl (R+P)

Dude Blue is slightly darker than Chelsea Girl. I honestly don't really think they look all that neon but then again, I haven't ever seen a neon blue that looks neon to me. I mean, the color is the right shade of highlighter, as in I've seen a blue highlighter this color, but it seems to lack that bright intensity that a highlighter is. You know how highlighters look fluorescent? This just looks bright to me. And the Milani version isn't even all that bright, especially when compared to the Color Club.

Formula was good. I did two coats of each, no topcoat. I like how they were both not streaky or needed white undies to reach perfect opacity. Though they both didn't quite reach my standards of "neon", they are both lovely bright blues. Also, no dupes!

I don't usually like opaque bottles like the Milani bottle but they did a really good job with matching the bottle color to the actual color of the polish inside. The entire Color Club Poptastic collection is fantastic and if you can still find it, I would recommend getting them. They are all bright creams (cremes?) with great formulas. I believe I purchased the whole set at Marshall's for $8. The Milani Neon's are starting to pop up at dollar stores around my area so if you are interested you can check there. Do you have any blue neons that you absolutely adore? Comment to let me know what they are because as of now my search continues for the perfect neon blue!

Zoya Binx Swatch and Review

~purchased by me~


I like the Zoya brand a lot. They have nice colors, do a lot of promotions, their bottles are nicely shaped, they don't have long names and their formulas are 5 free and usually excellent. They recently had a nice promotion that I didn't partake in but the promo they had before that was really good and I couldn't pass it up. Buy any three Zoya polishes and just pay the shipping price of $12. What a steal! I had a hard time deciding but after looking at some swatches I decided on Cosmo, Binx and Stassi. Today I'm showing you my swatches of Binx. This is what I used!

Now. As you may or may not know, I'm not big on purple and this is described as "a spicy orchid purple dappled with gold metallic and holo sparkles. The exclusive liquid-metal holographic jelly formula is full-coverage in 2 coats. With undertones evenly balanced between red & blue, this shade is flattering to most skin tones." via the Zoya website. So you may be wondering why I chose this particular shade. Well, I saw a swatch of it on Pretty Girl Science and it looked so beautis. This might be true on her but on me, well...

I really don't like this color on me.

Nope.

Not better. 

No matter how I twiddle my fingers, I simply did not like this on me at all. As soon as I put it on I thought to myself . . . this is a color my mother would wear. And not in a good way either. Formula was fine, you can get away with 2 coats even on long nails; it will just be a softer pink color. At three coats the nails match the bottle shade. And at three coats, I wanted to take it off. I don't like this at all. With my skin tone, this color may even be SFW. I think it looks really good on skin tones paler than mine or if you like the color purple but on me it was so dull and blah looking T_T. The polish itself is pretty but it's just not my style and I think it hates me as much as I hate it haha. Maybe I'll try to mattify it and see if it's any better. Now I regret not getting the Magical PixieDust shade Bar in it's place. Next time!
Zoya polishes can be bought at Ulta or the Zoya website. They retail for $9-$10 but often run promos.


**UPDATE**
So I tried to mattify it. It looks better but still not that great on me. I used Warpaint Beauty Matte topcoat (You can get it at hot topic). I'll have to try to layer it over a different color next time.

Milani Golden Romance Swatch

~purchased by me~

When the Maybelline Brocades collection came out a LONG time ago I wasn't initially impressed, but as time went on and more and more swatches came out I developed a deep lemming for the shade Gilded Rose. Unfortunately for me, the brocades collection never came to my stores. Any of them. And then, as if the nail polish gods had heard my prayers, Maybelline decided to make Gilded Rose core. I immediately ran to the drugstore, in search of the elusive shiny but alas, no luck. The store I went to hadn't updated their Color Show shelf yet and there was simply no shiny to be had. So I wandered around the CVS, a bit dejected when my eyes landed on what looked like the aforementioned shade in a very different bottle.

What was this sorcery? I hadn't even heard anything about this polish at all among the nail bloggers I follow, though its assumed Maybelline twin had made quite a big splash. Surely it wasn't a dupe? I had to find out.

So pretty that I couldn't wait for daylight before snapping a pic!

ooh, shiny. Even better the next morning

It sure looked like it. I did a quick google image search at home and it looked like an exact dupe for the Maybelline Gilded Rose! And it only cost me $1.99!

This was opaque in 2 coats and dried quickly. I'm not one for sheer polish but even at one coat, where you could still see VNL, I loved it. It's extremely reflective; so much so that you can even see yourself in it. Pictures do it no justice; this is one that you have got to see in real life. For a polish that is so glitter/particle heavy, it dried smooth. I only used one coat of topcoat (Seche Vite) and it was perfect! Formula win!

In case you didn't know, Milani is clearancing out this line currently at most if not all drugstores. In fact, you can get this polish on the Milani website for only $1.99! Score! It's gorgeously shiny in the sun as well.

So shiny apparently, that it attracts big black nasty bugs :(

I didn't notice it until I was editing the picture!

The one chief complaint I heard about the Maybelline Brocades was that they were notorious for chipping something fierce. I worried about that being a problem in this polish since they both look like they are made of the same material but my worries were unfounded ^_^ This polish wore like iron for me, lasting 5 days without chips. Ignore the strange line of my middle finger. I think it's just a reflection because I definitely don't see it on my nails now.

5 days and going strong!

Most impressive, no? Even more remarkable was the fact that I didn't wear my usual Orly Bonder as base coat for this polish. I had a scary bendy moment with my pinky nail so I wore Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hardener (which I highly recommend) as my base. Grand verdict: if you don't have this yet or have problems with chipping for Gilded Rose, consider getting this! It's achingly beautiful, cheap as all heck and wears very well. You might still be able to catch it on clearance at the drugstore or you can buy it direct from the site. Go get this bug attracting polish today!

Silver Foil Comparison! Sinful Colors Heavy Metal vs Orly Shine

~purchased by me~


Ah, silver. My first love. When it comes to metallic colors anyway ;). I actually have a few silvers but these are the only ones that I thought were similar enough to compare. O.P.I This Gown Needs A Crown is a matte silver glitter, their Push and Shove shade is a chrome and Pure Ice Mercedes is too smooth to be a foil. I guess it's a chrome too? A brushstrokey, not as shiny chrome? Also Sinful Colors Charmed has tiny multi colored glitter in it. Pretty, but no dupe. Sally Hansen's Celeb City, Wet N Wild Silvivor, Zoya Trixie and Revlon Sequin probably are also dupes, (just to name a few!) but I don't own those. Nearly all brands have come out with a silver foil and they all pretty much look the same.

In sun

Indoors

I got the Orly from one of those 3 pc nail art sets that Sally's Beauty carries, that's why the bottle looks so skinny and tall lol. These Orly mini's are really nice though because they use the same brush as the original Orly's and the brush handle is nice and long. Two coats each, no topcoat.

Sinful Colors Heavy Metal (I+M) and Orly Shine (R+P)

Foils are nice and easy to wear, even if they leave flecks all over your fingers after cleanup.

Formula is the same, opacity is the same, brush is good on both. No complaints here. Solid dupes; you only need one. The Sinful Colors one is probably cheaper.

Heavy Metal is from their past Hot Flash Metallics collection so you might have trouble finding it now. I believe the Orly is core. There are a ton of dupes out there if you are looking for a good silver foil though. I know that Zoya Trixie is really popular but I never bought it since I know I already own two dupes of it. Also, I rather get new unique Zoya shades then waste my money on a dupe! Sinful Colors can be bought virtually everywhere for $1.99 retail and Orly can be bought from beauty supply stores like Sally's or Ulta for $8.00.

Shiny Gold Comparison!

~purchased by me~


Hello everyone! Hope you had a great weekend! Today, I thought I would share my stash of shiny gold polishes. I actually used to hate wearing the color gold and was a silver girl all the way. But now I've learned to accept the shiny goodness and warmth that a good gold can bring.

Sparitual Solstice, O.P.I Goldeneye, Wet N Wild The Gold & The Beautiful, Sinful Colors All About You 

I knew straight away that the Wet N Wild and Sinful Color polishes weren't going to be the same as the other two but they have the same kind of golden glitter so I thought I might as well showcase them. The Sinful Colors polish also has reddish glitter in it.

Solstice (I), Goldeneye (M), The Gold & The Beautiful (R), All About You (P)

I first got Goldeneye when I saw my cousin wear it. I was like OMG what is that?? It looks like real gold on your nails! And she told me about this polish and highly recommended it to me. I got Solstice soon after that. The other two I just picked up randomly. I'm wearing 3 coats of each for all of these but you can wear Solstice and Goldeneye at just two coats. The Gold & The Beautiful and All About You are too sheer to wear on their own unless you don't mind wearing 5 coats of polish! They are much better for layering.

Indoors, natural lighting.

Solstice is the most dense out of the three, followed by Goldeneye, The Gold & The Beautiful and All About You. IRL, Solstice and Goldeneye are really similar, with Solstice just being a tad more opaque. You can tell that the other two have the same kind of glitter in them, just in less dense quantities. Also, I think that the Sinful Colors one might have slightly larger glitter. And just if you're wondering, Zoya's Maria Luisa and NYC Top Of The Gold are made of different materials. They have more of a gold cellophane flake and yes, they are dupes of each other. For that reason, I don't have the Zoya one. Also, I think it looks terrible on it's own. I don't know how Zoya managed to get such beautiful swatches of Maria Luisa because on my nails, Top Of the Gold alone just makes my nails look dirty and yellow.

I was losing sunlight fast so this was the best I could do. Sorry.

These are really sparkly and shiny in real life. I missed my chance to catch it in strong direct sunlight so I'll have to swatch it again sometime. All four are totally worth owning, though if you could only get one, I would suggest the Sparitual one. The O.P.I one is great too, just not as opaque. I bought the Sparitual polish from 6pm.com for only $4.99 though it retails for $12.00 at places like Ulta. The O.P.I I bought online for $6 from Amazon. It's from the past James Bond collection so it's harder to find in store. The Wet N Wild and Sinful Colors are core so you can get them anywhere! They are really cheap too, at $1.99 each. Being drugstore, you can easily get them for $1 or less if you catch them on sale!

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Brilliant Bordeaux vs Finger Paints Picasso's Puce Comparison

~purchased by me~


Continuing with the Sally Hansen Diamond Strength line, I thought I might have a dupe for another shade. Brilliant Bordeaux is a dark shimmery maroon shade. Or wine shade, if you go by the name ;)

Indoors. Really dark.

They are kind of hard to see since they are so dark. How about a pic in the sun?

Lol, not better.

These kind of shades are a really nice way of wearing a dark vampy color without it looking black. I especially like wearing maroons in the fall. Two coats for swatches, though, you can most definitely get away with wearing only one. Also, super shiny. I didn't post some other nice pics I took because you could see my reflection in them, looking super ratchet as I'm wont to do ;)

Picasso's Puce (I+M) and Brilliant Bordeaux (R+P)

Picasso's Puce has a touch more brown in it while Brilliant Bordeaux has a little more red. Both have fine red shimmer and high shine. Formula was good on both, as was the brush. I really don't like the Finger Paints bottle though. I think the shape is off-putting and I really don't like their font. It looks like its made for children...though, Finger Paints does make some really pretty, unique shades and the price is right so I'll forgive them. At least their bottles are better looking than Nicole by O.P.I.'s.

Fun Fact! Did you know "Puce" means of a dark red or purple-brown color?

They look really similar in pics but you can tell the difference in real life if you're a nit picker for color. You don't need both though. I prefer the Sally Hansen one myself since I don't like to wear brown on my nails but they are both very nice.

In sunlight they look virtually the same because of the shimmer

I'm pretty sure you can only buy Finger Paints brand at Sally's Beauty Supply. At least, that's the only place I've seen it sold. They retail for $5.49 but they often have promotions like BOGO free or BOGO 1/2 off. I think I bought my bottle on clearance for $1 or so ^_^. The Sally Hansen Diamond Strength line can be bought at drugstores for about $4.49. Of course, being a drugstore brand, that means there's plenty of sales to catch for it as well.

Sally Hansen Diamonds & Rubies vs Rimmel Stiletto Red Comparison

~purchased by me a long ass time ago~


So I was trying to figure out a new way to organize my swatch sticks and I stumbled upon what looked like a possible dupe! Things can look different on swatch sticks compared to on real nails though so I thought I would do a comparison for you guys!

Look damn near the same though, don't they?

I know I bought these a long, long time ago, when I only had a handful of nail polishes. I had thought to myself, well you have to have the basics! And whats more classic than a nice red cream (creme?)? It's actually surprising I don't have more possible dupes for this shade but the only other red I have is more of a jelly/crelly so that doesn't count.

Stiletto Red (I+M) and Diamonds & Rubies (R+P)

I absolutely adore the brush on the Rimmel Lasting Pro line. Wide and curved, it makes painting nails really easy, especially for a beginner. They only had 10 or so shades when I initially bought it but they discontinued the line now :( They've since replaced the line with one called Salon Pro I believe. The good part is that you can probably find all the shades in the line on clearance in drugstores! It's been awhile, but I think the last time I was at the drugstore I spotted some. The Sally Hansen Diamond Strength line has a nice skinny brush that is good for smaller nails (like my pinky).

Look, you can see my dumb head in the shiny reflection!

I really like the bottle on the Rimmel Lasting Pro line. They line up ever so nicely in the drawers of my helmer. The top is embossed with a little crown so they look good from above too. The brush and formula for the line was always impeccable. I recall being able to wear this with one coat (!) but I used two for swatches. They will be sorely missed. Now for the Sally Hansen Diamond Strength, this is the old bottle. I think the new bottles are all faceted, like a diamond. Pretty! Also, the little rhinestone etched into the front of the bottle is a nice touch. Both polishes are 2 coats, no topcoat.

In sunlight. Yup, these are dupes.

I'm not bothered having these as dupes because red is such a basic color. You can wear it pretty much all year round (well, maybe except for spring) or really, any damn time you want, color appropriate seasons be damned. Also, I may have bought knowingly bought another red because one of them might have had trouble water marbling. I was really into that back in the day. You can buy Sally Hansen Diamond Strength polishes for about $4.49 at the drugstore. The Rimmel Lasting Pro line is discontinued but they were really cheap, probably even cheaper now that they are all being clearanced out.

Zoya Kimber and Salon Perfect Pink Mystique Comparison

~purchased by me~

I wasn't a huge fan of the color pink previously, except in blushes or lipstick but not for clothes, shoes or nails. Then suddenly! one day my feminine side kicked in and I embraced the pink. Kind of. It's still not my favorite color to wear but I learned to appreciate it. I'm still not a big fan of purple though (strange, I know, since it seems that most nail polish addicts lurve purple). I especially love pinks that have a golden shimmer to them. I think gold accents pink quite nicely.

They look more similar in real life...

I make a point to not consciously buy dupes of nail polish. I only have one helmer and I intend to keep it that way. Inevitably, I will have some dupes, but I try really hard to keep it to a minimum; I'll even franken a polish to make it different or I'll give it away. However, today, I needn't to do either. These are not dupes!

Salon Perfect Pink Mystique (I+M) Zoya Kimber (R+P)

Though it totally, absolutely looks like I have Zoya Kimber on my index and middle finger and Salon Perfect Pink Mystique on my ring and pinky, it is the other way around! Maybe that's why I thought they were dupes from just looking at the bottles? Either way, Kimber pulls more red than Pink Mystique. Two coats of each, no topcoat.

Here's a pic in the shade with natural lighting. They look realllly similar here. The lighter shade at the tips of my ring and pinky are just from the free edge of my nail bed. You can't see VNL though. 

Finally, Kimber shows her true (bottle) colors!

In the sun, Kimber in the bottle is finally looking like Kimber on the nail! So yeah, the shades are similar but not the same, though the golden flecks are identical in both. I think they are both worth owning! I bought Salon Perfect Pink Mystique at Walmart for $3.98 and Zoya Kimber retails for $9.00 (back in the day it was $8.00) but most likely I only paid $4.00 for it. Yay for Zoya sales!