Parlez-Vous OPI and Klean Color Luscious Lilac

I thought the combination of purples for this manicure would have looked a lot better than they do.  But oops.  Luscious Lilac has far too much red in it, but it is pretty so I decided to keep the mani even though it didn't mesh as I had hoped.

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This is two coats of Parlez-Vous OPI and two coats of Luscious Lilac over Orly Bonder and sealed with Out the Door.  You could seriously get away with one coat with Luscious Lilac. It's super pigmented and sparkly.  I want to wear it as a full mani next, maybe. Both formulas were incredible - smooth, opaque and easy to apply.  Considering the brands are pretty much at different ends of the spectrum, I was really surprised.

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Parlez-Vous OPI is a ridiculously cremey polish while Luscios Lilac has glass fleck, sparkles and who knows what else - but it's fabulous! I definitely love both of these two, I can't believe they've been in my untrieds so long!

My giveaway for my first collection of Oopsie Daisies Nail Polish ends on Friday!

Ulta Carnivale Four Piece Mini Collection Swatch & Review

This mini set from Ulta has a little something for everyone. Four different colors with four different finishes was an interesting selling point in this for me.  Most mini sets have the same finish with various colors, I liked the variety in this one.  My friend Melissa got this for me as a gift for passing my Praxis II (yay!) test a week or so ago. This was one of those items I pick up and put down time and time again so it was good to have someone pull the trigger for me. All swatches have CND Stickey for the base coat and Brucci Nail Dryer for the top coat.

Cha Cha, I Want Samba That, Masque-parade, It's the Rio Deal

I'll start with Cha Cha, which is a yellow creme.  I was hoping this one wouldn't suck, but it's a streaky standard yellow 4-coater.  It does look pretty, I like the shade but I don't like four coats.

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This one was most difficult to apply and had the worst formula from the bunch. I've never had any really bad experiences with Ulta brand polish but yellows seem to be everyone's Achilles heel.

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I Want Samba That, whose name is a pun that goes right over my head (I want some of that?), is a green grass fleck, very sparkly!  The formula on this one was decent, 3 coats shown.

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 I recently swatched a Funky Fingers green grass fleck; I prefer the Ulta shade much more.

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Masque-parade is a purple shimmer polish with pinkish-purple shimmers.  The formula on this one was great! So smooth, very opaque. Two coats.

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The shimmer, seen below, is super subtle and hidden, I had some difficulties capturing it.

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It's the Rio Deal is almost a creme. It's got some jelly-like attributes to it, as well.  It falls somewhere right in the middle as there was still some VNL even though I felt it was adequately covered.  The formula for this one was pretty good too actually. Two thin coats.

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It's a fun, very bright red that leans a bit neon. It's a bit of a all-in-one polish considering how many finishes it manages to have.  It reminds me of tomatoes and while I'm not a big fan of reds, this one is certainly memorable.

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The Ulta Carnivale Four Piece Mini Collection is available at Ulta for $7.99 - I'm pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the swatches except for the crappy yellow. It's such a pretty happy shade but the four coats is a deal breaker for me. Which is your favorite?

Funky Fingers Glass Fleck Collection

I picked up this set at Five Below.  There may or may not be dupes in these from the Color Club Take Wing collection. The Funky Fingers polishes are named after fairy tale and princess-y type stuff.  This set consists of five glass fleck sort of polishes. I used Orly Bonder and Brucci Nail Dryer for all of the swatches.

Prince Charming - Mirror, Mirror, Pixy Dust, Kiss the Girl - Belle

Prince Charming was the sheerest of the bunch needed a total of 4 coats.

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Bottle Macro

Not only was it the sheerest, it's the most difficult to describe. There are hints of blue and pink in there too.  And it's a bit glowy! The macro shot of my nail captures best what you can really see in real life.  It's got multi-dimensions to it. It loses points though for being a 4-coater, but you could probably get away with three.

Mirror, Mirror is a fun, vivacious blue that also is a bit glowy.  This is only 2 coats of polish in these pictures but I think if I applied slightly thicker coats that the bare spots or VNL you might be seeing would be eliminated.

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I was thinking this could possibly be a dupe for Color Club Sky High but upon closer inspection, I'm not so sure.

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 This one did stain though, just a warning.

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Pixy Dust, which I think is a nod at Tinker Bell, is the second sheerest out of this collection. This is 3 coats and could've used a fourth. I didn't really like how it looked on me that much. I'm sure there's an audience for this color, I'm just not a part of it.

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The next one, Kiss the Girl, is my favorite from this set.  Not just because it's pink, but the formula is incredible.  This is ONE coat of Kiss the Girl.  Out of all of them, this one has the most "glowy", least "metallic" look. It was slightly difficult to photograph. It behaved like a neon when I tried capturing it.

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Belle is the one I thought I'd like the least but it actually is pretty impressive for a yellow.  It's a direct reference to the Disney princess, Belle from Beauty and the Beast and I think they nailed it.  I stopped at 3 coats here. For as fun as this color is, I'm surprised I don't have one like it already.

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 I'm pretty sure this is a dupe for Color Club Daisy Does It.

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Yeah, it looks pretty bad on me but it's such a cool color. I love yellow so much, just wish I could wear it.

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So my overall take on these is that they're pretty awesome.  I got all of these for $9 and I'm pretty impressed with some of them. I'll run down their qualities again.


Prince Charming: Super sheer 4 coater with lots of depth.
Mirror, Mirror: Opaque 2 coater that stains.
Pixy Dust: Sheer green at 3 coats, not the best color.
Kiss the Girl: Super opaque one coat wonder that glows.
Belle: Decent opacity at 3 coats for a yellow. Has a CC dupe.


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Revlon Royal & Sally Hansen HD Mani

I found some Sally Hansen HD polishes that I've wanted forever and couldn't wait to wear them! I layered two different ones over Revlon Royal for this manicure which I wore for THREE days. Unheard of!

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The layering goes as follows:
-CND Stickey
-2 coats of Revlon Royal
-1 coat of SH HD DVD
-1 coat of SH HD LCD
-1 coat of Out the Door

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Sally Hansen HD DVD is a bluish purple-y duochrome like glass fleck.  Sally Hansen HD LCD is a pink based glass fleck with hits of a bright green duochrome.  They played nicely together but were incredibly hard to capture.

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You can see some of the duochromeyness (not a word!) in these pictures, but it really was MUCH more beautiful in person.  It leaned from blue to pink, which was really pretty.

I did something SUPER FUN YAY with this mani, keep an eye out for an upcoming post!

OPI Wing It & Color Club Fame and Fortune

I was at the mall this weekend and went into Essentials and saw a few of the Color Clubs left that I had been wanting, I hadn't seen them anywhere else so I grabbed Fame and Fortune as soon as I saw it.  I wanted to incorporate it into a mani so I layered it with OPI Wing It that was given to me by a friend from my nail polish forum; the result was fun!

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Flash

This is 3 thin coats over CND Stickey, no top coat.  Even with three coats there still is some VNL, but the coats were super thin so that may have a hand it it.  This polish is crazy.  It's really glowy and was a pain to photograph.  The flash picture is further away from its true color, it doesn't quite lean that red in real life. It's hot pink with a neon-y orange undertone and shimmery and maybe even some micro glass flecks.  It's unique is what it is, and I love it, really.

I wanted to play off of a "jelly sandwich" and since Wing It is somewhat jellylike, I sandwiched Color Club Fame and Fortune in it.  This is two coats of Fame and Fortune with another coat of Wing It and then one coat of Instant Artificials and then sealed with OTD.

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The two colors play nicely as Fame and Fortune's base color is very similar to Wing It's base color (a hot magenta of sorts).  My only gripe is that the flakes in Fame and Fortune don't necessarily lay flat.  On two nails, even with IA and OTD, they stuck out and didn't lay flat.  I ran my finest grit buffer over it a few times and it seemed to fix it; good to know! Just make sure it's dry otherwise you'll botch the whole thing.

Thanks for reading! (=

Sally Hansen Loyal Lavender & Pretty Petunia

I have more lavender for you :D  My BFF Britty sent this one to me because she knows I LOVE pastels.  Sally Hansen Loyal Lavender has a pink contrasting shimmer to it so it was more than just a pastel, it's a shimmery one!

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This is three coats over CND Stickey sealed with Out the Door.  It's pretty isn't it?  More suitable for springtime than winter, so I'll have to bring it out again then.

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Flash

You can really see the pink shimmer in the flash picture.  After wearing this for a day I wanted to jazz it up so I put one coat of Sally Hansen Pretty Petunia over it.  It's a gorgeous glass flecked baby pink and it played so nicely with Loyal Lavender.

It's really subtle but it added lots of extra sparkle that was eye-catching when I moved my hands.  Cute that both names have floral connotations.

cheshire & purple diamonds

Puuuuuuuuuuuuurple, YAY!

This is 4 coats of Funky Fingers "Cheshire" (One of my all time favorites!)  Its a pretty purple creme and I love it all over the place.

Its a pretty purple creme and I love it all over the place.

Then I added 2 coats of Sinful Colors "Purple Diamond" over it and wheeee sparkly (=  I think this is glass flecks, but I could be wrong.

Look at the curves on her!
ONE MORE FOLLOWER TO 50!!
Ok, bedtime, goodnight!