Some Quick & Dirty Icing Swatches & Comparisons. Other Swatches Too. And Stuff.

I was bored one night and decided to see what the Icing colours I bought actually looked like on my nails, as well as how similar they were to the colours I thought they looked like.  Turns out I was pretty much right in almost all my predictions - the colours are unique in that they look like muted versions of things I already own.

Observe:

Starting off, we have Icing Casino Green.  All of these swatches are without b/c and t/c.  This was a little thick, but the horrible application is just my lack of skillz I think, not the polish's fault.  See?  Like I said - slightly more muted Rebel Debutante.  It's got a tad more blue in it too, I think.  This was 3 coats of Casino Green, 2 of RD. 

Next, Icing True Blue.  This was much more muted than what I thought was its closest dupe, CC Take Me to Your Chateau.  More greyed out, slightly sheerer, not nearly as stark.  I'd call it a true "powder blue".  I didn't have Joe Powder Blue at the time, but it looks closer to this than anything else - I'll have to compare them.  Application was a teeny bit sheer, but I only did two thin coats.  One or two more coats would have completely eliminated the VNL. 

Last, Icing Sunset.  Pretty orange creme with a bit of coral in it.  This is the one I was a bit off on.  It's much lighter and more orange than H&S, as you can see, and not as peach as TD.  It's like a soft orange, sort of.  This was the easiest to apply out of the three.  This is two coats.

Of course, as I said I was bored that night, so I did some more swatches.

This is a Sally Girl mini in Light Purple.  Sorry about the horrible lighting here, but other than my jaundiced hands (aaah!) this is pretty true to colour.  Most of these Sally Girls don't have names, so if you need a refresher:

It's the fourth one from the left.

This is unique among my many, many purples.  This looked like a lighter, more lilac version of Nina Ultra Pro Sweet Nothings.  It's pinker than OPI Do You Lilac It? and I thought it looked pretty good on me.  Application was great for a little mini with a little eeny weeny puny brush.  I love these Sally Girl polishes.  Next time you're in a Sally's, pick this colour up! It's a dollar!

Next, I swatched some of those super-sparkly foil Princessas I got:

This one is called Champagne Dust, and it's a beigy-leaning-rose gold foil.  Very bright and Minx-like.  I swatched a full mani of this, because it kind of reminded me of Swing Baby from the upcoming China Glaze Vintage Vixen collection.  Until I read that SB has multicoloured microglitter.  which this does not.  But it has beigey-gold microglitter!  It's very pretty.

And this is some more of them:

Tan Gerine (still not getting the name....) is a shimmery cornflower blue with pink and purple microglitter and multisized shimmer particles.  It's so gorgeous, and the flash is very noticeable.  It would probably look best layered over something, as it is a tad sheer.  The rest of these had the same foil finish as Champagne Dust and the previously showcased Everglade Sparkle.  I know no one's ever heard of these, so I'm gonna stop boring you going on and on about them, but California Sunshine is my fave. Colorado Rapid, which I thought would be, had a slightly less reflective and more frosty finish to it, which I didn't like as much.

Next, this is Savvy Red Caviar.  Gorgeous shimmery deep red jelly with red shimmer/glitter.  Very glowy.  Reminded me of these two OPIs immediately, and the colour is similar, but the finish is completely different.  RC has more glitter flecks in its jelly base, whereas the OPIs are straight-up shimmers.  I looooove glowy vampies like this!

Last but not least, I have two Sally Hansen Insta-Dris for you.  Insta-Dris never get any love.  Yes, the brush is a tad unwieldy, but it's not that bad.  And wow, are these opaque!

See?  I would deal with the stupid brush any day of the week for this gorgeousness!  This is Jumpin' Jade - a deep teal with forest green shimmer. This is two coats of Jumpin' Jade, but I could have done one and been just fine.  Not to mention these do dry pretty fast.  I'm guessing this would be awesome for konading.... (pot leaf BM plate anyone? hahaha)

And this is Uptempo Plum.  This is so pretty too.  A deep blackened plum with purple, red, blue and gold microglitter (which you can kinda see in the bottle here).  The glitter has that smooth, suspended quality, like in Savvy Red Caviar.  Gorgeous.  I'm gonna have to wear this one on its own very soon, but like I said I was bored that night, so I decided to try some glitter topcoats overtop:

Ignore my smudging of the index and pinky fingers.  I think I like Fairy Dust the best.  Although I love them all.  Shiny things......

Okay, I'm going to cut myself off right here.  I have some more swatches and comparisons to post, but they can wait for now.  I have a billion swaps going at once right now (again!  I know I said I was gonna cut back on swapping, but there's so many things I want and can't get!  HT!  Damone Roberts!  Zoya's LIPPY sale!  Not to mention I managed to swap for some RBLs, which I'm SUPER-excited about!!  I can't wait for them to get here!  Screw it, I'm swapping all I want!) and I'm expecting my Zoyas from the exchange soon too!  Yay!  So lots of stuff to post soon!  :)

I'll be back later with more sub-par swatchery  :p

Went To Sadly's: Their Sale + Me Getting Paid = Bad

Yeah.  I'm so horrible.  All that stuff I posted the other day, making it look like I do nothing 24/7 except buy polish - and now, I go and go to Sally's, where they're having a sale, and forget it.  Gone.  My sense of reason, that is  :p

Oh, I got China Glaze.  I got Orly.  I got Nina Ultra Pro, Finger Paints and Sally Girl minis.  And the sad thing is, what I went in there for in the first place (Orly Sweet and China Glaze Up & Away - I still need Grape Pop) wasn't even in stock.  I could very well have turned around and walked out of the store - what I went for wasn't there.  But did I?  Oh no - Sally's is so far away from me, and I haven't been there in so long, so since I drove all this way and I'm already here, I might as well have a bit of a look, and hello what's this ohmygod they're having a sale?!  

So after I drop I'mnotevengoingtotellyouhowmuch, instead of walking to my car and going immediately home, then what does my stupid arse do?  I notice they have a Dollar Giant across the parking lot!  So I duck in, and find all these weird-brand-but-interesting-looking polishes for THREE for a buck!  So of course I stock up there and get every colour I find even remotely interesting, and then a couple more for swap extras, and THEN what do I do??!?  I walk across the parking lot again and go into freaking Walmart!  Again!!  For like the second time in a week!  Why, you ask?  On the off-chance they might have that Nicole I wanted, because my local Walmart doesn't!  :p  So when I do find it, what do I do?  I proceed to buy not just that one, but four different Nicoles.  Four.

So yeah.  Now I have about fifty billion new polishes.  And you wanna hear the part that's really funny?  I'm just about to pull the trigger on a massive Transdesign order, which includes the new ChG Poolside collection, the Orly Sweet collection, the ones from the CC Wild At Heart collection that I want, a couple d/c'ed OPIs, and a bunch of Misas... and possibly the ChG Bahama Blues collection - I haven't decided yet.  I'm trying to find the willpower to wait until tomorrow after I get back from the States.

Yeah.  I have a problem :p.  Seriously.  Literally almost all of my disposable income is going towards feeding my voracious polish appetite.  How many of you out there are like me, when it comes to this stuff?  What's your vice?  Alcohol?  Drugs?  Gourmet grocery items?  Shoes?  Critereon DVDs?  Action figures?  Video games?  Comic books?  Necklaces?  All beauty products?  Lipglosses?  Soap?    <---- these are all real-life addictions and collections of various friends of mine.  I know a people who have hundreds of each one of these things (okay, well, not drugs :p), and a lot of these things are a lot more expensive to collect than nail polish.  Sure, there are a few polishes out there, various shades of unicorn piss that command hundreds of dollars on evilbay, but I'm not going to be shelling out for them anytime soon.  I don't even want to pay $30 for Creme De Menthe (I think... :p)  I think my vice is relatively harmless compared to a lot of others out there.

Okay, I think I'm done justifying my stupefying spending habits to myself  :p  Let's see some haulage!

First, the boring stuff:

Orly Bonder base coat and some kind anti-yellowing top coat.  Not sure what brand it is.  I've been wanting to try Bonder - I've heard good things about it on the NB, and I'm forever searching for an HG base coat.

Second most boring: the Nicoles I got.  They are pretty, though.  L-R: Sky's The Limit, Di-Vine Is Divine, Diva Into The Pool, and Let's Get Star-ted.  LGS is the one I was looking for.  Still haven't found Fresh-Squeezed yet, though.  STL and DITP have glass-flecked shimmer, and D-VID is a purpleish magenta with gold shimmer.  I hate Nicoles - how many times do I have to say that - but they keep coming up with such awesome colours... and I've never had a complaint about the formula.  What stupid names, though.

Onto the good stuff from Sally's.

Orlys!  A lot of them!  L-R: Charged Up (blue-purple creme), Passion Fruit (bright neon fuchsia creme), Goth (black with silver glitter), Red Carpet (red with red and silver glitter, wonder how it compares to the SH Xtreme Wear of the same name), Star Of Bombay (dark blackened navy with purple shimmer), Fifty-Four (pink, gold and red iridescent shimmer), Love Each Other (blue, pink and purple iridescent shimmer), Flagstone Rush (bronze shimmer), Glitz (gold shimmer) and Ruby Passion (red glass-flecked shimmer).  Yay!  Growin' mah Orlyyyy collection.....!

The always-popular (with me), always-irresistable China Glaze.  L-R: Solar Power (yellow shimmer), Up All Night (dark blue shimmer), Grape Juice (glass-flecked light purple) and Black Diamond (black shimmer).  With Solar Power, I own almost all of the Ecollection except Hybrid, and Grape Juice adds to my Summer Days collection (still need Raspberry Festival, Cherry Pie and Orange Marmalade... Hmm, might order them from TD).

Savvys in the bottle that's being discontinued.  I like this old bottle, though - so nice and square.  This is Deep Amethyst (which I wanted after seeing it in this post, like so many other polishes :p) and Red Caviar (burgundy with gold shimmer).  I now own four Savvys.  Every time I read this name I hear Captain Jack Sparrow's voice in my head.  "Savvy?"

Finger Paints!  L-R: It's An Original, Aritstic Azure, Magenta Mood and Be A Pal-ette.  I saw they had a new Finger Paints blue collection in stock, unlike every other new collection, but I read on the NB that they're painfully, disappointingly sheer.  So I passed on all but Artistic Azure, which is just a re-release anyway.

Nina Ultra Pro polishes.  I initially got a couple of this brand just to give to my sister (her name is Nina), but I ended up really liking them.  L-R: Molten Gold (beigey-gold shimmer), Molten Ruby (kind of a coppery red-gold duochrome - so cool), Last Call (mauvey purple with gold shimmer), Purple Pizzazz (blue-purple with pink shimmer), and Purple X-ing (purple jelly with holo glitter).

Then I noticed a new summer Nina collection that they had put out in place of the U&A collection:

They all have fruity names!  And they look juicy and fruity and shimmery and delicious.  A lot of them are glass-flecked.  L-R: Pomegranate, Star Fruit, Soursop (uh, what? this is blue...), Tutti Fruitti (okay, that's not a fruit), Dragon Berry (I don't think this actually exists, either), and Guava.  Okay, so the names aren't that great, but the polishes are.  Shimmery glass-flecked goodness!

And a billion little Sally Girl minis!  These are so cute!

 These don't all have names.  L-R: Genie, unnamed dark shimmery purple, unnamed pin with gold shimmer, unnamed lavender creme, Satsuma, unnamed blue-green holo glitter, U Glow Girl (glow-in-the-dark?!), unnamed red with gold shimmer, and unnamed blue with pink and purple shimmer.  Lame.  But for such tiny bottles, there are some pretty nice colours.

Okay, and the rest of these are my Dollar Giant haul.  Anyone ever heard of Billie cosmetics anyway?

 L-R: Sweetness, Elated, Solar and Anxiety.  What's with these names?

L-R: Steel Blue, Alloy, Gold and Iron Red.  Metallic shimmers.

L-R: Fuschia, Purple Haze and Majestic.

And these two Paris collection polishes.  Never heard of this brand either.  Gold glitter with gold hearts!  And a shimmery green colour!  I got two of the green - it's so pretty, someone will apppreciate it.

Aaaaand, last but not least, some swap haul I got in the mail this morning:

OPI At Your Quebec & Call!  And Wet N Wild Blue Moon, which I just got the other day, but that's okay!  Thanks pacificnorthwestocean!

Alright, that's all.  I've spent entirely too long typing this.  I really need to familiarize myself with the concept of a No-Buy. 

Haul 01-22-10 from Sally Beauty Supply and NOTD

So, went to Sally Beauty Supply on Friday (drove my ass all the way out to - ugh - Surrey) and got a whole whack of stuff. I meant to post as soon as I got back but it was the weekend and, well, I had better things to do than update a blog that no one reads :( How does one get followers, anyhow? ;...(.........

Anyway (sniff, sniff, wipes nose), wasn't too impressed with the selection at Sally's. The brands they had that I was interested in were the China Glazes, Orly, Finger Paints, Savvy and Nina Ultra Pro, but the selection kind of sucked - a lot of the polishes on my want list weren't there. And everything was sort of overpriced. But anyway, here's what I got...

China Glaze in (top to bottom) Strawberry Fields, Watermelon Rind, Secret Peri-wink-le, Unplugged and Flying Dragon.
Orly in Opal Hope (I blame Scrangie for this one), Swizzle Stick, Plum Noir and Green With Envy.Nina Ultra Pro in Out Of The Blue, Tangerine Dream, Mermaid and Sweet Nothings.
Close up of Mermaid. It's a pale mint green with gold shimmer and a slight duochrome effect.
Savvy Nail Laquer in Totally Teal and Deja Blue.And finally, Finger Paints in (top to bottom) Easel Come, Easel Go, Silver Sculpture, Lavender Highlight and Curator's Coral. I wanted ECEG because I don't own a really foil-like silver, and I'm not paying for Minx (I'd rather invest in some Konad first). I haven't worn it on its own yet, but it looked really really shiny. I like shiny things :p

And now, some skittles swatches:
Thumb to pinky: Orly Green With Envy. Orly Opal Hope, Nina UP Mermaid, Nina UP Sweet Nothings, Nina UP Tangerine Dream (much darker and more coral than in the bottle).Pinky to thumb: Sally Girl Mini nail color in Champagne Kisses (yeah, I totally forgot to take pics of these - I got five mini polishes at Sally's too, cuz, hello, they were 99 cents. I'll post one later), China Glaze Watermelon Rind (love), China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le, China Glaze Flying Dragon (so disppointed in this one. The finish is matte as hell, and the red and blue glitter doesn't really show up, it just makes it appear kind of murky. I wouldn't even call it neon. It's not bright and glossy like I so wish it was. I didn't get the heads up on the matte-ness of the INK collection until after I'd ordered them. Ah well. A super-glossy patent top coat might salvage it...) and China Glaze Strawberry Fields (love love!)

Out of all of them, my faves so far are Watermelon Rind and Strawberry Fields. China Glaze rules with its colours, as usual. I did a manicure on my sis for the weekend in SF. I forgot to take a pic (yeah, I know, get a brain) but it looked amazing. Juicy pink laced with shimmery gold. Drool. I don't own anything remotely like this. I love any polish with a gold shimmer.

I also am loving the formula on the Finger Paints polishes. I wore two of them over the weekend and was impressed with them both all night. You want to hear all about it, don't you? Of course you do ;p Okay fine, I'll keep it brief. Friday night I went to a friend's house to play a game of poker. Looking back, I wish I owned Color Club's Poker collection, with all the poker-inspired names... I play poker all the time and would love a poker-inspired collection.... hmm, note to self for Transdesign order. Anyway, I was wearing a very neutral oatmeal-coloured Fair Isle cardigan and wanted something punchy to brighten it up, but on trend at the same time. Since I live in the 'burbs and we're about a year behind on all trends (with the exception of yours truly, naturally) I decided to go for good ol' purple. Lavender Highlight looked great on my nails all night, and I literally threw it on five minutes before we were out the door. Except for a small smudge on my right thumbnail (from putting on my jacket) it dried pretty fast and was opaque in two thin coats. I didn't bother photographing it though - my app job was that horrible. All over my cuticles that I had to just rim off with my thumbnail in the car. Terribad. But no one but me could tell.

Saturday we just had some friends over and watched a hockey game. I wanted to wear something bright again, and it was Saturday so I wanted a sexier colour (I don't know) so I reached for the Curator's Coral, since it would contrast nicely with the Canuck colours on my jersey (dark blue, green and white, for those unfortunate enough to be unfamiliar with greatness.) Great choice. Just what I wanted. It glowed pretty vibrantly on my nails all night. And since I had to apply it really really fast during first intermission (hence the shite application job, which you'll forgive cuz you love me), it dried fast enough for me to return to the party without anyone missing me (my boyfriend what know right away what I was doing :p) I know, I've become some sort of closet polish junky. I must moderate myself.

Hehe, and on that note, I have another massive freakin haul to show you! Cuz yesterday, I went to Secret Nail and Beauty Supply again! That and probably another random NOTD comin at you, if I can. I did have stuff I wanted to do today - call my mom, pay my phone bill, mail a letter, possibly drive all the way downtown to pick up my cheque - which I'll do tomorrow if I can - and I really really wanted to go to IKEA to get a helmer or even just Wal-Mart to get a plastic drawer storage unit... but I'd rather go to IKEA. Then I could see if they have wall racks for my polish, and I don't care if the bf objects :p Then again, he took the day off today just to take it easy (and to spend it with me, I assume), and since I do love him so, I'll probably put off IKEA to hang out with him if he doesn't want to go. Ah, l'amour.