Indies: CrowsToes swatches

Nicole by OPI Nothing Kim-pares To Blue. Three coats. 

CrowsToes Bunny Slope over Nothing Kim-pares To Blue. One coat. 

Bunny Slope layered over Revlon Powder Puff. Three coats of Powder Puff and two coats of Bunny Slope. I have swatched Powder Puff before and you can view it here.

BB Couture Balboa Beach Bunny. Two coats. 

CrowsToes Cheshire. One coat with some touch ups. I should mention this is not the complete version. It is missing the large square magenta glitters. I still love it though! Lauri is planning to send replacements sometime this week. :) I received it before I posted so I have added it in!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Loves Me Not. Two coats. I had a defective brush. It is diagonal and uneven. I am already not a huge fan of this brush so it made it difficult to apply, but the formula seemed good. I am usually a three coat person but I was satisfied with just two.

Cheshire over Loves Me Not. One coat with some touch ups. This is the correct version with the big magenta square glitters. There is one on my index finger. The formula was really thick so I added some thinner before applying.

BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan. Two coats. 

CrowsToes Absolum - Your Potions Master over Moon Over Manhattan. Two coats. This one was a bit thick so I added some thinner before applying. 

BB Couture Mendocino Midnight. Two coats. I love this one. It is murky yet full of depth. There is even pink shimmer in this one!

CrowsToes Triple Black Diamond over Mendocino Midnight. Two coats. This one was impossible for me to capture how beautiful it really is. So much so that I swatched it a second time just to try again. I want to say it has the same kind of glitters are the Ozotic Elytras. The formula was thick for me, but nothing a little thinner didn't solve. 

Wet N Wild Black Ice. Four coats. The formula was very thin and runny and the brush was stiff which made application difficult.

CrowsToes Triple Black Diamond over Black Ice. One coat with some touch ups. I like it much better over this color. 

CrowsToes Herat Breaker. Three coats. I love the duochrome on this one. I had some trouble getting the large green glitter from the bottle. They have all sunk to the bottom and didn't want to come out even when I had the bottle upside down before using it. This is now known as Murder by #s.

CrowsToes Thing over Herat Breaker. One coat with some touch ups to even out the glitter distribution.

Jessica Pajama Party. Three coats. The bottle is in the shape of a paint can. While this is cute, it is a lot wider than normal polishes which made the cap awkward to hold. The formula was runny. So, runny formula plus weird cap made it difficult to apply. The polish was making a run to flood my cuticles. 

CrowsToes Thing over Pajama Party. One coat. I used a lighter hand with the glitter this time around than my previous swatch, so that is why they look so different. This was a special gift from Lauri that came with my order. :)

She is so cute and sweet. You can purchase these polishes from her store at: http://crowstoesnailcolor.bigcartel.com/

I really love all of her polishes. They were a bit on the thick side for me, but I prefer my glitters pretty thin to help with application. I just thought I should mention that before someone believes that I think the formulas are bad. They are not; it is just my personal preference.

Blinging in the New Year!

Well, it's New Year's Eve and in just a few hours it will be 2012! I no longer celebrate, in fact, I'm in bed soon after the kids fall asleep, cause you know, old people can't hang anymore :p

But, I like to bring in the new year on a sparkly note! So this year I'm wearing WnW's 24 Carats. I also swatched the 3 SH Gem Crush polishes I bought the other day. So, let's start with the swatches :D

First up is Big Money. I really like this one. I'd describe it as a golden champagne micro glitter with pinky lavender circle glitters in it. It is beautiful! The thing about micro glitters is that they catch the light so that it looks super sparkly! Here is 2 coats of Big Money in direct sunlight.

Quick Video

Oh man, I just realized that you can totally hear when I drop the bottle on the floor. Thankfully, you can't hear the obscenity I muttered under my breath due to the vehicle that drove by at that exact moment!!!

Next is Be-Jeweled. This one is a lavender micro glitter with larger round iridescent pink glitters. This is probably my favorite of the 3. Is this one a dupe for Wet N Wild's It's All In The Cut from Ice Baby? I don't know, but I think it might be. Regardless, it's so pretty! No, really, look at how the camera captures the sparkles in this one! This is only 2 coats.

SPARKLES!!!

Quick video

Now the last of the Gem Crushes I picked up and honestly, my least favorite, Lady Luck. This one could be described as a raspberry colored micro glitter with larger round silver holo glitters. I love the micro glitter, I just don't think it goes too well with the silver holo glitters. Maybe I'm just crazy and this one is gorgeous, I just don't feel much love for it. But here it is at 3 coats.

Quick Video

Just to sort of recap on these. I found them at Walmart a couple of days ago and the display was almost empty. There were 6 bottles left and I took 3 of the 6. The 3 I left looked like dupes of OPI's Gone Gonzo, China Glazes Love Marilyn, Lorelei's Tiara and Some Like it Haute and WnW's Diamond In The Rough. They were $6.24 + tax each. I think that covers it? So now, onto what will be on my nails when 2012 rolls around.

This is 3 coats of Wet N Wild's 24 Carats from their Ice Baby Collection. I was able to find a few of the colors at my local Walgreen's, but not all. I got 5 and I think there were 8? Anyhow, this one is a bar glitter. It's sort of a mixture of silver, gold and copper bar glitters and tiny silver, gold and copper square glitters. I have a love/hate relationship with bar glitter. I love how it looks for a little bit and then I hate it. But I also love gold polish and I think my love for gold and sparkly overpowers the fact that this is a bar glitter. It's just so pretty!

Unfortunately the sun was going back and forth behind some clouds when I went to photograph this and it only peeked out really weakly for a few seconds while I filmed it. But I think if you've seen this polish in direct sunlight or a really bright lamp, you'll know how beautiful this looks! Here it is at 3 coats, WnW's 24 Carats.

Quick Video

Well, that's it from me for today and for the rest of the year! I want to thank you for stopping by! From both Janelle and I, we wish Everyone a Wonderful, Amazing, Fabulous, Beautiful and Sparkly New Year! <3

Hello Kitty

Well, this little kitty is harder to draw than she looks! That's all I can really say. I tried and had to redo it like 3 times before finally deciding 1 nail with the kitty would be enough. Because I originally planned on doing Hello Kitty on each nail with different bow colors. Epic Fail! :p

Here's what I was able to do with a somewhat acceptable result :)

I used OPI Rumple's Wiggin' as the base color, then 1 thin coat of China Glaze Frosty and like 3 coats of Wet N Wild Party of Five Glitters. I wish the glitter was more densely packed in that polish! What a pain in the rear it was for me to get it to look the way it did.

Anyhow, sorry no video. It's actually been cloudy here the last few days :( But lately I've been itching to do more nail art. So hopefully you'll be seeing more of it and I'll get better so you won't have to suffer so much or gouge your eyes out!

Have a goodnight everyone!

China Glaze Mummy May I comparison!

So yesterday I went by Sally's to see if they had the new China Glaze Halloween polishes yet and they did! Well, it wasn't out yet, but the girl sees me there all the time so she offered to let me see them in the back. I only bought 2, Mummy May I and Ick-A-Bod-y. Mainly because I was able to compare both Zombie Zest and It's Not Rocket Science in store. Yeah, they looked pretty much the same to me. And since I already have It's Not Rocket Science, I chose to skip Zombie Zest.

When I got home I swatched Mummy May I and thought, hmm, this looks familiar. So although I have 2 polishes that are somewhat similar, I don't have a dupe. The two polishes that are basically also black with pink glitter are Wet N Wild's Night Prowl and Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance. The only similarity between the 3 is that they're a black with pink glitter. When you really look at it, you can see that Night Prowl has tiny fuchsia glitter, while Bad Romance has small and big fuchsia hex glitter and Mummy May I has small square pink glitter. Yeah, it's not the same fuchsia-ish color that the other two have. I suck at describing colors, but it's more pink and less fuchsia. I don't think it's that noticeable, since I actually thought they were the same color at first glance :X

But, don't take my word for it. See for yourself! :D Oh and please excuse the chips and scratches. Unfortunately I had to do some major stirring through my kids' toy chest earlier today so, that was really rough on my nails :(

Bottle Pictures in a light box

Out in direct sunlight without flash
L-R: WnW Night Prowl, ChG Mummy May I, DL Bad Romance, WnW Night Prowl

Outside in the shade without flash
L-R: WnW Night Prowl, ChG Mummy May I, DL Bad Romance, WnW Night Prowl

And here's a quick video showing the glitters in sunlight!
L-R: WnW Night Prowl, ChG Mummy May I, DL Bad Romance, WnW Night Prowl

That's it from me for today. Thanks for reading and have a great night!

Trying to franken dupe and a super long post for the weekend!

Early post today! Why so early? Well, my old man and I are going to take the kids on a long weekend to Ruidoso, NM. Sort of to celebrate the end of summer vacation and to relax for a bit. The kid are registered and their shots are up to date and we've gotten most of the back to school shopping done. They start on the 23rd and since the weekend of the 21st and 22nd are the Tax Free weekend, we're going to finish up our shopping then.

So that means, other than daily stresses and problems, we can relax! Before I go though, I wanted to leave you with some stuff from July and a franken I recently mixed in an effort to try and dupe a long and probably pointless (cause I'll probably never get it in real life) lemming of mine, Starry Starry Night.

So first, the stuff from July. My NOTD was OPI's Catch Me In Your Net. So beautiful! I don't have Zoya Charla, so I can't compare. But I'm pretty happy with this! This is 3 coats of Catch Me In Your Net, except for my ring finger. Which is one coat of Catch Me In Your Net over Black Onyx.


Now for a small haul and comparison. I actually posted this in my livejournal, so if you've seen it before, I apologize! But I hauled a few things in July from my Chanel counter and was pleasantly surprised to find a dupe for MAC's Moth Brown eyeshadow.

So here they are, Chanel Jade Rose, Chanel Paradoxal and Chanel Taupe Grise eyeshadow.

Then here are some comparison shots of Taupe Grise and Moth Brown. The only difference really is in texture and finish. The Chanel eyeshadow is softer in texture and is not as frosty. Which is what I think is the reason why Moth Brown has more of a purple sheen to it at certain angles. Because of the extra frostiness. But they're basically the same base color and if Taupe Grise were frostier, I'm sure it'd also have that same purple sheen that Moth Brown has. But honestly, blended into the crease, you can't even tell the difference! I used Moth Brown on one eye and Taupe Grise on the other and no one could tell they were different. So booya! Dupe :D In all the skin swatches, Taupe Grise is on the left :)



And now my franken. Please keep in mind I've never seen Essie's Starry Starry Night in real life. So my attempt to dupe it could be completely off. But from what I've seen in pictures, this was as close as I could get it. I might just cave and have my family in California pick up some Chinoiserie for me so I can compare Stellar Night to my franken. But that might not be for a few months. So until then, this will have to satisfy my night sky needs. The best part is, it was pretty cheap to make! Here's what I used:

WnW Nocturnal
CQ Clear Top Coat
Orly Tiara

This was mostly top coat, as I learned from user Love8Brain on makeupalley, to make a jelly polish, you need mostly top coat. Here's her tutorial on makeupalley. But for the most part, I like it a lot! I'm going to have to franken myself another bottle probably, because this was so easy and it's going super quickly! But if it is a close dupe, then do the math. I spent less than $10 to buy the polishes needed to mix this bad boy together. That's a heck of a lot less expensive than the going price of the real thing nowadays! So if you're like me and you really really want SSN, but can't shell out the money for it, get yourself to your nearest drugstore and Sally's and buy those 3 polishes and mix till you're satisfied!

Well I will see you guys next week. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and great manicure days! :D