A blog about a girl, her nail polish, and some delicious noms.
Posts tagged frost
Review: Pretty and Polished S’no Mans Land!
1Allo Everyone!
Welcome to Day 2 of my Pretty and Polished Extravaganza, haha! I’ve got another holiday collection polish to share with you all today. This time we’re gonna check out Pretty and Polished S’no Mans Land. Let’s get straight to it, shall we? ^_^
Pretty and Polished – S’no Mans Land
S’no Mans Land is a frosty white polish filled with satin white hex glitter and small iridescent glitter. At first I was incredibly frustrated with this polish. It looked so pretty in the bottle and when I tried to wear it alone it was a frosty-streak filled disaster for me. 
What I quickly learned about S’no Mans Land is that you need patience to get it to work for you and not against you. What you also need to do is layer this sucker, unless you don’t mind the frosty finish when worn alone.
What you see above is 1 THIN coat of S’no Mans Land layered over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. This turned out to be my favorite combo for this polish. This turned out quite pretty when done this way. But make sure your coats are thiiiiinnn, I made the coat on my pointer finger just a little too thick and it started looking pearly again. 
The hex glitter is sparse but fishing wasn’t necessary, and I would not recommend fishing for this polish because it’ll just make your nails look like a mess, hah!
And here is a shot of 2 coats of S’no Mans Land on its own. I only did my pinky before I gave up on it to go with my layering combo instead. I mean, it’s certainly not the worst thing I’ve ever seen. But it was just too frosty on its own for me.
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Final Thoughts:
While not my favorite polish of the holiday collection that I’ve tried, S’no Mans Land can be saved! ^_^ If you layer it over white it has quite the ethereal look thanks to the hex and iridescent glitter. Once I learned how to work with S’no Mans Land I really did love how it looked layered!
But bear in mind that it can be tricky to work with. And if frosty finish nail polishes are the bane of your existence, or you don’t like to layer your polishes then this may not be the polish you are looking for.
Purchase Info:
Pretty and Polished S’no Mans Land can be purchased from Chels Marie’s new shop, www.shopprettyandpolished.com. It retails at $5.00 for the mini and $9 for the full sized bottle. You can also still find Pretty and Polished on her Etsy Shop.
For updates and previews of new collections, follow Pretty and Polished on Facebook and Twitter!
* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.
For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.
Review: OPI The Amazing Spider-Man Collection
17
Morning Lovelies!
I’ve got The Amazing Spider-Man Collection by OPI to share with you fine people today. The collection is inspired by the upcoming summer movie with the same name, and it consists of 6 polish shades and one shatter effects polish. Let’s get right into it shall we?
I used Cult Nails Get It On and Wicked Fast base coat/top coat for my swatches today.
Just Spotted The Lizard
Peridot Just Spotted The Lizard is a green-gold duochrome beauty. And yes, you heard me right folks. This polish is a dupe for Chanel’s Peridot! I have a comparison post in the works for you all so keep an eye out for that popping up on the blog a little later this week. 
I used 3 coats here.
Number One Nemesis
Number One Nemesis is a gorgeous complex mix of dark olive green, grey, gold and silver in a metallic foil base. It was sheer, but built up to opacity after 3 thin coats. I love this one! I missed out on Chanel Graphite so this kills my lemming for it. It’s not a dupe, but it’s close enough for me not to care. 
Here’s a macro shot for ya. *le swoon*
My Boyfriend Scales Walls
My Boyfriend Scales Walls is an off-white creme with grey undertones. I like this one, but I wish it was opaque in 2 coats instead of the 3 I had to use here. It might have been user error though. So I’ll say this is a 2-3 coat polish. I’m not really sure where it fits into the world of Spider-Man, but I’ll take OPI’s word for it since I’m not a big Marvel comic girl. I’m guessing from the color of his costume?
Shatter The Scales
Here’s 1 coat of Shatter The Scales over My Boyfriend Scales Walls. It’s a jelly-ish dark forest green with silver shimmer, very pretty. I forgot to take pictures with me holding the Shatter The Scales bottle. It was 4am, I was a little loopy and full of acetone fumes.
Macro shot here.
Into The Night
Into The Night is a navy blue metallic shimmer. Nothing too exciting or new here. It has a super thin and watery formula and it kept wanting to pool in my cuticles. 3 coats.
Your Web Or Mine?
Your Web Or Mine? is a rose pink colored frost that is not really my cup of tea. At all. Frost finishes are one of those things that I was happy to see go the way of the dodo bird in the 90s. Please stop bringing it back. No ♥, Rie.
2 coats of brush stroke grandma shade goodness. ಠ_ಠ
Call Me Gwen-Ever
Call Me Gwen-Ever is a muted tangerine creme. Now that’s more like it OPI! I love this color, but to be fair I honestly love EVERY orange that I come across. Applies like a dream, 2 coats of love here. ^_^
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Final Thoughts:
I have some serious mixed feelings about this collection. I thought that I was going to love every single one of these polishes from the pictures on the press release, and that just wasn’t the case. While I adore having less expensive alternatives for the Chanel polishes (Number One Nemesis and Just Spotted The Lizard are great!), I do wish that there were more unique polishes in this collection instead of what seemed like rehashes of things I’ve seen before. The only polishes that seemed new and interesting to me were Call Me Gwen-Ever and Shatter The Scales, and heaven knows that shatter/crackle polishes have been beaten into the ground at this point. And Your Web Or Mine? I rebuke that polish. I know some people enjoy frosts, so you’ll love that one. But it is just not at all for me.
Purchase Info:
The Amazing Spider-Man 2012 Collection by OPI retails for around $8.50 per .5 fl oz bottle of polish. They can be purchased at your local professional salons and spas nationwide. You an also purchase them at larger chain salons, including (but not limited to) JCPenny, Dillards, Regis, Pure Beauty, Trade Secret, and Ulta.
* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.
For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.
China Glaze Hunger Games Collection Swatches – Part 2
12Good Morning Again Tributes!
I’m back with Part 2 of my China Glaze Hunger Games Colors from the Capitol Collection Swatches. If you missed out yesterday, you can check out Part 1 right [HERE]. Let’s move right into the polishes, shall we?
I used Sally Hansen Nail Quencher and Seche Vite as my base coat/top coat combo for all the swatches shown today.
Mahogany Magic (District 7 – Lumber)
Mahogany Magic is a chocolate brown creme with yellow undertones. I ended up liking this one a lot more than I thought I would. I have a grand total of maybe three brown polishes, including this one, but the color is great! I used 2 coats here. The formula is a little thin but built up nicely and had good pigmentation.
Dress Me Up (District 8 – Textiles)
Dress Me Up was another surprise “DO WANT” polish for me. I do not reach for pinks usually, but this dusty rose hued creme is super pretty and feminine without being too grandmotherly. I used 2 coats for this one as well, the formula is awesome!
Harvest Moon (District 9 – Grain)
Harvest Moon (not to be confused with one of my favorite franchises ever) is a shimmering copper metallic foil. I love it! It reminds me of a brand new penny! I used 2 coats here.
Macro shot of Harvest Moon. This seems like a polish that would fit better in a Fall collection as opposed to Spring, but when have I ever really treated ANY polish as seasonal?
Foie Gras (District 10 – Livestock)
I think that the name for Foie Gras fits really well with this polish. The color is not quite brown and not quite purple, but somewhat of a mix between the two… If that makes sense to anyone other than me. Another easy as pie creme to apply, and once again I only needed 2 coats for opacity.
Agro (District 11 – Agriculture)
Agro! OMG this polish has my heart! I’m taking this one and Riveting and hugging them tight to my chest and never letting them go! 
Agro is an olive green metallic and we’re in love. I used 2 coats here, and it has a slight tendency to show some brush strokes since it’s a metallic but it’s hardly noticeable once the polish dries.
Macro shot of Agro for ya. Look at this thing of beauty. *le sigh*
Smoke and Ashes (District 12 – Mining)
Smoke and Ashes is another one I am loving! It has a black base that’s filled with blue and green glass flecks. Maybe it’s my eyes playing tricks on me but sometimes the base looks like a blackened navy blue instead of straight black. 
It reminds me so much of my beloved ChG Blk-Bila-Bong and Barielle’s Blackened Bleu, I feel like Smoke and Ashes is at least a cousin of the two. I’ll be adding it to my comparison list for a future post. The formula is great, I could have stopped at 1 coat! I ended up using 2 coats here for swatching purposes.
Macro shot for ya of Smoke and Ashes. Magnify that sucker, you won’t regret it.
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Final Thoughts:
Wow, I find myself liking each and every one of these! If I had to pick favorites from this batch it’d be Agro and Smoke and Ashes. The formulas for all of these were great, not a bad egg in the group! I know that not all of the colors in this collection are ~*~unique snowflakes~*~, but I’m a sucker for geekery and if there’s a polish based on my favorite books, movies or games you can sign me the hell up!
If you’ve snagged any of the Colors from the Capitol, which ones have you been liking the most. And my bigger question, for those that went to the midnight release… HOW WAS THE MOVIE?!
No spoilers please for those that haven’t read the book/seen the movie yet. ^_^
Purchase Info:
The China Glaze Hunger Games Collection polishes can be purchased from a variety of e-tailers: TransDesign, Victoria Nail Supply, Nailsupplies.us, Head2Toe Beauty, and 8ty8 Beauty. You can also find them at salons and beauty supply stores nationwide, including Sally Beauty and Ulta. Prices vary depending on the retailer with a range between $3-7.00 per .5 fl oz bottle of polish.
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor! 
China Glaze Hunger Games Collection Swatches – Part 1
25Good Morning Tributes!
I’m happy to be sharing part of my China Glaze Hunger Games Collection swatches with you today! I wish I didn’t have to work tonight so I could go to the midnight release, but I have to wait until I have time to go see it this weekend. I ultimately decided to split this into two posts (one today, one on Friday) because 35+ pictures would have been ENTIRELY too much for me to include in one post. 
That being said, this is still going to be a bit picture heavy. ^_^
I used Sally Hansen Nail Quencher and Seche Vite as my base coat/top coat combo.
Luxe and Lush (District 1 – Luxury)
Luxe and Lush is really interesting to me. It’s a flakie, but the pieces are irregular shards as opposed to your run of the mill flakies that you normally see. I love it! It has a suspension base like most clear glitter polishes, but it’s not so thick that it’s unmanageable. And after top coat there was hardly and grittiness which I know can be a problem with this type of polish.
From Left to Right:
Pointer: 2 coats of Luxe and Lush over 2 coats of Smoke and Ashes
Middle: 2 coats of Luxe and Lush over 2 coats of Dress Me Up
Ring: 2 coats of Luxe and Lush over 2 coats of Riveting
Pinky: 2 coats of Luxe and Lush by itself
Here’s a macro of Luxe and Lush. I really like how versatile this one is! You get such a different effect depending on what you use as your base layer of polish. ♥
Stone Cold (District 2 – Masonry)
Stone Cold was a surprise, it’s a matte finish! And holy cow is it a gorgeous one! I love the silver shimmer! It’s probably one of the easiest to deal with matte polishes that I own. If you’re careful and get enough polish on your brush Stone Cold is a 1-coat-wonder! I ended up using 2 coats this time because I had one or two bald spots on a few fingers. Like most mattes, it dries fast so work quickly!
Here’s a macro shot for you, when you leave it matte the silver shimmer really takes over. It’s gorgeous.
Do not adjust your monitors, this is STILL Stone Cold. But look how different it looks with top coat! Now it looks more black than grey, and still beautiful. I honestly don’t know which I l like best. O___O*
And here’s a macro shot for ya.
Riveting (District 3 – Technology)
Oh. Em. Eff. Gee. This my friends is Riveting. And if a name has ever fit a polish more aptly then I don’t own it yet. I love this color! It’s such a bright, shimmering, girl-on-fire color… *le sigh* I used 3 thin coats for this gold glass flecked beauty. It’s thin but it builds up wonderfully. For an orange polish lover like myself, it rarely gets better than this. ♥
And here’s a macro shot. I’ll give you all a few minutes to clean up the drool. Scroll on whenever you’re ready.
Hook and Line (District 4 – Fishing)
Hook and Line… Oh…. You…. I was ready to fully hate this one because of how frosty it looked in the bottle. But after I finished applying it I ended up kind of liking it? It’s definitely frosty, but it looks like a pewter brushed metal. And I’m finding that I don’t mind it in this instance. Especially since Hook and Line is for the Fishing District, it actually fits the concept they were going for quite well.
THAT BEING SAID. This was one of the most finicky polishes that I’ve ever had to deal with. What you see in my swatches is a combination of reallllly careful application (starting with the first two strokes on the outer left and right sides of my nail bed, and the 3rd stroke straight and fast down the center) and sheer luck. I used roughly 3 coats per nail, but it might have been 4 or 5 on some when I needed to ‘touch up’ some super brush stroke issues. And the formula is incredibly thin and sheer.
Electrify (District 5 – Power)
Electrify doesn’t really do much for me. It’s your standard clear base glitter with gold and red. It builds up pretty nicely on its own. This is 3 coats, thought there are still a few small bald spots. I might try layering this over some other polishes though the next time I wear it. ^_^
Macro shot, you can see the small bald spots here and there. And like most glitters, you’re gonna need the foil removal method for Electrify unless you want to bedazzle your fingers with residual glitter.
Fast Track (District 6 – Transportation)
Fast Track is pretty beige with gold shimmer. Again, not too original but still pretty. I want to do a comparison between this one and Irreplaceable by Essence, because that’s the first polish that comes to mind when I look at this one. I used 2 coats here.
Here’s a macro of Fast Track for you all. ^_^
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Final Thoughts:
The formulas ranged for this section of the Hunger Games Collection polishes. I think Hook and Line had the worst formula, hands down, even still it wasn’t the one I liked the least. If I had to pick my favorites, it’d definitely be Riveting, Luxe and Lush and Stone Cold. ^_^
Purchase Info:
The China Glaze Hunger Games Collection polishes can be purchased from a variety of e-tailers: TransDesign, Victoria Nail Supply, Nailsupplies.us, Head2Toe Beauty, and 8ty8 Beauty. You can also find them at salons and beauty supply stores nationwide, including Sally Beauty and Ulta. Prices vary depending on the retailer with a range between $3-7.00 per .5 fl oz bottle of polish.
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor!
Deborah Lippmann Spring 2012 – Mermaid’s Dream (Resort 2012) Swatches & Review
40
Morning Everyone!
Today I’ve got one of my new Deborah Lippmann Spring 2012 pretties to show you all! I splurged on this one and one other Lippmann polish as a present to myself for my tax return, and Mermaid’s Dream was totally worth the price for me!
Less talk, more swatches! I used Sally Hansen Nail Quencher and Seche Vite top coat for today’s swatches.
Deborah Lippmann Resort Collection – Mermaid’s Dream
Here’s a few more bottle shots of Mermaid’s Dream for you all. I couldn’t get over how gorgeous this polish was even before I put it on my nails! I love the shape of Deborah Lippmann bottles, so I also wanted to show it off at a few different angles.
Mermaid’s Dream is such a complex mixture of colors and textures that it almost drives me nutty trying to describe it! It starts off with a gorgeous seafoam green base with a metallic/pearl/frost-but-not-streaky finish. Then you add in blue and gold micro shimmer with larger blue glitter pieces floating about.
As my fellow Northern Michiganders would say… Holy wah! This polish is nuts, and I love it!
Mermaid’s Dream was… well… a dream to apply! The formula was thin but it built up very nicely. It nearly painted itself onto my nails and the brush/polish was easy to control. I used 3 coats here and I didn’t have to do any post polish clean-up, which is always nice.
Here’s a macro shot of Mermaid’s Dream. You’re gonna want to view this at its maximum size, so g’head and click on this picture. Right. Meow. So much going on in one polish, and it’s all gooooood.
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Final Thoughts:
So basically I LOVE Mermaid’s Dream. I don’t have very many Deborah Lippmann polishes but I just KNEW that I needed this one as soon as I saw promo shots for it. It may be on the pricey end of the spectrum but Deborah Lippmann knows how to knock it out of the park with her glitter polishes! Also, I’ve been wearing it for 4 days now and so far no chipping or tip wear!
I will say this though: It is quite a hungry glitter. I ended up using 2 thicker coats of Seche Vite top coat and it’s still ever so slightly gritty to the touch. But the slight texture difference doesn’t bother me. I actually like the feel of it, it reminds of what I’d imagine “real” mermaid scales would feel and look like!
If you want it to be super smooth you might have to use a coat of Gelous along with your top coat.
Purchase Info:
The Deborah Lippmann Spring 2012 Resort Collection polishes can be purchased at high-end retailers nationwide and online, like Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. You can also find them online at Deborah Lippmann’s E-Store, and Zappos.com. Retail cost for Mermaid’s Dream is $18.00 per .5 fl oz bottle of polish since it’s a glitter, her creme polishes will set you back $16.00 per bottle. Happy shopping!
31 Day Challenge: Day 6 (Violet Nails Semi-Fail)
171 year ago
Happy Saturday Everyone!
We’re on Day 6 of the 31 Day Challenge now, and it’s all about Violet Nails today! I wanted to do something a little out of my comfort zone today to try to start easing myself into the weeks to come, so I busted out my m57 konad stamping plate… And kinda blundered this manicure. This is my third time ever using my konad stamp so I’m still working out the user error. After two attempts at getting the stamp perfectly placed on my nails I gave up for the day. You still get the general idea of what I was trying to do, right?
Don’t forget to head over to Cris and Sam’s blogs for their Day 6 Violet manis. ^_^
NARS Purple Rain & China Glaze Avalanche
I started out with two coats of NARS Purple Rain, a gorgeous deep purple with pink and blue shimmer. Purple Rain is a very close dupe for China Glaze Let’s Groove, I’ll have to do a comparison post in the future. ^_^ Then I stamped China Glaze Avalanche over the top and sealed everything up with a coat of Seche Vite. Avalanche is incredibly frosty and is hell to work with on its own, but it’s really great to use for stamping! The boyfriend’s mom gifted Avalanche to me because she knows how much I fangirl for China Glaze. One of these days I WILL swatch my entire CG collection for you all, but that will be a project for another day.
Here’s a shot of the color combo with flash, you can see the blue and pink shimmer really well in this photo. Click the image to enlarge it to its original size for an even better look.
Annnnnnnd a macro of the only nail I stamped [almost] perfectly. Let’s pretend like the rest of my nails look this good.
That’s it for Day 6! From now on we’re getting into more of the tricky stuff, tomorrow is Black & White nails!
My CND Shellac Experience
1I had first heard about CND Shellac while browsing through some older entries on All Lacquered Up. Shellac is a high-gloss, quick drying UV gel hybrid manicure that is guaranteed to last up to 14 days with no tip wear or chipping. The idea seemed interesting but at the time I was still not really into neutrals/reds/pinks and it seemed like those were your only options if you wanted a Shellac manicure. Fast forward to a few months later when Michelle did a St. Paddy’s Day Shellac Manicure. The color combination created with the layering of two Shellac polishes was amazing to me, I’m definitely a sucker for greens.
I immediately started scouring my town for salons that offered Shellac manicures. I finally found a salon and went in with high hopes and a full description of the manicure from ALU to see how well my nail tech could recreate it. Each layer had to be cured for 2 minutes under a UV light, but in no time we were done with the whole process. IT WAS A SUCCESS! The combination of CND Shellac Black Pool and CND Shellac Iced Coral created a layering masterpiece. The resulting hue was a slightly frosted, slightly metallic forest green. It reminded me a little bit of Illamasqua’s Viridian (a polish that I still need to add to my stash). And true to their claims, this manicure lasted me about 13-14 days. There was minor tip wear on maybe one or two nails but other than that it held up remarkably well.
For more info on CND Shellac, visit their website here.
