Showing posts with label Shimmer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shimmer. Show all posts

Vampy Varnish BB Couture Collection: Part I

Above: Napa Valley red, shown in 2 coats. This is a deep violet red or deep burgundy red-toned jelly base with coordinated glitter. No matter how many photos I took, they simply do not do this shade justice. Kim at Overall Beauty believes this is the best-selling one, and I can certainly understand that.
Above & Below: Union Square, shown in just 1 coat! Unbelieveable coverage on this metallic bronze shimmer with what appears to be tiny silvery pink glitter. Below, with a matte top coat.
Below: Mendocino Midnight has a special place in my heart, because I have always been partial to tealish green shades. I used 2 coats on this shade. It looks like a deep evergreen with hints of teal on the nail, and the small glitter reflects an emerald green sparkle in less direct lighting.
As many of you know, the lovely Kelly from Vampy Varnish recently had the opportunity to work with BB Couture in developing her own polish collection. You can read about her experience and see her swatches here. BB Couture polishes have always impressed me with their formula, their color selections, and their range of finishes. Combine that with Kelly's eye for color and style, and I knew these would not disappoint. I purchased mine from Kim at Overall Beauty last week. I happened to be on Twitter when Kim announced one of her fabulous sales...buy one get one free, limit 3 free. I jumped on that opportunity immediately, because it was only available for one day, and ordered the entire collection. This is the perfect trifecta of nail polish...the quality of BB Couture, the unique and beautiful polishes that Kelly designed, and the customer service of Overall Beauty! Congratulations to Kelly for doing such a wonderful job turning the colors in her imagination into such beautiful polishes!


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Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure: Gilty Pleasure

Gilty Pleasure is the last of five in this line I have to show you. You can find Yellow Kitty just below this post, and 3 others I shared a few weeks back here. I always love shades of metals, so I wanted to give this one a try. It looks like it could be a foil-type finish by the appearance in the bottle, so I was pleasantly surprised that it's not, because I sometimes have problems with streaking on those types of finishes. This is a lovely light gold shimmer that covered very nicely in 2 coats. It dried exceptionally fast, which is always a bonus. The brush on this one was cut evenly, and again, the formula was excellent. I'm very pleased with this shade, because of it's simplistic beauty. It's such a light and bright shade of gold, yet it seems to have a very noticeable richness to it.


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GOSH Polishes: Golden Dragon & Black Passion

Above & Below: GOSH Golden Dragon shown outdoors with no flash. It's very cold and snowing outside, but try as I might to capture the beauty of this one indoors or outdoors, it's true beauty is not coming through in the photos.
Below: Look at the gold in the bottle!
Below: Indoors, using an Ott light.
Below: Black Passion shown indoors, with and without a flash. This is a very deep charcoal shade with fine silver shimmer. This one has silver veining in the bottle.
Oh. My. GOSH! Andrea, one of my followers from Great Britain, sent me my first GOSH polishes last month in an exchange we had arranged. This allowed us both to get some brands that we can't typically get in our own countries. I am thrilled that she chose these, but what I'm not happy about, is that I now want any and all polishes made by this brand! Golden Dragon is unbelievable. It's a cross between turquoise and teal, with beautiful gold veining in the bottle. On the nail, it has almost a duo chrome effect and fine gold shimmer. I have absolutely nothing even remotely close to this in my collection. Black Passion is another stunning shade, although I do have some similar shades. One can never have too many shades of charcoal grey, so I'm happy to have this one also. What I loved about Black Passion was the extreme high gloss finish it has. It really helps to define the silver shimmer. Both of these were nearly opaque in 1 coat, although I did use 2 coats for good measure. I don't know of anywhere to purchase these in the U.S., and their web site seems a bit off to me, because it doesn't even show the prices. Thank you Andrea for choosing these for me. You are an excellent personal shopper!


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CQ Polishes: Silver Taupe & Cosmic Plum

Above & Below: CQ's Silver Taupe is a fantastic taupe with a little bling. I used 2 coats, but it would have looked much better with 3. These photos are taken in natural light (above) and with a flash below.
Below: CQ's Cosmic Plum is a very slight duo chrome. It's got a lot going on, because in addition to the slight duo chrome, it's also a shimmer, yet it has a somewhat foil-type finish. I do like how the shimmer gives it a plush velvet look.
Yes, I'm still working away trying to open up some space on my untried's shelf, and this evening I have 2 CQ brand polishes to show you. CQ is manufactured by Scherer, Inc., also the makers of Petites and Chameleon brands, often found in drugstore chains. This is the first time I've tried this brand and the results are somewhat mixed. I used 2 coats on Silver Taupe and I think I should've used 3. I used 3 coats of Cosmic Plum, which seemed to give me the right amount of coverage. These are 0.4 fl. oz., so a little smaller than average, and they were priced at $2.59 each. I consider them to be fairly reasonably priced, the application and formula were fine (other than the 3 coats!), and the dried quickly. Now for the shades...

Silver Taupe is just gorgeous to me. A medium taupe shade with silver sparkles. The sparkly glitter is subtle, but it is also slightly holographic under more intense lighting. What's not to like? Again, other than the 3 coats! It was similar to China Glaze Stellar, which was one of my favorites from the glitters they released a few months back. Here is my post on Stellar if you'd like to have a look. Cosmic Plum was just alright to me, but nothing special. It looked somewhat like a duo chrome in the bottle, and once applied, it actually is a duo chrome. But it's a very weak duo chrome. It's a rose gold color that flashes to a more gold color in different lighting. It also has hints of copper in darker lighting. The metallic/foil finish is not to my liking either. I don't hate it, but I'm not nearly as attracted to this one as I am to Silver Taupe. I think I was expecting a little more magic from Cosmic Plum, based on how it looked in the bottle.


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Essie Sassy Satchel & Essie Carnival

Above & Below: Essie's Sassy Satchel shown in various lighting. This is a deep rich burgundy shade with the slightest touch of fine gold shimmer.
Below: Shown topped with one coat of Essie's Carnival, it adds a rainbow of sparkle.
Below: A coat of Essie's Matte About You defines the glitter shape, but tones down the sparkle considerably. It also brings out the brown undertones in Sassy Satchel.
Today I have some of my finer quality polishes...you know I love some of the drugstore shades I've been showing the last few days, but it's always a pleasure when I use Essie. I've always been very impressed with the application and the quality of the finish I get from this brand. I used 2 coats of Sassy Satchel and the coverage was even and the formula flowed perfectly. I picked this up at TJ Maxx a few months back, and I'm glad I did. Sassy Satchel is in the burgundy family, but it has the slightest hint of a deep brick red with brown undertones. The brown undertones are more evident with a coat of Essie's Matte About You.

Carnival is a perfect topping for a darker base, because it's a clear polish packed full of small, holographic glitter. I used one coat as a topping, and the way that the glitter pieces play with the light is truly mesmerizing. I don't think it would look nearly as nice using it alone, but I could be wrong. Have you ever used Carnival alone? What did you think?


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Holiday Look With A Halloween Polish!

Above & Below: Fright Night's Green Claw Polish layered with Sinful's All About You. It matches some of the ornaments I have in a basket!
Below: Outdoors and in darker indoor lighting, the gold becomes the more prominant color. An amazing transformation! I couldn't take my eyes off of this ever-changing combination.
Below: Back to the indoor shots (with a flash, unfortunately).
Below: Bottle pictures of what I used.
Fright Night's Green Claw Polish works not only for Halloween, but for Christmas too! It would also do nicely as a St. Patrick's Day polish. I used 2 coats of the green claw polish and 2 coats of one of the newer Sinful glitters, All About You, for this festive look. I took so many photos trying to captures the true look, especially what it looks like in lower lighting, but never really got an accurate one. In the house, the gold takes on a look like something I've never seen. The green becomes secondary and the gold appears as a mesh film with just a hint of the green peeking through. It reminded me of Color Club's Wild & Willing, the way the gold lays over the color. In brighter lighting, this look reminds me of a Christmas Tree with little colored lights. My husband really liked the way this combination looked, and when I told him both of the polishes only ran $1.99 each, he questioned why I bother buying much higher priced ones as well. Well, hmmm, it's hard to explain, but I know at least you all understand!


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Theons Nail Polish: Not Bad For $1.99

Above & Below: Theons #72 is definitely worth $1.99! It has that 'lit from within' glow, multi-colored fine shimmer, and an almost iridescent finish. Scroll down for a comparison to Essie's Viva La Vespa.
Below: Shown with a coat of Essie's Matte About You.
Below: Bottle comparison with Essie's Viva La Vespa. It's a bit lighter and with more red tones than the Essie...at least in the bottle.
Below: Theon's is shown on the left, while Essie's is on the left. They're very close in color, but you can see that Essie's has a better quality and looks richer.
Below: Theons #11 wasn't as impressive on my nails as it was in the bottle. I should have studied it a bit more, because it does look more foily in the bottle, but I was attracted to the fact that it looked like it may have a black base to it. It really doesn't, although in darker lighting, it does tend to show a darker base.
Theons is a little-known brand that's often found at independent beauty supply stores for around $1.99. They don't have a huge color range, although I did spot a green one while doing some Google research about the brand. They're manufactured by a company called Granvill Cosmetics in Miami, Florida, but there isn't a whole lot of information about them online. The quality of these is actually quite good, much better than what I expected based on the price. They both applied perfectly in 2 coats and dried quickly, although I wasn't crazy about the almost foil or metallic finish of the red one, simply named #11. The purple one however, #72, was very impressive. It has tiny multi-colored micro-glitter, a somewhat iridescent reflection, and reminds me very much of Essie's Viva La Vespa. I spotted these over the summer at a local oriental beauty supply, that also carries Ruby Kisses, Wild and Crazy and old Sinful brand polishes.


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Snow=Snowman Polish!

Above & Below: The bright pink neon shimmer Snowman polish dries to a satin finish, so I used a top coat. A Nailene snowman decal seemed appropriate! The shimmer looks silver and pink in the bottle, but once applied, it's shows as a beautiful baby blue and violet iridescent look.
It's been snowing all day, so I think a Snowman polish from Blue Cross Beauty is in order. I posted last month about how I'd picked some of these up at Rite-Aid, mainly for the 'cute' factor. This bright pink shimmer was not one of them, however. When I stopped in again last week, I walked past the display and they were all gone. Except this one. He looked so sad and lonely, so he came home with me! These are not the greatest polishes...the brushes are sometimes wonky, some of them need 3-4 coats (as in this case), and I don't hear any ballz when I shake the bottle. But for $1.99, you get cute, festive, and fun. In my opinion, for the entertainment factor alone, they're worth it!


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5 Finger Paints, 5 Less On My Untried Shelf!

Above & Below: Please disregard my cuticles. I used a different product (Avon) instead of my usual Sally Hansen cuticle remover and it was very hard on my skin and cuticles. Turquoise Tile is a perfect turquoise shimmer. Lilac Lagoon is also a favorite, with it's delicate color and subtle gold shimmer.
Below: Butterscotch Cookie is an eye-catching gold shimmer. It's bright and shiny, just as gold should be!
Below: Yellow Bikini and Ripe Peach are both nice creme-type shades that have the slightest hint of shimmer to them. My only complaint was that I needed 3 coats, instead of the usual 2.
With so many untried's, a problem I know many of us have, I decided to swatch some Finger Paints that have been patiently awaiting their turn! Finger Paints makes a great quality product, but because they're only available at Sally Beauty, I think they go unnoticed by a large percentage of people. The first two I swatched, Ripe Peach and Yellow Bikini, appear to be cremes. If you look closely, you can see the slightest hint of a shimmery sheen. I liked the shades very much, but I had to use 3 coats to get total coverage. They performed more like pastel creme shades do, which often cause me problems upon the application. The other 3, Butterscotch Cookie, Turquoise Tile, and Lilac Lagoon, applied in typical Finger Paints fashion: perfectly, in 2 coats. I'm not very helpful on when these came out and which ones may still be available, because I've had them for quite a while. I believe Butterscotch Cookie is from last year's holiday collection, likely making it hard to find. The other 4 I believe came out in their Spring 2009 collection, so they may still be available here and there. If anyone else knows any more information about their availability, feel free to mention it in the comments.


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