HITS - Afrodite

Hello all! Happy Monday! My job let me out today about two hours after I had gotten there due to Hurricane Sandy beginning to make her impact on Long Island. I hope all of my fellow North Easterners stay safe today! The rain has been steady since I woke up this morning, but it hasn't begun to seriously downpour yet. The wind is really something else; it kept me awake much of last night and driving home I did no more than 60 on the highway as I felt like my car was going to be blown off the road. We already have some medium sized branches in my backyard that have come down. 

Anyhow, today I have Afrodite from the HITS No Olimpo collection. Afrodite is a muted rose-pink  holographic polish. At times the base color of this looks a bit peachy on my skin tone. The holo isn't as strong in Afrodite as it is in some of the other polishes from the No Olimpo collection, but it's still pretty. The formula was a bit strange. It reminded me of a thickened jelly polish and it applied so thick that I wasn't sure it was going to dry correctly. It did dry, much quicker than I thought and super shiny and as smooth as glass. It was opaque in two coats and I topped it off with Seche Vite...

Sorry for the tip wear!

 

 

So I'm home and trying to think of things to do to keep myself busy. I did three loads of laundry last night thinking that we may lose power and I would be out of luck (the power has dipped twice so far but has come right back on). I'm sitting on the Sephora website adding things to my cart at a rapid rate, so I decided I would start depotting some of my makeup since I ordered magnetic palettes from Make Up For Ever yesterday. I haven't purchased any nail polish in a while that's a lie, in the last few weeks - all of my money has gone to makeup.

 

Here's my progress so far:

 



I depotted them using the heat from my hair straightener, parchment paper and sharp knives. I slightly murdered two blushes (a brand new one which I couldn't even depot) and have already burned and sliced my finger. 

Anyway, thanks for reading through this rambling post. I hope everyone stays safe! I wish I could let all of the animals outside into my garage so they could stay safe, it makes me so sad to think about them being outside :(
If you are in areas other than the NE, enjoy your Monday! ;)

Twinsie Tuesday - A Polish From Our First Swap

Top of the morning to ya! Happy Tuesday. Do I need to introduce the fact that it's Twinsie Tuesday or have we drilled it in to your heads enough ;)  Today's theme was a polish from our first swap. Uhh, I may have cheated a little. I didn't get the following polish in my very first swap (I don't remember the specifics) but I got it from my very first swap partner. I met a super sweet girl in the UK who I swapped with a few times and she gifted me this absolute stunner.....

GOSH Holographic, the original. Yup, you read that right. I never in a million years thought that I would ever have this polish. The photos below show two coats of GOSH Holographic with no base or top coat. This is 10x more holographic in person; once again my camera doesn't love holos....

Remember to check out my Twinsies! I'm interested to see what they have collected along the way in their swaps....

Amanda at Amandalandish 
Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

 

Zoya Ornate Collection Swatches For Winter 2012

Good Morning all! Happy Monday...boo! haha. It's my birthday today (27) and I'm headed off to work. I should have planned ahead and requested the day off but oh well. Today I have something super special to share with you - Zoya's Ornate collection for winter 2012. Since I first saw the promo photos of the Ornate collection, I knew it was something super special. I'm usually a sucker for all holiday collections but Zoya's Ornate collection really packs a punch!

Up first is Blaze. Blaze is a berry red with holographic microglitter. As you can see in the below photos the microglitter in Blaze pulls red, pink and purple. The fact that this doesn't show the silvery shades we are used to with holographic glitter gives is a 'lit from within' feel. The formula was easy to work with and opaque in two coats.

 

Aurora is a red toned purple with holographic microglitter. The holographic effect in this is much more obvious than my camera could capture. It's a real stunner. The formula on Aurora was easy to work with and fully opaque in two coats. Magenta and red-toned purples are my favorite, so this is a definite win for me.

 



Next up is Electra. Electra is made up of holographic bar glitter in a clear base. To be completely honest, I'm not the biggest fan of bar glitter but I really fell for Electra. Electra reminds me of the tinsel that my grandmother used to put on the tree at Christmastime when I was a child. This gives off a real holiday feel. The glitter is dense and this I was able to get it opaque in three coats. (The photos below do not have top coat)  The formula was easy to work with and there was no fishing for glitter or having to move it around the nail to get it even. Electra is also more holographic than my camera could capture.

Ziv is a gold foil with tiny gold glitter pieces and a touch of silver. I was a little unsure how this would work on my skin tone (NW15 with some redness in my hands) but it's beautiful. After seeing this in person and getting to wear it I really do think that this would be flattering on all skin tones. The first coat went on a bit sheer but it was fully opaque with the second coat. The formula on Ziv was also very easy to work with.

 

Oh, Logan. Where do I begin? Logan is a b-e-a-utiful emerald green foil with a touch of gold fleck and teal. It's gorgeous in the bottle but it completely blew me away once on my nails. I have a few greens in my stash that I thought might have been comparable but once I took a closer look I don't have anything in my stash of 800-900 bottles quite like Logan. The formula was super easy to work with and it was fully opaque in two coats. If I was more careful, I feel that I would have been able to get away with one coat of Logan.

 

 

Last but not least, Storm. I was not expecting to fall in love with Storm the way I did. I thought this would be another black with holographic glitter, but something about Storm really won me over. Storm has a black jelly base with dense holographic glitter (the same holographic glitter as Aurora). It's extremely shiny even without a top coat, and a second layer does not make all of the holographic glitter in the first coat completely disappear. The formula was easy to work with and it was fully opaque in two coats. Storm is much more holographic in real life, my camera wasn't able to capture just how holographic this really was.

 

 

Overall, I'm super impressed with the Ornate collection. I wore Blaze and Logan for two days each without any chips (I topped them with Zoya-friendly Out The Door, skip Seche Vite with Zoya polishes as it seems to pull and cause shrinkage). The formula on each polish was easy to work with and the dry time was fast.

 

I recommend the entire collection, but if you are on a budget I would say that Blaze, Aurora, Logan and Storm are must haves. If you are a holo lover, the holos would be a fantastic addition to your collection. If you are a green girl (as I am) don't think twice about picking up Logan as you won't be disappointed.

 

The Ornate collection can be purchased as a set for $48 or individually for $8 USD from Zoya's website. 

 

Has anyone already purchased any of the Ornate collection polishes? Does anyone plan to? Since swatching these I'm in the mood for the holidays. I'm ready to skip over Halloween and maybe Thanksgiving (we'll stop at Black Friday!) and get ready for Christmas lol  ;)

 

The products featured in this post were sent for my honest review.



Color Club - Cloud Nine (reswatch)

As I mentioned the other day, I will be reposting the Color Club Halo Hues that I have as I wear them. Here is two coats of Cloud Nine and a coat of Seche Vite (under my indoor lamp)

 

Holy holo! So in addition to the amazing formula I found the wear to be pretty great too. I wore this Saturday afternoon, all day Sunday and until late Monday night with absolutely no chips. Even on a super rainy Sunday afternoon in NY this showed holographic effects  :)

Someone in my last post asked me whether this is more lavender or pink, and when it's not full of holographic rainbows, it's definitely more pink than purple. I should have taken a photo of this in dull lighting.

Color Club Halo Hues Swatches! (Harp On It, Cherubic, Angel Kiss and Cloud Nine)

Hey all! Happy Saturday! I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I called my nail supply store yesterday (for what must have been the 10th time in a few weeks) looking for the Color Club Halo Hues and he didn't have them yet. The release date from Color Club was finally finalized sometime last week for October 4th. A few hours later my phone rang and it was the owner of my nail supply heaven letting me know he got them in. I went out with my bestie last night and got home after 5am, but dragged myself out of bed this morning to get these before he closed. I needed them that bad.....  :)

My swatches of these aren't spectacular as I was fighting the sun. As I was swatching the sun kept going in and out of hiding so the holographic effect in some pictures is stronger than others. I'm planning on wearing these as my manicures this week, so I'll have additional (and better) photos of these later on.

 

To start with - the formula on these is hands down A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! They are all easily one coaters! I'll get to more of that later..... 

ONE COAT!

ONE COAT!

My camera does holos no justice. These are insanely holographic in person, and each of them is equally holographic (in my opinion). The following photos show 2 coats of each polish with no top coat.

Harp On It  (silver holographic, also shown above in the 1 coat photos)

Much more holographic in person!



The holo is much stronger than this in person.

Cherubic (nude holographic)

 

Angel Kiss (green holographic)

 

Cloud Nine (pink holographic, the lighter of the two pinks from this collection)

 



To start - I was planning on buying the entire collection originally, but then when I saw they were going to retail for $10.00 I was completely put off. I have so many bottles of nail polish that I've been very strict with myself lately. Before I walked into the store this morning I had in my mind that I was buying the one or two that I loved the most. Upon seeing them in person the holo was so strong that I needed to buy all 4 that 8ty8 had in stock.

Now, on to the formula. Like I mentioned in the beginning of this post the formula was literally amazing! There was no cuticle drag, streakiness, etc. The formula is completely opaque in one coat, so there would be no need to layer these to save polish. I did notice that the polish was a little thicker as I lifted the brushe of the edges of my nails but it's completely self leveling. Plus, a holographic polish that I don't need a special base coat for? Yes please! Each polish was equally holographic and dried extremely quick. The best part? I have already given myself a full manicure with Cloud Nine and Seche Vite did not dull the holo!

With that being said, I feel $8.00 that I paid at 8ty8 Beauty is a fair price for this. I think the holographic effect in these is very similar to the Laylas and they are cheaper, you are still getting the full size product (0.5 Fl Oz) and the formula trumps the Laylas. I no longer have the Laylas to compare these against though, sorry!

If you like holographic polishes I think these are totally worth it. You can buy them from Color Club's website for $10, or you can get them from 8ty8 Beauty for $8.00. 

Is anyone planning on picking these up?  :)

OPI Standing Room Only Silver

Happy Friday!! I found three little treasures at my nail supply store recently. I had sold my bottles of OPI Coral Reef and Crim-Sun when my dog got sick for the extra funds. Those were the only polishes I kept thinking about purchasing again. I walked into the nail supply I recently and there were the two bottles. It was meant to be! I turned around and found another gem sitting on the shelf behind it - OPI Standing Room Only Silver.

OPI Standing Room Only Silver is a silver holographic polish. I've heard so much about this polish, that I was so overjoyed. When I brought it up to the register I was crossing my fingers that they didn't know what it really goes for. And they didn't....$5 and in my bag it went! The photos below show 3 coats of OPI Standing Room Only Silver topped with Seche Vite....

I'm going to try layering this polish next time. I'm trying to decide what I should layer it over. Since it's black label, it's super stinky. The formula was sheer and a little thin, but it built up pretty well.

I hope everyone has a good weekend!! :)

Twinsie Tuesday - Favorite Polish Brand (and China Glaze 2Nite)

Good Morning everyone! Today we have another Twinsie Tuesday post, the topic being our favorite nail polish brand. When I think of my favorite nail polish brands a few come to mind. Those are China Glaze, Color Club and OPI. For whatever reason, I haven't been posting many of those brands lately but I've felt the need to get back to basics lately so I'm reaching for some of my oldies. Picking a favorite brand wasn't easy, at all. There are so many good brands that deserve recognition.

When it comes to collections and colors, I really enjoy what China Glaze has to offer. Their cremes are perfection, their holos are holo, their glitters are gorgeous and their neons are actually neon. As far as formula, out of all the bottles that I own (est 120-150) only a small handful aren't all that fantastic. Even with the poor formulas on these select few their color pay off in the end is amazing (ex: Atlantis which chips off like crazy and Flip Flop Fantasy which is an easy three coater for me on a good day). They are also easily accessible (Sally's, Ulta, online) and affordable.

I figured I had to pull out the big guns for this post and reach for one of my favorite HTF China Glaze polishes, so I chose 2Nite from the OMG collection. 2Nite is a periwinkle blue with a strong linear holo finish. As with all holos, this one does chip easily so you can expect a chip or two within a day or so. For the photos below I used 2 coats of 2Nite and a coat of Seche Vite.

[WARNING : PIC HEAVY. For whatever reason, I'm unable to resize anything after the first pic. Enjoy!]



This polish is la la lovely! I had such a hard time picking a favorite since there are so many fantastic brands available and I thought about doing a skittle mani with all different brands lol. In the end, I went with my gut and picked China Glaze.

Don't forget to check out my Twinsies!

Amanda at Amandalandish
Anna at Going to the Showing
Anne at Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley at Art Evolve
Brandi at The Collegiate Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi
Cordia at Srsly Swatched
Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...
Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Meredith at Polish and Charms
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Top Coat It
Sarah at See Sarah Swatch
Tara at Polishy of Truth 

Layla Mermaid Spell

Good Morning! Did anyone else watch Teen Mom last night? I love my reality tv, and this is one of my favorite shows (as well as RHoNJ). Today I have another Layla polish for you - this one is Mermaid Spell.

Mermaid Spell is a light blue holographic polish. This polish is even more holographic in person. These Layla polishes are pretty amazing. This was three coats and a coat of Seche Vite.

Simply amazing!

China Glaze DV8

Good Morning and happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good weekend. Today I've got one of the older, discontinued polishes from the OMG Collection by China Glaze. I missed out on these when they originally came out, but after seeing them at a salon and falling in love I ended up buying most of them on Ebay.

DV8 is a bright teal polish with holo! I love holo. The formula on this one was so-so, I had a bit of a hard time getting it to be 100% smooth. You can tell in some of my photos that it's not the smoothest even after top coat. The first time I wore this I was left unimpressed. Even this time, I'm not sure I'm in love. I love teals, but this teal didn't seem to work too great for my skintone. Outdoors in direct sunlight it definitely leans more blue than green as far as teals go. Please excuse the chip on my ring finger as well. My nails were growing so well with Nailtek 2 and they've started to split again :(

For the photos below I used two coats of DV8 and a coat of Seche Vite.

Thoughts?