CrowsToes - Triple Black Diamond: Swatches and Review

Ahhh, I LOVE this polish! I swatched it on just my thumb first but was so crazy about it I had to put it on the rest.

CrowsToes - Triple Black Diamond (over China Glaze Liquid Leather

Triple Black Diamond is actually a clear base that's full of small black, purple, silver holo and DUOCHROME SQUARE glitter.  It's mostly opaque at three coats on its own, (which makes the individual black glitter more prominent).  I decided to layer it over black to make the other colors stand out more, and it has incredible depth!   It also looks amazing over A England St. George (Steffels has some awesome pictures of it, which is why I bought this polish in the first place).

CrowsToes polishes can be purchased from Llarowe's shop, but you have to catch them when they're in stock!  

Dollish Polish - Toxic Avenger: Swatches and Review

Funny story about this polish.

Dollish Polish - Toxic Avenger

Toxic Avenger is an amazing duochrome AND holo foil. The duochrome is similar to Orly Space Cadet or Hard Candy Beetle: it's a purple to gold/green duochrome in a teal base, but this has a ton of holo pigment added to it. Usually, the holo takes over in the sun, and the duochrome really comes out in indirect light. Basically, it's just all-around interesting! It's also not being made anymore, so I'd pretty much given up hope at ever finding a bottle.

This was from a couple Dollish sales ago when the "bonus mystery shade" was a mini bottle of the original Toxic Avenger. I actually didn't know about the sale until it was already 15 minutes into it or something, and all the Toxic Avengers were in carts already (if you don't know, Big Cartel SUPPOSEDLY will hold it for 30 minutes once it's in someone's cart so it doesn't get taken from them while they're in the payment process).

So I waited for another 15 minutes (wildly refreshing the page) until it was finally dropped from someone's cart into MINE... WOOHOO! I was so excited and hurriedly went to payment and just as I was about to pay on Paypal's site... BOOM, it's gone out of my cart (obviously, Big Cartel's hold does NOT always work). OH, MISERY!

So I sat there for ANOTHER half hour wildly refreshing waiting for someone else to let go of one in their cart. And FINALLY, I got one and was able to pay for it, and you can bet I did it LICKETY SPLIT.

I know the story sounds dramatic, but really, even if I hadn't have gotten it I would have just moved on with my day. I LIKE the chase of nail polish sales on Etsy/Big Cartel/whatever. I think it's fun to try and snag the polishes I'm longing for, but to me it will always still be just nail polish. At the end of the day, there are so many more important things to me.

But yes, I DID spend an hour of my life refreshing a web page so I could get this polish, and it was totally worth it!

Like I said, unfortunately (because of availability of ingredients) Dollish Polish isn't making this polish (at lease with this particular formula) anymore. It could be she releases it with a new formula in the future, so be on the lookout for it!

China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitters: Skittles over Black

This is my FAVORITE way to wear the China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitters: as skittles over a black base. While they're also gorgeous on their own, I love how the black really brings out the colors in the duochrome glitter base on each of these.

(natural light)

China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitters

All of these are shown at one thin coat over one coat China Glaze Liquid Leather. All of them are made up of a duochrome micro glitter base sprinkled with multi-colored medium glitters. These are the colors I see in each of the bases:

Full Spectrum (thumb) - lilac lavender that shifts to pink and gold
Prism (index) - periwinkle that shifts to pink and orange-gold
Liquid Crystal (middle) - sky blue that shifts to blue to purple to pink (most prominent color shift)
Optical Illusion (ring) - bright seafoam teal that shifts to purple
Ray-diant (pinky) - golden chartreuse green that shifts to green and teal


The next three pictures I took in my new tabletop studio light box with artificial lights.  I'd like to know your opinion on which pictures you like better.  I know I don't want to rely on the sun anymore (I like swatching at night!), but now it's a question of whether I should get a couple daylight lamps to use for my pictures.  What do you think?

(artificial lighting)

Part of why I wanted to revert to artificial lighting is so that I can set up the lights in a position that will show the duochrome nature in some of my favorite polishes (including these).  I thought the next two pics showed the multiple colors a little better than my natural light pics.

(artificial lighting)

(artificial lighting)

So what do you think of my new photography setup?  Do you like how the pictures look overall?  Or how they catch the duochrome a little better?  Let me know what you think because I'm still deciding on some daylight lamps!

I haven't yet seen the China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitters yet in stores.  I was frantically searching for them and found my set on Phoenix Beauty Lounge.  They are based in Canada but shipping was reasonable and super fast!  When I ordered, one of them showed out of stock, but a few hours later they emailed me to say they did have it and asked if I'd like to add it to my order before it shipped out!  Seriously, GREAT customer service!  They are also available on Transdesign, and Wet n Wild has come out with a Coloricon set that are dupes to these.

Clarins 230 / Max Factor Fantasy Fire Franken-dupe

This is a franken I made using the red to green color morphing powder I got from More Nail Polish (she is sold out of color morphing powders but also offers Spectraflair for frankening holo polishes. She has a link to someone who sells the color morphing top coats, though!).

There are a lot of pictures for this one! It is shown at two coats over Diamond Cosmetics Not Your "Hum Drum" Plum (a royal indigo creme).

The duochrome is awesome, but my favorite part is just the glowy red sparkles on the indigo background.
So insanely gorgeous!

Kind of a bad picture, but it shows the red and green togther!

Normally duochromes tend to show off their colors more in low/indirect lighting, but this one was even more vibrant in the sun! Check out the beautiful greens in this!

It also didn't show as much in the water as normal duochromes. Maybe I'll have to try and take a picture of it in water in the sun.

From the pictures I've seen, this LOOKS like a close dupe for Clarins 230 or Max Factor Fantasy Fire. I don't have either to actually compare, but I'm pretty sure it's the same pigment that they used (it's sort of a standard color change). What do you think? For those of you that have 230 or Fantasy Fire, do you think it compares?

The recipe I used was about three "scoops" (using a nail swatch stick) of powder with about a 1/4 bottle of Milani Rad Purple, a few drops of a blue jelly (like Barielle Berry Blue, but I can't remember which I used) and the rest filled with Glamour Base from TKB Trading (for glitter suspensions).

butter LONDON - Knackered

I don't really know why I NEEDED Knackered, but nevertheless I bought it when I made an Ulta order for Revlon Whimsical recently. I feel like it's similar to Wet n Wild's Gray's Anatomy (maybe with China Glaze Fairy Dust or Northern Lights topcoat), but without directly comparing I feel like Knackered is a bit more brightly duochrome and has a more metallic finish.

butter LONDON - Knackered over Essie Fair Game

Knackered is a somewhat sheer purple to green duochrome metallic with silver holo micro glitter.  I decided to layer it over Essie Fair Game because it didn't seem like it'd be easily opaque on its own (it'd probably take 3-4 coats to be fully opaque). Plus, at $14 for .4oz (11mL) of polish, I'd like to conserve it. Essie Fair Game is kind of a gunmetal blue/grey shimmer and I used one coat under two coats of Knackered.  The edges in person look a tiny bit more green than in the pics above.

The thing I love about this polish is that in low light the duochrome really stands out, and in bright sunlight the holo glitter brings it to life. Luckily, the glitter doesn't seem to make the metallic finish look too lumpy.

This picture in artificial light shows off the metallic finish and pretty green to purple duochrome depth nicely:

Knackered is a part of butter LONDON's spring/summer 2012 collection and is available at Ulta and the butter LONDON website.  I also got Disco Biscuit which I'll be showing soon as well!

Jessica Cosmetics Peacock Queen Collection (Chanel dupes!)

Jessica Iridescent Eye

Chanel Peridot (index and ring) and Jessica Iridescent Eye (middle and pinky)

I had been starting to panic just a little recently because I was wondering if anybody really WOULD be duping Chanel Peridot, and I hadn't gotten a backup bottle (I'm reluctant to buy ONE bottle of $25 nail polish, but Peridot was just so special to me...). So when I saw this comparison over on Body and Soul, I was SO thrilled, hopped right on the Jessica Cosmetics site and ordered them all!

I would pretty much call Iridescent Eye a dupe for Peridot. If I didn't KNOW I had two different polishes on, then I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Sometimes in particular light I think that Peridot might be the tiniest bit more vibrant than Iridescent Eye, but then I think it might be my eyes playing tricks on me or my mind trying to justify the $25 for Peridot, haha. Either way, if there IS any difference, it's NOT worth the $17.50 difference (AND the fact that the Chanel bottle contains less volume). I'm SOOOO happy to have my Peridot backup!! Here's another pic to remind you of the awesome color shift in this one:

Next up is Smoky Feather:

Jessica Smoky Feather

Chanel Graphite (index and ring) and Jessica Smoky Feather (middle and pinky)

Now this one I see a tiny bit more difference. To me, Graphite seems a little bit more sparkly or mirror-like, while the foil effect on Smoky Feather seems just the tiniest bit dulled. Not TOO noticeable, but I would probably be able to tell which was which pretty easily on a "blind" test. Still, is it worth the $17.50 difference? I don't really think so.

Jessica Bronze Tailed

Last up is Bronze Tailed. I don't have Chanel Quartz to compare it to because I was never even remotely interested in it from the swatches I saw. Now I've sort of changed my mind, and I'm REALLY happy I ended up ordering Bronze Tailed. Let's get this straight first: I HATE frosty finishes, but I LOVE pearl finishes (provided the brushstrokes aren't horrendous), and there is a fine line between the two. I would call this a pearl finish, and in my opinion, it's gorgeous if you can keep the brushstrokes to a minimum. I'm not sure why I didn't like any swatches I saw of it - maybe I thought it was more of a pink-brown? I dunno, but it reminds me of another favorite of mine that I should re-swatch: Misbehaving Mistress.

These all had nice formula, covering in two thin coats, although they seemed to be a bit more thick that their Chanel counterparts.

All three of these can be purchased on Jessica Cosmetics' site here, and I'm not sure if they are limited edition.

Did you get any of the Chanel Fall 2011 Collection? Will you be picking these up instead?

Some Sally Hansen Star and Fire Opal Swatches

Although the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms are the most popular, the Star Opal and Fire Opal collections are pretty awesome, too. Here are some skittles showing a few of the cool ones: Wildfire Opal (Fire), Goldspun Opal (Fire), Amber Opal (Fire), Red Opal (Star). The order listed in the first picture is the same for all the other pics following.

Sally Hansen Wildfire, Goldspun, Amber, and Red Opals (1 coat over black)

Sally Hansen Wildfire, Goldspun, Amber, and Red Opals (2 coats over black)

And an underwater picture that shows off the duochrome:

Here they are on their own at 3 coats:

Sally Hansen Wildfire, Goldspun, Amber, and Red Opals (3 coats)

I got these from NailXchange's blog sale, and she may have some still available! She is very awesome and even threw in a couple of these as gifts (maybe because I ordered SO MANY from her :o)

Model's Own Beetlejuice Collection Swatches and Review

As soon as the Model's Own Beetlejuice Collection was announced, I was super excited. So when they were released, I ordered them all (except for Pinky Brown, which was out of stock already). Since this is my favorite picture of the bunch, I wanted to put it first so it shows up in the blogroll:

This is an underwater pic of Purple Blue (the one that resembles Orly Galaxy Girl), and you'll see it again at the end.

On to the polishes:

Model's Own - Golden Green

This one is the one I thought might dupe Chanel Peridot (I was hoping, because I desperately need a backup). It turns out it's quite different, but still utterly gorgeous. It looks like a bright olive/lime green from straight on, and takes on a more grassy green at the edges and at high angles. Unfortunately, it didn't look spectacular underwater, so I didn't bother taking pictures. I really do like this one, and it had nice depth at three coats (shown).

Model's Own - Aqua Violet

This, too, was one that didn't show its colors underwater, but the prominent sky blue and lavender both show most of the time in person. While the colors aren't intensely bright, the duochrome is almost always apparent. Very pretty. I'll have to get Sally Hansen Lapis Amethyst out to compare them sometime. This also took three easy, thin coats to get nice depth and coverage.

Model's Own - Emerald Black

Holy gooses. I didn't think this would be such a stunner. Even thought the duochrome is a lot harder to see in this one, it is such a rich dark emerald green that I was captivated by it right off. I think this is a perfect Christmas green if you like dark vampy colors. At high angles you can see a navy blue side to it, but it's not often visible, and it covers in two easy, thin coats. So lovely.

Model's Own - Purple Blue

I'm pretty sure this is the one of the group with the strongest duochrome, and it does resemble Orly Galaxy Girl, but is not quite the same. It shifts from blue to pink and into the orange/gold realm. Three coats are shown.

This is one that DID show off nicely underwater:

There are a couple of these that I thought might have dupes, but so far I haven't seen any true duplicates.  The Polishaholic did some awesome comparisons here if you'd like to see.

What do you think of the Beetlejuice Collection? Did it live up to your expectations?