China Glaze Metallic Muse, Sci-Fi

This is China Glaze Metallic Muse, 1 coat, no topcoat.

I'm not sure why but I was led into thinking that Metallic Muse was a blue-ish foil, but it turns out that it leans more towards the light sea-green side. Or maybe not? OK, I'm confused. XD I'm not really sure, but it does have some blue-green tinge to it, as compared to Millenium and Sci-Fi.





This is China Glaze Sci-Fi, 1 coat, no topcoat.

Again, I was led into thinking that Sci-Fi was a gunmetal-grey version of Millenium, but it turns out that it's a more lavender-tinged silver as compared to Millenium. I have to say that this colour is extremely similar to Millenium, though, so I did a comparison...





As you can tell, the two colours are very similar, although I think Millenium is definitely brighter and shinier than Sci-Fi, and not to mention it's a definite white-silver as compared to the lavender tinge in Sci-Fi.

I've tried both Sci-Fi and Metallic Muse with Konad, and I find that I still prefer Millenium as a Konad stamp, unless I specifically want a silver-green/blue or silver-lavender stamp on my base colour. I think it's because Millenium is just so bright and so shiny, and plus, white-silver would be a hit with any base colour there is.

Application-wise, Metallic Muse and Sci-Fi are very similar to Millenium, since they're all from the China Glaze Khrome collection 2009. Dries super fast, one-coaters and just all-round good foils. My only query about these is how am I going to pair them up now? Hahaha. However, I don't regret getting them, beacuse they're excellent Konad stamping choices, being so opaque and drying so fast. And besides, I'm slowly getting into this futuristic, shiny, foil-ish look recently.

Estessimo Tins - Swan Lake

This was 3 coats.

Estessimo Tins is a Japanese nail polish brand that is not actually sold locally (at least, at prices that are not exhorbitant) but I managed to get this one from a local blogshop and I am in love! So much so that I took way too many pics:







As I cannot read Japanese and I find their 'collections' very difficult to keep track of, I'm just going to be satisfied with saying that this is called Swan Lake. In my opinion, I think this would've made a way more epic official nail polish for the movie Black Swan than Zoya Bebe, which was more of a ballet leotard shade of light pink. I get the theme and all but come on, Black Swan was way not girly and feminine.

Swan Lake has a dark grey base, with some fine shimmer inside that really redefines my notion of 'duochrome'. It changes colour freakily. Though I would say the dominant shade is still a sort of dusty teal-blue, the purple hue it changes into at another angle is definitely not far behind. And when the light hits directly onto the nail, you really see this awesome bright teal colour, leaning almost towards green. And yet, all these awesome colours are muted and faded in its dark grey base, giving it a really ethereal feel.

I think I don't even need to explain why this polish would've made a better official polish for Black Swan. The now-you-see-it-now-you-don't shades of the polish, the soft, faded, dusty look and its graceful but possibly-sinister colours - everything spells out that movie.

And here it is with flash:





Doesn't it look completely different from the ones taken in artificial light?!

Anyway, it immediately reminded me of my other purple/blue duochrome, Orly Royal Velvet, so I pulled it out to compare...







2 coats of Orly Royal Velvet.

Obviously, they are worlds apart. Next to RV, Swan Lake looks dusty, antique, faded, sun-washed - ghostly, even. Not to mention, Royal Velvet's predominant colour is a royal deep rich purple, where that of Swan Lake is the teal-blue flash that I spoke about earlier. The colour is so much richer in Royal Velvet because that royal purple is its base, whereas in Swan Lake, the base is a dark grey as mentioned, and that really desaturates the colour a lot, but it suits the soft and ghostly feel of the polish, to me.

Another thing I have to point out is that while normally I would call Royal Velvet a duochrome, it looks nothing like it next to Swan Lake. Swan Lake's duochrome is so crazy that you can see both purple and blue at the same time, sometimes, and it almost makes you a little dizzy looking at it. I actually suspect that it's because your left eye sees blue and the right eye sees purple. What?! That is seriously crazy.

This is my very first Estessimo Tins polish. I bought it from Tammy's nail blog, and it cost S$15. The formula was good, although a little on the thin side since I required 3 coats to build it up, but no major problems.

Whiskers & Kittens: A Baby Pink Comparison

Front: Essie Ballet Slippers
Back left: OPI Who Needs A Prince?
Back right: Essie Pop Art Pink

Gosh, isn't that image just the cutest? For some reason, I captioned it 'Pinkertonville' on Flickr, because it was the first word that popped into my head when I looked at it. As you possibly can tell, I've gotten lazier to take photos of the individual bottles, then cut and paste it onto the photos but hey, this is a great idea.

Today, I decided that I shall compare my only 3 baby pink polishes. It used to be only 2 until very recently when I got Essie Ballet Slippers, which made it a nice number for a comparison.





As you can see, Essie Pop Art Pink really doesn't quite fit into the category (expected). While the other two are more similar, nude/white/powder pink sort of combinations, Pop Art Pink is a more in-your-face light Barbie pink sort of colour. It's got more of a blue tone to it, making it very much different from the other two.

Ballet Slippers and Who Needs A Prince? have more to compare. From this photo, you can see that WNAP seems to be more of a peachy shade as compared to Ballet Slippers, but that's really because WNAP has a red flash which, when seen with its base pink colour, makes it appear a little peachier. In reality, I would say that it seems as if the makers of WNAP decided to take some Ballet Slippers, and add a bit of red flash to it and there you have WNAP. The base colour is extremely similar, if not identical. Essentially, Ballet Slippers is WNAP, without red flash.

Although WNAP still remains as my favourite of the lot, as well as one of my favourite nail polishes in my entire collection, I have to give some kudos to Ballet Slippers. I'm really digging the soft femininity of it and the only reason why it lost to WNAP is because of the red flash. Cremes have a difficult time keeping my interest in them for more than a few hours. Because of its red flash, WNAP has a very shiny pearl finish on the nail which is tons more interesting and pretty than a solid creme like Ballet Slippers. However, I'd say Ballet Slippers would make a good second in my line-up for baby pink polishes while Pop Art Pink goes on to finish third, as I can't say I like my nails looking like Barbie.

Which one of the 3 do you like best?

China Glaze Millenium vs OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It

China Glaze Millenium from the Khrome collection 2009. 1 coat.
OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It from the Texas collection 2011. 4 coats.

As you can tell already, CG Millenium is tons more opaque than the watery-thin formula of OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It. The chrome-shine of Millenium is also way more outstanding than the mere shimmer in OPI. Of course, the OPI has the pink glitter add-on but really? Compared to the blingness of Millenium, it pales a long way. Although OPI on its own looks shimmery already (like in this swatch) but when compared with the shamelessly shiny Millenium, it also begins to look dull and lifeless. The silver in it is evidently a lot more gray than Millenium, which leans towards white.

I'll say this for OPI though, at least it evens out. Even in this photo, you can pick out all the brushstroke mistakes I made with Millenium. What can I say? Beauty is unforgiving. In the close-up, you can see that OPI has a much neater, even finish, whereas Millenium has a more foil-like appearance, and dries too fast to ever even out your mistakes. Millenium reminds me of white gold, though!

And just for kicks, I thought I'd layer some China Glaze Broken Hearted (from the Crackle Glaze collection 2011) over it...



I'm not gonna lie! I'd definitely wear Millenium under Broken Hearted any day. Precisely because it's so shiny, it enhances the effect of the crackle! OPI looks fine under it, and the pink crackle brings out the pink glitter even more, but ngeh, like I said - beside Millenium, it just looks a lot more muted.

Duping OPI Ink

Index: OPI Ink (2 coats)

Middle: OPI Black Onyx (2 coats), CND Sapphire Sparkles (2 coats)

Ring: OPI Black Onyx (2 coats), Daiso Blue Glitter (3 Coats)

Pinkie: OPI Ink (2 coats)

You know what. I actually prefer my middle finger combination over the original OPI Ink. I should never have underestimated the epic-ness of CND Sapphire Sparkles. Look at that amazing glitter! When it shines purple (which is, by the way, the exact same shade of purple in OPI Ink), it's of a very slightly larger glitter than that in Ink, and it's helluva lot more bling. The good thing about CND Sapphire Sparkles is that it also flashes blue at another angle, because it's a duochrome glitter and because it's awesome like that.

OPI Black Onyx + CND Sapphire Sparkles is definitely something like a value-added OPI Ink. I foresee myself wearing this way more often in the future. On a side note, I finally got a really good coverage of OPI Black Onyx for the first time. Previously, it's always seemed rather watery and obstinate, like I needed a few coats before it really showed the black, but this was just 2 and it came out very glossy and solid. Of course, you need to wait for a while before you can layer on the CND Sapphire Sparkles.

As for the Daiso one, the sparkles is definitely more sparse than the CND (duh, Daiso was only S$2!). Unlike Sapphire Sparkles which shines a mixture of purple and blue, Daiso flashes blue most of the time. Only at some angles can you see a hint of purple in those sparkles. Also, the blackness of the base still comes through strongly, so from afar, you're more likely to see black rather than a dark purple, as is the case for OPI Ink and CND. However, if you're one that loves black or very dark polish, and like the blue sparkles in this one, then go for it. Though more sparse than CND, the sparkliness can definitely compare.

I'm not sure if this was a fair comparison, seeing as OPI Ink was meant to be a microshimmer whereas CND and Daiso are almost foil-like glitters, but I'm glad I found the CND Sapphire Sparkles combination! Maybe I'll do a full swatch with it soon! (:

Sephora Mini-Haul

Yesterday I went to check out this store called Sephora. I've never before entered it, so I was very interested to see what line of nail polishes they have. Their OPI sold for some ridiculous prices but I did note down the names of some that were really nice. I did, however, indulge myself in 3 of their house brand polishes which seemed very promising. There were several others that looked promising in the bottle but upon testing them out on some adhesive, they fell rather flat to my disappointment. I bought the 3 that lived up to my expectations!



Sephora 0272A.

Seriously, Sephora needs to start giving their polishes some sort of name that's easier to remember than just numbers. I had no other way of identifying them. I think the number is, in fact, just the serial number too. C'mon, Sephora! You can do better than that! Anyway, 0272A is a beautiful glowy radiant bright blue-green colour that takes the light reflection and really transforms it into a glow. It's electrifying and stunning to look at. This was 2 coats.



Sephora 0256A.

A shimmery but not frosty white-beige polish. I like white polish but I don't like to lay on a single layer of pure white creme - that's kinda boring. I'd like it to have some depth, and Happy Anniversary by OPI, while very blingy, was probably not meant to be worn by itself, seeing as it takes a good 5 - 6 layers to build up to opacity. This one works like a charm. I love the off-white tinge, and the opacity which is easily buildable. This was 2 coats.



Sephora 0277A.

I know it's super obvious in the photographs but in real life, the bottle looks a whole lot more like a dark muted lavender than black. I thought it'd be an interesting substitute for L. A. Girls' Punk but I was quite wrong, though I'm happy to be wrong. I was surprised to see that the base colour of this polish is black, but it's so so so chock full of that fine purple, blue glitter that it pretty much negates the black colour. The end-result is a sort of purple-tinged gunmental gray, which is awesome, imo.

This is my first time trying out Sephora polishes and I was pleasantly surprised. Their formula is not troublesome, although it does have a fair bit of bubbling. That aside, I'm in love with their brush. It's completely unlike any of the brushes I've seen before. It's actually pointed in a strange 3D way, which makes it tons easier for me to paint neatly. If you notice, these 3 photos are some of the best applications I've done, in terms of neatness. The colour range of Sephora is not very exciting, though. I probably could find many of the colours as dupes in other brands. Simple solid creme colours. Their glitter range isn't all that special either. When I did pick up their duochromes, some of them looked uber awesome in the bottle but when I applied it onto a bit of adhesive to test, it all turned out really flat and uninteresting. As I've said, these 3 are probably the most interesting ones I picked up. Which is such a pity, because I thought I saw something almost like a Orly Space Cadet dupe.

Each bottle is SGD 9 (roughly USD 7.25) but it's a measly 5 mL compared to the usual 15 mL for OPI, Zoya, Essie and 14 mL for China Glaze and LA Girls. That's 1/3 of the usual volume. Not cool! It's pretty much like a mini, and selling at retail price. Unless they drop the price, or expand the bottle, or diversify their colours, I don't foresee myself buying anymore from Sephora.

However, for interest's sake, I decided to compare the blue-green Sephora to some of my favourite other blue-greens in my collection.



Whew. OPI Yodel Me On My Cell used to be one of my favouritest polish ever, but now I feel that it is in danger of being supplanted by the newcomers like Charla and Sephora. Charla is undoubtedly darker than Sephora, and the shimmer in it is a little chunky but that adds to its epic fish-scales mermaid effect. Sephora employs a much finer sort of shimmer that gives it a much brighter, radiant glow. I love them both. OPI Yodel sadly looks rather uninteresting next to these two but - I still like it. I'd still wear it, definitely. It's good for those times when you don't really want to be all out there and crazy, but yet gives me an adequate shot of my favourite blue-ish shade. (:

Nubar 2010 comparison: Glitters

As promised, I'm going to try layering Nubar 2010 over a range of glitter nail polish to see if it works, and what would work.

BEFORE



Index: Zoya Charla
Middle: Orly Royal Velvet
Ring: Zoya Faye
Pinkie: China Glaze Ahoy!

I know Royal Velvet doesn't seem so much like the glitter polish, nor maybe Ahoy! but I wanted to add in something very obviously shimmery and duochrome (in Royal Velvet's case).

AFTER



I painted only 1 coat of Nubar 2010 over each finger.

Index: Zoya Charla
It didn't show up very well in the photo but Nubar 2010 showed up pretty well over Charla, despite the bling-ness. I picked Charla because seeing as it's a sea, ocean blue-green, it might go well with the orange-green flakes of Nubar 2010. I guess it worked, but the flakes seem to be competing with the bling of Charla for attention, which slightly downplays Charla's characteristic mermaid sheen and doesn't give Nubar 2010's opalescence its due either. It's a workable combination, though.

Middle: Orly Royal Velvet
I suppose the shimmer in Royal Velvet lost out in a large way to the flakes in Nubar 2010, because it'd submissively slink back into the background as a dark purple-blue base for the flakes to really shine. You can see that the flakes are at its most obvious here with Royal Velvet just functioning as a backing. Wearable combination, would definitely try it since I don't like black, and I'm not keen on seeing orange-green flakes on navy blue either.

Ring: Zoya Faye
Faye wins. Sorry, Nubar, pretty much can't see you at all.

Pinkie: China Glaze Ahoy!
Being a strong, bright hot pink, Ahoy! pretty much drowned out Nubar as well. You can more of see the shapes of the flakes, which show up as dark spots on the polish, rather than its actual orange-green opalescence. Not really recommended.

I'll be trying it out with some Cremes next, so stay tuned!

Looking at it now, you would think - what possessed me to even want to compare these two? They look so different. The truth is, when you only have Sea Spray on your nails, it looks pretty much like a baby blue, albeit a dusty one. I honestly thought they would've been more similar. Apparently I had forgotten the brightness of What's With The Cattitude? (seriously, that name is way too long, and 'Cattitude' takes me extra effort to remember how to spell).

Also, apologies for all the scratches and chips on Sea Spray. It's been worn for about 3 - 4 days, and it's gone through a few games of Ultimate Frisbee so I think the scratches and such are passable.

I'm quite a 'blue' person, so I love them both. I'd paint Sea Spray when I feel more neutral or muted, because it's refreshing but yet not too much in-your-face, whereas I'd paint Cattitude if I was feeling bouncy, happy, crazy, etc.

Hot pink comparisons

I decided to do this one because my friend insisted that I was buying the same colours over and over again, so this is to prove to her and also myself that I haven't, really. XD As you can tell, they do look pretty similar in the bottle, and I was worried myself that I've been buying dupes but - obviously not.

I don't really quite know what brand is Eleanor, but I saw it in a big basket of a local beauty shop and decided to get my hands on it.

OPI Diva of Geneva from the Swiss collection '10 is an obvious cool purple with a hint of gold in it. OPI The One That Got Away from the Katy Perry collection '11 is a berry pink on the darker side with large glass flecks in it. China Glaze Ahoy! from the Anchors Away collection '11 is a hot pink base with golden micro-glitter which makes it lighter and warmer than The One That Got Away. Eleanor doesn't really have a name for its polishes but I'm just going to go ahead and call it Hot Pink. This is a more muted dusty pink packed with silver glitter.

Love them all, anyway! I've worn OPI The One That Got Away and OPI Diva of Geneva as manis so far, not the other two yet. Looking forward to Ahoy! It look hawt.