WnW Gray's Anatomy

If you haven't checked out the selection of Wet 'n' Wild polishes at your local drugstore yet, you should! They've come out with a lot of great stuff lately.

This is Gray's Anatomy which is supposedly very close to Lippmann's Wicked Game. I do know that this one is much sheerer though, I am wearing four coats in the pictures. Nonetheless it's a very interesting color, silver with green and magenta duochrome. I am sure the Lippmann has a much better formula and if you really love the color, I think it's worth the $16. I personally was not super interested so a few coats of a $2 nail polish was fine for me!

Nfu-oh 51

Here's another color from my Korea/Nfu-oh haul!

Nfu-oh 52 is a purple jelly base with multi-chrome flakes and mini glitter. They flash pretty much every color from red to teal. I tried to show it in the pictures but it's hard to capture. I am wearing two coats and the VNL in the pictures is much worse than IRL, where it was actually very hard to see. Formula was great to work with and the polish lasts a long time; I believe this picture was taken three or four days after I did my mani and there's only a bit of tip wear, no chipping. It does take longer than average to dry but it's not too bad.

This polish is said to be a Clarins 230 (a.k.a. Unicorn Pee) dupe. It's clearly not a true dupe as 52 is a flakey and Clarins 230 is a shimmer, but there are definite similarities. I will have to do a comparison sometime.

Etude House WH004

This is another of my purchases from Korea from one of my favorite stores there, Etude House. All the packaging is just adorable, and this bottle is no exception. Not only that, but I do love this color!

This is WH004 (from their Bling Bling line of polishes), a beautiful black cream with multi-chrome mini-flakes that mostly look teal and violet, but they show all different colors of the rainbow. As you can see, it didn't quite translate on the nail; it pretty much looks teal, turquoise or violet depending on the angle, but I still love it. I was really lemming Rescue Beauty Lounge's Iconoclast, but this color has fulfilled it. I don't mean to imply that they're dupes (they are so not), but it's a similar idea: black with multicolor shimmer/microglitter/whatever.

The formula was pretty easy to work with, a little bit watery but not bad at all. Drying time was average. I am wearing two coats with top coat and base coat in the picture.

You can find this color on ebay, or maybe gmarket.

Nfu-oh 52

I really wish I had purchased more Nfu-oh now that I'm back, but I'm just glad I was able to score the beauties I did. Here's number 52:

It's a sheer blue-based purple jelly with flakes that shine blue or green depending on the angle and lighting. This is four coats with no base or or top coat. There's still a bit of VNL but it's not very visible when my nails are this short. This color is beautiful, I really could not stop staring at my nails. My only complaint is that it did not dry very quickly, took quite a while actually. Still, the color is worth it and it lasted quite a long time.

Here it is with Essie Matte About You on top:

Mattifying it tones down the shimmer/microglitter and brings out the flakes. Very pretty.

Still have quite a few untried Nfu-oh but so far I have not been disappointed!

Missha HGR001 (Green/Teal Duochrome)

Here's one of the polishes I bought while in Korea, Missha HGR001 (wish the names were a bit more creative...):

Isn't it gorgeous? It's a beautiful duochrome, or maybe multichrome? Depending on the lighting it looks apple green, deep sea blue, teal, and just about everything in between. I also love that it's a metallic! It reminds me of the Chameleon polish I tried. The formula was perfect, super easy to work with and dried pretty quickly. I am wearing two coats with no base or top coat in the pictures (didn't have any with me in Korea).

You can buy Missha products on their US website, www.misshaus.com.

Chameleon Calypso

I was at Rite Aid the other day and came across this brand, Chameleon. Most of the colors are duochromes (if not all), but I was afraid it might be too brushstroke-y so I just picked up this one. Well, I think it's amazing! I promptly went back the next day to pick up a few more colors. Here is Calypso:





Isn't it amazing? The primary base color is kind of a metallic pinkish lavender that changes to a pale bluish silver, but in between there's dark blue, gold, and maybe purple? The duochrome effect is very strong. The finish actually wasn't frosty, it kind of reminds me of the Sally Hansen Chrome polishes; metallic, but no brushstrokes. The only thing is that it really shows every imperfection on your nails, so it might be good to use a ridge-filling base coat. Also, I added Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat but it didn't seem to have any effect at all, almost as if it had been absorbed into the polish. Weird. Other than that, the formula was pretty good. It was pretty easy to work with, but it dries very quickly, almost as quickly as a matte. You have to work fast with a fair amount of polish to prevent bald spots. I am wearing three coats in the pictures and you can actually still see through my nail a bit when I hold my hands up to the light, but the metallic finish really hides the sheerness.

Chameleon polish is made by Scherer, same company that makes CQ and petites (they were all in the same display when I found this one). According to the company's website, you can only find these at Rite Aid and they were $2.99 for .4 oz. There are some on ebay, but they're pricey.

I really love this color, can't wait to try the others!

Zoya Kotori, Crystal, Charla Comparison

I did this at someone's request but I thought I'd post it. I don't have Charla, so I used Orly Halley's Comet instead.

L to R: Kotori, Crystal, Halley's Comet

One coat:


Two coats:


Three coats:

At this point Halley's Comet was opaque so I didn't add any more.

Four coats (three coats of Halley's Comet):

At this point Crystal was opaque, so I didn't add any more.

Five coats of Kotori, four coats of Crystal, three coats of Halley's Comet:


With top coat:


As you can see, they are very different. Kotori, the sheerest, is a dark charcoal base with lots of blue microglitter. Crystal is a metallic light blue with lots of gold flecks. Halley's Comet is teal with yellow-green sparkle. From what I have read, Charla is slightly more blue and more sparkly, but they are very close. All of these formulas were very easy to work with and dried fairly quickly.

In conclusion, these three colors really aren't similar at all and it's worth having all three!