NYE Mani

This mani is a bit beaten up and there's some purple from my hair dye but this is what I wore for New Year's Eve 2011:

Gray base is Catrice London's Weather Forecast, silver glitter is Misa Dance Fever, tips are Etude House WH004. I was thinking about changing it for NYE but I didn't end up having enough time. Oh well.

Sephora currently has an offer of an extra 20% off sale items so I just couldn't help myself! Plus I needed to pick up the Nicki Minaj for OPI collection of course.

Tokidoki Pittura Brush Set 24 Karat Edition, Paperself lashes in Deer & Butterfly and Peacock, Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow Pencil Stash, and Nicki Minaj for OPI polishes in Super Bass Shatter, Fly, Did It On Em, Pink Friday, Save Me, and Metallic 4 Life. I love Nicki Minaj and I'm so excited to try out the polishes!

Did you do any damage for New Year's?

China Glaze Cracked Concrete

Today I'm wearing CG Cracked Concrete (gray cracked polish) over Nicole One Less Lonely Glitter (hate the name-lavender glitter):


I used pretty thick coats of Cracked Concrete so the pieces are large but you can use a thin coat for finer cracks. Underneath is three coats of OLLG, but it's not opaque. I think I didn't apply as much to the tips as I did to the rest of the nail, though. I hate the name of OLLG but it's a very pretty color, super sparkly small hex and fine lavender glitter.

I love wearing these Crackle polishes over glitters! The glitter kind of peeks through without being overwhelmingly sparkly (not that there's anything wrong with that!). I really like this combo, it's edgy but spring-y at the same time. I have to admit that I wasn't crazy about the cracked polishes at first, but they're really growing on me! I guess it's just about finding the right combinations.

Diamond Cosmetics Winter 2010

Sorry it took so long, but here are the swatches!


Moonsand, a pewter-silver foil. I love foils, and Diamond does some great ones. In the bottle I thought it had a slight bluish tinge, but it's really just a dark silver. The fact that it's more of a patina-ed silver color rather than a super shiny one makes it perfect for fall/winter. The formula was great, very easy to work with and they were dry to the touch quickly (as with most foils), but it took a few minutes for each layer to dry completely. I am wearing three coats in the picture.


Hypnotic. This is an intriguing green that leans toward teal, reminds me a dark green jade. It has a more yellow-toned emerald green shimmer, and maybe some gold? Understated, pretty, unique, reminds me of a peacock feather. Formula on this one was great to work with, opaque in two coats. I wonder how it compares to OPI's Here Today Aragon Tomorrow?


Starshine. I thought it was black in the bottle, but to my delight it is actually a dark, metallic, blue-toned anthracite with blue micro glitter. At first it just looks like the perfect dark metallic, kind of like one of Christian Louboutin's metal patent colors, but the blue glitter gives it even more depth and interest. The formula on this one was a bit watery, but not hard to work with (just be careful not to let it flood your cuticles). The first two coats were streaky but it evened out nicely with the third.


It's Electrifying is my favorite of the bunch (well, if I absolutely had to pick one)! It's an electric blue neon (yay!) with blue shimmer. Because it's a neon it dries to a satin finish, so you definitely need top coat to bring out the shimmer. It's bright and saturated at the same time and the shimmer gives it an extra dimension. This one applied nicely. You could actually get away with two coats if you don't mind visible nail line, but it turns out looking more teal than blue. Three coats are necessary to show the true color, and that is what I am wearing here.

Here are some comparisons.
Starshine next to Zoya Kotori:

Kotori has a darker base (that's not metallic) and a much more apparent blue shimmer. Kotori is also much sheerer.

Here's Orly Shine next to Moonsand:

As you can see, Shine is definitely brighter and it has closer to a chrome finish. Moonsand shows a little more texture because of the dark base.

Don't Teal My Heart Away next to Hypnotic:

Clearly, DTMHA is lighter in color and lacks the shimmer that Hypnotic has.

All of these colors are beautiful and unique, I have yet to be disappointed by Diamond Cosmetics! Part of the reason why I am posting this so late is because I really enjoyed wearing each color; I wasn't just swatching quickly like I do with some others (not that I don't love them too). For every color I can honestly say that I don't have anything else like it in my collection (although I don't have as many colors as some others). It's so refreshing as a winter collection, too; I love the mix of dark, bright, and metallic colors. It seems so appropriate for winter without being obvious (no holiday colors, no wintry whites). Drying time on these was a bit long; I would definitely recommend waiting a full 10-15 minutes between coats. Overall, though, I highly recommend all of them!

Milani Rockstar Heavy Glitter

Swatches, finally! This collection is really gorgeous. I'll start with the one-coat glitters.

Gold Glitz:


This one is a mix of gold and orange-y copper glitter. It's a nice warm-toned gold, just a little bit ghetto fabulous! Way better on the nail than I expected!

Purple Gleam:


Mix of dark and light purple? Or maybe purple and black? Hard to tell. It's just a shade darker in real life. I am not normally a huge purple fan but I do adore this one. Then again, I really loved this entire collection!

Red Sparkle:


Red is another color I'm not a big fan of, but this one is so pretty. It's a very saturated ruby red, great for the holidays!

Silver Dazzle:

This one is a steely gray glitter. I would say it's the most subtle of the bunch. Kind of like the glittery version of a dark, stormy gray. Seems pretty unique!

Blue Flash:

This turquoise glitter seems to be a mix of turquoise and light turquoise glitters. I think the "3D" effect I mention later is most evident on this one. Some people have asked if this is similar to China Glaze's Dorothy Who. I can't say for sure because I don't own DW, but it seems like Blue Flash has finer glitter and lacks the silver glitter that DW has.


The collection also includes two "Jewel FX."

Gold over Purple Gleam:


Gold over Blue Flash:

Gold is just a bunch of gold hexagonal glitter suspended in a clear base. There's quite a bit of glitter packed in there, though, so I don't think it would be too hard to layer on the glitter to fill the nail.

Gems over Red Sparkle:

Perfect holiday combo!

Gems:

This is three coats of Gems on my thumb. As you can see, it's a mix of small and large hexagonal glitter in silver, gold, red, green and light blue. I personally am not sure I like the look of this on its own, but it's great for layering.


This collection is really amazing! They are called one-coat glitters and the glitter is very densely packed. With some careful application, you could probably get away with one but I used two for the red and purple. They all seem to be a mix of light and dark versions of the same shade. This combined with the fineness of the glitter really gives them depth. With top coat, they have an almost 3D effect, kind of like those Magic pictures from the 90s. Drying time was quick (even the Jewel FX) and application was a dream! Hardly any cleanup needed at all. These really are the best glitters I've ever tried!

These were on sale at CVS, BOGO half off and they retail around $4.50-$5 per bottle. I read somewhere that the official release date for these is supposed to be in February so if you can't find them, don't worry! I am sure they will be available to order on the website soon.

MAC Light Affair Dupe - BB Couture Intake Valve

My interest in nail polish started way too late for the Love Lace collection from MAC, but I saw Light Affair and really wanted it! I checked ebay and it was going for around $26 (more than double retail), so I gave up. I later saw a swatch of BB Couture Intake Valve (from their men's collection) and thought it looked very similar so I bought it. A few weeks ago I was able to score Light Affair on ebay for a decent price and I finally got it today.



They are really very similar! Both are kind of a grayish, lavender-ish nude creams that look a bit different depending on the light. Intake Valve has a very subtle shimmer in the bottle but it disappears on the nail. It looks just barely lighter than Light Affair if you look really carefully, but it's by far the closest substitute out there, and they're way too close to each other to justify owning both if you already have one. The formula on IV was easier to work with and a bit more opaque, although I am wearing three coats of each color in the pictures.

Light Affair is available on ebay, and possibly makeupalley. Intake Valve is available on BB Couture's website for $9.95 and overallbeauty for $9 (shipping not included).

I'm not really sure if I love this color in its own, but I've seen some pictures of it with black patterns stamped on top and I think it looks great. "Love Lace" made me think of lace, of course! This pattern isn't lace exactly, but it's certainly reminiscent of it:



I used Konad plate m71 with Konad special polish in black. I'm not sure if this is the case with other black polishes but this one was hard to clean up! It left black smears everywhere and I ended up having to clean everything with nail polish remover and then soap and water.

In other (nail) news, I ordered some polishes from the OPI Burlesque collection and they should be here by the end of the week, yay!