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?

Sally Hansen Silver Lining

I was craving something light and shiny and saw this in my stash so I thought I'd try it out.

This is Sally Hansen Silver Lining, it's from one of the limited-edition Tracy Reese collections (same collection as Hidden Treasure). It's a really pretty silver with lots of blue microglitter and every once in a while at the right angle it looks faintly lavender-ish. The formula was pretty easy to work with, the only bad thing is that it's really sheer, I am wearing five coats in the picture. It is supposed to be a "complete manicure" though, so I thought I'd try it without base or top coat, and it lasted very well on me. So, even though it took five coats for opacity, it took about the same time to apply it as a three-coat polish. You could wear less coats for a more sheer effect because it applies really evenly and not streaky at all. I think it would be nice to layer with.

School starts tomorrow, ackkkk.

Fourth of July Mani

Happy Fourth, everyone! I wish I had been able to post this before today but I actually didn't even think about doing a 4th of July mani until late last night. Here it is:

The white base is MAC Vestral White, the red is OPI Rock-apulco Red, the blue is Blue from love & beauty (sold at Forever 21, same as L.A. Girl), and the glitter polish is Deborah Lippmann Today Was a Fairytale. I used a striping brush (you can find them cheap on ebay) for the stripes. My right hand actually turned out okay, though the stripes are a bit thicker and messier, haha. I realized after finishing my mani that it looked a bit abstract but if you want to make it look more reminiscent of a flag you can always to horizontal or vertical stripes instead of diagonal, or paint on stars or use star-shaped glitter instead of a glitter polish.

Hope the weather is nice for all of you and you get to eat some yummy BBQ!

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!

OPI Dazzle Me over American Apparel Office

I think that my biggest nail polish love is light blue, but mint green is up there too; I have sooo many! Anyway, a friend of mine gifted me with OPI Dazzle Me, silver shimmer/microglitter in a pale green-tinged base. I thought this would be perfect over a mint green, so I wore it over AA Office:

I think this is two coats of Dazzle Me over two or three coats of Office. I really like this combo, it gives a bit more visual interest to a plain cream. Very nice topper.

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!