Author: GingerlyPolished

Affordable nail polish + makeup blogger

OPI Mexico City Spring 2020 – COMPARISONS

GingerlyPolished10 Comments

You can see the original review post here.

It’s another comparison post everyone! As mentioned before, one of my main goals this year is to really be better with my comparison posts so I can work on destashing and really curating my collection.

Listen, I’m still working on that. I know these posts can be slow posting up, but they also take me a while. I pull all the polishes, and the sticks and then do photos, and then all the swatches and edits. They’re a lot of work, but I know they’re so helpful to both me and all of you, so I’m so happy to continue doing them as well.

BUT, I’m figuring out a new process and it should speed up the process and make it easier overall. So that means you’ll get lots more comparisons more consistently! Thank you as always for being patient as I figure these all out and work out the kinks on new series and posts! Now, for the comparisons.

As I’ve done before, I pulled a whole range of colors on swatch sticks, so you can see at a quick glance how a color compares to a ton of different shades. And then I’ve taken the closest colors and compared them on my nails to further see if they’re dupes. (These are just the shades that I myself own in this collection, so you may know of different comparisons out there, but this is what I have personally).

Now let’s get into this always long post!

Read More »

Revlon Holochrome Collection – Swatches & Review

GingerlyPolished3 Comments

If you read my 2020 goals post, you’ll know one of my biggest goals this year is going through my collection and destashing. I got too many polishes and I KNOW IT. And part of that destashing is going back to older collections I purchased and swatching them and seeing if I still want them at all. So there are definitely going to be some more “throwback” collection posts and reviews. I know it’ll be helpful to me to sift through and know the polish I own, but also to you in case you happen to run across these shades later!

The first collection in this series is this one, the Revlon Holochrome collection. These released in late 2017, and I snatched them all up when I saw them discounted at Walgreens. And then they just sat around in my collection until I glimpsed them again in my drawers and realized I never put them on my nails. It’s time they finally see the light and I see how I like them.

Now they may be harder to find, but I’ve seen them lurking at various drugstore such as Walmart and Walgreens, so you may be able to still snag any shades that catch your eye. They’re showing as being priced around $5.50 each.

I know they got some mixed reactions when they first came out – Revlon promised intense holographic and duochromes and chrome finish – I will say right away, that you’re not going to quite get that with these. Spoilers. BUT, I don’t think they can be entirely tossed away. I’ll let you see the swatches and decide.

Read More »

Essie Valentine’s Day 2020 – Swatches & Review

GingerlyPolished3 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day, all! I’m spending the evening curled up and cozy, finishing reviews, watching a movie and going to bed early (I’m starting to get sick, okay). But I can’t ever complain about a relaxed night in. I’m a very exciting person, I know. And of course, chocolate. I’m a monster when it comes to Reese’s, and my parents are constantly enabling my obsession. Are there candies that you can’t ever resist? I hope you enjoyed the day, no matter who you chose to spend it with!

And as with Valentine’s Day, that means we have a Valentine’s Day collection and polishes! Essie has once again come out with a 6 piece collection for the occasion, complete with the fun bottle wraps. (You do get the bottle wraps when ordering from Polish Pick). Each shade has a different wrap and design, and I would be lying if I said it wasn’t part of the reason I really wanted to buy this collection, okay.

Wrappers

As mentioned, there are 6 polishes! There are 3 cream shades, and 3 more metallic shades.

I grabbed these from polishpick.com. As if I don’t already talk enough about how much I love Polish Pick – they’ve now started selling Essie as well! So I can grab even more of the collections I review at discounted prices, and from one place. I really love it, and wouldn’t talk about it so much unless I’ve had great experiences. (And as always, if you do happen to buy from Polish Pick, you can put in my name in the dropdown at checkout. I don’t make any money from this, it just helps the site see where you all are coming from!)

Alright, enough blabbering, let’s get into the polishes!

Read More »

Orly ‘Birds of Prey’ Trio

GingerlyPolished2 Comments

Listen, I was recently on a binge of polish buying where I just wanted to buy everything, and all of these new polishes were releasing that just caught my eye. You would think that’s what is going on all the time, but I promise sometimes I do hold back. But it was during this binge that I saw this little trio of polishes, and listen, they GOT ME. I have no excuses. My hand slipped, I added to cart, I ordered.

And I’m not sorry. “It’s for the blog”. It’s what I tell myself all the time, okay. But I know you guys love it, and I won’t ever stop, and trying new nail polish will forever be my love.

This is a trio of shades that were released in collaboration with the Harley Quinn ‘Birds of Prey’ movie, releasing tomorrow, February 7! I’m definitely interested in seeing the movie (I can only hope they do Harley Quinn justice after the mess that was Suicide Squad), so this piqued my interest as well! I also loved that based on the names, these seem to be newly released shades specifically for this movie, and not just permanent shades packaged up into a different set.

It’s only available on the Orly website, and it seems that you can only buy all 3 in the trio – not individually. It retails for $28 for 3 full size shades (for reference, all Orly shades retail for $9.50 each for 0.6ml).

It comes in this cute little box set, and there’s just something inside of me that wants to keep it for display. I told you I was a monster here. But it has Birds of Prey on the top, with Harley Quinn, as well as pattern going around the sides. Overall it was just really cute!

BOP-Box

Let’s get into the shades and swatches!

Read More »

Sally Hansen ‘Shine Like a Diamond’ – New Miracle Gel Shades

GingerlyPolished9 Comments

PURCHASED

Sally Hansen is a brand that’s always been on the edges of my radar. Whenever they release new colors or formulas I’m always interested, and want to try them. They can be more expensive, so that has deterred me a couple of times from just grabbing from their permanent line, or buying ALL of the shades of a new line (exept for the incredible Crayola collaborations that I snatched up all of them -pls bring out more, Sally. And the Jelly Belly collab was also amazing and unique.) They’ve had so many different formulas and finishes and lines, from the Mega Strength to the Matte Metallics and the plant based polishes, and they seem like they’re constantly putting out new and unique products. Now I have been lucky enough to receive some PR from Sally Hansen but it’s been sparse, and I’ve purchased most of the shades I own at this point myself, and will continue to buy things I’m not sent. I know I seem like I’m blabbering and gushing over Sally Hansen, but I’m mainly here to say that they’ve come out with some cool things and I’m always excited to try out the new things they’re coming out with (which does fully include their new Plant Based lacquer – I will def be picking some of those up to try them at some point).

So when they recently released 6 new shades in their Miracle Gel line in a collection they’re calling Shine Like a Diamond, I was very intrigued. Half are entirely new shades, and half are ones that were previously released that they brought back by popular demand. I’m not sure if they’re all permanent to the line now, but they haven’t said anything about them being limited edition either. I decided to pick up 5 of the 6. The one I left behind was ‘Mocha Me Crazy’, a light beige cream shade. It just didn’t grab my attention, and I’m trying to be a *touch* more selective with my polish buying (outside of the mainstream brands I regularly review, okay).

Their Miracle Gel line is said to be their long wearing polish, that mimics a gel finish without a UV lamp. Now, I don’t ever wear my polish for long enough to truly test the longevity, so I can’t say if it lasts longer than normal polish – however, polish is definitely personal and it can vary from person to person how long certain formulas will wear.

I hadn’t found these in store yet (they were just announced recently), though they’re showing online at Target.com, Walgreens.com and Ulta.com – and I’m sure they’ll eventually be in each of these individual stores. I ended up buying these online off the Target website for $7.49 each (because I have no patience to wait). This was definitely the cheapest price for them, as they retail for $9.99 at both Walgreens and Ulta.  Target also has a low threshold for free shipping so they all shipped free – though I will say that I was thoroughly surprised that none of the shades were broken. Target, and Ulta, and other brands really need to be better at shipping polish instead of throwing it all in one bag with just 1 big air pack. My complaint for the day.

ANYWAYS, the polishes. They have the wide rounded Sally Hansen brush that definitely makes it very easy to just paint on easily and smoothly.  Now let’s get into the individual shades!

Read More »

Orosa Beauty ‘The Winter Blues’ Bundle – Swatches + Skittle Manis

GingerlyPolished4 Comments

PR SAMPLE

I first won a giveaway of Orosa Beauty’s fall collection, which is how I got to try out their formula originally. I fell in love with the shades then, and the square bottles just get me for some reason. They feel so classy and just so pretty on display. And of course, the polishes inside are gorgeous as well.

They’ve been so lovely to send me more of their shades, and I’m so thankful! I love getting to try out more of their shades, and am very tempted to pick up the rest of them off their website… Stay strong, Quinn.

Anyways, let’s look at this newest little bundle they sent me!

They call this the ‘Winter Blues’ and “it’s the only winter blues you need”. Living in Chicago where it’s just so dang cold and GRAY, I fully identified with that. It’s a selection of 5 of their cream shades, that’ll pair together in a lovely little combo mani.

I already had 2 of these shades previously, so the duplicates will be moving onto a good home with a friend. But I was excited to try out 3 new shades! I showed individual swatches of the polishes included, as well as some manis at the end!

Read More »

Dimension Nails Australia Bush Fire Relief Shades

GingerlyPolished4 Comments

PURCHASED

Every so often I venture outside of my mainstream brands, and try out a new indie brand. The indie polish world is GIGANTIC and offers so many options, so it can definitely be overwhelming. At this point in time, I don’t have the budget to fully invest into a deep dive into it, but I do enjoy every so often picking up a new shade or two from a different smaller brand. (There are a lot of pages who swatch so much indie polish though, so search them up if you’re curious!)

Today we’re looking at one of those brands, called Dimension Nails! I have seen them all over my Instagram, and they seemed to have stunning colors and formulas. The owner, Stephanie, seems like the sweetest person and is super active on her page and with the brand. And then with this fundraiser, it was the perfect time to try them out!

Dimension Nails created a lovely little duo of shades especially for supporting the Australia wildfires. I saw a couple of my friends wearing these beauties on different posts and shares and finally I could no longer resist. This duo includes ‘Kangaroo’, a lovely dusty mustard shade, and ‘Koala’, a deeper gray shade.

For each of these shades purchased, they’re donating $3 to help the victims of the Australian wildfires! They also have other lacquer shades available that will donate $1 per bottle, as well as gel shades that will donate $2 each. You can see it all and find more information here! https://dimensionnails.com/australia/. Unfortunately this only goes through the end of January – I know I’m a little late to the game, I did purchase these later in the month, but there are 2 more days to donate through these polishes!

Of course, even after the donations end, these shades and more will still be available. And with your normal purchase 5% will go to support animal shelters and sanctuaries! Overall, you’re supporting a lot of good causes with any purchase of these shades, and I love that!

Now let’s get into the two shades!

Read More »

OPI Mexico City Spring 2020 – Review & Swatches

GingerlyPolished3 Comments

PURCHASED WITH PR DISCOUNT

You know when you have one really productive day – I swatched like 3 full collections! – and then the next day you go to hot yoga in the morning and throughout the rest of the day, the productivity is gone because you have to fight to stay awake anytime you sit down in your comfy chair? (Can you tell I just started working out again regularly). Well it happened, and that is why this review and post took an extra day to get finished up. I’M ONLY HUMAN. I realize that you only know it took an extra day because I’m telling you, and I create these “deadlines” for myself, but what can I say, we overshare here on this blog.

But at least now I got a built up stash of swatches, so you guys know that there are a lot of posts and reviews coming your way.

Now let’s look at this collection! We’re looking at our very first official spring collection today. This is the OPI Mexico City collection for Spring 2020. As with every OPI collection, it’s inspired by the colors of a certain place, and obviously this is inspired by Mexico City! This is a standard 12 piece collection, mainly made up of cream shades.

As always, I picked this up from polishpick.com. They’re my favorite place to buy new OPI shades (as well as throw in some older polishes I’ve never owned every so often). They have the best prices still (only $5.25 a bottle, instead of $10 from most drugstores!) and their shipping is so incredibly fast and I always have my polish in under a week, usually just a couple days. I know I gush about them a lot, but I’ve literally ordered all of my OPI collections from them since 2018, and I can’t say enough about it. (And if you do order from their site and found it through this blog, you can put in my name in the dropdown – I receive no commission from this, it just shows where traffic is coming from and allows me to purchase shades at more of a PR discount to review).

And now, let’s get into those swatches!

Read More »

Colourpop Butter Me Up Swatches & Review

GingerlyPolished5 Comments

Jump to Sections:
Swatches
Eye Looks
Review
Comparison to Gimme Butterflies

As I’ve mentioned many times before, Colourpop fully has me by the wallet, and I’ve picked up a ton of their palettes lately, so there are a lot of Colourpop reviews that are going to happen. I’ll sprinkle in other brands in between as well, but it’s mainly going to be Colourpop. They just have such affordable prices, and are constantly putting out interesting color stories, and I’m just a sucker for all the eyeshadow palettes. Alright, let’s get onto another one already.

Today we’re reviewing the companion palette to ‘Gimme Butterflies’ that I reviewed a little bit ago (see that review here). These 2 palettes released as part of an Ulta exclusive trio, along with one other more orange toned palette.

As I said, these were released as Ulta Exclusive palettes, though I’m sure they will show up on Colourpop’s website eventually, in the same manner that the ‘Love Bird’ 9-pans did. I still wanted to put up this review for that notion, and because there’s a chance they’re still up in store at Ulta. (And I just had to finish the review for myself, okay.) It retails for $18.

It has very similar packaging to ‘Gimme Butterflies’ (makes sense as they’re in the same series, eh?), except with a more purple theme.

ButterMeUp-Outside

Read More »

Lights Lacquer – Individual Shades Swatches

GingerlyPolished3 Comments

Lights Lacquer is showing a trend of releasing individual shades outside of their collections, and I’m showing a trend of picking up every single polish they release. Listen, I’m a blogger and I’m just CURIOUS, OKAY. And for the first two, okay I was ordering anyways and just chucked them in, save on shipping and everything. Either way you’ll be getting swatches of them in case you’re curious how they look and if you want to order them, so it’s all about helping the reader, really.

They’ve now released two* (at the time of originally writing this, I’m sure there will be many more) of these individual shades. I’ve picked up both so far, and as they continue to release, and I pick them up, I’ll be adding onto and updating this post with swatches of each new shade! That way it’s much easier to find them all in one place. There’s also links to my reviews of their full collections at the end, so it’ll be like a whole Lights Lacquer resource. WOO!

As always, these are available on the Lights Lacquer website, and each polish retails for $9.50 each.

Onto the swatches!

Read More »