Swatch/Review: Orly ‘Sunset Strip’ Holiday 2016 FULL Collection

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HELLO EVERYONE.

It feels like so long since I’ve posted (even though it’s only been like 2 weeks but it feels like forever). I got crazy busy with school as like 7 different projects (exaggerating it was 2) and then catching up after getting back from Vegas. Woe is me.

But don’t worry! I’m back and will be once again regularly posting.

Anyways! The holiday collections have officially started here on the blog! And first up is Orly.

I haven’t reviewed Orly yet here and that’s about to change. After having a couple Orly polishes I loved them and definitely want more. Not to mention that there is more polish in their bottles (.6 fl oz. vs .5 fl oz) for the same price as a China Glaze. DEALS.

Their 2016 Holiday collection is called ‘Sunset Strip’ and has 6 colors. They’re all bright jewel tones that totally make me feel like a movie star ready to get into all the fancy clubs. Let me in, bouncer.

Onto the swatches and review!

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Swatch My Stash: Pure Ice

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Hello from Las Vegas! Okay fine, I’m no longer in Vegas, but that was where I was this past week if I seemed a little AWOL. I just really wanted to say Hello from Las Vegas to seem cooler. I was in Vegas for the AIGA conference but now here I am back to the real world and back to homework. Woo.

Anywho, today’s post! As I’m waiting for holiday collections to come in (my Orly one is ready to be swatched and reviewed – so that’s coming soon!), today is the first of my Swatch My Stash posts! I’ll put these up every so often if collections slow down in order to keep posting material. And it’s a goal of mine to have a swatch and photo of every polish in my collection while it’s still relatively “small” (polish collectors all around laugh maniacally). So maybe it’s selfish, but here you go have it anyways.

All of these swatch my stash posts will have polishes that you can still readily buy, whether they’re part of core collections, or easy enough to track down on other websites. They’re polishes that I haven’t reviewed as part of collections on this blog, so maybe you’ll find a new shade to pick up in the list! Enough chatty business, let’s get into it.

I’m starting with brands that I have few of, and today is Pure Ice. Pure Ice is available exclusively at Walmart. They have 2 lines – their normal polish for $1.97 each, and their Pure Ice Shine, their version of a gel-like polish for $2.97 a piece. Today I have 5 colors of the normal line to show you.

Let’s get started!

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Comparison: ‘Pearl Jammin’ vs. ‘Oh My Majesty’

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I have a comparison post today! Spoiler alert: it’s clear right away that these two polishes are not a dupe for each other at all. But they had the same red flash of shimmers that at first quick glance made me put them both next to each other.

Today I’m comparing China Glaze’s ‘Pearl Jammin” from their Rebel Fall 2016 collection and OPI’s ‘Oh My Majesty’ from their Alice Through the Looking Glass collection.

After all of my fruitless searching for ‘Pearl Jammin” I finally saw it on Amazon and jumped at it, as I knew I had to have it in my grabby hands. And I finally have it painted on my grabby hands, and I’m never taking it off. This shade is so beautiful, buy it immediately if you see it.

Anyways, onto the comparison! ‘Pearl Jammin” is on my pointer and ring fingers, and ‘Oh My Majesty’ is on my middle and pinky fingers!

pearljamminohmymajesty

As you can see, ‘Pearl Jammin” is much more blue-toned while ‘Oh My Majesty’ is obviously more of a white pearly color. But as you can see they both have that beautiful red-orange flash in them. It’s a little more pronounced in ‘Pearl Jammin” but still stunning in both.

So obviously not dupes, or not even as close as I thought they would be on first glance. But just a comparison for reference!

Do you have either shade?

Coming Soon! – New Releases and the Holidays

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That’s right, you read that correctly. The Holidays are coming. Halloween is just around the corner, and all of the holiday collections have been released.

I plan on having the 3 big holiday collections on my blog eventually – this includes Orly, OPI, and China Glaze. In this post I’ll give you a little preview of the 3 (since yes, they are out already), and places where you can pick them up.

I will eventually have posts with swatches and all the dirty details of these collections – so watch out for those in the upcoming months.

For now, a preview.

First up, Orly! I have not yet reviewed Orly on my blog, and I feel they go under the radar as far as mainstream brands, and I have only a few shades from them as well, but the ones I do, I love their formulas! So I want to give more love to a brand that is always there for us.

Orly’s Holiday Collection is called the ‘Sunset Strip’ collection and includes 6 shades. You can buy this collection on transdesign.com for $4.25 a piece now, or on head2toebeauty.com for $5.50 a piece.

Description of this collection says:

“On the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that extends from Hollywood to Beverly Hills deals are made. Stars are born. Over-sized billboards blink in sync with over-sized egos as tourists and wannabes crowd into some of L.A.’s most storied nightclubs. The Sunset Strip is where you go to catch a glimpse into the private lives of the rich and famous.”

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Here are the shades! These colors are all an untraditional yet traditional colors. Does that make sense? I think I might be most excited for this collection because of it’s choice of bold and bright jewel tones.

Next is China Glaze. China Glaze’s Holiday 2016 collection is called ‘Seas and Greetings’ and is a 12 piece collection. This collection is now available on head2toebeauty.com for $3.25 a piece.

Here is the description for this collection:

“Tis the sea-sun for holiday cheer and this year China Glaze is taking you on a tropical escape from the traditional snowy white climate. The CHILL vibe of this collection has nothing to do with climate and everything to do with attitude. The relaxed feel of the beach with classic holiday joy has this winter warming up. With a colour palette that embodies woven accents of glitter with faded ocean blues and weathered seashells brings this coastal holiday collection to life.”

Is this the year of untraditional holiday tones? If so, I’m excited.

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You can see the colors and their descriptions here! Personally I love the idea of bright jewel tones, and soft pastels for the holidays.

And last but not least, the collection everyone seems to be already buzzing about – OPI’s. OPI’s Holiday 2016 collection is the ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ collection and is of course based on the famous Audrey Hepburn movie. This another 12 piece collection, and is currently available on polishpick.com for $5.25 a piece.

PolishPick’s website says:

“Women are still awed by Audrey Hepburn’s impeccable style and glamour 55 years later. Her iconic style, along with Breakfast at Tiffany’s, one of the top fashionable films of all time has changed the way women look at fashion, accessories, jewelry, and beauty. From the adaptation of classic Hollywood glamour on the red carpet or re-enacted in photo shoots, there is a bit of Audrey in every woman.”

For me this collection seems to have the traditional holiday colors in it, with rich jewel tones, and lots of reds, and of course, the iconic Tiffany blue. ‘Champagne for Breakfast’ and ‘Sunrise… Bedtime’ are beautiful glitters that I can’t wait to try out.

As always, these collections will be available at Ulta and your local beauty supply store in due time – I’m just giving you websites where they’re available right now, and where I’ll be ordering from.

Be on the lookout for my posts with swatches and reviews of these coming in the next couple months!

Are there any shades you’ll be picking up? Which ones are you most excited about?

Swatch/Review: Sinful Colors ‘Guise and Ghouls’ Halloween 2016 Collection

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My Walgreens finally got the Halloween display up! Hallelujer. I was stalking Walgreens just waiting until they did, and praise Jeebus, they finally did.

One of the girls who works at Walgreens is in my art theory class. And the other day she leaned over and said to me “I hope this isn’t creepy, but we just got a bunch of new Halloween nail polishes in. I know that’s your thing.” I’ve made it guys. She officially knows I’m nail polish crazy. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I had already found them.

This collection also includes a solid black, and solid white cream, as well as the normal glow-in-the-dark top coat that they put out every year, but I didn’t pick these up, as I didn’t feel the need to.

I have not been able to find ‘Deja Boo’ around at all (it seems to be a problem for others as well) – but if I happen to, I’ll be sure to update this post, as well as indicate in the title. Otherwise I have the other 8 shades here to show you!

Now there are 9 colors (that aren’t the plain black & white), including the famous ‘Deja Boo’ promoted as this collection, so I picked those up, although there are more companion shades in the display with it. But I have swatches and a review of the main 8, as well as one dupe shade as well at the end of the post!

Let’s get on with it!

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NOTD: Salon Perfect ‘Who Ya Gonna Call?’

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I just happened to see this random little collection of Salon Perfect in my Walmart. It was literally just sitting in a little plastic holder all by itself in the middle of the bottom shelf near all of the nail polish. I knew I had found an untouched gem so I had to take a look.

It was the Salon Perfect Halloween collection. This shade was the one that truly intrigued me out of all of them – there was just a standard black, purple, orange and then toppers, but this was the one that caught me so I picked it up.

This one is called ‘Who Ya Gonna Call?’. It’s a clear jelly base with tons of black, dark green, and light green matte pieces all throughout. This was only 2 coats to get it opaque. It takes a little working, in the way that you can’t just swipe it on and go. As long as you just run your brush over your nail a couple of times to truly distribute all of the pieces on your nail, you’ll be set and opaque in two coats. But it’s definitely not work to get it even at all.

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I will say that upon removal it can be easy to get the little pieces pretty much everywhere – but they come off in due time.

Truly such a unique polish! And great formula. I love it for Halloween. (It reminds me of Floam. Anyone else have that stuff?)

 

I’ll have the Sinful Colors Halloween 2016 collection review up tomorrow!

Swatch/Review: Essie Fall 2016 FULL COLLECTION

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I was to apologize for the nice hot minute it’s been since I’ve posted. I’m right in the middle of my senior year of college (dear god I have to be an adult soon) and that’s terrifying. I just finished a big project (today!) so that’s why this post has just been waiting in the background and it’s been so long since you’ve heard from me. But don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere!

Now, it’s no secret that OPI is my one great love in the nail polish world. And that’s right, I was an OPI snob. Before this blog, I owned about 8 Essie shades in total, compared to the 30-something of OPI I had collected over the years. I don’t know why, I just didn’t lean towards Essie that much.

But I’m working to even the gap! I am a polish-opportunist. Any and all brands are open to my trial, and it starts now.

Essie put out a beautiful fall collection out now, and as I began to see photos of it, I knew I had to have them all (and of course I knew I had to swatch them for you guys). I picked them up from TransDesign.

This collection is based on Japan, and there are 6 colors in this collection. (Spoiler: I love them all).

Let’s get into the swatches. And at the very end, after them all, I have comparisons on a couple colors as well!

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Discount: TJ Maxx – OPI ‘Hello Kitty’ Shades

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My Tj Maxx has really upped their polish game and that is dangerous for me. They have them displayed out on a beautiful spinning rack now, instead of thrown like peasants into two big bowls. Now I can truly see ALL my options – and that’s bad.

Also apparently I felt I didn’t have enough pinks in my entire collection, and just decided to try to buy them all in one trip. Don’t worry, I still don’t have enough because I just discovered a true love for pinks on my skin tone.

In this edition of TJ Maxx roundup, I found a lot of shades from the OPI Hello Kitty collection, which came out last December/January. After a quick search for swatches, I quickly snatched up every pink that was there. I have 5 from the collection to show you today!

Let’s get into the swatches.

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Swatch/Review: OPI ‘Washington D.C.’ Fall 2016 Collection – 4 colors

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I know I haven’t posted in a hot second – with school in full swing, it’s going to get harder for me to post as regularly as I did when I started. But I’m going to try my best to get as many posts out there as I can.

As you’ll be able to see in my photos, I got a new daylight bulb! So that means I’m no longer having to rely on there being enough daylight in my room. This means I could take photos in the dead of night. UNSTOPPABLE. This also hopefully means my photos will be more consistent. I hope everyone can see the difference!

Alright, I picked up 4 colors from the new OPI fall collection. I would love to pick up more from this collection but you know – rent. If I pick up more, I’ll be sure to update this post.

Overall, I’m so in love with the 4 colors I picked up. Sure, I love a good bargain nail polish, but I will always come back to OPI and their beautiful formulas. All of these colors have great formulas and I can’t recommend them enough.

Let’s get into the swatches.

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Review/Swatch: Sinful Colors ‘Fashion Flash’ FULL COLLECTION

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I have the next newest collection from Sinful Colors! This one is called ‘Fashion Flash’. It has 8 polishes, and all of them have the ‘Luxe Fragments’ sticker on their cap. They’re all $2 each. I found these all at Walgreens.

I found all of these have the same formula really. They’re all a jelly base with differently colored shimmers, glitters and flakes, or “luxe fragments” throughout. They all take 2-3 coats to get opaque depending on how thick of coats you use. And because it’s a jelly formula, I’ve found that it will take a little longer to dry than normal creams, especially if you put on a thicker layer. The flakes distribute evenly without having to place them, and they don’t stick up really. Because there are flakes, it doesn’t dry textured, but it is bumpy. I also found that these dry semi-matte, so you’ll need a top coat to really bring out the shine and dimension. Removal isn’t as terrible as a normal glitter, but because you do have those flakes, they can take a little scrubbing, and I did get glitter everywhere after removal. Something to keep in mind.

Now onto the individual shades!

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