lavenderlilac dream: Nailpolish

Showing posts with label Nailpolish. Show all posts

In an effort to clear my Drafted Posts list...here is another nail polish swatch for everyone!

Remember this swatch?

Since I already shared how OPI's Last Friday Night is over a blue polish, here it is over white.

Please excuse the mishap on my pointer finger!
I used Essie Marshmallow as the white base. I think I used about 2-3 layers to build the white up. I don't really recommend it unless you have a lot of time to wait for the layers to dry. Marshmallow applies rather sheer and streaky. (Works better for a French tip mani though!) I think I used about 2-3 layers to build the white up.

The effect of Last Friday Night and a white polish is much softer and not as bold. I actually prefer this combo over the former one, just personal preference.

I would love to wear Last Friday Night with another white though...the hunt continues!

Any suggestions?

The first polish that I bought from Sephora...Blueberry from the Hello Kitty polish line.
This is one of the few blues that I own and feel comfortable wearing.

Sephora describes this as an "opaque pastel periwinkle blue".

One layer! Pretty sheer and applies spotty...But surprisingly it was VERY easy to apply.

Two layers & Much better!
But as you may (or may not) see on my pinky, a little of my nail & some of its ridges still peeked through. I was still satisfied with this, but you can easily go with 3 layers. If I remember correctly, this polish tried pretty quickly as well.

2 layers...Natural Lighting + Flash

2 layers...Natural Lighting + No Flash

On separate occasion, I wore:
2 layers of Blueberry + 1 layer of OPI Last Friday Night ... Artificial Lighting + Flash

Ahh! Look what happened to the polish. This was a long time ago, but the whole piece of nail polish came off from almost every nail! I don't know if it's my Top Coat or Last Friday Night but this has never happened with any of my mani's before...Not with Blueberry alone, not with Essie Good to Go top coat...never! There's always the usual & gradual chipping, but nothing like this :O

These pictures were edited and sat in my Photobucket account for a long time now. I almost forgot about them until I finally had the time to double check my photos over the winter break. Sorry!! >__<

After not wearing nail polish for the entire summer, the first shade I really wanted to wear again was this (Butter London's Branwen's Feather). Maybe I wasn't used to how dark it was or my hands were just unusually dry, looked more wrinkly, and stiff that it felt weird having such a dark polish on my nails. But if this is the first color I want to wear it must mean something right? :P I still haven't worn this out yet this season. Instead, I've opted for the lighter colors. I'll wear this again...possibly soon!

This is the very first expensive nail polish I bought. I stumbled upon it when I was at Ricky's in Soho. I don't know what made me actually fork out the money for this polish, but I'm glad I tried at least one of butter london's polishes.

Taken in artificial lighting

I can't say for their other shades, but this particular one applies and dries very quickly! Especially if I put a thinner layer. Then, I just put another coat and it is usually opaque enough and with no streakiness. However, if I'm lazy, I can get away with one slightly thicker coat of this polish. To what I can remember, I didn't have any indent incidents with this polish at all.

The polish looks pretty much the same (to me at least) as it does in the bottle. I have yet to come across one that isn't...But, under certain types of lighting the polish will either look like a purple to dark purple or black with a slightly purple hue.

I also like the fact that they are a 3-free company. I wasn't very much aware of those 3 "bad chemicals" in nail polishes until I read about it on a nail blog about it. It's always nice to be on the cautious side.

Overall, if there is a particular shade I feel I absolutely cannot live without it and I happen to come across it in a store OR if I had a job and extra cash to spend I would definitely want to purchase a few more butter london polishes. However, these are way out of my budget range for polishes as of right now =X I can only dream of the next time I could try another one of their shades hehe ...

Taken under natural lighting

Branwen's Feather with Essie Matte Top Coat on ringer finger

This occasion I wore Branwen's Feather, I was also experimenting with the Essie Matte Top Coat. I think in the end I put the Essie Matte Top Coat onto the others as well. It felt a bit weird to me...I still haven't gotten used to the matte look. With the Matte top coat, the polish actually just looks like a lightened black with some shimmers. The top coat actually wears away after a few days.

Has anyone tried expensive polishes before? Which one(s)? What did you think of them compared to others like OPI, Essie, and drugstore polishes?

This was the small purchase that I made a couple of months ago during the Lunar New Year parade. It was definitely not planned but Sea Spray was definitely on my wishlist. Especially after a few bloggers compared it to Chanel's Riva (which is a very beautiful color that I can only dream of getting right now lol). Believe it or not..this is the second China Glaze polish in my collection. I've got to say, I prefer OPI's wide brush applicator versus China Glaze's narrow rounded brush applicator. Especially difficult to apply if the polish thickens.

Sea Spray is a great baby blue with very fine shimmer that you can't see unless you bring your hands really close to your eyes..or unless you have supervision :P I wish it was a bit more visible though. Visible yet subtle is a great way to go for this type of blue IMO. To my surprise, this blue didn't clash with my hands' skin tone like OPI's What's with the Cattitude? I haven't been able to bring myself to wear the latter alone because it looks strange on my hands. I shall do a swatch in the future to show everyone how it looks though because it is a great sky blue creme polish.

I do not remember exactly how long this particular polish/shade lasted before chipping because this is a very overdue post (SORRY!! =X). However, I will definitely update this post when I wear it again! I think this might have been either one thick coater or 2 medium coats. Again, I will update this later!

Base Coat + Polish + Top Coat
Take with flash and under artificial lighting

****Small Update****

I'm still alive! But some of you probably already know that because I leave comments here and there. I didn't expect the rest of April and pretty much probably all of May to be consumed by school. The former seniors, now alums, of my school, never mentioned this... I feel just as stressed as I have always been. Whatever happened to having senioritis? *sigh* I guess it's a good thing. Still keeping my game up :] Hopefully after my last big exam next Thursday my teachers will feel considerate enough towards us seniors that we won't have too many major projects and homework to complete without the last (I think less than 40 days) full days of school. I can't wait got the end of June to come!! Congrats to all/most college students who I think already finished their school year ^__^ College..coming so fast!

On a non-school related note: Is anyone else suffering from terrible allergies this spring season as well?

I was so excited when I saw this at my local CVS. Many people have said that this is a close dupe of MAC's Formidable! I do not own that one because I felt it was too expensive at the time and when I saw comparisons I thought that I'd just get this instead when I find it. I believe this came out even before MAC's Disney collection so my CVS is very very slow at release out new products like this. Thankfully I discovered this early because I went back a week or so later and didn't see that many polishes in the collection, Cosmic FX.

Excuse my terrible cuticles. I'm too afraid to push them myself =X

Base Coat + One Layer of polish
Take with flash and under artificial lighting

Base Coat + 2 Layers of polish + Top Coat
Take with flash and under artificial lighting

Base Coat + 2 Layers of polish + Top Coat
Take with no flash and under artificial lighting
The colors are pretty true to how it is in real life. I was a little disappointed that it came out to look more like a dark red/blood/wine color because I really liked the purple duo-chrome shade it was in the bottle. But it is very pretty none-the-less. This polish is definitely on the sheer side and requires 2 thick coats or 3 medium coats otherwise you'll have a lot of streakiness like the first picture has. I don't remember how long this particular nail polish lasted on me because I wore this about a month ago =X I'll update on this detail when I wear Galaxy Girl again.

Another nail polish swatch! ^__^

I was able to relax (finally) on Friday (so I wouldn’t be stressed on SAT day)...SO I did my nails :]

I was looking for the Essie Good to Go top coat and I saw that the store where I usually get my nail polishes had the OPI’s nail polish for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and it was a pretty sparkly pink. I couldn’t resist (my self-control is worse than I thought..LOL)!

OPI describes it as a “pale pink with a shimmer of hope – and an uplifting sparkle”.

I used 3 coats because it looked a bit streaky with less than that (or it could be that I'm not used to applying sparkly polishes..)

**For base coat I used Seche Clear and top coat I used Essie Good to Go**

Taken with natural light & flash

Taken with artificial light & no flash

Taken with artificial light & flash

Taken with artificial light & no flash

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I don’t know if anyone will notice, but the image quality should be better than before (I got a new camera) ^__^

My first nail polish that is out of my comfort zone color (purples..pinks..)!

It’s described on the Essie site as “a sleek granite gray”.

To me it looks a bit like gray, brown, and a little bit of purple mixed together.

Taken with natural light & flash

Taken with natural light & no flash

Taken with artificial light & flash

Taken with artificial light & no flash

I got this a few Saturdays ago when best friend and I went to Soho for a shopping day :]

I haven’t posted the haul post yet but I couldn’t wait to try it.

It’s very different from what I usually wear and a lot of people had been trying out these minty/jade-y nail colors. I got sucked in :X

If Best Friend didn’t say she wanted to go to American Apparel to look for nail polishes, I would have never known they even had lol So this was a pretty impulse buy.

When we went they sold for $6 each (if I remember correctly) and 3 for $15. So the prices are about the same as Essie and OPI if you can get them at nail/beauty supply store prices.

The color I got is in Office. I only saw a couple of the names and they are pretty…unique? I wonder why they chose office for this color.

It is a pretty thick yet slightly liquidy and opaque formula. I believe I only put 1 coat of this on and it turned out pretty well. With this sort of formula, I like to apply it towards the center and leave some space from the outer edges so it makes my nails look slimmer lol

Anyways…no more babbling. Swatches down below! ^__^

Taken with natural light & flash

Taken with natural light & no flash

Taken with artificial light & flash

I think this has become one of my favorite nail polishes ^__^
Although it applied a bit streaky, after the 2nd coat it is pretty opaque and you can't really see strokes. Still have to be careful when applying it. Have to work quickly! And the top coat helped to even it out (a little bit) so no worries.
It's a really pretty color. If you can get your hands on it, try it :]