The Unexpected Dupe

I've got a quick one: Sally Hansen Insta Dri Ruby rush and Sparitual Against the Grain.

Left to right:

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Ruby Rush

Sparitual Against The Grain

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Ruby Rush

Sparitual Against The Grain

Both are deep red wine shades, but both are so identical I really had to take notes on application.

I love the shade and think that the depth of the shimmer just makes me agog. It flames and dips into black. Gorgeous.

Against the Grain you can find on eBay, it is no longer on the Sparitual site that I can see.

Insta Dri is no longer in the Sally Hansen line up, either, so, too, eBay may be a good source.

Personally I love both, so I will say the difference my be the brush: Insta Dri brush is not for the faint hearted - or the small nail-bedded! 

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!!!

Stamping Subtle and Bright

Hi Sweet People!

I've been super lazy these days: job change and spending more time on MUA than here, my bad!

Here is a variation on stamping for those who like stamping, but aren't sure if they have polishes that will work.

I am currently working on a page with polishes that do stamp well, also experimenting with ways to get old polishes I don't wear to turn into stamping polishes. I will update you on both results sooner than later, but the latter is still more experimental, where the former is just a matter of getting my booty to write things down more consistently.

I'v got a pair of polishes that I do like, Sparitual World of Compassion - a necessary time in this world we live in - and SinfulColors Dream On.

First the subtle:

Sparitual World of Compassion is a definite three coater, but not a laborious one. A quick dry top coat finished things off well. I have Zoya Caitlin and CC Boho Chic which are virtual dupes so I am full of this soft, blue leaning gray. It's a classic. Hard to top this color if you like a cool gray.

I stamped with the Cice Sisi plates set 1 using SinfulColors Dream On.

Be assured I won't call Dream On a stamping polish. It is too sheer.

Even after I leave the cap off for a half an hour, I don't see much change with density.

Yet it isn't a failure, either: Color comes through even over gray.

My biggest concern is that I can't seem to get a solid image off these plates, even after multiple attempts at stamping and with both a Creative Stamper, clear jelly stamper, and squishy jelly stamper.   Whether the pattern is fine or wide - like this one - I get some patchiness.

I am rolling my stamper onto the image and I am gently scraping with a credit card sized scraper.

Still in the experimental stage.

One other thing about Cici Sisi plates: if you have bigger nail beds rejoice, the patterns are scaled up, so I only get partials of this big teardrop pattern.


Now for the brighter version of this stamping:

As my camera is croaking, this pulled a bit more cool, but also with the silver it did as well.

I mixed this no name L.A. Color polish with Dream On on the plate and together it offered a bit more pop than just Dream On alone.

It makes a huge difference. Some people like subtle stamping, I do, it's very pretty to see the same tonal ranges vary just a bit by hue, but others like impact.  The silver pulls the Dream On out of the shadows.

You will notice, too, that the stamping isn't as patchy as with Dream On alone. Go figure. I am blaming the plate and my technique when it could just be the polish! :D

Hope you enjoyed! I wanted to share this fun experiment. While Dream On isn't my favorite stamping polish, it is a pretty color, so it may just go back into the stash as a regular polish.


Thank you for reading my little nail polish journal!

Blue Sky Days

It's a pure creme finish post, today, so no sparkles here!

All are three coats, no top coat and under a combo of daylight corrected lamp as well as a more tungsten leaning lamp. One lamp is LED and has little lights, so you will see a dotted effect of the light in some cases: no texture that it implies, just a lighting artifact.

Onward!

Revlon Carioca Crush

Starting with my absolute favorite. It's a beautiful formula. Indeed, I can't believe how much I loved it. Very smooth and glossy. I won't call it a crelly, but it has a luminous quality about it that is often hard to find in cremes. 

I confess a top coat would be icing on a tasty cake.

This polish is not listed in the Revlon website search, I found mine at the Dollar Tree ostensibly to use as a stamping polish. What a nice find! It is on eBay, so it's still around.

Sparitual Crystal Eyes

I believe that this polish is losing points on lack of leveling. My index (left) isn't that ridged at all, but the brushstrokes show up on this, even at three coats. I was rather surprised and kind of disappointed.

It's a beauty. 

I think I purchased this through Sparitual years ago, just never wore it. 

Still available on the Sparitual site and other outlets, which is nice, as this is a beautiful color.

Sally Hansen Model Behavior

I don't know why I pulled this one out, but I just did. I love this polish a lot. Smooth, glossy, and easy to work with, it's hard to admit it, but Sally really has made me turn my head. 

Available online at eBay, etc. The Sally Hansen site wasn't coming up at this writing. 

Zoya Ling

Bright blue that is just marvelous. I think the formula is very nice, it has a waxy finish, bordering on glossy. Still hard to complain because it's such a bright pretty blue.

Here is a comparison of the four polishes:

Nothing dupey, but a lot of similarities. (Well, except for Model Behavior!)

Same order as presented: Revlon, Sparitual, SH, Zoya.

I think, for me, the Revlon is the best of the deeper shades, but Zoya is so unique. Even in this photo it refuses to sit quietly in the corner. It's just so fresh. I do love it.

I wanted to put Model Behavior in a quick comparison with Insta Dri Brisk Blue:

Left to right: 

SH Model Behavior

SH Insta Dri Brisk Blue

SH Model Behavior

SH Insta Dri Brisk Blue

I would say that, for me, they are not dupes, but similar. Brisk Blue is a bit deeper. To be honest, both are beautiful but it does boil down to the brush: Insta Dri is wider than the CSM brush, and a little less finessed.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

All Is Calm

Sparitual World of Compassion and Zoya Caitlin

Left to right:
Sparitual World of Compassion
Zoya Caitlin
Sparitual World of Compassion
Zoya Caitlin


I grabbed both of these with flash and shows them a little cooler than if they are under a Tungsten style light (most indoor lighting)


Very close in the bottle

This one seems to reveal the subtle difference, which is the tint base, versus all that gray.


Here's a photo of the bottles before I shook them up...

As you can easily see, Zoya Caitlin has a purple tint and Sparitual World of Compassion has a magenta tint.

Both are gorgeous, I'll be honest.

Here is a photo of the first coat:

Same order as above.

My photo, too red, shows that Zoya Caitlin does not consistently cover in the first coat, but does do a fine job in three. I had not complaints once all was said and done.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Peridot Green and Two Plums

So, to continue a theme that kind of has been running through my head, I'm working on seeing if my polishes stamp or not. I had gotten two bottles of OPI Just Spotted the Lizard, somehow, and thought it might work in a second career. We shall see.

First a couple of plums.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Purple Haze

Three coats and a beautiful formula. I wish I had a back up of this one and toyed with doing so as RBL began to run sales prior to shuttering their doors. It's demure, but not too unsaturated so as to end up looking like a gray. It's a bit blue here, but not as red violet as I've seen other photos. As a comparison, here's Nicole by OPI Orchid you not as a comparison:

Perhaps too blue, still, but still, it's got a purple thing that doesn't suggest violets, just plums.

You might see this one on blog sales, live journal nail polish sales, eBay, etc. RBL is toast.



Here's Sparitual Solitude. I thought I'd blogged this one before, but haven't given it it's own showing:

Definitely needed three coats, but if you have this one I think you could decant some and make a beautiful plum jelly. I wore this several times and the formula is quite beautiful, too.

I sold a backup bottle on eBay, but right now it's going for about $12.00 on Sparitual's site (gosh, I remember when they were $10!), but you might find it for less.


Here are some stamping experiments.

Rescue Beauty Purple Haze stamped with Bundle Monster Secret Garden plate 714.
I would say that it's a very subtle effect. Almost invisible, but I think it might work as a topper. I don't dislike it, though, as a stamping polish.

Sparitual Solitude stamped with Bundle Monster Secret Garden plate 712.
This is more of what I expected. I think the index finger barely shows, but I kind of like the way it disappears.


OPI Just Spotted the Lizard is available online, it was from the Spiderman collection by OPI, though as you can see from my previous post, there are a ton of dupes.

Thank you for reading my little nail polish journal!

In the Fox's Den

A pair of fox themed polishes that are in the magenta family. One more red/pink the other more leaning into the violet family.

My photos were shot in the sunshine, by the way.

Enjoy! 

Sparitual Foxy Lady

Three coats, no top coat. This is a polish I found on one of those membership sales sites like Hautelook or Gilt, I can't recall which. 

This is a "vegan" polish but it is jam packed with big 3 chemistry, second ingredient is toluene. I mean, hey, toluene is vegan, but it's not fun. 

Meanwhile, the color is great, the formula was easy to use as well. 

It's got a pretty white frosty shimmer that brings it up into pink at the top and dissolves into red around the edges.  Beautiful bright raspberry.

OPI Cute Little Vixen

Three coats, no top coat.

This is a beautiful shimmer full of gold, pink, purple, and amber glass fleck. This is from the Mariah Carey holiday collection from 2013. I purchased this at TJ Maxx, where a lot of the collection showed up. Certainly available online at eBay and Amazon, etc.

It's a beautiful shimmer, with lots of other things going on. 

Both are very beautiful and I love the fact that they are rich and jewel toned. 

To be honest, I will be moving the Sparitual along, so keep an eye out for it in my eBay auctions, blog sale, or MUABS, or even Storenvy (the latter is a learning curve and links will show up eventually). I have a number of Sparituals that are these big three and considering their marketing tone, it was a shock when I opened the bottle and took a whiff.

Because if its complexity I love OPI Cute Little Vixen. 

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Pale Blue Shimmers - Part 2

Here is part two of some pale blue sheer shimmers.

Here is a link back to part 1.

This set is basically a dupe list for you if you are thinking of getting something like this as a topper. I will add that none of these polishes purports to be a layering top coat, just sheer, baby, sheer!

These are shown alone then over Color Club Bright Night, which I wanted to swatch an never seemed to get around to doing so. 

Three coats, no top coat.

This is a gorgeous bright blue. I will say that my bottle didn't have any mixing balls in it and since I've had it unused for a while (far too long, I might add) and the deep blue pigment sank to the bottom in a 1/4 inch layer, leaving a light blue polish.
It took me a ton of time to shake it up, I finally added some mixing balls and it finally worked out. As I write this it's been a few days since I took photos and the pigment has sunk again. Interesting.

On to the shimmers, shall we?

Sparitual It's Raining Men

Three coats, no top coat.

Now of course you can see this pretty light blue with an amber shimmer, but on the nail it's so sheer at three coats that you can see my stained nails. Ugh! Sad!  It looks uneven but you can see that on the right side of my pinkie and ring finger that when the light doesn't shine hard on it, it looks almost opaque and you can really see the light blue. Very pretty, but not enough. I think over a pale blue this would show up better.

Sparitual It's Raining Men over Color Club Bright Night

Suddenly the amber shimmer shifts red and it's gorgeous. I love this a lot. This is two coats only, no top coat.

I am sure that you can see how this is a topper versus a solo polish. It would be pretty over a nude, white, or pale pink, though.

Three free is the story behind Sparitual, I think I bought this directly from them quite a bit ago. I believe it was $10 a bottle and now that I look back, ouch! Especially after you see the next polish!

Right now this is on eBay, although I can't find it on Sparitual's website.

L.A. Girl Paradise Blue

Here is the super discount version of the above polish. Also 3-Free and found on DiscountCosmeticOutlet or maybe Beautyjoint for a song.

Same amber gilded look alone and here it appears to have somewhat more coverage.

DCO still has a lot of these old polishes, although not this one. I can't find this one on eBay, either.



L.A. Girl Paradise Blue over Color Club Bright Night

Two coats, no top coat.

Again with the gorgeous red shift. I love this a lot: great price point, 3-Free, and up to par with a decent formula. Just wish it was available because it's really quite the win.




Orly Sky Blue-Pink

Same thing as Spiritual. Color is a little dowsed and underexposed, but that's me. Three coats, no top coat.

Basically this is a pre-3-Free polish but identical to Sparitual. So, I am assuming, since I have so many Sparitual/Orly dupes, Orly makes Sparitual.  But, since this is not 3-Free, they must have trotted out the recipe for Sparitual.

Orly Sky Blue-Pink is an older polish, and I found it on Head2Toe's website where you scroll back through a bunch of old old old colors and can't really see what you are looking for nor can you really find swatches online. I think I just added it to an order to see what I got. Well, I got a dupe, basically.



Orly Sky Blue-Pink over Color Club Bright Night

Two coats, no top coat.

For some reason this one shows more brushstrokes.  Not much more to say, except that the 3-Free dries a tad bit slower than this one. In the meantime, this one stinks and it's not that much better. At least nothing a Quick Dry Top Coat can't handle.




I did want to compare these because they are absolutely the same:

Same order as my swatches:

Sparitual It's Raining Men
L.A. Girl Blue Paradise
Orly Sky Blue-Pink

Two coats over Color Club Bright Night.

Very pretty topper that is unique among the throng of pinks in that it shifts to a reddened shade versus a soft pink.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Berry-ations Part 1

Wanted to do a random batch of swatches. I've had a lot of these for a long time. Dang, time to get them tried out!

All are three coats, none have top coats.

Pulled out a bunch of berry-ish polishes and had at it!

Sparitual Worldly Wise

Soft mulberry that pushes into the mauve rose category. Lovely little polish. I think my photo here is a touch light, though.

Not sure where I got this one, but I think it was a Spiritual sale, quite some time ago. It's no longer on their website. I looked it up to figure out what collection if was from, but couldn't find it, it barely shows up on the radar. So odd.

L'Oreal Sophisticate

Deeper glossy raspberry rose that I love quite a bit. 

Glossy finish, sans topcoat is always a win.

Found at the ol' Dollar Tree. I never even saw these in the main drug stores, which is weird because I got this only a couple of years ago. Odd.

Misa Push Upon It

This is from their Living In The Fast Lane collection from when I was really just starting out in polish, about 2009. Beautiful self-leveling creme. 

Rich raspberry that sends feelers into the red family.

I believe I purchased this from my usual online etailers, it's been quite a while. 

Need to wear this one more often.

Zero oddness.

Essie Tribeca

Very similar to Spiritual Worldly Wise, but more blue toned. My photo is a bit darker, though.

Glossy finish, but sheer. 

This could be used to make a pretty crelly. Might do that after a few wearings. 

I tried to google to find out what collection this was in, but dang, it's not to be found. More oddness.

Purchased, I think, either at a blog sale or eBay.

Here are some comparisons:

Same order left to right

Sparitual, L'Oreal, Misa, Essie

Here the top row is one coat, middle is two, bottom shows a bit better variation between the L'Oreal and Misa, they aren't really as close as they look in these photos.

Bottles!

This is with my flash, so it really brightens things up.

(I seem to have a ton of water bottles around! I recycle, but dang, odd!)

Weirdly enough, as I tried to let you know where you might find these polishes for purchase, only the Misa showed up. 

The other three were like ephemera, lost on the ether.

Although the L'Oreal was fairly commonplace about 2-3 years ago at the Dollar Trees I browsed through, it's nearly invisible now. Plenty of L'Oreal on eBay, but not much of the "Steel Color" stuff.

In a couple days I'll post part 2,  plus a bonus!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Sparitual Mood

I love gray polishes. I've got over 30 separate shades of gray. (snicker)

Here is one that is very warm and has been classified as a brown, but when I swatched it, it feel firmly into the gray category.

Here is Sparitual Mood

Excuse the fingerprint, I just noticed it as I edited the photo. Argh!

I feel like this dried a little slow, but the finish is a stone shaded metallic shimmer, and I like shimmers, so I kind of forgave it. We'll see how long the love lasts.

As I recall, it wore very well for the two solid days of wear, and I have no complaints. 

The smudge just drives me crazy! 

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Pale Watery Blues

If there is something that challenges me it's those polishes that are too sheer to go it alone but too dense to really just be layering polishes without a serious translucency to really layer on anything. I mean it can be layered, but you need to negotiate-to-yes with the right base color to make it work.

I sat down with a couple of sheers that were oddly similar in the drawer and I thought I better 1) swatch them and 2) compare them!

First up is a bottle shot:

Both are sweet blue shimmers in a light beige base that is all but translucent. It does have a yellow tint to it. It's in the bottle, but not ending up on the nail. Still there is this antique feeling behind the blue in the bottle of both.

Although Aqua Shocks is deeper, both blue shimmers have a purple color shift in the bottle. Nice!
Not so good is that it really never shows up on the nail.

It's actually nothing like a dupe, but both are pale and watery on the nail.

Maybelline Aqua Shocks

Four coats and very streaky.
I think it took four coats to even just acquire some decent coverage. It's pretty much a layering polish, but I have it over a Borghese translucent ivory that barely covers, but takes a little bit of the yellow out of my nail.

I didn't layer the polish over a blue, which would be great, but just wanted to see what it would do alone.

Next up is Sparitual She's a River

Again with the four coats and the same base. Very sheer. In fact it really seems to not build ever.

More of a cool take on the blue shimmer over beige, it's pretty and icy and quite fresh for a hot day. I would definitely put it over the top of something like CC Take Me to Your Chateau.

So I compared them:

Pretty straightforward left to right:
Aqua Shocks, She's a River, Aqua Shocks, She's a River

These are now over SH CSM Cafe Au Lait which is a deeper rosy beige that (nude if you will) seems to enable the shimmer to bust through a little better. You also see the brushstrokes, too.

I will reblog, or part two this because these are pretty polishes and deserve a fair shake.

The Maybelline is probably on eBay or around abouts the web, it's an old gold cap.
Sparitual is one I purchased through the Sparitual website.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

(I originally thought I pressed "save" and ran off to do some yard work, I ended up looking at it again in chagrin over the lack of editing! Eep!)

In Shadows

I love those graphic shades that remind me of comic book colors.
Not the brightly pigmented ones, but the shading colors of blues and greens that add depth but aren't really noticed.

When I was a kid I read a lot of shoujo manga. Aside from amazing technical craftsmanship, the beauty and dreamlike quality of the faces of the girls enthralled me. It was a world of impossibilities, filled with beauty, soap, fashion, and color.
I could digress on how the girls were of a perfect European type, completely unattainable by most mortal girls, but at the time who cared? I still have one from the "day" and even though it's very old, it holds up to today's manga.

Here are two shadowy shades today.

First up: It's Not Me, It's Blue

Sheer, but manifold in it's foil-y beauty. Four coats, no worries. The color is that of a blue gray sky where the protagonist waits for her boyfriend to come over and kiss her, she's nervous and her hair is blowing about in the wind and it's watercolored in shades of blue and deep gray.
(oh, he kisses her alright)

These glass fleck foils aren't quite as metallic as some of the foils with more silver in them (the bottles form a ring of silver sometimes in those), but it's got a gothic charm.


Up next: Sparitual Steel Magnolia

Three coats, somewhat frosty. I wonder how close this is to Orly Midnight Star? I am thinking less red leaning, however I am so shy on Orly dupes that if it wasn't I'd be surprise (looking at a quick google search seems to make me think it isn't, but some photos look very similar. Ah the webz).

Back to shoujo manga: This is the color of a school uniform (a constant in shoujo manga) or a backpack. Or a pensive horizon.

I will say that I also redid this manicure later and did it with MUA member Blitherboop's sponge method. It was much more amazing, no frost and just a fine shimmer. Looooooved! Didn't take a photo, but did really like the result - it solved the brushstrokes!

Steel Magnolia was found at an online beauty discounter like Hautelook, Ideeli or Gilt, can't recall which one it was. I believe it is discontinued through Sparitual. Bummer, it's a great color.

Even though they are nothing alike in their finish, they are similar in their color:

There is the distinct possibility that Steel Magnolia would be a great base for It's Not Me It's Blue, I didn't try it, but looking at these photos, it would work as a great base.

Last but not least:

Distinct gray-blue shades that are both very nice. It's an uncommon color and I don't have many colors in this particular range.

Like watercolor washes of shadows and skies and wind-blown hair and other details of my favorite manga.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Sparitual's Optical Illusion

I'm dreaming of a new laptop, truly.
Right now my power cord is in the last throws of usefulness.

I'm waiting for a cheap ebay knock off to come in the mail.

Onward!

Here is a Sparitual that I've had for a while, Optical Illusion. I think it's an apt name.

Sorry for the big photo.

Ok. So, I want to love this polish. It kicks ass in the bottle. Look at that aqua fleck gleaming around the curve of the bottle like a song of the siren.
On the nail - four coats later, it's like a diaper load with faint hints of the aqua shift.

Noooooooo!!!!

I think I will try it over black one of these days and try not to feel sad about the whole darn thing. I have plenty of polishes that can do that job. Although  this is a "glitter" which implies that it is not required to be dense, I wish it looked more like the bottle.

Not entirely sure if it's a dupe of a China Glaze Halloween polish, but it's got that zombie vibe. I am so backlogged on swatching, I may get around to it Halloween.

Meanwhile, thanks so much for reading my little nail polish journal!

Crimson Quartet

(not sure why this one posted the 7th, I think it's my iPhone and it's stinky interaction with Blogger)

Here are some swatches of gorgeous crimson jellies, a crelly and a creme.

All have a top coat.

Sowing the Seeds of Love

Hey, nothing like a typo to make my day! Doh!

Three coats of crelly goodness. Glossy and gorgeous. It almost looks like a syrup manicure!

Seeing as how it's Sparitual, and I have tooooo many Sparitual dupes of Orly polishes, I'd be willing to guess there's an Orly out there that is dupe.
Meanwhile, it's still out there as available in the Spa-Orly-ritual line.



Essie Fishnet Stockings

I will call this a jelly, although it is not considered one by Essie. Why? You can see my nail line even after three coats.
It's part of the core line at Essie. I found mine at Ross quite some time ago.



Maybelline Crimson

Pure creamy goodness!
Three coats, but two would have done it.
Found at the Dollar Tree. It's a gold cap, must be on Ebay, although I am sure there is a dupe out there, if not among the one's I've got here.



Revlon Heart to Heart

Another beautiful jelly. Three coats and not a word of complaint.
Much brighter than the rest of them, but still in that family.
Found at Ross in a set, it was a limited edition.


Here is a side by side (*cringe at the typo*)

I'd even call the first three dupes.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!