Monthly: March Favorites

Finally! Took me this long for this post because YouTube wouldn't upload my video. So you know what? I uploaded it from work. Oops. First time actually doing a favorites video, so hopefully I did ok. And there's a little blooper at the end. Not sure if my disclaimer of no cameras were harmed during the making of this video would actually be true with this. Hehe.

Without further ado, here we go!

Products Featured

• Femme Couture Get Flawless 8-in-1 Foundation in Fair
• Mary Kay Ultimate Mascara in Black 
• Mary Kay Mineral Cheek Color in Sunny Spice 
• Mary Kay Mineral Eye Color in Granite 
• Mary Kay Cream Eye Color in Apricot Twist 
• e.l.f. Baked Eyeshadow in Bark
• e.l.f. Baked Eyeshadow in Burnt Plum
• e.l.f. Baked Eyeshadow in Pixie
• e.l.f. Baked Eyeshadow in Toasted 
• NYX Butter Gloss in Cherry Pie 
• Zoya Nail Polish in Tanzy
• Zoya Nail Polish in Apple

St. Patrick's Day: 7 Polish Manicure

Did my final round for my St. Paddy's Day manicure. I'm pretty sure I ended up going a tad overboard with polishes. I used a total of SEVEN! And I didn't even do any water marbling either. Ho hum.

The first one that I did [link], only used a total of four. I swear though, after this post, I'll get back to doing reviews!

Polishes Used
Base Coat: O.P.I. Nail Envy (Not Pictured)
Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Topcoat

From Zoya: Apple, Tanzy and Ivanka
From Wet n Wild - Fergie: Gold Album and New Years Kiss
Sinful Colors: Snow Me White
Hard Candy: Teeny Greeny (used as an overlay)

Apple, Snow Me White (New Years Kiss overlay) Tanzy

Apple, Gold Album with Ivanka for the Shamrocks

Apple with Teeny Greeny overlay

Holiday: St. Patrick's Day Inspired Nails

With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, I wanted to get this up before I change my nails tomorrow (Saturday) night with another St. Paddy's Day nail.

I actually ended up doing this around 1am in the morning, a bit delirious so I didn't think of doing a still photo tutorial, but it isn't difficult AT ALL. A quick note, I have always done free hand nail art/design. It's something that I love doing, and have been doing for 11 years. Oddly enough, my right hand normally comes out 10x better than my left, I'm right handed though. It's a quirk of mine.

And can I just say that, my pinky has a mind of it's own? Seriously, it doesn't want to line up with the rest of my fingers. Apparently, it wants to go to it's own drum beat and go off to left field. I'm working on it though.

Greens of March: Zoya

Good morning/evening/afternoon!

I actually meant to start off this series for March sooner, but alas things don't always work out as planned (ok, it's more like I kept getting distracted).

Basically this is a series I'm going with, not only in honor of St. Patrick's Day (oranges will be included too!), but also because spring is just around the corner. It all started when an old childhood friend mentioned that I better be purchasing green nail polish while I was at Walgreens. This made me, when I got home, go through my polish stash to see just how many I had. I have quite a few. Thus, this idea began.

This isn't limited to polishes alone, I have quite a few green eye shadows. I just haven't decided how I'm going to do the eye shadows yet, polishes are a different story. I figured I'd do them by brand. Easier that way.

So this post, I'm starting off with the green Zoya polishes that I have.

To Dupe or Not To Dupe: Ingenue vs. Faye vs. It's My Year

Good Evening/Afternoon/Morning!

I'm hitting everything there, for me it's evening and instead of working on my February Favorites (erk!), I wanted to get the third in my series of To Dupe or Not To Dupe up.

A quick explanation, this is basically me going through my nail polish stash and finding colors that happen to be similar or possible dupes. Oddly enough it always seems to be a limited edition polish versus a Zoya polish. Which I can assure anyone, is not done on purpose.

Without further ado! The third in the series! Rather anticlimactic there, boss.

Quick disclaimer - I just wish to apologize in advance as some of the photos (namely the swatch photos) were taken while I was testing out the setting features.

I honestly have to say, I was surprised that I had three variations of this color. And to the untrained eye (like my Mom's), they all appear to be the same.

Base coat that was used, Revlon Post Trauma Nail Treatment. No top coat used.

First up, is O.P.I. It's My Year. This one was released in 2011 and was part of the Miss Universe collection. It's My Year comes across as having a darker purple-berry base compare to the other two. It's a slightly richer shade. The gold duochrome seems to be less compared to both Faye and Ingenue. It's there, it just comes across as more subdue.

It's sheer, using three coats on the swatch to get it opaque. However, I can still see the tip of my nail so I believe a fourth coat would have worked better to get it fully opaque.

Next up, Faye.

Faye was part of Zoya's Sunshine Collection and is a permanent color on the site. Something of which I love about Zoya, they don't retire colors. Anyway, Zoya's website describes Faye as: A bronzed mauve with purple and brown undertones flooded with bright gold sparkle. Faye is definitely a bronzed-mauve with purple undertones, however I'm not certain where brown comes in. When photograph, I'd have to say it comes across as more of a taupe purple undertone instead. The duochrome of gold definitely stands out far more than It's My Year.

The application was a little tricky with the first coat as it caused some balding by the cuticle area. Three coats were used, but I'll be honest, I should have added two more. It seems a little patchy near the tip edges.

Next! Ingenue.

Last out of the three is Orly's Ingenue. This polish came out in 2011 with the Holiday Soireé collection and is still available on Orly's website. This one is also a bronzed mauve with a purple base. The gold duochrome being just as noticeable as Faye's duochrome.

Two coats were used, where (I'm seeing the trend here, I blame the lighting I use when I do swatches) a third should have been used as the formula is a bit sheer.

The comparison.

It's My Year definitely lacks with the gold duochrome with the purple/berry base being more noticeable. However, I have to say, Faye and Ingenue are practically dupes. The base colors appears to be the same, along with the gold overlay. The only difference would be that Faye appears to have a bit more gold to it.

Would I call them dupes? Two out of three, yes.

Price Range: O.P.I. Polishes can range from $6.99 and up. Orly Polishes go for $8.50 on the Orly website. Zoya polishes are priced at $8.00 on the Zoya website.

 Disclaimer: Products mentioned in the post were purchased by myself. None of the links featured are affiliates.

A bronzed mauve with purple and brown undertones flooded with bright gold sparkle.  - See more at: http://www.zoya.com/content/38/item/Zoya/nail-polish-zoya-nail-polish-Faye-ZP551.html#sthash.MA3oVpeD.dpuf

A bronzed mauve with purple and brown undertones flooded with bright gold sparkle.  - See more at: http://www.zoya.com/content/38/item/Zoya/nail-polish-zoya-nail-polish-Faye-ZP551.html#sthash.MA3oVpeD.dpuf

A bronzed mauve with purple and brown undertones flooded with bright gold sparkle.  - See more at: http://www.zoya.com/content/38/item/Zoya/nail-polish-zoya-nail-polish-Faye-ZP551.html#sthash.MA3oVpeD.dpuf

A bronzed mauve with purple and brown undertones flooded with bright gold sparkle. - See more at: http://www.zoya.com/content/38/item/Zoya/nail-polish-zoya-nail-polish-Faye-ZP551.html#sthash.MA3oVpeD.dpuf

To Dupe or Not To Dupe: The One That Got Away vs Sarah

Yes! It's another To Dupe or Not To Dupe post. I figured that this could be a little series. I know a lot of bloggers do dupe posts whether it's with nail polishes or with eyeshadows, this isn't anything massively different.

This is basically just me going through my polish collection and seeing if I have any polishes that are close in color to be possible dupes. Especially if they're limited editions and are no longer available, except through online retailers.

So, onward to this edition of the series!

Basically this whole "series" started when I picked up Scarlett on Friday, I had been wearing Zoya's Lisa on my nails, and couldn't figure out if Scarlett had been a dupe. I originally thought The One That Got Away could also be a possible dupe, until I swatched it on a nail plate and realized it wasn't. That encouraged me to go through the rest of my stash to see if anything could be a possible dupe for The One That Got Away. Which is how I ended up here with this post.

Base coat used, Revlon Post Trauma Nail Treatment, no top coat used.

The One That Got Away was/is part of the Katy Perry Collection that O.P.I. released around January 2011 (I actually found mine in T.J. Maxx). This is definitely a rich berry with hints of purple to it, as well as fine micro glitter (although not overwhelming).

The Formula is on the sheer side, and I needed to use three coats to get it fully opaque. As with most polishes (this could be a user problem), there was slight streaking with the initial coat, but once you get the second coat on, it evens out.

Next, Sarah.

I believe this was one of the first Zoya polishes that I purchased from their site. On there, Sarah is described as Pearls of dark fuchsia, red-violet and ruby tones in a bright sparkle finish.  A very rich and different shade of cool red sparkle that will stand out in a crowd. To my (untrained) eye, this definitely leans more towards the ruby (cool toned) family, it has hints of violet, but I would say the fuchsia/ruby dominates. Two coats were used for it to be fully opaque.

The comparison.

I would says that The One That Got Away definitely has more of a fuchsia/purple tone to it than Sarah does. Sarah's violet tone seems to be more low key and not as up front. Swatching these colors on a nail plate, The One That Got Away comes across as a much deeper color than Sarah, while Sarah comes across as a richer ruby berry color. While Sarah has a very sparkly finish, The One That Got Away, finish is much more subdue.

 

Would I Call Them Dupes? Definitely not. While the colors are in a similar family (both berry), one leans more towards a violet berry side, while the other is more of a ruby berry.

 

Price Range: O.P.I. Polishes can range from $6.99 and up. Zoya polishes are priced at $8.00 on the Zoya website.

Disclaimer: Products mentioned in the post were purchased by myself.

To Dupe or Not To Dupe: Scarlett vs. Lisa

I've been attempting to come up with a nice catchy phrase to start my posts off with, so far, I've been failing at it. 

My nails have been bare for an entire day which is a shock (hello stain-age!), but I'm contemplating on dying my hair which is why I haven't done anything yet.

Besides that, as the title of this post says, this is a dupe post! 

After searching high and low for the new Nicole by O.P.I. Selena Gomez collection and only finding the glitter collection at stores, I lucked out yesterday and found the rest of the collection! The only color that I've been dying for is actually Scarlett. CVS had only one bottle of it left, so I snatched it up without even thinking about it.

Coming home though I noticed that Scarlett is rather similar to Zoya's Lisa.

First off, I apologize in advance for the photos. I took all of them with my Lumix camera which I've had for a while, but never really used, that is until yesterday. I discovered the exposure setting (yay!) so the photos don't appear so dark with the flash.

Now I wouldn't say these are exact dupes, they are similar though. Lets start off with Scarlett first.

I want to quickly note that the base coat used was my trusty Revlon Post Trauma Nail Treatment. I did not use a top coat on either swatches.

Although the name is Scarlett (if you're familiar with Selena Gomez then you'll know the reasoning for the name), this is a far cry from a red. I would definitely say that this is more of a raspberry pink, possibly on the cool side. To me it is a gorgeous color.

Upon swatching it, I noticed that the formula is on the sheer side. The first coat took a little to get it even, as there was slight balding (the color pulling away from the areas on the nail care of the brush). It took 3 coats to get the color to become opaque, in fact I'd go as far as possibly applying a 4th coat, as to my eye I could still see part of the nail tip.

Next, Lisa.

This is the color I actually wore on Valentine's Day. Zoya's website describes the color as such, An iridescent combination of deep raspberry pink, bright candy apple red and subtle gold tones in a dazzling sparkle finish. In my opinion Lisa leans more towards red than pink, definitely not a true red though because you can see the subtle pink and gold tones to it in natural light (majority of my photos are taken at night due to my work schedule).

With Lisa, it was opaque after 2 coats. The application being thicker and more even.

Comparison.

It might be difficult to tell with the photo, as I was still figuring out the settings on my camera, but Scarlett definitely photographs with more of a pink tone compared to Lisa. With Lisa, the pink tone is there, but not as noticeable. As I mentioned before Scarlett took 3 coats (a fourth could be applied), while Lisa only took two for full opaqueness. The drying time, also was different. Scarlett taking much longer than Lisa. And with Scarlett I also used. Zoya's Hurry Up drops. Both have shimmer, although Lisa seems to sparkle more, even without a top coat.

Overall result? I love both colors, but I gravitate towards Scarlett more due to the pink raspberry color that the polish is. It's eye catching to me.

Would I call them dupes? Not quite. They are very close though, perhaps if one isn't a nail polish addict (is there a nail polish anonymous group I could attend?), they probably wouldn't notice the difference.

Price Range: Nicole by O.P.I. range varies depending on where you purchase the polish. I bought Scarlett at CVS so the price was $7.99. Zoya polishes are priced at $8.00 on the Zoya website.

Disclaimer: Products mentioned in the post were purchased by myself.