New in drugstore polishes!

I found a couple of things from Sally Hansen while out shopping in the last week. Join me after the jump for more pictures of the Nutra Nail's UV polish set that's now available at Walgreens and the discount Sally Hansen display I found at Big Lots.

I am on vacation!

Nighttime view of Morelia, Michoacan. Image from Panoramio.com.

Yes, I'm sick of blogging already ;) Ha, just kidding, I'm really enjoying the blogging experience and meeting other nail lovers. :)  However, this week is spring break for my job, and I'm taking advantage of it to take a trip down to visit family in Mexico. It's a town very near Morelia, Michoacan, so I thought I'd include a picture with two of its landmarks, the "Las Tarascas" water fountain and the archway architecture. Anyway, my internet access will be very limited while there, so I probably won't be posting too much in the next couple of weeks.  I've already found a few interesting Mexican polishes while looking for other stuff at the drugtore, so I´m sure Ill be adding some new babies to my stash. (I set a $10 limit for myself, hopefully I will be able to stick to it!) Also, I'll still be taking pictures and polishing my nails a little, so I'll have plenty to post when I get back.  See you then!

2/19/12 Weekly Blog Roundup: Deborah Lippmann flakies edition!

OK, so maybe the whole post is not going to be about Deborah Lippmann flakies. But we'll start with one, since I just saw recently on The Polishaholic that DL is selling one called Sweet Dreams on the Home Shopping Network. It's a pink jelly with flakies as in the polish.  I think it looks pretty awesome, although I'm not sure if it's something that merits its high price tag. Check out swatches of it at this link.

In further Deborah Lippmann news, I was thrilled when I learned earlier in the week that Claire's has come up with a dupe of DL Candy Shop. I was even more thrilled when the Polish Amor blog posted amazing swatches of the dupe, creatively named Candy Shop, at this link.

Be on the lookout for SInful Colors Green Ocean, which should be hitting stores soon now that the Valentine's Day is over. A commenter on Nouveau Cheap blog already got hers as of a couple of days ago, so I'm sure they'll be rolling out soon. In case you're out of the loop, Green Ocean is a green hued flakie that I think is very similar to Zoya Opal.  Check out G's swatches of Green Ocean at this link on the Nouveau Cheap blog. It's a seasonal polish that only comes out for St. Patricks Day. I'm curious to see if they roll out any new colors to accompany it. (I skipped Zoya Opal because Sinful Colors seems like a $2 version of the same flakie.)

 I have another link from The Polishaholic to share with you. I have always been less than satisfied with the pictures of China Glaze Luxe and Lush that have appeared prior to now. I just couldn't tell if it was a flakie worth owning or not. Luckily, Jen has done an amazing job swatching Luxe and Lush over a variety of colors in this post. Previously, I was confused about whether or not I should own it because I didn't want to dupe a flakie I already have. Now I can see that it's slightly different from other flakies because it has a shard like, broken glass look that makes it unique. It kind of makes me think of of Color Club Covered in Diamonds combined with Essie Shine of the Times.

Finally, I'm going to apologize to you guys for any weird grammar going on in this post. I'm in Mexico and couldn't figure out where the apostrophe, dash, colon or quotes are on this keyboard! Plus, the spell check doesn't work because of the computer being programmed for Spanish.  I'll be sure to correct things as soon as I can.

Thrift store haul!

I went to one of my local thrift stores yesterday and ended up with quite a haul of nail polish. I had no idea that it would be such a goldmine when it comes to vintage polishes. I ended up limiting myself to 9 polishes at 50 cents a piece, and some of them are real finds! Find out more details after the jump!

Tips and tricks Tuesday- Share your toys polish!

Polish exchange, image from 123 RF website.

I am really lucky to have a friend, we'll call her Esmeralda Pearlfinish, who's always liked nail polish. Thanks to my evil influence, Esmeralda's collection has grown in the last year, from under 20 polishes to almost 50. My tip for today is to share your polishes with a friend to save money and increase your polish stash.  Learn some of my tips on how to do this after the jump!

Comparison-Jordana Cosmic and Milani Jewel FX Teal

Milani Teal on left,  Jordana Cosmic on right

Jordana is kind of Milani's overlooked young sibling. Both are children of the same parent (company), but Jordana is only available in a few places, so she doesn't get talked about much. Even us nail bloggers pretty much ignore her. All that changed when Jordana announced its new collection of 24 glitter specialty polishes. I was surprised when I found out recently that Milani is releasing a collection of glitter polishes called Jewel FX. Some of the shades in the collection looked a lot like Jordana's glitters. When I saw both collections at Kmart over the weekend, I took the opportunity to swatch Jordana Cosmic and Milani Teal. See more pictures of the two polishes and find out what might be different between them after the jump.

Across the Universe on a budget (prepare for a jelly sandwich)

Jordana Cosmic sandwich on left, Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe on right

As soon as I saw pictures of Jordana Cosmic, from the glitter collection, it immediately reminded me of Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe. Swatches of Cosmic show that it's not quite the same, but all that can be remedied with the right jelly sandwich. Find out how you can use a blue jelly and glittery topcoat to get the look of Across the Universe, after the jump.

2/12/12 Weekly Blog Roundup: Milani versus Jordana glitter edition!

-This week, Sinful Colors will be for sale for $.99 at Walgreens. Just in time for this sale, the Nouveau Cheap blog has a couple of posts up about the 8 colors that seem to have recently been released by Sinful Colors. This post has pictures of 3 of them and this one has descriptions of all of them and links to swatches some as well. I saw 3 of these colors when I was at Walgreens, but none of them impressed me enough to purchase it.(The color I wanted, Cinderella, wasn't in the display.)

-The Jordana glitters should be at your local Kmart, if you have a local Kmart. Both Kimberly at Libby's Pink Vanity and I have found them at our local Kmarts. To find out where your nearest Kmart is, you can use the store locator on the Kmart website. 

-Milani is releasing a series called Jewel FX that I saw at Kmart and Target today. If you don't have a Kmart near you, this collection seems to have a lot of the same colors as the Jordana glitters. LadycrowX at The Crow and the Powderpuff blog has swatches of all of them in this post.

-I've swatched Jordana Cosmic and Milani Teal (which is from the Jewel FX series) and they appear to be nearly identical. I will be posting my comparison between the them tomorrow. Since Milani and Jordana are owned by the same parent company, it sure seems like the dupes between them have the same basic formula.

I wanted to take a second to discuss the differences between the Jordana and Milani glitters. The most important difference to a lot of you is the availability. While Milani seems to be available at all the major drug and superstores, Jordana polish is only available at Kmart. However, if you happen to have a Kmart nearby, the Jordana version is a better deal. Jordana is $2.99 for .5 oz, while Milani is $4.99 for .45 oz. You could also order the Jordana glitter polishes online at the Jordana website. In my case, the Kmart is 30 minutes away and was on my way to another errand, so I went with the better deal. :) The Jordana polishes are also available through the Jordana website. Based on their page about shipping, the cost of shipping orders of under $25 is $5 for standard shipping, with more expedited versions at $10 and $15. You can read all about their shipping charges, shipping times and processing times on a handy table at the shipping info page of the Jordana website. Not surprisingly, Milani's shipping and processing info is laid out in a nearly identical fashion on their shipping info page, though its prices are different than Jordana's. Since most of us have access to Milani anyway, I guess that's a moot point.  Which polish will you guys end up choosing, and why?

Spoiled Pet My Peacock over China Glaze Sweet Hook

China Glaze Sweet Hook with Spoiled Pet My Peacock glitter,sunlight

I am drawn to pastels and glitters like a moth to a flame, so it's not surprising that I had to have both of these polishes once I saw them. China Glaze Sweet Hook is a beautiful pastel purple that leans a bit pink, while Spoiled Pet My Peacock is an awesome combo of lavender, light green, light blue, silver and gold glitter in a clear base. Learn what I thought of the polishes and see more pictures of this beautiful combo after the jump.

Spoiled nail polish dupe info

Spoiled nail polish display at CVS

I went to CVS today and was thrilled to find that the Spoiled collection has finally arrived. If you've been following this blog, you'll know that I've been searching for it for a while. I controlled myself and only bought 2 polishes in the hopes that there will be a sale soon. Watch for swatches of Trust Fund Baby and Pet My Peacock in the next few days. In the meantime, I swatched some of the colors on an old gift card when I saw them. (Nothing but the best for this blog, LOL.) I found quite a few dupes and re-promotes in the group, join me after the jump to learn more.

??? Days of Blurple-tree nail art

Winter tree nail art, sunlight

Winter weather is a little late hitting us here in Northern California, so it wasn't until now that I thought break out these winter trees with my Wet n Wild blurple topcoat. It still barely feels like winter here, but this mani definitely put me more in a wintery mood.  I did this nail art without any special tools. Join me after the jump to learn how I achieved this look and what colors I used.

OPI Give Me the Moon- This post is significant because

OPI Give Me the Moon, natural light

a) it's the last pic of my nails before they became nubbins

b) it's the subtlest color you'll ever see me wear

c) it reminded me of Wallace and Gromit

d) it's one of my best polish deals ever!

e) A,C, & D

OPI Give Me the Moon is a lovely grey purple shimmer. It's part of the core collection and is a work appropriate color that's still really interesting to look at because of the subtle way it shimmers in the light. But for a further explanation of these quiz answers and more pictures, join me after the jump.

China Glaze Kinetic Candy=Sweet blue!

China Glaze Kinetic Candy, 2 coats, sunlight

China Glaze Kinetic Candy is an awesome baby blue creme. It applied very smoothly in 2 coats and is part of the Electropop collection. I adore pastel blues, so it's a given that I looovvee this polish. I used it as the starting point for some nail art, so I did not do my most careful application for these pics. Hope you enjoy this great polish anyway!

China Glaze Kinetic Candy, 2 coats,  natural light

My new favorite red-Kleancolor Red Hot

Kleancolor Red-Hot, natural light

Actually, the title of this post is a bit inaccurate. This is not my new favorite red, it's the first red I can ever call a favorite. I am usually kind of meh on reds and it's the color I own the least of in my entire collection. Kleancolor Red-Hot is the only red that I can truly say I adore! All the other reds I own have come in box sets and/or been purchased for reasons other than just the color.  To learn why I love this red so much, join me after the jump!