Potential Dupe - NYX Girls Dorothy for Deborah Lippman Ruby Red Slippers

Hello hello! Today we have a potential dupe for Deborah Lippman Ruby Red Slippers! Not only are Lippman polishes priced on the slightly dearer side, it's a bit more difficult to get your hands on them especially here in Australia. Lucky for us, we have NYX Girls Dorothy attempting to fill that gap in our lives (and for only $1.99, our wallets too)... Let's take a look!

[Bottle to nail: NYX Girls Dorothy]

Both Ruby Red Slippers and Dorothy contain small and large hexagonal red glitter in a black jelly base.

[Base: Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine in Glossy; Ring finger: NYX Girls Dorothy (2 coats)]

You get great depth the more layers of a jelly you apply but I decided to use a blackened red (Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine in Glossy) as a base colour to set off the red glitter more.

[NYX Dorothy: One and two coat comparisons over Sally Hansen Glossy]

I then put two coats of NYX Dorothy on and snapped the differences between each layer. I really love the richness of the red against the black!

[Close-up: NYX Dorothy (2 coats)]

Here's a close up of the polish - unfortunately I didn't have any good macro shots but you can sort of tell that each additional jelly layer adds depth to the glitter; you can really see that some are deeper in the layers of varnish!

[NYX Dorothy: 2 coats over Sally Hansen Glossy]

I reckon it's an excellent dupe that's much easier to acquire, and for a much cheaper price. It's shiny and sexy, what more could you ask for? =)

I don't own the Deborah Lippman to compare directly with but the wonderful Kelly from Vampy Varnish did a great dupe comparison between Ruby Red Slippers and Wet n' Wild Behind Closed Doors. WnW Behind Closed Doors is another excellent dupe and is of course also priced at an irresistible $1.99 to boot.

Scales On Blue - Nubar 2010, LA Splash Midnight Rain

It's the Year of the Dragon! Happy Chinese New Year to all who celebrate it! :D

I had plans for an appropriate Chinese New Year nail polish, but as with all plans made before a holiday, that got scrapped in place of delirious packing and much rushing around. As I'm travelling, I couldn't bring my beloved collection of nail polish with me, so I can't do anything special now. :(  Excuses, excuses, I know.

In any case, here's the mani I'm wearing, done a week ago and photographed then.

[Base: LA Splash Midnight Rain; Top: Nubar 2010]

I had been swatching LA Splash's Midnight Rain, which has generous scatterings of red glitter amongst a dense dark blue glitter base. Ev and I might do a joint review on that nail polish in the near future, so watch out for that!

When I realized I didn't have time for a new mani, I decided to try a quick, cheating attempt at dragon scales, by using Nubar 2010 over Midnight Rain. I did a couple layers more than usual (except for the last finger, no idea why) just to get a denser distribution of flakes. My attempt at duochrome dragon scales...erm, not terribly successful.

[Base: LA Splash Midnight Rain; Top: Nubar 2010]

As always, Nubar 2010 is gorgeous, with its duochrome gold-green flakes. What's interesting is that you can see the red glitter coming through from Midnight Rain.

[Base: LA Splash Midnight Rain; Top: Nubar 2010]

You can see a little of the blue and red glitter from Midnight Rain peeking through the flakes here.

I think overall, it didn't do a fabulous job of being dragon scales, but it was still a very gorgeous mani.

And now, let me do a little random, unpaid promotion work. :P  Well, not like anything here is paid. I'm without my usual image editing programs here, so I used Pixlr to resize and brighten these photos. I've used Pixlr for all sorts of basic editing in the past before, but this is the only time I can actually talk about it. Pixlr is an online image editing program, and its layout is very similar to Photoshop's, though it has less features. It's really awesome and easy to use when you want simple editing, so I highly recommend it.

You can also choose to do retro vintage effects on the photos as well. :D  Such as...

[Vintage effect on LA Splash Midnight Rain and Nubar 2010]

Yes, that's a little silly, but what's interesting is that the photo quality was pretty low but hitting it with a teal tint, some blur, a little shadow and lighting effect...voila! Not too horrible! I can't take any credit for the effects, because you just hit one button on Pixlr's Retro Vintage Effects to get it. I really like how the flakes and red glitter look like flames here. The mani did look something like that in very low lighting, so it's nice to see it replicated here.

Chinese Lacquer - ORLY Star Spangled, China Glaze Hi-Tek, Sally Hansen Glossy

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the Year of the Dragon - you would think I'd have a dragon-inspired manicure for you today but... no. =p My initial plan was to do scales but I got lazy and ended up doing a french+stamp combo again. This one is inspired by Chinese lacquer boxes (though to be honest, the result is more like Japanese lacquerware!). 

[Three coats: ORLY Star Spangled]

I started with a base of ORLY Star Spangled, a red jelly with red glitter. This is another possible dupe for the infamous China Glaze Ruby Pumps which I will be doing a dupe comparison post for (along with Milani Ruby Jewels) hopefully soon!

[Bottle-to-nail comparison: ORLY Star Spangled (3 coats)]

This is three coats, since it's a jelly it's fairly thin but since it is thin it spreads easily and dries fast so three coats isn't really a chore. You also get great depth with increasing layers. It can look pretty vampy in dimmer light but it definitely sparkles a bright red in the light.

[Base: ORLY Star Spangled; Stamp: China Glaze Hi-Tek]

I topcoat-ed, then stamped over it with China Glaze Hi-Tek, my trusty chrome stamp-buddy (I should really get a couple more from the Khrome collection!).
 

[Base: ORLY Star Spangled; Stamp: China Glaze Hi-Tek]

I can't remember if I took this pic before or after top-coating; the floral stamping looks kind of matte. Also I had trouble picking up the pattern on one end of the stamp as you can see. This sometimes happens and can occassionally be fixed by either varying the scraping pressure or scraping from a different direction across the plate.

[Base: ORLY Star Spangled; Stamp: China Glaze Hi-Tek; Tips: Sally Hansen Glossy]

I then completed the look with tips using Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine in Glossy - a deep blackened red.It looks black most of the time but shimmers deep red in the light.

[Base: ORLY Star Spangled; Stamp: China Glaze Hi-Tek; Tips: Sally Hansen Glossy]

I would have actually used black as I usually do, but in the spirit of the new year (where black is considered unlucky) I picked this colour instead! It's still red, right! =p

[Base: ORLY Star Spangled; Stamp: China Glaze Hi-Tek; Tips: Sally Hansen Glossy]

And there we go! A festive Chinese New Year manicure~ =)

Glitzy New Year - Milani Red Canvas, Nubar 2010, China Glaze Medallion + Nova + Strawberry Fields

Chinese New Year is coming up, and here's a mani I did last year to celebrate! I'll post something more recent up on Monday - it's just a little extra something for today.

I started with a base of Milani Red Canvas, a highly pigmented warm red shimmer, followed by a coat of Nubar 2010 flakie goodness. I then topped off the tips with a gold and holo glitter gradient of China Glaze Medallion.

[Base: Milani Red Canvas + Nubar 2010; Tips: China Glaze Medallion]

The warm base brings out the orange tones in the flakies quite a bit. The flakes also help with creating a gradient with China Glaze Medallion which I layered up to three times towards the tips.

[Base: Milani Red Canvas + Nubar 2010; Tips: China Glaze Medallion]

Ultra sparkle! These pics are old so the colours are a bit wonky unfortunately. =(

[Base: China Glaze Strawberry Fields; Tips: China Glaze Nova]

I also did a pink and silver version on my sister with China Glaze Strawberry Fields (a gorgeous cool pink jelly with gold shimmer) and Nova (silver and holo glitter).

That's it for today - I'll have another post up on Monday as usual!

Autumn In Summer: Revlon Ornate Ore, Nyx Algae, Nyx Milk Chocolate

What are these strange selections? These colours seem better suited for autumn, but I just had to buy them when I had the opportunity.

Base: Revlon Ornate Ore
Tips: Nyx Girls Algae

So, I love the combination of brown and green on clothing during autumn. Not that it shows in my wardrobe. :P  But I really wanted to try it as a manicure. I think it turned out alright. Right?? O_O

Anyhow, the base is Revlon's Ornate Ore, a limited edition shade, the bottle tells me. It's a lovely dark ash-brown micro-glitter, littered with pink and green microglitter for that extra zest. A funky colour, in my opinion. It's not completely opaque even after two coats. For the tips of the French manicure, I used Nyx's Algae, a dusty green shade I love.

I did the French manicure freehand, which shows if you look at it closely. But I really was too lazy to whip out tape for this.

Base: Revlon Ornate Ore
Tips: Nyx Girls Algae

I matte-fied the manicure on my right hand using Essie Matte About You. I think it looks rather cool like that too!

Here's another random swatch, because it feels like I slacked off on photos for the above mani:

Nyx Advanced Salon Formula Milk Chocolate

I bought Nyx Advanced Salon Formula Milk Chocolate because I was hoping it would be a chocolatey brown version of Nyx's Femme, as swatched here. I made this decision based on the photos on Cherry Culture. Alas, it is far from being a shiny chrome.

However, Nyx Milk Chocolate is still a rather pretty deep brown with the faintest shimmer of gold. It's darker than the colour as seen in the bottle, and while the gold shimmer is obvious in the bottle, it's barely visible on the nail. I think it makes a lovely, woodsy autumn polish, so I'll be saving it for when I'm in an autumney mood.

Nyx Advanced Salon Formula Milk Chocolate

Under lower lighting, the shade of the polish can look very dark. It's an interesting colour if you prefer to stick to work safe shades.

'Pard Print - China Glaze Gr8, Revlon Brazil Nut Brown, LA Colors Black Velvet

Here's one from last year! Leopard print is really easy to do and looks pretty fancy on - always a plus!

In the past I've done pink print and blue print but I was requested to do a mani for someone at work who loves leopard prints so I worked out something a bit more "natural" using China Glaze Gr8, Revlon Brazil Nut Brown and LA Colors Black Velvet.

[In the bottle: China Glaze Gr8, Revlon Brazil Nut Brown, LA Colors Black Velvet]

For the base colour, I picked China Glaze Gr8 from their amazing holographic OMG! collection (I wish it wasn't sold out pretty much everywhere!). This is a pale yellow linear holo which is muted indoors but really sparkles in the sun. You can spot a bit of the holo in the picture below.

[#1: Base colour (index); #2: Spot your mid colour on (ring, pinky); #3: Rosettes (middle)]

I first put the base colour on, then randomly placed irregular spots of Revlon Brazil Nut Brown (a chocolate brown shimmer) over the gold.

[Completed design: Leopard print]

I then finished off by doing the rosettes in LA Colors Black Velvet. Don't worry if it's irregular or patchy, it looks better that way! Also, don't complete the rosettes, they should border the brown but not ring it. You can also daub little spots of black onto any empty spots as I've done above.

[Completed design: Leopard print]

Tadaaaa~ All done! RAWR! =3

Oil Slick - LA Girl Groupie, Punk, China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, Nfu Oh 40

This is what I call a lazy post! What is this, what is this? A duochrome?

[Left to Right: China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, LA Girls Punk, LA Girls Groupie]

Yeah, my post title gives it away right from the start, with all the plishes listed. :)  Subterfuge, not my key strength. Oil Slick seemed appropriate, even though it's not the prettiest of names for an entry.

This is my attempt at faking a duochrome/triochrome. Have you ever bought a nail polish because it changes colours so fascinatingly in the bottle, but it doesn't do anything close to that on your nails? Duochromes aren't always a success. Either that, or they're a great duochrome, but not so good with opaqueness (I'm looking at you Orly).

So here, I striped China Glaze Emerald Sparkle on the left of all my nails, LA Girl Punk (blue with matching microglitter) in the middle, and LA Girl Groupie (purple with microglitter) on the right. One person commented on the duochrome-ness under bright sunlight. :P  It's a bit too dark to be considered a success, but I like the mix of colours.

[Left to Right: China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, LA Girls Punk, LA Girls Groupie, Nfu Oh 40]

After that, I decided to add Nfu Oh 40 over the Emerald Sparkle, and a little extra towards the cuticle. It looks a little spacey here, which I quite like. :)

That's it for this week!

Blue Glow - LA Girl Metal Alkaline Blue + LA Colors Black Velvet

Just a short post this time - with a horrifically unimaginative title.. =(

Anyway, I realised I post a lot of greens but my favourite colour to wear is actually blue and teals. Zoya Charla is my cheer-me-up colour if I'm feeling meh about nail polish. Today, I have another gorgeous blue though, LA Girl Metal Alkaline Blue.

[Bottle-to-nail comparison: LA Girls Metal in Alkaline Blue (2 coats)]

It's so bright and glowy, excellent depth and not streaky at all. I really like the LA Girl Metal Collection and have quite a few from it. They have excellent pigment - one or two coaters.

[LA Girls Metal: Alkaline Blue (2 coats)]

Check out the glow! My camera was going a bit crazy... These gorgeous metallics also look great with a matte topcoat. It gives a really nice brushed metal effect because of the shimmer particles.

[Base: LA Girls Metal in Alkaline Blue (2 coats) + Tips: LA Colors Black Velvet (1 coat)]

I then tipped my nails with LA Colors Black Velvet, my go-to simple black creme.

[Base: LA Girls Metal in Alkaline Blue (2 coats) + Tips: LA Colors Black Velvet (1 coat)]

I'm not sure why I included this pic! I think it's to show the variance of how it looks depending on the lighting, and the beautiful metal finish, especially on my ring finger.

I'm really sleepy at the moment, so only a short and simple post! I'll try harder next time!

Sunrise & Sunset - Revlon Watermelon, Orange & Pineapple Fizz

Hello, hello! In light of the Pantone colour of the year, I thought I would kick off my first post of 2012 with orange shades. None of them are coral in colour, but close enough! :)

I have done a short tutorial on gradient manis using jelly polishes, so I won't go through that again. All the polishes used here are from the Revlon Sweetly Seductive collection, which we have swatched in the past. The jelly nature of the collection means they're perfect for gradient manis.

[Base: Revlon Orange Fizz + Top: Revlon Watermelon Fizz]

The orange flakes stand out more than the red flakes, because they're a gold-ish shade which catches the light really well.

[Base: Revlon Watermelon Fizz + Top: Revlon Orange Fizz]

For my other hand, I changed the gradient around. I needed a few more coats of Orange Fizz since it was going over a darker base.

[Gradient manicure using Revlon Watermelon Fizz and Orange Fizz]

I like how the alternating shades looked. :)  Here's random info for you: I have double-jointed fingers (hypermobile, to be accurate) which look a little strange (I have been asked before what's wrong with my fingers, haha). Which is why I don't have many full photos of my fingers completely straightened out.

Back to polishes! I then decided to do a yellow to orange gradient on one hand, instead of orange to red.

[Base: Revlon Pineapple Fizz + Top: Revlon Orange Fizz]

The yellow to orange gradient mani is definitely more striking, since it's brighter. I had some very nice comments about this mani.

[Gradient manicures using Revlon Pineapple Fizz, Orange Fizz and Watermelon Fizz]

Credit for the title of this blogpost needs to go to Billy, who suggested I call this Sunrise and Sunset when he saw the above manicure. Don't ask me which is which! :P

I do love gradient manis, don't I? This will be the last one for awhile, I think!

Tangerine Tango - Milani Just Juicy + Konad White

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! It's 2012 - a braaaannnnd new year! Once again, Pantone has picked the "Pantone Color of the Year" and this time it's Tangerine Tango. Check out their site for more information on this bright cheery colour!

I think it's not too much of a surprise - oranges and corals have been quite popular for a while. I actually thought it was a bit of a dated choice (in the fashion and high-street fashion sense) but I do love me some orange shades!

There are so many different shades of orange, depending on which colour system you use so I went with the one that matched as closely as possible to what it looked like on my screen. Here's Milani Just Juicy!

[Indirect sunlight: Milani Just Juicy (3 coats)]

It's a bright juicy orange that applies like a dream. It's a bit of a jelly so I used three coats to prevent visible nail line. There's a faint pastelly pink undertone(!) in certain lights (which doesn't show up in the photos) but the fine gold shimmer running throughout warms it up.

[Indirect sunlight: Milani Just Juicy (3 coats)]

How cheerful is that! Orange is such a pick-me-up! I couldn't let well enough alone though... and Konad-ed somewhat messily over the top with Konad Special Polish in White.

[Base: Milani Just Juicy (3 coats) + Stamping: Konad Special Polish White]

I really like this colour combination, but there were large gaps in the pattern and my nails are fairly small so a lot of the tip ended up blank. It looks messy because I used the leftover polish from the side of the pattern to stamp over the blank spaces.

[Base: Milani Just Juicy (3 coats) + Stamping: Konad Special Polish White]

This pattern makes me want to do a TRON-inspired black base with a blue chrome stamp over the top!

Okely dokely - here's to a great year ahead!!! =)