Og-really? - Dupe Test: OPI Who The Shrek Are You + Australis Limited Edition 2

It's another dupe test! At first glance, Australis Limited Edition 2 and OPI Who The Shrek Are You (WTSAY) seem to come from the same family of yellowed greens, but when you put them side by side, check it out!

[Bottle to nail: OPI Who The Shrek Are You]

OPI WTSAY definitely pulls a lot more yellow, making Australis Limited Edition 2 look much more grassy then it would look on its own.

[Bottle to nail: Australis Limited Edition 2]

Here's another comparison to the shade in the bottle. It appears that the more lit up part of the bottle resembles OPI WTSAY more, but on the nail, it's definitely a deeper, greener shade.

[1 coat: OPI Who The Shrek Are You vs Australis Limited Edition 2]

With regards to formula... I have to say, I purchasd OPI WTSAY for the unique colour when it first came out, but the formula was a bit hard to work with. At one coat, it's still patchy and somehow watery and gluggy at the same time. Eek! Australis Limited Edition 2 on the other hand was a great creamy formula which covered well in one coat.

[2 coats: OPI Who The Shrek Are You vs Australis Limited Edition 2]

At two coats, the issues with OPI WTSAY smooth out (ha!), and you get a nice glossy finish. Dry time is a bit slower than I'm used to. The colour of Australis Limited Edition 2 deepens nicely with two coats. Dry time is not too bad, but the formula is thick-ish so it's not super fast.

In general, definitely not dupes! OPI WTSAY is hard to work with, but worth if if you're after that unique ogre green! Australis Limited Edition 2 is great if you can pick it up in bargain bins like I did - it's a pretty grassy green shade that's bright without being TOO bright~ =)

Seaside Glass - OPI Get Your Number

I found some old photos which I quite like, which I somehow forgot to post! So here we go:

[OPI Liquid Sand Get Your Number]

This is OPI's Liquid Sand Get Your Number. I love patting the rough texture on these polishes, which is possibly a strange reason to like a nail polish, but still valid for me. :)  Get Your Number is glittery while still classy. Helps that the blue-greeny holo sand-like glitter is just so pretty too.

I thought I would then try Get Your Number over Revlon Typhoon:

[Top coat: OPI Liquid Sand Get Your Number
Bottom coat: Revlon Typhoon]

It's not as gritty when layered over a blue base polish, but it's still an interesting effect.

This reminds me that I have to try the remaining two OPI Liquid Sand polishes! :D

Rose Sparks - Savvy Razzle & Dazzle

This is a gorgeous polish I picked up at Priceline just last week! =) Savvy has been coming out with lots of dupes recently and this one, Razzle and Dazzle, looks to be a pretty spot-on dupe of A England She Walks in Beauty.

[Bottle to nail: Savvy Razzle & Dazzle (3 coats)]

In the bottle, the polish looks a bit odd, like clumpy? Unmixed? But don't worry if that's what you see - this is how it's meant to look like! I think it's due to the extremely high density of tiny gold particles in the clear base. As you can tell from the photo, it also looks like some green-gold duochrome action is happening there. In addition to the gold, there's also large and small dusty pink hexes in Razzle & Dazzle.

[3 coats: Savvy Razzle & Dazzle]

You can probably wipe the brush off heaps and use it as a glitter topper, but here I've used it as a full mani. I've shown three coats, but with this nail length, it didn't look very much different from two coats.

[3 coats: Savvy Razzle & Dazzle]

The dusty pink hexes have a tendency to gather towards the tip of the nail as you pull the brush down, so my second and third coats were a mixture of brushstrokes and dabbling the glitter where I wanted it. Not that the formula was difficult to work with - I found it fine to use and dry time was average to quick.

[3 coats: Savvy Razzle & Dazzle]

Straight on, it's most definitely a pale gold with winks of pink, but at an angle as in the photo above, you can see some of green tinge. =) All the glitter laid flat and for three coats (plus topcoat), it actually isn't very thick on the nail at all.

[3 coats: Savvy Razzle & Dazzle]

My closeups sort of make it look patchy? But in real life, it isn't at all. Here's a crappy photo from afar to show you what it looks like. Basically, an EXTREMELY SHINY gold foil polish with hints of pink. If you're worried about patchiness, you could layer a gold foil underneath as well. =)

At only $3, this is a definite bargain! Savvy are certainly making bin-diving at Priceline an awesome experience... ;) Also, if I remember correctly, there's a 3 for 2 sale for Savvy products that began last Thursday. Bonus!

Hello Holo - Born Pretty Holo Polish #6

Yesterday, Ev posted some really gorgeous nail decals. She did mention that I had my own review in store, and here it is! Born Pretty were nice enough to supply me with a nail polish, and it's a holo too! This is Hologram Effect #6.

[3 coats: Born Pretty Hologram Effect #6]

Now isn't this a lovely sight to see~  Click on the photos for bigger pics!

[Born Pretty Hologram Effect #6]

Rainbow in a bottle! This is the 6ml bottle I received.

[3 coats: Born Pretty Hologram Effect #6]

Ah, look at that rainbowy goodness~ I had to take some of the photos a little out of focus to capture the holo.

I don't usually like light pink nail polishes, but I do like this one a lot. It's work safe while being gorgeous and lovely to look at. The base colour is a pale pink-peach colour, which matched my skintone really nicely. As the colour is rather light and the nail polish is jelly-ish, there's still a visible nail line even after three coats of nail polish. Admittedly, I think you would get better coverage if your nails aren't at this length and the VNL would be far less noticeable on shorter nails, what with all the distracting holographic pretty!

The holographic microglitter are dense and they are almost as good as Color Club's Halo Hues collection. They might actually have the same holo density, but it's harder to see on Born Pretty's because the holo doesn't stand out as much against such a light shade. Application was smooth and easy.

[3 coats: Born Pretty Hologram Effect #6]

I took this photo at work and I thought it came out looking really pretty! My work has really great lighting...

Born Pretty's Holo Polish is their first own brand polish line. As you can see below, they have an interesting range of colours, and I'm actually eyeing a few others to buy for myself.

These holo polishes are currently on sale at Born Pretty, going for $5.59 instead of $12.88. And hey, hey, hey, we have a discount code for you!

Enjoy! :)

Spinneret Sparkle - Orly Rococo A-Go-Go + Born Pretty Water Decal Review

I'm back with another product review generously supplied by Born Pretty. After our last review on nail studs, Jme and I decided to try some different items so today I've got some water decals to try out! Warning: Long and picture-heavy post ahead!

This one's called the "6pcs Gold Cobweb Lace Nail" and can be found under the "Water Decals Sticker" section. All 6 sets are connected together in one sheet and mine arrived a teensy bit crumpled, but everything was still useable.

Instructions are on the plastic packaging so if you want to hang on to them, make sure not to chuck it out. There are instructions online anyway, much better translated (as you can probably tell!):

1. Paint the background color on the fingernails and dry it out.
2. Remove the film of product,cut out the patter and plunge into water 10-20 seconds.
3. Moisten the fingernails, stick the patter in position.
4. Sop up the water with a paper towel and blow dry.
5. Cap with clear nail polish and blow dry.

Let's take a look at the designs then (click to see them larger)! Note that each set seems to be roughly arranged in rows of 5 decals of appropriate sizes for one hand, which is super useful as you don't have to fuss with sizes for each different nail size.

There were two sets of cobweb-type patterns, with 25 decals each which is a super generous amount! The one on the left has larger partial webs, while the one on the rights has full and partial webs with an adorable little spider on one decal from each set of five.

The left side is a concentric circle design (water-ripples?), the right side has a very pretty scaled pattern which looks like traditional oriental dragon designs. Both these sets have 20 decals each

These two are pretty similar cross-hatch designs with dot/semi-circle edgings. The one on the left is more curved and has 25 decals, while the right side is straight across with 20 decals.

I found it much easier to just chop up the large sheet by pattern and store them that way. Each chopped up section measures roughly 5cm x 6cm. On Monday, I showed you Orly Rococo A-Go-Go, my chosen base colour, so let's get on to water decal application!

Step 1: Stop kitten from drinking the water!
Step 2: Cut out your desired pattern (does not have to follow design closely - the edge of the film closely follows the pattern so you don't have to worry about that). Soak pattern in water.
Step 3: I used warm water, and in 12-15 seconds, the film slid off easily. Test this by sliding your finger across the surface. These decals are fairly hardy so don't stress too much about destroying it!
Step 4: Dip nail surface in water to wet, and place decal over. I just used fingers and moved it around. It's super easy to reposition, and tough enough not to wrinkle up. Basically, you have A LONG TIME to play around with it. Your playtime ends when all the water has dried or you blot it all off with paper towel.
Step 5: Make sure everything is completely dry, topcoat and you're done!

Here's the spiderweb pattern from the top of the sheet, with the little spider on it. I just used the exact order the row came in. You can't even make out the film from the nail surface after topcoat - I love it!

Now, remember step 5...? Well, my index finger wasn't quite dry, so when I topcoated it, some of the decal actually came off with my topcoat, eek! So do make sure your nail is completely dry before topcoat!

On my other hand, I used the other cobweb pattern. I found this set a bit harder to position because the web "anchors" didn't quite go from one end of my nail to the other. Still very pretty and especially gorgeous against Rococo A-Go-Go.

I love water decals - they just look awesome (especially these metallic gold ones) and are super easy to use. Here's the link again to these particular ones. At $2.99 for 6 different designs, they're definitely a bargain. But wait! There's more! Here's our 10% off code if you'd like to try them out for yourself even cheaper! ;)

In tomorrow's post, Jme's going to show you what she tried out! *drumroll* Check out that packaging - nothing's going to get damaged in there! =) Tune in for more, coming up soon~

Rich Plum - Orly Rococo A-Go-Go

Today I've got ORLY Rococo A-Go-Go from their Mineral FX collection. =) Jme previously swatched this in a post here, but I was planning to use this shade as a base for some nail art (which is coming up in a couple of days!) so here's my swatches of it!

[Bottle to nail: Orly Rococo A-Go-Go (2 coats)]

Look at that gorgeous purple-orange duochrome effect in the bottle! Unfortunately, as many bloggers have found, this does not translate well to the nail (although you can see a hint of it at the extreme angle my nails are at in the photo above).

[2 coats: Orly Rococo A-Go-Go]

Rococo A-Go-Go has an amazing formula, with one coat enough for my little nubbins. I did an extra thin coat just to make sure everything was even anyway, but it probably didn't need it.

[2 coats: Orly Rococo A-Go-Go]

Despite the lack of duochrome, it's still a gorgeous deep plummy colour with a glass-fleck finish that glows. I attempted to show some colour shift but eh, don't expect to see it on your nails. As a lovely dark glowy shade, ORLY Rococo A-Go-Go excels!