Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamonds and Rubies

Only one photo because the bottle shot color was inaccurate

I figured I had enough red cremes, and only purchased Diamonds and Rubies on clearance at Ulta as a Christmas present for a friend last year. A few days later, she complained to me about how a monthly subscribed cosmetics box had sent her "another red", which she was tired of. I thought, "Oh?" and went back to Ulta and bought her some snazzy Zoyas and kept Diamonds and Rubies for myself.

It's a nice red! A classic retro shade with a very easy formula. One coat for a bright and almost completely opaque color, two for deeper (but not deep) and full coverage. This is my first time using the Diamond Strength line, and I love the firm, skinny (that's what she said) brush. Normally while applying a red creme, the polish would run everywhere and stain my skin, but not so with this brush. It led to a very easy application.

The most similar red in my collection is Zoya Sooki; Diamonds and Rubies is darker, though perhaps not substantially. I may be the only person in the nail cult world who isn't a fan of Sooki despite its cool cherry tone, because my bottle has a jelly formula requiring three coats for an even color, and 2 coats versus 3 leads a very different shade, so god help you if you get your polish amount uneven nail to nail.

Diamonds and Rubies chipped during my second day of wear after two hours of book-handling at work. That job is often hard on nails (I make sure I keep them painted partially to protect them), though the OPI manicure featured in the last post held up strong against it. OPI is tuff.

In addition to this, my other favorite retro red creme is Zoya America, which is lighter and brighter.

OPI Do You Have This Color in Stockholm? and OPI Snow Globetrotter

 OPI Do You Have This Color in Stockholm? is one of those indigo "blurples" that you are never going to get a color-accurate photo of. Under indoor lights, it can appear to be a darker blue. Then you take it outside, and WABLAM, you have a bright-ass indigo. When I took this photo, I actually had overcast outdoor lighting that made it look like the radioactive indigo it is, a neon purple compared to the Sinful Colors Endless Blue-esque shade in this photo. I literally had the camera view screen up in front of my hand and could see the radically different color being portrayed on the digital screen. And that is what you see before you.

I used two coats on most fingers and three on one of my thumbs. It has the kind of thin formula where you think you have it completely opaque until you look at the sides of your nails and see the thin coverage along the edges. It's almost jelly-ish, but not, drying without the shine. I felt that OPI Eurso Euro was similar, but I think Stockholm has a superior formula, and the color is exactly what I wanted Eurso Euro to be.

Yes! The color is gorgeous. Get it. That bright indigo was actually my favorite color in high school; my old Livejournal theme was an exact match.

I purchased Snow Globetrotter as the same time, and it is the perfect winter wonderland combination. Snow Globetrotter has white and iridescent glitter of varying sizes. The iridescent also varies in shades. When applying, you swish the brush around in the bottle to collect a lot of glitter, wipe only a little bit off, then place it on your nail and smush. It is so pretty!

SHABLAM!

Truly shocking!

This article illustrates an all too common problem plaguing our community!

Summer Swatchez pt. 1

Hey, I have a bunch of swatches! Starting off is Essie Playa Del Platinum with KbShimmer Sand in My Stocking. This is the exactly glitzy sand look I'd been going for. I thought it was pretty blingy, but not one commented, so maybe not.

Playa Del Platinum is considered to be a "weird" putty color, but it looked very neutral and safe on me. I found it to be a flattering shade. It was 3 easy coats.

Sand in My Stocking is a completely unique glitter that captures the beachy feel so accurately with exactly the right combination of colors and matte and shine. The glitter looks intimidatingly dense in the bottle, but went on with a moderate amount. I easily glitzed it up with one or two swishes.

Hey, thurr's my foot.

There are a few holographic gold star sequins in Sand in My Stocking, and they mostly came out on the nails on my right hand.

China Glaze Grass is Lime Greener topped with Urban Outfitters Yellow. The UO is a satin neon yellow glitter, a highlighter shade, not the warm, sunny color that's appearing in the photo. The effect in person was subtler, like scales on a reptile. Grass is Lime Greener appeared more of a neon spring green, slightly pistachio, before applying glitter and top coat. The neon glitter made it a look a little more lime. It's very bright! I'm looking at the bottle of it right now next to China Glaze Be More Pacific; they look nearly identical in this night time, indoor lighting, but they are NOT in reality. If I remember correctly, GiLG is more spring green, and BMP is more Shrek.

The formula for the UO glitter was very, very easy and smooth. Grass is Lime Greener took three coats, and more easily goes sloppy along the edges.

China Glaze Highlight of My Summer with Nicole By OPI Pitch Black Glimmer. Highlight of My Summer is a neon mint that I'd been craving since last summer. It sold out in Ulta right away! I think I used two coats. It was no problem at all. Of course it made me think of mint chocolate chip, so my beloved black (and silver) glitter was added. I wore Highlight of My Summer for a while as a pedicure, and it was pretty damn bright.

I heard someone online compare it with American Apparel Parakeet (which I just bought! still untried); Parakeet is much darker and more... tropical.

I believe this is a comparison with Be More Pacific. Nope, not alike.

Essie Splash of Grenadine is a myrtle purple-pink! It is the exact same color. The very first time I tried Splash of Grenadine, I wasn't a fan, but this time I really liked it. I chose it specifically because the flowers were in bloom. It may have used 3 coats, but the formula was easy. The first time I used it, I don't think I found it so easy.

Zoya Destiny, coral glitter texture. Classic!

I've seen comments wondering if it was too similar to Zoya Dhara. Nope! (Dhara is also a new purchase, untried. So pumpkin spice!)

Old China Glaze Flip-Flop Fantasy versus the new. The new is obviously much more peach, and less intensely bright. It's also much easier to apply.

On that note, if you want the old FFF, I highly recommend China Glaze Thistle Be the Day. It's more pink, but very, very similar. It's extremely bright, though not as "dear god, my eyes!" as FFF.

Oh yeah, and I'll upload a ton of photos soon.

http://mynailpolishobsession.blogspot.com/2014/07/cosmoprof-north-america-2014-american.html
http://ehmkaynails.blogspot.com/2014/07/cosmoprof-nalv-2014-china-glaze-2014.html?showComment=1405652914218#c7361176780957052839

omg

The Halloween collection looks AMAZING, and I'm loving the look for Christmas's. The dark glitters... The Halloween textures are driving me batshit wild. I CAN'T WAIT.

I've recently been window-shopping online for China Glaze, virtually all from past fall collections. It's funny how I'm not into a collection at all until two years after it comes out. I definitely need to get It's Alive, a past Halloween murky green glitter that I passed on because I thought it was too similar to one I already owned, Zombie Zest. Spoiler alert: IT ISN'T! I'm also feeling warm colors a lot more, so I think I need Desert Sun and Foxy, and maybe Loft-y Ambitions, Prey Tell, Purr-Fectly Plum, and others exactly like a billion I already own.

So basically what I'm saying here is that fall and Halloween are awesome. I love summer, and I think I'm having a great one so far (as I type this, I am soaking in the sounds of the katydids who have finally come out), but the month of October is IT, boys. It is IT!

Short update - Zoya Charisma

I haven't updated in a while because I lost my camera yet again; I have since found it, so there will be a spam post coming up. In the meanwhile, I put on Zoya Charisma last night. I had only worn it once on the toes during the summer I got it, maybe last year, and had thought it was too dark for the season. But based on how quickly neon purples degrade (the two Color Clubs I have are now non-neon berries), I decided I better use it while I can. So I finally used it last night, and the formula was a lot more difficult than I expected. It was streaky and didn't want to stick to the messed up parts of my nail tips. After 3 coats and a top coat, I thought it looked good until I went into another room, one with less clear light, even, and there I saw it was a patchy hot mess. It looked terrible! I had to add a fourth coat of color over the top coat, plus another layer of top coat. Contrast that with Color Club Mrs. Robinson, which iirc was easy to apply and looking good after coats. Then again, Mrs. Robinson went berry on me, so there you have it. Charisma could very well be going berry as well, but it's hard to tell.

I think Charisma got chips before the night had ended, along those bad tips on my nails. By 3 PM the next day, that manicure was full-on raggedy. Very, very rarely do I change a manicure after one day of wear, but it had to be done. The color of Charisma, I will say, was just fine. I would use it for toes in the future.

Zoya Caitlin and Essie Kisses and Bises swatch

 

 

It took me 3 coats to get Zoya Caitlin completely opaque, and that took me totally by surprise, because I remember it being nicely pigmented. It's still a lovely color! A murky purple/blue/grey/periwinkle, it's still a sweet spring spin on on the perennial autumn greige trend, good for cooler spring days or the warmer fall ones. A certain friend of mine once proclaimed that it was much prettier than "that ugly color Kelly". Harsh!

Essie Kisses and Bises is the perfect topper, and I pretty much always use it when I wear Caitlin. Weirdly I've never used it over the French collection polishes it came out with.