Bettina 'Pink Bikini'

Today I have another Bettina polish for you. This one is 'Pink Bikini'. It's a gorgeous bright pink creme. It's not neon but it's bright enough to be noticed.

The polish went on smooth and was opaque in 2 coats. The photos below also have a coat of Seche Vite. The glitter on the accent nail is Wet N' Wild 'Party of Five' glitter.

Bettina 'Pink Bikini'

Bettina 'Pink Bikini' & Wet N' Wild 'Party of Five' glitter. Interior lighting.

Exterior lighting. Gorgeous. I'm in love with my new Bettinas.

NYX Girls 'Algae' with 'Aqua Glitter' and 'Maven'

A few weeks ago I picked up two NYX Girl glitter polishes at XSRE in Lawrence, NY (they have 3 NY locations and 1 in NJ). I found 'Aqua Glitter' and 'Maven'. The bases are close in color but the glitter itself is different enough to own both.

The photos below are one coat of 'Aqua Glitter' and 'Maven' over my existing 'Algae' mani, which I thought would be the perfect base. Alone 'Aqua Glitter' and 'Maven' are a little to sheer for my liking.

Since I started this blog I've been painting my nails every day and taking photos, and making sure I'm trying to update the posts every other day. I figured a great way to swatch more would be to use the layering polishes I have over existing manis. So here we go....

NYX Girls 'Maven' vs. 'Aqua Glitter'

NYX Girls 'Aqua Glitter'

NYX Girls 'Maven'

NYX Girls 'Aqua Glitter'

NYX Girls 'Maven'

NYX Girls 'Algae'

I purchased NYX Girl's 'Algae' after seeing swatches on another blog and falling in love. When I think of algae, I think of something gross and dirty. This color is beautiful. It's a teal polish which in my opinion leans more blue than green. It has a creme finish and it's really easy to work with.

I've read on other blogs that this is a dupe for Misa's 'Dirty Sexy Money' which I do not own but have wanted for quite some time. I don't own 'DSM' to do a swatch comparison, but this has definitely squashed the need for 'DSM' as far as I'm concerned.

The photos below are 2 coats of 'Algae' and a coat of Seche Vite.

NYX Girls 'Algae'.  Helllllooooo beautiful.

Interior lighting.

Exterior lighting.

China Glaze 'Bad Kitty'

I've had China Glaze's 'Bad Kitty' for quite some time now and I haven't gotten around to trying it. After wearing Bettina # 45 the other day I realized this would be a great base for 'Bad Kitty'. It was pink, but not pink enough to take away from 'Bad Kitty'.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm really not crazy about the photos below, but I wasn't too crazy about it in person. I I think this may have looked better over a darker base. The glitter is holographic, which doesn't really come through in most of the photos below (have I mentioned that my camera sucks?)

Below is two coats of 'Bad Kitty' over the existing Bettina # 45 mani I was sporting.

China Glaze 'Bad Kitty'

The polish is more holographic than this IRL.

Bettina # 45

Today I have for you Bettina's # 45. This is another polish from my Bettina haul, all thanks to www.LetThemHavePolish.com. This is a light dusty pink, which on my skin tone is really flattering for a light pink.

I'm not one to wear nudes or light pink. Out of my entire collection, I probably only own about 10 bottles of light pink, and maybe 2-3 colors that are borderline nude shade. I'm all about the brights in the summer, and the dark shades in the winter. Nudes and light pinks are my 'safe for interview' colors and get most of their use by my mother.

I couldn't get enough of this polish. Seriously. The formula was fantastic and it dried shiny even without a top coat. I'm shocked at how drawn I am to this color, although who can blame me?

This is three coats of polish and a coat of Seche Vite. I did a third coat because I'm always concerned about seeing a VNL with light pinks/nudes. There was no VNL, and I didn't need the third coat but I did it anyway.

I seriously can't get enough of my Bettina polishes. I'm already thinking about placing another order and I'm not even 1/2 way through what I already have.

Bettina's  # 45  <3

Absolutely gorgous.

Beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Orly 'Here Comes Trouble'

After Bettina's 'Mojito' another untried green polish came to mind. I remembered I had purchased Orly's 'Here Comes Trouble' about a month ago when I first saw it.

So here is Orly's 'Here Comes Trouble' and I'm pretty much at a loss for words. This polish? Simply amazing. I'm not sure how else to describe it. My first thought? How has this sat in my Helmer with no attention for so long? It's amazing and needs to be flashed around just so. 

It's a bright green packed with different size glitter. It reminds me of grass. For a glitter polish it's rather smooth. It was opaque in two coats. No annoying third coat needed.

The below photos are without top coat. I was so excited to take photos, I completely forgot to add a top coat.

Don't own this? Go get it. You won't be disappointed.
(FYI - I found this on sale at Sally's for $4.99 and I've seen it at CVS as well)

Hellllllllo glitter <3

Simply amazing.

::::drooling::::

(Please excuse the cuticles. They once again got in a war with my cuticle trimmer and clippers)

Bettina 'Mojito'

I just got my Bettina order in the mail yesterday. This is all thanks to http://www.letthemhavepolish.com/.  She did swatches a few weeks ago and I have been obsessing about them since. From what I understand, Bettina is a brand sold in Puerto Rico and not locally. (Is it insane to admit I was thinking about an end of August vacation to Puerto Rico just to get polish??!?) She was nice enough to get her followers contact information to place an order, and that's exactly what I did.

I  picked the polishes all from the swatches on LTHP. First, I had written down every single polish she swatched. I had such a hard time narrowing my selection down but I was able to get it down to 10. I decided to try the ones I wanted the most, and that included Bettina's 'Mojito' from their Resort Collection. I got home late last night and found this package on my stairs. I couldn't wait to try these....I gave myself a 2am manicure lol.

Now onto the polish. 'Mojito' is a gorgeous gorgeous green. It's a pure green cream, and it's down right amazing. The formula was like butter. The photos below are 2 coats of 'Mojito' and 1 coat of Seche Vite.

Bettina's 'Mojito'

Indoor lighting.

Exterior lighting. Direct sunlight.

8 days & 13 posts? Yay! Plus, a rant on dusty hunting.

I'm excited that this will be my 14th post, and it's only been 8 days since I joined the blogging world. Even though I don't have tons of people reading this, I like coming on here and sharing my thoughts on the polishes I own :)

Now on to my rant. Dusty hunting.

I always see girls on the OPI Facebook page talking about all of the good polishes they find during their hunts. I always find GREAT things, and nobody wants to sell them to me!! I found the OMG and Kaliedoscope collections at a salon in NJ and she wouldn't let me have them.

Today I stopped at a random salon after driving by and seeing Essie in their window. I'm hunting for Essie's 'Starry, Starry Night' and I will find it. I can't afford $100+ on Ebay. I walked in and found no 'Starry, Starry Night', but I found OPI's 'At Your Quebec and Call' and Essie's 'Greenport'.  OPI's 'AYQAC' was 90% full and Essie's 'Greenport' was 3/4 gone. It didn't matter, it's a lemming and I wanted it. She wouldn't sell it to me. I'm not offering $5 here, I'm offering $10-$15 for a bottle of polish that's mostly gone. Wha am I doing wrong?

I'm disappointed and now obsessing about getting these two more than I already was. If anyone wants to swap - I have extra some HTF's you may be interested in ;)

Nubar 'Indigo Illusion'

Nubar 'Indigo Illusion' is a duochrome that flashes a blue/gray base (IMO), with purple and green shimmer. Angle and lighting plays effect in most of this of course. I actually found that the fluorescent lighting at my job gave this the best duochrome effect, but obviously I didn't want to get caught taking photos of my nails at work so I only got a chance to sneak one photo ;)

The formula itself was good, no complaints. I did two medium coats and used Seche Vite as a top coat of course.

The second day of wearing this polish all I could think of was OPI's 'Not Like The Movies'. I thought for sure this would be a dupe. I only wore OPI's 'NLTM' once due to it's opacity and couldn't wait to get home and swatch them together. I was glad to see that these are not dupes! (Although, I'm now thinking of giving 'NLTM' a new home)

And now the photos:

Direct sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

Exterior lighting. Indirect sunlight.

Exterior lighting, direct sunlight. Do you see the green flash? :)

Fluorescent lighting at work. You can see the base and both the purple and green flash. Amazing.

Nubar 'Indigo Illusion' vs OPI 'Not Like The Movies'

They look close.....

Index & Ring Finger: OPI's 'Not Like The Movies'  (4 coats)
Middle & Pinky: Nubar's 'Indigo Illusion' (2 coats)



Index & Ring Finger: OPI's 'Not Like The Movies' (4 coats)
Middle & Pinky: Nubar's 'Indigo Illusion' (2 coats)



Nubar's website states this is "back by popular demand" and I can totally see why.

Thanks for stopping by!

OPI 'Outback Aphrodisiac' (black label)

I found this polish on a random shopping trip. It was in an older beauty supply store and they had a lot of polishes current polishes that I already have. I was looking at the older bottles and found that none jumped out and screamed "BUY ME!". That was until I turned them over, saw they were black label and started reading the names.
Movin' Out? Check!
Man a La Mancha? Check!
The entire Broadway collection from 2003? Check!
Some discontinued Christmas polishes? Check!

And then there was this little one. OPI 'Outback Aphrodisiac'. At first sight it reminded me of OPI's 'Dim Sum Plum' from the Hong Kong collection, but after seeing it was black label and knowing that I probably wouldn't see it again, I did what any nail polish hoarder would do. I bought it. I came home and compared it to OPI's 'Dim Sum Plum' and it's a tad darker. It is a gorgeous magenta cream with decent formula. It was a little thinner than usual and liked to run towards my cuticles (making clean up a pain), but not terrible to work with. I did have to do three coats due to some balding near the cuticle area. The bottle also has the original brush, not the new Pro-Wide brushes.

I'm still wearing this as a mani, but before I remove all of the polish I plan on doing comparison swatches with OPI 'Dim Sum Plum' and a few other close colors, so stay tuned.

All photos below are three coats with one coat of Seche Vite. There is some tip wear present, as I didn't take these the same night I did my nails.

Exterior lighting. Indirect sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

Interior lighting (no flash)

Interior lighting (no flash). It's not this red IRL - my camera hates me today.



Exterior lighting. Indirect sunlight.
















Exterior lighting. Indirect sunlight.
I wanted something to compare the color to, and I was on my lunch break, in my car. Sorry for the camo air freshener lol.
Please excuse the butchered cuticles. They are on the mend :(



Kleancolor 'Metallic Aqua'

Holy....metallic shine! I purchased Kleancolor 'Metallic Aqua' during my haul from BeautyJoint.com. I clearly don't own anything like this, at all. I looked through my stash and this is definitely unique.

This was almost a 1 coater. I did a second coat just to be sure. The first coat went on fabulous, where I had a little more trouble with the second coat. It seemed to get a little thick and harder to work with. I'm not sure if it was user error or just the formula. I also have Kleancolor's 'Metallic Pink' as a pedi, which definitely makes it into my top 5 pink shades (I would share, but I don't think anyone wants to see my feet!).

The photos below are two coat of 'Metallic Aqua' and one coat of Seche Vite top coat.
Thanks for stopping by! :)


Interior lighting



$1.75 goodness thanks to BeautyJoint.com (although I recently saw these in the dollar store at the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, NJ.





China Glaze ~ 'Bare If You Dare' with 'Whitecap'

Here are swatches of China Glaze 'Bare If You Dare' from the Fiji Fling collection, with a coat of 'White Cap' from the Anchors Away collection that was released in the recent months.
'Bare If You Dare' has an amazing formula. It's a very pale orange/melon color with golden shimmer. Even without a top coat this formula provides noticable shine. I added a coat of 'White Cap' before I remembered to take a photo of 'Bare If You Dare' on it's own.

Interior Lighting

Exterior lighting. Before clean up :::kicks self:::

Color Club ~ Wink, Wink, Twinkle.

After obsessing about Color Club's 'Starry Temptress' collection like a mad woman, I found it at 8ty8beauty.com. Without hesitation I purchased the entire collection and I'm so glad I did.
I've tried almost all of them, I only 2 left to wear. They all have great pigmentation and dry time (as do all Color Club polishes IMO). While it's extremely hard to pick a favorite, if I was forced to ' Wink, Wink, Twinkle' just might be it.

I'll stop the talking and get to the swatches.
I think the photos below can speak for themselves!  ;)

Wink, Wink, Twinkle.  Am I the only one drooling?

Interior lighting.

I took these photos with my camera phone before I started swatching. This polish totally deserves better than camera phone pictures. I'm going to have to revisit this polish soon.

MAC 'Imperial Flower'

I picked up MAC 'Imperial Flower' recently at the Cosmetics Company store at the local outlet for $10.50, which is a little bit of a savings from the MAC store. I really liked this in the bottle. It was a bright orange shimmer with tones of red. I thought it would look great. Once on my nails, I wasn't crazy about it.

This was the first MAC polish I have used. During the first coat I was amazed at how easy the polish was to work with. No matter how close I got to my cuticles it didn't run (until I got sloppy with the second coat - as you can see on my ring finger). I have two other MAC polishes which I plan to try soon.

I always paint my nails at night. To be honest, by the following afternoon I couldn't wait to get this polish off. I don't know how soon, or if I will be using this again. I feel like it clashed with my skin tone.

Interior lighting.

MAC 'Imperial Flower'

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Interior lighting

Haul-erific!

Could the tile of this post be any cheesier? lol. I received my haul from BeautyJoint.com on Thursday. I purchased all of the Kleancolor chunky holos and the metallics, as well as a few of the regular holos. I also picked up 3 NYX Girl polishes to try out. I picked three that I had seen swatched on another blog and HAD to have (Dorothy, Algae and True Navy).  I swatched Kleancolor's Black Chunky Holo over Hard Candy's Beetle and it looked like snake skin. AMAZING. I didn't get a chance to take photos of it before I took it off, but it's on my agenda. The polish itself had good dry time and for $1.75 you can't go wrong. The only thing I did notice was that the polish smelled like Benjamin Moore wall paint. It was super stinky; stinky to the point where I smelled it on my nails hours later. Would I skip using it because of the funk? Absolutely not.

I was beyond happy to come home on Thursday and see this at my doorstep.

It wasn't shipped like this. This was after I tore apart the bubble wrap to uncover all of the goodies. The polish itself came very neatly.

When I arrived home on Friday I had my purchase from Fabuloustreet.com sitting at my doorstep as well. What a good way to end the week!

Nfh Oh's # 51, 40 and 52 (#52 as seen in the previous posts)