OPI 'DS Temptation'

Good Morning! Today I have one of the two new OPI DS polishes. I had both OPI 'DS Temptation' and 'DS Bold' in my hands but only walked away with 'DS Temptation'.  At first glance I really liked 'DS Bold'...but then I looked down at it again and it instantly looked like a dupe of China Glaze 'Mrs. Claus'. I don't know if they are an exact dupe since I didn't buy it and compare them side by side, but they are so close if you own one you probably don't need the other.

For the most part I really love the DS series polishes....but these two DS polishes are not like the others. I'm not saying I don't love or like it, I'm saying they aren't the same. I'm not sure why these are classified as DS when they are simply glitter polishes. They don't have the holographic effects of the original DS polishes I'm used to.

The polish is purple, blue, silver and magenta glitter in a BLUE base. I was shocked that it wasn't a purple base. I wanted to show you the base color, so the photo below is 1 coat.

The formula was a bit sheer but buildable. It was decent to work with - not too thick and not too thin. I did three coats of polish to build the color I wanted. IMO it really needs the third coat. I also found that this dried a bit matte, so the photos below are with a coat of Seche Vite.

I added some extra photos so you can see all of the glitter (reminder - you can click the pics to enlarge). While I really like this polish if given the opportunity to purchase this polish again I wouldn't spend the $12.50. Since this is a basic glitter polish I think the $8.50 is more than enough.

What are your thoughts? Will you be purchasing DS Bold or DS Temptation?

Essie 'Too Too Hot'

Hellooooo! I was on vacation last week (I went to Miami) and I spent at least a week trying to decide what I wanted to wear as my vacation mani. I went back and fourth with a ton of colors but finally chose Essie's 'Too Too Hot' from the Brazillient collection.

'Too Too Hot' is a corally red creme with orange undertones. It doesn't pull entirely red, orange or coral. It's somewhere in the middle of the three. I really love it and would recommend it to anyone. The formula is fantastic and easy to work with. I got 4 days out of this polish before it chipped (which is a really long time for my nails).

The photo below is two coats of 'Too Too Hot' and a coat of Seche Vite.

Sorry for the single swatch photo. I did my mani about 15 minutes before going to bed and had to get up the next early morning to catch my flight (I am NOT a morning person). By the time I realized I only had 1 photo it was too late to take more due to wear.

Miami was gorgeous. I got lucky with the weather for the most part (except for my second to last day when it poured) but when I went to South Beach they had an insane amount of jellyfish in the water due to Hurricane Irene off the coast. I give anyone who lives down there credit - I felt like I was melting away under the sun.

My last day we stopped at Dania Beach right outside of the Ft Lauderdale airport and it was AMAZING, and there were no jellyfish. I wish we would have went there first! I was so sad to get on the plane and come back to NY. NY water looks nothing like this LOL.

Like any nail polish hoarder I did look for polish while in FL. Just in case you live locally or are planning a trip here are my reviews:

**Lucky Nail Supply in Miami -- I had some luck with HTFs. The guy there was super nice and knowledgeable. When I asked him about some HTFs he tried looking them up for me on the internet. Their prices were unbeatable.

**FL Hollywood Nail Supply -- (Miami and Pembroke Pines locations) Had less luck than expected. The first one I went to was in Pembroke Pines and on the phone they told me they closed at 6pm and I got there at 5:20 and they were rushing me out of the door. The staff at the Miami location was friendlier but I still had no luck finding HTFs. I did pick up some Color Clubs I was missing. Also discounted (about half price) 

**Flamingo Beauty Supply in Doral -- Had luck here. I found an OPI 'Unripened' mini! They had all of the new collections but they were full retail value. I asked about the Essie Northfork Collection and they were happy to help me look. They had a ton of polish, mostly OPI and Essie. They had a rack of China Glaze and Color Club but it wasn't much.

I've come to the conclusion that I am extremely spoiled to have 8ty8 (www.8ty8beauty.com) only 15 minutes away from my house. Nothing beats that place or the collections there. Last time I went with my best friend we went with a list and spent 2 hours (and $400) there.

Sally Hansen 'Mystic Lilac'

Hello! Today I have Sally Hansen's 'Mystic Lilac' from their Xtreme Wear collection. I missed getting this when it originally came out, and after seeing so many swatches of it on blogs it became a hard core lemming of mine. I was comtemplating paying $9.95 for it on Ebay just to satisfy my obsession when I found it at my local KMart marked down to $1.50. SCORE!

'Mystic Lilac' contains green shimmer which is what made this stand out to me. On the swatches I've seen it's much more lilac. One my skin this pulls very greige. I'm not at all happy with the swatches I have so I'm only posting 1 photo. I hope to revisit this soon. (Plus, I smudged my pinky nail!)

Formula was so-so. It's very sheer the first two coats so this is four coats. I think next time I may try stopping at three to see if it will then pull less gray.

I just joined Twitter

I just joined Twitter. My username is HaulOfFameNails as HaulOfFame was already taken!!! What the heck?

Anyway...I barely know what I'm doing. So if you have a twitter account leave me a comment with your username. :)

I caved and signed up for Julep's Maven

I've been battling the idea of signing up for Julep's Maven box for quite a few days now. I found a promo code on www.LetThemHavePolish.com that gave me the first box for only $9.99 so I jumped on it as quick as I could.

I took the quiz and got It Girl as a style. I wasn't crazy about the gold polish this month's box is coming with but I loved the green and I desperately need some hand scrub. I like the idea that you can cancel at any time and that you can pass on a month if you need to.

For more information visit: http://www.julep.com/maven.htm

OPI 'Zom-body To Love'

Happy Sunday! Since I live on Long Island and basically everything is closed today due to Hurricane Irene I figured I would do a second post for the day. Yay!  Parts of Long Island are flooded due to the tropical storm (she was downgraded) but where I am we got lucky. It's still windy but the rain has stopped and I'm completely stir crazy and need to get out of the house. I'm lucky my power is still on because I know other areas in the same town are still without power.

This post is dedicated to OPI's 'Zom-body to Love' which is the new glow in the dark polish from their 2011 Halloween Collection. I was so excited to get my hands on this I didn't mind paying full retail price.

'Zom-body to Love' has the same particle-like pieces in it as China Glaze 'Ghoulish Glow', which is what I think gets it to glow in the first place. It's pretty sheer and I needed three coats to get to the swatch below. I was disappointed by how sheer it is since I really like the shade of green. I hate that at 3 coats you can still see my VNL. I'll be layering this in the future.

As mentioned above the swatch below is 3 coats of 'Zom-body to Love' with no top coat.

Now for the disappointing photo. I couldn't get my camera to capture the glow in the dark effect - this is the best I could get. I can assure you that it does glow though.  :(

Thanks for stopping by!

NYX Girls 'Shimmer'

Today I have NYX Girls 'Shimmer' for you. There is no better way to describe this polish than it's name. It's jam packed with shimmer.

When I picked this up it looked a little like OPI's 'Rally Pretty Pink' under the lighting in the store. When I got it home I realized it's nothing like 'Rally Pretty Pink'. A little disappointing, but it's still nice. It looked a little more pink in the store (as well as in the bottle), where as when I got it home it's a little more of a rose gold color.

The photos below are two coats of 'Shimmer' with no top coat.

Hard Candy 'Sky' with Deborah Lippman 'Happy Birthday'

Today I have Hard Candy 'Sky' topped with Deborah Lippman's 'Happy Birthday'.

I picked up Hard Candy's 'Sky' because I read it was a dupe for Chanel 'Riva'. Don't get me wrong...I've dropped a pretty penny for some HTF polish, but $23.00 is a little much in my opinion. I got this so called dupe for $5.00 at my local Walmart. Good enough for me. The first coat of 'Sky' was a little uneven and streaky. It evened out by the second coat.

I bought Deborah Lippman's 'Happy Birthday' in a mini pack of 3 polishes at Nordstrom. The 3 pack of minis included 'Happy Birthday', 'Across The Universe' and 'Bad Romance'. Formula on this was great and I only needed 1 coat to reach the glitter coverage seen here. I always thought the base would be 100% clear, but it changed the color of 'Sky' slightly to a pinkish/purple tint. I'm thinking maybe the glitter bled a little? Either way it wasn't a big deal.

Please excuse the lack of clean up.
The swatches below are two coats of Hard Candy 'Sky' and a coat of Deborah Lippman's 'Happy Birthday', topped off with 1 coat Seche Vite.

NYX Girls 'Turks & Caicos'

Today I have 'Turks & Caicos' by NYX Girls. I found this one at a local flea market for $1.99. Score! I love good cheap polish. NYX Girls has impressed me, especially at $1.99. Since I've been buying from mostly independant beauty supply stores lately and not Ulta I enjoy my savings. Savings = more polish purchases :)

'Turks & Caicos' is a medium blue jelly with pieces of holographic glitter. It's much darker in the bottle than what I was able to get on my nail. It also leans a little more purple than I expected. I would consider OPI's 'Last Friday Night' a close cousin to this polish.

The photos below are three coats of 'Turks & Caicos' with no top coat.
I smudged my middle nail and thought I did a good job touching it up, but clearly there is an area that's not the same as the others lol. Formula was ok, a little goopy but I may have been trying to rush it and build the color too quickly.

Milani One Coat Glitter in 'Blue Flash'

Today I have Milani's One Coat Glitter in 'Blue Flash' for you. I've read really good reviews about these. I also have 'Purple Gleam' but I didn't love that one when I tried it, it was too thick. I'm eventually going to add some thinner to it and try it again.

'Blue Flash' is FANTASTIC! The swatches below are two coats though. One coat just wasn't enough coverage for me, but it dried fast and smooth anyway so I don't mind.

I bought these at my local KMart for $3.79 and B1G1. Score!
The photos below are 2 coats of 'Blue Flash' with no top coat. It dries a little matte and could have used a top coat, but because I was only swatching I didn't want to waste my Seche Vite :)

OPI 'Orange You From New York?'

Good morning! Today I have OPI"s 'Orange You From New York' from their New York City collection released fall of 2000. I can't believe that 11 years later I found this on the shelves of a beauty store. It's pretty crazy. I had one hell of a time trying to get it open but the formula is fantastic still. The store put this one on clearance so they crossed out the label, but I can still read it! There is also build up from another polish that must have leaked on it.

'Orange You From New York?' is a reddish orange that also has a little brown in it? It's kind of hard to decide what color it really is. It reminds me of rust and it's totally a fall color. I wasn't sure if I liked it and only really picked it up because 1.  I knew it was a HTF 2. I'm from New York lol.  Once on my nails I fell in love with it.

I looked this up on Ebay out of curiousty to see if anyone would be able to find it and there are a few on there right now. The price on this is pretty high, $23-$30. I don't think I could spend that on 1 polish.

The formula was great! It is somewhat squishy like a jelly but really opaque and super easy to work with. It dried quickly and with great shine.

The photos below are two coats of 'Orange You From New York?' with no top coat.

Sally Hansen 'Pumpkin Spice'

Here's another one I couldn't wait to get my hands on. I stalked my local Walgreens & CVS for a few weeks after seeing this on www.Scrangie.com. It's 'Pumpkin Spice' from the new collection by Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear line.

I was hoping this would be a dead on dupe for China Glaze 'Fortune Teller' but it's not exact. I don't have both to do a comparison shot....I wish I did because 'Fortune Teller' is a serious lemming of mine.

Formula is decent. It starts off sheer and builds to the brownish base you see. The glitter is an orange/rusty color. This is three coats of 'Pumpkin Spice' with no top coat.

China Glaze 'It's Alive' & 'Ghoulish Glow'

Good Morning! Today I have two polishes from China Glaze's 'Haunting' collection which just hit the shelves at my nail supply store. I was able to control myself and not purchase the entire collection. I picked the two that stood out the most to me.

First up is 'It's Alive'. It's a gorgeous green glitter. The green itself is what I would refer to as olive. The olive green glitter comes in two sizes - small, and smaller lol. I don't want to call it medium sized glitter because you really have to be close to be able to tell it's two different sizes. I love this, and I can't wait to wear this. I'm in Miami this week and I feel the need to keep my mani & pedi summer related so I'm going to remove this before my flight.

The formula on 'It's Alive' was almost a 1 coater. I could have gotten away with 1 coat but decided to do 2 for the swatches. It was easy to work with and dried pretty quick.

I'm really loving the greens lately. If you like green, pick this one up! I'm kicking myself for not purchasing 'Zombie Zest' last year and now I've gone to every Sally's in my area looking for it on clearance. I saw it so many times and left it.  (I love polish, I LOOOOOVE clearance polish)

The photos below are two coats of 'It's Alive' with no top coat.

Up next is 'Ghoulish Glow', the new glow in the dark top coat. I'm sad to report that I have no photos of this besides the two *SAD* photos below. It glows like it says it does, but no matter what I wasn't able to pick up my nails in my camera.  As a last resort I even tried to capture the glow in my camera phone.

I'm not showing swatches because as a top coat it's clear....and nobody wants to see naked nails.

See - it does glow. It's cute but I'm dying to get my hands on OPI's 'Zom-body to Love' which is a green based glow in the dark polish.

Thanks for stopping by!

NYX Girls 'Sea Of Cortez'

Ladies, here is another NYX Girls polish that knocked my socks off. It's NYX Girls 'Sea of Cortez'. It has the same great shimmer as NYX Girls 'Maui Sunrise' as seen in the last post.

'Sea of Cortez' is a color that I want to jump into. I can't get enough of this and it's definitely made it into my top 20 polishes. It's a gorgeous teal polish with gold and light green/blue shimmer. It's hard to describe and these pictures don't do it justice.

Have a weakness for teal polish? Add this to your collection. You will not be disappointed!!!

The photos below are two coats of 'Sea of Cortez' with no top coat.

NYX Girls 'Maui Sunrise'

Maui WOWie! The swatches of today's post are NYX Girls 'Maui Sunrise'. I found a supply store in my local flea market that has a HUGE display of NYX Girls. It's like a dream come true. This polish? Amazing.

The formula here is excellent. Smooth and easy to control. It's a bright pink with gold shimmer. In the bottle it reminded me of OPI 'Senorita Bonita' or China Glaze 'Strawberry Fields' but in person this isn't a dupe. It's definitely different. I'm really loving this. I just did a quick swatch for these photos but I can't wait to wear this again.

The photos below are two coats of 'Maui Sunrise' and no top coat.

OPI 'Greece Just Blew Me Away'

I had a super amazing dusty hunt this week. I went to a local supply shop looking for oldies and found nothing. On my way back to my car I stopped in a local salon. She allowed me to look at her polish and told me she had only "new" ones. They may have been new in early 2000, but they aren't new now!

I found 'La Boheme' (75%-80% full), 'Greece Just Blue Me Away' (90% full), 'Apricotcha Cheating '(95% full) and 'Bet It All on OPI' (95% new). She sold them for $5.00 each. Why thank you mam!

I then stopped at another supply stop. I was a little skeptical about going in due to the neighborhood, but nothing stops me when I'm polish hunting. I found a basket containing 'Orange You From New York', 'Grand Central Carnation', and 'St Louis Sorbet.' I got all of these amazing polishes in about 1.5 hours. Yay!

From my hunt, today I have 'Greece Just Blew Me Away' from the Greek Isles collection in 2004. It's discontinued and I've seen it on posts as a HTF polish. It's a gorgeous, gorgeous blue with subtle light blue/teal shimmer. The photos below are 2 coats and a coat of Seche Vite.

Blog Giveaway

I'm thinking of having a blog give away once I reach 100 followers. I have a few duplicate HTF polishes that I'd like to share to my readers.

I'll keep you guys posted. Hopefully, I eventually reach 100 followers! ;)
Spread the word!

OPI 'It's My Year'

Today I have OPI's 'It's My Year' for you. It's from the new 'Miss Universe' collection. Lately I've been a little 'blah' and 'meh' with all of OPI's collections. I expected to LOVE the 'Katy Perry' collection and when I finally got my hands on it I was a little disappointed. This polish? It totally steps right up to the plate. This is the first OPI polish that I've been overjoyed about for a while now.

'It's My Year' is a medium purple with beautiful gold micro-shimmer. It looks amazing inside, and even more amazing outdoors. The thing is it never stops looking amazing. I've read that this is 'Rally Pretty Pink' but more purple, and I think I may just have to buy 'Rally Pretty Pink' too. That's how much I enjoyed this polish.

Sorry for the lack of clean up in the one photo. My nails always look ok IRL and then the macro shot brings every little thing to my attention lol.

The photos below are two coats of 'It's My Year' with a coat of Seche Vite.