Nailstalgia-Zoya Kelly

Hi there everyone, second post for today.  Isn't it great that the only post I needed to remember to put up this month....which I even wrote in my planner...I then forgot.  Apologies to my fellow Nailstalia ladies.  Pre-medication days I could remember everything, like almost photographically, now I swear I remember absolutely nothing.  It was my superpower...which is now gone.  I like to think we all have some small or big superpower, normal or strange.  My husband's would be growing a beard in a day, I kid you not.  If you have a secret superpower, leave a comment down below!

Today's Nailstalgia polish is Zoya Kelly.  I wrote a post on this polish in March, which I will include here.  Zoya Kelly is a polish I randomly picked up at Ulta because my mom's name is Kelly.  I thought it was a unique polish because it's blue, it's grey, and it's a little bit purple all in a beautiful cream form.


I think that this was the perfect polish for this month's Nailstalgia because I personally feel like Zoya Kelly is a fantastic transition polish into Fall.  It's a darker cream polish but it doesn't go into vampy deep territory.  The formula on this polish has that fantastic Zoya cream formula and I used two easy coats.

Zoya Kelly is actually one of my favorite Zoya polishes.  It's a really unique blue-grey cream and it's just a grey chic color.  Do you own this one?

Celestial Cosmetics Sun Kissed (i.e. AMAZING HOLO)

Hi there everyone, happy Friday.  Yes, the title was totally necessary.  Let me get this out of the way....I don't really care for holos.  Yes, shock, gasp, horror, I know.  I'm not sure what it is about them.  I think the ones I've tried haven't been strong enough....until now.  There's a little spoiler alert for you!  I am very excited that it is the Friday before a holiday weekend.  Last weekend we were away from home and it was crazy busy so it will be nice to slow down.  The bummer is that the weather is supposed to be really stormy and rainy the entire time.  Usually we go to the movies but I think we've exhausted that resource.  So far nothing is planned so I'm trying to rack my brain for ideas.  I also finally finished a project at work that has been stressing me so that feels good as well!

Onto the polish!  I won this polish is a big Indie giveaway awhile back and I thought it was the perfect time to bring it out because it reminded me of Fall.  I don't like holos but I liked the burnt orange sort of color so I went with it.  Holy cow, the holo in the polish is nothing I have ever seen before.  I have never seen a holo that could be seen in absolutely all lights, indoors, low lights, no matter what it looked spectacular.  This polish was it :)

Can you tell I liked this polish???  Sun Kissed is a rusty burnt orange linear holographic polish and it is so darn cool.  The formula was amazing and I needed two easy coats to get the look you see in my swatches.  I'm not a holo expert so I wasn't sure if topcoat would enhance or dull the holo effect so I opted to skip it.  I wore this polish for a day without topcoat and I had no wear issues at all, plus look at how shiny it is sans topcoat.

Overall I couldn't be more thrilled with this polish.  I think the color is perfection, especially for Fall and it has seriously changed my mind about holographic polishes.  If all holos looked like this, I would definitely understand what the craze is about :D  You can find this polish here.  So tell me, are you a holo lover?

Greyscale Gerbers

Whoa....scary right???  Let's just try it and see how it goes.  I've recently been getting into fashion, or at least what I deem to be fashion so I thought I would do some "outfit of the days" to see how I get on with them.  As I mentioned in my blog post this morning, it won't be an every day thing and it won't affect my nail posts that go up every morning.

Today's outfit was worn yesterday, Wednesday, to work and the rest of the day to run errands, returns to Loft and dinner at Chipotle.  Man what a thrilling life I lead.  We don't have a dress code at work so this outfit is the norm for me, sometimes nicer than what I've worn in the past....ooops!  I've been trying to dress nicer lately though because when I dress nicer I feel better.  I love this shirt that I recently picked up at Target so I went completely greyscale yesterday to go with my shirt :)

Shirt-Target, here
Pants-Loft, old
Sandals-Target, here

China Glaze The Giver-Part 1

Hi guys, happy Thursday.  So did I freak you out yesterday with the idea of the makeup and fashion blog?  If so, I didn't mean to.  I sat down and thought about it yesterday and came up with a plan I think is really going to work.  My plan is to write supplement posts to this current blog with fashion and makeup.  There are two stipulations.  First, this will still primarily be a nail blog, there will still be blog posts every day with nails, in the mornings, like there always have been.  Second, if there is a makeup or fashion post for that day, I will put it up in the afternoon and they won't be every day.  I hope this is a good compromise for everyone.  I'm doing this not to change what I currently have, but to do something for myself, that makes me happy as a person.  I took the first step and the first post will be going up this afternoon.  I am nervous about it but the pictures have been approved by my sister so at least I know it's not a complete train wreck haha!

Today I have some swatches of several polishes I picked up from The Giver collection recently released by China Glaze.  This is a big collection of 12 polishes to go along with the release of the movie that came out on August 15.  I came across some of the polishes about a month ago in Iowa but they only had some of the colors.  My stores here in Illinois are just now starting to get them. 

Capacity To See Beyond

Come on, I had to go for the aqua blue.  This polish is a bright aqua blue cream with a great formula.  The polish was smooth and easy to apply.  I used two coats with topcoat below.

Intelligence, Integrity & Courage

Next up is a medium grey cream polish.  I love a good grey cream and this one was really pretty.  This grey is more of a blue-grey meaning that it has a cooler base to it.  I had no issue with application on this one, two coats with topcoat below.

The Outer Edge

Last from this Part 1 of the collection is an interesting glitter topper.  The Outer Edge is a white and silver glitter topper comprised mostly of little glitter particles.  I'm not sure if it was my base, but I had a hard time seeing the silver glitter in this one.  It might have been too close in color to the white.  Regardless it's definitely an interesting polish and I can see it as a real winner in the Winter.  I used one coat over China Glaze Choo-Choo Choose You, plus topcoat.

I have a few others from this collection yet to try but I'm a little meh right now on this collection.  Obviously I haven't tried them all but the first two colors are definitely dupeable.  I do like the third glitter but I wonder how versatile it will be.  Have you picked up any polishes from The Giver collection?

China Glaze Stoked to be Soaked

Hi guys, welcome to Wednesday.  Thank you for all the support yesterday as I confessed my current struggles with some depression.  I'm not sure why I always confess emotional things on Tuesdays, it's probably because the Twinsies have become a really close support group.  I do plan on replying to each and every one of you.  I am happy to report that I did drag myself to the doctor yesterday and we came up with a plan and a backup plan if that didn't work.  Said plan is already being implemented (cryptic much?) and I am hopeful.  

There is something else on my mind that I wanted to discuss with you guys.  I've been contemplating the idea of starting a fashion blog, maybe something like outfit/makeup of the day.  I've only recently become interested in makeup and clothes so I'm no expert but I'm not sure if it's a good idea or if I have the guts to do it.  I do think if I do it it will make me happy.  That's what makes me think I should do it.  It would be a big step for me so I wanted to know what you guys think before I make the big leap :)

For today's polish I have a recent clearance find from one of Sally's 50% off clearance sales.  I normally don't find anything in these sales but I checked anyways and I noticed some colors from China Glaze's Summer collection, including this pretty orange number.  For some reason, most of the oranges I own tend to be cool tones and I always need a warm orange peel type color for nail art but never have it.  Here it is!

Stoked to be Soaked is a vibrant warm orange cream and I was happily surprised with both the color and formula of this polish.  I had no formula issues and I used two easy coats with topcoat below.

Overall I'm very pleased with this polish.  I'm not sure when I'll get to the other colors because Summer is flying by but this one is a winner in my book.

Twinsie Tuesday-Sideways French

Hi there everyone, welcome to Tuesday.  I will be completely honest, I wasn't sure if this post was going to happen or not.  I'm just a regular person like everyone else and I knew that something hadn't been right for awhile.  I think I finally realized yesterday that I might be suffering with a bit of depression.  I'm trying to work myself up to calling to make a doctor's appointment this morning but I think the first step was reaching out yesterday to my husband, my mom, my friend at work, my Twinsies, and now you guys.  I tend to hide things from others and then they reach a breaking point and I think yesterday was just another one of those times.  I realized I stopped caring about work, blogging, my life, pretty much everything, and I've been very sad for awhile now so it's time to do something about it.  I am proud that I managed to get a mani done for you guys today :)

I wanted to use the base color that I was already wearing yesterday, which was Zoya Piaf.  I had wanted Zoya Piaf, which is a shimmery pastel yellow, for awhile and I knew Ulta was having a clearance event.  I haven't really wanted to shop for polish or paint my nails but I went over to Ulta and ultimately scored this polish for 68 cents.  That's a good deal in my book.  I wanted something to create a high contrast with the yellow so I choose a vibrant violet-blue, OPI Do You Have the Color in Stock-holm?   As you can see, a sideways french is really a hit or miss freehand design.  My pinky is thinner because I managed one stroke whereas my pointer is thicker because my line was wobbly and I kept going over it to fix it.  I finished off with topcoat to make everything shiny.

Although I don't think I've ever done specifically a sideways french mani, I did do it for the first time in the book-inspired Twinsie's mani where I did the tiger stripes.  I really liked it there as well!  I'm all for a good funky mani :)  I can't wait to see what the other Twinsies come up with.  Have a lovely Tuesday my polish friends.

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace Anna at Going to the Showing Bridget at A Painted Nail

Casey at CaseyLane Loves Polish

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Erin at Paint Those Piggies

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

​

   Marisa at Polish Obsession

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Tiffany at Polished To Precision​

Traci at DrinkCitra

OPI DS Mystery-Swatches and Review

Hi there polish friends, welcome to Monday.  Sorry for the radio silence.  It was a crazy weekend to say the least.  It was garage sale weekend at my parents house and we made some money which was nice.  It was insanely humid and then during the sale it decided to downpour and storm so bad we feared for our lives.  We were soaked, running to throw things in baskets and put them in the garage, all while it was thundering and lightning around us.  It was crazy.  In the end, we got home yesterday with a new entertainment center and a new 60 inch tv in the back of our car....oops.  Crazy things happen when I'm around my family :/  

On to the polish for today.  This polish is the second DS polish I've tried and I got it a while ago online from Ulta when OPI polishes were 2 for $16, and somehow the DS polishes qualified.  This polish was originally released in Fall 2009 and it is a deep purple jelly based polish with gold flecks.  I really liked how the gold in this polish was irregularly shaped and "flaky style".  This polish was really opaque and I only needed two coats with topcoat to get the look below.

Overall I was pleased with this polish.  Do I think this is worth the full price of a DS polish?  No.  I was happy to get it on sale and it's definitely a unique polish in my collection.  I think it's beautiful for Fall and I was very happy with it.  Do you have this unique polish in your collection?  What do you think of it?

Reader Request: OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid Vs. China Glaze For Audrey

Hi guys, happy Friday!  Sorry for the lack of post yesterday.  My alarm didn't go off yesterday morning so I took that as a sign that I needed a mental health day and I pretty much took that in all aspects including blogging.  Today I'm prepping stuff for our garage sale tomorrow so I'm trying to write this post this morning with a squirming black and white cat on my lap since I'm home.  That's why it's taking longer than usual....she's the one that drools like a fountain when she's happy and wags her tail like a dog (all over the keyboard).  

Today I have a reader request to compare OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid from the new Nordic Collection to the classic polish China Glaze For Audrey.  The thought never crossed my mind to compare these two but when I pulled them last night I thought, man, that was such a good call!  I have a tiny baby bottle of China Glaze For Audrey so it's easy to see how that got overlooked ;)  Let's take a look.

So let's compare.  In the bottle, these two look very similar.  On the nail, My Dogsled is more green-toned and For Audrey is more blue-toned.  My Dogled is also more dusty and muted and For Audrey, which is a dusty polish, looks more clear and bright when compared side by side.  While I would call these two in the same realm, I love these tones and colors of polish so they are definitely different enough for me to own both.  

Let me know what you think of these two, are they different enough to own both?  Thank you Kathryn for the request, good eye girl!

L'oreal Acid Watermelon & Flashing Lilac (limited edition)

Hi everyone, happy Hump Day!  *Chants*...half way through the work week, half way through the work week.  Yesterday was a much more normal day compared to the weird string of events that occurred on Monday.  I mentioned last week that a huge bomb got dropped at work, cut our deadlines in half or fire half of everyone that works here.  Needless to say that's still the talk of the office.  No one really knows what is going on.  Some people are worried they are going to lose their jobs, others are trying to come up with solutions.  To be fair, the head of the section said the leaders would ask for our opinions but they've been ignoring us.  Right now I'm content with wasting my time chatting with my friends at work about it.  Oh well, another day, another dollar.  Honestly I have some news I've been holding in that's bigger than what's going on at work, not really directly relating to me (so don't guess that I'm pregnant because that's not it ;), but I can't share it just yet.  I'm the most impatient person in the world so it's eating me up to have to keep it a secret, but soon....

Last night I took a break from pulling garage sale items for this weekend and spent the majority of the time browsing Fall outfit ideas on Pinterest.  Yep, I'm a weirdo.  I realized I still have some Summer polishes to show you guys so I better hop to it.  Today I have two polishes from a limited edition collection released by L'oreal.  It's a collection of six polishes, a yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, and blue and they are all supposed to be neons.  I found mine at Walgreens a few weeks ago.

First up is Acid Watermelon.  I first saw this polish when it was mentioned by Nicole of YoungWildandPolished on YouTube.  If you don't watch her videos, you should!  She is hilarious!  This polish is a bright pink kind of cream crelly mix of a polish.  I wouldn't call it neon but it's bright.  It also happens to be a dupe for a polish that had been on my lemming list, Essie Boom Boom Room.

The formula was decent on this one, although I did use three thin coats to create a fully opaque finish on the nail.  It did dry semi-matte so I used topcoat to give it that nice glossy finish.  Overall I was really pleased with the color and it isn't like any pink that I own.

The second polish I ended up picking up is Flashing Lilac.  Right off the bat I have to get something off my chest....this polish is everything I wanted OPI Push & Pur-pull to be from the neons collection.  There, I said it.  If you recall, the OPI was bright in the bottle but dried so dark on the nail and ended up being a jelly polish, this one however, was very different.  The color in the bottle was what you got on the nail.

Flashing Lilac is a bright and vibrant warm purple crelly and it had a really good formula.  The first coat applied slightly streaky but the second coat evened everything out.  With the first polish, it did dry matte, but that was fixed with topcoat.  Like I said before, the best part about this polish was that it dried the same color as it appeared in the bottle :)

Overall I was really impressed with both of these polishes.  Normally I make a weekly trip to Walgreens just to see what's new (bad Erin), but I haven't been in at least a month.  My point being, I would definitely check out the rest of the collection because I loved both of these polishes!  Let me know what you think of these two.

Twinsie Tuesday-Classic

Hi everyone, welcome to Tuesday.  Yesterday was definitely one of those days where weird things kept happening and you say to yourself...what is going on today?  By the end of the day I just wanted to get home after work so nothing else weird would happen.  I shut my alarm off, my friend was gone at work, a pipe flew at me off of a truck on the highway and I had to slam on my brakes which got the people behind me angry....ummm, I didn't want to tear up the underside of my car from a pipe?!?  I had no clue at new person was starting a work, I forgot my breakfast, had to eat cereal for lunch, tried to rescue a dog I found wandering around our work parking lot that had a collar on but ran from me.  Strange, strange day.  But today is a new day, so let's get right into today's post.

I'll be honest with you, I had no idea what today's prompt meant.  It just said classic and I didn't know if that meant a classic polish, a classic nail design?  I haven't been involved in the nail community for very long so I also don't know what the true classic nail polishes are.  I went with a polish I knew was older, crossed me fingers, and went with it :)

For today's polish I went with OPI Suzi Sells Sushi By the Seashore.  From what I can tell, this polish is from the 2005 OPI Japanese Collection.  It's not a polish I would typically go for but the name definitely sold me when I found it in an Aveda salon in Iowa awhile back.  It's a medium rosy pink with a touch metallic/frosty hint to it but I honestly thought it was really pretty.  If I hate a polish I would tell you.  I wore this one on Saturday and didn't want to take it off.  The formula was really good and I ended up using two easy coats with topcoat for my swatches.

I'm not sure if I fit the bill on this prompt but I'm sure my other Twinsies will have done a great job.  Check them out below and let me know what you think of this polish!  

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace 

 Anna at Going to the Showing  

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Casey at CaseyLane Loves Polish

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

​

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

OPI Nordic Collection-HUGE Comparison Post

Hi guys, welcome to Monday, I just can't bring myself to say happy Monday...sorry ;)  So yesterday ended up being a strange day.  My mom texted me and said they were having a garage sale next weekend and did we want to help.  After a quick conversation with my husband we decided to include ourselves in the garage sale.  After that, I proceeded to tear our house apart finding stuff for the garage sale...for several hours.  I still have a few areas/rooms to go but we have a huge pile sitting in our living room for the garage sale.  I totally had planned on relaxing but we ended up doing the opposite.  It did feel good to be productive though.

Today I have my comparison post as promised.  It's a long one so I'm going to get right into it!

First up, a comparison to OPI Ice-bergers & Fries, which is a warm medium red- toned chocolate brown.  Zoya Spencer is the only one of this bunch which isn't red-toned, Chocolate Moose is lighter, and A-piers to be Tan is brighter and has more red undertones.

My pick-Ice-bergers & Fries.  This polish just gets to me!  It's so pretty, cozy, and warm.

Next up is my measly comparison to OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid.  I mentioned in my video from yesterday that both OPI Mermaid's Tears and OPI Thanks a Windmillion are HUGE lemmings of mine so I couldn't compare them to this polish.  I pulled some popular polishes just for some color comparisons, not for the sake of finding dupes.  China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle is a pastel neon turquoise, much more clear and bright.  Zoya Wednesday is pretty close to My Dogsled is a Hybrid but Wednesday is more blue toned and slightly dustier and Doglsed is greener toned.

My pick-ALL!!!!  Need I say more?

Next up is a another comparison I couldn't get close to.  OPI Do You Have this Color in Stock-holm? is not like any color I've seen, a really intense blue-toned violet.  OPI Purple with a Purpose is a traditional violet purple.  Julep Iona is closer but it's dusty and not as vibrant.

My pick-Do you Have this Color in Stock-holm?  It's just too unique.  It's bright but it can also look deep.  It maintains its intensity but it doesn't dry matte.  Just a cool and unique color.

Another comparison that was hard to get close to.  OPI in True Stefani Fashion has a clear base with bigger holo particles and square glitter.  My Voice is a Little Norse has smaller glitter particles and a grey jelly base.  OPI Number One Nemesis has micro-glitter and has grey and gold glitter.

My pick-Who are we kidding?  All.

Now we are getting into more of the nitty gritty of the comparisons.  Zoya Loise is a warmer brown whereas Suzi Loves Cowboys is warm but it's starting to go more towards neutral.  How Great is Your Dane is a dark brown with a taupe base.  I mentioned that I found a dupe for How Great is Your Dane but in this photo Zoya Emilia does not look like a dupe.  It looks slightly warmer.  

My pick-OPI How Great is Your Dane?  I have a use for all of these polishes, or at least that's what I'm telling myself.  My favorite of the four is How Great is Your Dane though because of the taupe base.  It works well for my skin tone and it's really unique.

I swear How Great is Your Dane and Zoya Emilia were dupes when I swatched them.  Sorry guys.  Here they look closer but still not exact dupes.  Enough that you wouldn't need both unless you really liked them.  I also wanted to show them both next to OPI You Don't Know Jacques! because it's a very popular OPI color.  It looks lighter and more taupe-y compared to the other two.

Next up are the oranges.  These are hard to see the difference between but there are slight differences.  Zoya Thandie has the obvious difference and is more orange toned than the other two.  I consider Thandie to be a melon orange but next to the other two it looks very orange.  Can't Afjord Not to and Toucan Do it if you Try are VERY close.  Like a shade different, very close to dupes different.  To me, Toucan Do it if you Try is a touch lighter and Can't afjord not to is a touch brighter.  Other than that, I can't tell the difference.

My pick-Ugh....you guys, can I pick all again?  I know they are all very similar, I know.  If I narrowed it down I would pick Zoya Thandie and OPI Toucan Do it if you Try.  There, I did it.  Both OPI's need three coats and are so similar that it's a draw.

Next up are the pinks and yes, I found a dupe.  To me, Zoya Rooney and OPI Suzi Has a Swede Tooth are dupes, both being a creamy strawberry cream color.  OPI Shorts Story is lighter in tone and appears brighter on the nail.  

My pick-Zoya Rooney.  It has a better formula than the other two, needing just two coats.

Next up are the deep magenta polishes and I touched on this in my video.  Most other polishes like this have a shimmery metallic base but Thank Glogg It's Friday has a deep raspberry base and that makes it really unique and opaque.  Thank Glogg looks raspberry to me and I can't see shimmer in it.  Cute little vixen looks deeper and more magenta.  Embarca-dare ya from last year is lighter and has a silver base.  

My pick-OPI Thank Glogg It's Friday.  It's base and opaque-ness make it really unique.  The other two are really pretty too but this one just blew me away.

Next up are the warm camel colors.  Zoya Flynn is the coolest of the warm tans if that makes sense.  Going my way or Norway is the most warm and rich and orange toned.  OPI San-tonio is closest to Norway but it's less orange toned.

My pick-Honestly, none.  All three clash with my cool skin tone, I just can't get into them.  I am super pale and very cool toned though!

Here's another rough comparison but I wanted to pull polishes from recent comparisons.  50 years of style is from the Mustang collection and it's basically the gold version of the polish from the Nordic collection.  Love.Angel.Music.Baby. is from the beginning of the year and it's a shimmery satin gold.  OPI With a nice Finn-ish a bronzy metallic.  OPI Rising Star is the closest polish I had but it's mush deeper and warmer and shimmery.

My pick-Honesty I like all of them.  I like frosty metallics but some people don't like seeing brushstrokes.

Last up is a huge purple comparison with the two purples in the Nordic collection, OPI Skating on Thin Ice-land and OPI Viking in a Vinter Vonderland.  In this group Zoya Claire is much redder toned and William Tell Me about OPI is a deep wine color.  Skating on thin Ice-land is dark but it maintains its purple tone and Honk if you love OPI is a very deep purple.

My picks-Zoya Claire and Skating on Thin Ice-land.

Not sure why I included China Glaze X-ta-Sea, maybe because it looked darker in the bottle?  OPI A Grape Affair looks cooler toned compared to the two at the top.  It wouldn't be a comparison post of mine if something weird didn't get thrown in!

Now getting into the really deep toned purples.  OPI A Grape Affair and Viking in a Vinter Vonderland look extremely similar to me.  Grape is slightly more red and Viking is a touch deeper.  Vant to bite my neck is the "lightest" of the four and is cool toned.  Miss You-niverse has a dusty quality to it and is cool toned as well.

My pick-It's kind of a toss up on this one, they are all VERY similar!

I hope this comparison helped you guys out!  I know it definitely helped just for my curiosity's sake :)  If there are any other comparisons you would like to see I would definitely be open to doing a second round, just leave me a comment below.  Also special thanks to my tolerant husband who helped me pull dupes for this post, he's all for supporting my hobbies!