Dupes/Comparisons: Squishy Reds (Part 1)

Happy Thursday all! I'm back in school and two days of classes have already gone by! I like going to school, learning new things and what not I just don't like all the stress and anxiety I get from everything I have to do...but so far, I really enjoy all my classes and I'm looking forward to a good semester...that being said, let's get onto polish!

I hope I didn't lose you from my title but I love squishy, jelly reds. In fact I own more than I thought haha. In this post and another, I'll be comparing two different types of squishy reds:

1. Shimmery/more jelly red
2. Glitter-bomb/super squishy jelly red

I decided to split this into 2 parts because they kind of look similar but they're not really. The color family is similar but the style and such is quite different so you all get 2 days of squishy reds! For this post, I will be comparing style two "glitter-bomb/super squishy jelly red". The two colors are:

• Orly 15 Minutes Of Fame (on my pointer/ring finger; 3 coats plus topcoat)
• SPAritual Intention (on my middle/pinky finger; 3 coats plus topcoat)

Here is a bottle shot of the two next to each other:

Onto the swatches:

Even though they look similar in the bottle, these two are definitely not dupes. Orly is much more sheer than SPAritual and also contains a LOT more holo glitter. SPAritual is a true red with more heavy flakies while on its own, Orly looks more orange. Also Orly's formula was much thicker and base-heavy where SPAritual was more runny (I had to be careful of it not ending up in my cuticules). So there you have it, part 1 all done! Look out for part 2 coming tomorrow! 

Gradient Star Nail Art ft. Holo

Happy Friday all! This is my last friday on winter break...I move back to school on Sunday and start spring semester on Tuesday. My break flew by haha. Anyway I have some long overdue nail art today! For Christmas, I got some nail vinyls from Twinkled T from my boyfriend and I've been dying to try them out. The one I used for today's look looks like a star cyclone (I'll link the exact one at the end of this post). You all will also get a rare sighting of my thumb nail in this post too! The color selection and such was inspired by Simply Nailogical's video (here) by the way~ 

To create the gradient that I sponged over white & the star vinyl, I used:

• Color Club Almost Famous (yellow)
• Essie Mod Square (pink)
• Essie Garden Variety (blue)

On the rest of my fingers, I used Color Club Miss Bliss:

My thumb I think turned out the best and I've been wearing it for about a week now! (Which is a long time for me, I change colors frequently). I do have a full post on the Color Club Halo Hues so watch out for that ;) In addition, if you want the same vinyls I used you can go here!

Comparisons/Dupes: OPI "Give Me Space" & Zoya "Dream"

Hello everyone! It's been a hot minute since I've done any dupes or comparisons so I thought I'd do one that has been in the back of my mind for a while now: OPI Give Me Space and Zoya Dream.

I remember when Dream first was released and it sold out so fast in my Ulta! I was so sad that I couldn't get my hands on it...(long story short I eventually did) and boy it did not disappoint. She is beautiful! However when I got my hands on Give Me Space, the two looked awful similar. Here is a bottle shot of the two side by side:

And of course here is the two swatched side by side:

They are not dupes unfortunately, I would say they're sisters though haha. Both of them are in the same color family. The main difference being Zoya Dream has much larger holo glitters than OPI Give Me Space which has fine micro holo glitters. Both formulas are outstanding: easy to apply, just right thickness, and opaque in just two coats (my photos make my nail line stand out much more but in person you can't see it). So honestly you can't go wrong if you decide to pick one or the other!

Essie Retro Revival 2016 "Starry Starry Night" Swatches & Review

Hello all, how was your weekend? Mine was good. I got to catch up with one of my best friends from high school and I also got to meet his boyfriend so that was a lot of fun! I also realized I'll be going back to school in a about a week...it makes me both sad and happy haha.

Today's post is an interesting one. I originally wasn't going to buy this. I was super excited when Essie announced they were going to be bringing back Starry Starry Night...I wasn't the only one (obviously haha) because everyone in both the nail and beauty world was buzzing about it. But then as it got released into the nail world, everyone knew what was up. This "revival" of sorts is not revival at all: the OG Starry Starry Night is nothing like this rerelease. But after watching jessFACE90 on youtube swatch it, I gave in and picked up it up at my local Ulta when I found a new display of it. Unfortunately I don't own the OG formula, but there are bloggers who do and did comparisons (see Pointless Cafe's post here). Anyway enough rant for now onto the swatches:

Starry Starry Night is a deep blue jelly packed with blue and silver glitters. The first time I swatched this, I only used 2 coats but when I went to take pictures, it was super patchy so I had to take it off and start over again. The formula is kind of weird, it's thick but a good thickness (in my opinion) but also patchy too...this is 3 coats plus topcoat.

Macro shot of the glitters...it was surprisingly difficult to capture them!

Overall, I have mixed feelings. I think revamped Starry Starry Night is a pretty polish, don't get me wrong but I feel jipped and some kind of way that Essie would do that. Why you gotta play me like that Essie?? Worth the hype? From what I've heard compared to the OG one, no not really. Otherwise? Yes, it's a pretty polish that most people would probably like to have in their collection.

Orly Infamous Holiday 2015 Collection Swatches & Review

Happy Friday everyone! Can you believe the first week of 2016 is already here?? Time is just flyin' ! I went to my local Ulta the other day and I saw they had the new OPI Hello Kitty collection...I died on the spot. I'm a HUGE Hello Kitty fan (ask anyone who knows me haha) so I'll definitely be picking up a couple of those ;)

Anyway onto what I have today. I have 2 polishes from Orly's holiday collection. I feel like a lot of times Orly is left in the dust compared to other brands when they release new collections, like I never even heard about this collection until I walked into Sally Beauty to get more acetone! It's a shame because they come up with some really beautiful and unique polishes...anyway my thoughts and swatches on the two I picked up after the jump!

Michael Kors "Thriller" Swatches & Review

Hello guys! January is just moving right along, am I right haha? The other day at the Nordstrom Rack when I got the Nars set, I also picked up a Michael Kors polish as well! It was a great deal (originally $18, got it for $6.95)! It'll be a quick post, but I hope you'll enjoy it the same~

Thriller is a shimmery aqua/teal. In the bottle, there is an ever-so slight purple duochrome but it didn't show up on the nail. The formula was thin, sheer, and a bit patchy but it easily built up to opacity. This is 3 coats, no topcoat.

Overall, I would say if you can get this on sale like I did, I would go for it but otherwise I'd skip it. There are plenty of shimmery aquas that you can get for much less. On a final (kind of random) side note, the bottle itself is really pretty haha.

KBShimmer Pimp My Pride & Mixed Peelings Swatches and Review

Hey guys, how was your weekend? Mine was pretty good, I spent a lot of time messing with my new camera. It's the Nikon Coolpix L840; the original one I used was a Sony Cyber Shot that I got in 9th grade...while I still love it and it still works great for being 6~7 years old, I really wanted to upgrade.

Anyway, today I have more indie polish! Yay! I know I'm late to the indie bandwagon, but better late than never right haha? I actually picked these up during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale KBShimmer had way back in November. I've worn Mixed Peelings a couple times already but I never actually got around to swatch them because school and finals came up. I'm a sucker for white crellys, so these babies are right up my alley! My thoughts and swatches will be after the jump:

Nars "Schiap" Swatches & Review

Happy New Years everyone ! 새해 복 많이 받으세요 !

It's 2016! A whole new year of memories, new nail polish, and lots of other things to happen this year! Did anyone make a resolutions list? I never actually make a list but there is always things I'd like to change haha. I am also using a new camera that I got for Christmas!

To ring in the new year, I thought I'd start off with a high-end brand that's semi-new (to me at least), Nars. I've known about the brand but never really gotten products from Nars because they are on the more expensive side, but I found this set that came with 3 full-size products: lipgloss, lipstick, and nail polish at Nordstrom Rack. All of them are in the shade Schiap. So of course it came home with me and now I have this gorgeous pink Nars polish to share with all of you!

 Schiap is a bright, medium pink creme. The formula is absolutely divine. I've never used a polish so smooth in my life to date. I used 2 coats (no topcoat) for the photos below, but if you have shorter nails, you could easily get away with 1 coat!

Overall, I'm in love with Schiap. While the color isn't the most unique, the formula is so wonderful. (Also how do you pronounce the name of this? Is it shee-ap or she-ya-p haha?) Even though this retails for $20 alone, I think it's totally worth the splurge. The only place that I know of that you can find it at is Sephora (here), other than that I'm not sure unfortunately :( Anyway I hope the rest of your new years is great !