Chanel Black Pearl...Ho Hum

I swatched the mighty lemming last night at Nordstroms and left it there after comparing it to real black pearls in the jewelry department.  I love black pearls and so I was excited to see if it was worth the hype.

I have to say, for me, it isn't. But then I really wanted it to look like a black pearl on my nails. In my opinion, this color is too green. That would be ok, but there should be some brown duochrome in there to make it work like a real pearl.

I realize that the black pearl comes in many tones, from gray to brown to green and even almost silver, but they all have a duochrome that is, sadly lacking in this polish.

So today, while trying to cram all the new polish in with my existing stash, I rooted through the stash to find comparable shades that might make my fussy ass happy!  I found it in Misa's "It's You!"  It's got the right balance of green/brown duochrome with just a little too much sparkle to completely pull it off but, I can keep my 25 bucks and have the color I want don my nails anytime I want it to. :)

That makes me happy!

Here are a few comparison shots: Thumb is always Chanel Black Pearl. (I realize my cuticles look like hell, just look at the pretty colors!) But first, let's begin with a few pictures of some ACTUAL Black Pearls:

Source

With Gosh Purple Heart (too much like Nubar Peacock Feathers and Borghese Stellar Notte ie: too much purple)

With Nubar Moon Shadow (thought the brown might work, but nope, it shows up very purple too.)

Sally Hansen Prisms Emerald Amethyst is actually very close, just reversed, but I can live with that.

And with Misa "It's You!"  is an almost perfect dupe only better! It shows the duochrome better in the shade, the sunlight brings out the shimmer and it's a bit more sparkly than the Chanel and/or a real Black Pearl. This one actually has the green in the middle with the purple around the edges. It's gorgeous!

I also compared it to the new Estee Lauder Wild Storm, very similar, but WS is more silver...still, I think I see a trend here. :)

And since I swapped my untried Lippmann Hit Me With Your Best Shot, I had to swatch that (I'll replace it with my Apothica gift cert won from Evil Angel) Love this color so much!

This is what my hands looked like after all the swatching. :) And again, please ignore the horrible condition of my cuticles. I've been doing a bunch of house cleaning and it's time for a deep moisture treatment. That week in Las Vegas was hard on my skin!

Why yes, that IS Lippmann Marquee Moon...which shall be mine one day. I love it, it's so different! The sparkles is me comparing Lippmann Happy Birthday with Milani Gems. I know they're not exact, but they're similar enough I can live without HB.

All in All, this Lizard gives Chanel Black Pearl a rating of Chilly. I'd say Tepid, but for the price...it's definitely chilly!

Which color do you like best or do you have an even better "Black Pearl" color? Tell me about it please!

Look What I Made!

As I've mentioned before, my 22 year old son moved to Seattle almost a year ago. I haven't seen him since April and I'm really looking forward to spending some Christmas time with him. We celebrate the American Christmas...all the fodder without the religion.

He has expressed that he prefers gifts that were made for him rather than purchased and for that I love him even more. But still, I like to get him something unexpected and purchased when I can. Things that will help him accomplish the goals he's set for himself.

This year, for his handmade gift, I thought it would be kind of cool to give him ornaments that symbolized...well.. Me! That way, he could have his mom nearby even while we're apart, and when the time comes that I leave this life, he'll have these to put on his tree each Christmas and remember me by. What better way to give him something to remember me by than to use nail polish in the creation? Yep, I did! I got into my stash, picked some of my favorites and I made these: *click to make 'em BIG
The pictures aren't the best they can be, and I'll probably take better ones and post 'em up here again...these were taken with my cell phone at work today.

All colors are listed Clockwise from the top left.

OPI Merry Midnight, Sally Hansen Opulent Cloud (GORGEOUS), OPI Shim-Merry Chic and 

China Glaze Emerald Sparkled.

 Close up of the Shim-Merry Chic bulb.

 Essie Huckle Buckle, Sally Hansen Sea and Be Seen (Scene?), Milani 3D Holographic Gold, 

Diamond Cosmetics Canyon Sunrise, Borghese Stellar Notte and China Glaze Good Witch?

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, Orly Space Cadet, Zoya Delilah, My LOVE: China Glaze Atlantis (this photo doesn't do the bulb justice at ALL), Sally Hansen Prisms Diamond, My Sage Franken that I made HERE (because my son really like desaturated colors...I suspect this one will be his favorite.)

This last is a Franken I made. I call it "Lights on the Tree"

I mixed equal parts Orly Enchanted Forest and Clear, just a tad less of OPI Shim-Merry Chic and a few drops of China Glaze Atlantis (about 6 or 8). This added holographic sparkle and brought some of the blue back that was lost from adding the Shim-Merry Chic.

I got the idea while looking at Ambefrski's Franken she made with Shim-Merry Chic and some red.

My kiddo doesn't even look at this blog so I'm not concerned I'll spoil the surprise. I am loving the way these are turning out and have 6 more I can make...the fumes though... WOW. My husband came home yesterday, and our little house was so gaseous he asked me if I was feeling ok.  I was getting a headache and so we left the house for a while so I could breathe fresh air. Small house + fumes = not good. We slept with all the windows wide open last night and that helped a ton. They are sitting in my office at work tonight...should be interesting tomorrow. :) 

Any suggestions for other colors I might use? I was thinking De-Luxe-ious from Color Club might be good. I think I need a few more reds though...ideas? I also think the Delilah bulb could use another coat. Amazingly this isn't using much of my pretties. There is some waste, but it's not unbearable and I'm happy to share it with the ones I love, even the ones who don't wear polish. 

I sure hope he doesn't think it's a silly thing to give him...he is, afterall, a young MAN. Something tells me he'll love it though. I think they'll be good for next year...then they won't be flammable anymore. LOL

Please comment your suggestions! I have trouble when I open up my stash and try to decide, it's almost as hard as doing a mani!

Sea and Be Scene

Hi everyone, I had to post this one up now. I love this mani!
I used smART Nails stencils # N003 and N049 for the waves and N030 on my pinkies with just a slathering of holo-ey goodness on the thumbnail tips.

Sun!

Polishes used: Sally Hansen Sea and Be Seen, Milani Cyberspace for the waves and thumbtips and China Glaze OMG for the Dolphins and accent on the pinkie nail.
I love this so much that the RBLs that arrived today will have to wait til Monday unless this chips.
Sea and Be Seen is so much like sparkling ocean water on a bright sunny day. I love it. I purged my stash of just about all the drug store brands and decided I'd keep this one.

Shade!

So much cool stuff going into the upcoming contest...put your creative caps on, I'm aces at coming up with a fun challenge!
This manicure is for my niece, Julie. She loves the Dolphins and I hope, one day, she'll come visit so she can see them. Maybe we'll row my raft out and see if they'll come visit. :)
(as always, click the pics for detail)
The Lizard rates this one: Sizzling!

On another note, I have to say, the RBL bottles look so much bigger on the web than they are in person...not disappointed, just thinking you all have itty-bitty hands! I have big mitts with long fingers, so I'm going to learn how to play the piano!
Til Monday, have a wonderful weekend!

Purple Holo Comparison

I did this comparison back when I did the Silver holo comparison, but it took me a while to learn more about The Gimp so I could get these pictures together for you. It's been a fun time (really) learning how to use this open source program!

On to the polish. I wanted to compare Milani Hi-Res, China Glaze IDK and LOL (both from the OMG collection), and Color Club's Wild at Heart.

I started with Hi-Res on my pinkie:

IDK went on the Ring Finger (I have no idea what that wrinkle on the tip is about):

Wild at Heart on the Middle Finger (with matte top coat on the tip = Fail)

LOL on the Index Finger (again with Matte tip = less fail but still fail):

And then I did the layering of IDK with Hi-Res over the top:

When you look at the Thumb next to the pinkie - Just like the Silver Holo comparison, the rainbow is more pronounced in the layering and the sparkle of Hi-Res adds interest.:

And again I applied matte topcoat to half the thumb and it basically lost all it's holo-y goodness, but I had to try. Since I did this at the same time as the Silver holos, I hadn't learned NOT to matte a Holo. Here's the full line up:

Wild at Heart and LOL are very much the same color with Wild at Heart having a chunkier look, not quite as chunky as Hi-Res, but chunkier than the smoothness of LOL and IDK. Wild at Heart seems to have a bit more purple to it, but they are very similar. All of these colors, like holos do, dried in record time so I had to work quickly to apply them smoothly. 

I love them all and I'm glad I have every single one!

Til next time!

~The Lizard 

Holy Holo Fun Batman!!!

I have acquired quite the collection of Holo Polishes...and yet, my collection is incomplete and I need MORE! HEHEHEE!
I had some fun with Milani, China Glaze and Color Club and the intermittent sunlight we had yesterday while waiting for the Tsunami to hit the Santa Barbara Coast. Things were a little tense downtown, but here at home we have an 80 foot drop from the bluffs to the ocean, so I wasn't worried. It turned out to be uneventful but with all the earthquakes happening, the hubster and I decided we would be wise to make sure we have plenty of bottled water in case the big one hits close to home. Santa Barbara is somewhat isolated from travel in the event of a big disaster as we learned when the mountain fell in 2005 cutting us off from most suppliers. Our grocery stores were almost bare when they finally reopened the roads.
Our lifestyle has us basically prepared anyway, but we need to keep a few gallons of fresh water on board too...but I digress into unhappy things..., let's move on to polish, shall we?

I chose Milani HD and China Glaze OMG to compare and play with, Take a quick look:

What you're looking at: from Pinkie to Thumb: Milani HD 3 coats, ChG OMG 3 coats, OMG topped with HD 2 coats OMG, 1 coat HD, HD 3 coats with ChG Matte Magic over the top, and on the thumb I did OMG on the left side (upper in this pic) and the omg/hd combo like on the middle finger on the right side (lower in this pic) then I put Matte Magic over the top.

Let me say first off, putting a matte topcoat over a holo, takes away the Holo completely...and you cannot get it back. Nope, not even if you put a shiny topcoat on top. Look:

See? Nuthin'.

Let's move on, shall we?

Here's a closer look, side by side: click it!

Now, I don't own Nfu Oh #62, but I think Middle finger just found a good dupe! I'm telling you, getting that smooth rainbow topped with the chunkier one and it was blingtastic! Gorgeous! Those of you who do own the Glorious #62, please tell me what you think, I need to know if I still need to add it to my hubby's buy list. :)

I love Holos for their color and for their drying time. I will say that HD was MUCH easier to apply, just smooth and nice as I don't give each layer much drying time, I don't have the time! :)  OMG was a bear, dragging polish for the first two layers so I applied it a bit more thickly for the third and it evened out. I used no top coat for the non-matte nails.

I will definitely layer the Milani Holographic polishes over the corresponding China Glaze OMG series colors because it's just so much more holographic. I like having options!

PS: For those of you having issues with blogger, be it posting, commenting or whatever. Get Google Chrome. DO EET NAO!! It works seamlessly and I am in heaven.

Milani Fresh Teal

Knowing I'd love Milani's Rad Purple Neon (that isn't neon) this one caught my eye. Teal is one of my 10,000 favorite colors and I realized I don't have any Teals in my stash, so this one went into the basket. I will admit that the Rad Purple swatches told me to open the bottle and peek at the polish inside and it was, indeed, teal. My photos are too blue. There it's weird though, the bottle is a different color than the polish, but still, it's really teal, not blue, and a simple, nice, creme.

It went on nicely and this is 2 coats, thick coats, but they didn't bubble. I think I've got the bubbling issue down to a science now. My only concern about this one is it took a long time to really remove it all, and it was just a swatch. Still, I always put my base coat on, because I don't want any staining happening and some polishes can really do a number on natural nails. This would, most likely, be one of those problem children. Took forever to remove every trace...and if you take a closer look at the Anaka swatch, you'll see remnants of this biatch there. Still, it's pretty and I'll see about longer wear affects in the near future. This is a nice summer color and so I'll wear it then.

I'm off to get some Nubars I've been lemming and then, I swear...no buy until I go thru what I've got and swap or clear some space. I'm nuts for Nubar...really.

Purple Passion French

I really liked the blue french, and being one who loves the purple...I thought I would try a purple version. This is also pre-Seche. Notice the sheet wrinkles on nails. This one was pretty for about and hour...I did laundry the day after application (sheet wrinkles and all) and the polish pulled away from the cuticle in a horrible way. I attributed it to the heat of the dryer, but who knows...I haven't given the ELF another shot since...I should though, shouldn't I?

I used Milani Purple Passion on the tips, and ELF Pearl Pink over the top. This if from October 2009. I do like this mani, but the wrinkles and the pull back...maybe I'll try it with Seche or Poshe and see how it goes.

Blue Mani Circa September 2009

This is where it all started - this time. Here is my first "fun" manicure once I got back into the world of nail polish. This photo is from September 20 of 2009. My husband and I were at the park where we were married the year before enjoying a picnic under the oak tree and I snapped this picture of a fun french I did.
That's a while ago and so I am trying really hard to remember what colors I used...fortunately, I have photos of the stash I had back then on my facebook! So this is Milani Pool Party on the tips and Revlon's Color Beam Sheer Bright Sky over the top. This manicure was before I learned about Seche Vite. My nails were a bit short, but they looked nice with these colors.

I had a moment of insanity and thought I would narrow my stash down to only mini bottles since I live in a very tiny space, but that didn't last and though I've already done an ROAK to a nice facebook friend from the Nail Polish Collectors group and given most of my Milanis away. I would be sad, but it made room for Nubar, Essie, Nfu Oh, Opi, China Glaze, Zoya, and so much more.