O: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, OPI vs Winter Wonder, Sinful Colors

It's Wednesday!  Like I need to remind you.

For the letter "O" I swatched OPI's On Her Majesty's Secret Service, from the 007 collection.  This is the only polish I bought from the set. OHMSS is a nice blue, grey, metallic foil with multicolored shimmer/micro glitter. Formula's a bit thin, but not problematic at all. Below is three coats.

I include the picture below because in the top two finger you can really see the small glitters sparkle.

A couple of weeks after I bought OHMSS, I found Winter Wonder from Sinful Colors, they are dead on dupes.

Below is one coat of each polish.

AND a bottle shot, for those of you who like to look at bottles, such as me!

Neither of these polishes are in stores anymore, but they are online. Online the prices are all over the place, but when they are in stores, OPI is $8 and SC is $2 here in the states.

Meet my cat, Demi. I woke her from a nap with the camera. She's my buddy. In the last couple of years has become quite attached to me and likes to sit with me while I paint my nails.

So that is it for today!

N: Nirvana, Sinful Colors

Hey there!  I'm a little late this week because I've been stuck at work, with no time to post.  This week's N mani is featuring a work-safe color, Nirvana by Sinful Colors.

Here's a swatch.  Two coats with IMN out the door top coat.

The label says this is a matte polish, but it dries shiny. I waited 10 minutes to see if it would turn matte, but it did not.  Maybe it's a mislabel?

I added glitter to one accent nail, to keep it interesting yet understated.  This is Rockets Red Glare from Orly.  I love how this is a true red glitter.

Above is before top coat, and I broke my middle finger nail hauling my printer up and down the stairs trying to figure out the router situation last week.  Then my index fingernail cracked yesterday. I don't know how, I just looked down and there was this huge crack.  So I'll just have to deal with short nails for a little while.

Below is the glitter with top coat.  I love red and brown together!

We finally got moving along in the bedroom again. I am sore from all the squatting and bending over. I think I'm out of shape!

Well below is the foyer looking into the bedroom. If you remember this floor had that awful blue slate that we chiseled up.

And here is the bedroom. The floor is completely covered, but we are still far from finished. I still have to install shoe molding and fix the baseboards and windowsills.

If you are just tuning in, click back to see the progress.  The purple walls and dirty carpet seem like a distant memory now.

I have to work all weekend so I definitely will not be posting until next Wednesday, hopefully.  I'm having a hard time keeping up this year...  I do miss reading all the nail blogs out there.  So that is it for now.

F: Fish Braid Manicure

It's Wednesday again.  Time for "F" of the ABC challenge; F: for Fish braid mani.  Today's post is picture heavy so I'm going to stick to just this topic.  This was my first attempt at fish braiding. It wasn't too hard to do and turned out well.  I'll be doing this again in the future, with better colors.

Left Hand.

Right Hand.

I only did three nails because I ran out of nail polish strips.  Just as well, because I started to get tired...

So, how did I do this?

First I painted two coats of nail polish onto a plastic page protector and waited three hours for them to dry.
I used Color Club Style Icon (red), Revlon's Jaded Night (green), and Sinful Colors, Black on Black.

Then scraped up the rectangles of dried paint.  See?  They are like vinyl sheets.

Cut them into strips.

Applied one coat of base coat, then start placing the strips onto the nail in a braiding pattern, alternating the different colors.

Trim off the excess with a cuticle trimmer.
Clean up the cuticles with a brush and acetone.
Slap on a thick coat of top coat.
Viola! See below.

I used American Classics, Gelous base coat, and INM Out the Door top coat for this.

I'm so glad I finally got a chance to do this!  It was fun and the lines are nice and crisp.  I am pretty bad at nail art, so this technique is much easier for me to do.  I found out about this technique, I think from Sammasaurus at Nailasaurus....a long time ago... I'm too lazy to search for the link.

I love how this challenge is only once a week!  I've been enjoying just painting my nails and not taking photos every other day, for now. I'm going to go and see what the rest of the ladies in the challenge are up to!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Sinful Colors - 960 Envy

In my last post Kumi commented that she was in search of the right emerald green, since that is the color of 2013, according to Pantone.  Hmmm.... she had me thinking, what does my green stash look like?  My green collection is pretty small about 13 bottles, not including glitters, or teals.  Well I thought I'm going to try and swatch my green collection for the month of January.  I've already done some of them just click "green" under tags and they will come up.

Today I decided to start with Sinful's Envy which came out just this fall, it looks close to the Pantone emerald... but I don't have a chip so I can't do an exact comparison. Pantone's emerald looks a bit pale to me. I think of a more deeper and darker green when I think of emerald.  Go to Pantone.com and see what you think?  Below is two coats; really nice forumla from Sinful.

Do you have a favorite green polish?

Stay tuned! In a couple of days I'll post another green.

Sinful Colors - Savage

Hey there!

I have a quick swatch to show you for this weekend.  Savage by Sinful Colors reminds of those polishes that have a rubber-matte like finish.  I didn't have any issues applying this, and the blue is quite bright.  I'm not sure if Sinful intended the finish to dry this way.  Maybe it does dry flat, because is leans neon and some neons dry flat.  Here it is two coats.

I did not add a top coat because I ended up adding an indie glitter on top, called Sea Monster by Priate Polish.  Click here for that post.

If you like mattes, a matte top coat would probably even out the paint. 

That's it for now.  Enjoy.

Halloween Night! China Glaze - Ghoulish Glow

Yep, yep... everyone is out trick or treatin and I'm at home posting..... a Halloween mani from hell.

Does this look scary?  No... oh, okay.

Happy Halloween!!!

Here is three coats of Ghoulish glow all by itself.  It is translucent, kind of foggy looking.



And in the DARK!  The more coats you put on the higher the glow intensity.

Then I added some nail wraps.  These were a total bitch to put on right!  I'm not doing this again.

You can go ahead and tell me - "Ummm, Jenni, this looks like a five year old did your nails.."
Go ahead.  I won't be offended.  I might get defensive, but I won't be offended.  Plus my hands look terribly dry!  I'm cringing!

Horrible, horrible, horrible.  It took me an hour and half to apply these wraps and there was no way this was going to be wrinkle free.  The cashier at Sally's warned me that they were horrible.  She advised me not to go all the way to the edge because of peeling issues.  Well they started peeling at the cuticles instead.  On top of it, after apply Seche Vite, the entire nail wrap just start to pucker.  Testament to the Seche Vite shrinkage theory.

Here they are in the dark!  Neat, huh?

I painted black tips to hide all the wrinkling at the tips, which worked out okay.
But they still look bad to my standards.

In the dark again.

See the puckering from Seche? 
Black tips are Sinful Colors Black on Black.... an excellent black to own, I might add.

Here are my nails without the bottle so you can see how they really glow.

Well that's it for now!  I hope everyone is having a nice time tonight. 

Thanks for all the caring comments in previous post.  My hubby, animals and I survived the storm.  All of us are intact, no damage to anything or anyone.  I am content indoors with electricity and heat!  There are many things to be grateful for right?

Sinful Colors - Leap Flog

Leap Flog.... What?  Beats me.

Well, whatever Sinful Colors wants to call this, its AWESOME.  LOVE this color, excellent formula!  This was two super easy coats with Seche Vite.  A dusty, green, grey cream!

I actually wore this to work, and got a TON of compliments.  I think its unique and classy.

I broke a nail the other day :(, so I filed the rest down quite a bit.  It was the middle finger.  Something about that nail in particular thats prone to breaks.... maybe because it sticks out the furthest?  Oh well....

If your interested, I did a post on filing and shaping nails, click here.

Any Sinful Colors on your favorites list?

Sinful Colors - Under 18

Happy Sunday!  Quickie swatch today.  Sinful colors - Under 18 a simple, bright red foil polish.  What can I say?  Excellent formula, I had no issues, two super easy coats.



Under 18 is a core color and should be super easy to find.  $1.99 at Walgreens.

Sinful Colors 1055 Slate

Hey Guys!

Today I have a quickie swatch, Sinful Colors, Slate.  Slate is a nice medium grey with a silver shimmer.  Like most shimmers, the formula is really easy to work with.  Here it is; two coats in early morning light.

The top coat is Etude House's Jelly Pop.  I picked this up during the 99 cent sale at Walgreens!   I love me some cheap thrills!

Thanks for watching!

Sinful Colors - 314 Beautiful Girl

Another quickie swatch to show you, which is also this week's work mani.  Beautiful Girl by Sinful Colors, a warm, pastel pink.

This formula was a bit thin and watery.  Most nails I have three coats on, the middle finger has four coats.  It looks a little too orang-y to me in the photos, its more pink in real life.  Most pink nail polishes tend to be on the cool side, so if your looking for one with a touch of yellow in it, this is might suit you.  Beautiful Girl warms up my skin tone and makes me my hands look a bit more tan.

I've had this bottle for about 8 months and this is my first time wearing it.  Beautiful Girl is a core color, so this should be easy to find, at least in the US.  What is strange is that, I have picked this up several times when I'm browsing at Walgreens, and said to myself  "Hey look at this! Oh wait; Sheesh....., I already have this and I haven't worn it yet."  Something keeps drawing me to this color.  Anyhow, not too bad at $1.99 a bottle, sometimes on sale for 99 cents!

Sinful Colors 925 I Love You

Quick post today. I have a squishy purple jelly polish with pink glass flecks from Sinful Colors to show you. It's pretty sheer, with two coats you can still see the nail line. I thought about layering this but I haven't found the right undercoat yet. Well, here it is by itself, three coats.

This was super easy to apply, the formula is great, smooth and even!

I've been doing a lot of posts on Sinful Colors because here in the U.S., this is a nice cheap-y, readily available, drugstore brand, and I'm all for cheap thrills.   For my readers outside of the US you can order Sinful Colors online at http://www.cherryculture.com/brands.php?manufacturerid=62  it's also available in the UK.  Just google Sinful Colors UK.  I would think ordering from Cherry Culture might be cheaper.  The US dollar is weaker than the Euro and Pound Sterling, so maybe someone can take advantage of the exchange rate?

Where do you buy polish online? 



UPDATE:  I added a swatch to show how the color builds and the pink flecks.

Sinful Colors - Cream Pink

Cream Pink...... Nope.  I don't think so.  Cream Pink, 152 is not your basic cream pink, this is a hot pink, gold shimmer polish and goes on eaiser than a cream.  Very smooth and even this was super easy to apply.  Fantastic formula, dries kind of on the matte side, but a top coat will take care of that.  Here it is, two coats with INM Out the Door top coat.

Indirect sunlight.

Direct sunlight, see the gold?

I found cream pink in a display that stated "Make some noise", but it looks like this has be released before, as other bloggers have swatched this last year.  Walgreens was having a 99 cent sale on all Sinful Colors last week and I saw a few bottles of this thrown in a large mixed bin.  So, this shouldn't be a hard to find color; its one of those gems that was right under my nose.  LOVE!

Share your thoughts!

Sinful Colors - Timbleberry or Thimbleberry 108

I don't know what a timbleberry is but that is the name of this polish, I swear.  This polish frequently shows up under the search term "thimbleberry" as well.  Thimbleberries actually exists as a type of raspberry and is very close to the color of this polish.  Why the powers at be, at Mirage Cosmetics, Inc. went with "timbleberry" and not "thimbleberry" is beyond me.
 

I would describe Timbleberry as a bright watermelon color, somewhere between a lighter/bright red and a dark pink.  The first coat kind of goes on like a jelly, nice and even, and a little translucent.  The second coat kind of a applies like a creme, with noticeable cuticle drag.  I applied three coats to even out the second coat. 

My home office is flooded with natural light and is great for taking pictures, however it has ugly blue walls and one day I will paint it.  So until do, my photos have a blue cast reflecting back, just like in the photos above.  I don't know why this happens on only some occasions and not all the time.  My photo lamp is turned on as well which lessened the blue cast.  Also the my camera is depicting timbleberry as more red than it really is, in real life.  In real life it is more pink.  Watermelon is the best way for me to describe this polish accurately. 

Overall its an appropriate color for spring and summer.  Its noticeable as well, a few people at work pointed out my nail polish to me.  "Oh my gosh, you did your nails." "What color is that?" "Its really bright."  Those are the statements I got. 

Personally, its a color I'm okay with; I could take it or leave it.

Thoughts?

UPDATE: 5/3/2012  Sinful Colors UK names this polish "thimbleberry, 108" same number.  Looks like the same shade.  http://www.sinfulcolors.co.uk/polishcolourchart.html

Sinful Colors - Hazard

Well, like green I don't have very many orange nail polishes in my collection.  Here is one I recently picked up at Walgreens: Sinful Colors, Hazard, from the Petal Pushers line.  Orange is another difficult color for me to pull off because my skin is cool toned.  I really did not like how this turned out, Hazard borders on being a neon, but I would describe it as a medium orange coral.

Hazard applies like a pastel, thick and tacky.  Above is two coats, and I did not have any issues except I'm just not that excited about the color.  Maybe I will be in August when its hazy, hot and humid here on the east coast.  Late summer the sun is so bright, everything is washed out and I can't see anything else except these bright beachy colors.  UGH.  Maybe I need to add some nail art or glitter?   At least it was only $1.99. 

Thoughts?