China Glaze - Pelican Gray

Pelican Gray is from China Glaze's Spring 2011 Anchor's Away collection.  It is a subtle creamy light gray.  It even has the smallest bit of shimmer to it if you look close enough.  LOVE IT!  It's formula is a little runny, but it goes on nicely with two coats and cleans up well.  For an accent nail, I used Sinful Colors Out of This World layered on top of Pelican Gray.  This gray is a great small change from the white manicure I've been loving lately.
China Glaze has a new feature on their site that I love where you can try on polishes virtually.  It's a lot better than the one that OPI has on it's site.  
Note:  Sorry that my cuticles are not cleaned up well, I was in a hurry and wanted to get pictures taken quickly.  

 

Do you guys like this color?  Leave me a comment telling me what you think.

-polish. impress. repeat.

Metallic Black Dupes?

Over the last year, I have purchased a few different metallic black polishes.  Each one had it's own quality that attracted me to it, but I worried that they were all too similar.  I put them to the test, and they are indeed all different and unique in their own ways.

The three colors I swatched are OPI's Lucern-tainly Look Marvelous, China Glaze's Stone Cold from The Hunger Games collection, and Zoya's Dovima.  Dovima and Stone Cold have matte finishes so I swatched them with and without top coats for you to see the compaisons.

Thumb- Zoya's Dovima, Index- China Glaze's Stone Cold, Middle- OPI's Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, Ring- Zoya's Dovima with topcoat, Pinky- China Glaze's Stone Cold with topcoat.

(topcoat) Dovima (no topcoat)

(no topcoat) Stone Cold (topcoat)

Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous (no topcoat)

Dovima is more black, Stone Cold is more gray, and Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous is more silver.  Dovima is matte, but also has a nice smooth shine to it, Stone Cold is a true matte, and Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous isn't matte at all.  I really like all of these, but it probably won't be until Fall that I'll wear these again.  They are too dark for me to wear in the Spring and Summer.  I can't wait to get them back out though!

-polish. impress. repeat.

OPI - Alpine Snow

It's official:  I've jumped on the white nail polish trend bandwagon.  I used to hate the look of white nail polish.  I had never found any good formulas.  My nails would end up looking like they were covered in patchy whiteout.  There are still very few brands that have opaque white polishes.  Believe me, I hunted this one down through lots of research.  Sally Hansen has a good one too, but Ulta was out.  I had tried Sally's Beauty Sally Girl polish in white earlier this week and it was terrible.  It works well to do designs with, but not to coat the entire nail.  I almost got the "My Boyfriend Scales Walls" polish from OPI's new Spider Man collection, but I wanted a bleach white and it was a little more on the grey side.

Alpine Snow is a beautiful opaque non-streaky white.  This is two coats.  It was a little thin white made it bleed into my cuticles a little, but it cleaned up nicely.  I'm thinking this is going to be a go-to polish for me.  LOVE it.

Leave a comment telling me what you think about the white polish trend for this Spring.

-polish. impress. repeat.

My May 2012 Birchbox

My May Birchbox arrived!  Some times, Birchbox collaborates with different companies for specialty themed boxes.  Usually they let the subscribers choose if they want the special box or the regular box.  This month, everyone got the GossipGirl box.  No complaints here!  I was worried because looking at what most people got in their boxes, I was not excited, but I got completely different items in mine (one of the many things I love about Birchbox)!  This wasn't my favorite box ever, but I still really like the products.  Here's what I got:

Ojan's Volume Advance Volumizing Shampoo.  This smells a bit citrus-y for me, but I'm willing to give it a try.  :)

 Algenist Complete Eye Renewal Balm.  I don't have problems with under eye circles or wrinkles at this stage of my life, but I'll use this as a preventative measure.  ;)

This is what I am MOST excited for.  There is a huge hype about BB creams right now and I've wanted to get my hands on some.  I have my first sample right here!  Plus, summer is right around the corner and I'm excited to have something light like this on my face instead of foundation.

This is another item I was excited for!  The last couple months, Birchbox has included Color Club polishes in some of the boxes.  I have not gotten one yet!  I love metallic polishes and I do not have a color like this yet.  I'm excited to try out this brand.

This was the "Birchbox extra" this month and I was rather disappointed.  First of, the envelope doesn't even match the card....  Second off.  I don't think I'll ever use this.  I think they could have done better with this.

If you guys don't know what Birchbox is, check out my post here where I explain it in detail.  If you are interested in signing up, use my referral link http://www.birchbox.com?raf=gafkf

-polish. impress. repeat.

Zoya - Cynthia & OPI - Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

Zoya's Cynthia nail polish has been on my wish list for almost a year and I found it on clearance at Ulta the other day!  SCORE!  It is a gorgeous deep navy blue.  It's spring and not really the time of year for dark polishes, but I've wanted this one for so long that I went ahead and painted my nails with it anyways.  I tried to lighten up the look a little by pairing it with OPI's Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous which is a dark metallic chromed silver.

Cynthia was a little bit more runny than all the other Zoya polishes I have, but it was still incredibly opaque.  Two coats was good.  Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous is on the thicker side, but it has great coverage and is easy to work with.  I used a mini Sally Girl silver chuncky glitter polish for a few nails too.

I love color blocking and doing fun designs, but I wonder if I am getting to old for it.  What do you think?

-polish. impress, repeat.