Reader Requests: Comparison Swatches Part 1

Hi everyone!

Hope you all are having a wonderful day so far. My recent posting of spring collections from Zoya, Essie and OPI inspired many of you to write me and request comparison swatches. I am happy to oblige! If you do not see the swatches posted that you requested, do not fret. I will be bringing you more comparison swatches in the next week or so. As always, feel free to e-mail me (nailpolishfan@gmail.com) anytime or just leave a comment if you would like to see a comparison swatch. If I have it, I'll swatch it! If I don't, I'll let you know.

First up, we have OPI Feelin' Hot Hot Hot! and OPI Party In My Cabana, both from their new South Beach collection:

OPI Feelin' Hot Hot Hot! is on my pinky and middle fingers. OPI Party In My Cabana is on my ring and index fingers. As you can see, Feelin' Hot Hot Hot! is a bit lighter and brighter than OPI Party In My Cabana. PIMC is slightly darker and dustier than FHHH (excuse my abbreviations, I get tired of typing the long names over and over again). I prefer OPI Feelin' Hot Hot Hot! out of the two, but if you love pinks, of course they are different enough to justify purchasing both.

Next, we have China Glaze Pink Underground from the fall 2008 Operation Colour collection and Zoya Barbie from their latest collection, Twist:

China Glaze Pink Underground is on my middle and pinky fingers. Zoya Barbie is on my ring and index fingers. Both Pink Underground and Barbie are pinks with a similar magenta shimmer, only Pink Underground is darker. Personally, I prefer China Glaze Pink Underground. But again, if you love your pinks, go ahead and get Zoya Barbie even if you already have China Glaze Pink Underground.

Moving right along to Zoya Harley (spring 2009 Twist collection) and Sephora by OPI Run With It!:

Zoya Harley is on my pinky and middle fingers. Sephora by OPI Run With It! is on my ring and index fingers. Clearly you can see the difference between these too, Harley is a cool toned grey shimmer and RWI has a golden look to it. Funny, before swatching these two side by side, I always knew that RWI was a warmer grey, but I never thought of it as golden. I don't think I will ever think of Run With It as grey again.

Finally, Zoya Harley and OPI "Sheer" Your Toys!:

Zoya Harley is on my pinky and middle fingers. OPI "Sheer" Your Toys! is on my ring and middle fingers. Wow! I never thought that these two would look so similar! You can see that SYT has a bit of a more blue or steel tone to it. Both nail polishes have similar copper flecks, but the ones in Harley are finer and more of a shimmer. The copper flecks in "Sheer" Your Toys are larger, chunkier, and more noticeable. Click the picture to enlarge it so you can see what I am talking about. Again though, I am very surprised at how similar the two of these are. If you are on a low/no buy right now, I really don't think you need both of these. But if you are a grey lover, you'll probably still want both.

That wraps up this round of comparison swatches. I'll have more coming soon! 

Also, just wanted to remind all of you about my random giveaways. I am cleaning out my stash of nail polishe, the unopened ones, and you guys are going to benefit from it! Every now and then, when I am in a random mood, I am going to randomly pick an e-mail subscriber to win the unopened nail polish of my choice. If you are not an e-mail subscriber yet, you should definitely sign up. Just enter your e-mail address in the box below to subscribe.

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Ok, gotta run... talk to you all later! (it's 75 and sunny outside)

xoxo,

Katee

Zoya Twist Collection Spring 2009 Swatches

Hello, dear readers!

Today I have for you my swatches of the Zoya Twist collection for Spring 2009. These are so pretty! As always, click my pics to enlarge them. Enjoy!

Zoya Cassi:

Peachy pink with awesome shimmer. For some reason this reminds me of sherbert! I don't know why, but it looks good enough to eat. Call me crazy. The shimmer in this is totally insane, it is like Zoya chopped up little golden diamonds and put them in the polish. Amazing! You could definitely get away with two coats of this nail color but I used three because I was really digging it.

Zoya Malia:

Gorgeous lavender creme. This applied super smooth like butter. Actually, all of these did. This swatch is two coats. I am a habitual three coater but there was absolutely no need for a third coat, that would have been wasteful. 

Zoya Barbie:

Cutsey pink with magenta shimmer. For me, this is a perfect summer pedicure color. When you enlarge the picture you can see the shimmer much better.

Zoya Harley:

Flawless shimmering grey. I knew I would be in love with this one from the second I saw the promo pics. Oh Harley, where have you been all my life?

Zoya Moxie:

Vibrant red plum creme. This is one that I was not excited about when I saw the promo pics but as soon as I put it on I was in love. What was I thinking? This color rocks!

Zoya Jo:

Fabulous shimmering blue that falls somewhere between cornflower and periwinkle. Funny thing about this color, I love blue nail polish and my boyfriend hates blue nail polish. But when he saw me wearing this one, he actually liked it. Not that I really care what he thinks, I wear what I want! Thank you Zoya for putting a blue in your Spring collection!

Overall, I have nothing but compliments for Zoya on this collection. Flawless application? Check. Fabulous, vibrant colors? Check. Pause from typical Spring colors? Double check. I don't know what else to say. The colors speak for themselves. 

The Zoya Twist collection is available now at www.zoya.com.

Also, don't forget about the awesome nail polish exchange that Zoya has going on right now. In a nutshell, you send Zoya your old, crappy polishes (non Zoya polishes of course) and then they send you brand new the brand new Zoya polishes of your choice in return. All you have to pay is $3 per bottle processing plus your end of the shipping to send them your old stuff. But basically this offer amounts to a 50% discount, which rocks. I believe there is a 6 bottle minimum and 200 bottle maximum limit. Thanks again Zoya for a fabulous offer. Check out full details on their program at www.zoya.com/exchange.

Ok guys, I mean gals, let me know what you are getting! Guys reading, if you are out there, you can let me know what you want too :)

That is all for today!

xoxo,

Katee

NOTD: Mood by SpaRitual

Good morning, dear readers!

I hope that your 2009 is off to a wonderful start. I found a few extra minutes this morning so I thought I would share with you the manicure that I did yesterday, Mood by SpaRitual.

For those of you that are not familiar with SpaRitual nail lacquers, they are Vegan and free of DBP, toluene and formaldehyde. I especially love the ruberized cap on all SpaRitual nail polishes. Not only are they easy to open, but the cap is especially easy to hold and use. SpaRitual nail polishes also have a very nice brush that is not too big and not too small. I find that the SpaRitual formula is always spot on, no clumps or goo. It always flows perfectly on to the nail. Now on to the swatches!

I could not pick one favorite picture, so I have a few for you.

SpaRitual Mood:

Direct sun:

Click on the photos to enlarge them, if you wish.

Indirect sun:

See how glossy this is! 

SpaRitual Mood is from their Fall/Winter 2008 color collection called Inspired. SpaRitual Mood is a wonderful, shimmery, smokey grey/charcoal color. It is similar to Zoya Freja but less silver and more grey. This color really reminds me of my cat, Vincent (LOL). He is a Russian Blue - grey fur with silver guard hairs. I will have more nail polishes from SpaRitual to share with you soon.

SpaRitual nail lacquers are available for $9.00 each (totally worth it) and can be purchased at www.skinstore.com.

That is all for today!

xoxo,

Katee

OPI 2008 Holiday in Toyland Nail Polish Swatches - Darks & Neutrals

Hello, dear readers!

Today I have nail polish swatches of the OPI 2008 Holiday in Toyland collection for you. I am sharing the darks & neutrals today and will have the red shades for you in a few days. I am just waiting on "A Ruby for Rudolph" to complete my collection. When you are done looking at these, make sure you enter my giveaway for your chance to win a bottle of Essie Pama. 

OPI You're A Doll!:

Nude-ish, gray-ish pink shimmer with flecks of red glitter. If I had to name a favorite from this collection, I think this would be it. As a reminder, you can click on all of the pictures to make them huge. I think enlarging them really helps to show the detail of the shimmer, glitter, my bad clean up job LOL, etc. 

OPI Baby It's "Coal" Outside!:

Gorgeous dark charcoal, almost black, nail color that is loaded with chunky silver glitter. The glitter is smooth, I only say chunky because it is not all the same size. I really like this color but just found it way too cool for my skin tone. 

OPI Play 'Til Midnight:

Dark blue loaded with purple shimmer and hot pink glitter. The base of this color is very heavy on the charcoal side which gives this blue an almost "dusty" appearance indoors. 

OPI Glamour Game:

Gorgeous soft metallic champagne nail color with iridescent glitter. Love this color! I have a Christmas party to go to this weekend and I might wear this one. 

OPI Brand New Skates:

Gray soft metallic shimmer with the same iridescent glitter as Glamour Game. I call both of these shades "soft metallic" because they aren't quite as metallic as other nail colors I've used, which I like, because I did not have huge brush stroke issues with these. Normally a metallic gray like this one would be too cool for me but the iridescent glitter warms it up just enough.

OPI "Sheer" Your Toys:

Silvery gray nail color that has silver shimmer and flecks of red glitter, the same red glitter in You're A Doll! This is another one of my favorites from this collection. 

I think that OPI has a huge winner on their hands with the Holiday in Toyland collection. So many of these dark and neutral shades are very unique and nothing that I have dupes for in my collection, with the exception of Play 'Til Midnight. The OPI Holiday in Toyland collection is available for sale now in stores and online. 

That is all for today! Remember to enter the giveaway and I'll see you back here soon. I have some good stuff coming up! Let's just say that Spring is in the air :)

xoxo,

Katee

China Glaze Romantique Spring 2009 Nail Polish Swatches!!

Hello, dear readers!

WOW, yesterday felt like Christmas for me when the Fed Ex man dropped these off! I am super excited to be able to share with you the China Glaze Spring 2009 collection: Romantique. Today I will be sharing the cool shades with you and then later this week I will share the warm colors with you. The Romantique collection is nothing short of AH-MAZ-ING!!

China Glaze Romantique: Cool Shades

(l to r, Joy, Adore, Harmony, Devotion, Cherish, Awaken)

China Glaze Joy:

Gorgeous icy plum loaded with silver shimmer. Stunning.

Indoors (natural light):

Outdoors (full sun):

China Glaze Adore:

Cool turquoise - like blue. Loving this too!

Indoor (artificial light):

Outdoor (full sun):

China Glaze Harmony:

Gorgeous shimmering Violet. 

Indoor (artificial light):

Outdoor (full sun):

China Glaze Devotion:

Shimmering metallic lavender. This one was the problem child as far as photography goes. The lavender base color is so loaded with shimmer that it was impossible to capture the lavender. But in person, it really is lavender! 

Indoors (artificial light):

Outdoors (full sun):

China Glaze Cherish:

Gorgeous sea foam green shimmer. Unfortunately another photographic problem child. I think it looks gold in these pictures but it is definitely NOT gold. It is sea foam green and it is beautiful!

Indoors (natural light):

Outdoors (full sun):

China Glaze Awaken:

Metallic charcoal shimmer. Stunning!

Indoors:

Outdoors (full sun):

Joy and Awaken are my two favorites from the collection, but all of them are really beautiful.

These colors are so loaded with silver shimmer, they look metallic inside and then outside in the sun they are super blingy, and have a foil like finish. AMAZING!!

All swatches are two coats of nail polish over a base coat, no top coat. All of these nail polishes went on very opaque at one coat. The formula was very smooth and as long as I took my time applying them I did not have any brush stroke issues, which can be a problem with metallics. 

So which colors are you feeling the need for? Let me know in the comments (I live for your comments)!

Remember to check back later because I will have the warm colors for you to see in a few days (I have them now, just have to swatch them).

I believe that China Glaze Romantique should be available online and in stores January 2009. I will let you know if and when I hear anything different.

See you soon and THANK YOU for reading!

xoxo,

Katee

p.s. Don't forget to enter my giveaway! Scroll down to yesterdays entry.

Sephora by OPI

Good Morning!

Today I am going to share with you two of my favorite Sephora by OPI polishes. I just love Sephora by OPI Metro Chic but even more than Metro Chic I am MADLY IN LOVE with Sephora by OPI Run With It!

Sephora by OPI Metro Chic - This is a cream polish that looks a little more purple/raisin grey in the sun and more muted mushroom grey indoors. There is also a bit of a mauve tone that comes out in the sun. Whatever color you think it looks like, I just love it! 

Here is the swatch in the blazing California sun:

And here is the swatch indoors in the natural light:

Sephora by OPI Run With It is a light grey with a fabulous shimmer that I just cannot get enough of. As much as I love the dark vampy colors this one is a winner in my book. This is a color that at least for me does not show different colors indoors vs. outdoors. It pretty much always looks the same to me! Pure fabulous!

I imagine that both of these shades would be flattering to all skin tones. You can pick up either color at your local sephora or online at www.sephora.com. Sephora offers free shipping on orders over $50 and free samples too! Love that!