OPI Designer Series Radiance and Magic

Hey everybody!  I hope your weekend has been fantastic.  Hurricane Joaquin is skirting by us, so we're nice and cloudy and gloomy.  And that makes me happy. :)

I am wrapping up my posts of the OPI Designer Series polishes that I got from the Ulta clearance rack.  I spent between $2 and $6 on these, which was pretty exciting.  Exciting to me, anyway. :D

First up is DS Radiance, arguably the Queen of All Silver Polishes.  This metallic polish applies like butter and is probably a one-coater, but I used two because I'm me.  If you're in the market for a silver lame for your nails, this gal's for you.  It's a white silver with no pewter undertones.

Oww!  My eyes!!  And I'm kinda digging this with my skin tone.

The last Designer Series polish I was able to snatch up for cheap is Magic.  This polish has a lot going on, but it's all good stuff.  Magic is a violet-tinged royal blue glass fleck shimmer with color-shifting flakes.  Not recommended for girls who don't want to be noticed!

You can see the heavy purple shift in the bottle.  This is less pronounced on the nail, but it's still there.  Wow, I just love the non-color I turn whilst sporting blue polish! 

I totally did not see that bald patch on my middle finger...?  Oh well...SHIMMER!

I used two coats of Magic, but as I'm spotting a bald patch, I'm thinking I could have used three.  My bottle's formula was a bit thin.  Magic wasn't too bad of a stainer either. 

I'm quite happy with my OPI Designer Series selections I was able to get for way cheap.  I would love to find a stray bottle of DS Sapphire that wasn't a bazillion dollars.  Do you have any Designer Series favorites?  Do you think they're as special as they used to be before the plethora of indie choices that we have today?

On a side note,  in case any of you are perplexed at times with my blog terminologies, I have added a tab called "Lacquer Reverie Glossy of Terms" to clear up any confusion. :) 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day! <3

Hard Candy A Mermaid's Tale and Wild Child

Hey everybody!  How is your week going so far?  

I may not have spent the past few months blogging about my polish purchases, but I did in fact *make* polish purchases. :)  On one of my more recent polish shopping jaunts with Mr. Sweets,  I picked up two of the new 2015 releases by Hard Candy:  Wild Child and A Mermaid's Tale.  I was drawn to the former due to its combination of duochrome and glitter.  I purchased the latter because I always buy polish with mermaid names...I think there must be 72 out there named Mermaid's Tale. 

So this particular A Mermaid's Tale is a medium electric blue shimmer that has a slight green undertone.

The formula is good, with an easy and non-messy application.  It's a little sheer so you may want to use 3 coats.  And what is up with my fingers in these pics?  They look absolutely cadaverous.  Oh well..early Halloween! :/

Wild Child is the more complex of the two.  It's a medium purple shimmer with a slight green duochrome that doesn't really translate on the nail.  But in my opinion, Wild Child's best feature is its blue microglitter.  Yay sparkle!

Mmmmm...shimmer.  And tiny blue glitter.  Niiiice.  Wild Child is also a sheer little number...I'm wearing three coats in the pics, which covered up Mr. VaNeLi quite nicely.

So has Hard Candy been releasing anything lately that has gotten your attention?  I'm always on the lookout for interesting drugstore/big box store polishes.  Hard Candy polishes are sold at Wal-Mart (which I avoid like the plague...but you know) for $4 each.  

Thanks for reading, and have a lovely day! :)

Sally Hansen Lustre Shines: Scarab and Lava

 
Hey everybody!  I don't know anybody who doesn't just plain love Sally Hansen Lustre Shines.  They have been around since 2012 but have apparently been a popular part of Sally Hansen's line.  And it's easy to see why...Lustre Shines are shimmeringly fantastic!  I picked up Lava when the line was first introduced.

Lava is a *very* shimmery, pink-to-bronze duochrome glass fleck.  And yes, I couldn't seem to capture the true amount of pink in this polish because the shimmer was blowing it all to smithereens.  It's there though, and in large quantities too.  These seriously must be the worst ever pics of Lava.  My camera was just not having any of it. Apparently, it's sick of taking pics of all these pinks. :)

I used 3 coats of Lava for the pics because Mr. You-Know-Who forced me to.  I love, love, LOVE the interesting color and overall look of Lava, but I always seem to have one problem with it:  it ends up looking almost grainy on me and wears off my tips within no time.  BUT, trouper that I am, I always find the fortitude to soldier on in the midst of imperfection and wear it anyway. :D

I had been threatening to get Scarab for a long time, and I finally picked it up one day whilst polish shopping with Mr. Sweets.  Nope, he didn't choose it for me.  It's not red, silly! :P

No, it's not red...but a teal most FABULOUSSSSHHHHH!  And don't even get me started on that shimmer.  Oh, okay.  The shimmer is blinding!!  This mess is super reflective too, *almost* mirror-like.  I know that's hard to imagine.  Remember my post about OPI Into the Night being so shimmery it stung your eyes in the sunlight?  Scarab is the same way.

I used 3 coats of Scarab for full coverage.  It doesn't have the grainy look that Lava has at all.  Scarab is an absolutely beautiful metallic, but there's one problem with it:  I sent in a search party to find the duochrome, and they haven't returned yet.  Oh well.  I would be bummed if I was one of the duochrome girls.  But as fortune would have it, I happen to be a shimmer girl!  YAY!!  So it doesn't bug me that there is no duochrome (okay, maybe a tiny bit of gold going on) because Scarab is too pretty to hold a non-duochrome grudge against it. 

Do you own any Lustre Shines?  My advice is to not buy Scarab for the color shift, but for the color period.  And my other advice is to just ignore my extremely non-pink photos of Lava and buy it. :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day. <3

Plum Pretty!! butter LONDON Prince's Plums

Hey everybody!  Who is ready for the weekend?  Hmmm...that's funny, so am I! :D  And so on this fabulous Friday, I have a beautiful polish to show you.

A couple of weeks ago, butter LONDON did a terrible thing:  they had a half-price sale on a TON of polishes.  Oh well.  I might have bought...a couple?  I spotted Prince's Plums, which was previously a Nordstrom's exclusive, and was intrigued by it.  Then I heard it..."Melissaaaaaaaaa..." :)

I love this polish.  Goodness gracious, it's pretty.  It even wowed my hard-to-impress Mom.  It's blurple in the bottle, but on the nail it's a fantastic metallic purple with a strong red shift.  And don't even get me started on the abundant blue shimmer.  Taken together it's perfectly plum-colored.  Wow, go figure! :P

I used 3 coats of Prince's Plums to get an even application.  I had no problems with flooding, but it had a tendency to look patchy in spots, so a third coat fixed that problem nicely.  In direct sunlight, you can see a lot of blue in this.  I think it's a unique color and completely wonderful. <3  But alas, I had the same problem I've had before with BL...and no, not the shameless chipping of the Knight Who Shall Remain Nameless...tip wear.  BUTTER LONDON, WHY DO YOU HATE ME???  *Sigh.* 

Okay, I'm over it.  Wow...did I mention how much I love Prince's Plums?? :D

Do you have the pleasure of owning this plumtastic shade yourself?  Prince's Plums is easily one of my favorite purple shades EVER.  Some things are worth the tip wear. :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day! 

Nail of the Day: OPI Not Like the Movies

Hey everybody!  A couple of weeks ago I was doing some cheapskate polish shopping at TJ Maxx and found several interesting things (including an Orly duo of Beautiful Disaster and Sparkling Garbage for $6.99.  I figured that HAD to have been an accident but bought it anyway.). :D  The store had several OPI duos, and I purchased a lovely Katy Perry Collection duo of The One That Got Away and today's polish, Not Like the Movies.

UGH!!!  How gorgeous is this??!!  It's just amazing.  Not Like the Movies is a green/purple shifting duochrome, but it's got that little extra something in the form of *shimmer*!  You see, shimmer makes the world a better place.  The end.

Awww, just kidding...I'm back! :)  Not Like the Movies has also got this silver undercurrent going on that gives it a fantasy feel.  Why is it that nail polish addicts love that?  Do we have a problem facing reality?  Or do we just feel better with magic sauce on our nails? :P

I used 3 coats of Not Like the Movies to cover my visible nail line.  Now for some color shift angle attempts!

(Midget Pinky regrets that she was unable to appear in today's post.)

I hope you can see the delicate sparkle.  It's more obvious in real life.  I am not always super in love with every duochrome out there, but Not Like the Movies is a truly beautiful polish.  There's something about the finish that reminds me of a ballgown from the 1950's.

What do you think of this glamorous polish?  It's old Hollywood meets the Age of Technology.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day! :)

The Cheapskate Files: Barielle Carnival Fiesta Collection

Hey everybody!  Welcome to today's installment of the Cheapskate Files, where we can all feel good about being thrifty, even though there's no way we'll ever wear all this polish we're buying. :D  This is a Very Special Cheapskate Files, because I did really well on this one.  My stepdaughter and I were in Marshall's and found the ENTIRE Barielle Carnival Fiesta Collection for the checkbook-friendly price of $7.99.  Thank you, thank you. :)

 

The Carnival Fiesta Collection is comprised of 5 metallic shades, and they are all very pretty.  They all applied extremely well, had a super fast dry time, and are just some really nice colors.  I was quite pleased with this Cheapskate Files find.  And now...for the polish...

First we have Rio's Rockin' Bands, a medium purple with a lovely shimmer.  It's a bit frosty, but not a brushstroke bad frosty...just enough to make it glow.  It's really a nice purple.  This is two coats of Rio's Rockin' Bands.

Next up is Holiday Madness.  Well, if wearing a totally beautiful metallic olive green is madness, then call me crazy!  Again, this was a slightly frosty shimmer, and it absolutely glows.  This is two coats of Holiday Madness.

Next up is Jillian's Jammin', a color-shifting green/blue glass fleck with a purple duochrome.  That sounds like a mouthful, but trust me, it's a mouthful of awesome.  This is a strangely sheer polish, because for the photos, I used FOUR coats and still had visible nail line.  However, in real life you couldn't see VNL.  This is one oddly gorgeous number!  Jillian's Jammin' is quite green in sunlight and blue indoors.

 

Next up is Lindsay's Dancin', a lovely metallic red.  I know most girls like for their reds to be cremes, but I personally LOVE metallic reds.  This is a perfect Christmas red.  I used two coats of Lindsay's Dancin'.

And last, but certainly not least, we have the rather terrifically confusing Wanna Samba?  I think Barielle creates some of the most strangely fascinating colors, and Wanna Samba? is one of them.  If you like different, you'll love it.  Wanna Samba? is sorta light teal, and sorta purple-ish, and sorta gunmetal...oh and it's a shimmer/duochrome too.  Confused?  Well, I tried.  Hey, look...pictures!! :)

Forgive me for feeling so smug, but I love this entire collection, and I PAID $7.99 FOR IT!  Fantastic formulas, unique colors, and did I mention $7.99??

Which colors do you like?  Have you ever gotten stupendous deals like this?  I highly recommend stalking Marshall's and TJ Maxx for deals like this one...you can almost always find a Barielle or a Color Club collection there.  And some sort of biscotti too!  Mmmmm...

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day! :)

Clare and Melissa Don't Love You! ;) A Joint Post With Sally Hansen Loves Me Not

Awwww, I was only kidding...of course we love you! :D  My friend Clare from Perfectly Painted and I were talking about the awesomeness that is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Loves Me Not and decided to do a joint post on it.   She just picked hers up on a recent vacation...I got mine a year ago, also while on vacation.  This polish just proves why everybody needs a vacation.

Loves Me Not is that gorgeous, inky, bluish-purplish-black I adore.  It also has glass fleck duochrome particles which are very strong in the bottle but not so much on the nail.  But now the shimmer is another story...

Loves Me Not was a 2012 creation by Prabal Gurung for Sally Hansen.  I love this polish...even if it loves me not. *Sigh* I know I've used half of the bottle, but since it's so dark, I can't exactly tell. :)

For my accent nail, I used Layla Ceramic Effect 51, also known as Dancing With the Stars.  It gives a shimmery dusting of silver when applied over a polish.

 

  
Another thing worth noting about Loves Me Not is that while I usually make a total mess with blurple-black polishes, this one cooperates pretty well.  And that's saying a lot, considering the Sally Hansen CSM paddle brushes are WAY too large for my nails.

You all know what my coloring is like...a polar bear.  Only I have grey eyes.  Miss Clare is a dark-skinned brunette, so no doubt Loves Me Not takes on a whole different look with her.  Isn't that the great thing about polish?  It can look completely different, depending on who you are.  Oh, and by the way, polar bears with grey eyes were apparently never meant to wear orange polish.

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to check out Clare's post this morning! ;)  Have a lovely day!

An Inaugural Polish Post - Zoya Shivon

Hey everybody!  I thought hard about what my first official polish post would be, so I decided that I absolutely HAD to post something by my favorite brand, Zoya.  Ah, Zoya...your very name just sends a thrill through my entire being.  I love Zoya for so many reasons.  Their small brush is perfect for my tiny nails.  Their foils are practically mistake-proof.  Their sales are fantastic! :)

I decided to show you a polish that, in my opinion, just doesn't get the attention it deserves.  It's Shivon, a gorgeous duochrome polish.  I picked this one up during one of the aforementioned fantastic sales.  Zoya describes it as "a dark rose gold with hints of purple and bronze and strong gold duochrome shimmer."  On me, it changes from peachy rose to purple-pink with an almost copper look at times.  Whatever it is, it's truly unusual and absolutely stunning. 

Zoya Shivon

I am one of those girls who matches her polish with her clothes.  It's really something about which I'm quite adamant. :)  I like to wear this color when I wear peach or light pink.

Duochrome AND shimmer! Drooooooooool...

I am not really a fan of pink polishes, but this one is so different.  It's simultaneously classic and modern.  I think it looks fantastic even with Renaissance jewelry:

Eat your heart out, Lucrezia Borgia!

What do you think of Shivon?  Are you as much in love as I?  I thought so!  

Have a lovely Wednesday! :)