Glitter Half Moons

I am loving the look of glitter placement nails, this style was inspired by @carlysisoka on instagram, if you aren't already following her you are missing out.  This is 3 easy coats of Chanel Cosmic, from the FNO 2013 Collection, followed by a individually placed glitters from China Glaze Techno (holo hex glitter), OPI I Snow You Love Me (round holo glitter), ELF Enchanted (white hex glitter) and LA Girls Glitter Addict Explosion (silver hex glitter).

This mani makes me want to put on a slinky black dress and go out on the town! I feel so glam and classy with these nails.

I am completely obsessed with this and can't wait to play around with other glitter placement styles and manicures. if you want to see some crazy amazing glitter placement check out Polish All The Nails, she is so freaking talented and patient, I just can't.

For those of you that do glitter placement, where do you order your loose glitter? I'm looking for more sizes/styles to add to my collection and would love recommendations :)

Stay Sparkly,

A

Saturday Spam- Nail Art

Here are some past nail art designs, that if you follow me on instagram (@sparkleandpolish) you have already seen.

Teal Leopard

OPI Fly, Funny Bunny and 4 In The Morning

Finger Paints Art You Wondering

Blue Roses

China Glaze Manhunt

Sinful Colors Violets Are Blue

OPI Funny Bunny and I Saw... You Saw... We Saw… Warsaw

Holiday Plaid

OPI Vodka and Caviar and My Boyfriend Scales Walls

Essie Beyond Cozy

China Glaze Velvet Bow

Red Glitter Gradient

Chanel Rouge Noir

LA Girls Glitter Addict Animate

 China Glaze Skittle Mani

OPI My Vampire Is Buff and Just A Little Rosti At This

China Glaze Put A Bow On It and Your Present Required

Essie Butler Please

Pink Floral

Zoya Blaze

China Glaze White on White, Dance Baby, Fuchsia Fanatic and Velvet Bow

Stay Sparkly,

A

OPI 4 In The Morning

This is the only polish I picked up from the OPI Gwen Stefani collection. I'm a big fan of black, vampy nails and this polish really hits my sweet spot. The smooth satiny matte finish is awesome, I don't think this polish would be nearly as amazing if it didn't have the classic, flawless OPI formula.  When you add topcoat, the shimmer in the base really comes through and shines!
My only complaint is that it doesn't dry as quickly as most mattes do, and as I don't always top coat it the dry time is not ideal.  I made the mistake of playing with my hair about 20 minutes after I finished and I still had hair lines though my polish.

Three thin coats of 4 In The Morning- no top coat

with topcoat

I love this so much, I might need to snag a back up bottle of this.

Stay Sparkly,

A

Sinful Colors Comparisons Pt. 2

Sinful Colors Cream Soda vs Chanel Orange Fizz

pinky and middle                      pointer and ring

Totally not dupes. Chanel is much brighter and lacks the glass flecks that Cream Soda has. It took 3 coats of each to reach opacity.  Completely different, but the shades look amazing together. They would make a great gradient!

Sinful Colors Daisy Daze vs Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow

pinky and middle                   pointer and ring

The Sinful Colors is a much lighter, more buttery yellow while the Sally Hansen is more bold, in your face yellow.  Even though the SC is lighter, it has a far better formula than the Sally Hansen. I also prefer the color of the Sinful Colors on my skin. This is officially the most wearable yellow I've ever tried.  If you can find Daisy Daze (or I think Sinful Colors Unicorn is a dupe or very similar at least) you should snatch it up, my favorite yellow ever!

Sinful Colors Nice Stems vs Zoya Wednesday vs China Glaze For Audrey

pinky and middle                   ring                           pointer

Wednesday and For Audrey have far better, more smooth and opaque formulas.  Wednesday is darker, dustier and greener. For Audrey is a similar tone, but it bluer. Nice Stems is what I would call a lighter version of Wednesday, with their greener and slightly dusty undertones. These three are definitely not dupes.  I love colors like these, so I think all three are must haves!  Even though Nice Stems doesn't have the best formula, its certainly not worth skipping it because of that, a little extra effort makes it so worth it!

Sinful Colors Bright Lucite vs Dior Porcelaine vs Sally Hansen CSM Barracuda

pinky and middle                      ring                       pointer

Not dupes at all. The Sinful Colors is brighter and less white based, it also has the best formula. Porcelaine is extremely pale and creamy, I love this color so much but I wish it had better formula. Barracuda is a mix of the two, not as stark as Porcelaine but not as bright as Bright Lucite.  I just adore all 3 of these, I can see myself using all of them over and over again.

Sinful Colors Bright Lucite vs Chrome Girl Barely Legal vs Sally Hansen Breezy Blue

pinky and middle                       ring                                         pointer

Not dupes.  Breezy Blue is much lighter and has a fine pearly shimmer. Barely Legal is a hair lighter, brighter and more white based. Barely Legal has an amazing formula, with more careful application it could probably be a one coater.  Bright Lucite is probably easier to find than Barely Legal, so I say if you spot it you need to snatch it up.  I love all 3 of these, and I'm really glad they aren't dupes!

Hope you enjoyed my first comparison series! I'm really surprised that there were no clear dupes in either post. I assumed I would have no trouble duping it within my collection, I'm very happy to add all of these gorgeous Sinful Colors to my collection.

Stay Sparkly,

A

Sinful Colors Comparisons pt 1

Sinful Colors Mad About Hue vs Chanel Rodeo Drive

pinky and middle                            pointer and ring

Based on the first coats alone, Sinful Colors seems much more opaque. The chanel also has fine silver shimmer running though it that is very apparent on the first coat, giving it an almost frosted appearance.
Very similar in terms of base color but the Chanel seems almost dulled due to the shimmer. Sinful Colors has a more opaque formula, requiring 3 coats while Chanel needed 4. These are similar, but clearly not dupes. As much as it pains me to say, I think I prefer the Sinful Colors…

Sinful Colors Baby Blues vs OPI Don't Be Such A Budapest

pinky and middle                          pointer and ring

From the first coat, both polishes are very sheer but the OPI formula is far less streaky. It took 3 coats of OPI, 4 coats of sinful colors to reach matching opacity. Both polishes have the same very faint silver glass flecks. While these aren't prefect dupes, I'd say you don't need both. SC is slightly lighter/creamier/white based while OPI has more of a gray undertone.

Sinful Colors Violets Are Blue vs Essie Rock The Boat

pink and middle                             pointer and ring

These are much more similar in the bottle than on the nail, outside of being pastel glass fleck polishes, I would say they are totally not dupes. SC is much more periwinkle toned and has more/bigger glass flecks. Essie is much lighter and more true pale blue, without the purple undertones. The e\Essie glass fleck is much more subtle. Formula wise, i prefer the sinful colors, it is much more opaque, but color wise I prefer the Essie. For matching opacity it took 3 coats of Sinful Colors and 4 coats of Essie.

Sinful Colors Pink Poppys vs China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic

pinky middle                             pointer ring

These polishes are both so bright they totally freaked out my camera, so apologies for the terrible photo quality.  Clearly these are not dupes, in terms of formula the China Glaze is a pure cream polish while the Sinful Colors has a pearlized shimmer and is slightly lighter. While both have pretty great formulas, I can't stand the shimmer in the Sinful Colors polish (not to mention the glaringly awful spelling/grammar in the polish name), but that is a personal preference. If you are a pink lover I say you need this polish.

I'll be back with part 2 of the comparisons tomorrow. If there are any other color comparisons you want please let me know and I'll swatch what I can.

Stay Sparkly,

A

Sinful Colors Mod In Bloom Collection

This is the first collection that I've ever bought every single polish from!! I was so excited when I first saw pictures of this on Nouveau Cheap and proceeded to stalk a few different stores until I found it! I think the cashier thought I was crazy coming up to the counter with 8 polishes in my hands… but it was so worth it!

When I grabbed these I assumed they were all creams… from looking at them more closely I see that is not the case.

Pink Poppys (this name, gag!!)

3 thin coats. Bright magenta with a subtle silvery/pearl shimmer. The shimmer is much more noticeable on the nail that I thought it would be. Formula is more thin/sheer than I expected. The first coat looked very dull and almost frosty, but each additional coat brightened the base color and subdued the shimmer.  Good formula, but I just don't love the color or the finish.

Cream Soda

Pale melony-orange with a subtle flecked shimmer (see second picture for a glimpse of the shimmer), similar to the shimmer Essie is so known for. The first coat was very sheer but with 3 coats it was creamy and opaque. Thin but not difficult to manage formula. Pulls very pinky/peach on me, a surprise love for me.

Daisy Daze

A pale buttery yellow cream. 3 thin coats. really amazing formula considering its a pale crelly yellow polish.  Also, a surprise favorite for me. I initially wasn't going to get this one, but i'm really glad i did.  Very much a white based yellow which makes it more flattering on my skin tone.  I can see myself using this for some great spring/easter nail art.

Nice Stems

3 thin coats.  Pale minty green with an extremely subtle/hidden silver shimmer that pulls very blue on me.  Pretty opaque formula for this collection, but i do extremely thin coats so it needed 3.  Formula isn't the best, for such a "me" color (that I probably have 5 dupes for) I had higher hopes.  That being said, I've actually already worn this as a full manicure, can't say no to this color.

Bright Lucite

3 coats. Pale baby blue creme. Potentially a dupe for the ever elusive OPI Whats With The Cattitude, which unfortunately I don't own so I can't compare the two. The first coat was sheer and pretty streaky, the formula as a whole isn't ideal, its pretty thick and doesn't self level well.  But I love this color so much that its worth it to me.

Violets Are Blue

3 thin coats. Light periwinkle blue shade chock full or silvery glass flecks. I love the color, but for my personal preferences I wish it was a cream. I just don't love the look of this many glass flecks, but for the formula alone I say get this. this has a totally perfect formula though, thin but amazingly manageable. the polish stays exactly where you put it, self levels beautifully and just builds to opacity perfectly.

Baby Blues

3 coats. A light purple shade (contrary to the name) with the a very subtle glass fleck. Thin, easy formula.  Very subtle and pretty, a great shade for spring.  Another favorite for me.

Mad About Hue

3 coats. A bright red based lavender cream, radiant orchid aka pantone color of 2014 for sure. Really good formula, but unfortunately these red based purples are just not flattering on me.  This will definitely be good for nail art so I'm really glad to have this shade in my collection.

I'll be doing a comparison post for these shades. Please leave any comparison ideas/requests in the comments :)

Stay Sparkly,
A

Saturday Spam- Valentines Edition

And I'm back again! This time I hope it sticks. I have posts already prepped…. now if only I could figure out how to schedule them haha :)

Hope you all had a great Valentines Day!

Here are a few of my favorite pink polishes. I am a huge fan of pink polish in theory, I'm always drawn to them… but I don't actually enjoy wearing them that much… Quite the conundrum :)

Anyways, how can I celebrate valentines day without embracing pink for a little bit!

OPI Mod About You

3 thin coats. milky pale pink

China Glaze Dance Baby

3 thin coats. blue based bubble gum pink 

OPI Suzi's Hungary Again

2 coats. a medium, bright pink with a subtle shimmer

Chanel Tapage

2 coats. could be a 1 coater with more careful application. rich, creamy bright red based pink. 

OPI Love Is A Racket

2 coats. amazing lit from within formula. a warm pinky-red with golden toned glass flecks 

Zoya Blaze

3 coats. squishy raspberry jelly filled with holo flecks. 

If you would like a more in depth review of any of these polishes, let me know.

Will you be wearing pink polish for Valentine's Day?

I'd love to know your favorite pinks :)

Stay Sparkly,

A