LA Girl MAtte Blue Twilight

Hey readers!

I've had this picture in my camera for a while now, but never got round to uploading it here.. so here it is!
School has taken over my life now, so I'll try to update here whenever I can... even if it's just to post some pictures!

This was 3 coats of Matte Blue Twilight.

LA Girl Matte Baby Pink

We have another heat wave here in Montreal. It's awfully hot!!!

Today, I have on on of my new polishes, LA Girl Matte Baby Pink. I've been wanting KO Calamine for a while now, but the price tag always made me hesitant. I think MBP is a pretty good alternate!

The color can be described as... matte baby pink! I think that it's be the perfect matte pink for this season. It's very summery,cute and fresh!

The formula did not dry as fast as the other mattes that I own. It dries considerably less quickly than the OPI matte formula or the Nubar's; and the finish is not as flat as the OPIs. If I had to describe the finish, I would say that it looks and feels like I just put on a coat of Essie Matte About You on a baby pink polish. It's deifnitely not chalky nor flat like the OPI matte or suedes. In addition, the formula was a bit thin, so I needed 3 coats for opacity.

I'm off to confront the heat, now and get some last-minute preps for school done!
Enjoy the day, everybody!

Zoya Posh

Finally catched up on all the new polish collections! I haven't been up-to-date with the nail polish world in a while, so it feels good to look at the new colors!! Some are absolutely gorgeous and have gone straight to my shopping cart!! Fall collections are my favorite to look at (and to buy!), since I love dark colors.
Gosh, I can't wait to put my order in!!!!!


In the meantime, here's Zoya Posh, a gorgeous matte red shimmer.

This was 2 coats!

Have a great week!

MAC Wham Bam Glam Swatch and Comparison

Quick swatch for you guys today! I just got this from the MAC Store!! I bought Wham Bam Glam matte polish from the Riveting Collection, which also includes Studded and Black Enough. My intentions were to get Studded, a light silver matte with 'pearls', but since I really wanted to test MAC's matte formula and Studded was sold out, I went with Wham Bam Glam :)

Here it is, over a basecoat (Nubar Nu Nail)! MAC's web-description is very much what this polish is, a cool dark taupe. Application was alright, just like any other matte nail polishes, the formula is a bit on the thicker side, so you have to work with it carefully. Drying time was normal, to as fast as my OPI suedes, but still in a reasonable amount of time.


Pinkie: Sephora by OPI Metro Chic Matte
Ring: OPI You Don't Know Jacques + Essie Matte About You
Middle: OPI Over the Taupe + Essie Matte About You
Index: MAC Wham Bam Glam

I did a quick comparison of WBG with other taupe polishes I had. The closest match - almost a true match - was OPI You Don't Know Jacques topped with Essie Matte About You top coat. The color was so similar, I actually think that if you have YDKJ and MAY, you don't need Wham Bam Glam: you won't need to worry about having ridges as the formulas are much easier to work with.
[Note: I do not own You Don't Know Jacques Matte, so couldn't do comparison!]

All in all, I would say that if you intend to pick up a MAC matte nail polish, get Studded!! It's really the only one that stands out from the three. This retails for $14.50CAD and $12 USD!

OPI Lincoln After Dark Suede

Pretty purple suede! I love this, along with the rest of the Suede Collection!

I've finally made up my mind and believe I am a matte fan! I love the colors that I own, and they are so practical! I basically applied this one 10 minutes before going to sleep and it still looked good the next day!

I know this has been asked many times, but I want to know, what do you think about mattes/suedes? Let me know in the comments! :)

Have a nice weekend!

Last week's manis...

Hi all! I'm sorry for the lack of updates!
Last week was my first week of school so I've been busy waiting for a spot to open up for me in the classes I wanted to take. Plus, I needed additional information about my program transfer so I met with several academic advisors!

This past week, I had ManGlaze The Death Tar, Zoya Alix and OPI Catherine the Grape on my nails. Not together, of course, I did manage to change mani during the week.

The Death Tar I have is the "original" version, which is less black and less matte than the new, vegan version, called Matte is Murder. Please excuse the dry hands here.. I had just gotten back from school when I took the photograph.

Next is Zoya Alix, a gorgeous dark red creme. I have to say that this is probably my favorite red polish from my collection. The photograph doesn't do it justice though, for some reason, I had a hard time capturing its true color...... So I'll leave you with 2 Alix pictures!

Finally, we have OPI Catherine the Grape, a purple shimmer. I'm a sucker for anything purple, so I love it!

So that's all! I promise I'll update more regularly now, since I have 2 days off during the week :)

Anything new with you guys?! Any nail polish hauls?!

-X

Nubar Avant-Garde

Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

I needed to do a quick manicure before going shopping, so I grabbed a bottle of matte nail polish by Nubar. This one is called Avant-Garde, from the Fall 2009 Modern Matte Collection. It's a beautiful burgundy shimmer.


This matte polish was easy to apply and dried fairly quickly, not as quick as OPIs, but I prefer Nubar, since it was easier to control and allowed room for error.

OPI Russian Navy Matte

Happy Saturday!! The weekend is finally here, and Christmas is less than a week away!!

I resisted pulling out another purple polish from my stash and so closed my eyes and randomly pulled out OPI Russian Navy Matte instead. I don't have the original to compare it to, but I can tell you it lacks the pretty shimmer the original has. As for most matte nail polish, this is a bit thicked and dried fairly quickly.

A real matte navy:

I thought it missed a little "umph" so proceeded to add a coat of Nfu Oh 50, a beautiful flaky polish.



There you go!!! Much better!!!! These flakies always make plain, boring nail polish so much more exciting!

Enjoy your weekend!

New KO Polish

Has anyone seen this in real life or tried it?


It's KnockOut Cosmetics' newest matte polish, called Plaster. I was thinking about getting a KO polish yesterday, so I went on their website and saw this.
I guess "Plaster" is a pretty appropriate name; from what I see from the picture, it's a skin-colored polish. I wonder if it'll look good- keeping in mind that it's matte- or if it'll just look like I don't have nails... I'm thinking that it can either be gorgeous or a total fail..

What do you guys think?! Yay or Nay?

Btw, I can't believe it's snowing here already!! I was soo surprised Monday when I woke up and saw that everything was white outside!!! Come back sun and summer! Come back!

Orly Purple Velvet and Konad M60

Here's Purple Velvet by itself:

And now with Konad M60:

I used OPI Suzi Skies in the Pyrenees Suede for the checkered pattern. I didn't use any top coat though since I wanted to keep the matte look, but during my sleep, the pattern got rubbed off and I woke up with half konaded nails :(.
Next time, I'll use Essie Matte about You.

Sally Hansen Honeydew

This one is from last week. I picked one up from my untrieds bin and surprise, surprise, it was Honeydew, from the Tracy Reese Spring 2009 collection!!!

I was going to put a top coat until I spotted my Essie Matte about You.

This is Honeydew without top coat (with bad bathroom light):


and here it is with Matte about You:

Beautiful turquoise shimmer. It's absolutely gorgeous. I think I'll be grabbing this one a lot, despite the craptastic formula. It was pretty bad..... but at least the color kinda makes up for it :)

I know this one was kinda hard to find-I still have never seen it sold in Montreal. I was lucky enough to get this in a swap :) Gotta love swaps!

Enjoy your weekend!

Zoya Loredana

I went out with some friends a few weeks ago and got a mega bruise on a toe :(. I am now crippled. Worst thing is, I'm not sure how it happened.....

Anyways, I left the house in a hurry, but I was able to slap on a new color!
Pretty pretty. I know many don't like the matte trend, but I'm totally loving it! I don't like chalky (most of the OPI mattes) but anything satin-y, I love. Plus, this one has some shimmer, so it's a winner in my book!.

Some Pinks!

Here are some more pinks!

OPI La Paz-itively Hot Matte. Like the name says, HOT!
See for yourself:
This was from OPI's matte collection. I really like this one, it's matte alright, but not chalky. The other thing I wanted to point out is that with matte polishes, ridges are really evident, so don't be shy to use a good ridge filler (which I didn't do). Just remember to let it dry fully because putting on color.

Zoya Ali.
Holy neon!!! I tried to capture how flashy this polish was and you can definitely see it glow in the first picture. As always, I have to say, I LOVE Zoya's brushes! Makes application so much easier!
As you know, I don't like pink but these two are exceptions!!

Orly Matte Couture

As promised a long time ago, I have some swatches!!!! I just remembered I never did swatch MAC and Eyeko though... It'll come.... one day....

So here is Orly's Matte Couture Collection:
Even though the name says "matte", the two that I got more satiny than matte. I believe the 3rd from this collection, Matte Vinyl, is the mattest of the three, and is very similar the $OPI What's a Tire Jack.

This is Blue Suede. Navy blue with a satin finish. This one was a trouble child. I had difficulty with application, hence the bumps on the nails... BUT I still love this. I have to say, I really like this finish.

Purple Velvet is also satin, but more matte than Blue Suede. Does that make sense? There's little shimmer in there, which makes this one so special. Application with this one was very easy.

All in all, these were good. Like all mattes, these dry rather quickly, but not as fast as the other mattes that I have. They still dry completely within 10 minutes (max), though.

These available as of now! Get them from your favorite etailers!!!

Another lovely haul package!

Once again, this week was a great mail week!

Despite that I had to rush to finish business statistics assignment, these lovelies cheered me up! This time, it was a Orly haul from TransDesign!


From left to right: Purple Velvet, Blue Satin, Enchanted Forest, Velvet Rope, Mirror Mirror and Happily Ever After.


Purple Velvet and Blue Satin, from the recently released Matte Couture Collection. The third one from the collection is called Matte Vinyl, but I didn't buy it since I already have $SOPI What's a Tire Jack I didn't think I'd need 2 matte blacks.


My 3 choices from the Once Upon A Time collection. Enchanted forest, Mirror Mirror and Happily Ever After. Can't wait to try Enchanted Forest after having heard all the rave on MUA.

And finally, for Velvet Rope, I just had to take a real close-up shot:

Holy macaroni, I cannot wait to try this on! Gorgeous purple with silver glitter/shimmer!! Being the purple junkie that I am, I am DROOLING!

I also got Poshe fast frying top coat.

Sooo I have my first midterm exam next week and I'm scared. Not only that, but it's an accounting exam. God knows how much I hate accounting. Hopefully, I won't die.

Wish me luck! I'll try to take some "study breaks" to update this blog! :)

Sephora by OPI Mattes

Hi guys! Hope you're having a fun weekend!
Last month, I got the Sephora by OPI matte nail polishes. I guess they're following OPI's direction and "reissued" some colors. I believe all three are from $OPI's core line but I might be wrong...


Metro Chich Matte - "matte dark smoke with a hint of purple". The original one was a hit amongst nail polish fanatics. I don't own the original one but I believe matte is lightly (at least from the pictures I've seen)


Domestic Goddess Matte is probably my favorite out of all three. "matte bright grape" as described on Sephora's website. It really pretty. I love purple polishes and this one was no exception.


What's a Tire Jack? Matte is a very matte black. There's no other way to describe it. I also love this one. My 2nd favorite, I guess. It's a true black and true matte.


Application with these were fairly good. They all took 2-3 coats. They didn't dry as fast as the Matte OPIs but still in decent time. The formula was not too thick compared to other matte. I swatched these very quickly but if I had been more careful with my application, there would not have been those bumps and dents on my nails. Please excuse them :)

I really like the matte finish of these $OPI. It's not as chalky as the OPI mattes, which is a good thing. They look... matte. That's all.

Similar to other mattes, they recommend to not use it with base coat, top coat or hand lotion. But you guys can totally ignore that (except the top coat part if you want it to be matte, duh). I used it with base coat and it was fine. As long as the base is dried before you apply color. As for the hand lotion, it'll make the finish more satiny but it won't be glossy.

You can get these three polishes from Sephora's website for $9 US or $12 CAD. They are also sold in stores now. These are limited edition so get them while you can!

OPI Suede Collection Fall 2009

Ok guys,

I spend my day swatching OPI's Suede Collection.. honestly, I don't think I will ever swatch 6 bottles of nail polish ever again! You'll probably see in the pictures where I got tired of it -- application was pretty sloppy and I didn't even bother putting oil on my cuticles.... Sorry! As much as I love polish, 6=too much!!!!
Also, I promise my cuticles don't look as bad in real life :) (That's why I posted small pictures but feel free to click to see some huge a** pics).

On to the collection. This collection is made of six classic OPI shades in a suede finish which means that it's not as matte as the Mattes. More like satiny. Application was wonderful. The formula was smooth and it didn't dry as quickly as the OPI mattes which means that it's more forgiving.

They say you can't use basecoat with these but just ignore that. As long as your basecoat is dry before applying the Suedes, it'll be fine.

Ok let's start. (enlarge pictures to see shimmer in these)



You Don't Know Jacques Suede. The original came out in the France Collection last year. There is also a matte version that was released recently. None of them look-a-like. I don't have the matte version but do have the original. Here's a comparison:


From left to right: YDKJ, YDKJ with Essie Matte Top Coat, YDKJ Suede and YDKJ suede with top coat.


Next up is Lincoln Park After Dark Suede, originally from Chicago Collection. This looks nothing like the original, but it's still gorgeous! Purple with a lot of shimmer


LPAD, LPAD with Essie Matte TC, LPAD suede and LPAD suede with top coat.


Suzi Skies in the Pyrenees Suede, originally from Spain Collection. Very pretty. The original was supposed to be a dark smoky blue but in Suede, it's more charcoal grey.


Here: SSITP suede with top coat, SSITP suede, SSITP with Essie Matte TC, SSITP


We'll Always Have Paris Suede, also originally from the France collection. Pinkish purple with a lot of shimmer! Love this one.


On index and ring finger is WAHP Suede with top coat.

Next is where things got ugly--application and cuticle wise. Prepare yourselves.


OPI Ink Suede. Originally from Night Brights Collection. This is more purple in real life.


On index and ring fingers: Ink suede with top coat.


Last, is Russian Navy Suede. The original was from Russian Collection. Beautiful blue shimmer. A lot less dark than the matte, and more blue too.


from left to right: RN Suede with top coat, RN Suede, RN Matte with top coat and RN matte.

Most of these are nothing like their other versions. Overall, I really liked these-very pretty. Also, the Suedes with top coat is even more gorgeous. The shimmer you see with the suede finish is pretty good but with TC, Hello, Sparkle!
The shades are very nice but since they're so different than the originals, I would have preferred another name... It's getting kinda confusing Russian Navy, Russian Navy matte, Russian Navy Suede... Too many with the same name. That is propably my only problem/complain about this collection.

These are available now in most beauty store or from TransDesign!
Enjoy!