Thursday 31 March 2011

Dupe Alert: OPI Teenage Dream vs China Glaze Carnival Lights Skittle Swatches

Today's post is a comparison between OPI Teenage Dream (From Katy Perry Collection) and China Glaze Carnival Lights, here are some skittle swatches:

indoors flash
 Index and Ring: China Glaze Carnival Lights, Middle and Pinkie: OPI Teenage Dream

outdoors no flash
  Index and Ring: China Glaze Carnival Lights, Middle and Pinkie: OPI Teenage Dream


outdoors no flash
 Although the glitter effect on both polish is near identical, the pink jelly shade is quite different in the two polishes. Carnival Lights is definitely a darker redder toned pink, while Teanage Dream is a lighter pastel pink, the pink shade in Teenage Dream itself looks a bit more glittery than in Carnival Lights, I also thing Carnival Lights is a little more on the sheer side, where Teenage Dream takes a few coats to reach opacity, Carnival Lights still retains a transluscent finish, as I'm not a big fan of VNL I have to say Teenage Dream probably wins, but I'm sure Carnival Lights would work excellently as a Layering polish! Here's a few more pics of the two more polishes on their own.
Indoors with Flash pics
China Glaze Carnival Lights
OPI Teenage Dream


Outdoors no flash pics 
OPI Teenage Dream

China Glaze Carnival Lights

OPI Teenage Dream

China Glaze Carnival Lights

If you would like to see the original posts featuring these polishes and Konad Design info please click the following links:

So which one do you guys prefer? They're both gorgeous polishes, but Teenage Dream just edges it way in the lead as its a little less sheer :D

Wednesday 30 March 2011

NOTD - China Glaze Carnival Lights Swatches

Today's NOTD is China Glaze Carnival Lights, which featured in a large collection of China Glaze Glitters, the first thing I thought when I saw the bottle of this polish, was its a Teenage Dream Dupe (from OPI Katy Perry range). I will be doing a direct comparison post soon to see how true that is :). Anyway here is Carnival Lights (I absolutely love this name) in all its glory, indoors and outdoors pics (the sun has finally decided to show its head a bit the last few weeks in ole London)
indoors flash
Carnival Lights is a medium pink sheer jelly polish packed with large holographic glitter particles and some smaller silver/pink glitter, this was 3 coats of polish and there is still a hint of VNL, I get the feeling this one would work exceptionally well as a layering polish, so I will have to try that out soon and post some swatches :D The rest of the photos are taken outdoors with no flash and show the truer colour of Carnival Lights:


All in all a gorgeous polish, kind of made me sad initially, because I thought Teenage Dream was completely unique until I found this polish, but we shall see whether they are dupes in the next post with some handy skittle swatches :)

Sunday 27 March 2011

Spotlight on: Zoya


Zoya
Where: USA
Started: 1986 by Zoya and Michael Reyzis
Now: 2008: Zoya in Women’s Health magazine as a Beauty All-Star for “Longest Wearing Polish”
Known For: Adina (awesome duochrome polish), Great Metallic/foil finish polishes
Polish Info
Chemicals: Vegan-friendly and completely free of formaldehyde, toluene, DBP, and camphor
Brush: Thin brush
Zoya Mini Brush                                          Zoya Standard Brush 
One great thing about the Zoya Mini Brush, is the fact that the brush part is exactly the same size as the standard, so there are no problems applying these.
Bottle Size: Standard 15ml and Mini 7.5ml(thats a lot larger than your average mini)
Coverage: Usually opaque in 2/3 coats though some polishes are sheerer 
Average Wear Time: 3 days
Price: $5.99-$8
Where to buy: International: http://www.zoya.comhttp://www.nailetc.com,  
My Favourites:

Adina                                                                 Edyta
Happi                                                                   Robyn

To view a complete listing of Zoya Swatches on this blog please visit


My Favourite Collections:
Other Products: 
Zoya Colour Spoons - gives u the chance to try before you buy by purchasing a colour swatch of the polish your interested in for $0.50
Zoya Colour Lock System http://www.zoya.com/content/38/category/Zoya_Color_Lock_System.html - a set of base/top coat products that are supposed to extend the polishes wear time, I've not had a go with this system yet
Zoya Remove Plus Nail Polish Remover - a very popular nail polish remover

Review
Zoya is an excellent brand of nail polish, I had initially been put off by reports that these polishes didn't respond too well to Seche Vite; my favourite top coat, but thankfully I've not had any problems using these two products together at all, it might be down to biochemistry. Zoya has an expansive range of unusual colours, they seriously steer away from more boring "safe" colours and are especially excellent at creating gorgeous foils, metallics, a few glitters and duochrome effect polishes, their application is generally perfect, a few polishes steer towards the thicker side, but on the whole they have an awesome line of polishes, usually releasing their collections with 6 particular polishes, there are several new ranges available throughout the year. They regularly feature awesome promotions (though these are US only) featuring BOGO, and a while back they did an awesome polish exchange where you could send in your old polishes and get some new Zoyas. Zoya name all their polishes after beauty bloggers, which is a nice touch.
PROS:
  • Awesome unique colours
  • Amazing promotions (US)
  • The chance to try before you buy
  • One of my favourite bottles
CONS
  • Hard to get a hold of in the UK
  • Promotions aren't international
  • No holos
  • Some people report problems using polish with Seche Vite (I've had none myself)
What I want to see more of:
More Duochromes, and perhaps their own line of holos


Ratings:
Colour Range: 8.5/10
Price: 8/10
Wear Time: 7/10
Brush: 8/10
Bottle: 10/10
Overall: 8/10 

Saturday 26 March 2011

NOTD- China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Fault Line with Zoya Dannii as a base

Yet Another Crackle Manicure, this time with China Glaze Crackle Glaze Crackle Polish in Fault Line over Zoya Dannii from the Intimates collection, this one is a lot more subtle than my last crackle mani, but I still enjoyed the effect. 
OPI Chip Skip
Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy
Zoya Dannii 2 coats
Top Coat: Seche Vite
China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Fault Line 1 coat in non overlapping strokes
Top Coat: Seche Vite


Friday 25 March 2011

NOTD - China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Broken Hearted over A-England Lady Of The Lake

When crack met holo
I've not been too sure about all these coloured crackle polishes that have been popping up, I certainly love wearing black crackle but I wasn't convinced the effect would be as awesome with other colours, I'm happy to be wrong. Today's NOTD features A-England's gorgeous Lady Of The Lake, a unique deep mauve holographic polish topped with China Glaze Broken Hearted Crackle Glaze a bright candy pink Crackle Polish. Phew that was a mouthful.

OPI Chip Skip
Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy
A-England Lady Of The Lake 2 coats
Top Coat: Seche Vite
China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Broken Hearted 1 coat in non overlapping strokes
Top Coat: Seche Vite

Like most crackles out there, the China Glaze Crackles dry matte, so you would need a top coat to make them shiny, they do look pretty cool and 3-dimensional matte though, here's a pic before top coat:
no topcoat
And some more indoors/outside with top coat piccies :D


If you would like to see swatches of Lady Of The Lake on its own please click here
I really like this effect, and I think the pink crackle goes very well with a purple base, especially when you can see the funky holo effect through the cracks, definitely happy with how this combo turned out :D Kind of reminds me of The Cheshire cat :D

Thursday 24 March 2011

Zoya Intimates Collection Swatches and Review

The Zoya Intimates Collection is by far one of my favourite Spring Collections of Polishes this year. A gorgeous selection of dusky cremes, pastels and shimmers, the formula on this polish is absolutely flawless, perfect consistency and all reach full opacity at 2 coats! Without Further ado here are the pretties :D

 Zoya Caitlin
Zoya Caitlin is a gorgeous dusky mauve shade with grey/blue undertones. The polish has a lovely high gloss creme finish, this is a great shade that's "safe" for people who usually avoid more OTT purple polishes, and a more exciting shade than your average "safe colour" polish, absolutely love it!


Zoya Dove
Zoya Dove is a pale grey creme shade. Really getting into grey polishes at the moment, so I do indeed love this polish. It reminds me a little of China Glaze Pelican Grey without the shimmer:
China Glaze Pelican Grey


Zoya Gemma
Zoya Gemma was my instant favourite from this collection, it was the first one I purchased especially for a St. Patrick's Day Mani you can see here:


Gemma is a gorgeous murky green shade topped with a mesmerizing opalescent effect. This pearl effect is actually quite subtle, but stunning none the less, hands down my favourite polish of the year so far, I absolutely adore this colour!



Zoya Dannii 
Zoya Dannii is a purple polish with pink undertones, packed with silver and pinky purple micro shimmer. it's the first of the two Shimmer polishes from the Intimates Collection. This colour is a little reminiscent of one of Claire's Mood Changing Polishes Calm/Wild, although Dannii is a good deal more packed with shimmer!

Claire's Mood Colour Changing Polish Calm/Wild



 Zoya Jules 
Jules is the second shimmer from the Intimates Collection. Jules is an absolutely stunning deep champagne polish and looks absolutely incredible once applied. The shimmer in this polish gives it an awesome depth. I wasn't expecting to love this one as much as I do, kind of reminds me of how I felt when I tried out China Glaze Knotty for the first time, and expected it to be a boring nude, far from it!


Knotty

Jules is even more shimmery and the shimmer makes it look a little different from every angle, a seriously gorgeous colour!


Zoya Marley
Marley is a very light pastel purple with a hint of pearl shimmer in its finish, feels like something a fairy would wear, very light and delicate, perfect for spring!

All in all another stunning selection of polishes from Zoya, absolutely loving these, which ones are you favourites??