StrangeBeautiful Volume 4 part 2

The poem Lapis Lazuli by William Butler Yeats, aka the blue. I had a hard time getting this to photograph well. It looked fantastic on my nails, all super richly-blue and smooth and shiny, but my camera lightened up the shade and made it look dull and kind of icky. Trust me, in real life, this one is a stunner. As if the color wasn't awesome enough, I did this swatch with 1 coat. Also for reference, this is deeper and richer than OPI Ogre the Top Blue.



Pink color of Rose champagne, the pink. I'm completely smitten with this shade. It's so elegant! I've said it before, but I'm not in to pink polishes. They're a dime a dozen from every nail polish designer out there and it's tough to find a shade that's unique enough to love, but this is one of them. I can actually see myself wanting to wear this more than once. This was with 2 coats and also dried super shiny with no top coat.



Aged Chartreuse, the ugly-but-loveable green. I adore ugly greens. With the new shades from OPI Shrek being so popular I hope this becomes a trend. Maybe Chanel will come out with Avacado, Under Ripe Banana and their own Rich Chartreuse as a mini ugly green collection? I can only hope! When I start applying this I was unimpressed with it's sheerness, but it turned out to be a buildable jelly and only took 3 coats to be opaque yet squishy. Is there anything more lovable than a jelly ugly green? I think not.



And to top it all off, the color reminded me of my favorite guilt-free snack... pickles!

China Glaze High Hopes

There's some quality about the coral family that's so elusive to me. I can see pictures and pictures of coral NOTD's and I always think, "hm, that's pretty," and move to the next picture. But when I actually get a coral on my nails, I immediately want another 10 shades in the same family. I don't know what it is! I've had High Hopes on my desk with the rest of the Up & Away family, but what I REALLY wanted to wear today was Jade is the New Black. But I'm saving my greens for March and St. Patty's day. So I grabbed High Hopes instead. It is the most delicious shade of papaya ever! It's vivid and striking but not in-your-face like a neon. I put this on and it just feels like one of those "drinkable" colors. I immediately wanted a tropical cocktail or a smoothie. This is with 2 coats. I had to thin this one out a bit, the first nail I did got bubbles from being too thick, but after that it applied well. I couldn't get a completely accurate picture, this was the closest, but it's a little more pink in person.

I only have one other coral, Sally Hansen Nasturtium, and it's more orange based than this one. What are some other awesome colors in the coral family I could pick up?

Don't forget to enter my Who Loves Purple? giveaway!

Ultimate Sugar High

I love Oreos. And you know what's better than Oreos? Home baked Oreos. I found the best recipe a few months ago and can't stop making it. I flavor the cream filling to be whatever I want and cut whatever shape I want! Today I made plain but tasty vanilla, and tinted it pink to go with the heart shaped cookie. Add a sprinkle of pink sugar to the top and it's the ultimate Valentine's cookie! To avoid over-sampling while they were baking I did my nails with China Glaze Sugar High. Look how cute they are together!

The formula on this wasn't too great, but I managed to get it evened out in 3 coats. I tried to do just 2, but I got bubbles and had to re-do a nail. Also if you apply even a little too much it runs all over your cuticles. Icky. It's a really cute Barbie pink, but if you already have one and you like the formula on it, then you don't need Sugar High.



ETA: Recipe, click here!

China Glaze Heli-yum

Outside the polish world, pink is my absolute favorite color. If it comes in pink, that's the color I'll pick for whatever I'm buying. My workout shoes are pink, two of my six iPods are pink, my phone is pink, and all of my video game things are pink. But in the polish world, I just don't like wearing much pink. It's so cliche, just slightly less so than wearing red. And it makes me feel like some girly-girl who grew up with too many barbies. And while I am a girly-girl, I grew up with dinosaur toys. Probably why I favor greens so much lol. But anyways. Heli-yum is the most perfectly raspberry pink. And I very much enjoyed wearing it over the weekend, which is a good thing because I've hardly had a spare second so there was NO TIME to change my polish :D

This is with two coats plus SV top coat, and it applied with creamy perfection. I put this on Thursday night and we're still going strong. I can't comment on tip wear because I filed my nails down yesterday, which I'm so happy about because I can finally type properly again!

Who says a $2 polish can't be awesome?

Okay, so I'm a little bit of a NP snob. Just barely though. I won't touch Maybelline, and I have 2 Rimmels that I like but don't wear just in case someone says, "OMG I love your polish! Wear did you get it?" and then I have to say "uhm... the drugstore...". And I think Sally Hansen is becoming a huge rip off! What's with her price increase? I can get 3 China Glazes from Transdesign for the price of 1 new Sally Hansen! But I have a soft spot for Sinful polishes. The glitters, oh, the glitters they have... I love them. I usually wait for a sale, but these were on a special display case so I grabbed them, though I do think they are a part of the regular line. Someone on MUA made a comment that Mint Apple and Soul Mate could be dupes for Jade and Jade Rose. So I ran to grab them! But sorry, they're not even close.

But happily, Mint Apple is awesome. This alone made the trip worth it. It's a dusty green with a gold shimmer, and it applied beautifully. Look at the color! I am in love! You definitely get a bang for your 2 bucks.



With flash to show the gold shimmer:



And I took some comparisons with Essie Greenport on my thumb and Misa Dirty Sexy Money on my pinkie. Here you can really appreciate the dustiness. I badly smudged my middle finger so I just covered it with my thumb :)



Soul Mate was the supposed Jade Rose dupe. It's a creamy dusty pink. I'm not really feelin' this one. I don't think it's a very "me" color, though I do like the dustiness. It applied kind of goopy, though it wasn't as bad as the China Glaze's I compared them to.



Between China Glaze Sugar High on my index and Peachy Keen on my ring finger.



And the last new Sinful I grabbed, named Rise and Shine. This one I very much like. I did a quick swatch but took dozens of pictures, none of which came out accurate. It is VERY close to Four Leaf Clover, which is on my ring finger, only Rise and Shine has an added subtle shimmer and it dries neon matte. You cans see the original finish on my pinkie, and I added Seche Vite to my index and middle for the shine. This also brings out the fine shimmer in it. I think this is just too perfect for Spring!



My Walgreens display is ALWAYS half empty! Either they never get new shipments, or they do and someone comes in and picks it over before I get there! So I never get to see what all the Sinfuls look like. What are your favorite Sinful polishes? If I can find them I'd love to check them out!