Fyrinnae Arcane Magic Swatches

What was I thinking, waiting so long to try Fyrinnae's Arcane Magic shadows? The four I chose are all stunning, and the colour change is just the icing on the cake. The effect is hard to capture, but I tried to get a photo closer to(top) and farther from (bottom)  light. Enlarge these pics to see the differences for each.

Dragon Magic, Faerie Glamour, Futuristic Glamrock, Madame & Eve's

Dragon Magic

Dark, almost black, green with bright blue-green shimmer. Colour change is less obvious than others, becomes more green, less blackened.

Faerie Glamour

Vibrant purple base with light blue and pink shimmer. Another less obvious change. Shifts from mostly pink to mostly blue shimmer.

Futuristic Glamrock

Icy blue filled with light blue and sparse pink shimmer. Pink sparkle becomes much more obvious closer to the light.

Madam & Eve's

Dark purple, leaning brown, base with blue-green shimmer. Shifts from purple-brown to turquoise.

Fyrinnae Haul and Swatches

Those of you who follow me on twitter got a sneak peek at my recent Fyrinnae haul. I'd been planning what to buy for ages, but the site has had a lot of down time lately. So once the site was up again (temporarily) I went all out on samples. And once again, they do not disappoint. Even colours that I was a little iffy about or bought just for the name *Orangutan* are gorgeous. And they're are more than a few that I would buy the full size of if the samples weren't so generous. Anyway, let's get to the haul, shall we?

After reading Phyrra's rave reviews about the Velvet-Gel Silica Primer, I needed to try the dry skin version. I'll have a review up for that after I try it out a bit. Onto the samples: top row is Glow Blushes, then Arcane Magic shadows, and the last three rows are the loose eye shadows. I also got a sample of Pixie Epoxy for my sister. The lashes were a freebie included with my order. I can never get enough false lashes, so these are perfect for me.

For today I have swatches of the loose shadows; Arcane Magics and Glow Blushes should be up later this week. All swatches are patted on over Elf Studio primer. And as always, click on any pic to enlarge it.

Banana Mochi

Light shimmery yellow. Much softer than Bifrost and without the contrasting sparkle.

Biker Chic

Black base filled with aqua sparkle. This looks a little patchy in the photo, but I didn't notice any problems when swatching. You definitely want to enlarge this one to see the sparkle.

Bite Me

Somewhat dark, but still bright red with red shimmer. Fyrinnae describes it as "the hue of fresh blood" and that's entirely true. Darker than Kamikaze and more of a true red.

Chaotic Evil

Bright pink filled with silver shimmer. Actually reminds me quite a bit of the new Revlon, Sublime Strawberry. The base colour isn't identical, but overall they're pretty similar.

Curiouser and Curiouser!

Bright blue filled with blue/turquoise shimmer. This is much lighter and brighter than 1.22 Gigawatts as well as more aqua-leaning.

Damn Paladins

I'm not much of a neutral eye fan, but I saw a swatch of this taupe on a blog and became obsessed with it. The base is a fairly basic medium taupe but it has an amazing light blue hidden shimmer that makes this a must-have.

More shadow swatches coming! What are your favourite Fyrinnae shades?

NOTD: Patchwork using SH HD Laser

I haven't been posting very often. I was determined to do better in the new year, but I underestimated how little time I would have to blog with the new puppy. I spend all day chasing after Rosie and keeping her out of trouble. Then, I go to work and by the time I get home, the last thing I have time or energy for is sitting at the computer. But one look at her cute little face and it's all worth it. And once she grows up a bit, I'll have more time to focus on posting here. 

Rosie loves playing in (and eating) the snow.

Rosie and our older boxer, Sarge

Anyway, back to the nails. I was wearing SH HD in Laser the other day and I wanted to change my nails but was too lazy to remove it and start over. So I figured this was the perfect time to finally do a patchwork design. I used SH Xtreme Wear in Ocean View and NYC in Midtown to pick up the blue and purple/fuchsia duochrome of Laser. This was super easy to do with painter's tape, although you can see a couple spots where the polish leaked under the tape. I think it's straightforward enough that I don't have step-by-step pics, but if anyone wants to see a tutorial for this look, let me know in the comments.

My New Favourite Nail Polish

I hinted on twitter the other day that I had found a new all-time favourite polish. And that is not a title I take lightly. Sure, just about any colour can make it into my revolving top ten for a day or a week, but to declare something an all-time favourite, you know it must be good. Charla good, or even Space Cadet good. Are you all dying to know what has me so worked up?

It's Joe Fresh in Peacock. A gorgeous dark blue-teal-green shimmer with purple duochrome. In most light, it's about equal parts blue and green, but at certain angles or lights, this looks royal blue or emerald green. And if you move your hand just the right way, you see the most amazing purple/fuchsia. I played with the bottle for seriously ten minutes before I painted my nails, turning it each way to watch the colour shift. (I know, air bubbles...eek.)

Joe Fresh is a grocery store brand available in Canada and what I've tried from them is so much better than I would have expected. These polishes retail for $4 and are sold at Real Canadian Superstore and Fortinos (and probably any of the other Loblaws brand stores, but I'm not certain of that). I never bought these before because $4 for 6mL seems too pricey. (It's like paying $12 for an Orly or $10 for a China Glaze.) But I got this one for just $2.33. Much more reasonable. How?

Superstore has a store coupon right now for $1 off any nail polish. And if you buy three of the Joe Fresh polishes it's $10 (instead of $4 each). So combining three of the coupons, you save a total of five bucks! I wasn't sure if they would let me use three, but it wasn't a problem. Have I mentioned how much I love couponing?

Now on to the swatches. This was a tough one to capture so check out the pic spam after the jump.

China Glaze Towel Boy Toy

This polish was on my lemming list for ages. I'm not really sure why I waited so long to buy it, but I just got this a few weeks ago in my Head2Toe Beauty order. From the Summer 2010 Poolside collection, this is China Glaze Towel Boy Toy. I used four coats for this, but you could probably cut back on that by starting with a white base. 

I am absolutely in love with this colour. It's a bright, shimmery blue. Since it's a neon, this one dried super fast to a matte finish.

I also tried this one with a top coat for a shiny finish. And it brings this colour completely over the top! Check it out after the jump.

OPI What's With the Cattitude? + fauxnad

This is OPI What's With the Cattitude? from their Shrek For Ever After collection. Four (I think) coats. This one went on a bit streaky for me and probably could have used another coat. I have that problem with most pastels though, so maybe it's just me? The true colour is somewhere between the two pics. Not as bright as the flash photo but less dull than the no flash.

With flash

No flash.

I decided to add a little something extra so I used SH Complete Salon Manicure in Gray by Gray and image plate BM20. This picture comes closest to the actual colour of Cattitude.

Christmas NOTD 8: Snowflakes & Snowmen

I had a few requests to do either snowmen or snowflakes. So I have two versions to share--stamping and freehand.

First up, SH Pacific Blue as a base with SH Celeb City stamped on using m37 for the snowmen and BM14 for snowflakes. Then I sponged on SH Disco Ball. 

I also did freehand on my sister's nails. This is over China Glaze For Audrey. After painting on the designs with white polish, I used loose iridescent glitter. Clearly, I need to practice freehand nail art.

East Village Comparison

I've got another colour today that isn't very "fall" but I just bought it so I wanted to show you. Pharma Plus has NYC polishes BOGO this week so I chose a couple. The first is East Village. This is a shimmery blue-green. It went on smoothly, but after 3-4 coats was still a bit sheer.

I think I have a dupe for this. Comparison after the jump.

SH HD DVD

This is Sally Hansen HD in DVD. It's a light purple (lavender, lilac?) packed with light blue shimmer. And even if that was it, this colour would be stunning. But, there's more. If you catch the light just right, the blue shimmer seems to turn pink-purple and the overall colour is a dark fuchsia. So I tried over and over to capture that effect on camera. I don't know if it's just my lame camera, or if the duochrome is that elusive, but at the very least, I did get some color-accurate shots of the blue shimmer. This took three coats because it's so sheer and I'd probably need at least two more for opacity.

Here's a blurry shot to show all the gorgeous blue shimmer. 

And this is as close as I could get to capturing the fuchsia duochrome. Definitely less blue than the other shots, but nowhere near as pink as it gets.

I love duochromes. And contrasting shimmer. And purple. And I like the formula on these. Not too thick, not runny. If it wasn't so sheer, this could easily make it's way into my top ten. Maybe next time I'll try layering over a light purple. Revlon Gum Drop would be perfect if that didn't need about six coats itself. Maybe Elf Lilac. Or I might try over a pink to pick up more of the fuchsia in this polish.

What do you think of these new(er) HDs? What are your favourites of the collection? I'd love to hear your opinions.

NOTD: Shower Together

I started off with two coats of China Glaze Shower Together, then went through my blue/green polishes and with a dotting tool, added random dots. I used China Glaze Watermelon Rind and Dorothy Who?; OPI What's With the Cattitude?; Elf Mint Cream; Zoya Charla; Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue, Blue Me Away, Ivy League, and Green With Envy; and a Sally Girl polish without a name. Obviously any blue or green dots works as well.

Shower Together is a bit greener than this pic and slightly darker.

FOTD: Anna Sui-Inspired

I was in the mood for some bright colours after seeing the promo for the new Anna Sui Kaleidoscope of Color collection on Chic Profile.

I switched the colours around a bit on the lids and this is what I finished with:

Face:

Elf  Studio Concealer Pencil & Brush in Fair

Elf Studio Complexion Perfection

Elf Shimmering Facial Whip in Pink Lemonade

Lips:

Fyrinnae Lip Lustre in Visual Kei (love this colour!)

Eyes:

Elf Studio Eye Primer & Liner Sealer

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

Sleek Circus Palette light purple shade (crease to brow bone); light pink shade (under eyes)

Fyrinnae 1.22 Gigawatts (lid)

Fyrinnae Parental Advisory (crease)

Joe Fresh Fine Tip Liquid Eyeliner in Teal Blue (I'm not 100% sure of the name and I can't find it but it's something like that)

I also used a pale shimmery blue over 1.22 Gigawatts and a pale shimmery pink under eyes. They're both discontinued but you don't need either. I just wanted it extra shimmery. 

Finished the eyes with a matte white brow hightlight, shimmery white in the inner corner, and black mascara.

Butterflies in my Stomach...And On My Nails

Another fauxnad today. This time it's SH Marine Scene butterflies over Elf Mint Cream.

I was a little iffy about this colour combination at first but I think it worked out pretty well. Unfortunately, I did the butterflies upside down. So, here's what they should look like:

NOTD: Fauxnad-icure

I love the look of Konad images on nails but there was no way I could justify paying $6.99 for one image plate, not even including a stamp and scraper. So, I found a knock-off on ebay for under $8 (including shipping) that had six image plates, a stamper, and scraper. All for the price of one Konad plate! 

Anyway, I've been experimenting with different combinations of colours and some polishes definitely work better for stamping than others. (I'm not about to pay extra for special polishes.) Since I couldn't find my charger I haven't been able to take pictures of my NOTDs for a few days, but I finally have batteries in my camera, so here is my first "fauxnad-cure" to show you.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue It over Virtual Violet. I unashamedly stole this colour combo from Susie because I loved her Konadicure over Gum Drop. Check it out here.

NOTD: Two-for-one Blue Glitters

Today's NOTD is a twofer. I hate wearing the same nail polish two days in a row, so a lot of times when I'm feeling lazy, I'll either add a coat of glitter or go from matte to glossy or vice versa to change it up without actually removing my polish and starting from scratch. I did this last week but of course forgot to take pictures before it was too late so I recreated the look to photograph. I have to apologize for the photos; glitters are always hard to photograph and these colours in particular were no exception.

I started off with China Glaze Dorothy Who? with a matte top coat. I absolutely love this colour. It's beautiful with a shiny finish but the matte top coat adds something extra that completely puts it over the top for me.

The next day I added a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Shooting Star to add even more glitter. Left is with flash; right, without. I find Shooting Star a little boring on it's own but layering it over dark blues seems to bring out the best in this polish.

Do you ever double up on your manicures to get an extra day? What are your favourite combinations?

NOTD: Dorothy Who?

China Glaze's Dorothy Who? Three coats. Top photo is with flash; bottom is without flash, artificial light. 

I love this nail polish. It's a bright, medium-dark blue jelly base with tons of silver and blue glitter. 

Part of me wants to wear this colour every day. But I know if I did, it would lose some of its specialness so I have to restrain myself.

Review: Rimmel Colour Rush Trio Eyeshadow

Rimmel Colour Rush Trio Eyeshadow in Maritime. Photo is with flash. Swatches on the left with primer; on the right, without.

Overall, I didn't like this eye shadow. Although the colours look really nice in the pan, they aren't well pigmented. Even with primer, these shadows are too sheer for anything but a very subtle shimmer. That said, they do blend well. I prefer brighter, more pigmented colours, but if you're just looking for a hint of colour it might be for you.

I also bought Spices, a neutral trio. None of the colours even showed up on my (very pale) skin.

Would I buy again? No.

Xtreme Wear Swatches

As promised, here are the swatches for my newest Xtreme Wear colours. (The first set of swatches is here.)

(Left to right:)
Virtual Violet: Lavender with a blue iridescence. It makes me think of what Lime Lights would be if it were purple, if that makes sense.
Deep Purple: Dark purple with blue and pink shimmer. Brighter than this pic shows, but dark.
Pacific Blue: Medium blue creme. Somewhat darker than this pic. It dries a lot darker than it looks in the bottle.


And, I forgot to mention with the rest of the swatches, my one big issue with these polishes is actually more with the bottle. The caps aren't always consistent. Some are white (I think these are the older ones), some are dark metal, and some are taller and skinnier. Not really a big problem, but it kinda bugs me that they don't all match.