Swatch: Evil Queen

Earlier, I shared Claire's Poison Apple. Now, I have my other polish from that release: Evil Queen. (I didn't get the Space Cadet dupe since I already have the Orly version. But I'll try to do a comparison with my sister's bottle.) Evil Queen is similar to Orly Galaxy Girl and MAC Formidable.

Evil Queen is a dark purple-plum base with duochrome shimmer that shifts from a blue-aqua in direct light to magenta that pretty much disappears into the base colour. Three coats covered perfectly. This was another tough one to photograph, so here's some pic spam.

 The blue shimmer in this polish is stunning. The bottle shows it really well in this picture.

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 Shadow Swatches

As promised, here are the rest of the swatches for my new Fyrinnae eye shadows. 

Eternal Innocence

Dark shimmery green. I've been looking for a good dark green for a while, and I think I want something just a little brighter than this. So, I'd love to hear any suggestions, whether from Fyrinnae or any mineral makeup company.

Kamikaze

Bright red with red sparkle. On me, anyway, this seems to have slight orange tones.

Meerkat

This is one of the shadows I bought mostly for the name. I think meerkats are one of the cutest animals around. Maybe not the best way to choose eye shadows, but I wasn't at all disappointed with this one. Pink-purple with tons of gold sparkle.

Orangutan

Coppery-peach with an almost metallic look to it. I actually didn't think I would really like this one as much as I do. It's another one I bought for the name. Orangutans are my absolute favourite animals in the whole world. How can you not love a baby this cute?

Hesty the Orangutan (Denver Zoo)

And last but not least,

Tapir

Rich purple-based burgundy. This looked more of a wine red in the jar, but the purple tones came out against my skin. Nearly matte, with only a slight shimmer.

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?

March Greens: Emerald City

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Emerald City is a true medium-dark emerald green shimmer. Not too yellow or too blue. This is two coats, but it could use a third to even out a bit of patchiness. It's just slightly darker than the photo shows.

I'll have my first St Patrick's Day nail art up later today so check back in a few hours for that.

Color Club Untamed Luxury

I'll post more March Greens this week, but I wanted to take a break from that to share a Color Club collection from Fall 2010 that I found recently at Winners.  Here are the seven polishes from Color Club Untamed Luxury: Every Shade of Indulgence. 

Pretty in Platinum

Light, pearl gray. I don't have anything like this in my collection. This was three coats. The formula seemed thick but runny and every flaw in my nails showed through the polish. The color is gorgeous though, so it'll be worth a good base coat and some patience. This was the only one of the set that gave me problems with application.

Wild Orchid

Shimmery medium gray, with blue/lavender tones. Two coats, great application. Another shade without dupes in my collection. I'm starting to think I'm lacking in the gray department.

Positively Posh

A great medium brown creme. Three coats but two might be enough. I have a few similar shades but this is a bit darker than the others; maybe I should do a comparison post for this one.

Soft As Cashmere

Greige, how I love you. Three coats on this one, too. 

Nothing But Truffle

Coppery brown shimmer in a dark chocolate base. Two coats. Similar to SH Xtreme Wear Chocolate Nut or NYC Canal Street but darker than either of those.

Jewel of a Girl

Metallic burgundy-wine shimmer in a blackened red base. Two coats. I have a Wet n Wild that's pretty similar-Under Your Spell. 

Ready to Royal

Dark, almost black, eggplant. This seems like almost a jelly finish. Two coats. Plenty of dupes for this one out there. I have a mini Funky Fingers (no name) that is close, Rimmel Deliciously Dark is pretty close too, and NYC Lincoln Park is just a little more burgundy than purple.

March Greens: Mint Cream and Layering

Here's Elf Mint Cream, a pale mint green creme. (Don't you just love those painfully obvious names?) This is four (or five?) coats. It went on fairly smoothly, for a pastel, but was a little too sheer. I love this polish. Perfect mint green that doesn't give me insane lobster hands. (They're a lot redder in the pic than in real life but the polish colour is accurate.) Elf polishes are available on their website for a dollar, but they always have great discount codes.

I wanted to try some layering with this one so I pulled out Orly Love Each Other. It's one of my all-time favourite layering polishes. Over dark colours, the pink shimmer is really visible but over pale colours like this one it's a more subtle, hidden shimmer that just adds a bit of interest.

March Greens: Hi-Tech

This is four coats of Milani 3D Holographic in Hi-Tech. The first two coats went on patchy but it eventually evened out. Light grass green (very yellow-leaning) dispersed holo. Photo is without flash, indoor lighting.

Milani Hi-Tech 4 coats No flash

March Greens: Zombie Zest

I want to share some green polishes leading up to St Patrick's Day. The first is China Glaze Zombie Zest from their 2010 Halloween collection. (It's only about four months late.) My sister found this on clearance a couple weeks ago, along with Ick-a-Body, and picked them up for me.

China Glaze Zombie Zest 3 Coats Indoor Light

My first thought when I saw this colour in the bottle was that it looks like slime. The base is a murky olive green, somewhat sheer but buildable. And it's packed with golden green shimmer. Definitely not my every day type of colour, but I absolutely love it for the one or two days I'll wear it each October. 

This went on smoothly and dried pretty quickly. The only downside was the major case of lobster hands it gave me. Zombie Zest is discontinued but still available on Amazon.com and some other etailers.

NYX Ultra Pearl Mania Swatches

HauteLook has NYX on sale this Thursday. You have to sign up to use the site if you aren't already a member, but the deals are worth it. So I thought this would be the perfect time to swatch their loose eye shadows. I also have swatches of NYX Glitter Mania loose glitter.

Here are the Ultra Pearl Mania loose shadows. The top row has no base, middle is Elf Studio Eye Primer, and bottom is a white cream base. Some of these colours work well without any base, but most do need a primer to help them stick. As always, click any picture to enlarge it.

L to R: White, Pearl, Nude, Baby Blue, Baby Pink, Lilac, Fanta, Grass

White is actually a true white, even though it looks more cream here. Pearl is a very soft pink-beige. All the others are colour accurate.

L to R: Lime, Very Pink, Yellow, Orange, Mink, Sky Pink, Yellow Gold

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.

LA Girl Rockstar Double Platinum swatch

Here's Double Platinum from the LA Girl Rockstar collection. Taupe with holographic glitter. This one really comes to life in bright light but even inside, it's a gorgeous, slightly subdued polish. It starts off sheer but is buildable. I think this was three coats, maybe four.

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.

Christmas NOTD 7: Christmas Trees

 I decided to do Christmas tree nails, but rather than stamp or freehand the trees, today's nails are just inspired by Christmas trees. I used China Glaze Jolly Holly as the base and stamped on Color Club Worth the Risque using image plate BM11 for tinsel.

 

 And since Wendy suggested I do a glow-in-the-dark Christmas mani, I used Sally Hansen Glow in the Dark for the lights. I couldn't get a picture that showed the dots glowing but how cool is this bottle shot?

Last, I used clear polish to add rhinestone ornaments. It turned the silver holo a bit yellow, but I'm not sure if that's better or worse.

I completely forgot to take a photo of Jolly Holly alone until I was done my left hand but luckily I got a picture of my right hand (at a bad angle, sorry). I don't wear green nail polish very often but this colour is gorgeous. Dark green full of green shimmer with just a bit of golden shimmer as well. It's a perfect Christmas green.

Christmas NOTD 4: China Glaze GR8

I've been trying to use Christmas colours for my nails this month, but I just bought a bunch of holographic polishes that I want to try out. So, today's nails are a compromise of the two. Here's China Glaze GR8 from the OMG collection. Gold is a Christmas colour, right? The holo effect in these pictures is pretty subtle, but in bright light, this polish really comes to life.

Christmas NOTD 2: China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses

I know most of you have seen this colour a million times in the past few weeks, but it really is gorgeous so I had to show it here. As soon as I saw the China Glaze holiday collection, there were two colours that I knew I must have. The first was Mistletoe Kisses. It's silvery-green glitter in green base. I'm not usually a big green fan, but this is a perfect polish for Christmas. This is three coats (though I probably could have got away with two).

Photos after the jump.

Christmas NOTD 1: Orly Moonlit Madness

I thought I'd start my month of Christmas themed manis with a simple one. This is Orly Moonlit Madness, a classic dark red full of red shimmer. These pics don't quite show how deep and rich this colour really is, but the flash photo is closest.

Swatches after the jump.

White Ruby Nail Prisms (Pic Spam)

Here's White Ruby. This is one of the sheerer Nails Prisms so i layered it over black to really show off the rainbow effect. At some angles it's silvery white; sometimes it has a pink foil effect. I could just sit and watch my nails as I move my hands to see the different colours. I took dozens of photos to try and capture every colour shift, so here's a bunch of them.

 More photos after the jump.

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.

Yellow It's Me...Matte

I'm having a bit of a blah day. It's my only day off work this week so I was planning on getting a lot done and I had some shopping to do. My bike is broken so I would have walked but I woke up to rain. I don't feel like missioning on the bus, so today has turned into a lounge around in pyjamas and catch up on some tv watching day.

I needed a nice bright colour to cancel all that out. So here is Nicole by OPI in Yellow It's Me - Matte. I'm not really a yellow person. I always think I'll like them but I never wear them. I like this one because it's not just yellow. It has a bit of a murky gold and almost green tone on my nails. The colour (but obviously not the finish) seems like it might be similar to Fiercely Fiona. I've only seen photos of that one so I can't be sure. Does anyone have both to compare them?

Swatches are after the jump.