OPI Danke-Shiny Red

OPI Danke-Shiny Red is beautiful both in the bottle and on the nail, and it has a gorgeous glow.  It is very similar to A England Perceval and also to a discount drugstore polish I have.  It may be a little warmer than Perceval.

In the pictures below, I have a base coat, two coats of Danke-Shiny Red, a coat of Seche Vite, and in some pictures an extra coat or two of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat (I add a coat almost every day so that the manicure lasts longer without chipping).

The polish was opaque at one coat, but you definitely need two coats to get the depth effect of the polish and to get to the bottle color.  The polish dried quickly.  This polish has the OPI pro-wide brush, and it's easy to use.

It has a metallic shimmer finish, and it's just a little brushstrokey.

Cleanup did take a while.  Clean up takes me a while with red polish or black polish.  Removal was easy, but I did get some staining on my nails.

I didn't have any shrinkage from either Seche Vite or the Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat.  I did have some tip wear.

This is from OPI's Germany collection for fall, but it's a perfect color for Christmas.

Here are some pictures:

Sunlight
iPhone camera cannot deal with the shimmer and glow

Sunlight

Sunlight

Indirect sunlight

Indoors

Indoors

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L'Oreal L'Orange

I apologize for not having blog posts up recently.  Last week I had a migraine all week long, and this week I had to go to court a couple of times, so I was busier at work and have not had time until now to blog.

L'Oreal L'Orange was my manicure polish during the last week of July.  I really loved this orange nail polish.  In the pictures below it looks red, but it's spot-on orange in real life.  My iPhone's camera just refused to show the orange as anything other than red.  The color reminded me of orange Tic Tacs, but I think Tic Tacs are a darker shade of orange.

The formula is a thin cream.  Maybe it's a crelly.  I had visible nail line at two coats, and I still had it at three coats, but I was getting darker than the polish bottle color, and I didn't want to have more coats, so I stopped at three coats.  The polish had a good formula, and it dried quickly.  The cleanup was easy, too.  It was very shiny even without top coat.  The brush is wider than Revlon's traditional thin brush.

I don't see as many blog posts about L'Oreal's polishes; I think that may be because many bloggers won't use products from companies at all involved with animal testing or whose parent companies conduct testing on animals.

I love orange-colored nail polishes, so I noticed when the Pantone Tangerine Tango polishes came out in Sephora stores earlier this year.  I had also heard that Sinful Colors Citrine was a dupe for Tangerine Tango.  Rite Aid sold Citrine months ago, but we don't have Rite Aids in Florida, and my local drugstores didn't carry Citrine . . . until a month or so ago when I spotted Citrine at a Walgreens display of Sinful Colors.  After asking for permission, I tested Citrine on my nail polish wheel right next to L'Oreal L'Orange, and they were identical.  They are 100% dupes.  So, I didn't buy Citrine then.  A few weeks ago I finally bought the Pantone Tangerine Tango polish set, and while L'Orange is close to Tangerine Tango--just as close as Citrine--it's not a 100% dupe.  But, if you own one of the three, you don't need to own the other two . . . unless you're a nut about orange polishes like me, and even I don't own all three, just two that are not 100% dupes.  Tangerine Tango is sold as part of a four-polish set for about $17, L'Oreal polishes retail for about $7 or $8, and Sinful Colors is normally priced at $2 but often goes on sale for $1.

In the pictures below, I have on base coat, three coats of L'Orange, one coat of Seche Vite, and a coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat.  I didn't get much shrinkage from the Seche Vite.  The pictures were taken on day two of wearing the manicure and on day three I took the bottle pictures.

Direct sunlight.  My camera could not focus on the color when it was in direct sunlight.
In direct sunlight, the polish started to "glow" with an effect similar to the glow that I love from Revlon Chili and Hits Hula.

Direct sunlight.  This is the "glow" from another angle.

Direct sunlight.  "Glow" from another angle.

Direct sunlight.  Polish at a slightly different angle to the angle that created the "glow" above.

Indirect sunlight.  Very shiny!
You can see some tip wear after a day of wear.

Indoors.

Indoors.

Indoors, on day three.

Indoors, on day three.
This may be the most color-accurate photo if you look at the shade of orange of the polish in the bottle.

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Candeo Colors Sprouse over L'Oreal Greyt Expectations

I painted my nails with L'Oreal Greyt Expectations on a Sunday, and the following Saturday, 6 days later, I added Candeo Sprouse.  Sprouse is similar to Lynnderella's Connect the Dots, but it has holographic microglitter instead of CtD's shimmer, and it has blue glitter that CtD does not have.  I really like Sprouse.  It was very easy to apply.  I had no problems with getting enough glitter on each brush stroke, and I had no trouble with glitter placement, and the glitter lay flat except for one bar glitter that I put on the most curved part of my nail.  I used cuticle nippers to clip the piece of bar glitter that was sticking out.  I believe I added a coat of Gelous and then a coat of Seche Vite.  The finish was smooth after that.  I like the paint splatter effect of top coats like this one; I think the paint splatter effect would have been even better with a little more white in the mix.  Because I wore the L'Oreal manicure for 6 days before taking these pictures, there is visible tip wear.

Here are some pictures taken in low sunlight on a mostly cloudy day:

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Revlon Whimsical

I finally wore Revlon Whimsical!  I won this polish in the first giveaway I ever won, on Jamie's Nails Adored blog, in February of this year.  I remember it had to have been February because I had a really bad cold that kept me home from work almost a week, but while I was coming down with the cold, I went all over town looking for the polishes from the giveaway, including Whimsical, because I was sure that I wouldn't win the giveaway.  I couldn't find Whimsical and was getting very sick, so I just ordered it online from the Ulta website.  Then I found out that I won the giveaway!  The first and only giveaway I've won so far.

Whimsical has a pale blue base with rose gold and blue hex glitter and smaller blue glitter.

I looked in my nail polish stash for a polish to wear under Whimsical.  You can wear Whimsical by itself, but it's sheer, and to build up the base color to the grayish blue in the bottle would take so many coats that the glitter would be really packed on my nails.  I prefer a little less glitter.  So, I used Sally Hansen Age Correct Growth (discontinued) as my base coat, and then I added two coats of an Icing polish that didn't have a name when I bought it.  I bought it early this year during a clearance sale after the holidays.  It was in a four-pack of blue shimmer polishes in different shades.  This one that I used was the second lightest in the package.

Here is a picture of the Icing shimmer polish, without clean-up because I took the picture as I was doing my manicure, and I wasn't going to wear the Icing polish as a manicure but as a base for Whimsical.

without flash

with flash

The blue shimmer in this Icing polish is like glitter crushed to a powder, and it flashes in the same color as the blue glitter in Whimsical.  I watermarked the two pictures above using an iPhone app, so after editing it was saved at less than half the original file size, so the resolution is lower, and it's not as sharp.  You can still click on it to make it larger and see more detail, though.  The rest of the pictures in this post were edited on my desktop computer using Paint.NET (a free program), and they were not made blurry by editing.

Below is a picture showing the bottle of Icing polish, and there are two coats of the polish on my fingernails (no cleanup, manicure in progress).

Here is a picture with the two coats of the Icing polish but holding the bottle of Revlon Whimsical so you can compare the two shades of blue.  They're very close!

The Revlon Whimsical polish had a very good formula.  It was very easy to apply, and cleanup was minimal and easy.  I didn't have any staining.  The polish dries shiny.  The Revlon brush is thin and long, which I like. The wear time was good.  I am still wearing the polish today, so I have had it on for 8 days.  I'm taking it off tonight to do a new manicure.  There was very little shrinkage from the Seche Vite I used on top of Whimsical, but there was significant shrinkage from the Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat that I add every morning.  The manicure did not chip, though.  It's a very pretty and delicate manicure.  I really liked looking at it throughout the week and did not get tired of wearing it.  It would be a very nice color for a manicure to wear to a baby shower.

In the picture below, I have the Sally Hansen Age Correct Growth (discontinued), two coats of the Icing polish, and a coat of Whimsical (no clean-up yet, manicure in progress):

In the picture below, I have a second coat of Whimsical (still no cleanup, no top coat yet, manicure in progress):

The pictures below were taken a day later:

Under office lighting.

Indoors, with flash.

Indirect sunlight.

Sunlight.  I promise I don't take pictures while driving!  I take pictures while parked or at red lights.

Sunlight.

And, in the picture below, you can see swatches of Revlon Whimsical and of Nostalgic Lacquer Duckie:

#12 on the left is Nostalgic Lacquer Duckie, and #16 on the right is Revlon Whimsical.
#17 on the right is Sinful Colors Cinderella.

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China Glaze Ring in the Red Compared to Ruby Pumps

So, it turns out that China Glaze's Ring in the Red, that I mentioned here, is very different from China Glaze Ruby Pumps.  It's definitely a warmer red.  Also, it has small hex red glitter in addition to the red tiny speck glitter. Ruby Pumps just has the ruby tiny speck glitter.  RITR sparkles much more for a va va voom effect.

At first, after just one coat, I thought it was sheer and top coat only material to be worn with underwear (another more opaque color underneath it), but it built up after three coats.  If you use three coats, it can be worn on its own and doesn't need another color underneath for full coverage.

Here are some pictures of swatches from my nail wheels:

On the top wheel, #13 is China Glaze Ruby Pumps (on the right in the picture), and #14 is Milani Ruby Jewels (on the left in the picture), which is a dupe for Ruby Pumps.  On the bottom wheel, #5 is China Glaze Ring in the Red, and #4 is Spoiled Ants in my Pants.

On the top wheel, #13 is China Glaze Ruby Pumps (on the right in the picture), and #14 is Milani Ruby Jewels (on the left in the picture), which is a dupe for Ruby Pumps.  On the bottom wheel, #5 is China Glaze Ring in the Red, and #4 is Spoiled Ants in my Pants.

On the top wheel, #13 is China Glaze Ruby Pumps (on the right in the picture), and #14 is Milani Ruby Jewels (on the left in the picture), which is a dupe for Ruby Pumps.  On the bottom wheel, #5 is China Glaze Ring in the Red, and #4 is Spoiled Ants in my Pants.

I have spent through Wednesday, April 4th, about $20 on my Walgreens haul and just under $16 on my Ulta mini-haul, so about $35 so far this month on polish (and make-up), and my goal is to spend under $100 per month. Hmmm, that's one-third of my target budget in less than the first one-sixth of the month, so at this rate I am spending over $200 per month. Sigh.

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The Wonder of the Wheel

My husband came up with the post title.  We were at CVS (haul post to follow), and I took my nail wheels with all my polishes swatched on them, and I compared the colors to Revlon Colorstay in Midnight, a polish that I was thinking of buying.  Well, my nail wheel kept me from buying a not-100%-dupe-but-close-enough of a polish I already had:  OPI's Ski Teal We Drop, number 13 on the wheel in the pictures below.  I took the pictures with my iPhone, on top of a manila envelope, so they're not fancy.  My husband was pleased with the usefulness of the wheel and how it saved me money, time, space, etc.  :-)

Left half of #13 is just OPI's Ski Teal We Drop.  The right half was topped with OPI's Save Me.  I wore that combo on my toes for a month.

This picture and the next one are more color-accurate.  They were both taken with the iPhone's flash on.

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