OPI Glacier Bay Blues

         It's been a really long time since I've worn an OPI polish....I've been trying to get through my bottom drawer of untrieds to make room for more children, so I've completely neglected any brands that aren't in there, which are basically all the salon brands. Plus, I have this weird hate-love thing going with them. But anyway, today, I wanted to wear something by OPI. I opted for Glacier Bay Blues, from their long gone Canadian Collection. 

Glacier Bay Blues is a dark peacock blue and shimmery duochrome, which flashes teal-green and purple. I couldn't get any purple in the pictures, no matter what I did, but you can definitely see it in person.

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     Glacier Bay Blues is a really nice color. It actually reminds me a little bit of the Aurora Borealis:

I wish OPI would make more like it. The blue base is beautiful and flattering, and it always has this lovely purple sheen floating on top of it. And of course, I love the duochrome effect. It isn't the strongest, and you have to play a bit of finger Cirque du Soleil to really get it to come out, but when you see it, it's quite pretty. I'd also consider it an excellent color for winter, since the duochrome is strongest and looks best when sunlight is not present. 

      I also enjoyed Gacier Bay Blues' formula. Chock-full of chemically goodness, it glided on super-smoothly and leveled itself nicely as it went. It was surprisingly sheer though, and needed four coats for full opacity and depth. 

    Even though Glacier Bay Blues is officially extinct, there are still plenty of bottles floating around at  a good price. I bought this bottle for $4 from a nail supply shop, and there were quite a few more on the shelf. Some etailers also carry it for a really fair price, so if you want it, it shouldn't be too hard to find. 

And that's all I've got for today! Thanks for reading, and have a great Sunday! ^_^

Milani Silver Dazzle

           When Milani released a line of what they called "one coat glitters" late last year, I was simultaneously skeptical and elated. Elated, because I love me some glitter and to get it opaque in one coat has always been a dream. But skeptical because it kind of felt like...the Loch Ness Monster. Like, logically, you know it shouldn't exist. But there's always the chance that it really is out there. So when CVS finally had a BOGO on Milani, I strapped on my boots and walked for hours until I found a display with the colors that I wanted. One of them was Silver Dazzle. 

Milani was really innovative with how they formulated this. Basically, Silver Dazzle is a shitload of teeny square black and charcoal grey glitter in a clear base. That stuff essentially comes together to form like...glitter soup. Then, in the glitter soup, you have lots of small square silver glitter. So the whole entire polish actually sparkles, but the silver glitter on the top sparkles the hardest. It looks really cool. 

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Natural light, with gentle flash.

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     So the name isn't the most creative, but Silver Dazzle is amazing. I love love love how the silver glitter looks against the charcoal base in natural light. And in sunlight, I love how Silver Dazzle like...explodes. The silver glitter is so uber sparkly, and then in the background, you have tiny flashes and stuff from the mini-glitter in the base picking up on the light. I couldn't get a good picture to express it, but if you look at some of the nails that aren't in focus, you can see a bit of what I'm talking about. It's like wearing glassphalt on your nails. Love this one!

    Formula-wise, I had my issues with Silver Dazzle. It had a bad habit of gunking up at the neck of the bottle, and I couldn't really get it smooth at the edges. You can see some of that on my pinky in the last picture. However, Milani did not lie...Silver Dazzle is essentially a one coat glitter. I ended up needing two to even out thinner spots, but someone could get away with one thick coat, if they were careful. Silver Dazzle dried matte (which actually looked kind of cool) and ultra gritty,  so you will definitely need to use a topcoat here. But because the whole thing is glitter, Silver Dazzle eats topcoat the way that I eat cake. I used three coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, and I can still feel some texture on my nails, so for a really glassy finish, you'll need lots and lots of topcoat. On the upside, it dries really fast and looks kickass. 

But that's all I've got for today! Thanks for reading and have an awesome night! ^_^

Zoya Sarah

          I had another weird craving for red polish, so I decided to try out Zoya Sarah, from the Flame Collection. I've been trying to wear this color for a while now, but it always bubbles up and then I get mad, remove it, and throw it into a corner of my bin. This time was no different, except for that I just gave up and accepted the bubbles. So sorry about those in advance. ^_^

Sarah is a ruby red base with flat, multi-sized bits of dark red and gold shimmer. The overall look is this multi-dimensional, sparkling metallic finish.

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    Sarah is a pretty girl! I was a little bit sad because it wasn't as sparkly as I'd hoped, but Sarah more than redeems itself in regular light. It has this incredible glow that comes out of nowhere and forces me to keep on looking at my hands. Also, in regular light, you can actually see the little pieces of sparkle better, so it looks crazy deep. My only complaint is that sometimes, it looks magenta, and I actually like Sarah's shade of red. I don't want it to look magenta. :(

   Oh yeah, and I don't like the name! Firstly, because it doesn't even fit this color...the name Sarah means princess, which I definitely do not get out of this polish. And secondly, my track record with Sarahs has been less than stellar.  Some of them I hated, many got on my last nerve, and a few, I was indifferent to. But I've never liked any of them, so the name of this polish isn't very pleasant to me. (No offense to any Sarahs out there.)

    In terms of application, Sarah is almost perfect. It was opaque in two ultra-smooth coats (a careful person might manage a single thick one) and dried quickly. I barely had to do any cleanup either, because it was so controllable. My only problem with Sarah is the bubbles. Every single time I've tried to wear it, even when I've gone basecoat-less, it has bubbled up on me. I think it just hates me, which is unfortunate but poetic, given my attitude about Sarahs. 

But that's all I've got for now! Thanks for reading, and have an awesome day! ^_^

Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle

           Today, I've got on Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle, which is the final polish in the order that I made during their 50% off sale a couple of months ago. It's so crazy how time goes though...it feels like I bought this a long time ago. 

Recycle is a slightly dark, blue-based forest green creme. 

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       I'm so glad that I bought Recycle. Even though I had been lemming it for a long time, when the sale came and I had to make my list, I really did consider leaving Recycle off. Part of me thought that it would just be another green creme and that I'd be disappointed, and that part was absolutely wrong. Recycle is such a beautiful green polish, and I do not own anything quite like it. It's dark enough to be slightly edgy, but not so dark that it would intimidate people or be too much. Additionally, it has the perfect amount of blue and yellow in it...neither really overpowers the other, so it would be wearable for many skin tones. I'd definitely consider Recycle to be one of the more accessible greens in my collection, in that almost anyone can wear it for almost any occasion. Plus, it made my nails look longer. 

     As well as a lovely color, Recycle also boasts a flawless formula. It was opaque in two ultra-smooth and creamy coats, and since it was an excellent consistency and went exactly where I wanted it to, clean-up took all of two minutes. It did need some topcoat to give it a boost in the shine department, but it dried really fast. I went to bed like thirty minutes after application and woke up with no sheet marks. 

    With all of that said, I probably would not recommend Recycle to people who aren't really into greens, because it costs so much. If you're a hardcore green aficionado, you may not care. But for everyone else, idk if you wanna go that far. I mean...Recycle is a lovely color and the quality of the polish is excellent, but I don't think I'd pay $18 for it. What I paid ($9) was a bargain, because I'd pay up to $14 for Recycle, but $18 is kind of too much. 

  But that's all I've got for today! Thanks for reading, and have a nice day! ^_^

Funky Fingers Icicle Lights vs. OPI Mad as a Hatter

             For today, I've got a comparison between Funky Fingers Icicle Lights and OPI Mad as a Hatter. All nails are fully dried with no basecoat, four coats of polish, and one layer of topcoat. And I left them gigantic, so if you do not fear my cuticles, feel free to click through.  

Sunlight, no flash.

L-R: Icicle Lights, Mad as a Hatter, Icicle Lights, Mad as a Hatter

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L-R: Icicle Lights, Mad as a Hatter, Icicle Lights, Mad as a Hatter

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L-R: Icicle Lights, Mad as a Hatter, Icicle Lights, Mad as a Hatter

  And some closer shots:

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L-R: Mad as a Hatter, Icicle Lights

Natural light, no flash.

L-R: Mad as a Hatter, Icicle Lights

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L-R: Mad as a Hatter, Icicle Lights

I blurred this picture to show the difference between sparkliness.

       The bad news is that Mad as a Hatter and Icicle Lights are not dupes.  Mad as a Hatter's glitter is multi-sized and features many colors, which Icicle Lights' glitter is all one size and only comes in two colors. Because of this, Mad as a Hatter appears darker, more opulent, more dynamic, and deeper overall than Icicle Lights. 

     Additionally, Mad as a Hatter is super blingtastic, while Icicle Lights can barely muster a sparkle. To me, this is a huge difference, because the sparkle along with the variations in color is what gives Mad as a Hatter that...manic look that endears it to me. Since Icicle Lights is missing that, it becomes easy to tell which fingers have which, particularly in sunlight. The Icicle Lights fingers are the ones where a band of silver sheen moves from one side of my nail to the other. And Mad as a Hatter fingers are the ones where every individual color of glitter catches the light at the same time and sets my nails on like...rainbow fire. The picture isn't very good, but I hope the last photo showed some of what I mean. 

    But the good news is that these guys are fairly similar, in that both are a silver-based, multi-colored glitter with the same dark cast to them. When I'm indoors and I hold my hand all the way out and let my eyes lose focus, they look the same. So if you don't look too much at the details, Icicle Lights could possibly act as a placeholder for Mad as a Hatter until you can locate the real thing. In any case, I'd really advise against purchasing Icicle Lights (especially off eBay) thinking that it will be a Mad as a Hatter clone, because you will be sorely disappointed. Icicle Lights is like...Mad as a Hatter sans its muchness. 

   If you've made it this far, then not only do I shake you warmly by the hand, but you also get a chance to win a little something something. I have another brand new bottle of Icicle Lights, and it could be yours if you want it. All you have to do is be a Phalanges Friend (I prefer not to call people followers), and leave a comment with your name and email address. If you were already one before this post went live, you get one extra entry. Anyone in the world can enter until 11:59 pm January 30, 2011 EST, and I'll be picking a winner on February 1, 2011. Yay! n_n

Funky Fingers Icicle Lights

           I haven't  really enjoyed a good glitter bomb in a little while, so I decided to put on Funky Fingers Icicle Lights, from their Christmas-themed collection.

Icicle Lights is purple-toned silver, red, and green small hex glitter in a clear base.

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     I don't really like Icicle Lights. The darker, more purple-y tone of the glitter is lovely, but that's like...the only good thing I can think of to say about it. It's just so flat. I only noticed the red and green speckles when I was indoors or in very mild sunlight, and the glitter does not sparkle. Even in the brightest sunlight, it just kind of...reflects the light back, so all you get is this boring silvery sheen. I bought Icicle Lights expecting a glittergasm, and I got the exact opposite. It's so disappointing too, because this really could have been a great color. All they had to do was use some glitter that actually sparkled. :(

    The formula was typical glitter fare...it went on okay and dried fast. For the pictures, I went with four thin coats and one layer of topcoat. However, in addition to being a lazy glitter, Icicle Lights is also a glutton for topcoat, because my nails feel like I didn't put anything on top.

    Also, I know that Icicle Lights is supposed to be a dupe for OPI Mad as a Hatter, or at least that's what they're saying on eBay. I'll have a comparison up for tomorrow, but in my humble opinion, they are not dupes. Icicle Lights is the closest I've seen anyone come to recreating Mad as a Hatter, and Funky Fingers gets props for that, but they are so not the same thing. 

But that's all I've got for today. Have an awesome Friday, guys! ^_^