Sinful Colors Seaweed and Open Seas

       So as you all have almost certainly heard, Sinful Colors recently released a collection which bears an uncanny resemblance to OPI's Pirates of the Caribbean collection. I personally don't like when polish companies purposely dupe one another's stuff, but that sure didn't stop me from rolling into Rite Aid and picking up a few polishes for myself. So for today, I have Sinful Colors Seaweed and Open Seas, from the Adventure Island Collection. 
Also, I somehow forgot to take the close-up pictures for these, so mea culpa. 

Seaweed is a pale and dusty sage green creme, and is supposed to be a dupe for OPI Stranger Tides.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    Although I had my reservations about how it would look on me, I ended up really liking Seaweed. The shade of green is pretty unusual, and as a person who generally does not do well with pastels, I'm very happy with Seaweed's grungier and dingier tone. I think that the extra dose of grey and brown in there helped to soften the finish of the polish, which in turn made it much more wearable for me.

Open Seas is a  seafoam green creme with a hint of dustiness, and is supposed to be a dupe for OPI Mermaids Tears.

Sunlight, no flash. 

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

       Of the two that I got, Open Seas is my favorite. It has that same grungy, dingy flavor of Seaweed (probably because of the grey), but Open Seas is brighter and more appealing to the eye. The cool shade of green is so super relaxing to look at for some reason, and it was also was surprisingly soft against my skin tone.

    

     In terms of formula, Seaweed and Open Seas were identically nice. They both went on smoothly, leveled themselves well, and required two coats for creamy perfection. My only complaint is that both colors took forever to dry and I noticed some minor bubbling for no reason.

   But little application issues (and the fact that OPI kicked Sinful's ass when it came to naming) aside, these are great for the money and would make fine alternatives for the PotC colors. I'll still have to spring for Skull and Glossbones, but I'm content to cross Stranger Tides and Mermaids Tears off my list. 

And that's all from me for today! Thanks for reading, and have a gorgeous first day of summer!! *throws sun-shaped confetti*

Sinful Colors Swatches (Winter Color Edition)

   First off, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in my Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat giveaway! I was able to finish validating and tabulating entries this morning, so I figured that I would just draw and announce winners today instead of waiting. So the winner of Prize #1 was Vedra and the winner of Prize #2 was Ulmiel!
Congrats ladies!! 


   On the nail polish front, I have a couple more Sinful Colors to show you guys today. These ones are Secret Admirer and What's Your Name. 

Secret Admirer is a graphite base with tons of round silver speckles. It's kind of reminiscent of Finger Paints Winter Whisper. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    Although I compared Secret Admirer to another polish that I owned and did not like (Finger Paints Winter Whisper), I really like Secret Admirer. It's just a very cool color, and because the shimmer is more individual, I think it has more depth than Winter Whisper. I will say though that if I had a secret admirer, this is not the type of color that I'd want him to be associated with....this is like a serial killer's color or something. *shudders*

The formula for Secret Admirer was fine. It went on pretty smoothly, dried quick, and needed two coats to be opaque. 

What's Your Name is a black jelly base with tons of glassfleck shimmer. The shimmer is teal blue, but it has a tinyy bit of a duochrome thing where it goes violet.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    Okay, so the pictures kind of suck, but I love What's Your Name. It's all dark but still sparkly, and reminds me a bit of the ocean at night. However, it's not the most unique color, and I'm pretty sure that I have a dupe for it in Nicole by OPI Blues in the Night. So I'll probably be kicking What's Your Name out. Boo hoo. 

But anyway, What's Your Name's formula was okay too. I used three coats for full opacity, and although it was a little watery, I didn't find the polish too hard to work with.

Also, did ya'll see how they didn't punctuate the name?

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and have a great Saturday!!

Sinful Colors Swatches (Summer Color Edition)

       Yesterday, I was going through my drawers looking for stuff to purge and realized that I have a bunch of Sinful Colors polishes, but haven't seriously worn a single one. I don't know why...they just never really cry out to me. But if for no other reason than to know which ones I wanted to purge and which ones to keep, I decided to swatch them. I won't be posting them all at once, so for today, I have All About You, Unicorn, and Rise and Shine.  

All About You is a clear base with lots of flat, irregularly sized antique gold and copper shimmer flakes in it. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

   This is the oogliest thing I've seen on my nails in a long time. Like after I was all done, I looked at my nails and said aloud, "DAMN this shit is ooglay." I can't even stand how much I hate this right now. It'll probably look much better on someone with a different skin tone or layered, but by itself and opaque, I rebuke and refuse All About You.

    The formula was okay though..it was rather sheer (pictures are with four coats) and the base was a bit too thick, but besides that, no problems were had. There are bubbles, but that's because of the ceiling fan. 

Unicorn is a soft, buttery yellow creme.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     Even though Unicorn is yellow, I needed to buy it...I don't know. I saw it and just needed to have it. And I really don't regret the purchase, because I love the color, both in general and on me. It's a very wearable and sweet color, and gives me hope for yellow. But despite my love for the color, I can say with 100% certainty that I will never ever wear it again, thanks to the nightmare that was the formula. It took four painfully streaky coats to look like something, and I really can't put myself through that again. But if anyone can recommend a similar shade with a more reasonable formula, I'd love to hear about it! I really do like the color. 

Rise and Shine is a bright teal green creme base packed with crystalline microshimmer. The shimmer shows silver, green, and blue, although you'll probably have to enlarge the pictures to see it at all. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    Love Rise and Shine! The base color is very fun and pretty, and the shimmer is fantastic. In sunlight, it twinkles so beautifully and reminds me a bit of BB Couture's signature glitter, just crushed up really finely. 
It also went on quite smoothly...the pictures are with three coats of color, and they dried pretty quickly. The only thing about Rise and Shine is that it dried matte, like a neon. So topcoat is definitely necessary to get the most out of it. 


And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and have a fun fun Friday!
P.S. My giveaway ends today, so don't forget to enter! n_n

Layering Fun Deux

           So yesterday, I had to take off my underwater dragon cave mani, because it was chipping, and I hate chipped nails. I was a little bit stumped with what to use next, but ultimately decided to recreate yesterday's mani, using purple versions of the same polishes. 

This was made with:

1 coat of Color Club Groove Thang

1 coat of Zoya Mimi

1 coat of Sinful Colors Hottie

1 coat of Nfu-Oh 51

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    I think it looks okay...it reminds me a little of OPI Merry Midnight. Maybe this one is a little more crackhead-y. In any case, I liked the green one way better. 

  And unrelated, I just wanted to give a quick heads up, to let you know that the Rescue Beauty Lounge sale is about to be on. It's on Monday, from 11am - 4pm, and more details are available on Rescue Beauty's facebook page. Ji already sent out emails about it, so if you want in and haven't gotten an email yet, make sure to go to the website and sign up, so you can be included in the second round of emails. Even if you already are signed up for newsletters, she said the software is acting crazy, so if you haven't been emailed yet, just sign up again. You're gonna need the email to get the code. 

  If you're gonna participate, what are you planning on grabbing? I'm still working on my list...there's so much that I want, and this budget is killing me. Damn you, fiscal responsibility and self-reliance. ;__;

  Have a great night, guys! (And don't forget to click the link at the top of the page! ^_^)

Layering Fun

            Well, today was the first day of work, and it was kind of a disaster. LOL. First, I woke up like fifteen minutes before I was actually supposed to be there...thankfully, the place was only around the corner from my dorm, so I wasn't late. But the person who hired me forgot I was coming, and he was like twenty minutes late. I totally rushed for no reason. Then, they didn't have anything for me to do...I ran one errand which took about ten minutes, and then I sat at the reception desk and studied for the next three hours.  A bunch of my professors came in and were just looking at me like, hey you girl who never answers questions in class...da hell you doing here? O_o.  So I awkwardly had to explain that I work there now...apparently, no one mentioned it to anyone. Then when my time was up, I left the office, only to be greeted by the second coming of Noah's flood. So my hair currently looks a mess, and I don't think my flats are going to make it. At least my nails were looking fierce through it all. But the weather was crazy, so the pictures suck. I got like twenty minutes of sunlight (fifteen of which were spent fighting with my camera) and then it was cloudy/rainy for the rest of the day.

This is:

1 coat of Color Club Groove Thang

1 coat of Zoya Charla

1 coat of Sinful Colors Nail Junkie

1 coat of Nfu-Oh 52

Sunlight, no flash.

Sorry for the tip wear..it's been a few days. 

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, with gentle flash.

This one is kind of blurry, but I like it because it brings out more of the green that I see most of the time on my nail. 

Natural light, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Why yes, that is a chip. I have a bunch more on my right hand...I'm not sure who to blame, because these polishes have always been good to me. Maybe they just don't like one another.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

My inspiration for this was like...an underwater cave. Like this:

     Ahh I love this! It definitely took the best of each of the polishes I used to create it...the darkness of Groove Thang, the foil-y quality from Charla, the coppery/gold glitter from Nail Junkie, and the duochrome flakes of the Nfu-Oh. Everything shows the perfect amount, and it just looks so good, if I do say so myself. I especially love the gold glitter peeking through, and the duochrome flakes. The gold doesn't show in the pictures, but it looks awesome...like treasure. And the flakes give the polish a greenish-cast most of the time...it looks more like dragon hide than an underwater cave, which is okay because I love dragons. But when I tilt my hand a certain way, the flakies are blue, and I get my cave. I'm so mad that my pictures suck today...of all days. x_X

    But the good news is that the search is officially on for a new camera...I still can't afford one, but when I can, I want to be ready. Do you have any suggestions? I'm thinking a Canon, Panasonic, or Sony. Kodak is open too...my current one is a Kodak, and it's served me really well. Now, it's an ancient POS, but when it was still young, it was so wonderful...such beautiful pictures it made. But I feel like I want to try something new. My last camera was a Kodak too, so maybe it's time to branch out? Bleh, idk. What do you guys think?

But that's all I've got for today. Have a lovely night! 

ETA: Wait no, I lied. I got moah. Breast Cancer Awareness month is almost over, and the Breast Cancer Site is still a far way from reaching their goal of 500 mammograms! Please click that link at the top of the page and help them out? It only takes a second, doesn't cost a dime, and this month, your click is doubled. Thanks!!