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.  

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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

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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

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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! ^_^ 

Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy

           The other day, I was in Walgreens when I stumbled upon the Wet n Wild display for this spring. It had already been ransacked so there was not much left. But I did find this little guy cowering in the cornerof the bottom shelf, so I scooped him up and brought him home. Meet Gray's Anatomy! (Have I ever mentioned that I hate how Americans spell grey? It's just looks wrong).

Gray's Anatomy is a very pale, frosty silvery-grey polish with a strong duochrome effect. It mostly looks silvery-grey with a lavender flash, but it can look blue and green, as well as a little bit gold.

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     Gray's Anatomy is such a beautiful and complex polish. It just has this awesome airy, ephemeral feeling to it, and there are so many colors! When you're still, you get the silvery base with the lavender shimmer floating on top. But as soon as your hand starts moving, you get all this blue and green coming out of nowhere. The whole thing reminds me of a gasoline rainbow. Or maybe a younger, more washed-out version of Zoya's Ki. Gray's Anatomy did end up a tad bit brushtrokey, but I liked the brushtrokes. Upon drying, they looked a bit like ribbons of shimmer, so you didn't notice them if you weren't looking too closely.

     But as lovely as the color is, Gray's Anatomy's formula drove me absolutely crazy. It's very thin and sheer, so it took four coats before I was satisfied with the coverage. But that in itself was fine, since the polish went on super smooth. What made it annoying was that after all those coats, the polish would just bubble up. I reapplied Gray's Anatomy to my left hand no less than five times, trying to get a bubble free application. Normally, it wouldn't be that serious at all, but with this finish, bubbles are like...ten times as ugly. I couldn't just leave them there. Maybe the polish just didn't like me, but I would advise others to let every single layer dry all the way. It took forever (fastdry my ass) but it was the only way I could avoid bubbles. 

    However, I would still recommend Gray's Anatomy to anyone who loves duochrome polish. It really is quite pretty, it's uber-cheap ($1.99) and is supposed to be a dupe to Deborah Lippmann's Wicked Game. Nothing like saving $14 + shipping to ease the sting of a bad application. ^_^

   

But that's all I've got for today! Thanks for reading and have a great night! :D

Creative Nail Design Night Factory Duo

           Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!!! I really love MLK Day, and not just because I don't have to go to school or work today. I love it because it celebrates the life and work of someone who has had a huge impact on my life and on the lives of every single black person in the USA. Thanks to him and others like him, we can go wherever we want, do whatever we want, sit wherever we want, and best of all, hang out with whomever we want. I know that racism isn't all dead, but instead of complaining about how much work still has to be done, I think it's better to celebrate how far this nation has come. And we've come a really really long way, so claps and snaps for us! n_n

           On this wonderful day, I have on Urban Oasis and Teal Sparkle, which make up Creative Nail Design's Night Factory Set. I won these a while ago from a giveaway at My Lucid Bubble, but I've been saving them for today. I thought it would be fitting to have a duo, since MLK Day is supposed to be about togetherness and unity and other such nice things. 

BB Couture Antony

           I have an obsession with BB Couture. I love their bottles, their cute little coat of arms, their collection themes, their polish names, and most of all, their colors. The only thing that prevents me from owning a ton of BB Couture is the price...$9 a pop is just a bit rich for my blood. But thanks to a recent sale by Overall Beauty, I was able to grab a few precious colors. One of them was Antony, from the For Men half of the Infamous Lovers Collection. (I'm aware that the label says Anthony, but I'm just gonna stick to Antony. Anthony makes me think of Marc Anthony, which makes me think of Skeletor, and I'd rather not go down that road.)

Antony is a slightly green-leaning peacock blue creme base with lots of small multi-colored shimmer. The dominant colors in the shimmer are turquoise and purple, and from far away, you only really see the turquoise. Unfortunately, the shimmer doesn't show up that well here, but they're in the other pictures. Although you may have to enlarge to see it. As always, beware the cuticles. -__-

This angle shows more of the colors in the shimmer.

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       I must confess that I only bought Antony because I bought Cleopatra. To me, they're the only couple in the collection where both of the people were kickass. The other couples in the collection (except for Carla and Michael, cuz I don't know them folks) were a hot mess. Adam ratted out Eve to God + Eve got Adam into mad trouble, Clyde was a crook who got Bonnie into a life of crime, John Smith and Pocahantas weren't even together and if they had been, then that would make John Smith totally a child molester, and Romeo was lame and stupid + he made Juliet dead. But Mark Antony and Cleopatra were awesome. They kind of got each other killed in the end, but they were great people and seemed to have a wonderful life together, so I didn't want one to be without the other. Corny, but true. 

       Luckily for me though, Antony turned out to be a great pickup...I'm glad I have it. The base color is gorgeous and saturated (a nice change from all the muted stuff out now) and changes a bit according to the light. Also, the shimmer looks awesome 100% of the time. In sunlight, you get multi-colored sparkly goodness, and then in lower light, it like..floats on top of the base, looking all glowy and magical. I couldn't get a good picture of that, but it's beautiful. 

      In terms of application, Antony was okay. The formula was a tad bit thin and runny for my taste, but it was surprisingly well-pigmented, becoming opaque in two coats. However, I used three coats in the end, because the third coat gave the polish some really nice depth. It dried fast, shiny, and smooth, but I added topcoat anyway out of habit. 

And that is all I've got for today. Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone is enjoying their weekends! :D

Sally Hansen Sequin Scandal

        Happy Hump Day ladies! Yesterday, my nails were looking extra jank thanks to cold weather and travelling, so I had to renubbinate. And fresh nubbins always call for a dark color, so for today, I have Sequin Scandal, from Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure Tracy Reese Fall 2010 Collection. 

Sequin Scandal is a very dark and murky olive green creme base packed with golden and copper multi-sized shimmer and some little white/opalescent flaky bits. You don't really see those unless you get close though. 

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     I had a ton of trouble tracking Sequin Scandal down. Either the damn display was nowhere to be found, or all the Sequin Scandal (and there were only two to a display) had been snatched up. Just when I gave up on it, I found one in the freezer section, behind some Lean Pockets. o_O People hide things in the craziest places. Anywho, now it's mine and I bet whoever put it back there was so salty when they came back to find it gone.  ^___^

   About the color itself, I likey. It's all sexy and deep, and I love how the shimmer looks when the sun catches it. It sparkles and glows, and is almost hypnotic in its prettiness. In lower light, Sequin Scandal not as nice, but it's still pretty enough. You can still see some of the shimmer, which keeps it from being all the way flat. But I'd definitely recommend wearing this on a sunny day for maximum enjoyment. Ooh, also, one thing that I did not like was the opalescent flaky bits. They don't change color or anything...they just sit there, all white-looking. I don't understand why they're there. And they made a polish that would have otherwise gone on smoothly go on a bit bumpy. 

  But aside from the thingy with the flakies, applying Sequin Scandal was very easy. I only needed two coats of color for full coverage, and the polish was drying nicely even before I added topcoat. The formula was also a nice consistency and very controllable, making cleanup minimal. 

And that is all I've got for today! Thanks for reading, and have a nice night! :D

   

Rescue Beauty Lounge Frugalista + Blog Award!

          Okay, so I've been wearing this color for the past three or four days, waiting on some sunshine and time, but I keep on finding myself coming up short on both. And now I have to change my polish due to chips, so I'm just gonna post the few pictures I have and put up more the next time I wear this. I finally got some new pictures! n_n
Here's Rescue Beauty Lounge Frugalista, from the Spring Bling collection. 

Frugalista is multi-sized (small and smaller) gunmetal silver square glitter, and small fuchsia hex glitter in a clear base. It looks a little more purple in the pictures, I think, but the glitter is indeed fuchsia in person.

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      Frugalista is wonderful. I really like the shade of silver, and the fuchsia accents are beautiful and elegant.  In sunlight, the glitter properly sparkles, and in lower light, my nails look gem encrusted. I just love looking at my nails with this polish on...makes me feel like a rich person. LOL. 

     In terms of formula, Frugalista was like many other glitters in clear bases. It went on fairly smoothly, required a minute between coats, and dried fast. I did appreciate that Frugalista seemed a little more dense than my other RBL glitters though. This is three coats of polish, and the coverage is excellent...I can't see through my tips at all. However,  Frugalista is a topcoat eater...one layer of topcoat did nothing and even with two layers, my nails are still gritty. 

     I'm not sure I would recommend this polish to anyone but serious glitter hos because it costs an arm and leg. But if you really love silver glitter, Frugalista might be one worth picking up. 


    In other news, I was tagged for the Stylish Blogger Award by Varnish Vixen and Lucy from Lucy's Beauty Obsessions! They both have interesting and beautiful blogs, so if you haven't yet, go check them out!


This is the award:

Classy, huh?

And according to the rules, I have to share seven things about myself. So here we go:

1. I hate fish. I used to eat it all the time, but one day, I was eating a fish stick and I realized that the shit was nasty. Since then, even the scent of fish makes me sick. I imagine the ninth circle of hell to be Red Lobster. 

2. I think feet are cute. Many of my friends are grossed out by feet, but I like them.

3. I'm an ugly girl. I have literally scared myself by looking into the mirror without proper mental preparation. :( 

4. In my heart, I truly believe that chocolate-covered pretzels and Take5 bars are proof that God loves me and wants me to to be happy.  

5. I never grew out of Pokemon. I'm still madly in love with it, and am upset that I never learned the Pokerap. I'm going to try to learn it this year.

6. I am an avid television watcher. I can't deal with shows that run on fuckery (Jersey Shore, Bad Girls Club, The Real World, etc.)  but a good episode of one of my favorite shows lights up my life. I swear, the apocalypse could be going on, but if there was a good episode of Lie to Me or Bones on TV, I woud be so not concerned.

7. I love babies. Especially the chubby, jolly kind...I just love their appendages. They have these fats arms and thighs, and these dimples in their knees and elbows. And if you kiss their tummies, they laugh. So cute!! ^_^

I also have to pass it on to seven other blogs, and in no particular order, here are my choices:

Susie's Home and Hobbies

Acetone and Old Lacquer

The Polished Perfectionist

Nail Noir

Addicted to Polish

Dancing Phalanges

Another Bottle of Polish?!

And that is all I've got for today! Thanks for reading!