Battle Of The Birthday Glitters

Hi again!

So I was looking back at my entries, and I realized I never posted the comparison for Milani Gems and Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday that I promised to. Since that first post I have gotten my hands on 3 potential dupes for Happy Birthday: Milani Gems, Ulta Pinata-Yada-Yada, and Wet N Wild Party of 5 Glitters.

I know that Gems has added large pink hex glitter since I bought my bottle, so it's now even closer to HB then this photo shows. Pinata-Yada-Yada is the closest color match to some of the colors of HB. Party of 5 Glitters is not even close, but it's the cheapest at $1.99 a bottle, so if your care more about price then true duplicability, it's a definite contender. All of these "dupes" have hex smaller glitter, while HB has square, also HB's small blue glitter is a bright royal blue, while the others are more of a cyan color. Of them all I prefer HB, but Gems and Pinata-Yada-Yada are tied for me as the best dupe (both are available for about 5 dollars).

Until next time!

Why I'm Blue About One Day Without Blues

Hello all!

So a couple of weeks ago there was news around the nail blogs about Toms Shoes and Essie teaming up to give away 5000 bottles of a "special" color called One Day Without Blues, a tribute to Toms Shoes annual One Day Without Shoes in support of impoverished children. The deal was go on Toms facebook page, like them, potentially win a bottle of this super special polish. Well I did win one, but when it arrived today I instantly thought it looked familiar, and upon comparison, my suspicion was confirmed that One Day Without Blues is indeed Coat Azure. Don't believe me? Here are the pics.

Thumb, middle, and pinkie: One Day Without Blues
Index and ring: Coat Azure

Index and ring: Coat Azure
Middle and pinkie: One Day Without Blues

Now, that being said, I still love and adore this color... it's a beautiful shimmery blue that applies wonderfully, I was just disappointed that it's a re-release under a new name. Granted, that means if you didn't win the promotion  it's not like you can't get your hands on this color if you don't have it already, which is good.

As always, until next time!

Cry Me A Riva

Hello,

Firstly, be warned... I lost a fight with a mop at work two nights ago and came out with three nails broken down to the very nubbiny-ist of nubbins... it's not pretty, but they will grow out, and I actually think it's kind of cute with today's color choice, which leads me to...

A nice franken (that is to say, a homemade mix) of the much hyped, much overpriced Chanel Riva. I personally have no problem paying some steep prices for polishes (I'm looking at you, Rescue Beauty Lounge)... but I draw the line at Chanel's normal $23 a bottle... needless to say I wasn't gonna cough up $30 for something I could make on my own for $4 with polishes I bought at Target.

Anywho, here's my (from what I can tell based on swatches of the real thing) very good dupe of Chanel's Riva.

^ Direct Sunlight ^ 

^ Shade ^

^ Indoors, Indirect Sun ^

The first and last photos show that lovely in-the-bottle shimmer that Riva has, but the second I think is slightly more accurate to the color. This franken has a bit of the squishy look that Riva seems to get when built to full opacity, but the difference is that this is opaque in two light coats.

My Recipe for it is as follows:
1/2 Wet and Wild in French White Creme
1/3 New York Color in Cashmere Creme  
1/6 Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue Me Away

I also added a few drops of Revlon's Powder Puff because it was initially not light enough but I had run out of the W&W... but I don't think it changes the outcome too much.

All in all I'm quite happy about this color... is it entirely new and unique like Jade or Paradoxal was? No, no it's not. Is it a pretty pretty light blue that makes me happy? Yes, yes it is