Ciate Mini Mani Month Days 5-10

We finally have internet at home again, although we are trying to change companies and I doubt this will last long.  So without further a due here is the next 6 days of the Ciate Mini Mani Calendar.

All swatches below are three coats with no top coat.

Day 5: Hoopla

Ciate Hoopla - Sunshine

Ciate Hoopla - Shade

Day 6: Sugar Plum

Ciate Sugar Plum - Sunshine

Ciate Sugar Plum - Shade

Day 7: Main Stage 

Ciate Main Stage - Sunshine

Ciate Main Stage - Shade

Day 8:  Midnight in Manhattan (Caviar Pearls)

Ciate Midnight in Manhattan (Caviar Pearls) 

over Main Stage - Sunshine

Day 9: Candy Floss

Ciate Candy Floss - Sunshine

Ciate Candy Floss - Shade

Day 10: Pillow Fight

Ciate Pillow Fight - Sunshine

Ciate Pillow Fight - Shade

Lots of Love

Lisa

OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster

I Eat Mainely Lobster is from the 2011 OPI Touring America collection which is out in stores now.
This has to have been the most painful polish ever to get colour accurate photos of. I swatched this three times over a month and nearly gave up. Finally today I managed to get some colour accurate pictures!

OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster - Natural (overcast) light

This is a complex pinky/peachy/coral/orange colour. It is quite pigmented so you can get away with two coats. It has a golden/pink duochrome-ish shimmer running through it.

The first two times I swatched this in sunshine, shade, inside, outside and under white light it would appear orange in the photos. This is not orange. The golden shimmer running through it sort of gives it an orange hint. But I have classified this as a pinky coral colour. It has the same base colour as OPI Shootout at the OK coral.

Lots of Love
Lisa

This polish was sent to me by CandyGirl in New Zealand. Check out the "where to buy" tab at the top of this page to see the range of polishes they have for sale.

BYS Colour Change Salmon

I thought because BYS colour change purple ended up being so great and interesting I would try another of the creme colour changes from BYS. These seem to be selling well in New Zealand because they only had a couple of the colours left when I went back to get more the other day. So I picked up Salmon from this collection.

BYS Colour Change Salmon - sunshine - Cold

BYS Colour Change Salmon - sunshine - Hot

Salmon is a pretty accurate colour description for this polish. And a slightly better name than the other polishes have in this collection (e.g. purple, blue). It changes from a medium salmon peach colour to a very pale light salmon colour when it is warmed up.

This is three coats. It is a nice formula that is easy to apply and dries quickly. It does dry slightly matte though, but a glossy top coat fixes that problem (and as I discovered last time, the colour change still works with the top coat)

I finally got fed up with our lack of sun and crappy weather and spent today building myself a light box. I still need to get a new lightbulb, but hopefully it works out and I will be able to photograph swatches when ever I want to. Fingers crossed it works well :)

Hope your weekends are going well.

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI Shootout at the O.K. Coral

Hello lovely ladies.

Shootout At The O.K. Coral was a re-release from the American Collection (1995) as part of the Colorcopia collection from 2009.

It is one of my go to polishes when I don't know what to wear. And recently I got a top for work that matches perfectly with it.

I bought this from Jeans West about a month ago. It is a great colour. It is brighter in real life. I went back and bought the blue one yesterday as I love the top so i figured if it suits me I should get them all.

OPI Shootout at the O.K. Coral - natural light

OPI Shootout at the O.K. Coral - Sunshine
Here you can see the shimmer better if you enlarge it

This is after 24 hours of wear at work. the little bits of tip wear a across between shrinkage from my top coat and wear.

I really like this polish because it applies more like a jelly polish. It seems like a cross between a shimmer and a jelly. This is three coats and is still a little opaque. But it is supper easy to work with. The shimmer is an iridescent purple-ish colour.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Zoya Poppy vs OPI Melon of Troy

So I was trying out some of my untried zoya's (actually almost all of my zoya's are untried, I guess I don't really enjoy any of them as much as I thought I would when I went crazy buying them in America) and I got out Zoya Poppy and thought "ohhh that's a pretty colour - I'll try that"

Zoya Poppy - Sunshine

It is a cute orange peach coral colour from the Bouquet collection. This is three coats and went on perfectly fine. But while I was doing this manicure I kept thinking "I have used this colour not very long ago - it is so similar to Melon of Troy"

So here it is (I redid this on a sunny day so it looks better than the last post in which I posted this here)

OPI Melon of Troy - Sunshine

Melon of Troy is from the 2004 Greek isles collection but is now part of the regular collection so luckily it is easy to get. This is three coats aswell. I find OPI's easier to apply because of the prowide brush.

The light here is slightly different from the light Poppy's photo was taken in (weird because they were on the same day in the same place, but somehow Poppy is in more yellow light) so here is a comparison of each polish on the same hand

Can you tell the difference? It is pretty hard to. I think Poppy is very slightly more yellow than Melon of Troy and Poppy looks slightly more opaque.

I definitely don't think you need both of these (unless you are like me and forget/don't realize you have one before you buy the other). I wouldn't go as far to call them 'dupes' but they are pretty close.

Posts may become a little more infrequent over the next two weeks as I officially hand in my thesis on Thursday the 30th, and I have a lot of work to go before then :S

Lots of Love
Lisa

Upcoming Summer Trends: #2 Coral

Trend number two is one I am more excited about. Coral - Peach, Pink, Shimmer and Creme.

OPI Dancing in the Isles

This is from the 2004 Greek Isles Collection, it might still be available online but I don't think you'll find it in the shops.

BYS Pink Splash

Ive had this polish for a couple of years now so I don't think it is available anymore - but as an example of this trend it is a good one. This actually has a yellow shimmer to it (Click the picture to make it bigger to see)

OPI Melon of Troy

One of my favourites. Slightly more orange but still in line with this trend. This is also from the 2004 Greek isles collection but is now part of the regular collection (available at Department stores and pharmacies for $25)

Other polishes to try for this summer trend which are available in New Zealand are:

Essie Haute as Hello (available at Radius Pharmacies and some Salons for around $23)

Revlon Tropical Temptation (available at pharmacies and department stores for around $17)


BYS Caribbean Crush (available from Cosmetics Plus for around $8)

Bloom Bettina (available at Farmers for around $15)

More Summer trends to come :)
Lots of Love
Lisa

Coral Peach Holo Comparison

Taking a step back from the Neons today (there will be more later in the week) and here is another Holographic Comparison for you.

Left to Right: OPI Bay Bridge Sunset, China Glaze TTYL, OPI DS Reserve

First up is OPI Bay Bridge Sunset. This is one of the very sought after polishes from the Japanese Exclusive Yokohama Collection. I am working on getting more from this collection, but when they are asking for US$30-$40 for each bottle on ebay, I have to say No. That is flat out ridiculous, and I hope they stay on there forever and never sell, because no polish is worth that much. Luckily one of my bridesmaids is going to Japan in November so fingers crossed she can find some then. :)

OPI Bay Bridge Sunset - sunshine

OPI Bay Bridge Sunset - sunshine - closer up

This has a scattered holographic effect. 2 coats, that went on perfectly. It looks like it is full of glitter dust, and is very pretty.

Second is China Glaze TTYL. Now I don't actually know what TTYL stands for (naive I know - sorry) But if you know what it means please let me know :)

China Glaze TTYL - sunshine

As you all know by now I Love the China Glaze OMG Collection. This is 2 coats, which apply easy and dry fast. The holographic is this is linear (straight lined) and appears to make each finger look like a little rainbow in the sun. This one has the strongest holographic-ness of the three polishes (but that may just be because it is easier to see because it isn't scattered out).

The final polish is OPI Reserve from the Designer Collection. I saw some of these on ebay going for quite high prices as well, I think I bought most of mine a year ago and I paid regular prices for mine, so I'm not sure why this is happening.

OPI DS Reserve - sunshine

Designer Series polishes are said to have "Diamond Dust" in them, creating the holographic effect. This is again a scattered, slightly muted, holographic appearance. I thought it might have been a bit pinker than the other too, but it isn't really. Again 2 coats, that applied easily and dry time was average.

Finally is the side by side comparison:

You can clearly see the difference between the China Glaze linear holographic and the scatter holographic of the other two OPI polishes. DS Reserve has bigger glitter and holographic particles than Bay Bridge Sunset. All three have a very similar colour appearance.

My recommendation would depend on how holographic you want your polishes to be. If you want the in your face holographic - you would go for the China Glaze (this is still the easiest and cheapest of the three to get). DS Reserve may be easier to get than Bay Bridge Sunset, so eiter is fine if you can get it.

I hope this helped :)

Lots of Love
Lisa

OPI Bright Lights - Big Color + Konad

OPI Bright Lights - Big Color

This is OPI Bright Lights - Big Color. Very pretty. Its a shimmery polish from the OPI Brights collection. This was 3 coats. It changes colour in the light from orange to pink to yellow to coral. (so I've tagged this as coral)

The first time I tried this colour I didn't really like it much, I didn't think it suited my colouring but it has grown on me and I am quite fond of it now.

Again continuing on with Konad plate m36, I used white konad polish to stamp some flowers on top of this NOTD. (Sorry its a bit hard to see in the sun) I think the white on BLBC was a good combination and I would do it again.

Lots of Love
Lisa

China Glaze BFF

Another amazing holographic polish from the China Glaze OMG collection. This one is a rosey red colour called BFF.

Outside in Sunshine

Again only 2 thin coats that glide on easily and dry quickly. You can not really fault china glaze for this great collection. These all look amazing in the sun, and still show up holographic in the shade.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Miki Nail Polish

Hope everyone had a good Easter holiday. I really appreciated my four days off - and I didn't have to work because the shops were shut on Friday - yay for me!

I was at the pharmacy today buying some sticky plasters and on the counter they had a display of little polishes. At fist I was like 'No' I don't need any and they cant be that good for that price. But then I was talking to the lady and she said they were new in and for only $2.99 each - I relented. I got 5! And I may be going back for more. They had some neons I was quite keen on getting.

I have never heard of Miki before and googleing didn't help. There was nothing on there. The bottle says they are made in Australia.
These are mini polishes, only 7mls which is 0.23fl.oz.

Anyways this is what I got:

As far as I can tell they don't have names - just numbers on the bottom of the bottle.

BO4620 was a medium shimmer blue. I thought it was just kind of average.

This one has the flash on

BO4110 was a coral glitter. Jelly based with matching glitter. This was 2 coats, but I think it would be better as a top coat.


BO4250 is my favourite of the bunch. Its a pastel aqua-green. Here is three coats. It has a slight shimmer to it.


BO3510 yellow creme. Horrible application. It was thick and gluggy and ohhhh so streaky. Here is three coats. It was quite opaque after 2 but still very visible streaks. This polish made the brand seem cheaper to me. Although it did give good coverage for a yellow.


BO4370 this was a medium blue jelly glitter. This is pretty. Again you still have visible nail line, but this would make a nice top coat. I like it by itself, as a not out-landish, look-at-me, over-the-top blue glitter.

I've changed my mind - I think i like this colour best!

Overall the two glitter polishes had a good application, they were a good consistency and went on easily, starting to redeemed this brand in my opinion a bit after the terrible yellow.

The bottles are small and the big silver square handle is hard to use, but they have a regular size brush, which I like. Drying time on these polishes was quite quick (except for the yellow).

Its getting really cold and yucky here now. Almost no sun at all. Today its overcast and freezing and pictures are getting harder to take without the natural light. Sorry :( I'm still learning.

Lots of Love
Lisa