Polishes Mentioned in Essie North Fork Post

Just to post pics of my alternatives casually mentioned when discussing Essie's North Fork Collection, I present:


Misa Dirty, Sexy, Money



China Glaze Caribbean Blue

Essie's North Fork Collection

As many people were I was excited by Essie's North Fork Collection. Purported to be colors inspired by eastern beach towns, they looked very nice online, and in swatches.

My verdict: They're nice, but nothing super special.

Essie Greenport is a nice soothing green creme, but frankly you might not need it if you have Misa Dirty Sexy Money. Misa DSM is greyer, and a bit darker, but it is basically the same type of green. It wouldn't hurt to have both, Greenport is a nice shade and maybe "nicer" than DSM, more friendly, less cutting edge, if you know what I mean. But if you are not green crazy, or polish crazy, you could probably pick a similar color and not miss Greenport. But simultaneously I think it is nice and worth owning...

Essie Greenport:


Essie Shelter Island is a nice sky blue creme. It gets a nice C+. You can absolutely buy a cheaper polish and get this color, it is absolutely average and unnecessary. For my money China Glaze Caribbean Blue beats it hands down.

Essie Shelter Island:


Essie Sag Harbor is a great cloudy day sea grey-blue with shimmer. I think it's the winner of the bunch, strangely. You could probably find a polish close to this one, but frankly I don't know of any, so I love it and say BUY!! It really does remind me of sailing and blustery days at the shore battling the crisp wind in a beautiful sailboat, enjoying a hot coffee and the sea spray.

Essie Sag Harbor:


So anyway I guess I am at odds here. On one hand I like the collection, on the other hand I think you can kill your lemming for these a lot more cheaply elsewhere. You decide, chum!

More Sally Hansen Prisms!

As promised, here are more Sally Hansen Prism swatches! I get my discontinued Sally Hansens from CassieCosmetics on eBay. Quick efficient service and always what I ordered. Some prices are decent, some a bit eyebrow raising.

Anyway feast your eyes on the following!

Sally Hansen Prisms Lapis Amethyst:


Sally Hansen Prisms Fire Opal:


Sally Hansen Prisms Golden Cinnabar:


Sally Hansen Prisms Bronze Ruby:


Sally Hansen Prisms Scarlet Ruby:


Sally Hansen Prisms Coral Amber:

Nail of the Day - Nubar Mellow Yellow 4/28/09

Today is Nubar's Mellow Yellow. I was very meh about this when I saw the bottle, sent to me by the fantastic Carla.

But putting it on, I changed my mind. The formula of this frost shimmer by Nubar is amazing. It's like spreading on whipped mousse. It held to the brush well, and stayed exactly where I put it. It seriously felt like I was spreading whipped lemon mousse on my nails. It was fantastic!

And it turned out to be pretty interesting. Not quite a neon, but a bright lemon yellow with a subtle and nice lime green shimmer to it. I was happy with it! If you like yellows, try it! It's a nice change from the golden yellows.

BB Couture Beach Collection Part 2!

The rest of the Beach Collection are just as stunning as the first part I posted about. All the colors are rich and lovely, the jellies glow and are deep. I am deeply in love with this collection.

The rest of'em!

BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan:


BB Couture Balboa Beach Bunny:


BB Couture Midnight Malibu:


BB Couture Sunset Surfer Girl is not only much pinker, almost a neon, sorry for the bad picture, but is already discontinued and replaced by Hermosa Surfer Girl, previously blogged about.


BB Couture Zuma Wave Rider:


One I do not own, Santa Monica Sands, is a beige creme with glitter.

BB Couture Beach Collection!

I cannot tell you enough how much I love the new BB Couture Beach Collection. They all have glitter for one thing, which is a huge plus right there, and the colors are vibrant, unusual and simply gorgeous. I am crazy about each and every one of them. Kudos BB Couture!!

The formula is nice, not runny, the only one that even approaches thick is Laguna Lagoon, which is a creme, so not too surprising and easy to fix. Two coats for cremes, three for jellies gives good coverage.

THANK YOU to Carla for these!!!

Here are some, rest tomorrow:

BB Couture Laguna Lagoon:


BB Couture Butt-Naked Bronze:


BB Couture Hermosa Surfer Girl:


BB Couture Catalina Cutie:


BB Couture Venice Party:

Polish of the Day - Sally Hansen Chrome Burmese Ruby

Another luscious discontinued polish!! I see many more in the future. Thank you Rebecca!

These apply badly. Runny, and they dry so fast you are sure to get clumpage unless you apply very quickly. Also it shows EVERY nail ridge, use a ridge filler! I had to reapply three nails per hand.

I will, nonetheless, be getting more of these.

Sally Hansen Chrome Burmese Ruby, a burgundy metallic:


Tyler Durden's Opinion of Sally Hansen Burmese Ruby:
Ok, I got it. Shit, I lost it.

Similar or Matching Polishes: #2 In a Series - China Glaze Moonpool

We all have polishes we long for that are discontinued. Sometimes you can find them on an out of the way website, sometimes for mucho dinero on eBay.

Or you can franken your own duplicate, or best yet find an almost exact duplicate, which I have done here.

Moonpool is a discontinued green with gold shimmer from China Glaze. Oh, I get a lot of hits on my Moonpool photo!! But now, you can have your own almost exact duplicate. These pictures are a bit more dissimilar than the comparisons, so keep reading.

Behold Icing Money Tree:


Compare with China Glaze Moonpool:


Icing's formula is similar to the China Glaze one used for Moonpool. They both are slightly runny, but nothing bad, slightly sheer but two coats gives fine coverage. They dry decently fast. Both are shimmer laden frosts that show a bit of brushstroke. Are they 100% exact dupes? No. Money Tree is slightly greener, because Moonpool has a bit more golden shimmer. But Icing Money Tree is available. Moonpool is not.

The rub: Icing Money Tree is only available (at my Icing anyway) in a set of 5 polishes, for $14.00. But, the upside is you get 5 nice polishes for what you might be able to get Moonpool for, plus shipping, on eBay. And its companion polishes are nice.



Side by side comparisons:

New MAC Rose Romance Limited Polish!

I swung by the mall today, to be greeted by a new MAC polish! Love & Friendship is a creme in the Rose Romance collection, a sort of dusty lavender grape color. It's a bit thick, but a drop of Poshe Polish Reviver should take care of it. It has nice coverage and I actually quite like it! It's chic and summery without being too pastel.

Buy before it sells out, like the Sugarsweet polishes.



Tyler Durden's Opinion of MAC Love & Friendship:
Forget about what you think you know about life, about friendship, and especially about you and me.

Nail of the Day - Sinful Hottie 4/24/09

Today's polish is Sinful Hottie!

Sinful is a drugstore brand, here at Walgreen's it sells for $2 a 0.5 ounce bottle. They have some pretty nice colors I will blog about later.

Sinful Hottie is a sheer denim blue jelly with a ton of glitter in it. The glitter is very much like the sparks you see in the depths of an opal, kinda candy colored without being pastel at all. It also has a jellylike texture from all the glitter. It spreads well and evenly, and dries very quickly, allowing many coats. I used four today, the picture is three. When you run your finger across the polish surface and it feels bumpy, Hottie is dry and ready for another coat. It's beautiful and simultaneously somehow blingy yet understated.

Pick Hottie up and enjoy!!




Tyler Durden's opinion of Sinful Hottie:
Recycling and speed limits are bullshit. They're like someone who quits smoking on his deathbed.

Essie Summer 2009 Neons

I LOVE these! As I blogged about when posting about Funky Limelight, the formula is pretty standard neon polish formula. They go on a bit streaky, they dry a bit too quickly, but they are pretty decent anyway, and relatively easy to use. And bright... WOW!! These are eye-popping, and very hard to photograph. You will not be disappointed, unless of course you dislike neons.

The first is a gorgeous, OPAQUE yellow neon, called Funky Limelight. I am going to get another bottle of this, I think it is outstanding in every way. An opaque yellow neon as bright as a highlighter marker? Instant win.



Next up is a soft pink called Punchy Pink. It's nice, you could probably call it hot pink were it not for another color in the series, Flirty Fuchsia, which really IS hot pink. This manages to be a softer pink while still neon. Who knew it was possible. Forgive the picture, it is so bright it just would not photograph well.



Third up is Perky Purple, a juicy hot reddish purple. I got a lot of compliments on this one, it's a stunning eyecatcher.



Last up is Flirty Fuchsia. As previously stated, it's HOT pink. Violent pink, and it almost vibrates on your finger. Sometimes a neon like this can look orange toned on the fingernails, but this stays very true to the color in the bottle, as all of this collection does. And it's gratifying and impressive that they do. Once again, bad photo, this eyebleeder even shocked my camera.




So, if you like neons or are even curious, BUY THESE!!! I think they are hot stuff!


Tyler Durden's opinion of Essie 2009 Neons:
Time to stand up for what you believe in.

Finally an OPAQUE NEON YELLOW!!!

I've tried a fair number of neon yellows. Some are beautiful, some look like I peed on my fingers. But all are sheer even with multiple coats.

But now Essie's new summer neons bring us a magic event - an OPAQUE neon yellow!!

Essie Funky Limelight:


Essie's formula is pretty standard for a neon. It dries very quickly, even on the nail as you polish if you are too slow. So it can streak, which accounts for the 99% instead of 100% opacity. But it also means no mudslides (that annoying slippage to the side of polish which is wet under a dry top layer) and also you are free to go about your business quickly. But it's pretty easy to use despite that and for this kind of opacity in a neon yellow I would put up with FAR worse. I couldn't find it online, but I didn't look hard, I snagged this as part os an Essie mini sampler set. I'll post the other colors soon. ENJOY!!!


A couple other neon yellows, for comparison:
Nina Ultra Pro Solar Flare:


China Glaze Celtic Sun:


Tyler Durden's opinion of neon yellow polishes:
Did you know that if you mix equal parts of gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate you can make napalm?

Patting My Own Frankenback

After all the NARS Zulu foofooraw I read, I wanted to try my hand at frankening a copy. Which I did, using a green jelly, and black. Nice, people, nice. But I'm more a glitter girl.

So I added some glitter. Why not email me your opinion of my handblended polish at polishmayhem@gmail.com?

I present, MollyHell's Jungle Boogie!


Tyler Durden's opinion of MollyHell's Jungle Boogie:
We are consumers. We're the by-products of a lifestyle obsession.

Cheap Cheap Cheap! A Little Bird Told Me...

Sally Beauty little bottles of polish. Eighty-nine cents with your Sally card. TRY THEM, they actually have some great colors!

In fact, one Sally Beauty will save you a bunch of cash if you choose it over some nice OPI polish. Behold:





And they have a lot more fun little colors. Try some!






Tyler Durden's opinion of Sally Beauty polishes:
We are all part of the same compost heap.

Similar or Matching Polishes - #1 in a Series: Black Jellies With Red Glitter

This isn't exactly timely, but it serves as a good beginning, especially since some of the polishes, maybe all, are still available.

Black jellies with red glitter. Lovely aren't they? Probably the best known is China Glaze Lubu Heels. If you buy it off a wholesale site online, pretty darn reasonable too. A lot of people I know love it.

Don't ever buy it for $$$$ if it gets discontinued! You'll have many places to find the same exact color. And I mean EXACT same polish. Not similar, not a good match, not a darn fine stand-in, I mean the SAME polish.

Icing Signature Runway, Piggy Polish Midnight Fireflies, Petites Black Rouge, and Precision Rebel Red - all exactly the same as China Glaze Lubu Heels. All black jelly with exactly the same size and shade red glitter. So buy the cheapest, honey!!


Index: Piggy Polish Midnight Fireflies
Middle: China Glaze Lubu Heels
Ring: Icing Signature Runway
Pinky: Petites Black Rouge






Precision Rebel Red not pictured, but guarantee you it is the same as above polishes.


Tyler Durden's opinion of black jellies with red glitter:
How's that working out for you, being clever.