OPI DS Mystery and DS Glow, Where I Have Been and My Nails

SO! Where have I been? Well, I did say I'd be gone most of December. The Winter Holidays are a time of much celebration and stuff to do in my life. Then on December 31, I had some surgery. I recovered just in time to start school, then get sick. Eyeroll and sigh. I am all better now, for the most part. But since I started clinicals in Nursing, I will be much busier. I have also run out of stuff to do daily polish posts about. I'll be posting stuff I buy, and most new collections, but I probably won't be posting daily any more. To top it all off, I have to keep my nails 1/8th inch from now on, so pretty much everything you are going to see from now on is fake nails. Eh, no biggie. I have one more collection to post, possibly tomorrow, then get ready for the POLISH MAYHEM 2009 POLISH COLLECTION AWARDS. My Top 5 Favorite and Least favorite Polish Collections of 2009!!!

So anyway on to OPI DS Mystery and DS Glow. I've been waiting for these a while, and I am sure most other blogs swatched these ahead of me. I like these. Same great DS formula, so very easy to use and so pigment rich. The shimmer in these is intense, pinpoint, and packs a nice punch. Your typical OPI DS. Great quality.

DS Mystery is a nearly black deep royal purple jelly with a bronze/old gold shimmer. Really nice. I expected a lighter shade, but this is lovely.


DS Glow is the same bronze/old gold shimmer as in DS Mystery, but that is all there is to this. I really love this. So many golds are frosts, or cremes with a lot of shimmer in them. This is slightly sheer, and is gonna look INCREDIBLE in the summer, next to a good tan. Wearing this is going to make you look like a summer goddess, trust me. Believe me you will be seeing it on my hands!


Nice. OPI DS polishes seem to disappoint me very seldom.

Island Girl Nail Polish

I dunno who makes this polish, Island Girl, but it has a VERY familiar sort of daisy shape on the top of the cap (no not Color Club). But it is sold at these stores in the mall called "ABC", which are the kind of convenience store that preys on hungry/needy shoppers and tourists and sells them massively overpriced items. I always ignore it until one day the corner of my eye caught a big nail polish display! These are only $2.99 and they have a large array of colors, but they are mostly very bright and/or glittery. So if you like that search them out.

I bought four but one ran away. I have no idea where it is, I mean it.

Island Girl Island Color is tiny pink and silver glitter, very opaque with a few coats.


Island Girl Island Volcanic is not volcanic, but it is a very nice blue semi-metallic. It has this neat grainy quality I really like. Reminds me very much of NDB Midnight. Easy to apply, and one coat perfect.


Island Girl Mahalo Dream - Very sheer orangy-pink jelly with rainbow glitter.

Hard Candy New Polishes at Walmart

These are a fine formula. They seem to be a lot of dupes of other polishes, so if the polish you want to dupe is over $5, you can buy these. Some of the polishes are quite pretty!

Hard Candy Envy is a black jelly with dark bluish green shimmer. Screams Zoya Suvi with way less shimmer. This is less $$ but also less pretty.


Hard Candy Hot Pants. When I saw this I said "Oh, hey! Nubar!" But it's cheaper and just as nice as their jelly glitters, so hey why not?


Hard Candy Mr. Wrong. Now this is a fairly close dupe of the incredible Sally Arabian Night I posted not too long ago, and while the base color isn't quite the same (I think Sally's is prettier) there is far more golden shimmer here, this is a STUNNER I would suggest everyone buy!!


There's another I have but I haven't swatched it yet. Stay tuned.

MollyHell's Grab Bag - Sinful Love Nails and Sinful Pinky Glitter

There's a sale at Walgreen's this week, buy one Sinful, get the second free! I think it runs through Sunday, Novermber 22nd. Here's two Sinfuls I bought, for a total of $2!

Sinful Love Nails:


Sinful Pinky Glitter:

MollyHell's Grab Bag - Clinique Black Honey Velvet

Clinique Black Honey Velvet is meant to be a companion to their wildly popular lipstick/lip gloss Black Honey. A dark sheer berry, you can make the lipstick lighter or darker in shade depending on the amount you apply. It's said to flatter all skin tones, and I believe it. It's a huge makeup staple for me.

The polish is the same berry but is only the darker shade. It's a jelly, and it applies surprisingly well for a makeup brand not focusing on nail polish. It's incredibly shiny. I got mine on eBay, as Clinique is no smarter than many companies and tends to discontinue their best stuff for no reason, like total idiots.

Clinique Black Honey Velvet:

China Glaze Wizard of Ooh Ahz Returns!

I got a great package today! Whee! Wizard of Ooh Ahz Returns! Here is what China Glaze has to say about it:

"Click your Ruby Pumps and come travel with China Glaze down the yellow brick road to meet "The Wizard of Ooh Ahz"! Just in time for the holidays, China Glaze is re-releasing the ever-so popular Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection! Very similar to the original version that was released in 2001, these colors will remind you of exactly why China Glaze glitters are always in the forefront! Colors in the 6 piece acetate include:
Ruby Pumps: An all time red glitter favorite!
Good Witch: Pink Frost with specks of pink micro-glitter
C-C-Courage: Purple Frost with specks of purple micro glitter
Dorothy Who?: Blue polish with massive amounts of silver and blue glitter!
Cowardly Lyin': Gold frost with specks of gold micro glitter
the Ten Man: Silver frost with specks of silver micro glitter

China Glaze will take you to that special polish place, some where over the rainbow with these gorgeous glitter polishes!"

The formula is good, stays in place. This stuff is a bit sheer, all of these pictures are three coats. It dries quickly. VERY sparkly. These pix are on glue-on nails (except Ruby Pumps). All have topcoat, which I think the frosts need as they dry semi-matte. Without further ado, the polishes:

Let's start with Ruby Pumps, ruby red jelly with red glitter. This has not changed from the Ruby Pumps they always sell, so it's of course gorgeous.


The Ten Man, frost with tiny bright sparks of silver. Glitterier than the picture. The tip of the bottom finger is how glittery the polish actually is, also the gold and pink and purple.


Cowardly Lyin' is also far glitterier than the picture. Rely on the bottle to see the flash, as somehow this and the silver kinda photographed more showing the frost base than the micro-glitter.


China Glaze Dorothy Who? is a nice medium blue jelly, kind of a light cobalt, with silver and blue tiny glitter, and I also see light purple micro glitter in there too. Even blingier than in the picture.


Good Witch is a very pretty medium rose frost with tons of pink micro glitter. Once again go look at the bottom finger tip of The Ten Man picture to know how sparkly this really is.


C-C-Courage is my favorite. A dark grape purple frost with a somehow dusky tinge to it, it has not only great little micro-stars of purple glitter but a super all-over purple sheen to it.


So there ya go. I do not know if these are glass flecks or not, the insert I quoted only says they are glitters. I will email China Glaze and ask, then update this post. Also there is no appearance of the rumored on Twitter redo of Emerald Sparkle with gold glass fleck. I know they re-released Emerald Sparkle recently in a sort of themed re-release of old colors for the Holidays, called "Love You Snow Much", which also had Ruby Pumps in it. Maybe the redo of Emerald Sparkle is a fiction, or maybe it'll come later. I'll try to see if I can get an answer on that.

MollyHell's Grab Bag! - China Glaze Wagon Trail

So I finally got China Glaze Wagon Trail! So let's compare it to MAC Seriously Hip and OPI At Your Quebec & Call, shall we? I will probably do an on-finger comparison too, later, but for now we can compare photos.

China Glaze Wagon Trail, olive brown shimmer with pinpoint rainbow shimmer:

MAC Seriously Hip is a black jelly, though, with olive shimmer, whereas Wagon's has a brown tone added. So similar, but not exact:

OPI At Your Quebec & Call - much lighter, but same color as Seriously Hip, if you get me. Has the pinpoint rainbow shimmer, maybe not as much as China Glaze Wagon trail?


All in all my fave is still OPI At Your Quebec & Call.

MollyHell's Grab Bag - Adoree Wild Inkberry

A great dark berry jelly, with tons of silver glitter. Applies easily, looks like a million bucks!

Adoree Wild Inkberry:

Halloween Leftover: Ulta Glow Get a Treat OPI Mini Set

Halloween is over, but I picked up this little mini set at Ulta for a whopping $2.99. It has three polishes, a white glow-in-the-dark, a light blue glow-in-the-dark and an orange creme. I have always wanted Boo-Berry, the blue one, so I snagged this set. Now I don't have to pay eBay prices! An added bonus to this pack: these two glow-in-the-dark polishes are by FAR the brightest I have tried, including Sally Beauty, other OPIS, Wet n' Wild, and China Glaze.


OPI Ghostess With the Mostess, the white GITD:


OPI Boo-Berry, the blue GITD, is very sheer but I LOVE the color:


OPI Pumped Up Pumpkin is darker orange creme than the Tattoo Ta-Boo orange, and I like it better.

MollyHell's Grab Bag! - Two Polishes Everyone Should Own

Two polishes everyone should own. Says it all right there.

BB Couture Fairy Blood. Super vibrant ruby red jelly with red glitter. In my opinion the best of the red jellies with red glitter, period. Intense color without staining the skin, easy to remove, and gorgeous.


And BB Couture Dragon's Breath, a juicy purple jelly with red, silver and blue glitter. Incredibly stunning.

Essie A Sweet Time Of Year Collection

I am not buying these, guys, so no swatches, but I did try them out today at Ulta. The Sweet Time of Year Collection is three polishes, a baby pink, a mint green, and a red. Same good Essie formula.

The pink is basically a French manicure color. It's a super sheer wash of baby pink. Reminded me a lot of their Yes We Can pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It's not worth it, in my opinion. The red is a nice semi-opaque jelly. It's a kind of geranium petal red, very brash. It has a nice feeling to it though. One coat gives a jelly semi-translucence, two coats full coverage. The mint is a nice bluish mint green, and had it been a jelly I would have gotten it too. But it was a creme, so I passed. Ulta has these buy one at $8.00 get one 50% off, or you can wisely buy the mini pack at Transdesign, or the full bottles much cheaper.

Color Club Japan Only?? Glitters!

I dunno anything about these glitters. I think they are a Japanese exclusive. They aren't even on Color Club's site, and frankly I am too lazy to email and ask them. Imagine that, being too lazy to email.

They have varying amounts of that beautiful, soft opalescent glitter I really love, and are pretty shades. The major drawback I found was these are MAJORLY gloppy. They're like spreading jelly with a nail polish brush. One of these took about THIRTY drops of polish thinner before I could even apply it. Maybe I got bad bottles. But these were a nightmare. A pretty, shiny, glittery nightmare. They're all sheer bases, with the darkest being the least sheer. All of these are three to FOUR coats, no topcoat. They dried pretty fast, though.

From lightest to darkest:

Color Club Limited Edition Pink Glitter. This is basically just glitter in a base so lightly tinted it makes no difference. The thing it's here for is the glitter. Tons of opalescent glitter. This was the thickest of the polishes.


Color Club Sakura Glow has the least amount of glitter, and only a small wash of pink. Would be nice as a layering glitter.


Color Club Strawberry Sharbet. Yes I know it's sherbEt, it's not my error. Slightly more glitter than Sakura Glow, and a bit more color to the jelly.


Color Club Strawberry Candle is the darkest of the pinks and it's a keeper, in my opinion.


Color Club Too Violet. It has the most opacity, and I think it's very pretty!


Not sure this collection is a must have. I really like the two darkest ones, though. I found these at Victoria Nail Supply.

O! A Daily OPI! - OPI DS Dazzle

Oh hell yes!

OPI DS Dazzle:

Color Club Wild At Heart Fall 2009 Collection

FINALLY I have these. I am in love with this set. It's got great vibrant colors, a healthy helping of holographic glitter, and only one boring color. Even the boring color has glitter! The formula is good, Color Club formula is nice and manageable for the most part, though frosts are almost always streaky and the ones in this set are pretty much no exception.

Onto the colors!

Color Club With Abandon is a strangely named black jelly with large grain brown shimmer. It manages to be dark but STILL be brown!! Would OPI please take notice?? Easy to apply since it's a jelly, needs two or more coats. I woulda named this one Do It In the Dirt.


Color Club On the Wild Side... ah here's that aforementioned streaky frost. What a waste of a gorgeous shade. Pure frosts like this look so old-fashioned and messy. But what a color!


Color Club Wild at Heart, well, I don't think I have ever taken a better picture. It applies like a dream, and looks like it was sprayed on by a professional. Trust me, this one will look just as good on you. It's not a holographic, but it has enough holo glitter to pack a very nice punch and to look sleek and shiny. And what a great, deep purple.


Color Club Love 'em Leave 'em, huh? I woulda named this Renegade Attorney, or Slightly Naughty Secretary. It's BEIGE. This needed to be canned and replaced by a rich ruby red with holographic glitter. they could have filled a large need in the polish world but gave us something you could probably get away with at work, but frankly is too boring for anywhere else, despite the nice holo glitter.


Rule Breaker is a gorgeous teal frost but it has so much shimmer added as well that it applies a bit better than On the Wild Side. Beautiful color, just I think it'd be best worn without color coordinating your clothes with it.


Color Club Wild and Willing is not done justice by my picture. It's a slightly sheer golden brown jelly with very vibrant shimmer. It reflects tons of light. it also has a small shot of gorgeous rose/green duochrome. Just fabulous.


So why am I so interested in the names? Who knows. I know no one cares about the names. They just made me go WTF this time. Heh.

China Glaze Spellbound Halloween Set and Fortune Teller!!

It's China Glaze, I don't THINK I need to tell you this stuff is incredibly cool and fun. But I will anyway. It's incredibly cool and fun.

The Spellbound set (I bought mine at Head2Toe Beauty and got them almost instantly, 4 piece set $8.97 or $2.99 each) has four polishes. White Out, which I didn't buy, I am ASSuming is a glossy white cream, and perfectly nice. The other three are:

China Glaze Liquid Leather, which I blogged about during China Glaze for days, which is a great, easy to apply black jelly that shines like patent leather:


China Glaze Ghoulish Glow is a slightly milky, slightly yellow clear topcoat. I have tried three GITD topcoats so far (will post about others later, already blogged about the Wet n' Wild one here. This one applies just fine, is a bit less yellow than others, and seems to be somewhat brighter than the others, but it fades fairly quickly. Not a bad choice if you want a glow in the dark polish.


China Glaze Spellbound is large orange glitter with medium sized silver glitter in a clear base. It's... like wearing a Las Vegas showgirl on your finger. WOW. This is four coats, it dried fairly quickly.


China Glaze Fortune Teller is sold separately, and is basically Lubu Heels but with orange glitter in the black jelly instead of red glitter. So it can't help but be fantastic, right? It's so fantastic even in the bottle, as I was in line at Sally's the woman behind me admired it then went to grab her own bottle. Now that's fantastic.

O! A Daily OPI! - OPI Hollywood and Wine

Who can resist a great deep red vampy jelly?

OPI Hollywood and Wine:

O! A Daily OPI! - OPI Lincoln Park After Dark

What better day to feature OPI Lincoln Park After Dark than today? I remembered this lighter than it is. I don't really see the point. It's only purple to me because I KNOW it's purple. It's the merest subliminal hint of purple. I might as well be wearing black.

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark:

MAC Style Black Polishes!

Okay yeah the world has had black polishes forevah! But luckily MAC brought, finally, some real thought and excitement to its polish this year. I love pretty much the whole Style Black collection, and will post about it later, but for now you need to see the polishes and buy them before they go away, and believe me these WILL go fast.

MAC Nocturnelle, glossy black jelly. No surprises here except for the fact it's a jelly not a creme. Who woke up to realize jellies exist?? A little hard to work with, and it bubbled and stained me a bit. I prefer China Glaze Liquid Leather. But this isn't a ripoff or anything, like most of the Trend Fall/Winter colors were.


MAC Seriously Hip is like they took my beloved OPI At Your Quebec & Call, made the shimmer grain larger, and dipped it in black jelly. FINALLY something new and exciting!! All is forgiven, MAC, come here and let me kiss you.


MAC Baby Goth Girl is another riff on the red-in-black-jelly idea, this time with a deeper more purplish wine red instead of a ruby red sequin feel. This is also a shimmer not a glitter. This makes it deeper, more sophisticated, yet no less sexy and shimmery than the ruby reds. And it was so easy to work with this is only one coat! Dunno about the name, this is not Baby anything, this is a hot woman who gets what she wants. I absolutely love it. SO Vampire. I want to see Eric wearing it.

O! A Daily OPI! - OPI Midnight Blue Glitter

OPI Midnight Blue Glitter is really great. It's a black jelly with very fine silver glitter in it, and fine cobalt glitter. The cobalt glitter tends to flash out with one huge chunk of light here and there on the nail, kinda like people are taking pictures on your nails, but the flash is blue. If you get me. I LOVE this. Totally red carpet.

OPI Midnight Blue Glitter: