Blogs of Note

Happy Sunday!  Here are 3 more blogs.

First today is Konadomania.  Despite the name, not all her posts are Konad related but there are a lot of them.  She has medium length nails and sometimes has some makeup posts thrown in there too.


Next is Lacquered Literati.  Owner Legra has been on a break, but you can always search the archives.  She has a lot of shimmer polishes and medium length nails.


Last today is Lextard.  Not only does she review nail polish on her medium length nails, but also makeup sometimes.  She pretty much just does straight swatches linked from her Flickr account, but it's still a great read.


Enjoy!

China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le

Check it out!  My bottle is totally floating.


China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le was a blue (yes blue) from the Operation: Colour Fall 2007 collection and requested from reader Brittany, so here you go girl!  Now, I know that China Glaze's own website has this as a purple on their website swatches, but I assure you, it's not purple!  I used a base of Seche Natural, 2 coats of Secret Peri-Wink-Le and a top coat of Seche Vite.  This was an opaque polish but I nicked my index finger as I was walking outside to take pictures.  Also, note that my awesome bottle says "Secrect", not "Secret".  ^_^

In the sun you can see that this polish looks a little thin but really I needed to buff my ridges out (or use a ridge filler, but I prefer buffing).  My bottle is also a little weathered.  I know you can add thinner to thick polishes but sometimes I wonder how to make polishes thicker?  This really wasn't the case here, because it is a great polish even 3 years later.  This was actually the first collection I ever purchased (and I didn't purchase the entire collection!).

In the shade you can see a bit of blurple but it's still way more blue.  It kind of reminds me of a corn silk blue?  Either way, it's a nice creme that would go great with some daisy nail art I think!

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [official website].

China Glaze Naughty and Nice

I may or may not have jumped for joy when Mr. FedEx stopped at my house this morning.  The best part is that he honks his horn three times - as to alert me?  Anyway, I threw on clothing (I was in PJs) and ran out there like a kid on Christmas morning (literally).  Yes, it was my China Glaze "Naughty or Nice" winter collection!  As I do, I'm swatching by the the color not collection, so it's going to take me a few weeks to get through this collection.  However, I might post 2 a day, depending on how I get stuff swatched.  I really like to take my time and let you know how it applied.  I wear top coat always, so I have to say, I'm not good when it comes to a wear test - I never wear anything over a week anyway!

First up is Naughty and Nice which is listed as a deeply rich wine creme.  Deeply rich apparently means black :P  I used a base of Seche Natural, 2 coats of Naughty and Nice and a top of Seche Vite.  I did note that this polish's formula was a bit runny thick.  Now that sounds like a huge contradiction, I know.  It was like the Vintage Vixen collection - you had to wipe both sides of the brush on the neck of the bottle because at first the polish felt like it was thick but then you'd get a glob of polish that came down from the handle and splurted on your nail (if you didn't wipe it).  I also think it doesn't help that this stuff was sitting on a plane and then several trucks before it got to me, so it needs to settle a bit.  I prefer to store all my bottles standing straight up, labels out (in brand and then rainbow order.  Oh yes, I'm that specific).

Check how dark this color is!  The red near my cuticles isn't a picture flaw, it's the first coat's ending of the color.  It's just a very dark purple!

In the shade, this color is just black.  Hah.  But it's very shiny!

Just so you can see, this is what it looks like on my cotton round when I removed it.  It's a very dark plum alright - good stuff.  I think it would be great for a Christmas party with some Party Hearty layered over it!  ^_^

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [official website].

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

MAC Formidable!

When I first heard of the Venomous Villains MAC collection, I was super excited about the three nail polishes.  I went to my local (one hour north) MAC counter, and told the salesperson that I wanted to pre-order all three, and so she took my name down and did just that!  Now, I know that two of the colors are complete dupes for the Orly FX collection, but Orly is HARD to come by where I live.  (Formidable! is a dead on dupe for Orly Galaxy Girl)  Now, granted I say that, and then all of a sudden we get an Ulta (same place as the MAC counter) and they had THREE SETS of Orly FX, but by that time I had already gotten my MACs.  Anywho.

This isn't my first MAC polish but it is the first one on this blog.  I purchased 2 on a whim to try them out but neither color had wowed me so I hadn't worn them out yet.  Formidable! is a dark purple with teal blue shimmer - it's been compared to the color of a bruise.  Now the sun pictures just flat out aren't pretty to me - especially not the bottle.

I used a base of Seche Natural, 3 coats of Formidable! and still had VNL and a top of Seche Vite.  The formula was okay but a bit thin I felt, especially for the price.

Lots of purple here.  It's almost a rusty purple if that makes sense.  Like I said, not a fan of this color in the sun.

However, you get this bottle in the indirect sun or shade and well... let me just post pictures.  First the bottle.

Ooh pretty colors!  Next, indirect sun pictures

See how this gets more interesting?  Finally, shade

I'm still not completely sold on this color but it is very unique in my collection.  I can see this color working all year round because of the flash of teal that you see in the shade.  I'm on the fence.

MAC retails for $13 a bottle and can be purchased at MAC stores, counters or online.  Currently online, Formidable! is sold out and there isn't any word if there will be restocking.  Check your local MAC counter/store!

Chanel Paradoxal

I have a lot of nail blogs that I follow, and this past season, Chanel Paradoxal was ALL the rage.  People have gone nuts trying to dupe this color or find a dupe (Barry M and Models Own have very close dupes I've seen).  I really wasn't interested in a purple taupey grey but I figured I'd go to the Chanel counter and just ask "Do you have a bottle of Paradoxal" and if they did, I'd buy it and if they didn't, I'd move on.  Well, they had one, so here we are.


Did you know that the boxy Chanel cap is a fake?  I didn't until I pulled it off by accident.

Now you can paint with either the small round grooved top or the thick block top - either one works just as well.


Paradoxal is a smoky grey with purple shimmer.  I used a base of Seche Natural, 2 fully opaque coats of Paradoxal and a top of Seche Vite.

Here in the sun you can see the purple well but the grey isn't as pronounced.  It almost looks like a hazy fog?

In the shade, you can see more of the dirty grey coming though and just a bit of the purple in the bottle.  I think I need colder weather to feel like this is an awesome color but it seems so out of place with all the sun I have here.  It's just barely getting down to the 80s as far as weather goes!  For the price, I don't feel this was a unique color or the best formula, but you're wearing Chanel... if brands matter - then go for it.  :P


Chanel sells for $23 a bottle and can be purchased in stores or online.