China Glaze It's Alive!

Halloween is just around the corner!  I can't believe how fast this year's gone by, but Halloween is by far one of the best holidays, so I'm super excited!  I'm even MORE excited, because I finally get to bust out my Halloween-themed olive green polishes!  Woooo!!  I'm kicking off the last few days until Halloween with China Glaze It's Alive!

First of all, as is only appropriate...

Or, even BETTER:

I love Gene Wilder.  Anywho...on to the polish!  It's Alive (I'm going to drop the ending exclamation point now) is a mixture of large hexagonal and small round olive greenish gold glitter in a murky blue-green base.  I'm not gonna lie - the application wasn't so great with this one.  This stuff is THICK.  I'm showing you a mere two coats here, and it's ridiculously opaque.  They're certainly not skimping in the coverage department, but I think China Glaze could've thinned out the formula a bit and still gotten just as good opacity.  It's also a bit of a thirsty glitter, so expect to use at least two thick coats of top coat.  Formula issues aside, LOOK AT EET!

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HOLY GUACAMOLE!  It's not often I'll put up with craptastic application, but It's Alive is worth every painful, gloopy coat!  It's like Swamp Thing fell into a vat of glitter, and it's BEAUTIFUL.  I LOVE it!  Hubby told me (and I quote), "Ooh, I like that one.  I REALLY like that one!  That actually might be one of my favorites."  He's got good taste, what can I say?  ;-)

It's Alive was released with this year's China Glaze Halloween collection, so if you want it, now's the time to get it!  Though if you're patient enough to wait until after Halloween, you can probably find it at heavily discounted prices.  This is easily a Top 20 polish for me, and I'm metaphorically standing on top of a mountain screaming, "YOU NEED THIS!"  Go.  Run.  Now!

I've still got one more olive green (and also Halloween!) polish left, which I'll show you two different ways, so stay tuned!

OPI Glitzerland

I'm back!  Yay!!  I scheduled my posts about a week in advance, so you guys hardly even knew I was gone, but  the hubby and I took a five-day trip back to the homeland of the Mississippi Gulf Coast for his best friend's wedding.  It's always nice to take a vacation, but getting back into the swing of things afterward is difficult.  Blogging is no different.  We got back super late Monday night, but between complete exhaustion, unpacking, laundry, and work, I'm just now getting the chance to show you guys what I wore for my trip.  I wanted something lighter in color so the inevitable chipping wouldn't show up as well.  Light certainly doesn't have to mean boring, so I went with OPI Glitzerland.

Glitzerland is a pale gold foil.  It's kind of a "blonde" gold, so it's very neutral in tone, which means it's more universally flattering than most golds that lean more yellow.  For being a foil, I didn't find it to be very sparkly, which kind of surprised me, but it does give a nice shimmer.  The formula was great, but the pigmentation is a little on the thin side, so it took me three coats to reach full opacity, but the application was perfection.

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Nice, right?  Nothing too fancy, and I'm definitely not over-the-moon about it, but it's pretty and it got the job done.  It held up well to the constant battering it got on the trip, and what few chips I got concealed pretty well.  I think it's a good staple polish, and I'm planning on using it as my base color underneath OPI Spark de Triomphe.  Must conserve the pretties!!  Not sure if Glitzerland made the core collection cut, but it was released with last fall's Swiss collection, and should be pretty easy to find still.  Yay!

Now, just because I love you guys, I'm sharing with you a funny photo that we took in my hometown of Long Beach, Mississippi:

Only in the South do you get the American flag flying over Mississippi's controversial state flag, flying over the Waffle House sign (those restaurants are EVERYWHERE down there), flying over some big old confederate guns.  I promise we don't run around barefoot and eat raccoons.  Squirrels taste better.  Haha!  JUST KIDDING!  :-P  Here's a better photo for you guys:

The view just blocks from where I lived.  Ahhhh...

Hope you guys are having a great week!!  :-)

butter LONDON Blagger

Who came up with the expression "Got the blues"?  Meaning you are sad or depressed?  Cause I tell you one thing, blue makes me happy!  Especially cobalt blue nail polish like Butter London's Blagger!!!!  Sure, this is just a plain old creme, but the shade is just perfect.  It's rich and bright.  It's also a 1 coater :).  You can tell from the pictures that I need a ridge filling basecoat if I'm only doing one coat, but those of you with healthy nails will do just fine.  I've been slowly purging my stash, ans swatched this with some of my other blues, and this one just really blew all the others out of the water.  Unfortunately in my comparison picture I took for you guys, I didn't make a note of which ones I compared, plus it turned out really color inaccurate.  It's way more vibrant and lush than any of my other blues that's for sure.  Oh, and this was also without a top coat.  SUPER SHINY!!!!!

So according to the butter LONDON dictionary, Blagger means a charlatan!  What a fun name for this polish.  Whoever gets to name polishes at butter LONDON has the best job ever.  Seriously.  Maybe I just found my dream job!

butter LONDON Blagger

butter LONDON Blagger

Blagger came out in the spring of 2011 collection.  You can still get it at Ulta or at butter LONDON's website for $14.

Can't Win 'Em All: Butter London Yummy Mummy

Finding the perfect nude polish has been an epic battle.  It seems like no matter what I do, they just don't work for me.  I blame it on my wonky skin tone.  It has strong yellow undertones, so anything too cool-toned fails, but then nudes that are too yellow don't work either.  I don't get it.  I ADORED Butter London All Hail the Queen, but I'm still on the hunt for something a little closer to my skin tone.  You guys know I love me some Butter London, and the brand themselves say Yummy Mummy is "simply stunning on EVERY skin colour."  Who am I to argue with CAPITALIZATION?  I threw in Yummy Mummy with my Ulta Buy 1 Get 1 purchase.

Yummy Mummy is a "medium beige" nude with subtle silver shimmer.  Almost a secret shimmer.  The color is almost a taupe, and I think it leans a little on the cool side (but I'm horrible with the warm/cool thing).  The application was a little subpar for Butter London, but after two coats everything evened out and opaque.  So, is Yummy Mummy my Perfect Nude??

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Not even close.  I want to love this, but it just looks weird on me.  Even my hubby told me "it doesn't go with your skin or something."  So right, dear.  I fear Yummy Mummy is just too cool-toned for me.  Sigh.  Wonky skin tone wins again.  Perfect Nude - I WILL find you!

So Yummy Mummy didn't work so well for me, but it is one of their best-selling colors, so if you're on a quest for your Perfect Nude, it's worth giving it a shot.  Hopefully it'll be just what you're looking for!  :-)

SpaRitual Shooting Star

So here is the other half of my SpaRitual haul (told you it was small).  I loved Sacred Ground, but I'm obsessed with Shooting Star.  It's a beautiful and shiny magenta color with pink micro-glitter and gold shimmer in it.  The pink micro-glitter is very pronounced, but the gold shimmer is more subtle.  I didn't actually even realize it was there until I removed it and it was pretty obvious on the cotton ball.  This is one of those glow from within polishes.  And just like Sacred Ground, Shooting Star is very unique, unlike anything else I have.  Again, the formula is awesome.  These pictures are without top coat.  Is is so shiny and smooth.  And sparkly.  The polish is beautiful indoors, but outside it just sparkles.  This is two coats.  

SpaRitual Shooting Star

SpaRitual Shooting Star

SpaRitual Shooting Star

Shooting Star is part of the 2011 Holiday collection called Twinkle.  It's brand new so should be easy to pick up.  Like I said yesterday, I haven't even seen SpaRitual in a store, but they are easy to find online at stores like Aveyou.com and Beauty.com for $10 a bottle.

SpaRitual Sacred Ground

When SpaRitual first appeared on the nail polish blogger scene, I didn't have a real desire to try it.  People raved about the formula, but my rapidly expanding collection didn't need any other new brands to obsess over.  That is until they released Sacred Ground as part of the Fall 2011 Wilde collection.  I started seeing people post swatches of this baby and I couldn't help myself.  I just had to have it.  It was unique and beautiful, so I told myself I could do it and did a mini SpaRitual haul.

Sacred Ground really is beautiful.  It sophisticated and edgy, while still being shimmery and glittery. I've worn this a few time since this initial swatch, as both a mani and pedi.  The polish itself goes on great, this was two coats.  It's a grey polish packed with silver, gold, and lavender micro-glitter.  Maybe even a little blue.  The gold really just gives the polish this beautiful earthy vibe, bringing out some brown in the polish.  Unlike some of my other recent nail polish dislikes, I love the gold in this.  Also the silver simmer has a bit of an iridescent quality to it.  In the sunlight it sparkles a rainbow of colors.  My only small complaint about SpaRitual is the bottles.  They are super cute to look at but to hold them for a swatch picture is almost impossible for me.  I almost dropped the bottle twice trying to get my fingers lined up. Oh well. :)

SpaRitual Sacred Ground

SpaRitual Sacred Ground

Ughhh! So pretty I can't stand it.  I'm so happy I picked this up (and the other SpaRitual I will be showing you next).  Between the outstanding formula and color, I'm sold on this brand and will be trying more in the future.  I haven't even seen SpaRitual in a store, at least not around me, but they are easy to find online at stores like Aveyou.com and Beauty.com for $10 a bottle.

Red Obsession: Rescue Beauty Lounge Chinoise

Weird olive greeny-goldy colors aren't my only obsession this fall.  For some reason I'm on a red kick all of a sudden.  There's just something so classic glam about a fierce red nail.  I recently showed you guys another look at my "Holy Grail" red, Essie Limited Addiction, but to be honest, it's really the only red creme I have.  I just loved it so much, I never felt the need to add anymore.  Somehow, that's changed, because I've brought home four different reds over the past month in an effort to spice up my red wardrobe.  First up - Rescue Beauty Lounge Chinoise.

Chinoise (French for "Chinese"; Pronounced "sheen-wah" or "sheen-wahz") is a bright red creme that leans on the orange side.  Warm-toned girls, this is your red!  I've steered clear of warm-toned reds for some reason, but I have no idea why.  I think it works with my skin tone pretty well!  I've heard tales of Chinoise being a super duper pigmented "one-coater" red polish, but I didn't find that to be true for me.  I did get my bottle in a swap, so there's no telling if it was thinned at all, but I found it to be a bit on the thin side.  I'm showing two coats below, but you can definitely still see some VNL.  I think three coats would've taken care of that, but VNL doesn't bother me, so I just left it at two.  Application was a dream, and thankfully I didn't have any trouble with bleeding or staining while cleaning up.  Win!

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Me likey!!  So glad I tried this one out!  Totally the opposite of my cool-toned Limited Addiction.  The hubby also loved it, but he's a guy and guys love red, so that's not surprising, right?  LOL

Ji dedicated Chinoise to the late Diana Vreeland, a famous fashion editor, but if you read her blog and/or her Facebook posts, you'll notice she often refers to her husband as "Mr. Chinoise," which I think is really cute.  :-)

I hope I did her proud, because Chinoise definitely gets the thumbs up from me!  There are probably cheaper alternatives (one of which I'll show you later), but I can definitely say that I wouldn't feel bad about spending the $18 on this one.  The formula was standard RBL perfection, and the color is beautiful.  Chinoise is one of the five core RBL colors, but it does go out of stock from time to time.  Luckily, it just restocked at the beginning of the summer, so I think there should be plenty to go around for now.  Perfect timing for the Bring It Back pre-order this Friday!  *\o/*