BL Stripey Socks

I know you were sad that yesterday I only showed you a little bit of BL Fiddlesticks.  So here's a swatch of it in all it's raspberry glittery goodness.

Like most BL, this has an amazing formula, and the glitter is opaque in 2 coats.  Even without topcoat, it was smooth, but a little matte.

I used tiny striping tape to create this effect with BL Scouse.  I got my inspiration from this look by Miss Ladyfinger.

Scouse needed two coats to be opaque, but with the tape, I couldn't wait for a layer to dry and then apply another layer, so I just put one very thick layer on.  You can actually see the difference in thickness in the pix above, but a thick topcoat like Seche Vite can help blend the layers together and create the illusion of one layer.

Makes me think of wild, stripey socks from the 80's. 

Half-moon over London.. Butter London

I saw this mani with a half-moon, and thought it looked like fun to try and do my own version with some of my new Butter Londons.

I started with BL Fash Pack.  In the bottle, this polish has a golden shimmer.  Can you see it?

Yeah, I couldn't really see it either.  It's a nice mushroom-y taupe, but I wanted that golden shimmer!

I used hole reinforcements over Fash Pack and painted the rest of the nails with BL Scuppered.  This is one of their new glitters for Winter 2012, and I'm in love.  I adore mini-micro glitters, and this one is so nice with the golden tones, but with flashes of green and pink.  

I used a dotting tool and BL Fiddlesticks to make the chain between Fash Pack and Scuppered, but I got the dots too close together, so it just looks like a lumpy line.

I think that with a different, lighter (maybe pinker) base coat, this mani would look even better.

I like this half-moon mani.  When I do French tips, it seems to make my nails look shorter and blockier, but with the half-moon, the curve elongates my nails.  Do you like half-moon manis?

Bling-Bling OPI & BL

For a special occasion where I wore a teal dress, I decided to wear blingy nails with a little blue.

I started with OPI DS Coronation, a scattered silver holo.  Very sheer!  I wasn't worried about VNL, though, because of the glitter. For a DS, I was expecting a little more impact, though.

I dabbed on a little bit of Butter London Henley Regatta at the tips, and brushed down towards the cuticle to give the glitter a gradient effect. 

I really liked these two together!  BL Henley Regatta would have likely been opaque at two, maybe three coats at most - it was definitely thicker than I thought it would be. 

If you're a Butter London fan, stay tuned - I went a little crazy with their last Friends and Family sale, and I have lots of BLs to show you in the coming days!

OPI Suedes - Ink & Russian Navy

At the time of this writing, these are the *last* suedes I own. Who knows if I'll find more lovelies in my future?

This is OPI Ink Suede.  Out of all the suedes I've swatched, only the OPIs were different in their application.  For one, here's where that Pro-wide brush comes in handy.  You have to work fast in order not to drag polish, and these brushes just cover more area.

I did find that these were a little streakier on the first coat than other suedes, but they filled out nicely on the second.  As long as you didn't panic and allowed the first coat to dry before applying the second coat, application was just fine.

So, with three purple suedes, do you think any were dupes?  Nope!  I did stripes with the OPI Ink suede on top, Avon Soft Violet in the middle, and Julep Nora at the bottom.  Together, it makes the OPI look blue and the Julep look grey!

Next is OPI Russian Navy Suede, a beautiful dark blue.

I've replaced one of the OPI suedes with Avon Blue Royale.  In this pix, the thumb does look a *tiny* bit darker, but in Real Life, I couldn't tell the difference.  For all intents and purposes, the Avon Blue Royale is a dupe for OPI Russian Navy Suede.

I made s stripe down the middle with Pure Ice suede Blue Midnight just to see how different all the blues were.  These are really different!  Definitely worth getting both if you're a blue lover like me.

I hope you enjoyed all these suedes as much as I did!  Which ones are you going to add to your collection?

Four Julep Suedes

Ok, so the 'Week' of suedes has become sort of a bakers' dozen... I'm sneaking in a couple more days because I just can't resist! 

When Julep announced a matte topcoat would be part of the November Maven's box, the polish world went a little nutty, hoping against hope that Julep would be coming out with their own line of matte suedes, and so they did.  I picked up 4 of them.

The first is a light green suede called Hailee.  This is so very different from Femme Fatale.. this one doesn't even read true green, but more of a hint of sage green.

Formula was the same with all the Julep suedes - just fine.  I don't think there is any appreciable difference in the application of the suedes between Avon, Pure Ice, or Julep. 

I was really looking forward to Julep Nora.  This is a unique purple in my collection.  It's very nearly a steely grey.

I decided to paint one stripe of Above the Curve Don't Call Me Sugar, a lilac holo, right down the center of each nail. 

I love how it almost gives the suede a duo-chrome feel.  If you didn't know it was two different polishes, would it just look like a trick of the light?

Next up is Julep Amber, a champagne gold suede.  I much prefer champagne gold to orange gold tones with my skin color.  This is almost a nude on me - it makes me look really, really pale, but I like it.

The last Julep I bought was Minka.  What a pretty color, somewhere between rose gold and copper.  This is also unique to my stash, and one of my faves of the suedes.

I thought a cloud mani with Amber, Minka, and Hailee would be really pretty.  It's almost a southwestern color palette, but very muted.  I love this combo.

Will you be picking up any of the Julep matte suedes?  At $14 each at Sephora or Julep, I suggest you get a Maven to pick one up for you for $5 when added to her Maven Box, though I don't know how long they will be available.

Stamping Sunday - winter challenge, and an unexpected dupe!

When I saw that the challenge was for a winter scene, my thoughts went immediately to a soft blue and grey background.

I had just received my LVX polishes from SneakPeek (or Haute Look, to be honest, I can't remember!) and I loved this one, called Callais.

...but take another look.  Do you see that not all the polishes are the same?

I mixed in the HTF and very sought after OPI What's with the Cattitude? from the Shrek collex.  It's on my thumb, if you couldn't tell.  In RL, my hubby couldn't tell, either.  The only difference I noted was in the application.  The OPI took three coats, and was a bit more jelly-like, but it didn't self-level.  The LVX actually had a nicer formula.  If you're interested, as of this writing, the LVX is still available on their site.

Because I was stamping, I didn't bother with a sponged gradient, but just brushed on Hare Ancient Affairs.  This is a beautiful soft grey with a blue shimmer.

Then, with Milani White on the Spot and Bundle Monster 323, I stamped on my snowflakes.

I imagine them drifting down, like they do in those old Rankin-Bass Christmas specials.  Which, I know, dates me.  And some of the younger kids don't like them, but for my money - it's just not Christmas season until I've watched Rudolph, and Frosty, and Jack Frost.. and The Year Without A Santa Claus.. and Rudolph's Shiny New Year... 

What do Pure Ice and Zoya have in common?

Maybe one of the most sought-after Zoya colors...

This gorgeous green suede is Pure Ice Femme Fatale... or is it?

We have secretly replaced one nail of Pure Ice with Zoya Veruschka.  Can you tell the difference?

Can you tell now?  I couldn't.  The thumb nail is actually painted with Zoya Veruschka.  The rest of the fingers are Pure Ice Femme Fatale.  The Zoya is discontinued and HTF.  I paid about $10 for it.  The Pure Ice is less than $2.  SIGH!!

I couldn't bear to paint over this beauty, so I just accented with one green and one yellow pearl on each finger. 

 

This is all fingers painted with Zoya Veruschka.  It is gorgeous, I love deep greens, and the frosted bottle is pretty.  Certainly worth the extra... $8 or so.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Look how pretty it is with topcoat, too.  That richness that a suede has really comes through.

Have you found any other cheap dupes for original HTF polishes?