Revlon Matte Suede Emerald City

Oh man... I'm so tired. I can not wake up today. I have to post something where I don't have to write much because I know I wouldn't make any sense otherwise! And I completely skipped posting yesterday... Not enough coffee in the world. Better post the polish before I start typing gibberish....


Revlon Matte Suede in Emerald City. Nothing very matte or particularly suede about this. It's a nice color, a blue toned green shimmer, but I don't care for the finish. If it didn't say it was matte on the bottle, you probably wouldn't even know it was matte finish. It's one of the shiniest mattes I've ever seen. Takes a long time to dry, too.

Looks pretty nice with topcoat, though. Brings out a faded, dusty look to the green.


If I can get up the energy soon I have those awesome new Nicoles I wanted to post, plus the new Winter Nubar collection showed up last night and I have a whole lot of other fun colors that I need to be coherent to post.... And, by the way, Red Bull does not give you wings, it gives you heartburn.

Man Glaze Mayonnaise

It's been a long time in the making, but now it's finally here. ManGlaze has released their newest shade: Mayonnaise.

Over a year ago ManGlaze sent some of us a teaser picture of a white matte prototype topped with some silver glitter and it looked amazing. Now I can see it with my own eyes. I like.

ManGlaze Mayonnaise. It's a matte white- a nice clean matte white without yellow tones in it like actual mayonnaise would have. It has a slight pearlescence to it to keep it from looking like pure white-out.

He sent along a bottle of Hot Mess so I could duplicate that original white/glitter look:

One coat of Hot Mess over three coats of Mayonnaise.

And with topcoat, just because:

The formula on this was pretty good. If it were normal polish I'd probably say it was too thick, but since it's a matte it has a different set of standards for me. I didn't have any trouble with application- it was thick but not unmanageable. Since it's white it can get streaky and that's why I did three coats. As long as you have plenty of polish on the brush and never let the brush or nail get too dry while applying you won't have a problem. It was easier to apply than KO White which is the only matte white I can compare it to. Not as easy as OPI Alpine Snow matte, but that's basically pure white-out so, apples and oranges. The only complaint I have about the formula of Mayonnaise is that it takes a lot longer to dry than Fuggen Ugly or The Death Tar. I wasn't prepared for that and ruined my first manicure. Just give yourself a little extra time with this one.

Another thing that seems different about Mayonnaise compared to the other ManGlaze shades is that the bottle is tiny. I don't know if it's a mini or if this is the normal bottle size for this shade. I can't find any info on the size or volume of the bottle online to know for sure. I wasn't expecting such a petite bottle- no Costco industrial sized drum of Mayo here! EDIT: Mini is a mini, the one you'll purchase from the website will be normal sized.

In case you've never used a matte polish before, or maybe you're just having trouble with them, here's how you should apply mattes:

Apply basecoat and let it dry COMPLETELY. If it's not completely dry it will cause the polish to crack like those old Cover Girl crackle polishes. Though, you should try it at least once, cause it looks pretty cool.

Get a really big bead of polish on your brush- it will seem like too much, but trust me, you'll need it. Apply the polish in a gentle pushing motion, as if you were pushing the bead of polish down your nail instead of a painting motion. If you use Seche Vite topcoat, this is also the same method you'd use to apply that, if that helps you imagine the motion. Don't stop the brush, don't press down hard, don't go over the same spot twice. You want it to be one fluid motion, from cuticle to free edge, for each stroke you need to make to cover the nail. Aim to cover the whole nail in two to three brushstrokes keeping the brush wet at all times (you may need to add more polish to the brush between strokes).

It is very important not to press down too hard with the brush. It'll cause streaks and ridges. You want a very light touch and you want the brush to stay very wet. Try to use as few strokes as possible. This will give you a smooth, even, ridge-free matte application.

Overall, I'm rather impressed with Mayonnaise. Application was easier than I anticipated. It's not yellowed looking like KO White, but it's also not a stark white-out creme white. It's definitely wearable. It doesn't remind me so much of mayonnaise as it does of royal icing. But, royal icing doesn't sound as nasty as mayonnaise so I don't think that name would have stuck.

(This was sent to me for review.)

OPI Here Today Aragon Tomorrow Suede Fall 2010

OPI's converted another one of their shades into a matte-finish Suede polish. This time it's the dark blackened green from last Fall's Spain collection called Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow.


Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow Suede. Why do I always stick my finger in the polish and ruin it?! It seems like it always happens on the best colors, too. Sorry about the big lumpy smudge on my ring finger. Anyway, this is a rich emerald green matte that's jam-packed with tons of foily silver shimmer. As you can see, it looks absolutely nothing like the original Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow:

OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow (La Coleccion de España, Fall 2009)

Seems to be a common theme among OPI's suede polishes- looking pretty much nothing like their namesake.

The finish is the full-on no shine chalky matte that I adore and it seems to stay matte much longer than I'm used to. Doesn't get shiny by the end of the day. It dries super fast. It does not wear as long as normal polish because it is a matte, but I got three days with no chips when I used this with Gelous basecoat.

If you thought it was beautiful with its natural matte finish, wait until you see this:

OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow Suede with one coat of Seche Vite Topcoat. I can't handle all this awesome. Can you believe this?? It's the most ridiculously sparkly luminous evergreen shade ever when you add topcoat. It sparkles more than most glitter polishes and there's not even any glitter in this! Must be because of all those little foil particles that OPI uses in their suede polishes. It's good matte, but it's AMAZING with topcoat.

The formula was great. Totally smooth, not too thick, didn't dry too fast. Use enough polish on the brush when you apply and you won't have any problems. I did two coats here. Dry time is super fast. Wear isn't great, but it is good for a matte, I got three days before it chipped with the basecoat I used.

You know what I like about this color? It reminds me of these Christmas ornaments I have. They come in frosted forest green and deep burgundy red. I hung them from the chandelier last year instead of putting them on the tree and they looked really pretty. I love Christmas, so anything that reminds me of it becomes a favorite of mine. Hell, I love every holiday so anything that reminds me of any holiday gets high praise from me. Especially if it sparkles!

(This was sent to me for review.)

First attempts at the 'Ruffian Manicure'

Since I'm always swatching I feel like I never get to play around or experiment much. And then when I experiment or do things just for fun, I feel like I've wasted valuable swatching time! But, I decided I wanted to try this Ruffian thing cause I like the way it looks. Here's a couple combinations I ended up with:



My very first try. I was already wearing this gorgeous Chi Chi Moondust (thank you Kaz!) and decided to put a little China Glaze 2030 on. I like the blue and gold together! I'm going to have to do this combination again!

But I'm not really sure if you're supposed to let the polish on the sides show, or how far down you're supposed to go... Or how wide it's supposed to look?

Instead of taking the whole thing off, I wanted to see what it looked like with a third color, so I added some China Glaze GR8 (can you tell I had my Konad supplies nearby? lol)

Looks kinda cool with the holo!


Wanted to try it with some brighter colors so I picked out some Color Clubs. I can't get that green to photograph properly, it just turns this stupid pale color! Argh! But it's really darker than that, and neon, not pastel.

And before I took that off I wanted to see what it would look like with a third color again:

Can't capture these neons properly! So frustrating! But for once Pucci-licious looks like it's supposed to in a picture! Something about being next to a blue helped... Odd. And if the orange and pink look thick, it's cause they are. There's about four coats of those because the blue showed through too much, plus Seche Vite on top and to make it even worse it's still wet in these pictures. Would look a lot less thick and bubble nail like when it's dry. I like the multicolor look, but to me it looks like lines of gumdrops on my nails! Which reminds me, I had a box of Candy Corn flavored Dots around here somewhere...


Thought matte/glossy would be a good combination so I did ManGlaze Fuggen Ugly on top of Essie Limited Addiction. Looks cool, I like the contrast! But it also looks like my nails are being ripped off my fingers, doesn't it? Like the cuticle is all bloody and my nails have slid halfway off? Gory!! I might have to keep this in mind for Halloween!

And because I couldn't leave well enough alone, this abomination happened. It is really fuggen ugly.

Now I want to try every combination of colors and finishes I can think of. I like this look. It's like a moon manicure but different and easier! I'm going to go try another one right now, actually.

OPI Go Goth Mini Set for Halloween 2010

This year's Halloween mini set from OPI is pretty sweet. Except for one thing... it comes with a stretchy lace bracelet instead of cute pumpkin and ghost decals! I love decals. Oh well. It's not like I don't have a stockpile of Halloween-themed nail decals at home. Oh yeah, no Glow In The Dark this year either! But the colors are really nice at least. The set is called "Go Goth" so of course I like it.

Nevermore. Inky, sparkly, gorgeous blue/purple duochrome. Impossible to photograph. You may be thinking this looks familiar... that's because it's OPI Ink. (I will post comparison pictures below.) So, if you have OPI Ink, you know what this picture is supposed to look like! OPI Ink is in my top five favorite polishes of all time, I have backup bottles I love it so much, and I wear it every chance I get. Unfortunately, I've never been able to get a good picture of it, and I must have taken over 100 pictures of it.


Obscure. Soft matte black creme. This isn't a super dark black like, say, KO Knockout Flatte Black? This is a softer, more faded looking black. Almost more of a dark grey than a black. The rest of the polishes in this set correlate to existing OPI or Nicole shades, but I can't recall a plain matte black OPI... Perhaps the closest color to this is Sephora by OPI What's A Tire Jack? Matte?


Sanguine. A deep, rich, shimmery, vampy burgundy red. Incredibly hot. Very sexy. My pictures don't do it justice. It's extremely rich looking and it has a lot of depth. I'm pretty sure this is OPI Royal Rajah Ruby, so if you missed out on the original India collection release, you might want to pick this up! It is not a color to be missed! Which reminds me... the India collection was great. I don't think I've ever posted it. I will add that to my project list!


Unripened. This is definitely the most fascinating one to look at in the bottle. It's a black base with large teal/aqua/blue shimmer particles that have a strong pink duochrome. On the nail the duochrome is rarely visible- seems most apparent in low light and at sunset, but the effect is much more subtle on the nail than in the bottle. Regardless, the black with blue shimmer is still pretty.


These all looked so familiar to me when I was swatching them so I decided to pull out some old bottles to compare:

Left to right (ring to index):
Nicole Party At 3 AM
OPI Nevermore
OPI Ink

I think it's pretty safe to say that this might be OPI Ink. The formula's been updated but the color looks the same to me!

Left to right (pinkie to index):
Nicole By OPI Black Cat-Cha Later
OPI Midnight in Moscow
OPI Sanguine
OPI Royal Rajah Ruby.

What do you think... looks similar? I couldn't really tell the difference in real life. Someone suggested to me that it also looks like OPI Romeo and Joliet, but I couldn't find mine to compare.

Left to right (pinkie to index):
Nicole by OPI Party at 3 AM
Nicole by OPI Blues in the Night
OPI Unripened
Jessica Casablanca

I threw the Jessica in with the OPIs because it was the first thing that came to mind when I saw Unripened. I'm thinking Unripened is Nicole Blues in the Night re-promoted for Halloween. Which is cool, because it's discontinued and really pretty!

The formula on these was excellent. The shades seem to have received a pretty nice formula upgrade since their original releases. These are all very opaque- two coats for complete coverage and that is what is pictured here. Very smooth, even, not runny, not thin, nice and on the thick side of medium. The only problem with these is that the mini brushes don't hold much product so you really have to try to get a big bead on the brush to ensure smooth application. Drying time is very fast.

Overall, awesome collection. I think most of OPI's Halloween kits have been minis of re-promoted colors plus one unique color like Ghostess with the Mostess or Glow-Ink In the Dark, so I'm not surprised to see some familiar faces here. All of the colors are drop dead gorgeous, Ink and Royal Rajah Ruby were always favorites of mine. In fact, if you haven't picked up the originals of these colors and they are interesting to you, you really might like to give these a try. I'm really pleased at the improved formula and application- the originals are on the thin and slightly sheer side (even though they are 3-free), but these re-promotes are really opaque and perfect in the formula department. Makes me kinda wish I had regular sized bottles of the new formula.

I think this set would also make a really cute gift. I know that personally I'd be thrilled to bits to get a gift like this from someone... Maybe in Halloween party gift bags or something? I don't know, I'm not Martha Stewart-y enough to come up with cute interesting ways to give gifts and stuff. But yeah, would totally make an awesome gift for someone!

(These were sent to me for review.)

Second try with The Falsies (featuring Overall Beauty's Gabrielle Faust Collection)

This is my second try using The Falsies. Not as bad as the first, but still chunky and skinny like insect legs! And I know I have speckles of mascara on my eyelid. I totally didn't notice until I looked at the pictures. How embarrassing.

This is also my first time using Minerals by Overall Beauty. You know Overall Beauty, the one that sells BB Couture nail polish? Kim also makes her own mineral makeup and she sent me samples to test of the new line inspired/designed by Gabrielle Faust (though I'm not really sure who that is). I'll do a full review of the collection as soon as I've used and swatched all the colors, but this is what I came up with on my first try.






This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Overall Hourglass Sand on lid and as highlight
Overall Vampire Kiss in crease
Overall Misanthrope to darken crease and on lower lashline
Overall Karmic Night applied wet as liner
Maybelline The Falsies Volum' Express mascara

Lashes are less clumped together and a little longer but they're still kinda squirrely looking.

The Overall Beauty Minerals were actually nicer than I expected. Not that I expected them to be bad, but I'm just not that much of a matte user and I anticipated chalky patchiness like some mattes, but these applied quite well. A little muddy color-wise, but smooth and silky as far as texture goes. Will have to play around more before I can fully evaluate.