Matte vs Matte

I have never tried a matte polish. I think they are neat, but there is something about a pretty shiny manicure that I love! I have two different Matte top coats so I decided to put them to the test. Which one came out on top between NYC Matte Me Crazy and e.l.f Matte Finisher?

First, I'll show you the picture and then I'll share my opinion. Fair enough?

In the picture, I matte-ified Calypso Blue from yesterday's post (found here). NYC Matte Me Crazy is on the first finger and middle finger and e.l.f Matte Finisher is on the ring finger and pinky finger. Both did a great job of Matte-ifying Calypso Blue. The Matte top coats worked almost instantly. I do see a difference though. I'm not quite sure you see can it in the photo, but NYC Matte Me Crazy is the winner here.

NYC Matte Me Crazy is a little smoother and gives an even matte look, whereas e.l.f Matte Finisher shows brush strokes. e.l.f Matte Finisher did take a tad longer to give the matte finish than NYC Matte Me Crazy.


Matte Me Crazy is a better matte than e.l.f Matte Finisher. 


Thanks for Reading,
xoxo -Tamala


(NYC Matte Me Crazy was sent for my review, but e.l.f Matte Finisher was purchased by me. My opinions are honest and my own. I wasn't paid for this review. )

Calypso Blue

Today's post is all about the Blue: Calypso Blue. Calypso Blue is from Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure. It is a must have polish. Calypso Blue is a turquoise-blue color with shimmer. I absolutely love this polish!. This polish applied well and has a great formula. As with other Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polishes, Calypso Blue has that perfect brush! The brush used is the flat brush that fits perfectly on the nail and allows for great application!


Here are more picture with different lighting:

(Natural Light shot)

(Artificial light)

(Artificial light with flash)

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polishes can be found at your local drug store, Target and Walmart. You can find them here on Sally Hansen's Website as well.

Thank you for reading,
xoxo -Tamala




(Calypso Blue was sent to me to review for my honest opinion. All opinions are my own and I wasn't paid for this review)

Dorothy who?

Today is Friday and beginning next month I'm going to start posting Fun/Freestyle Friday. Basically, I'll be incorporating things that I like that doesn't have to do with nails. I think this would add some fun to the blog. What do you think?

So, today is the last Friday in July and the starring polish is Dorothy who? Dorothy who?  is a lovely dark blue base with micro blue glitter throughout. I love this polish! I had no issues applying it and the consistency was perfect! I really like China Glaze polishes and I haven't reviewed any on the blog in a while. I thought it was time. Dorothy who? has been calling my name :-)

I've had her for a little while now and hadn't used her. Dorothy Who? is from Chine Glaze's Wizard of Ooh Ahz Collection. Let's take a look at this beauty: 

This Blue is my type of color! I think we all know that by now! I say if you don't have it go find it now!! She's so pretty. She's the blue version of China Glaze Ruby Pumps.

Natural light shot

Artificial light shot

Do you have Dorothy who? What do you think of her? Please share.

Thanks for reading,

xoxo -Tamala

(Dorothy Who? was purchase with my own money. All opinions are my own and I wasn't paid for this review.)

Takeover Thursday: Shipra from Taneja's Bride

Today is Takeover Thursday! The blog today has been taken over by Shipra From Taneja's Bride. Check out her post below. Thank you Shipra!!

 Watermelon Nail Art 

 Thank you, Tall Girl in Heels for having me today!! Hi, everyone! My name is Shipra and my blog is Taneja’s Bride (www.tanejasbride.com). I started posting swatches/ reviews daily to help me keep track of my growing collection and share my passion for nail polish and all sorts of cosmetics.

Today, I have for you a jelly sandwich/nail art.

What I used:

OPI Big Hair…Big Nails
Feenix Polish Black Tie Affair
Zoya Meg
Zoya Mitzi

I started off by polishing my nails with the Barielle Nail Rebuilding Protein, which I religiously use as my base coat and on my off days when I am not wearing any polish at all (which is, like, NEVER!) because it really helps my nails grow healthy and strong and they definitely don’t peel since I’ve been using it (I have been using it for a month or two now). I did 2 layers of jelly polish, OPI Big Hair… Big Nails and then I topped it off with 1 generous coat of Indie polish, Feenix Polish Black Tie Affair (which has recently become my FAVORITE glitter polish) and then one more layer of OPI Big Hair… Big Nails. Then, I gently painted the tips with Zoya Meg, a gorgeous metallic green, and striped/dotted Meg with Zoya Mitzi, an amazing matte lime green.

I really loved the after effect, and I almost left out the Zoya greens and let it be as Ladybug nails, but that’s for another day!

Blog: http://www.tanejasbride.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tanejasbride

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tanejasbride

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/tanejasbride

Great nails! Don't forget to follow Taneja's Bridge through the above links.

Thanks for reading,

xoxo -Tamala

butter LONDON Sale!!

butter LONDON just launched their "Sprint to the Games" flash sale!  

This is for today only! Valid thru 11:59 PST July 25th.

You can get 3 lacquers for $30! Just enter the code CHAMPION at checkout. Valid in the US only and with one coupon per order.

Check out the flyer below:

Zoya Diva Collection (Fall 2012 Collection Part III)

The Third Collection from Zoya's Fall Collection 2012 is called: The Diva Metallic Collection NYFW (New York Fashion Week) 2012. If you missed the first two parts Designer and Gloss they can be found by clicking them. It's all about the metallic and shimmer in this collection. We'll begin with Zoya's description and then I'll give my descriptions and opinions.

Zoya Diva Collection 2012:

"Elisa: Crimson red metallic
Suri: Royal purple metallic
Song: Egyptian blue metallic with subtle sparkle
Ray: Pine green metallic
FeiFei: Magic blue foil sparkle metallic
Daul: Magic violet foil sparkle metallic"

Elisa is a very pretty medium to dark red metallic. She is a pretty shade of red and is gorgeous is the sun! Elisa applied very well. I really liked this color. 

Suri is a beautiful purple with pink shimmer throughout. She applied great!! I had no issues with Suri except picking up the gorgeous purple metallic that she is in person. I picked the picture that best represented Suri with the metallic finish and pink shimmer, but Suri is a true beauty in person.

Song is a beautiful navy blue metallic with royal blue shimmer! Of course, I love this color!! I had no issues with applying Song, but after removing I noticed a little staining on my nails.

Ray is somewhere between a pine and hunter green. I had no issues applying her, the polish was a tad too thin and made Ray a definite 2 coater. Ray is a metallic as well and has no streaks. My lighting and flash made her appear streaky in the above picture, but this is not how she looked in person. 

FeiFei is charcoal blue-grey with blue, pink and gold micro glitters throughout. FeiFei is a 2 coater and applied with no issues or cleanup. I really liked this polish! This is a great combination! FeiFei had loads of shimmer and is definitely one of my favorites! 

Daul is a purple base metallic with purple and gold iridescent micro glitter. Lovely glitter polish! Daul can be a one coater depending how dark you want the purple base.  

Overall, I give Zoya an A on The Diva Metallic Collection. The color here are great and the Metallic gives them each a great finish. 

You can purchase The Diva Collection here!

(If you are new to Zoya and sign up using my link you will automatically receive a coupon in your account for a free bottle of Zoya. The coupon will be available in the section "My Account" of the website under "My Coupons/ Promotions" and your coupon code will be there.) 

Thanks for reading,

xoxo -Tamala

(The Diva Collection was sent to me for my honest opinion. All opinions are my own and I wasn't paid for this review.)

Zoya Designer Collection (Fall 2012 Collection Part II)

This year's Fall Collection from Zoya has three parts and this is part two: The Designer Collection (Part One here) This collection has some very pretty shades of Red, Purple, Blue and Green. This is also all about Creams. It is The Designer Cream Collection NYFW (New York Fashion Week) 2012. Okay, now let's get into the colors, shall we?

First I'll give a brief description of each from Zoya and then I'll give you my descriptions.

Zoya describes each as:

"Rekha: Blood red cream (Bibhu Mohapatra custom shade)
Toni: Dark maroon red crema
Monica: Dark mulberry purple cream
Natty: Smoked navy blue cream
Evvie: Evergreen green cream (Peter Som custom shade)
Noot: Charcoal Green gray cream"


Rekha is beautiful! I love the red here; it is shiny and vibrant! Rekha is a one coater, but I did add another coat just to be sure for pictures sake. I am in love with this red. To me this is the perfect red. Red is my favorite color, but I don't wear a lot of red polishes because I usually don't like them, but Rekha will be a staple in my polish-drobe!!

She's just lovely. I just don't have anything else to say except she is a must!!!


Toni is a lovely color, but the first coat was a little streaky. As always with a Zoya polish, the streaks were cleared up on the second coat. This is a beautiful Fall color. The shade is a deep beautiful maroon cream!

This color also reminds me of a wine color.



Monica is a deep, sultry gumball purple. A very nice cream that is perfect for Fall weather. I can picture myself wearing this with some lovely Fall boots! Why is it still July? :-)

You can't tell me Monica is not a perfect color. She's a definite beauty.


Natty is another fave of mine! We all know I hoard blue polishes. This blue is a smoky, dusty grey-blue. It looks so great on my skin. I instantly fell in love. Let's just say I didn't want to take Natty off.

Natty is a tad brighter here due to my lighting and flash.

I love this color!! Two thumbs up Zoya!!

Evvie is a great mix between dusty green and smoky grey. Evvie had great coverage in one coat! I only added the second coat because I went too thin on one nail and caused a bald spot (totally my fault).

Noot is a brownish-green. Noot is a definite two coater and was just a tad too thin. Once two coats are on Noot looks almost black. 

Evvie and Noot are pretty similar in color. Evvie is more of a greyish-green and Noot is more of a brownish-green, but they are very similar. I have a picture showing them side by side.

Middle finger and pinky are Evvie and 

ring finger is Noot.

They aren't exact, but pretty similar. 

What do you think of The Designer Collection?  Are their any must haves for you?

I'd say my must haves are Rekha, Natty and Monica if I had to choose three. Comment below and tell me your must haves if you could only choose three...

You can purchase The Designer Collection here!

(If you are new to Zoya and sign up using my link you will automatically receive a coupon in your account for a free bottle of Zoya. The coupon will be available in the section "My Account" of the website under "My Coupons/ Promotions" and your coupon code will be there.) 

Thanks for reading,

xoxo -Tamala

(The Designer Collection was sent to me for my honest opinion. All opinions are my own and I wasn't paid for this review.)

Zoya Gloss Collection (Fall 2012 Collection Part I)

Zoya Gloss Sheer Jelly Collection for Fall 2012 consists of 3 gorgeous jelly polishes, Katherine, Paloma and Frida.

Zoya describes each as:
"Katherine: Sheer aubergine jelly gloss, buildable formula
Paloma: Sheer berry red jelly gloss, buildable formula
Frida: Sheer teal blue jelly gloss, buildable formula"




Katherine is a dark purple vampy color. She will be gorgeous for the fall. As always with Zoya, the application was wonderful. Katherine was perfect after three coats. I used three very thin coats because jelly polishes will pool at the nail if the amount on the brush is overwhelming. This also helped build to the perfect color and finish.

Jelly polishes leave a visible nail line (VNL), but they are very good at being "buidable."

Paloma is a nice red with the hint of pink. She is probably my favorite. I do, however love the entire Gloss collection. Paloma was very easy to work with and I was pleased at the brightness of this color.

Paloma reminds me of a juicy fruit; maybe a raspberry or even strawberry jam! It is beyond gorgeous.


Frida is more of a blue with a hint of green. I hope this makes sense. I was a little disappointed with Frida's color. I thought she would be more teal and brighter. I do like Frida, but I think my expectations got the better of me, so I was sort of let down. 

(Please excuse my pinky nail, it has a slight 

yellow look in this picture.)

I used three coats of each jelly in these photos. I know that seems like a lot to some people, but they were thin coats. If you don't want to use three coats and want a brighter look to The Gloss Collection I would suggest using a white base.

Take a look at what I did to these colors by adding a white base color:

Do you see the difference? The fact that this collection is buildable gives you options. Frida, here, looks like I thought she'd look in the photos above. You don't have the VNL, but still the finish of a jelly polish. As a side note, none of these photos have a top coat! This is how Katherine, Paloma and Frida shine naturally.




The Gloss Collection is available now on Zoya's website here as a trio or individually here, here and here.

If you are new to Zoya and sign up using my link you will automatically receive a coupon in your account for a free bottle of Zoya. The coupon will be available in the section "My Account" of the website under "My Coupons/ Promotions" and your coupon code will be there. 


Thanks for reading,
xoxo -Tamala


(The Gloss Collection was sent to me for my honest. All opinions are my own and I wasn't paid for this review.)

Mind Control by Pretty & Polished

Mind Control by Pretty & Polished is a beautiful chunky glitter. The glitter is made up of a blue and gold micro glitter and medium square turquoise glitter. I had no issues applying this glitter. I thought that I would since my bottle was a mini, but there weren't any troubles. The glitter came out of the bottle and transferred onto the nail beautifully.

 Mind Control has a clear base and in the pictures I chose not to use a base color to show the polish as it stands alone. I like to wear my glitters like this sometimes. I like the simplicity ;-).

What do you think of Mind Control?

 *For updates on Pretty & Polished her Facebook is here and some of her polishes are being sold at Llarowe.

My other Pretty & Polished posts:
Sand Art
Swing
Beach Bum
Forgery
Hemi-Sphere


Thanks for reading,
xoxo -Tamala


(Mind Control was purchased with my own money and all opinions are my own. I wasn't paid for this review.)

NYC: Big City Dazzle (Try It On Tuesday!!)

"Try It On Tuesday" is something a group of bloggers decided to do about a month ago to showcase nail polish that we've never used before. Today, I'm going to show a really pretty glitter by NYC. The polish is called Big City Dazzle. Big City Dazzle is a clear base with loads of micro glitter. The color of the glitters include fushia, royal blue and gold.

Take a look:

This picture was taken with natural light 

and no flash. 

Big City Dazzle is a sparkle top coat, but I didn't use a base color so you can see the true glitters in Big City Dazzle. I used two coats and a top coat. I actually like the way Big City Dazzle looks without a base color. It is versatile and can be worn with different colors such as black, pink, red, white or even without a base color!

 Here's another look of Big City Dazzle without a base color.

Big City Dazzle shown over

 Sinful Colors Cream Pink

Big City Dazzle was easy to apply. I had no issues with glitter placement at all. NYC Big City Dazzle  can be found at your local drug stores. It is an inexpensive polish with a great payoff. I love how the glitters aren't overly chunky and are still pretty and give a shimmery effect.

What do you think of micro glitter top coats? Do you like the subtle, yet sparkly look of Big City Dazzle? Have you tried any other Sparkle top coats from NYC?

Thank you for reading,

xoxo -Tamala

(Big City Dazzle  was sent for my honest opinion. I wasn't paid for this review and all opinions are my own.)

July's Julep Maven Box

Today, I'm going to talk about my Julep Maven Box. Once a month, I share my box with my readers. As most of you know, I'm an "It Girl." I've never changed my box, skipped a month or even sent to a friend. You can do this if you are Julep maven.

To sign up to become a Julep Maven just click here. You can sign up for ONE CENT using promo code: COLOR2012. So, hurry and become a maven today.

In my July, box I received 4 polishes and an atomic bomb candy :-)

My "It Girl" box contained:

 Mila, Kate, America and Daphne

Mila.

An adorable multi-glitter. Mila contains fuschia, green, silver and gold. The combination makes Mila 

appear charcoal. Mila applied very well and will need two coats of top coat to achieve a smooth finish.

Kate.

 Kate is a nice white. When applied I didn't notice any streaks, but Kate was just a tad darker than the nail on my swatchicle.

America.

 America is also known as America- The Beautiful. She is red with blue and silver glitters through out. She was a perfect Independence Day polish for the USA! She's very pretty and applied very well. as with Mila, you'll need two coats of your top coat to achieve and smooth finish. This is my first patriotic polish. Do you own any?

Daphne.

Daphne is a darker mint green. She fits in the same category as Zoya Wednesday and Bevin. She appears slightly darker though. I do love this color. I have Zoya Wednesday and Bevin and I'll compare the two to Daphne to see their differences. (*Wednesday is shown here.)

Mila, Kate America and Daphne

I'm very happy with this box. I did receive and atomic bomb candy, but my two year old sneaked and ate it.

What box did you get this month? Are you happy with your box?

Thankd for reading,

xoxo -Tamala