Claire's Dream Catcher & A Winner!

I wanted to do a cute St. Patrick's Day mani. I was going back and forth in my head between ombre or gradient. Since I didn't think any of my greens leant themselves to a nice festive ombre (I could have done murky and/or olive-y) and I wanted to get to bed sooner than later, I skipped the gradient and went with a straightforward oldie but goody.

Claire's Dream Catcher started showing up in the blogosphere in 2010 and really gained a lot of steam when people noticed it was a dupe-ish cousin to Chanel Jade. Dream Catcher is a yellow-toned mint green with a fine blue shimmer. After quite vigorous shaking (and subsequent resting) to dissolve tiny chunks that had formed in my bottle, this polish went back to its old thin self and went on in three coats.

Dream Catcher is still one of my favorite light greens because of that blue shimmer. It might take three coats to get everything smooth and streak-free, but it dries fast and gets decent wear, so it's all good.

I hope everyone is having a happy Friday, especially the winner of the Sinful Colors giveaway.... April G.! Thanks to everyone who entered. I appreciate your participation and I loved reading what your favorite polishes of 2013 have been so far!!

SinfulColors Sweet Tooth & Last Day to Enter

Today's the last day to enter the Fun Friday Giveaway: Sinful Edition, so I'm showing you one of the colors that I'm giving away.

Sweet Tooth is a warm light purple with the subtle hidden shimmer of Cotton Candy and Orange Cream. While Sweet Tooth is a warm purple, it only leans pink. It's still obviously purple, not a purplish pink like OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender.

If you don't like pink-leaning purples with red undertones with your skin tone, I recommend getting Candy Coated, the blue toned purple of the Sugar Rush collection. That one also has slight shimmer.

Back to the polish! Sweet Tooth goes on fully opaque in two coats. Just be sure to thoroughly wipe the excess polish off the brush because this is a thin formula.

This is another winner from the Sugar Rush collection. Speaking of winners, don't forget to enter the giveaway! You still have a few more hours and you could win a new bottle of Sweet Tooth for your own!

Fill out the contest form after the jump!

SinfulColors Orange Cream & Fun Friday Giveaway!!

Here's another shade from the SinfulColors Sugar Rush collection!

This one's Orange Cream, which actually happens to be peach. It's soft and light enough to be reminiscent of an orange creamsicle, so maybe that's where the "orange" part came in? Orange Cream also has a hidden shimmer, which is a little bit more visible than it was in Cotton Candy.

Orange Cream is even easier to work with than Cotton Candy and fully opaque in two coats!  

In case you're wondering how peachy Orange Cream really is, here it is under my Ott light which really brings out the true tones of a polish. It's slightly more orange than it is in normal lighting...

... until you look at it compared to true light oranges like Essie Tart Deco (Art Of Spring - Spring 2010 collection) and SinfulColors Luminary (Girls in Pearls - Spring 2012 collection).

Orange Cream, Tart Deco, Luminary, Orange Cream

In comparison, Orange Cream practically looks like a pink. I think everyone should have a really good peach polish for spring and Orange Cream is getting my recommendation. It's opaque, easy to work with, affordable and has a cute hidden shimmer to make it special. This is the shade that has been disappearing first from my nearby Walgreens Sugar Rush displays so if you see it, get it!

And to wrap up this week of SinfulColors, I'd like to do a small Fun Friday Giveaway: Sinful Edition!

Unicorn, Show Stopping, Sweet Tooth

Unicorn is a core color featured in the Sugar Rush collection, Sweet Tooth is the new light warm purple from the Sugar Rush Collection, and Show Stopping is the pink holo glitter from the Almost Famous/Paparazzi collection.

I know Unicorn isn't new and Show Stopping is a possible dupe for Sally Hansen Strobe Lights and OPI Teenage Dream, but if you haven't found these displays or if you're on a no-buy or if you just like free polish coming to you in the mail, then fill out the form after the jump to enter this giveaway!

OWWWP - SinfulColors Cotton Candy

It's Wednesday. You know what that means? On Wednesdays, we wear pink!

The Sinful Colors Sugar Rush collection has eight spring-y shades that look like they're all creme finishes under the fluorescent lighting of Walgreens. But look closer!! Some of these new colors have fine, hidden shimmer!

Cotton Candy is the light pink of the collection. The shimmer is extremely subtle, but the slight twinkle is visible in real life. It's slightly more visible in the top picture - the one I took in full sunlight. On my index finger. That shimmer's really there. Slightly.

I was so excited to put this happy pretty color on that I needed three coats to smooth out some streaks due to rushing. Using a little bit steadier approach, Cotton Candy should be fine and opaque in two coats.

With two full Helmers, I know I have a few colors similar to this - OPI Strawberry Margarita, Zoya Lo, China Glaze Empowerment - but those are all a little bit darker and definitely cremes.  I'm going to recognize and appreciate Cotton Candy's slight shimmer which makes it different enough to stay in my stash!

SinfulColors Lush Life

Like most people, I picked up a few bottles of SinfulColors during their latest Walgreens sale.  My Walgreens had the Almost Famous (aka the Rite Aid Paparazzi display that we don't have in AZ because we don't have Rite Aids so I have to visit every single one I see when we go on out-of-state trips) and Sugar Rush displays fully stocked. 

I'm leading off with one of the glittery ones from the Almost Famous collection. Lush Life is a greenish turquoise glitter in a clear base. To me, the small glitter looks round, but, on an extreme zoomed-in look at the picture, they appear to be small hexes. Since the pictures don't lie and it might be time for me to get a new contacts prescription, I'll go ahead and say this polish has large and small hex glitter.

Here's one coat of Lush Life over two coats of Color Club Blue-topia, which is a dark navy jelly.

Lush Life is a nice layering polish with enough glitter to be visible and sparkly with just one coat while still leaving the base color nice and visible. It's also nice that the larger hexes don't curl up at the edges. Some low-quality large glitters do lift up which ruins a mani in every way possible - visually, texture-wise, durability, blegh.

If your eyes are sharper than mine, you might have noticed that my ring finger looks slightly different from the other three. Since Blue-topia is a jelly, I experimented by alternating two coats each of Blue-topia and Lush Life on that nail. You can see the navy colored up some of the first layer of Lush Life making the lower hex glitter royal blue. It was a very subtle effect because Blue-topia is pretty opaque in one coat. Still, I think I'd like to try alternate layers with Lush Life and another jelly polish next time because I liked the swimming glitter look this had in person.