OWWWP - Color Club Space Case

Time for my first Pink Wednesdays Pink!! If you haven't heard of Pink Wednesdays yet, check out the On Wednesdays We Wear Pink site for all the details on this latest polish community movement.

Now that I'm surrounded by Ross stores, my friends are getting used to the "let me run in real quick" request whenever we pass one. I've been finding great stuff for my hair, but no polish luck. Persistence paid off and I finally found two Color Club sets that I really wanted - Catwalk Queen and Starry Temptress!

Space Case is a neon pink glitter from the Color Club Summer 2011 Starry Temptress collection. The base is a medium pink with a silvery green shimmer. This polish is filled with small silver holographic glitter.

The base is heavy and covers most of the holographic sparkle, but the glitter that reaches the topmost layer does show some of its rainbow in the sunlight. The layers of glitter throughout the pink shimmer help give the polish a starry sky-like effect. It dries matte, so it needs top coat for a shiny finish.

The bright colors of the Starry Temptress collection are reminiscent of the neon shimmers in the Color Club Summer 2009 Electro Candy collection. Starry Temptress has glitter, but are the base color dupes? Nope!

Here are bottle comparisons of the two pinks from Starry Temptress 

with the pink from Electro Candy:

Space Case, Electro Candy, Ultra-Astral

Space Case is definitely lighter and cooler than Electro Candy. Ulta-Astral is a much darker fuchsia-like pink. Whew! It's always good when new polishes don't look like our old polishes ;D

More Revlon Top Speeds

I definitely judge a shade of polish based on what I see in the bottle. This is not a good strategy because there are so many ways for a polish to surprise you once it's actually on that nail. Look - it's a darker shade, there's a hidden shimmer, the incredible opacity gives this so much depth, happy wows like that. Of course, a polish could also end up being a sheer, watery, streaky mess that won't dry but let's be optimistic!

Here are some of the Revlon Top Speeds that I was just gifted - and each one of them was a very pleasant surprise for me. After my binge on spring pastels, I had to wear a shade that was edgier and earthier. Time for taupe!!

Stormy is a taupe creme that looks kinda drab in the bottle, but loves to change colors on the hand. This shade leans gray, brown, or purple depending on lighting and skin tone. Based on other reviews, it seems like Stormy has a hit or miss formula. It's streaky, thin and hard to work with for some people. I was lucky and my bottle had an excellent formula - smooth and creamy in two easy coats.

Stormy Can Lean Brown

Stormy Can Also Lean Gray

I couldn't stay away from spring pastels for too long and I tried Jaded next. In the store, I thought this was the Top Speed dupe for their non-Top Speed shade Minted, but I was wrong. Jaded is a little bit lighter, a little bit more yellow, and it has a subtle silver shimmer! This wasn't as easy to apply as Stormy, but I still only needed two coats for a sufficiently smooth finish.

And the biggest, trippiest surprise of all was Cloud. I've seen swatches of Cloud and sometimes it looks a bit blue or a bit gray or a bit dusty, but it pretty much always looks light purple. Not On Me!!! Cloud looks periwinkle! In real life, in every lighting, in every picture - it looks like a light blue that leans purple.

Shade - Looking Soft and Bit More Lavender

Sunlight - Looking Stark & Blue
which is how it looks on me about 95% of the time

I actually Cloud a lot more like this because it's completely unique in my collection. The ease of application was right in the middle of Stormy and Jaded and I still only used two coats. I got the most compliments on this shade and I kept asking what shade they thought this polish was - no one said light purple. It was pastel blue or periwinkle or light robin's egg, so it's confirmed that I wasn't seeing things. Crazy colors!

Revlon Copper Penny

It's not Mother's Day yet, but if my mom can't wait to give me my Easter polishes, I'm not waiting until May to declare how cool she is.

I was a drugstore polish girl until college and Revlon was my favorite with their limited edition collections and easy-to-use brushes (yeah, I'm looking at you, Maybelline - fix your brushes!!).  I've always been more of a saver than a spender, though, so I wouldn't buy them for myself unless there was a sale or a coupon because $4 a bottle was a lot back then. Mom to the rescue! For years, she's been slipping those Revlons in my Easter basket and Christmas stocking. 

Old habits die hard and my mom has hit up the Revlon racks for me again to get me some of their newer shades. Since I'm still loving all the sunshine (I never hate sunshine but I don't like it as much when it's over 110 in the summer - but hey, it's a dry heat... till monsoon...), and sparkly polishes look fabulous in the sunshine, I wore one of our mutual favorites first - Copper Penny!

Revlon Copper Penny is from the Heavenly Metal collection. It's a "New Shade," but I don't think it's Limited Edition.  Copper Penny is a copper foil with a deep copper metallic base lightened and brightened with lots of fine silver and light gold sparkles. I know it says "Metallic" on the bottle, but I think a true metallic polish has a smoother, reflective, more metal-like finish (i.e. the China Glaze Chromes). Copper Penny has that sparkly, glittery-yet-smooth finish of a foil.  

Sunlight - Smooth & Sparkly

Shade - The Silver Glitter is More Visible

If you look at the copper down the middle of the nail,
it matches almost perfectly to the shade of a new penny.

Copper Penny went on almost completely opaque in one coat, but two coats were needed for a smooth finish. Metallic colors love to hug every ridge on the nail in the first coat. 

The closest color I have to this polish is OPI Legs Celebrate, but Copper Penny is lighter and doesn't have as much orange. This polish looks understated indoors because it's a bit similar to my skin tone and then it's "Wham! Sparkly!!" as soon the sunlight hits it. 

Thanks for the awesome polish, Mom!!

New York Summer Hot Magenta

I want the sorbets from the OPI Spring/Summer 2011 Texas collection, but I'm on a no to low-buy until I find a job in AZ. I'm trying to hold out for a good career job this time, so for now, no sorbets for me.

That doesn't mean I can't have fun wearing a juicy, fruity, fun jelly, though! I shopped my stash and I got out one of the Hot colors from New York Summer.

Quick Back Story on this Brand: New York Summer polishes are under $2. Does this low price mean low quality? Their glitters are so sheer that they can only be used for top coat or franken mixing. Their shimmers can be frosty and boring. Their Hot shades are different - they tend to be easy-to-apply neon jellies in a wide range of colors.

Hot Magenta went on in three, quick drying coats. I didn't have any cuticle drag, so I could've gotten away with two coats, but I find I have significantly better wear with three coats of this polish. The look is still squishy but VNL is all gone with the third coat.

Direct Sun

Indirect Sun

This is one yummy pink - it's like wearing fruit punch on the nails. This might not be an OPI sorbet, but this is still a fantastic jelly!

OPI Show It & Glow It + A Winner!!!

This is going to be a busy weekend - friends from grad school are getting married and the festivities start tonight.  I wanted something festive and sparkly while still keeping it light and spring-y.

I decided to layer one coat of OPI Show It and Glow It from the 2010 Holiday Burlesque collection over two coats of OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender from the 2010 Spring Hong Kong collection. Of course, I topped it off with a coat of Gelous and Seche Vite for the ultimate smooth and shiny finish.

And now I'm ready to be a guest at a spring wedding!!

Thanks a bunch to everyone who entered my Fun Friday Giveaway :)  I received three times more entries in this giveaway than I did for 50 followers - whoa!!

The official winner of the Fun Friday 100 Follower Giveaway is...

*drum roll*

 ...checking the spreadsheet...

...Livi from Olivia's Nails!!

She's been blogging since August 2010, so head on over to her blog and see what she's been showing off.  I never would've thought to layer Revlon's Star over a dusty purple, but she did. This is totally my next layering mani. Go check it out!

Have a great weekend and try not to play too many tricks on this April Fool's Day - Happy Friday!!!