Nubar "Walnut" Swatch

Ah Nubar, what can I say ... your color developer has a interesting/unusual/backwards eye.

Nubar Walnut appears perfect in the bottle, until you look closely. Walnut is a warm reddened brown lacquer, with the slightest hints of red and silver microglitter. Yes, silver.

It's savings grace is that the microglitter pretty much disappears once the lacquer dries.

Walnut appears to apply fairly evenly and dry very quickly. However, when the nail is backlit, you can see an extraordinary streakfest along the free edge. It is not at all obvious when looking at the color in any other lighting conditions.

Within 24 hours, I had a pretty chippy manicure. Between the chippies and the cool silver mixed with warm red color, this has landed soundly in the donate pile.

Nubar is another company that is getting placed mostly in the donate, rather than keep pile.  I believe I have less than 5 bottles of their polish remaining after my recent purge.

I do not like cool and warm mixes in my nail polish colors, and that is what I consistently see with Nubar.  If Walnut was a cool color, such as chocolate brown, I could understand the silver addition, but it is a warm color and should have gold added instead.  Harumph.

BB Couture Butt-Naked Bronze Swatch and Review

BB Couture Butt-Naked Bronze is almost a light cocoa.  Depending on the light source, it can appear cool or warm, and neither source makes it look good with my skin.

It is lightly pigmented, slightly streaky, and sparsely populated by holographic glitter that flashes red, green, and gold.

I saw this on another blogger, and absolutely fell head over heels.  But her skin was more pigmented, and now that I have this color on ... I am not drawn to it.

 

Bye-bye BNB.  I'm starting to get very low on BB Couture polishes.  I think this is another company that does not cater to my skin specifics.  Much like cult nails, they simply do not have a large enough hold on the market to create for warm skinned individuals.

Zoya Rica Swatch and Review

Ah, the last of the sunshine collection, and like the other two before it: Apple and Faye ... Zoya Rica is heading directly to the give away pile.

I started with two base coats and a first lacquer layer at night.  Let it dry for over an hour before going to bed.  No problems.

Wake up in the morning, and add a second lacquer coat (nothing too thick, just a thin second layer).  No activity for over an hour.  Get in the car to drive ... smudge and dent four nails in short succession.

These truly are the polishes that refuse to dry.  I don't know what Zoya did wrong, but it sucks.

I may eventually forgive Zoya for this travesty ... but it may take a long while.  I still haven't purchased anymore from them, even a year after this collection was released.

I would describe Rica as a slightly coraled rose pink with heavy gold glitter.  Depending on the way light catches it, the polish can seem quite warm or quite cool.  It was a fun experiment, but I don't like dents in my polish, so I've given up on Zoya for the time being. 

I had this same issue with Orly polishes.  Hm, what a darn shame, it really cuts down on my polish spending!  I still see swatches to drool over, but the drying issue is a major irritation.  So I continue to sit and wait for dupes to appear (hey, it worked for that Peridot polish from way too expensive-ville, China Glaze released Rare and Radiant, and it now has a home with me - I am patient ... next up is hoping CG releases a Zoya Faye duplicate).

OPI DS Jewel Swatch

OPI DS Jewel ... an elite designer series lacquer, guaranteed to make your mouth water in some nail polish induced joy ... right???

Wow. This is once seriously ugly nail polish.

 

DS Jewel has a streaky, corpse pale, smokey base that causes the first coat to give you slightly shimmery dead nails. The second coat does not improve things much. The third coat does give it some depth with the red-violet glitter, but that semi-translucent smokey base curdles the shimmery goodness.

No wonder you do not see swatches for this. Who would pay good money for this crappy polish when given an option? OPI "Teasy Does It" is a much better warmed red-violet glitter option.

I love a good jelly, and VNL rarely bothers me. However, the juxtaposition of this warm shimmer riding on a ghostly ugly cool base is a definite turn off.

Maybe DS Jewel would make a good layer polish ... but that is what CND Effects are for, yup.

Morgana Cryptoria Lipstick Swatches 2 (the warmer side)

Top Left to Right: Cocoa, Clay Bakin', Apple Plum
Second Left to Right: 24K Pumpkin, Pumpkin Eater

In bright sunlight.

In the shade.

Cocoa is almost a my lip shade color, peachy beige, fairly easy to apply.  But I'm really not looking for a nude lip.

Clay Bakin' is a bit darker and a bit pinker than Cocoa.  Also fairly easy to apply.  

Apple Plum is almost a warmed berry color.  A bit too pink for me to be comfortable.  Not too dark, but not too light.  

24K Pumpkin is a beautiful orange shade that is a bit deeper and more toned down than Pumpkin Eater.  This is one shade I may purchase.  It is a reddened orange.

Pumpkin Eater is the only full size Morgana shade I own, but it is too bright for me to be very comfortable.  It is a metallic red-orange.  The most unusual shade I've ever seen.  And very bright!

Morgana Cryptoria lipstick swatches

I do have far too many lipsticks.  But I wear most of them.  Not that I will ever hit the base of a lipstick, but I'm getting close with a couple of my Korres Mangos.

Korres lipsticks are usually very light, and very natural looking.  But every once in a while, I want a lipstick with more pigment.  I have a couple Laura Mercier, Stila Long Wears, and Primitives.  I'm always on the lookout for my perfect lip color.

So I ordered a bunch of samples from Morgana's last sale, hoping to find a perfect plum, a gorgeous red/orange, and an exceptional peach.  Of course, any browns that work will also be welcome.

And I have finally come to a conclusion.  Morgana Cryptoria has really nice lipsticks that don't make me feel pretty.  And, really, it is not her schtick.  The company is a "goth" brand that makes gorgeously weird colors.  But they are not for me.  All of her lippies scream "look at me" and that in not the person I am.

So I won't purchase any MC lipsticks, and will stick with her pigments.  But don't let my experience deter you.  If you have cool coloring, or want to stick out, check out Morgana Cryptoria.

The sample containers are clam shells with differing amounts of product.  But all contain at least enough for a week's worth of sampling.

First Row (left to right) Goldrush, Peach Daquiri, Sunset Peach
Second Row (left to right) Plum Crazy, Plumeria, Shrieking Violet
Third Row (left and right) Mocha Blast, Guilded Brown


I applied all of these with a lip brush to my bare hand.

Shade was the game for the day.

Though I did catch the occasional ray of sun.

A second sun picture.

First Row (left to right) Goldrush, Peach Daquiri
Second Row (left to right) Plum Crazy, Plumeria
Third Row (left and right) Mocha Blast

First Row (left to right) Peach Daquiri, Sunset Peach
Second Row (left to right) Plumeria, Shrieking Violet
Third Row (left and right) Gilded Brown


Goldrush - A warm gold with red and green microglitter.  It had good coverage with a lip brush.

Peach Daquiri - A very light and warmish pink.  It has red microglitter and good coverage.  This left a day long stain behind on my hand.

Sunset Peach - An orange base, so much warmer than Peach Daquiri, it also has red microglitter.  Less pigmented and patchy coverage, so you need to take greater care with application.

Plum Crazy - This reads mauvey brown to me.  Not much plum.  It also had patchy coverage, so care needs to be taken with application.

Plumeria - A red-violet with blue glitter.  Not as dark as Shrieking Violet, with more red.  It has patchy coverage, take care with application.

Shrieking Violet- This is a medium red-violet creme without any glitter.   It is darker and more blue than Plumeria.  It is extraordinarily patchy, so I would call it a wash of color, but fairly pigmented.  Perhaps a good starter color, though it will read very different depending on the shade of your lips.  On my pale skin and pigmented lips, this turns a dark, cyanotic purple.  It is overwhelming on my pale features.

Mocha Blast - A medium cool brown with red microglitter.  It had fairly nice coverage.

Gilded Brown - This is a deep orange bronze metallic.  It has great coverage, and makes me look like an extra on a sci-fi show.


These lipsticks have a good to great coverage, with some needing more care than others.  They don't overwhelm my sense of smell, although they do have a slight scent.  It is not bothersome.

I caved, OPI "Take the Stage" Swatch

After my high dungeon speech about OPI turning on its customers and requiring full price sales only, I was inundated by Burlesque swatches.

I was grabbed and shaken about by "Take the Stage" a strongly red copper almost glass flecked shimmer.  Being that I also came across a sale, I purchased it ... and perhaps "Rising Star" and "Tease-y Does it!" came along as well.

Now that I have applied "Take the Stage" I cannot understand all the gushing OPI love I keep reading for Burlesque.  This thing is almost a nightmare to work with.  It doesn't have enough pigment and the first coat is a streaky, smeary mess.  The followup with a second coat just reveals all the cuticle drag and bare spots from the first coat. 

Take the Stage is basically a heavy micro glitter in clear coat.  As such, the streakyness is very bothersome to me.  I do not see it so much in photographs, but in person the problems are obvious.  In the photograph, the outer edge of my pointer finger has a long streak (left side in the picture).

It probably needs a third coat, but I don't have that much patience.  Especially since this dries really, really slowly.  It is not as bad as an Orly for me, but it is close.  I ended up having to redo two nails after 30 minutes of drying resulted in severe smudging.  I don't know what I caught them on, but they looked horrid.

So even though the color is spectacular, the formula is horrendous.  Just not worth it.

AND, obvious VNL at two coats.

Tossed into my give away pile.

Luckily, very little from the "Texas" collection is calling to me.  I feel a slight need to defend the state against such a poorly thought out color story.  I will only say that it is obvious a native was NOT consulted.  We would never have given approval.

Additionally, OPI's "Smok'n in Havana" re-release keeps whispering to me.  But everytime it "pssts" in my ear, I look back to my Take the Stage photos and think, "Naah."



I still haven't tried "Rising Star."  I figure it will have the same issues as "Take the Stage."  Luckily, "Tease-y Does It!" has a pigmented base, making the wearing experience far more satisfying than "Take the Stage."  Weather did not co-operate for photographs.  Next time.

Conclusion, OPI really lets the warm toned down collection after collection.  It is either nothing but bad colors, or a good color with a craptastic formula.  Hey, Zoya, whaddya got goin' on?

China Glaze Peace on Earth

I've just about killed my lemming for NARS Mash with China Glaze's new "Peace on Earth."

A true medium Olive green with gold shimmer, it is the much lighter brother of Wagontrail.

It applies beautifully in two coats with lovely coverage.  Exactly what I was hoping for.  Now I need a color in between POE and WT.  :)

It has no Avocado leanings.

CND Urban Oasis swatch and review and Teal Sparkle

CND's new "Urban Oasis" polish is a pretty, though dark, blue-green/teal leaning further to the blue side than green.

I expected to dislike the polish once I saw how much blue it had, but I've gotten several compliments and it is beginning to grow on me.  Kinda like a fungus actually ... but I'll still switch to CGs "Peace on Earth" when it arrives.

After adding the second coat, I almost immediately crashed my pointer fingers together.  Go figure, I tend to read between polish coats and books can be a challenge to pick up and put down.  With no small amount of dread, mostly because this is a creme and cremes just don't do passable touch-ups as well as shimmers/glitters, I looked at my nails.

No damage.  Wow, these dry as fast as OCC Chlorophyll.  No surprise, the formulas are very similar.

Two days later, I applied the Teal Sparkle top coat as a funky french.  I was noticing the slightest bits of tip wear, and decided to hide them rather than change.

Teal Sparkle has a great deal of green to it, so the combo is unusual, to say the least.  It does have a duo effect, with the plastic bits flashing from clear to green so the base color shows through.  It has also been growing on me.

These photographs were taken on day four of the mani, I believe.  Or day five, but I'll be safe and say four.  There was some minor tip wear, which is very common for me.  I'm always dragging my nails across something. 

Removal of these did turn my fingers blue for a bit, and I used three cotton balls to remove all the lacquer ... a bit more than is typical.  I was able to remove the vast majority of the polish, so I wasn't wandering around with asphyxiated fingers for long.

Barielle Ridge Filling Base Coat
Two coats polish
One coat Nubar Diamont

My refill bottle of Diamont seems to play more nicely with polishes than the original bottle.  It still dries as quickly for me, but the layering is easier and lasts longer.  I had massive peeling problems with the first bottle if I layered anything on top of Diamont, even a second coat of Diamont ... if you change your polish daily or every two days, no biggie, but I like to get at least four or five days from a mani.  This refill is definitely working better, but it is an older bottle.  Probably close to a year old or more.  I've read that Nubar changed the formulation of Diamont, and some bloggers were having a lot of problems.  If so, CND still makes "Air Dry" and I've had great results from that quick-dry as well.

Ginger + Liz and Diamond Cosmetics Comparison for dupes

I placed a ten piece order with Flossie Diamond Cosmetics.  I've seen lots of reviews of their polish, and the price is a bit hard to ignore.  While adding my choices into the cart,  I decided to test the "dupe" quotient of two polishes for myself, so I now own Don't Teal My Heart Away (listed as a possible dupe to Ginger + Liz's "New Money" on several sites) and Not So Evergreen (listed as a possible dupe to Ginger + Liz's "Tough Luxe" on several sites).  I own both of these Ginger + Liz polishes, and I purchased the two directly from their website shortly after they went online.

I swatched each of these color sets side by side, photographed them outside, and ran a smear on paper.

The most obvious differences in the bottles have to do with 1) the logos - the logo appears to be silkscreened on the Ginger + Liz (G+L) bottle but the Diamond Cosmetics (DC) logo is a the peel and stick label, and 2) the brushes.  The Ginger+Liz brushes are wider and apply wider swipes of polish than the Diamond Cosmetics brushes.

 

This brush comparison photo was taken indoors and lightened.

The G+L shaft is ovoid and grasps the fibers in an ovoid shape.  The fiber count in the G+L brush is higher than the DC brush.

The DC shaft is circular and the fibers are held in a circular shape.




Here are my swatching results:



Ginger + Liz "New Money" and Diamond Cosmetics "Don't Teal My Heart Away"

The above photos are taken outside and were both two coats of the respective polish above a single base coat.  I could not tell a difference between them visually after application.  Diamond Cosmetics "Don't Teal My Heart Away" is an excellent dupe for Ginger + Liz "New Money."





Ginger + Liz "Tough Luxe" and Diamond Cosmetics "Never So Evergreen"

The above photos are taken outside and were both two coats of the respective polish above a single base coat.  I could not tell a difference between them visually after application.  Diamond Cosmetics "Never So Evergreen" is an excellent dupe for Ginger + Liz "Tough Luxe."

The above photo is the two polishes side by side on the same finger, my thumb.  I cannot remember which is which, but the bald spot at the upper side leads me to believe that is the DC side.


The formula between the two polishes did apply differently, but I do not yet know if that is chemistry or the physics of the brush.  Both polishes dried quickly and gave fairly good coverage in two coats.  The DC polishes were a little more prone to balding.  I think this could be due to the smaller brush and the higher number of strokes required per nail for full coverage. 

A third coat may have covered all visible balding spots, but I prefer to use two coats for quicker drying speed.

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos are untouched but for cropping and adding text.


UPDATE -
Flossie's Diamond Cosmetics Ingredients list was obtained by emailing the company.  Ginger+Liz Ingredients list was obtained in the first order from packaging material.

As the ingredients lists match up very closely, I must assume that the different feel of the lacquers was due to the brush differences.


Diamond Cosmetics Ingredients
Butyl Acetate; Ethyl Acetate; Nitrocellulose; Acetyl Tributyl Citrate; Phthalic Anhydride/Trimellitic Anhydride/Glycols Copolymer; Isopropyl Alcohol; Stearalkonium Hectorite; Adipic Acid/Fumaric Acid/Phthalic Acid/Tricyclodecane Dimethanol Copolymer; Citric Acid; colorants; Polyethylene Terephthalate; Calcium Sodium Borosilicate; Titanium Dioxide; Tin Oxides Silica; Aluminum Powder; Iron Oxides; Aluminum Powder; Fragrance 


Ginger+Liz Ingredients
Butyl Acetate; Ethyl Acetate; Nitrocellulose; Acetyl Tributyl Citrate; Phthalic Anhydride/Trimellitic Anydride/Glycols Copolymer; Isopropyl Alcohol; Stearalkonium Hectorite; Adipic Acid/Fumaric Acid/Phthalic Acid/Tricyclodecane Dimethanol Copolymer; Citric Acid; colors; Polytheylene Terepthalate; Calcium Sodium Borosilicate; Titanium Dioxide; Tin Oxides Silica; Aluminum Powder; Iron Oxides; Aluminum Powder; Fragrance