Quick Post: Comparison between Catrice Be Pool and San Francisco

Catrice released these two polishes a while ago (Be Pool (BP) was part of their renewal-display and the only limited shade, San Francisco (SF) is from their second Big City Life LE). Godfrina hinted that San Francisco might be close to Be Pool which I already have.

Both shades are teal with light green and silver shimmer in some angles you might even see a golden shimmer. The formula of San Francisco was on the thicker side but nothing a (nail polish) thinner can’t fix. Sadly, the shimmer isn’t as visible on the nail- if you prefer it with more shimmer, you might want to dip a brush into nail polish remover, wipe off the excess and then gently wipe a thin layer of polish off it before you put on a topcoat. That way the shimmer will be more visible. I used two coats of BP and SF, no topcoat.

I’ll let the picture speak, how close both of them are :)

Catrice hat vor einiger Zeit diese zwei Lacke rausgebracht (Be Pool war der einzige limitierte Lack bei einer Sortimentsumstellungs-LE, San Francisco ist von der zweiten Big City Life LE). Die liebe Godfrina hat mich auf Twitter angeschrieben, wie ähnlich sich die beiden sind.

Beide Lacke sind ein mittlerer Petrolton mit hellgrünen und silbernen Schimmer. In manchen Winkeln kann man auch teilweise einen goldenen Schimmer erkennen. Die Konsistenz von San Francisco war mir ein wenig zu dickflüssig, aber nichts, was ein Nagellackverdünner wieder in Ordnung bringen kann. Leider ist vom Schimmer am Nagel nicht mehr viel zu sehen, falls ihr aber den Schimmer doch noch sehen wollts, könnts ihr versuchen, einen Pinsel in Nagellackentferner zu tunken, überflüssigen [Nagellackentfern] leicht abwischen und ganz vorsichtig eine dünne Schicht vom Lack zu entfernen, damit man den Schimmer besser sehen kann. Bei beiden Lacken habe ich je zwei Schichten benutzt (auch ohne Überlack).

Das Bild zeigt, wie ähnlich sich beide Lacke sind :)

Jessica Disco Diva vs. Gosh Holographic

I'm a sucker for silver holos and couldn't wait to get my hands on the Jessica Hologram Chic Duo (consisting of Disco Diva (DD), the silver linear holographic shade and Retro Revival, their Aqua Base). I couldn't resist comparing it to Gosh Holographic and painted my ringfinger with Disco Diva.

Gosh Holographic ("good" version, before they discontinued it) is a middle toned silver holographic shade. The finish when you're in a room with poor lighting is almost chrome like, a metallic finish so to say. In comparison to Disco Diva it is darker. The holographic effect is stronger than DD . With an Aqua Base as your basecoat it is opaque with two coat or you might get away with one thicker coat.
Jessica Disco Diva is a lighter silver tone compared to Gosh Holo. I used three coats and it has a "finer" holographic effect and swatched side by side it looks like it is not as strong as the one by Gosh.
The difference between the two wasn't as pronounced if you look at it from a "distance".

Ich liebe silberne holorgaphische Nagellacke und konnte es kaum erwarten, das Hologram Chic Duo von Jessica in meinen Händen zu halten. Das Duo enthällt Disco Diva, der silberne holographische Nagellack und Retro Revival, die Aqua Base (der Unterlack für holographische Nagellacke). Ich konnte es nicht lassen, ihn mit Gosh Holographic zu vergleichen und habe meinen Ringfinger mit Disco Diva lackiert.

Gosh Holographic (die "gute" Version, bevor sie aus dem Sortiment kam) ist ein mittlerer silberner holographischer Nagellack. Das Finish des Lackes, wenn man ihn in einem Raum mit schlechter Belichtung betrachtet, ist schon fast wie ein Chrom-Finish, recht "metallisch". Im Vergleich zu Disco Diva ist er dünkler. Auch der holographische Effekt ist stärker als DD. Mit der Aqua Base als Unterlack ist er mit zwei dünnen oder einer dicken Schicht deckend.
Jessica Disco Diva ist ein heller Silberton im Vergleich zu Gosh Holo. Ich hab' drei Schichten benutzt, bis er deckte und die holographischen Partikeln waren "feiner" als der von Gosh.
Der Effekt zwischen den beiden Lacken war auch nicht so "stark", besonders wenn man ihn sich ein wenig weiter weg anschaut (war schon fast nicht mehr sichtbar, wenn man ihn nach einer "Armlänge" anschaute).

Quick Post: That Navy Baby is Covered in Diamonds

Sally Hansen Navy Baby, Anna Sui 011 and Color Club Covered in Diamonds, a mouth full of polishes in one post :o.
Let's start witht the first one, Sally Hansen Navy Baby: a dark cobalt blue jelly. Two coats, might be opaque with one thick coat.
Color Club Covered in Diamonds: a unique glitter. To me it looks like they took the big glitter sheets(?), put it in a blender and then made a polish out of it. One coat on my ring finger.
Anna Sui 011: all the way from my Canada trip last summer. It's a silver glitter in a transparent base and has some of the same type of glitter CiD has. One thin coat on my thumb. After it dries, it has a divine rose smell, tough it fades after a day (in comparison to the other scented nail polishes I have, it might be the weakest scent-wise).

Sally Hansen Navy Baby, Anna Sui 011 und Color Club Covered in Diamonds- was sich wie eine lange Liste voller Nagellacke liest, sind eigentlich nur drei.
Fangen wir mit dem ersten Lack an, Sally Hansen Navy Baby: ein dunkleblauer Kobalt mit einem Jelly-Finish. Braucht zwei Schichten, aber wäre evt. auch mit nur einer dicken Schicht deckend.
Color Club Covered in Diamonds: ein einzigartiger Glitzernagellack. Als hätte man die Glitzerfolie genommen, in den Mixer gesteckt und einen Nagellack draus gemacht. Eine Schicht auf meinem Daumen.
Anna Sui 011: einer der Nagellacke von meinem Kanada-Urlaub letzten Sommer. Ein Klarlack mit silbernem Glitzer und ein paar Glitzerstücke, wie es sie auch in CiD enthalten sind. Eine Schicht auf meinem Ringfinger.
Anna Sui Nagellacke sind "Duftnagellacke", sprich, sie duften nach dem trocknen. Diese hier riechen nach Rosen, aber der Geruch ist schon nach einem Tag wieder weg (im Vergleich zu meinen anderen Duftnagellacken nicht so "stark")

a comparison between Covered in Diamonds(right) and Anna Sui(left)/ ein Vergleich zwischen Covered in Diamonds (rechte Nagelhälfte) und dem Anna Sui (linke Nagelhälfte)

Nfu.Oh 65 and Siw

Edit: I've added a little poll on the left side for my german speaking readers, please vote if you're intrested :) (It's about a german translation of my forthcoming posts)

You might remember my little army of Nfu.Oh's I posted a few months back. I finally wore number 65 and am loving them more and more.
Make Up Store Siw is a light blue holo I got as an extra in a swap from a really sweet and generous swapper who lives in Sweden. Both the Nfu.Oh and Siw look really similar in the bottle so I decided to alternate the two. They are also apply practically the same over the Nfu.Oh Aqua Base (which I would strongly suggest if you want to keep your sanity while applying holographic polishes)

both are two coats with a coat of the Nfu.Oh Aqua Base

See a difference? I don't and if I haven't noted which finger I paitned with which polish, I wouldn't know it either.  Wanna know which finger I painted with which polish? Scroll down a bit :)

Happy Birthday vs. Circus Confetti

I've already shown you Happy Birthday in my last post. And when I spotted the new Essence display, I also bought one of their new Nail Art Special Effect Topper, which has multicolored hex-glitters in it. So here's a quick swatch on a nailwheel to compare these two:

Circus Confetti on the left, Happy Birthday on the right

Now, to the differences:
Circus Confetti

• the brush of CC is wider and "thicker" which makes it a tad harder to apply because the hex-glitter gets caught between the brush bristles
• formula-wise it's thicker than its (expensive) sibling
• there's less glitter in CC and the little sized glitter is smaller and sparser than HB
• "middle" sized hex glitter- there are few, sparse glitter which are neither as big as the big hex-glitter, nor as big as the small sized one
• there is more magenta hex- glitter but less silver

Happy Birthday

• there's more square-sized glitter

To be honest, I really like both but if you are in one of the many countries which carry Essence, I would probably pass on the Lippmann because it's 10 times the price (~2€ compared to 20€, that's how much the Lippmann cost here).

The new Catrice display, an Essence LE and a blast from the past

I found the new Catrice display today and was really excited to see the new things they've released. They've re-arranged their whole display and to me it looks more well arranged than it was.

I heard that there were different versions of their polish called Run Forest Run!, so I found these two

Yeah, the two different versions of RFR!- on the left, the old version, the new one on the right. I get it that some batches might have very slight differences, but turning a dark green into a light green (which now looks a lot like Sold Out Forever now)
And while I was at the store who also has the bigger Essence display, I saw their new LE

I only got the blue/blurple polish and the lighter color changing lipgloss, the rest was kinda meh to me.
They also had part of the new nail-art-stickers

And lastly, here's a little blast from the past. While I was cleaning out my stash  for my blog sale (btw. there's still plenty left ;)) I found this:

These are the "silk" wraps before they've actually released the ones made out of fabric. The nail repair pads are made out of plastic and have a lot in common with clear labelling stickers. I'm not sure when exactly I got them, it was around 2006, but I'm not completly sure.

The instructions

I can still remember trying 3 or 4 of these and thinking that these were a complete waste of money because they are wrinkle-city and can be peeled off in a few hours after applying them.
And here's the actuall wraps- it's hard to photograph, but I think you get the idea.

I finally have a piece of a Starry Starry Night with a lot of pictures and a bonus

If you've wondered about the title, it's not that I've bought a bottle of Essie's Starry Starry Night. But a few weeks ago I finally placed my order at GingerkittyDesigns Etsy Shop. I couldn't resist buying the earrings and the ring. Tough I don't have Starry Starry Night, I do have Maybelline Twinkle Twinkle, which is a really close color.
The earring box

Before we start with the picture-spam, here's a little extra (ring) she included. (Laser insisted on wearing the ring ;) ) This ring was actually made with Orly Lunar Eclipse, but Sally Hansen Laser is a dupe for it.

Now, onto the "comparison" of Twinkle Twinkle and SSN: I couldn't really capture it, but Twinkle Twinkle is the teeny tiniest bit more purple than SSN. And you have to look really really close to capture it in person, you wouldn't notice it in a distance. I used two coats of Twinkle Twinkle, it was a bit gloopy tough but given it's age, it was still in pretty good "shape".
Some bottle-earring comparisons (I'd recommend you to click on the pictures):

one taken with flash

and some sun pictures

Thanks so much Tracey, I love all three pieces :)

Disclosure: I purchased the SSN earrings and the SSN ring myself, received Maybelline Twinkle Twinkle in a swap and the Crackle Ring was a gift. However, it did not affect my opinion about any of the products in this post

Rimmel Blue me Away vs. Rimmel Blue my Mind or: Why do companies keep changing their formulas?

Hey there :)

Whew, quite a long topic title ^^. So today's post is a comparison post of a polish from the same company but with different colors, even finishes. There are actually quite a lot of dud-Doppelgängers i.e. with holo polishes (yeah, I'm looking at you, My Private Jet, but also Color Club's Revvvolution or Wild at Heart or Diamond Cosmetics Chainmail Charm- the last one isn't sold at their site anymore because they are working on re-formulating it to get the good version back).
Back to topic: Rimmel sold Blue me Away is a gorgeous medium-toned purple with magenta shimmer. Whereas Blue my Mind (BMM) is a creme purple, leaning more towards blue. BMM has even jelly-like and needed 3 coats to be opaque, whereas BMA only needed 2.
My favourite is Blue me away, it has the great shimmer in it whereas Blue my Mind is just a more ordinary purple creme.

The shimmer in BMA is quite distintive,I've only paiunted Blue my Mind on my ring finger.

Essence Choose Me vs. Zoya Charla

Hey there :)

I know, you might have seen a lot of comparisons of these, but I did them quite a while ago and didn't have time to post them earlier.
Essence Choose Me was released this October due to the display change they do every spring&fall. I love that Essence has matching handles, makes it easier to locate the bottle in my drawer ;).
The formula & brush was good, but it took me 4 coats to be opaque. Zoya's Charla, on the other hand was opaque with ony two coats and looks a tad bluer in my eyes but a non-polish addict won't spot the difference. I didn't have a problem with Zoya's brush or fomula either. Somehow this polish looks mostly more green on me, a lot of other swatches show the blue-side of it.
A little waning: these two polishes will stain your nails, so don't forget a proper basecoat/ nail whitener.

My verdict: I really like both but due to the sheerness of Choose Me, I prefer Charla a bit more. I think I might franken with Choose Me, but have no idea yet (if you have suggestions, you can write them in the comments :) )

Some recent displays and a paradoxal fever

Hey there :)

I recently spotted a few new or new to me displays and tought that I'd share them with you.

First up, the new Alessandro crackle polishes called "Royal Crash". Yeah, you've seen right, Alessandro jumped on the Crackle-wagon and I somehow have the feeling there are a lot of companies out there who got those. The set contains a base color (gold or silver, a black crackle and a topcoat, all for ~15€)

Next up, two other Alessandro displays, one from their new Dark Secret LE  and an (maybe) older one called Hypnotic (looks like a Chanel Particulière dupe to me ;) )

Last, but not least, two Artdeco displays- a huge one called Color Masterpiece and one containing another (Chanel) dupe (called Mystery Collection).

I really liked #123 and #127 but having a lot of blues and purples I might have dupes or similar shades (plus I didn't want to spend that much if I have something similar in my stash already).

I mentioned the "paradoxal fever" in my title- let's take a closer look to Artdeco #145 of their Mystery Collection:

I took the Chanel Paradoxal testerbottle and compared it to Artdeco #145. I couldn't tell a difference between the two.

P2 Crackle Polishes and a comparison with Isadora and BYS

Hey there :)

P2 recently released two crackle polishes and I *had* to have them. There are only two colors (so far) and I hope that they're going to release new colors because unfortunatly the Isadora ones are quite expensive compared to P2( ~2€ vs 9€ or ~2,6$ vs ~11,7$).

I first layered them over my excisting manicure (Orly Wild Wisteria& Prisma Gloss Silver).

from left to right: P2 Silver Blast, P2 Black Explosion, Isadora Black Tag and BYS Black Crackle.
The effect isn't very obvious my nails except my pinky and sadly, the BYS didn't crack like the others, it had a cracked surface but the base-color wasn't shining through and my nail remained black.
Now, let's see how the colors look over a lighter base color, in this case P2 elegant (a 2 coater).

To me, P2 and Isadora look the same, tough the crackle-pattern varies how thick/thin you paint it. I tried to paint about the same amount of polish on all nails but due to the different brushes* it was quite hard.You can also see the pattern of the BYS crackle polishes I described before: they have a crackle-like surface but the base-color doesn't peek through. It's quite unique and I've never seen such a pattern before.

*P2 and BYS had quite skinny/average sized brushes, whereas Isadora had a wide brush about the same size of the OPI Pro Wide only a bit more brush-hair.

All in all I like the P2 crackling polishes. Due to the price they are definitly a steal and I really hope P2 comes out with more colors.

Yves Rocher Bleu Nuit gets a bit chunky with Claire's

Hey there :D

As you can see, I changed the Template. I was getting a bit sick of the old one so a new one was necessary. I hope you like it :)

Remember this post about my comparison of the teeny tiny Yves Rocher polishes? I've decanned one of the bottles because I simply can't handle the tiny brush and handle. Bleu Nuit is from an previous Christmas LE (from last year I think) and is incredibly pigmented. I was able got get nearly double of the original 3ml with lots and lots of thinner (I use this method of cleaning out bottles who are really pigmented so I don't waste any polish). I've also put some comparison pics of the brush at the end if you're intrested.

Anyhow, it's still incredibly pigmented even with all the thinner and a better bottle. I used one coat except my pointer, where I painted two to see how it'll look. The second coat gives it a really awesome depth.

See how it glows on my pointer?
I couldn't let it alone and decided to layer Claire's Chunky Blue over it and it was instant love :D

The sun decided to join this party too :D

Now onto the brush comparisons: I used a Orly brush to compare it to and it's twice at big as Yves Rochers one.

The Orly brush is 4 inches(8cm) long. I wonder if anyone can handle the YR one?

Essence Undead vs. Wet'n'Wild Night Prowl

Hey there :)

When I swatched Essence's Undead from their Eclipse LE, I knew I saw something similar somewhere. A few days (or better weeks) later, I knew, which one it was- Night Prowl by Wet'n'Wild.

I painted Undead and NP alternating, beginning with Undead on my pointer. I used one coat each and as you can see, Night Powl is packed with magenta glitter. Whereas the glitter in Undead is "drowned" in the base. The color of the glitter is the same too.
Before I removed the polish, I experimented a bit with it. I used my clean-up brush, dipped it into polish remover and carefully wiped off a layer of polish on Undead. It worked and after wiping off the polish, you can see more of the glitter in Undead, see for yourself. (you can click on the pictures)

I like both and you don't need both. Considering that Night Powl is in the permanent display in the US and you can easily swap/buy/franken one bottle for yourself, I'd pick NP. And you don't have to sell an arm, leg or organ to get the overhyped Polishes from the Eclipse collection by Essence (people are selling it for the tripple retail prices at the bay of evil...)