Demure Vixen vs. Venus di Violet (comparison)

Every now and then I post spam on MUA (MakeUp Alley) of random polishes, and in one of those posts I had OPI - Venus di Violet (which I showed you earlier here) Someone asked to see how it compared to Essie- Demure Vixen. So here we go!

Three coats of each color, Venus di Violet on index and ring fingers and Demure Vixen on middle and pinky fingers.


sunlight

shade

indoors

bottle shot!

The Verdict? Obviously they aren't dupes, Demure Vixen is darker and more mauve, but they are relatives. Demure Vixen is somewhat of a darker version of Venus di Violet. The shimmer in DV is a little more "secret" and VdV is a little more obvious. Also the shimmer isn't 100% the same, although it is very similar. It feels almost identical but VdV is a little pinker, more of a purpley-pink shimmer.

If you like one you'll probably like the other polish, I hope this helps :) Are there other comparisons you'd like to see? Tell me in the comments!

Venus di Violet

So, it's been a while, eh? Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging and as much as I wish this could be my number one priority, realistically other things have to come first. But everything has settled down (or at least as much as it's going to haha) so I'm back! I never intended to go on that hiatus, so sorry for no heads up.

Today I have OPI - Venus di Violet to share with you. This is a polish I had put on my wishlist early on in my nail polish addiction and never really got around to getting until one day I found it on sale at a Trade Secret store. I was pleasantly surprised by it!


sunlight

shade

indoors (and apparently a little rough on the clean-up, sorry!)

This is a soft and sophisticated color, kind of a palette cleanser if you will. The application was good for such a pale color, sometimes they can be streaky and tough to work with but this wasn't. I used three coats in these pictures. Venus di Violet is a pale pink with pretty shimmer that is purple-leaning pink. I'm glad I ended up picking this polish up, because I ended up really liking it :) I'll do a comparison with this in my next post, so check back for that! What do you think of Venus di Violet?

Just a couple of other little notes - I will be notifying the winner of the crackle polish giveaway hopefully this weekend. I have some new reviews coming up as well as another giveaway very soon!

A belatedly Sinful Valentine's Day (pic heavy)

I hope you all had a fun Valentine's Day or Monday.. however you chose to think of the 14th :) Unfortunately, my laptop crashed so I couldn't post these on the 14th like I had planned too. My mom is great with computers, so she got it back up and running - yay! So I have three colors from the collection of six that Sinful has put out for Valentine's Day. All 6 appear to be repromoted shades, but they are very pretty and definitely worth checking out. This is picture heavy! Just fair warning

sunlight

shade

inside

Beautiful Girl: This is definitely less peach in real life than it's looking in pictures, it's a little brighter and a little more pink. This was three coats and a little thin, but I like it a lot. All three swatches are without topcoat, and you can see how shiny they are on their own, which I'm a big fan of. I was on the fence about this color in the bottle but it was really pretty once I had it on!


sunlight

shade

indoors

Pink Forever: This is more vibrant in real life and a little brighter than the pictures wanted to show. I only needed two coats for Pink Forever, and it was definitely the easiest of these three to work with - so yay for that. It feels very spring-y to me, I want to konad some flowers on my ring fingers when I wear this :)

sunlight

shade

indoors

Boom Boom: I found this to be the most difficult of the three to work with, it was streaky the first two coats. It did eventually even itself out and I ended up really liking it. Boom Boom is a color I'll be wearing a ton in the summer; doesn't it seem like a cute pedi color? It's very bright in real life, a little more vibrant and a little more blue than I could capture in pictures. I think using a white base or some other underwear color will help cut down on coats needed. It does have a jelly feel to it, which a lot of people will like (I'm not into VNL so I'll use underwear)

Overall I really like all three of these colors from the collection, I can see myself wearing all of them! Which of the three is your favorite? Will you be picking up any of the six pinks from the collection? At $1.99 a piece, there's no reason not to! :)

(these were provided to me for an honest review)

Pretty BCA Polish

I know it's almost the end of October, but I wanted to wait to do my breast cancer awareness post because so many happen at the start of the month. I have been fortunate enough to never have a member of my immediate family affected by breast cancer, but many other kinds of cancer have taken people that I love from me. Please make sure to check yourself periodically and remind your friends and family to as well! It's not about saving boobies, it's about saving lives.

Today I have one of the polishes from this year's China Glaze - Fight Like A Woman collection, Encouragment. This is a very delicate and sophisticated looking pale pink color.

sunlight

shade

indoors

I love just about everything about Encouragment. As I said above, it's very delicate looking, at least in my opinion. Although, it is a little sheer, so maybe next time I wear this I'll use a pale pink base and layer a coat or two of Encouragment on top, but I will definitely be wearing this color a lot! It's appropriate for any setting and a little more interesting looking than regular pinks, because of the silvery shimmer. I have two weddings in my future and this is a front runner for my mani for them especially since I will be a bridesmaid. What do you think? Did you get any of this year's Breast Cancer Awareness polish offerings?

Diva of Geneva

I had a ridiculous amount of things done to my back today (injections, acupuncture, physical therapy) so this is going to be short and sweet. I've got a gorgeous polish to show you today, OPI - Diva of Geneva from the Swiss Collection. I like a number of the colors from this collection but so far only have this and The Color To Watch (which I will be showing you soon). There are a few more that I'm looking to get my hands on ASAP though!

I love Diva of Geneva. It feels very rich and fall to me and is pretty for fingers and toes. Check it out below and tell me what your favorites from the Swiss Collection are!

sunlight
shade
inside

Layering with... Wild Orchid

The other day I showed you Color Club- Wild Orchid. Since it was such a dream to apply I wanted to see how some other polishes I have would look layered over it. Wild Orchid has silver shimmer in it which I thought would bring an added dimension to any layering combination! So I tried out four different sheer polishes over it; all from Savvy Femme Couture.

sunlight

shade

inside

So I have a different color on each finger. From index to pink they are...

Index: Prince Ala Charm

Middle: Fairy Twinkle

Ring: Glass Slipper

Pinky: Knightly Armour

I think the ring finger with Glass Slipper on is my favorite combo, I think you could get a similar effect with Pure Ice- Heartbreaker (which I can swatch if someone wants to see as well). I also really like Knightly Armour, which is kind of like a ramped up version of Wild Orchid.

I picked all four of these up on clearance from Sallys (yay clearance!) Do you have any? Which of the four pictured are your favorite? I can't wait to try them over some other colors!

Twilight Violet

Day three of Diamond Cosmetics week! I know that layering is usually for Wednesday, but it's comng tomorrow, so stay tuned :) I was in the mood to show you pink/purple today! Despite the word Twilight in the name, this polish has nothing to do with vampires or anything of that nature. I'm absolutely not a fan of vampires, Twilight, or any of that stuff but I do like Twilight Violet! When I got this I thought it was going to be more...violet haha. And on some people it pulls a little more purple, but on my skin it seems to be mostly pink; with purple influences though haha. Once I got over my purple expectations I realized I like this color a lot! See the prettiness below...

sunlight!

shade, which made the camera decide the polish was a whole other color haha. Clearly the purple part of this polish is making the camera nutso in the shade, sorry!

indoors

I think my index finger in the first picture is color accurate. The best part about this color? It has secret shimmer! I know some of you are big into the secret shimmer, so this is right up your alley. And for under three dollars, how can you go wrong?

It's Diamond Cosmetics Week!

Guess who's back, back again. That would be me, haha. I'm about to pick the giveaway winner, and after I contact them tonight - I'll post the winner in the next day or two (whenever they get back to me!) I already have the next... 5 giveaways planned for you guys! One is coming veryyyy soon, so keep watching here.

This week I'm having a theme week - featuring Diamond Cosmetics polishes, 6 different colors and some layering (for Wednesday, of course). This is one of my favorite brands and all of these colors are 1-2 coaters, so I wanted to share them with you. First up is Diamond Cosmetics - Free N Easy. I actually didn't love this color when I first swatched it but now I really really do. Check out the pictures below!

Sunlight

Outside, shade

Indoors

The first picture is color accurate; the shade made my camera go a little nutso.  This is a very pink leaning purple.  When I ordered from the little swatch on the Diamond Cosmetics website, I thought was getting a light purple, but I still like the color it actually turned out to be. :) It's very simple, elegant, and pretty in my opinion.  Reminds me a lot of the base color of Essie- Demure Vixen - but wthout the same shimmer.  If you like Demure Vixen, I imagine you would probably like Free N Easy as well - I know I do!  This color is very appropiate for work and any other formal setting.  Everyone needs a couple of polishes like this in their stash.   What do you think of Diamond Cosmetics and Free N Easy?  Have you tried this brand before?  If not you're missing out!  Hopefully after this week I will have convinced you of that :)

Strawberry Fields Forever

How on earth did it manage to be a week between blog posts?! This last week was a little insane. I helped move my brother into his new house, which was exhausting. But as a thank you gift he gave me an autographed hockey puck I'd been hunting down. One of our friends plays with this player in a summer league so he arranged everything and got it personalized for me, pretty sweet. I collect nail polish and autographed hockey pucks.. I'm a strange girl :) Luckily, no nails were broken in the process! Boo for Mother Nature lately though, any day I have free to swatch it ends up overcast...annoying. I need to make a light box or something soon I think.

Today I have a quintessential summer color for you, China Glaze - Strawberry Fields. I fell in love with this when Brooke, over at Babbling Brooke, posted swatches of it. And this is one of those colors that just screams summer time to me. I even have flowers in my backyard that match this color perfectly! Check it out!


Sunshiiiine


Shade, and the matching flower :) I love this picture. Please excuse my slightly crooked middle finger.. it's compliments of a flag football league haha


Inside

Pretty in all lights I think. But I also think it's a color I love wayyy more on other people than I do on myself. I think we all have one of those, where it looks amazing on everyone and than you get it and it just doesn't look quite right on you. So this might be mine. I waffle on whether or not to swap this. Maybe I will like it better on my toes? Only one way to find out haha. Do you have a color that you liked more on other people than yourself?

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!! Only a few days left!

I'm not a Demure Vixen, but I play one on TV.

Okay, I lied I don't play one on tv. But I was in commercials as a baby, does that count for anything? hahah. I do really like this nail polish though. I have a handful of pictures of Essie - Demure Vixen to show you because it can look so different! I'm sure you've seen a million pictures of this before, but here are mine.




both in sunlight; sometimes you see shimmer and sometimes you don't! I like it both ways


shade (that's shine at the edge of my nails, not unpainted spots haha)




indoors.. see how different it can look in the same spot of my house? Same time of day even!

I'm assuming by now everyone pretty much has decided whether or not they like this color, so what's your take on it? I love it! I feel like it's super versatile, you can wear it anywhere. I like the pink shimmer, it gives this a little extra oomph, if you will. Normally I'm not a huge Essie fan. I have about 10 colors in my stash. The streakiness of Essie drives me insane, but the formula on this wasn't bad. I felt like I could control it better than most Essie colors. Any big time Essie fans out there? I make exceptions for buying Essie when I find a color that really wows me, like this and the recently released Sew Psyched; or for a staple like Madamoiselle. And the North Fork collection, love that one. But maybe now that the brand seems to be branching out into more bold colors I'll try more of them? Guess there's only one way to find out ;-)

Just a reminder - don't forget about my giveaway! And I updated my stash spreadsheet yesterday, the link is on the right side of the page - feel free to let me know if you want to see a certain color or a comparison.

Color Club neons and what I learned about neons in general.

Double post today to make up for my little hiatus! I told you in the last post that I would "kind of show you neons" today. What did I mean by kind of? Well I have pictures of three different neon polishes. But the kind of part comes in because they seem to make my camera crazy so they aren't 100% accurate. Also, I learned that most neon polishes look absolutely horrendous on me. Almost everything is going to get swapped haha.

Okay the first polish I have to show you is Color Club - Electro Candy.


Outside in direct sunlight


Outside in the shade


Inside, artificial light

So...Electro Candy. What a pain to photograph! None of these three pictures fully show how BRIGHT this color is. Think hot pink highlighter bright. But you can see how different the color looks to my camera in different light. And it sort of made me look like a corpse, so this is going in the swap pile haha. I'm super pale, but I imagine this would look awesome on someone tan (aka most people in the summer).

Next up: Color Club - Ultra Violet!

I thought I was going to love this, but was kind of meh on it. But here are pictures for you to decide for yourself...


Outside direct sunlight


Outside in shade


Indoors, artifical light

Normally I'm a purple fanatic but this I didn't love. Liked, yes.. but it was a little bright for me too. The actual color is closest in real life to the first picture. Again, these pictures don't come close to capturing how bright it is and you can see the different ways the camera thought it looked, just like Electro Candy. This has a fairly strong blue flash which you can definitely see in the sunlight picture (the first one).

Last but certainly not least, Color Club - Pure Energy

Pure Energy was my favorite and the only one I'm going to keep. This is supposedly a dupe for China Glaze - Towel Boy Toy, but I don't have that to compare them.


Outside in sunlight


Outside in shade


Indoors, arificial light

So pretty! Still a little brighter in real life than in pictures, but not as blinding as the other two colors I showed above. Pure Energy is much more flattering on my skintone, but still a color that I probably will mostly use on my toes. Perfect for summer though! I've had Towel Boy Toy on my wishlist for a while but I think this will be a very good (and cheaper) substitute for me.

All three of the swatches were done with 1 coat of OPI - Alpine Snow and then 2 coats of color. I've read that it makes the colors more vibrant and uses less coats if you use a white underneath them. I'd also heard that neons are notoriously streaky and tough to work with for the most part; but all three of these were a dream to apply- very easy! The first coat was streaky but it evened out nicely after the second. Oh, and don't forget you can click on all of the pictures to enlarge them if you'd like.

I got these at Ross in the Electro Candy set so it was an low-risk way for me to try out neon polishes. So the verdict is that I don't like how neons look on me (with Pure Energy as the exception.) And they make my camera crazy haha. What do you guys think? Love neons or hate 'em? If you have found ones you love, let me know your favorites - maybe I will get brave enough to try some more one day :)

I hope everyone is having an amazing day/night - it's over 100 degrees here in New Jersey.. ridiculously hot. So I'm hiding out inside and eating ice cream!