Embroidered Emerald (pic heavy)

I'm baaaaaaaaack! (Back again, Jana's back, tell a friend.  Guess who's back dun nun na)  I've got roughly 300 things to show you all and today I was sitting here trying to figure out where to start and eventually I just decided to go big.  Let's just put a handful of pictures up and drool for a while, shall we?

Warning: This post is wicked picture heavy.  I needed every one of these pictures to try and show the gorgeous-ness that is this polish.  (Yes, I said wicked.  I just watched the movie Fever Pitch so I feel very Boston-y right now.)  I'm not putting them under a cut either...I won't hide it from the world! 

Misa - Emboridered Emerald.  What can I say about it?  I love this polish, I love the name... everything is perfect about it. 

Holy moly.  This might be my favorite picture of it.  The colors!  The shimmer!

My hand is at a funny angle here so I could try to show you what the base color of Embroidered Emerald is. It's a raisin-y kind of purple if that makes sense. Very pretty, dark without being too dark and you know how I love me some purple.

Now with Embroidered Emerald, you get a serious multi-chrome thing happening.  There are 3 or 4 different colors of shimmer that will pop out depending on the angle of you hand and lighting.  Wearing this polish can be hazardous to any type of productivity, beware :)

 

So here you can see the subtle gold shimmer on my nails and you can see the green in the bottle

Here you can see the blue shimmer



And the green shimmer (mixed with some blue)

 There also is this green-ish gold shimmer that comes out in certain lights.

Look how even in the shade so many different colors show up on your nails.  Yum.

Have I saturated you with pictures yet?  Well, let me gush some more.  The formula on Embroidered Emerald is pretty solid.  Misa doesn't disappoint formula-wise even with the older polishes.  I have either 3 coats or 4 thin coats on in these pictures (sorry I don't remember for sure but I'd guess for 4 thin coats if I had to pick.)  This baby came out in Fall 2006 (I believe) and has become pretty tough to find by now.  I was lucky enough to get my hands on it last year which made me sooo happy since I had been lusting after it for a long time. 

Can we talk about the name for a second...Embroidered Emerald.  This is the kind of name nail polish should have; not suzi this or that or something generic like "green."  Perfect name for the color. 


How about one more picture for the road? :)

What do you think of Embroidered Emerald?

This Definitely is My Kind of Cool Aid

I have no idea why it's taken me so long to post this beautiful polish. I'm sure you've seen Cult Nails - My Kind Of Cool Aid before and have heard about how Maria of R3Daily started the company, so I won't go too much into it. Maria is a fellow blogger who did what I think we all dream of and started her own line of incredible nail polish! This was her very first polish to hit the market and I made sure to order as soon as it came out. I then proceeded to fall in love with it haha.

My Kind Of Cool Aid is a pretty lavender-gray shade with delicate silver, blue and pink shimmer in it. The shimmer is borderline, what I would think of as, secret; so it is subtle but still very pretty. I wish I could have gotten it to show up more in my pictures; my camera wasn't having it though haha. Next time I wear this I'll try to catch the shimmer, but in the mean time check these pictures out!

sunlight
shade

indoors with flash

indoors

indoors

I couldn't get the shimmer to come out to play much but it's beautiful, subtle, classy, and glamourous. I am not exaggerating at all either haha. What do you think of My Kind Of Cool Aid - do you already own it or plan on picking it up one day?

Also, When Cult Nails gets 5,000 likes on Facebook they are going to have a major sale where the polishes will be $5 (aka 50% off!) so please be sure to like them on Facebook so you too can get your hands on My Kind Of Cool Aid and some of the other gorgeous shades!

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!

Matte-Suede Fest '11 - Day 3

Matte-Suede fest rolls on, day 3 brings us Revlon - Ruby Ribbon, no topcoat. This is my absolute favorite of the matte suede finish polishes. It's the perfect red with gorgeous shimmer....oh I could gush on about it for a while haha. This is a red I actually will wear on my fingers, normally I only rock red on my toes. In my book, Ruby Ribbon is perfect...see for yourself!

sun

shade

inside

and something fun I noticed while swatching, Ruby Ribbon matches the color of my front hall!

cool, right? :)

If you think Ruby Ribbon is pretty now, while it's matte suede (and of course, you do) just wait until I show it to you with a top coat. So pretty. I bought a back-up of Ruby Ribbon already... I did it just a few days after I tried it, same as with Perplex. Revlon, you have been bringin' it lately with the colors and quality! Ruby Ribbon was super easy to work with, I used two coats - but just like Emerald City, you can get away with one coat. Day 4 of Matte-Suede fest is going to be the first of the top coated versions of these polishes, so check back for that!

Do you have any polishes that match wall colors in your home? I plan to use some polishes as guides for choosing paint colors in the future though for sure!

Matte-Suede Fest '11 - Day 2

It's Day 2 of my Matte-Suede fest! I've got Revlon -Emerald City to show you today. And it's beautiful matte/suede or shiny Emerald City is more opaque and easier to work with than Powder Puff, which I showed you Day 1. I used two coats for this swatch, but you can probably get away with just one if you're careful. I also didn't have any issues with drying time, like a lot of people had with Powder Puff - so that's another bonus.

sunlight

shade

inside

This is one of my favorite greens, no doubt about it. I love how even without a topcoat, it's still very lit from within looking because of the shimmer it has. My favorite thing about these Matte-Suede polishes is that they aren't flat, like most mattes, there's still some shine and shimmer to them. I haven't decided what my St. Patrick's Day mani is going to be, but Emerald City is definitely in the running!

In my next post I'm going to show you my favorite of the three matte-suede polishes I have.

Matte Suede-fest '11: Day 1

Welcome to a little week I'm calling Matte Suede-fest 2011. I love most of the shades from Revlon's Matte-Suede line that came out a few months ago, a very serious love. So instead of sporadically posting them at random, I'm making it a Matte-Suede palooza! Woooo! I own 3 of the 4 shades (Fire Fox didn't appeal to me) so you'll be getting six days of fun. Let's get it on - Day 1 brings us Powder Puff, without topcoat


sun!

shade

indoors

This is without topcoat, which means it's Matte-Suede, so kind of flat. To me the whole Matte-Suede concept is really like a hybrid of the flat almost plastic looking matte finish, and the more suede like finishes (like Zoya Matte Velvets and OPI Suedes). So when these Revlons are topcoat-less, they are more interesting looking than a full on matte polish, in my opinion at least. I don't know if you know that I pretty much hate the look of matte polishes, so I always wear topcoats on these types of things, but the Revlons I like enough that I've contemplated leaving them Matte-Suede-y.

Powder Puff seemed to be the shade that got the most attention out of the four when these first came out, because it's one of the most interesting looking white polishes on the market. There's this really pretty blue flash to it. My pictures are three coats of polish, but I know a lot of people need four and Powder Puff is sloooow to dry. I'm pretty sure this can be solved by layering a coat or two of Powder Puff over a regular opaque white, but I haven't tried yet (I keep meaning too...) White it tricky for me to pull off because I'm ridiculously pale, but I like how Powder Puff looks on me. Tomorrow I'm going to show you the shiny topcoat-ed up version!

Yasmeen and a bonus!

I think Zoya - Yasmeen was my first ever Zoya lemming. (Thanks to Scrangie of course!) After you see these pictures, you'll totally understand why. For one reason or another, it took me a long time to get my hands on this, but a few weeks ago I finally ordered it from the Zoya site...when they had that buy one get one free promo. I was getting Nikki for a gift for someone and got Yasmeen as my free polish, yay. So of course I had to put it on as soon as it got here. Yasmeen definitely lived up to my lemming, check it out:

sun (look at the sun! and grass! it's been snowing a lot here lately and more coming tomorrow afternoon)

shade

inside

Dark purple with lighter shimmer? I'm so there. It has a lit from within feel to it. And by that I mean it's darker at the edges and lighter in the middle. Yasmeen has a similar feel to China Glaze - Let's Groove, one of my all-time favorite polishes, which I showed you in the very first post here :) But that's not why I felt like I had seen the color of Yasmeen somewhere before...

It turns out that a ring I bought from an Etsy seller last year is an exact match for Yasmeen! Clearly I like the color, eh? Haha. Here it is on:

I'd normally wear it on my right hand, but for swatch pictures I use my left. Exact match! It felt pretty chic to have a matching ring while I had this on as a mani. Do you have any jewelry that matches a polish? What do you think about being matching like that? I think it's neat when it's something small like this (although I'd never tried something bigger, so I can't say for sure...)

I have three new Zoyas coming in the next few days from the latest promo :) So you'll be seeing those swatched soon! Did you order any during the sale last week?

The One In Which I Declare My Love For Perplex

The first polish I'm showing you in 2011 is currently my favorite polish, period. I've got Revlon - Perplex for you today! As I'm sure you have heard by now, Perplex is very similar to Chanel - Paradoxal. They aren't exact dupes but close for sure. (There are several blogs with comparisons if you want to see for yourself.) I have a few extra pictures in this post to show you the depth of Perplex, check it out!

two sun pictures
shade

2 indoor pictures to show you how it can look different on the lighting.

Ahhh, so gorgeous. Perplex is a gray-ed out smokey purple with subtle (or secret) purple shimmer. It's complex and sophisticated and perfect! Depending how the light hits it, the shimmer can be seen more or the polish can appear more purple, I tried to capture that in the pictures above for you. I wore this for my birthday mani last month and am wearing it again for a concert next week, it seriously works for every occasion.

When I first found the Perplex display at CVS, I bought one bottle. I tried it that night and liked it so much that I went back to CVS two days later and bought two back-up bottles. Big time love haha. Do you have Perplex or its sister polish Paradoxal? What do you think about the gray-purple trend of late?

Diamond Cosmetics Winter Collection, Part Two

I've got the second half of Diamond Cosmetics' Winter Collection for you. If you missed part one you can find it here. I've got pictures of Starshine and Hypnotic to show you today! Have I mentioned how much I like the names of the polishes from this collection? Because I definitely do. If you've been reading JeweledTips for a while, I'm sure you've noticed that polish names that don't make sense drive me crazy haha. Yay for logical names!

First up, Starshine!

sun

(click to enlarge all of these to see the glitter better)

shade

inside

Diamond Cosmetics describes it as, "Dark blue like the cosmic abyss, flecks of glitter in this polish twinkle like stars." I'd say that's pretty accurate! The bits of glitter aren't quite as obvious on the nail, it's more subtle but you can definitely tell they are there. These are all without topcoat, which I think would make it even prettier. The application was good, I used three coats but could've gotten away with two. I have polishes in my stash that are like a cousin to Starshine but no dupes. I'm a sucker for any polish with Star in the name too haha. As soon as I put this on, I thought it would make a really cool base color for something similar to the Space Nails that Asami did a while back.

Now let's check out Hypnotic!

sun

shade

inside

Oh myyyy goodness is this gorgeous or what? Diamond Cosmetics describes it like this: "Get lost in your fantasy with this shimmery blue green hue." Cute! Shimmery definitely fits this, although I'd say it's more a green that leans blue than a true blue-green, if that makes sense? There is a little more blue to it than my camera captured, but still predominately green I think. Application was great, very easy to work with and full coverage in two coats. I don't have any dupes to this for sure, it's crazy pretty though haha I can't wait to wear this as a full mani!

I don't think I can pick just one favorite from the collection, they all fit different holes in my collection (if you can have holes in a collection closing in on 300, you know what I mean though) I do know for sure I'm going to wear Moonsand on New Year's Eve! Do you have a favorite out of the four? Will you be picking one or all of them up from Diamond Cosmetics? If you're celebrating this weekend - I hope it's wonderful! And if not, I hope your weekend is amazing too :)

(these were sent to me for an honest review)

Diamond Cosmetics Winter Collection, Part One

Hello lovelies! I've been buried in a pile of papers, articles to edit, and school work for the last week and a half, but I think I've finally conquered it haha. I did get a bunch of swatching done in the meantime, including the beautiful Winter Collection from Diamond Cosmetics. I'm breaking it up into two parts, today and tomorrow, so it won't be too picture heavy for you. So today I'm going to be showing you Moonsand and It's Electrifying, check out the pictures below!

sun

more sun

shade

inside

I love Moonsand! Everything from the name to the color to the application I like. I've been jonesin' for a charcoal-y silver polish for the last few weeks and I think this fits the bill! It only took two coats to get full coverage and wasn't bad to remove either. Diamond Cosmetics describes it as, "This charcoal foil shines like the full moon; eye catching and magnificent." I think this is going to be the base for my New Year's Eve mani, maybe with some glitter on top.

sun (the color made me camera a little crazy, so my skintone looks...off)

shade (yay for normal looking skin!)

inside (and my skin's back to looking strange..)

"It's Electrifying... do do doo, better shape up dun dun dun cause I need a man, do do do, and my heart is set on youuuu" hahah, doesn't this name make you immediately think of Grease? Maybe it's just how my brain works. This color is fantastic. The formula gave me fits a little bit though, this picture is four coats. The VNL (visible nail line) is a little visible in pictures, but not in real life. This was a little bit patchy when I was applying it, but I was rushing a little bit so that could be partially my fault. It's Electrifying is a squishy color for sure, I know a lot of people will love it even with less coats, but I'm not into VNL so four was what I needed. Diamond Cosmetics describes it, "Give him chills with this powerful and sassy blue." Perfect description right?

What do you think of the first two colors from the Winter Collection? I hope your holiday shopping is almost finished! :)

(these were provided to me for an honest review)