Deborah Lippman Swagga Like Us Swatch & Stamping!

Happy Friday!

Today I have pictures of Deborah Lippmann's Swagga Like Us. This polish has a special place in my heart because it was a Christmas gift from one of my closest and kindest friends. I'll call her V. She hasn't seen my collection but managed to get me a polish that is gorgeous, perfect with my skin tone, suits my personality, and last but not least... I did not already own it! That is quite a feat considering I am teetering over 500 in my collection. 

Here is the picture i posted to Instagram to show her how much I love it. If you have instagram, please feel free to follow me at caitcrawf23 :)

DL Swagga Like Us is a green/gold duochrome polish (read: Chanel Peridot dupe) & I really love it against my skin tone. It applied nicely, sort of like a chrome or metallic finish polish would and needed only two coats for opacity. It did show some imperfections on my nails, so if you have ridges like me, a base coat or a light buffing really makes application more smooth. I also REALLY love the name of this polish, reminds me of my friend, V, and the song... "no one on the corner have swagga' like usssss" Haha :)

GAH. Look at that ding on my pinky. Don't worry I fixed that up after I saw these pictures. This picture was taken still tacky and pre-topcoat and you can see a few brushstrokes. The picture below was taken AFTER topcoat and shows its real finish better.

Sigh. I really like how this turned out on me. Its flattering on my skintone and after topcoat does have a chrome like feel. Not like Layla chromes but a sparkly chrome look, if that makes sense.

& then I decided to practice my stamping skills. I was brave & attempted a full nail leopard design with Wet 'n Wild Black Creme. It could be more "clear" but I think it turned out well. I liked it so much I added rhinestones wore it as a full manicure :)

I'm very happy with this polish and manicure! I want to send happy vibes and hugs to my bff V for gifting me this beauty :) Thanks V!

Thanks for reading!

OPI Not Like the Movies vs Essence Where is the Party? - Purple/Green Duochrome Comparison!

Hello polish people!
Today I have got a comparison for you! There are a couple of green/purple duochromes out there in polish world but today I am comparing the two that I own :P This is OPI Not Like the Movies (From the Katy Perry collection) and Essence Where is the party? I love the name of the Essence polish. In the town where I grew up it was customary on a Friday or Saturday night to say "wheres the party at, biiiiiiii" (Don't worry, I never said it... just heard it very often hehehe).

Anyway! Heres the pictures and I'll let you see if you can guess. I'll point out some stuff at the end of the post. The first two pictures are in the shade, and the last two pictures are in the sunshine.

OPI Not Like The Movies is on my index and ring finger. Essence Where is the party? is on my middle and pinky!

Differences: They are both green/purple duochromes but they are quite different on the nail. In the pictures in the shade you can see that both have quite a strong duochrome, with the green in Essence leaning more olive, and the green in the OPI learning more gun-metal. In the sun, they look quite different. The purple of the Essence is more jewel toned while the OPI is more greyed out. The overall finish of the Essence polish is a very fine shimmer, while the OPI has a fine shimmer as well as some very small glitters/chunky shimmer thrown into the mix. It adds lots of sparkle in the sun.

Application/Formula: The OPI was thin/watery and somewhat sheer. It needed three coats for opacity. Essence only needed two coats. Careful application was needed with both to avoid major brushstrokes as the fine shimmer made the polish seem somewhat frosty if you were not careful. These pictures were taken without topcoat so it is visable here. I did eventually add some topcoat, and it fixed most of the major brushstroke issues for me.

Price/Availability: I bought this OPI at a Regis Salon for 10 dollars earlier this year, but it is a discontinued polish. It is a full sized at .5oz/15ml. The Essence is available now in Canada at Shoppers Drug Mart as a part of the core "color & go" polish line for $1.49 for .16oz. A great deal for a smaller almost mini bottle.

I will let you decide which one you need :)
Have a nice day!

OPI Spidermen Collection, Just Spotted The Lizard & - My Boyfriend Scales Walls Swatches

Holy moly, when I heard OPI was coming out with a Spiderman inspired collection I could barely keep my composure. Like.. needed to breathe into a paperbag and shove my head between my knees excited. I love spiderman so much. The kids I babysit and I used to play spiderman together all the time. I usually got stuck being Doctor Octopus or Sandman :P Just once, I wanted to be the good guy! Hahaha

I wanted to be knocked off my feet by this collection, I wanted to be floored with amazingness. Unfortunately for me, (fortunate for my wallet) .. I didn't really enjoy many of the polishes.. and I didn't feel they were very original or representative of Spiderman at all!! In my dream Spiderman collection there would be a cobalt jelly! An eye searing red! A sandy nude with black flecks! A dirty medium green shimmer! And thats just a few ideas that do scream spiderman to me.. not the frosty pink and random orange that OPI came up with. Okay Ill stop ranting now because I do really like OPI and I do like that they collaborated to make this collection (Nail polish and superheros are two of my very favourite things!!!)

Anyway the two colors I did pick up from the collection were Just Spotted the Lizard (a dupe for Chanel Peridot!) and My Boyfriend Scales Walls (a grey toned white).

Just Spotted the Lizard- A gold to olive-y green duo-chrome with a bit of dark blue at the edges of the nail in certain and specific angles. I really really wish the blue showed up more on the nail though :( Its a metallic with a slight frosty finish and it does have some brushstokes. Careful application and a good topcoat will fix most of that though. This is three coats and Seche Vite.

Lovely bottle shot! Why or why doesn't that blue show up better?!

Artificial Light

In the sunshine

You could kind of see the blue at the edges in this one.. or at least you could in real life. Not very noticeable though :(

In the shade 

& Here are some funky angles:

My Boyfriend Scales Walls- A grey toned white, not entirely unique. I bought it pretty much for the name but was pleasantly surprised. Formula wasn't so bad for a white (this is only two careful coats), and it has got just enough grey undertones to make it not chalky or stark. I like that.

Anyway, there you have it. My picks from the Spiderman collection. I'm thinking about picking up Number One Nemesis too, it actually looks pretty cool!

China Glaze Prismatics - Liquid Crystal Swatch

Yo polish peeps.

This is the only CG Prismatic I picked up, it's called Liquid Crystal and is mostly blue micro glitter but flashes purple for a nice duochrom-y look. In real life the colour shift is very obvious, but it was hard to pick up in pictures which is kind of depressing.
There is also multicolored glitter in there too (red, orange, pink, silver, yellow, and tealish). I'm not sure but there may be just a few holo glitters in there too!
It was opaque in two coats and went on quite nicely for being a little thick.

What a pretty polish :) So long for now!