Blue Day: Comparisons

Recently I bought OPI's Eurso Euro from their Euro Centrale Collection. My friend Valerie has this color and I was super jealous because it looked gorgeous on her. So when I stumbled upon a buy 1 get 2 free sale at a Walmart Salon, this pretty was one that I brought home.

And on the way home, I got to thinking. This is the following conversation I had with myself. "How close is this to China Glaze's Man Hunt?" and "Oh goodness, what about Essie Butler Please?" and finally "Shiznit, I bought the same color that I already have." So naturally, I had to compare them all.

Here they are. From left to right you have OPI Eurso Euro, Essie Butler Please, and China Glaze Man Hunt.


As you can see 2 out of the 3 colors that I was thinking about are incredibly similar. I have individual swatches of each polish and then a comparison swatch. Yay. Be excited. I know you are. I can tell. First up you'll see OPI's Eurso Euro.


This is a great dark royal blue. It comes from OPI's Euro Centrale collection. It applies like a dream and you are looking at 2 thin coats. I love this blue.


This is Essie's Butler Please. This is two thin coats and it applies like buttah. This is a brighter blue that I adore. Its so bright and yummy in real life. Is  it weird to say that I love this blue too? Because I do.


Finally, this is China Glaze's Man Hunt. Man Hunt is a more dusty deeper blue and I love it too. This color also applies easily and you are looking at two thin coats here as well. Lets look at them all next to each other.


As you can see they are similar but not the same. Eurso Euro is more on the Royal Blue Side, Man Hunt is more of a medium dusty blue leaning toward the navy ends, Butler Please is definitely not comparable, its a lot brighter than the other too.  Do you need both Eurso Euro and Man Hunt, probably not. Do I need them both? YES!


Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

*all polishes in this post were purchased by me

Let's Have a Party: Black Tie Optional

It's paaaarttay time. Guess what this girl found at her fourth Walmart. You know it...Hard Candy's Black Tie Optional. What's up party people?


 That's right. This is happening. Let's get this mani going. I started off with a base of China Glaze Snap My Dragon.  Snap My Dragon is a pretty raspberry-ish color with pink shimmers in it.


It's hard to capture the pink shimmer in this bottle. The formula is great on this bottle, I've applied 3 thin coats here for great coverage. This color is so pretty on the nails. It is a great stand alone polish. But not this time, this time I fancied it up.

I applied one coat of Black Tie Optional on my middle and ring fingers. Black Tie Optional has Big, medium, small, mini, and tiny black hexes. It also has medium  small, mini, and tiny white hexes along with black bar glitter.


To spice things up, I added dots in black and white on my thumb, pointer, and pinky. The black dots were done with Maybelline Color Show in Oynx Rush and Sally Hanson Complete Salon Manicure in Ivory Skull.

Augh, I freaking love this manicure. I kept staring at it all day while I was at work. Its so amaze balls. Lets take one more look....just to see it in all it's prettiness.


Do you ever get distracted by your manicures? Is it just me?

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

*all polishes in this post were purchased by me

Snow Day Nails

Can we talk about how its almost the end of March and it snowed 8 inches last night? What the hellski Mother Nature? Seriously...this is ridiculous. I want warm weather and I want it now. Maybe we should protest. Who is with me? Anyone....

Because it was snowing I decided to have a Snow Day Manicure. I decided to use two OPI polishes for this manicure. I went with French Quarter for Your Thoughts and Which is Witch?


I started with a base of French Quarter for Your Thoughts. It took 3 thin coats to get full opacity. This polish applied wonderfully. FQFYT is a beautiful cement medium gray. This is from the Fall Touring America 2011 collection. 


I really love this gray on it's own, but I decided to spice it up with Which is Witch? This polish is from the new The Great and Powerful Collection based off of the Oz: The Great and Powerful movie.


Which is Witch? has a great glitter payoff. This polish has a clear base filled with ultra-small, fine, and medium hexagon glitters it also has really fine bar glitters in the mix. I really love this topper because the glitters are all holographic. Who doesn't love that? Lets take a look at this bottle on its own.


You can see the flashes of holographic goodness in that polish. How delicious is that? Lets take one more look at the pretties on my fingers.



Have you been getting snow where you are? Are you sick of it yet? I know I am.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

*all polishes in this post were purchased by me

Hard Candy: Candy Sprinkles Swatches

Yesterday I showed ya'll this photo of the new pretties I bought. These are from the new Hard Candy polish line being sold at Walmart.



Just so we all remember, from Left to Right, you can see Sweet Tooth, Jelly Bean Blue, Pixie Pink, and Gummy Green. I brought these home and couldn't wait to swatch them for you.  Up first we have Gummy Green.


Gummy Green reminds me of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. I won't eat it (not a mint fan) but I'll totally wear it on my fingers. This is a milky minty base that goes on sheer but built up nicely with 3 coats. It has black and silver glitters in the formula. I was worried at first with the glitter, because it didn't go on well the first coat, but again, it built up great. Up next we have Pixie Pink.



Pixie Pink is a sheer pink base with a mix of pink, blue, and white glitters. All the bases on these polishes are very milky and sheer, which is great for showing off the glitter in the polish. Next up is Sweet Tooth.


Sweet Tooth was the only polish that I couldn't get to build up to full opacity. On my pointer and middle fingers, I have 3 coats of this polish. You can still see my nail line under the polish. It's just a very pale and very sheer blue-ish white-ish base (if that makes any sense). The glitter in this polish appears to be the same as in Pixie Pink, pink, blue, and white. On my ring and pinky fingers, I layered 2 coats of Sweet Tooth over OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I think it looks so much better with the OPI underneath. Finally we have Jelly Bean Blue.


Jelly Bean Blue is my favorite out of all 4 polishes that I bought. This is a sheer pale blue base with a combo of blue and black glitter. This polish built up well after 3 coats as well.

Overall, I think they are really cute polishes. However at $4.00 for .26 fluid ounces, it seems kinda pricey. The bottles are tiny and don't hold much polish. I think I would rather pay the $9 or $10 dollars for the Nails Inc, Sprinkles line. Also, all of these polishes took 2 coats of Seche Vite Quick Dry topcoat to smooth them out.

What do you think? Are you going to try these polishes out?

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

*all polishes in this post were purchased by me

New Pretties: Hard Candy Sprinkles Collection

I stopped by Walmart yesterday and came across the new Hard Candy Polish display. All the polishes looked like fun, but of course the specific one I wanted was sold out. I have a feeling trying to find Black Tie Optional is going to be difficult. Let the great Walmart Hunt of 2013 begin, Black Tie Optional will be mine. Muwahahahahaha.

I did however pick up some new pretties. Besides Black Tie Optional, I wanted a few of the Candy Sprinkles line. I picked out four (although lets face it, I wanted to bring all of them home).


I ended up getting (from L to R) Sweet Tooth, Jelly Bean Blue, Pixie Pink, and Gummy Green. These remind me of Nails Inc. Sprinkles line, just by looking at them. However, I have yet to cash in my Nails Inc.V-Card, so I can only judge by the bottles. Have you seen them compared? I'd be interested in knowing.

I can't wait to swatch these and share them with you soon.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

*all polishes in this post were purchased by me

The Curse of Budapest

Today I have a sweet little combo of OPI's You're such a Budapest and Butter London's Lovely Jubbly.

You're such a Budapest is a sweet dusty purple from the Euro Centrale collection. Let me tell you the story of me and this polish, it's a tragic tale. You see, this is my third bottle of You're such a Budapest. The other two had tragic endings. The first one I ordered from Cynthia's blog sale (HI CYNTHIA!) and the Post Office crushed it in the mail. (If you don't know Cynthia go visit her blog here, you won't regret it, I promise.) Then I went polish shopping with Valerie the other day (HI VALERIE!) and I bought a new bottle at Ulta. Then Valerie and I had to take a cheeky picture to tweet to Cynthia (because we are brats) about what we bought.


And then in the middle of our giggles about taking the photo in front of the FroYo shop and getting weird looks, this happened. At this point, I knew I was cursed but I don't give up easily.


I told you it was a sad story. But the good news is I immediately went and bought another bottle. I even made Valerie carry it out of the store so I wouldn't break it.  The better news is the third bottle made it home safely. The best news is the polish made it on my fingers so I think the curse may be broken. If it isn't, at least I got to wear this pretty one time.


You're such a Budapest applied like a dream. The formula was a bit runny, so it took three thin coats. Then to spice it up a bit, I added some sparkles. Oh yes. Sparkles.


This is one coat of Butter London's Lovely Jubbly over the OPI. I've worn this polish on it's own and it builds up nicely around 4 coats. Lovely Jubbly is from Butter London's 2012 Fall line.


I added a second coat, because well, I need more shiny sparkly things in my life.  Who doesn't?

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

*all polishes in this post were purchased by me

Hits Apolo: Holographic Blue

After the horrible nail fail, I threw on Hits Apolo. I was really excited to show you all some of the Holographic Goodness that is this polish. But then it was overcast and it snowed today. Hello...it's late March people. Snow?!?


You can get a little flash of the rainbow in the bottle. This is with my daylight bulb, it just doesn't do this gorgeous polish justice. I wish I had been able to take some outdoor photos.


Here are a few photos of this pretty on my fingers. In real life, this polish is a beautiful blue polish filled with rainbow flashes. This polish is originally from Brazil, and can be found on Llarowe if you are interested.


I'll be back soon with a new look soon. Have you seen this polish in real life?

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

*all polishes in this post were purchased by me

China Glaze Lemon Fizz & a Nail Fail

I'm sure this will be the first of many nail fail's I'll share with you. I had every intention of trying some Spring Time Monarch Nails to share with you, but things went poorly. Enough that I removed it before I even photographed it. First I started off with a base of China Glaze Lemon Fizz.


This polish is from China Glaze's Up & Away Collection from Spring 2010. In theory I love this polish. Just look at it's lemony goodness. In reality, I hate it. Boo.


This polish was a nightmare. The first coat was streaky, the second coat left big bald spots. I had to do a really thick third coat and even then I wasn't happy with how it looked.


It's all streaky and nasty. I want it to be awesome, but I just can't get it to work. After letting the third coat dry, I sponged on a gradient of Lemon Fizz and Essie Orange, It's Obvious. I think I needed a lighter orange, but I was prepared to move on. After the gradient, I tried outlining the butterfly wings in black and things just kept getting worst. I removed it immediately. How awful.

Maybe I'll try again someday, but until then I'm going to pretend like it never happened.

Have you had a better experience with Lemon Fizz than I have? I'd love to hear about it.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

*all polishes in this post were purchased by me

Butter London Stamping

Hello all,

I'm back today with a stamping design that I did with two of the Butter Londons featured yesterday. I used Snog and Trout Pout for this design.


For the designs I used the Winstonia Plates, W112. I used the polka dots and the greek key type designs. Above is my left hand and below is my right hand. As you can tell I switched the color schemes on each hand.


Both of these polishes stamped very well. I was pretty excited about how well this turned out. I hope you enjoy this design.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

*all polishes in this post were purchased by me

Butter London Swatches

Hello All,

Recently Ulta had a sale on Butter Londons making them each $9 versus the normal $15 a polish. I love me some Butter Londons but they are usually priced out of my range.

I picked up three beautiful colors at the sale. I was really feeling the red/pink scheme so I ended getting Butter London's Pillar Box Red, Trout Pout, and Snog.



 If I had known about my fingerprints on the caps, I would have wiped them off before taking the picture. But oh well, it is what it is. Up first is a swatch of Pillar Box Red.


I'm in love with this color! It maybe my new favorite red. If you apply it correctly you might be able to get away with one coat, but I wore two coats just to be on the safe side. There was some slight staining around the cuticles when I removed it. Next up is Snog.


 This is a bright pink that is great. It applies great. This was another polish that if applied correctly could be a one coater, but I'm paranoid and applied two. And last but not least is Trout Pout.


 Trout Pout is one of those colors that I've been hearing about for years and I'm glad I finally took the plunge. Butter London describes this polish as a "opaque cantaloupe nail lacquer looks great on anyone." I'm inclined to believe them. This polish was a bit more finicky for me. The first layer went on a bit streaky, the second had a few bald spots, but the third layer evened everything out nicely. Also this color was hard to photograph true to its color.

Check back tomorrow for some fun stamping that I did with 2 of the 3 colors I bought.

Enjoy & until tomorrow, Amy Lee

*all polishes in this post were purchased by me

Anti-Pinch Manicure: Color Blocking

Saint Paddy's day is coming up. In an effort to not get pinched this year, I've done my nails for the holiday. Because lets face it, I hate getting pinched. Doesn't everyone? Getting pinched SUCKS! Therefore it was necessary to make this happen.

I decided to go with some color blocking for this manicure. I busted out the ol' striping tape and got to painstaking work. This mani took some time to finish, but I absolutely love it.


These nails took 5 different polishes. I had a few more greens to choose from, but I went with 2 cremes and 2 glitters. Plus the gold base.


The first picture was of my left hand and the second of my right. I like doing manicures where both hands are the same. How I wish I was ambidextrous. Think of how cool I could make things if I was.


From left to right, polishes used are China Glaze Gaga for Green, AEngland Dragon, OPI Glitzerland, Maybelline Color Show Tenacious Teal, and China Glaze Running in Circles. I also used Orly Rubberized Base Coat and Seche Vite Quick Dry Top Coat.


The photo above, really captures some of AEngland Dragon's holographic goodness. I wish I could have got a better shot of that pretty for you.


Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

P.S. Will you be doing an Anti-Pinch St. Paddy's Mani? I'd love to see it.

*all polishes in this post were purchased by me

Nude to Neon Ombre

Peeps, I took the Shellac off tonight. I tried to document it for you, but my pictures turned out all janky.  (Janky is totally a word, even though Spellcheck says it isn't, trust me) It's an easy Google search for removing Shellac, people out there have done it better than I ever could. My one tip, is DO NOT have an unknown paper cut and dip your finger to soak in pure acetone. YEOOOUCH! Trust me you don't want to do that.

Anyways....lets get down to business. (& now I have Mulan stuck in my head) I finally decided to tackle the Ombre mani. I've tried this before, never with success. Usually, I take it off and try something else. But this time, I DID IT!! WOOO HOOO! Enough talk, more pictures.


Look at the pretty! I can't believe I pulled it off. It took me forever, but I figured it out. Colors used are OPI Did you Ear about Van Gogh? and China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy.  I used Orly Rubberized Base Coat and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.


Also, these colors are hard to capture, especially Flip Flop Fantasy. Flip Flop Fantasy is so much brighter and more playful in person. I've gotten them pretty close after like an hour of playing with my camera settings.  Forgive me if the background in some of the photos seems a bit blue/gray/darkish, it brought the polish colors out the best.


Above you'll see my right hand and below my left.


Anyways, I hope you enjoy the Nude to Neon Ombre. Maybe you'll even give it a go.

Enjoy & until next time,  Amy Lee

*all polishes in this post were purchased by me

Shellac Manicure

On the 1st I set out on a 8 day adventure to the Dominican Republic. I knew I wouldn't be able to change my polish while there, so I wanted something that would last. There is no way that normal polish would last that long, so I thought it would be the perfect time to try out the Shellac Manicure.

This polish was applied on Feb. 28th and so far has seen 11 days of wear. I'm curious to see how long it will actually last.


This photo was taken immediately after getting home from the salon. Initially, there was some visible nail line, which drove me crazy. But, hey, I'll give it a go. The color is Gel by OPI Strawberry Margarita. It seemed fitting, since that was what I was planning on drinking on the beach.



These 2 pictures were taken on the second day of the trip. I was getting some tip wear & still wondering how they'd hold up over the course of the trip.



These photos were taken on the last day of the trip, after 8 days of wear. This manicure held up. It lasted through horseback riding, deep sea fishing, snorkeling, Scuba Doos, and everything else that I threw at them. Seriously, these suckers are hard as a ROCK! I'm thinking about leaving them on until Thursday (if I can last that long) just to see. I've had some serious growth with this manicure. The line between my cuticle and polish, is getting wider and wider.

Overall, I give these an A-. The only thing I didn't like was the VNL. If I get them again, I'll just ask the lady for an extra coat of polish to take care of that.

I'll post an update if my nails last to next Thursday.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy

P.S. I wish all my photos could be so exotic. How awesome would that be?
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