LA Splash Golden Seahorse

I went to ULTA last weekend to browse for a gift for my friend's birthday ( i know a likely story..) and I found their new LA Splash display. They had several unique colors and they were on sale for buy one get one %50 off. I got 4. The first one I tried was Golden Seahorse. It's a light sea-foam green with bright gold glitter. The bottle is small and rectangular in shape. The brush is meh and the consistency was a bit thick but it was relatively easy to apply. I used two thick coats on my toes.

 

  

  

See the bright gold glitter? Love it!

  

Crappy  brush....

I really like this color, I'm imagining what it would look like with a tan. Come on Spring!!!

Swatches of more of the same collection to come....

They DO exist!!!

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I stumbled upon a nail mecca on yelp. I read the reviews that said this place had OPI polishes for $3.80 and China Glaze for $2.75...not to mention the Orly's at $3.25 and New York Summers at $.75...yeah I was skeptical. I thought they might have a few, but nothing current and I anticipated it being disappointing but I was going to make the 30ish minute drive and check it out. So I get in my car and head over to the south bay. It was raining and I drove right past the shopping center, had to make an illegal u-turn and circle back in to this little Vietnamese shopping center. The store front looked small and I would never have thought to go in there had I not read about the place.

It was small but OEMMGEE it was nail polish HEAVEN! They had every current collection by OPI, Orly and China Glaze! The prices were unbelievable. China Glaze was $2.75 each but if you purchased 10 or more price dropped to $2.50. Yea that's right $2.50!!! I think I got 15(ish). OPI's were indeed $3.80, Orly's $3.00 and New York Summer $.75. The people were so friendly and told me to ake as long as I want, try anything out and they even gave me lists of all the polishes and where I could find them in the store! I was in there for well over an hour. I found some great discontinued colors (OPI Kinky in Helsinki!!!) and some hard to find colors like OPI Firefly and a China Glaze color called Doll House (squeee!)

They told me to come back next month because they were expanding and they would have even more polishes out! Needless to say I will be visiting regularly. On my next trip I will be taking the camera as they said they would love the free publicity. If you are in the Bay Area California or planning on visiting YOU MUST COME HERE.

                                                    Here are the pics from the haul:

This is New York Summer #48 Angel Dream

This is #45 Fushia Glitter

 From the new Orly collection I got Gumdrop, Cotton Candy and Snow Cone

  

OPI Significant Other Color, Dim Sum Plum (pic color not accurate), Kinky In Helsinki 

OPI Give Me The Moon and Brand New Skates

 

China Glaze Strawberry Fields, Paper Chasing, Moulin Rouge, Something Sweet, Mango Madness, Restless

China Glaze Wagon Trail, Millennium, Midnight Ride

China Glaze Doll House

 

.5 fl. oz. Posh top coat with 2 oz. refill bottle $10

I know I am missing pictures of some of the bottles, I will post them individually as I swatch them.

 

Total Haul: 13 China Glaze, 5 OPI, 3 Orly, Poshe Top Coat salon pack .5 oz and 2oz. refill, Poshe quick dry basecoat, Plastic Bottles with twist caps for dispensing liquids with lables for cuticle oil, acetone and alcohol, 2 New York Summer colors and OPI Skin Quenchers in Mango Juicie. Total Cost $82.00. NO SALES TAX IF PAYING WITH CASH.

What do you all think? Bring my camera in to the shop next visit?

Giveaway Winner!

 

Niki, I'm emailing you this evening for your shipping info. Congrats girl!

Thank you so much for all of your entries and for reading my blog. I appreciate it more than I can say. I am planning a new giveaway featuring Color Club's Love em' and Leave 'em as well as few other polishes I accidentally bought dupes of (time fore me to make a list or something so I can avoid doing that. It's gotten to the point I don't know what all I already have : ) )

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog and look at my awkward hand pose pictures : )  You Guys ROCK!!

~Paper Chasing Mermaid In A Tiff~

Swatches of some recent purchases with names I could tie together in a funny way...

First up is China Glaze Paper Chasing

 

~ Love~

 

 

  

 This one is outdoors in natural light. I decided to add a coat of New York Summer Lime Glitter on the ring finger just to see how it would look. I flippin' love Paper Chasing and I can't believe I didn't buy it before now. It's a little bit brighter than primary green, super shiny and the formula on this one was perfect. Not too think or thick, two coats was adequate but I went with three cuz that's just what I do. 

Next up are Nina Ultra Pro in Mermaid and In A Tiff:

 

Mermaid is an odd color. It's extremely sheer and the color is a yellow green shimmer that flashes gold, green, yellow and pearl. I put 5 coats on my pinky.

  

 In A Tiff is Ultra Pro's take on the Tiffany blue polish trend.. It has a slight shimmer which makes it different from all of the other polishes I have in variations of the same color. This is 3 coats no top coat.

 

You can kinda see the shimmer and flashes of gold and pearl in this picture but it was very difficult to capture on the camera. 

 

 Ummm yeah, I screwed up the polish on my index finger trying to make my hand not look so damn awkward in this picture. I always feel like I don't know how to place my fingers on the bottle and  let's just say I'm not the most graceful of creatures so yeah, this is my awkward hand pose : )

There you have it, a paper chasing mermaid in a tiff!

PS. Don't forget to enter my giveaway open until Feb. 28th

Reader Request ~ $OPI Limited Edition 212 Nail Polish

Reader Request ~ SeeingSunshine requested swatches of $OPI 212 and I am happy to oblige : )

Here is what Sephora's web site said about OPI 212:

"What it is:A chic nail color inspired by New York City's after-dark dazzle.What it does:Sephora by OPI 212-Sephora Nail Colour is a limited-edition must-have shade created in celebration of the new Sephora 5 Times Square flagship store. This glamorous variation on black channels the essence of the exclusively fabulous 212 area code. It is only available online and at 5 Times Square! Put the final touch on fingertips and toes with this top-quality formula that continues the OPI legacy of excellence."

 

I purchased this from the Sephora web site in December. I don't see it there anymore, I wonder if it's sold out now? It literally looks like a night time cityscape, the charcoal base is accented with shimmering glitter that looks like the twinkling lights of skyscrapers and starry skies. It reminds me of what the city looks like from an airplane at night.

  

 

Again I apologize for the less than perfect application, but hey, you're here to see the color not to revel at my stellar polishing skills. If you can find this LE polish I highly recommend grabbing it while you can. 

$OPI Absinthe Makes The Heart

 There are only two polishes from the Sephora by OPI line that I liked enough to actually spend the $9 on. One was $OPI 212 and the other is this one:

 

$OPI Absinthe Makes The Heart

 

It is a beautiful olive green with gold and silver shimmer. Definitely more gold than silver. It's metallic but not as fickle with application and I had no problems with brush strokes like I do with other metallic polishes. The first coat was sheer, it took three pretty heavy coats to get the coverage I wanted. I topped it with 1 coat Poshe quick dry top coat. I love it, it is completely unique and I have nothing similar in my collection.

(please excuse messy application...this is pre clean-up)

Do you think there is another MUST HAVE from this line? One that you think is worth the $9 and a trip to Sephora?

OPI My Private Jet Original Holo Version (evilbay purchase)

So, I purchased the MPJ polish at a random beauty supply store in a mall and while I liked the color I was definitely not impressed with the holographic shimmer. I was still happy I purchased it and I wore it for 5 days ( umm that's a long time for me)

I read on several blogs about the differences between the new release and the original release and decided I would try to acquire an older version. I found a listing on ebay for what the seller said was an original version of this polish. The price was $19.95, free shipping (umm not really free because the polish is $20?) whatever, I ordered it. And I can definitely say that there IS a difference in the formula. I don't have a picture of the new MPJ on my nails but here are the pictures of the "old" MPJ that I got on evilbay...

                            Right away I could see the difference in the polish by looking at the bottle.....

 

Please pardon tip wear....

 

Blurred to show the holo shimmer awesomeness.

Final words on this polish: I'm glad I bought it, inflated price and all. It is beautiful, it goes with everything, it is my go to color. I don;t know if I'd pay more than $20 for it... 

Do any of you have both versions? Do you think there is a huge difference in the two? Would you pay $20 for the original version?