Polishes -Sally Hansen - Always Amethyst
violetcobra 7/19/2010 1:00:00 PM
Good: very nice brush, good liquid-y consistency without being too runny. Very attractive pinkish berry-fuchsia color in the bottle.
Bad: shows every ridge in my nails, a little too frosty-metallic on for my liking. Also, the color lightened up a little bit on my nail, losing the depth of the berry, and just morphing pink.
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Polishes -OPI - Designer Series - DS Mystery
violetcobra 7/19/2010 12:57:00 PM
I recommend this product for its amazing gold flecks (orange and rose gold) which somehow are able to light through a blackenned purplish base. The color itself very thick and tarlike, yet the flecks still glow. However, the application is perfect, for a big 3 free product. The only reason why I cannot give this a perfect score overall is because it chipped instantly. I used Nailtek II Foundation base and Sally Hansen Mega Shine top coat.
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Top/Base Coats -Sally Hansen - Power Shield Extra Protection Top Coat
violetcobra 6/29/2010 3:43:00 PM
This review is for Sally Hansen Power Shield Ultra-Protective Top Coat (not "Extra Protection" as the previous reviews indicate). It comes on a pegboard backing and has an angular bubble the product sits in, which is kind of far out and funky. The description of this product had me interested. It says, basically, that the key ingredients (Zirconium, Titanium and Silicone) form a "virtually indestructible bond" that protects nail color from chipping and wearing. Not that there's any particular research done saying what those three compounds do on nails, as far as the product user is concerned. But it does sound worthwhile based on the description, doesn't it?
Upon application I noticed a far sticky feel (a lot like a brushed-on glue) unlike most polishes. The consistency was a little runny rather than goopy. So far, so good. After a few days of use over bare short nails, I can say my nails are pretty glossy. I'm about to reapply again.
In all, I would definitely buy again and recommend to others. I don't know if the ingredients are that amazing but based on the glue-like adhesive feel to this topcoat, I think it's going to stick on nails exactly where you put it. It does not have moisturizing properties, however, so I don't know what it is going to do to my dry/brittle/peeling nails. But I do plan on using this every day for a week or so to grow out my nails, whether on polish or bare. I am giving this a 5 because it's quite unique, very glossy and very long lasting.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Polishes -Maybelline - Express Finish - Prompt Petals
violetcobra 6/28/2010 9:02:00 PM
It's been a while since I gave a product a bad review, but this is as bad as I've seen in ages. This lovely pink color--pure pastel bubblegum pink (slightly cool/lavender toned) with slight fine silver--did not apply well. It was almost a powdery, non-liquid feel. Very hard to keep wet and even when putting each coat down, therefore, dried rather lumpy and streaky. And I used my standard go-to base coat: Nailtek II Foundation which is a must for any weirdly inconsistent polish. In order to have this lay smooth, I added MORE Nailtek II Foundation over my 2 coats of this color then topped that with another coat of Prompt Petals and finally Sally Hansen Mega Shine topcoat. I'm not really happy with the application and with the evenness of the polish. Too bad because the color is pretty, similar to Zoya Sweet (the pink one) but with the shimmer.
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Tinted Moisturizer -Jane - nearly foundation SPF 30
violetcobra 6/22/2010 1:47:00 PM
So sad to see a low repurchase rate. I really love this TM. I chose the shade "Fair/Clair" and it's SPF 30, oil free. At first I thought the shade may be a tad too yellow, but when you blend it in (over moisturizer, in my case) I found the color was perfectly blended in, with no traces of product. It provided even smooth soft coverage for me. Also it AMAZINGLY concealed my uneven skin tone (lots of freckles, sun damage) without having to wear loads of concealer. I'm not saying it concealed everything. But overall, unless you were specifically looking, you couldn't see any blemishes. It is so smooth, moisturized and light I used it all over like a moisturizer. I'm definitely buying this again next time I visit Walgreen's, which is not close to me.
ETA: Good news! My closest Walgreen's has this in stock and I just bought my next tube :).
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Polishes -Essie - Sag Harbor
violetcobra 12/17/2009 8:54:00 PM
Love this color! In the bottle, you will see a very soft pastel blue with grey tones, and some very subtle white shimmer (not a frost). The blue actually to me leans green. On nails, it morphed into a darker and more purply version of the color in the bottle, and the whitish shimmer is revealed only in direct sun, making it just seem a bit pearlier than a cream in low lights. I did like the morphed color, and I'm calling it a pale greyed periwinkle. (Probably owning to high amounts of pigment in my nailbeds showing against this quite pastel color). I do not mind the color. It is unique and it looks nice on my skin.
I thought I'd comment that I didn't have application problems with this in the least. It was runny but in a good way, because it was workable and did not run into my nails' rain gutters as I worked. Two coats and got great, non-streaky coverage. I'm a huge fan of this, but it's not exceptional enough to warrant a 5 though I'd repurchase.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Polishes -China Glaze - 5 Golden Rings
violetcobra 11/23/2009 1:21:00 PM
Very pretty gold. Opaque in the bottle and a slightly dull gold, on nails it is toward the yellow spectrum (not a beige gold), you'll see a lot of glitter (not the chunky kind like Ruby Pumps but a finer, more sparkly glitter). I found that I liked this color far more on nails than in the bottle. On nails it has a starry lightness. The first coat goes on like a super sparkly gold topcoat. The second coat gives a delicate opacity but not super opaque like its long lost cousin, China Glaze Cowardly Lyin. You will still see the whites of your nails showing through after two coats.
I do not believe this polish is the gold version of Ruby Pumps. It's far too delicate. (I don't subscribe to the view that Emerald Sparkle is the green Ruby Pumps either, heh heh.)
The application was pretty good. A little thick and pliable and not as runny as I thought it would be. Little if any cleanup was needed.
The best part of this color was getting a compliment from DH. I held my nails up in the sun to look at the color the day after I did my manicure and he saw this and said, "Your nails look nice." He meant the color not the nail shape.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Polishes -OPI - A Ruby for a Rudolph
violetcobra 11/19/2009 1:40:00 PM
THE COLOR: in the bottle, this is a pure ruby red shade with loads and loads of smooth small glitter. The glitter is mostly red but I do see some golden bits here and there making the bottle color look vaguely duotone. I suspect this color has oodles of very very fine monochromatic microshimmer because of the almost metallic glow. On nails, you see a very metallic ruby shade with almost imperceptible small bits of red, slightly lighter in hue, microglitter. After two coats you get a rich ruby red, neutral, that glows like a sparkly red metallic bike or car. This is not a glitter polish like Ruby Pumps, but overall, it will look metallic and sparkly. I truly am in love with this color.
THE APPLICATION was fine. Pro-wide brush, as stated in one of the other reviews, did fine for me as long as I kept product down to a tad. First coat was a little thin but didn't leave bald marks near my cuticle area. Second coat was perfection. I recommend a glossy thick topcoat. I actually used two. And I added a third coat since I had scratches embedded in one or two nails from drying time issues as I haven't been using quick dry topcoats lately, but then I added Oh So Wet! on the top since my OPI Top Coat wasn't shiny enough. I rarely had any mess to clean up with this color due to runniness or gloopiness. Perfect consistency.
THE WEAR is fine, use a good topcoat. If you have chips or tipwear, that's probably your problem.
Some of the reviews of this product have been IMHO uninformative since chipping is probably not the fault of the polish but the other products used. Also I find it misleading to say there's pink in this product. Perhaps because the product is cooler toned in the bottle than on nails it seems pinkish but definitely this is a true ruby shade. The golden microglitter I am referring to that gives A Ruby for Rudolph a duotone feel is only visible around the shadows of the bottle, at the bottom and sides. No gold microglitter is actually visible on nails. Overall, I'd have to say I'm submitting this one to the Top 20 Nailboard poll.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Polishes -Nicole - Mall Queen Mauve
violetcobra 11/17/2009 12:01:00 PM
This color has been sitting in my stash for well over three years now. It has always looked so pretty but I never had the opportunity to use it until now. Wow! Gorgeous medium "carnation pink" (no mauve, mauve haters rejoice), with a strong bit of finely ground silver and maybe 1/4 pink colored shimmer. Goes on a tad bit frosty and metallic, showing ridges (though I did use NailTek Foundation) unfortunately, but you can't beat this pink. Pinks usually look like crap on me, with my olive blue/green undertones and strong yellow over that... but this one is about the most perfect pink color I've tried. The application is smooth and not Big 3 Free so I love that, and the brush is not an OPI Pro-Wide, also which I love. The only problem so far, is not even with the ridges which I could probably fix with a second coat of Foundation. The problem for me is probably topcoat related sadly, but the tipwear of Mall Queen Mauve was a little bad. Slight chips have formed at my natural nail's ridged tips here and there, and this was even after a refresher third coat of Mall Queen Mauve. So I have to mark it off overall down from 5 to 4. Because I am so taken with this color I would definitely get it again if I run out or give it as a gift. If you love pink or think you can't wear pink, give this a try.
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Polishes -OPI - You Don't Know Jacques! SUEDE
violetcobra 10/31/2009 12:27:00 AM
Not a huge fan of the suedes, this probably will be the only one I'll buy. THE COLOR... nothing really like the original You Don't Know Jacques from the 2008 fall collection, which is one of those dark cool toned taupe cremes that suddenly became the style this time last year. Instead, it seems to be a cool toned brown base with a bunch of chunks of bronzy brown intermixed, all a very dull matte. THE APPLICATION... a lot like chunky foam, the formula was not very smooth and did not go down where I expected it to. It was like a foamy lather, lightweight, and uneven, showing either patches of pinkish nail or else high sides of brown. However, I could tell the second coat would clean up the first and after all, I was happy with the evenness of this product, and clean up was pretty easy. THE FINISH... is probably what you liked about this product or are interested in trying, and the finish is as described (dull and matte), much moreso than similar colors such as NYC's Cognac Sparkle of 2006 and Molten Metal of 2007/08 with lots of chunky matte glitter bits, but the base is exceptionally matte. It ranks up there with Nailtek Foundation. So if you hate glosses, and you want an interesting finish, not a creme, with chunks of color, this is the polish for you. THE WEAR... The instructions say not to use any topcoat, normally which prolongs the life of a nail color. Also the instructions say the Suedes will not wear as long as OPI nail enamels (which is saying in advance, "This product should be expected to chip"), and curiously lotion is to be avoided. Most of us use lotion 4 or more times a day. So I'm not expecting much of this but just to try it out and maybe swap it. It is fun to try something new, but this is not a product that I'll be trying more than once although the Ink and the Russian Navy looked fun. But on the whole, the original versions of the Suedes are far more interesting, and these aren't spectacularly clone-like close. You Don't Know Jacques looks similar I guess in a way (but on the same token, so do Russian Navy's navy and Ink's blurple).
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Polishes -OPI - Can You Tapas This?
violetcobra 10/22/2009 12:21:00 AM
Disappointing, because the color in the bottle does not show on nails. My 2nd review of OPI products this month end in this manner, the other being Glamour Game. In the bottle, Can You Tapas This is a pinky-red rich chocolate brown. On nails, the pinky-red vanishes and leaves a basic dark chocolate icing, darker in hue and less complex, with maybe the faintest tinge of tried blood or cherry. With the color's complexity lost, and now I'm stuck with one of many vampy dark reds. However, most of mine being cool toned, this one is warm. Unless you only have about 20 colors or less, I think that Can You Tapas This is going to be disappointing. APPLICATION: a little goopy and hard to work with. I was using a different base coat than my usual Nailtek Foundation, but it just felt thick and would not come off the brush without a lot of pressure, causing a slightly messy result. WEAR: unfortunately I doubt this color will stay on my nails more than 2 to 3 days. Will definitely swap.
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Polishes -Revlon - Cherry Blush
violetcobra 10/21/2009 12:58:00 PM
This version has the old top, slanted end with the three rings at the bottom. COLOR: A lovely surprise! In the bottle this color looked a bit bubblegum, like the other reviewer said, but it is slightly irridescent towards the blue side. Yet the surprise was for me how sheer and gelee-like the application, and how perfectly smooth. This was a pedicure for me, and I used 3 coats. By the third coat, I felt the color had a shine as if from the depths but still a lot of pigmentation. So the perfect gelee texture for me. APPLICATION: really nice, cleaned up around the edges where it pooled slightly, and even, thick coats went down without a lot of trouble. Used Oh So Wet! topcoat to dry it and I was in bed in a few minutes and woke up the next day with no messed up nails. WEAR: I have had this on for five days, without any trouble, and I expect to be able to wear this for my full week. Great color, and nearly the perfect pink tone for my blue green skin (MAC NW-20).
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Polishes -Essie - Mink Muffs
violetcobra 10/21/2009 12:48:00 PM
Love Mink Muffs! COLOR: a cool cocoa midtoned brown with a touch of taupe, creamy, sans shimmer. A very modern color, although not that much more original than something like Sephora OPI's Metro Chic or OPI's You Don't Know Jacques. APPLICATION: very nice, lay down without much fuss. No pooling in the cuticle region. Very little clean up. WEAR: for a salon brand, what you'd expect. Chipped on about day 3. Day 5 now, and it's looking a bit haggard and I'll be redoing by the end of the day.
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Polishes -OPI - Glamour Game
violetcobra 9/27/2009 11:30:00 PM
Pretty color in the bottle, doesn't go that way on nails. On me, a bit warmer than the cool champagne taupe in the bottle. A bit disappointed that what I liked about the color in the bottle didn't appear on nails.
In the bottle, the color is cooler toned than on me. In the bottle, there are bits of coppery-pink-taupe glitter (square shaped) that stand out a little because they cling to the sides of the bottle. Those little glitter squares are lost on nail. What's left on nail is a basic, champagne frosted metallic that only has little pieces refracting light/color in dimmer artificial light. In sunlight, it's just one big heap of frost. And it's not that unusual, if you've had OPI colors before, such as Taupe-less Showgirls, just a basic very metallically-frosty color. So I'm disappointed and most likely will swap this color that I thought was a stand-out in the bottle.
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Treatments -Unlisted Brand - Nutra Nail Bullet-Proof Strength Kevlar Fiber Formula
violetcobra 8/25/2009 1:13:00 PM
I bought this product because there were instructions and you're not out there wondering how to maximize the use of a product this way. The instructions say, "Apply to clean, dry nails from base to tip and over edge. Let dry and repeat. Apply nail color and let dry. Apply two coats over nail color. For extra protection and shine, apply a fresh coat daily." Ok so that's 4 coats of this stuff for every manicure, plus a 5th coat on day 2, a 6th coat on day 3, and so on. PS--there is an advice on the package to allow 90 seconds to dry, thanks for letting us know. The benefit you're allegedly getting includes that the Kevlar fibers in the treatment will "weave" a powerful shield on nails, providing up to 50% stronger nails in just minutes, and become resistant to splitting, cracking, peeling and breaking. The results will occur in days. (I've taken all this off the backer of the bottle, and I'm doing a fairly accurate job paraphrasing. So already we know they want us to wrap the tips completely to maximize the use of this product and to let each coat try for about 90 seconds. Also the coats of color should also be dry before topcoat. This is helpful in evaluating a product ,to have such precise directions. What I am looking for right now in a treatment is something that will protect my nails against peeling and thicken my nails up somewhat if at all possible by infiltrating the porous layers of my nails. I get weird peels on the tips of my nails due to a myriad of work done around the house regardless of whether I use gloves (the gloves get damp inside anyway). Things like give the dogs a bath, wash my kids' hair, scrubbing down the stove with Simple Green, using Ajax on the kitchen sink, Clorox wipes in the bathrooms. I get little snags there at the top of my nails and they lead to very irregular peels which are not smooth and which the only way to get rid of is to just grow them out and start over again. So with hopes in mind of strengthening a little and preventing from peeling, I am ready to try Nutra Nail. The application of the Nutra Nail seemed a little thick after one coat, but it dried a lot tighter to the nail. Same with the second coat. Good news is that I feel I don't need a ridge filler using 2 coats of Nutra Nail. Application of my 2 coats of color went well except for minor bubbles probably due to my shaking of this bottle (it's 2 years unused and I was a goober and shook it up). After the color was passably dry to the touch (not scratch proof) I started with the 2 final coats of the Nutra Nail. After applying this product precisely as recommended, I will definitely use one coat tomorrow in about 24 hrs and see how I like this product. I will report back as to anything unacceptable such as peeling, and hopefully in a week of using this nonstop I can brag about results. Two things I've noticed different about Nutra Nail compared to Nailtek II is Nutra Nail specifically requires 2 coats, not one; and also Nutra Nail has the Kevlar fibers. The tip wrap and every day refresher coat is not unique to Nutra Nail and Nailtek II employs those techniques.
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