Maybelline Chic Chocolate

   Man, what a crazy week this has been.  Sorry I haven't posted in so long, I just got really busy.  But I should have something exciting to share with you soon so hopefully that will make up for it.
   Recently, New York held Spring/Summer '11 Fashion Week.  For those who don't know, Fashion Week is where the big designers reveal their new lines for the coming seasons.  Cosmetics companies also often reveal new lines and colors.  I know it seems like it's too early to be thinking about Spring or Summer, especially as some of us are still in summer, but it gives us a heads up on what's coming so we can be prepared, and maybe find bargains that will be more expensive later.
   This year, Maybelline New York released a limited edition collection of products in honor of Fashion Week.  I picked up three of the polishes from the collection.  The first of the three I'm going to show you is Chic Chocolate.  This is one of those polishes that looks very different depending on the lighting.  It is a deep brown almost black base with red shimmer that's hidden unless in direct sun.

See it on after the break

Zoya Color Spoons

   Happy Monday.  How many of you have ever bought a bottle of nail polish online?  Ever wish you could see the color in person first?  Or even wish that you could see how a couple coats of it would look dry before you buy a bottle from the store?  Well the fairies over at Zoya are making those wishes come true.  How you ask?  With color spoons, that's how.  Color spoons are a small piece of plastic with a round bowl at the end which holds approximately 2 coats worth of polish. 

   As you can see the spoons are labeled with the polish name and catalog number so you know with just a glance what color you're looking at.  They also have a small hole at the other end so you can string your collection together for easy storage all in one place.  Or they come to you in clear plastic envelopes of 6 each if you would rather store them that way.  

   Now you're probably wondering how much these guys cost.  Each spoon is only $0.50 and ships for free no matter how many you order.  Not bad, but what's even better is that for every spoon you order Zoya will put a credit on your account for the price of the spoon.  Once your spoons ship you will receive an email with a code to use on your next order for the credit amount.  A bottle of Zoya polish runs $7 on their website.  So basically if you order 14 spoons to try before you order a bottle, you will receive a credit worth the amount of a bottle of polish.  Which means you're getting the spoons for free to try out the colors next to your skin tone to see what works best for you.  Pretty nice huh?

   Color spoons were released on Sept 1.  According to Zoya's twitter feed, almost 250,000 spoons were ordered on that first day.  And yes, I was one of the people who made an order.  Though I was only responsible for 20.  As an added bonus with every order made, while supplies last(ed), a free color plate of the current Wicked and Wonderful collections was included.  I'm not sure if these are still being sent out or not.  Not all colors are available as spoons right now, but the company does plan to release all colors as spoons in the future.  Now here's the ones I ordered.

Wicked & Wonderful Color Plate

My Order

   I do have individual shots of each envelope so if there is a set you would like to see in more detail let me know.  Or if there is a particular spoon you would like a close up of let me know and I'll take one and post it.  The one I posted up top is of Mimi from the summer Sparkle collection.

Homemade Weekends

   Happy Sunday everyone.  Hope it's going well for all of you.  I've decided to do a little bit of a format change.  I've been so focused on polish lately that I haven't really posted any of the stuff I've made lately.  So I'm going to start making weekends about stuff I've made.  Either food or craft projects, if I ever get my office finished and back to making stuff.  Then weekdays will be about polish or other beauty related topics.  What do you guys think?
   To start off Homemade Weekends are some lemon raspberry muffins I made a while ago and haven't gotten around to posting about.  The recipe for these came from my Taste of Home cookbook again.  You can use either fresh or frozen raspberries for these.  I went with frozen since fresh weren't really in season any more.  Work of advice: make sure when defrosting the raspberries that you keep them right side up and in a bowl.  Not that I have experience with not doing that and having raspberry juice leak all over my refrigerator and kitchen floor.  Nope, not me.
   Like a lot of baked goods this recipe stats with mixing the wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls before combining the two.

Separate

Combined

   Then add the berries and portion into muffin pans for baking.  Remember to wait a few minutes after they come out of the oven before eating to avoid burning your mouth.  No matter how yummy they smell.

Berries Added

Portioned 

Out of the Oven

Out of the Pan

Interior of Muffins

   My husband loved these.  I liked them, but they weren't my favorite thing I've ever made.  But that's really probably because I hate seeds in anything.  I always buy seedless jellies and rarely get smoothies with raspberries or blackberries because of the seeds.  So I'm probably a little biased about them.

China Glaze Ingrid & Swing Baby Reviews

   Hello all.  You guys are getting two reviews for the price of one today.  Why you ask?  Because I wanted to do something a little different with my nails this time.  Nothing major or complicated, just a little more interesting.
   I decided to use Ingrid and Swing Baby.  These are both from the China Glaze fall collection Vintage Vixen.  Ingrid is a slightly greyed brown with an almost hidden gold shimmer when you look closely. In indoor or low light it can easily be mistaken for a brown creme.  Swing Baby is an antique gold frost with matching shimmer.

See what I did after the break

Models Own Golden Peach

    Happy Monday!  Today I have for you the first of my new Models Own polishes.  Trying to decide which color to try first was not an easy decision.  I finally left it up to my husband and best friend.  Luckily they both chose the same color.  Which was, as the title says, golden peach.      

   The color on Golden Peach is just as the name would suggest.  It's a soft peach shimmer with a hint of gold duochrome.  The formula was great and applied flawlessly.  It is however a bit on the sheer side, but not too bad.  I used 1 coat China Glaze strong adhesion base coat, 3 coats Golden Peach, and 1 coat Seche Vite top coat.  At certain angles I can still pick up on a tiny bit of VNL.  The first day I wore this and tried to take pictures, and the couple days after, it was of course overcast and rainy.  First time in a couple weeks naturally.  I got lucky with some sun yesterday afternoon however and I managed a quick sunlight picture with my cell.  I think you can see the duochrome in the sun picture.

Overcast Shot

Direct Sun Shot

   I'm not sure how I feel about the color on me.  I don't dislike it, but I'm not sure I completely like it either.  Normally I'm a fan of orange polishes on me, but there's something about this one that keeps me from loving it.  What do you guys think?

   Probably because of the ambivalent feeling about the polish, I decided to play around a little bit.  I pulled a couple polishes to layer on top to see if they made me like it any more.  Here's a quick shot of what I did.

   Sorry for the blur.  I left my thumb plain to compare.  Left to right: Sally Hansen Hidden Treasures, Finger Paints Floatin' On a Cloud, China Glaze Nova, China Glaze Swing Baby.  Try as I might I just could not get my index finger to photograph well.  Which makes me sad because I really like the way that one turned out.  If you're one of the lucky ones who got a hold of Hidden Treasures you'll be able to get an idea of how pretty it looks.  If you've never seen Hidden Treasures, it's a flaky the shines red and gold in the light.  I will edit this post later if I can get a clear photo in the daylight.

EDIT: I never got a chance to get a clear photo of Hidden Treasures over this sadly.  I got called into work on a day off so I had to remove the polish sooner than planned.

OPI Yodel Me On My Cell Comparisons

   Remember last week when I posted my review of Yodel Me On My Cell by OPI from their new Swiss collection?  Well I did some searching through my stash and only really found one similar color.  That would be Rodeo Fanatic by China Glaze from their Rodeo Diva collection.  Just for fun I also decided to do a comparison to Charla by Zoya from their Sparkle collection. 

Bottle Comparisons

Indirect Sun

Direct Sun

   For the nail shots I used 1 coat Seche clear base, 3 coats of each polish, and 1 coat of Seche Vite top coat.  I probably should have gone with 4 coats of Yodel and Charla again as I still have VNL, visible nail line, with both of those.  I feel comfortable with the 3 coats of Rodeo, aside from the one small bald spot.  

   From the bottles, Yodel and Rodeo look much closer to each other than they do on the nail.  I had the hardest time getting a decent bottle shot this morning.  This was the best of the batch and I apologize for the shadows but I hope you can get a general idea of the bottle colors.  

   On the nail you can definitely see that Rodeo is much darker than Yodel.  They do however have the same finish and shimmer.  Charla on the other hand, or finger I suppose, is much brighter with more of a glass fleck finish.  It's not quite a glitter and has a much smoother texture than a true glitter.

   So no true dupes here, but I would call Rodeo an older sibling to Yodel.  With Charla as an attention seeking cousin.  Are all three necessary for your collection?  Unless you're a blue fanatic probably not.  Charla is my must have of the group honestly.  Between Yodel and Rodeo it really depends on how dark you like your blues.  Both are good colors and either would be a good addition to any collection.

Comments Update

   Just wanted to do a quick update and let everyone know that I've changed the settings for comments.  I've now set it to allow anonymous comments and comments from non followers.  I'm hoping this will encourage people to comment and make it easier on everyone.  But please do not abuse the new settings.  Thanks and have a great week everyone.

Models Own Haul

   Happy Monday again.  Also Happy Labor Day for those in countries celebrating today.  Yay for long weekends.  Of course when you work retail, holidays for everyone else don't always mean holidays for you.  This time I did wind up with the full 3 day weekend off, by request though.  David and I are spending most of it with his family in Atlanta.  But that's part of what holidays are for right?
   Speaking of family, my wonderful sister-in-law, Sarah, did me a huge favor.  She lives in Scotland with her husband and their almost 3 year old.  But they are visiting right now for two weeks.  As you know, Scotland is part of the UK.  And what is sold in the UK, but not in the US?  That's right, Models Own nail polish.  Well, technically I could order from the website as they do ship internationally, but I don't have the budget for international shipping right now.  So enter my wonderful sister-in-law who was willing to pick me up a couple bottles and bring them over with her.  I love family.  Sometimes....
   So what colors did I get?  They were actually a bit of a surprise to me too.  I gave Sarah a list of 8-10 colors that I was interested in and said to pick up 3 or 4 from the list of whichever were available.  Did that make sense to anyone else?  Cause I'm not sure it did to me.  It must be bedtime. 
   Back to the point.  She picked up four bottles for me: Magenta Pearl, Blue Lagoon, Jade Stone, and Golden Peach.  Magenta Pearl, Blue Lagoon, and Golden Peach appear to be shimmers while Jade Stone looks like a creme from the bottles.  But we all know bottles can be deceiving at times so I will have a better idea once I try them out. 

   Any requests of which one you want to see first?  I have several blue polishes to try and a recent blue mani to post about so I could do a blue theme for a bit.  Or would you guys rather I split the blues up so I don't over load you with them?

OPI Yodel Me On My Cell

   Last week while working at the mall I wandered into my local Trade Secret.  They were having a sale on OPI polish, buy 2 get a free RapiDry top coat.  Not a bad deal, but unfortunately not in my budget right now.  Luckily I was shopping with a friend so we each picked one bottle and she took the top coat.  For my pick I went with Yodel Me On My Cell from the new Swiss Collection.  YMOMC is a blue shimmer with just a little hint of green.  In certain light it almost looks teal to me.  I know others may disagree, but that's what I see, at least with my bottle.

   I had a hard time trying to capture the bottle on camera this morning.  This is one of those colors that doesn't want to show up right.  I have not color corrected my photos, mostly because I don't know how, but also partly to show some of the different aspects of the color.  This polish really does look very different in different light.  In my apartment it looks almost teal, outside in direct sun it's bright blue, but in indirect sunlight it's somewhere in between.  So on to pics.

Direct Sun

Indirect Sun

Indoor

   Sorry for the blurry indoor photo, but I think you can still see the color difference.  Please ignore the background stuff too.  

   I really like the deep blue and the shimmer of YMOMC but I had a few application issues.  First, the formula seems a bit thin to me.  I had some pooling issues around my cuticles with this one.  And it took me four coats to get full opacity with no patchiness.  And I wasn't using thin coats either.  I think the number of coats is a result of the thin formula.  Now I've read other reviews and no one else seemed to have this issue.  So maybe I just got a bad bottle or the heat here is just making it thinner than normal.  I also have to say that I am not a big fan of the pro-wide brush. It felt like I had more issues with paining my skin than normal with it, or again that might have been a result of the thin formula.

   Again, I really do like the color a lot.  But it feels a bit familiar to me.  So I'm going to go through my stash and post some comparisons soon.  But what do you all think of the color?  And has anyone else had formula issues or is it just me?

Zoya Cola Wear Test Results

   Last week I posted a review of Zoya Cola from the Wonderful Collection.  I promised a wear test on the color after a week.  Well guess what?  It's been a week.  And as much as I love this color, I've never wanted to change my polish more than the last couple days.  I think it was the knowing I couldn't change it that made me want to so  much.  Or the fact that I've picked up a couple awesome new polishes that I'm dying to try out too.  You know, one of those.

Original Swatch

How did it turn out?  Click to the rest of the story and find out.