Revlon Divine

Whoops, I inadvertently disappeared again. But I am here to, for once, post about an LE in a somewhat-timely fashion! Revlon Divine is part of the Evening Opulence collection for Fall 2013, designed by Gucci Westman.

The collection includes another 3 colors: Rich (which looks just like Carbonite), Elusive (a black/teal glitter that looked AWESOME in the bottle, not so much in swatches), and Seductive (a deep purple jelly). I really wanted to like Elusive, especially since in the bottle, it looks like a teal version of Facets of Fuchsia, but nope. It dries matte, which isn't a big deal, but the base is so opaque that a lot of the glitter gets lost, and the result is just sort of lumpy. Top coat is definitely an improvement, but I think I'd rather franken something similar that would be a better fit to my preferences.

Anyway, Divine! Divine might look familiar to you, as it's quite similar to Germanicure by OPI and my all-time favorite, OPI Royal Rajah Ruby! Here it is in the shade:

Dat shimmer! Here it is in the sun:

And another picture of the shimmer, because why not.

How great is that? I know, once again, not the most unique color on the planet, but I love it anyway. I probably won't have time to do a proper comparison to Royal Rajah Ruby, but I do have a swatch from last fall that I hadn't posted. So, for reference, RRR:

I think I can finally stop obsessing over backups, LOL.

On an entirely unrelated note, who else is preemptively freaking out in anticipation of Breaking Bad!? OMGGGGG. I don't think I've ever hated a fictional character quite as much as Walt. Maybe Schillinger. Or Adebisi. But Oz is chock full of unequivocally horrible people.

Have you tried Divine, or any of the other Gucci Westman colors? Were you as disappointed in Elusive as me?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Happy Hands Am I Not Yours?

Happy Hands Am I Not Yours was released with the Faint of Heart collection for this past Valentine's Day. It's a dark, teal-green jelly packed with glitter. I actually took a bottle shot this time, just because I'm so smitten with the glitter mix.

How cool is that? It looks pretty awesome on the nail, too. And sorry about the state of my cuticles- I wore this manicure the week before my presentation, which was full of stress and unfortunately, cuticle-picking. So my skin is looking pretty rough, lol.

But the glitter!!

I've told you of my love for square glitter, so it shouldn't surprise you that my favorite part of this polish is the big teal squares.

So, I've layered 2 coats of Am I Not Yours over 2 coats of American Apparel Passport Blue. It was pretty thick, so I'd definitely recommend keeping thinner on hand, and being generous with it. I had no trouble getting a good amount of glitter on my nails, which was great. This manicure looked so cool in person.

Have you tried any Happy Hands polishes? Thoughts?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great weekend!

YSL Jade Imperial

YSL Jade Imperial was released with the Arty Stone collection this past spring. It's a lovely jade green creme. I am weirdly picky about my minty greens. Off the top of my head, the only ones I can think of that fit my tastes are Sinful Colors Open Seas, Milani Dress Maker/Chanel Jade, and YSL Jade Imperial. Of course, I didn't actually decide I liked Jade Imperial until right after it sold out locally, and I'm not big on online shopping. I got lucky though, and the SA that was helping me said I could have the tester! Sure, it's missing the gold outer cap, but I don't care about that. The tester is in pretty good condition, and it's about 75% or 80% full, so needless to say, I am very happy.

Now, onto the polish itself. Jade Imperial has a flawless formula. Almost perfect in 1 coat, super smooth application, dries shiny...I am in love. The brush is quite large, and I was a little worried about how that would affect the application, but I had no trouble. In fact, I didn't even need to clean this up.

I did leave gaps that are a little too wide, but that's because I did my nails in dim lighting while dying watching HBO's Oz. I know I'm ten years too late on that show, but OMGGGG. Kirk Acevedo. Rita Moreno. Lauren Velez. Eamonn Walker. Dean Winters. BD WONG. And holy crap, JK Simmons. That guy has RANGE. Seeing him go between Jameson and Schillinger and that Farmers Insurance guy...damn. I have a hard time thinking of him as anyone other than Vern, though.

Thoughts? Did you fall in love with Jade Imperial too? I've pretty much heard nothing but raves about it. And what about Oz? Have you watched it?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Water Marble: Essie Brooch the Subject and Ole Caliente

Goooooood morning! I water marbled again, as you can see.

No top coat, because I am impatient and accidentally smeared the nails on my right hand when I applied it. Look:

Smearing aside, I am pretty happy with how these designs came out!

One thing that bugs me about water marbling: pretty much every time I do it, I get at least one tiny bubble. Here, you can see it on the ring fingernail of my right hand. It's tiiiiiny, but it bothered me, so I tried carefully popping it with the very tip of my cleanup brush, and of course, the base color now shows through. Oh well.

Thoughts? Would anyone happen to have any tips on avoiding those tiny bubbles?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great week!