Gold Flake Top Coat Comparison with Zoya, OPI and Ninja Polish

It's all about the BLING, bay-bee! And this season we have choices, oh yes we do!

So I have 3 of them to compare for you this evening...

Gold Flake Top Coat Comparison

Zoya Gilty
18K
$35 alone or $45 in the Trio (with black and white cremes)
Cruelty-Free YES
5-Free

OPI Man with the Golden Gun
18K
$30
Cruelty-Free NO
3-Free

Ninja Polish The Midas Touch
24K
$15
Cruelty-Free YES
4-Free


NOTE: The "silver" you see on my pinky nail is actually 12K WHITE GOLD from Ninja and it's called He Went to Jarred (purposely misspelled) - it also retails for $15.

Gold Flake Top Coat Comparison

Gold Flake Top Coat Comparison

Gold Flake Top Coat Comparison

Gold Flake Top Coat Comparison

There is a little bit of dabbing on all three of them but you can pretty much control how sparse or thick you want them fairly easily. I just swatched them how they came out on the brush with the least manipulation on all three to get a good comparison.  Zoya and OPI are pretty difficult to tell apart. But Ninja Polish has the most variety of sizes of flake particles. Large and small.

Above I listed the prices, the karat of gold used, whether or not the brand is Cruelty-Free and whether they are 3, 4 or 5-Free.

Zoya Gilty is still available as I write this. I've heard the OPI one is pretty hard to find already and Ninja Polish is currently out-of-stock but will have fresh stock in early December. You can follow Ninja Polish on Facebook to stay up-to-date on restock information and specials and you can go to their site and click to be notified via email of restocks. OPI is sold at various retailers worldwide. Zoya can be purchased on their site here and you can also follow them on Facebook here to stay apprised of specials and other information.

Obviously my favorite is Ninja Polish for 4 reasons: Cruelty-Free, lowest price, most variety of flake size and it's 24K instead of 18K.

(*These products were all purchased BY ME for my own personal use except the OPI which was a gift from a friend.)



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Thrifty Thursday! Sort of... OPI Chopsticking To My Story

I think this qualifies for a Thrifty Thursday entry because Ulta was having a 2 for $10 OPI sale on some older collection polishes. So I picked up Chopsticking to My Story, which looks like a Pumpkin Spice Latte to me! Fitting for the rare "cold front" that blew in last night. It's from the OPI Hong Kong Collection for Spring 2010.

Standard OPI creme formula, goes on great, great brush leaving no clean up necessary. This one took 3 coats rather than 2 for me to get the opacity I wanted, but certainly, less persnickity people could get by with two.

Natural lighting:

OPI Chopsticking To My Story

Artificial lighting:

OPI Chopsticking To My Story

 Truest color in natural lighting:

OPI Chopsticking To My Story

Isn't it yummy???

I don't actually drink pumpkin spice lattes - but I am having a plain ole cuppa joe and wearing my sweater and boots! (Don't get to do that very often here in extreme southern Po-Dunk.)

2012 OPI "Holland Collection"

According to OPI's Facebook page, they will be releasing a new collection in February called the Holland Collection.

And I am SO HAPPY to see that there are no glitters!!!  I'm not a huge glitter fan to begin with, but recently, we have been inundated with them! Nice to see a glitter-free collection.

OPI 2012 Holland Collection - photo courtesy of OPI

According to their post:

"This coming February your nails will get a taste of elegance with our feminine & floral collection, Holland! L to R: Gouda Gouda Two Shoes, Wooden Shoes Like to Know It, I Don't Give a Rotterdam, A Roll In The Hague, Petal Faster Suzi, Dutch Ya Just Love OPI, Thanks a WindMillion, Red Lights Ahead...Where?, Kiss Me On My Tulips, Vampsterdam, I Have a Herring Problem, & Did You Hear About Van Gogh?"


So what do you think?

What Are Your Top 5 Favorite Nail Polishes?

Sally Hansen Magical Nail Makeup Mystical Mandarin

There have been SO many new and great releases in 2011, I was just wondering if any of them have replaced any of your all-time favorites?  My Top 5 list has certainly changed!

Currently, if I could only grab 5 polishes, (3 of them are from 2011) they would be:

Cult Nails In a Trance
China Glaze Westside Warrior
Zoya Petra
OPI DS Extravagance
Milani Totally Cool


Obviously my favorites change, but for now, I adore these 5 above all. Just can't believe there are no linear holos among them anymore!

Honorable Mentions:

Sally Hanson Magical Nail Makeup in Mystical Mandarin
All 3 from the Chanel Khaki Collection
Hard Candy Beetle
Nubar Reclaim
Chanel Graphite
Dior Equis
Rimmel London Lasting Finish Pro Steel Grey
China Glaze China Rouge
Zoya Yara
Nubar 2010
Butter London Wallis
Butter London All Hail the Queen

Here are just a few past photos of some of them...

Nubar Reclaim

Chanel Graphite

Hard Candy Beetle

Chanel Khaki Rose

Dior Equis

OPI DS Extravagance

Zoya Yara (green one)

Nubar 2010

Nubar 2010

Butter London Wallis

Milani Totally Cool

Cult Nails In a Trance

What's on your Top 5 List?

OPI DS Magic: Review and Swatches

OPI DS Magic

OPI Designer Series: Magic

This is, in my opinion, the blue version of China Glaze Ruby Pumps. Seriously blingtastic bright royal blue!  Lit from within. Application was good, not a one or 2 coat easy-peasy application, but still good. I did one light coat and one medium coat and still felt it wasn't even so I did a third coat and Voila!  


This addition to the Designer Series was one of two that made numbers 10 and 11 to the existing nine prior to their Fall 2010 release.  The other was DS Radiance, which I will get around to eventually.  Heck, I'm only a year behind on this one! Ha! (Basically, that one looks like aluminum foil. *grin*)

Some of the reviews I've read describe this as a metallic. Maybe there are two different versions of this? Mine isn't what I call metallic at all. It's chock full of shimmery blue glass flecks, hence the "lit from within" appearance. And it has a wonderful duochrome quality...sapphire blue and violet/purple!

Outdoors/Natural lighting:

OPI DS Magic

OPI DS Magic

OPI DS Magic

Indoors/Artificial lighting:

OPI DS Magic

OPI DS Magic

OPI DS Magic

Okay, so maybe I can see how someone might describe this as a metallic now, after seeing the photos above.  But it would only be confused as such at a distance. It's no more metallic than China Glaze Ruby Pumps.

Boy, for someone who was scared to death of blue finger nails a few months ago, I sure have gone Virginia Slim on the blue!  I've come a long way, Baby!

Happy Friday!!!

Matching Polish and Purses!

Someone smarter than I am had this idea.  But it was a good one, so I'm stealing it!

I don't intentionally match my polish to my bags, but when it happens, it happens, so I've snapped some shots of a few...

Not a great photo, but this was my Raisin Lindy and OPI Can You Dig It - it actually matched my Violet Carmen keyring perfectly (top of pic.)

Raisin Lindy, Violet Carmen with OPI Can You Dig It

Tod's Ivy with Sally Hansen Commander in Chic

Black Chevre Birkin with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and OPI Black Shatter on top

Crappy cell phone pics - my apologies. ^^

Goyard St. Louis GM with Pure Ice Iced Merlot layered over  NYC Black Lace Creme

Gucci (guccisima leather in unknown color) with Pure Ice Jamaica Me Crazy over LA Colors #563 (Nuclear Energy)

Chartreuse Evelyne with Wet n Wild Ocean Grotto over Revlon Moss

Vert Anis Karo with Wet n Wild Ocean Grotto over Revlon Moss

Orange Tods with Perfect 10 Crush

That's all I have for now. If I stumble across any more, I'll post 'em.

What are some of your favorite purse/polish matches?

Ultimate Mushroom/Taupe Nail Polish Comparison Guide...8 Different Polishes!

Since any kind of mushroomy taupe color is my go-to color when traveling because it doesn't clash with anything, naturally I'm drawn to them and have more than I should. I started wondering how many are dupes. So I pulled most of them out (most that were similar in the bottle anyway. I have more that are clearly lighter and clearly darker I didn't use here) to do a comparison.

Here's what I used:

1. Chanel Particuliere
2. Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro Steel Grey
3. NYC In a Minute Park Avenue
4. Orchid Ain't No Sunshine
5. Hard Candy Mushroom
6. OPI You Don't Know Jacques
7. China Glaze Below Deck
8. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Commander in Chic


These are all cremes - no shimmers or sparkles in any of them.

Mushroom/Taupe Comparison

Mushroom/Taupe Comparison

As you will see in the photos, there are two of these that really aren't dupes for any of the rest.  Chanel Particuliere doesn't have the grey/purple undertones the rest of them have and China Glaze Below Deck has much more of a purple undertone than any of the others.

The definite true dupe for me out of all of these is Hard Candy Mushroom for OPI You Don't Know Jacques. You really can't tell the difference in appearance!  The difference I did note in the application was that the Hard Candy one is a little more pigmented, allowing you to get away with 2 light coats as opposed to the OPI, which needs three light coats or two heavier coats.  Since I was doing a quick comparison before I did my actual manicure, I haven't done clean up for the photos.

Hard Candy Mushroom and OPI You Don't Know Jacques

That leaves four.  These four are, for all intents and purposes, dupes.  Maybe not as perfect as the Hard Candy/OPI comparison, but for anyone without OCD, dupes, nevertheless.

These are Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro Steel Grey, NYC In a Minute Park Avenue, Orchid Ain't No Sunshine and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Commander in Chic. Of all of these, I'd say the Orchid was ever so slightly darker and needed one less coat than the others, AND was actually the easiest to apply. The problem with this, however, may be availability. While they are available for between $4.99 and $6.99 at my local H.E.B. Plus grocery store, I'm not sure they're available elsewhere. And I don't know how far outside Texas H.E.B. goes, if at all.  I hope that changes soon because they have a WIDE range of colors and finishes and very nice application.  Their brush is a mid-sized, semi-flat brush.  It's not the skinny, round brush of the NYC brand, but it's not as wide as the Sally Hansen or the Rimmel. It fits my nails perfectly. I think it might have just usurped my number one go-to polish, which was Rimmel Steel Grey. And it's 3-Free!

Mushroom/Taupe Comparison

And just for kicks, here are China Glaze Below Deck and Chanel Particuliere comparisons, too.

China Glaze Below Deck

Not sure how well you can tell in the photos, but the China Glaze Below Deck has more purple undertones than the others and the Chanel Particuliere has less of a purple or grey undertone than the others and is just a soft, less grey, less purple, very rich brown.

Chanel Particuliere

I've decided to wear Orchid's Ain't No Sunshine this week to test the wearability, chipping, tip wear, etc. I'll let you know how it fares!

Final color choice:  Orchid Ain't No Sunshine

Update: The Orchid polish wore pretty well. I had the normal tip wear because I type all day, but this mani lasted 6 days and was still going strong when I took it off. No chipping. My nails grow really fast and I get tired of the same color day after day, though, so 6 days for me with the same polish has to be some kind of record!

OPI Funky Dunky Accent

I was wondering how OPI Funky Dunky would compliment the Rimmel London Lasting Finish Pro Wild Orchid I was wearing, so I did an accent nail for comparison.  It is actually the same color - only about 3 shades darker.

Rimmel Wild Orchid with OPI Funky Dunky

Should have polished the edges to reduce tip wear, but I got lazy.  Oh well...live and learn.  As much as I type, I should always do the edges.

Layered with Orchid brand Starry Night glitter.

Rimmel Wild Orchid with OPI Funky Dunky under Orchid Starry Night

Chanel Graphite vs. OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

Are they dupes or aren't they?

Well, in spite of the photos you are going to see here, I can tell you that they're not.  Of course, it also depends on how close you want them to be.  Are they close?  Absolutely.

Below are some pics I snapped this evening - no natural light. And in this light, I can tell you they are dupes, right down to the application and number of coats (I used 2 coats on both.)

Chanel Graphite and OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

Chanel Graphite and OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

Chanel Graphite and OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

I can actually tell now, but it's very subtle, plus the fact that I remember which fingers have which polish. Ha! But at arms-length, identical.

But just wait for the sunlight photos!  Tomorrow, I promise!