Pointless Cafe

Monday, October 24, 2011

Milani Dress Maker Swatches and Review

Milani Dress Maker

After seeing photos of Chanel Jade and being a little too indecisive to pay outrageous prices for the VHTF polish since I'm pretty sure it won't be the *best* color for my skin tone, I decided to get Milani Dress Maker to see how I liked it first.

Sometimes my brain actually WORKS! It turned out to be a good idea. I like it almost enough to go ahead and get Chanel Jade, but not quite. As predicted, it's not the best with my coloring. It's not so bad that I'll never wear it at all though. It really is a pretty color! And from the comparison photos I've seen, it does look like a flat-out dupe. So I made a deal with myself. If I actually go through this entire bottle of Dress Maker, I'll shell out for the Chanel Jade. But I see no reason, since it's not readily available or even close to a reasonable price, for me to have it just to have it.

In many ways I am so NOT frugal. In other ways, I'm extremely frugal. And of course as always with me, there's no decipherable rhyme or reason to either.

Okay, down to it! This is a drug store polish that goes for about $4.49. If you can't find it in stock locally, the Milani website has them for the same price plus very reasonable shipping.

The application isn't like a Dior one coater, of course (whaddya want for $4.49?) but it's not bad. It takes two thin coats for opacity and a third thin coat to even it all out. I was pretty careful and had no clean up. As you all should know by now, the no clean up part makes everything okay!

Photos shown are with a base coat, 3 THIN coats of polish and a top coat.

Milani Dress Maker

Check out the shimmer!

Milani Dress Maker

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Payless Shoes Nail Polishes - Brash and Unforgettable Moments Swatches

I picked up almost all of the two lines of polish, Brash and Unforgettable Moments, that my local Payless Shoes is carrying a few weeks ago and I'm just getting around to swatching. And yes, I'm cheating. Nail Wheel Swatchfest.

Without further ado...

Unforgettable Moments:

Brash:

Overall, they're not great and not horrible. Price point $2.50 - $3.50.

There are a couple of standouts though!

Unforgettable Moments Grape Grey (in the 1st photo) is a dupe for China Glaze Below Deck and it's a creme with decent application. China Glaze formula is better, I think, but this one's not bad.

Unforgettable Moments Sparkling Turquoise in the (1st and 2nd photos) has good application/formula and is a pretty, stand-out color.

Brash, overall, seems to be the better line of the two. One through 5 on the nail wheel all have good application and are fairly unique. I'll wear them.

Sergeant Khaki is close to Rimmel Rags to Riches, but without the frostiness. I like it!

Toxic Purple (2 on the wheel) reads royal purple/royal blue, depending on the lighting and has a good shimmer.

Plum Buzz (3 on the wheel) was the hardest to photograph accurately, and I still haven't managed to do it. It's really a stand-out in person.

Midnight Spark (5 on the wheel) is a great deep navy creme with subtle blue micro-shimmer. Decent application.

Metal Orchid (10 on the wheel) isn't one I'll probably wear, but it really REALLY reminds me of Gosh Gasoline. I'm not calling it a dupe, but they're close in formula and appearance. I didn't like Gosh Gasoline.

Each one obviously needs to be judged individually because there really is no consistency in formula in either brand. (The bumps you see in some photos are from me not waiting long enough between coats.)

If I had it to do over, I'd probably still get Brash Plum Buzz, Sergeant Khaki and maybe Midnight Spark and Unforgettable Moments Sparkling Turquoise.

Polish is EVERYWHERE now!

Will you be getting any of these? Have you already?

Zoya Petra

Zoya Petra has been sitting on my shelf for a while and thanks to insomnia last night, I'm finally wearing it! Can't imagine what took me so long!

Zoya Petra is part of the Smoke part of their 2011 Fall Smoke and Mirrors Collection. Zoya's website describes it as a "smokey eggplant mauve creme." That's pretty accurate. I would probably describe it as a greyed out aubergine creme. About the same thing. You'd think, since I am such a green-lover, that Dree would be my favorite of this collection since it's an olive creme, but I'm surprised to find out that while I LOVE Dree, this Petra is just such a unique color that it's my favorite. It's not purple, it's not grey, it's not mauve, it's just...unique!

Application was smooth and creamy. Photos show two coats and a Seche Vite top coat (which caused shrinkage, so I'll probably go back to Cult Nails Wicked Fast top coat for this one) but because of my 3 am application, I could probably do a third coat to even things out.

As with most colors, different lighting brings out different looks. This one is no exception.

Please keep in mind it was 3 am when I did this mani...it's quite obvious from the photos that I did no clean up. Sorry.

Zoya Petra

And finally, the close up - best color capture in this one (below) I think, but it does read quite a bit darker on me in most lighting than it appears in the bottle.

Zoya Petra

I think it's probably going to be my go-to color for travel because it doesn't clash with anything - replacing Rimmel London Steel Grey for that.

What do you think? It is too plain/boring for you? Or is it unique and interesting?

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...