Sephora by OPI: Tempted By Teal

Tempted by Teal is my first Sephora by OPI polish. It's from their Garden of Good & Evil collection. My mom was nice enough to get it for me while we were both at Sephora for my free birthday gift back in September. It was either this or Looks Like Rain Dear, which I've been wanting for a while, but since this one was limited edition, I figured it was the better choice. And it's beautiful too, so no complaints here.

As you can tell from the name, it's a teal polish and it's a metallic. Looking at the bottle, there are streaks of gold in it, but that's really only for the metallic finish. Sometimes, I did see bits of gold on the nail, but it's not super noticeable. 

It's kind of blah and boring in the shade, but in the sunlight, that's when it really comes alive and shines. It's super beautiful. I hardly have many pictures in the shade, compared to how many I have in the sun. And there are a lot of pictures in this post, just to warn you.

I don't own any metallic polishes besides this, so I don't know if all of them are opaque but I'm pretty sure this one was from what I remember. I think I did about two coats, but then again my brain is a bit foggy.

Here are some bottle shots. You can really see the gold that I was talking about. Excuse the smudge on the cap. I stupidly smeared my finger against it when I was painting another nail.

Now some shade pictures. Not every exciting, but still a nice color.

See, the sunlight brings out all the magic!

This was a nice way to go for my first Sephora by OPI polish. I wouldn't exactly call this color unique as I'm sure there are many dupes for it, but for my collection, it was. So if you are lacking a metallic polish in your collection, this is a nice way to start. Thanks for reading!

China Glaze C-C-Courage

I absolutely love C-C-Courage. I got it this summer when I went to a small beauty supply store. They had some select China Glaze polishes on sale, 2 for $10. Dorothy Who? was the other one I got. I've worn C-C-Courage once and it's now one of my favorite purple polishes. It's so vibrant, sparkly, and straight up beautiful.

As you can tell from the bottle pictures below, it's packed with glitter. The glitter is silvery purple, but sometimes I swear would see flashes of pink in it when I'd move my hand. I'm not sure if I was imagining things, but I think it has subtle pink tones.

I ended up having to do three coats to make it fully opaque. I was fully aware before using it that it would dry to a slight bumpy and satiny finish. In my opinion the bumpiness wasn't so extreme that it was a turn off, nor did it take away from the beauty of the polish. Even though it was a little bumpy after top coat, as you can kind of see in the pictures, I could really care less. I still love it and in a way, the bumpy texture almost adds character.

These pictures are a few days after I painted my nails. It was hard to photograph, as most purples are, but I never knew for myself until I wore this. Sometimes it would come out totally blue! It's much more purple in real life then some of these pictures show.

If you don't have this polish in your life, I highly recommend that you go out and grab yourself a bottle! It's amazing and one of China Glaze's best in my opinion. I'll get around to swatching my bottle of Dorothy Who? soon. Thanks for reading!

China Glaze Frosty

I decided for my next manicure I wanted to wear a clean and and refreshing color. I went with China Glaze Frosty, a shimmery white.

I wanted Frosty the most from 'Tis The Season To Be Nice And Naughty collection. It must have been popular, because it was always gone. It wasn't until summer that I got lucky. I was looking through a "last chance" basket of colors and there it was, so of course I couldn't leave without it. It's an awesome feeling when you find the color you've been lemming for.

This white is the furthest thing from boring. It has silver white shimmer/glitter and dries smooth. It has a soft, delicate look and it reminds me of white, fluffy marshmallows. It was sheer on the first coat, but it was perfect on the third. I used my Color Club Vivid Intensifying Top Coat and I honestly think it took away the beauty from the polish because of the tinted base. It's subtle, but noticeable to me.

I'm not very pleased with the pictures I have which sucks because it's a really beautiful polish. They were taken on the fifth day of wear and up until then there were no significant chips, just minor tip wear. A few hours before I decided to take pictures, almost all of the polish on my index finger chipped off. I cropped it out in each picture, so it didn't leave me with many options when it came to choosing what ones to post. They aren't the best quality either. The polish is a million times more beautiful then depicted here.

I wish I had more pictures to share with you! It's such a gorgeous white that I recommend to anyone. I'll get around to reviewing the other Christmas colors that I have from this collection. Thanks for reading!

OPI Tease-y Does It

When the OPI Burlesque collection came out, I really didn't think much about the non-glitter colors. I sort of passed them over but when I saw swatches of Tease-y Does It, the vampy polish of the collection, I wanted it and it was on my wishlist for a while. I could never seem to find it. But when I went to CosmoProf about two months ago they had some leftover Burlesque sets and there was only one Tease-y Does It left, so I knew I had to get it because if I didn't, I'd regret it. 

I'm so glad I didn't pass it up. It's a extremely gorgeous color and one of my favorites now. It was literally love at first swatch, even just by looking at it in the bottle too, which by the way gives you the impression that it might be a duochrome but it doesn't show up on the nail. It's not that big of a deal, it's still a gorgeous color without it. It's a darkened brown, plummy color with pinkish red shimmer. It was streaky on the first coat, but the second was better, even though you can tell from some pictures that there are some bald spots I could have easily fixed with another coat.

 

These pictures were taken on the third or fourth day of wear, so excuse the wear around my tips. I really need to get better at taking pictures sooner rather then later. I took so many pictures to try to capture the beauty of this polish.

Not the best quality shot, but I love how the red shimmer stands out in this one.

Here's the duochrome that is visible in the bottle, but doesn't show up on the nails.

If you ever run into a bottle of this, I'd recommend that you add it to your collection. It's a really sophisticated and beautiful color that I'm sure you'll love. If you can't find it, I've heard that Nubar Raspberry Truffle is a pretty close dupe for it. Maybe I'll get around to swatching the glitter polishes from the Burlesque collection. Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone, hope you had a great day! Thanks for reading!

China Glaze Mrs. Claus

Last year, when I was fairly new in the world of nail polish, my sister took me to CosmoProf for the first time. I was in heaven. I didn't buy anything, but my eyes landed on the China Glaze 'Tis The Season To Be Naughty And Nice collection. I wanted a handful of the colors, one of them being Mrs. Claus. I'm not a huge red polish fan, but I was in love with the tinted red polish mixed with silver red glitter. I wanted it so bad. I was super happy to find it, along with a few others from the collection, in my stocking on Christmas day.

I never did take the time to wear it though. I was always picking a color over it and it wasn't until this year that I finally wore it. I was worried at first that I wouldn't like it because of my lack of interest in red polish. I was wrongly mistakenly! It's such a beautiful polish and I can't believe I didn't wear it sooner. It's one of my favorites. What I like the most about it, is that it's versatile. It can easily be a red that you wear during the holidays, but because of the sheer red quality of it, you can get away with wearing it during the summer. It has a certain juiciness to it and it reminds me of raspberries or strawberries.

It was pretty sheer on the first coat, no surprise there to be honest. It was good on the third coat, even though it's still pretty sheer overall. I wouldn't let that factor stop you from giving this polish a try. I think the sheerness works because it gives your nails a pop of color, while also adding a base for the glitter, which it's super packed with.

First up are some bottle shots in the shade to show off the silver red glitter.

 

This picture isn't exactly color accurate. I don't think it's as pink.

This is a horrible low quality shot that I got when I was playing around with my camera, but it actually highlights how glittery the polish is.

While, I'm still not a red nail polish fanatic, I'll definitely be wearing this many more times in the future. If you ever come across a bottle, get it! I don't think you'll regret it. If you can't get your hands on it, apparently OPI DS Bold is an exact dupe. Thanks for reading!

Royal Skyscraper

When the China Glaze Metro collection came out, Skyscraper was the color I wanted immediately. I have a thing for polishes that remind me of starry night skies and this one is absolutely beautiful. A few months before getting it, I bought Revlon Royal from Target. Sometimes when I go there, I'll get lucky and find a few polishes on sale. Royal happened to be one of them. It was only $2 and normally it's around $5-6. I had been wanting it for a while, so of course I couldn't pass it up!

When I was playing around with my nail wheels, I layered Skyscraper over Royal in curiosity and I really liked the combination, so I decided to wear it on my nails. I guess you could say my inspiration was Essie Starry Starry Night, even if this combination is not nearly as dark. I used one coat of China Glaze Adhesion, two coats of Royal, one coat of Skyscraper, and one coat of Color Club Vivid Intensifying top coat.

I took a bunch of pictures, so it was sort of hard to choose what pictures to add to the post. Most of them were taken in the sun, a few others in the shade to show off the shimmer in Skyscraper. My hands are not that white by the way. I was using the back light feature on my camera and it always makes everything so bright.

 

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the post. There's plenty more to come! :)

Frosted Cupcakes!

I celebrated my 21st birthday back in September. It was a normal day for the most part, aside from being able to legally drink. I wanted to wear something special on my nails that day, so I went with a combination that reminded me of pink frosted cupcakes. I do love cupcakes after all.

I had been wanting to use my bottle of Milani Gems ever since I bought it after finding out it was a dupe to Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday. It really is a party in a bottle. After seeing Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop, it gave me the idea to use Gems over the pink creme, OPI Sparrow Me The Drama, from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection. I loved the end result!

For the manicure I used one coat of China Glaze Adhesion Base Coat, two coats of OPI Sparrow Me The Drama, two coats of Milani Gems, and one coat of Color Club Vivid Intensifying Top Coat.

 

This picture was taken in the sun a few days after my birthday. I apologize for the condition of my nails and my cuticles especially at the time. I didn't realize they were so dry!

These two pictures were taken in my bedroom, so the lighting I had to work with wasn't the best, but I liked the shots I managed to get.

  

There will be plenty more posts coming to my blog in the future and I can't wait to post them. Thanks for reading!

Greetings polish lovers!

My name's Melissa, I'm a 21 year old recent college graduate and I have a huge love for nail polish.

For the past two years I've religiously visited my favorite nail polish blogs and it gave me the desire to create my own so that I could share my love with others just as obsessed. Now I finally have a blog of my own, Swatch Me Now. It will be my personal space to post swatches, opinions/reviews, hauls, and unexpected finds.

The name of my blog describes times where it has been hard for me to pick a new polish to wear when there are so many beautiful colors to choose from. It's like I imagined my polishes shouting "pick me, swatch me!" 

While my love for nail polish is huge, it hasn't always been like that. It's a recent love going strong for about two years. Ever since I can remember I've had a horrible nail biting habit. I owned nail polish when I was younger but hardly wore it because I hated how it looked on me. 
 

It was in late 2009 when I fell fast and hard for nail polish. It all started with one bottle, China Glaze Naked, and the rest was history. I went from owning a couple of bottles, to owning a plentiful stash, which has kept growing. I don't know what came over me, the pretty polishes had a huge part, but most of all I've managed to quit my nail biting habit for good! I can finally say that I'm happy with my nails. I don't see my love for nail polish dying down any time soon, but no complaints here!