China Glaze: Ingrid

This is a strange post because I'm going to bring up something unrelated.  So I was looking at the Fall 2013 Collections from various cosmetic companies and I was really taken by Illamasqua's The Sacred Hour Fall 2013.  I'm very intrigued by Facet, but I'm really trying to resist the urge to purchase that.  So I tried to find things in my own collection that has a similar finish.  I have Essie's Armed and Ready (which I may eventually wear or swatch) and today's China Glaze Ingrid.  Armed and Ready, and Ingrid are by no means dupes for Facet but there's the shimmer aspect that is what is drawing me to Facet.  

Now on to China Glaze's Ingrid.  

Thoughts

Very easy to apply like the other China Glaze polishes that I own.  I bought Ingrid sometime last year.  It's one of my favourite fall colours.  It's this nice hot chocolaty shade with shimmer.  The shimmer, to me, looks like golden or olive-golden?  The China Glaze website doesn't give a description but that's what I think it looks like.  The colour was pretty opaque after two coats.  There is a spot I might have missed but that's because I was painting in different types of coats, sometimes thin and then another finger thicker.  I was watching something so I got distracted (being completely honest here).  

I dropped some polish onto the bottle while I was distracted.  I was going to remove it but I was afraid that some of the letters would rub off from the polish remover, so I left it.  I just want to say that the words did not dissolve from the remover :)  I should have retaken the shots but I didn't... sorry in advance.

Breakdown
Base coat: Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus
Colour coat: China Glaze Ingrid (2 coats)
Top coat: Seche Vite

Picture taken from my iPhone 4.  I forgot to take a brush shot.

Golden shimmer shot

With flash

It's really hard to capture the shimmer, so I tried to tilt my hand...

A shot with my iPhone 4.  The phone camera made it look a lot darker than my nails are.  

I bought China Glaze Ingrid off of eBay.  This was before I discovered nailpolishcanada.com.  This is available there.  I am not affiliated with them, but for some reason I happen to mention them a lot. 14mL

butter London: Marrow

Over the Spring time, I really wanted a purple nail polish.  I thought I had many purples but most of them are like a purple/blue or a metallic purple.  So I wanted a pure purple creme.  This colour is described as the colour of bone marrow, which is why it's called Marrow.  It's a nice colour but I didn't end up wearing it that long after I painted my fingers.  I guess I felt it was just too dark for the time period.  Or I changed my mind and didn't want to wear it. 

Butter London polishes are a hit or miss for me in terms of wear.  The polishes themselves, I find to be very pretty and for the colour it's nice.  If you add in the cost and the wear time, then it will really depend.  I've worn some for a week or some that chipped after one day.  I'm not sure where Marrow stands actually.  

Breakdown
Basecoat: butter London Nail Foundation
Colour layer: butter London Marrow (two coats)
Topcoat: butter London Hardwear

I bought Marrow on the butter London website.  Currently also available on Nailpolishcanada.com and there's free shipping at the moment.

OPI: Mermaid's Tears and Nicole by OPI Count on Me

I swatched this many months ago and wasn't sure if I should post this because at the time I didn't realize that OPI's Mermaid's Tears was no longer available.  I decided since I did take pictures I may as well post them up.

So here are my pictures of Mermaid's Tears.  I don't really wear this that much but I also have a lot of similar colours to Mermaid's Tears, although not exactly the same.

Added Nicole by OPI Count on Me on top.

I didn't let it dry long enough so my pinky is a bit smudged, or I'd have a better picture.  I really love how Count on Me adds to the polish.  You can basically add Count on Me on anything and it would have a pretty cool effect.  I remember when I wore this look, my friend was trying to figure out what colour I had on since it was mainly green and then she saw some purple flash.

I purchased all the polishes.  Nicole by OPI's Count on Me was purchased at Wal-mart.

Essie: No Baggage Please

I have a lot of pinks, but when I saw this one from the Essie 2013 Wedding collection, I wanted No Baggage Please.  I liked how there was subtle silver shimmer specks in this colour. 

Thoughts

While this is a pretty colour, but for the life of me I could not get it to be opaque.  I've seen other swatches online and the colour looks so pretty and opaque.  I could not get it to look like those pictures.  I tried two coats and then three.  The colour is nice but I wouldn't say that there's anything overly special about this pink.  The collection came out early June? In time for wedding season.  So I am a little late with posting this.

Breakdown
Base coat: Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus
Colour coat: Essie No Baggage Please (2 and/3 coats please see the pictures)
Top coat: Nicole by OPI Top Coat

Two coats

Three coats

Three coats

I bought No Baggage Please at Trade Secrets.  Retails for $8.99 for 13.5mL.

OPI: Gargantuan Green Grape

I have another OPI polish today.  I did this pictures earlier in the year.  I think around June actually but I never had a chance to put it up.  There was a period where I was super busy with my vacation time and I didn't blog as much.  Also, I'm not too sure how I feel about the colour.  I mean I know it's a mint colour.

It's interesting, I have googled other swatches for this colour and they turn out neon or more mint.  After I painted my nails, it looked like a light mint cream.  So that's a bit bizarre.  

Thoughts

I remember I had to use three coats to get it opaque and even then it was a little streaky.  I like the loo but I changed my mind and didn't end up wearing this outside.     

Breakdown
Base coat: Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus
Colour coat: OPI Gargantuan Green Grape (3 coats)
Top coat: Nicole by OPI Top Coat

I bought Gargantuan Green Grape at Trade Secrets.  Retails for $9.99 for 15mL.