Collection Pics (Julie)

So I had to follow suit since Erika has such an amazing collection! Mine isn't nearly as large or beautiful, but I'm working on it. Actually, this past summer, I sold just about all of my NP at my yard sale because I had no room for anything! Everything you see here is pretty much brand new, as of late summer '10. So rest in peace former collection! I am impressed with how far I've come since then though! My heart belongs to sparkles, the chunkier the better. I have many different brands, and plenty more coming in the mail this next week. So I will update this post as they show up. Here's what i have so far:

I have a horrible make-up bag that is soon going to be replaced with some kind of kaboodle. Take a peek inside...kind of a beautiful mess!

We'll start with Finger Paints. A nice inexpensive brand with really pretty swatches. I am not really too into their NP because I notice that even with a decent base and top coat, they like to peel off in one big strip. So I've limited my FP collection to strictly colors I MUST have. And these are really beautiful!

My Nubars *Swoon* Nothing much needs to be said about this brand. It's a growing obsession and I expect many more soon.

My Ulta swatches - the aqua color is fabulous!!! The pink is gritty and I'm not a fan, but the sparkles in this color attracted me to it. It's very beautiful.

My love, my life...China Glaze! I have more CG than any other color. I'll start with my very favorite 2 colors. This is Pixie Dust and Golden Enchantment. I don't remember the name of the gold one. But they're top coats and complete just about any color you can imagine, and reflect about every color of the rainbow. These should serve as staples to any nail polish collection, because they really do complement just about every swatch.

I have the blues....My China Glaze Blues...

Metallics:

Some random beauties (my favorite of the 4 being the black with red sparkles.

Prior to my yard sale NP clean out, I had just about every color made by Sinful Colors. Now I only have two. Mainly because I'm not a huge fan of their formula. But these colors are irresistible.

My Color Clubs - do you see that orange/pink/luminescent swatch to the right? Wow, i know!! I need to get a few bottles of this because I run through this color really fast. I probably wear it more than any other color.

Here is my first nail art swatch. It's a really pretty black with colorful sparkles.

My very lonely and bland Essie collection. I do like them, but I haven't explored essie all that much yet.

My 3 Orlys. Another brand I don't care for the formula all that much. But they do come out with some really great colors once in a while that I can't leave behind.

Hello, sparkles! My one and only O.P.I (more are coming!), NYC in the most amazing swatch I've seen from them, and a Forever 21 color that I adore.

Just LOOK at this color! I know! Gorgeous!

You're not so bad yourself OPI. (this is from the burlesque collection)

2 extra brands - Sally girl I won't be buying again, the application is awful. Nail Savvy I found new at the thrift shop and have no idea where to find this brand.

It's a nice concept, I love the pink and blue sparkles though! Anybody else make a better formula with a similar color?

My beloved Deborah Lippmann in Bad Romance.

And you see? I wrote this too soon, because just as I posted this blog, my brand new Hard Candy showed up! Do you SEE this swatch? No I mean do you really see this swatch? Holy moly, it's freaking fabulous! It's called Hot Pants. It's infused with large and small sparkles and a translucent pink jelly base. Woohoo! This just made my day brighter!

Golden Enchantment!! China Glaze love! (Julie)

I just got this in the mail a few days ago from eBay and I've been dying to try it out! It's Golden Enchantment by China Glaze. From the same collection as pixie dust. So I didn't feel like taking off the love & beauty swatch that I just showed off last night - and decided to just throw a few coats over it. I'm so glad I did! All the rainbows in this color are fantastic. It was really difficult to capture, so I did my best, and played with the perspective so you can see a blurred version of all the rainbows in this swatch. I did two coats of Golden Enchantment on top of the love & beauty swatch.

Forever 21's Love & Beauty NP - Midnight Glitters (Julie)

I have to give f21 two thumbs up for their cheap NP which I'm going to admit - I've never given so much as a nod to while shopping there. I always assumed (judging by the price $2.80) that it'd be a thin watery formula that would probably take about 5 coats to even resemble the color in the bottle. I was wrong! Now it's not all that amazing - it does have one short-coming - it's a bit too thick, and not the easiest to apply, but that aside, it coats evenly, and the color I tried took only 2 coats to achieve the desired color. I fell in love with this swatch Midnight Glitters. Wow! It's black with green sparkles that really shimmer when they hit the light. It's subtle, but super pretty. I will definitely be getting more.

It was difficult to capture the brilliance of the green with limited lighting. I will try again tomorrow outside if it's a sunny day. (the second photo comes from forever21.com)