Dupe Alert! Zoya Wednesday and Sinful Colors Greek Isles

Did anyone else buy any polishes during Zoya's Earth Day sale? I certainly did. I haven't missed it in 3 years. And when I say I bought polishes, I mean that I picked them and someone else paid. Haha. Anyway, Zoya Wednesday was one that I was wanting the most, besides Zuza. But it turns out I already had a dupe for it- Sinful Colors Greek Isles from their spring collection called Cast Away. Let's see if you guys think they're dupes.

Zoya Wednesday and Sinful Colors Greek Isles comparison

They look close in the bottles, but not really exact right? Let's see the swatches.

Zoya Wednesday and Sinful Colors Greek Isles comparison

So can you tell which color is on which finger? I asked my mother and she got it completely wrong. She picked two fingers she thought were the same color and it was really one of each. So which is which? Don't cheat and keep scrolling down!

To keep you from cheating here is a picture of my pug looking extra cute.

From left- Sinful Greek Isles, Zoya Wednesday, Sinful Greek Isles, Zoya Wednesday

Did anyone guess this? It's hard to tell but Zoya Wednesday is a tad bit lighter and greener. In person no one would be able to tell they were two different polishes. They both applied about the same too. Each took 2 coats and were smooth and creamy. I have to give the slight edge to Zoya but that may just be me trying to justify buying it when I already had the Sinful.

Sinful Colors Greek Isles

Zoya Wednesday

Witht the macros you can see the differences a little better. Really, they are so close you don't need both. I WOULD recommend you get the Sinful over the Zoya as it retails for $1.99 and the Zoya is $8, but the Sinful may be a little harder to find as it was part of a limited edition collection for Spring. Hopefully they make it permanent! And you never know, it might be released again under a different name. Sinful loves doing that.

So do you have either of these? Have you found any dupes lately?

You Need These Limited Edition L'Oreal Infallible Shadows!

I have the most awesome friends. They have stuck with me through the years despite me not always being there and stepped right up to help me when I needed them. So the point is this. I was with one of my best friends at Walgreens yesterday picking up snacks (popcorn, candy, and cheap wine!) for our girls night when my friend caught me staring wistfully at the new limited edition summer collections from L'Oreal and Revlon (Nouveau Cheap shows the displays here and here). Since I'm on my own and currently jobless (but have some prospects, yay!), I'm flat broke. So what did my friend do? Bought a whole slew of pretties for me. Of course I refused but she also refused to back down. See? Don't I have the best friends? Even though I'm not sure what I did to deserve them!

I have extreme love for L'Oreal's Infallible eye shadows. They are every bit as amazing as I hoped they would be from hearing about them before they came to the US.  The three limited editions (Golden Sage is on the display but is not LE) from this summer's collection- "It's Gold Or Nothing At All"- are must haves.  Infallible shadows are one of the best products not just at the drugstore, but in the makeup world period. I'm prone to hyperbole, but not this time folks. I really love these. They're soft, not powdery, super pigmented, and last forever on my eyelids without creasing or fading. And this is WITHOUT primer. I know not everyone will experience that, but I still love 'em.

I do have to make one small caveat.  The two more matte shades I tried, Endless Pearl and Sultry Smoke did not work as well and I actually ended up exchanging them for more shimmery colors.

Anyway, I wanted to get up swatches quickly because you need them and I want everyone to be able to get them before they disappear!

From left- Pink Sapphire, Gold Imperial, and Gleaming Bronze

From left- Pink Sapphire, Gold Imperial, and Gleaming Bronze

This is a terrible picture of Gleaming Bronze. It isn't actually brown. It's a gorgeous green tinged tarnished metal color and super pretty.

L'Oreal Infallible eye shadow Gleaming Bronze

From left- L'Oreal Infallible eye shadow Pink Sapphire, Gold Imperial, and Gleaming Bronze

There were swatched dry on bare skin. Pink Sapphire and Gold Imperial are extremely sparkly. Gleaming Bronze is shimmery, but the sparkly particles are smaller than the other two. If you only get one shadow from these three it should be Gleaming Bronze!

From left- L'Oreal Infallible eye shadow Pink Sapphire, Gold Imperial, and Gleaming Bronze

Slightly different lighting showing the greener side of Gleaming Bronze. It definitely isn't a duochrome but still has that chameleon-esque quality when it always seems to look different.

Left- Eternal Sunshine Right- Gold Imperial

Here is Gold Imperial compared to the permanent Infallible gold, Eternal Sunshine. Eternal sunshine is warmer, almost a beige-y gold while Gold Imperial is more of a cooler, brighter, more sparkly gold.  I tried to get a swatch picture comparing the two but all the shininess scared the camera.

Left- Gold Imperial Right- Eternal Sunshine (opposite of above)

The lighting in this picture is terrible, but you can tell how much brighter and more sparkly Gold Imperial (the LE color) is on the left. Eternal Sunshine looks more muted.

So I ended up posting again much sooner than I expected. I just can't leave you guys!  So what do you think? Do you plan on picking any of these up?

Three Essie Blue Nail Polishes

I'm still in Austin visiting my family, which means I don't have a whole lot of time to write blog posts!  I'm still checking my comments and reading everyones' blogs when I get a chance (aka after my parents go to bed).  Don't be too mad at me that this is pretty much just a swatch post!
These are all swatches with no base or top coats.

Essie Turquoise & Caicos in the sun

This is 3 coats.

Essie Turquoise & Caicos in the sun

New York Summer's Hot Sky Blue (from this post) is nearly a perfect dupe for Essie's Turquoise & Caicos.  It is just slightly darker and greener.  Hot Sky Blue is on my index finger.

Essie Lapis of Luxury in the sun

This is 3 coats.

Essie Lapis of Luxury in the shade

Essie Mesmerize in the sun

This is 2 coats.

Essie Mesmerize in the shade

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Under-appreciated Brand Alert! New York Summer Nail Polish Swatches

New York Summer is probably an under-appreciated brand because it isn't that easy to find.  The only place I've seen it sold is on the website of one of my favorite nail polish e-tailers, Transdesign. The polishes are only $1.59 and come in a HUGE range of over 50 colors ranging from neons to glitters to jellies.  Most of the colors I have are jellies.  In a way, the remind me of polishes that could easily fit in with OPI's "sorbet" finish.  If you loved OPI's jellies and were looking for some more, these are some great ones.  Plus, they're super cheap!  Oh, another color I recommend is a green jelly called Amaranth, but I forgot to swatch it. :(
All of these are swatched with no base or top coat.

New York Summer Hot Baby Blue in the sun

This was 3 coats.  It's a little more opaque than some of the others.  It is also a near perfect dupe for Essie Turquoise & Caicos.

New York Summer Hot Baby Blue in the shade

New York Summer Hot Sky Blue in the sun

This is 4 coats and you can still see my nail line easily.  Also, it must have some neon pigment in it because it dries to a satin finish.

New York Summer Hot Sky Blue in the shade

New York Summer Summer Fun in the sun

This was 4 coats.  I really like this color- it seems pretty unique.

New York Summer Summer Fun in the shade

New York Summer Hush in the sun

This was 4 coats.  Like most yellows, this was a bit of a pain to try and get streak-free.

New York Summer Hush in the shade

New York Summer Poppies in the sun

This was 2 coats.  It's the only non-jelly out of these swatches.  This is such a rich, gorgeous purple.

New York Summer Poppies in the shade

I was thinking Poppies might be similar to NARS' Purple Rain so I did a comparison.

Left- NARS Purple Rain  Right- New York Summer Poppies

You can see that they aren't dupes at all.  They do hae a similar feel, but Purple Rain has a more blackened base and isn't quite as reddish purple.

Available:

• New York Summer sells for $1.59  at Transdesign.com (Scroll down and click Polish on the left side. New York Summer is just called "New York" in the top tabs)

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

HauteLook Urban Decay Order- Score and Quickie Blushes and Jones Eyeshadow

Yikes!  I'm super late in posting this!  I got these a few weeks ago and am barely posting about it now!

If you haven't ever been to HauteLook (personal invitation link) before they are a retail website with short, 2 day sales on items ranging from beauty to clothes to vacations.  Everything is usually at least around 50% off retail.  They frequently have sales on brands such as Rock & Republic, NYX, Stila and Korres.  About a month ago HauteLook had an Urban Decay sale.

I love Urban Decay, but have only ever bought their palettes and the eye liners.  During the sale I bought 2 powder blushes and a single eye shadow.  Everything I bought was only $5 each!  These retail for $17!  And it isn't like all of these are discontinued products or anything either because the eyeshadow I bought and one of of the blushes are still being sold on Urban Decay's website (One of the blushes I got, Score, is discontinued, though).

It takes awhile for HauteLook to ship out your purchases, in my case it took 2 weeks from when I paid, but they clearly state on their website how long it will take so it doesn't bother me.  Also, with items in high demand like palettes you need to be fast because they will sell out sometimes in less than a few minutes.

I don't think I would have paid full price for any of these items, mostly because I rarely buy single eye shadows (I prefer palettes) and I have blushes that are $17 close enough to others I have.  But they weren't $5 close enough!

See how tiny the blushes look!  They are only slightly bigger than the eye shadow single and hold 0.15 oz, which is a pretty small amount of powder for the price.

The top row is Urban Decay Afterglow blush in Score on the left and Quickie on the right.  The bottom is Jones eyeshadow.

Here is a more color accurate picture of Jones in the pan.

From left: Score, Quickie, and Jones

The blushes are swatched heavily first and blended out a bit to the right.

Urban Decay Jones Eyeshadow

Urban Decay Afterglow blushes in Score and Quickie

Quickie

 I just realized that blushes  mostly all look the same on me, with just varying degrees on pinkness.  And it makes me sad. :(  Coral or peach blushes don't look like their actual colors, they just look less pink.  See Score for example:

Score

The following is a comparison between Score and Estee Lauder Radiant Peach blush.  They are really similar, but Radiant Peach is lighter and pinker while Score is darker and more orange.  Radiant Peach is more pigmented and smooth.  If I had to choose I would pick Radiant Peach, but it is also more expensive.  The gold shimmer in Radiant Peach is more refined and looks like a sheen on the cheeks while Urban Decay's looks more shimmery.

Urban Decay's Score blush on the left and Estee Lauder Radiant Peach on the right

Available:

• Quickie and Jones are available on Urban Decay's website and retail for $17 each.  Score is discontinued so it may be a bit harder to find.

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

MAC Cremesheen Glass Partial to Pink and Loud & Lovely swatches (and a comparison)

I like MAC, but I'm not one of those people who go crazy and have to buy every single item from every one of their limited edition collections.  I have to admit that it's easy to get swept up in the hype and excitement of limited edition items and its easy to end up spending more than you should.  MAC has a lot of hype surrounding and while I don't think it is completely warranted, the company does offer really great products (and some not so great ones).  Pretty much the same as any company, actually.

One of my favorite MAC products is their Cremesheen Glasses.  While I do like Lipglasses, they are often too glittery on me and settle into my lip lines.  Actually my first "high end" makeup purchase was Nymphette Lipglass when I was a freshman in high school.  I still have it too! 

I like the Cremesheens because they aren't sticky like Lipglasses, they feel soft and moisturizing on my lips, and they have more options that aren't glitter bombs.  What I don't like is the price for the amount of product you get.  Its $18.50 for 0.09 oz. while Lipglasses are $14.50 for 0.17 oz.  That is four bucks less for almost twice as much gloss.  These are also permanent and available, so no hunting on eBay to cure a lemming!


Partial to Pink is a peachy-pink nude with a subtle shimmer.
Loud & Lovely is cool toned bright magenta pink creme.

Top: Partial to Pink   Bottom: Loud & Lovely

Partial to Pink and Loud & Lovely

The following is a picture of my bare lips to give you something to compare to.

Bare lips

Partial to Pink

Loud & Lovely

My other favorite lipglosses are Revlon's Super Lustrous glosses.  The texture reminds me of the Cremesheens, but a bit thicker.  They retail for $6.99 for 0.2 oz which is over twice the amount of gloss for almost a third of the price.  Also, Revlon frequently goes on sale and you can also use coupons.

The point of this is that I have a Super Lustrous gloss that I thought may be a dupe for Loud & Lovely.  Its called Pink Pop.

MAC Loud & Lovely and Revlon Pink Pop

Left: MAC Loud & Lovely    Right: Revlon Pink Pop

As you can see they clearly aren't dupes.  The Revlon is a warmer, more bubblegum pink and is also a bit more opaque.  They are pretty close though and it may satisfy the craving for someone who doesn't want to shell out $18.50 for the MAC gloss.

Pros:

• Flattering shades
• Moisturizing
• Non-sticky formula
• NOT limited edition!

Cons:

• A big price for not that much gloss
• Some shades may be easily dupe-able
• May no be as long lasting as more sticky glosses

Available:

• $18.50 on MAC's website, counters, and standalone stores
• Macy's website
• Nordstrom website

 Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!