An Avocado Green Comparison

Time for another comparison!  The other day was partly cloudy (yet still as hot as a furnace outside!) so I did a few comparisons.  They are good for partly cloudy days since I can go inside and type up my thoughts while I'm waiting for the sun to come back out for my sunny picture.  You should see me.  I jump up in the middle of typing to run outside and catch the sun.  It's pure comedy, especially if I forget to put on my shoes and I have to hop around on one foot trying not to burn my soles.  And if one of the cats accidentally gets outside?  Knee-slappin' fun.

I don't have a lot of avocado greens, but I compared all three of them for you.  Here's the cast of characters.

 I applied three coats of each, in the same order as above, from left to right.  I took this picture in the sun.

I took this picture in the shade.

And I took this picture with the flash.

The Nubar is the lightest of these three.  It's also got the least amount of yellow in it.  The formula is fantastic and if I'd been more careful, I could have gotten away with only two coats.  It's the most pigmented of these three polishes.

The OPI and the Nina are pretty darn close.  The OPI is slightly darker than the Nina, but I think they are so close that you wouldn't need both.  The formula on these two is very similar as well.  Both polishes are a bit streaky and watery, but look great with three coats.

I hope you enjoyed!  :o)

read more "An Avocado Green Comparison"

NOTD Nina Ultra Pro Leaf Me Alone with Sinful Call You Later

Hello! It has been a crazy few weeks in graduate school. Unfortunately, I spent the entire last week sick with a cold and although I'm finally recovering, I'm trying to catch up with the work I skipped out on while being sick while simultaneously starting to prepare for my final papers (already! jeez). Gah. :(

I wouldn't say grad school is getting easier but I'm starting to learn that "reading like a grad student" means not reading absolutely everything that is assigned. :P

So on to my NOTD...this is 3 coats of Nina Ultra Pro Leaf Me Alone and 2 coats of Sinful Call You Later. This mani was inspired/copied from a lovely, creative lady on the MUA Nailboard.

For some reason, the glitter came out very dense on my thumb but not on any other nails.




With flash:


And here is the Daddy Long Legs that lived on my door for awhile. I named him Dandy. He's back to being an outside spider now. :)


Well, what do you think of this mani? You can purchase Nina Ultra Pro at Sally Beauty Supply stores and Sinful at Walgreens (this particular Sinful is not available online anywhere yet).

Up next...Halloween manis!!! Stay tuned! Thanks for reading!

read more "NOTD Nina Ultra Pro Leaf Me Alone with Sinful Call You Later"

A Nina Ultra Pro NOTD and swatch

I recently discovered Nina Ultra Pro brand the last time I was at Sally's ($3.29 with club membership) and I don't know how I've overlooked it all these years. It's not stunning but it's not overpriced and there seems to be an interesting enough color selection. I picked up a few and have since had a chance to test drive them.

Nina Ultra Pro Like Butta

Ironically, it did not apply "like butta". It was an unspecial yellow creme, which means it was a streaky mess for the first three coats. But it looks nice when it's on and smoothed out.

Nina Ultra Pro Purple X-ing

Shimmery royal purple with multi-sized holo glitter (some fine and some big hex chunks). Very easy to apply and turned out quite smooth on the nail. It was a stunner in the bottle:

Close-up of Purple X-Ing.

Very sparkly and attention-grabbing!

Video of Purple X-ing:

read more "A Nina Ultra Pro NOTD and swatch"