When I saw the first swatches of Adina, it immediately reminded me of some other polish; but I couldn't place it. Finally, my Adina arrived yesterday and I realized that was it: Adina looks like a much more condensed and seriously improved Significant Other Color by OPI. Both polishes have purple base with a green duochrome/flash. Unlike OPI, intended for the layering purposes, Zoya is not sheer at all. It's perfectly opaque in two thin coats.
Base color. Actually, it's more lilac than purple, don't you think? This warm hue reminds me of Misa's Foxy and Folksy Here is Adina in all its duochromy glory: Green side is very, very strong:
Despite the similar idea behind Significant Other Color and Adina, latter is definitely unique; and it's an absolutely beautiful color. Formula was excellent, neither runny nor gloopy. Kudos to Zoya.
And one more pic; just because I feel like it:
Speaking about Zoya, I hauled just a little bit: in addition to today's color I also got a long lemming of mine, spectacular Casey; and Qtica balm. Cannot wait to show off Casey!
PS: I had to file my nail down to the quick. Sad. This will teach me to go without manicures for days (unpolished nails=unprotected nails).
As usual, I'm late with my review. You've already heard: Absolutely Alice is all that plus a bag of chips. I agree.
Dense blue glitter with added gold sprinkles. What amazes me about Absolutely Alice (in addition to its unanimously accepted amaziness) is how the color changes depending on light. From deep electric blue/medium blue to sky blue. Very cool.
It looks nice with a matte top coat, but honestly, Absolutely Alice is born to be blingy: Another source of amazement: people keep comparing it to Dorothy Who? I cannot agree; in my humble opinion, AA is much closer to another China Glaze polish - Blue Sparrow. Different blues, definitely, but the same happily saturated vibe: (Sparrow on the left, AA on the right)
I probably risk being polished to death, but I do not dig Absolutely Alice (as I didn't dig Blue Sparrow). Yes, I appreciate it; it's a unique and wonderful and very Alicesque clolor. But I look at my nails and the sentiment is "Ummm... So what?" The same happened to Blue Sparrow. I'm not trying to be original and make a "meh" face at everybody's favorite. I just don't know how to wear such blues. It's way out of my comfort zone.
PS: My friend Karianne posted THE best picture of this color I've seen so far. Enjoy!
Certain lady from Scandinavia With an excellent taste in jewelery Dared me to wear red spark on my nails - There, you have it, Oh lady from Sweden!
/umm... new level of poetry suckage?/
Anyway, here is Smitten with Mittens: It's a very, very deep red - without any hint of orange at all, even thou it seems like it on most pictures including mine - with loads of golden sparkles.
Insanely sparkly. I'd say, it definitely kicks Ruby Pumps' ass. My new favorite color for pedicures.
And this one is probably the most color-accurate in this bunch:
Ssssssparrrrk. Remember, it's not orange at all. It's deep, deep sparkly red.
PS: I'm 32 and just did something on a dare! /rolls eyes/
I was able to get my hands on a mystery Mystery. Well, let me tell you: if you expected a purple holo, you're up for a big disappointment. It's not a holo; and it's not exactly purple. For me, DS Mystery is what I wanted Sephora OPI Never Enough Shoes to be.
Mystery is almost black and loaded with millions of tiny gold scales. Unlike other DS polishes, it's not a smooth holo, but somewhat gritty glitter. /side note - do you see any similarities between this picture and a OPI stock image? I don't/ My guess, it's as badass as OPI can actually get. Not exactly edgy, but cool enough. After the Espana collection (aka yawn inducer in my book) I'll take it, thankyouverymuchsuzi.
Under natural light Mystery looks like a very, very dark brown. Base color is actually dark, inky purple, but polish certainly doesn't look like it.
I like this type of glitter: not smooth, yet not scratchy either. Here, I dissolved a base color to show the gold particles: Rather ugly picture of one coat, freshly applied, to show the base color: It's purple, right? Too bad it doesn't look like one after a second coat.
I think this one would be an awesome choice for those of you who like clubbing - for some reason, Mystery looks wonderful under artificial light. Golden sparkles turn into brown, red and purple ones; and polish itself looks way more purplier (is it a word?): More pics, just because I've already edited them: All in all, it's a good color with a very decent application. When I saw a bottle, my heart skipped a bit: Mystery looked like a magician's cloak: velvety-purple with golden stars. In reality=on my nails it's not even close to this Dumbledore-ysh color; yet, I'll probably keep it.
Another pink. I've been trying really hard, working my way to the summer-appropriate colors. Actually, it's not even pink - it's more of a bright purple with a pink undertone and a hint of neon. Of course, being purplish-neonish, All That Ruzzberry is not fond of the camera, so I had to tweak my pictures a bit to show you a somewhat accurate color. In real life OTR is a bit deeper and darker. Would make an awesome pedi.
I stamped it with a totally clashing Konad polish the next day: Looks crazy, but I like this combo.
PS: All That Razzberry is a retired color. Of course.
...is a good enough excuse to torture you more with its pics (consider this post an official birth announcement).
First, I want to elaborate a bit on my "almost black with simmer" frustration. Imagine yourself, buying a wonderfully vampy polish, all shimmery and seductive. You apply it and then - bam - it's flat black. Or almost flat black. Your husband answers to an inevitable question "How do you like this one" with an honest yet disappointing "Well, honey, but I wore it yesterday. It's the same one, right?". And an innocent creature is almost right: it's almost the same polish.
Zoya Sloane
OPI Black Cherry Cutney OPI Eiffel for this Color Essie Groovy Grape
... I can keep going...
It's Black Cherry Chutney. Bit it could easily be any of the mentioned above polishes, and even their Polish Mama would not be able to tell them apart.
So, I saved myself some money (and frustration) and created The Purple:
Honestly, I think it's flippin' gorgeous.
You don't think so? Well, bite me! We all entitled to our opinions.
Crappy shadow picture:
It's not that gorgeous, yet it definitely has some color, as opposed to black. In reality, it looks kinda grey/silver-purple in a shadow, 'cause I was way too generous with a silver (Easel Come Easel Go).
OK, you can enjoy my baby, while Momma is going to rest in a delivery room. /Harsh reality - back to work/
We are having a week dedicated to HTF (hard to find aka discontinued) polishes on Make Up Alley's Nail Board. I've decided to be a smart one and post pictures of both HTF and a Fall-suitable polish.
OPI La Boheme. Honestly, I've almost stopped to hunt HTFs. I had an epiphany: polish is a polish is a polish. In most cases, anyway; but not in this one. La Boheme is cerainly well worth to hunt it down. Is it warm? Is it cold? Is it sparkly? Is it a bit of this, this and that?
After neon intoxication I wanted to paint my nails into something muted, subtle and sophisticated to the extent of being boring. So I've reached for OPI Parlez-vous OPI? It turned out to be exactly what I wanted, but I could not just stop here. When one just got a Konad stamper, creativity itch is inevitable. I used plate #63 with Konad silver. Love the results (ha - I've been wearing this mani for almost 4 days; usually I change every other day). And another - shadow - pic to show off the design. I've got couple of smudges, but nobody's perfect, right? Another attempt - the same design in black, over Sephora OPI Run With It.(You can catch a glimpse of I'm With Brad on a ring finger).
I've been weeding out duplicate colors recently (one cannot have infinite amount of polish, you know...). So I'm mad at myself now for getting Eiffel For This Color, for it's a dead-on dupe of OPI famous Lincoln Park At Midnight. There is a difference, but it's so insignificant that might not be enough even for a Nail Boarder.
To the pictures. Left to right: EFTC, LPAM and Rescue Beauty Lounge Film Noir (just because I like it, that is):
As you can see, the only difference is in shimmer, base colors are identical in both polishes. Eiffel has star-like shimmer inclusions, as opposed to all-over, evenly distribited shimmer in LPAD. /Beautiful Film Noir is absolutely flat and gorgeous/.
Another pic I purposefuly took with an exaggerated flash, to show off base colors: See? LPAM is evenly shimmery, while Eiffel is flat with shimmer inclusions.
If you don't have either Effel or LPAM - take my advice and get the latter; formula is so much better.
This is first and last color I got from OPI France collection.
Color is nice, even thou it's definitely not a unique one. But I got a bottle with a shovel-shaped brush (yep!), and my nails have bubbles all over. As I know, many ladies have the same bubbly problem, so I guess it's a formula. Bubble-bubble-bubble.
All in all, here is a swatch. Ring and pinkey show how Eiffel looks like in a natural light - very, very dark purple, almost black, actually. Middle and finger - to show off a pretty purple shimmer, visible in a bright light.
I do my best to provide you with both accurate and huge pictures :) Click on any picture to enlarge it!
About Me
Inna
I have type 2 diabetes. No, it does not define me; but it is kind of a big deal, hence the name. I also have a kid aka The Kid; a job in accounting I love; and a degree to get over with. Used to have a pretty darn good blog about Misa nail polish; but then my degree got in a way. I started this blog to deal with sugar ups and downs; and to soothe my writing itch.
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