Scrangie vs Grape Going!

As per request from Nicole [Twitter page] from Magic Maid [website], I have a comparison post for you.  Sadly, this morning as I was driving to my parents' cabin, I broke my nail so I am back to nubbins for another month until they grow back out.


The colors being swatched are Rescue Beauty Lounge [official website] Scrangie and Sally Hansen [official website] Grape Going!.  Scrangie is one of the "Blog Writer's Colors" that came out late this summer.  Explained by Scrangie herself, this is a "medium blue-based purple with green iridescence and green microshimmer."  (By the way, check out her Twitter and her blog.  You'll thank me later.)  It is gorgeous on the nail, and when I wore it as a pedicure, it lasted 3 whole weeks without chipping.  This was also my first RBL polish and is a more expensive polish for only 0.4 ounces.  With shipping, I paid $26.50 for this ONE polish ($18 for the polish, $8.50 for ground shipping - the only shipping available).


So imagine the delight to bloggers when Sally Hansen came out with Grape Going! (Yes, the exclamation point is apart of the polish color.)  It's a duochrome of blue and purple, and only when you have the bottles next to each other in person, can you tell that Grape Going! has a strong blue shimmer while Scrangie has a strong green shimmer.  In photos however, well.

I painted my pointer and ring fingers with Scrangie and my middle and pinkie fingers with Grape Going!

You can also see a bit that Scrangie has a bit darker purple base.  This is 3 coats of polish each, with a layer of Seche Vite base coat, but no top coat as to not alter the polish.

You can really see the green vs blue shimmer here and again, in person, there's no question that I'm wearing two different polishes because of the shimmer.


So there you have it!  Grape Going! is close but not a real dupe.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?


(Oh, and great news, I just ordered a light box, so no more bad pictures soon!)

We're moving!

But not far, I promise.


In order to really be serious here, I've purchased a domain and am exporting my blog there.  It's okay!  If you're already a reader, you get to come over in my suitcase.  :)  Please note that the only real things changing are my domain (from http://polishaglore.blogspot.com to http://www.polishgalore.com), and my email address (from silverslivers@gmail.com to krystal@polishgalore.com).  No big deal.  


I am playing with colors, and design a bit, but that's just fun, not function.  I should be completely up and running by Monday.

The Polish Bloggers Network & Weekly Link Love Roundup

After reading some Twitter messages yesterday, fellow blogger PolishSWATCHES [official website] is starting a a "Link Love Network" for us in the blogger world.  I have anxiously joined, because it was because of bloggers that I got into the love of nail polish again, starting with my dear friend Jen at From Head To Toe [official website] and just growing from there.


There are two parts to this - first is joining the Polish Bloggers Network... you can see the badge at the right of my blog, and we are also using the hash tag #PolishBloggersNetwork [search us] on Twitter.


The second part is the Weekly Link Love Roundup, in which all links compiled by PolishSWATCHES for the week are then posted on your blog.  Make sure you read more about it on her website, because this part (for me at least) is super important.  We'll also be using the hash tags of #LacquerLinkLove [search us] and #PolishRoundup [search us].


If you'd like to join the Polish Bloggers Network and Weekly Link Love Roundup, please check out this post HERE for all the information!!!

SPARITUAL - Shower The People

Yesterday, I decided that I deserved a massage, so I set up an appointment at a national chain called WoodHouse Day Spas [official website].  They had a nice polish room set up, but I didn't have a lot of time to wander around because I got lost on my way there, but I had read a bit about the polish that they carry, Spa Ritual.


SARITUAL [official website] is a line I had never heard of but frankly, looked pretty awesome.  The thing that immediately drew my eye is what they call their "plum cap" which is just a non-slip grip rubber like bottle handle which helps in bottle opening, and well, feels cool.  SPARITUAL uses vegan products, is big 3 free, and are naturally colored (not sure how?).  I purchased two bottles but at $10 each, they are definitely on the pricey end for me.


SPARITUAL Shower the People is actually a glitter top coat, but I didn't read that fine print at first (oops).  It's a clear base with itty bitty purple and blue microglitter.  

I was SUPER excited to try this, and so I tried layering over black (China Glaze Liquid Leather in the picture), but also layered over white (which you couldn't tell), and I put 4 coats on by itself but none of it translated into picture form.

Very pretty but I'm really torn on the price tag.  It's very hard to see the purple and blue microglitter, but those are my absolute favorite colors and you add them together, and I'm in love.  I like that they are all about using natural vegan products because I'm sure it's good for me, but I wouldn't know the difference if anyone hadn't told me beforehand.  Still, this will be a nice addition to my collection.

Zoya Ki

I love duochromes.  There's just something about a polish throwing off several colors, that makes me happy.  Zoya Ki is a beautiful oil-slick effect purple & green duochrome that is just wild.  The polish was pretty easy to apply except for this:

Grr brush!


Overall, I really liked this color and can't wait to wear it in the sunshine - it was impossible to photograph, which always happens with duochromes... and purples...

You either see the green

Or a pretty purple

Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website.

Zoya Color Lock

So as promised, I was going to try my Zoya Color Lock, which I won from their Twitter contest at the end of December.  It's a pretty awesome system that contains 5 (really 6) different components.


First, you clean your nails of any polish, and oil using remove+ which comes in a really neat bottle.  You just have to press the top down, and the remove pools into the well.  I normally use felt to remove my polish, but today I opted for FaceSecrets professional extra large cotton rounds, which I bought from Sally's Beauty Supply.  They are lint free, which makes me a happy camper.


Oh noes, naked nails!  (Left and right, and my wonky right pinkie.  I broke it as a kid, and it healed weird.)

Next is a choice of base coats, get even ridge filling basecoat or anchor basecoat.  get even ridge filling is a white bottle but goes on clear and is there to even out the ridges in your nails (pretty self explanatory!).  anchor is just a normal clear base coat (and according to the product, contains complex protein chains).  I decided to use get even ridge filling on my left hand, and anchor on my right hand.

Step 3 is your choice of polish.  As stated before, I bought Ki for this occasion.  I'll review it in my next post.  The Color Lock paper says to use 2 coats, so I did.

Step 4 is your top coat, armor topcoat & uv block.  You are supposed to apply one coat and then continue to apply a coat every 2 days to extend your color's wear.

The final step is the hurry up speed dry drops which was the item I was most excited about.  I don't own any drops like this, but had a stylist use it on my pedicure once.  I actually screwed this up, because you are supposed to apply it to the base of your nail, tilt your hand downwards and allow the product to spread naturally.  Instead, I had my hand flat, and dropped the product in the middle.

After this step, you are supposed to let your nails dry for 5 minutes.  Well, I've been too spoiled by Seche Vite because I just went about my afternoon, and aaaaaaaaaaa.  First my son needed a new diaper.

Then I was trying to check if the polish was dry.

Oh yeah, and I'm just clumsy.

So sadly, I'm going to have to take this all off and try again when I have the day to myself, to allow for proper drying... and so I don't have to take random pictures of the stages.  


Also in the Color Lock system was a renew polish rejuvenator which is basically a polish thinner I think, but you can also use it the base coat and top coats as well!  That's pretty awesome.  One product, three different uses.


Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company because of a Twitter giveaway.  For more information, please read this post.

Zoya Color Lock & Polishes

At the end of December, Zoya [official website] was having a Twitter Giveaway where you had to be in the first 10 people to RT (retweet) their messages in order to win the item.  I watched that thing like a HAWK.  No joke, I set my Twittelator [official website] up on my iPhone, had my echofon (formally TwitterFox) [official website] open on my Mozilla Firefox, had their actual Twitter page [official website] open and was hitting F5 like a madwoman AND I had the mobile alerts turned on so I could be sure to hit that RT button the second they posted.  My madness paid off.

Forty eight dollars of free nail goodness!  I absolutely love the remove+ polish remover (as seen by another post) but I'm new to all these other beauties...


get even: ridge filling basecoat
anchor: basecoat
armor: topcoat/UV block
hurry up: speed dry drops (I'm most excited to try this)
renew: polish rejuvenator


For whatever reason, I had no idea the bottles were so BIG.  The remove+ is 8 fl oz and the other 5 bottles are all 0.5 fl oz.  I can't wait to try this system out and see how well it really works.


In celebration, I went to Bella Bella Hair Salon in Corpus Christi [official website] which is the only place I know of that sells Zoya, and picked up two that caught my eye.

Man, please excuse all the icky pictures - I'm in a hurry to get to bed, or more likely "get my son to bed."  Haha.  I was a little taken back by some sticker shock - on Zoya's website, you can buy the polishes for $6/piece, but at the salon they were over $7.50 once tax was added in.  I'm used to my $3.50/bottle China Glaze!  I have a few more Zoyas, all bought during Zoya's promotions - most notably Green Friday when you spent $20 or more and received 6 of their favorite greens for free.  I'll blog about my results as time goes on.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company because of a Twitter giveaway.  For more information, please read this post.

China Glaze Strawberry Fields

Tonight I went into a nail place for a pedicure for my upcoming rheumatology appointment in the morning (oh fun, not), and I really wanted a pretty pink to wear, so I chose China Glaze Strawberry Fields from the Summer Days collection.  This is the famous glass fleck polish that I had heard so much about.  Strawberry Fields is a medium pink with orange gold (goldish?) shimmer.  I was still wearing my Free Love on my hands but the shop owner (who adores me for some reason) told me that she HAD to paint one coat of Strawberry Fields over my orange so that my hands and toes match (at no charge).  She was also freaking out that these were my real nails, and not fake.


Again, I do NOT recommend doing this because the old color "bleeds" through every time, and it's super apparent in these pictures.

Look at how dark my hands are compared to the bottle!  Oy!  Here is a close up of the glass flecks.

And some older pictures to see a true color.

Excuse me, I'm going to go sing the Beatles song now...


China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website] or Sally's Beauty Supply [official website].

China Glaze Free Love

Orange is not a color that I would normally gravitate to, but I am a sucker for completing collections so this color was purchased.  China Glaze Free Love is definitely an "in your face" fiery orange with this tiny goldish shimmer.  I was very shocked at how pigmented it was but it is a bit darker in person than this photo shows.  I used two coats but I could have easily gotten away with one - great formula!  (Used with a base coat of Seche Vite followed by a top coat of Seche Vite.)  Free Love is from the Retro Diva Collection.

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website] or Sally's Beauty Supply [official website].

China Glaze Victorian

China Glaze Victorian is another from the Specialty collection.  I'll admit, there were a LOT of pinks in the Specialty collection, but I'm actually okay with that.  Each one is different in its own way, whether it's shade or finish.  Victorian is a light pink, almost in the same shade as Good Witch? but no glitter in it.  The shimmer finish is almost pearl like but I feel it may be a bit to warm for my skin tone.  I did have a bit of a trouble with the formula - it seemed a little watery compared to my other colors.  I used a base coat of Seche Vite, 2 coats of polish, and a top coat of Seche Vite.

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website] or Sally's Beauty Supply [official website].