Kimmy vs. Reva

Today I have Kimmy and Reva, both from one of Zoya's summer collections (I also got Apple from the same collection). Their shimmers in that collection mostly had one thing in common: gold shimmer. And that was what attracted me to all of them! They were a unique spin on regular colors, at least to my collection. Here we go!

Bottle shot under artificial light.

Reva on pointer and ring, Kimmy on middle and pinky.

Reva on pointer and ring, Kimmy on middle and pinky.

On their website and at a first glance these two colors seem really close. But once on the nail you can very easily see the difference. Reva is a strawberry pink with gold shimmer running through it. Kimmy is a bright red with gold shimmer running through it. Both are gorgeous colors. And I think you should have both in your collection. 

Personally, I like Reva better. Red and gold are perfectly paired together, but done a lot. Strawberry pink with gold is definitely a new one for me. And I like it against my skin tone better than Kimmy. Their formulas were both perfect. I believe I did 2 coats of each color. Zoya goes for $8 on their website (here) and they have tons of awesome promotions. You can get insight to them if you Like them on facebook, and of course sign up for an account with them on their website. They've had BOGOs, buy any polish and just pay for shipping, really any kind of promotion you can think of. They really are a wonderful company. Would you buy both of these?

CM

Jade Is The New Black vs. Don't Mess With OPI

This was a comparison that I hadn't even considered until RV decided to paint my nails with Jade Is The New Black and it hit me that these two were really similar. Jade Is The New Black is from OPI's Hong Kong collection that came out last year. Don't Mess With OPI is from their Texas collection that came out earlier this year. They're both a dusty green creme and both from OPI. So let's take a look...are they dupes?

Bottle shots under artificial light. 

JITNB on the pointer and ring, DMWO on the middle and pinky. Artificial light.

JITNB on the pointer and ring, DMWO on the middle and pinky. Shade.

These two look very similar in the shade, as you can see from the pictures up above. But under the artificial light JITNB becomes a darker green, which actually leans more towards a green/teal on my skin tone and right next to DMWO. DMWO is more of a grassy green. Not close enough to be dupes. Formula was great on both of these, but I found DMWO was a little bit on the runny side. Nothing that you can't work with though!

Overall, I like JITNB better. There are plenty of grassy green colors out there, but I really have nothing like JITNB, so that's my winner. Both are pretty greens though, and if you're a sucker for greens then yeah, get 'em both. But if you're not that into them and only want a few, I think that JITNB is the one to go with. Which one do you prefer?

CM

My collection

Happy December! Wow, it's almost time for my annual review. I should start on that now so its not as late as it was last year!

So, here it is. Almost 300 polishes in 3 stackable storage bins. These bins are from Walmart, and they did work great but he handles fell off one bin, and they can be a pain to separate. My next storage will hopefully be like a filing cabinet so there's a lot easier access to all of my polishes. Guess I need to save up money first...

OPI, Orly, Sinful Colors, Revlon, Confetti, Nicole by OPI, Fingerpaints

Color Club, China Glaze, Zoya

Colors of the Season, NARS, Nubar, Sally Hansen, Wet n Wild, NYC, NYX, Mac, NFU Oh, L'oreal, Hard Candy, Chameleon.

Enjoy.

CM

Candy Corn Cookies

So, before USPS totally made me angry by delivering my cookies over a week later than they should have arrived in AZ (more than once) I used to make RV cookies once a month. And for October I decided to use the really cute candy corn sugar cookie recipe in a little magazine that I had bought. Now, life would have been a lot easier if I had a triangle shaped cookie cutter, but I used a pizza cutter and got lazy towards the end, haha. But here are the recipes and the pictures. I still think they were pretty cute. And thank God these were the last cookies I made with whole wheat flour, seeing how I finally bought some all-purpose flour haha.

Butter Cookie Dough Recipe:

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

Combine butter, grnulated sugar, brown sugar and egg yolk in medium bowl. Add flour, baking powder and salt; mix well. Cover, refrigerate about 4 hours or until firm.

Cookie Glaze Recipe:

Combine 4 cups powdered sugar and 4 tablespoons milk in medium bowl. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons milk as needed to make medium-thick, pourable glaze. (Be careful, my glaze was a bit runny).


Candy Corn Cookies:

1. Prepare butter cookie dough.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll dough on floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out 3-inch candy corn shapes from dough Place cutouts on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks; cool completely. Prepare cookie glaze.
4. Place racks over waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Divide cookie glaze into thirds; place in separate small bowls. Tint 1/3 glaze yellow food coloring and 1/3 with orange food coloring. Leave remaining glaze white. Spoon glazes over cookies to resemble candy corn. Let stand until glaze is set.

Mine turned out a little bit thin, but again I didn't use the right flour because I didn't have any. I still think they're adorable! 

CM

Frankly Scarlet vs. An Affair In Red Square

Today I have Revlon's Frankly Scarlet and OPI's An Affair In Red Square. AAIRS is one of my absolute favorite red polishes, ever, hands down. So when I was organizing my collection I noticed that when I swatched these two they were pretty similar. Well let's see how similar they really are!

Bottle shot under artificial light.

Ignore my gross stained thumb. FS on pointer and ring, AAIRS on middle and pinky.

Artificial Light. FS on pointer and ring, AAIRS on middle and pinky.

Artificial light. FS on pointer, AAIRS on middle.

These two are similar, but definitely not dupes. They both have a fine shimmer running through them that make them glow. Both formulas were great, although FS was a little bit thinner (as most of Revlon's polishes are). FS leans more to an orange red on my skin tone, where as AAIRS stays a true, glowing red. The winner for me is OPI, and it is still one of my favorite reds, ever. OPI retails for $8.50 in most places (Ulta, Target, etc.),  and Revlon retails for $4-$7 depending on where you buy it (Target, CVS, Walgreens, etc.). I don't think FS is still available anymore, it is a fairly old polish, I think one that I inherited from my mom several years ago before I was really into this sort of thing. So which one do you prefer?

CM

Homemade Coupon Book

Happy Black Friday! I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving and that you spent it with loved ones, friends and family. And of course I hope everyone realized what they're thankful for (and hopefully everyone will remember it when times get tough). I'm thankful for friends and family that support me, for my health, for my education, for my shelter, food, car and clothing, for the several opportunities that present themselves, for my pets, and for my amazing fiance. And of course, several other things on top of that, but those are the big ones.

After looking at my stats it seems like a lot of people enjoyed my "52 Reasons Why I Love You" post, with the deck of cards that I made for RV. So I figured, why not show you the coupon book that I made for him? I think I made this for Valentine's Day, but I can't remember.

Anyways, I found these online (right here ) and its really simple! All you have to do is print these out and then cut them (I printed mine on super glossy photo paper). Then you make a little holder for them, which I made out of blue construction paper. Then you decorate until your heart is content. I made a heart and used hole-punches for the circles. Not the best decoration ever, but it worked and I was in a time crunch. Take a look!

I didn't show you all of the coupons, if you're interested you can click on the link up there. Not totally sure if he liked it, he's only used 1 coupon and its been...9 months? Haha, then again we both kind of forgot about them, and its hard to use a coupon book in a long distance relationship. I still think it was a cute idea, and you can do it just because. It really takes about 10 minutes to cut out everything, make the booklet and staple it all in. An easy craft. Who would you make this for?

CM

Space Cadet vs. Beetle

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I have two amazing polishes for you. Orly's Space Cadet (which came out last year) and Hard Candy's Beetle (which also came out around the end of last year/beginning of this year). Take a look and see for yourself how similar these two polishes are!

Bottle Shot under artificial light.

Artificial Light. Beetle on pointer and ring, SC on middle and pinky.

No flash. Beetle on pointer and ring, SC on middle and pinky.

No flash. Beetle on pointer and ring, SC on middle and pinky.

No flash. Beetle on pointer and ring, SC on middle and pinky.

I would say that yes, Hard Candy's Beetle is indeed a dupe for Orly's Space Cadet. If I didn't have it written down which polish was on which finger I would never have known it was two different polishes! I love these kinds of multichromes and duochromes. They remain one of my favorite types of nail polish (along with holos and flakies!). 

Orly's Space Cadet weighs in at .6 fl oz and hard Candy's Beetle weighs in at .35 fl oz. Both formulas were on the thin side, but covered completely in 3 coats. Orly retails between $6-$10 (depending on where you buy it from: Sallys, CVS, Ulta, etc.) and Hard Candy retails for about $4 if I remember correctly at Wal Mart. These polishes are a little easier to find now that the hype about them has calmed down, although I haven't seen any stores that still sell Space Cadet. 

Personally, I like Orly's Space Cadet better. Although the formula seemed slightly thinner than Beetle, I love Orly's bottles. The caps are rubberized for an easy grip (which I definitely need), you get more of the polish and honestly, I love pretty much every Orly I've ever bought and I've yet to be really disappointed. Which one do you prefer?

Go eat some amazing food!

CM