a hoarder's blog

Something that I wore on Halloween last week. Orange and black, quintessential Halloween colour combination. There are two different polishes there even though it seems like they're the same.

Can you spot the difference yet?

Orly R.I.P has medium hex glitters amidst micro glitter bits (painted on thumb, index and middle), while KBShimmer Jack (on ring and pinky) has hex glitters in various sizes and micro orange bars. There are also black hexes and shreds in there, but as I wore this over black undies, they are harder to see. 

So today is the last Monday of October and this is the last BCA-related post and mani. It has given me the chance to finally use some new polishes from my pile of untrieds as well as rediscover some old shades, and of course, it has been a great way to find out more about breast cancer. 

I've been meaning to use two newly acquired Orly polishes that have been staring at me for a while and what better way than to incorporate both in a single mani. I used OPI Pink Of Hearts as base and the new Orly polishes, Preamp and Miss Conduct.

I believe OPI started releasing their signature BCA collection, Pink Of Hearts, since 2007 and I think that the Pink Of Hearts that I used is from the 2007 release.

OPI Pink of Hearts - sheer, needed three coats

Orly Preamp (Fall 2012 Electronica collection) - gorgeous colour that has this lit from within look from the gold-pink glass flecks

Orly Miss Conduct (Holiday 2012 Naughty Or Nice collection) - magenta with scattered holo effect

Many brands release BCA-related products every year to raise awareness and raise funds for breast cancer research. OPI is one of them. Here's a quick rundown of the OPI Pink Of Hearts yearly release:

• OPI Pink Of Hearts 2007
• OPI Pink Of Hearts 2 2008
• OPI Pink Of Hearts 2009
• OPI Pink Of Hearts 2010
• OPI Pink Of Hearts 2011 (pink shatter)
• OPI Pink Of Hearts 2012

Hope you liked my pink PolishUsPink Mondays. It's been fun!

I have a pink glitter sandwich for this week's BCA mani. 

I started off with two coats of Megan Miller Pink Lily. It doesn't look too bad on the pictures below, but I wasn't too thrilled about the formula on this one as it was a bit streaky. Maybe it would have looked more even with a third coat, but I wasn't patient enough to do another one. I do love this shade of pink though, very soft and feminine and it doesn't make my fingers look weird.

Next I layered one coat of Orly You Are Not Alone from the Pretty In Pink collection, which is their Breast Cancer Awareness collection for 2012. 20% of the profits will be donated to Cancer Schmancer Movement founded by actress Fran Drescher (best known for her role in The Nanny). While You Are Not Alone is exclusive to this collection, the other two polishes (Be Brave and Embrace) are part of the Flash Glam FX line. 

You Are Not Alone is a mix of pink glitter in a clear base and I used one coat over Megan Miller Pink Lily.

How cute is that pink ribbon charm that comes with the bottle?

I didn't stop there and went on to do my glitter sandwich. For this I applied a thin coat of Megan Miller Giada Pink over the glitter. It is a sheer polish, so it didn't completely submerge the glitter to the point of it not showing through. It's not my first time using Giada Pink and I must say that I really love it because it looks so delicate. 

So here you have my final mani. I think they all look good at every step. I could have worn Pink Lily alone, or stopped after putting on the glitter. But you know, gotta make more use of my polishes. Haha. I hope you liked the end result as much as I did. 

Megan Miller can be bought from Meimeisignatures and Orly is available from Tammy.

Do visit Cancer Schmancer Movement. It contains tons of info on all kinds of cancer, not just breast cancer. Trash cancer through education!

I only discovered glitter sandwiches earlier this year. A glitter sandwich is basically glitter polish applied between layers of sheer or jelly polish. This gives the impression that the glitter is suspended or floating in the polish and gives a soft effect to the glitter as opposed to the more in-your-face bling bling look. 

This technique offers a world of possibilities. You can combine so many types of base colours with different types of glitter.

This is a combo I did with Megan Miller Lemon Ice and Orly Mermaid Tale. The former is a pale translucent yellow, the polish is pretty sheer and it's perfect for this kind of look. Mermaid Tale, from the Orly Flash Glam FX collection, is so pretty. It has green and blue glitter in a clear base. From the bottle, I thought it was all green until I saw the colours in the daylight. 

I wasn't feeling this particular combo at first but I guess it grew on me after a while. I had it on for two days. I think this was two coats of Lemon Ice, one coat of Mermaid Tale, followed by one coat of Lemon Ice. 

Besides MAC Ocean Dip (below), I've managed to wear another 2 other colours this week.

This is OPI Rally Pretty Pink from the Serena Williams Glam Slam series (the colour on my nails is not so accurate in this particular pic).

It comes in a set with the red shatter. I tried the red shatter over and I would have showed you how it looks like, except that it chipped the same night I put it on (I had been wearing OPI Rally Pretty Pink for about 2 days before I tried the red shatter) and so, I removed everything to wear something else. I will give the red shatter another try another time.

This is closer to how OPI Rally Pretty Pink really looks like. It's a rose gold and kinda reminds me of sleek makeup's blush of the same name.

And this is what I changed OPI Rally Pretty Pink for. This is Orly Royal Velvet. It's a blue/purple duochrome and I really love it.

First off, thanks to Pris (teaplayground) for managing this little RBL spree when they were having their 50% off sale. There was no better time to try these polishes. At USD18 a pop, these are pretty expensive and I don't think I'd have ever thought of buying them at full price. So 50% off was a great opportunity not to be missed and I jumped in without thinking twice. Unfortunately, that also meant that there was a chance that a lot of shades would be OOS. Out of the 6 I ordered, I only managed to get 2: Scrangie and Stormy. The other shades I wanted were 360, Diddy Mow, Orbis Non Sufficit and Concrete Jungle. Grunge was sold out even before the sale, so I didn't even bother trying to get it. Oh well, better luck next time if ever..

I collected my package from the PO last Saturday. Packed together with my RBL were another 2 Orly Cosmic FX that I decided to get in the end, despite having dupes for them - Orly It's Not Rocket Science vs China Glaze Zombie Zest and Orly Halley's Comet vs OPI Catch Me In Your Net. Personally, I wasn't too satisfied with Zombie Zest, and that was what prompted me to get It's Not Rocket Science.

I included Seche Restore in my order from Pris's blog sale.

Aahhh my first RBLs, and hopefully not the last? I'm so attracted to The Real Housewives Of The Tudor Dynasty collection.

Close-up pics and swatches:

I haven't posted in a long time. Laziness, tiredness and lack of time got the better part of me. Sometimes the urge and enthusiasm to write is seriously lacking. Sometimes I wonder if people actually read any of this and whether it's interesting to them. Oh well, as long as I'm happy showing you what I like and it makes you happy reading about it too...OK enough babbling...

The polishes below are part of ORLY's Cosmic FX collection. The latter consists of 6 shades: Lunar Eclipse, Galaxy Girl, Out Of This World, Space Cadet, It's Not Rocket Science and Halley's Comet. Most of you must have already seen swatches of these gorgeous babies, and much better ones at that without a doubt. Sorry to be a bore, but I decided to post mine too cos these are pretty awesome shades that can't not share with you.

I thought of getting all 6 shades at first. And that is only because looking at Temptalia's swatches is deadly. Then as Transdesign slowly increased the prices, I had to cut down my list. Luckily Pris (teaplayground) could still get them at a reasonably cheap price and so, I ended up with 4 out of the 6. The reason for these four in particular is cos I've read so much about how It's Not Rocket Science is like China Glaze Zombie Zest (which I just received) and Halley's Comet bears no difference from OPI Catch Me In Your Net (which i already have). [More abt the similarities here]. And as much as I'm into getting whole collections (as of late), I didn't get these two since I had dupes.

The formula for these were kinda sheer, and I needed 3-4 coats to build up the colour. They are pretty easy to remove, but you'll have tons of micro-glitter stuck all over your fingers after that. Just wash your hands, that should do it.

Lunar Eclipse

Galaxy Girl

Out Of This World

Space Cadet

I met up with some onsugarettes today, mainly Kim (+Jane) and Gwen to collect my nail polishes. I also had the chance of seeing Sophia (thanks again for the Koi!), Kas, Amy, plus had a glimpse of Vion before I left. It was so funny how you all kept asking me if I was heading to the gym even though I didn't have my gym bag with me. I was thinking of not going at first, but ended up going in the end. My gym bag was in the car and since I was already out and had brought everything anyway, I didn't have a valid excuse to get out of it.

This entry will only be of snapshots of what I bought. I have officially no more space to keep my collection.

OPI haul from Pris that Kim kept for me as I was unable to meet Pris in person on the meetup day.

These are really random polishes from old collections.

Top row L-R: You're A Doll, Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!, Significant Other Colour, Windy City Pretty, Chapel Of Love, Gargantuan Green Grape

Bottom row L-R: Yucatan If U Want, Cozu Melted The Sun, Royal Rajah Ruby, Charmed By A Snake, Party In My Cabana

OPI swiss collection

Top row L-R: Glitzerland, Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, Ski Teal We Drop, Cuckoo For This Color

Bottom row L-R: Color So Hot It Berns, William Tell Me About OPI, From A to Z-urich

Transdesign haul from Gwen

Top row L-R: Orly Prince Charming, Orly Goth, China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald from the Vintage Vixen collection

Bottom row L-R: (more from ChG Vintage Vixen collex) Ingrid, Jitterbug, Bogie, Classic Camel

My first color clubs!

Top row L-R: Worth The Risque, Revvvolution, Magic Attraction, High Society

Bottom row L-R: Catwalk Queen, Wild At Heart, Fashion Addict, With Abandon

Phew! That was a lot to name. I wanna stop hauling!! I really do. Why so difficult??

And even with so many polishes, I have trouble deciding what colour to paint sometimes. It's like having a lot of clothes and saying that you have nothing to wear. Sometimes it's easy though, like when you're feeling like wearing pink and you go through all your pinks and decide on which one. Is it like that for you?

I received Orly's Country Club Khaki (CCK) in the mail yesterday together with a few others that I bought online recently (yeah I had trouble resisting). I'll probably be doing a nail polish haul entry this weekend/coming week after collecting my TD and OPI loots from Gwen and Kim/Pris respectively. Yes to more polishes! I'm amassing more than I can ever finish using, but these small bottles of colour are addictive and I'm happy to have them.

Anyway, for this entry, I wanted to compare CCK with a couple of similar colours from my current stash: Revlon Gray Suede (recently bought from JL's 20% off sale) and OPI Tickle My France-y (bought second-hand). Oh, I added Orly Coffee Break as a fourth colour just cos I wanted to paint one more finger, not really as a means of comparison. So you can ignore that one if you'd like. LOL. Here we go!

Orly CCK is the darkest amongst them, almost kinda taupish. This was one thick coat, I can't remember if I painted a second coat. Nah I don't think I did.

Revlon Gray Suede, which is nowhere near gray, has a pink tone to it and contains subtle shimmers. That was 2 coats.

OPI TMF is the lightest shade of them all, but considered as one of the best nudes around. Two coats.

Here's how they look like under different lighting conditions:

Best colour match

Which one's your favourite nude?

Hello! I'm gonna start with a better-late-than-never apology to hazel who requested for a swatch of China Glaze Heirloom Organza which I got on a recent spree. She mentioned that the swatches she found online were quite inconsistent. Well hopefully I'll be of some help even if my swatches are inconsistent too..lol..it all has to do with the lighting i suppose, so I'm gonna post pics of how the shade looks like under different lighting. I also wanted to do a comparison with Orly Coffee Break which is in the same chocolatey shade family.

Basically Heirloom Organza is a shade darker than Orly Coffee Break. (Hazel, I know you have the latter, so you can somewhat imagine the hot chocolate shade better). After swatching Orly Coffee Break next to CG Heirloom Organza, I'm liking Coffee Break a bit more for its softness and perfect nudish-brown hue.

Onto the pics..these were taken when I reached home today around 6.45-7pm.

Artificial lighting (indoors)

Natural light (indoors near the window)

Natural light (outdoors)

Best colour match

And here's a close-up of Heirloom Organza that I uploaded to the China Glaze gallery.