Comparison: OPI I Vant To Be A-Lone Star vs. China Glaze Sea Spray

I completely forgot that I wanted to put a new post up today because I was catching up on some tv series. The episode of Glee where everyone gets drunk wasn't as funny to me as Rachel Marie said it would be (since I didn't die laughing), but it was alright. Maybe I'm missing a funny bone or something. It does take one hell of a joke to make me laugh out loud.

This.. might sound a little obsessive and stalker-ish, but I was looking at the "Stats" tab and saw that someone searched (my blog?) for this comparison using several different keywords. It so happened that I did this the moment I got my hands on Sea Spray a few days ago before I took I Vant To Be A-Lone Star off.

I did 3 coats of each with top coat. At least I think I did top coat for Sea Spray. I accidentally smudged Sea Spray on my index finger on the window frame ):

They're obviously not dupes but I would say they're sisters. Sea Spray is darker and more gray compared to Lone Star. The shimmer in both looks to be the same color, but I could be mistaken. The shimmer in the OPI is more brushstroke-y, more dense and more apparent than the China Glaze.

The pictures are clickable, if you want a better view. For all the pictures, it's OPI I Vant To Be A-Lone Star, China Glaze Sea Spray, OPI I Vant To Be A-Lone Star, China Glaze Sea Spray from left to right.

Personally, I prefer Sea Spray because of the base color and the absence of visible brushstrokes. I wouldn't say you need both but I love colors like these. I suppose it's worth owning both, since they're different. ;)

So, random person who was looking for this, I hope you see it. (:

OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston

Galveston.. is a place in Texas, right?

I'm sorry for the quiet weekend here but I was waiting to put this on AND take pictures, which I couldn't do until my crackles arrived because I wanted to try the crackles on OPI I Vant To Be A-Lone Star. And crackles.. Crackles. Oh my god crackles. They are like drugs. Oh man.

Yeah, I might be a bit addicted :/

Anyway, this is one of those "sorbet-like" finishes that OPI claims to have created. I'm pretty bad at identifying finishes because I can never differentiate between metallics and foils, frosts and pearls, shimmers and flecks and sometimes jellies and cremes. This just looks like what I imagine a good jelly to be like.

It's supposedly a coral shade, but again, what is coral? I'm pretty sure the underwater corals aren't this color. Or are they? Someone should check my temperature. This just looks yummy. It looks like candy. It looks eatable. Yes, eatable is a word. Willy Wonka said so.

This is really really bright. It's sometimes really pink and sometimes orange-y looking. But it's bright. Almost neon. Almost like a.. neon jelly. My mom picked this one out online and was disappointed with it because it's too bright for her, especially to wear to work. It's growing on me though.

The formula was.. brilliant. Effortless. I did 3 coats with top coat (not that I needed it). Despite still being able to see my half moons and nail line at some angles and in some types of lighting, I love it. I'm often unable to paint evenly, but it's almost like this had a mind of its own. It just flowed into the right evenness. If only all polishes did this.

The only problem I had was.. capturing it. I just can't get the color right. Too red, too orange, but never the right amount of pink. Argh. I tried editing some of the photos to get the pink shade and um.. I got annoyed and gave up. So I apologize in advance. You'll see.

 

Unedited. Looks more orange than it is.

 

Unedited.

 

Unedited.

 

Edited. This is how pink it can look.

 

Unedited.

 

Edited.

The rest of the photos have been edited except the last one. I don't have lobster hands.

 

Comparing the coral against Eyeko Coral Polish. The OPI is more orange.

The Eyeko is not for myself, it's for a friend ;)

I'm not really happy with this post but I want it to be posted before I change my mind about posting it and end up keeping it hidden forever. Um.. I think I might have over-pinked the edits but they honestly looked like that to me when I was editing. Am I turning color blind? ):

Okay gonna close this and schedule it for publishing later. I keep going back to look at the pictures which reminds me of how unhappy I am with them! At least I'm finally relatively recent now. For now anyway.

PS: I hear there is a problem with the images. Let me know if they're not showing up and I will write an angry email to Imageshack. Maybe. Apparently I have to register my domain, which I did, after reading the comment.

OPI I Vant To Be A-Lone Star

I honestly don't get the first half of the name. What is "I Vant"? I know it's supposed to mean "I want", but I don't get the pun :/

Reading the comments from the previous post almost gave me diabetes, you guys are so sweet! Haha. I've been wanting to say that for awhile.

For once I'm posting something that is actually on my nails at the time of posting. Usually I'm a mani or two ahead but because I wanted to show something current for once, I brought this one forward.

I Vant To Be A-Lone Star is a pale blue with bit of dustiness/gray in it, and it has very fine pearl shimmer. I want to call the shimmer silver but it appears slightly pinkish in the sun (or at least in my pictures). It's definitely not for everybody. I had doubts about whether or not I liked this myself, but I think it's growing on me.

I did 3 coats. The first coat was pretty good, the second was okay, but by the third coat it seemed pretty thick. I don't know, the application wasn't great but not impossible. The brushstrokes are slightly visible, especially since I can't seem to paint in a straight line :S

Excuse the bumps/nicks on my nails. I didn't use a fast drying top coat and.. you can guess what happened. On  the second day I added another layer of top coat to make it glossier but after taking pictures I nicked a big one in my index finger nail and had to re-do it. All pictures taken in daylight.

I made the pictures clickable, they will go to their full sizes. I've started using smaller sizes on my camera when taking photos because who needs a photo that's almost 4000px wide?

This is really pretty but my mom questioned its beauty. Haha. She sticks to pinks, reds, coppers.. You know.

I think the whole Texas collection is a big win. My mom and I bought the Lil Shooters set and I love every color in there! I would wear every single color from this collection. Or maybe not the tan colored one. Those don't really seem to like my skin tone very much :/ 

Also, I just ordered my China Glaze Crackles and am so excited! If I were a bubble I'd have burst already. I still want Sea Spray and Below Deck though..

I am really sleepy and I have a long day tomorrow. Also, I have about 3 Chemistry lab reports to finish. I hate Chemistry. Why do I need to know about nucleophiles and electrophiles? Argh.

OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

I felt like blogging today. Also I wanted to test a new photo-hosting site.

My mom's friend gave this to her for her birthday, since Black Shatter was already sold out then (this was in October) and said that even if my mom wouldn't wear it, I would. Damn straight. I like this one, but I'm not completely in love with it.

What sets it apart from the other gunmetal greys out there is the pink and green shimmer that are waiting to come out. You'll see it in incandescent lighting and in the sun. I don't have fluorescent lighting in my house (except in the store room and I hate going there). The only fluorescent lighting I get is at class, and the pink and green hide away in there.

I did 3 coats (although I only needed 2 when I painted this on my mom's nails) with top coat. The wear was so good.. you could've built a house and it would've held up (probably not). I don't know why it looks like there are bubbles.. I didn't feel any bubbles :/

 

Color inaccurate. I don't know why I didn't delete this one. :S

 

 Blurred to show the sparkles, green and pink.

Tell me how the pictures are.. Are they good? Bad? Are they loading okay? Do they look funny?

Nature Republic BL505

I went to the dentist this morning. I'm not one of those people who hates the dentist, but I don't love her either. I'm just kind of neutral. I used to get a free toothbrush or something like that when I went to the dentist as a kid, and she would let me choose the color of the toothbrush. No free toothbrush today ):

I have kind of completely lost track of when I wore what, but I remember wearing this polish before Chinese New Year, because I got a tear on my thumb nail while wearing it.

I don't remember how many coats I did, probably 2 or 3, with top coat. I can't be bothered to name this because I just had some rather devastating news.. But I'll get to that later. Anyway, nothing too interesting about this one. I only wore it because I wanted to show my aunt who gave it to me, since I was visiting her. It's a blue with fine green shimmer. The only difference between this and the others that I have is the blue base is brighter and more creme than the others.

About that news.. It appears that I am approaching the 200 photos limit on Flickr's free account (which I didn't know existed). After I exceed this limit, any photos older than the newest 200 uploads will be hidden from me and the public. They'll still appear on my blog and all but not on my Flickr account, which I think is the stupidest thing ever.

So, since I refuse to pay the $25 annual fee and I don't want the older photos to be hidden, I guess I'll just go back to uploading through Blogger. Maybe if I just do what everyone else is doing, the quality won't be too bad, right?

I really thought Flickr would be my solution. I wish this 200 photo thing didn't exist. From now on: less photos, smaller size. Stupid Flickr ):