Sinful Colors Let's Talk

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a NP snob.  I'll buy just about any brand that comes from an online etailer or Sally's, but when it comes to drugstore polishes, I kind of ignore them.  I own a few drugstore brand polishes, but for the most part, I tend to gravitate towards "salon" brands. 

So imagine my surprise when I found the perfect purple at Walgreen's.  For a buck, no less.  I was in dire need of a NP fix and Sinfuls happened to be B1G1F, so I figured I'd take a look.  I own a few Sinful glitters and I like them, so I looked at more of the Sinful line.  I found a few I really liked, then I found Let's Talk.  Holy Smokes.  Even in the bottle it was glowy and beautiful.  I couldn't wait to get it on my nails. 

It reminds me of OPI Kinky In Helsinki in that it seems to glow.  I took pictures, but this was the hardest polish to photograph.  Seriously.  I could not get a true representation of the color, so I'll save my pics until the end of this post.  IRL, it's a medium, royal purple shimmer.  It has an almost electric quality to it.  I think the closest polish in my collection would have to be Essie Viva La Vespa, and it's no where near a match. 

As for application, the formula was awesome.  Easy application and opaque in 2 coats.  In fact, it was mostly opaque at one coat, so all I had to do on the second coat was touch up the bald spots.  It did take a little longer to dry than I'm used to, so I had a couple smudges that were easily fixed with Orly Smudge Fixer. 

Okay, I'm sure you want pics, so I'll post them, but let me warn you that they are no where near a true representation of the color.  The cell phone pic (the last one) is the closest (in that it's actually purple and not blue), but it's much brighter IRL, and you can't see the polish's glow.

Again, I apologize for the inaccurate pictures.  It was just impossible to capture.  It is a gorgeous polish, though.  You'll just have to trust me.  LOL.  I'm a huge purple lover and I think this one just surpassed VLV as my favorite purple.  Just goes to show (me especially) that some of the best polishes can be found in drugstores. 

Sinfuls are available at their own website, Cherry Culture, at Target stores, and at Walgreen's stores.  However, I've only seen this color (#929) at Walgreen's.  A quick Google search found it at A Beautiful Secret, but the price is a little inflated at $3.99.  Sinfuls are usually $1.99 and through the end of the day, they are B1G1F.

Sinful Nail Junkie vs. ChG Atlantis

As you may be aware, Sinful Colors are B1G1F this week at Walgreen's.  And though I'm on a no-buy, I still allowed myself to pick up a few because they were essentially a buck each.  One of the colors I got was Nail Junkie.  As soon as I took it out of the display, I was reminded of ChG Atlantis, one of the new specialty glitters ChG put out a couple months ago.  So I figured it would be a good comparison post.  In fact, I remember someone asking on the NB how Nail Junkie compared to Atlantis.  I don't remember the responses though, so I just decided to do my own.  :)

Based on bottle pics alone, NJ and Atlantis look remarkably similar. 

Both are an aqua/teal base with glitter.  One of the main differences you notice in the bottle is that NJ has golden based glitter and Atlantis has silver based glitter.  Also, the glitter in NJ is different sizes, while it looks to be uniform in Atlantis. (EDIT: it's not uniform in Atlantis, you can see the difference if you enlarge the pics).   Lastly, Atlantis has holo glitter while NJ does not.  Those three differences aside (which I know to a NP addict seem like big differences), they do look like they would look fairly similar on the nail. Unfortunately, the bottle is where the similarities end.

I've already posted about the awesomeness of Atlantis, if you want to see a post about it alone (just click the link).  It really is an amazing polish.  NJ, however, not so much (on it's own, that is).  It looks so promising in the bottle, but alone, it just doesn't work, IMO.  The base is very sheer, unlike Atlantis.  Here's a pic of one coat of each polish:

Atlantis is on top, NJ is on bottom.  See how pigmented Atlantis is compared to NJ?  You can barely see base color in NJ.

Here's my final pic.  This is three coats of Atlantis and four coats of NJ:

NJ is on the left and Atlantis is on the right (sorry for all the turned pictures, blogger is not cooperating with me since I changed to the new editor). 

In this pic, you can see just how different they are.  They look like they would be so similar, but NJ is definitely a layering polish while Atlantis can be worn on it's own.  I know I used three coats of Atlantis in this pic, but it was pretty much opaque at two.

Also, I know I've pretty much complained about NJ in this post, but if you plan on getting and using one of these two for layering, I think NJ is your best bet.  It's very sheer, which on it's own is pain, but in layering, when you want the bottom color to show through, I think it would be ideal.  I think it would be beautiful over black or even a blue/green color like ChG TuT, Sinful Aqua, or OPI Teal the Cows Come Home.  You could also add a coat of ChG Fairy Dust if you wanted it holo like Atlantis.  For me, Atlantis is just too pigmented for layering. 

You can find Sinful Colors at Walgreen's, some Targets (mine just recently got them), and online both at Cherry Culture and Sinful's own website.  While Walgreen's doesn't have as big a collection as the online sites (Target's selection seemed smaller than Walgreen's), they do have the most sales and the cheapest everyday price point.  They are normally $1.99 at Walgreen's and like I mentioned above, this week, they are B1G1F. 

NOTD: Orly Enchanted Forest

Enchanted Polish is part of Orly's new fall collection "Once Upon a Time". It's a very deep forest green creme. It does look almost black in dark lighting, but in all other lights, it's definitely green. It has a dustyness to it that keeps it from looking like other green cremes out there, at least from what I've seen in swatches. It's one of the few dark greens I own, and the only creme. There are several companies that have introduced or are introducing green cremes lately, but due to cost, this is the one I chose. It was $3 and change from Victoria Nail Supply.

As an aside, if you haven't checked out VNS... do! It's a good e-tailer and one that doesn't get a lot of press. If you are a non-pro, you can only order Sation, Orly, Color Club, and China Glaze. Someone did mention that she was able to call and order d/c'd OPIs w/o being a pro, but you definitely can't order them online. Plus, I don't know if that was a one-time exception to their rule or if they let that slide if you call. I haven't checked. I think she said OPIs for non-pros were almost $7. So it wasn't like you were getting a bargain. However, their shipping was fast. I ordered a crap ton of ChGs, 3 CCs, and this lone Orly. I think I'm biased against Orly. For one, I hate their bottle cap. It's so stupid to me, and 2, I remember when Orlys were gallon sized (I think they were like 0.75 oz or something ridiculous like that). Now, they are 0.6 oz, which is still larger than the standard 0.5 oz. Also, they d/c'd Red Sea Pearl and I can't find it anywhere, and to rub salt in that wound... I had about 3-4 bottles of the color at various points in my 20's and I threw them away because they got goopy. :( Megan=Dumbass. I would kill for my old Orly bottles that I tossed.

But anyway, there was a point to my tyrade, I promise. As a result of the above, I don't own many Orlys. I have this new EF, Sol Cabana, and the one that supposed to be a dupe of OPI PPP and I'm too lazy to look up the name. At one point, I also had a light pink, but it sucked and I gave it away. Enchanted Forest's application reaffirmed my dislike for Orly. I swear, I'm getting pretty good at applying polish. With OPI's ProWide brush, I'm a ninja. I'm not quite as proficient with other brands, but man... this Orly kicked my butt. My fingers kinda looked like a drunk lady applied the polish. I was able to clean them up a bit, but it's not perfect. Grrr. I blame it on the stupid handle, but in actuality, I think it was the formula. It's kind of runny and not the easiest to control.

Additionally, I had some bubbling. I never get bubbling, so I have no idea what was up with that. I think I read that someone else on the NB had the same issues, so maybe it's just a couple bum bottles floating around. It didn't affect the color, but my nail surface looked awful. Because of this bubbling, I had to do something other than the konad I'd had planned. I looked in my stash and found Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor glitter. It looks fab over EF. Amazing, even. If you have EF and you have PH, give it a go and put the 2 together. You won't be sorry, I promise.

In short, ha... yeah right, after I wrote a novel... EF is a pretty color. It's good if you want to jump into the dark green creme pool, but don't want to fork over $18 for RBL Recycle, or some of the other, higher-priced options. I'm definitely going to try again soon to see if I can't combat those bubbling issues and pair it with ChG Cherish for a konad.

NOTD: OPI ElePhantastic Pink and updates

So I finally broke my streak of only using untrieds. I put on Zoya Erika and let me tell you, it sucked. Took 3 coats to reach opacity and after an hour, it was still really soft and I pretty much just wiped it off. I was wanting something pink and I realized after 10 minutes of poking through my stash that I don't have a lot of medium toned pinks. I plan on ordering a few and remedying that problem, though. :P

Anyway, like I said, I tried Erika and hated it, yet I still wanted pink, so I went back to EPP. I can't tell you how much I love her. EPP is a perfect creamy pink. Some people say it's a Barbie pink, but I disagree. It's a touch on the coral side, but the best way I can describe it is warm, creamy pink (which sounds disgusting, but that's what it is). I'm very happy with this NOTD. I wouldn't have been happy with Erika, so I'm glad it was simple to take off (the use of glue-ons limits my "just take it off" option). I also used decals from the Cina 3D Daisy sheet. Love them. Nothing like yellow and white flowers on pink. <3. So cheerful.

I found my digicam, and the battery is charging, so I will hopefully have REAL pics soon. Yay!

I'm also using a different brand of nails. For the first time, I am trying Nailene plain glue-ons. I think I like them more than the Kiss. More flexible and yet stronger all at the same time. Plus, very easy to trim and shape. Plus, the Nailene were $5.69 for 200 nails while Kiss is $4.99 for 100. Better deal all around. I'm sure they'll get d/c'd now. :S

Also my Cina order will be here tomorrow, so it did ship w/o any problem regarding the professional thing. I'll try to get picks of my nail art haul. I also ordered a bunch of 3D nail art sheets from eBay. Here's hoping they don't suck.

Speaking of new things, I got 3 Sinful glitters today at Walgreens. UFO, Hottie, and Opal Glitter. Weirdo checkout lady looked at me funny when I said I didn't plan that they were red, white, and blue, after she'd made a smart ass comment to the effect.

One last thing... I got a new storage chest today. Wal-mart had a 5 drawer Sterlite rolling cart for $16. It has 3 big drawers (2 for polish, one is only maybe 1/4 full and one for removers, lotions, etc...) and 2 smaller drawers (one of the fake nails and other mani supplies and one for nail art and my UV dryer). My husband just looks at it and shakes his head, but it's so much nicer than keeping (cramming) my polish in a Sterlite handled tote and everything else in Sally's bags.