China Glaze Agro + Orly Jungle Love (comparison + review)

I never really do comparison posts because I try not to buy polish that dupes another etc, but OF COURSE I HAD to have the Hunger Games Capitol Colours collection from China Glaze. Earlier in the day on my polish trip I picked up an OLD late 90's orly in the tall bottle called Jungle Love, and when picking out my China Glaze Capitol Colours I noticed Agro and Jungle Love looked nearly identical in bottle! The Orly seemed to have a bit more gold toned shimmer compared to Agro's yellow toned shimmer.

So finally.... 3 months later I have decided to compare them ON THE NAIL instead of JUST by the look of the bottle!

I can tell you right now I love one of the 2 VERY much, and I don't hate but I REALLY don't love the other. When I do a comparison I get out my handy little post it note pad and my pencil and I make a chart

(L-R) China Glaze Agro + Orly Jungle Love

China Glaze Agro - A dark green (call it a dark asparagus green, if you will) with a chartreuse/yellow shimmer and tone. It applied like freaking BUTTER and it only took ONE coat. However, I wrap my tips so I always like to do a 2nd coat to smooth everything out. I really REALLY like this polish, only thing with it that I didn't like too much is that since it is a thicker polish (most one coaters are thicker) if you shake it instead of roll it... you sometimes get little bubbles in your polish that don't look too hot on the nail. Thankfully the 2nd coat I painted didn't have that problem!

Orly Jungle Love - A dark green as well (I'd say the say dark green asparagus maybe green bean like? I'm hungry... sorry) with a more gold/yellow shimmer and tone. It sorta reminded me of China Glaze Wagon Trail but with a dark green instead of blackened brown base color. The application of this is where I had my problems (because the color result is great)... it is so extremely thin almost like water! I am starting to wonder if maybe that could be with how old it is? I got it while dusty hunting so I am not sure, and it was at a shop not a salon where they could have added to it. Since it was soooo thin and runny/watery I had to do 6 coats!!!!!!! It was so sheer that even with 6 coats if I was outside in the sunlight you could see a visible nail line. I hate having to put more than 3 coats :(  I'm very picky when it comes to that sort of thing, I love visible nail line... ONLY with Jellies because to me a jelly is MEANT to be super juicy candy looking and you SHOULD see through it.

All swatches: Index + ring fingers are Orly Jungle Love, China Glaze Agro on middle + little fingers.

Egaaaad that's a lot of pictures! But I love the colors :)

Take care,

Huemorista nail lacquer - SHAMROCKIN' !!

I'm really loving these indies right now!!!!

I was given Huemorista nail lacquer's Shamrockin' in my Mid-Atlantic nail polish secret swap package last month (i think hehe) and am just now getting to swatch and wear it! Yeesh!!!

This is just a mini bottle but what is nice is that it is a semi-thick polish so it picks up enough on those tiny little mini brushes that can be annoying. Also... LOVE the name of the polish AND the brand :) so fun!

Shamrockin' is a metallic dark-ish olive or army green (whatever color cooks your breakfast pick one hhehe) with scattered (evenly which is awesome) gold and brighter green small glitter bits. It really could be used to do stamping designs it is almost a one coater. I went with two because there was a bit of a bald spot here and there on a few nails. Probably from the brush being so small and me having to double stroke it a few times (word spew.. yuck). Shamrockin' dried pretty fast but I also only went with 2 coats and that I am sure helped a lot too. I'm pretty satisfied with this polish, not the colors I would normally wear but I think someone who has a deeper love of olive greens would go nuts over this one :)


I really feel like I could do a better review of the application of this one, with a bigger and better brush than a mini. I have this problem with ALL mini bottles I use, no matter the make or brand or whatever.

I love polish that takes as little coats as possible! Keeps you from using too much of a good polish and a polish lasting long makes me happy!

close up of those glitter bits.... hoo rah!

All swatches above are with 2 coats of Shamrockin with 1 coat of Nubar Diamont top coat over it.

Take care,

I forgot to show these previously! Essence Irreplaceable swatches!

So sorry! I found the HIDDEN (ok I dropped and saved in the wrong folder... shhh) pictures I meant to include in my Dandy Nails post from earlier today!

Here are swatches of Essence Irreplaceable all by itself. Pre- Dandy Nails!

oh yeah.... 2 coats. awesome application no problems at all, this is a great formula for the Essence colour & go polish... for me they tend to be a bit thick or stringy and I have to add a drop of thinner. This one... I didn't! Yay :)

DandyNails FUNHOUSE over Essence Irreplaceable!

So much fun on my nails right now... you have no idea.

There are quite a few nail polish that contains shredded or shard looking glitters, I can honestly say I just didn't see the appeal. Most that I have come across are one singular color or black and white or just something I really wouldn't personally wear. Until now!!!!

If you are a long time reader, you know all about my daughter Violet, she isn't old enough to wear polish or paint her nails but she has her own stash/collection of polish of all shapes colors and sizes! I try to make sure her stash isn't just a collection of nail polish with Violet in the name (although 3/4 of it is! or is a violet color), but of all different types glitters, creams, jellies, flakies, shimmers, glitters, foils, etc!

When my friend Mrs Dandy (Sandy from DandyNails) hehe, opened up her Etsy shop for her new line of DandyNails nail polish a few months ago, I wanted to... as the meme's say... BUY ALL THE POLISH!

oh here... like this...

I at the time could only afford one and I promised myself it would go toward the tiny one's stash/collection. She needed a DandyNails because she and Sandy have this "thing". When I read or watch DandyNails on youtube Vi goes BANANAS (B-A-N-A-N-A-S). I noticed Sandy had stocked a really colorful glitter shimmer combo that I had to have! When I clicked for more images and a bigger one, I noticed it was that awful shredded type glitter! Thankfully it was for Violet, I kept thinking...

Well it arrived and I ooohhhed and awwwed over it (I let Vi hold it and she of course popped that bad boy in her mouth and tried to eat it... silly baby... then she got SUPER EXCITED and started shaking it and staring at it) and swatched it over some white and I really enjoyed it but I couldn't get over the fact that it was shards and I got frustrated and put it away in her stash to go back to my flakies (ok ok I admit I didn't like the shards or shredded because to me it was like mocking flakies... does that make me strange? oh yes i am sure and im okay with that! i love my flakies!)

Yesterday I decided to wear one of my favorites, Essence Irreplaceable. It's the frothy champagne shimmer fleck explosion that China Glaze Fast Track looks (somewhat) like. I wore it allllll day until I just had no desire to look at my nails (which is strange because I love them. They are awesome....not gonna lie.) I was also feeling SUPER lazy after a day of chasing the tiny one after zero sleep so I decided to creep in my kid's nail polish stash..... and I saw it..... DandyNails Funhouse... staring at me.... creeping its little poisonous shredded glitter thoughts into my head... "wear me wear me"

now the nail polish wasn't really talking...

But if DandyNails could talk... it would say "wear me".

So I did. I now officially have done something I always said to myself that I would never do. I stole a polish from my kid. I just took it right out of her stash box put it on my nails and put it right into my stash box, never looked back. She will NEVER know unless any of you tell her or let her read this blog!!!! NEVER! :)

I guess you can say that DandyNails cured my dislike of shredded/shard glitter toppers. What can I say?! Funhouse is a fantastic polish that I can definitely see buying more bottles of since I ran Violet's down near half way... well mine now...

It's got a slightly dark magenta and bright sea blue shreds and silver (almost shiny like aluminum looking) micro glitter bits. It only took ONE (you hear me?? ONE!!!!!!) coat of it on each nail!!!!! That is awesome! Majority of layering polishes need at least 2 coats since they don't have enough coverage over the base color. This was one jam packed bottle. I am NOT disappointed. MAJOR kudos to Mrs Dandy... this stuff is awesome!

Wanna see? Mhmmmm ya do...

Funhouse and Irreplaceable

again...

HOLY PANTS!!!!!! LOOK AT THAT ^^^^ !!!

mmm glitta'

Is it just me or do these look like they were meant to be together?!?!?!?!?!?!

Egaaad Sandy... lovin' this!

Did you go buy it yet?! GO GO GO!

oh and this is Violet when we first got Funhouse from Mrs Dandy... before she put it in her mouth...

Isn't she just a little lacquerhead in the making?! I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Take care,

The Nail Junkie - Summer polish 2012 - GRAPE jelly

Phew!!!!! Finally back! That malware issue that plagued blogger recently has left me unable to even post! I've been dyin here I got a ton of goodies to show you all!

First up is one of the 6 fruit inspired jelly shimmers! GRAPE jelly!!!!

Plus you all get to see my new nubbinz nails that I had to trim down to (poor Violet's little chub legs were feeling the wrath of my nails every diaper change).


When I first opened my bottle after giving it a good solid shake up, I got nervous... it was a very very sheer jelly (jellies are runny and sheer as is) so I thought I just set myself up for a 4 coat jelly experience... I was thankfully wrong!!!! I started with my first coat... super sheer super meh....2nd coat... ohhh i see the holo glittery shimmery bits!!! ohhh this is getting more like a sorbet than a jelly...!
This is seriously what I am saying out loud while painting my nails, poor husband was looking around hoping the neighbors wouldn't hear! ha
Well basically I ended up with 3 coats and only because I knicked a couple fingers poking them to see how well they dried (took only a few minutes for them to harden which is awesome for a jelly/sorbet).

Aleta did warn I would need to top coat this but I left these without to show you how naturally it is pretty awesome and the holo shimmer glitter bits really make it stand out in the sunlight :) Violet was all about my nails while wearing this one :)

This is in the shade on my porch I had to show very dusty grapey purpley this looks.

There's those glitter bits!

Ohai glitter bits!

blurred up a bit to show you some holographic bits and whatnots

'nother bottle shot. I love this so simple but so pretty and so beautiful.

le sigh. so lucky to have this.

This one shows off why Aleta told me to top coat it, I ended up going with top coat on my index finger (top nail) only to show how it is not slightly bumped or gritty looking, bottom two without top coat show a slight bit of texture. I didn't think it was significant enough that I NEEDED top coat but I know how some people feel about feeling the glitter on their nails. 1 coat of top coat was all I needed and I went with Poshe.

What I absolutely LOVE about The Nail Junkie polish collections:

• Always gorgeous shades
• Always donates to charity
• great shipping and customer service
• USES SS BALLZ

This and the other 5 of the jellies, Watermelon, Apple, Banana, Orange, and a Blueberry glitter topper... are available on THENAILJUNKIE.COM (click the site link and it will take you directly to her ordering page) here is what she says:
The polishes are priced at $10 each which includes:

• a FREE gift
• FREE domestic shipping
• $5 flat rate international shipping: purchase all you want and pay only $5 to ship internationally.
• 10% of all sales will go to a charity for the mentally handicapped (fundraising page up shortly)
• stainless steel balls in all polish and all 3 free!!!
• Another fun bit, she is re-releasing the 3 matte pastels!!!! Unfortunately the grass glitter and matte toppers are discontinued :(    but i highly recommend the Violet matte! It is soooo dusty looking and matte and awesome!

Take care,