Entries for Thursday September 30

Aromaleigh v1’s Flip Your Lid

• Vendor: Aromaleigh v1
• Availability: part of the Hi-Fi Mattes collection
• Color Range: bright pumpkin-orange matte
• Staying Power: 3 out of 4 stars
• Cost/Amount: USD$8 for 1.2 grams
• Would you purchase again: yes
• Similar shades:

This is a bright pumpkin orange, rather than a “screaming neon orange”. It accents my eye color without being too orange (if that makes any sense.) I can easily use this for looks where I want to use fewer vibrant colors, but still want something with a solid color payoff. And, of course, it’s got the same excellent spreadability, opacity, and adhesion that all of Aromaleigh v1’s mattes have.

Entries for Wednesday September 29

Aromaleigh v1’s First Kiss

• Manufacturer: Aromaleigh v1
• Availability: available as part of the Valentine 2009 collection
• Color Range: cool medium pink shimmer with violet iridescence
• Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
• Cost/Amount: USD$7.75 for 1.2 grams
• Would you purchase again: yes
• Similar shades:

I held off getting this color because, while it sounded pretty, it was another pink...and by the time I started buying lots of Aromaleigh, I had a bounty of browns and a plethora of pinks. For one of these colors to catch my eye, it had to be something truly amazing (like Angelique, which was an exact dupe for Define Beauty.) I inched closer to "on the fence" about this color after buying a few more shades from the Valentine 2009 collection...and finally caved during Aromaleigh v1's final-final inventory clearout. This is actually either a pale mauve or a plum-pink, depending on your perception of color. It's gorgeous!

Entries for Tuesday September 28

Aromaleigh v1’s Frigid Gloom

• Manufacturer: Aromaleigh v1
• Availability: part of the Victoria's Revenge collection
• Color Range: clear medium blue sparkle with pink shimmer
• Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
• Cost/Amount: USD$8 for 1.2 grams
• Would you purchase again: yes
• Similar shades:

This color reminds me a little bit of Planetearth, with the pink sparkle. This color is most definitely a deeper blue, though, with more of the pink-sparkle overtones. The base color is closer to Destinationunknown, but it's deeper still.

Entries for Monday September 27

Shiro Cosmetics’ Poliwrath

• Manufacturer: Shiro Cosmetics
• Availability: part of the Super Effective collection
• Color Range: deep navy sparkle
• Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
• Cost/Amount: USD$5 for 1.8 - 2.0 grams
• Would you purchase again: yes
• Similar shades: Aromaleigh v1's Spaceoddity (but with less silver sparkle)

This color’s deep enough and pigmented enough to easily be used as a liner - and you do get the depth of blue, and some of the sparkle, without as much fallout as Aromaleigh v1’s Spaceoddity.

This color was discontinued in 2012.

Entries for Sunday September 26

China Glaze’s Midnight Mission

• Manufacturer: China Glaze
• Availability: originally released in July 2010 as part of China Glaze's Vintage Vixen collection
• Color Range: dark navy blue with blue glass fleck
• Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
• Cost/Amount: USD$6 for 14 ml / .5 fl oz
• Would you purchase again: yes
• Similar shades: Essie's Starry Starry Night

When the promo pics for the Vintage Vixen collections hit the beauty- and nail-blogs, I almost immediately rejected the idea of buying Midnight Mission: not because it wasn’t pretty, but because I’m more a fan of browns, oranges, reds, and golds…and because I have some lovely navy polishes already. So why add another navy, however lovely-looking, to the stash?

It all seemed rather well thought out. And then I placed a second order for some polishes that I’d missed from this collection, my first order out…and decided, what the hell. Midnight Mission, come on down!!

Midnight Mission isn’t a frost or a glass-fleck, it’s a glitter. But it’s a sparser glitter than some other glitter polishes - so there isn’t as much effort required when you finally do want to remove it. One coat gave me good color, no streaks or thin spots. I put on two coats, and while it deepened the color a bit, it wasn’t a dramatic increase in color depth. (That tells you how well that first coat went on!!) After the annoying disaster that was Borghese’s La Scala Rose, which showed significant tip wear after less than 24 hours, seeing how easily this applied and how well it lasted has really impressed me. I’m glad I did decide to get this color, even though I do have other navies: the silver microglitter means that this is definitely different, the China Glaze formula means that it will actually strengthen my nails a tiny bit (thank you, kaolin clay), and the application was amazingly smooth, easy, and hassle-free.

Shiro Cosmetics’ Pikachu / Shiro Cosmetics’ Thunderbolt

• Manufacturer: Shiro Cosmetics
• Availability: part of the Super Effective collection
• Color Range: vivid sun-yellow with red sparkle
• Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
• Cost/Amount: USD$5 for 1.8 - 2.0 grams
• Would you purchase again: yes
• Similar shades: Aromaleigh v1's Nico (minus the red shimmer)

A lovely bright yellow. I held off on getting this initially, because I thought: “I’ve got Aromaleigh v1’s Rocks! Sonic Eyes yellows, and I’ve got some bright yellows from other collections and companies; I don’t really need another.” Apparently, I have little power to resist a really good primary color with a twist.

This color has the rich sun-yellow base color, a good level of pigmentation, and the very definite red shimmer. I don’t know if it’s because the red is mixed with another color of shimmer/mica - possibly yellow - or if it’s just more sparse; but it seems that the bits of red shimmer are easier to visually spot when I either pat this color over primer, or when I foil it. Foiling really fronts the red shimmer quite a bit. I love the way this looks!

Entries for Saturday September 25

Shiro Cosmetics’ S. S. Anne / Shiro Cosmetics’ Sweet Honey

• Manufacturer: Shiro Cosmetics
• Availability: part of the Super Effective collection
• Color Range: champagne-peach shimmer
• Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
• Cost/Amount: USD$5 for 1.8 - 2.0 grams
• Would you purchase again: yes
• Similar shades:

I almost didn't get this color because while it looked like a nice gold-brown, I had enough neutrals.

Or so I thought...until I saw this color swatched on a few blogs.

In the same way that Aromaleigh v1's Erynne is the same color as my eyes, this is the same color as my hair (late spring / early summer, when I've started to get some sun but not a whole lot. This color is a slight bit darker than Rapidash, which is more of a gold-tan.

BareMinerals’ Decades Collection kit

• Manufacturer: bareMinerals/Bare Escentuals
• Availability: beginning June 2005 through QVC
• Contains: 4 eye colors
• Cost/Amount: unknown - I'm guessing $42.00
• Would you purchase again: yes

This kit included all the decades eye colors released to date…except 1970s. (No, I’m not sure why they did that.) I’ll also be interested to see if BE continues releasing decade-specific colors, now that we’re about to end another decade (2010s). (Update, 2012: BE was sold to Shiseido, who seems to be putting most of their focus on the new pressed colors. At this point, I’d be kind of surprised if they came out with more colors named after the decades. Obviously they missed 2010…)

Entries for Friday September 24

Shiro Cosmetics’ Seaking

• Manufacturer: Shiro Cosmetics
• Availability: part of the Super Effective collection
• Color Range: metallic copper shimmer
• Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
• Cost/Amount: USD$5 for 1.8 - 2.0 grams
• Would you purchase again: yes
• Similar shades: I think possibly Bare Escentuals' Fantasy, or Exotic Laura

Sadly, this color was discontinued in 2012. (Sadly…because I like this particular shade of orange/brown eyeshadows because it really looks excellent with my coloring. I must be a minority!)

Entries for Thursday September 23

Zoya’s Pulse collection

• Vendor: Zoya/Art of Beauty
• Availability: beginning July 2008 through the webstore and salon retailers
• Contains: 6 nail colors
• Cost/Amount: USD$36.00
• Would you purchase again: yes

I bought the polishes I did from this collection after the collection came out - and only bought the first two because of the way they layered atop another Zoya color I wanted. The colors are split evenly between rich reds and rich purples; and there are no sheers or cremes in this group. This collection contained:

• Blair — blackened cool red sparkle
• Colbie — blackened warm scarlet sparkle
• Jacy — deep mulberry shimmer
• Mikka — metallic concord-grape shimmer
• Rihana — dark metallic red-plum shimmer
• Sloane — muted dark purple shimmer