Dupe Alert!?: OPI Casino Royale vs. Kleancolor Plum

Hey guys, so I was looking through my collection and noticed that quite a few of my polishes looked like each other.

The two polishes that I'm comparing tonight are OPI's Casino Royale and Kleancolor's Plum.

 Bottle Comparison:  They look very similar, but Casino Royale does look a bit "brighter" than Plum.

On the nail:  In person the two colors look a lot more similar on the nail, but in the pictures you can kind of see a difference between the two polishes.  Can you tell which one is which?

 

Here I have a light directly over my nails.  Now can you tell which is which?

I applied OPI's Casino Royale on my index and ring finger and Kleancolor's Plum on my middle and pinkie finger!  Did you get it right?

In regular lighting you can't really see a difference unless you stare at fingers for a all the time and analyze the polish.  OPI Casino Royale is a tad brighter than Kleancolor Plum, which is more of a muted greyed plum.

 In this picture you can really see that Kleancolor Plum has some grey in it.  

Overall:  These colors aren't exact dupes, but I don't think you need both of them.  If you want to save a few bucks then go for the Kleancolor shade.  If you prefer the brighter plum color and don't mind spending $8 then go for the OPI shade.  Both polishes only took two coats to achieve full opacity.  One thing that I didn't like about KC Plum is that the polish did seem a little patchy but I think my polishing skills were to blame. : P

So which of the two do you prefer?  

Thanks for reading; follow and share if you like!

Crystal <3

Week In Review #2: Jan. 21-27

Hey guys so I know I didn't post much last week, I was busy job hunting and editing pictures and videos.

Here's the week in review:

BLOGPOST

Nail Polish Spotlight: Love My Nails Merlot

Decmeber Ipsy Bag (2013)

Pure Ice: Top Underwear Shades for 2013!

Nail Polish Spotlight (Combo):  Wet N Wild I Red a Good Book & Fergie Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night

VIDEOS

December Haul Pt.1

January Ipsy Bag

December Haul Pt.2

2012 Favorites Pt.1 | Makeup

So there you have it!  Next week I have some swatches, nail fails, hauls, and more so stay tuned!

Let me know what kind of post you would like to see in the future in the comments or you can shoot me an email HERE.

Thanks for reading; follow and share if you like!
Crystal

Nail Polish Spotlight (Combo): Wet N Wild I Red a Good Book & Fergie Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night

Hey y'all! Today I have the Nail Polish Spotlight shining over a fun nail polish combo!

Fergie by Wet n Wild Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night and Wet n Wild I Red a Good Book

Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night (TGBGN) is a polish filled with small matte black glitters and medium gold glitters in a clear base.  I've had TGBGN for a while but I couldn't figure out what I wanted to wear with it...until now! 

I've been in a red polish mood lately so I decided to wear one of my many untried polishes, I Red a Good Book, and I fell in love with the two of these together!  At first I wasn't a big fan of the glitter after one coat but after I got more glitter on the nail it looked a lot better! 

The wear of this polish was suprisingly long!  I wore this mani for about five days and only had minor tip wear!  The only thing that I didn't like too much was that you can see my nail line through the base color.

What polish do you like pairing Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night with?  I think I might wear it over a gold color next!

Thanks for reading; follow and share if you like!
Crystal <3

Pure Ice: Top Underwear Shades for 2013! (Pic Heavy)

Hey y'all I hope you all have had a great day so far!  Today I have some polish combos from Pure Ice's Top Underwear polishes for 2013! 

There's a lot to see so let's get started!

Click "Read More" to see the pairs of "underwear" that I got! ; )

December Ipsy Bag (2012)

Better late than never right?  Well I've been playing with the products from my glam bag and thought I would do a little review!

 December 2012 Glam Bag!

The bag this month was a rectangular shape in a gunmetal grey color.  Out of all of the bags that I've received I like the structure of this one the best.  The bag seems to be well made and the zipper is really nice and feels like it's good quality.

The inside of the bag.

Mirabella Face and Eye Primer:  I was needing a new eye primer so I was happy to get this...until I used it.  The primer has a weird gel type consistency and felt slick on my lids.  I really wanted to like this, but my eyeshadow still creased pretty bad when I wore this alone.  I would suggest using a cream eyeshadow like a Maybelline color tattoo over the primer to keep your eyeshadow from creasing.

Be a Bombshell lip gloss in Hot Mess:  First off, let me just say that I LOVE the name of this lip gloss!  I really think they should make a lip gloss named Ratchet and have a lip gloss duo with Hot Mess and Ratchet!!!  Haha okay back to the gloss, the color is a bit sheer and gives a nice tint of color to your lips.  The only thing I don't like is that the lip gloss is a little sticky.

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero:  I LOVE this eyeliner!!!  It's very black and glides on very smooth!  The only thing that I don't like is that you have to sharpen it.  I'm not sure if I would buy a full size liner since it's $19, but it's probably one of the best eyeliners that I've ever tried.

NYX Ultra Pearl Mania Pigment in Mink Pearl:  This is a bit too light for me to use as an eyeshadow, but I have used it as a highlight and it works fine.  I want to try and do some type of nail art with this so be on the lookout for that in the future.

Mai Couture Highlighter Paper:  This is an interesting product... The highlight is a peachy champagne color and comes in sheets.  The product is easy to apply and gives a nice glow to your skin, but I don't think it's anything special.

Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm:  This product was an extra that Ipsy gave to members that are active on the Ipsy site.  I was excited to try this product but...lets just take a look at the pictures below.

As you can see, the color is no where close to the color of my skin.  I thought that they would've sent us a sample that matched our skin tone, but apparently this is the only shade that the BB cream comes in.  : (

 It rubs in well, but as you can see the product doesn't match my skin and it leaves my skin looking kind of "ashy".

Overall, I liked this month's bag even though I wasn't too thrilled about everything I got.

Do you like beauty subscriptions?  If you do then I would highly recommend Ipsy!  It's only $10 a month and you are guaranteed at least two full-sized items and deluxe sized samples.  Find out more information about Ipsy HERE.

Are there any other beauty/nail subscriptions that you all like?  Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading; follow and share if you like,
Crystal <3

Nail Polish Spotlight: Love My Nails Merlot

Hey guys, today I have a quick NPS post!

This past fall/winter I've been obsessed with dark colors and have one of my favorites to share with you all today!

Love My Nails "Merlot"

 



Merlot was one of the first polishes that I bought when I first became obsessed with nail polish!  It's a deep burgundy color with some beautiful shimmer that almost looks violet when you look REALLY close, unfortunately my camera couldn't pick up the shimmer very well : ( . (2 coats)

 



Although the polish applies great, the wear is kinda meh.  I was able to wear this for about three days without chipping, but as soon as I chipped the tiniest piece of polish on my nails the rest started chipping off.  If you change your polish frequently then the chipping might not be a problem for you. If you like to wear your polish for a long time then you might want to stay away from this one.

 

What are some of your favorite dark polishes?

 

Thanks for reading; follow and share if you like!

Crystal <3

Week In Review #1

Hey guys I meant to post this on Sunday night, but time flies when your watching a show about extravagant funerals on TLC!  Let's just say if you are one that likes extravagant "home goings" then you might enjoy "Best Funeral Ever".  Don't worry I'll tell you all about it on my YouTube channel soon! 

Now back to this post!

Since it is the new year I want to start blogging/vlogging regularly.  In doing this, some of you all might not see all of my blog post or videos that I put up every week so I want to do these "Week In Review" post to show y'all what I've done during the past week!  Now what I plan on doing in these W.I.R. post is link my last three blog post and my last 2-3 videos on a single post so you can check them out if you've missed any of them. 

Here is the week in review!

BLOG POST:

November Ipsy Bag

New Years Mani

 

December Favorites! (2012)

VIDEOS:

2013: CHANGES

HUGE Nail Polish Haul!


So there you have it, my first week in review! I'm just so excited about this year y'all and I hope you all are too! I feel like 2013 is going to be a good one!

Let me know what kind of post you would like to see in the future in the comments or you can shoot me an email HERE.

Thanks for reading; follow and share if you like!
Crystal

December Favorites! (2012)

Hey guys!  I usually share my favorites on my YouTube channel, but since I'm going to do a 2012 favorites video (which might be a bit long) I though that I would share my December favorites on my blog!  I'm going to show you guys my favorite things in 4 different categories: Makeup, nail polish, music, and apps.  You can check out my November Favorites video HERE.

Click "Read More" to see my December favorites!

New Years Mani!

Happy New Year!!!!!

I for one am very happy that 2012 is over!  2012 is definitely one that I wouldn't want to re-live so I'm excited to turn some things around and kick off 2013 with some positivity!  Although I did have quite a few bad experiences this past year, I did have some good things happen too!  I started vlogging/blogging, I flew on a plane for the first time, and I got to visit my grandma and other family members in NM for Thanksgiving (I hadn't seen some of them in over 3 years)!

Now let's get to my NYE mani!

When I think of New Years I think of glitter, metallic, and MORE GLITTER!!!  So when I was trying to figure out what type of nail I wanted to do I knew that I had to do a glitter gradient!

Here are the polishes that I used!  From L to R: CG Golden Enchantment, CG Cleopatra, Milani OCG in Gold, WnW Goldmine, SH Thinking of Blue, and Pure Ice Party Hard.  I also used a makeup sponge to do the gradient.



I just love glitter gradients!!!  My pictures will not do this mani justice; it looks so much better in real life! 

I also thought that I would share some of my New Year Resolutions with y'all!

• I want to get a job so I can save up some money and move out of my home town for good!
• I've been struggling to find a job in my small town for almost a year, but I think I might have something in the works in the coming weeks!
• Go back to art school
• After I graduated high school I attended an art school in Dallas.  I did transfer to a university after a year, but that didn't work out so I moved back home and took a year off.  Now I have had some time to think and I want to go back to the art school in Dallas and continue pursing my degree in Interior Design.
• Live a healthier lifestyle
• I've started researching and working on my eating habits and workouts, but I want to take it to the next level.  Not only do I want to better myself physically, but I also want to better myself mentally and spiritually.  I must admit that I have a bad habit of letting negativity stick and have a hard time accepting any type of compliments or positive things that happen to me.
• Get back to my "artsy fartsy" mode
• I used to love all things art related, but in the past couple of years I've lost my love for it and haven't touched a pencils and markers in ages!  I'm not the best drawer or sculptor but I really want to better my skills and find the love that I once had for art.
• To blog/vlog more
• I just started vlogging in February and blogging not too long after.  I know I haven't really been consistent with either, but I've been trying to figure out what I exactly want to vlog/blog about.  This year I want to post about 2-3 blog post and 2 videos per week so I can interact more with you all.  You can check out my YouTube channel HERE.

So there you go!  What are some of your resolutions or things that you want to improve on in 2013?  I hope you all have had a great holiday season and I hope that 2013 will be a great year for everyone!

Thanks for reading; follow and share if you like!
Crystal <3

(**Pure Ice polish was sent for review)