oy vey
January 12th, 2017 @ 12:53 pm
whenever i sound preachy about something, it’s really just because i know wtf i’m talking about (i swear to you that i say that without ego, only confidence). i hate people that force things on others, or just argue for pride… i only speak on subjects when i really think i can help people out with, one being (lol) NAIL POLISH.
a few years ago, i was unemployed and feeling SUPER creative. lucky for me, i had super cheap rent at the time, while i was living on unemployment, so i had a little bit of extra spending money to keep myself sane… to keep busy, i started up my old jewelry company #JAEJESS and started painting my nails a lot. i got big into nail art, and would buy myself like 4 bottles a week. i would go for cheapies or on sale bottles, and scarcely splurge on the latest trending drugstore hues i found via instagram.
i found a lot of rad gals into nail art as well, so i knew exactly what i wanted to skillfully and practically grab. i then graduated to more expensive polishes such as butter london (it’s not THAT expensive, but it’s more than your typical drugstore brands), nail paint by barry m, nars, models own, deborah lippman, etc. – i’ve gotta say, i’m not that impressed with the expensive ones i’ve dabbled in aside from models own and barry m. the most impressive has been SOME glitters from deborah lippman, but some just go on horribly… thankfully for me, i used to subscribe to a fashion app that would send me free zappos coupons, so i never paid for any DL polishes. >:)
anyways, while on this whole new creative mission, i realized the differences between polishes. i could see which brands were good, which were shit, which polishes weren’t good even if i loved the brand, etc. – so i became an “expert” of sorts over the years…
FFWD to current times…
on my daily crusade against mostly anything nails/hair dye trending for normies on websites such as buzzfeed, nylon, vogue or bustle, i’ve recently been repeatedly coming across this new louboutin nail polish line called loubichrome. of course, my “LOOK AT THE MAGNIFICENT, IRIDESCENT, RAINBOW, OIL SLICK PACKAGING” brain went into cute packaging overdrive. luckily for me, i’m also really fucking awesome and strong in the self-control department. i always think before i buy…
straight from the product description: “inspired by the ultra-luxurious qualities of specchio, a laminated leather with a mirror-like quality” and “20 layers of traditional lacquer”.
okay, it’s just a metallic holo, calm down louboutin.
as with any beauty product i buy/use, i look to the internet to show me what it’s like in reality. i instantly surfed instagram for swatches and came up with a few here. i have to tell you, i’m REALLY not impressed by anything but the yellow shade. both of the other colours are nice, but i’m not a massive fan of metallics/holos in general, especially on their own with nothing over them. i usually coat metallics in essie luxeffects so they’re not so plain, and mostly top them off with a matte top coat.
since metallics are usually quite thin, i’ve learned that if you do a base coat of a like color, and the metallic over it, it’s stronger and you need less coats of the metallic. as far as their “20 layers of traditional lacquer”, i hope that’s true, because the amount of money they’re charging for a MINI nail polish is ridic. (i know, it’s louboutin, but that’s kind of the point of this post).
so for all of y’all ladies that can’t afford to spend $30 on a MINI nail polish (or more (LOLEBAYOKAY), even if you can somehow get your hands on it – it’s been sold out for weeks), here are some alternatives for ya: 🙂
yellow: OK don’t kill me, but in the nail polish world, sometimes you have to go hunting for discontinued polish and sometimes they’re even reformulated (sally hansen is infamous for doing this and they ruin classic shades, GRR!). they’re easier to find than you think, though. for the yellow shade, i instantly thought of two sally hansen polishes (mellow yellow v. 1 and the complete salon manicure shade “sunflowers” – they’re both discontinued but you should try to ebay them), this l’oreal shade (there’s a slight bit of glitter in it, though – swatched) and one sinful colors shade (a bit more solid yellow than neon, but still bright – swatched) ebay users sell discontinued polishes all the time – give it a shot!
orangey/red: opi – take the stage (OF COURSE IT’S DISCONTINUED – swatched)
fuchsia: opi – flashbulb fuchsia (swatched it looks a little more pink sometimes, but it’s a holo shimmer, so it looks diff in certain lighting, but it’s pretty darn close) and china glaze flying dragon (this shade matches almost perfectly BUT there are slight flecks of blue and pink glitter in it). the only thing with flying dragon is that for some reason, the internet has two versions of this polish (ie: swatched), but i can’t tell if it was reformulated or not. i (luckily) have the brighter, neon one at home.
i think if you just walk into your local drugstore and inspect, you can find shades that are very much like the louboutin line. especially in the brucci collections.
good luck!
