Hard Candy Nail Color (20th Anniversary) in Coconut

Hard Candy — Coconut (20th Anniversary Nail Color) Swatch & Review

2015-06-292017-10-05 fivezero10 Comments

Collection: Hard Candy, Summer 2015, 20th Anniversary

I recently braved my nearest Wal-Mart and bought five of the eight 20th Anniversary Collection nail polishes released this spring by Hard Candy. The packaging for this collection is a throwback to the old school Hard Candy polish bottles, and it was the main reason I was keen to pick them up! (I am sad that I couldn’t find the last three shades, which were Sky, the color that made Hard Candy famous in the 90s, and two new shades.)

The five I bought are: Claws Up!, Coconut, Mint, Scam (all re-releases from the original polishes), and Zombie (a new shade).

Today’s review is for Coconut, one of the five shades I was able to get. Coconut is one of the five re-released shades in the collection. In the bottle, it’s a not-entirely-stark white with sparse, pink and blue iridescent shimmer.

China Glaze — Flip Flop Fantasy, v2 (Nail Lacquer) Swatch & Review

2015-05-292017-10-05 fivezero6 Comments

Collection: China Glaze 2010 Summer, Poolside

Flip Flop Fantasy always appears to be one of China Glaze’s most popular shades. I guess pink neons look great in the summer! Neons are not normally my faves, but I gave in when I made a China Glaze haul at Cherry Culture last year. (This was before they stopped selling everything except NYX and their own brand. Sadness.)

But “Hold on!“, you say? That doesn’t look like a pink neon in the photo, does it?

Unfortunately, what I didn’t realize was that sometime after China Glaze’s initial release of Flip Flop Fantasy in 2010, they decided to change the color.

Here is a good comparison of the two versions by a German blog.

So, instead of a hot coral pink, I got a hot orange coral. It is almost the same color as my Gap lounge pants:

Gap Fleece Capris in Neon Orange. Image: gap.com

Lipstick Queen — Berry (Sinner Lipstick) Swatch & Review

2015-05-132017-10-05 fivezero12 Comments

For at least a year now, I have been searching for the perfect vampy red lipstick. Perfect meaning: looks just like the discontinued NARS Spanish Red, but is less drying and doesn’t go bad in a couple of years. I was pretty disappointed when NARS launched the Audacious Lipsticks and there wasn’t a dupe for Spanish Red to be found. So the search continues.

One of the first lipsticks I got in my search was Lipstick Queen’s Sinner Lipstick in Berry. The Sinner Lipsticks are simply their line of opaque lip colors; the Saint Lipsticks are sheer. Cute.

I’d heard great things about LQ lipsicks, so I was very keen to try one. I ended up ordering it in the US and having it brought up to me here in Canada.

The tube itself is pretty nice, but it has a rubberized texture which collects dirt and dust like nobody’s business. Arrrgh.

But, I can’t adequately express my disappointment when I opened my new lipstick and saw this:

WARNING: Gross Lipstick Pic Ahead…