I picked up a handful of the new Wet n Wild Fast Dry polishes and this color immediately stood out to me. I think it's a re-release from the summertime, but now it's permanent. The shade is called Gray's Anatomy and it's a sheer silvery purple, grey, green and blue duochrome. Sound familiar? I thought so.


This is Wet N Wild FastDry in Gray's Anatomy all by itself- three coats, no basecoat or topcoat. The duochrome effect shows up best in low light, but you can see the colors in the sides of the bottle. It isn't the strongest duochrome effect like a Sally Hansen Nail Prism would be, but it's still undeniably color-shifting.



And here it is alongside Lippmann's Wicked Game. Can you tell which finger has which polish? No? It's:

Left to right, pinkie to index:
Pinkie: Four coats of Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy
Ring: Four coats of Deborah Lippmann Wicked Game
Middle: Four coats of Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy
Index: Four coats of Deborah Lippmann Wicked Game

They are so very, very close that I feel comfortable calling them dupes. There are some minor differences in formula- the Wet n Wild is a lot thicker and more opaque, requiring only three coats while Lippmann Wicked Game is more sheer and a little more watery and needs at least four coats for opacity. There is ever so slightly more duochrome effect on the Lippmann polish. And, one totally superficial difference: The Deborah Lippmann polish has a way, way prettier looking bottle. I looooove Lippmann's bottles. But, side by side, the polishes are practically identical.

Wet n Wild? Ninety-nine cents on sale at Walgreens. Lippmann? $16.00 plus shipping if you buy online. The Wet n Wild is definitely the most budget-friendly way to get the look but you can't deny the glamour and aesthetic advantages of the Lippmann bottle. But, it's good to know there are options!

I'll post the rest of the Wet n Wild shades I picked up eventually- but let me just say right now that Buffy The Violet Slayer is not to be missed. It's so good.

Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy versus Deborah Lippmann Wicked Game

Here's some more of the new Hard Candy line I picked up from Wal-Mart. I know that Wal-Mart has changed their logo to remove the hyphen, but I think "Walmart" looks even more grating... Anyway. These were another matching set- a pink and a gold version of each.




First Flush is the name of this kit. It comes with a Blush Crush Baked Blush in Living Doll, a Glow All The Way Face and Body Luminizer in pink (shade might be 'Doll Face' but I'm not certain), a Plumping Serum Volumizing Lipgloss in Uptown Girl and a Sheer Envy Face Primer. All are mini sized.

Up close.



Living Doll, Luminizer and Uptown Girl.


This is the Glamazon Glow set. It contains a So Baked Bronzer in Tropics, a Glow All The Way Face and Body Luminizer in gold (Glamazon Bronze?), a Plexi Gloss Glossy Lip Shine in Genie and a Sheer Envy face primer. All minis.

Look inside...


Tropics, Luminizer (Glamazon Glow?) and Genie.

I like these items a lot more than the Naturally Naughty and Bad Girl Next Door kits. The Sheer Envy face primer is the item I'm especially surprised by- it's great! It's a thick silicone-based primer- think Smashbox Photo Finish. It feels and looks and performs just like all of my $30+ price range primers. Very impressed. They give you a really good size in these kits, too - almost half an ounce!

I also love the glosses. The plumping gloss doesn't seem to do anything plump-wise, but it does have a subtle cooling effect. The color is a light milky pink with shimmer. The Plexi Gloss is a clear with gold flecks in it. They both have the same strong vanilla-cupcake-frosting-marshmallow smell to them and I love that. It's not quite the same as the old Hard Candy gloss scent, but it's similar enough. They're quite strongly scented and a little bit sweet, so they're winners in my book. Sticky texture, though. But still... cupcake scented. Can't complain.


The luminizers are neat but... I'm not really sure what to do with them? They're so opaque and frosty that I can't imagine using them on my face. I can see using them to highlight my collarbone or maybe as sheer eyeshadows or maybe even as body bronzer with the gold one... Or I could go all Goldfinger and cover my whole body in it.

The blush and bronzer are they only fail for me. They're SO FROSTY. Think MAC Mineralize Skinfinish and then amplify the frosty shimmer by ten. I don't want that much shiny frosty frost on my cheeks. It highlights every imperfection in your skin- tiny hairs, scars, bumps, everything. And I don't want reflective cheeks, so.... Yeah. These would probably make decent eyeshadows, though.

After trying the items in these kits I kinda want to go back for some full sized lipglosses and maybe a full sized tube of this primer.

Hard Candy First Flush and Glamazon Glow Kits

I've been holding off on posting this until I could photograph all the colors next to the originals, but I can't seem to find my Full Metal Jacket and can't get my hands on King Kong and I just need to post these before they become irrelevant. Argh! So much for plans.

Anyway, this year NARS was awesome enough to bring back a few of their old discontinued shades including the mythical ZULU. I'm insanely happy about this and it really makes me view NARS much more positively. Many of us have been begging for a Zulu re-release since the day it disappeared- and apparently they listened!

Here are the shades:


King Kong. Rusty brown shimmer. I never recall this being a super popular shade as far as NARS polishes are concerned, but it's actually really pretty. Reminds me of fall for sure. Very smooth and velvety looking on the nail.

Full Metal Jacket. A silver-grey frost. This is one of the few frosts that I actually like. It's a little streaky but not obnoxiously so, it does dry a lot smoother than it applies. It's very shiny and metallic looking, but not quite chrome-like. It's sleek and sexy.


MASH. I think I'm just as happy about the re-release of MASH as I am about Zulu! This is an incredibly beautiful dark olive green with gold shimmer. One of NARS' best old shades, if you ask me.


Midnight Express. This one can change appearance a bit depending on how it's applied. This is two rather thick coats, but I think it looks better with three thin coats. It's a jelly, so the more even you apply the coats, the better. Really brings out the jelly effect. This is a super dark blue which looks especially nice in a jelly finish. Illamasqua Propaganda is similar in color and finish, but this was easier for me to apply and had a more jelly look.


Zulu. I apologize for the strange pictures. Zulu is really hard to capture and I wanted to show the green-ness of it. If you're not familiar with Zulu, it's a super dark blackened green jelly. One of the most unique and gorgeous polishes ever released. I know some would disagree with the 'unique' label, but I've really never worn, seen or frankened an exact match for this. The closest I've used is George Evergreen. Somehow none of the Zulu-clones have that dark jelly depth and squishiness that the original Zulu has. Unfortunately, the new Zulu also lacks a lot of the jelly effect of the original. Still awesome, though.

The best thing about the re-released polishes has to be the formula. It's three-free and greatly improved. The old ones were a little on the sheer and slightly runny-goopy side (I think they were three-free before, weren't they?) and took a while to dry. These are now thicker and more opaque which means they're easier to apply and need fewer coats. They also dry quickly. NARS' brush is not my favorite- too thin- but that's the only complaint I have about the bottles and formula.


I do wish they had re-released Platoon along with these to make a full six. But, they re-released Zulu, MASH and Midnight Express so I really can't complain! Really cool of NARS to bring back the old shades. If only some other brands would do the same- like Urban Decay or Revlon!

(These were sent to me for review.)

NARS Vintage Collection Fall 2010