Happy New Year everyone!!

I hope we all have a wonderful new year and that 2012 brings us all happiness, health and all our wishes come true.

Christmas Haul polish part 3: The end....?

OK and we are almost done with the polish posts!

First off we have the China Glaze polishes. Sally Beauty had a beautiful holiday collection out but I only got a few of them, but the ones I got I absolutely adore!!

China Glaze L-R Love Marilyn, Crackle Glaze in Haute Metal, Laurlei's Tiara and Some Like it Haute

This is my first crackle purchase (actually my 2nd, but I returned the 2012 stuff that was total crap). I'm just not that into the crackle look. I'll keep it around if I'm ever in the mood for it, but I don't think I'll be reaching for it that often.

Sally Hansen's Gem Crush line has duplicates for many of these colors. The red one is almost exactly the same jut the red is a little brighter, however the glitter in it is spot on. Gel Crush also has a straight on dupe of both Lorelei's Tiara and Some Like it Haute.

Up next are just some random glitters I got:

These polishes are (L-R):
Spoiled - Shuffle the Deck, Nicole - Love Your Life, Nicole - Rainbow in the S-Kylie, Nicole - Snow-Man of my Dreams, Sinful Colors Nail Art - Fashionista and Spoiled - Trust Fund Baby.

These next ones are some new ones I got from the Spoiled by WnW line at CVS. These retail for $1.99.

Colors L to R are: Shaken Snow Globe, Magic Carpet Ride, Black Mamba and Plenty of Fish in the Sea.
I normally don't care for black polish but I love Black Mamba, it's got enough shimmer in it to lighten it up into something very wearable for me. All the colors I have tried so far have very easy application and wear well (though I usually change my polish too often to really test that factor). Here's a swatch of 2 coats of Black Mamba.

Next is just some random polish I had either left over or got (I had some major extra bucks to spend) o were given to me after I took the other pictures:

 
The first polish is Essie luxeffects in Pure Pearlfication, essence @holographics.com in Gagalectric, SH complete salon manicure in Purple Pulse, Wet n wild megalast in Caught Red Handed, and Revlon in Radiant

I have one more picture to take of a few things i got since my last shopping trip. I swear I have go on a no-buy for a while after I get just a couple more thing i have been looking at.

Here we go (L to R):
Revlon Temptress (75% off at CVS)
Sinful Colors Nail Art in Bad Chick
Sally Hansen (75% off at CVS)
L'Oreal nail color in Eiffel For You
Revlon Top Speed in Pink Lingerie (75% off CVS)
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Wine Not
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Sturdy Sapphire
Salon Perfect Steel Rose
Salon Perfect in Silver Mint
and
Revlon in Dreamer

So that's it for the holiday nail polish haul. Between Clearance, gift certificates and CVS Extra Bucks I actually didn't spend too much! Now it looks like I've got some manis/swatches to do.

I hope you all had a lovely holiday and have a wonderful New Year!!

Christmas Shopping Haul, polish part 2: The sets

The first set I got was this Sally Hansen Insta-Dri minis set. I got this on after Christmas clearance for $3. By the way you can click on all images to enlarge.

I had to try all the colors to see how they came out and whatnot. I have to say I was pretty impressed. I even like all the colors, before trying them I was a little leary about the orange and green/yellow (I can't quite tell) colors.

But I think they all look pretty good.

Next up Wet n Wild coloricon glitter polishes. Granted I'm missing a couple from the full set, but they were colors I would not wear (gold) or an exact dupe of something I already own, so I didn't bother. What I did like about these is that most of them have interesting glitter in them, it's not always matchy matchy.

My cat Trixie likes these too! They are nice for glitters, the glitter is pretty dense, and doesn't take too many coats to make a full glitter nail. I got these at Walgreens, $3 a piece.
Colors are, L to R: Rockin' Rubies, Cost Is No Issue, Believe Me, It's Real (i love that the larger glitters in this are purple, goes nicely with the blue), It's All In The Cut, Back Alley Deals, and Diamond in the Rough.

Next up is the Shades of the Season tube they had for sale at CVS. I got this for half price so I paid $5. And I had a $5 extra bucks coupon so really I got this for free!!

This one is called the Glitter Collection. There are no color names on these polishes, but I put them back in the tube in order to talk about them. They are all glitters, but the bottom 4 are very sparse glitter. I will use these as a top coat over other colors. The other colors are awesome. I love them all, they go on like a dream, have light glitter, good pigmentation and only needed 2 coats.

After I went to the store for something a few minutes ago and decided I'd get the other set of Shades of the Season, the "Classics".

I haven't tried any yet, but if I even like half of them as much a I like those in the glitter collection it will be well worth it.

OK, we are almost done (with part 2 at least), with one last collection. This is from Color Club, it is their glittery Vixen collection. I found this at Walgreens and it was $7. There were 2 other collections there as well but the colors in them were all similar to stuff I already have.

The colors in this set are Sex Symbol, Magic Attraction, Sultry Diva, Art of Seduction, Sexy Siren, Object of Passion and Tru Passion. I did already have Tru Passion but it's a nice color so I don't mind having an extra.

Well, that's it for part 2, stay tuned for part three, coming soon!!!

Christmas Haul, part 1

Well, in these last few weeks I have managed to do more shopping for myself than for anyone else, haha. But I did finally get my shopping done on Christmas Eve after a marathon 9 hour day of shopping. So for part one, I will show you some of nail polishes I got for myself and for Christmas. It's actually a little embarrassing. I did have some store credits and gift cards from last Christmas that I decided I'd finally use. Money has been tight and if I get them when I have money I don't spend them so I will be able to make myself feel better when I don't have money. It's burned me a couple of times because I've waited too long to use them and they have expired. I actually had a gift certificate to Urban Outfitters for like 8 years and by the time I needed to use it they had moved on to gift cards and couldn't even process the old school paper certificates. Oh boy. Anyway, here's the start of the nail polish end of things:

I had to break these down into several pictures, there were too many :-O First off, the minis:

 I did label them on the picture but if I make it big enough to read it throws everything out of whack so I'll just post the names here:
(L-R) Orly mini Oh Cabana Boy, Essence Colour & Go You Belong to Me, Hard Candy blue glitter, HC matte purple glitter, HC lime glitter (these were Christmas special minis that did not have names listed), and Orly mini Blue Belle.

 Next up are the Revlon polishes. You can see a lot of them are marked 75% off. These were from CVS and made them roughly $1.37 a bottle.

Click to enlarge photo

Colors from left to right (including those slightly behind the others):
Blue Lagoon, Whimsical (glitter), Princess, Starry Pink (glitter), Powder Puff (matte suede), Sublime Strawberry (scented), Ruby Ribbon (matte suede), Orchid and Fire Fox (matte suede)

Next up we have the Sally Hansen Complete Manicure:

Click to enlarge photo

Colors left to right are: Fairy Teal, Hidden Treasure, Himalayan Blue (<3) and Thinking of Blue.

Here are the rest of the Sally Hansen polishes I got:

Click to enlarge photo

Colors: Xtreme Wear in Purple Potion, Xtreme Wear in Rockstar Pink, Gem Crush in Bling-tastic, Diamond Strength in Lilac Chantilly, Gem Crush in Lady Luck and Hard as Nails Frozen Solid.

OK That's enough for now. This post is long enough and I still have lots more to show you. I want to head out and hit the after Christmas sales for a bit, so I will post more polish porn in a bit. Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Two Less Lonely (Purple) Glitters

As I was working my way through my purple collection tonight I realized that I have 3 colors that are virtually identical. Nicole's One Less Lonely Glitter (Justin Bieber collection, oy) has 2 nearly dead on matches in L.A. Splash Sparkling Lavender and Color Club Tru Passion. The Color Club definitely comes out the best after 3 coats. In person, you can barely tell the apart. Now none of them will be too lonely.

Impromptu Orange polka dot mani

I was bored and playing around with my orange polishes, also pulled out my dot tool for a trial run, and this is what I came up with.

I used Zoya Tiffany on the middle and pinkie fingers, and N.Y.C. Classic Coral Creme on the pointer and ring finger. Dots were made with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White.

Spoiled by Wet N Wild - Trust Fund Baby

While out at CVS today checking out the nail polish clearance items, I found a display with this new, exclusive to CVS line from Wet N Wild called Spoiled. I really liked a lot of the colors, and they had some really nice glitters. They were only $1.99 but I didn't bring a ton of cash with me so I only got this color for the time being. It's called Trust Fund Baby. Multi Colored glitter in a clear base. I do like this polish. I love glitters, but I usually like the finer glitter because sometimes the big chunky stuff is hard to apply evenly. This stuff did pretty well. Another thing I liked about it is that it actually feels really smooth without a top coat. I am wearing one of the new China Glaze holiday glitters (post about those to come) and even though it's fine glitter, it's way more rough without a top coat.


So I did a hasty (ie messy, what's new) application to throw these pictures up and show you this lovely glitter. I put it over 4 different base colors.

First, here it is as it comes:

Then, over Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White:

Over Sally Girl 812046 (sorry these don't have names, it's a light robin's egg blue polish):

Over China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara:

and over Color Club's MODern Pink.

The pink is definitely my least favorite, but I do really like it over the white and the light blue. It actually works really well over the China Glaze as well but it was really hard to capture that in the photograph.

I will definitely be buying more of the Spoiled by Wet N Wild line!

Ulta Nail Prints

I had never tried any of the polish strips by Sally Hansen or various other companies so I bought some Ulta Nail Prints on a whim while on a recent shopping trip. I wasn't sure how these would work but thought I'd give them a go.

Overall, I liked how they looked They were easy to apply after a bit of a learning curve. They didn't really last any longer than a regular manicure, I had tip wear after a couple days and chips after 3. They were easy to remove with regular polish remover, but I will say for the price I will probably not buy them again.

Nail Polish Clearance Alert!!

I was in CVS today and there were quite a few nail polishes on clearance.

10 polish was all 75% off. I understand they are discontinuing this line as well as their Confetti polish.
A few shades of Confetti (mainly the very dark ones) were 75% off. Since they are discontinuing the line I assume the rest will be going on clearance as time goes on.
Several shades of Revlon, both the regular polish and the scented ones were 75% off.
Some shades of Wet N Wild were 75% off.
The majority of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear were 75% off (so they were $.75 each!)
Some shades of Sally Hansen Diamond Wear were 75% off. Looks like they are changing the bottle so they are getting rid of the old ones. They had some nice colors left when I was there.

They also have a new brand called Spoiled by WnW that had some really nice colors and glitters. They are exclusive to CVS and retail for $1.99. I only got one today but I will post pictures later.

One more thing, not a clearance, but Walgreen's has 3 different AWESOME sets of Color Club polishes for the holidays. It's a pack of 7 or 8 for $6.99. One was all glitters (and I love my glitter). I didn't get a chance to pick them up but I will soon and will post some pictures.

My favorite base coat - Nail Life Gripper

I have tried just about all base coats and one of the least expensive is my favorite. Nail Life Gripper is found at Sally Beauty Supply. I do like CND Stickey almost as much, but this stuff is great. It's a full ounce of base and I think it costs less than $8. Definitely worth a try, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Orly - Fancy Fuchsia - Update

I had forgotten that I already posted about the FF when I started to write up another one. I have to say that my opinion has changed. After only one use, it is thick and hard to apply. Very streaky. It's also chipping after 2 days and I've literally done nothing. I do like it on my toes though, so I guess this is one for the toe pile.

Fancy Fuchsia is part of Orly's "Precious" Spring 2011 collection. You can see the rest of the collection here. 

Orly - Fancy Fuchsia

Another one of my purchases from my outing yesterday. I LOVE bright pink colors but I don't like how neons have a matte finish. This is like the best of both worlds. It's a beautiful bright pink and it's not super matte. It's a bit flatter than some other polishes but not bad. It's like the missing link between brights and neons.

I never used to buy Orly nail polish. I had somewhere got it in my head that it was a poor quality OPI wannabe. As I've started reading more and more in the beauty and nail blogging community I decided to give it a chance and I love it. They have some great colors and I've had no problem with application or wearability.

essence fairytale nail polish

I've been pretty sick for a while (that's my excuse for my abscence) but today I decided to take a trip to Ulta and see what was new. I picked up mostly new polishes that I can't wait to post about.

One thing I did while I was stuck at home sick was go through my polish stash and tried on things I haven't worn in a while. I was testing out some of the essence polishes and had forgotten how much I like them.

So when I got to Ulta I found a special display for essence for a special release called fairytale. It was pretty picked over but I did manage to find a really nice polish. It's a shimmery purple with a touch of gray in it. It goes on like a dream. I did two coats for the picture but it even looked good with just the first coat. It's called Fairy Berry and here it is:

Sula Paint & Peel polish in Haze.

First of all I was sitting there wondering why I would want a polish that peels off, I mean isn't that what I am trying to avoid with all these grippers, top coats, etc.... Oh well, it was on clearance at Ulta so I figured it was worth a try.

i couldn't pass up a $.49 nail polish, now could I?

It went on fairly well. I did 3 coats and by the last you could see no brush lines or anything. You will see in the next picture that as always, I have extra polish around my nails.

I think the peeling quality of the polish helped make it easier to clean up that stuff on the side, since I was, as you may have guessed, able to peel it off. Now we'll just have to see what happens when I want to (or not) peel off the whole thing,.

NOTD: Zoya Emme

I'm not sure I like this color yet. It's one I got from the free Zoya Facebook giveaway. I guess I'll see if it grows on me.

all my base are belong to experiement

I have this week off from work due to illness, so what a better time than do a test on some of the different basecoats I have. I started each nail with Essie beam up. On my pointer finger I used NailTek Foundation II,  middle finger got Zoya Anchor, ring finger has Nail Life Gripper, and the pinkie has Essie 3-way-glaze.


I didn't take pictures, sorry, but for me the best are the Nail Life Gripper and the Essie 3 way. The NailTek and the Zoya had chips in them in day. In all fairness I am out of CND Stickey, which I have had good luck with, so I will keep that on my to buy list.

One Less Lonely Glitter swatches

So the only other color I got from the Justin Bieber collection was one less lonely glitter.

The Finger on the left has 2 coats of OLLG, the middle finger has 1 coat of SH Xtreme wear in Lacey Lilac covered with 2 coats of OLLG. The finger on the right has 3 coats of OLLG.

I didn't use a top coat with these and without it it totally feels and looks like sandpaper. It's really thick glitter with coarser pieces mixed in.

When I wear this again I will probably just wear it alone with the three coats.

Another thing, in the photos you can see these really dark pieces of glitter throughout. When I was wearing it whether inside or outside I never saw that. It all blended together well.

Justin Bieber One Less Lonely Girl Collection

First of all I felt like such a dork buying polish from a Justin Bieber collection, but it's nail polish and when it comes to that sometimes I just have no shame.

I got 2 colors from the collection, One Less Lonely Glitter, a nice purple glitter that was impossible to photgraph correctly:

It's a much more royal purple in real life

and My Lifesaver:

I tried My Lifesaver first, and here are the pics:

I thought this one was pretty easy to apply and I do like the new brush they have. The closest dupe I have in my collection is China Glaze For Audrey, My Lifesaver is just a touch mintier green.

Essie Matte about You vs. Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love matte top coats

I wanted to test these on light and darker colors. The orange is Sephora by OPI How Cute is That and the green is Revlon Scented polish in Ocean Breeze. The pointer finger is without any top coat, the middle finger has the Essie matte top coat and the ring finger has the Hard Candy.

Overall, there is not much of a difference.. Though I will say a few times the Hard Candy has left a milky film on my polish. I've never had any problems with the Essie matteifier.

Sorry I messed up the green with the Hard Candy getting impatient moving some nail polish into my new storage system. :(

Pure Ice - French Kiss

Until now my nail collection has been pretty much anything in the pink family. If it's glittery, even better. If it's not, I have several glitter top coats I can put over it.

I have been out of work after surgery so I don't have a huge budget right now. Once I do I will be getting new shades from new various collections to review. But for now I am doing what I can on a budget to get out of my comfort zone and try some new things.

The first thing I learned is that taking pictures of certain polish colors is not easy!

And here is the picture on the nails...2 coats. It's obviously blue in this picture, but in real life you have to look closely to see that it really is a dark blue.

Next I'm going to jazz it  up with some of what I have in my collection right now, including my oldest bottle of polish, which, interestingly is one that is in the best shape. I've tried to find out when this line was released but haven't been able to, so if anyone happens to read this and knows, please tell me.

One disasrous nail day.

First, today was just a bad mani day at my house. First I used For Audrey by China Glaze. I don't know if it's always like this but it was so hard to deal will. I could not get it smooth, even smooth-ish to save my life. It was streaking everywhere, globbing everywhere else. I love the color and thought it would be really cute with some Konad stamps. But I got so frustrated I took it all off in a fit.

Then comes the next attempt. I was using Essie cote azure from the Essie collection at Walmart. I've never been a huge Essie lover, I don't hate her stuff and I have a few pinks that I really like but this stuff was a nightmare.

This is the best I could get my left had even after starting over a second time. Yes, I look like an even worse manicurist than I am. In these pictures my frustration was so built up, but if it turned into what I wanted it would have been great and I'd have cleaned up everything around a little more.

Now the pinkie and pointer finger weren't terrible, but the middle and ring were soooo bumpy!! Adding to my frustration you might notice that I spilled my bottle all over the floor and the bottle itself. Ugh. But I am coming along learning how to Konad so that's cool. I just have plates 2 and 3 and I am about to order 4 more and some more special polish.

Then I feel asleep for a while and woke up a punk Papa Smurf with a Mohawk who either made his beard a goatee and died it blue or is throwing up blueberry rum.

 

Happy Nail Days to All!!

New Years Eve mani

For NYE I had to work but I thought I'd add a little sparkle to my manicure for the day. I used Revlon's Not So Blueberry (which smells like delicious blueberries when it dries!) on the nails, and then sprinkled L.A. Splash glitter in Onyx over it, trying to concentrate more on the tips and have it lighter at the base. I really like how it turned out. Put a coat of Seche Vite over it and it didn't budge a bit.

Sally Girl #10 Glitter Pink

I have been collecting the Sally Girl mini nail polishes. I think they are a great way to test colors that I might not normally buy for under $1. The only problem with them is that most of them don't have the name on the bottle, just the sku. Of the ones I have I'd say 85% do not have a name on the bottle. #10 Glitter Pink is sku 812112,. If you go to the Sally Beauty site you can type that in the search bar and it will come up.

This color is full of glitter and definitely has a satiny finish to it. It feels a little rough without a top coat on it. It dries really fast, that's always a plus for me!

Sorry for the poor application, I was running late to work and showed up with different colors on different nails. I had to quickly apply this while I was in the breakroom on break.

Essie now available at Walmart

It's $7.75 at my store. I don't know if the colors are different or the same as the old line that they sell at salons. I picked up a few colors: French Affair, Merino Cool and Muchi, Muchi. French Affair is definitely my favorite. It's nice and opaque but can be a little streaky going on. Merino Cool is also very nice, it's a purplish gray and goes on like a dream. Muchi, Muchi is definitely a sheer color. 3 coats and it's pretty nice though. No streaking and builds nicely. I'll post up some swatches soon!

Right now they only have the color polishes, but there is a sign saying the nail treatments, top coats etc.. will be coming in February.