Monday, February 27, 2012

Essie- Smooth Sailing & Shine of the Times

Hi guys!  So I had to come back with something pretty to redeem myself after yesterday! I saw Smooth Sailing just sitting there and needed it on my fingers! I got this one in a set of four minis. It came with Brazilliant, Meet Me At Sunset, and Super Bossa Nova. I love Smooth Sailing, it's just about the perfect color. I love blue, I guess this is more like a medium periwinkle, but just right for my skin tone. It has a perfect 2 coat creamy formula, with just enough shimmer to make it different. It's not to light, not too dark, not too bright. Can you tell I like this one?



Isn't this pretty! I still need to find a full size bottle, because this is one I will want to wear again and again! I will also like to have a real brush! These tiny bottles never have the same brushes and are always a pain to use! They also make it look like I have giant hands, hahaha! I wore this two full days and on day three, it was still looking pretty good, so I decided to try Shine of the Times over the top. I wanted to see how it would look over a lighter and cooler colored polish. I think I like this better than over the red!

So now that I got this off, I will finish my Electro-Pop's and get to some more frequent posts! There are so many new colors and products coming out that I'm excited about. So what are you guys looking forward to??? Let me know and I'll try and feature some of them!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

China Glaze- Sunshine Pop (nail art fail)


Ok, so I was hesitant to even post this, this is soooo not me! I don't know if its as terrible as I think it is, but I cannot pull this off! I really wasn't feeling wearing plain yellow nails, so I though 'hey, lets try one of these fun leopard stamps with some color!' Oooops, overkill!!! It actually looked pretty good with just the leopard, but the dots went too far. I figured I would show it anyway, since it's all part of my learning curve!


As far as formula goes, SP wasn't as nice as the others, but not bad for a yellow. Some nails I got away with two, but others I needed three. I stamped on Sinful Colors Black on Black with Konad plate m57. Next I used my dotting tool, with several (I cant remember what ones I grabbed) colors. This is where it all went wrong. I have seen this done with white, and thought it was cute. I don't know if it was just not right over the yellow, or just not right on me... either was it wasn't a win.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

China Glaze- Gothic Lolita

Hi Guys:-)  So I hope Every one's week is going well! I am still feeling like a piggy in a food coma after our Fat Tuesday party at the office yesterday! I gave up on trying to behave myself for the day when the smell of all the goodies overtook my cubicle! Now I understand it's called Fat Tuesday!
Alright so back to posting the rest of my Electro-Pops! Today I have Gothic Lolita. This is a medium purple creme with a very subtle shimmer. It's neutral, which is nice because warm purples don't work on me.

The formula on this was wonderful. This is two coats which and a top coat. GL was super smooth. I really liked this one. It was very pretty. Before I took it off I decided to try Sinful Colors Frenzy over the top since it looked like a good match.The turquoise glitter really popped, but I prefer Gothic Lolita on it's own. I am really liking this collection. At first I didn't know if these were anything unique enough that I needed to jump on, but I'm really glad I did:-)


Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Clarins 230


Hi, guys! I have been absent again, but only because I couldn't bring myself to take this off! This fabulous little gem was hiding in the back of a box of makeup my sister had! She happened to see Max Factor's Fantasy Fire on one of the blogs I follow and I mentioned how I would like it since I would probably never get me hands on Clarins. Well her reply was "Really? I think I have that"! So sure enough, here it is! It is everything and more than I hoped for! It really transforms from amber, to a garnet, to mossy and lime green,all the while looking like it was lit from a billion little lights within the polish! I will warn you right now, this is picture heavy!  I took a lot of pictures, and narrowing them down was near impossible!




This is two coats of 230, over one coat of OPI Russian Navy, all sealed up with Seche Vite. 230 was a dream, it seemed thin but covered so smooth and evenly. The first few pics are in my light box, and the last is indoors near a window. The lighting really changes how this looks, and I definitely did not capture the full beauty of this. In my kitchen it almost always looked green. This is one of those polishes that is more than just a polish, they created something truly beautiful here!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Sally Hansen, Gem Crush Cha-Ching!

Hello and Happy Valentines Day! I have to say, I have nothing against Valentines Day really, but I think it's a little silly (sorry!). I'm not un-romantic, I just think these nice gestures should be done all year, and because someone wants to, not because the have to. My favorite gifts are things my husband does for no reason whatsoever:-) Don't get me wrong flowers (and jewelry) are always welcome, I just don't put too much stock in one holiday to determine romance.
Anywhozzle... I wanted to have some Vday spirit, but was feeling a little lazy so instead of the water marble I originally planned, I give you Cha-Ching! This was easy peasy and very pretty!


I've had this one sitting in my stash a while, and felt this was as good a time as any! Red, hearts, love..yada yada.. This went on super easy. This is two coats! If you saw the first coat you would never think this would be opaque in 2! It went on thin, dried quickly, and the second was the same. It needed two coats of Seche Vite to smooth it all out, and done:-) This is predominantly a true red micro glitter, and has a decent amount of small round silver glitter in there to make things interesting. This polish is what I wanted OPI 'Gettin' Miss Piggy With It' to be, when it came out so sheer. Then came China Glaze Love Marilyn, and I couldn't find it... so when I found this I was so excited! The only difference I can see is that the silver glitter in this is round, and in LM it's hex shaped. I don't know how they compare formula wise, but from what I read, LM is also a 2 coater, so if you  aren't picky about the round/hex thing, they are close enough!

Monday, February 13, 2012

China Glaze- Make Some Noise & Sally Hansen Glass Slipper

Hi Guys:-) Back to the grind again! Isn't it funny that the countdown to the weekends starts every Monday. The week never goes fast enough and the weekends fly by. I suddenly have the 80's song Everybodys Workin for the Weekend in m head. Appropriate I guess, but I might be singing that the rest of the day! Anyway... I should have the Beastie Boys in m head because today I am wearing Make Some Noise:-)
This is a squishy red leaning coral jelly. I really like this one, it's very summer-y!



This is two coats of MSN, in real life it wasn't so sheer. The pictures accentuate the VNL, quite a bit. If you have longer nails, you might want a third coat though. I added one coat of Glass Slipper over the top. This is a clear base with clear flakies. It applied very easily. I like Glass Slipper...a lot, but I think I liked MSN better on its own. I think GS gets lost a little bit on here. I think it will look better on a darker color, but I will test that out! So another hit from The Electro-Pop Collection!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

China Glaze- Sweet Hook & Techno

Hi Guys! I hope you are all having wonderful weekends! We are here, they just go so fast! We got a little snow here last night, but its 10 degrees outside, so we will not be going out to play! Instead I think we will make some valentines with my son:-)
So today, I have Sweet Hook from the Electro Pop Collection. I really love this, its so sweet!



This is two coats of SH, then one of Techno, no topcoat. It went on smooth and squishy:-) Not streaky like light colors can be sometimes. Dry time was fairly quick on this too. SH was a creme jelly hybrid, like OPI sorbets. I like this is pretty for Valentines Day without being too obvious. Somehow the lilac isn't make my hands look like lobster fingers either, that's a plus! Sorry about the shiny cuticles, i may have one a little crazy with the oil:-) So far I really like this collection, I cannot comment on the formula as a whole yet but I love them already!!! So enjoy your Sunday and stay warm!

Friday, February 10, 2012

China Glaze- Dance Baby!

Hello and Happy Friday! I thought it was never going to get here! I am due for a little wine and a lot of R&R! So bring on the weekend!!!
Ok, so I was going to finish showing my Anchors Away colors (I have 3 left), but I cant wait to show my new ones!I got the Electro-Pop colors, and decided Valentines Day was a good excuse for a girly pink mani:-) My husband told me this reminded him of Barbie, then he said that's a good thing, hahaha! I'm not sure I get where he's going with that... Anyway..I am loving this collection! Such fun colors to break out of the winter doldrums! I have been feeling like spring so much lately I keep putting on outfits for work, that will be perfect in like April, but right now I just walk outside and freeze! So for now at least I can throw some color on my hands and try to keep the rest of me warm:-)



So for this I used 2 coats of Dance Baby then brushed on a really sparse coat of Sally Hansen Strobelight. Then I brushed on a little more starting a little farther up, and again. That gave the gradient without sponging. I currently am in love with this:-) The pink in dance baby is not pastel, not bright, its just perfect. It has a real blue lean to it, so it works well with my 'winter skin'. It went on a ted streaky. It would have been opaque with two coats if I was a little more careful, but I needed three to even it out. Overall I like it though!
I have no idea what to do next and if I did, I would probably change my mind before then anyways so I'll roll with it...and I hope you all have a nice weekend ^_^

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

China Glaze- Anchors Away- Mish Mash!

Hello, I hope every ones week is going well! Work is especially yucky, but at least its going quickly! I am pretty excited about this post:-) You know how nail art is, hits, misses and everything in between. Well I am very proud of myself because I think this one is a win.



I started with 2 coats of Sunset Sail. I had planned on just showing these colors since they are new to me, but I know you must have seen them hundreds of times last year so I decided to do something different and mix a few of them together:-) I used Sunset Sail, Life Preserver, First Mate, and Starboard. First mate was stamped on with Konad m57, using the fishnet design. Then FM, Starboard, and LP got 'dotted' in the squares like a checkerboard. So I hope you like:-)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

China Glaze Sea Spray & White Cap

Happy Tuesday! Not much going on today, so I'll get right to it! When I first put Sea Spray on, I realized the pictures I got were terrible, and I decided to swatch it all over. I was taking pics the second time and I still wasn't loving the color, which is probably why I wasn't loving the pictures! As I was snapping away I saw White Cap, and well one thing led to another and... lets just say thank god for White Cap! Alone I really don't like SS. It's a frosty cream pastel grey-blue. The problem for me is the finish, i would like this if it were a plain creme, but I don't like the the frosty-shimmery yuckiness. (That's my technical terminology!) So as I was thinking how much I hate this color, I figured I'd give WC a shot on top. Besided I wanted to show it over some of the colors in the collection anyway. WC completely transformed SS into something I not only tolerated but loved! Yay! I liked the combo so much I ended up with quite a few photos, so have a looksee...





I kind of want to put White Cap on everything right now! Isn't she lovely? Wc is a sheer milky white base with gold shimmer. I don't think you could get it opaque on its own, but as a topcoat it really shines!
I threw in a plain SS pic, so you can see the before shot in this makeover:-)

Monday, February 6, 2012

China Glaze- Ahoy!

Hi guys! I hope you all had a great weekend! We had fun watching the Superbowl and eating an absurd amount of food! I tried to pace myself and try just the things I really really wanted, but it was all so good!Between the food and the game (yay Giants!) we had a lot of fun. Especially my son who wore his helmet and eye black and cheered the whole first half till he fell asleep on the couch:-)
So early Sunday I ran to Sally's who is having a crazy sale on China Glaze polish! With a beautician card they are normally $3.49 (at least in my area, that might be different other places), they are an extra dollar off for the month of February, and with a $10 off $20 coupon you can get HERE
they end up being $1.25 apiece!!!! I got 8 for $10!!!! WOO-HOOO! Well this isnt one of my new ones, I'm going to finish up the Anchors Away collection first, but I did get 7 Electro-Pop colors, that I will show next! So to get on with things...
 I knew I liked this one, but until I got it on I didn't know how much. First off I love this finish, glass fleck is gorgeous! I love the glowy look it gets from light bouncing off the particles in the polish. It has so much sparkle, and without all the hassle of a glitter! Seriously click to enlarge the pictures to get the full effect! This one was actually a little darker in real life than it shows up here, but the shade is pretty accurate. It's a warm rich raspberry with pink and gold flecks.



This is two coats over Sally Hansen Double Duty Base and Seche Vite over the top. It applies really easily, with the consistency of a jelly. I had very little cleanup. I really need to rethink saying I'm not a 'pink girl', because in the last year I think I've loved every one I've put on my nails!

Friday, February 3, 2012

China Glaze- Life Preserver

Hi guys!!! So I said I was going to do some Anchors Away Swatches, so here we go! I actually tried Sea Spray first but after looking at the pictures I got, blehhh! So we will go with this first! Now in pictures I have seen, I assumed this was a bright orange. It is, sort of, but it's bright and muted at the same time. It reminds me of 1970's era orange. I know that makes very little sense to anyone but myself, but that's what I got.


This was a 2 coat creme, it didn't give me an issues. I like the color but it isn't screaming spring to me, more like late summer/fall. If you have a warmer complexion this would probably work a little better as well. I'm kind of meh on this one right now... what do you think?

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Orly- Cotton Candy

Hello guys!!! Before I get started I want to thank you for taking the time to read my posts! I started doing this because it's a lot of fun and a way for me to kind of keep track of my stash and justify buying so much polish! I work full time and have two year old son, so this is something i do when I can sneak in some me time here and there. I am learning so much, and having a really great time! It makes me feel really good that you enjoy my posts and I appreciate each one of you! So thanks:-) I had to get that out, lol:-)
So as for polish... I have some new collections on their way, but in the mean time I have today's post then I'm going to do Anchors Away from CG 2011spring collection. I just got 8 of them and since they are spring, why not. Especially since they still seem to be readily available. But, for today...Orly Cotton Candy...



I found this at Sallys in the 'I Heart Nails' collection for Valentines Day. To be honest I have no idea if this is a color in their collection or a special release. It is a light pink creme leaning salmon-ish. It was kind of like a creme jelly hybrid, crelly if you will:-) I wasn't happy with it on me until the third coat. I was easy enough to control, but I saw some patchiness near my cuticles, i think from the brush dragging. It dried really nice and shiny. I love this type of color, its light and springy without being really pastel. I wore it plain for a day, then decided to add some gold flowers from Konad m57. For the stamping I used Orly Luxe.
This last picture shows how the color looked in most low light situations.
I liked this until I started thinking it looked like curtians that would have been on the Golden Girls or something...I couldn't shake that image so it had to go!