Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday: Biggest Splurge

Hi there everyone, welcome to Tuesday.  I hope everyone is doing well.  Man did I take it easy after work yesterday.  I basically got home and crashed and then went to bed early :)  Probably because I stayed up way too late on Sunday night but to be fair I had a kitty lounging on me staring at me with big Puss in Boots eyes.  I couldn't really say no to the giant kitty eyes willing me to pet her...

Today's Twinsie prompt really excited me because I usually never splurge on polish and I just had!  I also wanted to see what polish pretties tempted my fellow Twinsies :)  Deborah Lippman Stronger is a polish inspired by the song "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson and it was also created with Kelly Clarkson.  I got this polish a few weeks ago and wore it last week to my trip in the field up to Chicago as the full glitter mani below....totally professional, I know.


As always, I took my lazy girl's way out with glitter and decided to layer it over a matching base that I thought would go with the polish.  I started out with a medium dusty periwinkle blue, Barielle Designer's Shoe.  I used one coat of Stronger over my colored base and then finished off with two coats of Seche Vite to smooth everything out.

Stronger at its base is a medium blue/purple sheer jelly with a ton of different glitters in colors like red, periwinkle, blue, silver, holo, and gold.  The base is sheer enough that the glitter doesn't get lost in the base, which is a nice feature.  Also a nice feature is the amount of glitter you get in one coat, I'm sure it would be fully opaque in just two coats.  My only gripe is that the formula is very thick and tricky to work with.  It's definitely not a polish you can apply like a regular formula on the nail, it requires dabbing and working to get it to look nice and even.  The other thing I also did was waited for it to dry slightly and pressed the glitter down so that none was sticking off the nail.



Overall, this polish was quite the splurge and I'm not as thrilled as I thought I would be.  I wanted to be 100% thrilled with it, but the formula was so thick and goopy for the price tag.  I want to try it on its own and over black before I've made my final decision.  It is a pretty polish but I expected a better formula for the price!  What do you think?

Alaina at The Little Canvas
Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace  
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Kelly at Tuxarina
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish

Monday, September 29, 2014

OPI Pink of Hearts Duo 2014-Swatches, Review, and Video

Hi there everyone, welcome to Monday.  I hope you all had a great weekend.  It really seemed to fly by.  It was pretty uneventful here.  The hubby spent the entire weekend in the crawlspace putting in a sump pump so we can eventually insulate it and I spent the entire weekend working on blog posts and filming about ten or so new videos.  

Today I have some new to release polishes for the month of October, OPI's Pink of Hearts Duo for Breast Cancer Awareness.  This has been an annual tradition for several years now and this years set comes with an already released polish from the core line, a brand new glitter, and a pink glittery nail file.  Let's get right into the polishes.

First up is the new polish, The Power of Pink.  This polish has a very pale pink jelly base with magenta and white hexes and the same colors repeated in microglitters.  This polish is really sweet and it reminded me of a cupcake or frosting.  I'm pretty sure it could be built up to be worn on its own in three coats but I chose to layer it over the second polish, OPI Mod About You.  The formula was really good on this polish.  I applied it normally with no digging for glitter and no dabbing of the glitter.  Swatches are with topcoat.




Next up is OPI Mod About You.  This is a re-released polish already available in stores.  I had heard rumors that this was a reformulated version and in my opinion I think that's true.  Here's what I think the differences are:

New version: Color is a baby pink.  Formula is better and requires two coats.  Had chipping issues within the first 24 hours of wear.

Old version:  Color is a very pale pinky purple.  Formula is harder to work with and needs three coats to be fully opaque.  No apparent chipping issues.

Personally I like the old version better because it doesn't chip on me but I can see why people will like the new version better.




Overall I like this duo, I mean don't we buy this set for the pink glitterbomb anyways?  Will you be picking this duo up this year?


Friday, September 26, 2014

Nailstalgia-OPI My Private Jet

Hi everyone, welcome to Friday.  TGIF!  I am thrilled it's Friday.  It's been a busy last few days.  I was up in Chicago for work Wednesday through yesterday.  I've also been battling some kind of stomach thing over the past three weeks.  At this point it's either the Topomax increase that eliminated my migraines or my gallbladder.  I had a gallbladder ultrasound on Tuesday and it came back clear for gallstones so I'm pretty stuck at this point.  I can either reduce my topomax and have my migraines come back and see if that helps my stomach or get a HIDA scan and see if it's really my gallbladder.  Basically I have two choices and either one is either going to be really right or really wrong.  But look at that....I actually remembered to post this on the right day :)

Today's Nailstalgia post is another popular OPI from years ago, OPI My Private Jet.  This polish sat on my lemming list, even though I'm not that big of a fan of holographic polishes...shock horror.  Oddly enough, I found this polish in store this year on the French side of St. Martin in the small town of Margot in a French mall.  You'd better believe I snagged this baby up.  From what I understand, they are many versions of this polish, the most coveted being the charcoal grey holographic version and the brown holographic with a teal flash.  I'm sure that I have the dud brown version but I do know that mine does at least have the holographic particles in it, maybe they all do though....



My version of OPI's My Private Jet is a dark cool-toned grey-ish leaning brown with silver holographic particles.  The formula was very opaque and easy to apply.  I had no formula issues, just a smooth and buttery application.  Below I used two coats with topcoat.




Overall I like My Private Jet but it's just not my favorite polish out there.  I tend to wear it and then not be wowed by it.  In my opinion it just has a lot of hype but doesn't deliver.  What do you think of this polish, do you own it?

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday-Neutral

Hello fellow polish friends, welcome to Tuesday.  I hope everyone is having a great week so far.  I am really enjoying this Fall weather.  There's just something about the cooler temperatures and coziness that makes me feel good about this time of year.  I also am looking forward to the many upcoming holidays, especially Halloween.  I know it's over a month away but time seems to be flying quite quickly recently, especially September!  

Today's TT theme was neutral and I went a little out of the box, well for what I consider neutral at least.  I originally would have gone with an opaque nude, which are my all-time favorite neutrals but I ended up going to a Fall-themed color because technically we are in Fall now :)  I also just filmed my Fall polish picks a few days ago and this happened to be one of them, but it remained unswatched, and that just wouldn't do!


Essie Angora Cardi got picked for a specific reason, because to me, it reminded me of the 90's Kylie Jenner lip trend that has been blowing up all over the internet, just in nail polish form.  I'm not sure if I'm bold enough or skilled enough ;) to pick out a lip color for myself, so I went on the hunt for a polish that I thought embodied the trend.

Angora Cardi is a deeper mauv-y plum pink with a hint of dusty brown.  It's a cream formula and as far as Essie or any other polish is concerned, it applied like a dream.  I wore this one over the weekend for two days and had no problems with chipping or tip wear.  For my swatches I used two coats with topcoat.



I was very pleased with Essie Angora Cardi and I found it to be my little secret way to incorporate the Kylie Jenner lip trend....just in nail form.  Although this polish does have color to it, I think it's neutral enough for just about any occasion!

Alaina at The Little Canvas
Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace  
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Kelly at Tuxarina
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish

Monday, September 22, 2014

Zoya Ignite Collection-Swatches and Review

*Press Samples
Hi everyone, welcome to Monday.  First day of Fall, woooooo!  Fall is my favorite season, hands down.  Yesterday we had all the windows open and the house was so brisk and cool inside.  I was snuggled up in a blanket with my fuzzy socks and had a pumpkin candle going....that's very Fall to me :)  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  We didn't do much which was just fine with me.  I bought some new sweaters at Loft on Saturday and got into the show Criminal Minds on Netflix yesterday.  

Today I have the Zoya Ignite collection to share with you.  Normally I am a cream polish girl through and through but this collection blew me out of the water.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will just say here that every single polish had a fantastic formula.  I had no problems whatsoever and all swatches below are with topcoat.  Also, the video form of this review will be at the end.

Autumn-varnished copper with gold shimmer

Autumn is Fall in a bottle.  I will have comparisons soon....hint, it looked similar to Channing from last year but they are SO different out of the bottle.  If you thought Channing was too orange, Autumn is much more copper on the nail.  Very metallic and gorgeous.




India-deep ruby, burgundy red with gold shimmer

Spoiler alert, India made it into my Fall polish picks coming soon.  She's gorgeous, but I could say that about all of these.  The shimmer is stunning in this one and I kept it on for three days straight.  This polish is deep and vampy and I love how some of the shimmer gets covered up and ends up looking red on the nail.  I did have a small amount of pink left on my nails when I removed this one and I did use a basecoat.





Remy-deep blue green indigo with copper and gold shimmer

In my video I had to mention that Remy was everything that I had wanted Zoya's Charla to be.  Remy is a fantastic deep teal with strong shimmer and I loved everything about it.  Also as a bonus, I had absolutely no staining or smurf fingers upon removal and I wore this one for two days with one layer of basecoat.




Sansa-deep purple eggplant with tons of gold shimmer

The darkest offering of the collection, Sansa is a deep purple without venturing too far off into the black polish territory.  The shimmer stands out so much in this one though and it's stunning.




Teigen-pink-toned cranberry red with gold shimmer

Although I didn't expect to like this one, I really enjoyed Teigen which is a cross between a raspberry pink and a cranberry red depending on the lighting.  In pictures below it leans more pink but in daily life it does look more of a pinky red.  It's very unique in my opinion and very much surprised me.




Yuna-blue-grey slate with copper and gold shimmer

One of my favorites from this entire collection, this polish is in one unique league of its own.  This one was the first polish I tried and I've never seen anything like it.  The base color is a blue-grey slate and you really can see the color differences in both the copper and gold shimmer.  I had to look it up on Zoya's website after I applied it because I was so curious.  It's just a cool polish.




Overall I'm thrilled with this collection and it's my favorite to date with Zoya, hands down.  There's not a dud in the bunch and they all are truly stunning.  Let me know your thoughts below!


*Products in this post were received for review in exchange for my honest opinion.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Video-Discount Polish Haul!

Hi there polish friends, welcome to Friday!  It sure has been an interesting week.  I am very happy, very very happy it's Friday though.  Some may have noticed an upturn in videos and a little slowing in blog output, there is a reason for that.  I mentioned some stomach problems, which I've been downplaying.  I've been focusing on videos right now because it's easier to sit in a chair and talk then get down to the ground where my lightbox is at and take photos.  I do have more blogposts and collections coming soon though, but that's where the change has occurred.

I went to the doctor's yesterday after I noticed some stabby pains and my stomach balloon like a pregnant bloated belly to the point where I sat at my desk with my pants undone.  They are testing my gallbladder.  I've had my blood drawn and I have an ultrasound and a gallbladder function test on Tuesday.  For now I just have yoga pants and Netflix in my future :)  Just a little update.  I didn't want to keep being such a debbie downer to you guys, I like you all too much!!!

Today I just managed another video but it's a little discount polish haul from last week including some Butter London, Ciate, and Formula X...enjoy!


Thursday, September 18, 2014

Swatch Spam-Butter London Wallis & Slapper

Hi there polish friends, welcome to Thursday.  One day closer to Friday, woo hoo!  It's been a pretty mild week around here, not much new going on.  I was a little bit naughty yesterday and ordered the new Urban Decay Vice 3 palette and the set of Urban Decay eyeliners.  Yea, that was more than a bit naughty!  We don't have any weekend plans yet.  I really want to go to the local orchard but that seems redundant when we have three apple trees in our yard, it seems a little too early to go picking pumpkins though.  

Today I have two more beautiful polish swatches to share with you.  I really need the nail art bug to hit me again, I would love to do some Fall nail art, maybe over the weekend.  I have two Butter London polishes to share, one that was picked up during the Ulta 21 days of beauty event over last weekend and the second that came in a mini set from the Nordstrom anniversary sale, let's get right to it.


Butter London Wallis is a polish I've heard being talked about but I had never looked it up or added it to my wishlist.  At Ulta this weekend I spotted it during the sale and knew that it was a really unique color.  I only picked up two polishes during the Butter London sale and this was one of them.  

Wallis is a tarnished medium shimmery olive and it's nothing I've ever seen before in a polish.  It's packed with shimmer but it's got a great formula and is really easy to apply and very opaque.  I really love this one and it's perfect for Fall.



Second of the two is Slapper which is an intense bright turquoise cream.  The formula on the one was buttery smooth and a breeze to apply.  I used two easy coats with topcoat below.  Again, the color on this one was fantastic.  This polish was on my lemming list for quite some time and I'm really glad to have it.  I also think it works great with my pale skin tone.




I'm quite pleased with both of these polishes, especially for having gotten both at discounted prices.  Butter London polishes are really growing on me but I will still be on the lookout for a good deal :)  What's your favorite Butter London polish?

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Swatch Spam-OPI Ink & Every Month is Oktoberfest

Hi there everyone, happy Hump Day.  Not much is going on here.  I spent yesterday afternoon laying on the couch at home....of all the times to be tagged for #stopdropandselfie ;)  I can't torture anyone with my oversized sweater, no makeup, gingerale sipping sick face haha!  It turns out half the office is sick.  Wooo, spread the germs...I mean love. 

Today I have some quick swatches I've been saving up, the classic OPI swatch spam.  Today I have two colors that I think really work for Fall time.  It's 45 degrees this morning, I think it qualifies as Fall, at least for today ;) 


First up is OPI Ink from the core collection from OPI, although there is a chance it could be discontinued.  I say that because I scored this blue beauty for half off on clearance at my local Ulta recently, about two weeks ago.  

OPI Ink is a mix between a blue and purple shimmery polish with pink shimmer running throughout.  I had no problems with application and the formula of this polish.  I used two easy coats with topcoat for my swatches.  I just love how this polish looks both blue and purple at the same time and the shimmer is fantastic.



The second polish I have to share is OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest.  I can't exactly remember when I got this polish but I know I've had it for quite some time.  I had wanted it because I knew it was beautiful but just never got around to wearing it because the season wasn't right.  This polish comes from the 2012 Germany Collection.

This polish is a deep blackened purple burgundy shimmer and my goodness is she gorgeous.  It's deep, vampy, but purple at its base and I love everything about it.  The formula was great on this one and I used two coats with topcoat below.




There you have it, I love both plain and simple.  Do you have either of these classic OPI colors?  What do you think of them?  When I pictured the Nordic collection, this is what I had in my mind!!!  Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday-Accent Nail

Hi everyone, welcome to Tuesday.  I hope you all are doing well.  I am happy to say my migraines are officially gone with the raising of my migraine medicine and I never heard back from the doctor so I assume my mri's were clean.  I've been a bit under the weather, go figure though, haha!  Any time I eat or drink I have bad stomach pain for about two weeks now, it just seems to be getting worse.  I'm avoiding the doctor because I don't want a CT scan and I don't want it to be my gallbladder or appendix.  It's like needing to throw up after ingesting anything.  Sorry if that's tmi but if you've gone through that and it's something serious leave me a comment down below.  I'm notorious for ignoring things.  I once waited an entire day before going to the doctors with a dislocated jaw...I just sipped things through a straw....

I was really excited to see today's prompt because I love a great accent nail.  It's like my easy version of wearing glitter but not having to remove it from every single nail.  For today's combination I wanted to go as "Fall" as I could because suddenly it went from 100's to 50 degress and rainy so we really fast-forwarded to Fall here.  


I started with a base of Butter London Wallis.  I picked this polish up on Saturday during the 21 days of beauty at Ulta.  I was a good girl and limited myself to just two polishes.  This polish wasn't on my wish list but it really caught my eye in the store.  It's a really pretty shimmery olive.  For my accent nail I went with Shimmer Polish Valerie which is a combination of browns and metallic glitters in a clear base.



I loved this Fall combination and I can't wait to see what accent nails my fellow Twinsie's choose...although I think I say that every week ;)

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace  
Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails


Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Kelly at Tuxarina
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
   Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish

Monday, September 15, 2014

Zoya Entice Collection-Swatches and Review

*Press Samples
Hi there everyone.  Wow it's been a busy last few days.  I was out of town on Thursday and Friday for work and driving for two days straight really takes it out of you.  I felt like we were doing errands and running around non-stop over the weekend as well.  I feel like I now need a weekend for my weekend ;)  Seriously though!  Today I have a review of the new Zoya Entice Collection, the six cream polishes from Zoya for Fall.  The six shimmers will be coming soon.  Also, a video review is at the end!

Claire-deep burgundy red brown.  Great shiny smooth formula.  Two coats with topcoat.  This one reminds me of a chocolate covered cherry :)




Margo-Deep plummy purple.  Traditional fantastic creamy Zoya formula, two coats with topcoat.




Geneviev-Blue-grey slate cream.  This one gave me trouble.  It was oddly sheer and I needed three coats to get it fully opaque, definitely not what we typically see from Zoya.  Three coats plus topcoat below.




Nyssa-Neutral caramel brown.  Great formula, two coats with topcoat.




Veronica-Warm red berry cream.  Great formula, two coats with topcoat.




Ryan-Medium navy cream, starting to look black on the nail but you can definitely tell it still looks blue.  Great formula, two coats with topcoat.




Overall this collection is just okay for me, I can definitely tell you the shimmer half of the Fall collection is the real winner in my book and I've only worn three so far!  The colors are pretty but they are similar to colors we've seen before, although I can appreciate that it is a collection not packed with reds.  My favorites are Claire, Margo, and Veronica.  What do you think of these polishes?


*Polishes in this post were received for review in exchange for my honest opinion.