International Swap With PolishSis!

Hi y'all!! I am so excited because on Friday, I got two nail mails - one was my order from Hare polish (Tumblr ; Etsy) and the other was my swap that I did with Inge from PolishSis! I was so excited to open the box and see what Inge had sent! I'll post later about the Hare polishes (I got Archipelago and A Positive!) but this post is all about my first big swap!

So I sent Inge her box a couple weeks ago and spoiled her with some nice OPI's and others that she can't get in Holland - I sent her OPI Too Hot Pink to Handle and Do You Think I'm Tex-y?, China Glaze Westside Warrior, Zoya Ki and Ivanka, Wet n Wild Night Prowl and Sparked, Sinful Colors Open Seas (a dupe for a OPI Pirates shade she had on her wishlist), and a little bitty Bon Bons glitter! We initially started the swap because I noticed she had Ki and Ivanka on her wishlist, and I happened to have an extra Ivanka and I wasn't too fond of Ki, so I emailed her to see if she wanted to do a swap. And then it ballooned into a big 9 polish extravaganza, haha!

Inge had everything wrapped up so cute in pink wrapping paper and ribbons! She also included a postcard, eye shadow, candy hearts and adorable Hello Kitty nail file! I definitely feel like I underperformed in my wrapping job - mine was very fancy with plain bubble wrap and a box which I reused, LOL.

Here is the box when I opened it!

It was so awesome to unwrap everything, like a birthday or Christmas present!! I will definitely have to do this in my next swap because it was so fun :)

Inge and I have similar taste in polishes so I felt confident she would pick out some great polishes and I was right! Here is what she sent me!

She sent:

• Teeez Outta Control
• Teeez Smooth
• Gosh Gasoline
• Catrice Pool Party At Night
• DA 106
• DA 108
• Etos Effects 08
• Etos Effects 06-07
• Etos Effects 22

I particularly am in love with the Teeez holos because I LOVE HOLOS! But the DA polishes are gorgeous with a little extra sparkle! And I've never had a Gosh or Catrice polish so that's very exciting too! Finally, the Etos polishes are so cute in their tiny little bottles, I really love the reddish pink one with the sparkles!

Also, I think Inge has inspired me to start adding labels to my polish pics. I know a lot of times photos show up in Google searches (I search polish swatches ALL the time in Google Images!) and it's helpful when the pic is labeled so you know you're seeing the right picture/color!

Due to my hectic work schedule I've only been able to swatch one of my swap polishes so far but look forward to those swatches when I get back from my trip - I'm headed to Phoenix Thursday through Monday evening to visit my Grandma. I'll try and schedule a couple posts for while I'm gone!

Sinful Colors Starfish

TGIF Guys!!! I don't know about you but I'm ready for the weekend! Except, working at Starbucks, I usually wind up with two random weekdays off, and usually not in a row, so I don't really have much of a "weekend", and in fact this week I had my day off Wednesday (went to the State Fair of Texas again!) and now I work until next Wednesday! Yuck. But then I have Thursday thru Monday off work to go to Arizona and visit my grandmother with my Mom, so I guess it's ok! And next summer I'll have about 3 weeks off for my London trip so I should probably just be glad my boss gives me 2 days off a week! :P

Anyways here is my post for today - it's Sinful Colors in Starfish! Actually it says Star Fish on the label but...I made an executive decision and turned it into one word. Two is weird! Starfish is supposedly a total dupe for Sparrow Me The Drama, which is great, because I was particularly wanting that one, and had to restrain myself at Ulta so as not to buy it! $8.50 vs $1.79....that's a definite make-or-break for me! I picked up Starfish just a couple weeks ago at Bed, Bath & Beyond of all places! I should note that, in my opinion, although I don't own SMTD, based off the photos I've seen, these two polishes seem to be identical. Hooray!

They actually have quite a nail polish selection (at least the store near me does, a big cosmetics section), they had a big Essie stand, a big Color Club stand, some Orly, Revlon, about 3 different Sinful Colors collections plus some randoms, and some more I can't remember, because I wasn't interested. I also picked up Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor on this trip, a really pretty clear base with iridescent blue/greenish glitter.

For me, this is a total "Barbie" pink. Not too bright which is nice!

A very girly pink! This is with flash here.

It looks really dusty here, which is a word we can describe the whole Pirates collection with - they all seem to have a tinge of gray to them to add some dirtiness! This is in my kitchen under the artificial light. I thought it would be good to show you a variety of lighting so you can see all the different shades it appears as!

This applied really well, I believe I did 2 coats here. You'll definitely want a topcoat as it dried kind of matte. However, I am definitely getting more impressed with Sinful Colors lately, the first couple shades I picked up were very watery and streaky and I didn't care for them at all, but their more recent shades have been a lot better. Normally I hate when people are unoriginal in design ideas but from a price point, I don't really care that Sinful Colors blatantly rips off the OPI ideas - it has resulted in like 4 or 5 straight up dupes at a fraction of the cost! They should probably try to be a LITTLE more creative though...they had the Adventure Island collection which was clearly modeled after the OPI Pirates collection, as well as the Miss Sinful Colors collection, which has a couple that are similar to the OPI Miss Universe pageant collection, but seems to be a "new" collection of old shades they already had - including one with a typo on the name, haha! (It's I Miss Yuo, fyi)

Do any of you guys have any of the Sinful Colors dupes? Or do you have a favorite Sinful Colors polish that I should know about? What do you think of the brand?

OK well I'll hopefully have some new swatches for you by Monday! I am super busy this weekend with work but as I said in my last post I'm expecting nail mail so...I might just have to swatch some if I do get it!! :D Have a great weekend guys!!!

Sinful Colors - Timbleberry

Just a short post today, I think I'm coming down with another cold, can you believe it?! *sigh* Anyways! Here's Sinful Colors Timbleberry. This is a corally/watermelon type shade of pink, with a slight neon tinge. 3 coats shown here. Stupidly, I didn't use a base coat with this one and my fingers were pretty pink after this one, haha! So beware...it will stain.

I really like the color though! Formula was pretty good too, easy to work with just had to make sure I didn't get too much polish on the brush, otherwise it would pool on my nail in the cuticles!

pink pink pink pink!

What do you all think?

PS. I am expecting not one, not two, but THREE nail mails soon! One is a swap I did with Inge from PolishSis, I can't wait to see what she sent me! The second is an order from HARE Polish, I purchased Archipelago and A Positive, two gorgeous shades. Thirdly I'm expecting the Essence Meet Me @Holografics.com from Traci at the TraceFace Philes - I won one of her giveaway prizes! The next couple weeks should be exciting as I impatiently wait for my new goodies!

OPI Too Hot Pink To Handle

Hey y'all!! Hope everyone is having a lovely day! I recently picked up this color from Ulta as an exchange - I originally bought Nicole by OPI Me + Blue (Justin Bieber collection, a bright blue with holo glitter) but I hated the finish on Me + Blue (it was super gritty even after top coat, and the holo wasn't super nice either) so I exchanged it for an OPI!

Without further ado, here's OPI Too Hot Pink to Handle! This is a lovely bright pink jelly ("Sorbet" according to OPI!) from the Texas Collection from earlier this year. (I also picked up Guy Meets Gal-veston, the jellies just called out to me! And by getting a second OPI - I didn't know this at the time but it was a nice perk - they gave me a free base or top coat! I picked base coat! Thanks Ulta!)

This is three coats of Too Hot Pink to Handle. If you have short nails and use thicker coats, you could maybe even get away with two coats! I also included some pictures of Guy Meets Gal-veston for comparison.

See? Lovely squishy bright pink! You can see a teeny bit of visible nail line on my ring finger, but from a couple feet away you can't see it at all, so...I don't really mind.

In a different lighting, artificial lighting in my kitchen! This is very color accurate. When I tried to photograph it under a more yellowy light, it looked much more orangey.

Guy Meets Gal-veston on my pointer finger, for comparison. GMG looks way more orange than it really is under this light, to be honest, but under natural light these two shades looked identical (they're not!) so I wanted to show you guys the actual difference! And no, that's not shimmer in the bottle, I think it's a grocery bag reflection...haha!

Again, the two shades compared. Guy Meets Gal-veston on my pointer, Too Hot Pink to Handle on my middle finger!

I was torn on picking one in the store, and I still have some birthday money from husband's grandmother, so I treated myself to both! While they are sort of similar, I'm glad to have both (for now at least!) And I'll hold on to them both, so I can keep my OPI base coat, haha! Seriously, y'all should have seen me walking around Ulta. I was staring at the two polishes, started to walk towards the register with both, wound up putting Guy Meets Gal-veston back, started to walk to the register, turned around, went back and picked up Guy Meets Gal-veston, stopped to think some more. Tried to convince myself I liked one more than the other. Contemplated swatching on my finger so I could decide, but decided there were too many people around (LOL). Seriously....it was ridiculous. I wound up picking them both up and walking to the register - where I spotted a stray Do You Think I'm Texy? which I forced myself not to even touch, hahaha. So silly!

What do you guys think? Do any of you own any of the Texas collection colors? Which is your favorite?

OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston!

Hi everyone! Today I have for you OPI's Guy Meets Gal-veston, from the Texas Collection from earlier this year! Guy Meets Gal-veston is a "sorbet" aka jelly, in a nice coraly pink shade! In some lights it looks more orange, in others it looks quite pink. 

In this light it looks quite orange but it's not quite so orange in real life. This is under artificial lighting in my kitchen. This was four coats, by the way. If you have shorter nails, you could definitely get away with only 3.

Closer to how it really looks. It toes the line between orange and pink, doesn't it!

One more view. There is a tiny bit of visible nail line, because the formula is so sheer - but since it's a jelly finish, that's to be expected. It looks super squishy once top coat is on. I love jelly polishes, so I am totally willing to put up with a tiny bit of VNL that realistically can't even be seen from more than two feet away!

And look at this awkward break I got in my nail! Check out my middle finger nail - I was taking the trash out at my job (Starbucks), and I was by the dumpster and looked down and saw part of my nail broken! It was still attached awkwardly, and of course I didn't have any nail clippers with me so I had to kind of pull it off. Luckily it broke off rather cleanly when I did that and I clipped it/filed once I got home and now it looks fine! I'm so glad it wasn't a painful break!

Trace Face Philes 1800 Follower Giveaway!

Hey y'all! I'm *so* glad I discovered The Trace Face Philes - not only is it an awesome blog, she runs giveaways ALL THE TIME!

The latest one I'm blogging about to share with you guys is her 1800 followers giveaway. I find this hilarious because she is actually just about to hit 2000 followers! That's how fast she gains followers!

This particular giveaway is for the full Muppets collection by OPI coming out soon! GO ENTER IT!!! HERE!!! But maybe don't....because then I won't have as good a chance of winning it ;)

But seriously...check out her blog and giveaway(s), and good luck!

NYC MoMA

Hey everyone! Today I have for you an old one, well, it's from the beginning of summer anyways! I picked this pretty pink up with the intention of using it for a franken, but do you know what? I never actually used it! I distracted myself with some others that I picked up that day (a black, and Sally Hansen HD in Byte) which I frankened! It didn't turn out so hot.

Anyways, I had this in my untrieds so I decided to see how it looked to cheer myself up, since I was feeling a little sick. (That later spiraled downhill into a nasty cold, which I have FINALLY gotten over as I write this!)

This is NYC nail color in MoMA. I liked the color names, they seemed to have a New York theme, and the price was right too! I remember this was definitely under $3 at Target. It's kind of a deep pink, leaning towards fuschia. Very bright and girly, and had a nice formula too! 2 coats would have been good if you're careful but I went ahead and did 3 to be safe! I always seem to miss the very edge of my nail or something like that, that the 3rd coat helps fix!

It's so funny, I've been growing my nails out a bit but not too long since I have a job where I use my hands a LOT, so when they get longer I feel like they're SO in the way. I feel like they're so long right now, but looking at the photos they don't look very long at all! Maybe if I did a french mani they would look longer, haha! But seriously...I think I won't have them any longer than this, they aren't strong enough right now (but I've been using a strengthener that helps keep them from peeling/breaking) and they just get kind in the way. And they still look nicer than when they are baby nubs! We'll see how long I keep them long!

Hope y'all like this bright pinky color!

Off topic - Sewing Box!

Hey guys! Today I have an off topic post, but I'm so excited about my creative moment I had, that I wanted to share it somewhere! Recently I sewed two blankets for my friend as a baby shower gift (they turned out super cute and she loved them! I'll put a pic of one below!) Well, I realized that I need a sewing basket of some type, to store my stuff in like needles and pins and ribbons and such. (When I was still living with my parents, I just stowed my things in my Mom's sewing basket - she has a cute one like you might take Easter Egg hunting, like a circular basket with a tall handle!) but now I need my own! I didn't see any pre-made ones at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, or Walmart that I liked enough to buy (they were all like $15-25) so I decided to make my own!

I found this brown woven basket with a lid at Hobby Lobby for like $18 I think (can't remember, haha, it was like a week ago...that's sad) but it was 50% off! Yay sales! Then I decided to buy some "me" fabric to put on the outside, and some plain white to go as a lining on the inside. To cover my unfinished edges, I bought some matching ribbon (also 50% off!), and I also bought the smallest size of that basket (matching, just smaller) for like $4 to store my smallest things inside. I've left that one unfinished for now, I think it matches fine! So, for pretty much the same amount of money as a pre-made sewing box, I made myself a totally personalized one! 

OK so here is the outside! I just used hot glue to attach the fabric. I even cut a little slit in the fabric so that little wooden dowel could poke through the fabric! I love that it has a lid that closes - my Mom's also handmade sewing basket doesn't have a lid. Then, to cover my unfinished edges, I hot glued the giraffe print ribbon at the top and bottom all the way around! Giraffes are my favorite animal, but it's a pretty flashy print so I'm always looking for a way to incorporate giraffe print into my life without it getting childish, haha! I thought it looked cool with the wicker-type finish of the box.

And look! I even put the ribbon on the inside, too! It just makes the whole basket look "finished", I think. I actually think this looks like a basket I would have bought somewhere! So I'm really proud of my latest crafty endeavour! :) The giraffe fabric in the bottom of the basket isn't glued on there, btw, it was just some excess I had!

What do you guys think?

Oh! Here's a pic of one of the blankets I sewed for my friend Kim! She just had her baby within the past week! Her name is Lily Shea, I think it's such a pretty name! At first they said they were thinking of old fashioned names and I'm pretty sure like Gertrude got thrown around, and other names that are equally old and....in my opinion, terrible, hahaha. No offense if there's any Gertrudes reading right now!! But ya know what I mean? There are some very old fashioned names out there....I think they picked a great one with Lily! OK onto the blankie pic!!

With each blanket, I made one side out of a black flannel fabric, so it'd be nice and soft! The other side I picked cute modern prints! Obviously the other side in this blanket is made out of the black/white/hot pink modern print. The other blanket I used a hot pink zebra fabric! I had a little excess of the zebra, so I made a little L and sewed it onto this blanket! L for Lily :)

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We are inching closer to our 50 Follower goal - thanks to everyone for following! I can't wait to do the giveaway! Also exciting news - I just had my first swap (Krystal of Polish Galore sent me two OPIs, so I sent her a franken!) and I'm also doing a swap with Inge from Polish Sis, just mailed off her package yesterday! So I am really excited to see what I get from her, and I'll be posting a little thing about what Krystal sent me as well, coming up this week!

Essie - Trophy Wife!

Hey friends! Here's my second Essie polish I bought recently - it's Trophy Wife!

I've had a lemming for a nice teal color lately, so Trophy Wife caught my eye immediately! I actually just got Zoya Akyra right afterwards, and they are very nearly dupes - but they're both lovely so I'm happy to have them both!

Trophy Wife is a really nice dark teal, but not too dark. It has a lovely shimmer in it too! This was 3 coats, but you could get away with 2 if you're careful! I always err on the side of too many coats because inevitably there's a little patch I somehow miss or something like that!

I think the Essie bottle is too cute! I love the name etched into the glass, so cool, and makes it feel kind of expensive! Since these are from their drugstore line (same shades, but a few extras that are available specially at Walmart, etc) there was a little label on the side of the bottle as well, but I just peeled it right off!

See? Shimmer!

I recently picked up Sally Hansen crackle in Antiqued Gold - this worked WAY better than my OPI silver one, which, by the way, has completely hardened up. Very irritating....a big waste of my money. I only used it like three times! Anyways....it's a gorgeous golden shade, clearly gold, not silver like it sort of looks in this pic! If you find the Sally Hansen crackles, I'd suggest picking it up!

Trace Face Philes Giveaway!

Hey y'all! Just wanted to make a quick post and let you all know about a giveaway that's going on right now over at the Trace Face Philes.

She's got a whole set of the Wet n Wild On the Prowl collection to give away to her followers! So head on over to her blog and get in on that!

You can view the giveaway HERE!

Edit: She actually has like four giveaways going on right now - so go enter them all!!

Wet n Wild - Night Prowl!

Here is a polish I picked up recently at Walmart for 94 cents! - it's Wet n Wild Wild Shine nail color in Night Prowl!

A quick swatch instantly reminded me of Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance. If you are turned off by Lippmann's high prices (usually around 18-23 at Nordstrom or online) and don't mind a little bit of a difference, this might be a nice alternative for you! This has the same blackened base and purple glitter, but unlike Bad Romance, this is just one size of purple glitter, no hexagonal glitters here. However, this was 94 cents so....ya know :)

In this photo, I did a base of Petites Night, which is just a regular black polish. However, it's only a dollar and is practically opaque in one coat! I find the Petites nail colors to be a great value, usually look flawless in two coats and come in a nice variety of colors! Anyways, I then topped it with two coats of Night Prowl, and then a Wet n Wild topcoat. It's not as nice as Seche Vite but I've reached that awkward point in the bottle where it's really difficult to get any more out, yet it's still like a good third full. Hm...waste of my money.

Anyways....on to the pics!

And for comparison, here's a pic of Deborah Lippmann 'Bad Romance'! Very similar, no? Same black base, purple glitters, just has some nice added hexagonal glitters! To save about $17...I think I'd be fine with this Wet n Wild almost dupe :)

What do you guys think?

50 Follower Giveaway! - Repost!

EDIT: I'm just reposting this in case people have missed it! We've increased to 28 followers, only 22 more and the giveaway will be up and running! Two prizes!! Tell your friends! :D
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Hey friends! Exciting news! I decided I'd like to do a giveaway! :)

When I reach 50 followers with Google Friend Connect (I'm at 19 right now, so not far to go!), I'll make a post with the full details and a form you can fill out to enter!

Right now I have two Sinful Colors polishes as a prize, and I'm going to think of one other thing as a second prize, whether it is a franken, popular polish at the moment, or any random polish I pick! If you all would be so kind, would you leave a comment with an idea for me for the second prize? You can also comment on my facebook page with an idea! But this prize is for you guys, so I'd really appreciate your input :)

Spread the word about the blog and tell your friends! If you make a blog post about it, I've included a spot on my form where you can put a link to it, for an extra entry!

Zoya BOGO Promo

Hey y'all! Just wanted to let you all know that my favorite brand, Zoya, is doing a promotion right now! (When are they not?!) If you buy any one nail polish, they'll give you one free! Limit of two per person, so I suppose you'd be getting four polishes total that way!

I'm sure my husband will be thrilled to find out that I won't be taking part in this promo - can you believe there aren't two Zoya polishes I want right now?! I got very much caught up with my Zoya wishlist when they did the Earth Day promo where you could mail your old polishes in and buy new ones for cheap!

The promo is valid now until October 5th at 11:59 Eastern time, and the promo code is BOGO4. You can check out their huge color selection at Zoya.com!

Revlon Minted + Glitter!

Hi friends! Here is another polish I picked up in August from Walgreens! They were doing some Register Rewards thing where it was like $3.99 for one, but then they gave you a coupon for $3.99 off the next purchase, so you could use it on the next one and basically get buy one get one free! Well, I had a brain fart at the register and paid for the two Revlon's together, so I only got one coupon, and I should have paid separately then I would have gotten one free, and another coupon to use towards the rest of my polishes in a third purchase! Ok...I've watched too many couponing shows! Here is Revlon Minted!

The first coat looked terrible, but after a careful second coat, it was much better. I did three coats to achieve total opacity. This is a really pretty light mint green. I immediately think of my Essie Turquoise and Caicos when I try to think of a similar color in my stash, but when you look closely - they aren't really THAT similar. T&C is much more blue, though it too is a bright color in the teal/turquoise family!

Essie Turquoise and Caicos, for comparison

Minted

Then, I decided to top Minted with OPI Sparkle Teal Sunrise, which was an Ulta exclusive shade from this summer. I remember Ulta was doing a Buy 2 Get 1 OPI free, so I picked up Sweet Memories and I Lily Love You, and got this free! I think I grabbed Funky Dunkey on clearance too that day!

I LOVE this combination! The teal base to the glitter changes it to a beautiful turquoise color! And of course the iridescent glitter adds a really nice sparkle!

What do you guys think?

OPI Sweet Memories

Hi friends! Today I have a lovely little pink from OPI, Sweet Memories. I originally bought this earlier in the summer to wear under OPI I Lily Love You, but it's a very pretty pale pink on its own too!

Sooo gorgeous!

I think this was two coats. As usual OPI's formula was very good, a tad thick but its easily controlled!

I then decided to top it with a new one I picked up from Walgreens - Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Rock Candy! It's a peachy colored base packed with lots of iridescent glitter, similar to the glitter in I Lily Love You, but obviously no flakies :( The base color does go on almost totally clear, you wouldn't have to worry about seeing it over a darker color, for sure. I like Rock Candy over Sweet Memories, it adds a little sparkle without being over the top! :)