Catrice - Pool Party at Night & Snow-Man Of My Dreams!

Hey guys!

Today I have a gorgeous gorgeous polish that I received in my swap I did with Polish Sis! It is a beautiful blue, Catrice - Pool Party At Night! This is actually from the beginning of December, haha! My nails are much longer now :)

It appears a little darker in this picture than it is in real life, but it is a lovely deep blue creme! Two coats was plenty to achieve opacity. For comparison, it is definitely lighter than China Glaze First Mate.

I don't know why my pictures are sideways today....well, it's fun to switch things up every now and then!

Here it is with flash! So pretty!

But y'all know I love my glitter, so I added a new one I just picked up - Nicole by OPI Snow-Man of my Dreams, from their 2011 Holiday collection! You may have seen my facebook rant about my camera, which was supposedly fixed, and how the macro focus function doesn't seem to work anymore. As you can see...it is blurry here, so clearly my macro function is broken. *sigh* So I am going to buy a new camera...but not for a few months, I'm going on vacation in July so I'll buy one before that trip! This camera works fine as long as I'm not trying to zoom in too close like I was in this picture.

Let's try an iPhone picture instead... 

As you can (kind of) see, Snow-Man of My Dreams is a packed glitter polish, with glitter of every color! It does lean towards blue, although there are all sorts of colors in here, so I thought it would go nicely over Pool Party At Night. It is a clear base, though, so I think you could layer it over anything :)

Well, this was my first Catrice polish and I have to say, Inge picked a great one! The formula and shade were wonderful, I hope this won't be my last Catrice! Do any of you own Catrice polishes?

Have a wonderful day!!

HARE Polish - Archipelago

Hey y'all! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today I have another lovely HARE Polish to show you - Archipelago! I am so happy I was able to pick up these two polishes! Nikole makes some lovely polishes and they fly off the shelves every time she sells them on her Etsy page! (HERE)

Archipelago is a juicy deep navy blue with a couple sizes of copper glitter mixed in. The glitter easily shows through, thanks to the jelly consistency. The glitters look kind of gold here, but they are more of a copper shade!

I normally shy away from dark colors, but this is still obviously blue in all lights, which is great!

See the larger and smaller glitter pieces?

With flash it's a lovely dark denim color! See the nice jelly consistency! 

I think I did 3 coats of this polish to achieve opacity. It has a little bit of a stinky smell to it, as does A Positive, but they both look amazing so I don't mind! :) Thank you again Nikole for making these wonderful polishes!

HARE Polish - A Positive

Hey y'all!! Guess what I have today to show you - HARE Polish - A Positive!

As you can see, this is a goooorgeous raspberry jelly with lots of silver hexagonal glitter packed in!

With flash!

I love this picture! You can really see all the glitter clearly! And how cute are her labels?!

Nikole makes the cutest nail colors! Occasionally she sells them on her Etsy page (HERE) and she also has a tumblr you can see her manicures on (HERE)! Thank you so much for the gorgeous polishes, Nikole! You guys can stay tuned for another HARE mani soon! Next year!!!! :)

Happy New Year!!!

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?

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! :)

Ulta Haul/My First Butter London!

Hey all! In spite of the cold I am currently fighting [edit: well, I was on Tuesday when I wrote this!], I went out of the house today to get some fresh air...but mainly to go to Ulta so I could take advantage of their Butter London Buy one get one free sale! I was hoping to find Henley Regatta but someone beat me to it. I went less than two hours after they opened, and I can't imagine they got cleaned out that bad in two hours...it looked to me like they just hadn't stocked in a while. Oh well. I picked up West End Wonderland and No More Waity Katie! 

And, as you can see, I also grabbed two Pinata-yada-yada's, plus Celebutante - since the Ulta polishes were on sale for $2! I grabbed the old bottle version of Celebutante since Ulta recently changed their price from $5 to $6 AND they made the bottle smaller. Jerks....I actually had bought a bottle of Pinata-yada-yada a couple weeks ago, but when I realized that not only had the price gone up, the bottle was smaller, I returned that ASAP! And that paid off, since a few days later I got their magazine ad in the mail that was advertising their colors for $2! Heck yeah! I love Pinata-yada-yada for frankens, so I picked up two! And I just thought Celebutante was the cutest purple! Very similar to my favorite purple ever, Zoya Mira!

I was hoping to also find Zoya Jana, and the China Glaze glow in the dark polish, but they didn't have either :(

Here is West End Wonderland, a gorgeous golden glitter packed into a clear base. It's so laden with glitter, though, that some people would probably be fine with one coat! I did two coats and then did a teeny touchup on a couple spots that wound up looking a little bare. This also dried relatively smooth, which surprised me, I expected it to be very gritty.

Look! Look at that shimmer!!! Yayyy I love glitters!

You may be able to see in the bottle (and slightly on the nail) that along with the gorgeous fine gold glitter, there are some tiny red glitters, as well! They aren't super noticeable on the nail but definitely add some depth to the polish! It's so deliciously sparkly...I can't wait to wear this around the holidays! This one was kind of a snap decision for me, since I wasn't sure what colors to get once I saw there was no Henley Regatta, but I am thrilled with my decision to pick West End Wonderland!

Celebutante + Milani!

Hi everyone! Here is one of my grabs from today from Ulta's $2 sale - it's Celebutante. I immediately knew this was a dupe for Zoya Mira/OPI Funky Dunkey, which happens to be my favorite purple ever, so I snatched it up! I picked the one from their older bottle design, rather than the new design, because it is marginally bigger than the new design bottle. They raised the prices recently, yet downsized the bottle from .4 oz to .33. I know it's not a huge jump but...if the price goes up, the product should NOT go down. It's the principle...grrr Ulta!

Anyways I used the end of my Funky Dunkey for a franken I made today, so I'm glad I bought Celebutante! It's very pretty and a great backup for my Mira :)

Oops! You can clearly see I didn't bother painting my thumb, haha! Oh well. It's a bit more warm purple than this photo, purples are so hard to get right! I put the blue envelope in the background to try and help it show up more purple than blue!

Two coats was great, though I had to be careful not to flood my cuticles, it was a tad runny, I guess would be the word. I'm just pleased to get away with two coats, so I didn't mind too much!

I then topped it off at the tips with my Milani Jewels in gold! I love love love this glitter! What do you guys think? Hope you like! I spent the afternoon with this on, and am about to go take it off since I have work tomorrow :( (I know, I'm sick, yet I still have to work. My coworkers....they are so nice, nobody would switch with me/cover my shift! At least one girl is coming in an hour early for me, she actually is nice!)

I tried to do a bit of a gradient with the glitter, I think it looks neat!

I like the color combo! If only I went to LSU or some other purple/yellow/gold school haha! :)

Hope you guys like!

Wet n Wild - Sparked!

Here is another one from my recent Walgreens haul! It's Wet n Wild Wild Shine nail color in Sparked, a really pretty pink glitter! I recently developed a lemming for Butter London in Rosie Lee, and when I saw Sparked at the store, I immediately thought of it. Now, I don't have Rosie Lee so I can't really compare them but they are both a pink glitter so I thought oooh pretty!!

Here is Sparked by itself, nothing underneath, though I suspect it would look really pretty layered over a darker pink. It is two different colors of pink glitter suspended in a clear/pale pale pink base. I could have left it at 3 coats but I love the golden-pink hue so I went ahead and did a fourth coat! This is sooo pretty, I really like it! It reminds me of a lighter version of Zoya Astra or Nova!

What do you guys think? And as ridiculous as this is going to sound, it was kind of a neutral sparkle! It wasn't like a Zoya Charla or Ivanka, the bright AND sparkly combo, it was nice!!

Franken #4 - Pink Sparkle!

Hi everyone! I'm back with some photos of Franken #4, which I'll call Pink Sparkle. It's a pretty generic name but....oh well! To create this pretty pink, I mixed the rest of my Petites Pretty in Pink with a little clear, and Zoya Astra, which is a super sparkly raspberry jelly-ish polish. Astra is GORGEOUS but I get frustrated when trying to remove the super-glitters, plus I wanted to give it a little solid color to mix in with the sparkle. I like how it turned out! :)

Sorry it's a little messy! I did it in the car while my husband and I were driving to watch a soccer game! :P I love the bright pink shade from Pretty in Pink, and Astra adds just the right amount of sparkle for my liking! :)

Mango Piñata - Franken!!

Hi guys!

OK I am getting totally into Frankens. I may have a problem.....we'll see soon I guess! So my second franken attempt turned out so well, I decided I had to make more! I went to Walmart and picked up some more clear polish, some BB's (to put in the polishes to help them shake up!), and came home and got to work on Franken #3, which I am dubbing Mango Piñata.


I combined:
Approximately 1/3 Wet'n'Wild Clear
Approximately 1/3 Forever 21 No Name Coral color
Approximately 1/3 Ulta Piñata-Yada-Yada
And a little dash of Petites Mango
Plus 2 Balls


I was totally inspired by Cristina's recent Franken (HERE) that had the same glitter polish in it, but decided to go for a saucy bright color! I love her super jelly finish on that one, and think maybe if I replicated Mango Piñata that I might do a tad less color, a tad less clear, and a tad more glitter! A tad is a very scientific unit, you know!


Here is the end result! I like it! Not quite as jelly as Pink Lily Love, a bit more opaque, with a little sparkle from the confetti! I wish that Piñata-Yada-Yada showed up a little better but I think it's just so dense, it's hard to get it evenly distributed in the bottle. Much shaking is needed, I think.

Yay! What do you all think? :)

Coral + Glitter!

Hi guys! So my friend got married last Saturday, and in honor of the occasion, I bought a new dress to wear at Target! It is a great coral color, which I thought was perfect since his wedding was on the beach! Then I thought, OK, I have to do my nails for this!

I scrounged around my stash and found this great coral color that I got at Forever 21 last summer, that matched my dress nearly perfectly, but I wanted something else, so I grabbed my colorful glitter polish that I got at Ulta, it's called Pinata-yada-yada. It's basically just a ton of glitter, some teeny specks and some bigger ones, in lots of different colors. It's totally clear aside from the glitter so I thought it would go perfect over the coral.

Not the best pic, we were driving, but still you can see how it looked! :)

Hope you guys like it, it's totally one of my favorite mani's, and I got a lot of compliments over it! This Forever 21 polish actually held up really well, I've had it on for 6 days and washed my hair multiple times and filed my nails just now, quite a bit since they'd grown out a lot, and there isn't even tip wear! Seche vite.....it's the best!!!

Revlon Quick-Dry Basecoat
Forever 21 Nail color, no name
Ulta 'Pinata-yada-yada' glitter
Seche Vite topcoat!

Something A Little Different!

I tried something different today, usually I just do colors, if I do tips at all it's just the plain pink and white, but this is OK. I think I'll probably ditch it tomorrow but...ya never know.

I got the glittery silver at Ulta, not sure if it's just a shimmer topcoat or what. The tips are Trixie by Zoya, and of course a generous topping of Seche Vite topcoat, since the glitter was a little grainy. I'd definitely recommend putting a glossy topcoat over the glitter, as it dried pretty matte and I didn't really like it. I added the Trixie in an effort to spice it up a little, and I like it, but like I said, it's different for me so I need to get used to it a little!