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!