New Year's Nails!

Happy 2012!!!

2011 is almost over, baby 2012 is about to crawl in.  2011 has been a great year for me, all around.  I have wonderful friends and family, we welcomed a new addition to the family (my precious niece Duckie), I got a great new job that will hopefully turn into an outstanding career, and I started my blog!  Those were just some of the nice things that happened to me this year, hopefully everyone else has had a fantastic year too.

This post is really just for absolute fun, no real review of a polish today.  For my New Year's Eve nails I did Ulta Alter Ego, which I will do a real post of sometime later, and Nicole by OPI Rainbow in the S-kylie.  This is more of a Rainbow The Sequal.  I think I'm going to revisit a couple of my glitters and ones that I had trouble with later, but not right now.

This manicure looks kind of like a peacock, but I like to think that it could also look like those silly party hats and decorations that go with the celebration.  =)

Tried to get a close up so you could see just how glittery it really is.

It's much more glitter-ific in person.  I think the flash reflected too much off of the silver bits but without it the pictures just looked horrible.

So have a wonderful New Year!  2012 is going to be the best year yet.  Leave a comment on your favorite polish of 2011 or even send me a pic of your New Years Nails!

In The Limelight (Neon)

Hello everyone!  Today I bring you something obnoxiously bright!

I wore this manicure before the holidays and just never got around to posting it.  I'd had a particularly irritating day at work and needed something bright to help cheer me up.  If you have ever worked in retail before, you completely understand where I'm coming from.  Holiday season makes me hate the holidays.

Here is China Glaze In The Limelight (Neon).  This was very interesting to me for a few reasons.  The formula was very thin and watery, so I ended up using three coats just to get even coverage, but what I found to be most intriguing was that this shade dried matte.  I like matte polishes, some people don't, but I do.  It makes it look like suede to me.  But this looked like a caterpillar was on my hand as a matte.  So maybe another day.  A top coat made it shiny, so I was happy for the time being with that.

I had used a no chip top coat by Sally Hansen, which has never given me any problems before.  But, the next morning when I woke up and looked at my nails there were huge chunks of the polish completely missing.  Not as in, I hit my hand on something and the tips messed up.  There were huge flakes missing from the middle of my nail.  This mani didn't even last 12 hours before it quit on me.  So disappointing.

But here a pictures of it while it was whole anyway.

Obnoxiously bright, yes?  It did help to lift my mood, so it served it's purpose.

Perceval

Merry Christmas everyone!  Happy Chanukah!  If I missed your holiday, have a great one!

I am so incredibly excited, I can barely contain myself.  I have been dying to get my hands on anything from a-england, I've seen posts on it all over the web and was practically salivating over these polishes.  The Mythicals collection is the very first collection from this line and they're all named after figures from Arthurian legend.  So that made the nerdy side of me happy.

I had obsessed over these lovely polishes for a while, deciding from the website just which one I really wanted to try first before I laid down my cash, since they are priced at 9 British Pounds.  Thinking of this price in terms of US dollars, I figured these to be on the nicer end of the spectrum: nicer than OPI but not as crazy pricey as say Chanel (which I have sadly never used).  If thought of that way, sure, I would have bought it myself no problem.  But, since  the British Pound is stronger than the US dollar I had to stop and think about it.  9 GBP roughly equals 14 USD, as of 12/26/2011 according to XE Universal Currency Converter.  So I decided I'd get one or two of them as a holiday splurge.  A Merry Christmas to me, if you will.

And I said as much on my facebook wall.  Luckily, my dear friend Herself's (whom I have previously mentioned) fiance (aka Brother) saw the post and wanted to know, for the sake of science, which one I liked.  I couldn't decide between two of them, but let him know which ones.  He said he'd pass it on to Santa.

Well, Santa delivered, my friends!  I opened my present and literally squealed, I was so excited.  Right in front of me were Perceval and Galahad.  Oh my goodness, they are so pretty!  When I got home I immediately put on Perceval to be my Christmas Nails.

My original assumption on the quality of the polish was correct.  The formula is to die for.  Completely smooth finish, no streaking or drag, and thick enough to be a one coat-er for complete coverage without bald spots.  And the polish has lasted through 5 days of wear!  We all know how hard I am on my nails from previous posts and that I get bored very easily.  I might just redo this one and wear it until later in the week.

The color on the website is described as "splendid and resplendent red," which I agree with.  At a glance, the shade could be compared to OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress, but that shade is a fraction too dark.  Perceval is more of a metallic fire engine red.  A great year-round red, but very appropriate for fall and winter.

I am in love.

a-england Perceval retails for 9 GBP and is available for purchase directly from the website a-england.co.uk.  Right now the website is offering FREE worldwide shipping on all orders!

**This polish was given to me as my Christmas present, so I didn't actually purchase it.  Thank you Herself and Brother!

Orly Wandering Vine

Christmas is almost here!  Yay!  Except I work in retail and the holidays make me kinda miserable.  But 'tis the season.

I did some very simple nail art in honor of Christmas being only 2 days away, even though I wore this manicure at the end of last week.  I used Orly Wandering Vine, which is a very dark pine green cream polish and Essie Size Matters with Nicole by OPI Orna-meant For Each Other for some sparkle.

Wandering Vine had a very watery formula, which I'm not exactly used to.  I used three coats of it just to get full coverage.  From what I had gathered in my own research of reading other blogs and fashion magazines, earthy greens were a very big trend for the fall.  I had gotten this shade with the intention of doing a green fall manicure, but never got around to it.  I thought this one was more of a winter because it reminded me of Christmas trees.

I used Essie Size Matters with a dotting tool to make something that kind of looked like clusters of holly berries on opposite corners of my ring fingers and thumbs and then put Orna-meant for Each Other on top to make it sparkle.  Before I put the glitter polish on the red dots they kind of blended in with the green (if you can imagine that, since they're on opposite sides of the color wheel) because they were both so dark.

Over all, I was very pleased with the results and it lasted for a good 3 days.  This was almost impossible to get off of my nails though.  Took almost an entire jumbo sized cotton ball per nail.  Such a waste.

I got my mini bottle of Orly Wandering Vine for $3.50 US, Nicole by OPI Orna-meant for Each Other for $7 US, and Essie Size Matters full sized bottle for $8 US.

Cocktail Bling

Ok, I totally lied, THIS will be the last of my Essie holiday collection posts.  I completely forgot about Cocktail Bling!

It's the gray in the collection, but it has some very faint blue undertones to it.  Very pretty, almost like light rain clouds type of color.  I have a yellow undertone to my skin, so it would probably look very fetching on someone with a darker skin tone than me.  I loved it either way.

I decided that I wanted to play around with my mani after I did my two coats of Cocktail Bling.  Neutrals with a bright color are fun and it's nice to spice things up every now and then.  I used a dotting tool with Essie Your Hut or Mine.  When I showed the finished product off to people, I got a lot of compliments, but I also got a "It looks like your nails are bleeding," from my mom.  Thanks a lot, Mom. =p

Maybe you will like it.

Both pictures were taken  indoors with flash.

This mani actually lasted me almost a full week.  I only changed it because a couple nails decided to break and look like freaks of nature on my hands.

Full sized bottles of Essie Cocktail Bling and Your Hut or Mine retail for $8 US.  Essie also has cubes available with four colors from each collection (which is where both of those colors came from, except separate cubes) retailing for around $17 US.

Bobbing for Baubles

Hello lovely people!  Today will be the last of my Essie holiday collection posts!  Sad face.  I love Essie so much.

Here is Bobbing for Baubles, a lovely dark teal.  In the bottle it looks distinctly more blue, and to me teal has more green in it.  But I've noticed that Essie colors dry a shade or two darker than what you see in the bottle.  Once it dried, I thought about it for a minute and came to the conclusion that Sonia Kashuk's Taunting Teal was exactly the same color.  Obviously, there are differences in formula and maybe a hair's difference in actual shad,. but to my eye it looked the same.

Bobbing for Baubles did last a good long while tho.  Nails actually broke and there was no damage to the polish aside from looking a little jagged.  There were no chips or fading, I actually got bored with it before it started to show signs of wear.  I did use a liquid quick dry oil on it and I've noticed that when I use it, there are what appears to be scratches on the surface of the top coat, like when your phone or eye glasses get scratches.  It was very distracting.  So I might refrain from using it unless I'm in a huge hurry.

Indoors

In the shade

In direct sunlight

Full sized bottles of Essie Bobbing for Baubles retail for $8 US

Julep Givaway!

Hi readers!

I just wanted to share this awesome giveaway that Julep is doing where you can win their entire collection!  You can enter *here* for your chance to win.  Also, if you get 5 friends to enter, you are automatically entered to win the Ultimate Julep prize.

Good Luck!

Take the Julep Maven quiz here to find out your Julep Maven profile.  I'm American Beauty.  ;)

Zoya America

Hey everyone!  TGIF!  I have something brand new today, and let me tell you, it really is brand new to me.  This is my first Zoya product, and I have fallen in love!  The formula is so smooth and it goes on perfectly.  The pigment is rich and I got complete coverage with no bald spots with two thin coats.  I probably could have gotten away with one thick coat, but I did two just to be on the safe side.

Now that I've had a taste of Zoya, I want more of them.  America actually looks very similar to OPI Thrill of Brazil, only with the tiniest bit more orange in it.  Still, it's the classic pin up red that holds a special place in my heart.  This might even be my new go-to shade.  ;)  And the bottle's really pretty.  Like Deborah Lippmann's and Essie's bottles had a baby and popped out Zoya.

With flash

Without flash

Then I got a little overly ambitious and tried to do candy cane nails for the holidays.

Fail.  I used Sally Hansen White Out and Pixel Oh Sooish! to make it look like candy.  Oh Sooish! is a translucent white glitter, almost a glaze, that adds that extra bit of shine.  Essie Marshmallow would probably be very similar, I just don't have that one.

Zoya America retails for $8 US, Sally Hansen White Out and Pixel Oh Sooish! both retail for about $2.50 US

Blue Year's Eve

Hey everyone!  Today has kind of been sucky.  I have no idea why, but on days when I don't have coffee in the mornings everyone, with the exception of a few select people, irritates the crap out of me.  So I came home, made some coffee, redid my nails, and got a glass of yummy French wine.  Today is now much better.

So far I have two out of China Glaze's holiday 2011 Let It Snow collection, and I put them both in one manicure.  I have Blue Year's Eve and Tinseltown.  Blue is a rich royal/denim blue with a blue micro shimmer .  The formula is actually a littler thinner than I'm used to with China Glaze being, but three thin to average coats got full coverage with no bald spots.  I noticed that the base color in this is very similar to an Essie color, and I even did a touch up with it.  Essie's Aruba Blue, while super shiny but not a glitter, is exactly the same blue.  Although, Aruba Blue is more of a summer shade to me, probably because it doesn't have the glitter like Blue Year's Eve.

Tinseltown is a thick glitter in a black jelly base.  Multiple sizes of glitter: large hex, medium size round, and micro glitter all in one!  It's so shiny!  I used it as my accent nail in this manicure, but this one chipped so easily.  I don't know what it is about these super thick glitters, but each one I've tried out so far has done the same thing.  Looks great by itself, then chips two hours later.  I have a feeling that this would stay on better if I used a gray as a base and then put that on top of it.  This one is also very textured, but one coat of top coat was enough for me to get it smooth.

Pictures taken under artificial light with flash.

China Glaze Blue Year's Eve and Tinseltown both retail for $7 US.

Size Matters

Yes it does.  In all aspects.

Hello everyone!  =)  This is the second week in a row that I haven't done my Sunday posts, but I have today off, so I'll post now.

Essie has a really fabulously smooth formula, there is no way around it.  It goes on like silk and then you just have to admire it on your nails.  At least that's what I do.  Essie's Size Matters from the current 2011 winter collection is the same way, and it's almost a dark brick red.  I wanted to call it poinsettia, but they actually have a color called Poinsettia, which is a slightly brighter red.  But really, I think this is almost a wine red, like Merlot.

Essie Size Matters

Now, I unwittingly found a dupe for this lovely color from Ulta, which Twin provided me with.  Deep Desire is exactly the same color. but the formula isn't as great to work with.  Plus it chipped all to hell after about a day.  

Ulta Deep Desire

Great dupe color wise, but if you're going to quality it's hands down Size Matters.

Essie Size Matters full bottle retails for $8 US, the winter cube retails for $17 (includes Size Matters, Bangle Jangle, Cocktail Bling, and Bobbing for Baubles).
Ulta Deep Desire retails for $6 US.  Ulta also usually has awesome sales for their brand of cosmetics like buy two get one free, buy two for $8, etc.

**Deep Desire was provided to me for review.  I did not purchase this color myself.

Facets of Fuchsia

Today I'm posting what might just be a decent dupe for an OPI Designer Series color.  Everyone knows that OPI has a superior formula to most of the other main stream lacquers out there.  I also thought that this could stand in for an L.A. Colors shade, but after looking at the website I'm not so sure.  If any of you lovely people reading this know exactly which one it is a good dupe for, please leave a comment of email me.  I saw it on another blog, which I unfortunately can't remember which one, so I know it has been compared to something else.

This is Revlon's Facets of Fuchsia over essence 21 Fabuless.  I used two coats of Fabuless, which has the tiniest bit of shimmer to it, so it would be great on its own, and one coat of FoF.  Facets has large hex dark purple glitter pieces and micro purple glitter pieces in a black jelly base.  I was tempted to try this glitter over just a purple, but the black jelly looked weird on top of it.  Maybe if I find the right purple...Hmm.

This manicure lasted me a solid four days with little to no chipping, and shrinking from the tips only on one or two nails.  All this might be attributed to a new top coat I'm trying out, one of those "no chip" kinds, but we'll see after a few test runs, then I'll give a full report.  Facets of Fuchsia's glitter pieces were really easy to move around and I didn't have to load up the brush a million times.  Fun to work with, in my opinion.

I thought this could have been a dupe for L.A. Colors Glistening Purple, but all the pictures I see of it just looks like a purple glitter.  Then I thought it could have been one of OPI's Designer Series, but that's also wrong.  Either way, I really liked it.

Revlon Facets of Fuchsia retails for around $5.50 US plus sales tax.
**essence 21 Fabuless was provided to me for review by a third party, I did not buy this one.  But it retails for about $1 US

Gold Chrome

No Sunday post this week, so we get a Super Special Monday post!  I was really tired last night and decided to just go to bed.

Christmas came early at my house--my parents decided to get me a new digital camera so I could take better pictures for my blog!  Yay thoughtful parents!  I'm still trying to figure out the best setting to take the polish pics on, but I think I have it figured out now.  Huzzah for 14 megapixels.

This is Sally Hansen's Gold Chrome pen.  Pretty handy for a manicure in a flash.  This would be perfect for that moment during the holidays where you forgot you had to be somewhere or there was a surprise gathering happening in the next five minutes.  You just click the pen, paint, and it is dry within 30 seconds.  I'm completely serious, it was smudge free dry, completely cured within about 30 seconds.

Be sure that you buff the life out of your nails before using this one, I could see every single little ridge and imperfection in my nails while wearing this and it drove me insane.  One coat does the job, two coats is best.  Do not, I repeat, DO NOT put a top coat on this.  I tried to and it ruined the paint job.  It is perfectly shiny as is, it just doesn't look exactly like chrome on your car would.  It looked more like brushed gold, almost a matte.  It did wear off very quickly.  And not like polish normally wears, it faded like a marker on plastic wears (if you've ever had to write your name on your water bottle and rubbed at it, you know exactly what I mean).  But it was pretty while it lasted.

 Natural light

With and without flash













I got my Sally Hansen Gold Chrome Pen for $8 US.

Bangle Jangle

Hello hello all!  I hope everyone is having a great weekend, mine is almost here.  Tomorrow is my Friday, since I have Monday and Tuesday off this coming week.

I tried out another of Essie's Winter 2011 collection and this time it was Bangle Jangle, a very pale purple.  It was more periwinkle, in my opinion, and could probably see this in a spring collection a little easier than a winter.  I've noticed a trend this year that the winter lines could almost double as springs, a lot of the colors are very pale pastels most of the time.  Winter to me has more dark reds, pine greens, more jewel tones than anything else.  But a lot of theses colors could be called a frosted look.

Anyway, Bangle Jangle was not my favorite out of the bunch, mainly because the color just didn't look good against my skin tone.  It completely washed me out and I could only wear it for about a day and a half.    I think it only lasted that long because I was very proud of how nice the paint job turned out, haha!  It was completely opaque in two thick coats and there were no bald spots that I could see, and it was a very nice solid cream.  The formula was a dream to work with, I had no complaints.  But that's what I've come to expect from Essie.  =)

I've also noticed that I don't really favor sheer polishes.  If I wanted to be able to see my tips I'd probably use a very pale color to begin with or just do a French manicure.  That was not the problem with this polish.

The bottle of Bangle Jangle I have is a mini that came in a cube.  All of these pictures were taken under artificial light.

Tiny tiny bottle!

The Essie Winter 2011 cube retails for $17 US, and the full sized bottle of Essie Bangle Jangle retails for $8 US.  I found a great deal on Essie polishes at my local CVS Pharmacy for $7 US per bottle.