Showing posts with label polish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label polish. Show all posts

Monday, October 8, 2012

I Got Distracted

I was going to show you pictures of the Salon Effects I bought last week, but before I even opened the boxes, I came across this at Target:

Sinful Colors Sinfully Magnetic "Captivate Me." 

I love the color. It's a great pinky-purple that fits well with my wardrobe. Between the shimmer and the magnetic effect, this color has so much depth, it's almost holographic, with the image seeming to move in different light or from different angles. 

I'm not really sure why, but my left pinky wouldn't take the pattern. You can see the beginnings of it there near the cuticle, but that's as much as I got. 

The Sinful colors uses a ring magnet, which made it easy to hang on to and I didn't have to mess with setting it down and picking it back up again in between nails. I did notice that the pattern didn't take quite as well on some of my nails. It kind of looks like there's a lense flare or something, just a big blank patch. I assume this has to do with the shape of my nails and that section being too close or too far from the magnet, but I can't be sure. 
On it's own, I love the color and it coves well in only one coat. I can see using it by itself (without the magnet). I also really liked some of the other colors in the collection, and would like to get more of them--and at only $4.99 each (versus $9.99 for the Sally Hansen version, and we all know how I feel about SH) I'll probably end up with at least 3-4 more, if not the whole collection.
 

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Organizing





You're going to laugh at me.

Earlier in the summer, there was a meme going around of different nail artists and polish designers showing their workspace and how they store their polishes. This was interesting, but I did not take part, since my collection wasn't large enough at the time to merit organizing, fitting neatly into a drawer of my jewelry armoire. This week, however, I acquired a few new polishes, and they didn't fit in the drawer, so I had to come up with alternate space.

This is the part where you can laugh. My oversized collection of 34 bottles of every-day use polish (with a couple of topcoats thrown in) fits into a shoebox.

With my stamping supplies.

And doesn't even fill it:

That's a far cry from the 100-200 bottles I've heard some people mention. I like polish, and I try to make sure that I have every color represented, but I avoid anything that might be a duplicate, I don't like most shimmer polishes, and I'm super picky about my glitters, since they harken back to the chipped manicures of middle school students for me. The shoestring is short, so each polish I own occupies a specific place, filling a certain role. I frequently mix polishes to get the desired color or effect. I have to--there's no sense in buying a bottle of grey polish when I'll only use it once in a blue moon, if that. I'm not a fan or orange, so a single bottle of orange polish is all I need. I have one bottle of yellow for doing flower centers and certain effects, and don't wear it otherwise because on the whole, yellow is one of the worst colors for me to wear, along with most shades of green.

One change that I did make was to pick up some sticky labels from the grocery store and swatch each color on it. Most of my bottles have very similar tops, so being able to spot the color right away makes things much easier.

At some point, I will get around to decorating the box, or perhaps switch to a more sturdy, plastic version. Eventually, I imagine that my supplies with necessitate a second box. But for now, a single shoebox that lives under the jewelry armoire is fine by me. I'm pretty easy to please.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Down the Yellow Brick Road

Well, not quite.

Today I have a couple of swatches for you by China Glaze: "Ruby Pumps" and "Dorothy Who?"

These are very similar: Sheer bases in primary colors, with loads of silver micro glitter.

They sparkle. Their names reference of of my favorite movies. And they go on like a dream. What's not to love? [ETA: all shots in this post are taken WITH a top coat. The glitter is great, but has an uneven texture. Adding a clear topcoat really makes it shine.]

First, we have "Ruby Pumps."

This is a bold, primary red. It's probably the closest thing to a true red I have in my collection (albeit it is a small one). A single coat goes on slightly pinkish. A second coat evens it out, and a third makes it just a bit darker--though in general it's not noticeable.
This shot shows the color the best, even though you can hardly see the glitter. As far as glitter polishes go, this one is pretty subtle on first glance.

For these swatches, I used three coats on every finger except my ring finger, where I have two coats over Pure Ice "Siren," just so you can see the transparency. With thicker coats, you can't really tell the difference between this color on it's own and when it's used with a base coat. Those thicker coats take forever to dry, however (30+ minutes, at least, with an hour being preferable). Thinner coats will retain transparency, though it's not obvious in these photos.

Want a really cool effect? Apply three coats of this color, then dip a q-tip in polish remover and lightly drag it over your nail, just removing the topmost layer of color to reveal the silver glitter. It looks really cool and I wish I'd discovered it before I banged up this manicure and took it off. Next time, maybe.

For "Dorothy Who" I used the same technique: 3 coats on every nail except my ring finger, where I used a base of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Blue By." Once again, the difference is almost unnoticeable in the photograph, and even in real life it is quite subtle.

This is a very bright blue, almost peacock blue and very attractive to my eye. The glitter is the same as in "Ruby Pumps," but unlike in the red, the glitter actually shows up as being silver in this polish, and is much more eye catching. Once again, it's loaded with the stuff, and while the polish starts out sheer it only takes 2-3 coats to build up a decent amount of opacity.
I do need to apologize; my camera does not like shiny, sparkly, or bright things. The most accurate color representation of this polish is on my middle finger in this shot. The others are far too turquoise-y.

I wore "Ruby Pumps" for three days under somewhat trying conditions (extreme heat, physical activity) and it suffered only a bit of tip wear. While it's easy to damage these colors in the drying phase, once they're on they hold up really well. "Dorothy Who" seemed to dry a bit quicker, but I think I also used slightly thinner coats on that one.

Overall, I love the colors and the formulas, and you'll probably be seeing a lot more of them here, both on their own and layered over other colors.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Friday Finds

Hey, it's another double post day!

From left to right:
Brash "Green Machine" ($2.99, Payless)
Orly "Mysterious Curse" ($3.99, Sally's Beauty Supply)
China Glaze "Ruby Pumps" and "Dorothy Who?" ($4.99 each, Sally's Beauty Supply)
S•X•Y "Dreamy Cocoa" ($3.99, Payless)

I've already used a couple of these, so they'll be showing up as swatches next week in between my challenge posts.

Have a great weekend!

Lust objects

Polish that helps your nails
I thought I'd gotten over the bad case of peeling nails I've been battling for the last several weeks, but I just can't seem to kick them. I'm currently lusting after the Dermelect polish That Polish Insomniac swatched a while back. My shoestring won't reach far enough for $14 a bottle, so my next option is scouring the internet for a less expensive, comparable product.

Mirror Metallics!
I only just posted this week about Essie suddenly being available in my area, and about my love affair with metallic and foil polishes, and then Essie goes and releases a whole line of metallics!

Purple is the color of Royalty
Can anyone resist this luscious purple? I just adore it. There really isn't anything else to say.

It's hot, hot, hot!
Love, Varnish, Chocolate recently posted a mani featuring Nfu-oh: 45 over black, and it looks like you are staring into an active volcano. It's so cool!

True Blood Cosmetics
Okay, you caught me. I'm a fangirl. HSN recently announced that they will be selling a set of True Blood inspired beauty products through their website. They're sold in sets, and are produced by Deborah Lippmann--and of course, the colors have awesome names. They make my inner goth squee (not that a goth would ever get caught mid-squee. But I know it's there).

Birchbox
Being a broke novice in the world of beauty, I can't think of a better way to get to know some of the different products out there than through the Birchbox, but I'm rather torn when it comes to signing up. $10 is well within my budget to at least try it out. BUT, I have a problem: my allergies. I'm allergic to most fragrances and soy. Perfumes can make my tongue swell and my throat close up, and I once passed out in a Bath and Body Works. Maybelline mascara has made my eyes swell shut, and I have to be very particular about the skincare products that I use. Does anyone have a subscription? Do they have an allergy form that you can fill out? I know that a lot of high end makeup includes fragrances, and I just have this idea that if I sign up, I won't be able to use anything in the box. I'm on the fence. Worth a go or not? Leave a comment to weigh in.

Converse x DC
What could be better than pairing my favorite sneakers with my favorite heroes? I especially love these Harley Quinn sneakers. I only wish they had Nightwing.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Watch Me Shine



:) I had to. I love both the movie and that song. And it's so appropriate for this post.

And really, is there anyone better to represent a beauty blog than Elle Woods?

But seriously, it was just so right for this post, since I'm reviewing the "Oh So Bright" collection from The Balm.

For starters, who can resist the packaging? Vintage pinups combined with funny play-on-word titles like Shady Lady, Staniac, and Meet Matt(e)--hell yes!

I've been eying this stuff for ages, but kept talking myself out of it because more than once I've been known to buy something based on the packaging only to be disappointed. For another, I don't like trying strange makeup since I'm allergic to a lot of it. It's really had for me to find makeup in a good consistency that contains neither fragrances nor soy (eventually I'll write a little more about that, but not today). Mostly I've seen the kits at Marshalls, and there will be one or two things in them that I like, but the others are either high in the allergy potential (like mascara) or just aren't my thing.

Then I found this kit.

To begin with, let's look at the cosmetic bag it comes in: cute and reusable, both plusses. Second, do you see the MSRP in the upper right hand corner? $59. That is more than I spend on gas in a week. It's more than I spend on food.

BUT, if you're a bargin hunter, you can find these kits for $10 or less. Mine was $9.99 at Marshalls.

So, packaging: 10. Price: 11! Let's look at the contents, shall we?

First up, the Mary-Lou Manizer.

I passed on this kit a couple of times because I don't use luminizer, but the package says it can also be used as an eyeshadow. So I thought, What the hell? I'll give it a shot.

In the compact, it's a nice brown with some gold tones to it--almost the same color as my skin when I have a little bit of a tan (like right now). "Ah," I thought, "Another nice brown eyeshadow." Because browns are my favorite. I like a natural look that doesn't smack you over the head. Yes, I like to mix it up some, but for work I go pretty neutral in my makeup.

I swept on just a touch using the Mini Buki brush that came in the kit, and WOW. It was so bright! A great golden tan, it went on really nice (I did have to even it out a little with my finger since I'm not used to using a brush like that on my eyes). I love the color. It is so perfect, and could be good with day or evening looks. Bonus: it'll work great with the eye shadows I already have.

Next up, a Pump Your Pucker lip gloss called Pink My Lemonade, which is just the cutest title ever. Shimmery and semi-transparent, it's just a couple of shades darker than my natural lips, and the texture is awesome. It's smooth, and after a couple of minutes it's not nearly as sticky as most of the other lip glosses I've tried--which happens to be my pet peeve with lip gloss. I can easily see myself wearing this both on it's own and layered over my favorite lip stain. In fact, I wore both the gloss and the luminizer to my birthday dinner on Sunday, and then to work the next day.
Swatches of the lip gloss and luminizer. The luminizer shows up a lot better on my eyes, but I'm not quite ready to start posting pictures of my face, even in part.

Last, we have a Hot Ticket nail polish. The color is "Princess." It's a nude base with pearly shimmer in it. It went on super easy. Dry time was pretty average (about 15 minutes), so if you're in a hurry it would benefit from a quick dry top coat.

I'm not real big on nude polishes of any sort, but I can see this color being a useful one to have in my palette. It's a little translucent for my taste as well. Here you can see two coats.

Overall, I thought the color was kind of blah, but like I said, I'm not a big fan of the nudes or the pearly colors, but I like the formula and would like to try it in a different color. It is 3 free.

I loved this set and would definitely buy everything in it again--though like I said, different color on the polish. It got me really wanting to try some of their other products, and I'll be looking at the more closely when I see them around now. The more I use them, the more I can't believe what a deal I got! The Mary-Lou Manizer alone sells for $22 on their website, so to get the whole kit for $10 is a steal, even if you take brand name out of it and just look at the quality of the products. I doubt I could have gotten a shadow, gloss, brush, and polish of this quality from Target even if I was buying the store brand (and y'all know how I love my Target). I don't think I could ever consider paying the full retail for it, though, which is sad because I like supporting good companies. I think the most I'd be able to stomach would be $30, but that's speaking from my end of the shoestring. Your mileage might be different.

If you haven't tried anything by The Balm, I highly encourage you to. Also, check out their website, since the company is peopled by some fabulous ladies and dogs!

Friday, June 22, 2012

Friday Finds and Milani Neon

Talk about getting in under the wire!

I toned it down a little this week, but there were still a couple of things that I just couldn't resist:
"Oh So Bright" collection by The Balm ($9.99, Marshalls)
Ladies Emergency kit (purchased mostly because of the adorable tin. I just couldn't say no!) $2.99 Marshalls
Top Care strengthening nail polish remover ($1.29, Giant Eagle)
Wet n Wild Megalast in On a Trip (light purple; $.99, Giant Eagle)
Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Metallica ($1.99, Giant Eagle)
Milani Neon in Rad Purple ($3.99, Giant Eagle)

Today I had to run in to Giant Eagle, and since I needed more polish remover I decided to take a look in their health and beauty section. I'd actually never gone in there, since I'm not overly particular about most of it and things like shampoo, lotion, and polish remover are usually cheaper at Target or Walmart, but oh my god. I feel kind of dumb now.

Here I was thinking that I would have to got to Sally's and spend an arm and a leg on acetone, Seche Vite, Essie, OPI and Orly (none of which I've had a chance to try yet) and they were all right there. Our local Walmart carries Sally Hansen, Pure Ice, and a few other lower end brands that are generally picked over (the last time I saw a full display at a Walmart was the grand opening of the one out by my parents' house). Target carries fewer brands, but they're usually better stocked. Giant Eagle was sold out of some stuff, but for the most part it was all there. They had limited edition lines from a couple of manufacturers (like Wet n Wild and Essie), and a range of colors in brands that I thought were more high end and would only be available online or through specialty stores (please note: I consider anything "high end" when it is over $5.99 a bottle. Remember, I'm on half a shoestring budget here).

Even though I was drooling, I had to resist the urge to load up my basket with polishes, even though I could almost justify some of them simply because I'm still building my palette, so to speak.

The one color I could justify was a dark, creme purple. I didn't have a brand in mind, I just needed a dark purple for my next Heroes V. Villians mani, and since my black is a creme I wanted the purple to be as well. I have two creme purples, but they're pastel. My dark purple is pearlescent.

The only darker purple I could find that didn't contain glitz in one form or another was Milani Neon #506 Rad Purple. It was a little lighter in the bottle than I was looking for, but crunched for time and cash, I decided it would have to do.

The formula is extremely thin, almost watery. I wasn't expecting it, and it gave me some problems on the first coat. By the second I started to get the hang of it.

Because it's so thin, though, this polish tends to spread which eliminates most of the brushstrokes and it dries super fast--almost instantly for thin coats, and in less than ten minutes for thick coats (I didn't time it exactly; might even be less).

Once dry, it's pretty matte, so I added a layer of my Diamond Strength Instant Nail Hardener (on Monday, I'll talk a little bit more about my topcoats and treatments, by the way).

Also note the drastic color difference between bottle and nail. I used three coats for these shots, and just so you can see the comparison, there is one coat of top coat only on my index finger.

I really like the final color, which is much more red than the bottle color (while still being a vibrant, rich purple). The final color is more like what I was looking for in the first place, but I can see this being annoying with other colors if you're expecting one thing and get something VERY different. For my purposes, however, no complaints!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Inspriation Shots

I'm still so new to this world of fashion blogging, I feel like there are about a million years worth of posts that I need to get caught up on. I think I've added over a dozen blogs to my RSS reader in the past two days, and I keep searching for more.

I think the one that finally tipped me over the edge and got me blogging about nail art myself was Let Them Have Polish's China Glaze florescent watermarble. I don't even like neons in any form, be it clothing, polish, I'm not even that crazy about highlighters most of the time. But the pink and yellow in that one just made me squee and I HAD to try it.

Looking at the different blogs, there are so many things I want to try. I have a textile-themed manicure planned for some point in the future (after that water marble and a couple of comic/manga themed ones I want to do), and Nails in Nippon's tweed pattern would be perfect for that. I love the elegance of Copy That, Copy Cat's gloss-on-black manicure. I'm just stunned by some of her freehand designs, too!

Lastly, I'm saving the Morning Java swatch from Polish Insomniac. I love the color and when I finally figure out the steampunk manicure that I want to do (but have yet to design) I think that color is going to be involved. Its just perfect!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Manicure of the Week

For my first Manicure of the Week, I really wanted to show off something cool and special.

Instead, I get to share a learning experience.


For this manicure, I followed the tutorial on Nailasaurus' blog. The problem is that Kroger was out of cosmetic sponges when I stopped by on the way home from work, so I settled for a regular kitchen sponge. In the process of doing this one, I realized rather quickly that I needed a sponge with smaller pores. I still think that these will be useful...but for something else. I might have been able to get a more gradual transition with more applications, but with dry time this design took almost three hours for all the coats I had to do:

1. I always treat my nails with Sally Hansen Natural Nail Growth Activator before I start [sadly, it is discontinued. But it appears there are a plethora of replacements available, such as this one]. It dries almost instantly and usually by the time I finish with the last finger the first is ready to be painted. When used regularly, it does help nails to grow. Right now I'm using it pretty frequently because my nails, which are usually rather weak and brittle, have been peeling horribly--worse than I've ever had before--so I'm trying to get some new, stronger nails to grow in.

2. Because my nails are so weak, I use Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Instant Nail Hardener as a base coat [again, discontinued, but I believe this is a similar if not identical formula]. It helps the polish last longer, and it helps my nails stay stronger after the polish is removed.

3. I put on two very thin coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in #440 "Calypso Blue." This is one of my favorite colors and I always get a lot of compliments on it. It is very sheer on it's own, however, hence the two coats. If I were wearing this color on it's own, I would have done up to four to get the desired effect.

4. For the dark end of the gradient, I mixed equal parts of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in #25 "Night Lights" (this is starting to read like an infomercial, isn't it? While the line is still around, the color appears to have been discontinued) with Bari Cosmetic's Pure Ice in "Kiss Me Here." Once more, I think this color has been discontinued. When I looked it up to link for this post, it brought me to a page for what looks like a black glitter polish, and the bottle I have is a solid, beautiful, ebony black (they also charge $1.99 per bottle on their site, and I think I found it for 99 cents at Walmart a few years ago). The nearest one now available is Black Rage.

5. I then topped everything off with three more coats of the Nail Hardener, which helped even out the bumpiness of the gradient and provided a more uniform shine.


Next time, I want to try using matte colors, a better sponge, and I won't mix colors. First, it created an uneven tone at the tip of the nail, and where the black/glitter combo overlapped with the blue it created a sort of sick greenish color that I'm not crazy about. Still, the more I look at this manicure, the more I like it, even if it didn't come out quite the way I imagined.

It is also clear that I need to invest in a quick dry top coat--the question is, which one? I had one a very, very long time ago but never really noticed a difference with or without it. Do they actually work?

I guess I'll have to find out.

Maybelline Color Show #280 Plum Paradise

Size: .23 fl oz/7 ml
Price: $2.89
Source: Walmart


This was a splurge I picked up because I didn't really have any purple in my stash, and I wear a lot of it. I believe that this was on clearance, but it was just kind of tossed in an unmarked bin.

The color is a rich, pearly, royal purple that I love. When it comes to applying it, however, it's a bit of a challenge. For the first coat, I tried to go really thin -- well, that left lots of horrible streaks, and passing over an area that was already painted even a few seconds later was a big mistake. I discovered on the second coat that the best option was to glop it on a bit thicker and then spread it out as quickly as possible.

It does dry quickly, which is a plus, and there's a lot of shine to it. I used 3 coats for these swatches.

I think that Plum Paradise would do better layered with something else--over a black or white, for example. White would really brighten it up and add a whole new dimension to the color, but it would probably also make the uneven application even more noticeable.
I wore this color for a day and a half, but even for that short of a time this color didn't really hold up. By the time I took it off, it was showing tip wear on almost every nail (and that's with both a base and a top coat), some of the nails had gouges in the color. It seems that this polish is very soft, even when dry, and just my daily routine left nicks and scratches in the color.

Over all, I'm not impressed. I might continue to use this color (as I said, layered over something else, and probably with two coats of top coat, just to be safe), but I really wouldn't purchase it again and I'm glad I paid less than $3 for it.