Sally Hansen Giant Peach

Hi guys! Happy Easter to those who celebrate! Today I have a swatch of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Giant Peach for you.

Giant Peach is a pretty warm coral-leaning pink creme. It's on the muted side, so it can be worn to work as it's not too bright. It's very flattering, and I wore this for a few days, which is saying something for me... Usually I change my polish every day! 

The formula was pretty good, a little streaky on the first coat but evened out completely by the second. This swatch is two coats with topcoat (I apologize for the tipwear--I may or may not have been playing in some acetone right before this picture).

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's are so reliable and affordable. I love them! What's your favorite?

XOXO

Is

Sinful Colors Midnight Blue

Hi guys! Today I have a quick swatch to show you. This beauty is Sinful Colors Midnight Blue.

Perfect in two coats, this dark blue had a gorgeous lit-from-within glow.

My camera couldn't capture the depth it has, but the next photo is closer to reality....

The flash really shows off its depth.

I'm thinking this'll look great mattified. Thoughts?

XOXO

Is

Spoiled by Wet N' Wild Spam

Hi guys! Yesterday I showed you swatches of a high-end brand, Deborah Lippmann, but today I'll be sharing some polishes that are a bit more affordable. Priced at only $1.99 per bottle exclusively at CVS, they're practically giving them away!

First up is The Parking Meteor Expired. (ha, ha.)

Flash

Normally I always try to show you pictures in natural light, but this polish was tricky. The Parking Meteor Ran Out is a blackened teal shimmer with a slight purple duochrome in the bottle which sadly does not show up on the nail. Bummer! This polish looks pretty much black in most lights, but in broad sunlight the teal shimmer comes out to play! It is very subtle, but a nice alternative to plain black. The formula was okay, a little thin, so be careful as it might flood your cuticles.

Next is Paying With Platinum!

Natural Light

Natural Light

Natural Light

Paying With Platinum is a gray polish with a lavender to green duochrome. The duochrome isn't majorly strong, but it is there. The purple is visible at most angles in the murky gray base, and at extreme angles the green can be seen. The formula is quite thin and sheer. You could probably build it up to full opacity in three or more coats, but I chose to layer it over a dark gray, Maybelline Impeccable Grays. Duochromes tend to show their full shifts if layered over a darker color, anyway.

The last polish I have to show you is Club Rat. Gross name, but such a pretty polish!

Artificial Light

Flash

Club Rat is a pretty pink jelly with magenta/purple shimmer! For the first picture (mmm... so squishy) I used three coats of Club Rat on its own for the first picture. This creates a full coverage, squishy jelly look that's so fun and sunny! For the second picture I layered one coat of Club Rat over my favorite black creme, Sinful Colors Black on Black. This creates a COMPLETELY different look! I love layering sheerish shimmery colors over black. It brings out the colors of the shimmer like you wouldn't believe! Over black it shows a cool purple and magenta shimmer blast! So pretty.

What do you think about these colors? I just want to talk a bit about the brush. Spoiled brushes are wide and round, and are sometimes cut very wonky. I have had good luck with the brushes, however. The brushes in these particular bottles of mine are cut fine, and although the wideness and roundness of the brush takes some getting used to, it is manageable. Honestly, most nail bloggers out there make such a big fuss over it, but it is really okay.

After looking at Amanda's (from Pretty Girl Science) Instagram, I've discovered that CVS is introducing a new exclusive line of polish at the same price as the Spoileds called Pop-arazzi. The color she tried out seems to be identical to Spoiled I Only Eat Salads, which leads me to think that the Spoileds may be fazed out soon and replaced by the Pop-arazzis, but I am not sure. Thoughts?

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!

XOXO

Is

Deborah Lippmann Good Girl Gone Bad Swatch

Hi guys! Today I have a GORGEOUS polish to show you. Deborah Lippmann makes some pretty glorious sparkly, over-the-top polishes that are complex and still classy. Good Girl Gone Bad is no exception!

Good Girl Gone Bad is a berry-wine-maroon dark reddish-purple microglitter. It is full coverage and dries down to a gritty matte finish, so you'll want to gloss it up with some topcoat. The formula is a bit thick, but manageable.

Here I've done three coats of GGGB with two coats of Essie Good to Go topcoat, as it is a bit topcoat-thirsty.

Natural light

Flash

Flash

The photo with natural light is the most color-accurate, but the flash photos really show off the depth and sparkle!

Deborah Lippmann's are high-end and retail for around $20 each.

Thanks so much for reading and have a lovely polished day!

XOXO

Is

NOTD: Picture Polish Lagoon by Fashion Polish

Hi guys! Today I have a quick NOTD to share with you. This is the beautiful Picture Polish Lagoon, created in collaboration with Fashion Polish. This polish is so special to me... It is one of three that are my first PP's! I got two others that I'll show you soon, but for now, here is Lagoon!

This picture gives my skin a lovely red hue, but the polish color is mostly accurate, however, it is a tiny, tiny smidge greener in person. Lagoon is a gorgeous turquoise jelly packed with minuscule holographic specks and some beautiful turquoise hex glitters. The shade of turquoise is absolutely perfect. It's not too green or blue. This polish has so much depth, to make it even better. Two coats were perfect for my short nails, but you might need three to pack maximum punch if you have longer nails. This polish isn't terribly shiny, so I added NYC Grand Central Station topcoat to shine it up. 

I love this polish. What is your favorite Picture Polish?

OPI Fall 2014 Nordic Collection: My Picks

Today I'm going to share my picks from OPI's Fall 2014 Nordic collection with you, and how I wore them.

First up is Do You Have This Color in Stock-holm? This is a dark purple with strong blue undertones. I've seen a lot of swatches where this leans very blue, but it is definitively purple, but very cool-toned. It still manages to be bright and vivid while being dark! It applies perfectly, super-easy formula (not too thick or thin) with two easy coats. Can I just say that I love OPI's brush? It makes application SO easy and it's the perfect size and flexibility.

I paired this with an accent nail of Funky Fingers Sand and Stilettos, a really dense  silver holo glitter topper. One coat is better coverage than you'd think! 

Next up is My Dogsled is a Hybrid, a beautiful jade/seafoam green. It manages to be bright but muted at the same time! It's really a great pop of color for fall without being too loud. And the formula? This polish, I declare, has the best formula I have ever worked with. It just glides on quickly and easily with the help of OPI's ProWide brush, and the polish isn't too thick or thin, again. Two coats.

I wore this polish twice this week--that's how much I like it! I paired it the first time with an accent nail of Essie Beyond Cozy from their winter 2012 collection. (This was a lemming of mine for a while and I recently came upon it in a dusty nail supply store!) It's a gorgeous, sparkly, unique glitter that's opaque on its own on two coats. It's an interesting hue: a very cool-toned gold or a very warm-toned silver. Or platinum... Depending on your skin tone and the light, it can lean gold or silver. 

I'm also wearing this polish for the second time this week as I type this! I saw a beautiful look on Instagram by the super talented Mllr Design and I recreated it with slight modifications to suit my preference as my nail length. Here's the link to her original nail art on her blog: http://www.mllrdesign.com/?p=204

I used Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art studs in gold and microbeads in copper and Capri. 

It's so pretty in the sun!

I've heard that the formula on all the polishes in this collections is fantastic, so I might go back for Suzi has a Swede Tooth and With a Nice Finn-ish. 

Do you like these polishes? Have you purchased any from this collection? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

XOXO

Is

Maybelline Color Show Clearly Spotted Swatch

Hi! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I'm here now, back and better than ever with a swatch from Maybelline Color Show, their nail polish line. This polish is from the Polka Dots collection, which consists of several polishes containing black and white pieces of hex glitter in different sizes in colored jelly bases. However, there is one polish in this collection that has a clear base, which is what I have to show you today, and it's called Clearly Spotted.

Cute! This polish is easy to work with. It's not too heavy on the base and the glitters aren't sparse, problems that often arise with cool glitter polishes. The glitters spread out on the nail easily. This polish is intended to be layered, so I applied it over a pink polish from Clinique's A Different Nail Enamel line. It was one of my products that I received for making a certain amount of purchases, so I don't know the name, sorry!

Clearly Spotted looks great over solid creme polishes, preferably lighter shades. I like it over subtle shades, because it stands out. 

Well--that's it. Hope you enjoyed! 

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XOXO

Is

NOTD: Faux Stud Manicure and Essie Lots of Lux Swatch and Review

Hi guys! So I came up with an awesome new mani yesterday! Here it is:

This picture was taken in the sunlight.

Ok, in the picture it doesn't look that spectacular, but I assure you, it's glorious.

I used two polishes: The blue is Essie Lots of Lux (part of their winter 2013 Encrusted Treasures collection) and the silver dots are Essie No Place Like Chrome (from their Mirror Metallics collection).

So first, let's start off with the review! Essie Lots of Lux is actually a textured polish! The finish is similar to that of OPI's Liquid Sands, meaning that the finish looks like liquid sand! (You don't say!) It's a medium-dark blue polish and the "sand" is a medium blue. It dries to a matte finish, but there are flecks of different colors in it as well that sparkle and glint beautiously! (I know, that's not a word, but...) The most prominent sparkles are light blue. The next most visible sparkles are yellowish-green. I know, it sounds kind of weird to have that color in a blue polish, but it actually adds some really nice, subtle contrast. There are also very few green sparkles in there, but I'm not sure if those are just the yellow ones in a different light.

Here's a picture of the bottle. I made it blurry on purpose so you can easily see the different colored sparkles.

Here's an in-focus bottle shot.

If you see any other colors in there that I missed, great! Let me know in the comments.

Ok, let's talk application now. This polish is very thick (because it's textured) which made it a little tricky to apply. It spread out on the nail ok, but the strokes were a little hard because the thickness of the polish "grabbed" a little. It dried pretty fast, though!

This polish is not intended to be used with a topcoat, so I didn't apply one. However, the next time I use this polish I might! Check out the Polishaholic's swatch of Lots of Lux with a topcoat here, along with the other polishes in the Encrusted Treasures collection!

Now, let us explore nail art possibilities. 

I call this mani the Faux Stud manicure, and you will see why.

Check out this picture again. The dots are not just dots! In actuality, they are the "faux studs!" You have probably seen a LOT of studded manis floating around online lately, because nail studs are a HUGE trend right now! However, if you're like me and want to take part in this trend but don't have the studs, read on!

You will need two (or three) polishes to achieve this look. The first one must be a matte polish. You may use a regular polish with a matte topcoat if that is what you have, though (this is where the third polish would come in: the matte topcoat). The next polish must be a chrome polish. Chrome polishes are usually very opaque and leave a smooth, metal-like finish. I used Essie's No Place Like Chrome. 

This manicure is really simple. Just paint your nails with your matte polish and let it dry. Then, take a dotting tool and make three dots with your chrome polish on either side of your nail, on all of your nails. If you don't have a dotting tool, I have two alternatives for you. First, you could use a toothpick, just make sure you pick up a sufficient amount of polish so the dot isn't too small. Second, you could take a regular pencil and stick a straight pin into the eraser! This is actually what I use, I just took a number two pencil with the eraser intact and stuck a pin in it. Quite easy, really.

Don't finish off with a topcoat on this design, as you want to keep the matte matte and the chrome shiny.

I can think of some really cool color combos for this mani! A cool one would be matte navy blue (such as Essie Bobbing for Baubles with a matte topcoat) with copper dots (maybe with Essie Penny Talk) to imitate jeans! That would look pretty slick. Or for a punk biker look, opt for a matte black (like OPI Black Onyx with a matte topcoat) with silver dots (using Essie No Place Like Chrome). Or, get creative and use whatever polishes you have! You really can't go wrong with this simple but chic mani. 

Well, that's it for this post! See you soon!

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XOXO

Is

Essie Really Red Swatch and Review

Hello, nail polish lovers! Today I have a swatch and a review to share with you. It's of Essie's Really Red.

This is a red crelly polish. A crelly is a semi-creme, semi-jelly polish. Refer to my Jelly Sandwich Manicure Tutorial for more information on jellies. (FYI: In case you don't know, creme polishes are basic ones that you probably make up most of your collection. They are pretty opaque, and have no special effects, such as shimmers.) So crellies are essentially cremes, but with a hint of transparency. As you can see in the bottle, it's a little sheer.

I purchased this at Harmon for $7.79.

This is what it looks like on my nails! This is actually a pretty standard red. I can't really decide whether it's cool or warm. Maybe it's universal! Excuse me while I go on Essie's site to check and see what they say about it...

...Here's what Essie says about it: classic. bold. pure. the perfect shade of truly rich red lacquer – universally flattering in winter, spring, summer & fall. brush it on and paint the town fabulous. 

There we go: "universally flattering in winter, spring, summer & fall." I was right! 

This polish is shiny and pretty, and virtually opaque in just one coat. However, I used two coats. Now here's where the jelliness comes in: On one finger I can almost see the visible nail line, but I really can't... if that makes any sense. So part of me thinks it's opaque, the other part thinks it's more jellyish. I guess that's where the "crelly" comes in. Weird!

Application was pretty easy. I'll admit, I do have some trouble with some of Essie's polishes in that area (for example, Mint Candy Apple is kind of streaky and hard to apply) but this one is great! It glides on with ease. The application is similar to that of Essie Mod Square, but not quite as easy-peasy. But still very nice! 

This red is great if you don't have much experience with reds (like me!). It's not to bright, but not too muted; not really warm or cool (if you're not sure of what undertones you have); not too dark, not too light. You should definitely add this polish to your collection, as red polishes are one of the bare essentials of a nail polish collection. Also! If you have one, I would highly recommend using a base coat with this polish. Granted, I haven't tried to remove it yet, but since reds tend to stain, wear a base coat to avoid such problems. 

That's it for this post! I'll see you when I see you!

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XOXO

Is

Essie Mod Square Swatch and Review

Hello, anyone and everyone who loves nails and/or is viewing this blog! Today I have a swatch and review to share with you. The polish is called Mod Square and it's by Essie. I purchased it at CVS for $8.50.

 

This polish is a gorgeous shade of pink. It's kind of like a hot pink, but not as neon and bright as some hot pinks. It's more muted, but the color is very saturated and eye-catching.

The formula is great! Not too watery, as I have found with some of Essie's other polishes, but not too thick. The application is easy-peasy--it glides right on without a hitch.

This is what it looks like on my nails. I used two coats. The first coat was a little sheer, but the second made it totally opaque (as expected). As for the chip factor, I'm pretty happy with it so far. It's been three days and it hasn't chipped at all!

I would give this polish five stars! I absolutely LOVE the color, and the formula and application are wonderful. This polish is great if you want a girly manicure that's eye-catching and pretty, but not too flashy. Thanks for reading, and check back soon for more posts!

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XOXO

Is