Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Glitter Lovers Rejoice!

Hi there!! I am super excited to share this post with you today, because I can honestly say it has CHANGED MY LIFE!

I am a huge glitter fan, I love everything that sparkles and shines. As every girl knows, glitter nail polish is a pain in the tush to remove, and takes forever. The foil method of removal is good, but can get messy and dry your fingers out. So you can imagine how excited I got when I saw on Pinterest, and then on another blog, this fantastic method of glitter polish application that makes removal super quick (and acetone free!)

All you need is an empty polish bottle and a bottle of Elmer's glue (or any other kind of basic school glue). Clean out your bottle, and just pour in the glue - you can just squirt it right in! Don't fill it up all the way, make sure to leave some empty space.

Next time you grab your favorite glitterbomb, use the glue instead of your regular base coat. Let the glue dry completely - it will turn clear when fully dry. Now you can go ahead and apply as many coats of glitter as your little heart desires! Don't forget a top coat for that extra shine! :)

The whole idea is that the polish is supposed to peel off easily, no acetone required.

This is three fabulous coats of China Glaze Full Spectrum. I've had this polish
for a while, but never really used it until now, because it is pure glitter and I was dreading removal. Two coats of Seche Vite for shine!

After wearing this all day at work, I was really anxious to see if the process worked out! You can use an orange stick to get started, near your cuticle.

I was so excited when the polish came right off!! And in most cases, in one whole piece! There was absolutely no damage to my nails, and I just had to do a tiny bit of cleanup around my cuticles where there were some random pieces of glitter.

Once off, the pieces actually felt like really cheap press on nails.

I can't explain enough how overjoyed I am to have found this online. Apparently, Essence recently released a "peel-off base coat" and some genius chica out there discovered the ingredients in the polish were basically the same as glue. That girl is my hero! 

Expect to see a lot more glitter around these parts, now that it's insanely quick and easy to remove! 



Sunday, November 18, 2012

Comparison Post!

Hello there, today I have two comparisons for you guys. Before I get into those, just wanted to say a few things!

I noticed a LOT of people have been looking for the Color Club Halo Hues collection and can't find it in stores. In my area I have noticed them in two stores: XSRE and Harmon Face Values. Prices were $9.95 and $7.99, respectively. Check out both their websites for locations near you! They're also on transdesign.com for $6.95, but are unfortunately sold out at the moment. You can always get them directly from Color Club for $10 each.

And a cool story, bro: At the end of September I ordered 400 "swatchsicles" on ebay. Of course the store was located overseas, and the shipping estimate was about 4 weeks. Well, the day came and went, and I never got my swatchsicles. So I opened a case with ebay, and they ended up ruling in my favor and I was given a refund to my PayPal account. I was okay with that, and figured I'd just order them at another time from someone else, and I forgot about them. Lo and behold.... they were delivered to me yesterday! I was way beyond excited, and all I've been doing all weekend is swatching my collection! Of course, at the time I ordered I only needed about 325 sticks... and now that I have them in my hands 2 months later, I don't have enough! I just wanted to share my joy with you all. :)
On to polish!

Sinful Colors Nail Junkie 
vs. 
Wet N Wild Spoiled Use Protection



These two glitters are VERY similar, but not exact dupes. When I layered one coat each over Sinful Colors Savage (index and pinkie, that's the bottle I'm holding), you couldn't even tell the difference. However, on their own you can see that Nail Junkie (ring) is much more opaque than Use Protection (middle). I used three coats of each on my ring and middle fingers. 


China Glaze 108 Degrees
vs.
Sinful Colors Forget Now
vs.
OPI I'm All Ears
vs.
Color Club Wing Fling


When I was going thru my stash a few weekends ago, I noticed I had a few different colors that were this really vibrant, fuschia pink. So of course I had to compare them. 108 Degrees, Forget Now, and I'm All Ears are the SAME COLOR!! If I had to be very nitpicky, I'd say 108 Degrees does not dry as shiny as the others. Forget Now is very very sheer, and has an extremely watery formula. Wing Fling, while still the same shade of fuschia, has a foil finish, in contrast with the other three. I used three coats of each polish. If I had to choose, I'd pick I'm All Ears, because I like the consistency of the formula the best, but really, you're pretty much getting the same thing color wise! 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Color Club Halo Hues - Finally!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but this one today is well worth the wait! I finally got my pretty little hands on my first real holographic polishes... ladies, I give you my picks from the Color Club Halo Hues collection! And can I just say, for the record, I am obsessed!

(left to right)
Blue Heaven, Halo-Graphic, Harp On It



Blue Heaven
First up we have Blue Heaven. This is a really light blue, I was actually expecting it to be a bit darker. I wore this today for World Diabetes Day.

I used two coats of Blue Heaven for my pics. For my accent nail, I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blazing Blue, and Cheeky stamping plate CH26. I only used topcoat on the nails with stamping, because I didn't even want to chance having the holo diminished in any way!



Halo-Graphic 
Halo-Graphic might be my favorite of the three I bought. It's so beautiful!!!! A nice shade of rose pink with uhhhhhmazing holo going on!!! I used three very thin coats for these pics, no topcoat.




 Harp On It
Harp On It is a classic silver holo. So incredibly pretty.

For the stamping in the last pic, I used Cheeky plate CH26, and Wet N Wild Black Creme. I really like the look of this polish with the stars :)



So what do you think? Do you already own some of these?

I bought my bottles on transdesign.com for $6.95 each(currently they are out of stock, but keep checking back!). I also noticed them for sale at a store in my mall called XSRE, for $9.95 each. These are more pricey than your average Color Club, but totally worth it in my opinion. 

Color Club has flown to the top of my favorite brands list with this collection! After seeing swatches of all 6 polishes around the interwebs, I think I may also have to pick up Angel Kiss, which is the turquoise-looking color in the collection. Or maybe I will just go ahead and get all 3 that I don't already have....

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Wet N Wild Red Glitter Comparison

Good morning! I have another quickie comparison post for you guys today. 
Last week when I was reorganizing my stash, I realized I had these three glitters that all seemed to be dupes... and then I realized they were all by Wet N Wild!

They are all large red round glitters, with tiny red microglitter, in a black base.

(left to right)
Fantasy Makers Once Upon a Time
Fergie Make Them Boys Go Loco
Spoiled Ants In My Pants

As you can see, exactly the same in the bottles. The only difference was the coverage each polish gave.

(ring to index finger, 3 coats each)
Fantasy Makers Once Upon a Time
Fergie Make Them Boys Go Loco
Spoiled Ants In My Pants


Make Them Boys Go Loco has the best glitter payoff. Ants In My Pants was more watery, and the glitter was a lot more sparse than the other two. Once Upon a Time had good coverage, but I didn't like the brush or bottle cap at all (very awkward painting your nails with a tombstone).

Here are the colors layered over black:
(index to ring finger)
Spoiled Ants In My Pants
Fergie Make Them Boys Go Loco
Fantasy Makers Once Upon a Time

My choice out of the three is definitely Fergie Make Them Boys Go Loco. It had the best formula, went on the easiest, and as I mentioned earlier, had the best glitter payoff. And besides that, it has one of the best nail polish names ever!

Wet N Wild cosmetics can be found at almost every drugstore. The Spoiled and Fantasy Makers lines retail for $1.99 each, and the Fergie line is a bit more expensive (but worth it), around $3.49 retail. The other great thing I discovered, is they all seem to be a dupe of Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers, but without the crazy price tag!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Comparison: Charla vs. Halley's Comet

Hi there!

Today I have a quick comparison post for you guys. Here is Zoya Charla vs. Orly Halley's Comet.


You can see in the bottles they look nearly identical. 

Can you guess which is which on my nails?






On my index and ring fingers I am wearing Halley's Comet
On my middle and pinkie fingers is Charla.

While Charla leans a slight bit more blue than Halley's Comet, they are pretty much identical in color. Orly's polish gives off a better duochrome effect, in my opinion. At certain angles my nails almost looked as if I had a green to blue gradient going on! Zoya's polish is thinner, and I used 3 coats of Charla for these pics. Orly's is thicker, and I used 2 coats of Halley's Comet

I am a huge fan of both polishes, but if you forced me to choose, 
I'd pick Orly Halley's Comet

You can find both of these colors at Ulta, or at most e-tailers that carry the brands.



Monday, November 5, 2012

OPI: The Man With the Golden Gun !

Happy Monday my loves!

Today I have for you something I picked up unexpectedly over the weekend, from the new OPI Skyfall James Bond collection. Originally I was not planning on getting this at all, but I saw it at a local beauty supply, and it was RIGHT THERE... I couldn't help myself! So I splurged on this, and didn't buy anything else that day. Ladies, I give you...

The Man With the Golden Gun


I was just SO excited to try this out, and I pulled out a bunch of dark colors from my OPI drawer. After seeing it over the dark ones, and of course trying it over what I had already been wearing (OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam!), I am confident in saying this looks good over just about anything! Just be sure to wait long enough in between if you do more than one coat: I didn't, and it got all goopy and thick on my nails, so I had to start over.

The first four colors I used as a base, from index to pinkie fingers (all OPI):
You Only Live Twice
Every Month is Oktoberfest
Vampsterdam
Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not



The second set of four base colors (all OPI):
Yoga-ta Get This Blue
Unfor-greta-bly Blue
Russian Navy
Tomorrow Never Dies




 So what do you think? It is absolutely gorgeous in my opinion, but something to save for very special occasions! Being 18k gold, it was obviously much more expensive ($29.95) than your average OPI ($8). But wow! So pretty!

Did you splurge on this too??



Sunday, November 4, 2012

Sunday Sales!

Good morning everyone! Hope you remembered to turn your clocks back! Weird, I do not have a single clock in my bedroom that needed to be changed - all I have is my phone and laptop, and they change on their own! AH, technology!

Today I have some sales for this week. With the exception of Sally's, all the following sales run from today, Nov. 4, thru Saturday, Nov. 10. 

Rite Aid:
All Sally Hansen products are Buy One, Get One 50% Off.

Walgreens:
Select Wet N Wild cosmetics are $0.69!!!

CVS:
L'oreal cosmetics are Buy One, Get One 50% Off
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polish are 2 for $4
Milani cosmetics are Buy One, Get One 50% Off
Cover Girl cosmetics are Buy One, Get One 50% Off
Wet N Wild Spoiled "Nail Pail" $6.99 (plus get $3 ExtraBucks with purchase) - in the ad this shows as a tin pail with some different polishes inside. Possible holiday gift?

Ulta:
All Ulta cosmetics are Buy 3, Get 3 Free : mix and match!
OPI Skyfall collection, $8.50 each. Mini 4 packs are $12.50
OPI "Let's Paint the Town" gift set: You Don't Know Jacques and Lincoln Park After Dark with toe separators, $14.95

Sally Beauty (sales are for month of November):
Free wristlet when you buy 3 Finger Paints polishes at $3.99 each
China Glaze "Puttin' On the Glitz" from the 2012 Holiday Joy Collection, 3 pack: includes Cranberry Splash, With Love, and Pizzazz - $8.99


Those are your sales for the week! I'm so excited it is finally November, this is truly the best time of the year. Keep an eye out in all stores for special holiday gift sets!

Enjoy your day!
XOX,
Jess

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Zoya Ornate Winter 2012 Collection!

Hello hello!! I am beyond excited to share this collection today! I ordered this right after it was released as a special birthday gift to myself :)

There are six amazing colors in this collection. I am blown away by almost all of them! Let's get to the pictures!

Aurora

Aurora is an absolutely gorgeous purple with scattered holographic glitter. WOW! I had to give you a blurry shot to show off the holo. The day I wore this was super sunny, and I was getting distracted while driving because of all the wonderful that was happening on my nails!


 Blaze

Blaze is a deep cranberry red, and also has scattered holographic glitter.  So pretty!



Electra

 Electra is a bar holographic glitter in a clear base. As you can see in my pictures, the glitter gives off a rainbow of color! The glitter seemed a bit "hairy" to me - not sure if that will make sense to anyone else! I did 1 to 4 coats on my index to pinky fingers.


Logan

Logan is the prettiest green I've ever seen! This will be a perfect Christmas color. 


 Storm

 Storm is black with scattered holographic glitter. I first wore this to my cousin's sweet 16, and I completely fell in love with it. You can check out that manicure here.


 Ziv

Ziv is gold, gold, gold! It kinda reminds me of champagne, and New Years Eve! 

For all of my pictures I used 2 coats, except for Aurora, where I used 3. The formula is really good on all of them, which is generally typical of all Zoya polishes.

Out of the 6, my top 2 picks are Aurora and Storm. To be completely honest, I didn't care much for Electra, but it's still nice to have. Random note: while swatching, I had Logan and Ziv sitting next to each other, and let me just say now that they are going to be great together come St. Patrick's Day! A perfect green and gold combo.

I ordered my Ornate collection at zoya.com for $48. Not a lot of stores around me sell Zoya except Ulta, which doesn't have a very big selection, so I knew my best chance to snag these were to order online. Well, aren't I glad I did! With this set I got another polish, and since that brought my order to over $50, I got a whole bunch of freebies with my purchase! A whole bunch of color spoons, a 2oz. bottle of remover+, and a sugar scrub! I'll definitely be ordering from them again, especially whenever they have their next sale - I've been keeping a little wishlist :)

Orly : Rock It

Hello again! Up next tonight is a great Orly polish from last fall's Mineral FX collection!

Rock It


This color ROCKS! (see what I did there? :P) It is literally fall in a bottle. It reminds me of all the beautiful leaves changing colors on the trees! Rock It is a reddish-orange glass fleck, and depending on your lighting, flashes a beautiful gold. Amazing formula too, this is two coats plus a topcoat. Really really fantastic color!

OPI : Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not

Hello there! I am going to spam you with a few posts in a row tonight, and hopefully within the next few days I'll be up and running with a scheduled daily post!

Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not



I really love this color! I don't have many dark purples in my stash, I definitely need more! In person you can see tiny flecks of pink. I used two coats here - the first was streaky, but evened out on the second. Please don't mind the smudge on the tip of my ring finger :)