My first Julep Maven box!

I got my first Julep Maven box in the mail a few days ago. I have to say that I am impressed!

So, for my $19.99 (actually I had a coupon so I think this was $5 making it an even better deal) I got 2 full size nail polishes, in Anne (the purple creme) and Maria (pink foil). Their polishes sell for $14 a piece so it's already paid for itself and then some. And these are colors I will actually wear. Also pictured is a sample of their hand cream that was also in the box.

In addition to the polishes and the sample, I got a full sized Glow On Age Defying Hand Brightener. That sells for $32. I have yet to use it but it does smell good. I have a few other hand creams I want to use before starting another.

I am very happy with this Maven box. The polishes apply very nicely, 2 coats was perfect coverage. I am sure that since this was in introductory box it's a worth a bit more than the regular monthly boxes will be, in fact I decided to skip on my first regular box. But that's part of the beauty of this program, if you don't like the box they are going to send you for the next month they give you plenty of time to skip it and not be charged for that month. You also have the option to send it to a friend as a gift or choose a different box.

Here is my referral link if you would like to check it out and take a look around their site.
Julpe Maven

Nicki Minaj OPI Manicure

I was at Ulta this weekend and took a look at the OPI Nicki Minaj collection. Most of the colors were not for me, but I did really like the pink and black glitter ones so I picked them up. If you'd like to see the full line, polishaholic has the whole line swatched right here.

The colors I got are Pink Friday and Metallic4life. Pink Friday is a pretty basic pink. In fact I think it looks a lot like I Think in Pink. I plan on doing a comparison of them soon. Metallic4Life is 3 sizes and shapes of silver glitter in a black base. It's completely awesome.

Gelous is what I use over really chunky glitter.

I went for a really basic manicure, using the pink for an accent nail.

As you can see, the glitter really shines on this polish. It is rather bumpy but the Gelous cuts it way down.
Anyone else get any of the colors from Nicki Minaj? The other polishes just weren't my style. Yellow/green looks terrible on me, I already have too many teals that look like this one, the other glitter has glitter bars in it, which I do not like, and I have never been into the Shatter/Crackle looks. So I'd say overall this collection is not really for me, I was able to get a couple really nice polishes out of it.

Revlon Colorstay 2012 - Update

OK, it's now been 5 days since I applied this and it's still pretty much perfect. I did have a small chip on my thumb but I think that was more an issue of a crack in my nail than the manicure. All the other fingers look fine. Barely even any tip wear. The only problem, for me, is that it's boring to wear the same manicure for 5 days!! And I can't sit here and swatch my polishes just for fun like I like to do sometimes.

So if you need a mani that stay for days, definitely try this. I am also going to do a couple more experiments, one wearing the Colorstay polish with other base/top coats and another wearing the Colorstay base/top coats with different polish.

Here's a picture of five days of wear. Sorry I got so bored with it I put some China Glaze Glam on the tips, but I think it's thin enough (I didn't finish) that you can see the tip wear or lack of it. And unfortunately you can see where my cat managed to scratch me right at the cuticle on my picture hand!! I obviously need to do something about them anyway, they all look horrible. But the polish is good. :)

Revlon Colorstay 2012

I saw a huge display of this stuff at CVS the other day. It promises a gel-like shine for 11 days. The small print tells you that this is if you use their base coat, polish and top coat. All they had was the colors here, no base or top coat. Tonight I was at Walgreens and found the display with everything. I just had to try this out.

I remember the old Colorstay nail polish. It came in a bubble pack of a color and a top coat, many of which were glitter. I actually still have a bottle of the top coat and it smells like plastic so bad (and always has) I remember why I hardly ever used it.

So I have better hopes for the new stuff, and I picked up the base coat, top coat and 3 colors. I am going to test it out and see how long it really lasts. I will keep you updated. The thing I find odd is that Revlon does not have any information about this polish on their website yet, and I wanted to link to it. I don't get that. If it should ever go up I will put a link to it. There are several colors in the new line.

Here is the top and base coats and the three colors I got: Rain Forest, Amethyst and Cafe Pink.

Amethyst

Cafe Pink

Rain Forest

Base and Top Coat

I did my manicure on Saturday, finishing about 2am, so far, so good. I was really looking forward to using the green but sometimes I can't keep the darker shades on my nails for too many days. I'm not really a dark polish person, even though I like it, so I tend to wear it less often and for shorter periods of time. So I used the Cafe Pink for my test run. I did have to use 3 coats but it smoothed out really well and I think it looks nice.

I will keep you updated about how long this lasts, etc...

Christmas Haul polish part 3: The end....?

OK and we are almost done with the polish posts!

First off we have the China Glaze polishes. Sally Beauty had a beautiful holiday collection out but I only got a few of them, but the ones I got I absolutely adore!!

China Glaze L-R Love Marilyn, Crackle Glaze in Haute Metal, Laurlei's Tiara and Some Like it Haute

This is my first crackle purchase (actually my 2nd, but I returned the 2012 stuff that was total crap). I'm just not that into the crackle look. I'll keep it around if I'm ever in the mood for it, but I don't think I'll be reaching for it that often.

Sally Hansen's Gem Crush line has duplicates for many of these colors. The red one is almost exactly the same jut the red is a little brighter, however the glitter in it is spot on. Gel Crush also has a straight on dupe of both Lorelei's Tiara and Some Like it Haute.

Up next are just some random glitters I got:

These polishes are (L-R):
Spoiled - Shuffle the Deck, Nicole - Love Your Life, Nicole - Rainbow in the S-Kylie, Nicole - Snow-Man of my Dreams, Sinful Colors Nail Art - Fashionista and Spoiled - Trust Fund Baby.

These next ones are some new ones I got from the Spoiled by WnW line at CVS. These retail for $1.99.

Colors L to R are: Shaken Snow Globe, Magic Carpet Ride, Black Mamba and Plenty of Fish in the Sea.
I normally don't care for black polish but I love Black Mamba, it's got enough shimmer in it to lighten it up into something very wearable for me. All the colors I have tried so far have very easy application and wear well (though I usually change my polish too often to really test that factor). Here's a swatch of 2 coats of Black Mamba.

Next is just some random polish I had either left over or got (I had some major extra bucks to spend) o were given to me after I took the other pictures:

 
The first polish is Essie luxeffects in Pure Pearlfication, essence @holographics.com in Gagalectric, SH complete salon manicure in Purple Pulse, Wet n wild megalast in Caught Red Handed, and Revlon in Radiant

I have one more picture to take of a few things i got since my last shopping trip. I swear I have go on a no-buy for a while after I get just a couple more thing i have been looking at.

Here we go (L to R):
Revlon Temptress (75% off at CVS)
Sinful Colors Nail Art in Bad Chick
Sally Hansen (75% off at CVS)
L'Oreal nail color in Eiffel For You
Revlon Top Speed in Pink Lingerie (75% off CVS)
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Wine Not
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Sturdy Sapphire
Salon Perfect Steel Rose
Salon Perfect in Silver Mint
and
Revlon in Dreamer

So that's it for the holiday nail polish haul. Between Clearance, gift certificates and CVS Extra Bucks I actually didn't spend too much! Now it looks like I've got some manis/swatches to do.

I hope you all had a lovely holiday and have a wonderful New Year!!

Ulta Nail Prints

I had never tried any of the polish strips by Sally Hansen or various other companies so I bought some Ulta Nail Prints on a whim while on a recent shopping trip. I wasn't sure how these would work but thought I'd give them a go.

Overall, I liked how they looked They were easy to apply after a bit of a learning curve. They didn't really last any longer than a regular manicure, I had tip wear after a couple days and chips after 3. They were easy to remove with regular polish remover, but I will say for the price I will probably not buy them again.

Orly - Fancy Fuchsia - Update

I had forgotten that I already posted about the FF when I started to write up another one. I have to say that my opinion has changed. After only one use, it is thick and hard to apply. Very streaky. It's also chipping after 2 days and I've literally done nothing. I do like it on my toes though, so I guess this is one for the toe pile.

Fancy Fuchsia is part of Orly's "Precious" Spring 2011 collection. You can see the rest of the collection here. 

Orly - Fancy Fuchsia

Another one of my purchases from my outing yesterday. I LOVE bright pink colors but I don't like how neons have a matte finish. This is like the best of both worlds. It's a beautiful bright pink and it's not super matte. It's a bit flatter than some other polishes but not bad. It's like the missing link between brights and neons.

I never used to buy Orly nail polish. I had somewhere got it in my head that it was a poor quality OPI wannabe. As I've started reading more and more in the beauty and nail blogging community I decided to give it a chance and I love it. They have some great colors and I've had no problem with application or wearability.

NOTD: Zoya Emme

I'm not sure I like this color yet. It's one I got from the free Zoya Facebook giveaway. I guess I'll see if it grows on me.

Sally Girl #10 Glitter Pink

I have been collecting the Sally Girl mini nail polishes. I think they are a great way to test colors that I might not normally buy for under $1. The only problem with them is that most of them don't have the name on the bottle, just the sku. Of the ones I have I'd say 85% do not have a name on the bottle. #10 Glitter Pink is sku 812112,. If you go to the Sally Beauty site you can type that in the search bar and it will come up.

This color is full of glitter and definitely has a satiny finish to it. It feels a little rough without a top coat on it. It dries really fast, that's always a plus for me!

Sorry for the poor application, I was running late to work and showed up with different colors on different nails. I had to quickly apply this while I was in the breakroom on break.

Essie now available at Walmart

It's $7.75 at my store. I don't know if the colors are different or the same as the old line that they sell at salons. I picked up a few colors: French Affair, Merino Cool and Muchi, Muchi. French Affair is definitely my favorite. It's nice and opaque but can be a little streaky going on. Merino Cool is also very nice, it's a purplish gray and goes on like a dream. Muchi, Muchi is definitely a sheer color. 3 coats and it's pretty nice though. No streaking and builds nicely. I'll post up some swatches soon!

Right now they only have the color polishes, but there is a sign saying the nail treatments, top coats etc.. will be coming in February.

My first Zoya haul!

I had never heard of Zoya until I got really "into" nail polish and started reading nail blogs, watching tutorials, etc...

So I decided to get myself an early Christmas present and jump right in with my first order! I'm still not really sure what's going on myself but here it is to take a look and I'll get things labeled. Of course then I'll have to play around with it. I guess what I'm saying is get ready for a lot of Zoya posts coming up here.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Thanksgiving day, and are able to spend time with friends and family. For those of you apart from your family, I know it sucks, but you have many things to be thankful for as well!

I should have waited until Groundhog's Day for this next post. I was looking through my stash and noticed I had several similar colors in the mid-pink range. I figured I'd try out 4 of them and see what it showed.

I can really only see a difference in the Sally Hanson, it's a bit more luminous or frosty or something. Otherwise I'd say they'd all pretty well cover for each other.


Well, that's it for now. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. Here is a short list of what I am thankful for:

• My family
• My friends
• My Kitties
• My Job 
• My House
• Anyone who reads this blog
• Robby Vee
• The Reckless Ones
• nail polish and make up!!!

I need this polish!!

Color Club - Poptastic collection - name of shade - Jackie Oh!

Scroll down to Poptastic, about halfway down the page - look at the 2nd polish from the right.

How cool would that be to have a color with your name??

I don't know if I mentioned this before but I'm out of work on medical leave right now so I am technically on a no buy right now, but I will be getting this shade ASAIC!!

My first attempt at following a nail tutorial..

So I was crusing around YouTube the other day looking for nail tutorials, and I found this one and after watching it thought I could take a stab at it. Of course my result is nothing as awesome as hers but I still like it and think it's pretty good for my first try.

Welcome to my blog

I've been reading all kinds of other nail blogs and while I didn't think that there was really anything missing out there in the nail and beauty blogosphere, I still thought I'd add my own.

I haven't really got started yet, but in the meantime, here's a picture of some random stuff I did with my nails while I was playing around with my stash. You'll see it's not perfect, but it will give you an idea of my love of rhinestones.

And while I'm on the topic of rhinestones and nail art in general, you have to check out Ebay. I just did a search for "nail art". There are some GREAT deals to be had over there. I ordered a wheel of 1800 rhinestones in various colors for like $1.50 and free shipping. Much better than the one I got of about 150 at Sally's for about $10. They have other things like stickers, other gems and nail art brushes all at great prices so if you like that kind of stuff, definitely go take a look!