Category: Nails
Suck it, Chanel
I’ve been getting Consumer Reports for years and I can honestly say that they’ve never steered me wrong. I learn something new with every issue…that I get around to reading. This month’s issue, however, contained information that I already knew – expensive isn’t necessarily better when it comes to nail polish.
Consumer Reports tested 7 polishes, ranging from luxury brand Chanel at $27 to drugstore brand Sinful Colors at $2. Surprise! Sinful Colors won! Read the entire article on Consumer Reports site.
Since Walgreen’s has Sinful Colors on sale for 99 cents again…I decided to celebrate their victory. I picked up 6: “Tokyo Pearl” – pearly white, “Cinderella” – literally the color of Cinderella’s dress, iridescent baby blue, “Hot Chili” – rusty red shimmer with red holographic glitter, “Yellow Spotted” – bright yellow shimmer, “Green Ocean” – light green jelly with iridescent green glitter and “Pinky Glitter” – pink jelly with iridescent glitter. Are you sensing a theme? Lots of iridescence and glitter?
Morpho
Julep “Jennine” – I’m in love!
“Jennine” reminds me of a Morpho – a genus of tropical butterflies, the brilliant blue iridescent kind that you only see in Butterfly Exhibits like the one at HMNS or the Rainforest at Moody Gardens. Or maybe a the head of a horny peacock, huge tail displayed, eyes darting around for a homely brown female…In sunlight, there are flecks of gold, green and violet.
I’m in love with the stardust finish. My husband said it feels like sandpaper, but it’s smoothed quite a bit since yesterday. I definitely wouldn’t recommend wearing pantyhose with a stardust or sand polish – they’ll get shredded.
I was was actually a good girl and used the Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat. It dried quickly and gave a beautiful smooth start for my nails. It was like a coat of gesso on rough canvas. We’ll see if it prevents “Jennine” from staining my nails – blues and greens are notorious for staining…
My one complaint with stardust/sand formulas is edge creep. As it dries, it tends to retrest from the cuticles and edges of the nails. I feel like the base coat helped a lot, but I still have major chip on my right index finger. I’m going to patch it tonight before bed, but I’ve got a feeling that I’ll be seeing “Natalia” tomorrow.
June Julep Maven Box – The Three Wishes Collection
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I got my box! I got my box! Of course, my BFF already got her box on Saturday and totally rubbed it in…
June’s box is called “The Three Wishes Collection”. I guess they’re going for the “genie in a bottle” Moroccan theme. I’ve been fairly MEH about the last several months’ colors, but I absolutely LOVE every color in every box this month. It took FOREVER for me to choose which box I wanted. I was going to customize, but then it turned out that I didn’t need to. I thought I had pre-paid for 3 months of the customizable plan by accident…but then I wasn’t charged for it. Hmmm… I ultimately chose “Boho Glam” again, although I had initially planned to keep “It Girl” – but I had to have the new Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat. I never EVER use base coats, but I should.
“Boho Glam” came with the Oxygen Smoothing Coat, “Natalia”, refined copper metallic, and “Harlow”, golden dragonfly iridescent chrome. I went crazy with the add-ons this month. I got “Jennine”, full-coverage borealis blue stardust (matte glitter), from the “It Girl” box. I also got more “Swatch Me” stickers and a color fan to test out my color idea. Because I got 3 add-ons, I got a special gift: “Marjorie”, citrus orange frost, and “Veronica”, modern mauve crème. Both colors are from the August 2013 “Garden Party” box.
I almost forgot – there were 3 Grape Pixi Stix in the box, too. Julep…STOP with the candy!
Not a Julep Maven? CLICK HERE to join! Your first box is free with code FREEBOX!
My Glitter Game is Strong
After several rounds of Tilex and scrubbing my shower stall door with a toothbrush yesterday, I found that my nails didn’t look quite as spiffy as they did just a few hours before. The solution…you guessed it – GLITTER.
My glitters of choice were Sally Hansen Gem Crush “Lady Luck” and Gem Crush “Glitz Gal”. “Lady Luck” is exactly the same shade as the base coats of JulieG “Gift Wrapping” – they look really spiffy together. You can see “Gift Wrapping” just barely peeking through underneath the steel gray glitter in “Glitz Gal”.
As usual, I used Sally Hansen Diamond Flash to seal the glitter. I washed dishes all morning and my nails still look great. Like I said, my glitter game is strong.
Girls Day
Saturdays are quickly turning into “Girls Day” for Lily and I. Since I take her to Gymnastics on Saturday morning, we usually end up eating and shopping afterwards. It reminds me of the infrequent “Special Days” that my mother would alternate with my sister and I…except I get to do them every weekend. (Don’t worry, I spend one-on-one time with my son, too. We just don’t anything Beauty related…)
After Taco Bell, Lily finally screwed up enough courage to get her ears pierced. The girl at Claire’s tried to tell her it wouldn’t hurt, but I stepped in and told her that it WOULD hurt, but only for a second. Lily actually haggled with the girl for 2 suckers if she didn’t cry. That daughter of mine is TOUGH. No tears, she just said, “Ow.”
Of course, after Claire’s…Ulta. Physician’s Formula is still “Buy 1, Get 1 50% off”, so I picked up Mineral Wear Face Powder to replace the one I am almost out of and Mineral Wear Correcting Powder, hoping it is similar to the stila Correcting Powder. I also picked up a clearance Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear “Sea-ly String” for 79 cents. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my 20% off coupon…
The day was going so well that I even gave into Lily’s begging to visit PetSmart to look at the adoptions. (Why bother with the zoo when PetSmart is a ZOO every Saturday?) Although it was inevitable that she would end up begging to get another dog, we managed to leave without a tantrum. Saturday with Lily was an awesome day!
Furious Fuchsia
I’m always on the lookout for the perfect fuchsia…the fuchsia that perfectly matches my “Furious Fuchsia” car. I think I may have found it…
This is JulieG “Gift Wrapping” from the Holiday 2012 Collection. It was one of my $1 Big Lots finds. It looks so dark in the bottle, I didn’t have it in mind to be even close to “Furious Fuchsia”, but as I put on the second coat, I saw it.
The picture at left is in full sun, with my car as a backdrop. The bottle is still darker than the polish on my nails and my nails appear a tic lighter than my car, due to my car being in the shade and my fingers being in the sun. TAKING PICTURES OF MY NAILS IS GETTING SO DAMN COMPLICATED.
Celia
I could only handle my multicolored clown nails for a few days. Keep on voting!
This is Julep “Celia” – icy, green metallic. Although I just received it in my Golden Ticket Mystery Box, it was originally part of the “It Girl” December Maven Box – The Glitterati Collection. Even though I’m an “It Girl”, I had chosen the “Classic with a Twist” box, which had “Jillian” and “Mia”, so no overlap!
“Celia” is like the green version of Zoya “Bobbi”. I’m brainstorming a way to get the two of them together…
Also, I fixed the jacked up cuticle on my middle finger – thank you, Julep “Vanish”!
20 Polishes
The other day, I told my husband that I wish I had 10 more fingers. He laughed and said, “You do – they’re called toes.” Painting my toenails is just not the same as painting my fingernails. They’re hard to reach and all different shapes. Plus, I hardly ever have a chance to show off my toes. I have so many ideas for polish combinations, plus – I’ve bought or been gifted about 25 polishes JUST in the month of May (which isn’t over yet.) Sure, I can practice on my junk mail, but it’s just not the same…what do I do? I stay up late and do a different combination on each finger!
Let’s start with my left hand…
Left Thumb – China Glaze “Four Leaf Clover” and Maybelline Color Show “Emerald City”
Left Pointer – Orly “Purple Poodle” and Sparitual Luminary Matte Top Effect in “Opaline”
Left Middle – Nina “Blue La La” and Sally Hansen Gem Crush “Lady Luck”
Left Ring – Julep “Tatum” and Julep “Rosa”
Left Pinky – Sinful Colors “Sugar Sugar” and Nina “Gold Flake Topcoat”
My right hand was a little bit more difficult, both to paint AND to photograph…
Right Thumb – Orly “Bubbly Bombshell” and Sinful Colors “Nail Junkie”
Right Pointer – Zoya “Dillon” and Sinful Colors “Bombshell”
Right Middle – Sinful Colors “Inkwell” and essie Luxeffects “Set in Stones”
Right Ring – Sally Hansen Insta-Dri “Magenta Motion” and Sinful Colors “Call You Later”
Right Pinky – Sinful Colors “Nova” and Nicole by OPI “Rainbow in the S-Kylie”
Which one do you like best? Vote in the poll below and let me know what you think!
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Fire Duo
I did laundry and washed dishes ALL DAY yesterday. I’m pretty sure my husband assumed it was my way of saying THANK YOU for that late night Ulta trip…but I really just wanted to chip my nails enough to give me a good reason to redo them with my brand new polish.
A quick Google told me that this Butter London set was released for Holidays 2013 and is called “Fire Duo”. “Rebel Fox” is very thin. The first coat looked berry, but it became a deeper, blood red with the second coat. I really should have gone with a third coat – it’s very, very thin. “Brass Monkey” was nothing like I expected. I figured it would just lighten and cloud the base color like Sparitual Luminary Matte Top Effect in “Opaline”, but it was totally different. It’s a clear coat, with coppery flakies that take on the red and turn it into flames. I want to try it on a dark blue…
Good thing I had the presence of mind to take a pic BEFORE going to the pool with the kids. This polish is NOT sturdy enough for the summer – I’ve already got major edge-wear and a few chips. It’s not like I wasn’t planning on painting my nails again tonight, anyway…
Lunchtime Shopping FTW
Some days, you just have to get out of the office and buy something.
Since I realized that there is a Nordstrom Rack close to my office, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I wanted to check out their jeans section, because I had paid full price for the last 2 pairs of jeans that I bought and I figured there have to be deals out there somewhere. I lucked out and found a pair of Lucky Brand Capris for 65% off. After the dressing room, I headed towards the beauty section…
I shouldn’t have done that. They had piles of Smashbox, stila, LORAC and NARS. It was mostly out of season palettes and discontinued colors, but the prices were good. I dug around a little, but nothing really caught my eye. I was rooting around in a display and came across a single 2-pack of Butter London nail polish – Double Take with “Rebel Fox” and “Brass Monkey”. I’ve heard great things about the brand, but was scared away by the price – $15 each. The 2-pack was $12, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I was even happier when I checked out and it rang up for $9. FOR THE WIN!