Maybe I Need To Stop Buying Nail Polish- A Haul

So I may not be posting as much but that does not mean that my spending on nail polish has waned. In fact, it has probably increased. In the past year or two the amount of polishes available to consumers has exploded in conjunction with the popularity of nail polish itself. We now have available to us polishes from countries around the world along with the always innovative polishes from indie sellers. Big name brands have taken notice of this and stepped up their game offering a wide variety of creative colors and finishes. Now is definitely the time to be a nail addict. I'm definitely happy, but maybe my bank account isn't! These are all polishes I've bought in 2013. And there are probably more that I've stashed away in a Helmer that I've forgotten about (bad girl!).

Hard Candy polishes. From left- Crush On Pink, Crush On Tin, Fun 'N Festive, Pixie Pink, Cocoa Smore, and Gummy Green.

Sigh. I'm so, so impressed with Hard Candy and bringing out this completely revamped line of 45 polishes. I literally want every single one. I don't think that has ever happened to me before. There are maybe a few I could live without. It was almost torture limiting myself to these 6. The bottles are small at almost half the size of a standard polish, but the price is right at $4 a bottle. Just be prepared to go hunting at WalMart to find them. (Here is a list of all the polishes)

Hit Polish. From left- Tes-Stained Linen, Turq-ish Delight, On Angels Wings, and Lilacs in Bloom.

Unf. These are so pretty. I'm most excited about Tea-Stained Linen. It's so unique!

Cult Nails polishes. From left- Disciplined, Untamed, Scandalous, Flushed, Annalicious, I Got Distracted, and Spontaneous.

I finally picked up the Cult Nails polishes that had been on my wishlist when they had a sale recently. You can never go wrong with Cult Nails.

Etude House Sweet Recipe Ice Cream Nail Polishes (not sure if they have actually names but the colors are numbered 1-4).

I was REALLY excited for these. The whole Etude House Sweet Recipe collection looks amazing, but these called out to me the loudest. These polishes were shipped all the way from South Korea (Etude House is a Korean brand) and I couldn't be happier. Korean cosmetics and skincare are becoming a new obsession for me. (I bought these on eBay)

Hits Mari moon Modern set. From left- Cool, Dreamer, Trendy, and Cutie Pie.

More foreign polishes! These are from Brazil and I bought them from Ninja Polish. I have the Unique Set (and posted about it here) and need the Modern Set to round out my collection. These polishes are a must in any polish lover's collection. Especially Cutie Pie. I think I need a back up of it.

From left- Ninja Polish Divinity and Nebula, A England Dragon, Hits Salsa and CanCan.

The rest of the polishes from my Ninja Polish order. You can't tell from the picture but Divinity is a multichrome in the same vein as Clarins 230 and Max Factor Fantasy Fire. The bottle of Nebula is backward because it shows the color shift in the bottle better. The A England polish is a long time lemming that I'm super excited to finally have. And lastly the two Hits polishes are color changing flakies in a colored base. It's hard to tell with Salsa, but it has the same color flakies as Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure and Essie Shine of the Times.

From left- Orly Orange Crush, China Glaze Beach Cruise-r and Surreal Appeal, Essence Oh My Glitter!

Some random polishes. The first three I think I got on clearance at Ulta or Sally Beauty. Something like that. It was a busy polish buying day.

From left- Rainbow Honey Be Mine, Urban Outfitters Chilly, Ulta XOXO and Diva, and OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air

Last batch of random polishes. I needed Be Mine by Rainbow Honey to round out my Valentine's collection from them. The Urban Outfitters glitter polish I'm really excited about. I wish I had bought a few more polishes while I was there but I was trying to be restrained. And the last three were Ulta impulse purchases.


And theeeeeeeeeeeere we go. I really should stop buying polishes faster than I can wear them. Do you see anything that catches your eye?

Ulta Eye Shadow Singles Swatches and Two Looks

Ever since I discovered Sephora Ulta has felt like the poor man's version of it.  But really, that isn't true.  What I like about Ulta is that they have a little bit of everything.  They have many things that Sephora doesn't like lower end drugstore makeup (including NYX!), nail polishes usually only available at salons like OPI, candles, and an extensive selection of haircare tools and products.  All of this along with higher end brands like Urban Decay.

Like Sephora they also have their own house brand of makeup which I have overlooked until pretty recently.  I was actually able to find a foundation from their brand that was light enough and had really cool tones for my super pink skin.  It also had light coverage which is what i was looking for.  I actually picked it over Laura Mercier's tinted moisturizer because I like the way it looked that much.

This post is about Ulta's eye shadow singles.  They retail for $7.00, but ALWAYS seem to be on sale.  I bought mine while they were 2 for $6.  I wouldn't pay $7 each for them (there aren't many single eye shadows I would pay more than $7 for because I prefer palettes), but at $3 they are a bargain.  The eyeshadows come in a large selection of colors and all that I have tried have been decently to impressively pigmented.

The colors I have are:

• Tempted- medium violet with pink shimmer
• Plum Noir- blackened violet with pink shimmer (very similar to Tempted, but slightly darker)
• Key West- a light cyan blue shimmer
• Luna- a medium cerulean blue with gold shimmer
• Sapphire- a blackened dark blue with lighter blue shimmer

Here are the swatches and two different looks I did with the shadows.

From left: Tempted, Plum Noir, Key West, Luna, and Sapphire

These are swatches dry with no base.

 On my arm Tempted and Plum Noir are nearly identical.  And Sapphire looks really blackened with most of it's shimmer lost.

Here are Tempted, Plum Noir, and Sapphire over a sticky base (Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy) to show the shade difference and nuances more clearly.


Here are two looks I did with the shadows.

I used Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy as a base for this look.  This is Key West on the inner third of my lid, Luna on the outer two thirds and smudged below the lower lashes, and Sapphire in the crease and outer third of my lid, as well as a random white shimmer to highlight and blend out the edges.  I used Urban Decay's 24/7 eyeliner in Perversion in a thin line on the upper lash line and on my water line.  I topped Perversion on the upper lid with Urban Decay's El Dorado eye liner.  I also used El Dorado  at the base of my bottom lashes.

And the second look:

For this I used MAC's Greasepaint Stick in French Quarter as an eye shadow base and a liner on the upper lashes and water line.  This is Key West in the inner corner, Luna all over the lid, and Tempted in the crease and smudged below the lower lashes.

 

Available:

• $7 each at Ulta's website and physical stores (where they are often on sale)

 Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Okay Ulta, I Won't Ignore You Anymore! Ulta Glitterati Palette Review and Swatches

I'll just put this out there right now- this whole post is a tease.  This palette in not available anymore, but I'm showing it because I want to prove that Ulta can make some quality makeup, too.  Its easy to overlook the Ulta brand of makeup, but you can find some real gems.  They have made a version of this palette before so you never know, it may come back.  Also, many of the shades, if not all are permanent eye shadows in Ulta's collection and are sold as singles.

This is Ulta's Glitterati palette.  It looks like it is trying to dupe the style of more high-end brands like Urban Decay.  I'm not sure why they call it Glitterati; the shadows are mostly shimmers with two shades being matte with microglitter.  Silly name aside, this was a great find for $12.99 and I'm really impressed with the quality of the shadows.  They are soft, blendable, and most are very pigmented.  The mattes with microglitter are a little more patchy, but I never have good luck with those type of shades.  Especially the dark ones like black and brown.

The colors are:

• Flutter- a ballet slipper pink shimmer
• Amethyst- a reddish-brown burgundy plum shimmer
• Molten- a matte dark brown base with lots of gold microglitter/shimmer
• Silk- a creamy beige shimmer
• Galaxy- a matte black with silver micoglitter
• Peacock- a dusty navy blue shimmer
• Verdigris- a forest green shimmer
• Lustre- a medium champagne brown shimmer

Taken inside with flash

The palette's packaging lives up to the Glitterati name.

Taken inside with flash

I took a picture with the plastic name insert over the shadows.  The names aren't listed anywhere else on the palette so you need to keep this if you want to remember the names.

Taken outside in full sun

Taken in full sun

1st row in sun

2nd row in sun

Here is going to be a look I did with some of the shadows.  I've never done a look specifically for my blog before so I'm nervous.  I'm still a novice at multiple eyeshadow looks and blending, but this gives you an idea how the shadows perform.  They are applied dry over primer (Too Faced Shadow Insurance).

This is Peacock on the inner third of my lid, Verdegris on the outer third and below my lower lashes, and Molten in the crease. Lustre is above the lid blended down and Silk on the inner corner.  I used Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Binge on my upper lashline and waterline.  And my mascara is Cover Girl Last Blast Volume (the big honkin' orange tube).

I've had pretty good luck with Ulta's eyeshadows.  I have a few singles I need to swatch for you, but they're having a sale right now for 2 singles for $6 so I may buy some more and swatch them all together.  For the price they are (cheaper than a lot of drugstore brands when they go on sale) they are worth experimenting with.

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!