Summery Neon Nails With Claire's Paradise

I MEANT to write this post last night. But I ended up hanging out with a couple of friends (I love those girls so much!) and drinking a whole bottle of wine. By myself. Haha. I really needed that girl night. It's nice to be around girls who love you and AREN'T trying to sabotage you. And that is a reference to someone at my job. I like where I work, like my job, like most of the people, and just generally enjoy it. There is always that one person though. I KNOW I'm a good person and try to see the best in people, but sometimes those people try their hardest to prove you wrong. It's gone as far as this one person stealing money from me blatantly and without apology (We get a small amount of commission. It's a bit of a long explanation but it did happen.). I may make mistakes, but I know my character isn't bad. To deliberately sabotage someone so you can profit even the tiniest bit is disgusting. My only recourse is to be the better person (I know that I am). I'm not a child and am not going to play that game. I'm a strong believer that if you profit off bad deeds long enough it will eventually catch up with you without any action from the people you're harming. Maybe it's just karma?

Anyway, I stopped in to Claire's to buy the Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop dupe (also oh-so-originally named Candy Shop) and came out with it and three neon polishes. This one, Paradise, is my favorite. It is a neon coral with a strong blue flash. It's a bit sheer and I think I may have ended up woth 4 or 5 coats. Next time I'll layer it over white or nude polish so I don't have to use so many coats. But for using that many coats I really didn't have any issues with it mucking up or taking forever to dry. Do you need this polish? YES! I love it so much. It was $5 but Claire's polishes seem like they're perpetually buy one, get one half off.

Claire's Paradise

It's a little more pink and less orange in person, but still coral.

Claire's Paradise

Claire's Paradise

My little brother (Haha, he's 6'4") and his best friend since baby-hood just graduated from college and I'm so proud of them. They both got degrees in engineering. I want to share the picture with you guys of them as babies and then them in their cap and gowns. I can't believe how fast time flies! My brother is the tall one with red hair. I love these guys so much!

Getting Buried Alive Is Totally Worth It With This Orly Polish

Ugh, I'm sorry guys. I've been such a terrible blogger. I don't know how I used to manage to post every day AND go to school full time. School takes more time than working because you have homework, studying, papers, etc. And I'm only working part time now and it feels like I have no time! 95% of my makeup and nail polish is still at my ex's house, so that puts a huge damper on my creativity. The amount I do have here is still way more than what most people own, but I'm used to more choices! I feel stifled with "only" 7 blushes to choose from. Haha.

I'm still buying nail polish and makeup and it's slowly adding up. When I finally do get all my stuff back I need to do a MAJOR de-stash and hopefully have a blog sale or something.

Has anyone seen the new movie directed by Tim Burton with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter? Maybe I should be more specific since that previous sentence describes like 10 movies, haha. The Dark Shadows one? I haven't and I'm not so sure I want to. I usually love the Burton/Depp combo but it almost seems like it's starting to feel a bit, dare I say, stale and overdone?

I wasn't too excited by Orly's new collection inspired by Dark Shadows either. 2 colors were renamed and re-released from previous collections (which is kinda annoying) and a third was a boring red creme. But the fourth one caught my eye. I don't normally do browns but this one, Buried Alive, seemed so glowly and gorgeous I had to get it. What do you guys think?

I'm so bad; I don't remember how many coats this was. It was either 2 or 3 (I'm guessing 2) but it covered well and wasn't thick or streaky.

Orly Buried Alive

Orly Buried Alive

Orly Buried Alive

Orly Buried Alive

And because I can't just have a regular post, here is a picture of my pug and her standard poodle friend Blanco.

Zoya Swatches

Sooooo... I got the makeup counter job I wanted. The one I only had a million interviews for. Well, 4. But still. The last one was a "structured phone interview" where they fire questions at you and don't give you any feedback at all. Nor can they clarify anything. It was kind of weird, but my boss said I passed with flying colors. Apparently 2 other people from other stores made it all the way up to the final phone interview like I did but they failed to get the job. Unlike me! It's nice to know that other people believe in me. It just makes me want to work extra hard to prove myself. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say what the company is. I don't see why it should be a problem, but when the lady comes to train me I'll ask her about it. It will probably be pretty easy to figure out eventually anyway seeing as most of my paycheck will go right back to them and I DO have a makeup blog. So yay me!

Well, this is SUPPOSED to be a makeup/nail blog. Although recently it seems to mostly be nail polish. And continues to be such with today's post.  I have swatches of the 7 nail polishes I picked up during Zoya's Earth Day sale. I'm excited because I loved them all. Usually there is at least one that disappoints me, but not this time!

From left- Kennedy, Wednesday, Zuza, Skylar, Lotus, Tru, and Rory

I guess I was in the mood for blues and purples!

All of the following swatches are 2 coats with no base or top coat. Sorry for the messy swatches. I still need to get a new clean-up brush.

Zoya Kennedy in the sun

Surprisingly this is one of my favorites. I hesitantly added it to my cart after really falling in love with swatches and I'm so glad. I LOVE it. It's a pink based nude while most others seem to be yellow based. I have my good friend Maribeth of Obsessive Cosmetics Hoarders Unite to thank for my recent foray into nude polishes. If you don't already follow her, you should. She's amazing!

Zoya Kennedy in the shade

Zoya Wednesday in the sun

I can never get enough of this type of color. With creme finishes I usually have the urge to slap some glitter over them, but this one is pretty enough to be left alone. In case you missed my last post, I found a dupe of this one from Sinful Colors.

Zoya Wednesday in the shade

Zoya Zuza in the sun

This color was the one I was most excited for. It's a teal foil and completely different from anything in my collection. I love it.

Zoya Zuza in the shade

Zoya Skylar in the sun

Skylar is a dusty slate blue with multicolored shimmer flecks- mostly gold, pink and blue although they can tend to look silver. It is ridiculously pretty too.

Zoya Skylar in the shade

Zoya Lotus in the sun

I've been wanting this one forever! It has the same size shimmer flecks as Skylar, but they are pink.

Zoya Lotus in the shade

Zoya Tru in the sun

This is a similar concept to Lotus, but different enough I had to own them both. Tru has a more saturated red-violet base versus the dusty purple of Lotus. And instead of the pink shimmer, this one looks more reddish gold.

Zoya Tru in the sun

I guess I forgot to get a picture of this one in the shade!

Zoya Rory in the sun

Rory is another one that isn't my typical nail polish. I don't wear pinks that often, but when I do I prefer a bolder, more in-your-face color. This is a more delicate pink, but it's a foil and another that is completely unique in my collection. I'm so glad this one didn't disappoint.

Zoya Rory in the shade

And of course I could pass up an opportunity to assault you with cute pictures of my pug. She's sleeping in my mom's bed. My mom and her always take naps together; it's so cute.

So did you guys pick up any polishes during the Earth Day sale?  If you don't already have an account with Zoya you can use my link here. If you sign up using my link we each get a coupon for a free polish. If you use this coupon and add 2 more polishes to your order, you will get free shipping, too. So 3 nail polishes for $16 when with shipping would normally cost you about $30. Zoya always has the best deals. I love them!

Catch Me In your Nap, I mean Net- An Old NOTD

I'm tired. But in a good way. The accomplished sort of way. So this week I moved and started a new job. The job is going well so far, it's just retail at a department-type store, but I'm applying for a position at a makeup counter within the store next week and I hope I get it! I have to interview with the regional manager, but the store manager told me he hopes I get it because I would be great for the job. It was really nice to hear that and finally feel competent for once.

So the title of the post probably doesn't make much sense yet, but here it is. I haven't had time to take any new pictures recently so I'm going to show you a swatch of OPI's Catch Me In Your Net that's at least 6 months old. The nap part of the title refers to the fact that I, well, could use one!

On to the swatches! CMIYN is pretty sheer so I'm guessing this was 3 or 4 coats. They apply smoothly and dry fairly quickly. Of course there are a zillion dupes of this by now, so if not this OPI, you definitely need one of the others!  This one was limited edition anyway and is probably harder to find.

OPI Catch Me In Your Net

OPI Catch Me In Your Net

Do you own any of the numerous dupes of this color?

Finger Paints Warm He-Art-Ed Swatches

Ack, I'm so sleepy. I took a four hour "nap" yesterday and I'm still sleepy.

Finger Paints is a brand that is sold at Sally Beauty Supply. I think their polishes are fairly underrated, probably because of their limited availablitliy. I bought this one, even though I don't care much for neautrals, but I loved the coppery bronze shimmer with the cool taupe base. This one is really hard to get a good picture of. In the sun the shimmer turns gold and the base looks more greenish brown, but most of the time it looks more like the first picture. And the copper shimmer is a lot more visible in real life.  I really love this polish. This polish and my friend Maribeth have both contributed to my new appreciation for neutral polishes. The only thing is that this polish has perhaps the dumbest name ever, due to the dashes- Warm He-Art-Ed. For me, I want to read the last part as "He Farted." But that is because I have the sense of humor of a 11 year old boy.

Finger Paints Warm He-Art-Ed in the shade

Finger Paints Warm He-Art-Ed in the sun

Finger Paints Warm He-Art-Ed with flash

Available:

• Retails for $4.99 (or $4.49 with Sally Beauty Club Card) from Sally Beauty. You can purchase this color from their website here.

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

Fish Scales and "Woe is me" Tales

I'm STILL upset about the stupid neighbor thing from yesterday. Especially since we had to spend $90 and 4 hours building a mini fence in front of the actual fence between our yards. I acknowledge that my dog is bad to chew on the wooden fence boards when her dogs are barking at him, but I try and prevent it and don't let him out when her dogs are out. But she doesn't do anything when her dogs are running and bouncing off the fence on the other side. I have to be the responsible one and throw money away to keep my dogs from misbehaving while hers are free to do whatever they want. UGH! You know what? I don't think she let her dogs out ONE TIME today. Talk about an extreme reaction. They still need to go to the bathroom. Does she seriously think I don't ever want them to go out? I wanted to thank everyone who commented yesterday on my rant-y post. You all made me feel so much better. I just want so bad to believe that everyone has at least some shred of rationality to them, and it bothers me that some people will never have that, no matter who talks to them or what they say. So sorry I've been a bit of a Debbie Downer lately. I'll return you to your regularly scheduled pretties shortly.
As a way of easing back into it, here is the fish scales part of the title.  According to my boyfriend this mani looked like fish scales.

This is 2 coats of China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise under 1 coat of Hard Candy Break Up.

In the sun

My camera is dumb. It makes non-neons looke neon and actual neon look pastel. Turned Up Turquoise is a saturated neon green-based teal shimmer. Break is large opalescent hex glitter in a clear base. They glitter is hard to get even, but I like the way it looks so I keep using it.

In the shade

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

Random NOTD: OPI Tease-y Does It

Only once in my life have I bought an entire nail polish collection and that was OPI's Burlesque collection last winter. I loved the glitters and and the foils and the duochromes! It is one of my favorite collections of all time. OF ALL TIME! ;-)

OPI Tease-y Does It in the sun

One of my favorite polishes from the collection is Tease-y Does It. It has a terrible name, but it's a gorgeous polish. And apparently it is very close to Nubar Raspberry Truffle and Chanel Feu De Russie. Since this one was limited edition, Raspberry Truffle might be easier to track down.

OPI Tease-y Does It in the sun

Also, this one completely changes based on the lighting. The shimmer can go from a plummy purple to coppery red to a warm caramel. Mmm, caramel... Anyway, I luff it.

OPI Tease-y Does It bottle picture

You can see all the colors in the bottle. The green rarely shows up on the nail, but you can see the other colors better depending on the lighting.

OPI Tease-y Does It taken with the flash

This picture is pretty terrible, but it was taken to show how purple it can look compared to the first two pictures above.

OPI Tease-y Does It in artificial light

This was taken under a lamp and really shows how the polish can take on the warm, golden tones.


Available:

• If you have to have this polish, I found it here on Amazon for close to what OPI retails for.

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

Diving for Pearls with Wet n Wild

Ugh, I hate limited edition collections from the drugstore. Mainly because none of my local drugstores ever carry them. No joke, I went to 8 different drugstores a few weeks ago looking for the various summer collection and cam up empty. I guess I should have called, but I've tried that before and no one has any idea what I'm talking about. One tried to tell me that drugstore makeup companies don't have limited edition collections.

So I was at a random grocery store I never go to and found a few polished from Wet n Wild's summer polish collection just sitting on a shelf. Unfortunately none of the ones I really wanted were there besides the one I'm showing you today, Diving for Pearls. the color is gorgeous, but the brush is the worst brush I have ever seen. I think I just got a defective one because they bristles are all random lengths and make it really hard to apply neatly. But the color is worth. This is one of my favorite teals!

This is two coats with base and top coat.

In the sun

In the sun

In the shade

How about you guys? Did anyone have any luck finding the limited edition drugstore collections?


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

Nail Polish Frankening Supplies and A Neon Pink Franken

I'm the type of person that has a new obsession every few months. the current one is blogging, but hopefully I stick with it longer than I do other projects! My past obsession has included painting, sewing, soap making, lotion making, making friendship bracelets, making beaded jewelry, and more that I can't remember. And I'll cycle back through previous obsessions every so often, too. I have a closet full of supplies from these former hobbies.  The only hobby that I have ever stuck with in my entire life is nail polish and painting my nails. I'm going on 2 and a half years now of being obsessed with it, and frankly I'm kinda surprised I've lasted this long. And my obsession shows no sign of waning.

I still get the itch to create things, but I'm terrible at nail art, so creating my own polishes is an ideal hobby. I have been meaning to place an order at TKB Trading for supplies for the longest time, but have always got distracted an spent my money elsewhere (I get distracted by pretty things easily). So the other day I placed an order for 30 small nail polish bottles and a bottle of a glitter suspension base. You need this base for glitters because the glitter will settle at the bottom without it. For non glitter polishes I just use the 99 cent Wet n Wild clear polish.

I was so excited with everything that I have already made 4 polishes. This neon pink one is my favorite, but my camera is a piece of shit when it comes to photographing neons. This is actually a neon shimmer with flakies. I used some of my precious bottle of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure to create it. In real life you can see the flakies, but my camera freaks out and makes the polish as retina searing as possible and eliminates the flakes. It really is bright though, because it's a neon (it dries matte as neons do).

This was 3 coats.Ugh, I'm so frustrated I couldn't get a good picture! Well, at least this gives me an excuse to get a new camera sometime! This is 1/3 Sinful Colors Pink, 1/3 diamond Cosmetics Hot Summer Pink, and 1/3 Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure.


Here is where I bought my supplies from. I also have a little tube of balls (they're actually BBs, or metal pellets) from Walmart. You need these to help mix up the polish. They really do make a difference. I put 2 to 3 in each bottle.


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

What Makes a Good Frosty Nail Polish? When It Isn't A Frost! Wet n Wild's Eggplant Frost

Wet n Wild Eggplant Frost in the sun

I'm just gonna come out and say that I love Wet n Wild's Eggplant Frost nail polish. Partially because it's a gorgeous polish but also for nostalgia reasons.  I bought my first bottle of this color when I was 14 and I thought this color was incredibly edgy and grown up. I also remember my mom hating it, which probably made me love it more.  Unfortunately I got rid of my old bottle (and a lot of other really awesome colors, *sob*) in a fit of nail polish loathing in my late teens.  But Wet n Wild sent me a few of their products to review recently and I was excited to see a bottle of Eggplant Frost in the package.

Seriously, I'm not sure why I never bought my own bottle.  This line from Wet n Wild is only 99 cents and there isn't a dud in the bunch.  A lot of dark purple polishes with blue flash have come out recently that I've noticed but you have to give Wet n Wild credit for being one of the first. And for being the most inexpensive!

This was 2 coats, with base and top coats.

Wet n Wild Eggplant Frost in the sun

Wet n Wild Eggplant Frost in the shade

Available:

• The Wild Shine line of polishes retail for $0.99 and are sold at drugstores and all places Wet n Wild is sold.

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

Disclosure: I was sent this for review purposes from Wet n Wild. All opinions are completely my own. 

Mmm, My Nails Smell Like Grapes

Wow, I've been so scatterbrained lately. I completely for to make a post today. I'm not sure how- preparing a post has been a part of my daily schedule for months now.  Do you ever have that feeling that you're slowing falling apart. I feel like a shoelace where the little plastic end has come off and I'm slowly unraveling. On day You do to tie your shoe and the lace is completely unraveled and completely useless. Yeah, that's me. And unraveling shoelace. Yeah, I'm probably not making much sense. (Just smile and nod and no one gets hurt!)

I used to have scented polishes as a a kid and was excited when Revlon starting releasing these just because of the nostalgia factor. I have Grape Icy and some blueberry scented one I haven't used yet. The scent of this one is cloyingly sweet.  I sleep with my hands curled up next to my face and for the first night the scent was kind of distracting. But I don't care, I think it's cool to have scented nails. The scent slowly faded, but even at the end I could still smell it faintly.  Using a top coat over does not affect the scent after the polish dries.  Oh, you can make your own scented polishes, too.  I put a few drops of peppermint essential oil into a franken and after it dried my nails smelled like mint.  I'm sure you could use frgarance oils, too.

This polish is pretty sheer. If you've used Revlon polishes, the formula is pretty recognizably Revlon.  I think this was 3 coats.  It may have been 4, but my brain is being a butthole lately and doesn't like to function properly.

Revlon Grape Icy in the sun

Revlon Grape Icy in the shade

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

Cult Nails A Day At The Races Collection Swatches

I'm gonna post this in the morning, but right now it's night and I'm writing this post, drinking strawberry daquiris, and cooking dinner (steak, shrimp and vegetable skewers, and twice baked potatoes- yum!). I drink like twice a year and am notoriously bad at holding my alcohol so I'm going to go ahead and make this a quick post! Hopefully I finish dinner before I'm too far gone... (Apparently I did get too far gone because I forgot to set this post to actually you know, post when I wanted it to)

Today I'll show you guys Cult Nails' A Day At The Races collection.  A few of these polishes are sold out and won't be coming back, but at least it gives you a good idea of the awesomeness that Cult Nails creates. I'll let you know which you can still buy (although really, you should be buying them all!). Check out my review of Cult Nails' polishes and swatches of their Inaugural Collection here.

Cult Nails Captivated in the sun

 This was 2 coats on my left three fingers and one coat over Cult Nails' Quench on my index finger.

Captivated is my favorite of these, but unfortunately it's sold out!

Cult Nails Captivated in the shade

Cult Nails Always Winning in the sun

This one was 3 coats and is still a bit sheer. It's pretty and unique but isn't my favorite just because I wish it looked on the nail how it does in the bottle!  It does look better in real life than my picture shows, however.

Always Winning is currently available.

Cult Nails Always Winning in the shade

Cult Nails Cruisin' Nude in the sun

This was 2 coats. I love this polish! I just wish the pink shimmer was as apparent in the picture as it is in real life.

This is not currently available but it available for pre-order.

Cult Nails Devious Nature in the sun

This was 2 coats.  This one isn't quite as bubblegum pink as it looks here and has a more purple tone.  The shade picture is more color accurate.

This shade is currently available.

Cult Nails Devious Nature in the shade

Cult Nails Let Me Fly in the sun

This was 2 coats.  Let Me Fly is sold out online :(

Cult Nails Let Me Fly in the shade

Available:

• Cult Nails polishes are sold through their website and retail for $10 each.

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