Wet n Wild Limited Edition ColorIcon Ice Baby Nail Color Collection Swatches

I was so excited to find these nail polishes along with the baked palettes and the matte palette at my local Walgreens. The drug stores near me NEVER carry any limited edition collections. Instead they have ugly gift sets of cheap cologne and rock hard eyeshadow palettes. The display was missing two of the colors, 24 Carats and Give Me A Price, but I'll post pictures of those as soon as I can get my greedy little hands on them. I absolutely love these glitters! Apparently a few of them are dead on dupes of some Nails Inc polishes (see Scrangie's comparison here) and a few look like the limited edition mini set of Deborah Lippmann polishes from Nordstrom (see swatches here). Of course I prefer Wet n Wild's because they're cheaper!

I used three coats to get full coverage with all 6 polishes. Some you could probably get away with using 2 coats. The formula wasn't terrible for being opaque glitter polishes in a clear base, but some thinner might help the thickness a bit. And these do dry very... textured. You will need a few coats of top coat to get that glass-like finish I'm obsessed with. Some thicker glitters don't layer well, but I found that one coat looks amazing over black. I'll show the layered swatches at the end. Also, those are the only ones with top coat. All others are left in their natural, gritty glory.

Sorry for the bad clean up on my nails. That's what i get for doing swatches while sick.

Rockin' Rubies in the sun

Rockin' Rubies in the shade

Cost Is No Issue in the sun

Cost Is No Issue in the shade

Believe Me, It's Real in the sun

Believe Me, It's Real in the shade

Back Alley Deals in the sun

Back Alley Deals in the shade

It's All In The Cut in the sun

It's All In The Cut in the shade

Diamond In The Rough in the sun

Diamond In The Rough in the shade

From left- Rockin' Rubies, Cost Is No Issue, and Believe Me, It's Real over black

From left- Back Alley Deals, It's All In The Cut, and Diamond In The Rough over black

What do you guys think? Do any stand out to you, or do you plan on picking any up?


Available:

• These retail for $2.99 and are limited edition. Check out this interactive map by Nouveau Cheap to see if the collection has been spotted in your area.

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

More Holographic Goodness!

I just saw the worst movie ever yesterday- Something Borrowed. Is there something fundamentally wrong with my femininity that I absolutely detest romantic comedies? This one was heavy of the eye-roll inducing romance with a dearth of the actually comedy. Thank you Jim from The Office for making it somewhat bearable. If it isn't raunchy or gory I probably don't want to see it. I would much rather watch The Hangover than The Notebook. Oh, and give me a zombie dismemberment scene any day over a "guy confesses his undying devotion to some whiny chick".  Haha, that stupid movie put me in a bad mood.

I'm currently wearing my glitter puke franken that I showed you yesterday, but I didn't have time to take pictures of it, so I'll show you an equally as awesome franken.

This is one coat over two coats of a black creme.

To make this I used 1/3 a clear glitter suspension base from TKB Trading, 2/3 Pure Ice Heart Breaker (here is a swatch of Heart Breaker over a black base coat) and a few tiny scoops of SpectraFlair holo pigment.

Using Heart Breaker instead of just clear polish as a base makes the inside edges of the holo-ness appear blue, which is why it appear blue-toned in the bottle instead of just silvery. And I couldn't catch it with my camera but in some lighting you can still see the blue/green shift from Heart Breaker.

And there ya have it. Hopefully I don't screw up my glitter puke mani so I can take pictures of it later.


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

Rainbows on Crack(le)!

I'm terrible when it comes to nail art. I desperately wish I could do it, but I lack art skills and I have no patience. I even fail at nail stamping.  But I still get the urge to have something to do something besides regularly painted nails and this is what I came up with. It's not the most revolutionary design in the world, but it made me happy because it was different from what I normally do and it was sparkly!

These are the polishes I used. You won't actually see a picture of the Nicole by OPI because I used that color on my thumb nails and my thumbs are too ugly to show, haha. I've swatched the L'Oreal colors and you can see them here.

In the sun

For some reason the crackle never "cracks" as well on my left hand. I think I might be applying it too thickly or something. I wish I would have taken a picture of my right hand as well because it looked better. I know crackle is probably a bit played out by now, but I really like the silver crackle. I have the black OPI one and never wear it because I think it looks kinda ugly.

In the shade.

Well, that's all I have you you guys today. I everyone is having a great weekend! I ordered a Kindle yesterday and because I am impatient I paid the $3.99 for one day shipping (I have Amazon Prime- the best thing ever). So I ordered the Kindle yesterday at around 6 pm and it got here today right before 11 am. Definitely worth the 4 bucks! I downloaded like 40 books yesterday in anticipation and I can't wait to start reading! Squee! I'm such a nerd! I'm just glad that you can put ebooks on there from other sources and don't have to buy them all from the Amazon Kindle store. I'm super cheap and would never had bought the Kindle if that was the only way to get content.

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

Random NOTD: Sally Hansen Fractured Foil Over L'Oreal Pink Shells

Sorry, this is going to be a short post!  I atarted my second class for this summer yesterday.  I taking Biology, which is what I'm majoring in.  I like biology better than chemistry (which is what I took this past month) so I'm hoping it's a bit easier.  These summer course are so fast paces and tiring, but I just want to finish school as fast as possible so I can stop being a hobo and mooching off my boyfriend.  I know he doesn't see it that way, but that's the way it feels to me.  I can't wait to start my career and we can buy a house and I can start participating financially!  He's supported my ass for way too long.  But he's the sweetest thing and has never complained.  He would never think to complain either.

Anyway, here is a mani I did a week ago or so.  I really like how it turned out with the silver crackle over the hot pink.  I've showed you both of these polishes before. L'Oreal Pink Shells is here and Sally Hansen Fractured Foil is here.

Sally Hansen Fracture Foil over L'Oreal Pink Shells

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

Sally Hansen Crackle Polish in Fractured Foil Swatches and Review

I was hoping to get pictures of a few more manis with this crackle polish before making a post about it, but I'm still lamenting the loss of my nail on my swatching hand and refuse to take pictures of it.
I had heard that the Sally Hansen crackle polishes didn't "crack" as well as other brands, but I was actually impressed with it. I have the black OPI crackle and the formula is disgusting- it's like tar.  I still wasn't sold on the whole crackle thing even after I bought the black one, but the silver has finally pulled me in.

When I bought the crackle polish I was wearing Orly Luxe, a pale cool gold.  I was worried that there wouldn't be enough contrast for the crackle to show up, but I had to use it anyway.

Sally Hansen Fractured Foil over Orly Luxe in the sun

Next time I will use a darker gold, but I still think the effect is pretty cool.

Sally Hansen Fractured Foil over Orly Luxe in the shade

in the sun

For this mani I used two different blue cremes from Models Own.  The darker blue is called Betty Blue and the lighter one is called Top Turquoise.I think I messed up with my index finger because i don't think the polish was dry enough when I painted the crackle over it.

in the shade

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

Where Is Texas in OPI's Texas Collection? Swatches and a Complaint

I'm a die-hard Texan.  I was born here, I live here, and I will most definitely die here.  Just hopefully not any time soon.  Or actually preferably not at all.  So needless to say, I had high expectations for the OPI's Texas-inspired nail polish collection. Being the overly-dramatic Texan I am who takes offense to any perceived slight to my beloved home, I was outraged at the seeming lack of thought or research that went into picking the color palette.  I immediately saddled up my horse (we all own one ya know; it's a requirement to live here) and began the trek to OPI headquarters to express my outrage.  Okay not really, I just experienced mild distaste and decided I didn't need any of the colors.  Plus, I don't know anyone who even owns a horse.

Anyway, the color palette does not evoke Texas to me at all. And while the fruity-colored "sorbets" are pretty, I would like to know exactly what about Texas inspired them?  And while we're on the topic... c'mon, sorbets?  Really?  We all know they're jellies.  Stop pretending that you invented some groundbreaking new finish. Honestly to me it feels like they picked the theme AFTER they had picked the colors.

So I was grocery shopping a few weeks ago and came across a display with these on clearance (I guess all my fellow Texans were offended also.  Either that or no one expected to find OPI at the grocery store).  I bought Austin-tatious Turquoise because Austin is my hometown, where my family lives, and where I long to be. *dramatic sigh* I know the color is sheer and not-so-great from what I have seen on other blogs, but I had to have it for the name.  And how could you not love a city who's motto is, "Keep Austin weird."  I picked up a few of the sorbets (JELLIES!) because they looked pretty in the bottle and one other because it had a really pretty pink shimmer that does not show up at all in pictures.

These are swatched with no base or top coat.

OPI Austin-tatious Turquoise in the sun

 This was 5 coats and you can still see some VNL.  To be honest U was expecting this one to be a lot worse.  What disappointed me the most is that the cool purpley-pink shimmer you can see in the corner of the bottle does not show up on the nail. :(

OPI Austin-tatious Turquoise in the shade

OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It in the sun

This was 5 coats.  Okay, this one looks sort of boring and gross- a frosty, brushstrokey mess.  But in real life it has this really pretty pink shimmer/flash thing that sort of redeems it.  I don't know why it's so camera shy.  So is this one "Totally Fort Worth It"?  Probably not.

OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It in the shade

OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Here in the sun

For all the sorbets I used 1 coat of a nude polish on my index finger to hide VNL.  This was 3 coats on my index finger and 4 on the other fingers.  I'm not sure you would ever be able to get rid of VNL without an opaque base.

OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Here in the shade

OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston in the sun

This was 2 coats on my index finger over the nude base and 3 coats on my other fingers.

OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston in the shade

OPI Houston We Have A Purple in the sun

This was 2 coats on my index finger over the nude base and 3 coats on my other fingers.

OPI Houston We Have A Purple in the shade

 Available:

• This is a limited edition collection but may still be available at some places.  Check OPI's website for a location near you that sells it.
• This collection is still available on Transdesign and they sell for $5.75 each.

Oh, and just because I'm homesick, here are a few pictures of some of my favorite places/things in and around Austin.

Krause Springs

Image credit sonfotografias on flickr

 Austin skyline at night reflecting off the lake

image credit Michael Connell on flickr

Texas Longhorns

This is my momma before a Longhorn football game.  Shh, don't tell her I put a picture of her here.

Hamilton Pool

image credit Knowsphotos on flickr

This is one the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  Apparently it's a collapsed underground river or something.  They even let you swim here sometimes.

There are so many other places I love but this is getting a bit long. :)


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