Bright Summery Nails with L'Oreal's Summer Siren Nail Polishes! Wth Swatches!

Okay, this post starts off kind of boring so you can just skip to the pictures if you want!

Anyone else avoid going to the doctor at all costs?  I’m not afraid of going, I’m just afraid to know what’s wrong with me, haha.  I would rather just ignore my problems and hope they go away.  Plus, medical bills are expensive, even with insurance.  This is still my mindset about medical issues, even though being this way has gotten me in a lot of trouble in the past. In my emergency surgery back in February I ended up having to get way more invasive surgery when it could have just been laproscopically in a tiny incision because I waited to go to the doctor too long.  Silly me, you think I would have learned my lesson.

It’s been 4 months since my surgery and I should be recovered, but I’m having some issues.  And of course I haven’t been back to the doctor.  For anyone who has had surgery I have a question.  My incision was in my lower torso area and of course anytime you’re cut like that you’ll have nerve damage but mine feels bad.  My whole abdomen feels numb and overly sensitive at the same time.  I can barely touch it.  Also out of nowhere it will feel like it’s on fire.  I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced something like this after surgery?  I guess it has only been 4 months since, but it is getting really annoying.  I know I should go to the doctor, but I dooooooooon’t waaaanna.

Sorry for the rambling! 

I picked these polishes up from my local grocery store when they were having a sale on L’Oreal.  These are limited edition and part of L’Oreal’s summer collection- Summer Siren.  They are the most exciting drugstore polishes I have seen in awhile so I couldn’t stop myself from buying them.

These are all swatches with no base or top coats.  I used 4 coats on all of these.  They are a bit sheer, but they dry quickly and 4 coats wasn't really a hassle at all.  They would also looked nice over a similarly colored base.

L'Oreal Yellow Seahorse in the sun

L'Oreal Yellow Seahorse in the shade

L'Oreal Coral Starfish in the sun

L'Oreal Coral Starfish in the shade

L'Oreal Pink Shells in the sun

L'Oreal Pink Shells in the shade

L'Oreal Blue Marine in the sun

L'Oreal Blue Marine in the shade

These are from a limited edition collection so they have their own displays.  Just look where your drugstores normally carry the limited edition collections, though not all drugstores choose to put them up.  I can't remember how much these polishes were and I can't find it online, but probably around $4. 

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

Under-appreciated Brand Alert! New York Summer Nail Polish Swatches

New York Summer is probably an under-appreciated brand because it isn't that easy to find.  The only place I've seen it sold is on the website of one of my favorite nail polish e-tailers, Transdesign. The polishes are only $1.59 and come in a HUGE range of over 50 colors ranging from neons to glitters to jellies.  Most of the colors I have are jellies.  In a way, the remind me of polishes that could easily fit in with OPI's "sorbet" finish.  If you loved OPI's jellies and were looking for some more, these are some great ones.  Plus, they're super cheap!  Oh, another color I recommend is a green jelly called Amaranth, but I forgot to swatch it. :(
All of these are swatched with no base or top coat.

New York Summer Hot Baby Blue in the sun

This was 3 coats.  It's a little more opaque than some of the others.  It is also a near perfect dupe for Essie Turquoise & Caicos.

New York Summer Hot Baby Blue in the shade

New York Summer Hot Sky Blue in the sun

This is 4 coats and you can still see my nail line easily.  Also, it must have some neon pigment in it because it dries to a satin finish.

New York Summer Hot Sky Blue in the shade

New York Summer Summer Fun in the sun

This was 4 coats.  I really like this color- it seems pretty unique.

New York Summer Summer Fun in the shade

New York Summer Hush in the sun

This was 4 coats.  Like most yellows, this was a bit of a pain to try and get streak-free.

New York Summer Hush in the shade

New York Summer Poppies in the sun

This was 2 coats.  It's the only non-jelly out of these swatches.  This is such a rich, gorgeous purple.

New York Summer Poppies in the shade

I was thinking Poppies might be similar to NARS' Purple Rain so I did a comparison.

Left- NARS Purple Rain  Right- New York Summer Poppies

You can see that they aren't dupes at all.  They do hae a similar feel, but Purple Rain has a more blackened base and isn't quite as reddish purple.

Available:

• New York Summer sells for $1.59  at Transdesign.com (Scroll down and click Polish on the left side. New York Summer is just called "New York" in the top tabs)

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

American Apparel Nail Polish Swatches

Today's post we are going to file under. "Less words, MOAR picture spam!"  Yeah, not feeling very talkative today.

Besides various scandals that I'm only vaguely aware of, American Apparel as a brand has never caught my attention.  Until.  Until they started selling nail polishes.  These are from the first round of polishes they released.  All the polishes they sell are cremes.  The lighter colors like the mint green and the yellow are harder to apply and are a bit streaky, but most mint green and yellow cremes are more difficult.

The colors I have are:

• Manila- golden yellow
• Office- mint green
• Hunter- dark forest green
• Poppy- bright red-orange
• Mount Royal- dusty cobalt blue with a tinge of purple and grey
• Peacock- medium teal

These swatches are all 3 coats with no base or top coat.

Manila

Office

Hunter

Poppy

Mount Royal

Peacock

Available:

• $6.00 for one, $15.00 for 3, or $32 for 7 at American Apparel's website and in stores

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

Nicole by OPI Yellow Its Me

What I am doing currently: writing a post about nail polish; editing picture of nail polish; and applying nail polish.  3 nail polish-related task at once.  That has to be a record for me.  In case you haven't figured it out yet, THIS is the nail polish post. YAY nail polish!

One of my favorite drug store nail polish brands is Nicole by OPI.  Yes, they are pretty expensive for drugstore at (runs to Google to check because I forgot) $7 a bottle.  That's almost $2 more than you can buy regular OPIs for from online retailers.  Although, technically I don't think they are supposed to be selling them.  Also, the polishes tend to be pretty sheer.  You either have to layer them or use tons of coats.  But for some reason the polish must work really well with my body chemistry because they dry quickly, last forever and apply like buttah.

Yellow It's Me is one of my favorite Nicole polishes despite it's lack of opacity.  It layers really well over any old yellow creme.  It has a lemon yellow jelly-ish base with absolutely stunning reddish orange glass fleck shimmer/glitter that of course I wasn't able to capture accurately enough on camera despite two attempts.

Full sun

This is 5 coats of Yellow It's Me on my index finder and 1 coat over 2 coats of China Glaze Happy Go Lucky on my other fingers.  I'm disappointed that the red-orange shimmer didn't show up as visible as it is in real life.

Partial shade

Here you can see the shimmer a lot better.


The following picture was my first attempt to photograph Yellow It's Me several months ago.  This is  2 coats of Yellow It's Me over Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure Yellow Kitty (why do these names have to be so dang long?!).  The bright shimmer is washed out by the flash in this picture, but I think Yellow It's Me looks better over a more pastel yellow cream than a brighter, more intense one.

Taken with flash

Available:

• Around $7.00 at Walmart and other stores.  Check Nicole by OPI's website for more locations.

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