My Cult Nails Order

Unfortunately I don't have swatches for you guys.  I think I mentioned before that I had a bad break on my swatching hand.  Not just an ugly break, but a bloody one.  I'm going to wait until my nails grow out a bit to do these gorgeous polishes justice, but I was just excited about my order and wanted to show you guys the bottle pics.

I was super impressed with the shipping time.  I order on a Tuesday and got my tracking number that same night.  So they were probably mailed the next day (Wednesday).  I recieved them on Saturday.  See? Quick!

The owner of Cult Nails, Maria, is a blogger and nail polish fanatic just like many of us.  On her blog, www.r3daily.com/, Maria often writes about the behind the scenes of starting her own company, creating new colors, and other interesting tidbits.  It's nice to a company be so forthcoming and it makes me want to support her.

Cult Nails polishes retail for $10, which may seem a bit high to those of us used to paying drugstore prices.  But really, I don't find the prices that bad for a small company just starting out.  It isn't like creating mineral eyeshadows where you can make them at home; Cult Nails actually works with a lab to formulate each of her polishes.  You can tell Maria puts a lot of thought and effort into working with the lab and picking the colors for the collections.  Most of the colors are extremely unique and the formulas of the ones I have tried so far has been amazing.  I feel like you know you are buying quality when you order from them because the owner really cares about her product.

Sorry if this seems overly gushing, but I just find it really inspiring that Maria went for her dream of starting her own company.  I think of how many times I have thought, "I should do this" and never followed through with it because I was afraid of the work it would take or was afraid of not being successful.

But anyway, on to the pictures!  I'll do swatches as soon as my nails stop being gross!

It came packaged in a Flat Rate Box.

The polishes look like little eggrolls wrapped in their packaging material.  Cotton balls are also used as packing material, which I thought was cute and clever.  Everything arrived packed well and nothing was damaged.

From left- My Kind of Cool Aid, Living Water, Iconic, Quench, Devious Nature, Cruisin' Nude, Captivated, Let Me Fly, and Always Winning

Inaugural Collection- My Kind of Cool Aid, Living Water, Iconic, Quench

A Day At The Races Collection- Devious Nature, Cruisin' Nude, Captivated, Let Me Fly, and Always Winning

You can buy Cult Nails' polishes from their website- http://shop.cultnails.com/  Polishes are $10 each or you can buy all 9 polishes for $75, which is what I did.


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

Lip Swatch Spam with Essence Lipglosses

I love Essence's products.  Of course just like with any brand there are duds, but to me there are surprisingly few for how inexpensive this brand is.  I can't remember exactly how much these lipglosses were (they were on sale at my local grocery store), but they only retail for somewhere between $2 and $3.

I've been obsessed with layering lip products, but didn't really have that many options in my stash.  I wanted to expand my collection of layering glosses, but didn't want to spend a fortune.  I spotted these Essence lipglosses and they're perfect for layering.  My cheap and shitty camera can't pick up the pretty shimmer/glitter in the sheerer shades, so just know that these look way cooler in person.

The glosses are medium thickness, but not sticky.  They feel smooth and moisturizing but not watery or greasy.  I cannot stand the feel of particles or grittiness in my lip products and luckily even the most glittery shades still feel smooth. They don't have a taste that I can detect.  The best way I can describe the smell is fruity, and I actually really like it.  Some fruit scented lip products have the tendency to smell like chemicals or plastic, but this one doesn't.

Since I meant these mainly for layering, I also am showing a swatch of each color over Rimmel's Pink Champagne lipstick as well as by themselves, which looks like this on it's own:

 Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in Pink Champagne

From left- Bubble Bath, Rising Star, True Love, Rock On, Pixie Dust

From left- Bubble Bath, Rising Star, True Love, Rock On, Pixie Dust

 These glosses don't have a doe-foot applicator.  It is more elongated, tapered, and flat like a paddle.

From left- Bubble Bath, Rising Star, True Love, Rock On, Pixie Dust

Essence XXLShine Lipgloss in Bubble Bath

Essence XXLShine Lipgloss in Bubble Bath over Rimmel Pink Champagne

Essence XXLShine Lipgloss in Rising Star

Essence XXLShine Lipgloss in Rising Star over Rimmel Pink Champagne

Essence XXLShine Lipgloss in True Love

Essence XXLShine Lipgloss in True Love over Rimmel Pink Champagne

Essence XXLShine Lipgloss in Rock On

Essence XXLShine Lipgloss in Rock On over Rimmel Pink Champagne

Essence Fairytale Lipgloss in Pixie Dust

Essence Fairytale Lipgloss in Pixie Dust over Rimmel Pink Champagne

Whew, that was a lot of lip swatches!

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

Week 11: Shopping my Stash for Untried Polish- Essie Demure Vixen

One of my nails tore off about three-quarters up my nail bed, so I'm stuck with a gross, short, bloody nail on my swatching hand.  Nooooo, not the swatching hand!  Ugh, I'm going to have to wait until it grows out a bit to take pictures because it bothers me too much.  Luckily I wear nail polish faster than I can post about them so I have a few pictures already taken.  So my nail lengths in pictures are going to varying wildly over the next few weeks.

I bought this polish when it first came out, which was awhile ago, but I barely wore it a month ago.  I just figured it would be too boring for my tastes.  Sometimes when I'm feeling particularly unispired I pick several polishes at random and tell my boyfriend to pick one.  Because he loves me, he feigns interest and plays along.  Almost every time he will pick either a green polish or the most sparkly one there is, but this time he picked Essie's Demure Vixen.  I asked him why and he said because it looks "dirty".  Haha, I guess that's a good reason.  Oh, click here to see my what untrieds I wore in previous weeks.

If I remember correctly this was at least 3 coats. I find that Essie polishes usually apply a bit sheerly.  And I really should have put another layer of topcoat on before taking pictures as the finish looks sort of dull.  But, I took these pictures after four days of wearing the polish and it still looks pretty damn good.

Essie Demure Vixen in the sun.

Essie Demure Vixen in the shade

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

Perhaps My Favorite Mani Ever- Sinful's Mint Apple under Hidden Treasure

Damn, I just realized I passed my 100 post milestone like a week ago!  I was anticipating it and counting it every day since about post 85, but then of course I completely forgot about it.  Not like post 100 is any more special than any other post, but for some reason I feel accomplished making it past 100, haha.

I'm still very behind in editing pictures and I'm so busy it doesn't seem like I'm going to catch up any time soon.  When you're busy it always feels like there will some how be a magic time when you'll be able to catch up on everything you need to do.  You tell yourself, "I can't wait until I can get a little break and then I'll be back on track."  Yeah, it doesn't work like that for me.  I get a little break and I take a nap and forget about all the little things I wanted to do.  I guess I'm destined to be playing catch-up the rest of my life!

Today I'm posting a mani I did like 2 months ago that I never got around to posting (while my nails were long! *SOB*).  It was inspired by this mani by my friend Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite!


I don't have the OPI she used, but I've been wanting to use Sinful's Mint Apple again and this was a good opportunity.  I love how this looks so much. I rarely repeat manis, but I have to with this one. This is either 2 or 3 coats (Sorry, I forgot to write down how many!) of Sinful's Mint Apple with a coat of Sally Hansen's Hidden Treasure on top.

In the sun

In the shade

To show all the different flaky colors

Macro nail picture

I love this.  It reminds me of a sunset over a tropical ocean.




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

Beware! A Rambling Nonsensical Post Ahead! And a pic of me

Ugh, I'm so freakin' tired but I HAVE to write at least a small blog post because I haven't missed a day yet!  I post my entries at 6:00 am CST for some arbitrary reason that I forget immediately after I decided to do it and haven't deviated from it since I started my blog.  And because I am NEVER awake at 6 in the morning, I usually write my blogs posts the night before.  Or schedule a few in advance if I'm anticipated being extra busy (or extra lazy).

But I'm late writing this one because my computer crapped out on me today.  My boyfriend figured out it was power supply because it worked when he placed the power supply from his computer in to mine.  So we went to Best Buy and bought a power supply and I have a computer again!  I hate buying things from Best Buy because they are so expensive compared to buying online, but I couldn't wait the few days for it to be shipped.  And my poor boyfriend- he was being nice and trying to fix my computer and now his won't work!  But he can't figure out what is wrong with it. :-/  He really could use a new one, I just need to convince him to let me use some of my loan money from school to buy him one.  He says no because I need it to help pay for my hospital bills so they don't mess up my credit.  I love that guy; he's the least selfish person I know.

Anywaaaaaaay, I'm rambling.  I'm so tired and I feel like I've been awake for days.  I haven't even figured out what pictures I'm going to put in this post yet, I'm just trying to fill up enough space so it can be considered a proper post!

Okay, I just realized I have no pictures edited and I really don't feel like doing it right now.  I know I haven't posted a real picture of myself for several reasons that I'm way too tired to get in to right now, but I figured now is a good time.  Here is a crappy bathroom mirror picture in bad lighting taken with an iPod the one time I'm wearing my glasses (I always wear my contacts).  I like this picture because my face looks thin (it really isn't) and my hair looks decent (it normally doesn't).  I'm also not wearing any makeup but the picture is such crappy quality that you wouldn't be able to tell anyway.  Plus, blurry pictures make anyone look better.  So this is what you guys get for now.

 

Okay I'm at the point of extreme tiredness where everything feels like a not real.  This post probably doesn't make any sense and I probably will completely regret it tomorrow. Oh well.

Frankenpolishes- A Meh, A Fail, and A Success

Ugh, I've been so busy lately.  I haven't even had time to respond to comments lately.  I feel terrible about it; the comments really make my day.  It's amazing to me that people care enough about my pictures and what I have to say to take time from their lives to leave me a message!  So I apologize for not responding.  Hopefully soon I get used to my new schedule and learn to manage my time better!

Every now and then I get a feeling where I must.do.something.creative or I feel like I'll explode.  I'm terrible at art, so I usually do the closest thing I can to art, mixing random nail polishes together.  Like my attempts to paint or draw, my polishes usually look a lot better in my head than they do in real life.  I KNOW this is going to happen everytime I attempt "art" but it still manages to surprise me every time when it comes out looking like poop.  Oh, well, at least I am a talented artist on the inside.  It's the inside that counts right?  Oh wait, that phrase only applies to beauty.  Well, crap.

Anyway, I'll subject you to some of my franken attempts.  Like the post title mentions, I have a failure, a (semi) success, and one I am ambivalent about.  I'll go from ugly to pretty, just because I like to save the best for last.  Oh, and only one has a name, mostly because i'm terrible at thinking of names and also because I don't really care about names anyway!

Oh, and these swatches are obviously from when my nails were longer than my current nubs.

Unamed pinky white franken- in the sun

I WANTED to make an off-white polish with a pink duochrome/sheen/shimmer (would have settled for any of those three), but it just came out a pinky-white creme with a tiny amount of shimmer that is barely visible.  I don't remember everything I used- I just started pouring in random things once I realized my initial plan wasn't working out.  I have a Loreal HIP pigment called Exciting that is a creamy white with pink flash and that is all I figured I needed to get the polish I wanted.  It didn't work however so I was just left with this monstrosity.

This is 3 coats.

Unamed pinky white franken- in the shade

Absurdity franken- in the sun

This is the meh.  I made this one when Chanel Paradoxal was at the height of it's popularity and there was no way I was going to spend Chanel prices on it.  Of course this isn't really close to Paradoxal, but I was satisfied enough that when I was done I promptly forgot about the polish I just created AND Paradoxal.  And of course I don't remember what I used to make it either.

This was 2 coats.

Absurdity franken- in the shade

Unamed green holo-ish franken- in the sun

Yay! Finally one I like!  And this one I was smart enough to write the recipe on a piece of paper and tape it to the cap.  I used approximately a third each of the holographic Milani polishes in 3D (gold) and Cyberspace (light blue). I then added a third of OPI Catch Me In Your Net.  It isn't super holo unless you're in the sun, but it is pretty sparkly.

This was 2 coats.

Unamed green holo-ish franken- in the shade

So there ya go.  I have 3 more frankens I took pictures of, so I can post those sometime if you want.  I'm really itching to make more frankens but I ran out of bottles!  The little bottles you see here were from packs of three water-based polishes from the dollar store.  Since the polish was water-based (and completely useless) I was able to just wash these out, dry them and reuse 'em.


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

Lipstick Swatch Spam with Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipsticks

 Ahh! I'm so excited! I took my first exam in my Chemistry class and I was super nervous about.  I'm one of those lucky people who rarely has to study because for some reason when it comes to school I have a good memory.  Outside of school stuff my memory is terrible.  Like I can't remember people's names for crap.  but I actually had to study for this exam.  It turns out I only missed one question and make a 96, woohoo!  Being smart is pretty much the only thing I have going for me because I'm extremely bland and boring, haha.  Sorry, I just had to share that because I was proud of myself for doing well!

Okay, this post barely qualifies as swatch spam because I only have 4 lipsticks to swatch, but this is all I have.  I'm not particularly fond of Rimmel lipsticks, but I buy them when they are on sale and I have coupons.  First of all, I hate the scent.  To me it smells like a spray disinfectant used in nursing homes or day cares.  It has an overwhelming sickly sweet powdery fruit smell with an undercurrent of chemical goodness.  Yech, not for me. I asked my boyfriend and he said they didn't smell gross, but I don't trust his sense of smell.  He can never smell anything. Luckily on my two older lipsticks the smell has faded a bit and once on my lips the smell fades pretty quickly.

As for the formula, it is pretty good.  I don't think I would pay full price for these, but I never pay full price for drugstore makeup anyway, unless it is something I REALLY have to have, like a limited edition item or something.  I used to not like the formula of these just because I didn't like lipstick, but now I like it.  It's creamy, pigmented and non-streaky or drying.

 The lipsticks with the silver band around the middle are the newer style tubes.  They're a little bit taller and I guess fancier. I dunno, I don't care much about packaging.  As long as it's functional I'm happy.

From left- Pink Champagne, In Vogue, Airy Fairy, Crush

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick Pink Champagne

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick Airy Fairy

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in Crush

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in In Vogue

These lipsticks are only like 5 or 6 bucks and I bought mine a few on mine while Rimmel was having a 40% off sale at a drugstore (Walgreens I think) and I had some coupons.  So they were worth the few dollars I paid.


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