Happy Friday everyone!
Just a quick post to announce the winner of my giveaway for the OPI Ford Mustang Collection. The lucky winner is….
Join me in congratulating Jennifer! She has 48 hours to contact me to claim her prize.
If you didn’t win here, don’t lose hope because I just launched another giveaway for the entire OPI Nordic Collection! Good luck!
Hi there! Guess what I have for you today?! Courtesy of the lovely people at OPI, I have an extra set of polishes from the OPI Nordic Collection. One of you lucky readers will walk away with the whole set! Are you excited yet??
As always the giveaway is open internationally but please don’t enter if your country has strict shipping restrictions. You must be over 18 to enter. Use the rafflecopter widget below and good luck!
I feel like I’m the only one who is super excited about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. So many people are already talking smack about the movie, and I am shitting my pants with excitement about it. TMNT is one of those cartoons that I absolutely adored as a kid. I can still clearly remember how it would take me 30 minutes to put on one sock because I was so engrossed in the cartoons. My mom would be so pissed yelling at my brother and I about being late to school, but we just did not want to tear ourselves away from the television. Then the video games came out and I wanted to kill myself every time I couldn’t get through TMNT 2. That game was ridiculously hard but it was so much fun. Did I mention that the first movie I ever saw at a movie theater was TMNT? I still remember the excitement of that day and how fun it was! So now that I’ve rambled about this movie, I can’t wait for this weekend so I can go watch it. So…for today’s post I have a cute little polish to share with you: Orly Color Blast Bright Blue Neon. Have you seen these polishes around? I ran across a big display at on of my nail places and this super bright blue really called out to me.
Since this is a neon, the formula was a bit difficult. It dries really fast so it is prone to overworking. I had to work quickly and had to be careful not to go over the same spot twice while the polish was setting. I applied 3 coats to get a smooth and even finish which is rather normal for neons.
I had to make this baby shiny so I applied one coat of Seche Vite. Do you love this as much as I do? The color plus the shine are an amazing combo.
Let me know what you think of this small but explosive polish. Despite the difficult formula, I am so pleased with the end result. Are you excited about the new TMNT movie? Let me know if you’re planning to see it. Do you remember what the first movie was that you ever saw in a movie theater? Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.
How was your weekend? Mine was really busy, and the weather has been unusually humid here in SoCal which is pretty darn disgusting. It’s not even that hot, but the humidity makes it feel 100 times more horrible. We are at like 90% humidity and it’s 9 pm as I write this! It’s supposed to be in the 70’s later in the week but if the humidity persists, I’m going to be miserable. Doesn’t it seem like I’m always complaining about the weather? Maybe I should move to Siberia or something so I can stop complaining about the heat. Ha! Anyway, this weekend I went to my nail places and they only had one collection that I wanted which I guess is good for my wallet. I feel like Essie’s Fall collection has bee flying under the radar because I hadn’t seen or heard much about it. Essie Dress To Kilt is not really a collection that wowed me when I first saw the colors, but you just never know until you get the colors on your nails. Are you ready to see the swatches?
Essie Fall In Line
Essie The Perfect Cover Up
Essie Style Cartel
Essie Dress To Kilt
Essie Partner In Crime
Essie Take It Outside
Sooo…boring colors? That’s what I thought at first but holy frijoles these polishes are spectacular. The formula was really nice–a little thicker than I’m used to with Essie because I always have to be careful not to flood my cuticles, but these were a little on the goopy side but not unmanageable. These all looked nice with one coat, but I recommend two for that perfectly smooth and glossy look. Did I mention how incredibly shiny and glossy the finish is on all of these?? Personally, I am in love with Style Cartel because it’s so inky and intense with a jelly-type look. My other favorite is Take It Outside. I just love the beautiful taupe-y color and how it looks against my skin tone. It’s so hard to wow polish freaks like myself, but this collection managed to really please me. Even though the colors aren’t revolutionary and I probably have a few dupes, the formula on these is really great and the shine is out of this world. If you don’t have similar colors, I definitely recommend these. What do you think about this collection? Do you see any shades that you must have? Thank you for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!
I should have gotten this post done last night, but of course I didn’t. I ended up catching up with a friend and didn’t get home until late. After that I was watching the Robocop remake which wasn’t that good but you know me and action movies. This morning I thought I was going to sleep in but I ended up waking up at 7:30 even though I went to bed around 3 am. Ugh! I went to my nail place early, and they only had ONE new collection I wanted which I’ll be swatching today. Whoever thought i was a good idea to close 3 out of 4 lanes on the main street to get there is a freaking genius considering there is always tons of traffic there no matter what day of the week it is. Can you sense how annoyed I was? haha! I need to chill out and just relax. Let’s move on from my complaining to my Stamping Saturdays mani since that is the main purpose of this post.
I started with 2 coats of Cult Nails Let Me Fly. Don’t let my crazy camera fool you: this polish is a lot more teal than what my pictures show. Still, it’s a gorgeous polish and that shimmer is just perfect.
I have used this image from Konad M64 many times, but I never get tired of it. I used my new Mentality Opaque White stamping polish for the design. I’ll be reviewing the two stamping polishes I recently purchased soon so watch out for that.
So how is your Saturday going? I hope it’s relaxing and fun. Let me know what you think of this mani cause I always love to read what you think. Thank you for stopping by today!
P.S. A little update on my blog sale grab bags: For this weekend only, they are $22 instead of $26!
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Aww man, I feel like such a loser. After postponing this post last week, I still managed to post this late. I sort of have an excuse because I had a really stressful day, and I just didn’t have it in me to write up this post. I’m sorry for being a total flake for my fellow ladies in The Lacquer Ring. I promise I won’t be a flake this month. Can you believe it’s August already? WTF? Where did time go? Where have all the cowboys gone? Anyway, the theme we were working with is geometric. I have to admit I suck big time at freehanding anything especially when it has to be precise so I knew I had to do some stamping. Let me show you what I did.
I started with my two favorite polishes from the OPI Nordic Collection: OPI My Dogsled Is A Hybrid (press sample) and OPI Suzi Has A Swede Tooth (press sample). These are such gorgeous colors and the apply like butta.
Since I’m newly obsessed with China Glaze Fairy Dust (press sample), I applied one coat to really get this to sparkle.
I picked out a design I’ve used before from my MoYou London Pro Collection 18 plate(press sample.)
So what do you think about this end design? I’m happy with it because it is geometric and I love the colors.
I’m cutting this short because I am soooo running late right now to meet up with one of my besties. We have a lot to catch up on! Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow for Stamping Saturdays. I have tons of ideas right now and I just hope that I can execute them.
Talk to you later!
After hiatus, I am back with a new post with my fellow Beauty Buffs! To be honest, I have been feeling kind of blah about blogging lately. It’s not that I’ve stopped loving nail polish, it’s just that it became like a chore for me. Once I took a step back and relaxed my posting schedule, I fell a lot better and I actually started looking forward to posting again. Although my posting has been sporadic at best, I think I am starting to find a happy medium and hope to have a more regular posting schedule starting in August. So are you ready to see what The Beauty Buffs have for you today? Yep, nautical inspired nails! Well, the theme was nautical and/or beachy so I went with Nautical. Let’s take a look.
I used three polishes from the Salon Perfect Paint The Town Red, White and Blue Collection: Paint The Town Red, Salon Perfect Blue Ribbon, Salon Perfect Sugar Cube. I also used some striping tape to help me create some stripes.
At first I was only going to use red and white. Salon Perfect Paint The Town Red is such an awesome red crelly. It reminds me of my favorite red of all time: OPI Vodka & Caviar. It applied flawlessly with two coats. The white, however, was very streaky. I applied 2 thin coats and one thick 3rd coat to get Sugar Cube to look decent.
I decided to apply one coat of Blue Ribbon on my pointer finger over the white because I wanted a little more blue in my manicure. I then used striping tape for the lines on my pinky and pointer finger. Since I wanted to make the whole thing even more “nautical,” I stamped the anchors (CH 36) and wheels (CH 49) using my Cheeky plates and voilà!
What do you think of my little nautical interpretation? Don’t forget to check below for all the other nautical/beachy posts from my fellow Beauty Buffs. Thanks for stopping by today!
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Is it hot in your neck of the woods? I know it’s supposed to be really hot here in Southern California, but to tell you the truth, I think it is unseasonably cool. Maybe I’m just on crack or something because it was in the low 90’s here today, but it did not feel that gross. Since it’s really starting to warm up, the collection I have for you today is perfect. The Salon Perfect Neon Pop! Collection is made up of 12 bright colors to sear your retinas. I have 9 of the 12 polishes to share with you today so let’s take a look at the colors first.
Salon Perfect Flamingo Flair
Salon Perfect Fired Up Fuchsia
Salon Perfect Haute Pink (don’t ask me why this looks so orange…my camera took a dump on me)
Salon Perfect Plum Sorbet
Salon Perfect Tickled Pink
This is Loopy Lime, Bermuda Baby, Yowza Yellow and Traffic Cone sponged over a white base of sugar cube. I wasn’t being very careful about my sponging as you can tell by the extreme sloppiness and the muddled outcome. I wasn’t too concerned about it since I was planning to stamp over it anyway.
This is what my mani ended up looking like after stamping it up with an image from Bundle Monster BM 319. I kind of like the grungy end result!
Now, let’s talk formula. These were typical neons but some had better formulas than others. All of the polishes I swatched on their own were rather opaque, and I did not need to use white undies. They dried to a satin finish so I applied a clear top coat to give them some shine. They dried really quickly so you can’t overwork the polish because you will have a major mess on your hands. Loopy Lime, Bermuda Baby, Yowza Yellow and Traffic Cone were a lot thinner so I recommend using a white base to get the most out of them because otherwise you might be applying 5 million coats and still see VNL. If you don’t have similar color, I can recommend these. My absolute favorites are: Plum Sorbet an Fired Up Fuchsia. If you’re interested in purchasing these, you can find them at Wal-Mart where they retail for $3.98 each. My Wal-Mart still had a great selection of these, but they are limited edition so get them while you can.
How do you feel about neons? Strictly for summer or do you rock them year-round? Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!
Ugh, the dreaded Mondays. Why is it that the weekend goes by in a blur but the workweek goes by so darn slow? I feel like I barely got anything done this weekend and here I am ready for another week at work. Welp, I am not going to dwell too much on it, and I’ll just focus on getting to my next weekend. haha! For today’s post, I have collection of repromotes…I know, I know…you don’t like repromotes. I usually don’t either mainly because I buy everything when it first comes out. Like everything. For those who didn’t get the items initially, repromotes can give you a new opportunity to pick up something that you missed out on or just didn’t see when it first came out. The China Glaze Pop Top Collection is a collection of eight polishes:
I used Heart of Africa and White on White as my base colors and used the glitters to top them off. Let’s take a look:
China Glaze Heart of Africa
Fairy Dust – Pizzazz – Luxe & Lush – Your Present Required
Your Present Required – Luxe & Lush – Pizzazz – Fairy Dust
China Glaze White on White
Luxe & Lush – Techno – I Pink I Can – Fairy Dust
Fairy Dust – I Pink I Can – Techno – Luxe & Lush
So what do you think? Do you have these already? You will be able to purchase these separately or in 2 sets:
China Glaze® Pop Top will be available in August 2014 along with the two four-piece box collections, “Glisten Up” and “Feeling Sparkly”. Individual polishes will retail for $7.50 MSRP and the four-piece box collections retail for $19.95 each. China Glaze® Pop Top will be available at fine salons and beauty supply stores nationwide; the four-piece kits will be available exclusively at Ulta.
To be honest, I had not used Fairy Dust before and I quite liked it. I can see myself using it as sparkly finishing touch over so many different manicures. White on White is one of my staple whites and have gone through two bottles in the last 2 years so this is definitely one that I am a fan on. All in all, these are nice polishes to have. Do you have a favorite glitter from this collection?
Thanks for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!
Hello ladies!
I have received a few questions about the way I do my blog sales since I haven’t updated much on my blog sale page, so I wanted to share with you that I am now going the grab bag route. I am currently selling grab bags for $26 shipped including tracking and insurance.
The grab bags include:
All of the polishes are either new or swatched once and this is US only. If I purchase new collections that I want to sell, I will advertise them on my Facebook page.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
