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China Glaze On Your Knees!

Posted on 12 October, 201211 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Is it just me, or were polish names a little more risqué in the past? I seem to keep running across a lot of older polishes with very interesting names, and today I have another oldie but goodie. China Glaze On Your Knees! was part of the 2002 Winter collection called Crown Jewels. Lately I have been on a total old polish buying binge–the older they are, the more excited I get. You can blame all the dusties in my area for my recent obsession with older polishes.

Behold the Fall beauty of China Glaze On Your Knees!

This polish has a glowing cinnamon aspect to it so it reminds me a little bit of Jessica’s Cinnamon Kiss. This polish is definitely not 3-free and I found the formula dreamy: it is a little sheer but it’s super easy to control and apply. These are the type of colors that I look forward to wearing every fall and winter.

And because I’ve missed my stamping…

I really don’t like the Essie Mirror Metallics as regular polish, but I love them for stamping. Look how gorgeously crisp the stamping is with As Good As Gold! I used a design from Mash plate 41 for this design in case you were wondering. Doesn’t it remind you of a chain link fence?

I might have asked this before, but does it annoy you when I feature polishes that are discontinued and are probably hard to find? I have found so many amazing polishes (some even pre-2000) lately so I’m super excited to share them on here. Let me know what you think about this and about my latest mani. I love hearing all your opinions. Thanks again for stopping by–your feedback keeps this blog fun for me. 🙂

Nicole By OPI Fall 2012 (Target Exclusives)

Posted on 11 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Sometimes I can be a total weirdo and focus on insignificant details. Take the brand Nicole By OPI, for example: I have a handful of these polishes and generally like the formula and the brushes, but I really hate the awkward bottle shape. For whatever reason, I have fixated on my distaste for the bottle shape and don’t usually purchase a lot of these polishes. I also kind of can’t stand the Kardashian Empire so when I see the NOPI Kardashian Kollection, I want to hurl. Anyway, enough about my weird fixations…this is about the polish!! There are 5 Target Exclusives from the Nicole By OPI Fall 2012 collection, and I have 2 of those to share with you today.

The first one up is Just Busta Mauve.

I really thought that this was a strange color when I looked at the bottle. I had absolutely no idea what it would look like on my nails with all those weird colors floating around, but it really surprised me. In fact, I love it. If I had to complain about something, it would have to be that the formula is a little thin but it does build up without any problems. From the look of the polish, I was expecting it to be kind of gritty but it was perfectly smooth. As an aside, the name of this polish brought back fond memories of me playing Bust-A-Move on the Neo-Geo arcades when my mom would go shopping with us. She would give my brother and I a bunch of quarters and we would run to the back of this store we use to go to and we’d play Bust-A-Move and Super Mario Bros. 3 on another machine until our hands cramped or our eyes bled–or both. Ahh…to be a kid again.

The second color is If The Blue Fits.

Since I’ve been on a blue kick lately, I really like this polish because it’s not a boring color: it has just the right amount of kick to attract attention. The formula on this was better than on Just Busta Mauve as it was a little thicker so you can get away with less coats. I love all the different colors in this polish!

Overall, I think both of these polishes are total wins! If I had to pick just one, I would probably go with Just Busta Mauve. These polishes have been out at Target stores and online since August so you should still be able to pick them up if you like either of these. They retail for around $7.00 unless you wait and catch them on sale. So what do you think of these two colors? Which one would you get if you could only have one–what a true Sophie’s choice! (Not! You know you’d get both.)

Thanks for catching up with me and talk to you soon!

**These products were provided for review purposes. All opinions are my own.**

Sation Little Horse On The Prairie Collection

Posted on 6 October, 20126 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I thought that today was going to be a big bust for me because I went looking for the Color Club Halo Hues, but none of my nail places had them yet and they had no idea what I was talking about. There is one place that has a pretty extensive collection of Color Club but they were not open when I stopped by. This place basically has no set business hours which can be pretty frustrating, but I keep going back because they have so much amazing stuff. Anyway, when I saw they were closed I went down the street to another place, and I just ran across a fully stocked display of Miss Professional Nail polishes…including Sation Little Horse On The Prairie Collection and some of their new specialty glitters.

Little Horse On The Prairie came out about a month and a half ago but I hadn’t looked for them yet so I’m glad I found them today. The collection includes 6 colors:

Since I have been trying to be a little more discriminating with my polish purchases (yeah, right!), I only purchased half of this collection which is what I have to show you below:

Blue Sky’s The Limit really is a dreamy sky blue. I don’t really think this is a very Fall-inspired color but I am not complaining because I can never have enough gorgeous blues. The formula on this was good. I usually find that the Sation formula tends to be a little thick but this was not. It was easy to control and dry time was very fast.

Weed Out The Wimps is a soft and dusty green. I don’t think I have any similar greens so I am super happy to add this to my collection.

Rock-a-Guy Blue is my favorite color even though I think I have plenty of dupes. I am thinking this is pretty similar to Sephora by OPI Blue Grotto…perhaps just a tiny bit darker. The formula on this was perfection: fairly opaque, buttery and shiny.

Overall, I love these polishes and might be picking up the other three just because these were so great. When I have posted about Sation polishes before, people have always asked me about where to purchase them locally. I usually directed people to the Miss website or transdesign, but now I hear that they will be carried at select TJ Maxx and Marshalls! I haven’t seen them there yet but I’m sure they will start popping up soon. Oh, and I’m sorry about the super shiny/greasy fingers! I was in serious need of cuticle oil, and I went a little overboard with my Solar Oil. Woops!

So what do you think of the Little Horse On The Prairie Collection? Have you purchased any of these polishes or will you? Thanks for the visit!

Pixi Nail Polish Collection Fall 2012

Posted on 5 October, 20125 October, 2012 by Cynthia

It’s no secret that I love Target. I have problems staying away from Target because I go there often to buy essentials like dish detergent, laundry supplies and some bath products, but I always end up getting pulled into the beauty section. I don’t know about you, but I think that in the last few years, Target has made huge improvements in their beauty department from offering tons of different brands AND making everything very appealing to the eye. When I first ran across the Pixi cosmetics display, my eyes obviously zeroed in on the nail polishes. At first, I thought they were nail art polishes because they look so much like them with the long bottle shape. Upon closer inspection, I realized they were regular nail polishes, but I hesitated getting some because I had never heard of the brand before. In my usual enabling ways, today I have the Pixi Nail Polish Collection for Fall 2012 to share with you.

Their Fall collection consists of three jewel-toned shades: Amazing Amethyst, Classy Cocoa and Evening Emerald.

Amazing Amethyst is a color that I am super attracted to because, well…it’s PURPLE! Besides it being purple, it’s just glowing like a mofo. Unfortunately, I don’t think this color is super unique. I haven’t done a side by side comparison, but this reminds me of OPI Purple With a Purpose. The formula was good and opaque at two coats.

Classy Cocoa looked kind of yawn-worthy when I first looked at the bottle, but I was glad to be wrong. I love the glow of this polish, and I was surprised to not have anything similar to this color. The formula on this was ok. It seemed a little thin, but it builds up nicely.

Evening Emerald is the star here. I am super annoyed that this color is photographing so much more blue than it actually is in real life so please imagine this being a lot more green. The shimmer in this polish is out of this world, and I definitely appreciate a dark color like this now that the temperatures are finally coming down. I want to pull out some polishes to compare. The first color that came to mind is China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald but I am sure it’s a lot more green. The formula on this was also a tad thin, but I had no problems building it up. I had to apply 3 thin coats for these swatches.

Overall, I am happy with my first experience with Pixi polishes. I think the formula was nice and the colors are pretty, but here comes the “but.” I am not a fan of the price. These polishes are $8 for .25 oz. which makes them way more expensive than polishes such as Essie and OPI and even my holy grail higher end polishes by Illamasqua. Would I purchase regular and common colors from the Pixi line of polishes? Probably not, but I would definitely buy a color like Evening Emerald. I am really curious to know what a creme polish from this line is like so I’ll be paying close attention to the Pixi display the next time I am at Target. Pixi nail polishes can be purchase from Target and target.com or you can also order from pixibeauty.com

Let me know if you’ve tried these polishes out before. I’m curious to hear what you think of them if you’ve tried them. What do you think of their fall trio collection? Which color is your favorite?

As always, thanks for stopping by and catching up with me.

**These products were provided for review purposes. All opinions are my own.**

Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers Halloween 2012

Posted on 24 September, 2012 by Cynthia

I always tend to show Wet N Wild a lot of love because they are an economical brand that always puts out interesting collections. I’m not really a polish snob who thinks that more expensive polishes will always equal better quality so I am usually open to picking up Wet N Wild polishes. Remember the brouhaha that the Saved By The Nail Collection caused? Yikes! I was lucky enough to get my hands on that collection and actually loved every color! This is the first year that I have even been aware of these delightful Halloween polishes so I was very happy when I finally found them. The Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers polishes for Halloween 2012 is made up of 3 glittery shades and one glow in the dark top coat. Here are some swatches of the 3 polishes in the collection.

Nail In The Coffin is a little too subtle for me. In regular light, this just looks like a black polish to me so I had to photograph this in direct sunlight to show the subtle glitter

Rest In Pieces is my favorite polish of the three. The black base is pretty sheer but it does build up nicely and the polish is not a pain to control. The glitter in this polish shows up way better than in Nail In The Coffin so I appreciate that.

Once Upon A Time is a huge glitter bomb that I found quite difficult to work with because it’s hard to control the glitter when the sheer black base is so thin. I found that it was difficult to get even glitter distribution so you definitely see it bunch up in certain areas. I hear that it is a possible dupe of Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers but I can’t confirm that since I don’t own it.

I am a little torn about this collection. While I think they are pretty and I adore the packaging, they definitely don’t wow me. Maybe it’s just my mood so I’ll let you make up your own mind. Let me know what you think of these polishes. I ended up purchasing 3 sets of these and thought that maybe I could put one up as my last giveaway of the month. What do you think?

Orly Satin Hues – Satin Finesse

Posted on 20 September, 201220 September, 2012 by Cynthia

I went dusty hunting today. If you’re saying, “What else is new?” well, you’re probably right. I was looking for 2 particular polishes but didn’t find them. I know that some of those places might have had them but it was way too hot to be rummaging through their dust-filled displays. One of the places I went to barely had any room to walk around because they were doing a lot of stocking, and they didn’t seem to care that paying customers were trying to look at their products. This is fairly normal of Little Saigon. There was also another woman (a customer) who came right up and stood in front of me while I was looking at a polish rack. Seriously? I wanted to punch her in the back of the head. So anyway, I went to about 4 dusties and ran across some interesting stuff. Today I’m going to show you a long discontinued polish from Orly. The Orly Satin Hues Collection is an older collection of satin/matte finish polishes with a little extra kick. They aren’t totally matte–hence the satin name. They have a really pretty sheen to them and look nice without top coat. Here is a look at Orly Satin Finesse:

I don’t have any reliable information about when this line came out or when it was discontinued, but it does seem pretty old. One of the first things I noticed is how ginormous the bottle is at .75 oz. I love purple nail polish so I knew I was going to like this one no matter what. Since it is a satin finish polish, you have to work quickly because it turns goopy pretty quickly. You can see some brush strokes which usually annoys me like hell, but they aren’t too bad.

And if you know me, you know that I always want to make everything shiny.

I think I just heard angels sing. THIS. IS. AMAZING.I love how the color became a little deeper and darker but brighter at the same time. Does that even make sense? I love, love, love this. And just for shits and giggles, I added some gold stars:

I had been wanting to use these loose gold stars for a while now so I’m glad I finally did.

So what do you think of this polish? There were a few other colors (including a yellow!!!) that I didn’t get because I wanted to see what the formula was like. I am happy to report that it was not problematic even though it was a little on the thin and watery side. Despite that, it builds up nicely. Will I be going back to get the other colors? You betcha!

So what has been going on with you? Any cool polish finds to report? Thanks for stopping by and catch you later, gator.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 4: Green

Posted on 19 September, 201219 September, 2012 by Cynthia

I really need to start planning out these challenge looks better because I always find myself scrambling the day of. Even when I think I have an idea I want to execute, it just blows up in my face. Every. Single. Time. Last night I had mentioned to Nicole from Polish Me, Please that I wanted to use my new bottle of Illamasqua Nurture which is one of the new Rubber Finish polishes. However, once I put it on, it was way too bright for my liking. I guess I just wanted a darker color to work with so instead I rummaged through my stash and decided to go with a color I hadn’t used yet: essence Walk On The Wild Side.

Walk On The Wild Side is simply gorgeous: it’s a dark olive/forest green with green-gold flakies throughout. I applied two coats and it was absolutely perfect. I have to admit that I thought the polish was pretty when I was indoors, but as soon as I went outside to photograph it in direct sunlight, I was in love. In fact, it’s so pretty that I didn’t really want to do anything else to it. I always find a way to ruin a pretty polish. I think I have come to the conclusion that simplicity is my thing. While I admire beautiful nail art, I just don’t think I can do it. So one of the main reasons why I was so excited in participating in this challenge is because it forces me to push my comfort zone.

Yesterday when I was at my nail places, I bought a few containers of hex glitters so I decided to use them today.

I can see now that the line if kind of crooked but whatever! At least I tried! I didn’t mean for my nails to look Christmas-y but I guess that’s’ kind of normal when you use green and gold.

Don’t forget to check out everyone’s submissions below! The lovely ladies also participating in this challenge are:

Jessica from Once Upon A Polish

Nicole from Polish Me, Please!

Ave from Polish Pixelle

Alaina from The Little Canvas

Thanks for stopping by and until next time when the challenge will revolve around the color blue.

China Glaze Wicked Collection Halloween 2012

Posted on 18 September, 201218 September, 2012 by Cynthia

Today I decided to beat the heat and head over to Little Saigon before the heat really started. My dusties are really…dusty. No, you don’t understand: you actually walk out of some of those places covered in dust and soot. My allergies actually get out of control when I go there, but it’s worth it. It’s sooooooo worth it. Jessica from Once Upon A Polish had mentioned that her Sally’s already had the China Glaze Wicked Collection out so I figured I might as well check my usual places since it’s the only place I can get my polishes for cheap. See, when you buy as much polish as I do, you have to become a polish sleuth and find the best (read cheapest) places so you can really go nuts on the quantity.

The China Glaze Wicked Collection is a 6 piece collection and I decided to get 4 of the polishes. I passed on the two glitters just because I didn’t think they were that interesting. Let me show you some swatches of the 4 polishes I picked up.

Roguish Red is kind of radioactive when my camera is involved. It is a very bright tomato orange color but it looked way brighter in the sun so I had a hard time taking an accurate picture. In the bottle, this looks exactly like China Glaze Pure Torture that was released in 2005 as part of the Voodoo, That U Do collection. It’s probably the same color! Poo! The application on this was perfect and only needed two coats. My only complaint is that the brush is junk on my bottle. I rarely have brush issues with China Glaze but this brush was frayed and wonky. 🙁

Immortal is really my favorite polish from this collection. I am always on the lookout for a good grey, and this one definitely fits the bill. The shimmer in it is just so pretty!! This polish was a little thin so I had to use three thin coats. Although I don’t think this is the most exciting polish of the bunch, it is probably the polish I would get the most use out of on a regular basis.

Bizarre Blurple is really throwing me for a loop. Normally I would say that it’s my favorite (purple and blue–hello!) but it’s very “been there, done that” on the heels of Orly Mysterious Curse (aka Orly Royal Velvet) and Deborah Lippmann Dancing In The Sheets. There might be slight differences, but not enough for me to tell you it’s worth getting if you have the others already. I know that won’t stop serious polish hoarders…like yours truly. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Cast A Spell is the only polish in this collection that actually seems Halloween inspired! Wow! One out of six. I don’t think I have anything similar to this in my collection so I’m definitely glad I picked it up. It’s such a gorgeous blackened olive with goldish/green flecks. Did I mention it’s amazing? This could be a one-coater if you use enough polish, but I ended up applying two thin coats.

What are your impressions of this collection? Are you planning on getting some of these polishes or will you be passing? Personally, I think that the Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers RIP polishes seem much more interesting. I will be swatching those for you tomorrow so you’ll have to let me know what you think.

Here is what the damage has been in the last couple of days…mostly all today.

Why does polish make me so happy? I’m just fortunate that I have stealth ninja skills when it comes to getting polish on the cheap…otherwise I would be in BIG trouble. Thanks again for stopping by and until next time!

P.S. Have you entered my Jessica Cosmetics Giveaway? No?! Why not?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cosmetic Arts Nail Polish

Posted on 17 September, 2012 by Cynthia

Ok, so I went to Ross and TJ Maxx in search of all the nail polish finds that people have been posting in the last week and I found bupkis. I did see a lot of Essie polishes at TJ Maxx but they were pretty icky so I passed. When I went to Ross, I found a few Cosmetic Arts polishes and decided to finally give them a try after a super enabler (Stephanie from PWRC!!) told me that the formula was pretty good. These polishes are made by the same people who make Color Club so at least I knew they wouldn’t be super crappy. My beef with these polishes, like the budget Color Club sets that can be found at Ross, is that they are not labeled. Am I supposed to go through some major polish hunt to figure out what each polish is called? I read somewhere that Color Club had some info about these polishes listed on their website but I didn’t find anything. So, if you know the name of this phantom polish, please tell me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some swatches for your viewing pleasure:

Don’t tell me that this polish isn’t pretty. It’s a difficult polish to photograph because the blue-ish microglitter is much more visible under sunlight. I am very impressed by the formula but I feel like it dries kind of dull. I used Seche Vite as my top coat, and it pretty much disappeared so maybe next time I will try Gelous.

In other nail polish news, I got my Silly Lily nail polish order in the mail and also found the RIP Fantasy Makers (WNW) Halloween Polishes. Wooo hooo! I will probably swatch them tomorrow. Now I am just missing my Coterie Butter London polishes to get here….tick tock. And before I forget: Dollish Polish is releasing their Halloween collection on 9/20. Guess who’s going to be stalking their site all morning/day. MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and catching up with me. 🙂

Barielle Falling Star

Posted on 17 September, 201217 September, 2012 by Cynthia

You know the feeling when you finally find a polish you’ve been wanting but initially passed on because you were being dumb? Well, I finally found this beauty. I picked up Barielle Falling Star this weekend at TJ Maxx, and I was beyond happy. I actually don’t remember the exact price, but I think it was $2.99 which is a steal in my book.. I had seen this polish in a blue themed set of Barielle polishes that I had neglected to pick up and then they disappeared. I should know better than that because when cool polishes show up, they will disappear just as quickly so don’t ever hesitate because you will lose out.

When I got home, I immediately searched online for swatches and I was super sad about the reviews for this polish. I read a lot of reviews stating that this polish was an application nightmare: that is was goopy and gross and almost impossible to apply. I armed myself with my bottle of thinner and was determined to make this polish work. Normally I am heavily against the idea of thinning a brand new polish, but if the reviews were accurate, this baby would need a whole bunch of thinner.

Behold, Falling Star:

I normally don’t post this many pictures for just one polish, but I actually really love this shade of blue. It was an antique and dusty feeling to it and I adore the copper/pink glitter. Even more amazing, the glitter doesn’t get lost in the base color despite the color being so pigmented. As far as the formula is concerned, yes it is thick and can get unruly and goopy in an instant. I added quite a few drops of thinner and found that the formula improved tremendously.

So what do you think of Falling Star? Is it a color you would wear? I honestly can’t think of any other similar color in my collection so I’d love to hear if you have any dupe suggestions.

If you haven’t entered yet, make sure that you check out my post here with the information for my latest giveaway which features two mini sets of Jessica Cosmetics polishes.

Thanks for stopping by and catch you later!