nail polish collectors always have that list of long awaited nail polishes. either the polishes are discontinued or hard to find, or, if you are me, you are too cheap to pay full retail price. here is my current list! the minute I find any of these on sale, they are mine! "blu" zoya 😇 photo from twentyfinds.com why i didn't pick this up in my zoya hauls this summer, i don't know! me kicking myself. i have other pale baby blue cremes, but i've heard this is the ultimate. amazing on any nail length/shape. "celtic sun" china glaze 😇 photo from adrixnails.com since my trials with orly's "road trippin" this summer, i have seen numerous reviews of this neon yellow. heard great things and i now must-have! this must be the balm that will soothe my aching neon heart. "four-leaf clover" china glaze 😇 photo from temptalia.com this does not look like a color I would like, but neither did "mint" by blackheart beauty and that has turned out to be one of my all time favs. the reason this is even on my radar: almost all of the youtubers I follow have recommended this at least once, some many times. a person once told me that when several people all rave about something, it is worth checking out! "shades of happiness" essence the gel nail polish 😇 photo from essence.eu this snazzy looking shade of orange is believe it or not, hard to find! I have been seeking an orange shaded like, well, like an orange and have had little luck. most oranges lean too red or too coral. i have found essence polishes and cosmetics at my local target and ulta stores, but with very limited selections. I have seen this color on their foreign websites, but not on the us site yet. essence is cruelty free and the prices are bargains. I just wish i had access to all of their great products! "topless in times square" cirque colors 😇
photo from livelovepolish.com i own several nudes and neutrals, too many nudes and neutrals. this is why i am not flying to the internets and flinging myself in front of the train that is this enchanting polish. it may not be a true match for my coloring, but i don't care. for now, i love from afar. do you keep a lemming list? let me know!
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sunny, august favorites. a great nude. a couple of baby blues. two neons. a *famous* blue, a pale lavender and a mint to die for. wow! i had a lot of favs this month! awwww ... the memories of summery goodness. "brand nude attitude" charming charlie gel effect 😑 charmingcharlie.com for select polishes & locations i don't know if charming charlie is cruelty free, but damn, this is a fine nude creme! so fine! formula good! color is good! application a breeze. i highly recommend it. go to your local "charming charlie" store and demand this polish! make the teenage girl working there cry if you must, but don't leave without it! "neon pink" blackheart beauty at hot topic 😇 hottopic.com for locations bargain: $5 bogo yup. if you have read any of my previous blogs, you know that I love my blackheart beauty cremes! this one is exceptionally terrific. one coat vibrant neon pink, no white base required! i cannot sing its praises loud enough. trust me when i say: must-fav! 💖 "sky's the limit" glitter daze luxury lacquer 😇 $10 shopglitterdaze.com and livelovepolish.com "breezy" l.a. colors color craze gel extreme shine 😇 $2.99 l.a. colors.com for store locations love love love both of these polishes! i could not decide which one to include in this month's favorites. very similar shades of baby blue: "sky's the limit" leans more white and with a drop of periwinkle. "sky's ..." pros - the formula for "sky's the limit" is better than "breezy" and since it is readily available online, it might be easier to snag than l.a. colors is to track down; "breezy" pros - at $2.99, a bargain, and if you find it at a local brick & mortar, no shipping and no waiting. your call, but if you're like me, you just buy both. 😜 "refresh" l.a. colors color craze gel extreme shine 😇 l.a. colors.com for locations bargain: $2.99 i have never seen a green like this. so fun and flirty. this was just in my nail log "you lacquer, you brought her" so I'll direct you to that for my details. layer it over a white base and you will not be sorry! "i'm gown for anything" opi (mini) alice through the looking glass collection 👿 i picked up this at amazon.com in a small pack with 4 other polishes. I found the same pack for sale here. this pale lilac color is unique in my collection and kind of marvelous. but the cons are lengthy: 1. sadly, opi remains a non-cruelty free company 😱 2. after one use, the formula became streaky; my wonder top coats saved it! 3. opi minis at 1/8 oz. are the smallest small-sizes from any company; they are the equivalent of a baskins robbins tasting spoon worth of nail polish. kind of a rip off price wise. if you know of any cruelty-free dupes for this color, please let me know! "cabana boy" julieg nail color 😇 bargain: $3.99 jessesgirlcosmetics.com this julieg nail polish is a dead-on dupe for sally hansen's famous "pacific blue" (original formula). this shade of blue is not only beautiful, but the formula is so easy it glides on and it is one coat and done! you can pick up julieg polishes at rite aid stores, but i don't have any in my state, so I bought this shade and others online: purchases over $25 have free shipping! i also recommend julieg's "tokyo nights" and "gel plumping" top coat and "jet set" quick drying top coat. with so many great products, reaching $25 is easy! "life's a beach" orly's pacific coast highway collection 😇 transdesign.com bargain: (at this site) $4.25 my camera cannot capture the true color of this amazing polish: so bright, so neon, your fingers are on fire 🔥! the color is not the only thing to recommend this polish, the formula is also a dream! this was also in my july favs and for good summer-lovin reason! striking and brilliant with no white base! "mint" blackheart beauty at hot topic 😇 bargain: $5 bogo
hottopic.com for locations i have saved the best for last! this is tied with blackheart beauty's "pink neon" for must-fav of the month! one-coat and done and such a fun color! also, the wear on this polish is amazing: not a chip in sight. serious-times: get yourself to hot topic, hop over all of the harley quinn cos-play, take advantage of their $5 bogo, and treat yo' self to both of these amazing polishes immediately. ❤️💛💚💙💜 it is the end of summer and even though I am well beyond school age, I can't help but get sorrowful at the onset of the academic year. thus, i am holding on to summer with all of the white knuckled intensity of an olympic fan who watched every last moment of the closing ceremonies hoping for a glimpse of one last match or race. before i make the transition into impatient gilmore girl fan praying for november, i crave the bright & neon colors i was too timid to don earlier this heated season. this week i left my comfort zone, tried a neutral I had long put off, and trod a well worn path in hopes of finding something new ... how silly! august 16, 2016 "refresh" l.a. colors color craze gel extreme shine 😇 i am very impressed with the recent polishes I bought in this collection. the baby blue "breezy" was also pretty and well wearing. i topped this over a white base to give it the umph I thought it deserved as an almost neon grass green. this polish feels ambitious but i thought it was fun and fresh. i find these colors to be bright and entertaining, and great bargains. august 18, 2016 "dinge" floss gloss 😇 i needed to wear a neutral for a work event, so i tracked down "dinge" in my collection. i had not worn it yet because the online photos appeared lighter and less pink-toned than the bottle that came to my door. still a nice pinky-nude, I held the color confusion against this bottle of "dinge," but I shouldn't have. the color is great. the formula is a different story. not the messiest or most difficult, but not as easy to work with as the other floss gloss polishes I own. i am on a search for that perfect nude or even just a nude with a great formula. this sadly, is not it. 😓 august 21, 2016 "hop in my invisible jet!" orly color blast wonder woman 😇 "black/peach splatter" blackheart beauty from hot topic 😇 i only wear cremes, the occasional metallic or shimmer polish. for me to experiment with a confetti top coat is certainly out of the ordinary. i felt a little silly, but this was a fun look and maybe even one that i'll try again. I don't know, perhaps my nails are too short to pull the look off? august 23, 2016
"road trippin" orly pacific coast highway 😇 "almost famous" color club mini 😇 i went down the "road trippin" road again. despite my previous best efforts, I still found it to be thick and streaky. i saw a review of the yellow polish in orly's Wonder Woman collection that had the exact same problem. perhaps orly has a problem with yellow shade formulas. i put "almost famous" by color club on my ring fingers and pinkies. next to the neon "road trippin" it looks like mustard. the other color club polishes i own have far superior formulas. I felt like I was striking out all night! the reason polishes appear to be okay: i use a fool proof julieg gel plumping top coat, and finish it off with glisten and glow's HK girl super shiny fast dry top coat. bitches be shoppin. some great sales and other opportunities yielded an awesome end-of-summer score! some long-coveted butter londons, some walgreen exclusive wonder woman collection by orly, a couple of blackheart beautys from my local hot topic, and a china glaze from their latest 2016 fall collection! here are my swatches and first impression reviews. hope you enjoy! ❤️ butter london polishes 😇 tj maxx had a ton of discount butter londons on sale last week. they typically have only 1 or 2 shades, but this time they had 8! at $4.99/ea, they are 1/3 of the regular retail price!! 🤑I bought a total of 6: great autum shades and greyed-out tones that were really popular 3 or 4 years ago: I think they are due for a come-back! "british racing green" hunter green creme with subtle emerald green shimmer a staple at british fashion shows for years, i have wanted this polish for way too long! I thought that I had missed my chance as butter london seemed to have discontinued the shade. finding it on discount was like a hogwarts wizarding miracle! the application was like... well, like butter! the shimmer is only visible in direct sunlight (but I prefer a creme finish anyway!). the color is a popular english car finish ... and it reminds me of the season of mad men when they get the jaquar car acount! vroom! vroom! "blagger" one-coat royal blue creme "blagger" means charming bullshitter in brit-speak. this blue is indeed charming and the one-coat formula is terrific! to be fair, many polish brands can boast of a great royal or cobalt blue in their core lines, so this color/good formula combo is not crazy unique. even so, if you see "blagger" I highly recommend picking it up! this color would look great with a matte top coat. since mattes tend to highlight any application failings, this great formula would be the perfect polish to use for a faultless look! i will try it and post soon! "muggins" light-toned greyed-out lavender "muggins" is brit slang that you should look up yourself, because i don't want to explain it ... and i am pretty sure i don't understand it. I have been pursuing a lot of very light grey-tones for my collection, but there is something special about this shade. forgive my shit-show of a swatch photo on this one: trust me ... it looks awesome in person. there is something really classy yet trendy about a very light cool or warm grey creme right now. I can't get enough!! "lady muck" cool-toned light grey creme with silver shimmer "lady muck" means an entitled person (usually a woman) who thinks highly of herself. i almost didn't buy this as shimmer is not my bag. i am really glad that I did because the cool grey is beautiful on the nail and the application, a dream! call me "lady m" because I deserve a polish this beautiful! "artful dodger" greyed-out teal creme i am not sure if this color fits my image of the iconic dickens character, but I still like it well enough. all of these polish shades seem similar at a glance, but again, this grey/teal is really unique in my collection. i want to wear this all autum long! "sprog" greyish cool lavender creme "sprog" means army-brat or newbie or ... something. again, I recommend doing your own research as i am a lowly american. I have a shade similar to this that i adore from sinful colors 👿 called "lavender." "lavender" is bit darker, but the good formula is comparable to "sprog." this is the least "greyed-out" polish of the "greyed-out" polishes that I picked up. if you are new to this style, "sprog" might be a good jumping off point. this color is a comfortable yet playful neutral: it's like the "mom jeans" of nail polish. it doesn't say "I've given up," it shouts "I'm still here!" orly's color blast wonder woman collection (walgreens exclusive) 😇 "super strength" blue creme that leans turquoise "don't lasso me around!" yellow gold metallic huge thanks to my friend, cat, for tracking these down when I couldn't find them in local stores! (I admit, i was waiting for them to go on sale and I think I waited too long!!) don't know how many colors were released in this collection, but cat found me 4 of them and they all have pretty good formulas. "super strength" dries a bit dull, but a glossy top coat can fix that. I like that the colors look rich, but also vintage. "don't lasso ..." is a great polish because it doesn't show brush-strokes, which is unheard of for a metallic: pick it up if you need a bright gold in your life!! "in the name of justice" deep royal blue creme with (appears to be) aqua & turquoise shimmer this shimmer is not subtle, which I usually avoid, but this seems iconic and wonder-woman-y to me! this was a best formula in the bunch! the swatch is 2 coats, but you could get it opaque in 1 go. "hop in my invisible jet!" white opaque creme a solid white is nothing new, but I love a white polish even though I own oodles of them! the formula was thin, but not at all runny, so I tried the thickening trick ("hop in my invisible jet 2: the thickening") and left the cap off of the bottle for 7-8 minutes. this worked and the formula was much better to work with. not my fav white, but not bad at all! "purple grape" blackheart beauty at hot topic 😇 purple crelly for as much as i sing the praises of blackheart beauty's creme polishes, a couple of crelly bastards have snuck in the mix. a label never declares the opacity of a given polish, so it is always a fun surprise to discover that you've purchased a polish that requires numerous coats to look tolerable. Ugh! the term "crelly" refers to a combo of a "creme" or solid opaque shade, and a "jelly" or sheer shade that builds to opaque color that has some depth or appears "squishy," (like a jolly rancher on your nails). i have never encountered a "crelly" that wasn't just streaky and stupid. this crelly was no different. is this the same company that sells the best black creme and the best bright neon ever? perhaps some goth kid loves this polish and i am just too old to understand. 😓. i am so out of touch! "black/peach splatter" matte hex confetti/greyfitti topper in a clear base the labels on bh polishes always read $5, but my hot topic has a permanent "2 for 1" special, so i have always paid $2.50/ea. however, I do have to purchase in multiples of 2 to get the discount (ahhh ... math!) i had already purchased all of the cremes & I needed one more polish to round out my haul. my hubs suggested this splatter polish (and I love when he takes an interest!) so I picked it up. this type of topper (i assume it is a topper because I could not get it opaque on its own) is out of my creme comfort-zone fo' sho' but I figured the world is full of polish that I have yet to understand: glitters, holos, duo-chromes, flakeys, textures, powder chromes ... I could go on all day! this is really just a teeny step outside of my creme box (dirty!) and I really need to see what the fuss is about! p.s. i did a full of mani of this over "hop in my invisible jet!" and the confetti splatter is very fun. I still think my nails are too short to pull off the look, but perhaps that is only my insecurity. pics to come. "dope taupe" china glaze fall 2016 "rebel" collection 😇
transdesign.com i picked this up way earlier this summer and forgot to include it in my huge 3-part "haul of fame" bio-pic of a blog post!! first of all, transdesign is a great site for the latest polish lines at discount prices (for certain brands: china glaze, orly, color club). "dope taupe" came with my neon pacific highway orly bottles in early july. so I was able to buy a fall collection china glaze before it hit stores at about 45% of the retail cost ... pretty amazing! the taupe color swatches a bit more purple on the nail than I had liked, but I could not be mad at the formula: one-coat and like butter! as cremes dominate 2016's autum polish lines, i think all companies have stepped up their formula game ... now, if they could ALL stop testing on animals, (I'm looking at you,opi & essie) that would make my day!! "dope taupe" leans a bit warmer and more putty than "sprog" but it proves that grey and taupe tones are not just fall staples, but very much #now. thanks for reading! let me know in the comments: your fav butter londons, your impressions of orly's wonder woman collection, or your picks for fall! nail wear and review for blackheart beauty, l.a. colors, and glitter daze! 😇. all polishes in this nail-log blog post are recommended! ❤️=my absolute must-have! august 5 & 9, 2016 "mint" blackheart beauty @ hot topic 😇 ❤️ hot topic seems like an unlikely place to find some of the most amazing polishes in the world! but here we are ... and here we go ... I am starting this blog post with my must-have polish ... or one of my must-haves this week! like the black "cursed" from blackheart beauty, this "mint" was amazing! I wore it over the weekend and a few days later put it back on!! the wear test on this polish was also outstanding: i did a 2 day conference and gala set up at work (the 2nd day in 107 degree heat on a rooftop for 12 hours!!). and, here is the amaze-balls part ... NOT A SINGLE CHIP! not even tip-wear. the wear on this polish is unbelievable. the formula is also great. I recommend that you rock down to your local hot topic store and pick up this, the "neon pink" (listed below) and of course, the black polish called "cursed." really, some awesome polish cremes in some amazing shades! august 7, 2016 "breezy" l.a.colors color craze gel extreme shine 😇 this baby blue cutie was good to work with and exhibited better wear than most of the polishes in this gel line. I found it at my local beauty supply store called "ebony." this is the only retailer I've found that carries the full color line of the gel extreme shine collection plus the top coat. (b-t-dubs, I didn't buy the top coat). I think "ebony" is a locally owned beauty supply and not a chain, so you may not be able to get the whole line where you are located. (If you live near okc, "ebony" also has the best supply of NYX products AND awesome earrings). I wish I could recommend an online retailer for l.a. colors, but I don't know of one. if you do, please leave it in the comments for me! toes: august 7, 2016 fingers: august 12, 2016 "neon pink" blackheart beauty @ hot topic 😇 ❤️❤️❤️ along with "mint" i picked up "neon pink" at hot topic. this is my must-have polish because it is the most awesome. you must-have, i must-have, we all must-have!! application is a dream and wear is incredible. it is a one-coat neon, which is unheard of!! I love the color on my toes! on my fingers, I tried a matte top coat and some how f*cked it right up, but it was still tolerable for 2 days! I've already bought an additional bottle to give to a friend and I might buy tons more as a standard gift for all of my chums. august 14, 2016
"sky's the limit" glitter daze luxury lacquer 😇 cloud 9 collection shophlitterdaze.com and livelovepolish.com a couple shades lighter than l.a.colors' "breezy" and a touch more periwinkle, this indie blue has stolen my heart. a very thick formula, i added a few drops of lacquer thinner to make it more manageable for me. I have worn this polish before. It's application is a little tough, but a very light creme is bound to be a little tricky. the shade is very fun this time of year! i am really loving both polishes I have ordered from glitter daze located in dallas, tx. but know it takes 10-14 days shipping to get these beauties at your house via online ordering. |
AuthorI try to paint my nails adequately. CategoriesArchives
November 2017
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