Monday, December 19, 2011

China Glaze Fireside Glow

Happy Monday! I hope you guys had a great weekend. I'm counting down the days till I can take some time off from work! Today I have for you China Glaze Fireside Glow--one of the three holiday Ulta-exclusive shades that I bought last week.


It's a gorgeous pink leaning copper glitter packed with holographic glitter! I'm wearing two coats here.


I love that you get full coverage in two coats, but it is a top coat eater so I topped it off with my favorite glitter taming combo (Gelous plus Seche Vite).


Isn't it lovely?!? This is my favorite time of year. I can wear all the glitter I want and people don't look at me sideways. Not that I really care. Glitter makes me happy--well up until I have to remove it.

This--along with the other two shades in the collection Ultamate Holiday and Mistletoe Me!--seemed to have disappeared from Ulta's website, so if you want it I suggest you make your way to Ulta soon. The one I went to had them in a display up near the register. Oh and they were buy 2 get 1 free. I love deals!

So are you guys rocking as much glitter as I am this holiday season? I love the sparklies!!!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Franken Friday: Inspired by Butter London The Black Knight

When I first saw swatches of Butter London's The Black Knight I was all "OMG must.buy.this.polish" Somehow my schedule never allowed me to get to Ulta to see if I could grab the duo it came in and I didn't feel like ordering online. (Meaning I didn't want to pay shipping. LOL.)


Meanwhile I was on makeupalley and saw all these ladies making franken dupes from ingredients I already had in my stash (Sally Hansen Midnight in NY and Sally Hansen Rockstar Pink) so I followed suit.

I started with two balls (for mixing)and this mini bottle from TKB Trading


 Then I filled the bottle three-quarters with Sally Hansen Midnight in NY.


 The mini funnel came with some glitters I bought at Wal-mart. I think they sell them separately though.

 I filled the bottle with Sally Hansen Rock Star Pink, gave it a good shake and voila! 

 
My boyfriend suggested I call it Cosmos. I can dig it.

And blurred so you can see the glitter a little better.

I'm pleased. I'm going to have to start frankening more often :)

Do you guys have The Black Knight or are you gonna skip it and make a dupe?

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Show and Tell: Red Angel Stamping Plates


You guys know how in love with stamping I am so when I heard about these new image plates from Red Angel, I hopped on over to Amazon to order them. They were $11.99 with $3.99 for shipping so less than $16 for 21 new plates! Yay! I haven't used these yet, so I wouldn't call this a formal review, but more a 'show and tell'

They come with a blue plastic protective film, but no paper backing--so the edges are pretty sharp. (I recommend adding some card stock to the back with some double sided tape. I haven't gotten around to that yet, but I soon will.) Also the set doesn't included a scraper or stamper so make sure you order those if you don't already have them.
On to the pics!





















Overall, most of the image plates feature full nail designs. They are about the same size as the second generation of the Bundle Monster set so they should cover most nails--even thumbs! There are two plates designed for french tip or half-moon manis and the others have a variety of medium and larger images. I'd say it's a good value.

Anyone out there have these already? What do you think of them? I'm really excited that there are so many different images that I haven't see in other sets. I'm super excited about plate RA-117. I've already got a mani in mind for that one!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Pink Wednesday: Revlon Electric Pink

Happy Pink Wednesday! You ever pick up a polish from the drug store because it's on sale, leave it laying around for say three months, then pull it out, apply it and have it knock your socks off? All of that happened to me with Revlon's Electric Pink. True story. It was one of those CVS deals over the summer when they had Revlon nail polishes on sale for $4.99 with $4.00 in extrabucks. I may have even had a $1 off coupon. So yea...it totally sucked me in. Then I completely forgot about it. (I'm easily distracted by new pretties!)

I went rifling through my stash searching for pink and there she was. I seriously wasn't expecting much out of this polish, but do you see this! And you know it's saying a lot when I show you guys a polish on its own. I'm always trying to figure out how to jazz something up with glitter or stamping or whatever, but this is just fine on its own--though I can't say I won't do either of those things at another time.

But back to polish. The people over at Revlon were not playing when they named this beauty Electric Pink. It is so bright it damn near glows! And look at the right corner of the bottle...yep that's "secret shimmer" So pretty! I did three coats here. I need to do a pedi with this ASAP!

I don't think this shade is included in the 75% off beauty clearance at CVS, but you might want to check just in case. So are you guys rocking your pink today? Even if you're not I still wanna know what you're wearing!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Sally Hansen Gem Crush: Review and Comparisons

A while back I picked up the eight colors in the Sally Hansen Gem Crush line from CVS. At the time they were BOGO 50% and included in a special deal where if you spend $30 then you'd get a $10 gift card. Can you guys tell that CVS is like my favorite drug store ever. I need to buy stock in them. Anyway, I finally got around to swatching them and I even did comparisons! Yay!

First up we have Showgirl Chic. It has tons of silver and blue glitter suspended in a clear base. I did three coats here. Similar but not an exact dupe to China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara.

L-R: Showgirl Chic, Lorelei's Tiara, Showgirl Chic, Lorelei's Tiara
 Lorelei's Tiara took two coats to reach opacity and its blue glitter is more dense and lighter in color than Showgirl Chic. So they're not exactly dupes, but choosing one over the other is a matter of personal preference.

Next up: Bling-tastic. I did three coats as well for this one. It's an aqua blue with silver hex glitters scattered throughout. Very similar to OPI's Gone Gonzo.

L-R: Bling-tastic, Gone Gonzo, Bling-tastic, Gone Gonzo

The silver hex glitters in Gone Gonzo are bigger and there's more of them packed in, but the smaller aqua glitters are essentially the same.


Big Money is easily my favorite of the bunch. Two coats seen here. It's got fine gold glitter and larger lavender glitter suspended in a clear base. It's unique to my stash and I can't think of anything else that would be similar. If you see this GRAB it and run (but don't forget to pay for it. LOL). The gold is not so yellow that it wouldn't flatter cooler skintones so it seems like it would be universally flattering.

Cha-Ching has fine red glitter and larger hex glitter in a clear base. I did three coats here and I expected to hate this because I'm not really the biggest red polish fan, but I actually like this one. It looks really close to OPI's Gettin' Miss Piggy With It! I don't have that one, but I suspect that the silver hex glitters in that one would be larger as was the case with Gone Gonzo.

Be-Jeweled. My second favorite of the collection. (Duh, it's purple!) I did three coats here. I love the way the pink hex glitters stand out against the finer lavender glitter. Bonus: I'm going to go ahead and call it a dupe for Wet N Wild's It's All In The Cut, so if you missed out on the Ice Baby collection or it never showed up in your area, go ahead and grab this. (Although I have heard through the grapevine that the Ice Baby collection, which was supposed to be a Walgreens exclusive, is starting to show up at CVS. But the Sally Hansen is a bigger bottle, so there's that to consider.

Here's Be-Jeweled and It's All In The Cut side by side. If I hadn't written down what polish I put on what finger I wouldn't be able to tell you what was what. But you be the judge.

L-R: Be-Jeweled, It's All In The Cut, Be-Jeweled, It's All In The Cut.

One other thing I will say is that the Be-Jeweled's formula was a bitter thinner than the Wet n Wild, so it took three coats to build to opacity versus the two coats I did of the Wet n Wild.

Razzle Dazzler has fine pink glitter in a clear base with larger silver hex glitter. Three coats seen here. I thought it would be similar to China Glaze Material Girl, but there's no silver glitter in that one.

L-R: Razzle Dazzler, Material Girl, Razzle Dazzler, Material Girl

Material Girl was opaque in two coats as well, but instead of larger silver glitter mixed in with the fine pink glitter it has larger pink holographic glitter. Hard to capture, but it is really reflective.

Lady Luck. Three coats here of this fine fuchsia glitter with larger holo glitter. As with the others this one is in a clear base. Very pretty.

 Glitz Gal. Smokey gray fine glitter in a clear base. Lots of holographic glitter that my camera refuses to show you on the nail, but willing to give you a sneak peek in the bottle. Ugh.

Comparison time! I actually ought to be ashamed that I have not one but two other nail polishes to compare this with--China Glaze Some Like It Haute and Wet N Wild Diamond In The Rough. Actually I had a third, Orly Rock Solid, but that one is finer and smoother, while the other three are chunky.

L-R: Glitz Gal, Some Like It Haute, Glitz Gal, Diamond In The Rough


These three are so similar I'm actually ashamed that I have all three...not really. LOL. One thing I did notice is that the holographic glitter in Some Like It Haute seemed to be slightly more prominent than the other two, but both Glitz Gal and Diamond In The Rough hold their own.

Overall I'd say this is a nice collection. Lot's of dupes from other companies, but it also has some unique shades. Must haves for me are Big Money, Be-Jeweled, Razzle Dazzler and Showgirl Chic. I hope this help anyone who has been wavering about these. Happy polish hunting! Let me know if you pick up any of these.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Bring on the Tinsel

Hey guys!

Tonight I'm going to my company holiday party so I decided to do some serious holiday glitter.  

This is one coat of Nicole by OPI Bring on the Tinsel over one coat of American Apparel Hassid. 


 There's so much going on in this polish. It's a mix of silver, gold, green, red, blue, and green glitter in a clear base. Other than China Glaze Party Hearty and China Glaze Twinkle Lights I can't think of any other polish that comes this close to being "Christmas in a bottle." It's friggin' awesome.

Then for good measure (and to match the earrings I'm wearing) I stamped on some snowflakes on my ring finger using Sally Hansen Quick Color in Silver Chrome.


I love it. I hope you guys do too!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Pink Wednesday: L'Oreal Raven's Dream and Hits No Olimpo Hefesto

Happy Pink Wednesday! I went simple and subtle today.

I started with two coats of L'Oreal Raven's Dream--a milky pink creme--from their Project Runway collection. This polish is quite sheer so I used two coats of my ridge filling base coat by Nail Life as the base.

And no your eyes aren't deceiving you, I did pick up this pretty for $2.50. Sears had the Project Runway line and the Color of Hope collection on clearance.WINNING! If you follow me on Twitter then you know that I'm incapable of resisting clearance nail polish. You don't even want to know how many I actually picked up off that CVS Beauty Clearance list I posted yesterday.

Anyhow, while I did really like the softness of this color I had been itching to use my Hits Hefesto from the No Olimpo collection that I ordered on Llarowe. I slapped one coat of that baby on top and voila!

I'm in love--at least until my next manicure. LOL.

What do you guys think?

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

*Updated* CVS Beauty Clearance

When I saw Nouveau Cheap's post about the CVS Beauty clearance being on, I  knew I had to investigate for myself. I LOVE CLEARANCE.   Note: The stores I went to didn't have stickers on any of the merchandise yet, so it's worth scanning the items you're interested in at the magic coupon/price check machine to see if they're included in the clearance sale. In two CVS trips I discovered the following on sale: Shades with an asterisk next to it means that the shade was reported as clearance on makeupalley.     Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure, 75% off (at my store $2.07):Thinking of Blue
Purple Pulse
Black PlatinumNavy Baby

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength (old bottle), 75% off ($1.37 each at my store)
Diamonds & Rubies
Royal Romance
*Tyin' The Knot
*Luminous Tulips
*Save the Date
*Lilac Chantilly

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 75% off ($0.82 each at my store):
Purple Potion
Plum Power
Hot Magenta
Crushed
Ivy League
Blue It
Red Carpet
Wet Cement *Go Green
*Gunmetal
   Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, 75% off ($1.37 each at my store):
Quick Sand
Grape Going
Wined Up
Blue Streak
Whirlwind White

Revlon Nail Enamel 75% off ($1.45 at my store):
Plum NightRaisin Rage
Hushed Blush
Demure
Steel Her Heart
Tuscan Sun
Temptress
Fire Fox
Peach Petal
Frankly Scarlet
Lilac Pastelle
Ruby Ribbon
Emerald City
Silver Screen
Sheer Rose*Powder Puff  I hear the magic coupon machine is printing $3 off 2 Sally Hansen products, but I didn't get that coupon.   **Update** Wet n Wild's Mega Last line is 50% off.  
I also found that the following Sally Hansen Salon Effects shades are 75% off:Violet NightIt GirlTeal With ItCry BabyRed-y For TroubleGrooveSqueezedElectric Shock 
I found two shades of Rimmel London Lasting Finish Pro 75% off:Black SatinGold Silk 
I know this list isn't exhaustive, but I hope it can at least give you a good start. Happy clearance polish hunting! Let me know what you guys find.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Can a Leopard Change Its Spots?

Sure, if you use an awesome duochrome nail polish to create them. Enter Models Own Aqua Violet from their Beetlejuice collection.

I started this mani with two coats of L'Oreal Mystery from their Color of Hope Fall 2011 collection.

It's such a gorgeous darkened teal and it has this wonderful "secret shimmer" running through it.
I stamped on the leopard print using Konad plate M57.


My only wish is that I could have captured the violet shift better. 
It really is a lot stronger than my picture shows.

Are you guys loving duochromes as much as I am? I'm totally in love.