::pretty::tough::nails::: July 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

My First Giveaway! Help Me Celebrate LO's First Birthday!

Well it's about time! I finally am having my first giveaway on my blog, and it's in honor of LO's first birthday coming up on August 6th. Help me celebrate by entering to win four amazing polishes. This prize will include OPI Black Spotted and my favorite 3 OPIs from the new San Francisco collection, Peace & Love & OPI, Muir Muir On The Wall, Alcatraz Rocks.

About the prizes:

1.) OPI Black Spotted was originally released in France and was not available in the US until recently. It's still very difficult to find, and now it can be yours if you win this giveaway!

2.) OPI Peace & Love & OPI is a gorgeous duochrome polish that changes from pink to blue.

3.) OPI Muir Muir On The Wall is a stunning wine shimmer.

4.) OPI Alacatraz Rocks has a sand finish and has a purple base offset with sparkling shades of gold and blue. Amazeballs!

This is open to US and international residents over the age of 18. Good Luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Maybelline Clearly Spotted Over GOSH Berry Me Swatch And Review

Wow, I'm mentally disturbed right now. I just watched the Sardinia episode of Bizarre Foods, and I think it totally topped the worst most disgusting foods I've ever seen eaten before. I know that aging cheese can be a long and difficult process, but the two cheeses that I saw on this episode was enough to trigger my gag reflex. Gross. I was in Sardinia a few years ago, and I left it with some amazing memories of great architecture, wonderfully friendly people, gorgeous beaches, and delicious food. Now I have a feeling that this episode will always leave a small stain on that experience. Did anyone else see this episode?

Moving on.... I was in the mood to go with a bright berry color and settled on using GOSH Berry Me, a highly pigmented berry wine cream. The formula on this was amazingly smooth and easy to apply, and possibly one of the best drugstore polishes I've had the pleasure of using. I could have gotten away with one coat, but I used two to be safe. No topcoat so you can see its natural shine. I really love how complimentary this shade is against my skin, and I think it would probably work well with most skin tones.

GOSH Berry Me

I though this gorgeous color would be a great canvas for Maybelline's Clearly Spotted. Clearly Spotted is their version of matte black and white multisized hex glitter in a clear base. I had no trouble with application - the glitters didn't stick together and they spread out nice and evenly. This was finished with a layer of Essence Gel Look Nails to help smooth out the finish.

Maybelline Clearly Spotted Over GOSH Berry Me

There are so many drugstore brands that are coming out with this now classic combination, and it's wonderful to see that they each have a unique take on the combination. I do miss the bar glitters, but the hex only glitter variation is a fun change of pace. Compared to the other mainstream black and white glitters, this is probably my favorite so far in terms of formula, application, and density. Have you tried any lately?

Monday, July 29, 2013

Smitten Polish Spam: Imperio, Machine Gun Jubblies, and The Ghost Of Jupiter

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone got a lot of rest this weekend. I managed to sleep in again on Sunday, but then MIL came over had a checklist for us to finish by the end of the day. We swept all the floors and steamed them clean, readjusted the baby gates, moved the area rugs to the storage room, went to the park and staked out a spot for the birthday party next weekend, and tasted some cake at a potential bakery. Whew. At least we were rewarded with some pizza and fries at the end of the day!

I have some new Smitten Polishes that I fell in love with when I saw swatches online and was compelled to order. First is a stunning scattered holo glitter in dark purple jelly, called Imperio. I used two coats for this mani, and had no issues with dragging, clumping, or balding. It dried really quickly to a matte finish, so the mani did not take long at all. Winning! I finished with a layer of Poshe. Talk about sparkly goodness!! This reminds me of the winter Zoya holos that were released, but better because it's in purple and the jelly is faboo!

Smitten Polish Imperio

Next I have Machine Gun Jubblies, a bright purple crelly with a funtastic mix of fuchsia circle glitters and smaller fuchsia and purple glitters. No problems with application here either, I used two coats and had no clumping of the circle glitters which is sometimes common. I finished with a layer of Poshe. Oh, behave!(yes, I had to throw in an Austin Powers quote)

Smitten Polish Machine Gun Jubblies

Finally, I have a gorgeous dark navy blue jelly based polish with large silver circle glitter and smaller gold circle glitter, finished with silver microglitter called Ghost Of Jupiter. Love!! I've been drooling all the different variations of space themed glitter polishes that feature circle glitter, and I was stoked to stumble upon this one. I used three easy coats and again had no trouble with the circle glitters sticking on each other, however my pinky seems to have missed the circle glitter train. I finished with a layer of Poshe.

Smitten Polish The Ghost Of Jupiter

Overall, I was very pleased with all my Smitten Polishes that I received. They all had stellar formulas and didn't take more than three coats for opacity. I think my favorite is a tie between Ghost of Jupiter and Imperio. Both are different, but equally fabulous in their own way. Smitten was one of my favorite indies, and after this batch, it continues to be among my favorite. Have you tried any Smittens lately?

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Bettina Purple With Sally Hansen Pink Grape-Fruit Swatch And Review

Whew! I finally caught a minute alone to work on a post, unbelievable! Work and chasing after LO has tuckered me out all week. Two nights I ended up passing out super early and sleeping nearly 10 hours both nights. Today I was hoping for an easy day but somehow I still managed to reorganize some of the living room and bedroom. Tomorrow the in-laws will be here to help baby proof, and then later we're going to the park to check out the layout for LO's upcoming first birthday. I'm excited to plan her birthday!

I've been wanting to try Bettina polishes forever, and luckily my BF was in Puerto Rico recently and picked up a bunch of them for me. Of course the first one I need to play with is the straightforward purple cream, aptly named Purple. Application was super smooth and easy, and I only needed two coats for full coverage. If this brand ever becomes more available in the states, then watch out Sinful Colors! This is with no topcoat.

Bettina Purple

I thought this shade would be the perfect base color for Sally Hansen's Pink Grape-fruit from the Limited Edition Xtreme Wear Beach Brights collection. Pink Grape-fruit is a shimmery glitter topper that is too sheer to wear on its own. It's got a purple tinted base with glistening bits of gold to fuchsia shimmer. I used one coat and had no problems with application. It went on smoothly and evenly and I finished with a layer of Poshe.

Bettina Purple With Sally Hansen Pink Grape-Fruit

I had a hard time getting the gold shift in the light tent, but managed to capture it while in the car.

Bettina Purple With Sally Hansen Pink Grape-Fruit

I thought this mani was really stunning IRL and couldn't take my eyes off the gorgeous simplicity. I haven't worn such a lovely straightforward purple in a long time and the shimmer was really eye catching. I bet Pink Grape-fruit would look great over a variety of colors such as navy or black - perhaps one of those colors would help coax out the gold a little more. I haven't used SH Xtreme Wear polishes in a long time and this was a wonderful reminder how great the formula performs. Have you picked any other colors from the Beach Brights collection?

Friday, July 26, 2013

Guest Post on Swatch Me Now With Maybelline Drops Of Jade

How's your week going so far? My week has been long - LO is finally mobile and crawling everywhere. I've had to quarantine her to certain rooms of the house because she's getting into everything! I knew to expect it but I didn't really understand what to expect until she was actually crawling and getting her hands on EVERYTHING. Needless to say, my weekend will be full of reorganizing the house and steaming the floors so that she can crawl safely.

There's a change of programming today! I was asked by a fellow blogger for a guest post today because she's going to Vegas for the weekend. I'm stoked that I get to provide her with a lovely swatch for her blog, Swatch Me Now. Please head over there now and check it out!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Sally Hansen Royal Icing Swatch And Review

This will be a quick post - LO had trouble falling asleep tonight and woke up while I swatching this polish. It took me forever to get her back to sleep again and I've got to wake up early in the morning.

Sally Hansen recently released a 2nd collection of Sugar Coat polishes that featured sparkling finishes. I was really interested in checking out Royal Icing, a light blue textured polish with pink sparkling shimmer. I've used other brands of textured sand polishes before and expected this to behave similarly, but unfortunately the color is very sheer and needed four coats to achieve any sort of opacity. Despite four coats, I can still see some VNL and possibly my stained tips. Bummer, as I really wanted to like this polish. Application was fine despite the extra layers, there was no problem in consistency or thickness and it dried comparably to other textured polishes that I've tried before.

Sally Hansen Royal Icing

The pink shimmer is visible IRL, but unfortunately not in the photos. I couldn't get it to show up in film in various lighting conditions. This is probably the first time I've actually considered returning a polish. It bothers me that I can see the yellow staining of my nail beds through four coats of polish - the camera didn't have any trouble picking THAT up, did it? Luckily I got this at the drugstore and the cosmetic return policy is pretty good from what I understand. Has anyone else returned a polish after trying it?

PS. After further research, I read that this is suppose to be a layering polish(really? since when are sands considered layering polishes?). I plan on trying this over a similar colored basecoat before returning it.

Monday, July 22, 2013

China Glaze Hologlams Cosmic Dust and Not In This Galaxy Swatch And Review

Hello everyone! Boy, am I exhausted. I'm trying to adjust to my job's new rotating schedule, and this week I have the early shift. I completely miscalculated what time to go to bed and wake up last night and ended up getting only 5 and 1/2 hours of sleep instead of 7 and 1/2 hours. Whoops!

A little while ago I posted some swatches of the Hologlams from the China Glaze collection that was released a few months ago, and for this post I have two more to add. I happily swapped these from the lovely Kitty from Kitty Polish N Bags from MUA for a couple backups that had been sitting unloved in my stash for awhile. First is Not In This Galaxy, a coral with a holographic rainbow that is weak compared to the others in this collection. I used two coats with no basecoat or topcoat, and it applied evenly and smoothly. There was a weird tendency of my index finger to bubble - I applied it three times on that finger and although it applied smoothly, it bubbled a few seconds later. Strange! All of these pics are in direct light except for the first which is in the light tent.

PS. If you're looking for a stronger holo in the same shade, check this post out of OMG BFF.

China Glaze Hologlam Not In This Galaxy Light Tent

China Glaze Hologlam Not In This Galaxy

Next is Cosmic Dust, a medium grey holo that was surprisingly my favorite from the entire collection. I really love this shade of grey! It's not quite charcoal, but it's not silver either, making it a completely unique shade to my holographic collection. I used two easy coats with no topcoat or basecoat.

China Glaze Hologlams Cosmic Dust Light Tent

China Glaze Hologlams Cosmic Dust

Don't you love that shade of grey? The holo isn't crazy strong like the Color Clubs, but this shade and delicate rainbows really is a class unto itself. I had this one for a few days and it held up fairly well despite not having any topcoat or basecoat. If you're looking for a strong holo, look elsewhere, but if you like to have some unique darker shades, such as the ones in my earlier post, you definitely need to pick some of these up! What's your favorite shade from this collection?

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