Happy Mother's Day! My 4 year old told me he's running away because it's not Boy's Day, but otherwise it's been a quiet day. Here are 3 blogs of note as I try to get back into the 2-a-day groove of posting again.
First is Prim and Polished. She has short to medium nails and provides a good variety of colors and brands.
Next is Product Pixie. She actually is a mix of makeup and nail polish - more so on makeup. A good read though!
Finally today is Productrater. This is another mainly makeup blog but she has some nail polish in the mix too.
I hope you have a great day!
essie has always kind of flown under my radar. The only places I knew you could buy it was on their website or through etailers, so I just stayed away. I finally saw them at Trade Secret, but nothing caught my eye. When essie announced in November 2010 that they were going retail (for more info, check out All Lacquered Up), I thought maybe I'd see more of it... Well have I ever. Now it's in Wal-Mart, HEB, Walgreens, CVS... those are the only stores in my area, so it was like an overload for me. It's nice!
I picked up it's genius at Walgreens I believe, for $7 a bottle. While I was a little surprised by the price, I figured it would be worth it. This is a violet quartz with beige undertones according to their website but I found it to be a lilac purple with gold shimmer. Go figure. I used a base coat of Seche Natural, 2 coats of it's genius, and a top coat of Seche Vite. The formula worked well. This is a DBP, Toluene and Formaldyhyde free brand.
See the gold shimmer in the bottle? I have a bonus sun picture.
Maybe it is a violet...
Pretty shade picture for you.
And finally indoors with the flash. I do like that the name of the polish is a sticker on the top of the bottle. I tend to find the bottles of some polishes not to be perfectly flat, and the sticker doesn't sit just right.
Overall, I was happy with my purchase, but I think I would have been a bit happier for about $4. I'm constantly questioning the cost of everything, so this could just be me. :)
You can purchase essie in a number of locations; check out their website for more. You can also like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
This was the other color from the China Glaze Spring 2011 collection Anchors Away that I was super excited for. Sea Spray is a light blue creme that just sings nautical and ocean (well, not Gulf of Mexico water) and spring... yay.
I used a base coat of Seche Natural, 2 coats of Sea Spray and a top coat of Seche Vite. The formula on this however was HORRIBLE for me. It was so thick and goopy. It will be thinned (oh yes, you should have been)... more on that in a minute.
A friend just recently asked me about a nice baby blue - this does have some greyness to it - but it's still blue... I'll have to see if she likes it. I love it. Here's a bonus sky picture.
Love. Next is shade.
You can see how it leaked on my cuticles and I didn't quite catch it with my paintbrush. I just bought 2 new brushes to try but just haven't opened them yet.
Finally indoors with the flash. I really need to find a better way to do this, but whatever.
So the day after I swatched this beautiful nightmare, I woke up and immediately smelled nail polish in my house. LOADS OF NAIL POLISH. I ran into my office to find this.
Oh yes, one shattered blue nail polish. This is the 2nd blue that I've lost (the first was a bottle of Konad Princess Stamping Polish). I was so ticked, mostly because this collection wasn't in Sally's Beauty Supply this year. Thankfully, I was able to pick up a new bottle from Discount Nails in San Antonio. They have this little shop PACKED full of beauty supplies. I wish I could sneak a picture. It's so out of left field too - in this HUGE parking lot of abandoned buildings near a school? It's hard to explain but I LOVE it. I bought two old China Glaze bottles there last time I was in as well that will eventually be reviewed.
Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration. For more information, please read this post.
Oh China Glaze Below Deck. When you made your appearance at CosmoProf 2010, we were all excited that you were the answer to the discontinued Channelesque. Well, not me, because Channelesque was before my time, so I really didn't know what the hype was. But then I saw you, and you were a dusty purple creme. And you're also impossible to photograph well, which is why it's taken me so long to properly review you.
For those who are interested in a beautiful comparison of Below Deck and Channelesque, please visit this post by The Swatchaholic.
To me, Below Deck is like Chanel Paradoxal without the shimmer/sparkle. I used a base coat of Seche Natural, 2 coats of Below Deck and a top of Seche Vite. Application went on well.
Here it is in the sun - yep, a pretty dusty purple creme.
This shade picture was actually taken quite some time ago but I couldn't get any of the other pictures to color correct properly, so I just scraped them all.
Finally indoors with the flash - very pretty application.
There you go! This is definitely something that I'll wear again and again. I actually really wanted to play with it with Sea Spray but that's a story for another time...
Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration. For more information, please read this post.
Again from the China Glaze Anchors Away collection is Sunset Sail, a "delightful peachy pink high shine creme". I hate labeling this "red" in my labels because it's so not red... but what can I do... ^_^ (Edit: Just add a nude tag, hah)
I used a base coat of Seche Natural, 2 coats of Sunset Sail and a top coat of Seche Vite. I had major issues with the formula and application - thick and goopy. I want to add some thinner for next time because this is a nice neutral nude.
See in the sun? While I like the color, I'm not the biggest fan of this application. See that one bubble on the ring finger? Rawr.
I really loved this in the shade - it's just so seashelly pink... very pretty.
Indoors with the flash - you can totally see it's a nude that goes well with my skin. I just wish it was a better formula!
Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration. For more information, please read this post.
