Wednesday, August 30, 2017

9:13 AM

Sinful Colors- Hush Money


     I've decided to dedicate this week on the blog to Sinful Colors. After all, I own enough to almost fill an entire helmer I might as well feature them on the blog right! I know everyone wants to see the new colors and collections but today I'm throwing it back to  2016 with Hush Money. Which I believe has been added to Sinful Colors core line.


Rose-Gold-Shimmer-neutral-colored-nail-polish

     Hush Money is a rose gold colored shimmery foil finished nail polish. On the website, the official color description is a bronze I didn't feel like that accurately described the color. The subtle hint of pink keeps this from being a nude color it's still very neutral and I feel like it almost gives me mannequin hands. 

Rose-Gold-Shimmer-neutral-colored-nail-polish

     The formula is great with smooth even coverage on the first coat. I was expecting a bit of sheerness but Hush Money has a nice opacity to it and only 2 coats were needed for full coverage. Shown here is 2 coats plus top coat. Like most foil finishes this polish does suffer from brush strokes but as you can see they are very minimal. I think the added shimmer helps to hide them.

Rose-Gold-Shimmer-neutral-colored-nail-polish

     Over all, I do like the color but because it is so neutral I don't think I would wear it on its own again. I can see it working out nicely as an accent nail or as a base for nail art. Plus it was so opaque I'm tempted to see if it will stamp or watermarble. Hush Money also reminds me a lot of Gold N Roses which is also from Sinful Colors so I'll be comparing them in the near future. How do you feel about neutral colors like this? Does Hush Money have enough visual interest for you to wear it or is it too bland for your tastes? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!



Monday, August 28, 2017

6:00 AM

Sinful Colors - Sugar Sugar


   Good Morning and Happy Monday to all of you. It's my first full day back to work for the school year and I'm excited to see all the kids and hear about their summers. Although I am sad that summer is over I'm glad to be getting back into a regular routine. That routine also includes bringing you blog posts like the one I'm sharing today featuring Sugar Sugar from Sinful Colors. 

     Sugar Sugar was originally released in 2011 as part of the Wild About Color Collection. Since then it appears to have been added to the core line and can still be found in stores and online.


     Sugar Sugar is a shimmering candy apple red polish with golden flecks and red micro shimmer. It sort of reminds me of China Glaze Ruby Pumps but doesn't have quite that much depth to it.


     I had a flawless application with Sugar Sugar. the polish was easy to control and went exactly where I wanted it to on the nail. Which was awesome because we all know how hard red polish can be to get off of skin. And even though I've gotten a lot better at painting my nails I still slip up and get my finger sometimes. While Sugar Sugar has great opacity and could possibly be a 1 coater if you used medium sized coats I opted to do 2 thin coats plus top coat.



     Sugar Sugar dries with a glossy shine but some slight texture thanks to those golden flecks. One layer of top coat smooths everything right out. I love the finished look and how the flecks seem to be suspended in the polish. This would look great in a Christmas mani, a 4th of July look or anytime really. What do you think? Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing! 

Friday, August 25, 2017

12:07 PM

Put Up Your Dupes - OPI Teal the Cows Come Home vs. Sinful Shine Blue Bayou


    It's been quite a while since I've shared a dupes post with all of you and I thought it was high time I changed that. Today I'll be comparing OPI's Teal the Cows Come Home and Sinful Shine's Blue Bayou. You might remember I recently reviewed Teal the Cows Come Home but Blue Bayou has yet to make it to the blog.  I'm having doubts about reviewing it mainly because it was part of an LE collection and no longer found in stores.  Then again, I have had a lot of older, no longer available polishes on the blog lately so I shouldn't really let that stop me right?

     Teal the Cows Come Home was released by OPI in 2006 as part of the Brighter By the Dozen Collection. Blue Bayou was released earlier this year as part of the Bayou Babes Collection. Both polishes have a shimmery finish and upon first glance appear to be the same color.


     In the bottle, both colors appear to have the same blue base color. The OPI appears to have a silver and aqua shimmer while the Sinful Shine appears to be more silver and purple. But how does that translate to the nail?


     For Application, both polishes applied smoothly and evenly but were sheer on the first coat. Blue Bayou appeared to be a darker shade of blue on the first coat with a bit more sparkle and shimmer. Both polishes reached full opacity after 2 coats. Shown here is 2 coats plus top coat.


    Once dried on the nail you can see that these 2 polishes are in fact not dupes. They are extremely similar but there are enough subtle differences to make them non-dupes.  Just like in the bottle they both dry with the same blue base color and a shimmery finish but that's where the similarities end. For me, the OPI has a stronger shimmer look to it while the Sinful Shine has a stronger green flash which I hadn't noticed in the bottle. Blue Bayou dries a bit darker, not much but it's enough for me to notice.



      You can also see that the shimmery particles appear to be larger in the Sinful Shine than they do in the OPI.  I think this helps to hide more of the brush strokes leaving a more pleasing finish on Blue Bayou than Teal the Cows Come Home. What do you think?

     Over all, I like both colors but Blue Bayou is my favorite out of the two. There are a few reasons for that and it's not just the wallet friendly price of the Sinful Shine. I like the slightly darker blue shade and the fact that the brushstrokes are less evident. Which one is your pick? Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!


Wednesday, August 23, 2017

9:08 AM

Literary Lacquers - Book Club and Birthday Polish LEs


     Happy Wednesday everyone. I'm sorry to have just disappeared last week but I needed a mental vacation to prepare for the end of summer and heading back to school. My summer vacation officially ended yesterday but my kids still have about 2 weeks left of theirs. We've been having so much fun and going on so many mini vacations that the school year crept up on me and I was not entirely prepared. But everything is in order now and I'm glad to be back to blogging. I'm kicking things off with 2 gorgeous polishes from Literary Lacquers. I have the Book Club polish and a special Birthday polish to share with you today. Both polishes are LE's but will be available for purchase starting tomorrow Aug 24th through Sept 8th. I'll have more details about the launch later on in the post but for right now let's get to the polish.

     The book club LE is Thousand Different Strokes of Light, a taupe polish with blue glass flecks and scattered holographic micro glitter. 

Taupe-nail-polish-with-blue-flecks-and-holographic-glitter
Photo was taken in full sunlight
Photo was taken in a lightbox

     “In our world of shadows, there is no black and white but a thousand different strokes of light.” from The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman. Designed and named by Sharon Wood. 

     The formula for Thousand Different Strokes of Light is practically flawless. The polish flowed smoothly and evenly onto the nail. I had nice even coverage with the glass flecks with only a few wanting to stick over my finger tip. The first coat applied slightly sheer but builds up nicely. Shown here is 2 coats plus top coat.




     Sadly the glass flecks wanted to hide from my camera and I was only really able to capture them in the bottle but trust me they are more evident when looking at your nails. You can get a glimpse of them in my last macro shot just along the edge of the focal point. 



     The Birthday LE is Unspeakably Desirable and these bottles will be numbered for those of you who like to collect LE polishes. Unspeakably Desirable is a bright coral polish with scattered holographic glitters. 

Bright-coral-pink-nail-polish-with-holographic-glitter
Photo was taken in direct sunlight
Photo was taken in a lightbox

     Inspired by a quote from Mark Twain’s published journals “There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.” - Mark Twain

     The formula has a smooth application and complete control over where the polish went on the nail. The glitters do give this polish a bit of a grit to it when wet but that didn't affect how the polish applied at all. And there was no texture left once the polish dried. I had nice almost full opacity after 1 coat. Shown here is 2 coats plus top coat.



     For me, this polish looked more orange in the bottle, during application it had more of a salmon color to it, but it dries to a nice coral pink.



     Along with the two LE's Literary Lacquers is also bringing back some old favorites from last year. The list of returning polishes are:

84 Charing Cross Road
Cyan-tifically Proven
Shadow Between Us
Je Reviens
Rebecca, Always Rebecca
Afterglow
Tia Wanna
Arousal
Curious Yellow
English Voodoo

     As mentioned above these polishes will be available on Aug 24th starting at noon mountain time. The LE's will be available for purchase through Sept 8th. Holos and multichrome polishes will be $12. Glitters, Shimmers and, cremes will be $10.

     Be sure to follow Literary Lacquers so you never miss an update. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!


Friday, August 11, 2017

6:00 AM

Lollipop Posse Lacquer - Slipping Out of Time



     Hi everyone and happy Friday! I'm about to set off on another weekend adventure of camping, kayaking, and tubing.  But I still wanted to get a post out for all of you. Today I'll be sharing Slipping Out of Time from Lollipop Posse Lacquer. This polish was released in the summer of 2015 as part of the Midsummer Midnights collection and sadly is no longer available for purchase. I know I know I keep showing you polishes that you can't buy and I'm sorry for that. I'm just trying to make it through more of my collection but don't worry I'll have some newer polishes to share with you soon.

Navy-blue-scattered-holographic-nail-polish

     Slipping Out of Time is a beautiful Catalina blue polish with scattered holographic flakes. You might remember it from my Frozen Snowflakes manicure last Christmas. This polish was inspired by a Florence & The Machine song Rabbit Heart (raise it up). While I am familiar with Florence & The Machine I'm not familiar with the song. Have you heard of it? 

Navy-blue-scattered-holographic-nail-polish

    I was quite surprised at how sheer this applied on the first coat. Thankfully it builds up nicely and only 2 coats were needed for full opacity. Shown here is my standard 2 coats plus top coat. If you'd like to see what it looks like matte, be sure to check out my Frozen Snowflake manicure.

Navy-blue-scattered-holographic-nail-polish

     I've decided that I must have a thing for blue polishes from Lollipop Posse Lacquer. The only other one to make it to the blog so far was The Get-Fresh Flow which is pretty close to the same shade of blue, it's just missing the holo. Overall, I do like the color, and I love sparkly nail polish, so this is a win-win for me. I do think I should wear it more in the summer months when I have a bit of a tan though since I feel I look a little washed out in these photos. Sadly I swatched this back in April and it's just making it to the blog now. I have the habit of swatching random polishes from my helmers and using them as filler posts. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this. That's all I've got for you today, thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!



Thursday, August 10, 2017

6:00 AM

Cupcake Polish - Crystals Charity Lacquer Sale (Press Release)

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/cb510295b2b52f14eb6199108/images/c94914ff-3031-45e7-95f1-3b8af34763d4.jpg
Photo credit Alicia Sheely / Delishious Nails
CUPCAKE POLISH ANNOUNCES CRYSTAL'S CHARITY LACQUER SALE BENEFITING THE SPCA

DALLAS, TX:  Cupcake Polish announces a new duo for their August 2017 feature in the Crystal's Charity Lacquers facebook group.  Cupcake Polish has teamed up with Top Shelf Lacquer to help raise funds for the SPCA!

These gorgeous Cupcake Polishes are perfect for the upcoming fall season and will make you think of bonfires and sweater weather!  Make Today Pawsome is a gorgeous emerald green linear holographic polish with pink/copper/green/gold shifting metallic flakies.  Paws And Share The Love is a gorgeous mulberry purple linear holographic polish with copper/red/gold shifting metallic flakies.

Cupcake Polishes are handmade, long-wearing, full coverage, and 5-free.
 
These are available individually at www.cupcakepolish.com for $13 each with $4 of each sale benefitting the SPCA.
These are ONLY available from August 11th at 12pm CST to August 27th at 11:59pm CST.
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/cb510295b2b52f14eb6199108/images/b9b0dd8c-062c-497c-9a54-51fb1c689637.jpg
Photo credit Lo Figueroa / Bruised Up Dollie
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/cb510295b2b52f14eb6199108/images/4a59e1c5-b757-4c69-94ff-bef19b155608.jpg
Photo credit Alicia Benton / @Luvlee226
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/cb510295b2b52f14eb6199108/images/a269814e-ab54-4b2d-9ee1-c35f945399c1.jpg
Photo credit Dianna Setterfield / Snacks on Rotation
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/cb510295b2b52f14eb6199108/images/0289cbf3-01e5-4163-ad7d-29f2a69b5c7c.jpg
Photo credit Lisa Heath / Cosmetic Sanctuary

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

11:14 AM

Pastel Watermarble with Sinful Colors


    You might remember awhile back I shared with you the Sinful Colors Get Bright Back to School Collection. 6 pastel neon shades that dried to a demi-matte finish but had only so so formulas. While I'm a fan of the colors in this collection I'm not a fan of the application issues I had but didn't want the collection to just sit in my helmers unloved. That's where today's post comes in. I've had success in the past getting Sinful polishes to watermarble and wanted to know if this collection would as well and guess what, they do!


     Now If you'll remember from my last post I wore these without undies, and they were still pretty vibrant for neons. Well as vibrant as a pastel shade can be I guess. Well, I did the same thing with my water marble, I simply put down a base coat and marbled directly over it.

      As you can see I have a few bald patches but I think that was caused by the extreme heat we had here at the time and no AC in my home. The warms temps made the polish slow to spread and it dried very quickly thanks to the matte finish so my pattern broke up a bit as I was creating it. 



     I topped everything off with my Pure Ice Matte top coat because it dries the closest to a demi-matte out of all the matte top coats I own. What do you think of the finished look?

     I really like how these colors flow together and I'm sure I will use them for a watermarble again, especially now that I've installed central air in the house so the temperature shouldn't be a problem. I used to do watermarbles all the time but got away from it because I could never make those patterns that everyone does.

     I've discovered thanks to watching a ton of youtube videos that the bowl I use for watermarbling is much larger than what other people are using. This might be why I have such a hard time making consistent patterns. The outer rings are completely dry before I even get to them and the center is too big to make that nice flower center. Now I just need to find a better container to use. If you watermarble what type of container do you use? Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!


Monday, August 7, 2017

11:22 AM

Frenzy Polish - Falling Leaves 2


    I know we still have a month of summer left and believe me I'm one who is holding on to these days as hard as I can, except when it comes to my nails. Lately, I've been drawn to shades that have that fall feeling to them. You know the ones that remind you of the turning leaves or your favorite cozy sweater. Today I have one of those shade to share with you, Falling Leaves 2 from Frenzy Polish.

Shown with a matte top coat

     Falling Leaves 2 is a pale grey almost cream colored crelly based polish with gold and bronze flakes that totally reminds me of a warm cozy sweater. Sadly Frenzy polish has decided to close up shop this year and this polish is no longer available. But not to fear I know I've seen a few options out there for polishes that are similar if not almost dupes. 

Shown with a glossy top coat

     Falling Leaves 2 has a nice even formula with a ton of flakie coverage with each coat. It is a bit on the sheer side and I ended up needing 3 coats for full coverage. I might have been able to get away with 2 coats if I'd used a thicker second coat but I opted for 3 thin one to help the flakes stand out. Shown here is 3 thin coats plus top coat. 

Shown with a matte top coat

     I wanted to show this polish with both a glossy and a matte top coat to see if either one helped the flakes stand out more. As you can see there isn't much difference between the two. I like both options but am leaning a little bit more towards the matte. Which look do you like better and do you know of any polishes that are similar to this? I need to add more to my collection! Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

Friday, August 4, 2017

6:00 AM

Pueen Stamping Kit review


     While browsing through my various Facebook groups I've come across many people asking about the Starter stamping kit from Pueen. Since I was one of the lucky ones to find this kit at my sort of local Wal-mart I decided to test it out and share my results with all of you. Since purchasing this kit I've noticed that more and more people are beginning to find it in their stores so if it's not at yours yet, be patient it will get there.  This is my first experience with Pueen products but after using this kit they won't be my last. Read on to find out why.


     The starter kit contains 1 image plate with 12 patterns, a super squishy stamper, a plastic scraper and 2 stamping polishes. (1 black, 1 white) Basically, everything you need to give stamping a try. I personally think this is a great bang for your buck with its $10.00 price tag.


     As you can see this image plate has a variety of images covering several themes. I opted to use images with varying thickness to the lines so I could really see just how well it worked. For my base color, I used Sinful Colors Eccentricity from the newly released Color Eccentric Collection.



     I found the polishes to be extremely opaque and easy to work with. I needed less polish on the image plate before scraping than I typically use and was still able to get the entire image fully covered. That's huge for me since I have this irrational fear that I'll run out of a product and not be able to get it again, plus let's be honest, I'm cheap and like my products to last as long as they can.



 Each image that I tried picked up nicely on the stamper and transferred effortlessly onto my nails. I did notice that the polish seemed to stay wet for longer than my other stamping polishes so I would wait an extra minute before applying top coat. That way you can avoid smearing your image.

     Along with the starter kit, Wal-mart also carries a single image plate from Pueen that retails for about $6.00 which I also snagged but haven't had a chance to use yet. Overall I'm very impressed with this kit, I feel that it is a great investment for any nail artist whether you're just starting out or have been stamping for years. I also feel that this is the most success I've had with stamping as far as crisp clean lines and full images. 

     Have you spotted this kit in stores yet or picked one up yourself? I'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

6:00 AM

Orly - Whats the Password?


     Every once in a while you have to reach into your nail polish stash and pull out something from the past. And that's just what I've been doing lately. Slowly making my way through my collection trying to get my untried list cut down to a manageable size. So you'll be seeing lots of posts like my last one reviewing OPI polishes from 2006 or Sinful colors from 2011. And today's post featuring Orly's Whats the Password? from 2013. Don't worry I'll still be sharing newer colors and the occasional new release. But today's post is all about What's the Passwordso let's get to it.



     Released in 2013 as part of the Secret Society collection What's the Password? is a burnt orange leaning copper polish with a hint of golden shimmer. Unlike most shimmer nail polishes the shimmer is What's the Password is larger and has subtle hints of a glass fleck finish.



   The formula is almost flawless with a smooth and even application and surprisingly no VNL after 1 coat. I've shown the nail polish as two coats plus top coat.The reason for my almost flawless remark is because like all shimmer polishes What's The Password suffers from brushstrokes. Thankfully the sparkle and shimmer help to hide most of them. And trust me this polish is super sparkly no matter what lighting you're under.



     Normally I'm not a huge fan of orange nail polish but when they lean copper like this I absolutely love them! Especially as a pedicure color.  Ever since I had my first pedi with OPI's Down to my Last Penny I've been hooked. Maybe it's the way the color goes with my skin tone or maybe I just think it's fun to have coppery orange toes. I'm not really sure but whatever the reason this type of color makes me happy. What is your happy go to shade of polish? Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!


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