Lustrous Lacquer: Cover Girl

Showing posts with label Cover Girl. Show all posts

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Lustrous Lacquer 6:00 AM Themed Manicures

Let's Go Camping Nail Art Challenge Day 3: Campfires

It's the last day of the Let's Go Camping Nail Art Challenge. I'm sad to see it end. I've had a lot of fun doing these manicure. I am a camping kind of girl at heart after all. But I already know what next months challenge is and now I can get excited about that. On with today's manicure before I get too far ahead of myself. Today's prompt is Campfires. Who doesn't love a campfire? I actually even love the smell! And I know I'm not alone in that, come on don't be shy, who else loves that smell? Something about it just screams summer to me whether it's an actual campfire or just a bonfire in the backyard.

I've wanted to do a flame manicure for almost 2 years now, but haven't. It's not for lack of time, it was pure intimidation. I wanted to get it just right, like so many of the other fabulous flame manicures I've seen floating around the internet. The most common technique to get this look is the needle drag. Now I don't know about you, but every single time I try this technique something goes horribly wrong and I'm left with big gauges in my polish. I thought, this time, I try a different approach and use a nail art brush instead. Well umm yeah, about that...

The technique had eluded me again! One of these days I will make it work. But this isn't a total loss. It still looks like fire and I'm pleased about that. I'm just missing the individual flames. It's an abstract campfire. Yeah, that's it, abstract. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. ;)

My base is L'Oreal After Hours. Going for that early evening feel, when you crack open your first beverage and settle in for a night of good conversation while watching the flames dance. Now that's my kind of summer night right there.

For my flames, I used 3 polishes from the Cover Girl Capitol Collection: Sulfur Blaze, Flamed Out, and Rogue Red. I dotted each one at the tip of my nail and ran my nail art brush through them. Anyone notice the names of the polishes were fire related? Just a happy coincidence. I really like the coloring on my pointer finger, but the "shape" on my ring finger. And just because I could I decided to throw a matte top coat on to see what it would look like.

I actually like it this way better, there's more definition between colors. Which way do you like better, glossy or matte? I hope you have enjoyed this challenge and are looking forward to the next one with me. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

An InLinkz Link-up

Friday, June 13, 2014

Lustrous Lacquer 6:00 AM Shimmer

Cover Girl - The Capitol Collection

*Nothing to Disclose*

Today I'm bringing you The Capitol Collection from Cover Girl. Set to release with the Hunger Games Catching Fire this collection contains 9 sparkling shades inspired by the film. I picked this set up on clearance at my local Walgreens but have come across them still at full price in K-mart and Target so you should still be able to find them.

Cover Girl Outlast Glosstinis are 5-Free and come in a mini version of the full-size square bottle. Thankfully, the mini size doesn’t mean a mini brush. The same round, short, medium width brush I've come to love from the full-size version made it to the mini bottles, with a shorter stem of course.

The application was consistent throughout the collection with an easy flow that allows for complete control. The surprising thing for me was that as the shades got darker, the polish got sheerer. Several polishes appeared streaky with the first coat but leveled out nicely with the second. And these polishes are buildable, giving nice, even coverage with 2-3 coats depending on color.

Sulfur Blaze is a deep yellow with golden micro shimmer. The pigmentation with this one caught me off guard. I was expecting a very sheer polish that needed 4 or 5 coats. Shown here is 2 coats without top coat.

Cover-Girl-Sulfue-Blaze-The-Capitol-Collection

As you can see with 2 coats I still have VNL and a 3rd was needed for full opacity.

Cover-Girl-Sulfur-Blaze-The-Capitol-Collection

Normally I'm not a fan of yellow polish on myself but this one seems to have just the right hue to it for my complexion.

Flamed Out is an orange polish with golden micro shimmer. Again this polish had more pigment in it than I was expecting. Shown here is 2 coats without top coat

Cover-Girl-Flamed-Out-The-Capitol-Collection

This vibrant orange caught my eye in the store months before I picked it up.

Although not the most flattering color on me I'm still glad I picked this one up. I can see using it in tons of nail art. Including one of those flame manicures, I see so many people wearing.

Rouge Red is an orange toned red polish with gold micro-shimmer. Again application was smooth with more pigment than I was expecting.

Cover-Girl-Rogue-Red-The-Capitol-Collection

Rogue Red looked redder on the nails than it does in the bottle and was extremely hard to photograph accurately. The golden shimmer kept making it look orange instead of red.

You don't want to skip the base coat with this one as it's a stainer.

Inferno is a deep magenta color with intense golden micro shimmer. Application with this one was a little patchy with the first coat. Here I've shown it in 2 coats without top coat.

Cover-Girl-Inferno-The-Capitol-Collection

Did I mention that it had intense micro shimmer? Just look at that illumination on the nail! Surprisingly there was no staining with Inferno.

Pyro Pink is a deep pink leaning purple with silver micro shimmer. This one was pretty sheer with the first coat but built up nicely after 2.

Cover-Girl-Pyro-Pink-The-Capitol-Collection

With with the sheerness this polish had it still flowed nicely onto the nail, with complete control as to where the polish went.

Violet Flicker is a deep purple with light purple and teal micro-shimmer. Sheer on the first coat full opacity was reached with 2.

Cover-Girl-Violet-Flicker-The-Capitol-Collection

I really like the little flickers of teal you get with this polish. Otherwise it's not a color that I would reach for often.

I think the shade is just a bit to muddled of a purple for me. It's not a bad color by any means, it's just not for me.

Seared Bronze is an olive green polish with purple and green micro shimmer. Sheer on the first coat, full opacity was reached in 2. Again I've shown this polish without top coat.

Cover-Girl-Seared-Bronze-The-Capitol-Collection

Like Violet Flicker this isn't a color that I would normally wear on it's own, but I think it will make a great accent nail. The micro shimmer leans so many different ways when the light hit it that it will go with a lot of other polishes.

Looking at it up close, it reminds me of Christmas colors without being obviously Christmas. I hope that makes sense.

Scalding Emerald is a dark green with blue and gold micro shimmer. Even sheerer that Seared Bronze on the first coat, only 2 were needed to reach full opacity.

Cover-Girl-Scalding-Emerald-The-Capitol-Collection

Show here is 2 coats without top coat. I actually like this color, and can see myself wearing it a lot in the fall and winter months.

Black Heat is a black polish with gold and red micro shimmer. Being the sheerest of the collection application was extremely streaky on the first coat. Shown here is 2 coats without top coat.

Cover-Girl-Black-Heat-The-Capitol-Collection

With the addition of the golden shimmer this polish almost looks to be a dark forestry green instead of black.

As you can see in this macro shot the base is indeed black and almost looks to have a glass fleck appearance to it. I like this polish, but I don't usually wear black polish, so I don't see myself wearing this one very often.

Over all I like many of the colors in this collection with my favorites being Sulfur Blaze, Inferno and Pyro Pink. Did you have a favorite? Any you want to add to your collection? If you've stuck with me this long I want to say thank you. I know that was a lot of polishes to look at and I tried to keep the words to a minimum. Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Polishing!

Monday, June 2, 2014

Lustrous Lacquer 6:00 AM What's in a finish

What's in a finish? - Glitter

*Nothing to Disclose*

Today I wanted to take a look at glitter nail polish. I myself used to have a love/hate relationship with glitters and would shy away from them. I love the way they look but hated the removal. That changed once I got my peel off base coat, though.

Glitter polish is considered the flashiest of the finishes and has the largest variety of looks with the variety of glitters available. There's multi glitter, two-toned glitters, single glitters, bar glitter, round, square, hex, and even shaped glitters. The base used to contain little to no color and the "color" is formed by the glitters used. However, more and more indie polish makers are adding glitter to a pigmented base.

Fickle Fairy Potions Quit Your Clownin'

You will sometimes hear someone refer to a glitter polish as being "top coat hungry" which means that the polish has a very rough texture. All glitter polishes have a rough finish but some are worse than others. Micro glitter polishes, for example, are the smoothest of glitters but even those have a slight texture to them.

Cover Girl Scalding Emerald

Overall I feel that glitter polishes are an essential part of any one's collection. They can spruce up a day old manicure, change the look of the polish, or just make you sparkle. But save yourself the headache of removal and invest in a peel-off base coat.

Thanks for stopping in, I hope you enjoyed this post. I'll have the last post in this series for you next Monday. Happy Polishing!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Lustrous Lacquer 5:26 PM Nail Art

Cover Girl Outlast Grapevine

*Nothing to Disclose*

Today on the blog I have for you Cover Girl Outlast in Grapevine. A fun flashy purple for summer. Grapevine is one of their limited edition colors that I had to snatch up as soon as I saw it. The application was flawless with full opacity in 2 coats. No top coat was needed with this polish and it has lasted a full week on my nails with only slight tip wear.

Grapevine in full sunlight

I love this color so much but I always have to add a little something to each manicure so I tried out a technique I've been wanting to try for a long time. I'm not going to lie I'm pretty proud of how my butterfly wings turned out. Next time though I'm going to do a full mani instead of the two fingers.

By the way, how do you like the two accent fingers? It's pretty new to me and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. Normally I only do the ring finger, but I'm trying to mix up my nail polish experiences.

Cover Girl Outlast polishes can be purchased pretty much anywhere Cover Girl Cosmetics are sold. I got mine from CVS for about $3. I have found them at Target, Kmart, Walgreens, and CVS. I have heard a rumor that Wal-Mart carries them as well but I haven't been to a Wal-Mart in months.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Lustrous Lacquer 7:54 PM Mainstream Polish

Cover Girl Outlast Forever Festive

*Nothing to Disclose*

I've been doing some thinking lately about how I could improve my blog and FB page for all of you. I also thought about how I could possibly get noticed by some companies or indie makers to hopefully be able to review polish for them in the future. Not that I'm in this for free products, although that would be a nice bonus, this is the level of quality I'm striving for. This led me to think about what Id like to see in a review. So today I have for you my first ever full review of a nail polish.

Like many of you I've walked past the Cover Girl nail polish display at Target many many times. I always stop and look but never purchased.... until Forever Festive caught my eye. Who doesn't love a great red right?

Cover Girl states "Dare to go topless with our new nail polish formula that combines a base coat, high gloss color, and a chip-resistant top coat in one simple step." It also states on their website that you can get a full weeks wear from this polish. So I figured I'd test this theory. I have to add that I am harder on my hands than the average person. I spend my days at work opening cardboard boxes and reaching into small fittings bin. I'm lucky if I can get 2 days wear out of a normal polish before it chips.

Feeling brave I applied red nail polish without a base coat. (really hoping I don't regret that later.) I have to say that the application of this polish was a dream. It went on smooth and even without a single streak. The square cap is even comfortable to hold. I was a little worried about dry time since I didn't use a quick dry top coat but within 5 or 6 minutes my nails were dry and glossy. This picture was taken 10 minutes after application.

After 3 days I started to notice some slight tip wear and I do mean slight. The polish still had a nice shiny finish and so far has me impressed.

Finally, after 6 days I had some chipping start to happen. But hey 6 days on my nails is uber impressive! Since it was a semi-decent day out I took this picture outside so the color could be viewed in natural light. It gives you a truer representation of what the color really looks like.

I have to say that I will be adding more of these polishes to my collection as colors continue to catch my eye. I am so glad that I finally purchased this polish. Its such a great red color landing somewhere between fire engine red and vampy red. Now back to that fear of stained nails I had...

There was no reason for that fear at all! Zero staining!!!!! Removal was the easiest I've ever had. I used the "foil method" without the foil and with one swipe all the polish was gone.

Covergirl Outlast polishes can be found at Target, Walgreens, Wal-mart, and K-mart. I got mine for $5.44 but the price may be different in different areas. So what are your thought on Cover Girl outlast polish? Would you purchase one for yourself?

*This product was purchased by me and all opinions and photos are my own*