Hiatus

Hi everyone!

I'm really excited, since I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow! I'm going on a cruise to the Bahamas, and I'm excited to do a little relaxing and sunbathing. Unfortunately, this means I won't have access to a computer for a while, and won't be able to continually update my blog on a daily basis like I usually would. But don't worry! As soon as I return from the trip, a normal posting schedule will resume, and I'll have lots more polishes to share with you! In the meantime, I'd love to hear your feedback. What do you guys like about my blog, and what do you think I could do better? Also, what kinds of posts would you like to see in the future? Thank you for all of your support, and I'll talk to you all when I get back! 

~Beth~

Chinese-Inspired MOTD w/ New Love and Beauty Glitter!

Hi everyone!

Today I have for you another of the polishes that I bought from Forever 21 in NYC. As it happens, I'll be going there again tomorrow with my best friend! We're going to see a show at the Lincoln Center called "Monkey: Journey to the West". It's completely in Mandarin Chinese and features Chinese music and dancing. My Chinese skills are nonexistent, so I hope my friend will help translate for me, lol! Luckily there are English subtitles, so I can still understand what's going on!

In honor of the show I'm seeing tomorrow, I'm wearing red and gold nail polishes, in honor of the traditional colors of the Chinese flag. The red I chose to use is an Ulta Salon Formula Nail Laquer (in the old, rectangular bottles, as opposed to the new cylindrical ones) in the color "Ruby Slipper". The red is deep, rich, and for a shimmery-frosty color, the brush strokes are extremely manageable. It's almost a one coater for me! To ensure it was perfect, though, I used two coats. 

The gold glitter is the Love and Beauty Forever 21 polish I got in NYC, and its name is "Gold". I know, what a creative name for a gold glitter. But while it's got a boring name, it's by no means a boring color! "Gold" has tiny gold glitters mixed in with medium gold and holographic gold hex glitters. The glitter is pretty easy to manage (the formula isn't too thick) and with two coats, the glitter spreads fairly evenly, so you won't have to do too much glitter placement. I love this combo together so much! I think it's perfect for the occasion, and highly sophisticated. Below are pictures in artificial, indoor lighting, with a base coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Nail Color in "Flawless", no topcoat.

 

What do you think of this glistening combination of colors? Do you like fun, punchy glitters like this one? Let me know!

~Beth~

MOTD- Love and Beauty "Emerald"

Hi all!

Today I have a really beautiful polish to share with you. It's one of the three Love and Beauty polishes I picked up at the Times Square Forever 21 yesterday. This polish is called "Emerald", and upon first glance, it looks like the person who named it got really confused, lol! In the bottle, it appears to have a very purple, duochrome base, but upon applying it, it definitely has a dark, blue-based emerald base. As you build up the color, though, the emerald gets much darker, and almost appears like a very dark blue-green purple duochrome. No matter what, it's a real gem! Here's a bottle shot below:

 

Here you can sort of see the duochrome of the polish, but honestly, pictures do not do this beauty justice. You can hardly see the varying shades of purple shimmer, peach shimmer, gold shimmer, and green in the bottle. It's such a deep, fascinating polish, it just looks different at every single angle. Below are pictures with 4 coats of "Emerald", no topcoat, in indoor, artificial lighting (sorry for the lack of sun pictures today, the weather just wouldn't cooperate)

 

The formula on this polish was nice, very thin and easy to apply. The only problem was, it was a bit sheer. It took 4 coats to build up so you couldn't see the visible nail line. I wish it were more opaque, because with just 1-2 layers, it's a completely different polish. Deep blue/emerald turquoise with a very purple/red shimmer. Don't get me wrong, the color you see above (which the camera truly didn't capture well enough to do the polish justice) is absolutely phenomenal, but wouldn't it be awesome to get two colors out of one polish?! I'll try it with a white base some time to see how it works.

This polish is somewhat similar to another polish I ran across once. While not exact dupes, I think Versace v2077 (picture below) has a very similar look to "Emerald". The bases are slightly different. But considering the hefty pricetag on the Versace, I think "Emerald" is a great, high quality inexpensive choice.

Overall, I think this polish is a must have. Love and Beauty polishes are currently $2.80 at Forever 21 stores, plus tax (unless you're in Delaware, then there's never sales tax! :-D)

What do you think of this unique beauty of a polish? Are you a fan of shimmery duochromes, or is creme your style? Let me know in the comments!

~Beth~

Nail Art- New York/Wicked Water Marble

Hi guys!

So today's post is gonna be realllllllyyyyy quick, because I'm dead tired. I just got back from a day trip with my mom; we went to the Big Apple to see Wicked on Broadway! If you haven't been before, I'd highly recommend you do if you have the chance, the show was fantastic! The singing was phenomenal and the sets and costumes and special effects were also amazing. The only flaw? The Gershwin Theater is freezing cold! It was 90 degrees outside and we were all bundled up in our sweaters trying our best to stay warm! Walking out into the stifling heat after the show ended never felt so good!

 

On to the nails. I decided to go with an "Emerald City" themed water marble, in honor of the show I went to see. I used two colors in this water marble (besides my standard Sinful Colors "Snow Me White" for the base):

Green: Rue Beauté Nail Polish in Color 033 (in the bottle it looks like a deep blue/teal color, but in water marbling, it turns out as a rich, blue-based emerald creme)

Silver: Ulta Salon Formula Nail Laquer in "Bare Minimum"

Below are the pictures, with one coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Nail Color in "Flawless" as my top and base coat. Indoor, artificial lighting.

 

Sorry for how messy the cuticles are, when I took these pictures, I was in a hurry since I was packing my purse for my trip the next day!

I hope you all aren't getting too tired of water marbling. I'll try and post other things in the next coming days. I bought 3 polishes in NYC, and I'm going back Saturday, so I might even get more still! What are your thoughts on this Wicked-inspired manicure? What's your favorite Broadway show?

~Beth~

Nail Art- Water Marbling with my Mom!

Hi everyone!

Today I have a special treat for all of you. Over the weekend, I got the opportunity to practice my water marbling technique on some very willing test subjects, er, willing volunteers. :) I did manicures on both my mom and one of my good friends, Tory, but today I'll just be showing you my mom's, and saving Tory's nails for later (solely because I'm too lazy to download those pictures to my computer right now, lol).

For my mom's nails, I wanted to do something bright and bold, since she loves summer colors. I chose her favorite bright blue, a bold green, and a hot fuschia. The colors I used are as follows:

White (for base): Sinful Colors "Snow Me White"

Blue: Wet N' Wild Fast Dry Nail Color in "Saved by the Blue" (what a great name!)

Green: Rue Beauté in Color 040

Pink: Ulta Salon Formula Nail Laquer in "Fuschiamania"

To do the water marbling itself, I generally use room temperature, or slightly warm, bottled water. I just find that works best for me. I draw the designs using pointed toothpicks, since I am not a fan of using orange sticks, or something like that. I use tape around my cuticles to prevent excess polish from getting on my skin, and remove any mess around my cuticles with warm water in the shower (it peels right off and is less drying than using nail polish remover or acetone, in my opinion). Below are pictures in artificial light, no topcoat, of course, with my beautiful mom modeling for me! She makes a great hand model, no?

 

I'm extremely proud of how this nail art turned out, I think my water marbling technique is greatly improving! What do you all think? Are you a water marble fan? Are you going to try a bright summer manicure? What nail art designs do you want to see from me in the future?

~Beth~

MOTD- Pink Ice by Rue 21 in Color 031

Hi everyone!

Happy birthday to the new royal baby! I've been more than a little obsessed with following the updates of the royal baby frenzy online recently, so it's cool that it's finally happened!

In other news, today I have for you a fun nail polish I picked up at the mall this weekend. This polish is a sub-brand of the store Rue 21, which is a Forever 21-esque store that sells clothing, jewelry, shoes, accessories, make up, nail polish, all sorts of great things! The brand is called Pink Ice (not to be confused with Pure Ice, the Walmart nail polish brand), and has pretty awesome glitter and creme polishes. At my Rue 21 location, they just expanded the line, and this color I'm showing you today is part of it. I also have another amazing glitter mix from them that I'll share at another time.

Color 031 (this brand doesn't have names, unfortunately) is a minty green pastel base, with tiny black hex glitters in it. I think this is very reminiscent of mint chocolate chip ice cream, or a pastel kiwi fruit! I'm absolutely in love. The formula of this polish was on the thick side, but not unworkable, and the glitter was evenly distributed throughout the bottle. It took about 2-3 coats, depending on how thickly you paint them on, to become opaque. Without topcoat, the polish is a bit rough to the touch when dry because of the density of glitter, but 1-2 layers of a good topcoat smoothes it right out. 1 coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Nail Color in "Flawless" did the trick for me! Below are pictures in indoor, artificial lighting, on my right hand (which may explain the awkward angles in some of the pictures, because I'm right handed and had to take pictures with my left!). 3 coats of 031.







Packaging-wise, this polish is a total win. The bottle is uniquely square shaped, somewhat similar to old Rimmel packaging (I think I got that brand right...). My only gripe about this polish is that the brush on this particular bottle is terrible. It's bristles are hard to control and just poorly shaped. I didn't have that issue on the other Pink Ice polish I have, so maybe it's an oddity.

I also saw a striking similarity in this polish to Deborah Lippman's "Rockin' Robin" (picture below). While I don't own Rockin' Robin to compare the two, they look fairly similar just in the bottles, with Rockin' Robin potentially being slightly lighter in color than 031. If you're looking for a cheaper dupe of Deborah Lippman, this would probably be the way to go!

 Rockin' Robin

So what do you think of this minty fun polish? Are you a fan of black glitter? Will this be getting added to your nail polish stash in the near future?

~Beth~

Sunday Funday Nail Art! - "Nautical" Stripes

Hi everyone!

Today I have for you a fun, bold nail art design that's easy to create and is sure to garner you a ton of compliments! I wore it out to the mall today, and every cashier I talked to said that they loved it, it felt great! 

To create this look, I started with a base coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Nail Color in "Flawless", and then painted on one coat of Sinful Colors "Snow Me White" (reviewed yesterday). I let the white dry COMPLETELY (about 15 minutes) before moving on. I took regular scotch tape pieces long enough to stretch horizontally across my nail, and pressed them into my skin and peeled them off a few times to reduce the stickiness, so that they wouldn't pull up nail polish. I then used different patterns of the tape to create different sized stripes for each color. The tape ensures that the lines are nice and crisp. As soon as you paint on the next layer of color, peel off the tape. If you let the polish dry first, you won't get as sharp of a line. If you have little mistakes in the line, just go over it later in the color you want it to be. Repeat until the design matches mine, or until you like it. Feel free to swap out colors! I didn't have a camera available to me while I was doing the design, so I don't have pictures of me creating it. However, I highly doubt this will be my last "tape" manicure, so I'll be sure to show pictures next time!

The colors I used in this design are as follows:

Pink: Love and Beauty in "Red" (what an awful name for a pink, right? But it's a great polish anyways, thin and easy to apply, and so shiny!)

White: Sinful Colors "Snow Me White" 

Yellow: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Nail Color in "Mellow Yellow"

Navy: Rue Beauté Nail Color in color 043

Below are pictures indoors, artificial lighting, with one topcoat of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Nail Color in "Flawless" as a top coat. 

 

 

So what do you think of this fun, wearable nail art? Simple enough for you, or too loud and crazy? What's your favorite summer nail look? Keep checking my blog this week, I have lots more nail art and water marble looks to show you, including guest hand models including one of my best friends, Tory, and my Mom!

~Beth~

My Favorite (Inexpensive) White Polish

Hi all!

Today I have a bit of a "filler" post for you, because I have an awesome nail art design to show you tomorrow! (it's not quite finished yet though, I just got too tired to keep going, lol). Today I have for you Sinful Colors "Snow Me White", my favorite white polish of the moment! I like how it gives excellent coverage in just one coat (!!!) and isn't as streaky as some of the others I have tried. It's still on the thick side, but it's not unmanageable. I realize brands like OPI or China Glaze or Zoya might have better formulas than the $1.99 Sinful Colors, but at a price under $2, I'm willing to deal with slight imperfections. These pictures below are indoors, and are just one coat, no top coat, with Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Nail Color in "Flawless" as a base.

 

 

Sorry for the messy cuticles, I was in a bit of a rush.

What do you think of "Snow me White"? What's your favorite white polish?

~Beth~

Nail Art- Summer Neon Water Marble

Hi everyone!

So yesterday's "flashback" post inspired me to try some water marble nail art again. I hadn't done it in about a year (school has been crazy with AP's and extracurriculars!) so I had to get the hang of it again. And let me tell you, I made a hugeee mess in the process! To add to the length of time it took to (finally!!!) get it right, I completely botched the white nail polish (that I use as a base for the design) on my entire left hand and had to stop, remove it, and start over again. I'm really such a klutz sometimes! In the end though, I'm satisfied with the results.

My original plan for this design was to mix all four colors (orange, green, blue, and pink) together in one design, but when i started making the bullseye, I found out the four of them together didn't play nice. Instead, I flip-flopped between green and orange on one nail and pink and blue on another, because those two combinations worked in the water (I used room temperature bottled water). The colors I used for this design are as follows:

Rue Beauté orange polish in color 145

Rue Beauté scented green polish (smells like mint!) in color 031

dELIA's blue polish in "Blue-Mint"

Claire's hot pink polish in "Hot Stuff"

Below are pictures of the final result. The white polish I used as a base was Ulta Salon Formula Nail Laquer in "Snow White", and the base and top coat are, as always, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength nail polish in "Flawless".

Right Hand

Right Hand

Left Hand

Left Hand

I apologize for the pictures for this one, it was picking up the orange all kinds of wrong. In these pictures, it looks like an orange-y red or a dark peach, when in reality it's a real in-your-face neon orange. All these colors are much more eye-searing in person.

So what do you think of my latest water-marble creation? Are you a fan of summer neons?

~Beth~

 

 

 

 

Throwback Thursday- Black and White Water Marble Nails

Hi everyone!

Today I have an old picture to share with you, since I didn't get a chance to swatch any new polish shades today. Last year, I had a small obsession with water marbling nail art. I was fascinated with it after watching youtubers (like ilovemylongnails and simplelittlepleasues, to name a few) do it so flawlessly. After mastering the technique (the water temperature is soooo important, it really needs to be very room temperature), I did all sorts of color combinations. This simple black and white one might be my favorite of them all. I always start with a base coat of white, to enhance the color, then used unknown black and white polishes to make the water marble "bullseye", and draw the design with toothpicks. I taped my cuticles around the nail to prevent making a giant mess (though isn't making a mess always inevitable?) and dipped away! Here's a (low quality) picture of the result.



I'm super thrilled with how this old nail art turned out. Maybe I'll do some more in the near future with some of the fun new colors I've acquired as of late. What color combos would you all like to see? Have any of you tried water marbling?

~Beth~

MOTD- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Mellow Yellow" With Claire's Precious Metals Glitter!

Hi everyone!

Today I have for you a quick MOTD, featuring one of the new "Precious Metals" glitter topcoats from Claire's. Unfortunately, none of these polishes have names, so we'll just call this one "blue/pink", since those are the colors of the glitters in it!

First, I'll discuss the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Mellow Yellow". While I love this almost "cheesy" yellow polish's color, it's not too fun to apply. I found the formula to be somewhat thick, and while it was fairly self-leveling, I still found there to be bald spots, even after 3 coats (and I gave up at three coats because I was too impatient!) It took FOREVER to dry as well. However, it's still a decent yellow, so the color alone is what saves it for me.

The Claire's glitter, on the other hand, was a real winner for me. It didn't require any "positioning" of the glitter, and was to my liking in two thin coats. It also was SUPER fast drying so I hardly had to wait between layers! I think it looks great over the yellow, the three primary colors work well together. It's almost a comic book effect, in my opinion. Below are pictures in indoor lighting, with 3 coats of "Mellow Yellow", two coats of the glitter, and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength polish in "Flawless" for the base and topcoat.

 

What do you think? Are you bold enough to try yellow polish? Are you as in love with glitter as I am? 

In other, much sadder news, a fellow member of the online beauty community has passed away today. Talia Castellano, age 13, died from her cancer today. Even though cancer took her life in the end, she still won her battle. She inspired so many others, like myself, to "just keep swimming", no matter how hard things get. And due to her undying commitment to her cause, she's helped raise awareness to several charities to help bring light to the horrific disease that is childhood cancer. May she rest in peace knowing that she's touched the world in a beautiful way, and her bright, amazing spirit will never be gone. 

~Beth~

MOTD- Hot n' Cold Mani With Essie "Tart Deco" and dELIA's "Blue-Mint"

Hi everyone! Today I have an awesome mani that I did to show you. When you have so many colors, sometimes it's hard to pick just one to use on my nails at a time! So, being as indecisive as I am, I couldn't pick between colors! So I picked two of my favorites- a hot coral and a cool mint, and paired them together to get the best of both worlds- hot and cold! I used the blue, dELIA's "Blue-Mint", as an accent nail on my pointer finger and pinky, and used Essie "Tart Deco" on the rest. 

dELIA's "Blue-Mint" is a bit sheer, and requires 3-4 coats to be fully opaque. But the end result is so beautiful, I'm willing to put in the extra effort to apply it. It's pretty quick drying, so that's a plus. dELIA's polishes can range anywhere from about $3.50-$6, depending on the kind of polish, and what kind of sales the store is having, and can only be found at dELIA's stores. Essie "Tart Deco" was a little thick, but not unworkable, and was opaque in two coats. It ranges from about $7-$9 retail, although this bottle was given to me as payment for babysitting! Pictures below are indoors, with Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in "Flawless" as a base and top coat. 3 coats of "Blue-Mint" and 2 coats of "Tart Deco"

What do you think of this frosty hot manicure? Will you be trying out accent nails too? 

~Beth~

 

Claire's Splatter Polish in "Paparazzi"

Hi everyone! While at the mall with a friend yesterday, we stopped by Claire's to look for some little trinkets. Of course, I made a beeline right for the nail polish rack! Lucky for me, they were having a sale, buy one get one 50% off! So I bought the mini set of the "Precious Metals" Glitter collection (review and swatches to come later) for $10, and then this polish was my 50% off purchase! It was originally $7, but I got it for $3.50. And let me tell you, I'm very happy with my purchase!

"Paparazzi" is essentially a matte glitter bomb. Small white, black, and matte pink hex glitters, medium size pink hex glitters, and large pink hex glitters, along with tiny translucent hex glitters and multiple sizes (from very thick to very thin) pink bar glitter interspersed throughout the rest. Holy perfection! You don't even really have to place the glitter on the nail (except for the large hexagonal glitters) because the glitter is so dense in the bottle! I only used two coats to clean up the sparser areas because I'm a nail perfectionist, LOL. This makes a great polkadot topcoat, very similar to the new Maybelline polkadot polishes (but this one has pink glitter, instead of the black and white in the Maybelline). Claire's also had a sky blue and white version of this, and a black and white version. After my love affair with this one, I might go back and get the others! Below are two coats of "Paparazzi" over two coats of Rue Beauté "004", with the Ulta color-enhancing top coat on top. Indoor lighting.

 

 

Claire's is having a sale right now, 50% off all cosmetics with the purchase of one cosmetic item, and if you spend $20 or more, you get $10 in Claire's cash, redeemable at the end of August. 

What do you think of this awesome polish? Gawdy or amazing? Will you be picking one up for yourself?

~Beth~

MOTD- Rue Beauté "004"

Hi everyone! Today I have a quick manicure to show you. I picked up this polish for 50¢ (!!!) at Rue 21 yesterday and I couldn't wait to try it out! Rue Beauté is Rue 21's own brand of polishes, and are packaged extremely similar to Color Club laquers. The polishes do not have names, but rather numbers, so this one is numbered "004". It's a light, tannish brown, just darker than my own skin tone. It's kinda like a creamy coffee or latte colored. It's deliciously shiny, even without top coat! It's wearable in 2 coats, but I went with 3 coats just to fix up some slight patchiness. While not a typical bright summer color, I think this would be great "for work" polish, and really, you can't beat the price of 50¢.

 

 

What do you think of this coffee colored polish? Have you tried any Rue Beauté products? Have a great day!

~Beth~

Sinful Colors Mini-Haul!

Yesterday I was sent to Walgreens to pick up some milk for my mom. As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by a huge display for Sinful Colors nail polish, 2 for $3! Being the addict that I am, I couldn't leave without some, so I picked up 4 pretty amazing colors! Two are quite sheer, one is opaque, and the other is a delightful glitter mix. Let's get started!

Purple diamond is a sheer, shimmery lilac. It leans a little more to the red side than the blue side of purples. There are also some very fine silver glitters in this polish. I really like it! It's buildable in 3-4 coats if you don't want to see the vertical nail line, however, you should beware. This polish does take awhile to dry between coats, no matter how thinly you paint it on. Watch out for unwanted 'dents' in your polish! This is 3 coats of Purple Diamond, no top coat.

 

 

You Just Wait is a sheer duchrome pink, with green and gold glimmers that can be seen depending on the angle your nails are at and the type of light hitting them. Unfortunately, when I took these pictures, it was dark and stormy, so I couldn't get an outdoors shot. I actually really disliked this polish, it was too sheer for my taste, dried poorly, and even after 4 coats, I could still see the vertical nail line. I'm kinda disappointed, but for only $1.50, I can't be too upset. Maybe I'll try layering it over some other colors and see what it can do. Below are pictures indoors, 4 coats.

 

 

Amazonian is a gorgeous shimmery dark emerald green, almost a bit like an alligator green. There are very subtle gold flecks running through this polish. Opaque in just two coats. Definitely like this one. Pictures are indoors, 2 coats (and sorry for the sloppy cuticles and pictures, I had to do this one in a hurry).

 

The last color I have today is I Dream in Jewels. And how appropriately named, since this is a glitter dream! This polish is full of tiny hexagonal glitters in gold and red in a clear base. There are also holographic silver and gold diamond glitters running throughout the polish. Those need to be "placed" on the nail, but are pretty easy to get out of the bottle. I'm excited to try this one over different colors! Based off of the glitter density, this one might even be opaque on its own in 3-4 coats. Below is one coat over Amazonian, indoor lighting.

 

 

Overall, besides the one miss, I'm very happy with my purchases! Sinful Colors is generally pretty good about polishes- they have a great variety of colors and the price is definitely right! I'll always be going back for more. What do you think? Are Sinful Colors polishes on your must have list?

~Beth~