Salon Perfect Bang

Hi! Did everyone have a good weekend? I saw Wolverine (which I enjoyed) and also made some peach blueberry jam. All in all, it was a pretty productive weekend.

I am sure that most of you are aware by now that Salon Perfect, a Wal-Mart exclusive brand, put out a collection of matte glitter polishes this summer. I don't normally shop at Wal-Mart but knew that I wanted to try and find this collection. Unfortunately by the time I was able to get to a Wal-Mart, most of the polishes were long gone. I did manage to find a few though and I have one for you today.

Bang is a dense orange and yellow matte glitter. I wore this one over 2 coats of Orly's Melodious Utopia. I am thinking now that maybe I should have used a base with a higher contrast since the yellow glitter is a little hard to see. This is a fun polish though and you really only need one coat to get a good coat of glitter on your nails. Like I said, it's matte so you'll need a good top coat to even things out and make it shiny.

Here is one coat of the glitter over my naked thumb nail. Yup, very dense. I like that more mainstream brands are creating polishes with more unusual finishes and colors. This collection also has a Floam dupe in it, which I hope to show you one day soon.

I am still on the hunt for Shocked (the pink/purple glitter). If you happen to know of where I can find a bottle in the L.A. area, let me know. :) Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great week!

Stashed (3): OPI, China Glaze, Salon Perfect, Zoya

Hi, guys! I have another Stashed post for you today. It's been a while since I have done one and I have some pretties to show you. Most of this is from a big haul I did over 4th of July weekend when I went to visit my family.  If you like stash/haul type posts (and awesome manicures), you should check out Mandee at The Bookish Manicurist. Her Polish on Parade post videos are super fun and I really do love seeing what people are hauling. On to the polishes!

So the first part of this haul came from a personal sale. When I got home, my mom told me that our neighbor had been trying to sell some polishes at a recent yard sale. The daughter of the house is a formal nail tech who is going back to school and was getting rid of a lot of polishes. She told my mom that I should come by when I was back in town to see if anything was left and she would sell it to me. My mom said she knew she had some brands I liked and that she was only selling for $2. A few days into my trip I finally managed to see my neighbor, and I totally hit the jackpot. She had a bunch of OPIs (lots of new collection stuff) and I snatched up almost all of her OPI collection.

l to r: OPI Got A Date To Knight, Pink Friday, My Very First Knockwurst, Meet Me On The Star Ferry

l to r: OPI Ink, Funky Dunkey, The Color to Watch, Cuckoo for this Color, Just Groovy

l to r: OPI Servin Up Sparkles, Number One Nemesis, The World Is Not Enough, Light My Sapphire, You Don't Know Jacques, Skyfall

l to r: Borghese Capri Coral, Revlon Mistetoe

I also got 8 or 9 mini Sephora by OPI polishes that have no names. All of the polishes about I got for $25! $25!! Can you believe that? Yes, awesome haul.

So the next batch I picked up at the local beauty supply near my parent's house and drugstore shopping. As you can see, I am very much in summer mode.

l to r: Dare to Wear Honeysucks, Dare to Wear Upper East Side, China Glaze Shell-O, China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle, Orly Mayhem Mentality

I don't have any Wal-Marts near me so I went on a mad hunt for the Salon Perfect matte glitters while I was at home. Unfortunately they were super hard to find. I did manage to find a few though they were hidden in the cosmetics section and I only found like one bottle of each. I am going on the hunt for more today.

l to r: Salon Perfect (no label but reminds my of ChG Flying Dragon, Kaboom, Jolt, Bang

l to r: Sinful Colors Star Dust (1164), High Strung (1125), Eva So Bright (1158), Maybelline Spotted, Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Pink Sprinkle

l to r: Zoya Chyna, Zoya London, Essie Naughty Nautical

I also picked up this nail art brush set for $5. I needed some finer brushes and the ones at the art supply store were more expensive so I gave this a go. And so far I really like them and use them a lot. They had other sets as well and I may pick one up the next time I am at that supply store.

That's my long overdue haul post. Of course I have bought more since I took these pics, but those will have to wait for another day. Have a great Sunday, everyone!

Avon Galaxy

Hello and happy hump day. I can't believe that Comic-Con is over already. I feel like I prepare for it all year long and then it's just over. I am still recovering a bit this week. I finally took off my galaxy nails which had starting chipping a little bit on the fourth day of wear. Overall though I really liked them and would definitely do them again.

So today I have a pretty blue holo from Avon's Celestial collection. I swatched all of these a while back but haven't had a chance to edit them all. So they'll be coming to the blog soon. Galaxy is a lovely light blue scattered holo. Like all of the polishes in this collection, the holo is pretty fine but definitely visible. Below is 2 coats with no top coat.

lighitng: shade

lighting: sunlight

lighting: sunlight

lighting: sunlight

I don't remember having any formula issues on this one. If you're a fan of more subtle holos, then this collection is just what you're looking for.

Do you prefer a little bit of holo or crazy rainbow holos? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks!

Galaxy Nails for Comic Con

Hi, everyone! By the time you read this I will be in geek heaven, aka San Diego Comic Con. I have been going for the past 10 years or so and, even though it's gotten huge and crazy, I still love it. There's so much fun nerdy stuff to do and it's just fun hanging out with people who like to fangirl as much as me. I knew I wanted to do some special nails this year. I haven't really gotten into nail art until just recently (and very simple nail art at that) but I wanted to do something besides just paint my nails. There are tons of great comic book related manis out there but most of them are beyond my skill or patience level at this time. So I decided to go for a galaxy manicure, which I have seen several version of lately. There are lots of tutorials out there for this look but I used this one at Chalkboard Nails for my main inspiration.

These are the colors I used.

I started off with a base coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme for a nice, dark base. I love the opacity of this black but I really hate the long bottle neck and brush. Anyway...

I then took turns sponging on the following colors (in this order):
American Apparel Cotton
OPI What's With The Cattitude
Sinful Colors Daredevil
Color Club Wild At Heart
Wet N Wild Black Creme
Urban Outfitters Silver Holo
NYC Skin Tight Denim

Then I used a toothpick and AA Cotton again to make tiny stars in a random pattern. After that I added China Glaze Fairy Dust just to the black parts of my nails. Topped everything off with Cult Nails Wicked Fast and a galaxy is born!  I really love the way this turned out and I can't stop staring at my nails. :)

What do you guys think? I like it and definitely see myself doing this again with different colors someday. It was super easy to do, too.

I can't believe Comic Con is here already. Wouldn't it be great if people also sold nail polish at Comic Con? Then it would be perfect. Haha. I actually did hear at OCC was putting out a really cool green lip tar that is debuting at Comic Con this weekend. You can read the press release at Temptalia here. It's called Demented Alice and though I am not usually one for super crazy lip colors, I think I may have to get this. I love Alice in Wonderland and OCC. I'll definitely try to get some pics of the booth for you guys.

Hope you're all having an awesome weekend! :)

Spotted: NYX Parallel Worlds The Mortal Instruments Collection

I just noticed that this post had been stuck in my drafts for the last month. Oops. Anyway - I spotted the new NYX Parallel Worlds collection at Ulta about a month ago. This collection is a movie tie-in to the film The Mortal Instruments (based on a book). I am a total book junkie as well as makeup fiend and I always love these types of collaborations. It's a nice little collection and comes in a cool looking box. Full details on the set below.

The collection retails for $24.99 and comes in a really cool looking box. The official blurb on the collection is as follows:

The NYX Parallel Worlds Box is Dark, Mysterious, and Dangerous. Venture into this new collection inspired by The Mortal Instruments. Everything you need to create an innocent day look inspired by Clary or a sultry night look inspired by Isabel.
Includes:

• NYX Smoky Palette
• NYX Blush in Pinched
• NYX Matte Lip Cream in Instanbul
• NYX Black Liquid Liner Extreme Black
• NYX Jumbo Pencil in Cashmere
• NYX Boudoir Collection Mascara in Le Frou Frou

Orly Melodious Utopia

Hello! Sorry my posts have been a bit sporadic lately but I just haven't had much time in the last couple of weeks to do any swatching. And I am headed off to San Diego this weekend as well so I'll be even more behind. But I do have a couple of things to show you this week. First off is Orly Melodious Utopia, which is a really interesting name. It's a bright lemon yellow with really beautiful copper and pink shimmer. I am not usually a big yellow person but this shimmer in this makes this polish very unique and I just could not resist.

Like a lot of yellows, the formula on Melodious Utopia was a little problematic. It wasn't terrible but it was a little streaky. I had to use 3 medium coats and top coat to get it evened out. While this wasn't my favorite formula, the results are worth the effort. Seriously, the shimmer is great and makes this polish a standout.

You can see the shimmer much better in this bottle pic. Overall I really like this shade even though application took a bit of effort.

Has anyone else tried this yet? Are you loving the shimmer as much as me? 

Sally Hansen Mermaid's Tale

Hi, everyone. TGIF! Hope you have all been having an awesome week. I've had a cough this whole week but it's finally starting to go away. The weather here was scorching hot, too, until a couple of days ago when it started to rain. I have no idea what's going on with the weather but it totally makes me believe in global warming.

Anyway...today I have Sally Hansen's Mermaid's Tale. I picked this one up at Ulta months ago and am only now just getting around to it. It's a gorgeous blue jelly filled with tons of green and blue hex glitter. I really hate the brushes on the Salon Perfect polishes by Sally Hansen. They're just so flat and awkward. But I braved it for this polish and it was worth it. 

These photos are a little blurry. Sorry about that. These are all taken outside in cloudy weather. The sun was not coming out so I had to just go with it. The formula on this was pretty good though sheer since it's a jelly. I had to use 3 coats to get it this dark. It has tons of glitter so no fishing is necessary.

I really like this polish. As you layer it, it's really cool to see how the glitter stacks on top of itself so that it really does start to resemble fish scales. The jelly base gives it a lot of depth as well. It's just a really pretty polish. I love anything mermaid related, too, so this is definitely a winner for me. It did take me a couple of coats of top coat to get it nice and smooth, so be prepared for that.

A gorgeous, gorgeous polish. Thanks for visiting today. Have a great weekend!

Dare To Wear Honeysuckle

Dare To Wear is one of those brands that I rarely get to see in person. Some of my local supply stores carry it but they're usually older collection, not the newer ones. So I was pleasantly surprised last week when I happened to find a display with some of the newer shades including Honeysuckle, shown here.

I was immediately drawn to the crazy neon brightness of this unique green/chartreuse shade. It's seriously bright and super fun. Formula wasn't great but it wasn't terrible either. The first coat was pretty streaky but it evened out by the third coat. I did 3 coats since it was still a tiny bit patchy in certain areas on my nails. You might be able to get away with 2 coats if you did thicker ones. It does dry matte so a top coat is definitely needed if you want it to be nice and shiny. Shown here is 3 coats with top coat.

I really like this color. It's super bright and fun for summer. Dare To Wear has some really fun colors and I am hoping to find more of them soon.

What do you guys think? Sick of the neon trend or is brighter better? :)

L'Oreal Creme de Mint

Hi, again. Happy Monday to everyone. Sorry I was a bit MIA last week. I was on vacation and didn't get much done blog-wise. I even brought a whole slew of polishes home to swatch and never got around to it.  Hopefully I will get back in the swing of things this week.

Today I have L'Oreal Creme de Mint which is from their recent collection of jelly polishes. They call this collection Gellies (don't ask on the spelling) and they are all indeed jellies. I think I have most of the colors in this collection now, but Creme de Mint was one of the ones that originally caught my eye. It's a dusty sort of mid-tone green with a jelly finish. I had to do 4 thin coats to get it to look like this. The finish is very shiny and the formula is buildable.

I haven't had a chance to really experiment with this yet but I do want to try some jelly sandwiches with it and maybe a gradient. I usually hate doing this many coats but that's the nature of a jelly I suppose. You may be able to get away with 3 thicker coats rather than 4. Overall I like this color and think that the jelly finish makes it unique in my collection. :)

Illamasqua Speckle

Hello! Hope everyone is having a great week so far. Do you guys have any good plans for the 4th? I am currently on vacation, staying with my parents who live about 5 hours away from me. It's been fun so far but so hot. I thought I was leaving the heat of L.A. behind but it looks like all of California is going through a heat wave right now. But I did get an awesome deal on some nail polish which I hope to show you soon. I always come back from a visit home with way more polish than I came with. Also trying to figure out if I want to do a fourth of July mani but I'm not sure yet.  Anyway, let's get on to the swatches.

Today I have Illamasqua Speckle, which is from their Im'Perfection collection. I totally didn't think I would love this collection, but OMG do I love it. I have three of the polishes so far and am trying to hold strong  about getting the other two. But we'll see what happens. Formula is fantastic on this and it has just the right amount of opacity to do this in 2 coats but also show the glitter well and with a lot of depth. This speckled looks is so gorgeous and I just love it.

Happy 4th of July, everyone, if you celebrate. If not, just have a happy week! :)