butter LONDON Trout Pout + Orly Harmonious Mess

Hi, everyone. I hope you all had a nice weekend. I was feeling a bit under the weather this weekend and took it easy. The weather has been great here though and is starting to really feel like fall. Fall is my favorite month and Halloween is my favorite holiday so I am looking forward to it. I guess I should maybe do some Halloween nail art. Hmm, yeah I'll think about that. :)

But I love bright colors all year round and wore this fun mani the other day. I'd been lemming butter LONDON Trout Pout for a while but my local Ulta was always out of stock. A couple of weeks ago when BL was on sale for $10, I popped by the store to see if there was anything I wanted. I was just about to walk out empty handed when I saw a little display of BL by the front door. A little searching and I managed to find one lone bottle of Trout Pout, and you can bet I brought it home.

Trout Pout is a really beautiful pink-coral creme. I can never tell if coral is pink or orange but I think this leans a little more pink. Formula was a tad streaky on the first coat but evened out. I used 3 think coats here. You can probably get away with 2 if you are more careful.

Sorry - the sun seems insanely bright in these pics. I wanted to pair Trout Pout with a contrasting color for a bit of fun and picked Orly Harmonious Mess. I picked up this periwinkle blue creme at TJ Maxx the other day in a 2 pack. This is a lovely pale blue with slight purple undertones. Really nice shade and it looked great with Trout Pout. Used 2 coats of it here. Top coat on both shades.

I am very happy with both of these shades and super happy to check Trout Pout off of my wish list. Thanks for stopping by today. Have an awesome week!

Zoya Liberty

Hello, everyone. I hope you have all been having a good week. It's finally starting to feel like fall here and I love it. I think it may be time to finally get a gingebread latte from Starbucks...

Anywho - today I have one of the Zoya Pixie Dust polishes from what I believe was their summer set. I know I've said it before but I do love the Pixie Dusts and this was no exception. Liberty is a gorgeous teal blue shade that has tons of silver glitter running throughout. It was quite pigmented and I only needed 2 thin coats to get the shade below.

I think this color gives me a little lobster hands, but I really don't care. Look how pretty it is!  Yup, another gorgeous textured polish from Zoya.

Stashed (7): Cult Nails, China Glaze, OPI, Color Club

Hi, everyone. This post is a bit late. Last weekend was a little crazy and I really haven't had time to do much swatching or blogging. But I did have time to shop and go to my local beauty supply. Picked up some fun fall releases as well as a few older shades I had been wanting. Also had a tiny bit of nail mail last week. Polish diet is back in effect now though as I need to enjoy these goodies before I get any more.

I picked up Minnie Style by OPI at Nordstrom Rack recently. I wasn't super interested in this polish but then I found a bottle with the white square glitter and figured I would give it a go. Also received two bottles from Cult Nails. They had a BOGO sale a couple of weeks ago and I finally got Tempest. Hoping it's a magical white like everyone says. Also got Ay! Poppy, a fun orange/coral.

Picked up a couple of neutrals from Color Club that might be good for nail art. They are Bonjour Girl and Silver Lake. Also shown are Ruby Wing Strawberry Shortcake and OPI My Current Crush (Mariah Carey holiday) and Lucky Lucky Lavender, a shade I have been wanting for a long time.

Also spotted the new China Glaze Halloween display. These were the two that interested me the most - Howl You Doin' and Boo-gie Down. Nanoco Love Me Tenderly was on sale for $1 and I picked up another Nanoco that is only white bar and hex glitter. It's called Snowflakes. I can't wait to try that one. It looks really interesting.

Managed to find the black and white Konad polishes for $4 each and a few Dare to Wears on sale for $1. I got Ready for my Close Up, Illusions and Celestial. Also picked up a backup cleanup brush. I love mine. 

Lastly, I hit up my local Dollar Tree and picked up a few of the Milani 3D holos. I don't have any of these but many people like them. And I can never say no to a holo.

That's it. Hoping to try some of these out this week. Have a good week, everyone!

Orly Sparkling Garbage

Happy Friday, everyone. I was so tired last night that I did not even have the energy to schedule this post. So I am doing it right now. Pardon if it feels a bit rushed. Today I have Orly Sparkling Garbage from I believe the Mish Mash collection. Sparkling Garbage is a pale, almost seafoam green with a crapload of scattered holo glitter. Originally I wasn't super sold on this shade because I had heard that it was really sheer. But I kept seeing it around and the holo kept calling to me and I finally picked it up when Ulta was having a $5 Orly sale. I am really happy I did, too, because look at this crazy disco ball goodness. All photos below taken in natural sunlight unless stated otherwise.

My camera actually had a hard time focusing on my nails in these shots but it does show off the holo quite well. Warning - this polish is very sheer. I used 4 thin coats to get this look. You might be able to get away with 3 but I wanted the color to really come through and thought the 4th coat just gave it a little more dimension.

I love this polish. I am a huge holo freak and normally prefer linear holos but this scattered holo is just so sparkly and eye catching. I can't remember if I used top coat for these swatches but I usually do so let's just go with that.

lighting: shade

You can see the glitter a little more in the shade. Even without the sun it's still quite glittery.

And here is a picture in the sun that is out of focus but that shows all of the rainbow awesomeness in this polish.

Recently I spotted some 2 packs of Orly at TJ Maxx that included Sparkling Garbage. The packs retail for $6.99 which means that each polish ends up being less than $4. That's a steal, people, and this shade is definitely worth it.

Thanks for coming by today. Hope you all have fun plans this weekend. It's a bit cloudy here so I hope to spend some quality time indoors with a cup of tea and a book. :)

China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle

Hello! Today I am back with another bright polish. Big surprise, I know. I can't help it though. Bright colors just call to me. This is China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle, a glorious neon turquoise. This is what I like to call a pastel neon. This is from the recent Sunsational collection and was part of the cremes.

I had read some pretty scathing reviews regarding the formula on this collection which made me hold off getting it for a while. But I kept seeing them and I could not deny that I loved the colors and broke down and bought the whole set. I am so glad I did, too, because this shade is so beautiful and it makes me happy just looking at it.

As is the case with many pastels, the formula on this was pretty streaky. I had to do 3 coats to even things out to my satisfaction. Top coat also helped smooth things out and gave it a super shiny finish.  Though the formula required a little bit of extra effort, the results are worth it. I mean look at this color!

This would make a fantastic pedicure color as well. Seriously I loved wearing it and was sad to take it off. Have you guys picked up the Sunsation collection yet? Which is your favorite?

Zoya Mia

Hello and happy Monday! Summer just does not want to die here and we've been having some really hot weather. I hope it cools down this week and weekend. I hate using the A/C so much but I have to when it's this hot. So today I have for you Zoya Mia, a dusty, medium pink creme. I saw this the other day while I was looking for another polish in my Helmer and decided to try it on. I don't usually wear these kinds of colors but it was very pretty and a nice change from my normally bright digits. I had no issues with the formula and used 2 coats below with topcoat.

This is one of those great palate cleanser shades that just looks really clean and feminine. This would work well in an office environment or when you want to be a bit more toned down.  

Thanks for stopping by today. Happy Monday!

Stashed (6): Sally Hansen, Orly, Wet N Wild, butter LONDON

Hi, everyone! Polish diet had been going so well but I fell off the wagon ab it with some drugstore shopping and an Ulta sale.

I used to use Wet N Wild Black for all of my black polish needs. However, the last bottle I bought was kind of thin and not really opaque like my original bottle. So I have been on the hunt for a good black. I heard that the Kleancolor back was good for stamping and suck and I found it in a random dollar store at the mall. Since it was so cheap I picked up two bottles.

Also picked up some of the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes. The new collection is so glow-y and I love it. Also got a couple of Wet N Wilds from their new Tough Girl (or something like that) collection and one of the new Orly matte flakeys.

Then this happened to me at Ulta and TJ Maxx. I went to Ulta to see if there were any butter LONDONs I might want during their $10 sale. I had been looking for Trout Pout for a while and also picked up Giddy Kipper, which I had never seen below. I also found the new Sally Hansen X-Treme Wears with the bar glitter. I tried to be good and only got 4 of them. Closer pick of them below.

At TJ Maxx I picked up an Orly duo with Harmonious Mess and Fowl Play in it. They had some great duos including on with Sparkling Garbage I would have gotten if I didn't just buy it. The packs were only $6.99. Lastly I picked up 2 tubes of H20 hand and cuticle scrub. I have heard good things about it and I need to use a scrub more to keep my hands soft. This seems good and smelled pretty nice.

Here is a close up of the Sally Hansens. I am pretty excited about the white/gold combo and the orange/black. I kind of want to go back for the green one. I refrained from getting the black and white one even though I wanted it since I already have several variations of it. The one above is black and silver, which totally isn't the same thing. :)

That's my haul for this week. Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend!

Totally 80's

This manicure reminded me of the 80's so much and I love it. I am not a huge fan of 80's fashion but I do love the crazy bright colors that came out of that era. I am a pretty boring manicurist most of the time. I tend to paint all of my nails one color and rarely do nail art. But I've been trying to mix it up lately and throw in accent nails now and again and I was attempting to mix things up when I did this mani. I loved how it turned out and it brightened my day just a bit whenever I would catch a glimpse of my nails.

I started off with 2 coats of Misa Lucky Lychee on all of my fingers except my ring finger and thumb. Lucky Lychee is from Misa's summer collection and is a gorgeous medium neon pink. I know I don't need any more neon pinks but I love them so. This one had a fantastic formula and was very opaque and went on smoothly. It did dry with a slightly matte finish so you'll need top coat for sure. 

Finished off the manicure with 3 coats of China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle from the summer neon collection to my ring finger and thumb. This polish is a bit streaky so I needed 3 coats to get it just right but the color is gorgeous and worth the extra effort for me. Again, this one dried matte so top coat was needed.

I really loved this whole look and am going to try to play more with mixing up my manicures. Anyone else still loving neons or have you moved on to fall already? I love fall's rich shades but am finding it hard to part with my brights. :)

Sally Hansen Red-io Active

Happy Monday, everyone. This weekend seriously flew by. The heat wave continues here and I have spent most of my time indoors. I did try to do some swatching this weekend but the sun was so bright that even that was hard. Today I have a beautiful new polish from Sally Hansen's Insta-Dr line. I usually avoid this line because I hate the bottles with their long, skinny necks and the super wide, flat brush. However, this color looked too gorgeous to pass up.

Red-io Active (I have the hardest time saying that) is a dazzling red that is one of those lit from within shades. It has a serious glow to it that can be seen even in the shade. The sun was super bright out so my swatches are probably a little warmer than the actual color. The formula was great and I only used 1 coat below. There were a couple of nails that could have used 2 coats but I did not want to deal with the brush and bottle so 1 coat it was.

lighting: shade

You do have to be a bit careful when applying or you may get some brush strokes. But I literally slapped this on before work and it looked pretty good. I used top coat to make it extra shiny but you might be able to get away without it. All in all I am very impressed with this color. I picked up one other shade from this collection but I may be back for more since they were all pretty awesome looking. I still hate the brush and bottle but this color is worth it.

Have you picked up anything from this collection yet? Does the Insta-Dri bottle annoy anyone else as much as it annoys me?

Orly Beach Cruiser

I have a slight obsession with hot/neon pink. Normally I am not really a pink kind of person but I love super bright neon pink. There's just something about it that makes me happy and I always gravitate towards it. Orly Beach Cruiser is a part of their permanent line.It's a neon pink creme that I was surprised was not already in my collection.

The formula on this was good. The first coat was a bit patchy but leveled out after the second coat. Like most neons, this one dries with a matte finish so you will definitely need top coat to get it shiny. 

While this isn't the most original shade, I still like it a lot. It's like a party on my fingernails. :) If you like bright pinks, I would definitely recommend Beach Cruiser.

Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend!

Zoya Micky

Happy hump day! Why does this week feel so long even though we had a day off? Guess it's just one of those mysteries in life. :) Today I have a lovely polish from Zoya's recent summer collection called Micky. Micky is a bright coral pink with silver shimmer. I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to see the shimmer in this on the nail but it was actually quite apparent. This is a really pretty shade that just screams summer to me. Formula was good and I used 2 coats for the swatches below.

This shade actually makes me look kind of tan, which is cool. Not much else to say except I really like this one. It would make a great pedicure color, too.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a good Wednesday!