missing in action

Hi guys. Sorry I've been MIA for a while. Things have been a little bit nuts with my life lately. I just got back from Comic Con, which was crazy but super fun. And I am jetting off to Atlanta tonight. I've still been painting my nails but haven't had time to take photos or edit them. Hopefully I'll have some time next week to swatch some things. I haven't been stashing much either, which is good, but I do feel that a trip to the beauty supply store might be in order. I have missed most of the summer collection and really want to get some of them before they are hard to find.

Thanks for all of your patience. I will leave you with my two most current manicures.

This crazy rainbow manicure is what I had on at Comic Con. I was trying to do a manicure inspired by Let Them Have Polish, but mine came out way brighter. It's still really fun though and I got lots of compliments on it. It also happened to match one of my balls of yarn. :)

I am wearing this polka dot mani right now. The base is Urban Decay Chaos, which is a great, shimmery cobalt blue. This is a fun and eye-catching mani. I will have lots of fun wearing it this weekend.

If you want to see what I've been up to, follow me on Instagram. Warning that I like to post a lot of food p0rn. Have a lovely weekend, all!

Sally Hansen Minted Metal

Purchased

Good morning! Look, posting twice in one week. I wonder how long I can keep this up. :) Today I have Sally Hansen's Minted Metal from the most recent Color Foil collection. Foils and chromes are coming back with a vengeance and I like them. Sure, application can be a bitch but it looks really cool when it's done right. They are also great for stamping. I only picked up 2 polishes from this collection because they were kind of pricey ($6.99 I believe).

Minted Metal is a blue-green foil. I tried this over base coat first and that was a big mistake. It was really patchy and weird so I switched to no base coat, which worked a lot better. Minted Metal is a weird shade and looks green in some lights and blue in others. This dried a lot lighter than I thought it was going to and it ended up being a sort of seafoam silver. The formula was pretty pigmented and I only needed 2 coats for the swatches here. No top coat used. I don't know if it really would have affected the finish but I didn't feel as if I needed it so I just skipped it.

As with most chromes, application was a bit tricky but if you're careful it should not be too hard to get a smooth finish. Just be sure that your nails are smooth and free of any bumps or even dust, because this polish will showcase all of your nail imperfections. 

 

I haven't tried to stamp with this yet but I plan to soon. This is a very fun polish that requires a bit more work but is worth it in the end. 

What do you think of the new chrome trend? Do you love it or hate it?

L'Oreal La Pastille

Purchased

Hello! I hope you are all had a fantastic Fourth of July weekend if you happen to celebrate. Today I have the second polish from the recent L'Oreal speckled polish collection. L'Oreal La Pastille is a light nude shade with mixed matte black hex glitter.

If you recall, I was pretty disappointed in the other polish that I bought in this collection. I was hoping that the other one was a fluke and that the formula on La Pastille would be better. Unfortunately it wasn't and I actually found it to be even more watery and sheer than Spot Me. I used 3 coats for these swatches and you can see that it's still very sheer. I didn't want to do more coats because it was just getting super thick and chunky.

I don't really know what else to say about this one except that I didn't like it. Formula was way to sheer and watery and this shade does nothing for my skin tone. I am pretty sad that I don't like these as I was hoping to find more speckled polishes to add to my collection. It was a nice try by L'Oreal but the execution needs a little work.

:)

L'Oreal Spot Me

Purchased

Hello! Man it's been a while since I last posted. No real excuse except that I've been busy and the last thing I have been wanting to do at night after looking at the computer all day is edit more photos. I am trying to get back in the swing of things but posts may be erratic for a while.

Today I have a L'Oreal polish that came out a couple of months ago. I love, love speckled polishes (Illamasqua's Im'Perfect collection is still my favorite) so I'll snap up any speckle type polishes that I find. L'Oreal came out with a small collection this past spring and I had lost all hope of finding them when suddenly a full display popped up at a local Walgreens. Score one for me!

L'Oreal Spot Me is a pale blue creme with different sized black matte hex glitter. This was the one I was most excited by because it had that robin's egg look. Unfortunately, while I loved this in the bottle, I did not love the formula or the final look. Spot Me is very sheer and it took me 3 medium/thick coats to get what you see in these swatches. That might not sound like a lot but the formula was really thick and goopy and hard to apply. I think this actually had too much glitter in it, creating a pretty lumpy finish. The base was also very sheer, requiring multiple layers just to get it to look blue. It doesn't have that squishy, delicate quality I am looking for in a speckled polish. 

To even out the finish, I applied one thick coat of Out the Door Top Coat, which has become one of my new favorite top coats. 

While I think this looks OK in pictures, it didn't do anything for me in person. The base is too sheer and pale and the glitter overwhelms it. Sadly I think this one is going to go in the giveaway pile.

I have one more speckled polish from L'Oreal to review. Will I like it better than Spot Me? Tune in to see!