FLASHBACK: Color Club Glitter Vixen

I just love to post swatches in sets! I couldn't wait to post this one because it is an incredible collection, and I actually have the whole set. I just had to get them all. I didn't at first. I only had 4. But then I went back and got the rest. I couldn't help it!

This is the Fall 2008 collection from Color Club: Glitter Vixen. What a release! All super glitters! Full coverage, beautiful glitters! Love. What I really like about these is that the polish may be one solid color, but the glitter particles are all different shades and sizes, giving added depth. These are all colored glitter in a clear base. They are very dense and gritty to the touch. This means they need a thick top coat to be smooth, and it also means they are a bit difficult to remove. Just use acetone remover and let it soak in and removal won't be so bad.

Let us take a look at some swatches, shall we?!

Sex Symbol - Silver Glitter. Very sexy.


Magic Attraction - Silver holographic/prismatic glitter mixed with pink glitter. I don't think the pink pieces are holo, but I can't really tell!


Art of Seduction - Red glitter. Hott!


Tru Passion - Purple glitter. I would like this more if it was darker, but it's still pretty.


Sexy Siren - Bright, blue glitter. I drool when I see this.


Object of Envy - Grass, green glitter. Much brighter and prettier in real life, I promise!


Sultry Diva - Gold glitter

Although this is an older collection it is still readily available on Victoriasnailsupply.com, head2toebeauty.com and 8ty8beauty.com

-Elaine

Lacquer Laine's Ode to Orange

I love orange. A lot. I don't know what it is but I think it really compliments my nails. Maybe I just like the pop it gives. It just works. So I have been sporting a whole slew of orange lately. I have still been mixing it up of course or else I would be bored and I do not want to get sick of my beloved oranges. Here are a few of them:

Color Club - Tangerine Scream - I wore this to a Syracuse football game. Being that they are the "Orangemen", this got a lot of attention.

Color Club - Wild and Willing - I love this shimmery burnt orange duochrome. It flashes green, yellow and a rose gold. The only problem with it is that it needs 4 coats.

Misa - Speed of Life

L'Oreal - Sizzling Tangerine

LA Colors - Shock

OPI - Totally Tangerine

Petites - Passion Orange

Claire's - Orange Neon

China Glaze - Orange Marmalade - I love the glass fleck shimmer. It does settle though so you have to mix well before you use it. And it's pretty thin. I needed 3 or 4 coats.

Santee - Neon Orange

OPI - Hungary For My Honey

LA Colors - Force

Cosmo - Bus Route #1 -I love this bizarre neon yellow-orange. It looks like a bus! Or a neon yellow street sign.

Sinful Colors - Courtney Orange

What do you think of orange nail polish?

NOTD - Work Appropriate... Yet Mesmerizing!

TGIF!!

Today I had a meeting at work with an outside member of our team so I decided to change my green/purple duochrome to something more neutral. I decided on Sinful Colors - Wicket Mind (I still firmly believe this is a typo, but whatever) as it is a subtle, rosy mauve. I have shown it to you before here, but I decided it needed another look.


It turns out I like this even more than I thought I would! I felt strange buying it even though I was oddly drawn to it. It is unlike me to pick a regular 'ol pink color. This just isn't some bland plain Jane color I guess. It is rich and pretty, and although the texture is of a thick opaque creme, it has some shimmer too. I can't stop looking at it! I really like this on my nails.

What about you? Do you like neutral colors? Or do you do all bold all the time?

Candy Swirls! You could eat them!

But don't! Because they are my nails!


I did this mani a couple weeks ago. I was inspired by a baseball game I went to. In the park there were these big candy looking lights and I thought, "I could do that to my nails!" So I did. I picked five colors and did a "skittle" mani with them. I used:

BB Couture - Little Deuce Coupe
Orly - Polo Princess
Misa - Speed Of Life
Barry M - Spring Green
Milani - Antique

I switched up the order for each hand. Then I used a white nail stiper: LA Colors Art Deco, and painted swirly designs starting from the middle and fanning them out and around. Then I added a matching rhinestone to the middle of each nail.

After I day I switched it up. I really liked the look of white-on-yellow so I did that to all of them:



Yummy!

-Elaine

Lippmann Collection Winter

For winter collections I usually picture lots of reds for the holidays and dark, vampy colors. Lippmann Collection's winter colors are none of the above, and that is okay with me! The two polishes for the winter set include one of the most exciting glitters ever, and the most incredible, glowing duochrome I have ever seen. Behold...Wicked Game & Happy Birthday

Wicked Game - This is an insanely obvious duochrome. I would call the base a gray-lavender, with a very very strong pink-purple flash, that my camera really could not pick up. It is much more intense than my pictures depict. It glows a magical glow. I think it is made of magic. And every turn brings out something else: blue, green, aqua, lilac... it is very mesmerizing, and much more interesting than I thought it would be. Again, it is much better in real life than in my pictures.

Happy Birthday - I knew I would love this one! I am a big fan of multi-colored glitter combos, and this had just about every color in it! And I love the shape variations. It has red, blue, yellow, orange, green, fuschia, silver, and baby blue glitter in hexagons and little squares. It is shown in my swatch alone, and over black, in 3 coats.

Halloween Claws!

My apologies for this late post. I had difficulties getting my pictures to upload over the weekend, and I just figured out why... I had them saved as an incompatible format. I wish it just said so! Anyway, this is post I had planned for Halloween:

What can you create with these?---->

This spooky manicure! I started with a base of my favorite orange creme, L'Oreal - Sizzling Tangerine, waited 2 minutes and then applied a coat of Cover Girl Crackle Polish Ghost Fantome. The crackle effect takes about 15 minutes for the full effect. It is a little tough to wait patiently for that long, but I love the look when it's done. Then I hand drew some little spiders with Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in black!

A friend had a Halloween party and I helped her do some setting up in the days before, consisting of carving pumpkins and making Jell-O shots. Here's the pumpkins we made:

Mine is on the left, hers is on the right

-Elaine

Maybelline Poptimistic

What a great unexpected find while grocery shopping! A new collection from Maybelline called "Poptimistic". I didn't even know it existed and there it was while I was picking up food! I was super excited. The display had spots for 5 colors: a green (!!!), a gray, a smokey blue, a shimmery white, and I am assuming a purple, since the display picture has purple nails, but it was sold out. I picked up two:

Opti-mist-ic - This is a warm gray with a subtle silver shimmer, and a more pronouned orangey-copper shimmer. Very interesting and beautiful. I wore this a ton! Sometimes I looked at it and thought it had a lilac look to it. It must have been the lighting, but still cool.

Glad to be Green! - This is a yellow-forest green that makes me think of crocodiles or going on safari. It is soooooooo hott!! Green is my favorite color, and I have a lot of green nail polish, but this is hands down my favorite. It is mezmerizing and perfect. I love this!!

Happy hump day!

Migi Nail Art Pens Swatches and Review

Freehanding nail art is something that I have always enjoyed doing, but have usually had a hard time with without proper tools (special pens, Konad stamping set, stencils, etc.) I always just did hearts and flowers and dots by dotting with the polish brush of the color I was using! And mayber sometimes with a toothpick. I now know it can be much simpler. One way to accomplish this is with Migi Nail Art Pens.

Here are the 4 colors I have for review. An olivey green with gold shimmer, a gold glitter, a pink creme and a white creme.

These pens have a two way cap. So one end opens just like a polish bottle and has a brush to paint with:

But if you pull the upper part of the cap you find a fine point to draw nail art with while you squeeze the pen:

Very fine point. It's like a needle

Here are all the colors painted with the brush end. Very smooth and even and have good coverage.

Here are some simple designs I did with them: A daisy which I did by painting dots far from the center and then pulling them in, flowers made up of dots, a snowflake, and little hearts made by making the top with two dots and then pulling them down to a point. These pens are wonderful for doing all these and more but I really love them for doing polka dots.

They also work well to do a french manicure since you can freehand the line with the fine end and then paint the rest of the tip with the brush. I also like it because you can draw the ends of the tip real close to the edges very finely. Also, although I don't have a pic ,they work well for halfmoon manicures as well.

Pros: Versatile. Fine point allows for intricate designs, small dots and lines, french manicures, letters and numbers. (I used these for my 30ROCK manicure) Migi gives free refills (2 per order) when you pay for shipping.

Cons: Glitter gets stuck in the fine tip. (Only the glitter pen) I played with the gold glitter and got it to work before I did my swatches for the review, but by the time it came time to do swatches and pics I couldn't get it to come out anymore. Also they can become pressurized and polish will continuously flow out of the tip on its own without squeezing the pen. This however, is easily fixable by unscrewing the brush and screwing it back on while slightly squeezing the pen.

Here is a little sunburst I did on a paper plate with the gold glitter before it stopped working for me:

The colors for these pens are sold in sets. There are 5 different collections of colors. Each retails for $24.99. That means you end up paying about $3.12 per color. Each color has 0.16 fluid ounce of product, so that breaks down to $19.50/ounce. It sounds pricey that way, but really it would be like paying $9.75 for a regular 0.5 oz. bottle of polish which isn't that far off from what a lot of us spend! Plus the flexibility for doing designs more than makes up for it.

Here are the sets:

Gold Collection - 8 shimmers - This has the green I have swatched

Silver Collection - 8 bold cremes - I believe this is the set with the white I have swatched

Bronze Collection - Described as the "french" set - This set has mostly shimmers, but also the gold glitter I have swatched

Black Collection - Pastel cremes and shimmers

White Collection - Neon cremes and shimmers

Thanks for checking out my review! You can purchase these nail art pens at MigiNailArt.com
Each set retails for $24.99, or you can get all 5 for $99.99.

Seche VITE for Breast Cancer Awareness

Hello everyone! I had a nice surprise the other day when I went to my Sally's Beauty Supply to pick up a new bottle of Seche VITE top coat. For the same price, I purchased a bottle of SV which came in a box and included a strip of pink ribbon nail decals and rhinestones for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I have been trying to support breast cancer any way I can, including joining Michelle from All Lacquered Up in raising money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation here.

About Seche VITE: I love this stuff. I couldn't live without it. Before I learned that such a wonderful product as this existed, I never used topcoats because to me it seemed a waste since I would just have to wait longer for my manicure to dry. I never used anything that took more than two coats (which excludes plenty of colors that are gorgeous but take at least three coats, and forget about layering combos) and I usually always ended up messing up my manis. Then this baby came into my life and I will never go back. It sets my polish quickly so I can do my nails even if I am in a hurry. I can layer layer layer! I can do anything!! It's empowering!

Back to the decals.... They are super cute:

Here is the mani I did for today with them:It is Sinful Colors - Social Ladder with one of the pink ribbon decals. I had a hard time putting in on. Not the fault of the decal; I just never use them so I was sloppy. I messed up the nail first so I had to take off the polish and try again. Then I put on the topcoat to dry my polish so I wouldn't wreck it, then put on the decal, then I put on another layer of topcoat to seal it in and I instead made the polish underneath do a weird crinkling action over the whole nail. I probably couldn't do it again if I tried! It actually looked kind of cool. It has since smoothed out a bit. It must have been the first layer was still trying to get things set and then the second layer showed up too soon and messed up his plans.

I have never bought Seche VITE in a box so it was interesting to see what they had to say:

"Seche VITE Acknowledged as the world's finest top coat. Its patented formula allows it to penetrate through the nail lacquer to the base coat forming a single solid coating over the nail plate for a much more durable finish which is guaranteed not to yellow. Seche VITE is unmatched as a top coat. Your nails will feel silky, be stronger, and will absolutely not chip. Seche VITE creates the highest gloss and is longer lasting than any product on the market today. Apply thickly, get a nice bead on the end of the brush, then set softly down on the first nail painted and watch how Seche VITE flows over the wet nail polish without dragging of streaking the underlying manicure"

It may be a little hyped up, but it is a wonderful product. I have seen it at Target for about $10, at CVS for about $8, at Sally's for about $7, but with a Sally Beauty Member Card it only costs $4.95. Big difference from $10!

It is however, not completely big 3 free:

Warning: This product contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm.

Butyl Acetate, Toluene, Cellulose Acetate Butyrate, Isoprpyl Alcohol, Trimethyl Pentanyl Diisobutyrate, Benzophenone-1.

POST TO COME Thanks to Christy!

Today I want to show off some new polishes I received. I would looooove to swatch them all since I am home, but there is absolutely no sun and these are too glittery and gorgeous to shoot without sunlight. So I took some bottle shots to tease you until we get some sunshine!

These awesome sets are in my possession only because there is a wonderful girl out in Virgina who sent them to me. And that girl is the adorable, bad-ass, wonderful CHRISTY of The Kronicles of a Konad-er! I am quite certain they only sell these in Rite-Aid stores and I don't have those here. Boo. But Christy does so she sent them my way! I actually only asked for one but she sent me both!! That was pretty awesome! THANK YOU, GIRL!!

EDIT: According to Brooke of Getcha Nails Did, these are elsewhere besides Rite-Aid. She saw them at Walgreen's, so keep your eyes peeled!

These Borghese mini nail polish sets don't have names for the individual polishes, but the sets themselves have names.

First up is Allegra:

And the second one is Serena:
I will swatch and post them as soon as possible!!

China Glaze Spellbound

Hello everyone! I thought to get us in a Halloween Mood I would bring you China Glaze's Halloween set, "Spellbound", including a fabulous glitter topcoat of the same name. The set includes a black and a white creme, the glitter, and a glow-in-the-dark topcoat. The packaging for the set is super cute. It has a little witch on a moped all decked out with Halloween friends: a toad, a spider who has a web on her hat, a black cat and a raven. So cute.


Liquid Leather - Black creme. Nothing to write home about. It is very thin. It took me 3 coats to get it opaque. Not a winner in my book.


White Out - White creme. Although the 3 coats it took are annoying, I like the look of the end result. It is just a smidge less harsh than actual white out. It has a softer feel.


Spellbound over White Out - Spellbound is described as a topcoat, but it is dense enough that you could get complete coverage. In this swatch, I did a different number of coats on each nail to show how it looks as you build it. Left to right they go:
-- 1 coat of Spellbound
-- 2 coats of Spellbound
-- 3 coats of Spellbound


Spellbound over Liquid Leather - Same as the previous swatch:
-- 1 coat of Spellbound
-- 2 coats of Spellbound
-- 3 coats of Spellbound


And here are some close ups:

1 coat of Spellbound over Liquid Leather


2 coats of Spellbound over Liquid Leather


3 coats of Spellbound over Liquid Leather


This swatch has White Out on the first two nails and Liquid Leather on the last two. The glow-in-the-dark topcoat, Ghoulish Glow, is on the index and ring fingers to show you how it alters the base color of the polish.

And for fun:Pic of glowing bottle

30ROCK Manicure

Happy Thursday! I am very happy today because the season premiere of one of my absolutely favorite shows, 30ROCK, is today! If you don't watch it.... you really should! I was so excited that I decided to do a mani to celebrate!

The title card of the show is pretty simple, so besides for writing "30Rock" on my nails, I was at a loss of what else to do. I thought maybe the NBC peacock would be a good idea. Then I came across this little gem:

If you don't watch the show, it is about a fictional sketch comedy show on NBC called "TGS" and this deal-breaker sketch was from one of the episodes.

"If you're man leaves in boxers and comes home in briefs, that's a deal breaker, ladies!"

So I thought I would used the pink polka dots for the mani. Here is how it turned out:

I used:
base: Color Club - Oooooo La La
Dots: Zoya - Dita
"30": Green Migi Nail Art pen (full review to come)
"ROCK": Black Sally Hansen Nail Art pen


Peacock:
red: Milani - Red to Tango
orange: Misa - Speed of Life
yellow: Sally Hansen - Lightening
purple: Zoya - Pinta
blue: Essie - Mesmerize
green: BB Couture - Poison Ivy
white: Migi Nail Art Pen

I did however, screw up the colors of the peacock on the left side. They should go yellow, orange, red not red, orange, yellow... ooooops. I think the point gets across. It took me a whole day to figure it out.

Have a great day and watch 30ROCK!!!

Glitter Trimmed Vampy Nails

So last night I was sitting with a friend and we had a bunch of polish out, and I grabbed her Massini - Magic Attraction (same as Color Club - Magic Attraction if you don't have access to Massini Nail Polish) and I painted just the tippy tip of my nails on one hand. No idea what made me do it. I just wanted to put it on something and since I already had my nails covered in Konad and rhinestones, it just ended up there. And I really liked it! It hit me that it would probably look great with a dark color painted on the nail. So I went home and re-did my mani while watching the Dancing with the Stars I had recorded, and came up with this little combo:



I used Sinful Colors - Rich in Heart with Color Club - Magic Attraction on the tippys. I didn't paint the underside, or the nail tip as you would a typical french manicure. I did just the perpendicular edge to those surfaces. That itty bitty thin edge. Just the tip. See how it feels.

It feels just like the icing on the cake. The icing detail, that maybe you didn't really need, but it gives it something special. I'm going to have fun looking at this all day!

NOTD: Dream On Konad

Hello and good afternoon! Today I want to share with you my Nail Of The Day. I wore Sinful Colors - Dream On yesterday, and last night I decided to jazz it up! I love this color so much, but I had an itch to use my Konad.



The base is Sinful Colors - Dream On
The stamp is Konad Special Polish in White using plate M22
And then I added sky blue and black rhinestones

I'm diggin' it!

Jade Glitter Swatches

Hey there! How are we all doing this Monday!? This Monday that is a holiday for most here in the US except me! I am at work! I could have used today off. I am still a bit hungover from Saturday's shenanigans! That is not fair. You need not be hungover for more than one day! Anyway, today I bring some interesting glitters from Jade. These are my first Jade polishes. You don't see them very much. I stumbled on them online one day so I took a chance and ordered a few. Here's what I got:

Gold Flakes - This is a horribly misleading name. This is not a flake polish. It is gold glitter in a sheer, shimmery gold base.

Asteroid Caress - Magenta glitter in a clear base. What a strange name! It makes me picture asteroids caressing people floating in space, or people being caressed on an asteroid. Lots of interesting imagery...

Charm Illusion - Lime green glitter in a clear base. It kind of looks gold at first glance.

Volcanic Lava - Deep orange glitter in a clear base. This is the one I used as the middle color on the glitter gradient in my previous post. I really love the color of this glitter, but I wish that it covered completely. This was 3-4 coats and still shows plenty nail. That is the case with all of these, actually.

I purchased these at 123nailsupply.com and they were $1.25 each. These do not have the best coverage, but look great layered, or would make great frankening colors. Especially since they are so inexpensive.

Autumn Glitter Gradient

I am finally bring you the manicure that I have been super excited about. And I am bringing it from Washington DC as I am traveling for work! I'm on the road again!

It is a glitter gradient and it seems pretty fall-like to me. I started with a black base using Tropez - Black Satin, my absolute favorite black. (It is opaque in ONE COAT and it cosst ONE DOLLAR!) I then used Sinful Colors - All About You and started painting further from the cuticle than where the black started. Then I did another coat of All About You and started up further than the first coat. I then grabbed my orange glitter, Jade - Volcanic Lava and did the same application further up still. I finished it off with a coat of Color Club - Art of Seduction, a very dense red glitter, on the tips. And voila! Glitter Gradient!

And of course, I had to see it matte:

Maybelline Vanishing Venus

Hello! I had a really great post of my manicure this past weekend planned, but I left the pics at home so I can't post them right now and I wanted to put up something! So today I bring you a pretty color from Maybelline. It is called Vanishing Venus. I borrowed it from a friend. I was so intrigued by it because I went to her place one day with Rescue Beauty Lounge - Scrangie on and couldn't wait to see her reaction because it is so unique. She looks at my nails and says "Is that Maybelline?" Are you serious?! Maybelline does not make a color that is a dupe of Scrangie. So I had to borrow it and see. It is definitely not a dupe, but I see where she was going. Scrangie is more of a blue-purple-lilac with a blue-green shimmer, and Vanishing Venus is a deep plum-eggplant color with a more green shimmer. I don't know if this color is discontinued, but I have never seen it in stores. But you can just add it to the hard-to-find shades you are going to hunt for! There are dupes to this color, however they are hard-to-find too. There is Urban Decay - Bruised and NYX - Grafitti. I was most exicited to learn about Grafitti and rushed over to NYX's website to find it but instead found that Grafitti is now what looks like a gray-white shimmer. Boo. I really hate the interchanging of names/colors that NYX does. Not cool.

And I will post the awesome weekend mani I had on either later today or tomorrow!

Halloween Giveaway

The cool chick with the most amazing long nails is hosting a rather awesome giveaway. It includes:

-A Konad sponge nail art kit
-A Konad image plate with Halloween designs
-A Konad Special Polish

I am so excited! Head here to enter!

Essie Swatches

Hello and Happy Friday! I must apologize for my unexplained absence! I went to NY last week to visit family and just got back last night. It was a great time, but I am glad to be home! And glad to be back to you guys! I have lots to post, so let's start the post-fest with a post filled with pictures! My favorite kind of post!

A few months ago, I discovered that one of my favorite e-tailers, Head2Toe Beauty had increased their prices on Essie polish from $4/bottle to $8. That is a %100 price increase! I was a bit panicked, and figuring this was not the fault of Head2Toe, but that of Essie, I was afraid that the same would happen on other favorite sites that allow us to get our polish fixes on the cheap. So I bought a bunch that I had wanted immediately from Trans Design.

I have compiled all my Essie's right here for you! They were not all necessarily purchased on Trans Design, but I wanted to post them all! They are not in any particular order, or collections. Some are really old, some are new, some are safe, some are blue. (I just had to do that rhyme!)



Mesmerize - From spring 2009 collection. Bold royal blue creme. Awesome.

Sexy Divide - Gorgeous royal purple shimmer. From winter 2008.

After Sex - I must say I bought this one just for the name. Some of Essie's name choices are pretty interesting. And she says that she herself does the naming. Hmm. Anyway, this is a glowing red shimmer. I really love it, but I think it looks just like Sinful Colors- Sugar Sugar.

Wild Thing - This one is older. I found it at a nail supplier and I believe it is not big three free. (So it contains Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde and Toluene) It looks just like After Sex, but with sparse, holographic glitter pieces.

It's Genius - From Winter 2008. It's a muavy purple shimmer.

Sag Harbor - Another interesting name! I really, really love this color. Very slightly blue gray with a subtle silver shimmer. From The North Fork Collection, Spring 2009.

Marshmallow - Classic, jelly white.

Caribou - Light, baby pink creme. The absolute worst application ever. This swatch took 5 coats and it still looks like crap. It is the streakiest, runniest polish ever.

Pound Cake - Creamy off-white with a hint of tan. Love this.

Flirty Fuschia - Neon pink creme. Dries matte and is awesomely bright.

Funky Limelight - One of the best colors I own. The absolutely brightest neon ever. The brightest neon hi-liter yellow. It amazes me.

1,000,000 Giraffes

Hello all! Thank you for all the birthday wishes! It is so nice to hear! I had a great day full of cakes and cards and flowers. I went out for a few cocktails (and shots!! haha) with friends. It was perfect! I chose the gorgeous gold and seafoam green glitter that I got from Tuli as my birthday manicure. It was quite fitting for the occasion!

Today I am bringing you a little nail art and a fun project you can join. It really isn't nail related, I just made it nail related.

I saw Nailoftheweek tweet about submitting a giraffe to a project of getting a million giraffes. I was intrigued. I clicked her pic and it was a giraffe made out of nail polish bottles! I tried to find it to show you but I had no luck. Anyway, this person in Norway is trying to collect 1,000,000 hand made giraffes by 2011. Here is the website with the details and how to submit your giraffe. I thought I would do my part and so I made a giraffe on my nail with nail polish:
I used: Essie - Sag Harbor, Sally Hansen - Lightening and Revlon-Chocolate Truffle. I submitted today and it says it needs to be approved first so I haven't seen it up yet. I read somewhere on the webpage or blog or on twitter, that 10,000 giraffes were received in a day! That blows my mind! And the current total is over a quarter of a million! It's very exciting.

You gotta check out the 1,000,000 Giraffe Blog. There is a giraffe of the day post everyday and they are amazing/hysterical/mind blowing. You have to check it out.

For fun I made my giraffe matte:

Birthday Winner!!

Hello everyone!! Today is my birthday!! YAY! I didn't get a chance to do a birthday mani on myself though! Today at work is going to be rough until I can get home and get some glitter on my nails!!

The reason I am posting though, is to announce the winner of the Birthday/Follower Giveaway! AND THAT IS>>>>>

DENISE!

Thank you all so much for reading and entering! It is soooo awesome!!

Congrats to Denise and thank you all again for reading my blog!

:c)

Oldie Sally Hansens

I went digging in my friend's polish stash recently and discovered some great discontinued Sally Hansen glitters. And since I love glitters I had to try them! Unfortunately, two of the three were almost empty (and the two I wanted to try the most!) and they were pretty dried up. I threw in some polish reviver/thinner to at least get out enough for this swatch, but definitely couldn't get out enough for a full manicure. I thought it would be interesting to post them. Check out these bottles:


Celebrate, New Penny, Wired



The swatches are: Celebrate, New Penny, Wired and Wired over Revlon-Chocolate Truffle.


Celebrate is purple, green and gold round glitter and bar glitter. It's like Mardi Gras in a bottle. It is so fun! I wish this was still around.

New Penny is a small grain, but dense, copper/orange glitter. I really wish this was still around.

Wired is a translucent brown-yellow with small copper glitter and larger holo glitter. I am not a fan of it alone, but layered it's nice.

I wanted to say here "I wish that Sally Hansen would release interesting glitters like this," but we have just gotten some nice glitters, including one of my favorite glitters: Rockstar Pink. I am just such a nut for sparkle, and if I saw interesting mixtures like this in the drug store I would grab them up, no questions asked.

How old these are is a mystery. I don't really know when they came out/were discontinued. But perhaps if you hunt for them, you could find them somewhere. Some smaller independent beauty stores, or maybe ebay. If your like me, you're never scared of a little hard-to-find hunt!

Some Claire's Swatches

Hello all! Today I have for you some polishes from Claire's. I don't have a ton from them (only 5) but I like them all. Claire's stores have a nice selection of holos, glitters, neons, shimmers and those funky layering polishes. Here are the ones I have:

Goldmine - You guys have seen this before... a few times... because I loooove it.


Orange Neon - This swatch has a top coat. It dries matte on its own, as neons usually do. And I love it! It's definitely more neon than this picture depicts.


Rockstar - Pretty grayed purple with an irregular-shaped silver shimmer. I had to see how this one looked matte soooo:

I looooove this look so much! I looks like it could be an O-P-I Suede.


Green Confetti - 3 coats. This is a slightly blue, green jelly base with tons of multi-shaped, holographic glitter, including my favorite: hexagons!!


There's No Place Like Home - Dark pink base with a fine holo glitter. It's really not even like glitter, it's more like a holo shimmer. It's pretty and fun without being over the top.

I know they have even more wonderful colors that I need to get my hands on!

What polishes do you like from Claire's?

I was tagged! Twice!

I was tagged twice for this "10 facts about you" fun! I was tagged by Nihrida and by Tuli!I have to give you guys 10 facts about me, and then tag 10 more blogs! Okay, here they are:

1) I am a fisherwoman. I was the first born child, and since my dad didn't get a boy, I learned the boy stuff. Incidentally, I love fishing and caught my first fish when I was about 2. Mostly I like to fish streams for trout, but last year I went fishing for striped bass in the spring on the Hudson River and caught a 25 lb. bass.

2) I love games. Mostly darts or pool or ping-pong definitely! But I also love card games (not really poker... not much of a gambler) and my favorite board game is Pictionary. AND I loooove to beat boys at games. Especially ping-pong.

3) I love comedy. Movies or TV. I enjoy laughing. I am not a very serious person. I love to laugh out loud at things I watch, even if I am alone, and I have a very loud, semi-obnoxious laugh. Favorite TV: 30Rock, The Office, South Park. Favorite Movie ever: Dumb and Dumber

4) I am short. Only 4'11''. I don't think I have ever shared that with you guys! I love it, I just hate when people guess my age is waaayyy younger than I am. I have a bit of a baby face, and it sux! I know that when I am older it will be great to look young, but it is no fun to be an adult and have people tell you that you look like a child. I get IDed for rated R movies and last week a guy in a toll booth didn't think I was old enough to drive! I am going to be 24 next week!!! Come on!

5) Although I am a shopper when it comes to nail polish, I am not when it comes to the other standard girl stuff. I don't have tons of shoes, bags, clothes or make-up. I wear the same shoes everyday, and when I wear down the heel tips (yes they are usually heels... shorty here!) I get them replaced! I have had the same couple purses for years, and I rarely do much to my face. I have been getting more into eyeshadow recently though.

6) I love to ride my bike!! I live in a city, so I don't bother having a car, but I love to ride my bicycle. When I lived a little closer to work/school I rode back and forth everyday. It was 5 miles one way. That seemed perfect. But now it's 11 miles to get to work. I can make it. I have done it a couple of times, but I just can't tire myself like that. Plus I would be so gross by the time I got there!

7) Although I don't have a car now, when I was still in New York, the only vehicle I ever had was an SUV. It was huge and I loved it. I carted around everyone and everything and I was always the driver on roadtrips. I have a good sense of direction. It was also a stick, and that is another thing I got from my dad. He had me driving that thing, by myself, when I was 12!!! Only on dirt roads up in the woods though. Not on real roads! This was my baby:

8) I have never dyed my hair!

9) I went skydiving on my 18th birthday.

10) I love spiders. I mean, they creep me out just like the rest of you. I don't touch them or anything, but I am fascinated with them. I think they are so cool and amazing and I love to look at them, and photograph them (I have a collection). Last week Tommy and I were at Target, and when we were pulling in I saw a huge web between two trees, and I had to go take a look. When we got out of the store, I looked... it was, hands down, the biggest spider I have ever seen in the wild! I mean, it was HUGE!!! Body was like a golf ball. From a distance Tommy didn't think it was one spider. He thought two or more. He didn't want to even get close! He was freaking out that I was so close to it. I could kick myself a hundred times for not having my camera. I want to go back, but I just figure he will be gone and I'll be disappointed.

Here's one I took a couple years ago:

And here are my ten blogs. I tried to hit ones that haven't done this yet:
Sparkling.Pink.Gorilla
Vampy Varnish
Concrete and Nail Polish
Lou Lou Land
The Nailphile
Steph's Closet
Dizzy Nails
Nail Art Tuesday
Gettin' Nailed
Alexlyndra

Giveaway For My Birthday/100 Followers (EDITED)

I am so excited to finally post this! I am hosting a giveaway starting today and lasting for 1 week. I had the idea brewing for a while now. I wanted to do a giveaway for my birthday, which is in one week, and I wanted to do one for gaining 100 followers, and since they coincided, this is a combo giveaway!

First of all, thank you so much for reading! I can't even believe how far my little blog has come since April. 100 followers and thousands of page hits, is just too much to handle! I never would have thought. I was freaking out when I had a follower! I thought 20 was just out of this world! And then it kept going up and up! And I will always keep the posts coming for you guys! I don't think I could stop now. I have so many things planned to do all the time. I can't swatch as fast as my little mind ticks!

Since this is also for my birthday (9/22) I thought it would be appropriate to make the prizes some of my favorite things. Well, those would be green, gold and glitter!! So the prize package includes:

China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle, Sinful Colors - Call You Later, and Claire's - Goldmine

And lastly the rules. I HAVE CHANGED THE RULES> This contest is open to my readers, however it may be that you keep up with my blog. It is open starting today, and will close Monday night, 9/21/09 at 11:59 PM Central ST. Please leave a comment on this post to serve as your entry with your email. If you would prefer to not post your email address, you can email your entry to lacquerlaine@gmail.com.

This is open to international readers. :c)

I am liking the way some other bloggers have opened up their contests to allow for multiple entries, so I thought I would do the same! If you have a blog and do a post including this giveaway, it will get you an extra entry.

If you are on Twitter (and are a follower of mine on Twitter), and tweet this giveaway it will serve as an extra entry.

In your comment, let me know if you get extra entries, and if you tweet about it, let me know your Twitter name.

I will announce the winner next Tuesday, my birthday!!


And to show off what you'll win, here are swatches of all the colors:Good Luck and THANK YOU!

Urbay Decay Apocalyptic Nail Kit Swatches

As soon as I saw that Urban Decay was releasing nail polish for the holidays I knew I would buy them. What I didn't know, was that they were releasing this cute set of 7 shades! I thought there would be only one or two colors. I am so excited! I love them all, and I love the packaging:

They come in a metallic purple zip pouch, and I have been thinking this would make a great gift.


White Widow - This was the selling point for me. I really liked all the colors, but I rushed to click "buy" a lot faster for this one. It is a gray-white with silver shimmer, and it goes on like butter! I love whites, and this one is one of my favorites.


Gunmetal - The second I got this out of the box and looked at it, it looked brown to me and not really gunmetal-gray. But I have changed my mind. It is gray, but a brown gray. Brown-gray shimmer. This was the only one that I was not a fan of, formula wise. It gave me a few bald spots.


Apocalypse - This one is like OPI-Lincoln Park After Dark: It's a really hott, super black, purple creme, but it just pretty much looks black with two coats. Luckily the formula of this is so wonderfully super smooth, it allowed me to do a nice one coater to show the true color of it.


Grunge - I am so torn on what this color is! I can't even think about it. As soon as I decide it's green, I say, "noooo, it's blue. But.... it's green!" And it's not a typical teal. I went back to the Urban Decay website to get the link for these, and found their description for this polish: "metallic peacock". I like that! Very fitting, since the shimmer flashes blue and purple and therefore, looks peacock.


Meltdown - Royal purple shimmer. Gorgeous.


Big Bang - Hot pink foil. I looove this one. Very hott, opaque and metallic-shiny.


Fbomb - Bright, brick-red creme, this swatch is only one coat!! These are incredible.

And since I have been on a matte kick, I did a quick shiny/matte comparison using Essie - Matte About you matte finisher.

Shiny:Matte:
I especially like White Widow, Grunge, Big Bang and Fbomb matte.

The set can be purchased online at Urban Decay and goes for $26. The bottles are not standard half ounce (15 mL) size. They are 0.17 oz (5 mL).

Nubar Modern Matte

Hey! I got my Nubar Mattes from Beauty Judy's giveaway and I swatched them to share! They come in a little plastic baggie/carrying case and they are are all shimmery and very matte. Judy also sent me a little something extra to share a taste of Philly with me! They are a box of Tasty Kake, Butterscotch Krimpets. They are a soft, yellow cake like a Twinkie, but without the filling, and they have a butterscotch icing on top. Yum! I seriously opened the box and shoved one in my face before I even looked at the polishes!! I have a major sweet tooth. I did the same thing when Tuli sent me polishes (here). She sent along some chocolates, and I dove into those before getting to the rest of the package! I think if I sold polish, I would send them with sweets in every box! Wouldn't that be great.


Vital - Sun and shade - I wore this one as soon as they came. It was vital. It is a royal purple shimmer with blue and pink shimmer. It reminds me of grape juice.


Prevail - Sun and shade - Grayed purple matte shimmer. Sorry for the speck on the middle finger. I got something on it while painting. It's not the fault of the polish. The shimmer in this is dense and gorgeous. It's like a peach shimmer. I love the way it looks with the shade of this polish.

Avant-Garde - Sun and shade - Brownish, burgundy matte shimmer. I think this is perfect for fall.


Contempo - Sun and Shade. Bright red matte shimmer. This is a smidge brighter than Zoya - Posh, but they look pretty much the same.

And to showcase how shimmery they are, I put on a topcoat which really makes the shimmer pop. They look beautiful:

Vital - With topcoat and without

Prevail - With topcoat and without

Avant-Garde - With topcoat and without

Contempo - With topcoat and without


Nubar Modern Matte Collection is available at bynubar.com. They retail for $7.49 each, or $24.95 for the set, which saves you $5.01

Thanks to Beauty Judy and Nubar for the giveaway!

L.A. Colors and L.A. Colors Color Craze

Helllooooo everyone! I went on a hunt recently for polishes and I was trying to hit beauty stores I never went to before. Independent or smaller chains as opposed to something like Sally's. I discovered LA Colors!

In picture above: Silver glitter, Shock, Force, Phenomena


Silver Glitter - Shown alone and over black. This is a small grain, silver glitter top coat. This swatch was two coats but it covers very well with just one too. This is the stuff I used to make Evening Twinkler, my Starry Starry Night dupe.


Shock - I love this shade! I just wish is was more opaque. I would layer this over white for a mani. It's a neon yellow-orange, tangerine color and dries semi-matte. If I remember correctly, this was 3 coats and you can still clearly see visible nail line.


Force - I love this one too! This is a very shimmery metallic burnt orange. It reminds me of fall more than any other fall-ish nail polish I have seen. It is gorgeous.


Phenomena - This is a red purple creme. I love red-purples! I can not get enough. But this would NOT photograph. It looked cooler/more blue in real life than this. More magenta and not so red. This was the best pic I could get and I still don't like it.

I found the Color Craze polishes at the same store as the Santees I showed you. They were $1. And I found Silver Glitter in a different store and I think it may have been $2. These are all also available on Cherryculture.com.

About Lippmann Collection's New Glitter/Sequin Polishes

I found an interesting blog post from Deborah Lippmann herself, explaining her new hexagonal sequin polishes:

URGENT INFO ON SOME NEW LIPPMANN COLORS

I was very interested in this since I have reviewed the colors in question on my blog, including Funky Chunky and Marquee Moon, and they are some of the most unique polishes ever. Since they are so unique, I assumed that the application was to be unique. I was wrong.

For Funky Chunky, which is the black that comes in the Anniversary Set, Deborah explains that it is supposed to be sheer, with the black sequins showing through. I stated that I thought texture was the key to this one, because as you can see in my swatch, I did one coat (albeit a thick one) and it is not sheer. Even if I did a thin sheer coat, I like the way I applied it better. I am not into sheers, but I am into the look I achieved with my opaque thick coat. Also, if it is meant to be sheer, than the formula should have been just like Ruby Red Slippers. That polish has a nice thin, smooth, sheer black base and allows to be applied nicely no matter how many coats you wish to put on: 1, 2, 3... you can build the coats to achieve the right color for you. It works and looks beautiful. So why aren't the formulas the same?

For Marquee Moon, (which I adore) I said that my only gripe was that the sequins are random, so you have to try to get them on your nails. Deborah says, "dont TRY to make the 'sequins'' come out and look the same on each nail". I agree with the look of having every nail different. That is one of the many reasons I gave as to why I liked it. I do think that it takes effort to get the sequins just on the nail at all though. I want them different, but I don't want any sequin-less.

I thought this would be interesting to pass along since these colors are hot right now, and have brought up much conversation and questions. They need a bit of explaining and now we have the answers straight from the creator.

Santee Swatches

Hell0 everyone! Hope you had a lovely holiday! I am super excited right now because I just learned that I won Beauty Judy's Nubar Modern Matte Collection! How awesome! I will definitely swatch and post them as soon as I get my hands on them! Speaking of giveaways I have one coming up too!

For now I am bringing you a polish I never heard of until I spotted them in a store a few weeks ago. It is called Santee, and I can't find much about them. I found them on Cherryculture.com, but they only had one color and it was out of stock. Lame. I have been excited to share these because they are only $1! I found them at a shop that sold make-up, wild wigs and costume jewelry. So if you want to hunt them down try places like that or independent beauty stores. The colors that I picked up are Melon Green, Pearl Jungle, Neon Orange and Red Speckle.

Melon Green - This is a yellow-green, or maybe green-yellow, shimmer. Goes on smooth and looks awesome.

Pearl Jungle - Very self-explanatory name! It's a pearly green. The green is like a jade/emerald/fern color with a frosty-pearl finish. Very pretty.

Neon Orange - Love this color but hate the name! It is a very bright orange but I wouldn't call it neon. I own neon oranges. This is not one of them. And it doesn't dry matte as neons typically do. In fact, it dries super shiny! But I love the color because it isn't a straight up orange. It is like a cantoloupe color.

Red Speckle - This is one of the best red glitters ever! I love it! It is a jelly red that is a true red. Not orange or pink, but cherry red! Hott! And it has silver glitter. The silver that sits in the jelly looks red, and the pieces that sit on top show silver. Awesome!

All of these went on smooth, in 2 coats and I love the brush. I had swatched some Essie's right before these, and in comparison to Essie's brush this was exponentially better. Wider, but not ridiculous, even bristles, just awesome.

What do you think? Have some? Want some? Know where to get them? Going on hunt?

:c)

My Alter Ego-Gunslinger

My alter ego is the person I want to become.
She is a braver, gunsliging version of me.
She doesn't hold back.
She loads, cocks and fires.

I have a boyfriend who loves guns and has some. I had never been around guns before he came along, so I was horrified. He has gotten me more aquainted with them, and we have gone shooting together, but I am still scared and take my time, and shake when it's time to pull the trigger. I wish I didn't give a damn, and could pull the slide with authority and let it rip. My alter ego is that girl that lets it rip.

For this look I used:

Zoya - Dovima

Essie - Matte About You
Konad Plates M3, M28

China Glaze - Awaken

China Glaze - Devotion

LA Colors Art Deco - Black

Black Rhinestones

My Alter Ego : Fearless

My alter ego is the person I want to become.

She's darker, bolder, braver. She's on fire. She is outspoken.

She can fill a room with her presence.

She is not afraid of what people think.

She is not afraid of anything. Not spiders, or snakes or scorpions.

She doesn't give a damn.

For this look I used:

Perfect Chic - 314

Tropez - Black Satin

LA Colors Art Deco - Pink

LA Colors Art Deco -Red Glitter

Konad Plate M28

Dark Teal/Green Shimmer Comparisons

As promised, I did a comparison of Lippmann Collection - Don't Tell Mama against other dark green/blue shimmers. In the pictures, from left to right they are:

--- Lippmann Collection - Don't Tell Mama
--- Sinful Colors - See You Soon
--- Wet n Wild - Morbid
--- Misa - Toxic Seduction



Don't Tell Mama is definitely the darkest and the shimmer is what I would call teal, since it looks blue and green. See You Soon is on the blue side of that, and Morbid and Toxic Seduction are on the green side.

What do you think?

Giveaways!

Good afternoon! I am writing to inform all of my readers about 2 wonderful giveaways on some fellow bloggers' sites!

The first is at Glitter Millie. She is doing a great giveaway to commemorate hitting 50 followers. It is great because you get to pick your prize! The prize choices include:

5 x Barry M Nail Paints plus a few extra bits and bobs
OR
1 x Illamasqua Nail Polish plus a few extra bits and bobs

You must be a follower and can find the full rules here.

The second is at Painted Lady Fingers. You must also be a follower of this blog to enter. And the prize? It is kit A of the Coraline Konad collection! It includes plates, polishes, stamper and scraper!

You can find the full rules here.

GOOD LUCK!