Thursday, December 30, 2010

Glitter Nail Polish - Born Pretty Review

Another product that I had a chance to review from bornprettystore.com is a few of their "glitter color nail lacquer" shades.

There are four that I have to review. Unfortunately they aren't named but there is a white, beige, purple and pink.

white - This is a sheer white with a glittery, flakie type glitter, a la Zoya - Glitters, that flickers green and pink. This is three coats.

beige - This is an awesome shade because it is neutral and work appropriate but also interesting and fun. This is three coats.

purple - This is bright purple sheer that has the flakie glitter that flashes green, gold and a bit of blue. This will be good for layering.

pink - This may be my favorite, only because it is the most opaque. It's a milky pink with a green shimmer. It's not the glitter type like the other ones. It's more fine of a shimmer but it is pretty.

A few comments about these:
  1. These are not sold separately. These are only a few of the shades that come in a set of 45 of these glitter shades. I don't know if I would really want an army of 45 of these, but if you do, they are available here for $82.31.
  2. These are mini bottles. I don't have a problem at all with mini bottles. These are a fine size and have a good brush. The funny thing about these is that they say they are 0.6 oz but this is what they look like compared to a bottle that is actually 0.6 oz:
  3. These smell really bad. They have an outrageous chemically smell that makes me feel like I am going to pass out if I breathe it in. Good thing it says this:

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Striping Tape Review

Hi! I recently had a chance to review some products from bornprettystore.com and the product I am showing you today is the striping tapes.

Striping tapes are thin, colored/metallic/glittery tapes that are used for nail art. These supposedly come as a set of 12, but I only have 10: black, coppery-brown, purple, blue, green, silver, white, pink, yellow and red. From their picture online it looks like there may also be a sky blue and magenta? It's hard to tell.

This is the first time I have ever used striping tapes but I think they were very easy to use and I like the mani that I did with them:

I started by painted my nails as usual. For this design I did half white creme and half China Glaze - Jolly Holly. Once that was all dry I started with the roll of red, taped it onto my nail from the diagonal corner near the cuticle, pressed it along the nail and cut the end. Simple! I did that to all 10, trimmed and excess and topped it with top coat.

There really weren't any issues with using these except that a couple nails did have some lifting at the free edge but to remedy that I just added more top coat.

The set of 12 tapes is sold for $8.99 and decreases in price the more sets you buy. Bornprettystore.com is located in China but ships internationally.

The store also sells plenty of other nail art products including rhinestones, filmo and stickers. They also sell polish (I have some to show you) tools, acrylic equipment, false eyelashes and other things. I have some nail stamping kits to review for you but so far I haven't had success with them. More to come...

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!

This is Finger Paints - Spun Sugar topped with Christmas decals that I got from Sally's Beauty Supply. Cina? I believe. The best one is the reindeer:

Look how cute!
:c)

Sunday, December 12, 2010

A Quick Trip to Outer Space

If you thought my last layered glitter mani was outer space looking check this bad boy out>>>>

This is Deborah Lippmann - Bad Romance layered over black and then a coat of Sinful Colors - Hottie layered over that.

Looking at this seriously gets me lost in it.

-Elaine
:c)

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Glitter, Glitter, Glitter... and more Glitter!

I am a list writer. I write to-do lists all the time, for everything, and I generally like to write them in little notebooks. That means I am always on hunts for cute notebooks to write all my lists in. While shopping recently I found really cute glitter-bomb notebooks at Charlotte Russe and of course bought one. It was made of red, purple, green and blue hex glitter and of course all I could think is "how can I translate to this exact look to my nails?" Well I figured it out!

I did this with two coats of Nubar - Night Sparkle, a deep blue base with blue glitter. Then added Nubar - Grass Green Glitter, then Hard Candy - Zombie, then Wet n Wild - Prancer on top.

-What do you think?
:c)

Friday, November 26, 2010

Nicole by OPI - Holiday Magic

For the Holidays this year Nicole has released a set of four shades that are supposed to " complement winter wardrobes" and "add a magical touch to any occasion". Let's take a look>>>

Bring On The Tinsel - This is a clear base with blue, green, silver, gold and red glitter. At first glance I thought it was red, blue and silver, but no! There is gold and green too! This is 4 coats. It's not full coverage but it looks good on it's own.

Spark My Mistletoe - This is a fiery red glitter with large, holographic, hexagon glitter thrown in. The red also flashes gold which I just love. This is definitely going to be a layering polish. I am thinking of all kinds of layering combos for this...

Stuck In The Chimney - This is a soft, brick red. I keep wanting to call this mulberry, but I don't think I know what color a mulberry is. This has a bronze shimmer throughout that I really love and I love the name!!

Kiss Me At Midnight - Vampy burgundy with red shimmer. This speaks for itself. It reminds me of Sinful Colors - Rich In Heart but that shade may have been darker. This color got noticed when I wore it. Lots of compliments.

Overall I love this set! Great little holiday collection and unique in comparison to other collections out. Great shades and great formula.

Nicole - Holiday Magic should be out now and is available at ULTA, Meijer, Harmon, HEB and Sears.

What do you think?
:c)

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Holiday Jewel Basket by Nubar

For the holiday's Nubar has released a gift set of seven shades, including lots of glitter, Diamont top coat and base coat all wrapped in a little cube with a little basket that you can put nail tools and things into. Let's take a look at the shades>>>

Competition Red - Dreamy, creamy, red, red red. Is it just a red creme? I guess. It is a very nice rich red and I like the formula in comparison to other red cremes I have been trying lately because it is more like a true creme than jellyish.

Pixie Dust (over Competition Red) - This is a super shimmery, white/silver dusting of little particles. This is meant to be worn as a top coat. This won't get you full coverage but it is beautiful.

I love looking at the bottle. It's like a magical snow globe.

Silver Glitter - This is a dense, full coverage silver glitter. This is three coats.

Grass Green Glitter - This is a full coverage green glitter with little flecks of gold. This is 4 coats. I wasn't terribly impressed with the formula. It's still patchy after 4 coats. I am looking forward to wearing this over Nicole - Fell From The Tree.

Ruby Red Glitz - This is a red jelly with little red glitter. I love this! I had it on for 5 days which for me is like a decade.

Heavy Gold Glitter - This has to be the best formula for a glitter, EVER. This is two coats, it is full coverage, it was even, smooth and just perfect.

NOT Pictured: Nubar - 2010. 2010 is a flakie in a clear base that was released in the summer and is a close dupe to Sally Hansen - Hidden Treasure and GOSH - Rainbow. It accidentally was forgotten in my samples but if it shows up I will post it.

This is a the basket. You could put about 5-6 bottles in it, but not close it, or you can keep little manicure tools in it.

The Holiday Jewel Basket retails for $49.95 on bynubar.com

What do you think?
Elaine
:c)

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

China Glaze 'Tis The Season to be naughty and nice

For the holiday collection this year China Glaze has released a beautiful set of 16 SHADES! I am stunned. This is not only amazing because it is 16 polishes, but it is amazing because they are gorgeous colors. I have swatched all of the shades and did a couple comparison swatches. Swatches and reviews first and comparison s second. Let's take a look!>>>

Ruby Deer - Bright, bright tomato red. Sort of jelly in finish and has a fantastic smooth formula. So, so smooth. Amazingly smooth.

Phat Santa
- Another bold red creme but darker than Ruby Deer.

Mrs. Claus - This is very interesting! This is a sheer red with silver glitter. I am so intrigued by this because it seems soooo sheer but with three coats, the color and the glitter still hide any VNL. Very impressive. This reminds me of candy canes. It also reminds me of Zoya - Astra, although it is absolutely not a dupe.

Mommy Kissing Santa - Deep, burgundy red shimmer. This is velvety and smooth and delicious. I love this! I had a client comment that it was gorgeous and very Christmas-y. I said that it was funny she should say that because it was from a Holiday set!

Sugar Plums -Wine shimmer with sparse, tiny holo specks. Similar to a discontinued China Glaze fave, Crystal Ball, but not a dupe.

Naughty and Nice - Deep, deep, almost black, burgundy creme with a jelly finish. I loooooved wearing this. This is three coats, although when I did a mani I did two. When I did this swatch I guess I forgot how to paint my nails and needed to do a third coat to even things out.

Little Drummer Boy - Navy/denim shimmer. Very nice. I wanted to say that this isn't terribly unique/exciting, but I also don't have anything close to it. What did excite me about it, though, is that it has an out of this world formula. Super pigmented and smooth. You can get away with one coat with this one.

Jolly Holly - Wow! This blew me away. This is a rich green with golden shimmer. So beautiful. Just like Little Drummer Boy this is an amazing, smooth, super-pigmented one coat dream.

Mistletoe Kisses - What a cool polish! It makes me smile when I look at it! This is a mix of a really neat, soft green that is sort of between emerald and jade, completely packed with super small silver glitter. Very pretty. I couldn't decide if this is a two or three coater. I guess it's two but I did a third to be sure. I probably could have just stayed at two. This swatch is with top coat and one coat makes this polish smooth. It's not too grainy.

Peace On Earth - Wow! Striking, olive shimmer. This is one of my faves of this collection. I did a comparison with a few other olive shimmers below.

Jingle Bells - Classy gold. This isn't a very yellow gold. It's more or a neutral gold. Very pretty. The finish is hard to describe. It isn't quite a foil. It's sort of a chrome, but not as chrome as a chrome... if that makes sense! It's like a pearlish chrome.

Midnight Kiss - Partying yellow gold foil! There is no ambiguity here. This is definitely a gold foil. This is two coats.

Party Hearty (over white) - Fun! This is a clear base with large red hexagon glitter, smaller green hexagon glitter and even smaller gold and silver glitter. This is two coats over white.

Snow - White Cream. Nothing noteworthy. I am always interested to try a new staple like white creme to see if it may be like, the best white cream ever. But this one isn't . It a standard three coat, sort of difficult to apply, white creme. This is three coats with top coat.

Frosty - Pretty, delicate, snowy, pearly shimmer. It's not like a typical shimmer. The particles are sort of like small pearly pieces. I really, really like this on. It is sort of sheer so it needs at least 3 coats unless you want to layer it over something. This is actually 5 coats but that is because I kept getting my middle finger uneven and had to add more to fix it, but then it was way off then the rest. I do like the look of 5 coats though.

Cheers to You - Silver fun foil. Very pretty and flashy and awesome, but not unique.

And as promised here are a couple comparison swatches:

Sugar Plums on index and ring and China Glaze - Crystal Ball on middle and pinky. Crystal Ball is thinner and has more holo glitter. Sugar Plums only needed two coats, but Crystal Ball needed three.

Peace On Earth comparison. From left to right:
  • Peace On Earth
  • China Glaze - Cat's Eye
  • OPI - At Your Quebec & Call
  • Peace On Earth
I was hoping that Peace On Earth would be close to an amazing discontinued olive from China Glaze: Cat's Eye. Cat's Eye is more metallic and not as green.

Midnight Kiss on index and ring. Orly - Luxe on middle and pinky. Close, but not dupes. Luxe has more silver particles giving it a less yellow gold look then Midnight Kiss.

'Tis The Season is available now online and at retailers. What do you think?! :c)


Disclosure: The products featured in this post were furnished to me by the manufacturer or PR company for review. For more information please visit my disclosure policy.