Saturday Random Swatchfest 8/30/2014

It's Saturday and that means Swatchfest time!!  One of my favorite days of the week because it's so much fun to just pull ten random polishes from my collection that have never shown their faces on my blog or channel yet.  If you'd like to see the video which includes live application you can do so here:

Let's look at some pictures!

To start out, I have a crelly polish from the brand JLB in what feels like a sweet red/orange.  These polishes didn't have names and instead this polish is just labeled with the number 4.  I found a pack of eight or so polishes at Ross and they were all lovely colors, but I have to say, I didn't care for them all that much- and they were rather stinky!  These were very inexpensive, but I would say pass.  C+

For pink, I'm showing you L'oreal Taste of Romance.  This is a mid-tone rosy pink and it came out nicely in two coats.  You know I'm not crazy about pink polish, but this one was lovely.  Soft and romantic- a great neutral pink.  I have shown you two coats.  A

This polish is Sally Hansen Triple Shine in Play Koi which is a vibrant medium orange crelly.  I actually like this better in this photo than on the nail.  I really didn't care for the formula all that much, but I've shown you two coats here and it actually came out opaque.  B

This yellow is Sun-sational from Ulta.  Really not one of my favorite shades of yellow, but if you enjoy it- as you can see it did reach opacity at two coats.  This was streaky on the first coat but totally evened out.  B

This divine polish is Just Spotted the Lizard from OPI.  This lovely green/gold duochrome comes from The Amazing Spiderman collection and I can't believe it's taken me so long to feature this on my blog.  It's such perfection on the nail and even though it's a thinner polish it becomes opaque in two coats.  A

For blue I'm showing you China Glaze Of Course! from their first textured collection.  They started out with these highly-pigmented polishes that had no shimmer or glitter.  I really enjoyed this collection even though many people felt it was too clumpy.  I think it's nice that it has so much pigment and it's not completely matte.  A

From Julie G we have Passion which is a gorgeous iridescent plum purple.  This applies smoothly and easily in two coats and I think it's a very non-traditional concept of passion(we normally think steamy red) but when you think about people's passions and interests, this color fits rather perfectly.  It's intense and jewel-toned.  I love it.  A

As my neutral selection today, I give you Nicole by OPI My Empire... My Rules from the Kardashian Colors collection from a few years back.  This is a lovely creamy brown that really feels green-toned to me. In two coats it becomes nice and opaque and I feel like even though this was from a few seasons ago, it still very fitting and contemporary.  A

One of my very favorite polishes from the polish magnate Sally Hansen, representing for glitter today, I give you Sally Hansen Gem Crush Big Money.  The reason I love this polish so much is because it combines gold and purple which I am just obsessed over the pairing!  This glitter becomes opaque in just two coats and I totally love it on its own.  A

For my A+ polish today, I give you the divine Sinful Shine Too Cool for Pool.  As you can clearly see, this is a lovely soft blue that is just packed with pink/gold shimmer.  This one is so special!  It becomes opaque in two coats, but this can be a little thick so you just have to work with it.  If you spot this one- don't pass on it!

There you have it!  Another week is over and another Swatchfest done.  I hope you're having a great weekend and have a fabulous Labor Day!

Song of the Day: Florence and the Machine- No Light, No Light

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Sally Hansen Limited Edition X-treme Wear Mattes and Glitters

Hello again dear friends.  I have yet another matte release for you today.  We had FingerPaints, then Wet n' Wild Megalast, and now Sally Hansen X-treme Wear has four mattes in primary colors accompanied by four glitters.  If you'd like to see the video review on this, you can do so here:

As for the written review, let's get to it.  The mattes all have the same formula- these dry quick and are very matte without much gloss at all(as opposed to the Wet n' Wild mattes for example that were quite glossy for a matte).  You can probably get away with one coat but I will show you two for each polish.  Let's get to it!

This is Blue Blood and it's a deep navy.  I had no issues with staining or application- as long as you move quickly.

This interesting ninja turtle green is called Royal Shyness and is probably the least-wearable shade for me, but if you love green polish you will probably want to pick this one up because it's so different.

 The red that leans a little oxblood is called Wax Poetic.  This one's super vampy and perfect for Fall.

Here's a really great, basic black matte called Chain Mail.  This one's a little glossy around the edges just because I added some cuticle oil at this stage in the swatches, and not because the polish looks that way.


All the glitter formulas were the same- clear based jellies with pieces of foil of all different sizes in usually two different colors, but one polish has three colors.

The glitter with vibrant green and blue foil pieces is called Court Jest.  The pieces were not difficult at all to get on the nail.

 The silver and vibrant blue glitter is called Family Jewels.  Again, no application issues.

The polish with three colors of foil is called Mind Your Manors.  This has the same green and blue as the polish I showed you first, but it also has orange/bronze pieces.  This one is probably my favorite because it has the most interest due to more colors of foil.

Last up, we have Rogue Red which is made up of silvered-pink and red foil shards.  Application was the same here as for the others.

Have you spotted this display where you're at?  I had heard about it and was pleased to find it at Walgreens because I enjoy matte polishes and diverse glitters.  I think they could have pushed outside the box a bit more, but I'm not complaining.  I hope you're having a great day and I'll see you back tomorrow!

Song of the Day: Mimicking Birds- Bloodlines

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Wet n' Wild Megalast Limited Edition Mattes

Hey guys!  Are you ready for some very budget-friendly matte polishes that are just in time to get Fall going full swing?  I'm talking about the Wet n' Wild Megalast Limited Edition Matte release.  The display looks like this, for reference:

If you'd like to see this review I did in video format on my channel, you can do so here:

Now I want to ask you guys a question.  My blogging buddies- those of you who do come join me here to see nail swatches and nail art(which has been seriously lacking these days because I've been so busy with my channel): When I post my video for you to watch here of the review and live application of a collection, are you more inclined to watch that, or just look at the swatch photos I usually post below?  Everything I'm telling you here in written word is being said and shown in my video review, so I'm not sure if what I write here has become a little incidental or irrelevant...

If I choose to no longer do a written review of each individual photo swatch you can still count on my blog to link the videos I upload so I wouldn't shut down my blog- I'm just not sure it's necessary to do both.  Please give me your opinions as I do value them so!

Let's look at these 6 mattes:

Distressed to Impress is a kind of olive/dusty brown.  This is two coats and it was a smooth and easy application.

 Careful, It's Vine-tage is a lovely deep grape.  Same as the polish above, this is two coats, no issues.

Echo Dark is a lovely crelly formula navy matte.  As you can see, these mattes aren't super dull, they still have quite a bit of shine to them, so perhaps we should be calling them satin finishes, I dunno.  This is two coats.

My favorite of the bunch is called LAC- my Mani?  and it's a lovely ivory/butter mint shade.  Totally unique to my collection, I suggest this one to you if you plan on picking up just one.  Two coats just like the rest.

This gorgeous sweet, siren red is called Rouge 66 and has the same formula as the blue- it's a crelly.  This is two coats and not super original.

Last up we have So Berry On Trend which is just a lovely warm berry.  Again I've shown you two coats and I had no issues here.

That's it!  Thanks for stopping by every one.  If you would do me a favor and weigh-in on my question from above, that would really help me a lot.  I hope you're having a great day and I'll see you back tomorrow :)

Song of the Day: The Bloody Beetroots- Chronicles of a Fallen Love

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Wednesday Weekly Wrap-Up 8/27/14

Welcome back family and friends.  If you read my blog for polish- on Wednesdays I post one page completely devoted to what our family has been up to for the week so that family and friends far and wide have somewhere to go to find what we're up to.  I usually have a polish-related post up on Wednesdays too though so you can just look at the post just previous to this one :)  Let's get to some photos:

 She has to do everything he's doing...

 and then she realized he was in the perfect position to be ridden like a horse- except he wasn't about to move for anything lol

 We're always finding new hats around here.  This is the latest creation.

 Lol she had her whole chicken breast on a stick and of course began wandering around the house with it...Besides that- I love this shirt- it says "don't look at me, that smell is coming from daddy" :)

 She's always laying on this guy and sometimes he really enjoys it!

 Sweet buddies- and it looks like I got an action shot of him either spitting...hope not...or that's an otter pop wrapper in his mouth!  I hope it's the latter!

 This cutie is homeschooling this year- and he better not forget to do homework!  :)  We're very excited actually to have this new school year at home where we can make sure he's getting the education he needs!  Last year since we moved from the wonderful Alta Sierra Elementary School mid-year, he actually learned just about nothing for the second half of fourth grade and needs a lot of catch up to be at fifth-grade level as far as I'm concerned.  He's up to the task!

 Mom, I may have gotten into some chocolate ice cream and then eaten it the way every child does, which is to drip it all the way down to their feet....sounds about right, but let me take a picture of you quick before we clean everything up :)

Apparently we like Bob's Burgers so much around here that my oldest is morphing into Bob!

And that's all she wrote folks.  I hope you're all well and having a great week. Tim had cataract surgery on one eye today and is fitted with an eye patch to boot.  He'll have the other one done next week and he's very excited to not have to wear glasses every second of every day for the first time since he was about 9 or 10.  Besides that, it's pretty much business-as-usual around here.  We love you all very much and hope the time goes quickly til we see you again :)  See you back next Wednesday!

Song of the Day: Young Summer- Taken

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Wet n' Wild Shine Summer 2014 Limited Edition Polishes and Balm Stains

Whew!  That was a long title!  Wet n' Wild has some limited edition displays up at Walgreens right now and I just went ahead and snatched everything.  There is a Megalast mattes display but today we're going to look at the four polishes from the Wild Shine line and the two Megaslick Balm Stains.  For reference, the display looks like this:

I do review all 6 pieces of this display in the video I posted on my youtube channel which you can find here:

We'll just look at the polish here on the blog so if you'd like to see live application of the polishes and balm stains you'll want to go to the video above.

First up is probably going to be the most popular polish in the collection, it's this lovely, bright sky blue cream called Chambray Showers.  It reaches opacity in two coats, but you could even get away with one if you are in a hurry.  I did encounter bubbling problems with both creams in this collection.  I thought that was worth mentioning.

The other cream is this lovely salmon pink called Ferris-Wheel Romance.  I love that this one is salmon- I don't have too many pinks of this hue and I really didn't need another very basic pink.  The formula is great- I did encounter bubbling on my first pass of it but I went ahead and swatched again and being more careful, things came out smooth.  This is two coats.

They next gave us this super vibrant carrot orange crelly polish called Spitfire.  You're looking at two coats and it's squishy and delicious.  I had no issues with application and if you're an orange-lover, you will definitely want to pick this one up, especially at such a nice price.

Last up is the most sheer polish called Gyp-Sea Green.  This is a true jelly polish and will probably work great for a jelly sandwich.  The color is so lovely but unfortunately it comes off more brown on the nail than the true turquoise-green than it is because so much of the nail bed shows through.  For that reason I didn't really care for this one, and even though it's only a dollar, I'd probably pass on it.  This is two coats and I had no issues with application.

Short and sweet, those are all the polishes in this release.  Thanks for stopping by today, and as always let me know if there's anything particular you'd like for me to review for you.  Have a fabulous day and I'll see you back tomorrow :)

Song of the Day: Yuksek ft. Oh Land- Last of Our Kinds

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Sinful Colors Halloween 2014 Wicked Colors

Well hello there, dear readers :)  Today I have another Halloween collection to share with you and this time it comes from Sinful Colors.  The collection they put together is called Wicked Colors.  As always, I offer you the choice of reading about the polishes here or viewing the video I posted on these polishes on my channel. You will find live application there if you're interested in knowing what the formulas are like before purchase. Here is the video:

Let's look at some photos here:

Most are repromotes and we'll start with those and move on to the one or two new(at least to me) polishes at the end.

First up is Starry Night which is a black crelly polish that is packed with silver and holo microglitter and then some silver shard pieces.  This is a fun alternative to wearing just black polish and I think it totally fits in the collection.  Unfortunately, this is not a new polish, but I guess that means if you miss this display while it's out, you can pick this one up another time.  This is two coats.

This one doesn't take much explaining, it's the black cream Black on Black from the core line.  I've shown you two coats here, but you can get away with one if you're in a hurry.  This has great formula and they've done a great job with the basic black cream.

Another polish in the core line is Let's Talk.  This one is so iridescent and really quite a show-stopper.  First-off, it's purple so you know I'm gonna love it.  But I had forgotten how truly special this lustrous purple is and I'm so glad they included it if they were going to be repromoting polishes.  This is two easy coats.

And yet another repromoted polish, this is Courtney Orange and has a very similar formula to the purple, Let's Talk.  Shimmering and lustrous, you only need two coats even though it's a thinner formula.  Great pick from the core line.

Finally, for the not-so-new polishes, we have Pumpkin Spice which is a nice glitter, but only ok in my book because the gold and red/orange glitters are very simple- all one size- not very interesting in my opinion.  I've shown you two coats here over Black on Black.

Swatched over the previously mentioned Let's Talk, this is the new glitter called Cauldron Couture.  It's a clear base suspending emerald green and black shard pieces in every shape and size.  This is more like it- much more interesting and funky.  The formula on this one is very thick however, and after two coats(which is what is shown here) I felt like my nail was an inch thicker...

This one is laughable, but it's the best picture I could get of the glow-in-the-dark polish called, interestingly enough, Glow in the Dark.  This one works just as well as Ghoulish Glow from China Glaze so if you don't already own that one, you can pick this up for less than half the price.

And that's all 7 polishes in the collection.  I hope this helped you decide if you need any of these, and I hope you're having a great day!  I'll see you back tomorrow.

Song of the Day: Postmodern Jukebox- Game of Thrones Theme

Over and out

Saturday Random Swatchfest: 8/23/14

Another Saturday has rolled around so it's time to swatch, people!  On Saturdays we look at 10 random polishes from my stash that haven't been featured on my blog or channel yet.  If you'd like to see them swatched live for you, you might enjoy the video version of this swatchfest.  You can find it here:

If you aren't aware yet, most of my posts here have a companion video on my Youtube channel.  Aren't familiar with Youtube yet?  Well you can subscribe to my channel there for free and it will allow you to follow what I'm doing- just like following me here, except there is no reading involved and you can just sit back and watch me gab at you :)

If you do prefer to read my reviews, well that's great too!  Let's get to some photos:

For red we have Nicole by OPI Boys n Berry.  It's definitely more of a lustrous red to me than a berry, but in any case this looks lovely on the nail.  It's rather thin, but in two coats you can build up opacity and just watch out that you don't have too much on your brush.  I think I found this clearanced at Marshalls.  A

Sinful Shine You'rs Truly is our pink polish this week.  It has subtle shimmer and is a pleasant soft bubblegum pink.  I have come to expect Sinful Shine formula to be nearly one-coaters every time and to be very easy to work with.  This one was sheer, a littler runny, and not that fabulous.  Strange for this line.  I don't think I'll be picking this one up any time soon.  You can find Sinful Shine at Walgreens.  B-

For orange we have the very Fall-appropriate Paisley Attention to Me from Sephora by OPI.  I can totally see using this for a pumpkin mani or other Halloween-themed manicure.  This was sheer at one coat and again, rather thin, but I got it to reach this level of opacity at two coats.  I think I picked this one up at Marshalls or Big Lots.  A-

Amour Arnold Palmer is our yellow polish today.  I'm not sure why they named this polish after the pro golfer, or if that is even the correct reference, but in any case it looks like a banana cream pudding color to me :)  This is two coats and I actually found all the colors in this collection to be kind of streaky and not super pleasant in application unfortunately.  The easiest way for me to find this brand is from transdesign and they are very budget-friendly.  I was really only ok with this one.  B

From a few Halloween collections past, this is China Glaze Zombie Zest which is a totally cool, poison/ooze green jelly that is packed with green and gold shimmer.  Super fun and yucky, I loved that they put this polish in that collection.  I have shown you two coats here, and unfortunately it doesn't quite get opaque at two coats, but I think we can forgive it for being so stinkin' cool!  A

This ultra-deep blackened blue is Color Club First Looks.  This is pretty much a one-coater although I've shown you two here.  Luckily this did not stain my nails and it does look nearly black on the nail but when you look closer you can see all that rich dimension.  I love this one and had no issues with formula and application.  A

For purple today I'm showing you Avon Midnight Plum which is a really great basic from the Avon line.  It has great formula, no staining, no issues with application, and even though the way this polish photographed, I experienced no issues with patchiness when I had it on.  Love this one.  It's dark and vampy, but not so much so that you can't tell it's purple.  You're looking at two coats.  A

OPI I Sao Paulo Over There is our neutral polish this week.  It's such a lovely brown/taupe from the Brazil collection- I really love the vibe this color gives which is chic and put-together.  This one had a great formula- not perfect, but it performs well at two coats.  Man, this picture is reminding me of when my nails were longer and luscious once upon a time.  I just had a bad split the other day so I'm back to nubbins.  Boo Hoo!  I give this one an A.

For glitter I'm showing you Maybelline Color Show Gilded Rose.  This one is really special, because not only does it showcase the rose/gold trend well with the rose and gold colored glitters, but it's resting in a duochrome gold shimmer base, as you can see here in the photos.  I've shown you two coats on its own, but layered over other colors that duochrome really develops and is absolutely stunning!  A

When I chose my A+ polish each week, I pick the polish I didn't want to take off my nails in order to swatch the next item.  Sometimes I will even just be done swatching for the day so I don't have to remove it.  That was true for OPI Push and Shove from the Gwen Stefani collection.  I didn't snatch all the polishes in this collection, but I did this one because it was by far the stand out.  They call it a chrome formula- but to me it practically looks like a mirror on the nail which is so fun and totally unique to my collection.

And that was all 10 polishes! What did you think?? Do you agree with me about the best polish of the week being Push and Shove, or did you like a different one that I featured?  Also- what was on your nails this week?  What are you loving that I totally need to know about?  I hope you're having a great day and I'll see you back tomorrow :)

Song of the Day: Panic! At the Disco- Collar Full

Don't Smoke, Peeps!

Over and out