SinfulShine I'm Blushing & Amazonian

*Press Sample*

As you know, I'm a big fan of SinfulColors - they have a wide range of shades, tons of new collections, and a wallet friendly price.  This year, SinfulColors launched their new SinfulShine line, which is being exclusively sold at Walgreen's.

I wanted to try out two SinfulShine shades that were completely different from each other, so I went with a work appropriate creme and a vampy, fall-ready shimmer.

SinfulColors describes I'm Blushing as a light pink. Their description is straightforward and accurate. I'm Blushing is the lightest of ballet pinks with a creme finish. I wasn't expecting this shade to be so opaque! I'm Blushing was on the thicker side, but went on smoothly and was nearly opaque in one coat. I used two coats for this mani.

Sunlight

Indirect Light

Not only did I'm Blushing go on smoothly, I swear it self-leveled itself even more as it dried. The pictures above were taken without top coat. This is definitely a shiny polish. Due to its opacity, I'm Blushing might be a tad stark on me to be work appropriate if I was in a conservative office, but I think it would be perfectly fine in a more casual office setting or a paler skin tone.

I also tried out Amazonian, a sparkly jungle green.  This shade's formula was even easier to work with, but I still used two coats. Here's Amazonian with no top coat.

 

Amazonian is ridiculously pretty! It's dark, it's green, it's so shimmery!! Since Pantone made Emerald the color of 2013, I've been working on trying out more green polishes. I'm ok with them, but only a few truly make me stop and go whoa - like Nars Zulu, China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, and Zoya Ivanka. Amazonian has made that short list with its shimmer's depth and sparkle.

While these SinfulShine polishes dry on the faster side of average and they do have glossy finishes, I don't recommend skipping a top coat. I'm rough on my nails with typing and dishes, and I got tipwear on the first day with these manis. I suggest putting a top coat on to seal and protect if you want to wear these polishes for more than a day - which you're definitely going to want to do with Amazonian!

SinfulColors Savage + Orly Sparkling Garbage

Matte polishes are sneaky. Some times they're labeled, some times they're expected because they're in a matte collection, other times it's a complete surprise. It happens most often with bright colors that don't look neon in the bottle, but must have neon pigment in their formula because they dry matte.

And then you have SinfulColors Savage. Looks like a blue on the darker, greener side of teal in the bottle. Then you start applying it and something about the application seems off. It's really opaque but a little thin, a little streaky. It dries and bam! It's a matte?! Yep, even though Savage is an older shade from the core collection, I didn't know this when I bought it.

With a top coat, it's beautifully glossy and shiny. Unfortunately, I hadn't prepped myself or my nails for matte application which requires slightly more effort. I ended up with a few thin spots and ripples where I didn't pay enough attention.

Two coats of Savage + Shiny Top Coat - mani's not bad, but it's not great

I picked up a pretty holographic topper for about two bucks at the most recent Sally's Clearance sale, so I put it on to hide the flaws.

This is Orly Sparkling Garbage from their 2013 Summer Mash Up collection.  This is a very sheer holographic glitter in a dark seafoam green base. I put two coats on over Savage to pump up the rainbow effect. Sparkling Garbage had a very fine grit to it, so I used two coats of top coat for extra glossiness and smoothness.

Here it is all blurry, so you can see the sparkly rainbow effect. This is much closer to this mani sparkled in real life than the pictures above. 

I'm really happy with this layering, which is good because I was low on time to do polish changes this week and this mani wore like iron! I didn't get tip wear until Day 5! I'm not sure if it was the base coat, Savage, Sparkling Garbage, the top coat, or the combination of them all that made it so magically long lasting, but it was incredible.

Only downside was the terrible staining from Savage during removal. Even letting the remover soak on the nail for a few seconds and pulling it all down in one swipe to minimize cuticle staining, I was still left with blue cuticles and nails. I haven't had any staining like this from any of my recent SinfulColors blues, so I don't know what made this shade so stain-crazy.

SinfulColors Sweet Tooth & Last Day to Enter

Today's the last day to enter the Fun Friday Giveaway: Sinful Edition, so I'm showing you one of the colors that I'm giving away.

Sweet Tooth is a warm light purple with the subtle hidden shimmer of Cotton Candy and Orange Cream. While Sweet Tooth is a warm purple, it only leans pink. It's still obviously purple, not a purplish pink like OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender.

If you don't like pink-leaning purples with red undertones with your skin tone, I recommend getting Candy Coated, the blue toned purple of the Sugar Rush collection. That one also has slight shimmer.

Back to the polish! Sweet Tooth goes on fully opaque in two coats. Just be sure to thoroughly wipe the excess polish off the brush because this is a thin formula.

This is another winner from the Sugar Rush collection. Speaking of winners, don't forget to enter the giveaway! You still have a few more hours and you could win a new bottle of Sweet Tooth for your own!

Fill out the contest form after the jump!

SinfulColors Orange Cream & Fun Friday Giveaway!!

Here's another shade from the SinfulColors Sugar Rush collection!

This one's Orange Cream, which actually happens to be peach. It's soft and light enough to be reminiscent of an orange creamsicle, so maybe that's where the "orange" part came in? Orange Cream also has a hidden shimmer, which is a little bit more visible than it was in Cotton Candy.

Orange Cream is even easier to work with than Cotton Candy and fully opaque in two coats!  

In case you're wondering how peachy Orange Cream really is, here it is under my Ott light which really brings out the true tones of a polish. It's slightly more orange than it is in normal lighting...

... until you look at it compared to true light oranges like Essie Tart Deco (Art Of Spring - Spring 2010 collection) and SinfulColors Luminary (Girls in Pearls - Spring 2012 collection).

Orange Cream, Tart Deco, Luminary, Orange Cream

In comparison, Orange Cream practically looks like a pink. I think everyone should have a really good peach polish for spring and Orange Cream is getting my recommendation. It's opaque, easy to work with, affordable and has a cute hidden shimmer to make it special. This is the shade that has been disappearing first from my nearby Walgreens Sugar Rush displays so if you see it, get it!

And to wrap up this week of SinfulColors, I'd like to do a small Fun Friday Giveaway: Sinful Edition!

Unicorn, Show Stopping, Sweet Tooth

Unicorn is a core color featured in the Sugar Rush collection, Sweet Tooth is the new light warm purple from the Sugar Rush Collection, and Show Stopping is the pink holo glitter from the Almost Famous/Paparazzi collection.

I know Unicorn isn't new and Show Stopping is a possible dupe for Sally Hansen Strobe Lights and OPI Teenage Dream, but if you haven't found these displays or if you're on a no-buy or if you just like free polish coming to you in the mail, then fill out the form after the jump to enter this giveaway!

OWWWP - SinfulColors Cotton Candy

It's Wednesday. You know what that means? On Wednesdays, we wear pink!

The Sinful Colors Sugar Rush collection has eight spring-y shades that look like they're all creme finishes under the fluorescent lighting of Walgreens. But look closer!! Some of these new colors have fine, hidden shimmer!

Cotton Candy is the light pink of the collection. The shimmer is extremely subtle, but the slight twinkle is visible in real life. It's slightly more visible in the top picture - the one I took in full sunlight. On my index finger. That shimmer's really there. Slightly.

I was so excited to put this happy pretty color on that I needed three coats to smooth out some streaks due to rushing. Using a little bit steadier approach, Cotton Candy should be fine and opaque in two coats.

With two full Helmers, I know I have a few colors similar to this - OPI Strawberry Margarita, Zoya Lo, China Glaze Empowerment - but those are all a little bit darker and definitely cremes.  I'm going to recognize and appreciate Cotton Candy's slight shimmer which makes it different enough to stay in my stash!

SinfulColors Lush Life

Like most people, I picked up a few bottles of SinfulColors during their latest Walgreens sale.  My Walgreens had the Almost Famous (aka the Rite Aid Paparazzi display that we don't have in AZ because we don't have Rite Aids so I have to visit every single one I see when we go on out-of-state trips) and Sugar Rush displays fully stocked. 

I'm leading off with one of the glittery ones from the Almost Famous collection. Lush Life is a greenish turquoise glitter in a clear base. To me, the small glitter looks round, but, on an extreme zoomed-in look at the picture, they appear to be small hexes. Since the pictures don't lie and it might be time for me to get a new contacts prescription, I'll go ahead and say this polish has large and small hex glitter.

Here's one coat of Lush Life over two coats of Color Club Blue-topia, which is a dark navy jelly.

Lush Life is a nice layering polish with enough glitter to be visible and sparkly with just one coat while still leaving the base color nice and visible. It's also nice that the larger hexes don't curl up at the edges. Some low-quality large glitters do lift up which ruins a mani in every way possible - visually, texture-wise, durability, blegh.

If your eyes are sharper than mine, you might have noticed that my ring finger looks slightly different from the other three. Since Blue-topia is a jelly, I experimented by alternating two coats each of Blue-topia and Lush Life on that nail. You can see the navy colored up some of the first layer of Lush Life making the lower hex glitter royal blue. It was a very subtle effect because Blue-topia is pretty opaque in one coat. Still, I think I'd like to try alternate layers with Lush Life and another jelly polish next time because I liked the swimming glitter look this had in person.

SinfulColors - Morning Star, Soul Mate, Greek Isles

I picked up some SinfulColors polishes during last week's 99 cent sale at Walgreens.  They've had so many limited edition seasonal collections recently that I went to town buying all the new shades I could find.  Here are the three I've worn so far this week...

Morning Star - a new shade from their Girls in Pearls Sheer Shimmers collection

This is a light blue shade with silver shimmer flecks.  It's a soft sky blue that doesn't lean purple on me - I've seen it get more periwinkle with lavender tones on people with other skin tones. Nice and delicate and very spring-like.

Soul Mate - I think this one's from the core collection

This dusty rose pink was thick. I tried to use two coats with all of these polishes, but Soul Mate could've worked with one coat. This shade is getting some thinner added before I wear it again. It still went on pretty smooth for a $1 creme. This is a conservative color, but it was a nice spring-y pink to wear before we jump into summer neons.

Greek Isles - a new shade from the Spring 2012 Cast Away collection

Indirect Light - my poor hands needed moisture and a little touching up

Under the Ott light after shaping & clean up

This is Tiffany blue cousin that leans green with a touch of gray. I decided that even at half off prices, the Zoya Earth Day sale still exceeded my low buy budget when I factored in S&H. Greek Isles is the shade I bought to console me from missing out on Bevin.

SinfulColors go on sale pretty often, but some of these new shades might be limited edition.  They have decent opacity, a slightly thick but workable formula, and wear great with my Cult Nails Get Even base coat and Poshe Fast Dry top coat.  If you find some of the seasonal shades that jump out at you, don't wait for a sale. Go ahead and spend those $2 so you don't end up with buyer's remorse like I almost had with the Cast Away and Girls in Pearls collections.  I walked away and almost didn't find them again.

Not sure if the shade's new or just a misplaced core polish placed in the display?  Check the bottom of the bottle - if it has a number in the thousands (i.e. 1107, 1116), it's a new shade.