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.

China Glaze Grafitti Glitter & Mosiac Madness

Before I head on over to Sally's for their Clearance Sale this weekend, I thought I'd try out two of the polishes I got from their last sale.

Mosiac Madness & Graffiti Glitter

Both of these polishes are from the China Glaze Winter 2013 Glitz Bitz 'n Pieces collection. They're microglitter, hex glitter, and bar glitter combinations in clear bases. It's ridiculous how easy the application is with these polishes given how much glitter is packed into each bottle.

Graffiti Glitter is the green of the collection. The tiny round, small hexes, and large hexes all come in a vibrant emerald green and black. The largest of the hex glitter and the bar glitter are black. Here is one coat layered over China Glaze For Audrey.

Mosiac Madness is the sapphire blue version of Graffiti Glitter. There's blue and black round, small hex, and medium hex glitters with black bar glitter.  Here is one coat layered over China Glaze Lemon Fizz.

Ott Light

Indirect Sunlight

I don't know why I didn't play with these glitters sooner!  They were so easy to use and the layering combinations are endless. No dabbing, pulling, or placing - just load up the brush, swipe, and done. I can't wait to try them over raspberry pink, mint green, or a dove gray!!

My Birthday Mani

As with almost every major celebration-type event, I spend the day running around getting things ready and leave my nails to the last minute. This isn't always a bad thing because it means that I can't go back and forth over which polish to pick - I just have to be decisive and go for it!

I did it again yesterday - it was my birthday and I had 15 minutes to get my nails done so we could get to my parents' house on time. 

What mani to go with? Time for a glitter sandwich with OPI Funny Bunny! It's a nice clean white jelly, which is perfect for the middle of summer. I layered it with my favorite version of Lippmann's Happy Birthday knockoffs - Confetti Tazmanian Devil. The fine silver glitter that makes this version different than the rest gives it an extra delicate and pretty look.

Here's a coat of Funny Bunny, one coat of Tazmanian Devil, and a second coat of Funny Bunny all over Essie's Fill the Gap! ridge filling base coat (to guarantee extra smooth, streak-free application) and topped with Seche Vite so we could get out the door as quick as possible.

I added an extra coat of Tazmanian Devil on my thumbs so they could be full-on, blingy glitter.

Simple, straightforward, and looked just like the sprinkles on my birthday ice cream cake!

Sharing Saturday: My Favorite Disappeared Bloggers

Much like the newest trends and collections they review, polish blogs come and go in the blink of an eye.

As someone who doesn't post as regularly as she should, I know that my love of polish is just as strong now as it ever was, but it's hard to get back in the game after a break. How many new polishes does a person miss in a few months? Will anyone come back to read and comment on my posts if I don't have the latest and greatest to show off? In a world that moves so fast, it's easy to understand why bloggers go missing.

Some bloggers, though, like me, All Lacquered Up, and The Polish Addict, have taken a break, and returned to their blogs to share their polish passion.

I'd like to share three polish bloggers that rocked my world before they vanished into the internet ether.

MeganChair from Little Music Boxes

Source: Polish or Perish

MeganChair wasn't the first person to take a brush and acetone to fix the edges of a messy manicure, but her tutorial was so detailed and straightforward that it became a gold standard.  This method is still referred to as The MeganChair Clean-Up Tutorial.  Seriously.  You can Google it like that!

She also wasn't the first person to ever play with accent nails, but she is the one who brought the glitter accent nail into my world. Sure, accent nails are everywhere now but they weren't mainstream back then. I loved glitter polish and to just use it on a ring finger or thumb was inspirational!

MeganChair shut down her blog, Little Music Boxes, when she needed to make time to start a family. She showed up on Polish or Perish for awhile, but ended up disappearing from there, too.  Fortunately, a few of her posts, pictures, and famous clean up tutorial still live on there for future polish fanatics to reference and enjoy.

Erika from Chloe's Nails

Source: Chloe's Nails

The Queen of the Scotch Tape Manicure. The Diva of Funky Frenches. Erika was the master of these nail art techniques. When her pictures pop up on the Stylish Eve Facebook feed without credit, I just want to jump up and down on those posts telling everyone to go to her blog to fully appreciate her nails.

Named after her daughter, Erika's blog, Chloe's Nails, had swatches of new polishes, but it also featured the many uses of scotch tape in nail art designs from French tips to rays to flames. She was nice enough to write up several tutorials, including one for the mani shown above.

She's been gone from her blog for a little over a year now, but all of the content is still there for people to learn from and admire.

Polish Hoarder from Polish Hoarder Disorder

Source: Polish Hoarder Disorder

Polish Hoarder was funny (read her explanation of the PHD symptoms) and artistic. She used a mirror to reflect her nails, she featured the polish bottle in open, unfocused fingers, she showed off her mani on both hands crossed.  Polish Hoarder's playful photography and distinctive poses quickly made her nails recognizable.

As her blog gained popularity, she fostered the good feeling of community by hosting weekly nail challenges where she would post participants' submissions in a photo gallery. Anyone that encourages community over cattiness in the polish world gets an A+ in Awesomeness from me!

This only scratches the surface of polish people that I miss reading. The long list includes Dr. Frankenpolish, the girls from The Edge of Sanity, Lacquer Laine, e-PolishBlog, and Get Nailed, to just name a few.  However, if someone told me to start a "Where Are They Now?" series of disappeared bloggers and magically gave me the means to find them, these three are the girls I'd track down first! Where'd they go? How are they doing? And, of course, what polish are they wearing now?

Color Club Otherworldly

As our weather gets warmer, I'm in the mood for colors that are brighter but not quite neon. Today I pulled out an oldie but goodie collection - the Color Club Starry Temptress from Summer 2011. This was a set of neon glitters, but some of the colors were more intensely neon than the others. I pulled out Otherworldly, a bright blue with silver, slightly holographic glitter.

This dried matte so this definitely has neon qualities, but this is not an eye-searingly intense neon. I used two thin coats for this mani, which was opaque for the casual eye but I can see some translucency in this close up shot.

This polish is packed with glitter that stays on top of the blue base, but this glitter doesn't sparkle.  A shiny top coat takes Otherworldly from matte to shiny, but not sparkly. The matte glitter gives this polish a speckled look on the nail - this shade reminded me of the mosaic floor on the bottom of a pool. This is also a very smooth glitter.  Being ultra smooth with the matte glitter made this mani look like it was done with nail polish strips.

Otherworldly was nice and long-wearing, which made the removal extra sad because it was such a hassle!! All the glitter that you can see in the bottle is there on the nail when you're trying to take this polish off.  Once the top layer of blue came off, there was nothing but tons and tons of silver holographic glitter stuck on underneath.  It took patience and acetone to get all the glitter off - lots of patience and acetone.

I still love Otherworldly because it's so cool looking on the nail, but I'll probably be smarter next time I'm wearing a polish from the Starry Temptress collection and use a glue base coat to make the removal easier.

Claire's Dream Catcher & A Winner!

I wanted to do a cute St. Patrick's Day mani. I was going back and forth in my head between ombre or gradient. Since I didn't think any of my greens leant themselves to a nice festive ombre (I could have done murky and/or olive-y) and I wanted to get to bed sooner than later, I skipped the gradient and went with a straightforward oldie but goody.

Claire's Dream Catcher started showing up in the blogosphere in 2010 and really gained a lot of steam when people noticed it was a dupe-ish cousin to Chanel Jade. Dream Catcher is a yellow-toned mint green with a fine blue shimmer. After quite vigorous shaking (and subsequent resting) to dissolve tiny chunks that had formed in my bottle, this polish went back to its old thin self and went on in three coats.

Dream Catcher is still one of my favorite light greens because of that blue shimmer. It might take three coats to get everything smooth and streak-free, but it dries fast and gets decent wear, so it's all good.

I hope everyone is having a happy Friday, especially the winner of the Sinful Colors giveaway.... April G.! Thanks to everyone who entered. I appreciate your participation and I loved reading what your favorite polishes of 2013 have been so far!!

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.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Cross My Heart

For a weeklong, no worries mani, I turned to my favorite type of dry polish, Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips. I picked up this box on clearance after Valentine's Day last year.

Cross My Heart has a dark pink X's and O's design, with hearts in the place of the O's, on a light pink background. Depending on your cuticle shape or personal preference, the hearts' point could face towards or away from you. I totally didn't realize this until after I had all ten nails done that I had flipped both ring fingers in the opposite direction of the other nails. It looked deliberate, so I told people that I'd done it on purpose (shhh! our secret!).

I wondered if there'd be any issues with these strips being a year old, but they were still crazy flexible without any additional heat (i.e. blow drying, heat lamp) needed. If you see any of the core collection of Salon Effects Polish Strips on clearance, pick them up! Now I know, they have a great shelf life. These strips went on quick and easy with an extra layer of top coat to seal the free edge and add some extra durability and shine.

That's when the awesomeness really kicked in! These pictures were taken AFTER our vacation!! 

Where's the tip wear? Where's the chipping? There's a little bit on the ring finger and pinkie, but it was only visible really close up, like in a macro shot or holding my hand up to eye level.

Not bad at all for Day SEVEN! Seriously. Siete. A week. A busy, activity-filled week. I think these strips could've easily lasted their full 10 day claim, but I was ready for something different. 

After struggling and fighting with the L'Oreal Nail Stickers, I was so happy to wear these Cross My Heart strips. I got them for only a few dollars, they practically applied themselves, the design was adorable and much-complimented, and they outlasted our vacation. Good job, year-old Sally Hansen strips - you did good!!

OPI Strawberry Margarita + I Lily Love You

Ever get a manicure idea in your head and then you just can't decide which polishes to use?  I wanted to wear a layered glitter look using two OPI colors, and I ended up pulling out 4 base colors and 4 glitters. I couldn't figure out which combination I wanted to use and I had absolutely no preference, so my husband suggested I let our baby son pick my polishes.

I used to set my polishes in front of our toy poodle and wear whichever bottle she pawed first.  This is a cute technique, but not very effective because our little Suzie gets easily distracted and would walk away before she picked my polish. Our 6-1/2 month old son, on the other hand, is in a very grabby phase (go fine motor skill development!!) so we set up my polishes in two groups and he picked out today's mani in under 10 seconds.

Here's two coats of Strawberry Margarita and one coat of I Lily Love You.

Strawberry Margarita is a bright warm pink creme from the OPI Mexico Spring 2006 collection. As I mentioned in my I'm Indi-a Mood For Love post, this is one of my most favorite pinks. The Mexico collection was the first OPI collection that I really got into - I proudly displayed the adorable minis box, I couldn't buy the whole collection so I encouraged all my friends to buy at least one bottle so they would have nearby homes. This shade is now a part of the core collection so you can still get it wherever OPI's sold with the 3-free formula.

My bottle's from the original collection so I have a chemical-laden black label, but I'm not complaining. This goes on easily in 2 coats with only slightly visible nail line in the brightest of sunlight. 

I Lily Love You is from the Nice Stems! Summer 2011 collection is a big flake glitter in a sheer pink base. There's also smaller circle and square glitters in the mix. The pink base tints Strawberry Margarita, making the shade a bit cooler. I left it unlayered on my thumb, so you could see the slight difference it made.

I loved this mani - maybe because it was so pink and festive, maybe because it was picked out by the cutest baby boy ever. Either way, I didn't want to take this off but I have to so I can get ready for our 5 day NY/NJ trip. I've already had this on for the last three days, and I don't want it to peel or chip off before we get back. I won't be packing polish this time so it's time for a new look for our vacation!

Revlon Orchid

Inspired by Kat's snowed-in dotting manis (which she might put up in a later post), I decided to give my heart accent nail another try using dots this time.  I wanted to stick to drugstore polishes that are still available - unlike the older ones I was wearing this week - so I went back into my Revlon drawer for some Top Speeds.

I used two coats of the very opaque Revlon Top Speed Orchid. I probably could have gotten away with one coat, but applied two to smooth over initial brush strokes. This is a mauve-pink foil-like shade. It has some silver microglitter and pink microshimmer in it, but it acts like a foil in application and removal. This polish dries fast to the touch, but stayed dentable on me for awhile, even with a Seche Vite top coat. I'm not sure if it was the Revlon, the Seche Vite, or the two of them together that was to blame, but it was definitely odd given both are fast dry.

I used a dotting tool to dot on my accent hearts. I used two otherTop Speeds - Cloud and Modern Grace.

Cloud, Orchid, Modern Grace

Orchid is still completely available wherever Revlon polishes are sold. Cloud, a light purple creme, might be a little harder to find, but you can still find it online like Amazon.

Modern Grace, a purple-periwinkle creme, was a limited edition release in Spring/Summer 2011, but there are other similar shades out there if you like this color. If you want to stay drugstore, try out Wet 'n Wild Megalast's On A Trip. If you want to go a little "higher end," Zoya Caitlin is a greyed out cousin.

My little dotted hearts were a lot more appreciated than my previous glitter hearts, but now I'm in the mood for more glitter. What would be a good glitterful Valentine's mani?...

Milani Techno Red

After a few pinks, I thought it was time for a red. After enjoying the squishy Maybelline Gold Fleck Fuschia, I decided to go with a nice jelly. 

I pulled out Milani Techno Red from their Neon line. This line may possibly be discontinued.  I'm not 100% sure since I've been under a rock for the last few months about the coming and goings of polish collections. I got my bottle during a CVS clearance sale last fall, which means this line was discontinued or repackaged. If you can find any of the Milani Neons, pick some up because they're easy to apply and have a great jelly finish.

Keeping to my unofficial drugstore theme this week, I did an accent nail with Revlon Slipper and Maybelline Express Finish Deeply In Love.

Slipper, Techno Red, Deeply In Love

Milani Techno Red is a warm red-orange jelly. It does dry matte without a top coat, but I don't think it's a true eye-searing neon. Here it is with two coats and a shiny top coat.

On my ring finger, I topped it with a thin coat of Slipper (a red and silver glitter in a clear base) and Deeply In Love (pink hearts in a yellowing clear base with red glitter that never makes it on the nail). 

This mani felt bouncy and playful with the soft tomato nails and heart-covered accent. I thought this was a cute look, but it definitely confused my husband.  He isn't used to me playing with accent nails, so he thought I had smushed my nail or something. Upon closer look, he realized they were hearts, not dents or dings. I think next time I'll wear this accent nail with a different base color, like a light pink, so there's a bigger contrast and the effect looks more intentional!

Shimmery Pinks - Gold Fleck Fuschia and Sublime Strawberry

After a month of vampy and murky shades to go along with our chilly January days, I'm ready for Valentine pinks and reds - the girlier, the better! I dived into my stash to pull out some of my older drugstore polishes. They need love, too!

First up is Maybelline Wet Shine Diamonds in Gold Fleck Fuschia.

This is two coats of Gold Fleck Fuschia. I don't think this polish has ever been fuchsia, so I'm going to assume this name isn't misspelled and refers to the fuschia plant. Maybe that's why this pink is closer to a soft bubble gum pink with hints of coral rather than a darker and bolder fuchsia shade. It is filled with small gold fleck shimmer making this a warm pink. I really liked how glossy and juicy this polish looked, but the dry time was a bit long (I dented my ring finger after an hour even with a coat of Seche Vite) and the brush is shedding. This shade is too pretty, though, so I won't be getting rid of this polish.

The Wet Shine Diamonds line has been discontinued but these polishes could show up at Dollar Tree or Big Lots, so keep an eye out for them.  Now for another scented polish from Revlon!

This is Sublime Strawberry, originally from the limited edition Spring/Summer 2009 Fruitful Temptations collection.

In the bottle, these two polishes look related because of their mid-pink base color.  On the nail, they look significantly different because of their shimmer and opacity. No jelly squishiness here! Sublime Strawberry has a silvery white micro-shimmer so this shade is much cooler than Gold Fleck Fuschia.  Sublime Strawberry could have been opaque in two coats, but I didn't let the first coat set long enough, so I needed three coats for this mani. After asking a few people what they thought of the scent, we agree this strawberry scent reminds us of strawberry Bubblicious bubble gum.

I'm pretty sure that Sublime Strawberry is now part of the permanent Revlon collection. I know that it was put in the newer all-black cap design, so it should still be easy to find wherever Revlon polish is sold.

Is anyone else in a pink mood, too?

Half Moon Mani with Cult Nails

Working my way through my untrieds, I decided to wear Mind Control from Cult Nails Super Powers collection.  I bought the entire collection to take advantage of the pre-sale pricing and I've given much love to Time Traveler and Clairvoyant, but I'd put off wearing Mind Control until it really felt like a wintry day to wear this vampy shade.

Cult describes Mind Control as "a deep, slate greyed-purple with brain washing bursts of pink/purple glitter that shifts slightly to provide a golden glimmer."  I think the jelly base is more of a dark gray than a greyed-purple, and it's definitely packed with pink/purple glitter. The gold shift is slightly visible around the edges of my nails - especially on my pointer and pinky.  I think the real star of Mind Control is the glitter. There's tons of it so, even though this is a dark color, it keeps sparkling even in low lighting.  Even with a jelly base, Mind Control was good to go in two coats.

I was happy with this mani, but then I received my New Year's Sale package.  I'd been paying attention to my Twitter and noticed Cult was having a flash sale, so I finally got Coveted, Flushed, and Untamed because I wanted to get my hands on the discounted limited edition shades, especially before their 2013 price increase.  I couldn't wait to try Flushed, so I decided to layer!

Since I just found my reinforcement labels, it seemed like a good time to practice a half moon mani. Using my rediscovered stickers, I added two coats of Flushed and got this purple shimmery goodness!

Sunlight - what is that shimmer?! Awesomeness!!

Shade

I loved the way this came out!!!  I love the look of half moon manicures, but I also feel very self-conscious when I'm wearing them.  This mani was so smooth and shiny, it had shimmer and glitter, the moons came out decently crisp, but the overall look was still subtle.  I'm looking forward to wearing Flushed on its own, but I'm going to wear it like this for a few more days first!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Locavore

I've been trying to make a peel-off glue base coat work for me, so that means glitter, glitter, glitter!

It was supposed to be really easy - take some glue like Elmer's, swish it around with a little water in an empty polish bottle, use as base coat, peel off mani when done. Easier said than done because my first few tries didn't work at all! First, I used too much water and the base coat wouldn't dry. Then, I tried again without thinning the glue but I polished my nails before waiting a full 10 minutes for the base coat to dry.  My polish stuck to my nails like cement! Normally, that's good, but not when you want your polish to peel off in one piece. My third try was a charm and my polish peeled off like it was supposed to! What I've learned - glue as a base coat is great if you have 10-15 minutes to let it fully dry, so it looks like I'm going back to regular base coat and Zoya Remove+ for my glitter manis.

For New Year's and my peel-off success, I wore Rescue Beauty Lounge Locavore. This is my bottle from the original Spring/Summer 2009 collection. This shade's been re-released through Ji's Bring It Back voting. I'm not sure if the new version is identical to this one, but I still recommend getting your own bottle while it's still around!

RBL's site says that Locavore is a "melange of gold, silver, green and blue glitter," but it's obvious in my bottle and on the nail that this version also has pink glitter.  The base of Locavore is thin and clear so I'm wearing three coats for opacity and it only takes one coat of Seche Vite to make this mani smooth.

After wearing so many glitter polishes with different shapes and sizes in their mix, Locavore is a nice glitter palate cleanser. All the glitter is tiny and round, the color combination is perfectly celebratory, it's opaque enough to be worn without layering over a base color, it's smooth on the nail, and sparkles for days. I love hex and square glitter and colored jelly bases, but I had forgotten how nice it is to wear a straightforward glitter polish like this.

Happy New Year to everyone!! I hope we all have a great 2013!!!