Nail Polish Haul

Nail polish haul from bloom.com and drugstore.com!

Essie - As gold as it gets (gold glitter topcoat)

Essie – Orange! It’s obvious. A bright red-orange cream. This is my first orange nail polish!

Zoya – Chloe (Fleck glitter!)

Zoya – Bevin => a dusty light jade cream. Also a close dupe for OPI – Thanks a windmillion!

OPI – Wooden shoe like to know (brown with copper glitter)

OPI – I have a herring problem => periwinkle blue with fine silver glitter

Revlon – Whimsical => a dupe for Deborah Lippmann – Glitter in the air! a pastel blue jelly with pink and blue glitters
I actually bought this one off of drugstore.com, not bloom.

Oh and if anyone wanted to see a China glaze – For audrey (my all time favorite color!) & Zoya – Bevin comparison (Bevin appears lighter in the bottle than when applied):

Now for swatches! Sorry I didn’t swatch all the colors,I’ll try to do that later when I can find the time!

Zoya – Bevin. Excellent dry time and smooth application! (2 coats)

Zoya – Bevin with Essie – As gold as it gets layered over

Zoya – Bevin with Revlon – Whimsical layered over! The glitter is rather hard to control. I had to keep moving the glitters around in order to achieve the look that I wanted. This also contributed to the streaks of baby blue. D: Whimsical’s not the best, but it’s still a nice cheap alternative if you want Glitter in the air!

Zoya – Bevin with Essie – A cut above and Revlon – Whimsical layered over it

Also wanted to show you guys my plant! We had a de-stress event on campus where they let us paint pots and plant flowers.

Can you tell that I have a strong color preference?

Surprise! Painted the inside too. Bright orange!

I have no idea what seeds they gave me… but they’re beginning to sprout already so I’ll find out soon!

This LA sunshine is pretty amazing tosomeone who grew up in a one-season-city (ahem, San Francisco). Everything that I tried to grow in San Francisco pretty much failed. Though I suppose it may have had a lot more to do with my incompetence than SF’s weather!

I feel like I’m turning into a plant hoarder. I’ll show you guys my other mini plants perhaps in my next post?

Magnetic Polishes + misc swatches

Wanted to post up some pictures of the magnetic polishes that I was playing with at Sephora

nails inc. Trafalgar Square (chrome) — middle finger

nails inc. Special Effects Electric Lane Holographic Glitter Top Coat — index finger

nails inc.  Houses Of Parliament (purple) — thumb

Aren’t they cool? For the magnetic polishes, you swipe a thick coat of iron-powder infused polish and quickly put the magnetic cap on top of the wet polish. I found it a little tricky not to let the cap touch my nail (and apparently others have this problem too since the tester cap had quite a bit of residue!) but after about 5-10 seconds, the polish will dry to a cool pattern! If you’ve ever seen cat-eye beads, the finish is kind of like that. They cost $16.00 a bottle at Sephora and come in 3 colors (chrome, purple, teal). I couldn’t bring myself to buy a bottle, hopefully there are dupes to be found!

Two more swatches:

Zoya – Neeka (not quite as glitter as it looks in the bottle, but still very pretty! this color is also darker than it appears in the bottle)

Essie – School of Hard Rocks

 

Julep Maven It Girl Post

I posted the Julep $0.01 deal a few days ago and just wanted to let everyone know that I got my box!

I know you’re curious.

 

The box came with…

3 nail colors ( L-R: Diane (vampy jelly forest green), Trina (vampy aubergine shimmer), Helena (creme fuschia)

1 nail top coat

1 sample of Julep’s hand scrub

1 sample of Julep’s hand lotion

1 mini container of nail glitter

all wrapped nicely in a black paper bag with a red ribbon for a penny.

Trina is my favorite! The polishes were all very pigmented, Diane was a bit sheer though so that took around 3 coats. I was very pleased with how all of colors dried with an ultra glossy finish! The only thing I dislike about Julep polishes is that they are quite expensive… each polish costs about $14.00 on their website– but their polishes are not the standard .5 oz! They are .27 oz. I have yet to see a Julep nail color that is special enough to purchase for that price.

Sorry for the messy application! I was in a rush.

New polishes + OFFTOPIC DIY TORN TIGHTS FOR BOW FLATS TUTORIAL

I ordered some polishes from Bloom.com

Essie – School of Hard Rocks

Zoya – Neeka

OPI – Suzi Loves Cowboys

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri – Lickety-Split Lime

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Mint Sprint

Lickety-Split Lime, Mint Sprint, School of  Hard Rocks, Neeka, Suzi Loves Cowboys

I am sooo happy with the Insta-Dri’s! The formula is great, you’ll only need 1-2 coats for an opaque finish. I can’t believe I haven’t tried this line earlier since it’s been around for so long! I will def be buying more. Neeka is a 1-2 coater as well. Suzi loves cowboys is a bit sheer, but the dry time is satisfactory.

Now onto the tutorial!

I like to wear sheer tights, but somehow I always seem to ruin them after 1 or 2 wears. I usually just toss them, but I’ve recently thought up of a fun way to recycle! What can you do with torn tights you ask?

Now I suppose to I could have just worn my torn tights like Miley…

But that’s never really been my style. Here’s what I did instead!

1. Grab your torn tights…

2. Snip off the legs and feet

3. Turn them into bows! I’ve noticed that sheer tights are very good for making fluffy bows. You won’t have to worry about the ends fraying because if you stretch them they’ll just fold over by themselves. the torn part won’t really show because your tights will scrunch up and it will be hard to tell.

 

Now you can turn your bows into pins… or  jewelry… whatever! The possibilities are endless. I decided to spruce up a pair of flats by super gluing them on.

Easy, right?

OPI warm & fozzie swatch + JULEP Deal!

OPI – warm & fozzie

Annnnd! If anyone is interested in trying out Julep Polishes, there’s a deal going on right now!

You can sign up for a free starter kit (priced at $19.99) for just $0.01 shipping included with code “SHAREON”.

You basically take a quiz to figure out what type of style you have and they will pick out a set that fits you best.

The quiz can be taken  here: http://www.julep.com/mavens/quiz/

If you do not like your results, you can go here: http://www.julep.com/mavens-1?Page=1&Items=12 to view more choices.

Use the code “SHAREON” to bring your $19.99 order down to 1 cent!
Not sure how long this deal will go on for! I just saw it on Slickdeals (courtesy of poster deliria) and felt that I should pass this on.

Now Julep IS a monthly subscription thing, so if you don’t want them to continue to charge your card after your first kit/box you’ll need to call in and cancel!

Hope this helps someone! I just placed an order for the It Girl kit (picture above).

Offtopic: Maybelline Baby Lips Swatches & Review

(Quenched — clear, Peach Kiss — sheer nude, Peppermint — clear, Cherry Me — sheer red, Pink Punch — sheer barbie pink)

Hey guys, another off topic post here! I was sent some Maybelline products from BzzAgent to test out and I decided to put my review here.

The new product they lauched not too long ago is called “Baby Lips” and they’re tinted lip balms that are fruity flavored (with the exception of one minty flavored one!).

Swatches!

Maybelline Baby Lips in one of the clear colors (Left)
Maybelline Baby Lips in Peach Kiss (Right)

Maybelline Baby Lips in one of the clear colors (Left)
Maybelline Baby Lips in Cherry Me (Right)

Maybelline Baby Lips in one of the clear colors (Left)
Maybelline Baby Lips in Pink Punch (Right)

These are pretty nicely pigmented, but I don’t think they do a very good job at moisturizing. I still prefer my pomegranate oil Burt’s Bees lip balm– it’s just that the Maybelline ones seem to dry out my lips when it wears off. They are affordable and it’s a good way to experiment with lip colors since you can layer on the color… but if you’re looking for quality I think you should look elsewhere.

Rating: 3.75/5

Nail Deco Of The Week #91 + wet ‘n’ wild comfort zone

orly – space cadet

covergirl boundless color – disco dazzle

misa – on the verge

bird nail canes from bornpretty!

also… picked up the new 8 color wet ‘n’ wild palettes at Walgreens today!

They’re only $4.99 and for that price the quality is excellent!!!

^ these are swatches WITHOUT primer!!

The pigmentation is very good. No chalky colors, all the colors are easy to blend and soft. the texture actually kind of reminds me of NYX eyeshadows! there are 2 other palettes, one of blues and the other is pinks/purples. The only downside is that the packaging is cheap.. no  biggie, but there could have at least been some plastic shrink wrap around the palette! Ah, well, for $5 why complain?

I hope I see this at another Walgreens soon! I actually grabbed the last one on the shelf from my local store.

orly – space cadet swatch

orly – space cadet

Crackle polish swatch

OPI – katy perry black shatter over china glaze – white on white

one lonely nail with crackle polish…

i don’t own any crackles (yet?) a friend let me try her bottle out. hehe.

do you own a crackle polish?

Nail Deco Of The Week #87 + swatch

china glaze – for audrey (my favoriteeee nail polish ♥)

china glaze – white on white

color club – front row diva

andddd, last but not least!

WOOSTER & PRINCE‘s pretty personal accessories from katerine d.

they’re so cute! the patterns are designed by amy ormond who was inspired by vintage prints.

emery boards come in a trio pack ($4.95) and the pocket mirror ($5.95) has a message inside!

they have other designs as well. just thought i’d mention that the mirrors will need some T.L.C. because it’s made of paper.. so if you’re the type of person who prefers to be able to just chuck it in a bag, this might not be for you! on the other hand, they are thin and compact and have a very detailed art featured on every inch of the product i think these would make really nice gifts / party favors.