Arrrg, ye matey!

Haha, I loved the Pirates of the Carribean collex from OPI.  I liked it so much that I actually put the movies on my netflix (since I hadn't seen them yet) and have now watched the first 3!  I should have stopped after the first 1... but that's another issue.

This is 3 coats OPI Mermaid's Tears with dots of OPI Yodel Me on My Cell.  I absolutely love this dusty teal green.  I love teal already, but this shade is just to die for!  I love it!  So pretty.  And the application was fairly good too.  It was perfect, there's a bubble on the index finger, you can see.  But hey, it's worth it for this shade!

So pretty!  I love it!  Hahaha.  What do you guys think??

Sunshine!

Talk about BRIGHT  yellow, lol.  Sometimes you just have to make your own sunshine.  I needed it to be sunny on a dreary day.  This sure did the trick!!

Wow, lol.  This is 4 coats of Orly Lemonade topped with China Glaze Golden Enchantment.  I had to do 4 coats because it's yellow and yellow is just a mess.  It's too streaky unless you do gloppy coats and I don't like doing that either.

Yay, pretty!  I love yellow polish.  It just makes me so happy!

This is a weird angle, haha.

I love the '80s!

So awesome!!!!!  Haha, neon and crackle... totally '80s

and glitter, right?  LMAO.  This is 3 coats of Color Club You Got Soul-ar a neon orange with glitter in it.  I topped it with China Glaze Crushed Candy which is a crackle polish.  Then, because you can never have enough... I topped it all with Color Club Starry Tempress Top Coat which is bling-tastic!!!

So pretty!  Haha.  I hated it at first because of the colors.  But then once I decided it looked like the 80's, I was into it.

Check that glitter!!!  Oh yeah... lol.  What do you guys think??

Gunmetal Flowers

Gotta love this.  I must say, I really like the dark gray and gunmetal type colors.  This one is right up my alley.  There's just something about the gunmetal that makes it better than black and more interesting than gray.  It's just so cool!

This is 3 coats of Color Club Alter Ego.  I used LA Colors Hot Pink striper for the flowers.  This is fundamentally gunmetal.  But sometimes you catch little colors in it.  You guys know how I like the hidden color shimmer that's just for the polish wearer... this is one of them!

This shot looks more purple.  There is a bit of a blue or purple hidden shimmer in there.

even more purple...

there's the multi colors!!!  Click to make it giant and you can really see them.  Fun!

Beachy?

This one reminded me of the beach, not sure why.  It's green and shimmery and it reminds me of the photos of the crystal clear water and the how the sand looks so warm and inviting.  I could use some of that about now, lol.

This is 3 coats of Maybelline Gentile Blossom.  I love this shade of minty green, it's so pretty.  And then it has the added bonus of shimmer!  It went on fairly well and had good coverage.  I felt like it needed something, so I added stripes with Stripe Rite White.

I think it turned out cute!  I like it.  And to me, it looks nice and summery.

Lip Savvy Gloss

I am loving this gloss.  It's cute packaging and a good product!  That's a win in my book!!

This is LipSavvy gloss!  According to the manufacturer, this product is going to be in 22 shades in 2 formulas.  ColorGlam is a creamy finish with subtle shimmer (12 shades) and Star Studded Shine is intense sparkle with multi-dimensional shine (10 shades).  They claim "Lip Savvy! glosses offer total free radical protection, multiple collagen-boosting properties, prevention and correction of lines and wrinkles, instant and long-term painless plumping, and intense hydration.  These glosses incorporate modern skincare and color technologies to give lips a fighting chance in the battle against aging."

 First off, just look at the tube!  I love, LOVE this zebra print tube!  It's unlike any other gloss I've seen.  While applying in public, I've had numerous women ask me what it is and where they can get it too!  It's definitely an eye-catcher.  It's being marketed as a limp plumper.  I'm not really in need of plumping as my lips have a good shape already, but I felt nor saw no difference when using the gloss.  But since I'm not really looking for that, I'm fine with it not working all that great.  If you're looking for a mega-plumper... keep looking.

This one shows the color a bit better.  It's called Sho Bunny and is a Star Studded Shine shade.  It's a light pink with lots of sparkle in blues and greens and gold.  It's very pretty!  It's sheer, which I happen to like for a gloss.  I am admittedly a gloss hoarder and have probably a million and one tubes in all very similar shades.  They're all sheer and pink or nude, haha.  But I love them all!!  This one is a bit thick and I wouldn't recommend it for a windy outting because it does have the hair-grabbing stickiness that some hate.  BUT it's that thick texture that keeps it on your lips and moisturizing for you for longer!  My lips felt great after a few days of using this.
  

Here is a shot of the brush which also shows the color a bit better (and closer, lol).  I'm not a fan of this style of gloss dispensing.  You click the bottom of the tube and the gloss comes out through the brush.  They're pushing it as less germ-ridden, but you're still smooshing the brush all over your lips and your germs are still waiting for you the next time.  I feel like I have no control over the amount of product I get with this style of applicator.  The first use, you have to click a million times to get the air out.  BUT subsequent times, you have to be careful with the clicks because the product is thick and comes up slowly.  So I felt like this.  I click a few times... nothing.  Click a few more times... too little.  Wait a minute... still not enough... click a few more times... WOAH too much!  A couple times it kept pumping out gloss after I closed it and there was plenty for a second application, lol.  I'd much rather have the doe-foot applicator.  I feel a lot more in-control and less wasteful with that kind.


And just because I was feeling silly... and a tad tipsy... here are some post-birthday-party shots of my and my LipSavvy....

[This product was sent to me for review.]

4th of July!

I know I'm late posting this, but I left it on for the whole week anyway, so I kind feel like I'm not late.  Does that make sense?  Maybe not.  Oh well.  On with it...

The red is one coat of China Glaze Hey Sailor.  I love that it's one coat, so wonderful!  Great red.  The blue is 2 coats Orly Royal Navy.  Both are topped with one coat of China Glaze Lightning Bolt.  I added the crackle on an angle (or tried to anyway) which I thought would be more interesting.

I know this is pretty much a cop-out as far as nail art goes.  I mean, I looked at my mani from last year and damn!  I really wimped out!  Hahahaha.  But I kinda liked the simplicity of it.  I thought it looked cool.

The other hand!  OMG!  Hahaha.  I did them opposite, obviously.  I think I'd liked there being more red on this hand.  But I didn't like the crackle as well on this hand.

Cult Nails

This is an awesome brand!!  It's fairly new to the market and new to me completely, so I had to buy their entire stock of course!  Cult Nails is available online only.  It's made in the good 'ol USA by a wonderful woman named Maria who lives in FL.  She is a blogger just like me (and many of you)!  She's been very open and shares many of her thoughts about the brand and where it's going on her blog.

This is how the polish comes!  How cute is that?  A whole heap of cotton balls!!  Such a great idea!!

Each polish comes individually wrapped in paper.  So you know how much time she spends to package your polish and the care she's putting into it.

The Original Collection:

My Kind of Cool Aid, 2 coats.  This is a gorgeous greyed out pastel purple.  It has silver shimmer in it too!  It didn't show up all that well in this photo, but it's definitely there.  I love this color!

Living Water, 2 coats.  This is a dark teal-blue base with greenish silver small glitter.  You know what, the glitter might just be plain silver, but looks green because of the base, lol.  But still very lovely!

Iconic, 2 coats.  A warm reddish burgundy with gold shimmer and flakies!!  Gotta love the flakies.  They are soooooo pretty.  And with the combination of the warm darker color of the red, it's just a home run.

Quench, 2 coats.  A perfect red!  I suppose this would qualify as a jelly, but for me it's a little too opaque for that.  Maybe one coat would be more jelly like.

A Day at the Races Collection:

Let Me Fly, 2 coats.  A teal base with silver shimmer.  I LOVE teal, so this is right up my alley.  It's a darker teal, so it's not too bright and over the top.  It's just a perfect dustier teal, but without looking too muted.  Love it!

Devious Nature, 2 coats.  A great hot pink or fushia creme.  It's more pink than purple, but definitely has a hint of purple to it.  To me, it reminds me of OPI Dim Sum Plum.  I might have to swatch them together to see.

Cruisin' Nude, 2 coats.  The most perfect nude beige with a pink shimmer.  This is an amazing color.  I love it.  Words cannot express how much I love this color.  And it's nearly a mannequin hands for me!  I love it!  LOVE IT!

Captivated, 2 coats.  A coral jelly packed with gold glitter.  This one looks orange in the bottle because of the amount of glitter, but it's much pinker on the nail.  It's so amazingly beautiful!  I love it.

Always Winning, 2 coats.  A light green base with gold and holographic glitter.  Sorry about this lighting on this one, the sun took a break  :(  Figures it did that while I'm trying to show holo, right?  Ugh!  Maybe another sunny day I'll throw this one on again.  It really is much prettier when the holo is showing.

Application on all of these was amazing.  They go on nice and smooth and spread evenly without flooding.  They all have good opacity.  The brush is great and I love the bottles!  Overall I'm VERY pleased with this brand.  I would definitely buy from them again.  The service was great, the packaging was unexpectedly awesome and of course, the polish is superb!  I'm most likely going to order a backup of Cruisin' Nude.  I just LOVE that one!  What do you think?

[These polishes were all purchased by me!]

Broadway Nails Nail Dress

There is such a craze of having super detailed manis.  If you wanted to free hand something, it might take a good chunk of time and/or some practice!  But with the Broadway Nails Nail Dress, it's practically instant.  At the most, it would take as long as a regular mani to apply, but most likely even less time than that.  Let's take a look.

As far as I can tell, this design doesn't have a name.  We'll call it polka dots, shall we?  The yellow kind of freaked out the camera, so I apologize for the not-so-great pics.  These are "stick-on wraps" and to me, essentially stickers.  The Sally Hansen version is very thin, not sticky, more like nail polish.  This is thicker, like a sticker or decal, not very stretchy.  They come 14 on a sheet and each package has 2 sheets.  So essentially you get 14 sizes and 28 total wraps.  However, as with most of these products, you'll most likely only get one use out of the entire package unless you have in-between sized fingers that can fit in more than one size wrap.  Application SOUNDS really easy.  You pick a size, peel it off the sheet, apply with the round edge near the cuticle, smooth it on, file off the excess.  BUT and for me, this is a big but... (haha, butt... anyway) the sheet is opaque.  And not just like a little hard to see through, no, it's completely opaque.  So you can't put your finger under the sheet to gauge a good size to peel off.  When I am applying false nails or decals, etc, I like to size up all my fingers first and make sure I have a plan before I start.  With this, you just have to kind of wing it because you can't get a good fit by eye-balling the sticker and your finger.  Your nail is rounded and the sticker is flat, so it's just hard to match up!  That was the biggest downfall of this product.  But the rest of the application was very, very easy.  It goes on, well, like a sticker.  It comes with a 2 sided file and the one side buffs on the wrap, the other side files off the excess.  They recommend putting on a top coat for extended wear.

I put them on starting with the pinky, as they recommend.  I honestly don't see how it matters unless you are using your nails to peel off the stickers which would ruin the fingers already done I guess.  But you shouldn't be doing that because we all know we aren't supposed to use our nails as tools, right?  Right?  Stop it!  Haha.  But after I got them all on, I noticed the first few started lifting around the edges.  I had taken my prior mani off but did NOT buff my nails to take off the shine prior to application.  I think if I wore these again I would do that so they would stick a little better.  So after I got them all on and filed off the edges, I went back and made sure all the edges were good and stuck and slapped on a coat of ChG Fast Forward.  I made sure to wrap the tips since I just filed these things off on the blunt edge and wanted to keep them on.  I took these pictures the next day and you can see I already have some issues with this.  The pinky and thumb show some tip wear!

This isn't the greatest pic, a little blurry, I apologize.  I did like this mani, it's bright and fun and definitely easier to apply the sticker version than it would be to freehand.  Painting yellow dots on top of purple would be HELL.  You'd have to do white first to even get it to show up and then you'd need a nice opaque yellow of which we all know there are very few.  Not to mention how time consuming it would be if you are not very well practiced in nail art.  These are definitely much easier to apply and look "done" with very little know-how.  Apart from the issue with finding the correct size, application was very easy.  Keeping them on... not so much.  After 2 days, this index finger peeled off.  It started lifting at the tip and then caught on my hair in the shower and came right off.  I do type all day at work, so maybe that aggravated the tip wear resulting in that one coming off.  Who knows.

Basically, this is a decent product for what it is.  They come in a variety of designs and are fairly easy to apply.  It allows even the novice manicure maven to have a fun and/or sophisticated mani in little notice.  For a special occasion, these would be perfect.  However, if you're looking for long wear, I would not recommend these.  But they are very cute and look great while they last!

[This product was sent to me for review]

Barbie Party!

Pretty sure I already posted this... but we'll try again!
Sometimes you just need to take a break and slap on some barbie pink and sparkles!!  Yay!  Nothing beats a perk-me-up like pink sparkles!

Pretty!!!  This is 3 coats OPI Strawberry Margarita topped with Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter on top.  I love this combo and left it on for a whole week!  It's just a real feel-good combo.

Don't mind that oddly shaped index finger nail... it broke down too far to cut evenly.  Ouch!  Anyway...

Sparkle-icious!  I love it!  What do you think?

Models Own Utopia

I wanted this sooooooo badly.  I wasn't sure really what color it was.  Honestly, I'm still not sure.  Who the hell cares?  It's awesome!  It's color is awesome.  I hereby name this color awesome.  Carry on.

Ok, so ignore the fact that I didn't clean up.  This is 3 coats of awesome... I mean Models Own Utopia.  It applied like buttah and coverage was great.  I just wasn't doing well and made it streaky so I needed 3 coats.  I could have done 2 if I'd tried harder.

Seriously, what color is this?  Pink?  Purple?  Beige?  Marshmallow?  Whatever, I stand by awesome.

I added some Orly Etoile on top to give it some shimmer.  I think it turned out super pretty.  So if you have an awesome dress, wear this awesome polish with it!  HAHA

Color Club Total Mystery

I had plans to put all kinds of nail art on this one.  But then I saw how cool the color was and scraped it.  Turns out the color is only really cool to me because no one else could even tell there were more colors in here.  Oh well.

This is 3 coats Color Club Total Mystery.  Yeah, this shot is completely blue.  This was a little sheer in application too, but by 3 coats, it covered pretty well.  Again, I liked it a lot better in the bottle than on.  But it's one of those secret ones that's prettier to the wearer than others.

This one shows the purple flecks better.  They're in there... look close!!  Wait, I'll help out, here:

Check that out!  Pretty, right?  But unfortunately that's about how close you have to get to see it, lol.

Color Club Ulterior Motive

I could not wait for Color Club's Alter Ego collection.  I really wasn't interested in the light collection, but the dark collection looked amazing, so I picked it up.  I was a little disappointed that the colors didn't translate as well as I'd hoped.  They look amazing in the bottle, but not as impressive on my nails.  I haven't gotten through them all yet, but the ones I tried aren't as impressive as I wanted.

This is 3 coats of Color Club Ulterior Motive.  The bottle looks much more purple, but here it's like hot pink or fuchsia.  It's fairly sheer too, which wasn't great.  I still had some VNL after 3 coats.

It looks a little more purple-like in this shot, but not much.

Yeah, definitely pink.  But cool.  I like it, just not what I was expecting.  I wanted some more duo-chrome or something.  Oh well.  I still like it.  What do you think?