A Great Spring Color! LA Colors Mint Review and Swatch

Hi everyone! Happy saturday. :) I'm glad its finally the weekend after a week of hard work in class!  Today I have for you a cute little polish that I actually found in Family Dollar a while back! They had  two buckets of mini LA colors polishes, all for a great price each! So naturally.. I couldn't resist, and picked out a polish thats perfect for Spring!

LA Colors Mint- 2 coats over Sinful Colors Snow Me White

It's from the LA Colors Color Craze mini line, and it's called Mint. Although the name really doesn't match the color, since its a bright neon rather then a mint green. LA colors sometimes seems to get color names wrong. I have another polish from them thats called "Magenta" but it's actually a dark plum purple color. Sometime i'll show you that one, its an interesting polish. But getting back on track..heres my review of "Mint".

Application

I didn't have any big application problems, but I didn't try to wear it by itself because it seemed sheer when I swatched it in my swatch book. Neons also tend to stain nails, so I wore two coats of it over Sinful Colors Snow Me White. That worked great.

Look

I really like this! It's perfect for spring, and I love that it didn't have that dull semi-matte finish that some neons tend to have. It's also really bright, the color drove my camera crazy. It took me a while to get a picture where the color and my skin tone looked accurate. Most of the time I got pictures that made my hand look like it belonged to a zombies. Heres one of the fail pictures for laughs.

Yeah..it looks like I have radioactive fingernails! Haha. But seriously, the real color is beautiful. I'll definitly be wearing it again!

Price

This is the best part. It was only 60 cents! Yeah, you heard me right! It's not a bad size for a mini either, 4.9 ml! Thats more then OPI, China Glaze, and Covergirl minis hold, for a fraction of the price!

Overall

I'm definitely pleased with this polish, and will be buying more of the mini colors next time i'm in Family Dollar! I'd recommend that if you live near an almost dollar store (Like family dollar or dollar general), you might want to take a look if you can! They have a good variety of colors and you can buy one with change that you might have in the bottom of your bag(that is, if you're like me and tend to just toss change in there. I have an extreme over abundance of random pennies in my purse :P)!

So..will you be on the lookout for these? Are you a fan of neon colors? Please tell me in the comments..your comments are always more then welcome!

In the meantime, happy painting! :)

Sally girl Ice Cream Shoppe Swatches

Okay..so a few weeks ago I was in Sally's Beauty Supply (I love that place, seriously the best store ever), and before I checked out I noticed they had a new Sally girl collection on display for March. The collection is called Ice Cream Shoppe, and it consists of cute pastels with small black glitter in it. I picked up a few of them..because they looked adorable and the price can't be beaten at .99 cents each. So I have two of them to share with you today!

First up is Chocolate Chip, a milky white polish with small black glitter. First I tried it by itself, this is three coats.

I wasn't really happy with the way it looked on it's own. The black glitter went a little wild..and it just looked a little weird to me. So I took it off and put two coats over one coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

I like it layered over white more. I think it looks more even.

Next is Mint Chip, a mint green polish with small black glitter. I didn't try to apply it by itself and I'll tell you why. When I removed three coats of Chocolate Chip, the black glitter went EVERYWHERE. It took me forever to get all of the little specks off of my fingers and I think I still have a few that I missed left on there! So..I didn't want to put more coats of this polish then I had to.
So here it is in two coats over Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

I think the effect of both polishes is adorable. I like Chocolate Chip a little better then Mint Chip..maybe because it blended well with the white polish underneath and because I like the finish a little more. It seems to be a little less cloudy looking when dried. But I do like both polishes. Pastels are great for spring and the ice cream look is so cute!

So..what do you think of them? Do you like food inspired polish as much as I do? I'd love to hear from you! :)

Happy painting!

Cherry Lemonade Nail Art

Hello beautiful people! Okay, over the last few weeks I've been buying a whole bunch of new polishes..it's just taken me a while to translate them into posts. But yeah, I've got a really nice swatch line up for you over the next few weeks, but I figured I'd take a break from the swatches and give you some nail art!
I'm really starting to get into the spring and summer mood lately, especially summer. I can't wait to be sitting by the pool, sipping cherry lemonade..
And that image, my friends, was what made me think about this design! What other way to show my impatience for Summer to get here then with some nail art inspired by the perfect summer drink!

And voila!

Cute right? I think so! Heres what you can do if you want to create this look on your own nails!

1. Paint your nails with an opaque yellow polish. I actually used two coats of Golden from a nail ritz shimmer nail art pen set I have, and then a coat of Sally Hansen Lite(From the HD collection!) over it. Since both of those yellow polishes aren't as common, I'll say that just about any yellow polish looks great for this. I used lemony yellow because..well..lemonade..but if you choose to do this go with an opaque yellow. And the finish doesn't matter much either! I think it looks cute whichever way! Shimmer..frost..creme..whatever floats your boat! Anyway..

2. Add some red polish across the tips. I think jelly red looks best here. I used NYC Broadway Burgundy Frost.

3. I again used NYC Broadway Burgundy Frost for the two dots of the cherries, which I added using a toothpick, but would probably be done easier using a dotting tool. Then I used another toothpick to paint the stem of the cherries with Wet n Wild Sagreena the Teenage Witch.

So yeah, I love the overall effect, I think it's cute for spring and summer!
So..what are you going to be doing once summer (finally) gets here? What are you doing in the meantime with Spring? And the most important question of all..whats your favorite summertime drink? :) I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

Happy Painting!

Back to the clearance! Zoya swatch!

Okay lovely people, what time is it? Adventure time! Hah just kidding, it's time for a new back to the clearance post! Last time I did one of these I explained that, due to my natural need to save money, I tend to gravitate to the clearance section of just about every store I go into. So these posts are dedicated to the polishes I get on sale!

Today I have for you..drumroll please..

An amazing Zoya polish! I was in Ulta yesterday, and they had a whole bunch of them on sale for $4.99 each! Including some of the famed Pixie Dust shades! I almost got a few of those(I'll probably go back for those soon), but the one above really caught my eye. It's called "Ziv", and it's a beautiful cool yellow toned gold foil, with bits of warmer gold glitter in it. It also has very sparse holographic bar glitter. I'd been on the look out for a good gold foil and this was perfect!

Now..onto the review..

Application

It was a tiny bit thin, so it took three coats to get it right. But it built up nicely and evenly, so I perfectly fine with that.

Look

I love it. Unfortunately, the bar glitter didn't really make it onto my nails at all. I wish it had made more of an appearance but I bought it more for the gold anyway. It's a nice flattering type of shade that I think would flatter a bunch of different skin tones.

Price

Normally $8.99, but as I said before..back to the clearance! :)

Overall

Im very happy with this, i'm wearing it on its own now and will probably use it for nail art in the future! I'm so glad I found it!

A Bit of Nostalgia for you.. Crayola Scented Nail Polish

Okay..so I was in Walmart today, and was in the makeup aisle with the polishes(because I clearly can't go to walmart without looking at polishes XD), and something a little different caught my eye. Over near where the kids sets of nail polish are, I saw this set.

Crayola nail polish. Now, a little something about me, I love Crayola. I loved their crayons as a kid and I still love them now! So, of course, the little kid in me shrieked and did a little happy dance and I knew the set just had to be mine. The colors look so beautiful, all bright and shimmery, and I think that the fact that they're scented is a serious added bonus. I've never had scented nail polish before, although ive always kind of wanted to try it.
Before I show you the swatches I have another little comment that I would like to add about the packaging. While looking at the way it was packaged I thought it was going to be like that awful plastic that they use to package electronics. The type that takes forever to saw through with scissors before ripping it apart, inevitably scratching yourself on the jagged plastic edges.
But I was pleasantly surprised. Turns out the edges aren't fused together, and open up like this

So now instead of being left with destroyed plastic scraps, I have a handy storage case that I can keep the polishes in. Good job Crayola!

Now, without futher adou, here are the swatches!

This one is "Orange", and its, well, an orange shimmer with a little yellow micro shimmer in there too. It's a beautiful bright citrus-y orange. It almost has a golden glow to it thats just gorgeous.

This one is "Green Apple", it's a bright lime green shimmer. I wasn't too sure about the shade when I
looked at it in the bottle, but love it. It really lives up to its name because to me it looks exactly like a green apple lollipop. It smells like green apple too, but not like candy. The smell reminds me of a green apple body spray I used to have. The finish of this one is also more unique then the picture shows. When fully dried is has an almost rubber like feel to it, but in a good way. It really reminds me of candy, and if you choose to get this set you'll be able to see for yourself. :)

This one is "Blueberry", a bright cobalt blue shimmer. It's a pretty color, although not quite as unique as the others seem to be. Ive seen a few blue polishes that have almost the same color. I also had a bit of trouble with the application, which I've said in more detail below in my review. Overall I'm not unhappy with the color, and the scent is nice, its just not my favorite from the set.

This one is "Grape". It's a pink toned purple shimmer, with a sort of blue purple glow to it. It's a beautiful shade, one I've never really seen before. It smells like grape candy too.

And lastly we have "Bubble Gum", a cute..well..bubble gum pink shimmer. I wasn't sure if I'd like the shade but I really do. I think its very cute, and I might even wear it by itself at some point instead of putting it into the box with polishes that I use just for nail art.

And now for the review!

Application

Most of them were opaque in two coats. The one that gave me the most trouble was Blueberry. I found that if I touched my cuticles with the polish at all, it would immediately flood them and stain them so i'd have to take all the polish off that finger to scrub with remover before doing it again. A few of them were a little bit on the watery side, but I have an idea of how to fix that. A blogging friend of mine has the same set, and suggested that I leave them uncapped for a little bit to thicken them slightly. If I do that i'll let you know how that goes. :)

Look

I love the look of these. The colors are so bright and shimmery, and I think they're fairly unique as I haven't seen a finish quite like the ones they have.

Smell

Any time I review scented polishes in the future I'll have this category. I like the smells. They're not chemically, except maybe for the smell of the bubble gum, which does lean a bit that way. Smell wise my favorites are the Orange and Green apple, and my least is Bubble gum.

Price

$4.99 for the whole set. That makes them a tiny bit more then $1 each if you count tax. Although they are mini bottles, at 5ml each, I think thats a great price.

Overall

I love these and would definitely purchase them again. I think they are so cute, and although they are marketed towards kids, I think they have just as much of a place in polishes collections as main stream brands.

So what do you think of them? Will you be getting this set? Are you a Crayola lover like me? I'd love to hear your opinions and comments!
Happy painting! :)

Valentines Day..late again.

Hi everyone! Wow, valentines day really came and went quick this year! I spent the day with my family and..*ahem*..maybe waiting for a call from a certain someone. By the time I realized "Oh no! I haven't done a valentines day post!" It was over. Woops. Another ADHD moment on my part. So..I hope you'll accept it late!
Heres what I came up with :)

I used my new favorite polish, My Cherry Amour by Nicole by Opi. It's from the gumdrops collection, and I figured whats more perfect for valentines day then polish that looks like candy? I did a review on it recently. You should maybe check it out ;)
After that dried, I used a Nail Ritz shimmer nail art pen in pearlized white to make the x's and o's and used the orchid pen from the same set for the heart on my accent nail. I just want to say that these pens are the best things ever. Since i'm not very skilled with a nail art brush, these make it a lot easier for me to do nail art!
So anyway, so sorry for the late post. What was your valentines day like? :)

Nicole By Opi My Cherry Amour Gumdrops Review and Swatches!

Hello everyone :). Today I have a polish that holds a little bit of significance for me. Back when I finally kicked my nail biting habit, this collection was the first collection that made me want to paint my nails after I saw it in a magazine. The Gumdrops collection from Nicole by Opi. My whole love for nail polish began with these polishes. Funny thing was, I never ended up buying one..until yesterday when I found them at CVS. So I have one to show you today. Before I do though, I have to say I faced a crisis last week. I broke the nail on the middle finger of my right hand all the way off..so I had to say goodbye to my long nails..it's why I haven't posted in a few days, i'm still getting used to the change. This will also explain why I may still post posts with long nails pictured because I have some that I took before the break.
So..without further ado..

Hello short nails!
This polish is called My Cherry Amour, it's a beautiful dark pink with tiny holographic glitter that dries to a fine sugary textured finish.

Application

This is my first textured polish, so I wasn't sure how it was going to apply. It applied nicely though, being opaque in two coats. Although I had to do a little bit of touching up, I didn't face any real problems with it.

Look

I am in love with this. Even though its matte it is still really sparkly, and it legitly makes my nails look like gumdrops. Heres a picture of actual gumdrops for comparison(I didn't take that photo I pulled it off google images so I hope theres no problems with that..let me know if I should give credit to someone because I don't know).

Price

About $8. Normally it wouldn't be a price I would go for, but for this its worth it.

Overall

I typically don't like the look of textured polishes, and thats why I didn't previously have any. But I adore this. For some reason i'm attracted to polishes that are named after food or remind me of food in some way. Like kiwi or mint green, chocolate brown, and any polish with food names..like the cover girl glosstini set..and this explains my need for a banana pudding color pastel yellow..wow, serious self realization here.
I guess I just really like food. :P
Anyway, maybe thats why I love this collection so much. No matter the reason, I think this just took the number one spot in my favorite polishes. This might end up being the first full collection I ever buy.

So what do you think? Will this be making it's way into your collection? Do you like polishes that remind you of food?I'd love to hear from everyone!
Happy painting!