Mani Monday: The Hunted Edition!

I looked for this color for a long time.

This week, I'm showing off OPI's "I Eat Mainly Lobster" nail color.

I went to the beauty supply to pick this beauty up, and to my disappointment, they didn't seem to have it. So I went home, and got on the OPI website to see if they still made it at all, and not only DO they, but I was looking for it as a red (as the word "lobster" in the title might suggest that I oughta), but OPI classifies it as an orange.

OOOH! So I tapped my decidedly NOT lobster colored fingernails, waiting for a chance to get back to the beauty supply, and the second I did, I ran my self in there and grabbed this beauty:

Is that not practically summer in a bottle?! A great warm coral, with a fine gold glimmer running through it. A few summers ago when I got married, this was one of my wedding colors, actually. And here, I had my toes painted red! If I'd only known about my lobster friend here! 

Is Mani Monday your jam? I've shown off different mani's before! Check out another!

Mani Monday: Minty Edition!

Rimmel 60 Second nail color in "Mintilicious". These bottles are smaller than most, but they also bear a smaller price tag than most ($1.50, and Rimmel frequently puts out coupons, so you can get it cheaper than that even).

Dries fast and well - I've tried other polishes that were several hours in, and still smudging. I've not timed it, so I don't know if the 60 second promise is true, but you're dry and ready to go, really fast.

The finishes tend to come out really true to the bottle, as you can see here. This is two coats, using a white base coat. No surprises, Rimmel delivers exactly what they promise.

Until next time, beautiful!

Mani Monday!

New Monday, new mani!

First up! Cover Girl Outlast Stay Brilliant Glosstini in "Blue Hawaiian"

This has a really nice formula - it dries to a high gloss finish, and seems to wear pretty well. It's a unique color - blue, with just a pinch of green. It attracts a lot of attention. 

The strange part is the coverage - it's a little uneven. There are several parts that when you closer - which probably no one but me actually is - you can see base coat still.

I mostly like this polish though - high gloss finish, wears well, seems to be long lasting - so even with the uneven problem, I would still recommend!

I'm back, baby!

So I'd promised this post over the weekend, and didn't get to it, but darn it, we're back, baby!

I've made no secret of the fact that I love Sinful Colors. A lot. Here are swatches of a few that just got their shot at my nails.

First up, "Burn Rubber" from the "Full Throttle" collection of textured polishes. This was my first foray in to textured polishes, and I'm honestly just not sure I'm a fan. There's something really contrary to the idea of not only allowing bubbles in your mani, but being really excited by them!

Here's a close up, for the texture:

See? Odd. Any other time, if my mani looked like that, I'd be upset!

The application, and performance of the polish were on par with what I'd expect from Sinful Colors, and I'm not at all disappointed in it, it just wasn't quite what I liked.

This color was from the "Full Throttle" collection, which as far as I can tell, was released Summer 2014. This collection is still languishing in stores though (my local Wal-Greens is not suffering for a shortage of Sinful Colors displays, that is for SURE!), so if you'd like to try it, you might still be able to find it.

And another!

This is "Beige of Honor" from the "Practice Your Accents" collection. I'm not totally sold on this one either. You know how when you try to buy a neutral lip color, and you get too close to your own skin tone, and it gets dubbed "concealer lips"? I feel like this was concealer nails for me. I'm a fan of contrast - I rocked those early 2000's Kelly Clarkson chunky highlights pretty hard - and I'm not especially won over by the neutral nails trend anyway, so...meh? I'm not in love, but I don't especially hate it either.

The "Practice Your Accents" collection was put together to be a nice collection for nail art, and I do agree that this would be a nice base for some nail art work.

This is another collection that came out in Summer 2014, but is currently languishing in stores, so if you're intrigued, you should still be able to find it!

This week, I've got so many treats, I'm undecided on what to talk about! I've got some Jamberry nails to try out, and new Sinful Colors, and Almay eyeshadow, and...and...and...ooh, all the makeups! :) See you at the makeup counter! :)

Wet N Wild Wednesday!

For todays special mid-week edition of The Big Blog of Beauty, we've got a Wet N Wild Wednesday!

I gave myself a mani, which isn't unusual obviously, but something about this one felt really familiar. I used Wet N Wild Megalast nail color, in "2% Milk", seen here in the middle:

I typically use a white polish as a base coat, but in this case, I was disappointed to find that the base coat just made the color appear streaky and yellowed. So the whole mani had to come back off, and then get repainted, sans base coat. Wet N Wild makes a mean nail polish - they promise five days of chip free color, and that's exactly what you get. If you're good, you might even eek out a sixth! Wide brush, easy to control product - it's really a heck of a steal for the price tag!

I'm admittedly not completely sold on the neutral trend (which is projected to be big for fall 2014, so stock up accordingly. Unless you're living in a part of the world where you've already done fall, in which case, you missed your shot, haha...), but I like this color pretty well. It prompts my eight year old to constantly quiz me on why I'm wearing clear nail polish, but no bother.

At any rate, this polish felt super familiar. So I decided to do a little sleuthing.

First, I went to Revlon Parfumerie nail color in Pink Pineapple, which you can see in the picture on the left. It was similar - a nice, delicate, natural looking color, but runs a bit more pink than 2% Milk, which verges more to the tan. I spoke about this polish once, here, and I was pleased to find that I was more satisfied with both the color, and the longevity this time around.

But, it didn't quite get the job done. Too pink. So I went back to the drawing board, this time going for "Bubble Bath" from OPI. Just for the note, this is also available from OPI as a gel polish, but I went with the original formula.

Bingo! Nailed it! Honestly, the only marked difference in the two is that Bubble Bath dries to a higher gloss finish - which is nothing a nice glossy top coat can't handle! Where you could maybe pass of 2% Milk and Pink Pineapple as being the same - to people that weren't that knowledgeable about either line - the only people who wouldn't know that Bubble Bath and 2% Milk were NOT the same thing is anyone looking at your check book!

Each color, with one coat. Revlon's Pink Pineapple on my pointer finger, Wet N Wild's 2% Milk on my middle finger, and OPI's Bubble Bath on my ring finger. Each one coat, no base coat. See how they're virtually identical, save for that Pink Pineapple is just a bit pinker than the other two?

Two coats! Pink Pineapple on the pointer finger, 2% Milk on the middle finger, and Bubble Bath on my ring finger. 2 coats, no base coat. As I've said, Pink Pineapple has a bit more pink to it than the other two, but 2% Milk and Bubble Bath are virtually identical in every way. And, as I explained to my eight year old - the polish on my middle finger cost $2, the polish on my ring finger cost $10. Why not save that other $8?! Heck, for the $10 it'd cost you to buy ONE OPI polish, you could have FIVE polishes from Wet N Wild! Think of the possibilities!

Later, lovelies!

Revisiting an old favorite...

Thanks to a bit of a "comedy of errors" type of week, I had trouble getting ready to blog. I spent all last week - which is when I'd normally prep a new post - at my moms, and then today I went "Oh, I'll do it today!", and it stormed all day, so I couldn't go outside to take any new pictures anyway! See what I mean? All the quirky, weird things that you need to have go alright, all kind of went sideways.

At any rate, I decided that we'd revisit an old favorite this week. I had it pointed out to me, and I think the person that said it what was probably right, that sometimes my pictures read a little warm, which distorts the look of the product. So with that in mind, I decided I'd go back and revist one product in particular that I was really fond of, Sinful Colors Professional in "Let's Talk".

My original post was here. This is a deep, bright purple, with no glitter or sparkle to be found. Now, don't mistake - I'm not talking matte, but it's just a great royal purple shade.

In the effort of doing it more justice than I did the first time, I retook the picture!

This time, I used Wet N Wild "French White Cream" as the base coat, and applied 2 coats of "Let's Talk" over the top, with no top coat. If memory serves, the previous picture was no base coat, no top coat, 2 coats of color.

It's still just as fantastic as before, and still wears as durably! If you want a flash manicure that will last, I recommend it! I've found Sinful Colors a tad hit and miss, but this one is a hit, all the way!

My good run of bad luck...

I'm having a good run of bad luck with Sinful Colors lately. I've been through two manis in a week with this stuff!

Introducing Suspect Number One, otherwise known as "Daredevil". This picture actually makes the color look a little warmer than it is - it's a neutral hot pink. Pink like a highlighter marker. I used Maybelline Color Show in Porcelain Party as a base coat (I'll actually be blogging about that soon...)

I'm willing to concede I got probably got a bad bottle, but it was really bad - the brush was thin, and inflexible. The color was runny, and hard to clean off the skin, and chipped almost instantly. In fact, this picture was about the only time the color was chip free. By the time the color was 24 hours old, I was already having to patch chips, and after going strawberry picking with my gramma (and sidebar? If you ever have the chance, do. You might think the strawberries from your supermarket are good, but they don't have anything on the ones that are fresh off the plant...), the color was pretty demolished. So I just took it off and started over. I like Sinful Colors, typically, "Let's Talk" is a gorgeous purple, and "Sugar Sugar" is a fantastic deep red. But if Daredevil had been my first experience, for obvious reasons, there probably wouldn't be a second experience.

With that said, enter Suspect Number Two:

"Cinderella". Cinderella is a really pretty light blue, with a bit of pink iridescence, and a fine pink glitter running through it. It's a bit thin - it'd probably make a fantastic top coat. To get a strong look at the color, I used Wet N Wild Wild Shine in "French White Creme" as my base coat.

Everything started out better anyway - soft brush, color went on smooth, not a lot to clean up, by way of color on the skin, getting the thumbs up from me so far.

Oh, then last night? I'm taking a shower, and I see a little bit of color coming loose around my cuticle (if you're following the numbers at this point, Cinderella has been on my nails about 12 hours by now...), so I go to get it off.

HALF THE NAIL proceeds to come off in the process. Really, Sinful Colors?! So the picture that you're seeing above is my attempt at a patch job, which I was pretty pleased with! It's not pretty if you look at it real close, but since people rarely do, it's not too bad!

So I've struck out twice in a row with Sinful Colors. Curiously, only with light colors. I mentioned "Sugar Sugar" and "Let's Talk" earlier, and their both dark (red, and purple, respectively). Light colors, maybe? Possibly. Good run of bad luck? Absolutely. I'm not discouraged completely though - I have a new color from their "Silks" collection to try, that I'm pretty excited for! :)

See you later, beautiful!

Well, this makes me feel better...

After my experience with Mermaid's Tale, I was pretty down on the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure line. But, because I never give up after one shot, I tried it again!

The top row in the collage is Wet N Wild Megalast in Valet Tag, which is a gorgeous neutral beige, with just a pinch of purple to it. It went on smooth, and easy. The color is really pigmented - that's only one coat in the pictures!

Wet N Wild promises that Megalast will deliver "5 days of chip resistant wear", and they are a brand that really sticks to their promises, because that's exactly what I got. In fact, if you're counting a little optimistically, it might have even made it to six!
Wet N Wild Megalast comes with a wide brush. In fact, one of the widest I've seen in any brand! I can clear each finger in about a stroke and a half, maybe two if I really want to be fussy about the coverage. Every formula I've tried has been nice to control, thickness wise, and was easy to clean off the skin if you accidentally paint your skin instead - which we've all been known to do a time or two. :D

The bottom row is "Commander in Chic", from the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure line. My last try at the Salley Hansen CSM line was Mermaid's Tale (read about that frustrating experience; here), so I was pretty down on the line.

I'm much enthused to report that I had much greater luck this time! The color went on smooth, to a high gloss finish, and lasted a full six days with no chips! The color is a nice purple grey (what it looks like on my toes doesn't do it much justice, it's pretty true to the color in the bottle). It's a nice stand out color, without being as bold as say, black or blue. It's not particularly summery, but is enough of a stand out that you can get away with it whenever you want!

I was really pleased with both of these colors, and I'd for sure recommend them again! :)

Bye, beautiful!

Doesn't it figure...

...I get turned on to Revlon Colorstay nail polish, right as it's getting ready to be a thing of the past?

Revlon is getting ready to replace the Colorstay with the Colorstay Gel Envy, so heads up - if you haven't stocked up on your favorites from the Colorstay line, now's the time!

At any rate - this line promises 11 days worth of high gloss, chip free color. And I am nothing, if not willing to test that sort of thing, so I was hoping against hope for 11, but I made it 7. After a week, I started getting grow out, like you would with a set of acrylics. And, just like with a set of acrylics, the grow lines were snagging in my hair when I took a shower. So that was the end of the Colorstay colors. But I will say - at the end of the 7 days? Just as beautiful, and glossy and chip free as it was at Day 1!

I purchased two colors - "Trade Winds", a nice neutral tan, and "Rich Raspberry" which was, well, a rich raspberry color. I actually picked out these two in particular, because I thought they might look nice together. I've been reading up on nail art, and thought these might be a nice pair to try it out with.

I was quickly shown the error of my ways though. Both products come with the same brush - wide, thick, allows you to maintain a nice level of control of the polish. But where Rich Raspberry was thick, rich and pigmented (one coat could *just* about get the job done, you'll see that in the pictures later), Trade Winds doesn't boast the same thickness. In fact, if a good French Manicure is your thing, Trade Winds is probably a color you need to own. So, they do both look very nice, but they weren't a good match to try out my nail art skills on.

The beauty shot. Nice big portion of color for the price, good handle to hang on to. The colors have a nice wide, thick brush, which gives you a nice control of the color. And see what I mean, about thinking they'd look nice together? They do, don't they? And I think I mentioned this already, but if you're a Colorstay original formula fan, stock up, because they're getting swapped out for the Gel Envy line.

The Rich Raspberry, in action. With this one, there's enough of a color payoff that one coat will just about get the job done, I just like my raspberries a bit higher voltage, so I went in for two. So if you like the color, but without the high wattage, one coat might do it for you.

The nails. With the one coat, you can see that there's still some transparency, one coat would probably make a excellent base for a french manicure, if the pink isn't your thing. I went in for two, and it bubbled a little bit, unfortunately. I kept looking at it, dismayed, but my seven year old son (and you can trust boys to keep it real, haha...) told me that no one else noticed but me, so I'll have to take his word for it, that I was just being fussy.

The colors looked great, and held up impeccably, so I'd absolutely recommend them. Target has just about cleared out of their stock, Wal-Greens just started, and Rite-Aid still has their full supply, at full price. If you're a decent enough couponer, you can get a great deal on some polishes!

I will also point out - this raspberry color removed cleaner, and easier, than any color I've removed in a while. I was well and truly surprised that I didn't end up with raspberry colored toes! Clean and easy, right off!