Willa's Shiny Tips

All the Way from Italy

2011-12-29T00:00:00.003-05:00

My niece has been studying in Italy for the last few years. Every time she leaves I ask her to bring my back some Italian nail polish.
This time she finally remembered! I loved everything about Collistar! The bottle is cute, the color was great, the polish strong.
I'd definitely love to know more about this brand!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T11:12:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas!
I couldn't decide between all the Christmas polishes I pulled out what I wanted to wear, so I gave my basket of polish to my husband. He pulled out the China Glaze, "Party Hearty". I told him it needed something under it, so he pulled out the Nfu-Oh silver.

I think it turned out really nice!

Just the right amount of Christmassy for me! What colors did you pull out for the holidays?

MAGNETIC POLISH!

2011-12-09T22:49:00.004-05:00

I finally got my hands on one of these! I picked up Houses of Parliament at Sephora. I chose the purple over the grey because all the grey ones looked like they had already been opened and tried on.

This works great! The magnet is easy to use. There's a little guard so you don't accidentally bump your wet nails against the magnet. Drying time is fast! I tried painting one hand and then going over with the magnet and that did not work. I needed to polish a nail, use the magnet and then do the next one. Worth it though!

I definitely need more magnetic polishes! I hope they are going to become more available. And as they get more popular, I hope the price comes down a little $16.00 is steep (to me) but worth it for something so interesting that works really well!

Lippman - Across the Universe

2011-11-13T20:47:00.002-05:00

I have been waiting for over a year to get my hands on this polish...finally found it at Apothica...and then it was back-ordered for like, EVER! Then I wore it and only remembered to take one good picture. Such is life!

Isadora - Blue Jeans

2011-11-08T13:35:00.001-05:00

IsaDora is a brand I had not heard about until I stumbled across it on Apothica's site. Always interested in trying new polish, I had to grab one!
The brush is wide but not unruly. The polish is smooth and applies like butter.
The wear was okay. I think it chipped on the 2nd or 3rd day. Overall, I liked this a lot and would buy more in the future.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

2011-10-31T17:16:00.005-04:00

I don't think this color is particularly unique. But, I didn't have any of these gravestone bottles in my collection, so I picked this up at Walgreens. It's actually quite pretty.

Mega-Pink Awesomeness!

2011-10-30T23:42:00.004-04:00

COLOR CLUB - FAME & FORTUNE

This is really cool and fits my "new, different and don't have it in my collection" criteria for buying new polish. It's a fuschia jelly base with chunky shards of holo glitter. It's kind of weird and sloppy to apply but the effect is totally worth it!

More Glitter Gal!!!

2011-10-20T23:39:00.003-04:00

Light as a Feather.
It's not white, or really grey, but somewhere in between. It's been really overcast, so I couldn't capture the holo very well in this one.

Then over the weekend I tried this out...more on this later!

"Suede"

I love these neutral taupey colors. This was the perfect blend between fun and work appropriate. It's got holo sparkle, but not too much.

Happy (almost) Halloween!

2011-10-11T22:43:00.002-04:00

Woohoo! Aren't these cute!!?
I found these little fellas at Rite Aid. I was actually looking for a Wet n Wild halloween polish, but found these instead. They're $1.99 each and pretty darn cute!

This was just a quick swatch over my Glitter Gal black holo. I have all sorts of plans for that orange/black bar glitter. I'm thinking it will look cool over gold.

Things I Love

2011-10-10T00:24:00.004-04:00

I've decided I have so many polishes now, that I am going to (try) to only get unique polishes in colors/finishes I really love and don't already have. Holo polishes were on that list. Every time I wear them, they make me so happy, I must have more! Glitter Gal, really interested me, so I finally ordered some. This is Black 3D Holo. Isn't it pretty? That's my hand on my dog's back if you were wondering...

Look how pretty and sparkly!

My only complaint would be how tiny the bottles are! Otherwise, these are perfect. The formula is so smooth and applies really well. The price is steep, but worth it if you really love holos in unique shades. I ordered mine from here and the service was fantastic! I ordered them on a Tuesday and had them in my hot little hands on Friday! Customer service is also very quick to respond. I ordered two other ones that I'll have to post soon, I'm just loving this one too much to take it off right now!

Two colors from the Katy Perry Collection by OPI

2011-10-03T19:14:00.000-04:00

The One That Got Away
A deep rasberry color with a glass fleck finish. Very pretty. I don't know how original it is, but it's nice. I added some Lippman Some Enchanted Evening, because I thought it would be awesome - and I was right!

Not Like The Movies

This reminded me of at least two other polishes that I own. Lippman's Wicked Game and another one by Wet and Wild that I can't remember the name of right now. Except this one has silver micro-particles in it which the other two do not have.

I was too lazy to pull out the other polishes and compare them, but I really should one day.

Regardless of what other colors this reminds me of, it's AWESOME. I loved it so much! It's a little sheer. This was three coats and it's still a little see through. But look at the duochrome shifting happening! It's lavender, it's grey, with green and pink shifts going on. So pretty!

Essie - Smooth Sailing with Lippman Some Enchanted Evening

2011-09-19T20:00:00.001-04:00

Smooth Sailing was really gorgeous all on its own. But I've been really into SEE for some reason lately. It's pink, but it seems to go with everything!

Look how gorgeous that is! It's got silvery glass flecking going on. It seems a lot more sparkly in the bottle than it appears in these pictures.

Essie - Strange French

2011-09-13T18:12:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure what was going on here! I picked up Essie's kisses and bises at CVS for $2.22. I told my husband, "If you see Essie for $2, you buy it!" But it's kind of sheer and weird...but yet still awesome! For some reason I thought some french tips in Sally Hansen's Kumquat would be cute. You be the judge?

Rimmel Goodies

2011-09-01T19:29:00.001-04:00

Hard Metal

This color was so gorgeous! I had a BOGOfree coupon for Rimmel and these two are the only colors that stood out to me!

I bet if I look I have one or two polishes in this color already, but it's so pretty!!

Rags to Riches - a perfect metallic moss green!

It also happened to be a perfect match to my husband's car!

I gave in!

2011-08-15T21:50:00.000-04:00

I've been resisting the whole crackle nail phase. The polishes are expensive and I wasn't sure I liked it. Then I saw some one wearing a pink and white combination that I really liked. So, I thought I would try it. Of course, then I couldn't find a single bottle of white crackle polish ANYWHERE!

Finally 5Below came to the rescue and i found this there! It's pricier than the regular Funky Fingers and it didn't crackle quite how I thought it would, but I liked this more than I expected!

The bottom is Zoya's Sweet

Rocking nails!

2011-07-25T01:03:00.003-04:00

We went to see one of my favorite bands, Rev Theory, last night. They killed it as always!

This was my mani. $OPI "Never Enough Shoes" as a base and Wet-n-Wild Fireworks layered on top. I loved this! It got a lot of compliments!

I love the big, holo glitter pieces in fireworks.

We met the band after and I had them sign my cd. Great night! :)
Ironically, we went to see All That Remains on Friday, and the mani I wore was Color Club's Revvvolution. No pics though. :D

Sally Hansen Ice Queen

2011-07-21T22:41:00.003-04:00

This is Ice Queen over China Glaze LOL. It's pretty silver sparkles with blue and purple hex glitter in a clear base. Wore well, so well I couldn't get some of the glitter off!

Zoya - Malia

2011-06-18T17:50:00.001-04:00

Christmas in June!

2011-06-03T10:32:00.003-04:00

These are my first Nicole Polishes. I kind of like the wonky bottles.

I found these in a 2-pack at Marshalls for $6.

I wish I had gotten a picture of "stuck in the chimmney" for you by itself. Gorgeous red!

I got lots of compliments on this. Spark my mistletoe is a great holo-red glitter.

Groove

2011-05-19T21:54:00.003-04:00

Beautiful Mom Mother’s Day giveaway!

2011-05-03T22:40:00.002-04:00

All mothers are beatutiful no matter what. But if you've got the best story about yours, you can win free beauty products! Apothica will be selecting the best stories to receive a $250.00 gift card to their site. There are also prizes for runner ups!

Submissions close May 5, 2011, do get your stories ready!

Prize Winning Mare

2011-05-03T22:27:00.002-04:00

I've had this in a box of polishes "to try" for awhile now. I finally pulled it out, and was so glad I did!

Look at how it's all browny-gold and shimmery!

Bright, sun!

Wet n Wild Glitter

2011-04-23T22:31:00.001-04:00

I went a little nutty tracking down these Wet n Wild polishes, just cause they were new and shiny I guess. I wanted to love this, but as you can see, it's really sheer, This is like 4 coats!

I'll probably try it over another color and see how that works.

Tronica - Cyberspace

2011-03-21T01:22:00.002-04:00

Love, love, love THIS!

Perfect for work days!

Happy St. Patty's!

2011-03-17T00:50:00.003-04:00

I found this on clearance at Ocean State Job Lot. I think it was from the Spring Gelatto collection, or something like that. It's a really vibrant emerald green with a little shimmer. It looks so happy in the bottle.

Unfortunately, it was sheer as all get out! This is like 4 coats and you can still see through it. This is day 3 so there is also some tip wear. I really wanted to like this, but I didn't care for it on my nails. Nor did I enjoy how sheer it was.

Now, THIS on the other hand is how green is done. China Glaze's Laser Lime from their new
Tronica Line. I found a full display at Sally's a couple weeks ago. I really want to go back and get a few more because these are great! I got this and Cyberspace.

Valentine's Leftovers

2011-02-16T01:12:00.003-05:00

Meh. This didn't turn out quite as nice as I had hoped. But, I was in a bit of a hurry and kinda sloppy!

SH - Fedora

2011-02-15T22:17:00.002-05:00

Hard Candy - Sky

2011-01-19T09:33:00.006-05:00

I know it's trendy to proclaim hatred for the Evil Empire of Walmart, But, I'm not one of those people who likes to brag how I never, ever set foot in the ol' Wally World, blah, blah, blah.

Wal Mart sells crap cheap, so I do a decent amount of our dry good grocery shopping there. I also have this weird need to visit every Wal Mart I see when I travel some place new. Since, a lot of my work is driving to out of the way places, I visit a fair amount of WalMarts. They definitely vary from location to location! They also sell Hard Candy and I am obsessed with this brand for some ridiculous reason. They also just lowered the prices of the nail polish from $5 to $4.

Yes, on every trip there I am visually assaulted by people with some questionable taste in fashion, but I figure it gives me something to do while I am waiting in the seemingly endless check out line I always get trapped in.

Love My Nails is a brand I have only ever found at Wal Mart, and it's $1. This is Dazzling. It kind of looks ugly in the bottle, but layered over Sky, I thought it was rather pretty. It's very fine, small pink and blue and maybe silver glitter in a sheer pinky base. I thought it gave Sky a little extra something special.

Secret Shimmah! Love it!

Yes, I am aware Wal Mart has been accused of not treating their employees very well. But I worked a lot of retail before and during college, and let me tell you, no big company treats their people well. One of the most horrid places I worked was Macy's. Also, some of the lousiest pay.
And since I was recently ripped off by a law firm, who decided they didn't feel like paying their bills, I have to say, it's not just discount stores that treat the people who work for them badly.

By the way, the Hard Candy liquid eyeliner is also awesome! ;)

DS Magic

2011-01-18T21:21:00.004-05:00

I managed to get pulled over for speeding my first day back to work in the New Year. Turned out my license was expired, I forgot to renew it! So I got two tickets for the price of one!

The officer who nabbed me was really nice and told me the nearest DMV was in a mall that I haven't been to in at least a year...so I immediately went there to fix the license situation.

That DMV was awesome, and even though it's like 56 miles from my house, I am totally going there for all my future DMV needs, because I was in and out in about 7 minutes, no joke.

The DMV also happens to be located next to a hair salon, where all their OPI products were 40% off (see you were wondering what the point of this story was, weren't you?)

I spotted Magic on my way in, I mean this color literally just jumped out at me. They only had 2 bottles of it left.

This day was really overcast, so you can't see how sparkly it is. Can you see how it's both purpleish and electric blue on the nails? So gorgeous! Yeah, that kind of took the sting out of the tickets. A good nail polish buy!

It just gets better...

2011-01-12T20:59:00.001-05:00

I stopped by Rite Aid yesterday to see what was new in the nail polish world.

I found a new, untouched display of "Jessie's Girl" nail polishes. These are different than their other rectangular shaped bottles. It's "High Intensity" nail color, which I think means it's supposed to be better pigmented ? There were at least 3 that caught my eye. But the other two were very similar to other colors I have. They were $2.99 each. I picked up firefly and immediately noticed it was this pretty frosty/pearly white that also shifted green and purple. Perfect to put on top of "The Color to Watch"!

And this was how it came out. This is 2 coats over the three I had on yesterday of OPI's TCTW. I love, love, love it! Can't wait to try this over the olive green I also picked up or a blue...or maybe even a baby pink!

Happy 1/11/11!

2011-01-11T12:55:00.001-05:00

The Color to Watch
I found this at a hair salon last week for 40% off. Pretty exciting. :)
This was 3 coats and it's still a little sheer. Very pretty lavender with some duochrome.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-01-01T00:27:00.000-05:00

More importantly, happy 1/1/11.
Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of my mani. :(

Jolly Holly

2010-12-27T11:26:00.000-05:00

Since it's still close to Christmas, and I resent having Night Court the Monday after Christmas,

I'm wearing Jolly Holly! It's really pretty! Actually feels kind of glamorous and I usually don't like dark greens on my hands that much.

2010-12-21T20:23:00.002-05:00

I can't remember what red was the base color. Something OPI holidayish I think.

But it's Sally Hansen's hidden treasure on top.

Christmas Party Mani

2010-12-18T11:41:00.001-05:00

Emerald Sparkle with a coating of Milani Gems

Party Hearty!

2010-12-10T22:40:00.001-05:00

You wiley little devil! It took me weeks and multiple trips to Sally's to finall track you down!

(Party Hearty over Phat Santa)

Funky Fingers

2010-11-29T06:35:00.001-05:00

This is a brand I had only ever seen on the internet. Then two weeks ago, I walked into a new store in my area "5 Below". I found a bunc of LA Girl Rockstar polishes, and when I turned around, a huge display of Funky Fingers! I love the bottle shape. The colors were all interesting. Loud neons, bright colors, subtle colors with glitter. They were 3/$5. I bought 3.

This one is Elephunk. I love grey nail polish, but this also had a little shimmer to it.

I decided to kick up the shimmer facter and added some disco dazzle to the tips. I was going for a "gradient glitter" look.

The brush on funky fingers is really thin and kind of long but I didn't find it difficult to work with. The consistency was a little on the thin side, but coverage was decent. Dry time was fairly quick. This is two coats of Elephunk, 2 or three of Disco Dazzle (by Cover Girl) on the tips and a coat of Seche Vite.

I have two other Funky Fingers I haven't tried yet, but I will soon!

Just Awesome

2010-11-27T18:56:00.004-05:00

I loved this mani so much, I have no other words for it other than "Awesome!"

I'm going to have to do it again really soon!

The stars of the show:

a polish I picked up at Fashion bug simply called "red multi" and Milani "gems" which I actually managed to find at the 2nd CVS I went to in search of it!

That sparkly goodness at the tips, is all Gems.

After initially thinking it was hideous, I kind of wanted Happy Birthday from Lippman. One of things I didn't like about it (besides the $18 price tag) was how sparse all the cool glitter was.
Gems, looks very similar to Happy Birthday, but it's very dense glitter. It applies so well.

Bling! Bling!

"Red Multi" was also a very dense glitter. I didn't expect it to be so thick and glittery, but this "gradient" I was attempting only has 1 or 2 swipes of "red multi". I had not been in fashion bug in years, but for some reason stopped in one day. I found nail polish at the register and was almost ready to dismiss it when a little twinkle caught my eye. I picked up the last bottle of this, then set it down, then picked it up as a manicure using this and Gems started to formulate in my brain. These sell for $3.99 at Fashion Bug.

My husband chose the blue base. I couldn't decide between red, gold or blue as the bottom color. I really liked how these looked together!

And, a close-up. Winter is coming so my daylight hours have been pretty crappy and overcast for photographing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T08:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ready for Snowmen?

2010-11-22T08:32:00.001-05:00

These are so cute. But the first time I saw it, I passed. Then I thought about the red holo and how neat it looked. But when I went to the same Rite Aid, all the red holos were gone. Now, I had to have it!

2 or 3 Rite Aids later I found one lone bottle.

The worst part is, I didn't like it that much on the nail! For starters this is 4 coats and there is still VNL. The red (which was hard to capture on film) was a lot lighter on the nail than it was in the bottle. I did enjoy the mellow holo glitter that peeked out in the sunshine.

Velvety!

2010-11-21T16:02:00.003-05:00

Velvet Voyer

I can't remember what collection this is from, but it was hiding in my local beauty store's discount bin (hence the scribbles on the bottom). I picked it up. It looked interesting because it's really dark, but when you turn the bottle just...so, it's a dark fig purple.

Very interesting!

There, you can see the dark grape color.

I loved this, it was like wearing black nail polish...without the severity of wearing black nail polish. I don't find Essie to be an "exciting" brand, but when they do a good polish, it's really good.

Who doesn't like 25% off!?

2010-11-19T00:13:00.003-05:00

Use code FF25 to snag 25% off SkinMedica and other great stuff at SkincareRX. I think the code is good until December 1st. I want to give their Vitamin C and E complex a try, since I am starting to really freak out about the wrinkles around my eyes!

Cosmic Blue - Sally Hansen Xtreme

2010-11-17T11:20:00.001-05:00

This is without top coat and it's kinda lumpy and sloppy. i haven't had a chance to try to photograph it again.

Rockstar Supernova!

2010-11-13T10:41:00.003-05:00

I took two layers of Rock Star - Heavy Metal which is an interesting dark grey-black with metallic particles. It looked pretty awesome on it's own.

But, I have a 4-day weekend, so some holo glitter was called for!

This is two layers of Supernova, which is a really neat holo bar glitter. I was a little impatient so you can see where I smudged it a little. It's a bit bumpy too, so I used two coats of Seche Vite which worked well. I had planned to change my manicure, but I am liking this so much, I think I am going to keep it a little longer!

Hard Candy - Beetle

2010-11-11T23:30:00.002-05:00

NYC Peony

2010-11-08T08:55:00.002-05:00

This doesn't look all that exciting in the bottle. But as I passed it in the display at Rite Aid, it caught my eye.

I was there in search of flashier colors, but I kept coming back to this, and for $1.99 (and BOGO 50% off) I said what the heck!

I'm glad I did, because this was a hidden gem! On the nail, it's totally gorgeous! It's got really pretty secret shimmer.

Dry time and wear were excellent!

Cosmic Midnight Blues

2010-11-07T18:23:00.003-05:00

This is Midnight from the Wet n Wild Holiday collection I believe. It photographed kind of weird. To my eye it was more of a medium purple.

It has great holo glitter pieces that were hard to capture because there was no sun out.

Indoor lighting.

Midnight looked sort of familiar so thought I would compare it to Duri "Midnight Blues" which I have posted before and Sally Hansen XTreme Cosmic Blue, which is a LE this season and I don't think I have posted yet.

Index: Duri, Middle and Pinky: W-n-W, Ring: SH Xtreme

There is no top coat so they look a little chunky.

SH has some weird bar glitter that doesn't shine through because the polish is kind of dense.

Sweet!

2010-11-06T00:16:00.005-04:00

Hello! There are 20 days left until Thanksgiving here in the US! Have you picked out your nail polish yet? I haven't even decided if we are going to host it at our house again this year! I guess I might want to figure that one out soon!

I haven't tried Maybelline polishes in probably 12 or 13 years. But, Rite Aid put this collection on 50% off and I thought I would give Chic Chocolate a whirl.

It had a very pretty secret shimmer to it.

Wear time was excellent.

What do you think? What Maybelline polishes are your favorite?

Lady Sings the Blues

2010-11-02T08:41:00.000-04:00

I made the (longer than I thought it would be) trip to the Westchester in search of Lippman's "Across the Universe". The sales woman informed me that someone woman had bought the last three bottles of it. Yeesh! So I made myself feel better with these little pretties!

This is "Lady Sings the Blues". Isn't she beautiful!?

Sally Hansen - Purple Diamond - Nail Prism

2010-11-01T22:54:00.005-04:00

Found it at Dollar Tree in a 2-pack with
a plain color Look at the holo-prettiness!

It's called Purple Diamond, but to my eye, it really is more pink than purple.
Whatever it is, it's gorgeous!

I almost think I like this more than China Glaze's LOL and BFF! Almost.

Halloween Mani!

2010-11-01T01:33:00.006-04:00

This is what Halloween looked like at my house:

The bottom color was Petites Color Fever - "Black Diamond" with a layer of Lippman "Today was a Fairy Tale". One of my first full-size Lippman polishes. Supposedly it has "Virgin Diamond Dust" in it or something. But honestly, I bought it for the name, my nieces are obsessed with Taylor Swift, and I couldn't resist a polish named after one of her songs! :)

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Great Fall Color! - Zoya "Kym"

2010-10-28T22:47:00.002-04:00

BORGHESE - MEDITERRANEO SEA

2010-10-18T08:08:00.000-04:00

This one looked interesting on the shelf. It's a pretty medium blue with blue and magenta glitter. It seems to go on matte? I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a matte polish. The above and below pictures are index finger with top coat and middle finger without.

Now, even with topcoat, the chunky, lumpiness of the glitter doesn't go away. I generally find that pretty annoying. But this was such an interesting looking color, that it's almost okay.

Concrete next to Mystic Lilac

2010-10-17T17:02:00.004-04:00

Here is Concrete, sitting on some actual concrete.
It's definitely got a lavender/grey thing going on. Very pretty. I could have sworn SH already had this color out and it was more putty colored, but it's included in the LE display in stores now and it looks like this. I found them at Rite Aid BOGO free.

This is concrete and mystic lilac side by side. Mystic lilac has a really pretty teal-green shimmer to it and it a slightly less grey lavender, if that makes sense.

Mystic Lavender

This is very sheer. It took maybe 4-5 coats to be opaque.

I wanted to love it, but once I had it on and wore it for a day or so, I didn't really like how it looked with my skin tone, and I almost never say that about any color. It's still a really interesting addition to my colection though.

Contest is Closed

2010-10-17T17:00:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! The Contest is now closed, thank you so much, everyone who entered and thank you for all of your nice comments! I will contact the winner shortly...

Zombie Zest!

2010-10-16T01:47:00.002-04:00

It took me about a month to track this down in person. Okay maybe 2 weeks, but the wait was excruciating. I went to at least 5 different Sally's. The one I normally go to, told me they had them in the back, but couldn't sell them to me until October 1st. TORTURE!

Why did I want this so bad? I love Zombie movies! Plus, I love this shade of green and it's a shimmery green, what's not to love!

Orly vs. Sally

2010-10-10T23:30:00.001-04:00

I didn't compare Purple Gala to Mr. Wrong, but I did compare it to two of the Orly Cosmic FX polishes. Verdict=none of them are alike. :)

All of them are gorgeous though!

New SH Xtreme Wear - Purple Gala

2010-10-10T23:25:00.003-04:00

This is easily my favorite. I have seen some comparisons to Hard Candy's Mr. Wrong, but I thought this had more of a duochrome effect and wasn't as purple as Mr. Wrong, I will have to check them out side by side.

Revlon Glitters!

2010-10-08T00:00:00.004-04:00

It took me awhile to track these down. This one is star, which is a purple glitter with silver hex glitter. I layered it over Color Club High Society to show off the purple.

I thought it came out kind of neat!

Halley's Comet

2010-09-26T12:01:00.002-04:00

In 1986, I actually got to observe Halley's Comet when it flew by. I remember my mother telling me that the next time it would be visible from Earth, she would be long dead and I'd be in my 80's. I really had the feeling of seeing something incredible and awe-inspiring, I mean, what 10 year old really contemplates living into her 80's?

So, the Orly Cosmic FX collection, looked amazing from the promo pictures. The prices online went from reasonable to outrageous rather fast, so I had to take my hunt to the ground. That meant stalking Sally's for weeks. I finally located the collection, and purchased the ones that caught my eye. Halley's Comet is like nothing I have in my collection, AND I love the name for the pleasant memories it evoked. The other two I picked up, are my little secret for now. ;)

This is such a gorgeous flashy, sparkly-but-not-obviously-glitter teal blue-green. I got a bunch of compliments on it.

My Very First Contest!!

2010-09-15T15:30:00.005-04:00

Just in time for Halloween!

For some reason, I have never done a contest!

So, from now until October 15th, I will be accepting entries to win all 4 of the L.A. Nails art deco nail bottles pictured below.

The colors are:
Bright Orange
Yellow
White
and
Black.

Perfect for doing some Halloween decorations maybe?

To enter, you must be a follower of my blog. Leave me a comment in this post with an email where I can reach you if you win. If you would rather, email me at willadodge@hotmail.com.

That gets you one entry.

If you would like an additional entry, please leave me a comment in your favorite post on my blog.

That gets you two entries.

For an additional entry, please post this comment on your blog or promote it on another website and send me the link!

That will get you three entries!

On October 16th, I'll throw all of them into a randomizer and pick one lucky winner. I will email you to get an address where you want your prize sent. My contest is open to everyone even overseas. I'll announce the winner here and mail out your goodies!

China Glaze

2010-09-13T09:57:00.003-04:00

Midnight Mission. I got a new car in August, and it's almost exactly the color of this polish.

It's a gorgeous navy blue with silvery foil-like goodness.

That's next to the paint on the car. :)

For some reason, I only took one picture of Ingrid. It's beautiful, so I don't know why!

Icing - Blackout

2010-08-24T15:00:00.003-04:00

I'm not a 12 year old girl and I don't have any kids, so I don't make it into the Icing very often.

But, while walking by, I spotted nail polish, and I found Blackout. I realize I may be late to this party, but WOW! this color is awesome!

I wore it for about a week, and then added some Disco Dazzle to jazz it up!

My first franken

2010-08-07T14:35:00.000-04:00

A little Orly "Calypso Blue", Nina Pro "Salsa", Some Essie Shelter Island, Clear polish, Cover Girl city Lights and Disco dazzle.

It showed tip wear kinda quick. I think that might have been because I used SV as the clear polish.

I loved how this turned out!

Sage in the City!

2010-07-24T20:21:00.003-04:00

Spotted the new Crazes at Walgreens the other day and I wasn't even looking for nail polish!
I love this green and I thought the name was cute.

Then I added a layer of Gold Sparkle. I picked that up at a local beauty supply for $1! They were getting rid of all their CND stuff for $1, boy was I mad I missed it when they first put them on sale!

Holo Goodness!

2010-07-18T22:58:00.004-04:00

Milani's 3D Holographic in Cyberspace, is a really pretty silvery blue scattered holo. It's kind of flat in low light, like most holos, but pretty in the sunlight.

Of course, nothing compares to China Glaze holos!

Sexagon.

Some RBL's

2010-07-06T19:17:00.003-04:00

Rescue Beauty Lounge "Teal" with Nfu-Oh Flakies (can't remember which one)

RBL "OM"

American Apparel is new here!

2010-07-03T11:50:00.000-04:00

I took a trip to Woodbury Commons outlets JUST to find some AA nail polishes. Verdict?

Totally woth it! This is "Berry". I also got Downtown LA which is this gorgeous, classic red and Mouse, which I haven't tried yet. The formula on these was great. I almost feel like the formula and colors are similar to Rescue Beauty Lounge. The polish is rich, and pigmented and glides on smooth. Durability was great. I believe I took these pictures on the 3rd day of wear, so that was also great for me since I tend to be chippy.

Color Club - Fashion Addict

2010-07-02T23:34:00.000-04:00

I have had this for awhile now, but didn't find the bottle very impressive.

On impulse I picked it up one night for a mani and the next day, in the sunlight, I was blown away. This is gorgeous! The formula was great too!

It glided on smooth and I was happy with the coverage in two coats. Also, I wore this for a couple of days and NO CHIPS like other holos I have tried.

Love!

Milani - Molten Rock

2010-07-01T15:59:00.004-04:00

I found this at CVS by accident. I wasn't even looking for nail polish - I swear!

It's metallic and teal-blue. Really gorgeous! It applies a little strangely. This was two coats. It's extremely durable, which was nice. A lot of metallics I have tried tend to be chippy.

P.S. If you were wondering, YES I broke my nails again and had to clip them down. Not so much broke, as I get these tears (?) very low on the nail on the sides. I have been trying to use Orly nail rescue which helps for a few days, but I gave up and went short, which always sucks because I am terrible at filing my nails and they end up being uneven for a few a little while. Poo.

A few "lost" photos from my short nail days...

2010-06-10T11:50:00.004-04:00

Pure Ice "Strapless" over Essie "Mesomorize".
Color Club "With Abandon". I wish these pictures had come out better.

This polish is so gorgeous in person. These pictures don't do it justice. Great wear too!

OPI's Jade is the New Black. Of all the greens I have tried, this is probably my favorite on me!

Sinful Colors "I love U" . Another one that is so much prettier in person than I was able to capture in this pictures.

Thanks OPI!

2010-06-06T15:13:00.004-04:00

This is Glacier Bay Blues, which had been kicking around in my untried pile for a long time.

Why did I wait so long!? This color is amazing!

I got so many compliments on this color, in many unexpected places!

Gree-blue-purple! All my favorite colors are there!

Happy Memorial Day

2010-05-31T20:04:00.000-04:00

I tried my first ever water marble mani. It was messy! I thought the results were kind of neat.

Glory!

2010-05-30T17:49:00.002-04:00

Teal Stars

2010-05-29T16:44:00.000-04:00

Little Treasures from Rite Aid

2010-05-23T13:02:00.010-04:00

I stopped into Rite Aid one day looking for Sally Hansen "Hidden Treasure". I didn't find it, but I did find these little beauties. I just loved the new cute little bottles Petites is using for their "Color Fever" line. It's supposed to be a more richly pigmented polish. I spotted a few that looked like holos. I have also wanted to try CQ for awhile(the appear to be made by the same manufacturer as petites) so I grabbed that green beauty because it didn't look like anything else I owned, and it also seemed to have a little holo something going on.

I'll show you Creme Blue first. It's just what the name says, a pretty, almost robin's egg cream blue. I wee streaky on the first coat. This is two coats . It's a light blue, but still pretty rich.

Fairy pink, really does look like pale pink fairy dust on the nail. It's so pretty and there is just the slightest hint of some holo shimmer going on.

Daylight

Ahhhh...green gem. I was expecting a little more holo, but this was still amazing. I usually don't like green on my hands, but I loooooved this polish! I think I wore it for 4 days straight. The durability of it was pretty amazing to.

The real stunner though...are you ready for it?

POW! Black Diamond.

There are lots of holo shimmer particals floating around here! And it's a nice deep, dark black base. This is two coats.

I loved it so much I got some other colors out to compare.

Petites Color Fever "Black Diamond" vs. OPI "My Private Jet" vs. Color Club "Revvvolution: and China Glaze "Let's Do it in 3D"

My MPJ is the stinky "not very holo brown" version.

Nothing compares to the China Glaze Kaliedascope. But *I* think that in Black Diamond vs. Revvolution, Black Diamond comes out a winner! It's a darker black, which I really like.

Outside light

These were $2.99 each at Rite Aid, and when I got them they were BOGO 50% off, so that was nice. I'm really happy with all of them. The brushes on the petites are a little skinny for my taste, but the formula is so good, it didn't matter.

Deadbeat Blogger...

2010-05-10T13:02:00.006-04:00

Sorry I have been so...absent lately! I really needed to start saving money and staying away from the nail blogs and board at Makeupalley helps a lot! I haven't stopped wearing nail polish, photographing it or gotten through all my untrieds yet, so here is a sample of what I have been up to:

I loved this! It looked pretty mellow in the bottle, but on the nail it was a party!

It dried a little rough to the touch, even with top coat, but not so much that I couldn't stand it.

Look at that shine! I love Diamond! Such great polishes, pretty colors and a cheap price!

Sorry this one is so dark, I've been using a new camera and can't quite figure out all the settings. This is "Get Mauve-Ing". I like Barielle colors a lot. They seem to thicken up over time though. I also used Barielle's "speedy" topcoat on this one (picked it up at Marshall's for $2) and I have to tell you, it sucks. It took forever to dry and look at all the scratches I had in my polish after a day of wear.

This is the other reason I haven't been blogging as much. I broke my middle finger nail down so low. Just when I was really happy with how long my nails were and the shape. There was no salvaging it. I was reduced to this for awhile:

Look at that middle nail! So sad and crooked! Look at Grape Pop though - so yummy!

Woooo! What a hot purple!

Notice I couldn't bear to chop the rest of my nails as short! Everything was a crooked, mismatched sad affair. Things are looking up again after a few weeks of biotin and some prenatal vitamins (boy did that give my husband a scare! "they're for my nails and hair honey, I swear!" hahaha!!) I'll post a recent picture of where I am at soon, I swear I won't go away for so long again!

I think I have a bunch of pictures on my older camera, so I'll have to hook those up to the computer and post them too.

Essie Spring Colors

2010-03-19T22:15:00.000-04:00

Lilacism. Great color! Couldn't wait to get my hands on it, and I wasn't disappointed. Unfortunately for some reason, I only took this crappy indoor picture of it!

Van D'Go, is somewhere between pink and peachy. I normally feel weird in this type of color, but I liked this quite a bit. The first picture is indoor.

This is outside.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T14:10:00.000-04:00

Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow

2010-03-12T13:03:00.000-05:00

I finally got my hands on Nfu-Oh 60. Looking at it I new it would look great with a deep, dark green...

And I remembered Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow sitting in my untried pile!

Somehow, I didn't do this totally awesome combo justice. I got bubbles in it for some weird reason. I swear it looked so much cooler in person.

I loved this, it was a really fun weekend mani!

Milani 3D Gold

2010-03-08T07:48:00.002-05:00

I searched high and low for these for weeks. I kept hearing about people seeing them and buying them early, but they took forever to be released here. Then when I saw them in person, I wasn't all that excited. So, I bought the gold, because the only other gold holo I have is fyi and that is very subtle. Where this is a little more yellow gold. It's prettier on the nail and a little more "3D" in person than I was able to capture on film. At $4.49 a bottle for these, you're probably better off trying to locate the kaliedascopes or OMG holographic polishes from China Glaze.

Here I topped it with a layer of OPI "What's Dune" and the result was pretty cool!

ORLY Foil FX

2010-03-01T06:22:00.006-05:00

Rage and Shine!
I wanted Rage the moment I saw it on another blog! It is so unique and beautiful! It's a
rose-gold shiny metallic foil. So pretty! Opaque in two coats. The formula is really nice for a metallic polish. Very smooth.

Shine is a gorgeous silver foil.

Also a great formula! Opaque in two coats, very smooth and even to apply. Very shiny and while I hate the term "bling" there isn't really another way to describe it!

Shine vs. Nfu - Oh 67

Index and Ring - Orly "Shine"

Middle and Pinky - Nfu-Oh 67

I love Nfu-Oh. But I ordered 67 by accident. I haven't used it a lot because it's a little thin and streaky to apply. It's nice but it's not awesome. Shine is awesome. AND a lot less $$.

These samples were sent to me.

Sweet!

2010-02-21T22:13:00.005-05:00

How happy was I when these beauties showed up on my doorstep? I have been dying to try them since I saw the very first promo ads! Especially Lollipop. They are such lovely feminine pastels. Makes me think of Easter eggs and baby chicks! Each come with a free little lip gloss too! My other favorite beauty item - lip gloss, yum!

Lemonade has the honor of being the very first yellow in my collection. I never thought I would try a yellow polish, but I really like this! I couldn't get over the perfect formula. Not too thick or thin and very opaque for such a light color. This is the perfect pastel yellow crème and it really makes me wish summer was here!

Lollipop is soooo much prettier in person! My camera had a hard time capturing this perfect pale lavender cream. It's a light purple but darker than China Glaze's Light as Air. The formula was perfect as well.

These pictures make it look a little pinker than it is.
Pixy Six! I love the name! I never thought I would like a bright pink-coral like this on my hands, but I really do! It's very cheery and makes me want to vacation some place tropical! The formula is a little thinner than Lemonade and Lollipop but just as nice to work with.
I can't wait to try this on my toes!

One thing I have always liked about Orly is how substantial the bottles feel. I also love the rubber grippy cap! The brushes on these were nice and fluffy not as long and skinny as the brushes on my Country Club Khaki and Cashmere Cardigan. These samples were sent to me, and I haven't seen them in Sally's yet (my Sally's seems to be slow getting any new stuff in!). They are due to be released in April, but hopefully come places will have them for sale a little sooner! The formula on these is so fantastic I really want to try Gumdrop and Snowcone as well.

Light as Air vs. Lollipop

2010-02-21T22:00:00.000-05:00

Index and Ring: Orly "Lollipop"

Middle and Pinky: China Glaze "Light as Air"

Both are nice, thick, smooth formulas. Light as Air seems to be more of a subdued pastel grey-lilac, while Lollipop is more of a bright, cheery pastel lilac.

Ciaté is new here...

2010-02-20T22:45:00.005-05:00

A-MAZE-ING! Awesome brush, cute bottles, great formula, durable wear...fantastic! A little pricey with the exchange rate, but even with shipping, still less than Chanel. I had a fantastic customer service experience with them. They were very helpful and responsive to some issues I had. I also have Superficial, so I can't wait to try that out!

Some China Glaze Up and Aways

2010-02-18T12:26:00.001-05:00

Light as Air. Very, very pale lavender. Almost grey-lavender in the bottle. This is the one I wanted the most from the Up and Away collection. I couldn't wait for Transdesign to get it, so I ended up buying it off ebay. When it got here, I was not impressed so it took me awhile to get around to swatching it.

It looks about 100% better in these pictures than I thought it looked on my actual hands. Maybe I am just not used to pastels?

Light as Air was smooth to apply. This is two coats.

Something sweet was another one I was disappointed with on arrival.

It was also terrible to apply. Thick, streaky, just yuck.

I thought this pale pink would be pretty on my pale hands but I just didn't care for it.

Peachy Keen I thought I would try because I don't think own a single color even close to this.
I really wanted to try stepping outside the box and try something new and different for me.

Unfortunately, I hated this one the most. It felt way too orange on me. The application was terrible. My sweet husband, who never wants to say he doesn't like something on me, took one look at it and made a very pained expression. "It's not my favorite" his way of saying "that is fug".

I had planned to try Lemon Fizz and Refreshment from this collection as well, but I think I am going to skip them now. Maybe just pick up Grape Pop and look to the Essie and Orly pastels to get my spring-time fix. Ho-hum.

Orly Iron Butterfly...and a little Konad gone wrong!

2010-02-15T11:42:00.002-05:00

I picked Iron Butterfly up on clearance at Sally's a few weeks ago, and finally got to try it.

I haven't really been a fan of the matte trend, but pictures of Iron Butterfly looked amazing so I had to try it. It's awesome! This is one coat and it dried super fast! My husband thought it was the coolest looking polish ever, which is always nice.

Close up, you can see shimmer particles. Very much like asphalt.

I had planned to use this with a Konad in China Glaze Millenium. Unfortunately, it came out like this. Not sure where I went wrong, some of the lines just broke off. I thought Konad and I had reached a new point in our relationship where we understood each other, but apparently not.

Oh well, I still think it looks kinda cool, and I am not planing on leaving my office today. :)
Happy Birthday Abe!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T14:14:00.001-05:00

Spotlight on: DURI

2010-02-13T11:34:00.008-05:00

Edited to add: cosmeticslk.com has been kind enough to offer 10% off if you use code: KATE10FF

Definitely a good way to check out Duri!!

I was so impressed with my one and only Duri polish, Midnight Blues, that I had to buy more! Duri seems to have a really impressive line of colors. From classic reds to pale blues and yellows. I chose these three as I though it was a good variety of finishes and colors.

I purchased these from CosmeticLK.com. Their prices were great, shipping reasonable and I had them in my mailbox two days after placing my order. Very impressed! I believe there is usually a clickable google ad link for CosmeticLK somewhere on this bog if you are interested.

This is rendez-vou, which is quite possibly my favorite taupe-nude cream ever.

You'll have to forgive me, I took like a millllllion pictures of it!

It was very shiny and wore very nicely.

This is three coats, notice I was a little thin on my ring finger...oops!

Next up: Backstage Pass
Really pretty pinky-lavendar color with just a hint of shimmer.

Again, tons of pictures because I really loved it!

Excuse the cuticles, winter is doing a number on my hands.

I didn't get to photograph Iced Plum yet, but it is also quite pretty.

Go Saints!!

2010-02-07T11:57:00.000-05:00

I enjoy rooting for the underdog. And I can only really tolerate football about once or twice a year. Since the Giants aren't in it, GO SAINTS!!
Petites "Midnight Frost" can be found at Rite Aid and Wal-Mart. I wasn't a fan of the formula. It's very thin and watery. Completely miserable o apply. The silver glitter doesn't show up very well, so I added two coats of Orly Prisma Gloss.

Hard Candy - Mr. Wrong

2010-02-02T13:58:00.000-05:00

Neither Steel nor Grey, but Still HOT!

2010-01-31T23:16:00.002-05:00

While still trying to track down the Milani Holos, I stumbled upon what at first glance I thought was the old Sally Hansen Salon polishes. But on closer inspection they were Rimmel's new "Lasting Finish Pro" polishes.

I zeroed in on this color right away.

Even though, I thought it might be a dupe for $OPI Metro Chic.

Isn't the crown on the top of the cap cute?

Bottle comparisons of Steel Grey and Metro Chic.

The Rimmel is $3.99 which wasn't bad.

I LOVED this color. I actually ran home and put it on the same day I bought it, which is unusual for me given my large box of "untrieds". It dried to a pretty, glossy finish and wore really well. These pictures were after two days of wear, and I think it still looks pretty good. I don't know what it is about these stone/putty colors, but I love them!

Amazing Purple Glitter!

2010-01-27T13:01:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure what "Purple Crossing" is supposed to mean. This really should be called "Purple Party" or "Purple Party in a bottle" It is AMAZING.

This is one layer of Purple X-Ing over Barielle's Lava Rock, so I am not sure how opaque this actually is on its own.

It's got all sorts of multi-color prismatic glitter in it and different sized glitter too.

The best part is, with a nice thick layer of top coat this was totally smooth. Not bumpy and chunky like other "party" glitters can be. I found this at Sally's where Nina is on sale this month (I think) for $3.29. I can't wait to try some funky tips with this next!

Late to the Holiday Party

2010-01-27T12:48:00.002-05:00

OPI - "Brand New Skates" I picked this up before Chirstmas at my local grocery store of all places. I didn't get to try it until recently though.

It's so pretty, yet kind of understated too. I got tons of compliments on it. It's a very pretty steely grey shimmer with a strong golden flash to it.

There are also glass-like flecks of blue and gold in there. Totally gorgeous!

I also picked up "Smitten with Mittens" and tried a little Konad on it. I swear the manicure came out better than this picture describes! Smitten is more of a garnet red with golden glass fleck to it. This pictures makes it look cherry red, and it's really not, (at least to my eyes). The Konad is China Glaze in 24Kt (one of the 2009 Khrome colors). I thought I was going to end up getting rid of all my Konad stuff and lately I've been doing better with it! The "manicure saver" claw thingie from Sally's beauty has been a huge help!

Bonus!

2010-01-26T13:11:00.000-05:00

I actually meant to post this with Muse and the Snowflake konad. But isn't he sweet! This is one of my Pyrs doing what he loves. Laying in the snow, guarding his yard from intruders. Last week he spotted a fox, it was very exciting for him! :)

Illamasqua - "Muse"

2010-01-23T14:22:00.002-05:00

This is the first Illamasqua polish I've tried. I must try more. I never thought I would love a teal blue nail polish on my nails, but this was incredible.

I'll start with the formula. It's like butter. It melted onto my nails so easily and had full coverage with one coat. I couldn't believe how easy it was to put on and how pretty it was. I've never used a nail polish this wonderful before! Now I really want to try their other colors, like Baptiste, Phallic and Jan. Here is the pretty little black box their polish comes in.

Next day, I konaded some snowflakes on and it snowed that night!

My husband (who had to do the plowing and snow-blowing) said "don't do that!" haha!

Giveaway!

2010-01-23T12:49:00.000-05:00

Check out a very cool blog: Musicahouses' Of Faces and Fingers

While you're there, follow her blog and enter a chance to win a really pretty Illamasqua lip gloss!!

Spring Collections...can't wait to try!

2010-01-20T12:06:00.000-05:00

Essie's "Art of Spring" Collection: Lilacism, Neo Whimsical, Pop Art Pink, Nouveau Red, Tart Deco, Van D’go. I think Lilacism, Neo Whimsical, and Van D'go are the only ones that interest me here.Orly's "Sweet Spring Collection"

The lavender in this collection looks pretty. I normally don't lik yellow, but this pastel yellow is kind of calling out to me! The mint and soft pink also look pretty. The blue one though, the blue one must be mine!

China Glaze's "Up and Away". The first time I saw this, I was "meh" on it. But Grape Pop, and Light as Air are really looking like colors I NEED to have. And maybe I will give Peachy Keen a try and I don't think I have a really pale pink like Something Sweet. Lemon Fizz looks interesting and I like Four Leaf Clover, though I wish it were more on the kelly green side.

We'll just have to wait and see!

Another Drug Store Goody!

2010-01-16T12:33:00.003-05:00

These were in some sort of Wet-n-Wild spring display. All the other colors were bright reds, pinks and corals, but this jumped out at me. It's deep eggplant purple.

In the wonky lighting of Rite-Aid, I thought it was an eggplant cream. But in the sunlight you can see very subtle shimmer. It's quite beautiful.

One of my favorite Rihanna songs is "Disturbia" so how could I resist this?

There is the shimmer! The sun was fading so it made it look more burgandy that purple.

After two days, I decided to spice it up with little flower power! It's the first time Konad and I have gotten along!

You're Such a Glamourpuss!

2010-01-13T16:10:00.002-05:00

Wow! A color this awesome really deserves more pictures. Unfortunately the rest of them didn't come out well. I am so happy I chose Glamourpuss during the RBL 50% off sale. I was between this and Killah Red. I'm sure KR is awesome but Glamourpuss is just beautiful. I don't think I own any reds like this. It's a bright, cheery cherry red. It makes me happy just looking at it! The formula was great. I found the brush a little skinny, but usable. There is a little bit of tipwear here from typing. I haven't mastered "wrapping" my tips yet when I polish. I have been working on not slopping polish all over my fingers and getting my cuticles in better shape instead!