Revlon Glitter Swatches Fall 2011

Have you heard that Revlon produced a few hot glitters for the Fall? Well it's true and I had a chance to pick up a couple of the beauties. A pink glitter that's tame enough to wear to work, sign me up! But first I'll share my second favorite from the collection.

Blue Mosaic is like Charla on steroids. It has a clear base and its packed with small teal glitter, and mid-sized silver, teal and green hex glitter. I used 2 coats over 1 coat of Sinful Colors San Francisco.

My favorite from the collection is Starry Pink. It has a milky-pink base and its packed with small and medium silver hex glitter. The glitter effects is not as prominent here because it gets lost under the milky base. I like that its a mild glitter and may be work appropriate for some. I used 1 coat over Maybelline Pink Twirl. If you prefer a power glitter you can load up the nail with multiple coats :)

I left behind Facets of Fuschia, the Lippmann dupe, but it may hold you over if you've been lemming Bad Romance. You can find these beauties at Target.

Color Club's Mobile Color Bar

Celebrate Fashion’s Night Out with Color Club’s Mobile Color Bar

August 2011 - Color Club, one of the industry leaders in nail lacquer, announced today it is celebrating fashion in a big and colorful way with nail color, the ultimate fashion accessory. Look for the Color Club's Mobile Color Bar on Fashion's Night Out and you'll see why Nail Polish is the new ice cream!

We've taken our polish brushes to a vintage Good Humor Ice Cream Truck where we'll be serving up nail polish in every color of the rainbow, including a special limited edition *FNO Red. What better way to celebrate one of Fashion’s Biggest Nights, than with a formaldehyde, toluene, DBP, and paraben-free, perfect shade of Red. Match it with Color Club’s Black Fractured “Smash Hit” polish for the ultimate FNO-worthy nail duo.

WHO: Color Club

WHAT: Mobile Color Bar

WHERE: MPD, NYC @13^th + 9^th street

WHEN: FNO, September 8^th, from 6:00 – 11:00 pm

ABOUT COLOR CLUB

A favorite of celebrity manicurists and nail color fans worldwide, Color Club is renowned for its high performance rich shades and exceptionally safe products. From the brightest neons, to glitter and French, all nail colors are vegan, Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP and paraben-free - and made in New York, NY with the best raw materials. Color Club products are never tested on animals. Products are available at shopcolorclub.com.

*A portion of proceeds from the sales of FNO Red will benefit the New York City AIDS fund.

Julep Maven American Beauty Swatches - Alfre and Cameron

Happy Monday! I had a chance to swatch my new Julep Maven's over the weekend.

First up is Alfre. A smokey purple with a slight shimmer-frost. I definitely would not have chosen this one for myself but I really like it. The formula was very smooth and required 2 coats. The only thing I don't love about it is the slight lines you see in the polish. It does blend well and I was able to smooth the lines but couldn't remove them completely.

Here's a pic in direct light. It almost looks metallic here, like a frosted metal. (Please excuse my dry hands. That's what a month at the hospital did to them.)

In the shade it looks more purple.

Next up is Cameron a bright fuchsia pink. The formula was really thick on this one and it also required 2 coats. Cameron is not so unique to my stash but its still pretty and I think it just might work with Konading because of the thick formula.

Direct sunlight.

Indirect light.

I also played around a little with stamping. The formula on Alfre is thin but I wanted to see what it looked like paired up with Cameron. It's a subtle yet pretty combo.

Both polishes had great application and only required two coats. Alfre is unique to my stash and my favorite of the two although it requires some blending to minimize lines. It's definitely a stunner and a great option for the Fall. Cameron is pretty but not all that unique to my stash since I'm a pink lover. With Cameron I would suggest very thin coats to prevent thickness on the nail. Overall these polishes are sweet and a great deal for the introductory box.

The Julep Maven membership is $19.99 a month. Right now there's a $10 off coupon for the introductory box using code smh9oxu.

Julep Maven Introductory Box

Happy Saturday! Hope you're having a great day so far. Today I wanted to share my Julep Maven introductory box with you guys. I heard about the program from a friend and I'm a sucker for great deals so I ordered ASAP. If you haven't heard of the Julep Box by now, its an online ordering program similar to BirchBox but features monthly nail polish and nail treatments, instead of various makeup items.

The box is tailored to your specific style. You take a fun quiz and they choose polishes to fit your nail polish personality. My nail personality is American Beauty. The other personalities are: Boho Glam, Bombshell, Classic with a Twist and It-Girl. Each personality has different polishes.

The great thing about the Julep Box is that you can request a new shelf pull if you're not happy with the items selected that month or you can send your Box to a friend or even skip a month. That's pretty cool because now that I'm a nail fanatic I'm somewhat finicky about the colors I like. Next month, I'll receive Boris & Nicole which is named after a cute Hollywood couple so I'm excited about that one.

In my introductory box I got:

Alfre ($14) a purple charcoal and new release for Fall 2011

Cameron ($14) a bright pink cream

Nail Therapy with Vitamin E base coat ($16)

Facial for Hands glycolic hand scrub ($32)

Overall not bad for $19.99 a month and free shipping. For a limited time use code smh9oxu to get $10 off your intro box! The bottles are 0.27oz (8mL) which is smaller than other polishes but I don't mind because I never finish an entire bottle anyways. Another good thing about the prescription is that you can cancel at any time if you decide you're not happy with the box but changes must be made by August 25th every month.

I'm really excited about my new goodies, especially Alfre and the glycolic hand scrub. My hands are so dry from working at the hospital and washing them all day long. I hope the scrub can help out my moisture situation.

These are just extra pics to show how it was packaged. It comes in a cute bag with a bow. My own personal gift to myself, lol. You can order your Julep Box tailored to your nail polish personality at Julep.com.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll post swatches soon :)

OPI Touring America Collection Fall 2011 Swatches and Review

I'm late to the party but here are my swatches of the Touring America Collection. The brights are a nice surprise for the fall, especially for those of us that like to wear them year round.

My Address Is Hollywood. Pale pink with pink shimmer.

Are We There Yet. Melon with melon shimmer.

I Eat Mainly Lobster. The color leans more orange-red in person with matching shimmer.

Suzi Takes The Wheel. Light gray creme.

A-Taupe The Space Needle. Taupe creme. I love this one!

Uh-oh Roll Down The Window. Dusty military green creme.

Color To Diner For. Stone red with matching shimmer.

Get In Expresso Lane. Dusty chocolate brown.

I Brake For Manicures. Dark licorice creme.

Honk If You Love OPI. Deep plum creme.

Road House Blues. Blue creme with a dash of purple.

French Quarter For Your Thoughts. Grey creme, slightly darker than Suzi Takes The Wheel.

The application on these were nice and smooth as usual with OPI's and most of them required three coats. French Quarter For Your Thoughts was a little streaky but I forgot to shake it up before applying.

I believe OPI tried to create colors that everyone would like since the line ranges from fun and fruity to dark and steamy. I know there's been a lot of negative feedback about these but some of them I really like, especially A-Taupe The Space Needle. Just looking at it in the bottle doesn't seem great but it's gorgeous on the nail and I really like it against my skin tone. My other favorites are Road House Blues, Get in Expresso Lane and I Brake for Manicures. I'm slowly becoming a vampy vixen :) Some of the others are nice as well but there are bound to be dupes out there with most of the line being cremes. Overall there's a lot of variety to choose from for the Fall.

~Products were sent to me for review~

Dry Marble - Take Two

Hello everyone. Hope you're having a great Saturday! I had a fun day of doing absolutely nothing. Hubby and I watched the move "Take Me Home Tonight" an 80's based romantic comedy. It was pretty funny and reminiscent of my college years of partying. I wish I could go back there again, lol.

I had a lot of free time today since I'm caught up on most of my school work (for a change) so I played with dry marbling again. Someone had asked about using cheap-y polishes so I tried them out for this marble. I did three different combinations but this one turned out the best. I think the foil polish really adds a little somethin' extra to it. I'm gonna save the other two and try them out later.

The colors I used are: Wet N Wild Bar-B (light pink), LA Colors Electrified (pink foil), Wet N Wild Jubilee (medium purple) and Arissa dark purple shimmer (no name).

I applied them the same was as in the marble tutorial. Yes, it does looks like a Laffy Taffy (ha ha).

Here's what they look like on a Ziploc bag. I tried to make them look similar to a water marble. I only used 1 and a half rows for a complete mani. I'm saving the others for next time.

We'll I hope you're having a fun night. I gotta go hang out with Hubby. Thanks for stopping by!

NOTD and Haul Pics

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great week. I'm still really busy with my hospital rotation but next week it will be over and I'm ecstatic! I've been working on projects every night for the last 3 weeks and it's just flat out depressing. I worked 12 hours yesterday and was so excited to get home because I didn't have anything else to do. I'm so over all of this work and trying to make a good impression. I could care less what my grade is right now. Just pass me so I can move on with my life, lol.

So tonight I couldn't sleep. I woke up at 2am with all kinds of energy and got to playing with my new polishes. I was going through a slight depression last week and ordered a few glitters to make up for it :)

My NOTD is Dorothy by NYX. Another Deborah Lippman dupe. It's pretty but quite thick. My right hand actually turned out much better because I was able to get a few thin coats in. It seemed to thicken almost immediately the longer I kept the bottle open. I only needed 2 coats.

And here's part of my haul from last week.

Uninhibited, FINALLY!!!

B

That's all for today. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Friday!

Dry Water Marble + Tutorial

Happy Saturday! Hope you're enjoying your weekend so far :) Sorry for my disappearance this week. I'm still working at the hospital and it's quite an adjustment to wake up at 5am, especially if you're not a morning person :(

Anyways, today I wanted to share a fun idea for those that have not mastered the water marble or just plain hate dealing with all the cleanup. I was talking to some friends at LHCF that wanted to do a water marble on toes. I never thought to do this but another member had seen CND do it on wax paper.

The idea is to create the marble on paper then transfer it to your nails. I'm not sure why they called it the Butterfly Effect but it looked pretty easy to do. It's the same concept as ziploc bag decals: create your design on a ziploc, allow it to dry, then transfer it to your nails. It's not a pretty as the water marble but it's a good substitute. I may be able to do better designs with practice but it's not bad for a first try. I included a tutorial below. Enjoy :)

Tutorial

Apply your base color to a zip-loc bag.

Add a few more colors to marble with. I used Avon Blue Shock, OPI Banana Bandanna, Studio M Energy Star and China Glaze Custom Kicks.
Use a toothpick and draw lines to combine the colors.

He're the finished look. Allow to dry a couple of hours.

Apply base color while waiting for the marble to dry.
Once dry use tweezers to lift from plastic.

You can either peel off the entire section or cut off a piece at a time.
I recommend cutting a small piece. The polish is thin and will fold over on itself.

Apply the cut section to your nail.
Your nail polish must be slightly wet/tacky in order for the marble to adhere!!!
Press the marble into the tacky polish like you're applying a nail decal. Remember to cover the edge. Use your tweezers or toothpick to push through. I like to use scissors but I don't recommend them.

Tear off the excess and tahdah!

Apply your favorite topcoat and don't forget to cover your edges.
You're done! Let me know if you try this out. I would love to see different colors and designs!