Blog Archives
Ruby Wing – Meadow (New UV Color Change Polish!!)
Crackle, Caviar… Color changing? The newly released Ruby Wings line is a brand of polish that changes color when exposed to the sun. Now, I know, there’s been mood polishes for a while now, but this is the first I’ve seen of UV based color change. When I saw the colors the line would be carrying, there were about 5 on my “oh that looks awesome list”, but the color that stood out as a “I must try this now!” was Meadow.
Meadow is a beautiful silver as it’s base color, and when exposed to the sun (or UV light in general I would assume), it turns into a lovely lavender metallic. I know, I’m fawning over it. I can’t even disguise it, I wore it for 5 days. Here, let me show you why:
Got your attention yet? Hit the jump for my full review, more pictures, and an attempt at me getting a video of the color change! Read the rest of this entry
Deal Alerts! February 19-25, 2012
RITE AID
- BOGO1/2OFF all L’Oreal cosmetics; spend $15 get $5 +UP (limit 2) Not sure if nail polish qualifies, not pictured (qualifies for Buy & Save)
- L’Oreal Nail Enamel on sale for $4.99. Use the $1 coupon from the newspaper for further discount!
CVS
- BOGO50%OFF Revlon lip or nail cosmetics.
- BOGO50%OFF Sally Hansen cosmetics and nail products (limit 6).
- B2G1FREE all CVS brand nail polish remover, cotton balls, towelettes, squares, or rounds.
- NOPI is now available in store, including Kardashian Colors $7.99
WALGREENS
- BOGO50%OFF all Revlon cosmetics or beauty tools
ULTA
- $3.50 off a $10 purchase
- Free Shipping on any order over $25 using the code SHIPFEB12
- B2G1FREE Revlon
- OPI Holland Collection now in Stores, $8.50
- 6 new shade of Ulta Nail Enamel, Get a free 13pc. makeup set with any $17.50 Ulta brand cosmetics purchase.
- Layla Magneffect Nail Polishes now available in store. $15.50
DUANE READE
- $1 off all NOPI polishes
MEIJER’S
- BOGO50%OFF Revlon Color Stay Cosmetics
Revlon – Whimsical !!! (over OPI – Planks A Lot)
1 coat Seche Rebuild (base)
2 coats OPI – Planks A Lot
2 coats Revlon – Whimsical
1 coat Essie – Good to Go! (top)
Revlon definitely wins brand of the year for this one. Those of you that know me know that my biggest lemming of all time is Deborah Lippmann’s Glitter in the Air. There’s something about that cotton candy-like light blue and pink hex glitter (with blue and silver micro glitter) floating in milky blue base that makes me drool. I could look at swatches of it alllll day. What doesn’t make me drool is the cost of one Deborah Lippmann polish ($18-$20). I know they’re worth it, but I was waiting for a sale to happen (ANYTHING) and it just wasn’t going happening in my area. When I first heard about Whimsical being a GiTA dupe, I knew this had to be mine!!
More, more, more under the cut…
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure – Commander in Chic
Well, readers, I don’t know if you’ve heard the exciting news. I have a new lucky polish! Haha, actually, the REALLY exciting news is that I got a new job and I’m moving to New York City! It’s exciting times 😀 The polish I was wearing when I had my interview and when I found out I got the job? Sally Hansen CSM – Commander in Chic. I actually can’t decide if I should call this my Lucky Polish or my Power Polish, both are fitting. I know I’m new to the neutral love-fest, but I’ve been picking up a lot of polishes like this shade lately, and CiC is one that just kind of gently whispers “oh my varnish” to me. It’s formula is a breeze, you could probably get away with only one coat, but I like to do two because it gives it that cushy, deep look. The brush makes it a super quick mani too. I love the lavender/peach tones in the brown, it makes it soft yet a little edgy and it goes with so much! Plus, come on, the name is fabulous.
2 coats Orly Nail Armor
2 coats Sally Hansen CSM – Commander in Chic**
1 coat Seche Vite
Long story short, I’m REALLY glad I shelled out the $8 for this polish. I see myself wearing it a lot in NYC!!
**My accent nail is one coat of Mattese Elite – Uninhibited, mainly to convince Mel that she NEEDS it. Not sure I would use it with CiC again, but look at how awesome one layer coats. And it iisss still on sale 😉
BLACK FRIDAY DEALS!!!! -Wowza!!
I’m not sure if you are like me, but I already have my routes planned out for Black Friday. Technically, I had them planned out last week. It’s not like every other week when you can walk into a store and buy what you want. You have to limber up, practice your boxing out routine, and work on your sprinting. And you have to be comfortable making some snap purchase decisions that can carry some serious financial consequences (I accidentally bought a $120 hockey sweater last year. oops.) Black Friday is serious bidness man!! So I wanted to get these deals up so you, too, can plot your routes like a shopaholic crazy person. Don’t worry, there is no judgement here. Unless you don’t go. Then we *might* judge.
ULTA (doors open at 6am)
- OPI Ulta Exclusive Deck the Halls 4-mini bottle set, $7.50. Regularly retails for $12.50.
- Ulta 4-bottle Glitterati set, $2.99, regularly $7.99.
- Certain items are 5 for $5, including Ulta nail polish, and some facial scrubs (my new obsession)
- B2G2Free, including Ulta Nail Polish
- 190 other deals available in store and online.
Walgreens
- Eucerin lotions: $9.99 with $4 Register Rewards. I use Eucerin as part of my hand care regimen.
RITE AID
- The Wet n Wild Little Luxuries nail polish mini set will be $3 w/ $2 +UP Rewards. $1 for nine minis and there are some GREAT colors in this set. Minis are fantastic for traveling.
- BOGOFREE all Borghese nail polishes and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength nail polishes. I LOVE Aisle Be There, from the new collection!!
- ALL Revlon nail enamel (no exceptions) are $2.99 with $2 +UP Rewards (limit 2). That’s $.99 a bottle!! Better yet, print the $2 off Revlon Top Speed coupon from the Video Values website and get a free bottle!!
WALMART
- Sally Hansen Salon Effects will be sold in sets of 2 for $12.97. This evens out to $6.50 a box!
CVS
- Color Theory Makeup sets, which include nail polish, are on sale for $2.88 and $6.88
- The Wet n Wild Fast Dry mini set is on sale $2.88 with $2 back in Extra Bucks (limit 1). The regular price of this set is $5.99 so $0.88 for all those minis is a great deal!! Included are Saved by the Blue, Silvivor, Party of Five Glitters, and several others.
- Revlon nail color (excluding Top Speed) will be $4.99 with $4 back in Extra Bucks (Limit 6)
Michael’s
- 30% off your ENTIRE Purchase coupons for Thursday (11/25) and Friday (11/26) including sale items. 20% off your entire order coupon for Saturday (11.27)
- 50% off one Regular Priced Item, one for Friday, one For Saturday.
- Scrapbook Storage is 50% off. Use the 30% off coupon for additional discounts. See my review of my Melmer here.
Butter London – Blagger
Oh heeyyyyyy there blog. Been a while, I know haha. But I woke up a full hour and a half before my alarm today, so you finally get a visit from me and my nails! (Imagine that said in a really jovial tone of voice. Jovial also may be my word of the day…) Since I never got to post this during the Tigers’s run for the world series (we’re not going into details here people haha) and since today marks 2 whole weeks that have felt like about 6 months at my job in VA, I give you my Detroit mani as some sort of celebration!
Let me start out by saying this mani lasted me a whopping 5 days. Five people. Not sure if that’s more amazing in terms of the polish or my self restraint, but this picture was taken on day 3 and that definitely speaks to the polish haha. I really love this blue. If you’ll remember my love of Mattese Elite – Vig, Butter London – Blagger is like a color cousin. It’s the same rich, deeply pigmented color but a brighter shade.
It’s a really clean, solid, intense blue and I love it. Application was top notch, it is a highly pigmented color though, so clean up takes a little patience, but it’s worth it. For my sweet Detroit D I used my Claire’s white nail art pen and free handed it. I know, I free hand a lot, but to make you feel better, he’s a macro:
see, it’s not perfection up close, but you can’t tell in the distances you’d be from it in real life. Also, those nail art pens that have a legit pen tip like paint pens are fabulous. I’ve tried a couple brands and haven’t had any one in particular stand out; as long as it has that tip, I can do cool stuff with it, I’m a happy camper haha.
Anywho, happy hump day everyone. I’m off to go harass the mcmansions of Mclean, VA into voting. Er, I mean, canvass in a very professional manner for a highly important election. Hey, gotta pay for my nail polish habit somehow 😉
Essie – As Gold As It Gets (the new gold glitter from the Luxeffects 2011 collection!)
Just to get this post up, I had to take off Shine of the Times after a little less than a week. The sacrifices I make for this blog! haha. But let’s just admit it: we saw the Cosmoprof 2011 preview for the Essie Luxeffects 2011 collection and were like OMG ESSIE FLAKIE!!! (referring to Shine of the Times) and then you looked at the others, and the second that caught your eye was probably that gold one. We know it’s probably nothing we haven’t already seen but the idea of Essie glitters is exciting, and who doesn’t love a gold glitter? I purchased both of these on the same day, they were together – you could say I struck gold 🙂 (yes I just about fainted from excitement the day I got them)
1 coat Seche Retain (base)
2 coats Essie – Decadent Diva (red in the bottle, practically brown on the nail)
2 coats Essie – As Gold As It Gets (gold glitter)
1 coat Essie – Good to Go! (top)
This, while not as special as Shine of the Times is pretty freaking awesome. It’s a gold fleck glitter. I hesitate to call it a flakie because I feel like a true flakie should be kinda holo and glow-y (like SotT) but the flecks are of various sizes and shapes, which are similar traits you see in a flakie.
More under the cut!!
Essie – Shine of the Times (the ESSIE FLAKIE glitter!!!)
First of all, YES THIS IS THE REAL ESSIE FLAKIE glitter polish that you (and I) drooled over in those Cosmoprof 2011 previews. (If anyone important is reading this, I want my invite next year please!) This is Essie’s Shine of the Times, part of the Luxeffects collection coming out later this year 2011 for the holidays. Shine of the Times is an iridescent flakie glitter nail polish that looks best when layered over dark colors (though I’m sure it works on all kinds of colors, just need to experiment).
It is AMAZING!! I can’t even begin to describe the feelings that I have surrounding this polish. It makes me realize I really need to get a life, but wow, this polish is truly stunning in every sense of the word. I actually got nervous writing this post because I was afraid I wouldn’t do this polish justice. It is just that freaking beautiful. And looking at my pictures, I still don’t think I did this enough justice. I did my best though!
I layered 1 coat (JUST 1!!) over Essie’s Sexy Divide:
1 coat Seche Rebuild (basecoat)
2 coats Essie – Sexy Divide (dark purple)
1 coat Essie – Shine of the Times
1 coat Essie – Good to Go! (topcoat)
MUCH more under the cut!
L’Oreal – Owl’s Lust (the “learn to love” sibling of Owl’s Night)
I suppose I’ll start where my thoughts on this color started — and that would be “what IS this color??” It’s red, but it’s dusty. Maybe some gray, or probably some burnt orange undertones in it. It’s not your red-hot mama red, that’s for sure, but there is a quiet smoldering to it that sort of drew me in. It at least piqued my interest enough to buy it… and then kept my attention long enough to wear it for a full day instead of just swatching it like I had planned.
The color grew on me while on, and it had some good selling points. For one, it’s a great formula. One of the best in the collection: 2 coater, easy peasy to put on, pretty easy to clean up (it is really pigmented, but on a comparison scale to similar formulas, it’s on the easier scale). Then I wore it with my favorite navy cardi, and WOW did that color combo look fab. I wish I had taken a picture with it up next to my nails. I did decide to spice it up a bit and added L’Oreal – Amazon’s Flash as an accent coat like I talked about yesterday, and loved that too. It’s very fall! And slightly Redskins… but they won yesterday and Mel was up at her cabin, so I suppose someone had to fill those shoes 😛 We’ll blame it on the head cold and sudafed, haha.
I’m still not sure this is an “every woman’s” color, or a must have, but I like that it’s that something a little different in my reds collection. I’ll probably stick to wearing it during the fall (it does compliment the changing leaves well), but since the seasons just begun, maybe I’ll wear it enough to learn to lust over it the rest of the year (see what I did there, haha. I know, forgive me, crawling back in my sick cave now :P)
❤ Jess
L’Oreal – Amazon’s Flash (a gold with possibilities!)
Biggest reason why this polish is a winner: it’s not a metallic. At least, not a legitimate metallic. It’s gold, SUPER gold, but it’s basically a clear formulas jam-packed with gold shimmer. Metallic formulas usually annoy me; the streakiness adds a needed level of patience I just don’t have haha. This polish has none of that issue. It does make for a thinner color because of the clear base, but I really don’t mind doing 4 thin coats when the formula is this easy to work with. Yes, as always, I’d prefer a 2 coater, but in this polish’s case, the thinness also means it could be easily layered. I think it could be pretty over a dark brown or even over a burgundy for one of Mel’s Redskins manis 🙂 Amazon’s Flash would let just enough of the base color show to add dimension, creating lots of possibilities for this polish!
I know people will worry about it being such a yellow gold, but I actually didn’t have an issue with that once it was on. I can only attest to the fact that it looks good on my skin tone, but at least that proves it can look good! It kind of reminds me of a regular polish version my favorite nail art pen Sinful Colors – Flower Girl, so that helped win me over too 🙂
❤ Jess
The Varnish Clique 