Monday, November 24, 2014

Mani Monday: Rica Hanukkah Collection

Happy Monday!  Today I have Rica's Hanukkah Collection to show off.  A month ago, I was telling a friend how difficult it was to find holiday polishes that were not Christmas ones, so I usually skip the holiday collections.  Then I saw something on Instagram saying that Rica was having a Hanukkah collection.  I never saw swatches, I had no idea what they would look like, but I knew that I had to have them.  If you follow me on Instagram, then last Monday you would have seen the screenshot of my order.  Yeah, that's how excited I was.  So I got this in the mail over the weekend and of course had to use it right away.


This collection has three polishes called Show Me the Gelt!, 8 Crazy Nights, and I Love You Latke.  On my thumb and ring fingers I am wearing Show Me the Gelt!  It is a gold glitter with holographic gold hexes and regular copper hexes.  It was opaque in two coats.  It did dry a little bumpy, but nothing that a coat of thick top coat wouldn't fix.  I really love the glitter and I'm glad to have it in my collection because I don't really have anything like it.  On my pointer and pinkie I am wearing 8 Crazy Nights which is a super holographic blue polish.  Now when I swatched this on my swatch stick, it took four coats to be opaque and it was still kind of patchy, so I was disappointed.  On the nail though, I am wearing three coats, and the third was unnecessary.  Two coats was perfect.  Finally on my middle finger I am wearing I Love You Latke.   It is a three coat warm cream color with a gold shimmer.  It is a very pretty color and a three coater is not strange for a polish of this color.  I really like it.


On top of the polishes, I did some quick nail art.  Once 8 Crazy Nights was entirely dry, I placed lightning bolt Nail Vinyls and painted over them in Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Go For the Gold.  Then on top of I Love You A Latke I placed a gold colored filgree plate.  Over all, I am happy with the end result and glad it was easy.


As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Swatch Saturday: OPI You Don't Know Jacques and Zoya Maria Luisa

Yay it's Saturday!  Today is a short work day, then Thanksgiving is next week.  I am so excited to get some time off next week and do some Black Friday shopping!  I'm hoping that HK Girl, KB Shimmer, and Different Dimension have sales.  I heard last year Different Dimension was 50% off last year!  So far, KB Shimmer's isn't too impressive, it is just free shipping at $40 and a free polish if you spend $70.  Eh, hopefully something better comes too.  If you're hoping for some indies, make sure you follow the makers on IG because that's where they will post the sales first.  I know I've been stalking them like crazy.  The Mercurial Magpie does have a list that she updates, so make sure you keep and eye on it.


Today I have OPI You Don't Know Jacques.  It is a taupey brown cream that was nearly opaque in one coat, totally perfect at two.  You Don't Know Jacques is one of those OPI cult classics that everyone needs in their collection.  It is a good work color and lovely as a base for glitters.  


I topped You Don't Know Jacques with Zoya's Maria Luisa, a gold flake polish from the Fall 2013 collection.  The clear base is dense with the glitter.  The pay off you see in the picture is just with a single coat, no dabbing here!  I'm generally not a fan of flakes at all, but this one makes me happy.  I think it works really well with the base.

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

100 Post Giveaway!

It's finally here!  Yay!  In honor of my 100th blog post I have put together a little giveaway for everyone.  It will be open until December 6th, so make sure you enter.

I am giving away all three Magical Pixie Dusts from Zoya's Winter 2014 collection in Imogen, Nori, and Thea, two Julie G polishes from the Summer 2014 Cruise Collection, and two surprise polishes donated by the amazing Yvette from Bliss Polish.

The main way to enter is to subscribe to LacquerVixen.  For a second entry, make sure you comment down below and let me know what else you would like to see here on LacquerVixen, whether it is another themed day or a specific post you would like to see.  Good luck, and may the odds ever be in your favor!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, November 21, 2014

Hard to Find Friday: Color Club The Uptown

Wow, November has already flown by, it's already the 21nd.  Thanksgiving is next week then the holiday crunch starts.  Family, presents, and food galore!  Also holiday nail art.  That will be coming up soon too, so that's something to be excited for. :-P

For today's Hard to Find Friday I have Color Club's The Uptown.  If you may not have already seen the panic, Color Club recently changed the formula for this.  They said that they no longer had access to the flakes in this polish so it was replaced with glitter.  This is the original formula.


The Uptown is a purple jelly base with flakes that shift from yellow, orange, and green.  Let's just be honest here, The Uptown is one of my top five mainstream polishes.  The others would be Zoya's Dream and Odette, OPI Affair in Red Square, and Essie Wicked.

On my pointer and middle fingers I painted two coats and on the rest of my finger I painted one coat on top of Julep's Josephine, which is a dark, dusty navy blue cream.  I'm glad that The Uptown was able to be opaque in two coats, but my favorite way to wear it is a single coat over a dark color.  I feel the flakes pop a lot more and you can tell the shift better.  In the purple jelly they almost disappear.  The flakes are plentiful and are evenly dispersed.  I say if you can find it for a not ridiculous price, do it immediately.


As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Untried Wednesday: Essie Trophy Wife and Peacock Portrait

Happy hump day all!  I had started writing this last night and was going to be very proud of myself that it was up on time, then I got distracted.  It happens.  But we're here now, and it's coming up!  So lets get started.


This is Essie's Trophy Wife.  It is a green leaning teal pearly polish that took two coats for opacity.  I love teal, it happens to be one of my wedding colors.  This polish does not disappoint.  If you are a fan of these kind of colors, go out and get it now.  I'm a little surprised it stayed in my untrieds basket for so long.  


I topped it with Finger Paints Peacock Portrait.  It is a glitter polish in a clear base with chunky holographic glitters and teal hexes.  I think it is a lovely topper for Trophy Wife and the formula is nice.  I did not have any issues getting the glitter on my nails and it spread out very well.  I'm going to have to check out some more Finger Paints glitters.  If they are like this one, I know I wouldn't be disappointed. 

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Monday, November 17, 2014

Mani Monday: Red Nails for #meetupinthe714 and a Giveaway!!

Hey all, sorry this is coming up a little bit later in the day, but yesterday kicked my butt.  In case you did not hear, yesterday Yvette from @blisspolish held a meet up in Westminster and of course @lacqueredmizzy and I had to go to represent San Diego.  It was a blast, I spent too much money, met some cool new people, and came home exhausted.  I had such a headache when I got home that I just passed out.  Too much excitement for little ol' me.  If you're interested, make sure you search #meetupinthe714 on IG to see all of our pictures and everyone's red nails.  I'm still a little shellshocked that I got to meet @SealorePolish, @PolishTBH, and @sloteazzy.  Yeah, I'm still fangirling a little.  Just a tad.


So for the meet up Yvette asked us to rock our red manis and I always use events like this to try to do something different for me.  
On my thumb and pinkie I am wearing Zoya's Jacqueline from their Spring 2013 collection.  I call it a vanilla cream and while the first coat was a bit streaky, like most whiteish creams, the second coat leveled this out perfectly.  Honestly, this is one of those polishes that I have boughten entirely because of the name, but I love it now.
On my pointer finger I have Julep's Myrtle.  It is a pretty solid red cream that was opaque in two coats.  I have two other identical red polishes, so I've been trying to use this one up for a while.  Luckily this mani finally finished off my bottle, so I can move on.  If you like it, I say go for OPI Big Apple Red or Essie Size Matters off the top of my head.  They are big bottles and cheaper.  I am sure that every brand out there has a red cream just like this.  
On my middle finger I am wearing wearing two coats of ORLY's Bling.  It is a gold holographic micro glitter.   It is the gold version of this season's must have polish, ORLY's Mirrorball.  Okay I love this polish, if you can find it pick it up.  Even indoors the holo is obvious.  It is totally worth it.  
Finally on my ring finger I am wearing two coats of OPI Magazine Cover Mouse.  It is a red Liquid Sand with a bit of pink shimmer.   I have yet to meet a Liquid Sand I did not love, and this one does not disappoint.  


On top of Zoya's Jacqueline I painted on some leopard print with my dotting tools.  The centers are a large dot of Myrtle and I painted "C" shapes around them with my usual black Cult Nails Fetish.  I filled in some of the blank spots with ORLY's Bling because I can't stop using it.  On my pointer finger I glued on a bow.  I randomly bought these on eBay, if you're interested just search "3D nail art bow" and you'll find lots of options.  I do use gel resin to get that on my nails instead of regular nail glue.  I would especially suggest it for something big like this.  Finally on top of Bling I drew a little heart in Myrtle and a heart in Fetish on top of Magazine Cover Mouse.

Yeah, I loved this mani and I'm actually of disappointed that my bows popped off after two days.  I could have totally rocked it for another day.

So here's my super exciting news!  In honor of my 100th post I'm having a giveaway.   I have most of the things for it, I'm just waiting on one part.  Hopefully I'll open it on Wednesday, if not Friday at the latest.  So stay tuned!


As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Swatch Saturday: A England Fated Prince

Yay it's Saturday! I am so excited to have to tomorrow off and do a little bit of polish shopping with some of my fellow San Diegans.  Don't forget to check back Monday for what my 100th post surprise! I think it'll be nice.  :-)


This is A England's Fated Prince.  Excuse the picture, but we are entirely cloudy in San Diego and I had to hunt around for a sunbeam. Fated Prince is a black holo we all already knew, I love me some dark gray/black holos and this was my first one.  A England's site lists it as a "a mysterious grey base hue with deep olive undertones, throwing off valiant prismatic flashes to herald the arrival of a certain destiny" and I think that is a pretty apt description.  It is not quite black, which I have said before may be because of the Spectralflare that is used to make it holographic, as it tends to gray out a color.  I used two coats for complete opacity.  It is a gorgeous color and it makes me want to go make a giant order of A England polishes on Llarowe.  No, I have to exercise self control and at least wait until after the holidays.  ;-)


I also did want to throw in a quick comparison of my three gray/black holos, Bliss Polish Jax 2.0 (1), A England Fated Prince (2), and Color Club Beyond (3).  The largest difference between all there is the level of holographic glitter.  Jax 2.0 is by far the most scattered of the three, and I feel that Fated Prince has a larger grade of glitter.  They are all beautiful colors though, and I do not feel bad owning all three.

Photo from Elsa at Like a Candyshop

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Friday, November 14, 2014

Hard to Find Friday: Librarian's Shush

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope you all are happy a lovely day.  Here's a little LacquerVixen fun fact for you all.  This is my 100th post!  Crazy, I know.  I have a little surprise for you all, so make sure you come back on Monday to see.  ;-)


Today's Hard to Find Friday polish is Femme Fatale's Librarian's Shush.  It is a light gray crelly with white squares, black squares, hexes, and bars.  It is opaque in two coats, which is a little surprising for a crelly.  Usually they require at least three coats for full opacity, but it is nice to only need two.  I haven't seen too many gray crellies so I am glad to have swooped this guy up.  If you stumble upon it, I say go for it and get it.  It is totally worth it.  But then I am partial to the librarian name.  

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)



Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Untried Wednesday: OCC Electric Sheep and Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow!

Happy Wednesday all!  I hope that the week has been going well for you all.  I'm still managing to kick NaNoWriMo butt and blogging consistently, so go me.  Today I have two untried polishes to show you all, so I hope you enjoy them.  Also, what is up with my skin that I have lobster hands?  My skin is usually not this red.  I'm going to blame it on the dry air and fluctuating temperatures here in San Diego.  It is totally not fun.   


On my thumb, index, and pinkie fingers I have wearing Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics in Electric Sheep.  It is a dusty lilac cream with a bit of silver shimmer.  I love these kind of colors and the best part about this is that it is a one coater.  The formula is a little thick, but nothing that you can't work with.  Electric Sheep was released in OCC's Spring 2013 Sci-Fi Lullabies collection.  It was named after Phillip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which was the inspiration behind the 1982 film Blade Runner.  It is still available on Sephora's website, but not on OCC's site.

Now on my middle and ring fingers I am wearing Deborah Lippmann's Boom Boom Pow! from the Winter 2010 collection.  It is a mixture of gold hexes and actual 24 karat gold dust.  This works best as a topper, but I wanted to see if it would become opaque.  For my picture I used four coats and could still see a touch of nail line.  So this one you want to limit to topping polishes.  It is a beauty and totally glad I got my hands on it.  I bought this at Ulta on clearance and it is still available on the website.  It is also listed on the Deborah Lippmann website, but it is full price there.  If you happen to be in an Ulta, make sure you check out the clearance section.  I've found lots of other Deborah Lippmanns for at least 50% off, so don't ever discount it.


As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Monday, November 10, 2014

Mani Monday: Glitter, Polka Dots, and Mint

Happy Monday everyone!  Did you all have a nice weekend?  I'm super excited right now because tomorrow I'm going to go pick up my wedding dress.  Whaaaaaaaat??  But LacquerVixen, you're not getting married for ten months!  Well yeah, but it wasn't supposed to be ready until January/February and then I got an email two weeks after ordering it that my dress had come in.  Apparently they happened to have my size in the warehouse.  Yeah, so here's hoping it looks all nice and new.   Cross your fingers for me y'all!

Today's mani was originally inspired by those Caboodles Nail Valets that are super nifty.  They have compartments to fit your polishes so that they do not wiggle around in travel and different areas for extras, including brushes and dotting tools.  And they look like this:


Now I love me some black with white polka dot, so I have been wanting this one for so long.  So my nails started out looking like the box, then I started adding extras.  What do you all think?



On my thumb and pinkie I have OPIs My Dogsled is a Hybrid from their Nordic 2014 collection.  It is a mint cream that was nearly opaque in one coat, I added a second to cover up a few bald spots.  Seriously, this is a great polish and it is still available in stores.  If you don't own it already, go out and buy it now.  I topped my thumb with Sephora Formula X in Chaotic which has black and white hexes and black bar glitter.  Now this Formula X is from Sephora's first and short lived launch of their store brand polishes.  I found this at Big Lot's for less than two dollars, so it's not particularly easy to find, but there are plenty of other brands that came out with the same kind of thing.  China Glaze and Hard Candy are the first ones that come to mind.  On my pinkie, I just have a coat of ORLY's Shine on Crazy Diamond which is a sparse holographic topper.  The glitters are slightly larger than China Glaze's Fairy Dust.

On my pointer finger I have two coats of Nails Inc in Noho which was from their Leather Effect polishes.  It is slightly textured and is probably my favorite black, glitterless texture polish.  I also added a silver square shaped stud on the base of my nail.  In the past, I have always just used a dot of top coat to glue studs on, but they would only really last about twelve hours before they popped off.  So today I used brush on Gel Resin.  So far it has lasted through a shower, sleep, and cooking, so it works pretty well for me.  

My middle finger is just two coats of Essie's Hors d'ouevers.  It is a dense gold glitter polish with silver hexes.  Finally, on my ring finger I painted one coat of my much beloved Cult Nails Fetish then made my dots with OPIs My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  

I am pretty happy with the over all result and I hope you guys like it too.  :-)

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Random Post: Enchanted Polish August 2014

Woah, look at me being on top of things.  Blog posts are being written and there have been multiple random posts so far this month on top of doing NaNoWriMo.  I'm pretty proud of myself.

Now today's random post happened because of the frenzy over Enchanted Polish.  In case you do not know, this past year they have been releasing a mystery polish every month.  I keep seeing beautiful swatches of the polishes and I have multiple fellow polish junkies that have taken on the mission of owning every mystery polish of 2014.  So far this year they have all been gorgeous holographic polishes and we all know how much I love holo.  So for my birthday in August, I promised myself the mystery polish.  The presale for it was a month ago, so I swooped in and got it.  Now, if you've seen swatches of the August polish, you may already know what I'm about to say.


If I had known it was going to be duochrome, I would not have coughed up the $16 plus shipping for it.  Don't get me wrong, it is a gorgeous polish that has a strong shift of purple to blue to green and is perfectly opaque in two coats, but I <3 Nail Polish's Ultrachromes are $12.50 and they do sales every so often.  For the $16 price tag, I expect an amazing holographic polishes like every single other mystery polish they had come out with this year.  Now, you may say, well LacquerVixen you own seventeen Deborah Lippmann polishes and those are at least $18!  Those were all either gifts or purchased on clearance.  The most I've spent on a Deborah Lippmann has been $10 a bottle.

Really, it's a really pretty polish, but I am disappointed.  I guess that's the chance you take with mystery polishes.  Though apparently I may be the only person thinking this way because every other conversation I've seen about it, the people love it.  In that case, anyone want to trade for October 2014? :-P


As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Swatch Saturday: Rimmel Caramel Cupcake

Happy weekend everyone!  I hope you all have some fun plans for the weekend so that I can live vicariously through you.  ;-) My weekend plans include more NaNoWriMo bingeing and nail polish.  So at least the second half of that will be fun.

 Today I have Rimmel London's 60 Seconds nail polish in Caramel Cupcake.  It is a nice tan nude that is just slightly different enough from my skin tone to not give me true mannequin hands. There is a bit of shimmer in there that I found difficult to photograph. I used two coats for full opacity and found it easy to work with.  Now, I don't know if I would really call this 60 second polish. I've painted my nails with it before and dented it half an hour after I finished. I do like the color though and it was cheap, so I can deal with it. :P


As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Friday, November 7, 2014

Random Post: October Empties

Oh, it's already November.  October is gone, and soon it'll be December with all the holidays and present shopping.  I'm actually already half way done with my Christmas present shopping.  I just have family left.  I am a very excitable person when it comes to shopping and planning.  Why do you think my wedding planning is mostly done and I'm not getting married for another 11 months? :-P

So October's empties is a ridiculously large group.  Honestly I have no idea how I went through this much stuff.  It makes no sense.  I had to divide everything into two pictures, so get yourself a drink, maybe a snack, and let's start this puppy!  Let's try to keep this short and sweet and avoid me rambling.  


1. The Balm What's Your Type? Tall, Dark, and Handsome Mascara- Now to be honest I only bought this mascara because the guy on the box looks like Archer from the FX show and I LOVE me some Archer.  I generally do not see the point in high end mascara and spending anything more than $10 on a tube.  Luckily I found this one on sale for $9.50 on Hautelook.  I like it.  It is not a super wet mascara and does not leave my lashes all clumpy, this isn't actually empty, it dried out! It does plenty in the length department and not so much in the volume.  Would I repurchase? Eh?  I think it's a pretty solid mascara, but nothing special.  If I happened to find it on sale, sure, but I wouldn't actively go after it.

2. Simple Moisturizing Eye Gel: I'm not exactly sure what this is supposed to do.  It has a metal roller ball that is nice and cooling, but I don't think it did much of anything. Would I repurchase? Nope.

3. Elizabeth Arden Good Morning Eye Treatment: Okay, I really like this stuff.  It helps smooth puffiness under your eyes.  I found it at TJ Maxx randomly for $6, that made it even better.  I had bought it hoping to find a cheaper dupe for the Origins Gin-zing under eye cream and was pretty happy with the results.  Would I repurchase? If I could find it again, definitely.

4. Clarisonic Gentle Hydro Cleanser: I got this as a sample when I bought my Clarisonic, and it was okay. It got the job done, but it didn't foam at all and when it comes to my cleansing products I don't feel quite clean enough unless I see it foaming up. Would I repurchase? Nah, especially not with so many other good options out there. 

5. NYC In a New York Minute Top Coat: Okay, I have to be honest here, I didn't use this as a nail top coat. I swear by HK Girl.  I used this for my dragon eggs. It is less than $2 and I can top coat 3-4 eggs with a bottle. It works for me. Would I repurchase? Ha! I've gone through like 4 bottles already and I need more.

6. Julep in Reese: This is something else sacrificed to the dragon eggs. I learned very quickly that the tiny Julep bottles do not have enough polish for dragon eggs, not by a long shot. So I actually combined it with Sephora by OPI in Meet Me in the Disco.  If you're curious, this was the final result.  Now I used this polish because I'm not the biggest fan of the silver duochrome with purple and green on my nails, but I thought it would be a great egg. This happened to be the only one in my stash, so it got used. Would I repurchase? Probably not. I'm just kind of over Julep.

7. Zoya Remove + (mini size): This is Zoya's infamous nail polish remover. It has all these extra bits in it to be more nourishing and less damaging to your nails.  It did the job pretty well. Would I repurchase? A full sized bottle of this is $10, and it's only like 8 oz.  I can get others that are just as good, smell better, and a lot cheaper. So no. 

8. Jessie's Girl Waterproof Liquid Liner: Ug, this was terrible.  I got this hoping that it would be a good drugstore dupe for my beloved Kat Von D Tatu Liner. It is not anything like it.  First it claims to be waterproof, it hardly lasted 3 hours.  Hell it made my eyes water.  It even got all crusty and would peel off.  It also made my eyes itch.  This isn't actually empty product, it's a fail.  Would I repurchase? Hello no.

9. Nyx Super Skinny Marker in Black: This is a pretty solid, middle of the road liquid liner.  It is felt tipped.  My issues were that it wasn't as black as I like it and it dried up in like two weeks.  Would I repurchase? Meh? Maybe in a pinch or if it was super cheap. 

10. Urban Decay 24/7 Velvet Glide On Pencil in Black Velvet: I got this in an Ipsy bag and was super excited because I loved the Perversion pencil that this had replaced.  It falls short.  It was really dry and no matter how often I would sharpen it, it would be a sheer color and would skip.  Not cute.  This was another fail instead of an empty.  Would I repurchase? Ha 

11. LOreal True Match Concealer Stick in W4: I have always bought my concealer from the LOreal True Match line.  I really like the color range and I think they do a good job. The coverage is good and it stays pretty well.  The stick is nice because it's less messy than the liquid ones, but then maybe I'm just super messy.  Would I repurchase? Definitely.  


12. Beauty Secrets Acetone (pink version): When I said I could get cheaper polish remover that was just as good as the Zoya Remove +, this is what I meant.  This thing is cheap at Sally's Beauty Supply and is scented like wine.  Yeah, it's awesome.  Would I repurchase? Duh.  lol

13. Batiste Dry Shampoo for Dark and Deep Brown Hair: I have reviewed this before in my May Empties.  Needless to say, I love it.  It's amazing.  Would I repurchase?  I have two back ups already.

14. Softsoap Juicy Pomegranate and Mango Infusions Body Wash: I've gone through so many bottles of this body wash over the years.  It's probably my favorite ever.  If Softsoap ever discontinued it, I may  have to run out and buy all of the bottles in a 20 mile radius.  It has a very pleasant scent and suds up very well.  I always fell very clean after my showers with this.  Would I repurchase?  Absolutely.  

15. Ulta Anti Bacterial Gentle Foaming Hand Soap in Mandarin Mint: It's hand soap, smells good, and cleans.  They're usually $6 a bottle, but Ulta usually has a buy two get two free sale.  Stack that with a $3.50 off of $10 so they only end up being about $2 a piece.  Would I repurchase? Yes.  Totally.

16. Dove Go Fresh Revive in Pomegranate & Lemon Verbena Scent: I have reviewed this before in my September Empties.  So I love it.  Would I repurchase?  I buy this in duos.  lol

17. Heavenly Sugar, Sugar Scrub: I got this as a gift from a friend and use it during my weekly mani upkeep.  I like it, it leaves my hands feeling soft.  Would I repurchase?  Sure, if I happen to come across it and it's not expensive.  :-P

18. Simple Protecting Light Moisturizer with Broad Spectrum SPF 15 Sunscreen: Okay, I need to stop taking pictures of stuff I've already reviewed.  This one was also in my May Empties.  I love it, it's my go to face moisturizer.  Would I repurchase it?  Of course!  I always have difficulties finding it, so I have to swoop in when I can find it.

19. Bubble White 5 Minute Effervescent Nail Cleaner: I love this stuff.  This is also another weekly mani upkeep product for me.  I soak my fingers and toes with this stuff and it leaves me feeling squeaky clean.  Like, literally squeaky.  Loves it!  would I repurchase?  Already have!

As the usual side note, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me stuff for free just to review them. ;-) 

Hard to Find Friday: Stardust Mother of Dragons


Happy Friday!  It's finally here!  Ah, this week has been crazy and now we can finally all breathe. ..Tomorrow.  :-P  Trying to keep up on NaNoWriMo this week with life and still trying not to neglect you guys has been kicking my butt.  I am still here though and barring crazy stuff happening, I will keep being here.  So let's get on with today's Hard to Find Friday!  


This is Stardust Polish in Mother of Dragons from her Game of Thrones collection.  This collection was first released over a year ago and has since been discontinued.  I only own one more from this collection and this was my favorite.  It is a pink polish with an orange duochrome, a bit of purple flash, and a scattered holo.  Yeah it's amazing.  It took me two coats for complete opacity.  Now the formula on mine was a bit thick and kind of difficult to work with, BUT I blame that on the fact that it is an older polish that I have abused quite a bit.  This may be the forth or fifth time I've used it so there is a very obvious usage line on it.  The combination of that and how much it has been open to the air probably made it thicker.  It is nothing that some thinner wouldn't fix.  So if you can find a bottle of this, get it!  If you have it already in your collection use it. 

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)



Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Untried Wednesday: Gloss N Sparkle The Huntress

Happy hump day everyone!  I hope your week is going well.  Mine has been super productive, so ya!  I am two days ahead for NaNoWriMo, so yay I have a cushion.


Today I have Gloss N Sparkle's The Huntress.  I randomly found this on sale on Llarowe and picked it up.  I am a fan of Gloss N Sparkle's unicorn crellies, so I thought that this sparkly  would work for me.  I loved it.  It is an emerald green jelly with blue and purple hexes and bits of holographic glitters.  I used two coats of polish and it was opaque enough to keep me happy.  Generally jellies tend to need at least three coats because of how sheer they are, but this one was opaque enough to only need two while still letting all the glitter shine through.  If you can get your hands on it, especially for a good price, get it!


As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Monday, November 3, 2014

Mani Monday: Konad Stamped Netting

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you all had a good weekend.  Mine was pretty productive.  I'm ahead on my NaNoWriMo, so woo go me.  But I know you guys are here to see my polish pictures, so let's get started.  Just off the bat, I don't particularly like the way these turned out and I have no problem showing it to you all.  Maybe you'll know what I did wrong or you wouldn't make the same mistakes I made.  Whatever they are.


As my base polish I used China Glaze Strawberry Fields.  It is a bright pink with a pretty heavy gold shimmer.  I used two coats for complete opacity.  This is actually one of the few China Glaze polishes I own.  Generally the formula doesn't work with my nail chemistry.  No matter what I do, it chips off in big pieces on me within 24 hours.  I do really like this color though, so I keep it around.


To top it off, I pulled out my my stamping stuff and my favorite bottle of Cult Fetish.  For this I used Konad stamping plate N53, it is the same one that has the zebra and leopard print.  It has been a while since I pulled these out and I remember why.  The C curve on my nail is too pronounced for these kind of full nail stamping images.  They generally don't reach the edges of my nails.  I also attempted to do a black french tip with a dotting tool and give them an almost fluffy cloud appearance.  They ended up melting together.  Yeah. Things were just not working for me today.  It was totally not cute.


As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Swatch Saturday: Zoya Odette and Black Cat Lacquer Let Them Eat Cake

Happy November first everyone!  I hope you all had a lovely and safe Halloween.  What did you guys do?  We decided last minute to get dinner at the mall and watch all the trick or treaters.  So I did a quickly painted my face like a sugar skull we had lots of fun.


Today I have two polishes to swatch and they are both some of my favorites.  First off, this is Zoya's Odette from the Spring 2014 Naturel collection.  It is a dusty purple cream with a really smooth formula.  I used two coats for complete opacity.  I don't have anything like this in my collection and I feel that it is really unique.  I've worn this polish a couple of times already and had been almost craving it this week.  I HAD to use it.  ;-P  You may be able to find this at your local Ulta, it is a relatively recent collection.  It is available on Zoya's website, so keep an eye out for a sale.  They are bound to have another one coming up soon.  


Probably my favorite polish to top Odette with is Black Cat Lacquer's Let Them Eat Cake.  It is a glitter topper with pastel blue, pink, and yellow hexes with a sprinkling of holo glitter.  The glitter pay off you see on my nail is after a single coat.   Let Them Eat Cake is quite possibly one of my favorite indie toppers.  I think it's one that every nail polish junkie should own.  

And now kind readers, it is time for me to start my 1667 words for the day.  Yay for NaNoWriMo.

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)