Revlon Plum Night

I sadly have a cold. I felt it coming on Thanksgiving. It's always is the same game.. starts out as scratchy throat..advances to post nasal drip/sore throat...then to runny nose...now on to the stuffy head and clogged up ears stage. I'm assuming the only able to breath out of one nostril stuffed up nose stage is fast approaching! I'm just ride it out with some water, Robitussin cough syrup, and Sudafed decongestant. That's all you can really do for a cold!

On to nail polish! I never used to like dark colors. I would always pass them by. It wasn't until I discovered that I really like the look of dark colors on my nails that I began to fall in love with them. This next one is one of my favorites. It's easy to find and cheap. No complaints. A great addition to any stash in my book!

Revlon Plum Night

Plum Night is a blackened plum purple creme. This is about as dark as you can go without it being considered black.


I'm a fan of this one. I don't have much else to say about it. I'm going to go back to my kleenex and Vick's Vapo Rub now. I hope you all have a nice day. :)

Happy Tuesday!

ELF Polish Trio

I wanted to show you guys a cute nail polish holiday set I got recently. I got the "ELF Nail Polish Trio" at Target for $3. I really like this set. The colors don't scream original, but it's a great holiday set for a great price. This set includes one jelly glitter polish and 2 top coat glitter polishes. It's probably best to enlarge some of these so you can see the glitter better. :)

Cranberry

Cranberry is a true red jelly with red glitter mixed in. I did not do comparisons, but from off the top of my head I think this is a brighter red than China Glaze Ruby Pumps. I also searched this ELF color online and there seems to be multiple versions of ELF "Cranberry". I've seen a berry shimmer and I've seen a maroon jelly with silver sparkle. I'm assuming that this version of Cranberry is online found in these holiday sets.

Golden Goddess (layered over Milani Gold Lame)

Golden Goddess is a gold micro glitter mixed in with silver holographic larger glitters top coat.

Twinkle (layered over Eva Powder Blue)

Twinkle is a white iridescent glitter top coat.

I quite like this set. I can't get enough red glitters and it gives you two great top coats you can use for endless layering combinations. Cute set I give it two thumbs up.

On a side note would anyone be interested in me doing a comparison of red glitters?

Happy Monday!

China Glaze Little Drummer Boy

"Come they told me, pa rum pum pum pum.."

I couldn't help it. That's what you get for naming a color after a Christmas song. I can't help but sing it. Since I was unable to hold off from posting my Xmas background to a more appropriate time (I know Nov 1 was early), I figured I would hold off on posting Xmas colors until after Thanksgiving. I somewhat contained myself. I LOVE this time of year. I'm excited they started up the 24/7 Christmas radio station. Despite the 80F degree weather and humidity.. I am in the Christmas spirit!

Little Drummer Boy

Little Drummer Boy is a deep navy/midnight blue shimmer. I wouldn't call this a true navy, it has like a touch of gray to it. This color is bold, but it has a softness to it as well. It has a coziness to it. Hopefully,  that makes any sense. I'm terrible at describing things!

I love dark blues. I think this one is great! I think this particular shade is very different from anything I have. I know this one doesn't scream "holidays", but it does remind me of a the night sky possibly on winter evening? There I go with my imagination again. That probably made no sense. This color just seems to suit winter to me. I'll stop there before I start talking about other wintery things or break out into another Christmas carol!

Happy Saturday!

Zoya Raven

I hope everyone in the US had a nice Thanksgiving! Today is now "Black Friday" where masses of people hit the malls and other stores to get great deals on items. I find Black Friday a bit scary. I live around 1 mile from the mall. I have yet to venture outside on Black Friday considering I'm sure I'll be bombarded with traffic as soon as I leave my apartment complex. However, my curiosity has gotten the better of me, and my BF too for that matter. I think we may venture out and just see how insane it really is today. If I have a post up tomorrow you'll know I survived! :P

Zoya Raven

Raven is a black creme with a subtle silver shimmer.

I got this as part of Zoya's Halloween special. I initially thought this was just a plain black creme, but there is a lovely shimmer throughout. It's definitely not my favorite of colors, but the shimmer is a nice surprise. I'm not disappointed!

Happy Friday & Happy Shopping to those of you who are out!

Zoya Tiffany

It's the day before Thanksgiving, and I've managed not to put up any Christmas lights yet. I will be putting them up tonight. I like having Christmas stuff up during Thanksgiving. I know I'm a bit Xmas obsessed. On another note, one of the winter collections released I've been pleased with is the Zoya Flame collection. I don't think I'll ever get tired of foily/glass fleck/glitters they're right up my alley!

Tiffany

Tiffany is a peachy  champagne foil with flecks of gold/peach glitter. (I'm terrible at describing this. It has so many elements!)


No complaints here. I love this foil-metallic finish in polishes these days. I've always loved this type of color, but when it's in a flat shimmer it's unappealing to me. The little foil-metallic particles really give this color "umph" and make it a star! This color reminds me a lot of my favorite MAC eyeshadow "Mythology".

I don't have plans to post tomorrow, so I hope all of you who celebrate have a nice Thanksgiving!

Happy Wednesday!

BB Couture Dragon's Breath

I think I have a BB Couture lemming list that is at least 15 polishes long. I love this brand, but it's not my favorite as far as price goes. They're around $9 a bottle. I have 4 colors, but I hope to expand that! These are great polishes and the colors are very unique! Here is one of my favorites...

Dragon's Breath

Dragon's Breath is a red-toned purple jelly with red, blue, and silver glitter.

This is a great color. I love the red and blue glitter in the purple base. You do not get different color glitters in jelly polishes often. I think these are definitely worth the $9 price tag. Their polishes are some of my all time favorites as far as color selection and originality.

Update: You can find BB Couture polishes on OverallBeauty!

Happy Tuesday!

Franken Snow Kissed Lilac

This weekend I was on a mission to make a franken dupe of China Glaze No Way Jose (photo courtesy of lextard). This is a discontinued polish. You cannot find this anywhere. It's not on ebay it's not on etailers. It is gone. The problem is I *need* this polish.

I decided I would try to franken this. My franken attempt was a fail. I don't even recall the recipe at this point. I think I worked on this for 3 hours over the span of 2 days. The bottle overflowed about 5 times. I used probably 7 different polishes. I never came up with a dupe of this amazing color. That being said I'm kind of in love with my franken, but I still need that No Way Jose!

Snow Kissed Lilac

Snow-Kissed Lilac is a bright lilac pastel creme mixed in with white/clear glass fleck glitter (I used Orly Winter Wonderland for this). I want to to thank "popojijo" on MUA for helping me name this. 

I could go through how not like No Way Jose this is, but that will depress me. I am really pleased with this franken in general though. I love the brightness of the purple and that glitter effect. It's definitely not a color I have in my collection. Overall, I'm really happy with franken. Was I frustrated as heck and irritated I couldn't get this franken to look like No Way Jose? Yep! :P This was a nice surprise though. China Glaze do me a favor and re-release this polish. :)


Happy Monday!

Maybelline Colorama Burgundy Blaze

I never have much luck at Dollar Tree. I am so jealous of the people who have found Sally Hansen Nail Prisms at their Dollar Tree! The Dollar Trees around me all carry the same 200 bottles of the same 3 shades of LA Colors. Bleh. I did get lucky one day when I found a pack of Maybelline Coloramas. This seriously was a miracle. I don't know how this happened considering their consistent less that stellar nail polish selection. I've miss Coloramas! It's one of those lines like Revlon Street Wear I wish I could go back in time and collect them all! 

Burgundy Blaze

Burgundy Blaze is a burgundy shimmer with gold undertones.

This is definitely not the most original color, but I have a soft spot for reds with gold in them. Plus, it's nice to have a Colorama color. It's so nostalgic!

Happy Saturday!

I dared to go there....

For the past 3 holiday seasons since I've been into nail polish, I've noticed these Sally Hansen Nail Glam gift sets. I have heard on Scrangie's blog that this set is a dud. Once I read that post I promised myself I wouldn't even go near these. However, lately I've heard a few people say this year they've found some rare hidden gem polishes in these..pretty holographic ones and other surprises. So..I decided to give it a try...

Here is what you get for $10

This is the box. They say you get 5 "Great" Nail Colors, 2 Nail Treatments, and 4 manicure tools. Cool, I'm with you. I honestly am not expecting much, but the idea of "grab bags" and "mystery prizes" has always enticed me. You get a thrill opening them up not knowing what you'll get.

When you open up that box you get...

This brown box. Hello brown box! Please provide me with some pretties!

Now for the unveiling....

Color Quick Nail Pen- Orange, No Chip 10 Day Color- White Tip, Salon Nail Lacquer- Wine Not? Lacquer Shine- Glossy, Lacquer Shine- Gleaming, & Super Shine Shiny Top Coat

Well, no special rare gems in this pack. I do think it is an improvement from when Scrangie got her set in December 2008.  The bottles have labels, you don't get sheer pinks, or falsely labeled colors that are really clear. There are some rich colors in here. Rare or original colors? Not at all. I'm sure we all 3 versions of these colors.  They're your standard wine, maroon/brown, and magenta.  The nail pen? Meh. I'm not into nail pens. I'm actually glad I got the white polish. I use that for frankening and I was out. I would of been better off spending $1 on WnW White rather than this though. As for the colors, these will probably become franken projects.

The rest...

Maximum Growth Cuticle & Nail Treatment Pen, Long Wear Laser File?, Standard Nail File, Nail Clippers, & Scary Toe Separators with faces on them...:-/

The treatment pen I was excited about. I twisted the pen about 100 times before any product came out. I actually think this one is nearly empty? The metal nail file scares me. I don't know how to use this. The regular nail file I probably could use. The toe separators with happy faces on them give me the creeps.


My Overall Assessment: 
Don't even bother. If you're looking for one of those rare polishes, don't count on getting one. I guess if you really are eager to find a rare polish and think it's worth $10 then go for it. I hate these things because since they're a mystery you have the urge to keep looking, but don't waste your money. Out of all the things I got..I am not thrilled, excited, or even content with any of it. On a scale of 1-10 I would rate this stuff a 1. The only valuable thing about this stuff is now I have some polishes to franken with. I could of bought 10 WnW $1 polishes in the colors I wanted for the same price of the set of this worthless crap. I should of listened to Scrangie and my instincts telling me "Steph you're going to get box full of ****" I sure did!

UPDATE: Perhaps I got the wrong set. After I typed this post up I saw this post by Beautyburg. I think in these sets you can see beforehand what you're purchasing...Dangit...I wish I would of waited a day.

Happy Friday!

Holiday Giveaway Winners!

Thank you all who participated in this holiday giveaway. This will be my last giveaway for the 2010 year. It's been a great year. I appreciate all of you who read and commented on my blog. This blog and all the friends I've made have been a major highlight this year. I know enough sappy stuff here are the winners!

Winner of Prize #1 is......

 Kari!!!!

Winner of Prize #2 is.....

Jenny of Polishology!!!



Winner of Prize #3 is.....

MissMidnightBlue!!!!

Congrats to all the winners!!!! Thank you all for entering and continuing to support my blog.

Happy Thursday!

Confetti Moonstruck

Reminder: Today is the last day to enter my holiday giveaway (US only)!


 I've been a little glitter obsessed lately, so time for a little break from glitter. I've heard some people reporting that Confetti has been disappearing entirely from CVS. It's probably a good idea to go and stock up if they're still around at your CVS. I have a love/hate relationship with this brand. They're OK. My biggest complaint is their brushes can be wonky. They do have a handful of colors that unique and a great selection of colors to fill holes in your collection.


Moonstruck

Moonstruck is a medium taupey-grey creme.

This is a great color for autumn. This reminds me a lot of one of my favorites Sephora by OPI Metro Chic only a lot cheaper!

Happy Wednesday!

Zoya Ivanka

 Reminder: One more day to enter my holiday giveaway (US only)!

I remember one of my first posts on this blog was titled "It's Not Easy Being Green". Green nail polish and I never mixed well. I never really was attracted much to greens under the assumption they don't look good on me. Well, things have changed. I've noticed in the last month I've been purchasing lots of greens. I think it's a matter of finding the right greens. I love deep rich greens and medium greens. I especially love greens with sparkle or shimmer. I feel silly for passing up on this Zoya the first time, but I'm glad to have it now!

Ivanka

Ivanka is a true emerald green with gold and green glass fleck glitter.

This is a spectacular color! This one is from the Zoya Sparkle summer collection. Every time I saw swatches of this I swooned over this color, but passed it up because of my previous experiences with green. I'm glad I changed my mind. I shouldn't of dismissed an entire color family. I was missing out,  but I'm making up for it now. I love me some green!

Happy Tuesday!

Pure Ice Strapless

 I went shopping today for Christmas stuff. I like to decorate the weekend before Thanksgiving..I'm a little Christmas obsessed. We don't have room for a big tree in my apartment so I got a 2 foot one to put on this table in the living room. I also have mini 10 inch? tree for the bedroom. I got all these sparkly/glittery decorations and I'm excited to decorate. I love glitter and sparkle! Speaking of glittah......

Pure Ice Strapless

This is Strapless layered over Wet n' Wild Black Creme. Strapless is bright medium toned blue compacted glitter. You could probably layer this up to get it opaque, but I find it easier to layer it over a solid color first.

Wee! I love this. I know there are a lot of people who don't care for glitter in nail polish, but I love it. This is  a great shade that is blingy and it's on $2 at Walmart. Cheap pretty glitter..I'm on board. Speaking of glitter polishes, I heard that Milani has released a collection of "One Coat Glitters" and "Jewel FX" with a glitter similar to Lippmann Happy Birthday. I read this on the Nail Board on MakeupAlley. I also saw some bottle pics (these pictures/post belong to violetivy) . I'm SUPER excited. I know last week I mentioned that it's been awhile since Milani released a new collection. I hope this hits stores soon here. Orlando is usually slow about getting new collections, but I'll keep my eye out!

Happy Monday!