Haul of the Month: July 2013

Above the Curve The Baby Blues

Above the Curve Fallen Angel

Above the Curve Risen Angel

Above the Curve What No Buy?!?!

Above the Curve Caty Perry-winkle

Catrice King of Greens

Chaos & Crocodiles Harmonious (Clear Edition) - hasn't arrived yet

Contrary Polish Gift Wrap

Duri Rejuvacote

Essie A Cut Above

Hard Candy So So Sequin

Orly Peaceful Opposition

Orly High on Hope

Orly Elation Generation

Polished by KPT Hot Like Wasabi
Polished by KPT Camellia

Sally Hansen Pink Grape-Fruit

Sally Hansen Lava

Serum No. 5 Lei Down the Law

Serum No. 5 Day Glow

Don't judge! These were all for my birthday next month... :D Also, many of these were either on sale or from blog sales. Score!

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Gray with Rose Accents

Today's mani was actually one I wore last week. I didn't have the chance to post it until now. It was something different for me, but I loved the result! I was inspired by Pshiiit's skittle and accent manis.

Thumb: Butter London Rosie Lee over Revlon Really Rosy
Index, Middle, and Pinky: Zoya Dove
Ring: Butter London Rosie Lee

I really adore the combination of neutral and dusty colors. I think I'll be doing more of this kind of manis! I really enjoyed wearing it.

What do you guys think? Please let me know! :)

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Essie Sunday Funday + Rock the Boat

Self-purchased

Essie Sunday Funday

Ah, I love this one. :D Sunday Funday is a salmon-leaning coral creme with silver shimmer. The shimmer is not as evident on the nail as in the bottle. However, it is still clearly visible, especially in the light. At times I see the influences of pink and, at others, orange. It's a bit hard to classify this one. 3 coats. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this a few times, but Essies are a hit-or-miss for me. However, this one was a hit! It had a good formula, was easy to apply, and dried shiny. I still put top coat on though. Sunday Funday is a color I will reach for often.

Essie Rock the Boat

Rock the Boat is a powder blue creme with silver shimmer. It's very Cinderella-esque! :D 3 coats. At first, the formula was a wee bit goopy. On successive coats, I did not have that problem though. Regardless, it was quite easy to apply and dried shiny. I also put top coat on this one. Pictures make Rock the Boat look very lumpy. In real life, this wasn't the case at all! It actually looked really smooth to me.

What do you guys think? Please let me know! :)

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Color Club Poptastic Collection

Self-purchased

I got this collection a loooong time ago. These were actually my first Color Clubs! I got lucky and spotted them at Ross. I quickly snatched them up lest someone else was spying them! This post, along with future spam and collection posts, will be short because I have so many I still need to swatch. Enjoy! :)

The formula on all of these Color Clubs were more or less the same. There will be more details under each swatch. Poptastic, Warhol, and Wham! Pow! were the only true neons. Twiggie, Chelsea Girl, and Pucci-licious were just bright cremes, possibly due to the addition of neon pigment. Almost Famous, the only one that took 4 coats to become opaque and did not have any neon pigment, was a standard creme. Except for Almost Famous, they all dried somewhat matte as they still had a nice gloss to them. All of them did not level well, but that problem can probably be corrected with a good top coat. I did not use top coat for these swatches, however.

Poptastic 

Neon bubblegum pink and is actually lighter than shown. 3 coats. Dried quickly and slightly matte.

Warhol

Reddish pink neon that pulled more red on me. 3 coats. Dried quickly and slightly matte.

Wham! Pow!

Super neon orange! Much more radioactive than traffic cone orange. I actually really liked this one; I thought I wouldn't because it was so retina-searing! 3 coats. Dried quickly and slightly matte.

Almost Famous

Warm, medium yellow creme. For some reason, this one always reminds me of egg yolk! 4 coats. This one had lots of dragging and, since it was a creme, the formula was thicker than the others. I honestly don't expect much from yellows because they are notorious for their formula and pigmentation problems. However, Almost Famous is still my go-to yellow because it's one of the most opaque yellow cremes I have.

Twiggie

Bright green creme with lots of white in its base. 3 coats in order to cover some patches. You can get away with 2 if you do thicker coats though. Dried quickly and slightly matte.

Chelsea Girl

A bright blue jelly. 3 coats, but you can still see my nail line. I don't mind seeing that so I left it at 3 coats. If you want it to be opaque, then you would probably need 4 or 5 coats. Dried quickly and slightly matte. I have a feeling Chelsea Girl might be good for jelly sandwiches... ;)

Pucci-licious

A somewhat bright, medium purple. 3 coats. Dried quickly and slightly matte.

What do you guys think? Please let me know! :)

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Roses for Talia Joy Castellano

Talia Joy Castellano sadly passed away on July 16, 2013. She battled neuroblastoma (cancer that develops from immature nerve cells) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), formerly known as preleukemia. Talia (TaliaJoy18 on youtube and instagram) was known as a makeup guru and for her upbeat personality and positive attitude. I found out about her after seeing screenshots of her on The Ellen Degeneres Show. Ellen asked her how she remained so positive and Talia replied that a little fish told her to "just keep swimming". :)

Today, I am joining Nicole from Nail Polish Wars and many other bloggers. Because Talia's last Instagram picture featured a mint mani, we decided to post our own in order to remember her.

I used China Glaze Re-fresh Mint as my base, Love & Beauty Pink and OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips for the roses, and Color Club Artsy Crafty and Sinful Colors Innocent for the leaves. I created the roses and leaves with a dotting tool. I topped everything off with a fast-drying top coat.

Now, I would like a moment for those who are fighting cancer and those who have passed away from cancer. Rest in peace.

Take care and I will see you guys on the other side of the day.

R.I.P. Talia Joy Castellano

Michelle

Jordana Mini Swatch Spam

Self-purchased

I've been having periods of ups and downs lately. Today is a "down" day. I figured what better way to cheer myself up than by swatching glitter polishes? These Jordanas have been in my untrieds for a very long time now, and their time is way overdue!

Carnival

Carnival has a mix of green, blue, and silver hexes and blue microglitter in a dark blue jelly base. I used 3 coats. It had a good, solid formula and fishing was not necessary. Though it dried smoothly and fast, I still used a topcoat. Along with Sally Hansen Mermaid's Tale, it is widely known as a dupe of Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe.

Celebration

Celebration is a dense mix of small, tiny, and fine lavender glitter in a clear base. On my index and middle fingers, I used 1 thin coat over Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac. On my ring and pinky fingers, I used 3 thin coats to reach opacity. Again, the formula was good and I had no problems. It dried quickly and a little gritty. I used 2 thin coats of topcoat.

Bronze Fest

Bronze Fest is a dense mix of yellow gold and orange copper glitter of various sizes in a clear base. I used 1 thin coat over Julep Demi on my index and middle fingers while I used 3 thin ones on my ring and pinky fingers to reach opacity. This little one had the "worst" formula out of the bunch; it was thinner and runny. I had to be more careful while applying it. It dried quickly and a little gritty so I used 1 slightly thick coat of topcoat.

Lunar Lights

Lunar Lights is a standard iridescent glitter topper and has hexes and microglitter in a clear base. I used 1 coat over Sally Hansen White On on my index and middle fingers and over Sally Hansen Black Out on my ring and pinky fingers. It had the good, solid formula that the first two polishes had. However, dry time was just okay. It didn't dry gritty. No topcoat.

What do you guys think of these glitters? I personally love them and was surprised to find such great quality from cheap polishes! I bought these from Cherry Culture for only $2.99 each! Amazing, right?

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle