Golden Rose 102

Hello again! Today's post is dedicated to my dear Kirsten who absolutely adores the chemically smell of (likely) non-big 3 free polishes. This polish brand is right up your alley, Kirsten!

Golden Rose is a somewhat little-known brand that originates in Turkey but can be purchased here in the USA (and elsewhere abroad, I'm sure) through goldenroseusa.com. They make some really pretty colors, but the smell can be a bit to deal with at times. Their prices, though, are the selling point: usually between two or three dollars! Can't beat that!

Unfortunately, they don't name their polishes, so we have numbers. This is Golden Rose Holographic 102, which is a light blue scattered holo polish.  It's a very pretty color even if it wasn't a holo, but the holo definitely makes me like it more! (My pointer finger is still out of the pictures for now, he's refusing to grow and I've put him in time-out.)

Flash to show the color (above).

No flash in "natural" light (above). You can see a little bit of the holo effect on my pinky finger towards the cuticle.

This particular polish was tough to work with because the bottle is so small (only 5 or 6 mL I believe) and the brush is also short, so getting polish on the brush is a task. Every time I needed more polish, I either had to tilt the bottle at a scary please-oh-please-don't-let-me-spill-this-everywhere angle or completely screw the cap on again. It was a little thick but not impossible to apply, but definitely requires some patience. This is three coats and it took some time to dry between each coat, and remember the PITA manner of having to dip my brush again? It made me nearly crazy which is why I stopped at three coats when it could have used a fourth.

What do you think? I loved the color despite the hassle of an application. I didn't get very good pictures of this because it took FOREVER to dry and a few hours after putting it on, whole nails kept getting smudged and I just didn't have the patience to re-apply for pictures when I was definitely over wearing it as my NOTD/

xoxo,
Amanda

Golden Rose Holo, China Glaze Harmony, and Bundle Monster

Hi ladies! How is everyone doing? Here in Massachusetts, we're recovering from a string of tornadoes (you read that right, tornadoes) that destroyed many towns and cities in our state. It's been a tough road, especially since us Massachusettsians are not at all prepared for tornadoes, so it's a big shock on top of all the devastation. Ok, enough of the heavy...

Funny that I'm writing this post because Rachel Marie just posted the same line of polishes a few hours ago! I actually wore this about a week ago, but it only lasted one day because I stupidly smudged them about an hour after painting them and when you have 200+ nail polishes, you don't usually feel like taking polish off to put the same color back on when there are so many options!

Anyway, here is Golden Rose Paris 109, a light purple holo.

 I couldn't accurately show you the color of this and the holo if I tried all day, but it was really nice on. Golden Rose is a Turkish brand with a branch here in the US. Their polishes are super cheap, shipping was quick, and customer service is awesome. One thing though: these polishes smell. I'm not convinced this brand is big 3 free, but it seems like with the good holos, they never are. Sigh.

Next up is China Glaze Harmony, an older polish that I ordered online a while back. I must say, this polish applied like butter. Probably the best application experience I have had in a long time, maybe ever! Color was awesome too and I loved the metallic finish. Why three fingers in this post? My pointer had a HUGE chip in it. Meaning half the polish was missing. Far too embarassing to post here, so instead you get an awkward three finger pose!

Next up: I got the new Bundle Monster plates! I was on a no-buy after my vacation but these are just too irrestible. Plus, I figured anything that might make me touch up old manis and find old polishes interesting is a good investment for not buying new polishes. Right? Here they all are with the blue film they put on them to protect them.

If you have the originals, you'll know the first round the film was clear and people often forgot to remove it. These are much more noticeable and much easier to take off.

 Since Harmony had majorly chipped off one nail and I was going to remove it, I decided to fool around with some of the designs I was more excited about. (There's a lot more, but I'll spare you!)

 Swirls, one of my favorite patterns! And I must say, these plates have a much larger size to the full-nail patterns, this fit really easily without the hassle of double stamping.

 These were a surprise that I really liked them after I saw a picture my twitter friend posted of these. Very cool, geometric pattern that almost reminds me of the shatter/crackle topcoats.

And finally, not to sound too pluggy, but if you're reading this, leave a comment! You can also find me on twitter - Amanda_NPE. I love talking to readers and checking out new blogs. And if you read regularly, please share me with a friend. It's nice to have readers out there with a common interest.

xoxo,
Amanda