Last Week's Untrieds!

Gotta make up for lost time today, folks! Here's a few untried cremes to make up for my absence last week (sorry about that!). Don't forget - my comment giveaway ends this week so get your comments in on these last few posts to up your chances. I think I'll continue this tradition next month! What would you guys like to see for prizes?

Anywho... gonna give you three manis today because I way overshot my goal of creme untrieds one swatching day and I'm making up for lost time.

Sation Drama Doll is the pink below. It was brighter in person but not quite neon since you can see below it dries shiny. This is three coats and it was streaky and took forrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr to dry. I'll still use it again because I love pink.

Then you know me... step one: paint on a creme, step two: add glitter. This is OPI Lights of Emerald City from the new Oz collection. This was two coats as the glitter is fairly sparse on its own.

Next I tried Sally Hansen Wet Cement which my BFF Amanda sent me. This covered easily in two coats though it could have used a third and was a little thin for a normal creme. I fixed that...

 ...with glitter! Below is Black Cat Lacquer The Dream of the 90s Is Alive, which is a gray based crelly with a whole bunch of colors and black shapes. I like the sizes of glitter in this one because they're pretty consistent. Sometimes when a glitter has varying/huge shapes it makes it hard to manage all of the glitters on the brush. This was a dream to apply, one coat applied like normal polish and then I dabbed some glitter on some places/added a second coat if needed.

Finally, Julep Michelle. This is two coats of absolute blue perfection. Sorry the flash is incredibly bright on my skin and I look vampiric. I guess my camera can't handle the dark colors on me... but it's pretty color accurate, a little more navy IRL.

Then I added Cirque XX which Amanda sent me in a secret Cupid exchange and OMG AMANDA I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. This is absolute glitter perfection. Love at first sight applies here. This was one coat, it was absolutely packed with glitter which is good because I never ever want to run out of this. Ever. *snuggles bottle*

So there you go, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

xoxo,
Amanda

Monday Blues

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a good weekend! Mine was pretty low key but pretty fun nonetheless. However, today it's Monday and I'm working 5 days this week (I have every other Friday off) so I'm a little bummed. Plus, we're supposed to get snow and sleet this afternoon just in time for my evening commute - how fun! So I thought this polish would be perfect: Darling Diva Polish Snowball.

Snowball has white and iridescent glitter of varying sizes and snowflake shaped glitter! Try as I might, I couldn't fish a snowflake out of there but after I emailed Carrie and she sent me a baggie of like 900 snowflakes so I can place them myself, which is pretty much what anyone who added snowflake glitter had to do because it's impossible to fish out. I can't wait to wear this again when it's snowy and with some snowflakes on my nails! This was really pretty (the base is one of the Ruby Wing color changers but I am blanking on the name and spilled acetone on the page where I listed it).

What do you guys think? I love iridescent glitter so this is right up my alley and really delicate!

xoxo,
Amanda

More January Untrieds

Sheesh, this January untrieds challenge has actually been really challenging! I don't have really any one-off brands in my untrieds pile so I'm resorting to some collections from brands that are all I have left to swatch or just brands I have less than 4 of to swatch haha! Today I have two swatches from Jindie Nails and both are high in demand! I waited about three weeks (maybe four?) for these so they were highly anticipated! I'm lemming Barney Blew Up now!

I have Swoon up first which is a light blue base with neon green, pink, and blue glitter in it. I layered this over Ruby Wing Moonstone which I somehow forgot was color changing when I did these swatches but it was at night when I did these anyway so *shrugs* I actually wasn't super impressed with this, I couldn't get the green glitter out and I realized almost immediately it was an impulse buy but it's still pretty. If anyone wants to swap for Barney Blew Up I'm game! ;)

Next is the elusive Candy Land, which has been high in demand since she premiered it. For good reason too - it's really unique! This is a milky base with neon hexes in it. Candy Land Remix has some microglitters too but this is lovely and I think I like it better, IMO. This is two coats over white undies :)

So there you have my first and only Jindies! What do you think?

xoxo,
Amanda

I Made It In Time for Thursday!

Hey everyone - quickie post since I should have had this up this morning but I've been so busy at work this week that I haven't wanted to come home and type up anything. I must keep to my challenge with Amanda to try our untrieds! Confession time: even though I was the one who suggested we try our untrieds from brands we only had one untried from, I have literally none left! I really should have thought this through...

Anyway, for today's swatch, I have China Glaze Hanging in the Balance from the recent Cirque du Soleil collection. I absolutely ADORE the cremes from this collection and actually, the entire collection was really gorgeous. The cremes had a tricky formula for some people but I really liked them. This was one coat because I knew I was adding glitter on top...

And I added Lynnderella The Stars in Her Eyes which has... BABY STAR GLITTER. I don't even... I can't explain how much I love that tiny star glitter. It's so adorable I can't explain. Behold. Click to enlarge this picture so you can see the tiny stars and how cute they are!

So there you have it, happy Thursday!

xoxo,
Amanda

I Owe You a Bunch of Untrieds...

Hey everyone... I present this post with my tail between my legs because I've been a terrible blogger lately. The holidays, this time of year, lots of personal changes/stresses.... I've lost my blogging steam a little bit but I want to get back on track! I owe you three untried challenges plus tomorrow so you get three today then one tomorrow and I won't let Amanda down! Our challenge this month is brands we only have one untried of, which is actually really hard for me...

First: Julep Reese with Hits Fizzy. I did kind of a glitter gradient to show it off. Reese is a perfect pink IMO and applied really easily. I'm not super crazy about Fizzy but it's Hello Kitty so let's face it, I'll keep it forever because I can't break up the set.

And so I kind of cheated because number two is another Hits untried but it's a creme and the other was a glitter so I don't think it counts? This is one coat of Hits Blueberry. I could definitely have done a second coat but when it wasn't under my lightbox lights it seemed fine at one!

Finally, I have Hit Polish (Hits... Hits... Hit... this was unintentional) Witches Brew which is (obviously) a Halloween polish so I am really late on this one. I actually really adore this although I apologize because I'm not sure what nude polish that is underneath. If I ever figure it out I'll update this but, let's be honest, will any of you care to check back? If you care, leave me a comment and I'll figure it out (it's in my notes but I'm lazy right now...)

Ok done! You better enjoy that because who knows when I'll blog again.. jk, jk. I'll post tomorrow!

xoxo,
Amanda

Pink Wednesday & Hello Kitty!

Hey everyone, happy belated Christmas and happy Kwanzaa and happy festivus! Christmas Eve and Day were so busy for me I completely forgot about posting, oops! I did show you my Christmas nails if you follow me on Instagram, though... not a total fail. (Ok, it still is.)

To make it up to you, I have some more of the Hello Kitty collection from Hits. I'm pretty much obsessed with these and if they ever release another trio I'll certainly buy it. One of my swatches is also a pink base so that TOTALLY counts for Pink Wednesday, right?! (See, sometimes being late is awesome.)

First up is Blueberry, a nice periwinkle-blue creme. This was 1-2 coats (I forgot, ahhhhh!) and it applied really easily, like all the cremes in this collection.

Next up, I used Julep Reese for the base:

And did a gradient of Hits Fizzy on top, which was the only glitter of the HK collection. I always do my gradients using Orly Smudge Fixer... basically I dab the glitter on the tip and use Smudge Fixer to "smudge" the glitter across the nail, like you see here :)

So Hello Kitty? Win. Hits? Win. Glitter and awesome cremes? Win win win! Now go check out some other winners for their glitter swatches from yesterday, Amanda and Madeline!

xoxo,
Amanda

MyWholesaleFashion.com: Santee

Hello again! Somebody's got a case of the Mondays ;) We're inching closer and closer to the holidays (Hanukkah just began a couple days ago, so Happy Hanukkah for those who celebrate!) and I'm realizing just how unprepared I am this year! Oops!

Today is my final installment of reviews for MyWholesaleFashion.com. It was really fun reviewing for them and I can say for sure their customer service was quick and easy.

In today's review you will see one of the bottles was damaged in shipping. Please note that this isn't common with their shipping method, but that their polishes are usually packaged in 6 and when they separated them for reviews, they didn't wrap as they usually would have for protection. I specifically asked about this when I received mine and David from My Wholesale Fashion assured me this was unusual and he'd pass the message along to their shipping department for future reference. All my polishes were still useable so it wasn't really a problem anyway.

Anyway! The final brand is Santee which is one I had seen on eBay but never ordered. The colors I picked were Flame Heart, Love Season (which is the sparkly pink topcoat in the final picture), Beach Blue, Aqua, and Perfect Silver.

 Here's two coats of the cremes, no top coat. I really think blue and gray go well together and this would make such a perfect combo for an accent nail mani!

And here is Love Season (such a cute name btw) over Flame Heart.

Finally, the list of ingredients, again, not B3F but this one didn't seem to smell very much which is either because it was the last one I swatched or maybe it just doesn't smell very chemically ;) 

There you have it! What do you think of My Wholesale Fashion? I'm definitely interested in some of the jewelry and things they have too, especially since they seem to be really trendy (I spy lots of owls and mustaches!) Have you bought anything? Do you plan to? Let me know what you thought of the brands!

xoxo,
Amanda

MyWholesaleFashion.com: Kleancolor

Hey, happy Sunday! I'm dreading work again tomorrow, my weekends seem to fly by! Anyway, I'm back today continuing my review for MyWholesaleFashion.com.

Today I have Kleancolor, which I've purchased before but haven't tried any of their cremes. Here are the colors I picked: Barbie Pink, Pastel Orange, Pastel Teal, and Plum.

These swatches are two coats of each in the same order as above:

Kleancolor is not as smelly as Nabi was, but isn't big 3 free either. Here's the ingredients if you want to check them out. I didn't find the scent overpowering but not pleasant exactly either. I would definitely wear these again, though, if that's any measure.

I really loved this pink in particular, but I loved all the colors. I'm glad I picked up Plum because I am usually so opposed to dark/vampy colors and I loved this color on me!

xoxo,
Amanda

Lazy 15: Where I'm From

Hey hey hey! Happy Monday, or maybe not. Soon the holidays will be upon us in full-force so I hope you're all ready! I am certainly not... but nobody said the holidays will wait for me ;)

Today's challenge was "Where I'm From" and I wanted to avoid the typical USA flag thing and be specific. I'm from Massachusetts and I was inspired by the state flag (I bet you didn't know all the states have flags too!)

However, this mani was a pain in the ass...htray. My Migi pens were working well but I smudged every nail at least once and then I just gave up. and ended with what we have here. The yellow is much brighter than the goldenrod in the picture but I didn't have that kind of color or feel like frankening one. Soooo... Massachusetts yay! (?)

xoxo,
Amanda

Lazy 15: Underwater Creatures

Hey all, hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving for those of us who celebrated it yesterday!

I feel exceptionally lazy as I write this so you won't hear much from me. I suck at nail art. I hope someone can figure out what I was going for here... for this look my base color is Diamond Cosmetics Whisper Softly and I used my Migi nail art pens for the design.

Um, in case you can't tell what this blobbiness is, it's supposed to be the bottom of the ocean and fishies. Hey, I never said I was an artist.


xoxo,
Amanda

November Untrieds Part 6

Hey hey hey! I'm running out of greetings to start my posts with lol! Accepting suggestions ;)

Today Madeline and I are back with some more China Glaze untrieds! I'm happy to say I think my China Glaze drawer in my Helmer will be 100% used by the end of the month... though I have some from the Cirque du Soleil collection I'm not counting ;) By the way, December's untrieds isn't a brand, but a type: glitter. So if you'd like in on it, let me know and we can include you too!

Dorothy Who? is the polish for today. This is Ruby Pumps' blue sister. It's a light blue base with darker blue glitter in it and it's beautiful. The formula is a little thin and hard to work with, so excuse the bald spots and uneven application in some places. This is two coats, no top coat.

I'm not usually a blue person, but I liked this one. I don't know when I'll wear it, though, because I rarely find a reason to wear blues and constantly wear pinks and purples *sigh*

xoxo,
Amanda

Lazy 15: Galaxy Nails

Hi everyone! I hope you had a fabulous weekend. Mine was good, yesterday was soooooooo relaxing - something I haven't experienced in MONTHS.

So when this challenge began, there were a few days I read and groaned. You saw a recent one with water marbling. The second was galaxy nails, but I'm actually SO impressed with what I came up with.

So here's what I did (yes, I made a handy dandy graphic!):

Then, I added on some loose silver star glitter I had and voila!

So there you have it! I know it's not the usual galaxy nails you see with lots and lots of sponging but 1. you should know me by now. I like glitter. and 2. I think these are sort of a different take, like what the galaxy looks like from Earth if we're looking up at the sky. 


xoxo,
Amanda

Lazy 15: Water Marble

Hey everyone! I'm being really last minute typing this up the night before when usually I have posts ready at least a few days in advance now to make up for my schedule... but that's life! I'm watching Jersey Shore and not going to bed like I should be, but whatever ;)

Today's challenge is water marble and... groooooooooaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnn.

I was dreading this challenge, I won't lie to you. Once upon a time I loved water marbling but it's so time consuming and wastes nail polish like whooooa so I was not imagining this would come out well... and I was right. It's bubbly and it smudged easily and never ever ever dried and ughhhh. I will not be doing this again anytime soon (probably not unless another challenge calls for it actually haha!)

I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Cherry, Cherry, Bang, Bang! (the dark purple/bottle I'm holding), Mattese Elite Pink Tutu (light pink), and Mattese Elite Attitude (blue).

So, there's that. A day of this challenge I am glad to have in my past ;)



xoxo,
Amanda

Urban Outfitters Smush

Hi ladies! How's the week going? More than halfway through which is promising! I have short Fridays so I'm really looking forward to the weekend already since it's almost here for me! Any plans?

Today's post is Urban Outfitters Smush, a Tiffany or mint blue. It reminded me of China Glaze For Audrey but I forgot to compare, so let me know if you're interested in a comparison.

This is four coats of Smush. Yes, you read that right, four. You can see I didn't even do cleanup with this one because it was an absolute nightmare so it came off right after these pictures. It was super streaky and the application was tricky, at best. I was pretty disappointed in this one :(

Such a shame, because the color is so pretty! What do you guys think? If you want to try it, it's listed in my Blog Sale! ;)

xoxo,
Amanda

NOTWeekend: Color Club Otherworldly

Hello my dearests! How is your day going today? I tell ya, getting back to blogging has been hard time management-wise (which is weird, since when I went to school I had plenty of time for blogging?) but so rewarding to be back. Thank you for all the comments and views and all that other statistical nonsense. It's nice to know I didn't lose you guys with my long hiatus :)

Anywho, this is the mani I wore a little while ago on my weekend away with my BFF to Cape Cod. It rained the whole time we were there, but it was nice to spend quality time with her. We don't do it too often, but it's always such a nice reminder that I have such a fantastic person by my side! As you probably know, on weekends my manis get a little crazy because I can wear all my glitters and neons and crazy stuff I can't during the week, so I broke out neon and glitter. I know. Whoa. Otherworldly is a neon blue with silver glitter in it. Below is two coats with no underwear or topcoat:

Then I added topcoat and it was spectacular:

No flash, indoor lighting

I wore this for about two days then a full nail peeled off and that was the end of that. I can happily report I had no staining and I absolutely loved the hell out of this color. I'm dying to try others from this older collection now! What do you think?

xoxo,
Amanda

Fail and Unfail: Orly Snowcone & Depend 243

Hi girls! Here's my first NOTD since returning, kind of nervous! Please be kind, my cuticles are still... um, awful. But I've maintained my painting technique so hopefully that's redeeming.

My original idea was to do Depend 243 on my nails with accent nails of Orly Snowcone, and then do opposite dots of each. But, it doesn't always work out. Here they are pre-dots:

Orly Snowcone is a perfect blue creme. Seriously. This was one coat, and no top coat. Look at the shine and perfection! It was also really easy to control (this picture is no cleanup!).

I got Depend 243 from Dolores in a swap, and it's a really pretty purple with gold shimmer (or microglitter, I can't really tell, TBH). These swatches are two coats and no topcoat. This one was also really manageable.

Here it is once I added the dots...

 Disasticure 2012. For some reason, I hate the way Snowcone looks dotted. So I took it off and gave up on the accent nail idea, and this beauty was born:

This is actually my first full dotticure (hehe) and I kind of love it! I need to do this more but for some reason I always back down.

Oh, also! I used my Chick Nail Polish top coat here, and I love it! Look how shiny this mani looks! I got it free with a promo way back when but never really got around to trying it. It works well especially when I'm taking my time and not using a quick-dry necessarily :)

What do you guys think? Disasticure? Cute? Was I right to switch from accent to full mani?

xoxo,
Amanda

A NOTD!

Hi girls... thanks so much for all of your patience with me, I know it's been a loooooooooooooong hiatus and I really appreciate you all sticking by me. I have a belated 200 followers giveaway planned, I just need the motivation to put together the Rafflecopter and all that jazz. I'm in the process of figuring out exactly where blogging fits in my new life. Basically my days look like this: work, spend time with long lost friend, eat dinner, shower, pass out. My weekends are basically spent sleeping out with whichever friend wants me... so it's been busy. This post is courtesy of my 9am client who canceled on me... ;)

Anywho, today I have for you Deborah Lippmann I Know What Boys Like, which is a blurple creme and is my first DL that isn't a glitterbomb (since my only other ones were the Get This Party Started set). I applied two coats and topcoat and got the following, although it dried satiny on its own. If I had to peg its color down, I'd say it's definitely more blue leaning, although a quick google search will show you it looks purple sometimes too. The second picture (the one with the awkward shadow, yeah, that one) shows the color most accurately.

Hope you ladies liked this post! Hopefully I'll be back with many more soon. :)

xoxo,
Amanda

Hits Hera, No Violence Included

Hello lovely ladies! How are you all today? Splendid, I hope! If not, maybe some linear holo can brighten your day?

Today I have Hits (which in conjunction with the names of Greek gods sounds like you're striking them, to me. Hits Zeus, Hits Hera, etc... weird. Anyway...) Hera which is the deep teal holographic from the No Olimpo collection. This one is a beaut, although the linear holo could be subtle since the base is so dark. However, I like that since I think it's easy for base colors to get lost in the holo. I digress.

I used two (I think?) coats of Hera and it applied like a dream. The first shot is meant to show the color and will demonstrate what I mean about the holo hiding. It's a beautiful color, regardless of holo or not.

Here we go: the big show. The holo. The gorgeousness.

Why is my thumd always so much better at showing things? Coming up I will be showing you Lynnderella Shape Shifter and this thumb got two unique glitters on it! It's a magical thumb.

xoxo,
Amanda