Pink Wednesday Featuring Aquadaisy Kesha's Floor Sweepings

Hi girls! Another week is upon us but most of us Americans have a short week Labor Day! Weeee! Did you guys do anything fun over the weekend? I tend to use my weekends for a lot of relaxing lately, which makes me feel very ancient since I catch myself saying things like, "She's way too young to dress like that!" or "I don't really feel like drinking, I think I might go to bed." Ahhh, aging. So fun. ;)

Today's polish is very special to me because a) it's related to one of my heroes, Ke$ha, and b) a dear dear friend, Jamie, gave it to me! It's Ke$ha's Floor Sweepings by Aquadaisy! This is the only polish I have from Aquadaisy and somehow it sat untried for a while. I admit, this is a swatch and not a NOTD but it definitely convinced me to wear it more!

I wore KFS over two coats of Essie French Affair (one of my favorite pinks, can you tell?) and application was flawless. One easy coat, no fishing, dabbing, or pushing around. Just pure glitter awesomeness. Also, I can imagine this is exactly what Ke$ha's floor must look like. Or what I wish my tiles looked like in my bathroom or kitchen.

Low light to show the colors and holo glitter

Flash

Under my "natural light" lamp

I'm not usually a fan of holo glitter, but this polish was perfect. The combination of holo glitter with colors of glitter and the easy application completely sold me! Aquadaisy is available via her Etsy shop and retails for $9 each plus shipping.

xoxo,
Amanda

Black Cat Lacquers

Hi everyone! What are you guys doing for the long weekend? I'm busy busy busy! Yesterday I went to the beach (finally!), today I'm hiking and having lunch with my girlfriends, then off to the drive in with some co-workers and my boyfriend, and then Monday I'm hanging with my boyfriend. A great weekend plan, if you ask me!

Today I have for you some Black Cat Lacquers, which I ordered after seeing them on The Polishaholic's blog. Up first is Tetris, a multi-colored square glitter topcoat. SQUARE. GLITTER. I'm in love already. I layered this over OPI Atomic Orange because it seemed to complement the colors of glitter in Tetris. This is one coat with no top coat, using some dabbing but nothing difficult. It easily self-leveled so I didn't have to worry about bumps from tons of the base as I globbed glitter on.

Flash

Natural light

Next up is Let Them Eat Cake, which is PASTEL GLITTER. Does this brand get me or what?! This is actually my second bottle because the first had really sparse glitter. I emailed Sabrina and she replaced it, no questions asked! I was really pleased with the customer service!

This is two coats over OPI Fly, Nox Twilight (some pink, the bottles aren't labeled - I'm sorry!), Revlon Taxi, and OPI Alpine Snow. This was really easy, no dabbing or pushing glitter around. No top coat here but you can see it's a little globby in some places.

Low light

Flash

Natural lighting

So there you have it! I love both of these and they made me want to buy more from Sabrina, who is available on Etsy and is currently having a Labor Day sale: 10% off if you enter LABORDAY10 until September 4th.

xoxo,
Amanda

Darling Diva Polish: Rescue Me

Hey everyone! How's it going? I hope all your weeks are going faster than mine, ugh. Where is the weekend?!

I have for you a very lovely indie glitter by Darling Diva Polish called Rescue Me. Today's polish is very near and dear to me because the entire cost of the polish is going to benefit Basset Hound Rescue. Yes, you read that right - the entire $10 of this polish is going directly to them, not just the profits. (I can verify this because when she sent me this advance bottle, she had me donate the $10 directly to the charity, not to her.)

Rescue Me is made up of "black and white (bars, hexes, squares) with holographic pinky red hearts" (as DDP describes herself!). Side story: I had messaged her on Etsy (her shop is here) and told her I needed more heart glitter (I'm obsessed) and she mentioned this was in the works and I believe my exact response was "sign me up!" without ever seeing it. I'm definitely not disappointed!

So for today's swatches, I couldn't decide what to layer it over, so I did 4 different ones: OPI Atomic Orange, Essie French Affair, Essence Let's Get Lost, and Mattese Elite Lilac Me All Over, from left to right. I used the dabbing method to apply and spread it out, but it self-leveled pretty well (no TC in these photos) so that nobody would have noticed lumps or bumps. I did some fishing for hearts but it wasn't very difficult to get them out and on my nail.

Flash

Flash

Indoor "natural" lighting

I absolutely ADORE this over the Essence blue, so stunning. This made me totally regret selling my bottle of Lynnderella Connect the Dots and brushing off black and white glitters. I love love loved this, and I'm not just saying that for the puppies! The polish, IMO, is definitely worth the cost and you can even justify it by telling yourself you didn't buy polish, you donated $10 to Basset Hound Rescue. Pretty polish, rescued doggies, glitter = win, win, win (kudos if you get the TV show reference...)

Rescue Me is available at Darling Diva Polish for $10 a bottle, with the entire $10 going to Basset Hound Rescue! What do you think, will you be purchasing?!

xoxo,
Amanda

Pink Wednesday Comparison: Lex Cosmetics vs. Ulta

Hey girls! Quick comparison swatches today! For a while, I was stuck on finding the perfect pale pink polish (this all began with OPI Play the Peonies). In this process, I've acquired quite a few similar pinks, and unfortunately, quite a few super-sheer ones I have no use for. As I searched through my stash here at my apartment (I took only two shoe-boxes of my stash from my dad's) I realized I brought two pale pinks that were nearly identical and thought you guys might want to see. If you don't, avert your eyes now...jerk.

On the left, we have Lex Cosmetics Sweetie Pie and on the right is Ulta Baby Doll. I swear, the nicknames are just a coincidence!

Two coats; both are streaky and not evened out

Three coats; opaque, VNL might be showing on a natural nail, though

Three coats

As you can see, they are fairly similar. Lex Cosmetics is a touch less opaque, but they could be built up to the same opacity easily. The main difference is that Ulta's is a hair pinker than Lex's, but similar enough I'd say you don't need both. If I had to choose, I'd choose Lex just because I like that she donates to charity and has colors created by the fans with stories behind them. Lex Cosmetics is available online at www.lexcosmetics.com for $10 per bottle, with $1 going to a charity picked by the inspiration (BTW, my color is on there too, check out Tuilleries!). Ulta is found, obviously, in Ulta stores and at www.ulta.com for around $2-6, depending on sales.

xoxo,
Amanda

Facebook Page and Updates!

Hi girls! Quick update to tell you a few developments for the blog!

• I just bought a lightbox kit, so expect once that comes in to see some test photos!
• I downloaded a better photo editing software (PhotoScape) so you will see some watermarks and better editing overall
• I finally entered the real world and got my blog a Facebook page. Please go like it, I'll be hosting a giveaway there soon! My blog's facebook is here and it needs love, please <3

xoxo,
Amanda

Jewelry Stash

Hello again, dearests! As promised, here's the other half of my planned jewelry posts. I can do this more frequently, if you guys like it, or I can ditch it here. Let me know what you think in the comments! No response = I'm going to keep doing it, so speak now or forever hold your peace!

Today's post is my jewelry stash, which isn't impressive by any means compared to some of you ladies', I'm sure! I'm recently getting really into jewelry, especially since it's a much quicker way to dress up an outfit than doing a mani. So here we go:

Above are all my necklaces and bracelets. Since I live in an apartment, my walls are kind of blah and I didn't want to make a bunch of holes, so I bought those little removable sticky wall-strip hooks (great description, huh?) and put them up all over to decorate the wall. Bonus points if I succeeded in camouflaging the thermostat long enough that it wasn't the first thing you noticed.

And above are all my earrings and rings. The earrings are on a tree holder I got at Marshall's that is actually super adorable except I failed to remember that most of it would be covered by jewelry when I bought it... oops. Then to its right we have my little elephant ring holder and a box with a bunch of wire rings I've bought on etsy or made. (I'm kind of obsessed with those, too. If you guys like these posts, wire rings might be next!)

So what do you think? Do you like jewelry posts or no?

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

Indie Invasion: Love Bug

Hi girls! Quick little swatch today. My week has been horrendous, so I was in need of a pick-me-up, which came in the form of this post I had in my drafts! You know me and my heart glitter, so this seemed appropriate to cheer me up! <3

Today I have Love Bug by CustomNailArt on Etsy. She recently had a promotion for free shipping, so I decided to grab her heart glitter polish in a mini size that I'd been eyeballing.

Indoor lighting (swatched this at night, sorry!)

Bottle shot!

Overall, application was tricky. I had to fish around for hearts and dab them on, which made the finish a bit lumpy. Obviously a topcoat would smooth this out but for the sake of swatches I didn't use one because I am lazy, haha. The hearts look really dense in the bottle but it's somewhat difficult (although clearly not impossible) to get them out. I'd definitely buy it again considering it was a good deal and it'll be another good one for Valentine's Day (clearly I will be featuring about 95 manicures with just pink, red, and white glitters...).


Thoughts? Happy Friday!

xoxo,
Amanda

Lush Lacquers

Hello dears!  (Not to be confused with "deers", I promise I would never call you guys any woodland creatures unless you wanted me to.) Today I have the second half of my recent swatch-a-thon: Lush Lacquers! I ordered five minis from them before their new polishes were released, which of course means that now I have all new lemmings. *sigh* Does it ever end? 

First up I have Party Hearty, a pink base with glitters in it. Guess why I was drawn to it? I'll give you a minute... yep, heart glitters. Below, my pointer and middle finger have two coats over Essie French Affair, my ring finger has three coats alone, and my pinky is just two coats. As you can see, it works best with some underwear to conserve it.  The application was easy, although I did have to do some dabbing and moving glitters around. I didn't get any hearts on the nail which is depressing, but I know they're in there. I see you, hearts, and you will be mine... someday.

Artificial light, flash

Natural light, no flash

Next up is Pink Panther, which is a clear base with black, white, and pink multi-sized glitters! This one was love at first sight for me. I layed one coat over Mattese Elite Lilac Me All Over. I had to use some dabbing to get glitters off the brush, but didn't really have to fish in the bottle.

Flash

Natural light, no flash

Flippin Out was my next victim... er... tester. This was two coats over Revlon Taxi and this had the trickiest application. This was mostly dabbing method but I did have to push some glitters around (I'm a big bully). Lots of glitter colors and shapes in here but for some reason I just don't like the mini-bar glitters much. They look weird to me, but maybe that's just me?

Flash

Natural Light

Neon Blast is an unexpected favorite of mine! It's only with the indie invasion that we're being introduced to different types of glitter: matte, pastel, and neon. Before that, major brands pretty much only produced the sparkly sort of basic colored glitter. I'm not one for wearing neon polishes much, but neon glitter? Yes please! This is multicolored and multisized neon glitters in a clear base, one coat over Revlon Sunshine Sparkle. The application on this was a breeze, no dabbing or moving around at all!

Flash

Natural light (click me to see all teh glittah!)

Finally, Lite Brite! I would have bought this no matter what it looked like because of the nostalgia factor. Lite Brite was one of my favorite toys growing up, and this is definitely reminiscent of those annoying, finger-hurting pegs! Lite Brite (I keep typing Lite Bite... maybe I'm hungry for a snack.) is multicolored and multisized glitter in a clear base. Since there were so many colors in it, I layered it over OPI Alpine Snow because I couldn't find a color that one of the colors of glitter wouldn't have blended into! This is one coat with some dabbing, but overall easy application.

Flash

Natural Light

And there you have it! I'm in love with these, I definitely want to buy some of their new ones once my no-buy is over (which is currently never). What do you think? What's your favorite?

xoxo,
Amanda

DIY Cuticle Care

Hi ladies! This is a review of sorts, using a method I found at the blog here. I was in search of a good cuticle remover, since the one I've designated for that is really more of a cuticle moisturizer and doesn't do much to remove dead cuticle from my nail beds. But, it was 11:20pm and I didn't want to run out for cuticle remover, so I did a google search to improvise.

The method is simple:

1. Soften your cuticles, using a cuticle oil, olive oil, etc. She also lists butter and milk as options, but I used the cuticle "remover" I purchased from Sally's, Nail Life Jojoba and Tea Tree Oil Cuticle Remover. 
2. Leave this on for a few minutes to soften cuticles. I left it for about 3-5 minutes, because this stuff begins to penetrate and I wanted to have some oil left on my cuticle.
3. Use sugar to exfoliate gently. She didn't go into detail how, but I took about a tablespoon full of sugar and dipped my finger in water then sugar, then used my sugar-coated finger to massage the sugar around my cuticle area for about 10-15 seconds. 

I bet you're wondering the big question now: did it work? And the answer is: yes! This method did do the trick to remove the dead cuticle on my nail that pushing with a cuticle stick wasn't doing.

No, I didn't take a before picture... because that would have been really smart. But look how good my cuticles looked for this one picture! It's a testament to this method's success, I promise.

Other cuticle tips (no pun intended..):

1. Don't pick at or bite cuticles. Do as I say, not as I do, as I'm guilty of doing this when I'm bored or nervous. Doing this not only makes for an appearance concern, but also damages your cuticles which directly impacts how well your nails grow and look. 
2. Avoid getting product, such as growth stimulators or acetone on your cuticle. Growth stimulators and other specialized base coats often contain chemicals such as formaldehyde for the purpose of strengthening your nails, but it's not good for cuticles. Try to keep it away as much as you can!
3. Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize! Keep a cuticle moisturizer by your bed and do it before you go to sleep, or in your desk at work to pamper yourself a bit when you need a few moments to rest. Either way, keep them as moisturized as you can! Handy tip: Chapstick is a good moisturizer for cuticles, and the stick application is super easy to swipe on. I keep it in my car for my lips and if I happen to be at a red light, I put it on my cuticles too.

Hopefully this was helpful! Do you ladies have any handy tips for cuticle care or go-to favorite products for this?

xoxo,
 Amanda