Beer & Gradient fail

Bleh, so I attempted another gradient mani today.

This is only the third time i've done one,

& it's definitely my least successful :(

To compensate, I decided to add a cute St. Patty's day stamp!

.... and had little luck with that, too.

I just need to stick to makeup! :(

Despite the massive fail,

I figured i'd post anyway :/

(this was prior full cleanup!)

So I decided to use CG's 'Four Leaf Clover', 'Re-fresh Mint', & 'Kinetic Candy'.

I think done right, the combo could look really cool.

I just need to perfect my skill set a bit :/

I've been looking for ways to use some of my new Winstonia plates,

so the failed gradient presented a good opportunity.

I know a lot of people do pub crawls or drink/party for St. Patty's day,

so the little beer mug stamp fit perfect :)

Stay tuned for some (more decent) St. Patty's day manis in the next couple days! 

'Boy Meets Girl'

Happy Monday!

I have a new indie brand (for me) for ya'll today.

This is 2 coats of 'Boy Meets Girl' from Rockstar Nails.

'Boy Meets Girl' is a clear base filled with white bar glitter, large blue & pink square glitter, & black hexagonal and heart shaped glitter.

Here I've used it over 2 coats of CG's 'Pelican Grey'.

You can obviously see the bubbling. Next time, I'll just pick out the glitter using a toothpick or something.

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: Rockstar Nails

Type: Glitter Top Coat

Formula: A little thivk

Opacity (1-5): 1

Application: Okay :/

Price:  $8.50

Get This: her Etsy site

Have any of you tried this indie brand?

What are your thoughts?

http://www.etsy.com/listing/111809571/boy-meets-girl-nail-polish?

Get Carried Away

Happy Friday!

I'll post the giveaway winner later today,

but I wanted to quickly post this polish first.

(I didn't mean to wait to post it until the day the giveaway ended :/)

I noticed a lot of you requested CG's 'Get Carried Away' from the Cirque collection as a prize,

so I've been wanting to post it & let you see!

I got this before Thanksgiving,

but with all the Christmas posts- I never got around to it :/

Here's 1 coat over Maybelline's 'Onyx Rush'.

'Get Carried Away' is a sheer black base filled with silver microglitter & large silver and copper hexagonal glitter. This polish is nearly impossible to layer. Well- you can- but it looks like crap. Definitely need a good base for this to look good!

I really wasn't that impressed with this polish :/

Over 'Onyx Rush' it looked okay,

but I just thought it would look better for some reason...

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: China Glaze

Type: Glitter Top Coat

Formula:  Okay, a little gloopy

Opacity (1-5): 2

Application: A little more difficult than desired, but not terrible

Price: $7-$8 at beauty stores; $3 at other online retailers

Get This: head2toe.com (just $3!)

Glistening Snow

Hey guys :)

Quick post today-

I've got my very last polish from CG's Holiday Joy collection for you today!

It's taken me long enough,

but I finally got through all the ones I had.

Here's 3 coats of 'Glistening Snow'!

'Glistening Snow' is a silver & holographic glitter. It's very much like 'Winter Holly', just a different color. It looks more like glistening diamonds to me, but still pretty!

The only thing I didn't like about this polish (along with Winter Holly) is that it dried super gritty. One would have to use God knows how many coats of SV to make it glossy :/ That's a pain and something I just didn't have time to try to do.

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: China Glaze

Type: Glitter

Formula:Great!

Opacity (1-5): 4 (basically opaque in 2 coats)

Application: Super smooth and easy

Price: $7-$8 at beauty stores; $3 at other online retailers

Get This: head2toe.com (just $3!)

 What do you guys think about this?

Thanks for reading! :) 

 

A Little Winter Holly

Happy Saturday!

We've been out apartment hunting again today.

Our current apt complex decided to raise our rent by $100 so we're saying SEE YA -.-

On to a better place, though.

Anyway, I have a continuation of China Glaze's Holiday Joy collection today.

Even though Christmas is past,

there are tons of great polishes for the Winter season- which has just began.

Here's 'Winter Holly'!

Sorry for some of the blurry pictures! My camera freaked out on the sparkle :/

'Winter Holly' is a densely packed hunter green glitter; comprised of gold and green microglitter (with a hint of holo). This baby looked AMAZING after a coat of SV, but the glitter soaked the SV up almost immediately and it dried gritty :/ Not what I was hoping for. Looks much better when it's glossy.

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: China Glaze

Type: Glitter

Formula: Pretty good, a little gloopy

Opacity (1-5):  4 (2 coats for opacity)

Application: Great!

Price: $7-$8 at beauty stores, but JUST $3 on head2toe.com!

Get This: head2toe.com; super cheap and fast shipping!

Do any of you have this?

What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

'It's A Trap-eze!'

Hey guys!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.

I've had so much going on around New Years with friends and family visiting.

Anyway, I know 'It's A Trapeze' is a reference to Cirque Du Soleil,

but I can't help but think of the line in Star Wars "It's a trap!" by that weird, big-eyed thing. 

My boyfriend is a HUGE star wars fan so, alas, he has corrupted me also haha.

Here's 2 coats of 'It's A Trap-eze!"

'It's A Trap-eze!" is a super pale blue (originally white, i think, though) base packed with white, yellow, orange, green, pink, blue, purple, and gold pastel hexagonal glitter of all sizes. It's part of CG's Cirque Du Soleil collection.

SPEAKING OF WHICH-

have you entered my giveaway yet?!?

ANY 4 of the Cirque Du Soleil polishes are up for grabs!

Whichever ones you want!

;)

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: China Glaze

Type: Glitter

Formula: Pretty good, considering it's packed with glitter. I had no issues with gloop

Opacity (1-5): 3 (2-3 coats for opacity)

Application: Great!

Price: $7-$8 at beauty stores, but JUST $3 on head2toe.com!

Get This: head2toe.com; super cheap and fast shipping!

2012 Favorites!! (long post!)

Well, I had planned on posting this the day after new years,
but we are getting NO sun or decent light for me to take pictures in,
and until I can make a decent lightbox- i have to stick with daylight :/

SO, I decided to do my Favorites post based on my favorite products from this past year,
instead of just December.
I've divided them into categories,
and here they are!


Face:

UD Naked Skin Foundation

My favorite foundation EVER.

UD De-Slick Oil Control Makeup Setting Spray

*pic from UD's website

Tarte's Cheek Stain

*pic from Tarte's wesbite

UD's Optical Blurring Brush

PERFECT for applying foundation!

*pic from UD wesbsite

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Primers:

Too Faceds Shadow Insurance

My favorite eye shadow primer!

^taken from Sephora's website

UD's Pore Perfecting Primer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eyes

L'Oreal Million Lashes mascara

Tarte Amazonian clay mascara

Urban Decay's 'Maui Wowie'

UD's 'Echo Beach', 'Black Market', & 'Armor'

(see the link for swatches!)

Sugarpill's 'Love+'

*not my picture

One of the BEST reds out there!

Lime Crime's 'Mirror Mirror'

Lime Crime has discontinued these Magic Dust shadows :((

BUT, you can still find them on sites like eBay, which i've included in the above link.

UD's 'Missionary', 'Bust', 'Sin, & 'Midnight Cowgirl'

These were some of my favorite neutrals this past year :)

SYN Cosmetics' 'Synfused' & 'Passion'

Makeup Geek's 'Burlesque'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nail polish

Butter London 'Yummy Mummy'

China Glaze 'Pure Joy'

ORLY Rage

*not my picture

CG Pink Voltage

Zoya Miley

OPI 'Every Month is Oktoberfest'

NOPI 'One Big Happy Fame-ily'

China Glaze 'Flip Flop Fantasy'

UD's 'Gunmetal' & 'Wrecked'

Well, that's it! Whew.
What do you think about this list?
What was YOUR favorite product from 2012?
Let me know! :)

WOW- 'Pure Joy'!

Happy mid week!

Just 6 days left until Christmas, wtf.

I can't wait, though.

The Christmas season makes me feel like a little kid again :)

I have another polish for you today from CG's Holiday Joy collection,

 and man- is it a beauty!

Without further ado,

here's 'Pure Joy'.

'Pure Joy' is made up of mainly fire engine-red glitter and some pale gold glitter. I've used 2 coats of it over CG's 'Cranberry Splash' on my ring finger, but my other fingers just have 3 coats of 'Pure Joy' by itself. I LOVE THIS POLISH. It's so sparkly, i could barely take my eyes off of it. Application was great, too, and it was allllmost opaque in two coats.

This is definitely my most favorite polish from the Holiday Joy collection thus far.

What's yours?

Do you like 'Pure Joy' by itself or layered over 'Cranberry Splash' better?

Let me know! :)

***400 Follower Giveaway!***

Heyyy!

Thanks to all the lovely people that entered my last giveaway,

I bypassed 300 AND 400 followers :)

So time to give back!

I ordered a few polishes from CG's Cirque Du Soleil collection not that long ago,

and they're all so awesome that I wanted to share them with you, too!

Unfortunately, I'm on a young mom/college budget so I couldn't purchase the WHOLE collection to give away, BUT I am letting whomever wins pick any 4 polishes of their choice from the collection. I'll buy them & have them shipped to the winner!

RULES

1. You must be 18 or older to enter.
2. Open internationally, but please be aware of your country's shipping regulations.
3. You must follow me publicly through GFC.
4. NO CHEATING. All entries will be verified, so cheating will get you nowhere.

The giveaway ends Jan. 11 !
GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nail mail & Christmas Indie/Christmas Classics- Day 3!

Hello!

Today is my LAST day of this semester!

I have my last (and hardest) final later this morning and it's going to be impossible :/

I'm just ready for it all to be over so i cant enjoy everything about Christmas :D

Okay, two parts to today's post.

First, here's the mani for today.

This is 2 coats of CG's 'Icicle' as a base,

and 2 coats of Kawaii Nail Lacquer's 'Ho Ho Ho' on top!

'Ho Ho Ho' is  clear base with various sized red, green, and white hexagonal matte glitter. There is also some scattered white bare glitter in there, as well. Out of the 4 i've ordered from her holiday collection, this one is my favorite! :) I was going to save this one to wear on Christmas day, but I couldn't wait. I applied it a little too thickly and should have manipulated the glitter more, but I still like it. You can get this and other AWESOME polishes here at her Etsy site. This was $8.

'Icicle' serves as the base for this polish. It's a classic silver foil from CG's Let It Snow collection from last year. It's easily opaque in 2 coats and went on beautifully! I kind of cheated here, because 'Icicle' also serves as Day 3 of my Christmas Classics series ;p On Kawaii Nail Lacquer's website, they had 'Ho Ho Ho' over a silver, and I liked it so much that I figured I'd do the same. I think it would look great over a black, too, though

All in all, I was super pleased with this mani!

Now, on to the nail mail!

It didn't really come in the mail,

but rather via my awesome bestie over at GaGa for Nails!

She dropped by yesterday to give me my Christmas present,

and here they are!

Aha! Can you guess what they are?

Stay tuned in the coming weeks to see!

Thanks so much to her for being amazing and generous! :D

Christmas Classics- Day 2

Hello everyone :)

I've got day 2 of my Christmas Classics series today,

 where i'm featuring past favorite holiday polishes!

Next up,

This is 3 coats of CG's 'Blues Years Eve' and 2 coats of CG's 'Snowglobe' on my ring finger.

Both are from CG's holiday collection last year- Let It Snow!

'Blue Years Eve' is a deep, cobalt blue with light blue shimmer. It's a very pretty shade, i'm just not into wearing dark blue on my hands, for some reason. It's a little on the sheer side, but builds up opacity easily. Formula was great.

'Snowglobe' is a clear base of iridescent, multi colored glitter. It's a LOVELY top coat that literally looks great over any polish. It's really a chameleon- the glitter looks different depending upon what color you wear it with. I like that it compliments the dark blue here. It's wintery and happy :)

FYI...

new giveaway starts this Friday so stay tuned for that! ;)