Monday, August 31, 2015

Rocksbox Review and Essie Cocktail Bling

Hey Guys! Today I have my first Rocksbox to share with you! I call Rocksbox "the netflix for jewelry" haha! It's a monthly subscription and they send you 3 pieces of jewelry to wear and try out, when you are done you send them back (free shipping both ways!) and they send you more! Of course, if you want to keep any you just let them know and they bill you for it. But you don't have to purchase any!

Rocksbox has offered me a membership so I can share with you guys the kind of stuff they offer! My taste in jewelry is clean and simple, but they have jewelry for all tastes from what I saw scrolling through the gallery. 

Here is what they sent me! 

Necklace: Sophie Harper gold triangle pendant 
Earrings: Kendra Scott Tessa stud earrings in Chalcedony
Ring: Gorjana Infinity II ring in gold 


I thought this ring would look pretty with Essie Coctail Bling, one of my untried! And a fitting name too! I'm new at taking pics with rings-it's harder than it looks! 




Essie Cocktail Bling
 
What do yall think?? Should I keep any of these or send it back for more?? Check out Rocksbox and be sure to use my code aggiesdoitbetterxoxo for a free month!!!
 


Sunday, August 30, 2015

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Wear Test

Hey guys!

Today I have the results of the little wear test I did with the Sally Hanson miracle gels I posted about last week. I wore this mani last weekend for 4 full days--that's the most I can do as a blogger when so many fall polishes are rolling in! 


 The polishes I used are Totem-ly Yours (nude), Fish-teal Braid (teal), and Beatnik (blue).



I decided to see if these polishes water marbled and guess what-they do! I tried 2 different methods-water dipping and decal (where you let it dry on the water, pull it off and cut it to fit your nail). On a base of Totem-ly yours on my first 2 fingers I did the water dip method and on my ring and pinky method I made a decal and cut it to fit in an interesting way. I was really happy with how it turned out! 



Here is how it looked after 4 days. Not too shabby! I was pretty active on my weekend and did all the normal things. I will say, the top coat takes a while to dry. I gave it an hour and then I had to get on with my life. It was still dentable but then smooth out-able if that makes sense! 



Saturday, August 29, 2015

Pipe dream polish Street Carnival Collection...swatches, review, and more from my other recent purchase!

Hey guys! I meant to have this post up yesterday but my internet decided to start being stupid right in the middle of the other stuff I was doing so no time for hobby stuff! boo! So here I am at the crack of dawn writing it today bc all my kids are up early on a Saturday...because that's how it goes in my house. At least the older ones will stay in their rooms for a little bit (when told to) haha. I'm probably going to the new Ulta near here again today to try for another giftcard. Yay free stuff!

This is just a little round up of the swatches and nail art I've been posting this week around the internets. I recently made a couple sizable purchases from April of pipe dream polish (yes purchases! EVERYTHING in this post was purchased by me). One was a little while ago when she decided to clearance out all of her old polish so she can focus on her new collections  (check out my post on her original neon crèmes here Pipe dream polish A Night In Vegas Collection) I think I bought about 8? and that's not even all of them...and I wanted more...all of them! There were a few more glitter toppers and glitter jellies I didn't get...I think. I tried to only get the ones I would really wear a ton. That's hard, yall! :) And then more recently I was lucky enough to catch a restock and release of her newest collection, called Street Carnival Collection. Those are the 5 crèmes you will see here. All the other ones were purchased in the sale and are no longer available. If you are interested in the crèmes I suggest you go to her website (link earlier, just because I love her!) and get all the info there!

Needless to say I knocked out a whole lot of untried/unblogged polishes for this post! WHOOP! Lets go then!


Friday, August 21, 2015

Zoya Flair collection or Fall 2015 Swatches and Review

Hey guys! How excited am I about today's post!! If you follow me elsewhere you've already seen me going on and on about one of the polishes in this collection, Aggie! Yesssss there's a polish named Aggie! No, this isn't named after me (well....that I know of haha) BUT I'm totally claiming it since I don't have my own blogger collab polish like all the cool kids ;) Let's get right into them! If you missed my first post on the crème half of Zoya's fall polishes you can see it here. Historically Zoya divides their fall collection into 2 parts, one half crèmes and one half shimmers or metallic or some such. This is the second half!
Flair 2015
 


First up is Ember...is an orangy red shimmer. Despite being slightly orange this one really glows! It feels like liquid magma on your nails. (mag-mah....snickers) This is 2 coats plus topcoat,  I was impressed with the opacity!

Ember

Tris is a dark gunmental gray shimmer. This one is much thinner in formula, it would require 3 thin coats but I went heavy on the second coat and it worked out. This might look cool with one coat over black! This is not a color I would wear every day but that's ok!

Tris

Giada is a deep eggplant purple shimmer. This is 2 coats, and I had to work quickly on the first because it started pulling a little, so I wouldn't go over with too many brushstrokes. Totally glows also!

Giada

Cinnamon is a bronze shimmer, " originally designed for Zang Toi NYFW Fall/Winter 2015" according the Zoya website. This is not one I though I would like but I love! I don't think I have anything like this in my collection. I've seen a few other companies coming out with this shade in their fall collections so its gonna be a hot color! And I'm still having a gold moment so when we get a little farther in to fall I will definitely be wearing this on some short nails!

Cinnamon

Estelle is a gorgeous blue shimmer with a slight pink duochrome that you can see in person in the bottle but I didn't see on the nail. The first coat was a little tricky but it was alllll good in 2 coats. Some may be wondering how similar this is to Zoya Song, to me in the bottle its more of a shimmery crème and Song is a little more glittery.

Estelle

Andddddddddddddddddd Zoya Aggie! I mean, I just keep giggling over this. I will be having a spotlight post coming on this very soon so I can rant some more over it. This is a little more sheer and I thought I would need 3 coats but 2 was ok.

Here's the description from the Zoya website: "Aggie by Zoya can be best described as a gold holo flip liquid metal with bronze micro glitter. Sheer enough for layering with 1 coat or fully opaque in 3 coats!"

Like I said I only needed 2. There is definitely a blue/green holo shift to this, its way more evident in the bottle. I will definitely be purchasing another bottle so I can have one to display in my office! YIPEE! ZOYA AGGIE! WHOOP!


Aggie

Overall my picks from this collection are AGGIE (lol), Estelle, Cinnamon and Ember (yep!) This collection is available on Zoya.com now, I'm not sure when it will be in stores! Stay tuned for my spotlight post on Aggie! :)

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Zoya Focus Collection for Fall 2015 Swatches and Review

Hey guys! Today I have the first half of Zoya's fall collections! The Focus collection is 6 crèmes in rich fall colors. Zoya almost ALWAYS hits it out of the park with crèmes, lets get right in to it!

Zoya Focus fall 2015

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel polish plus the new 2X top coat Review (part one of two)


Hey guys! I'm back, I hope! This past month has been super crazy getting ready for school to start for my kids (they went back August 7th! How much crap is that!) and my 3 year old ready to start preschool. He's starting twice a week for now. My baby-ugh! But our schedules have been all over the place and they are always extra tired the first couple weeks going back to school full time. I am so ready to get back into a routine! My house-to-do list is a mile long, so many things need to be sorted through and reorganized without little prying eyes and invasive hands, lol. I am looking forward to getting back to a regular schedule of blogging too--it's all about the balance, yes??

Anyhoo! Today I have some Sally Hansen swatches for ya! I was pretty excited when they asked if they could send me these...I think SH was some of the first polish I ever owned when I was younger...like ever! That and Maybelline, haha! I've never tried these Miracle Gel polishes but have been wanting to! So they sent me 3 polishes and their new "2X" topcoat, it's supposed to be extra shiny! It is designed to "cure" in natural light instead of a UV/LED light. This review will be in 2 parts, I'm showing yall swatches of the shades they sent me which are new for 2015, then when I get all caught up (hopefully next week) I'm going to do a little wear test with the topcoat!

A little note on the shades they sent me....I didn't get to choose, all I asked for was anything but orange! And LOOK at what they sent me...I mean....could they be any more perfect shades for me???





new Miracle Gel shades for 2015



First up is "Totem-ly Yours" which they call "an appealing dusty rose". This is from the Tribal Vibe collection, which is one of 2 new collections released in conjunction with the new topcoat.  To me its more like a pinkish taupe, and I really love this type of shade. I feel like its super flattering on anyone and work appropriate. I'm wearing 2 coats here and for topcoat in this post I used SH Insta Dry (purchased by me). When I wear this for real I will probably add a 3rd coat to even things out. The formula was a little thinner than the other 2 I have. Another note on these, I would clean up your edges as you go instead of waiting till the end. They seem to set a bit faster.



Totem-ly Yours


Totem-ly Yours

Next is Fish-teal Braid from the Boho Chic collection. This is a teal leaning turquoise, teal is more green to me than turquoise.  This photographed a bit bluer that it is in real life so I had to bump up the green a little to show the accurate color! SH says not to use a base coat with these polishes but we alllllll know teals love to stain, and this one did when I swatched it! I have a tooth brush I use on my nails and most of it came off with just soap and water and a good scrub, so no biggie, just be aware! Otherwise, the formula on this one is GREAT, almost a one coater. I used 2.

Fish-teal Braid


Fish-teal Braid

Lastly I have Beatnik, which is also from the Boho Chic collection. Yall know how I feel about royal blue polishes so I don't need to ramble on ;) The formula on this one is great too! I thought some people might wonder how it compares to the most famous Sally Hansen blue, so I did  a little comparison below!



Beatnik


Beatnik

This is (original formula) Pacific blue on the left 2 nails and Beatnik on the right 2. When I look at these in the bottle they look similar, but when I tested them on paper Beatnik was quite a bit darker, but I knew yall wouldn't believer me. :) so here you go!


Pacific Blue comparison

Overall, I'm impressed with the formula. My only issue with SH in the past is the brushes....they are flat and wide, which I prefer, but the edge is kind of raggedy...I wish they would fix that!! I would make for a much more even application. I'm looking forward to seeing how they hold up on extended wear!

[The new Miracle Gel top coat, limited editon duo packs, Tribal Vibe Collection and Boho Chic collection are available beginning July 2015 everywhere Sally Hansen is sold. Color and top coat are $9.99 and duo packs are $14.99]

*these polishes were provided for my review but yall know I always speak the truth!
 

 

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

What I wore (July 2015) OPI, Loaded Lacquer, pipe dream polish, Different Dimension

Hey guys! This is turning into an accidental series! Well, just for summer it seems. I just don't have time during the summers to blog every mani, but I started a project last year of documenting each polish I have here on the blog (IG doesn't count!) so I need to post them here, and I might as well say a few words about them!




First up is really out of the box for me! I rarely wear manis with flakie or flakie type glitter/metallic shards like this, but I do have a few! I'm still baby-stepping myself into a full white mani-for some reason I'm still scared! Haha! I did here but then put one of my untried glitters on it-so this is OPI Angel with a Lead Foot (white) with OPI Gaining Mole-mentum over it. Is has silver, gold, and rose gold shard type glitter in it. I have to say, it doesn't ALL lay totally flat and some pieces stuck up even through my topcoat and it DROVE ME CRIZZAZY so I probably won't wear it too often. 


OPI Gaining Mole-Mentum




This is Up All Night by Different Dimension. I only have a couple DD and they are both awesome! This was an untried also, it was a gift and I've had it for months-I don't know why I didn't get to it sooner! GORGEOUS!!  Almost a one coater too!


Up all Night




Next is Loaded Lacquer Island punch (also untried) which is a bright royal blue jelly. I used Pipe Dream Polish Carribean Dreaming (also...untried lol) to sandwich in between, except on my pinkie I put the glitter on top. Royal blue nails will always make me so, so, so happy. 


Blue!!!!




direct light



 
Last up is my mani I wore to see Shania Twain (yay!) I wore a yellow top and just felt like being matchy and bright! None of these are untried ;) This is OPI I Just Can't Cope-cabana with an accent nail of Alpine Snow (my bottle is getting so low!) and Love.Angel.Music.Baby (matte gold) and chevron/zig zag nail vinyls. 



yellow nails! what!


Shania in Nashville