Friday, December 18, 2015

What I wore: August, September, October 2015 (Spam!)

Hey guys! I have another WAY over due post! I haven't been blogging as much over the past couple months (aside from swatching) because I've been busy with stuff around the house. And we recently joined our YMCA (finally!) so I've been taking some yoga classes trying everything possible to get my issues with my neck and shoulders worked out. I think....I know it will help me in the long run but I'm still in the beginning stages of everything hurting all the time always. ugh! So its another thing pulling me away from the computer. I have a new planner and I'm trying to work out a schedule of fitting in all the thing I want to be doing! First world problems, I know.

Back in August I was planning on doing a little end of the month summary of the polishes I've been wearing when I'm not swatching (still trying to use so many untrieds!) so I could document them here. Fast forward to December and I still haven't posted them here! Sooooo I just decided to combine them into one picture heavy blog, instead of 3 separate ones. Maybe I will be able to do one a month now, or maybe I'll just combine them every few months. Which idea do yall like better? I also made the pictures a little smaller since there's so many of them.


In August, I wore Essie Playdate. Certainly not an untried, I wore it lots before I started (nail)blogging! I was just searching for something to wear and my fingers landed on this. It's so pretty! I don't remember what my first Essie was but it might have been this one. A purple, go figure!


Essie Playdate

After a day I decided to add some accents with nail vinyls of Essie Cocktail Bling...which I think was an untried? I can't find it right now...it seems to have disappeared :/ I do like the ease of nail vinyls but the lines are never as clean as striping tape!



One day I was just feeling RED...which never happens so I went with it! One of my favorite reds ever is OPI The Thrill of Brazil. Definitely not an untried!


OPI Thrill of Brazil
Another pic of Thrill under direct light. Still playing with my lighting and angles!



Onto to September....a new Ulta opened sort of near me and I used the gift certificate they handed out to grab some of the new OPI Venice collection! UGH I wanted this one so bad. I thought I had a picture of it alone but I guess I don't! This is Gelato on My Mind, 3 coats plus dots of Worth a Pretty Penne. This is the mani I wore to the Bahamas!


Here is Worth a Pretty Penne by itself, I used it as a base for some nail art. So pretty! 2 coats, I think? Also from the Venice collection.



Also one I randomly landed on and decided to wear over a weekend, OPI Peace Love and OPI from the San Francisco collection a couple years ago! Not an untried. I think this is 2 or 3 coats.


Essie Mint Candy Apple, 3 coats. Its almost dead on dupe for OPI Gelato on My Mind. Do I mind? Nope.

I was randomly at Walmart on day and saw Sinful Colors Sinful Shine in Prosecco. This one of those polishes that gets trendy for some reason for like, a month, and everyone goes nutso trying to find it, buying 10 of them, etc. This was maybeeeeeeeee a year ago? I feel like it was forever. I really never saw it around or I probably would have grabbed it because it's so cheap. But I finally did see it, and I grabbed it.....ya know....for the blog. My verdict? Its really beautiful, but sheer...I needed 3 or 4 coats to have enough coverage for me. Is it the be all end all? Nope. Is it worth the money? Yep!


My boo April of Pipe Dream Polish put out a couple Halloween-ish polishes, and this on spoke to me because it reminded me of My Favorite Polish Of All Time OPI Alcatraz Rocks, but in a crème. I grabbed it and was not disappointed! It's called Smouldering, and I'm not sure if it's available anymore. Sorry dudes! I lurve it though.



On to October.....I've been filing my nails down and trying to keep them short lately, one of those times I  felt like wearing something SUPER dark. OPI Roadhouse Blues is way darker in real life than it photographs! I feel like dark polish only looks good on super short nails.



I added OPI Matte topcoat and loved it equally!



This is Loaded Lacquer No Bra from Heather's Nude Jiggles Collection. Just a simple pale pink jelly polish! One of my favs. Def not untried.


On my birthday this year I wore what I call my birthday polish, Picture Polish Frosting, which was my first PP I bought for myself 3 years ago! I keep trying to find new ways to wear it. :) The maroon is Picture Polish Bonkers and the silver is OPI It's Frosty Outside




While I was waiting for the new Zoya mattes to get here I whipped up a quick mani of the old ones, Zoya Posh (red) and Loredana (gray)


And lastly! whew! When I was done swatching the new Zoya mattes I wore this little mix and match with the blue matte (Yves) and Dhalia (black pixiedust) I LOVED this mani!

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Rimmel "Keep Calm" Lip Balms Review

Hey guys! I have a non-nail post today! I plan on mixing in more non-nail/lifestyle posts in the new year, that was my intention all along when I formally switched my blog over to a mostly nail blog! Rimmel sent me their new tinted lip balms a little while ago and I've been testing them out and wearing them comparing them to my favorite current lip balms, the Fresh Sugar lip treatments and the NYX Butter lip balms.

And now....
Here are the 5 colors (the entire collection I believe) they sent me:


Keep Calm Lip Balms
From left:

Keep Calm and Shop (010) Clear
Keep Calm and Kiss (020) Pink Blush
Keep Calm and Play (040) Rose Blush
Keep Calm and Rock (030) Berry Blush
Keep Calm and Party (050) Violet Blush

Here is my current collection of Sugar balms...before your jaw hits the ground they are minis! I don't have any full size, I tend to grab the little mini packs when they are available! For the price of around 2 full size balms I got this set of 5 minis in a wide range of colors!

Fresh Sugar lip balms

First up is swatches of the 4 that have color...the clear one doesn't need a swatch ;)
This is several swipes to attain this amount of color. They are pretty sheer with the exception of Rock.

I found that the only one that came close to the Sugar balm is the Rock one, in both consistency, color and color payoff.


These 4 are all very similar in color, the Nyx balm has the best color payoff-that's one swipe! I didn't include any other of the Nyx balms here because none came close in color to the Rimmels, but if yall want to see them let me know!


I really have been liking these Rimmel balms. They do take several swipes to get decent color but you can't beat the price....they are around $2.50 for 0.13 oz, where is the Fresh Sugar balms are $22.50 for 0.15 oz. The Nyx balms are $3.99 for 0.14 oz. I usually wait till the Nyx balms are on sale at Ulta and then grab a bunch! The scent of the Rimmel balms is nice, sort of a lemony-vanilla frosting type smell. The Sugar balms get a bad wrap for being too soft and melty-which they are-the Rimmels are much firmer-more like a lipstick. The Nyx balms have more of a Chapstick-type feel. I am constantly at lip balms during the winter and it's nice to have a little color when you don't want to be wearing heavy lipstick. They are available now at drugstores everywhere! I've already seen them on an endcap at my Walmart. I recommend the clear (I use it over matte lippies and lipliner) and the Rock, Party and Play varieties! Lately my go to is nude-pink lip liner and a little tinted balm. The Kiss one didn't have any color payoff at all....I classify it in the clear bunch. At that price you can grab all of them-they make great stocking stuffers :)


As I mentioned earlier the Rimmel balms were sent to me from Rimmel but my opinion is my own and I was not compensated  for this post :)

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

China Glaze Cheers! Collection comparisons

Hey guys! I have a few comparisons for you today! I really love doing comparisons and looking at other's comparison blogs! Today I have 3 comparisons for China Glaze Cheers! collection for  Holiday 2015 that stood out to me immediately when I got them. If you are curious about any others let me know in the comments and I will put them in my schedule if I have them!

First up is Peppermint to Be. This immediately reminded me of Ahoy! They did look very similar in the bottle but on the nail Ahoy is much more pink and Peppermint to Be is much more red...but the formula on them is almost identical! This is 2 coats of each.


Peppermint to Be comparison

I swear these looked way more similar in real life!

bottle comparison

Next is I Soiree I Didn't Do It. Its a green glitter in a light green jelly base. This reminded me IMMEDIATELY of Atlantis! I'm so glad I have this CG-I picked it up randomly one day in a grocery store not knowing then how hard to find it is! ISIDDI has a way thinner base to it and shown is my swatch of 4 coats compared to 2 coats of Atlantis. Atlantis is much more opaque and the glitter is much more holographic. If you cant find Atlantis I would say your best bet is ISIDDI over a green base!


I Soiree I Didn't Do It comparison

These looked very similar in the bottle to me!


bottle comparison

 
Lastly is Don't Get Elf'd Up compared to another oldie Emerald Fitzerald. EF has a more green base to it and DGEU is more of a black base (China Glaze says midnight blue but it's black to me) but otherwise these are almost identical to the eye in real life. Similar formulas also, this is 2 coats of each.

Don't Get Elf'd Up comparison

Can't tell 'em apart in the bottle!


Bottle shot comparison
Please let me know if there's any more ideas yall have for comparisons for this collection! China Glaze or other brands :)
 

Friday, December 11, 2015

China Glaze Cheers! Holiday 2015 Collection swatches and review

Hey guys! If you don't follow me on Twitter or Instagram (links to the right!) then you don't know about the plague on my house for the past month! I've been battling bronchitis (constant coughing....constant) and my littlest was really sick with a sinus infection and then a virus that had him (and me) benched for a week :( Even though we weren't all better we traveled over Thanksgiving and then as soon as we got back another kid and Mr. Aggies got sick, and my cough got worse! I've been to a doctor's office more times in the past 4 weeks than I care to mention. bleh! We all seem to be getting back in the swing of things, we are all ready to be healthy again!

I've had this collection for a few weeks but it has just been impossible for me to get to them until this week-which I HATE and have been really feeling terrible about. But now here they are yay! I do have a couple comparisons and I was going to include them here but there's so many pictures already I will be putting them in the next post.

If you're looking to do any holiday polish shopping checkout my StoreEnvy Page! Link to the right!

Let's get into it! The China Glaze Cheers! collection has a good mix of crèmes, shimmers, and glitters, it's very festive. China Glaze always has great holiday polishes and they are known for their holiday glitters!