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!

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 :)

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 :)

 

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!

Hard Candy 20th Anniversary collection-my pics!

Hello! I have a fun one today! Hard Candy recently came out with a 20th Anniversary collection with 8 polishes in their original packaging and colors! 5 of the 8 were original colors, and 3 new colors in the same packaging. They even included the cute little rings on the bottles! By the time I got to Walmart and saw if they had these, there was only these 2 plus 2 others that I didn't like, so I wasn't going to buy them just for the sake of the blog! ( I do enough of that anyway, haha). The only other ones I want are Mint and Coconut! Still on the look out for those, although I'm sure they're long gone :( I was lucky enough that one of the ones I got was Sky, one of the originals! whoop! I'm a little tardy posting about these but you know...life!

 

This is 2 coats of Sky. This was almost a one coater!  I even wrote "whoa!" I my notes, giggle! Amazing, most mint or light blue crèmes I have are 3 coaters. No topcoat!

Sky

the other one I grabbed was "Claws Up'" we are all suckers for nude polishes, right? This one has a slightly more than subtle shimmer running through it, the formula was no where near as opaque as Sky, this one took 3 coats. No topcoat. I'm not sure how this looks on my skin tone, it feels a little yellow to me? I makes my skin look super red, bleh. What do yall think?

Claws Up

I'm not sure if these are still available or not, your Walmart might still have some floating around! These were around $4-5, same price as the regular Hard Candy Polishes in the round bottles.

Face of Australia and Nail It! Australian brands reveiw

Hey guys! I have little mini-review for you today! I have these under the "purchased by me" tag but they were actually a gift from my sister in law in Australia! It me forever to get to them, shame on me! I love them so much (heart eyes)!

First up is a brand I've seen online but never owned until now! Its called Nail It! (giggle) and this minty (matte!) crème is called Sports girl. I didn't write down how many coats I used but I'm pretty sure it was 3! The formula was a bit tricky as with all matte crèmes, this is the only matte crème I have, the rest of the matte polishes I have are shimmery, etc! But who can resist a good mint nail polish?? NO ONE I say!



Nail It! "Sportsgirl"

I used the other polish she gave me, Face of Australia "Studio 54" to create a little gradient with a sponge! Its a really pretty coppery glitter topper. I added a coat of my OPI matte topcoat to keep it matte! What do yall think??


(I just re read through this post and I apologize for the over usage of the exclamation mark. Geez.)



FOA Studio 54

Smokey Mountain Lacquers Winter 2015 collection Swatches and Review!

Hey guys! Today I have half of Smokey Mountain Lacquer's Winter 2015 collection for you! I only have one polish of her brand and I love it, so when Kim asked me to review these for her of course I said yes! These will be launching November 20th at 8pm EST so be sure to check out Smokey Mountain Lacquers to purchase! I'll put more information on the pricing at the end of this blog.



Smokey Mountain Lacquers Winter 2015 collection Swatches and Review by Aggies Do It Better

Picture Polish Nail Art Quarterly: Round 2!

Hey guys! Today my blog is all about my design for Picture Polish's second nail art competition, Nail Art Quarterly! I was so excited to be chosen again because the theme "geometric" is waayyy more my style than the floral-themed last one! Here's what I came up with!



We were able to choose 3-5 shades out do our own collection (and only striping tape or straight nail vinyls) and I chose five of my favorites. Marine, Tiffany, Honeydew, Bonbon, and Chillax. All blues and greens! I also arranged them in sort of a lightest to darkest order to create a subtle ombre effect.  I hope you guys enjoy this progression of pics  I took as I went :)

Zoya Matte Velvets 2015 Comparisons!

Hey guys! Here's my comparions for the new Matte Velvets! I wasn't even going to do them because I feel like they've already been done some but I just did them anyway! I do love a good comparison ;) If you missed my post yesterday you can find it here.



Zoya Matte Velvets for 2015 Swatches and Review

Hey guys! I'm back from a little hiatus. Its been a whole month since my last blog! I just had to focus on getting some things done around the house. Yall know how that is! Today I have what's probably my most anticipated collection from Zoya since the last Matte Velvets came out, the new Matte Velvets for 2015! As soon as I saw the pictures of this collection I was PUMPED for that blue matte! This collection has a few similar collections as the last one and some new colors! Here's my post on last year's Matte Velvets! I totally was *not* going to do any comparisons because by the time I received my replacement shipment (the first one was so badly damaged I still can barely talk about it) I feel like its already been done a lot buuuuuuttt I did anyway so those will be up tomorrow. I tend to gush about the Matte Velvets because I love them so much (just like last year) so know that even though these were sent to me to review I actually honestly love them just so much love love. Love.

I love them.

Ok, we get it.

Lets get right into it!



Zoya 2015 Matte Velvets

Sally Hanson XTreme Wear shades for 2015

Hey guys! Life has gotten a little busy for me lately so I'm just now getting these up! Sally Hanson sent me a few of their new XTreme wear shades to review! I really really love the brush in this line, but the formulas can be hit or miss. They just recently revamped the whole line. Lets just get right into them!



Sally Hanson XTreme Wear 2015
 

31dc2015 Part 2: The patterns Round up!

Hey guys! Here's my round up post for the second part of the nail art challenge going on right now! I don't have time to blog every single mani so this is how I'm doing it to document my mani's! I'll keep my intro short since there's so many pics. If you missed my first section round up you can see it here! One last thing...I've noticed several new followers to my blog this week....if you just started following my blog let me know in the comments where you found me! :)



31DC2015 part two

31dc2015 Part one: the colors Roundup!

Hey guys! Today I have a little roundup of all the mani's I did for the first part of this year's 31 day challenge! This is a fun little challenge that goes around in the  nail world each September and this is my 3rd year participating! Maybe I will actually complete it this year :( I always get stuck and burned out on the last part! My goal for this year is to try to use as much untried/unblogged polishes as I can, I have a little system of marking each one as it gets blogged about, it helps me when I want to get rid of some! This post has a lot pics and I will just get right into it! I have chosen not to blog for each  mani because I just don't have time!!! So I will have one post for each part (10 mani's). I will list each polish I used for each mani. If there's any other info yall want just let me know in the comments! At the end I have links for my manis from years past, its fun to see the improvement each year!




31DC2015 part one!

China Glaze fall 2015: The Great Outdoors collection

Hey guys! Today I have China Glaze's fall collection! It consists of 5 cremes, 3 duochromes, 1 shimmery creme, 2 metallic polishes and 1 glitter. Talk about variety haha! I wasn't too sure about this collection from the photos, but as I was swatching it there are some I really fell in love with!! I was gonna divide this into 2 posts but I thought since it's not divided into 2 sub collections like some other brands I figured I'd just do one!

Change Your Altitude is a light gray creme. More on the lavender-taupe scale. Really pretty but the formula was just ok-it didn't want to level out. I added a 3rd coat to one nail and it still was a little lumpy. This is 2 coats plus topcoat. 

Change Your Altitude

My Lodge or Yours is a rose toned taupe. I had the same issues here but a light hand with your brush definitely helps. I also had trouble with it running down the brush so be sure to scrape it off good! 

This is 2 coats plus topcoat. 

My Lodge or Yours

Free Bear Hugs (cute name!) is a really super dark dark maroon, it almost looks black. I have one thing to say--GO SLOW  on your application! I always go super slow with dark colors bc they will stain your cuticle if you get some on it. I like this, it makes me want to cut my nails super short! 2 coats plus topcoat. 

Free Bear Hugs

Take a Hike is a ONE COAT dark forest green cream. 

Stop what you're doing. Right now. And go buy this. 

Have it? Ok. Good! Now we can talk about them. I swatched them pretty much in the order in posting them here and after not loving the formula on the first few this one knocked my socks off! This might be my favorite China Glaze I've worn. Ever. The formula is PERFECT and it's so opaque is good in one coat with no unevenness or patchyness or anything. I even wrote in my notes: "WHOA" lol! Why can't every polish be like this?? One coat plus topcoat. 

Take a Hike

S'more Fun wins the prize for the strangest name ever. Why would you name a polish "smore" and have it be this color? Whatever, guys! The formula on this was pretty good, actually. This photographs much more lime green than it is so I had to adjust the color to show it the interesting shade that it is. 2 coats plus topcoat. 

Smore Fun

Sleeping Under the Stars is a dark blueish purple creme with a strong pink shimmer that hid from the camera, so you'll just have to trust me!  When I swatched this I kinda wished I did this one last because I didn't want to take it off! This is also a ONE COATER! Nice job China Glaze! One coat plus topcoat. 

Sleeping Under the Stars

Let's Dew It is a periwinkle toned glitter topper. It's pretty packed with glitter, you could probably get this opaque in 3-4 coats or definitely with a sponge! I thought it would look nice over My Lodge Or Yours. This is one coat brushed over. 

Lets Dew It

I also thought it would look nice with matte topcoat ;) I'm having a matte moment lately :)

Lets Dew It (matte)

On to the metallics. Check out the Silver Fox is a silver metallic foil. This is another one coater. Nice pic if you don't already have something like this. No topcoat here. 

Check out the Silver Fox

Wood You Wanna is ANOTHER one coater, brown cinnamonny foil. Really liked this one! No topcoat here. 

Wood You Wanna

And now the duo chromes. Cabin Fever is a gold/rose pink duochrome. The shift is super strong on this one, dang, I'm not as into duochromes as most but this ones is awesome! I didn't want to take it off either! It looks gold primarily but the shift is so strong my camera only picked up the pink :) This is 2 coats no topcoat.  

Cabin Fever

Gone Glamping is a green/gold duochrome. The formula on this one was "thin and weird" according to my notes haha. The shift is strong but I stopped at 3 coats trying to get good coverage. No topcoat. 

Gone Glamping

Pondering had the honor of being swatched last so I could wear it for a couple days. The shift on this wasn't as strong inside, but the next day in the sun I was like whoa! This one has a blue/purple/green shift. 2 coats plus topcoat. 

Pondering

I'm not sure when this collection will be in stores but it's available online now! Which ones will you be picking up???