China Glaze: We've Got The Beet

I'll be honest, for over the past year or so I haven't been into buying new polish. It's rare I find anything that stands out. I find most new polishes I see unoriginal, so I was really please to see this polish. For the first time in a long time I was excited. It's a shame that feeling didn't last long.

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this polish. We've Got The Beet is a beautiful magenta shade from China's Glaze's 2016 Summer Lite Brites collection(*I KNOW* I'm reviewing something that's current!). It leans purple (but photographs more purple then it actually is irl) with mostly gold/copper-ish flecks. The formula is like wet lime plaster, and it takes 3 careful coats for total opacity, and the dry time is tedious. On the plus side like lime plaster it does seem to last eons on the nail. In the photos the manicure is 5 days old.

I'm glad I got the teeny tiny bottle for now. Pretty colour, tragic formula. Maybe I will get the full size bottle one day when it inevitably goes on sale somewhere.

Colour me unimpressed

Today I just have a simple swatch for you. It's something I have owned for years and have worn before, but have never swatched. This is Milani Chocolate Sprinkles, which came out way back in 2012 and was a CVS exclusive.

Chocolate sprinkles is a rich dark chocolate brown, with golden shimmer and flashes of green and pink. And application was 3 coats(but you could get away with 2) and the formula is super easy to work with. Now don't get me wrong this is a nice polish, but it just doesn't do anything for me. I think I fell for the polish because it photographs so well(I would love it if it looked like my photo). I never even saw it in person before receiving it, I just asked my mother to pick it up when she was in the States. When I finally put it on my nails it all just kind of fell flat. It's so much more lively in photographs.

It's rare that I hate a polish, so even ones I don't love get used up. A polish like this would fall under the "I have no idea what polish to wear" and the "I need something nice, and non offensive" polish.

Any polish(or makeup in general) you fell for that then left you unimpressed?

It's Alive!

I've actually posted this before, but I'm nuts, so I'm gonna post it again. Actually it's too amazing not to share again. This is China Glaze's I'm Alive, from their 2011 Halloween collection! It's a murky green, filled with small glitter and micro glitter. It's one of my favourite Halloween polishes ever. What's one of yours? Sorry this post is super short, busy few days and I am beat. And a plain manicure is better than nothing :P

A Doctor Who Post?

Sorry, I have been away for a while. I've been super busy, I wrote my first full one hour pilot episode for a drama(Someone pick it up now!) And if you know me, you know how crazy that is because I do 99% comedy. So this is a big deal. I have also been watching more Doctor Who again. You know I actually like 12 and I think the last series of the show was better then it has been in the past few years. So in honour of watching Doctor Who I present you with Zoya Oswin...because of Clara. It's funny because I don't really love her that much, but this just seemed appropriate :P

I bought this polish MONTHS ago, but only got it on Sunday. I shipped it to the States when I saw they were having a sale (I don't even remember when or what it was because it was so long ago). My mother then grabbed this and another Zoya I had ordered when she visited family we have there.

Oswin is from Zoya's fall 2014 collection of Ultra Pixie Dusts. This is probably the last Pixie Dust I ever liked. Out of the three UPD's from the collection, it was the only one the was totally matte. The rest looked more like a gritty glitter polish. Oswin is a bold red that has that the sand like texture of the original PD's, but with the addition of medium and small hexagonal glitter. I needed two coats for full coverage. To smooth it out I used two coats in the photo. If you want it TOTALLY smooth you would need one more coat.

If you would like a bottle you can find them on zoya.com. I though they were discontinuing them, but they are still on the site, so who knows. Also you may need a mule if you aren't in the States.

 
So I hope you guys have had a swell few weeks, and didn't miss me too much. But if you did I would understand.

Mandatory Mani

I feel like this is a mandatory manicure for anyone that has pointy nails. Watermelons. You just have to do it at some point. So this is my time/I wanted to do it before it started to feel like autumn.

I started with my base of Running in Circles then with acrylic paint I added the pink and white. Finally I painstakingly added the black glitter which is Ninja Polish Sticks and Stones. That took the longest time, trying to pick out the small black glitter from the white glitter. Love how it looks even though he glitter was a pain.

Here's running in circles on it's own. I have actually swatched it before, but this is too pretty to not show again!

There are times in life when change is bad. This is one of them.

Max Factor has changed the formula to Fantasy fire due to the fact that they no longer get that certain pigment. Gone are the days of colour this shifting goodness! This beauty that kept all the Clarins 230 lemmings at bay!  Thankfully I have 2 bottles :D But if you don't have any you should probably go head out and see if you can get old bottle still. If you are in the UK or Australia there are still old bottles out there. I do not remember the name at the moment, but there there was a website that sold this and they still had some old bottles left. Apart from that I have no clue where else you can buy a bottle.

I actually wear Fantasy Fire quite often as it works really well over so many colours. I was actually wearing it when I found out they had changed the formula. And just a note, but you can see the colour shift in person I just couldn't capture it very well on camera.

 

 

For my base I used 3 coats of this vibrant purple from a brand called F.A.W.N. There was no name on it just the number 018. I have never heard of this brand before and I have no idea where I bought it from. Shrinkage aside it is very pretty.

 

While I don't have a comparison post, you guys can head over to Cosmetic Sanctuary and see her post where she does a detailed comparison of the two. Here are some of her photos so you can see for yourself how different it now is. New FF is on the left, old on the right.

Ninja Polish - Passion Shift: *swoon*

Big day today so here is a quick review of an AMAZING polish.

Today I have Ninja Polish's Passion Shift. It is a gorgeous polish that shifts from purple to blue(although my photos only show off the pretty purple a bit more) filled with holo glitter. Application was an easy 2 coats, although one coat was almost enough. Went on like room temperature butter(that's a good thing ;) ) The polish is currently sold out, but you can get it over here.

Kiko Wisteria: You may not be the best polish, but at least you aren't a horrible person

Well I had...a day. First half of the day was great. Second, not so much. Long story short, got onto a commuter train, and some annoying guy who was with his son, asked if he could use my phone. I said no, for multiple reasons. One being I just didn't want him using my phone. Anyway, he got angry at me and started going off and calling me the N word, and saying how horrible black people can be. And this went on for a while. I was livid. It took a lot for me to not say anything. Long story short I contacted security, and technically I can press charges for harassment, but I'm not going to. I don't want to waste my time on filth like that. I will say I felt bad for the son(who was for sure biracial[not black though]), who was telling him to "Shut up" the whole time.

Now for the polish. This is two coats of Kiko Wisteria, a periwinkle textured polish, sans shimmer. I honestly didn't know how I would feel about this. I love textured polishes, but never loved the look of textured without shimmer. I always though it looked like a bumpy wall, but I decided to wear this today because I do love the colour. Honestly, I actually really liked it at first. I think it looks good on the nail, but from a far. I think textured polish in general looks better when it's not right in your face. What I didn't like about it was the dry time was it was longer than any other textured polish I own, and it got DIRTY from the dark foundation on my face. Which was impossible to wash off.

Overall I don't hate this polish, but I don't love it. Maybe I can find something artsy to do with it!

Well look what we have here: Poison Claws

Even when I don't post on here for a while I am pretty much always taking photos of my nails when I do them. And I always upload them, and I'll say to myself "I'll write about you eventually".  Usually I get around to it, but today I have a manicure that I TOTALLY forgot I did till looking through my photos.

First is Dior Poison. This is a beautiful deep purple cream. It falls in that almost black, but not category. In person it is VERY dark, but it is clear that it is purple. Application was super easy 2 coats, as it is with all my Dior polishe's. To finish it off, and add a little flair, I added some Barry M Majesty. I think these two colours go together perfectly. And it's manicures like this that make me miss my longer nails.

Catrice - Oh My Goldness!: Best brush ever.

Today I have a polish brand that is new to me. Well new in the sense that I had never tried it, only heard of it.  It's Catrice Oh My Goldness! It's a densely packed glitter/shimmer in a clear base. I only needed to coats, but I added a third for the photo. I was a bit unsure of the colour at first. While its name indicates gold, it leans towards a coppery orange. Once I put it on I ended up loving it. I think it looks great on me, but I'm not sure it will look good on all skintones.

My favourite part of this polish would have to be the brush. Right when I started using it I KNEW it was my new favourite brush. Now my nails aren't wide, but they aren't tiny. I personally like wide brushes over skinny brushes, they are easier for me to use. This brush was a wide brush, but not too wide. The thing that made me love this brush was the flexibility of the brush. It wasn't too floppy, or too stiff, which meant I had perfect control. This meant it wasn't too wide for narrow nails, like my pinky. And at the same time I meant I also got good coverage on wider nails because the brush spread out just enough to easily paint them without ever feeling limp.

Overall I loved this polish, and would love to try out some more from them. Do you guys have a favourite?

Zoya London: Sooooooo Quirky.

But not.

Today is the A-Z Challenge and once again I will be late. Not only am I busy this week, but I am doing things that need my nails to not be too quirky(The letter this week is Q). So I have gone in the total opposite direction of quirky and have a swatch for you guys.

This is London from Zoya's soon to be discontinued PixieDust line. It's a gray textured polish with silver shimmer. I used 2  easy coats for this swatch. To get it smooth I only needed 2 coats of top coat. Honestly out of all the textured polishes I have, this is probably the one I like the least. Not to say I don't love it, just out of all of them I am the least impressed with this one. It's very pretty, but doesn't make me swoon.

No topcoat

 Topcoat

Pretty Ugly

This is going to be another quick post. This was actually what I was going to show you for the A-Z challenge for the letter O(Old). This is Avon Dark Denin. It's not my oldest polish, but it is an oldie(at least 12 years old. One of the reasons I chose it was because it came with its own loose glitter for nail art in the lid. Long story short it was a hot mess. The polish itself was beautiful, a silky blurple that was opaque in two coats. The glitter was a nightmare. It went everywhere and just looked ugly.

What do you think of this polish? What about with the glitter?

Barry M Blood Orange: Red, Glorious Red!

So when I'm in a rush my go to polish is anything textured, because they usually dry fast and are pretty. When I'm not in a rush, but I have no clue what polish to wear my go to is a red of some sorts. I have said this before and I will say this again, but a red just does something to you. It's like bold red lips, there's just something so classic and sexy about them that makes you feel great.

Today I have Barry M's Blood Orange, from the Gelly Nail Effects line. It's a beautiful classic red polish. I used two coats for full opacity, and the finish like all the other polishes from the Gelly line was super shiny. That being said you should know that I always photograph these with top coat and it pretty much looks the same. I just add it for protection mostly. My only "complaint" really's isn't just a Barry M polish thing, it's a red polish thing. I find red polishes tend to stain like MAD when you do clean up or take them off, so you have to be careful. It's the reason why by my cuticles you see red. It's from my previous manicure.

Overall if you are in need of a good classic red, and you can get your hands on this, it's a great option.

I FINALLY UNDERSTAND THE JOYS OF STAMPING!

Ever since I started stamping it has kind of been a massive pain. It would take me FOREVER to get simple designs correct. And up until now I always thought it was MY fault. Well guess what? It wasn't! It was all my stampers fault! I had one of those double ended pink and green ones, with the rubber stamper. I couldn't do full nail designs because the stamper physically couldn't stamp over my whole nail as my nails were too long and it was too hard to easily squish around it. But thanks to Robyn I now have a squishy stamper! It's like night and day. For the first time I was able to do full nail designs! Not only that but I was able to do it on the first try. I didn't even have luck like that with smaller designs on the bad stamper! I have seen the stamping light, and it is beautiful! All hail Robyn!

So today I have the A-Z Challenge. Last week I didn't do it, but not because I forgot. I actually took photos, wrote a post and then ditched it when I saw the photos. The nail art was garbage, and it wasn't my fault(This post should just be called "Don't blame me for my sub-par art"). It was just a bad product. Maybe one day I will post it.

Anyways for today the letter was P for Pale. I thought this would be a great chance to use one of my pale polishes. I have maybe 7 pale polishes so I decided to use what I think was my only untried. Sally Hansen Piqué Side(I have had this polish for months and I just got the name. Pick a Side. French Fail). The polish was a pale pistachio green with gold shimmer, and the formula was ok. Nothing really bad about it, but it didn't blow me away. I needed two coats for full opacity. Overall I loved this colour and it will be great for spring! For the stamping I used Sinful Colors Gold Medal, which I have used before for stamping, but with my new stamper it was sooooooo much easier to work with! Then I added some studs from the Born Pretty Store to just complete the look.

All in all I am pleased with this, and I can't wait to do more stamping!

Check out more from the A-Z Challenge!

An InLinkz Link-up

Zoya Tomoko - Let's Compare

So for the past four days most of my food has involved putting kimchi on it. I'm officially obsessed with it, and I am pretty sure you can put it on anything and it will taste fantastic. Kimchi Stew, Fantastic. Kimchi Risotto, exquisite. Kimchi Ice Cream, a taste like none other. Ok well the last one may not work as well, but the others sure do!

Today I have Zoya Tomoko. Now I love textured polishes, and I was admit I was a bit hesitant to buy any at first. Am I glad I ever took the plunge because I love all the ones I have. They look stunning, you can top coat them, and they dry super fast. This was no exception. Tomoko is a fine champagne gold texture polish. In my swatches I used 2 coats, both of which applied easily. If you would like to smooth this out you will need around 2 thick or 3 normal coats of top coat.

No topcoat

 Topcoat

Tomoko, reminded me of Barry M Majesty. Now I knew from the get go that they weren't dupes, but I decided to compare them side by side either way. They are both champagne golds, but Majesty is slightly deeper. The formula on Majesty is a bit thicker than Tomoko, but they were both just as easy to apply. Tomoko is a bit more glitter hungry when topcoated. Finally the biggest difference is while Tomoko is just fine glitter, Majesty is both fine and larger glitter.  Oh and Majesty is a bit harder to take off because of the larger pieces of glitter. One thing they did have in common was since they are both soooooooo jam packed full of glitter I find they look less textured then they actually are.

Oh...

So this weeks A-Z challenge(N for New) was actually an accident. Originally I was just going to swatch Rose Hip, as Valentines day was coming up and this was one of the few pinks I own. I decided I wanted to add a kiss decal to the swatch as I felt like it wouldn't away from it, and it would be Valentine-y. Huge mistake. Turns out I hate how the kiss looks on the nail. So in order to fix this I quickly had to turn this into something new. So I added Barry M Majesty, to cover up the kisses, as well adding it to make dots on all the other fingers. Now It's not crazy nail art, but it's simple and pretty!

Rose Hip, a pale pink pastel, went on easily. It was 3 coats, because the first two were patchy, but I kind of expected that from a pastel. Despite that I was pleased with the formula and didn't have any issues with the actual application. I am not a big fan of pink polishes, but when I do find one I like, it is usually a pale pink like this.

Yucky decal. BLAH!

 Much better!

Check out all the A-Z challenge participants!

An InLinkz Link-up

Unintentional Wear Test - Barry M Majesty

As usual I am late with my A-Z challenge this week, but I have a good reason! Thursday I was going to do it, but then I had to transcribe a video. I don't know if you know anything about transcribing videos, but it is tedious. You sit there and type word for word what someone is saying, and what time in the video they started talking, and when they ended. Transcribing 5 minutes of dialogue takes about an hour, maybe a bit more. And if I have learnt anything from this it's clear to me that we say "Um" too much. Anyways through it all the polish I wore was Barry M Majesty. I ended up wearing the polish for days. Normally I would have wanted to take it off sooner, but it lasted sooooooo long.

Majesty is a champagne gold, textured glitter with both fine glitter and larger pieces. I goes on the nail a bit darker than the bottle looks. I used 2 easy coats, and it dried in no time at all. At the end of day two I put on 2 coats of clear polish and one coat of top coat.  It smoothed out easily. So easily that had I known I could have used only one coat of clear and one coat of top coat. It wore like iron for almost 7 days before it chipped. A+ from me!

No Topcoat Day 1

 Topcoat Day 6

Nicole By OPI - My Cherry Amour: Siiiiiiicccccckkkkkkkk

Blah! I'm sick and I have been for the past several days. I thought I would avoid getting sick this year because I like to pretend I'm invincible, but then the boy went and infected me with this damned cold! Anyways I'm feeling a bit better, but my nose is killing me. It was bad enough that I didn't change my polish for DAYS. My manicure actually started to........chip........and even then I still didn't have the energy to change it.

When I did gain a bit of my strength back I decided the least I could do was give myself a new manicure. Nothing fancy, just presentable. So I went with Nicole By OPI My Cherry Amour. This is a rich magenta, textured polish, with holographic glitter, from NOPI's Gumdrops line. It has that candy feel to it! I of course had to top coat it and wow, It looked stunning. It made the holo pop even more and made the colour look even more glorious. And just and fyi, it took 2 coats of TC to have it almost smooth(slight bumps not noticeable unless you looked closely) and 3 coats for total smoothness.

If you can get your hands on this I suggest you snap it up. I know it was a Limited edition collection, but you can easily find it on Amazon.