Ulta Eye Popping Poppy with Silver Gradient Design

I whipped out the striping tape to make this little design, which I originally wanted to do on all my nails but realized it was too time consuming.  Whenever I do venture to do any sort of designs or nail art, I start on my ring finger so if I find it too time consuming, it becomes an "accent" nail instead. Clever, I know, haha.

Eye Popping Poppy is super hard to describe.  I could've sworn I reviewed this polish before but I wasn't able to find it on the blog so I wasn't able to reference my previous description, oops.  It's a creme like jelly, it's not 100% either creme or jelly - there's a decent amount of sheerness.  It also lean coral/pink/orange depending on the lighting.  It's BRIGHT too, definitely has neon attributes!  Shown is 3 coats.

I used L.A. Colors Wire for the silver and mapped it out with striping tape, and them used a makeup sponge to dab it on to create the gradient effect. Super easy, just a bit tedious to cut up the thin tape.  Sealed with on coat of OTD and over NailTek II Foundation basecoat.

July 2013 Ipsy Bag Review

Who's ready for another futile attempt at make up swatches from a nail blogger? I got my Ipsy package, formerly MyGlam Bag, today and it's full of fun stuff that I'm excited to share with you!

The first challenge presented to me was trying to photograph a neon, transparent bag with a reflective surface. I think I did alright.  Cute bag, right? I like that it's plastic; nice knowing you've got a make up bag that won't leak in the event of an oops.

The bag had 5 items in it, two of which complicated the positioning as you can see. I tried. Let's get going!

First up is the Nailtini Nail Polish.  It's a creme! I'm excited.  The color included this time was "Mai Tai".

Shown above is two coats of Mai Tai, no top coat. Sort of reminds me of a brighter version of Sinful Colors Timbleberry. I've been wrong before in my assumed comparisons so don't quote me.  I'm going to wear this color though, I love it.

Next is Coola Mineral Sunscreen SPF 20 with tinted moisturizer.   That's it. I didn't take any more photos of it.

Same here, just a bottle shot. Bottle says "beach look with conditioning & texturizing spray with argan oil". I didn't try it yet and not sure if I will but it does smell nice.

Also included was a little trio of eyeshadows from bhCosmetics.

I have no constructive comments on these aside from them being pretty and that Malibu is really metallic and shiny.

Finally we have a popbeauty Pouty Pop Crayon in Fuchsia Flirt. It took me longer than I'd like to admit trying to figure out what this was for, LOL. I didn't associate "pouty" with "lips" right away, so I thought maybe it was an all encompassing eye, cheek and lip tool. Yea, no.

So there you have it, July 2013's Ipsy bag! I was personally pretty content with everything, hope you found this review helpful as well (=

China Glaze Flirty Tankini

I was so so so excited to get these when they first came out and when I finally got them, I shelved them for a while.  Once I saw them in person I just wasn't about the China Glaze 2012 Summer Neons anymore, even though I bought most of them.  Maybe its the subtle shimmer, or the fact that they're not-so-neon-neons, I'm not sure but I finally decided to wear this one today.

Sunlight

I took some outdoor photos because I was under the impression that I couldn't capture the color as well as I had hoped, but since they're not true and obnoxious neons, I don't think I needed to.

Sunlight

This is three coats of Flirty Tankini over Orly Bonder and sealed with Out the Door.  The formula was OK on this one, not spectacular, a bit thicker than I had anticipated. You can likely get away with two coats and my coats tend to run thin.

"Natural" Light

 I really like the color of this one; it does stand out on my nails and it's a lovely color in itself.

"Natural" Light

This does try as a somewhat satiny finish.  I determined it not a true neon due to the fact that I was able to photograph it, and these photos are pretty much color accurate.  Additionally, I'm used to a neon polish having zero sparkle and shimmer, the ones from this collection had either shimmer or were jellies.

OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster

I have one grievance about this polish and it is the way the name is worded.  It should be "I Mainely Eat Lobster" in my head, that's what I always call it. Suzi needs to fix that, it sounds unnatural the way it is.  Anywhoodle, I got this for my birthday and I can't figure out why I've never posted it as I've worn it a few times already.  Maybe I didn't tag it? I don't know, but here it is!

This is three coats of OPI over a coat of CND Stickey and sealed with Out the Door.  There is a super subtle gold shimmer in this polish which I just love even though you can barely see it.  I really love corals, I love this polish a whole bunch.

"Natural" Light

 You can try clicking to enlarge to see the shimmer but it really is subtle. I like that it's hidden in there.

Flash

I'm not a fan of the OPI pro-wide brush.  It works on all my nails pretty decently except my pinky.  It ends up painting on square so I always have to fix it.  I think if the brush was maybe 8 or so bristles thinner width wise it'd be alright.  I have big hands and big(er) nails too, I can't imagine what you petite handed ladies have to do to get it to work with you!

MOODSTRUCK - color changing nail polish.

I bought my first bottle(s) of color changing polish from Five Below for 3$ each.  There was a decent selection but I chose two that looked pretty to me.

"Orange to Light Orange" with one coat of ChG "Bad Kitty"
This is the "cool" tone. Hands were cold, lol. Excuse the
chipping on the thumb, too.  I did it almost immediately after
painting both hands and was heading to bed.

This is the "warm" tone.  I wore this a few weeks ago
when it was warm out and it stayed this color all day!

A side by side comparison.  Two fingers in hot water,
two fingers in cold.

1/2 dipped in cool water.  This is how they look when I'm
not cold or warm.  My longer nails create a really cute
French tip type of look!

I have to laugh at the bottles though.  I've never seen such poor design, the bottles are curved so the labels don't sit right.  They keep bubbling up.  Also, it looks like 12-year-old-me designed the label when I first discovered Photoshop. RAINBOW GRADIENT YAYYYYYY. 5+ points for the font choices xD

The formula on these is pretty sad.  It's quite streaky, it dries matte so it's very prone to chipping without a topcoat of some sort.  Also, speaking of design flaws, the whole bottle is about the same width, so the polish collects heavily at the top of the brush, making it a goopy mess that needs to be scraped off every time you rest the brush back in the bottle.

  Since it is a matte finish though, it dries INCREDIBLY fast.  Which is a double edged sword.  I chipped my thumb nail almost instantly after applying Bad Kitty and my topcoat.  The 4 hard, already solidified layers of polish underneath I'm sure contributed!  And yes, this was 4 coats to eliminate streaking.

It's cute and novel though - for 3$ I'd totally recommend it (=


BTW, SEMESTER OVER *EXHALES*

Sinful Colors - Timbleberry

What? Is a Timbleberry an actual thing? I don't feel like googling but going on Sinful Colors history of ridiculous color names I really am leaning towards "no".

Four Coats of Timbleberry. Three would've been enough!

A rich deep coral red orange creme. lol.

I like this color, which is weird considering it is very close to orange.  This one STAINED MY FINGERS REALLY BAD. Heads up.  Might want to use the foil method when removing this color if you ever decide to wear it.  I like it very much! Fantastic formula, didn't NEED four coats but I did it anyways.  So that's it. Simple post today.

But I made a very pretty springtime franken I will share with you all very soon. I LOVE IT.