A blog about a girl, her nail polish, and some delicious noms.
Archive for January, 2012
NOTD: Cult Nails Feel Me Up
13
Morning Everyone!
I’ve got a very special polish by Cult Nails to share with you today. This is Cult Nails Feel Me Up, one of the three limited edition polishes Maria made available during her Black Friday sale last year (it still feels strange to say “last year”…). I’m a yellow polish lover so as soon as I saw this little beauty I pounced!
I used Wicked Fast Top Coat and Get It On Base Coat by Cult Nails for my swatches today.
Cult Nails – Feel Me Up
Feel Me Up is a perfect shade of warm daffodil yellow, and the formula is superb! Most yellows have a tendency to be chalky, streaky, and generally a hot mess to apply. Feel Me Up has my favorite formula, the oh-so-wonderful jelly-creme hybrid. 
The first coat went on a tad streaky, but that was all corrected by coat number 2. I ended up using 3 coats here to reach the level of opacity I like.
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Feel Me Up is currently sold out, but I know Maria mentioned on her blog that she plans to bring it back some time in the future. I’m hoping so cause I think I’ll need a backup for this one! 
In other most excellent Cult Nails news, they are offering free shipping (with no minimum purchase) to anyone, anywhere through Saturday, January 14th in celebration of the 1 year anniversary of their launch day! Check out the shop [HERE]. This is music to a Culties ears.
Guest Post on Posh for Polish!
141 year ago
by Rie
in Guest Post
Hey Everyone!
I did a guest post for Kelly from Posh for Polish the other day, why don’t you mosey on over to her blog and check it out! I used multi-chrome polishes with my Red Angel stamp this time. Click [HERE] to see it!
A-England Swatches: Lancelot, Iseult, & Camelot
12
Morning Everyone!
I hope you all had a great weekend! I was off from work for the past 4 days and I spent some quality time with my friends and boyfriend. A lot of cheesy horror movies were watched, it was great!
I’ve got some more A-England swatches to share with you today from The Mythicals Collection. Adina really creates a whole new world with her collections. ^_^
I used The Knight Base Coat and The Shield Top Coat by A-England for all of today’s swatches.
Lancelot
Lancelot is an extremely blackened red jelly/creme. This is most definitely the deepest red that I own. It’s so dark that it comes off looking more like a soft black creme, but you can still see the red base peeking through around the edges of my nails. This polish is vampy to the max! I used 2 coats here. I didn’t experience any staining when I removed the polish. 
Iseult
You all saw a glimpse of Iseult a few months ago when I used it for one of my glitter sandwiches. She is a lovely and feminine pale pink shimmer, I used 3 coats here. This polish is sheer but it builds up very nicely.
Camelot
Camelot is a phenomenal black creme. The formula is a breeze to work with and it dries with a very nice glossy shine. I used 2 coats here, but you’d be able to get away with 1 coat easily. My current go-to black creme is by Wet n Wild, but Camelot may quickly surpass it.
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Final Thoughts:
As usual with A-England polish, I had no issues with application or formula on any of the three shown here today. Iseult is not a color I usually would go for, but it’s surprisingly my favorite out of the 3 shown here! I love layering with it and I’m a sucker for shimmer finished polish. Camelot is also great, if you have the money to splurge and need a great black creme polish then I’d highly recommend it to you. The only one I’m on the fence with is Lancelot, it’s a lovely color but it’s almost too close to black for me. If it showed just a little more red then I’d be completely happy with it. Perhaps if I can get it down to one coat, or layer it over white I can get better results.
Purchase Info:
You can take any polish from The Mythicals collection home by visiting the A-England official website at www.a-england.co.uk, they retail at £9.00 per 13ml bottle of polish and free international shipping is offered. A-England polishes can also be purchased for $12.00/ea through their US stockist, llarowe, and she does offer worldwide shipping (although Italy is currently excluded).
* Some of the product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.
For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.
NOTD: Zoya Demi
18Hey Everyone!
Today I’m wearing Zoya Demi, a color I actually won during a twitter giveaway that the Zoya Fairies hosted in December… Or maybe it was November? My memory is a bit foggy on the details, hah! Anyway, it was right around the time that Demi Moore announced her split from Ashton Kutcher. Zoya commented on Demi’s twitter name, MrsKutcher, and asked people to give suggestions for a new twitter handle. The first few people to respond to their tweet would win Zoya Demi. I tweeted back, not thinking I would win, but I did! I didn’t even think of anything clever, I’m pretty sure my suggestion was “TheNewDemi” or something equally lame. My boyfriend even commented on my lackluster tweet. I told him it was about the speed of the reply, not my quick wit.
Zoya Demi
Demi is a very pretty berry purple creme with red undertones, it was originally released with their Dare Collection for Fall 2009. I had no problems whatsoever with application for Demi. This is 2 easy creamy coats. ^_^
Here’s a bottle shot for ya, just because.
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That’s it for today. I really like this color a lot, and I’m happy that the Zoya fairies provided their twitter followers a chance to give it a new home.
NOTD: Lynnderella Gotta Love Brains over China Glaze Pelican Gray
22Morning Everyone!
Like I promised yesterday, I have my other Lynnderella franken to show you today. This is another polish from her Early Halloween Collection, and one that I’d been lemming for a long time. Let’s get right to the pictures, shall we?
Lynnderella Gotta Love Brains
I’m just gonna go with Lynnderella’s description for Gotta Love Brains because there is just so much going on with this polish!
Lynnderella describes Gotta Love Brains as a: “sheer neutral grey base with pink shimmer and scattered silver, gunmetal, pink, silver, periwinkle, aqua and lavender squares and multiple-size hexagons. Also contains holgraphic bars.“ O____O*
This is 2 coats of Gotta Love Brains over 2 coats of China Glaze Pelican Gray. The glitter definitely wants to move around on this one so make sure you wait a minute or two between coats. My only complaint is that I could not for the life of me manage to get the holo bar glitter to come out of the bottle. It makes me sad because I want it on my nails! 
The pink/purple shimmer is very subtle, you can really only make it out in direct light or under camera flash. I think next time I wear this I’ll skip the base polish and just do 3-4 layers of Gotta Love Brains to see if I have better luck with the bar glitter.
China Glaze Pelican Gray
And here’s a few pics of Pelican Gray, one of my absolute favorite polishes. I just love the subtle shimmer. Enlarge these photos for a better look. ^_^
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That’s it for today! Anyone else feel like Gotta Love Brains is the long lost, twice removed half cousin of Revlon Whimsical and Deborah Lippmann’s Glitter In The Air?
Lynnderella I Can Afford It! Franken (swatches & review)
18Hey Everyone!
Today I’ve got one of my recent purchases from Llarowe to show you all, Lynnderella I Can Afford It! I snagged this one back in December along with Gotta Love Brains (which I’ll be sharing soon!). I’m drawing a blank on words right now so I’ll just let the pictures speak for me, this polish is FANTASTIC.
Lynnderella – I Can Afford It!
I Can Afford It! is from Lynnderella’s Funny Money Collection. On her site, she describes it as a “bright green base with several shades of green glitter and just a touch of copper and purple. Also contains holographic emerald green hexagons and green microglitter.“
I describe it as “HOLY SH*T, GREEN GLITTER BONANZA!!”
*ahem*
So needless to say, I absolutely ADORE this polish! There is just so much going on, and I love it all! The scattered flecks of copper and purple break up the color scheme a little bit but in the most excellent way. ♥
I used 2 coats of Barry M Spring Green as my base and layered 2 coats of I Can Afford It! over it.
This polish deserved not one, but two macro shots. I cannot get over how much I love this! I’m gonna need to you enlarge both of these, get you drool bibs ready girls!
I already know what I’m wearing for St. Patty’s Day this year. That’s right. THIS GUY.
Here’s a quick pick of my base polish, Spring Green by Barry M. I love this color! It has that jelly/creme formula I love and the color is so bright and grassy green.
And some bottle shots for ya, including a sneak peek at Gotta Love Brains!
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Final Thoughts:
So if you haven’t realized it by now, I’m pretty much infatuated with I Can Afford It! If I could marry a nail polish we would be eloping tomorrow and moving to the Fiji Islands.
There was no grittiness once I applied my top coat (Seche Vite), and I’m really digging the new bottle shape vs. the old round clunky ones. They fit closer together in my Helmer this way.
Purchase Info
Lynnderella will still be selling polishes via her blog when she releases new collections, but now you’ll also be able to find her collections (past and present) at Llarowe. Retail price is $15.00 per bottle of polish on Llarowe’s site and I can’t remember what the price is on Lynnderella’s blog, I believe around $13.00 per bottle with a minimum purchase of 5 or 6 bottles?
OPI Nicki Minaj Collection Swatches & Review!!
33
Morning Everyone!
I know quite a few of my twitter pals have been waiting patiently since I posted a quick pic of this collection, and the wait is over. Thanks to my boyfriend’s mom I finally got my hands on the OPI Nicki Minaj Collection, and I’m excited to be able to share these swatches with you all today! She owns a salon here in town and ordered several sets of the collection to sell, as well as another set for their manicurist to use. She let me borrow the manicurist set so I could swatch it for my blog, thanks Carol! After borrowing these to swatch for my blog I now know I’ll definitely need a set of this collection to call my own.
This 6-piece collection consists of 3 cremes, 2 glitters and 1 shatter (crackle) finish polish. Let’s get right to the swatches!
Pink Friday
Pink Friday is a bright bubblegum pink creme. It looks a little muted in the bottle but comes alive on the nail. It’s a little streaky, but it evened itself out for me after 3 coats. You could probably get away with 2 coats if you’re careful.
Metallic 4 Life
Metallic 4 Life is a charcoal/black jelly based polish filled to the brim with large and small silver hex glitter, and silver square glitter. I initially thought this one would be just another run-of-the-mill black/silver glitter combo but I was floored by this polish! It’s like having a miniature rock star on your nails! Click on that macro shot to enlarge the picture, you won’t regret it when you’re smacked in the face by all that amazing silver glitter!
I used 3 coats of Metallic 4 Life on its own, no base color. It builds up to a nice opacity and the look reminds me of ice chips floating in a black sea. Does that make sense?
Did It On ‘Em
Did It On ‘Em is easily my favorite from the entire collection. This in-your-face polish is such a gorgeous shade of chartreuse, it’s bright without being neon! I thought it would be a pain to apply with so much yellow in its base, but this jelly/creme hybrid formula was a breeze. I used 3 coats to reach opacity and it was a streak free dream come true. ♥
Save Me
Save Me once again has me back on Team Bar Glitter. This polish is pretty fantabulous. Save Me has a clear suspension base that’s filled with silver micro glitter and holographic bar glitter pieces. I’m sure you could make Save Me opaque with 2-3 coats on its own. I chose to layer it, this is 2 coats of Save Me over Did It On ‘Em and I’m in love.
You’re also gonna want to enlarge that macro shot, trust me.
Fly
Fly is a vibrant teal blue creme and my 2nd favorite from this collection. While it doesn’t look very unique I honestly don’t have anything quite like this polish in my stash! I used 2 coats here, and just like Did It On ‘Em this one had the same jelly/creme hybrid formula that I love.
Super Bass Shatter
Super Bass Shatter is the special effects polish in the bunch. I’m pretty burned out on the shatter/crackle fad but this one is really interesting! It’s a jellyish magenta shimmer crackle, and the color of it varies depending on what shade you’re layering over. I used 1 medium coat over Fly and it looks like a dark purple color. But if you layer Super Bass Shatter over Pink Friday you’ve got a different dark magenta shattered effect! I initially wanted to pass this one up but now I think I need it.
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Final Thoughts:
This is the kind of spring collection I go gaga over! I will pass up all the pastel polishes in the world for the bright, fun, vibrant colors shown in the Nicki Minaj Collection. Like I mentioned above, the stand out shades for me are Did It On ‘Em, Fly, and Save Me. Love those three to death, wanna put them under my pillow and dream about them every night. And if you’ve never tried a shatter/crackle polish before then I highly suggest you pick up Super Bass Shatter, it’s easy to work with and the color is gorgeous!
All 6 of these polishes can easily transfer over into the summer months as well, which I think is another perk. I can totally see myself sporting these bold hues on my fingers and toes during all those semi-hot summer days on Lake Superior.
Purchase Info:
The limited edition Nicki Minaj Collection by OPI retails for around $8.50 per .5 fl oz bottle of polish. They can be purchased at your local professional salons and spas nationwide. You an also purchase them at larger chain salons, including JCPenny, Dillards, Regis, Pure Beauty, Trade Secret, and Ulta.
Zoya Feel Collection Winter 2011 – Kristen & Avery (Swatches & Review)
13
Morning Everyone!
I hope you all are enjoying the beginning of the new year. My boyfriend and I had an amaaaaazing time in Chicago for New Year’s Eve! We partied it up in the city with two of our good friends and didn’t make it back to our hotel until 5am! I’m still recovering but it was definitely worth the trip to Chicago and probably one of the best NYE celebrations I’ve yet to experience. ^_^
Today I’ve got two of the polishes from the Winter 2011 Zoya Feel Collection to share with you all. I caught one of the twitter promos that Zoya held throughout last month and snagged Avery and Kristen from the Feel Collection. All of the polishes in the Feel Collection are neutral cremes, which is a fun change from what we usually see during the winter season.
Zoya Avery
Zoya Avery is a peachy-beige neutral creme, the color really reminds me of liquid foundation. This is 2 easy coats. The formula for this one was thinner than Kristen, but still very easy to apply. I really love nude polishes like this, it’s a lovely color.
Zoya Kristen
Zoya Kristen is a gorgeous blue toned grey creme. I really love this one! Depending on the lighting this one will show more blue than grey, and on my skin tone it really looks like a dusty blue almost all the time. This polish was a little on the thick side, but not enough to effect the application negatively. This is 2 coats.
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Final Thoughts:
Once again I find myself enjoying another nude shade of polish! I knew before I tried it that I would be happy with Kristen, but Avery was a pleasant surprise. The formula for both of these was great. I think that I will need to eventually purchase the rest of the polishes from the Feel Collection so I can have a great set of neutrals in my stash. ^_^
Purchase Info:
Avery, Kristen and the rest of the Zoya Feel Collection can be purchased from Zoya.com as well as Zoya carrying Ulta stores nationwide. They retail at $8.00 per bottle of polish.
