Color Club Blue-ming

Good Morning everyone, I have so much to tell you today.  Of course our top news can be seen over there >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We just hit 1000 followers and wanted to let you all know how blessed and humbled we are that you are enjoying our blog.  It is you, our readers, who have put us where we are today and for that we are thankful!

If you didn't know yet, Rite-Aid is now carrying the Color Club polish line.  This color is part of their spring Blossoming collection and I saw this on the shelf today and fell in love with it.  I don't know why they call it Blue-Ming because it is definately not blue, but a lovely pastel mint color.  The pictures you are seeing are from day 3 after I have slept twice and soaked in a luscious bubble bath (more on that later) so obviously it has some staying power.

First the good.   I'm a big Color Club fan.  I've had really good luck with all their polishes.  And did I mention I love this color?  It reminds me of China Glaze Refreshmint (which is one of my all time favorite polish colors).

Chipped my middle finger, darnit!

If you have good you have to have bad - right?  Unfortunately - the formula on this was AWFUL.  The first coat was draggy and patchy.  The second coat covered up the dragging, but as it dried it began to bubble.  Badly.  I can still see the bubbles through the third coat.  Since it's late and I don't feel like removing it, I'm going to throw a top coat on it and see if I can disguise the bubbling.

Is the color worth the application issues?   As much as I'd like to say yes - I'm going to have to say no.  Go with Refreshmint instead.  This one is definately a 'miss' for me.

Also a couple quick product reviews today -

I just picked this up at Rite-Aid as well and wanted to share my thoughts.

Its EOS brand shave cream in pomegranate raspberry scent.  The bottle says "ultra moisturizing paraben-free with natural aloe and shea butter".  The creamy consistency reminds me a lot of Lush's Turkish Delight.  It does not foam, but rather is a creamy lotion that conditions your legs while you shave.  It also comes in a plastic bottle so you don't have that annoying rust on the bottom of your shaving cream can.  LOVE!  This pic is from their website.

Are you a Lush fan?  If not you should drop into a store or check them out online.  They have all natural and organic bath and beauty products that are just fabulous and both Amanda and myself are completely in love with them.  Today I used The Comforter bubble bar which not only gave me mounds of bubbles with a sweet Black Currant fragrance, but also turned my bath water a girly pink color.  So relaxing!  Picture is from their website.  I love Lush's bubble bars and bath bombs.

Have a great day and Happy Patriot's Day!

Sinful Colors Cinderella faux nad

Surely by now you've read all the hype surrounding this new polish from Sinful Colors.  It's been swatched numerous times on various blogs with differing opinions on whether it's worthy of all the hubbub.

Is it worth it?  In my opinion - yes.  I LOVED this shade.  Originally I was planning Cinderella as the base for a half moon mani, but once I got it on my nails it was so lovely I couldn't bear to cover it up.  So I wore it plain for 2 days before I stamped over it right before removal on day 4.

Cinderella is a soft pale springy blue with something special - a slight pink shimmer!  It really did remind me of the shimmery gown Cinderelly wore to the ball.  I knew it was quite sheer, so I started with white underwear of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.   Then I applied 2 coats of this gorgeous shimmery goodness.  The formula was actually excellent (Sinful is really hit or miss with me on quality).  It went on smooth and even and dried fast. Try as I may I just could not coax that pink shimmer out in my photos - either in sunlight or artificial.  You'll have to trust me on this one, the pink is there!

After Cinderella was fully dry, I applied a top coat of Out the Door.  Now - this is a new topcoat for me.  The sales clerk at Sally's swears she likes it better than SV, because it doesn't thicken up in the bottle.  I bought the large jumbo size bottle at 2.5 ounces (73 ml); which is 5x the size of the SV bottle at almost the same price.  SV = $8-9, OtD = $10.  I am still undecided on the quality of the product and need to do more testing.  Here's why...

After I applied the OtD, I waited a half hour or so then applied Color Club Copycoats scented topcoat in Duplicity (this is the turquoise tinted one).  Approximately 3 hours later, I reached into my makeup drawer and dented my mani in 3 places. I can't tell you whether this is due to the initial topcoat not drying thoroughly (it's suppoed to be super fast dry) or the Copycoats (which is not a fast dry topcoat).  Still - it had been THREE hours.   So I will do an independent test on my next mani of SV vs OtD and let you know the results.  Incidentally, I did not think the fragrance on Duplicity was as strong as the last one I tried (Mimic) and I think so far I like Mimic better.  I could still smell Mimic even after applying a regular fast dry topcoat over it but Duplicity was barely noticeable with nothing over it.

Here's the mani after I stamped over it with plate M64 and Sally Hansen Color Quick pen in Turquoise Chrome.  If you haven't tried these pens yet for stamping - what are you waiting for?  They are awesome for stamping - easy to control with super pigmented opaque color.  I was lucky enough to pick up 6 of them at Dollar Tree for a buck apiece.  In hindsight I wish I'd gotten more!  Oh, and my fubared pinky finger?  That is the result of attempting a plaid stamp with 2 different colors before finally settling on this design instead.  I don't know if I have a faulty stamp on that plaid image or what because it was blurry even using 2 different polishes.  And I'm pretty sure it wasn't my technique.  Anyway- thank God for top coat, although I did bork up a little bit of the cuticle line from removing the 2 botched stamps! If you like the chrome pens for stamping head over to Lyndsey's blog at http://pixiepolish.blogspot.com/ and check out her gorgeous use of this pen!

Patchwork Tape Mani with China Glaze Make Some Noise

Hello ladies!

Boo Monday. I can finally join the millions of people all over the world that hate Mondays. Waking up at 6am this morning for work was BRUTAL. Especially when you've gotten to sleep in every day for the past 10 months during your job search. :)

So....sleepy....

I had been wanting to do a patchwork/tape mani for a while now. I don't do them all too often as I'm usually too impatient to wait for all the layers to dry. However, last week I had a lot of free time (I had the whole week off to relax before my big girl job started). I decided it was the day!

I picked up four of the Electropop colors a few weeks ago, and decided I wanted to use one of those. I started with a base of China Glaze Make Some Noise which is a red that leans a bit coral. I added a coat of Seche Vite, waited a few hours, then taped off on a diagonal and painted with Color Club Revvvolution. Waited overnight, then added another diagonal of OPI DS Coronation.  I don't know what it is with tape manis, but I always find myself failing miserably. Other people make them look so easy, I don't get it? I tried my best to get the tape sealed down, but it kept seeping under areas where it wasn't secure enough. Curse the tape mani! Also, on my right hand (luckily) it peeled up the entire base when I went to remove the tape from the third layer. BOOO!! I ended up having to go in with a small brush to fix the areas where the polish leaked under the tape.

Either way, I do like the colors in this, I just don't think tape manis are for me :( If I could actually execute them perfectly (Erika, I'm looking at you!) they'd probably be worth the time, but it's a long process for something that I can never get to come out looking as crisp as I'd like. Ah well, I guess we all have our weaknesses :)

Just another little note -- I might be MIA for a bit while I try to learn how to juggle this full time job and blogging at the same time. In the mean time, Mama will keep you guys entertained with posts, but I imagine I'll be wiped out the first couple of weeks :)

I hope you guys all have a wonderful Monday!

Orly Passion Fruit fauxnad

Happy Pink Wednesday everyone (this post was supposed to go up yesterday but Amanda and I had a scheduling conflict!  sorry about that!)

I know you're thinking to yourself - that doesn't look pink.  But the camera is playing tricks on your eyes.  May I introduce Orly Passion Fruit, which is a bright neon coral jelly.  It actually looks more pink in the bottle than the nail - once you get it on, it leans a little more orange.

Passion Fruit applied very nicely and dried fast.  I didn't have any issues with streaking, dragging or cuticle pooling.  I initially was going to do 2 coats, but realized I still had VNL so I went ahead and added a third coat.  As I mentioned, Passion Fruit dries with a jelly type finish so I topped it with SV for some shine. 

I decided today was the day I wanted to try out my Color Club Copy Coats scented topcoats.  I used the pink one - named Mimic - because I have read elsewhere that these topcoats; although only slightly tinted, can cause mimimal color shifts in your base color.  I have to say that I really enjoyed the scent of Mimic.  I can't comment on what perfume it smells like, because I'm not a perfume connoisseur, but the company information says it contains blackberry, damask rose and sandalwood.  I was sniffing my nails all evening.   And I love the bottles - little squat square bottles with colored scented goodness in them!

This morning I applied a fauxnad over the base color using plate M72 and a Sally Hansen gold chrome pen.  I love these for stamping - great pigmented color!

What do you think of this fauxnad?  I've been really uninspired lately but I'm really liking this one!

Icing magnetic pink Wednesday!

This was my first attempt with magnetic polish.  I picked up 3 of the 4 colors at Icing Saturday night and decided to start off with the pink one for Pink Wednesday!

I started with a base of Color Club Hot Like Lava, which is a beautiful color in and of itself.  I love this Foiled collection - the polishes apply well, dry fast and are very forgiving of brush strokes.

The Icing polish applies nicely as well, it isn't too thick or too thin; but it is in a smaller than average bottle with .33 oz of product rather than the usual .5.  The price was much more reasonable than most of the other magnetic polishes that have been marketed to date (but that may soon be changing as more companies jump on the magnetic polish bandwagon).  I paid $9 for one bottle, but Icing was having a BOGO half off sale so the second polish rang up at $4.50.  That's $6.75 per bottle. (I are a math whiz)

The polish comes with a removable cap containing the magnet, so you dont have to flip your brush upside down to magnetize the design.  The magnet also contains little finger ledges to help with holding the magnet the correct distance from your nail without it coming in contact with it.  Well -- in theory anyway.  I actually had to redo 5 nails because I got a tiny bit too close and bumped the magnet into my wet polish.  So there is an initial learning curve.

And here is the lovely Hot Like Lava on it's own

Noobie tips

1) Do only one nail at a time, you want to magnetize the polish while it's still wet.

2) Hold the magnet stationery.  I was under the misguided notion that since I have wide nail beds if I kinda slowly pivoted the magnet from one side to the other I'd get a more uniform design.  Untrue.   Your best design comes from holding the magnet absolutely still.

3)  I found that the best way to judge the distance from my nail bed to the magnet was to hold my finger under a bright light and look down from the free edge toward my cuticles rather than a side or lateral view.  (see pics for example)

Yes

No

4) Base color (at least on the polishes I have tried) does not seem to impact your finished product much.  I swatched on 4 different base colors and my design came out pretty much identical on all 4 swatches.

This is such a different concept to me and I like it a lot more than I thought I would.  I think the phrase I used while I was working on this mani was "freaking awesome"!  hehe  Also the color variations don't show up as well in bright light (i.e. light box) than in normal ambient lighting so your design is going to be more pronounced than it looks here.

Amanda's Top 11 Polishes of 2011

I know everyone is doing these, so I am jumping on the bandwagon!

Keep in mind....during 2011 I was a broke joke for most of the year (actually, I still am a broke joke) so I didn't really get too many new polishes. And there's definitely polishes that would be on this list.... if I had them. But alas, I don't, so you get stuck with a boring top 2011 list! Or exciting because it will be different from everyone putting Glitter Gal and A-England on their lists.... depending on how you look at it ;)

These are in no particular order! Also some of the pictures suck because they were from when I first started blogging....but you get the picture.

1. China Glaze - Sea Spray (Anchors Away collection; Spring 2011)
China Glaze's Anchors Away collection of Spring 2011 was practically made for me. I love pastels, so is it really any surprise that this was one of my favorite colors of the year? And, it was the base for Mad Manis' most popular post ever, my dandelion nails!

2. Zoya - Faye (Sunshine collection; Summer 2011)
I LOVE Zoya polishes, and Faye is one of the most unique polishes in my collection!

3. OPI - Teenage Dream (Katy Perry collection)
Teenage Dream is the most perfect glitter polish in my entire stash. Filled with tiny microglitter and large holographic glitter, what's not to love?!

4. China Glaze - Trendsetter (Metro collection; Fall 2011)
Trendsetter is so ugly it's pretty! I happen to love this color because it's weird and unique, but I do get weird looks when I wear it. Things like "That's uh.....pretty?" I love it!

5. Zoya - Sooki (Summertime collection; Summer 2011)
The most perfect red creme in existence. Nothing else needs to be said.

6. China Glaze - Snowglobe (Let It Snow collection; holiday 2011)
I know this one wasn't released in 2011, but it was re-released as part of China Glaze's holiday collection, and boy is this name accurate! It looks like little chunks of snow all over your nails. So sparkly and pretty, but a PITA to take off.

7. Zoya - Neeka (Smoke and Mirrors collection; fall 2011)
Dusty purple with tiny flecks of glitter in it. Love!

8. Wet n Wild - Rockin Rubies (Ice Baby collection; winter 2011)
My good friend Steph from Imperfectly Painted got this for me for a Secret Santa gift and it shot to the top of my favorites list. Here it's layered over China Glaze Brownstone and WOW. Look at the depth in this one! It's a great red glitter.

9. Color Club - Revvvolution (Femme Fatale)
This isn't a 2011 release either, but I received this one in 2011 so it counts for me. I HAVE to include this...this is probably in my ALL TIME favorite polish list. A charcoal grey holo. WHEE!! I wish the holo was a bit stronger, but I still love it.

10. OPI - I Lily Love You (Nice Stems collection; summer 2011)
I didn't really much care for any of the other polishes in the Nice Stems collection, but this one is just too pretty to pass up. Pink flakies!

11. China Glaze - Brownstone (Metro collection, Fall 2011)
China Glaze's Metro collection was one of my favorite ever. I liked almost all of the colors in it, but only picked up a few. Brownstone is a reddish brown burgundy color that applies like a dream.

Color Club Holiday Splendor

I think Amanda and I swatched this holiday line way back when in late October or early November but I haven't had a chance to wear it as a full mani until now.  And I was really missing out because this is truly a spectacular color.

I used one coat of Color Club Perfect Molten as a base - it is a light green foil and you can find it under the Color Club tag on our blog.  Then.. over the top I applied Holiday Splendor.  It's pretty in the bottle but on the nail is where it really shines.  My bottle is a little thick so I had to be careful with application (I left my thinner behind in the move, gotta pick up a new bottle)- but look at the holo goodness in this poilsh - oh my gosh!  I have a feeling I'll be holding my hands up to the sunlight today to drink in the beauty of this one.

Some of the pictures are left intentionally blurry to show off the holographic glitter.

Wow.  I love this one.  I'm glad I wore it before the holidays were over.  It reminds me of a Christmas wreath!

Color Club Sugar Plum Yum

When I saw this polish at Sally's, I knew I had to have it.  It's one of my all time favorite color combinations - purple and green.  This is from their Scent-suous holiday collection and - as the name implies - they are scented polishes.

Sugar Plum Yum is a small green glitter with medium sized purple hex glitter.  It's very thick and clumpy and can be a little difficult to apply.  Instead of stroking it on your nails you have to kind of spread it out over the nail bed to get even coverage of the glitter and it works best if you layer it over a solid color.   The color I chose in these swatches is China Glaze Midnight Kiss - a gold foil from last year's holiday collection.  I did not apply a top coat because I did not want to mask or obscure the fragrance.

The fragrance reminds me a lot of Sweet Tarts and lasts for a couple days if you do not apply a top coat.  I actually quite enjoyed the scent and look of this one - it's very festive!  I'm just not looking forward to chiseling this off my nails! :)

Have a great day everyone!

You say you want a revolution, well, you know.....

Hello my pretties!

Enlarge for sparkly goodness

Today I have a polish that is old - I'm well aware, but it is new to my collection! You see, as some of you may or may not know, Mama is moving to Boston. So, she went through her stash and picked out some of her pretties that she thought I'd like so she had to take less with her on her cross-country adventure. And she gave me none other than Color Club Revvvolution! YES, the holographic one! *SQUEE!!*

On top of being the awesomesauce that it in in terms of color, this puppy applies like a DREAM! Pictured is two coats, but I definitely could've gotten away with one. Two is just a habit, I guess.

Shade:

Revvvolution is a charcoal grey with teeny tiny holographic glitter in it. I'm aware that Color Club rereleased this but just as a shimmer? That's a bummer because this one is SO gorgeous!! Can you even get the holographic versions anymore? If not, I feel super duper lucky to have this one and think Mom is crazy for giving it to me...even if she does say she doesn't like it. :)

Revvvolution shot its way up into my top polish list just about instantly. I know I'm so so late to the party on this one but I thought I'd share it anyway just in case you haven't seen it... or wanted to again. :)

What's that, you ask? Why yes... I did take this picture in my car

Speaking of top polishes, Amanda from The Nail Polish Enthusiast and I were discussing doing a week of favorites -- favorite reds, favorite glitters, etc sometime in December. I also want to do a top polish list at the end of December. Would you guys be interested in seeing those or would you just pass them over? Be honest!!

Have a fabulous day!