Barielle Grape Escape

Today is one in a million! Leap Day! Well, more like one in one thousand sixty-one, but still, it only comes once every four years. On this leap day, I have a pretty purple shade to show you.

Barielle Grape Escape is a grape purple creme, as the name implies. It took two coats to be opaque and applied perfectly. If you like or love purple, it is a must have shade.

Barielle Shades retail for $8 on their website. 

China Glaze Crushed Candy

I hope everyone is enjoying their Tuesday! I'm still fond of crackle, so I have a Spring colored combination to show you today.

I layered one coat of China Glaze Crushed Candy over three thin coats of Sinful Colors Unicorn, which you can see by itself here. I had to thin out Crushed Candy a bit halfway through my mani. I noticed it thick enough not to crack well. From what I've heard, crackles are notorious for needing thinner. Worth it though.

I liked how my right hand cracked, so I took a picture of it too. I know rightie isn't seen much.

Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. China Glaze Crackle Glaze retail for $3-6 at various stores and websites (including Sally's Beauty Supply, Ulta, Head2Toe Beauty, and Amazon . They are on clearance at most places, so the prices vary. 

Cupcake Nails

I hope everyone is enjoying their Monday! This week's Monday Nail Art Challenge on Polish-aholics Anonymous is Water Marble/Happy Birthday. As a joke, Krissi (admin on PAA) threw in the option to vote for her birthday as a theme. She's awesome and we love her, so water marble and her birthday pretty much tied. The one time I attempted a water marble, it was a brown mess, so I decided birthday was a better choice.

I followed a tutorial from CutePolish with a little tweaking. For most of my nails and the base of my cupcake, I used Wet n Wild Tickled Pink as a base and Lavender Creme for the stripes as well as for the candy heart. The icing is Sinful Colors Snow Me White. The sprinkles are Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, Cosmetic Arts Sky High, Sinful Colors Unicorn, and Wet n Wild Tickled Pink. 

I definitely need more practice. Doesn't help that my hands shake a little due to a hereditary trait. Its not noticeable unless I'm doing certain things. Like painting tiny details or taking camera pictures without a flash.

Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Wet n Wild retail for $1-2 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their website. Sally Hansen retail for $2-3 (the Xtreme Wear) at Walgreens, Walmart, Riteaid, Ulta, etc. Last but not least, Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else).

Nautical

Its Stamping Sunday! Over at Adventures in Stamping, this week's theme is 'Three Colors'. You can only use three colors including base coat and stamping polishes, no more, no less.

I decided on a nautical design of red, white, and blue. On my ring fingers, I did two coats of Essie Midnight Tango then stamped on an anchor using Sinful Colors Snow Me White and plate BM08. On the rest of my fingers, I did three thin coats of Snow Me White then stamped on stripes using Love My Nails New Love and plate BM20.

The lines are not perfect. Despite my nail beds being relatively small, the whole nail designs do not cover my entire nail. So I had to use a nail art brush to fill in the gaps. I still like this design though. In person, the stripes look fine. Macro pictures show every detail and flaw.

Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Essie Midnight Tango is from the Mortia's Nails Collection and only seems to be available on HSN.com in a set of three marked down to $7. Love My Nails retail for $1 at Bari Cosmetics.

Sinful Colors Unicorn

Happy Saturday to you all! You wouldn't know I loved yellow considering I only own fourteen, including two frankens. But I do love yellow. I put off wearing this particular yellow because it was very blah on my nail wheel. Though once I painted it on, I fell for this polish.

Sinful Colors Unicorn is pretty pastel yellow creme. This is three thin coats. Its perfect for Spring. For any season really. The application was great. Perfect consistency, not too think, not too thin. I would recommend three thin coats rather than two thick ones. It goes on more evenly that way. Because the coats are thin rather than thick, the drying time is quick.

Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture.

Polka Dot Owl

I hope everyone is enjoying their Friday! Its the very last one in February. Today I have a cute little owl design to show you. I did this with a nail art contest in mind. Sarah from Chalkboard Nails is doing a Dotting Tool Contest. You can only use a dotting tool (or something that counts as a dotting tool like a toothpick). No nail art brushes, just the brush that comes with your polish.

I just love my little owl! For the owl and polka dots, I used Julep Olivia, Miranda, and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. Everything was done with my nail polish brush (from Miranda) and my dotting tools. This design was inspired by CutePolish (she has the cutest designs).

I love these polishes. All were easy to work with. My nails with the dots have one coat of Miranda. Most of Julep's polishes seem to be one coaters, which I love.

Great Deals on Barielle, Sally Hansen, EOS, Burts Bees, & More plus $10 Off!

Yesterday, I ordered my first items from Vitacost. Using the $10 off code, I got a Barielle polish and an EOS Smooth Sphere Lip balm for $0.62 plus shipping. They carry brands like Barielle, Sally Hansen, EOS, Burts Bees, along with dozens of other brands. Its not just makeup either.

Click here to get $10 off your purchase from Vitacost. All you have to do is give your email, and they email you a unique code for $10 off. Absolutely worth it!

Radioactive

I hope everyone is enjoying their Thursday! I have what I consider an interesting layering combination to show you today. 

Radioactive nails! Or at least I see them as radioactive. My mom commented that they looked mossy and spring like. I did a bit of layering to get this effect.

I started off with one coat of Wet n Wild Nocturnal, next a coat of Funky Fingers Stage Dive, and finally two coats of Nfu-Oh NFU JS18. Nocturnal is an almost black blue jelly. It applied opaque in just one coat. Stage Dive is great glitter with different sizes of silver hex glitter. NFU JS18 is a sheer jelly with amazing application. I have never worn it alone, so I'm not quite sure how many coats it takes for opacity.

Nocturnal is part of Wet n Wild's Craze line, which has been discontinued. As with any discontinued line or collection, there was usually bottles to be found online. If you're lucky, you might be able to purchase them in a set from a store that still has some in stock. I got mine in a set of six for four dollars at Dollar General during Christmas time. Funky Fingers retail for $2 or 3/$5 at Five Below. Stage Dive is part of their Heavy Metal Collection, so I'm honestly unsure if its still available in store since there are no Five Below stores located near me (if anyone knows, please let me know so I have accurate info here). Nfu-Oh retail for $12.50 from Fabulous Street, the distributor for that brand in the USA.

Finger Paints Twisted

The Finger Paints Special Effects Collection had many of us watching the Sally's Beauty Supply nail aisle waiting for them to hit the shelves the first of January. My first visit I was only able to find Flecked and Asylum. Eventually, Motley joined my collection as well. But Twisted seemed to have disappeared from the display with no hope of restocking. It wasn't until this month that a very lovely woman from PAA named Karine offered to pick up bottles since a store near her was well stocked. Twisted was finally mine!

I'm sure most everyone has heard of or owns this collection by now, but if you haven't... The Special Effects Collection contains five flakie polishes. Twisted, Asylum, Flecked, Motley, and Flashy. All of them are just gorgeous! You may have noticed I only talked about owning four of the five. Flashy is a dupe for Essie Shine of the Times, so since I owned the latter, I saw no point in tracking down the other.

On to the pictures!

I did a bit of layering to give this the depth I wanted. I did a layer of L.A. Colors Nuclear Energy, Finger Paints Twisted, Nuclear Energy again, and Twisted again. Nuclear Energy is a sheer purple jelly, so it allows you to see the flakies that are suspended between polish layers. Both polishes apply very well. Twisted has a nice amount of flakies in one coat and they spread out evenly. It is my favorite out of the Special Effects Collection. There is literally every color of the rainbow packed into this polish.

L.A. Colors retail for around $1 and can be found at most Dollar stores. The polishes from Finger Paints Special Effects Collection, if found in store, will be at Sally's Beauty Supply and retail for $5.49 (less if you have a Sally's card). There are some for sale online from different sites if you look around.

Mardi Gras!

I love Mardi Gras! Celebrating the day is a rather big deal in Louisiana. Though I have never been New Orleans and experienced that slice of crazy. Up where I'm at, there are several parades. Floats, fun, and beads. I just had to do a mani for today.

Its a fun design to wear, but honestly it took a lot of patience. This was my first time using striping tape. I imagine practice makes perfect. I used two coats of Beauty UK Electric Purple then gold and green striping tape. I topped it off with a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust. I absolutely love these polishes! Electric Purple has a pretty shimmer and good application. Fairy Dust is a clear base filled with micro holo glitter. Its an amazing polish to layer with.

Beauty UK polish retails for £2.49 on their website. You can also get sets there for £4.99. Individual polishes are full size (14ml) and the polishes from sets are minis (8ml).

Zoya Remove+ Review

I have had Zoya Remove+ since the end of December. I got it during one of their holiday flash sales. I heard amazing things about it for a long time, but was iffy about spending the money on something new. However, after trying Remove+ I am so glad I purchased it.

Zoya describes it as "effective 3-in-1 nail polish remover, nail prep and nail conditioner." That it will "clean and prep nails while moisturizing, nourishing and fortifying the nail plate for guaranteed extended polish wear." Which is all very much true. I honestly would never associate moisturizing with polish remover before trying this product. Its never dried out my nails or cuticles. Regular acetone just sucks the moisture out my skin. 

Remove+ takes off polishes better than any other nail polish remover I've tried, other than pure acetone. Every polish comes off easily without drying out your skin and nails. Glitter does take a little effort, but glitter always takes a little effort, even with pure acetone. Honestly, the only time I notice the difference between Remove+ and pure acetone is when I'm taking off several layers of polish (six or more) or glitter. But the little bit of extra time is worth not having my skin and nails dried out. And by little bit of extra time, I mean maybe a minute, usually less.

I cannot tell you how much I love the Big Flipper. Never again will I spill polish remover everywhere. In order to have any of the liquid come out, you have to twist the top, unlocking it, then flip it open and press down. Its genius! Even unlocked, if you knock the bottle over, it will not spill. If you've ever spilled polish remover, you know how amazing a non-spill bottle is.

I know the way everyone removes their polish is different. After I first got my bottle of Remove+, I found a lovely video that made me change the way I was removing my polish. You can see the video here. Basically, I take three jumbo cotton balls (mine are smaller than in the video) and tear them apart. I tear two into three pieces and the third into four pieces. Ten pieces total, one for each nail. I press down on the Big Flipper top for each cotton piece and place them on my nails one hand at a time. It takes between thirty seconds to a minute typically before I press down on the cotton and wipe my polish off. Super easy.

All in all, I can honestly say Zoya Remove+ is the perfect remover, at least in my opinion. Easily removes polish, moisturizes without drying out, and is spill proof with the Big Flipper.

Zoya Remove+ in the Big Flipper bottle retails for $10 for eight ounces on Zoya.com.

Wet n Wild Correction Tape

The weekend is almost over. I hope everyone has enjoyed theirs!

After looking at my failed magnetic polish attempt for awhile, I decided to give it some new life with glitter.

Excuse the tip wear, I added glitter the following day after my Essence Magic Wand! fail. I love Wet n Wild Correction Tape! Its so much fun! Magenta, blue, gold, and black combining both square and hex shaped glitter. The glitter spaced out quiet nicely in just one coat.

Correction Tape is part of the Wet n Wild On the Prowl Collection. Its no longer available in stores (that I know of), but I have seen it for sale online. So if you want it, there is still hope. :) [Edited to add] Thanks to a lovely follower, AffordableBeauty, who commented on this post, I was informed that Spoiled by Wet n Wild Trust Fund Baby is an exact dupe for Correction Tape. It retails for $2 at CVS, in store and online.