China Glaze Sangria

I hope everyone is having a great Thursday! Today, I have a manicure to show that has been sitting in my nail folder for what seems like forever. I usually post within a few days of doing a manicure, but occasionally a couple get stashed away in the folder.

China Glaze Sangria is a hot pink shimmer polish. Not especially unique about it, but I cannot help but love a good pink. Its a perfect pink for Summer. The application is great and opaque in two coats.

China Glaze retails for $5-10 a bottle at Sally Beauty Supply, Ulta, and various other stores/sites. 

Ulta Lav-ish

I you are enjoying your Wednesday! Today, I pretty polish from Ulta's lacquer line to show you.

Ulta Lav-ish is a very dusty lavender with rose gold shimmer. It is slightly sheer, but opaque in two coats. I am so glad I finally purchased this polish. Its gorgeous! The application is good.

Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta.

Spring VoxBox: Part 1

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! Today, I have part one of my Spring VoxBox review from Influenster. This is the first box I've ever received from them. I cannot express my excitement in words. You do not know what is coming in the box either, so its a fun surprise.

I received six items total. The box originally had five, but they added a sixth item as a thank you for being patient with shipping delays. Today, I will be talking about Sally Hansen Salon Effects, Bath & Body Works Fine Fragrance Mist, SheerCover Duo Concealer, and SOYJOY bar.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects are real nail polish strips. Using these was my second experience with this brand of polish strips. They are pretty easy to apply and are removed just like regular nail polish. They have zero dry time. I have found that they last longer if you apply topcoat, making sure to wrap the tips. I have had them on for three days so far with no tip wear or chipping. They are easy to place right at the cuticle line, so grow out is not a visible issue.

Each box comes with sixteen strips, eight in each little package. You can see one of the packages in the picture above, along with the instructions, orange stick, and file. If your nails are short enough, you can use one pack for a mani, so the box will give you the option of doing two full manicures. Even when my nails were longer, I still got two manis out of one box, so its really just a matter of seeing how your nails compare to the length of one polish strip. 

The instructions are very easy to follow. However, I did not stretch the strip and I used the hot pink side of the file to get the excess strip off. I found the peach side was a little to smooth to effectively accomplish that.

I received a box of Wild Child, a fun black and white zebra print. I did a post here featuring my manicure.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects come in forty different shades and designs, not including their seasonal collections. They retail for $8.50-10 at Walmart, Target, and Ulta.

Bath & Body Works Fine Fragrance Mist in Moonlight Path. I absolutely love the products from B&BW, especially their fine fragrance mist and body lotion. They are my go to for scents. I already own several, so receiving one I did not already own was a treat. This is a full size 8 fluid ounce bottle from their signature collection; they also carry small travel size 3 ounce bottles. This bottle design is relatively new. I like the sleek design and love the way each bottle is decorated.

B&BW describes Moonlight Path as "an opulent floral bouquet that captures the essence of moonlit strolls in lush gardens." This is a perfect description. It embodies several floral scents mingling together. To me, the main scents are lavender, violet, jasmine, and musk. Occuring to their website, the top coats are bergamot, lavender, mandarin, and coriander; the middle notes are rose, jasmine, violet, tuberose, ylang, and lily of the valley; and the dry notes are sandalwood, vetiver, oakmoss, vanilla, amber, and musk.

I absolutely love this scent! I'm very glad to have received it and cannot imagine why I kept passing it by in store.

Bath & Body Works Fine Fragrance Mist retails for $14 at Bath & Body Works, in store and online.

Sheer Cover Duo Concealer is a small compact concealer with two shades. It is marketed as ideal for hiding blemishes, age spots, redness, scars, and other imperfections without heavy cakey coverage. I do have some areas on my face that I apply extra coverage on while doing my makeup. I decided to test out this concealer on those problem areas. I'll admit, I was a little apprehensive about it, until I discovered Sheer Cover is mineral makeup. I switched to mineral makeup last year because other makeups would either cake on or would melt off in the hot weather. I applied the concealer underneath my normal makeup and loved the results. I have a bit of redness around my nose along with a few pores that I wish were smaller. This covered the redness and made my pores seem to disappear. It also covers blemishes very well. It has not caused me to breakout, which I usually do from other makeups of that consistency. 

It comes with two shades, so it will always match your skin tone. I imagine this is especially handy for those that tan during the Summer.

Sheer Cover Duo Concealer is sold in a one-month supply kit of six products and three bonus for $30.

SOYJOY Strawberry is, as the name implies, an all natural fruit and soy bar. I absolutely love SOYJOY and strawberry is my favorite. Its a moist dense bar with the texture and taste of a fruitcake, and I mean that in the best way possible. If you have ever had a good fruitcake, you know what I mean. 

It really is all natural and good for you. No artificial colors, flavors, hydrogenated oils or gluten. You can actually read the ingredient list. It is not a jumble of unpronounceable words.

Personally, when eating a bar, I mainly taste strawberry, soy, and raisins. Though there are so many other delicious flavors in there as well. Coconut, pineapple, milk chocolate, and cranberry just in the fruit flavors.

SOYJOY Bars retail for $1-1.30. They are available at SOYJOY or in a variety of stores which can be found using their store locator.

I hope you enjoyed reading my reviews! I will have part two up within a week or so, which will include Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Body Wash, ChapStick Lip SHIELD 360, and Dr. Scholl’s For Her.

Wild Kitty Cat

Once again it is Stamping Sunday! This week's theme is National Pet Week. I have always had pets. Cats, dogs, fish, turtles, rats, lizards, bunnies, guinea pigs... its been a zoo. Our house has a few cats and dogs currently. I do not own a chihuahua stamp or else my nails would be covered it cute little dog outlines. Instead, I chose a cat.

I could not part with my zebra print yet, so I did cat accent fingers. Given the wild print, the title was born. :) For my accent, I used one coat of Pure Ice Super Star! as my base. Then I stamped on a cat using Sinful Colors Black on Black and Born Pretty plate m71. The rest of my fingers are Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Wild Child.

Born Pretty plates retail for $3. This particular one can be gotten for free if you follow the instructions on the their website. Sally Hansen Salon Effects retail for $8.50-10 at Walmart, Target, and Ulta.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Wild Child

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! I have part of my Spring VoxBox to show you today.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects are strips made of real nail polish, except no dry time. I will have a full review of these up (along with more of my VoxBox) Monday. Wild Child is a fun black and white zebra print. In person, the strips appear solid. Those white bits are only visible because my photos were taken on the macro setting.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects retail for $8.50-10 at Walmart, Target, and Ulta.

Essence Irreplaceable

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! Do you ever buy polish and it sits there waiting for you to wear it for months? I have quite a few bottles that have been sitting around for months and I have yet to wear them yet. The polish I have to show you today is one of them.

Essence Irreplaceable is beige with gold shimmer. Its not exactly a creme, jelly, or even a sheer. I would say its a cross between a creme and sheer; slightly sheer, but practically opaque in two coats. In person, you cannot see any visible nail line. The application is perfect, as I've found is a given with Essence. Irreplaceable is simply gorgeous. A nice neutral with a little something extra.

Essence Colour & Go retails for $1 at Ulta, H-E-B, and FredMeyer.

Maybelline Twilight Rays

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! I have a pretty polish to show you today.

Maybelline recently came out with forty new polish shades in their Color Show line. Twilight Rays is a black creme with small gold glitter flakes. When I purchased it, I thought it was micro glitter. Imagine my excitement to see that they were tiny flakies. Its a gorgeous polish, opaque in two easy coats. 

This polish was insanely hard to photograph. Over for forty pictures in effort to capture its beauty. 

Maybelline Color Show retail for $3 at Walmart. I am sure other stores carry them, but I have not seen them.

Essence Legends of the Sky Collection

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! Today, I have four of the new Essence Legends of the Sky Collection polishes to show you. I noticed the display at Ulta last week (Nouveau Cheap has a great post about the entire display). The displays in the U.S. only seem to have four of the six polishes. I grabbed all four.

From index to pinky, they are I Wear My Flying Goggles at Night, Like Leo's Pilot Jacket, No Better Way to Sky, and I Am a Viator. Two coats each. I was honestly a little weary of all but the orange. But I could not pass up a limited edition Essence collection. Once painted on, I fell in love. They seem a bit more suited for Fall, rather than Summer, but are beautiful nonetheless.

I Wear My Flying Goggles at Night is a dusty khaki green creme with gray undertones. Excuse the bubbles. I smudged the polish and topcoat. My attempt at smoothing gave slight bubbles. Like Leo's Pilot Jacket is a dusty army green creme. I assume this is a reference to The Aviator, though I'm not sure why. No Better Way to Sky is a light burnt orange creme, almost dusty instead of burnt. I Am a Viator is a milk chocolate creme. The application on all of them is perfect; what I've come to expect from Essence.

The limited edition Legends of the Sky Collection retail for $2 at Ulta.

Barielle B.F.F. Sweeptakes

Barielle is hosting an amazing giveaway on Facebook! All you have to do is "like" their page and fill out a bit of info. You have a chance to win Barielle’s Nail Strengthener Cream, a Barielle Base Coat, Top Coat and three Shades colors of your choice. Twenty people will be chosen to receive these amazing items.

If you win, trust me, you will love the products! I own all of them and several Barielle polishes. The nail strengthening cream is honestly the best thing I've done for my nails.

The sweepstakes runs from May 21, 2012 at 3pm EST until June 30, 2012 7am EST. Remember to "like" their Facebook page. Visit here to enter from your computer or here to enter from your mobile phone.

Good luck!

Pink with a Metallic Accent

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! I have another manicure to show you for Monkey See, Monkey Do. Its a nail challenge where we take inspiration from or recreate a mani done by someone else. Anything you see on blogs, Facebook, Pinterest, or anywhere else online. 

This was inspired by an image on Pinterest. I could not find who did this pairing to give them proper credit. I just love the pink and silver. For my pink, I did three thin coats of No6 Bright Young Thing, a medium pink creme. For my silver accent, I used two coats of Wet n Wild Silvivor, a bright silver metallic. It almost has a foil finish to it, but leans a little more toward metallic. Both of these polishes have great application.

No6 retail for $3 at Payless (though I'm not sure how many still carry the brand). Wet n Wild retail for $1-2 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their website.

If you are interested in other blogs doing the MSMD challenge, there are several talented ladies participating. :)

Debbie http://thecrumpet.blogspot.co.uk
Missy http://gnarlygnails.blogspot.com
Melissa http://www.misadventuresofawannabemartha.com/
Laurie http://dressedupdigits.blogspot.com/
Layka http://www.kawaiinize.es
Elizabeth http://nailpolishismycrack.blogspot.com/
Kristin http://www.manicuredmonkey.com
Erin http://erinsbeautybumbles.blogspot.com
Nayade at Toxic Vanity - http://www.toxicvanity.com
Jenn at Polish Crazed http://www.polishcrazed.blogspot.ca/
Jen http://jenspaintedtips.blogspot.com/
Amber www.amberdidit.com
Cristina http://theclockwisenailpolish.blogspot.pt/
Kirsten - http://geekyowl.blogspot.com/
Alyssa at Fancy Phalanges - http://fancyphalanges.blogspot.com/
Amber http://nevernakednails.blogspot.com
Emily Esqueleta: http://macabremanicures.blogspot.com/
Misha www.enigmatic-rambles.blogspot.com
Carrie http://lesamowen.blogspot.com/
Basia (or Bazzia) http://polishmymind.blogspot.com/
Helena www.nailwish.blogspot.com
Ana Cris http://www.estacerradaladrogueria.blogspot.com.es/
Kim www.apolishedaddiction.blogspot.com
Emma http://manicurity.blogspot.com/
arlene http://euzefelus27-nailart.blogspot.com
Gwenn http://www.sugar-nails.com
Ney "Neivys" http://maquiclubgirl.blogspot.com/
Ana http://cherriessweets.blogspot.com.es
Isabel http://isaspinods.blogspot.com/
Stella http://mywetnails.blogspot.com

New Essence Collection & Born Pretty Stamping Plate

Another haul post! :) Just a small one this time. 

Essence Like Leo's Pilot Jacket, I Wear My Flying Goggles at Night,  
No Better Way to Sky, & I Am A Viator

Plate m71 from Born Pretty

I noticed Ulta had a brand new display with the Limited Edition Essence Legends of the Sky Collection. Nouveau Cheap has a great post about the entire display, if you're interested. It seems that the U.S. displays only have four of the six polishes from the collection.

I literally gasped when I saw the display and was so happy to get all four. I was honestly a little iffy about the shades, but I could not pass up a LE Essence collection. I have a post planned for Wednesday with these lovely polishes, and trust me, they are worth owning.

On to the stamping plate. Born Pretty has been running a promotion for a very long time that offers a free Hello Kitty stamping plate to ten people per day. You do not even have to place an order for anything else. The plate can be found here, along with instructions on how to receive it for free. It does take some time to arrive. I ordered mine on April 9th. It shipped the next day and arrived today. The shipping is free from Hong Kong, so the time is not surprising.

Double Gradient

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! This week's theme on PAA for the Monday Nail Art Challenge is Sponging. That theme instantly brings gradients to mind for me. I originally intended to have a simple three color design, but it did not turn out the way I intended, so glitter was added.

I started with one coat of Pure Ice Super Star! as my white base. Using a sponge, I created a gradient with NYC Times Square Tangerine, Wet n Wild Red Red, and Julep Helena. The orange and red blended very well together, but the purple sponged on horribly. It was patchy and did not blend. I have not used Helena for sponging before, so I'm unsure if it was to blame or not.

I put too much time in to just start over, so I saved the design by sponging Love & Beauty Black Knight onto the tips. A creme gradient and and a glitter gradient. A double gradient.

Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics. NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel retails for $1 at Walmart, Riteaid, and Family Dollar. Wet n Wild retail for $1-2 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their website. Julep retails for $14 at Julep and Sephora. Love & Beauty retails for $2.80 at Forever21, online and in store.

Galaxy Nails with Stamping

I hope you're enjoying your Sunday! Its Sunday Stamping again. This week is "The Sky's the Limit."

Over my galaxy design (which you can see plain here), I stamped a star and planet with Sinful Colors Snow Me White along with plate BM05 and N.Nail m39.

N.Nail Stamping Plates retail for $5.05 on KCenterKH. Plate m39 is item number SPPMM39. BM stamping plates are part of a 21 piece set that retails for $18 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store.

Galaxy Nails

I hope you're enjoying your day! Today I have a galaxy design to show you. This is my second set of galaxy nails. My first attempt was way back in August.

I used several different polishes to achieve this look. I painted each nail with one coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black as my base then sponged on a variety of polishes. Color Club Antiquated, Lumin-iceint, Wet n Wild FuchsiaRama, Blue Moon, Tickled Pink, Scherer Blue Sky, BeautyUK Gun Metal, Barielle Starry Sky, Sinful Colors Unicorn, Snow Me White, L.A. Colors Nuclear Energy, and Ulta Glitter Top Coat. Then I layered on one coat of China Fairy Dust and used a dotting tool for white dots.

Doing a galaxy design is simple. It just takes a little time. The time is completely worth the finished product.

Nabi Cute Punky

I hope you enjoyed your Friday. Today's post is coming in a little late. So late that its technically Saturday here, but better late than never.

I layered two coats of Nabi Cute Punky over one coat of Wet n Wild Nocturnal. Cute Punky has two sizes of small lime green glitter along with holo glitter. I would not consider the smallest glitter in it to be micro, but between micro and small. The glitter shows more gold than green when layered over the dark ink blue Nocturnal.

Nabi Nail Lacquer retails for $3-5 online. 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.