Nail Polish Review and an Update……

Hey Everyone…..or anyone…..I am still here. I know that my blog has been collecting dust for the past few days but there is good reason. I have been really busy and just trying to sort out this whole blogging, youtube video, mom, wife, friend thing and plus I was kind of discouraged because my cameras really sucked and I just couldn’t get good photos of my work or swatches, it was a bummer. But all that has changed now because now I have a better camera courtesy of my main squeeze. So I will DEFINITELY be more vocal with reviews and hauls and tutorials. I am SUPER excited to dive right in!

Anyway, I have been on a nail polish tangent lately. I literally owned TWO before I started this blog and now I have almost 20! I have taken a few that I have picked up and swatched them on my nails as well as photographed the actual polishes themselves and I just wanted to take the time to talk about them and voice my opinion on them. There are eight shadows that I am going to be discussing and they are a follows:

Sinful Colors Professionall Nail Polish: “Let’s Meet” & “Oasis”

Let’s Meet:

This is one of those that looked pretty in the bottle but not on my finger kind of polishes. I bought these from Walgreens, they were on sale 2/$3. It is a shimmery primary yellow but it is just too sheer as you can see by how it looks on my fingernail. That was too coats and you can still see through it. It’s ok but I wasn’t impressed.

Oasis:

I LOVE this color! It a cool hot pink with a pretty pink shimmer. I have it on my toes right now but you really don’t want to see that because I am in NEED of a manicure. This is a pretty color for spring or summer, reminds of pink Easter eggs.

Revlon Nail Enamel: “Craving Coral”, “Perplex” & “Midnight Affair”

Midnight Affair:

I cannot get ENOUGH of this polish. I actually reviewed it in my March Must-Haves video on my YouTube Channel. It is such a gorgeous ink blue and it was VERY durable. You also can’t beat that I got it for $1 at Big Lots!

Perplex:

This is such a pretty dark smoky purple with a fuschia shimmer to it. The photo doesn’t really capture how pretty this is. When I tried this for the first time I was instantly hooked. And, as you can see from the sticker I so blatantly left on it, it was ONE buck! I really like this too because it is really opaque. You could technically get away with one coat although I used two.

Craving Coral:

Ok, so this is also one of those that, to me, just didn’t look as pretty on as it did in the bottle. I thought it would look more orange but it has more of a red-pink undertone and it was kind of sheer. I also purchased this one at Big Lots and when I first painted it on myself I was like “YUCK!” and just tossed it in my polish bag. For this particular photo, however, it kind of grew on me and I said to myself, “It doesn’t look as bad as I thought. I might actually like this color.” Well, no sooner had I said that to myself than me and my clumsy self DROPPED THE BOTTLE ON THE CARPET! I don’t know if you can tell from the picture but that was a full bottle of polish before I took the picture and now it is less than HALF full! Here is a picture of the damage.

*Ignore my dirty carpet, LOL!

Sephora by O.P.I. Glee Collection Nail Color: “Mash-Up”

This color is so gorgeous and unique that the photo really doesn’t do it justice. It’s even hard to describe. It’s like a silver chrome color with a purple and green kind of duo-chrome. It totally jumped out at me and I love it. It was $9 bucks but I really, still, haven’t run across a color like this. Definitely a keeper.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Nail Color: “Ivy League”

I like this shade. It’s not the BEST green I’ve ever seen but it’s cute. It reminds me of MAC’s “Lucky Green” eyeshadow. I think that calling it “Xtreme Wear” is a bit “Xtreme” because by the end of the day it chipped. But it’s ok, not great, but ok.

Well, anyhoo, that is all for now. I have about six other polishes to review but I will get to those some other time. I hope this is something you can take with you to the store and if you purchase any of these or have any of them let me now. I will be posting a tutorial soon and a March Must-Haves post with swatches of the products that I reviewed. I am supposed to be playing a friendly game of hoops with my friends for some exercise and I am late. Talk to you laters……

Target Haul

So in order to be beauty blogger you have to have products to blog about, right? On limited funds? Problem.

I went to target to score some low-cost goods to try out. Since I really would like to strike a chord with the stay-at-home-mom types, I needed to find some good buys in places that us mom-types frequent. Like Target (pronounced Tar-jay) and Wal-Mart (ain’t no way to make Wal-Mart sound fancy).

I got a few items. Some Sally Hansen nail polishes, a Revlon Colorstay Foundation, an IMAN eyeshadow (when did her line get to Target? Hello! Where have I been?), and an E.L.F. Eyebrow kit.

So here are my thoughts on all.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in “Grape going

It’s a pretty  color. Sort of an iridescent bluish purple. I liked it in the bottle but when I painted on my nails it didn’t really look good on me. But it did dry FAST and two days later it has not chipped AT ALL. I LOVE this product! I will definitely be buying more of these polishes.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in “Rockstar Pink”

This is a really pretty glitter polish. The primary glitter color is pink but there are also some other colors mixed in (blue, silver, gold). I was very impressed with this as well because most glitter polishes that I have seen and purchased over the years don’t really have a lot of glitter in the product. I usually have to layer it over a similar color to get it to standout. This one is FULL of glitter! You can wear it alone and your nails will be filled with glitter. Actually, I layered it over another polish just to see what it looked like and you couldn’t even see the other polish underneath. And it also hasn’t chipped in two days, well, the nail that I painted with just that polish. The ones that I layered with the polish chipped within 24 hours but I think that was from too many layers of polish. So I would DEFINITELY buy this again.

Sally Hansen “Diamond Shine” Base and Top Coat

This was not as fabulous as the other polishes. It works pretty good as a base coat. It added a noticeable durability to my nail polish. However I think the term “Diamond Shine” is a bit of a stretch since it really isn’t that shiny……. I will be in the marker for a more luminescent top coat.

IMAN Luxury Eyeshadow in “African Violet”

This is an absolutely GORGEOUS purple and such a bargain at 8 bucks! The color is like a dusty gray/purple with a blue iridescence. Perfect for the crease or a really pretty purple smoky eye that’s not too dark. And it’s pretty big too,  1.42g to be exact. The only drawback is that it’s kind of soft so you definitely don’t want to drop it. The container is nice and has a screw top. I will definitely be playing around with this soon and will post a tutorial as soon as I get a good look nailed down.

Revlon Colorstay Foundation in “Mocha”

This was a surprise to me. I am kind of a foundation powder snob. I scoff at drugstore brands usually. I always say “If you are to splurge on makeup, do it on your foundation and powder because your skin is the cavas for the rest of the artwork and if your skin looks crappy, it won’t matter how good the rest of your makeup is.” But I watched a review of this foundation on YouTube by Makeupgeek.com’s Marlena and it got her stamp of approval.

 I normally use M.A.C.’s Studio Sculpt foundation in NW55 and I’m pretty happy with it but I am running out and figured this would be the perfect time to give this a whirl. It is a steal at 9.99 and it comes in a wide range of colors. I got the darkest shade because I am usually the darkest shade in most brands. You can’t really test it in the store but I’m a rebel, right?, so I opened the top just to take a peek and make sure the color would suit me.

 So what do I think of it? Pretty damn good stuff. The color was perfect, a little more yellow undertone than my M.A.C. foundation which is a little redder but i like that. It’s thinner than my other foundation so I have to use a little more and it’s lighter (weight-wise). It smells good but there is less in the bottle. 1.0 fl ounces vice M.A.C.’s 1.3 fl ounces. It lasted all day and performed about on par with the M.A.C. one. If you are looking for a good drugstore foundation this one is the one to get. They also have another line of photo-ready foundations that I am going to pick up and try as well. I also want to buy these in other shades to build my foundation collection for clients.

As for the E.L.F. eyebrow kit, I couldn’t find a photo of it. None of these photos are mine. Just random ones I find on google images and my camera sucks. I am hoping to get a new one for my birthday coming up. Anyhoo, I was looking for a clear mascara for my brows and couldn’t find one and this kit had one. It also had a set of tweezers, brow stencils, a concealer brush, and a combination brow wax/brow powder compact. It was only five bucks so it was definitly worth the money just with the mascara alone. I like the gel it’s sort of a translucent dark brown but not too dark. The powder doesn’t leave any color, it’s translucent as well. I already have a touch-them-and-you-die set of tweezers that I use for everything but an extra pair doesn’t hurt. And the little brush is handy too. As for the macara , it’s pretty standard (I mean how special can a clear mascara be?) but it needs a better wiper. It comes out of the tube with TONS of product on it, boo. But for five bucks who’s complainin’? Not me.

Well, that concludes my haul. Won’t be buying makeup for a little bit (yeah, right). I spent a little too much what with an online M.A.C. purchase (Plum Noir eyeshadow, Fix Plus), Target, and a covert trip to Sephora (STUNNING orange lipstick and gloss, will be reviewing that soon). I hope you liked and you were able to make some cosmetic purchase decisions with it. Here’s a link to my video on it which has some examples of the products in real life. Talk to you later lovelies.