Twinsie Tuesday - A Polish The Same Color As Our Car (Orly Lunar Eclipse)

Good Morning everyone! I've been pretty excited for today's Twinsie Tuesday theme since the day we received the email giving us our weekly themes. Today's theme is a polish that is the same color as our car. While I can be a girly girl, I absolutely love my car and I have absolutely no problem wrecking a mani if I'm scrubbing my wheels or waxing my car. I drive a Volkswagen Jetta in Blue Shadow.

I picked up Orly Lunar Eclipse due to the fact that I fell in love with the color, but it wasn't until I was putting shopping bags in my car that I realized that Lunar Eclipse is the perfect match to my car. Of course, my car doesn't have the glitter that is packed into the Orly but the color is pretty spot on in the sun.

Lunar Eclipse is a gorgeous medium blue with purple-pink and blue microglitter mixed in. The purple-ish pink microglitter is so amazing in the bottle, but much more subtle on the nail. I could barely pick up the pink microglitter in my swatch pic, sorry about that! The formula on this is pretty sheer. I needed three coats for the photo below and I think it could have used a fourth. I also found that this polish takes a little longer to dry. I'll never forget the first time I wore this; I went out right after and had dents everywhere lol. With all of that being said, it's an amazing polish!

Here's the car for reference. You can't really see the color since this was taken about 50' away with my cell camera (I was aiming for storm clouds)

 

I'm curious to see if any of my twinsies drive a blue car. Be sure to check them out here:

 

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

Icing - Written in the Stars

Hey all! I hope everyone has a good Monday. Today I have another glitter polish for you. This one is Icing's Written in the Stars, which I picked up during my last stop in at Icing. Written in the Stars has round holographic glitter and light blue stars. The stars in this were the deciding factor in purchasing this polish. The formula was a bit thick and I had to fish around to get a large amount of stars but I think it was definitely worth the extra time. I layered two coats of Written in the Stars over Essie Bobbing for Baubles. With the exception of one star (which you can see) they all layed pretty flat.

 

Definitely worth the ~$5 spent :)

China Glaze Medallion

Happy Friday everyone!! I've had these photos kicking around for the last few weeks, and with all of the posts on the Zoya Guilty Pleasures set I decided it was time to post this. First off, I'm not a huge fan of gold nail polish or gold glitter but I was in Sephora a few weeks ago and tried the Sephora by OPI 18k gold top coat and instantly fell in love. I couldn't bring myself to spend $30 on it, so I came home and decided to look through my stash. I figured I could find something to fill the void.

I pulled out China Glaze Medallion which I had bought during one of my first trips to 8ty8 Beauty. It has been sitting in my stash, untried, for about 1.5-2 years. I layered one coat over Misa Dirty Sexy Money and fell in love. Obviously it's not a dupe for the 18k gold top coat but the price is fair and friendly. I scored this beauty for $3.88. Medallion has small gold glitter and holographic glitter in a clear base.

I have two coats of Medallion on my pointer finger and one coat of Medallion on the remaining nails.

 

 

Is it exact to any of the gold flake top coats? Nope. Does it work for me and my wallet? Sure does.  :)

What do you guys think? Will any of you be purchasing the new 18k gold top coats that are coming out (by OPI and Zoya), or does anyone own the Sephora by OPI polish?



Twinsie Tuesday - Rainbow Mani

Good Morning! Today's Twinsie Tuesday theme is a rainbow manicure. Right away I knew what polishes I would be wearing. Before I even begin, I had a horrible break on my photo hand last night that left a super uneven nubbin that I can't even dare to photograph. It broke so short that I can't even file it straight without taking out skin :(

I'm assuming that every one of us nail polish obsessed ladies has seen this before....

Isn't that the truth?? With that being said, please be gentle on my non-photogenic hand....lol

 

I'm trying to cover some awkward cuticle and cuticle pooling - hence the tagging over my thumb lol. The colors used from thumb to pinky are Bettina Chic, Bettina Starfish, China Glaze Lemon Fizz, Essie Mojito and China Glaze First Mate. All were two easy coats except for Lemon Fizz, which needed 3 and didn't want to work for me.

 

Check out my colorful twinsies here:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

How about some real life rainbow love?? If you look super close, there is a double rainbow here.

I'm Over at Amandalandish Today!

Happy Monday everyone! Amanda mentioned that she needed a few guest posts while she grows out a nail break, so I'm over at Amandalandish today.

Come check out my post, here.  :)

Super Spam!

Hey all! I'm hope sick today with a super intense head cold. Everything is pounding and after sticking it out at work all week I decided this morning that I just couldn't sit at work for another 9 hours today. I'm sure I'll be going back in tomorrow, but at least it will be Friday right?

Today I'm showing you some spam. These photos never made it into an actual blog post, all for various reasons. Some show chips, were taken with a cell phone camera, aren't color accurate, needed another coat of polish, didn't wear well or I didn't snap any other photos that came out decent so they sat in waiting. Some of these aren't so old, some are OLD.

Should I begin?

Color Club Love Em Leave Em  (I just didn't love how this photographed)

OPI Gargantuan Green Grape (this was two coats, clearly needs a third)

China Glaze Strawberry Fields (taken in the dark of night, in my car, with my cell phone camera. Not 100% color accurate)

Milani Dressmaker (This is by 10am the next morning. Wore terribly on me. Three coats and it was chip city. Will have to try this again sometime down the road)

Zoya Wednesday

China Glaze First Mate (one of my faaaaavorite blues. This deserves it's own post)

A fake Clarins 230 that I paid $60+ dollars for on Ebay. That's right, I got scammed and the guy won the case. This may have been Clarins 230 at one time, but it was definitely mixed with something else. Since then I haven't purchased polish on Ebay. I work too hard for my money to have it go to waste. I can't decide what to do with this, since it's $60 in the trash.

GOSH Holo (I received this from a wonderful girl in the UK as a swap gift. This didn't make it into a post because of the chip)

Layla Retro Pink (this was quite 'blah' on me)

Revlon Royal Cloak (my pics looked like I had lotion on my nails, which you can see) :(

Zoya Ali (gorgeous pink, cell phone camera pic. My regular camera haaaates pinks)

Nails Inc Baker Street (Not color accurate. Brighter and bluer in real life)

OPI Sapphire in the Snow  (This one also deserves a full blog post. I only had this one pic)

Girly Bits Shift Happens over Nails Inc Baker Street (NI BS not color accurate)

Milani Orchidia (absolutely gorgeous in person, but this is not color accurate. It's a deeper, darker purple with beautiful glass flecks)

Bettina Flip Flop (Gorgeous - probably deserves it's own post)

China Glaze Sea Spray  (holy nubbins!)

OPI Cajun Shrimp vs Zoya Elodie.  OPI on the pointer and ring, Zoya on the middle and pinky. SO similar in person, but the OPI has much more depth and coverage. Kept the OPI, purged the Zoya.

Want to see my biggest nail polish FAIL of the month?

Polish spillage! It doesn't look that bad here but it was a huge mess.

Where's your head?!?!

 

WTF tokidoki?!?! I picked this up at Sephora since it was on clearance for $4 and had an interesting mix of glitters. I had put this in my bag just hours before it broke. I put my hand in my bag to grab a lipgloss and found the above. It had almost dried completely and was nearly impossible to get off my bag.  Since it wasn't one of my cheaper bags I couldn't bare to use nail polish remover on it, so I used laundry detergent and an army knife to scrape it off - which took forever. The capped portion of the bottle broke off completely from the body. Tokidoki fail. My bag still has a corner of random polish glitter :(

 

That's it for today. I'm off to get ready and head to Ulta and CVS. Before I got into nail polish I was a huge makeup junkie. Lately, I've been obsessed with the MU board on MUA. I bought at least $200+ worth of makeup in the past two weeks and I have a mental list of things I *need*.  I'm headed out to see if I can hunt down the new L'Oreal Project Runway LE polishes and eyeshadows, which you can see here. Per Nouveau Cheap, they were spotted in NYC on Tuesday. I have a few Ulta coupons (my boyfriends neighbors moved so I stole their coupons, as well as my boyfriends lol) so I hope I get lucky!

Twinsie Tuesday - Secret Copycat Mani

Good Morning! Since it's Tuesday I'm sure you already remembered that it's Twinsie Tuesday :)  The theme for today is a secret copycat mani. We were each randomly chosen a fellow twinsie and we had to recreate a non TT mani. I was assigned to do a copycat mani from a post done by Anna from Going To The Showing. Anna is such a sweetheart and her nail art skills are amazing! Part of me wanted to take the easy way out and just pick a color that we both own, but then I felt that I needed to attempt what she does best - nail art.

Instead, I remembered an amazing funky french tip she did months back using China Glaze Shower Together and a black nail art polish. Well....mine didn't turn out as amazing as Anna's (which you can see here) but I tried!

I really did Anna's nail art skills and mani no justice. (Sorry Anna! I tried!)

I'm curious to see who everyone else was paired up with. I apologize to whoever had to make a copycat mani from one of my posts :0X

Check them out here:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

 

And as today marks the 11th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, my sincerest apologizes to anyone who may have lost a loved one on this day 11 years ago.

OPI Swimsuit Nailed It

Good morning everyone! Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a good weekend. For today's post I have a polish that I bought, sold, and then bought again. I loved this color but read such horrible reviews about staining during removal, that I decided to purge this during a blog sale without even trying it. Every time I saw a swatch of this polish I regretted my decision. Finally, when I ran back into this face to face I decided to go for it. I'm so glad I did.

OPI Swimsuit Nailed It might just be my favorite new blue. It's a very vibrant blue foil that is drop dead gorgeous. I put this on last Tuesday and wore it until Sunday night - which is a record breaker for me. The formula was fantastic and this was completely opaque in two coats. I'm happy to report that with two coats of a base coat (NailTek and Instant Artificials) I had absolutely no staining. This also wore like iron for the entire length that I decided to keep it on.

I also used Swimsuit Nailed It as a base for one of my absolute favorite glitters, but I think I'm going to save that for another post :)

Does anyone else have Swimsuit Nailed It? Has anyone avoided this due to the reviews on staining?

OPI Sparkle-icious

Good morning ladies! I've been in the mood to go through all of the old polishes that I absolutely love and wear them again. I have a few that I like to 'save', since I'm concerned I may never be able to get another bottle. One of those polishes is OPI Sparkle-icious from the Burlesque collection.

I love love love Sparkle-icious. This is like Mardi Gras in a bottle. It consists of gold, blue and magenta glitter in a clear base. The formula on this polish runs on the thick side and takes three coats to become opaque. No matter how thin my coats are, I always have lifting/popping problems with glitter. I experimented this time and tried not wrapping my tips and it didn't help (so please excuse the tip wear).

Enough blabbing, onto Sparkle-icious greatness!

Does anyone else love this gem? I thought glitter half of the Burlesque collection was a complete win. I wish OPI would come out with more glitters similar to these. 

Twinsie Tuesday - Fugly Polish (China Glaze Trendsetter)

Good morning! I hope that everyone had a fantastic Labor Day weekend! I was on the go all weekend and I have yet to catch up on blogs and my internet gossip sites. Today's theme was a fugly polish, which to me means pick a polish that is freakin' ugly! Right off the bat I knew which one I was picking for today....China Glaze Trendsetter.

China Glaze Trendsetter is one of those ugly, yet super unique polishes that I love to hate and hate to love. It's an olive green mixed with mustard yellow and some beautiful shimmer. Before buying this polish I went back and forth with whether or not I would ever wear this or if I could even pull this off on my skin tone. The selling point for me was that it was on the clearance rack at Sally's for $1.99. This has sat in my China Glaze drawer untried for months.

As quickly as I put this polish on is as quickly as I took it off. I felt like this just didn't work on me. The shimmer is gorgeous, but the color itself reminds me of the mushed peas in Gerber baby food. The photos below show three coats of Trendsetter with no top coat....

Yikes! I can assure you that this looks even worse in person on me  :0X

Be sure to check out the other Twinsies today, I'm curious to see if anyone else picked this polish...

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

PCOS Awareness Month Manicure

Hello! Today I'm joining Nory and a bunch of other bloggers in bringing attention to PCOS. PCOS is short for Policystic Ovarian Syndrome and September is awareness month for PCOS. My fellow Twinsie and friend Nory has been dealing with PCOS and wanted to get the word out.

Symptoms of PCOS include:

significant weight gain

facial hair increase

blood sugar problems

insulin intolerance

significant hair loss

depression and anxiety

infertility

cysts

excessive blood loss

irregular or extreme menstrual cycles

Nory has put together a list of helpful links for those interested in learning more about PCOS and for those looking for support:

http://www.pcoschallenge.com/ - Support System to help women with PCOS

http://www.facebook.com/PCOSFoundation - PCOS Foundation

http://www.facebook.com/pcosfight - PCOS Awareness

http://www.facebook.com/pcosdiva - PCOS Diva

 

For my PCOS mani I chose Essie Turquoise and Caicos. I wanted to pick something special for this mani, and since Essie T&C is one of my favorite polishes I felt it needed to be a part of this post. It may be a tad too turquoise, and not enough teal.  :(

 

 

Check out all of the other PCOS Awareness posts. <3

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