Top Coat Throwdown

Heya loves!

Before I get into the purpose of this blog post, I just want to restate a few things from my earlier post. I did switch blogging platforms because it was becoming an issue with people only being able to subscribe VIA email. So I eliminated that (kind) and switched to Blogger from Wordpress. So unfortunately yes, you will have to re-subscribe (if you were previously) but you can do so through GFC (Google Friend Connect) or once again VIA email. I do want to point out, that for an upcoming giveaway or two, GFC will be part of it and what not :)


ANYWAYS, so what we are here about today!

I was just going to have this be a NOTD (Nail of the Day) post then I remembered I told a few people I was going to do a comparing blog post of these two top coats... or at least a review of one of them. I figured I would compare them, since they are the two that I currently am switching between. Maybe down the road a little bit I will do comparisons of the 3 I have, heck maybe I will even have a few more baha. Anyhoobles.

The two polishes that I used were both from Essie. The lilac-grey color is Miss Fancy Pants and the glittery parts is Stroke of Brilliance from their Luxeffects line.
 My basecoat is the Sally Hansen Continuous Growth Treatment (being discontinued scoops this bad boy up ASAP it's amazing..also.. it's not pictured below)

For my Top coats I used Out The Door and ORLY HI Shine.
Out The Door can be purchased at CVS and Sally Beauty Supply, I'm not sure where else. CVS is where I found mine.
HI Shine .. well that is a different story, I found mine at TJ Maxx, but I've never seen it before and apparently neither have a few nail bloggers I talk too.. I got this for $4.99 at TJ Maxx.

Out The Door claims to be Americas #1 Super Fast Drying top coat. I do agree with that, it does dry extremely quickly. However, don't expect to be able to walk out the door, especially if you didn't wait for your nail polish to fully dry (without realizing it..this happened to me)
You get a pretty nice amount of shine out of this top coat. On my pink and ring finger I used two coats and on my middle and index fingers I used 1 coat.. Just to show. You do get more shine if you use two coats of it. However, two coats is not necessary, especially if you are not using a top coat eater (like glitter) this glitter topcoat I used isn't a TCE (top coat eater) thankfully, but I still did 1 and two coats just to show. This is an absolutely lovely top coat. This also claims to be "long-wearing" and will not yellow... I've never had a top coat "yellow" on me, I didn't even know it could happen... As for long wearing, for me, it is long wearing. I can't say days and days because I have shoddy nails and nothing lasts days and days on me. No matter how much prepping or anything. It is just the nature of my nails I guess. HOWEVER this one does last longer than other ones I have tried so yay on that!

ORLY's HI-Shine is new to me..well kind of, I've had it for a few weeks, but new to me as in I've never seen it before. In the bottle this has a blue tinge to it, but comes out clear when used. The brush for this, in my opinion leaves something to be desired. Don't get me wrong, I like the brush itself, but not the way it is cut. It is cut in a really wonky manor that if you don't check to see if your nail polish if fully dry, it can tug and pull it.. it happened to me on this manicure actually...on my pinkie to be exact. I really do like the bottle of this, I'm not sure what it is, but it just reminds me of being slightly vintage-y.. it's a me thing okay? This handle of this, has the typical rubbery ORLY handle, which I actually quite like. I do find that between the two of these, Hi-Shine is more "shiny" or glossy if that is what you prefer. Particularly, it does make the nails looks sleep and finished, even when they are painted a little shoddy.. ( I did my nails in half darkness..no shame) It also makes them look even.. thankfully. On my left hand, I'm not sure you can see it in thee pictures, you can tell the polish was uneven.. where as on my right hand (this top coat) it looks even and just.. dare I say perfect? .. Well not really perfect, but you get my point? As for HI-Shine, I think that there are top coats out there that can give you a more shiny effect, however this one is pretty shiny.

Between the two top coats, it is hard to say which one I like better. I actually quite like both of them honestly. It really boils down to what nail polish I use on my nails per which one comes out looking better. Does that make any kind of sense? I've had times where the Hi-Shine was out shined by the Out The Door and vice versa.


Here is an example of what I mean by one out shining the other. On the left (pinkie/ring) is Out The Door on the right is HI-Shine. (middle/index)

Oh! All pictures were taking as the sun was halfway up in the sky.. aka morning light :)

Have you tried either of these top coats? Which is YOUR favorite Topcoat? I am ALWAYS on the lookout for a new one! xx

Wearing Your Heart On Your Nails .. Tutorial

Hello everyone!

This is my first time doing a nail "tutorial". So please bear with me! xx

In my NOTD for my birthday, I had put hearts on my nails and had asked if you wanted me to show you how I did them.  The lovely Rose wanted to see how it was done, so I figured I better do it before I forget. I'm going to be wearing these nails for Christmas so I did them in red and green. The hearts are a bit hard to do at first I must admit, but once you get it down how to make them, it goes pretty quickly.

You could use a dotting tool, but I don't have one. I used a Bobby pin, it's pretty much works the same way as a dotting tool. You just have to be a bit careful with the end of the bobby pin, I have realized that. So onto the tutorial!

Oh.. I am by no means good at doing nail art, so please don't mind them :P

What you will need:

1 bobby pin pulled apart

Your nail polish's of choice

Base coat

Top coat

Something to put your nail polish on.

Cuticle Oil (extremely optional)

directions:

First of all, you need to paint your nails. It doesn't matter the color. For this I used China Glaze 3D Fantasy. It's a holographic red polish.(it has been discontinued unfortunately, but with the influx and popularity of holographic polishes you will be able to find something like it.) I used two coats of this. I was to STRESS THE IMPORTANCE of letting this base coat dry completely. To where you can press on your nails and not seen any type of indentation. If your nail polish is not completely dry, it will mess the rest of your nail up.


Take your second color and place a small amount of it on the surface you choose. (It could be a piece of paper or I used the lid to my Bath & Body Works candle since I can clean the polish off and reuse it) With this step, do not place a lot, because it will start to dry and could mess your nail up as well.
Make your two dots on your nail where you want the heart to be. In this picture I places them pretty far apart, but the closer the dots the better the heart comes out in my opinion. The farther the dots the bigger the heart and it becomes a bit more complicated to get it looking uniform. This nail polish is Orly's Jealous, Much?

How far apart you place your dots also depends on the side of your nail as well. My ring finger's nail is quite large so.. :P

The next step requires you do dip back into where you places your spot of polish. The reason for this, is so that it is easier to drag down and create your first part of the heart.

Place the bobby pin in one of the first dots and draw down in a diagonal. Then repeat with the other dot.

And there you have it! Your very own heart manicure! This is perfect for valentines day, BUT I am deciding to use this for Christmas. :)

Let the heart dry and apply your top coat. If you want your nails to be completely smooth, you may need to add a second layer. In the picture above, there is no top coat as of yet because I am not quite done, they needed to dry :P

On the tips of my nails I used China Glaze Glistening Snow and on my left for the hearts I used Jolly Holly from China Glaze's 2011 Holiday collection.

(Okay no idea what happened to my nails. Over night they chipped and the polish shrunk. I'm very sorry for them looking like crap in the last two pictures.)

For my base coast I used Sally Hansen's Continuous Growth treatment and my top coat is Out The Door.

Tip: The hearts that you do with your dominant hand will wind up looking better than those done with your non-dominant hand..at least that is how it is for me :P

If you try this out, tweet me a picture! I would love to see how they come out!

Birthday Nails!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are doing well! Have you gotten your Christmas shopping done?! I know I haven't. I only have to get a couple of things though, so it's not too bad! :P

Since my Birthday was the 19th, I wanted to try a little nail art.

I painted each hand opposite of the other.

This was my first time ever trying to do any type of nail art, so they aren't perfect but I thought they were extremely cute!! :D

The polishes I used were:

Sally Hansen Continuous Growth Treatment

Orly Artificial Sweetener (pink)

Orly Faint of Heart (grey)

Out the door top coat.

(I won these in a giveaway, I know they were a collection, but I'm not sure you can get them anymore :( )

To make the hearts I just used a bobby pin :) Do you want me to do a tutorial showing how to do it?

Oh, that random piece of red on the one nail, is a piece of a rose. I was slightly bored when I started doing these nails. Haha.

I really love how they turned out! :D

A new subscription service?! Wantable.co

Hello Beautiful!

I want to tell you about a new subscription service, Wantable.co .

Wantable.co is a premium subscription box. They do makeup AND jewelry boxes, which I think it really cool. You can choose one or the other. Subscribing is a bit on the expensive side, but when you see what you get in your boxes, it's worth it. It is $36 if you become a subscriber or it is $40 for one box. You may be thinking that is a lot (and I agree), but you get between $80-$100 worth of products in a box. 4-6 full sized items, is really cool, considering it's all going to be makeup, or jewelry if that is what you pick.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="368"] First open box[/caption]

When you go to subscribe, you take a quiz just like you do on every other box, but at the end, you get to choose between the products you DO want to receive and products you DON'T want to receive. I think that is really a good idea, because then the boxes become more customized to YOU instead of to a mass market. The categories you choose from are brows, mascara, eyeliner, nail polish, eye shadow, blush, highlighter, lip color. You get to pick your topics and I choose the first 5 because anyone who knows me, knows that I am really not into blush, highlighter, or lip colors. I am trying to get into them, but now is not the right time for it. :)

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="368"] Under the layer of tissue paper[/caption]

When the lovely people at Wantable.co offered me a box, I will not lie I just about piddled myself. I really couldn't believe it at first, so I was in a bit of shock, but then it sunk in. I was so giddy and I can't thank them enough for giving me the opportunity to try their service!  My box was ordered on the 10th, shipped on the 11th and I received it on the 15th. That is the QUICKEST I have EVER received anything in the mail, so their shipping is absolutely extraordinary. They even send you an email when you receive your box, which is cool, just in case you aren't home when your mail comes or what not. It is shipped out via UPS then it gets delivered by USPS.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="368"] Under the perfume samples[/caption]

The way it is packaged is absolutely gorgeous as well. The box itself is a gorgeous deep purple (eggplant I would say) and the tissue paper on the inside is black. Under all of the products is that crinkles paper strips (I don't know what they are called) and those are also black. The entire package is wrapped to ensure nothing breaks. Needless to say, everything is packed with EXTREME care, so you receive your products in one piece. There are also two pieces of paper inside of the box. One that is basically a receipt and it has a list of the products that come in your box, the other side of the paper has a blurb about the box.  The second page has small pictures of the products, their descriptions and a description on how they would apply the products. They even give you little tips. I really like that. All of the tips come from their beauty expert Teresa "T" Sammarco.

There are definitely a couple companies in this box that I have never heard of... actually I have only heard of two of the companies out of the 6 individual companies. I got products from MiA BelleZZa, Color Club, MyFace Cosmetics, Swagger, Cosmetics, Spadaro and Kai.

Spadaro and Kai are fragrance samples, I don't mind getting fragrance samples, if I like the fragrance, I will use it, if I don't, I will find someone who does, that way it doesn't go to waste. I did get THREE fragrance samples. Two from Spadaro and one from Kai. The two from Spadaro are Doux Amour and Sole Nero.

Doux Armour is described as Ylang Ylang, Casablanca Lily, and Moroccan Jasmine are wrapped in Patchouli, Rare Amber and Sandlewood, then laced with Vanilla to form a new expression of sensuality.

Sole Nero is describes as Italian Citrus notes. Grapefruit, Orange, Lemon and Lime - are imbued with Musk, Sandalwood and precious spices. Sole Nero envokes fond memories of loves ones near and far.

Out of the two, I can't describe which I like more. Haha.

Kai Perfume Oil is a blend of Gardenia wrapped in white exotics. Unfortunately I can't use this. Both my Mum and I are allergic to gardenias.

I got two nail polishes from Color Club (full sized)  Perfect Mol-Ten and Lumin-ICEcent.  Both of these polishes are a metallic foil finish, I've just been getting into foil finish, polishes. These two are absolutely gorgeous though! Mol-Ten is a gorgeous green and Lumin-ICEcent is a gorgeous light blue. These two colors are just.. bah! I love them! I honestly do, they are gorgeous colors for really any time of the year.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="368"] Lumin-ICEcent Left Mol-Ten right[/caption]

The next two products are from MiA BelleZZa. The first is a Eye shadow duo called Moca. The first shade is a metallic copper and a matte chocolate brown. Out of the two shadows, the matte color is the post pigmented in my opinion. You definitely need to build up the copper color to get it to look like it is in the pan. I would also suggest using a primer with these. Actually a primer is a must with these from what I found. You get a better color payoff. That is just using it dry though. From what I read on the paper, you can use these wet as well, so I will have to try that and let you know how it goes!

As for the second MiA BelleZZa product, I've not tried it yet. It is a creme liner in Marrone. It looks like it will be a gorgeous brown creme liner. (The paper says that this is smudgeproof, I will let you know when I use it!)

I got an eyeliner from MyFace Cosmetics. I heard about this company through BeautyArmy and I've loved their products so far. I've never seen this eyeliner before, but boy it is GORGEOUS! I got the Slinky liquid liner in Bell Bottom Blues. This is definitely a gorgeous eyeliner, I'm glad that it doesn't over power my blue eyes! It is a mix between saphire, midnight and electric blue. It's really gorgeous and I see myself getting a lot of use out of it. This liner does take a little bit to dry, not much, but you want to make sure you use this last that way you don't smudge it and have to fix half of your eye. (it happened to me)

The last product is from Swagger Cosmetics. It is a loose eye shadow. It is a deep red-purple shadow with gold undertones. This reminds me of the Volturi loose shadow in Dusk, but that is more purple based than the Swagger Cosmetics shadow. Oh! Looking on the invoice, this shadow is called Red Bone. It is not labeled on the pot itself, so I am going to have to do that soon so I remember the name. The pigmentation of this is fantastic, I see myself getting quite a lot of use out of this bad boy! :D

All in all, this was a FANTASTIC box. I really think that this company will go really far in the subscription box world. However, I do wish that it wasn't so pricey. I do understand why it is pricey. Giving full sized products in a box, wont come cheap on their end. So I do understand that. I just wish I could be able to afford a monthly subscription to this because it is such a lovely box! The people at Wantable.co are lovely as well. So friendly!

The retail value of my box this month was $85.20. That is a HUGE value for everything in the box.

Check them out on their Website - Twitter - Facebook

Have you tried/heard of this company before?! Let me know what you think!



Disclaimer: This box was sent to me for free from wantable.co for my honest review/opinion. I am not being compensated by this company to do this review, nor am I affiliated with them. 

China Glaze Holiday Joy Collection 2012

Hello Lovlies!
Today I have for you the China Glaze Holiday Joy 2012 collection!
Or well, a few polishes from it! I think I am only missing 3 polishes though!

(Also, before anyone says anything I am quite aware that my cuticles are in horrid shape. No need to point it out.)

I picked up a set of Mini polishes because I didn't want to get the full sized bottles.

I also picked up 2 full sized polishes.

The Mini set retails for $9.99 while the Full sized polishes retail for $6.49 (without card) I also want to ask, does it bother anyone else when the stickers on the bottom are not on correctly. Le sigh

First up I am going to talk about Merry Berry and Red Satin

Both of these to me scream Christmas. :P

Red Satin is a blue based red creme while Merry Berry is a deep berry red. Both of these are shiny without a top coat and they also remind me of a jelly polish. Don't quote me on that though :P

Both of these also took 3 coats to make opaque.

Winter Holly (L) and Glitter All The Way (R)

Winter Holly is a green micro-glitter polish with holographic micro-glitter. This holographic aspect is as noticeable like in the other two polishes I will show you later on down in the post. This was one of the polishes that I was extremely excited to try out, and I was really disappointed in it! You can tell that it is not applied all over the nail because for me at least, it is extremely hard to work with. Not only that but the brush is extremely cockeyed in the bottle. It's really weird. This in my opinion would be better layered over a dark green polish. This was 3 coats. Also, if you want to use a top coat with this, you will have to use extra to make it smooth, otherwise the top coat just sinks into it and its still grainy feeling.

Glitter All The Way is a clear base with gold, purple, red and green micro-glitter. It reminds me of Mardi-Gras, not Christmas. When I saw a picture that Hello Miss Niki put on instagram, I couldn't wait for her review, I just HAD to have it, that was before I saw it in person. I will use this polish, but in my opinion, it's not Christmas :( This was 2 coats.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="716"] With Top coat[/caption]

I'm glad I got these in mini sizes because I know I will get a better use out of them that way. :) I love Merry Berry and Red Satin, but the other two I would honestly do without.

The next two polishes are the ones I got full sized!

Excuse the language but I have had one hell of a time photographing these! because of the holographic aspect in them, they do NOT want to photograph nicely. Its really annoying because they are so gorgeous!

Angel Wings is a gold micro-glitter with holographic micro-glitter as well. You only need two MAYBE three coats of this. Depending on how you want it to look. I didn't have high hopes for this but I actually LOVE it! I really love putting a burgundy color with red. They compliment each other so well!

Glistening Snow is a silver micro-glitter with holographic micro-glitter. This is the one I have been raving about the most! It is also the most used out of all of them! I actually think I may have to go and pick up a back up or two because I absolutely LOVE this polish! It glistens so beautiful with and without a top coat! This is a 3 thin coat polish. That is what I would recommend.

This is seriously the best captured picture I could get of this! It was with a couple thick later of a top coat, which made it want to peel right off of my nail. SO I stuck it to my desk and there is stayed! Low and behold is did come in handy though! Isn't that absolutely gorgeous! All I want to do when I have this polish on is wave my hands in the light :P

Just a little side note, but to get a glitter nail polish off easily without any hassle is take a cotton ball and put some nail polish remover on it and place it on the nail. Now you can put tin foil over the cotton ball and your fingers to full enclose it on your nail, but if you are in a pinch and out of tin foil like I was a while ago, just stick some tape over it to make t stay on your nail. Let it sit for around 5 minutes and slide it RIGHT off of your nail! Off comes the glitter polish without any hassle of rubbing your nails like crazy :) You can also do with with nail polishes that stain your nails! :)

Have you tried any of the Holiday Joy collection?! Which polish is your favorite?!

Disclaimer: I paid for these with my OWN money.

Sinful Colors - Innocent

Hello Lovelies!

This weeks Sinful Colors nail polish is Innocent. It is a Chartreuse green. I absolutely LOVE this color! It is so vibrant and just gorgeous!

 





This has no shimmer in it and has a nice shine without using a top coat.

As for wear time, I am not going to comment on that because nail polishes wear terribly on me.  :)

 

This is two coats on my nails. As you cal tell depending on the lighting it can come off as Chartreuse or a yellow/green. I really think this is a fantastic polish and color!

 



I hope you all are having a wonderful Monday!