Essie Pretty Edgy

After having naked (and sad) nails for a week, I needed something bright. Essie Pretty Edgy arrived yesterday in the mail and I seriously couldn't wait to put it on. And I have to say, this color really pisses me off, and the reason is because it is so awesome... and it's Essie. Honestly, if Essie came out with colors like this (and the Resort collection) and added a new brush, she would dominate. I wouldn't even mind shelling out full price on a regular basis. But as it stands, her hits, while amazing, are too few. But I guess I shouldn't complain, because I really love this color. I dare say it might be the most perfect kelly green in existence. It's bright, bold, and feels crisp and fresh. It was perfectly opaque in 2 coats, which is always a crowd pleaser, and this color is so me it's not even funny. I even have a pair of Wayfarer sunglasses that match it almost exactly! Sadly, with this revelation, Jade is the New Black has been shoved deep into my OPI drawer... I only have room for one green on display on my desk and Pretty Edgy is now the reigning champion of that title.

I could add to my Essie rant, talking about how funny her bottles are to hold when taking pictures... and how my fingers never quite settle on them in the right way... but I'm just gonna let it go because I seriously can't stop looking at my fingers!

Other stuff I've been wearing

So I realize there was a huge gap in between blogs, and it was all due to a really bad break I had on my photographed hand. I still took pictures, but they're only with 2 fingers. I still like to show what I've been wearing, even if I didn't follow through with clean up and it's only half a hand!

RBL Coral was huge on my lemming list for the longest time, but after putting it on I was disappointed. Yes, it is the most true coral shade I've come across, but it's so freakin' bright on my fingers! I have a couple other shades in my stash (OPI My Chihuahua bites and something from Forever 21) that are close to dupes and only a fraction of the price, so this really isn't a must have. I kind of regret dropping the cash on such a not-unique color. And it didn't even hold up, I had chipping within 18 hours.

Much like Coral, Butter LONDON Artful Dodger was has been on my lemming list a long time. A looooong time! I put in an order as a belated b-day present for myself, along with a few other shades. Unlike Coral, however, this one far exceeded my hopes. I fell in love with this the instant I put it on. It's the most perfect turquoise cream ever. It applied beautifully and wore like iron for 4 days.

I took a quick bottle comparison picture just to show the color. Artful Dodger is bluer than China Glaze Flyin High but greener than Essie Shelter Island.

Butter LONDON Fash Pack was the only BL shade I waivered on. There weren't a lot of swatches around for me to check out, and I couldn't tell if it would look good or terrible on me. At the last second I added it too my order and I'm SO glad I did. As if the perfect greigy color wasn't enough, there's a hidden pure gold shimmer to it that adds amazing depth. This also applied perfectly and wore like iron for 4 entire days before I removed it.


The gold shimmer:

Butter LONDON doesn't seem to get a whole lot of love on the NP blogs, but it's really highly ranked for me. They put out amazingly unique shades with cute names and they recently changed their formula. The change includes a bigger bottle and change to the brush. You can now easily remove the top square cap to reveal a round top to grab.


Let's compare the new Tramp Stamp to the old bottle of Portabello Pink.

The new bottle has a sticker telling you that the top portion is removable, the old bottle is pretty much impossible to remove (unless you get all Hulk on it, which I was unable to do...)



Overall, I do think that Butter LONDON is worth the money, but I recommend ordering from beauty.com. I did so, and I received a free bottle of Portabello Pink, free shipping and $10 off my entire order. Even though the free NP isn't my type, I can use the bottle for a franken and I still got a much better deal compared to the Butter LONDON website.

StrangeBeautiful Volume 4 part 2

The poem Lapis Lazuli by William Butler Yeats, aka the blue. I had a hard time getting this to photograph well. It looked fantastic on my nails, all super richly-blue and smooth and shiny, but my camera lightened up the shade and made it look dull and kind of icky. Trust me, in real life, this one is a stunner. As if the color wasn't awesome enough, I did this swatch with 1 coat. Also for reference, this is deeper and richer than OPI Ogre the Top Blue.



Pink color of Rose champagne, the pink. I'm completely smitten with this shade. It's so elegant! I've said it before, but I'm not in to pink polishes. They're a dime a dozen from every nail polish designer out there and it's tough to find a shade that's unique enough to love, but this is one of them. I can actually see myself wanting to wear this more than once. This was with 2 coats and also dried super shiny with no top coat.



Aged Chartreuse, the ugly-but-loveable green. I adore ugly greens. With the new shades from OPI Shrek being so popular I hope this becomes a trend. Maybe Chanel will come out with Avacado, Under Ripe Banana and their own Rich Chartreuse as a mini ugly green collection? I can only hope! When I start applying this I was unimpressed with it's sheerness, but it turned out to be a buildable jelly and only took 3 coats to be opaque yet squishy. Is there anything more lovable than a jelly ugly green? I think not.



And to top it all off, the color reminded me of my favorite guilt-free snack... pickles!

NOTearthD

Happy Earth day! I hope everyone ignored the oil rig that could potentially leak millions of gallons of crude in to the ocean and did something awesome to help Earth yesterday! I celebrated with a green Jade is the New Black mani, but decided it was too boring so I topped it with Chanel Illusion D'or.

I'm really going back and forth on Illusion D'or. In some light I'm amazed by the little blue-y purple-y holo bits in it. But sadly in most light it just looks like I topped my green mani with a gold frost. And I hate frost finishes. They look so dated and unfashionable. And I really don't like associating Chanel with those two words. Since I took the plunge and splurged on it, I'm not going to give up on it after one try. I'm going to try it over a matte black next time, hopefully my opinion will change. If you're on the fence about dropping so much cash on this, IMO it's probably not worth it. Go for ChG Medallion, there's so much sparkle in there and you won't miss the differences between the holo bits!

2 coats Jade is the New Black, 1 coat Illusion D'or, click for super macro:

Catching up on NOTD's

I know I've totally been slacking with posting the NOTD's, but I'm still (mostly) keeping up with them between homework. So here's what I was wearing this past week:

The Summer Days collection continues to impress me! I totally love Raspberry Festival. At first I thought it was too red, but it's a perfect raspberry color so I really can't complain. I loved the shimmer in it! This was with 2 coats though I probably should have done 3.



For my birthday last Wednesday I pulled out Essie Greenport, which I was saving in my untrieds for a special occasion. And it made me feel so awesome on by birthday! The color completely lived up to all the hype that surrounded it and totally lived up to how awesome I had built it up in my head. I'm really glad I was able to get the Essie, but I've heard L'oreal came out with a collection of 3 exact dupes for the North Fork collection. I'm still hunting them down to have back ups! This was with 3 curse-filled coats (how much do you hate that teeny tiny F^%@ing brush?!) to cover the initial streakiness. I didn't like the overall look of 3 coats, it always looks to thick on my nails.



And finally the NOTD that I'm on day #4 of, OPI Lunch at the Delhi. I adore this. On my super pale cool toned skin, depending on the light I see red to sometimes orange, but most of the day in normal light It's a perfect dusty warm toned coral. This was 2 coats but I probably should have done 3 here also. I hate how white my nail line is!


Also don't forget to enter my Great Barrier Reef giveaway! You can come back every day for an extra chance to win :D

Did NOT fall in a lake...

It's been a long and fun Spring Break! I'm sad it's over, but I need to get a new mani!! I've been wearing RBL Recycle since Tuesday night. Between St. Paddy's day, going to Minneapolis, then making a trip to Duluth, I didn't have a spare second to even take a picture so I did this afternoon. While putting it on, I wasn't super impressed with the RBL brush, it didn't make application the easiest. But I'm seriously amazed at how this thing wore on my nails. This picture is after 5 showers, a combined 2 hours swimming and another 3 or so hours in hot tubs, PLUS many many hours playing slot machines and all I have some normal tip wear and zero chipping. Very nice, RBL!


I also ventured for the first time in to Ulta and picked up a bunch of the Ulta brand NP, stopped by Sephora (which I haven't been to in 2 years! Far to long) and picked up several $OPI's, and came home to 3 swap packages, so I have too many new colors to choose from... I can hardly contain my excitement!

NYS Amaranth

I had to switch back to greens for today! One of the bars downtown hosts a St. Patty's day parade and they have green beer today, so I most definitely had to be festive. I debated between sparkles or jelly and jelly won. NYS Amaranth was a big lemming for me for while, partly because of the color and finish, and partly because of the amazing Zulu franken that Dr. Frankenpolish did. Of course shortly after buying Amaranth, Nars announced the fall return of Zulu, so no need to make my own. Works out perfectly since I love this color all on it's own! It's a bit richer in real life, it's a very true kelly green. Application was a little finicky, I got a little cuticle drag because it took longer to dry between coats than I expected, so give it some time when applying. Top coat is a must, there was almost no shine and it took a very long time to dry. Even an hour after SV I got some dents when I was putting on some lotion. This was surprisingly opaque, I could have gotten away with 2 coats but did a 3rd just got get that yummy depth that jellys give.

Greens #10, 9 & 8

I was trying to save my most anticipated greens for next week, but caved and put on OPI Jade is the New Black today. I was hoping it would live up to the hype, and it totally did! I can tell I'm going to be wearing this one a lot, it's the perfect dusty cream green. It applied flawlessly and was perfect in 2 coats. Also I filed down my nails yesterday, it seems like every 3 weeks my classes all pile up big papers and projects and I do a lot of typing. It's so much easier to do the work with nubbins!

It's raining out today (OMG rain! I've missed you!) so I took pictures under an Ott light. I've never done it before but this picture is completely accurate!


I swatched China Glaze Paper Chasing yesterday. I adore this color, so much so that I wore it for 4 days straight last August. But when I took it off I had terrible stains, so this is another one I'd steer clear of. If that doesn't deter you, it took 3 coats to get this and it chips easily. I was sad about this one, it was one of my most anticipated from the Kicks collection. And green #8 was butter LONDON Thames. I like it, but it's similar to the Essence I wore a few days ago, and I like the Essence much more because it's less blue. I'm swapping it away; I won't miss the color but I will miss the little square bottle... so cute!




Also MAC's Liberty of London collection came out yesterday, YAY! If you're interested in the Blue India NP you can use the code LIBERTY and get free shipping with no minimum amount. My awesome mom placed an order for me last night, along with a bunch of lipsticks I've been lemming. I'm pretty excited!

Greens #5, 6 &7

I just put on my 7th green and I'm loving this theme month. I've been saving my greens for so long and pulling them out now is so much fun! Yesterday I put on one of the Sally Hansen HD's, Hi-Def. These came out last summer and this green was actually the start of my collection. And it was a big sad disappointment. Streaky, sheer, and so many bubbles! Also since this was the first nail polish I had worn in 8+ years, my family teased me about my "Kermit fingers". They've gotten used to my love of greens now though so it's all good. But even though I didn't like the formula on this HD, I bought another 5 colors, mostly because I didn't know where to buy other nail polish in my tiny town and I still hadn't heard about Transdesign (discovering that was like the best. day. evar.), and partly because the rainbow of 8 colors looked so cute together. Anyways, I pulled it out again yesterday to see if my feelings had changed about it.... Nope. Still hate it. This was with 4 sloppy coats.



I only wore Hi-Def for about 45 minutes before pulling out one of my new Sally Hansens, Going Green. I've never tried Xtreme Wear, but I loved it! Check out this green! I thought it was a cream and was a little disappointed when I brought it out in the sunlight at home and saw shimmer, but after wearing it I was really happy with it. This is with 2 coats. I liked the application with this, the brush was pretty wide but super manageable; this picture was taken with no cleanup! I'm such a klutz and I've never been able to stay in the lines but this polish made it easy.



I've been stalking my Walgreens and even Walmart for 10 days trying to get the new Maybelline Minty. A wonderful NBer read about my plight and offered to swap me her extra, which arrived yesterday. I just put this one on for green #7, and wow. Wow. Wow!! This is my new favorite mint! The application was maybe not as smooth as my all-time favorite, RGB Minty, but it was a lot better than 90% of my other mints. The first coat was streaky, the second evened it out a bit, but the third coat was flawless perfection. I need to go back to stalking the drugstore so I can get a back up!




I also did a quick comparison swatch but I didn't take the time to clean up as acetone is drying out my skin terribly, so please excuse the mess. Left to right is China Glaze Re-fresh Mint, Maybelline Minty, RGB Minty and Essie Mint Candy Apple. MCA doesn't really have anything to do with Minty, but it seems like everyone has MCA so it's a good one for comparison.



I'd also like to let you all know that in addition to being a klutz with nail polish, I'm totally forgetful. Wonderful reader Isa asked me who the winner of my Who Loves Purple? giveway was and I realized I completely forgot to post the wrap up! Reader Caitlin, who is new to nail polish, won 3 awesome purples to expand her collection. Congrats, Caitlin!

I'm planning on doing another giveway sometime in April and was planning on doing a theme of my newest obsession, coral. But since YOU guys are the one winning polish, I'll let you decide! Vote in the poll on the sidebar for which color family you'd like to win! I'm also accepting write-in votes, leave a comment on this post with your suggestion.

Green #4

No one told me that the China Glaze Summer Days was so completely awesome. I kept thinking they were a shimmer, but according to ALU they are glass flecked. And awesome. These are AWESOME. I tracked down Watermelon Rind to wear for March and it came in the mail yesterday. I'm completely in love with it and am working on tracking down the other 5 from the collection (anyone wanna swap? lol). I used 3 very thin coats of this, I think I could have gotten away with 2 slightly thicker coats but the polish was a little runny at first. Even with 3 coats it dried really fast, I did laundry just 10 minutes after applying Seche Vite and didn't get a single dent (even when my fingers got caught in the little holes of the laundry basket... don't ask how that happened)!

Green #3

Today I'm wearing Rimmel Camouflage. The entire Rimmel brand has always been hit or miss for me, and this one is pretty good. The brush is a little weird to use, probably since I've been spoiled lately from using so much OPI, but after my first nail I got the hang of it and each nail only took 1 coat! I'm surprised this lived up to it's 60 second promise! I also really love the color on this, it's a perfect true green loaded with green and gold shimmer. I only own one other bottle of the old Rimmels, it's one of the purple ones, and it did NOT hold up well... granted I decided to take it camping last summer since I needed a quick mani in a tent. But I can't BELIEVE a $2 NP wouldn't hold up to the abuse of fire starting, fishing, rock hunting and swimming... okay, in retrospect I was pretty hard on it lol.


In non-np news, I've been back to my regular work out routine for the last week and a half now and I'm feeling great! At the beginning of Decemeber I pulled a muscle in my foot that took until the end of January to heal, and then at the beginning of February I started up again with too much agression and got shin splints. But I've been easing back in to my routine and am now pushing myself every day to my goals. My problem is I haven't updated my workout playlist in about 3 months and I have NO idea what to pick for music now. I'd love to hear some suggestions! I usually listen to upbeat stuff, pop music and some alt rock, sometimes a little metal (if it's not screamy) to get through tough parts. What music do you work out to?

Greens #1&2

I'm planning on doing greens for the first 17 days of March! A new one every day, most of them untried, right through St. Patrick's day. Yesterday I swatched Mint Mojito but was reluctant to leave it on because I heard it stained. I liked the color, but not enough to risk it, so I took pics and changed to Essence All Access. Mint Mojito is a 2 coater and Essence only took 1. I had great sunlight today so the shimmer really shows on All Access!


What greens are you most excited to wear for March? I'm saving my most anticipated, OPI Jade is the New Black, NYS Amaranth and RBL Recycle, for closer to the 17th!

Here Today... Arago(r)n Tomorrow

I know this is the Espana collection, not the Lord of the Rings collection, but I still add the 'r' every time I say the name. A girl can dream, right? I put this on Saturday, took pictures, and took it off just this morning, the entire 48 swearing up and down that it was a green cream. Much to my surprise, my camera, which can't pick up an orange and adds too much blue to purple, found the hidden shimmer! Love!

Application was OPI standard, but I was very disappointed that it took 3 coats to be opaque. I'm one of those habitual 2 coaters and adding the extra 90 seconds it takes to coat all 10 fingers just ticks me off, especially from an OPI cream. And then I got chips the next day. What's the deal, man? I put in all that extra time for CHIPS?! Hellz no.



Don't forget to enter my Who Loves Purple? giveaway!

Happy Pancake Day/Mardi Gras!

I'm not terribly religious now, but was raised Lutheran and we celebrate Mardi Gras with Pancake Day. And it is the best non-Christmas-non-Easter holiday EVER. I LOVE PANCAKES! For dinner I'll be making about 60 pancakes topped with chocolate chips, sprinkles, peanut butter, buttery syrup, marshmallows, cream cheese, bacon, almonds, pecans, jam, bananas, blueberries, strawberries... and I might share. Depends on who's nice to me. It's good to be the master of the griddle :D

Back when RBL had their big sale, I had 0 interest in glitters. Now I can't get enough of 'em. And I really regret not getting Locavore, but I'm too cheap to spring the $26 it would cost to buy and ship it. But for just $4 I made a knock off! I started with 1 coat Pure Ice Strapless, then did 1 coat Sinful Frenzy and topped it off with 2 coats of Sinful Call You Later to get all the gold-y goodness. I remember seeing a Pure Ice color that was similar to Frenzy but had darker purple, and I think that probably would have worked better, so I'll probably try that next time. Otherwise I really like my knock-off, and it might not have the prestige of RBL but it gets the job done.





Also don't forget about my giveaway! I'm really hoping to get to 137 followers so I can giveaway 3 awesome polishes!

Who says a $2 polish can't be awesome?

Okay, so I'm a little bit of a NP snob. Just barely though. I won't touch Maybelline, and I have 2 Rimmels that I like but don't wear just in case someone says, "OMG I love your polish! Wear did you get it?" and then I have to say "uhm... the drugstore...". And I think Sally Hansen is becoming a huge rip off! What's with her price increase? I can get 3 China Glazes from Transdesign for the price of 1 new Sally Hansen! But I have a soft spot for Sinful polishes. The glitters, oh, the glitters they have... I love them. I usually wait for a sale, but these were on a special display case so I grabbed them, though I do think they are a part of the regular line. Someone on MUA made a comment that Mint Apple and Soul Mate could be dupes for Jade and Jade Rose. So I ran to grab them! But sorry, they're not even close.

But happily, Mint Apple is awesome. This alone made the trip worth it. It's a dusty green with a gold shimmer, and it applied beautifully. Look at the color! I am in love! You definitely get a bang for your 2 bucks.



With flash to show the gold shimmer:



And I took some comparisons with Essie Greenport on my thumb and Misa Dirty Sexy Money on my pinkie. Here you can really appreciate the dustiness. I badly smudged my middle finger so I just covered it with my thumb :)



Soul Mate was the supposed Jade Rose dupe. It's a creamy dusty pink. I'm not really feelin' this one. I don't think it's a very "me" color, though I do like the dustiness. It applied kind of goopy, though it wasn't as bad as the China Glaze's I compared them to.



Between China Glaze Sugar High on my index and Peachy Keen on my ring finger.



And the last new Sinful I grabbed, named Rise and Shine. This one I very much like. I did a quick swatch but took dozens of pictures, none of which came out accurate. It is VERY close to Four Leaf Clover, which is on my ring finger, only Rise and Shine has an added subtle shimmer and it dries neon matte. You cans see the original finish on my pinkie, and I added Seche Vite to my index and middle for the shine. This also brings out the fine shimmer in it. I think this is just too perfect for Spring!



My Walgreens display is ALWAYS half empty! Either they never get new shipments, or they do and someone comes in and picks it over before I get there! So I never get to see what all the Sinfuls look like. What are your favorite Sinful polishes? If I can find them I'd love to check them out!

What do you think? Mint or not?

I recently swapped with someone for my very first Nubar! After a long, sad week from being disappointed about not getting my Up & Aways, I wore Green Tea on Friday. And the formula blew me away. If all Nubars apply like this one did, then they get my vote for Best Application Ever. The color applied like butter and dried to the touch within a minute, and I could tell since I bumped my TC bottle with one finger and there was no sign of damage! Great for those clumsy people like me. It didn't dry super shiny, but that's what Seche Vite is made for, right?



Anyways, I've been lemming this color because I heard it was mint-ish. But I'm torn... I describe this as a slightly dusty-grass, but in some light, I get the "feel" of a mint, if you get what I mean. Anyways, what do you think? Minty or not?


I took a comparison picture too. On the left is OPI Green-wich Villiage, which is definitely a true green, and on the right I wore my favorite "true green" mint, RGB Minty. But next to Green Tea, Minty looks like Mint Candy Apple did, which is very blue. I really like this comparison because it shows the dusty quality that Green Tea has.

The little marks are from snowflakes getting in the way. Yeah, the weather sucks here today :)



And one last picture for today: MY UP & AWAYs!!!! I wanted to run to the mail box when I saw our mailman put them in (yes, I am a freak who sits near the window and stalks the mail truck), but couldn't risk breaking a hip on the 3 inches of ice in my driveway. There are literally people ice skating on the road right now lol. It's all good though, I'm stocked up on the essentials! Plenty of acetone, chips and beer :)



I'm going to keep them on the upper shelf of my desk to stare at. And yes, those are my Star Wars and Transformers Potato Heads. I'm 21 going on 13-year-old-boy.

Under the Sea

Over the weekend I was sporting Atlantis for a day, and I LOVED it! For as long as I was lemming it (like 5 weeks?), and for the amount of time I've had it untried (2 months!), it's kind of embarrassing that I didn't try it sooner. I love the color in it, and the sparkle... well, it speaks for itself. Pictures galore because this one is a stunner!



Here's some blur to show the sparkle:

Just look at this color!



Here are some comparison pictures too! From left to right we have Claire's Green Confetti, Sinful Nail Junkie, and China Glaze Atlantis. And I know I just did a tribute to Atlantis, but I have to say my fave is Nail Junkie, but I do think you need both! Atlantis has an amazing color, but Nail Junkie has some bigger sparkles and these amazing blue flecks that peek out in some light. It's best to meet them in the middle; 3 coats of Atlantis for color and then 1-2 coats of Nail Junkie. I don't have pictures, but I did an experiment with them. 1 coat will give you some blue sparkle and bigger chunks, and 2 will give you the perfect amount, but will change the color of Atlantis. I personally like 1 coat better.


Claire's Green Confetti was something I picked up for $1 on clearance, and it's pretty cool. It's more of a standard green, which you can see in the second pic, and it has larger chunks of glitter! Sadly, it's pretty sparse, and while 3 coats will get you a jelly-opaqueness with color, you need at least 4, and really 5 coats, to get enough sparkle. But it does dry fast!

(You can click these two to see them bigger, it shows the color differences much better)


For my mom's b-day I let her pick anything from my collection, even my HTF's and LE's, and did her nails. She picked Nail Junkie, and got so many compliments at her party! Even more than my Absolutely Alice did.... not that I was jealous or anything, LOL!