China Glaze Secret Periwinkle + American Apparel Light Year

Here’s a combination my grandma would REALLY hate! Good thing I won’t be seeing her this week, since she would probably have plenty to say about this combination…a lot more than just “horrendous.” 🙂

China Glaze Secret Periwinkle seems to be a pretty popular color due to its true-to-the-name shade and application. I like this color because it is unique, and falls just right with blue and purple to make me not think “yuck, purple!” It also has a 4.8 out of 5 on the Makeup Alley reviews page, so I’m not alone in thinking this polish is fab. I paired with American Apparel’s Light Year glitter, which is SO pretty!

I love how big the glitter is, and I like how many colors happen here. This glitter could go with practically any color. I am completely obsessed with glitter right now, even though it is such a pain to remove. Actually, compared to most glitters, Light Year was pretty easy to take off.

Here’s an indoors, natural light shot. You can see how opaque Secret Periwinkle is. I only used two coats, plus Light Year and a top coat.

Zoya Beach & Surf Collection

Zoya’s summer 2012 collection, Beach & Surf, is so gorgeous. I’ve been drooling over the swatches on many nail blogs since Zoya released them online a week early (April 1st is the ‘official’ release date). I wish these came in minis, because there are so many pretty ones!

The big frontrunner according to the word on the street is Zuza, and what’s not to like about it? It’s described as an “aquamarine foil metallic”. I have a soft spot for the Reagan polish too, since that’s the name of my golden retriever, but the ones I really want are Zuza and Tracie, and I also like Meg. The only color in this collection that I would not wear is Carly, since I’m not big on purple.

Vampy Varnish has swatches of these up, as do many other nail/beauty blogs.

As I write this, there’s snow flying outside of my window. So much for the beach for now! 🙂

My First ‘Franken’

“Franken” is one of those words that I learned about when I started reading nail blogs. For those who do not know, a franken is a customized nail polish blend made at home. I have no idea who coined the term or where it came from; most likely some kind of nail blog or forum. Being the crafty gal that I am, I love the idea of making my own colors, so I decided to give it a whirl last night, and here is what I came up with!

Dry cuticles and not quite grown in broken nails aside, I am seriously in love with my creation!

What I used:

Martha Stewart glitter in ‘green agate’
A random Wet’n’Wild polish that was a creamy shade with some glitter
Sally Hansen Yellow Kitty
Claire’s Mood Polish

All I did was mix them together randomly, following Rachel Marie’s handy dandy Franken FAQ post.

These photos were taken outside on an overcast day. The Martha Stewart glitter is so pretty and I really like the shade of green that happened here. It’s kind of sea foam mixed with seaweed.

Here’s the glitter up close. It is SO sparkly under light. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in the sunshine!

Sally Hansen Hi-Definition – Hue

Awhile back, there was the big Rite-Aid frenzy on several beauty blogs where it was discovered that there was a huge 75% off sale happening on nail polish. That was the case in my neck of the woods, where Sally Hansen’s Hi-Definition polishes were all 75% off, making them just $1.24 each.

From what I’ve read, yellow is the most frustrating color of nail polish to apply well, since it tends to streak. I can’t say that I have much experience with this, but I did not have a problem with Sally Hansen’s Ultra HD in Hue. Not a fan of the name, but Hue is a gorgeous shade of pale yellow that is very easy to apply.

After I put this on, I was acting newly engaged or something, making my husband admire the color and of course asking, “Isn’t this color amazing?” every five minutes. It’s a metallic yellow/gold. To my eye, it’s more yellow than gold, but my husband thought it looked gold (and just for reference, he says that I have a better eye for color than he does).

Here it is in the shade. In true Michigan fashion, the sun came and went in the two minutes it took to take these shots. I’m looking forward to wearing this shade on my toes!

OPI Germany and OPI Minnie Mouse

Yesterday on Facebook, OPI announced that they are unleashing their Germany collection in August 2012. Of course, I was swooning over the top row of colors, as was my BFF. I would have no problem wearing all of the colors in the top row and a few on the bottom. Of course, by that time I will be in the mood for fall, so the bottom row might be more interesting then (except for that purple one). Hopefully they will come out with a good minis box to go along with it. I love the OPI mini boxes, because I can get a lot of shades for less money than buying a bunch of full-sized bottles.

Color names, from left to right:

My Very First Knockwurst
Don’t Pretzel My Buttons
Berlin There Done That
Don’t Talk Bach to Me
Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!
Schnapps Out of It
Suzi & The 7 Dusseldorfs
Every Month is Oktoberfest
Unfor-greta-bly Blue
Deutche You Want Me Baby
Danke-Shiny Red
German-icure

My favorite name out of these is Don’t Talk Bach to Me, and I am thrilled that it is the yellow shade!

OPI is releasing another fun collection earlier than the Germany collection, and that is a four polish Minnie Mouse themed collection!

I am a huge Disney fan and think these polishes are adorable, but am wondering how unique the shades will be. It’s impossible to tell until I see them in person. I do like the heart glitter polish though!

Color names:

Nothin’ Mousie ’bout It
I’m All Ears
If You Moust You Moust
The Color of Minnie

I wonder if OPI will create polishes for any other characters? I would love to see Donald Duck themed polishes in shades of orange, white, and blue!

OPI Miami Beet – Mattified

Oh, Miami Beet! This color definitely toyed with me for awhile, and for a purely STUPID reason. I saw it on the shelves of Meijer, and immediately fell in love with it. It’s a rich berry color from OPI’s South Beach collection from 2009, and it’s a color that is perfect for me. Unfortunately, most of the OPI bottles at all of my local Target and Meijer stores have gouges in the glass, like they were all scratched up against something. My guess is that whatever truck they arrived in had some kind of issue when they were packed together. Not a big deal, but I didn’t want to pay full price for a cosmetically flawed bottle…I think my husband is wearing off on me, because that is totally something he would do. Anyway…lo and behold, I found a pristine and unflawed bottle at the cosmetics counter of Younkers purely on a whim. Now that I’ve seen it on my nails, it is definitely on the favorites list.

Here it is in full sun, with no top coat. Although it is a little richer than it looks due to the sun, I am still impressed with how saturated it remains, even in the brightness of the outdoors. I decided to give it the matte treatment with Essie’s Matte About You top coat.

Here it is with the matte top coat. I like it, but think this look is better suited for fall and not spring. The state of my nails is quite pathetic right now. Once these breakage issues grow out, I am hoping they will look much better! I am just keeping in mind that they would look WAY worse if I was still biting them.

Maybelline Posy Pink + Wet ‘n’ Wild Born Into Privilege

There are so many beautiful colors out for spring, and Maybelline’s limited edition polishes are just some of them, as are Wet ‘n’ Wild’s ColorIcon polishes from the Be Jeweled collection, which seem to be close dupes to the new China Glaze Prismatic collection. I found the Wet ‘n’ Wild Be Jeweled display at Meijer, and since then they have been either sold out completely or stocked with just a couple of polishes, so they are quite popular. It’s easy to see why, too! They are duochrome glitters, and are absolutely packed with sparkle! You can see a photo of the display at Steph’s Closet.

Born Into Privilege is a light green/gold combination with multi-colored glitters scattered throughout. I layered one coat of it over two coats of Maybelline’s Pink Posy. Maybelline’s polish is more difficult to apply than other polishes. It tends to be streaky, but the color payoff is worth it in the end. These colors are from the ‘Fashion Week 2012’ line (see the display at NeutraKris). Pink Posy is the perfect shade of pink. It’s a soft Barbie pink creme polish and it dries quickly.

These two were kind of an odd combination, but I ended up liking it, especially in the sunlight and at certain angles.  Something about it reminds me of birthday cake. The Wet ‘n’ Wild glitters are VERY shimmery and pack tons of sparkle when the light hits. I am glad I snagged a couple when the display was full!

China Glaze Sweet Hook + Essie Shine of the Times

I am a huge fan of the China Glaze Electropop collection that was released for Spring 2012, and could not resist some of the colors, including Sweet Hook (isn’t that a cool name?). The colors tend to have a certain “day-glo but milder” shading but are still fun and springy.

I layered Sweet Hook with Essie Luxe Effects Shine of the Times. When I first saw Shine of the Times, I thought it was totally boring looking, then I saw it over another color and ended up loving it. Shine of the Times looks great over dark colors, but I almost prefer it on lighter colors like Sweet Hook and Kinetic Candy (which is also from the Electropop collection).

When I first stopped biting my nails and had Shine of the Times on over Kinetic Candy (which is a blue shade), a girl working at Walgreens complimented my nails. This was around the time that I realized my nails were long enough to not hide them with shame if I was purchasing nail polish. I told her I was a ‘reformed biter’ and she told me about a woman who used baby powder to stop chewing. I don’t think I’ll be trying that one!

One more thing: an update on the nail I super glued. It is completely gone now, but the important thing is that I did NOT bite it! I actually ripped it more when I was reaching over to grab a bag in my car. Instead of gluing it again, I just ripped it off. It doesn’t look as bad as I thought it would, but it still a major bummer to lose it after all of that growing!

On Trend With Neon

Neon is one of the big trends this spring/summer, and I am into it! Of course, that only applies to certain things, and nail polish is one of them (I’ll pass on neon shoes and bags). My BFF is totally disgusted that I am so into the neon since it was the hot cool thing in the late 80s/early 90s when we were kids, but I have fond memories of neon and it just screams FUN! My mom made all sorts of neon shirts for me when I was a kid, including a green one with a flip flop applique on the front (Yes, I was a way cool fourth grader). Neon totally reminds me of having fun in the summer.

These are the current neons I have, plus one on the way through the mail. Neon is SO hard to photograph! The most accurate one in color here is the second bottle of China Glaze. From left to right:

China Glaze: Flip Flop Fantasy
China Glaze: Celtic Sun
Color Club: Age of Aquarius
Milani: Awesome Orange

What’s on the way:

American Apparel Neon Green. Boring name, cool polish. I can’t wait to wear these when it gets warmer, and especially Celtic Sun with this dress:

This dress looks very yellow on the product page, but it is way more neon looking in person! I am not a hot weather person at all (anything over 75 is misery), but I am looking forward to getting into my summery clothes after this mini-heat wave we had in Michigan.

The Celtic Sun polish I just bought at Sally Beauty. They had a China Glaze sale this week and all of the neon polishes in stock from last summer’s Poolside collection were sold out at my local Sally’s. I went to a different one and they had ONE bottle left, lucky for me! I guess that shows how strong the neon trend is this year!

A Nail Emergency + Color Club Age of Aquarius

What a morning. When I hopped out of the shower, I noticed that the middle finger nail on my right hand (the GOOD nail hand) had nearly ripped in half clear on the nail line. This is a major trigger for me and it was just screaming, “BITE ME!” Determined not to do it, I texted my husband asking where the super glue was. Luckily, he replied quickly, but unfortunately for me, there was no super glue to be found. I dug around the garage in my bath towel and my husband’s too-big-for-me sandals and didn’t even check for SPIDERS, which tells you how serious I was.

In an effort to think like my grandpa (a true “What would Bapa do?” moment), I grabbed some E6000 which is a slow drying, but heavy duty craft glue, dabbed a little into the crack, and put on a top coat to seal it together until I could get to the store for my super glue. I was SO determined to not lose another weak nail. The kicker is that the day before, I was looking at Essie’s ‘Grow Stronger’ nail strengthener formula, and I had it in my hand, but at the last minute decided that I didn’t need it. Then last night I was reading on a nail blog about how great it is, so I put that on my shopping list in addition to the super glue.

Luckily, I made it home with the nail intact and the super glue didn’t hinder my new paint job too much. I have a buffer, but I was so afraid to use it that I didn’t bother this time. Anyway….I painted my nails with Color Club’s Age of Aquarius, which is a lovely neon turquoise green polish that came with March’s Birchbox. This was my second month of Birchbox. I gave myself three months to try it out, and so far the nail polish has been the most impressive addition. The other stuff I have been just “meh” about. Anyway, here’s the polish!

This is the outdoor, bright sun shot, and the color is not accurate at all. In my nail blog snooping, I’m not the only one who has been having this problem. It is definitely more green than what it looks like here.

Here is the indoor shot. It’s definitely not accurate here, either. It is way more green in person, but a very gorgeous creme finish and I really like this polish! This is my only Color Club polish, but I would definitely get more after using Age of Aquarius!