Essie Spinning Again

Here’s a polish I am really excited about! Don’t let it fool you; although it looks like just plain red, this isn’t the average red polish. Unfortunately, it was difficult to capture the true color on camera! This is Essie’s Spinning Again, which is from the Yogaga collection. I knew there were two more colors from just the four I originally saw at Walgreens, but hadn’t seen them. When I did, it was love at first sight with Spinning Again!

Described as a “driven brick red” by Essie, this color is definitely “brick red”, but lighter than what you see here. This shot is in shaded natural light, and it looks quite dark. It’s lighter in person. I would describe it as a “burnt red”. If you ever had the giant box of Crayons, this polish seems like it would have a touch of Burnt Sienna in it.

Here it is in full sun. For fall, this is the perfect red tone. This makes me want fall to be here NOW! 🙂 Application on this polish was very good. If applied carefully, you can easily get away with one coat, but I used two plus a top and base coat.

Review: Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream

Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream is pretty well-known in the nail world. I decided to pick up a tin of this to carry in my purse, since the tub of Lush cuticle butter is so big. Now that I don’t bite my nails, I keep a little arsenal of emergency nail items in my purse stashed with the other stuff I carry (tweezers, powder, and lip gloss), including a nail file.

The Burt’s Bees tin is very small and doesn’t take up a lot of space. The tin is about the size of a half-dollar, maybe a little bigger, and about 1/2 inch thick. I don’t really know why this is called a “cream” since the consistency of the product is more of a wax than say, a traditional lotion or body butter. That said, the product itself is wonderful!

The scent is a light lemon scent, not cloying or overbearing. It’s extremely moisturizing and can even be used on other parts of the body, like lips or patches of dry skin. I like that it isn’t greasy and it absorbs quickly.

There is a lot of product in this tin: .6 ounces, so it will last a long time. One thing that might concern some people is that after awhile, rubbing your fingers in the wax to get the product out might lead to the build up of germs and bacteria, so I recommend using a hand sanitizer first, or simply washing your hands if you want to avoid that.

Not only can you apply this to your cuticles, you can also apply it to your nails to make them smooth and strong. Another perk is NO animal testing! This product is not vegan though, since it contains beeswax.  The price is another perk: this tin is just $6, which is highly affordable for a natural product.

I highly recommend picking this up if you’re looking for something to keep your cuticles conditioned and want something natural to do it at an affordable price point.

China Glaze Dance Baby

China Glaze Dance Baby is my perfect pink. I love this color because it is cool-toned and a little darker than a lot of pinks out there. This is from the spring Electropop collection and one of my very first China Glaze polishes!

Application on this polish is smooth and it is quite opaque; almost a one-coater. I used two and a top coat. I really like China Glaze and think their polish is extremely affordable for the quality. Plus, they often end up on clearance at Sally Beauty Supply when new collections roll in.

This polish is also great for using with sparkly top coats since it’s simply a plain creme. I really like combining this with some of the more shimmery layering polishes like China Glaze White Cap and Essie Shine of the Times.

One more thing: I need some polish feedback! In two weeks I’m going to a wedding and wearing an orange dress. I have no idea what kind of polish to wear. It’s a beach wedding so it’s a little more laid back. I’m thinking either matching it with a bright orange, or offsetting it with white, since I LOVE white!….or maybe a peach color. I have no clue. I don’t want to be TOO matchy-matchy. I also thought about turquoise. Any suggestions?

China Glaze Ruby Pumps

Ruby Pumps is a red cult classic color from China Glaze. I especially LOVE this red because it is from their Wizard of Oz themed collection, The Wizard of Oohs and Aahs. To say I’m a Wizard of Oz fanatic is….quite an understatement. I’ve been in love with the movie since I was a toddler, I’ve read up extensively on Judy Garland’s life, and because I am spoiled, when I was a teenager my parents veered off track on a cross country trip to Colorado just to go to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, which is a definite highlight in my Oz memories!

These photos were taken in overcast light outdoors, but you can still see how vibrant this polish is! The sparkle is amazing and it definitely has that “technicolor” shade that Dorothy’s ruby slippers have in the movie.

Application on this polish is fantastic. It’s smooth, and not chunky, which sometimes happens with glitter polish. This is definitely my favorite red polish, but I might be biased because of my love for Oz. 🙂

 

Sinful Colors Controversy

If you read nail blogs, you have likely heard about this controversy already, but being an English teacher who is always catching acts of plagiarism, I feel the need to address this issue.

To make a long story short, Sinful Colors, who is owned by Revlon, stole images from popular nail bloggers The Swatchaholic and Swatch and Learn. They removed the image watermarks and used these images (both of which do NOT contain Sinful Colors polish!) and used them in promotional pamphlets without their permission, which is a huge copyright violation, not to mention a violation of artistic and professional integrity.

The best write up I have seen on this controversy is on the Frazzle and Aniploish blog. It is well-written and clearly explains the exact violations (which include Sinful Colors stating that Konad stamping art was done with a toothpick!).

While I do love Sinful Colors nail polish, I personally won’t be buying any until this issue is resolved in a way that makes the bloggers happy. To me, this looks like an act of sheer laziness and cheap marketing. To stoop so low as to steal images (my guess is from a Google image search) from nail bloggers and use them for a large company is completely unacceptable. Since Revlon owns Sinful Colors, I sincerely hope that they do something about this besides their stale Facebook apology.

My guess is that one person or a team of people were involved in stealing the images and creating pamphlets with them. I just hope that Sinful Colors and Revlon work together with the bloggers to make this right.

Again, I highly recommend reading this post on the whole ordeal for a bigger picture.

Illamasqua Faithful

Needless to say, I have been super busy for the last five days. First I visited my sister, and since I got home I’ve been spending all of my time working. I’m glad to finally have a chance to show off some polish! Illamasqua Faithful is a gorgeous polish from their Naked Strangers collection. My swatches don’t do this polish any justice either.

Of course when my nails start to grow back another breaks (the index) and the ring finger nail is missing half of it. Sigh…anyway, I HAVE to keep my nails painted or I will bite. The urge is not gone! Onto the polish- Faithful is a very complex and pretty color. It’s a brown creme base with touches of copper shimmer, but there also appears to be a bit of gold micro glitter too. Depending on the light, this polish changes. Sometimes it looks a bit bronze. It is a WONDERFUL polish because of how unique the color is. If you like Rescue Beauty Lounge’s Georgia On My Mind collection but can’t afford it, this is a nice alternative to Ghost, even though they aren’t quite the same (definitely not dupes).

This is my second Illamasqua polish and just like this first, application is perfect! I believe this color is limited edition, and I purchased mine from Sephora.

Essie Beach Bum Blu

Clearly, I have been REALLY into Essie lately! Today I am heading up to my sister’s place for the weekend, so I wanted to wear a fun color and something summery. This polish doesn’t look as exciting in the bottle as it does on the nail. It just looks like a plain light blue with some shimmer. On the nail, it really transforms! When the light hits it, this polish casts a beautiful highlight.

Application on this polish was a dream. This is two coats. At first it seemed a little watery, but this proved to be an asset, since the ultimate finish is really smooth! This is two coats with a top coat.

This color is really vibrant in the photos, and it is also vibrant on the nails as well. I definitely recommend this blue shade!

China Glaze Lemon Fizz + Essie Stroke of Brilliance

Slowly, my nails are looking better from their broken off state (so aggravating). I have been so excited about fall coming that I’m trying to wear my summery colors now and just enjoy fall when it gets here, which feels like never. It was 100 degrees today. YUCK! I have never experienced a summer so HOT in my life, and I truly despise it! I’m just not a hot weather girl at all! Anyway, I do like the bright colors of summer of course! Essie has a new polish out right now called Stroke of Brilliance. It’s from the Luxe Effects line and I believe it is limited edition. This polish is a chunky blue glitter (some consider it a true periwinkle than blue) suspended in a clear base. I paired it with Lemon Fizz by China Glaze.

If you love yellow polish, this is a good one to have. Like most yellows, it is streaky at first, but this problem vanishes with three coats. The formula is a little thin on this polish but with three coats needed for opacity, I didn’t have an issue with it.

Here it is in full sun, looking a lot more saturated! I had a really hard time getting decent photos of this polish for some reason; I think it was the lighting. Full sun was too much, and just plain natural light made it look washed out. The first image is definitely more true to color than the full sun one, but the glitter definitely shows up better on the second shot!

Butter London Lady Muck Versus China Glaze Sea Spray

I have read on so many blogs that China Glaze Sea Spray is a Dupe for Butter London’s Lady Muck. Of course I didn’t realize this until I had both of them, so I figured why not compare the two here, even though it has been done before! Personally, I love both of these polishes and am especially attached to Sea Spray for a few reasons: 1- It was my very first China Glaze polish. 2- It’s what my grandma called a “horrendous color”, which inspired this blog. 3- This color reminds me of Lake Superior.

Here are both colors in full sun (as were the bottle shots). Lady Muck is on the left and Sea Spray is on the right. The immediate difference, particularly if you’re looking at them up close, is the finish. Lady Muck has more micro glitter, whereas Sea Spray has a very light sheen but no glitter.

Here it is in the sun again; they look a lot more similar here! Sea Spray is on the left, and Lady Muck is on the right. These colors tend to be shape shifters depending on the light, but overall Sea Spray is a lot more gray, while Lady Muck leans blue with a touch of gray at times.

This indoors shot is a little blurry, and again they look pretty similar. This shot shows the shade difference, which is more prominent in real life. Lady Muck is darker than Sea Spray.

I like both of these polishes. They have great application and each one lasts a long time.

Essie Penny Talk

Oh, Penny Talk. I was SO excited for this polish from Essie’s Mirror Metallics line, and I still am. This polish is GORGEOUS! In the bottle it comes across a bit on the brown side, but on the nail this is a beautiful shade of rose gold with a touch of bronze.

This is just ONE coat. I am so excited to wear this polish throughout the fall, especially on my toes! Don’t mind the state of my nails…the middle, ring, thumb, and pinky are all VERY short right now thanks to some broken nails. I swear, one corner gets a little cracked and it’s doomsday. Oh well, they will grow back, right? Anyway, you can kind of see here what I mean about the bottle versus the nail.

Here it is in some brighter sunlight. My application doesn’t look very smooth, but I think this is a base coat issue. The actual application of the polish is very smooth, and like I said, just one coat! Penny Talk is the only polish I purchased from the Mirror Metallics line, as it was the most interesting to me and the prettiest of the bunch.