New Milani Polishes Mini-Haul!

Last week I stopped to grab some lunch at the grocery store after my run at the gym, and noticed that the beauty aisle had a TON of new Milani stuff, including new nail polishes! I’ve seen a few glitters on Instagram, but was really surprised at how unique they are in person. They are gorgeous! I can’t wait to layer these with some pastels. 🙂 Here are the shades I picked up!

Sugar High: This is blue, lime green, peach, pink, and probably some other shades- a mix of matte and some sparkly glitter. This glitter is very small so it might be able to be used on its own, but I haven’t tested that out yet.

Sugar Burst: This is a pink princess snowstorm in a bottle. It really does look like “flurries”. It has some bar glitter in it, but for pastel pink, I can put my dislike of bar glitter aside. 🙂

Sugar Rush: I think this one is my favorite! Peach, green, and white matte glitter with some silver holo thrown in for good measure. I adore this one because it is so unique!

Here’s one more shot in different lighting. I LOVE these! Milani is cruelty free, made in the USA, and each bottle is about $4.50 depending on where you shop.

What do you think of these shades?

Also- SORRY for the awful photo placement…I need to pick a new theme, because I have no control over the photos! 🙂

Manicure Spam! Maybelline, Color Club, Butter London

Hey everyone! I hope you’re having a great day. I have a manicure spam post for today with some shades that I have been wearing lately! First up is the manicure above, which is Color Club Cloud Nine with a Nicole by OPI glitter, Inner Sparkle from the Selena Gomez collection. Unfortunately the sun was not out (shocking, not) when I took this photo, so you can’t see the amazing holographic properties happening here!

Next up is Butter London Kerfuffle with Milani Gems in Gold. I love love love LOVE Kerfuffle! It definitely a favorite pinky peach.

Finally, one of my favorite new polishes that is limited edition from Maybelline: Coral Glow! This is topped with China Glaze White Cap (which as you may know is one of my favorite polishes!). Coral Glow is SO gorgeous and it literally looks lit from within. Since this polish is so affordable (and on sale at Meijer this week, FYI), I did get a back up because I’ve already worn it five times since purchasing it.

Speaking of White Cap, I was at Sally’s the other day and noticed this polish on the markdown table with a “Last Chance” sticker on it. I’m not sure if it’s just leaving Sally’s or being discontinued. Just in case I did purchase another bottle since I use this so often!

So those are some of the manicures I’ve been wearing. Unfortunately my hands are in a terrible state right now. I actually had to get Gold Bond healing hand cream because of the cracks due to dryness. I blame winter! 😉

Butter London Knees Up

I’ve been really into red polish lately and have had the idea to create a “ruby slipper” type manicure for some time now. After all, with red glitter and red polish, it’s easy enough, right? Well, Knees Up is the perfect red base for something like that, as it is a lovely red metallic shade!

Knees Up has perfect application: smooth and a one-coater! Unfortunately, the Milani Gems glitter that I paired it with did not have the easiest formula. It slid all over the place and the glitter was very difficult to keep on the brush. I have two other “Gems” formulas and they aren’t like this at all, so either the red one is a dud or the one I have is just a dud.

I liked the overall look, but wish I could have packed some more glitter on there!

Zoya Frida

I love jelly polish, so I was excited when the Zoya Gloss collection came out this fall. Friday is a divine deep teal jelly that reminds me of the ocean; not the pretty stuff in photos, but the also pretty stuff that lies under the surface! I decided to make a jelly sandwich with some Milani Gems glitter, and the result reminds me of sparkly seaweed (um, if that existed).

I did two light coats of Frida, one coat of Milani Gems, and then two more light coats of Frida. The consistency was good; not too thick and not too thin!

I really love the murky finish with the glitter. I wasn’t going to get this color at first, but now I am so glad that I did, because I love it! Now I just need to go back and get Paloma. 🙂

Milani Bridesmaid and Sally Hansen Ring-a-Ding!

It seems like at the beginning of the week, I’m always blathering on about how hectic it has been. This week is no exception! My husband is gone for three days and it seems like all hell has broken loose, starting with my car battery croaking. My cousin moved in with us over the weekend (he goes to college nearby and this is his last year), and he really saved the day by changing my battery. Anyway, since I hate anything to do with fixing cars, enough of that!

Milani Bridesmaid is a pretty rose gold foil polish, similar to OPI Designer de Better from the Muppets collection last holiday season. I was in the mood for sparkle, so I paired it with a limited edition Sally Hansen glitter called Ring-a-Ding!. This is from the collection as White Veil.

Here it is in full sun. I used two coats of the glitter polish, so this REALLY popped and sparkled! This would be a fun manicure to wear for a wedding or a party.

Here it is in the shade, still very sparkly. I only used one coat of Bridesmaid. I do like Milani’s polish, but don’t find them very long lasting. The formula is great as they apply smoothly, but the ones I have do chip quickly.

If you haven’t gotten your hands on Ring-a-Ding! yet and love glitter, I highly recommend it. This polish is coppery with pale pink glitter as well, and it really goes with the whole rose gold thing that everyone is loving right now.

Essence You Belong to Me + Milani Jewel FX Gold

Essence’s You Belong To Me is probably one of the most famous Essence shades, since a lot of people feel it is a good Tiffany blue shade, and this is always a popular color. From what I’ve read, the actual shade of blue is under some kind of copyright and legally can’t be reproduced. Anyway, I decided to pair this shade with something very bold: the huge glitters in Milani Jewel FX polish!

I actually like this combination a lot! The blue is nice and soft, and the gold gives it a cute pop. Plus, I like these colors together.

In the sun, this big glitter gives off a wonderful sparkle. I LOVE this huge glitter!

For such a chunky glitter, it is easy to apply. I used two coats of Essence and one coat of the glitter polish. I’ve worn this glitter a few times and this is definitely my favorite combination so far. It also looks great with hot pink (Sinful Colors 24/7- a combo my hubby loved).

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!

The Good Ol’ First Post + Milani Sail Away

The first post is always so awkward, isn’t it? Well, maybe that’s because I am slightly terrified of putting my nails out in the public eye. Anyway, the short version of my nail story is this: I’ve been a nail biter for most of my life, and used Pinterest to get inspired to STOP biting. When showing off my progress to my grandma, she said, “Horrendous color,” and she totally inspired me to start this blog. You can see the longer version on the About page!

Before I quit biting, my nails had never reached the point where I couldn’t see skin if I was holding up my hands. Most of the time my cuticles were bleeding and dry, and my husband was quite repulsed by my hands, but I didn’t stop biting for him!

Now, the nails on my left hand are much weaker than the right, meaning I must have chewed the left hand more. My first three nails broke off on the corners, and then thanks to using a horrible nail file, I accidentally sawed right through the ring and pinkie finger nails. That said, my right hand looks pretty good!

Sad, isn’t it? I figure they will grow back…but it’s frustrating due to all of the hard work and patience it took to grow them out in the first place!

I am wearing Sail Away by Milani. I don’t usually gravitate toward such rich blue colors, but when I saw this on the shelf I thought it was totally unique and gorgeous! It’s a lovely royal blue with silver glitter throughout. This easily could have been a one-coater, but I used two coats and Seche Vite top coat. My husband was nice enough to buy this polish for me during a quick trip to Meijer! 🙂