China Glaze "Watermelon Rind"

Hi everyone!  I can't believe it is the end of May already!  It seems like the year just started!  Now that Summer is here I have been wearing a lot of super bright colors, so this week I decided to tone it down a bit and go with a nice cool relaxing color!  I picked out China Glaze's "Watermelon Rind" which is a blue/green glitter nail polish.  And is the name perfect for Summertime or what!

"Watermelon Wind" is such a pretty color!  It really does match the color of watermelon and it is full of matching glitter!  Formula wise "Watermelon Rind" is great!  Sometimes glitter polishes can get too thick and hard to use but not this time!  China Glaze's "Watermelon Rind" was very easy to apply and get nice even coats of polish.  And after two coats this polish was completely opaque and had no visible streaks.  As for chipping "Watermelon Rind" started smudging and chipping on day one.  But I was able to wear this polish three days before my nails started to look bad.  As for removing this polish I was very surprised how easily it came off considering glitter polishes are sometimes difficult to remove.

Overall I am very pleased with China Glaze's "Watermelon Rind."  The color is pretty, the formula is great, and it came off quickly.  The only thing I wish I could change is how quickly the polish started to chip.  But I definitely plan on wearing China Glaze "Watermelon Rind" again and again.

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

ULTA "Ultra Violet Femme"

 

Hi guys!  So this month I have worn a lot of pink/red colors so I decided to mix it up this week and wear a purple nail polish!  I dug through my collection and decided on ULTA's "Ultra Violet Femme" which is this crazy neon purple!

"Ultra Violet Femme" lives up to its name: it is an very bright neon purple with a lot of shimmer and shine!  Formula wise this nail polish a great!  It went on very easily and probably could be a one coat polish, though I always apply two coats.  "Ultra Violet Femme" was completely opaque after two coats and had no streaking at all.  Also I was able to get really nice even coats of polish, which is nice.  However "Ultra Violet Femme" shrank as it dried so the second coat of color did not cover the first coat of color.  (You can see this on my ring finger up by the nail base!)  As for chipping ULTA's "Ultra Violet Femme" lasted about two days before it started chipping off the ends of my nails, which was a bit disappointing.  As for removing this darker colored nail polish "Ultra Violet Femme" came off very easily and didn't stain any of my nails!

Overall I like ULTA's "Ultra Violet Femme" for its fantastic color and formula.  However I wish I could have worn this nail polish longer than two days.  However I got a great price on this ULTA nail polish so I can't complain too much.  Side note: if you aren't already you should join ULTA's reward system because you get great coupons and you can sign up to get e-mails which tell you all about the sales.  (Best of all it is FREE!)

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

Disney's Pocahontas Nail Art!

Hi everyone!  So it has been a while since I have done any nail art, so I decided to change that!  I had been wanting to do another nail art post for a while but I couldn't decide what I wanted to try!  I spend a fair amount of time on Pinterest looking at all the awesome nail art that people can create and I decided to try to recreate a look from there.  I settled on this simple but gorgeous, Pocahontas nail art which can be seen here:  http://www.hairsprayandhighheels.net/2013/02/disney-princess-inspired-nails-2/?spref=tw 

I really love the simplicity of this Pocahontas inspired mani!  So I went on the hunt for the perfect polishes to complete this nail art and I came up with:

From left to right: Essie's "Sand Tropez", OPI's "Elephantastic Pink", China Glaze's "Sunday Funday", China Glaze's "Riveting", Sephora by OPI's "Iris I Was Thinner", and Sephora's Formula X in "Over The Moon."

I started out with a clear base coat (I use Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Invisible") and then added two coats of Essie's "Sand Tropez" to create the base for this nail art.  Before I added the gorgeous colors I applied a quick drying topcoat (I use Orly "Sec'N'Dry") so that I wouldn't have a lot of smudges.  Here is what my nails looked like:

(And if you want to see how I liked Essie's "Sand Tropez" here's the link: http://perfectlypolished12.blogspot.com/2014/04/essie-sand-tropez.html )

Next I took the four brightly colored polishes and a small paint brush (which I got at my local Wal-Mart for about $5 for a pack of 10 brushes) and began to draw lines of color.  I decided to go one color at a time because I only had one brush and had to stop and clean it between each color.  The small brush made it very easy to add thin stripes of color and I will definitely be using the brushes again soon!  Here's how my nails looked along the way:

Here is the pack of paint brushes I have for nail art.  Technically they are for paint, but they worked with nail polish and were easy to clean with polish remover.

Here is my work zone.  As you can see I used the polish removers cap as a small bowl for cleaning my brush.

And then here are my nails after I added the stripes:

After all four colors were added and had plenty of time to air dry I pulled out my micro glitter polish and applied a nice coat to the color stripes.  Formula X's "Over The Moon" is gorgeous and is the perfect glitter topcoat for this nail art!  It adds just enough shimmer but isn't too overwhelming!  Then I added the final coat of polish, which was another coat of Orly "Sec'N"Dry" to seal in the complete nail art.  Here's how my nails turned out:

Overall I think this Pocahontas themed mani is very pretty and fairly simple to complete.  Also since you do not have to match the colors for the stripes exactly it makes it easy to pick out a few of your favorite colors to use!  I had a fun time trying out this nail art and I definitely plan on trying some of the other Disney princess manicures shown in hairsprayandhighheels.net's post!

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

Sephora by OPI "What's Your Sign?"

 

Hi everyone!  So this week I decided to try out a color I don't usually wear that often: orange/peach.  Sephora by OPI's "What's Your Sign?" is a peach with massive amounts of peach glitter!  I bought this Sephora by OPI color last year right before Sephora retired the collection.  I was a bit weary o the color, because I am not an orange/peach kind of girl but I just loved the name of the polish so much!

Sephora by OPI's "What's Your Sign?" is a very interesting light peach with matching peach glitter.  But to me it also a bit more orange-y than regular peach.  It is a unique color to say the least!  Formula wise this polish is a bit watery and the brush picked it up unevenly.  The bad brush caused polish to go everywhere and made for uneven coats of polish!  After two coats of "What's Your Sign?" my nails were surprisingly okay and were completely opaque and had little to no streaking.  As for chipping I was able to wear "What's My Sign?" for four days before I saw any chips, and even then they were very minor.  The extra shimmer in this polish made it nearly impossible to see tip chips, which is a great bonus!

Overall Sephora by OPI's "What's Your Sign?" was good.  However I am unsure whether I like this polish or not.  The color is pretty and very unique, and the fact that it lasted for four days before I saw any chipping is nice.  But the slightly watery formula and difficult to deal with brush were tedious!  I will most likely wear this polish again, but it does take some patience to apply.

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

Essence "Let's Get Lost"

Hi guys!  Since Summer is pretty much here (at least here in the South it is) I decided to wear a bright blue nail polish this week by Essence called "Let's Get Lost."  Blue nail polish always reminds me of a Summer sky and the name is a perfect reminder of a Summertime adventure!

So diving on in, "Let's Get Lost" is a very pigmented polish and actually only required one coat to completely cover my nail and be opaque.  The formula is amazing and was super easy to apply on my nails.  However since "Let's Get Lost" is very bright it stained my fingers and my nails, which meant that I wasn't able to wear it very long and I have no idea how long it would have lasted before chipping.

Overall I really like Essence's "Let's Get Lost" the name and color are great and so is the formula.  The only downside is how much it stained my skin and nails, which means I won't be wear this nail polish again any time soon!

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

Nuance "Orange Poppy"

 

Hi everyone!  I hope you all are enjoying the warmer weather!  To go along with the warm weather I decided to try out a fun bright red polish: Nuance's "Orange Poppy."  Nuance is actress Salma Hayek's nail polish line.  I discovered this brand by accident while at CVS one day and I am very glad I did!

Nuance's "Orange Poppy" is a gorgeous bright red color, that looks just like Poppies.  (The name fits perfectly!)  Formula wise "Orange Poppy" is amazing!  It went on very easily was nearly opaque after one coat.  However this nail polish is more of a jelly, so I did apply a second coat to build up the color.  After two coats of "Orange Poppy" my nails looked gorgeous and my nails had no streak marks.  As for chipping I started to notice smudges on my nails after only a few short hours and I was only able to wear "Orange Poppy" for about a day before all the smudges started to chip.  Removing Nuance's "Orange Poppy" was very easy and left no stains on my nails.

Overall I have very mixed opinions Nuance's "Orange Poppy."  I love the color, formula and how fabulous my nails looked with it on.  But I dislike how quickly the polish chipped.  "Orange Poppy" would be one of my favorite polishes if it hadn't chipped so quickly, however I am willing to give this polish another try.

As far as I can tell Nuance is only available at CVS stores and it retails for $5.99 (USD) a bottle, which is pretty reasonable.

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

Sinful Colors "Cinderella"

Hi everyone!  So now that it is nearly the middle of May, that means it is officially Summertime for me!  I love in the South so Summer gets here pretty quickly and I love the warm weather!  So this week to celebrate I decided to pull out a lovely blue nail polish to go with the gorgeous blue skies Summer!  The polish is Sinful Colors "Cinderella."

So like I said "Cinderella" is the perfect sky blue polish but it has this amazing copper/hot pink shimmer to it!  It is like sunshine glittering off of water!  What surprised me the most about the shimmer is that in the bottle it isn't very noticeable but once it gets on the nail it shows up perfectly!  Formula wise "Cinderella" is just okay.  It is a little on the thick side, which made it difficult to put on my nails.  Also the thick formula of "Cinderella" made for horribly uneven coats of polish!  But after two coats of polish my nails were not completely opaque and was a streaky mess!  As for chipping I don't know how long Sinful Colors "Cinderella" would have lasted because it looked so rough on my nails I didn't want to wear it out of the house!

Overall I am not impressed with Sinful Colors "Cinderella."  The formula was super thick and was very difficult to get onto my nails, and once it was on my nails it wasn't opaque and had a ton of streaks.  The only things I liked about "Cinderella" was its adorable name (I love Disney princesses!), and its fantastic sky blue and shimmer color.  On the upside since it is a Sinful Colors polish I only paid $1.99 (USD) for the bottle for I don't feel like it was a complete waste.

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

Zoya "Lauren"

 

Hi everyone!  So this week's nail polish is extra special because we share the same name!  I was so excited when I saw this Zoya polish and I knew I had to have it!  So without further ado this week I am wearing Zoya's "Lauren."  :)

"Lauren" is a gorgeous light beige color with an iridescent shimmer to it!  Now usually I have a difficult time with neutral nail polishes because I have found very few that look good with my skin complexion.  However Zoya's "Lauren" surprised me by looking great on me!  Formula wise "Lauren" was fantastic!  It was very easy to control and was completely opaque after two coats of polish.  Now my nails do have very minor streak marks but that is common with shimmer polishes and you'd have to look very closely to see the streaks.  As for chipping "Lauren" lasted about two days before it started wearing off the ends of my nails, which was a bit disappointing.

Overall I have mixed feelings for Zoya's "Lauren."  I love that we share the same name and have a really great formula.  But I don't necessarily love the color, because I like brighter colors) and it would have been nice to wear this nail polish for longer than two days!

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

You can grab this polish for yourself on Amazon (affiliate link)

OPI "The Living Daylights"

 

Hi everyone!  I realized it has been a while since I tried out a super chunky glitter and I decided it was time to remedy that.  So this week I decided to pull out OPI's "The Living Daylights" which is full of silver, copper, and blue glitter.  This nail polish was part of the Winter 2012 Skyfall Collection, that went along with the James Bond movie Skyfall.  And since this was a limited edition OPI collection I am not sure if "The Living Daylights" is still available in stores.

Like I said above OPI's "The Living Daylights" is a major chunky glitter that is full of six-sided, or hexagonal, glitter chunks in a clear base.  Now I love chunky glitter and it can look nice if done properly but I struggle to get it to look nice.  "The Living Daylights" was particularly difficult to handle because the clear base was on the watery side and the glitter would just move all over the nail before it finally dried.  This left me with weird thick spots of polish on my nail.  And of course with a clear base "The Living Daylights" is not meant to be worn on its own but rather on top of a colored nail polish.  So I selected China Glaze's "Harvest Moon" as a base color and applied one coat of OPI's "The Living Daylights" and here's how it turned out:

I like the combo of "Harvest Moon" and "The Living Daylights."  I did have a hard time trying to get glitter over my entire nail, and as you can see my pointer finger got a lot of glitter while my ring finger got almost none.  Now I can't tell you how long this combination would have lasted because work does not mind small glitter, but prefers that I don't wear huge chunky glitter.  However I would guess that because of the uneven way OPI's "The Living Daylights" dried that it would not take long to chip.

Side note: I've already reviewed China Glaze's "Harvest Moon" so be sure to check it out here: http://perfectlypolished12.blogspot.com/2012/05/china-glaze-harvest-moon.html

Overall I like OPI's "The Living Daylights" because the color is pretty, but I certainly wish the clear base was not as watery.  I will wear this color again but not very often because I usually go for a less out there glitter.

Also please forgive how bright these photos are, the glitter shined so much that I was unable to get better pictures.

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)

Sally Hansen "Berry Juicy"

Hi guys!  Now that the weather is actually warming up it is starting to feel like Summer and I am very excited!  So while I love bright colors in the Summer I decided to try out a pastel polish this week instead!  This week I decided to wear Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear polish in "Berry Juicy."

I recently purchased "Berry Juicy" and the color is gorgeous.  I knew I had to have it the second I saw it in the bottle!  In terms of the formula "Berry Juicy" was disappointingly watery and the polish didn't just go on my nails but all over my fingers!  Because of the watery formula I was unable to get thinner coats and it resulted in very thick coats.  After two coats of polish "Berry Juicy" was not opaque on my nails and left tons of streak marks!  As for chipping I don't really know because my nails looked horrific and I didn't wear "Berry Juicy" for more than a few hours.

Overall I am very disappointed with Sally Hansen's "Berry Juicy."  It's only good qualities are its super pretty color and its affordable price (at about $4 USD a bottle!)  Other than that its watery formula, thick coats of polish, the large amounts of streak marks and its inability to be opaque made me want to go crazy.  I might give this nail polish a second try, but I don't plan on wearing it much.

Thanks for reading my blog and happy May!  :)

Comparison: Nicole by OPI's "I'll Have The Salmon" and Essie's "Resort Fling"

Hi guys and happy May!  I'm so excited it is finally May and that Summer is nearly here!  I originally didn't plan on doing a comparison post this month but when I saw Nicole by OPI's "I'll Have The Salmon" and Essie's "Resort Fling" next to each other they looked so similar I just had to test it out!  Both of these polishes are brand new this year with Nicole by OPI's "I'll Have The Salmon" being created to be added to NOPI's permanent collection and Essie's "Resort Fling" being part of Essie's Spring 2014 Resort Collection.  Here's how the bottles compared:

First off clearly these nail polishes aren't going to be dupes based off their bottles.  But the camera hasn't captured the colors exactly and the bottles favor more in real life.  Both NOPI's "I'll Have The Salmon" and Essie's "Resort Fling" are warm peachy colored polishes.  Here's how they compared after one coat of polish:

After one coat it is obvious that these polishes are probably not dupes but I continued on and applied a second coat to each and here's how it turned out:

After two coats of NOPI's "I'll Have The Salmon" and Essie's "Resort Fling" I can safely say they are NOT dupes and actually on the nail they aren't very alike at all.  (I swear they look alike in the bottle in natural light!)

Here's a little bot more about each polish:

NOPI's "I'll Have The Salmon" has a good formula, was easy to apply, but I learned that applying thin coats will not make the polish opaque.  (You can especially see this on my ring finger.)  This polish is part of Nicole by OPI's permanent collection that was added this Spring.  NOPI typically costs about $8 (USD) a bottle.

Essie's "Resort Fling" has a great formula, was fairly easy to apply but it went on in thick coats and required a bit of patience.  However after two coats the polish was completely opaque.  "Resort Fling" is part of Essie's Spring 2014 Resort Collection which is a special mini collection that is released every Spring.  I bought all four polishes in the collection in a nice little box set that features small bottles (not full-sized).  Full sized Essie polishes coast about $8.50 (USD) a bottle and the box set cost about $20 (USD).

Overall while these polishes aren't dupes they are both similar and great colors for Spring and Summer.  I love both colors and I am happy to say that I will be wearing both NOPI's "I'll Have The Salmon" and Essie's "Resort Fling" again and again.

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)