Essence Pool Party

 Today is my boyfriend's birthday! Yay. We are exactly 1yr and 12 days apart. I'm older. The day should be fun I got him a watch, a new mouse for his computer, and we'll be going out for dinner later. :)

Today will be some more Essence! Yes, I am still kicking my self for not purchasing the rest of that Surfer Babe collection. I am also kicking  myself for not purchasing more of the standard Essence polishes since they are only $1. I'm acting like Ulta is in some foreign country millions of miles away, and me and these polishes will be parted forever. It's just Ulta is in an area of town where traffic is insane and it's pain in the butt to get there, but I think I'll drag my whiny butt there again, so I can stop beating myself up about all of this and annoying all of you with my droning!

Anyways, this has to be my favorite Essence polish I got.

Pool Party

 Pool Party is spectacular bright lighter blue with silver micro glitter. This color is so fun! It has the perfect name too it looks just like a swimming pool especially when the sun is shining down on it making the water sparkle. This is one of those happy colors. If that makes sense. I don't think you could be unhappy wearing this color it's so full of brightness and fun. These bottles are so tiny though, so I think I may need to purchase backups. :)

Do you have an Essence polishes? Which are your favorites?


Happy Saturday!

Essence Surfer Babe Collection

Let me start out by saying that I think I have been living on another planet. I had NO idea Ulta carried Essence. I rarely venture to Ulta because it's out of the way for me in part of town that is always backed up in traffic, but my recent trip to Ulta may have made me consider going there more often.

They had this incredibly cute collection there called "Surfer Babe"

The collection consisted of blush, lipglosses, eyeliners, eyeshadow palette, and nail polishes!

I only ended up getting 2 polishes from the collection because I am an idiot. I should of got them all. The only reason I didn't was because I felt 2 of the colors were pretty standard and unoriginal, but in hindsight the collection is super cute and the whole set would of been nice. OH WELL! :P I may go back and get the other 2 since they were only $2 each.

The colors I did get were...

Point Break

Point Break is a medium grey creme. I love this shade. I have some light greys, but I don't have any darker ones. This is a great color and aren't these bottles so cute?!? Love them. I'm such a girl. :P

Hang Loose

Hang Loose is a pale lavender creme. It's a very sweet and pretty color, but it doesn't scream girly to me. It seems very chic.

The other two colors which I can't recall the names of were a magenta color and turquoise blue. I know I passed up on a turquoise blue. It looked very similar to a Essie Turquoise & Caicos or China Glaze For Audrey color that I didn't feel I really needed. Again, looking back now I wish I got all of them just for the look of the bottles and the collection. Oy. I'm annoyed with my self, but I'm glad I did get some stuff from this collection!

Ok, I'm going to end this self-deprecating post now.

Happy Friday!

Eva Kelly Green & Green Glitter

Eva polish is an interesting brand I've only encountered at one Walgreens. I haven't seen it anywhere else. I did some research on it and I couldn't find anything. On the bottle it says it's made in Miami, FL so maybe it's some Florida thing?

Anyways, they had a nice selection of polishes. I think I saw about 20-30 colors. I think for the most part their colors were pretty interesting. I saw a few shimmers, glitters, and duchromes and they were $2 a bottle. Now that I think back I should of taking a picture of the display! :P

I got 2 colors Kelly Green & Green Glitter

Kelly Green

Kelly Green is well a kelly green creme. There isn't much more to describe with this one color wise. The formula of this was great. I just swatched this and it does dry on the matte side which top coat can fix or you can keep it mattified! I got this one because it reminded me of Essie's Pretty Edgy. I think this color is slightly lighter, but being a person who doesn't have luck with greens I found this a great alternative to the Essie $8 price tag. It's a great color and I'm actually liking this green on me!

Green Glitter

Green Glitter is green hexagonal glitter submerged in a clear base. It's an unusual layering polish that I definitely didn't have anything similar too. I really like having unusual glitters. I layered this one over the Eva Kelly Green and over a NYC Black Lace. I like this one especially over the black. I think it would make a great manicure. This would probably be neat to franken with too!

That's it for today. This is just a fraction of my mega lacquer haul! I had a really great time with my parents. I wish they could of stayed longer. I don't miss home at all living in Florida, but I definitely miss my family. It was nice treat to be able to see them.

Has anyone seen this Eva polish before?

Happy Thursday!

Mega Lacquer Haul!

Hey guys!!! Sadly, my parents are leaving in about 2 hours :(. I will miss them a lot. We had so much fun shopping though. I wanted to share with you my my lacquer haul mania I did while they were here! :)

Ulta:
Ulta Beauty Gems & Ulta Glam Goth

 Utla: Essence
L-R: Hang Loose, Point Break, Pool Party, Plum Perfect, Glamourous

Aldi: Lacura
L-R: Rum Raisin & Sweet Pink

Walgreens: Eva
L-R: Kelly Green & Green Glitter

Big Lots & Sallys:
L-R: WnW Denim Chrome, Savvy Tangy Tarte, Finger Paints Sapphire Shimmer, Orly Ruby Passion, Orly Royal Navy, China Glaze Golden Enchantment

Claires:
L-R:  Glam, Peaceful/Confident, Fabulous/Funky, Flirty/Shy

That's it!! Swatches to come soon. Normal blogging will resume tomorrow! :)

Happy Wednesday!

Finally United with China Glaze Grape Pop!

See, I told you I can't stay away too long. I may be able to make posts later at night when my parents go back to their hotel. Anyways, I can't for the life of me remember what got me crazed about Grape Pop. One thing I do know is that I was that I needed it. If you followed me on Twitter a few months ago you may have seen my less than sane tweets about my dire need for Grape Pop.

I was at a stand still though. At the time I was really only lemming Grape Pop, and thought it wouldn't be very practical to place an order with an e-tailer for one polish + shipping. My local Sally's didn't have it in stock anymore either. I then went on a rampage to find a dupe of Grape Pop. I got OPI Funky Dunky and I got Sally's Girl Your Majesty. They weren't exact dupes, but it was one of those lemmings I couldn't squash until I had the real thing. Well, that day has come my friends....Grape Pop and I have been united. :P Life can go on ...hehe

Isn't she lovely? Grape Pop is a blue-violet med-dark creme. I loves cremes like this that come in non-traditional colors. It's funky and different. I overall love this color!!! :) I think my love for it comes from being a kid. I always loved this shade of purple. I remember when I first started using the internet and AOL chat I always used this color font to type in.

That's it for today. My parents arrived this afternoon. We went out to lunch and did some shopping. We went to Big Lots which was a HUGE disappointment they had little to no makeup there. I ended up getting one Wet N Wild polish. We then went to this store Aldi it's a very odd type of grocery store. It's kind of like Costco or Sams but 1/3rd of the size. They had their own brand of make up there. They had nail polish but only 5 standard colors. I ended up getting 2 because they were cheap and I wanted to try them out. You'll be seeing that stuff in the future!

Happy Monday!

Intrigued by Ingrid

Let me start off by saying I may or may not be blogging for the next few days after this post. My parents are coming to visit tomorrow and I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to blog while they're here. They'll be here through Wednesday, I say all this, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to keep away from blogging since I love it so much. :) If I do go missing though, no worries I'll be back soon. :P

The color Ingrid comes from the China Glaze Vintage Vixen collection. I've mentioned before that I'm growing increasingly picky when it comes to nail polish. I tend to be more reserved than most on collections. A lot of polishes/collections people rave on I'm more likely to take extra time thinking about if I really like it. I know I'm probably overly critical, but when you're buying on a budget you have to be. Buying full collections is out of the question so it really comes to down to picking a few that I think are really worth it. I'm sure if I had a money tree I'd think of things differently! That being said I wasn't overly impressed with the Vintage Vixen collection. I saw a few colors I knew I wanted, but the rest to didn't strike me as really unique or original, except for Ingrid and a few others.

 Ingrid I'd say is a muddy brown with gold shimmer throughout. I'm guessing this would be called "greige". I can confidently say I have no colors like this. It is definitely that unique color I find "worth it"!

When I first saw a preview of Ingrid my response was "ick" and that I knew everyone but me would love this color. I couldn't ever imagine putting the color of mud on your finger nails, but the color grew on me. Even though I'm picky, since blogging I've been trying to venture out in to regions of the nail polish color spectrum I have easily dismissed. I've greatly expanded my blues and got interested in nudes, so this is new territory for me. I don't think you'll see me stocking up on greige colors now, but I do love this one. Now that Classic Camel color that's a different story. I'm still in the "ick" stages with that one and I don't see myself moving away from that. :P

What do you think of the China Glaze Vintage Vixen Collection? What colors are you loving? Are there any colors you want nothing to do with?

Happy Saturday & if I don't blog for a bit I'll see you next week!

China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic

Finally!!!! I'm so happy I was able to make a order on Victoria Nail Supply for some China Glazes I had been lemming! Rodeo Fanatic is one of them.

Rodeo Fanatic reminds me of Texas or more so the questions you get asked if you are from Texas. I was born and raised in Texas until I was 20. I have no strong devotion to Texas. I don't go around saying "everything's bigger in Texas" etc. It's funny growing up the questions you'd get asked by people not from Texas. They usually consisted of the following....

"Do you live on ranch?"
"Do you ride a horse to school?"
"Do you love the Dallas Cowboys?"
"Did you ever go to a rodeo?"

All of these I can say no to. I also have been asked why I don't have an accent. I grew up in the city, it didn't seem any different than any other city except certain restaurants or venues had a bit of Texas flare. Many of these places with Texas flare bordered on obnoxious. I know I fail at being a real Texan. Texas wasn't really my style a bit too conservative for my taste. I really do enjoy Austin and San Antonio though. The one thing I truly miss about Texas is BBQ. It is definitely best there. Florida's has some sad excuses for BBQ.

Anyways on to Rodeo Fanatic!

Rodeo Fanatic is a deep jewel-toned teal shimmer. It is a very luxurious and rich feeling color despite its casual name. It's one of those colors that looks deep in the shade, but when it hits and light and sunlight it comes to life. I'd have to put this one in the must have categories of nail polish!

That's it for today nail polish wise. Kitty had to visit the vet today, she's been throwing sneezing fits and I was worried she was getting an upper respiratory infection. She had a slight fever and the vet put her on antibiotics, so hopefully she'll get well soon. She has a follow up appointment next week. My cat is like my child so I act a bit silly and worry about her a lot when she's not well. I'm hoping she feels better soon!

Has anyone gotten weird questions about where they live or are from? What kind of questions were they?

Happy Friday!

Savina Fireworks & Birthday Goodies!

I wanted to share with you another one of the Savina polishes I got. I'm really loving this brand more and more! I just hope they don't decide to take them away again for a period of time like the one time I visited Nordstrom Rack! Nordstrom Rack please keep your Savinas!

Fireworks

I did the swatch this way because I think this would be a great layering polish. I quite like it on its own, but I think it maybe better layered on top of something! Fireworks is a warm-pink sheer base with iridescent glitter and holographic bar glitter mixed in. I love this type of glitter. I don't usually find two types of glitters mixed into one polish. I think this looks amazing over a dark colored polish. It's blingy, but I wouldn't call it overbearing. It has a very interesting layered glitter effect that is neat!

Now on to some non-nail polish birthday goodies. On my birthday I went to Target and bought some accessories. Let me just say I'm am fashion challenged. I literally had zero accessories with the exception of maybe 3 bracelets and 1 necklace. I don't need fancy things, but I wanted to a get few things just to throw on to embellish an outfit. Oy, will someone sign me up for "How Do I Look" or "What Not To Wear"?

Here are some of the things I got...these could be hideous or completely fashion police worthy. I really don't know since I'm fashion challenged, but I liked them :P.

These are two necklaces I got. The on the left is like 3 necklaces layered silver chain, silver chain with white ribbon woven through, and another silver chain with pearl-like beads. The necklace on the right is an antique-like gold owl. I love owls and thought this was kinda neat looking.

I got these sets of bangles. I have feeling bangles are so 1990 or something like that. The one of the left are a set of silver and gold ones with different textures. The one on the right are black and silver mixed bangles with different textures and embellishments.

Last but not least here was my small little birthday cake from Target bakery LOL :P. It wasn't personalized just one picked up last minute. It did the job!

It was chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing...OMG soooo good!

Happy Thursday!

The rest of Color Club Rebel Debutante...

So with the exception of the "Chocolate Milk and Poo" colors. I quite like the Rebel Debutante collection. This collection is all cremes and has nice variety. Again, I found these in a set at Ross for $7.99. Seven colors for $7.99 is a great deal!


High Society

High Society is a grey creme. I'd say this leans slightly on the warmer side, but is more neutral. I used to be very anti-grey polish, but I'm warming up to them. I love this shade and I'm really into the more fall-like colors right now.

Ms. Socialite

Ms. Socialite is a red-toned purple creme. I like this one it's a nice variation from the more blue-toned purples I'm used to.

She's So Glam

She's so Glam is a bright pastel creme. I am not a fan of pastel pinks cremes unless they have a jelly,glitter, or shimmer finish. I think this an overall nice color, but like I've mentioned before I connect pastel pinks with Pepto Bismol and the various stomach bugs I had growing up. Cute color, but I'll pass on the Pepto!

Uptown Girl

This makes me want to break out into that Billy Joel song, but I'll spare you the torture. Uptown Girl is a lavender creme. As opposed to Pepto, I love lavender! This is a beautiful shade and another one of those muted fall-like colors I adore.

Who Are You Wearing?

Who Are You Wearing? is a off white creme. This has a hint of grey to it. Not a fan of this light of a color on my nails without a different type of finish. It's a bit to stark for my skintone, but besides that point is a lovely color.

That's it for today. Sorry for the not so conversational post. I have plenty of errands to run today so less time for chit chat! I hope you all have a wonderful day though!

Happy Wednesday!

Savina Black Pearl

I first want to thank all of you for all your birthday wishes yesterday. I really appreciate each and everyone of you and you all made my birthday extra special! :) <3

Savina Black Pearl is one of those jackpot colors. The wonder of Black Pearl is that is a beautiful duochrome, depending on the angle and light you see a different shade. While doing a tad bit of research and image searching on black pearls it seems to be that case that black pearls are not really a true black color. They do have a duchrome quality ranging from blue-purple-green-silver. This polish did an excellent job of capturing that. The only down side is that this Black Pearl polish doesn't come with Captain Jack Sparrow, but I think we'll live!

To give you an accurate representation of Black Pearl I captured the polish from different angles and different types of light so you can see what I'm talking about.

This is Black Pearl straight on with flash. It looks like a standard frosty teal. There isn't anything wrong with that, but this polish is way more interesting than that!

Here is a side view of it with flash. At this angle it looks more like a grey-blue-teal frost.

This is under a lamp. Here is where you can see the duochrome factor. It's a frosty-grey-blue with a hint of grey-purple duochrome.

This is another angle under the lamp. Here it looks like a frosty steel with a hint of blue.

Again another angle under the lamp. This one showing a hint more of the grey-purple duochrome.

Yeah. Suffice it to say, I am in love with Black Pearl. What an amazing color that plays tricks with your eyes! It's so different anyway you look at it, and for $4 you cannot go wrong what a winning polish! It's polishes like these that keep the nail polish world exciting. I really think some brands need to do a collection soley based on duochromes. I think that would be a winning collection all around!

Happy Tuesday

P.S. I'm getting in a China Glaze haul from Victoria Nail Supply! Swatches will come soon. I got some polishes from Vintage Vixen, Rodeo Diva, Retro Diva, and Up & Away!