Finger Paints Signed by the Artist

Phew! Yesterday was quite a day, hence the no blog post. That came unexpectedly. My first day back to classes was rather overwhelming and full of work. I don't recall a first day of school being swamped with homework. That all being said I quite enjoyed doing the work. In an effort to work towards changing my major I signed up for a humanities class online. We already have tons of assignments just for the week. I was doing some comparisons of Medieval art pieces vs. Renassiance art pieces and writing a symbolic analysis of Jan van Eyck's "Arnolfini's Wedding" painting.

I feel like I'm in my element again. It's so nice to be able to express my intereptations and insights. It's nice to be challenged and learn other points of view from my classmates. I think I'm on the right path, but it's going to consume my schedule probably more than I thought. That's ok with me though. Please forgive me if I cannot post daily though. I probably will be able to post a few times a week. :)

Anyways in honor of all the art I had to interpret yesterday here is Finger Paints Signed by the Artist!

Signed by the Artist

Signed by the Artist is a light magenta shimmer that also has hints of pink and gold shimmer added to it. I only have a few Finger Paints polishes, but I enjoy all of them. They all have a great formula and I love the artistically named polishes! This is a pretty polish that seems to be lit from within!

I noticed I hit 500 followers yesterday! Thank you all so much for following me. I appreciate the support and I hope to continue to keep you guys entertained and reading. I will probably be hosting a 500 follower giveaway sometime in October. That all being said remember to enter my Back to the Grind giveaway that ends tomorrow!

Happy Tuesday!

Essence The World's Coolest

Last month I purchased 2 polishes from the Essence Surfer Babe collection. When I got home I started regretting not getting the other two because the packaging was just too darn cute. A few weeks later ventured back to Ulta to get the other 2. I know I'm the only one here who falls victim to cute packaging. I think MAC does a good job of this just at price level that isn't always practical for me :P. I try and avoid looking at MAC collections for this reason. Anyways, thankfully these Essence polishes were only $2, so it didn't put that much of dent in my wallet.

The World's Coolest

Again, with the lobster hands. This is another pastel that doesn't agree with my skin tone. I think it's a little more forgiving than the pink, but still not quite right. The World's Coolest isn't a Tiffany blue nor is it a mint green. It's kind of in between that. Those of you who are familiar with Extra Winterfresh gum the kind that came in the stick form. I'd say it's reminiscent of that color. I'm not even sure if they still make that. I'm so behind in my gum knowledge!

I really love the color of this, but the application wasn't good. This took about 4 coats to achieve and that's only because I started layering it on the thick the 3rd and 4th coat because it looking too sheer after the 2nd. I found the polish very sheer and runny. I'm not sure if I got a bad bottle or if they're all like this. It might just be one of those polishes you need to have more patience with, which I do not have. Oh well, with the exception of the application I really do enjoy this polish and the rest of the Surfer Babe ones.

Back to school tomorrow. It's time to get back to the books. I don't imagine me posting less, since I'm addicted to blogging. I do know I'll probably have to do a lot of writing this semester, so there maybe some postless days, but I think you're pretty much stuck with me. I'm sorry! :P

Happy Sunday!

Revlon Pink Chiffon

Pastels and I do not mix. I really wish we did but we just don't. It's mainly the pastel cremes that disagree with my skin tone. I can sometimes pull off ones with a different finish, but that to isn't common. It's ok, though you can't win them all. I didn't really win it with this color Revlon Pink Chiffon. I really loves this color, but it doesn't love me.

Pink Chiffon

Pink Chiffon is a pastel baby pink jelly. Yes, jelly. That is why I love this color. I find jellies a rarity by themselves, but I find pastel jellies even more rare. I love the squishy look to this. Sadly, this looks absolutely dreadful against against my skin tone. It gives me "lobster hands" that look very red and sickly. Oh well, you can't win them all?

Speaking of sickly, I got my flu shot yesterday. My mom when I was little used to make me get one every year and every year I never I got the flu. Last year, I decided not to get either the seasonal flu shot or the H1N1 swine flu shot and I ended up with swine flu. It was around October when it was going around here. I didn't get a terrible case of it, and it didn't last too long, but long enough. It was about 3-4 straight days of chills,fever,muscle aches, coughing, and nausea. No thank you. Not again. This year they've combined the strains of seasonal flu with the H1N1 into one shot, so hopefully I'll be flu free! Plus, I got my shot at Walgreens which gave me $3 off coupon for any purchase I made that day. Flu free and $3 off nail polish goodies, I have no complaints!

Are there any types of colors that don't work for you?

Happy Saturday!

LA Splash Crimson Tide

Reminder: You have 6 more days to enter my giveaway!


I wanted to first thank all of you who commented on yesterdays blog with advice. I appreciate all of your feedback, it is all really helpful to me! :) <3

I'm so glad I discovered LA Splash. To be honest, I didn't know it existed until I saw this brand at Ulta. They have a nice selection of polishes with an emphasis on the sparkle! They seemed to have lots of glittery top coats as well just general glitter polishes. One of the polishes they caught my eye was Crimson Tide.


Crimson Tide

 Crimson Tide is a deep vampy red I'd even suggest it's a blood red jelly that is mixed with red and gold glitter. This color is gorgeous. I am so thrilled because often times you come across a deep red glittery color and it's so dark it reads black on your nails with subtle red glitter. It's either that or the standard true red glitters (i.e. China Glaze Ruby Pumps). This definitely shows up as a red on your nails and it the glitter is very visible. It's a great color that I haven't seen in other polishes I have in my stash. I'm definitely excited about this one!

What are some of your favorite vampy shades?

Happy Friday!

Update + Quarter-Life Crisis

I just wanted to mention I updated "My Stash" page. You can go to it by clicking the tab above. What I did is I attached a link to all the polishes in my stash I have blogged about. The polishes you can click on will now take you to the blog post where I swatched that particular color. I did this with about 90% of the polishes I've blogged about. I didn't link some because I plan on re-swatching them because they were swatches I did early in blogging when I didnt' know how to use my camera. These pictures were especially craptastic. Anyways, I hope this will make things easier to navigate to find particular swatches. Also, I did this so you can see what polishes I haven't swatched. Please, please, please let me know of any color you want me to swatch for the blog. I'd love to take your request. You can either comment in the post or send me an email by clicking my new pretty envelope button up top next to all the social networking buttons. :)

I've got a ton of polish as you can see that I'd love to share with you (this is just the pinks)!

 (You can skip this next part it's rather long and not nail polish related)

Ok, on to my quarter-life crisis. I never intended to to blog much about my personal life, but sometimes you can't hold back. I really like gaining feedback from others and advice. I figure there are many of us in the same age group and those of us who are not but have been and can understand where I'm coming from. I won't get into much detail, but my college experience has been a challenging one. I wasn't ready for college after high school. I was very insecure and I felt moving far away from home would answer my problems. I was wrong, it was a very isolating and lonely experience for me. I moved back home, got on my feet, gained confidence, and decided I wanted to pursue the hospitality management industry. I moved to Florida because they have the best education for it here and for the first 2 years I loved it.

Well, now, I'm not loving it so much. I love where I live. I love school, but I'm starting to wonder if this is the right career path for me? I don't feel challenged at all in this field. The classes are insanely easy. I think I'd be great in hospitality. I have strong leadership skills, business sense, and managerial skills. I just don't feel like that's enough for me. I don't feel like I'm being intellectually stimulated if that makes sense. When I graduated high school I wanted to teach. I always loved to write. I love British literature, art history, philosophy, and everything that has influenced society and culture. I dropped this idea after my first bad experience at a school. I just associated that desire for that field with all the negatives going around me at the time.

As of now, the passion for  humanities has rolled back into me. I find myself indulging in books and documentaries on all these subjects that I have always loved, but just haven't pursued. I always have felt a strong desire to not only soak up as much knowledge as I can, but inspire others to become interested in how we've been shaped throughout our history through technology, religion, art, literature, and etc. I like the idea of teaching or perhaps doing some type of educating in a museum setting etc. The problem is do I change my career path and delve into something new and challenging or do I stick with something that's practical and I know I'm good at? It's really eating at my brain. I signed up for a humanities class this semester just to see if I really want to pursue this. I read in the course description there will be weekly short essays and 2 major research papers. I know for most this would make people groan, but it excites me. I can't wait to be able write again. I can't wait to share my opinions, thoughts, and insights. I feel so deprived of that type of learning.

I think I need to assess my current skills and how I can maybe use both of the skills to find a career path that would be rewarding for me. I think I just hold myself back thinking that it's wrong for me to change my mind now or that I should already have things figured out.  The people I grew up with seem to have their careers figured out and I'm still questioning? I don't know. I just feel kind of alone like this sometimes? I'll figure things out though.

Thanks for letting me vent. If anyone has any feedback, advice, words of wisdom, or support I'd greatly appreciate it. I've been asking many people in real life these same questions. I just like to hear people thoughts it helps me put things into perspective.

Happy Thursday!

Cover Girl Pink Twinkle

My boyfriend and I took a spontaneous trip to Target yesterday to buy tomatoes,zucchini, and an alarm clock. I know incredibly random. We were on the way to the front to check out when my boyfriend spotted the clearence section. I spotted nail polish there and he immediately went "Oh no why did I have to find this?" and jokingly rolled his eyes. I think he tolerates my nail polish addiction :P. I spotted this really pretty glittery top coat by Cover Girl called Pink Twinkle. It was originally $4.42, but it was on clearance for $2.12.


Pink Twinkle layered over Milani Pink Pop

 Pink Twinkle layered over Savina Coy

I am SO excited about this find! I'm so used to seeing polishes with iridescent glitter that is on the cool side. The glitters flash blue or green. I haven't been able to find polishes were the iridescent glitter is warm and flashes pink and gold. All that being said, Pink Twinkle is a sheer pink with pink and gold iridescent glitter. It's so pretty. It looks like a sparkling sunset in a bottle! I think I like it better over the neon pink than the coral color. I'm thinking this would look great over a lighter orange too. You could layer it over anything you wanted really!

This is a great little find. I have to thank the boyfriend for even though he probably wishes he kept his mouth shut in the first place. No worries, I paid for it. I don't subject him to buying my polish! :P

Happy Wednesday!

Orly Opal Hope

I think we've all been in this position. You're either shopping in a store or online and you have X amount of money to spend. You fill up your cart with the stuff you want and your lemmings are fulfilled,, but you have room to buy one more polish. What do you do? This can be a frustrating situation at least for me. It's nail polish and being as picky as I am I don't want to just pick up any random thing.

This happened to me recently when I was shopping online with Ulta. I filled up my cart with all the polishes I wanted and I knew I could get one more. This is where other bloggers can help. I always will go through blogs or Flickr photostreams to help me make a decision. I came across Scrangie's post "More Random Polishes I Like" which lead me to purchase Orly Opal Hope.

Opal Hope

I alternated Opal Hope on it's own then over black. At first I would of suspected this color be sheer, but it's not it is quite opaque after 2-3 coats. I also didn't expect much from it. It seemed to be light pink shimmer, but I know if it was on Scrangie's random polishes she likes list it had to have some special quality. This is a beautiful duochrome! That sadly this photo doesn't do it justice. It's pink shimmer that flashes sea foam green and gold. It also has these little micro glitters in it that are light pink and gold. When it's layered over black it's a shimmery sea foam green that flash a bit blue and purple. It seems like such a simple polish, but it has a lot to offer.

I love duochromes. I know this isn't like the SH HD's or the new Orly Cosmix, but I consider any duochrome a real treat since they are not the most common of polishes in the nail polish world. I think this looks great on it's own or over another color. I'm curious to try it layered over colors to see how it would look!

What are some of your favorite duochrome polishes?

Happy Tuesday!

Revlon Just Add Sparkle Glitters

In the midst of the psychotic CVS lady from the other day, I did manage to have a successful nail polish trip.  They had Revlon products BOGO 50% off and I spotted the new Revlon glitters so I decided to get them all. I'm glad I spotted them because they were hidden in the deep dark corner on the bottom shelf. I hope no one was hiding them :P.

This collection came with 4 creme colors Galaxy (black creme), Ruby (red creme), Silver (grey creme), and Rock (purple creme). All of these creme shades came with sparkly glitter top coats as their counterparts. Each of these top coats corresponded to the creme color. I only purchased the glitters, since the cremes were pretty standard colors I already had in my collection.

L-R: Galaxy, Slipper, Belle, & Star

Galaxy

This is Galaxy layered of Wet n' Wild Black Creme. Galaxy is prominently a mix of black glitter mixed in with blue, gold, and silver glitter and, silver holographic hexagonal glitters all  suspended in a clear base. I really love the variation of the colors with the glitter in this one.

Belle

This is Belle layered over Milani Day Dreaming. Belle is prominently a silver glitter mixed in with gold, blue, and silver holographic hexagonal glitters suspended in a clear base. This is not a look I would ever think to go for but I quite like it!

Slipper 

 This is Slipper layered over Revlon Raven Red. Slipper is prominently red glitter with silver glitter and silver holographic hexagonal glitter suspended in a clear base. I love this one, then again I'm sucker for red glitter anything. I'm interested in layering this over a blue. I bet it would be great for 4th of July even though that's so far away! :P

Star

This is Star layered over OPI Funky Dunkey. Star is a purple and silver glitter mixed in with silver holographic hexagonal glitter suspended in a clear base.

Here are all the glitters layered over black.

Index to Pinky- Galaxy, Star, Slipper, & Belle.

Overall, I really enjoyed these glitters. I have read a lot of comments from people on whether they should get these or not. I don't think these are must haves, but for me I'm glad I bought them. I first was unsure because they didn't seem to have much variation between the glitters, but at a closer glance these all have their own unique blend of different color glitters. Also, you don't have to go by Revlon's guidelines obviously you can layer these over any color and you'll get different results.

If you're into glitters and layering a lot then I think these would be right for you. I personally like having all of them. I like the addition of the hexagonal glitter that isn't very common in drugstore polishes. I think if you're on the fence, getting one of these will probably do the job. If I had to pick a favorite I'd go with either Galaxy or Belle because they have the most dimension and would probably be the most universal as far as you could layer it over anything. Galaxy and Rock are similar but Galaxy is better. I personally love Slipper because I love red glitters, but if you're not into red much this one wouldn't be necessary. Again, I don't these are must haves, but they're nice additions. I think it just comes down to your personal tastes and what you like to do with your polish.

I hope this review gives some insight and helps some of you out rather than left you dumbfounded! Now if we can only get Revlon to bring back Street Wear polishes!

Happy Monday!

Color Club Wham! Pow!

I wasn't planning on doing this color today, but an experience at CVS inspired me to do this polish. It was a very "Wham! Pow!"-ish encounter, but not in a pleasant way. I'll explain later. I got this polish from Ross that came in the Poptastic collection with 6 other polish for $7.99! A great deal for a nice variety of colors if you ask me!

Wham! Pow!

Unfortunately, this was so flourescent my camera didn't cpature it correctly. This is a bright, in your face, blinding, neon, carrot orange creme. You will definitely be making statement wearing this bright shade. I love these bright shades, but I think I'd feel better about this on my toes. :P

Ok, about my CVS experience. I walked in to CVS yesterday to of course look at nail polish. I walk in and there is a massive line to check out. I started browsing then I hear this screaming and yelling in the front. This lady was yelling at these poor employees in front over a coupon. She had just spent $48 in the pharmacy and received a coupon to get $5 off $20+ on her next purchase, so she started shopping for more stuff. She went to the front to check out and only spent $13 and still wanted to use the coupon. The employee said she needed to spend more to use the coupon, and she threw a 3 year old temper tantrum fit. It was insane. She was screaming and yelling at these people because she felt she was entitled to use the coupon since she previously spent $48 at the pharmacy. She screamed about how bad CVS is with customer service. Then she started an interrogation of each employee in front asking for their full names and their store number so she can report them to the corporate office. She was obviously screaming to try and draw attention to herself, as if what she was saying would get people to back her up or something. She sounded not only sounded like a huge b*tch, but psychotic. She stood there screaming at these people who were nothing but calm and cordaial to her for 20 minutes wasting their time and all those people waiting in line.

Ugh people can be so terrible! I really was so mad at how she was treating these people I wanted to tell her to bleep herself! I refrained though. I really hate the saying "the customer is always right" because that isn't always true. There are people out there who thrive off complaining and making people working for their living lives miserable because they think they're holier than thou. I'm sure CVS wasn't the only victim of this nasty woman. Ugh, very frustrating. I get so worked up just re-telling the story. Blech. That was my Wham! Pow! moment I wasn't expecting that going for a leisurely trip to CVS!

Happy Sunday

Orly Rockin Rocket

I've mentioned on another post my love for the holiday season. I love that time of year. I'm excited now because many nail polish companies are starting to release their holidays colors. I'm pretty picky when it comes to holiday nail colors. I think it's because you can only have so many  reds and greens glitters/shimmers/cremes. I usually go for the colors that are little more unique. That's why I purchased Orly Rockin' Rocket!

Rockin' Rocket

Outdoors

Indoors

Rockin' Rocket is a burgundy-berry with golden shimmer. It's more of a luxurious and rich color than your standard Christmas red. It reminds me of those elegant Christmas trees some people have or that you see in fancy hotels with the rich red ribbons and the golden ornaments. I have no complaints on the formula or application of these. I haven't had issues with Orly polishes. I think not only is it fitting for the holidays but it would be a great fall and winter color too!

Ok, now I'm ready for Christmas! 

Happy Saturday!

China Glaze Golden Enchantment +Tag

*Sorry for reposting this blog so many times. I was having issues with a new commenting system that was messing up my blog, so I had to respost it in order to get comments again!*

You can never have enough glittery/shimmery top coats. I think my Helmer drawer for my special top coats is almost full! Golden Enchantment was a color I had wanted, but I wasn't necessarily in need of it. Thankfully, Sally's had these on sale which pushed me to get it. I'm thankful I did because it's a pretty one!

Golden Enchantment

This is Golden Enchantment layed over NYC Black Lace. It's a golden holographic microglitter in a clear base. It really adds dimension to a polish. I love how over black it looks like space splattered with stars. As a nerd who likes astronomy this is plus! This would look great layered over anything. There are no limitations!

I was also tagged by the lovely Lacquer Ware for Tips and Toes for this neat little survey!

1. Have you ever felt so disappointed in a nail polish you wanted to throw it out the window? And why?
Yes. I even blogged about it Misa Fleeting Hibiscus. I saw one swatch of it online and it looks like a really pretty shimmer. It ended up being a really pastel pearl pink stomach medicine ugly color. It looked awful on my skintone. Blech.

2. What are your top three favorite nail polishes?
Geez, this is hard. Probably...Zoya Elke, China Glaze Strawberry Fields, & Orly La Playa....and dozens of others. 

3. What is your favorite online store?
It's hard to say it depends on who has certain collections first. It's a tie between Head2Toe Beauty, Victoria Nail Supply, & Transdesign

4. Is there anything you'd like to share with us that you haven't shared before?
Sorry, this isn't interesting, but I don't really think I have anything new to share. The only stuff I don't share on the blog really are religious views, political views, and etc for obvious reasons. I'm a pretty liberal person as far as human rights and I'm very outspoken about it in real life. I think discrimination and hatred because of someones religion,race, sexual preference, & etc is incredibly destructive and wrong. I'll leave it at that, though I can imagine a majority of you will agree with me.


5. What is your favorite song of the moment?
I don't have a favorite song of the moment. I'm so not caught up with mainstream music. Some of my favorite songs though do come from Elton John, Billy Joel, Chicago, and America. Yeah, I like music from the 70's...lol

I tag anyone who would like to do this survey!

Happy Friday!


P.S: If you commented on this post earlier and your comment is no longer viewable, it's because I was testing that new comment system and it removed the previous comments. I didn't remove them on purpose. I decided not to use this comment system, so it's back to normal now.

China Glaze Moulin Rouge

I love glittery polishes, but what is even better is glittery jelly polishes. China Glaze gave us this when they released their specialty collection last fall. This collection consisted of a TON of packed full of glitter polishes. I think they had about 30. It was a gorgeous collection, but besides beauty did these deliver performance wise. I'm going to have to vote no, but I'm wondering if it's just me? I'll get in this later.

Moulin Rouge

Moulin Rouge is a bright red-pink jelly with iridescent glitter mixed throughout. It's a gorgeous fun color that the glitter really enhances. That all being said I am not sold on the formula or the formula of the other glitters from this collection. I've had same experience with the other glitters. Please note this is only my experience, so I could be the only one with these issues!

1. These chip like crazy within hours of just putting it on.
2. The formula is a mess. The formula is thick, yet the pink jelly base doesn't necessarily seem jelly to me. Unlike, glittery colors like Emerald Sparkle & Ruby Pumps where the glitter and jelly base seem to gel together to create a smooth finish, this does not. The base of color seems to come off looking more like a sheer wash of color rather than jelly. I know this doesn't necessarily make since the formula is goopy and thick, but when it dries the base color looks as if it's too thin for the glitter mixed in. It doesn't have the correct balance which leads too.....
3. This polish feels gritty and looks uneven on the nail. Even with three layers of top coat I don't get smooth shiny finish.
4. This is a pain in the butt to remove, but that's not unheard of with glitter polishes.

I've had the same exact issues with Bad Kitty, Preppy Pink, Mango Maddness, & Dynasty. I'm wondering if it's just me, because I haven't found any blogs talk about these issues. I've tried these with 3 different base coats, Sally Hansen Double Duty, CND Sticky, & Orly Bonder, and had the same results. I used the same combo of top coats I always use first Revlon Extra Life Top Coat follow by Seche Vite.

Here is a picture about 6 hours after wear

As you can see there is tip wear and some chips along the sides of my nail. About an hour later a big chunk of polish came off half my index finger. I ended up repainting it, just to decide to take it all of a few hours later. I couldn't stand the uneven look and the chipping.

Am I doing something wrong? Anyone have any suggestions? Anyone else having these issues too with these?!? I'd really love to know because these are gorgeous polishes, but I am so disappointed with the formulas I don't want to bother wearing them.  :(

Thanks for any advice or feedback!

Happy Thursday!

Back to the Grind Giveaway!--CLOSED!!!!

Hey everyone I have small giveaway for you. I'm naming this the "Back to the Grind" giveaway since I know many of us are going back to school soon. Blech. There is a downside to this giveaway. This particular giveaway is only open to US residents. I will continue to have giveaways open to everyone in the future, but at this time I cannot anticipate international shipping charges if an international person were to win. I'm sorry :(. I hope you all understand.

Here is what you can win!

Sinful Colors Mini Set
Includes: Sugar Sugar, Canary Yellow, Love Nails, San Francisco, & Let's Talk
Sinful Colors Call Me Later- Green and gold layering glitter
Wet n' Wild Sparked- Pink, fuchsia, and silver layering glitter
Eva Pure Joy- Opalescent pink/gold sheer duochome layering polish
Sinful Colors Hottie- Sheer blue with iridescent glitter layering polish

Guidelines:

-You must be a US resident.
-You must be 18 or older or have your parents permission to enter.
-Giveaway will end Wednesday September 1st @ 11:59 EST winner will be announced the following day.
-Winner must reply within 2 days of being contacted or else I will have to choose another winner :(.

How To Enter:

-Please put your entries in the comment section. If at all possible please try to put them all in one comment. :)

Mandatory Entries:
1. You must be a follower & provide me with your email address. (1 entry)

Optional Entry:
2. You can tweet or blog (in post or sidebar) for an extra entry. (1 entry)

Thats it!

If you have an questions please email me at imperfectlypainted@gmail.com

Happy Wednesday!