Throwbacks Week: Claire's Galaxy

It's time for another week of throwbacks. I love this week because I really get to shop my stash and rediscover some oldies but goodies. I came across this Claire's polish this past week and I was quickly reminded why it was one of my favorite black glitter polishes.

Galaxy

Galaxy is a black jelly with silver micro glitter.

Collection: N/A. I believe I purchased this in 2011 or 2012.

Color: This is definitely best silver glitter/black polish I own because it's the only one that does it right because of the balance. This is a great base to glitter ratio going on. The glitter is prominent and isn't drowned out by the base which I see in many polishes that try to do this.

Formula: This formula is good. I used 3 coats here. I think the jelly base and the use of the micro glitter is definitely what makes this polish a success.

Price: N/A. Claire's polishes always seem to just come and go on a whim. I got this around 4-5 years ago so it's long gone.

Overall: This is great polish. I think this would make the perfect base for galaxy manicures if I ever were to attempt nail art of any sort. I love the balance of glitter and base and it's an overall great look.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Paint Splatters

 Happy Monday!

Way-Cool Mani Wednesday: Out of this World

My favorite movie of all time is Contact. This movie is based on the amazing book Contact by Carl Sagan. This isn't your typical sci-fi action adventure. What I love about this film/book is how thoughtful and inspiring it is. The basic premise of this film is that earth is contacted by extraterrestrials, and it goes about the motions of our reaction and experience to this in a realistic way.

The grandeur and awe of our vast universe, and how precious and tiny we all in comparison, is just one of the beautiful and humbling concepts in this film/book. I cry every time I watch this film because it gives me hope that humanity will not only one day learn to love each other, but that we will continue to push ourselves to discover and explore our universe. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

In honor of my favorite movie and Way-Cool Mani Wednesday. I wanted to do mani inspired by it. The easy choice would be galaxy nails, but "I ain't got time for that"! Instead I chose to something that didn't involve nail art, but I think is clearly inspired by space.

Polishes Used:

China Glaze 2NITE, Claire's Galaxy, and Shimmer Polish Astrid.

Manicure Description: I pained my thumb, index, and pinky finger with ChG 2NITE. I painted my middle finger with Claire's Galaxy, and I layered 2 coats of Shimmer Polish Astrid over Cult Nails Nevermore on my ring finger.

I love my mani! I think I also captured a lot of the colors in the film cover.

I love a great galaxy manicure, but I think if you don't have the time or patience to recreate that, you can always look toward holographic polishes, holographic glitters, iridescent glitters, and black glittery polishes to help give off the space-themed without all the work!

Happy Wednesday!

Claire's Pinata & Comparison

Claire's and Icing are those stores that I have easy access to, but I do not shop at often. I know when I go in there 8 out of 10 times I'll find something new and cool I want. Haha, that's why I try to avoid it. The temptation is strong!  Lately, they both have an excellent selection of fun glitter polishes. The best part of Claire's and Icing is they have this permanent Buy One Get 1 50% off sale on their cosmetics. Their polishes usually are $4-$5 a pop, so this makes them really affordable and even more tempting. I picked up this pretty I spotted last weekend. I couldn't resist it!

Claire's Pinata over Cult Nails Nevermore

Pinata is a mixture of gold, silver, purple, red, blue, and green shredded glitters in a clear base.

Seriously how could I not resist this? It is amazing! I do not have a rainbow shredded glitter polish like this, so I was very excited to see this. I did add some thinner to this off the bat, as I did find it a bit on the thick side. The thinner did the trick though, and I found it easy to apply afterwards. I love the bright colors in this polish, and I'm really very excited about it. I'm so excited about this one, I'd call it a must have especially if you do not have any polishes like this one.

After typing up this review, I knew I'd get some questions on how this compares to Cult Nails Happy Ending. The pic below is a comparison on nail wheels.

L-R Claire's Pinata & Cult Nails Happy Ending.

They both are shredded glitters, but their color scheme is entirely different. Happy Ending is a mix of orange, gold, aqua, and lavender glitters, while Pinata is a mix of gold, silver, purple, red, blue, and green glitters.

I *think* I found this one on the Claire's website if you do not have a Claire's near you. This is the listing, it isn't called Pinata though, just "Multi". While, the image is of the correct polish I am not 100% sure that is what you're getting since it is named different. If you're interested in purchasing this online, I'd contact Claire's customer service first, and verify that is the correct polish.

Happy Wednesday!

Claire's Galaxy

Do you ever swap,sell, or get rid of a polish you wish you hadn't? When I had my blog sale I really did not regret getting rid of my stuff. I think for the most part the colors I got rid of were colors I had dupes of or color that did not really work out for me. That being said, a few weeks after the fact I started to miss my Orly Goth. The funny thing is I never really liked Orly Goth. It was never glittery enough, but I did not know there were better black polishes with more glitter in them. Then I came across Claire's Galaxy, and it remedied my regret for Orly Goth ten fold. This was what I wanted Orly Goth to be!

Galaxy

Galaxy is a black polish mixed in with tons of tiny silver glitters.

That's more like it! This is so much better than Orly Goth (not saying Orly Goth is bad, but if you're a glitter junkie you may of been slightly disappointed).  This is a great color. The only issue is the formula is thick. I've always had problems with Icing and Claire's polishes apply like jelly or something. These always benefit from...more than few drops of thinner. :P

Happy Monday!

Claire's Yel

I don't make it to Claire's often. I'm somewhat iffy on  Claire's polishes. I've picked out some great colors, but usually their selection isn't great or the formula isn't up to par. The good thing about their polishes is they are usually on sale BOGO 50% off.

Yel

Yel is holographic robin's egg blue. I can't get enough of holographic colors, so this one is definitely a unique variation of one. The holographic-ness isn't as prominent as in other brands,  but it's enough to make statement. My only beef with this color is the formula. This was 3 coats and I still had patchy bald spots. The formula was very sheer. I also don't understand the name what is "Yel"?

I don't have much else to say today. I'm not in the best of moods. This upcoming week is going to be difficult for me with my school work and other things going on. I'm looking forward to October 1st. It's kind of one of those weeks where you have some major thing going on, and doesn't feel like life goes on after that event. Do you get what I mean? It's like you're waiting for this doomsday and you can't think, plan, or be excited about anything else until it's over. I tend to make things out to be way worse than they are. I know this, but I can't help it :P. No worries, nothing serious is happening this week. It's just something that gives me a lot of anxiety when most people don't even give it a second thought. Anyways, I will try to remain a positive as possible on here.

Happy Saturday!

Claire's Glam + 4 Things

I don't think I realize how much I love glittery polishes until I put them on. Sparkle=happiness. I realized I rarely wear full on glitter polishes. I may wear polishes that are color mixed in with glitter, but ones that are pure glitter are rarity for me. I'm not sure why exactly because I love them so much! Claire's Glam is one I definitely love!

Glam

Glam is an aqua/turquoise glitter suspended in a clear base. I ended up layering this over black polish, but if you wanted you could probably do it 4 coats on it's own. I LOVE it over black. It gives the polish so much dimension. It looks very mermaid-y. I think I wore this manicure for 4 days and only took it off because I ended up chipped it opening up package. :(

I was also tagged by Polish Freshie for the 4 things tag! Thank you! I tag anyone else who wants to do this :P.

4 things in my bag/purse
* Highlighter

* 5 tubes of lipgloss
* Wallet
* Hand Sanitizer

4 favorite things in my room
* TV
* Makeup vanity
* Bed  (I love sleep)
* Perfumes

4 things I’ve always wanted to do
* Travel all over Western Europe
* Swim with dolphins

* Design my own house

* Live on the central coast of CA and open up a little store :P

4 things I’m currently into
* Nail polish
* Really trashy reality television (i.e. Real Housewives of _____)
* History (been doing a lot of reading & watching documentaries on The Dark Ages, World Wars, the holocaust, etc) I'm interested in the human psyche and why it's so easy for people to do disgusting and horrible things to others. That ruined the mood of the survey!
* Star Trek because I'm nerd. :P

Do you like glittery polishes? What are you some of your favorites?

Happy Monday!

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!

Claire's Diva & Icing Roger That

Today I found this smaller beauty supply store in the mall closest to me. They sold OPI & Essie polishes so I grabbed OPI Funky Dunkey. I've been into the blue and purples cremes lately so that fulfilled a lemming! They also had a small salon in there, that offered eyebrow threading which I haven't been able to find near me! I can't wax my brows because I have such sensitive skin I get really bad reactions including one time my eye swelled up the size of golf ball! Anyways, I got my brows done and Funky Dunkey in one trip! I've lived here 3 years and never stopped in there until now. I'll definitely being going back for polishes and brow touch ups!

Today I'm going to show you Claire's Diva and Icing Roger That. I like Claire's and Icing polishes they don't have the widest selection but they do have some unique colors and usually have BOGO sales on cosmetics so it works out well.

Claire's Diva

I know this looks weird. What I did is on my index and ring finger I did the polish over black and one my middle and pinky finger I did it on its on. It's a med-purple micro glitter in a clear base. I think it looks great either way, but over the black it really add a lot of depth!

Icing Roger That

At first I thought this was a dupe to ChG Watermelon Rind, but it's definitely not. I'd say Roger That is Watermelon Rind's lighter and brighter cousin. It is a turquoise jelly base with silver glass fleck. It's a beautiful polish, that has actually been in my untrieds for over a year. Shame on me! I will definitely be sporting this beauty more.

That's it for today. I am hitting the pool today. It is so hot out here I just want to swim. I'm so excited. I used to swim all the time as a kid, but as I hit my teens I never wanted to swim anymore because I was so self conscious about how I looked in a swimsuit. I'm sure we've all been there. It sucks, because I loved swimming so much. Now at 23, I don't give a rat's behind so I'm going to enjoy it!

Have a great day!

I Won't Spend More Than 10! Part Two

Reminder! You only have 2 more days to enter my giveaway!

In continuation from yesterday's post I will be featuring moderately priced drugstore brands today $3-%6.

Moderate end $3-$6
Cover Girl

Featured Colors: Ruby Dust, City Lights, Crystal Mist, Rhythmic Blue, & Gold Rush
Price: $3-$4
Where to buy: various drugstores, Target, Walmart, some grocery stores
Pros:
-Amazing selection of glittery/shimmery top coats for layering that I personally use often
-Usually have sales, coupons, and BOGOs in drugstores
Cons:
-Don't have wide selection of colors
-Color range is limited and not very imaginative

Maybelline

Featured Colors: Beach Plum, Banana Bamba, & Coral Cabana
Price: $3.50-$4
Where to buy: various drugstores, Target, Walmart, some grocery stores
Pros:
-Usually come out with seasonal collections with trendy colors
-Fast drying
-Usually have sales, coupons, and BOGOs in drugstores
Cons:
-In general they don't have a wide color selection

Milani

Featured Colors: Dot Com, Gold Lame, Disco Lights, Pink Pop, Garnet Gems
Price: $3.50-$5
Where to buy: various drugstores, Target, Cherry Culture, and some grocery stores
Pros:
-Wide selection of colors and finishes
-Come out with various collections throughout the year
-Colors are trendy and funky
-I find Milani similar to China Glaze as far as the types of polish colors they make
Cons:
-Not widely available in certain parts of the country
-Only get 0.45fl oz of polish which is a smaller amount compared to other brands

Revlon

Featured Colors: Midnight Affair, Plum Seduction, Raven Red, & Steel-her Heart
Price: $4-$5
Where to buy: various drugstores, Target, Walmart, some grocery stores
Pros:
-Has a good selection of wearable mainstream colors
-Usually comes out with seasonal collections
-Has a nice selection of basecoats and topcoats
Cons:
-Some may find their colors not very imaginative or unique

China Glaze

Featured Colors: Ruby Pumps, DV8, Nova, Strawberry Fields
Price: $3-$6 (cheaper from e-tailers pricier at Sallys)
Where to buy: Etailers- (8ty8 Beauty, Head2Toe Beauty, Trans Design) or Sally's Beauty Supply
Pros:
-Vast and I mean vast selection of colors and finishes
-Colors are trendy,funky, and unique
-Come out with amazing seasonal collections that tend to be very popular
Cons:
-Personally I'm not found of their brushes I find them too small and difficult to use

Orly

Featured Colors: Oh Cabana Boy, Pixy Stix, Passion Fruit, & Glam
Price: $3.20-$6 (cheaper from e-tailers pricier at Sallys)
Where to buy: CVS, Etailers (8ty8 Beauty, Head2Toe Beauty, Trans Design) or Sally's Beauty Supply
Pros:
-Have a nice selection of wearable mainstream colors
-Come out with seasonal collections that are trendy
-Great application
-You get 0.6fl oz of polish which is more than most brands
Cons:
-They don't have the most unique variety of colors

Claire's/Icing

Featured Colors: Blackout, Roger That, Goldmine, Yel
Price: $3.50-$5.50
Where to buy: Claire's & Icing stores
Pros:
-Unique colors including mood, neon, and glitter types of polishes
-Typically can be found on sale (ex. BOGO 1/2 off)
Cons:
-Limited selection of colors
-Can only be found in Claire's or Icing stores

Finger Paints

Featured Colors: Signed by the Artist, Maroon Macaroon, Decked with Dazzle, & Coral Collage
Price: $4-$5
Where to buy: Sally's Beauty Supply
Pros:
-Great application
-Wide range of mainstream colors
-Usually come out with seasonal collections with trendy colors
-Usually can be found on sale at Sally's
Cons:
-As far as I know it's only found at Sally's
-Some my find their colors not to be as unique as other brands

Sally Hansen

Featured Colors: Hidden Treasure, Zip, Antique Bronze, Purple Pizazz, In the Spotlight
Price: $3-$8
Where to buy: various drugstores, Target, Walmart, some grocery stores
Pros:
-Have various lines that cater to different peoples preferences,style, price range,and taste
-Usually come out with seasonal collections for some of their lines
-Have a wide range of nail products not just polish
-Usually have sales, coupons, and BOGOs in drugstores
Cons:
-Products can be inconsistent
-Some of their lines can be pricey
-Some seasonal collections are hard to find

Phew! That's a lot! Stay tuned for the high end under 10 brands tomorrow!
International readers remember to post your under 10 products and their info so I can add it to my international affordable nail polish post for Saturday!

Have a great Thursday!