Essie Stroke of Brilliance

I must thank Klout and Essie for helping my nail stash grow. I think I've had around 4 Essie Klout perks in the past few months. That's 4 Essie polishes for free. Woo hoo! This next polish is new addition to their LuxeEffects line.

Stroke of Brilliance over OPI I Have a Herring Problem

Stroke of Brilliance is a mixture varying sizes of steel blue hex glitters in a clear base.

This is an unusual glitter color. You do not see gray-blue metallic glitters often. I really love it, and I hope they add more colors to this line. The formula on this was great. It was easy to apply, and you won't be fishing for any glitters. I approve!

Happy Monday!

Share With You Sunday: More Olympic Manis

I'm going to postpone my usual link share until next week, because I have a handful of Olympic manis to show you today. I don't want to detract from that! If you submitted a link for this week's post, it will be posted next week.

Name: Alyssa Botello
Location: Texas
Manicure Description: I painted the Olympic torch and then did the rings on my thumb. Colors used: Flame: China Glaze Salsa, Zoya Nidhi, Kleancolor Metallic Mango, Metallic Yellow Torch: Kleancolor Metallic Yellow and Coffee Addict. Olympic Rings: China Glaze First Mate, Starboard, Salsa, L.A. Colors Circuits and Zoya Pippa.
Favorite Summer Olympic Sport: Gymnastics and Swimming!
Blog: http://fancyphalanges.blogspot.com/

Name: Kara
Location: England, UK
Manicure Description: My manicure was inspired by the London 2012 logo. I used Leighton Denny – I Love Juicy (red), OPI – Green-wich Village (green), Leighton Denny – Brick Red (yellow), Nails Inc – Kensington Park Road (blue) and Max Factor – Lacquer Noir (black).
Favorite Summer Olympic Sport: I’m not really into sports and haven’t really watched the Olympics but on the odd occasion that I do watch, it is usually the Swimming.

Name: Lucy - Lucy's Stash
Location: United Kingdom
Manicure Description: The manicure depicts the Olympic torch in Britain
Favorite Summer Olympic Sport: I don't have favourite summer sport but i like voleyball and i'm looking forward the Olympics
Blog: Lucy's Stash www.lucysstash.com

Name: Nicole
Location: Victoria, BC, Canada
Manicure Description: My inspiration for these nails was the outfits worn by Great Britain at the opening ceremonies. Despite the flack, I loved their outfits, they were so flashy and you can't go wrong with white and gold. Because I'm super anal, I didn't want to attempt the freehand nail art on my right hand, so I just did all the colors of the Olympic rings and then put a top coat of gold glitter, which I ended up loving even more!  
Favorite Summer Olympic Sport: I love the summer Olympics! My favorite thing to watch, which I've managed to miss all of, is gymnastics. My favorite thing to say after they've completed a particularly amazing routine is "I can do that." Obviously, I can't but I'm waiting for someone to say "You can?" I love how proud the athletes are to represent their country, even if they lose. It also warms my heart to see the parade of athletes in the opening ceremony, especially the countries that have only a handful of athletes. Can you imagine how amazing that would be to have your whole country know who you are and be rooting for you? Blog: http://nearlynailed.blogspot.ca/

Name: Tishana
Location : USA
Manicure Description: I used Soak Off Gel polishes for this manicure and shopyoumix gold flakies. Featured gymnastics, swimming and cycling. On my right thumb is olympic torch in glitter but hard to see in picture:) Silhouettes inspired by nailpro.tumbler.com
Favorite Olympic Sport: Gymnastics

Thank you to all of you who submitted Olympic manicures these past few weeks. I've really enjoyed all that you came up with. It's been fun!

Normal reader manis will resume next week, so if you have a mani you want to share please send it my way!

Happy Sunday!

JulieG Gelato in Venice

I am in love with these JulieG polishes. This makes me want to go into another tirade about how Florida needs Rite Aids or  how Jesse's Girl (who makes JulieG polishes) needs to put their brand in CVS or Walgreens. I love these polishes. I got a Jesse's Girl polish yesterday too in the mail, and it's amazing. We're really missing out here! On that note, I have another JulieG polish to show you today. I want more!

Gelato in Venice

Gelato in Venice is a pastel mint green creme.

This is a gorgeous mint green. What I like about this color is it looks like a true green to me. I have a lot of mint-like shades that have a lot blue tones in them. This color definitely leans more green. It does give me a bit of lobster hands, but I blame that more on the camera. The formula on this was good, and like Cupcakes and Castles the name is very cute. It makes me want some gelato. I love the JulieG polish names!

I know you can only get JulieG at Rite Aid stores, but you can purchase them on the Jesse's Girl website too.

Happy Friday!

Maybelline Color Show: Twilight Rays

I've been avoiding Maybelline Color Show polishes. The bottles are too small, the colors seem unoriginal, and I think the price is pretty steep for the amount of polish you get. Enter..Scrangie. Do I need to say more? I saw her swatches of the Maybelline Color Show polish Twilight Rays, and I knew I had made a terrible mistake. The polish as little gold fakes in it. Gold flakes. That's like a trigger word for me. I have a minor Pavlov's dog reaction the world "gold flakes". So, yes, a few days later I came home with a my own bottle of Twilight Rays.

Twilight Rays

Twilight Rays is a black creme polish with a ton of gold little flecks/flakes of happiness mixed in.

This is pretty unique and awesome. I can't say that for the rest of the Maybelline Color Show polishes. They are so unimaginative and boring I want to get slightly irrationally angry with them. This polish is great though, so I can let my irritation go a bit. I love the combination of black and gold. The flecks of gold in this are a perfect balance with the black, not too subtle or overpowering. The formula was good too. This one is worth a second look, but don't bother with the rest of the color show polishes. In my opinion, the majority of the rest of the collection is not unique enough to spend the $3-$4 per bottle on .23fl oz of polish. You could find many similar colors for the same price or less and for .5flz oz.

Happy Thursday!

Talk It Out Tuesday: Quelling the Impulse to Buy

I've heard the subject of "no buy" or "low buy" come up recently. I've seen it on Facebook groups, and it's been a conversation I've had with a friend. It's definitely an issue we all face as nail polish addicts, and difficult one at that!

This is certainly different for every person, as we all have different budgets, lifestyles, and will-power. I no longer put myself on no buy. I actually haven't felt a need to recently, that's not to say I haven't come across times I need to cut back. I put myself on low buy. I buy less and less often. No buy though? I couldn't do it. I commend those who have!

I remember when I first got into polish I was making 3-4 times a week trips to CVS and Walgreens to go buy nail polishes. This does not happen at all anymore. I think I only stop at CVS or Walgreens maybe once every 3 weeks, and even then I may only get 1 or 2 polishes. The same can be said for Ulta and Sally's. I only go to Ulta or Sallys maybe once very 2 months, and max I'll buy maybe 3-4 polishes.

Online polish purchases from e-tailers used to be a huge deal for me when I got into nail polish. I'd place orders on etailers for 10-12 polishes every other month. Now, not so much. Online purchases from indie brands.... that's a little harder to curb. I do find myself purchasing an 3-4 indie polishes per month. I make that my limit.

Mind you, the week of my birthday, I went back to my prior polish spending days. I hauled a bit a Sally's, Walgreens, and placed an order from Jade holos and Hits Phenomena polishes on Ninja Polish. It was my birthday though, so special occasions don't count!

Overall, I think I do pretty good with my polish purchases. Is it perfect? No. I still will impulsively buy something on occasion, but that has gone down a lot.

How am I able to quell my impulse to buy lately?

I factor it down to a few things...

1. I avoid. I honestly pretend a lot of stuff doesn't exist. For instance, I never bought a single Brazilian polish until last month. They've been easily accessible for a long time and as gorgeous as ever, but I just put them out of sight and out of mind. I may see them on a blog, but I put it in my head that it's not an option now. I can say the same for those huge indie brands like Dollish Polish for example. Amazing polishes, but they're so unobtainable I don't even bother.

2. The urgency to purchase has diminished. The thrill of finding something and purchasing it or finding it first doesn't do much for me anymore. I saw the new OPI Germany collection at Walmart last week. I had not seen it in person yet, and I got that little spark of "OMG WANT!". I had to remind myself that this collection is not going anywhere for a few months. It will be somewhere 2 weeks, next month, and probably the month after. Lately, new collections I'm buying polishes from have already been out for over a month. The extra time also helps me realize what I really want in a collection.

3. When will I actually swatch this or wear this? I'm not painting my nails as much as I used to, so I'm not going through as much polish. I get backed up on swatches, and that often means quite of few of things I buy may not get worn until month to months later. It just doesn't seem practical to buy something that may not see the light of day for awhile or at all.

4. Been there done that. I think a lot of our go-to brands like OPI, Zoya, Essie, China Glaze are putting out a lot of similar collections with similar colors. Do I really need 5 versions of plum and navy blue?

5. Picky Picky. If there is something not extra special or unique about a polish I'm most likely going to pass it over. I will search colors on my phone, look for dupes, and really convince myself I don't need it.

These are just things that have worked for me.  I think a lot of it also has to do with how long I've been into polish. I love polish, but it's not a new thrill for me. I've got a feel for how things sell and what I really will use and enjoy over time. The indie movement has definitely been the hardest to resist, but I've been able to keep those purchases to a minimum. I think little splurges here and there are fine. I just bought Humble Bee on Ninja Polish since I found out it was still available. If you have the budget to spend on a lot of polish that's fine too, but if you don't remember your priorities and stop a think first!

What are your experiences with the impulsive need to buy polishes, no buys, low buys, and anything else on this subject?

Happy Tuesday!