China Glaze Sun Worshipper & BM21

Has it really been over a week? Sorry, guys. My fiance came to visit (for his birthday!) and I got so bogged down planning and such, and then spending time with him while he was here this week, that I blogged nothing whatsoever. Fear not, we are now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I was iffy on this color but I'm glad I took the plunge. I own Color Club Explosive, which is a pretty similar color but sheer to a fault. A 5+ coat fault. This bad boy was 3 coats and pretty opaque. Not too shabby. And the color was blinding! In twilight it looks nearly glow-in-the-dark. Neon marigold is what I like to call it, somewhere between orange and yellow. Application was really good for a neon, and it dried in a reasonable amount of time.

Here she is:

And because I haven't stamped in a while I pulled out the star design from Bundle Monster's BM21 plate, and used Konad Black Special Polish for the stamp:

I liked this so much I wore it for two full days, which is saying a lot for me. Also: no chips after 2 full days of serious cleaning and work (where my hands were wet/submerged in water sometimes). That's pretty damn good.

Coming up soon: A few more Shreks, new American Apparel polishes & OPI Summer Flutter Colors. Thanks for reading :-)

PS: We're getting close to 50 followers, and that's when I'm going to have my first giveaway! I think it'll be pretty awesome :-) So spread the word and keep your eyes peeled!

American Apparel Factory Grey & BM05 with China Glaze Awaken

I just want to say that after having tried many of the American Apparel polishes, and owning almost all of them (except 3: Rose Bowl, Coney Island, Palm Springs), they are absolutely fantastic. The quality and wear is superb. I love that there is a collection of amazing creme colors, because I feel that, for some reason, creme polish is always chic. No matter the color. Worn right, it's just it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of shimmer, glitter and holo, but a good creme can be fun, loud, classic, edgy, anything.

You may have heard that American Apparel is coming out with 5 new polishes and a topcoat. This is the promo image:

L to R: Topcoat, Malibu Green, L'Esprit, Summer Peach, California Trooper, Butter.

I rarely say this but with the exception of the pink, I know that I need these. Hell, throw the pink in there, I don't care. I already have my fiance on the lookout for these. Despite the fact that I'm from NY, where there are a bajillion AA stores, there is not a-one anywhere near Albany yet, so I have my fiance who currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (my little home away from home) literally a block and a half from an AA store pick them up for me. He's visiting on the 23rd, so I hope to have them soon! And possibly some of those Joe nail polishes.

Gosh, do I ever shut up? OK, here's the fabulous Factory Grey:

Uber love. A blue leaning grey, more along the lines of say, China Glaze Recycle or MAC On The Prowl. I own lots of greys... so gorgeous. Chic. Must be my word of the day.

The next morning, I added the star stamp from Bundle Monster plate BM05, I used China Glaze Awaken from the Romantique collection for the stamp and it came out super shiny! I'm really liking stamping with a similar-hued chromatic polish. I like the effect.

And that's all! Hope you guys are all having excellent days out there, wherever you are! Thanks for reading :-)

KnockOut Cosmetics Flatte Black & BM19 with China Glaze Millenium

After yesterday's borefest, I tried to do something cool today. I started with one of the KO KnockOut Cosmetics Flatte polishes. I have three of these, for which I paid way too much. The other two are Calamine & Karen. This is a seriously matte black. I love it, it's my favorite of all that I've tried. I decided to use it as a base for stamping with one of my new Bundle Monster plates.

Here's a super-messy, not yet cleaned up pic of what this polish looks like on its own:

OK, so then I used the leafy full nail image from BM19. I've been sorta fiddling around with these plates since I got them, and I'm not certain how I feel yet. Yes, the full nail designs are much smaller than Konad's. If you place exactly right and don't have very wide nails, you can get away with one stamp. I did on all except my thumbnails which I took a stab at double-stamping. I think my nails are average width, so your milage may vary. Also: the designs. For some reason I have trouble getting these images as crisp as Konad's. I've used their Special Polish but honestly had better results using China Glaze's Millenium, a metallic silver. I almost feel as though I have to wait to stamp or it gets smeary. As in, after I scrape it, I let it sit for a few seconds before rolling the stamp to pick up the image. If I do that with Konad, forget it--I might as well start over, it'll be dry. I didn't have too much trouble with the more line based images (such as this one) but the larger, thicker stars and swirls and such--this is where I had a problem. More to come on these, just giving you guys my preliminary thoughts.

Here's my non-cleaned up stamping job, still mattified:

And my double-stamped thumb. I think it works best to stamp the image twice horizontally across the nail (whereas usually you'd use the image vertically). I think it's easier to line up.

So after all this I wasn't totally happy. Little pieces of dried up polish from the edges of the design were sticking up (does this ever happen to anyone else?) and they wouldn't stay down so I decided to throw a coat of Seche Vite over it all and shine the darn thing up. I ended up liking it even more this way because it really made the silver and black contrast pop.

Here's the finished, cleaned-up (thank god, right??), shined-up, manicure:

I actually kind of love it! But after two days of black polish, I'm ready for some color tomorrow, I think.

Thanks for reading!

OPI Shrek Swatches, Wet 'N Wild Summer Swatches, Haul & More!

Howdy guys! I have been neglecting things around here this past week and I regret it because thanks to Brooke over at Getcha Nails Did and her fabulous New Blogs On The Block feature, we have a few more followers! Woo! I really want to have a giveaway because I hit a pretty VTHF (drugstore) dusty motherload a couple weeks ago. Not at the Dollar Tree even, someplace totally random, and something harder to find than what's been showing at at Dollar Tree recently. Not that I'm bribing people to follow but...... I'd like to get a few more before I attempt anything like that..... ;-) More to come on that later.

This is a lengthy post, so brace yourselves! I went out today to hit a few haunts in my lovely hometown of Albany, NY. This meant I went to the mall, where we have a beauty supply that occasionally publishes 30% off three items or more coupons. They have a good selection of Essie, some Orly, China Glaze, all Color Clubs (core & LE), CND, etc, etc, as well as a full range of OPI, and they get the new collections. Enter Shrek. A collection of cremes, devoid of pink or red, including a few real bizarre ones. I only hauled a few, and they came to about $16 after my coupon, yes, for all three.

L to R: Fiercely Fiona, Who The Shrek Are You?, Ogre-The-Top Blue

OPI, you are being such a bitch lately, so I'd better get used to paying retail for you, because your creme formula is one of my favorites. It wears like iron. I didn't get Funkey Dunkey even though I wanted it badly, but I have China Glaze Grape Pop so I made myself say no (BTW I would've had to buy this one separately for retail at Trade Secret anyway, because the beauty supply was out). And the two pastels were too dupey of everything else coming out lately. I'm weak though, so I may go back for Funkey Dunkey yet. Dunkey??? Anywho, these look awesomely pigmented and weird... two things I love in a creme.

Here's some very dirty swatches (can you see why I don't do this often??)

L to R: Who The Shrek Are You?, Fiercely Fiona, Ogre-The-Top Blue & Wet 'N Wild Blueberry Fizz for comparison (see below).

Then I hit up a Rite Aid and they had the new Wet 'N Wild Wild Shines, were are ridiculously cheap at 99 cents, so I bought the 4 that appealed to me.

L to R: Berry Jubilee, Blueberry Fizz, Candy Apple Twist, Mint Fusion.

I'm crazy for bright cremes lately, though Mint Fusion has a bit of shimmer to it. These look bangin' for the price, so awesomely gorgeous. They're all kinda jelly-ish, too. But not the kind that would require 4 or more coats.

Bad swatches:

L to R: Berry Jubilee, Blueberry Fizz, Candy Apple Twist, Mint Fusion.

I also caved and bought Claire's Magic because it was $2 and someday I will want it like I wanted Yel and have to resort to begging and pleading for it.

No swatch of this one because I got tired and it's old news anyway.

Update: So, a few posts ago I mentioned that Bundle Monster dropped the ball on my 21 plate order. It's OK, they're probably getting a shitload of orders lately and not entirely prepared. As you all know and probably agree, it's about how the situation is handled afterward. I tried calling them with the number listed on Amazon. I didn't reach anyone, so I emailed. I received a response within an hour or two, stating that they'd send out the missing plates. I have to be honest: I wondered if I'd ever see them. Not that I didn't trust them, but they're a fairly new guy on the market, and have been getting a lot of orders lately. Who cares about some girl who was missing 2 plates? But they did!!! I got them today, less than a week later, the exact two I was missing!!!! I even ended up with a mystery plate. With my original order, it was missing BM05 and BM21, but there was another plate thrown in: B72. Not BM 72, just B72. It looks like this:

So I have this weird little plate that I'm not even sure where it came from. Anybody know if it's part of a different set? The point of this was just to reassure that Bundle Monster CS is, in fact, very good. Don't hesitate to contact them if you have any trouble.

Also: If you're looking for storage solutions for your Konad or Bundle Monster plates, check THIS out. It's my method (though not my idea), and I think it works super well!

OH, and incase you are not aware (though I'm not sure how you couldn't be), Zoya is having a promo with the code "LIPPY", which is officially for 3 of their Hot Lips Lipgloss, free. But, it shows up as an $18 discount and you can use it on polish & remover! I love Remove + but I don't buy it anymore because it's too expensive and I find Onyx (purple) to work just as well. If Remove + is your only poison, then it's a GREAT deal. I ordered 3 Zoyas I felt I was missing: Astra, Robyn & Sienna. It ends May 12th, so hurry!

OK, phew, back to NOTD's tomorrow, friends. I've got a few stocked up. Thanks for reading!