Quick Swatches: New CoverGirl Outlast Stay Brilliant Nail Glosses

Incredibly long time, no blog!

I apologize for the complete lack of blog posts, but this school year has really taken its toll on me. I'm half-way to getting my bachelor's degree, so I'm really trying to focus more on school. But I have picked up six shades of the new CoverGirl Outlast Stay Brilliant Nail Glosses, and they are a huge hit in my book!

I do these quick swatches due to a lack of time, and so you can see some of the shades next to each other. Here are some super quick (slightly messy) swatches!
(Click on any photo to enlarge it)

Here is a bottle shot! From L-R

Constant Candy, Lav-endure, Coral Silk, Grapevine, Forever Festive, Wine To Five

Constant Candy is a milky, cool, light pink. This is very pretty and reminds me of Essie Fiji.(I don't own Fiji, but I think they look similar from swatches I have seen)

Lav-endure is a pale lilac cream. It is much paler in person, but pretty wearable. I think this is going to be a fantastic shade for spring, and how cute is that name?

Coral Silk is a creamy orange coral color that appears much more orange in person. I know this will probably live on my toes this spring and summer....

 

Grapevine is a deep metallic violet shade that looks to be a close dupe to Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro nail polish in Violet Metal

 

Forever Festive is probably my favorite from this line. It is a gorgeous shimmery red that would be perfect for the holidays! (hence the name...) I love this color so much because it is such a wearable red. If you pick up any color from this nail polish line, I highly recommend this baby!

 

Wine To Five was one of the first shades I purchased that helped me fall in love with these polishes. It is a deep wine berry creamy color. I almost wish it was just a tad more berry, but I do love this color!

Overall, I think this is a fantastic new nail polish line from CoverGirl! The application with all of the polishes were very smooth, and they didn't take long to dry at all. 
These claim to not need a base or top coat, but I used both out of habit. However, before applying my top coat, I did notice that my nails had great shine. 
They also claim to wear for seven days. This wasn't quite the deal for me, but I'm also quite rough with my hands. They chipped around the 2nd or 3rd day. I don't think this is a formula flaw, just my own everyday wear and tear.

One con of these polishes is that when I close the bottle, the edges don't always completely align. This is more of an aesthetic issue that isn't really important. You can really see this happening with my Grapevine bottle in the picture above.

But an awesome thing about the packaging is that it closely resembles Chanel nail polish packaging. I don't own any Chanel polishes, but I've seen photos of comparisons.


These are about $4-$5 at most drugstores. I highly recommend these nail polishes, and I can't wait to try some more! 

Have a lovely day! :)

Quick Swatch: Essie Absolutely Shore

Hello there! Today I have for you a very quick swatch post. Literally. It's just on my pinky finger! I was in TJ Maxx earlier, and I saw several nail polishes on clearance. There were a bunch of Nicole By OPI polishes, and a few Essie polishes. Absolutely Shore was the only one that I really wanted to have.

I picked up Absolutely Shore for only $3.99 (regular retail price around $7 or $8). This is my first Essie polish, so I wasn't sure what to expect with the formula. This was terribly streaky the first two coats, but the third coat really evened everything out. This is a really pretty, muted sea foam green. I believe this came out for their Resort Collection in 2011, but I could be wrong.

Hope you enjoyed this super short post! Wanted to get this up before I got busy with the new semester! :)

Wet N Wild Tickled Pink & Hallucinate Nail Polish

Hello there! I have a quick NOTD to share with you! I started out with 2 coats of Wet n Wild Tickled Pink,  then added a coat of Wet n Wild Hallucinate. These are from the 99 cent Wild Shine line of nail polishes. For 99 cents, these polishes are pretty great! I have about 5 or 6 of them, and they all are awesome.

Tickled Pink was streaky on the first coat, and evened out on the second. If I wasn't going to top it with the glitter, I would have done 3 coats of the pink. This combination of bubble gum Barbie pink and iridescent glitter make my nails look like a diva snow globe! I typically wear this combination during the winter, but I was kind of tired of my typical summer blues and corals. Just kidding. I love blues and bright colors! But I did want to do something different.

Bring on the many pictures!!!

Summer Trend: Tribal/Aztec Nails!

My tribal Aztec nails!

Hello there! It is now July, and the southern heat is so unforgiving right now. So what better way to stay out of the heat than to spend the afternoon doing your nails?? ;)

I found a picture of some Aztec tribal nails on Pinterest. Actually, I found several different designs, but this one seemed to be the most simple to recreate. Here's the picture I used as reference for my own nails:

These are not my nails, and this isn't my design, I found this through Pinterest!

I absolutely love this design! It is just so pretty. The original design used red and light blue. I decided to use a coral orange and Tiffany aqua blue. Also, you'll notice that the original person had much shorter nails than me. I can't believe how they managed to do all of that detail on such short nails. But it looks really pretty on the short nails. My nails are far from long, but I felt like I had enough room to work on my length of nails. 

Here are some more views of my nails. I'll list the products I used at the end of this post!

Sinful Colors "Hazard"

Color Club "New Bohemian"

It looks like it would be really hard to do, but it really wasn't! I didn't photograph my right hand because that one didn't turn out nearly as well as my left. Which shouldn't be a surprise for anyone unless you are ambidextrous. If you are....I severely envy you! The trick to achieving these nails is to have patience. Do everything in layers, and do one nail at a time. A tip for creating stripes that go across your nail, rest your hand on a table, and rotate the hand you are working on. Don't draw the line, let the brush draw it for you as you rotate your hand! Another tip, use your resources! I did use nail art stripers for the larger lines, but I also used toothpicks to create the smaller lines and dots. I used the point of the toothpicks, as well as the round end of them.

Products used: (feel free to switch up the colors!)

-Savvy FC "Sheer French White"....this took 3 coats as a base color. Kind of a lot, but that just goes along with the patience needed for nail art! lol

-Sinful Colors "Hazard"...coral/orange polish

-Color Club "New Bohemian"....aqua blue

-LA Colors Art Deco nail art stripers in black and white

-Nutra Nail Fast Dry Top coat

-Toothpicks! 

I hope you enjoyed seeing my nails. You can expect to see some more fun summer nail looks in the future! This was so fun to do. Sure, it consumed two hours of my life, but I kept cool inside! ;)

The Summer Blues

Left to right: China Glaze For Audrey, Sally Hansen Blue Me Away, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue

Hello there! Today I want to show you my favorite blue summer nail polishes! The ones I am showing you are all cream finishes. If I were to show you glitters as well, I would have included Revlon's Blue Mosaic and Sinful Color's Nail Junkie. But this post is all about the blue creams. Please excuse the above picture, I painted my nails quickly and didn't even bother to clean them when I took the picture. Fail whale.

The first nail polish is China Glaze's For Audrey. This is a classic color that I'm sure everyone and the mother has seen. I love how bright and fun this color is. In my pictures, it appears to be much more muted and dusty than it actually is. If you are looking for an alternative polish, Wet N Wild's I Need A Refresh-mint nail polish is said to be an exact dupe. Color Club's New Bohemian from their 2011 Back To Boho collection is also a pretty similar color. This was about $6 at Sally's Beauty Supply. I used a base coat, 2 coats of For Audrey, and a fast dry top coat.

The next summer blue I have to share with you (I couldn't resist, I apologize for the lame rhyme....) is Sally Hansen's Blue Me Away. This is a very bright sky blue that is like no other polish I own. Granted, I don't own that many nail polishes, but still. This is such a pretty color for summer. I must warn you that this will stain your nails and fingers. Prepare for smurf fingers. Even when I used a base coat, there was ample staining. Because of the staining, I shy away from using this polish that often. But it truly is pretty! I'd say that it is much brighter in person. The photos I've taken don't do any of these polishes justice. This was about $2 or $3 at Walgreens. A heads up, Walgreens has a buy 2 get 1 free sale on Sally Hansen polishes for the month of July!!!!! I used a basecoat, 2 coats of Blue Me Away, and a fast dry top coat.

Lastly, here is my all time FAVORITE summer nail polish.....Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue. I'm not going to lie, I straight up hated this nail polish the first time I wore it. I thought it just looked so weird on me. But now this is my go-to nail polish this summer! It is a pretty cornflower blue that is great for fingers or toes. Really, all of these polishes would look great on fingers or toes. This didn't stain my nails at all! It applies like butter and dries at a decent pace. This is my staple summer nail polish shade! I swear the pictures don't do this justice. At only about $2, you can't go wrong picking this gem up! I used a base coat, 2 coats of Pacific Blue, and a fast dry top coat.

I hope you enjoyed this post! What are your favorite summer nail polishes? Of course I love corals and hot pinks for the summer. But I've really been digging bright blues! :)

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Coral Reef

Hello there! Today I have a quick post about Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear nail color in "Coral Reef". This is such a pretty color, but it isn't very coral to me. When I think coral, I think of more of an orangey pink. This is more of a warm hot pink. However, it is super pretty! It applied very smoothly. I have done two coats and no top coat!

Sally Hansen "Golden-I" Nail Polish

Hello there! This is going to be a quick post showing you Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear "Golden-I" nail polish. It is a pretty basic metallic gold. I did two coats, and it applied very smoothly. If you want to see another gold nail polish, Orly's Rage is a beautiful rose gold nail polish that I have posted about right here.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Golden-I"

Around $2.99 at most drugstores

Some people might see this and "Rage" and think they are the same thing, but they clearly aren't! Big difference, but I think it is worth it to have both of them. Hope you enjoyed this post!

Have a lovely day!

Rose Gold Satisfaction with Orly "Rage"

Hello there! Growing up, I hated gold and always wanted silver jewelry. As I've gotten older, I have acquired a taste for gold jewelry. But now, I crave anything that is rose gold. I google searched for rose gold nail polish and came across Orly's "Rage" nail polish. I went to Sally's today and picked up a bottle. Man, is she beautiful. But first, a funny story that happened at Sally's....

I was checking out when the cashier asked, "Is this the same polish you have on your nails now?" ( I was wearing Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Golden-I....which is a pure gold polish, and I have swatches of that here) I felt embarrassed because I thought that she thought I either put it on in the store or something. I was going to say "No, this is a gold-gold. That polish there is a rose gold" but I didn't feel like making a scene lol

Anyways, I digress. Here are the swatches of Orly's "Rage":

Orly "Rage"

$5.99 at Sally's Beauty Supply stores

I used 2 coats of "Rage" and it applied very smoothly! This is such a pretty color that should suit all skin tones. I literally just put this on a few hours ago so I can't speak much about chip/wear time, but lets hope it wears well! This shade is so shimmery, foily, and metallic. Rose gold in liquid form!! 

In my opinion, this is a must have nail polish shade. If you are asking yourself if you really need this polish if you already own a gold nail polish, like Sally Hansen "Golden-I" or Revlon "Gold Coin", my answer would be yes. Those golds are more like true metal golds. This "Rage" has such a beautiful hue to it that just doesn't 

compare to a plain gold nail polish. This is my first Orly polish, and I'm hoping to pick up more in the future. 

Hope you enjoyed this post!!

Please have a lovely day!

NOTD: Summer Neon Tips Manicure!

Hello there!

I have another quick nail of the day featuring China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy. I did a post on this polish right here. This polish is an extremely bright neon pink. It is so gorgeous & perfect for a tan in the summer. The thing to note about this polish is that it dries matte, as it is a neon. If you like the matte appearance, skip the top coat. I must have a shiny finish, so I apply a top coat when I use this polish.

For my NOTD, I just used strips of tape to create my tips (I'd recommend purchasing the notebook paper reinforces, the circle stickers, to do a french tip. I just discovered this idea on Pinterest! lol). Here is how it all turned out! It is kind of messy, and definitely not perfect. I did each hand in under 10 minutes.

For this, I did a base coat on the tips, 2 coats of Flip Flop Fantasy, and a top coat all over the nail. Hope you enjoyed this manicure! :)

Sinful Colors Hazard & Pinky Glitter

Hello there! I posted about Sinful Colors Hazard earlier, and I decided to try something different with it. I used Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter as an accent nail, then I decided to just do all of my nails with pinky glitter layered on top. Here are the two pictures:

Pinky Glitter as an accent nail

Pinky Glitter layered on all nails

Hope you enjoyed this quick post! Sorry about the second picture. The glitter is very washed out. But I promise it looks great!!! :)