Zoya Posh with Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure and China Glaze Matte Magic

Ohhh man. This was such a gorgeous manicure to wear. I know most of you are probably tired of seeing Hidden Treasure manis, but I haven't posted one yet! For this, I applied one coat of Posh and let it dry completely. Then I applied one slightly thick coat of Hidden Treasure, and also let that dry completely. Then I applied a thin coat of Matte Magic.

 I really love the end result. It reminded me of red jasper, which is one of my favorite semi-precious stones.

So pretty. I love all the different facets of color in Hidden Treasure. It goes from green to orange to gold, and is sometimes all three at once. I really need to get my hands on more flakies. Or I guess I should say I really need to get more flakies on my hands, haha.

Clinique Black Honey Velvet

Hello, all! I know I've been AWOL for a little while, sorry about that! I so did not mean to not post for so long.

This was a request from KarenD. I just wish my nails weren't so wonky looking in these pictures! The color is accurate, though. I really need to remember to NOT use old topcoat on jelly polishes, or, really, any polish at all. It makes the finish of the polish look horrible and scuffed and just plain bad. Also, oy! I'm so sorry for the crazy tipwear. I couldn't find my camera charger, so I couldn't take pictures. But then I found it! But I'd already been wearing the polish for a few days. :\ Enough excuses, though! Onto the pictures!

I love this polish. It's a great vampy berry red that would be perfect for fall. It does sometimes seem to have slightly chocolatey undertones, but for the most part, it's a true vampy berry. 

I'm not quite sure when Clinique released this polish, but I do know they don't make it anymore and that when they did make it, it was a limited release and only in minis. (I could be wrong about that, though. This is just what I've found from various Google searches.) I bought my bottles on ebay, and ebay's the only place I've ever seen this polish for sale. I just checked, and there's currently one bottle for sale at the time of writing this post. Honestly, though, this color is pretty dupeable and there are many other polishes out there with better formula, too. Because the formula on this was..eh. It was okay. Not the best, but not the worst, either. This is three coats.

Nail Polish Stash: Part Seven

Click here for the rest of the series.

Taken from Part One: I recently decided to reorganize my polish, since I no longer know how many I own, what colors I own, etc. So, in a way, this series of posts is to help keep me organized. But it's also for you all! If you see anything in these posts that you want to see more of, let me know, and I'll swatch it for you. :] (EDIT: Some photos are clickable, some aren't. I'm not really sure why this is happening, and I've tried to fix it, but nothing seems to work. Sorry!)

Dark Blue

Note: This picture is horrible. I really, sincerely apologize. I did my best to color-correct it, though, so the polishes should be accurate, for the most part.

Essie Aruba Blue, Sonia Kashuk Space Cadet, Nina Ultra Pro Sailor, Sephora Brand Blue Sapphire, MAC Blue India, Finger Paints Cobalt Cardigan, Zoya Kotori, Revlon Midnight Affair, Covergirl Midnight Magic

Medium Blue

Color Club Pure Energy, OPI Sea, I Told You!, NYC East Village, China Glaze Frostbite, OPI Absolutely Alice

Light Blue

OPI Give Me the Moon!, Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau, No Miss Boynton Beach Blue, China Glaze For Audrey, Zoya Yummy, China Glaze Rainstorm

The Ones I Accidentally Forgot

Oops! I left these out when I was taking pictures, and I really, reeeeally didn't want to go back and retake pictures, ha. So they get a separate picture!

Charlotte Russe unnamed magenta, Milani Garnet Gems, Orly Tiara

And that's everything! So, what's my grand total, you ask? 215 polishes! Whoa. That's quite a bit, eh? I honestly thought it'd be much more than that, though, but I guess I forgot to take into consideration the fact that I recently gave away/got rid of at least 20 polishes.

Anyway! Again, if you saw something you liked and want to see a better image of it, just let me know and I'll swatch it for you.

Nail Polish Stash: Part Two

Click here for the rest of the series.

Taken from Part One: I recently decided to reorganize my polish, since I no longer know how many I own, what colors I own, etc. So, in a way, this series of posts is to help keep me organized. But it's also for you all! If you see anything in these posts that you want to see more of, let me know, and I'll swatch it for you. :] (EDIT: Some photos are clickable, some aren't. I'm not really sure why this is happening, and I've tried to fix it, but nothing seems to work. Sorry!)

Dark Red Creme

Revlon Vixen, Rimmel Celebrity Bash, L'Oreal Stroke of Midnight, Milani Bella Berry, Clinique Black Honey Velvet, OPI All A-bordeaux the Sled!

Dark Red Shimmer/Glitter

Zoya Blair (much more red than this), Sally Hansen Glossy, Revlon Autumn Berry, Sally Hansen Flirt (which is actually more purple than red, but whatever)

Medium/Bright Red Creme

China Glaze Sacred Heart, L'Oreal Lady Luck, Revlon Mon Cherry, Sephora by OPI High Maintenance, Covergirl Candy Apple, China Glaze Hawaiian Punch (Which, erm, shouldn't be in this lineup. It has a barely-there shimmer. Oops!), Rimmel Passion, OPI Comet Loves Cupid, Essie Red Nouveau

Medium/Bright Red Shimmer/Glitter

Zoya Posh, China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Orly Star Spangled, BB Couture Fairy Blood, OPI Dear Santa, Revlon Frankly Scarlet, Rimmel Big Night Out, Hard Candy Lava

BB Couture Fairy Blood.

Say hello to the polish that rekindled my love for nail polish. In November of last year, I saw an image of BB Couture Fairy Blood somewhere. Now, this was way back when I only had about 60 polishes. I did happen to have China Glaze Ruby Pumps, though, but from what I saw of Fairy Blood, the two weren't identical. I had to have this polish. So I searched and searched, and finally I found where to buy BB Couture: Overall Beauty. So I ordered the polish and the rest, folks, is history. I have several red glitter polishes and, seriously, this trumps them all.
This is one of my absolute favorite polishes. It's a beautiful blood red jelly with red, almost glass fleck-like glitter. Application is flawless, and wear was pretty good. Sadly, I can't compare wear with any other BB Couture polishes, since this is my only one.

Review: Cover Girl Candy Apple

Happy Valentine's Day/Singles Awareness Day! I am celebrating the latter, haha. I figured I might as well do something red for Valentine's, because, well, I love red nails. And it's an excuse to have them. Not like I really ever need an excuse to have red nails, but whatever.

This is Cover Girl Candy Apple. I honestly don't know when I bought this polish. At least two years ago, I'm sure. It's a great red with a slight hint of orange. I'm going to call it a creme, though it does look a little jelly-y. This was two coats, and it applied great. Honestly, for a brand that doesn't focus on nail polish, it was amazing. For some reason, though, when I went to apply the topcoat, some glitter started showing up on some nails. Now, I checked my topcoat brush before applying, and there wasn't any glitter on it. But this polish doesn't have any glitter in it. So I don't really know what's going on with that.

This is taken indoors, with flash. The pictures without flash turned out way too orange. This is almost identical to its actual color, though imagine it to be just a teensy bit brighter red.

Anyway, I hope you all have a lovely day!

P.S., I'm all caught up on posting now! Finally! I hated being that behind, I really did.

Review: Essie Very Cranberry

So I actually did this manicure before the Milani Key Lime Shine. I just wanted to post Key Lime Shine on my birthday, since I wore it for my birthday and all. Anyway, this is Essie Very Cranberry. It's a reddish pink..shimmer? Creme? I couldn't decide with this one. It's got this insanely subtle pink/fuchsia shimmer to it that only shows up in certain lights, and then just barely. But it's there. It applied like all other Essies I've tried (excluding Mint Candy Apple). It's a bit thin, but it goes on pretty easily, and it dries in an okay amount of time. I can't remember exactly how many coats this was. I'm going to assume three coats polish, one coat Poshe, since that's how many I normally do. This color truly was lovely. I wore it for my first "week" of the new semester, and it was perfect. Pretty and a little bright, but still subtle enough to not cause people to stare at my nails and not at me, haha.

Both pictures are with flash, indoors. This polish was so hard to capture. All the pictures made it look way more pink than it actually was. I mean, sure, it was a little pink. But most of the pictures I took made it look hot pink. These two were the closest two that came to being practically spot-on.

Oh, and I apologize for that large streak of polish on my pinky. I have no idea how it got there, haha. I also apologize for the tipwear. I'd had this polish on for about three-or-so days.

EDIT: I thought I should let you all know, this is one red that does not stain. As you can see in the comments, I mentioned how I love reds, but they're so staining. Not this one! Perhaps that is because it has that pink undertone to it?

Merry Christmas (officially)!

Merry Christmas all! I know I'm really, really late in posting this, but I've been busy since I woke up this morning with family things and whatnot. I did manage to get a few shots of my manicure, though they're a bit blurry. Oh well! I used Zoya Posh for the thumb, middle, and pinky fingers and Zoya Suvi for the index and ring fingers. These are the first Zoyas I've ever used, and I must say, I liked them okay. Suvi does not play well with others, that's for sure. But once it dried, it was gorgeous. I think I did three coats of each polish. The wear on Posh was actually pretty good. I did use a base coat, though. I know you're not supposed to, but I just let it dry all the way before applying, and it was fine. Suvi has one coat of Seche Vite. I had originally planned to do a funky french with the base being Posh and the tips being Suvi, but I completely messed it up when I was taking off the sticker guide things. I still really liked this manicure, even though it was insanely simple. My main goal was to really showcase the contrast between the matte and the glossy, and I think this did it well.

Overall, I thought it turned out really well. Like I said in my other Christmas post, I got several compliments on it. I think next up I'm going to try Essie Mint Candy Apple. Maybe. I did get new polishes for Christmas, after all!

Actually, I got a lot of great stuff for Christmas:

- OPI You Don't Know Jacques!, which I've been wanting for quite some time. Another polish I got was Essie Very Cranberry, which is a gorgeous berry red. I think I'm going to wear it for when I start classes again, because it's cute and a little sexy, but it's not insanely crazy and out there. Very pretty color.

- Lip Service Lip Deluxe Sampler, which is absolutely amazing. I've been wanting this set for so, so long. I've only had a chance to try one of them so far, the Korres Guava Lipstick in Wine Red, and I absolutely adored it. I think I'm going to do the DuWop Private Red for New Years, because it seems like it'll be the perfect red for that.

- I've been needing good makeup brushes for a long, long time, and today I received the Sephora Brand Perfect Ten brush set. It's pink! And shiny! I love it so much. I used some of the brushes tonight, and they're soo soft.

- 1960s Vintage Inspired Gold Tone Pen Necklace from 1928 Jewelry. I've been dying to have a pen necklace for so long. They're so librarian chic. Love!

- Shoes, glorious shoes! I got a pair of Candie's black suede-like platforms that have silver pointy studs all over the heel and strap. They're so similar to the Christian Louboutin Mad Marys. I love them so, so much. I also got a pair of brown patent platform penny loafers by Apt. 9. When I first saw these shoes in the store, I kind of thought they were hideous and kind of old-looking. But then I tried them on, and got a total 70s vibe! They're amazing. Cute in, once again, that librarian chic sort of way. They'll look amazing with a pair of flared jeans, too, to give them that sort of vintage look.

- Season 2 of Flight of the Conchords and Season 2 of Supernatural. I've been wanting these for a while, but they're so expensive. So when I was in Target during Black Friday, I pointed them out to my mom, because they were only about 12 dollars because of the sale. I guess she must have picked them up then.

- The Village on DVD and a Bath and Body Works gift card. I got these from my parents' friends. I've been wanting this movie for such a long time. And I absolutely love Bath and Body Works!

- And here's the big one. Chanel Coco Mademoiselle EDT! I am ecstatic about this! I thought I would never own it, but I do! I do! It smells heavenly, just like every other time I've smelled it (Recently, anyway. I actually used to hate it. I guess my preferences are evolving.)!

I had a wonderful Christmas. I got to spend time with my family, and we all just relaxed and had an overall highly enjoyable day. I really hope your day was just as good as mine.

Jean