A Lot of Catching Up!

I apologize, I've been MIA, but I assure you I'm still alive. Life always has the tendency to get in the way, and although I've been keeping up with painting my nails often, I slacked with updating the blog. Once I get a couple posts behind, it's just harder and harder to catch up. I've taken pictures of all my manis and I just have to sporadically update them in bulk. Although I fell behind in updating the blog, I have been regularly posting on instagram. My account name is ihatebaconn (completely random, I know, and I just came up with the name on a whim just because bacon is one of my non-preferred foods). Give me a follow on there if you'd like to see frequent nail posts. I'd like to thank everyone for remaining loyal followers, and I'm going to try harder to get back into the swing of things.

First up is Revlon-Sparkle Aplenty. I believe I purchased this one around fall of last year. It's very similar to OPI- Metallic 4 Life, only the silver hexes are somewhat mattified. It is suspended in a black jelly. There are also black hex glitters in this mix. The formula was great on this, and it only needed two coats! 

Indoors without the flash. This is such a great pre-made jelly sandwich in a bottle shade.

Indoors with the flash- if you look carefully you can see some of the black hex glitters. I really like what Revlon has been releasing lately.

This one is an oldie! This is Loreal- Fatigues. I have no idea how old this one is, but judging by the packaging, it looks like early 2000s. I got this one from a lot on ebay. It is a olive-green shimmer. It was absolutely gorgeous and long-lasting. 

The formula on this was a little bit on the thin side, and it needed three coats for even application. 

Here's a shot taken in my car (which I pretty much live in for work). Absolutely stunning! 

This was a nice layering combo. It is Sally Hansen- Multi-Faceted layered over Revlon- Peach Smoothie. Multi-Faceted is a very unique glitter. It was released in the Diamond Strength Jewel Overcoat collection around Spring 2012. It consists of silver, black, and irridescent medium-sized hex glitter.

Here's what it looks like with the flash indoors. You can see all of the different colors in the iridescent hexes. Unfortunately my Seche Vite had a lot of bubbling with this combo, but this is the only complaint I have. 

Here's Revlon- Peach Smoothie by itself with the flash indoors. I believe this only needed two coats. The best thing about this polish was that it was scented! It held true to its name and smelled like a delicious peach smoothie. The scent lasted for the whole two-day span that I wore this mani!

Here's Peach Smoothie without the flash indoors. You can see the subtle hint of shimmer. I really like this peach shade! It's practically nude and so elegant, even though it doesn't exactly match my skin tone. 

The next combo up is ORLY- Sashay My Way layered over Wet n Wild- 450A. Sashay My Way was released as part of the Flash Glam FX collection in summer 2012. It is a glitterbomb for sure! I'm talking so concentrated with glitter that this is only one coat of it! It's filled with gold prismatic medium hexes as well as gold prismatic bar glitters.

Here's a picture taken indoors with the flash. I just love all of the different dimensions of color Sashay My Way has!

Wet n Wild- 450A is definitely an oldie! It's so old that it was before Wet n Wild started giving actual names to their polishes and instead a combo of numbers and letters. I believe I purchased this one from a blog sale. It is a unique shade, almost a light bronze. I am only wearing two coats of it, and although the formula seemed kind of thin, it built up nicely. This picture was taken indoors with the flash.

Indoors without the flash. It kinds of has a mix between a frosty and shimmery finish, but the brushstrokes weren't terrible.

The last combo for this entry is Revlon- Heavenly layered over ORLY- Unlawful. Heavenly is a rather new release and I believe I purchased it around December. It is a pretty close if not exact dupe to Deborah Lippmann's Stairway to Heaven, but I do not own it since I have this one. The names are even similar. This is an ideal layering polish and it's filled with iridescent glitter. 

I only used one coat of Heavenly over Unlawful and it looks amazing! I'm always intrigued by all the different colors shown through iridescent glitters.

Here's ORLY- Unlawful by itself indoors with the flash. It was released in ORLY's Holiday 2012 Naughty or Nice collection. It was practically a one-coater but I added two out of habit. It had a great formula, but I own so many reds so I wasn't really impressed with how unique this shade was. It's just a typical red creme to me.

Indoors without the flash

Super Mega Haul!!!

It's not news that I am an avid polish purchaser, but throughout the past few weeks, I seemed to have accumulated tons! I purchased a vintage lot of polish on ebay, bought a couple from blog sales, received some gifts, and stumbled upon many at stores for good prices! I figured all of this polish merited a separate blog post. I still have some manis to share with you, and I will be posting them soon.

Vintage Loreals! top row: Fatigues, Orangeade, and Mandarine bottom row: Sea Violette, Sea Lily, and Spice

Julie G- You-niverse, Essie- Play Date, Butler Please, and We're in it Together

OPI- On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Living Daylights, My Address is Hollywood, I Eat Mainely Lobster, and Chocolate Moose

Candeo- Zef, OPI- Midnight in Moscow, Megan Miller- Lemon Ice, and China Glaze- Kaleidoscope Him Out

OPI- Hey! Get in Lime, Paris Couture for Sure, Skip the Gift Wrap, and Dulce de LEche

ORLY minis found at Marshall's! Cotton Candy, Pure Porcelain, Meet Me under the Mistletoe, and Take Him to the Cleaners

Pretty & Polished- Bubble Tea, Diner Daze, Cuttlefish, and Black Swan

vintage Maybellines- Lilac Haze and Two Timer and Covergirl- Midnight Forest

Max Factor- Starlet Satin, Bombshell Blue, Rose Garden, and Momentum Moss

I have these all grouped together in one picture, because I found ALL OF THIS on clearance at Sally's and applied the $10 off birthday coupon, and got everything for about $20! Top Row: China Glaze- Roguish Red, Bizarre Blurple, Blue Bells Ring, and Bend over Backwards. Bottom Row: China Glaze- Red Satin, Def Defying, Red Pearl, ORLY- Unlawful, Sally Girl- unnamed pink mini and ORLY- Rose Radiance mini

Color Club In True Fashion minis (another Marshall's find!) Model Behavior, Port-folio, First Looks, and Editorial

Covergirl Crackles- Boo Hou and Ghost and Covergirl- Anti-freeze and Gold Front

More older Covergirls! The Continuous Color ones are a bit newer than the Nailslicks. Here's Fireworks, Classic Red, Spiced Tea, Wedding White, and Quicksilver

Light Blue Gradient

I have a special mani to show everyone today. This is a gradient mani using only Wet n Wild- Blue Wants to be a Millionaire. I got many compliments on this, and was asked frequently where I got my nails done; but I did these myself and it was fairly easy! Blue Wants to be a Millionaire is a sheer blue jelly with micro prismatic glitter particles. It builds up very nicely and is opaque in three coats. Although it looks like the finish of this would be rough due to the glitter, it was so smooth that it felt like I was wearing a creme. I topped it off with one coat of Gelous followed by one coat of Seche Vite.

I did not use a sponge of any sort with this gradient, just the polish brush. First I painted my entire nail with one coat of Blue Wants to be a Millionaire. I then painted about 2/3 up my nail with a second coat. Lastly, I painted a third coat on the top third (the tips) of my nails. This turned out amazing and this polish works so well for gradients!

The formula on Blue Wants to be a Millionaire is INCREDIBLE! I had this mani on for over three days with no chips whatsoever! I didn't want to remove it, but I have plenty of untrieds to get through. This polish can be found fairly inexpensive at Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreen's. It usually retails for $1.99, but Wet n Wild usually has good deals and I've seen it for $1. The pink sister polish to this (in the same collection) is Hannah Pinktana. I did a gradient using it last Valentine's Day.

I have been slacking on regularly updating my hauls, so here are some goodies for your viewing pleasure!

Wicked Polish! The names of these sold me. Plus they're very unique! 

F4 Polish- Drunken Zombie and Candy Lacquer- O Christmas Tree

Loreal- Amazon's Flash, Julep- O Canada!, ULTA- Hide and Go Sequins mini (Deborah Lippmann- Across the Universe dupe), Blue Cross Halloween pumpkin, Disney Villains unamed bronze shimmer

All that Glitters- Horror Business and Night Fright and Illamasqua- holiday duo with Glitterati and Viridian (my first Illamasquas!)

HURRY UP AND ENTER THE THANKSGIVING MULTI-BLOGGER GIVEAWAY! LESS THAN TWO DAYS LEFT :)

Purple Colorphase

 

I decided to experiment with some color changing polish. This brand is called Colorphase and I found it at Rite Aid. It is in a double-ended bottle, with a purple foil-type shade on one end, and topcoat and a striping brush in the other end. The light purple shade is applied first and then it changes to a darker purple when the topcoat is applied.

Here it is in a different lighting. This really didn't take that long to do. It had a really neat effect! 

Here's the light purple on it's own in artificial lighting without the flash. This needed two coats and it had a pretty good formula.

Artificial lighting without the flash

One downside to this is that you can't use any topcoat, or else the entire color will become solid. I was under the initial impression that the topcoat it came with was the only one that activated the color change and I went to use Seche Vite after the mani was done. I had to redo it because the effect went away. I am too dependent on fast-dry top coat, and the mani dented a little bit. It didn't last long at all because I couldn't use topcoat.

Throughout the past week I got some new additions:

New Candy Lacquers! These came right on Halloween :)

ORLY Mattes: Solid Gold, Blue Suede, and Purple Velvet

Zoya- Electra and Storm and Liquid Lacquer- Jewel of the Nile and Mockingbird

Maybelline- Matte Grape, Covegirl: Purple Frost, Pink Reflections, Cranberry Cream, and Cherry Brandy

Maybelline- Sunsparkle, Sally Hansen- White Veil, Maybelline- City Slick, Layla- Flash Black, and Loreal- Raven's Strength

Sephora + Pantone Universe- Reflecting Pond, Evergreen, and Parachute Purple and NARS- Superstar and 15 Minutes

Recent Manis

 I've had another busy few days, so I'm catching up on what polish I have worn. Here I have Loreal- The Temptress' Power. This one was also released this fall as part of the Project Runway limited edition collection. It's a shimmery orange- toned tan filled with blue/green shifting shimmer! It's a hard one to describe.

 Here's a good angle of the shimmer! Gorgeous!

 This was a little bit on the sheer side and needed three coats to achieve opacity.

My friends got married this weekend and had a carnival-themed wedding; so I did a mani that reminded me of cotton candy. I also chopped off my nails so they're nubs now. I layered one of the Blue Cross Halloween pumpkin glitters over OPI- Skull and Gloss Bones.

I just love how this looks on short nails! The glitter (which didn't have a name) is blue and magenta medium hexes suspended in a clear base. It was so concentrated, that this is only one coat of it. I applied it with a dabbing motion so that it was evenly distributed. I purchased this one recently, so check out your drugstore Halloween displays!

Here's OPI- Skull and Glossbones all by itself. It's a very light gray creme. It was a great formula and only needed two coats. It was from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection released in spring of 2011.

Some new additions!

 Some Halloween Candy Lacquers

Dusty haul is on the top row: OPI- Blushingham Palace, Maliblue, Boot-Hill a Vanilla, Chicago Champagne Toast, Greenwich Green, Wyatt Earple Purple, and Out of this World

I also purchased Crim-Sun from and friend and she threw in Dollish Polish- Toad-ally Awesome! It was awesome indeed :)