Manicure Monday: A Giveaway. CLOSED

Giveway time!! It's a small prize, but I think it's pretty great nonetheless. Unlike usual, though, this one requires a bit more on your part!

The Game

Think of a polish you own whose name doesn't quite fit. Take a picture of yourself wearing the polish and post it in the comments with the name it has, and the name you think it should have. You may also use a photo from online, but if you do so, please be sure to include a link to the original post. Post as many entries as you have ideas! Entries posted after 11:59 pm PST on Monday, Feb. 3 (one week from today) will not be considered.

I would love to take credit for this idea, but it was all Z. She also proposed an example entry that was way better than anything I could come up with (good thing I'm not competing for the prize, eh?), to give you an idea what I'm looking for:

frrom The PolishAholic

Name: Belugaria

Better name: PMS

The Prize

One (1) bottle of Maybelline Lavishly Lilac, one (1) bottle of L'Oreal Sexy in Sequins, and one (1) bottle of Illamasqua Baptiste, as well as some other surprise bits and bobs.

Top to bottom: 2 coats Baptiste, 1 coat
Sexy in Sequins without top coat (not
fully dry, either), and 3 coats Lavishly Lilac

The fine print: Open to US residents only (sorry, my beautiful international readers; shipping is too expensive to your locales!), must be 18 years or older. Use an email address you check regularly so I can contact you if you win!

I look forward to seeing your ideas! Good luck :-)

Manicure Monday

Hi again! I hope y'all have had a great holiday season. I've been enjoying my time off school and indulging in some reading for pleasure (it'd been years since I'd really done that!), which has left less time for research and blogging, but whatever. It's winter break! I'm going to hibernate. And code. (I finally actually made some headway in that department, and wow, I totally understand why people do CS. When it works, you feel like a GOD. It's awesome. When it doesn't work, you want to kill yourself and everyone you've ever known, but you can't, because then you'll never figure out the puzzle of why it's not working...)

Here are some pictures of manis I've done the last few weeks; I did a green and red one for Christmas, but didn't take pictures because I felt like ignoring my duties as a blogger, but I'm sure you'll see the polishes I used at some point in the future. For now, here are these!

Winter Wonderland

Schnee! Kar! Nieve! Snow! (All the languages I speak
use the same writing system. Sorry to be so boring.)

This is a single coat of three white polishes layered to try and create snowy nails. I did it during our week of snow, when I was trapped at home, before I got annoyed with the stupid white stuff. It's Wet N Wild's white $0.99 polish topped with Orly Au Champagne and Orly Winter Wonderland. It wasn't fully opaque, but I didn't really care, because the shimmer from Winter Wonderland helped disguise it. That polish is really appropriately named! It does look like frosty magic.

Manicure Monday

These reviews are all super wordy, so I'll skip the introduction.

Revlon Wintermint
This is one of the new scented polishes released by Revlon (they're permanent, no worries). I picked it up because I was just dying of curiosity as to whether it would be a dupe for my beloved Mermaid's Dream. It's not. In fact, I kind of hate Wintermint, even though they are really similar.

2 coats Wintermint on all except
pinky, which has 2 coats Mermaid's
Dream. All with 2 (or 3? damnit)
layers of top coat

Here's the deal: Wintermint's base is much thicker and more opaque than Mermaid's Dream, so it covers up the blue big glitters and gold little glitters in the base much more than in MD, and since there are less glitters to begin with in Wintermint, the end result is much more muted and less sparkletastic. And where MD dries uniformly bumpy, allowing all sorts of different layers of glitter to sparkle (and giving it a cool fish-scale effect, without the 3 coats of topcoat necessary to smooth it), Wintermint is lumpy and uneven from where the larger blue glitter pokes up.

Manicure Monday

Betcha didn't think I'd be posting again so soon, didja? I'm so on top of things, guys.

Sinful Colors Ice Dream
I saw this one at the drugstores last winter and passed on it, only to later decide I wanted it and go back to find it gone. So I was very happy to see it again this year, and snatched it right up! It's a very sparkly, very pretty silver shimmer with blue small hexes (I think they're hexes, at least; they're very wee!).

You can build it up to opacity on its own in 3 coats, but I was lazy and just did it over one coat of Wet N Wild Silvivor, which gave almost exactly the same effect. Only one coat of top coat needed, too. Very wintry! Here's hoping we get snow this year so I can wear it and feel like the Ice Queen.

Manicure Monday

Finally, nail polish! On my fingers! Aaaah. It's nice to be back.

First up, Zoya Godiva, purchased when they had free shipping and waiting for me when I got home. Yippee! Unlike Miranda, I preferred Godiva without top coat. I actually liked it best at one coat, when it was sparkly and not too nude, but I didn't photograph it then. You'll just have to wait until I wear it again! It was quite opaque; I used 2 coats, and it's a bit too nude for my taste, but the silver sparkle helps. Very, very sparkly. It's fun!

Without and with top coat, respectively.

Manicure...Tuesday?

WHOOPS. Here, have some holo.

I did a swap with Amanda a few weeks ago, since she had an extra set of Color Club Halo Hues that I wanted, but between the end of the term and planning for my trip (post on that coming soon!), I didn't have the chance to paint my nails. But I finally did this weekend, starting with the blue Over the Moon.

Formula was great, nearly a one coater, though I fear my thickish coats contributed to the bubbling I saw on a few nails. Bad Amy. Dried fast, quite shiny without topcoat, and SO HOLOGRAPHIC. It's amazing. Even in indirect sunlight, usually a holo-killer, you can still see some rainbows, but under direct light (either sun or lightbulb), they really pop (though I was less than successful at getting pictures to turn out right, so I resorted to using the flash). Sigh. I love holos. Especially when they have this kind of formula! Only one nail had chipped after 3 days, and that was entirely due to part of the nail falling off (I failed miserably at keeping my nails in anything resembling good shape towards the end of the term, and they're still recovering). Great stuff. I'm looking forward to wearing the rest of the shades! Have to get in my holo fix before going without polish for a few weeks (*sob*).

Have you tried any of the CC holos? Do you like holo polish?

Manicure Monday

I haven't been wearing new nail polish lately, preferring to stick to my tried and trues, but I got this one from Birchbox when I had 20% off and a $10 coupon (along with LMdB Framboise Crème, which I will review at some point) and figured I might as well give it a go. The polish in question: Ruby Wing Poppy.

Before. I could not get my camera to capture how bright this shade is. It's also much more pink and less red than it looks here.

The Ruby Wing polishes are color changing in sunlight, which is the coolest thing ever you guys holy balls. Poppy goes from a lovely bright, nearly neon pink (it freaked my camera out, see above) to a vampy warm burgundy; it takes about 20 seconds for the transformation to complete, and about a minute for it to return to pink once removed from the sun. It will change somewhat under cloudy skies, but they have to be that kind of glowy cloudy, not absolutely overcast. The most fun part is holding your hand such that half the nail is exposed to sun while the other half is in shade––you get awesome gradient effects.

After!

The formula is good, though a little thick, so you have to be sure not to have too much on the brush; it has a jelly-creme finish and needs topcoat to be really shiny. From the one time I've worn it, it lasted about average, and dry time was fine. The biggest issue I have with it is the smell. It's been scented with synthetic rose, from what I can tell, and it is strong. I'm not crazy about how nail polish smells usually (who is?), but at least it goes away quickly. This lingers, for more than 24 hours, even once topcoat has been applied. It is less than ideal. By which I mean, I hate it. But the color changingness is awesome enough to make up for it, I guess. Fortunately, they make many shades (30), most of which are unscented. I think I might have to order more. They have one that's purple holographic color-changing glitter! How am I supposed to resist that?! Gah. Nail polish is the best.

Really after.

$8-10 for 0.50 oz, available from Birchbox, Ruby Wing, eBay, various nail design websites

Have you tried color changing nail polish?

Currently Coveting: Chanel Taboo

JUST LOOK AT IT.

via Chanel

(But $27 is insane.)

(I might still buy it.)

Manicure Monday

Whee, another week's worth of manis!

Zoya Avril (3 coats) with Revlon Girly (1 coat)

Avril is a pretty color, but I'm not in love with it––partly because it's not self-leveling, so I find that it builds up in some places while being sheer in others, even after 3 coats, and partly because it's a creme, and I find creme finish polishes to be generally super boring. I did like the accent nail, though! Girly is really sheer on its own, though it can be built up in 3 coats, but I liked how it looked over Avril (and, as a bonus, I only had to do 2 coats of Avril on my accent nails). I'll be holding on to both of these to use in the future! An unstoppable combo, in spite of it being pink ;)

Quick Comparisons

Here's a very brief post of comparison swatches for two of the polishes featured in Manicure Monday.

The Purples

Left to right, 2 coats each of: Milani Hi-Res, Zoya Aurora, Zoya Carly

Hi-Res is, as I suspected, lighter and sheerer than Aurora, and has finer holo particles. Carly is a similar shade to Aurora, but completely different in opacity (almost a 1-coater) and finish (not holo).

Manicure Monday

Whoa, another weekly feature has made its triumphant return! I'm going to try and get through all my unworn polishes the next couple months, so this will probably actually be a weekly feature, assuming I can stay on top of my stuff and photograph my manicures...but my shortcomings as a blogger aside, here are the two I wore last week!

Illamasqua Baptiste

I purchased this in July using the Sephora gift card my dear friend Z gave me for my birthday, but have never actually featured it by itself (you can see it in my birthday manicure here, though). Really pretty dark warm purple with gorgeous magenta-purple hidden shimmer; looks black in dark lighting, purple indoors, and shimmeriffic in direct light. In the past, I've found it prone to bubbling, but it may have been the summer heat or something because I had no issues with application or wear this time. 2 easy coats, wore for nearly 4 days with minimal tip wear and no chipping, albeit with base and top coat. I do violently dislike the packaging, though––the square top doesn't line up with the bottle unless I don't close it all the way, which is irritating as all get out. Gorgeous shade, though!

Manicure Monday

More manicures! This is going to be brief, again, because I have a bunch of quizzes to grade and a sure-to-be-confusing syntax article to read (the life of a grad student is just an endless party, y'all).

OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest
I caved and bought this when I spotted it in New York. Yes, I hate OPI's terrible punny names, but the color is SO GORGEOUS. And after using it, I have to say the OPI formula (okay, based on a sample size of 1, so take it with a grain of salt) is fantastic. I will be paying more attention to their other collections now! And I will be wearing this polish all the freaking time.

Manicure Monday

Yay, yet another alliterative feature on the blog! Manicure Mondays are when I plan to show the previously-unshown polishes in my collection that I've managed to wear the week before. This past week I only wore 2, and each only for a day, because pretty much from Thursday on I was completely swamped in work. But the two I wore are super gorge! And both discontinued and somewhat HTF. Sorry.

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Golden Tourmaline

A red holo! The pigmentation on this is insane––this is one coat. ONE COAT. FOR A HOLO. Not to mention IT'S A RED HOLO! It's not as holographic as others from the line, but I'm willing to forgive it because it's red and so pigmented. I took these pictures a day after I applied it (well, okay, more like 18 hours), and it was already showing tipwear, but that may be due to my crappy nails or the base/top coat I used. I love it no less. (Also, most MMs will be taken the day after application, which helps give some idea of how well the polish wears, but I apologize for the inevitable tipwear-filled photos!)

Lips and Tips

The lovely Larie inspired me to try matching my nail polish to my lipstick, so here's the combo I came up with!

There is no way to get nails and lips together in a photo without it looking ridiculous.

I wanted to wear the gorgeous Wet N Wild Waves of Enchantment (which according to the internet is very similar to Zoya Rica, which unlike WoE is not limited edition), and it then occurred to me that I could probably construct a lip that was similar! I first applied Guerlain Chamade, then topped it with Revlon Sweet Tart and blended them together. I finished off with a layer of Clarins Coral Pink, which gave my lips a similar golden sheen as my nails.

Trust me, I tried. (Out of focus to show the lip shimmers)

The lips were definitely less blingy than the polish, but the color scheme ended up being very similar! They're more alike in the sun than the shade, though, as the polish tends to be very orange-gold in the shade and loses the pinkness. All told, I quite liked it! And I wore it with Bella Bamba on my cheeks, which is a blush that seems to be closely related as well. Oh, coral-pink-gold, you are so summery.

Ahaha, stock photo of girl holding hand up and laughing at nothing? I don't even know.

Have you ever matched your lips and nails? What's your favorite combination?

Zoya Beach and Surf Picks: Wednesday, Carly, and Kimber Review and Swatches

Last month when Zoya had their 3 Beach and Surf polishes for $15 promotion, I went through the painful process of narrowing down my picks to just three, and ended up getting Wednesday, Carly, and Kimber. I can happily report that I was not disappointed by any of them!

Left to right: Carly, Kimber, Wednesday

More Random Polish Spam

I am just about drowning in work right now, so I'm doing a cop-out post: Nail polishes that I'm too lazy to write individual reviews of! With my thoughts, if you can call them that...

China Glaze Grape Juice

Pretty purple foil. It's much warmer than it looks here, but purples make my camera freak out. I think this was 2 coats? Might have been 3, but the formula was good. Good wear, too. I ended up not liking it as much as I thought I would, because the foil is mostly silver with less pink than I was hoping for, but it's still a very pretty color.

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream Nail Polish Review and Swatches

I finally got around to actually wearing this beauty on my fingers! Yay! (You can see my earlier non-review here.)

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream

a england Dragon (from The Legends Collection) Nail Polish Review and Swatches

I'm, like, two months late to this party. Adina is the lovely creator of a england polish, which debuted with The Mythicals, a collection inspired by King Arthur in late 2010/early 2011 (this was before I got into polish hardcore) to much acclaim. Earlier this year she released another collection, called The Legends, inspired by the legend of Saint George. 6 out of 7 of the shades are holographic and 3 of those are duochrome, so needless to say, I was beyond excited to see swatches. I managed to restrain myself to just one choice, though I'm still dying to get St. George (awesomely glowy dark turquoise) and Bridal Veil (holographic black! aaah!), and Princess Tears (light pink-lavender with grey shift) and Ascalon (darker purple with grey shift) certainly call to me, too, especially given my fondness for lavender polish. But anyways! I ended up only getting Dragon because it seemed the awesomest of the awesome choices. And wow, how awesome it is.

2 coats Dragon

Zoya Reece Nail Polish Review and Swatches

I finally, finally felt like my nails were looking nice enough to try painting them. Turns out, they're not quite there yet, but close enough that I felt okay taking swatch pictures!

I got this back during Zoya's Red promotion for Valentine's Day (it wasn't the red I chose––that's Reva, which I'll be posting once I wear it!) because I felt like I didn't have enough pink polish (that's not glitter or holo or cream) and Reece looked pink but still interesting. And lo and behold, pink and interesting it is!

Giveaways!

Well, dearest readers, I am currently en route to New York for an awesome visit (with some of you reading this, in fact!). I've got some posts scheduled, and I'll have lots of posts (both beauty-related and personal) once I get back, but while I'm gone I'll probably be pretty absent. In recompense, though, I offer you: 2 giveaways!

Many bloggers hold their first giveaway when they hit 100 followers. I, however, have no such patience (not least because GFC has been giving so many bloggers so much angst since being pulled from non-Blogger blogs, and I suspect that it will soon disappear from Blogger, too)! And, because I want to spread the love around as much as possible, I'm going to do two smaller giveaways. I really want this to be a present to my actual readers, not a way to get more followers, so I'm not asking you to tweet or blog about it, and as long as this isn't the first BJB post you've read, you're welcome to enter!