Today’s first-ever guest nails post comes courtesy of Daniela, who went to the big fancy brick and mortar Sephora and bought Chaotic, then wasn’t sure this morning what to put it over. She decided on Essie Who is the Boss, and sent me these pictures:
I was not into this polish to start with, but I LOVE this. It’s like Jackson Pollack made a robin’s egg. Great choice, Daniela! I might have to take a second look at this topcoat collection after all. . .
Happy New Year to everyone! One of my priorities this year is going to be more consistent blogging. I started out strong and then got off track over the holidays. But I’m going to be better about this.
My first swatch is the polish I wore out last night. A lot of ladies were doing fancy stuff with their nails and stamping (I saw the most amazing nail art with a mirrorball plate done in the UO Green Holo) but I am just not that coordinated, plus I’m still fighting off a cold so the fact that I even got out was more a force of will than anything else. On the plus side, I don’t have a hangover this morning because I was just too tired to get up to much drinking.
I was kindly gifted a $5 Wrapp gift card for Sephora, and I immediately thought, “Polish!” I had everything I wanted from Sephora though, except for these new colors that had just come out – Sephora X. The line includes some glitter top coats, 3-D glitters, pearlescents, and just generally a bunch of beautiful things to put on your fingers, and prices range from $9.50 to $11.50. I opted for Deranged from the Prismatics set, described as a micro-sparkle deep eggplant metallic with rainbow shimmer, which was at the top end of the price scale at $11.50.
My local store didn’t have them in yet but was happy to give me a code for free shipping so I could buy one. Deranged happened to arrive yesterday, so it seemed like a message that this was to be my New Years polish.
The first coat looked so sheer that I thought it would definitely take three coats for full coverage. The second coat, though, did a better job than I had expected, and when it was all over I’d had to put a third coat on about three nails, but the rest were ok with 2. If you’re liberal with the brush, it’s a two-coater; if you’re stingy it will be three. I did find that it was hard to find a happy medium – either I had so much on the brush that I was going to have a mess, or I had so little I wasn’t going to get a lot of coverage out of the coat.
Once on, this lived up to its description. It’s a deep purple, and it has red, blue, and green sparkle to it. It reminded me of Orly Fowl Play, though it has smaller particles. The purple is very deep to the point of almost looking black. I like it, but it’s not anything that is so unique I can’t live without it.
A couple of notes on the polish line. These are 10mL bottles, so about 2/3 of the size of an OPI bottle, and more expensive. Also, the polish name is on a label stuck onto the cap. For some reason this seems odd to me. Labels on the bottom are ok, because we don’t have our grubby, greasy hands on the bottom of the bottle directly. But since we pick up bottles by the caps, it seems like (if I didn’t have so much polish I will probably touch this about once a year) it’s just asking for the label to be worn out, rubbed off, or just generally screwed up. My favorite is the way Chanel prints the name on the bottle, but I get that you pay extra for that privilege. Still, at $11.50 for 10 mL (which scales up to $17.25 for 15 mL), I’d like to see better label placement.
Whew – it’s been a long week (exactly) with sales. I think it’s time to go back to some more pictures. Here’s what came home with me this week. I’ll get around to swatching some of it but please ask if there’s anything you’d like to see!
First the miscellany. From Urban Outfitters: Lollipop (a pink glitter that reminds me of cupcakes) and Mystic, which reminds me a lot of the Layla Ceramic Effects I bought last week – but at about half the price. A Seche topcoat called Collage Overlay, the last Sephora polish I needed from Pantone Universe (Rose Dawn), and Color Club Love ‘Em/Leave ‘Em.
Next, LOTS of China Glaze due to a misunderstanding about a sale price at Sally’s. I also had a 20% off coupon so these were $3 each: Secret Peri-Winkle, Dorothy Who?, Glistening Snow, Fairy Dust, Watermelon Rind, and Black Diamond.
And Running in Circles, Water You Waiting For, It’s a Trap-eze, Grape Juice and Avalanche.
Perhaps most exciting of all, my Rescue Beauty order. You can’t really get the great depth and shimmer in the one picture where you can clearly see Recycle, but Recycle is just black in the other picture, so here’s both. Yes, I have ordered a lightbox. 🙂 By the way, Aqua Lily lasted approximately 30 hours before selling out again this week. It’s so beautiful! Aqua Lily, Insouciant, Poco A Poco, Ghost, Recycle, and Moxie (the surprise love here – not “surprised it’s beautiful” but “surprised that I think it will get more use than I thought” since I normally am not that into white polish).
Here’s Ulta’a Black Friday ad. I’m underwhelmed. The most exciting thing I see here is the 5 for $5 on nail polish, hand lotion, etc, and that’s been going on all week. On the up side, while the hubby is in a 3 hour checkout line at Best Buy, you can go to Ulta in relative peace and quiet without anyone throwing elbows. Last year I was at Ulta in Austin at the magic hour and there were maybe 5 women waiting. Very zen. There also seems to be some overlap with Sephora’s sale. Speaking of which, Sephora’s online deals (you can preview them but you have to “Like” them on Facebook) go live at 3 am Eastern or midnight Pacific on Friday morning. Don’t ask on Facebook, because they’ll just tell you “first thing” Friday.
Zoya Aurora, Essie Dive Bar and Sexy Divide, Julep America and Trina, and Sephora Pantone Universe Purple Parachute. Maybe one of these will help me get over what happened on Boardwalk Empire tonight.
Polish, Polish, Polish! 