Blue Cross Beauty: Summer Brights Nail Polish.

Hi everybody!! How is your weekend going. I am most definitely soaking up the sun on my end. Its in the 70's here at least until Tuesday before it rains.

Today I have for you a nail polish that is super appropriate for the upcoming warm weather!

On a recent trip to Rite Aid ( my holy grail for everything drugstore) I saw that Blue Cross Beauty, a brand I've only seen at Rite Aid came out with some bright fun colored polishes for the Spring.

Out of the five or six colors I saw I picked up the brightest blue that they had. I've been really into wearing bright colors the last few weeks, I think its just with the way I've been feeling at the moment plus I'm excited for warm weather.

Lets get down to it shall we? This polish a neon mid tone blue that has a slightly darker blue shimmer running through it, plus it has very tiny bits of silver glitter mixed in. They look great in the bottle but I don't think they transfer to the nail well, unless I just applied it too quickly, not giving enough time in between coats. In my case that's probably what happened, I'm so impatient.

I like this polish more with a top coat then matte. Hence there are no photos of it matte. The formula is a bit on the sheer side and it takes at least 3-4 to make it opaque enough for my liking so I don't see any visible nail line. The one bright side of the formula is its not to thick or watery so you don't have to worry about flooding or it getting gloopy.

Another highlight of this polish is the bottle. I absolutely love the chunky square bottle! It makes for the perfect hand position. All the Summer Bright polishes are a full 15ml so you are definitely getting your bang for your buck. If I recall these polishes are about $3.99. They had some other nice colors, like a mint green and a pastel pink and I think even a lighter blue, but this one called out to me.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post and I will see you next time! Don't forget to follow on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for other beauty/nail polish stuff!

<3 Nicole

45 Days Of Untrieds Day 12: China Glaze Of Coarse!

Hello!

So for today's untried I am continuing with the texture trend by showing you the next China Glaze creme texture polish I have. Its called Of Coarse, its a bright blue, a color that if it wasn't a texture I would definitely still wear! I kind of wish China Glaze Had this color as a creme. If they do let me know in the comments.

If you wanted to you could get away with one coat. I used two for all my photos.

I love this color its bright and its fun, in a weird way it reminds me the concrete around a public pool, you know how most of them have that popcorn texture and how most of the lettering is a blue color.

I think its important to let each coat dry before you add the next. I noticed on my middle finger part of my finger didn't 'texture' right because I may have brushed on the two coats too quickly.

One thing I was worried about with this polish was wether it would stain my nails and cuticles. I did notice during my clean up around my cuticles there was a little bit of staining that I couldn't get off. As for actual nail plate staining, I didn't really leave it on long enough to tell, and I did have a pretty decent base coat of Nail Envy on too. When I took this off I did notice if it got under my nail it stained the underside a little while trying to remove it.

Remeber to check out Adri's and Shaylads untireds too!

What are your favorite bright colors to wear around the pool?

<3 Nicole

Julie G: Cabana Boy.

*Nothing to disclose, this polish was purchased by me and my own money.*

Hi guys! How are you all? I hope you had a good weekend, I went to a BBQ at my best friends house and ate way too much food and laughed a ton!

Today's post is a polish that has made its way into my favorites. I've showcased Julie G. polishes here on the blog before and this one is no exception.

I seriously hope Julie keeps making new polishes for her line because they are amazing. Cabana Boy is the name of the polish in today's post, and it is a bright cerulean blue creme, that reminds me a lot of Sally Hansen Pacific Blue and Nails Inc. Baker St.

This polish was released earlier this year as a part of the Julie G core collection.

The application of this polish is pretty much perfection. Two coats creates the perfect opacity, and the polish has a nice shine to it without top coat. This polish is too thin or too thick, it literally flows on to the nail and has easy control so you won't flood your cuticles. The only thing I found that I don't like but I think you will find this with any highly pigmented nail color is the fact it can stain your cuticles just a little.

Tell me what you guys think about the pictures! These were taken with my new camera! I got a Canon Rebel T3i for my birthday, all thanks to my parental units whom I love with all my heart and how they support my addiction to polish.

The three photos above were taken in natural cloudy light and all nails have top coat.

So tell me what is your favorite Julie G. Polish if you own any!

If you are looking for this amazing color its available at Rite Aid Pharmacies, and Jesse's Girl Cosmetics Website. Jesse's Girl helps create the Julie G. line!

Adoro Blue Magnetic

Happy January 2nd!!

I hope you all had a fabulous time ringing in the New Year! I stayed at home with my mom and just chilled out and ate some good food. It would of been a little bit better had we not had to deal with my grandfather falling down in the early morning at his nursing home and cracking his head open and giving himself a Subdural Hematoma. Yeah it was a very stressful day not knowing how bad it actually was, but all is good and god kept watch over him and now he is stable :)

What a way to start out the new year huh?

Anywho, I have a nifty new polish to show you all today! This polish is also from the swap that I did with Adri back at Christmas time. She had seen on my wish list that I wanted a blue magnetic polish and so she sent me one from a brand that is exclusive to Costa Rica called Adoro. I have five other polishes by this brand that Adri sent me I believe in the beginning of 2012.

I know magnetic polishes have sort of come and gone and some brands are just jumping on the band wagon like Revlon, Essie, and Sinful Colors just to name a few. I was more than excited to see how a polish from outside the U.S, would hold up.

Lets take a look...

This Adoro Blue Magnetic doesn't have an actual name, usually just a number under the company's name. This blue is a medium-dark  metallic color that is just super pretty. I would wear this on its own with out doing any magnetic effect to it.

Application is pretty good, one coat does cover the nail but we all know its best to do one coat of a magnetic polish, let it dry and then do a quick second coat nail by nail and bam stick the magnet over top for the placement of the design. Your other option is to do one thick coat and work quickly from nail to nail.

Lets talk about the magnet that is provided. The magnet is in the top of the nail polish like most other brands. However like most brands the magnet is circular; Adoro's is square with rounded corners. This means if your nail beds are a little wider than average you can still get an awesome design.  There is a sticker on top of the magnet that showcases the design, the design that came with this one kind of reminds me of a mesh fence. The one thing I would of like to see with the Adoro brand that we only saw with some of the U.S. brands is that there is that special lip to rest on your cuticle so you don't hit the polish. I also notice the magnet fell out easily if the polish was hit hard enough.


Time to take a look at the photos:
*All photos taken with no flash under indoor lighting.

As you can see by the designs on my nails I didn't use the magnet that came with the polish, only on my pinkie finger. For some reason only if I took the magnet out of the top and help it as close as I could to my nail would I get the design. The other three designs on my fingers was a magnet that came with my Pretty Woman Cosmetics. As you can see though the magnetic pull is freakin' awesome! I did not have to hold the magnet over my nail for long at all to get the design to pull through! Score!

All in all I really, really like this polish, out of all the magnetic polish I own this one seems to be right up there with the Pretty Woman Polishes! I can't wait to wear this one again and see how my co-workers and friends react!

Talk to you all very soon!
Nicole

Maybeline Color Show Sea-Quins!

Hello!!

Hope you all are having a wonderful Thursday I am doing well I am also waiting on the bestie to arrive with my peanut of a niece!


I have a fabulous holiday glitter polish to show you! It's from the Maybeline Color Show line the Limited Edition Sequins Collection!

The name on this polish is fitting its called Sea-Quins and it truly does look like the sea. In the bottle it looks teal, when applied on the nail you can see the beautiful blue shine. This polish is all different sizes of glitter in a blue green jelly base.

In my photos I am wearing three coats and two coats of top coat to get smooth. The dry time on the glitter is good, when I applied this it was only 5 minutes before the mail lady showed up with a package for me.

Needless to say the wear is not the best as with most glitter polishes. One night of work my right hand was chipped bad and now on the second day my left hand has about had it.

What I love about this polish that you don't see in the bottle is the chunks of bright cerulean blue hex glitter in it. That what makes it look like mermaid scales to me.

Take a look at the photos below and tell me what you think. I am really enjoying the new glitters that Maybeline has out in this collection I would check out your Rite Aid and or Walgreens for these collections!

Stop Flirting and Where's my Chauffeur???

Hello and happy Sunday!!

I apologize for not having a post for yesterday, my usual schedule of posting every other day has been going pretty well until Saturday morning when I went to put the post together. The polish I had swatched/wore was a beauty. It was one of the new Pure Ice Polishes that are exclusive to Walmart and limited edition. I won't go in to much detail about it since I plan on re-swatching it and posting it eventually. I thought the photos came out well but when I pulled them up on the computer they looked horrid. In the end I had to trash those pics and start from scratch.

So that's where today's manicure came from. It took me all day to decide what to put on Saturday and I decided I wanted some glitz but not all out in your face glitz.

I started out with my base coat of course. Besides using the matte top coat I also did a layer of Orly Bonder before hand because my nails were fraying a little and I always noticed Bonder seemed to help with that.

After my base was dried, I applied one of my newest untireds, Essie's Where's My Chauffeur?. This is from the Essie Winter Collection and you can find it wherever Essie Polishes are sold, it was the only one that stood out to me, the other colors are ones that either I have from a different brand or just not me.

Count 'em 3 coats to make WMC opaque. The formula is nice, easy to handle, the only thing I noticed was brush drag if I didn't let each coat dry completely. The color of this polish can be compared to China Glaze Aquadellic although I feel WMC is a little more dustier, which I think Jen from the Polishaholic has swatches up on her blog.


OK now for now for the glitz! In the new Pure Ice Polishes, there are two glitters I purchased that seem to resemble the OPI Muppet's Polishes. The one I added on for the sparkle is called Stop Flirting it is a blue glitter with larger silver hex glitter mixed it. I believe the OPI polish it resembles is Gone Gonzo. I don't own that polish so I cant do a side by side comparison.

Stop Flirting is actually a smooth glitter, I added three coats to my ring finger over WMC  and even with out top coat it was smooth. That is a huge plus in my book!

Okay so I hope you enjoyed this post! Stay tuned for the next one soon.
<3 Nicole

Loreal Paris! Rainy Piccadilly!

Good morning!

For those of us on the east coast I'm sure many are preparing for the Nor'easter that is headed our way! Here in upstate we are expecting rain and maybe that dreaded 'S' word!

Today's polish is then very fitting for the type of weather we are about to receive, it is another Loreal Paris polish from their British collection. It is called (and this is one of my favorite names) Rainy Piccadilly!

For those who are not familiar with Piccadilly Square it is sort of Like New York's Time Square.

This polish is a stunning dusty navy blue creme. It is pretty much how we would picture a rainy day in a bottle.

I was originally on the fence about this polish. I didn't initially want to get this polish since I am not a huge fan of dark blue polishes. As soon as I saw it in real life I thought I had to try it, I thought maybe it would be close to Sinful Color's Rainstorm but it isn't its darker and dusty-er. Rainstorm which will be on the blog eventually is more dirty looking if that's even possible.

The formula on Rainy Piccadilly is okay, standard for a creme polish. I know I probably sound like a broken record right now saying that the first coat was streaky. It was beyond streaky, very patchy and it created a lot of bald spots. I seriously considered taking it off because I thought it was going to be too difficult to work with. Upon the third coat it seemed to even it self out and become opaque.

Clean up was the usual, the bits of my cuticles that touched the polish did have slight staining, if I had taken more time with my old angled brush I use to clean up with I could have probably gotten rid of it. My worst fear though was that this polish was going to stain my nails! I kept thinking back to a story my bestie told me when she tried Pacific Blue from Sally Hansen, and how it stained her nails and she even used a white polish underneath. By now I was regretting not putting undies on my nails!

I wore this polish for three days straight, and no major problems until of course I was at work on Saturday morning and a chipped my middle finger on my photographing hand and now have a nub. :(
Since Saturday was so busy I did see a lot of tip wear but the first two days were pretty good.


Now I've been trying a different type of base coat when apply my polishes lately, Alaina over at The Little Canvas tweeted that she had been using a matte top coat as a base coat and her polishes haven't been chipping. Now I had been using Orly Bonder every single time and my polish  has chipped but not as bad as it was before I used Bonder, but still I would love to make it through one night of work without any chips. So I decided to try it, I used my NY Color matte top coat and it worked amazing!

I definitely recommend it if you are having trouble with chipping, and the best thing is, is that NY Color Matte top coat only about two bucks! Talk about affordable!

So when it came time to remove Rainy Piccadilly I prayed to the nail gods that my fingers nails would not be blue. Here is where I think maybe the base coat had a hand in it, my nails came out clean as a whistle. So after all that worrying, I had no need to be.

I think if you are a lover of blue polish and lovely creme finish than maybe Rainy Piccadilly is a polish that should join your polish family!

Talk to you all soon! Nicole

OPI I Have A Herring Problem.

Hello! Happy Sunday!

Today I have a polish that I am so glad made its way into my collection. I know I've said it before but the grocery store I work for has a small selection of OPI Polishes. We only get new ones in once in a blue moon and its usually one or two new shades. On Friday while working I was going around the store having to put stuff back on the shelves and had to pass the OPI rack several times. Eyeing a few shades that were different I knew I had to check it out when I got off.

Checking out the rack I immediately saw a slate blue grey polish with shimmer and had to have it. I had pulled out I Have A Herring Problem from the Holland Collection! This and Kiss Me On My Tulips have been on my wish list from this collection. So 1 of 2 complete!

I Have A Herring Problem is a gorgeous medium slate blue grey polish with tons of sliver shimmer that has gold undertones. I noticed it slightly when looking at the polish in the sun,.

This photo was taken with my IPhone with the flash on. My other camera wouldn't pick up the amazing shimmer!

 Application was a pretty good. The first coat is rather sheer but the second coat takes care of that. You can definitely wear this polish with just two coats. In my photos I used three for good measure. I also do not have a top coat on either.

I purchased I Have A Herring Problem for $8.99 at my local grocery store. I am pretty sure you can get OPI at salons and beauty supply stores  for about the same. But prices may vary due to location!

Until next time!
Nicole

Easter Water Marble

Hello! Happy almost Easter everyone!

Today I am going to bring you an Easter Water Marble that I can say I like and don't like.

I have been soo busy with work that I haven't had the time to actually think of stuff to do on my nails for Easter. I do have some bunny nail art that I am going to post tomorrow!

Every year when I was a kid my family would color Easter eggs. All the kids would get around the table at my aunts and have at it. I even remember my dad would get in on it and actually poke a holes in a raw egg and blow out the yolk so you would just have shell and it would be like a piece of art.

This water marble is inspired by that. I took Sally Hansen's Hard To get, a nice white creme polish and painted my nails the standard two coats to make the perfect canvas. Then I used the following polishes in no particular order create the marbling effect.

• Simply Sweet Blue
• Simply Sweet Baby Pink
• Sally Hansen ( a lilac purple I can't remember the name of)
• Milani 3D Holographic Polishes in Cyberspace, Hi-Res, and Digital.

I just alternated the creme colors with the holo ones then did a drop of white in between. They do look like the dyed Easter eggs, I just think that with pastel colors water marbling is harder to make it look good. Like I said, I like them and yet I don't. This was my second attempt. My first attempt I did a different color on each finger and it came out awful!

So I hope you like them! You know the only thing I wish for was a way to make water marbling less messy. I did use tape to help prevent clean up but I still had a lot to clean :(

These are all taken in sunlight from my window. I do like the idea of water marbling, I just think I need more practice. Maybe that will be a goal to set out this weekend or something, practice water marbling!.

Okay so stay tuned for a Easter bunny manicure for tomorrow!

Nicole.

NOTD: Simply Sweet: Blue

Happy Sunday to everyone!!

Hope you all are having a fantastic weekend. I am! This weather is amazing, I broke out the Capri's today just to realize my legs are too white and probably should of invested in some self tanner! :)

It has also been the best time to break out the bright fun colors for spring. It's nice because spring does arrive on Wednesday!

Today I have a color that I picked up at the mall yesterday. My BFF steph and I were spending an afternoon together and stopped in Marshall's  to see what we could find, of course I spot nail polish and pick up a four pack of the brand Simply Sweet Nail Polish in bright pastels, and I convince steph to buy a six pack of striper polishes from L.A. Colors, since she likes making nail art. For $4.99 a pack we couldn't resist.

In the four pack i purchased you got a bright pastel yellow, which I'm hoping is going to be amazing, a pastel bubblegum pink that reminds me of Pink Friday by OPI, a nice dusty purple color, and the color I am showing you today, a nice pastel baby blue!

These are all creme finishes, (which are my favorite). The bottle shape is pretty much exactly like an OPI bottle but just a tad smaller. The brushes are nice as well, not as wide as some of the OPI brushes, its like there the smaller version of them. In the blue bottle there were no weird bristles or anything which is always a plus!

With a Flash.



Natural Light



The application of this pretty polish, was three coats for opacity. If your careful you could get a way with two. All the photos in this post have three coats and a top coat. Even with out a top coat this polish has a glossy finish.

This is the true color of the Polish.

I would describe this color as a nice genuine sky blue color, or an Easter egg. I don't have any blues like this in my collection, especially with a creme finish. Perfect for the spring and summer!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a read, and I hope you all have a wonderful rest to the weekend!
Nicole

100th Post! China Glaze Magnetix.

Hello!

Two things I am sad about today, 1: The weekend is almost over and 2: Daylight Savings Time....loosing one hour of sleep is not fun...

Enough about that, today is my 100th post!!! And it also coincides with the fact that my tiny little blog will be one years old one week from today!!

Today I bring you, finally China Glaze Magnetix. I bought these as soon as they came out in January, I held off on swatching them for the blog because I needed practice with this. Plus every time I would try them, they wouldn't work or I would mess them up.

I ordered three colors, Drawn To You, Instant Chemistry, and Pull me close. I ordered them through 8ty8 Beauty's website for I believe $4.06 a bottle. Each online retailer has different prices so you can sort of shop around for a few cents.

This is the magnet that you can buy for an additional $4.06. To be honest I was not happy about having to buy the magnet, I would of like to see the magnet in the cap like, Nails Inc. and Clarie's. This magnet is not the strongest either and you will see that in some of the photos. You have to hold it extremely close to your nail to get a good design, and with that you risk hitting your nail greatly and messing up the design.

The designs you can choose from are the star, which is my personal favorite, the diagonal stripes, and the chevron. The chevron design was the one I wanted to work the best but it was the worst.

Since I had lots of time to practice and I also tried other brands of magnetic polish, I feel China Glaze could of done better with this collection. The colors are nice, but brighter ones would have drawn me to buy more.

Application of these polishes are iffy, on some you can get away with one coat and others you need two, but I found especially with Drawn To You, if you used two coats the design did not show. As where if you used two coats with Pull Me Close and Instant Chemistry the designs showed up more.

This is one coat of Drawn To You, and the diagonal magnet. No top coat.
I found a top coat would muddle the design. 

These two pictures of Instant Chemistry are two coats and a top coat.
I used the star design here except on my pointer finger.

Pull me close is by far the best one out of the three with creating the design.
Once again two coats with a top coat.

If your a nail polish addict like me then maybe adding one or two of these to your collection is worth it. Plus if you have any other brand magnetic polish you can use the magnet from them to create a design on them. Although no one else I think has a star pattern out. If you just want to have a magnetic polish my honest opinion is that they are plenty of other brands out there that are worth your money than these. Sorry China Glaze.

So that's my swatches and review of China glaze Magnetix. Not my favorite collection and not the best magnetic polish unfortunately.

Hope you all have a great start to your week. Talk to you all soon!
Nicole