31Dc2013 Day 1: Red

Hey everyone

I'm starting up another challenge. Hopefully I can finish this one. :) I meant to post this yesterday and forgot. 

Day 1 is red so I started with a base of Zoya's Livingston (2 coats) on all my nails except for my ring finger. My ring finger has Tomoko (2.5 coats). I waited for Livingston to completely dry and then I added a thick coat of Flynn. Using a sandwich bag I dabbed off some of Flynn. Once that was completely dry I added a top coat and fell in love. This just screams Fall to me. And these colors remind me of caramel apples. So I'm going to be creating some short of drip mani with apples and caramel. Hope you enjoy my red nails and be on the look out for orange nails later today. :)

OPI Rock Goddess Minis

Hey everyone

Today I have the fall mini set from OPI. This year's set is called Rock Goddess. 

It came with Yellopalooza, Stand In Lime For Days, Rolling Bones, and The Drummer is Hot. As well as a skull bracelet. I got this from my local Cost Cutters for $12.95. 

First up we have Yellopalooza. 

I used 3 coats in the photo but you can get away with 2 if you use thicker coats. The formula was better than most yellow polishes I run into. I think a lot if it had to do with the shade. It's a lovely sunshine yellow and I have the most trouble with pastel yellows.

I did have an issue with it staining my cuticle area and the surrounding skin, but not my nails. Thank goodness for base coats. 

Next up we have Stand in Lime for Days. 

I did not like this polish. It's not bad once you put enough coats on. However this picture is 3 coats and there's still VNL (visible nail line). The first coat was basically green tinted water and the second made it a streaky mess. The last coat was in the thicker side. 

I wish this would have been more opaque because it is a lovely green in the bottle. 

Next is Rolling Bones. 

I'll be honest this polish infuriates me. In case you can't tell this is Number One Nemesis with a new name. If I didn't have NON I would enjoy this polish a lot more but the Spiderman collection was such a huge hit. There was even a mini set which included NON. So it makes me wonder if the minis didn't sell so they just threw it in here. 

This polish doesn't really fit the others anyway. It seems very out of place. This was two coats and applied easily. 

Here are both bottles. Rolling Bones looks like it would be blue right?

Nope they are they exact same. NON is on my middle and pinkie nail. RB is on my index and ring finger. 

But enough of polishes that make me angry. Last is The Drummer is Hot. 

If you are undecided on this mini set you need to buy it just for this polish. Two coats here and I really only needed one. Such a bright yet not neon red orange. I honest don't have anything like it in my collection. 

I wish this came full sized. By the time Fall arrives I think my mini will be completely empty. 

All in all this collection was ok. I enjoyed half of the polishes. Technically three, but Rolling Bones is a repeat. Have you guys purchased this mini set? What did you think?

**EDIT** Turns out the entire collection is repeats. Yellowpalooza is Nicole by OPI's Hit the Lights. Stand in Lime For Days is Did It On Em. Rolling Bones is Number One Nemesis. And The Drummer is Hot is Roll In The Hague. Kind of disappointing that they are all repeats but at least I can get a full size of The Drummer is Hot!

 

August Maven Box

Hey everyone

Today I have my Julep August Box. This month I got the Classic With A Twist box with one add on. 

This is Julep's 2 year anniversary so their box was special this month. I really liked getting this box instead of a traditional black box. 

This is the inside of the box thanking everyone for being a Julep Maven. 

They included Forget-Me-Not seeds. This was actually the only special thing in the box. I was kind of disappointed. It's their anniversary and I get flower seeds? I do not have a green thumb so these are going to get gifted for sure. 

I have dry feet so I used this as soon as I could. It did help but it's not a product that I would use full time. It was a tad bit greasy so I haven't used it for it's friction purpose. Honestly I would recommend getting their foot lotion, that product is amazing. 

These are my polishes! In order we have Sylvia, Marjorie, and Veronica. Marjorie came from the It Girl box. 

First up we have Veronica. 

This is such a pretty reddish pink cream polish. At 2 coats Veronica appealed smooth and evenly. 

I honestly have nothing like this in my collection. It's so pretty and shiny. I'm not wearing a topcoat in any of these photos. 

Next up we have Sylvia. 

Sylvia is a bluish purple cream. It reminds me of a lighter and creamier Eden. It also applied very even and smooth after 2 coats. 

See how shiny this polish is? I love it. I have one polish that's similar and I'll feature it in a comparison post soon. 

Last we have Marjorie. 

Marjorie is a bright orange with a golden shimmer. I was worried it wouldn't transfer on the nail but it does!

This and Veronica are my favorites that I got. 

This box was nice but a bit of a disappointment. I am excited to see what they come up with for fall. I have yet to get a Fall box from July. What do you guys think of this month's box?

Youtube Tutorial Tuesday: Aztec Owl

Hey everyone

Today I have a completely adorable manicure to show you for YTT. This video is brought to you by Professional DQ. Hope you guys like it.

How cute was that video? I love the fresh  take on owl nails. I've never seen anything like it and I knew I had to do it. This was based on Sunday being the first day of my Alphabet Challenge on Instagram (@Tara825c look me up!). A stood for Aztec so here we are.

I had a little bit of a hard time because my pink striper was very gloopy and I didn't have any thinner. Other than that I think these are wonderful.And I hope you like them too.

MSMD Monday: Kite Tails

Hey everyone

Today I have a design from Paulina's Passion. She did these amazing kite tail nails that I knew would be perfect for Bow Day. What is Bow Day you ask? I started a new challenge on Instagram. The Alphabet Challenge. Today is B for Bows. Yesterday was A for Aztec but it'll be featured tomorrow for YTT. You can view Paulina's design here! 

Polishes used:

1. Zoya's Kristen
2. Zoya's Wednesday
3. Zoya's Katy
4. Zoya's Mira
5. Zoya's Paz
6. Julep's Something Blue
7. China Glaze's Fairy Dust

So what do you think? I love them.They were easier than I was expecting which is certainly a plus after working on a Monday. :) Hope you guys enjoyed today's Monkey See Monkey Do Monday.

Fing'rs Heart 2 Nail Art: Get Spotted

Hey everyone

 

Today I have a review on 2 products I found in my local Walmart. I was walking around the store when I found a display with Fing’rs Heart 2 Art.

 

 There were nail polish bottles on top. Then nail art things like studs, striping tape, foil and other things. On the end of the row I noticed something that said Get Spotted. I picked up the package and it had 2 mini bottles of nail polish and then 1 full size bottle of black nail polish. Could it be true? Did someone bring over the spotted design from Europe? I spent the $6.48 and picked up the kit along with a stamping kit that I’ll feature at a later date.

 

The pictures on the side box had me completely excited. So I painted my nails and waited for them to dry. Then I got out the spotted bottle. I put a normal coat on my nail and watch. And then I watched and watched some more. 30 minutes later after painting 3 nails I noticed that nothing had happened. I’m going to go ahead and let you know that I didn’t take any pictures of this part because nothing happened. I literally looked like I had just painted my nails black. So I went back and tried to paint a thin coat. Same thing. I decided to then try a super thin coat. I wiped off almost all of the polish from the brush and then painted my last nail. Something finally happened. One little-bitty-no-bigger-than-a-pin-prick spot popped on my nail. It looked like I had an air bubble in my nail polish that popped on my nail. I was furious. A special edition of OPI can be anywhere from $8 to $12 as long as it’s not the golden flake polish, so to get this for $6.48 was a great deal. But I expected it to work. I wasn’t expecting miracles or anything like that, but the box showed how it was supposed to look, I was expecting something similar that.

 

This morning I went back to Walmart and returned the kit. I can only hope I got a bad box. Did anyone else run into this kit? Did yours work? Sound off in the comments!

Maybelline Color Show Polka Dot Collection

Hey everyone

Today I have an entire collection to review for you. It's really bad when I find an entire collection for a nice price, because then instead of getting 1-2 new polishes I get 5-8 in one sitting. I'm running out of room! I found these at my local Walmart. Funny enough they had the promotional display for this collection up before they actually had the product. Talk about a tease!

First off I have my least favorite.

This is Blue Marks The Spot. This is 2 swatches and you can see how thin it is. The first swatch is basically blue tinted water. The thing is this polish is really nice, but I don't want all of those coats just to make it look like the bottle. 

It wouldn't even be that big of a deal but the rest of the collection is wonderful and very opaque which is why I don't understand this one. 

Next we have Dotty. This is the orange based polish.

I'm not even a fan of orange polish and I really like this one. It's a perfect pumpkin shade of orange.

I'm definetly using this as the glitter accent for a Halloween mani. This is also 2 coats. There's isn't really a lot of building needed either. If you do it thick enough you could get away with 1 coat. I just wanted more glitter. 

Next we have the clear based polish, Clearly Dotted.

This is 1 coat. Look at all that glittery goodness. I wish all of the polish had this much glitter in it. I also love that it doesn't have bar glitter. Long bar glitter drives me crazy because it seems like you can never get it to all lay down. 

I cannot get over how great this polish is. It completely reminds me of Oreo ice cream. If you aren't going to get the others of the collection I recommend this one for certain.

Next we have Drops of Jade, the green based polish.

This is my second favorite of the collection. It only needed 2 coats to cover up patches and add more glitter. What an amazing green. I love the shade so much.

There's a little bit of VNL (visable nail line) but it's not in person. I wasn't origianlly going to pick this one up just because it wasn't a lighter green (I was hoping for more of a mint chocolate chip kind of thing), but I would have completely regretted if it I hadn't.

Lastly we have Pretty in Polka. The pink based polish.

This is my absolute favorite polish. I could not get over how pretty this is. It looks so dark in the bottle like a purple almost, but it's so pink and girly. 

It's also so bright, I wasn't expecting it to be this bright. The entire collection is kind of an the darker less bright side, so I was expecting the same here. 

Overall this collection is great. Everyone polish with a color base is like a jelly sandwich in the bottle. And with the clear base you can make your own out of the colors they skipped. If you're into black and white glitter this is the collection for you.