Tagapalooza!

     I was recently (jk, it was like months ago smh!) tagged in a few stuff and have been meaning to complete them and pass them on. This past weekend, I finally finally got off my ass and got them done, so let's get right into it, shall we? n_n


First, I was given a handwriting tag from Anna over at Loodie Loodie Loodie. Which btw, if you haven't been reading, you should definitely start. My nails are like 10x healthier because of her.
But anyway, for the tag, I had to handwrite the answers to the following questions:


1. What is your name/blogger name?
2. What is your blog's name/URL?
3. Write,"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."
4. What's your favorite type of food?
5. What are some of your favorite makeup brands?
6. What are some of your nicknames?
7. What are some pictures you like to doodle?


And here are my answers:

 Yes, I know. My handwriting looks exactly like an one-armed fish wrote it while being electrocuted. I know.  

I also know that I'm like uber tardy for the party with this tag and consequently, I'm 99% sure that everyone has done this already. But if by chance you haven't, consider yo'self tagged. 

The second tag came from Rory at Varnish Vixen, and it was for a nail art challenge.
The rules were:
1. go to your lacquer stash
2. CLOSE your eyes and pull 3 random items - JUST 3


And from those three polishes, I had to create a mani, presumably a non-ooglay one. 
Because I am the polish gods' favorite joke, I ended up with:

China Glaze White Cap, L.A. Girl Punk and Nubar Earth. -____-

And here's what I made out of those:

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     To create this, I started with a layer of milky basecoat and then applied three coats of China Glaze White Cap. I used topcoat on it and let it dry for an hour, before proceeding to stamp on the ivy-ish pattern from Bundlemonster's BM20 plate, using L.A. Girl Punk. Punk is so thin that you can barely see it, but it's there. Finally, I used Nubar Ocean to randomly stamp on the little flower thingies from Konad's M20 plate. I was surprised at how much I liked this. Too bad the tip shrinkage ruined it. ;_;

The last rule is that you have to tag 3 bloggers, so I'm going to tag Another Bottle of Polish?!, Concrete and Nail Polish, and anyone else who wants to do it but hasn't been tagged. If you do choose to do it, please send me a link or leave it in the comments! I love seeing the stuff that people have come up with for this challenge. n_n

And the last tag was for the Top 10 blog award, and came from Beauty Shades! Thank you for the tag, girl! I really appreciate it! 

Purpley. n_n

The rules of this tag are that I have to name 10 of my favorite cosmetics and tag 10 other bloggers to receive the award. 

So my top 10 cosmetics would be:

1. Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

2. Shiro Cosmetics Eyeshadows (I own most of them and love all the ones I have)

3. Fyrinnae Eyeshadows

4. Reviva Labs Makeup Primer

5. Covergirl Lash Blast Fusion

6. Wet n Wild Cream Eyeliner

7. Wet n Wild Palettes

8. Milani Color Brilliance Eyeliners

9. Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse Foundation

10. Maybelline Volume Express Falsies Mascara

And in no particular order, I shall tag:

Silence is Loud

Loodie Loodie Loodie

Spaz and Squee

Maricza.com

C's P's

My Lucid Bubble

Nailtastic

Spooky Nails

Candy Coated Tips

Haute Lacquer

Wooh that was long, huh?

Lesson learned though....noo more procrastinating on tags.  x_o

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!!

A-England Lady of the Lake Giveaway

        For me, one of the most exciting nail-related events of 2011 was the launch of A-England. As a total book nerd and polish addict, I'd been so obsessed with finding a brand that could properly blend the two, and for me, A-England is that brand. Not only do the colors have this regal feel that perfect fits with the theme of the collection, but each polish color actually fits the character its named for. That's why I'm excited to be able to do this giveaway, even though it's a really small one. So what's up for grabs?

One new bottle of A-England Lady of the Lake!

Ahaha, like you couldn't tell from the title.

And here it is in action (don't worry, I'm wearing my bottle):

But anyway, rules to enter are:

1. You must be a follower through Google Friend Connect and you must have a valid email address. New followers can play too.

2. You can get one extra entry by liking A-England on Facebook. This is in your best interests too, because when there's a sale or special offer, it pops up on the Facebook page first.

3. This giveaway will be U.S. only. Sorry, international polish lovers, you guys can play next time!! 

4. Giveaway ends on June 20, 2011 at 11:59 EST. 

*This giveaway is now closed! Thank you all for entering!*

Sally Hansen Night Lights

    Today, I have Sally Hansen Night Lights, which was a polish that I hunted a long time for. After buying a dud (it wasn't holo at all) I finally found a nicely priced holographic bottle on ebay, and snapped it up.

Night Lights is a bunch of square silver and holographic glitter in a charcoal grey jelly base. I applied it over two layers of China Glaze Liquid Leather, because I was too lazy to build it up.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Blurred for sparkliness.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

      You know, I'm actually pretty disappointed with Night Lights. It looked so spectacular in every picture I saw and in the bottle, but on my nails, I'm just not really feeling the love. It's not as holo as I imagined it would be, and the color of the base kind of limits the layering capabilities of the polish for me. All of this would be forgivable if the holo effect was linear instead of scattered, but it is very scattered. And since I feel there are more versatile and more holographic glitter topcoats out there, Night Lights has to go. 

     As far as application goes, Night Lights was easy. It went on nicely, dried quickly, and only needed one layer of topcoat to be smooth. However, the base is really thin and I find the color of it rather unappealing, so I would never wear this alone. In the pictures, I have on two layers of Night Lights on top of two layers of China Glaze Liquid Leather. 

And that's all from me today Thanks for reading, and have a happy Monday! n_n

Sinful Colors Swatches (Winter Color Edition)

   First off, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in my Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat giveaway! I was able to finish validating and tabulating entries this morning, so I figured that I would just draw and announce winners today instead of waiting. So the winner of Prize #1 was Vedra and the winner of Prize #2 was Ulmiel!
Congrats ladies!! 


   On the nail polish front, I have a couple more Sinful Colors to show you guys today. These ones are Secret Admirer and What's Your Name. 

Secret Admirer is a graphite base with tons of round silver speckles. It's kind of reminiscent of Finger Paints Winter Whisper. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    Although I compared Secret Admirer to another polish that I owned and did not like (Finger Paints Winter Whisper), I really like Secret Admirer. It's just a very cool color, and because the shimmer is more individual, I think it has more depth than Winter Whisper. I will say though that if I had a secret admirer, this is not the type of color that I'd want him to be associated with....this is like a serial killer's color or something. *shudders*

The formula for Secret Admirer was fine. It went on pretty smoothly, dried quick, and needed two coats to be opaque. 

What's Your Name is a black jelly base with tons of glassfleck shimmer. The shimmer is teal blue, but it has a tinyy bit of a duochrome thing where it goes violet.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    Okay, so the pictures kind of suck, but I love What's Your Name. It's all dark but still sparkly, and reminds me a bit of the ocean at night. However, it's not the most unique color, and I'm pretty sure that I have a dupe for it in Nicole by OPI Blues in the Night. So I'll probably be kicking What's Your Name out. Boo hoo. 

But anyway, What's Your Name's formula was okay too. I used three coats for full opacity, and although it was a little watery, I didn't find the polish too hard to work with.

Also, did ya'll see how they didn't punctuate the name?

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and have a great Saturday!!

Sinful Colors Swatches (Summer Color Edition)

       Yesterday, I was going through my drawers looking for stuff to purge and realized that I have a bunch of Sinful Colors polishes, but haven't seriously worn a single one. I don't know why...they just never really cry out to me. But if for no other reason than to know which ones I wanted to purge and which ones to keep, I decided to swatch them. I won't be posting them all at once, so for today, I have All About You, Unicorn, and Rise and Shine.  

All About You is a clear base with lots of flat, irregularly sized antique gold and copper shimmer flakes in it. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

   This is the oogliest thing I've seen on my nails in a long time. Like after I was all done, I looked at my nails and said aloud, "DAMN this shit is ooglay." I can't even stand how much I hate this right now. It'll probably look much better on someone with a different skin tone or layered, but by itself and opaque, I rebuke and refuse All About You.

    The formula was okay though..it was rather sheer (pictures are with four coats) and the base was a bit too thick, but besides that, no problems were had. There are bubbles, but that's because of the ceiling fan. 

Unicorn is a soft, buttery yellow creme.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     Even though Unicorn is yellow, I needed to buy it...I don't know. I saw it and just needed to have it. And I really don't regret the purchase, because I love the color, both in general and on me. It's a very wearable and sweet color, and gives me hope for yellow. But despite my love for the color, I can say with 100% certainty that I will never ever wear it again, thanks to the nightmare that was the formula. It took four painfully streaky coats to look like something, and I really can't put myself through that again. But if anyone can recommend a similar shade with a more reasonable formula, I'd love to hear about it! I really do like the color. 

Rise and Shine is a bright teal green creme base packed with crystalline microshimmer. The shimmer shows silver, green, and blue, although you'll probably have to enlarge the pictures to see it at all. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

    Love Rise and Shine! The base color is very fun and pretty, and the shimmer is fantastic. In sunlight, it twinkles so beautifully and reminds me a bit of BB Couture's signature glitter, just crushed up really finely. 
It also went on quite smoothly...the pictures are with three coats of color, and they dried pretty quickly. The only thing about Rise and Shine is that it dried matte, like a neon. So topcoat is definitely necessary to get the most out of it. 


And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and have a fun fun Friday!
P.S. My giveaway ends today, so don't forget to enter! n_n

Icing Ice Queen

      I know that yesterday was the last day of May, but whatever, I'm still gonna post one last (that initially came out "lazy"; ooh freudian slip) grey in the spirit of Brain Tumor Awareness month. Here's Icing Ice Queen. 

Ice Queen is a slightly dark grey creme with strong blue undertones.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     Ice Queen is nice. It's kind of dark, which I tend to favor over its lighter brethren. And the strong blue-tone in it helps it be more interesting. 

     However, I had some trouble with the formula...I needed three coats for opacity, which is normal. But the Ice Queen was so liquidy and thin that it was annoying to put it on. And the brush was really hard, so it made those annoying divots in the polish unless I used a ridiculously light hand during application. I don't know if that's normal for Icing bottles, because I only have two from this brand, but that's what I experienced with this polish. There's the option of just pouring it into another bottle, but Ice Queen is just not that cute to be doing alladat. So it will have to be put in the purge pile. 

And as a little reminder, my current giveaway ends on Friday, so if you'd like to get in on that, please get your entries in soon! Thanks for reading, and have a great day! n_n