Polly Polish Polish Days!! A New Tried Mani

Good afternoon! So I haven't posted in Hannah of Polly Polish's Polish Days mass post in a while, and I almost forgot to today! But I got a quick picture in here at my internship site after hours (something else new I'm at!), and wanted to get in on a never-tried polish!

This is China Glaze Pull Me Close, a slate blue magnetic polish. I have tried magnetic before, but never this color and boy was I not disappointed! I did try a new technique holding the magnet, and got better results :-)

Peace!
-Jessica

I'm very sorry you can see where I might have bumped my pinkie with the magnet!

*EDIT* So I couldn't figure out how to add all the links to everyone's mani's. BUT I am including Polly Polish's link to her entry, and she has them all on her page :-)

Polly Polish "Something New" Post

Quickie for approximately $4.00!

Good morning! So as an attempt to be more active, I did a quickie mani last night that I'm actually loving today! I knew I had a lot of cleaning and work to do today that was going to ruin my nails, so I wanted something quick, easy, and honestly, cheaper.

Now, I don't want to present myself as a polish snob. Every polish I own has a special place for me, because all brands have something unique to bring to the table. However, it is a fact that some brands cost more than others. While I don't own any "high end" brands such as Deborah Lippman, Dior, or Butter London, my OPI's and Zoya's cost more than my Wet 'n Wild's and Sally Hansen's (even if I didn't pay full price for them, hehe).

Now, why would I want my nails painted at all if I'm just going to be home cleaning all day? Well, my friends, I have come to notice something interesting. My nails tend to break off LESS when they have polish on. Even though generally chemicals are not good for our bodies and nails, nail polish acts like a little shield for my nails.

However, I digress. I'm home cleaning today, still wanted my nails pretty so I could share them, and didn't want to spend a lot to do so (even though technically I spent this money long ago...). SO I have decided to try an untied, and LOVE IT.

 This little gem is Wet 'n Wild Fast Dry in Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire. These generally retail for $1.99, though the pharmacy I get them at often has them for BOGO 50% off. Now first of all, I love this line of polishes for the simple fact that they are named after TV shows. I have two favorites because of their names (Sage in the City and Saved by the Blue).

Second, the colors are all super pretty! Blue Wants to be a Millionaire is a very sheer blue base with fabulous holographic mircroglitter throughout. Now, it's very sheer, and may be opaque in three to four coats. However, I didn't have the time to do that, so I just did one coat over a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Black Out, my current go-to black. That's another cheap polish, ranging from $2-3 dollars (I spend $2 on mine). And the combo is fabulous!

No flash.

No flash and blurry to show that FANTASTICAL holographic sparkle!

Wet 'n Wild and Sally Hansen polishes are easily available at most drugstores/pharmacies and chain department stores like Wal-Mart or Target. For a combined price of $4.00 and total painting time of ten minutes before bed, I think this is a winning cheap, quick mani that is ADORABLE.

Peace!
-Jessica

Happy New Year! A Random Update Post

Good afternoon (at least it is here!). So I have five more days until I start my graduate internship!! I will be dividing my time in half, the first half in a high school guidance office and the second half in the middle school guidance office. While this past semester was very hectic, I feel this one will be busy in a different way.

That being said, I'm hoping to have some time to bring some different things to the blog. First of all you can see the new design. I have had a current obsession with neon rainbow designs for the past year or so, and finally brought that to the blog :-)

But the biggest change is my new polish access. I will not be working in the city I have been in for the past two and half years, which has access to fabulous places like Beauty PLUS, Sally Beauty, and Ulta. Those stores are 45 minutes from my home, but the school I'm interning at is 45 minutes in the OTHER direction, and I will be riding to work with my husband who teaches at the school and probably doesn't want to take the 20 minute detour to the next closest city, hehe. Finances will also be somewhat tighter, so ordering online is limited as well.

BUT I have MANY pretties that I have yet to try which I want to share, and some new ideas to try. I also want to be more active in conversing with my readers and fellow bloggers for new ideas with the polishes I have. I FINALLY have a page on the blog that shows my collection (up to 246!), and who knows, maybe I'll weed out pretty soon and venture into buying/selling/swapping. Not only that, but after doing my first review for an independent polish maker (the lovely Lacey at Penguin Polish), I thought it might be fun venturing into the PR world...

Besides all of this, March 1st is my one year blogiversary, so I'm hoping to have something fantastical to bring and have two months to get it together. My ultimate goal would be to have 1000 Facebook followers and 200 GFC followers, which really is plausible.

Anyone with questions, comments, advice, ideas...I want to make the blog much more interactive so I'd love to hear from you all!!!! Peace! -Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)

Polish Review: Penguin Polish Penguin Poopies and Happy New Year Baby!

Good evening! So I was supposed to do this review sooner during the weekend, but between finishing Christmas wrapping and a sick husband...hey, it's here now, hooray!!!!

So I got a message a little over a week ago from a fabulous lady named Lacey who is the creator of Penguin Polish (the link takes you to her Etsy). We connected by our similarity of love for all things sparkly, hehe. She asked me to review a couple of her polishes, and boy did she pick polishes for me to a tee! She is all about fantastic glitters, and even has some SCENTED polishes, one of which I get to share :-)

I'll post a few bottle shots of the polishes, to give you an idea of what to expect. The bottles are almost exactly the same in shape and size to a Seche bottle, to give you a comparison. (Pardon the cuticles in some of these shots, undoing staples on a bulletin board at school and a change in weather patterns have left my fingers in dire need of more than the treatment I normally do!)

Left: Happy New Year Baby Right: Penguin Poopies

As a note, I was wearing China Glaze It's a Trapeze when I got these in the mail :-)

First we have Penguin Poopies. This is a mix of medium black, white, and purple hex glitters with larger purple hex glitters in a clear base. Now, what I LOVE about this first of all is the name, hehe. That and the color combination, because purple is my color and I love me some black and white glitter (I need to buy a few of the ones I've been eyeballing after Christmas). The glitter was also very good quality, no "tacos" or curling whatsoever! AND the polish smelled like sugarplums after it dried, even after topcoat. It isn't the "OMG I want to eat this" kind of smell, but definitely a delicious "Bath and Body Works" type smell :-)

What I didn't love but could deal with is that, because of the nature of the large hex glitter, you kind of had to dab it on and place it the way you wanted. Here is a base of Seche Clear, two coats of OPI Steady As She Rose, one dabbed on coat of Penguin Poopies, a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche Vite.

Artificial light, with flash.

Artificial light, no flash.

Thumb shot!

Artificial light, with flash.

Happy New Year Baby! is a rainbow mix of shard glitter, with some micro-glitter, a few holographic shards, and small holographic hexes mixed in. This is the streets of New York City on New Year's night, with confetti all around. The mix of glitter has an abstract, haphazard feel but at the same time is distinct and not just "thrown together," because you can tell what's in it. I LOVE it, it is so fun and festive, it works for almost any special occasion even though it's a New Year's polish.The coverage was also GREAT in one coat!

The only thing I didn't love was it does stick up in a few places, even with topcoat. That's due to the shark glitter, but as with Penguin Poopies, there are certain qualities about glitter nail polish that come with the territory which I have long since set fort in, hehe. Here is Seche Clear as a base, two coats of OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, one coat of Happy New Year Baby, and two coats of Seche Vite.

Artificial light, with flash.

Artificial light, no flash.

Thumb shot!

Artificial light, with flash.

So if you are like me or Lacey and love all things sparkly, these polishes are for you! You can find them at here Etsy shop which I will post again here. Penguin Poopies, as well as her other Christmas and Hannukah polishes are selling for $5.00, but generally they are $9.00 for a full size. She has some other scented polishes, fantastic glitter polishes, and even a polish specially made for Alana on "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo."

Happy Holidays!!
-Jessica

Trying to stay on it! Color Clubed Berry and Bright striped mani!

Wow, twice in a week, I'm on a roll! Actually, I just finished my final exam last night, so all I have left of graduate school is my school counseling internship starting in January (which is ALL I'll have, I have to take a leave of absence from work).

So this mani just chipped on me while I was making dinner (but it probably wouldn't have if I didn't try to ninja-chop sausage, lol), but I LOVED it. I asked what I should do on Facebook, and someone said candy cane stripes. Well, time was of the essence, so full stripes were not able to be done. BUT I compromised and did sparkly stripes with red and silver, because I felt in the holiday spirit, hehe. PLUS, I was dying to use my scented Color Club holiday polish!

Here we have Color Club Berry and Bright with a stripe of L.A. Colors Art Deco in silver glitter. Berry and Bright is from Color Club's current holiday collection, but there's a catch to it. Sally Beauty Supply actually started selling sets of this collection, and only Sally's are scented! I was very excited about that, I love scented polish! This one had a Christmas-y berry scent that's hard to describe, but delicious nonetheless. In terms of formula, Berry and Bright is a berry red shimmery foil like polish that almost appears glass flecked. In the right light, I get the faintest hint of blue and silver sparkle, but overall a very pretty, holiday polish! Definitely perfect for candy cane stripes :-)

In artificial light, with flash. Not the best quality :-(

No flash. Can you see the shimmer?

I don't know why this comes up this way when I upload it, but I cannot change it now matter how I try >.< I had another cute one with the gift box, too! But, check out my freehand, just saying! LOL

So I had a few more cute pictures, but I have to fiddle more with the photos, when I open the files in the folder, they aren't rotated, only in Blogger...

But overall, enjoy, check out this collection at Sally Beauty supply if you want them scented, or any other CC carrier if you don't. I have another polish from the collection coming soon, stay tuned!

Peace!
-Jessica

OMG THE DUOCHROME! Color Club Port-Folio, even though they're phone pictures :-(

So my husband stole my (well, technically our) camera for work, so all I had to take pictures was my phone. My phone has a decent camera, but it's just NOT THE SAME. I'm going to share the picture anyway, though, because they really are that pretty.

So I'm a little behind on this color, but Color Club's Port-Folio came out this fall with the In True Fashion Collection. I'm all for a great duochrome, and boy does this deliver! It has a green/purple/navy color shift, with a a metallic shimmer finish. The color shift is AMAZING, I couldn't really capture it to its full potential on my phone but the different pictures show the shift. The formula also isn't terrible, slightly thin but opaque in two coats. AND since I can't leave anything alone, I did one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust for a subtle holographic sparkle.

Pardon the couch backdrop, I was a little shaken after not having my actual camera. You can see a little bit of the color shift here. No flash, artificial light.

No flash, artificial light. You see mainly the purple here.

With flash. In this light, the purple is BRIGHT. With a little blur to show the holographic sparkle of Fairy Dust.

With flash. The green you see in the bottle really did translate gorgeously on the nail!

 This color is RIDICULOUS to try to capture on camera, if you haven't yet checked it out I highly suggest a purchase. (If duochrome polishes are your thing, of course).

Now, this mani chipped today so I'm getting ready to do a Christmas mani...I had one vote for candy cane stripes on Facebook, you'll have to see how it turns out!

Peace!
-Jessica

OVERDUE Polish Post: China Glaze Winter Holly

So I am SOOOO overdue on blog posts, it's not funny. I had this polish on at the beginning of the week, but with the craziness of being a grad student at the end of the semester, blogging has unfortunately taken a back seat. My nail polish, however, has not, if you check out my Facebook. I actually posted a couple pictures of this polish there, and even made it my profile picture because of the holiday season :-). I even have a Christmas themed blog for the month of December!

*On a note, even though I'm a Christmas-y blog, I DO highly encourage and appreciate those celebrating different holidays. Mine may be Christmas but I love to hear and see others!

On to the polish! China Glaze Winter Holly from the Holiday Joy 2012 collection. Oh how I love thee! So wintery and festive, here you will see a almost forest green fine glitter with gold and some holographic glitter mixed in. Very reminiscent of I'm Not Lion/I Herd That from On Safari collection and United/Hello Gorgeous from the United collection in terms of formula, but with the beautiful Christmas green and gold. It definitely needed topcoat with make it shiny/sparkly, and I did a coat of Gelous to smooth it out. Here's the photos!

No flash in artificial light, with garland background :-)

With flash, artificial light

No flash, more garland!

With flash and blurry, to show the holographic goodness

 Isn't that so festive and Christmas-y? This polish would be perfect for a Christmas-tree mani, as the green of the tree. Maybe I'll make that happen soon...

Until then, enjoy your holiday!
-Jessica