Love&Beauty

I realized that I've been doing lots of cremes/jelly's lately and have turned my back on shimmers and sparkles. To rectify that today, I chose another color I picked up during one of my forays into Forever21's Faith section. I don't have the bottle in front of me at the moment and can't remember the name, but I have a sneaking feeling that, like it's other polishes (see brown), it's simply Teal or some other generic name. Anywho, I've been slacking on posts so I wanted to get this up for you guys.

So here's what I'm tentatively calling Teal. It's a pretty jewel-toned blue shimmer, that looks metallic even though it really isn't. I didn't really care for it in the bottle, to be quite honest, and just did this mani because it's been sitting in my untrieds for a while. But I have to say, the longer I wore it, the more I warmed up to it. It's a chameleon polish that looks a bit different in every light. In the sun it's even got a bit of light blue/violet flash, but most of the time you get this pretty metallic peacock color that's slowly grown on me.

Application, like Brown, was really smooth and easy - I thought this would be super sheer, but it was acutally much more opaque than I thought. You could get away with two coats, but I went with three to really get that depth of color. Clean up was a breeze, and it's been wearing impressively well- I'm on day three at the moment with minimal tipwear.

What do you guys think of Forever21's Love&Beauty line?

Red Hot

"Reddd hot, our team is reddd hot, our team is r-e-d red h-o-t and once we're hot we can't be stopped red hot!"

Wow, when I looked at the label of the Brucci polish I was instantly thrown back to middle school, where I spent two fall season cheerleading "cause everyone else was doing it". That didn't last very long, but that chant sure did, because I'm reminded of it everytime I hear the words "red hot"

Funnily enough, this isn't really a color I'd categorize as red hot. More like, reddish-pinky hot. It is bright, that's for sure, but has a definite tinge of pink to it rather then a full on red.

See what I mean? Definitely a hint of fuscia.

I did quite like this. My Brucci polishes have yet to let me down. This was one of those jelly-cremes, so it required three coats for full opacity. Also, cleanup and removal were amazingly easy and mess free - win/win!

What do you guys think?

Hunter

Since acquiring the much sought after Nars Zulu, I've been on the hunt for another polish that would satisfy my green jelly craving. I love Zulu, but it borders so much on black that I wanted to find a jelly where the green is much more apparent.

This isn't a jelly, but the shade of green is divine. Hunter is the last American Apparel polish in my mini haul from a few weeks ago.

Just like it's fellows, the formula is a dream and beautifully opaque in 2 coats.

Is it possible to franken a jelly? Do you just add clear polish to a cream?? Has anyone done this??? I think I'm going to buy another Hunter and a cheap clear to try this out...

Peacock

Isn't that the name of a dirty new Katy Perry song? Anyway...

Here's another one of the American Apparel polishes I picked up last week. This is Peacock, a dark, dusty teal/blue creme.

Natural light.

Inside.

You can see it pulls a little darker inside under florescent lighting, and lighter and more teal under natural light. Either way, it's a pretty color, and application, like all my other AA polishes is a dream. Great quality polish for $5, I definitely recommend them :)

RIP

Cleo

1993-2010

Thank you for 17 years of joy. You were not only my pet,

you were my sister and best friend. I'll miss you.

Berry

Listen guys. I need to be locked up. I've been shopping NON STOP. Online shopping, in-store shopping, window shopping (the most harmless of the bunch); any kind of shopping that you want. Yesterday I went to Forever 21 ONLY TO EXCHANGE a dress...and I ended up taking home and additional dress and 2 pairs of jeans.

Sigh.

I popped into American Apparel on my way out to see if they had any new colors...they didn't, but that doesn't mean I could resist their 3-for-$15 deal on nail polishes. This is one of the babies I picked up, a smooth creamy berry color appropriately named - you guessed it - Berry.




American Apparel really does a great job with these cremes - they're so saturated with color and completely opaque with one coat. I do two out of habit but you could easily get away with one if you're careful.



No cons here at all. The polish was easy to apply and went on like a dream, and clean up wasn't bad at all for a red - they usually stain my cuticles like woah.



The color lightens up in the sun, as you can see in the first two shots, but inside or in the shade it'll look more like my Dunkin' Donuts coffee pic - darker but still beauteous :)

What's your favorite American Apparel shade? Berry is gorgeous for fall/winter, but for summer my very favorite is L'Espirit, a crisp lavender-periwinkle. Can't believe I haven't swatched it yet! It's on my list :)

Also, welcome xnosugaraddedx!

Giveaway at Nail Galore!

If you've been lemming the three polishes MAC released with their Maleficent collection like I have, then head over to Nail Galore, where Nisha is giving away all three to celebrate 100 followers! Congrats girl!

Could it be?

Is it...

 It is!

Say hello to the illustrious Nars Zulu!

Nars Zulu is a beautiful dark, dark green jelly that cause quite a frenzy when it first came out as a limited edition color a few years ago.  It was extremely hard to find until Nars re-released it this year as part of their Vintage Nail collection for Fall 2010.

I snapped pics in all different lights so you guys could see how it would look indoors and out. You can tell it most definitely tip toes that "almost black" line and does look mostly black, especially indoors. But you'll catch the green around the edges of your polish and it comes out much more in the sun. Jellies are my favorite so I love that, even though it's so dark, you get that delicious jelly squishiness.

Application was like most jellies - a little streaky/bald spotty on the first two coats, but smooth and perfect by the third. I found that using more polish on your brush rather than less reduces the streak factor - If you're SUPER careful you might get away with only two coats, which would give you much more green and less black...my hands aren't the steadiest so three it was, but I love the "almost black" effect. Drying time is really good on this, even with three thicker coats, and it's super shiny even on it's own - I have a coat of Seche as usual here. Wear was great for Nars Jungle Red so we'll see if Zulu can compete.

I was lucky and have a friend who works and Nars, and who was able to pick this up for me when it was released a few days ago (and on discount!). WARNING - If you have your heart set on Zulu, DON'T WAIT - these babies are flying off the shelves! Have any of you taken the plunge to snatch up Zulu? Do you think it's worth the higher price tag?

Black Emerald

You guys have already seen this so I won't go crazy...

It's just so gorgeous!

Welcome to some newcomers! Mína, Anna, Erika, NEM1976, Jamie K of (Squoval)icious, and I THINK the last one was Tessa, but if I missed you let me know!! I love you all!
 

Brown

It's been a week of crazy!! Sorry I've been MIA guys. Missed you all! 

Would you believe that my Nars Jungle Red manicure lasted a full five days with nary a chip? The pros to that polish just keep adding up - I'm definitely going to have to put out for the full size (pay for it, not put out - get your minds out of the gutter!)

Today I'm talking about a polish I bought over the weekend, one that I didn't have very high hopes for. It's from Love&Beauty, a cosmetics brand that you can find at your local Forever 21. I really like these taupey brown colors, but in the store it looked to have almost a greenish tinge and I thought on the nail it'd fall as flat as it's name: Brown.

They couldn't come up with anything better?? It's a shame because I actually really really like this. I have to apologize for my bad cuticles and scratched up polish - I did this mani yesterday but the weather was so bad I couldn't get a single good pic. My hands are disagreeing with this weather and just withering up - I need to moisturize every 5 seconds! Le sigh.

So you may be looking at this saying, "This is looks mighty close to a little polish by OPI called You Don't Know Jacques...". I agree! It does look very close. I did a quick swatch just on a piece of paper and they're looking almost identical. YDKJ might be just a tiny bit warmer while Brown leans more toward grey, but I won't know til I try it on the nail. What I did notice was that, surprisingly, Brown's applications was wayy way smoother and more streak-free than YDKJ. I'm wearing only two coats at the moment, while I distinctly remember having used three of YDKJ in the past.

Besides that, application was really easy, as was cleanup. Brown dries really shiny on it's own, and is gorgeously glassy with Seche Vite. My pics are color accurate but don't do the shine justice. If you see it, grab it!

What's your favorite taupey-brown? 

Welcome to my 24th and 25th followers, Jen of Jenilee's Beauty Blog, and Jessica Vaquiant! Honestly, I'm blow away that there's even 25 of you who have read let alone follow my blog. I appreciate every single one of you and love all your comments! Hopefully we keep growing - I want to have a big giveaway for 100!

<3