I'm back!

Hey guys! I've been neglecting the blog I know, but I'm back with a polish from one of the most talked about collections this year.

This is Orly Out of This World from the Cosmic FX collection.

The weather's been pretty drab here in Jersey - I wish I had full sunlight for this photo because this doesnt do it justice. OOTW is gorgeous; you can't really see the beautiful fuchsia glass-flecks that run through this polish in this pic, but trust me, it's a stunner in real life.

Again, the picture does it no justice, and please excuse the ouchie on my ring fingre. Grr, that's one of the reasons I havent posted, this cold weather makes my hands a mess! 

Application is great on this polish - 2 easy coats for full opacity. I love that this polish is not one of those almost-blacks, you can still it in its purple and pink flash glory indoors in artificial light. Day two brings some minor tip wear, but nothing worse than any other normal polish.

Pretty :) What's your favorite Cosmic FX? I'm still lemming for Galaxy Girl, Space Cadet, and Lunar Eclipse.

Andi of Viva Polish, Ina of Hysteria of Decay, Daniela Alston, and Gabi of Hungry for Fashion, thanks for joining us <3

Eggplant Frost

Well hello there! Sorry for being MIA, but I'm back with a gorgeous new color to make it up to you :)

 

Say hello to Wet 'n Wild Wild Shine in Eggplant Frost.

I am in freakin LURVE with this color. At first I was a little angry at it - You need to do relatively thick coats with this or it streaks and lumps in a major way. After making a mess of my thumb and redoing it, I got the hang of it and the rest of application was fine. I used three coats fir depth.

 

I was using and old bottle of nail polish remover for cleaning up, and couldn't for the LIFE of me understand why it was nearly impossible to  get the polish off my cuticles and edges. Had I inadvertently bought some sort of super polish that could only be removed with pure acid or something?? Then I realized that the remover I was using must be older than I thought and all the active ingredient must have evaporated. Sure enough, I got another bottle and all was well. Phew!

But besides that debacle, this polish is totally fine. I bough it because it looked cool, and it wasn't til I put it on that I realized just how ridiculously awesome and beautiful and SHINY it is! It's hard to describe the sort of electric glow it gets from having this aqua blue shimmer/metallic over the deep purple. It's reminiscent of Elf Royal Purple but about 10x the awesomeness.

 

Do you love?!

Welcome Lois S., Andrea Trenary, and to my biff Erin of Frame of Reference!

Marble Monday!

Finally, an on time Marble Monday! I've been slacking guys, I know. But here it is for your viewing pleasure!

Not my very best marbling work, but I do love the colors together! This is E.L.F. Royal Purple marbled with OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender over a coat of Royal Purple. The bast coat of RP is definitely necessary as it's relatively sheer with just one coat. The base coat plus the marble gave royal purple that depth of color.

 

I'm still using the vaseline method and I'm really quite please with how easy it makes clean up. I've started putting a little vaseline on the tips of my fingers during regular manicures as well so that any polish that gets on my skin when I wrap my tips will wipe right off. Works like a charm!

Weather's terrible today, so these are just a few quick shots I snapped at my desk. Hope you like :)

Welcome to some new followers! Christine of Randomness, a la Mode, Cydonian of Turtle Beauty, and Sissy of the hilarious My Kids Might Be Martians. Check them out!

Royal Purple, a dupe for So Rich So Pretty?

I can across these swatches of MAC So Rich So Pretty at The Swatchaholic, and it looks miiiiighty similar to what my E.L.F. Royal Purple looks like IRL (as is the case with many purples, I had trouble capturing the full depth and richness of Royal Purple). I'd love to get my hands on a bottle of SRSP to test them out.

Does anybody have both, or know how these two compare?

BTW, welcome to new friends kittytokaren and Cyan of Blue Tape And Nails. Check her out!

Royal Purple

Today I've got a really beautiful polish that I got in my E.L.F. haul a few weeks back. This is called Royal Purple, and let me tell you, it's royal for a reason!

I absolutely LOVE this color. It was super hard to catch it on camera. In person the shade is even deeper and richer. From some swatches I've seen, it's very much like MAC So Rich So Pretty. And guess what guys...this polish is A DOLLAR. ONE DOLLAR. So really, there's no excuse not to have this baby in your collection!

This one's a tad blurry but I really wanted you guys to see the blueish flash it has. This is one of those polishes that has that "glow from within" thing going on. It's pretty shiny on it's own, but with topcoat it just shines and shines.

E.L.F. polishes are on the small side at .35fl oz., so expect a smaller brush, but besides that, application was smooth and easy. It's a bit sheer on the first coat, but with the second you get that deep beautiful jewel-toned goodness.

E.l.f. Haul!

After only about 6 days, my order from E.l.f. came! Check it out:

from left: Royal Purple, Bubble Gum Pink, Mint Cream, and Pearl.

Mint Cream looks like a dead dupe for my American Apparel Office - I'll need to do a comparison. I think of the four, I'm most looking forward to trying Royal Purple, it's totally different from any other purple shades I have.

I also ordered two tinted moisturizers to try out. I used to use Oil of Olay tinted moisturizer, but that stuff is almost IMPOSSIBLE to find nowadays, so I'm searching for a replacement product.

Did I mention every single one of these products was ONE DOLLAR?? With shipping, I paid $8.37 for all this stuff! Win!

Have any of you ever tried E.l.f. Cosmetics? What did you think?

And just because it's gorgeous and I can't stop looking, here's another shot of my Nfu Oh mani :) 

See the gorgeous turquoise flash in the sun?! **swoon**

Welcome to Oooh, Shinies! Check her out :)

Marble Monday!

I was really hoping I would get a chance to do another marble before today, but alas I had no time so here's what we have:

I used two different shade of purple, Rimmel Play Fast in Night Before, and Color Club Electronica, marbled with the Brucci Alexandra's "Hot" Gray.

I had high hopes for this marble but it came out wayy to thick. Pointer to ring finger I alternated Brucci, Rimmel, Brucci, CC, etc. I thought it was very grey heavy so for the pinky, I did CC, Rimmel, Brucci, CC, Rimmel, Brucci, - you get the picture. There's clearly more purple on my pinky but it really didn't help with the goopiness.

Another marble that came off right after the swatch. :(

No worries! I've got a really pretty color coming up tomorrow :)

Welcome to Tessa and Kasiuchetka! Click the links to check them out!

Night Life

So my marble attempt last night was once again a bust. But I won't give up! I'm going to try again when I get home tonight, and hopefully I'll finally get up a marble for this week, even if it is 3 days late. 

Anyway, today's polish is part of my Harmon's haul from last week. This is Rimmel Night Life.

I don't own Chanel Paradoxal, but is it just me or is this in the same dusty purple/taupe/shimmer family? Paradoxal seems to have more blue and less gold to it though. I feel like I could definitely franken a Paradoxal dupe with this as a base! Hmm...

I really like this color. It's a chameleon - sometimes it's more on the brown side, especially in the fluorescent lighting of my office, but out in the sun the purple shines through. You can see the pretty gold shimmer in every light and it's just gorgeous. This is three coats, but I think that mayyy have been one too many. The first coat I thought felt pretty thin but it seem to thicken up as I went along. Next time I'll either wait longer between coats or only use two because this was a little gummy and took a while to dry, even with Seche Vite. Hmm, I'm thinking I need to invest in some polish thinner...

Harmon's haul

Guys, it's a sickness. Seriously.

Left to right: Color Club Wild and Willing, Rimmel Night Life, Color Club Electronica, Rimmel Scene Stealer, Color Club Warhol.

Marble Monday!

Happy Monday everyone! Ohh, the start of another joyous workweek -- yuck! At least I've got this pretty little treat on my nails to gaze at all day. Marbles are so fun! 

Apparently I am really feeling the blues lately because that is all I seem to be putting on my nails. I've never worn blue polish before the last month or two and now I'm in love! And how could you NOT be in love with that absolutely gorgeous cornflower blue creme I'm rocking?? That's Hally hansen Hard as Nails X-Treme Wear in Pacific Blue, marbled with American Apparel's L'Espirit on my ring finger. Above is indirect sunlight.

And this is inside with flash. I'm in love with this color. It's so bright and cheerful and unbelievably glossy and shiny. It's so cute with AA's light lavender/periwinkle creme. Sally Hansen may be a drugstore brand, but this formula was just perfection. It was pretty opaque with one coat, but I always go with at least two just to get that perfectly smooth finish. It went on really nice, just thick enough and the brush gave really nice control. This polish gets an A++++++ in my book!  It's a must have for anyone with a hard-on for blue polish.

I got my marbling groove back! I was having some issues for a while, not really sure why. Perhaps you can have marbling block just like writer's block. I'm really loving the results of this one, I love the colors together, the two cremes are in such nice contrast with each other. I usually like to have some shimmer in my marbles but I like this one just the way it is. I was entirely too lazy to do my whole mani marbled, I've just got the one nail out of all ten, but I think just one is such a cute accent. I promise I will be posting a how-to soon, I just need to find the time to do it!