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

Marble...Wednesday

Finally! A marble I like and am actually wearing! Woot woot!

I give you my uber-posh taupe marble!



Bask in the glory, readers. Bathe in it.



Aaaand the other hand. I was going to save this for Monday, but I was so excited about it, plus I've skipped Marble Monday the last two weeks or so, so I just had to put it up today.

 And thumbs. Excuse my cuticles please! For this marble, I used H&M Grey Sky, OPI You Don't Know Jacques, and OPI Glamor Game, which is the shimmery gold. First I put on a coat of Color Club High Society. Because Grey Sky is such a tiny bottle, and the colors are so close, I figured it'd be fine as a base. This marble was pretty easy to do, all three colors spread well in the water and were easy to swirl. I did notice that when my AC kicked in it got a little more difficult as the polish started drying quicker on the water. Little things like that make a huge difference! Also, I used a different method of protecting my skin this time. Usually I wrap my finger in tape to keep the polish off my cuticles and fingers. Though this works well, it's a HUGE pain in butt. This time, I used vaseline around my cuticles and on my fingers. It's very easy to do with just a Q-tip, and once your nails are dry you can wipe the vaseline along with excess polish right off. I got this tip from a fellow blogger, but can't remember who!! I know I commented how great of an idea it was, so if it was you, please let me know so I can give you the proper credit!

What do you guys think of this combo? Yay or nay?

H&M Haul and Grey Sky

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a lovely weekend :) I had boyfriend over for the weekend so couldn't do my normal manicure routine for fear of boring him to death lol! Saturday I took him over to the Garden State Plaza for a celebratory treat because he finally took his Bar exam. I made an appointment at The Art of Shaving for him to have the "Royal Shave" - a straight razor shave with all kinds of face masks and lotion and other goodness. Guys like getting pampered too! If your man has a special occasion or you just want to do something nice for him, I definitely recommend taking him to their Barber Spa for special shave :)

Anyway, boyfriend wasn't the only one who got treats! I dragged him into H&M and did some browsing, and picked up 3 mini polishes along with my two tops!

From left: Summer Fresh, Grey Sky, Blue Sky.

Of course the first color I wanted to try was Grey Sky, a pretty taupey-grey with a very delicate, fine silver shimmer. I really just can't get enough of these colors. They're just so classy and sophisticated!

I was VERY pleasantly surprised with the application of this polish. The bottle is teeny tiny so I was expecting a pain in the ass tiny brush, but it actually applied really well! The brush was short, yes, but the bristles were soft and the brush pretty wide which made application easy. I wasn't expecting very much from the formula either, but it was smooth and easy to work with, no cuticle drag and minimal streaking on the first coat - this is two and the color is smooth and opaque. I wish I had taken a pic of just one coat. I actually liked it a lot, it was just a sheer wash of a light mauvey color.

This shade reminds me a lot of one of my other favorite taupes, Color Club High Society. I'll need to do a comparison soon and see just how similar they are side by side. HS doesn't have the shimmer GS has, but the shimmer's so subtle that if they're the same shade, I think it'd be fair to call them dupes. We'll see!

I just thought this was fun :)

Stay tuned for swatches of Blue Sky and Summer Fresh!

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...

Happy Thursday!

Hey all! Happy Thursday! 

Isn't it so nice to have something to look forward to at the end of a work day? Today I've got two things after work that give me the strength to make it to 5:00pm without throwing myself off the top of our 10 story building. First, a hair cut and color! Yay! I don't know about you guys, but getting my hair done makes me soo relaxed and happy (as long as they're not effing it up!!).

THEN, dear readers, is something that I've been looking forward too since the end of last year...duh duh duh...the new season of Big Brother!!! I freakin' love that show so much! The lies! The deceit! The scheming! What a great way to fill up 3 nights of normally boring summer TV.

Anyway, back to important stuff. I tried to shoot my step by step photo instructions for water-marbling last night but I was having big issues.We've been having a crazy heat wave here in Jersey the last few days (over 100 degrees!), so I'm blaming the AC we had going at full blast for my polishes drying so quickly on the water. After an hour of frustration I decided to call it a day and just soldier on with a normal mani of one of my yet-to-be-worn polishes.

This deliciousness is Color Club's High Society. I am absolutely in LOVE with the taupe/mushroom/neutral trend that 's going on right now. This is reminiscent of one of my favorite colors, OPI's You Don't Know Jacques, but much lighter and much more appropriate for summer (and for work, unlike my last few manis...voopsies?). Also, it's got sort of a purple undertone that I think makes it really unique. One of the marbles I attempted last night was actually those two together along with a browny-green shimmer (forget which I was using). I'm definitely going to have to give it another try.

Formula and brush on this was standard. It's a little sheer, not quite a creme - this is two coats over Seche base and it almost looks jelly, so I'd go for that third coat if you want it truly opaque. It's pretty shiny on it's own, but I always top with a coat of Seche Vite because I love the glass-like finish you get.This is my first Color Club polish and I quite like it, it's definitely a brand I'll be visiting again.

On a related note, I gave myself a treat yesterday and ordered Nfu Oh cuticle Remover and Nfu Oh 52 from Fabulousstreet.com! 

I'm especially excited for the cuticle remover. I've been trying reallyy really hard not to cut any cuticles as I've heard it's not good for your nails, and plus it never looks as good as when they do it in the salon. I've just been pushing them back but they still don't look great :( I'm hoping this will take away the need for any snippers! Also really looking forward to 52, a flaky that i've seen on a billion blogs and looks just GORGEOUS. Stay tuned for swatches of 52 over various colors, and a cuticle before and after.

Thanks for reading :)