Royal Under Fire

 

 

 



Good Friday to all!! Well, hope everyone had a good week. So, this is my first true hurricane season down in Louisiana, so it's been a crazy week with Issac! I live in the northern part, so we just got some wind and rain but nothing serious, unlike the south and Mississippi. I work at a bank that operates out of Hammond, which if anyone paid attention was hit hard (it's not far from New Orleans). So, we have worked but the lower part of the state hasn't been. It's been weird watching it all unfold just a few hours south of us.

Anyways, that hasn't changed anything in my life, so now I bring you all the famous Max Factor Fantasy Fire, which is called the dupe for the also famous VHTF and VE (very expensive!) Clarins 230, as you can see from Chalkboard Nails. So, this will work for now...however, this polish was one of my biggest lemmings! So, I was SOOOO excited when I found it on ebay for a decent price. I ordered 2 mini bottles (which is the only size made...hmmm) from the UK. I couldn't wait to get it on!!!

 



 



 

So, for my look I wanted to use an undie that would bring out the beauty in the most awesome color, which I think is purple...so I used blue. My fav blue- Revlon Royal. It only took 1 coat of this bright bold color and 2 coats of Fantasy Fire to create this most beautiful array of colors I've had on my nails so far! I LOVE this look!! I think I saw this combo. You get a different look with whatever undie color you wear. But, whatever you choose to mix this polish with, it's beautiful and defintely works well with any color! My camera sucks and doesn't even begin to show off the beauty of this look!  If you have Fantasy Fire or Clarins 230 what combinations have you tried? Show links if you have them! I am anxious to try something different since this combination isn't anything new, but this is definitely my favorite look.

Zoya NYFW Fall 2012

Hope everyone had a good week! So glad it's Friday! Yay. We have lil man and my boogie this weekend, so I swatched lots of polishes last weekend so I'm not trying to manage two kids, a dog, my husband, and my nails.

While making a quick trip to my local Ulta (an hour away lol) I managed to find the hidden Zoya Fall 2012 for NYFW. They didn't have the famous 3 polish Gloss Collection, which I suppose I'm just going to have to buy online, but all the other polishes were on sale. Since I'm on a tight budget I only got 2. It was so hard to choose, but I finally went with Evvie and FeiFei. I love how they come out with shimmers and cremes in the same collection. They are ALL awesome!

 



First is Evvie. I loved this color because it wasn't a gray and it wasn't a green, but an inbetween color that I think will be great for fall. I used Orly Bonder as my basecoat then 2 coats of Evvie and Seche Vite to finish off. 

 

Next, is FeiFei. I LOVE this color! This was my first choice! It's a pretty sheer color so I used Essie School of Hard Rocks as my undie color. I then used 2 coats of FeiFei and finished off with Seche Vite, of course. I thought this combo turned out beautifully and am currently wearing FeiFei again, but with another combination of undie colors. I am happy with my 2 choices but wish I could get the whole collection, but will have to settle with a couple at a time.

                              

I recently signed ourselves up on mint.com, which is a free budgeting website that is owned and created by Quicken, a well known budgeting software often used by businesses. Anyways, I have to budget my spending on polish and plan to only spend $40 a month on polish, which will be hard, but is necessary. I have decided that I will splurge on the Zoya Gloss Collection, so...that's half of my monthly nail budget...oh well.

Well, I hope all you lovely polish ladies have a wonderful weekend!! Happy Polishing!
Once again, I wanted to share this awesome, one of my most favortest videos EVER! Rob Hoffman's Dancerface. I've shown him before, but this one is one of the most hilarious things I've ever watched!

"THAT is Dancerface...the phe..nom...e..no..."

Pams and Kin Lucky Street and Collide

Well Happy Wednesday...also known as Middle-of-the-week-boring-Day.  Well, it's been so hot here and we finally got some rain. After Pizza Hut for lunch along with the rain...all I wanted to do was take a nap. Nothing special going on, just been buying polish like crazy online. I have like 5 packages- probably 15 polishes in all, along with some nail sticks so I can start to organize and make a list of my stash. I need to find a bigger place...I'm running out of room for my polish!

Well, with the rain and no sun I can't take good pictures outside so I am bringing some swatches out of the old picture vault. I bought some indies back in March and have been meaning to swatch them but just never got around to it. I finally had a chance to do so but then never posted my review...so that's what I'm going to do now:)

Today I thought I'd show you Pams and Kin, P&K, found on etsy. I only bought one polish, Lucky Street, but she sent me a free big bottle of one of their new colors, Collide, which I also swatched.

This was her letter to me that was stuck to the outside of my bubble wrap! How sweet! This is why I love indie polish!!

I thought I would use a base that was similar to the color of the glitter. I went with Revlon Bonsai, which is a creamy shimmery kind of duochrome green and yellow. I haven't worn this color before, but I really like it. It has a very nice application and went on well with one coat. I used 2 coats of Lucky Street and Seche Vite.

Inside under desklamp without flash

Now, here is Collide, which in retrospect, I should have used a more colorful base so that you could see how beautiful this polish really is. I used SOPI Queen of Everything, which is a very silver, thin polish, but it gets the job done in one coat. This polish is really good for stamping. I love the flakies and holo glitter in Collide. It makes for a unique polish and would be an awesome polish to layer with. Thanks for sending me this polish for free! Can't get better than that!

Inside, under desklamp, no flash

 You can still get these colors plus MUCH more on her etsy shop here. What I like is she makes just more than glitter colors, and they are reasonably priced at $10 a bottle, which for most indie brands is great. Most indie polishes are going for $15-20 a bottle plus shipping. Anways, check her out and hope everyone has an awesome rest of the week! Here's a little something for you lovely readers:

 Just remember: DON'T LET ANYONE TAKE AWAY YOUR SPARKLE! GLITTER ON!

Cult Nails Layering

Well, this has just been a weird but kinda cool week with a holiday being on a Wednesday. So, we worked 2 days then a day off, then working another 2 days then having a weekend. I could get used to that. Anyways, we have been out in the sun with Kade and I need a nap...ha.

Well, I have been wanting some Cult Nails polish for a while, so I finally found some I really wanted. I don't think I'll ever get my hands on some Unicorn Puke, but I am a new super fan of Cult Nails now...I bought the Divas and Drama Collection that is on sale on their website. That included Scandalous, Enticing, Manipulative, and Seduction. I also bought Charming from the Fairy Tale Collection just cause it looked so pretty. So, I had just checked out and then found the nail art- studs and rhinestones that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. I immediately emailed them and asked if I could change my order. They let me add to it and didn't charge me the extra shipping! John from Cult Nails even emailed on the 4th to help me out! How awesome are they?!

So, today I'm only reviewing 2 of the polishes and not the whole collection. I wasn't sure what mani I wanted to do, but all these polishes are quite sheer, so I thought I would try some layering. This was my result:

This is what I used:

I used 1 coat of Color Club Hot Like Lava from the Foiled Collection, then I used 1 coat of Charming and 2 coats of Seduction then I used Essie Matte About You for a matte finish. I was torn when it came to using this because I didn't want it to runi the shimmer, but I like the outcome. It's not really noticable in these pictures, but Charming is a beautiful almost duochrome light purple and pink shimmer, like it looks on their website here.

So, I've been thinking of a way to spice up my reviews and add a little something extra that says something about ME. So, I will leave you with a lil bit of diva....if no one has ever heard of Rob Hoffman then you def need to check him out! This is the "Yes Dance". No matter how many times I watch it, it never gets old! Plus, he's just so freaking hot! (he played Chase in "Step Up 2").

Anyways, hope everyone has a super weekend, divas!! I'm out!

Spring Layers

It has been a while since my last post. Things are still crazy and not much has changed.  That hasn't stopped me from painting my nails every other day, but I haven't had time to take pics and post....or I'm just too damn tired...BUT! Good news for me...I FINALLY made a lightbox!! Yay! I tried waiting around for a box, but I finally bought one at Wal-Mart...how sad. My husband makes fun of it, but it's just a box to him. So, I had to take some pictures after I made it. So, without further ado, my first post with a lightbox! (I can't tell much difference if you ask me, which is rather depressing.)

I used CC Stuck on You as a basecoat. I've been experimenting with basecoats lately, but I never keep my polish on long enough to really tell a difference other than the application of my first layer of polish, which does make a bit of difference depending on what kind of polish I'm using (glitter, creme, sheer, etc.) I then used one coat of Finger Paints Pop Rock Pink from the Spring 2012 collection, which is actually more a peach color than pink, i think. I love this but wanted to try some layering witht this mani, so I continued with one coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (419, the new color release). I bought this a while back, but haven't worn it yet. I LOVE it, and can't wait to try it again. It's this beautiful light sheer shimmery pink that makes me think of sparkly cotton candy lol. At this point, I didn't want to go too far and change the color I had created.  So I used another color I had bought a long time ago but  haven't ever worn. One coat of Pure Ice Busted, which is a very shimmery iridescent purple and pink. Lastly, I finished with a coat of Northern Lights Cut the Door Holographic Top Coat Silver. I've seen this in Sally's and finally decided to try it. I only used one coat, so I didn't get much out of this, but I will try again with a darker color to really see what this offers.  I had fun with the layering and will try again soon with some different combinations. 


without my flash, in lightbox

Hope everyone who is in this part of the US is enjoying this beautiful weather (minus all the devastating tornadoes and storms). I was reading an article on global warming yesterday and how this March's warm weather has broken thousands of heat records in the US and is an exact example of global warming. So, with this, enjoy your week wherever you are and happy polishing!!