New: Sinful Colors NEON Collection

Today I have all six Walgreens exclusive Sinful Color sNEON shades for you. I bought mine for $1.99 each. Let's start with the packaging. The bottles are wrapped so the color you see is not the actual polish. Some are not what you would expect from the outside, so on to the swatches so you can see what I mean.

L-R: The Bright Thing, Rays of Bright, Vivid a Try, Bright to the Point, Bright B4 UR Eyes, and 

neON and ON

 

Instead of showing each individual bottle, after swatching I think I can sum these all up together. 

CONS:

-I'm not sure these polishes are neon. It was bugging me so much that I took photos of the swatches in three different types of light. Sometimes they look bright, but I'm still not convinced of the neon-ness.

-They all had a thin and runny jelly formula. And I mean, runny! As in speed racing to flood and pool in the sides of your nail. In fact, with Bright to the Point (light pink) I had the polish run down so fast, it dripped onto my table. 

-These also take forever to dry, which may be me expecting them to immediately dry down if they were real neons. Maybe I was being closed minded. Either way, it felt like it took longer than a normal creme would take to dry.

Let's get some positives in here, because there are some, I swear!

PROS: 

-They are pretty pigmented for a jelly "neon". In my swatches below, I painted the right half of a nail white and left the other bare, then topped the whole nail with three coats of the neon polish. The Bright Thing, Bright to the Point and neON and ON didn't show much difference between the white base or bare nail. This means they can be opaque on their own without a white base. However, for full effect and not four coat manicure, I recommend a white base with all of them. 

-They take forever to dry. I know this was a con, but on the other side of things, longer drying time means more time to work the polish with streaks or patchy spots. Which you might need the time to catch the polish before it floods your entire finger. 

-These dry very glossy. This can be a pro or con, but I'll say a pro if you're not a fan of topcoat.

-The bottles are fun to look at.

 L-R: neON and ON, Bright B4 UR Eyes, Bright to the Point, Vivid a Try, Rays of Bright, The Bright Thing. White base on right half of each nail, indoor studio lighting.

 White base on right half of nail, indirect sunlight

 White base on right half of nail, direct sunlight

So my overall opinion is that I don't love or hate these. The formula is workable but not ideal. If you are wanting to purchase them because they are neons, keep in mind the shades aren't quite there. As the polish names suggest, they are some type of bright, but not much else. My favorite would be Vivid a Try since over a white base, it seems to be the most vibrant. Until next time...

-Nic

FOUND: A Bargain at Ulta!

I was wandering Ulta yesterday, not actually looking for anything. I was just killing time at the mall and Ulta was closest. I found my way to the clearance aisle and TADA! Zoya's entire Delight Spring 2015 collection and Satins are marked down to $4.97 each. Like I said in a previous post, I won't pay full price for high end polish. So I immediately grab the ones I don't have at home and as I'm walking away, I see a random bottle marked $.97. Whaaaat is that, as I almost drop everything else. It's Orly! I've never tried Orly but always wanted to! Well, today is the day, I say. There were only two bottles so I grabbed them not even really looking at the color. Now that I'm home from spending $21.82 (yay!) before tax, I realized these Orly polishes are actually colors I would wear. Ok, good. Now lets' take pictures of them!

L-R: Zoya Daisy, Leslie, Lillian and Ana. Orly Candy Shop and Sweet Dreams

Daisy, Leslie, Lillian and Ana 

Daisy is a soft yellow with a blue/green microfine shimmer running throughout. Leslie has the same shimmer in a lavender base. Lillian is a powder blue creme with a tinge of green. These were beautiful and opaque in two coats.

Ana is a blush toned nude creme with a satin finish when dry. It's opaque in two coats, however, work quickly as these can dry up and get lumpy and weird.

Orly Candy Shop and Sweet Dreams

Oh Orly. I wanted to love you and this was not a way to start. It's not actually that bad, I guess since these were my first Orly bottles, I was expecting kittens to be saved or something. 

Candy Shop is a weird shifty creme. What I mean is sometimes it wants to be pinky mauve then sometimes it wants to be a dusty rose purple. It's pretty. The formula was slightly thick and goopy to apply. Same thing with Sweet Dreams. Maybe I can just attribute this to them being opened up while at the store? I can't imagine Orly just has that formula.

Sweet Dreams is a midtone cool gray with a purple duochrome type shimmer. It's pretty but I feel like I have something like this so I wouldn't say unique. This was opaque in three coats.

So I left Ulta pretty excited for my cheap finds and after making them pose for me, I'm glad I wandered through there. Until next time...

-Nic

New: Sinful Colors Chalkboard Collection

I finally found a Walgreens that had this display! I didn't find the black, white or pastel pink exclusives to Walgreens, but I will continue to hunt them down. Not that I went to six different stores for these...I only went to five. These are pretty and the formula was smooth and generally easy to work with. The finish on these makes them dry quicker, so take care not to over work the polish when applying. They will almost immediately become patchy and streaky. Stick with thin, quick swipes and you'll be fine. The first four are pastel tones and dry to a demi matte/satin finish. The purple and pink shades are jellies and look to have a wax like sheen to them when they are dry. They remind me of jelly beans!

 

There is nothing peach about this shade. This is a soft lemon pastel yellow creme. It was opaque in two coats with minor streaking, which is impressive for a pastel yellow. In some lights, this can look a little darker but still holds it pastel tone. 

 This is a pistachio pastel green. Two coat to be opaque, good formula. In some lights, it can look more like a grass green, which still looks pretty.

This is a pastel cornflower creme mixed with a hint of periwinkle. This is my favorite shade of the bunch. The formula was perfect and opaque in two coats.

This is a pastel lilac. This was opaque in two coats but for some reason was more prone to streaking. This one dried faster than the others for me, which might have been the reason for streaks.

This is a warm toned purple. It has a jelly formula which was easier to work with and there was less worry for streaks or patchiness. This would be lovely for jelly sandwich manis. This one can be opaque in two coats depending on how you apply your coats. It might need three.

This is a midtone red based pink. It has a jelly formula, same as Hazed (above), also great for jelly sandwiches. This one can be opaque in two coats depending on how you apply your coats. It might also need three coats.

All in all, these are pretty colors with a nice demi matte finish. The formulas are easy and for around $2 each at Walgreens, they are a pretty good value that I'm not disappointed with. Until next time...

-Nic

Zoya Buy 3, Get 3 Free Haul

This sale was for the 4th of July, which was perfect since my birthday was the 3rd. That made the perfect excuse to get myself a nice birthday present. I purchased 6 polishes and got 6 free for a total of 12 bottles. If you're like me, these kind of sales are what us Zoya fans wait for. I honestly can't bring myself to pay full price for hardly anything unless I'm getting something worthwhile. Worthwhile it was!

Here's what I got-

Top Left to Bottom Right- 

Arizona, Kitridge, Layla, Marley, Robyn, Neely, Neeka, Blaze, Payton, Dream, Godiva,& Stevie.

Arizona is a soft, slightly cooler toned orange creme.

Kitridge is a very bright, cool toned baby pink creme

Layla is an almost neon, darker pink jelly that dries to a satin finish

Marley is a pale lilac creme with a hardly noticeable white silvery sheen running throughout 

Robyn is a bright but midtone blue creme 

Neely is a very light, muted mint green creme that has just the slightest hint of a gray undertone 

Neeka is a true deep grayish purple creme with tiny scattered gold accents

Blaze is pink touched cranberry jelly with scattered holographic sparkle 

Payton was a pain to capture. She is a brighter than pictured, purple jelly with scattered holographic sparkle 

Dream is a bright cobalt blue jelly with holographic sparkle 

Godiva is a champagne nude textured polish with tons of silver glitter. Dries to a matte textured finish. 

Stevie is a lilac textured polish with tons of silver glitter. Dries to a matte textured finish.

A lump of swatches on a wheel-

If I had to pick favorites, Blaze, Dream, and Payton are stunners. The holo glitters are so fine you can't feel them and they remove from the nail like any other polish. Stevie and Godiva are beautiful matte sparklers but a nightmare to remove.

These are off to their respective drawer! Until next time...

-Nic

NAIL POLISH COLLECTION AND STORAGE OVERVIEW

Way before blogs time, which is today, so up until yesterday; I always get questions regarding my nail polish. How much do you have?! Where do you put all that stuff?! Here is my own personal disclosure-I do not have a large collection. In fact, I'm sure many, many nail vloggers and bloggers would laugh hysterically at mine. But it's mine and it makes me happy. What I do have, tends to boggle peoples minds. Maybe they don't know about the internetz yet.... It's amusing to see their faces when I give them my typical typical answer- not enough and in my house. I'll always be collecting, but until then, this is how I store my stuffs...

This is the Recollections 3-Drawer Organizer Cube. I bought this here at Michaels. Mine retailed full price for $39.99, however, I paid less. Grab the coupon in the Michaels ad. It's usually 30-40% off full retail price items so if this is not on sale, it is now. Also, if you're capable, like I am not, of building things please know you do need to assemble this.

If you are looking for storage different to this, let me share some wisdom with you. What I learned in my long search of storage is you should look for something that has drawers AT LEAST 4 inches tall. I thought I had found the perfect storage solution long ago, until I got home, starting putting all my polishes in and then the drawers met my Sally Hansen Triple Shine polishes. They are a unnecessary height of about 3 inches. Measure your tallest polish and add an inch to your drawer needs. Trust me!

The following pictures are each drawer. I have the majority of these sorted by brand, with the exception of glitters, toppers, special effects polishes, which are in this first drawer-

This is more of a random drawer, but still by brand, mind you! These are brands I have smaller amounts of or one or two of, and things I have bought on clearance or they are discontinued polishes I have found at a dollar type store. Aside from the China Glaze in the upper right hand corner, which I still got on clearance for $1.99 at Sally's Beauty (YAS!) and the Sally Hansen Extreme Wear these are mostly brands I don't expect to find to add more to the collection, unless I do then they go into the third drawer and wait to be reorganized.

My second drawer-

It's much neater than the first drawer, though it does have it's issues. This is the drawer I keep lines that I know I will continue to buy because they are not discontinued. This is seriously my favorite drawer. I find myself in this one, way too often. This has Zoya, Essie, Sinful Colors, Heaven Lacquer, Color Club, Julie G, L.A. Colors and Sally Hansen Triple Shine.

And last but not least, my third drawer-

This drawer holds things that I buy that don't fit in drawer 1 or 2 and I can't get my life together enough to redo all the drawers. When these polishes went in here, I realized I would soon be on the verge of needing another 3 drawer cube. When this drawer didn't have polish in it, I kept all my tools and implements in here. Cotton balls, remover, thinner, files, and my color wheels...so I don't forget about less used polishes..don't judge, it totally happens to everyone. This currently holds my recent Zoya purchase along with a Dollar Tree and Walgreens raid of discount stuff.

That's it folks! Like I said, I'm always collecting and keeping an eye out, so this could be completely outdated in a month. Eh. Who doesn't need more polish, right? Until next time...

-Nic

WELCOME TO MY NAIL SPACE!

While I'm no professional and do not have the collection of most, I feel like there are some things missing in the nail world. I know I have searched the internet, while standing in the middle of an aisle, only to realize there's never been a review or a post on it. This polish has to exist, I'm holding it and debating to buy it, right? So what do you do when you find a completely obsolete polish and you want to see a swatch before buying? Hopefully you check here. While I love my mainstream polishes, I also love searching dollar stores, clearance aisles and discount bins for wonderful treasures. I think it's time to share my finds, swatches and thoughts. This space is for all things nails. That means sharing an obsolete find at Big Lots to a mainstream nail brand review, haul and swatches. Here, we're all about Loving Lacquer!

-Nic