Polished Casual: February 2012

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Joe Fresh Teal

Good gracious guys, I've been such a doofus when it comes to blog posts lately. I feel like work is sucking the life out of me lately, so I just come home, eat dinner, and then the hubby and I veg out on the couch trying to get caught up on all the shows we DVRed throughout the week. I'm usually not a huge fan of "apology posts," but please - forgive me. I promise I'm gonna get back into the swing of this. I've got a lot of catching up to do!

First up, yet another polish I owe Jessie big time for snagging for me - Joe Fresh Teal. Not the most creative of names, Joe Fresh, but alright. "Teal" it is. Teal is a medium-toned, well...teal, with subtle silver shimmer. I'd say it leans more heavily on the blue side than green, but it does look greener in some lighting. The formula was pretty good on this one, but I did find it a little hard to spread around. I think next time I'll thin it out a bit and see if that helps. The bigger issue was the brush. The bottle is short and stumpy, and so is the brush. And it's attached to the ginormous round lid, which made it a little hard to grip properly. All very small complaints, though. I made it work with two coats.

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Nice, right? I really loved this color, and got several compliments on it. But the best part is that you're looking at a $4 (almost) dupe of Rescue Beauty Lounge 360. 360 is one of Jessie's favorites, and she's been raving about it ever since I first met her, but between the $18 price tag followed by the out-of-stock status, I just never got a chance to try it for myself. Nail board whisperings of a cheap dupe led to (of course) needing it for myself. Joe Fresh isn't the easiest to snag here in the States, so Jessie managed to pick this up for me during her Christmas trip to New York. wo0t! You can check out comparison swatches of Teal and 360 here from the lovely cilucia. Pretty darn close, huh?

Soooo, back to that whole availability thing. If you're a Canadian girl, you can probably track down Joe Fresh polishes with ease. Stateside, not so much. Right now there's only five stores and they're ALL in the New York City area. Hopefully they'll start to branch out with more stores across the U.S., but for now it'll take a little work to nail down their polishes. On the other hand, RBL's got 360 back in stock for $18, if you love the look! It really is lovely! :-)

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Julep Maven December Box

So obviously I am still getting caught up on my Julep Maven boxes. This one was really fun, but actually contained no polish to swatch for you guys. It came with some peacock feather print nail polish stickers which I haven't tried yet, an amazing smelling pomegranate body creme and some Julep Fast Dry Topcoat. The also threw in some nail polish glitter in a yellow iridescent in a bar shape. I was pretty happy with this box overall! The package was super cute too!

Julep Maven December Box - Boho Glam

I'll have to post a review of the nail polish strips once I get around to using them. I have tried to top coat and like it a lot. I use it when I use Julep polishes. The Body Butter is pretty fantastic. It smells amazing unlike their hand lotion/scrub/brightener combo. I'm not into the nail glitter, but it's a cute idea.

Anyway, sorry this is a boring post! I'm still subscribed to the Maven program and like it. These boxes are $20 a month. I keep thinking about dropping it, but then they send me a polish that looks interesting. Oh well!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Oh man! So those of you either really into nail polish or just getting into it have probably heard of Clarins 230. It's a nail polish so rare, it's been dubbed Unicorn Pee. It has this amazing color shifting pigment suspended in a purple jelly base. You can buy it for a ridiculous amount of money on Ebay. Now I've been know to spend stupid amounts of money on throw pillows (ask Missy), but $60+ on a bottle of nail polish. No way.

Enter Max Factor. I read online that they released a very close dupe for Clarins 230. It came in mini bottles, and was only available in England, and only $6 a bottle. So next step was how do I get this!!!!!!!!!! Well through some lovely ladies named Jenny and Jill, I was able to get this amazing polish. I did some quick research and to figure out the perfect undies for it. Color changing pigments look fabulous over dark colors and I knew I wanted something other than black. I decided on OPI's Sapphire in the Snow.

I didn't even get one nail painted before I almost fainted from the amazingness that this polish is. So amazing I would now actually consider paying $40 for Clarins 230. :) At least I haven't lost all my sanity right? Check it out and you'll see what I mean. There's red, gold, green and teal. SWOON!

Max Factor Fantasy Fire over OPI Sapphire in the Snow

And just to capture the full effect, here is a very shaky video. Sorry :) I couldn't resist!!!

Unfortunately this polish isn't available online for international shipping, so to get it you'll need a friend in the UK. It's so worth trying to get though. Buzz is that this polish may be part of their permanent collection, so you may have some time to acquire it!!!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie

Time to finally catch up on some of those old manicures I skipped over in my excitement over Saint George and Very Pretty Vampire! RBL Scrangie is one of those polishes that I HAD to have. I couldn't even stand to wait for it to come back after making the cut in the Bring it Back vote, so I swapped to bring it home ASAP. And then it sat in my Helmer for about six months. I know. I'm getting better, I promise.

Scrangie, designed by and named after the One and Only, is an amazingly lovely sheer purple with aqua shimmer. The purple base leans heavily on the red side, but the blue shimmer is dense enough that it gives it an overall grape tone. Cool-toned girls can definitely pull this off. It's a little more sheer than you typically find from RBL, but it has to be in order for all that shimmer to show off properly. It's buildable to opacity, and this is three coats I'm showing you here. Flawless application, of course.

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Hrmmm...I don't know what happened here, but I think I may have overhyped this polish to myself. As lovely as it is, I feel like it just falls flat on me. It shimmers beautifully, but maybe I was expecting it to be...sparklier? I don't know. I wanted to love it. It looks BEAUTIFUL on other girls, but something about it just wasn't right for me. I had a huge sad. Re-homed this one. :-(

The good news is that while Scrangie was sold out for quite a while on RBL's website, it's now back, and you bring it home for the standard $18. If you want a similar look without the huge splurge, you can try Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Grape Going. Definitely not dupes, but for a fraction of the cost you can definitely see if the overall look will work for you.

Well, I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! I know I'm already looking forward to the next one, lol! :-)

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Valentine's Day Mani!

So for Valentine's Day this year I decided to go ULTRA girly. I broke out the only 2 Nicole by OPI polishes I own, Kim-pletely in Love and Step to the Beat of My ♥. Whats funny is that I'm definitely not a Kardashian fan and I'm pretty indifferent on the Biebs. Don't know what I'm talking about? So Kim-pletely in Love came out in the Kardashian Kollection put out by Nicole by OPI in 2011. Step to the Beat of My ♥ is part of the Justin Bieber for Nicole by OPI "One Less Lonely Girl" Collection. Pop-cultured out enough yet?

Kim-pletely in Love was a polish I was pretty excited to try. I read about it on other beauty blogs and thought it might make a nice wedding mani for me. While I want to have really fun toes, I'm worried I'll grow out of nail polish in 30 years and look back on my pictures and wonder why in the world I wore Mad as a Hatter nail polish to my wedding. :) So I thought this lovely pink shade would be just what I was looking for. Kim-pletely in love is a jelly-ish pale pink with blue shimmer. It's lovely, but after 3 coats I was tired and couldn't stand to add the 4th coat that was really needed. You couldn't really see the nail line, but you could definitely see what was left of my peelies. Oh well! It is a beautiful pink, but I don't think it's special enough for my wedding day...

Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love

So then I added Step to the Beat of My ♥ which is a clear base with large pink and purple holographic hearts and small iridescent glitter. This polish is a PITA (pain-in-the-youknowwhat), It is SOOOO hard to get the heart shaped glitter out. I was literally swirling the glitter around, then swirling the brush into the glitter, then rubbing the hearts on the inside of the neck, then getting all the clear polish off the brush on the other side of the neck, then lightly dipping the brush back in the clear polish, then picking up the heart glitter. And then getting the heart glitter off the brush and onto the nail? FORGET ABOUT IT. This is WAY to hard. But it looks cute!

Nicole by OPI Step to the Beat of My ♥

If I had to give a recommendation, I would say pick up Kim-pletely in Love but skip Step to the Beat of My ♥. Nicole for OPI is available at stores like Target and CVS for $7. Overall, I'm happy with my Valentines Day manicure. The fiance and I just made sushi at home (SO FUN!!!!!) and are now relaxing over some beer. I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!!!!!

Lynnderella Very Pretty Vampire

For Valentine's Day, I like to break out my "va-va-voom" polishes - the polishes I find drop dead sexy. Last year I chose Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers, a polish I ADORED and really need to wear again! The hubby really liked that one, and I wasn't sure how I was going to top it for this year, until...LYNNDERELLA!

I went with Very Pretty Vampire from her Early Halloween collection. Now you'll have to forgive me for two things. One, that the dominant hand has returned due to the catastrophe mentioned here. For some reason dominant hand, although being "dominant," is not very photogenic. I don't know why. It just won't pose right, so these photos look a little wonky. Two, I am HORRIBLE at describing Lynnderella polishes. They're so unique and complex that I can hardly grasp the words. I'll just let the photos do the talking this time. Definitely click to enlarge them to see all the complexity and beauty in that glitter!

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Le sigh. She's beautiful, isn't she? My photos don't even do it justice. This is two coats over Zoya Valerie - literally the PERFECT polish to pair this with. Thanks to the lovely cilucia for the inspiration (and amazing photos)! The application was a breeze, even for a chunky glitter, and the outcome is just beautiful. The hubby was definitely impressed!

Speaking of Valerie, I wanted to show you that one on its own. I actually wore this as a fully manicure just because I had heard such great things about it. And for good reason - it's gorgeous! This one would make a perfect Valentine's Day manicure just on its own!

Application was great, and this is just two coats. If you're looking for the perfect base for Very Pretty Vampire, this is IT! You could also try Zoya Jem (since it's a VERY near dupe) if you don't own Valerie, or if Zoyas just aren't your thing, Orly Rococo-a-Go-Go is another option.

Va-va-voom, indeed!! ;-)

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day, whether you're celebrating with that special someone or rocking it on your own! Sending love and warm wishes your way! :-)

Friday, February 10, 2012

Another Look: A-England Saint George

I typically don't like to go out of order when I show you my manicures. It may be about two weeks behind, but you typically see them in exactly the order that I wore them. I also know that Jessie just showed you guys a ton of A-Englands, but I really couldn't help myself. I could hardly wait to put on Saint George, and it was so awesome I just couldn't wait two weeks to share it with you!

You can see Jessie's original post with Saint George here. Her photos were so drool-worthy I was DYING to get my hands on it! Or it on my hands...hehe. Saint George is a gorgeous (GORGEOUS) teal with a subtle scattered holographic finish. The depth of this color is unbelievable. You have to see it in person. Sometimes it leans more green and sometimes more blue, but either way it's beautiful. The holo effect isn't super strong, but it's noticeable even indoors. It just gives it this amazing depth. The formula is also just as amazing. Flawless application, and perfect coverage in two thin coats. Check it out!

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I. DIE. It really is that awesome, I promise you. I beg you guys to forgive me. I had full intentions of also getting sunlight photos for you, but fate had another plan. I put on Saint George during the Super Bowl, so it was dark out. It was going to be sunny the next day so no problem, right? Yeeeeah, I was closing up the reception window at work when my hand slipped off, taking a huge chunk out of two of my nails. And the polish. My soul was crushed. I hardly got to fully enjoy Saint George before it got ruined, but it was still so gorgeous I refused to take it off. Yeah, I wore it chipped up for about two days. When you guys start seeing the dominant hand popping back into my photos, you'll know why. My apologies in advance.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. If you don't already own Saint George, GO. RUN. NOW. You NEED it. Your soul NEEEEEEEDS it! This is happiness in a bottle, and you can nab it for $12 from shop.llarowe.com as soon as they come back in stock!

I promise to try not to overload you guys on A-Englands, but they're just too pretty to resist! :-)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

You Know Your Co-Blogger Loves You When...

This is so epic it deserves its own post. Seriously. So Jessie and I got together over the weekend. She told me my birthday gift had come in, so we decided to make a day out of brunch at Mimi's Cafe (a huge favorite of both of ours!) and custom lip gloss-making! The hubby even tagged along for good measure. :-)

So we order brunch and Jessie gives me my birthday gift wrapped in the cutest monkey wrapping paper I've ever seen...

*dies* My very own Avalon and Tristam!!! I'm literally beaming with excitement over these guys, but it doesn't stop there...

Oh, what do we have here? Awesome Birchbox goodies? Nay...this was something 1,000 times more epic!!!

Let's take a peeksie, shall we?

*dies a thousand deds* O....M....G. My words were literally "NO YOU DID NOT." That's the entire new A-England Legends collection. All of them. Words escape me.

THANK YOU, JESSIE!!!!! You're an amazing co-blogger and friend, and I'm so happy to have you as both! :-D

(Hope you guys aren't tired of this collection yet, 'cause Jessie made me promise to wear them all in a reasonable amount of time. I didn't waste any time, and tried my first one the next day! Stay tuned!)

Sunday, February 5, 2012

A-England Week! Morgan Le Fay

Well in all fairness, I am showing you Morgan Le Fay over Galahad. Morgan Le Fay is a opalescent pearly top coat meant to be worn over other polishes. She gives this silvery white sheen to the polish. If you look closely enough in real life, you can see a small rainbow of colors reflect in the sun. This is a really fun top coat, it would be great for spring. I'm showing 1 coat of Morgan Le Fay over Galahad.

Pretty cool right? I kind of wonder how close it is to Essie Pearl Perfection? I'll have to do a comparison the next time I wear this. Anyway, that brings my A-England Week to a close. How did you like it? Any other theme weeks you would like to see?

And in case you missed it this week, you can get A-England polishes direct from their website with free shipping, or from Llarowe when she has them in stock. They go for $12 a piece.

Friday, February 3, 2012

A-England Week! Galahad

Helloooooooooo gorgeous!!!!! Galahad, I love you, and your mysterious blue dusty ways. You lean a bit turquoise, and only require 1 coat. Your formula is super pigmented and your finish is uber glossy. You are the most amazing creme ever. Let's admire your beauty.

A-England Galahad

In all seriousness, I was very very very happy with Galahad. It's a dusty blue leaning turquoise that goes on like butter and is so pigmented! These pictures are without top coat! Can you believe it? If you are in need of a good dusty turquoise, stop your search now. You can get Galahad today on A-England's website or wait till he comes back in stock on Llarowe for $12.

A-England Week! Avalon

Remember when I showed you Lynnderella's Love Potion No. 99 and didn't tell you what purple I wore it over? Well A-England's Avalon was it. Strangely enough, I'm not crazy about this one. The shimmer in it is pretty special, but this is a very warm-toned purple (even though some of my pictures wouldn't show that). My skin is pretty cool, so this just wasn't as lovely as it should have been. I used 2 coats here. This was actually my first time wearing A-England ever, and I wore it with the base/top coat combo that's been really working for me lately. I start with Barielle Hydrating Ridge Filler with Silk Fiber, then polish, the Barielle Manicure Extender. My nails have been a lot happier lately with less peeling! However this combination would not let Avalon dry. Not matter how long I wanted (we are talking 2 hours). It was dry to the touch, but the slightest nudge would dent this manicure. Hence the glittery top coat!

So the first set is very color inaccurate. It is NOT this blue.

A-England Avalon

This picture shows it the most color accurate, but totally kills the depth of this polish.

A-England Avalon

Finally, a happy medium. This is pretty close to what it looks like in real life. Not as blue, but oh so shimmery!

A-England Avalon

A-England Avalon is part of the first collection A-England produced called the Mythicals and is readily available from Llarowe or A-England's website for around $12. If you love warm-toned purples, definitely picked this one up.

Oh - and sorry I didn't post this yesterday, I was doing my taxes and totally forgot. Oh well. At least I made it (almost) through January!!!!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Stash Swap, Part II: China Glaze Glittering Garland

Remember back in December when I showed you guys Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe? I wasn't too thrilled with it, because for me it leaned a little too blue. I thought China Glaze Glittering Garland may have been a better choice, but I never had the opportunity to pick up a bottle to try. Rach to the rescue!! She just so happened to have Glittering Garland and offered it to me for our stash swap. WIN!

Glittering Garland is super similar to Meet Me Under the Mistletoe. It's a green that falls somewhere between foil and glass-fleck. Probably closer to glass-fleck. This one's less of a pine green and more of an evergreen...green. It's much more yellow, so it's more flattering for warm-toned girls like me. The major difference though is the formula. Glittering Garland is WAY more pigmented, and it only took me two coats (compared to three) to reach full opacity. The application was fantastic, and it went on like a breeze.

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YESSSSSSSSSSSS! Much much better! This is exactly what I wanted Meet Me Under the Mistletoe to be! Don't get me wrong, it was lovely, but this one is just much more flattering for my skin tone. And the depth is just amazing. A huge thanks to Rach for having just exactly what I needed! :-)

I'm such a doofus. I totally meant to take my own comparison shots of these two polishes on the nail before I removed it. I don't know what happened. Too many episodes of Stark Trek: The Next Generation or something. I completely forgot. Forgive me! But here's a side-by-side comparison of the two. Glittering Garland on the left, Meet Me Under the Mistletoe on the right.

SO glad I got to try this one! Definitely satisfied my craving! Again, a HUGE thank you to Rach for (again) letting me play in her stash and keep her polishes for a couple of weeks! You're awesome! It's always a blast!

You guys KNOW we've already started to plan Round 3, right? ;-) Can't wait!!