Hard Candy Crush on Lava

I recently added a new Hard Candy polish to my collection.  When I heard that Crush on Lava was suppose to be similar to their famed Beetle polish, I rushed out to get it.  I don't have Beetle to compare, but I love this!  I layered Crush on Lava over black polish.  Although you can get it opaque on it's own.  I'm so loving this color shift.

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Hard Candy Black Tie Optional

Here is Hard Candy's Black Tie Optional over Sally Hansen's Wet Cement.  I have one coat of Gelous and one coat of Wicked Fast over this.  I didn't try to fish for the larger Hex glitters in there because I did this while the kids were still up.  Bad idea.  Baby dumped some Wicked Fast out.  My girl smudged a few of my nails and I had to redo them.  This was all because I didn't want to do my normal midnight mani.  Sigh...
I still like this mani a lot though!  What do you think?

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New Hard Candy Polish Swatches!

I have been so excited about these polishes.  Hard Candy.  That was like the first polish that I think I pined for.  As a teen I so wanted a little jelly ring that matched my nail polish.  LOL.  I think it was like $10 a pop way back then and you could buy them at Sephora.  I have long since lost my Hard Candy polishes, and have not been able to find the Walmart Hard Candy polishes.  But yesterday my Walmart got the newest display of the polishes and I got six!  I really wanted to get a whole bunch more, but they are a bit pricey.  It is $4 a bottle, but the bottle sizes are smaller.  It is .26 fl oz per bottle.  It is like half of the typical size bottles which are generally .50 fl oz.  

Today is a special post because I did my first ever swatchfest just for the new Hard Candy release.  I don't think I'll do that again.  My pictures are all mismatched.  I have no rhyme or reason to my pictures.  And I did all the pictures outside because I wanted to copy The Polishaholic but it made applying my polish more difficult because it was a bit windy and the polish dried on the brush a little.  And I got sad because I took one picture with my phone and it was better than with my DSLR.  Oh well.  I'll get better one day. ;)

First up is Gummy Green from the Candy Sprinkles line!  I surprised myself and only got one milky glitter.  To be honest I wasn't too impressed when I first saw swatches of the milky glitters.  I didn't like that they used a silver glitter instead of a matte white.  I did like this one though, it is a mint green crelly with a mix of small black and silver glitters.  I actually liked it a lot more after I applied it.  Makes me want to get more from the Candy Sprinkles line.  Two coats for the pics below.

Next is Pee Wee Purple from the Itzy Glitzy line!   I thought this looked like a duochrome in the bottle, but it was hardly visible on the nail no matter how I angled my nails.  It is a beautiful purple glass fleck polish that looked like it had a bit of a golden flash to it.  I don't know, maybe my eyes deceived me?

Doesn't it look like a duochrome?

Now this was weird in the shade it looked like a flash of blue and purple.

In the sun. 

Next is Bity Blue from the Itzy Glitzy line.  This also seemed like a duochrome but really wasn't.  I loved this one.  The color is flashy and a shade of blue that I love!  I had a similar color from Korean brand and loved it so much.  This is a blue glass flecked polish.  I don't know how to explain how this but it glows on the nails.

In the sun.

In the shade.  See how it glows in the shade?

Next is So So Sequin from the Glitteratzi line!  It looks like light pink micro glitters with holographic glitters and larger sized blue hex glitters.  It's a glitter bomb what can I say.  Looks like a full coverage glitter.  I layered it over Pee Wee Purple because I felt like it.  Now I wish I saw what it looked like alone.  Oh well.  Still learning right?

So sparkly and pretty!

Like this picture better but I wanted a bottle shot (see above).  :) 

Look at the holo glitters!  So pretty.  

The final one is Mermaid Magic from the Glitteratzi line.  This is so gorgeous.  It looks like teal micro glitter with larger purple hex glitters.  I layer this over Bity Blue, but honestly I think this overpowered it.  There is no need to layer this over anything.  Two coats and you are good to go.  This is seriously a stunner.

Bottle shot!

In the shade.

In the sun.

Taken from my phone!  Dang it.  Okay the lighting was just nicer here.  But man, this is so much better than all the other pictures.  Lol!

Okay, after I put on Mermaid Magic, I just didn't want to take it off.  So yes I skipped one.  And it looked awesome too.   Here is bottle shot of Black Tie Optional from Crystal Confetti line.  Will swatch someday!  This is a matte black and white glitter bomb!  It looks so dense with glitter.  I swirled the brush in the polish and it was so fun to watch!  There are so many different sized hex glitters and yes there are bar glitters in  there too.  Looks amazing. 

Get thee to Walmart as soon as possible!!!

Julep Cupid Mystery Box

Hello!  I wanted to show you all what came in my Mystery Box from Julep.  I do think that Julep is expensive to pay for full price even at their discounted Maven price it is expensive.  But they always have specials going on and earlier in February they had a Cupid's Mystery Box grab bag type deal.  I'm such a sucker for these deals.  They reeled me in stating that we would get $70 - $200 worth of products for $19.99.  Oh man!  Of course the $70 value is probably their full retail (expensive price).  I thought they guaranteed like 5 polishes or something but my memory fades me.  So 5 polishes for $20 with the hopes of getting more?  Not bad.  :)  

Well...like usual I did not get the bigger box worth $200.  Bah humbug.  At least at first glance I think I love all the polishes I got!  I got 4 polishes and a coupon code to pick any polish I want from their website.  I picked  a really nice looking green creme Emilie!  I'm stoked because I don't have many greens in my collection.  So I got 5 polishes and a lip gloss!

From the left:  Petra, Carrie, Maria, Morgan and a lip gloss Camellia

They are all so pretty.  I'm happy with my box.  My favorite just from looking at the bottles is Morgan.  I love a purple polish!  

All in all, I thought it was pretty fun to do this Mystery Box.  I would probably do this again the next time they offer it.  Which apparently is several times a year.

KBShimmer's Oh Splat!

Hello again!  I'm actually pretty bummed tonight.  I wanted to apply to a seemingly amazing job opportunity in the city which I reside and apparently when they say the deadline is February 15, they mean you have to submit the application before that.  Not anytime that day.  :*(  I'm a chronic procrastinator, however, I did do almost my whole resume on Tuesday, but I have not applied for a job in such a long time that wanted to research how to write a cover letter and didn't get a chance too.  So since it was almost the end of the 15th I was just going to submit what I had, and I missed it!  I'm actually crying right now.  I don't hate my current job really.  I just hate that I work so far, and I hate that I'm stressed, and I hate that I don't feel like I'm good at my job.  This all just snowballs and my kids suffer.  Ugh!  Love them so much, but man can they bug when I'm moody and grumpy from work.

Anyways, enough of my whining.   Why yes, I will have some cheese with my whine!

I wanted to showcase my first indie crush.  KBShimmer's Oh Splat!  This is the first indie polish that I really really really wanted.  I'm so happy to have it in my collection.  And it is actually the first time I'm wearing it.  It is so fun to wear!

Application is the same as most of these milky glitters.  The polish is a bit gooey and while there is no fishing for glitters with this polish, you probably have to strategize (is this a word?  My spell check says not) where you want the glitters and maneuver the brush to place the glitters.  I used three coats in the pictures below.  There was one curling glitter you can kind of see it on my pointer finger.  But it was only one and it was hardly noticeable after my coat of Gelous and Wicked Fast.

This looks like candy on my nails!  I want to eat them.

Isn't this polish so awesome?  Sorry for my dry hands and cuticles.  

Julep's Sally and Joan Half Moon Mani Nail Art

I'm attempting nail art.  It has not gone well for me at all today.  I'm not disappointed with the end result. Just disappointed with the whole process!  Ugh, I always respected the ladies who did awesome nail art knowing that I'm not one for nail art.  But this put that respect on a whole new level.  I was inspired by a youtube video made by the brains behind the Let Them Have Polish blog.

I used the two polishes that I recently got in my February Julep Maven box.  The colors were Sally, described as an antique ivory, and Joan, described as a raspberry plum with rose gold shimmer.  They were inspired by the great actresses Sally Field and Joan Crawford!

I have to say Sally was being very very very tempermental.  I love love loved the color.  I thought it looked so delicious in the bottle, like vanilla ice cream!  But when I applied it it was streaky, thick and goopy.  It wasn't leveling out and it was making me sad.  Plus it took forever to dry.  I had no choice but to add thinner.  I believe I added like 12 drops of thinner.  Which is a lot considering this is a smaller bottle!  But after that Sally was behaving so much more nicely.  The color is just amazing on my nail!

Here is Sally alone on my nail.  So pretty!

This is Sally without the flash of my camera.  Makes my
fingers look nicer. 

Then I attempted the second color Joan.  It is such a beautiful color.  The gold shimmer look like gold flakies.  I can't tell you how many times I messed up this mani.  I wanted to cry.  I kept smudging everything and gouging chunks of polish off.  And the top coat picked up a little bit of the color and spread it all over my nail.  I had to do a bad paint touch up on the half moon part.  You can see it on my middle finger.  Well kind of.  If I had blown up the picture you would have been able to totally see it.

Here it is without flash.  I really liked the end result.  

With flash.  This picture is a little more color accurate.  

I also used the new Polymer Freedom Top Coat that I got in my Julep box.  This top coat claims it is like a gel manicure, and it even uses light to cure.  I was really excited to use this top coat.  I used it on my mani when I first got my box because I was so excited and it was great!  It dried a whole lot faster than I thought it would considering that I just used the light from my lamp.  It was easy to apply and very glossy!  It definitely gives my all time favorite Seche Vite a run for it's money.  

For this particular mani, I needed to be a little more careful with application because it did pick up some of the red and spread it across my half moon section.  That was a such a buzz kill, but typical of most top coats.   Also, it does seem to have a little shrinkage like Seche Vite.  I was hoping that it wouldn't, but I'm inpecting my nails as I type and I can see the polish retracting ever so slightly.  I  still really like this because it is 4-free whereas Seche Vite does have a harmful chemical in it.  So I've been searching for a 3-free fast dry top coat that comes close to the action of Seche Vite.  So far, Julep's Freedom comes really really close and I'm definitely going to be getting back ups of this!  Keep in mind this might not be best for sealing in nail art, I think Seche Vite is still the best for that.    

I'd love to know what you think of my attempt at nail art.

Julep Maven 2013 February Box

Hello all!  I wanted to show you what I got in this month's subscription box from Julep.  I've been a Julep Maven since about last September, but only got like two boxes.  You can skip any month that you don't want, which is totally awesome!  To be honest my two boxes were my 1 cent box and a box I forgot to cancel.  I didn't think these were a great deal.  It is a really expensive polish @ $14.95 a pop (cheaper if you are a maven), and it is a small bottle 8ml of polish a typical bottle has 15ml of polish.  

So if you subscribe and are a Julep Maven every month you get 2 polishes for $19.99 plus a bonus item which is a great deal if you love high end polishes.  They will also send you deals on their stock of polishes from time to time.  Every month they send you an e-mail that the period to change your monthly box is open.  It is usually open from the 20th-24th then you can't change it, so if you don't want the box that would be the time to skip.  Instead of cancelling my subscription I like to see what they are offering so I log on every month.  When I saw what they were offering for February I seized the opportunity!

Here is what they offered
2 - Polishes

1 - Oxygen Nail Treatment
1 - Freedom Top Coat - a polymer topcoat that cures under the light in a minutes!

So that is like 4 polishes for $19.99.  I had been looking for a nail treatment, and I'm always down for trying new top coats, and this top coat sounded buzz worthy.

What my box looked like when I opened it!

The nail treatment.

The UV activated top coat.  You just hold it under a lamp for two minutes.

Here is Sally (Field) and Joan (Crawford).  Look at that pretty gold shimmer!

I couldn't believe that there was something else in there.  They added a cute
eyelash curler.  This is perfect for traveling instead of bringing the bulky one.
And of course I tested it out and it works perfectly!  Oh and chocolates!

Well, that was my exciting Julep Maven box for February 2013!  I have already used the top coat and I really like it!  It will be in my next post!  I can't wait to see what other goodies are in store for me in the coming months.  If you'd like to sign up to be a Maven then click here!  I've used my referral link.  Use the code "PENNY" to get your first box for a penny!  ;)