Fragrance Fridays-Items I Regret Buying!

Avoid these products: Creative Home, Elegant Expressions and Ikea brand fragrances!

One of my favorite type of videos to watch on Youtube are the "Products I Regret Buying" tag.  I think those often serve as a good way to warn people against wasting their hard earned money on bad products. 

In that same spirit, I wanted to share a few home fragrance products that I regret buying.  If you follow me on Instagram, you might know that I'm a huge fan of wax melts and candles. Unfortunately, sometimes the quality of these products isn't what it should be. Here are a few such products I want to warn you against.

IKEA candles. I won't lie, IKEA candles smell great. However, they have absolutely no throw!  I bought thee strawberry scent because it was such a yummy fragrance when I held it up to my nose to smell it. However, once I started to burn the candle, I couldn't smell it anywhere else in the room. A quick Youtube video search reveals that other IKEA candle variations have the same problems. Unless you want them just for decorative purposes, avoid IKEA candles!

Two other products I bought on a whim is are wax melts I found at the 99 Cent Only Store. Yes, they were only 99 cents so it may have been unrealistic to expect much. However, you definitely get what you pay for!!  Neither the Elegant Expressions Cran-apple scent nor the Creative Home Mixed Berry scent from did anything for me once I melted them. The were not strong at all, the throw was non existent. I definitely recommend avoiding these wax melts. Spend your 99 cents on something that's actually worthwhile, instead!

I'd love to hear from you if you've tried these products, as well. Did you have a similar experience, or did these brands work out well for you?

Inspiration Wednesday- Zoya Maya with flakies

Zoya Maya topped wth Color Club Snowflakes, sunlight

Here’s a manicure that was inspired by someone’s pet. A month or so back, I was saddened to hear that an online friend’s beautiful cat had passed away unexpectedly. The cat’s name was Maya, and I had just happened to have received Zoya Maya in the mail from the Zoya Freedom Sale around that time. Because of this, I decided that it would be the perfect opportunity to wear the coral jelly  and pay tribute to Maya the cat. Once I had applied Maya, I wanted to top it with something, but none of my glitter seemed quite right. Then, it hit me...flakies! Beautiful, delicate flakies would look lovely in combination with the gorgeous coral jelly. I applied Color Club Snowflakes, and voila! My delicate coral mani now had a special something extra with the green to orange shifting flakies.  I love the combination, so much so that I took a ton of photos. See more pictures afer the jump, including a couple of mattified ones!

Zoya Maya topped wth Color Club Snowflakes, shade

Tips and Tricks Tuesday- DIY exfoliating lip balm!

Here's a quick DIY trick that stems from a product I'd been meaning to try for a while. I've been wanting to try out a product like the ELF Lip Exfoliator for a while. However, I never seem to get around to putting in an order with ELF, so I came up with my own version. I just softened a lip balm I wasn't hugely fond of, then opened a packet of "Sugar in the Raw" large grain sugar onto my palm.  I pressed the softened lip balm into the sugar grains, and voila! The sugar was imbedded into the balm. Once the lip balm hardened again, I used the sugared lip balm as an exfoliator.  I feel that the sugar grains in the balm are doing a great job of exfoliating my lips!

Tips and Tricks Tuesday- Cuticle Oil pen!

Make your own perfumed cuticle oil with an old perfume rollerball!

Here's a quick tip that I wanted to share because it was such a pleasant surprise to me. I recently used up my rollerball of perfume from Tattooed by Inky. Rather than throwing out the empty container, I decided to try using it for cuticle oil. I had tried the cuticle oil from Julep at Sephora, and liked the rollerball format of the packaging. So I pried the top off of my old rollerball of perfume, then filled the container to the top with olive oil. I replaced the top, and voila! I now have a new rollerball of cuticle oil.  My favorite aspect of my new cuticle oil? The remnants of perfume in the bottle have totally affected the oil in the container, so all the oil that comes out smells exactly like the Tattooed perfume. The combination of a great fragrance with being so easy to use makes this my new favorite way to moisturize my cuticles!

Inspiration Wednesday- Eva So Bright

Sinful Colors Eva So Bright with gold stripes

I’ve noticed that a there’s been quite a bit of traffic to this blog coming from people who searched for Sinful Colors Eva So Bright.  It’s  definitely an appropriate color for the summer, so I can understand the interest.  Because of being inspired by my readers, I’ve decided to post these pictures I have of  the last time I wore Eva So Bright. The quality of the pictures isn’t ideal, which is part of why I hadn’t posted  them prior to this.  A lot of them have a misty quality to them.  Hopefully you’ll still get a good idea about Eva So Bright, which is a limited edition offering from Sinful Colors.  

Sinful Colors Eva So Bright with NOPI Not a Gold Bigger stripes, shade

 I wore Eva So Bright a while ago, when I got a craving for a bright, happy coral. I decided to add some decorative stripes to Eva So Bright using Nicole by OPI Not a Gold Bigger with a striping brush.   I really like the overall look of the mani. It’s bright and fun, with a bit of added sophistication. 

How does Eva So Bright compare to the classic color, OPI Cajun Shrimp? Judge for yourself, plus check out a bonus mani, after the jump!

Inspiration Wednesday- Leopard French mani

Leopard French Manicure, featuring pastel dots over Wet n Wild 2% Milk

What do you do when you are craving pastel polish but can’t decide which color to wear? If you’re me, you decide to de a pastel leopard French manicure!  This look is totally inspired by Rebecca Likes Nails, who originally posted a neon version a couple of years ago.

Rebecca Likes Nails' original, neon, version

  Rebecca is much better at nail art than I am, but I’m still pretty happy with my results. At least you can tell what it’s supposed to be, which is not always the case with my designs.  To learn what polishes I used in this look, join me after the jump!

Tips and Tricks Tuesday-Drugstore Jellies

Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby and Sally Hansen Sheer Ecstasy, 2 drugstore jellies

A question that often comes up in the nail community is "What are some drugstore jellies?" It's not like jelly polishes are all labeled as such. Yes, there is the standard advice to find a jelly: tip a polish bottle over on its side. If you can see the mixing balls through the polish along the side of the bottle, then the polish is a jelly. However, I wanted to offer people a quick and dirty list of the jellies that I know of that can be easily found at the drugstore. 

I've compiled this totally unofficial list of drugstore jelly polishes based on my frequent visits to places like Target and Walgreens. All but one of these are a part of the core collection for their brand, so they should be easy to access. Here are the jellies I know of so far:

Wet n Wild Everybody Loves Redmond
Wet n Wild Fuchsiarama
Wet n Wild I Red a Good Book
Wet n Wild 2% MIlk
Wet n Wild Break the Ice
Spoiled by Wet n Wild Permission to Proceed (dupe for the color below, SC Irish Green)
Sinful Colors Irish Green (not a core color at any retailer, seasonally available frequently)
Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby
Sally Hansen CSM Jaded
Sally Hansen CSM Shell We Dance
Sally Hansen CSM Sheer Ecstasy
Sally Hansen CSM Almost Almond
Sally Hansen CSM Arm Candy
Revlon Just Tinted Victorian
Revlon Sheer Pink
Revlon Velvet Rope
Revlon Plum Seduction

For almost all these polishes, I don't personally own them so I confirmed their jelly nature by image searching for jelly sandwiches featuring them. Maybe I'll eventually add a link for all of them, but for now:

Sally Hansen CSM Arm Candy sandwich from Never Enough Nails
Revlon Velvet Rope sandwich from Pretty Girl Science
Revlon Plum Seduction floating stamping from SpecialGirl Nails

Do you have a blog post featuring one of these jellies? Do you know of any other good drugstore jelly polishes? Please comment below!

Zoya Dillon turns the tide on a texture

Zoya Dillon with China Glaze Teal the Tide Turns, sun

Here’s a quick post to share a NOTD I just sported recently. This manicure features Zoya Dillon on 2 fingers. Dillon is a light seafoam green with a silver shimmer.  I use China Glaze Teal the Tide Turns on the other 2 fingers. I picked up that texture glitter on clearance at Sally Beauty.  I’m not a fan of textures, but I love the mint green base color of this one as well as the greenish teal glitter in it. So I added plenty of topcoat over Teal the Tide Turns.  

 

 

 

 

 

Zoya Dillon with China Glaze Teal the Tide Turns, shade

 

Seahorsin' Around with topcoat

China Glaze Seahorsin' Around, sun

 I'm back with a quick post featuring China Glaze Seahorsin' Around. It's a textured polish feautring turquoise glitter. As you may recall, I don't like texture polishes at all, so I coujldn't wear it alone. However, I love the colors in this glitter, so I added a bunch of topcoat to it.  Here are my pics of it. 

China Glaze Seahorsin' Around, shade

Fragrance Fridays: fragrances to check out!

Pic of my haul at Sallys Beauty Supply, including 3 great perfumes!

Hi, guys! Just wanted to do this quick post in order to recommend these travel sized perfumes from Sally's.  The packaging calls them "fragrance spray pens."  They were on clearance at my local Sally's for 99 cents, and this weekend's sale means I picked them up for 50 cents!   The fragrances come in plastic tubes with spray nozzles on them and then a cap on top. You could actually unscrew the spray tops and refill the tube when you've used up your fragrance, if you were so inclined. Each bottle contains 6.5 ml, and the fragrances are so nice that I can easily imagine myself using them up.  My favorite of the bunch is the one called Smitten, whose fragrance I would describe as fruity, sweet and tart. I'm feel ill equipped for describing scents, though, so I urge you to check these out for yourself if you visit Sally's this weekend. 

Drippy look with Color Club For You

Color Club For You with Jordana Boy Oh Boy drips

Happy Easter, everyone! Today I'm sharing some nails I sported a little while back, after wearing Color Club For You on its own.  For You is really cool because of the mix of colorful glitters it includes, especially the matte ones. I think this polish is totally reminiscent of Funfetti cake or rainbow sprinkles. That's why I thought that colorful drips on it would make the perfect accent. For me, it looks like dripping icing on a yummy cake.  I had a hard time deciding between the colors in For You. I ended up going with red and teal, although I feel like the right yellow or purple would have also worked.  I think the teal, Jordana Boy Oh Boy!, is especially appropriate because it's an almost perfect match for the matte teal glitter in For You. I used that teal for my left hand and Nicole by OPI OMB! for my right.  That last name is not an abbreviation, guys, that's actually the name of the polish. It came out in a Justin Bieber themed collection, but it's such a  pretty shimmery red that I bought it anyway. ;)

Color Club For You with NOPI OMB! drips

Check out a few more pictures after the jump!

Roses on a nude

Blue roses on a nude, sun

I am wearing blue all month for Autism Awareness Month, though I haven't had time to do as many posts about it as I'd like.  Anyway, one day I was craving a nude, so this came to mind as a design to try.  I basically copied this look from Kayla Shevonne. I'd seen it and thought it was beautiful, like all of Kayla's nail art.  I used different polishes than Kayla, but the overall look is pretty close, IMO.  I started with 3 coats of Revlon Trade Winds as my base. The polish is a bit streaky at first but was fine with 3 coats.  For the roses, I started with large dots of Sally Hansen Blue Me Away and then used China Glaze Manhunt for the outline. I made the leaves with Sinful Colors Exotic Green.

Blue roses on a nude, shade

 Join me after the jump for more pics!

Layla delivers green jelly goodness in C54 polish, Green Galaxy

Here's a quick post sharing a cool polish I sported a while ago. I found it in the clearance section  of my local Ulta-Layla Ceramic Effect #54, Unfortunately, that's the only "name" my packaging has. Once I googled this polish, though I found that it was also known by the name of Green Galaxy in other markets.

Despite not being a well known brand or color, I adore this polish. It's a dark green jelly base with large green hex glitters and small microglitter. It's unique to my collection, although it does strongly remind me of colors like Kleancolor Red Hot or Blue Eyed Girl. I'm always a sucker for a jelly and love green, so this one was a total winner for me. 

Color Club slips under the radar with a rainbow milky glitter

Color Club For You, a rainbow glitter suspended in a white base

Here are my swatches of Color Club For You, probably the most underwhelmingly named polish in the world.  For You is a polish with milky white base and tons of colorful glitter mixed in. While this is definitely not unique in the world of indie nail polish, it's fairly unusual when it comes to mainstream nail polish brands.  What makes it really unique is the mix of glitters in this polish. For You features some pretty standard shiny glitter-red, lavender, and indigo- mixed in with a couple of matte colors, yellow and blue green. The indigo glitter in it is so dark that it almost seems matte, but close examination shows it to be a bit shiny. Along with all these larger hex glitters, there are some fine indigo and red microglitters in the mix as well. Overall, this makes for a really fun and eye-catching polish!

Color Club For You, sunlight

Tips and Tricks Tuesday-Water Marbling 101

Think you can't watermarble? My tips might change your mind!

Like many people, I really struggled with watermarbling. I was a total failure the first few times I did it. Now that I've watched a lot of Youtube videos on the subject, I feel like I'm a lot better at it.  At least, I haven't wanted to tear my hair out the last few times I did it, which is progress for me. ;)  I wanted to share all these tips in a concise post so that other people who were struggling like me could find it all in written form rather than having to a bunch of videos. (Although watching water marbling videos can be quite enjoyable, also!)

I have a few videos links in this post, so please jump to begin unraveling the mysteries of watermarbling!

Comparison: Butter London Tart With a Heart vs. Nina Holographic Topcoat

Here's a quick post comparing Butter London Tart With a Heart with Nina Holographic Topcoat. I had a hard time finding Tart With a Heart at the sample counters at my local Nordstroms, and then only got a few pictures before the polish peeled off my nail wheel. As you can see, the Nina Holographic Topcoat is very close to Tart With a Heart, but it's not an exact dupe.

Butter London Tart With a Heart on left, Nina Holographic Topcoat on right

Here is a picture from the very kind MissCarley. She's a fellow regular at the Makeup Alley nail care forum. I really recommend visiting, it's such a great resource for us nail polish nuts! Anyway, Miss Carley was nice enough to give me permission to use her pictures of the Butter London Tart With a Heart and Nina Holographic Topcoat. Here's one pic: 

Nina Holographic Topcoat on left and Butter London Tart With a Heart on right 

In MissCarley's pictures, Nina Holographic topcoat is on the left and TwaH is on the right. She tried it over American Apparel Hassid (a black creme) and Butter London The Black Knight.  

I hope you can see in these pictures that the concentration of microglitter in TwaH is a little denser than the Nina Holographic topcoat. However, the polishes are so similar that I think Nina Holographic Topcoat will be close enough for those of you lemming Butter London Tart With a Heart. Since Nina polishes retail for around $5 at Sally's and Butter London polishes retail for around $13, many of us will find the Nina Holographic to be an affordable way to satisfy a high end lemming!  Join me after the jump for a couple more pictures comparing this duo.

Quick NOTD: OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam with Zoya Nyx

OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam with Zoya Nyx accent nail

Here's a quick post sharing a recent look I wore. As I shared in my original post about Zoya Nyx, I got Nyx because I wanted a color like OPI I Have a Herring Problem or Zoya Skylar. So when I ran across OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam at one of my local nail supply places, I didn't hesitate to purchase it. I added an accent nail of Zoya Nyx on the ring finger and topcoated it generously. I really like this dusty blue combination on my nails.

Valentine's NOTD: Skittle stamps over gradient!

Valentine's Day themed mani, left hand

I love this even though pink and red are typically so not me. Maybe part of the charm is that there's so much going on in this mani. Besides the pink and red gradient, I also used INM Northern Lights as a topcoat. The stamping is in white; Sinful Colors Snow Me White, specifically.  I will probably end up updating this post with more pics later, but wanted to post while it was still Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day themed mani, right hand

Nail Art 4 Life~ OPI Metallic 4 Life with silver accent

OPI Metallic 4 Life with Wet n Wild Metallica based accent nail

Here's a manicure I sported recently with a couple of different techniques for the accent nail. I started with 3 coats of OPI Metallic 4 Life on most of my nails. I started with a  base of Wet n Wild Metallica on my two accent nails. Then, I added black accents with a different nail art technique for each middle finger. Because I wanted to have a similar glittery look on the accent nails, I topped it all off with a coat of Color Club Platinum Record, a silver hex glitter mix in a clear base. What were the 2 nail art techniques I used? To find out and find video tutorials for both, jump!

OPI Metallic 4 Life with black polish and silver glitter on the accent nail

Simple shimmer gradient

Gradient with OPI Congeniality is My Middle Name with Grape, Set, Match

Here's a quick post of a manicure I wore recently. I was trying to cover up the tipwear I had on OPI Congeniality is My Middle Name, a great berry pink shimmer. I thought about a few glitters, but ended up sponging the tips with OPI Grape, Set, Match, a purple shimmer.  I think the color combination works really well, although perhaps my pictures aren't the best.

Another view of the shimmery pink and purple gradient

Quick post: Lóreal He Red My Mind

Lóreal He Red My Mind, sun

Here´s a color I wore around Christmas with some cute stickers on it. Unfortunately, only these pictures turned out. I figure it can´t hurt to share, though.

Lóreal He Red My Mind is a nice candy red shimmer polish. I picked it up for a $1.00 at Big Lots a while ago, and think it was well worth the the price! ;)

Lóreal He Red My Mind

Comparison: Sinful Colors Holiday Rebel vs. China Glaze Party Hearty

Sinful Colors Holiday Rebel on left, China Glaze Party Hearty on right, over white

Oh, my poor neglected blog. Here’s a post I promised you quite a while ago that I have neglected to deliver. Hopefully it’s still in time for you to pick up the polish in question if you are still interested.

Here’s a comparison of the recent Sinful Colors holiday release, Holiday Rebel, to the legendary China Glaze polish, Party Hearty.  Party Hearty was limited edition a few years ago and is extremely hard to find nowadays.

Sinful Colors Holiday Rebel on left, China Glaze Party Hearty on right, over black

Here are the main differences I could find between the 2 polishes. The red glitter in Party Hearty is different from the red glitter in Holiday Rebel, where the red glitter is more dense.  The red hex glitter in Party Hearty is more tomato red, while the glitter in Holiday Rebel is a bit more silvery. Speaking of silver, Holiday Rebel has a some silver hex glitters in the mix that Party Hearty lacks.   Party Hearty has gold microglitter while Holiday Rebel doesn’t.  Holiday Rebel has more green microglitter than Party Hearty. 

That's about it, folks. Holiday Rebel was part of the Glitz and Glittered display from Sinful Colors this year and should still be available in stores.   If you want to see a few more pictures, jump!