Orly Melodious Utopia and Dollish Polish BAZINGA!

Hello! Just a super quick post today since it's been a few days. Here's a mani that I did a while back that I thought was fun but never posted...Orly Melodious Utopia (from the Hope & Freedom Fest collection) with a Dollish Polish BAZINGA! (from the Big Bang Theory collection) accent nail.

So bright & fun! I really like the contrast of BAZINGA! over the sunny yellow of Melodious Utopia. It's hard to tell in this picture, but Melodious Utopia has a great pink shimmer running through it that really adds to the depth & interest. As with any yellow it takes a little work, but overall the formula was good. BAZINGA! has great glitter payoff & I didn't have any issues with getting the glitter pieces where I wanted them to be. I did have a little bit of bubbling, but that's mostly user error because I was trying to rush. Yellow polish always gives me slight lobster hands, but the mani was cute so it doesn't bother me too much. It's much worse in photos than in real life anyways.

What do you think of this bright & cheerful mani? Are you a yellow polish fan? Want to see BAZINGA! paired with a different color? I always welcome comments/suggestions/etc!

APR '13 SquareHue - Bloom Collection

It's my favorite time of the month again...SquareHue time! If you still don't know about SquareHue, you can learn more from my posts HERE, HERE & HERE or from their website.

April's offerings, aptly named the Bloom Collection, include some perfectly spring-y pastels. The colors are Yellow Submarine (a muted yellow with the slightest shimmer), Flower Power (bright spring green creme) & Groovy Love (saturated lilac creme). I'll chat about the formulas after the good part...the pics!

April 2013 SquareHue - Bloom Collection

See the rest of the photos AFTER THE JUMP!

Chanel - Taboo

I'd been holding out for so long. I always thought I could find something similar for less money. My spending had gotten extreme but I felt like as long as I didn't do that ONE THING I could justify it all. Well, I finally broke down you guys...I bought my first Chanel polish & boy, is it a GOOD one!

There's not much to say about Chanel Taboo other than 1) it's so multifaceted & simply GORGEOUS [burgundy AND blue shimmer!?], 2) the formula was a dream [almost a 1 coater!] & 3) I am completely obsessed with it! Of course my photos don't do it justice, but here they are:

The rest of the photos are AFTER THE JUMP!

MAR '13 Ipsy Glam Bag

It's that time of the month again...Ipsy Glam Bag time! This month's theme is "The Great Escape" & the bag features items that are perfect for beauty on the go.

I generally start these posts with a photo of the bag itself, but I'm the worst & dropped it behind a heavy piece of furniture before I could take a picture. It's a bummer because the bag is super cute & nautical themed. You can check it out on the Ipsy website if you're so inclined.

Since there's no bag shot, I guess we will begin with a group product shot!

March 2013 Ipsy Glam Bag

Check out the product reviews AFTER THE JUMP!

My Mani Routine

I often have people ask me what my manicure routine is like/what products I use regularly/etc...so here's a quick rundown on this lovely Mani Monday!

To start, here's what my set up generally looks like. The little black & white bag was a gift from my mom a few Christmases ago & it quickly became my nail supply catch-all. I generally sit at our kitchen table, as shown in the photos, but sometimes I'm lazy & it happens on the coffee table. Either way, the set up is usually always the same (I'm a creature of habit). This is obviously minus whatever colors I would be using at the time but includes my clean up supplies, base & top coats, cuticle products & of course the bag & my little work light. The tiny lamp is so crucial! I love it.

General manicure set up

Moving on to top & base coats. As with most products, I have a hard time being faithful to just one. The products pictured below are what I'm currently using/experimenting with. The base coats that I've been using the most lately are CND Stickey & Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator & I'm pretty happy with both. Duri Rejuvacote is also on my list of favs despite not being pictured below. When it comes to top coats I am constantly trying to find the best quick dry option for my needs. (I quickly grew tired of Seche, but will still use it every now & then. I've been through phases with Poshe & Nubar Diamont, too). The top coats that I've been using the most lately are Orly Sec'n Dry & NYC Grand Central Station. They dry quick and shiny enough for me & so far I haven't had any problems with either of them.

(L-R) CND Stickey, Orly Sec'n Dry
NYC Grand Central Station, Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator

Another important aspect of the manicure process is clean up! I know that everyone has their own system & this is just what works for me. The white tub/bottle is filled with mostly pure acetone & also some miscellaneous polish remover leftovers that get thrown in there from time to time. The 2 tools that I use are a plain old orange stick & a random e.l.f. concealer brush. When I'm actually doing my nails, I keep both of these in the polish remover so that I can grab them whenever I need to do some clean up. I use the orange stick the most during the painting process & the brush to do post-mani clean up. I also keep a random microfiber cloth handy for blotting & wiping. (You can tell by the polish stains that the one pictured has been around the block, lol).

Clean up tools

The final step of any good manicure is cuticle care! I don't know about you, but between the polish removing process and the clean up, my cuticles can usually use a little love after my mani is done. The products pictured below are a few favorites out of a bajillion oils/butters/creams that are floating around my apartment. Of course there's LUSH Lemony Flutter, the ultimate in thick & amazing cuticle butters. It's probably my all time favorite cuticle product but, like I said, I'm hardly faithful. The Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Cuticle Eraser + Balm is great for softening hard cuticles & to slather on before using a cuticle pusher. It's a little sticky, so it might be best to use in a situation where you can wash your hands shortly after applying. As far as cuticle oils go, I'm a pretty big fan of CND Solar Oil. It's very moisturizing & I find the smell to be very comforting for some reason.

LUSH Lemony Flutter, CND Solar Oil &
Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Cuticle Eraser + Balm

So there you have it! My favorite/current/must have products & a peek into the method behind my mani madness! The only thing that I forgot to photograph is my polish remover of choice, which is Zoya Remove Plus. I keep a big pump bottle full of it for general use & turn to pure acetone for tougher jobs like removing chunky glitter or dark, staining polishes.

Do you have a specific nail polishing routine? What are some of your favorite products to use when you do your nails? Let me know in the comments!

Ludurana Aurora Boreal - Admirável

It's been a pretty hectic work week, so I've got a quick post for you today. I won this polish in a Llarowe giveaway a while back & never got around to using it. I finally pulled it out of my un-trieds & I'm so glad that I did! Ludurana Aurora Boreal Admirável is a gorgeous multichrome that flashes mostly emerald green, gold & a lighter green. There is also a tiny bit of purple & blue at some angles. Also, unlike its near-dupe Ozotic 503, it's opaque in 2-3 coats!

Of course I couldn't capture all of the amazing color shift on camera, because that would be too perfect, but here are a bunch of pics I took during my attempt! As always, click the photos to enlarge.

In some of these photos it doesn't even look like the same polish! Oh man, I love it. The photos above are 2 coats of Admirável with a coat of NYC Grand Central Station (the newest quick dry top coat that I'm experimenting with) on top. It honestly could have used another coat of polish, but I was in a bit of a hurry & therefore was satisfied with 2 coats. Formula was thin but good, dry time was super fast. The only thing that took my by surprise with this polish, mostly because I didn't fully read the bottle that says "perfumado" on the label, was that it's scented. Like, smells like men's cologne kind of scented. It's not a bad smell, but it is a little strong so best be prepared. It does fade pretty quickly, though, so your nails won't smell like a middle school boy for too long.

I can't believe that I left this polish un-tried for so long! It's a beautiful color & I do love a good multichrome. This is also my first Ludurana (or Brazilian in general, I believe) polish, so hopefully I can try out more in the future. They can be purchased from Llarowe & Ninja Polish!

Have you tried Admirável? Or Ludurana in general? What are your thoughts??

Orly - High On Hope and Elation Generation

Hi everyone! What I have to show you today is a manicure that I wore recently using 2 polishes from Orly's Spring 2013 Hope & Freedom Fest collection. I picked up a Mani Mini kit that includes .18oz bottles of 4 out of the 6 polishes in the collection. I chose High On Hope & Elation Generation to use for this manicure because as soon as I saw them I knew they would go great together!

High On Hope is a navy blue creme with amazing pink shimmer that has a bit of a yellow/orange multichrome to it & Elation Generation is a bright pink jelly filled with holo glitter.

Orly High On Hope with an Elation Generation accent (flash)

Orly High On Hope with an Elation Generation accent (no flash)

The photos above are 2 coats of each polish with Orly Sec'n Dry over top. My camera was having some difficulty capturing the true color of Elation Generation. I would say that the actual color is somewhere in between how it looks in the photos. The holo glitter is also much more pronounced in real life, as is the shimmer in High On Hope.

Formula-wise, High On Hope was good. The first coat went on a bit streaky, but the second coat evened it out & made it opaque. Elation Generation was a tad bit thick but not unmanageable. Dry time was average.

I just love the look of these 2 polishes next to each other! Elation Generation really brings out the pink shimmer in High On Hope & I love the juxtaposition of the holo glitter polish as an accent to a polish with a very strong shimmer. So pretty!

What do you think of Orly's Hope & Freedom Fest collection? Do you love these 2 polishes as much as I do? Let me know in the comments!