Wet n Wild Summer Collection 2016: Lost in the Wild Flowers

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Janelle

This collection is almost old news by now, but I’m still seeing it in stores, so I’ll still tell you about it. Plus, I bought the whole collection and in my head that’s not really justifiable if I don’t officially blog about it. So here it is, the Wet n Wild Summer Collection for 2016: Lost in the Wild Flowers!

This is such a pretty collection, right? Let’s start with the pink…

Cherry Blossom On Top

This bright pink cream is opaque in two coats and dries to a really shiny finish. There’s not too much else to say about it. The formula is really nice and it’s a really pretty color.

In looking through my collection for dupes, I found a match that is almost dead on, and that is Wet n Wild – Lavender Creme. The one I own is in the old style bottle, but this same shade is still available in the new shaped bottles. Really, they are super close! Lavender Creme is a hair lighter than Cherry Blossom On Top, but really, if you already have Lavender Creme, you can skip picking up Cherry Blossom On Top. It baffles me when a brand puts out pretty much the exact same color like this. I mean, I know Lavender Creme is in the Wild Shine line, and Cherry Blossom On Top is in the Megalast line, but really…. I feel like it’s not too much to ask for a limited edition polish to be different from what that particular brand already makes available. First world problems, I know.

Leaf Me Be

This bright spring green polish is a jelly formula, so it dries really shiny. On my index and ring finger is three coats of the polish on its own. On my middle and pinky fingers is three coats over white. Jelly polishes are always fun because of the nail art and jelly sandwich potential that they have. And actually, the first thing I did with these polishes when I got them home, was to make a jelly sandwich! Here it is on the left with two coats of Leaf Me Be, a coat of silver glitter polish, and then another coat of Leaf Me Be. So sparkly and fun, but muted at the same time!

As far as dupes of this polish go, I didn’t really have any good ones in my own collection, but I did find a kind of close one while I was at Dollar General. (By the way, there are a bunch of the Wet n Wild polish colors that are exclusive to Dollar General. Really pretty colors, too!) This polish is called Limelight, and it’s just about the same color as Leaf Me Be, except it has a yellow/gold shimmer. It’s really pretty, but since I just bought Leaf Me Be, I couldn’t justify buying Limelight. I’m not sure what Limelight’s formula is like.

Oh, one more thing about Leaf Me Be: it’s a stainer. After my jelly sandwich mani, my nails were (well, still are) a lovely booger green color. Really unattractive. It’s not a big deal for me because I just slapped more polish over my gross looking nails, but if you don’t always wear polish, this might be a deal-breaker for you.

Wild Wild Violet

Wild Wild Violet is a beautiful warm purple polish. Much like Cherry Blossom On Top, it’s opaque in two coats and dries to a really shiny finish. This is such a flattering color against my really light skin!

In comparing it to other purples in my collection, I found that I don’t have anything super close to this color. In the comparison picture, Wild Wild Violet is in the middle, Fresh Paint – Sophia is on the left, and Wet n Wild – On a Trip is on the right. You can see that Wild Wild Violet is the warmest of the three. Sophia is a much more intense color; it’s almost neon in person. On a Trip is obviously much cooler in tone. I really like this polish and I’m super happy to have it in my collection.

One more thing, though… This polish is the mother of all stainers. What you’re looking at here on the right is my middle and ring finger on my right hand after I removed the mani I was wearing on the left. Wild Wild Violet left the nail on my middle finger a crazy bright pink! I’ve never seen a purple polish (or even a red or pink one for that matter) stain like this! Holy moly! And even on my ring finger (which is still kind of green from my Leaf Me Be jelly sandwich) you can see pink dots which are from the leopard spots! That means that this polish is capable of staining your nails even if you are wearing white polish underneath it! And I had a base coat on! The fact that I’ve ended the last five sentences with exclamation marks should be a good indicator of how crazy that is.

By the way, isn’t this mani using all of the polishes from this collection so fun? I enjoyed sporting these nails.

Poppy Culture

The last polish in this collection is a vibrant reddish-orange cream. This one took three coats to be opaque, and like all of the others in this collection, it dries to a high shine. This polish is red enough to not look too bad on my fair skin, but I think it would look extra good on darker skin.

As far as dupes for this polish go… There are a lot. Pictured from left to right are Revlon – Fearless, LA Colors – Moody Red, Poppy Culture, and NYC Spring Street. If I had realized that I had so many polishes that were nearly identical to Poppy Culture, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up. If you don’t have a fiery orange-red in your collection, Poppy Culture is a perfectly fine polish to pick up, but this color is hardly unique.

Overall, I think this is a really fun collection, and the colors all work well with each other, even though they are not crazy unique. The formulas are consistently good and the price tag of under $2 a bottle is awesome! The only negative is that two of the four polishes are mega stainers.

So, what do you think of this collection? Have you picked up any of these polishes? Is staining a deal-breaker for you? Let me know what you think!

Wet n Wild Spring into the Wild Collection (Spring 2016)

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Janelle

So, I did something I don’t think I’ve ever done before. I bought an entire collection. I just have never been able to justify it before. An entire collection of China Glaze or OPI can easily cost north of $50, and often I don’t really need or want all of the polishes. I love reading blogs or watching videos made by ladies who have purchased entire collections, but for me it just seems a little frivolous, especially since my little blog doesn’t actually generate any income. So how did I come to purchase an entire collection, then?

Well, we (my hubby and some other extended family members) had been putting in lots of long exhausting hours cleaning out a house for another family member. After several days of working, working, working, I ended up in a Christmas Tree Shops staring at the newest Wet n Wild collection called Spring into the Wild. The display still had all four of the polishes in it, and they were pretty… And they were only $1.79 each. That meant for under $8, I could get the entire collection. So I did. Seriously, aren’t they so pretty?

A day or so after I bought this collection at Christmas Tree Shops, I spotted it at Kmart. While I was there, I looked through Sinfull Colors, Sally Hansen, and Revlon for any duplicates (aka “dupes”) of these colors.

The four polishes are from left to right: Love Fest, Lay out in Lavender, Breeze on By, and Kiss My Mints.

Let’s start with Love Fest. This is just a lovely pastel pink. Next to the other polishes in the collection, it looks like it’s pretty warm toned, but when it’s on its own, I feel it’s almost cool toned. I’ll just say it’s a middle-of-the-road pastel pink. The formula is pretty sheer, though. What you’re looking at here is four coats. Yeah, I know. Ain’t nobody got time for that. It dries really glossy and it just looks so pretty once it’s on the nail, so I’ll probably suck it up and wear it anyway. I think I might attempt some jelly sandwiches with this one.

I have a ton of pink polishes (well, like 30) but I didn’t have any that were a really close match to this one. The closest that I could pull out of my collection was Wet n Wild – Tickled Pink, but as you can see, these polishes really aren’t that close at all.

At Kmart, however, I did find two dead-on dupes for Love Fest. Here’s Love Fest on the left, then in the Middle is Sally Hansen – Hard-Core Party in the middle, and Sally Hansen – Tickled Pink on the Right. (Yeah, both the Sally Hansen polish and the Wet n Wild Polish are called Tickled Pick. People need to come up with more clever names.) I picked up Hard-Core Party since it was only $.50, and I can definitely verify that these two are pretty much exactly the same.

Next we have Lay Out in Lavender. This one’s a stunner, right? It’s just so pretty! This is sort of a muted lavender. This polish was opaque in two coats. None of that four coat nonsense here.

When I first saw this polish, I thought it might be similar to China Glaze – Release from The Giver collection from a few years ago, and when you look at them in the bottle, they actually don’t look that different. Once I got the polish on the nail, it was clear that they were really different. Release is a gray polish that leans purple, and Lay Out in Lavender is a purple polish that leans gray.

Just for kicks, I also pulled out Broadway Nails – Easter Annie for comparison, but this polish is obviously much more pink with no hint of gray. I’m super happy to add Lay Out in Lavender to my collection since I really don’t have anything like it!

While I was at Kmart, I found a few polishes worth comparing to Lay Out in Lavender. The polish on the left was the closest match, and that is Sally Hansen Miracle Gel – All Chalked Up. All Chalked Up is just a tiny bit warmer than Lay out in Lavender, like it’s got a half a drop of yellow polish in the bottle. It’s still super close, though. The polish on the right is Sally Hansen – Lacey Lilac. Lacey Lilac is definitely more pink and it doesn’t have that hint of gray that Lay Out in Lavender has.

Next we have Breeze on By. This is a pretty periwinkle cream that was opaque in two coats. Another really beautiful color!

As soon as I saw this polish, I thought it looked exactly like Wear Skinny Jeans from last year’s Silver Lake Collection. As you can see, they are pretty darn close. The one difference is that Wear Skinny Jeans has a silver shimmer running through it, but since the shimmer doesn’t actually show up on your nail, that difference really doesn’t count for much. I threw in Sinful Colors – Sail La Vie for comparison as well. I have Breeze on my on my first finger, Wear Skinny Jeans on my middle finger, and Sail La Vie on my ring finger. As you can see, Breeze on By is a hint more purple than Wear Skinny Jeans, but if you already own Wear Skinny Jeans, I’d say you could skip picking up Breeze on By. Sail La Vie is obviously more blue than either of the Wet n Wild polishes. I’m sure that Essie – Bikini So Teeny is super similar as well, but I don’t own that one. I know it’s a classic Essie polish, but I seriously don’t need anymore periwinkle polish.

When I was at Kmart I found a few more polishes worth comparing to Breeze on By. The polish on the left is Sail La Vie, which I just threw in the picture for comparison’s sake. The next polish is Sally Hansen – Hard Bitten. This is a little less purple than Breeze on By, and it has a fine silver shimmer. I’m not sure if that shimmer actually shows up when you get it on your nails or not. Next is Sally Hansen – Babe Blue. Babe Blue also has a shimmer running through it. From images I’ve seen online of this polish, the shimmer just barely shows up. (Rant: Why is it so difficult to make a periwinkle polish with a shimmer that actually shows up? Am I missing something here? Nothing is more annoying than purchasing a polish and then not being able to get what you see in the bottle to show up on your nails.) Babe Blue is really close to Breeze on By, maybe just a hair more blue. I think it’s probably just about identical to Wet n Wild – Wear Skinny Jeans.

Now we come to our final – and maybe my favorite – polish of the of the collection: Kiss My Mints! This is the most beautifully perfect mint color ever! It’s not too green, not too blue. I just love it so much! This is perfect in two coats and it’s just so pretty!!!

I compared this to three other polishes in my collection. On my little finger is Wet n Wild – Tree Hugger from last year’s Silver Lake collection. This polish is obviously much greener. On my ring finger is Joe Fresh – Mint. (Whoa, such a creative name. My mind is blown!) This polish is also more green than Kiss My Mints and it has a bit of a dusty gray quality to it, also. On my first finger is China Glaze – For Audrey. I knew this polish wouldn’t be a match, but it felt to me like Kiss My Mints is the exact same hue as For Audrey, only a lighter tint. ( I had to check an art dictionary to make sure I was using “hue” and “tint” correctly.) Petty much that means that if you added white polish to For Audrey, I think you’d get Kiss My Mints.

At Kmart, I found a few polishes worth comparing to Kiss My Mints. The one on the left is Sally Hansen Miracle Gel – B Girl. This one is really close to Kiss My Mints, maybe just a hair darker. The polish on the right is Sally Hansen – Mint Sorbet, which is obviously much more green. I just figured it was worth comparing since it had the word “mint” in the name and it’s readily available.

So, Here are my final thoughts…

Skip buying Love Fest and pick up one of the Sally Hansen polishes if you really love this color. Nobody should be applying four coats of anything.
Lay Out in Lavender is really beautiful and different from most purple/lilac/lavender polishes that are out there. I think this is a good one to grab.
Breeze on By is definitely pretty and it has a good formula, but it’s hardly unique. Only pick this one up if you don’t have a periwinkle in your collection.
Kiss my Mints is awesome! The formula is great, and although there are a lot of mint green/teal/aqua/turquoise polishes out there, this exact shade is still pretty unique. If you’re only going to pick up one, I’d pick up this one.

Oh, and just one more thing. Breeze on By and Love Fest are super close to the Pantone colors of the year for 2016, Rose Quartz and Serenity. I’m sure that’s no accident.

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far! Find me on instagram and Facebook!

How I Accidently Un-thermal-ed My Polish

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Janelle

I just recently placed my first order with Polish Me Silly, an indie polish seller on Etsy. I oped to order from Polish Me Silly because they offer a generous mini size polish of 9 ml in every color of their polish for $650-$7.50. That’s one ml more than a full sized Julep polish, and let’s be honest: it’s a rarity to use a a 15 ml bottle of polish.

Alas, half of the order is for my sister for Christmas, so I can’t really swatch those polishes for you, and the other half of the order is for me for Christmas, and the hubby shammed me into putting them away until Christmas. I did convince him that I should be able to keep out one polish to use before Christmas since it’s so blatantly Christmas-y looking that I wouldn’t want to use it after Christmas. And this is it:

It’s called Are U Elfin Kiddin Me? I’m not a swearer really, but the name cracks me up a little. The reason I really felt I needed this polish is because it’s a thermal polish. My hands were ice cold when I did my nails, so this pretty dusty bluish-green is the “cold” color. Now, from looking at other reviewers pictures, I know this polish is supposed to change to white when it’s warm, and since the part of the nail that extends beyond the nail bed usually is usually the “cold” color even when your hands are warm, I was anticipating having white nails with green tips a lot of the time.

Oddly though, even when I would stick my hands in REALLY hot water, I couldn’t get the polish to change really white. Here’s a picture right after I got out of a hot shower:

They are obviously a lighter green, but they are not white. The only thing I could figures is that somehow either my base or top coat made a difference. The base coat I used was Orly – Bonder and the top coat was INM – Out the Door.

To make a long-ish story a little shorter, I eventually painted a stripe of the polish on some aluminum foil. On top of the polish, I painted a little stripe of INM – Out the Door and NYC – Clear, the only two topcoats I had on hand.

Here’s my little swatch after running it under cold water:

And Here it is after running it under hot water:

Ah-HAH! Mystery solved! You see that spot that stayed green? Well, that was where I put the INM – Out the Door. I haven’t really researched the science behind these thermal polishes, but there is something in my Out the Door that un-thermal-ed this particular polish.

By the way, I put this polish on my toes with the same Orly – Bonder base coat and the NYC top coat and they change color just fine.

So, the moral of this story for me is that the next time I get a thermal polish, I’m going to do a test swatch with my base and top coats before I dive in and do all my nails.

Now I’m a little torn. Should I take off this polish that isn’t even showing any tip wear and redo them with the NYC top coat or should I give it a few days before I redo them?

Oh, and I fully intend to swatch and review the other polishes I got after Christmas, and if my sister is agreeable, I’ll show you the polishes I got for her, too.

Thanks for reading!

Water Marble Turkey Nails

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Janelle

I thought it was about time that I give water marbling another go. I sort of did a bunch of experimenting, and as a result, every finger looks pretty different. I’ll just say that’s what I was going for.

And here are select fingers from my other hand:

I think the polishes I was using were not really in the mood to be marbled with, because they were not very good spreaders. I was using bottled room temperature water, so I don’t think my water was the problem…. You know, these close up pictures really show what a pain clean up is after water marbling. Ugh.

Anyway, here’s another untried that got tried:

This is NYC – Rule the City. It’s a gunmetal shimmer with red micro glitter in it. The red glitter sticks to the sides of the bottle, but not a whole lot of it transfers to the nail. It’s still an interesting polish and I’m glad I have it in my collection, but it didn’t change my life or anything.

That’s all for now. Have a blessed Thanksgiving, fellow Americans! Everyone else, have a good forth week of November.

Ferny Nails and My Pile of Untrieds

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Janelle

So, first off, here are some ferny nails that I did:

These were inspired by Mr Candii Pants, who actually is a miss, not a mister. Check her out on youtube and/or instagram. She does some of the coolest free hand nail art.

The base color for these was Fresh Paint – Firefly. It’s an almost-white-but-actually-a-pale-bluish-grey color. And it’s a one-coater! By the way, do you prefer “gray” or “grey”? I like “grey”. It just seems like a nicer, softer spelling.

I painted all of my purple ferns first, then blue (I think), and then green. It’s just way easier to do all of one color at a time, when possible. I used a shiny top coat, but I think these would have worked well with a matte top coat also.

Now onto a completely different subject: My untried polishes. Here they are:

Now, some of these are untried because I got them on clearance when they were out of season. Others are untried because… I don’t know. I don’t really have any good reasons. I decided that I really need to tackle this pile, so I’m going to make a good effort to reach for these polishes until they are all tried!

I’ve tackled two so far. Here’s Wet n Wild – Echo Dark from the recent matte collection:

It’s a little tough to see, but I actually did a jelly sandwich with this polish. I was pleasantly surprised that the polish still looked blue in person instead of black. I didn’t love the formula though. I can’t quite pinpoint why I didn’t. It took a while to really dry, so my nails ended with some little marks in them. That irritates me like crazy.

I also tried Sally Hansen – 3K or More:

The sun came out for me, so I got a nice sparkly picture! This is a nude polish with a gold shimmer in it. I don’t know how I feel about this polish yet. I feel like it looks really pretty in the picture, but I don’t think this shade of nude looks the best with my really light skin. There’s a bit of a yellow undertone, and I generally do better with cooler shades. It’s growing on me, though. This is a good pallet cleansing polish. After wearing Echo Dark for a few days, I felt like I needed something a little more neutral. This polish might be a little hard to find. I got this in a clearance bin awhile ago.

Oh, can you tell my nails are shorter in the last picture? I had some nail peeling going on, so I just gave them all a chop before one just broke off.

Well, thank you all for reading! Find me on instagram and facebook!

My Fall 2014 Limited Edition Polishes

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Janelle

I just sort of realized that I’ve picked up a few limited edition nail polishes recently that I haven’t shared on here, so… Shame on me. These are all drugstore polishes that cost about $2 each. Really, I love a good polish, but I’m no snob.

I haven’t gotten around to wearing all of these on my nails yet, but if I wait until that day comes, these will be long gone. The swatches that are next to the bottles are all two coats.

Let’s start with the Wet n Wild Megalast Matte collection. There are 6 polishes in this collection, but I just grabbed the two that spoke to me the most.

This is Careful, It’s Vine-tage:

This is a beautiful dusty purple in the bottle, but it does dry a good bit darker. My swatch looks REALLY dark, but when it’s on the nail, it’s still clear that it’s purple, not black.

This is Echo Dark:

This is a beautiful deep blue in the bottle, but on the swatch it really does look almost black. The formula is a jelly, which seems weird for a polish with a matte finish. I’m a little disappointed that it dries so dark. I haven’t done a full mani of this yet, but I’m pretty sure that it will just look black once I have it on. I wonder if I could make a jelly sandwich with this… If I try that, I’ll let you know.

Next I have two polishes from the NYC Fashion Queen collection. This collection of six polishes has been around for a few months, and I didn’t think I wanted any of the polishes…. Until I got a $1 off coupon. That prompted me to pick up two.

Here’s Royal Chic:

I highly suspect that this is a dupe for Essie – Little Brown Dress, but I don’t know for sure. This looks like Hershey’s Syrup when it’s wet. It’s such a rich chocolate brown! It’s dark, but it is definitely brown, not black. I used this as a base for my recent Golden Leafy Nails. I’m a little bit in love with this polish right now.

I also have Rule the City:

This is a gunmetal grey micro-glitter polish with slightly larger red hex glitter. The red glitter tends to stick to the sides of the bottle, so on the nail it looks like it has less glitter than it does in the bottle. The finish is a little bit textured. I have yet to wear this, but I’ll bet it would look super pretty with a shiny top coat…. It might even look awesome with a matte top coat.

Last I have Sinful Colors – Prosecco.

This is from the Sinful Shine line of polishes and the collection is called Shining Bright Off the Runway. There are 8 polishes in the collection. The display said, “5x more glossy that patent leather shoes!” Who the heck comes up with stuff like that? What kind of gloss-o-meter is used to determine that sort of thing? Anyway…

After I bought this polish, I found out that it’s kind of the big deal color from this collection. People out there are searching high and low to find it. I found mine at Rite Aid, by the way.

I have actually worn this polish, but I was a dork and deleted, so you’ll have to check it out on my instagram. I think I had to apply three coats to get good coverage. It really is super shiny! Because it’s sheer, you can sort of slop it on and it will still look good. I actually didn’t love the color at first, but it really grew on me! It’s a perfect color to wear when you need to look a little more professional for work or an event or whatever.

Okay, so that’s the end of that!

I’m looking for a little feedback from you. Would you rather see a series of posts that are color themed (my favorite reds, my favorite pinks,…) or would you rather see posts that are brand themed (my favorite Sinful Colors, my favorite Wet n Wild,…)? Or do you mostly just care about nail art? Any feedback is appreciated! Thanks for reading!

An Actual Reason to Shop at Dollar General

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Janelle

Dollar general stores scare me a little bit. It seems like you can always find at least one weirdo customer in there shopping at any given time, and I think the stores are always run by chain smoking 20-year-olds. Seriously, the last time I was in a Dollar General, there were 2 young female employees talking about how much they loved to smoke. The one was saying that she knew she should quite because she was having trouble breathing every morning. Geez. Yeah, maybe you should quit.

Anyway, there is one reason, and one reason only that I go into Dollar general stores: they’ve got nail polish. Specifically today, I want to talk about Boadway Nails High Shine Nail Polish. The only place I’ve ever seen this polish sold is at Dollar General Stores. (If you’ve seen them any where else, please comment below!) That means that if you want to try these polishes, you’re going to have to suck it up and actually go into a Dollar General store. I promise you though, it’ll be worth it.

The in store display looks like this:

Admittedly, this is not the greatest picture, but I sort of hate taking pictures of stuff in stores. It makes me feel like a creep or something. Anyway, do you see the little yellow price stickers? That’s right, these little polishes are only $1 each! As you can see, there are 4 tiers with 8 colors each. (The middle tier has lip gloss.) I don’t think there are any repeats, so that makes a grand total of 32 colors available.

So far I’ve purchase these seven:

Here’s a little review of each along with a swatch. Each swatch is 2 coats of the polish.

Starting with the upper left corner, we have Dark Night.

This is a REALLY dark purple. In person it’s not quite as dark as it appears in the photo. I thought at first that this was going to be a jelly formula, but it’s actually really opaque in just two coats. It applies really nicely.

Next is Sour Apple.

This is a super pretty almost neon green. I guess you could say it’s neon, but there are brighter greens out there. This is mostly opaque in two good coats or 3 thin coats. I really, really like this polish! The formula is really good! Like, surprisingly good for a $1 polish! Here it is in action:

Next is Space Flight.

This is the prettiest blue jelly! I used this for my glitter and my half moon manis during the 31 day challenge. Like all jelly polishes, the color really deepens with each coat.

The first polish in the second row is Hot & Sexy.

I bought this because I had been itching to get China Glaze – Ruby Pumps, but I hate spending $7 on one polish. This is a fine red glitter in a red jelly base. It’s just so pretty and sparkly! Two coats gives good coverage and sparkle, but I think a third coat would make it even prettier!

Next is Snow White. I originally got this to do a white polish comparison. Eh, its just okay. Check out the link if you’d like more info. I probably will actually use this one for some frankenpolishing down the road. I don’t actually have swatches of my white polishes on a swatch wheel because… it’s just white.

Next is Base Coat.

The dumb thing is it’s not an actual base coat. It’s just a really sheer nude color. Obviously it’s really sheer, because you can read “Base Coat” backwards through the polish. (I write the names of the polish on the back of each of my swatches.) I got this color to use as a base for french manis. It’s not an exciting color, but it gets the job done.

Last we have Paradise Water.

I was really hoping that this would be opaque on its own. Obviously, it’s super glitter packed, but not quite enough to be opaque. Oh well, for a dollar, I think it’s still worth it. I haven’t really played with this one much, but I think I’ll have fun layering it over different colors.

If you decide to brave your local Dollar General for any of these polishes, please let me know what colors you get and what you think! Thanks for reading!

Jelly Sandwich Time!

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Janelle

Jelly sandwiches are not really a new thing in the nail polish world, but I run into enough people who give me a blank stare when I use the term that I thought it warranted a post. A jelly sandwich is a layer of glitter that is sandwiched between a few layer of a jelly polish.

What is a jelly polish, you ask? Thank you for asking. A jelly polish is a sheer, colored polish that generally looks like a Jolly Rancher when it dries on your nail – colored, but still see-through and really shiny. The appearance of wet jelly polish always reminds me of the paint you used to paint those plastic faux stained glass sun-catcher things as a kid. Do you know what I’m talking about?

Sometimes polish brands will release a collection of jellies, but I think most lines of polish have a few jellies in the mix already. Sometimes you can tell a polish is a jelly just by looking at it in the bottle, but the best way to tell is to open up the bottle and look at the polish on the brush and around the neck of the bottle. If you can see through it easily, you’ve got a jelly. If you can just sort of see through it, you may have a “crelly” on your hands.

A crelly is somewhere between a cream polish and a jelly. (I feel like it’s a dumb word, and I avoid using it if possible, but really, there’s no other word to describe polishes like this.) Have you seen those glitter polishes that are in a light colored, milky sort of base? That’s a crelly base. Crellies work well for jelly sandwiches too.

Here is the first jelly sandwich I ever attempted:

Eh, it turned out okay. I didn’t love it. This was with a sheer nude polish from Avon called Barely There that I’ve had forever. I would call this one a crelly. The glitter polish I used is Fantasm from Valley Girl Lacquer. (Valley Girl Lacquer is an indie polish company. Check out their etsy shop. They have some awesome glitter polishes!)

Just for reference, here’s what Fantasm looks like over black:

you can definitely see how when you sandwich the glitter between the layers of “jelly” how it mutes the glitter effect.

Here’s another jelly sandwich that I did using Fantasm and a purple limited edition polish called Deception from Wet n Wild. I love this purple, and I’m sorry you can’t get it anymore.

I LOVED this manicure! Deception is so sheer that I think I used 2-3 coats of polish under the layer of glitter and then another 2-3 coats over the glitter, but gosh it was beautiful! The way the glitter reflected light through the polish made my heart so happy.

Here’s one final jelly sandwich:

This is using Wet n Wild Megalast Bubblegum Pop and China Glaze Glitter Up. (This Wet n Wild color is exclusive to Dollar General / Family Dollar as far as I know.) This one I medium liked. This pink is really fun but really… pink.

What are your thoughts about jelly sandwiches? What are your favorite jelly polishes?

It’s Not Exactly Polish, But You Might Need It Anyway

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Janelle

My usually part-time job is going to be closer to full-time this week, but I still plan to post things on my promised Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule. I apologize in advance if my posts end up being a little skimpy, though.

Today I thought I’d highlight a few of my favorite nail products that are not nail polish. Let’s start with these little guys:

These are nail wheels that I got at Sally Beauty Supply. I think they were around $7 for a pack of 10 wheels. These are great for several things.

I love to use these to practice nail art. They are a great way to organize your nail art ideas or recreations. I find that when I do other people’s nails, they come in really handy in helping people determine what they actually want done on their nails.

These wheels are also a great place to just simply try out your new polishes. Often when I get a new polish, I will wonder how it will look with a specific topper (glitter, iridescent top coat,…) over it, and this is a great way to test it out.

I also like this stuff:

This is a really nice cuticle oil that will last me a really long time and it was under $3 (I think). I like to use this after doing my nails, when the polish is dry or on days between polish jobs. It will really keep your cuticles from looking ragged and crusty. Truth be told, though, almost any oil that you have around the house will work just as well – olive, vegetable, … Lately, I’ve been using coconut oil on my hands and cuticles right before bed, so I haven’t been using my actual cuticle oil as much.

I use these little guys ALL the time:

The thing on the left is a cuticle pusher that I got at Sally Beauty Supply for like, $.69 or something really cheap. The red end is a softer plastic that is great for gently pushing back your cuticles. The other end is a tapered harder plastic which I end up using for all sorts of stuff, like scraping stubborn glitter off my nails during the polish removal process.

The little brush on the right is a $1 concealer brush from e.l.f. cosmetics. I dip it in acetone and use this to clean up any polish that accidentally gets on my skin after I do my nails. It works like a charm! Any brush with really stiff short bristles should work well as a clean-up brush. I know a lot of people use a Q-tip dipped in acetone to do their clean-up, but a little brush allows you to be so much more precise.

Make-up sponges!

I guess they are technically called “cosmetic wedges”, but there’s really make-up sponges. These are great for certain glitter application techniques (like the gold glitter here) as well as gradient or “ombre” looks (like I did on the blue fingers here). And they’re cheap. This bag of 32 sponges was under $3.

OK, I confess that I’m mostly including this last item because I just got it and I think it’s super cute:

It’s the Revlon Crazy Shine Nail Buffer! Isn’t that the cutest buffer you ever saw? And PA folks, it’s on sale at Giant this week for $1.09, regularly $3.09! Buffers are great for shining up your polish if it starts to dull after a few days. (Truthfully, I just usually slap on another layer of top coat, but if you don’t want to mess with that, a buffer is a great option.) Buffers are also a great way to shine up natural nails without any polish or chemicals, perfect for people in the medical field or any other job in which you can’t wear polish.

By husband (begrudgingly) let me buff his thumbnail:

It’s so shiny that it looks like it’s got a coat of clear polish on it!

OK, that’s it for today. As always, I love hearing your comments and ideas! Thanks for reading!

July Favorites

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Janelle

Happy August! I got really excited, probably irrationally excited, when I realized that July was over and I could do my first monthly favorites post. I’ve always enjoyed checking out other bloggers monthly favorites, and for some reason, I just get a huge kick out of being able to do my own.

So, here we go…

Wet n Wild – Tickled Pink

This is just the most beautiful baby pink. It looks so pretty with a tan. It’s the pink I used for this look. This is a polish that I’ve had for a year or so, but I just remembered this month how pretty it is!

Broadway Nails – Sour Apple

This is such a great neon green! The formula is a great and it only cost me $1! The only place I’ve see these sold is at Dollar General / Family Dollar stores. It’s the green I used here.

NYC – Amazon Green from the City Samba collection

This polish is actually a little lighter and greener than it looks in this pic. It’s got a lovely frosty finish and makes me feel like my nails are covered in mint chocolate chip ice cream, which of course is a good thing. I haven’t seen this in stores for a little while, so it might be tough to find. Sorry about that.

China Glaze – Turned Up Turquoise

This color is just do deep and rich! It’s also got a beautiful shimmer that I feel sometimes reflects blue, sometimes green. This polish was promoted as being a summer neon, but I think it’s also part of the permanent line, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding it. If you’re a sucker for turquoise polish, do yourself a favor and get this one asap.

NYC – Matte Me Crazy top coat.

I used this top coat for this aforementioned look and I was really happy with how it held up! I actually bumped one of my nails before it was completely dry, but this top coat sort of plumped back up and fixed itself so that you couldn’t even see where I had bumped it! Some matte finishes will start to get glossy after a few days, but this just held up really well.

Funky Fingers – Sand & Stilettos

I already gushed over this polish in my Five Below Haul, but I just can’t get enough of this polish! It’s just SO sparkly and SO holographic. I had it on my toes for a while and I just felt like they were covered in little diamonds when I was in the sun. I used this polish for the little dots on my thumb nail here.

Fresh Paint – Guava

This is the current color on my fingers. Pardon my nail growth. I just love this color so much that I’ve left it on for a whole week, and that’s saying something! This is the most beautiful neon peach / light coral, and it’s one of those neons that just sort of glows at dusk when you’re outside. It’s a dupe for China Glaze – Flip Flop Fantasy and way cheaper. I picked this color up in my Five Below Haul also. I love this color. I love it so much. I need to stop saying that.

So those were my July favorites! What polishes have you been loving so far this summer?

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