My Polish Collection

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Janelle

For the past few years I’ve had my polishes arranged by color. I have some dupes (and near dupes) and it just made sense to me to keep them next to each other on my nail polish rack. Recently, though, I started to think that it would look nice if the were organized by brand. Then all of the like bottles would be next to each other. Of course the first logical step in my reorganization was to dump all of my polishes onto my living room floor. And that’s what you see here in the above picture.

As I started to sort them, I decided to snap a picture of each brand, and here’s what I found…

I have a huge pile of Wet n Wild polishes. This was probably the first brand of polish I started to accumulate back in my youth. The bottles in the upper left with the white caps are OLD! I’ve got a good mix of permanent and limited edition polishes. They’re all between $1-$3, so it’s kind of a no-brainer to grab an awesome Wet n Wild polish when I see it.

I have a lot of Sinful Colors. I mean, they’re so readily available and there’s only $1.99. They are always on top of color trends. Really, what’s not to love?

Here’s my little Revlon pile. My favorite is on the left: Matte Pearl Glaze. It’s an awesome transformative topcoat for pretty much any polish.

My L’Oreals. Yes, that’s Masked Affair on the left.

My Orly polishes. I really like Orly a lot! Most of the polishes I have are neons or crazy toppers. I think of them as summer polishes.

Look at my sad little Essie collection! Three Silk Watercolors and one other one. I just tend not to splurge on Essie because I hear too many bad things about the formulas. If I can get a great formula in a $2 Wet n Wild, I just don’t want to risk getting a bad formula from a $7 Essie.

And these are my OPI polishes. The only one that I have ever paid full price for was Charmy & Sugar (third polish in the top row). The rest were either given to me or found on clearance. It just pains me to pay $9 for a polish, and they are always exempt from sales and coupons it seems. That makes me grumpy.

Nicole by OPI: OPI’s less snobby sister. The two Modern Family polishes are really stunners!

Fresh paint is available exclusively at Five Below. They tend to be thicker in formula and they’re great for water marbling and stamping. They have such awesome colors! The third polish in the top row is Sugar Crush and it’s a dupe for Essie – Shine of the Times. If I ever see this polish again in a five Below, I am buying a BUNCH of bottles.

Speaking of Five Below, that’s where you also find Funky Fingers. Okay, these polishes are sort of juvenile, but they have such fun bright colors and crazy glitter mixes! Plus, they’re only $2 or 3 for $5!

LA Colors polishes tend to be disappointing. If you’re going to spend $1 on polish, just get a Wet n Wild or a NYC. The only exception is the one in the upper left which is a lilac crelly with a bunch of glitter. It’s tough to find those in mainstream polishes.

I picked up these Finger Paints at Sally Beauty Supply. So sparkly!

The only place that sells Pure Ice that I know of, is Walmart, and I just don’t end up in Walmart that often. If I did, I would probably own more of these.

Broadway Nails are found in either Dollar General or Family Dollar. I swear I can never remember. My favorites are Space Flight (third polish in the top row), an deep blue jelly, and Hot n Sexy (bottom left), which is a dupe for China Glaze – Ruby Pumps.

I first discovered Bonita polish in Francesca’s about 5 years ago when I bought the little bottles. I now usually find them in Rite Aid or Kmart. So affordable and so beautiful! (I’ve actually bought 3 more since I took this picture.)

Yes, I only have two Zoya, both found on clearance at Ulta. They’re both great, though, and I definitely want to add to these!

I’m not sure why I don’t own more Jordana. They have such vibrant colors, and great formulas, and they’re only $2. I need more of these.

I’m a sucker for NYC polishes. Good formula, good colors, really good price. The pink on the bottom right is OLD.

I only own two Milani. The one on the right is a good 10 years old, but I still love it! The one on the left was the first black and white matte glitter polish that I ever saw, and the first time I saw it, my brain almost exploded.

I picked this Nina polish up at Sally awhile ago. The green is less awesome than I thought it was going to be. I bought the blue while I was on the hunt for the most pure and pigmented blue that I could find.

I own three Ulta polishes and they are all in different bottles. What’s up with that? The blue is really beautiful, though.

Spoiled by Wet n Wild used to be available exclusively at CVS. They’ve been discontinued, but most (if not all) of these colors are in the Wet n Wild Megalast bottles and are sold exclusively at Dollar General/Family Dollar. I was sad to see this line of polishes leave CVS, though.

I have a good pile of China Glaze. Most of these were purchased on clearance or on really good sales at either Sally or Ulta. Man, I love so many of these!

Does anyone remember Petites? These polishes are a solid 10 years old. I went through a phase where I loved each of these polishes.

Anyone remember Bon Bons either? Are these still around? Seriously, each bottle has like, four drops of polish in it.

Speaking of teeny tiny bottles, these are Sally Beauty Supply’s brand called Sally Girl. Pretty nice little polishes, actually.

We here in ‘Murica can’t get Joe Fresh polishes, so I picked these up a year or so ago when I was in Canada. Great little polishes! I’m definitely picking up more then next time I visit our neighbors to the north, assuming that they don’t build a wall to keep us out if Trump is elected.

Sally Hansen sure likes their different bottle shapes and various lines, huh? The first three polishes in the top row are OLD. I know for sure I got the teal one in the top left corner when I was in college. I graduated 16 years ago.

I picked up this little pile of polishes when I was in London last year. The one on the left is Seventeen, the next two are Barry M, and the two on the right are Rimmel. I like them all, but I love the Barry M polishes. If/when I get back over there, I’m nabbing more of these!

These polishes are from Old Navy. “Why would anyone buy polish at Old Navy,” you ask? I don’t know either. The metallic pink and gold are both pretty good, though.

These polishes are from Gap. Obviously I’m a sucker for polish, if I bought some from the Gap.

I got these LA Girl Color Pop polishes at Rite Aid. The neon pink on the right is my favorite neon pick of all time.

CQ2 polishes? Yeah, I don’t know either. They’re old.

Mary Kay polish. The one on the left is good as a base for French manicures or negative space manis.

Playboy Polishes…. How and why? It’s a long weird story.

I have two Color Club stripers, but only one color club regular polish! I know, that’s sad! I’m gonna fix that.

This pile of Kiss stuff was given to me. It’s okay, I guess.

Bath and Body Works polishes. I know, it’s just as weird as Old Navy and Gap. Aren’t the little bottles on the right so cute though? These are actually nice polishes, albeit old.

My only two Nails Inc polishes are magnetic and were found in a clearance bin at Marshalls/TJ Maxx/Ross. Those stores are all the same to me.

These Del Sol Polishes change color in the sun, or at least they used to. They are about 5 years old and only about half of them change color anymore. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

This tiny pile is all the indie polishes that I own! I know, it’s sad! I will definitely be adding to this pile over the next year.

These are all of my one-of-a-kind or weirdo polishes. I just threw them all into their own pile.

These are all of my Frankenpolishes. In other words, I mixed up these polish colors on my own…. Mwahahaha!

Here is my pile of empty bottles waiting for some Frankenpolish to happen to them.

And here’s my pile of base and top coats.

Here’s my whole collection after I got them all organized! Aren’t they so pretty?

And now all of my friends and family know exactly what I have in case they need to do some borrowing. I really don’t mind, though. Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments about your collection!

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!

Pretty, Ugly-Pretty, or Just Ugly?

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Janelle

Hi! I’m back! Where have I been, you may or may not ask? Well, my hubby and I took a two week trip to London for our 10th anniversary, and it was awesome! It’s a big city, so I can’t claim that we saw everything there is to see, but we did visit a ton of great places. In a nutshell, we tackled to varying degrees: the London Eye, Tower of London, The Tower Bridge Exhibition, Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, Wimbledon, Notting Hill, the British Museum, Les Miserables, Buckingham Palace, Abbey Road, the British Library, Kensington Palace, Hyde Park, Speaker’s Corner, double-decker buses, a river tour, Greenwich, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street, Harrods, All Souls Church, the Tube, Big Ben, lots of pubs, lots of tea and scones, and lots of other stuff. We got out of London for a day and visited Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, Bath and Lacock. We had awesome weather, we learned tons of stuff, and just really had a super great time! So, that’s where I’ve been. Now back to nails….

This time of year, all of the nail people start talking about ugly-pretty colors. These are colors that look like that could have been inspired by something gross you encountered in the bathroom after a night of bad choices. To put it frankly, most of the colors that are described as ugly-pretty look like they could either be poo or puke. Or maybe they are just colors that are inspired by nature at this time of year. I mean, the grass is browninsh green, the leaves are all shades of green/brown/yellow/orange. Maybe that’s it.

All of the ugly-pretty talk on youtube and instagram put me in the mood to do a full manicure of an ugly-pretty polish that had been sitting on my shelf for awhile. It’s China Glaze – Budding Romance from the Avant Garden collection that came out in the spring of 2013. I picked this one up on clearance for super cheap a year or so ago. At the time I bought it, I definitely thought it was ugly, but #1. It was really cheap, and #2. I didn’t have any other color like it. I’ve used it in nail art a time or two, but I’d never done a full mani of this. I figured it was time, and what the heck?

You know what I found? I actually liked how this color looks on me! Generally warmer tones don’t work well on my fair pink skin, but I actually liked how this worked with my skin tone. And it was just so shiny! Plus, it’s pretty much the same color as olives, and I LOVE olives!

My hubby, on the other hand, didn’t love it. When I asked him his opinion, he furrowed his brow and declared it to be not one of his favorites. Fortunately, it’s just nail polish and I change it frequently, so it did no permanent damage to our relationship. I should add that he also hates olives.

So, what’s your opinion of nail polish in gross shades of green, yellow, or brown? Do you have any favorite ugly-pretty polishes? Or do you just prefer to stick with pretty-pretty polishes?

August Nails

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Janelle

In August I was a bit of a slacker in the nail art department. I ended up wearing a lot of neon polish,. I was feeling that summer-is-coming-to-and-end crunch, and I felt like I needed to squeeze in as much obnoxiously bright polish as possible.

I found a little bottle of China Glaze – Celtic Sun for $2.49 at Sally Beauty Supply, so I finally added this one to my collection. Although I have a few neon yellows, this is truly the brightest of the bunch. This polish will definitely get you noticed, if that’s your goal.

I enjoyed adding some shimmery toppers to my neon polish, too. Here is an unnamed Sally Girl light neon pink that is really similar to China Glaze – Shocking Pink topped with Valley Girl Lacquer – Profundity. I opted for a matte top coat, too.

Valley Girl Lacquer is an indie polish shop on Etsy. She’s got some really cute polishes. Check out her shop! (By the way, I don’t have any relationship with Valley Girl Lacquer; I was just given some of her polishes as a Christmas gift by my sis.)

Here is Orly – Fireball topped with Valley Girl Lacquer – Enigma. Fireball is a beautiful neon red with a blue shimmer in it. Unfortunately, the blue shimmer didn’t really show up on the nail as well as it did in the bottle. Fortunately, I had Enigma on hand, so I added my own shimmer!

I also had some fun with glitter in August. Here’s a gradient I did using LA Girl Color Pop – Rebel over my natural nail. I’ve only ever seen the LA Girl Color Pop polishes at Rite Aid, and they are pretty inexpensive. They are often on sale for two for $4.

While I was wearing this glitter gradient, I was given two of the Essie Silk Watercolor polishes. Since I was pretty much dreading removing this glitter, I opted to make it last a little longer by topping it with the Essie polishes. The purple color is No Shrinking Violet and the teal is Pen and Inky. So fun and shiny and squishy!

I did actually do one bit of legitimate nail art in August. After all of the bright colors, I felt I needed something a little more subdued, and it had been ages since I had done some simple, classic leopard print nails. Leopard print is really so easy and takes very little skill. After applying my base color, I just used the brush of the metalic-y bronze-y brown polish to make my spots. Then I used a little dotting tool to quasi outline the spots in black. (A toothpick would work just fine for this step.) Then I filled in any extra spaces with black dots or “C” shapes. It looks way more complicated than it actually is.

Just a little aside: This pattern is sometimes referred to as cheetah print, but if you look at actual cheetahs, you’ll notice that they just have regular black spots. Leopards are the ones who have this circular type pattern.

So, that’s what happened on my nails in August! My next post is going to be non-nail stuff. Through influenster.com, I was sent some products to review, so I’ll be covering those items next.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering… I’m not tackling the 31 Day Challenge this September. I just knew that with some of the other things in life that I have coming up this month, I wouldn’t be able to do it justice. I love checking out what other nail art lovers are doing for #31dc2015, and I’m a little sad not to be joining in. Maybe next year.

Thanks for reading!

April Favorites

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Janelle

So, before it’s ancient history, here are my April Favorites. Let’s start on the left….

First up we have Bonita – Made to Envy. It had been ages since I had purchased a Bonita Polish. I used to buy them on occasion at Francesca’s when they used to carry them. That was maybe 4 or 5 years ago. Within the past year or so, I’ve noticed little Bonita displays in Kmart and Rite Aid. I’ve seen at least 3 different bottle shapes, which is sort of unique for a nail polish line. Anyway, I had been eying Made to Envy for a few months. I’m a real sucker for teal polishes. I have a good half a dozen shimmery teal polishes, so I had been telling myself that I didn’t need this one, too. I can’t remember exactly how or why or when I finally caved and bought this, but am I glad I did! the thing that makes it unique to my collections is that it is a one-coater! And the color is just so rich and beautiful! And it’s only $2.49, so I’d definitely recommend picking this baby up, if you can.

Just for comparison, here on the left is NYC – Precious Peacock. Although it looks much more green in this picture than Made to Envy, they really are super close in color in real life. This is four coats of Precious Peacock. Four coats. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Back to Made to Envy… It’s just so pretty. Sometimes I just hold this polish and stare at it lovingly. P.S. My hubby really likes this one.

Next we have NYC Prospect Park Bloom. After wearing a lot of bright polishes, I was craving something neutral. This one was in my untried stash. This polish is pretty sheer, so I think this took 3 coats. I just love how shiny it is and how soft the color is! Neutral colors like this are really forgiving if your application isn’t perfect. Heck, there could be all sorts of polish gunked on my cuticles, but you wouldn’t even be able to tell. The best thing about colors like this is you really can’t tell when they start to wear or chip a little. I’m not sure how this polish would look on someone with darker or more olive-toned skin, but if you are a bit on the pasty white side like me, this will work well for you.

Next is Fresh Paint – Honeydew. Really, I’m kind of embarrassed to even put this polish in my favorites. This was in both my February and March favorites. When I’m looking to pick out my Monthly Favorites, I don’t really look at (or remember) what polishes I picked the month before. I just look back through my instagram account for the past month and pick out the polishes that I really liked and/or used a lot. Apparently, I’ve been fixated on this polish for at least 3 months. I specifically picked it as an April favorite because I used it for both of my Easter manis. This polish is one of those neon pastel type colors that is all the rage these days. I realize that this polish is exclusive to Five Below, which is not really convenient for lots of you. Sorry about that.

Next up is NYC – Sidewalkers. This is just a plain old grey polish. (I like “grey” better than “gray”. I feel like the spelling with an “e” just looks nicer.) Anyway, I went through a phase 3 or 4 years ago where I wore this polish all the time, but in recent months, it’s just been sitting on my shelf, unloved. I pulled it out to use as a base for my pastel ikat nails for a nail art challenge (#wnac2015) on instagram. It made me remember how much I like this polish! It’s such a pretty cool-toned polish that works well for pale people. I’m sorry if I’m not much help to you darker skinned people. Maybe I should just do a post on the colors that look awful on my, assuming that would mean they would look good on darker people. Not sure if that’s solid logic or not. P.S. My hubby does not like this color.

My final polish China Glaze – Sun of a Peach. That name just cracks me up! I used this polish in one of my Easter manicures, and it was just so bright and pretty! In general, I can’t really pull of orange, but this shade is one shade in the orange family that I can actually wear pretty well on my nails. I had been wanting this polish for a while, and I found a little mini bottle at Sally Beauty Supply for like, $1.29 or something, so I couldn’t really turn that down. Mini bottles are just the best, aren’t they? I mean, they don’t cost as much as a full size bottle, they don’t take up much room on my nail rack, and really, it’s a rarity that I finish a full size bottle of nail polish anyway.

So, that’s that. Thanks for reading! Seriously, I appreciate all of your comments and “likes”.

February Favorites

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Janelle

I figure that if I get my monthly favorites posted within the first two weeks of the following month, they are not completely irrelevant yet. That’s my logic and I’m sticking to it.

The last few months have been extra super busy for me because of my work schedule, and I am itching for life to settle down so that I can get back to posting regularly. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel, as I’ve been told my work schedule will go back to normal in a few week. Yay!

I did manage to come up with some favorites for the month of February. And I thought the would look nice in a star formation. Lets start at 12:00 and go clockwise….

At noon we have Wet n Wild Fergie – Going Platinum. This polish, is amazing! It’s a foil finish, so it has a little more sparkle that just a straight metallic polish. Also, metallic polishes tend to show brush strokes, but this doesn’t at all. It’s opaque in two easy coats.

Really, this is just a great polish. All of the stuff I just said also goes for Wet n Wild Fergie – Gold Album. Gold album has the exact same formula and finish. It’s just gold instead of platinum. (That last sentence was probably unnecessary.) Plus, they are only $3 per bottle! I don’t love all of the Wet n Wild Fergie polishes, but Going Platinum and Gold album are definite winners.

At 2:30 we have China Glaze – Thistle Do Nicely. This is from the 2014 spring collection, so it’ll be tough to find in stores. This is not a shockingly unique polish or anything. It’s just a really pretty neon coral. And while it’s not an eye-searing neon, it does do that cool thing where it looks like it’s glowing when the light is a little dim, like at dusk. With the brutal February we had in PA (and pretty much every other state east of the Rockies) I was itching for something that felt like springtime. This is a polish that just makes you feel happy inside when you wear it.

In this picture, I topped it with an shredded iridescent glitter which looks flaky-like. I added a matte top coat for extra fun.

At 5:00, is Fresh Paint – Honeydew. This polish is a lovely light minty, springtime-y cream polish. The formula is a tad on the thick side, but it’s almost a one-coater. One of the reasons that I’m really loving this polish right now is because it works well for water marbling. Someone on instagram (I can’t remember who, so I’m a little sad that I can’t give that instagramer proper credit) said that she had good success water marbling with Fresh Paint cream polishes, including Honeydew. Well, that gave me the inspiration I needed to take another stab at water marbling… She was right! I tested several fresh paint polishes and they all spread beautifully in the water and were easy to manipulate. I’m so happy about that! I hate using expensive polishes for water marbling, because I feel like so much is wasted. Fresh Paint polishes are always 3 for $5 at Five Below, so… that’s awesome.

At 7:30 we have LA Colors – Candy Sprinkles. This is such a fun polish! It’s a rarity for a cheapo line of polish to have a crelly polish with awesome glitter like this. I had been eyeballing this one for a little while before I finally picked it up. This polish is sort of versatile, too. You can do 2 or 3 coats of the polish on its own if you want a really dense glitter look, or you can just do one coat over pink or purple polish if you like your polish a little more sparse. Very fun, and totally worth the $1.5Pictured is two coats of Candy Sprinkles over one coat of a pinky-lavender polish.

At 10:00, we have this beauty. Such a classic. Sally Hansen – Pacific Blue original formula. And this picture is one coat. I know, it’s amazing. The nail polish world mourned when Sally Hansen reformulated this polish last summer, but I still see the occasional bottle of the original formulaon the shelf in drugstores. Really, I just saw one at the Rite Aid in Middletown, PA like, four hours ago. The new formula is a darker blue with a shimmer running through it. The original is just this perfect cream color. They both say “420 Pacific Blue” on the cap. Stupid, sneaky Sally Hansen, thinking we wouldn’t notice.

So, those are my February favorites. Do you have any of these polishes? What have you been loving lately? Thanks for reading, following, and liking both here and on instagram. You people are the greatest!

January Favorites

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Janelle

Yes, I’m finally getting around to posting my January Favorites. What had been a part-time desk job is now an almost full-time manual labor job. (I had been working customer service for an online store, but we are in the middle of moving our warehouse, so I’m spending a ton of hours schlepping heaving boxes around.) This has left me with less free time for blogging, and the free time I do have is now spent soaking in the bathtub attempting to recover. Anyway, onto my January favorites…

In the dead of winter, I find that I tend to get stuck in a blue/aqua/turquoise/teal rut with my nails…. Confession time: I don’t really know the difference between aqua, teal, and turquoise. Does anyone really? I tend to think of turquoise as leaning more green, but the actual turquoise stone really isn’t green at all. I would actually describe a turquoise stone as being aqua in color. There’s proof that I don’t know the difference.

Anyway, one of the polishes in this color family that I’ve been loving is China Glaze – Capacity to See Beyond from the Giver collection.

I found the entire Giver collections on clearance at Sally Beauty supply! I didn’t actually buy the whole collection – just 3 – but I found the whole collection. Anyway, this polish is just the prettiest cool blue color! If Elsa painted her nails, it would be with this color.

Another beautiful polish from the Giver collection is Community.

This is a lovely milk chocolate brown. Just for comparison, here it is next to NYC – Royal Chic. Royal Chic (left) reminds me of Hershey’s syrup. Community (right) is milk chocolate. I think about chocolate too much.

I paired Community here with another January favorite: Sinful Colors – Love Sprinkles, a pale pink glitter with white hearts.

I was going for a chocolate candy look here. Love Sprinkles is a limited edition polish for Valentine’s day. I’ve seen it around at quite a few stores, so you should be able to track this one down pretty easily, if you want.

I also loved using Broadway Nails – Space Flight in January.

I know, I can’t list this polish as my favorite every month, but it’s just such a pretty blue jelly! This look took a little bit of “frankenjelly-ing”.

Another favorite from January is Funky Fingers – Olaf.

This is white glitter polish is perfect for jelly sandwiches! There are some snowflake shaped glitters in there, but they are easy to avoid, so I think I will get year-round use out of this.

Also from Funky Fingers is Bezerk Turq.

Based on the name, someone somewhere considers this turquoise. I’d call it aqua. Anyway, this polish is so bright that I almost want to say it’s neon. I love that it’s super bright, but still appropriate for winter. Just to show you how bright it is, here is my turquoise/aqua/teal nail wheel. Bezerk Turq is at 12:00. It’s definitely the brightest on the wheel.

My final favorite of the month is….(drum roll, please)…. The much sought after and highly coveted L’Oreal – Masked Affair. In the bottle it just doesn’t look like much, but when it’s on your nails… Be still my heart.

This is a barely purple holographic polish. Next to purple polish, it looks silver. Next to silver polish, it looks lavender. I found this polish at a Rite Aid, but I really felt like I couldn’t justify purchasing it. Lucky for me, my birthday is in January. I made the following deal with my hubby: I buy the polish and then give it to him. Then on my birthday, he gives it back to me as a birthday gift. So that’s what we did.

So, those are my January Favorites! I’ve got some Valentine’s Day manis that I will definitely be posting this week, I promise! Thanks for reading, and find me on instagram for even more nail polish fun!

My 14 Favorite Polishes of 2014

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Janelle

It seems like pretty much every blogger and YouTuber has listed their 14 favorites from 2014. I’m totally jumping on that bandwagon. This was tough, but I did it. There were a few polishes that it pained me to leave out, but I finally narrowed it down to the 14 polishes that I just couldn’t stop reaching for last year. Here they are:

Aren’t they so pretty?

Starting in the upper left corner we have Funky Finger – Sand & Stilettos.

This is just the best sparkly polish ever. It’s available exclusively at 5 Below. I’ve seen it at my local 5 Below within the past few weeks, so you can still grab this stunner for yourself for a mere $2.

Next, also available exclusively from 5 Below is Fresh Paint – Guava. Fabulous color, fabulous formula. A must-have for summer. Here it is paired with Sand & Stillettos:

It’s just the perfect neon peachy color, and a perfect dupe for China Glaze – Flip Flop Fantasy. I just couldn’t get enough of this color over the summer.

Next, we have one more 5 Below polish: Fresh Paint – Sugar Crush. This is the first true flaky polish that I’ve ever owned.

This polish is a show-stopper over any dark color. It’s mind blowing over black, teal, or dark purple, and I don’t know if I love it better shiny or matte. You just can’t go wrong with this one. I’m not sure if you can still find this at 5 Below or not, but if you see it there. GRAB IT!

Next, I loved China Glaze – Turned Up Turquoise.

The intense color and the shimmer make me swoon! I don’t have a picture of it with a shiny top coat, but when you do put a shiny top coat on, the shimmer really pops. Such a perfect color!

Yes, I’m a sucker for turquoise. Next is Jordana – Boy Oh Boy.

It almost looks green in the middle picture, but it’s not. It’s a deep, beautiful turquoise. And the formula on this baby is wonderful! Almost a one coater!

Next we have Ulta – Joined at the Hippo.

This is one of my more recent favorites. Actually, I just talked about this polish in my December Favorites. It’s got a great formula, and while it is a really deep blue, it never looks black. Just a beautiful polish!

Then there’s Broadway Nails – Space Flight, a really deep blue jelly.

I’ve actually got this on my nails right now, as you’ll see in a post later this week. This is an amazingly beautiful polish and it only costs $1! You can find this at Dollar General.

Now we come to the first indie polish that I ever owned: Valley Girl Lacquer – Fantasm.

Even in a really ugly jelly sandwich , I still love this polish:

This was my first exposure to the super huge round glitters that are pretty common in indie polishes and they really blew my mind when I first used them. Heck, they still blow my mind!

Next is Wet n Wild – Deception. This was my first really great jelly polish.

This was in a limited edition collection from the spring, so I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to find this anywhere and I’m very sorry about that. I’ve used about 1/4 of this bottle already, and I’m going to be heartbroken when it’s gone.This polish takes 5 or 6 coats to get that perfect jelly look, but it’s so worth it!

Next is China Glaze – Peonies & Park Ave from the 2014 spring collection.

This almost neon pink really doesn’t seem like anything special, but it’s the pink that I reached for repeatedly back in the summer. I feel like it works well with my fair skin.

Next is a polish that I’ve talked about so many times: Wet n Wild Fergie – Gold Album.

This is the best gold polish that I’ve ever used! I love the stuff! It’s perfect and beautiful every time.

Next is Broadway Nails – Hot & Sexy. This is a dupe for China Glaze – Ruby Pumps.

So beautiful and red and sparkly! I stare at my nails a lot when I’m wearing this! Also available at Dollar General for $1.

Now we have the polish that I loved the most in the fall. NYC – Royal Chic. This was from a limited edition collection, but really, there are lots of great browns out there.

Sadly, these pictures really don’t capture the chocolaty brown goodness that is this polish. It’s just so pretty and rich looking on the nail.

Last, but certainly not least is Polish me Silly – Tealing no lies. This is my first indie holographic polish, and wow, it’s amazing.

I just got this guy for Christmas, so I’ve only worn it once so far, but I pretty much couldn’t stop staring at my nails while it was on. And I forced my husband to admire my nails so many times while I was wearing this. It’s really, really amazing, especially in the sun.

So that’s it! My 14 favorite polishes of the past year! Thanks for reading! What were some of your favorite polishes in 2014? I’d love to know!

Frosty Blue Nails

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Janelle

Here’s a quickie tutorial that requires minimal skill. Those are the best kind of tutorials, right?

I started off painting my nails with China Glaze – Capacity to See Beyond from the Giver collection.

I was able to find the complete Giver collection on clearance at Sally Beauty Supply! I didn’t buy the whole collection – only three – but I FOUND the whole collection! I had had my eye on this polish in particular, but I just can’t bring myself to spend full price on polishes that are over like, $4. This one really is a beauty, though!

After letting the base color dry really well, I cut some little round labels that I had into quarters and applied them to my nails.

These little stickers are the same size and the reenforcer stickers and you can get these pretty much at any office supply store. I like cutting them into quarters for two reasons. 1. I’m frugal, and if I can get four nails covered with one sticker, I’m gonna do it. And 2. I think it’s a lot easier to get a good, tight seal between the sticker and your nail along the sides of your nail when you are working with a smaller piece of sticker.

For this look, I put the curved edge of the sticker right across the middle of my nail, but you can use these same stickers for either a half moon mani or a french mani, depending on your placement of the stickers.

Next I painted the top half of my nails with L’Oreal – The True Diamond, which is a shimmery white top coat. I’m pretty sure this is not available any more, but a silver glitter topper would work really well, too. Then before the polish could dry, I peeled the stickers off really carefully with tweezers, and I was left with this:

I wanted to add a little something, so I took my tiny brush and Wet n Wild Fergie – Going Platnum and added a little line where the polishes meet. Really, though, if you don’t have a tiny brush or you don’t trust your hand to be steady enough, you can skip this part.

I got my little brush at Michael’s with a coupon, so it only cost about $3. I love it!

Here’s the final result:

Cute and simple and perfect for these frosty months! Thanks for reading!

September Favorites

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Janelle

Doing the 31 day challenge in September led me to use a lot of polishes in my collection that I either had never used much before or had sort of forgotten about. And because I did my nails every single stinking day of September, my list of favorites for the month was really long! As I put all of my favorites in a pile, I had 4 or 5 polishes that were in limited edition collections that are pretty tough to find now. I pulled them out of the pile, because I thought it would be pretty mean to be like, “Oh, this is the most awesome polish ever! You can’t get it anywhere, though. Sorry about your luck.”

So here’s the pile of my favorites:

They are left to right, starting with the top row: Wet n Wild – I Need a Refresh-Mint, NYC – High Line Green, Sinful Colors – Cinderella, Orly – Tropical Pop, Broadway Nails – Space Flight, Wet n Wild – Bubblegum Pop, Jordana – Boy Oh Boy.

I’m going to start with Orly – Tropical Pop. This one kind of breaks my own rule because it was part of the Baked summer 2014 collection. I still think you will be able to find this with a little bit of searching, though. I used this orange as my base color for my Day 2: Orange Nails. This color is such a fun, light neon orange. It seemed a little shockingly bright at first, but it really grew on my as I wore it.

NYC – High Line Green is one of the very few polishes that I bought for a specific day of the challenge. I used this color as the base for my Day 4: Green Nails. It is just the prettiest “ugly” green! I loved this color so much on its own that I was a little sad to cover it up with the camo pattern. It’s a fun green for springtime, but I’m definitely going to wear in here in the fall, too.

The name of this next polish was actually the inspiration for my Fairy Godmother nails for Day 5: Blue Nails. Sinful Colors – Cinderella has this beautiful pinkish-gold micro shimmer that just makes my heart skip a beat. It is SO BEAUTIFUL in the sun! Love it!

Nails – Space Flight is a dark blue jelly polish that bought back in the summer. It seemed to dark to use then, but once September rolled around, it finally seemed appropriate. I used it for both Day 17: Glitter and Day 18:Half Moons even though they were back to back days. My creativity was waning a little at that point, and I was more interested in just using a particular polish that coming up with some ground-breaking design. I can’t wait to use this for some more jelly sandwiches in the future! I’ve only ever seen this line of polish at old exclusively at Dollar General and Family Dollar stores. They are generally in these stand-alone displays that are like big, tiered clear plastic bowls.

Wet n Wild – Bubblegum Pop is a cool pink color. Cool as in “it leans blue”, not cool as in “awesome”. Actually, it is a little bit awesome. I used this polish for my Day 20: Water Marble. This polish actually marbled beautifully with Sally Hansen – Pacific Blue (original formula). It made the whole process much less painful than I had anticipated. Although the Wet n Wild Megalast line is available at most grocery stores and drug stores, this color (along with another 15 colors or so) are also sold exclusively at Dollar General and Family Dollar stores. I know, that’s such a weird place to go for exclusive polishes.

Jordana – Boy Oh Boy is SO AMAZING! Sigh. It just makes my knees weak. It’s this perfect turquoise color, it’s pretty much a one-coat polish, and it’s SO shiny. Trust me, you need this polish in your life. I used this polish for Day: 12 Stripes and Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern. I know Jordana cosmetics are available at K-Mart. I’m not sure where else you can get them. I can tell you for sure that they are not available at Wal-Mart, Target, CVS, and Rite Aid stores, at least in south-central PA. Jordana also makes some really pretty glitter polishes, too.

Okay, the last polish in my favorites is Wet n Wild – I Need a Refresh-Mint. I used this polish as the base color for Day 15: Delicate Print and Day 23: Inspired by a Movie. I also used it as the light blue on my ring finger for Day 27: Inspired by Artwork, but you can barely see it on those nails. I’ve gotta say, I’m a sucker for this color. Exhibit A:

From left to right: Wet n Wild – I need a Refresh-Mint, Sinful Colors – Nice Stems, China Glaze – For Audrey.

I can usually justify owning similarly colored polishes, but even I can admit that nobody really needs all three of these. For Audrey is a tiny hair darker than the other two, and Nice Stems has a barely discernible shimmer, but really… They’re pretty much the same. All three polishes have a good formula that is opaque in 2 coats. The Wet n Wild Megalast polishes come with a wider brush, which I like, but I know some people don’t. You can pretty much get four Sinful Colors or Wet n Wild polishes for the cost of one China Glaze, so that sort of makes For Audrey totally not worth the price tag for me.

I have one last polish that I used pretty much every single day of the challenge: NYC – Grand Central Station.

This polish is under $2 and it dries so quickly and leave such a great shine! It’s just such a great quick-dry top coat for the price. It doesn’t do that shrinkage thing that Seche Vite does, although I do think Seche Vite is just a hair more shiny. I really can’t tell a difference in quality between NYC and Out the Door. I still have not tried the HK Girl top coat, but until I get around to trying that, I think I’m going to stick with this stuff. It’s just just a great value. I think I’m on my 3rd or 4th bottle. Can’t really remember.

That’s it for my September favorites! Have you used any of these polishes? What are your current favorites! I love getting your feed back here, on facebook, and on instagram. Thanks for reading!

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Tag Archives: China Glaze

My Polish Collection

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

Pretty, Ugly-Pretty, or Just Ugly?

August Nails

April Favorites

February Favorites

January Favorites

My 14 Favorite Polishes of 2014

Frosty Blue Nails

September Favorites

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