Mobile Shorty Post--Zoya Tomoko

Zoya 'Tomoko' is another lovely Pixie Dust textured polish. From Zoya's Web site: "Zoya PixieDust Nail Polish in Tomoko can be best described as a romantic champagne silver with a matte, textured, sparkling metal finish."

I loved everything about this polish. 

*I purchased this polish with my own money and received no compensation for posting about it.*

Shorty Post--Dance Legend Termo #182

I still haven't found the charger for my camera, so mediocre photos it is! This is another lovely polish from my Black Friday/Cyber Monday haul, this time purchased from llarowe.com. Below is two coats of Dance Legend Termo #182, topped with one coat of Poshe quick-dry top coat.

This is the first thermal polish that I have tried. I love it! It is magenta when warm and dark purple when cool. The change is quick and dramatic.

This polish dried to a wax finish, so it's the Poshe that is making it glossy. Warning: This polish stinks very badly. I didn't read the ingredients, but I'm sure from the smell that it's not 5-free or 3-free or anything of the sort. The formula was slightly thick.

I am excited to try the other thermal polishes made by Dance Legend that I bought.

Mobile Post--Darling Diva Caramel Martini

Argh! I can't find the charger for my camera at the moment. I still wanted to post this polish, so I apologize for the phone photo.

This is 'Caramel Martini', a white crelly with autumn colors of hex glitter in varying sizes and a little bit of bar glitter. I applied three coats over Orly Bonder base coat, and topped with Poshe quick-dry top coat.

I went polish crazy for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Part of my splurge was on Darling Diva polish. She had some polishes already on sale, and then offered a 30% off coupon code. The polish above was part of a mystery grab bag, which typically includes polishes that aren't listed for sale. 

Apologies

I haven't forgotten about my blog, but I haven't had time to take photographs and edit them. I've been working on an important project and my poor blog has had to/will have to take a back seat until the project is completed. It makes me a little sad, but what can you do? I will be back as soon as I can; I have so many more beauty products to share with you!

Emily de Molly Bright Young Things over Zoya Robyn

Emily de Molly is an Australian polish maker that has long since captured my heart, as you might have seen in a few previous posts. I was very happy to find Bright Young Things in a blog sale.
*All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me.*

While I'm not usually one to wear a polish the moment that I receive it (it's usually a strange, OCD, agonizing decision as to which one to wear), I put Bright Young Things on right away. 

I happened to be wearing the lovely Zoya Robyn at the time, so I just put the glitter topper Emily de Molly Bright Young Things over it. I used a quick-dry top coat of Poshe to smooth everything out, although the glitter did lie flat.

I loved this mani and wore it for a few days, which is a long time for me. It reminds me of the ocean and pretty saltwater fish. Next time, however, I will probably choose a different shade for the base so that the purple and turquoisey teal glitter can shine, too. (The purple did show up in real life, but hid from the camera. Silly purple; the camera could be friends with you if you'll let it.)

You can certainly purchase Emily de Molly polishes on Web sites like www.llarowe.com and www.shoppe-eclectic.co, but you might want to do a search for polish blog sales first, or try polishsale.livejournal.com for lower prices. The first sites that I mention seem to be good, but they sell out really fast and the price is more than I would usually pay. (It's expensive to make beauty products in Australia, I think, and I would guess it's not easy to import them, either.)

Yes, summer has put me in the mood for all sorts of brights! I will revel in the deeper colors of autumn soon, but I will enjoy the brights into September at least. I am not strict about seasonal colors, but the weather does affect the mood and the mood does affect the polish choices. September is surely part of summer in California.

Coastal Scents Creative Me 1 Palette--Swatches & Review

Coastal Scents is known for their eye shadow palettes, at least online. I've seen these palettes raved about, and I've seen them absolutely panned, no pun intended. They had a major sale in July (which they often do), plus I found a coupon code online, so I decided to try some for myself.  The first one that I'm sharing with you is their Creative Me 1 Palette.
*I purchased all of the products mentioned in this post with my own money.*

This palette called out to me because of it's vibrant shades, similar in feeling for me to the Sugarpill Burning Heart Palette ($34.00 for four shadows). The Creative Me 1 Palette regular retail price is $14.95 on the Coastal Scents Web site. I paid $9.72 and had free shipping at the time.

Isn't it pretty? The above photo is in the shade and below is in the sun. I did not, of course, expect the Sugarpill quality that I've seen online. However, I've read that Coastal Scents shadows are much like BHCosmetics in that they work really well as long as you use a good primer.

I've done arm swatches for you outdoors in partial sun, without any primer. I didn't do intense swipes, since I didn't want to oversell the pigmentation. I've done them in the same order that they appear in the palette.

As expected, not so pigmented without a primer. My whitey white skin does help the color to stand out, though. :) The texture felt fine to me; not buttery, but not chalky or too powdery. The yellows were awful, the pinks and purples were the best.

In the photo above and the closeup below, I played around with some of the purples and bright pinks over Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original, which is my personal favorite eye shadow primer. Hopefully you can see what I see, that the color pops quite a bit when used over primer. In fact, I had to try and used a very small amount of shadow so as not to overdo it.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase. I think the Creative Me 1 Palette is tons of fun for the price of one non-drugstore shadow. The price and quantity gives me the freedom to experiment with bold colors that otherwise might be too risky of an investment for me. I also appreciate that there is a mirror inside. I'm thinking maybe a sunset eye shadow look is in my future with this palette.

What do you think? Do you own any Coastal Scents palettes that are love, hate, or "meh"?

*I purchased all of the products mentioned in this post with my own money.*

Sally Hansen Insta-Gel Strips Starter Kit--Mini Review

I have been curious about these Gel Strips, but I didn't want to pay full price for them, as usual. So once they were on sale and I had two stackable coupons, I went for it. 
*I purchased this kit with my own money.*

Below is everything that comes with the kit: Nail file and cuticle pusher, gel top coat, two nail prep pads, LED lamp, two packs of color nail strips, power cord for the lamp, and instructions.

Everything was fairly easy to use. You can only do one nail at a time in the LED lamp, but it's not a big deal since it's only 30 seconds. The results were very pretty, as seen below.

This was not long-lasting for me at all, however. Good for a day or two at most.

*I purchased this kit with my own money.*

Literary Lacquers Nail Mail (Mostly Photos)

This was my first time ordering from Literary Lacquers. I have had my eye on them for a while, but was waiting for a sale. They had a 20% off coupon code not too long ago, so that was my opportunity. The transaction was easy, shipping was fast, and the polishes arrived in great shape with cute packaging. I have to admit, I am not a fan of the type of books that inspired these particular polishes, but the polishes themselves spoke to me.
*I purchased these products with my own money.*

Keep an eye out; I'll share with you swatches and reviews when I wear these. If you can already tell that you love Literary Lacquers, you can purchase them here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LiteraryLacquer. Regular price is $10.00 for a 15ml bottle. 

Shorty Post--Twiggie Calls Western Union

Just a quick nail of the day post here. Summer makes me want to wear all of my brightest polishes. The bright green here is two coats of Color Club Twiggie. The black and white glitter topper is Feenix Polish (sadly, out of business indie maker) Western Union. Top coat is Seche Vite.
*Products purchased by me.*

I've been wearing this craziness for a few days now, which is a really long time for a nail polish addict. 

Do you go for bright colors in the summer?

Don't Pay Retail Prices Part 3--Another TJ Maxx Haul

TJ Maxx is one of my go-to places for a sweet deal on nail polish. It is hit or miss, but their selection changes all the time. Recently, I found some Color Club and Orly goodies that caught my eye.
*Products in this post were purchased by me with my own money. There may be affiliate links.*

As you can see, the Poptastic set of Color Club polishes is so bright that my camera freaked out and couldn't come close to accurately capturing the colors. Always so difficult to photograph neons and super bright colors. In my opinion, the first four polishes are actual neons and the last three are just very bright. Individual Color Club polishes retail for about $8.00. This set costs $48.00 on Color Club's retail site. I paid $9.99. The included shades are, from left to right, Wham! Pow!, Almost Famous, Poptastic, Warhol, Pucci-licious, Twiggie, and Factory Girl. (I already have Pucci-licious, so I gave the one from this set to a friend. Mine is a lot more purple, whereas hers leans more blue.)

Once I found out that Orly was changing their bottle design, I kept an eye out at TJ Maxx for Orly polishes in the old bottle design, since I figured they would get cleared out at regular stores and salons. I much prefer the old bottle design. Orly's regular polishes retail for $8.50 on their site, and their special glitters retail for $10.00. I mostly bought special glitters. TJ Maxx had (and still has, last time I checked) sets of two called Perfect Pairs, for $6.99. The set pictured above is Go Deeper and Monster Mash.

The second set is Miss Conduct and Mermaid Tale. I was super excited to find Miss Conduct. I've seen gorgeous swatches of it online. She looks fairly pretty in the bottle, but on the nail all sorts of holographic goodness comes out.

The third set is Spazmatic and Holy Holo. I'll be interested to see how Holy Holo compares to Paris by Julep, another silvery holo glitter topper.

Total retail value: $106.50. Total paid (before tax): $30.96.

*Products in this post were purchased by me with my own money.*

Swatches--OPI Jinx

I adore this polish! A beauty supply store near my work had some OPI minis on sale for $2.50, so I picked up this little beauty, OPI Jinx. I love everything about Jinx, so I am going to glut this post with photos and say very little. Feast your eyes!
*I purchased this product with my own money.*

I only showed Jinx in these photos without top coat, as that's how the Liquid Sand polishes are designed to be worn. However, she does look lovely with top coat as well. The full size is available at drugstore.com for $9.00 at this time.

*I purchased this product with my own money.*

Swatches and Review--Essie Come Here

Essie Come Here is what I would describe as an electric coral red creme. Essie describes it as a 'nearly neon coral'. When I purchased it, CVS was having a weekly special in which they had four or five select Essie shades for 50% off. Irresistible!

*I purchased this product with my own money. I am not compensated by nor affiliated with any of the brands mentioned in this post.*

There was no lighting or camera trick in which I could capture how bright this shade is; it's not neon, but it is definitely electric.

I am quite enamored (BBC is on the television as I'm writing; is it influencing the words I choose?) with Come Here. The color is rich, intense, and happy. I applied two thin coats and one thick coat over a base coat that I can't remember now, and one coat of Seche Vite quick-dry top coat. I believe it would have applied best in two thick coats for some reason. 

If you like bright colors, you might want to check out Essie Come Here. The other shades in Essie's Resort 2013 Collection are quite bright as well. I bought all four of them, and I rarely buy an entire collection. 

*I purchased this product with my own money. I am not compensated by nor affiliated with any of the brands mentioned in this post.*