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.*

Shorty Post--Manicures with Friends Part 3: Amber's Tape Mani

Today's hand model is Amber. She is addicted to nail polish like I am. We were going to try to make her nails look like a flower that her boyfriend had seen and thought was cool, which was orange with a burst of purple in the center. My methods for that failed, so we kept the color theme, but went for a diagonal tape manicure. (Using regular office tape to make crisp lines between the two shades of polish.) I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Orange Impulse and Color Club Pucci-licious; top coat is Seche Vite.
*I purchased the nail polishes with my own money and I am not affiliated with nor compensated by any of the brands mentioned in this post.*

Review and Photos--Hit Polish 'Retro Chic'

When I am browsing Etsy.com looking at indie polishes, Hit Polish always catches my attention. After 'window shopping' for some time, I finally bought several of the polishes I had been drooling over, which I wrote about in my post Hit Polish Haul. One of those was a mini bottle of 'Retro Chic'.

Hit Polish describes the glitter in 'Retro Chic' as "fine pink, fine silver, fine cayman blue, matte aqua hex, small rose hex, medium rose hex, small aqua matte hex, small gunmetal hex and a touch of fine black and small black hex". The base is clear.

In these photos, I'm wearing two coats of 'Retro Chic' over yesterday's Color Club 'Status Update'. I liked the combination, although the fine black glitter gets a little lost because 'Status Update' is dark. The glitter didn't give any trouble, but I still topped it with two coats of Gelous for ultimate smoothness, and one coat of Orly Sec 'n' Dry top coat.

The clear base is somewhat thick, to keep the tons of glitter suspended, so Rachel mentions on their site that you can use nail polish thinner to change the consistency if you like. I found that the consistency made it easy to control, so I did not thin it at all. 

Again, I was at work when the sun was out, so I did not get photos of this mani in sunlight. Let me tell you, though, the sparkle in the sun is stunning!

Hit Polish, made by the husband and wife team Don and Rachel of D&R Apothecary, has awesome glitter toppers. Their tinted base polishes look great, too (especially Tea-Stained Linen; I want!), but I haven't tried them yet. Their full size polishes are typically $8.00, and the mini bottles (7ml) are typically $4.00, but they often have sales. You can purchase Hit Polish from their Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/DandRApothecary.

Thanks for reading! Do you have any favorite glitter toppers?

*I am not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned above and received no compensation from them.*

Review and Swatches--Color Club Status Update

'Status Update' is from the Birchbox and Color Club Custom Collection. The shade names in this collection are based on social media.

Birchbox sent out mini bottles of polish from this collection in their sample boxes last year. I received 'Put a Pin In It' (metallic rose gold foil) in my Birchbox, and I traded with other members on makeuptalk.com for the other two shades that I wanted, 'Status Update' and 'Insta-This' (bright blue creme).

'Status Update' is a dark grey creme with a glossy finish. Application was excellent for me, smooth and even. The opacity was good for me, but I also have shorter nails right now, so you might want a third coat if you have long nails.

I wore it with two coats over base coat, and one coat of Orly Sec 'n' Dry top coat.

I did get one chip in this manicure the next day, but other than that I was very happy with this polish. 

All of my photos of Color Club 'Status Update' are indoors under artificial light. Sunlight was not available to me this time around. Or, rather, I was not available for the sunlight, as I was at work when the sun was out. 

The full size bottles are available on the Birchbox online shop for $8.00: http://www.birchbox.com/shop/nails/color-club-custom-collection. You do not have to be a Birchbox subscriber to purchase from their shop, as far as I know.

Thanks for reading!

*I am not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned above and received no compensation from them.*

Don't Pay Retail Prices

Despite the title of my blog, I realize that cosmetics are a luxury. They are lovely, but they don't exactly fall under the categories of food, clothing, or shelter. I feel the need to be even more bargain-conscious with beauty items than other products. In my experience, the key to getting the most out of your money is patience. Below are some recent examples.

Color Club Glitter Vixen 7-bottle set

The above type of set, containing seven bottles of Color Club polish, is available on the Color Club website for $48.00: http://www.shopcolorclub.com/nail-polish-collections.html . As nail polish prices go, not too bad: under $7.00 a bottle. But I refuse to drop $48 in one shot on nail polish, even as addicted as I am. I purchased the above set at T.J. Maxx for $9.99. It is not rare for T.J. Maxx to have great nail polish bargains on brands like Essie, OPI, China Glaze, and of course, Color Club.

Butter London Sparkle, Sparkle glitter trio

The Butter London trio above (featuring 'Shambolic', 'Jack the Lad', and 'Scuppered') is valued at $42.00, based on their 2012 price of $14.00 per bottle of nail lacquer (price is $15.00 in 2013). They were selling the trio initially for $36.00 for the holidays. I was not going to spend that much. I was tempted, however, after the holidays when Butter London lowered the price to $25.00. I still resisted. Finally, last week I found the Sparkle, Sparkle collection above at Nordstrom Rack for...

Nordstrom Rack is fabulous for finding cosmetics at more reasonable prices. On my last trip there, I saw brands such as Anastasia, Urban Decay, Stila, NYX, Jane, and Benefit. I was loving the Urban Decay:

Urban Decay Deluxe Shadow Box

Urban Decay actually has this Deluxe Shadow Box on sale on their website for a great price of only $16.00 (original was $38.00). I paid a little bit more than that at Nordstrom Rack, as shown below, but that was totally okay for me, since I didn't have to pay shipping. Free shipping on the Urban Decay site is for orders of $50.00 or more.

 

Urban Decay Deluxe Shadow Box opened

DDF Brightening Cleanser is my favorite facial cleanser. I first tried it through a sample from Birchbox. Then, I received another sample through Sample Society. Since then, I have traded on makeuptalk.com for a few of the sample bottles. But, then, not long ago I found a full-size bottle at Marshalls: 

DDF Brightening Cleanser

On DDF's website, this cleanser retails for $39.00. Dermstore sells it for $35.00. I am not sure where Marshalls got the $24.00 price from for comparison, but I was definitely happier with the price I paid:

 

Most recently, I checked out my local Big Lots for bargains. I ended up with eight Revlon nail polishes. Revlon nail polish typically retails for $4.99, although Ulta and CVS will often have sales, such as 'Buy One, Get One 50% Off'. At Big Lots, however, these were being sold for $2.00 for a pack of two. (Please note that stock varies a lot by branch.) Here are the shades I bought:

Revlon 'Chic' and 'Royal'

Revlon 'Cloud' and 'Sheer Seafoam'

Revlon 'Saucy' and 'Gold Coast'

2 Bottles of Revlon 'Sparkle Aplenty'

Another great source of bargains are online coupon codes. Simply type the name of the brand you are looking for into your search engine, followed by the phrase 'coupon code' and you may find codes good for free shipping, gift with purchase, 20% off, or similar.

It takes more time and patience to hunt for sales and coupons, but it is completely worthwhile to me. 

What do you think? Do you search for the lowest prices, or is it too much work?

*I am not affiliated with any of the brands or stores mentioned in this post. All of these products were purchased with my own money.*

Play Date with Dots

One of my best friend's favorite nail polishes is Essie Play Date (their website shows it as one word, but my polish label shows it as two words). I finally got my own bottle when I had some Extra Bucks for CVS (their version of a rewards program). I find it to be a very unique shade in the purple family. It's like lavender if it were bright instead of soft and pale. Look at her beauty:

Essie Play Date in slightly overcast daylight

Essie describes Play Date as a 'flirtatious light purple'. The formula was smooth and easy. I did three thin coats, but you could get away with two.

I thought that Play Date would look great with some of the Color Club polishes that I bought recently. My dot gradient was inspired by Chalkboard Nails, especially this post: http://www.chalkboardnails.com/2012/10/blue-and-pink-gradient-dots-tutorial.html. (If you haven't already, check out her site; she's an amazing nail artist.)

I used the dotting tools in varying sizes that I bought in a Martha Stewart set from Michael's, the craft supply store.

The darkest purple is OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI? The periwinkle and rose dots are both Color Club, from their Spring 2012 Blossoming Collection. I bought these as part of a set at T.J. Maxx ($48 for seven polishes on Color Club's website; $9.99 at T.J. Maxx!). For some reason, they do not label the polishes with their shade names when they come in a set. But I am guessing based on online swatches that the periwinkle is Hydrangea Kiss and the rose is Sweet Pea.

I was very happy with how this turned out, especially for my first time with this style. I topped it off with Butter London Hardwear P.D. Quick Top Coat. (I didn't wait long enough before the top coat, apparently; some of the dots on the opposite hand smeared and it was sad.)

Thanks for looking, and thank you to Sarah from Chalkboard Nails for the inspiration!

*All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me with my own money, and I am not affiliated with or compensated by the brands.*