Saturday, January 28, 2012

Silver Icing Magnetic Polish

I put this on as soon as my mom had sent it to me. I was so excited for some magnetic polish! Like I explained in my nail mail post, magnetic polish is a polish that has small metal particles in it that when after you apply it to the nail you hold a special magnet over your nail it brings those particles to the top of the nail polish in a cool pattern. Who thinks of this stuff? I'll post a video from Soguesswhat11 on Youtube that shows you how to do it.

No name silver, Icing $9

View of magnet
When you use the magnet you place one of the little lips on you cuticle and hold it there for a few seconds to get the magnetic effect. Whatever you do, don't let the magnet touch your nail or you'll have to redo the polish (I accidentally did that about 5 times with my thumb). Icing was super smart and put two so you can change the pattern direction.

Now for super cool pictures!




This magnet had a straight stripe pattern. The blue one I got along with it has a wavy pattern which is also really cool. I'm loving this look! It reminds me of nail appliques. It's so interesting looking.

The formula was good, a little thicker than normal but ever so slightly. I was expecting that too because of the magnetic quality of the nail polish. Application of the polish itself was not bad, I use two coats in these pictures because I put on thin coats, but one thick coat could work also. There was one thing though that kept this polish from being perfect, in fact, it was a very disappointing feature...


Look at that monster of a brush! Ok so maybe not a monster, but it did make application a little more difficult. Still manageable though. Just make sure to check the brushes before you buy the polish, there are bottles out there with normal brushes (even though neither of mine are :P)

This polish wore really well. These pictures were taken 3 days after I applied the polish and there's only minimal tip wear on all of my nails except for my thumb which has a small chip, but I'll take the blame for that one.

So, magnetic polish. I think it's awesome and that the effect is really interesting. I like the color of this polish a lot too, kind of a gunmetal gray. Icing has these for $9 a bottle and their make up is always buy one get one half off, and I don't think you could ask for a better retail price for magnetic polish. Go grab a few!

Happy reading!
Jenney

Here is the video the lovely Mrs. Gina is letting me share on my blog to show you all how to use the magnet. Go check out her Youtube channel for some SUPER cute tutorials.

I love your blog award

Someone gave me a blog award :) This is from Charlotte at Charlotte's Nails. How sweet is that? Totally made me smile :) Go check out this lovely lady's blog. So here it is!

How cute is that? Now I get to answer fun questions!

1. What is your favorite fashion magazine?
I never read fashion magazines X) I do get emails from Refinery29 though if that counts

2. Who is your favorite singer/band?
Just one? Oh that's so hard to choose. One of my favorites though is Jim Morrison but as for an alive singer I have to say Julian Casablancas is one of my top 3, but he's pretty much the reincarnation of Jim Morrison

3. Who is your favorite YouTube guru?
Too many to pick from! I love Nailnation3000, Soguesswhat11, NailBehavior, Dandynails, and they're all such lovely ladies!

4. What is your favorite make up product?
Nail polish by far :) That's all I ever wear for makeup

5. Where would you like to live?
Chicago, Maine, Europe, or Australia

6. What is your favorite film?
Probably the Breakfast Club, it's such a great adolescence movie

7. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
I don't know how many in all, but I own at least 6 pairs of Converse

8. What is your favorite colour?
PURPLE!


Now as to who I want to give this award to, I want to give it to all of the lovely ladies of NailNation Fun and Polish Talk. These ladies are great and this group is so much fun because of them :)

Friday, January 27, 2012

Nail Mail from the Mommsies

A little while ago I had ordered some Zoya polish from the Zoya promo where you get two polishes free, just pay shipping. For those of you who might be asking who Zoya is, they're a nail company based around selling vegan, 3-free nail polish. They're one of the BEST nail companies out there. Whenever you have a problem, their customer service is impeccable. They take such good care of you and get your problems fixed immediately. They also have the BEST promotions. I've never seen a company do promotions the way they do. Every now and then they'll do a promo like the one I just mentioned, get two polishes free just pay shipping. Shipping is only $6.95 and their polishes usually cost $8 each, so you can see how awesome of a deal that is. I heard they gave away over a million bottles too! I was super depressed though because they didn't make it to my house before I went back to school :(

I had also found out recently that Icing by Claire's release a small line of magnetic polish. You would not believe how excited I was. For those who don't know, magnetic polish is polish with metal particles in it, and when you place a special magnet over it, it makes a design. This isn't a super new concept, a few companies released magnetic polish last year. Here's the catch, most of the magnetic polish was around $15 at the low end. So Icing's polish at $9 a bottle is a great deal. And their polish is always buy one get one half off so that makes the deal even better. My mom was sweet enough to go to Icing for me and pick up two of the magnetic polishes and mail them to me with my Zoyas and some other (delicious) goodies :)

Zoya Apple and Avery, Icing Silver and Blue
I love them!!!! I can't wait to try them all out :) I currently have the silver magnetic polish on my nails, so expect a post on that soon!

Happy reading!
Jenney

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

China Glaze Techno

Hey guys!

So today I have a new(ish) polish to show you guys. It's not completely new because it's a re-release, but it came out again with the new Spring 2012 China Glaze collection. It's called Techno and I can sum it up in one word: SPARKLE. Holy crap is it sparkly. Anyone who knows me knows just how much I love anything sparkly. Sparkly polish, jewelry, anything shiny. I'm like a cat! Anyways, here's the pretty bottle shot:

China Glaze Techno, Sally Beauty Supply $5

Do you see the colors? DO YOU? It's so cool. Techno consists of tiny holographic glitter particles and large, holographic, hexagonal glitter in a clear jelly base. I don't think it's officially out yet, but my Sally's is so nice and when I asked about the collection they went into the back and brought it out for me :) You should be able to find this in February, I believe, wherever China Glaze is sold.

Now the formula on this was not terrible as far as glitters like this go. It's not as easy as just swiping the brush across your nail, you have to kind of dab the glitter on so it doesn't just get dragged off of the nail and you have to place the glitter right. But, when it came to getting the large glitter on the brush, there were no problems. Sometimes you have to dig out the larger glitter in polishes, but it was so nicely distributed throughout the polish there was no digging, which I love. You kind of have to push around the large glitter to get it placed evenly on the nail space, but it was not too much of a hassle.

One thing I do not like about this kind of glitter is that it is not camera friendly. It just does not let my camera focus on it. So here are my best shots. I have it layered over black.

Indoors w/ flash
Indoors w/ flash
I know the second picture is super blurry, but it really lets you see all of the colors. And how cool does the bottle look?

Indoors w/o flash
Indoors w/o flash
It reminds me of stars and planets. I really wish I could have gotten a natural light picture, but it's been so overcast and rainy the past few days that there was no sun for it :( All of the colors are even more pronounced in the sun.

This, to me, is a polish meant for laying over polishes. I guess you could try doing 20 coats for full coverage, but it's so chic and fun over another color. I personally adore it over black.

Super macro shot!


I love how cool this polish is. I can't think of another quite like this off the top of my head, and I know I don't own any exactly like this. Definitely one to look for to add to your collection.

My next post will be about an awesome care package from my mommy :) She sent me some awesome stuff, including polish of course.

Happy reading!
Jenney

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Essie Mint Candy Apple

I would like to apologize in advance for all of the apologies in this post. This is my first mani since being back at school, and this is what happens when I'm distracted by 37 (I counted) other things and don't have as much time to do my nails properly. In fact, the only reason I'm posting this one is because I feel bad that I haven't posted for a while :( Oh college, you sneaky devil you.

ANYWAYS, here it is. Essie's Mint Candy Apple is from the 2009 winter collection. Now, anyone completely obsessed with nail polish *cough* either knows or has heard the stories about Essie's old, watery, pretty terrible formula. This, unfortunately, is one of them. It was so thin and runny, a complete pain in the bottom. That is part of the reason my nails turned out awful (however, just a small small part of the reason :P). It was a pain to apply.

Pretty bottle shot!

Essie Mint Candy Apple $8 at various retailers


Now, when I say $8 at various retailers, I mean Essie is $8 at various retailers. Since this is an old color, I can't guarantee you'll find it anywhere other than online. I got mine from nailbeauty4u.com. This is a great website for finding older polishes for a good price. And I promise that they're trustworthy (they sell through Amazon).

Even though the formula sucks, the color is really pretty,  but I have one or two other polishes that are the similar if not identical, so it's nothing super special. And since the formula is so bad, I would say to go ahead and try and find a dupe, it shouldn't be too hard.

The other factors that play into these terrible photos (I'm so sorry!) are:
1. Like I said before, school does not give me time to be more careful on my nails
2. This next photo is blurry because it was night time and my dorm has awful lighting, and the flash changed the color completely so I didn't use it
3. I had an accident with some other nail polish while making a franken polish (got my supplies in!) and I tried sooo hard to save my nails

Well, here it is...

Mint Candy Apple, indoors w/o flash
Oh the humanity! I do like this color a lot though. It's kind of like a green-leaning blue (whatever that means). Nice and soft. I feel like it's a winter shade because it's such a cool tone, but since it's so light it can also be a spring shade. I used three coats for the picture above.

Now this was just the base of a mani that my boyfriend gave me an idea for (I seriously have the best boyfriend ever). He said I should bust out my crackle. So instead of doing a full out crackle I did a cute simple design.


So my cuticles look even worse here because before I would take a picture, yet AGAIN I had a mishap with a polish when frankening. I tried to save it yet again but you can see a tiny bit of the yellow on my pinky. When you don't look at it super close up it's really cute! Reminds me of super heroes for some reason.

Here's what I used:

Essie Mint Candy Apple $8, Sally Hansen Crackle Distressed Denim $7 (retailers), Stripe Right Paint Silver $3 (Sally Beauty Supply), Franken made by me :)
I started with Mint Candy Apple, painted half of my nail with my franken, painted the other half with Distressed Denim, then used the silver striping polish down then center of them.

Close up of the franken!


Ooooooooh pretty, no? I've been dying for a bar glitter polish and I found some really pretty loose bar glitter at Sally's, so I bought a little container and tada! My own bar glitter :) That's what's great about frankening, if you find something you like but don't want to pay a bunch for it or can't find it anywhere, you can make it yourself! And the container of glitter was a lot cheaper than say OPI Fly from the new Nicki Minaj collection, and I can use it for more frankens!

Expect more franken posts in the future, and again, sorry for the terrible pics.

Happy reading!
Jenney

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Top and base coat

So on all of my posts I've only been saying what color I use but never what top coat and base coat. A few months ago I used a really cheap base/top coat that I got at Sally's. I used that for a few months but I started having problems with my nail polish popping off. So I switched my top coat to Seche Vite and my base coat to Orly Nail Bonder.


I love these. They keep my polish from chipping and popping off. The Orly has a rubbery feel to it when it dries and it definitely creates a bond between the nail and polish. Seche Vite dries CRAZY fast and has the most gorgeous finish. It is so shiny and glossy. It also evens itself out to give a very refined look. The dry time is so good for me so I can just throw on a top coat and be able to use my hands within a couple of minutes without ruining my nails. There are a few cons to it though. It has some chemicals in it that can cause birth defects and other issues, so don't use it if you're pregnant. It also can shrink on the nail if you don't put enough on. And over time it will get goopy and thick so you have to get a product called Seche Restore to thin it out.

Both of these are kind of pricey, the average for a .5 fluid ounce bottle of Seche Vite is around $7-$10 and the Orly is anywhere from $6 to $8. But in my opinion they're completely worth it if they make a manicure last. I use these on all of my manicures and usually pedicures so I definitely get my money's worth out of it.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Milani Hi-Tech

WARNING: Very picture heavy

So my friend Gina (check her out on Youtube and Facebook at Soguesswhat11) commented on one of my statuses that I should do a holographic glitter on my nails since I was feeling yucky. The day before my boyfriend said I should do green on my nails. So I took both ideas and came up with...

Milani Hi-Tech (CVS, $4.99)
Milani Hi-Tech! This is a killer holographic green. I've only found it at CVS personally, but I've heard of people finding it at Target too. This is a good price for the quality of the polish, especially since the holo is so strong. There are 5 other colors in the 3D Holographic collection.

It is a lot more yellow green on the nail than in the bottle and it's super bright and stunning. The formula is really nice but a little thin. I had to do two thin  coats followed by one thick coat for full coverage. In the pictures below you'll see how the holographic quality comes out in almost any light, even indoors.

Indoors w/o flash

Indoors w/o flash
I included the above picture because you can really see all of the colors on the index finger and thumb.

Indoors w/ flash

Indoors w/ flash
How cool is that?

Outdoors
Outdoors
I just love this color. It's probably the most holographic of the collection.

And since I needed an extra little pick-me-up I added some stamping. I used Bundle Monster plate 215 and Finger Paints' Black Expressionism.


I love the holo peeking out of the cracks :)

Well, that's all I have for today. I'm going back to school Sunday and HOPEFULLY I'll have time to keep posting updates and pictures for you guys. It may not be a frequent, but maybe I'll write some entries ahead of time to post as school starts.

Happy reading!
Jenney

Monday, January 9, 2012

OPI Skull and Glossbones

Today I have a sale polish to show you guys! This is from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection OPI released a few months ago when "On Stranger Tides" came out in theaters. The collection consisted of lots of soft, neutral shades. This is the only one I own from the collection, but they're all really pretty. They're not the typical pretty either since they're so muted. When you first look at them they don't look like much, but the closer you look at them the more you appreciate them.

The one I'm showing you today is called Skull and Glossbones and reminds me of putty. It's almost a "dirty" color, but it's amazing. I wore it because I had a violin performance this weekend and didn't want anything distracting on my nails. This color was perfect. It's not loud but still very unique.

Skull and Glossbones (Ulta, $8.50)



It's showing up more gray in this picture, it's a tiny tiny bit more brown in real life.

The formula is really creamy and lovely. I used three really thin coats, but if you do thicker coats you could get away with two.

Indoors with flash
This is a pretty accurate picture of the color. I'm not sure why my index finger looks so messy, it's not in real life. And I really need to start showing some love to my cuticles :P

Now, this polish normally retails for $8.50 at Ulta, but it's on sale because they're trying to get rid of the old collections so it was only $4.99! They have all sorts of polishes on sale now so go check them out.

Also, I'm so excited because I just ordered supplies to start making my own nail polish colors! So you can expect posts about that starting in a week or so.

Happy reading!
Jenney

Friday, January 6, 2012

Asylum over Tutu Cute

Yay first polish post! So this is what I've had on my nails the past few days. 
  
 There was a lot of hype over the Finger Paints Special Effects collection. I will not deny that I was just as excited as everyone else. These polishes are super cool because of their flaky effects. Flakies are irregular pieces of shimmer that are somewhat similar to glitter and are made usually to be layered over other polishes. Flakies aren't new to the polish world, other brands have released flakies lately, but Finger Paints has had the best price from what I've seen so far. They released 5 different flakies named Asylum, Twisted, Flashy, Flecked, and Motley. I bought all but Flashy (I had one similar to it already) and they are GORGEOUS! Well worth the wait and excitement and money. Usually you see flakies over black, but today I'm showing you Finger Paints' Asylum over Ulta's Tutu Cute.
Asylum (Sally Beauty Supply, $5.49 w/o club card $4.99 with) and Tutu Cute (Ulta, $6)
 Let me talk about Tutu Cute a little first. It's a really pretty medium purple color, but it's nothing super special. I fell like you could find a Sinful Colors or Sally Hansen dupe for a better price. I got this as a buy one get one free deal so it was only $3, but for a bottle that's only .33 fl. oz. it's kind of a rip off at the normal price. Especially since the formula is not very good. Granted it's not terrible, it's kind of goopy and takes a lot longer to dry than other polishes I own. I don't know if polish thinner will help, but I shouldn't have to put polish thinner in a new bottle of polish. The wear time is pretty good though, you can see just a slight bit of wear on the tips after 3 days of wearing it. For this polish I would recommend finder a cheaper and bigger bottle from a drug store in the same color. I wasn't expecting to be doing a blog so soon so I forgot to take a picture of it without Asylum on top :P

Now for Asylum, this is beautiful. There's nothing that's this available at this price like it. The picture above does a really good job at capturing some of the flakie coloring. In the bottles the flakies all look look the same, like dirty dishwater, but on the nail they're the craziest, most gorgeous flashes of all different colors. I highly recommend them.

Now enough of my gabbing! On to the pictures! All pictures have 3 coats of Tutu Cute and 2 coats of Asylum.
Inside with flash
Inside without flash

Outside in sun

Sorry about the weird paint job on my thumb, my top coat was being a goofball.
You can see the awesome red and blue flakies with the slight green color shift they have a certain angles. I love this combination. It's very harmonious.

Go pick up any of the flakies that you can while Sally's still has them, they're selling out really quickly, and it's easy to see why. Also, if anyone wants to see swatches of the other flakies I have leave a comment here asking or on my Facebook profile. And please let me know what you think of the blog so far (I know, not much to give feedback on yet) and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Happy reading!
Jenney

Welcome to my blog!

Hey guys,
So, this is my first blog post! I know most of you have seen me spamming my personal Facebook page with all of my nail pictures and I thought this would be a cool way to put more pictures up and give more info about the polish itself. Sometimes a polish has a great color but terrible formula, and this is where I'll put that information as well as other details like pricing and where it's available. No one may ever read this, but it will still be fun for me! If you have any questions, requests or comments, leave a comment here or on my Facebook profile :)


Let's see how long this lasts, shall we?
Happy reading,
Jenney