Sally Hansen & Tracy Reese Spring '14 - Batbano Blue

I'll admit to stalking Sally Hansen on Twitter during New York Fashion Week twice a year.  Many of my favorites from the brand are from previous designer collaborations, so it's really exciting to get a very early look at potential future favorites.  I get a little giddy and post the sneak peeks to my Upcoming Nail Polish Collections board on Pinterest months and months before they'll hit the stores.  I've known what to expect this season for over half a year and I knew exactly which of the new, Cuban-themed Tracy Reese shades I'd be buying when they finally turned up at CVS.  Her three shades make up the Havana Brights section of the display (see it on Nouveau Cheap) and while I did take a good look at Carnivale and and Mojito, I really only had eyes for this...


Batbano Blue is a vivid medium blue with a smooth metallic sheen.

Half-Moons and Galaxies

You may remember a week or so ago, I showed off my black half moon manicure. I loved it so much, I couldn't bear to remove it. But it was beginning to show wear...so something had to be done. Then I noticed this picture from one of the girls I follow on the instagrams, and I knew what had to be done.

Galaxy nails! They are always a good solution!

Sally Hansen Summerlime

I mention my favorite CVS pretty often and it's because of stuff like this.  I love finding polish I've never seen before, so I was thrilled to spot what turned out to be Sally Hansen's Beach Paradise collection way back in early March.  None of the shades came home with me that day, but I've given them a long look every time I've been back since.  They're a bright and cheery assortment of creams and flecked shimmers, but in the end only one really struck me.


Summerlime is a lime green cream packed with gold microflecks.

Scouting Expedition: Ulta Beauty

Ulta (and Sephora) are amazing places. Full of wonder and merriment...and makeup. I can't seem to get out of there without looking like I was an extra in an episode of Doctor Who. My husband can always tell when I've been shopping. 

I figured that it might be interesting, for once, to talk about the things I scouted out, and what I ended up buying.

This One's For Mr. Chow-guh-guh

I haven't mentioned it much on here, but I am a diehard Mad Men fan.  I'm one of those weirdos who watches over and over and over and over and over and over and over and notices all kinds of little things.  I've been meaning to do nails inspired by the show for ages, so this little nod might be the first of many.  If you don't watch, this mani might seem too "Seventies" for a show set in the Sixties.  The current, *sob* final season is set in 1969 and it's amazing how the style of everything changed so drastically over the last couple of seasons.  My inspiration came from a character's office in season 6.  There's a gloriously earth-toned wall hanging (second photo - spoiler warning if you're not caught up) in direct view from his door, so we see it looming there pretty often.  It's distracting, but in a good way, and I've wanted to do a mani of it for a while.

Blackout

It is no secret that black is one of my favorite colors. Even my kids know that. For me, it is super inspiring, because black can be worn in so many different ways. I was cruising around polyvore and decided to make a "black" board...and I found some inspiration.

Spring Outtakes

This year is flying by!  May's less than a week away already.  Summer polish collections are starting to show up in stores and the assortment in my swatching bin is getting bolder and brighter.  I'm almost done with my spring stuff, with Sally Hansen's newest Designer Collection the only thing left...and my picks aren't particularly springtimey.  With the season almost behind us, I have some odds and ends left over.  This first one's definitely an odd...


This is KleanColor Coastal Cruising over Zoya Cole.

Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette: Review, Swatches, and My Face

Not long ago, HSN has a great deal on the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette. $29 for the palette and a full sized Shadow Insurance (which retails for $14-$20 depending on where you buy it) I had been eyeing this palette for a while, but after getting the Naked 3, I was shy about spending another $49 on a neutral-ish palette. Lucky for me, I follow the hell out of Nouveau Cheap who generally keeps the world up-to-date on all the good sales.

the box. It should have been wrapped in foil.

Keep on reading for pan porn, a fat cat, swatches, and a Chocolate Bar look-of-the-day!

Too Damn Subtle

I love doing subtle stamping, but there's subtle and then there's this...

Wear All the Fuchsia

Simple is good. Especially when its fuchsia. This is one of my favorite colors, so I do try to wear it as often as possible. And if I can add glitter in there, as much as I hate the cleanup, dammit I will.

NYC Sweet Candy Shimmer Blast

Around this time last year, I was over the moon about NYC Shimmer Blast.  I wound up hoarding it and I think there are probably six bottles of it in my house now.  Might be more.  It's one of those polishes that I don't ever want to be without, even though I haven't used it all that often.  So you can imagine that  I might have made a funny noise and maybe flailed a little when I saw Nouveau Cheap's post about a new Shimmer Blast called Sweet Candy.  Rite Aid isn't the easiest store for me to get to (would it kill them to have even one 24hr store around here?), but I went just a couple of days after I saw G.'s post and snagged a bottle of Sweet Candy, along with Mimosa Bouquet.  Life didn't let me really go full-out and swatch the original Shimmer Blast like I wanted to last year, so I made up for it this time!  There are a lot of photos in this post.  I compared it to the original too, if you're wondering.

Since I wore the first Shimmer Blast over a nude last time, let's take a look at Sweet Candy over one first.

Review: Kracie Naive Deep Clear Cleansing Oil

Continuing on the Asian beauty haul theme today, but with a cleanser. Seems like the US is always the last to get in on trends. Maybe we are too resistant to change? I dunno, but I am glad that I have the Internet, otherwise I would never have heard about cleansing oils and their awesomeness.

I Love This Place

That title is corny as hell, I know...but I really do.  Earth Science and Natural History are minor obsessions of mine, going back as far as my love of polish.  Sure I loved Care Bears, My Little Pony, He-Man, and all the rest as a kid, but one of my absolute favorite things to watch was a National Geographic special called Born Of Fire.  Even as a preschooler, I was enthralled by the dynamic truth about the ground that seems so solid.  It still fascinates me.  I'm a nerd of the nerdiest kind, I know.  I'm celebrating Earth Day today by watching a somewhat more recent favorite, BBC's Earth Story and by doing this mani...

Max Factor Fantasy Fire: Layered

This is mostly going to be a polish-porn post. I am in love with Max Factor Fantasy Fire, and I feel compelled to layer it over everything I can find. It is so shiny!

Zoya Pixie Dust in Carter + Fantasy Fire

two coats Carter + two coats Fantasy Fire

Zoya Earth Day Spam

This is the week for deals, isn't it?  Walgreens is having the Sinful Colors 99c sale again, The Body Shop will be doing their 4/$20 Hemp sale tomorrow, and Zoya's doing their Earth Day Polish Exchange.  Today through next Monday, 4/28, you can get half off (details and exclusions) your whole Zoya polish purchase.  It's usually one of their best deals of the year.  They'll also safely dispose of your unwanted polish from other brands (see details) if you have any to send.

You know what a sale like this means... It's spam time!

More Daiso Haulage: A Natural Plant Sponge

Yes, I'm still dragging out my Daiso goodies. I told you there were a lot. I'm try to space them out, post wise, so you don't get too overloaded. One of the things I was really hoping to find was a konjac sponge. I read an article last year about them, and I figured this would be the big Asian import for 2014. 

Looks like I was right, because tons of companies have come out with their own versions. I really didn't want to spend close to $20 for the Boscia one, so I was very glad to spy this "Natural Plant Sponge" at Daiso. I'm guessing that it is, in fact, a konjac sponge. I think I may need to make monthly trips up there, just for random things like this.

Walgreens 99¢ Sinful Colors Sale Spam

It's that time again already!  It's only been two months since the last 99¢ Sinful Colors sale at Walgreens, but they're doing it again.  It's been just long enough since the last one that I need to update my spam.  It always varies from one location to another, but in general the xmas stuff is probably gone.  Boldacious is a long-shot.  The Valentine's Day Tough Love display may still be lingering, so I've included it, but it's really a maybe at this point.  Even the Mod Mod World display has been out for a while, so some shades from that may be gone from your local Walgreens.  They also seem to be changing the core display, though none in my area have yet.  If you have more than one Walgreens near you, it's worth scoping them all out because you never really know what you might find!

My Picks from Sinful Colors Spring '14 - updated

The titles of my Sinful Colors posts often feel a bit vague.  This time it's my fault.  Rite Aid has two spring displays from them, called Mod In Bloom and Oh My Mod.  Nouveau Cheap posted about them back in January, and I bought my picks from those two displays in February or March.  Since then Walgreens has gotten the same shades, but combined into one larger display.  I swore I'd taken photos of it and...nope!  So now I don't remember what that display was called or if there were additional repromoted shades in it.  Derp.  I might be updating this post sometime in the next few days.  Gotta go to Walgreens to scope out clearanced easter candy on Monday anyway, right?  Derping aside, I wound up with two from each of the two spring displays.  Picking only four from thirteen new shades may seem un-me, but between pastels and near-dupes (as pointed out in this post on Nouveau Cheap), I didn't feel as drawn to these displays.  Oh My Mod also features Energetic Red, which I swatched last summer, so there's a rerun of that at the bottom of this post too.

-update- I am derping left and right. It turns out that Nouveau Cheap did post about the big Walgreens display back in March.  I've added more reruns to the bottom of the post.  Dream On is also included in this larger display, but it's the new version.  They changed the color but kept the name and number.  I'll have a swatch of that up pretty soon.


Violets Are Blue is a light cornflower blue with silvery-white microfleck shimmer.

My First French Manicure in a Long Time

It has been a long while since I was able to go bare nailed and not feel weird about it. My nails still aren't the flawless color they used to be, but they are definitely improving. I finally decided to try a simple-ish french, to see just how far I had come since the last time I tried this.

My Picks from Wet n Wild MegaRocks

Back in early January I tried out one of Wet n Wild's new MegaRocks glitters, Stick It To The Man, and wound up loving it so much that I decided to try a few more from this new permanent line.  I wound up getting four more, but I got a bad case of layerer's block and finding bases I liked for these took way longer than I'd ever have expected.  Like I mentioned in my previous review, they just don't have as much going on as Stick It To The Man.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the only issue I had with them.  Nichole tried Creative Control and Slap The Bass and had a lot of the same difficulties.  I'm not writing this line off entirely, but beyond Stick It To The Man...well...please read on and see.


Waiting For My Solo has three sizes of gold hexagonal glitter.

over OPI Scores A Goal!

Manhattan Awakening

I love it when the polish names actually work out to be a neat post title. I was feeling a little down today, and meh moods always make me reach for vampy colors. As I was digging around in the disaster area I call my stash, I pawed over this shiny goldy plum...and inspiration struck!

its art, bitches.

Cult Nails Blaze

Having to wear "SFW" polish has its ups and downs.  One of the best ups is the excuse "I can probably wear this to work."  It's a great rationalization for pretty much any nude, neutral, soft gold, or sheer shimmer.  Without that line of thinking, I'm not sure I could have justified my order from Cult Nails' $3 clearance sale right at the start of my low-er-ish buy last month.  I wound up spending only $60 on polish, and half of that was this epic clearance haul.  Most of my order had the SFW justification, and I'm making my way through them faster than I usually do for stuff that isn't new.  I topped a...um...NSFW?...gradient with Deception and wore Mazo to work with complete confidence.  Blaze turned out to be so nice that I swatched it twice!


Blaze has gold and copper microglitter in a clear base.

over Revlon Trade Winds

My Daiso Haul: A Shampoo Brush?

Another thing I picked up at Daiso was this funny little brush. Its supposed to be a scalp brush/shampoo brush. The idea behind it is that you massage your scalp while shampooing, and it stimulates blood flow and cleanses your hair more thoroughly. I had been looking at them on Amazon for a while, but I couldn't justify the cost. At $1.50...I couldn't not buy it.

NYC Mimosa Bouquet

After the Philly area weather's flirtation with summer over the past few days, spring came drizzling back last night.  I only have a few springtime polish picks left in my swatching basket and with a little luck maybe I'll have them all done and posted by the end of the week.  Summer swatching is right around the corner and I'm looking forward to brighter (and...ahem...more flattering) colors.  Zoya's Tickled and Bubbly collections should be on their way to me pretty soon and another collection will be announced on Thursday.  Getting back on track though, I finally got to a Rite Aid last week and spotted NYC's City Bloom collection.  Like most of their bigger seasonal displays, there's a little bit of "everything", from polish to eyeshadow to face powder...but I'm predictable and only bought polish.  Mimosa Bouquet wasn't my only pick, but the new Shimmer Blast shade called Sweet Candy needs a post all to itself.  I originally considered just buying two bottles of Sweet Candy (NYC was BOGO50 at Rite Aid last week), but got a wild hair to try another pastel yellow.  If you've read us for a while, you probably know I get these strange whims...and that they sometimes end badly.  I had a looming sense of doubt by the time I'd gotten back to my car with my purchase, but decided to stick with it anyway.  So...how'd it go?


Mimosa Bouquet is a soft pastel yellow with a hint of silvery white shimmer.

A Different Kind of Gradient

I feel like its been a little while since I've done a proper gradient. I sat down today, fully intending to redo an old gradient I did a long time ago...and then I saw those damned circle-paper-reinforcer-things...mocking me. I never seem to get half moons done well. Because I'm insane, I decided to combine the two. 

why cant you photograph right, charisma!

I'm actually glad I did. Everything turned out better than expected!

What Happened To Spring?

I put the air conditioning on yesterday at around 4pm.  It's April.  It's not even Tax Day yet!  The weather reports are emphasizing that this is just a fluke and predicting a high of 48 on Thursday...but it was 80 yesterday.  The Beard becomes a complete jerk if it's over 75 in the house, so I sighed and switched the AC on.  The good thing about this weird little warm spell is that two not-so-springtimey gradients that I've had in my folder for a while seem more appropriate now.  I didn't set out to do summery things, they just kinda happened.  At least now it doesn't feel too soon.


When I swatched OPI Red Hot Rio, I couldn't resist doing a gradient with I Sing In Color.

Breaking Down My Daiso Haul: The Eyebrow Pencil

Daiso goodies! I bought a ridiculous amount of crap, which can be seen here, so be prepared to be bombarded by things that only cost $1.50. I can't be blamed, at that price.

One of the first things I grabbed when we got there was this brow pencil. It looks a lot like my Anastasia Brow Wiz, but at a fraction of the price. If it worked for me, I would gladly drive up there when I needed replacements. I am always looking for dupes these days.

My Picks from Revlon Electric Chrome

The Spiderman franchise seems to inspire a lot of polish, doesn't it?  This time it's Revlon's turn.  Their tie-in with this summer's new The Amazing Spiderman 2 is a collection called Electric Chrome.  It's got three lipglosses and six polishes with "glowing glass pearls" in them and golden web patterns on the caps.  I passed on the glosses and went straight for the polishes.  Superficially, they remind me a little of SpaRitual's Illuminate holiday collection from last year, especially with the mention of glass.  They're not even close to being dupes though.  The Revlons are full-coverage, but the SpaRituals were quite sheer.  The glass particles and color selection are different too.  I wound up with four of the Revlons, but like the Sparituals I may find myself going back for more.  Electrified Web and Spidey Sense aren't colors I'd wear on their own, but knowing the stamping potential of this collection, I may need them after all!  As for the four I did get...


1000 Volts is a bright gold foil with a green shift.

over black on ring (for all swatches in this post)

Oil: The Ultimate Makeup Remover

I've talked a good deal about makeup here on the blog. I'm quite fond of it. It is a great transformative thing, and is generally pretty accessible to anyone who wants it. What I have been pretty quiet on, however, is how to take it off. There are tons of makeup removers available at any given store, in any price range you can imagine. My personal favorite is good, old-fashioned oil.

my well-loved bottle of oil

I mix my own oil, though you can buy cleansing oils anywhere that cosmetics are available to be bought. I use a mix of grapeseed, jojoba, and castor oils. This mix also serves as a cleansing method known as Oil Cleansing. For people with dryer/more sensitive skin, this method is a lifesaver. Even if you don't do "OCM" exclusively (I don't anymore) this is still the best way to remove all sorts of makeup. Even waterproof stuff doesn't stand a chance. Keep reading to see how I do it.

Sally Hansen Indi-glow

I'm posting later than usual today.  It's partly because I was scurrying to finish tomorrow's swatches and also because...well...I don't like writing negative reviews.  It's like breaking bad news.  I want to love every single polish I try and then glowingly recommend it to you.  I get to do that pretty often, but then there are times like this.  Today I feel extra bad about it.  It's not just one polish, but a reformulation that I have to be unflatteringly honest about.  Sally Hansen has apparently changed the base they use for new glitters in their Xtreme Wear line and...it's just no good.  I adore Sally Hansen in general, so this really bums me out more than the usual negative review.  I even gave the polish a second chance.  You'll see why...in a moment.  Better photo first, to ease you in.


Indi-glow has small orange/green/blue iridescent glitter in a cobalt blue jelly base.

over OPI Dating A Royal

Simple Spring Combo

Somewhere on this planet, it is spring. I swear. Maybe not here, maybe not where you are...but its gotta be. Right? All the tv/magazine/internet machines tell me so. They are trying to force feed buckets full of pastels and sheers and shorts and things-that-I-don't-want to us constantly as of late, and the only reason must be the changing seasons. Spring is my least favorite, color-wise. 99% of these floofy colors look like ass on me. I decided to dig around in my stash, and see if I could possibly make a spring-fling-icure that I could live with.

screw you guys. I like filters

Three SFW Sheers

With the slightly warmer weather that we're finally starting to get (sometimes), a lot of my go-to SFW polishes have felt a little heavy...if that makes sense.  It's the nail equivalent of switching from tights to stockings now that winter's over.  Despite my usual thoughts on wearing sheer shades while I have long nails, I've been playing around with them a bit to see if I can't change my mind.


OPI Glints Of Glinda is a sheer, pale nude beige.

Team Spirit Time...Again!

It is that time of year again. My eldest child is playing softball. She's still on the Seaside Comets, and her colors are still blue and white, though (blessedly) they chose black pants this year instead of white. So bring on the team spirit manicures!

Embroidered Emerald

I seem to be falling into a bit of a pattern with stamped manis that look like fancy curtains.  What can I say?  I'm a creature of habit.  I've done a brocade, a damask, and...a girdle?  This is what happens when a fabric nerd raises a nail nerd, I guess.  I just can't help myself and I've done another!


This is Revlon 1000 Volts over Ulta Green With Envy, using Cheeky European Romance.

My First Custom Polish

I think Dave from Octopus Party Nail Lacquer might be my favorite polish person on the planet. He made me a custom color! I've never had a polish that was just mine and no one elses. It's a very weird feeling. I was half-tempted to hide it away, but I decided that I needed to share it with the rest of my polish family.

OPNL One of a Kind

Solar Flower

Sally Hansen Tulle Kit and Take The Leap

Nothing stops me in my tracks like finding a polish display I've never seen online.  Zeus and I were out shopping for valentine's dinner ingredients for our special guys when an endcap at Wegmans startled me with THREE new Sally Hansen displays.  Pastels aren't my thing, but I took a look at Pastels On Pointe anyway.  I look at everything, because you never know.  It turns out that three of these LE shades have flecks in sheer, milky bases.  I'm a sucker for anything I think I can layer, so I stalked CVS until they showed up there and I could get a better deal.  It took a little while for CVS to put them out, but I wound up buying these two after a surprisingly long deliberation.  Tutu Pretty didn't come home with me because it seemed too pink and Piqué Side's shimmer looks like it would be hidden on the nail.  Now that they're showing up more widely, it's time I showed you guys Tulle Kit and Take The Leap.


Tulle Kit has dense blue and purple fleck shimmer in a blue-tinted milky base.

over OPI Mermaid's Tears

One Palette, Five Days

Sometimes, when you have too many things, you lose sight of what you have. You forget things tucked away in drawers and boxes, and go buy another new thing to use once. I'm guilty of that. I probably have 20 different eyeshadow sets that I've used less than five times. In an effort to get some use out of my pretties and challenge myself a bit, I've decided to only use one eyeshadow palette for a whole week.

Of course, I didn't choose an easy one. I chose Floral Values from Wet 'n' Wild. Purples and pinks. This should be interesting.

it is bright in my room. I often glow.

*be warned kids, this is a long one.

What The???

See my index accent nail?

Wayne Goss is a Damned Genius

Like the title says, Wayne Goss is a genius...and maybe a witch. I am undecided. Recently I went on a shopping field trip with a friend, who had amazing foundation. She told me she tried a new way to apply it, and she learned about it from Wayne Goss. I found the video the next day. He described a new (to me), possibly heretical, way to get a flawless foundation look. This immediately caught my interest. My skin is problematic on its best days. Anything that might make it better is worth trying, at least once.

My Results:

Musing on Comfort Zones

Before I went really nuts for polish about two years ago, I was really set in my ways.   My pre-frenzy spreadsheet shows a collection that's a bit...same-y.  In the time I've blogged, I've discovered that I like pushing my boundaries and I'll try any almost any polish once if the price is right.  My happiest discovery has been my love of "ugly" yellow-toned greens, which bugs the hell out of Nichole.  I've also come to enjoy yellows and oranges, two colors I used to detest.  There isn't a color group that I can't at least appreciate once in a while, even if it's not "me".  There have even been pinks that I wanted to like.  It's fun to try new things.  All of this went through my mind when I found myself randomly interested in a bottle of Sephora by OPI Give Peach A Chance.  Maybe it was the name that swayed me, but I wound up buying it.

Pinspired: Jimmy Choo

Most girls like shoes. It's wide-spread enough to be practically universal. I am no different, though I can't wear heels these days. I still look at sparkly shoes and sigh...like Cinderella with bad credit. When I saw these on Pinterest forever ago, I fell in love. But that heel...I'd probably break my neck in the first seconds.

Thank goodness I have nails and glitter!

Spring Break (non-silly version)

I hope you guys got as much of a giggle out of my little April Fool's gag as I did yesterday!  I worried it might be a little too subtle, especially since the thing that inspired it was NSFW and I decided to leave it out.  I felt a little bad using goofy props to show off some really lovely polishes, so I figured I might as well post the "real" photos today to make up for it.


Love & Beauty Dark Purple is a dark purple (who'd have guessed?) with dense blue and pink microfleck shimmer.

I Have No Idea What I'm Doing

I dont know what I was thinking here...it seemed like such a good idea...

Spring Break

...as in "a break from spring".  Yes, already.  I'm suffering from pastel fatigue (they're everywhere) and I need a quick escape!  At the same time, I'm such a seasonal person that a lot of colors feel just plain wrong and out of place right now.  I swatched a matte red shimmer last week and wound up taking it off without even finishing my cleanup.  It just didn't seem right.  I'm left in an odd spot this time of year then, since I'm not quite ready for bold summer brights, but I also don't want to look like an easter egg.  I looked through my vast collection for untrieds that seemed spring-ish, but also within my comfort zone.  I found a bunch of purples, teals, etc that suited me just right and swatched a few to show you today.


Love & Beauty Dark Purple is a dark purple (who'd have guessed?) with dense blue and pink microfleck shimmer.

Pinspired: Sundress

It's Pinterest time again. My brain is in a bit of a fog lately, so I've been needing a jump-start for my creative engine. Thank goodness for Pinterest, because I can browse without having a specific thing in mind...and I always find something interesting.

Keep reading to see the whole thing.