Bundle Monster Set #2 Review & REVLON: Midnight, MAC COSMETICS: Immortal Gold

Pin It Hey guys! Sorry I've been MIA for a few days, my NEW MacBook charger crapped out on me and I started P90x, so I've been so tired! But Husband is gone for the weekend on Navy duties so, I get his laptop all to me! :D

ON an AWESOME note! I have 7 followers! Awwww so sweet <3 That made me smile! As lame as it seems, it has been my dream for like 5 years to make a nail blog, and 7 followers makes me feel like gold! :] Still planning a giveaway, I gotta find a few other things for it ;] Planning it to be a "Spring Break" giveaway!

Annnnyyyyyyhowww! I FINALLY got a Bundle Monster set! :O

I grabbed the 2nd Bundle Monster set on Amazon for $22 for 25 plates. They also have a first set, $18 for 21 plates. I got the 2nd one because I've seen better reviews on them than the first set anndddd you just get more haha! However, I DID speak to someone on Instagram who purchased the 1st set last week and said they work PERFECTLY! Hmm, might grab those soon ;]

I played around with a good chunk of the designs. I painted, scraped and stamped for about an hour and a half. I didn't use all the designs, almost one from every plate to check to see how well they were engraved and if they were even. I didn't have a single problem with ANY of the plates. Everything came out wonderfully! For Konad stamping or any stamping at all,  I never use Konad Special Polishes. I always use regular nail polish and I never have a problem using them, so just letting you know these plates are fine with regular polish. When I do stamp, I'm a big fan of Sinful Colors black and white polishes, they're cheap and they get the job done right!

SOOO I got down to business!

Here are a few of the stamps I tried out. Please excuse the crazy combos! I was messing around with some of the polishes I haven't tried yet haha (note large bowl of polishes)

Everything came out great! I threw on a coat of Seche Vite and wore it for a day because I wasn't in the mood to change polish. I bet my apartment office thought I was a nut! Here is the mani I ended up with 2 days later on:

Zoya: Rica, Sinful Colors: Black on Black, BM #208

Overall: I have ZERO complaints about bundle monster and the quality of their stamping plates. I tried about 85% of all the plates and everything came out awesome. If you're someone looking to try stamping, or you already do some stamping, I suggest you try Bundle Monster. After using these plates, I'm never buying a Konad plate. (Never say never.) The quality of these seems to be VERY close to Konad's plates. I usually can only find a Konad plate for about $4-5, if not more. You get SOOOO many Bundle Monster plates for what you would pay for a few Konad plates. If you're hesitant, try it!

So, 2 days later I got sick of my manicure... mostly because I suck so bad at stamping my thumbs haha. I decided to do a half moon mani. I let my husband help me choose the color of the half moon.

MAC: Immortal Gold, Revlon Colorstay: Midnight

I LOOOOOVE this manicure so much! Especially the Revlon Colorstay Midnight. It's a beautiful inky navy blue. SOOOO gorgeous! I grabbed it at CVS with 2 coupons I had, so instead of $8ish it was only about $4ish. Let me just say, ONE FREAKING COAT!!! ;] 

Before this mani I haven't used the Mac Immortal Gold too much, just for accents and stamping. My sister got it for me for Christmas. I love it! It's SO SO SO pretty! The only downside I thought was the drying time, so I finished it off with Seche Vite before I applied the blue (also so it wouldn't smear when I added a top coat to the whole thing).

I'm off to do some housework and do my P90x stretching (rest day today! WOOT!)

Talk to you guys later!

Until next time,

Lacey

SINFUL COLORS 2012 Spring Collection: Cast Away

Pin It Ok, so on the hunt for polishes for some friends I noticed a Sinful Colors display that wasn't there when I stopped by on Sunday. It's a new collection of theirs called Cast Away. Offff course I had to snap a picture and grab a few.

I grabbed Grecian Sun, a beautiful blue that's not too light and not too dark... Kinda like a cornflower blue. Be Happy, a lot like China Glaze For Audrey, a Tiffany blue color. Olympia, a pistachio green (big color for spring!), very similar to Essie Navigate Her. I'm actually a pretty big fan of the Cast Away collection, blues and greens are my polish loves!

I swatched a few. Along with the Sinful Colors Cinderella I grabbed (NOT part of this collection) its a light blue with pretty pink glass fleck shimmer!

From left to right above, SC Be Happy and CG For Audrey, SC Cinderella, SC Grecian Sun, Essie Navigate Her and SC Olympia.

SC Be Happy, CG For Audrey, SC Olympia, Essie Navigate Her

Ok, now I initially thought Be Happy would be a dupe of For Audrey. They also had 2 darker shades close to For Audrey, the middle shade available might be a lot closer (2 colors away from Olympia on the display). Be Happy is a tad bit lighter than For Audrey. I think I'm a bigger fan of Be Happy. I thought that Be Happy is close to Sinful Colors Mint Apple, but this doesn't have the shimmer Mint Apple has and Mint Apple seems to be a little darker.

SC Cinderella is really pretty! I'm glad I grabbed it! It'll take about 3-4 coats for full coverage but I think it's worth it! The pink glass fleck shimmer it has is awesome! It reminds me of a flip flopped version of Nicole OPI Kim-Pletely in Love (Kardashian Kolor), which is pink with blue glass fleck!

SC Grecian Sun, just a great cream, cornflowerish blue. It's not light, and not dark. Haha I don't know how to describe it! My swatch was only one coat and it seemed like it would be a one coater on the nail. I just am in love with this blue!

Ok, now Essie Navigate her and SC Olympia. Again thought they'd be dupes. Navigate Her seems to have more yellow than Olympia, which seems to be more of a true light green color, lesser on the yellow side.

Overall if you're looking for dupes of Navigate Her or For Audrey, these are pretty close. But if you're on a budget then these can work for the same effect :) like I said before, Sinful Colors did have 2 more bottles similar to For Audrey, one looks a lot closer (more medium than light) than Be Happy and the other was a shade darker than the medium.

I didn't see any swatches for the collection online yet, besides a Nouveau Cheap post from yesterday, so I kinda feel special that I have (somewhat) swatches up ;]

I also got my Zoyas in from the BOGO Valentine's promo! EXCITEDDDD!

Red: Jade, Blue: Charla

Until next time,

Lacey

JULEP: Elizabeth, CHINA GLAZE: Skyscraper & How I Shape My Nails

Pin It Changed up my polish today (no surprise) and my nail shape!

I like my nails square when they're short and round when they're longer. And trying to reshape your nails is NOOOOO fun at all! Here's a quick tip, this is how I round out my nails evenly: I use paper reinforcements! It's also a lot easier for me to shape my nails when I have polish on, so this is usually the step before I remove my polish :]

I would of taken a better picture but I didn't think about sharing my tip until after I shaped them. Ooops! But seriously, if you are ever in need of reshaping you're nails try my method! It works like a charm for me :] Plus you can use the stickers for different types of nail art, like half-moon manis!

I super excited! I ordered the 2nd Bundle Monster stamping plate set on Amazon yesterday morning. I can't wait to get stamping with them!

I had different color nails for about 2 days now, I was swatching and didn't feel like taking colors off haha. I haven't given my Juleps much attention, mostly because 2-3 polishes from them each month on top of the others is a lot!

So, enough rambling! I did 3 coats of Julep Elizabeth (February Julep Maven, It Girl) . Elizabeth is a verrrryyy dark blue, very close to black, with slight shimmer. I actually really like this color (I'm usually not a fan of almost black or black polishes). It's hard to catch the true color with my camera :-/

(it looks WAYYYY too black here :[)

After I was going to do only a statement nail of China Glaze Skyscraper (From Fall 2011 Metro Collection) but, it was So gorgeous I had to do a full mani! Skyscraper is a blue/purple and silver glitter polish suspended in a navy-ish blue base. With the 1st coat the blue glitter didn't how through, it only looked like silver. Once I added the 2nd coat, I fell IN LOVE. It's such a gorgeous glitter polish!! Pictures cannnnnooooootttt do this polish justice!

AHHH I love it haha. I still need to grab CG in the City on my next haul from TransDesign. I have a few other hauls for you guys coming up :] the new Wet n Wild collection (with the wider brush) and the Spring 2012 Sinful Colors Collection (WHICH I AM IN LOVE WITH)

I also got a charger for my beloved MacBook!!! And fixed a trackpad response problem I was having since I charged it up in 3 weeks. BOOO! But YAYY because that means I have my CG haul on here now :D

Until next time,
Lacey

PS: If you had a choice for a giveaway... would you like tools or polish? or both? ;]

LACQUISTRY: 24K Shredded & ESSIE: Aruba Blue (ZOYA PROMO!!!)

Pin It I was finally able to get my Vday mani off my fingers! Haaah.

 (Essie Aruba Blue - 2 coats & Lacquistry 24K Shredded - 2 coats)

I went for Essie Aruba Blue. I have lusted over this polish for A WHILE now, now that I finally have it, I can die happy. This blue is AMAZING. Not like any other I have, and I have a lot of blues!

I also got my hands on a Lacquistry limited edition polish from the wonderful Jenna over on Etsy! I chose 24K Shredded. Glad I did! I've heard rants and raves about Lacquistry polishes, and they are ALL true. This polish is phenomenal. Changes any polish in an instant. The application is easy, you can move pieces around as you wish. It sits pretty flat, surprisingly! I added a coat of Seche Vite to get the smaller parts sticking up smooth. This polish is a dream!!

(Edit: If you're looking for 24K Shredded it is a Lacquistry Limited Edition polish, someone tweeted me about this, I HAVE seen her re-post 5ish at a time, but they go fast! When I saw this one there were 6 listed, about 5 hours later there were 2, so I grabbed it ASAP! She also has made the shredded in black, silver, holo silver, aqua, red and pink varieties. Those colors are limited as well, right now (2/15 all I see listed is the pink  shredded (Valentine Shards). So, in short, if you're wanting these polishes TOTALLY check her Etsy once a day at the least, and grab it when you see it! :] Hopes this helps you guys!)

If you haven't heard: Zoya is giving away a free RED polish (all the polishes listed on their red catagory page) for Valentine's Day! All you need to do is grab another item and you get a FREE red Zoya with FREE SHIPPING! Click here to head over to their  blog post with all the info about this awesome promo :]

If you haven't had a chance to try Zoya yet, I suggest you take a stab at this chance ;] $4/Zoya is a great deal! Zoya is one of my favorite brands. The formula, the application and wear for all their polishes are AWESOME! However, I only buy when they have a promo and they looooovveeee to spoil us with amazing promos! I've saved over $200 on all the 18 bottles (and shipping) I have. I suggest you give this brand a shot if you haven't already! You won't be disappointed ;]

Until next time,
Lacey

PS: Add me on Facebook! :]

DIY Nail Polish Racks

Pin It Hey guys!

I recently ran out of room in my polish drawer, traveled up to the second drawer and decided I can't keep taking stuff out of my drawers for polish! SOOOO I traveled over to youtube and found an AMAZING video on how to make a polish rack.

Those 2 racks are holding a little over 200 bottles. I'm going to have to make a 3rd, as much as husband hates the idea - it's happening haha.

It is super easy, I suck at arts and crafts, diy everything!It'll take about 30-40 minutes.

All you need is:
3 Foam boards (about $2.50 at Walmart)
A glue gun and  glue
A box cutter or x-acto knife
(Duct tape if you want to decorate, I didn't)


Click HERE to go to YouTube and watch the video!

I know what you're thinking, "FOAM BOARD?! Yeah right, not strong enough!" I thought the same thing, but at $8 a rack, why not try?  PLUS it is a lot stronger than I imagined! Heck! It isn't even as heavy as I imagined it would be!!

You can wall mount it, she gives you instructions in the video for that also. I plan on mounting them, I just gotta find a spot they'll fit and that husband approves of. I don't think he wants my polish problem viewable for guests. LAMMEEEEE! haha

But seriously, if you're having polish storage issues, GIVE THIS A SHOT! So easy and sooooo worth it ;]

If you have any questions, I can try to help you!

Now I must go make a 3rd rack :P

Until next time!
-Lacey

Walgreen's: SINFUL COLORS 99 Cents this week! & My Hauls!

Pin It

I'm not sure if y'all have heard. But passing the info along. Walgreen's is having all their Sinful Colors polishes for 99 CENTS! ( Regular is 1.99 ) This includes all POLISHES, not base coats and other treatments. This is the only time I buy Sinful, it seems to come around every few months. This is said to run today (Sunday 2/12) until Saturday (2/18).

I grabbed 3, All About You (gold glitter), Nail Junkie (green and blue-ish glitter) and Innocent (the lime-ish green color).

I also went to Kmart and grabbed some Jordana Glitters. I got Fairy Dust (pink, still wondering I it's a OPI Teenage Dream dupe...) and Celestial (teal-ish glitter). I didn't find Lunar Lights, the one I really wanted :(

Also, here is my haul from Transdesign.com. TOTALLY recommend TransDesign over 8ty8Beauty. Here is what I got this time around:

Sorry for the bad quality picture, I accidentally deleted it and then had to crop it off from Instagram. Top row left to right: Color Club: Love 'em, Leave 'em and Worth the Risque, Essie: Aruba Blue and Navigate Her. Bottom row left to right: China Glaze: Skyscraper, Barielle 5 Fashionably Fabulous Hues Kit T2 (Grape Escape, Swizzle Stick, Blossom, Buddha- Ful, Do Unto Others) and China Glaze: Glittering Garland.

Anddddd here's my Valentine's Day mani which is coming off on V-day because it's my most hated holiday haha:

Red: Zoya Sooki and Pink: Barielle Blossom

Until next time,

Lacey

ZOYA: Spring 2012 True Collection & Nail Art

Pin It I'm still without a charger :[ I probably wont get one for awhile because we just had to spend $80 (just as much as a Macbook charger) for a new router because ours stopped broadcasting a signal. LAME! OOOOOOOH well.

I received the True Collection last week. I would of loved to order it from Zoya.com, but because money is tight I bought the collection $10 cheaper on eBay.

I'm in love with all these polishes. All the swatches below are 2 coats, I think they were pretty sheer and could of used a 3rd. Zoya's Spring 2012 True Collection is made up of 6 colors, Bevin, Skylar, Cho, Farah, Lotus and Tru.

First up we have Bevin:

Beaaaaautiful sage green. There has been talk that OPI's Mermaid Tears is a dupe for Bevin. Not true, Bevin is slightly darker, see here. I like Bevin more, I feel like I have a lot of "lighter" greens.

Next, Skylar:

This is the one I was looking forward to the most. Wonderful dusty blue with shimmery fecks!

Zoya Cho:

A nice peachy, brownish nude!

Next, Farah:

I consider this the "gray version of Cho", a nude with less of a pink tone.

Here is a comparison in the bottles. I had to prove to my husband they aren't the same haha.

Cho on top, Farah on bottom. Clearly they aren't the same. I honestly think there are two nude-ish colors in this collection because these colors are for different skin tones. That's how I see it, Cho is for cooler skin tones and Farah is for warmer skin tones.

Next, Lotus:

A smokey purple with redish-pink flecks.

Lastly, Zoya Tru:

A darker purple, grape like in color. It has redish-orange flecks through out.

I do love this collection, Skylar and Bevin were the ones I lusted after the most, and they were everything I  hoped for. The only complaint I have about this collection is that it is a little sheer. I usually can get away with 2 coats when I use Zoya but these honestly need 3.

As always, I leave you with a full manicure. This was Missoni inspired. I did it all by hand because I was too lazy to get up and get tape haha. I like how it came out, it doesn't look as messy in person SWEAR! I love the color combo :]

Colors:
Dark Red/Wine: Color Club Red-ical Gypsy
Nude: Zoya Cho
Yellow: China Glaze Lemon Fizz
Aqua: China Glaze For Audrey
Red: Zoya Sooki
Green: Zoya Bevin

Enjoy! Until next time,
Lacey

Girly Nail Art

Pin It Got bored last night, here was the outcome haha, enjoy:

Base: China Glaze For Audrey
Floral: China Glaze Life Preserver / LA Girl Coral / Sinful Colors Snow Me White / Sinful Colors Last Chance
Stripes & Polka Dots: Sinful Colors Snow Me White
Glitter: Mix of Nicole OPI Rainbow in the S-Kylie and Color Club Wish Upon a Rockstar

Until next time,
Lacey

Oh NOOOO! [Essie, Zoya & Hard as Hoof]

Pin It I know I was promising the rest of my haul's swatches...

...Unfortunately my MacBook's charger has gone to Apple Heaven. No clue why it stopped working, it's been putting up a good fight though for a few months - thanks Scout for the bite marks! So, I can't get one until the 1st (Payday) Sooo I can't get the swatches from my computer until then. I'm stuck on Husband's HUGE 18" Asus WINDOZE computer for now.

With this disappointing and depressing news haha, I leave you with Zoya Cola:

What an awkward little redish-brown shade this is! BUT I LIKE IT! It reminds me of Dr. Pepper actually. The application was good, it took about 2 coats to make opaque and took a little bit longer than usual to dry with Seche. I think it's similar to China Glaze Brownstone from the 2011 Metro Collection.

I don't know if it's because I changed basecoats (not using nail therapy anymore) or what, it doesn't seem to last as long as most of my other Zoyas. I did cut my nails down to short and square though, it could be part of the issue.

The reason I stopped using my Nail Therapy basecoat is because of two reasons:
1) It's harder to apply over than most basecoats. The polish didn't really want to "stick" when I was painting. So it it seemed I was using more coats than normal.
2) I bought Hard as Hoof.

Here's another mani of Essie Absolutely Shore with Luxeffects Pure Pearlfection.

I was able to find Absolutely Shore at Walgreens for $2 on clearance! (Along with another Essie, the name escapes me) I can't resist a $2 Essie, so I grabbed it.

I was kind of worried because it looks a lot more grey in person. I was scared the green tint wouldn't come across when I painted my nails. WRONG, it so did. And it was perfect. This was 3 coats (I blame Nail Therapy) but it applied very well, and is a gorgeous creamy light green, with a hint of grey, color. I love it. And Pure Pearlfection made it about 100x better with a little shimmer!

Hard as Hoof. If you have soft nails, buy this. If your nails crack or break easily, buy this. THIS PRODUCT is AMAZING! I heard about this product from PlasmaSpeedo's Youtube, so I picked it up from Walmart and gave it a shot.

My nails aren't soft, and not strong, but they could totally use a" pick me up". I've been using this for about a week now, and I see results. I FEEL results, it's there. I felt/saw results within THREE DAYS guys!

The great thing about this is that it's cheap. $5 with tax at Walmart. You apply it to your nails 3 times a day. It can even go OVER nail polish or on bare nails! I've done it over nail polish and it doesn't affect the polish at all, it just does it's job. You just rub it in to your nail bed, cuticles, and tips until absorbed and it works like magic over time.

I highhhhhllllyyy recommend this product! You can find it in the nail tool section of most Walmarts for about $4.89ish. You can also find it online, here!

That's all I have today! Hopefully I can get the rest of the CG swatches up... before I buy more! HAHA

Until next time,
Lacey

PS: My Zoya True Collection is FINALLY!!!! in the mail to me! I look forward to swatching those for you, particularly with Finger Paint's flakie polishes (Since most are swatching the Fleck Effect collection, I'm going for the FP collection that a lot of people seem to like more.) Can't wait! :]

CHINA GLAZE Haul Post 1

Pin It Alrighty, So I went a little crazy ordering from 8ty8beauty.com. I did get 2 Color Club polishes (Mol-ten and Wish Upon a Rockstar), but mostly all were China Glaze haha. Here's what I got:

 

L to R: It's Alive, Street Chic (I ordered Below Deck?), First Mate,

Traffic Jam, Four Leaf Clover, Doll House and Life Preserver

I'm only going to review 4 of them on this post, and I'll post the other 3 later this weekend! Please bare with me on the pictures. I usually use my iPhone 4, but I found my point and shoot in some of the boxes we haven't unpacked. They both have issues picking up particular colors. Ughhhh!

First up, It's Alive from the 2011 Haunting Collection: 2 Coats

I saw this swatch when it came out a few months ago and fell in love with it! I'm loving the olive green medium and small glitters! This is perfect to wear whenever, or layer it over black and it's the perfect haunting Halloween color (or well any other time bahaha, but it sure does change over black!):

I also found this a lot easier to remove than most glitter polishes.

Next up, Street Chic from the Fall 2011 Metro Collection: 2 Coats

Gorgeous, chocolate brown creme polish. Two thin coats did well for full coverage! This wasn't what I ordered. I was a little confused when I got it since I have Milani's Teddy-Bare which is SLIGHTLY similar but SC is darker and more rich, less gray. I don't mind SC at all! I just wish I had Below Deck instead haha.

Here is the comparison between China Glaze Street Chic and Milani's Teddy-Bare, to show... and to ease my mind a little haha. The difference is a lot more evident when they're next to each other, in the bottle they look a lot a like:

 

As you can see, Teddy-Bare is more gray and Street Chic is a lot more rich and chocolatey. I like them both equally, might do a brownish gradient some time soon maybe.

Third, First Mate Spring 2011 Anchors Away Collection: 2 Coats

 

IN LOVE. This is what I was looking for when I purchased Milani's Midnight Satin (which is more black). This is a gorgeous navy creme polish. Again, 2 coats did the trick! Such a smooth, beautiful navy blue! This is a must have!

And for the record, it's Anchors Aweigh ;] not Away, lettin' the Navy wife in me come out a little haha.

Lastly for today, Traffic Jam again, the Fall 2011 Metro Collection - Uptown: 2 Coats

I would consider this a raspberry, magenta, creme I think. It is a beautiful color for sure! A great go-to pink. It is verrrryyy similar to Revlon's Plummy, which is SLIGHTLY darker than Traffic Jam. Two thin coats, like the other cremes I posted today. Just a beautiful color!

And I leave you with 2 nail arts. A black french matte mani, which a friend requested on Instagram (@LACERZ if you want to follow/stalk) and the mani I finished with after swatching these CGs haha.

Sinful's Black on Black and Hard Candy's Matte-ly in Love. I only left it on for a day, I'm not a big fan of black nails on me haha. I DO love this matte polish though. I've tried both Essie and ELF's mattes. ELFs is horrid, to be honest. So streaky and rarely went matte in the 3 bottles I had! Essie's wasn't bad but I had issues with it un-matte-ing when I used my hand lotion. 

Zoya Marina, which I added last minute to their get 2 free polishes/free ship $25+ promo. I LOVE it. Beautiful dusty, metallic blue. I added a quick konad stamp using Black on Black by Sinful so it wasn't so boring for a few days haha.

I leave you with this long post haha

Until next time,

Lacey