Forever 21 Love & Beauty Pink

L&B has the most obnoxious names for their polishes. Their names are literally the color of the polish. This one is called "Pink". More specifically, it's MA120 Pink, just in case you were curious.

I have been dying to wear this because it's so similar to a peachy color I've been wanting. However, this one is just a little too pink, so I think I have to take a trip to NYC and pick up Illamasqua Purity. Anyway, here's "Pink".

**This polish was EXTREMELY difficult to photograph accurately. This first photo is as close as I could get to the actual color**


Sunlight




Shade




2 coats Pink
1 coat Poshe

This polish is one of those neon (bright) pastels. Definitely not a true neon, though it photographs almost as difficult as a neon, which is a HUGE pain. It's a bright creme salmon that goes on several shades darker than the bottle. It has more of a peachy hue than the photos show, it has almost a coral kinda feel. It is also brighter in real life. From photos I've seen, it looks VERY comparable to Orly Cotton Candy, however I do not own Cotton Candy to compare directly.

The formula was totally fine. Opaque and streak-free in 2 coats. First coat seemed a little uneven, but that was totally fixed with the second coat. No cuticle drag, either. The brush is pretty average, and that's actually not a bad thing!!

Forever 21 Mint Green

MY BLOG!!!!!! I've missed you!! I know I only posted 3 days ago, but those nails were actually from almost a week ago. I have had an INSANE week with no time to sit down and do anything. I didn't even get to do Fourth of July nails :( That really sucks because I had SO many ideas and I was SO excited for them, but I worked the first through the third and can't wear polish to work. So that was out. And I was trying to hurry up to get to the beach with some friends on the 4th. I tried using these nail polish strips from Nailene, but they were SO horrible I gave up after 3 nails. I'll make a post about those soon, hopefully.

Anyway, I was at Forever 21 recently with my sister, and I picked up 3 polishes. Can I please say again how much I LOVE Forever 21 polishes (they're actually called Love & Beauty)?? Huge selection of colors and finishes and great quality. Best thing? They cost $2.80. Worst thing? They have the most stupid and frustrating names. Online the names look better, but when you're in the store, the names are just dumb. I picked up "Mint", "Lime", and "Taupe". The most frustrating thing is there are different polishes with the same names.

Anyway, today I'm wearing Mint.

DISCLAIMER
These photos make my cuticles look disgustingly dry. That's NOT my cuticles. This is the result of a brand new bottle of Poshe that was so not-viscous it leaked all over my cuticles and dried so it makes my cuticles look all nasty. Please compare to my previous post to prove my cuticles aren't actually gross.







2 coats Mint
1 coat Poshe

I got a defective brush with this one :( This is the only bad brush I've gotten from Love & Beauty. I have 7 others were perfect brushes. I'm going to say this is my own fault for not checking. The 2 others I bought that day have perfect brushes. I even opened this polish to check consistency. I wanted to make sure it looked like it was going to be opaque. But I paid no attention to the brush. It actually wasn't THAT bad, but the spread of the brush was uneven, and the bristles just weren't dense and even. The result of this was I had to be more meticulous around my cuticle. Other than that, it was okay.

The color is lovely. It's a very light, blue based mint green. It's very fresh looking and will make your hands look SUPER tan.

The formula was fine, but the wonky brush made it a little difficult. It was opaque with 2 coats, not too thick or too thin, just a great creme. As a result of the brush, I had quite a few bubbles that I noticed with my macro photos. Not noticeable in real life. But I do remember seeing bubbles when I painted, and I know it's because of the weird bristles and spacing of the brush.

Love & Beauty Coral

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but in case I haven't, I LOVE Forever 21 polishes. If you see a color you like, do not hesitate to pick it up. They cost $2.80 and I haven't been disappointed yet! And they have a good range of finishes, not just simple cremes like many stores do. Love & Beauty if the name of their cosmetics line, but I tend to use Forever 21 and Love & Beauty interchangeably when I talk about their polish.

Looking on their website at their polish, it looks like they have interesting names such as "Fun Fuchsia", "Feminine Wiles", "Liquid Silver", and "Clear Skies". However, when I'm in the store, their polishes don't have those names at all. My small collection of Forever 21 polishes consists of names such as "Pink", "Nude", "Taupe", and "Light Green". And that's how I see them labeled in the store. I had also noticed that in the store, there was more than one polish called "Pink" for example, but they were certainly not the same polish. I don't know if the interesting names are just for online purposes and they're the same as the ones in the store or what. Regardless, it's odd. But anyway, here's "Coral".













Close Up


2 coats Coral
1 coat Poshe

Not a color I tend to gravitate to generally, but it's really gorgeous. By the name, it obviously suggests that it's coral, but it's definitely a red coral. The other thing that I love is the very fine gold shimmer. It gives the polish a nice dimension that greatly compliments the overall look and adds a warmth to the polish while still maintaining that it's definitely a summer color. It's clearly not just a creme. The shimmer is more noticeable in the bottle, and because of the orange-ness of the color, the polish certainly does not look gold on the nail. It's just beautiful. And I don't tend to wear reds. Granted I wouldn't call this strictly red, but it definitely leans that way. I do love coral, though.

The formula was great. Opaque in 2 coats, not streaky or uneven at all. The polish consistency was on the thin side, but thin like old OPI before the formula change, not thin like watery and unworkable. So this makes for a very easy to work with polish. The brush average size and is rounded and very dense with clear bristles. It could be a little more flat in my opinion, but it doesn't do that stupid flare thing at the tip like some round brushes do. I think it's because the brush is so dense.

Love & Beauty Nude

This was actually my NOTD yesterday. I don't usually get to wear nail polish on Saturday's because I work every Saturday, however I had yesterday off for a wedding!! My dress was very loud, it was actually this dress from Forever 21:



So I wanted neutral nails. I realized I literally had NO opaque nude nail polish. Nothing even close to it. I had sheer polishes, but they were all unbuildable sheers. I asked on MUA for recs for a nude polish for pale skin. I got some good suggestions, my favorite being Essie Topless & Barefoot. I had seen it at Walmart a few weeks ago, but when I went to look for it, they didn't have it. Neither did Target, drug stores, or 2 Ultas in my area. And I had no time to order the polish. I wasn't impressed by any others, and I didn't want to spend $8.50 on OPI Samoan Sand. I remembered seeing a few neutrals at Forever 21 when I bought my dress, so I wandered myself over there and picked up "Nude" and "Camel". Camel was way too dark for what I wanted, but I felt Nude was totally acceptable!!



This is 2 coats Love & Beauty Nude
1 coat SV

I had actually wanted something a little lighter and more cream-ish, but this worked well enough.