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!!

Nfu Oh 65 is GORGEOUS

I treated myself to this polish for my bday. I already own Nfu Oh 61, and that obviously means I HAVE to own more. I love this light blue holo!!















I also wanted to make sure to include some photos that show the polish NOT in sunlight (when it's at its complete holo potential).

Outside in the shade:


Indoor lighting:




3 coats Nfu Oh 65
No topcoat

Just as with 61, I used Nail Tek II and Sally Hansen Double Duty as base coats (silk wrapped nails get SH and non-silk wrapped get NT). I have never used Nfu Oh's Aqua Base, which apparently makes application super easy. When not using a specialty base, you need to be VERY gentle with this polish and use as few strokes as possible. I'm talking 3 strokes per nail MAX. If you do more than that, you start getting bald spots. So with that, you need a VERY light touch so it doesn't pull up the polish that's already applied. It's not unmanageable by any means, you just have to practice with it and be patient. I don't think I'd waste my time with this if it were a simple creme polish, but because it's a beautiful, linear holo, it gets my time.

Love/Hate Relationship with Gargantuan Green Grape

I stared at my Helmer for a good 20 minutes today trying to decide what to wear. I even went through my spreadsheet and tried to pick an untried. Everything I wanted to wear was either blue, pink, or glittery. I've been wearing SO many different blues and pinks lately, and I'm avoiding glitter due to numerous (4) silk wraps because removal would be awful. And I flat out refuse to wear any dark/vampy colors during the summertime. I also wanted to use my new BM plates with whatever color I chose.

And finally I chose OPI Gargantuan Green Grape, which I haven't worn in a LONG time. You'll read why after the photos.

**These first photos in the sunlight are more accurate color-wise**



















4 (Yes, FOUR) coats Gargantuan Green Grape
1 coat Poshe

GGG is a delicious bright, pastel springy green. It does NOT look like snot on your nails like it could have potential to. I have not found another green like this despite my numerous searches. It's very unique and just so lovely.

The problem is a HUGE downfall. Aside from my disdain for the ProWide brush, this formula is crap. You have to be prepared to baby this polish. It is thin and streaky, requires a delicate touch, and you cannot use too many strokes or it will give you cuticle drag like whoa. Even after 4 coats, it coulda used another because there are some bare spots, but they're not too noticeable.
I don't understand why OPI would put out such a terribly quality polish. Maybe because they know it's a gorgeous, unique color and if they changed the formula, it'd change the color.

It's unfortunate because this would be such a staple polish for me if it weren't for the formula.

Frisky Print

Frisky was another one of those polishes I knew I'd do something more with. I had this idea when I initially wore Frisky, and I was tempted to just do this then. But I figured I'd wear Frisky on its own for a day before doing this.
I got the new set of Bundle Monster plates for my birthday and was super excited to use them. This is what I did:







Not Direct Sunlight


2 coats Orly Frisky
1 coat Poshe
Bundle Monster plate BM-224 with China Glaze Techno Teal

I never had much of a problem with the size of the full nail designs with the old Bundle Monster, but these new ones are definitely huge!! I wasn't used to that, so it was like I was relearning because it was so difficult for me to pick up the image fully and evenly, which is why some areas are a little spotty. But ultimately, I like that this is subtle but still noticeable, and the pattern makes those spotty areas much less obvious in real life.

Orly Frisky

Frisky is one of the polishes I got for my birthday. It recently came out in Orly's Happy Go Lucky collection, along with 3 other bright polishes with simple, fun names (Frolic, Flirty, and Fresh). This is one of those polishes I wanted more for the name, but I also LOVE blue polishes, so that was an extra plus!!









2 coats Frisky
1 coat Poshe

Frisky is a bright teal, turquoise kind of blue. In comparison to China Glaze's For Audrey, Frisky is much brighter and obviously more blue, due to it's lack of strong green undertones.

The formula was another amazing creme from Orly. I don't get why more people aren't all over this brand for its great cremes. It could be opaque with one thicker coat, but I used 2 medium coats. It glided on beautifully, there was no cuticle drag despite the thickness of the polish. It stayed completely even with no streaking.

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.

Newport Nails

I'm pretty behind on posting because I recently spent a night in Newport, RI and wasn't around my computer until late, and then had a crazy busy day the next day, then I've been at work. That's ok, though, because I did my Summer Neon Crackle again. I spent the night out in Newport with my boyfriend, and when I went there, I had these nails. I only live less than an hour away from Newport, but it made for a nice mini getaway.

Again, this mani has been posted before, but because I loved it so much, I had to wear it again!!











1 coat of an unknown neon pink Orly (it might be Passion Fruit? Or at least similar to it?)
1 coat China Glaze Lightning Bolt

Be prepared for ramblings about my trip to Newport, RI. If you're not interested, skip this part!!
We had dinner at The Red Parrot last night, which we had previously tried to go to a couple of years ago. We had been with some friends, all of us over 21, and I don't remember the details, I think we were trying to get into the bar. Point being, one of our friends had a reissue RI license because he had lost his. They wouldn't accept it, so they wouldn't let him in. I don't quite understand why they couldn't. Wouldn't a reissue still mean it's a real license? So he can't get in there until his license expires and he needs to renew it? I don't know. Anyway, The Red Parrot. The food was fine, good selection for vegetarians (my boyfriend is far from a vegetarian haha). We had some spring rolls as an appetizer and my boyfriend LOVED the red pepper dipping sauce they had with it, and he asked what exactly was in it. The waitress told us she wasn't quite sure because they don't make it there. It was kind of annoying to learn they just buy the sauce as-is. It's not like they're a chain restaurant, ya know? So what else is just store bought and then served to us? Then I treated us to some awesome Awful Awfuls from the Newport Creamery. Delicious!!

The next morning it took my boyfriend FOR-FREAKIN'-EVER to get up, but it didn't really matter. We wondered back to where we were yesterday and figured we'd walk through the shops and just spend the day there. The shops in Newport, RI are ridiculously redundant. Let me give you a tour... Jewelry Store next to a Clothing Shop next to a Tourist Shop next to a Gallery/Antique Shop next to a Jewelry Store next to Clothing Shop next to an Ice Cream Shop next to a Tourist Shop next to a Gallery/Antique Shop next to a Jewelry Store... you get the idea. They have a few random places that don't fit that description, but they're not wowing by any shot. For example, they have an Army Navy store. It's full of like mass production camo stuff and some tourist things. Other Army Navy stores I have been in have more realistic type of things. So basically, if you're thinking about going to the shops in Newport, I suggest heading southwest and going to Mystic, CT to check out Olde Mistick Village. It's a thousand times more interesting when it comes to the variety of shops.

My boyfriend convinced me to get into one of these little 3 wheel street dune buggy (apparently they're called Scoot Coupes) and drive around near the mansions and ocean. We had done this before, only we had a moped. This little car was so bizarre, but whatev, it was fun anyway. We then wanted to grab lunch, and some chick was handing out 10% off coupons to a restaurant called H2O, which we had eaten at on a previous trip to Newport. It sits partly on a dock, so you're RIGHT on the water, which was nice. But the service was horrible!! They had a whole 7 tables with people, so they were not even close to being busy. Their lunch menu is very small, but that's fine with me because the Roasted asparagus, red pepper, and hummus sandwich sounded amazing. My boyfriend got some grilled chicken sandwich. So the guy, who I didn't think was actually a server, took our order. 25 minutes after we had been there, the girl who I assumed was our server finally came up to us and asked if we were ready to order. Wow. Yeah, we already did. Let me remind you, there were SEVEN tables with people at them!! Just 7. So our food finally comes out, the poor people at the table next to us still didn't have theirs and I could tell they were annoyed and I don't blame them. My sandwich was correct, but my boyfriend got some fried fish sandwich... not what he ordered at all. So they finally brought out the correct meal, and ultimately took it off the bill without us mentioning anything about it, which I thought was very considerate though I wouldn't have minded paying for it. The awkward thing was my sandwich was server on a soft grinder roll. Like a store bought hot dog bun type of thing. The completely wrong type of bread for this type of sandwich, I just ended up eating everything off the bread with a fork. The French fries were perfect, though. My ideal fry! Haha. That poor table next to us got their food once we were finished eating, and they had even messed up one of their orders. Very awkward service. And the prices were WAY too high for the situation. My sandwich was $12!! Too expensive, in my opinion, for a lunch sandwich and poor service. But at least it was good minus the bread.

We walked around some more and stopped in a place called Cupcake Charlie's for dessert. It was a cute little cupcake shop, nothing particularly special about it except you could see the kitchen out in the open, which was nice. The cupcakes looked amazing, very appealing and well garnished. We chose to split a Chocolate Raspberry Surprise that was actually fantastic. The chocolate cake was very moist and not artificial tasting. Apparently it had a filling of chocolate raspberry ganache, but I noticed it on top of the cupcake/under the frosting, not so much actually inside the cupcake. The frosting had a very strong raspberry flavor, and that was definitely a good thing. Here's a photo of the display case courtesy of my iPhone:


The cupcake we had is the one in the case on the right on the middle shelf with the pink frosting and cute little chocolate straws.

After that, we just headed home... well, we stopped at Ulta because I still had a $5 off $10 coupon that expires today. Picked up two polishes I had been wanting... well, my boyfriend did and he's keeping them until my birthday. Haha!!

Bad Day for Orly Bailamos

Lately I've been painting my nails at night for the next day. I never have problems with sheet marks or anything like that, and it leaves me time in the morning to get ready doing other things besides my nails. So last night I decided I was going to wear Orly Bailamos. This is one of my favorite Orly polishes!! It was in their summer Viva! collection. My sister chose this for me for my birthday last year, and I actually ended up getting a back up bottle when a girlfriend of mine who works at CVS saw it on clearance there for like 99 cents.

As I said, I did my nails last night. Well today is ucky and grey and is supposedly going to rain in the afternoon and evening. This meant AWFUL lighting for photos of this polish I'm so disappointed. This could be solved if I had a light box, but as of now, I'm not interested in making one. But the photos aren't THAT bad, their just not as bright as they could be and aren't showing the full potential of the polish. The benefit of them, however, is you can see a very realistic version of this polish, instead of it being in the most ideal setting on a gorgeous summer day.









2 coats Bailamos
1 coat Poshe

The color is amazing. Gorgeous, summery, ocean-y, just amazing. It is incredibly dimensional with a duochrome feel, but it's definitely not a duochrome. I've seen most photos that show the aqua/turquoise in the polish, but mine are really showcasing the teal and cerulean side. In some indoor lighting, I've noticed it even looks arguably green-ish. It has a cohesive shimmer that blends well with the base colors, and I think it's the shimmer that gives this polish so many interpretations. Think deep Caribbean ocean.

Great formula, opaque in 2 coats, no streaking. A very happy medium between thin and thick. I find Orly's cremes to be on the thicker side, but this is thinner than that. A huge reason why I love Orly.

I have plans for this polish tomorrow. Not much, but I can definitely build onto it for a couple of days. Unfortunately, I only have 2 days with this polish (due to work), and it looks like rain both days. I'm so irritated with the weather here. Because of these random 1 or 2 nice days, then straight back to cloudy, rainy, chilly, it just still hasn't felt like summer :(

How To: Funky, Fun Fauxnad French

Ok, I don't really wanna call this a French, because IMO, it's not. But I really liked the alliteration I had going for the title. It sounded more fun than "Funky Fun Fauxnad Tips" which is what I really wanted to call it.

I texted a pic of this to several of my friends, and two of them came back describing this mani in these words:

"They look like go go nails!" and another friend said I should do nails for weddings, and I said something along the lines of who the heck would want these nails for their wedding and she said "U could do all gypsy weddings!!!!!!!!"

I knew I wanted to do something with my Tree Hugger mani, but I wasn't sure what. It's like the perfect base color for something really awesome. Dotting, striping, Konading, decaling, 3D art-ing, SOMETHING!! I needed to do something to it. I almost went with dotting, but I couldn't quite pinpoint what I wanted to do. Then I had an idea for a BM plate, but wasn't sure if that's really what I wanted. So I asked my boyfriend what he thought, and he chose the BM design. This is the final result...











What You'll Need:
♥ A bright, fun polish as a base (I used 2 coats China Glaze Tree Hugger)
♥ Your favorite fast dry top coat (I used Poshe)
♥ A white polish for the base for the fauxnad (I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On)
♥ A black polish for the fauxnad stamping (I used Sinful Black on Black)
♥ Bundle Monster plate BM21
♥ Stamper and Scraper
♥ Tape

How To Do It:
1. Started with my base of Tree Hugger. You can use whatever color you'd like.



2. Tape off a diagonal section leaving the tip of the nail exposed. Make sure the tape isn't raised in little areas at the line you'll be painting on.
*A tip from Chloe's Nails that I highly suggest is stick the tape to your hand first to get rid of some of the super stickiness. That way it won't peel up your base.



3. Paint over the exposed tip with White On. I used just one coat if you were curious.



4. Remove the tape slowly and while the polish is still wet! You don't have to paint and rip the tape off immediately, just don't let the white dry or you risk pulling up the white. Top with 1 coat Poshe and wait until dry.



5. Re-tape the same way you did when you applied the white. It doesn't have to be PERFECTLY exact, but get as close as you can.



6. Use this design from Bundle Monster plate BM21 and paint with Black on Black.



7. Pick it up on the stamper.
*I know it missed a small portion, but this does not matter. It's not going to affect the way it stamps.



8. Stamp into the white HORIZONTALLY, the way I showed the stamper above. Don't stamp vertically like you would if you were doing it over the entire nail. You need more width than length, so it makes more sense to do it this way.


* You can see that the part that didn't pick up on the stamper doesn't even come near the white. It's all the way on the bottom right part of the tape.

9. Remove the tape and voila! Top with another coat of Poshe.