Essie Wicked... I think?

Ocean State Job Lot is a store in New England that is just like a small discount store with a... dingy kind of feel? Don't picture TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Ross, or something like that. It's like a little less nice than Big Lots. There's no dressing room but they sell some clothes. They literally sell everything. Cosmetics, books, food, clothes, kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, toys, everything. But anyway, they're constantly getting new, random stuff. This is where I get polishes from collections that have just been discontinued. For example, Revlon Carbonite was here, Wet N Wild Bloom polishes, and they sell Chi polishes as well as OLD Maybelline polishes. I don't know, a ton of random stuff.

Anyway, wandered myself in and found a whole box of Essie polishes for $3!! Oddly enough, 90% of the bottles were labeled "Clambake", and I don't think any of the polishes were actually Clambake. The rest were labeled "Geranium" and "Downtown Brown" (which I think was legit). Some where salon bottles, some were retail bottles, some were in between. So I picked some colors I like and ultimately determined this one was probably Wicked.











2 coats Essie Wicked
1 coat Poshe

Wicked is a gorgeous deep dark blood, maroon-y red creme. Not so dark that it looks black. It's a pretty sexy red, actually.

The formula was great thankfully, as I tend to have bad luck with Essie's formula. This polish is SUPER glossy without top coat I also didn't want to put one on! I did not have problems with cuticle flooding. It's on the thinner side, but a good thinner. Very happy with it.

China Glaze VIII with Glitter Tips

As much as I'm not a huge fan of vampy colors, it's winter, and winter is the time for vampy colors (for me anyway)! I don't like when deep colors just look black, so I decided to add some glitter to China Glaze's VIII to help dress it up a little and maybe pull out some of the purple.















2 coats China Glaze VIII
1 coat Poshe
Glitter Tips with Ardene Princess Cut
1 coat Poshe

Now, the glitter is kind of in a gradient form. I didn't use anything special for this, just the brush. I was initially going to just cover the nail in the glitter, but figured I'd mix it up.

The method I used was EXTREMELY easy and you do not need any other supplies besides your polish. I just painted the tip thick with the glitter, wiped the brush on the sides of the bottle to get as much glitter off the brush as I could, then I took the brush and lightly brushed the glitter towards my cuticle. I went over the tip again to make sure the glitter was heavier there. That was it! I did top it with Poshe again because while the glitter dries pretty quickly, there were clear streaks from the base of the glitter. The Poshe just helped smooth it out.

I went a little too heavy on my index finger but didn't feel like fixing it. I was also doing this is very poor lighting so I didn't realize how thick the glitter was at the time. Lol. I did not drag the glitter all the way to my cuticle. I stopped a little bit before that. Had my lighting been better, I would've gone further. But after my index finger getting too much glitter, I figured I'd keep it safe!

Snowflake with Bundle Monster

I wore this back in December. My boyfriend suggested it to me, so I went with it. I'm finally posting it because I am trying to be more diligent about posting, and because we finally have some decent snow!! I wanted to post more snow-y nails when it started snowing, but we are clearly getting a much later than usual start on snow. So anyway, onto the nails!!








SNOW!!



2 coats Orly Royal Navy
1 coat Poshe
Snowflake stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM14 and Konad White

Royal Navy is such a fall back blue for me. I love wear this color!! It's so versatile, so unique, so just gorgeous! Shawn (the boyfriend) was a little specific about the color blue for this, so I immediately pulled Royal Navy.

I like this nail. It's simple, wintery, and quick enough to do. Plus I'm a big fan of that snowflake stamp. I wore it once earlier this year and I can't say you won't see it again before the year is up!

Up All Night with Orly Twilight

I picked up Orly Twilight and Shining Star at Sally's on clearance at the end of this Christmas season. Got 'em for $2 each! I wanted to try Shining Star on Enchanted Forest because I love gold and green, but I've really attacked you guys with Enchanted Forest as it's one of my favorite polishes. I had on Up All Night and I figured it might look pretty with Twilight.













2 coats China Glaze Up All Night
1 coat Poshe
1 coat Twilight

Twilight is an interesting TOP COAT. Yes, it is a top coat. I saw a couple of reviews on MUA rating this polish low because I don't think they realized it was meant to be a top coat. But as a top coat, it's actually very pretty.

The formula was fine. It's a top coat, hard to screw that up when it's something simple like this. It did not smear my polish underneath. You could use a light touch and get just a little shimmer, or go over it a few times (which is what I did) to pull out a lot of shimmer.

China Glaze Up All Night

Sorry I've been MIA. No excuse other than I've been very busy and it's difficult to find time to upload photos. I have to do it at my parents house because they have a desktop I'm used to working with and I'm currently using a Mac and it drives me nuts to crop and tag on. So I only upload photos when I can get to my parents. Anyway...

I picked up Up All Night a couple of yeas ago at Sally's when it was on clearance. I grabbed it along with some polishes from the X Collection (VII and VIII). I've worn it here and there since, mostly in the colder weather because I tend to wear "appropriate" colors for the season. It's a pretty nice, basic polish.

Direct Sunlight








Not direct sunlight






2 coats China Glaze Up All Night
1 coat Poshe

Up All Night is a deep, dark blue that I actually don't think tends to look black. You know how some vampy, dark colors just look black when you look down at your hands? This boarders pretty dark in some lights, but I never noticed it truly looking black. The bottle has a shimmer that doesn't translate clearly on the nail and it looks like more of a creme finish with some extra shine.

The formula was fine. I found that it's not perfectly opaque in 1 coat like I'd expect colors like this to be. Not a problem, though. It looked amazing after two coats and I will never complain that a polish requires two coats. That's like a standard. The consistency was great. On the thinner side so it was very workable, but not so thin that it would flood cuticles.

Swatches & Review - E.L.F. Holiday 2011 Nail Polish Set at Target

This is the second 5 pack of ELF polishes I own... bringing my total to 10 ELF polishes lol. This is the 'tis the season to be beautiful set that is currently at Target for $5, I found mine on an end cap with a bunch of other holiday sets. I couldn't say no. I mean, there are some interesting looking polishes and 5 polishes for $5? Yes, please!!

I don't usually review polishes. I guess I always write a review on my polishes when I post them, but I'm treating this as more of a formal review, hence the title. I'm just swatching the polishes and talking about the formula. Instead of waiting for me to wear these, I figured I'd do it all at once. I hate when I can't find swatches of cheaper polishes, so I hope this helps you decide if picking up this set is worth it!!

The 5 polishes in this set are:
Mod Mauve
Royal Purple
Red Velvet
Metal Madness
Golden Goddess

The cap is NOT a vanity cap. You will be painting with the square cap, but I did not have any problem doing so. The brushes are oval and very slightly flattened. It is obvious that there are two sides to the brush for you to paint with because it is not round. Overall, the brushes were better than the spring set I reviewed, but two of them could still improve.

Scroll all the way down for photos of each polish with Golden Goddess top coat

Mod Mauve





2 coats Mod Mauve

This was the worst brush, but it wasn't that bad. It had one stray bristle that stuck out the side of the brush. But it was just one. This was also the widest brush of the 5, not necessarily a bad thing. It wasn't too wide. The end of the brush wasn't even, it was on a slight slant, which made it a little difficulty to paint evenly around my cuticles. But it still wasn't that bad.

Mod Mauve is a kind of chocolately mauve creme, kind of an auburn almost. Definitely looks different in different lighting. I don't think it's too "old" of a color. Something about it (the chocolately part?) makes it seem more current. Nice, simple.

The formula was smooth, not streaky but seemed uneven, then it self leveled and was not uneven. The consistency was great. Medium consistency, nicely pigmented. Not too bad at all!!

Royal Purple






2 coats Royal Purple

This brush was fine. Royal Purple is a blue based fuchsia-violet with a shimmery sheen. The shimmer seems almost silvery in the bottle, but comes across fuchsia/purple on the nail. Very pretty.

The formula was FANTASTIC. Reminded me of the old, non 3 Free polishes (but it is 3 Free). Thin, easily workable but very pigmented despite it being thin and flowy. Smooth and not streaky at all. I like this formula better than mod mauve, but it's that formula difference between a creme and a shimmer. I find that it's not uncommon for them to be different and have their own qualities.

Red Velvet






2 coats Red Velvet

This brush was a little thinner than Royal Purples. Not in a bad way, just an objective thing.

The color looks much richer with a second coat. I was skeptical when I saw the first. But with the second coat, it's a lovely, foil-y berry undertones red that I'm going to say is perfect for a darker winter/Christmas red. I liked Golden Goddess best over this color.

The formula was just like Royal Purple. Like exactly the same.

Metal Madness






2 coats Metal Madness

This brush was going back to being like Mod Mauves, it had kind of a slant.

This is a charcoal base with holographic micro glitter. Very interesting. The glitter is more prominent in real life than in the photos.

The polish went on without problems. It does need two coats, it was kind of sheer with just one, but totally opaque with 2. Wasn't streaky, stayed even, thicker than Royal Purple and Red Velvet but seemed less pigmented, which is probably why the two coats is necessary.

Golden Goddess




This is a glitter top coat in the bunch. It will not become opaque, which is fine seeing as how I'm assuming that was not the intention of the polish.

It is well packed with gold micro glitter and it was round iridescent glitter. The round glitter isn't too plentiful when on the nail. Just painting it on gives you several pieces, but not a ton. They don't have a problem sticking to the brush, I just think there's SO much micro glitter and not as much of the round glitter. Not a bad thing, still pretty.

Here is Golden Goddess over all of the other colors:


Over Mod Mauve


Over Royal Purple


Over Red Velvet (my fav)


Over Metal Madness


So overall, is this set worth $5? ABSOLUTELY!!

Gold Holly Stamping

I'm kinda obsessed with Gilty Pleasure for Christmas. It's just such a gorgeous, real gold, I hope I have enough time to use it again in another Christmas design as well. But here is just a quick, simple stamp with Gilty Pleasure.









iPhone photo that I think shows that the stamp was much more opaque than the other photos make it seem




2 coats Sally Hansen Gilty Pleasure
1 coat Poshe
Holly from Bundle Monster plate BM14 with Orly Enchanted Forest for the leaves and Orly Poison Apple for the berries.

I had intentions of putting a tiny red rhinestone in place of the berries. But I realized that I didn't have any and wasn't in a position to be able to go get some. So it stayed as is. Wish I had gotten a chance to do that, though.