Leprechaun Puke

Aka Julep Emilie and CND Sheer 24k Sparkle


I am still up in the air about Julep, the polishes are pretty good, but I cannot get over the price per ounce ($50+!!). Anyway, I got Emilie on a BOGO deal and since I am a Maven I get free shipping, so this polish cost me $7 (still the same price as Zoya for a little more than half as much polish :-/). Anyway, I wanted to play around with something for our upcoming Holiday Party (I call it a Solstice Party, hubby calls it a Christmas Party). Turns out I got something more like St. Patty's Day in December...

Flash:

No Flash:

No flash is more color accurate.

If a Leprechaun drank too much Guinness and puked, I'd imagine it to look like my ring finger (since we're equating flakies to puke nowadays). Maybe he puked on another Leprechaun and that explains the green?

Anyway, It's a very nice color, it applied well in two coats. It was slightly watery and tended to pool a little, but nothing totally horrific. I'd describe it as a kelly green creme.

24k sparkle is what I am really excited about. I got is as part of a CND set for $14. The set had this, a plum creme and a navy creme. I haven't tried the cremes yet, but I love this, just as I love all of the other CND effects, particularly the sparkles (Sapphire Sparkle FTW!!). I really want to put this over CG Velvet Bow.

I plan to try to review my latest Julep box some time soon, so stay tuned!

Big Burrito Nails

Aka Even an Envelope Can Be Inspiring

So my wonderful non-state-sanctioned husband is a subscriber to the "Big Burrito mailing list"... It's basically a restaurant franchise that includes Mad Mex and Casbah here in Pittsburgh. And now you're asking "WTF does this have to do with nails, Trbo?" And I answer, "Stop being so damn impatient! I'm getting there!"

Sorry, didn't mean to yell at you. Anyway, he got some holiday coupons from Big Burrito (nothing to write home about really - $10 off an entree at a place that's approx $60/plate? I'd feel totally ghetto pulling out that coupon, I have to say). They came in this gorgeous metallic/shimmery/matte green envelope. I told him that I needed a nail polish that color. To which he replied something like "you mean you don't already have that color? I don't believe it."

So, I set out to recreate that beautiful envelope... (Picture of said envelope is, sadly, unavailable)

Ok, wipe your chin, there's a little drool...

Here's what I used: One coat of Nailtek Foundation II, 2 coats of Sephora nail color in Prom Night (not to be confused with $OPI, these are the little mini Sephora brand Polishes), one coat of CND Effects in Gold Pearl and 2 coats of Essie Matte About You topcoat.

Application: Sephora Polish - Very nice. Love the brushes in these. They're like the Sally Hansen Instadri brushes if those brushes were done right and not put in a horrible Polish formula. Flat, thick and rounded at the edges. Plus, it's  mini bottle so the stem on the brush isn't too long causing dripping. They're also not so wide that they splay off the nail. It was opaque in 2 coats.
CND Effects - Ok, this one is a "pearl" which pretty much translates to "Hello, brushstrokes!" but other than that it applied nicely.

I am really digging the matte over shimmer/frost. It's still very shiny, but satiny shiny instead of glossy shiny. It looks like metallic velvet to me.

So did I get close to the envelope color? Well, I don't have the envelope handy to compare, but I will say there was much less yellow in it. If they had "silver pearl", it would have worked better. Alas, this is what I had to work with and I am quite pleased with the outcome.

Heart Purple

I LOOOOOVE purple. So much in fact, that I caught myself using purple twice in a row (I usually change it up every time). 

I got a couple of hauls from transdesign and Sally's, plus a nice little gem of a Polish at Ross. Have a look:

This was after a couple of days of wear. It's Essie Sexy Divide ($8 at Transdesign.com or at Giant Eagle and Rite Aid) with CND Sapphire Sparkle ($5.50 at transdesign.com). This was taken with my Droid without flash (damn mercury bulbs!!)

With flash. Isn't that sparkle DIVINE?? It's a predominantly blue (very bright and almost teal) sparkle that flashes a purple/pink color. Duochrome sparkle? I'm in! Sexy Divide applied well, 2 coats over Nailtek Foundation II, one coat of Sparkle and one coat of Seche Vite.

*@&*#&*^!*$)($$!!!!!!!!!! Do you see this??? Yes, slightly less blue than shown... this color is effing AMAZING! It's Cosmetic Arts, made by Forsythe - makers of Color Club and Fingerpaints, and found at Ross Dress for Less for $1.99. I have a few of their Polishes and really like them. This one was a bit watery, but in a weird way. It was watery but didn't want to spread very well. You'd normally think that watery would mean a dripping, pooling mess. It wasn't awful, but not top-notch formula either. It did reach opacity in 2 coats, however, and dried super fast (and semi-matte, which makes me think there is some neon pigment in there).

The accent nail is a brand I have never heard of before that I picked up at Rite Aid for $3.99. It's Hedy's ma.nish.ma. holographic nail color. That's what the brand is called. The color is Blaster. I don't see much holo but it is sparkly and duochrome-y. There are tiny pink and blue sparkles suspended in what look like a milky, lavender base. One coat, went on nicely, not much else to report expect the $4 bottle is pretty small - .22 oz. Not really worth it for what amounts to a layering Polish that I probably won't use much.