CoverGirl Outlast: Out of the Blue

Hey, everyone! Thank you for being so patient with me. I have been adjusting to having two amazing kids instead of just one! E is healthy and happy and C is a huge help. They are both amazing and I feel very lucky!

Today I have another gorgeous blue to show off! I'm not trying to bore you, I'm just on a blue kick! I needed blue nails to go take some newborn and mommy pics. So here is my first CoverGirl Outlast nail lacquer: Out of the Blue. It's an eye-popping cerulean shade that R bought for me when I was in labor at the hospital!

This is one coat! This color is an opaque creme and it's a luscious formula that doesn't have any problems with application at all. I used one coat of HK Girl on top in case E woke up while I was painting. Manis take so much longer now!!!!!

What do you think of this shade? Have you tried CoverGirl? I want to get more!

Baby Hunch Contest Winner!

Gooood morning!  I hope you all don't think I kept you waiting for too long!  Today is the first time I have sat down at the computer since I have been home.  You may have noticed that my son E has arrived! <3 <3 <3  This means that I closed the Baby Hunch Contest (closed officially the day after he was born, while I was in the hospital), and that means it's time to announce the winner! :D  Real quick: the first entry which qualified to win as a blog follower, as you can see and may know already, is Mim, AKA my mommy!  She is a big fan, obviously, but her guess was for fun.  As excited as she was to have guessed so closely, she knows this contest is for you amazing readers and she said she will settle for access to my collection (LOL!).  So without further ado:

I am so pleased to announce that you, Turtlechick12, had the best score in my Baby Hunch Guessing Contest! Congratulations!!!!  Thanks so much for being an avid reader & commenter of my blog; I was truly pleased to see your guess up at the top of the list as the best guess from a blog follower!  I have emailed you to get your shipping address to send you your nail polish prize! :D

E came about 2 weeks early, and it looks like everyone was expecting for me to go full term (or longer! *gasp!*), which I also expected! Surprise! LOL. For anyone who is curious about order of correct guesses you can access the list on the BabyHunch Pool Page: Here

Thank you all so very much for reading my blog & for all of your support and comments!  Thank you for entering the contest, I hope it was fun!!!  Also, here are the birth stats of my baby, in case anyone is curious! :D

Birth date:  April 18, 2013

Birth time: 2:18 p.m.

Weight: 6 lbs., 2.6 oz.

Height: 18 inches

Hair: lots of wavy brown hair

Eyes: gray    

Sinful Shine Skinny Dipping

Hi, all! Just a quick post to let you know I haven't forgotten about you! I have been so so so busy with the new baby + the five year old that I really am exhausted! Here is the color I finally managed to get on: Skinny Dipping! This shade is part of the new Sinful Shine with Gel Tech collection. My hubby found the display while I was in the hospital and grabbed this gorgeous blue for me! What do you think? Do you have any of the Sinful Shine colors? The formula is amazing to work with; very creamy and easy to use. It has a wonderful shine to it alone but I needed my nails dry fast in case my son woke up so these have a coat of SV on them. I'm going to bed now - he will be back up in a few hours!

NPR: Rafflecopter Giveaway! Win a Custom Garter Set or Tutu!

Hi, all!  How is your Wednesday going?  I just got done doing a little baby shopping at Target with my BFF Jessica!  I think I am fully prepared for E's arrival!

Jessica has been my bestie for a loooong time and I would really like to support her amazing growing business, so today I bring to you her first giveaway!

Vow to Vogue by Jessica Lee

Vow to Vogue by Jessica Lee creates stunning, high quality garter sets and tutus for any size and any occasion!  Every order is custom designed by you and she has a creative gift for adding any personal touches you can think of, i.e. feathers, broaches, pendants, lace, etc.  Her dainty garter sets are perfect for a wedding or celebration, and her durable tutus are perfect for any photo shoot or celebration for the Princess in your life!

Vow to Vogue by Jessica Lee is found on Facebook

&

her current giveaway is under the Facebook giveaway tab; a Rafflecopter giveaway, here is the link: Win a Custom Garter Set or Tutu!

(https://www.facebook.com/VowtoVogueByJessicaLee/app_228910107186452)

Terms & Conditions:

Only one prize will be given out of your choice between the two options. You may decline or transfer your prize to someone else. I will announce the winner at 8 AM Thursday morning. You have 24 hours to claim your prize or another winner will be selected. Thank you for entering.

I highly recommend these quality products.  They are made with love and are created to last!  The photo in this post is an example pic: one of my favorite tutus that she designed modeled by her lovely daughter!

ellagee's 1985 Neon Shimmer Collection!

Please note that these products were generously provided to me for review by Laura Garrett, owner and creator of ellagee Handcrafted Nail Polish.  The compensation in exchange for this review is pictured below, and provided polishes/gifts are graciously accepted and do not affect my opinions regarding the products.  This blog review post is my honest opinion for the owner's and any consumers' benefit.  I would like to thank Laura again for giving me this opportunity, especially since I am obsessed with her creations now!  :)

(Warning: Post is pic heavy!!)

These babies glow under UV light!
Photo borrowed with permission from ellagee's Etsy shop

Photo borrowed with permission from ellagee's Etsy shop

So after a long, anxious wait (thanks a ton, post office!!!) I finally received the AMAZING samples Laura sent me to review from her new 1985 Neon Shimmer Collection!  I cannot tell you guys enough how impressed I am with these colors and how badly I want to get a couple more of them!

As before Laura sent me a sweet little package with a note & some Smarties (mm mm!).

Yay! Her business card was included as well!

 

L-R "Dude!," "Like, Totally Coral," & "Totally Blue-bular"

Let's start with the basics for each color so I don't overwhelm you with redundancy.  Firstly I put down a single coat of Sinful Color's Snow Me White under two coat of each of the neons.  Unless otherwise stated I used my Orly Top to Bottom as a base and didn't use any top coat because these colors are seriously stunning on their own!  The formula for each one was bliss to use.  The first coat goes on evenly and very pretty and only becomes sheer when you're running out of polish on the brush.  The second coat was for good measure and did not give me any grief: no clumping, no streaking, no dragging.  The few times I did have an issue (because I'm a klutz and my orangewood stick drug a little extra off the top or side) I was actually, believe it or not, able to dab a little bit of color correctively to the area and it just melted right together!!!  It's such a forgiving formula.  Most colors would streak or they would look like a messy coat on top, but not these.  I don't know how she did it, but she left me wishing every neon I grab could be such a pleasure to use.

These beautiful shades are neon so they dry to a sort of matte finish, but they have a shimmer in them that makes them so super unique.  They look almost velvety when dry and I took like... a zillion pictures of these shades! 

Oh, and check out who else was impressed with these colors!  C helped herself before I even got to take pics of the goodies!!!

 

First up is "Totally Blue-bular," which Laura describes as a "blue neon glammed up with a soft white shimmer."  I love this color!  Totally Blue-bular glows from within.  There are a couple of blue neons on my shelf and I honestly hate one of them (I won't name names, but a little *sparrow* will tell you that it is a glitter matte finish...).  I was so happy that the ellagee shades do not dry with the ugly neon matte texture some mainstream colors have that make them look cheap.

Look at that shimmer!!!

 Now, being that the first thing I thought with this color was "woah it glows from within," I remember someone once described Max Factor Fantasy Fire this way, so I thought it would be fun to see what a coat of Fantasy Fire would look like over this, so here it is:

Next up is  "Like, Totally Coral," which also has the lovely soft white shimmer.  This color is super warm and summery!  I don't think my skin tone wears it as nicely as I hoped it would, but it is soooo beautiful.  As with the other colors the formula is super impressive!  This one looked a little more matte than the others so in the pics I used a coat of Seche Vite on the first two fingers to see how it would look.  It's funny, you can hardly tell in the pic that the bottom two fingers are more matte.

 I saved my favorite for last, of course!  "Dude!" is truly the most amazing yellow neon polish I have ever seen.  It is the highlighter neon yellow that I have DREAMED of ever since I became obsessed with polish.  So, Laura, thank you, and I cannot wait to buy a full size and never, ever, ever share it! LOL

Perfect formula, super glowy, and no top coat.  Also, I'm including a shade pic to show you that it practically glows no matter what.  Even in my living room in the dim light I felt like it could almost be glow in the dark.

Shade, outdoors

What do you think of these!?  I absolutely must get myself a full size of Dude! and of Lime-o-rama.  They are just too amazing to pass up.

You can find Laura's creations at her etsy shop: ellagee Handcrafted Polish

And you can also enter her awesome giveaways she is hosting lately on her Facebook.

Milani Texture: Yellow Mark

Good morning! Bright and sunny polish to start your day!

Seriously, you guys, every time I look at my nails I am entranced by this shade.  I'm wearing Yellow Mark, the yellow Milani Texture polish, and I am absolutely adoring it.  It's warm and sunny, interesting, and just delicious!!!

This polish impresses me big time.  I only own three shades of Milani polish (including this one) but I am still looking for two of the other Textures; the teal & the fuchsia (P.S. I love swapping if you have them & they just aren't for you! I also want 2 of the China Glaze textures too; the blue & the orange!).

Yellow Mark was a very strange formula for me.  I have tried the OPI Liquid Sands and the Zoya Pixie Dusts (still my faves), and Milani's formula is very different from these other brands.  It's a very wet, gritty texture that dries nearly immediately.  First coat is far too thin for anyone and it doesn't really get the texture point across.  When you start applying the second coat you wonder if you have too little on the brush - oh wait, now it's too much, oh wait, now it's not enough.  HOWEVER, it's very forgiving of an uneven application.  The second coat made it completely opaque, it evens itself out, and it does not have any patches, streaks, or VNL.  I.  LOVE.  IT.  And I will definitely grab more of these in the future IF I can find them!  I found mine at a Walgreen's for about $4 and I am totally ok with the amount spent for the quality it turned out to be.  I hope it lasts for a couple days!  So cheerful and fun!  What do you think?

Skittles Nail Art

So last night I posted a pic on FB of my first skittles nail art!  I think they turned out pretty dang cool!  See what you think:

The main colors I used for this are Color Club Wild at Heart & A England Princess Sabra!

Thumb: Wild at Heart, Princess Sabra, and China Glaze's Angel Kisses

Pointer Finger: Princess Sabra & Wild at Heart

Middle Finger: Wild at Heart & Paris Sparkles Golden Touch

Ring Finger: Princess Sabra & Wild at Heart
Pinkie Finger: Wild at Heart with gold striping tape

Giveaway Prizes I Won!

I just had to show you guys some of the prizes I won from Hooked On Varnish's One Year Blogiversary!  Jen and some really awesome Indie makers put together such an amazing Giveaway Prize and I could not believe it when she messaged me to tell me that I had won EIGHT bottles of gorgeous polishes from 6 different Indie Brands!  EEEEP!

Jen's giveaway included some beautiful prizes from the following makers:
Pirate Polish (Cruciatus)
Rainbow Polish (Hooked!)
Different Dimension (Fuchsia Hybrida)
Dollish Polish (Pixie Dust)
Model City Polish (Seize the Rainbow)
Daring Digits (3 of my choosing. I chose "Like a Virgin," "Physical," and "Popped!" and they are being sent separately.)

So check it out!  Jen even included the sweetest card with her polish - that is such a nice, personal touch & I hope she doesn't mind if I copy her and do this myself when I pick the winner of my Giveaway later this month!  I also loved that the card of each individual business is included so I will know where to find more of these awesome polishes.

L-R: Dollish Polish, Different Dimension, Rainbow Polish, Pirate Polish, Model City Polish

Please go check out Jen's blog as well as these amazing Indie businesses!  I love them all so much & highly recommend them!

Sonnetarium's Never Glow Up

Hi, all! I thought I would have this post up for you yesterday but I ended up having quite an adventure last night and got home pretty late.

I have been wearing Sonnetarium's Never Glow Up! I wanted this color for about a year and then a few weeks ago I found out it was discontinued so I had been keeping an eye out for it! I found this baby on a blog sale and snatched it right up!! I know it's an oldie, but it's so much fun.

I didn't realize it was sheer, so this is two coats alone. The formula was a little bit tricky: it was goopy and gritty. I'm wondering if adding a little thinner to a glow in the dark polish is ok but I just dabbed it even and put a coat of SV on top for now. The best part about Never Glow Up is that it glows in the dark soooo well!!! It doesn't take much to charge it up for an all night glow - and trust me, this prego lady with late night jaunts to go pee over and over saw this polish glow all night in the bottle and gleaming blinding next to my face!

Check it out!!!

Pretty & Polished: Martian Salad

Hi, everyone!  So yesterday as I moped about my empty mailbox (WHERE ARE YOU, NAIL MAIL!?) I wondered what color I should sport next from my already huge collection.  I was staring out the front door at the yard and all the wind and fluctuating sunlight and realized *gasp!* SUNLIGHT!!!  So, duh, I went for a holo!  Of flippin' course when I went outside the wind and the clouds put up a 10 minute battle against my photo session, but I did get some good ones!  I also tried to do a Vine post of this beauty and it didn't load or save! :(  Poo on you, technology.  So I told myself I will just do that part today, and wouldn't ya know it, it's raining.  W. T. F.

Chelsea from Pretty & Polished posted this today on FB & I copy pasted for your information! :)  How generous of her! :D
"Hey everyone. We will be having a flash sale starting at 12:00 PM EST.
"We will be giving 10% of all orders on both the website and Etsy.
"Use the code April10 when checking out."
www.shopprettyandpolished.com
www.prettyandpolished.etsy.com

Anyway, a long time ago, a little over a year ago I discovered Indie Nail Polish by Chelsea, the creator of Pretty & Polished.  I knew I had to have Jawbreaker the moment I saw it and so I made myself an Etsy account and checked out her shop!  My very first Indie Polish purchase consisted of Jawbreaker, Galax-E, and this gorgeous green holographic shade she titled Martian Salad.  What a fun name!!!!!  And what a fun color.  I have worn this beauty so many times and I never get tired of it's uniqueness.  It doesn't have the fine-tuned holo that the brand new shades have, but it has a lovely shimmer and when you are in the sun you either get a sparkly kelly green or a stunning linear rainbow of spectraflair.  I love Martian Salad, and my other 7 beautiful colors by Pretty & Polished!  Now I need to get my hands on some of the Mathematical Collection as well as her Virgo polish!

What do you think of Martian Salad?  Did you get this beauty back in the day?
You can shop for Chelsea's creations here and on her Etsy.

Just a quick reminder about the CONTEST I'm having. You can find a quick link on the sidebar & I suggest you add your guess soon *wink wink* as we are approaching the middle of the month!  Also, I have so much fun stuff to show you in the near future: winnings from a giveaway, winnings from the Glisten & Glow 3rd Anniversary Contest, 2 blog sale finds, and a review for ellagee's new NEON shades!  Also I might sneak a glimpse of my own giveaway prizes in there for you lovelies! :)  Talk to you soon!!!

China Glaze Mahogany Magic & Champagne Kisses

Good morning!  Another fantastic Monday, right? :)  Please forgive my wonky changes in the Watermark.  I am trying to learn how to use a new program and come up with something that I feel good about using.  In the meantime I don't want to deprive you of this gorgeous mani I put on last night!

Today I have a really cute, simple mani to show you!  I was really in the mood for a neutral shade and so I started looking through my untrieds.  Here is what I came up with!  It's China Glaze's Mahogany Magic (from the Hunger Games Capitol Colors Collection), which I picked up 50% off clearance one time at a local Sally, with China Glaze's Champagne Kisses on the accent nails for a little bling!  I absolutely love how it turned out.

You wouldn't think you'd be so overjoyed to wear a brown polish but this baby has me hooked.  Both colors are stunning and I really, really like this mani.  Both colors had perfect formula.  Two medium coats of Mahogany Magic made sure that no areas were left uncovered, but you may even be able to do this with one coat!  I used three coats of Champagne Kisses, a rosy bronze glitter (you know how I hate any patchy areas) but two may have done the job.  I topped the whole thing with a goopy layer of Seche Vite (man, I need a new bottle of HK Girl instead of my almost empty SV...)

Stripes for Sassy Saturday Contest!

Ok!  Someone explain to me how my contest post has over 80 views but there are only 9 entries (and 44 followers!) on the BabyHunch page!?  What's up with that?  Do I need to post some hints about the prize to get you all excited?

I try to enter in Shelly's Sassy Saturday contest every month but sometimes I plain forget!  This month she asked on FB what the theme should be and I suggested STRIPES!  And she said that was exactly what we should do!  I suggested this theme mostly because it is one challenging nail art that I have always wanted to do but never actually COMPLETED.  I just get so frustrated with it and I really needed that extra reason to get going with this mani!  I used: Sinful Colors Unicorn & Snow Me White, China Glaze Hanging in the Balance & Holly-Day, Spoiled Hit the Brakes, and Sally Hansen Black Out, Scotch tape, and striping tape, topped with Seche Vite!  I will even post the pics of this mani in the works, in case you're wondering what chaos I was up against.  And, no, if you're wondering, I do not think that I did this mani in the most.... efficient manner, but hey, I am learning!  Next time I will know some new tricks and I will know what NOT to do!!!!  What do you think?

Here's what happens when you put Scotch tape over polish and you forgot to top coat it!