Hard Candy Tinted Lip Balm

I am NOT a lipstick gal.  Nope.  But I do like to add a little color every now and then.  For me, the best way to achieve this is through a gloss or tinted balm and I'm a sucker for both.  The Sugar Lip Treatments from Fresh are probably my absolute favorite tinted balms...but I don't want to spend $22.50 all the time and my guess is neither do you.  I still haven't found a great low-end brand of tinted balm yet and this thought crossed my mind when I was grabbing something from the Hard Candy display at Walmart and spotted these:

Cute right?  AND for only $3 each.  I grabbed the color "fishnet" and prayed it would be my cheap go-to for tinted balm.  I guess it I didn't pray hard enough...where to begin - I'll start with the pros.

• The texture on this was great -  It goes on extremely smooth and feels very moisturizing. 
• It adds just enough gloss (what you'd expect from a chapstick) and a sheer layer of bright pink.
• It tastes/smells pretty good - a hint of vanilla, so it's more than tolerable when it's on.
• It lasts about as long as you'd expect a balm to last and doesn't leave your lips dry when it finally wears off.
• The packaging is adorable.

The cons...

• Ok..see how far the balm is above the black encasing?  Yeah...that doesn't retract down, so you're stuck with it up that high until you wear it down enough.  So this is what happened after 2 uses with mine: 

 

It broke off, and because it was about 1/3 or $1 worth of product, I smashed that sucker back on!  Not cool Hard Candy, not cool.  I was purposely applying with less pressure than usual because the balm sat so far up.  Not to mention, when it's that far up and not retractable, one must be very careful when putting the case back on or you'll undoubtedly stab it death (which I haven't done yet).  Needless to say, I don't carry this around with me even though the top seems to stay on with no problems.  I keep it on my desk at work and use this when I need some extra moisture w/color. 

I was expecting sooo much from this balm, but for $3 I guess my hopes were just too high.  WHY???  I'm willing to give these tinted balms another shot, but if this happens again, I'll have to say this one will be a major FAIL and a PASS.  I'll let you be the judge based on my experience...

Hard Candy Tinted Lip Balm is available in 8 shades.  You can find these on Hard Candy displays @ your local Walmart for $3 each.

Sephora + Pantone Universe Jewel Lacquer in Evergreen

Pretty, pretty Evergreen!  Perfect time of year for this sort of color.  This was one of the Sephora+Pantone Universe Fall 2012 polishes.  I'll be brief with this one because it doesn't appear to be available anymore. 

The formula on this was good.  It covered well in 2 coats, but the first went on a little sheer so I had to apply with a heavy hand on the second one.  I love the chunky square bottle, but I didn't really care for the short brush/long handle that accompanied it.  When I say short brush, I mean the part leading from the cap to the bristles.  The bristles were fine...it was just the lack of length leading up to the cap.  Make sense?  It took me a minute to figure out how to work with it for a successful application.  Being that this was my first experience with the Sephora/Pantone polish, that was my only complaint.  The colors from the Jewel Lacquer Fall line were very pretty and retailed for $9/bottle.  You can still find a couple of the colors on sale for $5 at Sephora.com.  I recommend Reflecting Pond, which is still available - I can swatch it upon request.

Best Walgreens EVER....

Whoa. I'm out in Vegas and SoCal for a few days again, but I had to share this. This Walgreens in Vegas was so overwhelmingly good...I've never seen these brands in a drugstore. And yes, polish was involved.

I took a picture of theBalm display because I use that brand and they no longer carry it @ Sephora locations. So I've been having to buy online...so I grabbed my staples from here for back-ups.

Halloween Claws

Happy Halloween!  On a somber note, please continue to send thoughts and prayers out to the people that have been impacted by Hurricane Sandy.  The devastation created by the storm is horrific and the road to recovery will be a very long one.

I wanted to do a whole lot more with my nails for Halloween this year...but I couldn't get away from this look...I ended up wearing it twice in one week with a different base color each time.

First up...I call this ''German Garbage''...



OPI Deutsche You Want Me Baby? (2 coats),
Cirque Debris (1 coat).

The base color is from the OPI Germany Collection for Fall 2012.  Deutsche You Want Me Baby? is a lovely metallic burnt orange.  It covers perfectly in two coats and the formula is what you should expect from OPI - not streaky and easy to control.  The scattered, glitziness that tops it is from a new line of polish called Cirque.  Cirque Debris consists of a clear base jam-packed with silver holographic microglitter accompanied by larger black and silver chunky pieces.  It's pretty awesome.  I recently placed my first order with Cirque after seeing it pop up online in a few different places with good reviews.  I'm so glad that I did, the colors that I ordered are breathtaking.  Debris was the first one that I worked with, so I can't speak for the rest of the Cirque polishes yet, but it was SO easy to work with.  So much so that I used it again....

 

for this one...

 

Orly Orange Punch (3 coats),
Cirque Debris (2 coats).

I grabbed Orly Orange Punch last week at Sally's on a whim.  I wanted a more vibrant orange for my Halloween mani and this was a no-brainer.  This is a HOT orange.  I wouldn't call it neon, but it does dry to a rubber-like finish.  Although it's not a traditional matte, this type of finish can commonly be found with bright or neon colors.  I generally don't like working with matte polish because the application can be a pain - some dry too fast and/or have an uber-thick formula.  With Orange Punch, this was not the case.  I was able to apply each coat evenly and with no complications.  For full opacity I went with three coats.   I actually intended this to be a base color for some other whacky Halloween mani mess...but after a couple screw-ups my bottle of Debris was screaming USE ME, I'M EASY.  And so I did, and so it was.  I wanted a little extra trash on my nails for the holiday, so I was daring and went with two coats of Debris this time.  I used two coats of Seche Vite Top Coat on both manis to smooth out the bigger chunks.

 

Like I said, I wish I had been a little more creative with this year's mani, but Debris was so easy to work with and the oranges were so appropriate.  I'll be reviewing the rest of the polishes I got from Cirque soon...get excited because they look amazing!!

 

OPI retails for $8/bottle.  You can find a wide range of Orly polish at Sally's Beauty Supply retailing for $6.99/bottle or $6.49 with a Club Card.  Cirque Debris retails for $12 @ cirquecolors.com.

Breast Cancer Awareness Mani

Well, October is drawing to a close so I should post this before we head into November.  As most of you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we can see pretty pinks almost everywhere as a sign of support.  I wanted to show it in my own way...can we guess how I went about doing that...??  Yeah, no guessing necessary. Here's to all the women out there that have been affected by this illness EVER...and a personal dedication to my Grandmother, Genine, who has battled and survived the nastiness twice. 



Zoya Areej w/ FingerPaints Hue Left A Message?
 

Zoya Areej is a fabulous dark, highly pigmented pink.  I really like this color and the formula on this is excellent (2 coats).  I've worn it previously, so I knew what I was working with. 

My accent nail was done using FingerPaints Hue Left A Message?  Soooo pretty.  I wouldn't normally go for a color like this, but I had a coupon for a free FingerPaints at Sally's a while ago and I was immediately drawn to it.  It's pretty dense for a glitter polish and I didn't use a base color with it.  I believe this is four coats, I can't remember exactly...but you could definitely get full coverage with 2 or 3 coats if you were generous.  Overall, for a glitter, I thought the formula was very easy to work with and I would recommend Finger Paints glitters after working with a few now.  I really like how this look came together.

Zoya polish retails for $8/bottle @ Zoya.com and you can find FingerPaints Polish at Sally Beauty Supply for $5.29 or $4.49 w/ a Club Card.

Essie Navigate Her w/ KleanColor Green Holo

Here's another one I wore about 2 months ago before the weather took a turn toward dreary. This is Essie Navigate Her and KleanColor Green Holo as an accent.

 

 

 

I purposely posted a blurry photo so you can see how awesome Green Holo really is...it's eyecatching.  I used two coats of Navigate Her to achieve opacity on all nails except the accent nail.  I used one coat for a solid base color and then used two coats of Green Holo over top.  The formula on Navigate Her was great, especially for a relatively light color.  Most pastel colors can be streaky, even after 2 even coats, but this covers perfectly and is 100% opaque.  Navigate Her came out with Essie's 2012 Spring Collection.  You can still find that display in some drug and beauty supply stores.

KleanColor's formula is pretty good too, considering that this brand can often be found in dollar stores.  How can such a fabulous holographic polish be so affordable?  Well I'll tell you why...it stinks.  No, for real....KleanColor's polish smells downright rotten.  This may be due to the fact that they include ingredients in their polish that other companies do not such as camphor.  I will give the brand props for never engaging in animal testing though, and offering a large range of polish with a great forumla for dirt cheap.

Essie Navigate Her retails for $8 at Zappos.com or you can use the handy store locator feature on Essie's website (Essie.com).
I grabbed KleanColor Green Holo @ Clothes Mentor (of all places) for $3, but I've also found several of their bottles at random dollar stores for...yup....a dollar.  Can't beat that!  KleanColor is also available online at KleanColor.com for $3.49 per bottle.

OPI Russian Navy

Wow guys...it's been a while, as in FAR. TOO. LONG.  So first off I want to apologize for that.  For those of you that know me personally, I've been pretty busy with life.  About a month ago I had to take some time off to welcome a certain Marine back to the USofA after a long trip to this lovely little place called Afghanistan.  I also didn't have internet access while I was away for the majority of the time.  Upon returning I started a brand new job, so I really needed some time to settle in and adjust to everything. 

I'll do my best to catch you up on my last few weeks, and I have been logging photos and developing new post ideas.  So let's get back at it....

Here's one if you want a great navy polish.  I've actually had this bottle for years, but someone recently asked me about navy polish so I splashed some of this on for her.  I had forgotten how much I loved this.  It's so vibrant for a dark color which is important with navy because if you wanted black, you'd just use black right?  I've struggled to find really great navy blues in the past...I have a couple, but I'd say this is one of the best for its price.

OPI Russian Navy
2 coats w/ top coat.

My apologies for the quality of this photo...I was in a rush and in my car, but wanted to document it.  This pulls a little more purple in the photo like it does in the bottle (we call these blurples), but don't be intimidated.  It translates to a much richer blue once it's applied.  I can't say enough about the formula on this, especially because this bottle is (at least) 4 years old.  The consistency hasn't changed, which means I got this fully opaque in 2 even coats.

If you don't have a great navy in your collection, run out to get this one or something similar...navy is a must-have color for the colder months.

Thoughts? 

Be back soon...that's a guarantee!