Essie - Navigate Her

I haven't posted any NOTD's in a while for reasons that vary but here is one that is overdue...

My sister brought this back home from her vacay in SoCal. Navigate Her is from Essie's Spring 2012 collection and I didn't know that until now. I assumed this shade was an oldie because she purchased this at a trade store, which normally doesn't carry new lines from Essie so I am surprised that she was able to snag this at an awesome price.

I purchased Butter LONDON's Bossy Boots because I thought it reminded me of my favorite boba shake or milkshake flavor, avocado, but Navigate Her is a shade darker and more avocado-ish. So I loved this opaque creme lacquer on my nails.

2 coats of Essie
1 coat Poshe topcoat

Zoya - Heidi

This shade is one of the bottles that I picked for the Earth Day Polish Exchange. From the pictures and description I thought it was more of a coral but in person it's more of an orange-red creme with more emphasis on the orange. It's pretty bright and a good Spring shade but I was a little disappointed because of my expectations.

I almost didn't post about this because I chipped my middle nail. So, ignore the botched filing and focus on the color lol.

Graduation Day Nails

I graduated last Friday! Yay! I painted my nails with my school logo on it to show my pride :) I'm the first in my family to go to college and finish, so it was an especially proud day for my parents who are 1st generation Americans.

Watermelon Nails

Julep - Drew & Leah

I had an event I was a part of that was centered around fruits and veggies. I thought it would be festive for me to have some appropriate nails. The seeds a little messy but I thought the colors were perfect!

NOTD - Julep's Anne in Matte

Honestly, Lacquer Lovers, have you ever stood in front of your lacquer collection and just stared at all your bottles for what seems like hours, trying to figure out what shade you want to wear next? If you haven't, well then, that obviously doesn't apply to you, but I have and this is when I convince myself that I need more colors. Yeah, right... that is just an excuse to buy more when you really don't need it. If you are obsessed like me than you do need it. You need it all!

I settled on Julep's Anne, a bright purple creme, and I used butter LONDON's matte finish top coat. This color reminds me of one of my favorite ice cream flavors. Ube (phonetically spelled, oo-beh). I gobble that stuff up like it's the first time I've ever had it. Ube is a Filipino purple yam, not to be confused with taro, but it tastes very similar.

The matte finish seemed to make this color pop a lot more. I never realized how bright this hue was until it was matte.

There will be another blog about this but I personally love butter LONDON's matte top coat compared to all the other ones that I've used. I've used Kleancolor, and Orly and neither of them hold a candle to this stuff. $18 well spent, I say!

NOTD (2) - CG Re-Fresh Mint

In natural light

Cleaned off the Zoya and put this on...

This is one of the more fun colors that I've had on. I got a lot of compliments everywhere I went, asking me what kind of polish it is and where can they get it! It's funny because there are countless reviews about this shade and has been out for about 2 years. China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint from their 2010 Up & Away Spring line.

At first it looks like a pale blue, really pale, but after drying it comes out just a tad darker than what is shown in the bottle. This isn't new, but this is where the "mint" name comes from. It really does remind of a mint flavored anything because of the ultimate shade.

Like I said, this is a fun color to wear but because it is so light in color and it is a creme, imperfections are difficult to avoid. Especially around the edges. I will definitely wear this again!

NOTD - Zoya's Faye

In sunlight

Close up

Natural lighting

With flash

I felt like going a different route with my polish and wear something I haven't worn in never. Metallic-finish polish. It reminds me a lot of my mom whose go-to polish was always a metallic one. This particular polish is from Zoya's  2011 Sunshine Collection and one of the polishes I chose for the Earth Day Polish Exchange.

It's a rich bronze with purple undertones and an abundance of gold sparkle. I don't know when I will ever wear this color again but it lasted me a good couple of hours before I moved on to another shade.

This took 2 coats and the brilliance was more pronounced with a top coat. I use Poshe top coat.

NOTD - Zoya's Paz

This is my first bottle of Zoya polish and I got it at Ulta on clearance. This is from Zoya's La-Di-Da Summer 2009 collection. After months on my polish rack I decided to give it a try since the weather has been quite warm lately and the color totally suits it. This is also my first bottle of a jelly type of polish so I was surprised at its gelatin-like cream opaqueness after one coat. After two coats I realized how bright it was. I never thought to look at other bloggers review of this and after some research, most agreed with its eye-squinting brilliance.

This took two coats of the Zoya and 1 coat of Poshe top coat.

This was great while it lasted the weekend but I'm ready to tone it down a bit. See you later LacLoves!

NOTD - butter LONDON's Trout Pout

Over the Earth Day weekend there was a special on butter LONDON nail polish at our local Dillard's and the makeup department employee had me at FREE butter LONDON.

Buy 2 get Come to Bed Red FREE

butter LONDON winners are...

Trout Pout - a bright pink salmon color
Bossy Boots - avocodo
Come to Bed Red - a very sexy red

I decided to go with Trout Pout first because I wanted to know if it is a close shade to Julep's Alicia.

Proven in the following pictures, it doesn't really come close. While Alicia may be very close to a salmon color that I am currently obsessed with, Trout Pout is a lot more orangey-pink than I would like.

Two layers

One layer

Also, I am finding that this brand is a little streaky which can easily be fixed with a better brush. The brushes for these lacquers are a little skinny and doesn't cover a whole lot of nail in one stroke. I found myself having this dip the brush 2-3 times per layer.

Overall, it's a very fun color and perfect for Summer!

My Earth Day Nails!

Happy Belated Earth Day!! These were my nails for Sunday in honor of National Earth Day.My son took one look at my nails and said, "Oooh you have space nails, Mommy!" His father pointed out that Earth was on one of my nails and told him that is where we live. He looks confused, and my 3 year-old asks, "We live on Mommy's nails?" Oh you gotta love children...

I went to my city's Earth Day Festival and it was disappointing. I only wish there was more to offer the citizens of Stockton because despite what outsiders think, there is still beauty here! Anyway, I digress...

I need to start wrapping my nails, by the time they are completely dry, the whole coat kinda shrinks. I keep forgetting but maybe writing about this right now will make me remember in the future.

This is what I used for my Earth Day nails...

Whole nail
Essie - Midnight Cami

Whole nail
China Glaze - Shooting Stars (1 coat)... How appropriate!

Earth
OPI - Green-wich Village
OPI - Ogre-the-top Blue

NOTD - Kelly by Julep

With flash...

Without flash...

I wanted something more calm on this particular day. I chose Kelly from my Spring mystery box and looking at the bottle, I thought it looked a lot like their Penelope but this is a little less pink and more peachy to me. It's a very nice neutral shade.

I put two coats on to achieve this level of opacity but next time I'm going to try just painting one coat to make it look more natural.

This is a very nice choice on days you don't want loud, screaming nails. Those days are few in my world...

NOTD - Julep's Jessica

 With flash...

Without flash...

"Wow, those are bright." Is what the boyfriend said when he noticed them. The color is eye-catching is it? I think I'm going to go back and add a little accent to it, maybe that will tone it down but I kinda like it. Reliable Julep only took one coat to get it that opaque.

My sister got this in her "IT Girl" April 2012 box and she was complaining about the brush being wonky. That is why I decided to try it out today because I am, by far, a firm Julep supporter and if she's not happy with it, I need to see for myself...

You see how thick the lacquer is on the brush? That is why this brand is an awesome "one-layer" kinda polish. I had no problem putting it on and I don't want to call my sister a liar but I can see where she had trouble. I'm a little upset that it went to waste because she took it right off after putting it on. The stuff isn't watered down and it's going to come on a little thicker than OPI or CG. 

Anyway, NOTD... there it is.

NOTD - OPI Who the Skrek are You?

I know I post a lot about Julep, I just can't help it, I love the stuff!! So, here is a break... I bought this dress at Target...

 

I looked through my stash to see what matched...

Perfect! I didn't have any top coat for these pictures because I wasn't sure whether or not to put crackle on top. I ended up just putting it on one. OPI, you are a good friend to me.

2 coats of polish

I use Orly's rubberized base coat and Poshe's top coat, my polish lasts for days!

NOTD - Julep's Charlotte

This has got to be one of my favorite shades. Julep's Charlotte is a soft purple creme that only took one coat to get that opaque layer.

The picture shows the shade is a little brighter than it actually is. It's more subtle and dusty, such as lavender. That's it... lavender, but if I were to compare it to another shade, it would probably be like Color Club's Uptown Girl

Butter London - Wallis

I fell in love right when I saw this color at Ulta. The metallic olive rustiness that seemed to glow was calling me from inside that geometrically proportioned bottle. Too many descriptive words? There's a dupe out there by Love & Beauty - Safari, which you can buy at Forever21 for a fraction of the price but the finished look is a bit muted compared to Butters.

Who wouldn't love this? Any girl who loves color the way I do would totally appreciate this! This is my first bottle of Butter London and I had a hard time choosing JUST ONE bottle because it is $$$$ ($14). Moolah that I just don't have. So... I pace myself... The color selection makes it so hard not to stand there for less than five minutes trying to pick from an array shades that you don't normally see from one brand of nail polish.

Are you kidding me? It's so hard! They should start their own Julep box because the polishes are the same price. I would be on that! Well, just because they are the same price doesn't mean they have the same value because Julep's bottles hold 8 ml ($1.75/ml) while Butter holds 11 ml ($1.27/ml). If that makes a difference to anyone but to me that means I can paint more nails with Butter London.

Putting it on was comparable to Julep and I would suggest improving the brushes on them because they are a little skinny, which took more than enough strokes to keep it from clumping. Other than that, I will be wearing this shade for a while. I wonder what other shades Butter London will come up with next?

Polish Parties! Featuring Hook and Line

One great way for me and my closest girlfriends to have fun is to sit around, drink wine, and play with nail polish. That is how I spent my Saturday this past weekend. Except this time we had some beer and had Anchorman playing in the background. "Poop mouth" lol!

So, we grabbed what we could carry from my stash and headed over to the room with the TV. This had to include China Glaze's Hunger Games collection. My sister and I bought a couple packages of nail art display wheels and we played away... I should have taken a picture of the wheels when we were done! We had some nice color combinations!

My choice of lacquer was China Glaze's Hook and Line from the Hunger Games line. I asked my sisters what they thought and they said it reminded them of fish scales (not knowing the name of the polish) so, this is very appropriate in respect to the novel. It was very streaky going on but ultimately had a very nice metallic/pearly dull finish. I put about two layers of this on. 

What's next?

NOTD and Gouda Gouda Two Shoes Review

So, this is my NOTD, as well as, a very surfaced review on OPI's Gouda Gouda Two Shoes shade from the Holland Line. 

I decided to wear this shade today because I just started a new job and I have to network. I've always dreamed of a job where I could be in the background, never talk to people, and get paid a good amount of money. That's not where life took me. I have to talk to people. Everyday. To say the least, I do enjoy it. SO, I didn't want to wear the usual eye-catching shades that I'm used to because I had a meeting today and I didn't want my crazy nails to distract anyone. The woman I met today actually had bright crazy nail polish and I would have LOVED to gush about them with her but I had to digress. She obviously had a thing for lacquer but we had to stay professional... bleh...

When looking at the bottle you can see specks of tiny gold dust within the muted pink. It obviously shows in the picture as well but wearing it all day and also staring at my nails, you don't really see those gold specks. Maybe if you were out in the sun, but I work in an office and florescent light doesn't do anyone any good. 

I bought the whole Holland line because the colors are so pretty when looking at them all in a row. Now, actually wearing one shade at a time, that's different and as I've come to realize, a little boring. The shade stood out to me at first... or maybe I didn't wear the right outfit today... 

I know my mom would LOVE this shade. It kinda reminds me of the Revlon shades she used to buy when I was growing up. 

NOTD - Zoya's Carey

Zoya's Carey, that is!

Like I said, Luxe and Lush was next and there she is atop my one nail.