New Funky Fingers SCENTED Collection!

So I saw that Funky Fingers had a new collection out last time I went to Five Below.  I initially resisted but saw a picture online and decided I needed to have them...3 for $5 is such a good deal!

I went in to pick them up and they had 5 new polish colors (peach, fuschia, blue, yellow, and green) and white and silver shatter polishes.  I passed up the neon green since green polish doesn't look great on me ever and I thought I was getting 6 for $10.  Turns out the shatters are $3 each so I messed up that deal, but I still got 6 polishes for like $13, which I still consider a great deal!

I decided to swatch all of these polishes today (plus some more) and I found out that they are SCENTED as well!  I was very surprised by this because they don't say on the bottle they're scented and I didn't see signs (but I didn't really look)...which is why I also don't know the name of the collection.  But it's Island/Vacation themed, so I'm just going to assume it's called "Caribbean Getaway."  That's my unofficial name :) ENJOY!

**EDIT** These polishes are from Funky Fingers "Island Collection."

First up, a fabulous super neon peachy pink called Kingston.  This polish color is not represented super great in the pictures because it's hard to capture neons.  The formula is nice, not too thin or thick, but this took 4 coats to be opaque and you cans still see some semi-visible nail line depending on the lighting.  The color is great, though.  This is the only one that I picked up that didn't have an obvious, scent, though.  After sniffing the plate I swatched these on to smell separately like 100 times, I think that this possibly could have a super light strawberry scent.  But don't quote me on that.

Shade

Sun

Underwater in the bathroom so you can see the neon-ness of it!

I also tried each of the polishes with a mix of their white and silver shatter polishes.  The white is called White Scales and the silver is Silver Scales.  Overall this white beats out China Glaze Lightning Bolt by a LOT, not to mention it's less than half the price!  Definitely pick this up if you want a decent white shatter.  I haven't tried OPI, though, but you can't beat $3.

Sun

Shade...with the neon a bit more obvious here

I wasn't super impressed with the silver.  I'm still waiting for my silver shatter by OPI to come in the mail and from what it looks like in pictures the OPI is more sparkly than this one.  I think it'd look all right over less neon colors, and it did crackle pretty well.  It was thicker than the white, though!

The next color I'm going to show you is a frosty yellow/orange called Cayman Island.  All of the polishes except Kingston applied a bit frosty, but didn't have the normal streakiness and visible brush lines as other frosty polishes.  It just made them look a bit sparkly, which I liked!  Actually if Kingston wasn't named after a Jamaican city I wouldn't even think it was part of this collection as it's not frosty nor strongly scented.  Weird!  Anyhow, Cayman Island reminds me of that crayon color "Mac n Cheese."  It needed 4 coats as well and has much more VNL.  It also smelled like bananas to me at first but I'm starting to think that it could be a citrus or lemony smell.  Regardless, it's good.

Sunlight

Shade

Frosty and VNL...but still a fun color :)

Here is Cayman Island with the shatters:

Love it with the white

The next one is my favorite in the collection: Port Royal.  I didn't think I would like this as much just by looking at the bottle.  It's a fushia/purpley/pink polish that I just didn't think was unique.  However, after applying I loved it.  This color looks drastically different whether or not you're in the sun or shade.  I tried to capture different lighting situations, hopefully you can see the differences.  This one only needed 3 coats to become opaque and smells like bubble gum!  My friend Jenn (at Nurse by Night, Nails by Day...she just started a blog, seriously go check her out!!) said it smells like grape bubble gum.  I'm bad at these sort of things haha.

Shade

Sun

Sun again

Up close!  Looks "frostier" in person, but no streaks!

Here is Port Royal with White and Silver Scales:

I actually like the look of both white and silver on here.  Even though I think silver would look better with darker polishes!

The last one in the collection that I picked up, which now that I know they're scented I kind of want to go back for the green, is a frosty bright blue polish called Curacao.  The formula on this one is similar to the others, pretty great for cheap polish, and it only needed 3 coats to be opaque.  I'm confident that in a rush both Curacao and Port Royal could be done in 2, but oh well.  I really liked this color, too, which is surprising because I'm not normally into cool colors as polish.  This one I thought smelled like cotton candy...my friend says icing.  Either way it's got a sweet candy smell to it!

Shade

Sun

Sun times TWO

Frosty non-streaky neon goodness.

And here is Curacao with the shatters:

Personally I think Curacao wins for the prize for best shatter combo as both White and Silver Scales look great with it. 

Overall I highly recommend this collection.  Not only are they bright, super fun colors, but there just aren't that many frosty polishes with great formulas that don't leave brush streaks.  They have just enough frost to be shimmery and fabulous.  Not to mention you get a surprise of your polishes smelling yummy!  AND they're 3 for $5! With $3 shatters!  You can't beat that.  Seriously.  Five Below.  Go there now!

If I find out the official scents for these I'll definitely update this post and let you all know!  And maybe I'll grab the green and add it to this post as well! 

Please let me know if you've tried these and what YOU think they smell like :)

<3 Whitney

Pink Wednesday! OPI Nice Stems Collection **Picture Heavy**

Welll hello ladies!  I'm floored by the amount of entries to my giveaway that I've received so far!  I have nearly half of the amount of entries I had total for my last giveaway and it's only been 3 days! 

Sorry for my lack of posting--I've been overwhelmed with job paperwork and also I've been out of the house a lot.  I'll try and swatch this weekend and have posts scheduled for later in July because I'm going to be gone a week for a wedding and house hunting--and then my boyfriend and I will be moving to Knoxville at the end of July for my job!!  So exciting, but I'm also soo nervous!  SO if any of you all live around Knoxville and know of some good places to buy polish, please let me know :)

So I broke my no-buy for this lovely haul the other day:

FF Kingston, FF Cayman Island, FF Port Royal, FF Curacao, FF Silver Scales, FF White Scales, OPI Come to Poppy, OPI Be a Dahlia Won't You?, OPI I Lily Love You

Went into Five Below to pick up their new Funky Fingers collection and ended up paying more than I thought 'cause their shatter polishes aren't in their normal 3 for $5...then I found the Nice Stems collection at my local supply store! Weee!

I couldn't wait to try Be a Dahlia Won't You, so I whipped it out last night, and I love it.  I apologize for the amount of pictures!  Also these pictures were taken as the sun was setting!

Messed up my pointer nail trying to clean up polish I spilled on the table haha

I really liked the formula of this polish!  It went on very smooth and easy--all the pics shown are with three coats.  You can still see some nail line when the sun's behind it, but it's all good and looked opaque in the shade!  

I then added I Lily Love You on top, and I loved this combo so much that I took a million pictures of it!  I waited until this morning to take more pics, though, so these are morning sun pictures, not sun setting pictures, so the color is much more accurate:

Sunlightttt

Shade so y'all can see the glitter definition

Up close, look at that glitter!

This is shown with 2 coats of I Lily Love You.  It's a pink holographic-like glitter with small glitter pieces and larger flakies.  I was on the fence about getting this one, but I'm really glad I did!  It's so interesting :) 

WELLL I hope you guys enjoyed my Pink Wednesday post!  Keep entering my giveaway ;)

<3 Whitney

200 Follower Giveaway Announcement!! **CLOSED!**

Before I talk about the giveaway I just want to announce that I ACCEPTED A (real person) JOB OFFER!! Yahoo!  I will be moving to Tennessee here within the next month or so to start and I am MORE than pumped!  More details in a later post, though, since I know you all want to know about this giveaway :)

Yahoo!  Boy am I excited that I'm at 200 followers already!  MORE than 200!  This is so great, everyone, I'm so glad that you all like me enough to follow my reviews :)  It makes me feel so good!  I want to thank you all for being great followers by hosting another giveaway!  I may not do this for every 100x milestone, but for now I've got stuff to give away so I'm going to do it!

Anywho...DETAILS:

XL picture, haha! If you blog about my giveaway, use this picture :)

Here are some close-ups!

Alllll the winnings...for one person!

Three CG Crackles: Crushed Candy, Lightning Bolt, and Fault Line!

Three AWESOME Funky Finger's Glitters: Golden Coast, Baby Baby Baby, and Sand & Stilettos

An elf Beauty Book filled with 12 neutral eye shadows, eyeliner and an applicator!

Inside the book...I had a hard time getting a picture without getting my head in the mirrow

With flash so you can see all my fingerprints (and head), hah.

SO you can zoom in the pictures if you want to check anything out more, but the polishes are pretty common!  Like I said, all these goodies are going to be a prize package for ONE (1) winner and they will receive:

-China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Crushed Candy (New, purchased by me)
-China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Lightning Bolt (Bought at a "damaged" sale at Sally's recently, I tried it, and it works.  I didn't see any damage beyond the worn label!)
-China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Fault Line (New, sent to me by CG)
-Elf Beauty Book Neutral Eye Edition (New, purchased by me) -- includes 12 shadows, liner, and applicator!
-Funky Fingers Golden Coast (New, purchased by me)
-Funky Fingers Baby Baby Baby (New, purchased by me)
-Funky Fingers Sand and Stilettos (New, purchased by me)

Ahh!  I hope you guys are excited because every time I go to the supply store or find a good deal I pick up polishes for swaps and giveaways and it took me forever to decide on this stuff!  I hope you enjoy it :)

Also before you go ahead and fill out the form PLEASE read the rules, I don't want to disqualify anyone!  This is going to work just like the last one!

1) You must be 18 or older to enter or else have your parents permission to give away your address if you win
2) This is open to U.S. residents only (I'm really sorry, international followers, I promise when I start my new job my next giveaway will be open internationally! I can't afford it right now!)
3) Enter ONLY once, if you enter more than once you will be disqualified.  If you can't remember if you've entered, shoot me an e-mail at EStyles.WW@gmail.com and I'll let you know! Also, if you don't do all the possible entries and decide later you want an additional entry via twitter or something, send me an e-mail with the links, don't fill out the form again!
4) This is open until July 27, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. EST!
5) To enter you MUST be a follower via GFC.  That means on the right sidebar you need to click the button that says "Follow" and sign in using Google (or whatever other accounts it asks for) or create an account.

You get 1 automatic entry for being a GFC follower and filling out the form!  Here are some ways you can get additional entries into the contest:

-Follow @ElementalStyles on Twitter [1 entry]
-Tweet about the giveaway (provide a direct link!) [2 entries]
-Blog about the giveaway (on sidebar, giveaway page or blog entry--provide a direct link) [2 entries for a link, 3 entries if you use one of the pictures]
-Add Elemental Styles to your blog roll (provide a link please!) [1 entry]
-Follow Elemental Styles on Facebook (provide Facebook name) [1 entry]
-Answer the extra questions on the form [1 entry each]

Good luck everyone!!

Floral Mani Attempt...

So first things first--my 100 follower giveaway winner responded to my e-mail, horray!  So now that that is all said and done, I'm still trying to figure out what I should put in my next giveaway.  I'm at a complete loss because I've picked up a bunch of stuff lately and I don't know what I should and shouldn't put in this one ('cause I want to save some stuff for future giveaways, too!).  Ahhh.  But that should be decided by later today.

I want to show you guys my floral mani attempt.  I've had it on since Saturday and it's by far not my favorite, but I think I was just too lazy to take it off.  I initially thought I could do a little sponging and make it match the shirt I was wearing that day, which I definitely did not do.  The thought was good, though!  Here are the polishes I used:

I know...I over did it.

My initial thought was to sponge CG Anklets of Amethyst into flower looking circles, but it ended up being too light.

 L to R: Orly Ridgefiller, CG White on White, CG Anklets of Amethysts, Funky Fingers Tribal
 

I ended up using the Mood Swing polish for the petals and covered it all with CG Fairy Dust

L to R: Art Club Turquoise, Icing Mood Swing Stormy/Serene, Funky Fingers Ectoplasmic, CG Happy Go Lucky, and CG Fairy Dust

SO I started off with a base of CG White on White:

Unfortunately that's where my picture tutorial stops, haha.  Once I got started I completely forgot about taking pictures of the process, sorrrrry!!!  But anyway, WoW wasn't as great as I've heard...it was too liquidy, this is 3 coats, but I could've done 4.  There were some spots I saw but I figured I'd just cover them up with flowers.  Ohhh well!

Anywhere here's what it ended up like:

Outside...well pretty much all the pictures are taken outside

This was the shirt I was wearing I tried to copy.  After I started I realized it wouldn't be possible and just continued doing...whatever.  Maybe I'll try again.  I need a darker green!

Close up...epic fail!

Oh...also, the Mood Swing polish I used for the petals changes colors in hot and cold!  It's not super drastic, in fact I think it'd be better if I didn't have ninety coats of other things below and on top of it, but it did it a little! 

Darker with cold water

Lighter with warm water--ignore the giant water droplet

I added this one to show the grossness that accumulates after a few hours after applying a quick dry top coat.  If you zoom in you can see the crusties in the corners of my nails.  I guess I don't know how to apply it without flooding everywhere.  Boo!

Anyhow...it wasn't a complete failure, but it didn't end up the way I'd wanted it to initially.  I think it was too much for me...too many dark colors, I don't really do the pink/purple/blue combo often so it was odd for me.  But here's a "step by step" of what I did in case you're curious:

1. Applied 1 coat ORLY Ridge Filler
2. Applied 3 coats CG White on White, then cleaned up a bit w/acetone around edges
3. Sponged "dots" of CG Anklets of Amethyst on both hands--twice for a more opaque color
4. Painted curly-Q's and leafy looking swirls using FF Tribal and a small dotting tool
5. Painted over some of the swirls using the Art Club Turquoise
6. Made flower petals using Mood Swing Stormy/Serene and a small dotting tool
7. Placed dots in centers of flowers using a dotting tool and FF Ectoplasmic underneat CG Happy Go Lucky (I wanted to be able to see both colors...didn't work out haha)
8. Covered the whole thing with CG Fairy Dust
9. Cleaned up and top coated with Posche

Allll right so there you have it.  My semi-fail floral mani :) 

And like I said, I'll decide on the next giveaway items (since they're not spread out all over my table) and update again later.

<3 Whitney