Orange-ya Glad it's the Weekend?! Braziliant!

Okay my title is corny, I know.  Oh well :)  But YAY 150 followers!!

I've been desperately searching (and waiting) for Essie Braziliant ever since I heard about it at the end of April.  The whole Summer 2011 collection looks fabulous, actually, and I'm not usually into oranges but when I saw this swatched I HAD to have it. 

I finally found it at Target today and while I resisted buying anything at both Ulta AND Sally's, when I caught a glimpse in the store, my lack of self control took over and I bought it.  Wee! Then I came home and immediately took off my leopard mani and put on this orange.  Check it out!

A bit shiny from the Butter London remover...weird!

Ugh..I broke this nail today, apparently I didn't file it well.  I had to super glue the left side together haha woops

Love love love!  Braziliant is an obnoxiously loud orange and in the bottle you can see just a glimpse of pink shimmery undertones.  It doesn't translate as well to the nail, though, which is fine by me 'cause I was lookin for strictly orange here!  It's pretty opaque, but I still used three coats.  I used two coats of ORLY Ridge Filler first and I don't think I let it dry long enough which made me have some issues when applying this.  I don't know if there's some trick to it or something. Maybe I should've only used one coat of Ridge Filler.  Regardless, it turned out okay after cleaning up a bit!  I loved this color enough I even wrapped my tips 'cause I'm probably going to wear it a few days while I lay out at the pool!

Anywho, here's a quick photo of what I've picked up over the past several days:

Essie Braziliant, OPI Turquoise Shatter, Two Wet n Wild Craze Colors, and Wet n Wilds Mermaids Cove Collection Polishes in Waves of Enchantment and Diving for Pearls....and some remover!

I picked up the Wet n Wilds at CVS on clearance and buy 1 get one 50% off so it was only a few bucks for all those!

I think that's all for tonight, then! 

<3 Whitney

P.S. Have any of you watched My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding on TLC?  It's fascinating, hahaha!  I've never seen dresses this gigantic in my entire life.

Pink Wednesday! Double Post--Fuschiamania + Nail Art!

Hellllo pretties!  I'm back from DC and today I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone.

A few weeks ago Amanda at Ha Bisky! Nails tagged me for a Pick 3 Challenge where you pick three polishes at random from your stash and create something with them.  Luckily, I picked a pink!  I ended up with China Glaze Thataway, Funky Fingers Ectoplasmic and Ulta Fuschiamania:

Indoor flash

It got dark as I was doing this so this is inside with a flash, sorry!  Actually I picked Julep Gloria instead of the pink first, but when I looked at it next to the CG polish they were too similar so I tried again...cheater!  I was pretty psyched I got all bright colors though!

In honor of Pink Wednesday, here is Fuschiamania all by itself:

Inside, flash

Inside, flash

Outside, dusk lighting

This is a fabulous pink.  When I take DS Tapestry off my toes this is going on them asap.  It is truly a one coater.  I used two to hit some spots a bit closer to my cuticles that I missed.  I LOVE how bright this dark pink is.  The formula was great.  Yet again I'm impressed by Ulta!

Anyway, so I decided to try a funky leopard print with these colors.  I suppose I cheated since I used my black nail art pen, but it seemed like the quickest thing to do and I still have to study for my math final tomorrow hehe.  Anyways, the base I left as Fuschiamania and the I dotted on Ectoplasmic and Thataway.  Only my second attempt at nail art...could be better but I like it okay!

Inside, super close to our energy efficient lightbulbs haha

Inside, flash

Inside, flash

Flash, up close of thumb

I probably should've taken an up close pic of a different nail because the thumb doesn't look that great, but oh well.  I'll probably wear this til tomorrow or Friday.  It's different and bright!  The orange blends into the pink in these pics because of the flash, but it's a little bit more noticeable in person!

Well that's all for tonight, I need to study a bit.  I can't help to be unmotivated because this is the LAST thing I have before I'm done with my master's degree!  Weeee!  Graduation is Sunday but I'm not going because it's in Ohio Stadium...and it'll be like 95 degrees.  Pass on that nonsense, I went last year.  Also, my job situation is going to take a bit longer to get situated than I previously thought so I guess I'll have more time to blog...Optimism I guess?

Hah well have a good night all!

<3 Whitney

G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S!

Ooh I know I said I'd update last night but I had to work on a last minute paper and then I needed to get to bed early for some interview stuffs this morning.

So I'm in DC, can't remember if I told you guys, and after I got in yesterday I hit up Pentagon City mall and went on a polish hunt!  Didn't really find anything except two glitter polishes from Icing.  Actually one of them was one of the Charlie Sheen polishes called Epic Winning (blue holo glitter) and the other was one called Gimme Some Glitter (pink glitter).  I'll probably use them for giveaways so I'll just post pics of them at a later date.  Trace at the TraceFace Philes just posted a whole entry about the Charlie Sheen polishes so check her out if you're curious!!

Anyway, so I think I found the most fabulous polish I have.  It's another polish from Icing called Glamorous.  I actually initially went into Icing yesterday to pick up another one of these for a giveaway but they didn't have anymore!  I'll have to check back in Ohio.  Anyway, it's a FABULOUS rainbow holographic glitter polish. 

My pictures do NOT capture this fabulous polish in it's entirety and the pictures actually make it look a little more transparent than it is in person.  However, after three coats of this stuff it's so glittery you can't even see through the shine to your nail :)

Outside where my camera failed miserably to see this wonderful holo

Caught a bit of it

Indoors with flash gets it a little better

Someone told me (I think Fiona) that you can take better pictures of neon polishes underwater, so I tried that with this.  You can kind of see the rainbow under water!

I'm pretty disappointed that I couldn't capture this well...but if you have an Icing in your area you should RUN, don't walk, there as soon as possible and pick this up, I promise you won't regret it!  And cosmetics there are buy 1 get 1 half off!!   Three coats made this polish insanely awesome.

I swatched most of my polishes on some nail wheels I bought the other day and when I swatched my crackles I used three coats of Glamorous for my base with OPI Black Shatter!  I loved it so much I decided to do a full mani of it.

 It looked awesome in the sunlight!  I didn't wear a top coat with this because I knew I only was wearing it for a day since it's not interview appropriate!  I desperately wish I would've put on a top coat in between the glitter and the shatter, though!  When I tried to take the glitter off by itself it was so rough it tore up my remover pads.  It was like I was rubbing them on concrete!  Glitter is hard enough to get off as it is because it gets everywhere, but this was just insane!  It didn't make me love it any less, though :)

Since I mentioned it, here is the swatch of most my glitter polishes (and some others), Glamorous is #18:

 

If you can't read my handwriting:

1) Wet n Wild Sparked

2) Ice Pinky Moon (someone told me this was a dupe of KleanColor, I would say yes it is, 100%)

3) LA Girl Head Bangin'

4) Color Club De-luxe-ious

5) Sally Hansen Celeb City (Looks an awful lot like ORLY Shine!)

6) Funky Fingers Down to Earth

7) Astral Lights Glow in the dark polish

8) DragonRhia franken!

9) DragonRhia franken!

10) DragonRhia franken!

11) NY Summer Royal Blue Glitter (Future giveaway!)

12) NY Summer Fuschia Glitter

13) NY Summer Multi Glitter (Future giveaway!)

14) Ulta Pinata-yada-yada

15) Funky Finger Sand and Stilettos

16) Funky Fingers Golden Coast

17) Funky Fingers Baby Baby Baby

18) Icing Glamorous

I was THRILLED with how the Funky Fingers came out.  Sand & Stilettos and Glamorous look similar in this picture but in person you can see some differences.  Sand and Stilettos is a much finer glitter size-wise but I think the holo in Glamorous is better.  I'll swatch them side by side on my nails in the future!

WELL lovelies, I won't be able to post again until Thursday after my final!  Then I'm done with school forever!  Weee :)  Have a great next couple of days!!

<3 Whitney

Regarding My Giveaway!

Hey ladies...I just wanted to mention a couple things about my giveaway, please read this over real quick if you have entered.

I have been validating the giveaway entries as I get them and I've noticed that there are a handful that are not legitimate entries.  What I mean by this is that, for example, people say they follow me on twitter or facebook and I checked and they really don't.

Now I don't want to be snotty and just disqualify you guys for this, even though I said I would do that.  I know you can get caught up in the moment and fill the form out before actually clicking follow on Facebook or something and then forget to do it afterward, even I've done this before! 

SO what I'm going to do is give you until the day it ends (6/25) to correct this and I'll go back the day it ends and re-validate those incorrect entries again to see if they've changed.  After that what I'll do is just get rid of TWO of your validated entries for every illegitimate entry under your name.  So you'll still be entered, you'll just have less of a chance to win.  Unless you have more than one illegitimate entry, then I'll probably disqualify you...'cause then you're just being lazy!

If you've entered the giveaway and said that I'm on your blogroll or you follow my facebook page PLEASE double check this because those are the only two issues I've had in regards to incorrect entries.

Also, I said I'd update about whether or not I'd change the giveaway to be open internationally...and I've received my shipping supplies and sadly I will continue to make this US ONLY.  I'm really sorry about this, ladies, but I checked flat rate shipping costs for the smallest box the prizes would fit into and they're upwards of $50, and I just don't have that right now.   

Anyhow, thanks for reading, sorry for confusion about anything...and if you haven't entered my giveaway look for it on the sidebar and enter! 

<3 Whitney

PS I have an awesome post for later tonight...I think I took 80 pictures, haha! 

Trying out my holos!

Hey all!  I am all done with classes!  Horrayyy!  I'll be in DC Monday through Wednesday for some tests for a job offer and then I have a final exam Thursday, but I'll try and update when I'm bored in my hotel in DC!

So this morning I decided to try out CG Don't be a Square from their Kaleidoscope collection!  I ordered this one online a bit ago and have been dying to try it.

My photos don't really capture the holo effect well...I seriously took about thirty, so I'll show mine and then post another I found on another blog:

Yeahhh I don't know how to take pictures apparently...here's a good swatch I found on from Claudia at Chromatic Misadventures (if you don't follow her yet, do it, she's AWESOME!):

Ahhh!  Don't you LOVE it?  She captured the holo effect MUCH better than me.  You can check out her post here.

Amazing.  I love it and I want the whole collection, haha.  Really I just want pink and silver holos...those would be colors I'd wear all the time.  I want Hyper Haute from Tronica! Ahh!

Anyway this is three coats--I could've done two but I wanted to fill in a few nails better.  The formula is great and dries real quick...which is good and bad.  I put Poshe top coat over it, I'll let you know next post how I feel about it, 'cause I don't know yet!  

Also I repainted my toe nails with DS Tapestry.  So I'll show you a sneak peak of my toes 'cause I'm going to eventually swatch this on my nails!

I really like this one.  It came out a bit darker than I thought it would, I'll get a good picture of this on my nails eventually.  It's got so much sparkle to it, I love it!  I think I've decided I love the OPI brush...it's the perfect width.  This formula is also great...it goes on pretty opaque.  This is two coats!

Well lovelies, hopefully I'll get to post more this week--I hope you all had a super great weekend!

<3 Whitney

Ohhh What Have I Done? ...Haul and For Audrey Review + 1st Nail Art Attempt

So I did something terrible.  I broke my no buy.  HARD.  BUT I found out that I still get paid for another whole month, so that's sweet.

I'm hesitant to even post this because my mom reads my blog and I'm afraid she's going to punch me in the face for buying so much nail polish, hah!  BUT here we go anyway...

Disgusting amounts of nail polish.

I found this Korean-owned nail supply store in the ghetto of Columbus where everything was about half off the normal store price.  Seriously like China Glaze for $3, OPI DS polishes for $6.25, OPI's for $4.25, and ORLY for $3.75!!  I almost died inside the store.  Their credit card machine was down so I had to go get out cash and I was completely fine with it.  Let me start from the left back row:

White and Turquoise CG crackles,
CG Flip Flop Fantasy,
CG Fairy Dust (Nail Mail),
CG White on White,
CG Anklets of Amethysts,
CG Papaya Punch,
CG Ruby Pumps.
TWO CG Wireless Holographic Top Coats (One will go in the giveaway if I reach 200 by 6/25)
Poshe topcoat,
OPI lil Shooters
Three OPI DS Polishes ( Tapestry, Sapphire, and Opulence)
OPI Not Like the Movies
ORLY Ridge Filler
ORLY Galaxy Girl

Front Row:
Ice in Pinky Moon (Never heard of this)
I got two burst crackles (Violet Flame and Shimmering Head),
New York Summer Glitter in Fuschia
Slick in Fuchsia Flash (Never heard of this either)
Color Club De-Luxe-Cious

Oh. My. God.  Let's pretend I'm not crazy and I am seriously on a severe no buy for just about everything besides gas for my car from now until I get a real job.


ANYWAY despite my buyers remorse I'm pretty excited that I finally got For Audrey the other day.  It's CG's color that's super close to Tiffany blue...I'm sure you know all about it.  I was like the last person to get it.  Check it out:

In these pics it looks very robins eggs blue but in real life it's got some green to it.  Looks just like Tiffanys!  Anyway, it looked too boring by itself so I decided to try the new dotting tools I got in the mail the other day and painted little flowers on.  Now, this is my absolute first time at doing any kind of art on my nails...definitely not perfect and I refuse to practice on paper beforehand, so don't judge too hard.  I think it looks cute from far away haha.

I put this indoor photo up here because this color represents better how For Audrey actually looks...it's greenish!

For Audrey went on super opaque in one coat, but this is two!  I used SV top coat, which you can see because it looks crusty in my nail beds.  Does anyone know how to make it NOT do that?  I even cleaned it up twice and everytime I shower it ends up looking like that.  That's why I bought Poshe today to try.  Oh! The flowers are just made with Color Club Art Club White and the centers are Sinful Colors Let's Meet. I also polka doted with Color Club Art Club Turquoise. 

Cute!

Okay now I need to go...try not to judge me :)

<3 Whitney

Nail Mail + ORLY Out Of This World! Lots of Pics!

So I laid out in the sun this morning before my 1:30 class and on the way back to the apartment, I checked my mailbox and was surprised to find THREE nail mail packages!  Yahoo!  Here's what I got:

!!!

Savvy Chocolate, Zoya Envy, Sephora by OPI I'm With Brad, Orly Out of this World

LA Girl Head Bangin, 10 Chocolate Kiss, and Sinful Colors Nail Art in Sunset

Three glittery frankens by DragonRhia!

Nail art stickers, glitter, and dotting tools!!

CG For Audrey, CG Holo Kaleidoscope Him Out, CG Holo Don't Be a Square

Three Julep polishes: Amy, Natalie, and Gloria

Woo that was a ton!  The first couple pictures of polishes and the nail art/tools came from DragonRhia's blog sale.  I paid $10 and got all of that good stuff!  I ordered CG For Audrey off eBay and the two holos from Medusa's Threads before I realized I'm about to be broke...and I won the Julep polishes from The PolishAholic!  I'm waiting on two more packages...one from a swap and the other is a silver shatter I won from another contest (I should probably play the lottery)...and then I think that's about it for me buying or receiving polishes for a while!  Le sigh!  There's so many more I want right now...


Anyhow, the other day I decided to try ORLY Out of This World (I actually bought one before I received it in my package today!)  Check out the pics:

The first two pictures I took at night, right after I painted my them with OOTW.  They are shown with a flash...and this is how I thought the polish would look ALL the time.

Pretty shiny purple!

Alas, do not be fooled

Although these pictures look fabulous, and Out of This World looks totally awesome and all duochrome-y in the bottle, it sadly doesn't actually look like this in person, even outside.  The next three pictures show OOTW the next morning, outside in the sunlight.  No gold flash like you see in the bottle.  Disappointing.  ALSO notice the tip wear.  This was seriously 12 hours later.  I literally painted my nails at 10 pm, went to bed, got up, took a shower, and then took these pics.  WTF Seche Vite?!  I think this polish may have dried too quick for SV to work well.

Boo tip wear

Still pretty, but no duochrome

Overall I really loved how Out of this World went on...the formula is fabulous and I really like ORLY brushes.  I needed to do very little cleanup since it went on so smooth...look at those smooth curved lines!  Bam!  However, the color was not what I was expecting.  The Ulta I found this at only had this color and It's not Rocket Science from their Cosmic FX collection, and since I'm not into greens I went with this one.  I would've LOVED to have found Haley's Comet, though.

Meh--if I was into the darker colors I'd love this, but I think I'm going to try swapping both of the bottles I have of OOTW.  If anyone wants to trade for Haley's Comet I'd be super ecstatic..!  Seriously though, I'll update what I have to swap, and my wishlist, so you guys should check it out and swap with me if you want--just email me at EStyles.ww@gmail.com :)  I realized today I love getting nail mail! 

SO how do you like ORLY's Cosmic FX Collection?  Do you like Out of this World!!

<3 Whitney

PS I should be able to update more now that I'm pretty much done with school and am not currently working...pray I find a job!

Pink Wednesday! OPI DS Reserve :)

So I think I told you all that I chipped off my Memorial Day mani--this is what I wore instead!  It's not super patriotic, but I LOVED it.  It's such a gorgeous color in the sun.  It makes me want a bunch more of the OPI DS polishes, but they're just so expensive!  I'm on a no-buy right now because I realized yesterday I won't be getting anymore paychecks until I get a legit job :( 

But anyway, onto DS Reserve!

Wam! Look at that sparkle.  SO pretty!  I really love this polish.  I also really like the OPI brush.  I found that it's just wide enough to get my whole pinky nail in one swipe, which is handy.  This is three coats and it went on beautifully. 

Do you guys have any of the DS polishes?  How do you like them??

<3 Whitney

Sorry for the short post today, I'm super super busy!  Love!