31 Day Challenge, Day 6! Julep Chloe!

Soooo I haven't been showing off my Julep Maven boxes...I promise I'll do that tomorrow and show you ladies who haven't signed up what you can get!

What I got from my October box included Julep Chloe...in the bottle it's a beautiful dark purple with suspended purple glitter that looks just awesome.

On the nail, however it looks almost black unless you're in the sunlight.  It's a bit too dark for me personally, but it's a great fall/winter color and I'm hoping it'll grow on me...'cause I'm not going to have time to do them again for a few days!

You can see the purple in the bottle in this picture

Nails look black...eh.

The polish itself didn't have the best consistency.  I haven't got the Julep application down yet--since the bottle is so skinny and the brush is so long, it is hard to get excess polish off of the brush.  If you don't get enough excess off, it runs down the whole length of the brush before you're done painting the nail...and ugh!  Some of the other Julep polishes aren't as bad, but since this one was a thicker polish, it was hard.  Howeverrrr I ignored the thickness and celebrated because this polish covered completely in only two coats!  It tried a little more matte than I prefer as well, but with some Seche Vite top coat it was awesomely shiny!  Horray!

How are you guys enjoying the Maven program?  What category did you get?  I got Bombshell.  Sounds sexy...not sure how I got there lol.

<3 Whit

31 Day Challenge, Day 5! ORLY + Klean Color Chunky Holo Teal!

Ooohh dear I can't believe I even made it to day 5 on this challenge, haha.

For this day I decided to try another polish I haven't used before: ORLY It's Up to Blue topped with Klean Color Chunky Holo Teal!

It's Up to Blue is a little frosty and streaky for me.  It's a fun bright summer color but I don't think I'd wear it any other time, so it was only on for a day!  I had to use three coats to get it semi-smooth looking:

It was getting dark so the color looks ulta bright blue

Inside it's a little tealy looking

I topped this with two coats of Klean Color Chunky Holo Teal.  Pictures for this kind of failed:

Inside picture since I did this at night...but you can still see all the great colors in CHT!

Since I had 900 coats of polish, when I went to take outdoor pictures the next day, it had got all wrinkled :(

Due to wrinkly pictures, here are two of my notoriously weird looking right hand!

Check out those flakies!

Ahhh it's so bright!  I didn't love the brightness of the blue since it's getting colder and I'm kind of bitter, haha--so I'm kind of glad it got messed up so I could take it off and put on a more "autumn" toned color.  Stay tuned for day 6 (violet) tomorrow ;)

<3 Whitney

P.S. I haven't forgot about my promised surprise!

31 Day Challenge, Day 4! Zoya Apple!

Don't think I've forgotten about this challenge, ladies!  I'm still here.  It's hard for me to update during the week with my crazy job, but I HAVE been painting my nails!  I've got a few days worth of posts done today, so horray!

I am really liking this challenge though, because along with the 31-day challenge, I am also doing my own "never tried" challenge and using polishes I've never used before to complete it!

Along with my never tried challenge, I've finally tried the last of the Zoya Sunshine Collection: Apple!  I am not too keen on green nails, but I'm glad I tried this because I liked it a lot!

I initially tried to have an accent nail of a CG Happy Go Lucky with Kermit the Frog painted on it, but after trying to paint him FOUR times (twice on each hand), I gave up.  I ended up with mixing my own lighter green polish (That I had hopefully named Kermit) and using that as a base with some flower stickers I had:

Happy Go Lucky accent nail...sans Kermit :(

Accent nail of my own mixed polish (Kermit) with some stick on flowers!

I ended up liking this mani okay and wore it for a few days.  The people at work were confused by my accent nail, but I don't care!  And sorry for my picture quality...I did this at night time and ended up having to take indoor pictures--lame salsa!

Anywho--this is 3 coats of Apple and three coats of HGL/Kermit.  I tend to do three coats of everything regardless if it's necessary, haha.  I love the Sunshine Collection, they're great!  Zoya polishes only tend to work well (and by that I mean last more than a day) with certain base coats and now that I've found some, I like them a lot.  I'm glad I bought the whole collection!

Wellllllll I hope you guys are enjoying my challenge posts--I'm enjoying doing them!  I've got a surprise for you all later in the week, so stay tuned!

<3 Whitney

31 Day Challenge, Day 3! CG Happy Go Lucky + Nail Art!

So Day 3 = yellows!  Horray!  However, since yellow is my favorite color, there wasn't a yellow in my collection that I hadn't used before, so I thought I'd have to spice it up a bit!

I've been wanting to do yellow and white polka dots for a while, so I figured this would be the perfect time for it.

I started off with three coats of China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and added some polka dots with one of my dotting tools in China Glaze White on White.  I didn't take too much time on the dots so they're not all perfectly the same size, but I don't care too much...surprisingly, actually, since most of the time I'm pretty anal about that kind of stuff.  But here it is:

I like this mani because it's so happy!  If it was a paler yellow it'd remind me of Easter eggs...

So what I've been doing for a while is using a normal top coat (such as OPI) along with these cuticle oil/drying drops from Beauty Secrets instead of a quick dry top coat such as Seche Vite:

They're normally great...they dry your mani quickly along with moisturizing your cuticles, but if you're trying to do nail art it's kind of a hassle because you have to rinse off the oil in between your coats if you want a top coat in between your base and your art. 

BUT I decided for this mani I was going to bust out my Seche Vite and give it another try.  I stopped using it because I was tired of the shrinkage and the crusties on the sides of my nail...I cleaned up again with acetone after applying the SV to stop the buildup but I still got a noticeable amount of shrinkage.  Does anyone know why this happens and how to stop it?  I think next time I'll try Posche again.

How are you guys doing with this challenge??  Whats your fav yellow??!

<3 Whitney

31 Day Challenge, Day 2! Sinful Colors Cloud 9

Okay, so contrary to popular belief (most likely from my lack of posting), I DID do Day 2 of this challenge ON Day 2, howeverrr I just didn't get around to posting it since I couldn't take pictures at night!

And thennnnn I didn't post the next day 'cause I'm lazy....

SO here it is finally, Day 2!  Oranges!

I gave The Boyfriend a choice of three oranges I hadn't tried from my collection and he chose Sinful Colors Cloud 9:

It wasn't ultra bright out when I took these, but you can still see that even with three coats there's quite a bit of visible nail line.  Meh.  I liked the consistency of the polish, it goes on great and cleans up decently well, but it just wasn't opaque enough for me.  I almost painted white under it but on a whim I thought I'd see how it went without it.  It doesn't matter too much, though, 'cause I lost a bit of my tan and this bright transparent orange just looked strange on my hands.  Have any of you guys tried this polish?  I think I'll definitely keep it in the collection, I'll just try and remind myself to put something under it!

OH And I said I'd let you know how it went with the no chip 10-day Sally Hansen polish from my Day 1 post...it did NOT go well.  The same day I painted my nails I closed my hand in the freezer door and chipped a tiny piece off my thumb and pointer fingers and it went all downhill from there.  A huge chunk came off at work the next morning and by lunchtime it all came peeling off in sheets.  It might've had something to do with the base and top coat I used, because I know with Zoya you can only use certain base coats or it chips easily...but I don't know!  This combo I use works with other polishes, but whatev. 

Welllllllll I've already got my Day 3 polish done since I did it TODAY, so hopefully I can keep kind of better on track with this!

Anyone else still doing this challenge??

31 Day Challenge, Day 1! Sally Hansen 10 Day No Chip Polish in Resilient Red!

So. I've decided to try this 31 Day Nail Polish Challenge that so many people are doing right now.  With how often I've been updating, this challenge may seem silly.  BUT I'm going to do it my way and do the challenge regardless if I am able to update every day.  I'll finish it eventually :)

I'm also going to be switching some stuff around here soon...won't be huge I don't think, but I do want to get back into blogging and I'm trying to re-organize my life and priorities so we'll see what happens.

Here is the 31 day challenge list in case you haven't already seen it!

SO onto Day 1: Red!

I picked Sally Hansen 10 Day No Chip polish in Resilient Red!  I wanted an obviously red cream since my nails are so stubby.  Anything glittery I don't like on short nails, so here's what I ended up with...and I'll get back to you on how long this mani lasts without chipping ;)

P.S. I failed miserably with these pictures and I apologize.  This isn't how I wanted to return from another 2 week hiatus, haha.  It was pretty dark outside already and I didn't realize until I just now edited these pictures that the polish looks a little bumpy, but it's just water droplets from when I rinsed my hands! Ugh. Fail!

So this polish went on pretty smooth...I actually enjoyed it for a red.  I used three coats, but two would've been plenty as it was pretty opaque.  It was a bit hard cleaning up, but you'll have that with darker colors usually!

And thennnn I decided to stamp a little daisy with my new stamping plates that I (finally) got from Born Pretty!  And holy moly, I give you ladies who stamp a TON of credit because I just don't have the patience for it.  I probably tried to get it on the stamp like 5 times each hand and then I got it but it's obviously not centered and ugh.  Just a mess.  I've been trying for a few days, too, it just hasn't worked out too well, lol.  Any tips?  And any suggestions on good stamping polishes??!!

I tried to fill it in a bit...didn't work...and then I blurred the picture.  So much fail in this post.

Ohhhhhhhh well.  Day 1 down, 30 to go!  Any of you ladies trying this challenge??

<3 Whitney

I'm finally trying OPI Pirate's Collection.... :)

Sooo a while back in June I won a giveaway from a video blogger...I was supposed to win a silver shatter and the Pirates of the Caribbean mini collection.  SO I avoided buying silver shatter even though I desperately wanted it and only swapped for Mermaid's Tears since it didn't come in the mini collection. 

Howeverrrr after 3 weeks (late June) and no prize in the mail, I e-mailed her making sure she had my address correct (and also 'cause my neighbors at the time were kind of shady...), she said she'd just sent it out the day before.  Welllll on the first of August I moved and still hadn't received my package.  Bummer!

I don't want to sound too snobby about it because I don't know if I was jipped and she never sent it or whether it just got lost in the mail...AND it would've been a PRIZE that I didn't buy, but I'm still kind of bummed 'cause now I can't find silver shatter and I still want it. 

Anywho, I was avoiding trying Mermaid's Tears because I wanted to use it with Silver Shatter, but I picked it randomly on my list of untrieds, soooo here it is!

Indoor lighting

The first three pictures are (obviously) taken outdoors, but it was getting kind of dark so the color looks a bit more teal.  I took one inside to show you guys the dusty green hue it looks like inside.

I used three coats of this polish and it went on nice and smooth.  The formula was nice and great like a normal OPI polish, but I didn't like the color too much with my skin tone.  It grew on my after about a day, but I don't think it's one I'll just randomly use again unless I'm trying to match something I'm wearing, haha.

Overall, I'd still love to try a few others from this collection I never bought such as Planks A Lot and Sparrow Me the Drama, but I'm not going to rush out for them now, hah.  I was a little under enthused about the whole collection...I thought it'd be a bit more...piratey.  But oh well!  A few good colors came out of it and silver shatter :)

You guys done hearing about this collection yet?  Sorry I'm behind the times :)


<3 Whitney

E-nuf is E-nuf!

A while ago I was lucky enough to get quite a few Essie polishes from Traci at the TraceFace Philes! 

One of them was a lovely dark pink/red called E-nuf is E-nuf!  Check it out:

I really like Essie...sometimes the formula is a little thin, but I've had much better luck recently.  Especially with this polish! 

It went on super shiny and smooth in 2-3 coats (sorry, this was about two-three weeks ago, so I can't remember exactly!).  I love 2 coater polishes, but more often than not to get good pictures for the blog I do 3.  I usually don't wear reds like this but it ended up really pretty.   

I probably should've used ridgefiller because you can see the irregularities on my pointer finger nail, but that's okay.  Usually reds stain pretty bad but this one came off easily and didn't turn my skin all red when I was cleaning up!

Overall I'm liking Essie more and more, and it's helpful that they sell them at a lot of places due to my current lack of beauty stores...mainly Ulta.  :/

Welllllll hope you are well, I'm headed back home for a wedding this weekend, so I probably won't have time to update for the weekend, but I'll try and set up a post!

<3 Whitney

Barielle Karma Collection! Triple Post!

Good morning lovelies!  I hope you all had a GREAT labor day weekend!  It was a 4 day weekend for me, which was definitely needed!

Right when I was moving I got sent three Barielle polishes to review from their Karma Collection released earlier this year!  I did the first two not long after I received them, but I got too busy to do the third until recently and I wanted to post about them all at once!

Barielle Karma Collection

They're all beautiful polishes, but I chose to try: Soul-er Powered, Do Unto Others, and Gotta Have Fate!


First up: Soul-er Powered:

Soul-er Powered is a beautiful shimmery yellow that has just enough frost to make it shine, but not enough to make the formula streaky.  It went on smooth and opaque in three coats and lasted a few days without chipping!  I love yellow--I don't care if it's mid-winter and I'm pale as can be, I still love wearing the color, so there's nothing I don't like about this polish! 


Next up: Do Unto Others:

Do Unto Others is a pretty robins-egg blue/teal that went on shiny and opaque in 3 coats, but I think I could've got away with just 2.  This is a very "spring" color that I liked a lot!  This was the color that I kept putting off doing because I didn't think I could pass off this bright of a color at work, but I actually got compliments on it, so I was very pleased :)


Next up: Gotta Have Fate:

I think this one was my favorite of the three that I tried, but only because I can't resist pinks/peaches ever, hah!  This was the color I was talking about a few posts back that is very similar to CND's Tropic Coral, but I haven't swatched them side by side.  I did like this formula much better than CND--it went on super smooth and shiny in 3 coats, but like Do Unto Others, I think I could get away with just 2, which is great in my book!  I love this color because you can wear it any time of the year with nearly anything.


Overall, I loved all the colors and I'm very surprised I didn't hear more about this collection earlier this summer when it came out!


These were my first Barielle polishes and I can definitely say I'd purchase them in the future!  I might have to get them from their website because I don't have an Ulta around here...anyone else know where to get them?


Hope you enjoyed!


<3 Whitney