Pink Wednesday! My first Butter London!

Sooo it's Pink Wednesday again!  Horray!

I've been really busy and also kind of sick the past few days, which is why I've been MIA, but I'm back for pink!  It was sunny on Monday, so I took some outdoor pics of my ruffian (ORLY Shine + China Glaze 108 Degrees), this is 3 days of wear, but I think it still looks pretty good!!  After these pics is my Butter London review:

I was sad to take it off.  But that's okay! On to something new.

Today I decided to try the Butter London polish I bought the other day: Teddy Girl.  I did not like it.  The color is okay I suppose, since these pastels almost whites are in style right now (did you see the new Cosmo?  They have an article about it!), but the formula was pretty awful.  I'm glad I used a coupon and did not pay the full $15 for this polish. 

I don't know if it was just the color that made the formula so bad for me, or if all Butter London's are like that.  It was very watery and runny and I had a hard time covering the nail equally.  I basically had to slop it on and spend forever doing clean-up.  Not to mention I was super shaky today for some reason.  My right hand is hideously bad, the left I spent much more time on, so hopefully it looks okay enough for the blog.

I guess it doesn't look too terrible in pics, but I had the worst time with this color...it kept running into the sides of my nail and I couldn't get it out.  This is three coats.

I might put some glitter on top of it to spruce it up tomorrow.

How have you guys done with Butter London?  I was severely disappointed, I hope it works out better for you!!

<3 Whti

Survey and Kreativ Blogger Award!

Okay despite only one person filling out my reader survey so far, I'm still going to fill it out to let you guys know a bit more about me :)  Feel free to fill it out still if you want to, I'm curious to know about you guys!

Elemental Styles Reader Survey

Name: Whitney
Age: 23...I guess my profile says 24, I'll be 24 in September lol I like to round up
What is your favorite nail polish brand (and color if you want)?: I love CG 108 degrees after trying it last night, but I think my favorite of all time is Zoya Kimmy.  I don't really have a favorite brand, maybe ORLY!
What is your favorite make-up brand?: Bare Minerals...oh my gosh, I love it.
What is one product you can't live without?: Mascara.  I rarely leave the house without it. 
Are you in school? Tell me about your educational background: I am!  I got my B.S. last year in chemical engineering and I will be graduating in June with my M.S. in engineering.
What's your favorite food and drink?: Food is probably pepperoni and pineapple pizza but I also LOVE ice cream sandwiches, oh my gosh.  Drink? Currently Hawaiian Punch :)
What do you like to do in your spare time, (besides nail polish and make up)?: Well school takes up most of my time, actually, but I like reading, making purses, and line dancing.  I like being outdoors a lot, too, my bf and I like to kayak and such.  I also enjoy baking.
One interesting fact about you: I'm getting my MS in 4 quarters, I'm pretty proud of that!

Alsoooo I got tagged by Fiona at Ha Bisky! Nails for the Kreativ Blogger Award!  Thanks girl!!

I guess I'm supposed to give you 10 facts about me and tag 10 bloggers with under 300 followers!

1) I live with my boyfriend, Matt.  He's a chef but he's currently working with adults with mental disabilities.  I love him and I'm glad he's around to support me :)

For a NYE party...I think this was NYE 2009 right after we started dating

2) I like to go to the driving range...I've probably been more than 25 times, but I'm still too scared to go play actual golf.

3) I have the shiest-iest car on the planet...it's a 2001 Ford Focus that I got (and helped pay for) for my HS graduation.  I'm surprised it hasn't blown up yet.  It's terrible.  I'm waiting a few more months until I get a job to buy a new one, SO excited!

4) I used to only paint my nails when I was in a terribly bad mood to help me perk up.  Now I love painting them because I can do it pretty quickly and it makes me happy to look at.

5) I LOVE themed parties.  I have had a New Years Eve party every year since 2002 and a lot of them have been themed.  Last year it was 1940's theme.  I've also had a formal one, Vegas themed, movie themed, etc...

1940s

Movie themed...I went as Hermione haha.  Because I love Harry Potter

Napoleon Dynamite and Indiana Jones helping clean up

6) I like to sew and got in the groove of making my own purses last year.  I've been a little busy with school these past few quarters but I plan to get back into it when I am done.  

An owl purse I made for my aunt.  I like owls.  A lot.  And pigs.

In addition to purses, I decided to try my hand at making a pirate outfit for Halloween last year.  I like how it turned out:

I like it better without leggings, but it was cold that day.

7) Gosh I'm only at 7?  I desperately want a micropig as a pet.  I love them.  They are so freakin' cute.   Seriously check out this video.  You will want one.  They are smarter than dogs.  I'm going to get one after I get a new car.  'Cause they're expensive.

8) My favorite movie of all time is O Brother, Where Art Thou?  I could watch it everyday.  I don't know why.

9) I have five weddings to go to this year, and I'm in two of them.  I'm going to go broke from this.  But I had a blast being MOH in my friend Jenn's wedding last year.

Oh how I miss being tan.

10) I can't stand ignorant people.  Mainly people who make arguments without knowing what they're talking about.  I respectfully decline getting into discussions with people if I'm not 100% sure of my facts and expect people to do the same. 

<3

Now to tag some creative bloggers with less than 300 followers!  I think I'm supposed to do 10, sorry if you've already been tagged!!:

1) Traci at the Trace Face Philes

2) Jennifer at Lacquer Lover

3) Carla at Deuce Beauties 

4) Jebba at Cosmetologyy

5) Millie at Perdy Claws

6) The Hair at Hair Romance

7) Styrch at Pretty in Dayton 

8) Chris at Lacquer Wear for Tips and Toes

9) Renee at The "E" Girl

10) Sophie at Ethereal Beauty

Be sure to check out these great bloggers and let them know that they were tagged by me :)  

Have a great Sunday lovelies!

<3 Whitney

Pink Ruffian!

Oh. My. Gosh. Guys.  I could not be more in love with the manicure I just did.  AH!  So like I said in my post a little while ago, I looked all day for matte polishes because I wanted to try a ruffian manicure.  I didn't find any so I'm like, screw it, I'll just rock a bright shiny colored one.

So I took ORLY's "Shine" as the metallic base (non-frost, which I love), and China Glaze's 108 degrees and here's what I came up with...sorry sort of picture heavy.  I literally took 20+ pictures and couldn't decide which ones to use.

I'm impressed with how good this pic came out...and it's inside!

Up close, super flash.  This is what the pink actually looks like, though!

Ahh, I LOVE it.  I could've been more patient and taken more time to clean up and smooth my lines, but this was my first ruffian and I'm pretty satisfied with how I did.  If it's sunny maybe I'll do pics again tomorrow.

What do you think?  Have you tried the ruffian before?

I got tagged for the Kreativ Blogger award...but I'm going to wait until tomorrow to do that.  Also if you look back a few posts I had a reader survey...you should fill it out!

<3 Whitney

Ulta and Sally's Haul!

Ohhh dear.  I spent some money today.  But for a while, I was doing great with the savings!

Let's seeee first I went to Ulta and got got three of the CG Island Escapes (Blue Iguana, 108 Degrees, and Senorita Bonita) with their buy 2 get 1 free sale.  I also got CG Midnight Mission on clearance for $2.99 and then I used this coupon and got ORLY Shine for free!  THEN I used this coupon and got $5 off my purchase so I got all that for $12!!  THEN I had another coupon and they let me do another transaction where I got Seche Vite top coat since I didn't have it yet !gasp! and some eye shadow applicators to try sponging.

SV, ORLY Shine, CG Midnight Mission, 108 Degrees, Senorita Bonita, and Blue Iguana

Then I headed over to Sally's where I got a nail art pen and used my $5 off coupon for getting their beauty card last month so it was only like $2.50.  Score!

Anyone tried these cina pens??

THEN I had to go to the other side of town to go to Best Buy and I was desperately searching for the OPI matte polishes, so I stopped in the other Ulta we have and used the ORLY coupon again and another $5 off coupon that expired today and got ORLY It's Up To Blue and my first Butter London polish, Teddy Girl, that came with some nail polish remover!

Sadly I did not find any matte polishes except the new Zoya ones, but I was looking for the darker colored ones :(  Sad story.  I could probably check Walgreens but I figured I spent to much money today.  Especially because after all my polish shopping I bought a freakin' IPHONE!  weee!  SO excited for that 'cause my last phone was a POS.  Here's my total haul:

That's the BF's puppy peering at me in the background :)
Total Spent (minus iphone) = $33.46!!

eeee!  I'm so excited for all of these things.  I LOVE Blue Iguana...I didn't think that I would because I didn't like it in pictures I saw, but I love it in person.  I'm very excited.  I needed some shopping therapy today.

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend, I'm going to try a new mani later, maybe if it works out I'll post it!

Much love,
<3 Whitney

Sinful Colors and Zoya Combo! Plus a Get to Know You!

Hey everyone, what a busy week I've had.  And there's four morrree ugggh!

Sorry about the lack of update yesterday, and this one is going to be short and sweet.

I've been testing out my glow in the dark polishes, the boyfriend got me a second one!  It's a blue glitter but it goes on very sheer.  I put the blue glitters over ORLY's Sterling Silver Rose and it worked pretty well!  I need to wait until I'm headed over to my parents to use it again...my bro has some black lights that I need  to use to get some photos of them! 

I tried a REALLY neat but REALLY nerdy nail art thing today with the glow in the dark, but it failed miserably because I can't free hand for crap.  I'll try again some other day if I get a good tool.

Anyway...today I tried one of my new Sinful Colors: Big Daddy!  It got sunny for 5 minutes so I got to get some pics:

Shade

Sun

So I like it...it's super bright and orangey!  This is three coats, though, and you can still see visible nail line, but that's okay.  I had another idea of putting Zoya Tanzy on top as funky French tips, but I was feeling impatient after my first nail art fail and decided just to put it on top.  I thought Tanzy was a little more sheer, but I hadn't tried it yet, so it wasn't as sheer as I thought it'd be!  This is just one coat of Tanzy over Big Daddy:

I wanted to leave a little bit of Big Daddy around the edges, but it didn't really work out that way.  I still like this a lot!

Wellll that's it for tonight.  BUT I wanted to do a little survey to find out more about my readers!  SO if you guys would comment and fill out this form so I can get to know you all a little better, that'd be great.  Then during my next post I'll fill it out and tell you some more about me!  You can add questions to the list in your comment if you have something specific to ask me!

Elemental Styles Reader Survey

Name:

Age:

What is your favorite nail polish brand (and color if you want)?:

What is your favorite make-up brand?:
What is one product you can't live without?:

Are you in school? Tell me about your educational background:

 What's your favorite food and drink?:

What do you like to do in your spare time, (besides nail polish and make up)?:

One interesting fact about you: 

Do you have a blog? Leave me a link!:

Any suggestions for the blog:

Questions for me:

Thanks lovelies!  Have a great weekend :)

Pink Wednesday: ORLY Sterling Silver Rose!

Hey all!!  Back from PA and my interview went well! I actually got a preliminary job offer from another place like 5 minutes before my interview, hah!  I took it, too...I have to pass all these tests before their "official" offer, but it's a slight ego booster to even get the preliminary.  Hopefully that means I'm not jobless after I graduate!

I was going to do a lovely Milani color this week, but it looks like the same peachy pinks I've been doing so I went with ORLY's Sterling Silver Rose!

This polish I have is a few years old, I probably should've added a bit of nail polish remover to it to thin it down, but it looked okay when I opened it.  It also went on smooth, but I think next time I use it I WILL add a few drops 'cause the final product is a bit thick for me, especially when I only used 2 coats!

Indoor, window lighting

These are all by the window, actually

My boyfriend is growing Basil in the background...

So it went on well for only 2 coats, if you were in a hurry you could probably get away with one, which is grounds for an awesome polish for me.  It's very pink and shiny by itself, but I added a top coat 'cause I'm gonna wear this one at least until tomorrow. 

You can see from the middle picture it's a little thick and you can see the ridges of my nail through it.  It's still pretty, though.  Also, I've been having a bit of an issue lately with the sides of my nail on my ring finger and middle finger..it's kind of like hard skin there and it won't smooth out with cuticle cream or lotion.  Any tips, ladies??

Welllll hopefully it'll brighten up this weekend, I may do some swatching, but it's still rainy and shitty here for the third week in a row!  Hope your week is going well lovelies :)

<3 Whitney

Flight's Delayedddd....

Just wanted to update real quick while I'm waiting at the airport for my flight...although I had to get ON my flight and didn't have a chance to post this, so now I'm actually AT my hotel :)

So my boyfriend's boss invited him to go on a private tour with Jack Hanna at the Columbus Zoo today and I'm SO jealous I have to fly out tonight for this interview tomorrow.  He just texted me a picture.  Ugghh.  I love the zoo.

My something new of the day was a Mediterranean Restaurant!  I can't remember what it's called but it's right by my parents house and I hadn't tried it before.  It was delish.

I also tried Zoya Kimmy from the Sunshine Collection before I walked out the door today.  Oh my GOSH.  Favorite one of the collection.  I'm usually not into reds, but this one is seriously amazing.  It's so bold and fantastic.  I'm going to have to swatch it when I get back.  Do you all love it as much as I do?

Welllllll I got some work to do, just wanted to update real quick :)

Have a great night,
Whit

China Glaze vs. Sinful Colors: Blues and Peaches!

Hello all and welcome new followers from Polish-aholics Anonymous!  If you're a nail blogger, or even just love nail polish, you should check out this group on Facebook.  It's a great way to meet other bloggers and nail polish lovers and share your opinions.  I just found out about it yesterday and I'm already so excited about it!  And while you're at it, check out the Elemental Styles Facebook page!

Anyway, today I passed on trying another Zoya Sunshine....Since I noticed that some of the Sinful Colors polishes I picked up (and won during a giveaway) were a little similar to some of the China Glaze colors I have, I decided to do a comparison of blues and peaches.  It's a little picture heavy for the peaches, so I'll start with the blues:

I decided to compare China Glaze (CG) "Flyin' High", Sinful Colors (SC) "Savage" and Finger Paints (FP) "Art Dealer Teal-Er."  In the bottle I thought the Sinful Colors and Finger Paints looked similar, but on the nail it was definitely a competition between Savage and Flyin' High:

Savage, Flyin' High, and Art Dealer Teal-Er, I guess outside SC looks nothing like FP...inside they do!

FP is obviously completely different...

So in terms of color, China Glaze's Flyin' High and Sinful Colors' "Savage" are very similar but they're definitely not dupes.  Savage (SC) looks quite a bit more matte than the shinier Flyin' High (CG).  I love the Finger Paints but it's not really comparable to the other ones!  These are all shown with three coats of polish without a top coat, though, so you can definitely make the SC shinier by adding that.

The SC formula was a little runny, but it might've been the brush causing the problem.  If you don't wipe the brush off enough it ends up dripping after a few seconds.  I hadn't eaten so I was a bit shaky with my application and had an issue with this. 

Overall, though, if you liked the CG Flyin' High that I reviewed but can't decide if you want to pay the CG price, you can pick up the similar color "Savage" by Sinful Colors at Walgreens for around $2.  It's a decent polish for so cheap!  Last week they were on sale for 99 cents, which is a steal.  I don't know if that's still going on, though!

I also decided to check out Sinful Colors "Hazard" and China Glaze's "Thataway."  I love both of these colors but I'm a sucker for peach.

Peachessss

Inside, no flash...kitchen lighting!

Inside, flash

Outside

Outside again...stupid clouds

Once again these shades are pretty similar on the nail.  This time the Sinful Colors was not matte at all, but quite shiny.  The China Glaze, however, stole the show by having a slight shimmer to it!  I feel like you could easily franken the Thataway (CG) by starting out with the Hazard (SC) base and adding a clear or white shimmer because the base colors are nearly identical.   

These pics all show three coats, no top coat, and the formulas both went on pretty well.  I like the CG brush a little better though because it's slightly smaller.  My nails aren't very wide so thicker brushes make it more difficult for me to cleanly paint my nails. 

But once again, if you're looking for a deal or you're poor like me, Sinful Colors provides a pretty decent competition to some of the China Glaze colors!  I'm glad I have both, though, because I really like the shimmer to Thataway.  You can read more about it here.

Sorry for the super long post!  I'll be out of town tomorrow and Tuesday for another interview so I doubt I'll update, but we'll see.

Have a great Sunday, and check out the giveaways that are ending today!

<3 Whit

P.S. My something "new" of the day is, as of right now, Sinful Colors...I just got a bunch but I hadn't tried them yet :)

Christian Siriano Kajal Eyeliner for VS

Hey all!

Today was nice out, finally, so I tried to be out of the house most of the day!  I didn't really clean up my nails from last night but I posted some new outdoor pictures of the Zoya polishes I tried in my blog post yesterday.

I decided today to try the Christian Siriano Kajal Eyeliner in Eclipse for Victoria's Secret that I got in my prize package from Tracy and Beauty Reflections!

Wonder what you do when it gets down to the bottom?  Can you sharpen this??

Sooooo like I've said before, I usually wear brown powder eyeliner, but I wanted to try out this black pencil for my something new of the day.  I wasn't planning on wearing any eyeshadow with it but when I realized how dark it was I threw on some brown shimmer on top of it, so in some of the pictures you can tell I did it this way instead of putting on the liner last.  Whoops!  That's ok, check it out:

You can see I got eye shadow on the liner, but it's all gravy

You can't tell as much with my eyes open...woo I got a crap ton of mascara on.

Up close

Closed up close

So overall I liked it.  It went on super smooth and super easy.  I usually have to press pretty hard to get a dark line with pencil eye liner but this went on super dark when I barely touched my skin!  It rubs off, but not super easily--it's stayed on with pretty much the same opacity all day!

I love the packaging, but I'm kind of confused as to what to do once you use a lot of it...I don't know if you can sharpen it back to a point or if you kind of use it so one side is pointed...like a lipstick.  Any ideas??

This runs for about $12.  I really like it and I'll definitely use it up eventually, but I probably wouldn't buy it again unless it comes in a brown.  I can't seem to figure that out with a quick google search.  I'm kind of uninformed, haha. 

Have you guys tried this?? Let me know!

<3 Whitney

PS...check out the haul I won from Stephanie over at Imperfectly Painted:

Ahh so many Sinful Colors!  I'm super excited about these, the purple is something that I was trying to buy for myself the other day but I was already beyond the three polish limit for the sale at Walgreens!  So I'm pretty happy I got it!

The keeki glow-in-the-dark (!!!) polish in the middle was a gift from my boyfriend!  It came in the mail today!  He even researched natural, organic nail polish all by himself!  So cute :)  Have you guys heard of this brand or used it??

Late Night Zoya Update!

So. I've been watching this wedding. All. Day.  I didn't think I would be this fascinated by it but seriously I've been on my couch most of the day working on my thesis with it in the background.  AND I just sat here and did my nails and it's on again.  Kate looked fabulous, she's super gorgeous.  But seriously, I'm 100% positive if you had any interest in this wedding you've already watched it or Googled it a million times today, so I'm not going to talk about it anymore :) But gosh, what a fairytale for her!  P.S. I could totally move to England and do this whole funky British hat thing...except maybe this one:

lolomgwtf!?  Seriously, what were you thinking Beatrice?  It looks like a toilet seat with a bow.

Anyway, sorry this is super late.  I had plans of finishing my thesis draft around 4 but then I decided to eff up my computer code and drew it out to about 6 pm.  Then the boyfriend won Jon Stewart tickets on the radio this morning (seriously the FOURTH (or fifth..?) thing THIS YEAR he's won from the radio, he should play the lottery), so we got to go to that show tonight.  I don't really follow politics super closely nor do I care much about either party (unless it has to do with the DOE, my potential employer), but he was a funny guy and we had a nice time!  That was my something NEW for today...we hadn't seen a show together! 

I ALSO tried two more of my Sunshine Zoyas!  Faye for my fingers and Reva for my toes!

Faye (Zoya.com)

Reva (Zoya.com)

Faye is described as "a bronzed mauve with purple and brown undertones flooded with bright gold sparkle" while Reva is a "cool toned strawberry red with glowing golden metallic sparkle."

I think Faye's description is pretty accurate.  It seems like the gold sparkles definitely dominate the color that you see.  I'd say it's a gold sparkle with a mauve underdone.  I really like this color because, like all Sunshine polishes, it changes completely depending on the lighting and angle you see it from.  Beautiful!  I used 3-4 coats, can't remember.  I think 4.

Reva and Faye

Faye

Outside! It's SUNNY!

I didn't clean up my nails much, sorry about that.
Reva, on the other hand (or foot hahaha...ha..), I can't decide if I like.  I usually have a super bright pink on my toes so this is a little blood red for my taste.  And not to mention I completely SUCK suck suck at painting my toe nails.  My utter lack of flexibility is most likely the cause (which hopefully gets better with my new yoga regime)...that and the fact that my vision is le poop so I can't see what I'm doing unless the lighting is super bright, which my living room is not.  So even though clean up on my toes took longer than painting them it still turned out looking like crap

(WARNING: toe pictures...in case you're weirded out by that sort of thing):

I photoshopped some of the FUG out, but it's still not very good.  Don't zoom in, it's a bad idea.

It's fascinating how ugly your feet can look under a 14 MP zoom.  You really see all your polish (and skin) flaws that way, haha.  I also conveniently cut out my funky deformed pinky toe.  Let's not talk about it.

The Reva looks a little darker in side  I only did two coats 'cause I slathered them on pretty thick not on purpose.  Hopefully it's dried before I go to bed. I also didn't really clean up my toes at all.  I photoshopped it a little to make it look better so you focus on the color and not how terrible I painted my toes lol.

I hope you guys had a FABULOUS Friday and enjoyed all the wedding coverage.  I know I did :)

Catch ya on the flip
<3 Whit

P.S. I added two new Giveaways to my page!