September 30, 2011

Lynnderella Cauldron Drippings


Totally aside from the amazing collection of glitters that Lynnderella crams into every one of her polishes, I obsess over the names she gives these gems. Case in point: Cauldron Drippings. Cauldron Drippings is a number of varied glitters in an orange base. Lynnderella describes it as "oranges in an sparkling orange base, plus whatever happens to be in the cauldron at the moment. Does not contain eye of newt, graveyard dirt or possum particulate matter." 



As you may have guessed, I think that description is fantastic, especially the part about it not containing eye of newt, etc. LOL. Lynnderella also says that every bottle of Cauldron Drippings is intentionally different, so if you buy this, you may find that yours does not look exactly like this.


While you could probably wear Cauldron Drippings alone with three or four coats, I chose to show you two coats over NYC Pumpkin. This would also look stunning over black. I'm actually wearing this combination as I type and LOVE it! Honestly, the Lynnderella polishes are taking me a long time to swatch, because I refuse to take them off once I get them on. So that means I can really only swatch one at a time!


Lynnderella will be re-opening her Early Halloween shop again, although I am not sure when. Check her blog for the announcement and get your emails ready! I'm actually going to split an order with the lovely Amanda from The Nail Polish Enthusiast, so that I can get Mercurial and Love Potion No. 99!!


I have one more Lynnderella left to show you, Bibbitty Bobbitty Boo Blue. I hope to get that up before the next Lynnderella sale so that you have swatches available! Check out my posts on The Telltale Heart and She Lived in a Swamp/The Glittering Crowd for more swatches.

September 29, 2011

Color Club Backstage Pass Preview


COLOR CLUB BACKSTAGE PASS COLLECTION
Get Your Rock Glam On this October with a new Rockin’ Glitter Collection from Color Club

September 2011 - New York, New York - Color Club, the veteran nail polish brand, announced today the debut of Backstage Pass, a new rockin’ glitter nail polish collection. The aptly named collection features six nail polishes -- from Wish Upon a Rock-star to Platinum Record -- that are sure to “rock your world.” Whether you’re a rocker – or just aspire to look like one – this new vegan, Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP and paraben-free collection from Color Club is your ultimate backstage pass and sure to be a hit!

The Backstage Pass Collection includes:
Take the Stage: Gold Glitter with Silver Flakes
Wish Upon a Rock-Star: Multi-colored Glitter with Purple
Backstage Pass: Silver & Purple Hex Glitter
Platinum Record: Silver Glitter
It's a Hit!: Purple Big Glitter
Fame & Fortune: Red Base with Silver Flakes

All Color Club products are made in the USA and are not tested on animals. Products are available at shopcolorclub.com.


About Color Club
A favorite of celebrity manicurists and nail color fans worldwide, Color Club is renowned for its high performance rich shades and exceptionally safe products. From the brightest neons, to glitter and French, all nail colors are vegan, Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP and paraben-free - and made in New York, NY with the best raw materials. 


UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, I'm going to need all of these STAT.

September 28, 2011

Pink Wednesday: Revlon Fierce


OK, so this is really a pink-purple Wednesday!!! Revlon Fierce is a cross between pink and purple, so I thought it would sort of work for Pink Wednesday. I picked up Fierce when I purchased Revlon Royal Cloak. According to Fairytale Charm's blog, Fierce is part of the Edgy Elegance collection. However, when I found mine at Harmon, it was not in an Edgy Elegance display. It was mixed in with the Masquerade display, so just keep an eye out for it!


Fierce reminds me of an OPI Suede polish or a Zoya Matte Velvet polish, except for the fact that it dries shiny, instead matte. It looks like a suede finish with a top coat. It's a very cool finish and I really love it. I wish the rest of the Edgy Elegance collection was this kind of finish, but it looks like only one of them might be this finish (Downtown, a silvery gray). I hope Revlon will consider this finish in more colors.


Now, let me drop the Awesome Bomb on you. THIS IS ONE COAT. YES, I JUST SAID ONE COAT!!!!!!! How sick is that??? I am super impressed with the pigmentation here. I didn't even feel the need to do a second coat for pictures. It applied flawlessly, and did not need any smoothing or evening out. Just perfection in ONE coat. So awesome.


Now, can I please have this in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo? K, thanx!

Revlon Fierce should be pretty available in drugstores near you. Let me know if you find it!

September 26, 2011

Never Enough Nails Necessity: Revlon Royal Cloak


You may have noticed a significant increase in posts about drugstore polish around here lately. I personally think the drugstore polish companies ROCKED fall 2011. I had/continue to have so many drugstore polish lemmings this fall that it is really dangerous for me to walk into a drugstore. For one thing, I seem to be unable to stop purchasing Sally Hansen Insta Dri polishes. For another, I also keep buying Revlons at an astonishing pace. Revlon Royal Cloak, from the fall Masquerade collection, is one of those polishes that was destined to be mine, no matter what. Like, I would have purchased this with my last $4 on earth even if I was homeless.


 Why is this polish a Never Enough Nails Necessity? First, purple is my favorite favorite color. Anything purple has a head start on any other color. My entire room is purple. Second, it's named Royal Cloak. That is just too awesome. Third, it contains small flakies. Purple + Great Name + Flakies= Done Deal.


Royal Cloak is a blue-purple polish with small flakes of pale glitter-like material. I say glitter-like because it's not sparkly like glitter. The flakes range in size from small and round to larger irregular-shaped pieces commonly known as "flakies". The flakies get a bit lost on the nail, they are more apparent in the bottle. Even so, this is a really pretty polish.


I did have some troubles with this beauty. You can see in the picture above that my middle nail has some patchiness near the cuticle. There was some drag, both down by the cuticle AND by the tip. You definitely need to let each coat dry completely before applying the next coat. This is three-ish coats. I say "three-ish", because some nails (pointer and ring) were OK with two coats. The third coat was only needed to correct bare patches that were probably caused by me applying the second coat too quickly.

Revlon Royal Cloak is hopefully still available at a drugstore near you!

September 24, 2011

Rimmel Wild Orchid


Today's post is another fabulous drugstore find, Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in Wild Orchid. You saw this yesterday underneath Lynnderella The Glittering Crowd, but it's pretty enough to get it's own post!! I wore this under The Glittering Crowd for several days and really loved the bright lilac color. It was so cheery, especially with all of the sparkling glitter on top!


This is two coats of Wild Orchid and it's nicely opaque. It goes on pretty opaque with one coat, but it needed a bit of evening out, so I did need to add the second coat. The formula is nice and smooth, with no real difficulties at all. The large brush really makes for easy application once you get the hang of it.


This color is maybe a tad brighter in person and not as dusty as it looks in these pictures. It's a great color for all seasons and one that could suit a variety of occasions. It's fun without being over the top or obnoxious, and can still look lady-like as well.


I really like the three Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro polishes I've posted (Pink Zinfandel, Rags to Riches) and I'll certainly be checking the displays in the drugstores for more cool colors in this line. Do you own any of the Lasting Finish Pro polishes? Which one is your favorite?

This polish was sent to me for review by a PR agent for Rimmel London. For more information, please read my Disclosure Policy.

September 23, 2011

More Lynnderella Obsessions!!!


Lynnderella is re-opening her Early Halloween shop tonight at 7pm. I want you to be prepared, so I am showing you two more Lynnderella Early Halloween polishes this morning. First up is the amazing She Lived in a Swamp. This is two coats of She Lived in a Swamp over Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro Rags to Riches.

She Lived in a Swamp is a mix of many different green and yellow-green glitters in a clear base. I can't really name every glitter in this polish, but a few of the highlights include: grass green hex glitter, military green hex glitter, yellow-green bar/string glitter, small grass green glitter, and yellow-green square glitter. Click on the picture below and try to find them all!!


The insane amount of different glitters in Lynnderella's polishes is really what draws me to them. No other polish company/brand includes this many different kinds of glitter in their polish. I love the unique look this provides, especially when the glitter is layered over a similar base color.




 Next up is The Glittering Crowd. The Glittering Crowd is a serious pile of different kinds of glitter in all different colors, set in a clear base. I think I read that Lynnderella used more than 50 different glitters for this polish, and I believe it. I can't possibly name all of the glitters, but I'll give you a small sample: medium square blue glitter, large square gold glitter, fine silver glitter, small circle blue glitter, small square green glitter, medium hex gold glitter, medium purple hex glittter, and medium silver hex glitter. And that's really just a few pieces I could find on one nail!



 I did three coats of The Glittering Crowd over two coats of Rimmel Wild Orchid (pics and review tomorrow) in all of these pictures. The Glittering Crowd would look fantastic over any color polish, due to it's rainbow appearance. It would really pop over black, but I also can't wait to try it over red.



Lynnderella's shop will open tonight at 7pm, and I suggest you submit your order right at 7 if you're interested in any of the Early Halloween polishes. Check out my swatches of The Telltale Heart here.

September 22, 2011

Rimmel Rags to Riches Nails Fall's Trendy Green


It seems that military-esque greens are very trendy this fall. There have been several in various fall collections, usually cremes, but this trendy color comes in beautiful shimmer variations as well. Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in Rags to Riches is an excellent example of the shimmer variety. This is a cool military green with loads of champagne-colored shimmer.


This color reminds me of the perfect faded green/gray military jacket I'd like to find for the fall. I don't want one with too many details on it, and it seems most of them have patches/buttons/shoulder details galore. I just want a jacket this color! For now, I'll have to just sport this gorgeous polish and keep looking for the jacket I guess!


 This is three coats and the application was lovely. Nice and easy. The Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro brush is large and shaped like the Sally Hansen Insta Dri brush, but I actually like this brush now after some practice with it! I did not use top coat in these swatches, I liked how it looked without it.


If you're looking for a military green shimmer, definitely check out Rimmel Rags to Riches. I am loving it, and I'll be using it again in tomorrow's post!!! Rimmel has a "where to buy" section on their website if you're not sure where to find this polish.

This polish was sent to me for review by a PR agent for Rimmel. For more information, please read my Disclosure Policy.

September 20, 2011

NYC Black Magic Collection Lip Products (More Blackula!!)



Remember when I reviewed the nail polishes from NYC's Black Magic Limited Edition Halloween collection? I said there would be lip products named Blackula to match the nail polish? Well, here they are! There are three lipsticks and three lip glosses in this collection. The three lipsticks are pictured above. From left to right they are: Blood Red, Ghostly White, and Blackula. Below are the three lip glosses. From bottom to top they are: Blood Red, Ghostly White, and Blackula.


For reference, my skin tone is MAC NC 20 foundation right now. NC 15 in the winter. And now for the lip swatches!



Above we have Blood Red lipstick swatched all alone. This covered nicely and was quite even on the lips. These lipsticks all feel quite comfortable and not drying. Blood Red is much lighter than it looked in the tube, which is fine with me, as I don't think I could wear the dark, dried blood color it looked like in the tube. Overall, I think this is a fabulous red lipstick worthy of a more expensive brand.


Here we have Blood Red lip gloss over Blood Red lipstick. This adds extra pigment and loads of shine. I don't normally wear red lips, unless I'm in a dance show or competition, but I think I could rock this combo.


Above is Blood Red lip gloss by itself. Very subtle cherry tint. It gives that kind of "just ate a popsicle" effect that I like so much. Again, this was lighter and more wearable (for me) on the lip than it appeared in the tube.


Next up is Ghostly White Lipstick. This didn't turn my lips true white (not that I could wear true white lips...), but provided a pale frosty look. With my natural lip pigment, it looked like a very pale pink. I think if you used a lip erasing base, like MAC Lip Erase, you could get it to look more like a true white (for Halloween purposes, of course).


Above is Ghostly White lip gloss over Ghostly White lipstick. I like this! It's very pale pale pink, but super shimmery. I would wear this with a really smokey eye.

Here is Ghostly White lip gloss on it's own. It really provides a lot of shine and some very pretty rainbow-y shimmer, with not a lot of pigment. I would wear this anywhere, any day of the week. In fact, I wore this to work yesterday. This gloss lasted about 2 hours on me, which is pretty standard. I drink water constantly, so any lip product comes off on my water bottle!


Blackula lipstick (STILL LOVE THE NAME) was the only lipstick that provided a problem for me. As you can see above, it applied kind of patchy and not evenly. I tried to blend it, but it seemed to only get patchier as I blended.

Blackula lipstick with a coat of Blackula lip gloss looks much better. This combination is VERY shiny and patent-leather looking. I will definitely wear this on Halloween. It actually looked pretty cool it real life. This is definitely the shiniest black lip I have ever sported. Also, the layer of lip gloss smoothed out the patchiness of the lipstick, so it looked pretty even.


Blackula lip gloss on it's own is a little uneven and settles into lip lines. I think I would be more likely to wear the Blackula lipstick and gloss combo than either one of those on their own. They just look better together. Blackula lip gloss might look kind of cool over a really bright red. I bet it would make it look kind of vampy red.


Lastly, this is a very wearable combination, Blood Red lipstick all over the lip, with Ghostly White lipstick in the center of both the top and bottom lips.

In my opinion, the NYC Black Magic collection is a total win. Not only does it contain great products for Halloween, but it also has products that I will use year round. If you missed my reviews of the nail polishes and the eye products, check them out here and here. NYC is available in drugstores. To find a drugstore near you, visit their website.

These products were sent to me for review by a PR agent for NYC. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

September 18, 2011

One More Sally Hansen Insta Dri Obsession: Emerald Express


I know I said that Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Teal-y Fast would be the last fall Insta Dri I posted, but I lied. I walked into Walgreens yesterday and nearly passed out. There was a display of Insta Dris with more colors than the last display I saw. This display contained the most beautiful green I have ever seen- Sally Hansen Emerald Express. If you go into a drugstore and see this polish you will purchase it. Guaranteed. Unless you hate greens, in which case I ask you, what are you doing reading this particular blog??? LOL, I am joking of course, green-haters are welcome here.


This polish applied beautifully, like the other Insta Dri polishes I tried this fall. The bubbles on my ring finger and smudge on my pinky are my fault. I did this before consuming two full cups of coffee, which is never good. This is two coats, but it was pretty opaque in just one coat. I might wear it with just coat.


Now, my problem here is that my pictures don't look anything like the color of this polish. They make it look like your average blue-green polish. It's not blue! It's the most perfect EMERALD polish on the face of the planet. I have been waiting for this polish because a lot of polishes lean too blue for me to really consider them emerald green.This one is not teal, not blue-green. just beautiful shimmering green. Sadly, no matter what I did, I couldn't get my camera to see the real color. I re-white balanced, I edited some of these, but this is STILL not the correct color. Please just get yourself to a drugstore and check it out in person. It is true to bottle color, and when you see the bottle color, you will want this.


Find a drugstore near you that sells Sally Hansen on their website. None of the fall colors are listed in the Insta Dri shades on their website, so I hope they are not limited edition. They are too awesome for that. I will try to find out for you, but in the mean time, go buy Emerald Express STAT!

September 17, 2011

Dr.'s Remedy Enriched Instant Cover Has You Covered!


A few weeks ago, I received a press release from Dr.'s Remedy about a new product they are offering. Dr.'s Remedy Enriched Instant Cover is a concealing cream meant for the skin on the body, not your face. I jumped at the chance to try this product. Who doesn't have things they'd like to conceal on their body?? The press release stated that this product is "intended to minimize any skin-tone imperfection from head to toe" and suggested that it can be used on spider veins, sun spots, birthmarks, and tattoos.


Dr.'s Remedy Enriched Instant Cover comes in a large, hefty 3.5oz tube. It is easy to squeeze out the product to use. When you first apply the product, it has a light, pleasant scent. It reminds me of an old Bath and Body Works scent, Plumeria. The scent fades very quickly though. If you unscrew the top at the base of the cap, it's just a regular squeeze tube opening. If you unscrew the cap further down, you get the sponge applicator (below) that comes attached to the tube.


I used the sponge applicator to apply the concealer and to do the first bit of blending. I used my fingers to blend even further. The applicator is a bit large, so I would recommend blending with either your fingers or a make-up brush for more control. Below is a shot of the concealer completely unblended.


Next is a shot of the concealer blended, first with the attached sponge applicator, then with my fingers.


I requested the Enriched Instant Cover in the formula for Light Skin Tones. I had intended to test this out and show you pictures of this concealing a birthmark on my leg (it looks like the state of CT, LOL!), but my legs are a bit more tan than usual, due to kayaking all summer. The light version is not a match for my legs currently, although I'm sure it will be in the winter. So, I picked a mole on my arm that is also surrounded by freckles to show you what this concealer can do. Here it is with no concealer.


Here it is with Dr.'s Remedy Enriched Instant Cover blended first with the applicator, then with my fingers. You can see the mole and freckles are much lighter in appearance. I don't think the concealer is an exact match for my arms right now either. If I were going to wear this out, I would dust some light powder over it to blend even further.


Now, this might be TMI, but I HAVE to tell you about my favorite use for this product. As many of you know, I teach Irish dancing and I still am a competitive dancer. This means that I spend something like 8 hours a day in a sports bra= NOT good for having clear beautiful skin on your back. Dr.'s Remedy Enriched Instant Cover is the FIRST concealer I have found that does a good job of concealing bacne. (ugh, sorry, I hate the word bacne, gross) I have tried to use regular facial concealer there before, but it is usually the wrong color and wears off quickly. Instant Cover lasted for hours and was the right color! Plus, it contains tea tree oil, vitamins, and wheat protein, so I didn't have to worry about breaking out even more. I am really excited to have found a concealer that works for this purpose!!

Dr.'s Remedy is a nominee for the HBA Breakout Brand of the Year! You can vote for them here. I already voted twice! Also, make sure you Like Dr.'s Remedy on Facebook to stay up to date on their latest and greatest products. Dr.'s Remedy Enriched Instant Cover is available online on the Dr.'s Remedy website.

This product was sent to me for review by a PR agent for Dr.'s Remedy. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.