From the Untrieds Drawer: SpaRitual Conglomerate

*Polish purchased with sponsorship funds from Apothica.com*

I'm trying to clean out my untrieds drawer a little bit right now, it's kind of unruly. SpaRitual Conglomerate has been sitting in the drawer from hell for months now. This polish is a really unique grayed out olive green with gold shimmer and black and gray glitter. I definitely can not think of a dupe or even anything similar to this polish, and that makes me really excited! This polish is really gorgeous and looks richer in person.

This is three coats of Conglomerate, but two thicker ones would probably work. The formula was good, I had no problems with application. The glitter came out easily and I didn't do any placement of it, just brushed it on normally.

*Polish purchased with sponsorship funds from Apothica.com*

SpaRitual Conglomerate is still available on Apothica.com, and that's where I got mine (back when Apothica gave me funds to purchase items from their site).

From the Untrieds Drawer: Essie Butler Please

Base: one coat CND Stickey
Color: three coats Essie Butler Please
Top: one coat NYC Grand Central Station
Application: average (out of poor, average, good, excellent)
Essie Butler Please was purchased with funds provided to me by my sponsor SkinCareRx.com that I receive in exchange for placing an ad here on Never Enough Nails and reviewing the products I purchase with those funds. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

Essie Butler Please was all over the blogs when it came out, but I ignored it for quite awhile. I didn't buy it until about a month ago and then it sat in my untrieds for another month!! Finally trying it today was one of those moments where you say "why did I wait this long???"! Butler Please is a crazy bright vibrant blue. The nearly neon quality of this polish definitely sets it apart from the tons of other blue cremes I own. Before trying this, I was thinking it would be close to Essie Mesmerize (even though I have seen comparison pics), but Butler Please is lighter and a thousand times more vibrant. By now I think we all know that Butler Please is a near dupe of Nails Inc. Baker St., but I don't own that one, so that's OK with me.

While the color is stunning, the application here was less than stellar. The neon pigment in Butler Please makes this polish a bit hard to work with. It was kind of thick and the first two coats went on unevenly. The third coat and a nice coat of top coat worked to smooth everything out though. The neon pigment also means that this dries to a kind of satin finish, so most of you will definitely want to add a top coat. For a color this pretty, I'm willing to work with the formula, but the less patient among you may want to find an easier alternative.

Essie Butler Please is available on Apothica.com and in a drugstore near you.

Essie Butler Please was purchased with funds provided to me by my sponsor SkinCareRx.com that I receive in exchange for placing an ad here on Never Enough Nails and reviewing the products I purchase with those funds. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.

L'Occitane Extra-Gentle Lotion Reduces My Resemblance to a Lizard!

I am all for using heavy hand creams and cuticle treatments at night. I love that. But, I have found that trying to make up for a lack of moisture during the day by piling on heavy creams at night does not leave my hands and nails feeling optimally moisturized. However, I HATE using hand cream and then touching anything. I am always running around during the day and I just can't take 10 minutes to wait for my hand cream to absorb. What's a girl supposed to do?

I found the answer recently in the form of L'Occitane Extra-Gentle Lotion for Hands & Body. Sure, everyone knows about the classic L'Occitane hand cream in the pretty tubes. I myself have at least 6 of those and use them at night. I hadn't heard about this fantastic lotion until just a little while ago! This lotion absorbs super fast, leaving no greasy residue. It has shea butter, just like the L'Occitane cream, but in a lighter format that I think works perfectly for day.

My other favorite thing about this lotion is that it comes in a giant 10.1 fl. oz. pump dispenser! I have a weird aversion to taking off the cap of a tube, applying cream and then having to put the cap back on with my freshly cream-covered hands. So I really love the pump!

Ingredients for the ingredient buffs ^.

I got my L'Occitane Extra-Gentle Lotion on Apothica.com.

This product was purchased with funds provided to me by Apothica.com. For more information, please read my Disclosure Policy.

SkinCareRx Sale!!

This is the last day to take advantage of this deal! Get some shopping done at Skincarerx.com or Apothica.com!

Farmhouse Fresh Whoopie Cream: A Reason to Invent Smell-o-Vision

I hope you'll excuse the momentary departure from nail polish. Some of my readers who've been around for awhile already know that occasionally I do post make-up/beauty products here, but only when I think they're EXCELLENT and that you need to know about them! This Farmhouse Fresh Whoopie Cream totally fits that bill. You NEED to know about this cream.

Farmhouse Fresh is a new-to-me brand, but I've kind of been eyeing it for awhile. I believe I saw one of their products in a magazine and it sounded so yummy. I spotted the Whoopie Cream while browsing Apothica.com last week and knew I needed it. "Delight in the aroma of moist layer cake and white velvet cream"? Uh, yes, please. Just so you know, my taste in scents definitely runs to the sweet treats/tasty food category. My favorite scents mostly all involve vanilla, caramel, etc. If you hate foodie scents, you probably won't like this particular cream.

Now here is where I wish Smell-o-Vision existed. I can not possibly explain the mouthwatering aroma of this cream. It really does smell like a delicious chocolate layer cake with rich vanilla cream filling. The smell lingers for quite a long time too, but not in a gross way. I LOVE the smell of this cream, and apparently it comes in a hand cream and a candle too!! I'm really going to have to check out that candle!

On top of the amazing scent, this cream is thick and rich (see above picture!) and really moisturizing. It contains shea and cocoa butter, jojoba oil, aloe and Vitamin E. I have already used it a bunch of times and will definitely re-purchase when I run out. A little of this cream seems to go a long way though, so I think it will last me awhile. Whoopie Cream makes me want to try other Farmhouse Fresh products, and I'm eyeing their Caramel Body Milk for my next purchase!

Farmhouse Fresh Whoopie Cream is available online at Apothica.com.

Product purchased with funds provided to me by my sponsor, SkinCareRx.com.

SpaRitual Running With Wolves

Base: One coat Zoya Get Even
Color: Two coats SpaRitual Running With Wolves
Top: One coat Seche Vite
Application: Average (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

 SpaRitual Running With Wolves is a FANTASTIC color for fall. I'm just starting to get into fall colors, and Running With Wolves really called my name today. Running With Wolves is a glowing deep copper shimmer. It's really nice to see a rich copper that is not a foil. A lot of times when polish companies do silver, gold, or copper, they pick a foil finish and I really prefer the shimmer.

I rated the application of Running With Wolves as just average, because I had difficulty avoiding visible brushstrokes. You can see some on my pointer finger, a TON on my middle finger, and none on my ring or pinkie. With very careful application, visible brushstrokes can be avoided with this polish. Just make sure you don't go over the same area twice. Stick with three brushstrokes per nail and that's it. On the bright side, this is just two coats and it's perfectly opaque! Also, the bubble you see on my ring finger is from Seche, not from this polish. Bad Seche!!

SpaRitual Running With Wolves is available online at Apothica.com in both full and mini sizes!

This polish was purchased with funds provided to me by my sponsor, SkinCareRx.com. For more information, please read my Disclosure Policy.

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream is Really a Dream!

Base coat: one coat Zoya Get Even
Color: three coats Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream
Top Coat: one coat Seche Vite
Application: Good (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Every so often, a Deborah Lippmann polish comes along that I just can't resist. Generally, I find her polishes to be overpriced and underwhelming, but this is not the case for Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream. Mermaid's Dream is a seafoam green metallic foil-like base filled with blue and seafoam green glitters of varying sizes. It is a very mermaid-y looking polish and has a dreamy quality about it.

 Mermaid's Dream looks a bit lumpy in photos, but not so much in person. I used three coats of Mermaid's Dream and one coat of Seche on top. It did eat the Seche a bit, so I might use Gelous the next time I wear this. It needed three coats to be opaque, but it applied well and dried very quickly, so no big deal. This is definitely my favorite Deborah Lippmann polish of the small number of them I've tried!

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream is available online at Apothica.com

This polish was purchased with funds given to me by SkinCareRx.com. For more information, please read my Disclosure Policy.

Why Didn't I Buy This Earlier: Essie Braziliant

Fact: I love orange polish. Fact:I love bright shimmer polish. Fact: I love Essie brights. So, why did I wait until last month to buy Essie Braziliant, from last summer's Braziliant collection? I honestly do not know the answer to this question!! In any case, I am now the happy owner of Braziliant and I LOVE IT!!!

Essie Braziliant is a hot red-orange with lovely shimmer. The shimmer definitely sets it apart in the sea of bright oranges in my collection. Braziliant is a really flattering color on me, and I can see it working on a wide variety of skin tones. My previous favorite Essie orange was Essie Mini Shorts, but it may have just been replaced.

Braziliant also has an excellent formula with a perfect consistency. It was very pigmented and only needed two coats for full opacity. Overall, a fabulous summer color. If you, like me, skipped it last year, you should definitely pick it up now. And Smooth Sailing too, while you're at it! I made sure not to make the same mistake this year, by the way. I recently bought three of the four Essie Poppy-razzi polishes and you'll be seeing them soon!

Essie Braziliant is still available at Apothica.com.

Any big Saturday plans? I have lovely plans that include sitting around in my pajamas and reading a book!! (This never happens for me, so it's very exciting).

This polish was purchased with funds provided to me by my sponsor, Apothica.com. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Better Late Than Never: Essie Smooth Sailing

A few weeks ago I went to get my nails done with some girls from dance. I rarely get my nails done, as I find that I do a better job than most local nail techs and I also have a better color selection than most local nail salons (LMAO). When I do get my nails done at a salon though, I try to pick colors I don't own so that I can find new polishes to buy test out different colors. At this recent trip, I narrowed my choices down to Essie Smooth Sailing, Essie Braziliant, and Essie Fifth Avenue. I ended up picking Fifth Avenue, a bright juicy corally red orange. But, I couldn't stop thinking about Smooth Sailing and Braziliant (both from Essie's Summer 2011 collection)! So I did the natural thing for a polish hoarder- I ordered them that evening from Apothica.com.

Today I'm showing you Essie Smooth Sailing, a gorgeous deep cornflower blue with lots of silver shimmer. Now that I own this, I have NO CLUE why I didn't buy it when it came out. What was I thinking? This is gorgeous and I adore it.

This is only two coats and the formula was lovely. I was expecting it to be more sheer, I think. I have a weird relationship with Essie polishes. I never seem to buy them, but I LOVE the ones I have. Some of my most-worn polishes are Essie! Like my favorite toe color, Essie Mini Shorts (I'm going to need to hunt down another bottle!).

Bottom line here is that I need to pay more attention to Essie! Stop ignoring them, and buy the gems they come out with right away. I can't wait to swatch Braziliant, I know I'm going to LOVE it.

Essie Smooth Sailing is available at Apothica.com.

I purchased this polish with funds sent to me by a sponsor of this blog, Apothica.com. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Better Late Than Never: SpaRitual Sacred Ground

I know SpaRitual Sacred Ground is a polish you saw all fall, as it was released with SpaRitual's Fall 2011 Wilde collection, but I'm posting it anyway. If you haven't gotten around to picking it up yet, you really should! I don't know why I didn't order it right away, but I'm glad I finally did get it. Sacred Ground is an interesting lavender gray shimmer polish. The shimmer looks like it's all different colors. There is some definite gold shimmer in there, and a good hint of pink when the polish hits direct light. Unfortunately, there wasn't any sun when I took these pictures. I think it would looks spectacular in sunlight.

You can see in the macro shot below that the yellow gold shimmer looks a bit larger than the rest of the shimmer particles. This doesn't really add a gold tone to the polish though, it looks more like yellow flecks. Very cool!

I used three coats of Sacred Ground for these swatches and it was nicely opaque. The first coat didn't go on too evenly and I was a bit concerned, but it smoothed out in the second coat.

SpaRitual Sacred Ground is available in both the full size and a mini size on Apothica.com.

I purchased my bottle of Sacred Ground with funds given to me by my sponsor, Apothica.com. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy. 

What I'm Wearing: Lynnderella I Can Afford It!

After wearing SpaRitual Solstice for a day or two, I couldn't resist spicing it up with a little Lynnderella I Can Afford It! Lynnderella I Can Afford It! is from her Funny Money collection and is insanely awesome. It might be my favorite Lynnderella so far. There are a TON of gorgeous glitters in here, including: very large square green glitter, medium green hex glitter, small round green glitter, very fine silver holo glitter (this looks so awesome in person!) and the occasional small round purple glitter. The fine silver holo glitter really adds something special and I couldn't quite capture it on camera. One (or more?) of the green glitters is slightly holo as well, and that really looks cool in person.

This is two thin coats of I Can Afford It! over SpaRitual Solstice. I think three medium coats would result in almost full coverage of I Can Afford It! alone. I am going to be wearing I Can Afford It! a lot this month, as it's March and green is my go to color!

Ugh, I'm drooling right now!!

Lynnderella I Can Afford It! is really special. I adore this polish and I'm so happy I managed to scoop it up back when the Funny Money collection first went on sale.  Lynnderella is currently on a hiatus from producing more of her beautiful lacquers. I will definitely keep you posted about any news I hear regarding when she will re-open/what the ordering process will be like in the future. I am looking forward to seeing the pretties she creates in the future.

SpaRitual Solstice is available on Apothica.com.

SpaRitual Solstice was purchased with funds provided to me by my sponsor, Apothica.com. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

NOTD: SpaRitual Solstice

I recently order a couple of SpaRitual polishes from Apothica and couldn't wait to try them. I have only tried one other SpaRitual polish, and it was a sheer pink, so you know I never wore it. The ones I picked up this time are going to get tons of use! The first one I decided to wear was SpaRitual Solstice, a gorgeous yellow gold foil shimmer from the SpaRitual Twinkle holiday 2011 collection. In person, I think this is a very true yellow gold color, but it looks a bit more coppery in my pictures. I have been looking for a good bright yellow gold for awhile and this fits the bill!

Solstice has those large shimmer particles that are really cool to look at up close (see macro shot below)! I really love this finish and also this nice bright gold color.

This is three coats of Solstice, and I found that I needed to wrap the tips as well. The polish didn't want to build up opaquely on my tips, but wrapping them solved the problem. With three coats, Solstice is completely opaque and awesome. The formula is pretty good, other than needing to pay a little extra attention to your tips. My bottle of Solstice is the mini bottle, and I found the brush to be easy to work with, despite being a mini.

Now the AWESOME part is that the mini bottle of SpaRitual Solstice is on sale on Apothica right now for only $4!!! And the full size is only $8!! Woohoo!!! I love this polish, and the sale price only sweetens the deal for me. In case you're wondering, I also ordered Running With Wolves and Sacred Ground from the fall Wilde collection, and you'll be seeing them shortly. I think I need more SpaRitual in my life!!

This polish was purchased with funds from my sponsor, Apothica.com. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

SkinCareRx.com and Apothica.com Holiday Giveaways!!

Apothica and SkinCareRx have kicked off their 12 Days of Giveaways for the holidays!! They are giving away more than $5,000 worth of products, including several Clarisonic Mias!!! The giveaways are going on until December 24th. Enter on their Facebook pages to win awesome prizes. Although, I want to win, so maybe I should have kept this info to myself LOL!!

Enter on Apothica's Facebook page and SkinCareRx's Facebook page. Good luck!

Apothica.com GIVEAWAY!!!! Plus my favorite eye product!

You all know what a product junkie I am by now, right? Nail products, hand creams, cuticle treatments, face masks, hair oils… I’ve posted about all of it! When I find a really good product, I like to share it, even if it’s not nail polish. I have two absolute favorite skin care brands that I just can’t live without. The first is Ole Henriksen- pricey but SO good!!! The second and more affordable line that I want to discuss today is none other than Clinique. Clinique has been the gold standard for caring for troubled, sensitive skin for years. I use many of their products, like their Moisture Surge Cream, on a daily basis. Recently, I discovered their All About Eyes Serum roller ball.



Clinique’s All About Eyes roller ball feels really cooling when you apply it and starts working right away to de-puff the eye area. Personally, I am a bit of an insomniac, so I usually need a LOT of de-puffing. The cool metal roller ball, plus the massaging application really works to get rid of excess fluid around the eye area. This serum is also nicely moisturizing, not too heavy or greasy. Unlike some other eye products I’ve used (trust me, I’ve tried a lot of them!), this serum does not cause your eye make-up to migrate all over the eye area. I am really pleased with the feeling of All About Eyes serum and the fact that I look less tired when I use it! Unfortunately, I’ve just run out of this serum (hence the stock photo), but I’m going to order more from Apothica.com!



Speaking of Apothica.com, I have a $25 gift card to Apothica.com to give away to one lucky reader today (two giveaways in a row, crazy, right???)! You can try out the All About Eyes serum yourself, or maybe order some more polish! They carry Deborah Lippman, SpaRitual, Essie and more. You have three options to enter the giveaway, but you only have to do one. Or you can do all three!!

Apothica Giveaway Entry Options

Option 1: Facebook
1. Visit Apothica.com
2. Write on Apothica’s Facebook wall about what you think of Apothica
Bonus Entry: Opt in to Apothica’s Newsletter
Option 2: Twitter
1. Visit Apothica.com
2. Tweet about Apothica on your own Twitter Account
Bonus Entry: Retweet Apothica’s tweet about this giveaway
Option 3: Blog
1. Visit Apothica.com
2. Write something on your blog about what you think of Apothica
Bonus Entry: Write about the brand I highlighted and link it to Apothica

After you have completed one or more of these options, please leave a comment on this post telling me which option you selected, and the name you used to perform this option (i.e. your name on Facebook for Option 1, your Twitter name if you used Option 2, or a link to your blog for Option 3). This giveaway is open to international readers, but Apothica.com does not ship to every country, so check on that first. The giveaway will close on Tuesday May 17th at midnight EDT (midnight New York time for anyone who wishes to keep track). The $25 gift card is valid for use at Apothica.com, SkinCareRx.com, and SkinBotanica.com.