Halloween Nails With Lumina Lacquer Mick Or Treat

I didn't pick up any new Halloween polishes this year, so I decided to wear an old favorite: Lumina Lacquer Mick or Treat! It's a super fun glitterbomb with fall-colored glitters--think red, grey, orange, black and yellow--in all shapes and sizes. You've got hexes, squares, stars, circles, crescent moons and, the extra special cherry on top: Mickey Mouse-shaped glitters!

I wore Mick Or Treat over a deep burgundy in my original review, so this time I used OPI Take The Stage for my base. Above is one coat of Mick Or Treat. You have to really fish for the Mickey glitters (I only got one with this mani), but they are worth it!

Mick Or Treat was limited edition, so unfortunately it's no longer available. Lumina in general doesn't seem to produce new collections anymore. They were one of my favorite indie brands and I really miss having new Lumina's to look forward to!

Twinsie Tuesday: OPI Take The Stage

Hey guys! Sorry for the late post today. As you might have noticed, I must confess that it's been a struggle to fit in time with my blog lately. But I'm trying! So thank you for keeping with me!

I didn't want to miss Twinsie Tuesday, so I whipped up a little something for this week's theme, which was to do a season-inspired mani. For me, fall brings to mind rich shades of red and orange and burnished metallics. OPI Take The Stage, an orange-tinged bronze, incorporates a little bit of both. Bronze is my favorite nail color to wear in fall. It just makes me want to curl up in a warm blanket with a hot drink and a candle. :)

If you like the look of Take The Stage, you can still find it for retail pricing on Ebay. This was like the second or third OPI I owned. I remember buying it in a duo pack with Extra-va-va-ganza. This was back in 2010--Take The Stage was part of the Burlesque Collection--but it seems so much longer ago than that!

                        

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Zoya Savita

Savita is one of the most beloved of Zoya's Matte Velvet shades. This rich, regal purple satin is definitely one of my favorites! I love the color itself and the shimmer is to die for. There's just the right amount!

Something happened when I was painting with Savita that I've never experienced with a nail polish before. It smelled. And not just a strong nail polish/chemical smell, but almost...skunky or sour? I really can't describe it, but it was weird. It was noticeable until the polish dried, then after that I couldn't smell it. But it was such a random irregularity that I thought it was worth mentioning.

Other than some stank, Savita had a nice enough formula. Like a lot of mattes, you have to watch your brushstrokes so you don't wind up with lines, but the opacity and consistency are both great. What you see above is two coats.

What's your favorite Matte Velvet? And have you ever had an especially smelly polish? I'm curious if I'm the only one!

a-England Gloriana

A-England Gloriana is a warm-toned red foil with bright gold flakes. This came out in last year's Elizabeth & Mary Collection, inspired by Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary of England's Tudor Dynasty. A-England is one of those brands that I wouldn't feel foolish owning every polish they've ever made. I love the colors themselves and you can really feel the amount of care and thought put into each shade.

The burnished red base of Gloriana is stunning enough in its own right, but when you add on those gleaming bits of gold, then you've got something really special! The flakes are nice and prominent too--no shifting to just the right angle or squinting to see them.

As always with a-England, the formula here is buttery smooth and richly opaque. I used two coats for this mani.

Gloriana is an absolutely perfect fall color and captures its inspiration so well. When you think of Elizabeth, aren't her firey red hair and golden jewels the first two things that come to mind? I trimmed my nails yesterday and I think I accidentaly went too far into nubbins territory, but Gloriana does make them feel a lot more elegant. :)

Twinsie Tuesday: Ruffian Manicure

We're doing ruffian manis this week! I haven't done one of these in a while, so I thought I'd try something a little different this time. I've got these plain black Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail wraps that I haven't known what to do with. Unfortunately I no longer have the original packaging so I don't know what this design is called. I got these in a set from Target a long time ago and these are the only ones from the set I still have left, because honestly, I don't quite get the point of plain nail wraps. I like wearing them for the fun and intricate designs. If I wanted black, I'd wear black polish, ya know?

But I digress. My point is, i figured now was as good a time as any to use these wraps. I layered them over a base of Orly Key Lime Twist, a neon highlighter yellow, to create the ruffian design. The wraps had dried up a bit, so they were more stuff and brittle than usual, but they still got the job done!

I always love a good pop of neon! The nail wraps made it easy to get a smooth, even curve. I think it'd be a lot of fun to do this same concept with one of the fancier Salon Effects too.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out my Twinsies too!

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Lisa at The Polish Playground

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Claire at Kerruticles

​ ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amanda at Amandalandish

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Alaina at The Little Canvas

China Glaze Cabin Fever

This polish is magical. I can see why it took three different sightings of the CG Great Outdoors display for me to actually find this color! It's a gorgeous color-shifting shade that morphs from rusty red to bronze to green to gold. It changes to all the different colors of autumn leaves!

Natural light:

 Shade:

 Direct sunlight:

As with most duochromes, you have to conscientiously place your brushstrokes, but other than that, Cabin Fever is easy to apply. This is two coats.

I have to take my hats off to China Glaze on this one. The color shift is super strong and I love that you get so many beautiful fall colors in one polish. It takes on completely different personalities with each lighting change. If you ask me, it's not only the best polish of the Great Outdoors Collection, but the best duochrome polish from a mainstream brand in a long time. Like, remember the awesome that was the China Glaze's own New Bohemian Collection? Cabin Fever is just as good as those! Hey CG: more of this, please! :)

Twinsie Tuesday (On A Thursday): Ms. Marvel-Inspired Nails

I know, I know, I'm two days late (getting over a bad cold), but I didn't want to miss this week's theme: inspired by a favorite fictional character! I've mentioned on here many times that I'm an avid comics reader. One of my favorite books right now is Ms. Marvel. This comic received quite a bit of mainstream attention when it launched, as the heroine, Kamala Khan, is a Muslim teenager. While religion is an important part of Kamala's identity, the comic isn't about religion. It's just awesome stories of a smart, brave and somewhat awkward teenage girl trying to figure out her place in the world while kicking some major ass.

Also, there's a giant teleporting dog. If that doesn't sell you, then I dunno what will.

Seriously, it's an adorable and funny read that I can't recommend highly enough. Even if you don't normally like comics, give this one a try. The writing is very contemporary and accessible, with lovable characters and fresh storytelling.

Now, y'all know I'm not super great at nail art, so I stuck with a simple mani inspired by Kamala's costume.

                           

The blue is Deborah Lippmann I Know What Boys Like and the red is Essie Geranium. I added in one of my Born Pretty superhero nail decals for the lightning bolt. Here's how it came out!

It's nothing fancy, but I like it just the same. Sorry it was so late, but hopefully you enjoyed it too! :) And remember to check out my fellow Twinsies' manis!

                        

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

OPI Starlight Holiday 2015 Preview

Do you ask for nail polish as a holiday gift? I never really do. I have so much of it that I doubt any of my family would feel compelled to get it for me anyways, plus I hate having to hold out on purchasing the holiday shades I want!

OPI's holiday collection, Starlight, is a big set with an unfortunately repetitive color story. Take a look and see what you think.

L to R: Love Is In My Cards, Ro-man-ce On The Moon, Guys & Galaxies, I'm In The Moon For Love, Cosmo With A Twist, Give Me Space

 

L to R: Center Of The You-niverse, Super Star Status, I Drive A Super Nova, By The Light Of The Moon, Comet Closer, Is This Star Taken?

 

L to R: Infrared-y To Glow, Let Your Love Shine, Celess-tial Is More, Press * For Silver, Two Wrongs Do Not Make A Meteorite, No More Mr. Night Sky

 

As you would expect from an OPI holiday collection, there is a lot of red (although not as much as last year, thank goodness) but this year we also get a lot of silver/champagne shades. I'm sure I'll pick up one or two of these at some point, but I was honestly hoping for more shade variety overall. Remember how awesome the Burlesque holiday collection from a few years ago was? More of that, please!

So, what do we think of the Starlight Collection? Anything stand out to you here?

Twinsie Tuesday: Recreate Another Twinsie's Mani

This week, we were challenged to recreate one of our fellow Twinsies' manis. We could pick anyone and any mani we wanted. I did some looking and decided on a really cute mani done by Alaina from The Little Canvas!

I would like to preface this by saying that Alaina is a million times better at nail art than I will ever be. So while I am a big admirer of her manis, most of them are things I would never even attempt to try myself! But I really loved this mani of hers...

...and I thought it was something I could pull off. Here's my version:

I used the same base as Alaina, China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle. Then my pinky and pointer fingers are topped with OPI I'll Tinsel You In and my middle finger is Color Club Harp On It. Alaina drew the hearts on her ring fingers, but I cheated by fishing out heart glitter from Lynnderella Evermore.

I had a lot of fun doing this! I like searching my stash for the perfect polishes to recreate a look. I'm excited to see what manis everyone else picked! And please be sure to welcome our newest Twinsies, Alice and Sarah! :)

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Lisa at The Polish Playground

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Claire at Kerruticles

​ ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amanda at Amandalandish

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

 Alaina at The Little Canvas

LOOK Nail Color Fall Collection: Review & Swatches

 

 Hey guys! I hope you all had a good weekend! Yesterday was the boyfriend and I's three-year anniversary, so we went out for a nice dinner. I actually wore one of the polishes from LOOK's fall collection that I'm going to show you all today. Let's get to it!

Black is just that: a black creme. Since there are so many black polishes out there, for me it all comes down to formula--and this has a really great one! This was two easy coats. I use black a lot for nail art and glitter bases, so I'll be reaching for this one a lot in the future.

Lavender is a purple creme. I love rich purples like this, although I wouldn't classify this shade as lavender. The color is too saturated for that. I used two coats here. Oh, and this is the polish I wore to our dinner, in case you were wondering. Of course I wore some glitter on top though! Stay tuned for that mani in another post...

Pistachio is far and away my favorite polish of the collection. Y'all know I liiiivvveee for bright greens and slightly yellow-tinged ones like Pistachio will always have a special place in my heart. What you see below is three coats.

Orange is a bright orange with almost neon levels of intensity. But for how bright it is, it is surprisingly sheer going on. I used three coats, but I probably could have done with a fourth.

This would make a nice set of Halloween colors, don't you think? It's a nice little collection overall. You can purchase LOOK from their website.


Disclosure: These polishes were sent for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Review: Lush Ayesha Fresh Face Mask

It's been a while since I've done a Lush review on here, but you guys seemed to like them--especially the Fresh Face Mask ones--so I figured I'd pick that series back up with a review on Ayesha, Lush's tightening and brightening face mask. Ayesha is formulated with Fullers Earth (cleansing), asparagus (enzymatic), kiwi (rich in Vitamin C), Witch Hazel (anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory) and rose absolute (moisturizing).

The selling point of this mask is probably the Vitamin C. Vitamin C is the "BLT' of skincare--it brightens, lightens and tightens! My skin did seem visibly brightened after using Ayesha. I can't say it really felt tighter, but it was smooth and supple. The brightening effect is temporary, so I'd say the best way to use this mask is to pop it on as part of your beauty routine right before a big event.

A lot of reviews I've seen online mention hating how this smells, but I honestly didn't mind it. One of the ingredients is patchouli oil, which I find to be a love it or hate it scent, but Ayesha mostly just smells like kiwi to me. 

This mask is targeted for those with mature or dry skin. Since I don't fall into either of those categories, my experience with Ayesha was just okay. I liked the temporary brightening, but this wasn't a favorite overall. It's not bad, just not ideal for me!

A single pot costs $6.95 and you can get about six to eight masks per pot, depending on how thickly you apply them, so it really is a great value. The masks need to be refrigerated because they contain fresh ingredients with no preservatives, so the only place you can buy them is in-store. The masks have a shelf life of three weeks, but personally I just treat them like food: So long as you store them properly and check for changes in scent and consistency, you can get away with using them a bit longer than the official shelf life.  

If you're curious to learn more about all of the different Fresh Face Masks, check out my other reviews too: Cupcake, Love Lettuce, BB Seaweed, Catastrophe Cosmetic and Cosmetic Warrior. 

September Empties & Mini-Reviews

I thought it would be fun to start sharing my thoughts on each month's used up products with you guys! I'm a huge makeup and skin junkie in addition to my polish addiction (I'm just a beauty freak in genral, really) and while I hardly ever finish a bottle of polish, I go through other products on a fairly regular basis. Plus I figured doing this type of post would help motivate me to work through more of my massive beauty stash.

This is one of those months where a ton of things ran out at once--11 in all! Most of it's skincare, but there's some makeup too. Read on to see my thoughts on each product...

IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye in Light: This is THE best under eye concealer! It's super pigmented and wears all day. You need the absolute smallest amount you can squeeze out of the tube, since a little bit goes a loooooonnngggg way. This little tube lasted me over a year! I've already got another one ready and waiting.

MAC Prolongwear Foundation in NW20: Another all-time favorite product. I love the wear time on this and the coverage is great too. I'd classify it as medium buildable. It feels very lightweight on and doesn't cake or crack. If you have oily skin, definitely check this out!

Bath and Body Works Hand Sanitizer in I Love Cinnamon Buns: It's true, I do! I always keep one of these little guys clipped on my purse. Great for when you're on the go.

Urban Decay Big Fatty Mascara: I like the volume this gives, but it is super hard to get off. My go-to makeup remover, Philosophy Purity, can remove ANYTHING (ever notoriously tough mascaras like Benefit They're Real) but it can't get Big Fatty off without giving me some serious raccoon eyes. I believe UD has recently discontinued Big Fatty now that Perversion Mascara is out.

Peter Thomas Roth Unwrinkle Turbo: I'm currently using a prescription retinoid on my face for post-acne marks, but I was having a bad reaction to it only on my forehead for some reason, where it'd get really red and flaky. I don't have any acne marks on my forehead, but I wanted to use the retinoid in that area to help with brow "11's" that were starting to show up. Unwrinkle was a great alternative--no irritation (peptides and hyaluronic acid are the main active component rather than retinoid) and I did see a decrease in the width and depth of the 11 lines. This little guy lasted a surprisingly long time, too! The big bottle is pretty expensive, so I won't be investing, but I liked this and am glad I tried a mini of it.

Bare Minerals Well-Cared For Brush Conditioning Shampoo: My go-to makeup brush cleaner. I use a Sonia Kashuk brush spray when I need to be quick, then use this shampoo for deep cleaning. It works great with both synthetic and natural bristle brushes. It's also got conditioner built right in, so it leaves your brushes smooth and soft afterwards.

Lush Dream Cream Hand and Body Lotion: I got this as part of a set. Dream Cream is designed for sore and sensitive skin. It has calming ingredients like oatmeal, lavender and rose water. I have KP on my upper arms and this felt nice and soothing on that, but overall there are other Lush lotions I like better...

Lush Sympathy For The Skin Hand and Body Lotion: For instance, this lotion! It smells super scrumptious! The dominant notes are vanilla and banana, but like a real banana, not a fake banana Runts-type smell. The texture is rich without feeling greasy. The only thing I didn't like is that, as you can see, the lettering on the packaging kinda disintegrated over time, so it would come off on my hands whenever I used it.

Dr Brandt Microdermabrasion Skin Exfoliant: This is like a reset button for your skin. When I have days where my makeup isn't setting quite right or my skin looks tired, I know it's time to bust out this stuff! It's pretty intense, so I use it sparingly and only massage it very, very lightly against the skin. If you were to rub it in like your normal face scrub, you'd probably take a layer of your face off.

Lush Cupcake Fresh Face Mask: Probably my all-around favorite Lush mask, although I haven't tried the newest ones. It smells like chocolate and gets all the gunk out of my face--what's not to love? I've bought this a couple times now. You can read my full review HERE.

Deborah Lippmann Gel Lab Base Coat (not pictured): I've gone through several bottles of Gel Lab and I'm still crazy in love with it. I'm curious to try the re-formulated version, Gel Lab Pro, as I've only used the original. If you want to learn more about Gel Lab, I did a full review on it HERE.

Hope you guys enjoyed my first attempt at an empties post! Is this something you'd like to see more of? What products did you finish this past month?