Orly Spring 2014 Galaxy Fx Collection Swatch and Review: Star Trooper

Orly Star Trooper (2 coats)

Happy Monday! Unfortunately I had to take the day off work to recuperate from my vacation. I know, crazy, right? I hope your weekend went well.

Today brings the last Galaxy Fx polish, and it is equally complex as Intergalactic Space. Star Trooper is a deep brown/black jelly base with tons of copper microglitter, medium white hexagonal glitter, and larger white glitter. I was extremely impressed with the application and formula. I was sure I'd need 3 coats, but it was opaque in 2, and no dabbing of glitter was necessary. Some are saying there is a big Sally's sale until today, but I haven't been out to check my local store. Either way, today is the last day for the buy 1 get 1 free Orly.

Orly Spring 2014 Galaxy Fx Collection Swatch and Review: Intergalactic Space

Orly Intergalactic Space (3 coats)

Sorry for the missing post yesterday, but my dad had to go to the ER and we also had a drive back to NC that took a long time due to traffic. I am so exhausted from the trip from my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and hope I can work this week. Life.

Anyway, so far we've seen the light side of the Galaxy, but now we're getting into the dark. Up first is Intergalactic Space which is an extremely complex polish. It contains a black jelly base with small hexagonal fuchsia and bronze glitter and tons of blue microglitter. Interspersed, there are large white glitters which actually weren't too difficult to get out (perhaps a tiny bit of fishing for one per nail). The application and formula was the best of the collection since you can use regular strokes and was fairly opaque (it barely needed the 3rd coat for me). 

Orly Spring 2014 Galaxy Fx Collection Swatch and Review: Milky Way

Orly Milky Way (2 coats)

I'm baaaaack! Yes, after a long hiatus, I am back among those with wifi. I had several issues on this trip, and I planned on having more posts ready to go, but you know how that goes. If you want to find out more about my trip, check out my Twitter or Instagram accounts. 

Anyway, I believe I was working on the Orly Galaxy Fx collection before the break, and I'll continue with my second favorite polish which was Milky Way. It's a baby blue base with coral and white hexagonal glitter and teal microglitter. There's a lot going on here, but everything is just in sync. This would also make a perfect summer polish. Do be careful with the application though because this sucker is extremely thick. I shook it well before applying, but about halfway through, it started to get unbearably thick again. I got this for real cheap at Sally's but will usually run about $10 which is ridiculous. Right now Orly polishes are buy 1 get 1 free at Sally's, so check out what else they have to offer. TGIF! 

Our Vacation

Hi everyone, I'm on the road in Chicago on my way to Ohio where I grew up. My husband put a little review on his blog, so I figured I'd show that to you before I can post again. Talk to you soon!

P.S. I got the cheesehead!

http://www.inkdependence.com/2014/06/wisconsin-vacation.html?m=1

Orly Fx Spring 2014 Galaxy Collection Swatch and Review: Starburst

Orly Starburst (3 coats)

I've been collecting these Orly Fx spring polishes for months from the Sally's Beauty Supply clearance sales. I think I'm done with buying them, so I have several to show you. I'm showing my favorite color first called Starburst which is a white jelly with loads of orange, gold and red glitter. I think it's all hexagonal glitter of different sizes. It's just so bright and fun and perfect for summer. It's a jelly, so it's sheer, but the 3 coats weren't a big deal. If you can find it online, I would highly recommend it! 

Happy Hands Spring 2013 Collection Swatch and Review: Motherboy

Happy Hands Motherboy (2 coats) over 2 coats Barielle Mint Ice Cream Cone

*press sample of Barielle*

I'M IN WISCONSIN! Everything is so lush and green, and the weather is so cool with a high of 72 degrees. I've already bought lots of cheese and cheese curds (how do people not know about these things?).

Anyway, the final Happy Hands I will ever blog about is Motherboy which is what I really wanted in this order. I fell in love with this due the pastel mix of glitters (I see purple, blue, green, and pink at least) with different shapes. I put it over Barielle, and I think it works well. Unfortunately the base was extremely thick and I tried to dab the glitter , but it still caused some bubbling. If you didn't look so close, you would never notice the bubbling, though. All it needs is some thinner, I think. Either way, I'm happy to have this.

Happy Hands Spring 2013 Collection Swatch and Review: B for Butterflies

Happy Hands B for Butterflies (2 coats)

TGIF! Do you have any weekend plans? I'm likely on the road driving to Wisconsin. Much cheese will be eaten, I assure you. If I could bring you back some, I totally would. Maybe I'll get a cheese head hat. My husband would love that!

The next Happy Hands polish I have is B for Butterflies which is appropriate due to the abundance of purple and pink butterfly glitter in it. It's a light mint green crelly with butterfly, flower and hexagonal glitters in colors such as pink, purple, coral, and mint green glitters. I'm in love with this polish. LOVE! I found the formula to still be a bit thick and needed 3 coats, but I felt the coats went on better. I also think all of the glitters really go well together with no fishing for the larger glitter pieces. If you can find a bottle of this, I recommend snatching it up ASAP. 

Happy Hands Spring 2013 Collection Swatch and Review: Nursery Rhymes

Happy Hands Nursery Rhymes (3 coats)

I'm so sad that Happy Hands went out of business a few months ago since Kristi made some fun, unique polishes. I feel bad posting these since you can't easily get them anymore, but you may be able to find them on blog sales or Ebay. 

I didn't get to purchase my number 1 picks because I went into the last sale about an hour too late. I was able to get 3 polishes nonetheless. Up first we have Nursery Rhymes which is a light yellow crelly with pastel glitters in pink, purple, and green with blue stars. I love how this looks on the nail, but the formula and application was pretty craptastic. It was so extremely thick that I really couldn't control it near my cuticles.n While this may be fixed with thinner, I just wanted to give my opinion straight from the bottle. If you actually look at the side profile of my nail, you could really see how thick these layers were. Oh, and since it was sheer, it needed 3 coats which didn't help any. In the end, I would love this one if the application were better. 

Don't forget, I'll be out of town starting tomorrow, so if my posts are sporadic or short, that is the reason. Either way, I'll catch you on the flipside.

Color Club Winter 2013 Harlem Lights Collection Swatch and Review: Baldwin Blues

Color Club Baldwin Blues (2 coats)

If you love blue polishes like I do, then Baldwin Blues is the color for you. These aren't the greatest photos of it, but it's one of those hard to capture polishes. It's a deep dusty blue with grey undertones. I really loved this one, and wanted to try and swatch it over again, but you know life. Unfortunately it's going to set you back $8, but if you find it at your discount store, please let me know. 

In my life news, I go back to the Infectious Disease specialist today. My bloodwork was all normal last week so yay and boo at the same time. I'll keep you posted if I hear anything. Oh, and I'll be going on vacation next next week (actually starting on Friday), so I'll try to set some posts up here soon so you won't be bored while I'm gone. 

Color Club Holiday 2013 Harlem Lights Collection Swatch and Review: Sugar Rays

Color Club Sugar Rays (2 coats)

Doesn't it seem like forever since I've posted any Color Club reviews? Well, there's a reason for that, and that's because Color Club decided to get all fancy and up their prices to $8.00. Yeah. I don't think you can easily make a change from around $3 to $8 and not anger lots of people. So yes, I stopped buying from them until I found them at my beauty supply shop which still had them for cheap ($2.50!). I recently asked why they didn't have the most recent collections and they said they raised their prices to them and that they couldn't afford to carry anything new. Boo! Sometimes you can still find some Color Club polishes at Ross or Marshalls/TJ Maxx, but not always.

Anyway, this is the last collection I have polishes from and it's the Harlem Lights collection from this past winter. Sugar Rays is a very light gold metallic shimmer with pink undertones in certain lights. Shall we call it a slight duochrome? I like this one, but you have to be careful with the application. It's a 2 coater, but have a light hand because you can get some streaking otherwise.

Have you purchased any Color Clubs recently?

Barielle Nail Lacquer Swatches and Reviews: Designer Shoes and Greenwich Village at Dawn

Barielle Designer Shoes (2 coats)

Barielle Greenwich Village at Dawn (2 coats)

*press samples*

How can weekends go so fast? Wasn't just yesterday Friday? My brother left this afternoon, so it's back to being quiet in the household. 

I have 2 more Barielle colors to show you that are quite different from each other. The first is Designer Shoes which is a purple creme with lots of blue undertones. My camera, of course, couldn't accurately show the color since it is more purple in real life. The application was pretty good; it was very pigmented, but wouldn't self level for some reason.

The second polish is a work appropriate one called Greenwich Village at Dawn and is a pinkish nude with green shimmer. As you can see from the bottle picture, the green shimmer really stands out. Unfortunately, this doesn't resonate well on the nail. This one is pretty unique, but I really wish the green stood out more. The application and formula was back to be great for this one as well. I have the summer collection from Barielle to show soon, so keep them in mind. 

You can find Barielle treatments at your local Sally Beauty Supply store, or the full collection on their online website. You can also find them at other online retailers such as Transdesign and prices vary from $3-$8. 

*These polishes were provided by the company or PR representative. All reviews are based solely on my opinion. For more information, please see my full disclosure at the bottom of the site*

LeChat Dare to Wear Nail Lacquer Swatches: Kiss-N-Tell and Love Potion

LeChat Kiss-N-Tell (4 coats)

LeChat Love Potion (2 coats)

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a great weekend so far. My brother and sister-in-law are visiting from Knoxville so we've been out and about since last night. My apologies for a lack of post last night; I went to see 22 Jump Street which was awesome! 

You probably haven't seen too many swatches of the LeChat Dare to Wear polishes since they are often used in the salon world, especially for their gel polishes. The Dare to Wear colors are the regular nail polishes and I have 2 pretty pinks to show you tonight. Up first is a bright neon pink called Kiss-N-Tell. I would definitely recommend using a white color under this because it is extremely sheer. I had to use 4 really thick coats just to get the opacity you can see in the pictures. Otherwise, it is a bright neon, and dries to a satin finish. I like it, but didn't like the sheerness. 

On the other hand, Love Potion is a pigmented deep raspberry color with a scattered holo finish. So lovely! It only needed 2 coats and had a perfection application and formula. If you don't mind ordering online, you can buy LeChat polishes from TransDesign or Head2Toe Beauty and will only set you back from $3-$3.25. I really enjoy these, so definitely pick some of these up if you order from these reputable companies. 

Barielle 2012 Summer Fun Collection Swatches and Reviews: Mint Ice Cream Cone and Peach Pop

Barielle Mint Ice Cream Cone (2 coats)

Barielle Peach Pop (2 coats)

*press samples* 

Have any of you been watching Orange is the New Black? My husband and I just finished the second season. While I thought the first season was slightly better, I still think season 2 was good. Piper is annoying and she isn't in this season as much which was a relief. 

Anyway, I have several Barielle swatches to show you, as well as their latest 2014 summer collection in the coming weeks. The first 2 are from the 2012 summer collection, so I guess you can call them oldies, but goodies. Up first is Mint Ice Cream Cone which is a mint green creme with a bit of lime green thrown in there. I thought it was going to be streaky, but it was perfect in just 2 coats. When I've gone back to swatch some of my older Barielle polishes, I've noticed that some of them are really thick, so make sure to have your thinner around if you let them sit too long. 

The second polish is Peach Pop which is a pinkish peach creme color that has been popping up this summer. This would make a perfect pedicure as well. Again, the application and formula was perfect with this as well. 

You can find Barielle treatments at your local Sally Beauty Supply store, or the full collection on their online website. If you order today, you get 30% off AND free shipping with the code 30FREESHIP. You can also find them at other online retailers such as Transdesign and prices vary from $3-$8. 

WORLD CUP TIME!

*These polishes were provided by the company or PR representative. All reviews are based solely on my opinion. For more information, please see my full disclosure at the bottom of the site*

Sally Hansen Summer 2014 LE Palm Beach Jellies Triple Shine Polish Review, Swatches and Nail Art

Left to right: Water Melon, Jell-ous?, Vitamin D-light, Sea Through (2 coats) over 2 coats Jessica Cosmetics Sharkstooth

Left to right: Ice Tint, Grape Jelly, Ice Tint, Grape Jelly (2 coats) over 2 coats Jessica Cosmetics Sharkstooth

Watercolor Art 

*press sample*

I've been putting this post off because I can't really decide my feelings on this collection. My nails are extremely stained, so there was really no way I could show these on their own. If you look at Nouveau Cheap's swatches, even 4 coats isn't enough for coverage. For this reason, I swatched each polish with 2 coats  over a white polish. The first three polishes, Water Melon, Jell-ous?, and Vitamin D-light all look pretty much the same on the nail, with Water Melon being the most opaque. I thought Vitamin D-light would look more orange on the nail, but it seems more pink. The green, Sea Through is also a favorite of mine since it looks nice over white.

The other two polishes, Ice Tint and Grape Jelly are the final 2 in the collection. Despite being blue, Ice Tint was extremely sheer, but still makes a pretty sky blue over white. I had a bit of a problem with Grape Jelly since it would keep streaking over the white. It's strange because I didn't have a problem with any of the other polishes. Nouveau Cheap also tried to use this as a jelly sandwich (jelly polishes with a layer of glitter between them), but this didn't work well. I think these would be best used for those who don't mind sheer color, or those into nail art. I did a watercolor manicure, and if you don't look too close, it actually looks really good. So many people have done this with the OPI Sheer Tints, I don't even know who I got the inspiration from. If you did this before, thank you, you helped me out! I found these just yesterday at Target, and will run you $4.99 each. My recommendations would be Water Melon and Sea Through.

You can find more information on what's going on at Sally Hansen on their Facebook or Twitter pages.

*These polishes were provided by the company or PR representative. All reviews are based solely on my opinion. For more information, please see my full disclosure at the bottom of the site*