I feel like a drug addict.

I've relapsed. I've been so busy with end of the semester school work and sorority events and such that painting my nails has taken a backseat.  It pains me to even say that a few days out of the week an a half i have not blogged my nails have been NAKED.  I started biting my nails again, they look horrendous right now.  I would never post in this condition, but thankfully I have some backlog that I can run off of for the time being.  Let me just warn you, I probably wont post again for a while..I need to get my academic shit together and blogging, again, will have to take the backseat for now.

Let me just show you a little something that I got from the swap I did with Elodie over at AccroPolish.  We swapped 5 polishes each (plus goodies) and this is what I got =)

H&M- Spending Cash With Carl

H&M- Envy Me

Catrice- Clayton My Hero

Mavala- Bronze Green

Catrice- Time Square at Midnight

MNY- (couldn't find a name..I'm in a rush)

Some yummy Swiss Chocolatee!!!

So I hope you like what you see so far, I have swatched some of them but those pic's will come at a later date.

Back to school now. byeeee

Essie- Island Hopping!

I went a little picture happy today so bear with me haha. I've been doing so much posting today..way to be on top of things Lauren =) I have a nice green to show you next for St. Patty's Day but for this post I am showing you...

Island Hopping by Essie.

*All of these photos were taken inside under and artificial light source.

So...about this polish.  I was taking full inventory of every Essie polish that Walgreens had when I stumbled upon one that wasn't a "normal Essie".  By normal Essie I mean, a sheer light pink or pastel. Isn't it true? Because of this I just had to have it.  Although the color is pretty, I'm not sold.  The application was only so-so, a bit thick compared to the other experiences I've had with Essie polishes.  Not surprisingly this polish chipped in about 1 1/2 days of wearing it.  I used this polish over break so I wasn't really doing any hands on activities either, hmmm. (sleeping doesn't really require much of that lol). Well, for what it was worth I'd say it was a worthwhile purchase. The color was just brown enough so it's not a "pink"..more of a mauve haha. I love how I have to talk myself out of colors being pinks so I will like them more, such a bad habit of mine. ($8)

How do you guys like this color? Have any of you tried it and had trouble with the consistency like I did?

P.S- Don't you just wish you could have an in house nail shaper extraordinaire sometimes. My shape is getting just a little too unruly for me.  Maybe it's time for a real nail salon manicure hehe.

Barielle- Elle's Spell

Oh my gosh, today I got the package of polishes Accropolish sent me for our swap! I'm so excited to blog about them but you sadly will have to hold your suspense for a few more days because I am trying to get rid of my backlog.  Let me just tell you they are better than I even expected.  The score is currently Switzerland 1. USA 0 hahha.

Okay today I have for you Elle's Spell by Barielle.

Lemings alert!!! I have wanted this polish for FOREVER. I saw another blogger post about it and I could not get enough.  While home on spring break I was perusing through Ulta's clearence bins and there it was, the one lone one left. I swapped it up before I could even blink. LOVEEE. Many people said that it caught their eye so they bought it, but then when they actually tried it they didn't think it was anything special.  I totally have to disagree, this polish is amazing. I hate reds as you know, and I would wear this color on my nails for as long as I lived if I had to.

Okay, enough with the dramatics. Elle's Spell is obviously a jelly and I had to do 4ish coats to get it opaique.  This color is great because it not only looks the bright red that it is, but also in certain lights it seems this deep red/purple berry color that I absolutely adore. It has what looks like gold flakes but are actually considered multi-color flakes.  The application was not too watery/thick but applied more clear then red on the first coat, and the second two coats left you with the berry color but then with the fourth I got this great red color.  This polish usually retails for $6 at Ulta stores, and $8 when sold directly from Barielle.

I have heard that it looks like Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure flake polish but from what I've seen it really doesn't. Have any of you used Hidden Treasure before? Do you think it looks like this polish?

*This is Elle's Spell layered over black*

*Picture courtesy of Stephscloset.com

and this is Hidden Treasure layered over Lincoln Park After Dark

*Picture courtesy of Squarednails.com

See..nothing alike! 

Relay For Life

Hey girls, I don't have any polish for you today.  Although this might be totally uncalled for on a simple nail blog and I usually wouldn't fundraise like this, I want to exhaust all of my options.  Please take the time to read this, I would really appreciate it.

This year (like the last two) I am participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life of Sacred Heart University! It's a very special event to fight cancer and honor our friends and family members wo have battled cancer...and it has been organized entirely by students! At the event we have the unique opportunity to have fund while fundraising much-needed funds to fight cancer and rase awareness for cancer prevention and treatment.

Cancer is something that has, and continues to affect my life on a a daily basis.  All throughout college I have been heavily involved with my school's Relay For Life event, holding committee positions three years running.  The reason I do this is is to try and give back to the organization that has had a direct had in curing my mothers cancer who was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2003.  Relay For Life also gives me a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer like my mother, remember those who have lost their lives, and to fight back against the disease that has caused too much pain for far too long.

My goal this year is to raise $500 in donations.  Would you please make a tax deductible donation to the American Cancer Society on my behalf? Your gift will help save the lives of many mothers, brothers, children and grandparents who are cancer survivors.  To donate please follow the link at the bottom of this message to my personal web page and make a secure online donation.  you can make a one- time gift or increase your impact by making a monthly donation to the American Cancer Society.

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY11NE?px=9079121&pg=personal&fr_id=29328

** The date of my Relay event is THIS FRIDAY, March 18-19th so if you wish to donate, please try and do it before this date.**

Thank you in advance for your generosity.  It means a lot to me to know my fellow bloggers support my efforts.

GLORIOUS!

Two more posts after this and I'm totally caught up with my backlog! I'm feeling so efficient over this break..I wrote a paper, went to numerous Dr. appts., bought TONS of polish (I literally thought three polishes would be enough for one week at home..but no, I bought about 20 more since I have been home shopping for my swap! Its a sickness!!) and logged some time with my besties..I'm a beast. GROWL. 

This polish today is Periwinkle by Petites Color Fever.

Yeah I know, the last picture quality is like really really really bad but i wanted you to get a close up look (I've finally figured out the art of taking a good picture so hopefully no more bad pictures!).  Well ok so this polish, like I said in my post about Vintage Gray (here) had such a better application than the gray so I was really excited about using it.  This is one of the only three polishes I took home for my spring break..that must say something, its one of my fav's.  It went on silky smooth, I used three coats just because I like the color after it gets extra saturated, it comes out bluer if that's a word haha.  I again used the NYC Extra Shiny Top Coat over it.  This one and only bad thing about this polish is that it chipped after like a day and a shower. I think I need to try doing thinner coats, maybe that will help. Hmm..w/e. Rite Aid- $3.99 (expensive for .25 fl oz I think, but worth it).

Woah, okay so I'm watching Pretty Little Liars right now and 1. Aria was texting her teacher/boyfriend and obviously I was looking at her nail polish and it was this pretty blue color when the frame was set wide, and then 2. When they zoomed in on her texting, HER NAILS WERE A DIFFERENT COLOR..and guess what..it totally looked like a dupe for this exact polish I'm posting about!! how funny!

Okay, to bed I go..night!

Polish, Swaps and more!

Why hello followers! I'm so excited because I'm doing a swap with Elodie over at Accropolish, the blog she has going is so great!! This is obviously my first swap so I want to see how this one goes first but if everything goes as planned I would totally be open to doing more! I am really looking forward to all the new brands I'll be getting like Catrice and Mavala =) I'll DEFINITELY be swatching them right when I get them!

On to the polish..today I am showing you Yucatan if You Want by OPI.

How do ya like it? Its a cream almost terracotta color (pink/red/brown).  The application was pretty great, covered opaque in two coats and I really cant say anything bad about it...it went on pretty cleanly and average. I bought the color initially because i saw it on a fellow blogger's post and I just had to have it.  I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone a little so I've been trying to get a bunch of reds and pinks because I despise them...this polish did not help change my idea of them though.  It looks great in the bottle, but when it got on my nails, I'm not sure if its just because of my skin tone with it or not but I HATE IT.  I tried to spruce it up with a little design on my ring finger..I think it definitely made the manicure a 100x better. 

Okay so please please please ignore my cuticles, I've stopped biting my nails but ripping the cuticles is still a horrible habit of mine :/

For the design I used Black and Hologram Glitter Color Club Art Club Nail Art Lacquer. As you can see its a pretty simple design, I'm really not the master of designs yet haha.  I put a top coat OVER the design (lately I have discarded my Seche Vite for a much cheaper and in my opinion NYC Long Wearing Extra Shiny Top Coat).  

I hope you guys enjoyed this post with a little flare..more of this stuff to comee! Goodnight =)

Ulta Haul!!

Hey guys, this is going to be a non-swatch post but I just so so excited and wanted to show you all of the new polishes I bought today from my local Ulta!

Here we go:

Left to Right: Bombshell by Ulta, Iris upon Stars by Piggy Polish, Aruba Blue by Essie, OPI Ink by OPI, One Less Lonely Glitter by Nicole (by OPI), Elle's Spell by Barielle and Decadence by Barielle

First off we have Bombshell by Ulta. It's a bright red jelly with holo glitter throughout. From what I have tested, it seems to lean pink. Clearance for $2.99

Second is Iris Upon Stars by Piggy Polish. It's a very vibrant purple with the SLIGHTEST bit of pink sparkle in it, almost too slight for the eye to see! It even comes with a toe ring =) $7.50

Third is Aruba Blue by Essie. It has a dark navy base with light blue shimmer.  The polish reminds me of a sapphire. You know what makes it even better? I just found out that this is the polish that Emily Blunt wears throughout most of the movie The Devil Wears Prada AND the polish that tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) wears most of the episodes of Glee! $8.00 

Fourth is OPI Ink by OPI. This polish is an AMAZING mix of blue and purple lacquer with pink micro-glitter throughout.  It is from the OPI Night Brights Collection. $8.50

Fifth is One Less Lonely Glitter by Nicole by OPI. This polish is a very dense purple glitter set in an almost sheer purple base. Covers pretty fully in 2 coats, although I would do three. $7.99

Sixth is Elle's Spell by Barielle.  Its a flaky red jelly polish which came out for Holiday 2010.  I CANNOT wait to try this polish, its been on my lemmings list since I've made one and i finally got it..on clearance! $2.99

Last but not least is Decadence by Barielle.  It is a teal with a shimmery finish from the Sugar Rush Collection. 

I hope you like my new polishes...posts on them soon to come!! ...Off to write a paper, byee!!

Oh yeah, Gettin Flashy!

Oh hayy, this post I'm showing you one of the most flashy manicures I have ever done...I used Seal the Teal from Tip Toe an Old Navy polish and Party Of Five Glitters by Wet n Wild.

You know you love it!! I know the last picture looks pretty weird, its WAYY too overexposed but I wanted to show you the glitter bottle. As you can tell the Tip Toe polish is a dark teal with a stellar application.  Perfect consistency although I had to do a bunch of clean up because I got pretty messy haha. I'm sorry I couldn't get a picture of the polish before I put the sparkles on, I totally forgot :X

The sparkles were REALLY easy to put on surprisingly.  Obviously you can't just 'paint' them on like you do regular polish so what I did was just get a ton of polish on the brush and slightly touch the brush to the nail and do that in a couple of spots around your nail until its fully covered.  This way you get enough sparkles on your nail and it looks even.

Well there you go, a little polish tip from me (although I'm sure its not a new concept haha).  Hope you enjoy this mani, I know I did! Seee yaa

You Don't Know Jacques!

Ello mates! You know what I've realized? I can't blog without some good TV show/movie going lol..like right now I'm watching couples retreat..SUCH A GOOD MOVIE! Now I want to go to the bahamas, aka where all my friends are right now for spring break..living it up on a cruise. I'm officially jealouss.

This is a color that I would not wear on a cruise to the bahamas, but for the crappy weather here on Long Island it seems just right.  Here is You Don't Know Jacques! by OPI.

Hellz yeahh, finally a taupe! Okay this polish is such a great color, its like exactly the perfect blend between brown, green and i want to say red.  It almost tends more on the purple side than anything else.  The application: a little thick actually, but nothing that couldn't be handled. Shown here is three coats but I could have gotten away with two, pretty much like all other polishes I blog about haha 

I really don't have much to say about this polish, its just that great, I'm speechless.  Oh well I guess one bad thing about this polish is that it chipped like REALLY easily, but then again thats every OPI for me so nothing really special. I actually really wanted Over the Taupe by OPI but I couldn't find it anywhere in my crappy town so I got this one and I'm actually glad I did because its a bit richer than OTT.

Another post to come in about 5 minutes haha, I'm trying to catch up!!

Finally a China Glaze!

Oh heyy, I'm on spring break, I am not working and I only have a little bit of homework...therefore I will be posting TONS! First off, how fancy am I...my first China Glaze. EVER. I was so excited when I bought this polish last week in a mini haul you have no idea.  Believe me, there are more where this came from..this is starting to become a staple in my lot!

Today we have Oxygen by China Glaze. (sorry I can't put the name of the polish in the color, it would disappear! lol)

Eeek, dry cuticles! So I realize that there is a shadow in this picture but it kind of works to my advantage and I'll tell you why soon.  Anyway, remember in a past post I swatched a light pink color but I said I was hoping for something whiter/more opaque? (if you don't remember, its here).  Well, I found what I was looking for! This is pretty much a white polish but with the slightest pink tint to it (you can see the pink tint on my pointer finger and the color it looks like in most lights on the other fingers).  The application was awesome, totally a great first impression.  It was a great consistency, if anything a little watery, covering evenly in three coats.  As you can tell, there is still a little bit of visible nail line but nothing that was too bad, I figured four coats was a little too thick so I kept it at three. 

I love the name of this polish for some reason, and so do my suitemates hahah. Every time one of them picks it up I'm like ITS CALLED OXYGEN hahha. I'm lame. Whateverr.

Okay well talk to you guys again tomorrow! Happy painting =)