Sunday, September 25, 2011

Magnetic nail polish, finally!!!!!


So I have been lemming (refer to the glossary!) magnetic nail polish for about a year now, but there hadn't been a magnetic polish sold in the states for some time.  All the blogs that I read where magnetic polish was profiled were from bloggers in the U.K. or U.S. gals who had done some awesome trading with polish lovers from overseas.  Well, the wait is over and magnetic nail polishes are in the states and are a-plenty in various brands and colors. 

I am very pleased to say that I am the owner of 2 magnetic polishes by Layla that I purchased through http://www.aveyou.com/ who had a $1.00 shipping promotion for purchases $50.00 or more ( I bought several of the SpaRitual polishes from their fall collection that I'll be swatching soon and are GORGEOUS).  I was so giddy and excited to get my package in the mail and put a full manicure on immediately in Golden Bronze.

For those of you unfamiliar with magnetic nail polish, the polish has tiny magnetic particles in it and the polish cap has a built in magnet that will put a simple design on your nails when you hover the cap over a wet coat of polish. The more layers of polish, the more intense the effect. You can see a Layla tutorial here: Layla Magnetic Nail Polish Tutorial to really get the idea.  P.S.- the lady's accent in the tutorial cracks me up and I question if it is a real accent or a just put on.  Anywho, Layla has a simple stripe design, while some other brand polishes will have a star design as well as the stripe as a choice.  Either way, the effect is really something that I never seen and find to be truly mesmerizing. 

So, for you today, I have my first try at a vertical stripe mani, which was very subtle and gave a look of almost a tiger eye stone to my nails.  I got many compliments while wearing this manicure and thought the color and effect was to die for. 












And then I tried to mix up the lines and the intensity...
The above effects were acheived with 2 coats of nail polish, which was nice and easy to apply and had the perfect consistency.  The top mani photos had a top coat of SV and the second mani had none.  And just so you know, the Layle Magneffect bottles are a little bit smaller than the average bottle of nail color and at aveyou.com they are $15.50 a pop.  Kind of pricey to some folks, but to me, the price is totally worth it based on the results.  I'll be swatching Purple Galaxy in the near future and have a feeling it's going to be just as, if not more awesome than Golden Bronze.

Until next time.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

2011 Color Club Boho Collection (Part A)

I can't believe it's Sunday night already.  I vote for a 4 day work week, 32 hours - that's it!  Who's with me?!

So, in nail polish obsession news,  I made an unscheduled stop at my favorite Ross store here in Tucson yesterday, as I was wasting some time with a friend before going to see the movie Warrior at the mall.  In the short browse-fest, I scored Color Club's 2011 Fall Boho Collection (part A - they didn't have part B, but I will be casing my 4 nearby stores regularly to see if it magically appears) and the best part is, it was only $7.99 for 6 polishes and 1 top coat.  What a steal!!!  I should add that I found the Color Club Wicked Sweet Collection of scented polishes for the same price a couple of months ago at a different Ross. P.S.- I <3 you, Ross!  Granted Color Club isn't typically an expensive polish, but at a normal price of around $3.75 a bottle, this little gem was a definite savings.  And who couldn't be pleased with that?

Without further adieu...






And on the nails...

The colors are listed on the package as they are painted on my nails in order from pinky to thumb. 
I covered up Nomadic in Nude on the pinky finger with Red-ical Gypsy for this next pic.

Most items found at Ross are close-outs or slightly defective items, so of course I wondered what was wrong with these?  But I found these polishes are in perfect condition and are a brand-new just released line.  That makes me go "Hmmmm?".  The only defect I could find was that this collection came with a top coat vs the base coat which is what is described on the box they came in.

The colors you see in the above pictures are as accurate as can be (even the red!).  I am very happy with Color Club's formula in all the other bottles I've purchased before and this set didn't let me down one bit.  I didn't use a base coat for these pictures and I applied 3 coats for all of the colors with exception of Red-ical, which was only 2 coats.  Since I was merely doing a swatch set, I did not use a top coat and as you can see, these polishes are super shiny even without it.   Now, while some of you may find this collection to be a snooze fest, I actually thought all of the colors were very pretty and appear to be extremely wearable with just about anything.  I'm looking forward to wearing a full manicure in New Bohemian, Shabby Drab and Rad Nomad.  What do you think?  Now, if I could only get my hands on Part B...

Until next time. 

Monday, September 12, 2011

My maiden post!

How exciting!
So, I'm still sorting out how I will be organizing my photos and manis so I'm going to refer to a favorite from last month to get myself started.  I'm also new to blogger and blogging, so bear with me while I slowly spruce up my page.  I hope that it will not look this boring for too long.
Note:  I'm mostly into polishes and layering and have yet to get even remotely good at using Bundle Monster or Konad nail plates.  Occasionally, I may give it a try and show you the spoils of my efforts, which will probably by "ok" at best. 
Anywho, this is Peridot by Chanel.  I'm sure most nailphiles will agree that this polish came with a big buzz and a big price tag (at least to me). 
Here she is:


These photos are pretty true to the actual color of the polish (an olivey, gold-ish bronz-ish concoction).  I purposely took the second photo slightly out of focus to show the sparkle in the bottle.  I was impressed with the richness of the color itself more than the formula, which I found to be pretty runny.  I believe this was 3 or 4 coats with a top coat of Seche Vite.  Considering how often I change my polish, I can't say for sure what its' true wear is like, realistically.  Even still, it's one of those "I gotta have it" colors for the fall.

Until next time ~