Loreal's - The Muse's Inspiration + Halloween Mani/Revlon Stencils

Loreal has really stepped up their game in the last year, releasing really nice polishes that are finally starting to catch my eye.  Today I have a polish from the Project Runway collection called The Muse's Inspiration.  I bought another 2 from the line, but have yet to swatch them.  Hopefully I'll get to them soon.

So here's The Muse's Inspiration.  It's a shimmery tangerine orange like color like no other I have in my stash.  It really is a rich color -perfect for autumn and the application was very smooth.  This is 3 coats of The Muse's Inspiration on top of a base coat of Bonder and then I topped with SV.   Think tangerine when you look at this pics because, as usual, my camera was confused by this color. 

Side note: please excuse my right hand, it's not as nice as my left. :o/

 Now for a Halloween mani!  I found these Revlon Nail Stencils at Walgreens for around 3-4 bucks and thought I should give them a chance.

I used Essence Black is Back for the stencil color.  Let it dry completely (or at least what I thought was completely) and then carefully peeled off the stencil.  This is the result:

Pretty cool, huh.  Now they're not perfect, by any means, but they did the trick.  I think one would achieve a neater, more crisp result with a stamping plate than with this, but if you don't want to spend the money on a stamping kit and plates then this is a nice little shortcut. The only catch is that they really don't seem to be reusable as then bend out of shape when you pull them off.   I'll be using the mustache stencil for a Movember manicure next month.  Can't wait.

What do you think?  Would you give the Revlon nail stencil a try?

Until next time!  ☺

China Glaze Electric Beat Dot Mani

I'm really digging the whole dot manicure thing and trying to get the most out of all the nail polish I have and my tools.  The payoff is so good for such little effort.

I had picked up China Glaze Electric Beat at Sally's because it was on clearance and loved it so much, I couldn't bear to take it off, but at the same time I was getting bored.  So I figured the best was to get some freshness and added longevity to Electric Beat was to go dot.

I used Electric Beat as my base.

such a preeeetty blue!

Then picked out a few colors in my stash that I thought would compliment it. 

OPI DS Coronation, Revlon Blue Lagoon, CG Electric Beat, Butter London Victoriana

I used a piece of foil and folded it in half to make it a little more stiff and dropped a pool of the first color I was going to use, which was Blue Lagoon.  I dotted all my nails using the same polish keeping in mind the design I wanted and then let dry.  I keep a cotton ball with acetone on it in the corner of my foil to wipe the tips of my dotting tools so that they don't get globby.  If the pool of polish starts to dry, I just drop another little pool on the foil.  I noticed that applying the dots with the "side" of the tool vs straight down on the tip seems to be more effective in getting a nice dot shape.

Then I switched to Victoriana and finally Coronation.  I let everything dry completely before apply a topped of SV.  

Hope you like it.  

Until next time.  ☺

More Revlon love with Posh

This is another great color from Revlon to add to the nail polish lemming list.  I don't think the photos I took really convey what a lovely and wearable color this is and as you can see, the color changes slightly from picture to picture as I changed settings trying to capture the way it actually looks in person.  Posh reminds me more of a jade green than how it looks in these photos, which I think comes across as a Kelly green.  Regardless, if you see this polish at your local CVS, Walgreens, or Ulta, I would highly recommend giving it a chance.  This creme applies smoothly, dries fairly quickly and has a good shine on its own even without a top coat.

For these pictures, I was wearing a base coat of Orly Bonder, 3 coats of Posh, and  top coat of SV.

Without further ado,  POSH

Revlon Blue Lagoon + Deborah Lippmann Happy B-day Jelly Sandwich

A new trend in nail polishing these days is called the "jelly sandwich".  I don't know who started it, but I'm a big fan because I now have a new purpose for my glitter polishes.

Here is my second go at a jelly sandwich using Revlon's Blue Lagoon and Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday.  The end result reminds me of Revlon's Whimsical, but better.   I invite you to follow my middle finger on its sandwich journey....

Here are the products:

Revlon Blue Lagoon

Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday

I started with a base coat of Orly Bonder, then 2 thin coats of Blue Lagoon.

Then a coat of Happy Birthday...

 Followed by another thin coat of Blue Lagoon and a coat of SV.

I am totally digging this manicure.  I have been wearing it for almost 5 days, which is practically unheard of for me as I usually change my nail polish every other day.  I love that it's so light and summery looking.  Blue Lagoon is really a stunning color.  Revlon has been hitting them out of the park lately.  My boss nailed it when she said it reminded her of those robin speckled chocolate eggs they sell at Easter time.

What do you think?  Will you be trying your own jelly sandwich and if so, what colors/glitters will you be using?

Until next time!