Nail de Royale

So, the items Nail de Royale were kind enough to send me to sample arrived recently.

 

A couple pots of glitter by House of Isis: Amulet and Faience. Zoya Mitzi. Omega Nail Art Striper Brush #175.

Nail de Royale are masters at packaging their products! Whoever works in their shipping department is awesome. The nail polishes were wrapped in saran wrap, and then wrapped in bubble wrap. I've never thought of doing that before, but what a smart idea! The glitters are in their own packages, and then in a larger bag, and wrapped in bubble wrap. They also got the package to me fast, even though I wasn't a paying customer.

They also must have a psychic on their staff, because I was really jones-ing for some glitter, and I got some!

I can't wait to try everything out. I'm also in the process of putting together a list of things I want to order from them. They've got great pricing on polishes, and tons of nail art stuff!

American Apparel Passport Blue + Street Wear Hologram

So, this was supposed to be my birthday manicure (I turned 24 yesterday!), but I was lazy and didn't paint my nails until this morning. Oops.

I showed you American Apparel Passport already - it was my second post ever, if I remember correctly. I took another photo of it for the sake of having a slightly better image of it up.

I wish I didn't, but I love American Apparel's nail polishes. I used just one coat for this manicure. My only gripe with this is the messiness. The brush is hard for me to control for whatever reason, so I end up getting it everywhere. And it's so pigmented, that my nails just end up looking sloppy because I can't clean it up. So, please forgive the messy application. I tried.

For some Birthday Bling, I added Hologram by Street Wear over Passport Blue. I was sort of expecting the application of this to be a disaster. You know the glittery polishes that never catch on the brush, so you have to practically dump it on your nails for it to show? Well, Hologram is nothing like that. I only needed ONE coat to get that many glitter pieces on my nail. Just one dip into the bottle, brush it on, and BOOM you've got a glitter party. The only downside is that if you wanted a sparser arrangement of glitter pieces, you'd have to work to get less on the brush. It's that dense!

The holographic-ness of it really shows! Even under dimmer lights. I've had a ton of compliments on it so far today. Hologram does dry with a rough texture though, and top coat didn't really help even it out.

This is one of those can't-stop-looking-at-my-nails manicures.

Street Wear Grape

Next up from my new collection of Street Wears is Grape.

Grape is a deep purple base with purple and blue shimmer. I absolutely love the combination. It's so pretty. The shimmer is fairly subtle, but when it hits the sunlight, it pops. You can see the shimmer better in the bottle than on my nails, but you get the gist.

The application of this was a breeze. It would have been perfect in one coat, but out of habit, I did two.

Overall, I have nothing to complain about. It applied wonderfully, and is such a great color. I've gotten lots of compliments on this bad boy.

Street Wear Mmoody + N.Y.C. Black Lace Creme

Last night, I saw Harry Potter at the drive in! I bawled. A lot. Any other HP dorks out there? What did you think of the last movie? How are you going to survive with no more HP movies or books to look forward to?!?

I decided to use Mmoody as my first Street Wear polish because it reminds me of a Patronus. It is definitely a polish that is meant to be layered (or worn very very sheer), so I decided to layer it over a simple black.

Black Lace Creme is pretty standard. I decided to show it since I haven't photographed it before. The first coat is pretty thin, but it becomes opaque in two coats. I painted it right in front of a fan (because it's like a billion degrees in MN), and got a bunch of air bubbles, as you can see. (On that note, I desperately need an AC unit!)

Then came the magic! I layered two coats of Mmoody over the black. Mmoody is a blue shimmer in a grey base. I love the juxtaposition of the shimmer and the murky grey. It is a great combination! You can see I still ended up with air bubbles. I moved away from the fan to add Mmoody, but still got them. Perhaps it's just because it's an older polish? Maybe it just doesn't like the Poshe topcoat? Who knows! Who cares! It's so pretty, the air bubbles don't even bother me. I also ended up with some weird scrunchy bits on my index and ring fingers. I don't care about those either! Mmoody was pretty thin (all of the Street Wears I got seemed quite thin), but easy to work with. The brush/lid design is awesome. The handle isn't perfectly round, so it's easy to grip. And the brush is very long, so it's easy to see what you're doing.

I wish Revlon still made these. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I was obsessed with Street Wear in middle school. I loved being able to go into Target and get some funky colored polishes for cheap.

I shall leave you with an image of Snape's and Lily's Patronus. I'm off to go cry some more over HP. Just kidding... maybe.

Street Wear Haul

I'm back from New York! The trip went well. We had perfect weather for sitting on the beach the whole week!

When I got back, a package full of Street Wears was waiting for me.

All of 'em!

Hologram, Midas, Bare It, Shining, Gold Mine, Taxi.

Sstain, Sweetie, Angelic, Psychedelic, Jelly.

Ggrass Sstain, Grass Stain, Sky, Mmoody, Raw, Grape, Gun Metal.

 I'm super pumped to start trying all of these out. I remember being obsessed with this brand in middle school. If only I'd held on to mine.

Vacation Time

I just wanted to make a brief post to let you guys know that there's going to be a break in posting for a week or so. I am leaving tomorrow morning (4:30 AM ugh!) for Fire Island, New York! I'll be back on the 16th, so posting should resume around then.

I was hoping to get a post up tonight, but I was in such a rush to do my manicure, it turned out horrible! Good enough for a week at the beach, but not good enough for a blog post.

But I've got a couple things I'm looking forward to when I get back:

1. I broke my No Buy, but I have a good excuse! I have been on the hunt lately for some decently priced Street Wear polishes. I came across quite a few on LiveJournal, and those should hopefully be arriving while I'm gone.

2. I was contacted by Nail de Royale (you may have noticed the link in my sidebar), and they have kindly offered to send me samples. I'm so excited to see what they've sent!

And with that, I'm off to bed! I hope everyone has a great week, and hopefully I'll be back with some exciting posts (and a tan)!

Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!

I though I'd continue the bright, summery colors with Sally Hansen's Blue Me Away!

Blue Me Away! is one of my favorites blues in my collection. It's a really gorgeous bright blue, but not overwhelmingly bright. It glides on smoothly, and isn't streaky. I needed two coats for full coverage, and it dries to a nice shiny finish. It's also like, two bucks at Target. What more could I ask for?! I've reached for this quite a few times since I bought it a year ago.

It's also one of the first polishes I bought when I really started getting into nail polish, so it reminds me of how excited I was to search the shelves at Target for my first "haul".

I hope all you US kids had a safe and fun 4th of July.

Star Gazer 102

The other night, I watched a documentary called "Vanishing of the Bees". It was really eye-opening, and actually quite heartbreaking. Did you know that bees are responsible for one-third of the food we eat? ONE-THIRD! Did you know that they are also just up and disappearing, due to Colony Collapse Disorder? The documentary talks about Colony Collapse Disorder, and the research that's being done on it. It's a very good film, and I definitely recommend seeing it if you get the chance. It's also narrated by my future wife, Ellen Page, which is a plus.

The reason I go into all of that is because I was inspired to wear some yellow polish. I chose Star Gazer's 102, sent to me by Nicole is our last swap.

Artificial lighting.

Artificial lighting.

Flash.

Flash.

Nicole suggested I wear this over a white polish, but I decided to see what it was like without it. I'll try it with white next time I wear it, and report back. On top of white, this would probably appear much more neon. 102 is pretty interesting, because in some lighting situations, it looks like a bright (but not in-your-face-neon) yellow, and in other times it leans more to the neon side.

I didn't have any troubles with application. It was a bit sheer, so I used three coats to get better coverage. It's definitely brush stroke-y, but there's no avoiding it. I did get a TON of air bubbles though. You can't really tell from these photos, but here are bubbles everywhere, on each nail. It's not terribly noticeable though, so it doesn't bother me much. So far, it has been wearing really well on me. I've had it on for two days, and don't have any chips, and hardly any tipwear.

I've received a lot of compliments on 102, mostly from older men, strangely enough. A coworker said it reminds him of lemon drops.