American Apparel Nail Polish Swatches (7 shades)

Hello, Beautiful!

I recently placed an order for some American Apparel nail lacquer (six shades, which I'll list later in this post), but I also just received seven shades in the mail that I couldn't wait to swatch!

If you've never had the pleasure of owning this polish brand you're really missing out. The quality is top-notch, the color range is drool-worthy beautiful, and the color payout is amazing (most shades are one-coaters). They also apply beautifully (even and smooth), are full of shine without even using a top coat, and dry rather quickly.

The cost is $6 each, but if you like more than 2 shades (which you will) then you may want to look into purchasing a 3-pack for $15 (saving you $1 per polish) or purchasing a 7-pack for $32 (saving you over $1.50 per polish). You can purchase these polishes at American Apparel's website by clicking here or visiting their website directly: http://store.americanapparel.net/accessories-beauty.html

Below are swatches of seven beautiful shades I currently own:

* Click on photos to view them larger *

#1: Cameo Blue (42011)

Shade Description: A medium denim blue creme (one of my favorite blues of all time).

#2: Palm Springs (36498)

Shade Description: A peachy camel creme.

#3: Summer Peach (38975)

Shade Description: A light peach creme with pink undertones.

#4: Office (36503)

Shade Description: A fresh minty creme.

#5: Port (42010)

Shade Description: A very deep port wine creme - almost black, but shows up with a wine color in the sun.

#6: Army Jacket (42012)

Shade Description: A true army or olive green creme.

#7: Berry (36510)

Shade Description: A deep berry creme.

 

So what American Apparel nail lacquer colors will I swatch next? I ordered: Echo Park, Malibu Green, Butter, L Esprit, MacArthur Park, and African Violet. I'll actually have an extra Malibu Green so I'll probably hold a blog contest to give that one away. Stay tuned for those swatches in a few weeks!

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Misbehaved (swatch photo, review, tutorial)

UPDATE: Check out swatches & review of Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Laced Up by clicking here.

Hello, Beautiful!

By now most of you probably have heard of the Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail polish strips. They just popped up at my local Wal-Mart on Friday and my awesome husband was the one to find them, call me, then buy a box for me (I love him).

I had my eye on the pattern, which to me, looks like fishnet stockings. It's called "Misbehaved" - which is a shimmery gold with small holo glitter as the base color and black fishnet stocking pattern on top.

As soon as my husband got home I removed my nail polish (which you can still sort of see around the edges of my nails, sorry!) and applied these strips.

You'll receive 16 strips in a box, and a box costs around $8 to $9. I thought to myself, "okay, why only 16 strips and not 20 strips?", thinking you'd use one strip per nail and would get two uses out of the set. Depending on the length of your nails you will get more use out of these. I don't have long nails so I was able to use each strip twice. I only used five strips to do my nails. If you have longer nails you may only get one use out of each box. A lot will also depend on your nails size.



Applying them is an easy process:
1. Make sure your nails are clean and polish free (I did NOT use a base coat).
2. Buff your nails (I actually buffed and smoothed them with my own file, although they include a mini file for you to use). They also want you to file the edge of your nail so it's sharp - this is to break the strip off easier, but I had no problems breaking off the strip without filing the edges of my nails down.
3. Choose your strip size and apply. Smooth on. Tear the remaining strip off. I just pulled downward and it torn off. Since my nails are short enough I used the remainder on my other hand.
4. Then I filed off any excess hanging over my nail
5. And even though this was not in the steps, I did put one coat of Seche Vite over top because I wanted them to last.

To remove you just use regular nail polish remover (I'll have to update this after I remove them to tell you how easy it was).


I applied these on a Friday evening and it's now Monday morning. All of them are still on, no tears or chips (and believe me, I am not careful with my nails). They survived showers, which sometimes can cause peeling in nail strips. And they still feel like they're going to be on my nails for a long time. I really want to keep these on until they start to wear, but I'm not sure I can make it that long. I like to paint my nails at least every other day, and I have a lot of new colors I wanted to try out. I'll give it another day or two before I change my nails.

Overall I'm very impressed with these strips. I like the variety, how easy they are to use, and the fact that I'll get at least 2 uses out of the box, possibly 3. The wear is great, so you'll get your money out of these. If you have a special event to go to these nails will last you at least 2 to 3 days without any signs of wear (and probably even longer).


The price point isn't bad - $9 is pretty good for what you get, at least for the patterns (I think the regular ones that you could do easily with nail polish aren't worth it, but patterns are great). The regular ones are worth if if you travel a lot and just need a change of polish. They're also great to keep a box in your desk at work, even your locker at school. They're a great "emergency" nail color option.
 
Have you tried these? If so, which ones did you try out and what are your thoughts on them?
If you haven't tried these, will you pick up a box the next time you see them?

More Color Club sets at Ross!

Hello, Beautiful!

I was in the area of my local Ross and just had to stop in to see if they had any more sets left (in case anyone was looking for them). Well they didn't have the other sets I found before, but they did have two new sets: Untamed Luxury Collection and the Glitter Vixen Collection (which was packaged wrong; it was packaged as the Wild at Heart collection). I seriously never knew Ross carried these sets and now that I know it will be hard to keep me away from a Ross!

They are $7.99 each set of 7 full sized polishes!

I don't have time to post pics right now (it's a date night with my husband - we'll be watching "Case 39"), but I will post swatches this week of all the Color Club shades I own.


Untamed Luxury Collection includes:

• De-Luxe-Cious -- 896
• Ms. Hautie -- 897
• Red Velvet -- 898
• Untamed Luxury -- 899
• Resort to Red -- 900
• Snakeskin -- 901
• Covered in Diamonds -- 902

Glitter Vixen Collection includes:

• Sex Symbol -- 842
• Magic Attraction -- 843
• Sultry Diva -- 844
• Art of Seduction -- 845
• Sexy Siren -- 846
• Object of Envy -- 847
• True Passion -- 848

Let's talk noses....

Hello, Beautiful!

Some of you know, from reading past blog posts, that my dog broke my nose a few months ago (back in August). When he broke my nose he also collapsed my deviated septum, which I had fixed back in January 2009 to improve my breathing. It's no secret - I want my nose fixed! I hate how crooked it has become and my breathing is back to how it was before I had my deviated septum repaired. Not only that, but sometimes when I apply foundation on my nose I can hear and feel crunching, which just makes my nose hurt (it makes it hurt just thinking about that, yuck!).

From the day my dog broke my nose I said I wanted to have it fixed. Before having my nose broken it was slightly crooked, which I didn't really mind, and it was big with a bump, but again I didn't really mind. It was my nose and I was going to live with it. But when my dog broke my nose... well, all that "I'm going to live with my nose" talk went out the door. It's not my nose anymore... it's a crooked weird nose that I wasn't born with.

At this point it's just a matter of when the surgery will take place. I'm hoping it will be in March, that's the plan anyway.  I want to have my surgery before the summer (I'm an amusement park enthusiast; I go 1 to 3 times a week in the summer and I will not miss out on that fun). I know the healing process takes time (a year for full results... sometimes even two years), but after 8 weeks I should be okay to return to normal life (meaning, if I have my surgery in March I should be good to ride roller coasters in June... but that's something I will have to ask my surgeons about).

My mother-in-law works at Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, and she's worked with a very good nose doctor up there - which she recommends highly. But going to him would require so much hassle: taking my son out of school, traveling 4 hours to Pennsylvania, not seeing my husband or dogs for a week, and having to stay at my parent's house... which isn't the ideal recovery space. Not to mention having to travel for all follow up appointments. So while he comes with a good recommendation from my mother-in-law, I just have to try and find someone down here in Virginia.

Which brings me to my questions for my blog readers (you can email me if you don't want to leave a comment on my blog):

1. Did you get a nose job?
2. If so, who did your nose?
3. Is there anything you wish you would have asked at the consultations that you may have forgotten to ask?

This isn't my first plastic surgery (I've had my boobs done twice - once to have them fixed... long story), so I have an idea of what to look for and what to ask. But I want to hear opinions on what to ask from those that have had a nose surgery (or chin implant surgery).

I begin my consultations with Virginia surgeons this week. So far I have 3 consultations set up and another 4 or 5 docs on my list, which I contacted by email over the weekend (I'm just waiting for a response).

I'm really excited for my consultation on Thursday - right now he's the doc I think may end up being my doc. But I am excited to meet with all the docs and see who I feel will be the best match.

At the same time I'm getting my nose fixed I'm also getting my chin implant. I have a recessed chin naturally, which has bothered me since high school. I will leave my mouth slightly open to drop my chin a little more forward or if my mouth is closed I do this jaw/chin-push-forward thingy that makes my chin not recessed. I've been doing this for 10 years now, so it's become a natural habit; I just want to be able to not have to do that to feel like my chin is "normal". I don't want a big chin; I just want my chin to be proportioned with my face. And since I'll be getting surgery for my nose anyway, I figured it would be a good time to get that done too so I don't have to do more than one surgery or so I don't have any regrets that I should have done it.

I'm sure you will see posts on this blog about my plastic surgery journey - from consultations, to the actual surgery, to recovery, to before & afters. I'm not a shy or private person when it comes to that kind of thing.

In fact, if anyone is interested in having their boobs done and if they have any questions I'd be more than happy to tell you about what happened to me. I had complications after my surgeries (after both), so I definitely do not have the perfect breast augmentation surgery story. But I think my story can help because it wasn't perfect. Just send me an email if you have any questions. If I receive enough emails about boob surgery I might just make a blog post about my boob surgery.


So please, if you had your nose or chin done please send me an email with your story. I'd love to read it and I'd love to see before and after pics too! I'm especially interested if you had your surgery in Virginia, Maryland, D.C., or West Virginia.

P.S. I'll be back to normal beauty related posts soon... I've just been busy with some personal things going on.

Color Club polishes at Ross! Just $7.99 for a set of 7 (photos included)

Hello, Beautiful!

I stopped by my local Ross today and stumbled upon two Color Club nail polish sets! Each one contains 7 polishes. Price: $7.99 per pack! Yeah... that's a great deal!

[edit to add] Yes, they are all FULL SIZED bottles!!

One is the "Rebel Debutante" set and the other is the "All About Color" set.

I'm too lazy today to bring out my big camera, so I took these photos with my phone to give you an idea of what they look like (full swatches will come soon).

Shades included: ? I have no idea. They don't have any shade names listed on the bottles or the box. I will try to look these up and find shade names.



Shades included: (shade names are not listed on the bottles, but they are on the back of the box)...

• Who Are You Wearing? - 880
• High Society - 881
• Best Dressed List - 882
• Charity Ball - 883
• Uptown Girl - 884
• She's Sooo Glam - 885
• Ms. Socialite - 886

If you're interested you should stop by your local Ross soon (they only had 2 of each set at my Ross). By the way, I also stopped at T.J. Maxx and they didn't have anything good in the beauty department. However, they did have an amazing pair of heels! The color is EXACTLY a match to OPI's Sparkle-icious (from the Burlesque collection). They are glitter heels, but they're not obnoxiously shiny. I'll have to post photos of them next to me wearing the polish to show you how close of a match it is. Since I love the Sparkle-icous polish (probably my favorite glitter polish shade), I had to snatch them up. They also just happened to be my size and the only ones in the entire store. It was a match made in heaven, haha.

I hope you had a great New Years! I didn't get to drink like I wanted to (I had two sips of one drink and was done... I just wasn't in a drinking mood). But that's okay, I have a girls night lined up soon and I can always let loose around my best friend! I'll get my day of relaxation soon!