Cosmetic Arts Most Popular Swatch

After seeing several nail art pictures involving a gold glitter accent nail I knew I had to pick up a gold glitter polish. The problem I ran into was that most gold glitter nail polish was never dense enough to use on its own. I’m not much of a gold glitter kind of gal so I would pass up most of the gold glitter polishes if I knew I couldn’t get the job done in two coats. When I stopped into Meijer a while back I came across the polish Most Popular by Cosmetic Arts. I’ve never heard of the polish brand before so I’m not sure where else you can purchase it from. Anyways, it was completely what I was looking for and it only cost me $1.98 so it definitely is affordable. Here is my swatch of it in sunlight:

This is two coats of Most Popular.

This has to be the best opaque gold glitter nail polish that I have come across yet. It tends to be more on the yellow gold side and will stain your nails yellow so make sure to use a base coat. Cosmetic Arts also has a silver glitter that is almost identical to this polishes formula that I may need to try. Has anyone ever tried any other polishes from this brand? What are your favorites? I definitely want to try out more polishes from this brand because they are so cheap and they do have some really pretty colors.

NOTD: Dorothy Who? by Gelaze

So today I have to share with you a NOTD of a new Gelaze polish I picked up. Dorothy Who? had been either sold out or opened/gooped up in the cap of the nail polish bottle at my surrounding Sally's. Finally, the Sally's I primarily go to had restocked them and I finally got my hands on one. The nice Sally's lady also informed me of a coupon I was missing out on and I ended up getting Ruby Pumps for free on top of my $5 off purchase coupon! I got both Gelaze polishes for less that $7. What a steal! Anyways, onto the picture...

It's pretty gloomy here right now so you can't see all of that glorious sparkle but in real life, it just sparkles like crazy. It's the prettiest blue gel polish that I own so far and I'm super pumped I finally own it. It's so glittery and perfect. I cannot stop staring at it. What's your favorite Gelaze polish? Or what's your favorite gel polish in general?

China Glaze + Salon Perfect Confusion?

While I was out, I remembered I needed to stop by the store to get some personal hygiene products. Target happened to be closed (I was out late, had to pick up someone from work) and was forced to go to Walmart. I absolutely hate that store. Am I the only one? I feel like it's always gross and dirty... Anyways, while I was there I just had to stop down the nail polish aisle. That is when I noticed a China Glaze nail polish bottle (NOTE: Walmart does NOT sell China Glaze) mixed within the Salon Perfect polishes. The only difference that the polishes had were the bottles and brands. They both were the same color, had the same cap (even the "China Glaze" polish had a Salon Perfect cap), and had the same exact name. The name of this polish is "In Love" and from what I've found, China Glaze does not have a polish with this name. Below are a couple pictures that I snapped really quickly.

Does anyone know if China Glaze and Salon Perfect are owned by the same company? It seems to be that they are and that they had a mishap that happened while producing the polish. Anyone else run into weird nail polish mishaps?

Sally Hansen Base Coat + Top Coat Reviews

Every time I search Google for reviews on Sally Hansen top coats and base coats I always find individual blog posts about a product when what I really want is a giant list of reviews about Sally Hansen. So I'm here to provide you that if you are also longing for that type of post. All images of the bottles have been taken from the Sally Hansen website. So all photo credit does go to them, I'm just here to provide my review on the products. So let's dig in since I do have a few to review.

The first one I have to talk about is the infamous Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. In the beginning I actually really did enjoy this top coat. It dried my nail polish fairly quickly and provided a super glossy finish. However, this gooped up on me like no other. My Seche Vite doesn't even goop up as fast as this did. I was only able to use a little less than half a bottle before I gave up on it. It's inexpensive and you can find it for less than 5 bucks at most places but to be honest, it's not worth it. Was really disappointed with this top coat.

The next one I have to talk about is the Diamond Flash top coat. I got this top coat fairly recently but have gained quite the opinion on it. It does dry your polish quickly and provide a good shine but boy does it have it's down falls. It has a tiny brush, it bubbles, and it chips quickly. The brush on this top coat is terrible. It's so tiny and is very difficult to work with. You have to go over your nail 4-5 times to have a complete coverage of the top coat. The bubbles are what really kill me though. Even if you don't see any bubbles in the top coat before applying it, it still somehow manages to bubble on the nail. It's incredibly annoying and completely ruins a manicure. I will continue to use this on metallic polishes I only want to wear for a day but otherwise it's completely useless.

Next is the Diamond Shine top coat/base coat. As a top coat, I don't like this product. It doesn't really dry your polish that quick and doesn't provide enough shine for my liking. As a base coat however, I like this product a lot more. It's thin enough to not mess with the application of polish but still thick enough to protect your nails. It's nothing extremely special but I do enjoy this as a base coat.

Lastly we have Hard As Nails Hard As Wraps base coat. It claims to have acrylic strength protection and I have to agree with that claim. It makes polishes go on so much smoother and prevents polishes that stain from staining your nails. However, I still have mixed feelings on this product. While it does prevent staining and make polish go on smoother I almost feel like it doesn't really work for my finger nails. When I wear it on my fingers it chips more if I wear it than if I didn't have a base coat on. It doesn't seem to chip on my toes though but that's most likely because I'm not as hard on my toes. It also is incredibly difficult to remove. If you use normal polish remover it will take a lot longer to remove. So I would recommend using acetone to remove it if you don't want to spend forever trying to remove it.

I know they are all kinda vague reviews so if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I will answer them all. What's your favorite Sally Hansen top coat/base coat? I'm in the market for a new one of each so I'm up for recommendations.

Freeman Facial Mask Reviews

Facial masks have easily become one of my favorite things to use after a long day. It's nice to treat yourself to a mini at home spa and these masks are perfect for that. If you're interested in purchasing these masks, I've found Walgreens.com to have the best selection. Here are the masks that I currently own:

I've tried a few others but it's been a while and they were only the individual packets that I found at Walmart. I would recommend just buying the full sized mask because it's going to be cheaper that way. Each individual packets costs $1.00-$1.99 for one use. The full sized tube costs $3.99 and you could easily get 20+ uses from each tube. Just something to think about when purchasing. Anyways, onto the actual review...

Picture to show you the actual mask.

Acai, Dead Sea Mineral, and Avocado & Oatmeal all perform the same to me. They all refresh your skin, don't dry you out, and makes your skin feel soft. They all are very thick, apply evenly, and dry quickly. The quick drying aspect is really important to me. I don't want to wait around for ages for a facial mask to dry. It may just be my skin type but I honestly, can't tell a difference. So when I repurchase masks from them again, I will be going by scent. I definitely would recommend these masks and will be repurchasing in the future!

As for the Cucumber Peel Off Mask, I'm torn. This masks has its pros and its cons. Its pros are: it is fun to peel off and it moisturizes your skin. The cons are: it is too thick, hard to get out of hair/eyebrows, long dry time, can be oily afterwards, and it smells like pickles. It's really fun to peel off and does moisturize your skin. However, it is really hard to apply evenly and can take a long time to dry. It's extremely thick and feels like you are applying glue to your face. This can cause the drying time to extend. You also must avoid your hairline or eyebrows for this to be easy to use. Once it is in your hair, it doesn't want to come out. It can be a real pain in the butt. For those reasons, I wouldn't recommend this mask.

So what do you think of these masks? Which one do you want to try/which one is your favorite?

May 2014 Nail Polish Favorites

The month of May has been a wonderful nail polish month for me. I've collected quite a few polishes this month and many have become new favorites of mine. All polishes that I've posted all are bright, vibrant, and beautiful colors. All which are suited for Spring/Summer. So lets take a look at what I have to show.

I've purchased all of these polishes at either Sally Beauty Supply or Meijer. Meijer has come out with a lot of new polishes and began carrying more Color Club. I'm super pumped about the Color Club.

From left to right: OPI Where did Suzi's Man-go?, Kiss Me I'm Brazilian, Live.Love.Carnival, I Just Can't Cope-acabana

Of course I had to include my OPI Brazil Collection picks. These are absolutely gorgeous colors and I'm just completely obsessed! If you want to hear more about these polishes check out this blog post.

From left to right: Studio M East Austin, Sunrise Canyon

Studio M polishes are Meijer brand polish and recently had a new display showcasing a bunch of colors. Two of which are shown above. These both apply very evenly and dry quickly. I've received a lot of compliments on East Austin and for good reasons. It's gorgeous! Sunrise Canyon is a rose holographic polish and is extremely gorgeous on! I'm kind of a holographic addict.

Color Club - Twiggie

As I said above, Meijer has more Color Club polishes. This polish really stuck out to me. I don't really own many green polishes so this is definitely a unique color in my collection. It applies smoothly and is completely opaque in two coats. It's gorgeous and I will definitely need to stop by Meijer again soon to pick up some more Color Club.

So these are all of my May favorites. I'm super excited about finding all of these polishes this last past month. They are all perfect for summer and I plan on wearing them a crap ton. So what are your favorites? Always looking for more polish I should pick up. (Not like I really need anymore :P)