Essie Lapis of Luxury

Happy 4th of July!
Good gracious I've been gone a long time. My work schedule is weird, I don't work until 12-5pm, so I feel really sluggish when I get home and don't feel like doing anything. This leads to snacking and watching TV, which perpetuates the sluggish cycle.

But I have been painting my nails and have some photos for you :)

Essie Lapis of Luxury. This is a super smooth, really lovely cornflower blue, and I loved it. The night I put it on I was so-so about it, and then when I woke up in the morning I was like, "What was I thinking? This is gorgeous!" It stayed on forever too. My nails were still nice looking way after I was sick of the color.

I'm writing this from the BF's house which is ungodly hot. He's measuring his window for an AC window unit as we speak; I think the heat is getting to him too. We would have gone swimming today if I hadn't forgotten my swimsuit. :(

In other news, my bottle of Seche Vite is dying on me D: It's gotten to the point where I have to tip the bottle to get more top coat on the brush, and it's starting to get super stringy. I think it's time to either buy a new bottle or get the Seche Restore to salvage it.
I've considered trying a new type of top coat, but I've really gotten used to Seche and I think I've figured out how to make it work even when it's a stubborn brat.

So I've completely forgotten to mention fireworks or anything of the sort. Are you guys doing anything special? Me, the BF are going out to watch the fireworks from our friend's deck later tonight. I'm super excited because I don't remember doing anything fun for Independence Day last year.  Have fun guys!

Summer! Yay!

It is officially summer now. Even though it's still pretty much spring here, and its been raining non-stop for the past two days, and it's not as warm as it was last week, but it still means that it's summer! Why? Because classes are over. Hehe. Finals pretty much devoured my soul. I'm satisfied with how they went though, and am actually looking forward to next semester.

So in celebration of finally being done with classes for the summer, I used one of my favorite polishes to do my nails FOR THE FIRST TIME IN WEEKS. It was a ridiculously long time without polish. And it felt weird. Sidenote, the nail strengthener review? Kindof bust. I used it for a week, saw no improvement, and moved on. I probably should have given it more time, but I was short on time and patience.

But wait! Which polish did you use? (You ask).

New York Color Canal Street. This is a dark burgundy with a deep red microglitter (shimmer?). It almost has a purple undertone to it, but not enough to make it readily apparent, and it looks more brown in dim lighting. Get this baby in the sun though, and it just glows. It's got that lit-from-within thing happening, and it is super gorgeous. I think dark colors look extremely chic on short nails, so this makes me feel pretty fancy.

These guys are about $2 everywhere I go, so it's pretty good quality for cheapo polish. The formula was a little thick and would get thicker the longer the bottle was open. (Annoying!) but it's totally manageable.

  

Yesterday I went on a pilgramage to all the Walgreens and Rite-Aids in my area in search of Milani polishes. (I'm lemming for Dress Maker and Rad Purple). Ever since I saw Rad Purple on Steph's blog from Short 'n Chic , I've been wanting it pretty badly. But alas, my pilgramage was a bust. I visited two Rite-Aid's and a Walgreens and no such luck. I don't believe Milani's distribution reaches us in the boonies out here in DENVER. (SARCASM) I did walk away with a mini-haul though. I found two brands I've never even heard of, Jesse's girl, and CQ Cosmetics.

I came home the very proud owner of a really pretty coral/pink glittery polish from Jesse's Girl, a dark teal and an olive polish from CQ, and two Wet 'n Wild's, a light pink which I'm hoping isn't sheer, and another dark ruby/burgundy color. I think I'm on a pink kick right now, which is super weird because I HATE pinks on me. They always seem boring, but both the WnW and the J'sG were calling out to me "Wini, BUY ME! I'm pretty! And you've never even heard of my brand! So BUY me!"

Yes. My bottles of polish are sentient. It's a problem.

And now I have Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield stuck in my head.

P.S. Rick Springfield is kindof creepy in this video. I especially like it when he smashes his sink mirror with his guitar. Really, who plays electric guitar in the bathroom?? 

Nail Strengthener Review

Wow, I've been skimpy on posts. Bare with me, it’s nearly finals week so I'm reaching that edgy – panic mode when school seems like a looming, crushing monster about to eat you. I'll be back into the swing of things once my classes are over. T.T 

Unfortunately today I don’t have a polish to show you, but I AM going to do a review of Sally Hansen’s Green Tea + Bamboo Nail Strengthener. This review will probably span over a few days, so tune in later for results and such. 

A few months ago I noticed that my nails were peeling every time I took off my nail polish. So I tried giving my nails a break, and it really didn't seem to be working. I would cut them super short past the peeling areas, and when they would grow back, they would peel all over again. Super frustrating!

So I decided to try to use a nail strengthener and see if it helps me. I picked up Sally Hansen's Green Tea + Bamboo Strengthener, and here it is:

It comes in a 0.45 fl. oz frosted glass container, and a shiny green chrome cap. The brush is kind of long and it picks up a LOT of product, so be careful to wipe the excess off before you apply it to your nails. The directions say to shake it gently, and then apply 2 coats, letting each coat dry in between application. You can use this as a base and top coat so you can still wear color on your nails, but I wanted to use it clear.

The formula is a bit like really thick nail polish, but it was easy to control, and it still smells like nail polish but not as strong. I read somewhere online that to get good results with weak nails, you shouldn't use anything with chemicals like Ethyl Acetate or alcohol in it, and unfortunately this contains both in the first few ingredients.  

I used two coats on all my nails, and although it shows the ridges of my nail the product dries pretty glossy, so this is a clean, classy look if you want to go bare. Just make sure to carefully clean out your finger-nail beds, because that shiz gets nasty if you don't.

Ahh naked nail!!

This picture is super mis-leading because my left hand isn't as damaged as my right (go figure).  But there is some definite peeling, it's just not as visible.  To show you the visible damage, I edited this photo with a swanky little arrow. The area it's pointing to isn't glossy like the rest of the nail. It's wonky from the peeling. You might have to click on the picture for full size to get the idea. 

Well, that's my initial review of the nail strengthener. I'm going to give it a week and see if there's any improvement at all. I don't want to give my opinion on the Strengthener just yet since I don't have results, but so far I found it easy to work with, and it dried relatively quickly so that's a plus. 

This product was not sent to me for review, I purchased it all by my lonesome. 

Fatigued

Not much to say about today, other than when I woke up, I felt refreshed and happy. I haven't felt that way in a very long time. Normally I wake up half dead and miserable, and I feel like a zombie the rest of the day. Not today!! So in order to take advantage of my good mood, I have my day planned out and am ready for it.

I have a weakness for the nail polish that Target puts out, by Sonia Kashuk. It's probably the simple bottles they use, or the shiny silver brush cap, but I can't help myself! I changed my polish last night, and put on Sonia Kashuk's Fatigued.

When I bought this, I was positive it was a dupe for Essie Sew Psyched, but I've been looking of photos online, and I'm now convinced Fatigued is much darker (I'll have to get the Essie to investigate!). I'm sure they thought of this when they named the color, but this is the exact shade of Army fatigues. It's the same drab olive color that you'll find in any military surplus store. It's not my absolute favorite, but it's a good alternative for neutrals when you want something understated, but with a twist! Just look at this close-up: 

You might have to click on the photo to get the full size, but can you see all those tiny pink and gold and green sparkles?! They're not apparent until you get in full sunlight, and you have to look pretty closely, but it's so pretty! I saw a slight shimmer in the bottle before I painted my nails but I wasn't hopeful that it would show up on the nail. I'm glad to be proven wrong! Most of the time however, it looks like this:

Cloudy

And although you can't see the pretty shimmer all the time, it's still a great color. I probably won't keep it on for very long, but I'm a fan. 

So about yesterday. I said I was making a pie...well, I didn't. I bought a pie, cause I'm lazy. We ended up with peach! The BF picked it out, and although I had never had peach pie before, it was really good. It was much more tart than I expected! 

What I'm listening to right now: Fallin' For You by Colbie Caillat.

Cocktails Anyone?

It appears that the laziness I acquired over spring break hasn't dissipated yet. I'm still struggling to get motivated, and we only have 3.5 weeks left of school as of today. SCARY!!

Last Friday I painted my nails, and was a bad nail blogger and didn't take (really bad) photos until Monday. So all I have to show you are not fab photos of a not so great manicure. BUT the color was pretty :)

This is ULTA's Cocktails Anyone? Its a deep, vampy purple, and i loved the formula.  However, the color was really dark, almost black in normal light, and I'm not sure that I like that on me. I caught the reflection of my nails in the rearview mirror on the bus this morning, and it just looked almost too dark. This photo however was taken with a flash, and it really shows the blue-purple base of the color.

As much as i wasn't super excited about the color ON me, it looked fabulous in the bottle, haha. Sorry about the smudgy-fingerprints. I'm a slob. pah.

Tonight I'm making pie. It will be delicious, but I'm not sure which type to make yet. I love love love cherry pie, so that's a thought. I made muffins the other day too, which were incredible even though I didn't put them in paper muffin cups and should have. (The tops were ripped off when I took them out of the pan...woops). I used strawberries, walnuts, and cinnamon, and they were perfect for breakfast.

As I have a test in two days, so I'm going to go study, and hopefully I'll do well. Wish me luck!