OPI - Hoplessly In Love

Here's a color by OPI that is gorgeous!  It's called Hopelessly In Love and that's exactly what I am with this polish.  It is literally the perfect pink.  The coloring changes in lighting as you will see from the photos.  It is a creamy peachy pink color.  It is a bit sheer though.  I am wearing 3 coats. 

Here it looks more pink than peachy.  :)

For my accent nail, I used two different glitter polishes from Sally's Beauty Supply.  They have little mini "Sally Girl" nail polishes that are only $0.99!  These work great and I used Glitzy (silver) and In Love (pink).  I love these because they have different sizes of glitter in them.  Some of the glitter is small and others are chunky which gives a different look from normal 'glitter polishes'.

If you girls want a girly pink nail polish, I suggest this one.  OPI sells at Ulta and this is part of their permanent collection, so you should be able to find it pretty easily.  They usually sell for $8.50.  OPI.com is a great website where you can virtually try on the different nail polishes.  Pretty neat!  Let me know what you think or what you want to see next!

-polish. impress. repeat.

butter LONDON - Yummy Mummy

First off, I want to apologize for the ways my nails look in this post.  As you can see from my last post, I just took off black nail polish to paint my nails with this color.  I am going to a job fair tomorrow and figured black nails wasn't super professional, so I quickly took off my polish and changed it out for this one which is one of my favorite go-to polishes.  In the pictures, you can still see some of the black nail polish in my cuticles.  I noticed it after I had already painted one hand and didn't want to start over...  so I hope you guys can deal with it.  :)

Back to business:  butter LONDON has become one of my favorite brands.  I have four of their colors.  They are a "3 Free" brand which means their nail polish does not have Formaldahyde, Toluene, or DBP which are all carcinogens and are found in many brands polishes.  Not butter LONDON!  You can buy butter LONDON polishes at Ulta, Nordstrom, and their website.  This polish is on the pricey side ($14 a bottle), but it is worth every cent.  This nail polish has incredible wear time, 2 coats is just perfect, it looks amazing, and they have some gorgeous color choices.  Plus, don't you love the bottle?!  The black rectangular part pops off to reveal a smaller brush handle.

 Yummy Mummy is a practical color.  It is a very light tan/nude color.  Each time I wear this, I have people asking what nail polish I'm wearing.  It is classy and beautiful.  It has a little sheen/shimmer almost pearl-escent look to it as well.  On my ring finger, I added a gold sparkly top-coat instead of the normal clear top-coat I used for the rest of my nail.  Can't go without an accent nail.  :)

I have a list of butter LONDON polishes I want to try.  Has anyone tried any of their polishes before?  What do you think?

-polish. impress. repeat.

Zoya - Dovima (Matte)

I'd like to introduce you all to Zoya's Dovima matte nail polish.

 I haven't fully decided if I love matte nail polishes, but I do know that I really like Dovima.  When I want to wear something different, I grab this.  It's not fully black, I'd consider it more of a dark grey.  Although it is matte, you can see in the pictures that there is some shimmer which makes this polish even more gorgeous!  In order to keep the matte effect of the polish, I couldn't use a top coat, but this polish dries extremely fast anyways!  Definite bonus!  You can see in the pictures that the colors look really different in a variety of lighting.

 Isn't the bottle adorable too? The bottle is frosted to indicate that it is matte whereas their normal bottles are a see through shiny glass bottle.  I love the brush and handle of Zoya nail polishes too.  The handle is easy to hold and that is one of my biggest pet peeves with nail polishes!  Way to go Zoya!

For an accent nail, I used Revlon's Steel Her Heart.  Adorable name right?!  It's a little lighter than Dovima, and it isn't matte, so I thought they would compliment each other nicely.  It has a little bit of a streaky look to it, but I like that difference for the accent nail.  It has a quick drying time as well so I didn't even use a top coat on it either!

I hope you guys like this post.  What do you think about matte polishes?  Yes or no?

-polish. impress. repeat.

My February 2012 Birchbox!

This is my first non-nail posting.  I'm hoping to include random blog postings to fill the time in-between my nail entries.

Birchbox is a monthly subscription that I absolutely adore!  I've been a member for almost a year now and I don't see myself ending my subscription anytime soon.

If you've never heard of Birchbox, it is a monthly subscription for high end beauty products.  It is $10 a month and you get 4-5 deluxe size samples each month as well as a little bonus item or 'lifestyle item'.  The actual value of each box is well over $10.  Sometimes there are full size samples that are included too.  Each Birchbox member fills out a beauty profile and they send you items that they think fit you well.  Of course, there are going to be times that you get something you are not super in to, but that's what I like about the program.  They are samples so that you can try out products you might not have tried out before.  I've found more products that I love through Birchbox that products I dislike.  If you end up liking the products and want to buy them, Birchbox sells the full size products on their website.

Each month has a different 'theme' and the products inside your box pertain to that theme.  There are many different box combinations depending on your beauty profile so you could get a completely different box from the next person.  It's neat to look at what other girls have gotten in their boxes through other blogs and YouTube videos.  Birchbox also has their own YouTube channel where they do tutorials, interviews with different beauty companies, and revealings of their monthly favorite beauty products.  They also have a great blog which is updated numerous times a day.

I get so excited each month when I get my email telling me that my box has been shipped.  I try so hard not to look on my account to see what I got in my box or to watch other people's revealings of their box because I like it to be a surprise when I open it. I've found that the boxes are usually mailed out around the 10th of the month and then it can take up to 10 days or so for delivery (especially if you're on the West Coast like me).  It's rarely taken that long to get here.  Each Birchbox is literally a box full of adorably wrapped up goodies.


After that introduction, here's my box!

 

This is what the box looks like when you get it in the mail.  It's a cute pink cardboard cover for the actual Birchbox inside.

Here's what looks like when you open the pink part to reveal the box itself.

Each month, there is a card when you first open your box with a note from the Birchbox team and explaining the theme and products in your box.  On the back side, it lists all the products you have, an explanation for each one and the price for the full size product.

Inside the box! 

Here is the first product I found.  It is the Daily Microfoliant by Dermalogica.  As you can see from the top of the bottle, it comes out in a powder form.  You mix the powder with water and it turns into a paste which I am assuming is like an exfoliator.  A powder that turns into an exfoliant?!  How cool?  I love exfoliating my skin, so I'm excited to try this out.  

Next, I opened the little gold package to discover these guys.  Below is what these products are. 

This was my second product.  It is the Glow and Go Travel Puff by Colorescience pro.  This is a powdered bronzer.  The actual full size product comes in a neat makeup brush.  They creatively made this product into a little makeup puff for a travel sized appropriate sample.  I'm interested to try this because it is a multi-use product.  When it runs out of product, you can actually wash it and use it as a makeup applicator with any of your other make up products!  Innovative!

 

My third product is EYE ROCK's Designer Liner.  These are so neat!  They seem like temporary tattoos/ stickers for your eyes.  It's really hard to create flawless fun eyeliner looks, and these will guarantee to look great!  I'm not sure I'm wild enough for these, but I'll try them out some time. :)

  

  

Here's my fourth product.  I've always wanted to try out more Jouer products.  I was introduced to Jouer through Birchbox with an exclusive Birchbox pink colored lip gloss that I LOVE.  This looks like I'll get a few uses out of it.  This is Jouer's Luminizing Mouisture Tint.  With Spring coming up, it will be nice to be able to use this tinted moisturizer instead of foundation.  I got the color 'bronze' and it matches my skin color really well.

  

Here's one of this month's fun extras!  It is a digital download for songs from Green River Ordinance.  I really like discovering new music.  Birchbox had given the link for these downloads on their facebook the other day, so I already had these songs on my iPod, and I really like the songs!  Thanks Birchbox for some new music to listen to!

This is the second extra for February's box.  It is a fun heart shaped nail file!  Gotta love another nail file!  It's neon pink on one side and sandpaper colored on the other.  This pink side is less grainy than the other and I like having two different textures on my nail files.  Love this.

 

Here's everything all together!  :)  I did the math, and the value of this box, not including the nail file and the music was $29.09.  Pretty good for only $10.  I'm looking forward to trying out these products.  February's box gets a thumbs up!

I hope you all liked seeing my Birchbox.  I really do love this program and I think it's something fun to have each month.  I've found a lot of great products and brands through this.  If you are interested in subscribing, use this link and sign up!  http://www.birchbox.com?raf=gafkf

P.S.  These make for great gifts too!  

-polish. impress. repeat.

Ulta - Smoke Screen

And the paint hits the canvas...

 I wanted to have my first post be one of my favorite nail polish colors, but I just bought this polish the other day and couldn't wait to try it out.  I usually don't buy Ulta's Salon Formula, I usually go for the Professional Nail Lacquer because I like the formula better.  I couldn't turn down this color and I'm glad I didn't!  I really like it and it's wearing really well.
 

This polish is called Smoke Screen.  It is a greyish blue.  It reminds me of the the color of a whale or dolphin.  Is that weird?  This polish had a rather thick consistency, but it wasn't fully opaque with one coat.  I'm wearing two in these pictures.  I also added some sliver glitter for an accent nail. 

I think I found a keeper, and I'm glad this found its way into my collection.  Let me know if you have any questions or comments.  I'm not the best photographer, so I'll work on taking better pictures in the future.  :)

-polish. impress. repeat.

First Post!

Hello everyone!

I know, I know... this is a nail polish blog and my nails are not even painted.  This is an uncommon sight for me.  I thought that since this is the beginning, I'd start from scratch.  No polish, no base coat, nothing.  After this initial post, I'll start posting fun pictures with my nails actually painted.

I guess I should tell you a little about myself:  I am a recent college graduate currently looking for a teaching job.  I love listening to music ( I like most everything), hanging out with friends, baking, and playing board games ( though I don't get to often).  Ever since I was a little girl, I have been infatuated with nail polish and paining nails.  I've said many times that if I was not able to go to college, I would have become a nail stylist.  My nails (fingers and toes) are always painted and I love a good accent nail.  I like to think I have a fairly large collection of nail polish, but after looking at other blogs, I'm thinking mine is actually rather small. 

I wanted to create this blog to share my interest of nail polish with you all.  Whenever I paint my nails, I will take pictures and write a review on the polish for you all to read.  I'm hoping for at least one post a week.  Feel free to comment and give suggestions because I want this to be just as much fun for you girls as I hope it is for me.  I might throw in random posts and reviews on other things too, but this will mainly be a nail polish blog. Have a great day!

P.S.  If I get enough followers I'll start doing tutorial videos and giveaways!  Spread the word!

-polish.  impress.  repeat.