Drug Store Nail Polish Haul

I know I wrote in my last post, which was 2 and half months ago, that I was back and ready to post. Well, just as I wrote that, not much time went by and aunt passed away as well. To make matter worse, my family and I are still dealing with legal matters on my grandfather's death which was over a year ago. I'm coping and handling things the best way I can, but I have just been spending a lot of time with family and to myself. - I have taken a lot of time off from blogging and social media lately and I do feel like I am ready to jump back on this "horse" though. I'm saying this now without a thought and with hope that my family and I do not endure anymore loss.

I thought I would start with an easy post to get back into the swing of things. This is just a nail polish haul that I did over the last 2 weeks. It's pretty simple. Everything was bought from drug stores.

The first 4 polishes in this haul were from the SinfulColors polish line. These are the "SinfulShine" polishes that are suppose to be super shiny like gel polish, only you don't need the UV lamp or any special top coat. The bottles state that they have "Gel Tech". These have been out for a few years and were first spotted in Walgreens. I never picked any up as they were $1 more than the regular SinfulColors line and just didn't seem worth it to me. Recently, displays at Walmart started popping up with these SinfulShine polishes that are priced at $1.50, which is less than the average SinfulColors polish and so I couldn't pass them up! I placed the names of the polishes on the bottles for you all for fast referencing. I have not yet tried these out though, but when I do I will make sure to review!

The next week, I found the Sally Hanson Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear limited edition "Electric Summer" collection at Walmart, also. These were $2.97 a piece and this collection was released this year for Summer 2014. Unfortunately, it's the end of summer, but better late than never. Again, the names are on the bottles for fast reference. There are 2 more polishes in this collection that I did not get- "Pearl Up" that looked to be a very pale peachy pink, almost white & "You're Crabby" that looked a lot like "Peach Babe" only darker. I just felt like those 2 were not necessary for me in my collection and that I wouldn't use them. A lot of people were not excited about these when they were came out, because the colors are very similar and comparable to colors in the permanent line, but I felt like there was enough difference for me to go ahead and purchase them. I also do not own many polishes from this line, so that helped. Again, I haven't tested these exact polishes and when I do I will review. I've never had a problem with this line of polishes though.

Here are 3 random polishes I picked up last week and all 3 are from different Sally Hansen lines. Names are placed on the bottles for fast reference here, as well. They are all permanent shades. The first polish, "On Pines an Needles", is recently new this year for 2014, but it is permanent. The other 2 have been out for a while. I actually have never owned a Triple Shine polish before. When they first came out it seemed like everyone rushed out to buy them and within a few months it seemed like everyone had tossed them aside, which lead me to think they weren't all that, but I decided to pick this one up "Seanic" and test it out. If you have tried them let me know your thoughts!

Next up, these are the new "Miracle Gel" polishes that came out by Sally Hansen. (I promise this is the last of the Sally Hansen polishes!) I bought all 3 that have the "no light" written on the brush handle from CVS at $9.99 a piece and the "Style Maker" came in a 2 pack from Walgreens which included the special Top Coat that is suppose to help keep the shine and give durability to the polish and it was $14.99. These polishes claim to have the shine and look of a gel polish without the UV lamps, but last up to 2 weeks. These are what I am most excited to try! Around here these polishes have been selling out quite fast. It took me trying 3 different stores to find "Truffle Shuffle" after I passed it up the first time!

To finish this haul off, I'm showing off some Essie polishes. Essie is one of my favorite brands, they're a little pricey for drug store polishes, but I think the quality of them are great! Rarely do I need more than 2 coats and they last quite a while on my nails (more than a day or less, which is the result I get with a lot of drug store polishes). - "Fashion Playground" is a limited edition color from this years Spring 2014 collection and I still see it floating around at Rite Aids and Walgreens. I purchased mine from Rite Aid for $8.50. "Mojito Madness" is a permanent color and I bought mine at Walmart for $8.47.

Save the best for last! Here is the last polish of my haul and it is an Essie polish. This is "On a Silver Platter" and this came out for the holidays last year (Winter 2013). I wanted it when it came out and for some reason it was sold out every where and then I sort of felt like I didn't need it after the holidays. Well, now that the holidays are approaching again, I picked it up! I bought this one at CVS for $8.50. 

Hope you like the haul! I'm real sorry for my absence and making it look like I had abandon this blog, but it was more like I just needed some personal space. I will say that I did still receive activity while I was away, which made me feel encouraged that the content of my blog was still good enough to reach people, even though I was gone for a while. Thank you for your kind words and support. 

On a side note, I am seriously backed up from early summer until now with blog entries. Some may be irrelevant by now, but I am thinking I may still post them anyway. Let me know your thoughts!

Drugstore Nail Polish Haul #1

I picked up a bunch of nail polish this week and thought I'd share what I bought. Everything is drug store! The top row is the limited edition Crystal Crush collection by Sinful Colors. I thought I had missed this collection all together. I saw it posted on Nouveau Cheap almost a month ago and had seen no sight of it anywhere around here, thus leaving me to believe that somehow I just missed it all together and the whole collection had exited my mind by now. I was so excited when I saw it at Rite Aid this week and even more delighted when I realized the display had been completely untouched! There was no price on the display and I wasn't sure if these polishes were going to be more than the regular $1.99, so I went and asked the sales associate and she told me they were $1.99. I was so excited, I picked up 6 of the 8 shades, which is what you see in the picture above! However, when they rang up $2.99 at the register I was really disappointed. The cashier was so nice that once she confirmed that the sales associate had messed up, she called a manager to make sure I could have them for $1.99 and so I got a lucky break on that collection.

Colors from left to right: 

• #1370 Purple Gleam
• #1367 Treasure Chest
• #1365 Ruby Mine
• #1368 Emerald Envy
• #1366 Face The Facets
• #1364 Got A Blush On You

There are 2 more colors in the collection; one is an orange shade and the other is a blue shade with purple sparkle in it. I was not interested in either of them and decided to skip them, even though the hoarder in me told me to take them anyway to complete the collection. -I over came the urge! If you're still trying to get your hands on this collection then I say don't give up just yet! Like I said, I just spotted this at my Rite Aid this week and I know they were also available at Walgreens and I have yet to see them at the Walgreens around my home, so there's still hope! The funny thing is that I was so excited to move out to the West Coast, because they always seemed to get things first. It seemed for the most part, the West Coast spotted things first, followed by the East Coast and then it all just sort of trickled inward from the bottom. Now that I'm out here, I'm finding that most collections come out quite late around here.

The second row in the picture is from the the limited edition Wet N Wild Fergie Heavy Metal collection for the holiday season this year. I found this display at CVS, also untouched! How lucky, right?! I scanned my card at the kiosk when I entered and not only did I get a coupon for $4 off a $12 beauty purchase, but I also had a 30% off all regular priced items coupon! There was no sale on Wet N Wild this week, so I basically bought 4 polishes and received 2 free. Pretty good deal.

Colors from left to right:

• #34269 Titanium Crush
• #34268 Mountain High
• #34267 Emerald Rock City
• #34266 Mazel Toy Madness

There were 2 other colors on the display I was not interested in. One was a bronze color and the other was a clear polish with silver sparkle pieces. I felt neither of those were unique or anything I didn't already have/couldn't buy on a regular basis.

Swatched: Wet 'N Wild Fergie Fall 2013 Collection Part 1

First off, let me start by saying that I know it's been 2 weeks since I've posted anything, but I moved. It was not a small move either; I moved to the other side of the country. I drove too, which meant that it took days to get there and I had an unexpected car problem along the way which delayed me a day. Not to mention that I arrived to my new home one evening and the next morning I started work, and I have been working all week long. The day of my last post, I actually was leaving within less than 48 hours for my trip and still had to finish my work (job there), packing, loading up, and saying goodbye. - I am doing well though and am trying my best to adjust to a completely different atmosphere and culture, as well as dealing with being away from my family, friends, and cat.

NOW! As promised: Swatches of the Fergie Fall 2013 limited edition collection from the makers of Wet 'N Wild! Along with a review! I realize this is kind of late, but this collection for some areas is just hitting the market and for everyone else who has been on the fence about buying it, this may help you. - I'm starting with the Photo Op Eyeshadow Palettes to get them out of the way. I know that the majority of people do not seem to like these, but I have had good luck with the core line. I will say that with the few limited edition palettes I have used full out, they are not as good as the core line ones for some reason, with the reason being unknown to me. Overall, for the value, I think they're good and you're getting a deal. So, I like these palettes. These palettes seem to be a "love/hate relationship" for people; either people really enjoy them or they loathe them. So, feel free to skip this entry if you're not into them, or keep reading if you want see.

There are 4 palettes in this limited collection and you can easily identify them with the "limited edition" stickers that were stuck on them. Starting with the top left- The pink & purple palette is called "Rose Parade"; the gray, smokey palette is "Bulletproof Glide"; the blue palette is "After Hours", and the green palette is "Suburban Jungle".

Starting with "Rose Parade", this palette surprised me the most. I'm not a huge purple or pink fan when it comes to eyeshadow; I just don't wear them a lot or find myself reaching for those colors that often, especially purple. I do, however, like this palette! 

Here are swatches of the 5 colors from Rose Parade with no primer and a few swipes of each color. In my opinion, these swiped nicely with good pigmentation and I didn't have a big issue with fallout; there was a little fallout with the bright purple, but nothing major and not enough to complain about. The colors are real smooth and easy to apply. The light purple and the light pink are stiffer than the rest of the colors, but still very workable.

I did my best to try to show the gold in the dark purple color. The color has gold shimmer in it and though it appears to just be a grayish purple, it really is an awesome color! The purple in the center and the black are matte, but the rest have a shimmer or glitter in them. I'd also like to add that this palette goes nicely with the limited edition creme eyeliners and that came out with this collection, especially the purple one.

Moving on, the "Bulletproof Glide" palette is the most disappointing of the 4. The collection looks good on the palette, but the colors are not that great in performance and are not anything special. With all of the nude palettes out, both drug store and high end, I feel like you can't really produce a palette like this without making it great. 

Without primer, I swatched the colors with just a swipe. The colors do not have great pigmentation, with an exception of the black in the center of the palette. I know that the colors kind of blend into my skin tone, but trust me when I say the pigmentation is not really there in this palette.

Here they are with a couple more swipes. The colors are buildable, but not near as good as "Rose Parade" and it takes some work. The black and the brown color are matte, with the rest of the colors having shimmer to them. The black is really the only good performing color in the palette. The brown color does perform well and has good pigmentation, but it just does not go well with most skin tones since it has a grey tone to it. The creme color is just okay, but takes a wild to build and the gray and silver colors come up pretty disappointing. I would recommend skipping this palette, especially if you didn't want to buy them all anyway. I definitely would not use without a primer. I don't mean to sound hateful towards this palette, but in comparison to the others it is pretty bad. Also, if you buy the "Rose Parade" palette you're going to get a matte black. If you buy the "After Hours" palette, you'll get a silver which is pretty much the same one that you see here. So, not a loss if you skip this one.

Next up: The "After Hours" palette. This palette was made to go with the "Cobalt Vault" eyeliner that was created in this collection. -Just look at it! It definitely is a nice palette to create a night-time look.

The swatches are without a primer and with a couple swipes. The colors are decently buildable. This palette does have a pretty big fallout problem. The bright blue, lilac, and medium blue are quite big in terms of fallout. The colors look nice and can be built up, but you'll want to be careful with applying. The darkest blue, which comes off being black (even in person), and the silver are not too bad with fallout. The lilac and the bright blue are matte, with the rest of them being shimmery. The silver color in this palette comes off much better than the silver in "Bulletproof Glide" and it looks more like it has glitter pieces in it. - I like this palette, but I don't love it. If you don't normally wear colors like this, you may want to pick this up, since it's a good value and you'd have a chance to play around with this palette. For the most part, it's nothing compared to MAC or higher end brands, but it's pretty nice for a drugstore palette. It's not a must have in my opinion though.

Finishing this collection with "Suburban Jungle". This was the palette I was most excited to get my hands on! These are my colors, right here! A lot of people compared this palette to the "Shades of the Hamptons" palette that was released in the limited edition summer collection this year, but personally I think this one stands on its own. With the exception of the gold color in the center, it really is not that comparable. Shades of the Hamptons has a bluer, more turquoise color in it, where as this is an aqua green. The purple color here is just purple and SOTH has a very light pink. There is a blue in SOTH, which you do not get here, and the green in SOTH is more of a true green and much brighter.The gold color is slightly different in the 2, but not that much; in SOTH the gold is a bit more shimmery and pigmentated.

Again, no primer was used and it has a couple of swipes. The colors build decently. I like the palette and "Rose Parade", and they would be the 2 must-haves for me in this collection, both due to their performance and colors. Sadly, the bright green is the worst performing color in the whole palette and the one color that I really looked forward too. It has a bit of a fallout problem too. The rest of the colors are nice. The only other thing I would say is that the gold here would be better if it were not so light. 

This concludes my review and swatches for this collection. Hope this helped anyone who was on the fence about any of these. This collection is not as good as the summer one, in my opinion, because I feel that only 2 of the 4 really are worthy of attention.

CVS Haul & Reviews

Every once in a while I receive coupons or discounts at CVS, because I have a CVS discount card and I enrolled in their Beauty Club Rewards program. I rarely use these, because the most convenient CVS for me does not have the best product selection and these coupons usually last about 2-5 days, so not much time for me to get there. However, this time I did use a $5 off of a $25 purchase and I thought I would share with you all out there. Everything I bought was beauty related and with my own money.

Warning: This entry it pic heavy and very long!

My first selection was the limited edition Wet N Wild Hot Rocks collection. I have been eyeing these since they first appeared around my city and always passed on them, but this time I decided to scoop them all up before they disappeared for good. These didn't seem to sell out around here and I don't see too much talk about them around the beauty community, but I think they look like fun. This is the complete set, all 6 shades. If you have any, let me know if like them!

Next, I picked up 2 of the Revlon Colorstay quads. On the left you have #580 Free Spirit and the right you have #585 Sea Mist. 

These quads were part of the Spring 2013 collection from Revlon. However, I'd like to point out something- I work for Walmart and when we changed our permanent displays for Revlon early this year, these 2 quads were set in our permanent displays. We have not received much more of these quads in our shipments in the past couple months, but we did have them regularly this year. I'm thinking this may change once they change the modular again and new quads will take their place, but I'm not sure if these quads would really be considered limited edition. If anything, a better term would be "seasonal". I will say, Walmart did not receive all of the Pacific Coast collection; we did not get the gel liners, cheek tints, or limited edition lip butters that I saw on the displays in CVS and Walgreens around here. - Above is a pamphlet that was free that you could take with you from the display they had in Walgreens and inside it explains the collection by Gucci Westman and gives you looks you can create with the palettes. 

Before I get to the swatches, I'd like to say that I have never purchased or used any of these Colorstay quads before, so I had no idea what to expect. Obviously, I was hoping for good results and I must say I was surprised. Also, I'd like to add right now- I did not use any primer in any of these pictures. These are all straight from the palette to my hand!

This is the "Free Spirit" palette. I swatched this one first, because initially I thought this would be my favorite palette of the 2; the colors go together well and I like the overall look of the colors better than the other one. The picture above is with just one swipe of color with my fingertip. The colors didn't perform so great, at least not as I had hoped. The black color was the only color that really seemed like it had any staying power without primer. The lightest blue was a little on the powdery side, but overall these colors are not bad with fallout, just kind of drier than average. I do want to add that I swatch all 4 colors, but the tan shade really blends into my skin (it is the first swatch and really hard to see), but I foresee it being a very good base and all-over color for my eyes, and is actually my favorite of the 4 colors, which surprised me.

This second photo is the same palette ("Free Spirit"), but I went over the swatches a few times to build opacity. The colors are definitely buildable and look better with a few more swipes than just 1. Overall, I'm not that impressed with this palette though. I'd like to wear it on my eyes though and actually try it out. Like I said before, I think the tan color is going to be my best friend as an all-over color and it seems really blendable. These colors do go together well though, but they're also colors that you could get else where in either higher-end companies, as well as in drug store brands. These colors all came out matte, except the black has some sparkle in it, but still looks pretty matte when applied.

Here's where the real surprise came in- Initially I thought I would not like the "Sea Mist" palette. These colors do not look that appealing at first glance and I really didn't feel they went with each other that well. I almost didn't buy this palette at all, but decided to get both since they were a collection together. - Well, after swatching these babies, I still don't feel they go together that well (at least not for my style), but they perform well. The photo above is of just one swipe of color with my fingertip. These colors are shimmery, not matte and you can see the shimmer a little in this photo. They do not have sparkle and you do not need to worry about it being "too young" or "too party-like"; they just have a hint of shimmer that gives it a nice glisten. 

This second photo is of the "Sea Mist" colors with a few layers applied. Buildable colors, but unfortunately, because of light you cannot see the shimmer a little in this photo. The pink color is the very first swatch and it is nice, it's just hard to see on my skin, because I'm tan. (I always forget how tan I am until I do swatches, lol.) Honestly, I probably won't use all of these colors together, but they are the type of colors that give a nice pop of color to a look or give a little pick-me-up for a look without being too dramatic and they perform wonderfully.

Final verdict: These palettes have been around since spring and they are still available. I am finding them still around at Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart. However, the Pacific Coast displays are going away, so they are mixed in with the regular Revlon products, with the exception of Walmart, obviously. So, if you're interested I suggest scooping them up soon, because as I said before- I think they are going to disappear as fall and winter shades roll out. If you're on the fence, I would skip the "Free Spirit" palette. The "Sea Mist" palette performs much better and the colors are nicer, in my opinion; the colors will be nice for fall too. 

Side Note: Like the pamphlet from this collection, on the back of the palettes it has looks you can create with directions using these palettes.

Last, but not least, I bought a lipstick! The Revlon beauty products were "buy 1, get 1 50% off", so I needed to purchase 1 more thing to meet the $25 goal.

I purchased one of the new Milani Statement Lipsticks. I first saw these from YouTube beauty gurus and they were raving about them. Then Nouveau Cheap reviewed them and they all looked so great, so I wanted to get my hands on them. They are selling fast around here, so it's hard to get your hands on them. I have yet to see a full display, as I feel they are selling fairly fast as the stores receive shipments.

The color I bought was #16 Flirty Fuchsia. Let me say, that this was not my first choice in color. Sadly, most of the colors has been tested by customers before me. These tubes, thankfully, have a protective label on the back which you have to peel off to open. -I love products that have safety seals on them, because there are a lot of people out here who contaminate products and it makes me really weary. But enough of that! Someday I will rant about this though, so get ready!

The top swatch is just 1 swipe and the bottom swatch is with a few swipes. It doesn't have the best initial payoff, but obviously a few coats will solve that problem. For the price, about $5.50, it's not a bad buy. If you don't normally wear bright or noticeable colors on your lips, I suggest trying this line of lipsticks so that you aren't spending too much money, especially if it's just for a certain occasion; outfit; or costume. The lipstick has a nice smell to it. As I wrote in previous entries, I cannot stand the smell of Revlon lipstick and if a lipstick has a nasty smell, I won't wear it. There is a hint of that waxy/crayon smell, but it's not too bad.