My favorite RED - What's Yours?

Hands down, Ulta Professional - Revved Up Red. I bought this (in Ulta...no way!) for .99 during the after the holidays mark-downs.

I have about a dozen bright blood reds, but this one takes the cake! 2 coats for opaque, and it's super shiny without a top coat, it dries fast, and doesn't stain with removal. The color is so bright and pretty! A true definition of red.

Which red is your favorite?

Ulta Revved Up Red with Nfu Oh GS-14 French Mani:

And from a few months ago when my nails were nice and long:

Sunday Manicures With The Ladies (Julie)

I brought my big old Caboodles full of polish (& then some) over to mom's today so we could do nails. Myself, my sister-in-law Tammy, and mom.

Tammy is a big Nfu-oh fan, mainly the flakies - so she used 2 coats of 056 on top of a pretty sparkly green by Confetti.

Mom likes pink, always has! So we did Razzle by OPI - and blinged out her ringfingers with Nfu-oh GS 04

And last, I am really on a red kick - so used my favorite Ulta red, and used OPI Shatter on my ringfinger, and a little jewel to top it off.

Katy Perry for OPI Shatter Polish (Julie)

Took a drive today to Ulta to check out the new Katy Perry line. There wasn't much left - and the shatters were all gone, which is what I was really after. Had a nice employee check in the back, but there were none in stock. So I shopped around for a while, and low and behold, I find a bottle of Shatter hidden amongst the sale boxes that somebody must have tucked away to come back to. Lucky me!

I applied it over Revved Up Red by Ulta Professional Nail Lacquer line - it's a really bright red and I thought it'd really glow through the black.

I am not sure how I feel about this. It did apply evenly and shattered immediately, and dried fast. However, it dried matte which I hate - so I applied 2 coats of Prolana Quick & Slick, and it was an improvement. I think it's neat I am just not sure it's my style per-se. I think I prefer the shimmery stuff. But maybe it'll grow on me.

Mail Day From the UK! And CLEARANCE Time At Ulta - What a Haul!

Today is a fantastic day in my little world of lacquer. Woke up this morning feeling totally confident that I would find Barielle's "Elle's Spell" at Ulta, so I drove my tush 25 minutes out on the island to pick through their stock and find a bottle.

No such luck. No Elle's Spell. But ...there's a big fat but here...I managed to arrive the very day that they put out all the clearance items and I just about went nuts! Barielles for $1.99, Ulta brand for $0.49, Piggy Polish for $0.99, and Chi for $0.99. I bought a bunch of swatches after spending a good half-hour picking through the new sale items.
*swatch names coming soon*

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Then I arrived home, tried a few swatches out, even attempted a very BAD reverse french manicure which I have to show for pure comic relief---

Just ran downstairs to check the mail about 15 mins ago, and to my surprise, my Barry M order showed up, all the way from the UK. Thanks Barry M :) These swatches are divine! The grey/purple is called Dusky Mauve, and is a dupe for the Chanel swatch everyone is nuts over. I also got Indigo, and Pink Iridescent.

I can't wait to swatch all these! I will get to that tonight or tomorrow. For now, just enjoy some unveiling shots, and have a great night!

Here is Indigo - the only one I've swatched so far. It is a much more purple blue than it shows in the photos.

Like Yin and Yang - Sinful Colors And Ulta Wintry Swatches (Julie)

I dropped into Walgreens, my trusty supplier of Sinful Colors just to see what they're up to, since I haven't bought any of their NP in ages. I wanted to see if they had anything wintry and glittery, and there I spotted the swatch they call "Nail Junkie". It is a sparkly, flaky, super shimmery green jelly with blue, silver, and gold flakes of various sizes. I thought it looked amazing and really impressive next to the other swatches they had in the store. When I brought it home I had a feeling it would be lack-luster by itself, so I paired it with my Ulta swatch "Dance Teal Dawn". So glad I did! The color is so bright and vibrant, and they work perfectly together. This has become my "favorite for now" color. The teal of the Ulta really helps the blue sparkles in the Sinful Color swatch pop! The Sinful Colors swatch is rich and loaded with sparkles, and has brought me back to understanding just why I fell in love with them to begin with! Thanks Sinful Colors. I think I'll be back :) Now just try and not chip so fast...

This application was a nail hardener base, 1 coat of Ulta's Dance Til' Dawn, 1 coat of Sinful Color's "Nail Junkie", and seche vite to seal the deal.

Collection Pics (Julie)

So I had to follow suit since Erika has such an amazing collection! Mine isn't nearly as large or beautiful, but I'm working on it. Actually, this past summer, I sold just about all of my NP at my yard sale because I had no room for anything! Everything you see here is pretty much brand new, as of late summer '10. So rest in peace former collection! I am impressed with how far I've come since then though! My heart belongs to sparkles, the chunkier the better. I have many different brands, and plenty more coming in the mail this next week. So I will update this post as they show up. Here's what i have so far:

I have a horrible make-up bag that is soon going to be replaced with some kind of kaboodle. Take a peek inside...kind of a beautiful mess!

We'll start with Finger Paints. A nice inexpensive brand with really pretty swatches. I am not really too into their NP because I notice that even with a decent base and top coat, they like to peel off in one big strip. So I've limited my FP collection to strictly colors I MUST have. And these are really beautiful!

My Nubars *Swoon* Nothing much needs to be said about this brand. It's a growing obsession and I expect many more soon.

My Ulta swatches - the aqua color is fabulous!!! The pink is gritty and I'm not a fan, but the sparkles in this color attracted me to it. It's very beautiful.

My love, my life...China Glaze! I have more CG than any other color. I'll start with my very favorite 2 colors. This is Pixie Dust and Golden Enchantment. I don't remember the name of the gold one. But they're top coats and complete just about any color you can imagine, and reflect about every color of the rainbow. These should serve as staples to any nail polish collection, because they really do complement just about every swatch.

I have the blues....My China Glaze Blues...

Metallics:

Some random beauties (my favorite of the 4 being the black with red sparkles.

Prior to my yard sale NP clean out, I had just about every color made by Sinful Colors. Now I only have two. Mainly because I'm not a huge fan of their formula. But these colors are irresistible.

My Color Clubs - do you see that orange/pink/luminescent swatch to the right? Wow, i know!! I need to get a few bottles of this because I run through this color really fast. I probably wear it more than any other color.

Here is my first nail art swatch. It's a really pretty black with colorful sparkles.

My very lonely and bland Essie collection. I do like them, but I haven't explored essie all that much yet.

My 3 Orlys. Another brand I don't care for the formula all that much. But they do come out with some really great colors once in a while that I can't leave behind.

Hello, sparkles! My one and only O.P.I (more are coming!), NYC in the most amazing swatch I've seen from them, and a Forever 21 color that I adore.

Just LOOK at this color! I know! Gorgeous!

You're not so bad yourself OPI. (this is from the burlesque collection)

2 extra brands - Sally girl I won't be buying again, the application is awful. Nail Savvy I found new at the thrift shop and have no idea where to find this brand.

It's a nice concept, I love the pink and blue sparkles though! Anybody else make a better formula with a similar color?

My beloved Deborah Lippmann in Bad Romance.

And you see? I wrote this too soon, because just as I posted this blog, my brand new Hard Candy showed up! Do you SEE this swatch? No I mean do you really see this swatch? Holy moly, it's freaking fabulous! It's called Hot Pants. It's infused with large and small sparkles and a translucent pink jelly base. Woohoo! This just made my day brighter!