NOTD: Avon Jade

Avon Jade (2 coats)

I am still not sure if I like mint greens with my skintone, but this was really pretty and it was a great price ($3) when I ordered it.

Sasha's China Glaze Vintage Vixen Swatches 1

Today I have six colors from the new China Glaze Vintage Vixen collection.

For Fall 2010, the China Glaze Vintage Vixen Collection captures the vivid and saturated hues of the 1940’s with this seductively complex palette. These classic shades of the season recreate the timeless tableau of movie land mystique, perfect red pouts and steamy nights where swing was the scene!

Classic Camel – Khaki crème with gold micro glitter

I really thought this might look good on me since my undertones are olive/yellow, but it did not look good. at. all. It reminded me of Grey Poupon. I need to search for a pic on this on someone very dark-skinned, I bet it would look gorgeous.

Ingrid – “Greige” crème with copper micro glitter

Very pretty, very dark. Reminds me of a collection Revlon came out with about 10 years ago with varying shades of chocolate.

Swing Baby – Taupe frost with silver micro glitter

This was absolutely my favorite so far- and totally going to be my first full mani of this collection. Stunning in the sun.

Hey Doll – Rose frost with shimmer

I typically don't like anything "rose" but I was pleasantly suprised by this color. There was enough brown in it versus pink that it looked really nice against my skintone.

Jitterbug – Grey chrome with silver micro glitter

What a fun color- and damn Smoochiefrog, of course I've had Wham! in my head all day.

Goin’ My Way – Brown frost with copper shimmer

This was so pretty and I can see myself wearing this a ton this fall/winter.

All of these swatches are two coats and all applied wonderfully.

Disclosure: These colors were sent to me for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Look! My mani is featured on Sephora's blog!

How cool is that screenshot? That's my pic listed on their blog today in "The Girls of Summer Are All Rocking SEPHORA by OPI"!

I love love love social media. It's so amazing to me that a pic of my mani is now on the blog of my favorite store in the world! (and the pic links here too- squee!)

Product Love: Instant Artificials

I have been a faithful user of Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle for years. My old routine was using one coat of Orly Bonder, followed by SHNGM, then my polish, topped with SV.

I had been seeing quite a few recs for Instant Artificials, and ever the product junkie, of course I had to try it to form an opinion. When I was in Sally's renewing my membership last month I purchased a bottle of it along with a bottle of Gelous as well.

It's been about a month, and I am LOVING Instant Artificials! There were quite a few days that I had no time to paint my nails, but two coats of IA keep my nails looking gorgeous and strong.

I've also been using it exclusively as my basecoat for all my color manis, and it's just fabulous- I feel like I am getting less tipwear as well.

I plan on giving Gelous a try next and reporting back on it as well. Hope you have a great day!

NOTD: Avon Color Trend Delicious Berry

Avon Color Trend Delicious Berry

I made a recent Avon order to get the two new green shades, and I saw three cute little scented polishes so I picked them up. They aren't on their website right now, but here was my post about purchasing them.

This is three coats of Delicious Berry topped with Seche Vite, and is Mr. Sasha approved as a "normal color". He gets a little weirded out sometimes with my blacks, blues, and greens, so he likes it better when I use a more standard color. Too funny!

I've never tried a scented polish before, so I was anxious to see what the trend was all about. This actually smells a bit like Zoya Remove, and you can only really smell it if you put your nose right next to your nails and sniff deep. Kind of a fun thing, but nothing too exciting. We'll see if the Lemon and Pear are the same. I'll let you know.

NOTD: Essie Main Squeeze

Essie Main Squeeze (click pic to enlarge)

This is another shade from the Essie Wedding Collection.

Most other bloggers I've seen swatch this collection did them as French manicures with only one or two coats. But I'm just not a French girl, so I've been doing regular manis with multiple coats to get more coverage and have been pleased with the results.

This is three coats, topped with Seche Vite. What a color polish this is- so pretty in the sun!

Disclosure: This polish was provided to Sasha by Essie for review purposes.

NOTD: OPI My Private Jet

Ah, My Private Jet. I was curious to see which version (of the four possible versions) I would get when I placed my order from TransDesign. Looks like I ended up with the charcoal non-holo version.

Nonetheless, I love it. Very very pretty and just gorgeous in the sun because the silver shimmer really shows up.

This is two coats topped with Seche Vite.

Hidden Treasure Winner

Congrats to commenter 31.

Cat said...
I just realized it looks like I should've posted my email addy too. fiddlerbeauty (at hotmail.com) :)

May 27, 2010 10:07 AM

Cat, send my your mailing info to barelytogether at yahoo dot com and I'll get this in the mail Monday.

Katy Perry Rocks Neon Yellow Nails at MTV Movie Awards

KATY PERRY ROCKS NEON YELLOW NAILS AT MTV AWARDS

China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini Makes It’s Debut On The Red Carpet

Los Angeles, CA – (June 2010): Dazzling in her Zuhair Murad mini dress and Rock & Republic grey platform heels, Katy Perry was definitely a stand out at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. With so much sparkle, shimmer, sequins and shiny fabric going on, Katy nixed the accessories and instead went with a wild royal blue coif and neon yellow nails!

Katy Perry, who is known for her love of manicures and nails, went with her favorite celebrity manicurist Kimmie Kyees for this event. Kimmie, who is totally aware of the fact that Katy likes to stray as far away from the norm as possible, chose China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini as her first manicure color for the night. To make the neon yellow polish pop, Kimmie used a well-known manicurist trick by first applying a couple coats of China Glaze White on White underneath the Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. This insured that everyone was able to see Katy’s nails from a mile away! To achieve the desired nail length that Katy wanted, Kimmie also used ibd Natural Nail Tips. Kimmie says that she goes through so many of these nail tips that she can never have enough in her manicurist kit.

China Glaze colors may change from season to season, but our longwearing formula continues to provide consumers with the highest quality nail lacquers. Designed with the professional in mind, our 220-strand brush is great for ease of application. Best of all, our non-thickening formula provides perfectly even coverage. China Glaze nail lacquers are available through salons and professional beauty supply stores nationwide. For more information, visit: www.chinaglaze.com.

China Glaze is a division of American International Industries.

NOTD: Sally Hansen Sea and Be Seen

Sally Hansen Sea and Be Seen

This polish has just moved onto my top 10 list. How gorgeous is that? If you have yellow undertones like me, and accidentally get a little tan like I did this weekend (not enough sunscreen!) you *must* run out and get this polish. It's amazing!

This is three coats topped with Seche Vite.

I am also digging these bottles- see that little black ring around the part with the brush? It's sort of a gripy thing, and it's genius-if your bottle is a bit stuck, no more asking your Mr. to help.

I was unsure about the strange brush shape (it's sort of a V shape) but it worked just fine once I got the hang of it.

I am definitely going to be getting more polishes from this line.

Diamond Strength

Since my last post, I am proud to say that I no longer have the acrylic overlays and am rockin' my own natural nails! Yay!! That doesn't mean I am not missing my solar tips though. Ha ha! I am getting used to having to do my own nails each week, and also trying to take it easy on them being they no longer have the artificial strength they are used to!
The ridges in my nails are growing out and are about 1/4 from my cuticle line. I found an amazing filler by Essie called Fill The Gap. It gives my nails an even surface to paint by filling the ridges. It also works as a nice base coat.

This week, I used Fill The Gap as a base and filler, Sally Hansen's Diamond Strength No Chip Nail Color in Lavender Marquis, then topped it off with Wet N Wild's Mega Last Quick Dry/Ultra Gloss Top Coat. The nail color really is "no chip" - I didn't have any issues with it and it looked great at the end of the week. The top coat is AMAZING! It sets the polish nicely, dries quickly and adds a gorgeous shine. Plus, it is cheap ... under $2!

NOTD: OPI's OPI On Collins Ave

OPI's OPI On Collins Ave

Anyone watch The Batchelorette during Jillian's season? Remember the creepy foot guy, Tanner P.? Well, no one other than me probably heard him mention nail polish, but he mentioned that his favorite color was Mango Mango, which was made by L'Oreal, but has been discontinued.

Interesting fact: Mango Mango replaced Geranium. Or at least Mango Mango came out right after Geranium was discontinued and was almost identical.

These two colors have long been my mom's HG, but as you know, nail polish colors come and go. So when I saw this color released, I knew my mom would love it.

And of course, I picked up one for myself too! It looks great with a tan and applied like a dream.

I tried Nubar Diamont for the first time with this mani and so far it seems to work well. I got absolutely no shrinkage and it seemed dry to the touch just as fast as my Seche manis usually do.

Fun With Hidden Treasure

click to enlarge

Before I removed my $OPI Teal We Meet Again mani, I wanted to give the oh-so-famous Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure a try.

Isn't that interesting? This is two coats.

New Avon Colors!

I just placed an Avon order for some of their new colors- Avon is such an affordable brand- I love trying their new products.

Right now their polish is "Buy one for $5, get one for $0.99", so it's basically $3 per polish. I chose the two new green shades, Jade and Olive Green.

I also ordered the three new Color Trend Ice Sheers Nail Enamels shown below- these are only $3 and they are scented. Fun!

My Avon rep, Valeri, is always so nice to let my readers use a free shipping code! Please follow these steps so you can use the code and give Valeri credit.

1. Visit Valeri's site to make her your default rep
2. Log into ebates to get 5% back and go through them to get to the Avon site
3. Once the Avon site pulls up again, you should see Valeri's name near the top of the site
4. Choose your products and then use code FSANY or REPFS to get free shipping

Happy Shopping!

Disclosure: This post contains an ebates referral link, but readers will also get at least $5 credit if they use this link.

NOTD: Sephora by OPI Teal We Meet Again

Sephora by OPI Teal We Meet Again

Most readers probably know that I post day-old manis- I paint before bed and then typically don't have time to take a pic until I get home from work the next day. So I suppose a bonus to this method is you get to see how the polish wears.

I ended up with quite a bit of tip wear yesterday. I did do a monster amount of filing and organizing at work, so I actually wasn't at all suprised to see how much tip wear I got.

I am still loving this polish though- it's just gorgeous. I don't typically wrap the tips like a lot of people do, but next time I'm doing filing I'll give that a try and see if it makes a difference.

This shade is from the Havana Nights collection and was purchased by me from Sephora.

NOTD: Essie Playa Del Platinum

Essie Playa Del Platinum

This mani did not go so well..... the polish was a bit thick, and I was not at all pleased with the resulting polish job. I really don't have much experience with clean-up.... I typically just polish carefully so I don't have to clean up. But this polish was quite uneven around my cuticles and I am so displeased with it that I'm not even going to show you a full pic.

Also, it seems that this color is more well-suited for a cool skin tone- I am quite yellow and this color did not suit me at all.

Although I loved the other three colors from the Essie Resort Collection, this one was a no-go for me.