Top of the Morning To You: Sinful Colors Irish Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. What's going on in your area to celebration?  My town has a run and will be shooting off green fireworks tonight.  

Today's green manicure consists of probably one of the more sought after drug store green polishes.  Every year around St. Patrick's Day, I see several ladies seeking the Sinful Colors Irish Green.  I decided to pair it with a golden yellow to symbolize a pot of gold. With Sinful Colors Irish Green, I have Sinful Colors Let's Meet, and topped with China Glaze Sour Apple.

Sinful Colors Irish Green is a emerald green jelly. To achieve full opacity, you will definitely need to apply at least 4 coats or start with a white base coat.  Sinful Colors Let's Meet is a gorgeous warm yellow shimmer, ideal for a pot of gold.  Lastly, is China Glaze Sour Apple. It is a pretty green glitter with holographic glitter.  It was released as part of the 50 Specialty Collection China Glazed released a few years ago.

 

As I mentioned, you certainly need an undercoat if you don't want any visible nail lines.

Whatever your plans to celebrate, please be safe and responsible.  Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Grace, Peace, & Blessings.

* FTC: These products were bought with my own money. These are my honest opinions. I am not employed by nor was I paid by any of these companies. This is not a sponsored post.

NOTD: SoFlaJo's Going Down?...My Own Sunshine...

I know that this is Florida, the Sunshine State, but lately, its looked more like Seattle or London.  Being that I was born in June, I need sunshine in my life, so when I can't stand the gray clouds any longer, I must "create" my own sunshine. So this time, I looked to a fellow Floridian, Jody of SoFlaJo.  Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to receive her Matte Love collection.  Previously, I had always limited matte nail polishes to Fall and Winter.  All the matte polishes I had seen to date were dark and/or neutral colors. But Jody's Matte collection includes a gorgeous golden, shimmer yellow matte she named Going Down?.  Jody describes Going Down? as "A bold shimmery yellow matte. This color reminds me of that famous big yellow bird on TV!"

 

Even without a shiny top coat, there is still a golden shimmer to this polish; adding a topcoat brightens the shimmer.

A concern I had always had with matte polishes was that you don't apply a fast dry top coat because that would cancel the matte effect. I don't know if Jody claims this collection to be fast dry, but I can say from my personal experience, even with 3 coats, my manicure was completely dry in less than 10 minutes.

 

Jody's was the first Indie collection I had ever tried but I can assure you it won't be the last.  I love the level of creativity I'm seeing from fellow nail addicts, LOL!  I still have 3 others from the Love Matte collection to share along with another collection from Jody.  I can't wait to see what other gems she has in the making.

  

GOING DOWN 15ml $10.00 each BUY NOW

GOING DOWN 5ml $5.00 each BUY NOW

 

Bases Tinted with Natural Pigments and Micas

~~~

All Natural Micro-Glitters

All SoFlaJo polishes are made from natural pigments and glitters with bases free of the chemicals Toluene, Formaldehyde and Dibutyl Phthalate and Formaldehyde Resin. SoFlaJo Polishes use stainless steel mixing balls (and always have).

Each bottle comes attractively packaged and protectively bubble wrapped.

You can find Jody on Facebook, Twitter, her Blog and at her Esty shop.

 

Grace, Peace, & Blessings.

* This product was sent to me for review consideration by the creator. These however are my honest opinions. I am not employed by nor was I paid by this company.

REVIEW: China Glaze Neons...Shimmer Highlights

We have all, at one time or another used a highlighter.  My generation, they were always yellow. But more recently, they come in a variety of colors. The recent China Glaze Neon -2012 Collection looks like it took inspiration from the rainbow of colors available in highlighters.  

I received 4 of the 12 to review. 2 of the 4, I was really surprised at how much I like them because they were really outside of my comfort zone.  Let's start with the 2 that are more my speed:

Flirty Tankini, described as a "Shimmery strawberry smoothie pink".  I must admit, this collection is the first neon collection I've ever seen that contained shimmer.  It's a welcomed change. Flirty Tankini is a pinky, slightly coral shimmer; great for the summer.  I shot these pictures with 2 coats but I would try 3 coats in order to not have visable nail lines.

 

Next, is Surfin' For Boys, described as a "Glistening bright coral".  Whereas Flirty Tankini is a pink with a slight coral, Surfin' For Boys is a Coral with a reddish, pink tone. I was able to achieve bottle color with only 2 coats.

Now, one of the 2 shades that I was really surprised at how much I like was I'm With The Lifeguard-described as "Glimmering lime green". This is a highlighter green with shimmer. The application was streaky, so I will try again after adding a little thinner. But this is a color that really took me by surprise. I'm glad I was forced outside my comfort zone.

Lastly, the shade that most resembles a traditional highlighter is Sun-Kissed-described as "Hot highlighter yellow". This one was more difficult to photograph, I was getting a greenish tint. But after reading others' blog post, it appears that they also found a greenish hue to this shade.  Sun-Kissed gave me the most trouble with the application. It was very streaky. But nonetheless, a pleasant surprise at how much I like this shade.

For the most part, this collection of neons is different from others, while it dries matte as most, as I mentioned, I had never come across shimmer neons.  They were more difficult to apply so I would suggest adding thinner.

These were due to be at retail buy June, 2012, so you should be able to find them now.  So if you are looking for something other than the normal flat neons, give China Glaze Summer Neons as try.

Grace, Peace, & Blessings.

* These sample products were sent to me for review consideration by the PR department of the Manufacturer. These however are my honest opinions. I am not employed by nor was I paid by this company. 

FingerPaints Gumdrops & Lollipops Swatches pt 1.

From the first Press Release of the FingerPaints Spring 2012 Gumdrops & Lollipops Collection, I knew that I had to have them. This is a collection of 6 polishes perfect for spring & summer.  I had been searching for a pastel yellow and a peach.  This collection gave me just what I was looking for and a few others.


Let's start with the first two that I was certain I wanted:


Lemon Sour - described as a Lemon Creme.  With this formula of Lemon Sour I experienced pooling so be careful with loading your brush.  It took 2 coats to achieve the bottle color.  But this color is the exact shade of yellow I was seeking and will make a great spring/summer color.

Next, here's Circus Peanuts - described as a orange creme.  I call it a soft  peach.  I can't hear "Circus Peanuts" without thinking of a former co-worker that also brought Circus Peanuts whenever we would have an office potluck. That was just his personality, LOL! This formula was another that caused pooling so use a light hand.

Hope you like these shades.  How have you started getting ready for spring and summer?

This collection and the FingerPaints line can be found exclusively at Sally Beauty for $4.99 USD.