Loose Powder

Some Like It Haute is part of China Glaze‘s Eye Candy 3D Glitters Winter collection.

This polish is a clear base with a dense mix of gun metal, black, blue, and holographic glitter! Two coats was enough to cover the nail completely.

Though there was a bit of texture on the surface, it wasn’t lumpy and a coat of top coat got it almost completely smooth. One thing I wish was that the polish was a little less blue and more gunmetal grey. Otherwise, this was a great color. Glitters always wear a bit longer, so I was able to wear this for over a week.

As an accent, I wanted a lighter glitter polish and picked Fairy Dust, which is a fine holographic glitter. It was actually more sheer than I wanted and even four coats wasn’t enough to cover the nail line. I also used a water slide decal on it.

It’s a fun look and next time I’d probably put a silver polish under the Fairy Dust.

I’ve been back into glitter polishes lately and started off my latest round of glitter manis with this green/gold combo.

I used China Glaze’s It’s Alive! on my pinky, middle, and index finger and Butter London’s West End Wonderland on the ring finger and thumb.

I love, love, love this combination! The gold glitter adds a great highlight to the dark green. Both of these glitter polishes looked great after two coats, but It’s Alive! is amazing with it’s green jelly base and different sized glitter.

You can see in the close up of Butter London’s West End Wonderland that it’s not just gold glitter, but there are also silver and copper colored glitters. It’s a really pretty combination.

I used two coats of top coat to smooth out the surface, but if your top coat is thicker, one might be fine for you. This  manicure lasted 10 days before I had to take it off. I’ll be using both of these colors again for sure!

While visiting Liz and poking around her local Ulta, I saw a little display of these Essence @Holographic.com polishes and had to have one! They’re advertised as holos, but they’re definitely more like sheer duochromes.

Gagalectric is a light lavender with a blue-ish shift and it’s so pretty! Love it.

This is two coats with a top coat. You can still see some of the nail line, but it’s not too obvious. This manicure lasted a week without chipping and could probably have gone a little longer since you don’t notice edge wear with such light shades.

I wish I had picked up the white/pearl polish when I was there, but they all seem to be sold out now and it was a limited edition. Will definitely be wearing this one again – perhaps layered over a darker color.

Love & Beauty polish is carried in Forever 21 stores. I’ve always peeked at the colors, but nothing really caught my eye. Recently, I’ve started seeing some really fun colors. The first in a batch that I picked up is a cornflower blue with a rose gold duochrome shimmer.

In direct sunlight, you can see the polish looks mostly blue, but in indirect sunlight you can see the gold duochrome shimmer that shifts from rose gold to gold to gold with hints of green. The frustrating thing about these polishes is that the names are available online, but aren’t on the label anywhere, so if you can’t find the polish on their website you won’t be sure exactly what shade you have.

I loved this color! It looked different depending on the angle, which was really cool. Here are some more photos:

This manicure lasted the normal week for me with base & top coats. Application was smooth and I used two coats of polish. This color is a little sheer, though, and you could still see the nail line so I probably could have used a third coat.

Love & Beauty polish costs $1.96 per bottle and are available from Forever 21 in their stores or online.

I’m still making my way through the polishes my friend gave me for my birthday and here’s the next one: Barry M polish in Cobalt Blue!

I wasn’t sure about this color from the looks of the bottle – it seems like almost an electric blue in some lights. Once applied, though, this might be my favorite color of blue polish! In incandescent light and shade it’s probably my favorite shade of blue polish!

I did end up applying three coats of this, but two coats would probably be enough. You can see in the third photo that in shade, it’s a deep blue that reminds me of the color of the TARDIS. Needless to say, I love it!

With a layer of top coat, this manicure lasted a little over a week. I will definitely be using this polish again in the future!

Ever since trying the Layla magnetic polish, I’ve been trying to find other brands I could either find in stores or purchase online at a reasonable price. In October, Sephora finally started carrying Nails Inc.‘s magnetic polishes! Originally, they had a set of three colors (purple, silver, gold) but that was canceled in September with no word on if all three would be released individually.

While in Manhattan, I stopped in to a Sephora store and saw they had both the silver and purple in stock! I had to get them, of course.

Houses of Parliament is a purple polish that makes black, wavy lines when you use the magnet.

You can see the magnet in the last photo. Unlike the Layla one, there is a lip on this that helps keep you from getting to close to the wet polish. I haven’t quite figured out the orientation to get consistent patterns, though.

Application is about the same – you apply a relatively thick coat to get bolder stripes and hold the magnet above the wet polish for about 10 seconds. Rest your finger on a level surface to let it set before continuing to the next nail.

This polish dried to a stain finish and required two coats of top coat for a glossy finish. I wore this manicure for about a week, but there was a fair amount of edge wear after the first two days and I ended up applying another layer of top coat.

Nails Inc., Magnetic Effects Polish is available at Sephora for $16 per bottle and is available in silver, purple, and teal.

My Birchbox was a little bit late this month and having seen the goodies my mother got in hers, I was anxious for it to arrive! Their theme for November is Getting Gifty and the box is supposed to include some gift ideas for you.

When I opened my box, I discovered I had a lovely bonus item! The black wood pop bracelet from BaubleBar is a special thanks from Birchbox for referring friends, giving feedback, and purchasing from the shop. Here’s a photo of the bracelet and contents of the box:

So what else did I get in this month’s box?

• Klorane Soothing Eye Makeup Remover with Cornflower water
• LaROCCA Skincare Champagne and Shimmer Body Polish – featuring 24K colloidal gold
• Oscar Blandi Jasmine Protein Mist
• Zoya Nail Polish in Noel (sample size)
• Treat: Chuao Chocolatier – Firecracker Chocopod (dark chocolate laced with chipotle and popping candy)

And some close up photos of the contents:

The Zoya polish I had already purchased in full size, so I’ll probably be gifting this sample, but I do love the color. It’s blue with fine silver glitter – great for winter.

The Oscar Blandi hair mist does have a nice, light scent (which I wouldn’t call jasmine) and works okay to revitalize second day hair. My hair doesn’t tangle much day to day, but it does add some smoothness without being sticky. I don’t use heat tools in my hair so I’m not sure how well this works for breakage. Would probably use the rest of the sample, but not sure about purchasing a full size.

I haven’t yet use the Klorane makeup remover, but I’ll definitely try it out with all these mascaras I’ve been wearing lately. I do like that it doesn’t contain any oils and is good for sensitive eyes.

LaROCCA’s body scrub has a texture similar to Body Shop’s scrubs.. of course the Body Shop scrubs don’t contain 24K gold. It’s a nice sample to try, but I don’t think I’ll be purchasing a scrub that’s so expensive!

I do love chocolate, so when I heard that Chuao samples were making their way into November’s box, I was excited! Unfortunately, I dislike both chipotle and popping candy.

Despite having items I wouldn’t purchase full sizes of, I’m quite happy with my box this month overall.

Here’s a review of the third Nails Inc. polish I picked up at Sephora a couple months ago.

This dark cherry red is called Tate and I love it! I’m not really a red polish wearer, but decided to try this one and I’m glad I did. It’s a cooler red – more of a blue tone than an orange toned – that works well with my skin.

Two coats got me bottle color with a glossy finish. I used one coat of Finger Paints top coat to finish. There was little edge wear after a week and no staining, but I did use two layers of base coat.

Nails Inc. polishes are available at Sephora for $9.50 per bottle.

Warm & Fozzie is part of OPI’s The Muppets Collection. The collection is full of bright shimmery and glittery polishes, but only two of them caught my eye and this was one. I picked up at my local beauty supply store.

Warm & Fozzie is a dark base with lots of gold, copper, green, and pink microglitter. When you view the nail surface in direct sunlight at about a 90 degree angle, it looks gold, but from most other viewing angles, it’s a glittery bronze.

This is a fun color and I love the shifting you get in different light conditions. The wear is about average – 4 days before some edge wear. Removing this polish was a bit more difficult than usual since there was lots of gold and pink flecks all over my nails and surrounding skin. You’ll probably want to use a removal method similar to what you’d use for glitter polishes.

These OPI polishes contain no DBP, toluene, or formaldehyde. You can purchase it online at etailers like Amazon or in beauty supply stores.

Essie polishes aren’t my favorite brand – usually I find their formula kind of thin and the manicure lasts only a few days. This beautiful blue polish named Aruba Blue was another birthday gift from my friend, though, so I had to try it on!

The first photo is taken in indirect sunlight and then in direct sunlight. I love the metallic look of this sapphire blue. Application was easy and smooth – two coats was enough for bottle color.

With a top coat, this manicure lasted about a week! Great performance from a brand I have such trouble with normally. I will definitely be wearing this color again!