Loose Powder

I’m very behind on reviewing Sephora’s Princess Collection, but I’ve just barely gotten around to using the Cinderella nail polish set, and the Jasmine set is already out and before you know it the next Princess set will be out. From what I heard, the next princess may be Ariel.

The first color I tried out was “Step Off, Sister!” This color consists of mostly blue and silver glitter. I’m not sure why the second picture (indoor) has the polish with a pink hue, but it is blue and silver. The first time I did this manicure, I used three coats and a clear top coat, but that manicure only lasted one day before chipping.

Since I really liked the color, I decided to give the manicure another try. This time I used Orly’s base coat and topcoat along with three coats of “Step Off, Sister!” This time the manicure lasted two days before I noticed some very minor chipping around the nail tip edges.

As much as I liked this color, I still need to have at least three coats to get the glitter close to the bottle, and this makes the polish chip easily. Maybe next time I’ll use this polish as a top coat for a color polish and see how that goes.

I got this little sample bottle of Zoya‘s Bevin in a Birchbox.This color was part of Zoya’s True Spring collection.

Bevin is a dusty sage green that is opaque with two coats. With base coat and top coat, I was able to get a little more than a week of wear before I removed it. There was some edge-wear, not no chipping.

I’ve  already purchased a full sized bottle of this color and have passed the sample bottle along for a friend to try.

Zoya nail polish is 5 free, containing no formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, toluene, camphor, or dibutyl phthalate. The polishes cost $8 each, but Zoya has occasional sales.

I finally got around to using the sample of Deborah Lippman Stripper To Go that came with my March 2012 Birchbox subscription. The Lavender Nail Lacquer Remover Finger Mitt comes in a small flat package, so it went into my 3-1-1 carry on during my trip to London. The ingredients list aloe vera extract, glycerine and lavender essential oil after acetone, so I guessed that the remover would be rather moisturizing.

When compared to the other single use remover pads I’ve used, I did appreciate the design of the mitt. It’s like a finger puppet so you can slip your finger into the mitt and easily rub off any extra polish. I also liked how the mitt wasn’t overly saturated with solution and didn’t have too much of a chemical smell, but I’m not sure if this was due to my taking over 5 months to use the sample. Regardless, there was enough oomph in the mitt to remove the dark purple polish I was wearing from all my fingers. I also liked that the solution didn’t dry out my nails. My cuticles–right around the corners of my nails where I typically get dryness–were soft after using and I didn’t notice any traces of white from drying out.

As its name suggests, The Stripper To Go is handy if you want a quick way to remove regular nail polish including base coat, polish and top coat (I don’t think one mitt would be sufficient to remove any glitter or foil polishes). A pack of 6 mitts runs $8.00-$12.00.

This month’s Birchbox is a special Glamour curated box with the Senses as its theme.

Inside this fun summer box were six great items:

• Color Club Blue-Ming
• Eyeko Skinny Liquid Liner in black
• Harvey Prince Eau Flirt
• Supergoop! City Sunscreen Serum
• Lifestyle Extra: Tea Forte Minteas in Ginger Pear
• Lifestyle Extra: Birchbox Exclusive earbuds

I keep getting Harvey Prince fragrances, but they haven’t impressed me. Most commercial perfumes smell the same to me and Eau Flirt is more of the same. I can smell a bit of the  jasmine and amber, but there’s still the basic floral chemical perfume smell.

The Supergoop! City suncreen I haven’t had a chance to use yet. The Tea Forte Minteas are okay, but they have a bit of a medicinal/vitamin taste. I appreciate the ear phones, but I have several pairs already – never hurts to have a backup, though!

I love the Color Club Blue-Ming polish, but it looks similar to China Glaze’s For Audrey or Wet ‘n’ Wild’s I Need A Refresh-Mint. It’s a great color that’s going in my stash, though.

I’ve used the old Eyeko Graffiti Eyeliner pens and I’ve been excited to try the new Eyeko Skinny Liquid Liners. This draws a great, sharp line and once set doesn’t smudge. Mostly. This eyeliner is not water resistant and moisture will cause it to smudge a little.

The tip on the Eyeko liner is very sharp and stiff. I’ve found the best way to apply it is to press the tip at an angle against my eyelid and make a line that way rather than just drawing straight across.

So, I’m not entirely sure how long I’ve been a Birchbox subscriber, but the company sent me a special thank you gift separately in the mail. It was a lovely leather keychain!

It’s designed to hold a small sample or maybe a small lip product. It was a fun surprise and I appreciate the company sending out a little gift to customers.

Birchbox is a monthly subscription service. For $10 a month, you’ll receive a box of four to five deluxe sized samples in the mail.

Here’s a quick look at a great sheer polish from OPI, Princesses Rule!

This pretty pink polish has shiny crystal flakes, which gives it a shimmery glass look. I’m not usually interested in sheer pinks, but this color is gorgeous! It’s a perfect color for those times when you want something a bit more fun than the usual french manicure.

Look at those flakes! Very, very pretty. This is  two coats with a top coat and I was able to wear it for almost two weeks.. Because it’s so light and sheer, edgewear and chipping are not obvious, which allows you to wear this color longer.

I’ve actually worn this color twice already, which is rare considering the amount of polish I have waiting around to be tried. It’s fair to say that Princesses Rule! is a keeper.

The Mari Moon collection by Brazilian brand HITS are a collection of 8 multichrome nail polishes. They have some amazing coloring shifting, which you’ll see in the photos below. I purchased mine from Llarowe for $8 per bottle.

Cutie Pie has a blue to purple shift that’s really difficult to capture in photos! Below are a bunch of photos in different lighting to try and show you how the color changes.

This is two coats over a base coat. I haven’t tried this over a black polish, but I’m sure it would look pretty amazing! It lasted about a week with minimal edge wear and I would definitely wear this color again.

This is a quick look at Sinful Color‘s Cinderella nail polish. It’s a light blue cream with golden pink shimmer. Very pretty!

The shimmer isn’t very obvious, but it adds a little something extra to this pale blue. Here are some closer photos of the polish on my nail and in the bottle.

I purchased this at Walgreens for $1.99. This polish wore well for a week with little edge wear.

For the accent nail, I used Skylar, which is part of Zoya‘s True Spring 2012 collection. It’s a dusty medium steel blue with gold and silver shimmer.

I actually originally purchased this because I couldn’t decide between OPI’s I Don’t Give a Rotterdam and I Have a Herring Problem. Skylar is like a cross between the two, so I was glad to pay the $5.99 at my local beauty supply store for the Zoya polish rather than two OPIs.

Okay, photos of this manicure are about a month over due. Following my Iron Man Avengers manicure last month, I did a Loki themed manicure based on the dark green and gold of his costume. The movie is still out in some theaters, so if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it!

First, here are the colors I chose for this look:

Butter London British Racing Green, China Glaze Jingle Bells, China Glaze Medallion, and Sephora OPI Only Gold For Me.

I had a couple of ideas for a Loki themed manicure, but had some difficulties stamping the gold polishes that I owned onto the dark green. I also wish I had a dark green with a bit of gold shimmer in it, but this still came out quite nice.

The gold triangles in Jingle Bells are painted freehand. I keep meaning to use tape too mask of areas, but I can never get it to work right. A thin layer of Medallion was added to the gold nail and on top of the green, with a tiny bit of Only Gold For Me to add some extra  gold sparkle.

This wore well for a little over a week. Glitter is always tough to remove and the British Racing Green stained a little bit. I like this look a lot, but next time I will probably not apply so much glitter over the green.

I picked up this polish on a whim while shopping at Walgreens. These had just come out and there was a display on the cosmetics counter. My mom has ridges on her nails and I thought this product might work well since it claims to hide ridges while providing a breathable finish.

I chose the color Linen, which I thought would make a good neutral color. I had a $1 off coupon for a Sally Hansen polish, so it cost me $4.99 for the bottle.

I applied a base cost first, but I assume this is a product that doesn’t necessarily need one. Two coats applied easily and smoothly, looking great on my nails, but didn’t fill ridges on my mom’s. It definitely has a glossy finish without the use of a top coat, though.

Unfortunately, this manicure lasted only 3 days before there was chipping, cracking, and peeling. Needless to say, I wasn’t very pleased with this polish. I don’t mind a little chipping after a few days, but also having cracking and peeling? No way!

Since I have a full bottle, I might try this again without a base coat, but I don’t expect a different result. Of course, nail polish works differently for different people so even though i dislike this, someone else might love it.

These Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail polish strips have been around for a while, but the cost of them has kept me from purchasing. $10+ for a single manicure seemed a bit ridiculous to me when I could buy 3 bottles of polish for that amount of money. However, I was able to find a couple colors on clearance at my local Rite-Aid for $2! Of course I had to try these out.

I actually forgot to write the color down, but I believe this is Teal With It. It looks like a matte finish in the box, but once applied, there is actually a bit of shimmer that made this a much more interesting color.

These (and other nail strips) are supposed to be easy to apply, so… let me show you my attempt! First, here’s what came in the package:

There are two packages of nail strips – eight in each foil packet, which means you get one per nail plus a few if you mess up. Or, if your nails are smaller, you can get a whole hand’s application from each packet. There’s also an orange stick, a nail file, and directions.

The way you apply these is to peel one of the strips off the backing and carefully lay it on the nail, starting from the center and smoothing it out.

Very carefully use the nail file and file the end to cut the excess strip. If your nails are short enough, you’ll be able to use the rest of it on another nail by removing the tap and applying the rounded end against the cuticle. Then file off the excess.

Above are three that I didn’t apply so well. The first one has a tear and I tried to stick it back in place. It’s pretty obviously ripped. The next two are strips that weren’t placed right or weren’t quite wide enough. If you make a mistake with these, you are in trouble! The can’t be repositioned although you might be able to stretch them a little if you’re careful.

Here are some more photos:

Removal was nearly as frustrating as a heavy coating of glitter polish. Even though these strips are made of actual polish, it’s on top of a later of sticky glue which I found rather messy to remove.

The one thing I can say is that these are good for a quick manicure if you have to run out the door and don’t have an hour or two for a traditional polish application, especially if you’re using one of the more complicated designs. I don’t actually like them for frequent use, though, as I found them a little difficult to work with. Then again, it’s possible that I could just use some more practice.