Honest Babes

I spotted these at Ulta over a week ago and pounced!  How appropriate is it that I bought them on my wedding anniversary?  My handsome, intelligent, hilarious (and great at blog tech support ) husband has put up with me for seven years- now that's a real feat!

I couldn't find descriptions of the Wedding 2011 polishes with thirty seconds of Googling, so I'll try to describe them.  If you're not interested, you can skip down to the pictures.   They are all crèmes, varying in sheerness.  borrowed & blue (746) is a light baby blue.  It was a little streaky at one thin-ish coat, but a second coat seemed to help even it out.  I did have a little trouble when applying the second coat- the polish seemed to be drying really quickly as I was applying that layer.  You may want to work fast with this one.  better together (747) is a medium dark pink that goes on way more sheer than you see in the bottle.  If your skin leans more pink than yellow, I think this will give your nails a healthy pink tint.  At one coat, it kind of blurs out the moon of the nail and makes the whole nail look clean without screaming "obvious polish over here!"  It does still look like polish, though.  Too perfect and glossy to be just base coat.  At two coats of polish, it become more opaque and more pink like the polish in the bottle.  I can still see the moons of my nails, but only if I look hard for them.  made to honor (749) is a more neutral, slightly more beige-y pink than better together.  At one coat, the nail just looks healthy with the moon being slightly obscured.  It's less pink and more of a natural look versus bt.  At two coats, the moon of my nail is a little more hidden by color and it looks like a more translucent version of what you see in the bottle.  mth is a little less bubble gummy than bt, and you can see that at two coats.  bt stands out more and is clearly pink, while mth is a more natural, clean, polished look.  first dance (748) looks like a typical, ever so slightly brown-toned red in the bottle, but it brightens up to a cherry red on the nail.  At one coat, it's just a little translucent still, but it's a very pretty jelly look.  Very shiny!  I actually like it a little less at two coats, where it seems a little less blue and maybe a little more brown like the bottle.  It's pretty thin and a bit water-y, so exercise caution with this one, too.

coat azure (742) is from the Spring 2011 French Affair collection.  It's a gray blue with heavy shimmer, bordering on pearl.  The shimmer looks silver in the bottle and on the nail, while the base color does dry darker than what you see in the bottle.  Because of the heavy shimmer, this color can yield very faint brushstrokes.  I've heard that this is the free color that Tom's Shoes gave away for their Facebook promotion.

Bottle shot:

Thirty seven thousand more pictures inside...

Happy new year, everyone!

Ulta is clearancing out a lot of the holiday collections they received, including OPI's Burlesque polishes.  I was shocked to find two bottles of Elle's Spell by Barielle, so I more than willingly plunked down US$2.99 for one of them.  It looks gorgeous in the bottle!  I've seen some great swatches of it, so I'm excited to see it on the nail.

I loathe Sally Beauty Supply because of the terrible manager at my local store.  She seriously needs to be fired and scuttlebutt says I'm not the only one who has complained.  Yet she continues to be employed... it's a mystery to me!  When I visited a Sallys in a far-flung location, I found the Halloween collection by China Glaze deeply discounted.  Score!  I think I paid $1.99, but I've heard that some people are finding them for $0.99.

anthropologie had a 40% off already discounted items, and shockingly, that applied to Strange Beautiful polishes!  (Not shockingly, it did not apply to the Lipstick Queen three pack of lipstick.   It was still >$40.)  I bought two out of the three SB duos that I found and paid only $3.95 per duo.  Not bad considering they were originally $18 each.

From your left to your right: ChG Mummy May I (942), Ick-A-Bod-y (944), Strange Beautiful polishes in Verdigris and Pink, ChG Zombie Zest (943), Barielle Elle's Spell (5103)

There's been a lot of buzz about CVS' 75% off clearance sale.  It is amazing, and if you have a CVS nearby, get out there and buy some great stuff!  I'm not normally a regular makeup swatcher, but I might do more of that this year.  It's just a lot easier to swatch on nails, so that will still be my focus.   At the CVS I visited, I found the following on sale:

Insta-Dri formula: 06 Rose-a-go-go, 16 Blush Rush, 17 Mochachino, 22 Jumpin' Jade, 23 Blazing Blue

Diamond Strength formula: 90 Brilliant Bordeaux, 92 Deeply Violet, 94 Black Diamond

I assume these are on sale across the country, and there may have been some that I didn't catch that are also on sale.  Some of the deeply discounted colors are very pretty and I'm sad to see them go.

Please check out the Intense Top Coat and report back!  I'm interested to know if it's revolutionary, or if it's just like another coat of Poshe after a few days.  According to FACE Stockholm, ITC will "Keep your favorite shade longer with this color intensifying top coat. Renews dull, fading nail color between manicures and pedicures."

And how long has Barielle had a matte topcoat out?  Should I be stalking Marshalls and TJ Maxx just in case a bottle or two might pop up?