Saturday, December 6, 2014

Nail of the Day: Zoya Seraphina and Zoya Vega

Hey everybody!  How has your Saturday been?  I've been quite busy with housework and the like, and I've finally broken down and started wrapping presents.  As a side note, Marshalls/Home Goods/TJ Maxx have the best wrapping paper, period.  Their Christmas paper always appeals to my fancy side...which is really both sides. :D

I've got a very pretty duo on today, Zoya Seraphina with Zoya Vega accents.  I purchased these two bottles about six weeks ago at Ulta, where they were $2.50 each.  Yep.


Seraphina is a silvery-white shade with silver shimmer from the 2013 Zenith Collection.  I liked Seraphina from the very beginning, even though shades like this don't really look all that swell on me.  Seraphina was a naughty girl on me...very, very sheer.  What you're looking at is FOUR coats, and opacity may as well be a fairy tale.  The good thing is the coats dried very quickly.


Vega is a light blue/aqua textured holo Magical Pixie Dust that was released in their first collection of Magical Pixie Dusts, which according to many people, seem to be constantly morphing in terms of formula and finish. :)  I confess, I was kinda on the fence about Magical Pixie Dusts.  I thought a couple of them were a total crusty-looking mess.  But I picked Vega and Cosmo up (at $2.50 I pretty much HAD to try them, right?), and whoa!  Changed my mind!  Vega is like OPI Tiffany Case-does-Vegas.  

Oh, and I'm currently in the process of decorating the house.  Did I give myself away?

I really love this duo.  It's an icy-snowy-frosty-just plain cold look to which I'm always attracted.  Living in the tropics during perimenopause will do that to you.

Don't forget to enter my Pretty Jelly giveaway!  The prize is the entire A Novel Christmas collection, which I personally guarantee you will love. :)

So, my question for you is...where do you like to buy your Christmas gift wrap??  :P  

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day!




Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Pretty Jelly A Novel Christmas Collection... and a Giveaway!

Hey everybody!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week.  Anytime I get 4 days off in a row AND get to hang out with Mr. Sweets is a wonderful time for me. Not to mention, Thanksgiving is just a special time, period. :)

I have been out of commission for a couple of weeks due to some rather inconvenient breakage, but I'm back tonight with the new Christmas collection from the incomparable Pretty Jelly.  The collection, entitled A Novel Christmas, is comprised of six beautiful holo shades all named after well-known Christmas stories.


I will begin by saying that all six of these had great formulas with little or no cleanup.  And you know how much I love creator Liz's fabulously classy polish names. ;)

The Night Before is an indigo blue scattered/linear hybrid holo.  I probably don't need to tell you that my love of all things indigo was further deepened with this beauty.  This is the color of the velvety night sky that saw the arrival of St. Nicholas during the Clement Moore family's long winter's nap.



Christmas Carol is a raspberry red linear holo.  This gorgeous polish has enough gold shimmer to impress even Ebenezer Scrooge...AND all the Spirits.  Well, maybe not Christmas Future...that guy was incorrigible! :P


He may be a mean one, but The Grinch's namesake polish is totally wonderful.  The color is a slightly darker emerald with a blue and pink shimmer.  It is quite the chameleon in different lighting...Christmas fir one minute, seasick crocodile the next!  Cindy Lou (and Whoville) - approved!


Poor Jim and Della.  They just got all crossed up.  Oh well, at least Della's new short 'do won't affect her nails. :P  Gift of Magi is a navy blue linear holo with gold flecks.  It's a true navy and doesn't have the violet tone of The Night Before.


I love Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, but I confess, the opening notes of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy always give me a mental picture of giggly, rotten little kids tiptoeing around at night to peak inside their Christmas presents. :P  But hey, there's nothing naughty about this Sugar Plum Fairy!  It's a medium-deep orchid purple with a lovely linear holo.  Yikes, this is yummy.


 

Polar Express is the most complex polish of the collection.  It's loaded in tiny blue and pink shimmer, which gives it a charcoal foil appearance indoors.  In the sun, it's a multicolored light show in a nearly black base.  It looks as wintry and magical as the ride aboard the famous Christmas train. 




Pretty Jelly's stunning A Novel Christmas collection is available on Etsy.  But, hey!  How would you like to win it? :)  Liz of Pretty Jelly is very graciously sponsoring my giveaway - one prize of the entire A Novel Christmas collection!  This giveaway is for US only and will run through midnight, 12/12/14.  Good luck on winning this beautiful set from Pretty Jelly!

As always, thank you for stopping by, and have a lovely day! <3


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Financial Responsibility, Pt. 2: Essie Parka Perfect

Hey everybody!  How has your weekend been?  Mine has been nice, especially because yesterday was cloudy and windy and 50-something.  That's like a vacation for me! :)

Today I am continuing my post series on never-worns, and today's star of my irresponsibility is Essie.  Parka Perfect was released for Winter 2013, and that was a collection that I really liked a lot.  As an added bonus, imagine my surprise when Parka Perfect turned out to be not typically Essie-tastically runny! 


Parka Perfect is a dusty blue-grey-green color that has a slight shimmer in the bottle.  Unfortunately, I never could see any shimmer on my nails.  However, that didn't stop me from loving this polish.  The formula is pretty great.  I used two coats for opacity.  Oh, and never mind the tip wear in the pics.  I took these a whole DAY after application, and frankly, I'm surprised there wasn't MORE tip wear. *sigh*


Did you pick up Parka Perfect last year?   I love shades like this one...you know, when you don't really know what to call it, but it seems to look good with about anything. :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day! <3

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

I Wished Upon a Barielle Falling Star...

Hey everybody!  It's true.  I wished upon a star.  Or, maybe I should say that Barielle Falling Star was on my WISH LIST.  Yeah, that was it. :)  It has recently been crossed out and is officially mine, thanks to my blogger bud Liz of Lacquer Slacker Liz.

So the story goes that about a year ago, I saw lots of those super value-tastic Barielle 5-packs in Marshalls.  I examined one set that contained Falling Star, but I decided not to pick it up because it also contained a couple of polishes that I already had.  Well, that was a Stupid Beauty Decision.  Good grief, the whole pack of 5 polishes was only $5.99.  Needless to say, I have regretted setting down that pack ever since then.  So when Liz asked me if I'd like for her to send me her extra Falling Star, I was thrilled!


First off, let me say that I love Barielle.  I haven't met a stinker Barielle polish yet.  Falling Star is all the beautiful-ness I thought it would be. :)  It's a medium blue, slightly dusty-looking creme with copper microglitter.  My 2-coat application was fabulous, so if you see mistakes or anything in the pics, it was because I was sleepy when I was painting. :P


AAHHHH, it's so pretty...and unusual.  I love it so.  And now, rather than declaring that "I slayed a lemming" (shudder), I shall now declare that my wish has been granted.  Thank you again, Liz, for playing fairy godmother! :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day! <3

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Financial Responsibility, Part 1: Sinful Colors

Hey everybody!  I have been really busy this week, but I did manage to do something I've been meaning to do for a long time.  I made a list of all my unworn polishes.  I feel rather ashamed of myself.  I won't give you a number, but let's just say that facing an addiction is pretty sobering. :P  SO...that being said...I'm ushering in a new series here at my Reverie to feature said polishes.  It's the Era of Financial Responsibility!

Another thing:  you may have noticed that I do not like using typical nail polish language.  I will not use the words "dupe" or "stash", and don't even get me started on "lemming".  Another term I really dislike is "untried".  I mean...who came up with all this stuff anyway?  Who invented the nail polish language??  Anyway, as I always call my terms by a different name, I am officially calling my unworn polishes my never-worns.  I think it lends a sort of elegance to my unhealthy habit. :D

Today's post features two polishes by Sinful Colors that were both *meant* to be a Blogger Made Me Do It post blaming the ever-charming Liesl Loves Pretty Things.  So I guess you're gettin' a two-fer!  First off, let's hear it for Graine de Poivre.



Graine de Poivre (translation: peppercorn) is a mushroom taupe creme, introduced fall of 2013.  I fell so in love with this when Liesl featured it that I went looking for it right away.  I have some close-but-no-cigar colors like it.  Graine de Poivre turns really grey on me, but I still like it.  The formula is very good on this one.


I did a little comparison shot of some taupe-ish and greige colors, just so you can see about where Graine de Poivre falls in the spectrum.  Oh, and I have no idea why Berlin There, Done That looks matte...:/


The other Sinful Colors offering that I just HAD to have after Liesl's feature is Hot Chili, a sort of "texture lite" introduced around May of 2014.


See how pretty this is?  Would you believe me if I told you it's even prettier in person??  Hot Chili is a barely pink-tinged red metallic with textured bits of something and small holographic glitter.  Yeah, this is nice.  I was surprised that the formula was super runny.  My results after one coat were disastrous, but two coats seemed to help quite a lot.


Well now.  I feel better already.  Two down from my long list of never-worns and many, many more to go.  At $1.99 each, these two SC polishes don't induce *that* much of a guilt trip.  I blame Liesl anyway. :P

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day! <3


Thursday, October 30, 2014

Nail of the Day: OPI Innie Minnie Mighty Bow

Hey everybody!  After years of searching, I've found it.

My perfect red:  OPI Innie Minnie Mighty Bow.


See?  I told you.


As words cannot describe how much I love this, I shall not attempt to use them.


Moral of today's story:  be sure to eventually wear those polishes you've forgotten you own.  THIS could happen to you, too.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely evening and a safe Halloween! <3

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

China Glaze I Love Your Guts and Getting to Gnaw You

Hey everybody!  I'm in the mood for a Halloween polish.  What about you?  You ARE?!  Well, you've come to the right place. :D  Tonight I have two polishes from the China Glaze Apocalypse of Color collection.

The first one boasts an utterly charming moniker:  I Love Your Guts.  Well now...it doesn't get much better than that.


I Love Your Guts is a very cool polish with a very strange finish.  It's a frosty metallic with tiny black glitter that dries matte.  I have to be in a specifically matte-tolerating mood for this to work, and I wasn't at the time of these pics, so I used one layer of top coat, which sort of rendered it semi-matte. 


I Love Your Guts is a very lovely red-pink color.  The presence of the black glitter gives it an overall trashy appearance.  Like actual trash.  Like you dipped your fingers in some spooky mess, reminiscent of a typical horror movie character who makes terribly unwise choices.

Another one I picked up from the collection is Getting to Gnaw You, a black jelly with copper glitter.


"Getting to gnaw you...getting to gnaw all about you..."  Oh, sorry.  Visions of a zombie-fied Yul Brynner as the undead King of Siam were dancing through my head. :)  I loved this one in the bottle, and I have to say, I was surprised at how well pigmented the black jelly base was.  The copper glitter is very pretty and gives this polish a very chic look.  I used two coats of this with 2 coats of top coats...it's a rather hungry little number!

 
China Glaze, in my opinion, puts out some excellent Halloween polishes.  Did you pick up any from Apocalypse of Color?  

Thanks for stopping by, and always remember..I love your guts!! <3



Sunday, October 26, 2014

Drugstore Halloween Pt. 2: More Bonita Witches Ball!

Hey everybody!  I hope your weekend has been wonderful. :)  Today I have three more polishes from the Bonita Witches Ball collection to show you.  I had already picked up Eat, Drink & Be Scary and was so impressed with the formula that I picked up more whilst polish shopping with Mr. Sweets.

First up is one I just really like, and I can't quite figure out why.  Oh well.  It's called Dying to Party.  It's a grey-tinged white creme with silver shimmer, a ghostly look, if you will.  I love polishes like this but keep forgetting that they don't look good on me.  I did have some streaking issues with this one and used three coats.


Next is one I purchased for this fall's campaign of "I'm Determined to Get Over My Hatred of Orange." :)  This is Cocktails and Carving, a pumpkin orange that's absolutely loaded with silver shimmer.  This polish is almost a one coater, but of course I am me and therefore did two.  Cocktails and Carving is dustier than the photos show, sort of like a pumpkin PIE orange.  It's very pretty.  It made me rather tempted to squirt Reddi-wip on my fingers.  Mmmmmm...Reddi-wip...


Another super-gorgeous-and-nearly-one-coat polish in the collection is Too Cute to Spook, a berry/fuchsia with a heavy silver shimmer.  I know you all are extremely shocked to read that this one had Lacquer Reverie written ALL over it. :P


And here is Eat, Drink & Scary that I've already shown you, complete with swollen fingers. :D  You can read the full review here.



I apologize for the lack of angle variety in tonight's post, but I have lately been suffering from crustacean cuticles and can't seem to hide it in pics!  UGH!!  :/  The Witches Ball collection is available at Rite Aid for $2.49 each.  These polishes wear very well, and I highly recommend them if you're looking for an inexpensive polish fix! 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day! <3

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

For College Moms: October PijonBox Review

Hey everybody!  Tonight I have a NOT NAIL RELATED post for you that I think might be both interesting and helpful. :)  My stepdaughter Hannah is now a college freshman and lives 3 hours away from home.  Even before she graduated high school, I had been researching subscription boxes for college students.  I knew Hannah would be homesick, and let's face it, when we're homesick, we want to know somebody is thinking about us.  And getting stuff in the mail is even better.

After looking at a few different subscription boxes, I decided to go with PijonBox, based on the company's very positive reviews.  When you sign up for PijonBox, you have the option of choosing a box for a boy or a girl.  You can also choose which and how many months you want your box to go to your student.  The boxes have 5 or 6 items and include things like essentials, snacks and personal items, all packaged nicely in a box that politely asks that you not swipe it if it's not meant for you. :)  So, without further ado, our collaborative review!


Oh, by the way...don't go around trying to be all French with your pronunciation like I did for a month, like an idiot.  It's pronounced "pigeon.":P





 Right before they ship the box, Pijon sends you an email asking if you want to include a message for your student.  They ship around the 10th, and Hannah gets hers about 5 days later.


The October box included 2 packets of multi-vitamin gummies, a bag of egg white chips (!!), a pomegranate blueberry oatmeal smoothie...


...two python-embossed notebooks,


...a pair of earbuds,


...and a Rooted Beauty Pina Colada lip butter, which is part of the Woman2Woman Project.  Very cool!

Hannah and I are very happy with her PijonBox subscription.  The monthly price varies on the number of boxes you send.  Four boxes will cost $27 per box, 8 will cost $25 per box, or you can make a custom order for as low as $23 per box.  I think the price is very good for the product, the presentation, and of course, the shipping.  Last month, Hannah received a pair of Jonanthan Adler socks in her box, and those alone retail for $14.

So, if you have a student in the family who needs a nice care package, I highly recommend PijonBox.  If you are interested in checking them out, you can use my referral link and receive $10 off your first order!

Thanks for reading, and have a lovely day! <3

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Mamma Mia! Sinful Colors Sinful Shine Prosecco

Hey everybody!  Isn't it interesting to watch the rise of a humble polish that suddenly finds itself to be the beloved flavor of the month?  Tonight's polish is one of those lucky colors.  I had heard some buzz about Sinful Colors Sinful Shine Prosecco and happened up on some in Walgreens over the weekend with Mr. Sweets.

One look at the bottle told me exactly why this polish has ascended to fame.


Um.  YIKES!  Named for an Italian white wine (I had to look that up, as I don't drink alcohol :D), Prosecco is a taupe-colored crelly with a boat load of gold shimmer.  It's quite thin, and I'm sporting FOUR (4) coats in the photos.  Amazingly though, it dried very quickly between coats, which surprised me, as my former experience with a Sinful Shine was a more arduous path to dryness. :)


Application of Prosecco was fabulous.  And as you can see, it's very shiny too.  Prosecco has my absolute favorite quality in a polish:  it's dirt cheap and looks expensive.  YAY for fooling everybody!! 

Have you been fortunate enough to snag Prosecco?  When I told Mr. Sweets about its current status as an "it" polish, he suggested I buy all 3 from the display.  See ladies, there ARE men out there who actually encourage the insanity.  How lucky am I?? :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely evening! <3

Monday, October 13, 2014

Julie G Rio de Janeiro and Santorini - PLUS Monster Plantation Party Pics!!

Hey everybody!  Hey, it's Monday again.  That was one quick weekend...but more about that in a bit! :) Today I have a couple of Julie G polishes to show you from the Summer 2014 Cruise Collection.  I had actually bought these several months ago on a weekend jaunt with Mr. Sweets, but then I went on hiatus and didn't get a chance to show them until now.

You know my feelings about pink with a dash of purple...and Rio de Janeiro is just that.



Rio de Janeiro is a gorgeous, purple-tinged, deep pink creme.  *Broken record alert*  I didn't have anything else like this color in my collection.  I used two coats, and the application was easy and covered Mr. VaNeLi quite thoroughly.


Although the Cruise collection was introduced in summer, I can absolutely see this deep pink as a fall color too.

The other polish I picked up from the collection was yet another purple-tinged color, this time a blue:  Santorini.


Yep...I realize that my coloring looks at least 7 levels of weird in these pics...but BLAST YOU, SANTORINI!!  I could NOT get an accurate color shot of this without doing funky things to my skin color.  But this is a nail polish blog and not a Melissa's complexion blog, so the funkiness won out.


I used two coats of this lovely periwinkle creme, but I needed 3 because I was having some streaking issues.  I was too darn sleepy to apply a third coat.  I guess it's the nature of a light blue to behave badly. *sigh*  The streaky patches aren't noticeable in person.

I purchase my Julie G polishes at Rite Aid, where they retail for $3.99.  I love Julie G products!! :)

And now, as promised...some pics from my sister Melanie and brother-in-law Chris' Halloween party at their home, The Monster Plantation!!  You may remember my post last year that showed how much they love to decorate for Halloween. Well, they also throw a themed party every year for their friends and co-workers.  This year's theme was circus/sideshow freaks from the early 1900's, entitled Lord Rapscallion's CarnEVIL.  I was the official party photographer and created a vintage group of photos reminiscent of those old circus sideshow acts.  Incidentally, some of the costumes were based on actual performers.


Lord Rapscallion himself...legend says he set fire to his own circus for the insurance money!  What a jerk!!


Pip and Flip - read about the real Pip and Flip here.
 
The Bearded Lady and Half-Girl

And a group shot of all of the circus performers during their glory days...that's Koo-Koo the Bird Girl on the front row!


Be sure to click on the group shot for a closer look.  That very short, demented-looking Pierrot clown is yours truly. :D

As always, thank you for stopping by, and have a fantastic day! <3