My New Sinful Colors Picks! Embers Only and Peppered Amazon

Hey everybody!  It's Friday!  Isn't that nice? :)  And talk about nice (I love segues), our favorite super-affordable-but-unfortunately-named brand, Sinful Colors, has come out with some beautiful new shades for summer!  I was on my monthly drugstore polish shop fest with Mr. Sweets looking for Hot Chili, thanks to Liesl Loves Pretty Things and the way she makes me want AWL the polishes, and not only did I find Hot Chili, but I also picked up two of the new shades.

First up is Embers Only...heh heh heh!!!  Embers Only!!  Do you all remember Members Only jackets?  Of course you don't.  You weren't born back then.  But I digress.

Ooooooh.  That's mighty nice.  Embers Only is a true red...to me it doesn't lean orange or blue...it's just red.  It's bright too, and it's got a pink shimmer and sparse pink and gold glitter.  This one is a crelly and a little thin.  I used 3 coats of Embers Only for pretty good opacity.

My best high school bud Todd had a Members Only jacket back in 1983.  He wore it with his parachute pants and looked totally awesome!  But again, I digress...

I made the comment to my friend Yadi at Night Swatcher that I am making the BOLD prediction that this next shade will be the coveted Sinful Colors shade of the year:  Peppered Amazon.  Peppered Amazon??!!  :/

My bottle had spottitis wonkimus for some reason, but try to overlook that and look at how utterly fantastic Peppered Amazon is!!  It's a creamy, dreamy, slightly dusty jade that's loaded with more silver shimmer than an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras.  This is an unusual shade and finish of green, and it's gorgeous!  Application was fabulous on this one, and I used 2 coats.

What do you think of these Sinful Colors shades?  I'm loving Embers Only, but Peppered Amazon is SO lovely that I am anticipating the possible arrival of Salted Nile for autumn? :P  I purchased these at Rite Aid. 

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

A Fantasy in Magenta: Pretty Jelly Dragon Breath

Hey everybody!  How are you like my Pretty Jelly holo features this week?  As much as I love wearing them, I love taking pictures of them even more.  They are so perfect that they make it easy to get a good one. :)  I saved for last a smokin' hot pink linear lovely called Dragon Breath. 

Um.  Wow.  Fire in the house!!  That is some HOT magenta going on there.  And look at all the blue shimmer in that color shift.  It nearly blew out my lens due to the insane sparkle.  It's hard to imagine that Dragon Breath is yet another well-behaved and office-friendly polish, but it is.  It looks like a harmless metallic until you turn your hand near a spotlight...and BAM.  They'll be calling you "Vegas" before you clock out.

Named for the Dragon's Breath opal, Dragon Breath pulls really blue on me, which I love.  It's a delicious hybrid of raspberry jam and a lava lamp.  Hmmm...that doesn't sound delicious, but trust me, it's crazy gorgeous.  Click on the photo for a closer look.  Go ahead.  Are you sitting down? :P  I used 2 coats of Dragon Breath for photos.  This baby is super pigmented, and Mr. VaNeLi was nowhere to be seen! :)

And last, but not least, Dragon Breath has my VERY favorite quality in a polish:  it makes me look even whiter!  YESSSS!!

So...I really hope I've helped convince you that you need some Pretty Jelly in your life.  And I have to tell you what a sweet young lady creator Liz is...I sent my dear friend Emily of Must.Stash some Pretty Jelly for her birthday, and LOOK and how Miss Liz packaged it up...proof positive she's an amazing artist. <3

You can purchase Pretty Jelly polishes at Etsy, and Liz is having a restock tomorrow! :)

As always, thanks for reading, and have a lovely day!

The Smell of Rainbows: Pretty Jelly Petrichor

Hey everybody...welcome to my Reverie, where all is sparkly, and quite often extremely sparkly. :)  Did my last post make you want some more Pretty Jelly holo-tastic goodness?  Well, your wish is my command!  Tonight's polish is unbelievably impressive, and like Roseate, has qualities of both an office-friendly color and an attention-getting party for your fingers. 

Enter Petrichor.

"Petrichor: the scent of rain on dry earth, or the scent of dust after rain."

Now that's the smell of one amazing holo, dusty or not.  I daresay Petrichor's bottle will NOT get dusty due to the numerous times I shall be sporting it in the future.  Pretty Jelly creator Liz describes Petrichor as "a taupe/grey holo with purple undertones."  It's all true.  Oh, and don't forget that rainbow that's pretty much everywhere you look. 

It may be a smell, but the word petrichor brings to mind a carved stone gargoyle, brought to life by evil forces to wreak havoc on the streets of Tokyo...PETRICHORRRRRR!!  Yes, I watched Space Giants as a youth.  

The slightly enigmatic color(s) of Petrichor looks quite earthy and stony to me.  This is another one of those tricky ones where it looks like a respectable taupe and then explodes into multi-colored madness at the turn of your wrist. :) I applied three hassle-free coats of this prismatic beauty for the photos.  *Sigh*

What do you all think of Petrichor?  You don't see this color every day.  It's hard to define and has ME written all over it. :D

Pretty Jelly polishes are 5-free and are available on Etsy, Mei Mei's Signatures, and Edgy Polish.  Go check out Liz's beautiful creations! 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day! :)

Feminine and Fabulous: Pretty Jelly Roseate

Hey everybody!  I have such a lovely polish to show you today.  I recently placed a Mother's Day sale order with Pretty Jelly, one of my very favorite indie brands, and got three lovely new holos from the Spring/Summer collection.  I was going to post all of them together, but they are too gorgeous to simply lump together into one post.  So today I will start with an exquisite shade...with a heavy dash of awesome...Roseate.

"Roseate: rose-colored / optimistic"

One reason Liz of Pretty Jelly is one of my very favorite polish designers is because she names her polishes the most wonderfully intellectual names.  You simply can't imagine a Pretty Jelly polish called "Vulture Vomit" or "My Real Name is Mrs. Clooney".  Another reason is because I love Every.Single.Thing she makes!! :/  Roseate is even lovelier than I thought it would be: a delicious pinky-rosy-nude that plays office nicely but explodes in the sunlight.  I'm serious.  It looks like a very well-behaved neutral, but pass by a window, and your secret's out! :)

I'm sorry...is it just me, or is this divine? :)  I'm not usually one to brag about something looking good on me, but I absolutely LOVE Roseate on me.  It seems to have been designed for my skin tone.  And that gorgeous holo flash! <3  I used two coats, and as with other Pretty Jelly holos, did not need to do anything special for the application.

Do you love Roseate as much as I do?  Roseate and other beautiful polishes can be purchased on Etsy.  But be forewarned:  Liz doesn't make anything that isn't stunning. :)  Stay tuned for more holo goodness later here in my Reverie!!

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

Rimmel Sweetie Crush Collection

 
Hey everybody!  

Do you all like sugar as much as I do?  What a fib...nobody could possibly like sugar as much as I do!  I am a moderately ashamed sugar addict.  I should be more ashamed than I am, but that would only depress me and cause me to stress eat more sugar.  What a dilemma.  Fortunately, I have a sweet offering today without the calories and ensuing guilt complex! :P  Rimmel London has released a limited edition texture collection called Sweetie Crush, a yummy set of pastels.  I will say up front that all the colors were pretty sheer, and I used 3 coats of each.

First is Sherbet Sweetheart, a pale yellow.  This was a surprise favorite for me.  Could it be because it looks like butter cream frosting?  Hmmm...

Next is a gorgeous blue called Blueberry Whizz.  It's a true pale blue...no aqua undertones.  The sheen gives this one a blue fairy look. :)

The pink (!!!) of the Sweetie Crush collection is called Candyfloss Cutie.  Let me just say that the British have the most adorable name ever for cotton candy.  Come on...isn't it? :)  Candyfloss Cutie is a light pink with the *tiniest* touch of rose, but not enough for it to appear indecisive and annoying.

Ahhh, pale green texture!  And such an unusual color at that.  I wore Fizzy Applelicious to the office today,  and it's such a pale color that you have to look closely to see it's green.  It's pretty though and looks a bit like a neutral.

Violet Swizzle...what can I say about this lavender except that it's beautiful?? :)  This is actually very pale too, paler than the photos show.  Springy and girly.

The Sweetie Crush collection bottles are small at .27 oz., but I paid a whopping $1.29 a bottle for each.  I found these at Kmart and have not seen them anywhere else.  I like their pale, ethereal colors and their silvery sheen.  As far as the texture goes, I would say they are somewhere between Zoya Pixie Dust and Julie G Gumdrops.

Have you seen the Sweetie Crush collection around?  I would have to say my favorite is Blueberry Whizz. :)

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

Vintage Beautiful: butter LONDON Wallis

Hey everybody!  I hope you all have been doing well. :)  

Well, as you know it's prom season.  I have...uh...definite opinions about what girls wear to prom these days. It's like they're trying to see who can get more naked. :/  However, my lovely stepdaughter Hannah *really* outdid herself this year at her senior prom, and I wanted to show you what polish she wore...butter LONDON Wallis!  

butter LONDON Wallis???!!!!

You read that right, folks.  Hannah chose the famous (or infamous) butter LONDON Wallis for her senior prom.  Why, you might inquire, would an 18-year-old girl be wearing this color to her PROM?  Well...Hannah, being the awesome young lady she is, chose as her prom dress a vintage 1950's debutante gown.  And it happened to be the same color as Wallis. :)

Once you get over the shock of Wallis' being...well...so very Wallis...you realize it's supremely elegant.  It really is.  It's the perfect metallic mesh of olive green and gold.  (We had some curtains in the 70's this color!  They were fancy too!)  If you think about the woman for whom Wallis is named, the polarizing Wallis Simpson, you may remember all of the elegant images of her from the 1930's.  So vintage is quite the appropriate adjective here.  And I'm not kidding...you simply CANNOT get a more photogenic polish.

Hannah wore Wallis in a funky French tip, and she looked BEAUTIFUL!  I've known Hannah since she was 8, and she has always had a kind of "antique" look about her heart-shaped face...just something about her.  And she's an old soul, too.  So, this vintage ensemble was so perfect for her that she could have walked right out of 1952.  She truly had a showstopping look on prom night. :)

I'm so proud of Miss Hannah and the exemplary young lady she has become. <3

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day! :)

The Blogger Made Me Do It: Sally Hansen Open Mica Night

Hey everybody!  I know you all are ready for my special little blame game in which I don't accept responsibility for my polish buying.  Today's guilty culprit is Yadi of Night Swatcher!  I am not usually somebody who is drawn to glitter toppers, but when I saw Sally Hansen Open Mica Night on Yadi's blog, well...I knew it should be mine.  After all, she specifically said we needed it in our lives. :)

YIKES!!  It's holo AND square!!  What a gor-gee-ous topper Open Mica Night is.  Look at that bottle shot!!  This lovely glitter spread well, but since it's so chunky, it needed a little help with landing in all the right places. ;)

I dabbed on Open Mica Night over Nicole by OPI Back to Reality...TV, which is a rather strange little number.  It's a dusty, deep periwinkle with a sludgy look about it, and it's got a pink shimmer.  It's very unusual, but I like it.  I debated on using such a flashy topper as Open Mica Night over it because of the shimmer, but I love the result.  Rule #3:  Shimmer makes the world a happier place!

Now, once more, let the colors and flash assault your eyes!!

AND...let me add one more thing to the awesomeness of this mani:  I used OPI's new Glitter Off as my base coat, so no worries about busting out the old foil tonight when I change.  I have read some negative reviews about Glitter Off, but I have to tell you that it works fantastically with my chemistry.  So, if you're like me, and butter LONDON chips like crazy on you, check out Glitter Off for all your non-foil, glitter-friendly needs! :)

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

My Fashion Friend: The Science of Sexy

Hey everybody! 

The Science of Sexy by Bradley Bayou

I am writing this week's non-nail-related post regarding a book that changed a lot about my self-perception a few years ago.  If you are a fan of the television show What Not to Wear, or fashion advice, or books with really neat pictures, read on...

Four years ago my stepdaughter and I were walking through my favorite cosmetics/perfume/tobacco closeout store.  As we walked past a table of discounted books, the title of one of them caught my eye.  I picked it up and chuckled, "Hey Hannah, here is what you and I need...The Science of Sexy!!"  We chortled heartily, and then I looked closer at the book and recognized the name of the author, Bradley Bayou.  I said, "Hey, I know this guy...he is a designer who has a fashion line on QVC!"  It wasn't a how-to guide on becoming a tramp.  It was a very detailed manual on how to dress for your individual body type!  That was the deciding factor...well, that and the red $4.99 price tag...and I bought the book.

That night Hannah and I looked through the book and discovered is was just a really cool book.  I have never thought of myself to be what you would call "sexy."  I consider myself to be about as sexy as...uh, say...Madeleine Albright.  I don't really want to be called sexy anyway.  I much prefer the term "attractive." I do love to dress well and look the absolute best I can.  But sometimes I find it hard to be optimistic about my wardrobe because I have a truly unfortunate figure. 

I suppose all women feel that way, but I really do.  My lovely Mom and sister are proportioned the way most women are, but I am built like a boxer.  A male boxer.  I have an enormous shoulder span...and I sent in a search party 3 decades ago to find a waistline, and they have yet to return with good news.  And no matter how small I get, I always have fat on me.  I can remember Mom with me in the dressing room once while I tried on a pair of size 6 jeans (that fit)...she looked at me and said, with amazement, "It's really something how you can be so small and have so much fat on you."  And it's true!  So, what does a girl do when she hasn't the funds for total-body liposuction?  Why, she camouflages!  And that is exactly what Mr. Bayou tells you how to do in his wonderful book! :D

The book starts off by saying that even Hollywood celebrities aren't happy with their bodies.  Bradley specializes in dressing celebs in the way that best suits their body types. There are 4 basic body types:  hourglass, triangle, rectangle, and inverted triangle.  Then he gives you a weight, height, and measurement chart to determine what category you fall into and what "fitting room" (Bradley's guidelines for your shape) you need to visit in the book.  Height is broken down into short, average, and tall.  Weight is categorized into slender (petite for short women), medium, full, and plus.  You put all your measurements together and you come up with something like "tall medium inverted triangle." 

When I put mine together, my body type is "average full rectangle."  How very glamorous.  But it was no surprise, because I always knew I looked like a brick.  I am actually borderline medium/full, depending on how many potato chips I've had the week before.

Now, now...it isn't nice to be jealous!

Bradley's ultimate goal is for every body type to look as close to an hourglass as possible...upper half balanced with the lower half...because when you achieve this, you look proportioned and thinner.  That's where the invaluable advice comes in...

A lot of the dressing suggestions are common sense...like if you are heavy on the upper half of your body, you shouldn't wear a ruffled blouse, because the ruffles add to your body and make you look even heavier and more unbalanced.  But a LOT of people just don't have common sense when it comes to dressing, as a trip to Wal-Mart on any given day will prove.  How many times have you seen top-heavy women who wear leggings and look like they're about to tip over?  They make the mistake of thinking, "My legs are small, so I'll show them off."  But they don't understand that wearing something tight or short on their bottom half will only make them seem like they have somebody else's legs on their hefty body. 

Bradley Bayou is such a nice guy though...at the start of every "fitting room" description, he gives you a little pep talk.  My Average Full Rectangle message was the following:

"First and foremost, your blessing is that as a full-sized woman, you have some gorgeous...curves (cough)...you have nice, slim legs in proportion to your body (my legs are one of my good features)...you're one of the few shapes that look great wearing boots (guilty as charged!!)!"

BUT...

"Your curse:  As an average, full rectangle, you lack a defined waist (really?)...your silhouette almost has a slightly male shape (I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee)...you have to be a bit more inventive in creating the optical illusion of hourglass curves."

So Bradley proceeds to instruct me to wear jackets that cinch at the (area where I'm supposed to have a) waistline and skirts made out of stiffer fabric to give me hips.  And THEN, Bradley tells me to shorten my hemline!!  What??  Me, wear a dress that doesn't go past my calves?  I don't want to look like a floozy!  But...I did it.  And I discovered that you can still be modest with a knee-length hemline.  And my particular body type is one of the only ones that can pull off ankle strap shoes!!  YESSSS!!

My recommendations for my body type

So for the past four years, my wardrobe has been made up of dresses and skirts that flare out to give me some upper-body balance.  I really love them too, because they are devastatingly cute.  But I will admit to every so often wearing things that don't necessarily go with my body type...I have a purple dress with a straight skirt that really looks rotten on me, but hey, I love that dress. 

Bradley Bayou also gives advice on choosing your accessories for your body type, which is also very helpful.  For example, if you're like me and have no neck, you shouldn't wear large beads if you don't want to look like your head is resting on your chest...after all, my last name isn't Addams.

I was going to post before and after pictures, but guess what?  I hate taking pictures so badly that I can't find any full-body shots!  Oops!!

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I highly recommend The Science of Sexy by Bradley Bayou to all women out there.  It has been a wonderful find for me and (Short Medium Hourglass) Mom and my (Average Full Triangle) sister.  You can get this fabulous asset to your wardrobe on Amazon.  Now you, too, can be scientifically sexy!  :D

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