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

Friday, October 10, 2014

Pretty Jelly Velvet

Hey everybody!  We've made it through Friday!  I am pretty excited about the weekend due to the fact that my sister and brother-in-law are having their annual Marsh Madness Halloween party tomorrow night.  This year's theme is circus/freak show, and the costumes everybody is wearing sound pretty great.  Oh, and then there's all that party food.  My sister is making baby corn dogs.  But I digress.

Tomorrow night may be filled with the creepy and somewhat disturbing, but tonight it's all about more elegance.  I have the final polish from the Pretty Jelly Rich Fabrics trio, Velvet.


Mercy!!  Look at this baby.  Velvet is a navy-charcoal (!!!) base filled with all the holographic colors of the rainbow.  This is one beautiful polish.


I used three coats of Velvet for the photos.  While all three of the polishes in the Rich Fabrics collection are beyond lovely, I believe Velvet is my personal winner.  Be sure to check out my reviews for Brocade and Embroidery and tell me your favorite from the collection. 

I die.

Pretty Jelly polishes are 5-free and available for purchase on Etsy.  For international orders, check out MeiMei's Signatures and Edgy Polish.
 
I can't stop staring at my own photos.  Should that embarrass me?  Because it doesn't.  I'm also totally not sorry I just ate a donut hole at 9:30 p.m. either.

 I hope you've enjoyed ogling the Rich Fabrics collection as much as I've enjoyed wearing them.  Thank you for stopping by, and have a lovely day! <3

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Pretty Jelly Embroidery

Hey everybody!  I hope your day has been fabulous.  Weather update:  it's still in the upper 80's, and I'm still sweating.  Thought you'd all like to know that.

Well, on a much lighter note, I have another warm and cozy shade from Pretty Jelly's new Rich Fabrics collection to show you, and this one is another beauty.  First we saw the lovely and complex Brocade...now meet the elegant Embroidery.

 

Embroidery is a gorgeous, spruce-like green with a tiny dash of a blue undertone and tons of golden shimmer.  This polish is just as fascinating as Brocade in that it looks like a velvety foil in the shade.  It even applies like a foil...very easily for low-level painters like myself!


But add some light, and that scattered/linear holo effect bursts onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere.  Embroidery clearly leads a double life, and I LOVE it!!  That is normally a bad trait in a human being; but hey, this is nail polish.  I'll let it slide this time.  And there is just something about the holographic effect that was meant to go with green.  Am I wrong here?  I think it's the reptilian look it creates.

This is not your grandma's embroidery.

AHHHH...it's just so pretty.  No doilies here, folks...just good stuff. 

You can find Embroidery in the Pretty Jelly Etsy store.  Check out all of creator Liz's beautiful polishes.  She not only makes super-interesting creations, but she gives them the most charmingly intelligent names.  No "Leprechaun Guts" or anything of the classless persuasion. :)

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



Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Pretty Jelly Brocade

Hey everybody!  How was your Wednesday?  That good, huh?  I was so hot today that I wondered if I was going to experience some good ol' Charles Dickens-esque spontaneous combustion and burst into flames. 

I'm hot all the time.  I hate being hot.  Fortunately though, all these cozy-looking new fall polish colors aren't increasing my already elevated body temperature! :)  And have I got a lovely one to show you today...Pretty Jelly creator Liz has designed a trio called the Rich Fabrics collection, inspired by, you guessed it, luxurious fabrics.  

Today I am showing the decadent Brocade.  Mmmmm!


Brocade is described as a blackened plum with a strong gold shimmer.  It's a linear/scattered hybrid holo.  Maybe I'm nuts, but I think that in indirect light, Brocade looks like a really lovely and shimmery light golden brown.  Maybe I'm sleepier than I thought.


Brocade is every bit as rich-looking as its name suggests.  I imagine this will also be quite versatile due to its utterly delicious ambiguity. :D  I used three coats of Brocade for the photos, and application was typical Pretty Jelly perfect.
 


Isn't Brocade gorgeous?  Still drooling too much to answer that?  YES it is!!  

Final thoughts:  Brocade (the polish) shall grace my person way more than brocade (the fabric) will.  Brocade fabric, while extremely elegant, is just...hot. :(

You can find Brocade and all Pretty Jelly polishes on Etsy.  Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day! <3

Friday, October 3, 2014

Autumn Leaves Are Falling: Pretty Jelly Maple

Hey everybody!  It's October, it's Friday, and it's actually supposed to be in the 50's in the morning.  Things are pretty good.  Throw a beautiful new autumnal polish into the mix, and things get even better!  

What is it about the calendar's announcing the beginning of autumn that makes us want to break out our fall polishes?  It sure isn't because I've broken out the boots, or scarves, or even long sleeves.  I personally start thinking of all the colors of the changing leaves.  And because I have a good imagination, I can *imagine* a cool puff of wind or two.  But back to the leaves...*SEGUE ALERT*...today I have one of the new polishes from the Pretty Jelly Fall Splendor collection.  Pretty Jelly creator Liz says the polishes in the collection are inspired by fall foliage.  I fell in love with Maple, a deep orange-red holo.  ORANGE??!!

Oh, but yes.


It's a banner day here at the Reverie:  I have found an orange that I like on me.  Yes...yes, I have. :)  Maple is a stunning linear holo that has that nice, respectable look in the shade and then explodes into a full-blown party in the light.  


I used three coats of Maple to cover up Mr. VaNeLi and his photo-bombing self.  Application with Pretty Jelly holos is always smooth and problem-free, and Maple is no exception. :)


Is it me, or is Maple absurdly delicious?  Well, yeah, I know maple syrup is...but THIS Maple is crazy beautiful.  I suddenly have the urge to eat pancakes and jump in a leaf pile.

Maple and the other Fall Splendor beauties are available for $12 each in Pretty Jelly's Etsy store.  Liz truly makes impeccable works of polish art. :)

Hmmmm...me and orange.  What's next, a Hatfield and McCoy weekend picnic??  Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely evening! <3

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Mauve Matter

Hey everybody!  Happy first day of October!  I love October, in theory.  It always seems like it should be cool weather, even though it's not.  As a matter of fact, I'm sweating as I type this. :/

Tonight I wanted to show you another recent drugstore find by Sally Hansen.  I had never seen the Insta-Dri Mattes before a couple of weeks ago, but I think they've been floating around before now.  I was curious and picked up Mauve Matter, a rather strange little number.  I was also curious to see what the finish on these was like.


Mauve Matter is a pale, pink-nude beige that for some reason gave me angry fingers.  I don't think it's serious enough to deter me from wearing it again, though.  This is a really lovely non-color color.  

I like Insta-Dri polishes because they apply well and...well, dry instantly. :)  The matte version was no exception.  I used two coats and the result was smooth.  Smooth like ceramic...that's how this feels, not satin like other matte polishes I've used.  Just imagine an eggshell without those tiny bumps.  Very cool.


I found my Insta-Dri Matte at Walgreens, and now I wish I'd picked up that unusual blue in the collection.  My only problem with Mauve Matter is the name...to me, it just sounds like something you need eye drops to clear up. :P  Oh, and I should add that I've been wearing this for over 24 hours, and everything is still in place!

Are you a fan of matte polishes?  Do you prefer a darker or a pale matte?  And most importantly, what was YOUR high temperature on this first day of October? :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day!