Revlon Whimsical

Hello there! I hope the weather is as nice wherever you are as it is here in St. Louis. Now if only it could just stay in the low- to mid-70s for the rest of the spring and summer, that would be just fine with me! I really don't like the heat, but I suppose it's at least a good opportunity to wear shorts and cute skirts and dresses, right? Anyway, the polish I'm showing you today is one I'm sure you've all seen before: Revlon Whimsical, a.k.a. a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air.

natural light

natural light

I have to say, this is not a polish to get if you're one of those who doesn't like to use more than two coats unless you're prepared to layer. I'm not absolutely sure, as I wore this in early March, but if my memory serves me correctly, this was five coats. I probably would've been better off to layer Whimsical over a light blue, but I didn't have any that were pale enough - Sally Hansen Blue Away is the lightest blue I have, and I wanted the base color of my mani to be the actual base color of Whimsical. However, I must say that I think all those coats paid off. I really liked how the glitter was sort of embedded in the jelly, and I think Revlon did a pretty good job naming Whimsical (though I think Glitter in the Air is cleverer, but I'm not willing to pay that much for a cuter name). It's kind of a sweet look, which isn't always what I go for, but it's definitely a polish I'm glad to have in my collection.

What do you think about Whimsical - do you like it, do you prefer GitA, or are you passing them up entirely?

A Royal Nail Junkie

Oh, hey, look! It's me! And it hasn't be a week since my last post! Whaaat?! Sure, it's true that I should be doing Arabic homework, but...I'll do that later. Right? Sure. Anyway, today's post is actually a long time overdue. I think I did this manicure sometime in December, but I'm not sure, and it's been sitting in the "Nails" folder on my Mac for far too long, especially for how gorgeous it is (well, in my opinion). Ta-da!

natural light

As you can probably tell from my cheesy title, I used Revlon Royal topped with Sinful Colors Nail Junkie, and I absolutely love how it turned out. Nail Junkie is one of my favorite glitters just because it has such depth, and I think it would look great as part of a blue jelly sandwich. Unfortunately, I don't have any that would do, but I'll keep looking. And now I am really doing to go do Arabic. Probably. Maybe. Or maybe later. ;)

Have a great day - and remember, tomorrow's Friday!

Day 31: Re-create Your Favorite Challenge

Hello, and happy December! Today is not only the first day of a brand new month, but the last day of the 31 day challenge for me and the other bloggers that did it this month. While I enjoyed the challenge, I have to say that I'm glad to have the stress of having to change my nails every day relieved, especially with my first college finals coming up sooner than seems quite possible. Anyway, I had several ideas as to what I might do for today...and all of them flew out the window when I got a swap package today that I'd been expecting. It contained NYX Gilded Glitter, which I've been lemming for ages, so of course I had to use it! I decided to recreate day 17, because that was glitter day. I used one coat of Gilded Glitter over three luscious coats of Revlon Royal.

 artificial light

artificial light

*sigh* I'm so thrilled with this. I can't wait to use it in a plethora of new layering combinations that have now been opened up to me - and with the challenge over, I can do whatever strikes me whenever it strikes me! I'm excited to try China Glaze Eye Candy, too - I just don't know when I'll have the time! Hopefully sometime this weekend...

Don't forget to check out the last challenge day on the other blogs!

Aly Loves Lacquer
Manicure Addict
Dees Polish Endeavours
Bright Lights, Big Color
Life and Polish

Blue Glitter Gradient

Creative name, I know...what can I say? I guess I could make the excuse that I knocked my homework list down from 15 to 5 yesterday and it's made me completely batty. Yeah, that'll work. Speaking of completely batty, I just realized that of all the manicures I've done since I got here, two have not had blue in them. Clearly, I'm all sorted as far as SLU spirit goes. Today's post is a manicure I did somewhere around the middle of last week - I haven't been good at keeping track of exactly when things happen lately. Anyway, I used Revlon Royal (best blue ever) and Savina Diamond Ice.

indoors, natural light

In case you're wondering why there's no sunlight picture, it's because I took several and they all looked like crap. Regardless of my nail photography ability, I think this turned out pretty well, though I had trouble getting glitter on the very tips of my nails. Does anyone else have that problem when doing glitter gradients, or is it just me? I picked Diamond Ice because it had both warm- and cool-colored iridescent glitter, which I think makes the look more interesting. At first, I'd considered adding another glitter, but I decided that simpler was better in this case. And now, back to homework...

P.S. Should I start pulling out the candy corn and blood splatter nails, or is it a little early for that? (This is not a rhetorical question.)

SLU Crackle

Hello there! I've worn two different manicures since the layering in my last post (a Harry Potter mani and Orly Fowl Play), but unfortunately, they both chipped fairly badly before I got to take a picture. C'est la vie. Today, however, was homecoming, so I switched to SLU blue and white before the soccer game (which we tied 1-1). I used three coats of Revlon Royal, one coat of China Glaze Lightning Bolt, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat.

indoors, artificial light

Isn't it gorgeous? I thought Lightning Bolt cracked especially well this time. You know how sometimes crackles don't crack in the most aesthetically pleasing way? That definitely didn't happen, so I guess it was my lucky day. Sorry about the glare; the combination of Royal's jelly-ness and the top coat was just too shiny for my camera to handle. I think that's about all I have to say about this one, except that I'll definitely be wearing it until it chips - though, honestly, that's been the case for pretty much any manicure since I got to college, as I don't have time to change my nails on a mere whim anymore. Taking 6 normal and 10 honors credit hours tends to do that to a person. I hope you're all having a great weekend!

Royal Layering

You know those days when you can't think of a good title for your blog post? Yeah, it one of those days. It's a shame, too, because today's layering is (in my entirely unbiased opinion... *cough*) absolutely gorgeous. I grabbed Revlon Royal, Nubar 2010, and Savina Diamond Ice - and then this happened:

 indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

Holy crapola...is that not the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen? Okay, maybe not, but it's still pretty effing awesome (aside from my dry fingers and chipped index fingernail, which I apologize for - college happens). As I've learned, Royal is an excellent base for any sort of layering, Nubar 2010 is awesome over anything, and glittery nails are nirvana. So, yeah. No big deal. In all seriousness, though, I think this is probably one of my best layering combinations. Writing this post, I kind of wish I'd put this back on instead of Orly Fowl Play - and I've been lusting over Fowl Play for a while, so that's saying something. What do you think?

SLU Spirit Splatter

I'm at college now! I can hardly believe it yet...maybe it'll sink in soon. Probably when I get my first homework assignment. Anyway, I wanted to show you all the manicure I did for the spirit competition we had at the soccer game Saturday night. It has, sadly, chipped by now (college life is so far bad for my polish's staying power), but I enjoyed the design so much I wanted to share it anyway. Since SLU's colors are blue and white, I decided to do a splatter manicure with Revlon Royal (best blue ever, by the way) and Wet 'n' Wild White Creme.

sunlight

I only have one picture because I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get good lighting - the desk lamp I'm using isn't the best for nail pictures, though it works fine for normal uses, so I took this picture out the window. Maybe once I feel more at home, I won't feel like a loony if I wander around outside taking pictures of my hand. ;)

If you don't know how to do the splatter technique or have simply never tried it, I encourage you to find a tutorial. I find it quite easy compared to water marbling, so it's a good place to start, especially as all you'll need besides nail polish are a few household objects. Especially for a college student like myself, it's nice when you don't have to buy anything extra to do some cool nail art. 

I had better post this and log off now, as I have Arabic at 1:10, and I don't want to be late on the first day! Hopefully I'll have time to post again soon.

Pink Wednesday: Revlon Dawn

Hello there! Revlon Dawn is the second polish I tried out of the Just Tinted collection from earlier this year. All three of the polishes are very sheer pink jellies that dry semi-matte. Dawn is the most differently colored of the three, with warm peachy tones that almost make it a coral. I used three coats with one coat of top coat here.

 outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

I really like the color of this one, and I think it suits my skin tone rather nicely. With the addition of top coat, Dawn has that wonderfully squishy look we've come to expect from any jelly worth its salt (or since it's a jelly, maybe I should say "worth its sugar?"). However, one thing I can't get past is that the warmer tones in Dawn makes my yellow nail tips look even yellower than they actually are, which, um . . . ick. As much as it pains me, I've put Dawn on my MUA swap list for that reason. As much as I love the color and squishiness, I know I won't wear a polish that brings out the yellow in my nails. Though they have improved since I've started using Develop 10 Whitening Scrub, I can't imagine that there will be a time when my nails are perfectly unblemished. However, I'm thinking about taking it back off my swap list - I just don't know. What do you think - should I keep Dawn, or pass it on?

Pink Wednesday: Jelly Sandwich

Today's Pink Wednesday post is my first (I think) jelly sandwich. I used Revlon Desire, one of the new Revlon jellies, Nubar 2010, and a base of Wet n Wild White Creme to satisfy my hate of VNL. I used quite a few coats, as my manicure went something like this: Wet n Wild White Creme, Revlon Desire, Nubar 2010, Revlon Desire, Nubar 2010, Revlon Desire, Nubar 2010, Revlon Desire. Yeah. And then I put Insta-Dri on top to make it all shiny.

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

I really like this combination, though I don't think I'm quite as fond of the jelly-flakie sandwich as I am of matteified flakies...we shall see. I need to buy a new bottle of Revlon Royal (I used the last for frankens) so I can try one with that.

Revlon Royal

I don't think I'm going to be changing my nails today, so I thought I'd show you Revlon Royal, from their new Top Speed line, which I was wearing alone before I added all that glitter.It's a dark cobalt blue jelly that I am absolutely in love with. This is two thickish coats, and I took two pictures (though none outside because it's been misty and rainy for several days now): one to show the true color of the polish, and one to show how jelly it is.

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

The first one is color accurate. Under bright light, it's still a dark blue, but it glows. I couldn't manage to capture that effect on camera, unfortunately...you'll just have to trust me that it's gorgeous! I'm so glad I picked this one up. It doesn't dry glossy, but it does dry fast, and I always use top coat any, so it wasn't an issue. It's only my second Revlon polish (after Minted), but if Revlon keeps it up, it will definitely not be my last.

Happy New Year!

Okay, so it's not 2011 where I live yet - it's only about 8:42 P.M. But still. For my New Year's Eve manicure, I covered Revlon Royal and $OPI Flurry Up, which I had on yesterday, with one coat of OPI Simmer & Shimmer and two or three coats (I can't remember which) of Wet n Wild Kaleidoscope, a silver glitter top coat with scattered holo. Hey, I said it was going to be a lot of glitter! Since Simmer & Shimmer isn't really meant to be used as a top coat, it covered up most of Royal, especially I added Kaleidoscope on top. The nice thing is that there's still enough blue showing that it gives it a sort of interesting look, at least in my opinion. I couldn't capture the holo, which is too bad, but definitely, definitely click to enlarge on these. Apologies for the bits of glitter on my fingers.

indoors, with flash

indoors, with flash

I'm really, really happy with the way this turned out. In fact, if I hadn't already posted my favorite manicures of the year, this would be on it. It's really glitzy, but the multicolored glitter and holo (even though you can't see the holo in the pictures) keeps it from being boring. I'm thinking I'll definitely have to try variations of this with the other Burlesque glitters I have. 

I'm not sure if I'll post on here tomorrow or not. It depends on whether or not my glitter chips and I have to redo my nails. I'll be on Sunday, at any rate. Hope your 2011 is off to a good start (or will be soon)!

Royal + Flurry Up

I did wear Royal alone for a little while, and I will post a review on it by itself, but in the spirit of the New Year coming up, I thought I'd wait and do that after all the bling is over. So, I added Sephora by OPI Flurry Up, which has silver hex glitter and smaller silver glitter in a clear base. It's basically the silver sister of $OPI Only Gold for Me (which I used in my military bling manicure), which I adore and have used half my bottle of. I need to buy backups. Anyway, this is two coats of Royal and one coat of Flurry Up.

indoors, artificial light



Sorry for the crappy picture, awkward hand position, and random object in the background...I didn't manage to take a picture until I got to my grandma's house, so I was without my nail polish bottle and lightbox. That aside, I really like this combination, and I plan on adding a ton of additional glitter to it for tomorrow. My nails are probably going to be about ten coats thick with all that glitter...it'll be lots of fun to take off. :) Thanks for reading, and I hope your 2010 is wrapping up nicely.

Walgreens Excitement

I went to Walgreens with my mom this evening hoping to find some new polish displays...and I found not one, but six! How exciting! Although I'm sure it's all stuff you've seen before, I took some crappy iPhone pictures anyway, so I thought I'd share.

First, the Sally Hansen Instant Salon Effects display (the ones that are like Minx, but cheaper). I took a photo of the whole display and of the fingers so you could see all the different designs. They also have plain colors, but at $10 a pack, I'm not seeing the appeal for those. The houndstooth ones, on the other hand...I want those. Click to enlarge, as usual.

The Sally Hansen Insta-Dri French Manicure thingies. These are pretty gimmicky to begin with, and even worse, look at all those boring colors in the display! Come on, couldn't you have gotten some of the nice ones? Not that I would have bought them anyway...but still.

Next, the Revlon Heavenly Metal collection, which contains three nail polishes: a gold, a silver, and a bronze. I've only seen this collection mentioned on Nouveau Cheap, but surely it must have come out other places too.

The first Revlon Top Speed display. Actually, this is just a general Revlon "new things" display, but there are a bunch of Top Speed polishes at the bottom.

 Revlon Top Speed display number two. This was the Top Speed display to end all Top Speed displays. I saw a couple in Target when I was out of town a while back, and it was a midget next to this baby. I grabbed Royal immediately - I've been lemming that gorgeous jelly ever since I first saw it!

And finally, the Revlon "Scented When Dry" display. This came out ages ago, but not where I am...nope, it's new here. I didn't get any of these, though I will admit I was very tempted.

While I was there, I also killed two lemmings! I bought a bottle of Revlon Royal from one of the Top Speed displays, and I grabbed a Sinful Colors Wild About Color mini pack, which includes San Francisco, Sugar Sugar, Rich In Heart, Secret Admirer, and All About You. I'd been lemming both San Francisco and All About You, so I was/am very excited. I'm in the process of applying Royal right now, and it's everything I thought it would be!

Revlon Minted

54% of people believe depression is a personal weakness. (National Mental Health Association, 2004)

This statistic...I'm flabbergasted. Depression is a disease, not a character flaw, and evidently most people are not aware of that. My family has a history of depression. I know quite a few people who have suffered from depression. Still, I have grown up hearing people wonder why people can't just "get over" depression - like it's some kind of mood swing. It's not.

My first green polish for National Depression Awareness Month is Revlon Minted, which I've had for a while, but hadn't worn before for some reason. Now that I have worn it? Hm...I love the color, a light mint green, but the formula? Not so much. Minted was streaky and thick, and took three coats for opacity - not bad, but two would have been preferable, especially considering that it was a pain to apply.

indoors, artificial light

 outdoors, shade

outdoors, sunlight

The first two pictures are most accurate - Minted isn't quite as blue as it appears in the last picture. It is a very pretty color, but I remain kind of annoyed at the application. I thought Sally Hansen Lime Lights looked like it might go well with Minted, so I added a coat of that:

indoors, artificial light

I like it! Lime Lights is pretty much the same color as Minted, so it just turns the polish into a shimmery version of itself, which I quite like.

Minted is the only polish I've tried by Revlon, and now I'm a bit wary of trying any more - what experiences have you had with Revlon polishes?

WASP

I set out yesterday to create a franken of Chanel Khaki Vert, which is part of Les Khakis de Chanel. After experimenting with several different combinations on an index card, I finally came up with the following: 1/2 Orly Prince Charming, 1/4 Orly Enchanted Forest, and 1/4 Revlon Minted. The fractions are very approximate, though, so if you decide to do this yourself, mix small bits at a time (and really, that's a good idea anyway). I used an old Bon Bons bottle because I didn't want to use too much of my base polishes, and because they have one ball in each bottle - not two, but better than none. However, their small size does make them difficult to take photos with...oh well. I don't have any of the Chanel khakis, so I can't compare them in person, but I think my franken is a bit greyer than Khaki Vert. Here are two coats with top coat:

outside, shade

outside, sunlight

indoors, artificial light

I decided to name my franken WASP after the Women Airforce Service Pilots from World War II. I've always been rather interested in that period, and particularly interested in WASP after reading Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith earlier this year. Anyway, I thought it was kind of a good name, and I'm very happy with the polish itself. I may even make franken-dupes of the other two khakis...hm...


Here are links to the swatches I used in creating WASP: Frazzle and Aniploish, The Nailphile, My little world of polish by Lily Nail, All Lacquered Up, and Lacquerized. Thanks, ladies!


So, how close do you think I got?

Revlon Runway Collection Mystic Nails

Before I get to the nails, I made a spreadsheet yesterday that lists all the nail polishes I own and some information about them. If you're interested, check it out - and if there's a specific polish you'd like to see here, let me know through email or in the comments.

Today, I decided to try fake nails for the first time since a youth theatre play in which I played a wolf and, accordingly, wore bronze fake nails (which were intended to be worn for one day) for my "claws." I used the Revlon nails I received in my Revlon/Nailene package the other day and applied them using the nail glue that came in the package. It quickly became evident to me that there was a certain learning curve to the process - I managed to get nail glue on my fingers as well as my nails, and there are bubbles in the glue under most of my nails. However, I think the end result looks quite nice:

My nails have never grown this long, so it's quite nice to see what my hands look like with nails of a greater length. I really like the design, though I do wonder about one claim made on the label - "compares to $50 salon style." Really? I've never had a salon manicure, so I have absolutely no idea how much they typically cost, but $50 seems like a lot to me. If you could enlighten me, I'd really appreciate it.

All in all, I like this product - while I had some difficulty, I thought the nails were fairly easy to apply. While I definitely wouldn't want to wear these all the time (I would get bored), I will keep them back for special occasions or when I feel like having fancy nails without the work of painting them myself.

*This product was provided to me by the manufacturer for review. However, this has not influenced and will never influence my review(s) - I will always say what I truly think about a product.

Revlon Fantasy Length Defining False Lashes

This was my second adventure into the land of false eyelashes...and it was not successful. These lashes are not glue-on, like yesterday's - rather, they have little strips of adhesive at the base of the lashes. For me, this made it way harder to apply them straight. Additionally, I found that the adhesive (which is black) made it look like I was wearing poorly-applied liquid eyeliner. Not an attractive look. These would probably look better if I applied lots of eyeliner prior to sticking them on, but I just don't want to do that. They would also probably look better if I was better at applying them, but I'm not. Since I posted pictures of myself without falsies yesterday, I will just give you an "after" picture today:

Sorry for the crappy picture. I will probably try these again sometime, but maybe not...I am tempted to just throw them away.

*This product was provided to me by the manufacturer for review. However, this has not influenced and will never influence my review(s) - I will always say what I truly think about a product.

Revlon Fantasy Lengths Intensifying Glue On Eyelashes

Whew! What a long title. :) I'd never tried false eyelashes before, so I decided to try these first because they had a sticker on the box that said they were the "Temptalia Editor's Choice Winner: Best False Eyelashes 2009" - also, they seemed to be a reasonable length and thickness. I thought applying stick-on eyelashes was going to be incredibly difficult, but, surprisingly, it was not. I consulted the directions on the box and a very helpful WikiHow article, and found the process to be pretty easy. I took pictures throughout the process:

my eye without mascara, eyeliner, or falsies

my eye with mascara

my eye without mascara, with falsies

 my eye with mascara and falsies  

my eyes with mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadow and falsies

Sorry for the poor-quality pictures - I obviously am not used to taking pictures of my own eyes. In my one-eye pictures where I'm wearing the falsies, you can see that they are lifting up a bit on the end. I think I must have missed some glue on that edge. I noticed this before I took the last picture and fixed it, but was too lazy to take even more pictures. I was pleasantly surprised with these glue-on eyelashes. I thought they might make me look like a freak since my eyelashes are already really long (though you can't tell in my pictures), but they just made my eyes look even bigger in a flattering way. While I wouldn't use these every day, I would definitely use and recommend them for special occasions.

*This product was provided to me by the manufacturer for review. However, this has not influenced and will never influence my review(s) - I will always say what I truly think about a product.

Nail Mail!

Recently I received an email from Melissa Sakamoto from the marketing department at Pacific World Corporation, which owns the Nailene and Revlon companies. Ms. Sakamoto offered to send me nail and false eyelash products from Revlon and Nailene for me to review, and I accepted. The package came in the mail today just as I was leaving for a movie, so I didn't get to open it until I got back...at which point I pretty much tore the box apart in excitement. ;) Here's what I got:

The Revlon products: Revlon Runway Collection Medium Length nails, Revlon Intensifying Fantasy Lengths eyelashes, Revlon Defining Fantasy Lengths eyelashes, Revlon Long Volumizing Beyond Natural eyelashes, Revlon Precision Adhesive nail glue:

The Nailene products: Nailene Couture Runway Designs nails, Nailene So Natural nails, Nailene French Manicure with tip guides and polishes, Nailene Bedazzle Nail Art Super Star stickers, Nailene miscellaneous fourth-of-July themed nail stickers, Nailene Perfect Tips & Toes French Polish Guides:

I am super excited to try all of these! Fake eyelashes and fake nails are not really products that I buy - I feel like fake nails are, well, fake and I already have astronomically long eyelashes - so it'll be interesting to see how I like them. I already use and love Nailene's French tip guides (they're what I used for my matte tips with Orly Luxe) and I was about to run out, so I'm happy to have more of those, and I can't wait to go sticker-crazy! :)