My Entire Collection of Nail Polish

I am not proud.
Really.
Although I know my collection is much smaller than other polish bloggers, rampant consumerism is nothing to be proud of.
Grouped by colour family sort of.

 Purples and blacks and that one L'oreal plummy brown that I couldn't really put anywhere else.

 Yellows, golds, oranges.

 Blues and greens.  

 Whites and neutrals?  and those weird super dark ones from ULTA.

A bunch of pinks and reds and such.

I guess that's it.

New Storage Solution, and New Fingers Look

I decided that little thing I made months ago with an old box lid and foam discs was to small for my LipSmacker  collection.  That's because it actually was just overflowing.  So I got a new thing to put them in.  A nice Caboodles box with sparkles all over it.  Seriously I feel 12 carrying this around.

Yes!  This is definitely big enough for my current collection (which is pretty darn massive in my opinion) and more!
So big in fact I decided to put some of the other products I use on a more regular basis in there too, so I can have them all easy to get to at once!

The only thing I really don't like about this box is the locking mechanism.  Obviously I'll keep it unlocked, but what if it accidentally did lock up on its own and I couldn't find the keys for it?  I'll have to put the keys somewhere safe I guess.  This box also came with a seriously sparkly tiny pink purse.  Not really my style, but I know a kid who would probably be into it.

Oh!  And here's my nails probably for the rest of this week!  I've got some new polishes on, or at least new to me.

I wish I hadn't marred both thumbnails before picture time.  And also that I could learn to take a decent picture already.

The blue Zoya polish (Charla) was on clearance at Ulta and is a really pretty glass fleck, but even after 3 coats it's a bit streaky.  The other blue, the light one, is called Jelly Bean Blue, and is from Hard Candy's new line of polishes.  It's also kind of streaky after 3 coats.  The one from Claire's is called Candy Shop, and everyone says it's a dupe of a Deborah Lippman polish.  It's probably got the best consistency of anything I've used on  my fingers for this manicure.  I topped it with French tips and reverse French tips in gold.  It looks better in person.

That's it for now.  I did take pictures of my entire nail polish collection (spoiler: I'm not proud of my rampant consumerism, even if it is much smaller a collection than other polish bloggers') and maybe I'll put that up later.

Thanks for reading.  <3

Another Bunch of Nails (including some new OPI!)

So uh... this was at Ulta last time I was there (about a month ago.)

As I knew already that I wanted the turquoise and the gold polish in this 4-pack, I decided to scoop it up.  The purple is a new colour for me, and I was really happy when the pink was nowhere near "My Address is Hollywood".  I forget what the names of these colours are, but they're all great, so I wore them together.

Little rainbows on my fingers!  I was so happy with this look!

Next was just a simple peachy-pink and gold look.

There's "My Address is Hollywood"!  One of my favourites, both for the pinkness and for the name!

Just painted the whole nail with the kind of salmon pink, then went in about 3/4 of the way with the gold, and then halfway in with the dark pink!

Finally some confetti easter egg nails for easter.

A sheer light pink base, and then one layer of dots with the brush, one with a disposable eyeshadow applicator, and one layer of dots with a toothpick.  And then I used some opalescent glitter as a topcoat.  It's cute but I kind of can't wait for it to chip away so I can get started on a new look!

And!... with that... I guess all I can say is that a new look will come at some point in the future!

Paul Frank Triple Treat Collection and Vintage Trio Collection

I picked up the Paul Frank collection a while ago at Ulta because it was on clearance for like 2$, and also saw the Vintage Sour Grapes Trio at Walmart and had to get it as soon as it was new.  The Vintage Trio is basically old flavours that Bonne Bell is re-releasing to celebrate lipsmackers' 40th birthday.  Unfortunately in my opinion both of these were lackluster entries in lipsmacker land.

 The Paul Frank Triple Treat Collection comes in a cute little bag, that I'll probably use for storing small items later on since I keep all my lipsmackers in one big case now.  There's a Carrot Cake flavour, a Red Raspberry flavour, and a Fried Ice Cream flavour.

Carrot Cake- not very carroty at all.  This is disappointing.  The thing I smell/taste most in this one is actually coconut.
Red Raspberry- the best of the bunch, but I don't actually like raspberries.  I guess if you do like raspberries, this is the one for you though.  It's pretty spot-on.
Fried Ice Cream- barely smells or tastes like anything.  Some of my friends who say the flavour of lipsmackers is too strong might like this one though.

The Vintage Trio just comes on a blister pack.  There's another Vintage Trio that I haven't seen in shops, but I have seen on the website, that's like milkshake flavours, and I really would've preferred to get that one, but this is what I got.  SOON!  (I should just place an order on their website for the other one...)

Sour Grapes- this is probably really good if you like grape.  I don't though, so while the flavour was intense and sour (which is good), it was still grape.
Pina Colada- this is decent  It's not horrible.  It's not super great either.  It's vaguely pineappley.
Orange Sherbet- this is the best of the set.  I wish they made more orange-flavour lipsmackers, or more citrus in general.  I really would've gone for a sour lemon one had it been available.  Orange Sherbet isn't sour though.  It's more like a creamsicle.  It's pretty good.

Well, all I can say is I hope the next set I get I'm happier with, because these just didn't do it for me.  But I am pretty fussy, so maybe you, the readers, will enjoy these anyway?

Thanks.

A Bunch of Different Nails

I try to take a picture every time I do my nails, and I do them often.  Well, once a week maybe?  But I'm still terrible at keeping up with blogs, so I'll just post a few now.

First one is wintry colours.  It's still very much winter here, and it was even still snowing today while I was at work.  Some L'oreal dark oxblood red, Maybelline "Turquoise Seas", OPI "Jade is the New Black" (I love this!), and then glitter gradient using OPI's "The Living Daylights" and some gold glitter ELF polish.  I would not recommend the ELF glitter polish, because while it is decent quality, it smells like onions and burnt plastic, and the smell sticks around for a few days.  

 

Second was cool pastels.  With glitter.  I do glitter a lot I guess. 

The teal green is also ELF, and much better than their glitter polish in the sense that it doesn't smell terrible.  I did another glitter gradient on all of these because I kind of love that look.  The L'Oreal polish there is called "I Pink I'm in Love", and I really do like it, because the colour reminds me of an old Tinkerbell polish I had when I was like 4.  

And another look with more glitter.  I tried to do diagonal lines of two different glitters with this one.  The picture doesn't do it justice, because it really did come out well.

Ulta was doing some "Buy One Get One 50% Off" deal on their Sally Hansen polishes, and I was there for new spring makeup, and had wanted the Lustre Shine polish for a while.  So I got it, and the copper glitter one.  The copper glitter obviously doesn't show up well against the coppery-red polish.  The Julep is from that lucky pack I got a while back.  I was actually really happy with the colours I got in that, because there was also a metallic red, copper, and cream orange.  I haven't seen that Essie iridescent flaky topcoat in shops for a while sadly, and mine is starting to get a bit viscous.  I use it a lot, so I'll have to find a replacement somehow.

I'll have a look with a few polishes from OPI's new Euro Centrale collection soon!  I ended up getting a set of four minis, and had a lot of fun with those!  Later!

Cupcake Lovers' Collection!

Because cupcakes... are also for lovers!

Sorry I've been gone for like a month.  I really am not good with keeping up with blogs.  And I'm better at keeping up with work, of which there has been a marathon recently.  I've also been trying to get my GRE stuff in order, shopping for grad schools, and still shopping for flight schools because honestly that would be more fun.

I gave up candy for Lent (seriously when the beans is Easter anyway?  I'm like dying here.)  So I've been hitting the LipSmackers pretty hard.  And since LipSmackers turned 40 this year, there had to be cake.  In the form of cake flavoured lip glosses, of course!

The Cupcake Lovers' Collection is similar to the Strawberry Lovers' Collection; six glosses in a cute little case.  You get Red Velvet, Salted Caramel, Berry Buttercream, Strawberry Sprinkle, Birthday Cake, and Vanilla Coconut.  Perfect for when you don't feel like driving to the yuppie neighbourhoods to get a cupcake from one of the many bakeries around those parts (that seem to be nonexistent around all other parts.)

Red Velvet- actually smells like the inside of a bakery.  I like this one a lot.  It's a shame I've already lost it.

Salted Caramel- easily my favourite of this set.  It's not the same as Dulce De Leche (if you have that... it's super good too just FYI.)  You can really taste salt in this.  And caramel.   My mom's friend actually made salted caramels over the Christmas holiday, and I ate a whole bag of them, and this tastes like that.

Berry Buttercream- if you are a little lad who loves berries and cream, you will love this.  It's like yogurt with berries in it.  I think I've used half of mine already.

Birthday Cake- not terribly exciting.  It's vanilla-y and sweet.  There are probably about ten other Lipsmackers out now that are similar to this.

Strawberry Sprinkle- the token strawberry flavour that Lipsmackers has to put in every collection.  I like this one though.  It's kind of ice-creamy.

Vanilla Coconut- I'm not sure if I like this one or not.  I'm really not a fan of coconut, just in general.  But this is like... coconut and vanilla, and it seems like there's a hint of cocktail cherry in this one as well.  It's decent I suppose.

This was a good set to get.  For the most part I enjoyed it.
Later.

Strawberry Lover's Collection!...

... because strawberries are for lovers!  Specifically lovers of strawberries.  :3
This, and the Cupcake Lover's Collection (which I'll review later, because I picked them both up already), were made special for Lip Smacker's 40th birthday!

 Adorable zippered pouch!

I was able to pick this up at Walgreen's while searching for Eucerin and bandaids.  Six various strawberry flavoured lip balms in a cute little case!  Strawberry, Strawberry Vanilla, Strawberry Cheesecake, Strawberry Coconut, Strawberry Cotton Candy, and Strawberry Watermelon.  Even though they're all variations on strawberry, they all smell and taste very different.  And they all taste
good, and have a nice texture and shine.

Caps off!

Strawberry: Apparently the original Lip Smacker flavour (i don't know, it's not like i was around in 1973...)!  Smells like a tub of strawberries from the supermarket.  Doesn't taste like much... a little sweet.  That's about it.  I still really like it.

Strawberry Vanilla: Kind of icecream-y scented and flavoured.  I already had this one.  It gets used a lot because it's very good.  I like things that are ice cream, or that taste like ice cream, and this falls into the second category.

Strawberry Cheesecake: tastes just like the strawberry cheesecake Jelly Belly, if you're familiar with that.  I have a feeling I'll use this up rather quickly.

Strawberry Coconut:  I didn't think I would like this, because I'm generally not partial to coconut, but this is okay.  It's kind of like a fancy tropical drink, like a strawberry daquiri maybe?  It's decently yummy anyway.

Strawberry Cotton Candy: Smells the same as Strawberry Vanilla, but has a very different taste.  Another blogger compared it to Bubble Yum, but I actually do taste candyfloss in this.  It might end up being a new favourite because of that, especially since I'm temporarily giving up any sort of real candy.

Strawberry Watermelon: The watermelon flavour in this is a bit overpowering.  I can barely smell or taste any strawberry in it.  I still really like it though.  It reminds me of summer.

I'm really happy I picked these up, and I'll be writing about the Cupcake Lover's Collection sometime next week.  Later!  :3

Sugar Heart Nails!

I wish I had done a step-by-step of this, instead of just taking pictures when it was done.
Inspired by something I saw on tumblr a while ago.

But how I did it: First basecoat.  Always basecoat, especially if you're using dark colours.  I painted my nails black last year without using a basecoat, and I'm still growing the stains out.  Second, I used a black nail art pen to draw heart outlines.  Didn't panic if they got a bit messy.  Third, used the pastel colours to fill in the outlines.  Fourth, glitter over pastel.  Fifth, topcoat.  That's it.  I like that it came out decently on both hands this time.  :3  It'll probably have all chipped off (or more like I will have peeled it off) by Thursday, but I'm waiting on sort of a valentines day "lucky pack" from Julep (the first time I've ordered nail polish online) and might get it by then too.  :3

Coke Party Pack

I picked this up at claire's while I was out shopping with the kids last week.  8 different coke-brand-flavoured Lip Smackers!  Hooray!  This was probably a bit more expensive than it would've been at Target or Walgreens or Ulta (generally my usual places for smackery goodness), but they had one of those "buy-1-get-1" deals, and the little one wanted another pack of fake fingernails, so I got it anyway.

(sorry... i got excited and opened this up right away without photographing it...)


As I said earlier, there are 8 flavours.  Some of them fantastic, some of them surprisingly so, and some of them not terribly exciting.  There was obviously a Coca-Cola flavoured one.  And Sprite.  And then there were Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, Orange, Strawberry, and Grape Fanta, and Barq's Root Beer flavour.

Here's what I thought of all of them:

Coca-Cola: I normally really like Coca-Cola.  In fact, I'm drinking one right now, and totally breaking my "no caffeine after 4pm" rule.  But the Coca-Cola Lip Smacker is just a bit bland.  It smells and tastes more like Coke with lots of ice.  But some people do prefer lighter flavours, and think that most smackers are too "intense" in that department, so maybe this is for them.

Sprite: Kind of like the Coke one, only it's Sprite that has a lot of ice in it.

Cherry Coke: I had this flavour as one of those "squeezy" Lip Smackers, and while I really liked the flavour, I wasn't a fan of the consistency of the gloss.  It was sticky, and that's bad when you have long hair and like to drive with your windows down.  This classic Cherry Coke Lip Smacker is much better.  It's the same flavour, not exactly spot-on with actual Cherry Coke, but without the stickiness of the liquid gloss.

Vanilla Coke: I am surprised.  I do not like actual Vanilla Coke as a drink, but the Vanilla Coke Lip Smacker is really good.  It's like a more sweetened version of regular Coke.  I think this might be one of my favourites of the set.

Orange Fanta: Doesn't actually taste like Orange Fanta.  It tastes more like orange sherbet.  I really like it though.  Another new favourite?  Maybe.  I really like oranges and clementines and orange-flavoured things in general, so I imagine I'll be using this a lot.

Strawberry Fanta: Question: How many strawberry flavoured Lip Smackers need to exist?  Answer: ALL OF THEM.  Strawberry Fanta Lip Smacker is really good, a nice strawberry pop flavour.

Grape Fanta: I've never been a huge fan of grape-flavoured things, maybe because they remind me of Dimetapp cough medicine, but this Lip Smacker was okay.  Kind of like a grape popsicle (if you're familiar with those ones that are just flavoured sugar water in a plastic tube, more like one of those.)

Barq's Root Beer:  I've got the A&W Lip Smacker, and now I've got Barq's, and the Barq's is much sweeter and less "rootbeer-y" than the A&W one.  Also it seems like there's more vanilla in this one.  Maybe that's where the sweetness comes from.

EDIT: PICTURES!

 Coke, Barq's Root Beer

 Vanilla Coke, Cherry Coke

 Orange Fanta, Sprite

 Strawberry Fanta, Grape Fanta

My Collection... of Lip Smackers!

This is how it all looked as of a week ago.  Since then I decided I would get more serious about reviewing these, and blogging about them.  So I've acquired a few more, and reviews of those will be up soon.

Reviews of all these will be up at some point too probably.  There are some that are a few years old, and a lot of new ones.