Nail design

Yay I finally got around to doing my nails again. Here's what's on my nails right now :)

Took about half an hour for me to do with waiting for it to dry. I used a base coat, white polish, a sparkle silver stripper, a top coat and some rhinestones.

Fun and easy nail design

Quick post for the nail art I did this week. :)  It was quick and easy to do so here it is.

Products I used:

Pro FX Protein Enriched Base Coat & Revitalizer

Sally Hansen nailgrowth Miracle in 120 White Tip

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme wear in 420 Pacific Blue

Essie in e-nuf is e-nuf

Dotting tool from ebay

Haul & Review: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick

I found out by accident at Walmart that they are having an Anniversary Sale from Sept. 14 - 20 while I was looking through the makeup section.  At my store there was a great deal on Revlon Super Lustrous Lipsticks for $3.88 each.  I already own 5 of them and enjoy them, so I thought for almost half the price, why not try some other colours?

I got 5 new colours in the Creme finish (I know I know... what's up with me and all my cream finishes.  I like glitter sometimes too! But I was afraid of getting something too frosty...)

Here are some pictures:

The top row are the new colours that I got, and the bottom row are the ones I had.

The swatches are in the same order:

Top row L-R: 680 Temptress, 637 Blushing Nude, 435 Love That Pink, 674 Coralberry 668 Primrose

Bottom row L-R: 415 Pink in the Afternoon, 683 Demure, 407 Rosedew, 240 Sandalwood Beige, 613 Just Enough Buff

Here are some pictures of them swatched on my lips:

Temptress: Slightly cool toned medium pink has a very slight silver sheen/shimmer.

Blushing Nude: Brownish red/pink visible small sparkles in the tube, but can't see it when it's swatched.  It's also slightly darker in real life than it is in this picture.

Love That Pink:  Bright deep electric pink with no shimmer or glitter whatsoever. Almost like an off-red.

Coralberry: Coral with a little bit of gold sheen/shimmer, nothing sparkly.

Primrose: Very cool toned baby pink. Almost like a pastel lilac.  This has no shimmer or glitter either.

Pink in the Afternoon: Nude neutral pink again with no glitter or shimmer.

Demure: Sheer nude coral colour. This one doesn't have as good as a colour pay off as the other ones.  It has a silver sheen/shimmer.  If you like sheer lipsticks like I do, you'll like this one.

Rosedew: This is the only one in the Pearl finish that I have.  It's also a light pinky coral with a silver sheen/shimmer as well as sparse gold chunky glitter.  The glitter can't be felt on the lips.

Sandalwood Beige:  Warm medium brown/orange shade that has no glitter or shimmer.

Just Enough Buff:  Sheer natural nude with tiny silver glitters.  Not as pigmented as the rest.

I'm kind of picky when it comes to lipsticks. I have very dry chapped lips so I tend to stay away from lipsticks that dry my lips out even more.  In the swatches my lips were smoother than they normally are from exfoliating them but I don't do that on a daily.  So on bad days, I tend to skip doing my lips altogether.

Pros:

• Packaging: I really like the packaging of Revlon lipsticks in general but the Super Lustrous line is my favorite.  It is hard plastic with a clear top so you can see your lipstick from the top of the tube if you store them standing up. It also feels nice in your hand.  The way the lipstick twists up feels really smooth. 

• Colour selection: Great range of colours to select from and displays usually have testers for all the colours so you can try them out before buying them.

• Colour payoff: Most of them have great pay-off.  There's a few more sheer ones that  are perfect for people like me who aren't as bold with their lipstick choices or have slightly chapped lips that require a more sheer glossy formula.  Just try them on back of your hand or the tips of your fingers

• Moisture/Dryness: These don't dry out my lips (more than they already are). The very creamy colours without glitter/shimmer do tend to crease into fine lines on the lips, but generally speaking they sit nicely on the lips (especially the less pigmented or decent pigmented ones).

• Price: Regular price is around $8 - $11 dollars Canadian which is a good price for the quality of these lipsticks and the selection you get.  Of course it's even better if you get them on sale.  Since it is a drugstore product it does tend go on sale regularly. 

Cons:

• Finishing: Offer creme and pearl but it's not completely accurate in my opinion... some are sheer, some frosty, some glittery it's not as descriptive as I would hope.

• Lasting power: Like most lipsticks these don't last very long and requires reapplication throughout the day if you want to keep the colour. However, some of the darker colours do slightly stain the lips.

If you're in Canada check one of your local Wal-mart fliers and see if they have these on sale right now! These are some of the best lipsticks I own drugstore and high end.  Do you guys like any of these? What's your favorite drugstore lipstick?

Review: Revlon Brilliant Strength Nail Enamels

I found these new Revlon Brilliant Strength Nail Enamels in my local Wal-Mart here in Canada.  There were a wide range of shades with different finishes.  The ones I was most interested in were actually the cream shades, but there weren't many fall colours with that a cream finish. :(

They were $5.96 each with 0.4 Fl.Oz/11.7ml which to me seems like a fair price for how great these work.  I got a couple of them and love every single one of them in terms of colour, finish, and application!  

Before I get to the pictures I want to say I'm sorry I couldn't show you guys all the colour swatches on my nails it would have taken too long and dried up my poor cuticles. ): I did go ahead and do 3 of them before I started doing them on plastic wheels.

These are the fall colours that I picked:

L-R: 090 Captivate, 160 Enrapture, 020 Beguile, 160 Dominate, 140 Magnetize

Captivate: Warm reddish copper metallic

Enrapture: Grey toned pink/purple metallic (almost like a purple taupe)

Beguile: Dark navy blue metallic (microglitter particles are teal/purple/blue)

Dominate: Dark chocolate brown cream

Magnetize: Silver metallic

All of these fall colours have a metallic finish except for Dominate which is a cream.  The camera doesn't do Beguile justice.  This shade has multi dimensional fine glitters that look teal/purple/blue as you rotate the nail or bottle. 

Here are more summery ones:

L-R: 190 Entice, 040 Enamor, 220 Provoke

Entice: Muted pastel turquoise (cream) similar to Essie Turquoise & Caicos

Enamor: Bubblegum pink that looks fairly neutral (cream)

Provoke: Pastel peachy coral (cream) and now that I look at it it looks a lot like Essie Tart Deco...

Clockwise, same order as above.  Only took me 1(thick) to 2(thin) coats to make it opaque.

L-R: Essie Turquoise & Caicos, Revlon Entice, Essie Tart Deco, Revlon Provoke

 As I was putting these two polishes on I couldn't help but notice they seemed familiar so here are the Essie polishes they reminded me of for comparison. Essie's Turquoise & Caicos is a bit lighter and more blue; Tart Deco is slightly darker and more pink.  To be honest, I couldn't tell the difference if they weren't side by side.

Essie polishes usually takes me at least 3 coats to make it opaque, whereas the Revlon one only takes 1 thicker coat or 2 thin coats. The Essie one also costs about twice as much depending on where you get it.

My overall thoughts about them:

Pros:

• Packaging: These come with the same packaging and brush as the Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamels.  The brush is wide and flat with curved edges which makes application super easy even with your non-dominant hand.  It also stores nicely unlike the regular Revlon nail polishes that have the wider base.

• Application:  Smooth formulation that gave an opaque finish in 1-2 coats.

• Colour payoff: True to the bottle. What you see is what you get.

• Price: Average for drugstore nail polishes, but great for what the product is.  Allows you to try a larger variety of colours. Uses less product to achieve the look.

Cons:

• Colour selection: Good selection of colours however different stores will vary in the colours they carry.  I wish they had more cream finish darker neutral tones.

• Wear: Like most nail polishes (on me) I started seeing tip wear at the end of the 2nd day and minor chipping on the 3rd.

• Streaking: Some of the metallic shades do streak slightly 

Personally, the cons don't bother me.  I love the colours that I bought and how these polishes apply and since I change my polish colour pretty often it doesn't bother me that it doesn't last on the nails for weeks.  My favorites are Provoke, Dominate and Beguile.  

Have you guys seen them in your stores?  What's your favourite colour of the collection?