amyopoly » purple

China Glaze Haunting Halloween Collection

Amy — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 05:30:57 +0000

While at Cosmoprof 2011 I got a nice look at some future collections, including “Haunting,” the upcoming Halloween collection from China Glaze.

Here we have a 2 glitters, 2 creams, and one very awesome glow in the dark top coat! Check out swatches below! :)

My descriptions of the colors:

Haunting: black base with bright silver round micro-glitter
It’s Alive: sheer olive green base loaded with chunky round glitter and small round micro-glitter
Crimson: deep eggplant-purple cream (looks mostly black)
Near Dark: murky deep olive green cream (looks mostly black)
Ghoulish Glow: transparent glow-in-the-dark top coat (!!)

edit: Scrangie just posted swatches of the Nars Fall 2011 collection, and Haunting looks pretty similar to Night Breed. The only thing, it seems, is that Haunting was comprised of all the same sized round glitter, and Scrangie says that Night Breed has irregular sizes/shapes. Will wait for comparison shots of the two!

Beacon Winner 2011

Amy — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 04:56:02 +0000

This year I was lucky enough to attend PBA Beauty Week in Las Vegas, Nevada. Here’s a little bit about why I was there:

As an esthiology student at Aveda Institute Charlotte, I applied to become a Beacon winner, which is an annual nationwide contest for cosmetology and esthiology students focused on the business and marketing side of the industry. Though Beacon, NAHA, and Cosmoprof have much more to do with hair than make-up, I applied anyway. I had to do 3 before and after pictures and create a marketing piece for myself, in addition to submitting a professional resume. I was thrilled to find out in May that I was one of 100 winners nationwide, and the amazing company that owns my school, Beauty Basics, paid for my flight and hotel in Las Vegas for the weekend of July 30 so I could attend! I’m hugely grateful to them for sending me over to get a taste of Beauty Week. Thank you BB!

As Beacon winners we were set up with a unique schedule of seminars and parties that allowed us to hear from motivational speakers, manufacturers, distributors, stylists, and salon owners, including some of the industry legends. As I said, most of this was directed toward hair stylists, but I still took a lot away from all the speakers and their advice. We got to attend exclusive parties and mingle with tons of people, and we also got to attend the North American Hairstyling Awards. If you didn’t know, NAHA is like the Oscars of hair. It was a fun night hosted by Miss Tabatha Coffey herself.. I’ll post pictures of that soon!

I stayed in the Luxor, which is connected to Mandalay Bay, where all of the Beacon, NAHA, and Cosmoprof events were held. I got to meet a bunch of other Beacon winners from schools that Beauty Basics owns; my roommate for the weekend had just graduated from Aveda Institute Dallas.

I met a lot of great people and took away a lot of really solid advice from the various speakers we heard from. Stedman Graham (yep, Oprah’s boyfriend!) was the opening speaker, just to give you an idea! He’s actually a great entrepreneur and motivational speaker in addition to his famous relationship. ;)

For now, here are the before and after pictures I sent in which won me a place in Vegas. I will list some of the products I used if I can remember what I used… it was done way back in March!

Katelyn’s wearing a custom-mixed lip color, Sable and Twinks eyeshadows, and Stud for her brows.

Amber’s wearing MAC Faux lipstick, Macroviolet fluidline, and Top Hat eyeshadow in the crease.

Nicole’s wearing MAC Hollywood Nights lipstick, Coygirl blush, and Feline eye kohl.

Backlog of Manicures!

Amy — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 00:37:47 +0000

I have a little treat for you today, several manicures.. mostly nail art I’ve done over the past month or so that I’ve been meaning to share. Hopefully I’ll be able to upload some higher quality pictures another time, but for now cell phone pictures will have to do!

China Glaze Crushed Candy Crackle layered over China Glaze Swing Baby

What I call a “preppy” manicure, it made me feel very tennis-club-in-the-Hamptons. Used Essie Cute As A Button, Essie Mint Candy Apple, Essie Tart Deco and (unfortunately) an unknown Essie (the bright pink).

!!Toes alert!! Essie Mint Candy Apple bows outlined in Art Club black nail art polish, layered over Essie Cute As A Button!

I can’t find the nail art inspiration picture I interpreted for this manicure–but I used Justin Bieber for NOPI I’m A Belieber with white and black Art Club nail art polishes for the design.

I am so utterly obsessed with jelly polishes, and this color especially: OPI Big Hair, Big Nails from the Texas 2011 collection!

I can’t tell you how ecstatic I was when I found OPI Sparkle-icious at a salon nearby. I didn’t jump on them when they first came out because I was poorly, and I couldn’t pass it up again!

Nail art with Zoya Dove and some Art Club studs! Loved this one, so chic, so… Rihanna.

I recently bought wall shelves from Target to organize my polish collection. This is a shot of all my polishes as of May 23, not including my MAC polishes (which are stored on a MAC polish display next to my make-up).

Shabby Chic Nail Art

Amy — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 04:50:07 +0000

Yay, I had a lot of fun doing this manicure! I was inspired by a picture of someone’s manicure that I found on tumblr. The “roses” are very easy to make, just lots of semi-circles in varying tints and shades of a couple colors. I chose to do roses only on my ring and thumb nails for this manicure, while the rest just had the striped pattern.

Before I post the pictures, an apology for the state of my nails in these photos. My nails (and hands) take a lot of abuse from me right now, as I am giving 2-3 facials a day, and constantly washing my hands to keep sanitary. I get thirsty just looking at my poor dehydrated skin!

USED:
Color Club High Society
Color Club Who Are You Wearing?
Color Club Ms. Socialite
Color Club She’s Sooo Glam
OPI Who the Shrek Are You?
Seche Vite Top Coat

Love & Beauty by Forever 21 Indigo

Amy — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 00:03:30 +0000

(Just wanted to remind you that my FLIRT! Giveaway is still open for entries until December 20!)

I love Forever21. It’s a cheap, trendy company that I’ve been familiar with for years, but for the first time in my life, I live near one! Actually, the new city I live in has several in and around it. AND THEY SELL NAIL POLISH! CHEAP NAIL POLISH! It seems that the only brand they carry is one I haven’t heard of before called Love & Beauty. I saw a huge bin of them on display in the store yesterday, so of course I had to check it out.

This is Indigo:

The name of this polish describes its color: it’s an opaque indigo jelly polish, could definitely be a one-coater if you’re careful. I don’t have any other polishes in my collection like this (MAC Blue India is much more dusty, and greener) so I was excited to get this–especially for $2.80!! It also applies as smooth as a dream, with a thin, long brush, and has good drying time. This is only two coats, too!

A few things about the polishes.. if you check out the Love & Beauty line in store or online, you may notice that there are several different polish bottle styles. I’m still not completely sure what that’s about. Though it appears that some of the styles are for unique finishes, it seems to be more of a novelty thing than a rule of thumb for identifying like polishes–does that make sense at all? I just mean that I thought that one bottle style was for all glitters, but then there are some in that bottle style that aren’t glitters, and some that are. So maybe they just like their items to not all look the same? Maybe they’ve transitioned a few times and can’t decide which one they like? Not sure.

The only unimpressive thing I’ve found about the polishes so far are that the names really suck, haha. I think their creative marketing team has only just been started up, with super unique and descriptive color names like “Blue,” “Gold,” and “Pink.” :P

One last note about the thumb decal I used, that is a purchase I made a few months ago, one that I’ve been meaning to use in manicures. They are the Ornament Nail Art Stickers by Essence, which I got at ULTA. I was super excited to use them, and I’ve found that they’ve been really easy to use! They last as long as my manicure, and are thin enough so they easily stay flat along the curvature of my nails. They’re cheap ($1.50) and come with 10 or 11 different designs. I was so happy I actually jumped back in shock when I saw the Essence end-cap at ULTA that day. I grabbed a couple of their Colour & Go nail polishes, too, so look for those coming up soon!

Flirt! Cosmetics Giveaway!!

Amy — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:46:35 +0000

This post is where you leave a comment to enter a chance to win the Flirt! eyeshadow palette!
Please don’t forget to leave your YouTube username, as you must be a subscriber! Also, please leave a reliable e-mail address.

Yay, I’m so excited for this, guys!! I am hosting a giveaway, provided by Flirt! Cosmetics, to win a 40 eyeshadow limited edition palette!! If you’ve never heard of Flirt!, they are sold exclusively at Kohl’s, and I am seriously impressed by the quality of the shadows.. especially for the price! See more of my review of this product and a look done using the shadows in the video below:

I am not being compensated in any way to host this giveaway by the company or their PR firm. I was provided the palette free of charge prior to the announcement so that I could test it for myself. All the opinions stated here are 100% true and only mine.

I will close comments on this post on December 21st at midnight, and announce the winner later that day!

Sally Hansen XtremeWear Mystic Lilac

Amy — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 00:00:55 +0000

Mystic Lilac is so beautiful. It’s a light lilac colored polish with a gorgeous, subtle green shimmer–almost an aqua color–that really sparkles in sunlight. It’s a pretty sheer polish, but builds up well. These are 3 coats.

Close up of the yummy aqua shimmer!

The aqua was hard to capture with the camera. It’s more evident in real life.

Sally Hansen XtremeWear Purple Gala

Amy — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:00:11 +0000

I’ve had these pictures sitting in my RAW folder for a while–I’d almost forgotten! But here we have one of the new SHXW colors, Purple Gala. It’s an awesome deep purple and gold foil polish with lots of dimension, which you’ll see in the several pictures below.

MAC Bad Fairy Nail Lacquer

Amy — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 02:23:36 +0000

It’s finally feeling like Autumn here in coastal South Carolina, and this feels like the perfect polish for the new season. From MAC’s Venomous Villians Disney collaboration collection comes the star nail polish of the three limited edition releases: Baaaaaad Faaaaairy!!! (Cue angels singing.)

Before I get on with the review and pictures I should mention that there are 2 other polishes that were released with the Venomous Villians/Maleficent: Formidable! and Mean & Green. The reason that I didn’t purchase these is because Orly Galaxy Girl and Orly Space Cadet are dupes (and cheaper, no less!!) for both of those, respectively. I will have comparison pictures coming up soon! Now, onto BF!

Bad Fairy is a beautiful multichrome nail polish which changes depending on the sunlight between fuchsia, purple, a warm pink, copper, orange, and gold. It’s a sparkle formula, with large particles of shimmer that aren’t exactly glitter. The formula is pretty sheer, but I see that as a pro and not a con. Why? Because its being sheer allows you to either layer it over other colors without covering them completely, or use it alone. I’m anxious to try it over both dark and light colors, but this is 3 coats by itself. It’s a really gorgeous and versatile color, and definitely eye-catching. One person asked me, “So is your nail polish copper or purple?” I was happy to clarify by turning my fingers every which way to show her how the color changed in the sunlight and shadows.

Without further ado, here are a BUNCH of photos! Bottle pics first:

An accidental shot that I thought looked cool, with Wicked Ways lip glass in the background!

Nails & bottle pics!

Just nails in different lights!

Base: Gelous
Layer 1: MAC Bad Fairy
Topcoat: Sally Hansen Mega-Shine Topcoat

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Pronto Purple

Amy — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:21:12 +0000

One of the polishes I picked up at Rite Aid during the BOGOF Sally Hansen sale is this Insta-Dri in Pronto Purple. Pronto Purple is a violet-based frost with fuchsia and tiny hints of blue shimmer.

Color

I love this color, but it’s purple so that’s not too surprising. Despite its being a frost, it didn’t apply streaky at all for me (partly because of the wide brush, I’m sure). I love the subtle blue shimmer that you can see when you look closely. Alone, the base color may lean towards vampy, but the shimmer lightens it up and makes it a stunning polish, in the sunlight and indoors.

Formula

Personally, I like the Insta-Dri formula, but you may find it to be goopy or thick. I found it easy to use, though, super smooth opaque in one coat if you’re careful. One problem: despite a coat of Gelous, this polish bubbled like CRAZY on me. Funny thing was, as soon as I applied my topcoat, it completely smoothed out the appearance. It was like an illusion, I really couldn’t believe it. But, lesson learned: definitely use a top coat with this polish.

Final Recommendations

I’d definitely recommend the color to add to your collection. I think it’s a great transition from summer to fall if you like to keep up with nail trends, but I’d wear this yearround. Luckily, it’s a permanent color in the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri line, so you don’t have to worry about shuffling out to grab it immediately.

Base: Gelous
Layer 1: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Pronto Purple
Top: Sally Hansen Mega-Shine Topcoat