Bootie Babe Pink Slink

Last week's post was draining, so you know what that means, pink polish. Also, I have started doing nail polish swaps. Its the awesome of nail mail and the freeing joy of getting rid of polishes I will never wear.

Bootie Babe (the brand) was created by a man. No surprise here. Have you see the butt on the bottle? Its like sexual harassment being marketed to women. *sigh* I did not photo the butt. It felt almost lewd. This bottle shot was just in my hand while checking lighting.Outdoors was too bright, and I ran out of batteries before I took another shot.

I got Pink Slink in a mystery box blog sale. Its a spring pink creme. Coverage evened out in 2 coats for the most part, but it was streaky. Its a nice spring color on me, but I would not really recommend it. See below.

Now this is an older polish (made in 2011), so if you buy new ones from the company, ignore the next rant. They fixed it, but since I am reviewing the one I have here it goes. The handle is a BEAST. Its short and wide. Even my 5 year old had issues. And the brush is teeny. I think the brush are the main causes for streaky hot mess. Ugh.

As an aside, when I was looking up info on the company I found out when this polish was sold they retailed for $6 and could be found on sale for $4. Now they run $12 for the bottle and clearance at $8. I guess that longer handle led to a 100% increase in costs. :-P So yeah. Love the color, not a fan of formula and less a fan of the brush/bottle. I would probably go pick up a drug store light pink cream for less than $6 and be happy with it.

Here is the tiny bottle compared to a Sinful Colors bottle. The SC is about half used and there is still more polish than in the BB.

If you want to buy this brand to give out as gag gifts or to your favorite chauvinist pig, you can google the company name and find them. They do not have a regular line, so if you like a color you see, buy it.

P.S. I only reviewed this because I decided to review everything I wear if I have a camera handy. But now I want to go pink cream polish hunting.

Zoya GeiGei compared to Sinful Colors Glass Pink

It has been spring for a month now and I am still sending my children to school in coats. Yes full on coats. I even put the mittens back on them too. Its cold here. Not like January, but hello is April. I remember as a child that the last week or so of April was always the worst at school. The official date the AC would turn on was May 1st. Well guess what, they won't be needing the AC any time soon.

Light. Shiny. Perfect spring color. Or the pink to brighten the winter blues. Its the color of the palest flowers welcoming warmer weather. I love pinks! (Sorry the bottle shots are out of focus, I will try again before this actually posts to get clearer photos. Its been cloudy and gloomy lately.)

Imagine my surprise when I pulled out Gie Gie from the last Zoya sale (that I participated in) in January. If you hang out at the $2 polish racks at drugstores, you might think this color looks familiar. It IS! Its very close to the color Glass Pink by Sinful colors. Glass pink is a bit lighter, and GeiGei is more color intense. But formula wise, Glass Pink was blown out of the water.

 One coat looks pretty similar. Sheer. Pink with a silvery shimmer. Left to right: Zoya, Sinful Colors, Zoya, Sinful colors.

Second coat is where the truth comes out. GieGie actually looks pink. Glass Pink is still sheer.

Now for the review:

Sinful Colors Glass Pink.
Pros: Easy to find. Cheap! This costs $2 retail, but Walgreens often has sales so you can find this for $1.
Cons: Sheer. If you like this, buy it. I was disappointed by the sheerness of the color is why I haven't been wearing it. By the time I get to 4 coats and opacity, I bump my nails. Then I have to start again. Nightmare. But for days I feel like a sheer sparkly pink, this is great.

Zoya Gie Gie.
Pros: Easy to use formula. Opaque in 2 coats.
Cons: Cost. This is $8 retail and though its starting to show up in more places to purchase retail, its still harder to find in stores on a whim. That means you need to plan your purchase, and if you are cheap like me find a sale.

This is so not related, but I LOVE the name of this polish. The name reminds me of the (male) cat from Kiki's Delivery Service. If you haven't seen this Hayao Miyazaki film, rent it or borrow it from your library. Its super fun. Its about a girl named Kiki. She is a witch and she has to venture out on her own at 13 for a year as part of her witches training. Gigi her talking black cat comes along and participates in her adventures.

Zoya Emme

Finals week part 2: More Pink! Ok technically this is posting in the week between classes, but I wrote this at the end of finals week. Scheduled posts are awesome!

This week I made my first bulk nail polish purchase since August from Tonynail.com. Its almost all discount 'clearance' brands and colors that no one will probably recognize. I am pretty excited though. I think I have worn everything IN my nail polish bin. "New Toys!" said just like in Toy Story 3. I got a few of the bigger brand names (OPI and China Glaze) as well as some top and base coats, so I am excited for this package!

Zoya Emme is a pearly pink from the Ooh-La-La collection Summer 2009.

This polsih sucked. Yeah I said it. The color is pretty. I don't even necessarily mind brush strokes since I am a fan of metallic and frost finishes. But bubbles on the nail and problems drying are a different matter. I waited 30 min and it was still soft. It didn't even feel like it was going on that thick. Thicker than many of my Zoyas, but no thicker than other colors. So I left my fingerprint. I checked all the other fingers an hour after I took photos. They all got fingerprints. Awesome right? Not so much.

Most of the finger prints leveled as it finally dried, but who has time to wait an hour for polish to dry? Maybe some people do, but I do not.

If you are a sucker for pearl pinks, add thinner and pray it works.
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This is where I was planning on ending the post. But, while writing up this post, I decided to try it out myself. I added Beauty Secrets Nail Polish Thinner from Sally's. Usually I add about 4 drops. This time I gave it a good squeeze. Not a ton, but probably 2-3 times my typical 'dose.' It worked. Awesome right? Sure its great that it dries easier. Its great that it was far less streaky when I applied it. Its great that there were no more bubbles. Unfortunately, I had to add thinner to make the polish usable. And this was literally my first time opening the bottle. So, buy this color with caution, or at least a bottle of thinner on hand.

P.S. Keep an eye out on Zoya's facebook page. They have traditionally had an Earth day promo involving discounted polishes and a special so you can send in your bad for the environment polish for them to recycle. Earth day is April 22nd.

Zoya Daul and Faye

Sorry for no post earlier this week. Turns out my 3 year old has asthma. And I started going back to school this week. Its been an eventful couple of days.

The Zoya promo is in full swing, so go get yours!

Here are the colors that look like they could almost be dupes on paper.

First up is Faye. Faye is from the Summer 2011. Its a mauve purple with lots of gold microglitter. This isn't like standard glitter, its glitter look without the glitter clean up. LOVE!

This is somewhat sheer, so either layer it up or just appreciate it on its own. Its not as sheer looking in person as in macro photos.

Zoya Daul is from fall 2012 Diva Collection. Its a deep purple with gold micro glitter. I apologize for this photo, but somehow all the other ones I had of this color on its own were terrible. So, mediocrity wins.

Again, this is a a more sheer color. Much more purple than Faye. Because of the purple, the gold glitter is less yellow in appearance.

And comparison pics.

 Daul, Faye, Daul, Faye

And, slightly out of focus; Faye, Daul, Faye. So you can see how the shimmer looks in the light.

So go check out the Zoya Promo. Three free polishes $10 ship or free ship with $25 purchase.
You can make an account using the link here. https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/0168AE43

Different Dimensions "On Wednesday's We Wear Pink"

Happy Wednesday!  And its a Happy New year too! I have the perfect polish for y'all today. Its called "On Wednesday's we wear Pink" and as a HUGE fan of Mean Girls the movie, I had to try it. Plus its pink and I just love pink polishes!

I just wish they had "Wanna do something really fun? Wanna go to Taco Bell?" Because, that is totally my favorite line. I don't even know what color it would be, but I would probably try to sell something to get funds to buy it. Just for the name. Anyway, I digress.

On Wednesday's We Wear Pink is a pink milky based glitter. The glitter is lots of sizes and shades of pink with a little bit of green to blue holo glitter. I absolutely love it in the bottle.

This is over Monday's mani (China Glaze Sci-Fi). Can you see how that lavender shade of the chrome really pops under the pink milky base? The main sad part if that it dulled the shine of the undercolor. Not a big deal though. I also ended up adding an extra coat of Butter London topcoat after this photo to make it that much more shiny.

That being said, based on the photos in her etsy shop I thought the polish would look WAY different. I am guessing the swatch photo there is literally a jelly sandwich. I did 2 coats of to get this much coverage, but to match the shop photos I would have to tone down some of the glitter with something else.  If you go look at her etsy store you will understand what I mean.

Its not like I disliked this polish, I almost like it MORE the way it is than the swatch photo, I was just surprised why what it was when I got it on the nail.

I did like the formula. It wasn't really thick, but the glitter didn't settle really hard and it dried in a reasonable amount of time. I did roll it a little before using. I also didn't have to fish for glitter or anything.

Disclaimer I bought this myself! I think there was a sale or discount (because that is how I roll) but you can pick this up anytime for $8.50 for a full size bottle in the Different Dimension's etsy store.

China Glaze High Hopes

This will be a down and dirty post. I have been hauling kids all over town to evaluation appointments as well as dealing with wonderful health dilemmas of my own. Hopefully an appointment next Tuesday will answer a LOT of my questions and solve a bunch of my health issues.

On to the polish!

China Glaze High Hopes is from the Spring 2010 Up and Away collection. Its a nice bright coral creme. Not a neon though, so if you love bright colors but neons are a bit much, this color is great. It looked a lot more 'red' with white and brighter light.

 Depending on length of your nails, you will need 2-3 coats. There was still visible nail line at 2 coats, so a 3rd for longer nails or those with really white tips. Application was nice. China Glaze does tend to have thinner formulas for their cremes. I like it, but it is a bit different than many brand's cremes and will probably need an extra coat because of it.

The third photo was comparing it with a different pink and it was a flop photo since the focus is off, BUT I wanted to show the color with a coral pink shirt I own. High Hopes is pretty much this same pink/coral shade but with a bit more intensity to the color. This wasn't in as intense light as the first photos, plus a more muted background help the color seem a little less intense.

The color is a lot brighter than the bottle though. The bottle was the same shade as my shirt in the 3rd photo. The polish is clearly more intense.

I bought this polish and all opinions are my own. You can find China Glaze at many beauty retailers and for super discount prices several places on the internet. I tend to buy mine online because I can get bottles for around $3-3.50 while at Sallys its about twice that price.

Pomegranate Nail Lacquer Autumnesque

Still got the sickies around here. Boo. But I got the replacement part for the carpet cleaner so I have been a busy little bee cleaning house today. Yay! And I have been wearing s SUPER pretty color too.

Autumnesque by Pomegranate Nail Laquer is a mauve shade with gold shimmer in it. The website calls is 'copper' but clearly they are using that term loosely since I call it pink. Its more of a brown autumnal shade of rose pink IMO. 

It is a thinner formula than some, but not lacking in pigment. This was 2 coats and I might have even pulled off only 1 coat on short nails. One thing I have to say (mostly to myself) is wrap the tips. I did not, and the top coat shrunk the polish a little and there is little lines of white sticking out the end on several fingers.

If this brand is unfamiliar, its because its pretty small still and semi-indie at this point. Their polish is: made in the USA;"4-free" - Contain NO toluene, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) or camphor; and not tested on animals. So lots of good things there. The formula reminded me a lot of Zoya (which is 5 free, so a similar idea). The only thing I did not like was the brush. It was very thin. It took me 5 or 6 strokes to do the width of my thumb and middle finger nails. I guess it would be great for children's nails or people with really tiny nails. If you have really big ones though, the brush size might be annoying to you.

On the pinky finger I have Burning Leaves from LynBDesigns (freebie for the month of October with large purchase woot woot!) I used some thick top coat to tame the gritty glitter. I actually didn't like burning leaves on Autumnesque as much as I thought I would. Burning leaves is a gold/orange glitter bomb and it didn't go as well with the pink of Autumnesque as I initially expected. Not bad enough to remove the polish and try again, but I won't repeat the combo. A more true gold would look better than the orange and gold IMO. Then again you all might love the combination.

Disclaimer, I bought all polishes my self (technically Burning Leaves was a freebie with purchase, but I was not sent polish to review). All opinions are my own. If you want to try these polishes Pomegranate Nail Lacquer retails for $9 for a full size bottle and can be bought at http://www.pomegranatelacquer.com/ It is also part of their holiday Gift Set, which I want even though I have the color. See their website for more locations. LynBDesigns retails for $8.50 and while this polish cannot be bought, you can buy other polishes from her in her etsy store.

Daring Digits First Love

Ahhhh indie polish. On my blog. This might be very, very bad. But hey, I ran into a sale and a bad day at the same time. So this happened.

First Love is large pink and white heart glitter with a purple to blue duochrome 'interference base.' I put that in quotes because that is what Daring Digits calls it in the description. It is essentially a white-ish looking base, but it has a color flash from the itty bitty duochrome sparkkles. I didn't see many good photos of this online so I tried to get some. Try is key because its a little hard to catch color flashes in a still photo. IMO the bottle shot better than the nails themselves. Darn you rain for changing my lighting on me.

 Natural light

 Bottle shot showing the interference base. See that shimmer.

Flash

This is 2 coats of First Love over OPI's My Pointe Exactly. Check out the previous post to see the undies alone. The base totally changed the look of the gray with that purple blue duochrome going on. I had to fish for the big glitters. Once I grabbed a few glitters on the brush I split them between the nails.

My only complaint is a minor one. And probably my own fault. When I was fishing for glitter, I ended up with gobs of polish on the nails. It took for.ev.er to dry that last coat. So if you tend to use your hands a lot, like short nailed me, you should totally paint this at a time where you won't need your hands. Like bedtime. But not too close to bed or you will get blanket creases. Or use a tooth pick to fish out the hearts instead of the brush, but that would require a toothpic.

P.S. I really liked the duochrome as a topper even without the big glitters. So don't feel pressured to add the glitters. Unless you are blogging about the polish and taking better photos than me, then add the glitters. I couldn't find any good photos of this color online when I was shopping, so I want there to be awesome photos out there.

This polish was bought by me and all opinions and photos are my own. Daring Digits can be found on etsy. Full size polishes are $7.75 and minis are $4.25. She has some fun geekdom inspired polishes, so go check her out.

Zoya Reece

Luckily I had some posts scheduled because we have had some illness running between each person. A few days on antibiotics has done wonders for the little ones. And even though I haven't been well either, my nails have grown out some. yeah!

Now all these photos will show that I painted my nails while dealing with sick kids, i.e. there is a serious nick in the middle finger that i got when my top coat was drying, and I did the cop out fix of just painting another coat on top. so yes not perfect, but my other hand is the one that clicks the button and its a lot harder to take decent photos when the camera is held at funny angles.

Reece is a shimmery rose pink with gold microglitter that shows when the light hits it. Reese is not as light of a pink as Happi, which is a similar gold microglitter combo and from the same Spring 2010 collection, but its more of a mauve shade. 

Above is in morning sun. Below are in light shade outside. You can see how the gold shows up in both, but is more obvious in the shade actually.

This is 2 coats, except the middle nail with 3 thanks to an oops. Great coverage and no issues with streakiness or anything. My nails are rather short right now, so for longer nails you might need a 3rd layer to help cover any nail line.

Zoya retails for $8 and can be bought at Zoya.com. Zoya is 5 free and not tested on animals. https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/014DD042 If you don't have a Zoya account, go sign up. They offer promos rather often. I am hoping for a big Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale.

Rainbow Polish Cupcakes

I won a nail polish giveaway from Apple Laquer. Yay! And every single one is a brand I have never tried before. I don't usually like to branch out to new brands, especially pricey ones, because I have run into pricey polishes that are not worth it and indie polishes that suck. Not this time though!

Though clean up sucked and i wished I had started with an Elmer's glue base coat. Oh well, it did look really good on the polish I already had on. The pointer finger is Cupcakes alone, 3 layers. The rest are Cupcakes over Essie Mint Candy Apple with 1 layer on middle finger, 2 layers on ring finger, and 3 layers on pinky.

This is actually 2 days into the manicure because we all got sick over the weekend and I couldn't be bothered to take photos. I painted the nails Saturday evening and took photos Monday. It wore great! I do think a big part of that was the base coat (Zoya) and the top coat (OPI), but I am still pleased. I haven't had as long of wear with the OPI top coat with other colors so I think the polish itself is a  factor.

This was packed with glitter. No fishing here. It did dry rather gritty feeling, but a nice layer of OPI top coat smoothed it out just fine. I did a rather thick layer especially on the nails with 3 layers of glitter.

I loved this polish from start to finish and now I want more.

Rainbow polish retails for $8.50 for a full size bottle and you can buy them at her store on BigCartel.