NOTD: Essie Orange, It's Obvious + Cult Nails Captivated

This is a manicure from "The Vault" aka my Google+ Instant Upload Photos that otherwise never see the light of day. I wore it last summer and with summer right around the corner, I figured it was an appropriate combination to share!

Essie, Orange It's Obvious - This is a beautiful and vibrantly opaque orange shade from Essie's Navigate Her Spring 2012 Collection. It is a brignt punchy tangerine orange creme opaque in 2 easy coats. If I was careful, I could do 1 thicker coat too, but 2 made sure there no bald spots on my nail. Make sure you've got 2 layers of basecoat on underneath this because it stains like a mf'er otherwise! I learned my lesson on that the hard way. When worn by itself, it dries to an extremely high-gloss finish, but I like to put on topcoat just to protect it from tipwear and chipping.

Cult Nails, Captivated - I usually adore Captivated coupled with Cult Nails, Scandalous - it's like the two were made for each other. Whether I actually mix the polishes together and apply them as one, layer them, or even create a jelly sandwich, Cult Nails Captivated + Scandalous are soulmates. I was craving something more bold (Scandalous is a jelly finish so it gives everything a more soft and dainty appearance), so I layered just one coat of Captivated over Orange, It's Obvious for the above look. 

Captivated itself is also a jelly polish with a coral base, and can be built up to nearly-full opacity on its own. It will lean a lot more coral/red when worn alone as compared to the manicure above. The formula is chock full of gold and coral glitter, and the jelly finish gives it a little bit of a pinkish translucency around the edges when worn without undies. 2 coats give you a squishy semi-opaque look and three will cover you right up. 

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I am defiinitely planning on wearing Captivated a lot more with the weather getting better though! I'm so bored of wearing OPI Tickle My France-y to work, even though I do love it. It's work-appropriate but OH SO BORING to people used to neon glittery nails by now lol.


UPDATE/DUPE ALERT - Icing, Tiger's Blood ($4.50) - Check out ThePolishAholic's post here for pictures and things!

Cult Nails Manicure Party

I've got a pretty impressive stash of nail polish by a small indie brand Cult Nails. The family business is run by the wonderful Maria, and her husband and children often pitch in to help. She has certainly taken the Indie world by storm and does not hand-mix her own polish like most Indie brands. The fact that polishes are mixed in a lab though, just makes them all the better in terms of formulation.

Cult Nails retails for $12 a bottle (A slight price hike from the previous $10 price tag), but I am too stingy and usually stock up when there are sales!

I have more now, this picture is slightly outdated haha

I own a nice plethora of nail polish but also have a Cult Nails glass file (Which is the ONLY thing I use to file my nails now) and some rhinestones & studs I received in a goodie bag with one of the purchases (It was like a grab bag deal/sale she held a while back)

A good friend of mine came over for a sleepover and being deprived Indian children, we decided to do some mehndi designs on my arms. She wanted to practice and said she was getting rusty. Of course, in return for her hand art expertise, I offered her a manicure and whipped out all my Cult Nails collection. Secretly in the back of my mind, I did this so I could type up a Cult Nails themed manicure post in the future LOL. 

We tested out various combinations and in the end, she went with a simple (but gorgeous) manicure using Cult Nails, Manipulative. 

Cult Nails Charlatan over Nevermore (1-coat Black Creme)

Left: Bad Devious Nature + Charlatan   Middle: Flushed     Right: Flushed + Charlatan?

I loved this on her but she felt like it was too dark.
Cult Nails Flushed on its own (Left) and over a purple or a black (Right)

This is just 1 coat each of Scandalous (Left) and Manipulative (Right)
Color builds up so don't mind the sheerness!

And we have a winner! Pleas eignore my crappy yellow bare nails xD

Her manicure + the henna art on my hands!!

BONUS PICTURE OF MY HENNA! (Click to view full-sized)

Project No Buy - Week Six

This week, I was burnt out from posting daily last week haha. I didn't post as much as I would like. ALSO I haven't had any time to purchase anything this week either. Just so busy. So tired. So sleepy :(



-$0
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-$0

Money in Spending Bank after purchases: $84.94 - $0 = $84.94




Weekly Goals -
+$5 Write a story and make a piece of digital art to post on Controlled Derangement - REPOST
       - I did this. Didn't post the digital art but I def. made things in Photoshop this week
+$5 DIY the Sigma Brush Cleaner Glove + Deep clean all brushes
       - I had a "brush laundry" day and didn't make the brush cleaner b/c didn't have a glue gun. I wasn't going to go out and buy one and am happy with my current brush cleaning technique instead!
+$5 Finish all planning for Memorial Day Weekend trip to Virginia Beach
       - ALL DONE & I am so excited for it too :)
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+15

Empties - 

+$0 None this week

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+$0

Reviews -
+$5 April 2013 IPSY Review (Yay, Issela earned me spending money!) - here
+$1 Butter London Scallywag - here
+$1 Zoya Blu - here
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+$7

Reading -
+$3.36 Sweet Shadows, by Tera Lynn Childs
+$3.92 Huntress, by Nicole Hamlett
+$2.66 Notes From Self, by Avery Sawyer
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+$9.94

1. Finish swatching & posting at least one VDC eyeshadow collection
2. Finish swatching & posting all Pumpkin & Poppy eyeshadows
3. Follow up with FAFSA & TAP to make sure I'm getting a full financial aid package

($84.94) + ($31.94) = $116.88

NOTD: Zoya Blu

Source

Click to view me full-sized!

I received a full-sized bottle of Zoya nail polish in "Blu" as part of my May IPSY subscription - I will do a detailed review of the entire bag and rave about how amazing it was in a bit, I'm just going to make sure to use things first so I have proper content and real reviews for you guys! I didn't want to rush, sample everything all at once, and only post my first impressions.

Zoya Blu is a thing of beauty - It is a very pale blue shade. A blue-tinged white, even. The best way I can think of describing it is that Blu is the shade of light, fluffy clouds allowing some of the sunny sky blue to peek through. It looks gorgeous on darker skintones and my NC42 skin contrasts nicely against the paleness of the nail polish color. For those with lighter skintones, you will not get as dramatic a look as I do. With mine, it's an in your face light blue. I can't say from experience, but it might look more subdued on those with a lighter skintone haha. Pastels in general on me tend to make a huge statement just because of how they contrast against my skin.

QUICK NOTES ON APPLICATION, ETC

• Perfect consistency
• Self-leveling
• Not streaky even at first coat
• 2 Coats needed for full opacity. Possibly 1 if you have a steadier hand
• Smooth and glossy even without topcoat
• Long-lasting. I'm on Day 3 of my manicure and there's barely any tipwear. 

WHAT I USED IN THE MANICURE

• CND Stickey Basecoat, 1 coat
• Zoya "Blu", 2 Coats
• Revlon Quickdry Topcoat, 1 coat

Just a note - Most of my NOTD pictures are taken on my cell phone camera, an HTC Vivid Android phone with surprisingly high quality picture taking capabilities. I only title them NOTD instead of swatch & review because they are less formal, have unedited and unwatermarked cell phone pix, and generally don't go into too much depth.



BONUS - A Bigger Picture!

Butter London Scallywag Swatches And Review

I don't have a large stash of Butter London polishes, but I do truly adore each and every one that I do own! This particular nail polish, Scallywag, is from Butter London's Holiday 2012 Collection. A lot of great polishes, and Butter London favorites of mine, are from that collection including Shambolic, Fairy Cake, Fiddlestiks, and Jack The Lad. Did I just name like half the collection? Oops, yeah

Scallywag is a beautiful sky blue glitter suspended in clear base. However, it is also opaque enough in 1 thick coat or 2 thin=medium coats and provides full coverage. Maybe Milani's 1-coat glitters may rival this in opacity, but the quality and finish in the BL is truly superb.

Application was flawless, and without topcoat, Scallywag dries to a really cool satiny finish. I did this manicure on my friend (In case you've noticed that those are not my nails) and she preferred to topcoat it, so all pictures were taken with the following:

• CND Stickey Base Coat
• Butter London, Scallywag - 2 coats
• CND Speedey Top Coat

I honestly cannot find fault in this nail polish. NONE. It's not terribly unique (Plain blue full coverage glitter) but it performs brilliantly and sparkles like you won't believe. I can't stop staring at my nails whenever I wear this shade. It's not tame, that's for sure!

PS: All photos are unretouched except for the addition of y logo on the bottom right :)

Influenster Spring Fever Voxbox Unveiling

Hi everybody! I hope you've all heard of Influenster by now, because who doesn't love a website where we get the chance to earn free things for doing what we love - swatching, reviewing, and critiquing makeup and skincare products!

It's something most bloggers do on a daily basis. It's something that many bloggers have turned into a successful full-time career! Influenster gives all bloggers (And people in general) the opportunity to score some free items by linking their social media and making sure to tweet, facebook, instagram, pinterest, etc the items they receive. So the more you participate, the better your influence and Influenster score is. And the better your Influenster score is, the more opportunities they give you to participate in earning prizes. It's a cycle of the best kind!

If you are interested in signing up for Influenster, you can request an invite on their site, or post here and request one from me! I haven't given out any of my invites yet.

My Spring Fever Voxbos arrived in THREE DAYS!! It was on its way by May 10, and in my mailbox yesterday :) Such great, fast delivery this time.

I am most intrigued by the OSIS+ product - a.....ball of rubber paste that defines and separates my hair? Yeah, you can say my interest is piqued. .

Individual product closeups below the jump :)

IPSY: April 2013 Swatches and Review - PART 1

 Hi Nail Sparks* Readers! This is Issela posting today, thanks to Pryanka's invite.

This is way overdue, since the IPSY May 2013 bag actually arrived today. For those of you who don't know, IPSY is a beauty subscription service that is currently kicking ass:

Each month, subscribers will receive a beautiful Glam Bag with deluxe samples and full-sized beauty products. Members can watch and play along with the stylists with the same products that they are using. All for only $10 a month. 

In this bag I received the Be a Bombshell Cosmetics Blush in "Beach Please", and while it looks ridiculously bright in the packaging, it goes on quite nicely with a light hand (pictured on the left). Pryanka received it in "Sweet Cheeks" (pictured on the right). These are the two side by side: