Bondi New York Swatch and Review

Happy Wednesday! I know, I know, I'm late getting my post up but at least I'm here, right? That's gotta count for something! I was so excited when I finally got my email from Bondi New York that they had one of their brand-spankin' new polishes for me to try out and review for you! It was really tough choosing a color as they have some really lovely Spring colors available but I finally went with this little beauty called In The Limelight. Let me just say that their shipping was SUPER fast! I got my polish 2 days after placing the order - WHAAAAT? Sweet!

 

I must say that this polish has a very interesting consistency. At first coat it seemed a little finicky but by the second coat it had evened out really well. It's not completely self-leveling so you do have to pay attention to what you're doing but it's not bad at all. When it dried it had the coolest texture, almost rubbery and reminded me of the Illmasqua Rubber Brights line.

 

Even though this polish comes with the name of In The Limelight, my husband actually hit this one on the head when he said it reminded him of wasabi! He was totally right (miracles do happen!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bondi is a 5-free polish and the cost is $15 for a 15 ml bottle. I know that a lot of people will find that price point to be too high and to be honest, I don't know that I would be willing to pay that unless I found a shade that I couldn't live without. I think the colors are amazing for Spring and it was pretty easy to work with. I do, however have one complaint...the lid! These bottles are short and square and it made the brush a little unwieldy and uncomfortable. EDIT!!! The awesome folks at Bondi New York saw one of my tweets about the cap being uncomfortable to work with and tweeted back that it's removable. I checked my bottle and sure enough, I'm an idiot!! It's just an overcap and the cap underneath is a lot like the Butter London caps! Score one for Bondi - you guys rock!

 

And because I couldn't just leave it alone, I threw a tape mani on top of it! The colors I put on top came out a little weird but I think it looks cool anyhow! The color that looks reddish/orange is actually a hot pink from Finger Paints that has never had a label on it and the purple is Prosperity from Illmasqua which is a vibrant bright purple and ended up looking a little eggplant here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what do you think? Will you be checking out some Bondi polish?

 

 

 

Lancome Vernis In Love Swatch and Review Pt 2

Hello everyone! I'm back with part 2 of my 3 part review of some of the polishes in the Lancome Vernis in Love collection. For full disclosure purposes, I want to let you know that these were provided to me for review but I wouldn't let that affect my review, so no need to worry!

Again, just as in part 1, the formula and application on all of these polishes was nothing short of perfect! It amazes me how time and time again, no matter what the color, the formula was completely consistent and applied like a dream. The polish stays exactly where you put it and I never had to worry about flooding my cuticles unless I was feeling extra clumsy! Each picture shows two coats of polish followed up by one coat of Seche Vite unless I note otherwise.

First up is Miss Coquelicot (154M). Isn't she gorgeous? This is the absolutely quintessential red polish! I also want to mention that while this polish was perfect in 2 coats, I managed to bump my hand before it was dry so I added a third coat to cover my boo-boos. So this pic is three coats with no top coat and isn't she shiny and perfect? I just kept starting at my nails because this is such a perfectly striking pure red. I find it is very sophisticated looking and not garish at all - siiiiiiigh, perfection!

 

 Next up is Rose The and no, it's not "the", it's the French word for tea but I have yet to figure out how to get the proper accent mark over my "e" and I'm too lazy to figure it out now! I was totally "meh" over this color. It honestly reminded me of my grandmother and wasn't flattering on my skintone at all!

 

 

Then we have Violette Coquette (419B). I really liked this shade as it was completely unique in my stash. It's perfect for Spring and I don't think these pictures quite do it justice.

 

 

Next up is Noir Caviar (585N). I love a good grey and this was a gorgeous dark grey. I'm not a fan of colors that aren't black but appear that way because if I want my nails to look black then I'll wear black! I was worried that this polish was going to be one of those but it surprised me that as dark as it was, I wouldn't mistake it for black at all! Can you see that hint of blue in there? I love it!!

 

 

Finally we have Rose Boudoir (375B). This is one that I already owned and love completely. It's a beautiful deep raspberry shade and is very complimentary on my skintone! I love how pigmented and saturated this color is and I'm so happy to have a backup bottle because I'm pretty sure I will be needing it!

 

 

Which is your favorite from part 2? Have you found any colors that would make you willing to pay for one of these precious gems? I honestly think that everyone should own at least one bottle of Lancome polish, it truly is perfect and I'm pretty sure I sigh while I'm applying it every time! Also, even though it's painful to do it, these polishes are amazing for watermarbles and stamping too although not the most cost effective!

Lancome Vernis In Love Swatch and Review Part 1

Hey awesome readers! Today I have my first ever "real" review! What I mean by that is that the wonderful people at Lancome sent me some polishes to review for you! I was so excited by this because I can honestly say that, in my opinion, Lancome has the best formula out there. That's not to say that it's my favorite brand, but I haven't found another brand that can equal their formula. I tried out a whopping 14 polishes and each one of them had the exact same consistency and ease of application. I'm not even kidding! I was completely expecting some differences between colors as you find with most polish brands but there honestly wasn't any difference!

 

With that said, I'm not going to detail the formula and application for each color since they were completely the same. Unless otherwise noted, each of these is two coats of polish topped by a coat of Seche Vite. This polish stays exactly where you put it on the nail which minimizes cuticle flooding. It's a self-leveling polish but I will say that if I didn't wait at least 10 minutes between coats that it didn't level as well as I needed it to but that was more my impatience than any flaw in the polish!

 

I will reiterate again how PERFECT the formula is on these polishes. It has a dreamy consistency and is so easy and effortless to apply. The two things that stop this brand from being my favorite are that there isn't a really wide range of colors. They tend to stick to more classic and work-wearable shades which is really great but I can't live without lime green, blue and neon pink! Also, they are on the pricey side. The bottles are a tiny 6 ml and cost about $15! Before I received these for review, I only owned 4 of their polishes but I treasure each and every one of them! My advice is to find one of their colors that you can't live without and grab it!

 

First up we have Rouge In Love (112B). The reason I list the numbers in parenthesis is that Lancome has the terrible habit of only putting the numbers on their polish bottles! The only place you will find the color name is on the actual box so make sure to make a note of it before you throw the box away! This color is one of my absolute favorites from this Vernis In Love collection!! It's a bright, cherry tomato red and is the perfect pop of sophisticated color! It was more of a crelly and I adore this polish!

 

Next up is Chocolat Mordore (270N). I know that most people aren't too excited about brown but it is honestly my favorite color! I know, that sounds crazy! This is a gorgeous, rich chocolate brown without being so dark that it looks black. I will certainly be wearing this one often! 

 

Next up is Jolie Rosalie (311M). This is the quintessential pink. It's a light bubblegum pink that isn't so bright that it's neon but certainly isn't a pastel. I'm not sure how often this color will find it's way to my nails but when someone says, "pink," this is the color that pops into my head!

 

Then we have Rose Pitmini (343B). I really liked this color a lot more than I thought I would! It's a very sophisticated pink but is also rich in color. It's a new shade to my stash so that was really nice and I think it will compliment a lot of different outfits in my closet. It's a perfect blend between fun and professional!

 

Finally for today we have Beige Dentelle (240N). I really thought I would hate this one. I looked at it and kind of shuddered but tried it anyway and I was really surprised with how much I actually liked it! I'm not sure how often I'll actually wear this one but I certainly think it has it's own beauty!

What do you think, which one was your favorite out of these five? Also, be sure to be on the lookout for the rest of the polishes that were sent to me for review purposes because there's lots more to come!

Pure Ice Tape Mani

Hellllloooooo Monday! Sorry it's been so quiet around here lately. Two of the kids and myself were sick and my oldest daughter had dental surgery and that was NOT fun! But we're all back among the living again and back to blogging, yayyyy!

 

I stumbled upon this massive Pure Ice display last week and once I was finally done drooling I picked out 8 or so new polishes. A lot of the colors there were nothing new or special but they had some really great glitters. The magenta polish in today's mani really surprised me by being a jelly, I wasn't expecting that but I was happy for sure! The purple polish refused to photograph properly and looks quite blue in the photos but I promise that it's a gorgeous deep purple!

 

The magenta polish is Speechless and the purple is Last Chance. The glitter that is paired with the magenta is It's Complicated and the glitter that's paired with the purple is Never Satisfied. Even though the names are sort of depressing, the polishes themselves were fabulous and I'm quite happy with them, especially for less than $2 each!

 

St. Patty's Day pretty much came and went without any notice from me...pretty sure I wasn't even wearing green either!

 

I'm so sad that my nails are so much shorter than they were in this pic. They were a perfect length and then this awful weather dried them out and one broke so I filed them down and they were still a decent length until two days later when another one broke and now they're pretty short. Not quite nubs but still short! We had a week of temps in the high 50s to mid 60s and I was in love and this week is supposed to only get into the 30s and it's snowing right now - I'm a sad clown!!

Whimsical Undies!!

I know what you're thinking and get your mind out of the gutter! A couple of weeks ago I finally decided to try out my bottle of Revlon Whimsical. So I slapped a coat on my naked nails...and then another...and another! By the third coat it still wasn't opaque and I wasn't a happy camper! I had seen some really pretty swatches of this polish and I wanted mine to look like that too! So I asked my Instagram ladies what was going on - did I get a bad batch? I was quickly informed that I needed to put something under this polish. I know that some of you are thinking, "duh Lindsey!" Well, I really don't ever use undies unless I'm doing nail art like a watermarble or something. Usually when I use a glitter polish, I prefer to use enough coats to make it mostly opaque.

So once I had accepted the fact that I needed some undies, I asked for suggestions and there were quite a few readily given! So I decided to try them all and share them with you! Each of these swatches is shown on it's own and then with 2 coats of Revlon Whimsical on top.

The first five polishes I tried are as follows from thumb to pinky: a England - Camelot, Wet 'n Wild -Megalast On A Trip, China Glaze - Lemon Fizz, Essie - Butler Please, OPI - If You Moust You Moust.

Next up in thumb to pinkie order is Catrice - Am I Blue Or Green?, MUA - Frozen Yoghurt, Essie - Go Overboard, China Glaze - For Audrey and GOSH - Silver.

And the third set is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On, Sinful Colors - Cinderella, Wet 'n Wild - Tickled Pink, Wet 'n Wild - Lexington Yellow and China Glaze - First Mate.

What do you think? Any you love, hate? I kinda like them all!