OPI Hussy

 

Today I have a very special post!! I was convinced by my good friend and fellow blogger, Marisa, to do a red nail polish post!  Saira, another fellow blogger and friend was convinced by Marisa as well.  I have to be honest here.  I do not grab for reds.  I have them of course, but they aren't usually my go to.  I think they look nice on me, but I just think of red as a standard nail color, and it's not as "fun" haha.  However, even Mr. CC commented how nice this was and that it was very sexy and classy.  I suppose Marisa is right ;-)  Today they are wearing red too!  Please check out Marisa's blog, http://marijonails.blogspot.com/, and Saira's blog, http://sairas-blog.blogspot.com/, and see what they have on!

This color is very special to me because my good friend Laura picked it up or me!  I believe it was around Christmas time, so the color was perfect!  Polish is always such a lovely gift!  She told me it is a Merle Norman exclusive that she found and knew I must have!  How sweet of her to think of that and pick it up for me!  It made it even more special ;-)   Plus I just love the name Hussy!  My friend Laura made sure I knew she wasn't referring to me, LOL.  I believe this color is still available, but for more information, please check out the Merle Norman website: www.merlenorman.com.



Hussy is a gorgeous red with shimmer.  In the sunlight it becomes very red and bright, but in artificial lighting, it is more of a dark red.  See below for the pictures with different lighting! ;-)

Sunlight

 

Shade

 

Artificial Lighting

 

So I'm very glad I chose this as my red to wear.  I think I only wore it once since I've had it!  It is SO pretty, it should be worn more!  I do love a good red though, so I'm glad Marisa was able to talk me into it! ;-)

Am I the only one that doesn't grab for red?  Or is most of your collection red?  In looking at my collection, I see a lot of red OPI polishes, but the rest of my brands have a mix of everything.  I may need to keep a better eye on red polishes!  I could be letting some pass me by without even realizing it!!!

Hope you have a great Monday!

Much Love,

Crystal

L'Oreal Gorgeous Gold and Silver Sparkle

This week flew!!! Wow!  So I was at Walgreens a couple times this week and kept eyeing these two colors.  Well I finally decided to check the price since the display didn't have it listed and found these were buy 1, get one 50% off!  I figured, hey, why not!  So I went for it!  L'Oreal was listed for $5.99 I believe, so 2 for about $9 isn't so bad! 

Gorgeous Gold - 168 - is this really shiny gold color with a gorgeous shimmer through it, almost like tiny green little specks.  It also has gold hexagons throughout it.  I so wish I would have had sunlight to capture this, but then sun was already down last night!  Sorry!  It looks kind of lumpy in the pics, but in person it is so neat to get the random glitter pieces shinning.  I used 2 coats for the pictures and threw on a coat of Seche Vite for good measure.

 

 

 

Flash

Silver Sparkle - 162 - is a sheer off white/champagne color with a hint of light pink.  It contains brown speckled glitter with iridescent glitter in it.  I used 3 coats for the pictures with no top coat.

 

Iridescent Glitter!

 

 

 

Flash

 The I wanted to try Silver Sparkle over black to see how the glitters looked!  I really liked they way it turned out!  I only used onecoat over black with no top coat.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, I don't usually tend to buy drug store brand polish!  Not for any particular reason, but mostly because I've been enjoying the Indie/Franken polish and also because I was collecting brands like OPI, Zoya, and China Glaze.  So this was a nice change for me to try something new.  These are my first L'Oreals, although I do kick myself for not getting one a while back, I swear it had something in the name of Owl?  I grabbed that and set it down about 20 times and ended up never getting it, lol!  But I did notice the formula on these two were thick.  They applied well though, so I can see myself using these in the future.  I think especially with the Silver Sparkle doing combinations, possibly even the Gorgeous Gold with the right base!  Hmmmm my wheels are turning!!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Make sure you do at least 1 thing that makes you smile, because hey, life is too short!  I'll probably sit back and enjoy a movie or two, reread parts of Hunger Games, since I spent most of last weekend rapidly reading them to find out how they ended!  I took it all in, but I'm still hooked on it!  I thought they were very well written and I'm excited to see the other movies in the future!  Now the waiting is the hard part!!

Much Love,

Crystal

Lynnderella LavenDear

Hello!!  One of the great new perks of being married is that my last name now starts with L!!  I'm only kidding, but it did help me to get my Lynnderella's from Leah Ann quicker due to the wish list system! ;-) hehe If you are unfamiliar with Lynnderella polish, I must explain that their is a very high demand for the polish.  Originally, Lynn would open her blog for orders, but of course her e-mail would practically crash because everyone wanted some, so she would have to close shop.  I found out about Lynnderella around the time she started to sell through Leah Ann at Llarowe.  Shortly after word got out about Llarowe stocking them, people cleared them from her site in seconds!  I can't imagine being a web designer with the way we shop for polish!  Leah Ann even had over-orders with the chaos!  It has since evolved into a wish list system that when Leah Ann accepts them (she currently is not), she then sorts them alphabetically in order to fill.  Now this is no easy task, because you have so many people wanting so many different colors!  Plus, if the colors become sold out, it causes back orders.  I think it was great that she split the alphabet by first filling A down, the Z up, back to L down, and M up.  My maiden name started with H, so see?  My new last name has it's perks!  I'm sorry for those stuck in the middle though. 

I understand this seems like a lot of work to wait for a polish, right?  Well to be honest, I do think it's worth it.  There is just something special about a Lynnderella.  She carefully creates these colors that have all these hidden qualities to them.  I had no idea LavenDear has as much going on as it does, but I'll get to that in a minute.  What I do want to say is that we must remember all the work that Leah Ann and Lynn are putting into this!  It does take extra time to do the orders this way, and even though I had my order split into a few packages due to back orders, it was exciting to get all the nail mail!   I have no idea what it takes to create polish or what is involved, but Lynn has stated multiple times that she wants it to be her own work.  To me, that is part of what makes it so special!  And I've heard a new collection is in the works!!  So keep an eye for that!  Hopefully Leah Ann is moving through the wish lists and there will be another mass collection of orders to start another round.  If you're waiting to get a list in or waiting to get your polishes back, I hope you love them when the get to you - because they are SO much better in person.  :-)

Well that's just my little tid bit of info I've picked up on over the last several months.  On to LavenDear!  This polish starts with a base of purple jelly with a hidden blue shimmer.  The glitter in the polish is purple and reflective in hexagons and round micro glitter.  Then a very subtle holo glitter is mixed in that catches the light when you least expect it! 

I'm glad I snapped a few pictures of my base - Zoya Kristen, because LavenDear really alters the way this looks!  I applied 2 coats of Zoya Kristen with 1 coat of Seche Vite below.  Sorry, I didn't clean my edges! I was going to do a tape mani and got too tired!

 

 

So yesterday after work, I added this and loved the way it looked :-)  This is 1 coat of Lavender with 1 coat of Seche Vite.  I do want to do this with a tape mani eventually to show off the difference in color!

 

 

Blurred for holo!

 

More holo!

 

 

Flash

I am so glad I had this on my list!  I originally passed this one by from swatches, but I just love how it looks with the tinted base and holo specks!

For Ordering - please see Leah Ann's website (Llarowe) - http://www.shop.llarowe.com/ - she is not taking orders at this time, but you can sign up for notifications to find out when wish lists are being accepted!  I hope this post has helped you gain some information about this brand and that you can eventually get this beauties into your home! ;-)

I hope you're week is going great!

Much Love,

Crystal