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Hear The Pitter Patter

Okay, I admit it, I'm kinda into this royal baby thing.  It's so ridiculous, but the girly side of me just can't stop squeeing a little whenever I read about them in People (which is often, because they're on the cover EVERY OTHER WEEK. Even as into them as I am, I'm like, "Guys, find someone else to write about.  Just don't make it any of the Kardashians.")  They're just so adorable and Kate has such perfect hair and it's such a fabulous love story because he's a damn prince and she's a commoner (a commoner worth millions of dollars, but still.  Details!)  I guess I just love the fairytale aspect of it way more than I expected, especially because she looks like the world's most perfect pregnant person.  She barely looks like anything's changed!  As someone who will probably become huge and sweaty and spend the entire nine months in sweatpants and a t-shirt, I am seriously jealous of that.  Which is why I must have Butter London's new Pitter Patter nail polish.  It's a really pretty opaque aubergine shimmer that they created as a tribute for the royal baby-to-be.  (I mean, that's the life, right?  To have a nail polish named for you before you're even born?)  It's only available in America (sorry, Brits!) and it's a limited-edition, so snatch it up quickly before it vanishes forever.  (And maybe grab No More Waity, Katie too, which is also gorgeous and deserves to be paired with Pitter Patter.  It's Kate Middleton's life in nail polish!)  Now, on to the more important question... do we think it's a boy or a girl?   

Pixie Dust by Zoya!

Zoya is my favorite nail polish brand and it's not just that they're free of all the nasty, toxic chemicals but they also always have the most amazing collections!  I have been alternating recently between Blu from the Lovely collection (Spring 13) and Chyna from the PixieDust collection (Fall 12).  Both colors (and collections for that matter) are spectacular and get me tons of compliments - even though it's recently come to my attention that I'm terrible at painting my own nails - looks like my toddler did it.  Actually, he'd probably do a better job as I look at my nails again right now.  Anyway, Blu is a stunning light blue color (robin's egg blue) and Chyna is a deep glittery red.  When I went onto the Zoya site to check out the spelling of the Chyna color, I came across the new upcoming PixieDust Summer collection and squealed with delight. First of all, if you haven't checked out their PixieDust nail polishes you are missing out!  PixieDust is a textured nail polish which leaves nails looking like you've applied specs of glitter to them, but it's matte which really surprised me.  The colors look amazing (I like to use the lighter ones as top coats over darker colors) and the darker PixieDust colors look beautiful with two coats (vibrant, deep colors).  The new Summer PixieDust collection is available for pre-order now and will start shipping as soon as April 15.  The collection features Solange, Beatrix, Destiny, Miranda, Stevie and Liberty.   I need to have the whole set (yeah, I know, I need more nail polishes about as much as I need eyeshadow palettes... or hand lotions... and the list goes on and on...)

Hard Candy Revolutionizes Nails... Again

Okay, I admit it, it's been a long time since I was like, "Ooh, Hard Candy!  I must go buy something from them!"  But back in the day, their nail polishes were fabulous.  I seriously think I owned them all at one point.  Also, there isn't a Walmart anywhere convenient to me, and since that's where Hard Candy is sold now... well, it kind of just fell through the cracks.  But then I saw online that they had just released a collection of new nail polishes - and not just any ol' collection, but one with a whopping 45 shades and I knew I had to seek them out.  So yesterday, I went on a special Walmart run (hilarious!) and it wasn't until I got all the way there that it occurred to me that since they're new, they might not even be there yet.  And then I got very grumpy.  But I turned the corner and - miracle of miracles - there they were!  I think I heard angels singing (or maybe that was just the bad Muzak the store was playing).  

The 45 new shades are divided into 5 different groups - Candy Sprinkles, Crushed Chromes, Crystal Confetti, Glitteratzi and Itzy Glitz.  There are SO many different colors and finishes and kudos to Hard Candy because I can honestly say I wanted about 90% of them.  I even liked all the greens and greens are usually the color I covet the least.  I think I loved all the chromes the most, which is also weird because I almost never wear chromes, but they were all just so, so pretty.  I might've bought, uh, 5 of them.  Because here's the even better part - each shade is only $4.00.  Thank you, Walmart!  (And I can say that as a girl who loves her Target runs!)  I also bought a few of the Candy Sprinkles because honestly, as much as I love the thought of those, I don't know if I'll love them on me, so if I can only pay $4.00 to find out that I only want to wear them a few times, all the better.  My love for glitter polishes also means that I bought some of the Glitteratzi shades because who can resist a good glitter?  Not me!  I love using glitter for a pedicure.  There's just nothing more fun than a pair of sparkly toes peeking out of a pair of my favorite high heels.  Love!

I just bought them this weekend, so I haven't tried them yet, but from what I'm reading online, people love them, so I'm super excited for my next mani-pedi. I can't wait to try a few of them out.  And, uh, now that I'm home and looking at them online again, I might just have to make another Walmart trek to pick up some more.  At only $4.00, it's like I would be stupid not to, right?  RIGHT?!   

Speckled Up

 

From everything I know about me, these new Illamasqua Speckled Nail Varnishes do not seem like something I would like.  And yet, I'm coveting them so much that I've made THREE separate trips to the Sephora in Santa Monica to buy them and they NEVER have them.  (They might have them now.  The last time I went was the weekend before last.  So I'm hoping they'll have them before this weekend and I can make the trek over there again).  There are five colors available, but the two I want the most are Scarce, a speckled pink (on the left) and Freckle, a speckled tan (on the right).  The other three shades are Speckle, a speckled lilac, Mottle, a speckled green, and Fragile, a speckled blue.  Don't they just look fun?  I feel like they're funky, but work appropriate, even for a corporate office.  They're $16, so not super cheap, but they're not going to break the bank either.  Has anyone else gotten their hands on these yet?  What'd you think?  I'm about to break down and just order them online...

Bring on Spring!

Hhhm.  I do love Butter London, but I don't know if I'm feeling all the shades in the new Spring 2013 collection.  I'm not a huge lover of pastel shades anyway and I'm still kind of loving dark winter shades at the moment, so maybe I just have to give it a few weeks and I'll feel differently.  But if you do love and/or are ready to put some spring shades on, here are the six colors you'll find:

• Cuppa - Opaque tan crème
• Fiver - Opaque icy mint crème
• Fruit Machine - Opaque punchy carnation crème
• Jasper - Opaque bright pastel yellow crème
• Kerfuffle - Opaque pink coral crème
• Molly Coddled - Opaque lavender orchid crème

Also, apparently they raised their prices too because now each bottle costs $15.  For some reason, this kinda bums me out.  I know it's only a dollar, but $14 somehow seems more afforable than $15 when I say it out loud (something about being closer to $10 than halfway to $20...).  Well, maybe this'll help me stick to my 2013 goal to use the nail polishes I already have before buying more.  (I know.  I laughed even typing it).  We'll see...   

Sparkle Into The New Year

Happy New Year!  I took a long two week break from blogging to hang out with family, eat and drink WAY too much, and just generally enjoy life, but I'm back now and ready to kick 2013's ass.  (Can you kick a year's ass?  Is that possible?  If it is, I'm ready to do it!)

It may be a new year, but my love for glitter nail polish shows no signs of going away, and I'm pretty okay with it.  So of course, I must have this new Jewelry Top Coat Set from SEPHORA by OPI.  How fun and sparkly is it?  There are four shades of glitter in it - Sugar Plum Fairies Gone Wild (clear medium and chunky purple glitter), Glisten to your Heart (clear with fine and chunky magenta glitter), Are you Glistenin (clear with medium and chunky silver glitter) and I’m So Sari (opaque turquoise with fine and chunky iridescent glitter) - and I love them all.  I like that you can use them alone for a more subtle glitter, or over other shades you already own for even more sparkly fabulousness.  I can in no way justify purchasing this for myself, but my birthday IS this weekend, for all of my friends or family still looking for the perfect gift.  Hint, hint...   

X Marks The Spot

There are many, many things that can be annoying about living in a major city like Los Angeles - smog, traffic, expensive cost of living...  But there are good things too, like the fact that the Santa Monica Sephora store is one of only a few in the country that are already carrying the new Sephora X brand of nail polishes, thus enabling me to get my hands on some of them before a lot of people even know that they exist.  And they are awesome.  I'm not sure exactly how many shades there are because I forgot to count them in the display and I can't seem to get what I know is the right answer online, but there are a lot of them.  They're divided into groups of finishes, like The Illusionists (transforming top coats), The Cosmics (high-coverage glitters), The Sparklers (3-D glitters), The Prismatics (twinkling luster dust), The Pearlescents (shimmers), The Electrics (true neons), The New Classics (essential shades), The new Neutrals (neutrals with a twist), The Minimalists (sheer color washes) and The Industrialists (shades of grey).  There's even a base coat and a top coat.  And you guys, the shades are so, so pretty.  I could've easily bought twenty different colors, but I limited myself to just two (with the promise that I would go back and buy another couple shortly).  One of them, Egotistical, is pictured above and I absolutely love it on.  It's fabulous.  I've worn them both now and everything about them gets an A+.  The formula is amazing, the shades are super pigmented, they last a long time without chipping... It's nail polish nirvana!  And they're not even expensive - they range from $9.50-$11.50, depending on the finish.  I seriously feel like this is one of those brands where I buy one a week or something and just keep chipping away at the collection until someday I realize I've somehow acquired them all.  I like them that much.  It seems like some of them are available on Sephora's website, but not all of them.  (The woman I talked to at my Sephora said they would be available everywhere sometime in the next few months).  Hopefully they'll be at a store near you soon!       

L'Oreal Celebrates The Diamond Collection

My love for glittery nail polishes is never more evident than at the holidays.  It's the one time of year that you can sparkle every day and not feel out of place.  (I mean, within reason.  I'm not Liberace at work or anything...)  So of course I was going to love L'Oreal's new Diamonds collection, especially the nail polishes.  They're all definitely worth buying and I honestly can't even pick a favorite, but the two above (Sparkalicious on the left and Fancy Me on the right) are definitely up there.  They're just so pretty and shiny and glittery - perfect to pair with a LBD for a holiday party, but they go just as well with jeans and a t-shirt.  Plus, they're only around $5 each, so buying them all is pretty painless.  (Although you'll be lucky if you can find a still stocked display - every drugstore that I've been to has been pretty cleaned out.  Try your luck on drugstore.com).  I'm especially loving Fancy Me - it's a gorgeous red and gold glitter - I love red glitter in general, but adding the gold to it just kicks the whole thing up a notch and takes it into must-have territory.   There's also a shade called The Bigger The Better that's a silver and black glitter - so, so stunning.  I'll be hoarding all these shades and uh, maybe buying one or two spares to stock up.  I know, I know, I have glitter problems...

Note:  Samples of the above were sent to me by a PR representative working with L'Oreal

Attend The After Party

If there's any time of year that my obsession with glitter nail polish seems appropriate, it's from now through the end of the year.  Holiday parties just beg for glitter, right?  A LBD, some funky heels, and a sparkly polish and you're good to go!  Nails, inc. has a great set out right now called The After Party that has three uber glittery shades in it that will take you through the season.  Disco Lane is my favorite of the three - it's a black holographic glitter that's almost subtle in its sparkliness.  I love dark, dark nails during the winter and this combines that with my ever-present love for glitter in a fabulous way.  Soho Street is a chunky rainbow glitter - it's not opaque at all, so you get tons of different colored glitter in this one.  Perfect for a pedicure.  Covent Garden Market, besides being the name of one of my favorite places in all of London, is a full coverage red glitter that you can wear on its own or over another polish.  I personally like to layer it over a red shade just to make the color pop as much as possible, but with two or more coats, it's definitely enough on its own.  I think I might go with this one on my toes at my next pedicure and Disco Lane on my fingers.  That seems like a good match.  Now if wearing them could only magically transport me to London...

Note:  A sample of this product was sent to me by a PR representative working with nails, inc.

It's Mini Mani Month!

I used to hate mini bottles of nail polish, but over the past couple of years, they've really grown on me.  Because let's face it, how many regular-sized bottles do you ever really use all the way through?  Barely any, right?  So the mini ones just make sense.  (And they take up less room so you can store even more of your other products!)  So I have to get my hands on Ciate's new CAVIAR Mini Mani Month set.  Look at how bright and colorful it is!  The set costs $58 and comes with 20 small bottles of their Paint Pot Nail Polish, plus 4 bottles of their Caviar Pearls and a funnel to use the Pearls.  (It also has three glitter shades that are exclusive to this set, so you can't get them anywhere else).  I love the variety of shades in the set, plus I'm kinda dying to try the new Caviar Pearl colors.  I might have to pick this one up with my 20% V.I.B. discount at Sephora, which I'm currently trying to make a small list for (because I need NOTHING at all, but come on - 20% - how can you pass that up?!)  Any other suggestions for things I can't live without?