Santa Monica Shore Thing by NCLA

Believe it or not I actually didn't have to go rummaging through my nail polish stash in order to find this polish! It was nicely in place at the front of the top drawing just staring at me begging for me to use it. So I did and I'm glad because I haven't used it in a while. I got "Santa Monica Shore Thing" by NCLA a couple of years ago along with a few other nail polishes. Since it's been a couple of years since I've gotten a bottle from NCLA, I'm not sure what has improved but my only problem/complaint with this one was that the brush wasn't my favorite. When I would brush on the nail polish it didn't go on that smoothly and put lines into what I just brushed on. During my second round of coating I tried to put more nail polish on the brush than I normally would so that it was a little thicker and wouldn't put lines into the polish. Overall that seemed to helped and after putting my top coat on they look pretty damn good!

Two In One Post: NCLA Nail Polish Review and Partial Winstonia Review

School is finally done for the semester! So now I'll have more time to, hopefully, paint my nails and write more blog posts! I decided for this post to make it more of two reviews in one post since I used some of my Winstonia order with one of my NCLA nail polishes. Thought it would be appropriate, yes? 

First I'll start off with my partial Winstonia review which the items that I purchased are in one of my previous posts. The one thing that I forget to purchase from Winstonia was nail glue (I would do that) so I had to get some at the store first.  I decided to try out my skull charms because I find them highly awesome and loved them. One thing I learned though from my experience with this? I am horrible at using nail glue! I got some all over my fingers and tried not to get them stuck together and I did make a little bit of a mess on my right hand ring finger. Practice makes perfect right? I was worried about how the charms would stay on my nails because they aren't completely flat. Other than the fact that they aren't exactly best friends when you run your fingers through your hair, they actually stayed on pretty well. I was impressed with them for staying on overnight and then I of course always end up doing something to make one pop off! I'm going to say that was because of my lack of nail glue skills and not the charms themselves. I have a little bit of practice ahead of me! Here's what the skull charms looked like on my mani I had on at the time:

This photo is outside with the flash on my camera.

 This photo is outside without the flash on my camera.

The second item from my purchase that I tried were the glow in the dark bead studs and like I previously said, I am horrible at nail glue. Before I had left for my Thanksgiving vacation, I did a simple white mani and tried to add these on since I thought it would be cool. It was honestly a bad experience and I'm going to say that it was also because of the nail glue and probably the fact that I don't have the best pair of tweezers to apply them. If I had used some of my topcoat instead of the nail glue I feel that it would have been a better outcome but I didn't think it would cause such a problem. I'm sad that it turned out the way it did but I did try to make the beads glow by holding my hand up to the ceiling fan light for about 30 seconds.  Since it wasn't a long time that the beads were exposed to the light, there was a noticeable, slight glow coming from them. Hopefully I'll be able to try using these again while taking a different approach to the application of them.

The third item I tried were the present bow water transfer tattoo stickers and there's a story for this one! I think the one problem that I have with these is just the instructions that are on the back of the package where it doesn't say to not put it on like a temporary tattoo. That is exactly what I did and it came out the right way on my right hand..for the most part. The problems that I had with these tattoo stickers were not the fault of the product itself but my own doing. I would like to say thought that after the step of soaking the tattoo sticker in water that you actually take your finger and press it on the tattoo which will pick it up the correct way. My left hand came out looking like this: 

 

With and without flash the bow is on the ring finger.

Can anybody tell what my mistake is?  It's funny to me that I didn't think about what was happening while I was in the process of doing it. The bow is definitely on backwards but I do think it still looks pretty decent! Now I re-read through the instructions on the back and it took me a moment to put two and two together but I had finally got it. I went through the process again but got the bow the correct way and I was amazed by it....until I put my topcoat on. It clearly states in the last few steps that after applying the tattoo sticker, dabbing off the extra water, and before putting the topcoat on, is to blow dry it. And that would be the step that I forgot to do! I tell you guys, I'm making a lot of mistakes with these first tries on items! But nonetheless I will definitely keep using them until I find out a good way to do it! Here's what the correct tattoo sticker should have looked like and part of the middle of it came off with the topcoat since I forgot to blow dry it before putting it on

This is what the bow is supposed to look like. Notice the missing part in the middle?

This now brings me to the second part of my review post with is about my NCLA nail polishes. Back when I had my weekend nail polish haul I had order two different nail polishes from NCLA but then realized I already had one of them.  When I got the package in the mail I wasn't satisfied with the second nail polish since I felt it didn't look the way the picture online showed it. After emailing their customer service, who were very helpful and nice, they had sent me exchange nail polishes which I then received. I decided to exchange them for "Without Me, There's No VIP!" and "Dead End Gorgeous" and they provided me with a tracking number as well. I'm extremely pleased with how NCLA had handled this and they were nothing but sincere and nice about it which is why I didn't mind waiting for my exchanges. "Without Me, There's No VIP!" is in the photos above with the tattoo sticker bows and I really like the color. Of course it wasn't sheer enough with just one coat on so I put my usual 2 coats on and was pleased with how it looked. I was worried at first that it wouldn't cover well with 2 coats on but it actually did the job! 

"Dead End Gorgeous" is a mix of blue and purple shimmer and even though the photo they have on the website is a bit brighter than the bottle I have, I still love the color. I used this one first because I loved how it looked and on my nails it looked more like a darker black with a glimpse of purple and blue shimmer. I wasn't disappointed though with the photos on the website and my actual nails and honestly really love this color. As hard as I tried though, it was really hard to capture the nail polish on camera and it's a little darker than real life, but I still think it looks great. 

Both photos are with the flash on my camera.

 In the next photo I tried taking a picture of the nail polish in a brighter light (actually while I was getting my hair done at the salon, but sh!) and it was still difficult to capture.

Well that now concludes my double review post! Hope you guys enjoyed it and with the holidays coming up, maybe have gotten some gift ideas?! I'll have another review post soon about my I Love Nail Polish purchases which I was super excited for! So keep a look out for that post by checking back here, my Google + account, Twitter, or Instagram! Links are up at the top right of the page and feel free to click away! Also leave any comments you want in the post below or send me an email! Have a good day guys :)

Nail Polish Haul Swatches

In my previous post Haul Overview I posted the different nail polishes that I had bought during my haul weekend, which don't happen very often, at all. Since then I have received all my nail polishes and of course have worn them all already since you can't just get new things and NOT make them the next thing you wear! My first purchase was "Set Fire To The Rain" by Too Fancy Lacquer which I saw a swatch online, looked at her Instagram page, and knew I just had to buy it when it was restocked. If you're wondering, yes I was super super glad that I made the purchase! When it came in the mail it really had no chance of not being used so I put it on right away and was pretty surprised. Doing 1 coat would probably be decent enough but I always like to put 2 coats on just in case I missed some spots with my first coat. I'm pretty sure a little light from heaven shined done on my nails once I was done because my oh my the blue color is just gorgeous.

 

 

Left photo is with no flash and the right photo is with flash; both are indoors.

 

 

If I have not previously stated, I'm totally a Starbucks addict, so I of course had to take a picture while holding my coffee in the sun. Picture still doesn't do this nail polish justice in my opinion, and beware, WILL cause staring while driving in the sun!

 

My next purchases were from Serum No5: "Day Glow" (previous may be found here), "Burning Orchid", and "Twilight Sparks." I started with "Burning Orchid" first and did about 3 coats with it on top of just plain, no base color nails. I would recommend using it as a topcoat on another polish as it is a little shear when it's just on it's own but either way, it's still great! And I, of course, forgot to super charge my nails to be able to get an in the dark photo of the glow.

 

Both photos were taken with flash.

 



 "Twilight Sparks" to me is a shimmery forest green polish that may be a little sheer for just one coat, but with a second coat, it's much better. A third coat would be necessary if you find some other spots that are quite as covered as the rest of the nail. I also once again forgot to super charge my nails and get an in dark picture with this one as well (can you tell that I may be a little stressed out?)

 

Both photos were taken with flash.

My last purchase that I'm able to show you guys for now (I'll get to that soon) is "Nightcrawler" from Polished by KPT which I had on for basically a week straight, kid you not! I had the normal tip wear and also a small chip or 2 on a nail or so which was amazing to me. "Nightcrawler" is a thermal which I love because it's really nice to see whether my hands are hot or cold by noticing what color my nails are. It's also really fun to make a gradient/ombre with the polish too by sticking part of the nail into either hot or cold water and watch it change! I took several photos on my nails while I had this polish on but I'll just show you a couple.

 

 

When the your hands are warm this is the color that the nail polish turns. It's a light, shimmery purple and it still covers completely with no seeing your nail underneath.

When your hands are cold this is the color that the nail polish turns and is the color you see when you look at the website. It's an awesome "deep but not so deep" purple and I absolutely love it.

 

In these two photos you can (hopefully) see the subtle gradient/ombre effect that happens in the process of your hands going from hot to cold. This is definitely quite amusing to me because it just looks so awesome and cool when it's shifting colors! Guess you guys will just have to purchase the polish and try it out for yourselves! ;)
 

My last order was from NCLA but when I received my package and looked at "Eight Days A Week" I noticed that it was not the same color that the website shows it as. The website photo makes it look more of a light blue when in real life it is more of a lavendar purple. Seeing as this was disappointing, I sent an email to NCLA and within a short period of time I got a nice response. Even though I wasn't happy with the nail polish, their customer service has always been wonderful to me and I've never had problems with them. They were very nice about the matter and let me know that I was more than welcome to exchange the nail polish so I sent both back since I already had "Pick Me Up At Melrose Place."  It's been a few weeks since I've sent them back and yesterday I sent another email asking about the situation and was once again emailed in a timely manner with a very nice response. After I replied about which nail polishes I wanted for my exchange a couple hours later I got an email response back along with a tracking number for my package from them. Usually I would be really annoyed by a situation like this but the fact that I got email responses, in general, and very nice replies and a lot of help, made the situation not so big of a deal. That is the great thing about NCLA is that they really care about their customers and are willing to help with whatever they can!

Haul Overview

**Side Note! Apparently this post never actually made it onto the site a couple weeks ago (it's been a very hectic last 2 weeks) so I'm making this post now! I'm SO SO sorry about that! I think I'm slowly losing my mind!**

Hey guys. So on Saturday I made myself go into Sally Beauty to renew my membership and of course I took a stroll past the nail polish section. Upon my arrival to this section I noticed some of the newer polishes that they had sitting out looking all pretty. There was one that I told myself not to get but I couldn't just let it sit there and not be part of my collection! It's "Angel Rain" from Orly's new collection, Surreal and the only one from that collection that I grabbed. In my opinion it's like a light blue/purple and I see it transition from one color to the other as well as a little hint of green at moments too. I took photos of different angles and hopefully I was able to capture those colors.

This is a front facing photo which makes the polish look like a pearl type of color which if I think about it, it kind of is like that! I really like this color and I'm glad that I picked it up and didn't leave it at the store looking after me. In this photo you can see where there's a mix of light blue, some light purple, and a little tone of a light green as well.

In this photo you can see the mix of blue and green tones which makes the nails look pretty cool. It's like looking at the inside of a seashell which I feel makes it look even cooler.

To show the blue more in this polish, I angled my nails back a little and took a photo down the front/top of my nails.  This shows that blue more than the previous two photos and shows a more solid color.

For the last picture of this mani and nail polish is showing the more purple side of it. To me this is like a light purple mixed with a little bit of pink and love how it goes from the other colors and then to this. The more I think about it the more I'm seeing this color being straight off of a pearl.

Well this is a haul overview so before my Saturday buy, some of the indie brand of nail polishes did a restock on their shops and I jumped at the chance to get some of these before they sold out. The first indie polish that I decided to grab before it was gone is "Set Fire To The Rain" from Too Fancy Lacquer.  It's a "sapphire blue linear holographic polish" which I'm going to strongly assume the name came from an Adele song. I saw a swatch of this nail polish on Instagram and I just had to grab at least a bottle before they became sold out. I'm glad I did since I don't think that it lasted anymore than about 20 hours. These indie holographic nail polishes sell out quiet quickly! But then again, just looking at them makes you wanna drool..maybe that was too much information? Anyways! I haven't received the polish yet but as soon as I receive all my polishes from my haul, you bet there's gonna be a blog about them!

My next indie purchase was from Serum No5 which I made sure to grab another bottle of "Day Glow" which I've posted about in a previous post. I also grabbed "Burning Orchid" (which I realized I already have a bottle of!) And "Twlight Sparks" which are both glow in the dark nail polishes. Day Glow to me was a no brainer since it is hands down the best glow in the dark nail polish that I've come across. I didn't realize until yesterday afternoon that I already have a bottle of Burning Orchid but oh well! One can never have too many nail polishes..at least that's my theory. And Twlight Sparks has a great blue glow to it which is what drew me into it since, well, I love the color blue in almost any shade.

 

After that I snatched up "Nightcrawler" from Polished by KPT which is a thermal polish that goes from a blue with some purple shimmer in it to a more opaque white color. I own a few polishes from Polished by KPT and I've never had a negative thing to say about the polishes. I first saw thermal nail polishes when I discovered Katherine's and it absolutely amazed me. Even though it seems that thermals are more common now, I still feel that the trend starter was Polished by KPT.



My next and last haul buy wasn't from an indie nail polish company but from NCLA which I have bought from before and also won a contest they held last year. That is where I first got to experience their nail polish and it was definitely a postive one. I currently own about 7 of their nail polishes and just bought two more over the weekend when having their 25% off coupon event. I have also just discovered that I currently own one of the nail polishes that I've purchased. I must be losing my mind I swear! But I will be passing them on to a new own, Nski Beauty, who will definitely take care of them and might even post her opinion on them as well. Anyways, I went ahead and purchased "Pick Me Up At Melrose Place" and "Eight Days A Week" which I've been longing for for a while as well, thankfully it will soon be in my hands!

On that note, this now concludes my weekend nail polish haul and this week should be full of fun nail mail packages! If I get everything before the weekend I will try my best to spend this upcoming Sunday doing swatches and hopefully completing a full blog post about all the bottles of heaven that I've received.