Sinful Colors You Goji and Sketch Daisies Nail Art

I have another new acquisition for you today (maybe I have a problem...)! Trolling the endcap at Walmart, I spotted one bottle of a Sinful Colors shade I hadn't seen before, a berry purple called You Goji. It turns out that this color is even more unusual than I expected. When I searched for swatches, I came up empty. It's like this color never existed. This leaves me in the very high pressure position of swatching this presumably hard to find shade, just for you!

The first thing you may notice about You Goji is that I described it as berry purple, but it swatches almost brick red. It turns out that this shade is pretty difficult to photograph without TONS of light. In low light, the red is more prominent, and these swatches are fairly true to color in those conditions. It makes me sad that the low light end was all I managed to catch, though, because the purple end of this shade is so pretty, and completely different from what you see here. It's a cooler pinky berry shade very similar to how it looks in bottle. If you like the bottle shade, I think you'll be pleased with it when you get home, too. It's not wholly original, but not a dupe for any of the other berrys in my collection, and I'm pretty fond of it so far. Pink and purple lovers should pick it up if you see it.

 

Application was very good- two coats here, but you could get away with one thick coat applied carefully for full coverage. It's a creme finish, dries fast and levels well. It was also really, really shiny- no topcoat in these pictures! The downside of such a rich color is that cleanup is a bit of a bear. I had trouble getting it off of my cuticles with acetone, and when I removed it from one finger to fix a nail art oops (stay tuned!), I had some heavy smearage. In short, getting it on was easy, but I expect that getting it off will take some finesse. It would probably be less of an issue if I hadn't been slacking on the cuticle oil but, keeping it real, very few of us have perfect cuticles, you have been warned.




Now for the nail art! I wanted to do a purple/pink galaxy mani on this shade, but the red undertones proved to be a little too strong, and it just didn't look right, so I went back to the well for some sketchpad daisies. While I have a sometimes maddening love for very precise nail designs, I think daisies are so cute when they've got that worn, brushstroked look as if you doodled them in a notebook with a dull number 2 pencil. I used an LA Colors white striper to draw my daisy petals around a dot of Julep Nessa. I have a few white stripers, but the formula on this one is a touch thin. Crappy for stripes, but perfect for the softer, slightly transparent look I was going for in my daisy petals.

Is You Goji in your collection? I'm always curious about when polishes I haven't seen came out and whether a polish I like is LE, but all I can find on this one is an eBay listing with a snap of the bottle and a ridiculous price tag. (I paid $1.99, they want $7.99-I hate when online sellers price gouge a color because it's somewhat HTF. I mean, I found it at Walmart, so it's not exactly unicorn pee.) If you have a little history or other thoughts on this color, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. In other news, this is my 100th post! I've had so much fun with the first 100, learning to take photos, practicing nail art, and jumping into the nail blogger community, and I hope to keep getting better all the time. Whether it's your first visit or I pop up in your Bloglovin' feed with every post, I appreciate you, and it never ceases to amaze me that people manage to find my super secret blog. THANK YOU!

March Maven Swatches and Review: Danica, April, and Angie (a Julep holo!)

This month as an add on, Julep introduced a holo! I tried so hard to say no, I really did, but it didn't happen. Angie had to be mine. Wanna see it, and the other colors I picked up this month? Here you go!

Angie is a silver "liquid holographic," which I would call an apt description. When you're applying it or looking at it in the bottle, it has a really cool flowy quality. It does pool in the cuticles a little bit, so application isn't crazy, but is a touch delicate. What surprised me most was how rich the coverage was. Angie is opaque in two to three coats. To my delight, this is not a holo topper. It's almost like a holo that applies like a creme. It even cleans up surprisingly easily. I hope Angie will be the first color in a series of liquid holographics. I'd love to see this finish in just about every color (mint green first, please!). I would call it more scattered than linear, and it scatters even more with topcoat (I used Julep Freedom Polymer). This made me a little sad, because it's a touch dull without it. It's kind of strange-it clouds up when you apply the topcoat, but as it dries, it gets the most of its holo-y goodness back. If you like a good silver holo, this is a solid one, and I'm more than happy with this add-on. It's my full mani right now, and it is effectively slowing down your ability to read this post because I keep stopping to look at my nails instead of writing.

The second color I got was April, a "vermilion" creme. I'm not sure what the heck vermilion is supposed to be, but I'd call this a cheerful red based poppy orange. April's the kind of color that will get a fair amount of mileage for me. It's a bright that compliments my medium skin tone, feels seasonal 3/4 of the time (not much of a winter tone, I'm afraid), and applies nicely. I don't have any real complaints about it. It's not a revolutionary shade, but it's a lovely staple red-orange.






Finally, I picked up Danica, a unique purple-blue shimmer. I found it almost impossible to photograph this one accurately! When I went back to Julep's photos, theirs were also much more blue than Danica looks in real life. I'd hoped that it would lean more purple, and I was wowed by this shade, but if you want blue-blue, you may want to try a different shade. Or you can layer it over a brighter blue...because this shade is much sheerer than I expected. On the first coat, it's pretty much a jelly, and it builds to the opacity you see here in about four coats. It's listed as a chrome, but it's not similar in consistency to other Julep shades that I'd call chromes, like Greta and Karmen. And one more gripe: it smells pretty bad. All that said, while I wish it were a little more opaque, I like the flexibility that the consistency gives, and the actual color is fantastic. It has fine blue and purple shimmers that make it totally different than anything else I have. The blend of blue and purple is interesting and unexpected-I like it a lot.

Oh dear, I got wordy again, sorry! The TL;DR version is that all of these were really nice, but Angie's the one that really stands out. I'm sure not everyone will love it, but I'd definitely recommend it. Did you get a Maven box this month? What did you pick?

New to Me: Sinful Colors Cream Pink

Hanging out at Big Lots, one of my favorite places to troll for previously unspotted colors, I found Sinful Colors Cream Pink. A quick web search suggests it was originally released around 2011 or 2012, but I hasn't seen it in displays...until I bought it. Then I noticed that it had reemerged in the About Blooming Time collection, as identified by Nouveau Cheap. I was drawn to the gold shimmer, and the minute I put this color on, I knew I needed to photograph it. It. Is. Fabulous.

At first the name threw me off-why it's called Cream Pink when it's clearly a shimmer is beyond me. I was worried that all of that glorious in-bottle shimmer would melt away on the nail. Not a problem. The shimmer is very present, and mesmerizing. It's an instant favorite. On the down side, the formula is a little weird. It's not quite opaque, with VNL at two coats, but it's still a fairly thick consistency, so I had to be careful with the third coat an while it dried to avoid polish wrinkles. It dries to a kind of satin finish. Here I topped with Julep Freedom topcoat. Once you shine it up, Cream Pink is a delightfully squishy shimmery hot pink. Pink lovers must have this.

Not one to leave well enough alone, I added a sparkly gradient of Julep Joelle and China Glaze Fairy Dust. It's so pretty!

Are you a fan of pinks? Has Cream Pink made it into your collection?

Nail Crazies Unite: Good Luck Goldfish

This week in Nail Crazies Unite the theme is Good Luck Charm. I like the idea that surrounding oneself with certain items, colors, or furniture arrangements could tip the odds, even if I don't necessarily believe in luck. I did some casual Googling, and I found out that goldfish are considered good luck in some cultures. Goldfish nails-how fun!

The base color on this mani is Julep Kiki. I love this color. It's so bold and shimmery, and ranges from what you see here to almost a light slate color depending on the light. My goldfish is freehand with Julep Ingrid, Karen, and Zoya Jesy. I didn't think I liked Jesy at first, but I've used it several times recently, and I'm falling in love with it. For this mani, it gave the perfect amount of sparkle and really set off the goldfish's underwater glow. Around the goldfish, I used dots of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Tulle Kit for some shimmery transparent bubbles. I enjoyed this mani-I may have to do a full goldfish bowl look sometime!

Check out the other Nail Crazies in the link up:

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Crazies Unite: Rainbow

February was such an awesomely bad month, and the beginning of March was super busy, so I'm glad to be back to the Nail Crazies Unite challenge. This week's prompt was Rainbow, a pattern I love, but can never quite get right. After a few much more complicated ideas, I finally went with something simple.

For this design, I used a new-to-me shade, Sally Hansen XTreme Wear Golden-I. I really like this one a lot. I bought it because my go to gold metallic, Revlon Copper Penny, was running low, and this turned out to be not quite a dupe, but an acceptable substitute. I used three coats thin coats here.

My other shades, chosen for their super shimmer sparkly qualities, were Julep Karmen (red), Sephora for OPI What's Your Sign (yellow/orange), Sinful Colors Happy Ending (green), and Black Dahlia Lacquer 90 in November (purple). I didn't want a glitter rainbow (this time), but I wanted it to sparkle like crazy. While the level of bling looks subtle here, I assure you, it is obscene.

Have I said lately that I love rainbow nails? They're fabulous. I may even do some more before the week is out. Be sure to check out all of the other delightful rainbow creations from the NCU ladies below!

An InLinkz Link-up

March Julep Maven Review and Simple Dotted Nail Art

I got home Tuesday from a weeklong trip to fabulous Las Vegas! One of the only moments the whole trip when I wished I was home was when I found out that my Julep Maven box had arrived in my absence. This month I wasn't as excited about the beauty products as the polish, so I ended up with four polishes from the Pop! collection: Janet (a pale peach in their new soft focus finish), Ali (a mint green soft focus), Nayely (a peach/papaya creme), and Nedra (a denim creme). This month, I was all over variations of hues I've been passing over lately like peach, mint, and blue. Every month it seems like I go for a more unique shade and end up kicking myself for passing on something I know would look good in a staple shade...so this time I snatched them up. Take a look at how they look together.

First up, the soft focus finish. I'm not really sure what the difference is between "soft focus" and regular old matte pastels, but they do have a soft, hazy quality without topcoat (I used Julep Freedom Polymer topcoat in the pictures here). Both are very pretty, and I would say I got what I expected from them. Ali is very, very similar to the swatches on the Julep website, and Janet is a little paler than it looks on my monitor. Janet is the base color for my accent nails. Both are more matte in person than they appear on the website. As pastels tend to be, they're a touch uncooperative in application and required three coats for full, clean coverage.

Nedra and Nayely are well behaved cremes, opaque and shiny in two coats. I wondered if Nayely would be super similar to Princess Grace, a papaya shade I regretted passing on last year, but it appears to be lighter and more peachy. It's a great seasonal transition color for people like me who aren't nuts about most pastels but don't want to completely skip spring shades altogether. Nedra, the main color in this mani, is a great all season shade. "Denim creme" is an accurate descriptor. It's rich and cool with the tiniest hint of grey undertone, not a weird color, but also not like any of my other blues. Even though I liked all of these enough to recommend them, Nedra would be my must have from this box.

What did you get in your Maven box? I love how well all of the shades this month coordinate with each other. If you're not a Maven and decide to give it a try, do me a favor and click here or on the cute little "Classic With A Twist" button on your right to use my referral link.

First Impressions: No Rub Power Gel Polish Remover

Recently Sandi at Cutepolish posted a video review of Nail-Aid's new No-Rub Power Gel acetone nail polish remover. It's advertised as an easier, cleaner way to remove polish, and comes in two formulas: Glitter and Nail Art and Stubborn Dark Polish. Sandi's videos were my gateway to nail art, and even though my inspirations are more diverse nowadays, I still value her opinion. The power gel seemed simple enough, and since it worked well for her, I decided to pick up the Glitter and Nail Art formula. The results were... mixed.

I started out using it to remove the jelly sandwich mani I put on a few days ago. I figured this would be a good way to test this product out since it was a thick layer of polish with multiple glitters. If it could power through this mani with its multi sized glitters and crazy layering, this stuff could do anything.

Before Power Gel

I was less than impressed with the results, though. The gel left little glitters all over from the jelly base, and didn't even put a dent in the big heart glitters. I still had to go in and remove quite a bit of polish with my regular remover. The gel was also sticky and hard to wash off of my fingers, which I found quite unpleasant-it was like having glue under my nails. Blech.

After Power Gel

Nevertheless, I really wanted to like this product, so I gave it a shot with a less stubborn glitter, Julep Cameron. Those results were much closer to what I'd hoped for. The polish wiped off pretty easily. In this round, I learned that you can't be dainty with this remover, the nail has to be fully coated in gel for the full four minutes to work. I was surprised at how gentle it was on my fingers for an acetone polish. It didn't leave my nails and cuticles crazy dry as I feared it might. I topped with cuticle oil once my nails dried like I normally do, and they looked and felt fine. As a side note- when they recommend rubbing it off with a paper towel, this is a very deliberate recommendation. In an attempt to avoid said stickiness, I tried to dab a little off with a cotton ball. As you can see a little bit below, that did not end well. This product seems to work best when you follow instructions exactly.

So does it work? My verdict is that it's too soon to tell. I was initially disappointed, but this Power Gel redeemed itself a bit on the second round. It was very easy to use, clean aside from the initial stickiness while washing it off, didn't have an unpleasant or even particularly noticeable smell (as long as you don't get too close), and overall did what it said it does...kind of. The ease of use makes it worth giving another try with a few more types of manis to see if it's something I would use on a regular basis.

Have you tried this yet? What were your first impressions? Tell me in the comments!