Color Club - "Revvvolution"

Hi, everyone! It seems that I only blog on the weekends. Not sure why that is, actually. I've been noticing lately that I've had "naked nails" quite a bit during week. Maybe it's because I'm just too pooped from working all day to take the time to do a full mani, snap decent pictures, then write a post about it. Or maybe I'm just lazy..........
I'll work on it, I promise!


Anywhoooo, I wanted to share with you all some pics of my very first Color Club polish, "Revvvolution". Now I know this polish has been out a couple of years and there are tons and tons of pictures on the internet of it. But I figured, since it's a sunny day today and I've already got it on, why not get some pictures of it?!


I received this beauty last week from my friend Kristin (check out her nail polish blog here) who is in one of the groups I belong to on Facebook. She swapped me this, along with China Glaze "Cosmic" aaaaaand one of her handmade nail polish rings! How sweet was that?! Up until recently, I never wanted to get into swapping. But now, I'm addicted! It's so much fun! I *heart* nail mail!

For some reason, Color Club polish is darned near impossible to find here in St. Louis. I really liked the formula of "Revvvolution", so I'll probably be wanting (needing!) more of these. I was shocked to find out that this polish could easily be a one-coater (BONUS!!!!!). I couldn't believe how opaque it was with one brushstroke. I guess to get more usage out of the bottle, you could layer it over a black polish like OPI's "Black Onyx". I've already got a swap going with someone else to get a back-up bottle of this polish, so I think I'll be set for a while!

Application:

Deborah Lippmann 2 Second Nail Primer

1 coat of Seche Clear Base Coat

2 coats of Color Club "Revvvolution"

1 coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Here are a couple of pictures taken indoors, using artificial light:

Drumroll please.....................

Now, the OUTDOOR pictures!!!!!!

This polish is EVERYTHING I've always wanted my "newer version" of OPI's "My Private Jet" to be. Even when I used to layer the Northern Lights Top Coat (by Out The Door) on top of MPJ it still never gave me results like this! And I'm not a huge fan of holos (GASP!), but this made it to my Top 10 List immediately after I put it on. 

So my question for you all: If you have experience with Color Club polish, what is your favorite color? What Color Clubs do you think I should add to my wish list?!


Thanks again, everyone, for taking the time to read my blog post today! I know there are a ton of polish blogs out there, and it means so much to me to know that you took time out of your day to read mine! THANK YOU!

Deborah Lippmann - "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"

Happy Saturday, everyone! Hope you all are enjoying your weekend so far! Man, it's a hot one here in St. Louis! It got up to around 95* today. I was at the pool from 10am - 2pm working on my tan. This time, I think I've perfected the whole tanning oil/sunscreen issue. I used some SPF 15 sunscreen (the highest I've ever gone!) in the morning, then switched to SPF 6 Tanning Oil in the afternoon. Success! No burn, just tan! And I'm gonna do it all again tomorrow! :-)


Tonight, I'm going to show you my first Deborah Lippmann polish, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". I immediately had to open up the box for this polish when I was at the store, mainly because of the name. I'm a HUGE Pat Benatar fan, so I was really hoping I'd like this polish. At first glance, it reminded me of OPI's "Light My Sapphire", a dark semi-shimmery navy blue polish. Wearing it, it looks a little dustier/grayer with a little more shimmer.


So I have to tell you about my recent Deborah Lippman purchases. My local Beauty First store carries DL, but won't be for long. They've had the DL's on sale for quite a while, but not low enough for me to buy 'em. One day my co-worker was there and bought a cute little DL French Manicure set on sale for $5. So the next day, I headed over to this specific store (there are quite a few Beauty First stores here in St. Louis). They had all DL's on sale for $3 each!!!!!! Now, they didn't have any of her famous glitter polishes, but they did have quite a good selection of everything else. Within about a week (and about 4 visits back to this store), I bought 13 bottles of polish (plus a callus softener and a primer) for myself. I also purchased 18 bottles for a friend (plus a bottle of primer) and a bottle for my sister. To see the colors I purchased, you can check out my current polish collection here.


Unfortunately, not all Beauty First stores carried DL polish. When I asked the cashier why they were getting rid of them, she said that they were no longer able to sell DL. So, if you have a Beauty First near you, it might be worth it to give 'em a call or head by and see if they have any DL on sale!


I doubt I'll ever purchase a full-price DL. So chances are, if you see any posts with a DL polish on here, it's probably a polish from this awesome sale!


My only real "gripes" with this polish is that the brushes are way too small. I felt like I was constantly re-dipping the brush for more polish. I also thought the dry time was ridiculously slow, even with the China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat and CND Solar Speed Spray. 


So, here's Deborah Lippmann's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot":


Application
Deborah Lippmann 2 Second Nail Primer
2 coats of OPI Nail Envy, Original Formula
3 coats of Deborah Lippmann "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
1 coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat
1 spritz CND Solar Speed Spray


Please excuse the smudge on my ring finger. I thought the polish was completely dry, but apparently, it wasn't!

OPI's "Black Satin"

Happy Friday, everyone!

What a beautiful day today! We've had so much rain and dreary weather, that any remote sign of sunlight makes me happy! In fact, it was so pretty today, I decided to get out of the office for lunch. Guess where I headed? Not Taco Bell. Not McDonald's. Not Burger King.....Ulta! Yay! :-)

When I got there, I made a bee-line straight towards the polishes. On the display case where I usually find the new OPI collections I saw this:

(This picture was taken after I purchased my first 2 polishes, before I purchased my next 3!!!)

Now, I know I only started "obsessing" over nail polish (specifically OPI) less than a year ago, but I think I have a pretty good knowledge of current colors, new collections, retired shades, upcoming collections, etc. This color, however, was completely new to me (hence the reason why I immediately got out my iPhone and took a picture!). I decided to get 2 "Black Satin's", along with a "Gargantuan Green Grape" (gotta love the Buy 2, Get 1 Free sale!). 

When I got in my car after leaving the store, I thought to myself, "This could be completely gone if I needed to come back and get more (to swap, sell, gift, etc.), I should go back in and get three more!" So, that's exactly what I did (this time, however, I remembered to use my $3.50 off coupon!). I believe these displays only hold 8 bottles. I purchased 5. You do the math.

From the little research I've done on this polish, it looks like it was originally released (maybe a limited release?) back in 2004 (I think I read that somewhere...). Anyways, the one picture I found of the bottom of the bottle has black lettering, which means it's probably an original bottle. As you can see from my pictures below, this is a new bottle, and includes a serial number on the label as well as an engraved serial number on the bottle (again, meaning it's not an old bottle. OPI brought this color back!).

I loved the color in the bottle, and loved it even more on my nails! It reminds me of the review I did with "Suzi Ski's in the Pyrenee's - Suede" with a top coat. Remember that one? If not, you can see it here.

Application:

OPI Chip Skip

1 coat OPI Nail Envy, Soft & Thin Formula

2 coats of OPI's "Black Satin"

1 coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat

OPI Drip Dry Lacquer Drying Drops

All of these (minus the last one) are with flash:

No Flash:

Regardless of what the weather's like where you're at, ENJOY your weekend. And, 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY (a couple days early) to all you amazing moms out there! :-)

My mom's in France even as I type this post, so I won't have her here to celebrate. And on top of that, her birthday is May 9th (the day after Mother's Day), so she'll miss BOTH holidays! Guess we'll just have to celebrate when she returns next week! If/When you ever read this, I LOVE YOU, MOM!

Gradient Mani - White to Black

I was recently inspired by a post I saw on Chloe's Nails for an "Ombre Mani". Basically, an Ombre Mani is where you go from the lightest of a color to the darkest. Here, Erika went from White to Black, with gray in between. Since I already owned 3 out of the 5 colors she used, I thought this would be a fun mani to try to duplicate. The only differences are that she used a Franken she made for the gray closest to the black nail. Since I had never made a Franken before, I used my Zoya "Kelly" (although, it's a little more purple than I had wanted). I never realized until yesterday how hard gray polishes can be to find! I went to 4 stores in search of a color similar to her Franken, but came home with nothing. I was, however, able to find the Pure Ice polish at Wal-Mart; it was their last bottle, and was not even in it's correct spot! Score!


I had another reason for wanting to do this mani. I am on a kickball league here in St. Louis, and our first 2 games are today. Our team color is charcoal, so I thought it would be fun to wear all of these colors today. I guarantee no one else on the team will have a mani as hot as this! :-)

I used 3 coats for each finger, plus a coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat.

I'd love to have nails like Erika (yes, hers are real!), but I don't, so I guess I just have to work with what I have. The mani isn't perfect, but for my first try, I think it turned out nice. I might try looking through my polish stash to see what other Ombre Mani's I can do!

Milani One Coat Glitter - "Silver Dazzle"

You know, it's reviews like the one I'm about to write that make blogging so much fun! Tonight I'm going to share with you my review of one of Milani's new One Coat Glitter polishes called "Silver Dazzle". This polish was sent to me for a review recently along with a few other Milani polishes. "Silver Dazzle" was the one that stood out the most to me, mainly because I love, LOVE, silver/charcoal/gray/polishes (especially if they're glitters!). 


I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to "One Coat Polishes" or "Quick Dry Top Coats". But, this little puppy did NOT disappoint! This polish is amazing! It looked amazing with just one coat, and dried almost immediately! This really would be the perfect polish if you were looking for something quick and easy and had little time to devote to paint your nails. What I also liked about this polish was that it didn't give that typical glitter polish grittiness/roughness that I'm used to. The polish wasn't completely smooth, but it wasn't bumpy or chunky, either. It dried incredibly smooth and soft!


As you can see below in the first picture, you CAN get away with one coat of this polish! 

Just for fun, I wanted to see what it looked like with 2 coats:

Doesn't this almost resemble a Suede polish?!

Here's 2 coats, plus a top coat (Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat):

If you don't see a new post on "Paws to Polish" for a few days, it's because I haven't taken this beauty off my nails! This, friends, will now join the other 9 polishes on my list of Top 10 favorite polishes!!!! (Can you tell I'm a little excited about tonight's mani?)

I was also sent a blue version of this polish called "Blue Flash" that I'm really looking forward to trying. Since I was so impressed with this polish, I also checked out the Milani website and saw that they make purple, red and gold One Coat Glitter polishes, too! And because they're so reasonably priced (around $4 at Walgreens), I might have to pick them all up the next time I'm out!

For more information on Milani cosmetics, visit the Milani website, www.milanicosmetics.com

*The product in this post was sent to me by the company or their PR firm for my unbiased review. 

Dr.'s REMEDY - "Healing Heather Grey"

Tonight's post will be my first (but definitely not my last!) review for a Dr.'s REMEDY polish.


I received a few packages today in the mail containing polish from various companies for my review. I have to be completely honest, I was the most excited about this bottle of polish out of all of them! My first thought was "THE Perfect Gray". I've been looking for the longest time for a color like this, and now it's here! And as a bonus, I believe this color would look amazing any time of the year. They're calling it one of their Winter shades, but it'll be great for Spring, too! 


"Healing Heather Grey" was a dream to work with. Here's why: It was super, super easy to apply; I loved its consistency! I love a polish/formula that isn't streaky, and this one wasn't streaky at all! I probably could've gotten away with one coat (no VNL even after 1 coat!!!), if I was in a hurry and didn't have time for a 2nd. It's just an awesome gray - not too dark, not too light. I also could've gotten away without a top coat, but I'm just in the habit of always using a top coat, so why not! Oh, and the cap/ brush handle - it's gripper-y (is that even a word?!) so you don't have to worry about getting out the kitchen jar opener to get it open! What a great idea!


I have nothing negative to say about this polish. It's really a great polish, and I'm looking forward to trying the other two ("Revive Ruby Red" and "Desire Dark Brown") that I received and swatching and reviewing them soon. The "Revive Ruby Red" looks hot! And the "Desire Dark Brown" looks like a delicious deep, dark chocolate. Even though these two are more winter-y colors, I'm a firm believer that you should wear what you want to wear, when you want to wear it! So if I want to wear fall/winter colors in March or April, I'm going to!
 :-)


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
2 coats of OPI Nail Envy, Original Formula
2 coats of Dr.'s REMEDY "Healing Heather Grey"

Look at that shine! Yes, this is WITHOUT a top coat!

Here, I've added 1 coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat:

For more information on other Dr.'s REMEDY products or to order online, visit www.remedynails.com or call 1-877-323-NAIL. 

*The product in this post was sent to me by the company or their PR firm for my unbiased review. 

Zoya's "Kelly"

I've been anxious to try Zoya's "Kelly" ever since I got it in the mail last week. Zoya describes this color as a, "rich gray shade with soft purple and blue undertones. An easy to wear alternative to black and a perfect NEW neutral."


I've been searching for the perfect gray for quite a while. The problem I've been having is that most of the grays out there are just too light or too silvery for me. When I saw this on Zoya's website, it seemed like exactly what I was looking for - and it is! I've finally found my go-to gray! 


I found this polish to be extremely easy to apply. Just like "Shawn", I probably could've gotten away with just one coat, but I prefer to always use at least two. My only "problem" with this application was that I noticed bubbles after both coats of polish I used (as you can see in the photos below). Now, this could've been operator error on my part. But I did kind of notice it with "Shawn", too. The next time I use a Zoya polish, I will be sure to keep my coats as thin as possible.


Application:
OPI Chip Skip
2 coats of OPI Nail Envy, Maintenance Formula
2 coats of Zoya's "Kelly"
2 coats of OPI's RapiDry Top Coat
1 spritz OPI RapiDry spray

Suzi Ski's in the Pyrenees - more fun with Suede's!

As you can see from the title of this post, I'm going to be showing my swatches of "Suzi Ski's in the Pyrenees". I purchased the "regular" version quite early in my "collecting". It's such a cool color - it's not black, but it's not gray. Almost a watered-down gray-black (don't you just love my descriptions?!?). If you like dark colors, this should be included in your collection, too.

After I tried "Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow - Suede", I wanted to buy another Suede polish! I heard that OPI was no longer going to be making the Suede polishes, so I wanted to be sure I snagged at least one more up before it was too late! The only other Suede that caught my eye was "Suzi Ski's in the Pyrenees", so I bought it at Ulta, but haven't worn it until tonight.

Below is a picture of "Suzi Ski's - Suede" without a topcoat:

Application:

OPI Chip Skip

1 coat OPI Nail Envy, Dry & Brittle Formula

2 coats of OPI "Suzi Ski's in the Pyrenees - Suede"

I'm in love with this Suede!!!!!

Now, here are some pictures of "Suzi Ski's in the Pyrenees- Suede" with 2 coats of Seche Vite added on top:

Looks kinda similar to OPI's "Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous", don't you think? (IMO, "Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous" is much prettier!)

Well, I just happened to have that, too! 

Left to Right: "Suzi Ski's in the Pyrenees" (Original version), "Suzi Ski's in the Pyrenees - Suede", "Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous":

Left to Right: "Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous (2 coats), "Suzi Ski's in the Pyrenees - Suede" (2 coats plus one coat of Seche Vite Top Coat), "Suzi Ski's in the Pyrenees" (2 coats, Original version)

If you don't own a suede polish, I definitely recommend picking up at least one before they get hard to find. 

The only downside to the Suede's is that their wear-time is quite short. If you can get the Suede polish to stay on for more than a day, you did good! You also have to be extremely careful with the Suede's - no lotions, oils, etc. as those can ruin the Suede finish.

What I think is really hot is Suede nails with just the tips painted with a topcoat. The next time I use one of my Suede's, I'll definitely give it a try.

Suede's apply so easily, and are easy to clean up, too! Not to mention they dry in an instant! So, if you're looking for a quick manicure before you head out, try a Suede! 

In summary, I really like "Suzi Ski's - Suede" by itself, better than with a topcoat (unlike "Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow" which is the other way around for me).