Proud Beauty Bloggers of Color - Orange

I'm excited to be posting my first blog post as a part of the Proud Beauty Bloggers of Color, a group of minority bloggers from different backgrounds, cultures, and ethnicities that come together to show of colors we love most on our skin tones.

This time around, we're showing of orange.  Now I have to admit, orange is one of my least owned colors (along with brown) and I generally shy away from it unless it a creamsicle, pastel orange cream.  But every so often, I find a mid toned orange that I like.  Today's orange is Essie Roarrrrange from the 2014 Summer Collection.

Roarrrrange is a bright (but not neon) midtoned orange cream.  It actually seems to even have a little brown in it.  I was pleasantly surprised by this color.  I really like it on.

The formula on this was decent, but I did have a bit of trouble controlling it.  Other than that it went on nicely with no streaking and leveled out on it's own.

This is 2 coats.

Make sure to check out these other lovely ladies in orange!

An InLinkz Link-up

I Love Nail Polish Molly

A couple of weeks ago ILNP had a sale on everything that was being discontinued and of course I had to get in on it.  I'm currently kicking myself for not buying more, but such is life.

Yesterday I knew I'd be stuck in traffic because President Obama was in town and I had to be in the same area, there was just no avoiding it.  I wanted to wear something I could stare at and out came Molly!

Molly is a lovely magenta pink holo.  I will admit I thought it woulld be a bit more holo, but I've been spoiled by Laylas, Color Clubs, etc.  Application was flawless.  No need for a special base, no streaking.

This 2 coats.

Outdoors:

Inside:

A Few Barielle Swatches

Press Sample

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

Today I have a few polishes from Barielle to show you, some of which I've been eyeing for what seems like forever!  Let's get to it!

First, I have Sweet Addiction.  This one is a pretty green-blue cream.  I wouldn't quite call it turquoise or teal, it's a little too green to be either.  The formula was good and it's so pigmented, it was almost a one coater.

This is 2 coats.

Nest I have Falling Star.  Goodness, this polish is gorgeous!  I had to wear this for a few days after swatching and I couldn't stop looking.  This one is a medium blue cream with lots of copper glitter in it.  Even with all the indies out there, this one still remains unique.  I can't think of another polish like it!  This one also went on very nicely.

This is 2 coats.

Last but not least is Elle's Spell.  This one caused a stir when it first came out with it's jelly red base and iridescent flakie glitter.  This works well alone, or layered over a red or black polish.  Here it's shown alone.  This was a bit thick but nothing crazy.

This is 3 coats.

I love all of these, but if you don't have Falling Star in your collection, you need it like yesterday!

Barielle can be purchased at http://www.barielle.com/.  Polishes retail for $8.00 USD per polish.  Sign up for their emails to be notified about sales and other news!


Press Sample

China Glaze The Giver Collection 2014 Swatches and Review

Hey everyone!  Today I have for you The Giver Collection from China Glaze.  This collection is inspired by the movie The Giver that comes out in theaters August 15th.  I have to be honest.  I read the book a long time ago, but I don't remember much.  I'll have to dig it up and read it again.

There are 12 polishes; 10 creams, 2 glitters.  Quite a few of these are neutral (which goes along with the  book and there being no color in the Community).  There are a couple bright colors, but this over all reads like a fall collection.

On to the swatches!

First up is History of the World.  The promo pictures made this look more blue than it is.  It's more of a blurple leaning grey.  The consistency was a little thick, but had a pretty nice application.

This is 2 coats.

China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise

Today I have one of my favorite neons for you, China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise.  I first got this back in 2009.  It was a part of China Glaze's Ink collection for Summer 2008 and is currently apart of the core collection.

This neon turquoise also has a gorgeous turquoise shimmer that really makes this look glowy.

It terms of formula, like most neons it dries to a matte finish.  It applied nicely, nothing to complain about.  Now I normally don't comment on the wear of a polish since I'm either swatching, or if it is a manicure, I don't wear it long enough, but this polish did have some chips at the end of the day.  This is also a stainer, so make sure to wear a base coat!

This is 3 coats with top coat.

Polish Me Silly (formally Lush Lacquer) Neon Lights

Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!  Today I have a polish from Polish Me Silly (formally Lush Lacquer) called Neon Lights.  I bought this a year or two ago before the name change.  I was obsessing over neon glitter, so I had to have this.

Neon Lights has a white base with neon pink, orange, green and yellow glitter.  Application was a little difficult because the glitters clumped a bit, but I managed.  This polish also dries lumpy, so an extra coat of thick top coat was needed.  I used Seche and Barielle Manicure Extender (I also use Gelous for this purpose as well).

This is 2 coats.

Sally Hansen Color Foil Yellow Gold

Recently Sally Hansen came out with a line of metallic polishes.  I picked a few up  and today I have for you Yellow Gold.  Yellow Gold is as the name says, gold, but has a bit of an olive running through it.  Not quite what I was expecting, but it's nice.

The first time I tried to apply this, I was using a normal basecoat and it did not apply well.  It dragged quite a bit.  So I tried it out with Nfu-Oh! Aqua Base.  Much better.  These polishes dry fast, so you have to work fast like a lot of these reflective metallics.  Also be sure to have buffed nails because this polish shows ALL your ridges.

Over all I enjoyed these and I think I'll get a few more.

This is one coat over Nfu-Oh! Aqua Base.

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue and China Glaze Fairy Dust

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue.  We're all tired of hearing about it being discontinued, so I'll just skip that bit.  I've posted about this polish a few years ago, but since my photography skills have improved, I decided to post again and this time with China Glaze Fairy Dust that I recently picked up.  (Side note: why did it take me so long to buy Fairy Dust?  I've known about it for years, but it never made it to my collection and after this mani, I realize it's definitely a staple.  Now I need to find the gold version Golden Enchantment.)

1 coat Pacific Blue and 1 coat Fairy Dust.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to all the American readers out there!  To everyone else, happy Friday!

I did some easy nail art using the Saran Wrap again!  For the white, I used Wet n Wild French White Cream, the blue is Revlon Royal, and the red is a really old Sally Hansen called Perfect Cherry.

Hope everyone has a safe holiday and a great weekend!

Maybelline Lime Accent

Today I have a quick post of Maybelline Lime Accent from the Bleached Neon collection for Summer 2014.  I was unable to find any of these , but @fembot310  was kind enough to gift me the whole collection and I'm so appreciative!  These are gorgeous!  How can you ever go wrong with pastel neons?

Lime Accent is the green of the bunch.  While really bright, it also has a white base, making it look like a pastel neon.

Application wasn't the greatest, but still manageable.  It definitely goes on streaky, but things eventually even out.

This is 4 coats.