Bengale

Dior has done it again!  Bestill my heart I am in love with Bengale.  It's one of the new Fall 2012 colors from the Golden Jungle collection.  Bengale is avaiable at Dior stores and Neiman Marcus.  If you want one I would suggest snatching one up quickly before they are sold out and then you have to pay an arm and a leg to get one.

Now I will let you know that I am not a brown lover.  But after all the snafu's with the neons this summer I have matured color-wise and am embracing the browns, nudes, taupes, etc.  I am actually selecting them over my usual blues and greens.  Who am I???  I don't even recognize myself anymore.  Hehe.
Bengale is a stunner for sure.  If you like browns you will love it.  I'd say it's a medim chocolate brown color.  It applied so easily and smoothly, like all Diors do.  Bengale is a creme with a subtle hidden shimmer!!  I swear my eyes were playing tricks on me, but nope it's definitely there!  Very light golden shimmer.  WOW!!  I had to confirm this with a nail polish group just to make sure I wasn't crazy (you will see it ever so slightly in a couple of the pictures).  2 coats of perfection.  So glossy that you can totally skip a topcoat.  But I used one so it would last longer on my nails.  
So enough rambling, here are the pictures.  The first Fall shade on my tips that I am sharing with you!

100, 200, 300 (and maybe 400) Follower Giveaway!

Hello to my devoted followers!  I haven't held a giveaway since I hit 50 GFC followers and think it's about time to celebrate the other milestones I have hit since I started blogging in March.  Isn't that crazy?!  Almost 300 followers in 4 months!  You guys rock, I love all the comments I receive and knowing that you take the time to look at my posts.  I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy posting them!  I also hope it helps you make some educated choices in polish purchases.

On to the goods, right??  I will have 3 (possibly 4) winners!  Each winner selected will win the corresponding polish bottle shown by number.

#1 Winner will receive a brand new bottle of Feverlacquer Midnight in Your Shortest Skirt (provided by Wishful Bath & Beauty)

#2 Winner will receive a brand new bottle of KBShimmer Watercolor (I purchased)

#3 Winner will receive a brand new bottle of Princess Polish Grape Jelly (I purchased)

#4 - I will reveal this prize if I reach 400 GFC followers before the end of the contest

Good luck to you all!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Strawberry Jam

Strawberry Jam, yes please!  I ordered a few polishes from The Must Be Jelly Collection by Princess Polish.  The shipping took a really long time, but it was no fault of the Princess…I think USPS had a bunch of her packages held up for a while.  My package did finally arrive safe and sound and full of beautiful new polish! 

This collection is unique because they are all jelly holos!  Can you believe it?!  I couldn't either and that's why I bought 3 (2 for me and 1 for a lucky winner of my upcoming giveaway).  So I put on Strawberry Jam first.  SJ is a beautiful pink - bordering between a magenta and a hot pink.  SJ has a nice squishy application, like a jelly should.  Very sheer with the first coat, but it built up nicely with the 2nd coat.  I did 3 because I'm crazy.  The holo is a subtle linear one and it's really lovely against the jelly.   I finished it off with a top coat and the holo wasn't affected.
You can get Princess Polish here or check Copious (a mix between etsy and pinterest), I have seen them listed there as well!  Join through my link (provided above) and you get $10 to spend…that's a free nail polish people!!

Lilibet's Jubilee + Tristam + Stroke of Brilliance

Quick post of a quick mani!  During my funk - which is still kind of funky, but getting better, my good friend Gina from My Dirty Little Obsessions suggested a mani combo to try out.  She took a looksie through my stash list and picked out a couple untrieds, Butter London Lillibet's Jubilee and a-England Tristam.  Sounded pretty to me! 
I used 2 coats of LJ to start with.  It's a really pretty silver foil with a hint of lavender.  It went on easily, no drag or visible brush strokes.  Really a quite pretty color!  It's totally silver in some light, slightly lavender in others.  It also has some sparkle factor in the sunlight.  Love it.
I sponged a-England Tristam, a puple scattered holo, on the tips.  I used 2-3 coats using a makeup sponge to get descent color coverage.  Using this menthod with Tristam really didn't show off the true beauty of the polish.  Tristam deserves to be worn alone soaking up all the glory.  But it works with this design concept.  
You know me and glittah!  I had to do a little something else to spruce up the combo so I added my newly acquired bottle of Essie Stroke of Brilliance.  SOB is a gorg blue glitter top coat.  It has micro glitter and hexs in kind of a cornflower color and a deeper navy-ish color.  Much like the other top coats it went on easily, no digging for glitter, no dabbing to get good coverage.  I topped it all off with a top coat and I was good to go!

Girls Night & Operation Save the Polish

A few nights ago I had some girlfriends over.  We gossiped, snacked, drank, painted nails, attempted to watch a movie. My friend Erin had a difficult time picking out polish from my ever-growing stash.  Fortunatley I only brought out my containers of untrieds so that cut her choices in half.  She selected Spoiled Distant Memory and topped it off with Hits Apolo.  Pretty awesome combo, right?!  And look how great she did on her nails!  She totally needs to come to the dark side and join the polish cult, I mean community.  

Then there was a mishap.  Little Miss Naomi decided she didn't want to miss the girl-time so she stayed up well past her bed time.  She was having a ball digging through my polish and then, crack….one snapped right at thte neck.  My friends and I sat and stared as the polish started to leak on the carpet and form a pool.  Fortunatley it was a clean break so no glass, but I had to think and move fast (as much as possible after a few strong drinks).  I soaked up the polish and found a bottle of top coat that I hated and had put aside for the Zoya Earth Day promo - but never did.  I emptied and cleaned it out, then decanted the salvaged polish into it's new home.  Fortunatley it was just a bottle of China Glaze Lasso My Heart (and I can get another if I want to).  But here are the pictures of the adventure.  

Out damned spot!

broken Lasso My Heart

filling the empty OPI top coat bottle

just about full

Lasso My Heart in it's new home

And here's my little terrorizing my boxes of nail polish

The boxes make for a fun climbing obstacle course

Mare Of The Moon

I was on vacation and changed my mani.  Please excuse the tip wear, shoddy paint job and lousy pictures.  I did zero justice to Rainbow Honey Mare of the Moon.  It's a beautiful blue that at times looks purple (slightly duo-chrome).  MotM has a fuschia shimmer that glows and is also full of fun glitter - small and medium sized holo hexs AND half moons!  The moons were easy to get on the nail with just diping the brush in the bottle, no digging necessary.  I used 2 coats and got great coverage, no underpants needed.  It dried slightly dull so you will want to use a topcoat to get a glossy shine.


You can get Rainbow Honey here and I recommend you do.  If the others are anything like Mare of the Moon than they are all gems!!

Aloha

ALOHA!!  Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about.  Dior, I'm still new to you but you haven't let me down yet!  As you know I've been in a funk.  I haven't been liking anything I put on my nails.  Why did I wait so long to put on another Dior?  My savior.  I am feeling back to happy.  


Aloha came in a set, the polish and a topcoat.  $26, that's a pretty damn cheap topcoat coming from Dior.  Aloha is perfect.  A bright true, orange - ever so slightly reddish in tone when in the shade or indoor lighting.  I would say on the Crayola scale it is Outrageous Orange.  It went on like a dream in 2 coats.  So smooth and even.  There was the slightest hint of VNL but I don't care, it's still beautiful.  I used the supplied topcoat and it dried uber fast.  And thank goodness for that because I had to change a diaper almost immediately after putting Aloha on.  I love that the bottle is also tinted to match the polish, just a fun little extra that makes me love it more.  
Aloha came out summer 2011 in the Dior's Electric Tropics Collection.  There were 2 polishes, Aloha and Paradise.  I've been on the hunt for Paradise and actually had a friend find it for me!  I can't wait for it to arrive to try it on!  I'm sure it will be as amazing as Aloha.
Mahalo!