Sally Girl Scented Polish Review

Last spring, Sally's Beauty Supply released a set of scented mini polishes.  I have 5 here to review for you, and I tested the strength of their scents over a 48 hour period as well.

Cherry, Orange, Banana, Lime and Coconut

All of the swatches above two coats.  These apply evenly, no streaking, and are opaque in 2-3 coats on the nail (I hate visible nail lines through my polish!).  I used a scale of 0-5 to rank the scents, 0 being no smell at all, and 5 being jolly ranchers in your face strong lol.  All scents were tested right after they dried, at 24 hours and again at 48 hours.

Cherry is a dark, bright pink, and it smells like cherry chapstick.  This one was hard to judge when it dried, somewhere between a 4 and a 5.  At 24 hours it had faded a little to a 3, and by 48 hours it was almost imperceptible at a 1.

Orange is a dark bright orange and was by far the worst of the bunch.  It had a very mild citrus smell when it was dry, but was only about a 2 in strength.  You really had to breath in deep to get this one!  As you might have assumed, both the 24 hour and 48 hour tests were 0's.

Banana is a yellow creme and smells just like banana Runt candies.  I was seriously having flashbacks of my childhood to my mom, who hates bananas, giving me all of the banana Runt's out of her candy lol.  This one was VERY strong at a 5 when dry, and it held strong at a 4 for both of the following tests.  Actually today, over a week later, it is still holding it's own at about a 3.

Lime was another major disappointment, but for different reasons than Orange.  The color is a flat grass-y green, and the scent is nothing like a lime.  Try more like lemon pinesol, if you sniffed the floor right after mopping.  It was not a pleasant scent at all and was unfortunately very strong, coming in at a 5 when it dried.  Thankfully it faded to a 3 at 24 hours, and a 0 at 48.

Coconut is a light pastel blue creme and smells like suntan oil.  I happen to love that smell, so it was a win for me, but if coconut scented suntan oil is not your thing, you might wanna skip this one.  This one was a consistent 4 at all 3 test points, and just like Banana, it is still going strong today at a 3.  Actually, I have swatches of this one that I painted on a nail wheel last April that still have a hint of coconut scent to them!

Overall they're fun colors to play with.  I did a cute manicure with them last spring with one color on each nail like the wheel above, and a black crackle top coat.  You could definitely smell the coconut and banana for the few days I wore it, and it made me long for the beach!!  Day one was just a big skittle scented pinesol mess lol.

Ipsy Review-March 2014

My favorite subscription is here!!  If you're not familiar with Ipsy it is only $10 a month, and each month you will receive a makeup bag filled with approx. 5 products to try out.  (Typically it's always 5, this month I got 4 but I'm still thrilled as they were great!)  There are variations in what products everyone receives and in the colors, so it's fun to see what everyone else got!  My referral link will be at the bottom of the post if you'd like to sign up and try it out!

Now, on to the bag!!!!  Can I just say now how much I LOVE this months bag!!!!  It is super cute, well made, and no plastic-y smell that some people complain about.  It seems that they are going to start using designers on some of the bags so hopefully there are more beautiful bags in our future!

First Glance

First peek at my items!

We'll start with the one I am most excited about, the Be a Bombshell eyeshadow quad!  It is full size and I got the Bora Bora palette.  I know a lot of people are getting sick of seeing Be a Bombshell products in subscription boxes but I'm always happy to get more as the quality is usually great.

Great colors!

Swatches-shade

Swatches-bright light

All of the colors had excellent pigmentation!  You can barely even tell in the pictures, but the top half of the swatches has primer underneath.  Normally there would be a drastic difference in color from the top of the swatch to the bottom, but not with these babies!

Nicole by OPI- On What Grounds?

This one I'm kind of meh about.  At first I was like "Yay! Nicole polish!".....but then I saw the finish.  Maybe I'm the only one, but I am not into the new rough/sand finish in the texturized polishes.  The color I got is nice, and it is from a new collection which is always great, but the finish just irks me.  From my experience, even multiple thick coats of Seche Vite can't get the finish to smooth out the way I want it.  I'll still wear it I'm sure, but it will bug me just the same.

This next one is kinda cool.  It's a Bare Minerals lipstick and the card says it is an exclusive color for Ipsy.  I know some people got a gloss, and I usually like gloss more than lipstick, but I LOVE the color I got so I'm happy I got the lipstick instead.  I got the shade Get Ready, and the card also has a promo code that can be used for a free mascara with any other purchase from the Bare Minerals website by April 30th, so I may have to give that a try!

Promo code hidden, sorry!

On my lips

And last, another common item in subscription boxes lately, under eye patches.  These are okay, not happy or unhappy either way.  The great shadow quad and lipstick color still make the bag a WIN for me, even if I only got 4 things this month instead of 5, and even if the eye patches are just meh.  I'll still use them and try them, but I could have lived without them.

Klorane Eye Patches

What did you get in your Ipsy bag this month?  Not a member yet and interested in joining?  Click here to sign up!

NOTD (Nails of the Day)

I haven't forgotten about you my newest blog!  I've just been super busy trying to organize my polish collection and figure out how I want to review it, painting swatches on nail wheels, etc.  I've got over 200 and growing so it took awhile.  Plus the whole three kids thing kinda cuts into my polish time :P  I change my polish usually about every 2 days so you'll be seeing a lot of these kinds of posts!  Now for the pictures!!

Make that picture.  Oh well.  Thank the horrible rainy weather in TN today, otherwise I could have taken some nice pics in the sun as well.

This is four coats of China Glaze I'm with the Lifeguard, one coat of Sally Hansen Crackle in Ink Splatter, and of course, topped with a nice thick coat of Seche Vite.

Normally I only do three coats of color, sometimes less if it has great pigmentation, but neons are a pain in the ass!!  They go on super streaky and dry to that horrible matte finish that I despise.  Nothing that a nice top coat can't fix but it's annoying all the same.  I'm happy with my final results, they remind me of Frankenstein.  My 11 year old says they remind him of Monster energy drinks lol.

Back to Blogging!!

After a very long hiatus from blogging I've decided to pick back up again, only this time I'm going a different route.  Previously I stuck to live journal, and it was essentially a daily journal about my life, kids, random thoughts, rants, etc etc.  This time I'm going to focus more on reviews of nail polish, makeup and subscription boxes-but I'm sure you'll still find some random rants and mama things here and there.  Just a forewarning, I don't censor myself in my writing.  I'm a smartass, I curse, and I like to think I'm pretty funny and witty at times, you might disagree.  This won't be your typical sugar coated every-product-I-see-is-love type of blog. Truth is, every product and box is NOT love, and I'm not here to kiss any asses in my reviews.  That being said, I'm pretty easy to please, especially when it comes to anything sparkly or pretty, so we'll see how that goes lol.  Hope you enjoy, and hope I can make some new friends along the way.  :)