I've never had a manicure that was more "me"- ELF Royal Purple swatch, and Ulta Pinata-Yada-Yada (pic heavy)

Maybe if I were to paint some flamingos or something, we'd get pretty close, but till probably not as close as this!  I needed something quick, so I just chose a polish that was sitting on my desk- an ELF polish that was part of this TJ Maxx haul way back in August.  I set the polishes I have yet to swatch near my desk, and this one had been sitting there for AGES.  So I popped it on because I was in a purple kind of a mood (when am I not, though, really?)  And I was so pleased!  I couldn't really capture the color in some of these pictures.  It's November in Oregon, which means rain rain rain, and not adequate amount of sunlight to really get the good photos.

This is all the sunlight I could manage

This is a bit more accurate

Anyway, It's this really lovely shimmery sort of royal/jewel purple.  I think it would be GREAT for a peacock theme, which is now on my mind.  So I wore Royal Purple by itself for one day, and then decided I would try out another polish from another haul (from like September when I got those Butter Londons)- Ulta's Pinata-Yada-Yada.  Here's the final look:

This is a way more accurate picture of what ELF's Royal Purple looks like

Purple polish, multi-colored glitter- this manicure screams my name!  Hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.

Products Used:
ELF Royal Purple
Ulta Pinata-Yada-Yada
Seche Vite

TJ Maxx Haul- great deals on Essie!

Yesterday I took my pooch to the vet, and while they were keeping her I had half an hour to kill.  I headed over to TJ Maxx, and what did I discover?  The motherload!

Say hi to my cat Jack everybody

Everything in that picture was 4 dollars!  Sorry the photos are poor quality, but I think you get the idea!

Looking For Love, Shop Till I Drop, Dune Road, Minimalistic

I had a great experience with ELF polishes before, 

so I happily snapped up these two sets.

Glitter!!

Always looking for a nice french mani

So there you go.  You might wanna go hit up your local TJ Maxx if you can- 4 dollars for Essie is a pretty great find if I do say so myself.  

Let me know in the comments if you find anything!!!

ELF Purple Pleaser vs OPI Pamplona Purple

I was sitting at my desk trying to decide what to do with my nails.  One hand was painted, the other hand wasn't.  Do I want to remove it and do another swatch?  Do I want to work with it?  And as I sat and pondered, something caught the corner of my eye.  It was OPI's Pamplona Purple!  I picked it up and looked at it, and compared the bottle to that of ELF's Purple Pleaser and thought, EUREKA!  A comparison swatch!

So here we are, my very first comparison swatch!

Sunshine

Purple Pleaser on Thumb, Middle and Pinky

Pamplona Purple on Pointer and Ring

Inside, with flash

Purple Pleaser on Thumb, Middle and Pinky

Pamplona Purple on Pointer and Ring

Purple Pleaser on Thumb, Middle and Pinky

Pamplona Purple on Pointer and Ring

So there it is.  They look less similar on my nails and in the sun than they did in the bottles in my shady house. You can see that Purple Pleaser has more red/pinkish tones to it than Pamplona Purple.  

I think I might prefer the ELF polish over the OPI even considering the fact that it needed one more layer.  I just think I prefer the color, and the cost is sweet too!  What do you think?  

ELF Summer Ready Collection: Purple Pleaser

I've finally gotten around to swatching more of that ELF Summer Ready Collection from Target.  Today it's Purple Pleaser, a pretty awesome purple that I think will be great for fall and winter.  It's pretty streaky and I could've probably benefited from another coat, but overall I think it's a really nice color.  I've been really impressed with this collection!  Totally worth the cost, for sure.

Previously:

Lilac

Mango

ELF Summer Ready Collection: Lilac

I really really wanted to wear a pale purple matte manicure, and thought "Hey, why don't I continue swatching the polishes from my ELF collection?"  Because I said I was going to do that and never did.  Unfortunately, I decided to do it late at night when the sun wasn't out, so my photos of it aren't so great straight out of the bottle.

Here you can kind of see the color.  It's pretty sheer, this is I think 3 coats.  I probably would have gone for another one if I hadn't been wanting to go to bed.  I used OPI's ridge filler as a basecoat, but you can still see them ridges.  Overall I think it's a very pretty, springy color.  Oh and forgive the part where there's polish all over my skin and stuff, I have a very slapdash method of applying nail polish, and I definitely didn't clean up before taking pictures.

So after that, I slathered it with a coat of Essie's Matte About You.  These photos really don't do it justice!  Also it looks pretty streaky or bare in some places in the photos, but definitely not IRL.  I really liked this one, and my boyfriend liked it a lot too.  I think it would look super great with the green that also came in the ELF collection, so maybe I will try some combination of the two for Easter!

Ugh, Abby's hair gets everywhere!

Products Used:

ELF Summer Ready Collection: Lilac

OPI Ridge Filler

Essie Matte About You

Spring Break Goes Out With A.... POP! of Color

Well my spring break is coming to a close, and starting Monday I'm back to being a semi-professional (the kids at my school LOVE checking out my nails but I don't fell comfortable when meeting with parents and other professionals), so I figured I'd go out with some brights!  I've seen a lot of pink and yellow color combos lately (Nail Addicts Anon, Nail Polish Art Addiction, Nailside) so that was my first thought.

I like this quite a bit, I think.  It feels a little bit like a circus tent, which is fine by me!  It seems so cheerful.

Products used:
ELF Summer Ready Collection: Fuchsia
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri: Lightening, Silver Sweep
Bundle monster plates BM20 and BM05

Spring Monarch Butterfly Mani

Finally completed that butterfly manicure I attempted a few days ago!  I think it came out pretty nicely!  My right hand- not so much.  But I'm pretty proud of how this turned out!

Before I attempted to clean some of the skuzz from my cuticles

Not too shabby, right?

Products used:

ELF Summer Ready collection- Mango Madness

Sally Hansen Nail Art pen- Black

L.A. Colors Art Deco- white

Top Coat: SV

ELF Summer Ready Collection: Mango Madness

A few weeks ago I saw ELF's Summer Ready collection in Target and snapped it up.  I liked the colors at first glance and couldn't resist the 5 dollar price tag.  I've just now got around to busting open the box and testing them out, and I decided to try some designs using them.

For now, here's Mango Madness for your enjoyment.  We'll see how my design turns out late this evening.

Sunshine

Shade/Indoors

It goes on about how you'd expect for a one dollar nail polish.  This is two coats on top of a base coat, and I could probably have gone for a third but I am very impatient most of the time.  It's a lovely color for summer- bright but not quite neon (though I do love neons).  Application was easy, kind of streaky with two coats but not terrible.  If I was wearing it plain I would've done a third, but since I'm planning on trying out some monarch nails again (after failing miserably a few days ago) I figured two would suffice.