Budget-Friendly Feature -- Nina Ultra Pro Caribbean Blue

Hey there ladies and gents!

Today's feature will be Nina Ultra Pro "Caribbean Blue" I purchased this at Sally Beauty Supply during one of their Buy 2 Get 1 Free sales, so I paid $2.79 per bottle (that's also with my Club Card, of course).

She's a beautiful aqua blue. I've never been to the Caribbean, so I can't say for sure if this really is the color of the waters there. However, this does remind me of the beaches of Sarasota, Florida. The water there is so incredibly clear and gorgeous that you can see right through it.

Unfortunately this polish's formula is see-through, too. Even at three coats, there's still a wee bit of VNL. I usually use this as a topper. If you put this over black, it turns more green. I actually did a manicure once where I did a black-to-white gradient and put this over it. It looked amazing! Well, it looked mostly amazing--if my gradient skills were better it could have been phenomenal. It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but hopefully you get the gist.

One downside to the Nina Ultra Pro polishes is the brush. However, I think I'm in the minority on this. NUPs have a very wide paddle brush. For most folks, that's a good thing. For me, though, with my super narrow nails, it creates a problem. On my pinky and ring finger nails I actually have to turn the brush sideways. Otherwise, I end up with even more polish on my skin than usual. 

So is "Caribbean Blue" worth the $2.79 I paid for it? Yeah, I'd have to say she is. Would I pay $4.00 or more for her? Probably not. But at less than three dollars, "Caribbean Blue" is such a stunning color and very versatile as a topper, so I think it was money well spent.

Foolish Raindrop FAIL!!

Greetings folks!

Today we'll be talking about how horribly I botched this mani:



Yep, that's one hell of an epic nail fail, there. I was trying to be awesome like Cristine, but obviously it didn't work. 

I started off with "Bridge the Ridge" base coat ($5.49). I then applied one coat of Sinful Colors "Kryptonite" ($1.99). 

...Then I heard my son stirring in the next room. Awwwww crap. Figures he'd decide to take a power nap instead of a two-hour nap. I hurried and slapped another coat of "Kryptonite" on my nails and topped it with Seche Vite ($2.08) so I could resume the mommy role.

Without matte top coat

I ended up wearing that alone for a day, and I really enjoyed it. But of course, it wasn't the final look I was going for, so the next day I used a makeup sponge to add Sinful Colors "Kalypso" ($1.99) to the base of my nails to create a gradient. I did use some liquid latex around the nails to help with clean up. Here's the thing, though: the liquid latex I have is something I bought for two bucks from China. It's crap. I wouldn't recommend it. I would warn you what not to buy, but I have no idea what the name of it is; it has no markings on the bottle whatsoever. I should have taken advantage of BundleMonster's cyber monday deals and snagged some Poli-Peel... but... I'm on a no-buy. Sigh.

With matte top coat

Next came a coat of Wet 'n' Wild matte top coat ($0.99). And there, my friends, is where I should have stopped. This looked great! But no... No, I had to go and ruin the whole damn thing. 


Maybe if I had used a thinner top coat, or even just a regular clear polish, it wouldn't have turned out so awful. But I'm an idiot and decided to use Seche Vite for my raindrops for maximum shine. Unfortunately it ended up being more akin to maximum blobbage. 

Oh well, I suppose I can't vomit out awesomeness all the time.

Dabbling in Dots

Greetings folks,

Today we'll be discussing this here dotticure mani:



I'm not 100% certain where I got the inspiration for this, but it was probably in one of Jenny's "Easy Nail Art For Beginners" videos.

I started with Pure Ice "Bottom Line" base coat ($1.97 at Walmart). I then put down two coats of Wet 'n' Wild "Be More Pacific" (97 to 99 cents at any drugstore).

I then used my largest dotting tool and some Nina Ultra Pro "Ink-ling" ($4.19 at Sally Beauty Supply with card--I always buy them when they're B2G1, bringing the price of each to $2.79) to lay down one or two dark grey dots on each nail. I repeated this step with some Wet 'n' Wild "French White Creme". Flipping the dotting tool over, I made smaller dots randomly around the large ones. Going back in with "Ink-ling", I placed small dots inside the large white dots. I used "Be More Pacific" to put small dots inside the dark grey dots.

I got my dotting tools for Christmas last year, so for me they were free. Woot!  However, I think I've heard Jenny mention that you can get some on Amazon for a dollar. Even if you do end up having to pay more for them, dotting tools are well worth the investment because you can do innumerable designs with them.

Materials used: Pure Ice "Bottom Line" base coat, Wet 'n' Wild
"Be More Pacific" and "French White Creme", Nina Ultra
Pro "Ink-ling", Seche Vite, dotting tool

Finally, I finished off the mani with Seche Vite ($7.99 at Sally's).

Next up? Born Pretty Bitchfest!

Don't Dilly Dally!

Okay, back to the nail stuffs!

Today I'll be talking about this here super simple mani. And I'm going to eat my words, too. 

For this mani I started off with the Bridge the Ridge base coat ($5.49 at Sally Beauty Supply with card). I only did one coat, since it doesn't seem to make that big of a difference with two. I figure I'll just use it until it's gone and then go back to my normal Pure Ice "Bottom Line" base coat.

For the base color I used the Sinful Colors "Rise and Shine" ($2.02 at Target) that I wasn't so keen on. At least on the swatches.... But WOW! Once I actually got it on my nails?? I don't know if it was due to my skin tone or what, but this color after two coats really popped! I can honestly say now that it's one of my favorites.

I then applied one coat of Sally Hansen "Pixel Perfect" ($2.49 at Target). Now, when I say "applied", I mean "fished and swirled and globbed". Then I applied a second coat. And then a third... Ugh, okay. I got all excited with the Sinful Colors, but I guess this stuff is still as lackluster as it was when I swatched it. Oh well, at least there's an awesome color under there. 

I will admit that after a few days it did grow on me a little. But I highly doubt it'll get worn very often.

And then there was the fact that I put on a regular base coat instead of a peel off... what the Sam hell was I thinking?! I figured this was a good time to see exactly how much product I needed to use to get glitter off. For all ten fingers I ended up using two pads and five soaks in the acetone.

I would say that's still more cost-effective than a $10 bottle of UNT. Albeit severely more time consuming...

And there's no peel porn...

Next up? Striped and sassy.

Target "Treasures"

Good afternoon folks!

Now, you might be wondering, "Why is 'treasures' in quotes?"  Well, see, when I was at Target all these polishes looked to be treasures. Then I got them home... 

Let's take a look at each in detail, shall we?

First up we have "Jazzy Jade" from the Sally Hansen Xtreme wear line. I paid $2.49 for this. In the store this looked like a gorgeous opalescent green jade. However, when I swatched it, it looked... well, it looked terribly boring. And it was very similar to Wet 'n' Wild's "Be More Pacific", which I already have. I'm not a fan of having dupes--that's a waste of my hard-earned money. To be fair, though, I do not top coat my swatches. Maybe the opalescence will pop if I do. I'll have to keep you updated on that.

Next I purchased Sinful Colors "Rise and Shine" for $2.02. I'm not sure why I purchased both of these, as they're very similar to each other. And again, it looks much like "Be More Pacific". This polish was almost opaque in one coat, though. You could probably get it opaque in one coat if you did a thicker coat. 




Then we have Sally Hansen "Pixel Perfect". This was $2.49. It's a black and white matte glitter in several shapes and sizes and has a clear base. From the look of the bottle, you'd think it was fairly dense. NOPE! Far, far from it. I had to do quite a bit of fishing and maneuvering to get this stuff to look decent on the swatch nail (the photo is over "Jazzy Jade"). I also tried sponging, to no avail. All I accomplished with that was getting glops of glitter in one spot. The swatch shows about three coats. 

I don't normally go for pinks, or holographics, or glitters, but this one... man, it just looked amazing in the bottle! This is Sinful Colors "Pinky Glitter", that I bought for $2.02. It's a sheer pink base with holographic glitter. It's... it's pretty, I won't lie. But it's so sheer that even three coats won't get it opaque. You could use it as a topper, but then of course you lose that pale pink finery, and there are better holographic toppers out there. I may try this over a white base in the future, because overall I really do like it.


The last polish I purchase was another Sinful Colors for $2.02. This is "Cinderella". It's a sheer baby blue with a lovely pink shimmer. And it, too, is so sheer that three coats won't get you to opacity. I tried this one over black and was surprised to find that I didn't like it--I normally like everything over black. However, I did try two coats over white, and that fixed the opacity issue, but the blue was much paler than it shows in the bottle.



Overall I was pretty disappointed with my purchases. Normally I get pretty good stuff from both these brands. I guess my game was just off that day. Here's to hoping for better luck next time!


Next up? I eat my words!