Adventures in Polishland

A Few Announcements!

Posted on August 7, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

Hi all,

I just wanted to take a few minutes to let you know that in less than two weeks I am officially moving to law school. Because of this, I have two exciting announcements.

I am having my first Blog Sale! Simply click the tab above labeled “Blog Sale” to shop. I have some polishes that I haven’t used (or used once) that I would like to sell before moving. The less polishes I have to travel with the better. All profits go towards my educational expenses. Full details are on the Blog Sale page.
I am looking for guest bloggers! Once school begins I will not be able to blog as often, but I still want my readers to be able to enjoy Adventures in Polishland. I would like to feature at least one guest blog per week. If you are interested, email me at adventuresinpolishland@gmail.com with the following information:

Link to your blog
Link to your Facebook Page and any other social networks
An idea for your guest post. Remember, Adventures in Polishland is dedicated to fabulous & affordable nails, so your post should uphold that.

Thank you all so much for your continued support!

Christina

Try it on Tuesday: Jesse’s Girl Confetti

Posted on August 7, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

This week I am trying on one of the Jesse’s Girl polishes that I purchased in a blog sale about a month ago. Confetti is a really interesting polish. In the bottle it looks like a shimmery purple, but upon application I realized it is also a holo polish that shifts between purple and blue depending on the light. Confetti is very sheer. I applied three coats and it is not completely opaque. I think it would look great layered over another solid color, though. I had no problems whatsoever with application.

I’ve been wanting to try out Jesse’s Girl polishes as they retail for just $3.99. Besides being affordable, they look really pretty. Confetti reminds me of Sally Hansen HD polishes, but at about half the price. Though I’m not thrilled with how sheer the polish is, it is definitely stunning. I love that it has the appearance of glitter without being a glitter polish. I can’t wait to try this out as a top layer!

Have you tried Jesse’s Girl nail polish? What do you think of Confetti?

One Lovely Blog Award

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Adventures in Polishland

A huge THANK YOU to Beauty Geek of WordPress for nominating me for the One Lovely Blog Award. It means so much to me that people are enjoying my blog. I can’t believe this is my second blog award, as I’ve only been around for about four months. I hope you will all continue to enjoy my Adventures in Polishland.

There are five guidelines for accepting this award:

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you.
2. Paste the award image on your blog, anywhere.
3. Tell seven facts about yourself.
4. Nominate up to 15 other bloggers for this award.
5. Contact the bloggers that you have chosen to let them know that they have been nominated.

Seven facts about me:

1) I’ve met President Obama (though before he was president).
2) I was a competitive dancer in jazz, tap, and sometimes ballet for ten years.
3) I know every word to the song “La Vie Boheme” from RENT.
4) I’ve been to Disney World four times, and Disneyland twice.
5) Full House is my favorite TV show of all time.
6) I absolutely love shopping.
7) I could wear jeans every day of the year.

My Nominated Blogs (5 WordPress, 5 Blogger):

I follow so many lovely nail blogs it was difficult to choose just ten!

Thanks again, Beauty Geek!

Favorite Friday: Hunger Games Nails on a Budget

Posted on August 3, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

Welcome to my first Favorite Friday post! Even though I love that my nail polish stash is growing, I miss using some of my favorite colors. In order to ensure that I am not only using my brand new polishes, I am beginning a blog series called Favorite Friday. Each week I will use one of my favorite polishes from my stash. The only rule is that it must be a polish that I have not used in a long time. This way, I can try out my new polishes on any day except Friday!

Today’s manicure is one that I created back in March for the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games movie. I really wanted to splurge on some of the China Glaze Hunger Games Collection, but I thought that $8.99 a bottle was too much, especially since I had already paid for a t-shirt and a Mockingjay pin. Instead of spending more money, I knew that I could create my own Hunger Games mani using polishes I already owned.

To get this look, I began with two coats of an unnamed OPI mini that I have in grey. Then, I used a clear, glitter topcoat from Wet ‘n Wild and painted two coats of that. The finished product is a sparkly grey that reminds me of polishes that can be found in the China Glaze collection. I can definitely picture Katniss wearing this mani! I loved it so much on premiere night, and I am glad I got to wear it again for Favorite Friday.

What do you think of my Hunger Games nails on a budget? Do you try to create looks based off expensive polishes?

Feel free to participate in future Favorite Fridays with me! Post photos of your mani on my Facebook page, or send along the link to your blog!

Monthly Nail Polish Haul: July Edition

Posted on August 1, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

Adventures in Polishland is dedicated to fabulous and affordable nails. At the end of each month, I show you the polishes I purchased, and the good deals I got on them. I rarely pay full price for anything, and that includes nail polish. Although I did go a bit overboard in July (33 new bottles!), I only paid a fraction of the retail value for all my new polishes. Get ready to see this awesome haul!

Polishes I bought at retail stores in person, left to right:

Anise in Miss Inspector and Bronzed Babe. You can purchase Anise polishes at DSW stores for $6 each. Typically they are on sale for buy one get one half off, so these polishes came to $9. I had some money left on a gift card, so I only paid $6.96 for these two polishes! You can read my review of these two colors HERE.
China Glaze in Hook and Line and Mahogany Magic from the Hunger Games Collection. I bought these two polishes at my local Sally Beauty Supply store on clearance. I paid a total of $6.58 for both, but they retailed at $8.99 a piece when they came out! Sometimes patience is the key to getting the colors you want.
Elle in Surfer Babe. I scored this beautiful blue at Kohls for FREE when my mom let me use her Kohls Cash. Usually Elle retails for $10. If you go to Kohls, keep an eye out for coupons near the display. When I went there were $1 off coupons available! See my post highlighting this polish HERE.
NYC in High Lime Green. I bought this polish at CVS and used a coupon for $0.50 cents off any NYC purchase of $1.79. Lucky for me this polish was exactly $1.79, so I only paid $1.29 for it! I found this coupon on a store display also, so be sure to keep an eye out for those at CVS, too.

Polishes I bought through Blog Sales or Swap Groups, left to right:

I purchased Deborah Lippmann in Pearly Queen and Oh! You Pretty Things from Diana over at Polish Monster. As a special surprise, she threw in Miami Spirit from the new Wet ‘n Wild Fergie Collection! I paid a total of $15 including shipping for all three of these polishes. What a bargain!
I purchased all three Jesse’s Girl polishes (in Center Stage, Cupcake Frosting, and Confetti) from a special Blog Sale. A few months ago, a member of the nail blogging community passed away. As a benefit to support her family, her daughter was selling her polishes. I sent her a total of $22 including shipping, and asked her to throw in a few mini polishes that hadn’t been sold yet with the three Jesse’s Girls. I was completely surprised when I got the OPI Spiderman mini collection! From left to right is Into the Night, Number One Nemesis, Just Spotted the Lizard, and Your Web or Mine? Not only did I save a few dollars off the retail price, but I helped a family in need. See my post featuring Your Web or Mine? HERE.
The mini on the far right is Sephora by OPI in I Don’t Bite. I purchased it from a Swap Group on Facebook. A mini from this brand typically retails at about $5, but I paid only $3 including shipping.

Polishes I bought on Copious using credits first, left to right:

e.l.f. in Royal Purple. I paid only $0.54 for this gorgeous polish that retails at $2. See my blog post featuring it HERE.
Matte.n.a in Film Noir. My first matte polish! I got it for just $0.01 with my credits, though they typically sell for $2.25.
piCture pOlish in Citrus. I got this beautiful orange for a mere $0.13 even though they retail at $9.50. I’ve heard great things about this brand and I can’t wait to use it.
Pretty & Polished in Forest Phire. My first indie purchase, and I only spent $0.30! Minis from this brand usually sell for $5.25, so I got a great deal.

Polishes I bought online, left to right:

Julep in Yumi, Lynn, America, and Alfre. I got all of these polishes for FREE! The first three were in my July Julep Maven Box, which I had a free credit for. In that box I received a voucher for another free polish, and I picked Alfre! I love the Julep Maven program. Did you know that you can get your first box for one penny with the promo code COLOR2012? Join HERE and read about my July box HERE.
Orly in Rock Solid. I purchased my first Orly during a sale on HauteLook. I had credits to use, so I only ended up spending $0.45! HauteLook has all sorts of sales, but there is often nail polish from all different brands. Join the site for free HERE.
Zoya in Rea and America. I originally purchased Zoya’s Trixie to get America free during the Fourth of July sale, but when it arrived I realized it was a dupe of a polish I already had. Lucky for me I was able to swap Trixie for Rea in a Swap Group! I did have to spend a little extra for the shipping, but I ended up with both of these Zoyas for just $9.95 instead of the full $16. You can purchase Zoya polish HERE and read my entry about America HERE.

Whew! Did you make it through all that with me? If so, here is the most exciting part! While I did spend $66.21 this month, if I did not use credits, buy sale items, and coupon, the retail value of all these items would be $205.24! That’s right– I saved $139.03! How is that for fabulous and affordable?! For all of these 28 bottles listed above, on average I paid $2.36 per polish. Woo-hoo!

Before I close out this post, I wanted to add in some “bonus” polishes that I purchased through Little Black Bag. I can’t really estimate how much I saved on these polishes, since they came along with other items in a monthly subscription, but I definitely got a good deal on them. Retail value of these five polishes is $77. Left to right, the colors are: ncLA in Hollywood Hills Hot Number & Miss Sunset Strip, and Michael Marcus in Brilliant Sand, Fuchsia Have a Good Time, and Paradise Pink. You can join Little Black Bag HERE.

Please note that this post does not include polishes I received as a gift, as a giveaway win, or as a product to review for my blog. My purpose is to show you how to get great savings on nail polish.

Try it on Tuesday: Zoya America (Was it Worth the Hoopla?)

Posted on July 31, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

On the Fourth of July, Zoya had a promotion where if you spent $10 you could get a free bottle of their America polish. Well, shortly after midnight, a photo began circulating on the Internet explaining how you could get a bottle of America completely free without having to spend anything. I was extremely excited about this, as I had not tried Zoya before. I jumped on the chance to get my free bottle, and even shared the news with my Facebook followers. When I woke up the next day, I discovered that Zoya had cancelled my order, along with 14,000 others that had been placed. It turns out Zoya had a glitch in their system, and I would not be getting the polish for free.

This situation caused a lot of drama on the Zoya Facebook page, and throughout the nail blog community. Some believed that since the glitch was Zoya’s responsibility, they should have compensated everyone who ordered the free bottle. Others, however, felt that customers should not have abused the promo code, since it was made public originally that there was a $10 minimum to be spent. As for me, I was quite disappointed. I was unaware of the original promotion. I decided to go ahead and search for a $10 item on the Zoya website. Believe it or not, all of their polishes are $8, so in reality Zoya wanted you to buy two items at $16 to get the free polish. I was about to give up on the promotion, until a few of my Facebook followers informed me of another glitch in the system– only buy one polish and you can get Zoya America for free. Even though this was a glitch too, I received two polishes for only $8!

So after all that trouble, I finally got the chance to try Zoya America for today’s Try it on Tuesday. Not only have I been wanting to test out this brand, but we are the midst of the Olympics– go Team USA! This bright red cream is not usually my typical color, but I am always up for trying out new things. Zoya has a great reputation, and is a vegan nail polish brand, so I had high expectations. In the end I am not “wowed” by it, but it is definitely a nice polish.

Above is two coats of America. I could have gotten away with one coat, but I added a second one to be safe. This polish was a little hard to work with texture wise. I think it was a bit thicker than I was expecting. It did apply evenly, but next time I will know to do thin coats. America dried quickly, but was impressionable for a few hours after application. This red is not my favorite color, but if you do like red you will love this polish. It was quite hard to photograph accurately, so please visit the Zoya website HERE to view and purchase America.

In the end, I do think Zoya America was worth all the hoopla. Though it is not my favorite color, I got to try a new brand at a great price. I look forward to using the other Zoya polish that I purchased in the future!

What do you think of Zoya polishes? Were you included in the Fourth of July upset?

Brand Power: Tip Top Nails South Africa

Posted on July 28, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

Tip Top Nails is a brand from South Africa that creates vegan and 4-free polishes made from natural ingredients. Today I have four polishes from their NailChic line to show you. I really loved all of these polishes, especially the brush! The flat brush applies polish perfectly, distributing it evenly with every stroke. The formula in each polish was also outstanding. More detailed comments to come in the color descriptions!

First up is Sitting Pretty, a bright pink jelly polish. The color was a bit brighter on my nails than I thought it was going to be, but I really like it. With two coats the color was opaque. The one thing I really did not like about this polish, was that even after wearing it for two days, I woke up to impressions on my nails from my blankets. I can understand that this happens when polish is not completely dry, but it was strange that it still occurred forty-eight hours after application. It must just be the formula. Besides this one issue, I love Sitting Pretty and can’t wait to wear it again!

Traffic Lights is a metallic red polish with a beautiful shimmer. I am not usually a big fan of red polishes, but this one is stunning. I did apply two coats, but you could honestly just use one! My only complaint with Traffic Lights is that removal took a bit more effort than usual, but other than that I am happy with it. I definitely plan on using this color again during the holidays. It is perfect for Christmas!

Next up is Jitterbug Lime, a metallic lime green. This is also a shimmer polish, with green and gold undertones. I was very surprised by how pretty this color is. Upon first look, it has a frosted finish, but in the light the color truly shines. I used two coats of Jitterbug Lime, and both were necessary to achieve opacity. Brush strokes are visible with this polish, as with almost all other metallics that I’ve used, yet this does not take away from the polish at all. Similar to Traffic Lights, removal of this polish was more difficult that I would like. Otherwise it is stunning!

The last polish I have to show you is Gold Drop Glitter. I assumed that this polish could easily be worn on its own as the bottle read “Apply 2 coats of colour” on the bottle, just as it did with the other three polishes. But as soon as I applied one coat I realized that Gold Drop Glitter is best used as a glitter top coat. I was determined to use this on its own, so I started painting with hopes that I would achieve full coverage. Four coats later I was satisfied with the look. Gold Drop Glitter is a clear base with fine gold grains. If you’re willing to apply four coats you can wear it on its own. Otherwise, it would go great on top of another color. One day I’ll use this in another mani to show you what it looks like as a topcoat.

All in all, I really loved these polishes from Tip Top Nails. I wore each for 2-3 days and only experienced minimal wear along the tips of my nails. I definitely recommend these polishes. Those in South Africa can purchase Tip Top at their local Clicks store. The rest of us can follow the Tip Top Facebook community HERE and on Twitter HERE. You can also view all Tip Top products on their website: http://www.tiptopnails.co.za.

Have you tried this brand before? What do you think of these polishes?

The products in this post were provided to me for review. All opinions are my own.

500 Facebook Likes Giveaway WINNER!

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Adventures in Polishland

Congratulations to the winner of my 500 Facebook Likes Giveaway, Chummy K.!

You win the Lil’ Shooters Collection from OPI!

You have 48 hours to email me at adventuresinpolishland@gmail.com with your address or a new winner will be chosen. This will also be posted on my Facebook page.

Thank you so much to all who entered the giveaway. Unfortunately I received approximately 300 false entries that I deleted before choosing a winner. I really appreciate all the support I receive from my amazing followers, but I do not think I will be doing another raffle-like giveaway for a while. It breaks my heart when so many of my entrants lie about following my blog, sharing my giveaway, etc. Stay tuned for a scavenger hunt giveaway in the future!

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UPDATE: It has been 48 hours, and the first winner did not claim her prize. Thus, a new winner has been chosen! Congratulations, Madison G.! You will also have 48 hours to email me at adventuresinpolishland@gmail.com with your address to claim your prize or a new winner will be chosen.

In a Rush? Try This Quick Mani Upgrade!

Posted on July 23, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

One of my personal nail polish rules is to never paint your nails when you’re in a hurry. I just don’t want to deal with the stress that comes with smudging wet nails! But let’s face it. There are often times when we at least want to add a little something to our manicures before we head out the door for the day. I found myself in that position just the other day. Even though I loved Your Web or Mine? from the OPI Spiderman Collection (see post HERE), it needed to be revamped a little.

Because I didn’t have much time, I grabbed a glitter polish from my stash and added an accent nail. With two coats of Julep Yumi, my manicure was instantly upgraded! Just a flash of sparkle changed the entire look of my mani, and made my three-day-old polish shine. Since I was using Yumi as an addition, I didn’t even need to use topcoat. Plus, Julep polish dries really quickly, so I was ready to go in no time. Looks great, right?!

It gives it a little something extra, don’t you think?

You can really see the sparkle in the bottle here!

OPI Spiderman Collection: Your Web or Mine?

Posted on July 21, 2012August 12, 2015 by Adventures in Polishland

I was extremely lucky to receive the OPI Spiderman Mini Collection through a special blog sale a few weeks ago. I will tell you more about that sale in a future post, but today I have one of the colors to show you. Your Web or Mine? is a beautiful, frosty pink polish with a hint of shimmer. It applied very well. I used two coats to get full opacity. With this formula, you can see the brushstrokes when you apply the polish, but I really like to look it has. This pink is not too bright, but not drab either. It is a classy color that you could wear in a professional work setting, and enjoy all year round.

Your Web or Mine? also dried very quickly, which I loved! I’ve been wearing it for three days already and have only experienced slight wear on the tips of the nails. To be honest, I’m quite surprised with this color! I usually go for brights or pastels, but this pink is gorgeous. I definitely recommend it!

Stay tuned for more Spiderman colors! I have three more to show you in the future. Have you tried out any of this collection?