Review: Madam Glam Nail Polishes

Madam Glam polishes "Minty Canvas" and "Cashmere"

I was contacted by Mihaela from Madam Glam to review their nail polishes. I have never heard of Madam Glam before and I was excited to try out the polishes. They have polishes in so many different colors, including textures like glitters that it was hard to choose just two. I went for two very light colors that I felt aren't that easy to find in mainstream brands.

The nail polishes are packaged in slim and sleek-looking bottles with the Madam Glam logo. The colors I chose to review were "Cashmere" and "Minty Canvas". 

Review: Essie Repstyle Collection "Snake, Rattle and Roll"

Yeah, yeah Essie is super late on the whole magnetic nail polish trend but they made up for it by stepping it up. Their new nail polish collection, "Repstyle", features a magnetic that produces a reptile-skin pattern. And as a lover of animal print, I was stoked when I saw this at Rite-Aid.

Essie Repstyle Collection nail polish "Snake, Rattle and Roll"

I got the shade "Snake, Rattle and Roll", which is a pewter color. The nail polish features a square cap that comes off and that is the magnet part. Underneath it looks like the regular Essie bottles. I held the magnet over the wet nail polish for about 30 "Mississippis" (my way of measuring seconds) and when I lifted the cap, I got a super fabulous snakeskin print on my nail! I love it! The design is really prominent. The longer you hold the magnet over the nail, the more pronounced the magnetic design is.

Essie Repstyle Collection nail polish "Snake, Rattle and Roll"

 I drew a stripe on my thumbnail to have two accent nails and to play around with variations on design.

Essie Repstyle Collection nail polish "Snake, Rattle and Roll"

Essie Repstyle Collection nail polish "Snake, Rattle and Roll"

For $11.25 a bottle,  it is quite pricey. I might pick up just one more shade, I really like the blue and gold shades. Overall the product performed up to my expectations, and I loved that Essie stepped out of the box with a different magnet pattern.

Pros: Easy to use, good quality, variety of shades, unique magnetic pattern

Cons: Pricey
Overall: 4/5

Haul Post

A haul of items I bought and some brief thoughts on a few of the items.

 NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss "Lala", NYX Xtreme Lip Cream "Dolly Girl", NYX Matte Eyeshadow "Haywire", Brucci Nail Colors "Steph's Pink A-Go-Go" & "Absolute Andrea", Wet n Wild Megashield Lip Color "It's A Girl", NYX Stick Blush "Magnolia", CoverGirl Lipstick "Fairytale", CoverGirl Eyeshadow Quad "Tropical Fusion", Wet n Wild trio "Walking on Eggshells"

I was very pleased with all the lip products. As you can see, I was on a pink kick. "Fairytale" is a beautiful coral color and all the other lip products had good color payoff. I would recommend these for women of color as well, these colors would look great on darker skin tones.

 CoverGirl lipstick "Fairytale", NYX Mega Shime Lip Gloss "Lala", NYX Xtreme Lip Cream "Dolly Girl", Wet n Wild Megashield Lip Color "It's a Girl"

lip color swatches

The NYX stick blush had a very nice and creamy formula. It blends nicely and I really like the color a lot. It applies a little sheer but it can be built up.

NYX Stick Blush in "Magnolia"

swatch of "Magnolia"

I got one shade from the new matte shadows collection from NYX. It swatched nicely and I will be using it for crease-work mostly.

NYX matte eyeshadow "Haywire"

"Haywire" swatch

I also discovered a new brand called LiSi Cosmetics while walking through NoHo in NYC. It is a highly  affordable brand (a lot of the products are under $15.00) and in the store they have sample products for you to swatch. The store is located in 741 Broadway in Manhattan. I bought a blush and concealer. I was impressed by the color payoff with the concealer, I got the shade "Maldives" and it is VERY pigmented so a light hand would definitely be needed. The concealer, not so much. Barely any coverage. I'll go more in depth on the concealer in a separate post about LiSi Cosmetics. 

Tutorial: Nude and Neon Half-Moon Manicure

Neon is a trend that is very big for the Spring and Summer for 2012. A great way to wear neon is to pair it with nude or neutral clothing. I decided to apply this to my nails. I've been wanting to do a half-moon design on my nails and by pairing a neon color with a nude, it would make the design stand out a lot.

What I used:

OPI Ridge Filler base coat, OPI "Did You Ear About Van Gogh", LA Girls Disco Brites "Disco Diva", Seche Vite top coat and reinforcements for looseleaf paper

The Process:

After applying my base coat, I applied "Disco Diva" (plus: this nail polish glows under a blacklight!) to my nails. Then I waited until my nails were COMPLETELY dry then I applied the reinforcements to my nails.

I painted "Did you hear about Van Gogh over the reinforcements and waited until the color was partially dry before carefully removing them. Then I applied my top coat and finito!

New Wet n Wild Megalast Nail Polish Review

wet n wild megalast salon nail color in 'I Need a Refresh-Mint' and '2% Milk'

I went to Duane Reade and I saw the display for Wet n Wild nail polishes. I saw immediately that they had had a new look. At $1.99 USD for each, I purchased two shades to give them a try. I got "I Need a Refresh-Mint" and "2% Milk".

old megalast formula in "2% Milk"

I had the shade "2% Milk" in the old Megalast collection and hated it! I wanted a creamy color and it was so ugly on the nail. The formula wasn't good at all; it was thick and didn't apply evenly. The cap was on the brush was short and made it awkward for application. I'm so glad Wet n Wild noticed this and made changes to their formula because the new one is fantabulous!  The color is pretty similar to the old formula, perfect for a base color for a French mani. Which is exactly what I did!

I did my own French like a true Reccessionista!

The new formula is way better! And Wet n Wild has added a new wider "salon" brush as well. I found that it made application of the polish very easy. The brush also reminds me of the ones in the Sally Hansen "Complete Salon Manicure" nail polishes. I did a comparison below:

I will be taking photos of "I Need a Refresh-Mint" when I wear it. There are a variety of shades available, some new and some from the older formulas. But they're worth giving a try. For $1.99, you can try a bunch of shades.

Oh yeah, and I won a blog giveaway! I won a Neutrogena micro-dermabrasian kit on PiinkCupcakez's blog. I hardly ever win stuff, so I was pretty excited.

My prize! The kit, 2 boxes of refills (2 month supply in each box) and a eye mask. Pretty neat, huh?

China Glaze Crackle Nail Lacquer Swatches & Review

China Glaze Crackle Nail Lacquer in "Lightning Bolt" and "Black Mesh"

My journey to acquire these polishes was kind of frustrating. These babies were sold out practically everywhere! In the city, there are not too many places that sell China Glaze so I had to search online. Even there, I didn't have much luck. So I finally had to purchase them from Amazon. I ended paying about ten dollars for both (Black Mesh cost more than Lightning Bolt) from two different sellers (I really wanted these polishes!). I was very pleased that both sellers shipped my products promptly and I got them within a week.

So here's some info about the Crackle Polishes..

FROM THE COMPANY: The China Glaze Crackle Glaze Collection for Spring 2011 features innovative technology that creates a deconstructed crackle design over your favorite shimmer, glitter or crème nail lacquer. The look is edgy, creative, and makes a bold statement. This unique crackle polish is specially formulated to crack as it dries, creating a fun design.

DIRETIONS: Apply your favorite China Glaze polish. Depending on the color you are using, apply either one or two coats for full coverage. When the colored enamel is dry, brush on a thin layer of the Crackle Glaze color. Allow the Crackle Glaze top phase to work its magic during dry time. After approximately 5 minutes when the Crackled design has completely formed, apply a top coat to seal the design for prolonged wear.

My Review: The Crackle polishes come in six colors but I only got two which were "Black Mesh" and "Lightning Bolt". I had absolutely no trouble with Black Mesh. The first time I used it over China Glaze's "For Audrey" and it crackled perfectly. The polish will crackle more intricately if you apply thinner coats. I laid it on pretty thick the first time and the cracks weren't that fine. It is pretty cool to watch it crackle as you're doing your nails. I haven't tried "Lightning Bolt" yet as i am going to do a nail tutorial using that color.

Black Mesh layered over For Audrey

You don't have to use China Glaze nail lacquers as a base, I just used For Audrey because it's one of my favorites. The second time, I used N.Y.C's "Late Night Lilac". This time, I used thinner coats so I liked the crackle effect this time around.

Black Mesh over N.YC "Late Night Lilac"

This is one of the rare instances where I give a product a perfect score. I liked everything about this product and have almost no complaints. It does have a smell that's kind of paint-like but it didn't bug me much because all nail polishes are smelly anyway lol. They are now more easily available online, now that the hype has died down a bit.

PROS: affordable, comes in a variety of colors, easy (and fun!) to use
CONS: hard to find in the NYC area
OVERALL: 5/5