Mail Time: March Julep Maven Box!

Just a really quick post here because it's super late and I need to get some rest. I've been down with the flu and a majorly craptastic sore throat, but tonight I feel a little better and thought I'd give you all a little peek at what came in the mail this afternoon!

This month I chose the Bombshell box rather than the Classic with a Twist my style profile recommended. 

Ready to dig in! 

The new Rock Star hand creme, colors in Adrianna and Minnie, and the bonus lip balm in Strawberry-Mint

Just look at that pastel-y goodness!

I haven't had a chance to check out any of the products except the lip balm, of which I'm already a fan. More on that later!

And now, I'm off to bed. But don't worry, I'll be back soon. We have so much to catch up on!

February Walgreens Displays

Some of the displays from different Walgreens stores in my area.

Swatches of the Sugar Rush collection coming soon! 

Swatches and review of the Toppings collection coming soon! 

See swatches of the Go Green collection here.

See Almost Famous swatches here! 

Pretty exciting month for polish lovers! I ended up adding 18 of the above polishes to my already bulging collection. Mr. Swag just rolled his eyes, haha! I'm planning on making a DIY rack that I saw on YouTube. I'll post pictures and a link to the video when I have a chance to actually make it.

Have you heard anything about the Milani Textured Creams? All the reviews I've seen on them aren't very flattering, so I skipped them this time. It's a shame too, because I was looking forward to them. I also know a lot of people were jazzed about the LE Baby Lips, but I skipped those too because I'm one of the few who are disappointed by Baby Lips in general (I can't get over the sunscreen flavor and scent. Such a bummer -- I really want to love them!)

Swatches: Sinful Colors Go Green Collection (Shamrock Repromote)

It's that time again! Ah, St. Patty's day. A day for guzzling booze with no shame, covering yourself in green for fear of being pinched a million times (usually by people drunker than you), and of course the return of the Sinful Colors Shamrock (this year called Go Green) collection. Especially anticipated is the return of Green Ocean, in all its flaky goodness.

From my local Walgreens. 

The collection consists of three shades: Irish Green, Green Ocean, and Exotic Green.

As always, click on the pictures to enlarge! 

In sunlight:

In the shade:

Irish Green: 
This shade wants to be a neon, but comes off more like a bright kelly green. It has a semi-matte finish. This color is often repromoted in SC neon collections.

Green Ocean:
Oh, how I struggled to capture the nuances of this polish! It has green and blue flakes suspended in a very sheer, pale green base. I've seen it best layered over black on other blogs, but I've layered over Exotic Green here. I recommend using a top coat since the flakes make for a bit of a bumpy surface otherwise. Nothing major, but it might irritate some.

Exotic Green:
This is a core collection shade. It shows up more like a true green here, but it's actually a bit mossier than that. I think of it as kind of a slightly grayed-out forest green. The first swatch in the shade is much more color-accurate.

Overall I really like these colors. I can honestly say that in my 200+ colllection of polishes I have nothing like any of them.

Happy Hunting! These should be pretty easy to find.

Review: Revlon Colorstay Gel-Smooth Base Coat

I'm not great at nails. I mean, I try, but it gets frustrating when my polish chips off or peels off in sheets after a grand total of 2 days wear -- if I'm lucky! For a long time I didn't bother doing my nails at all because the wear time on me is ridiculous. I've pretty much always worked jobs that are hard on my hands, like serving, bartending, and for the past three years I've been co-owner of a very small house cleaning company. My poor hands take abuse at work, then I come home and do everything a mother of two needs to do to keep the home running. So as a result I haven't done much with my nails except curse them for sucking so much (thin, peeling PITAs that break easily) and curse myself for having craptastic manicure skills (filing sets my teeth on edge so I'm lazy about it and my cuticles are a hot mess). But the past 8 months or so I've really been trying. The first time I got 4 days wear out of a polish I almost threw a parade.

Oh little did I know! 

I read about this Colorstay Gel-Smooth Base Coat Longwear Nail Enamel being great, but I was skeptical. I mean, obviously these people don't know my nails or my life. I bought it anyway -- what can I say? Hope springs eternal and all that. They were right; this stuff is AWESOME.

It smooths ridges, protects nails from staining, and just look at this picture! This manicure is 8 days old! Whaaaaaat!?!?!?

Not too shabby for 8 days, right? There's some unavoidable tip wear, but it isn't too awful. The new growth and ugly broken nail (ouch, BTW) on my pointer finger are the worst of it, but I'm still really impressed.

Unrelated to the base coat, I wanted to mention that this is the first time I've ever had so many compliments on my polish, which was pretty cool! I used the Colorstay base coat, Julep Nail Color in Meryl, Color Club Professional Nail Lacquer in Snow-Flakes, and Orly Glosser (on clearance at Marshall's for $4.99) as a top coat. I wish the holo flaky showed up better here, but you get the idea from the bottle. I'm absolutely loving this Color Club polish -- and it was on clearance with a red polish for $3.99 at Sally's. Score!

I love this color combination, but I'm definitely ready to change it up now that I've done my due diligence with the base coat. If it wasn't for the growth and my boredom with wearing the same color too long, I could even stretch this manicure a couple more days.

Price: $4.99 at Walmart and Target, and around $7.99 at drugstores