Pistol Polish November 2013 Duo

Hi guys! So today I got my PISTOL Polish November duo in the mail. I usually get my PISTOL exactly two days after they send the shipping email, so today I was stalking the mail man and watching him out my window like a crazy serial killer. 

I opened my mail box and was sad for a second because I didn't see it right away, but there it was, all the way in the back :). 

The packaging is a little different this time, it has this instead of the double pistols (I really liked those!) 

And here is the duo: 

The one on the left is called Big Bang, and here is the description: 

"We live color (author's note: I'm not sure if this is a type-o or not), but every once in a while a PISTOL craves a clean slate to clear her mind and prep for the "big bang," - that ahh-ha moment that sparks a dream. Stark while (a/n: pretty sure this is supposed to say white), a prominent nail trend of the season, is amazing alone or as the star of nail art. Or, try it as a base under brights and watch the colors pop." 

I use white pretty much in every other manicure, so this will most likely be my go-to from now on. Everyone can use white, whether you like it by itself, for nail art, as an undie for glitters, or before you sponge on your ombré colors. You can never have enough white polish!

The one on the right is called Bite the Bullet, and here is the description: 

"Inspired by misty fall mornings along the coast, this blue-gray hue, also known as "livid," is subtle yet powerful, just like you. It doesn't scream to be noticed, but wear this icy hue and we guarantee the clouds will clear."

This is a work-safe, almost denim color (it reminds me of jeans). It's a nice wintery hue, and I can see myself using it as an undie for winter nail art (and maybe stamping Big Bang on top!). 

As always, here are the swatches:

Not gonna lie, I'm kind of missing the shimmery colors, like the ones from the last two boxes (although, I can always put on a glitter top coat :). These colors are essential though, and are going to be SO pretty for winter.

I <3 my PISTOL :) 

Get yours at www.pistolpolish.com! 

xoxo,

Belle

Glitter Daze Daze of the Month Ultra Box October 2013

Hi guys! Today I present to you the contents of my Glitter Daze Daze of the Month Ultra Box for October 2013:

Full sized A Garlic A Day Keeps the Vampires Away:

This is a white to red thermal polish with red microglitters, various sized black glitters, and holographic micro glitters. I was REALLY excited to see this in my box. I actually saw this polish on the Glitter Daze facebook page a few days before the box came, and the "I-need-this-polish-to-live" switch went off in my brain. However, the rational part (it's still in there somewhere) said that I should wait until I get my box. I'm glad I did! 

Mini Dont Bite the Heart That Feeds You:

This is a clear glitter topper with holographic silver, purple, and black glitters in various shapes and sizes. This is REALLY pretty, when I swatched it I couldn't stop moving the swatchie-thing from side to side.  

Bat decals! This is the extra gift this month for the Ultra box. 

Glitter accessory: These are earrings made with nail polish that match the mini polish for this month. They're really pretty, but they're kind of big. One thing I learned about myself recently is that I apparently don't like big circles. I wore them to work though and they looked cool & didn't bother my ears (I've been having problems with earrings lately). 

Here are some swatches of Don't Bite the Heart That Feeds You and A Garlic a Day Keeps the Vampires Away (cold) - this is two coats no top coat

DBTHTFY and AGADKTVA (warm)

I was so excited about this polish that I peeled off my other nail polish at work so I could put this one on. This is what it looked like after the topcoat dried. 

Also pictured is the Mini Super Smooth Top Coat, which I used in the mani pics. I used it with my super smooth base coat that I got in my last box. The top coat made a huge difference in shine, it would have looked kind of matte and dull without one (which you can see in the swatch)

I didn't actually touch anything, it just started to get cold in my room...

...and then it got really cold.

I decided to add one of the bat decals literally like five minutes ago. 

When AGADKTVA is changing, it kind of looks like you ripped someone's heart out with your bare hands. Which is pretty sick for Halloween. For the mani I layered one coat of My Boyfriend Scales Walls by OPI (my go-to white coat). I think it looks kind of weird when it's cold with the white around the edges, so next time I would try to do 3 layers of the polish by itself instead of putting white underneath. This is gonna be fun to wear at work. 

I might actually keep this sub for more than 3 months. My first polish is glow-in-the-dark and my second one is a thermal? I'll probably just subscribe for of the smaller boxes when my first three months is up. 

Can't wait to see what's up for next month :)

Subscribe at http://glitterdazenp.com/

xoxo,
Belle

Glitter Guilty Pleasures Box October 2013

Hi guys! So today I received my third Glitter Guilty Pleasures box. I have to say, this is my FAVORITE one. 

When I saw the tag on my "monthly me," I saw that the polish was called She's a Pirate, and I just knew it had to be awesome. And then I took it out of its little individually-wrapped bag, and I was blown away. 

This polish is seriously amazing. It's a white crelly base with pink and black skull and crossbone glitters, orange hexes and shards, small black circles, and even some holographic microglitter! In other words, everything I love in a nail polish. 

When I got my first Glitter Guilty box, I wasn't really thrilled with my monthly me. Some of the glitters were magenta (a color on my hate list) and I just wasn't impressed. 

Now, when you sign up, there's a little profile that you can fill out, stating your likes and dislikes. When I initially filled it out, I wasn't very specific. I put a few colors I liked and a few colors I didn't. About a month later I was going through the message boards at makeuptalk.com, and someone posted that you can make your likes and dislikes as specific as you want. Not just color, but also type of polish and finish. You can also change it as often as you want. When I got my second box, I liked the color of the polish, but it was a glitter bomb, and I'm not the biggest fan of them because you need to layer them over other polishes, and more layers = more chipping. (I actually didn't have a problem with chipping, however. The mani I did with the black and white with Neon Lights over it lasted over a week, with minor tip wear from work. The formula is excellent.)

This time, I put in my likes that I wanted "Halloween, orange, black, skull and crossbone glitter, holo, creme or crelly finish." In my dislikes, I put "all browns, maroon and magenta, yellow, and glitterbombs." I was very specific, and it paid off! 

The monthly mini that everybody received this month is called Something Wicked, a very dark purple jelly base with purple shimmer, and green, purple and yellow hex glitters. I thought I wasn't going to like this one (I have a very odd relationship to the color purple...I HATE middle purples, but I like lavender and amethyst) but it's actually really pretty. 

Yay! Chocolate! Included in the box is a chocolate-covered Oreo and graham cracker. Can't wait to try it! 

Here are some swatches of the nail polishes: 

God they're pretty. 

This is actually going to be my last GGP box. I'm did 3 of these and I'm doing 3 Glitter Daze...after that I'm trying to get my subscription addiction under control (because it's not like I don't buy polishes I see that I like anyway). 

That being said, this is really a one-of-a-kind box. You get a custom polish, a mini, and some kind of artisan chocolate, all for only $15.99 a month. Jessica, the owner, is very sweet and gives amazing customer service. 

She actually just announced that, due to recent personal circumstances (I don't feel right mentioning the specifics in a blog post), she will not be able to do a custom polish for everyone, but rather will do 10-12 each month from now on and you will receive one of those, or you can pick a color from her shop. I think 10-12 is still a pretty good number of options, still way more than you get with other subscription services. 

Also I wanted to take some time to thank our readers, followers and commenters, especially The Nail Snail, who has a really awesome nail art blog (http://the-nail-snail.blogspot.com) and Elizabeth Breygel, who had a really cool beauty blog (liz-breygel.blogspot.com)...check them out! 

Also, I just added a couple of "follow" buttons, so please feel free to click on them :)

Peace, love and polish, 

Belle

Subscription review: Julep Maven September box!

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to get my Julep September box. I was ecstatic. Unfortunately, I had to wait until today to open up my Box-O-Goods. I purchased the 'It Girl' box this month and I can't help myself to a few extras every time. After all was said and done I have six new polishes. So exciting!!!

One reason why Julep is my favorite of all subscription boxes that I have found is the array of colors you can get. In a store I might overlook these colors, but the smaller sizes, coupled with an amazing consistency for each leaves me always wishing I had more.(It gets me to try new colors I wouldn't think of before.)

Short and sweet descriptions of each, with swatches to follow further down.

 

I named the polishes on the bottles, for your convenience, but in reality, the polishes look a bit darker.  

1. Padma is a purple with the tiniest matching purple sparkles. It comes out really dark on my nails, but I bet in the sun this will look divine. (In the jersey area it's rather cloudy for the past few days.)

2. Karmen  is a wonderful cherry red with tiny golden/orangy sparkles in it.  In the bottle it looks dark, but comes out very vibrant. The affect of the sparkles mixed with the color reminds me of flames for an odd yet inspiring reason.

3. Tatiana  is a wonderful glitter copper color, and glides on so smooth, it's like butter.

 

 

 4. Catrina is an amazing canary yellow color. Simple, classy and eye popping. I never had a yellow before in my collection. I worry about t clashing with skin tone and possibly being too bright and after trying this color on, It left me wondering what have I been waiting for?

5. Candace is a glitter based polish in the brass/bronze family. This was not an add on, but it was the defining color that helped me choose my box this month. I love it more in person. I can't wait to do something special with this color.

6. Josephine is a blue/gray color. The creamy consistency glides on smooth and it looks perfect. Spot on to the color in the bottle. 

Another fun thing about Julep polish, it comes with this cute sticker on the top of most bottles, so you can swatch the color.  I am not sure why but I love this little extra.

I painted each nail a different color not only to test them all, but to limit the amount of polish that I would have to take off/ Waste. (Since these polishes are only 8ml, you can run though a bottle fairly quickly.)

 

I picked the purple to do a full manicure with and pictures will come. In all i love every color, and can't wait to try them all out fully. What do you think about these colors? 


Update- here are my nails painted up with Padma. 
I used  Out the 
Door  Northern 
Lights as a top coat just for my ring finger. Just to not have a strictly one color mani.

Product Review: PISTOL Polish September Duo

Hi guys! I have a review that I'm REALLY

excited to do right now! Today I received my Pistol Polish September duo. 

Pistol polish has a monthly subscription box where they send you two polishes, based on the current season's colors and trends, for $17.99 a month. 

Now, the whole idea behind pistol polish is less about promoting gun violence and more about promoting empowerment and independence for women. In fact, on their home page, it states, "A PISTOL Woman envisions who she wants to become - whatever that may be - and devotes her life to making that vision a reality. PISTOLs chase their dreams every damn day." - www.pistolpolish.com

If that's not awesome enough, I don't know what is. 

Anyway, two days ago I received an email from the company that they were sending the September due early. In fact, this is exactly what they said:

"Hi PISTOL,

 

Even though our back-to-school days are a distant memory, September still reminds us of fresh starts, exciting challenges and new adventures; that’s why it is PISTOL polish HQ’s favorite month! 

 

And… well… we were just TOO STOKED for fall and couldn’t help ourselves… your September Duo has shipped early and is already on it’s way to you!  Sorry we’re not sorry."

I was THRILLED when I saw this. I got this email on Tuesday. Today is Thursday , and my pistol box was sitting in my mail box, waiting for me for me to open it. 

So, without further ado:

This is the box that it came in. So cute!!

This is probably the cutest tape I've ever seen...

I also got a sweet little welcome note, which I didn't take a picture of because I know you really want to see the polishes and not just the packaging!

 

I'm not gonna lie, one of the main reasons why I subscribed was because of the little pistols attached to the bottles. So punk rock!

The box contains a little card that tells you the name of each polish and a description. The one on the left is called Play Dirty, and this is the description: Fall is officially here, and that means it's time to get to work. Sure, we're all for a fresh mani but earning a chipped nail can be just as fun. This gilded cherry is a deep crimson color laced with sparkling gold flecks; it combines autumn's warm burgundy hues with the final traces of summer's sun. 

The color on the right it called Fight Like a Girl, and here is the description: Put your well-polished dukes up because everyone is going to be fighting over this shade. As the pigment of the season, it's sure to illicit stares, and maybe even a tussle or two. But remember, PISTOLs always fight fair even when rocking battle colors. 

And now for some swatches:

Without flash 

With flash 

I personally think that Play Dirty is GORGEOUS. I used three coats to make these completely opaque, and the golden shimmer becomes more pronounced with each coat. I actually can't wait to rock this shade. 

Note: you probably won't need 3 coats when you put them on your actual nails, because i doubt they are bright white like the swatches. I wanted to completely cover the swatches without any of the white coming through. 

Fight Like a Girl is a deep olive green, and it looks like something I will be wearing for a Halloween mani (I'm thinking zombies). 

I also thought that it might look REALLY

cool with a matte finish, so I tried it:

And I was right! Here's one without flash and against a different background:

These colors definitely scream Fall, and I actually dont have anything like these in my collection. And that's pretty impressive...considering I have enough polish to fill three 60 polish racks...

In conclusion, there's nothing I DON'T love about this subscription. I have about 5 or 6 subscriptions, which I am trying to weed down to like 2 or 3, and this is DEFINITELY going to be one of the ones I keep. Can't wait to see what you come up with next, PISTOL!

Subscribe at www.pistolpolish.com!

xoxo,

Belle