Newest Lip Color Obsession: Fergie by Wet N Wild Centerstage Lipsticks!!

OMG, is this me doing a non-nail polish post? You bet it is! You see, I haven't completely abandoned my original intentions with this blog (to rant and rave about ALL reasonably affordable cosmetics)--it's just when I am short on time and/or money, I default to my original lacquerholism and all other beauty interests fall by the wayside (so, essentially, what I morph into is a disheveled, raggedy-ass mom in sweats who just happens to have fabulous nails)...

BUT I've recently stumbled across an amazing new lip product that brought me out of my makeup slump and despite the fact that there are already many posts proclaiming the awesomeness of these babies, I couldn't resist adding my voice to the choir of praise.

Behold the new Wet N Wild Fergie Center Stage lipsticks:

(click to enlarge. scroll to bottom for swatches)

from left to right, we have: V.I.Pink; Penthouse Sweet; Fuchsianista; Saraghina; Old School Glam; Ferguson Crest Cabernet.

There are a few other shades in this line--a nude shade, a very shimmery wine colored shade and even a black shade, but I passed on those because they made me go "meh." 

These lipsticks remind me of the Megalast lipsticks Wet N Wild released in 2012. Both lines have some similar shade offerings. Both lines are also very pigmented and they wear for a nice long time. However, I found the Megalast lipsticks super-drying and difficult to apply (too much tugging) and too matte for my liking. Also the Megalast lipsticks feathered on me but the Fergie lipsticks give me none of these issues. To make a long story short, here's why they won my heart in the end:

• They are nice and creamy but not slippery or thin and they are fully opaque in one pass over the lips.
• Like I said, they DO NOT feather at all--not even after hours of wear. This is pretty much my BIGGEST reason for loving these so much. Lipcolor LOVES to feather on me and I usually need to layer a lipliner and an anti-feathering lipbase under my lipcolor to keep that from happening--but I can wear these Fergie lippies with NOTHING else under them and they stay where they are supposed to.
• They are only $3.49 a piece at my local Walgreens!
• They stay creamy and lush. Their consistency does not change to a sticky goo or a flaky mess like some cheaper lipsticks do after prolonged wear. 

The ONLY thing I don't like about these lipsticks is the bullet of lipcolor does not fully retract into the tube--which means clutzes like me are doomed to accidentally nick the exposed lipstick tips when we go to put the caps back onto them. (doh!)

Ok, enough yapping and onto some swatches.

indoors, natural light

outdoors, direct sun

From left to right, we have:

V.I.Pink:  warm creamy pink.satin finish

Penthouse Sweet: a brighter, slightly cooler, more blue-based pink. satin finish

Fuschsianista: gorgeous bright magenta with violet flash. very slight shimmer but more or less a satin

Saraghina: the perfect blue-based red. satin finish

Old School Glam: coral-leaning warm red. satin finish

Ferguson Crest Cabernet: cool blue-based plum

Fuschsianista and Ferguson Crest Cabernet are my absolute favorites. I've been wearing them alternately ever since I got them and am seriously contemplating getting back-ups! Well done once again, Wet N Wild. Thanks for hooking up cheap girls like me with such affordable fabulousness!!

Have you tried any of these yet? Which ones are your favorites?

My week in nails

Welp, another week has come and gone with nary a post from yours truly. Sad and triflin' I know. I want to be able to post more but, the only way I'm going to accomplish that is if I either get rich enough to afford hired help or miraculously stumble upon human cloning technology and make enough mes to go around. As always, though,  I have been taking pics of my manis (well, the ones that lasted long enough for me to get pics of, that is) and I have a few of those pics to share with you today.

The mani above is brought to you by Maybelline's Color Show Line. They have recently released a set of limited edition kryptonite glitter polishes called 'Sequins.' Of course, whilst out running errands, I happened upon a display of said polishes and 3 of them somehow found their way into my cart (go to the store for diapers, come home with diapers....and several bottles of nail polish. Story of my frickin life). This pretty is known by the name "Sapphire Masquerade." It consists of multiple sizes of blue-violet glitter (I wouldn't consider this a true blue) with some larger bright purple glitters thrown into an inky blue jelly base. Freakin LOVE. Easy to work with. GREAT coverage and it actually managed to not feel like sandpaper despite being a glitter bomb. Pictures are 2 coats of Sapphire Masquerade with 2 coats of Seche Vite on top. Moving right along......

This is the crazy ass mani I came up with to celebrate the fact that, after last week's election,  gays can get married in even more states now!! YAAAAAY!! Granted I intentionally keep politics off this blog because I want it to be simply about the awesome escapism that pretty shiny things bring into our lives BUT  I have no problem publicly stating that I am all for equality for ALL human beings, no matter what they look like, what they have between their legs,  how much money they make,  where they live, what they believe or who they take to bed with them. And where else is a nail polish fiend supposed to express her happiness over more victories for gay rights than on  the tips of her fingers??

 This mani was done with Wet N Wild black creme., then came a coat of an old and unfortunately pretty impossible to  find Fantasy Makers rainbow bar glitter polish from a few years back called Black Magic (yes the other OTHER version of that polish). After that,  I  free-handed some half moons with Essie No Place Like Chrome, glitterfied the half moons with a silver glitter Kiss nail art striper, stuck on a rainbow combo of rhinestones &  Badda-boom badda-bing, ya got some Yay for the Gays nails. 

After I used Essie No Place like Chrome for those half-moons, I decided I needed even more of that awesome shiny in my life. And, to shiny it up even more,  I reached for Color Club Platinum Record (from last year's insane Backstage Pass glitter collection). The above mani is 1 coat of No Place like Chrome with 2 coats of Platinum Record dabbed on & 1 coat of Gelous + Seche Vite to finish. Gotta love BLINDING disco ball nails. Trying to get pics of this was pretty much im-freakin-possible. Seriously, my camera was about to jump out of my hands & walk out the door it was so fed up (us nail bloggers always put our poor cams through such hell). 

So that's all I got for ya this time. Thanks to those of you who actually still bother to stop by!  I like to think I will be able to post with some semblance of consistency one fine day--like maybe 20 years from now when all my boys are all grown up... Until next time,  Peace and pretty things to all!

Still kickin

Sup, homies? I know its been a while. Life keeps eating up all my time--damn you obligations and responsibilities!! Despite the fact that I haven't blogged about my nails, I HAVE been doing them and I've still created manis for the CNT Halloween Challenge. I just seem to be having issues with being able to get said manis posted on the days they're supposed to appear....sigh...oh well--better late than never, right??

So anyway, here's the mani I did for the "Bump in the Night (monsters, etc) " prompt of the challenge:

Yep, unoriginal mummy nails that 5 million bloggers have done 5 million times before.  But, hey, how many bloggers take pics of their mummy nails while holding adorable little tuxedo skeleton wind-up toys? Yep, that's me, always gotta shake things up.

This mani consists of:

Zoya Dove (the gray)

Wet N Wild Black Creme

Wet N Wild French White Creme

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear  Cherry Red for the pupils

Next up, I have the mani I did for the "pumpkins" prompt of the challenge:

outside shade

inside under swirly eco light bulb thingy

Yea I know, they kinda suck but, like I said, I'm still a newbie with all this free-hand nail art stuff. 

This mani consists of:

Maybelline Orange Blazes

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Moonlit Dance

Wet N Wild Black Creme

Only 3 more prompts left in this challenge. Think I'll manage to post about 'em before Thanksgiving? Stay tuned and find out!

Crumpet's Nail Tarts rock my socks

More late Halloween Challenge nails...

Yep, once again, here I am posting for Crumpet's Halloween Challenge a day late...but honestly--at this point--do you expect anything else from me?

The prompt for this mani was "Freestyle Halloween" so I took the opportunity to experiment with a nail art technique I haven't tried yet: needle marbling. In orange and black, of course...

outside sun

outside shade

even more outside shade

So basically, I took Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sunkissed, painted my nails with it and let it dry. Then, going one nail at a time, I painted half Sunkissed and half Wet N Wild Black Creme--put them both on a bit thick and then I dragged a pin-point through them randomly. I decided NOT to attempt any sort of specific design within the needle marble since it was my first time with it. My aim was simply "lets see if we can do this without it becoming a hot and hideous mess." Once again, kids. If you set your goals nice and low, you won't be dissappointed. After the pin-dragging, I applied 2 coats of Seche Vite.

I admit, I am actually really happy with how my nails came out--even if they are super simple (see readers, I'm taking your advice and trying to be less hard on myself)...I'll definitely be experimenting with needle marbling again!

Oooooh Things that Go Bump in the Night is the next prompt! Ghost nails, here I come!

Yay for Crumpet's Nail Tarts!

Halloween Challenge Day 3: Zombie Nails!!

We have arrived at day 3 of the Crumpet's Nail Tarts Halloween Nail Art Challenge 2012. Day 3 belongs to the zombies!! I have quite an affinity for the undead--what with the glazed over eyes staring into space, the drooling on oneself and the tendency to communicate with grunts and growls, zombies and I have lots in common. I, too, desire brains--not so much for eating but for thinking more clearly and remembering things (I'm convinced the only thing I have between my ears is empty space)...

Anyway, enough yammering and onto the nails:

inside under lamp with swirly eco bulb thingy

outdoors under overcast sky

Zombies--heart--brains....get it? Yea I know, my brilliance is awe-inspiring.

For this mani I used:

China Glaze Immortal as a base

Wet N Wild Black Creme

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Cherry Red

LA Colors pink nail art polish

Wet N Wild French White Creme

Tiny flat, angled nail art brush

Detail/lining brush

Dotting tool

Crumpet's Nail Tarts Halloween 2012 nail art challenge day 2: Black Cats!

Hello and welcome to the second post for the Halloween nail art challenge I have undertaken. Today's prompt was "black cats." My personal goal for this challenge is to baby-step my way into more free-hand nail art so, once again, I chose a simple design that I felt I could pull off with nothing but brushes and polish. Here's what my nails ended up looking like:

Yep, little peeking black kitties. I know they're not perfect, but at least they actually somewhat resemble cat heads, right? That's right people, set low goals and you'll never be disappointed. 

So, for this mani, I used China Glaze Surfin for Boys for my orange base. Then I busted out my trusty Wet N Wild black creme and a flat, angled nail art brush (picture a mini version of an ecotools eyeliner brush) to do the cats' heads. The eyes were done with a lime green LA Colors Art Deco striper polish and the pupils with a a short striper brush and WnW Black Creme again. 

 So far I am loving taking part in this challenge! As you can see below, the next prompt is ZOMBIES!! You know, I have a great affinity for the undead so I can't frickin wait!

challenge list image courtesy of Crumpet's Nail Tarts, aka the banginest nail group on Facebook

Galaxy nails!

As I've mentioned in past posts, my boys are on a huge outer space kick, so of course I had to do galaxy nails to fit in with our ongoing theme! Since this was my very first attempt, I did a test nail on a wheel to start out with:

Not bad, eh? Pretty colors, just the right amount of glitter, some nice multi-dimensional sponging, a few dots here and there--the usual galaxy nail fodder...so I went ahead and did a full mani. Unfortunately, though, I don't think any of my nails turned out as good as my test nail did. Observe:

I think my fatal flaw here is I went a little overboard with the dotting tool. Plus I think the sponging got a little too heavy on some of the nails. Oh well, at least I tried. I'll definitely be trying this technique again soon! I have a whole bevy of pics I've saved from one of my favorite space nerd sites, Astronomy Picture of the Day, that I want to try and recreate on my nails!

Here are the polishes and tools I used for this particular galaxy:

Sally Hansen Insta-dri in Blazing Blue--base color

Kleancolor Holo Chrome layered over base

Sally Hansen CSM Purple Posy for sponging

Wet N Wild French White Creme for sponging and dots

a dotting tool

ripped up makeup wedges

metal palette (what I drip my polish on before I pick it up with sponges/brushes/dotting tools/whathaveyou

Are you a fan of galaxy nails? Have you ever tried them?

2 recent FOTDs featuring my beloved Sleek iDivine palettes

It's been forever since I posted an FOTD--mostly because I haven't been wearing a whole lot of makeup lately. We all that cosmetics + intense heat = eyes like Tammy Faye Bakker on a crying jag, so I've been opting mostly for either a completely nekkid face or just mascara + lip balm. 

But my hunger for color got the best of me this weekend and I busted out my Sleek i-Divine palettes and went to town. This is what happens when I go on a DVR RuPaul's Drag U viewing binge. I am absolutely endlessly inspired by drag queens, their astounding makeup wizardry & their ability to use color, contour, light, shadow--and of course glitter--to whip up a wholly different persona for themselves to inhabit. Oh if I only had those kinds of skills...

Saturday's Look:

                                          

                                          

                                                  

~~PRODUCTS USED~~

Face:

E.L.F. Translucent Mattifying powder

E.L.F. HD powder

NYC Color Wheel Allover Bronze Glow

NYC Color Wheel Pink Cheek Glow

E.L.F. Golden Bronzer (as highlight)

Eyes:

Garnier Anti-Dark Circle eye roller

NYX HD eyeshadow base

Sleek Curacao i-Divine palette 

Sleek Ultra Matte Vol 1 i-Divine palette

Maybelline Lasting Drama gel liner

Wet N Wild ColorIcon shadow single in Panther

Jordana Extreme Volumizing Mascara

Wet N Wild Acapulco Glow bronzer (to blend out shadow and highlight browbone)

NYC brow kit

Lips:

L'Oreal Colour Riche Audacious Amazon lipstick (from last year's Project Runway LE collection)

 Sunday's Look:

~~PRODUCTS USED~~

Face:

Physicians Formula Healthy Wear Powder foundation in Translucent Light

E.L.F. HD Powder

NYC Colorwheel in Pink Cheek Glow

NYC Colorwheel in Allover Bronze Glow

Wet N Wild Bronzer as highlight

Eyes:

Garnier Anti-dark circle eye roller

NYX HD eyeshadow base

Sleek Curacao & Ultra Matte Vol 2 i-Divine Palettes

Wet N Wild ColorIcon shadow single in Panther

Jordana Extreme Volumizing mascara

NYC brow kit

Lips:

L'Oreal Colour Riche Audacious Amazon

Revlon Colorburst Lipgloss in Decadent

Who are your glam idols & makeup inspirations?

Essie Stroke of Brilliance is, well, a stroke of frickin brilliance!!

OMG, you guys, Essie has me swooning again. It's one of those "can't stop staring at my nails" days, thanks to Stroke of Brilliance, the newest addition to Essie's Luxeffects glitter topcoat line. The pictures don't even come close to capturing the "hammina hamminaness" of this polish!!

 click pics to enlarge

outside sun

outside sun

outside shade--look at all dat SHINY!!!

outside shade

I promise you this polish is about 5 zillion times more sparkly and drop-dead gorgeous in real life. Large hex glitters and micro glitters together in a clear base and they are the most breath-taking periwinkle blue that just barely walks the line between sky and lavender. This is actually a relatively simple glitter compared to the stuff I've been obsessed with lately--like 40 million shapes, sizes and colors in one bottle or holy holo crazyness--but Stroke of Brilliance has totally stolen my heart. It's just uncomplicated and stunning and I freakin love it! 

It gave me no trouble formula-wise. The glitters come out of the bottle easily, spread out nicely on the nail, you don't have to fish for the larger pieces and the base is the perfect consistency. Well done, Essie!!

In the above photos, I have 2 coats of Stroke of Brilliance layered over 3 coats of Wet N Wild Rain Check, a blue-tinged silver frosty metallic polish that, unlike S of B, was a total pain in the butt to work with. Sheer as heck and brush-stroke ridden. Good thing I only paid $.69 for it! (Thanks be to Rite Aid and its current Wet N Wild sale--all $.99 products reduced to $.69 this week)...

So what do you think? Are you as smitten as I am?

who doesn't love a crazy animal print?

I luuurves me some leopard and zebra print--especially when they're in wacky colors and they're on my nails.

Awwwww yea!! This mani consists of:

2 coats of Color Club Electro-Candy

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Purple Posy lightly dabbed onto the nail with balled up Saran Wrap (the effects of which is pretty much invisible in these photos)

leopard print is from a konad plate stamped with Wet N Wild black creme

skully decal by Fing'rs

Seche Vite top coat

And I even got the chance to do nails that aren't mine for the very first time. I only wish my nails were as naturally long and strong as hers are. She asked for blues and purples and zebra:

Base color is Sally Hansen Insta-dri Blue By

Stamp color is Sally Hansen Insta-dri Orchid Express

zebra image from a Cheeky plate

Seche Vite top coat

Parchment nails!!

Ok, before I even get started on this post, let me just say I'm SO sorry for going MIA for a week. Crazyness ensued and I couldn't find time to prepare any posts. Hell, I had to even rock nekkid nails for a few days (gasps of horror) because squeezing in a mani was impossible.

Things are settling down a tad now (nothing is ever truly calm 'round these parts), and I finally got a chance to play with my new Bundle Monster stamping plates. YAY! I used the text stamp on plate 311 to create parchment nails:

Sorry about the annoying upsidedown pics. I always forget to flip the stamp so it will be the right side up for showing off on blog posts...

True, it's not the most attractive mani in the world, especially when I don't take time to neaten up my cuticle lines but I'm still happy I actually achieved the idea I was going for--ancient, worn, dirty, yellowing paper. 

This is what I used for this mani. 

First I painted my nails with L'Oreal Walk on the Beach. Then I lightly sponged over it with Essie Case Study. After that, I took OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys and sponged that along the perimeter of my nail beds to really make the "parchment" look old. Maybelline Sunshine got lightly sponged on top of the whole nail to give a more yellowed look. 

Finally, I stamped over everything with Wet N Wild Black Creme, top-coated with Seche Vite, did a crappy clean-up job and voila.

I am LOVING the new Bundle Monster plates. I'm sure I'll be posting about them again soon!