Revlon Top Speed Violet and Royal

Here's a fun one... Two colors I really really love. In fact, these were the only two I picked up from the new Revlon Top Speed line. I still love that commercial, too. You know, the one where her nail polish keeps changing colors?


This one's called Violet.


This one is Royal.


The colors look truer in the bottles here:


But the whole "Top Speed Fast Dry" thing is a bit of a lie... For some reason, every time I wear either of these, they take forever to dry! I'm talking Barielle/Diamond dry times here.... Even with Seche Vite!

Oh, and the brushes... I hate the brushes... They're so floppy and horrible...

BUT! It doesn't matter to me because the colors are gorgeous.... I can deal with bad brushes and long dry time if the color is awesome enough. I just wish these could be the entire package: Good color, good formula and good brushes. Ah, well, can't win 'em all.

Revlon Grow Luscious Mascara with Black Galaxy shadow

I love trying new mascaras (well, really any new beauty product actually...) and when I saw this Revlon mascara I had to try it. It said the magic words: grow lashes. I'm a sucker when anything claims to help your lashes grow. My lashes are naturally really nice: long, dark and thick, but a year ago I had a bunch of them fall out and they haven't grown back in the same since. So, into my shopping cart it went!

I loved this mascara instantly. It makes thick, lush lashes. Not super defined like my beloved Lash Blast, but as softer, more fringe-like lash. I like both. But I liked this one so much that I used an entire tube of Blackest Black before I could even do a review of it.

It's one of those mascaras with the gigantic brush so it helps build huge lashes really easily. It isn't quite as big as Benefit's Bad Gal brush, but it's still pretty huge. This shade is Blackest Black, by the way. Here's a picture of me wearing it:

The shadows are Urban Decay Last Call, Bordello and... I forget... a light pink frosty one. SWF? The liner is Milani Infinite liner in Infinite (the crazy awesome bright blue). Milani has great eyeliners... I rave about them so much and I always forget to post a review.... Anyway...

This isn't so much of a review as a rave and a shopping tip... so... maybe I should work on a real review (two things in one post that I need to finish reviews of!).... But I wanted to mention this while it's still available:

Walgreen's was doing a special where you can get a free Revlon shadow with your Grow Luscious mascara. The Black shade comes with this really cool looking Black Galaxy shadow:



It's a very soft black (more of a charcoal/grey really) with lots of iridescent blue/purple and subtle rainbow sparkles. It's actually rather sheer and the sparkles don't show up really well when applied, but I love looking at it in the pan.


The Blackest Black shade (which I prefer over the plain Black) comes with Lilac Shimmer:


This is a soft, dusty light lilac with some silver glitter. I have not tried wearing this yet; these colors tend not to look good on me. Maybe I'll try it this week...

These duos were around $10 at Walgreens, but just last week I saw these at Big Lots for $4. They only had Black and Blackest Black and only in the non-waterproof formula, but wow, that's an amazing price. You can get two mascaras and two full sized shadows for less than the price of one at Walgreen's. Needless to say I grabbed a couple... I'm on a budget and you can't pass up a deal like that.

I get so excited when I find a good sale...

Guest Review - Kiss and Revlon Press-On Nails

This is only the second time I've had a guest review! This time the guest reviewer is none other than my dear Mom. I was sent some press-on nails by Kiss that I'm literally unable to review. They're so short and small that they don't even cover half of my nail bed, so... yeah... review not possible. While my hands are on the petite side, they definitely aren't petite enough for the Kiss Petite french nails. However, my mom has some of the smallest hands and nails I've ever seen, so she was a perfect candidate to try these. Just one of the perks of being my mom.... Another is that you have an endless variety of polish colors to choose from when I give you a mani/pedi... Also, I'll give you unwanted critical commentary of stupid prime time sitcoms with identical plots for free!


In addition to the Kiss Petites, I put some Revlon press-on nails on her to compare, and here's how the Revlon Zoe nails worked for her:


"I liked them because they stayed on-- no bubbles or loosening. Didn't like because too wide and the color on tip chipped within 2 days."

I applied these to her using the Revlon NailStay glue that's included in the Revlon kit. I filed them down to a medium length- these start out pretty long, which I personally prefer because I have longer nail beds, but the long length doesn't work for her. My opinion of these is that they look a lot less natural than the Kiss nails, the tips are too thick and white. Not that a french manicure ever looks natural, but you know... some are less tacky than others.


And now here are the Kiss petites:


"I liked these better because they were smaller and thinner. I didn't think the glue was as good as the other brand, it bubbles and I kept getting my hair caught in them. The finish lasted, looked more natural and stayed shiny."

I applied these to her using the little disposable tube of glue included in the Kiss set. She's right, the Revlon glue is superior, not just in application, but in longevity. It's kinda difficult to apply the proper amount of glue using those little one-use tubes, and it doesn't set as fast or as strongly as the Revlon. They also lifted on her sooner than with the Revlon glue.

However, I think the end result looked a bit more natural. The actual thickness of the nail is a lot thinner so they do look more like a natural nail from a front/head on view. The base part of these nails is clear, so you won't be able to hide any imperfections on your nail or bubbles in your glue, but that also makes the nail look brighter and shinier. She didn't notice any chipping or wear in the white tip of the Kiss nails and she was able to wear them for a whole week with them still looking new.

The small width and length of these suited her pretty well. This set comes with some extremely tiny nails- the smallest ones are slightly bigger than a lentil! So if you have extremely petite hands and nails with very short nail plates and you want to try press-ons, these would be the nails for you.

The Kiss nails overall seemed thin and lightweight, especially compared to other brands of fakes I've tried. Someone would be less likely to detect that you're wearing press-ons with a nail as thin and clear as these. I can't say I'm a fan of that super bright white tip, but if these had a softer, more milky and translucent natural white, they'd definitely pass for real nails.


Thanks, Mom, for contributing your reviews and photos!

(These were sent to me for review...)

I love these Revlon glitters

Revlon Slipper over Chanel Rouge Noir


Revlon Star over Borghese Mezzanotte Blue

Revlon Galaxy over China Glaze Cowgirl Up

Revlon Galaxy over Borghese Mezzanotte Blue

I know I've posted two of those before, but they're so pretty they're worth posting again. Can't get over how much I love these Revlon glitters. I almost passed them up completely because they looked so plain and common, but now I'm super happy I decided to get them. They're unique in my eyes- while the concept isn't unique, the end result is like nothing else I have. The combination of the different colors and shapes of glitter enhanced by a really pronounced sparkle makes me super happy. The only thing I don't like about these is that it's hard to get enough of the holographic silver hexagon glitter in the nail... I love that stuff. Though, the randomly placed and spaced dispersion of the hex glitter does look rather charming.

I like that the glitter is really sparse so it doesn't cover up the base polish. These were intended to be layering polishes and they're sold with coordinating creme polishes but they all looked clone-able so I didn't get any of those.

I haven't photographed Belle yet. In fact, I don't think I've even worn Belle. Have I? I don't recall!

Keep it up, Revlon... one step closer to a full-on StreetWear revival....

Random Vacation Spam!

Sally Hansen New Lengths Tarnished Frost

Revlon Galaxy over China Glaze Cowgirl Up

Maybelline Express Finish Zip Fly


Sally Hansen New Lengths Raspberry


Essie Main Squeeze

Finger Paints Artistic Azure


BB Couture Autumn Sunset


Essence Space Queen

Orly Moon Shadow


Pro 10 Moonlight

Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go


Sinful Fiji

Milani Raspberry Fusion

L'Oreal Bijou Gems Crystals B. Daring


Maybelline Wet Shine Diamonds Brushed Copper

Revlon Matte Suede Emerald City

Oh man... I'm so tired. I can not wake up today. I have to post something where I don't have to write much because I know I wouldn't make any sense otherwise! And I completely skipped posting yesterday... Not enough coffee in the world. Better post the polish before I start typing gibberish....


Revlon Matte Suede in Emerald City. Nothing very matte or particularly suede about this. It's a nice color, a blue toned green shimmer, but I don't care for the finish. If it didn't say it was matte on the bottle, you probably wouldn't even know it was matte finish. It's one of the shiniest mattes I've ever seen. Takes a long time to dry, too.

Looks pretty nice with topcoat, though. Brings out a faded, dusty look to the green.


If I can get up the energy soon I have those awesome new Nicoles I wanted to post, plus the new Winter Nubar collection showed up last night and I have a whole lot of other fun colors that I need to be coherent to post.... And, by the way, Red Bull does not give you wings, it gives you heartburn.

Loose Ends and fun stuff.

After I swatched those new Sally Hansens that seemed very familiar, I had to go looking for what they reminded me of and I thought that I had posted the Sephora by OPIs already but I guess I hadn't! I never ended up getting all of them, but I did get these two:

Just A Fairy-Tail.

and

Mermaid To Order.

And yes, now that I'm seeing them again and not basing it only on memory, they totally are matches to the new Sally Hansens. Thank you to Krisprimps for refreshing my memory as well!

This is OPI Pink Me I'm Good from Valentine's day at Ulta. Not the best picture of it because it only shows the gold side of the glitter. It does a little green duochrome too, but it's subtle. One of the very few pinks I like to wear.

OPI Bling Dynasty from the Hong Kong collection. I didn't have a bottle of this at the time I did my post and I was going to go back and post this picture with the review, but it took me longer than I hoped it would take to get an acceptable picture of this.

That was a bit of a drag, now I want to post something fun.


This is an awesome Bourjois polish that my buddy Helen gave me. I don't think it has a name.... I've looked all over the bottle and I'm pretty sure there isn't a name. It's hard to capture in a picture, but it's a dark smoky teal/green with tons of shimmer and a purple-dark mauve duochrome. It's really freakin' sweet. It reminds me of black bird feathers, how they look black in one light and then they're iridescent in another? It has a really odd brush, a lot like the new Sally Hansen brushes- big and wide and flat! I actually really like that style of brush because it covers my whole nail in one stroke. I'm so in love with this polish. Thank you Helen :)

I got this Cargo Wet/Dry eyelining palette on clearance at Sephora a little while ago and I love it! I was very shocked by the size of it- it's as small as a credit card!- but apparently it doesn't need to be any bigger cause I've used it a ton and haven't even put a dent in it yet. I've only used the black, sparkly black and sparkly grey ones so far, but I think they're really nice. I use a drop of MAC water based mixing medium and a very short bristled stiff angled brush and the line comes out perfect. I used to use a cake eyeliner years and years ago and this reminds me of the one I used to use. I haven't tried them as eyeshadows. I don't know how well that light purple (yeah... two of those are purple, blame my camera!) would work as a liner though.... I haven't done a look yet that needed a light purple eyeliner so it remains untried.


Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Malachite Pearl. I don't think I even need to say anything about this. I think words would ruin it. Shhhh. Just gaze upon the beauty and let it speak to you.

Revlon Street Wear Burnt. This is the grey-green version. This is one of those Streetwears that has multiple versions all under the same name. I don't know why companies don't just use different names. I was at Sally last week getting some new Finger Paints and noticed that China Glaze Flying Dragon is a totally different color than it was when I first bought mine... Bizarre.... why not just name it... uh... Walking Dragon? Swimming Dragon. Cause it's not the same color anymore. Oh well. I love this polish. Why did Revlon ever stop making these?! Now their polish line is super boring. I wish they'd bring these back, or at least re-create some of the colors.

Random Post-Thanksgiving Spam

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was pretty good.

I'm still working on a ton of stuff, but I'm not 100% finished with any of it... So how about some completely random spam until I have time to sit down and do a 'real' post? :)

Sally Hansen Endless Night

Revlon Ornate Ore

Orly Close Your Eyes

OPI I Only Drink Champagne

MAC Beyond Jealous

Essie Cocktail Party

Color Club Too Violet

CND Dark Secret

China Glaze Barefoot In The Park

Claire's Slime