American Apparel Sheer Polish Collection: Pacific Beach

American Apparel Pacific Beach (3 coats)

Happy Monday! I hope your weekend went well! Mine was pretty good (nothing too exciting went on). I have 2 more of the American Apparel Sheer polishes left to show you, and next is Pacific Beach, which is a kelly green jelly. This one looks a lot more sheer in the pictures than they do in real life. I used three coats for the above photos, with my index finger containing a jelly sandwich with Happy Hands Flowers on the Highway. I am not loving how this looks in pictures, but I love it in real life.


*This polish was provided by the company or PR representative. All reviews are based solely on my opinion. For more information, please see my full disclosure at the bottom of the site* 

American Apparel Sheer Nail Polish Collection: Moonlight Beach

American Apparel Moonlight Beach (3 coats)

American Apparel has been a bit controversial when it comes to their ads, but there's no denying they have some great polishes. Their newest collection features "sheer" polishes, A.K.A. jellies. I know jellies are a favorite among many, but it usually isn't my favorite finish. I love to have an opaque finish without having to apply 5 coats of lacquer. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised with these. Being an LA based company, they named their polishes after different Southern California Beaches. Up first is Moonlight Beach, which is a beach I've never heard of (Google tells me it's in Encinitas). It's a blue jelly with strong hints of purple. They were correct in stating these were sheer; I used three thick coats for the photo above, but if you want to see some nail line, you can use 2 or 3 thin coats. These are also going to be perfect for a jelly sandwich (putting a glitter polish between the jelly polishes). 

You can find these at your local American Apparel store, or you can purchase them online for $6 each. I see on their website that they will be releasing their own glitter polishes in the near future as well...


*This polish was provided by the company or PR representative. All reviews are based solely on my opinion. For more information, please see my full disclosure at the bottom of the site* 

Julep Nail Polish: Mila

Julep Mila (3 coats) over 1 coat white

I love glitter! Sure, it's a bit more annoying to remove, but if you Google foil method polish remover, you will never regret wearing glitter polish again. This method makes taking off glitter a breeze. The only downside is that you have to use 10 cotton balls, which, for me, is a lot since I go through cotton balls so quickly. I definitely used this method to take off Julep's Mila, which is a multi-colored fine glitter suspended in a clear base. I used a base coat of white before applying three thin coats of glitter. It's mostly opaque, but a fourth could be used. It would also make a nice topcoat if that's what you're into. 

I hope you're having a great weekend so far!

China Glaze Hunger Games 2012 Collection: Mahogany Magic

China Glaze Mahogany Magic (2 coats)

Sometimes I like to pretend that I'm not 100% addicted to caffeine, but it's times like these that it becomes quite apparent. I've had a long day of extracting bacterial DNA, and instead of getting my usual caffeine fix at 1, I was working until 4:30. I have a huge headache right now! Like, I can barely type up this blog post from a searing headache. Caffeine and Advil time, indeed.

Oh Mahogany Magic, you are such a poopy color. I usually don't mind browns, but this one just doesn't do it for me. As you can see, there is a lot of yellow in it and the color dried a bit darker than the bottle. I'm not too surprised that my Sally's had a few of these left at 50% off. The application and formula was pretty amazing despite the disappointing color. 

Indie Nail Brands: Happy Hands Nail Polish in Springs

Happy Hands Springs (2 coats) over BB Couture Hangover Blues (1 coat)

Ok, so I sort of forgot to upload the last Hunger Games polish to my computer, so I am just going to show an indie nail brand instead. No worries, I'll make sure to finish up the China Glaze polishes tomorrow, I promise. I love turquoise. It's one of those colors I somehow don't have very many of, but when I get one, I fall in love instantly. For example, when I saw Happy Hands Nail Polish in Springs on their Etsy site, I knew I had to get it. You know how hard it usually is to get indie polishes from Etsy, right? Well, Kristi opens up the shop every Saturday at 5 PM, and you don't have to have the fastest internet in town to get a polish or 2.  

Springs is a bright turquoise blue jelly with small white and larger iridescent glitters. I couldn't fish out too many of the larger ones, but I had a lot more on my right hand. It could definitely be opaque on its own with 3 coats, but I decided to put it over BB Couture's Hangover Blues to make sure there was no VNL. The color you see here is definitely the color of Springs, not Hangover Blues. I absolutely adore this color, and I can't wait to get the other 2 colors I don't own from Happy Hands yet.