Hard Candy Beetle (MAC Mean and Green, Orly Space Cadet dupe)

I'd been coveting MAC Mean and Green, as well as Bad Fairy, ever since the Venomous Villains collection came out last year. But as a college student, I couldn't justify spending $14 on a nail polish (I have a hard enough time justifying $5 for OPI on clearance!). Even when Orly's Space Cadet came out and was a dead-on dupe, the $10 price tag was just too high.

Enter Hard Candy Beetle, from the 2010 Holiday collection exclusively at Walmart. Not only is Beetle another dupe, it's a cheap one at $4. I had a hard time finding it by school, but when I ventured to the Freehold Walmart to pick up some things for the upcoming semester, I found it laying all by itself. I knew at that moment the stars had aligned... and I needed that polish.



Beetle is definitely a duochrome, flashing green, gold, and purple. And boy is it a STUNNER!

Below, you can see a little more of the green and gold.



Check out these three bottle shots... they almost look like entirely different polishes!





So what are you waiting for? Go out and get Hard Candy Beetle already! It's the only Beetle I'll ever be happy to see on my desk.

China Glaze Senorita Bonita

I'm more of a blue-purple (aka Blurple) kind of girl. But considering the rave reviews I've been hearing about Senorita Bonita from the CG Island Escape collection, I had to try her!



And as purple as it seems in the bottle...



Here's the color in the average light of my bedroom. Looks pink, doesn't it?

Even the slightest change in angle means a change in shade. Just look at that blue shimmer!





The color went on like a dream and I'm absolutely in love with it. Even my mom wore it on her toes! (It seems like she actually takes my polish advice these days) Definitely gets my stamp of approval!

I'll leave you now with a picture of CG Senorita Bonita in sunlight, next to my Summer Storm hibiscus. Enjoy!

Mets-icure!!!

As many of you know, I'm a huge sports fan. My favorite of all is baseball and I've been in love with the New York Mets since I was eight years old. Knowing I was going to be at the ballpark this weekend, I decided it was time for a game-friendly manicure.

Since the Mets' official colors are blue and orange, I thought a funky french would be appropriate and easy enough. Well, especially after five attempts at water marbling ended in disaster and a near-disastrous spill on my desk.

I used Art Club nail art polish in blue and orange, with silver glitter from Kiss for the center of the flowers.

China Glaze Blue Iguana + Nail Art

I used to avoid China Glaze nail polishes when I was younger, stemming from an unfortunate experience in which I purchased a bottle of CG Tempest and it was an absolutely disgusting application. I'm talking gloppy and thick RIGHT out of the bottle!

So I was highly averse to China Glaze after that. But that was the early 2000's and now we're in 2011, so after reading some rave reviews and checking out an Ulta Buy 2 Get 1 free sale, I decided to hop on board the China Glaze train.

And quite frankly, I don't think I'm getting off any time soon.



So earlier this week, I decided to try out Blue Iguana from the Island Escape collection for Summer 2011. I'm a sucker for a good blue shimmer and it caught my eye right in the bottle.



The formula was 1000x times better than I'd experienced in the past, so I'm really glad I gave China Glaze another chance. It was a much lighter color on my nails than I expected and I needed three coats to get it opaque. However, it was totally worth it.



Here you can see how smooth the color applied and how bright it was after one thin coat of Seche Vite. In the picture below, you can see just how pretty the slight shimmer is.



It's not sparkly enough to term it a glitter, but it's subtle enough to be seen. Truly a beauty. And speaking of sparkles, I decided to do a little nail art and add tips in OPI DS Shimmer, a silver holo polish, and a white flower on my ring fingers.

So if you're a fan of blue polish, I'd definitely recommend Blue Iguana!

Coming up in my next post... a Mets-icure!