Winter Wonderland in Spring with Orly Royal Navy

     When I saw this polish on another blog, I instantly loved it. When I saw it in person, I loved it even more. Orly Royal Navy is a dark blue, but it is bright at the same time. It looks like a cream from afar, but it really has these tiny turquoise sparkles that light up from within. I used three coats in the pictures below.

     After I had my mani on for a few days, I decided to extend it by trying a technique seen here, in which you paint a layer of glitter on your tips and then drag the glitter down to make it look like icicles. I used China Glaze Silver Lining, and I think the combination looks like a Winter Wonderland. ;)
What do you think? Do you have any cool nail art techniques?

Eyeshadow Preview!

     Here is a look I did with some Wet N Wild blue eyeshadow that I will be reviewing soon! Tell me what you think! Is this mermaid makeup, or what?? ☺

Victoria's Secret Brilliant Lip Shine in Torrid

     Victoria's Secret Brilliant Lip Shines are described as "patent-finished gloss that drenches lips with gleaming, shimmering color."  These lip shines are, obviously, available at Victoria's Secret for $12.  They are housed in a click-pen type applicator, in which you click the end of the lip shines until gloss comes out of the lip brush on the other side. The thing I don't like about applicators like this is that it is hard to measure how many clicks it takes to get the perfect amount of product out.
     Torrid is a berry-pink gloss with purple and blue glitter that is sheer, but you can build it up to acheive more color. Lip Shines are better than your average lip gloss because they have such an array of colors and the sparkle and shine are gorgeous. There is definitely no stickiness with this gloss, which is a huge plus! I wouldn't say they are the best lip glosses on the market, but they are definitely steps above many drugstore options. Wear time is probably between one to two hours, depending on how much you drink and lick your lips.
      What do you think about this color? Have you ever tried VS Brilliant Lip Shines?

Essie Turquoise & Caicos Nail Polish

     This is my first Essie nail polish purchase. I had seen this color at Wal-mart before, but it was always sold out, and the price of these little bottles are $7-8, which is a lot for nail polish when you don't have a coupon. ☺ So, I had some beauty points to use on Beauty.com and I needed another $8 to get free shipping, so I thought, "Why not try out this brand?" I picked Turquoise & Caicos because it is gorgeous and such a fun, 'vacation-y' nail color, and I was taking a week of vacation from work, so this color would be perfect!
     So, let's start with the good. Turquoise & Caicos is exactly what the color of turquoise is, but maybe a little lighter. It's the perfect mix between baby blue and green. The wear time for this polish was great too, with the help of layers of top coats throughout the duration my manicure. I painted my nails on a Sunday night, and I didn't have a real chip until Thursday night, which was kind of my fault, anyway. So, that's four whole days with a perfect manicure, thanks to this nail color and Seche Vite Fast-Dry Top Coat.
     Unfortunately, the bad is that this nail polish was a pain-in-the-butt to apply! The polish was sheer with the first two coats and streaky when applied. I ended up with three or four coats total just to even the color out! I've heard that Essie polish is watery when applied, and it is. But I kept having to go over the nail again and again to even out the color and cover up the streaks. Maybe I didn't wait enough time between applying coats, but let's face it, we don't all have 15 minutes to wait after each coat when painting our nails! However, as you can see, after layers of polish, the color is gorgeous.
     So, if you want a fun, beachy color that has great wear time and you don't mind practicing patience when painting your nails, this is the perfect color for you. If you don't like the $8 price tag and want a color that's low-maintenance, this is not for you.
     Essie is available at Wal-mart, Target, Beauty.com, and Ulta.
     What do you think? Is this color worth the TLC?