Mosaic Do-Over

Tuesday,  yay! How was your Memorial Day weekend?  I had to work Monday,  but whatevs.  I got a lot of stuff done which was cool.

So, my cue for this week is inspired by the season.  Since it fluctuates so much here in Iowa,  I wanted something that would be between spring and summer.  I then remembered that I wanted to redo the mosaic mani that I got for vacation. I picked a bunch of cm colors off the rack, and went to it.

I started out with a white base and then I took My Boyfriend Scales Walls (light white-grey) and outlined my blocks. After that I went in and colored the blocks in.

That neon green is a total pain in my butt. This is the second time I've used it. The first time, it stained terribly.  This time, it bled into the white. What a jerk.

Light green: OPI Did it On 'Em
Neon green: Sephora X Radioactive
Turquoise: Essie In the Cab - ana
Purple: Color Club Unnamed Purple Neon
Gold: Cult Cosmetics Stay Gold
White: OPI Alpine Snow

I totally love this because it looks like fun and warmer weather without being totally cheeseball.

That's all I've got. Ta ta for now!!

April

Cult Cosmetics Classic Collection

Ok, so I had the coolest mani to show you all this morning, and guess what? Instead of emailing to myself from my phone, I frigging deleted them!!! Ugh!!! They were super cute purple ones with hand painted details.  I hope you all are as mad as I am right now,  because I think I might have steam shooting out my ears.


Remember when I said I have the worst luck ever with sub boxes? Well, when Cult Cosmetics changed their box from brand names to their own line in October,  I told them to take a hike. I got an email not too long ago saying that my order had shipped... *blank stare*. After several emails to their customer service line and attaching confirmation of cancelation emails,  I was credited the charge and bonus! I got to keep the polish they sent me.

I got the Classic collection,  which is 3 colors and a set of Mash dotting tools. Love the tools, I previously only had one tool I picked up from Sephora, and I used a sewing pin with a yellow plasic ball at the tip for my big dots. These will definitely come in handy.

The polish... Cult claims that these are "one and done" polishes,  meaning they only need one coat for full coverage.  I didn't find that as being the case. And of course,  as my luck would have it,  one of the polishes I got is a red.  Ugh. (Although it's free... I can't really complain).


This is El Matador,  a bright red creme. I found this to be slightly more warm toned than expected,  and although I probably could have gotten away with one coat,  I wouldn't have due to some patchiness.

Lighting : shade

Lighting : full sunlight

Next is Boneyards, a charcoal grey creme. Better on the opaqueness of the formula,  but again I used 2 coats for the same reason as above.

Lighting : full sunlight

And finally is Stay Gold, a golden glitter topper. Totally not my cuppa tea. I placed one coat of Stay Gold over El Matador.

Lighting : shade

Lighting : full sunlight

These weren't terrible,  and if I would have gotten some different colors,  I might have a different tune... but we all know how I feel about red, and dark greys are ok, just tend to make my skin tone feel a little washed out.  My other concern is that the brush is huge. Like HUGE. These make OPI look like Essie. With OPI, I feel as though the large brush isn't as full to make application on tiny nails difficult. For me, I have extremely small nail beds. (My pinky nail is only about an 1/8 of an inch- my thumb: 1/4.) I don't have a ton of trouble with OPI, but I think that's why I use so many Essie polishes, because their brush is smaller. These Cult brushes were not only big, but thick. I had a lot of clean up to do due to this. If you have larger nails, great. I think these would work extremely well for you. For me, it was somewhat of a nightmare.


I know some friends that love this line, but I'm still on the fence. What are your thoughts?  Cult Cosmetics polish can be purchased here.

April

September Cult Cosmetics Blackbox Review

Hi there! Hope you are having a great weekend.  I unfortunately somehow got the flu. I don't remember ever having the flu, so this is a totally new experience for me.  I never get sick. I have an EXTREMELY low tolerance for pain, and this feeling like someone has put clear packing tape on my back and then slowly ripping it off really sucks. Anyways, I finally received my September Blackbox!  Let's see what's inside.

So I have to admit, I was getting super antsy pants waiting for this, since it took 10 days to get to me. TEN. I looked up online for teasers, so I had an idea of what to expect.  Imagine my disappointment when I opened this up!

Here is the idea card that was included to use the polishes and the tools to create their suggestions for the month. This is also reflective of the hints that they gave us all month too. The teasers I saw had the pink glitter (Orly) and an Essie color, being the pale pink.

So, tell me, where does the orange and the red come into play here? I'm a little confused.  Let's look at the polishes first.

First up is my favorite of the box, and one I was pleased with.  It's Color Club Beyond,  a gunmetal grey holographic.  The holo in this is amazeballs.  It could have been a one-coater, but I added on a second. There was no dragging with this, as some holos tend to do.

Sunlight:

Isn't it pretty? This is in the shade. Stunner.

Up next is OPI Jinx. This was one of the first liquid sand colors that they put out, and a part of the 007 Bond collection.  When this came out, I wasn't totally sold on the whole textured polish thing.  So I never purchased it. Once I tried Pixie Dust by Zoya, I liked those and I bought a similar color. Look for a comparison at the end of the two.

Finally,  Color Club Brrr-red. Red freaking polish. I couldn't belive it.  Regardless of my dislike for red, it's a very nice polish. This is two coats, and is somewhat of a crelly consistency.

 I didn't take individual pictures of the tools this month. They were a rhinestone wheel from Mash with a tube of nail glue, which kept the theme and I liked. The other was a set of OPI nail appliqués in a sparkly and black design, called Metallic Waves.  It kind of looks like a mix between zebra print and a fingerprint.  Can you believe I've never tried nail stickers?  I can see myself doing one finger with these, but all 10 would probably freak me out. Ha! Plus I've been hesitant trying them because I have extremely small nail beds. These all look so big!


So... verdict time. I gotta say, I was so extremely disappointed with this box since i did love the August one. From the length of shipping time, to the false advertising and then I find out via Facebook that the subscription will only feature Cult Cosmetics brand polishes moving forward.  (They recently came out with their own line) I actually canceled my subscription on Friday.  I told customer service my concerns / issues I had with this month, and all I got back was a "we canceled your subscription" as a reply. I guess they weren't too interested in keeping me.

I've found a new polish box to try, the I.N.N. box by iNZURi, so I'm giving that one a shot. You pick your own collection,  and the beauty products they send along are the surprise.  Look for that review next month.

Lastly, here is the side by side comparison of Jinx with Zoya's Destiny. Ring finger is Jinx, pinky is Destiny. In the bottle, looks pretty close.

On the nail in the sun, they look identical, with Destiny being slightly more pink than Jinx

In the shade, you can barely tell a difference, maybe Jinx is slightly more sparkly gold.  Are they close enough you don't need both? Yes. I do have to say that Jinx dries faster than Destiny does.  And quick drying is always a bonus in my eyes.

So, do you have a beauty subscription?  What's the best one?
April