Orly Euphoria Summer 2019 Collection

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PURCHASED

Good God, it is HOT today. My sweet little Midwestern self can’t handle this heat. It’s 95 here today (with a heat index of 104), and I’m melting. You can bet I parked my happy lil butt right in front of the AC when I got home, electricity bills be damned! I was naive and thought the 70s we enjoyed for the past couple of days was here to stay, I just forgot the 90s we had the week before ever happened. Call me weak, but I live in a place that had a Polar Vortex this year. So yes, I’m going to comment on the heat as it continues on like a normal summer.

So it’s fitting that there’s a polish called ‘Muy Caliente’ in this collection we’re talking about today. HEYOOOOO.

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I picked this collection up as part of their Color Pass program! I’ve talked about this in my other Orly posts, but a little refresher: it’s where you pay $119 up front, and then you get the 4 Orly collections for the year shipped to you as they release. You also get little fun extras in each box!

I’ve told many people, it’s definitely worth it if you’re planning on picking up all of these collections like I do. It can be a big cost up front, but it’s done and over with, and then you’re set for the rest of the year. You can start it at any time – however, you’ll only get the summer box if you sign up before July 14th! (Most likely, you would have to wait until the fall collection releases, and get the 4 collections starting then if you sign up after).

However, if you want to buy individual shades and aren’t looking for full collections, of course, this wouldn’t be your best value. I’ve found the best prices on transdesign.com for individual Orly shades!

Now, let’s talk about this box!

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Wet N Wild Crystal Cavern FULL COLLECTION

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Jump to Sections:
Eyeshadow Trios
Cream Highlight
Brightening Rocks
Lipglosses
Perfumes
Setting Spray

I always joke that I get reviews up of Wet N Wild collections right when they’re about to drop a new one (I can’t WAIT for the new Pacman collection), and you know, I wish I could say this was an exception. As you can see, these are beasts of posts, so I’m still figuring out the best way to tackle them in a more efficient way. But as always, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER. I knew I wouldn’t let this go by without a full review. Enough intro, it’s a lot to talk about so let’s get into it!

A new fun thing: As you can see I have links at the top to jump to different parts of the review! If you’re interested in only certain parts, click those to scroll on down!

We’re talking about the Crystal Cavern collection! This is a light, airy and shimmery collection based on crystals. This collection includes 4 new eyeshadow trios, 4 new lipglosses, 2 new highlighters, 4 new perfumes and a setting spray.

As with all of their other collections, they are selling the whole thing in a box for a discounted price. The full collection box is $49.99 and features all of the products (separately they retail all together for $74). They also have sets for each of the crystals, that include the specific eyeshadow trio, lipgloss and perfume, as well as the two highlighters and the setting spray for $19.99. You can also buy a set of the 4 perfumes for $23.

I was, of course, interested in trying all of the products, so I ended up just buying the whole collection box.

If you buy the whole collection, it comes in this big ol’ chunky crystal shaped box.

CC-CaseOutside

Honestly it’s a very cool presentation and I got to pretend I was a real booty guru receiving PR from Wet N Wild for a hot second (a true dream).

It has all of the pieces nicely secured, as well as information about the whole collection at the top. But unless you’re planning on keeping the box forever to display, it can be a lil chunky and overwhelming (especially when you’re living in a studio apartment and have it sitting by your recycling for 2 months oops). Of course, I love the attention to detail and the effort to present it.

CC-CaseInside

ALRIGHT, HERE WE GO. Like I’ve said, it’s about to be a long one, as all of these posts are – there’s a lot of pieces to talk about and I love to give you thorough reviews. Like I said before, there are links above you can click to skip to specific parts of the review, or you can buckle on up and scroll through it all.

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OPI Neons 2019 – Comparisons

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PURCHASED WITH DISCOUNT

Alright y’all, we had the full collection swatch and review, so of course now we have the comparison post. I said in my last comparison post that I wanted to keep doing this for the collections I reviewed, both for reference for myself, and for others! I know it’s helpful for everyone to see, and always helps me when deciding whether to purchase. This blog was made with the intention of being a resource, so of course I want to provide that for you!

We’re talking about the comparisons for the OPI Neons 2019 collection today! I found some similar shades for 4 out of the 6 colors.

I picked up these shades from Polishpick.com. And as you can see, I’m now labeling it “purchased with discount”. I always want to be upfront and honest with all products I’m getting, so I’m posting that up there now. After purchasing from PolishPick multiple times on my own and talking about them with no incentive, the owner was kind enough to give me a blogging discount – I’m still purchasing the shades myself, but at an even cheaper price, which allows me to keep picking up the shades and showing them to you!

Even without the discount, PolishPick is still the place I’ve found with the cheapest prices for OPI – she also gets in the new collections right when they launch, and I’ve never had a problem with shipping or receiving products. Even without a discount, I would still be shopping there for each collection! That’s my spiel for the post.

Enough yammering, let’s get to nail polish.

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OPI Neons Summer 2019 Collection

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PURCHASED

Gosh DANG, it’s gotten HOT here in Chicago (finally). Something snapped and it’s been 80s here all week (that’s hot for a Midwest state that has been lazing around in the 60s and 70s all summer), and today it’s apparently 94. My new exercise routine is just sweating constantly because I’m currently too cheap to turn on my AC. I keep telling myself to appreciate it after Polar Vortex 2k19 but I’m weak and not used to this. What’s the summer like where you’re at? Are you calling me weak right now? Pls let me know.

But you know what, hot temperatures require neon nails. Smooth transition, right?

That’s right! We’re talking about the new neon collection from OPI. This is a 6 piece collection for Summer 2019 and features 6 bright neon shades. They’re bright, I was excited to test em out. Let’s just get right into it.

As always, I purchased these off of polishpick.com.

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Sinful Colors Pride Collection 2019

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Happy Pride month everyone! Pride Fest is this weekend in Chicago! I live right next to Boystown as well, and I went over to the festival with friends yesterday and had a blast. There were people everywhere, tons of entertainment and food, and a lovely space for everyone to just have fun and be themselves. Loved it! The Pride parade is next weekend as well – Chicago’s is always a huge event, but unfortunately I’ll be out of town visiting friends. I hope I can see it next year, and hope it’s an amazing day for everyone and the community! Are you going to any Pride events this month?

And with that, I have the Sinful Colors Pride 2019 collection to talk about today!

This collection makes me a little sentimental. I purchased one of the Sinful Colors Pride collections way back in the day (like 2017) – the one of all creams. And it was one of the first collections I reviewed on this blog! It was even before I did full nail swatches – I just showed the shades over my swatch wheel in natural daylight coming in through the window! I had barely figured out focus, lighting or blogging, but I just wanted to talk about polish. I thought the post was still up to link to it, but I can’t find it unfortunately, I must have taken it down. But I remember typing it on up! Crazy how much has changed in the 2 years of the blog (and my life) since then – my nails, lighting and posting have all gotten better!

There has been released at least one other Pride collection in between this, with similar sparkly shades in different colors, but I wasn’t at a point where I was buying as much polish then. So this is my first Pride collection from Sinful in a while, and I’m so glad to have another! They’re always so fun. They’ve also been posting work in collaboration with different LGBTQIA+ on their Instagram to celebrate! Happy Pride!

Now for the collection. As always, it’s a 6 piece collection. It features a rainbow of glittery shades, and they all have a #Pride sticker on their caps. These have been available since before June, and I’ve read that it’s a permanent collection you’ll be able to purchase long after Pride month. I got these off of Amazon. They’re currently $16 for all 6 shades + a highlighter (which I’ll talk about before the shades). I have not seen these available for purchase individually, and haven’t heard of them being available in stores – but Walmart has had other collections so it’s possible they’ll show up there.

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China Glaze ‘Body & Sol’ – Comparisons

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See the original review post here: China Glaze ‘Body & Sol’ Collection

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I’m adding in a new type of post to go with my reviews! From now on I want to do my best to make sure my review posts are followed up with a comparisons posts (I loved the idea from Manigeek with her Comparison posts. That’s where I was mainly inspired as well as others on Instagram – specifically @polish.lab.rat and @clmck1620). I went through all of my drawers and pulled out any sort of similar color – then showed the top 3 comparisons (if there were that many) on my nails! If it’s a super common color with a lot of close duplicates, I’ll expand it out to show more with swatch sticks.

I have so many polishes now that it’s only fair I start comparing them! I know it’s always helpful for me to see, and others love to see it as well! I’ll be mainly showing mainstream brands – OPI, Essie, China Glaze, Orly & Zoya – as I have the most of those and it’ll be easier to go through.

And if you ever have specific comparisons you’re curious about, feel free to let me know! If I have the polish I’ll definitely make sure to put up photos, both on here and on my Instagram.

This comparison post is for the China Glaze ‘Body & Sol’ collection – see the official review post up at the top as well. I ended up only finding comparisons for 5 of the 8 shades, and none were exact dupes this time.

Let’s get right into the comparisons!

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China Glaze ‘Body & Sol’ Collection

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PURCHASED

Happy Father’s Day everyone! I’m currently at my parents house as sort of a “weekend retreat” and to hang out with my dad for the weekend. It’s been a nice relaxing couple of days of shopping, seeing Rocketman, and just lounging around with home cooked foods. Just what I needed. What has your weekend been like?

I’m also using today to catch up on some posting. I know I teased these polishes about a week ago, but sometimes life gets busy, and my whole week was feeling like there’s just not enough time in the day! But I’ve got some time now to settle down and write this out.

We’re finally talking about the collection China Glaze released for Summer 2019. This is the ‘Body & Sol’ collection, and it features 8 bronzey and nude shades. It’s a unique collection for summer, and I think it’s perfect for the warm weather (if it’ll ever stay in the 80s down in Chicago!).

Let’s talk about em, shall we?

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Sinful Colors ‘Sinful Mattes’ Collection

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PURCHASED

My life is constantly saying I’ll catch up on popular shows and movies that I probably should have watched by now (see Game of Thrones), but I keep going back to shows that I’ve either watched, or don’t at all have to pay attention to – especially when writing these posts. Currently what’s been on in the background while I’ve been blogging has been It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and 90 Day Fiancé. What are your “background” shows? I know we all have em so we don’t have to listen to the sounds of our quiet studio apartment. If I had a way to stop time, I would use it to catch up on all my shows and movies. And I guess, you know, to blog. I’m kidding, I would do both at the same time.

Enough wasting your precious Netflix time with a long intro, let’s get you into this blog post shall we?

Like I’ve said before, Sinful Colors has been putting out lots of new collections this year, and I am so happy because it really fulfills my requirement to buy 70 million new Sinful Colors a year. I just want to get my grabby hands on all the new polishes they put out. And as I’ve said before, it’s more exciting because you can buy these polishes online! They’re stocked on Amazon (and fully in stock and worked out in that way) as well as on Walmart’s website and it’s so much nicer to talk about polishes that you know, you can actually find. And if you don’t want to order online, they’ve also been popping up in Walmart stores.

This is the ‘Sinful Mattes’ collection, and as you can guess, contains 6 bright matte shades. The 6 pack retails for $16 currently and includes 5 of the shades and their matte top coat. Onto swatches!

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Sista Chic Lacquer ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ Trio

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PR SAMPLE

I thought maybe I would have a fun little anecdote here, like I usually do, but really I got nothing. I’m still slowly making my way through Game of Thrones (finally). I still have too much makeup and nail polish to talk about. Enough about me. How are you all doing today? It’s once again warm here, before it drops down to a lil cooler again – it’s like it’s still nervous to stay warm for too long.

But you know, it’s never too warm or too cold to talk about new nail polish! HeyOOOOO. Alright let’s just get right into it shall we.

Sista Chic Lacquer is releasing a fun little trio tomorrow, June 1st, for their summer offering. It’s a trio of blues all honoring blues singer and legend Aretha Franklin. We got one cream, one beautiful holo, and one fun glitter and hexagon filled cream. These will all be available on their website! Let’s talk about the swatches!

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Zoya Earth Day Haul 2019

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Happy Memorial Day everyone! I’m thoroughly enjoying my day off by lazing around, listening to the storm outside, and writing blog posts. How have you celebrated?

I might have said this before, but it was 80 degrees this past Saturday and I was THRIVING. I absolutely love the warm weather, and especially after moving to a new place where I can just have the windows open all the time, it’s been fabulous. You would think that if I loved the warm weather so much, I would move away from the area that had a literal polar vortex this year. But as much as I love the warm weather, I need those 4 separate seasons as well. I like having set weather for different time periods, you feel? I CAN’T EVER GIVE UP FALL.

Give me a solid 80 degree day any day. Shall we talk about polish now?

It’s been about a month since I picked these up, but I still wanted to show you my Zoya Earth Day haul! If you don’t know, every year Zoya does an Earth Day sale, that usually runs for the entire month of April. During that time, you can get any 6+ shades for half off, or $5 a bottle. It’s a great price, and I always pick up at least 6 shades that I’ve had my eye on for the year.

Another big part of it is that with any order, you can send back any old shades or polish that has gone bad back into Zoya, and they’ll recycle the bottles and polish safely! It’s a great way to get rid of any old or dried up polish in a safe and healthy way.

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