Tag: pr sample

Orly ‘Hopeless Romantic’ Spring 2023 Collection – Swatches & Review

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PR SAMPLE

Y’ALL, that label in the corner isn’t lying, yes I’m now officially on the PR list for ORLY. I believed in myself and reached out to sell myself, and they liked what they saw and have been sending over their products! This is a lesson to believe in yourself, and make the first move every so often. Sorry just had to talk about that because I was so excited and proud of myself.

NOW. Y’all also know the drill, the spiel if you will. Just because I’m now receiving these products for free will not change how I’m reviewing them. You can look back on this blog over the years and see that I purchased these Orly collections myself for YEARS. And if they had said no, I would still be purchasing them to review myself. If I hated a formula, and it was so hard to work with? I would absolutely still tell you. You would be able to SEE it in the videos, those aren’t ever edited to improve formulas, they won’t lie. Overall PR just helps me out in the way of freeing up some more funds in my polish budget so I can review other brands for you all. I’ll still continue to buy so much polish on my own and I would never give up your trust in my reviews. Nothing’s changing there.

OKAY I’M DONE, THIS WAS THE FIRST BIG MAINSTREAM BRAND SENDING ME STUFF, we had to go over it all.

NOW. Let’s talk about this little collection, shall we?

This is the ‘Hopeless Romantic’ collection and it’s Orly’s spring release. It features the typical 6 bottle release, with 3 shimmers and 3 creams. The color palette overall has a nice whimsical spring feel to it, spanning from some blues and purples, over to the pinks, peaches and reds. These are available on the Orly website, and I do always recommend their Color Pass if you’re so interested in trying out some shades at a discounted price.

Alright, let’s get right in the swatches!

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Nailtural Malibu Collection – Swatches & Review

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PR SAMPLE

I am fully determined to get through my checklist of polish collections while fully social distanced up. That means not only will you be getting some new spring collection reviews, but you’ll also be getting some “older” collections that I never got around to putting up on the blog! It’s about being productive here – with ample amount of just sitting around (I’ve now challenged myself to watch a new to me movie every single day, someone suggested to put up a post about the movies, so I’ll definitely be doing that as well!). But like I said, expect LOTS of swatches and posts coming up here!

Now let’s look at tonight’s review! This is from a new-to-me brand called Nailtural. They reached out on Instagram and offered to send over some polishes. I am always so grateful when a brand offers, and I love that I’m able to try out new indie brands I haven’t heard of before. (And of course, will always give my honest opinion about the formula and polish itself).

Nailtural is a 16-free, vegan nail polish brand. They say they’re “bio-sourced” and that their products contain extracts from potatoes, cassava and beetroot, and are 85% natural and entirely vegan. So lots of cool things going on here! You can find them on their website at nailtural.com.

Today I have their ‘Malibu’ collection. This is 5 cream shades that are inspired by the “rosy-pink tones of the wild flowers and the ashy gray tones of the sand dunes found along the shores of the Malibu beaches like Point Dume”. They’re all shades I can’t get enough of, so let’s get into them already.

Onto the 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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Sally Hansen ‘Matte Metallic’ Shades

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PR SAMPLE

Over here just swatching, swatching, swatching all my feelings away. We have SO many polishes to talk about, and ugh, I can’t wait to show them all to you. So this time I won’t ramble and let’s just get RIGHT into it!

Like I said, Sally Hansen has been busy this year, releasing all sorts of new shades and formulas and finishes! Getting these packages has made me pay more attention to their releases, and I’m so glad I’ve been able to try all of these out! (I was going to purchase some of these metallic shades myself before I got the email about em, so it worked out). They’ve got some beautiful neons that have released up in Canada, that I hope come on down here so I can snatch em up.

But we’re talking about these bad boys right now. These are part of their Insta-Dri line. They’re a new collection called Matte Metallics, and they’re well, matte metallics. They have the ‘Matte’ label on the bottle, as well as around the cap.

I have 6 of the 8 shades available – the other two are a deep cobalt blue, and a deep purple. Those sound stunning in this finish, so I might have to pick them up as well!

You can find these on Target’s website for $4 and Ulta’s website for $5 – as well as other drugstores like Walgreens and CVS.

Let’s get into the shades now!

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Sista Chic Lacquer ‘Chic & Cheeky’ Duo

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PR SAMPLE

You know, I meant to get this up earlier, but catching up on 5 seasons of Game of Thrones, and then just plain going to bed early has got me all off on my swatching schedule. (That’s right I’m way behind on Game of Thrones, and working on it, if you spoil anything I will KICK YOU).

Anyways, let’s talk about this “cheeky” little duo that releases today, shall we?

Damn, the quickest intro I’ve ever had into a post. Don’t worry, I’ll be more chatty in literally every other post.

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This is the ‘Chic & Cheeky’ duo from Sista Chic Lacquer.  The owner, Debbi, says she was inspired to create this collection after another swatcher described a polish as “cheeky”. They’re two fun pinks, and available now on the Sista Chic website. Just like all of her other polishes, a portion of the money from these polishes will be donated to Project Rescue, an organization helping those rescued from sex trafficking.

As before, these were sent to me for my honest review, but I’ll always give my honest thoughts, all that fun and jazz. Now let’s get into the fun stuff.

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Sally Hansen New Miracle Gel Shades + New Matte Top Coat

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HeyOOOO it’s been a while since I’ve posted a full actual review! It was a busy week or two and I’m still working on settling into a new schedule and getting through the mountain of products that I’ve stashed to review, and I’m ready to just drop post after post, y’all.

Also peep in this post, my brand new lighting setup. I knew it was time to upgrade and make it even better, and I’m just so glad I did. It’s so much more even and consistent and will be able to really show the polish as it is. I’ll be talking all about this in a post about improving and the new motivation for my blog, and I’m so excited for everything to come.

But enough about all the reviews I’m going to do, let’s just talk about this one right here shall we?

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Sally Hansen was so kind to send over another box of polishes over to me, and I’m still so floored. I’m still so grateful, and it’s so wild to me that a big brand like this wants to send me items!

As always, just because it was sent to me, I will still give my honest opinions and a thorough review, but I’ll always be transparent when something was provided for my review. I’m always so thankful that I’m given the chance to try even more polishes for you guys!

GelShadesBox

So let’s get right into what we’re going to be looking at today. These are 6 of their new Miracle Gel shades. The Miracle Gel formula promises to be a gel-like finish without requiring a UV lamp. They promise to be longer lasting than normal polishes especially when paired with the Miracle Gel top coat. Now, I don’t wear my polish for long periods of time, between constantly changing it up and swatching, I only ever have a color on for a couple of days tops, so I can’t tell you about the claims for longwearing or durability. But I can still show you the colors and the formulas.

Also included is their new Miracle Gel Matte Top coat. It promises a “soft matte” finish over any of the Miracle Gel shades (or any other polish in general) and to be as durable as the normal Miracle Gel top coat. Again, I can’t talk to the lasting power of this, but I’ll be showing how it mattifies and the look over the 6 shades I received.

It’s in the same style of bottle as all of their Miracle Gel shades, with an opaque black finish and a matte label.

MatteTopCoat

Let’s get into these shades already. I have the polishes swatched and shown with their normal finish, and then with 1 coat of the matte top coat over them.

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Sally Hansen Mega Strength Polishes

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You know, somedays you feel like you’re an adult that’s getting it together – after all I found a new apartment and I’m working on setting up everything to move in April. But then you leave a pot of spaghetti sauce warming while you write a nail post, and come back to a beautiful display of splatter across your kitchen as it popped and bubbled, and it brings you back.

It’s not my fault that important nail posts always take priority. Some people just don’t understand our love for polish. I digress.

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It’s a later night post for you all (see me cleaning pasta sauce from all over my kitchen above, pushing it back a little) But I especially wanted to get these beauties up. They’ve been staring at me from their little box just waiting to be used. These are the new Mega Strength polishes from Sally Hansen. They came to be a polish with a strengthener that “strengthens and fortifies” nails.

There are THIRTY new colors in this Mega Strength formula (I know, 30!), and they retail for $5.99 at Walgreens, CVS and Ulta ($4.49 on Target’s website). They’re a variety of creams and shimmers, as well as what looks like a couple glitter shades.

I have 6 of the new shades to show you today! I did receive these from Sally Hansen to try (see my full post about that here) but these are all my honest thoughts and reviews.

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My First PR Sample – What Does This Mean?

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It’s just a little talking post today. I’m feeling a little introspective and thoughtful, and just wanted to chat with you guys.

What about?

Well, something exciting happened over here. Over a week ago, a box arrived on my doorstep. It was a box that I had been expecting to come, but I still couldn’t believe it when it actually showed up. I’m not going to lie, when I got the email asking if I wanted to try the product, I thought it was an elaborate hoax and now someone out there had my address. But it was really them, and it really showed up.

As you can tell from the picture above and the title: I got a PR Sample from Sally Hansen.

What’s a PR Sample? It’s a sample that companies will send out, to bloggers and YouTubers, of their product, for that person to test out and talk about. I got a free box of polish from Sally Hansen. They either saw my Instagram or my blog, thought I had a good thing going, and wanted to send me something to show and talk about, whether positive or negative.

It’s still wild to me.

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They sent on over a box of their new Mega Strength polishes – 6 of the shades, a top coat, and their hardener, in this cute little orange box. There will be a full post coming up on these polishes (in the next couple of days) and I’ll talk all about them. But first, I want to talk what this box means for me, and for you all reading. I just want to reflect a little.

SHBox-Inside

At this point, I’ve been writing on this blog for almost 3 years now (this summer will be the anniversary), and I’ve purchased far too much polish, and will continue to be purchasing too much for years and years to come.

I went into this all because I loved beauty and nail polish. I had tried and failed a couple of times to start a blog, and during the summer of 2016, I said screw it and finally just went for it. I just wanted to talk about something I loved so much. I didn’t have friends in real life really that were as crazy as me about beauty as I was, and I just wanted to talk about it. I just wanted to tell others if something was bad, or good, or just plain fantastic. I wanted to let others know about something before maybe they purchased it too. I was buying it and using it anyways, why not let others know about it?

I never expected PR. I thought maybe hey, someday, that could be cool, just to be able to show more products. But it wasn’t something I went into this for. I couldn’t put this much time and effort into something just for an end goal of free product. You would be able to tell that my passion wasn’t there.  I went into this simply because I was actually was passionate about it and wanted to help people with reviews. I’ve put a lot of hours and effort into this blog, and I still love it, and I’ll still continue on even if I don’t get a single more free product.

But I got this one. So what does that mean overall? What can you guys expect?

I will admit, I was goddamn excited. I was texting friends who have supported me and this blog from the start and almost screaming. I still smile every time I see it sitting on my desk. I’ll probably keep the box for sentimental reasons. It’s a special thing. It may seem small, just one piece of PR. But it’s still my first. I’ve never gotten this before, and you’ve never seen it over here.

And sure, I get PR from a small indie nail polish brand before this. That’s still there, and I’m still forever grateful for that as well. I never want to minimize that experience, and I’ll still be working with that brand because I love it. At this point, it almost feels like me critiquing and giving points to a friend. I’m just helping out a smaller brand as they continue on.

However, this one is Sally Hansen. It’s a bigger brand and a whole different ballgame. It’s a product you can find in drugstores, and I’m one of a bunch of bloggers that it was sent to. It still feels special in a whole new way.

It means I get to try out a product that I was interested in, but that I honesty hadn’t planned on buying for a while, or at all, because of budgeting.

I know it seems like I buy a lot of makeup and nail polish (because I do), and at this point in my life as a single young woman living by herself in the city with a full time job, I’m able to portion out a part of my paycheck each month for fun purchases. But I’m nowhere near rich, and I can’t afford to buy everything that catches my eye currently. I do hold myself back and pick and choose over some things that I wish I could review, but will pass on because there are other brands that I feature more on this blog. I would love to add on more, and hopefully as my budget continues to grow, I can.

So here’s what it really means: this is just another product I get to feature on the blog, and talk about to you honestly. I’m always honest with you guys, and I never will change that. I have your trust at this point, and I can’t ever give that up, even for more free products.

I was even transparent about this in my email accepting these products. I said I would be reviewing them honestly, and the free product doesn’t guarantee a positive review. It never does, and never will. I’m excited about them, but I’ll talk about the formula and any issues openly.

You might just assume all of this already and think this is a pointless post. It’s just something I wanted to get out there, and emphasize, especially for this very first piece of PR. It’s a policy I’ll continue on with, and if I get lucky enough to continue to receive more, I’ll make sure the same transparency is there with every single company. It’s about you guys, and your trust in me in the end.

It’s just something I wanted to talk about, and I’m glad you’re all here with me and supporting me. Without you guys, I wouldn’t even be here talking about this now.

I can’t wait to talk about even more polish with you all.

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Sista Chic Lacquer ‘Embrace the Pink’ Trio

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As I’ve said in the last couple of posts, I’m still catching up on products to review, and getting through the ones that have collected and piled up on my desk. I was busy during the past couple of weeks with apartment viewings as I tried to find a new place to live. And I got an apartment! The craziness was all worth it as I found a new apartment that I love and I can’t wait to move at the end of March. So now that that madness has died down, I’m back and ready to swatch and get posts out.

I’ve just been feeling inspired you know? I always love swatching and reviewing and talking about nail polish and beauty. But I’m suddenly feeling even more inspired and motivated, and just wanting to get out as many posts as I can. I got lots to talk about, and I just want to show it all to you guys. There will of course be lots of nail polish, but there will also be lots of makeup and other beauty posts coming. This blog will always be mainly nail polish, but I do love all parts of beauty and want to talk about it as well. As always, it’s my blog, and I’m going to talk about all the things I’m loving. I hope you’re all ready for the ride.

Now let’s get on into this polish I’m talking about.

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This newest post to talk about is another collection from Sista Chic Lacquer! If you haven’t seen the other posts, Sista Chic Lacquer is a small indie brand, and really the first indie nail polish brand I got to try. (As always, these were sent to me for my honest review, and I will always give my honest thoughts.)

This new trio is called the ‘Embrace the Pink’ trio and will be releasing on March 1st on the Sista Chic website. This trio has a very special inspiration as well. They are in honor of Catherine Cronall, a fellow Instagrammer, YouTuber and nail polish lover. (Follow her at @mrscronall). She is currently fighting breast cancer, and so Sista Chic decided to honor her with a trio of pinks to support her on her journey, which I love. All profits from this collection will also be donated to the Breast Cancer Foundation in Catherine’s name as well.

It’s a lovely message, and a beautiful way to support her, and all of those women who have to deal with this fight. So let’s get into the pinks.

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Sista Chic ‘They Say It’s Your Birthday’ and ‘Moulin Rouge’ Trios

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It’s a truly snowy and chilly wintery weekend, so I’m using that as an opportunity to hole up in my apartment and get some swatching done. It’s 3 degrees today, so I’m not leaving. I am one that loves the snow, so when it finally blizzarded this weekend, I loved it so much. It had been so cold and gray for a while, and it was just a depressing winter. If it’s going to be this cold and gray, a little snow just helps it out a little. Especially when they’re big fluffy flakes just dropping down. I went to college way up North in Michigan, so maybe that’s why I love it.

There’s lots of fun polishes to talk about, so let’s just get into it.

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