Top 10 Favorite Nail Polish Brands (5 Drugstore + 5 Higher end)

Hi Beauties,

I did a video over on my Youtube channel (which should be uploaded soon- I'll link when it's uploaded) on my top 10 favorite nail polish brands (5 drugstore + 5 higher end). I thought it would be fun to put up an accompanying blog post for those who aren't subscribed to my videos. Again these are my top brands not necessarily my favorite shades.

Let's start with my top 5 drugstore nail polish brands:

 

The first brand that I really like is by NYC, specifically their Long-Wearing Nail Enamel range. Not only do they last forever like the name suggests, but they are only 99 cents, which is incredible. One downside is that these polishes have more of a strong distinct smell when compared to other polishes. I'm also not sure if these are a 3-Free formula, so if that is something that bothers you I would steer clear from these. I really like them though. Pink Promenade is one of my favorite shades from the range as well, and looks gorgeous in the summer with a tan.

 

The Sally Hansen complete Salone Manicure nail polishes are so nice! The brush is wider which allows for you to almost coat your entire nail with one swipe. This shade isn't necessarily my favorite, although it is a pretty color. It is in the shade "Plum luck". With the complete salon manicure range I don't feel as if I need to use a top coat, because they are super glossy. You can find this range in most drugstores and grocery stores and they run around $6.99.

If you are a fan of the Sally Hansen complete salon manicure polishes, then you will love the Wet n Wild Megalast salon nail colors. They have the same brush that can coat a nail in one swipe, and are very long lasting. The upside of the Megalast range? They are only $1.99, which is an absolute bargain. 

Sinful Colors nail polishes have quickly become one of my favorite nail polish brands. They are high quality and only $1.99 each. The pictured shade- "Sugar Sugar" is also one of my favorite shades out of all the Sinful Colors polishes that I own. I've heard it's a dupe for China Glazes' Ruby Pumps. 

Revlon nail polishes are a really great drugstore polish. They sometimes need several coats because they can apply streaky (which I think is because of the thin brush), but you don't need a top coat because they are very glossy. This is my favorite black nail polish that I've ever tried. It is called "Black Lingerie" and is gorgeous! 

Now on to the higher end nail polishes:

Butter London polishes run about $15.00 which is definitely a splurge, but I really like these polishes. This shade is in Wallis, which is my sisters middle name, so I just HAD to pick up this shade. They are long lasting, and have some very unique shades. You can sometimes find these on BOGO at Ulta.

OPI Nail polishes are my absolute favorite! They are long lasting, the brushes make application a dream, and they have some very unique shades. These run about $8.00. The pictured shade is my favorite OPI shade of all time, which is "Rumple's Wiggin'" the perfect pastel purple. I love to wear it during spring and summer.

Essie is another staple brand in many collections of the beauty obsessed, and I think they definitely suck you in with their many collections. These polishes retail for $8.00 and have become more widely available and easier to find. One thing I will say about Essie polishes is that I have a hard time applying them without streaking. The brush is very thin which I think contributes to the streaky application. I'm not sure if it is just me and my application technique, or if other people have had the same issue, but I'd love to hear any suggestions on how to get a smoother application. I really have also been enjoying their Billionails and Trillionails nail treatments, and there will be a separate blog post coming up soon on those. 

MAC Cosmetics Nail Polishes are definitely a splurge item, retailing for $16.00 each, but I really like them, especially the cream finishes. This polish was from the MAC Hello Kitty collection in a shade called On the Prowl, and is a gorgeous true light grey color without having any purple-taupe-y undertones. MAC has included a similar color in several collections, so it shouldn't be too difficult to locate something similar. MAC polishes are long lasting, and don't apply streaky. Typically two coats will give you a flawless full coverage color on your nail. I'm a sucker for MACS limited edition packaging, especially the Hello Kitty Collection! (I'm a little Hello Kitty obsessed!)

I only have 2 China Glaze polishes, and 1 China Glaze top coat, and I really like them. The reason I haven't gotten more is because their selection is so HUGE that I get overwhelmed looking at swatches. They retail for $6.99 which is not much more than the some of the polishes at the drugstore, and I believe that you can buy them at Sally's beauty (which is out of the way for me) or Ulta. The brush is very similar to that of Essie polishes, so you have to do a couple of coats in order for it to be a true full coverage color without any streaky-ness. This is also one of my favorite shades out of all my polishes, because it is a true Tiffany's blue and is called "For Audrey". My favorite movie of all time is Breakfast at Tiffany's, so when I heard about this polish I HAD TO HAVE IT!!!!

So there you have it! My top 10 favorite nail polish brands! I have heard wonderful things about Zoya, so that will probably be the next brand that I try out! I'd love to hear what your favorite nail polish brands are! Also let me know if you'd like to see a nail polish collection video or blog post as I'd be happy to do that.

Hope you all are having a happy Tuesday!


xoxo,
Erin

Flower Beauty Goodies

Hi beauties,


Recently I heard about Flower Beauty's launch in Walmart stores, and I was definitely intrigued. If you haven't heard about Flower Beauty, it is a cosmetics line designed by Drew Barrymore who wanted to make a high quality makeup line that has really great ingredients while still being affordable. The entire line is made in the USA and is NOT tested on animals. If you don't live near a Walmart store, you can still find the range online at Walmart's website. I had to go to several Walmart stores to find the line, and my store didn't have the entire range. I picked up three items from the collection, and couldn't wait to share them with you. 

 

The first item I was drawn to was the nail polish in the color NP4 Gorgeous Gerbera. I had seen swatches of it online, and thought it would be my staple color for spring and summer. The swatches I saw pulled more of a pinky tone than it does on me, which tends to pull more peach. I still really love this color, and think it will look stunning during the summer with a tan.

I hadn't seen any reviews for the "Shadow Play" eyeshadow quads, and I was interested in trying them out, especially after seeing the colors in the Smoke and Mirrors quad. Something that is really nice about these is that three out of the four eyeshadows are matte, making this quad really wearable for everyday. I will say that when you put your brush into the eyeshadows you will have to tap off quite a bit of excess product, because the eyeshadows are a bit chalky or powdery. That being said, they are still very pigmented, and smooth when applied to the eye. If you feel the consistency of the eyeshadows between your fingers, you will definitely be surprised at how silky they feel. (Similar to the smoothness of Urban Decay shadows) I wore this quad to work on Saturday, and it was so nice because I could do a simple matte neutral eye for work, and then add the shimmery shade and darken my crease for a night out. It is a quad that I could see myself reaching for regularly. 

 The last item that I found was the Shine On Lip Gloss in the color LG2 Baby's Breath. It is a gorgeous baby pink color. With having extremely dry lips, I am always a little skeptical when trying lip gloss, but I thought I would give it a try anyways. This lip gloss is a cream finish and has no glitter whatsoever which means it is very smooth. Although it doesn't claim to be long wearing, I found that this lip gloss lasted around three hours for me, which I think is great. It feels substantial on the lips without being sticky, and it feels like a very grown up version of your typical baby pink lip glosses.

Those were the three items that I picked up from Flower Beauty. I'm very interested in trying both their BB Cream, and their Face Primer which I have heard wonderful things about. A little heads up if you decide to order online, their cream blushes are TINY, I was shocked by how small they were. I decided it wasn't worth the price for the small amount of product that you get. I've heard mixed reviews about their lip sticks and lip butters, but I will probably end up trying those as well.

Have you guys tried anything from Flower Beauty? I'd love to know your thoughts.

xoxo,
Erin

FOTD featuring Revlon's Nearly Naked Foundation

Hi beauties,

I wanted to do another Face of the day post, because I have been absolutely LOVING Revlon's new Nearly Naked foundation, and I wanted to include a FOTD wearing it.

Products Used:

FACE:
Garnier Nutritioniste Anti-Sun-Damage Daily Moisture Lotion
Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation - 120 Vanilla
Revlon Age Defying Concealer - Light
Rimmel London Natural Bronzer- Sun light
Hard Candy Fox in a Box blush - Spicy & Sweet

EYES:
Maybelline Color Tattoo - Too Cool
Urban Decay Naked Palette - Virgin, Sin, Sidecar, Naked, Buck, Darkhorse 
MAC Fluidline - Dip down
Urban Decay 24/7 Liner - Flipside
Revlon Grow Luscious Mascara

Lips:
L'oreal the Balm - Caring Coral
Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain- Honey


xoxo,
Erin

Cheeky little drugstore purchases

Hi beauties,

Yesterday I ran into Walgreens to buy some Valentine's day candy. Why? I'm not sure exactly, because I ended up in the beauty aisles instead of the candy aisle. (of course!)

I picked up Rimmel London's BB Cream in light, Rimmel London Scandaleyes Flex Mascara, Sinful Colors Nail Polishes in Unicorn and Sugar Rush, and a Jordana Fabuliner in brown.

Rimmel London's BB Cream in light is something that I've been wanting to try. It is cheaper than most drugstore BB creams, and claims to do 9 different things for your skin. It has an SPF 25 which is nice, but the product itself smells completely of sun screen, so if that smell isn't something you are too fond of, I might consider a different BB cream. At first try, I really like the BB cream although it pulls a little on the orange side, but I'll include a photo of me wearing it. 

I also picked up two Sinful Colors nail polishes. One is called Unicorn and it is a gorgeous pastel yellow. The second polish is Sugar Rush which is a beautiful pastel blue. I LOVE Sinful Colors nail polishes, and they are a bargain at $1.99 each.

Jordana Fabuliner is something that I recently heard about from GlamLifeGuru on youtube. It is a great deal at $1.99, and I really like it so far.

Last but not least is Rimmel London's Scandaleyes Flex, it is supposedly meant to be a mascara that can be taken from day to night, and is supposed to start by looking natural while becoming a false lash look after a few more coats. I chose this mascara in Extreme black, and it was not nearly as dark as my holy grail Revlon Grow Luscious mascara. I'm not sure how I feel about this mascara yet to be honest.

Hope you all have a wonderful day, thanks for reading! I'd love to hear about any drugstore products you're loving, so I can give them a try.


xoxo,
Erin

Valentine's Day FOTD & NOTD

Happy Valentine's Day beauties,

I wanted to post my makeup of the day and nails of the day since I took a little extra time on my makeup today.

Products Used:

FACE:
Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew Anti-Sun-Damage Daily Moisture Lotion
Rimmel London BB Cream - Light
MAC Studio Fix Powder - NW 20 (Applied VERY lightly)
Revlon Age Defying Concealer - Light
Rimmel London Natural Bronzer - Sun light
MAC Powder Blush - Prom Princess

Eyes:
Maybelline Color Tattoo - Too Cool
Urban Decay Glinda Palette (Illusion all of the lid and up to the brow bone, Aura on the inner corner, Magic on the outter corner, Tornado & South blended into the crease)
 Jordana Fabuliner - brown -Upper lash line
Urban Decay 24/7 liner - Rockstar - Lower lash line, and water line
Rimmel London Scandaleyes Flex Mascara - Extreme Black
Revlon Grow Luscious Mascara - blackest black

Lips:
Urban Decay Super Saturated High Gloss Lip Color- Glinda

Nails:

I wanted to do a really sparkly girly manicure for Valentine's Day! I did a base color of Sinful Colors "Beautiful Girl", then on my accent finger I added OPI's Nothin' Mousie 'Bout It from the Minnie Mouse collection. It has gorgeous heart glitter in it so I thought it would be perfect for Valentine's day. My problem was that Minnie Mouse was being stingy today because after three coats, I only had 2 heart shaped glitters on my nail. On the rest of my fingers I added OPI's Teenage dream from the Katy Perry collection. Yes, I know it's going to be an absolute pain to remove but for now, I'm loving it. 

Thanks for reading! Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

xoxo,
Erin