Continue reading »]]>

I have big drugstore makeup news to share today!

Milani Cosmetics is celebrating the launch of its new products for 2012, as well as new shades in some of its existing lines!

In the press release, the headline reads, “Milani Cosmetics, Champagne Taste on a Beer Pocketbook!” I smiled when I saw that. My grandmother always used to say “champagne taste on a beer pocketbook” when I was growing up.

Anyway, I’m going to provide this overview post of what’s new, and then follow up with reviews on each of the new products/shades that Milani sent me to share with you! Check it out!

New Shades! Milani Nail Lacquer:

Red names are shown in the above picture: Juno,  A Rose MyLady, U Pinky Swear, Orchidia, Sail Away, Beach Front, Mint Candy, Key West, Sunflower, Silver Stilettos, Signature Gold, Teddy Brown, Chocolate Sprinkles, Dark Coffee, Deep Thoughts, Morning Coffee, Natural Touch, Pink Slippers, Pink & Proper, Fuchsia Fierce, Hipster Plum and Just Grayt. The SRP is $4.49.

New! High Speed Fast Dry One Coat Formula Nail Lacquer:

Red Names are shown in the picture above: Fast Fuchsia, Jiffy Orange, Violet Dash, Yellow Whiz, Hot Pink Frenzy, Rapid Cherry, White on the Spot and Black Swift. The SRP is $3.99.

New Shades! One Coat Glitter Specialty Nail Lacquer:

Red names are shown in the picture above: Twinkle, Lavender Fizz and Pink Flare. The SRP is $4.99

New Shades! Jewel FX Specialty Nail Lacquer:

Red names are shown in the picture above: Fuchsia, Lavender, Teal, Hot Pink and Red. The SRP is $4.99.

New! Eye Tech Extreme Liquid Eyeliner:

One shade available: Blackest Black. Shown above. The SRP is $6.99.

New! Brow Tint Pen:

Two shades available: Natural Taupe and Dark Brown; both shown above. The SRP is $5.49.

New Shades! Runway Eyes Eyeshadow:

New shades are: Antigua, Golden Touch and Peaches & Cream. All shown above. The SRP is $6.99.

New Shades! Baked Eyeshadow:

Three new shades: Must Have Fuchsia, Copper Excess and Green Fortune. All shown above. The SRP is $7.49.

New! Illuminating Face Powder:

Available in three shades: Amber Nectar, Hermosa Rose and Beauty’s Touch. All shown above. The SRP is $8.99.

New! Haute Flash Full Coverage Shimmer Lipgloss:

Available in six shades, all shown above: Hot Flash, Flashy, In A Flash, Star Flash, Golden Flash and Quick Flash. The SRP is $6.99.

New Shades! Crystal Gloss for Lips:

Eight new shades, the ones in the photo above are in red: Pucker Up, Clear, Fruit Punch, Raspberry Icing, Sheer Dark Honey, Cotton Candy, Fascination and Precious. The SRP is $5.49.

There are other new products and new shades of existing products that I don’t have pictures for:

• Eight new shades of Color Perfect Lipstick
• Three new shades of Glitzy Glamour Gloss
• New – Powder Eyeshadow, available in 12 colors
• New – Eyeshadow Palette, available in three palettes
• New – Shadow Eyez 12 Hour Wear Eyeshadow Pencil, available in six shades
• New – Total Lash Cover Mascara with 3 Zone Brush available in Black
• New – Runway Lashes Instant Volume Mascara available in Black
• Two new shades of Runway Eyes Fashion Shadows
• New – Bronzer XL All Over Glow available in two shades
• Two new shades of Smooth Finish Cream-to-Powder Makeup
• Three new shades of Even-Touch Powder Foundation
• One new shade of Secret Cover Corrector Stick
• New Base Coat Specialty Nail Treatment
• New Top Coat Specialty Nail Treatment

In all there are 12 new products, with 63 new colors to choose from. That’s a lot of makeup selection right there!

These are available now on the Milani website. I’ll go into more detail on the products I have to review when I post review blogs.

So what do you think from just these photos, prices and colors/names so far?! Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Disclaimer: The Milani Cosmetics products shown in this post were provided to me for review by the PR Firm/Manufacturer. Please visit my Disclosure tab for more information on how BeautyJudy.com keeps it real!

Continue reading »]]>

I was happily surprised when UPS or FedEx came to my door with Nubar’s new Polka Dots collection last week, because it’s been at the top of my list to order. I love the simple idea of these top coats – hex glitter and fine glitter pieces in a clear base, one black and one white.

I expected that the Black Polka Dot polish would be my favorite, but White Polka Dot looks really awesome. I can’t pick which one I like better.

Let’s get to swatches!

Black Polka Dot:

I paired Black Polka Dot (on the right) with Nubar Yellow Primrose (on the left). Yellow Primrose is from the Nubar Spring Garden Collection Spring 2011.

Black Polka Dots – with its fine black glitter and black hex glitter – stands out against the white-yellow of Yellow Primrose. I found application to be a bit of a pain, because the hex glitter was a bit harder to get on my nail than the fine glitter. I had to work at it a little bit.

Everyone that looked at my nails saw something different. Mike saw chocolate chip ice cream. I saw cookies and cream. My friend Lauren saw the white chocolate and espresso bean bar from Wegman’s. This mani was so much fun. Hard work to get the glitter, but worth it.

White Polka Dot:

I paired White Polka Dot with Nubar Dark Castle, from the Nubar Fortress Collection (released in early 2010).

White Polka Dot has fine holographic glitter and white, or matte silver hex glitter in a clear base. The fine glitter almost looked blue or green to me most times against the black backdrop. I couldn’t help but think of the cosmos, or night sky. I love the night sky. I wish I could have put constellations on all my fingers with those hex glitters but I didn’t have the time!

This one, too, was a bit of a pain getting the hex glitters on my nails. I realized with White Polka Dot, however, that a lot of the hex glitter settles. So when I moved the bottle all around, shook it a bit, I had better results. I couldn’t see that with Black Polka Dot, because the bottle is dark. So that’s a tip for you, if you have the same issue.

Overall, I love these two top coats! It totally transformed Yellow Primrose, and added a depth to Dark Castle! I actually can’t wait to try both of these on alternating fingers over a hot pink color. I think that will look neat.

The Polka Dot Collection, which also includes a Diamont Seal & Shine top coat, is currently on sale for $20 – it’s normally $24. You can find it here on the Nubar web site.

Disclaimer: The Nubar Polka Dots collection was provided to me for review by the PR Firm/Manufacturer. Nubar Dark Castle and Nubar Yellow Primrose were previously sent to me for review when their respective collections came out. Please visit my Disclosure tab for more information on how BeautyJudy.com keeps it real!

Continue reading »]]> BEFORE

NOW:

I’m not sure if you can really tell the difference in the above sets of photos, I should have stuck to wearing a dress for the NOW shots. But me, I can tell and feel the difference! The dress I’m wearing in the pics above is a 1X, and I was an 18 denying that I needed to go up a size. The pics below are me in an XL top that’s baggy and size 16 Old Navy jeans!

This week I had a gain. I actually kinda expected it. I hardly ate the week before because of my surgery! So it’s not even an issue to me. I have come so far, and I am only just 1/3 of the way through my weight loss journey. I gained 1 lb. I still maintained the majority of the weight loss I had with my surgery.

Now that my surgery is two weeks behind me, and I’m feeling better, I’m excited to start adding in activity into my life. Here are some ideas I’ve got to keep activity interesting – and to keep me moving when I can!

• 15 minute walks at lunch time. It might not sound like much time, but 15 minutes during lunch will get me away from my desk, and outside.
• Mall walking. I’m a huge fan of mall walking, because the mall is indoors, free and some of them around here open early in order to accomodate walkers! There’s a mall near my office – Moorestown Mall – that actually has a mall walker program. I signed up and got a free walking log and other materials. I was supposed to get a pedometer but I never did. Regardless – walking the mall is ideal on rainy or inclement weather days! Plus, it’s a great way to scope out the store fronts – sans wallet! – and think of a reward for my next weight loss goal!
• Parking further from my office. I arrived after 9 a.m. to work last Wednesday because I had a follow-up with my surgeon. I had to park across the street in another building’s parking lot, because mine was full! It was a few minutes of a walk. I realized, why not do this all the time?
• Jogging. I promised myself to wait until I got below 200 lbs, so that I could pick up my favorite athletic hobbies again – running! But I’m not going nuts, I’m going to jog. By summer, maybe I will be able to start doing 5Ks and other distance runs, and join my local running club again. Of course, this bullet must wait until I get orthotics from the podiatrist. I have an unstable ankle, and I don’t want to risk injury putting me out of all exercise because I was stuipd and over did it!
• Join a new gym. I want a facility that offers me basketball courts, classes, and treadmills. My current gym is a bunch of equipment in a room. It’s not my style. I succeed at the gym and enjoy going where there is a variety of things to keep me busy. Maybe I don’t feel like running, I want exercise to feel like play; I want to run up and down the basketball court shooting lay-ups, practicing dribbling, playing HORSE with myself and nailing shots from the top of the box (although I can do it without jumping, I like to jump for the added exercise!)

The Stats

So, here’s my stats for the week:

Weight at start of the week: 197 lbs.

Weight at end of the week: 198 lbs.

That’s a total of 1 lbs gain, for a grand total of 22.2 lbs down!!!

 I’d give you goals for the week, but I think I already laid it out – In the words of Olivia Newton John, I want to start getting PHYSICAL!!

Are you active? Contemplating adding activity into your life?! Share in the comments below!

Continue reading »]]> If you are located in NYC, or attending Fashion Week, there’s a cool event happening at two Ricky’s NYC locations Thursday and Friday with Nail Rock creater Zoe Pocock. Zoe is going to give free Nail Rock, Lip Rock and Eye Rock applications. I’ve heard about Nail Rock and have been curious. So if you are in the area, check it out!

Continue reading »]]>

Remember the nail mail spam I shared over the weekend?!  This is the first polish I wore from my recent Llarowe purchase, Hits Mari Moon MultiGirl polish in Trendy. Trendy came in a four-piece set called Modern. There is a second set, called Unique, but it was out of stock and is on my list of future purchases from the Llarowe store when it’s back in!

Check out swatches!

That last picture is with a couple flowers from a beautiful get-well arrangement that my best friend sent me after I had surgery last week. The flowers just matched Trendy perfectly!

Trendy is a bit of a frosty metallic. With a weird, bell-shaped brush that seemed too big for the bottle. As I started painting it on my nails I noticed brush strokes in my manicure, and therefore tried to be careful as I finished painting so the lines would be even. If the polish wasn’t such a strong light green/olive/blue-green duochrome, those brush strokes would have bothered me. But you can see, especially in the shot with the flowers, that the polish is a beautiful perfection in color, despite its strokes!

I paid $28 for the four-piece Modern set. The bottle size seems smaller than typical polish bottles, but I can’t figure out its size. It does have MTV branding on it, and what looks to be a December 2013 expiration date and October 25,2011 lot date! Interesting…

So what do you think of Trendy?

Continue reading »]]>

Just a note before I begin - this marks my 800th published blog post! Thank you, everyone, for coming by, reading, checking out my swatches and on occasion, leaving comments. It is much appreciated!

China Glaze describes its spring 2012 collection, ElectroPop, as “where heavy metal meets rocker chic,” and that it’s “inspired by all things girly, edgy and fun.” I would dare say more like rocker chic meets Easter Sunday – but not in a boring or shocking way, more like lighter, girly shades with edgier, rocker shades.

ElectroPop is a mostly bright pops of creme, with a couple shimmers, and a glitter - Techno, repromoted from when China Glaze released its specialty glitters a couple years ago. Techno does a great job as a complementary top coat over the 11 other polishes in this collection.

Let’s just get to swatches!

Gaga for Green:

Gaga for Green is a nice spring green creme. Formula seemed thin to me.

Sunshine Pop:

Sunshine Pop is a nice, bright yellow shimmer.

Electric Beat:

Electric Beat is a periwinkle creme.

Kinetic Candy:

Kinetic Candy is a light blue creme. Reminds me of the sky. This is one of my favorites of the collection!

Aquadelic:

Aquadelic is a Tiffany’s blue, or a pool blue, creme; this is one of my other favorites of the collection. Perfection!

Gothic Lolita:

Gothic Lolita is a pretty purple with purple shimmer that sorta has a blue glow to it. I rushed in my application of the second coat, so it got all weird and goopy on one side of the nails. Forgive me my polishing sins, and it doesn’t reflect on Gothic Lolita!

Wicked Style:

Wicked Style is a gorgeous bright pink, described as a tropical punch by China Glaze. I think it’s an apt description! This one was pretty opaque after one coat but I gave it two anyway. This is one of my favorites!

Fuchsia Fanatic:

 Fuchsia Fanatic is a bright fuchsia pink creme. This one is nice, but it doesn’t wow me too much.

Make Some Noise:

Make Some Noise is more of a bright coral pink creme. It’s got a strong orange presence, and that’s what makes me love it.

Dance Baby:

Dance Baby is a sweet bubble gum pink creme. Mmmm!

Sweet Hook:

Sweet Hook is pretty lilac creme, but I feel like we’ve been there, done that, with this color. Nice formula, though.

Instead of swatching Techno on its own, I swatched it over each of the colors:

Gaga for Green:

Sunshine Pop:

Electric Beat:

Kinetic Candy:

Aquadelic:

Fuchsia Fanatic:

Wicked Style:

Make Some Noise:

Dance Baby:

Sweet Hook:

Gothic Lolita:

Color Thoughts

The colors in this collection are great to gear up for warmer weather, flowers and battling spring showers. It’s a beautiful collection of brights to behold, and I like that there’s only a couple shimmers in the lot.

As far as repromoting Techno, I think it’s a reminder that glitter isn’t going anywhere right now. And it complements all 11 other colors quite well.

Dupe Talk

When you take each polish and look at it individually, I don’t feel like China Glaze reinvented the nail wheel here. There was one apparent dupe to me:

• Sunshine Pop has a potential dupe in YSL Surreal Yellow.

Application Issues

The only application issues I had were my own fault. Although Gaga for Green did seem a bit thin as I used it. A bunch of them were streaky on first coat, but it didn’t matter, second coat straightened them out. The glitter was good in one coat – I brushed it on, then dabbed around the nail to fill in gaps and it looked good.

Additional information

ElectroPop will be available in February. Individual shades retail for $7; six-piece collections retail for $42:

The Brights:

And the Lights:

You can also purchase China Glaze at a more discount price from TransDesign, Head2Toe and VNS (the link will NOT work on my computer or iPhone, I apologize!).

China Glaze is free of DBP, toluene, and added formaldehyde. China Glaze nail lacquers are available through salons and professional beauty supply stores nationwide. For more information, visit: www.chinaglaze.com or follow China Glaze on Facebook and Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChinaGlaze

Final Thoughts

I am actually very surprised at myself, having bought this whole collection. Initially, I wanted none of it. Then I saw Aquadelic, Kinetic Candy and Electric Beat in person. I’m a sucker for blues and these just jumped into my basket at Image Beauty. The next thing I knew, I was standing in the checkout line with all of them. I have no idea how this happened, except that well, the bright and cheery colors drew me in. And I’m a sucker for polish.

So what do you think of ElectroPop, friends?! See any must-haves?

Continue reading »]]>

I’ve got nine more beautiful glitters to share with you from the Jordana Glitters Specialty Nail Polish collection. Eighteen of these new glitters, which cost SRP $2.99, are currently available; all 18 are for sale through the Jordana web site, and 12 shades will be sold at Kmart in February!

The 12 shades that will be available at Kmart are: 01 Magenta Magic, 02 Celebration, 06 Fairy Dust, 08 Sequins, 10 Gemstones, 11 Cosmic, 12 Celestial, 14 LA City Nights, 15 Blue Bash, 17 Copper Blaze, 21 Funky Gold Town, and 23 Rhinestones. The six shades that aren’t available yet are: 03 Purple Party, 04 Outer Space, 07 Confetti, 09 Red Flash, 13 Carnival and 22 Galaxy. If you check out the big pic at beginning of the post, you can see small swatche of the unavailable six shades.

Let’s get to swatches! There’s as many pics today as there were yesterday!

15 Blue Bash:

Blue Bash is a regular and hex-shaped blue glitter in a sheer blue tinted base. It’s much like Magenta Magic and Pixie Pink from yesterday’s post. I would layer this one – it’s shown here in two coats. I paired it with China Glaze Electric Beat:

I love the two blues together!

16 Green Glitz:

Green Glitz is made up of tiny green glitter, with slightly larger green glitters in a clear base. I am not sure if one more coat (two are shown) will get this one opaque. I would use it as a layering polish, which I did here over China Glaze Sunshine Pop:

I like the yellow and green combo. This glitter will come in handy for St. Patrick’s Day manis!

17 Copper Blaze:

 Copper Blaze is probably my least favorite of these 18 glitters – probably the only one that is unappealing to me. It’s regular and hex-shaped copper glitter in a very sheer orange base. I paired Copper Blaze with China Glaze Sunshine Pop:

It definitely looks better layered!

18 Bronze Fest:

Bronze Fest is gorgeous and it screams FALL! Bronze Fest is micro bronze and gold glitter, with hex-shaped bronze and gold glitter in a clear base. There are even some regular bronze glitters in this. It’s definitely one I’d add another coat to for opacity and wear alone! Gorgeous! I paired it with Nails Inc Chelsea here:

I like it layered – that’s just one coat! – but I love it more on its own!

19 My Superstar:

My Superstar is regular gold glitter, with blue, gold and red hex-shaped glitter in a clear base. It’s very super-hero-ish. Like Wonder Woman! I used My Superstar over Color Club Ruby Charms (an old Color Club!):

All I needed was X-ray vision or a lasso!

I did find Kleancolor Firework looks very similar to My Superstar:

Firework seems denser with the regular gold glitter than My Superstar.

20 Gold Glam:

Gold Glam is fine and slightly larger gold glitter, with diamond-shaped holographic glitter, in a clear base. I did have to work a little bit to get the diamonds on my fingers, but it wasn’t too bad, compared with other polishes where there’s big glitter pieces but not enough to get one in every brushful. I used Gold Glam over an old Revlon, Splashy:

Gold Glam complemented the golden duochrome of this polish perfectly!

And, this one is a dead-ringer for Sephora by OPI I Found a Pot of Gold!:

Save yourself mucho dinero with the Jordana polish!

21 Funky Gold Town:

Funky Gold Town is simple! It’s hex-shaped gold glitter in a clear base. Great for layering. Here it is over Nails Inc Black Taxi:

This is a night-out nail polish for sure!

23 Rhinestones:

Rhinestones is a mix of fine and small and round silver glitter, with some small gold glitter thrown in; all in a clear base. This looks like a dusting of glitter, gorgeous! I layered it over Ludrana Aurora Boreal Admiravel:

Very neat to see the duochrome of pink under this crushed-diamond finish!

24 Lunar Lights:

Lunar Lights is regular iridescent and hex-shaped iridescent glitter in a clear base. It’s a gorgeous top coat! I feel like iridescent is the wrong word. I want to call it an aurora borealis effect but that’s wrong too. There’s another name for this type of iridescent and I can’t put my finger on it. Anyway! I don’t doubt that there are other glitters like this out there, but I never tire of a top coat like this. It adds something to my manicure. Check this out. I paired Lunar Lights over Sephora by OPI Stop Stocking Me:

It is gorgeous over that purple! See what I mean – it just adds something special!

Overall, I love these glitters. Whether I do an accent finger, or a full mani, glitter always makes me happy. And like I said yesterday, I especially like it when we keep seeing new combinations of color. Thanks, Jordana!

The glitters in this post applied well, no real goopiness here. I’m happy with the Jordana bottle and brush, which is not too big and wide, and not too small and thin.

So now that you’ve seen all 18, what do you think of the new Jordana Glitters Specialty Nail Polish? Share your thoughts below!

Disclaimer: The Jordana Glitters Specialty Nail Polish collection was provided to me for review by the PR Firm/Manufacturer. Please visit my Disclosure tab for more information on how BeautyJudy.com keeps it real!

Continue reading »]]>

I’ve got 18 – count ‘em…EIGHTEEN! – brand-spanking new Jordana Glitters Specialty Nail Polishes to share with you this week, so I decided to divide the lot into two posts, nine for each one!

These new glitters, which cost SRP $2.99, include 24 sparkly shades that offer a variety of finishes to your manicure, and with three coats, some will build up opaque on their own! There are currently 18 available; all 18 are for sale through the Jordana web site, and 12 shades will be sold at Kmart in February!

The 12 shades that will be available at Kmart are: 01 Magenta Magic, 02 Celebration, 06 Fairy Dust, 08 Sequins, 10 Gemstones, 11 Cosmic, 12 Celestial, 14 LA City Nights, 15 Blue Bash, 17 Copper Blaze, 21 Funky Gold Town, and 23 Rhinestones. The six shades that aren’t available yet are: 03 Purple Party, 04 Outer Space, 07 Confetti, 09 Red Flash, 13 Carnival and 22 Galaxy. If you check out the big pic at beginning of the post, you can see small swatche of the unavailable six shades.

I’ve got 41 pics total for this post – flash/sunlight, shade and close-up swatches, as well as bottle comparisons with similar glitters for those with possible dupes, and swatches over base colors. So let’s get started!

01 Magenta Magic:

Magenta Magic is hex and regular magenta glitter in a clear base. This swatch is two coats; I don’t think you could build up to good opacity to wear it on its own. I paired it with Layla Ceramic Effects 37 (I believe it’s called Teenage Dream), a light pink foil:

It looks a little goopy because I didn’t wait long enough in between the two coats.

02 Celebration:

Celebration is a combination of fine and small round light purple glitter in a clear base. This is two coats swatched; I believe in three you could achieve opacity to wear this one on its own! I paired this one with Sephora by OPI Stop Stocking Me:

You can see that the glitter, in one coat, pretty much hides the muted dark purple shimmer of Stop Stocking Me. Love this glitter!

05 Pixie Pink:

Pixie Pink is a light pink version of Magenta Magic, with regular and hex-shaped light pink glitters in a clear base. Like Magenta Magic, I think this is a layering glitter more than an opaque glitter. I did two coats here, but sometimes when I say I do two coats, I mean one coat, and then the second I will brush on but maneuver the brush around to get even coverage of the glitter on the nail. Sometimes this works out with glitters, and sometimes it makes them goopy. The trick, I think, in applying a glitter with a clear jelly base when you want more than one coat, is making sure the first coat is dry enough to handle the second coat.

I paired Pixie Pink with Nails Inc Chelsea:

I like how Pixie Pink pops over the darker, vampy shade!

06 Fairy Dust:

Fairy Dust is fine, light pink glitter with small round holographic glitter in a clear base. I used two coats here. I think three would give you opacity to wear it on its own. I love this one, it’s so pretty and sparkly! I thought it had a dupe in Wet n’ Wild Color Icon It’s All in the Cut, but that one not only has what Fairy Dust has, but also a slightly darker, round pink glitter as well.

I paired Fairy Dust with China Glaze Gaga for Green:

I love the candy-coated feel that Fairy Dust gives this spring green!

08 Sequins:

Sequins is a regular red glitter and hex-shaped blue, silver and magenta glitter, in a clear base. This one is shown at two coats. Another that I would use as a layering glitter polish. I paired Sequins with Confetti Blue Blitz; I thought the base would be more opaque so I wasn’t happy with this combination but here it is:

I also found a possible dupe for Sequins! Here’s a bottle comparison of Sequins and Kleancolor Party Fever:

They look pretty close in real life!

10 Gemstones:

Gemstones is a party on your nails – another in a long line of polishes that reminds us of Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday! This one has medium-sized hex glitters in red, green, gold, silver, magenta and regular glitter in blue, red, silver, magenta…I’m sure I’m missing a color or two but those are the main ones I saw!  I paired Gemstones with Nails Inc Black Taxi:

I love the way these multicolored glitters pop over black!

I double-checked this against OPI Rainbow Connection, and found that they are not dupes. Here’s a bottle comparison:

11 Cosmic:

Cosmic is one of my favorites! It’s got regular, bright blue glitter and hex-shaped green, blue and silver glitter in a clear base. I love the Earth-like possibilities of this polish, which is shown here in two coats, and is probably best as a layering piece! I paired Cosmic with China Glaze Electric Beat:

I sense a sparkly Earth Day mani!

12 Celestial:

Celestial is another of my favorites. It’s got fine, regular and hex-shaped blue-green (maybe mint?) glitter in a clear base. Perfect for layering, I think it would take more than three coats for opacity and that would likely be a nightmare to take off! I paired Celestial with Essie Dive Bar:

I dig how it looks like a coating over Dive Bar.

14 LA City Nights:

LA City Nights is regular purple glitter with slightly larger blue glitter in a clear base. My swatches are in two coats. Another one that is probably best as a layering polish, but I don’t know! Another coat might do the trick! I paired LA City Nights with L’Oreal Jet Set to Paris:

I like the combo – it accentuates the blue of the polish with pops of purple!

I don’t think blue and purple glitter is unique, but I didn’t dig through my stash too much to find a dupe. The closest I came through a half-hearted search was Nails Inc Connaught Square:

As you can see, they are the same concept, but they are not dupes.

That’s just the first nine of the awesome-sauce that is this new glitter collection from Jordana! I love seeing so much glitter still being manufactured, especially when it’s different from much of what has been available or released in the last couple years (ie, different than the China Glaze specialty glitters, Wet n’ Wild’s Color Icon glitters etc). Also, I like to see it is still popular even while flakies and magnetic polishes are taking over the brands!

What do you think of these polishes? Anything tickle your fancy? My favorites from this bunch are Cosmic, Celestial, Sequins and Fairy Dust!

Tomorrow I’ll have part II!

Disclaimer: The Jordana Glitters Specialty Nail Polish collection was provided to me for review by the PR Firm/Manufacturer. Please visit my Disclosure tab for more information on how BeautyJudy.com keeps it real!

Continue reading »]]>

One of my weekend indiscretions…

Last week was a whole new experience for me. Having my gall bladder out last Monday was no fun, and recovery wasn’t as smooth as my friends and family made it out to be! I realize, though, that they downplayed certain things to make me feel a bit better  going into the procedure.

I woke up in recovery after the operation, and whether it was the anesthesia, or the pain medication, I had terrible, unbearable nausea for hours. I had to stay in recovery a little longer than I was supposed to. The act of getting sick when you’ve just had incisions sown up on your belly is no picnic, I can firmly attest to that now. I was finally able to eat some saltines and drink some water enough so that I could finally take a pain pill later that night.

Tuesday things got better, but the pain pills kept me sleepy, my belly was sore and the air they pump into your chest cavity was stabbing me in my right shoulder and more than once, it brought me to tears.

Wednesday I thought I was in the clear. The air in my chest seemed to have dissipated a lot, and the nausea gone. Sure, my belly hurt, but that’s why I kept taking the pain pills. But then suddenly, the pain pills started making me nauseaous. And I realized that I needed to start eating more substantially than I had been. I just hadn’t felt hungry or had an appetite, because of the pain. So I forced myself to eat more and my stepmother came over and showed me how to cut up the pain pills and put them in empty capsules so they will dissolve later in digestion and might not make me nauseous. They still made me nauseous.

I finally ate a legitimate meal on Thursday at dinner time. I didn’t feel that my pain deserved narcotic drug relief after Thursday.

Now I’m at the point where I’m back to work tomorrow, having taken an extra day today to not rush things, and the staples should be coming out Wednesday morning, much to my relief. They freak me out – my belly looks alien to me!

Obviously, with the week I’ve had, I had no time or desire for an “after” picture, which only would have been me, looking like death warmed over (although smaller than I used to be!)

The Stats

So, here’s my stats for the week:

Weight at start of the week: 200.8 lbs.

Weight at end of the week: 197 lbs.

That’s a total of 3.8 lbs lose, for a grand total of 23.2 lbs down!!! Thanks, gall bladder!

I have reached an important milestone for myself in my weight loss – I am below the 200 lb mark!

I am beyond excited!

Goals for the coming week!

• WISELY start eating again. I made some bad choices this weekend, like on Sunday, eating that entire mini heart-shaped red velvet cake with cream-cheese icing in the picture above…a burrito bowl from Chipotle and a couple Girl Scout cookies. I need to stop thinking, OMG I CAN EAT AGAIN - I WANT IT ALL! and think, OK. I can go back to eating normally and deserve a treat now and then. I made myself go to Weight Watchers Saturday morning because I knew I would be in this “free-for-all” frame of mind, and I was right. The leader advised that I pick one food/restaurant a week I hadn’t had and go for it, not go for all of it at once. So I’m chalking up Sunday as my one day of splurge.
• Drink water. I’ve been unbelievably thirsty for days. I need to get at least six glasses in a day.
• Track my food. I’ve gotten off this week to a lousy start at this, but I am going to pick up where I left off.

 Phew. So there you go. I am glad to be a week out from the procedure and doing better. And I hope I can – no, I WILL – maintain my big, post-surgery weight loss, and continue losing starting this weekend in a more normal way!

Continue reading »]]>

I’ve really had nothing but praise for the Color Club Backstage Pass Collection. This one today, Platinum Record, is probably my least favorite of all of them, but it’s still a sparkly, nice glitter. It’s just straight-up silver, not in the interesting combinations of the previous five I’ve shared.

For this manicure, I used Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Bride to Be, with two coats of Platinum Record as an accent on my ring finger.

Platinum Record is all silver glitter in a clear base – there are small regular glitter pieces, small hex-shaped and medium hex-shaped pieces.

For some reason, this reminds me of the heel of my tap dance shoes when I was five or six. I expected that when I hit my accent nail against the desk it would make that clicking noise like when I tried (I use the word tried, because I’m generally uncoordinated!) to tap dance as a young’un!

I had no issues with application of this glitter. This really is a stand-out colleciton.

You can see the rest of the Backstage Pass collection here:

Backstage Pass

Take the Stage

It’s a Hit!

Fame & Fortune

Wish Upon a Rock-Star

 What do you think of Platinum Record?