Blowing off the dust...again...

Ummm...hello!

I know some of you might be thinking "What the heck is this random post on my reading list?" and others might think "OMG WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN CRYSTAL?!?! I'VE MISSED YOU SOOO MUCHASDFGHJKL!"  Haha okay maybe not...

For those of you that might not remember who I am, hello my name is Crystal and I'm a nail polish addict! ; )

Now that I've got that awkward re-introduction out of the way let me update y'all on what's been going down in Crystal town (haha I had too)!

So the main reason why I haven't been as active on my blog or my YT channel is because I've been stressing out about various things in my life.  Recently there has been a lot of drama going on at my job (which I've been able to keep myself out of for the most part).  I went from loving my job to cringing every time they call me to come in.  Don't get me wrong I do like my job but all this drama has reminded me why I don't hang around females, heck people period!

I've also been reevaluating a lot of choices that I've made regarding school and my future (aka regretting my past choices and worrying about my future).  Here's a brief back story:  When I was in younger I had pretty much planned out my entire life with college being a crucial part of if.  It was pretty much the "key" for me to get out of my rinky dink hometown.  I've attended college in the past but it never worked out for me and now I'm not sure of what I want to do career wise or if I even want to go back to school.  I'm not sure if this is a common thing that people in there early 20s go through or if I'm just overreacting (I'm probably overreacting), all I know is that it's been stressing me out big time!

There are a slew of other things that I've been stressing about over the past few months but my job and my overreacting noggin are the two main things that have caused me to step away from my blog and YouTube and curl up on my couch (I'm ironically sitting in the corner of my couch as I type this *laughs*).

So let's consider this hiatus terminated!!!  I've gotten over my mini crisis and I'm ready to move forward with my life.  Sorry if this post was a little "off the wall" I promise I won't write a sappy blog post every time I go through a mini crisis. ; )

Look forward to some new blog post in the near future.
Much love,
Crystal

Street Style Inspired Nail Art

Hey guys!  I've been getting into fashion recently and fell in love with the New York street style.  It's full of mixed matched patterns, geometric shapes, and a smorgasbord of eclectic pieces that just work together some how.  So tonight I have some nail art to share that's inspired by street style.  I originally did this for the Sally Hansen's I Heart Nail Art contest during the Street Style month.  I didn't end up winning that month, unfortunately, but I did have fun finding some inspiration and coming up with this design.

 The THUMB has made an appearance! *gasp* *faint* *convulse* lol ok I'm done...

Polishes Used:
Sally Hansen Mint Sprint
Sally Hansen Coral Reef
Sally Hansen White On
Sally Hansen Thinking of Blue

What I did (instructions but not really lol):
On my thumb, index, and pinkie fingers I applied two coats of Mint Sprint then I drew various dots and geometric shapes with a dotting tool.  On my middle and ring fingers I did an acid wash method.  I applied two coats of Thinking of Blue, applied top coat, and applied one coat of White On.  Once that had a chance to set I got q-tip soaked in nail polish remover and rubbed it across my nail until I got the desired look of acid wash denim.

It's definitely something different for me, and I like it.  I'm planning on doing a video tutorial sometime in the future so I'll be sure to add that once I do it!

Where do you get your nail art inspiration from?  I love looking at clothing stores and fabric for inspiration.

Thanks for reading,
Crystal ❤

One more thing...

I recently uploaded my Top 11 polishes for Summer 2013!  You can check it out HERE or watch the video below.

Nail Polish Spotlight: Sinful Colors Lavender

*blows off dust*  Oh hello there, its been a while!  I would go on about some excuse about how life and recently starting a job has kept me from blogging but I'll just say I've missed y'all and I've missed talking about polish so let's get on with the post shall we...we shall! : )

Today the polish spotlight is shining over one of my favorite Sinful Colors polishes, Lavender!

Sinful Colors Lavender

Lavender is a "different" color to me.  It's kind of a medium muted blue with hints of purple (or periwinkle) in it.

I honestly bought this on a whim without really looking at it (polishaholic problems) and left it in my stash for almost a year without touching it!  I rediscovered it while organizing my polishes and decided to whip it on and it was love at first swipe.  The formula of this polish is great and I was able to get full opacity in two coats.  The wear of this polish was also shockingly wicked! (I'm trying to expand my vocabulary here!)  Confession time:  I took the photos above after wearing this polish for 4 (or 5) days and, as you can see, my nails still look good.

What do you think of Sinful Colors Lavender?  I absolutely love it!

Thanks for reading,
Crystal ❤

One more thing...
For those of you that don't know, I have a YouTube channel and recently uploading my June Favorites!  You can check it out HERE or watch the video below.
 

May Ipsy Bag Review

Hello ladies (and maybe gents), sorry for my mini hiatus!  Job hunting and life in general has been stressful this past week, but dwelling on that is not the point of this post so let's move on.  Today I want to share my FANTABULOUS May Ipsy bag.

***You can click on the pictures to make them bigger***

My May 2013 Ipsy Bag

Okay so remember in last month's Ipsy post I told y'all that Ipsy would send me an April bag...well here it is.  My artsy fartsy senses are tingling so I might get crafty and glam up this bag!

May Ipsy bag:  My camera did not like the colors of this bag!  I love the different shades of blue and orange paired with the chevron print.

Zoya nail polish in Gei Gei (the name on the label is a typo):  A light pink polish with fine silver shimmer.

Gei Gei is very pretty but the application wasn't the best.  I think you can achieve full opacity with two coats but I had some patching issues and had to paint three coats on my nails.  *The picture on the left is more color accurate than the one on the right.  (I'm still working on my editing skills -_-)

Yaby concealer in Buff:  Well as you can see this is definitely not my color but I'll see what I can do with it.  The concealer is really pigmented and I'm sure that it will cover blemishes well.

Anastasia brow gel:  I was in the need of a new brow gel so this came right on time.  So far I really like it but I don't think it's something I would repurchase because of the price.

Pacifica roller ball perfume in Island Vanilla:  I. LOVE. THIS. SCENT.  I've been really obsessed with vanilla scents lately and this one is perfect for the summer time with Tahitian vanilla, honey-jasmine, and tea notes. 

Mirabella sheer lip color in Posy:  LOVE this color!  The lipstick is a bit sheer (hence the name of the product) but it gives just enough color on the lips.  The swatch above shows the color on my skin after a few swipes.

*BONUS* Urban Decay Moondust eyeshadow in Space Cowboy:  I received this eyeshadow for being an "active" member on the Ipsy website (honestly I'm not sure if that's accurate or not lol).  I was initially excited to try this since it was my first UD eyeshadow but was a little disappointed when I swatched it.  The color doesn't really show up on my skin and it seems like the eyeshadow is powdery and full of glitter.  I know that it's suppose to be really sparkly but really...if I were to pay $20+ on an eyeshadow it better be flawless and this wasn't in my opinion.  ***I'm not trying to be ungrateful for the bonus item, I'm just giving my opinion on the product***

*You can watch my May Ipsy video below!*

Overall, I think this is the best Ipsy bag that I've gotten!  I'm anxiously waiting for my June bag, which should be here in a week or so (unfortunately).  

Speaking of shipping, have any of you notice that your bags are getting to you later than usual?  Ipsy recently started using DHL to ship out Ipsy bags and let me just say I HATE IT.  This has caused my bags to come in about week and a half instead of the usual 3 days after they ship.  I know some people still have to wait longer than that but me and my impatient butt hates waiting that long for a package!  I've asked Ipsy about the shipping situation and they said that the warehouse that ships the bags find the best way to ship our bags to us.  If that's the case then I guess it's best to ship my bag from NC then get stuck in Georgia for several days THEN go all the way to Houston (about two hours SE from me) THENNN ship it to Dallas (about five hours North from me) and finally get to my house two days later!  I wish they would've just stuck with UPS then everybody would be happy... I think.  Rant over!

Anyways, are you signed up for Ipsy?  If not, then I would highly recommend that you do if you love trying new beauty products.  When you sign up for Ipsy you only pay $10 a month for 4-5 deluxe and full-size beauty samples.  They also come with great coupon codes so you can score awesome deals from the brands in that month's bag.  You can check out Ipsy's website HERE (referral link) to learn more.

Did you got your June Ipsy bag yet?  If so, let me know what you got!

Thanks for reading,

Crystal ❤

Polish Spotlight: Butter London Knackered

Hey guys!  Today I want to shine the polish spotlight over Butter London's Knackered!  I got this polish a while back on Coterie.com and finally decided to wear it.  You can check out my Coterie haul post HERE to see what other colors I picked up and to find out what Coterie is all about.

Butter London Knackered:  A pearly grey polish with micro holographic glitters.

A couple of things that I love about this polish is the many colors that it changes to when you move your hands and the little hints of glitter.  Knackered was also easy to work with but it's just so darn sheer.  I applied three coats alone on my nails and you can still see my nail line.  Maybe a fourth coat would've been the ticket but I think it's ridiculous to have to paint more than three coats of a polish on your nails, especially one with this $15 price tag.

Okay so my pictures do NOT do this polish justice!  You have to go see this in person to really appreciate this color and all of its greatness! 

I wasn't really sure if I would like this color since I usually tend stay away from greys but this surprisingly shocked me.  Although it's nothing that I would where all the time it's definitely a color that I would wear when I want a change from my usual polish choices (ie. pinks, purples, and blues).

Do you have Butter London's Knackered?  If so, do you love it or hate it?  I personally think it would be a better polish and worth the price ($15) if it were more opaque.

Thanks for reading!
Crystal ❤

Julie G Frosted Gumdrops collection!

Hey guys so today I wanted to share some swatches of the JulieG Frosted Gumdrops collection.  I saw some bloggers talking about a great deal on Groupon.com where you could get the entire collection for $16 bucks with tax!  I wasn't going to get the collection at first (I didn't have the money at the time) but my mom was nice enough to get it for me. 

JulieG Frosted Gumdrops collection

I'm sure you guys have seen every blogger and their mom swatch these but I wanted to try these out with different types of topcoats.  In the swatches below I painted my nails with two coats of polish (with no base coat), then applied a shiny topcoat, and then a matte topcoat.  All of the polishes were easy to apply and only took two coats to reach full opacity.

 Crushed Candy:  A light purple polish with various sized silver glitter.

 Blueberry Fizz: A light blue polish with various sized silver glitter.

 Rock Candy: A medium teal polish with various silver glitter.

 Tangerine Dream:  A light orange polish with small gold glitter.

 Sugar Rush:  An orange coral polish with small gold glitter.

 Hot Cinnamon:  A red polish with small gold glitter.

I absolutely love this collection!  I pretty much wore these polishes all last month and loved the way they wore.  Even though I don't have a variety of textured polishes from other brands I have to say that the JulieG textured polishes are my favorite!

Which brand, in your opinion, has the best textured polishes?

Thanks for reading,
Crystal ❤