Category: Affordable

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Essence Me & My Lover (Sparkle Sand Effect)

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. ❤️

I thought since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, I should pick out something sorta Valentine-y for my nails. After digging through my stash, & through a lot of red nail polishes, I decided on this oldie from Essence: Me & My Lover.

2 coats, no top coat.

This shade was originally released in 2014/2015, which is when I picked it up at my local Shoppers Drug Mart. It is a sparkle sand effect shade, which means that it dries down to a textured finish.

Unlike some other sand effect polishes I’ve used, Me & My Lover has a finer grit, so the textured finish is a bit more subtle. It’s there, but it’s also easy to smooth out with a coat of glossy thick top coat.

The red is a beautiful pink leaning red — there seems to be some gold glitters & magenta glitters mixed in. It makes for a very, very beautiful polish. It also dries fairly quickly, which is an important thing when it comes to textured polishes. No body has time to be waiting around for their polishes to dry for hours.

The formula is also really easy to work with, which I always get excited about when it comes to extra old polishes in my stash. I’m definitely glad I decided to pull it out, because it was just the red I was looking for!

What do you think of this Essence shade? Do you remember the textured polish craze? Do you still have any of your old textured shades—which ones were your favourites?

Let me know in the comments below!

& have a happy Valentine’s Day tomorrow!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Sinful Colors Rebel Rose

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday!

Another week is over, so let’s start a new week with a little more brightness. We’re almost to the end of August — if you can believe it — so I suppose I should keep the Summer vibes going a little bit longer.

Last week I was visiting my local Walmart, on the search for nail polish to cheer myself up, & decided to pick up a few—okay, six—Sinful Colors shades to cheer up my blahs. Walmart sells their Sinful polishes 3 for $6, which is a pretty awesome deal. Plus they have a bunch of new collection shades which always gets me excited. I picked up 4 of their scented shades, which I’m going to swatch & shade soon, but I thought for this week I would share this bright fuchsia shade: Rebel Rose.

2 coats + Essie Gel Setter Top Coat

I was initially draw to this polish because of the bright fuchsia shade, but what sold me on it was this beautiful underlying blue/purple shimmer. I also really like that this a great end of Summer/early days of Fall shade. It works with complimentary brighter shades, like a turquoise blue, or something a bit darker, like navy purple or deep purple, depending on what you’re trying to invoke.

The formula was really nice & easy to work with, & applied very smoothly. I did need two pretty evenly applied coats of polish to cover the nail — I noticed when I applied too thinly, it looked a little patchy. Over all, for a very affordable polish, it’s great! Easy to apply, dried pretty quickly (especially with quick dry top coat) & had a great opacity & finish. I’ve always been a fan of Sinful Colors, for these reasons, & I’m happy to add another pretty polish to my stash.

What do you think about Sinful Colors Rebel Rose? Are you loving this shimmery fuchsia as much as I am? What is your favourite affordable polish line? Let me know down in the comments below!