New Banner & New CVS Haul

Hey! It has been a long week. Lots of fun quizzes and tests! Why do professors seem to put all of their tests in the same week? Cruel.

I designed a custom banner for the blog. It was great practice for using Photoshop. What do you think? Let me know if I should change something or not. Any kind of feedback would be appreciated. I really like it though; its not too fancy, but it doesn't need to be.

Now, I know that I said a couple posts ago that I wasn't going to buy anything online until May, and I haven't, but I've decided to add on to it.  I feel like I need to add some restrictions to my CVS/Sally's/etc. hauls. I am going to restrict myself to no more than 2 items per purchase and no more than one purchase every 2-3 weeks. I will, however, allow more items if they are on an extremely good sale, but I will not go overboard!

Why did I decide this? Well, I went to CVS yesterday after class and discovered that the CVS on the other side of town has a better variety of product. They had the new Milani holos, actually they had a lot of Milani, about 3 times as much as the other CVS in town. The selection of Orly was more extensive as well. I didn't know what to do! I found a new CVS to visit from now on. And this leads into my haul....

As I said, the Milani section was huge compared to the other CVS, and once I saw it, I couldn't take my eyes off it.  I think I stood in front of the display for a good 10 minutes trying to figure out where to start. I finally decided on three of the Milani neons, a holo, and two art pens. I also grabbed a Wet N' Wild polish. 

And for you, dear reader: Swatches!!!

Before I start, just a warning: I didn't clean up my nails before taking pictures! Do not be afraid!

I'll start with the Wet N' Wild polish in French White. I needed a white creme, so I grabbed it. Plus it was only a dollar! Unfortunately, it was streaky and took four coats. I wasn't too impressed with it, but it didn't look too bad after four coats. I just wish it hadn't taken that many coats to look decent.

 

Flash, under a lamp

Without flash, indirect sunlight

Totally 80s is a Milani neon. The bottle makes it look like a yellow, but on the nails it has a green tint to it. It also took four coats to become opaque. The first three coats looked like I had colored my nails with a highlighter. Thankfully, it wasn't too streaky. I was happier with this color than with the white. The second picture shows the green tint in the polish.

 

Without flash, indirect sunlight

Flash

Another Milani neon, Pink Hottie. Can you guess how many coats it took? If you guessed four, than go get yourself a cookie! This one wasn't streaky, just very sheer. It was slightly more opaque than Totally 80s, meaning I didn't feel like I did my nails with a highlighter. I really like this pink! Note: at this point I lost the sunlight so all pictures taken under a lamp. 

With flash. 

Only picture I could get true to color, the others came out peach.

The last Milani neon is Fresh Teal. This is my favorite of the three neons, mostly because it only took two coats to become opaque. I did three coats just to be safe. I had a terrible time trying to get a picture true to color. I basically had to stand on the toilet and hold my hand directly under a lightbulb to get it. Most of the pics turned out more of a dusty teal, like the first one below.

Flash

No flash? Can't remember.

Next up is the Milani holo, Hi-Tech.  Its a lovely green with tons of holographic glitter goodness in it. It kind of looks gold in some light as well. Surprisingly, my camera captured the beauty of this polish perfectly. Oh yeah, this is three coats but it was good to go in two! Just look at that holo!

Flash.

I decided I wanted to see it as a matte, so I slapped some Matte Magic on my ring finger. Here's a blurry pic to show you the difference.

Definitely looks more gold when its matte.

For the nail art pens, I just quickly swatched them on the cap of a jar to give you an idea of what they look like.

That's Green Sketch and Orange Graph

I was extremely impressed with the holo! Gorgeous! And the neon colors were great, just a little too sheer for my liking. I have an idea for a mani coming up that involves the art pens so I'll let you know how they are when I do that. 

Kayla