Bless Box Review ~ August 2017

Bless Box is a women's monthly subscription box curated by Sazan Hendrix; a beauty/lifestyle/fashion guru.

Cost: $29.00/month + $7.50 ($38.50 total)
Shipping: U.S. and Worldwide
Product Focus: Fashion, beauty, and health

The box provided a card introducing this months theme: endless summer.  the card has a link to the website which lists all the products.

The box also included this card to get 2 months free from the Simple Habit website (valued at $19.99):

Foodstirs Review- June 2017

Foodstirs is a monthly baking subscription box that ships baking mix kits straight to your door!  The kits contain only organic and non-GMO ingredients, and best of all, the company was founded by Sarah Michelle Geller :)  Each kit costs $19.99/ month with free shipping.  You may still be able to use the code MSA30 (from mysubscriptionaddiction.com) to get a 3-month subscription for $29.00 which is basically half off (normally 3 months would cost ~60.00).

This months recipe is for Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes!  Each kit comes with a recipe card and nutrition info.  Read more after the jump!

Green Nail Polish Comparisons

I wasn't a fan of green nail polish until recently.. I never thought that I would end up with six different green shades! See below:


Indoors without the flash:

L to R: Essie- Turquoise and Caicos, Essie- First Timer, Essie- Mojito Madness, Pomegranate- Enchanted Lagoon, Pomegranate- Royal Brat, China Glaze- Kiwi Cool-Ada

Essie- First Timer

I could not wait to purchase this color.  This is really the only Essie color that I have been interested in purchasing since their winter collection.  It definitely didn't disappoint, it was just different than expected.  This color was exactly what I was hoping Mojito Madness would be.  A medium Kelly green.  Not exactly light.  Always remember to take into account that the nail polish will be 2-3 shades darker than it looks in the bottle.  Anyway, the formula was phenomenal! Very smooth and creamy.  Definitely a one coater.  I wish that Essie would make all of their formulas this way.  Anyway.. onto the pictures! All pictures show two coats of First Timer + 1 coat of seche vite.  My cuticles are a mess, you have been warned!

Essie- First Timer, indoors, without the flash.

Pink Nail Polish Comparisons

I've been meaning to do this forever... Posting nail polish comparisons is much harder than it seems! The lighting has to be just perfect to capture the exact shade.  I did my best, and here they are!

1.       Essie-  Ballet Slippers

2.       OPI-  Bubble Bath

3.       NOPI-  Kim-pletely In Love

4.       Essie- Muchi Muchi

5.       Zoya-  Barbie

6.       Essie-  French Affair

7.       OPI- Pedal Faster Suzi!

8.       Essie- Mod Squad

9.       NOPI- All Kendall-ed Up

10.   OPI- Strawberry Margarita

11.   China Glaze- Pool Party

12.   China Glaze- Shocking Pink

13.   Essie-  Peach Daiquiri

Tomato Basil Mozzarella Caprese, 3 ways!

Tomato basil mozzarella caprese!

My Nail Polish Collection, Part 7: Misc.

L to R: Wet N Wild- The Star of the Show, JENsations- Stars in Space, NYX- Precious Jems, Revlon- Radiant, Chanel- Black Satin, Nails Inc.- Baker Street, Sation- Miss Emo Shun All, American Apparel- Neon Yellow, Julep- Meryl, Julep- Hayden, Julep- Barbara, NYC- Mulberry Street, NYC- Lexington Yellow, NYC- Sidewalkers, Sally Hanson- Tenacious Ruby, Sally Hanson- Barracuda

My Nail Polish Collection, Part 6: Nicole by OPI

L to R: Disco Dolls, Follow Me on Glitter, Rainbow in the S-Kylie, Sephora by OPI- I'm So Sari!, Stand by Your Manny, Kim-pletely in Love, All Kendalled Up, My Empire My Rules

Skittles!

I decided to have some fun with my nail polish this week.  I wanted to wear Essie's Van D'Go but accidentally began to apply Essie's A Crewed Interest because they look so similar.  Then I just decided to go all out and apply Essie's Peach Daiquiri on my pinky.  My nails now look very springlike and festive for Easter! All pictures show Essie- A Crewed Interest on index finger , Essie- Van D'Go on ring and middle fingers, Essie- Peach Daiquiri on Pinky

Essie- A Crewed Interest on index finger , Essie- Van D'Go on ring and middle fingers, Essie- Peach Daiquiri on Pinky

Zoya- Robyn

If this isn't the epitome of a hot blue color, I don't know what is.  It's as hot as you can get without being neon.  One coat is good, two coats are better.  The formula was very easy to work with.  Nothing to add to that, onto the pictures! All pictures show 2 coats of polish+ 1 coat of Seche Vite.

Zoya- Robyn, in the sunlight

My Nail Polish Collection Part 4: Zoya

China Glaze- Pool Party

This week I have been on vacation, so I was finally able to wear the extremely work inappropriate, but much anticipated, POOL PARTY!  Do I even need to say anything? This nail polish is pretty much amazing.  As a neon, it was extremely transparent, so I put a coat of white nail polish underneath to really make the color pop.  This color is actually what I was hoping flip flop fantasy would be.. a neon orange-y coral color.  The formula was actually really good for a neon, a two coater for full opacity as long as you have 1 coat of white nail polish underneath.  Like most neons, it dried with a matte finish, nothing that a little bit of Seche Vite couldn't fix.  The only downside was that it chipped on the second day :( Anyway... onto the pictures!  All pictures show 2 coats of Pool Party over 1 coat of China Glaze- White on White, with two coats of seche vite.

It glows!

China Glaze- Pool Party, underwater, in sunlight, without the flash

China Glaze- Immortal

This was another polish that I had been wanting to try out for a while.  I'm a huge fan of gray polishes, and immortal is no exception! Immortal is a darkish gray with the slightest hint of multi colored sparkles. The formula is AMAZING.  Super pigmented and definitely a one coater.  Pictures below show two coats of immortal+ 1 coat of seche vite.  Enjoy!

China Glaze Immortal- Indoors, flash

Essie- Jam n Jelly

I was intrigued by this polish for a while, and finally gave in and bought it off Amazon.  It's a nice color, and I love jellies! It kind of reminds me of patent leather.  The formula was definitely one of Essie's better ones, and this was a one coater.  Pictures below show 2 coats of Jam n Jelly+ 1 coat of seche vite.

Essie- Jam n Jelly, indoors, without the flash

Essie- Where's My Chauffeur

Hello Hello! Here I am enjoying the gorgeous weather in sunny Florida.  Although Where's My Chauffeur came out in Essie's Winter Collection.. it's definitely a tropical color! The formula was good, but I needed 3 coats to even it out.  It dried with a matte finish and needed lots of top coat.  The pictures below show 3 coats of Essie- Where's My Chauffeur+ 2 coats of seche vite.  I also added Zoya- Maisie as an accent nail for a little bit of extra sparkle.

Essie- Where's My Chauffer+ Zoya- Maisie on the ring finger, outdoors

My Nail Polish Collection- Part 3: China Glaze

Here is part 3 of my collection, with China Glaze.

 More polishes after the jump!

My Nail Polish Collection- Part 2: Essie (Part 2)

This blog was giving me a difficult time loading more pictures, so here is the rest of my Essie Collection:

My Nail Polish Collection- Part 2: Essie (Part 1)

Here is part 2 of my nail polish collection: Essie is my favorite brand of nail polish, so I definitely have the most of these.  I will include the bottom row in part 2 of my Essie collection.

Row 1, L to R: Ballet Slippers, Fiji, Muchi Muchi, French Affair, Mod Squad, Jam n Jelly, Plumberry, Big Spender, Peach Daiquiri, Lollipop, Jelly Apple, A Crewed Interest, Van D'go, Haute as Hello, Tart Deco
Row 2, L to R: Borrowed and Blue, Cocktail Bling, Lapiz of Luxury, Smooth Sailing, Baubing for Baubles, Nice is Nice, She's Picture Perfect, Bangle Jangle, Lilacism, No More Film, Absolutely Shore, Mint Candy Apple, Turquoise and Caicos, Where's My Chauffeur, Mojito Madness

Row 3, L to R: Carnival, Beyond Cozy, Set in Stones, A Cut Above, Leading Lady, Good as Gold, Lady Like, Demure Vixen, Island Hopping, Don't Sweater It, Chinchilly, Armed and Ready, Marshmallow, Sand Tropez

My Nail Polish Collection- Part 1: OPI

Hello Hello! Thank god it's Saturday! Did I mention that I am on a strict no buy right now? I gave up buying new nail polish, and Starbucks for Lent.  I usually never give things up for Lent, but I decided that this would be a good opportunity to break some bad habits! So it's actually been almost a month.  The last nail polish that I bought was Polka.com from OPI's Euro Centrale Collection on February 6th.  The no buy isn't as hard as I expected.  I don't find the Spring collections for OPI, Essie, or China Glaze to have anything that I haven't seen before.  But who knows, maybe I will decide to buy the minis for the collections.  Anyway.. today I present to you my nail collection!

My OPI Collection.

More Pictures after the break!

Colors that I never thought I'd like

I'm back after a long haitus! I wish I could say that I was doing something useful/ exciting, but unfortunately, my nail polish collection has grown exponentially and I've just been reading and writing the 92389284 papers that grad school requires.  Anyway, onto something less depressing! Since I've been gone so long, this post has 5 polishes in one entry! If you told me that I would ever be wearing these polishes 6 months ago, I would have laughed at you... But then again, I have total nail polish ADD..