Nail of the Day: Maybelline Pacific Blues

Today's Nail of the Day is Pacific Blues, a new limited edition polish from Maybelline's Summer 2013 collection.  Pacific Blues is a bright medium blue cream that makes a great statement color on the nails for summer.  

natural light, 2 coats

When I saw this in store, it reminded me of Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, one of my favorite blue polishes of all time.  I decided to pick up Pacific Blues to see if the two were dupes, and not surprisingly, they are!  If I had to note a difference between the two, I would say Maybelline Pacific Blues paints a smidgen darker than Sally Hansen Pacific Blue.  Sidenote: I wonder if Maybelline and Sally Hansen are owned by the same company, considering the name and shade similarity seems like it could be a copyright issue otherwise?

Between the two, I prefer the Sally Hansen shade.  I found Maybelline Pacific Blues to have a more difficult consistency.  It is thick, and doesn't spread easily.  The formulation of the Sally Hansen color is much more easy to work with.

Maybelline Color Show polishes retail for $3.99, and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear polishes retail for $2.99.  Sally Hansen Pacific Blue can be a tricky one to find, I remember talking about it a couple of years ago and getting a lot of messages about finding it.  In case you are striking out, Pacific Blue is available on Ulta's website!

Would you wear it?
xx, Allison

Diorskin Nude Tan Paradise Duo in Coral Glow: Swatches + Review!

It's been a long time since a high end collection as caught my eye, but Dior's new Bird of Paradise collection for Summer 2013 had a product I couldn't pass up: the Diorskin Nude Tan Paradise Duo in Coral Glow.

Charging My Gadgets On The Go: Mega PowerBank

Happy Monday, everyone!  I've been wanting to do tech reviews once in a while, as I am a bit of a tech nerd and I love talking about gadgets and gizmos galore, you want thingamabobs?  I've got 20 I've been loving lately!

I'm one of those people who is on their phone a lot.  Between calling, texting, tweeting, filtering-three-times-before-instagramming, etc., my phone battery needs a full recharge every single day.  However, I'm a little prone to forgetting to charge it, which is where one of my favorite gadgets comes in: the Mega PowerBank 8400 mAh portable charger.

Nail of the Day: Essie In The Cab-ana

I'm back today with another color from Essie's 2013 Resort Collection, a bright turquoise cream called In The Cab-ana.  The moment I painted this on my nails, I thought of how much better they would look holding a mimosa on an exotic tropical beach with crystal clear water and white sand... 

*pulls up travel website, checks one-way airfare to Fiji... sigh*  

But really, this color is the epitome of an exotic tropical beach blue.  It is just the right balance of blue and green, and perfectly bright.  And as my complexion deepens from "Casper" to "Freckles" this summer, it will continue to look even better.

natural light, 2 coats

The formulation of this was quite a bit thicker than most Essie polishes, and it was slightly hard to work with as a result.  Some nails were completely opaque in one coat, but I always do two because I prefer the "gel-ish" appearance of a thicker polish coverage.

The Essie 2013 Resort Collection is available in stores and online at Ulta.com!

Speaking of vacations, anyone have anything fun planned?
xx, Allison

L'Oreal Colour Riche Colour Caresse Lipsticks: Review + Swatches!

I've been using a bunch of new lip products lately, and today I wanted to share some of my new favorites: the L'Oreal Colour Riche Colour Caresse lipsticks.  I picked up a few colors recently and wanted to share my thoughts with all of you.