What's in My Travel Bag

For a beauty blogger, narrowing down what I bring on vacation to just the essentials is a chore. After all, I have over ten deep drawers full of polish, blushes, foundations, and other bath and body products.

When I went to London, the struggle was real. I was going to be spending many days in another country and while I was certain that if I was missing anything, one of their drug stores would have me covered, I didn't want to have to go hunting down any stores or figuring out which brands were comparable. Plus, the exchange rate from USD to GBP is not favorable, so I wanted to avoid spending money unnecessarily. (AKA: have more money to bring back British cosmetics!)

So here is everything I packed below:

The Hawaii lotion, Pantene root boster bottle, dry shampoo, and face wipes were packed in a gallon bag in my suitcase on their own. However, everything else fit into my Victoria's Secret double-sided cosmetics case.

So what exactly did I bring?

Let's break it down!

Frozen Elsa Holographic Gradient

For those of you who have been following me for a while below nails may not look very familiar to you. There's a very good reason for that!

My younger sister is fourteen and decided to dress up as Elsa from Frozen for Halloween. She wanted something that was Elsa-like on her nails and had previously asked me to create a gradient on her nails for a while. So I figured now was as good of a time as any!

I wanted to use something holographic to create an icy look, like how snow and ice glisten in the sunlight. And of course, who can resist rhinestones?

I used four shades for this blue holographic gradient. From dark to light: Zoya Dream, OPI Blue Chips (aka: OPI The Flowers are Blue-Ming), Wet n Wild Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and OPI DS Shimmer.

I used a bit different of a technique for this gradient than I've used in the past. Normally, I sponge on one color at a time, however, I decided to try a different method. This time, I painted on Who Wants to Be a Millonaire as a base coat and painted the gradient onto a makeup sponge, then dabbed that on my nail.
 
It needed a few touch ups, but I was happy with it and my sister was over the moon.

I added some bling in the form of a rhinestone snowflake... unfortunately, one fell off sometime between the night I painted them and the afternoon I took the picture, but it's still blingtastic to me!

What do you think of this blue holo gradient? Did I do Elsa proud?

2000 Facebook Likes/1000 GFC Followers Giveaway

I've been teasing this for a month now, so I'm incredibly excited for the giveaway to go live!

Check out all of the available prizes and enter via the widget below! (Please note: Due to the ongoing issues with international shipping, this giveaway is open to the United States and Canada only!)

The mega giveaway ends at midnight EST on 3/13... Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wet n Wild Ready to Pounce

Okay, I know what some of you are thinking. You've blogged about Zoya, OPI, and China Glaze… but Wet n Wild is not even in the same category. So why bother?

I'm not going to lie. Prior to this year, I'd always viewed Wet n Wild as nothing more than a bargain brand polish. And listen, I have nothing against these "bargain polishes." To be honest, as a college student, I can't really afford to go out and only buy designer brand polishes, considering brands like Butter London and Deborah Lippmann cost double digits and Zoya/Orly/OPI/China Glaze hover just below the $10 mark. That's why clearance racks are a girl's best friend.

But I have to give Wet n Wild credit where credit is due. Gone are the old formulas in which I'd have to thin out their polishes after a month, causing me to spill nail polish remover all over my desk. Gone are the streaky finishes and gloppy applications.

In fact, today, October 3th, 2011, I will confidently stand on my soapbox and proclaim that Wet n Wild makes solid quality polishes for a fantastic price!

If you need convincing, I suggest you head to your nearest drug store and pick up a polish from their On the Prowl collection. And if you can't find any polishes from that collection… it's because it has become one of the hardest to find beauty products of the season. Not OPI, not Essie, not Illamasqua… Wet n Wild. Seriously, there is a blog that actually has an interactive map where people post locations in which it has been spotted. See?

In fact, I managed to snag the last one of Ready to Pounce, the most highly touted one of them all, from Harmons, if only to see what everyone has been raving about. And guess what I found out?



Shut the front door. It's. Gorgeous.

A beautiful vampy plum, with subtle purple shimmer, it's the perfect fall color. It has lasted for over five days now and has survived my subconscious nail chewing of the LSATs, with the slight ding in my middle finger due to my overzealous chocolate lab. If only she had waited until the chew toy was no longer in my hand…

And if it takes the tooth of a ninety-pound chocolate lab to take this baby down, then you KNOW it'll hold up well to the rest of the elements. You'll have to excuse the lack of a bottle shot… it was being passed around amongst my friends for use at the time this article was written.

Oh and speaking of Deborah Lippmann? The cost of DL Happy Birthday, DL Ruby Slippers, and DL Wicked Game? A wallet-busting $54 at your local Nordstroms.

The cost of their WnW dupes, Party of Five Glitters, Behind Closed Doors, and Gray's Anatomy? $5.97.

Want to join me on my soapbox?

- Princess Polish

Gradient Tutorial

I have been dying to try a gradient for as long as I can remember. So as a reward for sitting through my three hour LSAT class, I decided to sit down to watch Project Runway and break out the nail polish. And I couldn't believe how easy it turned out to be, using just nail polish and a makeup sponge.



(From left to right: China Glaze Blue Iguana, Wet and Wild Sapphire Blue, Zoya Ibiza, Rimmel Midnight Blue, and Sally Hansen Black Diamond)

Here are the five polishes that I used. You can use less, or even more if you're ambitious, but it's up to you. These shades aren't mandatory at all, go with what you have. I found that these were a nice gradient of blue and even though Blue Iguana was substantially lighter than Sapphire Blue, I think it really made the manicure pop in the end. So take that under consideration.

Also, if you're thinking about using a black with some sparkle like I did, use one that is a true black that's not grainy. Black Diamond looks okay on the tips, but being nitpicky, I didn't really love the grainy look and feel of it in the end. It doesn't blend as well as another black. You may be better off using a black satin color and then adding a hint of glitter with a top coat at the end. But it's totally up to you!

Are you ready to become a gradient pro? Well, let's get started!

1) Tape your fingers. I can't tell you how much easier this would have made my life, considering how hard it is to get blue nail polish off without staining your skin. One pieces on each side of the nail and right below would make your manicure much cleaner looking. Take my word for it.



2) Apply two coats of your lightest blue.



3) Using your second blue, swipe a line of polish across the WHOLE tip of your makeup sponge and dab it twice on a nonporous surface (in my case, a paper bowl) to prevent uneven sponging.

IMPORTANT: Wait until your base polish is only slightly sticky to the touch before you start the sponging process or you'll create goopy bumps that will ruin your hard work. I promise, the extra wait is worth it.



4) Starting at the tip of the nail and using the whole width of the sponge so it curves around your nail, lightly dab the sponge down your nail, leaving a small amount of your base color at the bottom.




If you notice that the polish did not sponge well to the sides of your nail, repeat the sponging process using the corner of the sponge on those bare areas.

5) Repeat steps 4 and 5 for as many colors as you desire, EXCEPT your last color, lessening the length of the sponged area as you go.

Here is how the sponging looked after Zoya Ibiza and Rimmel Midnight Blue:






6) For your last color, apply the polish to the sponge as your did for the others. When you dab this time, do so until you barely see any polish on the plate/bowl. This will make the color much sheerer on the nail, but will look like a more even blend. This may require more than one repeat of sponging until you get a true dark tip (in my case, black), but it will look blended instead of just a painted tip.



Don't worry that your nails look spongy, that will be solved in the next step.

7) Now, remove your tape and apply a top coat! I use Seche Vite because I find it creates the smoothest surface, especially when using grainy glitter or sponging. Plus, it's dry time cannot be beat.

Here is the end product, with a little nail art flower:



Happy sponging!