NOTD and SO MANY SAMPLES...

Essie "Lolipop," two coats and one coat of Orly Sec'n Dry

So, I recently went on a no-buy, which was almost stopped immediately by the Urban Decay sale. In doing so, I took inventory of all my bath and beauty products. I didn't really think I was a perfume person, but I guess I will be now because:

And that doesn't even include my body sprays :P I never realized how many little samples of perfume I was getting in all of my online orders. I will use every single one of these.

Haul, NOTD and a googledoc

So, in my uber boredom today I went to a Walgreens, a Rite Aid, Marshall's and 3 CVS's. Yes, I was that bored. At the second CVS, there were quite a few 75% and 50% off items, so I picked a few of them up. (sorry. I took this picture with my iPhone, which quite honestly is better than my digital camera.)

Left to Right: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Lavender Cloud, SHCSM Yellow Kitty, Sally Hansen HD Lite, SHHD Pixel Pretty, Essie Coat Azure, Essie French Affair 

I could not believe these babies were 75% off. I LOVE the Complete Salon Manicure line, but they are so gosh darn expensive. They are getting a little cheaper, though, as they're only five-something at WalMart, where I think they used to be around $7. I couldn't help but get Yellow Kitty, just for the name. It looks REALLY similar to Orly Lemonade, so I'll do a comparison post tomorrow when there is sunlight.

The HD polishes were also 75% off, and I'm glad I snatched these two. There were a lot more, but I'm trying not to buy dupes/near dupes. 

ESSIE. I LOVE YOU. The blue, Coat Azure, was pretty when I thought it was a simple creme...then I realized after I got home that there is a beautiful silver shimmer to it. 

1 coat China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat, 1 coat Borghese Mezzanotte, 1 coat China Glaze Fairy Dust, 1 coat Seche Vite.

Also, in my obsession with nail polish, I've typed up a list of all of my nail polish, base/top coats and cuticle oils. I googledoc'd it, so you can find it here. I'll try to keep it updated. If you have any swatch requests, go ahead and email/comment and I'll try to make it happen.

Essie Berry Hard

Sorry about the inferior picture. The lighting in my dorm room is pretty awful. This was three coats of Essie Berry Hard, which I got at Ulta on clearance. I like the color, but I was disappointed in the brush. The bristles were a little clumpy, like polish had dried on it. This made the polish apply unevenly. I have Essie Lollipop, which I liked a lot better. The brush on that was normal and the color applied much more evenly. It really is too bad about the brush, but I'll probably use this one again and see if a little polish thinner will thin unclump the brush.
Concerning wear, it chipped pretty quickly on my right hand, but I don't wrap my tips so that might be part of it. It's such a pretty color and I really like the jelly-ness. I am looking forward to getting more polishes from Essie, although if the brush keeps being lame like that, I'll have to let it go.

The Body Shop and Ulta Haul

I'm on winter break with literally nothing to give myself a time schedule, so I've been staying up until two or three in the morning and waking up at noon. I hate doing that, so today I decided to go shopping to give myself an excuse to wake up at a decent hour. I went to Ross, hoping to score some Color Club polishes. I actually got there a few minutes before they unlocked the doors, which was nice because as many of you know, Ross can be hell. Unfotunately, they didn't have much nail polish, and the only "real" brand stuff I saw were a couple of Wet n' Wild sets which were badly separated and a Nailtek base coat. I passed on those and went to the Body Shop, which has a special today (which is also available online on their website) where you could buy a bag for $5 and get half off everything you could fit inside it. The bag is just a paper gift bag, but $2 from every bag goes to stop sex trafficking. I'm a sucker for things that benefit a good cause, so I had to go check it out.

Left to right, top to bottom:
Spiced Vanilla Body Butter, originally $10 but reduced to $5 w/ bag purchase
DeoDry Dry-Effect Deodorant Cool & Zesty Stick, on sale for $4, reduced to $2 w/ bag purchase
Watermelon Body Lotion, part of their $3 originals, but reduced to $1.50 w/ bag purchase
Spiced Vanilla Lip Balm, on sale for $3, but reduced to $1.50 w/ bag purchase
Mini Cocoa Butter Body Scrub, originally $8, reduced to $4 w/ bag purchase
I've never used anything from the Body Shop, but the watermelon scented lotion smells amazing. I might do more in-depth reviews as I use these products. I really like the fact that the Body Shop uses recycled plastic, natural ingredients from communities and are so into saving the Earth.

On my way out of the shopping center, I of course had to stop at Ulta because I had a $3.50 off $10 coupon that was burning a hole in my pocket.

I've gotten pretty good at buying just over ten dollars, so I only picked up three items this time around.
Left to right:
Sally Hansen VitaSurge Strength Gel, which I can't even find on their website. $5.99
Essie Berry Hard, clearance for 3.99 (I also cannot find this on their site)
OPI AvoJuice Skin Quencher in Winter Huckleberry, clearance for $0.99

I'm very excited about the VitaSurge, as I've never seen it before. I don't have "weak" nails, but they do tend to bend easily as they grow out. Hopefully this will let me have longer nails before they get too weak to be practical.