Winning!

First, let's talk polish. Continuing with my Revlon fixation as of late, today I have Revlon Top Speed in Royal on my toes:

I really like it. It performed better than the two other Top Speeds I've tried in the past couple weeks: Electric (so chalky and terrible I took it right off) and Mock Snob (which looked fine after three coats but was a nightmare to apply). This is just one coat of Royal; if it had been my fingernails I would have done two. It dried flat so I added Seche Vite.

In non-polish news, I won something! And a really great something! These lovely earrings from etsy seller Contempo Jewels:

I won them by entering a drawing on StyleLush. If you haven't visited StyleLush, I highly recommend it. It's full of great finds in nearly every area - beauty, home, kid stuff, places to go - oh, and gifts! I've gotten so many great gift ideas from it! And its sister site, FoodLush, is also a great idea generator. Anyway, I was so excited when I saw my name in the winner announcement post! I never win anything! Can't wait to get these babies on my ears!

Revlon Just Tinted

I'm not sure where I first heard about Revlon's Limited Edition Just Tinted nail polishes...it was probably this post on Nouveau Cheap. The idea of a sheer matte polish really appealed to me; it sounded novel and summery. I looked and LOOKED for these for weeks with no luck. I finally found them at the Rite-Aid near my house, which gets lots of limited edition displays. I've had really good luck finding LE polishes there, so I wasn't surprised when they finally turned up. Of course I saw them at Ulta a few days later, but that's usually how it goes.

I picked up three of the four shades:

Victorian, Desire, Dawn

I swatched all three as soon as I got home. 

Dawn, Desire, Victorian

This is two coats each. Application is a challenge with these; the sheer/matte combo is like watercolor paint. If you're not careful, it looks like when you were little and you colored your nails with markers. So it takes practice to get the coats even. I didn't use a base coat because I thought it might affect the finish. 

Speaking of finish, the display also had a gloss topcoat in it, but I was skeptical that it was any different than a regular topcoat so I skipped it. My first full mani was Desire: 

This Instagram shot doesn't really capture the sheerness. Of course the matte finish means that you get quick tipwear, but I don't mind because I really like the look of the polish. 

Next I tried Dawn, a subtle coral: 

I used Seche Vite over this to achieve a glossy finish and I really loved the way it looked. Very jelly-like and soft. 

I love these tints and I might go back for the fourth shade; it was a berry/purple. Nice work, Revlon! I feel like I've been on a Revlon/Essie kick lately when it comes to drugstore buys. I just got in an order from Zoya too, so I'll be swatching that soon. I'm going to do my best to get as many fun summer colors in as I can this year! Bright beauties improve my mood.