Jordana- Color Tint Blush Stick

Jordana's Color Tint Blush Sticks are a new concept to me, so I am happy I got to test them out! First of all, these little gems retail for $2.99 and are easily found in drug stores and online. They are creamy yet pigmented and you can and will need to blend the color out once on your skin. I heavily applied for the swatches on my arm so you could see the true colors, but blending should occur for a more natural look. The packaging is really easy to hold and not messy at all. These would be great for traveling because you wouldn't have to worry about dropping them and the powder shattering into a million little dusty pieces all over in your purse or suitcase. They're smooth but creamy and even feathering it out with your fingers would be fine, no need to make it complicated. They are great for $2.99 and come in lots of colors to coordinate with your look!

*press sample*

Jordana- Modern Matte Lipstick, Moisturizing Balm Stain and Shiny Gloss

Matte lipsticks are back in a major way and Jordana has some fantastic ones as well. They're similar to Milani but at a lower price point and you can find them HERE. They're are 18 new colors, here are 12 of them for you to check out...

The colors range from a very light pale nude to barbie pink, coral and bright red; there really is something for everyone in this collection. They retail for $2.99, are paraben and talc free, don't crack, apply smoothly and are super pigmented! These would be great for someone who is just starting out wearing make up or has a tight budget but still wants to be on trend.

Jordana also has out moisturizing lip balm stains that look like a fat pencil. I really love the Fresh Fig color; it's natural looking but soft and bright. Gorgeous Peoney is a more neutral tone you could wear with a dramatic eye. The super Shiny Gloss is somewhat champagne tinted and is indeed super shiny. I layered it over the Lip Balm Stains and you can see how it adds a sparkle to it. The Gloss comes in a wand applicator, is also not sticky and applies great, as does the stains. The Lip Out Loud Gloss comes in many colors as do the stains and can be found HERE for $1.99 and $2.99 respectively.


*pres samples*

Jordana: New glitters released- swatches

As I showed you a week or so ago, the new Jordana Glitters are out! I swatched each glitter over black, white and by itself. Let's get to it:

 Carnival: a dark blue navy with large hex glitter in silver, green and blue with small blue glitter. Very close to Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe but this one has silver hex in it. I did one coat across all. 

 Pink raspberry large hex glitter in a clear base. With this one I used the "dab" method to fill in any bare spots after one pass with the brush. Very pretty color glitter and I'm loving it over black. 

 Galaxy has so much glitter in it: large silver hex and small silver glitters in a clear base. One coat on each color. 

 Outer Space has small light blue glitter with large hexes in yellow, orange, pink. Again, nice and dense, I used one swipe of the brush over each. 

 Purple Party doesn't need a base color if you don't want to do one! Multi colored small glitters dominated by pink with slightly larger colors of green, blue, yellow, orange, silver. This was one coat.. yes one coat! Such a pretty glitter and so dense. 

Red Flash is an orangey red with small, medium and larger red hex glitters in a clear base. This was one coat over each base. Loving this over black, it stands out great. 

These are now available where Jordana Cosmetics are sold or online and for $2.99, you can't go wrong. 

*products sent by company*

Jordana: New glitters released

We are very excited to announce that all 24 shades of Jordana Cosmetic’s Glitters Specialty Nail Polishes are now available. All shades can be purchased at www.jordanacosmetics.com.

Guest Post:Nail Noise- Acid Burn Mani Tutorial!!

Today's guest blogger is awesome, she put together a tutorial for you guys ... acid burn mani! Check it out, and her blog  Nail Noise, show her some monkey lovin'... thank you Crystal!! 


Hello Manicured Monkey followers! I am honored to have the chance to share my work with all of you on Kristin's fantastic blog! I especially love her stampings, something I am not too great at yet myself :P When I started thinking of ideas for a design, I wanted to highlight something I was very good at, so I chose being sloppy! ^.^ No straight lines necessary for this manicure! Inspired by JustTisEms (http://justtisems.tumblr.com), I created this very cool acid burn design (and tutorial). I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

click to enlarge

 I want to stress that it really worked for me to use a top coat between layers. I was a little acetone heavy on my Q-tips and was glad I had that extra layer of top coat protection! Basically just paint your base black. Then add each color individually, letting them dry completely between layerings. Top coat it. Paint it black again - let it dry. Use your acetone-dipped Q-tip (not literally sopping with acetone like me!) to lightly swipe, erasing layers as you go until you have your desired look. Finish with a top coat again (You all have stocked up on your top coats right?!) and there you have it! I hope some of you will try this and share your results.

Thanks again to Miss Kristin for allowing me to ramble on her blog! 

Thank you Crystal, I love seeing new techniques for fun manis, if anyone tries this, link me on facebook so I can repost it and pin it!

Soccer Mani: Featuring my Water Decals

For those who do not know, I'm a HUGE soccer fan and support our Northern California team the San Jose Earthquakes. Each home game, I try to do a different Quakes themed mani, this past weekend I went with nail decals I made of their shield. I started with two easy coats of Healing from Dr.'s Remedy which is the perfect light gray creme. Then I took Jordana Blue Bash and sponged it onto the tips and sides of my nails. Then the hard part came, cutting out 10 decals and adding them on (the application process is a cinch, just soak in water 20 seconds then slide it off the paper onto your nail, the trimming took long). You can purchase my decals HERE and I do custom decals at no extra charge, they're 20 for $2.50 and I throw in random extras as well.  Overall, I LOVE this mani so much!

Stamping Sunday!: Hema 46 + CH2 (Large Flower)

This week's stamping challenge was a large flower. I've been practicing my glitter sponging as well and this is what I came up with. I started with two coats of Hema #46, it's a delicious candy apple red jelly. I then grabbed Jordana Rhinestones and a make up sponge and dabbed away.  I did the tip and up one side, then I stamped using the Cheeky 2 plate and Konad special white polish and added a black rhinestone. I love this mani, it reminds me of a Hawaiian shirt. 

You can check out everyone else's Sunday stamping manis on my Pinterest Board HERE

Hema: 210

Hi Monkeys! I entered my first NOTD contest, will you please vote for me? :) VOTE HERE thank you sooooooooo much!

Recently I did another swap with the awesome Anouk from Belgium and she runs Cupcake Beauty.  Among all the amazing Catrice polishes she sent, I also received the most squishy and probably my favorite pink polish: Hema 210. I did two squishy coats of this medium dusty pink and it was perfectly opaque.  I didn't want to stamp over it because the squishy was too pretty to hide so I used Jordana Bronze Fest and did accent nails. I wore this for I think 3 days and remember being sad when I took it off LOL I'm sure this will be in my regular full mani rotation. Also, it'd be a great pedi color for spring!

My Giveaway was just updated so check it out, some more things were added :) and I extended the date a week as well since I will be out of town for my birthday =^.^=

Jordana Glitters: Part 2 of 2

Here's part two of the awesome Jordana Glitters. There's 24 total, 18 I showed you and 6 are coming soon. Here's the first part if you need to catch up. Again, I layered each over white, black and clear so you could see different laying combinations.

Large and small Gold and bronze hex glitter with small square bronze in an clear base

 Dense lavender medium and small hex glitter with small square glitter in a clear base

 Large and small copper hex glitter in a pale copper base 

Silver, blue and green large hex glitter with small blue hex in a clear base

Medium and small gold hex glitter with large iridescent diamond sequins in a clear base

Large and medium green hex glitter in a clear base

Large yellow, blue and red hex glitter with small gold hex in a clear base

Large and small rose pink hex glitter in a clear base

Large and small dense silver hex glitter in a clear base

Jordana polishes can be purchased at K-Marts and online at Jordana Cosmetics and retail for $2.99


*sent for review by company*

Jordana Glitters: Part 1 of 2

I have the first half of the new Jordana Glitters to show you and it's picture heavy so enjoy! (you can click each picture to enlarge it)

 Light blue hex and small hex glitter in a clear base

 Seafoam green large hex and small hex and round glitters in a clear base

 Iridescent large round and small silver glitter in a pale pink base

 Large gold hex glitter in a clear base

 Multi colored large hex glitter and multi colored small round glitter

 Small light blue hex glitter and micro purple hex glitter in a clear base

 Iridescent medium and small hex glitter in a clear base

 Large magenta hex glitter and small hex glitter in a clear base

Blue, gold, magenta medium hex glitter with small red round glitter in a clear base

These glitters apply like a charm, especially the ones with the smaller glitter in them. The only one that was chunky was the Funky Gold Town, but that's expected with such large sequin glitter. I layered each over white, black and clear so you could see different laying combinations.  Overall, I'm impressed. I have the second 9 for you tomorrow, stay tuned. 

Jordana polishes can be purchased at K-Marts and online at Jordana Cosmetics and retail for $2.99
*sent for review by company*

Jordana Glitters: Press Release

Glitters! Now available on Jordana's website HERE, and the next 6 will be coming out soon. 

The 12 shades that will be available at Kmart are: 01 Magenta Magic, 02 Celebration, 06 Fairy Dust, 08 Sequins, 10 Gemstones, 11 Cosmic, 12 Celestial, 14 LA City Nights, 15 Blue Bash, 17 Copper Blaze, 21 Funky Gold Town, and 23 Rhinestones.

Zoya: Vegas Freeze

I've had zoya's Vegas Freeze in my untrieds for a while now and finally decided to use it as a top coat over Joradana's amazing purple.

Simple, but pretty.

I did one coat of Jordana Silky Purple then two coats of Vegas Freeze.  This mani was so hard to capture on camera.  Vegas Freeze has micro glitter in a pale purple base. Pink and purple and blue glitter float around and reflect light as a top coat.  I suggest to enlarge the picture so you can see the great shimmer. It really took the polish to a new color/finish and was super simple to do.  I need to play with top coats more. 

Jordana: Silky Purple and Good Luck Charm

Jordana Cosmetics is a new brand to me and boy am I glad I found it! I was sent two great polishes for review: Good Luck Charm and Silky Purple (cute names right!).

 First is Good Luck Charm. It is an almost jelly that has awesome shimmer to it.  The color reminds me of a margarita or a lime, it's a pretty greenish yellow.  Since it is a shimmer, it doesn't get fully opaque.  My pictures are in my lightbox using 4 coats and you can see nail line.  I actually like the way it looks wit nail line though, but I put it over white on my thumb to show you the layering possibilites.

You can see the shimmer even from a zoomed out picture, which I completely appreciate :)

If you enlarge the picture of my thumb, you can see it has orange/gold and green/lime shimmer to it.  Another thing about this polish that I really liked was that even though it is a shimmer, it did not streak.  Totally cute polish for summer!

 The second polish I received was Silky Purple. Now you all know how much I love purple, and this polish was no exception! It has a great formula that is highly pigmented.  I did two coats but you could do one generous coat if you have a steady hand.  This purple is the perfect lavender color; not too blue not too red.  These pictures are with a top coat of SV. The formula is smooth and the brush is nothing complicated and totally functional, even if you have wider nail beds.  I'm quite the fan of this brand now because not only is the formula and brushes great, the prices are good as well!

I've seen some Jordana make up at Walgreens (not polishes at mine) but you can order directly from their website and the polishes retail for $1.99. Awesome right?! They also have nail striper polishes and treatments.  

You can find out more about Jordana Cosmetics on their website , or on their Facebook or on Twitter @jordanamakeup 

**Polishes sent for review by company**