Essie For The Twill Of It Swatch

Essie For The Twill of It

I'm late to the party on this one, but I finally picked up Essie's For The Twill of It and it's love. Essie doesn't do a whole lot of duochromes, so this is a pretty special color. It has a purple-grey base and shifts to purple, teal, and green with the lighting. The finish is a little frosty for my tastes, but it's not too bad. My only complaint is that I needed at least three coats (wearing three coats here) for evenness and opacity. Essie, do more duochromes! I need more duochromes and I love your brush!

Pinky Paradise Circle Lens and Lash Review and Photos

One more quick circle lens review! I'm kinda obsessed lenses and lashes lately. Shortly after my last review, Pinky Paradise sent me a couple styles to review, so take a peek below if you're curious, or just scroll past if you're not!

BN.inc Special Selection Value Pack #20 Lashes

The lashes I'm wearing are by BN.inc, a brand I've never tried before. They're a long, spiky style (my favorite) interspersed with short cris-cross fibers. They're much softer and more flexible than most of the similar spiky lashes I've tried so they curl easily and don't come up as easily at the edges. I love them and I think they'll become a go-to purchase for me. You get 10 pairs for $19.99, extremely reasonable for such nice lashes.

Here's my natural eye color without lenses. Note the size and darkness of my natural iris.

Vassen Lollipop Pink

This style gives both enlargement and bright color.  The tricolor splatter pattern mimics the way a natural iris would look, which helps take the edge off of the stark pupil circle's unnatural effect. Still, these are more of a fun lens than a natural lens. They feel comfortable and sit properly on my eye.

Vassen Natural Sparkling Red

These are very large. They have a black limbal ring, followed by a dark grey spiky ring, and then a check-shaped red pattern on a clear center. These give huge enlargement and only a little bit of color. I think that these might even be a little too big since I can see a gap between the grey ring and my own iris when I look up. If the outer ring was just a little thicker, they'd be perfect. The clear center gives them a more natural effect.

Princess Pinky Eclipse Violet

These are PERFECT. The pupil area is nice and wide so they don't give me that dead eye look. The violet color is soft and subtle in natural light, but when the sun shines on them (or camera flash, in this case) they pop. The have a moonlit, sort of cloudy look closest to the black outer ring and I think that makes them look magical. I adore these. I love them so much that I'll probably pick up the rest of the colors!

EOS Dolly Eye Pink

These are wild. They're opaque and unnatural looking. There's a very thick limbal ring and the iris is a completely opaque baby pink. Not much enlargement. The pupil area is pretty small, so when I'm in a dark room I can see pink around the edges of my vision. The name, Dolly Eye, is exactly what they give you. They'd be great for costumes and cosplay since they're so cartoonish.


I've purchased from Pinky Paradise several times and always had a good experience. They ship fast and arrive quickly (they ship from Malaysia and still arrive quickly!) and everything has always been correct and well-packaged.

If you're planning on ordering anything, they've given me the promo code Scrangie for my readers to use for a free cute animal lens case and free mystery gift with every pair of lenses ordered.


(product sent for review. post contains an affiliate link.)

My thoughts on two different gel polishes

You've probably noticed that gel polishes (sometimes called no-chip polishes) are HUGE right now. They've gone from a professional-only service to being available in every drugstore.  I've never been interested in them because I just don't like wearing the same polish for more than a day or two, and with gel polishes you either have a four week commitment to a color, or you have to endure a 30+ minute removal process.

But one day, as I was gazing down at my disappointingly short-lived pedicure, it dawned on me that I could use these on my toes too.  I mean, I always knew I could, it's just that I had no desire to actually do so until that very moment.

I had a couple different gel polish sets sitting around waiting to be tried, so I decided to compare a no cure gel with an LED gel.

Jessica Flash Fusion 2-5-2

Jessica Flash Fusion Colour Activator in High Velocity

This system is super simple. It's only two steps: Primer and Colour Activator. You prep your nails by cleansing them of all oil and moisture, and then you apply the primer to all nails on one hand. You immediately follow with the Colour Activator (which is the polish part).  A final coat of Primer seals the color and you're done. No curing. No dry time.

The texture took a bit of getting used to, but application was very simple. The Primer is basically superglue or nail glue. The Colour Activator is the tricky part- it spreads out really fast when it touches the primer. I eventually learned that I could just apply a drop of Activator in the center of my nail, on top of the primer, and it would spread to cover the entire surface.

The end result was a bit lumpy (hey, it was my first try) but looked and felt great. Smooth, glossy, hard. Unfortunately, it chipped right away.

wah-waaaahh

Luckily for me, removal was easy.  Five minutes in foil with Jessica's Flash Off remover and it was done. It has the texture of nail glue, so it just dissolves with the remover. 

I would definitely use this again as a pedicure since it was so fast and easy. It has its downsides, but I really liked the quick removal compared to LED gel.

This set was sent for review, but it can be purchased online directly from Jessica here.

Red Carpet Manicure LED Gel Polish

Red Carpet Manicure Cinder-Ella

The Red Carpet Manicure LED Gel has more steps, but it also has a much longer lasting end result.

You prep your nails with a sanitizer, apply base coat, cure, color, cure, color again, cure, topcoat, cure, and then wipe away the sticky layer and you're finally done. It's not complicated or difficult at all, it just takes longer.

I like the texture of the products. They're thick but they don't set so you have some time to play around with them and get your glitter placement right before you cure it. I think I applied my glitter a little too thick, but I was trying to get it opaque in two coats so that's my fault. I don't think Cinder-Ella was meant to be an opaque glitter. 

The gel polish in this system cures with an LED light that has a timer built in. You place your hand under it, hit the button, and then it turns off after 45 seconds (there's also a portable version of the LED lamp that takes a little longer, but I have the plug-in one.) 

This gel polish was extremely sturdy and chip-proof for as long as I wore it. I only had it on for a week because... why would I want to wear this color for more than a week? I can't fathom it. Hah!

The huge downside for me was the removal. It takes FOREVER. You need to file the shine off the nails, soak them with remover for 20-30 minutes, and then they're supposed to slide off, but they don't. You gotta scrape a little, and then sometimes soak a little longer to get down to the bottom. Removal was such a pain for me that I'd be hesitant to use anything but clear gel if I used these again.

I bought my Red Carpet Manicure supplies from Ulta. 

If you like wearing the same color for a really long time, these at home soak of gel systems are really user-friendly. I don't think gel polish is for me, but I can see why people like it.  I liked both of these types of gel polish, but I preferred the easier removal of the Jessica system.  Maybe there's another brand out there that removes just as easily. Do you know of one? I'd totally try it.

Circle lens reviews and photos

I wear contact lenses daily to correct my vision, but plain contacts are boring.  Life's short.  I need to extract every last ounce of fun from it that I can.  And you know what's fun?  Purple eyes. So, sometimes I wear circle lenses in different colors instead of my regular clear contacts. May as well do a few quick reviews of some of the ones I've been wearing lately!

EOS Ice Violet

(before and after)

These are my current favorite lenses. They have a thin limbal ring and a wide center so they look much more natural and realistically iris-like compared to other colored contacts. They have a great enlarging effect without looking too alien, and the color is subtle but noticeably violet. They're also really comfortable and don't seem to get as dry as my usual (Acuvue Oasys) contacts.  I also have these in brown.  I purchased these from honeycolor.com.

Dolly+ Red

These are my second favorite pair. They have a very pronounced limbal ring and a bright, opaque red iris. The center is also nice and wide which helps to give them a more natural look as it doesn't remove as much of the depth of the eye. They're also nice and comfortable and give me no problems when I wear them.  I've gotten so many compliments on these!  I purchased this pair from honeycolor.com as well.

Vassen Latte Pink

These are a mixture of different shades of brown and pink arranged in a swirl pattern.  They're super pretty, view the closeup for a better look! They enlarge the iris quite a bit and are noticeable but not bright. They're not as comfortable as some of my other lenses. They feel thicker than most I've worn and they dry out faster. I still really love them. I purchased these from pinkyparadise.com.

Vassen Cloud Nine Violet

I love purple and these are really purple.  This photo was taken with flash, but in natural sunlight they look lighter and more lavender, but still very obviously purple. They have a nice wide space around the pupil, which is what I prefer, but they're not at all natural looking.  The iris is opaque, the color is vibrant, the limbal ring is thick and patterned.  The EOS Ice Violet are more for subtle but believable violet eyes, and these are for super fun POW! violet eyes.  These, sadly, aren't very comfortable for me so I don't wear them very often.  I purchased these from Pinky Paradise as well.

EOS Pop C Dark Green

I wanted to try green contacts and these were on sale at Pinky Paradise.  Green eyes and purple hair sounded like a great combination to me. I like the color of these. They're a bright grass green surrounded by a very, very thick black limbal ring so that all the green is right around the pupil. I'm not really a fan of how defined the center ring is because it gives me that odd robot eye look.  I have a few pairs of EOS lenses that are very comfortable, but these aren't. 

Love Pink

These are just called Love Pink (purchased from honeycolor.com) so I'm not sure what the brand is.  I don't have the jars they came in anymore, either.  Anyway, these are really subtle but SO CUTE. Not much in the way of enlargement, though they do have a soft black limbal ring. The iris is clear, but it has three groups of three pink hearts around it. I mean, really. How much cuter can it get? They don't look like you're wearing colored contacts, it looks just like your natural eye until you look at them up close, then you see the hearts. They seem comfortable on my eyes, but I haven't worn them enough to really get a feel for them.

Zombie White Screen Halloween Lens

These were just for fun. I got them in my prescription (from honeycolor), but there's not really a point because I can barely see out of them anyway. There is still visibility, but since the pupil is covered in a white mesh, it's like a thick fog looking through them. I wish they were larger because they don't quiiiiiite cover all of my naturally dark brown iris and that becomes noticeable when I look from side to side. I think I should have gone with the full white screen for that sort of cloudy, ghostly look.  Oh well.  Next time!  They're comfortable aside from the blurred vision.

By the way, my eyeshadow is Bare Minerals 5-in-1 BB Advanced Performance Cream Eyeshadow in Barely Nude, Bare Minerals Ready shadow in Fuze (also used on my brows), eyeliner is Maybelline gel liner, and lashes are Red Cherry 747L.

(post contains an affiliate link)