Million Dollar Baby - Untrieds Month Day One

So I decided to participate in a challenge of sorts proposed by one of the wonderful gals, Helen in my nail polish birthday club called the Untrieds Month for two reasons: 1) I've been sorely neglecting my blog and 2) I've just got a ton of untrieds begging to be worn.

I just finished doing my nails in probably the most fab color of the season, Nails Inc Baker Street.  Its a bright but rich blue that Beyonce wore post-birth of her baby Blue Ivy!

Anyways, one of my other lovely gal pals in the birthday group, Zoe over at Obsessive-Compulsive Nail Painting Disorder sent me a bottle and this is how it turned out on me:

I don't normally wear blues this shade but OMG this was absolutely gorgeous.  So much so, I've now worn it twice in one week which almost always NEVER happens.  But because it wasn't necessarily an "untried" since I'd already worn it once, I decided to try one of my many "toppers" to go with it as part of Day 1 of my Untrieds Month.

This is Million Dollar Baby (MDB) by Catrice, a European brand that I've managed to acquire from swaps with polish pals in The Netherlands.  

MDB is part of the Million Styles Effect Top Coat and is a very light gold? glitter topper.  Its a combination of matching larger hex and finer glitter.

One coat of Million Dollar Baby over Baker Street:

Application was brilliant; I didn't have a lot of issues having to fish glitter out of the bottle and placing everything individually on my nails which can sometimes happen with glitter in my personal experience.  The lightness of the gold shade sometimes makes me think its silver and sometimes reminds me its gold and makes a good foil to the bright blue of Baker Street.

I really like this topper; its a lot easier to use formula wise -- not as goopy as others I've used in the past -- and it gets a lot of glitter on the nail without fuss.  I kind of wish I had only done an accent nail because it looks sort of odd across the entire hand but I'm not necessarily a big glitter girl to begin with.

The biggest downside is probably that this is a limited edition and in the world of Catrice, means it won't last long if you can get your hands on it.  For girls unable to get Catrice easily (like in the US where it's not sold at all) suitable alternatives include Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow ($20) although it looks a bit more yellow and NYX Prismatic Gold ($3), though this one has a large iridescent hex as opposed to a solid metallic gold hex.

Lastly, do check out the other girls in the group participating in the Untrieds Month challenge:

Zoe at Obsessive Compulsive Nail Painting Disorder

Alyssa B. at Fancy Phalanges

Ashley at One Nail to Another

Nicole at Not Skin Deep

Helen at The Nail Newbie

Kissing Cousins and My American Apparel Haul

Well today was a long day; I woke up with a migraine and felt a little out of whack.  We were out of ibuprofen so I thought I'd tough it out and I'm so glad I did!  I had a much anticipated girls' day with a friend of mine that I haven't seen since my quarter life crisis about six months or so ago that went incredibly well -- mostly because I practiced some discipline.

I told myself early on that I was only looking out for American Apparel nail polish in one color: Malibu Green.  This is due to my obsession to finding dupes for colors unavailable to me and because I love all things teal.

Anyways, we went to Fashion Valley which resulted in four bottles of polish for me totaling less than five bucks.  Two of them were kissing cousins to a couple colors I already had -- OPI Fly and Nails Inc Belgrave Place; the latter of which I actually received in the mail when I got home today.  So all in all, an awesome nail polish haul it was this weekend.

First things first --
American Apparel Mount Royal:

This was an absolute pleasure to put on.  I've been drooling over this color and Malibu Green for quite some time now so I was excited to pick it up.  We were really fortunate to have been told by one of the girls working in the store that they had a whole bin full of AA polishes that were marked down to $1 so me and my friend went to town -- sort of.  I tried to be responsible and picked out three of my favorites.

American Apparel African Violet:

I can say with some confidence that I don't have a color like this yet...which sort of surprises me.  I'm an utter creme polish freak and I love purple (don't you know, its the grown-up pink!) and this color is gorgeous.  My friend and I had flip-flopped over who would get the color and after she had second thoughts, I decided I'd get it since it was the last one of its kind in the bin and I didn't want it to miss its kin!

Malibu Green was also another lemming of mine which I was able to acquire for $1 but that was swatched with OPI Fly:

Index & Ring - OPI Fly, Middle & Pinkie - AA Malibu Green

This was the color I originally went to the store to get and it also didn't disappoint.  As you can see in this picture, it's OPI Fly's "kissing cousin."  They look a lot closer to one another in real life so if you  missed Fly, Malibu Green is a nice alternative.  It definitely leans a little more green than Fly does, but I think it's a gorgeous addition to a teal lover like me.

Mount Royal also had a kissing cousin in Nails Inc. Belgrave Place:

Index & Ring - AA Mount Royal, Middle & Pinkie - Nails Inc Belgrave Place

Again, if you're a fan of navy blue, having both colors wouldn't hurt.  Mount Royal dustier than Belgrave Place but both are equally beautiful.

All of the American Apparel polishes this time around were like butter to apply.  I didn't have any issues with formula and all of them only took two coats to reach opacity.  They were definitely worth the price.  Each bottle normally retails for $6 each and the AA I went to carried the full line.  These particular colors were actually part of the current line but they had separated more than the others in the regular display which is why they were being clearanced out.  Honestly, that doesn't bother me much since it just takes a little shaking to mix them back up and there were no problems with streaking or color.

If you can get your hands on these lovelies without ordering them online, I would highly recommend it.  Even if you have to order them online for full price, the quality of the formulas are definitely worth $6 a bottle for a full 15mL/0.5oz.  The store I went to also had "discontinued" polishes on another rack for $3 each so if if I'm able to, its pretty likely I'll be back soon.

xoxo