Charlotte Russe Nail Lacquers - in store $3.50 each or 2 for $6

As you guys know, this past week I finally ventured into a Charlotte Russe store and was blown away by the sheer variety of cute and inexpensive accessories. You also know that I ran into a few nail polishes, one of which is the gorgeous Jade. I also picked up five other pretties, and while they were gorgeous in the store, when I got them on my nails, I was a little disappointed. They are all very, very sheer, and in some cases not what I expected them to be at all. None of these have proper names, so I'll just refer to them by their descriptions. Let me show them to you and tell you my thoughts one-by-one.

Click to see the swatches

Charlotte Russe earrings trio - $6 or two for $8

While I was shopping for Jade, I also picked up just a couple accessories. I was so amazed at this store; there were oodles of cute accessories for incredibly cheap prices. The rings and earrings I picked up were $4 each! The above set was three sets of earrings. Three pairs for $4!

Click to see the hat!

Eva Supreme Nail Lacquer  in Mine- $1.99 at Walgreen's

I'd never heard of this polish brand before the day I found it at a Walgreen's while on vacation. In fact, I can't find any information about it on the web. The display was a chintzy little thing attached to the end of the skin care aisle, and it only had lipsticks and nail polishes, about 25 of each. I glanced at the rack for a second to see if there were any winners and this one, Mine, is the only one that jumped out at me. It's not exactly from my favorite color family, but the duochrome was too cool to pass up. It ranges from a shimmery melon to a chrome-like warm gold and the duochrome itself is very strong and was surprisingly easy to capture in photographs. So lucky you, you're going to see a ton of photos! ;P

The lipsticks in the display seemed of crap quality, just going by the price and packaging. Think Wet n Wild circa 1994. However, after trying this Eva Supreme nail lacquer, I can't be so sure. Though it is slightly sheer, three thin coats did the job. There was no lifting or streaking, and the finish was to-die-for. I really like the application and finish! I'm sad that there weren't more interesting and unique colors in this brand because I'd be interested in trying more. Enough jibber-jabber, I'll let the photos speak for themselves...

Click to see the photos!

Glow - A Couture Day Spa - 3105 W. Barcelona St - Tampa, FL

As you guys know, I went to Glow to get Minxed. Now, as promised, I'm going to tell you a little more about this amazing place.

Just a couple blocks from Tampa Bay and the gorgeous Bayshore Blvd is an adorable little house that is chock full of fabulous. From the moment I walked into reception at Glow through the amazing boutique, Glowie, I felt like I had reached the destination of a pilgrimage. Inside the doors of Glow you'll find treasures hand-picked by owner, you'll find things you didn't even know you needed so badly. There were a couple brands I recognized in the boutique, like Comptoir Sud Pacifique (!! which I love). The entire staff was beyond amazing and the experience was lovely from start to finish.

The interior is the definition of eclectic, and manages to be glamorous and comforting at the same time. I didn't snoop through many rooms, but proceeded through a boutique-hotel-style waiting room to the "Nail Bar" which is an adorable room where their signature pedicures as well as manicures of all kinds take place. It's a cozy room with two manicure stations and two for pedicures, but the real draw of this room for me was the polish. Not just your average wall o' polish you might find at any salon; we're talking brands you don't see very often. The owner, Wesley, takes as much care to stock her nail shelves as she does her boutique shelves. Inside the Nail Bar you'll find SpaRitual, Butter, OPI, Essie, Orly, Chanel, and Nfu Oh. Nfu Oh! I was beyond shocked not only to see a huge range of Nfu Oh flakies and cremes, but Chanel Gold Fiction, Noir de Russie, Kaleidoscope and more! Wesley said that she likes to make sure she's got the on-trend shades for her customers before they're gone and they're bringing ridiculous prices on the internet. She buys her Nfu Oh where most of us buy ours; fabulousstreet.com, and likes having such interesting options for her clients.

Click to read more and see the photos!!

Claire's Calm/Wild Mood Nail Polish - $5 at Claire's

I just posted Claire's Mood Polish in Daring/Innocent, and this is the other of the two Mood polishes I talked about. Calm/Wild is purple with lots of silver shimmer when cool and a pretty Springy pink when warm. It's quite midtoned and subdued on it's own, whether it's showing pink or purple, but the ombre effect of the pink-to-purple gradation on the nails is something else altogether. If you've got shorter nails, or less free-edge, you're most likely going to see the pink alone most of the time unless you've just taken your hands out of cool water. However, if you've got a bit of free-edge to your nails, you can see it's got that neat effect just about all the time. I like this one best when both colors are showing.

Like Daring/Innocent, this one applies beautifully. It's opaque and streak-free in two coats. It applies as purple but as it begins to dry, or cure, it starts to slowly turn pink starting at the base of the nail. As you can see, the tips of my nails never turned pink. That is, until I ran them under cold water.

Click to see photos of the polish after running it under cool and then warm water