Get Off My Case: A Case Review

Oh finally, something that's not related to my nails!
Two summers ago, I had to get an iPad mini for a summer program I was attending. My dad bought me my own ahead of time, and this iPad has been through a lot. It's beat up around the edges, it's coating has worn off, and the home button is cracking, but for the most part, it looks like new. Because it's lived its life in cases.
Back in October, my first case, a red Targus swiveling case that was armored like a tank took a fall off my desk onto my carpet, and broke the upper right hand corner off. It wasn't very secure, so I looked for a cuter, slimmer case to replace it.
Enter Amazon searches for a cute iPad mini case, and soon I found myself looking at this case:

Super cute, super functional, and it had armored corners, essentially. My mom ordered it for me for Christmas, and I was super happy to get it. It fit like a glove. A pretty, pastel pink tech-y glove. 

It's showing some wear though. This thing collects dirt in the plastic bit like nobody's business, and the inside of the cover was once this beautiful pink, but because I hold my ipad with the case flipped behind it, it's filthy. I'm in the process of testing if erasing gently will get rid of the grime, but it's a arduous process.

On the plus side, this thing is super strong. It's taken a number of tumbles onto the floors at my school and this is the only damage it's gotten so far: 

You see that little divot? That tiny thing? That's all. Just one tiny chip in the corner that you don't even know is there if you're just looking at it. 

So for a pretty strong case that's sleek, stylish and relatively affordable at just $28 full price (but is almost always on sale on Amazon) it's worth it in my book. I might buy another one, in a different color, for variety!

Cotton Ball Waster

Let me talk about the biggest cotton ball waster in my arsenal right now. As in, to remove nail polish off of one hand, I go through about 20 cotton balls. To the point I'm considering resorting to a white glue base coat for easy removal.
I'm talking about the Beauty 360 Strengthening Nail Polish Remover with gelatin for Natural Nails that is once again, a CVS brand.
I'm not knocking CVS brands intentionally. In fact, CVS is where I get a lot of my stuff, mostly because it's easy to pop in there when I need to pick up medicine or first aid stuff or just need 20+ black hair ties real quickly. It's easy to snag a bottle of nail polish on sale there, or a new lip color or eye shadow or face product in my never ending search for something that won't break out my face or dry it out too badly. It's easy and convenient. Their house brands on a lot of things just tend to suck badly.

Last year when I was growing out my nails, I was looking for anything to condition my nails, to strengthen them, anything to keep them looking decent as I tapered off the biting habit. I could do a full post on how I stopped biting my nails, honestly. Switching to "gentle" nail polish removers with the buzz words "strengthening", "natural", and "with gelatin" seemed to tick all the boxes in my head for a good idea purchase.
I was never more wrong in my life.
To get this to work really nicely I have to wrap the cotton ball around my finger, wrap aluminum foil around that, and let it sit on my fingers until it's so cold and damp and miserable that I can't let it sit anymore, before sliding it down with nearly-painful pressure.
And then repeat because it'll only take off roughly 2/3s of the polish. Even less if it has shimmer.

Have any of you fell for a nail polish remover fail like this? Let me know down in the comments, I'd love to hear what else I should avoid.

Pop Arazzi Clear

Okay, so this wasn't exactly something I bought myself, it was a gift in my Musical Revue basket from one of the other Senior Moms, things that might come in handy at some point during the show (Hair ties, bobby pins, Kleenex, you know the drill). I didn't have to use it for it's intended purpose of stopping runs in tights so I had the whole bottle when I brought everything home after closing night.

It's a CVS brand I believe, and runs really cheaply. I want to say it's around $2 each? It comes in a variety of colors, but after trying this, I'm hesitant to try the colors (though they do look really pretty...) based on two factors alone.
It's not very durable.
It has a god awful smell to it.
There, I said it. This adorable bottle isn't great. It's thin and dries fast, which is always nice, but it's smelly and can be easily scraped off. This isn't too good for something calling itself an "Adhesion Base Coat" with the name "Sticky Situation"

The smell though, that's the one consistent comment I see about it, and always it's that it smells bad, and that people were actually googling if this was intentionally scented or not. It's not a subtle smell, either. It hits you the second you open the bottle, this traditional nail polish smell with undertones of lemon scented bathroom cleaner. It's nauseating, headache inducing and disgusting.
If all their polishes smell this bad, then I can definitely say I'm not going to be buying it any time soon. Blech. I'll save my $2 and buy a decent base coat, thank you very much.

Nail Talk

Okay, I think I should preface this with the fact that it was only within the last year I stopped biting my nails. Ew, I know, but now that they've grown out and I've stopped biting, I find myself looking at them going "I could do better color wise..." Which leads me to try a lot of strange nail polishes.
Like today's pick, a Pure Ice polish in the color "First Love". I've seen a couple other blogs review it, and the reviews seemed mixed. Some loved it, others hated it. I happen to like it. It has its uses.

This is what the stock photo on the Walmart website makes it look like, a pretty light shimmery pink color, but in the bottle, it's really not that bright a pink. Don't get me wrong, it's still VERY pink on, but it's super sheer and shimmery, so the color is never going to be this strong. I'm pretty sure the way I described it to my mom when we bought it was "It's like the inside of that pretty sea shell I have".

See? You can tell it's pinkish, but it's not overly pink like the stock photo. 

On the website, it says to put on two coats, but I prefer a nicer, less sheer shade, so I did about five layers on my fingers.

Here it is with only one coat on, very sheer, would make a nice look over a strong polish....

Five Coats, this is also several days old at this point, I should mention

I did this without a nude layer, so you can see the nail line, however, with this polish I don't mind it. I know some people do, so even with five coats if you don't like VNL, wear a nude color under it. 

As for drying time, it's relatively quick, but it you layer it too fast, it never dries and gets gloppy. Ew. Not a good look on anyone. 

Running around $2.07 at my Walmart, I'd say it's worth a try if you're looking for something sheer and shimmery to wear, or to layer over a bolder color. 

Have any of you tried this color, if so, what're your thoughts on it? 

Wishing You Welcome!

It's been a long time since I've kept any kind of serious blog. This blog is going to basically be a lot of instant thoughts and such, on a variety of products you might be considering purchasing. Ever wondered about that pretty nail polish you saw at the store but weren't sure how it'd look on? Considered buying a different kind of contact lense solution simply because it was a couple cents cheaper? Look no further, I've got you covered.
I'm a soon-to-be college student on a budget, so a lot of the things I'm going to review are going to be relatively low cost, and or gifts. :)
From time to time, you'll see some slightly different posts. DIY's, things I wish I'd known, or silly little personal updates, and the occasional oh-my-god-if-I-had-paid-full-price-for-that-I'd-die kind of things. I'll keep this light hearted, honest, and once in a while fully snarky. There may even be a few videos in the future, who knows.

Can't wait to get rolling~