Nail'd It Swatches

Hey guys!

I have some swatches from Nail'd It to show you real quick today. You are really missing out if you haven't seen any of their creations before! I have 2 to show you today, but definitely like the Facebook page to see even more pretties. I am swooning over what she's got in store for this winter and spring.

First is Blue Man Goop. No underwear needed, which is sometime refreshing to see in an indie brand. :) Can't go wrong with a blue and purple polish either!

And this is Snowman's Nightmare. Love the name and the actual polish is pretty sweet. I think the combination of shapes and colors is perfect for what the title conveys. I layered once coat over China Glaze Blue Year's Eve.

What do you think of these? Do you own any polishes from Nail'd It?

Follow Nail'd It on Facebook *here* and sign up to receive an update when their Etsy shop reopens.

Red and Gold Glitter Gradient

Happy Friday everyone!

I have one final mani to show you from my collaboration with Milani. The trend was Gilded Rebel and this was the look I came up with: a glitter gradient. Definitely one of my favorite nail art techniques!

I hope to be back tomorrow with an indie review! Have a great weekend!

Sparkles by Julie - Coco, Lost in Space & Milky Way

Just after Christmas I received a little package from Honolulu based indie brand - Sparkles by Julie.  Julie offered to send me some more of her shades to try out and asked me to select some from her collection.  The tree polishes I chose were Coco, Lost in Space and Milky Way.

Coco - I'm a big fan of glitter polishes that have a nicely tinted base so they are opaque on their own, yet still transparent enough to show off all the glitters.  So many commercial brand glitters are glitters in a clear base, and while I love a layering polish, I do prefer a polish that can be worn on it's own.

Coco is just what you would expect from a polish with this name.  There are gold and copper glitters of various sizes in a brown base with a little bit of brown shimmer (but not too much so as to make it frosty and cover the glitter - I hate that!)  There is also holo hexes and fine holo dust.  This was two coats of Coco with two coats of top coat to smooth out any bumps.

Lost in Space - this has a few sizes of silver holo glitters as well as aqua blue glitters suspended in a black jelly base.  I did two coats of Lost in Space here, and for the photos I should probably have done three, but in real life it looked great.  I did put on two layers of top coat to smooth this one out as well, but that's mainly because now I'm really OCD about having a very shiny high gloss finish (that's what trying out soak off gel nails does for you!) 

Milky Way - this one is my favourite from this bunch, which is ironic given my comment at the beginning about preferring a full coverage polish to a layering one.  This is a really gorgeous combo of glitters which I can't actually tell if they are individual colours, or if they are iridescent duochrome shifting ones (it's probably a combination of both). I layered one coat of Milky Way of Cult Nails Time Traveller.  This was the smoothest of the bunch requiring only one layer of Seche Vite for that glassy finish.

I think the labels on these bottles are clever.  Generally I prefer a clear label so you can see through to the polish in the bottle, but what Julie has done is print what the polish looks like on the label, which really is the next best thing for me.  Therefore every polish has its own custom label.

The formula on all these was very good and there were no signs of any curling glitter (either reflective or otherwise).

Sparkles by Julie are available from her Esty store for $8 for a 15ml (she also has minis).

Polishes provided for review.

Flame Nail Art by Dustin

Hello hello!

I have yet another mani that was worn quite a while ago to show you today. This was in collaboration with Milani to come up with nail art based on a few trends using only their polish. The trend this one falls under is Haute Rod. Since my husband, Dustin, is super talented in the art department, I let him take the reins on this one. I love how it all turned out! It's not something that I usually go for but I can definitely appreciate it!

I thought it fitting to post a mani done by my sweet husband today because we are celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary today! My blog and nail polish hobby definitely wouldn't be where it is today if it wasn't for his support. He's also quite the enabler....he just got me 4 Butter Londons and the OPI Mariah Carey minis as part of my anniversary gift! :)

Have a good one!

Pretty Serious - Mummy Mush

I'm feeling a tired and lazy tonight after spending the my first day back in the office today after the Christmas/New Year break, therefore I've just got one swatch to share with you.  I wore this before Christmas, which is when I fell in love with it and it made my top polishes for the year.

Pretty Serious Mummy Mush is from the Monster Mash collection and it's a golden glass fleck polish that it totally unlike any other I have seen.  The base colour is actually quite pink. When I swatched it onto my swatch sticks I was amazed at how pink the base was, especially when holding the stick up to the light.  However as soon as you layer two or three coats, that pink disappears and ends up providing a soft fleshy coloured gold.  The gold flecks are just how I like them, cool toned (and it even has a blue flash), yet the pink base warms it up just slightly. I'm completely in love with this polish, if your a gold lover like me - this one is a no brainer!

This is three coats of Mummy Mush with a single coat of Seche Vite.

Maya Cosmetics Last Call + F4 Polish Shellie

Good morning everyone!

Back to the grind after the holidays...never a fun transition. :)

The mani I am showing you today, I wore a looong time ago. Between review deadlines and making sure seasonal manis were posted on time, I just never got around to this one. But here it is today!

I was sent a few polishes from the thoughtful creator behind Maya Cosmetics as a gift a while back. I feel so bad it's taken so long to post any of them! The one I am wearing here is called Last Call, a super pretty blue based purple with a fleck shimmer.

I topped this off with Shellie from F4 Polish. Such a girly combo!

You guys should look into both of these shops if you haven't before. They are both great quality, original products.

A big thank you to Kat from Maya Cosmetics for thinking of me! :)

Pretty Serious - Hot Summer Nights & Twinkling Lights

Here are a couple of polishes from the Pretty Serious - Christmas without Snow collection. 

Hot Summer Nights - This one is a deep, dark blue jelly.  It's a bit darker than my photos show, which were taken in full sun so they really bring out the dense glittery sparkle.  Although it's dark, you can definitely tell its still blue, and not black.  The glitter particles are really dense and the finished look is really glamorous and sophisticated.   Because of the fine glitter in this, I found it was a little textured so I put two layers on top coat on.

Twinkling Lights - These two are perfectly paired with each other, in fact that is exactly how Kaz designed them.  This is one coat of Twinkling Lights and the photos are taken in the shade.  You can see the base colour is much darker in the shade, and almost looks black. But when the light hits it you see the dark blue sparkle shining though all the small aqua blue glitters and copper hexes.

My New Year's Mani!

Happy New Year to you all!

I hope you had a fun night ringing it in! I had so much fun coming up with what I would wear on my nails for New Year's Eve. I didn't use any untrieds and I didn't have to do any swatching- I just decided to enjoy what I already had in my stash. I don't do that enough...there are always so many enticing new polishes coming out but it was sort of refreshing. ;)

So I had probably 15 different polishes that I wanted to use but realized that wouldn't be very practical so I settled on 4. :) I knew I wanted a ton of bling, so I didn't hold back on the glitter! Not that I usually do anyway, but I was definitely glad for the peel off base coat for this one. haha I used the flash to bring the holo out...it's been a dark and dreary few days around my area so no sunlight, unfortunately.

What I used: Sinful Colors Black on Black, Layla Hologram in Flash Black, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear In the Spotlight, and Essence Hello Holo. Dustin did some stamping with the Layla Holo but it's sort of subtle. I actually think it adds a fun detail to the overall look though.

I used a coat of Gelous before my normal topcoat and it smoothed this out perfectly, especially for how much glitter I had going on!

I don't normally go so crazy on the glitter and bling, but I have to say, I love it! I am such a typical girl. ;)

What are your thoughts on this mani? Perfect for NYE or too much glitter?

Picture Polish - O'hara

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful time.  As for me, I was cozy and snug in my bed, the days of seeing in the new year are long gone for me.  That's what small children do to you!

To start the year, I'm excited to show you a brand new shade from Picture Polish.

O'hara - for the Scarlett in all of you! That's the little catch phrase on the top of this bottle.  Is there anyone out there who doesn't know who Scarlett O'hara is?  Well, Scarlett O'hara is the protagonist in the novel Gone with the Wind.  I've not read the book, but I certainly remember seeing the movie when I was in my teens.  I still recall the last words Rhett says to Scarlett - do you?

This is the brightest scattered red holo polish I've ever seen.  The formula on this is just like Kryptonite and Cosmos with the same shard like scattered holo pieces.  The red base is so amazingly bright, it's a blazing cherry red.  This one isn't as much of a jelly as kryptonite and cosmos, I'd say it's more of a crelly (a cross between a creme and a jelly).  The holo bits shine through easily but it's opaque in two coats.

These pictures are two coats with a coat of Seche Vite top coat.  Formula was great and I didn't need to do any clean up for these photos.

O'hara will be launching later this month, so make sure you like the Picture Polish facebook page to find out when it's available.