Because hard stuff is the worst.
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I bought the Beauty Quartet December 2014 box and one of the four polishes in it was Digital Nails Special Snowflake. This is a frosty white polish that is perfect for winter manicures. I did three coats to ensure I got full coverage. You could also use this polish as a topper to add a gorgeous frosty effect to other colors.
Today’s mani is for both prompt’s this week in the Crumpet’s Nail Tarts Pick ‘n’ Mix Challenge. The two prompts are Chevrons and Red + Gold.
I am always surprised with how nice Sally Girl polishes are! For this simple Holiday Nail Art, I started with three coats of Sally Girl Sugar Cookie which is a golden polish with red and green glitters. Once dry, I placed chevron decals on my accent nail and used Sally Girl Red Shimmer. I like how festive and easy this holiday mani is!
Here is a plain swatch of Sally Girl Sugar Cookie for you. It really does remind me of a cookie! Great. Now I’m craving cookies!!
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I got Midwinter’s Midnight in the December 2014 Beauty Quartet box. I’m a bad blogger and didn’t get pictures of the whole box. I was too excited to open everything!!! But I will be showing swatches as I use the four polishes! This is Philly Loves Lacquer Midwinter’s Midnight which is a dark, gray blue with holo in it. It applied super easy, which I was quite happy about. This is my first PhLL so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect regarding the formula.
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I saw a new display from Sally Hansen!! What a great day! :) This is their new velvet texture collection. I picked up three of the colors that spoke to me.
Plush is an aqua color. I love the texture of these polishes. It’s a mix between a super fine texture and a satin finish. It’s very unique and I am so glad I decided to pick these up.
Crushed is a medium purple. This is two coats.
Lavish is a dark, dark purple. It’s almost an oxblood color.
For something a little extra for this post, I did some stamping over Lavish. I used Pueen plate 73 and Sally Hansen Sterling Silver. The velvet texture shows through the stamped polish which I really like. I have more stamping using Plush and Crushed coming up later this month so make sure you’re following me somehow so you don’t miss it!
{Press Sample}
Mango Bunny Polish sent me mini’s of their holiday trio so I could show them to you! I swatched their debut collections a few weeks ago and totally fell in love. Let’s take a look at this unique holiday trio!
When I first tried MBP jellies, I totally fell in love. Their formula is awesome. So when I saw they did a pink jelly, my heart stopped!!! Bunny Wants a Pony is a hot pink jelly with white and silver glitters.
Midnight Bunny is the adorable brother of Bunny Wants a Pony. It’s a dark blue jelly with white and silver glitters. There are even some white stars in there, which is my favorite glitter shape. The stars are shy, so I did have to coax them out a bit. However, I think that just a few are perfect for a mani. You don’t want to look like you have the American flag on your nails (at least not until July).
What a cute name!! Snow Bunny is a clear polish with white glitters and holo shimmer. I topped this over a cobalt blue polish. (Sally Hansen Batbano Blue)
Thanks again to Mango Bunny Polish for sending me these beauties! I seriously love them and can’t pick a favorite. Each one is so different and has its own fabulous qualities. I love the formula and the colors they put in this collection.
{Press Sample}
I reached out to Essence a couple weeks ago asking if I could be emailed when new collections were coming out. Essence is one of my favorite drugstore brands! Much to my delight, they offered to send me some selections from their Fall/Winter 2014 offerings. I’ve seen these in my local grocery store and my Ulta over the past few months, so they should still be available where Essence polishes are sold. I love Essence because it’s so inexpensive, yet still manages to be great quality! Plus, their color offerings are gorgeous, especially in their limited edition collections. I don’t know if you remember their Superheroes collection from last summer, but I drove to about 6 stores looking for them!! That’s brand dedication right there. (Or a serious polish addiction…but let’s call it brand loyalty, ok?)
Party in a Bottle is a sea green glitter topper. I layered it over one coat of black. I did two coats of Party in a Bottle. You might be able to do four coats of just the glitter to get a serious glitter bombs happening on your nails. The glitter to suspension base ratio is quite good. You get a ton of glitter on the brush.
Party Crasher is a purple micro-glitter. I layered two coats of Party Crasher over black. You could easily do three coats of Party Crasher and not need a base color at all! There is a ton of glitter in the bottle and the brush picks up a lot of it.
Candy Crush is from their matte collection. This formula is a little on the thick side. I love how this coral color looks, but I would say it’s more of a satin finish rather than a matte finish. It doesn’t have the high shine of creme polishes, but it’s not as dull as many other matte finishes – it’s somewhere in between. I actually love satin finishes, so that’s ok with me! ;)
Glitz & Glam is a gorgeous glitter topper that would look great over any color. It has pink glitter in it but also mother-of-pearl shimmers. It gives any creme a really unique and beautiful finish. This is two coats over a base of white.
Baby You’re a Firework is part of their sparkling sand texture. This one is super sheer so I layered it over white. It is a very light pink and the texture is super fine. If you don’t like texture, just put a topcoat on this one and it will be smooth.
Girls Night Out is going to be added to their regular line, I believe. It’s a fuchsia shimmer. I totally love this color!
Thanks again to Essence for sending these polishes my way. It’s an honor to work with them. I’m a huge fan!
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I saw this Sally Hansen Royal Shyness in a display at Target a few weeks ago. I’m not sure if it’s part of a new collection or an old one, but I’m a sucker for matte polish so I picked it up. Tis the season for Christmas nail art, so I grabbed the Cici&Sisi holiday plate and my Konad Red to stamp the designs on my nails.
Before we look at the nail art, here is Sally Hansen Royal Shyness on its own. This is two coats without a top coat. This will also be perfect for manicures in March!
And now here is the mani with the holiday designs stamped on top. The red looks a little black on top of the green, but I still think it looks pretty festive!
I promised I won’t do Christmas nail art all month! :) I have some awesome swatches from a new indie collection for you tomorrow. :) Also, don’t forget to enter my current giveaway by clicking here!
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I enjoyed the press sample of Fairytale Finish Polishes that I decided to buy two more! I got Fairytale Finish Blue Hawaiian Daiquiri and Fairytale Finish Radiant Orchid Martini. They are both gorgeous holos that are very camera shy. :)
Blue Hawaiian Daiquiri is a light blue that reminds me of the Caribbean Ocean. I did three coats but really you can do two. I was just distracted by Doctor Who and did three. :)
You can kind of see the holo peeking its head through in this shot.
Fairytale Finish Radiant Orchid Martini is a light baby pink holo. I did three coats for this one to reach full opacity.
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I saw this Sally Hansen Red Carpet polish on display at Target a few weeks ago. Seeing as I’m a sucker for jellies and for reds, it found itself in my shopping basket. I’m so glad it did!!! This is two coats. Sally Hansen Red Carpet is a deep red jelly with red shimmers packed in it. It is so beautiful!!
Isn’t it funny how some of the most beautiful polishes come in the most surprising places??? This is Sally Girl Red Shimmer which is part of their holiday snowman collection. Usually polishes like this are just a little gimmicky and most people would just buy it for the bottle. I got this bottle from a polish friend of mine. Just for fun, I thought I swatch it just for giggles. And my mind went into overdrive. The jelly! The shimmer! The smoothness!! What?! How are people not freaking out about this polish?!?!?! And the bottle is adorable, of course! But what is inside is magic!!!
{Press Sample}
Sweet Heart Polish is on Gloss48! Gloss48 finds new beauty brands and features them at a special launch price for one week and then brings them into their site! Today, November 26th, is the start of the launch for Sweet Heart Polish! Gloss48 sent me four bottles to showcase for you to help you make your indie polish buying decisions. :)
Sweet Heart Polish is handmade, vegan, and 5 free!
Romance is a lavender metallic that verges on wanting to be holo. It has some gold shimmer elements to it that in the right light might catch a holo flair. The formula on this one was super smooth. It self-leveled very well! This is two coats shown.
When I swatched this polish, I had come home late from attending dog training class. So rather than doing regular nail art, I opted for a Pueen decal instead! This is the quick and easy way to get some fun nail art without adding extra time to your night. Well, technically you have to add 30 seconds for the decals to soak in water…but that hardly makes a difference!
Disneyworld or Bust is one of the most fun glitters I’ve ever used. It is a colorful splattering of neon with white Mickey Mouse glitters! I layered it over black so you could really see all the different neons. I seriously love this glitter. I didn’t fish for any of the Mickey glitters. They were willing to come out on their own! Hooray!
Disneyland or Bust is the companion polish to Disneyworld or Bust. It is more neon glitters but a different combo of colors this time. Also, the Mickey Glitters are black. I think I like Disneyworld better, but they are both wicked fun!
Royalty is a purple jelly packed with silver holo and purple glitters. I did three coats for this swatch to cover up visible nail line. This one is super gorgeous! It is a glitter bomb that is not kidding around!!
What do you think of these selections? Will you be picking up any weet Heart Polish from Gloss48?
Thanks again to Gloss 48 for sending these to me to show you!
More information on Gloss 48:
- Gloss48 launches new, indie beauty daily. They are the go-to source to discover the best, latest, most amazing brands that aren’t available at Sephora and the department stores. They carefully curate (and try!) all of the products on the site to make sure we are offering up a daily dose of amazingness.
- For the first seven days that products are on the site, they offer a promotional discount – so that you can try new products without breaking the bank. After the launch week, you can still shop an amazing collection of indie beauty at full price.
- New members get $10 off of their first order of $30+.
{Purchased By Me}
I’ve been enjoying Orly’s holiday collection so much this year that I just had to get my hands on Orly Bling as well. Bling is the sister polish to Orly Mirrorball. Mirrorball is a silver blingy holo while Bling is a gold blingy holo. This is two coats of Bling. I seriously love this. It’s so sparkly and fun!!
I was given a discount off my order by Doctor Lacquer so that I could try some of her polishes! I picked three different finishes so I could test out how each one acts – A duochrome, a holo, and a jelly. The package was shipped quickly each polish came in this adorable little bag that coordinated with the color of the polish! Too cute!
Chlorophyll is a light green holo. I did three coats for this mani.
Annatte is a hot pink jelly! I did three coats for this swatch. Visible Nail Line (VNL) is typical of all jelly polishes. If you don’t like VNL then jellies are not for you. I love the look of a nice squishy jelly. Also, this one will be great for some lead lighting art since I don’t have any jellies like this one!
Jelly sandwich mani’s are one of my favorite easy styles of nail art. Annatte was just screaming for some silver glitters! I applied some Vivid Lacquer Wish Upon a Star, then another coat of Annatte, then more Wish Upon a Star, and then China Glaze Fairy Dust. And then finally a top coat! Phew! That was a lot of layers!
Dance of the Spirits is a green to purple duochrome. I did three coats for these pictures. It went on very smoothly and has a prominent shift. Straight on, it looks all green and then as you move to the side, it transitions to all purple.
Lately I’ve been on a kick where I just love stamping black over duochrome polishes. So of course I had to do it for this one also! I used Konad black and a design from Cici&Sisi. I love the look of how this turned out. It’s got a very gothic, yet feminine feel to it.
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It’s still freezing here so I’ve been wishing I had some nice warm sweaters I could wear. But I want ones that are super girly so that they fit my style! Since I don’t own anything like that, I can at least do girly sweater nail art, right?! The only problem is now I really want a sweater that looks like this! Haha!!
I started with three coats of Glitter Daze That’s So Fetch from her Mean Girls collection. I won it in a giveaway from the Digital Dozen! This is a gorgeous light pink holo. I did three coats because I wanted to ensure my visible nail line was all covered up.
Once dry (I used Simply Swift top coat from myblisskiss.com to speed things along), I used Vivid Lacquer plate VL035 which has a lovely snowflake sweater design on it. I used Konad white to stamp. I love how it turned out!
I won Glitter Daze Jetsetter Lifestyle in a giveaway from the Digital Dozen. Jetsetter Lifestyle is a light blue holo. I actually like it in the bottle much better than on my nails. I did three coats and I still feel like it’s a little too light for my taste. Oh well! It’s gorgeous in the bottle and let’s be honest…I spend more time looking at my polish in the bottles than I do on my nails :)
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I won four GlitterDaze polishes in the recent Digital Dozen anniversary giveaway. This is Glitter Daze Awesomeness Overdose which is a blue and purple duochrome. The application was super easy and this is two thin coats.
The shift in this one is gorgeous. You can see toward my cuticle how dark of a purple it gets and then toward the tip it becomes a gorgeous blue.
I got Ciate Pinkaboo in a swap from a Facebook group. It is a pink jelly with tinsel glitters. I don’t know if that’s the real name of these glitters, but since they are silver bars, they totally look like tinsel so that’s what I’m calling them. I wanted to like everything about this polish. It’s pink, it has sparkles, it’s a jelly…all the elements of polish that I like. But for some reason, once I got it on my nails, I frickin’ hated it. I don’t know why! I couldn’t get this one off fast enough. There is something about it that I hate! Isn’t that weird? What do you think of this one?
{Press Sample}
Today’s collection of swatches are the debut collections of Mango Bunny Polish. I was given these polishes by one of the creators, Ed, to swatch and share with you! I am very impressed with the formula on all of these polishes. Sometimes with a new indie, there are a few formula issues as they are still working things out. It is clear that the creators, Ed and Malissa, spent a ton of time testing their formula. I had no issues with application. Some of the glitters do sink so I turned the bottles upside down before swatching. They were upside down for about an hour before application. I did not fish for any glitters so what you see in the pictures is the effortless application.
First, let’s look at the collection inspired by My Little Pony. I don’t watch MLP so I can’t make parallels to the show, but I trust that Ed and Malissa named these well! :) The My Little Pony nail polish collection consists of 6 milky cremes with various glitter combinations.
Yay is a light yellow with a mix of blue and pink glitters. This picture is three coats.
Pinkie Sense is a baby blue creme with a rainbow of glitters. It also has a very subtle shimmer to it! This is two coats. I think this one is my favorite from the My Little Pony collection.
Pinkie Sense is a light pink creme with blue, yellow, and red glitters This is two coats.
Pinkie Sense is a light purple creme with pink, purple, and silver glitters. This is two coats.
Fabulosity is the only one in a clear-ish base. This is three coats and you can still see how sheer it is. This would be a good polish for a nude look. At first I didn’t really like it, but then I stamped snowflakes on top and it really spoke to me. I was going to do the snowflakes art as a separate post, but I really wanted to show you so you can really see how gorgeous Fabulosity can be.
This snowflake design is from this Cici&Sisi stamping plate collection.
I was also curious to see what Fabulosity would look like over black. This is one coat over one coat of black creme polish. I think it gives it a cool galaxy nails effect!!
Sugar Cube is an orange creme with red and green glitters. I’m impressed that they put red and green together and it doesn’t look like Christmas! This is two coats.
Now we’re going to look at the Bunny Collection which is a collection of three jelly polishes packed with different white glitters!
Honey Bunny is a mustard yellow jelly with white glitters. The formula on this is extremely impressive even if it’s not the most flattering color on me. :) This is three coats.
Plum Berry is a royal purple jelly. The truest color of this polish is what you see near my cuticle line. It gets off colored a touch as you go down my nail due to the staining I have. I was going to swatch it over white, but in speaking with Ed, neither of us liked how it looked over white. So focus on the color by the cuticle. This is two coats.
Fern Bunny is an evergreen jelly with white glitters, including some really fun triangle glitters. This one is not only my favorite of the Bunny Collection, it’s my favorite of them all!! In my experience, not a lot of indies produce jellies. These jellies are just awesome and I seriously hope Ed and Malissa make a lot a lot a lot more of them.
I would love to know your thoughts on this collection! It’s their first release so I know feedback is going to be important to them. Do you have any favorites? Are there any you’re going to try?
Find Mango Bunny Polish Here:
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On a whim, I grabbed Orly Explosion of Fun at Sally Beauty last weekend. This is part of their sparkle holiday collection. Explosion of Fun is a clear base jam-packed with pink and purple glitters. I wasn’t too impressed with it in the bottle. In fact, I’ve been staring at it all week wondering why I bought it. Finally, I decided to give it a try. I figured that pink/purple always looks good on black, so I layered it on top of black. This is ONE coat on top of two coats of black!! Er. Mer. Gerd. I frickin’ love it!
Are you seeing this? Do you love this as much as I do? And you should see it in direct light!!! It’s like a pink and purple disco ball. It is blowing my mind.
I decided to do a little stamping on top. I picked a design that would still let the awesomeness of Explosion of Fun shine through. This is from the white set if Cici&Sisi plates. I used my trust Konad Black to stamp.
This mani is super simple, but I love it so much!
Today’s nail art starts with a base of Sparitual Improvisation. This is my first Sparitual polish and I think I like it, but I will want to try more. This color is a dark pink jelly-ish formula with teeny tiny green shimmers in it. I think it’s beautiful! I did do three coats to get full opacity for this one. Once dry, I used a design from Cici&Sisi and my trusty Konad Black to stamp the design.
I just love how the shimmers make this polish look. They really catch the light and give it a unique feel!
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I got my Pistol Polish November 2014 box in the mail earlier this week. Pistol Polish is a monthly nail polish subscription for $17.99 per month and you get two bottles of polish. This month, we got Pistol Polish Tuff and in the Buff which is a very sheer light pink and Pistol Polish No Guts, No Gloria which is an olive green with gold shimmers.
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I was lucky enough to have a friend in a Facebook group who was able to help me snag the Essence Aquatix collection. The Essence Limited Edition collections have been knocking it out of the park lately and this collection is no exception. I’m thrilled with it and was oooohing and aaaaahing at every stroke!
Under Water Love is one of the two textured polishes in the collection. This has the traditional texture finish but this is also a duochrome! It shifts from teal to dark blue. It’s absolutely amazing. It’s a little thick so you’ll want to try to use thin coats.
{Press Sample}
Zoya sent me the 2014 Wishes Collection to swatch and show you! This collection consists of a creme, two metallics, and three pixie dusts! I’m very pleased with this collection as I think it’s a unique twist on a holiday collection. (Wha??? I holiday collection without red and green! You bet!) All swatches shown are two coats.
{Press Sample}
Today, I have the CDB Lacquer Colors of the Wind Collection for you! CDB Lacquers sent me 7 mini bottles from the collection to swatch for you! You can find these on CDB Lacquer’s Store Envy site where regular size bottles are $8 and petite/mini is $6. Cheyenne, the owner of CDB Lacquers, has this to say about the collection:
The inspiration for this collection and the names is my heritage, Native American culture as well as nature itself. I did this collection for my mother because anything native American related is a passion we share.
You can find CDB on Facebook and Instagram.
Pure Soul reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream! Yum yum!! It also reminds me of the turquoise stone frequently used in Native American jewelry. This is three coats. Pure Soul is a light teal (almost Tiffany Blue) with tiny gold flakies.
Tranquility is the color of a skinny vanilla latte. It is a light sand with a lovely, subtle holo. This is three thin coats.
Sacred Sun is a major winner. This one is blowing my mind. It’s a light pink with a serious golden duo-chrome. Er mer gerd. I can’t get enough of this one. It’s so gorgeous and will be amazing as a base for some nail art! (Yes, this is foreshadowing…Hint…hint….hint) This is two coats.
Sunsweet Berries is a deep purple holo. This is another favorite of mine from the collection. (Hmm….my favorites are always pinks and purples…I think I have a problem…) This was two coats. This one was a touch on the thick side, but nothing that wasn’t workable. You’ll just want to use smooth, gentle strokes. (…Keep it PG, people.)
Mother Earth is a milk chocolate color that reminds me of a latte…but a latte with more espresso in it than Tranquility. :P This is three thin coats.
Hidden Oak is a gorgeous evergreen color. This is a color that will be fantastic for holiday manicures! This is three thin coats.
Warrior Spirit is a rich red with holographic shimmers. This is three coats.
What do you think of the CDB Lacquers Colors of the Wind Collection?
Thanks again to CDB Lacquers for sending me these to review!
When I got my press samples of the China Glaze Twinkly Holiday 2014 collection, I couldn’t help but notice that China Glaze Feeling Twinkly looked a lot like China Glaze Dorothy Who?….at least in the bottle! So I did a quick side-by-side for you guys.
So in the bottle, these look remarkably similar. Not quite the same, but close enough where you wonder if you need both.
However, once you get them on the nails, you can see they’re not even close at all.
Continue reading “China Glaze Feeling Twinkly vs. Dorothy Who?”
