Vibrant Flame (or how my husband surprises me)

Today I have a special to my heart polish.  For Christmas I put on my wish lists "any polish, any color", I figured I'd get duplicates, but surprisingly I didn't.  Then my husband got me this, not only not a duplicate, but a brand I had never heard of.  Three snaps in a circle for him!

This is Face Stockholm Vibrant Flame.  I love the high gloss finish on this, this was only two coats.  I thought the formula was a little on the runny side, but otherwise I was thrilled with this one!

You can purchase Face Stockholm at JCrew.
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Fascinating Violet

Today I have a gorgeous Jade holographic polish for you.  This is Fascino de Violette and it is outstanding!

The application was perfect and I got full coverage in 2 coats. I couldn't have been more thrilled with this polish. I need to own them all now. Check out how strong the holographic effect is?

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Jade polish can be purchased at online retailers such as Llarowe and Ninja Polish.

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1 Year Blogiversary!

Happy 1 Year!

This has been such an amazing year.  I started this blog as a way to track the manicures I've done and I feel like I've grown so much since I started.

I want to thank all of my followers for taking the time to read my blog, no matter if you did it just once or every day.  I appreciate you all!

So of course to celebrate, it is giveaway time!

First prize (open to both international and US residents) is a 15.00 gift certificate to the online retailer or your choice.  Want it for Ninja polish?  Or Llarowe?  Ebay?  You got it!  As long as they accept US dollars, I will do it.

Second prize (open only to US residents), NerdLacquer No Medal for Chewie.  I scored this on her restock last Saturday so I saved it for one of my lucky entrants!  

Thanks again for everything and sharing this crazy obsession with me.  Most of all thanks to all of those who have been with me since the beginning!  

Love to all of you!!!
      

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

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Proud Peacock

Today I have another full coverage KB Shimmer, Proud Peacock.  Great coverage on the nail, this is three coats here.  I loved the beautiful base and multi colored glitters.  I caught the awesome holo in the bottle too!

I loved this polish!  KB Shimmer has really gotten the colored base down to a science, one of the very best I own!

KB Shimmer can be purchased at her online store.

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The Man of La Mancha Goes to Oktoberfest

Today I have an amazing combo for you from OPI.  I got the idea for this from one of the Nail polish groups I'm in East Coast Polish Lovers (Ecopolo for short).  I love this manicure!  The lovely Karen figured out this combo and told us all we had to try it, so I did and boy was she right.  Karen, I bow to your layering genius!

I started off with two coats of OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest, which is stunning on its own for sure.  Gret formula, easy application.  Of course, it is OPI!  To me OPI has such an amazing formula.

Then I put two coats of Man of La Mancha over top.

Oh My.

My nails glowed they were so awesome.  I just love this combo so very much!

Man of La Mancha is a bit sheer, so it really needs to be layered, but it is very versatile  so I think it would work well over anything.

OPI can be purchased at Ulta.

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Festival of Lights every Quarter of a Cent-Cherry

Today I have another fabulous pairing  I started off with OPI Quarter of a Cent-Cherry, which may be one of my favorite true reds ever.  I loved the color and the shine on this one.

Then I topped it with one coat of Amy's Nail Boutique Festival of Lights Red, a gorgeous holo with red glitter.

I was over the moon with this pairing and couldn't stop staring at my nails!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's day!

OPI can be purchased at Ulta.  Amy's Nail Boutique can be purchased on her Etsy Store.  

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Happy Valentine's Day!

Today I have my Valentine's mani and what passes, for me, as nail art.

I wanted to do an extended french with a dark tip and some accent nails.

So I started out with OPI Steady as She Rose, a pretty light rose color.  Then I used tape and put on Chanel Malice on the tip.

I have to say if I had to pick just one polish for the rest of my life to use?  Chanel Malice would be it.  It is freaking AHHHHHMAAAZING.  Worth.  Every.  Penny.

For the ring finger and thumb, I put Shimmer Mary on top as an accent, then I used Milani Silver Striper to separate the two colors on the other nails. 

All told I was pretty happy with how this turned out.  For me this is pretty good!

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Say hello to my thumb!  She doesn't get very much play on the blog.

OPI can be purchased at Ulta.  Chanel can be purchased at Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus (I got this from their site, free shipping!).  Milani can be purchased at CVS.  Shimmer polishes can be purchased through their Etsy store.     

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Plonk goes Lunairetic

Today I have a fun pairing, I started off with Laqa & Co Plonk, a beautiful plum creme.  As with the other Laqa I own, I loved the shine on the polish and the coverage (a one coater!), but that long brush causes big globs of polish to travel down and globs all over your nails.  ARGH.

Then I did an extended french manicure with Rainbow Honey Lunairetic from their Chrono Cross collection. Loved this pairing!  Lunairetic has a blend of red, gold, holo, blue and magenta glitter and applies like a dream.  I am so in love with all of my Rainbow Honey (and when I say all, I really pretty much own ALL of them).

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Catherine the Grape gets taken down by Vivien

Today folks is a lesson on how to take a beautiful mani and screw it up!

So we all know I like the bling, considering I'm always putting a glitter topper of some sort over a base color.  But sometimes I really need to just learn when to leave well enough alone.  This was one of those times.

I started off with two coats of the perfection that is OPI Catherine the Grape.  I freaking LOVE this color.  Subtle shimmer, great on my skin, great application.  It was just perfect.  But oh no, my brain that is surrounded by boys 24/7 was screaming "glitter glitter glitter".  So I topped it with Julep Vivien.  

Whomp Whomp Whomp.

I think it would have liked Vivien more without the gold hexes, but with them it sort of looks like I went a bit bananas in the glitter store.  I love the gold/silver micro glitters.

Oh well, I should have left well enough alone.  I feel that if Michael Kors (in his Project Runway mode) was checking out my mani he'd make some quip about how I have a taste issue.  But much more bitchy like "her nails look like she sneezed glitter all over them" (in a much more bitchy way, the Kors-a-tron 2000 can spit out the insults like no one else).  But isn't Catherine the Grape pretty?  At least I have a photo to remind me next time just use that one!  

 
OPI can be purchased at Ulta.  Julep can be purchased at their online store (www.julep.com) or Sephora online.
 
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The Smurfs are Riding the Waves

Today I have another blue pairing (I'm beginning to sense I really like blue?) - I started off with two coats of China Glaze Riding the Waves, a soft jelly finish in a medium toned blue.  I loved the application of this, but obviously as with most jellies, there was an extreme amount of VNL shown (which I personally hate).  

So I topped it with one coat of Girly Bits Smurf Dance.  I had tried and tried and tried to get this polish in my hot little hands and then finally I managed to snag it.  It was worth the wait!  I'm in love with this beauty.  White hexes and squares, holographic sparkles, blue hexes.  j'adore!  This was a sure fire winner!   

Girly Bits can be purchased through her Big Cartel store.  China Glaze can be purchased from Ulta or Sally's Beauty Supply.
 
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A duo of pink for Valentine's week!

When I was going through and watermarking my photos I realized these two were so similar I'll put them in the post together.

To start is Avon Rose Suede, my first Avon.  I loved the suede finish on this and how it looks on the nail.  The application was pretty good, a bit runny and the clean up left sparkles here there and everywhere.  I really liked it though, I definitely want to get more of the Avon Suedes.

A few days later I put on Revlon Glitz & Glam, a pink glitter in a pink jelly base, you see two coats of this below.    I thought the coverage of this was outstanding, another good Revlon pick up for me!  I've had a lot of success with this brand.    This one had a lot of bling to it and really drew attention.

I realized I should have mentioned something the other day, in my KB Shimmer post my nails were much shorter than here, that is because my photos are on about a 2 week lag as to what was actually on my nails at the time.  So I had a break (my first in months) and now they are nubs, but this was when they were still long and beautiful!  I put the KB post out of sequence since it was a review for an upcoming collection.

Avon can be purchased through an Avon representative.  Revlon can be purchased at drug stores.
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The Basketcase get Kinky in Helsinki

Today I have a great pairing, I started off with two coats of OPI Kinky in Helsinki, this one was a black label formula and I found it a tad bit runny for me.  This one was also a bit sheer on the nail and it took several coats to hide the visible nail line for me.

Then I put one coat of Nostalgic Lacquer The Basketcase over top.  This was one of her Saturday Detention polishes and I was IN LOVE with it.  So pretty.  Great glitter spread, great job on the nail.  I've had this polish for a while in my melmer and so I took it out and then it was perfection.    I love the colors in this glitter and how they all come together on the nail.  This was really a slam dunk of a polish in my opinion.

Then I decided to matte the whole nail.  I loved it matted even more.  I used Butter London's matte polish.

So what started off as being only so-so for me, turned into a manicure I was gaga over!

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KB Shimmer Spring 2013 Release!

KB Shimmer sent me three of the polishes from her Spring 2013 Release along with her Clearly On Top top coat for review.    Clicking on the link will take you to the full line which will be live on her website on February 15th.

Up first we have Iris My Case, which is described on the press release as:  

Violet pastel crelly with glitters in purple, pink, silver and blue - Full coverage in 2-3 coats

I was thrilled with this polish.  I haven't had the best of luck with crelly bases in the past and this one was just perfect.  I applied three thin coats and got full coverage and amazing shine.  It was so easy to control this polish on the nail I had virtually no clean up needed.  The glitters spread perfectly in the polish and it was a breeze to get them from bottle to nail.  The photos are topped with Clearly On Top.

Artificial light, no flash

Artificial light - with flash

Macro - look at all of those glitters!

Next we have Spring Training, described in the press release as :

Soft green crelly full of pink, purple, blue and green floral toned glitters, scented with a floral freesia note - Full coverage in 2-3 coats

Just like Iris My Case, the formula was outstanding.  You see three thin coats on the nail below, topped with Clearly on Top.   It was so easy to control and the glitters easily came from bottle on to nail.  I know this one was scented and I have to say if it was, the scent is very subtle, because I didn't notice it when I was painting.  When I went back to sniff, I could smell the delicate freesia notes, but not when I was painting did it register with my senses.

Macro shot!

Finally, I have a glitter top coat Squared Away, described in the press release as:

Square glitters in a variety of sizes, colors and finishes including metallic and holographic in a clear base - Top Coat

Once again this was a great polish, I tried this over a variety of colors and decided in the end to put it over a England Camelot, the perfect shiny black.  I felt that it showed off the holographic properties best, however I also will include my swatches of it over other colors.  What you see below is one coat of Camelot with one coat of Squared Away on top, topped with one coat of Clearly on Top.

The shine that Clearly on Top imparted to this was outstanding, I loved all of the different color blends in Squared Away, the glitters were easy to get from bottle to nail and they laid down very well.  I am in love with this!

Artificial light, no flash

Artificial light, with flash

macro

Below you can see Squared Away over different colored bases:

l to r: Sheswai Hot Damn, OPI Koala Berry, OPI Anti-Bleak

l to r:  OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, NARS New York Dolls, Butter London Pillar Box Red, OPI Plugged in Plum, a England Camelot

l to r:  OPI Plugged in Plum, a England Camelot, OPI Russian Navy, OPI Ogre the Top Blue

Finally, I decided to do a little trial with Clearly On Top to see how it compared to my other "go to" topcoats, Seche Vite, Gelous, and Nails Inc Kensington Caviar.  Generally I use Kensington Caviar over non-glitters since it isn't as thick, but it dries super fast.  I switch between Gelous and Seche with thicker glitters.  The price point is fabulous, with 5.00 for a full size and 3.00 for minis.

I started off with the grittiest glitter I own - OPI Get Your Number, one of the liquid sands.  You can see the graininess below without any top coat:

Then I put one good coat of each top coat, from Left to Right - Seche Vite, Gelous, Clearly On Top and Kensington Caviar.  I let it dry for about five minutes for the next photo.  As you can see Kensington Caviar really didn't take away any of the bumpiness.  Gelous wasn't that fantastic either.  But Seche and Clearly on Top definitely took away a good bit of it.  Another thin coat on top of just the Kensington Caviar would have been perfect coverage without adding a bunch of bulk to the polish.  

The dry time of Clearly On Top seemed to be on par with Gelous and Seche Vite as well.  I will definitely be stocking up on Clearly On Top!  I am really excited about this top coat!

I am so excited about this debut on February 15th!  I am definitely going to be getting the rest of this collection as well as a few extra Clearly On Tops!  There are two additional pastels that I can't wait to try along with two amazing jelly based polishes and two new glitter top coats.  

While you are at her store, be sure to check out her body care line, I have several of her lotions, lip balms and soaps and they are ALL outstanding!


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