Archive | November 2013

Throwback Thursday!

Nov14

Nothing to disclose

You may be asking yourself…how is this a throwback when this is a new manicure that I just did this week.  Well I’ll tell you.  THESE polishes that I used for this manicure are what started me down the path of polish addiction!  It was because of a well placed Julep ad while I was lurking around a nail blog wishing I was talented enough to paint my nails the way that the blogger did.  It was just around the first of the year so I decided then and there that I was going to make my New Year’s Resolution to do SOMETHING with my nails as I have been genetically blessed with very healthy, strong nails!

I immediately signed up for Julep and got some dotting tools and some other nail art goodies and started down the path of nail polish and I haven’t looked back.  Then I started following LOTS of blogs.  One of the first manicures that I saw on the blog Manicurator really struck me as a classy way to do a french manicure that isn’t boring or ho-hum in the least.  So for this throwback manicure I’m using the first two “grown up” nail polishes I ever bought to create a manicure inspired by this one by the Manicurator!

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First up I did a plain shot of the base color for this manicure.  It’s called Alma and it really is a lovely color but yellow is not really my color as you can see in this plain swatch.  This is two coats with HK Girl Topcoat and I do not ever have any problems with Julep’s formula and I find them really great for nail art.

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I jazzed up the tips with a taped off funky french manicure!  I love how tailored and classy this looks!  The tip color is Julep Michelle and is a deep dark teal-leaning navy blue.  This is one coat on the tips and then the whole thing is topped off with HK Girl Topcoat.

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PROOF that I can polish my right hand!  I always feel like I’m showing my “swatch” hand and that people may believe that I only polish four fingers all the time but this is not true!  I have a complete manicure 99% of the time!

I hope you enjoyed this funky french nail art, I think it would be an ideal way to make a classic french manicure a little more edgy while still maintaining an office-appropriate palette and style!

You can sign up for Julep’s Subscription Service here (referral link).  It really is a great value and you always have the option to skip a month or they offer you the ability to send that month’s shipment to a friend which is a great way to gift a fun little pick me up to your bestie or send a birthday gift to other polish aficionados!!  The boxes always come gift ready and are packaged very nicely.

This entry was posted on November 14, 2013, in Nail Art.

Top Five Faves…For now!

Nov10

Nothing to Disclose

The other day when I was talking with some friends we were discussing our top five favorite nail polishes.  Naturally I had to sit down and think about it.  I decided that I was kind of interested in what I gravitated toward the most and also I wanted an excuse to pull out all my bottles and gaze at the prettiness (don’t judge!).

Then I decided I should share with YOU my beloved readers what those favorites are.  Because these are polishes I have purchased over time some of them may be discontinued (SORRY!) however, I’ll note if they are still a currently available color in my review!

Like all nail polish addicts I’m a fickle junkie, so I think I’ll revisit this topic in a few months and keep sharing this with you on a seasonal or quarterly basis maybe?  Let me know if you would be interested in that!

Without further ado and in no particular order, here are my top five faves!

Etoile – Frosted Berry (Currently Available)

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This is a pink leaning berry red – it’s not really as red as you might expect but more of a light raspberry color.  However, just like berries this color is juicy and delicious!  To top off what is truly an amazing formula there is a swirl of diamond dust.  That’s right I said DIAMOND dust!  Talk about luxurious!  Ooo la la!

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This picture is one coat – ONE COAT!!  SOUND THE ALARMS we have a ONE COAT WONDER!  I didn’t top coat this one but I did wear a base coat but when I removed it there was no pesky staining even though it is just mega-saturated with color.

Used in this manicure:  Glisten and Glow Stuck on Blu, Etoile Frosted Berry

Lucky 13 – Softening the Bad Things (Discontinued)

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Excuse me while I have a fangirl moment.  This polish is based on an episode of Doctor Who, which is my ALL TIME FAVORITE show EVER.  Yes I intended to yell there, if I could have made the font larger I WOULD have!  To even further increase my love of this polish it is one of Kyoti’s “Polishes with a Purpose” which are polishes that she developed to show support for a particular cause and some of the proceeds of the purchase of this special line of polishes goes to charity!

This polish is discontinued (SORRY!) but it is still in my top five favorite.  This polish was created to support and increase awareness for mental illness.  I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been affected in some way, either themselves or someone close to them, by mental illness.  I myself struggle with depression as do a number of my family members.  It is also based on one of my favorite quotes from the Doctor.

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This polish is a beautiful soft blue crelly and it is sprinkled with multi-sized gold hexes and tiny copper glitters.  It goes on with all the ease that I’ve come to expect from Lucky 13 and I adore it. It just makes me feel good when I wear it.

Used in this manicure:  Glisten and Glow Stuck on Blu, Lucky 13 Softening the Bad Things, Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food, Glisten and Glow HK Girl Quick Dry Topcoat

Digital Nails – Double Rainicorn (Currently Available)

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OH.MY.HECK!  Ok so, Digital Nails was my first indie brand polish.  I *heart* Digital Nails so much!  Every polish I have ordered from her I love and adore!  This is my favorite Digital Nails polish that I own (I’m sure if I owned more another might top it but for now this one holds the top spot).  Let me tell you a funny story about this polish.  While I was making my very first order my aunt and I were looking at all the pretty colors and I needed to order one more to get a free shipping deal so I asked her to pick one.  She picked Double Rainicorn and I was sort of “meh” about it.  I thought it was pretty but not my cup of tea!  Boy oh boy am I ever glad I listened to my aunt – online pictures of this massive glitter bomb do NOT do it justice.  My dear readers you are IN LUCK because not only is Double Rainicorn still a current polish but it is even IN STOCK!  I highly recommend it!  If you love glitter this polish is for you!

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Double Rainicorn is a clear based glitter topper and it is packed with all sorts of glitter and shimmer.  There are multi-sized yellow squares, blue and green hexes, red hexes, silver shimmer, red microglitter, red bar glitters, and my favorite GIANT pink holographic circles!  This is a bit of a challenge to put on I’ll admit – it works best dabbed over a base color but the glitter payoff is huge.  These photos show little to no manipulation of glitter once dabbed and I didn’t have to do a whole lot of fishing either even for those big circles.   Also, I’ve had this one for awhile so there was a wee bit of settling, but honestly I’ve come to expect that from glitter polishes and turning it upside down for 10-15 minutes before applying sorts all that out!

Used in this manicure:  Glisten and Glow Stuck on Blu, Bondi New York Lady Liberty, Digital Nails Double Rainicorn, Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food, Glisten and Glow HK Girl Quick Dry Topcoat

 

Enchanted Polish – Magical Mystery Tour (Currently Available?)

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I love the Enchanted Polish lacquers that I own, but none so much as Magical Mystery Tour.  It is part of the Imagine collection which is as far as I’m aware still a current collection but as with all EPs it could be discontinued with the drop of a hat and they are as scarce as raindrops in hell.  This was my first EP and up until I owned it I didn’t understand what all the hullabaloo (I just wanted to say hullabaloo…Score! I used it twice!) was all about and then I won my first EP from the lovely Jini over at MakeUpMom123 and I was hooked.

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Magical Mystery Tour is a lovely color shifting polish with a very slight bit of  holographic shimmer.  The polish shifts from indigo, to emerald, to dark purplish pink.  My camera totally freaked out at it, so I was unable to truly capture the color shift, but trust me when I tell you that it is AH-mazing!

Used in this manicure:  Glisten and Glow Stuck on Blu, Enchanted Polish Magical Mystery Tour, Glisten and Glow HK Girl Quick Dry Topcoat

Jindie Nails – Princess Breath (Currently Available)

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Seriously.  I had to own a polish named Princess Breath I just HAD to!  It was the first polish that attracted me to Jindie Nails (even though it wasn’t the first Jindie I ever got).  It is stunningly beautiful and if I had to imagine a princess’s breath in a visual way, I have to say it would look like this!  I believe that this is part of her core collection and has not been discontinued though it is not available on her site right now.  Jindie is also available at Llarowe and Harlow and Co.

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Princess Breath is a GORGEOUS teal leaning blue crelly polish packed with hexes and dots in all sorts of metallic colors, pink, lime green, blue in various sizes.  I love Jindie’s crellies they are just ah-mazing!!  This was a very easy polish to apply, sometimes glitter heavy crelly polishes can be challenging but this one just wasn’t, photos show two coats with little to no manipulation of glitter and absolutely no fishing or dabbing.

Used in this manicure:  Glisten and Glow Stuck on Blu, Jindie Nails Princess Breath, Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food, Glisten and Glow HK Girl Quick Dry Topcoat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stamping Success!!

Nov5

I have an exciting bit of news to share with you all!  I was finally successful at my attempts at stamping.  I’ve been practicing so that I can show you some of the fun looks that you can achieve with a little perseverance!

Nail stamps are a fun way to add interest and life to a manicure.  With stamping there is a learning curve, particularly with full pattern stamps but I was doggedly attempting to complete a manicure that I was happy with.  On Sunday I was finally successful!  Eureka!

I will say that you can get started with stamping relatively inexpensively, you can purchase plates and stamping accessories in many places, such as Amazon, the Born Pretty Store, and others.   Also, I discovered that some polishes are just better for stamping than others, and this was a huge part of my learning process.  I believe at least half of the success I had with the manicure I’m going to show is because I used a polish that was suited to stamping!

Let’s get to some pretty pictures!  I used a Bundle Monster plate for this look.  I started with a simple gold base and on my pointer, middle, and pinkie fingers I used the pattern stamp and on my ring finger and thumb I used a glitter topper to add some interest (and also because the pattern didn’t cover my whole thumb!)

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Pictures show two coats of Bondi – Fool’s and stamped with Essie – Midnight Cami.  The glitter topper is Pahlish – Dust Witch, which I recently reviewed here.

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As usual I topped the whole thing off with Glisten & Glow HK Girl fast drying top coat.  Normally I use Glitter Food whenever I have a glitter topper but with Dust Witch I was able to just have a nice coat of HK Girl to smooth it over, add shine, and protect my hard-won nail art!

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I’m really very proud of this one and I foresee lots of stamping in my future!!!  I can’t wait to try other combinations and patterns!  Share your stamping stories with me here or on facebook!  I would love to hear about your experiences, and please share your tips I’m still learning!!

 

Pahlish – Dark Carnival Duo

Nov1

Can I just say how much I am really loving Pahlish polishes?  They had been on my “to try” list for awhile and then I won that contest at the beginning of October.  I loved that duo!  So then I had an opportunity to pick up the Dark Carnival Duo and oh my heck!!!  This one is right up my alley!

I’m digging on all the fall-appropriate vampy shades right now and this duo really delivers on deep vampy color!  Let’s get right down to business on these beauties!

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First in the duo is the undie polish, Tom Fury, which honestly probably doesn’t get that much credit but I loved it instantly.  It is a deep army green jelly with delightful microflakies in various colors.  The maker’s site says that they are red, charcoal, and taupe!  It dries to this kind of waxy or rubbery finish which is actually quite nice!  Pictures show two coats without top coat.  It gave me absolutely NO application problems and clean up was not difficult at all – no pesky cuticle staining that is so common with dark vampy colors!

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Next up is The Dust Witch.  I have a lot of glitter toppers, this is right up there in my top five favorite!!  I can’t wait to try it with all kinds of undies!  I paired it up with Tom Fury and they are definitely meant to be together!  The Dust Witch according to the maker is a clear-based glitter topper with  orange, olive, purple, and melon green metallic glitter as well as melon green dots and purple square glitters!  It went on like a dream – the glitter payoff and spread were as easy peasy as you wish for.  Pictures show one coat over Tom Fury and then topped with Glitter Food and HK Girl!

I have been extremely impressed with the Pahlish polishes that I have tried and I will definitely be snagging up some more of them in the future.  You do have a little time left this evening to snatch up the Dark Carnival duo before it is discontinued!  You can buy Pahlish here and make sure to follow them on facebook to stay up to date on all the Pahlish happenings!