Archive | December 2014

Christmas Nail Art Roundup!

Some polishes may have been provided for previous review

I decided that this year I would save all my holiday manis of the year to share with you in one post.  I know that I do quite a lot of swatch posts but I do actual nail art as well and while I’m no genius at it I do like to have fun with different combinations and I’ve been practicing some freehand stuff as well!

I hope you enjoy and also be sure to check out the inlinkz at the bottom to see a lot of other awesome bloggers and their holiday manicures!

Digital Nails - Supernova with Gothic Gala Lacquers - Holiday Berries

Digital Nails – Supernova with Gothic Gala Lacquers – Holiday Berries

Gothic Gala Lacquers - Holiday Leaves with Alchemy Lacquers - Gilded Holly and Jindie Nails - Through the Eyes of a Child

Gothic Gala Lacquers – Holiday Leaves with Alchemy Lacquers – Gilded Holly and Jindie Nails – Through the Eyes of a Child

Literary Lacquers - One Thousand Christmas Trees with Zoya - Liberty, Chyna and Solange

Literary Lacquers – One Thousand Christmas Trees with Zoya – Liberty, Chyna and Solange

Alchemy Lacquers - Gilded Dreidel with Elevation Polish - Darkest Storm stamped with Cici & Sisi Christmas 2014

Alchemy Lacquers – Gilded Dreidel with Elevation Polish – Darkest Storm stamped with Cici & Sisi Christmas 2014

There you have the looks I’ve done for this holiday season!  I had hoped to do more and I think next year I’m going to increase my goal!  But I’m pretty happy with this group of nail art looks.

I want to wish everyone a very Happy Holidays and all the best in the New Year!

 

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Christmas Eve Post! Featuring Jindie Nails!

Provided for Honest Review

I have a gorgeous Christmas polish to show ya’ll!  It’s no secret I’m a Jindie Junkie but I wanted to have a Christmas polish to show you today and this Jindie is perfection for that!  Tomorrow I am going to have a Christmas Nail Art roundup post to show you some of the manis I’ve worn this Holiday Season!

But first the Jindie!  This is Through the Eyes of a Child

Jindie Nails - Through the Eyes of a Child

Jindie Nails – Through the Eyes of a Child

This is a fun and festive glitter topper that is chock full of all kinds of glittery goodness.  There are red, white, green, and blue matte, metallic, and holographic glitters of all shapes INCLUDING STARS!  I love stars particularly the little tiny ones!

Jindie Nails - Through the Eyes of a Child

Jindie Nails – Through the Eyes of a Child

This is a perfect glitter topper.  I didn’t have to fish around to get a good mix of glitters.  This is one coat (not dabbed) over undies.

Polishes used:  Tip Top – Toughen Up Base Coat; Sinful Colors – Snow White; Jindie Nails – Through the Eyes of a Child.

I love this polish and I always look forward to my next Jindie Nails delivery.  You can follow Jindie Nails on Facebook and Instagram to see other awesome polishes and swatches.  You can buy your own bottles of awesomeness at the Jindie Nails Website!

Silly Bees Chickadees – Gift of Melly 2014 Collection

Discount Provided for Honest Review

I have a fantabulous collection to show you.  I’m so sorry that this is coming to you with just a few more days to get them however the USPS doesn’t conform to any kind of good standards these days so I have been working to get them out to you as quick as I could once I received them!

I love that the owner of Silly Bee’s Chickadees is so passionate about giving back.  Last year she created a blogger collaboration collection for the Holidays and each blogger chose a charity that 20% of the purchase price from each of “their” polishes sold would go to.  This has been brought back this year with a whole new set of Holiday Movie inspired polishes.  You can really feel good about picking up your favorites.  Also, I like that while these are inspired by the Holidays most of them are definitely versatile enough to use all year.  This is a pic heavy post so get prepared for a glittery visual assault of epic proportions!

Without further ado first up we have:

Visit The Polish Monster Here

Visit The Polish Monster Here

Diana from the Polish Monster chose The Alzheimer’s Association as the charity that she wanted proceeds from her polish to benefit.

Silly Bees Chickadees - Diana's Merry Little Christmas

Silly Bees Chickadees – Diana’s Merry Little Christmas

Diana’s Merry Little Christmas is a beautiful glitter topper filled with silver holographic triangles, hexes, and microsparkles along with fine silver mini bar glitter.  It’ll look good over all kinds of undies, I choose a bright blue here and it made it just feel so wintery!

Silly Bees Chickadees - Diana's Merry Little Christmas

Silly Bees Chickadees – Diana’s Merry Little Christmas

This is one coat of the topper over undies.  I didn’t find that there were any issues with application.  The glitter came out easily and applied evenly.

Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Butter London – Blagger; Silly Bees Chickadees – Diana’s Merry Little Christmas; Digital Nails – Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That.

Next up we have:

Visit The Polish Monster Here

Visit The Polish Monster Here

Sydney is Diana’s daughter and she helps her mom out on the blog sometimes.  Sydney is learning early how to be a great citizen and has chosen Bikes or Bust a local Toys for Tots gift drive that provides new bikes for kids as her charity.

Silly Bees Chickadees - Sydney's Hot Chocolate

Silly Bees Chickadees – Sydney’s Hot Chocolate

Sydney’s Hot Chocolate is the palest milk chocolate creme with gold and red shimmers.

Silly Bees Chickadees - Sydney's Hot Chocolate

Silly Bees Chickadees – Sydney’s Hot Chocolate

Application on this was beautiful.  It was self leveling, opaque in two coats and is a perfect creamy nude.  It would work perfectly as undies for ANY of the glitter toppers in this collection or as a nude for any nail art.

Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Silly Bees Chickadees – Sydney’s Hot Chocolate; Digital Nails – Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That.

Now we have:

Visit The Lacquerologist Here

Visit The Lacquerologist Here

Emily chose Second Chance for Animals in Canton, OH as her Charity of choice.

Silly Bees Chickadees - Emily's Dreaming of a White Christmas

Silly Bees Chickadees – Emily’s Dreaming of a White Christmas

I think of the whole collection this is the only one that I don’t feel like I could wear all year.  I love it though!  This is a glitter topper with red metallic bar and microglitters and white matte dots and snowflakes.

Silly Bees Chickadees - Emily's Dreaming of a White Christmas

Silly Bees Chickadees – Emily’s Dreaming of a White Christmas

This had a great application.  I did have to fish slightly for the snowflakes but I think that’s pretty standard with a shaped glitter like this.  It spread out nicely though and I had no problem getting plenty of dots.

Polishes used:  Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Butter London – Yummy Mummy; Silly Bees Chickadees – Emily’s Dreaming of a White Christmas; Digital Nails – Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That.

Next up is:

Visit Ida Nails It Here

Visit Ida Nails It Here

Ida chose Hospice of Austin as her charity.

Silly Bees Chickadees - Ida's Electric Snow

Silly Bees Chickadees – Ida’s Electric Snow

This is a gorgeous glitter topper that I will reach for again and again. It’s festive without conforming to seasonal standards.  It’s a mix of matte white glitters and multi colored holographic hexes and some gold dots as if the others weren’t enough!

Silly Bees Chickadees - Ida's Electric Snow

Silly Bees Chickadees – Ida’s Electric Snow

Application was as delightful as all the others thus far.  The spread and mix of glitters is perfect and pictures show one coat over undies.

Polishes used:  Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Superchic Lacquer – Faerie Frost; Silly Bees Chickadees – Ida’s Electric Snow; Digital Nails – Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That.

Now I’m going to show you:

Visit Adventures in Acetone Here

Visit Adventures in Acetone Here

Jacki chose the amazing Polished Girlz as her charity.

Silly Bees Chickadees - Jacki's Whoville Christmas

Silly Bees Chickadees – Jacki’s Whoville Christmas

This awesome glitter topper has a shimmery base and is packed to the brim with metallic and holographic gold glitter and has a healthy dose of matte lime green, red, and pink glitters that would make it a great transition topper going into Spring as well.

Silly Bees Chickadees - Jacki's Whoville Christmas

Silly Bees Chickadees – Jacki’s Whoville Christmas

This one is dashingly delightful.  Good even spread and also very plentiful as well.  This is one coat over undies.

Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Silly Bees Chickadees – Sydney’s Hot Chocolate; Silly Bees Chickadees – Jacki’s Whoville Christmas; Digital Nails – Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That.

Next up I’m going to show you:

Visit Accio Lacquer Here

Visit Accio Lacquer Here

Mishka chose the Cancer Research Institute as her charity for this collaboration.

Silly Bees Chickadees - Mishka's Rare Exports

Silly Bees Chickadees – Mishka’s Rare Exports

Here’s another festive polish.  This has metallic red shreds and glitter with matte yellow stars throughout.

Silly Bees Chickadees - Mishka's Rare Exports

Silly Bees Chickadees – Mishka’s Rare Exports

This one was slightly more of a challenge than the others.  The stars really wanted to stay in the bottle but I upended it for a few minutes and I was able to coax them out a lot easier.  This is one coat over undies!

Polishes used:  Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Butter London – Yummy Mummy; Silly Bees Chickadees – Mishka’s Rare Exports; Digital Nails – Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That.

Last but not least we have:

Visit Imperfectly Polished Here

Visit Imperfectly Painted Here

Steph has chosen to support Pet Alliance Orlando with her polish.

Silly Bees Chickadees - Steph's Silver White WInters

Silly Bees Chickadees – Steph’s Silver White Winters

This glitter topper has a healthy dose of scattered holographic pigment satin blue hexes and squares, matte white hexes, and holographic silver squares.

Silly Bees Chickadees - Steph's Silver White WInters

Silly Bees Chickadees – Steph’s Silver White Winters

This is a perfect wintery polishand I’m sure that there tons of polishes that this would look AH-mazing over.  Pictures show one coat over undies.

Polishes used:  Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Butter London – Prince’s Plums; Silly Bees Chickadees – Steph’s Silver White Winters; Digital Nails – Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That.

You can get this collection and a bunch of other great polishes over at Silly Bees Chickadees’ Etsy Store.  You can keep up with all the news and see some amazing pictures at Silly Bees’ WebsiteFacebook, and Instagram!

Lab Report – Alchemy Lacquers Holiday Collection

Provided for Honest Review

So I’m super excited for this post – I’ve been seeing sneak peeks of these for awhile now and I couldn’t wait to get my grabby hands on them!  I have four polishes that are just perfect for the holidays.  One Christmas and two Hannukah polishes plus a 2.0 version of a classic Alchemy Lacquers Polish.  We don’t get to see a lot of Hannukah polishes so I’m pretty happy to see them in this collection!

Up first are the gildeds.  I’m going to start with Gilded Holly:

Alchemy Lacquers - Gilded Holly

Alchemy Lacquers – Gilded Holly

Another win Alchemy Lacquers.  I am in total love with all the gilded polishes and there is nothing else like them out there.  This is a green based polish with a gold/silver shift and bright red and green metallic and holographic glitter.

Alchemy Lacquers - Gilded Holly

Alchemy Lacquers – Gilded Holly

Application is as perfect as I’ve come to expect.  I’ve been following and reviewing for Alchemy Lacquers a long time and there is a level of excellence that I’ve come to expect.  Glitter spread is perfect and opacity is easily achieved.  Pictures show two coats with topcoat.

Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Alchemy Lacquers – Gilded Holly; Digital Nails – Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That

Next up is Gilded Dreidel, one of the two Hannukah polishes:

Alchemy Lacquers - Gilded Dreidel

Alchemy Lacquers – Gilded Dreidel

Again loving this one.  This addition to the gilded collection is a blue based polish with the characteristic silver/gold shift.  I’ve noticed that depending on the base color sometimes the silver or gold is more prominent.  In Gilded Holly the gold came out to play more but in this one the silver seems to be more prevalent.  Despite all the sparkly goodness of the gilded part of the polish she packed it with shades of blue and silver metallic and holographic glitters.  Total sparkle city!

Alchemy Lacquers - Gilded Dreidel

Alchemy Lacquers – Gilded Dreidel

Perfect application.  Opaque in two coats.  Glitter dispersal is great.  I often feel like a broken record on this issue so I’m going to keep it short and sweet this time.

Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Alchemy Lacquers – Gilded Dreidel; Digital Nails – Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That

Next up is Tekhelet

Alchemy Lacquers - Tekhelet

Alchemy Lacquers – Tekhelet

Tekhelet is a Hebrew word that means turquoise or blue and refers specifically to a sacred dye that was mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh.  This is a super sparkly mix of blue and silver metallic and holographic microglitters.  It’s like a blue discoball of sparkly fun on the nail!

Alchemy Lacquers - Tekhelet

Alchemy Lacquers – Tekhelet

Now you’d think hmm microglitter in a clear base that sounds like a nightmare to bring to opacity if it’s even possible but I assure you that with these it’s not only possible but EASY.  These pictures show two coats NO undies.  That’s right all that sparkly goodness doesn’t even need undies and even with my prominent VNL I didn’t need more than two coats!

Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Alchemy Lacquers – Tekhelet; Digital Nails – Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That

Next up is Snowberry a classic Alchemy Lacquers that has been revamped so I’m fondly calling it Snowberry 2.0:

Alchemy Lacquers - Snowberry

Alchemy Lacquers – Snowberry

Snowberry is a silver foil holographic base with royal blue holographic glitters.  It’s like she took all the holo that one could want and stuffed it into one magical polish.  I often find that I’m bored with linear holographic polishes because they are so one note and no one ever seems to put glitter in them and I admit I’m addicted to glitter.  But every so often a maker gets the urge to buck the status quo and put glitter in linear holographic base and I love it every time.  I’ve already worn this one twice.  Yeah I love it that much.

Alchemy Lacquers - Snowberry

Alchemy Lacquers – Snowberry

Just look at the holo in that and this is under artificial lighting.  In the sunshine it’s downright distracting!  Two coats perfect application.  I had no problems with consistency or glitter dispersal.  Two coats plus topcoat!

Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Alchemy Lacquers – Snowberry (2.0); Digital Nails – Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That

 

As per usual this is where I can tell you where to find your own Alchemy Lacquers polishes.  You can check out their Website or Etsy Store to learn more about all the available polishes.  You should definitely also check out her Facebook and Instagram for sneak peeks and swatches of all these amazing polishes and things coming up in the future.  As a fun thing this season you can order a Secret Santa or Hannukah Harry gift that can be sent anonymously to a gift recipient.  This is a lot of fun and takes the guesswork out of what to get that hard to buy for person!