super cute doily nails!

these were fun & also one of the more detailed things i've done in a while!

i was inspired by a nail art account i follow on instagram, who was inspired by her phone case. so i changed it up a little bit and they came out looking like delicate doilies!

this is 2 coats of Barry M Cobalt Blue & some nail art done with a light blue nail art pen. Cobalt Blue looks an awful lot brighter in the bottle, so i was somewhat disappointed with this polish, but it still had a really nice formula and good coverage.

i got a lot of compliments on these nails! people said they also looked like a pysanka (ukranian decorative egg) which is also true!

the only bummer is that i got too impatient and my topcoat dragged the art on my index nail ;( oh well!

& i'm back! only a month later...

so i took a much needed break from just about everything over the Christmas holidays, and then extended it over 'till about now. but that doesn't mean i didn't do my nails many a time! so i've built up a little stack to show you all.

i've also decided to make a few changes in the blog;
less swatching, more art. gotta get back to what i actually enjoy doing!
& i hate capitalization. i started this blog thinking if i capitalized properly and whatnot that it would seem more professional, but that's not me & i want this to be casual fun for me.

that being said, onto what i think was my favorite mani of 2012!

this is Barry M Blue Moon! i took the plunge and recently bought a couple Barry M polishes & i am not regretting it. i love pastels and this color was great. this is 3 coats (+ a coat of China Glaze Ghoulish Glow, i went out that night and thought it would be neat).

then i added some fun gold square studs i purchased from ebay. some of these turned a little bronze-y in color after topcoat? you can kinda tell, top stud on my ring finger was the worst. but i didn't mind.

this was awesome and didn't chip for like 5 days, which is top notch when it comes to me (i can never make it last). Barry M polishes will definitely have to make their way into my collection more often!

Challenge Day 5: Blue feat. Pretty & Polished Beach Bum!

Today's post has to be a little quicker because I have to go to work! Also, because of my time limit, I didn't do anything too fancy today. I still wanted to make it exciting though!

This is 2 coats of Sally Hansen Pacific Blue with a coat of Pretty & Polished Beach Bum on top. Pacific Blue is an amazing, bright royal blue and is one of my favorites in my collection. It's almost a one coater, but I usually do an extra coat out of habit anyway.
Beach Bum is AMAZING, I love it so much, it is a mixture of small to large green and blue hex glitters in a clear base. You could wear this so many ways.

Then I wanted to spice up the manicure a little more! I hadn't done a crackle mani in a while, so I painted a coat of China Glaze Black Mesh on my thumb and ring finger nails.

What can I say, queen of accent nails over here! I don't think I've done a manicure without at least one accent finger since day one!

Pretty & Polished polishes can be purchased through her Etsy and also on Llarowe.

Well, I'm off to work! Sorry for the lack of detail in today's post!
My nails do look cute, though!

Essence Color & Go's! Review and Swatch

Hi everyone! Today I have some awesome swatches of Essence's Color & Go line to show you!
They have come out with 18 new & trendy colors for their Fall/Winter collection.

They have a gel-like shine finish and a fast drying formula! (Best of both worlds, right?)
They also have a new bottle shape! Instead of the old 5ml bottle, they now come in 8ml bottles!

Let's get started with these swatches.

This is Essence Stuck On You. It's a blue-grey creme with a hidden shimmer. It is absolutely gorgeous and the favorite out of the 3 I got. It covered in 2 coats perfectly. It even shines somewhat purple in different lights! A dark grey blurple. Hard to find something like that!

This is 3 coats of Essence Ultimate Pink. It really, truly is the Ultimate Pink. Ultimate Barbie pink, that is. It is a hot pink creme that dries with a crazy shine. It went on a little streaky, so I went with 3 coats to be safe. You could probably get away with 2 coats instead. This is very cute and girly, love it!

Oh, I loved this one. This is Essence Modern Romance. It is a peachy-nude creme with a pink shimmer (Couldn't get that shimmer to photograph! But it's there!) that shows up in direct light. It's a very cute and girly shade! This was 3 coats as I had trouble getting full coverage with 2 coats. This would be an awesome spring shade! I can't wait to use this baby in some nail art!

Here's a comparison of the new bottles. The new bottles are easier to hold and grip to paint evenly and precisely! And who can complain about an extra 3ml a bottle? (Not me!)

All Color & Go polishes are Big 3 Free and have a professional patented brush that distributes color with amazing accuracy!

They have a huge range of colors from brights to classics! You can purchase Essence at ULTA, HEB & Fred Meyer in the States for only $1.99!
You can also purchase Essence Cosmetics in Canada at Shopper's Drug Mart & Pharmaprix!

The products featured in this post were sent to me by the company for an honest review.

Rainbow Honey Equestria Collection!

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Not only have I definitely dropped the 31 day challenge (oops, my bad) but I've been without inspiration as I patiently wait for my new indie polishes to come in the mail!
Well, they are finally coming in! After receiving my Lush Lacquer order, I was excited to see what was next.
Then I got my Rainbow Honey order! I saw swatches of the Equestria Collection and couldn't wait to get my hands on it. All of the polishes are inspired by different ponies from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. How cute is that?

Let's get started on some swatches!

This is one coat of Rainbow Honey The Worst Possible Thing over 2 coats of China Glaze Electric Beat. The photo is taken with flash. It is a glitter packed polish with tiny blue, purple, teal, pink, silver glitters. It also featured some flakies! Lots of glitter madness going on here!

No flash photo. The combination of all the glitters in The Worst Possible Thing gives it an overall periwinkle look. That being said, Electric Beat is the perfect underwear, since it is a periwinkle creme.
This was a lovely surprise and definitely my favorite.

This is one coat of Rainbow Honey A Little Kindness over 2 coats of China Glaze Innocence. It is pinkish shimmer base with small, medium and large gold and pink glitters throughout. This is so beautiful. I love a pink and gold combination.

A photo sans flash. I am usually not a fan of shimmery bases, but this sold me! I can't wait to try this over lots of colors.

Last but not least, the party that is Rainbow Honey Pinkie Promise! This is one coat over 2 coats of Joe Fresh Bloom. It has a pink/yellow duochrome shimmer base with pink, blue and gold glitter. It features lots of different sizes of glitter including large, medium and small hex glitters and bar glitters as well.

No flash photo. The duochrome shimmer base is the coolest thing about this polish. Let alone the chunky glitter which made me so excited. The shimmer base shows up mostly pink on it's own and over light colors but it transforms entirely over black. I can't wait to show you guys in the future!

Now i wish I didn't get mini's of these beauties!
Next on my list, 20% Cooler and Koi Pond! Rainbow Honey makes beautiful polishes!

You can purchase Rainbow Honey Polishes on her main website here and keep up with the updates on Facebook.

Lush Lacquer Snap Crackle Pop!

For this post I took a little break from my challenge because I couldn't resist trying out more of my Lush Lacquers!

This is Lush Lacquer Snap Crackle Pop! Obviously inspired by Rice Krispies, it is a blue jelly with blue, red and white hex & bar glitters.
I'm usually not a fan of bar glitters. No matter what I do, I can't get them to lay flat. The bar gliters in Snap Crackle Pop were actually pretty well behaved! I picked a few off that were curling up but other than that, they laid right against my nail.

I love the red/white/blue color combo. I'm not American, but I like that it's so festive! I wish I had this on the Fourth of July! This is 1 coat of Snap Crackle Pop over 2 coats of Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!. It's the perfect underwear, it's matches the blue jelly base perfectly.

Snap Crackle Pop has an awesome formula. This one coat covered this densely and I had minimal trouble over placement. I just dabbed the brush a little in bald spots and I was good to go!

I'm still wearing this mani right now. It's so much fun! I don't want to take it off!

You can purchase Lush Lacquer on Etsy in full size bottles or mini bottles like I have here. You can also visit them on Facebook!

Nail Art Challenge: Day 8. Metallic Nails Featuring Lush Lacquer Mr. Bubble!

Oh am I ever excited to show you guys today's mani. I doubled over in excitement when I got some precious nail mail from Lush Lacquer! I finally jumped aboard the indie train and Lush Lacquer was my first indie purchase. 

Beware, this post is a little picture heavy!
Anyway, let's get down to business.

Here is my little set of goodies! All of these polishes are gorgeous. I am a huge fan of glitter, so I couldn't wait to receive these polishes. Above all, Lush Lacquer was awesome with communicating to their customer about the time frame you should expect. They left a note on my purchase saying they'd need an extra 2 weeks to process my order due to such a high volume of orders. I definitely appreciated the notification.
I finally got these about a month later and it was WELL worth the wait. I mean, look at them! Gorgeous, gorgeous glitter bombs. I will for sure be purchasing from Lush Lacquer again. Thanks Karin & Lexi for your wonderful polishes!

So of course, I couldn't wait to see what they looked like on the nail. From left to right we have Mr. Bubble (2 coats & 1 coat), Pink Panther (2 coats & 1 coat), Snap Crackle Pop (2 coats & 1 coat) and Salt N Peppa (2 coats & 1 coat).
Beautiful, dense glitter madness. I was about to faint, I was so excited.

So I obviously wanted to incorporate one of these bad boys into my challenge mani. But let's start off with my base polish. This is the lovely OPI Birthday Babe. It is a nice frosty silver that has the awesome, dependably smooth application OPI is known for. This is my favorite silver I own.

This is two coats of Birthday Babe. No streaking or drag with this polish. Also, unlike most frostier polishes, you don't see any brush strokes with this beauty. A+ rating from me!

Then I topped it off with Lush Lacquer Mr. Bubble! This is one coat of this awesome matte glitter. It applied pretty evenly. I didn't have to poke any glitters around to get the placement right. I just did a little dab here and there to fill in any bald spots afterward.

Mr. Bubble is made up of micro, small, medium and large hex glitters in pink, blue and white. It is a party in a bottle. It reminds me of confetti or something I would wear to a baby shower. Super adorable. I can't wait to try this over some different colors.

You can purchase Lush Lacquer at their Etsy Shop and check them out on Facebook :)

Nail Art Challenge: Day 5. Blue Nails!

So, as you can see, I am definitely not doing these every day. I'm definitely trying to. I've been better at actually painting them every day than posting them!
This day I was especially excited, because my new Bundle Monster set came in the mail! All of the designs are so adorable. I wanted to use all of them. So hard to decide which to use first.

Well, anyway. Here's day 5, blue nails :)

This is Sally Hansen Instadri Blue Streak. It's a gorgeous sky blue shimmer polish. It has also a frosty finish as well as a nice shimmer. The color is just, oh my god. I can't even. For all you nail art addicts on a budget, Instadri polishes are amazing for the price. This is two coats. It applies evenly and doesn't streak too much.

I then sponged my tips with China Glaze Knotty from the Anchors Away Collection. It's hard to see in this photo, the flash did not agree with me here. It's a pretty subtle effect, Knotty isn't super shear but it is shear enough just to add a little sparkle.

Here is a more accurate, no-flash photo, to show the difference of colors. I really liked how shiny and shimmery this was. I typically like cremes the best and avoid shimmers and shiny finishes other than glitter, so I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but I do!

I then stamped a design from my new Bundle Monster plates! This is an image from BM-314 stamped with Kleancolor Black. I LOVE this design. It was so fancy and funky at the same time. I was really happy with the way this image stamped too. Super clean, and it didn't smudge at all.

Have any of you purchased the new Bundle Monster plates? How did you like them?
I have to say, it was worth every penny!

Nail Art Challenge: Day One. Glitter!

I love nail art challenges, they are good for keeping my brain going. Coming up with ideas for new mani's can be hard sometimes. I often get stuck in a leopard print rut. These are great to get me out of my rut!

Day one is glitter. I told you guys in my last post that I was back on the glitter train, so this was pretty good timing for me. I went to my local mall and popped into Claire's because I had been hearing a lot about their affordable polishes.

Check out all that glitter! I was definitely happy to find this. This set was $10.99 for 5 glitter minis (which are actually more like half-sizes, not minis). Super cheap! I was a little worried they would apply like glue, we are talking about Claire's here, they are no professional beauty company. However, I was pleasantly surprised!

This is one coat of China Glaze First Mate with one coat of this unnamed multi-colored glitter from the Precious Metals Claire's collection. Yes, I did just say one coat. This was awesome to apply. All of that glitter spread perfectly on my nail in one coat. I was shocked. Definitely a glitter packed polish.

Here's a sunlight photo. I love the color scheme of this glitter. I can't decide if it reminds me more of peacocks or Mardi Gras. I couldn't stop staring at my fingers while wearing this. I looked like I had jewels for nails.

Most of the glitter is green but there's plenty of purple and blue in there too. This is so exciting. I think everyone should own this set of glitters. This polish alone is worth the ten bucks.

Are you guys still on the glitter train? Or did you hop on the gradient train? Nail trends come and go but chunky glitter will always be one of my favorites.

If you would like do the challenge click here to see the daily requirements and drop me a comment with a link to your blog so I can check out your daily creations!