Nail Art / Swatch & Review

   These weren't supposed to look like snowy, winter nails, I promise!  If you're having flashbacks to negative temperatures I give you my whole-hearted apology.  After wearing Color Club Over the Moon for a day and enjoying it's sunny-sky hue I thought puffy cloud tips would be pretty cute.  So I free-handed cloud tips using Zoya Purity.

Swatch & Review / Nail Art

Arizona, take off your rainbow shades...

   I grew up listening to the oldies.  So when it comes to a girl named Arizona, the song is all my brain can come up with.  I wonder who is the real inspiration behind Zoya's Arizona?  Anyway, this is a manicure that seemed so much better in my head.

Swatch & Review

   Today I have swatches of the very pretty Kismet from Color Club's second Halo Hues collection.  Before I gush about this holo I want to give a few updates about what is going on around here, though! Exactly 1 week ago I got a phone call from work saying "hey, we got the return to work note from your doctor, you're on the schedule next week".  Next.  Week.  As in yesterday.  My husband and I were so not expecting that!  We both figured I'd have until the end of January before I was given any hours at work.  So, last week quickly unraveled into hasty baby-sitter planning and me trying desperately to get as much as I could done before Sunday.  Only I didn't get a whole lot done because I mostly made myself depressed and incredibly stressed out.

   Now that everything is done I'm still recovering from my migraine-filled weekend, but work has been fine.  Little Freya does just fine without me for 9 hours, and having to pump breastmilk on my lunch break isn't so bad after all.  Still, this does eat up more of my time.  Until I become a Super Mom who can do it all (ha) I am aiming for a blog post schedule of Wednesdays and Fridays.  If I can manage anything more than that I'll just consider it a happy bonus until it becomes regular.

Swatch & Review / Nail Art

   First off, huge shout-out to my husband for replacing the inverter board in my laptop.  Now the backlight in my screen lights up again, so I can edit my pictures!  Yayyy...  The timing of that part dying last week was really bad - August 15th was my 2-year blogaversary, and I was too busy to bother trying to make a post on a different computer, or more aptly, a different screen.  (I don't want to edit colors on a screen I'm not used to.)  Anyway, happy belated blogaversary to me - celebrations shall ensue. =)

   Photographs don't do this manicure justice.  I did a little cloud design and it hardly showed in pictures...  I used Color Club Miss Bliss (pink linear holo) and Color Club Eternal Beauty (purple linear holo).  Miss Bliss is a slightly deeper shade of pink than Color Club Halo-graphic, because I love linear holos and the color pink I'm happy to have both in my collection!    But they are quite similar and you really don't need both...

   Anyhow, I can rave about the formulas on these polishes equally.  They were super-smooth to apply and very pigmented - wearable at 1 coat!  I used 2 coats for better depth of color, however.  Miss Bliss is a true pink color, and Eternal Beauty is true purple, not leaning too blue or red.  And they are so full of rainbows.  Simply awesome.  Check out my picture below from before I added the nail art!

   Two more untrieds have become tried and loveds!  What do you think of them?

Nail Art / Swatch & Review

   I was about to swatch Color Club Beyond when I realized that I never shared Harp On It on my blog, and realized they would pair very well.  Here they are swatched together, with a bit of nail art!

   I'm wearing these polishes without any base or top coat, so you can see how they have a smooth finish and nice shine all on their own.  Harp On It is Color Club's silver linear holographic polish from their first Halo Hues collection.  It took 2 coats for opacity, but the formula is very good.  So long as you keep your brush movements gentle and wait a little while in between coats you won't have any issues with dragging.  Beyond, the linear black holo, is fantastic.  I can't say enough good things about this polish!  I only needed 1 coat and it was totally opaque!  The formula is super-smooth and the rainbow effect is very strong.  I definitely recommend this polish if you're hunting for the ever-elusive perfect black holo, and don't want to spend a fortune.

   The lightning bolt accent nail makes me feel like my nails should be super-powered, haha.  My husband liked it and it was really easy to do!  All you need is a bit of tape and a pair of scissors.  First, start with your completely-dry base color.  This is important, otherwise your polish could be pulled off by your tape.

   Cut a zigzag into a piece of tape and place each piece on your nail to create your desired bolt shape.  Make sure the edges are smoothed down so no polish will seep under.  I'm using painter's tape.

   Paint the open area, and quickly but gently peel the tape off before your polish dries.  That's it!  Enjoy your snazzy nail design!

   After so little buying of STUFF this summer, this month's haul feels HUGE!  I've been quite happy with "shopping my untrieds", but I did pick up some really awesome new goodies as well!

   If the above picture seems a little bare in the upper right corner, that's it is.  I missed a polish!  Fortunately I managed to include it in the "close-up" photo...

Pure Ice Fairy Godmother and Salon Perfect Kaboom.

   These were both found at Walmart.  I've already swatched Fairy Godmother, which I love.  It's a perfect shade of purple and only $2 for a bottle!  Kaboom is a Floam-type glitter dupe, and the only one I found from Salon Perfect's summer neon glitter collection.  I'm really surprised that China Glaze didn't decide to put out these colors under their name, and make them more widely available.  Oh well.  I figure it should be handy for nail art!  Between one polish being a tricky purple and the other a neon these are very hard to photograph, but this quick picture is actually pretty accurate on my screen.

Color Club Beyond, Over The Moon, Kismet, Cosmic Fate, Miss Bliss and Eternal Beauty.

   The entire 2013 Halo Hues collection!  These were a gift from my husband, which makes them even more special!  I had the collection on my wishlist and he snagged them right away (without my knowing) when I found them at a decent price on Amazon.  The colors are awesome and very holographic.  I hope that Color Club keeps releasing more Halo Hues because they are so good for the price!

I♥NP Once Upon A Starry Night, Angel Burp, A Nice Chianti, All Gold Everything, Purple Stuff, 11:59, and (still boxed) Silver Spoons

   I snatched up polishes on my wishlist that were being discontinued when I Love Nail Polish announced them going on sale.  So far I've tried Once Upon A Starry Night and Angel Burp and shared them here.  I really love these polishes, from the super-cute but practical packaging they come in to the pretty bottles with their thin grippy handles.  The shipping was fast, too!  So glad to finally have these pretties in my collection~  These came right from http://www.ilnp.com/.

Cirque Dark Horse, Galinda, XX, Lullaby, Iris, and Kaleidoscope

   Finally, I splurged and bought all the Cirque Colors polishes on my wishlist.  They were actually all in stock at the same time (they never are during a sale... =( sigh!) so I gave in.  Didn't want to miss them if they get phased out or something!  I can honestly say that these babies are STUNNING.  They've been swatched on a lot of great blogs already, but I'll be sharing my own creations with them, too!  I have a sneaking suspicion that photos aren't going to do them justice, though...  These came from http://www.cirquecolors.com/home/.

   So, that's the damage for this month.  So many very nice polishes, it's hard to know what to try next!  If you have any requests for what you would like to see layered, compared, or reviewed in particular leave a comment below!

Nail Art / Swatch & Review

   I'm wearing an extremely princess-y manicure today!  I did these nails Saturday after deciding I wanted something holographic and was inspired by some pretty glitter gradients on other blogs.  Then I realized that all the polishes I used were essentially untrieds - swatched but never used in a manicure.  So I'll be talking a bit about them, too.

   So pink, so girly, so great!  For as much as I love pink I don't do pink nails that often.  I have a hard time finding the right pinks for my skintone.  These are the polishes I used:

Color Club Halo-graphic, Milani Pink Flare, Nyx Girls Dynamic Glitter and Salon Perfect Silver Sparkler.

   First let's talk about Color Club Halo-graphic.  How did I let this go for so long without doing a proper manicure with it?  From the 2012 Halo Hues collection, this pink is gorgeous in the bottle and cool-toned enough that I find it wearable.  I used two coats on my thumbs, index and pinky fingers, then my regular Poshe topcoat.  Once the manicure is totally dry the holographic effect comes back 100%.  Application is good for a holographic polish, but isn't very self-leveling.

   Milani Pink Flare is part of the One Coat Glitter line, but it is most certainly not opaque in one coat.  My right hand, pictured above, shows this polish at one coat on my ring finger and at two on my middle finger.  Both have one coat of Halo-graphic as a base/underwear color.  I must say I love this glitter, it is the perfect combination of soft and sparkly.  Different from my expectations but I don't like it any less.

   The photos below show my left hand.  I had the good sense to wrap my tips with Halo-graphic before putting on a coat of Pink Flare, so the sheerness isn't noticeable unless you're really looking.  My middle finger (three flower-shape paillettes) is wearing 4 coats of Milani Pink Flare, and if you look closely you can still see some VNL.  As soon as I saw how sheer it was I put a base coat of Color Club Halo-Graphic down on my ring finger, and only used two coats of Pink Flare.

   For the gradients I used a combination of Nyx Dynamic Glitter and Salon Perfect Silver Sparkler.  I started off by dabbing Dynamic glitter at the cuticles and then placed individual glitters from Silver Sparkler to fill in spaces that needed it.  I also used loose flower paillettes to enhance the gradient nails.  These nails would have had a lot of texture so I used extra topcoat until they were smooth and super glossy!


   The only negative thing about this manicure is that it is SO sparkly that it is hard to photograph!  There is so much glitz that my camera seems to be at a loss about which nail to focus on.  Of course, that quality is also what makes it so fantastic.  I'm really enjoying this glittery, rainbow-filled manicure!  =)

   Or, why it's going to be easy not to buy any polish during February.  (So long as China Glaze doesn't release their new holographic polishes in the US.)

   I ended up with over 35 new (or new-to-me) polishes this month, the above photo is missing a few because they are either on loan or scattered through my house.  January was a good month for polish because all my end-of-the-year sale purchases arrived along with a few sakes that took place right at the beginning of January.

   I snagged some Black Cat Lacquer polishes from my wishlist, they are: I Want Candy, Let Them Eat Cake, Put a Bird On It, and Women & Women First.  These came from etsy.  These are all so, so pretty!

   I had a most wonderful package of Different Dimension nail polish arrive.  Mostly colors that I've helped name, but a few other pretties to swatch and review, too!  I've gotten to try most of these already, and their posts are up on the blog.  The polishes shown above are: Honesty Feels A Lot Like Mean, Orbital, Vervain, Aorta Miss You But I Don't, All Red-y In Love, A Love Hue, and Love Her? I Don't Even Lacquer!  Not pictured because it is on loan to my Mom: Yours, Mine, and Flowers.  You can find these polishes on etsy.

      I picked up a couple discontinued polishes from Laquerlicious, Invitation Only and Mint N Chip Frappe.  Along with those I was sent three minis to review, Melted Ice Cream, Rainbow Sugar, and Tart Taffy.  Go check out those swatches!  These also came from etsy!

   Lush Lacquer had a sale, so I picked up my first polishes from them.  The colors I picked are Glitter Girls, Mr. Bubble, Oopsie Daisy, Pebbles, Pink Panther and Slumber Party.  These are all so cute!  Visit the Lush Lacquer shop on etsy.

   I snagged a couple OPI polishes from my wishlist, My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Don't Touch My Tutu!

   When Zoya had their promo for three polishes my husband got me a few cremes from my wishlist: Breezi, Jolene and Wednesday.

   These polishes were partly from a trade and given to me.  Pure Ice Material Girl, Milani Hot Pink, China Glaze Peachy Keen and Luna, KBShimmer Oh Splat!

   And nail polish in another form - jewelry!  Sweet Tips Nails had an amazing sale, so I picked up some necklaces and other accessories.  These are really cute!  The shipping prices are really good, too.  And yes, these came from etsy, too!

   So, a pretty good haul, I'd say!  A lot of polish to keep me busy this month and a lot of it from indie sellers.  The plan this month is to be good and not buy much.  ;P

   This post was almost going to be purely nail polish.  I had all my pictures ready to go and hoped to get my hauls of November posted in a timely manner when I had a surprise before work.  I was on the phone when my husband walked in with an ARMLOAD of packages, both the look on his face and his all-encompassing gesture saying "all this stuff is for you..."  Poor guy.  I was only expecting one package, but everything I bought in the past two weeks showed up together, haha.  And because I want to keep things by month to the extent possible (and one box had a giveaway prize in it!) I'd rather take more pictures, type more, and post late.  =)

   One of the first things to show up was my Cherry Culture order.  The eyeshadows are already put away so I'm snagging my picture from Instagram to show you those. 

   Nyx Single Eye Shadows clockwise from top: Cherry, Irises, Luxor, Seafoam Green, Baby Blue, Dust Sparkle and True Taupe in the center.  The Jumbo Eye Pencil is Black Bean.

 

   I was really happy to grab some of L.A. Colors' new glitter polishes, I've worn 3 already!  You can see my post of swatches here.

    From left to right: Candy Sprinkles, Broken Hearted, Glitter Bomb, Flurry, Tinsel and Cocktail.

   I picked up three new Milani polishes, as well. These are packed with glitter! My camera couldn't pick up all the sparkle and especially vibrant blue and purple glitter.

    Left to right: Lavender Fizz, Twinkle, Pink Flare.  They are all "One Coat" glitters.

   The highly anticipated Color Club collection of Halo Hues - holographic beauties - were released and I couldn't resist snagging a couple, as well as two other Color Club polishes from my wishlist.

   Left to right: Diamond Drops, Halo-Graphic, Harp On It, Wild At Heart.  ...Actually, every one of these polishes is technically a holo, cool!

   I also managed to get my hands on some of the new China Glaze colors from their Cirque Du Soliel and fall and winter releases. 

   It's A Trap-eze! is another glitter-in creme polish.  Looks fun in the bottle.  Pizzazz looks a lot like the glitter in It's A Trap-eze! with a clear base instead.  Interesting...

   Glistening Snow and Hello Gorgeous!  Absolutely loving the look of these microglitters...  Need to wear these soon!

   Here is something that is not make-up!  I'll have a review up on these soon so I'm not going into detail, but if you couldn't tell they are a set of mini camera lenses.

   At last I found a bottle of Wet 'n Wild Black Creme.  It was the only bottle in CVS, too!  I hope it is as good for me as all the race reviews make it out to be!  I also picked up Sparked.  Don't know if I really needed another pink-and-silver glitter, but I imagine it would make an awesome gradient.

   Pure Ice is releasing new colors!  I liked the unique mix of colors in Treasure Hunt, I just hope it didn't get it's name because of the effort required to get those diamonds out of the bottle!  Can't wait to try this one, either.  Here is a collage I made with pictures on my phone.  =)

   Then, the mail came...

   Maybe I should have broken this up into parts 1 & 2?  Haha, no worries, I'm not showing each individual item.  First off, I took advantage of the Zoya Dream Box offer to snag their new holographic microshard colors.  This picture doesn't do them justice.

   Blaze, Storm, Aurora...  They are better than I imagined!  But that is typical of Zoya.  By the way, they will be doing flash promos again soon, and they were a steal last year.  You have to sign up NOW to qualify for them.  Hurry and make an account!

   I sniped an eBay auction for a new stick of my favorite deodorant.  Pure Vanilla by LAVANILA.  Good stuff!  Mini review: it's natural, smells nice when I sweat, and it doesn't ruin clothing or leave residue.  Oh, plus it goes with most of my perfumes.  I have several by LAVANILA, and a few other vanilla fragrances, too.  =)

   I made my first purchase from My Beauty Addiction on etsy.  Just one group photo for all this stuff now because I will be picking it apart on the blog later.  Still, look, colors!!

   And finally, I'm so honored to have been chosen as a winner in Smashley Sparkles water marble contest!  That's right, my Citrus Splash marble was actually deemed worthy of a prize!  I was in third place, which originally didn't even exist, haha.  OverallBeauty generously provided the prize.  She included a cute little glass file, too!  But I'm not going into a whole lot of detail here, I'll make a separate post once I get to try my polish from Naild'It.  Thank you Kim, thank you Smashley!!

   My first bottle of Naild'It polish: Summer Lovin' Melon.  Can't wait to swatch it!

   So, this ended up being a lot of stuff, but very little was impulse buys thanks to crazy sales.  In fact I was pretty "meh" about most of the sales that went on!  How about you?