Greetings fellow Princesses!  How has your month of May been?  My husband and I are back from our travels and it has been back to "the real world" for us.  At the beginning of this week my Mom helped me arrange (or pulled me into) a really fun get-together where I was expected attempted to be a good teacher and show some friends how to water marble your nails!  I knew it was going to be fun no matter what, but I was really pleased with how everything turned out!  =)

   First off I spent time before the party practicing my marbling skills.  This was helpful because I needed to feel comfortable, and I was able to test polishes to bring with me to the party.  I tried to make many different styles of marble designs to show what a variety you can get.  Everybody got to look at these beforehand for some inspiration.


   There were six of us altogether, so I set each of us up with a dish of filtered water and the necessary tools.  I talked about the process, then had everyone stand close by as I did my first nail.  That was all it took!  Everyone rushed back to their nail stations and started doing their thing!  These were the results.  (Please keep in mind that these are candid, before-clean-up shots that I snapped in fairly poor indoor lighting!)

Miss Heather's Nails
Colors Used:  China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, and her own coral from Spoiled
   These colors really pop together!  Heather says she is inspired to let her nails grow longer to do more marbling, but in my opinion this shows how great marbling can look on short nails, too.  Lots of great swirls here!  (One of the highlights of the party was when she forgot to mask off her thumbnail and her whole thumb came out with a beautiful swirly design.  I assured her it happens to everyone eventually!  Water marbling is messy business, and when you get a lot of polish on your hand it's easiest to let the polish dry on your skin, then wash it off with soap and water.)

Grammee's Nails
Colors Used:  China Glaze Aquadelic and Sinful Colors Hazard, with China Glaze Riveting accent nails
   My grandmother is awesome.  Not one of those ladies to go get a boring manicure from a salon, she does her own nails and comes up with great layering combinations.  Now, she water marbles!  (Yes, I have had quite the influence on her.)  Her nails look great and she's definitely getting the hang of it!  I can't wait to see what she tries next.

Michelle's Nails
Colors Used: China Glaze Blue Iguana, 108 Degrees, and Senorita Bonita, also as a solid color
   My friend and fellow polisher Michelle snapped up these sparkly glass-fleck hues that look fantastic together, and especially good on her!  She did the more conservative "marbled nails as accent nails" approach, which left her with more time for clean up afterwards.  I'm inspired to try a manicure like this some time!

Mom's Nails
Colors Used:  Essie French Affair, Bachelorette Bash and Little Brown Dress
   She started off with her own Zoya colors that refused to marble on the water, so I switched her to some of my Essie polishes that would give a similar look.  (The sad truth is that not every polish works for water marbling.)  Fortunately these shades are super easy to marble with and she ended up happy!  I think we could vote her nails as Most Swirly; she went for an every-nail-unique look.

Ruth's Nails
Colors Used:  Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, Zoya Caitlin and her own Wet 'n Wild dark purple
   Ruth got away before I could take a pre-clean up photo.  Don't let her professional after shot fool you - she had the most polish on her hands!  ;D  But wow, this sure doesn't look like a first time water marble, either - these nails are great!  And rather than fight with marbling her thumbs she painted them solid.

   Everyone did a fantastic job, had a great time, and all agreed that they wanted to keep going after they had ran out of nails to marble.  Success!  It made me really happy to be able to do this with my friends and family.  Oh, I that's right, I did my nails, too.  By the end of the party I only had about 3 nails done on my first hand because I tried to be there to get people more supplies and advice as needed.  This was the result on my right hand:


   I was going for a marbled rainbow gradient, and I'm pleased with the effect, though I think I could have picked some better colors.  The colors, from top to bottom are China Glaze Light As Air, Something Sweet, Peachy Keen, Lemon Fizz, Re-fresh Mint and Bahamian Escape.

   I also want to take a moment to thank my Mom for hosting the party, those who supplied the tasty snacks we had, and everyone who enjoys these awesome nails!  If you haven't tried water marbling yet, do!  If you already know how, host your own party!  =)

Swatch & Review

   This is the lovely Yours, Mine, and Flowers by Different Dimension.  I can take credit for the name but I had nothing to do with the blend of glitters.  I loved this polish so much I wore it twice in a row!  Partly because I wanted my swatches to really show off the pastel glitters, and black was better for that.  So here is one coat of Yours, Mine, and Flowers over Wet 'n Wild Black Creme.

   Yes, this really is one coat, and yes, you really do get that many flowers in one coat.  Missi knows what she is doing with her polishes!  No skimpy glitters here.  Also, do you see the bright blue sparks on my nails here?  Those are color-shifting glitters.  They look more purple in the bottle but they show up blue on my black base.

   This is how I first wore Yours, Mine, and Flowers - one coat over China Glaze Sea Spray.  This winter-sky colored polish gave my nails a much softer and more subtle look.  The color shifting glitters only faintly flashed purple.  The colors in this clear-based polish are satin finish baby pink, lavender, pale green, powder blue and white, as well as matte white in the tiny glitters.  It's a really pretty blend.

   The formula on this was very good, though it is a little more slippery than some of the other Different Dimension glitters.  I had to use a light hand so I wouldn't drag the glitter around, and give it a moment to set.  It is packed with glitter, but here is my tip for super-easy flower catching: leave the bottle upside down for a half hour before you use it.  Yours, Mine, and Flowers was just added to the Different Dimension etsy shop over the weekend, so you can go pick up your bottle there!

Swatch & Review

   Of the three Laquerlicious mini polishes I received to review, Tart Taffy has to be my favorite.  A metallic rainbow and matte white glitter polish in a clear base, it hits all the right notes.  I chose to layer it over Wet 'n Wild Black Creme to really make it pop.  I can't figure out what this combination reminds me of, but I love it!

   I only used one coat on my nails except for my ring finger, which got two.  This glitter spreads very well and I didn't have issues with it clumping or dragging to the edge.  It's like a paint splatter manicure without all the mess!

   The mix of glitters are so perfect, too.  The matte white comes in tiny hexes, small and medium squares, and medium hexes.  The rainbow colors are all medium size, and they come in hexes, squares, and circles!  Yes, circles!  I can't get enough of how nicely this has been blended.

   I wouldn't have thought this glitter was so great from the bottle picture Online; getting a mini to swatch was my eye-opener.  I hope my swatches were able to do the same for you!  This glitter is a stunner and I recommend it to any fan of rainbow glitter, white glitter, and rainbow-and-white glitter!  As always Laquerlicious polishes are sold on etsy - go check them out!

Swatch / NotD

   It took me way too long to get around to wearing this polish after nabbing it from a blog sale.  Butter LONDON Knackered had been on my wishlist for awhile, though I had no idea what the name meant.  It prompted me to look into British slang, and in that way I found that it means basically means exhausted.  Cool!  British slang is fun!  And so is this polish.

   I have to admit that I was knackered when I did my nails.  I used one coat of Wet 'n Wild Black Creme as my base (yes, it really is good - my first time trying it), and one coat of Knackered over top.  I didn't do my best work with this manicure, and I didn't realize how sloppy it was until it showed in the macro shots... yikes!

   Butter LONDON Knackered has a thin consistency that dries pretty fast.  I think it would have looked better with either two coats or a thicker, better-applied coat.  Even so this polish is super gorgeous, looking the most stunning in low light when it's holo microglitter sparkles like crazy and it has more of a blackened smoldering effect.

   The purple-to-green shift this polish has is awesome.  It also shows pale blue in the bottle but I don't really see that on the nail.  I believe that is just from the sheer tint of the polish.  If I use Knackered alone it would look more grey-blue, and not have such a strong color shift.

  The sparkle reminds me of China Glaze Fairy Dust very much.  I expect you could create a similar manicure just by layering Fairy Dust over your favorite duochrome polish.  I loved wearing Knackered so now I'm inspired to create other versions of this manicure through layering.  What do you think of it?

   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?

   One of my blogger friends, Maria from Nails Made Simple was having a blog sale to clear out a bunch of polishes.  She had a couple colors from my wishlist, and some things that were just too pretty to pass up!  On Friday this box arrived in the mail:

   When I bought my new L.A. Girl Supernova nail polish I intended to wear it over black, but never had time to put it over my black weekend nails.  I swiped it over one nail later to see what kind of coverage it had.  Besides being a really pretty glitter, it reminded me of rain (probably because we just had a huge rainstorm..).  So I created this little mani instead!

   My base color was China Glaze Caribbean Blue, which is a lovely glass-fleck filled color.  Here it is alone, and before clean-up:


   Then I used L.A. Girl Supernova - one coat over all nails.  This is prismatic string/bar glitter floating in a grey base.  It worked to dull the Caribbean Blue, though it looked a little streaky in spots where I dabbed on extra glitter.  The sky gets a sort of mottled look during rain anyway, though, so it's all good.  I made my stormclouds using China Glaze Pelican Gray, the polish has a bit of shimmer too it and is the perfect color for rainclouds!  Here is my right hand, which had no faces:


   It was easiest to use the nail polish brush to create the clouds, and touch them up with a dotting tool where needed.  The faces were made by first dotting my Pure Ice Pink Ice polish to make blushing cheeks, and then I used a small dotting tool to add eyes, and then small mouths with Wet 'n Wild Ink Well.

   I thought I waited long enough to seal it with top coat but sadly the black polish was pulled and ran a little.  =(  And my pinky cloud looks more "hmph!" than happy, but oh well.  They are cute anyway.  So yes, this mani was easy to make and needed no fancy tools.  Who knew that bar glitter is like rain in a bottle?!  Supernova is super blingy and fun to wear, and removes easily.  Also, after a full day of wearing I have zero tip wear!

   At the start of October I was pleasantly surprised - I won a giveaway for my choice of three piCture pOlishes!  I have to give a huge thank-you to both piCture pOlish and Johanna from Paillette.  The polishes just arrived Monday so I immediately painted my nails up with one of the colors, Twinkle.  Find out my other two colors at the end of this post!