Nail Art

   Here is a manicure I created using the new Sally Hansen Color Foil polishes.  They were perfect for this technique, which is much simpler to create than you might think!  Yes, this is the art that was originally meant to go over Raven.  But this base color was more fun - it glows in the dark!

Nail Art

   Oh, readers, this post is a fun one for me to share!  You may think that with all the pastel colors around here that I am simply a girly-girl.  Not true!  Beneath my frilly, lacy outer layer you will find a cold, hard nerdy comic book geek.  Hey, sometimes your knight in shining armor is actually a knight in really tight spandex.  Don't complain, fellow princesses, you know a spandex spidey-suit is easier to clean than a full suit of armor.  Yay for wash-and-wear!  ...Moving on!


   See what I did here, channeling the vintage comic book cover style?  I'm pretty proud of it... not nearly as proud as I am of these nails, though!!  I painted them on May 3rd, in preparation of my my 2nd wedding anniversary day-early dinner & movie celebration.  (What a mouthful.)  See, I really am a geek - I totally felt this was a sufficient romantic date for an important occasion.

   So yes, this was nail art for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie - wait 'til you see the other hand! - but  promise that I will reveal no spoilers.  I hate spoilers!

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

   I'm currently getting over a cold (which is why I missed posting on Wednesday), while also dealing with a really cute baby that has decided not to stay asleep at night for the past two weeks.  My husband and I have been in a perpetual state of running-on-empty.  I've been depressed about my inability to get things done, but looking on the bright side (literally, since the sun is out and our snow is melting!) I do have a lot to be thankful for.  My very supportive husband, a generally healthy family, and getting to watch all the amazing accomplishments of our baby girl.  Little Freya will turn 6 months old tomorrow, is getting used to being spoon-fed, loves to sit up on her own, and yesterday she said her first word: "mama".

   The manicure I'm sharing today is one that came from poking halfheartedly through my untrieds, and then being surprised with how much I enjoyed wearing it.  The nail polish from I♥NP is called Absolute Zero, and it was an exclusive color only available with pre-orders some time back.  In all honesty I wasn't too enthused about it, navy blue isn't my thing, but I did pre-order some polishes, thus it ended up in my collection anyway.

   My swatches show 1 coat plus topcoat; I'm especially impressed that I only had to use 1 coat for a nice rich finish.  Absolute Zero has a slightly metallic and holo-infused finish.  It ended up being quite pretty in person and had a lot of life on the nail.    Sadly it doesn't come across very well in my pictures, and it also didn't seem to get along with my Poshe fast-drying topcoat, which was causing the polish to pull up around my cuticles.  I also found I had tipwear much faster with this manicure than I normally do with any other ILNP color.

Swatch & Review

   I've been so busy lately that I have fallen into a 1-mani-per-week routine.  Fortunately when I'm wearing polishes this gorgeous I'm happy to have them on my nails for a week!  Let's take a look at ILNP Washing Ashore and Zoya Bobbi, shall we?

Swatch & Review

   12 pictures.  I have a dozen photos to share of these polishes, and I still don't feel like it's enough to show off their pretty color shifting.  I tried a few different types of lighting to show the range of colors, but believe me when I say these two polishes are much more flashy in person.  These nails all started with a black base.

Swatch & Review

   How awesome is this combination of polishes?  ILNP Animal Cookie is one of the first polishes I saw from the brand, and it immediately landed on my wishlist.  It took awhile for me to get it it, but it was worth waiting for!  I used one coat for my swatch, and the glitter spread nicely.  I dabbed a little extra into a few bare spots and then it was perfect.  The mix of white and pink glitters pops over my base of Zoya Rocky.  Rocky is a semi-dusty turquoise blue creme, and I only needed two coats.

Nail Art / Mini Tutorial

   I was swatching Zoya Kristen a few days ago when inspiration struck.  Actually, a piece of fuzz struck.  Necessity is the mother of invention, right?  As soon as I was adding topcoat I noticed a very fine piece of red fuzz glossed into my index nail, like so:

Swatch & Review / Nail Art

   This was one of the items provided for review in my Violet VoxBox from Influenster. They would like us to share a "shining moment" we had while wearing the polish.  I didn't actually get to wear this for very long, but I did dress Sparkling Water up with some pearl-chain nail stickers.  As I was finishing my manicure, I had a realization...

   Are nail stickers "cheating" when it comes to nail art?  Should they even count?  Yes.  Just because you make a cake using a box mix instead of from scratch, will someone claim that you didn't bake a cake: you cheated?  No, you just made what you currently had time and ability to do.  We all admire the hand-piped frosting flowers, the mind-blowing 3D fondant creations that make their way to Pinterest collections... but sometimes you have to be content with sprinkles.  In the end it's tasty, you did make cake.
    With nail stickers and decals... they are quick and easy to master, but do take skill to apply in a creative, eye-pleasing way.  So what if I didn't sit down with a tiny brush and make each dot myself.  I still chose where I wanted the design, carefully cut them to the proper length, and carefully applied them with tweezers.  That's all I had time for.  And you know what?  It was pretty, I enjoyed the look - I did nail art.

   Now, let's get to what we're really after: a proper swatch and review of Sally Hansen Sparkling Water!

Swatch & Review

   Here's a really great glitter topper from I♥NP!  It's called Cheshire Blues, and it contains pale blue, periwinkle, white and pink glitters.  I was really impressed with this one, because I only used 1 coat on my middle nails and I did not have to fish for glitter!  I was totally surprised when my brush grabbed those 3 heart glitters!  China Glaze Electric Beat impressed me, too.  Perfect shade of blue and a wonderful formula.  Two nails took 2 coats and the others only needed 1!  These polishes are both from older releases but fortunately still available - do you have either of them?

   Also, my blog is getting an overhaul!  I'm doing all the work myself so please tell me if you spot anything that isn't right.  What do you think of it?  =)

Swatch & Review

   Still plowing through nail pictures taken before Freya was born, here is a manicure that nicely used 3 untried polishes.  The blue creme on my center fingers is China Glaze Fade Into Hue, a perfect periwinkle tone.  Love it!  The glitter over it is the same sauce in the bottle I'm holding; L'oréal The Bigger The Better.  In the bottle it looks uninteresting but it turned out to be black and silver tiny & micro glitter in a clear base.  The coverage was great - my swatch shows 1 coat.  And the outermost black nails are L'oréal Drop Dead Gorgeous, a black polish filled with silvery-white flecks.  In the bottle it looked like these might have some iridescence but it was lost on the nail.  Still, the coverage was great, so I'll keep it for my stash of black-with-something-extra polishes, since I love those entirely too much.  ♥

Swatch & Review

   Wow, a swatch post!  It has been so long!  Today I'm sharing Laquerlicious Star Attitude - 1 coat over China Glaze Def Defying.  This is an AWESOME combination!!  Seriously, I could not get over how bright and happy my nails looked.  I used 3 coats of Def Defying, though I could have gotten away with 2 on the glitter-coated nails.  Star Attitude only needed 1 coat because it is packed with all different types of glitters... star shapes, hexes, shreds, micro bars...  Despite being so full of gllitter application was easy, so this nail polish is a winner in my opinion!  Thanks for looking.  =)

Swatch & Review

   It's no secret that I looove Nyx products.  I have a whole slew of their eyeshadows, lipglosses, and of course nail polish.  When it comes to the polish I mainly have bottles from their cheaper Nyx Girls line.  I don't often see anything about these Advanced Salon Formula polishes.  So, I've been really curious about their quality.  Finally I decided to just go for it and try all of the pastel colors.  That is, the colors that have "pastel" in their name, and happen to go in sequential numerical order...

   I present to you swatches of Nyx Advanced Salon Formula: Pastel Yellow, Pastel Pink, Pastel Blue, Pastel Coral, Pastel Pistachio, Pastel Mint, and Pastel Lavender.  Let me start off by saying that I added a bit of nail polish thinner to all of the polishes because they were slightly thick, and I wanted them to be flowing a little better!  Not sure if this was because of sitting around or if these are all normally thick polishes.

Pastel Yellow

3 coats, plus topcoat

   This buttery yellow wanted to photograph a bit more vivid than it looks in person.  I had to use 3 coats for opacity, it looked streaky otherwise.  My topcoat helped to level the color out better.  I can't fault a pastel yellow for being a 3-coater, they usually are.  The color is very nice (a bit warmer than China Glaze Lemon Fizz).

Pastel Pink

4 coats alone

   This polish stands out as the lone shimmer in this group of pastels.  I could tell from the Online swatch that it wasn't going to be a plain creme finish, and was hoping for a hidden-shimmer creme instead.  This is more of a pink jelly with ultra fine pinky-purple shimmer.  I was surprised by how much I ended up liking the shimmer and even the color (I'm picky about pink polish), but the formula leaves much to be desired.  This wasn't as thick as the other pastels, but it was super sheer.  It went on streaky, patchy, blah...  Took 3 coats to look decent and 4 for me to be happy with the effect on my nails.  Shorter nails could be okay with 3.  I'm torn about this one. The squishy jelly effect is pretty, and the shimmer is brushstroke free... but I don't have patience for 4 coats of one polish!

Pastel Blue

2 coats, plus topcoat

   This is one of the colors I was most hopeful about, and I wasn't let down.  It is the best polish out of this pastel bunch.  Despite how pale a blue it is I only needed 2 coats, and it was the most willing to self-level out of all these colors.  I added topcoat and that only made it look more perfect!  I really love this light powder blue, and I think it will be a great base color for nail art.

Pastel Coral

2 coats, plus topcoat

   I don't often go for coral, but I did want to add a not-too-bright shade to my stash for nail art.  This color fits the bill nicely.  It's a pigmented true coral without being an eye-searingly bright shade or too warm for my skin.  On the note of pigmentation, this one did want to stick to my cuticles at removal time.  It took a little more remover than the other shades did to completely rid myself of its coral tinge.  This polish was thick and didn't want to self-level, so topcoat is a must.

Pastel Pistachio

2 coats, plus topcoat

   This really is pistachio green!  While the color names aren't super creative at least they are spot-on...  The coverage was good for a light green, good at 2 and surely better with 3 coats.  It is also on the thick side and needed topcoat to level it out more.  So, not the perfect polish but fully tolerable for a shade that is usually finicky.

Pastel Mint

2 coats, plus topcoat

   Nyx gave us blue, green, and blue-green here!  Sitting next to Pastel Blue this definitely has a minty green cast, so it isn't too confusing.  I like the shade but can't say that is the most spectacular mint ever.  It did have good coverage, though.  It also leveled out with topcoat.

Pastel Lavender

2 coats, plus topcoat

   This is a red-toned (but not pink-y) pastel purple.  I have several lavender shades but can't think of an exact dupe for this one.  I really like the color and I think it would work for most skin tones.  Once again this polish was quite pigmented and only needed 2 coats, but needed topcoat to level it out better.

   Here is what I can say about all the polishes:  They have very low odor; I hardly noticed any polish smell at all.  They remove easily.  I love the square bottles which are sturdy and store wonderfully.  The wide, flat brushes are easy to work with.  (Pastel Pistachio and Pastel Mint each had a stray long bristle, but I didn't need to trim it before use.)  And yes, they all had to be thinned.  (Pastel Pink was the least thick of all, but it was also a shimmery jelly instead of a creme.)  Rather than be watery pastels these seem to be so loaded with pigment that they are thick and not really good at leveling themselves out.  I can't really be upset about needing topcoat with most of these when I always use it anyway, but of course I'd prefer for these to have a smoother finish.  I am most impressed by the fact that I couldn't find dupes for any of these in all the pastel polishes I already own!

   They are pastels, though, and it probably isn't good to judge an entire line by just these.  Am I inspired to buy the rest of the Advanced Salon Formula line?  No.  But I will pick a color up if I'm curious about it... and it doesn't have a dupe for half the price in the Nyx Girls line.  What do you think?  If you own any Advance Salon Formula polishes let me know which ones they are and what you think of them, thanks!

Swatch & Review

   Good day, princesses!  I have another Laquerlicous creation to share with you today.  Behold the glossy, glittery beauty that is Sapphire Glaze!

   I love this polish!  It's so gorgeous!  In the shop it carries this description: "This polish is in a deep blue base with blue, teal and magenta micro glitter."  That is very accurate.  You can tell there is more than one shade of blue glitter, and the magenta glitters give it a little something special.  The deep blue base often makes the magenta glitter look like a deep purple on the nail, which is awesome in my opinion!

   Looking at the polish in the bottle I thought "well, it's a dark jelly, but I wouldn't be surprised if it took 3 coats by itself".  Not so!  It covers very well and I had no issues with visible nail line or bald spots on my nail.  Despite being packed with glitter the glitter is very easy to work with and spreads evenly.  It does have some texture by itself but it smoothed right out with topcoat, which added to the shiny jewel effect.

   This polish is perfect for princesses who love royal blues and/or having their tips sparkle like gems!  You can find Sapphire Glaze (and a range of other jewel-themed "glaze" polishes) at the Laquerlicious shop.  My thanks to Michelle for sending me this polish to share with everyone on my blog!

Swatch & Review

   I have several polishes to share today, princesses!  Prepare your eyes for a feast of sparkly goodness!  If you were a fan of the jelly-with-holographic-microshards beauties Aurora, Blaze and Storm that Zoya released you will like these, too!  I couldn't resist trying these new L.A. Girl polishes, and seeing how they compare...

From left to right: L.A Girl 3D Silver, Teal Dimension, Brilliant Blue, Sparkle Ruby, and Dazzling Pink

   The 3D Effect collection has 3 more polishes that I did not pick up: Electric Coral (I'm not really a coral-wearing girl), Purple Effect (looks like an exact dupe of Zoya Aurora, which I already own), and Black Illusion (a dupe for Zoya Storm, again I already own that polish).  All of them include the same silver holographic microshard glitter in a jelly base, except for 3D Silver, which is a clear-based glitter.  On to the swatches!

Top to bottom: Teal Dimension, Brilliant Blue, Sparkle Ruby, Dazzling Pink

Teal Dimension 

   I used 2 coats, no topcoat.  This is a true, deep teal color.  It reminds me of jewels and peacock feathers!  The jelly coverage is fantastic while still being sheer enough to show off a lot of holographic sparkle.  Very beautiful and a great color for heading into fall and winter.

Brilliant Blue 

   I used 2 coats, no topcoat.  Deep sapphire blue.  It brings to mind the night sky or ocean depths.  Not normally a color I would grab but the finish and look of this is irresistible!  It should be perfect as a base for nail art or sponged into a galaxy manicure.  I think the darker jelly base gives an illusion of less or smaller pinpricks glitters.

Sparkle Ruby 

   I used 2 coats, no topcoat.  Deep burgundy-red.  I absolutely love this color and was really surprised not to find any swatches of it while picking colors to buy from this collection!  The darker base makes it look less glitter-packed, but it sparkles beautifully.  And yes, Sparkle Ruby seems to be an exact dupe for Zoya Blaze!

Dazzling Pink 

   I used 2 coats, no topcoat.  Fun, flamingo-ish, warm toned pink.  This color was the most sheer and could probably use 3 coats.  It really shows the glitter!  I was on the fence about ordering this color because I'm picky about pinks, and sadly I don't think this one is the right shade for me.

L.A. Girl 3D Silver, 2 coats alone and 1 coat over black

3D Silver 

  Again, no topcoat used.  If you love the glitter but don't like any of the colors in this collection, this would be the polish to get.  It isn't going to have quite the same depth as the jelly-based colors, but it layers over any color to create an effect that looks the same from arm's-length away.  This is definitely a topper, I imagine it would take 5 coats to try to get the glitter opaque by itself.

   I'm going to talk about formula now because these all had the same formula!  In most reviews I found the swatcher said the polishes were thick, but that was not the case for me.  They aren't thin and runny, but they are very easy to use.  I didn't have any issues with pooling, dragging, or glitter being uneven.  Also, they dried fast.  I didn't use topcoat because they dried to a perfectly smooth, glassy finish all on their own.  Durability was good; I only had minor tip wear after a full workday.  Removal was a breeze, as well.  In my opinion these are all real winners.

   As for the glitter particles themselves, they are fantastic.  The fact that they are tiny irregular shapes makes the polishes interesting and unique.  The rainbow sparkle is hard to capture in photographs, so please believe me when I say it is there!  And in some lighting these polishes give a very faint linear holographic effect.  Otherwise I would classify these as scattered holo nail polishes.

   While this collection may not be L.A. Girl's most original batch of creations, it worth noticing.  If you were left wanting more by Zoya's holographic jellies last year, take a look at these.  (Don't bother buying repeats of the identical colors, though.)  If you like delicate sparkly toppers, pick up 3D Silver.  If you like solid-performing polishes that can be found for $5 a bottle or less, definitely hunt these down!  Here is the official webpage for this 8-polish collection.  I hope you found my swatches helpful.  =)

Swatch & Review / NotD

   My town is currently experiencing a heat wave, with temperatures hitting 90 every day this week.  (In our little arctic suburb, this is a big deal.)  I don't complain about the weather, but I will admit that it has sapped my creativity the past few days!  I come home from work and crash; it's too warm to get up and do things until 8pm when the sun is going down.  So rather than paint my nails last night, I waited and did them this morning.

   I used I♥NP Angel Burp and Essie Sweet Talker.  I looove this easy-on-the-eyes cotton candy combination!  My nails feel so delicate and pretty.  Both of these polishes were untrieds for me, so let me tell you about them~

   Story time!  Essie Sweet Talker is from their 2010 foray into retail sales.  (In fact, it was an exclusive color, so all bottles of Sweet Talker should have a white printed "Essie" on the side, and a sticker with the name on top.)  This color landed on my wishlist right away when I was first getting into polish, and I managed to track down a bottle (along with a bunch of other colors) on eBay.  Then it was put away in a box, where it sat, and sat... and sat.  I have a few Essie polishes I love, but I learned that more often than not I don't like the brand's formula, so I allowed myself to be distracted by other polishes for quite awhile.  I was afraid Sweet Talker would be sheer, pool-y and need at least 3 coats.  Today I'm happy to say that it exceeded my expectations.  I used 2 careful coats, giving it time to dry in between.  It is actually a bit on the thick side - I'll add a bit of polish thinner to my bottle.  The aqua microshimmer in the bottle isn't as visible on the nail, but it doesn't disappear, either.  And I love the pastel blue.  I want a straight-up creme in exactly this color!

   I♥NP Angel Burp is a really pretty glitter in a shimmery clear base.  On my thumb I'm wearing 2 coats, the other nails had 1 coat.  The formula was a bit thick and I did get some teeny bubbles when I was squishing glitter around with my brush - these really only show in pictures.  I topped it off with 1 coat of Poshe and don't have any texture from the glitters; they are thin and lay very flat!

   And what pretty glitters they are.  Satin pink squares and hexes mixed with iridescent squares!  (I'll definitely be combining this with Nyx Girls Dreamy Glitter sometime for a manicure filled with pink pastel shape goodness.)  The iridescent squares shine with a whole rainbow of soft hues, not just the peachy-pink that you see in the bottle!  If you don't already have this glitter and you love it as much as I do, be quick!  This is another discontinued I Love Nail Polish shade, but I saw it is still available at http://www.ilnp.com/ as of today!

Swatch & Review / NotD

   Good evening, princesses!  Here is a manicure that is sure to give you sweet dreams about polish.  ;P  I was fortunate enough to snag Once Upon A Starry Night during I♥NP's clearance sale, and found the limited edition Pure Ice color Fairy Godmother, which pairs wonderfully as a base color.  Also, I think I may have found my "pose" for pictures.  Holding my hand at an angle seems most comfortable.

   I used one coat of I♥NP (I Love Nail Polish - what a great brand name!) of Once Upon A Starry Night, which is a clear-based glitter with a really nice density for using as a topcoat.  The glitters in it are prismatic, silver, blue, and matte white.  It contains holographic silver stars but not very many of them.  Getting one of the stars is a treat, and the nails without stars don't look like they are lacking.  I've had this polish on my wishlist since I first saw it announced last year!  Sadly this shade is now discontinued - sorry!

   ILNP definitely earns their tagline of "boutique nail lacquer": the super cute packaging, the wonderful brush and good formula...  I'm not sure if this bottle is made with the original or reformulated glitter base.  (The suspension base was changed after complaints that the polishes were great but smelled horrible.)  I can say that this does have a polish smell but it is not at all offensive!

   Pure Ice Fairy Godmother is a perfect amethyst shade that will. not. photograph. accurately.  I tried color-correcting the photos and gave up, because by the time the polish was looking right my hands looked fiery.  Yes, this is a cool-toned purple, but it is more red than this.  It's a medium type of purple that isn't too bright, too dark, too pastel or dusty.  It also seems to have a faint hidden shimmer.  I used two coats, and coverage was very good.  The formula is on the slightly thick side.

   These are two really pretty polishes that work great together!  Pure Ice is sold at Walmart, and you can find I♥NP shades at their website:

NotD / Swatch & Review

   Oops, this manicure almost got away from me!  These were my nails on January 1st, two weeks later I finally realized that I forgot to post about it!  I ordered 5 of the Jelly Syrup colors by Nfu-Oh, and figured that since I have 5 fingers on each hand I could use them all together.  And because they are jelly polishes I should do use them for jelly sandwiches!  The awesome black & white glitter Social Suicide from Different Dimension was my choice.

   As seen above:  The Nfu-Oh colors I used are #05: yellow; #10: true pastel pink; #13: lavender; #15: robin's egg blue; and #17: pastel green.  These are on the bright and vibrant side of pastels, but they are still pastels to me.  It was very hard to narrow it down to just these five colors to start with, but I know I'll use them a lot.

   I started my manicure with two coats of each color.  As you can see they are sheer, shiny, and squishy-looking.  The first coat tended to be a little patchy but the second coat leveled it out well.  I was careful with my brushstrokes to get a good spread of polish on each nail.  I was really impressed with the yellow, I didn't expect it to be so bright and it was more opaque than the purple.  After admiring how pretty these jellies are by themselves I put one coat of Social Suicide on each nail and covered it with the jelly color again.

   I loved this look so much!  It seemed like my nails were tiny pastel dinosaur eggs, hehe.  I used one coat of my Poshe topcoat to seal everything in and they dried to a super-shiny smooth finish.  Three coats of these polishes made for good opacity, though they were still sheer at the tips.  You could use a creme-glitter-jelly combo if you have a creme that would match one of these jellies.

   My pink thumbs were my favorite nails of all, if only because I think pink, black and white is an awesome combination!  I would wear a complete manicure of any of these colors, but especially this pink!  I was also very happy with the wear I got out of this manicure.  It stayed very shiny and it didn't get any chips.  I have always been impressed with my Nfu-Oh polishes and these followed that trend.

   I'd definitely recommend these polishes if you like the jelly look and what you can do with them.  If pastels aren't your thing there are a bunch of other colors in this line, too!  I buy my Nfu-Oh polishes from FabulouStreet.com - the customer service is great!  Social Suicide is available in the Different Dimension etsy shop!  Let me know if you have any of these polishes and what you think of them.  =)