Happy 2016!

Happy New Year!  I kept it pretty simple again for New Year's.  Just a quick stamping mani using images all from MoYou London Festive Plate 05.

The base color is KBShimmer Black Pearl, from their new Birthstone Collection, available today.  Black Pearl was provided for review, regular swatches coming soon.  All the birthstone polishes are a combination of flakies and holo.  This is 2 coats of Black Pearl, which went on very smoothly.  It wasn't thick or lumpy, and dried to a fairly smooth finish that needed very little top coat to be perfectly smooth.  The flakies in Black Pearl give off a gold look, so I thought it would pair perfectly with Essie Good As Gold for the stamping.

Starting at the index nail, I used a fireworks design, then a clock striking midnight on my middle finger, champagne flutes on my ring finger nail, and a streamers/confetti design for my pinkie nail.

I also used a different design for my thumbs, which I just now realized I don't have any pictures of.  The design I used though is sort of a fireworks burst/shooting stars type look.  On Festive Plate 05, it's the design to the immediate left of the clock design.  I kind of slapped it on my thumbs, not sure of which design to put on them, and I was really surprised with how much I liked it.  I want to do a full nail look now with just that one image.  I think it would work well as an abstract, everyday look.

*Some polishes were provided for honest review.  Review contains only my personal opinions.*

Olé Caliente and Connect the Dots

This is just a quick mani I put together Thursday night.  I was getting bored with the rainbow manicure I did for the ASBMF Challenge but didn't feel like messing about with my ombre yet, since I'd never done one.  So I reached for an untried polish that I had recently bought, Essie Olé Caliente.  It was almost a one coater but I ended up using two just to even everything out.  Then I added a layer of Lynnderella Connect the Dots.

I wasn't going to do a post on this but there were two things about this manicure that made me decide to post and they both revolve around the fact that Olé Caliente is super pigmented!  I had Olé Caliente on my nails for almost two hours before I decided to do some layering with Connect the Dots, so it had been dry for a while.  But when I was adding Connect the Dots, the coloring from Olé Caliente started bleeding onto the white glitter and even transferred a little onto the brush, which I then had to clean.  It was much more noticeable in person than in the pictures, but you can definitely see the color smeared over the big white glitter on my index finger and in a couple spots on my middle and ring fingers also.  After I did my left hand, I decided to put some Seche Vite top coat on the nails on my right hand before adding Connect the Dots.  With a layer of top coat over Olé Caliente, I had no problems whatsoever when applying the glitter on my right hand, compared to my left.  Today, when I took this manicure off, there was some staining on my nails but honestly, not as much as I expected.  But the polish did a number on my skin when I was removing it.  My fingers looked like I had dipped them in Kool-Aid!  I think I spent more time cleaning the stains off my hands than I did getting the polish and glitter off my nails.  This still was a great color and formula wise, it was a breeze to work with when applying.  I'll just have to remember to add top coat to it first if I ever try to layer over it again, and to make sure I have extra time available for clean up when it's time to take it off.

Hauls: Essie and Whimsical Ideas by Pam

Back when I was deciding on what to do for the glitter sandwich part of the April Showers Bring May Flowers Challenge, one of the things I kept thinking about was this absolutely beautiful manicure I had seen on The Posh Polish.  Even though I ended up not doing something similar to Jamie's mani for the challenge, I had to go out to get Essie Marshmallow because I knew that one day soon, I would be using Marshmallow in a glitter sandwich.  So somehow an innocent trip to Target, to pick up some needed supplies and look to see if they carried Marshmallow, resulted in me coming home with 5 Essie bottles.  Target had Marshmallow in with their everyday Essie display, so I grabbed a bottle of that.  They also had a special display with the Essie Navigate Her Spring 2012 Collection.  I had seen this collection for quite a while at other stores but kept talking myself out of it.  I must have had a weak moment while at Target though because I ended up buying four out of the six colors.  So besides Essie Marshmallow, I came home that day with A Crewed Interest, Navigate Her, Ole Caliente and Orange, It's Obvious.

Essie Marshmallow in front.  Then (L-R) Essie A Crewed Interest,
Orange, It's Obvious, Ole Caliente and Navigate Her.

The other part of my haul post is from my purchase from Whimsical Idea by Pam.  I had seen a number of Pam's polishes on other blogs and I just couldn't resist any longer.  I sent her an email late one night to let her know what colors I wanted to order and by the morning I had an invoice from her.  Within a day of sending my PayPal payment, I had another email with tracking and two days after it shipped, my order had arrived and I was completely giddy over them all!  I decided on four of Pam's polishes: Hatched, Kismet's Pajamas, Peanut Butter and Jelly, and Seuss.

Other than nail polish, I've not one to be very girly-girl, but if you'll indulge me this one time...aren't these just the cutest bottles ever!!!  I seriously love the little bows on the caps and the pretty handwriting on the bottle labels.  Here are a few shots I took of my new prize possessions as I was opening the package up.

I love the little "thank you" card she put in with the order and, even though I was already familiar with the foil method, I also love the card she included with instructions for removing her glitter polishes.  I think that's a very sweet touch.  And here is the best picture of them all, a shot of the back of the bottles with a view of all that glittery goodness!

Hatched, Kismet's Pajamas, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Seuss

Ordering from Pam is a little unconventional compared to other indy polish brands, but it's super easy!  You can visit her Facebook page to view pictures of all of her polishes.  Once you decide what you want, you just have to email her your order to pea422000@yahoo.com.  Don't forget your shipping information!  You should get an invoice back within a few days with your total and PayPal instructions.  If you use a different email address for your PayPal account than the one you used to email in your order, make sure to let her know so that she can properly match up your payment to the order you placed.

Glitter Sammy Mattified

Just a quick post before I head to bed.  Last week, I wore the the OPI Big Hair...Big Nails glitter sandwich from the challenge for a few days but then I started to get bored with it.  I still didn't have any new ideas for the next part of the challenge, April Showers, and I wasn't in the mood after work for removing all that glitter, so the next best thing was to slap some Essie Matte About You on top of it.  I really liked the way it looked with the matte top coat added.  I never used to be into matte polishes but, especially with glitters, I'm really starting to love experimenting with matte finishes.

I have a small haul post I'm working on and some swatches of one of the polishes from my most recent nail mail, so I hope to have those two posts up within the next day or so.  And if the weather decides to cooperate tomorrow, I'll be able to take some pictures of my April Showers mani that I finally got around to doing today.

March 2012 Birchbox

This past Saturday, my March Birchbox arrived.  I had completely forgotten that I had opted in for the Teen Vogue Beauty Picks box for March.  Birchbox had sent out emails giving you the option to receive the Teen Vogue box rather than the regular box.  At first I wasn't sure what to do.  I was worried maybe the items would be a bit too young for me, but I think the idea of a special edition box intrigued me too much and I ended up choosing the Teen Vogue version.  So then when it arrived and I saw the outer sleeve with the Teen Vogue logo on it, I thought, "Uh oh!  What did I do?"  But when I opened up my Birchbox and saw a full size bottle of Essie As Gold As It Gets staring back at me, my eyes nearly bugged out of my head!

I have been flip-flopping on this polish for months.  For some reason, I just couldn't decided if I wanted to buy it or not.  Now, I don't have to think about it anymore because it's mine thanks to Birchbox.  I was also excited because I had searched online and saw that some people had received different polishes from the Luxeffects collection.  Out of the five polishes in the collection, I was really only interested in Pure Pearlfection and As Gold As It Gets.  They were the only two that weren't like anything I already had.  So I'm glad that I received one of the two I had originally considered buying (I then proceeded to go out this past Wednesday and buy Pure Pearlfection!).  I did a quick search online to see what people received in the regular Birchbox and I would have definitely liked a few of the larger items that were in this month's regular box.  Also, the regular March Birchbox had a full size bottle of Color Club polish, but I'm more excited about the Essie Luxeffects polish than I would have been with the Color Club polish.  So in the end, I'm still happy with my choice.

The other items in my March box were:

- Twirl by Kate Spade New York perfume sample

It says it's supposed to be a fruity floral.  It doesn't seem fruity to me at all, but it's still a really nice floral scent and a more mature scent than I would have expected in a Teen Vogue sponsored box, so that was a plus.

- Kerastase Elixir Ultime: nourishing oil to hydrate hair

I've heard a lot of good things about Kerastase so I'm excited to get to try this out because the full size bottle is pretty pricey.

- Tarte LipSurgence lip tint in Lucky

This is pink.  Like really pink.  I haven't decided if that's a good thing or not.  I've seen a few people post who got a different shade than Lucky, but I haven't tried this enough times yet to know if I'm happy with the shade I received or not.  Formula-wise though, I really like it.  I would buy it in other shades for sure.

- Twistband Hair Tie

This is actually my second twistband from Birchbox.  I received my first twistband in a box several months ago.  I'm happy to get another, I really like using them.  They hold very securely and don't rip any of my hair out of my head when I take them out.  And if I want to take it out of my hair, I can put it on my wrist and it's very comfortable to wear there for the rest of the day.

There was also a coupon for a special price on a Teen Vogue subscription and a $10 Off coupon for Modcloth.com.  I won't be subscribing to Teen Vogue but I definitely plan to check out Modcloth.com.  I already took a quick look through a few parts of the site and there is some really funky jewelry and home decorations listed.