KBShimmer Summer 2014 Collection

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KBShimmer just released their new Summer 2014 Collection this past Friday and I was able to try out 6 of the 12 polishes in the collection.  If you've been following me on Instagram, you probably already saw a few swatches that I had posted leading up to the release, but today I've got a whole lot more to show you.  Picture heavy post so follow the jump cut below to see all the swatches.

KBShimmer Partners In Lime Goes Wild

Corny title, I know.  But it was the first thing that popped in my head, so I'm going with it!  After swatching polishes from the KBShimmer Early Summer 2014 Collection, I loved Partners In Lime so much that I put it back on.  I wore it for a couple days just by itself, no top coat.  But then I decided to add a little stamping, and once again I was drawn back to the tiger/zebra print pattern on Bundle Monster plate BM-223.  I thought about going with a darker green to stamp with, but opted instead to use black for something a little more bold.

After stamping, I finished the look off with two coats of Seche Vite.  The first coat made the mani fairly smooth but, because of the texture, I decided to go for a second coat of Seche Vite to get a perfectly smooth finish.

As much as I loved Partners In Lime without top coat, it was so beautiful with top coat.  I loved the way the different color glitters sparkled between the black animal print design, especially when I was out in the bright sunlight.

KBShimmer Early Summer Collection 2014 - The Textures

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Today is the launch of the new KBShimmer Early Summer 2014 Collection and I have the last 3 polishes I received for review to show to you.  These are the new textures and I have to say they are pretty cool.  The polishes are not super textured.  They contain quite a bit of glitter so they are chunkier compared to something like Zoya's regular PixieDust polishes, but they are not as chunky as the newer Zoya Magical PixieDust shades.  The textures all have a jelly base and dry to a semi-matte finish.  I got full coverage with all three shades with just 2 coats, but I did dab on a bit more polish in a few spots that seemed to not get as much glitter.  And I wore these without top coat, to keep the textured finish.  First up is my absolute favorite of the entire Early Summer Collection, Partners In Lime.

I love this bright lime jelly base, containing lime green, aqua and gold holographic glitters.  I wore this polish again after swatching but with top coat and some stamping, and the glitter really made the whole design pop.  I'm hoping to get a separate post up on that mani in the next few days.

The 2nd texture polish is a bright turquoise called She Twerks Out.

She Twerks Out is full of holographic glitters in teal, lime green, aqua, and violet.  Really easy application in just 2 coats, with just an extra dab or two near the tips to cover a few spots of visible nail line.

The last of the 3 textures is a bright purple called Too Pop To Handle.  The jelly base in this was more opaque, I applied two coats and didn't feel like there were any spots I needed to touch up.

Too Pop To Handle contains violet, magenta, pink and aqua holographic glitters.  It had a smooth formula, as did all three of the textures.  And all three, when dry, had the same degree of texture to their finish.

I have to say that at first I was a bit worried when I heard KBShimmer was releasing some textured polishes, just because there are so many textured polishes out there already.  But I ended up really liking these three textures a great deal, especially because of the multi-colored glitters mixed in.  I've only tried top coating Partners In Lime, but I had great results so I plan to try it out with the other 2 textures and use them as a base for some nail art in the near future.  The texture polishes retail for $8.75 each.  The textures, as well as the entire Early Summer 2014 Collection, are available for purchase starting today at KBShimmer.com.

*Polish sent for honest review.  Review contains only my personal opinions.*

KBShimmer Early Summer Collection 2014 - The Holos

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Today I have some of the new holographic polishes that KBShimmer will be releasing this Friday, May 23rd, as part of the Early Summer Collection 2014.  There are 6 holo polishes in all.  I have the 3 more neutral colors to review for you.  For each shade, I am showing 3 coats of polish without top coat.  All 3 of the holos had quite smooth formulas, and I had no issues with application.  First up is In Bare Form.

This post will be a bit more picture heavy than the previous post, so follow the jump for the rest of the swatches.   

KBShimmer Early Summer Collection 2014 - The Creams

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This coming Friday, May 23rd, KBShimmer will be releasing their new Early Summer 2014 Collection.  There will be 12 polishes in this new collection, and throughout the next several days, I'll be previewing 8 out of the 12 shades for you.  Let's start with 2 of the creams in the new collection.  First up is Low & Be Bold, an extremely bright blue, slightly jelly polish.  Shown is 3 thin coats of Low & Be Bold without top coat.

Application was a breeze.  It covered completely in 3 coats.  There is just a hint of visible nail line showing up in the pictures, but in real life I actually didn't even notice it.  You might even be able to get away with full coverage in 2 thicker coats. 

The second cream I have to show you is called Right As Reign, which is a deep, bold purple.  It also has a bit of a jelly finish to it, but it is far more pigmented compared to Low & Be Bold, so it doesn't come across as squishy as its blue counterpart.  Right As Reign covered completely with just 2 coats.  The swatches below are also shown without top coat.

Low & Be Bold and Right As Reign, as well as the 3rd cream in the collection, Let's Not Coral, will retail for $7.50 each when released on May 23rd at KBShimmer.com.  You can also follow KBShimmer's Facebook page for more blogger swatches from the collection.

*Polish sent for honest review.  Review contains only my personal opinions.*

KBShimmer Spring 2014 collection

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The new KBShimmer Spring Collection for 2014 has been announced and is set to go on sale later this week, on March 14th.  There will be two parts to this new Spring collection, The Glitters & Holos, and The Creams.  Christy will be releasing 16 new shades in all and I have 4 of them for you to preview today.  Follow the jump for swatches of all 4.

KBShimmer Swatch Spam

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Along with the new KBShimmer polishes I was sent to review back in August, I also received several mini bottles of core collection colors.  I've had these swatched since August but just never got around to posting them.  Bad Sarah!  However, if you follow KBShimmer on Facebook, then you may have seen the new Trick or Treat promotion that Christy is running.  If you happened to have missed the announcement, check out the details here.  With the new promotion running, this seems like a great time to finally get these swatches up!  

Be prepared, this is going to be a bit picture heavy.  Check out all the swatches after the break.

KBShimmer Vicious Circles

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Today, the KBShimmer 2013 Fall Collection was officially announced!  Head over to Christy's blog to view the full announcement.  The new line won't be released until September 1st, but here are some swatches of one of the new polishes, Vicious Circles, which Christy was nice enough to send to me to preview for everyone.

Vicious Circles is described as "a blood red jelly loaded with silver holographic circles in two sizes, silver holographic hex glitters and holographic silver micro slices."  All pictures show three coats, which I followed by applying one coat of Gelous and one coat of Seche Vite.

I love the way the holographic circles look suspended in the jelly polish.  You will love this even if you're not a fan of bar glitter.  The micro slices are a very subtle touch to the overall look.  There is a generous amount of glitter in the polish, which was super easy to apply and the glitter spread evenly over the nail.  This shade, along with the rest of the new fall line will be available for purchase starting September 1st at the KBShimmer site.

*Polish sent for honest review.  Review contains only my personal opinions.*

KBShimmer Celebration Duo: The Grape Beyond and Would Jubilee It?

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This month, KBShimmer is celebrating its 5th year in business!  In honor of this accomplishment, Christy has released 2 new polishes, The Grape Beyond and Would Jubilee It?, plus everything on the site is 20% until August 14th.  So not only are all the great polishes on sale, but so are the other great KBShimmer products like Christy's handmade soaps, bath bombs, sugar scrubs and more.  Christy sent along a few samples of her polishes for me to show everyone throughout the month of August.  Included was the Celebration Duo, which I'll be showing you today!  These two polishes are sold separately, but are meant to be paired together.  First up is The Grape Beyond, a matte purple polish with a slight turquoise shimmer.

It took only 2 coats for full coverage.  This is a really great shade of purple.  I don't find myself wearing matte polishes very often, but I really do love the matte look of this polish.  After I finished swatching the other samples Christy had sent, I found myself reaching for this to put back on.  I got several compliments this morning when I walked into work wearing it, even from friends who don't usually gravitate to matte finishes.

The turquoise shimmer is very strong in the bottle.  It is much more subtle on the nail, but you can still see it at close range.  And if you decide to top coat the polish, it brings out the shimmer even more, as you can see below.

The second polish is Would Jubilee It?, a great glitter topper that Christy describes as containing all of her favorite glitters: "circle glitters in fuchsia, aqua and silver, hex glitters in sapphire and turquoise, and micro slices in fuchsia, aqua and silver."  I layered one coat of Would You Jubilee It? over The Grape Beyond.  This is definitely loaded with glitter, so I applied a generous coat of Gelous before finishing it off with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

This glitter would work great over a number of colors, like a bright turquoise or maybe a baby blue cream.  It really does compliment The Grape Beyond perfectly though.

You have until the 14th to take advantage of the anniversary sale on the KBShimmer site.  For international customers, check out the KBShimmer page at Harlow & Co., where KBShimmer is also on sale!  I'll have swatches of a few other KBShimmer polishes throughout the the week.  In the meantime, you can check out some posts from last year of a few KBShimmer polishes I purchased myself, Berry Patch and Orange-A-Peel.

*Polish sent for honest review.  Review contains only my personal opinions.*

KBShimmer Orange-A-Peel

Recently, KBShimmer moved the sale of their nail polishes to their regular retail web site, KBShimmer.com.  Even though the polishes are going to be listed online at all times for ordering, rather than dealing with the Etsy free-for-all, you better believe I was there to place my order the second the polish went live!  I could have easily bought a mountain of polish, but I decided to limit myself to the two I wanted most.  I ordered Proud Peacock, which I was too slow to grab on the last Etsy-go-round, and Orange-A-Peel, which is part of the new neon collection.  I was a little torn between Orange-A-Peel and Orange Pop, but after comparing swatches of the two online, I went with Orange-A-Peel because I found the glitter combination in Orange-A-Peel more interesting.  A few days later when my order arrived, I knew I had made the right choice!

Orange-A-Peel is kind of a deceiving polish.  When I was looking at the bottle in person, I was thinking it didn't seem as neon as I had expected.  It almost looked like it was leaning more towards pastel orange.  But then I put it on my nails and the color really started to pop.  It's a super bright neon and I don't think the pictures really can capture the glow that comes off your nails wearing this.  I'm not sure if it's the POUNDS of glitter packed into the polish that makes the color look more washed out in the bottle, but even in a dim light, the neon on your nails is really strong and noticeable!  As stupid as it may sound, if I was anywhere near a mirror while wearing it, I would catch glimpses of my nails reflected in the mirror out of the corner of my eye and totally distracted.  All pictures are of 3 coats of Orange-A-Peel, 1 coat of Gelous and 1 coat Seche Vite.

I'm really loving KBShimmer's polishes.  I've worn two so far and cannot wait to try out the other two I own.  Be sure to check out all the polishes currently on their site as well as all the handmade soaps, lotions and other goodies they have available.  Besides the polish, this time I made sure to buy one of the soap samplers.  I hadn't even unwrapped the soaps yet and I could smell them throughout my house.  They are awesome.  They currently have 23 different scents available and will be adding several more soon.  So if you're at all like me and hate trying to just pick one of anything, the sampler is a great and inexpensive way to test out 6 different scents at a time before you decide to order any in the full size bars.

KBShimmer Berry Patch

After taking off my dark green snakeskin mani, I wanted to go in the opposite direction with something a little softer and girly.  Gah!  Me, girly?  Well, only when it comes to nail polish!  A few weeks back, I made my first successful indie purchase off Etsy.  I usually get shut out on Etsy restocks because I think I hesitate and over-think what I want to buy or just don't have a game plan going in.  But when KBShimmer did her last restock, I managed to snag Newsprint and Berry Patch.  Newsprint was the reason I was stalking the restock to begin with, but when I saw Berry Patch, I knew I had to have it also.  I'm so glad I got it because it's awesome!  When my shipment arrived, I kept staring at the bottle.  It makes me want to run out and get a fruit smoothie!

There is such a great mixture of glitters in this polish.  You've got micro glitter in different shades of pink, some small metallic purple/raspberry hex glitters, small holographic hex glitters and big blue hex glitters, which I think are a perfect contrast to all the pink glitter and the creamy pink base.  I love glitters like this in pastel cream bases!  They are some of my absolute favorite polishes.  For Berry Patch, I started with three thin coats and then added one coat of Gelous and one coat of Seche Vite.  I just couldn't narrow down which photos to use so get ready for some pic spam.

I can't wait for KBShimmer's next restock.  A date hasn't been set yet but she did announce on her Facebook page that she plans on having the next restock on her own website, KBShimmer.com, rather than on her Etsy shop.  She also has a line of handcrafted soaps, scrubs and balms.  I haven't purchased any of those myself but if I'm lucky to get a few more polishes on her next restock, I plan to buy a few of the soaps or the sugar scrubs as well.  They look great and I've heard some good reviews from others who did purchase soaps along with their polishes.