Happy Halloween 2015!

Happy Halloween!  Just one mani for me this Halloween.  The orange polish is Zoya Arizona, and the gradient is Pansy-Monium and My Life's Porpoise, both from KBShimmer.  Everything was stamped using Rica Blackout stamping polish.  The skulls is a design from MoYou London Biker Collection plate 08, while everything else is from Bundle Monster.  The bats design is off of plate BM-H08, both the text design on my ring finger nail and the spider web on my pinky nail are from plate BM-H07.

Going into it, I was originally planning to have all my nails be different base colors.  It wasn't until after I finished the two middle nails that I decided to scrap that idea and throw down a few coats of orange on my index and pinky nails too.  Otherwise, I would have most likely put the gradient on my ring finger nail as an accent, instead of my middle finger.  But really, there's no rules when it comes to accent nails, and I really like the overall look with the accent nail just where it is.  The gradient with bats stamp also went on my camera shy thumb nails.  I really love the look of the purple to grey gradient, I think I may need to use it for a full mani someday.

Have a fun and safe Halloween weekend!

KBShimmer Early Summer Collection 2014 - The Textures

Press Sample

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 Creams

Press Sample

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.*

DIFFERENTdimension Just Keep Swimming and Dueling Unicorns

Here are a couple simple stamping manicures I did towards the end of January, using some gorgeous holos from DIFFERENTdimension.

I bought these two polishes back in November and finally decided that they had been sitting in my untrieds for way too long.  This might be a bit picture heavy, because I can't resist showing some swatches of these pre-stamping, so this seems like a good spot for a jump break.

Color Club The Wanderlust Collection

I have a few manicures saved on my computer that I just never got around to posting before and this is one of them.  I think I mentioned these back in November yet when I posted my autumn pumpkins design.  The manicure itself is even older than that, I did this back in September using all 4 polishes from The Wanderlust Collection by Color Club.

The Wanderlust Collection is a Birchbox exclusive.  I stopped my Birchbox subscription quite a while ago, but I had some points built up on my account and I really loved the swatches I saw online when this collection came out.  I had missed out on it when it first was released, but it eventually came back into stock, so when it did I used my points towards buying the set.  I ordered two sets actually, since the bottles were minis, and I'm glad I did because I love all 4 colors.  The nude color I used for my base is called Mod in Manhattan and this was two coats.  

For the design, I just used two different sized dotting tools and randomly dotted the other 3 colors in the collection.  The neon coral color is called Reign in Spain, the lavender shade is called Pardon My French and the bright green is called London Calling.  Once the dots had dried, I topped everything with a coat of Seche Vite.

And here's a rare shot of my thumb because this was my favorite.  I did my thumb first and tried to repeat the general pattern on the rest of my nails, but they didn't quite have the same curve as on my thumb.  I chalk that up to my thumbnail being wider than the rest of my nails, so I had a little extra room to work with.

Application was super smooth for Mod in Manhattan.  I haven't worn the other 3 colors yet, other than in this design, but I really need to soon, especially that green!

Zoya Saran Wrap Nails

Welp, looks like I've got some catching up to do.  Lots of manicures have come and gone since my last post.  My nails grew out, then a few broke so they were down to nubs, and then they grew out again, lol.  I'm going to try, more or less, to go in order with these.  Here's one manicure I wore back in the beginning of August, using Zoya Charisma and Zoya Rocky.  I actually wore this the week right before the KBShimmer swatches in my previous two posts.  This was my first ever attempt at saran wrap nails.

I started out with 2 coats of Zoya Charisma, which is a neon magenta/purple shade.  Application was really smooth and Charisma dried to a matte finish.  Once that was completely dry, I followed with the typical saran wrap nail steps using Zoya Rocky, a wonderful dusty light blue.

Working one nail at a time, I applied a thick coat of Rocky and then took a small piece of plastic wrap balled up and dabbed it randomly on the nail, slowly revealing bits of Charisma underneath.

I think it went pretty smoothly, being my first time trying this technique.  There were a few times that I thought I took too much polish off, but I just applied a fresh coat of Rocky and dabbed again with a new piece of plastic wrap.  After waiting for everything to dry, I applied top coat.

I was really happy with the final look.  Charisma and Rocky worked really well together.  I think this is a fairly easy technique to do and would work well on those days when you just aren't sure what type of manicure you're in the mood to do.

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

Press Sample

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.*

DIFFERENTdimension Hey You

I have a review for you of a very pretty polish from DIFFERENTdimension.  DIFFERENTdimension is a brand I've been eyeing for a while now and I recently got the opportunity to have two polishes sent to me for review.  I'll be starting today with Hey You from the Echoes collection.  Hey You is a lavender base with several different sizes and shapes of glitter in shades of purple and some fuchsia circles.

Let me start by saying I really loved wearing this.  I had it on for a full week and it wore like a champ.  I had no chips and very little tip wear.  Depending on how thick of a coat you apply, you can definitely get way with two coats.  I had just a hint of visible nail line after two coats though, which no one else probably would have even noticed.  But I applied a third coat just to even out the coverage.  I applied one coat of Gelous before adding a coat of Seche Vite top coat.

I think this would be a great polish to layer over different shades of purple as well.  But on its own, the overall look is so pretty and very delicate.  The base of Hey You reminds me of the OPI Ballet Soft Shades Collection.  Its formula is similar in consistency and in opacity.

Be sure to check out DIFFERENTdimension on etsy.  Coming soon, I'll have another polish from the Echoes collection to show you called Another Brick In The Wall.

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

Spun Sugar: Take 3!

It has been a while since the last time I tried out the spun sugar technique.  My last attempt was not one of my favorites...it was ok, but not as exciting as the first time I tried this technique.  I had been wearing OPI We'll Always Have Paris Suede for about two days and was staring at my nails trying to decide if I wanted to change it up and the idea try a spun sugar mani again finally hit me.

Before I get any further, here are a few shots of We'll Always Have Paris Suede by itself.  This was two coats, no top coat.

I love the OPI Suedes.  All of them.  As a whole, it is definitely one of my favorite collections of all time.  Without top coat they are prone to chip quicker, just like most matte finishes, but application is so smooth and they just look fantastic once dry.  I think I'm going to have to try out each one of them as a base for a spun sugar mani at some point.  Just like with the my first attempt using OPI Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow Suede as my base, I love the way the subtle sparkle squeaks through between the strands of creme polishes layered over it.

For the strands, I started out with applying random lines of the original/non-suede OPI We'll Always Have Paris.  That was followed by strands of Orly Artificial Sweetener and Orly You're Blushing.  I went back and added just a few more strands of We'll Always Have Paris at the end because I felt it needed just a few more dark lines.  Once that had set up for a bit, I tried to get the surface as smooth as possible by applying a coat of Seche Vite, one coat of Gelous and then one last coat of Seche Vite to finish it off.

I can't wait to do another one, definitely one of my favorite techniques!  Also, I finally caved and bought myself a new camera with the help of some gift cards I was hoarding since Christmas.  It's a Canon PowerShot SX50 HS and I love it.  I think you can tell the difference in clarity right here in this one post between all the swatch pics of We'll Always Have Paris Suede, which were taken with my 9 year old Sony, and the pictures of the spun sugar mani, which were all taken with the new Canon.

Don't Call It a Comeback.

Although I guess you could call it that, it has been three months since I last posted.  Three months exactly actually, which I didn't realize until just right now.  I last posted on September 9th and it is now December 9th.  That doesn't mean that I stopped painting my nails, it just means that I kind of put off posting about them.  I couldn't tell you what the reasons were 'cause I honestly don't know.  I just didn't have the urge to put together any blog posts for a while, didn't even really bother checking in on all the blogs I usually follow.  I think I started to reevaluate the whole nail obsession in the past few months.  I had sort of gotten away from what I liked the most, which was painting my nails and doing designs, and instead got caught up in everyone talking about all the new colors and collections and trying to buy every new, cool thing I saw.  Which left me with a ton of polishes I haven't even used yet and some credit card bills I wasn't too happy about.  So I want to go back to what got me excited about polish in the first place...nail art and basically using what I already own.  I don't need to have every single new polish that comes out.  Not to say I won't buy one or two if something irresistible comes along, but honestly, it's been almost as long as I last posted since I bought a new bottle of polish.  And that doesn't bother me at all!

As I mentioned, I've still been doing my nails this whole time and I have still been taking pictures, so I'm going to try to do a couple posts over the next week or so just to run through what I've had on my nails the past three months.  They will be mixed in with some of the more recent designs because I have a few Christmas type posts that I want to get up this month.  So some stuff will be a little out of order, but really does anyone care?!

So after I wore Cult Nails Deal With It, I tried out two others from the Coco's Untamed collection, Annalicious and Spontaneous.  First up was Annalicious, which I used as a base for a bandanna inspired stamp design.

Like a lot of my stamp designs, I like to test them out on a nail wheel first and when I tested this, the white didn't quite pop out on the red like it does on a real bandanna.  So I stamped the design, from Konad plate m60, with Konad Special Polish in black first then re-stamped with Special Polish in white.  The black shadow made the white pop out a lot more against the background red.

I absolutely loved this and plan to do it with a lot of other colors as a base.  After Annalicious, I tried out Spontaneous.  I also used it as a base for a stamping design, this time I used Bundle Monster plate BM-306 from the most recent 2012 set.  I stamped with Konad Special Polish in pastel violet.

I loved the final look, although my stamping on this one came out a bit blurry.  I'm definitely a Cult Nails fan though.  Easy application, great colors and great wear time on these polishes.  

I've got about eight more designs that I did over the past three months, not counting the two I've done so far in December that are more winter/holiday themed, so I'll probably try grouping two or three together in posts later in the week, like I did with this one.  And I apologize if anyone read the blog post title and now has "Mama Said Knock You Out" stuck in their head, but you know what they say, ladies love Cool James.