Illamasqua: Mottle

Good evening guys! I'm back with another quick post. Today's nails are Illamasqua Mottle, a cute speckled green! I love this color because it makes me think of mint chip ice cream. 

 

What do you think? Want some ice cream now? I know I sure do! That's all for the night. Thanks for stopping by!

Essence: Miss Universe

Hey guys! How have you all been? Good I hope. I've been well! Sorry for the delay in posting. I just have a quick one here for you today. 

I picked this up at Ulta the other day. It's a new color that hasn't been there before and it caught my eye! It's Miss Universe by Essence. A dark blue with blue and green shimmers. 

I like this color quite a bit and for one $1.99 it's a definite win!

OPI Liquid Sand: Alcatraz...Rocks

Good morning everyone! I have a short but gorgeous post for you today. I've been avoiding Ulta because I'm trying to save money for a Vacation coming up so I haven't had a chance to check out a lot of the new collections. One polish I kept hearing about was the new Liquid Sand polish from the San Francisco collection by OPI, Alcatraz...Rocks. 

I accidentally found one. It was hiding with The Bond Girls collection. I thought I had just written off Vesper too soon! Anyway, I looked at it and it was love at first sight. Alcatraz...Rocks is a stunning dark grey/purple base and tons of little tiny glitters in a ton of colors. It's just fantastic! 

And then a blurryish (my camera just wanted to focus. Haha I couldn't get it to go blurry!) one to highlight the sparkle. 

I see green and purple and gold in there and more colors show up in person. Out of all the texture polishes out right now, this ranks as one of my favorites. I did not put any topcoat on, but from the other blogger pictures I've seen, it's just as amazing with a couple coats. 

I would definitely recommend picking this up if you like the textured polish look!

KBShimmer: Blinded By The Bright

Hello all! This post has been a long time coming. I should have gotten to it sooner but I didn't. Oh well! I have a KBShimmer polish for you today. I love KBShimmer. They are one of my favorite indie brands. Today's polish is Blinded By The Bright, a bright (imagine that) neon yellow with gorgeous red and green hex glitter.

I just love this polish and have worn it multiple time since taking these pictures. All photos are in natural lamp light with a coat of Seche Vite on top. 

There you go! Amazing, right?? I'm so glad I picked this up. It's just a beauty. 

The entire collections can be purchased from KBShimmer's web site here. 

NOTD Pure Ice: Temptress

Hello! Good afternoon. I hope everyone's having a good week!

Today I have just a quick polish for you. I'm wearing Pure Ice Temptress. It's suppose to be one of their Velour polishes that dry to a matte finish but this one ends up really sparkly anyway. I wanted to take advantage of the pretty sparkle so I added topcoat. My photo is with one coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top. 

Temptress is a deep royal purple with a gold and blue shimmer. The gold is much more obvious in person. I'm sorry for my cuticles. They are terrible. I picked this polish up at Walmart. 

That's all I've got for today! Thanks for tuning in. ^_^

Maybelline Color Show: Lavender Lustre

Good evening! Hope you all are well. Today I have the other Maybelline polish I picked up from the Holographic polish collection they put out. This one is called Lavender Lustre. Like the previous one, Maybelline calls this holographic but really it's more of a duo chrome, except this one barely shifts. I don't like this one nearly as much.

Lavender Lustre is a grey-purple that looks like it shifts to a pure silvery color. On the nail this is really just a grey-toned, silvery purple. I'll let the pictures do the talking for me.

Like Mysitc Green, this really isn't a true holographic polish and, unfortunately, I don't think this one has the color payoff to make it worth the purchase. 

Maybelline Color Show: Mystic Green

Hey guys!! Sorry it's been so long since I made a real post! I've had a ton of stuff going on in my personal life and that meant I had to put blogging on the back burner. 

Today I have what I consider an interesting post for you. So, like many of you are, I love holographic polish. It's just so darn PRETTY! I found a display of holographic polish at my Walgreens by Maybelline.... except they looked off. It didn't look like they were holographic at all! Well, I decided a few of the colors were pretty so I went ahead an grabbed two of them and decided I would swatch Mystic Green first. 

I was right. They really aren't holographic. Not linear, not scattered. However, Mystic Green is a very jungle-esque green. It almost seems like a duo chrome with a lighter yellow green that shifts to a deeper green around the edges. Overall a very pretty color, although again, NOT holographic.  

I do like the color. Sorry for the funky watermark. As usual, I'm on my phone and the "there's an app for that" doesn't seem to be quite true. Haha

So what do you think? I think this looks line the duochromes they put out earlier in the year. I'll have the other color I picked up soon!

More Nail Art

Hey guys! In lieu of posting swatches I'm just sharing some of my instagram photos for now. You can find me at aleah86 for others. Although that's my only instagram so you'll get to meet my cat too!

I had one of those nights where I just couldn't sleep so I did a simple french sponge gradient. In hindsight, I shoudkbhabe started with a white base but oh well. I used Zoya Cho and a Pure Ice random white. I added a coat of OPi You Callin' Me A Lyre to smooth everything out and finished with China Glaze Fairy Dust to add some sparkle. Haha. I was pretty bored.

Nail Art

Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Life has been pretty hectic lately and posting just wasn't an option.

I've just got a quickie for you today. I couldn't sleep so I did a quick gradient look on my left hand. (My right has has some orange cheery color on it. Haha)

I used China Glaze Flirty Tankini for the pink and Finger Paints Pop Art Purple for the....want to guess? (Hint: it's the purple.) But I bet you guessed that! Hehe. I used the sponge method for the gradient and then added a layer of Maybelline Clearly Spotted for the black and white glitter. 

I really love this look. It's so bright and just stands out but is super simple to do. 

I hope you enjoyed this quick nail art share and have a great night! (Or day, depending on your location.) 

^_^

Just wanted to add a quick update. I saw this design with similar colors and the black/white polka dots on Chalkboard Nails. I didn't do it the same way; I used a sponge. Click the link for the inspiration for this and info on a different technique. 

China Glaze: I'm With The Lifeguard

Good evening guys! Today's post is a summer post with one of my favorite neons. Nothing says summer to me quite like a good neon polish! I'm With The Lifeguard is from last year's summer collection and is a shimmery bright green.

Check it out. Awesome right?

Sinful Colors Cinderella

Hey guys! Hope you all are doing well. ^_^ I'm a little late on the polish I have for you today but oh well! Today's polish is Cinderella by Sinful Colors. 

I picked this up when it was the "it" polish to grab. I actually ended up with two bottles of it somehow. This polish is actually a let down for me. It's a super pretty baby blue with delicate pink shimmer in it. The major drawback is that it is really sheer. My pictures only show 3 coats because that's all I wanted to do, but last time I wore this I think I did a total of 5. I don't seem to have a good layering blue for this. Anyway, it's a pretty polish, just not up my alley. 

I need to double check colors, but I think one of the more recent releases by Sinful Colors may include a blue that matches this, minus the shimmer. If I find that then I would wear this polish much MUCH more often! 

Revlon Amethyst

Hello! I've got a real pretty for you today!! I put this on and drooled. Although, that's actually fairly common for me to do! Haha. 

Today I have another one of the polishes from the Chroma Chameleon collection: Amethyst. I LOVE this. It looks like an oil spill on your nails. I think those types of duochromes are just gorgeous. This polish shifts from pink-toned purple to a dark green. For this post I layered two coats over plain black. 

What do you think? Pretty right? These were in displays at Walgreens. I'm not sure if they still are  or not now, but if you find them I would pick this pretty baby up!

KBShimmer What's Your Damage?

Hey guys! I'm super excited about this post. I've got one of the colors from my Instagram sneak peek I posted the other day. KBShimmer is a brand of indie polish that is quickly becoming one of my favorites! They just came out with their Summer 2013 collection and that's what today's polish is from.

This is What's Your Damage? It's a milky-white base with large neon hex glitter and smaller black hexes and then some neon and black shards. The effect is just amazing. My swatches are two coats over Sinful Colors Snow Me White. I think you could use the polish alone but I had some stains from my Kaboom mani that I needed to cover. :( But either way, the polish is just drool worthy!

The glitter came out super easy. No fishing required. Is this not just an awesome look?? I'm in love with it. In fact, this is still what I've got on my nails right now!

Zoya Destiny

Good afternoon! Today I've got my final pick from the Summer 2013 Zoya PixieDust shades! This is Zoya Destiny.

Destiny is a lovely coral with an amazing gold shimmer underneath. The gold shimmer makes the color really pop! I was not at all surprised that this came close to being my favorite. (I'm so in love with Stevie because purple is my favorite color!)

This is three coats in indoor lighting. 

The gold was so hard to capture. 

I'm just in love with Zoya's take on the texture polishes. These are, by far, my favorite of the trend. 

What do you all think of the texture polish craze? Love it? Hate it? 

Instagram sneak peek!

Just a quick peek at some swatches you'll see soon! I couldn't wait and had to put these beauties on as soon as I opened the package! I'll have these up in a few days! I wasn't ready to take yesterday's post all the way off!

Pretty, right??

Zoya Miranda

Hello! Today I have for you my second swatch from the Summer 2013 Zoya PixieDust polishes: Miranda. This is a beautiful, red matte sparkle. This baby really shimmers with little spots of silver and red. It's gorgeous. This is two coats. 

Salon Perfect: Kaboom

Hello all! Hope everything is well! I was originally going to post another polish from the Zoya PixieDust shades but I picked this baby up and decided to show it instead. 

I don't have it to compare, but I think that Kaboom is very close, if not a dupe, to the very cool looking Floam by Nail-Venturous. It's got teal and chartreuse neon glitters! This is probably a polish that you could wear on its own with 3 or 4 coats but I preferred to layer it over OPI Fly. This is two coats over Fly. 

And a macro of the glitters!

I can't stop looking at my nails! ^_^ I picked this up at Walmart. There are 5 other colors in the collection and I ended up with 3 of them, but this is the one I was after. 

That's all for today! 

Zoya Stevie

Hello all! Hope your day is going well! Today I have some swatches of Zoya Stevie from the Summer 2013 PixieDust collection! I picked up a total of three from the collection and love them all. Pictures of the others will be up soon! 

I used two coats for these pictures and they are all taken in indoor lighting!

Some nail art

Hey all! Today I just have a quick Nail art NOTD. I used Sally Hansen Butterscotch and Hot Lava. Got both of them on sale so all-in-all, this is like a $5 mani which is pretty exciting.

Illamasqua Speckled

Sorry for the hiatus guys! I've been pretty busy with work and preparing for a trip I'm taking to Canada later this year and just haven't had the time to post any pictures for you.

Today I'm coming back with a polish that I've been lemming for since I first saw it's swatch! First though, a story. We have a very small Sephora here. It's in a JC Penney in our Mall, which is itty bitty compared to other malls. The closest dedicated Sephora was an hour away and was the one that carried all the nail polish. It was so disappointing that I could never go because I don't have time for the minimum two hour trip there an back. Imagine my excitement when I saw the Nail Station at our local, baby Sephora!! I think my friend thought I was nuts! Haha

Anyway, I picked up Illamasqua Speckled, a neat, lilac purple with small black hexes and micro glitter to give it a... you guessed it... SPECKLED look. I love it! Now, the polish is great. I used three coats for full coverage. Dry time was pretty quick. From my limited experience, I expected no less from Illamasqua!

I think my camera made the color a little more pink toned than it actually looks in person.

I'll definitely be picking up some of the other colors, mainly the mint green and the neutral cream colors. One reminds me of mint chip ice cream and the other of cookies and cream! So yummy!