Back after a LOOOONG hiatus!

Whew!  How have you all been?? Sorry there hasn't been anything new for so long. I've been moving and had a bit of an accident with the pinky finger of my swatching hand. 

I decided to take a break from blogging for awhile and do other things. Unfortunately, during that time I managed to badly injure my pinky nail to the point that the entire nail just fell off. It hurt and looks terrible. I can't even include it in pictures at the moment. :( Maybe someday I can but that'll be a long way off. 

I'm kind of just getting my feet wet for now so today I just have a simple nail gradient I did. I used China Glaze What A Pansy and Essie First Timer for my colors. Just something basic to get back in the game with! 

I'm sorry for how wonky my nails are. I made the mistake of getting acrylics a few months back and they're still recovering. 

I'll be back with more soon! Thanks for reading and have a good day!

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!

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. 

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. 

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!

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!

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!

KBShimmer Witch Way?

Hello all. Hope you are having a fabulous day! Today's polish is by KBShimmer. Witch Way? is a beautiful purple jelly with small, silver holographic hexes and micro glitters. It's super gorgeous! One of my favorite polishes.

Three coats under a standard desk lamp. I may have swatched this before but I don't think they were very good so here are some better pictures!

Revlon Tanzanite

Good afternoon! Hope you all are doing well! Today I have for you a polish from Revlon called Tanzanite. I stumbled across this collection in Walgreens. It's called the Chroma Chameleon Collection. There are 8 duo-chromes that you can pick from. I only picked up two because a lot of them look like the same colors we've seen with China Glaze and Nicole polishes. I might go back and pick up one more that looks different, but for now I'm ok with my two!

Here are my swatches of Tanzanite! It shifts from a violet purple to a coppery orange/red color and the shift is very, very strong! DROOL! This was 3 coats without topcoat in indoor lighting.

 

NOTD: Whatever by Different Dimension

Good afternoon! I'm sharing my notd today. I got some nail mail from Llarowe and one of the polishes is Whatever by Different Dimension.

Whatever is a neon-leaning, scattered holo purple. I love it! Neon? Holo? PURPLE?!? Give me. NAOW! Haha the formula was great too. This is 2 easy coats. All pictures taken under a desk lamp.

China Glaze: When Stars Collide and Galactic Grey

Hello! Hope you all had a good week! Mine was pretty uneventful, mostly work. Today I have for your my swatches of some of the polishes from the Hologlam Collection. This is a very anticipated collection. It's full of 12 holographic colors. Today I only have 2, but they all look gorgeous. I'm not a fan of pink and couldn't buy them all so I only got the first couple on my list of "most wanted." The two I have for you today are Galatic Grey and When Stars Collide.

This post is very picture heavy. The polish was just too pretty! All pictures are taken under a lamp, indoors.

Galatic Grey is a dark charcoal grey holo. I don't like black-looking polishes but this type, with a little bit of something extra, I LOVE. 

When Stars Collide is my favorite of the collection. It's a deep red-purple holo and I think the color is just so unique compared to the usual color selection I've seen for holographic polish. Usually they're light purple/lilac so the deep colors are really getting me with this collection!

I don't know if maybe I'm just too new to the blogging and nail polish world, but I had absolutely ZERO issues with application or formula on these. This is three and two coats respectively. I didn't have any issues at all with balding or dragging, and the dry time was very fast. Minimal cleanup was necessary.

I also plan on getting the olive green from this collection as well as the dark blue! The colors are just not found anywhere else yet! What are your favorites?

Zoya Julie

Hey guys! Sorry for the short hiatus. I'm moving into a new apartment and have been focusing on that. I'm mostly settled and just had a mini swatch-a-thon so I have some posts lined up for the next week at least! These next couple will feature colors from Zoya's Lovely collection for Spring 2013. Today I have the purple from the collection: Julie. This is a light pink-purple with shimmer it in. Very pretty. The swatch here is 3 coats and I found the formula very easy to work with.

China Glaze: Tart-y for the Party

Hello all!! Today I have the third polish from China Glaze's Avant Garden collection. I really hate the name of this one. Haha I think of Real Housewives of I forget where -- Miami maybe? -- and there was a song done by one of them with the same name. Hated the name then too. Haha So, now that you know I watch Real Housewives, lets get to the polish: Tart-y for the Party.

This polish is a classic lilac purple. It's a creme polish and while my photos all have topcoat, it's super shiny without it too! This was most a one coater but the swatches are two.

China Glaze: Creative Fantasy

Hello! Today has been a hectic day for me! Between moving into a new apartment, a doctor appointment, and working, I've just been all over the place! Finally I have my lunch (dinner, really since I work late) break!

Today I have for you Creative Fantasy from the Cirque du Soleil collection by China Glaze. I have a few others but this one is my favorite. It's a dark purple jelly that somehow manages to be true dark purple AND almost neon at the same time. It's impressive and looks really pretty. I also like that it will work for jelly sammiches! I don't have any picture of those but I've done a few. The only thing I didn't like was the formula was patchy. It didn't look like it in real life, but you can see how spotty and uneven the polish is at 2 coats. Doesn't put me off though because his really is an awesome polish!

KBShimmer: Witch Way?

You know, I picked up this polish on a whim. I don't have any other KBShimmer polishes and other than it being purple, I didn't really expect to like it. Boy was I wrong!!

Witch Way? is a gorgeous plum jelly that's got holo particles and some micro hex glitters that are also holographic. I wore it once and it shot straight to my favorites. The formula was fantastic and it doesn't dry super gritty. I used a coat of Gelous and my Sally Hansen Diamond Strength and it's smooth! All my picture are at 2 coats but there are a few bald spots so I think I'll do 3 next time! My last picture shows the holo sparkle!

Witch Way? can be purchased from Harlow & Co.