Painted Polish Keep Calm & 30 On Birthday Trio

*press sample

Hello lovelies! Today I have the ‘Keep Calm & 30 On’ collection in celebration of Lexi's (Painted Polish creator) 30th birthday to share with you! It consists of three beautiful shades of amethyst, in a holographic, crelly, and creme finish. The formulas were are terrific and any purple lover is going to want to get their hands on these!

Mommy/Daughter Twinsie Nails

Hello everyone! I have something a little different to show you today. My four year old daughter is finally kicking the habit of biting her nails, thanks to some product made for that purpose. I don't know who's more happy about this, she or I. So recently I painted her nails to celebrate her progress. She was so pleased with the final look and asked me if I would paint mine the same. I couldn't refuse her request, and these are our resulting mommy/daughter twinsie nails!

Double Stamped Purple Roses

Hey all! I have some more stamped nail art for you today. I am slightly obsessed with stamping at the moment. You may think this design looks a little familiar because I used the same stamping image in this mani for Valentine's Day. A couple weeks ago my mom invited me to see the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" with her and I wanted to do some romantic nails for the occasion. I loved this rose image so much that I wanted to use it for a second time that week.

Stardust Polish February Releases

*provided for honest review

Hello ladies! Today I have four fabulous new Stardust Polishes to show you. There are a few fiercely girly shades, and whaddya  know? They're all named after girls! I have lots to say about them so keep reading to find out more!

Bewitching Water Marble Featuring PiCture POlish Imperial

It's about time I did some kind of nail art, specifically Halloween related nail art. The great thing about this mani is that it's not obviously Halloween so it looks good any time of year! I've worn Imperial on it's own before (swatched here), and I am still as in love with it as I was before.

A England Crown of Thistles

Hiya! It's been quite some time since I've posted anything, I know. So this is me saying.. I'm back! I'm feeling a bit rusty, so I'm going to make this real short and sweet. I'm working on new content now, so here is one from my draft folder. Isn't it stunning?!!

A England Crown of Thistles is an amazing holographic purple. As usual with this brand, the formula is buttery smooth with no issues. One coat gives great coverage, for photos I used two coats, no top coat. Photos are in direct sunlight.

piCture pOlish Imperial

Hello lovelies! Today I have gorgeous (I dare you to disagree) polish to show you. PiCture pOlish Imperial is a 2013 collaboration shade by The Swatchaholic. I purchased Imperial last month and it has quickly become one of my favorite PP shades. 

31DC2014 Day 06: Whimsical Violet

I've had the new piCture pOlish shades in my possession for a few weeks now and hadn't found the right opportunity to utilize them. As soon as I thought of the Challenge's violet prompt, I went straight to them! I'm so glad I did because I am in looove with the results.

Colores de Carol Swatches and Review

*Products were provided to me for review

Hello everyone! Today I have a review of two Colores de Carol polishes from the new collection, which are all jewel toned. Colores de Carol is an indie brand that I've been curious about for quite a long time, so I was really looking forward to trying these out!

Colores de Carol polishes are all 5-free (meaning no Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP, Formaldehyde Resin, Camphor). Both brushes were medium sized, with flexible and even brushes. 

Both polishes are linear holographics which I don't have much experience with. I actually only have one other (it's a China Glaze) that is quite difficult to apply, so that's all I have to compare to. The consistency of both are jelly-like, what I think of as "syrupy". At first I was afraid that this would make application difficult but didn't find that to be the case. I applied them avoiding going over the same spots more than once or twice. In two coats I had even coverage with both shades.

Amethyst is described as a "linear holographic medium purple with blue shimmer". In direct sunlight the blue shimmer isn't very noticeable amid the holo sparkle, but is a little more visible in the shade. This is two thin coats, plus topcoat.

Renaissance Custom Lacquer Enamoured and L'Hiver Swatches and Review

Last month I swatched Renaissance Cosmetic's new Emerald Envy, and I promised you two more. I didn't plan on taking this long, but better late than never! The polishes I have today are truly stunning. I am in love! Just like Emerald Envy, both are very unique to my collection. Let's take a moment to gaze upon their beauty, shall we?

Enamoured is from Renaissance Cosmetics' new Wunderkammer Collection and is quite complex. It's described as "a deep purple creme/jelly with a vibrant fuchsia-gold shimmer, holographic micro-glitter, and blue iridescent flakes."  Pretty amazing, right? What makes this so gorgeous is the rich vampy color, yet it's still vibrant at the same time. Even at night it glows and sparkles as you can see in this Instagram photo. Shown here is two semi-thick coats, plus topcoat. I found it a little easier to apply in thicker coats because of the texture of the flakies. It all smoothed out well with topcoat.

Ruffian With A England Ascalon and Barielle Soho at Night

I have a quick and dirty post for all you lovelies today. My "schedule"(I say that to give you the impression that I'm actually organized) has been a little off lately, so I grabbed some photos that have been hanging out in my draft folder. Enjoy!

What I used:
Barielle Soho at Night- deep plum creme
a england Ascalon- holographic steel gray and lavendar duochrome
Sally Hansen Dries Instantly top coat

I hope you're all having a fabulous Friday! Have a great weekend. :)

Distressed Water Marble

Hey everyone! For today's mani I had this BRILLIANT idea of combining water marbling with one of my favorite nail art techniques, water spotting! Let me introduce you to.. distressed water marbling! Maybe someone had already already done this? If so, I've never come across it. Don't ruin it for me, let me think I invented this okay?

To start, I applied my base color, two coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff. Then I picked a ton of colors I thought would look together. I tested them all in the water to see which ones would spread out well.

I eventually narrowed it down to five polishes and started my water marble. I made as many rings of polish in my plastic cup as would spread out, then with my toothpick I dragged through the rings making little swirly designs.

Next I used some perfume (to make use of the high alcohol content and pump spray nozzle) and sprayed directly on the polish. This created the spotted/distressed look. I dipped my finger in a part of the design that I liked, and then before pulling it out, cleaned up the excess polish off the surface of the water with a toothpick. There weren't very many usable areas, so I ended up going through the whole process for each nail. Yeah, I know. It took forever. Totally worth it though.

It might be useful to mention that I had prepped around the nail with Scotch tape to make cleanup easier. I finished it all off with a coat of Out The Door Northern Lights top coat!

My thumb came out so awesome! It looks just like what I had in mind.

It's been quite awhile since I last used Out The Door Northern Lights, and I don't know why it has been so long! It is so beautiful with the tiny holographic sparkles. 

What I used:
OPI My Vampire is Buff
OPI Every Month is Octoberfest
Essie Lilacism
OPI Dutch You Just Love OPI?
China Glaze In a Lily Bit
Sephora by OPI Iris I Was Thinner
Out The Door Northern Lights top coat

So what do you think? I am pretty happy with the results! Is this something you would try? If you do, I'd love to see it!

33 Day Challenge Day 24: Art With the Color You Own the Most Of

The color I own the most of is.. purple? Really? I mean, I do like purple. I just didn't expect to have so much of it. It's certainly not my favorite color. I don't even own any purple clothing except one solitary "Poison" tshirt. Pretty sure the deciding factor for buying the shirt was that I needed at least one item in that color. So, Yay! for this prompt for getting me utilize the greatest percentage of my stash.

To solved the mystery of How I Acquired So Many Purple Polishes, I took a look at them. Out of the 40 plus purple polishes, 36 of them have been acquired since I since I started my blog. That is, I bought 36 purple polishes in the last four months.
Funny story- a similar thing happened to me a few years ago with my wardrobe. I don't know where it came from, but one day I realized I didn't own any brown clothing or shoes. I had ALOT of black. I decided I needed to branch out. I didn't go crazy or anything, but for a while I only bought brown, and ended up with a good amount.
So this is clearly what happened with my polishes. I looked at my stash, realized it was seriously lacking in shades of purple, and then this time went a little nuts. I wish I could say I don't need any more, but that wouldn't be the truth.

This was my first attempt at a fishtail braid and it ended up a little lopsided. I still like it, it's such a cool look! I love that there are still so many techniques for me to try out. And even with the ones I've tried, there's a lot of perfecting to do!

I hope there are some little girls (older ones too) that will just LOVE this mani. Sometimes it's fun to get extra girly!

What I used:
Thumb (darkest to lightest): Sephora by OPI Seriously it's a Naan-Issue,  OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI? Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle Loyal Lavendar
Index: Wet n' Wild Chrome Hog-Quartz School- metallic purple, Sephora by OPI Domestic Goddess- plum, Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle Loyal Lavendar
Middle and Ring: Essie Lilacism- base color, Barielle Hidden Hideaway- stamped butterflies
Pinky: Ulta Salon Formula Tutu Cute-light violet, Sephora by OPI Sugar Plum Fairies Gone Wild-glitter


So, what color do you own the most of?

Formula X for Sephora Legend Swatch

Hello All! Today I want to show you the new Formula X for Sephora Legend. It has been a long time since I've only had one nail polish in a post! Not since last month in my Most Used Polish post. It is certainly a far cry from wearing 18 polish in one manicure! So I can't help but feel that I'm cheating a little here. To make up for it, I have lots of pictures!

My mom very generously brought this back from NYC for me. Thanks mom!

Formula X for Sephora is a new brand that launched this fall and can be found at, um, Sephora. This polish is from the brand's "Shifters" category. Sephora describes the category as "a two-toned metallic lacquer that shimmers with a kaleidoscopic effect."
I like that it is the "crushed microsparkles" that have the color shift, and the base metallic color essentially stays the same.

Legend is described as "maroon and rainbow metallic". I don't know about the maroon part. I feel that in all different lights it appears more of a plum.

This is two coats, but it was almost opaque in one coat. The application was nice and smooth. This is with top coat. Without it, it's not very shiny.

 Direct sunlight:

Out of focus to show off the rainbow sparkle:

 A bonus artsy photo of the bottle:

• Formula X for Sephora is available at Sephora stores and Sephora.com
• This polish is a three-free formula
• Retail price $12.50

What do you think? Are you going to be checking out any of the new Formula X polishes?

31DC2013 Day 14: Flowers

This is only my third go at floral nails.  My very first nail art manicure was floral, and well, it was my first time. My second attempt was my Days of Stripes and Roses, which is still one of my favorites. The roses were fairly easy, especially since I followed a tutorial. This time I wanted to try something I haven't seen before. something more challenging, to really test my skills. Well, as you can see, they were really tested! But now I feel like I have that much more experience under my belt.

Today's floral theme was inspired by one of my favorite flowers, African Violets. Or more correctly, (as I just found out), Saintpaulia. I'm pretty sure I'll never call them that. It doesn't sound nearly as exotic. Kind of like how I will only call Amaryllis, "Naked Ladies", because it's way more fun.

One of the challenges here was to decide on the arrangement. Since they grow in a group, I wanted to have at least some representation of that. I felt it would look too busy to have that on every nail. So I spread them out and did more of a close-up on the other nails.

I've been having a lot better luck avoiding shrinkage with my Seche Vite top coat lately. Last night though, it screwed me. I had the polish around my cuticles at a perfect edge. Then overnight they shrank and left it wonky. I know, nail problems.

These flowers remind me of home. Not in Africa.. we just always had these in our house.

What I used:
OPI No Bees Please- white/nude micro shimmer base
Essie DJ Play That Song- purple
Jenna Hipp I Can Afford It- darker purple with blue shimmer
Barielle Banana Drop- yellow
It's So Easy Stripe Rite- black
Seche Vite top coat

p.s. Sorry for my nasty cuticle, I had a little accident. If I was more deft with my photoshop skills, I would have fixed it.

31DC2013 Day 06: Purple Nails

Today's purple nails feature a technique I used last week in my eye shadow pigment nails post. I like the results even better this time! I really love the little dusting of the two purple shadows over the dark purple polish.

I think it looks very space-y, like something you might see from the Hubble Space Telescope. Come to think of it, it looks just like the Dark Matter Distribution in Cluster Anoba 607. That's right, Hubble gotchu.

I explained a little of the technique in the post I mentioned. For a more indepth tutorial check out the one by Lacquerheads of Oz.

What I used:
Sephora by OPI Just a Little Dangerous
NS Minerals eye shadows (Again, when I bought these they didn't come with a label, so I can't tell you the color names.)

What do these remind you of?