Foil Tattoo NOTD

Hey y'all! So I am sure most of you know what foil tattoos are and how insanely cool they look. I have seen a few pics around using them as nail decals and omg, why a perfect idea! I am a total magpie and am instantly drawn to anything shiny or sparkly (ahem..nail polish!) and knew I needed some foil tats asap. I didn't want to spend a lot on my first go, (the original Austin-based company, Flash Tats sells a package for $20-$30) so I found a very cheap sheet of foil tattoos with a few designs that I could easily translate into nail decals.

Cirque Colors Mirror, Mirror

Hi friends! How was your weekend? We had a great time at the fundraiser event for my daughter's school. It was a great turn out with fantastic home brew beers. Definitely a fun evening!

If you follow me on IG, you may have seen a sneak peek at the unbelievably stunning Cirque Colors Mirror, Mirror LE silver flakie holiday release. I wore it out this weekend for the party and it is just as amazing as I was hoping it would be!

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my personal use.

Cirque Colors Mirror, Mirror

Punk Rock Grunge Nail Of The Day

Hey friends! Well the new year is in full swing and this is the first nail art post of 2014! I have been in kind of a funk since new years day (blame it in the hormones), and I wanted to do a little nail art that was more edgy as opposed to girly.

Ever since Sarah, from Chalkboard Nails did the Distressed/Grunge look, it has been wildly popular, and I have been wanting to do some, myself. It is super simple and requires about ten minutes, after your base coat dries, to do a whole hand, and no tools other than a few different polish colors.

 

Used:

 

O.P.I. - MBSW

Zoya - Darcy

Zoya - Wednesday

O.P.I. - Funky Dunky

O.P.I. - Black Onyx

 

Gah, I am so bananas over this!!! I even did it on my right hand, and that never happens with nail art! And it really is so easy, but I have a few tips/tricks if you want to try this out yourself.

 

- If you are using multiple colors, start with the lightest color first. I had to redo this mani because I used Funky Dunky first and when I applied Darcy, it looked muddy and gross.

 

- Wipe your brush off almost all the way. You don't want a ton of polish on your brush to begin with. Give it a good swipe on a piece of paper, or the polish bottle neck before you start painting.

 

- Less is always more. One of the cool things about this technique is seeing the multiple layers of color through out, and if you glob on one layer, it will hide the layer underneath it.

 

- Use a light hand. This kinda goes with the above. If you are more heavy handed with your brush, you will apply thicker strokes, and defeat the purpose of the dry brush look.

 

I really do love this, and I want to try out different colors, and definitely a neon version!!! I have seen some pretty great color combos on IG and Pinterest, so if you are stuck for color inspiration, definitely check there!

And you know what, after wearing these for a while, I was in a much better mood. Nail art is always an instant mood lifter!

ILNP Nostalgia

Hey everyone! How is your weekend? We are going to check out the most awesome Trail of Lights at Zilker Park tonight! It is a wonderful holiday light display that the city of Austin puts on every year, and it is my most favorite tradition! I will probably spam my IG feed with pics tonight!

 

Today, I have an incredible polish to share! The fantastic Indie brand, ILNP (I Love Nail Polish), has recently released a line of Ultra Chrome polishes that boast insane color shifts. As part of a LE holiday trio, Barbra created the Ultra Chrome, Nostalgia - a multi chrome that shifts mainly from green to red, but let me tell you, there is sooooooooo much more! On to the pics!

 

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my personal use.

 

 

 

 

 

ILNP - Nostalgia

 

Nostalgia is a multi chrome polish that shifts from deep emerald green to bronze to yellow gold to red to fuchsia. I have even caught glimpses of teal and purple flashes. Let me preface by saying, my camera loathes multi chromes. It is always reluctant to capture color shifts. Nostalgia is so dramatic that it took amazing pictures! In person, it is even more stunning! I was constantly looks at my nails for the three days I wore it. Nostalgia has some serious hypnotic powers, folks! Formula was quite good as well. This is two coats, by itself. No layering over black to get this effect! Minimal brush strokes, and it applied smoothly. It did seem to dry a tad bit longer than regular polish. Nothing a good quick dry top coat can't solve!

 

 

I ordered this during the pre sale, and I am not sorry one bit! This is truly an amazing polish, and you will be seeing it again when I post my top ten polishes for the year. I will probably be ordering a back up of this in fact! So if you are on a no-buy, break it, cause Nostalgia is sooooo worth it! You will thank me!

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my personal use.

ILNP polish is available on line. Products retail from $10 - $12.50 a piece.

Rescue Beauty Lounge #Iwant2reviewRBL Voting!

Hey everyone! Today is a super exciting day! A few weeks ago, I posted some Rescue Beauty spam for a contest Ji Baek was hosting to find new RBL bloggers.

Well....I was selected as one of the finalists!!!!! Even though, the finalists were announced a week ago, I am still in total shock! It is a huge honor to have someone you idolize and respect deem your work worthy of their vision. I truly feel that just being amongst such ahhhmazing bloggers like Victoria/Manicurator and Lakeisha/Refined and Polished (plus every other girl that was nominated!) is such a huge accomplishment for little ol' me. But, I want to win. I want to share future RBL collections with you guys! I want to be part of the RBL family, along with Ji, and Rie, Scrangie, Kelly, Sam, and Pammy.

So I need you guys! I need you to vote for me, and spread the word! Get your friends to vote! Blast it on twitter, IG, FB and what ever other social media outlet you use! I am the underdog in this, and I need every last vote I can get.

CLICK HERE to go to the ballot page and cast your vote. A very big THANK YOU in advance to all of those who vote for me. Even if I don't win, I am so very blessed to have this opportunity. Love you guys!!!!

Glossy Glam a.k.a. The most awesome thing to happen to the nail polishscene since Indies

Hey lovelies! I am super excited about today's post. I don't usually offer a review of top coats, because they are kinda tricky to review. And I go through so many different ones, that I would be spamming the blog with top coat posts. Finding a good solid top coat has been a huge struggle for me. Before Glossy Glam, my favorite was butter London P.D. Quick (which I actually did review, if you are interested), but the price tag was enough to kill my love for it. Every other tc either caused major shrinking or bubbling and the only way I was able to get good results was to add a load of thinner.

 

Glossy Glam hit the Indie marketplace several weeks ago, and it has gotten nothing but amazing reviews. After seeing the wear test from Marta of Chit Chat Nails, I knew I had to try it. Through the help of an awesome nail friend, I was able to get my claws on a bottle of this magical stuff and was completely blown away.

Update: Because I strive to give 100% honest reviews, I feel the need to expand on my initial review. While I still stand behind Glossy Glam, others have had drastically different experiences. It seems that for a majority of people, it works wonderfully, but for quite a few, it has caused smearing, major shrinking and not drying at all. As unfortunate as it is, it is the nature of things. All I can do, is share my experiences, honestly and to the best of my ability. Thank you for giving me a chance to do that.

 

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my personal use.

 

 

Glossy Glam over Salon Perfect Pink Mystique - Day 1

 

Glossy Glam is the perfect top coat. I may be exaggerating slightly, but if my finicky body chemistry can get amazing results, then anyone can. It is thin, but not watery or runny. It applies flawlessly, smooth and self leveling. It dries very quickly, to the touch in about a minute and hard set in about 5 minutes. The shine rivals Seche Vite. No shrinking, no bubbling, no problems at all.

 

What really did me in, was how long it lasted. Marta, did a five day wear test, and I wanted to see what kind of results I would get after five days. Let me tell you, five whole frickin days of the same polish is hard. I am in the habit of changing polish at least once a day, sometimes 2-3 depending. Well, I managed four days. It felt like foreeeevvvverrrrrrrr. Ugh, never again.

 

Glossy Glam - Day 4

After four days, it still looked amazing. So shiny and the only sign of a four day marathon was minor tip wear. And that is four days worth of mom life; cleaning, cooking, dishes, gardening, small person wrangling. Amazing.

 

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my personal use. All opinions are my own. For more info, please read my disclaimer.

 

Glossy Glam is made by the incredible Rica, and sold via her Etsy shop along with nail polish, stamping plates and a variety of accessories. Glossy Glam retails for $7 a bottle. International shoppers can find Glossy Glam at Shoppe Eclectico and Beauty So Fly.

Saran Wrap Nail Art with Rescue Beauty Faraway and Ghost

Hey everyone! Along with my Rescue Beauty Blogger 2.0 polishes that I recently purchased, I also grabbed another member of the GOMM family - Faraway. I haven been waiting quite a while for this one. Ever since I got Ghost, I knew I needed Faraway to do a little southwestern inspired nail art. I wanted to use the two to create a look reminiscent of turquoise, uncut in it's natural state. It is a beautiful stone, and I love the textural look of it. I had a hard time trying to figure out how I was going to replicate it, but lately I have seen a lot of amazing saran wrap designs floating around IG, so I decided to give it a try.

 

Used:

 

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Faraway

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Ghost

 

Saran Wrap

 

For the record, holding two bottle of polish is kind of hard. I am trying to add a little bit of artistic photography to my posts, and these types of shots are always so graphically interesting. Pain in the ass to pull off, so kudos to you all out there who do it on a regular basis!

 

Saran wrap designs are easy enough to pull off, but it is easy to get heavy handed and cover up the base color. I opted for painting Ghost onto the saran wrap and sort of sponging it on top of Faraway (after it was dry, of course). I'm kind of in love with it! Simple, yet so visually appealing. I need to do this more often!

 

Image Source

For reference, here is what a chunk of uncut turquoise looks like. Seriously gorgeous and one of my favorite stones for sure.

Hope you all have a fantastic day! I have loads of cleaning to catch up on, Wheeee!!!! /sarcasm

Drip Nails: Nail Of The Day

Hey lovelies! So yesterday, I posted the most awesome Wet n Wild Pop Art Craze nail polish collection. Today, I want to show you a little nail art using those polishes, because they are all pretty perfect for nail art. I made a sort of "to-do" list of nail art to try after I finished with my challenge, and the first one was drips.

Used:

Wet n Wild Wild Shine - The Clock Strikes Orange (Pop Art Craze)

Wet n Wild Wild Shine - Teal Slowly And See (Pop Art Craze)

Dotting Tool

Nail Art Brush

There is something so visually appealing about well executed drip nails. I dunno, but I love them. After reading this tutorial, I gave it ago. I was only brave enough to try them on an accent nail, but after how awesome it turned out, I am going to do a full mani! Gah! I love it!!! I kinda want to do a little nail art dance in celebration. But that would be weird....right?! Yeah...

I have another design using the Pop Art Craze polishes lurking in my brain, but that will have to wait until another day. Tomorrow, I have one more lovely polish from the RBL Blogger 2.0 release swatched!

Nails and Noms by Rescue Beauty

Hello lovelies! I have a delicious beauty to share today! If you read my blog, you know I am quite the little RBL fan girl and usually splurge when it's my birthday or Christmas. Since my birthday coincided with the release of the Rescue Beauty Blogger 2.0 collection, I naturally snagged a few bottles.

 

Ji picked some really wonderful bloggers to work with this time around, (the infamous Scrangie, Sam from Fashion Polish, Kellie Gonzo, Rie from Nails and Noms and Pammy from Polish Police) where each got to help create their dream polish color. How cool is that?!? I would die from sheer bliss if I ever got that chance.

 

I knew at once I would need to get my claws on the polish from Rie. She is one of my absolute fav bloggers. After all, it was her blog that led me to my beloved Takko Laquer!

 

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my personal use.

 

 

 

Rescue Beauty Lounge Blogger 2.0 Nails and Noms (bottle shot)

 

Rescue Beauty Lounge Blogger 2.0 Nails and Noms

 

Nails and Noms is a bright juicy orange with insane pink/purple shimmer. If there was ever a polish that looked edible, this would be it! How awesome is it that it came from Rie?! Gorgeous. Formula was good, 2 coats for full coverage. If you usually paint thinner coats, you may need three. Dry time is a bit longer than normal. I managed to ding a nail on my other hand a good ten minutes after applying a top coat. It also dries matte due to the bright orange pigment, so grab your favorite shiny quick dry tc and have at it!

 

The shimmer is really something special. It is electric and shows up in most lighting. It truly comes alive in sunlight, which makes Nails and Noms a perfect summer polish!

 

 

Rescue Beauty Lounge Blogger 2.0 Nails and Noms (macro)

Hi there pretty shimmer! This is what makes me all giddy for polish. And why I am willing to drop a $20 on a bottle. Excuse me while I grab a napkin to wipe away the drool.

 

Congrats Rie on an amazing polish, and Ji, you are simply wonderful! Well done you two!

 

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my personal use. All opinions are my own. Please read my disclaimer for more info.

 

Nails and Noms and the remaining Rescue Beauty Lounge Blogger 2.0 collection (Scrangie and Liberty are sold out! What?!) are available on line. Products retail between $18 -$20 a piece.

Nail Of The Day: It's My Birthday!

Hey everyone! I have just a quick NotD post today, my birthday nails! Today is my 33rd birthday, and naturally had to do some fun nail art for the occasion. I am NOT a fan of cupcake nails, so I opted for something a little different. And a huge thanks to my nail peeps on Twitter and IG for the help/inspiration!

 

 

Used:

 

O.P.I. - MBSW

Essie - Full Steam Ahead

Essie - Naughty Nautical

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Black Out

Sally Hansen Insta-Dry - Man-Go Team

Sally Hansen Insta-Dry - Butter-Fly Stroke

 

Nail Art Brush

Dotting Tools

 

Sugar Spun! I am so in love with sugar spun nails now! I cannot wait to try more color combos. It is super easy too, just requires a little patience. I followed the tutorial from the fabulous Sammie of The Nailasaurus for these. Every time I look at them, I can't help but smile. They are so fun!

 

 

My birthday has been great. We went to see The Little Shop Of Horrors this weekend, followed by a day at the splash pad and dinner/birthday margaritas. My husband and daughter are making my birthday cake for me today. All in all, it has been a fantastic few days and I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family.

 

See you all tomorrow with another 31 Day challenge post!

Lacquer Lust - Morning Sunshine

Hey y'all, happy Monday! Hope the weekend was a good one. I want this week to go by as quickly as possible because next Monday is my birthday! I will be 33 and I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that. But I will be getting moar polish and that is definitely something to be happy about!

 

Today I have something new to share - thermal polish! A.K.A. polish that changes color depending on body/ambient temperatures. Thermal polish is a completely new thing for me, and I wasn't sure exactly how I felt about the trend, to be honest. Until I stumbled upon Lacquer Lust that is.

 

Please Note: Products were purchased by me for my personal use.

 

 

 

Lacquer Lust - Morning Sunshine

 

Morning Sunshine is a peach/coral thermal crelly with tiny gold flakies. It is beautiful! I cannot even begin to describe how much I luuuurvvvve this polish. The color change is awesome, very obvious and sensitive too. I was completely fascinated by it for the three days I wore this. Formula was nice, but strange. A little thick, but not problematic. More gluey in consistency, but again, it wasn't something that was an issue at all. It just felt different that other polish when I was applying that. I used three coats, two worked fine, but I used a third to cover a tiny bit of VNL. Application was really good, no dragging, pooling, or anything else. It was also kinda cool watching the polish change color while I was painting my nails.

 

 

Cold

 

Warm

 

Transition

 

 

Can you guess why I picked this particular thermal to try? If you said Coral, you're right! And you read my blog. Which means you are awesome. Anyway, I am totally blown away with this, and I am dying to get my hands on more thermals. There was recently a restock, and the shop is on vacation right now, but Jo (the creator) is active on twitter, facebook and IG so there are plenty of ways to find out when the next restock is. So go follow all the ways and get some thermals! She also makes some beautiful holos as well for all you holo lovers!

 

Lacquer Lust is available on line and at Harlow & Co for international shoppers. Prices range from $8.50 to $12.50 per bottle. Harlow & Co prices vary.

 

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my own personal use. All opinions are my own. Please read my disclaimer for more information.

Nail Of The Day: 'Merica Nails

Heeeyyyyyy! Happy 4th of July guys! I'm sure everyone's blog readers are full of festive nails, so let's add one more!

 

 

 

Used:

 

Takko Lacquer - Va Va Voom

Zoya Pixie Dust - Liberty

 

Born Pretty Stud

 

Of course I had to go overboard with the sparkles! Holo and Pixie Dust in one mani, plus studs. I think I have created the polish-obsessed trifecta. Plus, they kinda remind me of Wonder Woman. Can't get any more awesome than that!

 

Hope all of my fellow 'mericans have a fantastic 4th. Be sure to grab a cold drink and watch some fireworks tonight!

Picture Polish - Majesty (Created By Sahrish Adeel)

Hey lovelies! Happy weekend! Despite the heat, I'm glad it's summer. I love going to Lake Travis or Barton Springs, where we will be spending the day at tomorrow!

 

Today, I have a super special polish to share. Picture Polish Majesty is one my more recent lemmings and I am so glad I finally got a chance to get it. Acquiring lemmings is really fun! It is one of the collaboration polishes Picture Polish does with beauty bloggers from time to time. This one created by Sahrish Adeel as the perfect nail polish; suitable for any skin tone and any occasion.

 

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my own personal use.

 

 

 

Picture Polish - Majesty

 

Majesty is a shell pink foil/glass fleck with pale golden undertones. But it is also so much more. It has a subtle scattered holographic sparkle, that  comes out to play in different lighting. It also has a subtle multi chromatic color shift ranging from gold to pink to purple, blue and teal. It is amazing. I never see the same thing twice. It is also incredible hard to capture the true beauty on camera! Formula was blissful. 2 coats, buttery smooth formula. Dry time was slightly longer than average, but nothing a nice quick dry top coat can't fix. I used butter London PD Quick for the swatches.

 

Macro

 

Look at all the shinny rainbows! Ugh, I DIE. This is truly a stunning polish and worthy of the name Majesty. It may not be every one's cup of tea, but the beauty and uniqueness are worthy of a place in your stash!

Please Note: Products shown were purchased by me for my own personal use. All opinions are my own. For more information, please see my disclosure.

Picture Polish is available on line for Australian customers, and Llarowe, Harlow & Co, and Ninja Polish for International customers. Polish ranges from $12 - $15 depending on retailer.

Zoya Summer Pixie Dust Collection (Pic Heavy)

Hello everyone! I am so flippin' excited about today's post. I have the entire summer Pixie Dust collection, from Zoya, swatched for you guys! To be honest, when this whole textured trend started, I was heavily against it. None of the promo pics from any brand looked good, in my opinion. Once I started seeing swatches of the original Pixie Dust line, I was mildly interested. Then Zoya announced the summer collection, full of bright, sparkly colors. I was done for. I have lusted after these beauties for almost two months before I was able to get the whole collection. I totally splurged and it was totally worth it. This collection is at the top of my list for all time favs. They are that gorgeous!!!
 

The formula and application is the same for each, so I'll go over all that here. For each color, I used 2 coats. Application was easy with no typical problems that you would normally see with glitter type polishes. Formula was a good consistency as well. I did let the first initial coat dry before I applied the second coat. Dry time was a little bit longer than a typical polish. Removal was easy as well. I didn't have to resort to foil, just a cotton ball soaked with acetone remover. There is a bit of glitter residue after removal, so it can be kinda messy!

Please Note: Products were purchased by me for my own personal use.

 

Zoya Pixie Dust - Solange

 

Solange in a bright lemon yellow textured polish with gold and orange glitter. This is the one I wasn't expecting to like. In every picture online (including mine) it looks very metallic, but in person it is bright and cheery and sooooo sparkly! I think it may be the sparkliest one of the bunch. Absolutely gorgeous.

 

 

 

Zoya Pixie Dust - Beatrix

 

Beatrix is a juicy tangerine orange textured polish with gold glitter. Excuse me while I pass out from the awesomeness of this polish! Perfect for summer and just plain beautiful.

 

 

 

 

Zoya Pixie Dust - Destiny

 

Destiny is a red toned coral textured polish with gold glitter. If I had to pick a favorite (and that would be almost impossible) Destiny would be it. Mainly because I am obsessed with coral. Have I mentioned that already? Pretty sure I have...

 

Anyway. As soon as I got my package, I swatched this one first. The gold glitter plays so well with the warm coral and the crystalline effect of the Pixie Dust. Swoon.

 

 

 

 

Zoya Pixie Dust - Miranda

 

Miranda is a berry colored textured polish with silver glitter. Okay, so I'm not really a pink nail polish fan, but this is so pretty! The color base is almost jelly-like and tints the silver glitter a bit. Out of all the summer colors, this is the most work-appropriate color. It's not terrible bright, compared to the others, and looks like a more traditional polish, just with a bit more sparkle.

 

 

 

Zoya Pixie Dust - Stevie

 

Stevie is a lavender textured polish with silver glitter. It is a tiny bit darker and slightly more red than my pictures. My camera hates purple and wants to turn them all blue. Lame, I know. The silver glitter really stands out in this polish and is so much better looking in person.

 

 

 

 

Zoya Pixie Dust - Liberty

 

Liberty is a cobalt blue textured polish with silver glitter. The polish base is similar to Miranda with a jelly type consistency, giving the silver glitter a blue tint. Love me some blue polish, and this one is so pretty!

What can I say, other than I love them all. The matte sparkle is absolutely stunning in person and pictures just can't do it justice. My personal faves are Destiny, Beatrix and Liberty, but they are all gorgeous and if you are a magpie (like me), you need some Pixie Dust in your life!

Zoya Pixie Dust is available on line at  Zoya.com. Polishes retail for $9 a piece.

Please Note: Products were purchased by me for my own personal use. All opinions are my own. For more information, please see my disclosure policy, here