Indie Spotlight: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer, It Got Away from Me, Yeah…Women of Doctor Who Subset Collection Sampler

*Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer products supplied for honest and unbiased review.  All other products mentioned were purchased by me*

Hi everyone!  Check me out...two posts within mere days of each other!  I can't help it; these lovely indie makers keep sending me gorgeous things to swatch that I simply must share with you!  

Today's post includes some swatches of two upcoming Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer polishes.  BEGL is a brand I've wanted to try for a long time, but never had a chance to so I'm thrilled to bring you these two polishes today!  Both of these polishes are from BEGL's It Got Away from Me, Yeah... Collection, a 15 (!) polish collection inspired by Doctor Who.  The collection name seems somewhat appropriate as Julie began with a 6 polish set and it kind of snowballed from there lol  Since there are so many polishes in this collection, she's divided them up into subsets and the first set that will be released is the Women of Doctor Who and both of the polishes in this post are from that set.

I'm Dr. Martha Jones. Who the Hell Are You? is, as you may have surmised, inspired by the character Martha Jones.  I must admit I don't watch Doctor Who (though I know I should...there aren't enough hours in the day!), so I really can't offer any insight into Julie's inspiration.  But, I can tell you that IDMJWtHAY is a bright fuchsia creme that dries to a satin finish.  That lovely sheen you're seeing in the photos are the light-reflecting, shifty flecks in the polish...a beautiful touch that causes flashes of green, blue, and gold.

This is the second polish in a week that has me rethinking my dislike of matte finishes (excepting matte glitters...love those!).  I've never been a huge fan of this particular finish, but there's something about the smooth finish here that I can't help but love! And the glass flecks in IDMJWtHAY give it a faux flakie feel.  The formula was very easy here (I'm showing 3 flawless coats here) with no dragging or other nasties to worry about.  

The beauty of a satin or matte finish polish is that you can get a separate look out of them simply by adding top coat.  Which I did in the photo below.
 

 One coat of Seche Vite deepens the color a bit and, of course, pumps up the shine.  If you're in the market for a bright polish with a unique finish and plenty of versatility, I urge you to give IDMJWtHAY a go!

Next up is A Snogging Booth?, a lightly textured, red and black, full coverage microglitter polish with a pop of holographic glitter.  This was a pain to photograph, but I loved the polish!  The texture kept throwing my camera into a tizzy, but hopefully I've managed a few decent shots so you can get an idea of the fun going on here.  Textured polishes can be...well...they can just look gross sometimes.  This is not the case with A Snogging Booth?.  The texture is a bit less than the Zoya PixieDust polishes, but is still evident on the nail...sort of a fine sandpaper sort of a finish.  The holographic bits give it a lovely shimmer as well.

I wore this in 3 coats, though in hindsight, I think I might have preferred 2.  The coverage is great, but the glitter is very dense so it will pile up quickly and give some uneven edges if you try to use thick coats.  It's not enough of an issue to bother me but you may want to be aware that it's just a touch finicky (as I think many textured polishes are).

Since we're dealing with a matte-like finish again, I decided to top coat A Snogging Booth? to see what it would look like.

Much like the aforementioned PixieDusts, A Snogging Booth? with top coat is a whole different beautiful animal!  Another polish with two looks in one bottle...gotta love it!

The Women of Doctor Who collection goes on sale starting Sunday, September 21, at 3:30 PM, EDT.  Both of these polishes will retail for $8.50 for a full size bottle.  Be on the look out for the next Doctor Who release coming in October with the third installment in November.  All of the Doctor Who polishes will be available through November after which they will be retired...so if you see something you like, don't wait!  Be sure to follow Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer on Facebook for information on collaborations (like her same-day-release Disney Duo collab with Sweetheart Polish!), upcoming release dates, and other important stuff! You can also follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest!

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post!

Indie Spotlight: Ruby White Tips Christmas Balls

*RWT polish won in a giveaway.  Unsolicited review.  All other products purchased by me.*

Hello, Readers!  If there are, indeed, any of you left.  An explanation for my absence is warranted, I know.  I don't really have a good one.  Certainly, work has been busy but not so much that I haven't been painting my nails at all.  I think that mostly I've just worn myself out.  I love nail polish and I love blogging, but it's actually quite hard work.  Many people may not believe that but it's true.  Blogging is a time-consuming process and nail painting even more so.  I've just gotten burned out lately.  So I can't promise that I'll be back to posting as much as I was, but I'm working on it.  Above all, this venture should be fun and it was getting to the point where it was just stressful.  I've taken a little break and I'm hoping to get back in the groove, so don't count me out just yet!

Today I'm going to show you all a Christmas polish.  Yes, I know.  It's either a little late or a lot early, but it's my very first Ruby White Tips polish, a brand I regularly drool over on Facbook and Etsy, so I really had to show it off!  I actually won this in a giveaway from RWT and although I received it long before Christmas, I haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

Christmas Balls is a pink to gold shimmer base with cheery red and gold dot and square glitters, topped off with a holographic sparkle.  After I put this on, I realized that despite the name, CB qualifies as a pretty Valentine's Day polish as well.  The pink shimmer is much more pronounced in real life and with the red and gold...well, it practially screams cupid!

CB has a lovely formula with a smooth application.  I'm wearing 3 coats here with a coat of Seche Vite on top and there is some visible nail line so I wouldn't expect complete opacity here.  If you'd like a more opaque look, you can layer this over white or any other color that strikes your fancy.  The glitter does settle a bit but turning the bottle upside down for a few moments before application will solve that issue.  The one coat of SV was enough to smooth out any bumpiness from the glitter.

*RWT polish won in a giveaway.  Unsolicited review.  All other products purchased by me.*

RWT still has Christmas Balls available (and the rest of their holiday collection) in their Etsy store for $9.75 for a full size bottle. RWT is also 5-free and vegan, which more and more folks are looking for these days.  You can follow RWT on Facebook to keep informed about new products, sales and other relevant deets.

Thanks so much for reading!

Red & White Snowflakes (or My Very First Successful Stamping...Woot!)

I was going to wait to post these til tomorrow but I'm just so excited I couldn't wait!  I've finally, finally conquered stamping!  Now, it's not 100% perfect, but it's so much better than any other stamping attempt I've ever managed.  I got a tip from somewhere online that I should rough up the stamper with a nail file and then clean it with acetone.  It appears to have worked!  Thanks to whoever gave me this info, though I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it.

Everyone always has such adorable stamped snowflake manis for the holidays and now I have one, too!  I give you my first successful stamping manicure!

I used Glitzy Glazes' Hickory Honey Ham and Essie's Blanc for this mani.  I. Love. It.  So much!  Both of these polishes worked really well for stamping.  HHH shows a little pink on the white, but I like it.  It reminds me of redwork embroidery.  I used a small dotting tool to add in some smaller "snowflakes" in the empty bits.

 

I hope you guys enjoyed the photos, I'd love to hear what you think of it :)  Thanks so much for reading!

Mish Mash Challenge: Rainbow Nails

It's Hump Day!  That means it's Wednesday!  That means it's Mish Mash Challenge day!  I skipped last week's challenge because I spent so much time on my Sanderson Sisters manicure, then I almost skipped this week because of another Halloween manicure I've been working on (which will also hopefully be posted tonight!), but I didn't want to skip two weeks in a row...especially on the Rainbow Challenge!  I know there are going to be some stunning designs this week and I can't wait to see them!  After all the nail art I've done lately, I just stuck with some simple skittles for this week's Challenge.

I did dress these up a bit by using linear holographic polishes so you get rainbows with your rainbows!  Like I said, they're pretty simple but I like 'em!  I'll list the polishes at the end of the post so you can check 'em out if you'd like to.  Though I think a lot of folks were unimpressed with the China Glaze Holographics collection, the ones I've purchased (on half off of clearance at Sally's...woot!) are really pretty in my opinion.  They aren't in-your-face crazy holos, but the linear IS there and it's quite nice.

I apologize for the lack of sunlight in these photos but that's been in short supply lately here in Chicago.  If Apollo manages to drag his chariot into the sky tomorrow, I'll snap a quick one to show you the linear rainbows.

Polish List:
LynBDesigns~Am I Ginger?
DifferentDimensions~Tubular 
China Glaze Holographic~Not In This Galaxy, OMG A UFO, Strap On Your Moonboots 

Please take a minute to peruse the other Mish Mashers' work this week...I'm betting it'll be pretty!  You can find them via the thumbnails below.  Thanks so much for reading!

Indie Spotlight: The Devil Wears Polish A Nice Chianti & Holo Be Thy Name

*All products purchased by me. Unsolicited review*


*Warning* The following images may induce heavy breathing, a racing heartbeat, salivation, and the compulsive urge to immediately give all your money to the amazing woman who creates these polishes.  Seriously.  These beauties are not for the faint of heart!  I've been following The Devil Wears Polish on Facebook for a little bit now and finally made the budget work to try out a couple of her creations.  I think folks in Canada may have heard my squeals of delight when I opened my package!  Tami is the master of the linear holo, people.  If her polishes don't make your eyeballs sweat a little bit then there is quite possibly something wrong with you.  I will be saving my pennies from now on for these beauties because I must have all the holos!

Ok, now that I'm (mostly) finished gushing...let's get down to the pics!

Up first we have A Nice Chianti (I love her names as well!).  ANC is a deep red wine polish with a strong linear holographic effect.  I'm not sure I can emphasize enough how fabulous this polish is!  The color is perfect for Fall; that plum-y magenta just sings of spiced apple cider, leaves crunching underfoot, and a nip in the air!

Opaque in 2 coats (shown here), ANC was smooth to apply.  I did use a coat of Seche Vite on this, but only for durability, as the shine was evident pre-top coat.  There was no dulling of the holographic effect with top coat.
 

*sigh* The macro of this makes me ridiculously happy.  All that rainbow-y goodness bouncing everywhere! 
 

If A Nice Chianti doesn't convince you to try The Devil Wears Polish, the second polish I have for you may change your mind.

Holo Be Thy Name...I think we need a moment of silence to truly appreciate this work of art.
 

Ok, now I'm gonna yammer on about it!  Although there are barely words to describe this one.  A silvery slate grey, HBTN is so full of linear holographic goodness it makes your nails look 3D!  And yes, I realize that your nails are, in fact, already 3D but I hope you know what I mean by that!  Those rainbows just jump off the nails and grab your eyes with a death grip...I could not keep my eyes off of my nails the whole time I wore it.  Incidentally, if you plan on driving a lot, you might want to steer clear of this one ;)

As with A Nice Chianti, the formula for HBTN was smooth and opaque in 2 coats.  I did wear one coat of Seche Vite with this one as well and, obviously, the holographic effect was not dulled at all. 

And I missed out on the sunlight for ANC, but I managed to snag one for you guys of HBTN.  Holy-mother-of-all-holos, Batman!  Please don't wait on this one.  You'll regret it forever if you miss out!


*All products purchased by me. Unsolicited review*


Both of these polishes, along with a cadre of others, are currently available on The Devil Wears Polish's Storenvy site.  Mini bottles retail for $4-5 and full size are $8-11.50.  Tami is currently updating her Aspiring Anarchist collection, an LE set of glitter toppers and glitter crellies/jellies inspired by early punk bands, and has indicated that she'll be creating and stocking more holos in the near future.  As she's so good at it, I suggest you follow her on Facebook because you won't want to miss any updates!

Thanks so much for reading!

Happy Independence Day! Or The Inevitiable July 4th Manicure

Hi everyone!  May you all have a lovely 4th of July, if you live in the States....if not, have a lovely Thursday!

This is my stars and stripes manicure.  Red, white and blue is such a classic combination, isn't it?  :)
 

I've got a polish list coming, if you're interested!  Stay safe and have a great holiday, everyone! Thanks for reading :)

Polish List:
Sinful Colors~Snow Me White
Pure Ice~Freedom
Zoya~Liberty
China Glaze~Ride the Waves
NYC~Big Apple Red
Wet 'n' Wild~Stars & Stripes
Wet 'n' Wild Fergie~Hollywood Walk of Fame

ABC Challenge: R is for Rubik's Cube

Howdy, everyone!  I'm a late poster tonight.  I like to get my ABC Challenge posts up on Tuesday evenings but I was exhausted last night and had to wait to paint 'n' post until today.  Our letter this week is "R" and I thought it was going to be a super easy letter cuz everything starts with "R", right?  Yeah, not as many things as I thought and a lot of them were far too esoteric or general for nail art.  I surely could have grabbed a Revlon or a red and just done a swatch, but I wanted to do something more decorative this week.  So, after searching words that start with "R" via Google, I finally came up with Rubik's Cube!  I have a brother who can solve one of these in about 5 minutes; he says there's a trick to it, but I've never figured it out lol

Whaddya think?  I think they turned out really well and a good thing, too, since they took about 3 hours!  There was a lot of taping and striping polish used and, of course, after I started I realized there may have been an easier way to do it, but oh well.  It turned out in the end and that's all that matters ;)

For some reason, my camera didn't like the green I used (China Glaze's Four Leaf Clover) and it's showing up in these pics as more of a mint.  FLC is much more of a grass green, but you get the idea, I hope?

Thanks so much for reading and please take a moment to browse the other ladies' Challenge posts.  You can find them via the thumbnails below!

Polishes Used:
Sinful Colors~Snow Me White
Deborah Lippmann~Edge of Glory
Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine~Red Red
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri~Orange Impulse
Sinful Colors~Pull Over
China Glaze~Four Leaf Clover
Sinful Colors~Endless Blue

JulieG's Frosted Gumdrops Collection

Howdy, everyone!  I had planned a completely different manicure to blog about today, but after I got finished with this one, I just had to show it off!  There was a really great Groupon deal a few weeks back for the new JulieG Frosted Gumdrops Collection.  I was lucky enough to snag one of these which included all six of the polishes for $12.99 plus $2.99 shipping.  It was a pretty good steal!  I'm actually unfamiliar with JulieG's polishes as I believe they're only sold at Rite Aid and there aren't any of those around here.  So, I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with these.

 *All product was purchased by myself and all opinions are my own and unsolicited*

Julie G's Frosted Gumdrops are glitter polishes with a textured finish, similar to O.P.I.'s Liquid Sand polishes.  As pictured above from left to right, the polish names are Tangerine Dream, Sugar Rush, Hot Cinnamon, Crushed Candy, Blueberry Fizz, and Rock Candy.  And here's what I did with them:

I started with 3 coats of Hot Cinnamon on every nail but my ring finger.  I would have been fine with 2 coats, but I did the third just to make sure everything was covered.  On my accent nail, I did a striped rainbow with all 6 of the polishes.  I have to say, the sparkle on these is pretty spectacular!  I wish my camera would have captured it better.  You can definitely see the texture and it is really similar to the Liquid Sand polishes I've tried.

 *All product was purchased by myself and all opinions are my own and unsolicited*

 My one complaint on these polishes is that they seem to take a long time to dry, and, since you lose the textured effect with a top coat, there's no real way to speed it up.  Just be aware of the possible smudge factor if you get impatient with these.  I think the sparkle payoff was worth the extra dry time for sure.

I know there are folks who really hate the texture trend, but I kinda dig it.  It's something new and fun to play with.  Would I want to wear it every day?  No.  But it's fun for a change.  What are your thoughts on texture polishes?  Love them?  Hate them?  Tell me all about it!

Thanks so much for reading!

 *All product was purchased by myself and all opinions are my own and unsolicited*

ABC Challenge: K is for Klimt

Howdy, everyone!  I simply cannot seem to get more than two posts out a week these days..dunno what my deal is.  Anyway, to start my ABC Challenge post, I first have to send out a huge THANK YOU to Liz from A Mani Maniac.  Some of the girls from the Challenge participated in a secret St. Paddy's Day polish exchange and Liz drew my name and hooked me up with some fantastic goodies that will feature in future posts.  Thanks again!

On to today's manicure!  We're on to "K" in the ABC Challenge this week.  This was a tough letter for me.  I have very few polishes, either by brand or by name, that start with "K".  I decided to go with an inspired look and some nail art today.  One of my favorite artists is Gustav Klimt.  His colors, subject matter and symbolistic style appeal to me.  Many of you are no doubt familiar with The Kiss which is probably Klimt's most famous work.  If this is the only work you know from him, I urge you to Google him and check out some other images.  They're just beautiful! 

Today's manicure is inspired by Klimt's Hygeia.  A detail of a three part oil painting, Hygeia was unfortunately destroyed in 1945 during the final days of WWII when the castle where it was stored was burned by retreating SS troops to prevent it falling to Allied forces.  Nice little art history lesson for you.  War is bad, destroys pretty things!

Ok, on to the nails!

 

I'll include a polish list at the end of the post and I won't bore you with all the details here.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  Is it immediately recognizable as Klimt-inspired?  Maybe not.  However, when you see the detail in Hygeia's  robes, I hope you can see where I was going with it.

The accent nail is inspired by her hair.

This was really a fun manicure and I was glad to have a chance to do some nail art! 

Polishes used:
Red, Red by Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine~cherry red creme
Diva on the Dunes by Jessica~bright red/orange creme
Pull Over by Sinful Colors~bright yellow creme
This Is It by Sinful Colors~shimmery gold with holographic flecks
Black and Brown Sharpie

Please take a moment to check out the other ladies in the ABC Challenge.  You can find them via the thumbnails below!  Thanks so much for reading!

ABC Challenge: "J"

Howdy everyone!  Another Wednesday (well, Tuesday evening), another ABC Challenge!  Today's letter is "J" and I've got a humdinger for you!  This manicure was definitely an experiment and one I'm happy to say seems to have worked out well, but I'll let you all be the judge of that!  Take a gander:

You ready for the "J"s?  What you see here is Julep's January and Jordan in a jelly sandwich!  Did I get enough "J"s in??  Now, technically, January is described on Julep's website as a "tomato red creme", so in that sense, calling this a jelly sandwich is a stretch.  This is where the experiment comes in.  January doesn't really have that creme consistency, being more of a sheer, so I figured I'd try using it as a jelly and see what shook out.

And this is it.  Jordan is a gunmetal hex and micro glitter in a clear base.  The micro glitters give this combo a pretty red shimmer, almost like a flakie, in between the layers of January.  I wish I could have gotten better photos of that shimmer, the above macro was the best I could get.

Yay for experiments that work out!  Please take a moment and check out the other ladies participating in the ABC Challenge.  You can find their posts via the thumbnails below.

Thanks so much for reading!

Heavenly Manicure Two Ways

Hi there!  I'd like to welcome my new readers as a few of you have joined over the last couple weeks.  A special hello to the lovely ladies from the ABC Challenge, you girls are making my day with all your nice comments on my first submission, so thanks!

Today I have a fun little manicure to show you.  A while ago, I hustled to my local Walgreen's to grab a couple of Revlon's new polishes including Heavenly, a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Stairway to Heaven.  Heavenly has square blue/purple/green iridescent glitters mixed with orange/copper/red iridescent glitters in a milky base.  The only thing to do with a polish this lovely is to layer it over a darker base color...which is what I did!  Whaddya think?

....more after the jump....

Julep Petra

Hello, everyone!  I've got a quick swatch for you today of a very pretty Julep shade.  Take a peek:

This is Julep's Petra, described as a "cranberry magenta with a silver shimmer" on their website.  I swatched this not expecting to like it very much.  Pinks and reds just aren't my thing and this polish seems to sit somewhere between the two.  However, once I got it on, I saw the subtle purple and fuchsia tones as well as the silver.  I was surprised at how much I ended up liking it.  I'm wearing 3 coats here and I felt that was pretty good coverage.  The formula was nice and the color payoff is great!

Here's another look:
 

You can see a bit of the silver shimmer in this one.  Isn't it nice when things turn out better than you expect?  And speaking of nice things, here's a reminder that my giveaway is still open so get your entries in for a chance to win 3 Julep polishes!

Thanks so much for reading!

Sam & Willy's Manicure

Howdy everyone!  Tonight was the holiday dinner for my workplace.  We really only have 4 employees so it's a small get together, but it's always a good time.  In honor of our after hours evening, I decided to do a Sam & Willy's manicure.  If you live in the Chicago area and haven't been by yet, Sam & Willy's is definitely worth a trip.  We carry tons of cute dog and cat stuff as well as a great selection of healthy pet foods, including raw and grain-free diets.  Ok, that's it for the plug, on to the nails!

I'm pretty proud of how this one turned out.  The base color is 3 coats of Wet 'n' Wild in French White Creme.  The portraits are done with black striping polish and various acrylic paints.  For the letters, I just used a Sharpie.  The only drawback to that is that sometimes the ink runs when applying a top coat.  I think maybe I just need to let it dry longer before I use my Seche Vite but I was in a hurry last night to finish this one up.

Here's a close of Sam's portrait on my thumbnail:

And one of Willy on my pinky:
 

Please check out S&W's facebook page to keep updated on the latest sales and events at the store!

As always, thanks so much for reading!

O! Christmas Tree Manicure

Hello, hello!  Two days in a row with a post, shocking, I know!  I hope everyone's holiday season is turning out well so far.  I've got my first holiday function this Sunday night with the crew from my job.  I'm trying to get myself into the spirit of things this year, so I've got another holiday manicure for you today.  This manicure is not my own design, as I found it on Pinterest and for once, the link back actually worked.  You can see the original design here on Laatikollinen lakkaa.  Aaaand here's my version:

 So adorable, right?!  I started here with 2 coats of Ulta's Salon Formula Nail Laquer in Diva, a pretty holographic glitter in a light pink shimmer base.  I used Wet 'n' Wild's French White Creme for the "snowbanks" and dots of falling snow.  The snowbanks were done using a method similar to Nailside's Freehand Cloud tutorial.  For my accent nail, I used painter's tape to create a long triangle shape and then filled it in with e.l.f. in Green Machine, a dark green creme.  I quickly went over GM with Wet 'n' Wild's FastDry in Happy Holidaze!, a teal multi-glitter jelly from their Party Rocks 2012 Holiday Collection, to add some sparkle and depth to the tree.  My tree topper is a silver star from Wet 'n' Wild's Stars and Stripes.  The ornaments on the tree are done with a dotting tool and e.l.f. in Cherry Bomb.

Overall, I thought this turned out great.  I love the sparkle that Diva adds to the whole mani and the nail art came out great!  Here's a close up of my accent nail:
 

I hope you enjoyed this manicure as much as I did.  Check back for more holiday nails before Christmas!  Thanks so much for reading!

Two for One

Howdy, everyone!  I know it's been awhile since I've posted, so I hope some of you are still reading.  My life has been a bit of a whirlwind of late, so I haven't had the time to keep up with my blog.  I had a few spare moments today, so I thought I'd show you a couple of manicures I've done in the last few weeks.  Both of these manis are great for holiday wear.  

The first manicure I have for you is really just a swatch of a new color I picked up at Walgreen's awhile ago.  Here's a peek:

....more after the jump....