Thursday, July 31, 2014

Rainbow Honey Stolen Dance


I've got another brand new polish from the Rainbow Honey Summer Mixtape Collection to show you today! This one is Stolen Dance, a pale green with delicate gold and violet microshimmer. I own a ton of green polish but even in my massive collection, Stolen Dance is still pretty unique!


This is such an awesome green! It's almost like a light shade of jadeite green--sooooo pretty and it doesn't give me lobster hands, which is tough to avoid with pale greens like this one. The shimmer is in perfect harmony and balance with the base, adding an extra something without taking anything away from the beauty of the base.

The formula is a touch thick and has some drag to it. It's not so bad that it made application difficult, but I do think I'll add a drop or two of thinner to this polish, just to suit my own tastes.

You can purchase Rainbow Honey from their website.


Disclosure: This polish was sent to me for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Giveaway Reminder

Just a quick reminder that if you haven't entered my giveaway yet for an awesome, handmade nail polish rack from the Etsy shop Vox and Coal, today is the last day to enter! To learn more about the giveaway and read my full review of Vox and Coal's polish racks (Spoiler: They're awesome!), you can see my original post HERE. Good luck!!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday: Interlocking Design Mani

This week's Twinsie Tuesday theme has us doing interlocking design manis. I actually had to look this up to know what it was and apparently it's where you make a design with interlocking dots. I could tell right away this was going to be tricky for me, because there was (ugh) nail art involved. But I gave it a whirl and...well, I tried, honest!


For this mani, I used two Essie polishes: A Crewed Interest and Sweet Talker. I actually think this looks better in the picture than it does in real life, so hey, that's something at least! I like the color contrast with this mani, but that's about it. Let's not dwell on it any longer than we already have, hahaha.

Part of TT is trying new things and when you try new things, inevitably some of them are going to be not-so-good. I'm sure my Twinsies fared better this week than I did, so be sure to take a look at their manis!


Alaina at The Little Canvas
Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Anna at Going to the Showing
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Kelly at Tuxarina
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Sunday, July 27, 2014

OPI You Are So Outta Lime!

Neon green polish... Three words that make my heart very happy! As you may have picked up from my blog, I absolutely adore green polish. Whether it's neon, swampy or anything in between, I gotta have my greens!

The latest addition to my green collection is OPI You Are So Outta Lime! This vibrant neon green was a birthday gift from the lovely Kelly :) I knew as soon as I saw the preview pictures for OPI's Neon Collection that I would have a hard time resisting this one and it's every bit as wonderful as I'd hoped! Here it is over OPI Put A Coat On!, the white, color-intensifying basecoat from the same collection.



Unlike a lot of neons, this wasn't streaky or chalky at all. In fact, it was very easy to work with and wearing it with a white base underneath makes the application that much more even. In addition to helping application, I really do think a white base is practically a necessity for getting the most out of OPI's neons. They're decently bright on their own, but the white really makes them pop.

You Are So Outta Lime! is a bit different than most of the neon greens we see, which tend to veer more into "toxic waste" territory (see China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard as an example). While those are fun and I do enjoy them, I can still appreciate that OPI went in another direction for their neon green. This is a bright n' bouncy lime shade that I think any green lover will go nuts over!

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Zoya Naturel Deux Preview



Zoya has us seeing double this year with a second iteration of their Naturel polishes! This latest collection, called Naturel Deux, features six all-new neutrals.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvmUYdARZYN4SUKGCVbvRmxOhYllW1x-wimGQD0a-s0_I1cCcdMPSXwnPTS_ePelJPAcQmLovxy157htKeHSg6RvMGrsvHFZaIeaFMhAxPAy6ijX1Uji5elwThj-0R36wzWJRMxBZOhM8/s1600/image002.jpg
L to R: Spencer, Chanelle, Emilia, Marnie, Aubrey, Madeline

I'm not the biggest neutral polish fan, but I can appreciate that Zoya really made these feel like more fall-appropriate neutrals. These aren't just more of the same from what we saw with the softer, more spring-centric original Naturel Collection. And despite my general aversion to brown polish, I gotta say that Emilia actually catches my eye the most!

The collection is already available for pre-order on Zoya's website, so expect an official launch in stores soon! Will you be snatching any of these up?

Friday, July 25, 2014

Rainbow Honey Fall In Love


Rainbow Honey's new Summer Mixtape Collection has arrived! RH is possibly my all-time favorite indie brand, so I was definitely looking forward to seeing what they had up their sleeve for summer and this latest release does not disappoint! The collection is comprised of 12 fun, brightly colored shades that perfectly capture the feel of the season. I've got three polishes from the collection to share with you and today we'll be taking a look at Fall In Love!

Fall In Love is a juicy red jelly with blue microshimmer. The base color reminds me of watermelon and the shimmer is a beautiful touch, lending some extra depth and visual interest to this bright jelly shade.







The formula is excellent and very easy to work with. I used two coats here. There was still a little bit of VNL peeking through, but not enough to where it bothered me. The finish is shiny and squishy, like any good jelly should be!

You can purchase Rainbow Honey from their website.


Disclosure: This polish was sent to me for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Born Pretty Neon Nail Stickers: Review & Swatches


For us polish lovers, summer is always the season of neon, so I thought it'd be fun to try some neon nail stickers from Born Pretty Store! This sticker sheet  has a couple different shapes--diamonds, owls, lightning bolts and crescent moons--in neon shades of yellow, orange, pink and green. The cool diamonds are what really drew me to this particular design, but they also offer neon sticker sets in other patterns; you can see them all on Born Pretty's website HERE.

Because nothing goes better with neon than more neon, I paired the stickers with OPI You Are So Outta Lime!, a vibrant lime green.



The stickers are very easy to use. Unlike BP's water decals (which I love), you don't need to do anything extra to get them to adhere to the nail--just peel and stick. Removal takes a little extra elbow grease, but nothing too bad.

If you would like to purchase anything from Born Pretty, they offer 10% off for Nailed readers:

www.bornprettystore.com


Disclosure: This product was provided to me for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday: Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily

This week's Twinsie Tuesday theme challenged us to do a mani inspired by nature. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm "indoors-y." I have ridiculously terrible allergies so it's tough for me to be outside for long periods of time. But I do love being by the water. So for my nature mani, I chose Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily. This vibrant teal with a haze of delicate pink microshimmer makes me think of water gardens and blue tropical waters.



It's easy to see why this polish created such a stir when it first came out. Simply put, it's possibly the most beautiful teal I own. The formula is equally fantastic, reaching opacity in three smooth and easy coats.

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at this RBL gem with me today! Be sure to head on over to my Twinsies' sites to see what they did for their nature manis!


Alaina at The Little Canvas
Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Anna at Going to the Showing
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Kelly at Tuxarina
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Monday, July 21, 2014

Review & Giveaway: Vox and Coal Nail Polish Rack


As polish lovers, oftentimes we get so caught up in the joy of collecting that we lose sight of one of the harsh realities of our hobby: "Where the hell am I going to put all this polish?!" I'd been storing my stash using a mix of plastic drawers and acrylic racks. While I have waaaayyy too much polish to keep it all contained in one single unit, lately I'd been forced to admit that my set-up was based more on function than form. Since my stash is in our living room (yep, I shamelessly put the crazy on full display for all our visitors) I figured it could use some sprucing up.

Enter Vox and Coal, an Etsy shop offering handmade nail polish racks to store and display your precious stash in style! When they contacted me asking if they could work with me to create the custom polish rack of my dreams...well, really, what girl could resist? ;)

The owners of Vox and Coal were a pleasure to work with. We did some chatting back and forth via e-mail to figure out what design I wanted for my polish rack and they were very friendly and accommodating. They had the idea of doing a paint job inspired by one of my lemmings, Illamasqua Raindrops, and I asked if they could partner that with some type of Art Deco-inspired pattern. Here's the paint and pattern combo they came up with. Isn't it beautiful?






And now the big reveal: the rack itself! It's hanging in the living room, above my swatching station.



The rack comes with everything needed to mount it on the wall, so installation is fairly simple...and by that, I mean I had my boyfriend hang it for me, hahaha. But he said it was easy enough. The mounting equipment provided with the rack feels very stable against the wall. I pounded on the wall, right next to the rack, and neither the rack or the polish bottles shook. 

The rack measures 24" x 24", so it's nicely sized. It's big enough to hold a considerable amount of polish, but not so large that it takes up a ton of space. I used the rack to display a variety of brands--mostly ones with square bottles so there was some type of visual uniformity.

So exactly how many bottles can this rack hold? Well, for reference, the shelves are wide enough so that each one can comfortably hold 20 Essie bottles or 17 OPI bottles across. But the shelves are also deep enough that you can easily place the polishes two-deep, so that means you could hold up to 40 Essie bottles or 34 OPI bottles per shelf. (With my Butter London polishes, I could even get them to three-deep and the unboxed Rainbow Honey minis are four-deep!)That brings us to a grand total of up to 200 Essie bottles or 170 OPI bottles for the whole rack! Impressive!

I left some empty space on the bottom shelf since I have tons of untrieds from the brands I chose to display, so those will gradually be making their way to their permanent home on the rack as I (hopefully) work through my untrieds. But I currently have about 170 polishes on there, with plenty of room to spare.

The construction feels very sturdy and even with the amount of polish I put on each shelf, the shelves weren't showing any strain. They're made from solid wood, so they can take quite a bit of weight. You can tell this rack was made with time and care. I expect it to last a good, long time!

Overall, I am extremely impressed with this rack. It's sturdily built, lovely to look at, and holds a good amount of polish. The customer service was excellent, with Vox and Coal providing updates and communication every step of the way as my rack was designed, assembled and shipped out to me. I couldn't ask for more!

So, like what you see? Well then enter to win your very own polish rack from Vox and Coal! They've been kind enough to offer up a free rack to give away to one of my readers! The winner will get to pick a free rack from Vox and Coal's offerings on Etsy--awesome, right?

Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter. Please read all rules carefully before entering. Good luck!! :)

 a Rafflecopter giveaway


Disclosure: This product was provided to me for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

China Glaze All Aboard Preview

Preview shots for China Glaze's fall collection, All Aboard, have arrived and it is...brown. Well, more taupe, really, but whatever you want to call it, there is a lot of it in this collection!

I couldn't find anything listing an exact release date, but I'm guessing we'll see these pop up sometime in August. Check it out!

China-Glaze-Fall-2014-All-Aboard-Swatches 

China-Glaze-Fall-2014-All-Aboard

There might turn out to be some winners in here, but the collection as a whole seems more than a little same-y to me. Do we really need that many taupe tones, China Glaze? That's not to say this is a bad bunch of colors (Choo-Choo Choose You and Nice Caboose look promising to me), but I haven't been nearly as excited about any of CG's 2014 collections as I have been in the past. New Bohemian, On Safari, Hunger Games... Remember how completely awesome those collections were? I want more of those!

Am I being too harsh on this collection? Which colors are you looking forward to?

Friday, July 18, 2014

Lumina Lacquer Free Spirit

Lumina Lacquer Free Spirit is a glitterbomb with pink, purple, gold and silver pieces in a variety of shapes. You've got butterflies, triangles, hearts, circles, stars, flowers--all kinds of fun stuff! Here I've paired it with Barielle Paradise In The Tropics, a raspberry creme. (Please forgive that I'm holding a tube of lipstick in these swatches. I didn't have a polish bottle with me at the time.)





Despite being chock-full of glitter, Free Spirit was very easy to apply. You don't have to fish at all for the big glitter pieces, as there are plenty of them in the mix. However, they might require a little guidance to go where you want them to on the nail.

I think the circle pieces are my favorite thing about this polish, although the triangles are a really cool addition as well. But I'm a sucker for circle glitter, so when you've got holographic circle glitter in a polish? Fuhgeddaboutit!

You can purchase Lumina Lacquer from their website.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Deborah Lippmann New York Marquee Preview

Deborah Lippmann's chrome-tastic fall collection just hit DL's website. The collection, titled New York Marquee, features six new metallic shades in a rainbow of colors.

12TH STREET RAG
12th Street Rag
AUTUMN IN NEW YORK 
Autumn In New York
HARLEM NOCTURNE
Harlem Nocturne
I'LL TAKE MANHATTAN 
I'll Take Manhattan
LULLABY OF BROADWAY
Lullaby Of Broadway
TAKE THE "A" TRAIN 
Take The "A" Train

Chromes can be a tricky finish. Application is make-or-break. So I'm curious to see how these look in swatches before I dive in and buy. If they're done right, I'm sure I'll wind up with at least one or two!

Will you be taking home some DL chromes? Which fall collection are you most looking forward to?

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday: One-Stroke Flowers Mani

This week has been kind of crazy, so unfortunately I am behind on all things blog. Everything is okay--just busy. :) So I'm sad to say I'm going to have to sit this week out, but I'll be back on the wagon next week! Sorry for the lack of post. In the meantime, head on over to my Twinsies' sites!


Alaina at The Little Canvas
Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Anna at Going to the Showing
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Kelly at Tuxarina
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Monday, July 14, 2014

Essie Dress To Kilt Preview

The fall collections are almost here! We've already seen what OPI has in store this fall, so now it's time to check in with Essie. They're releasing a six-color collection, called Dress To Kilt. Take a look!

Essie-Fall-2014-Dress-to-Kilt
L To R: Dress To Kilt,  Fall In Line, Partner In Crime
Essie-Fall-2014-Dress-to-Kilt-Collection 
L To R: Style Cartel, Take It Outside, The Perfect Cover Up

Nothing we haven't seen before here, but it still looks like a nice batch of dusty jewel tones for fall. And you know I've got my eye on those greens!

No word on an official release date, but usually the fall collections start to surface in stores around mid-August, so keep your eyes peeled!

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Barielle Topless In St Tropez


Barielle Topless In St Tropez is a bubblegum pink with veins of soft, silver shimmer. The shimmer doesn't have much of a sparkle to it; instead, it gives this pink a nice, pearly radiance.



The formula is a touch thick, but application was smooth overall. I used three coats here.

This isn't a super unique shade, so I don't have a ton to say about it, but that doesn't mean it's not pretty. In fact, I liked it quite a bit! It's a great everyday shade of pink with a neutral undertone that should flatter anyone.


Disclosure: This polish was sent to me for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Born Pretty Holographic Nail Foils: Review & Swatches



It's been a while since I've had some nail art on here. Not that I'm an afficianado--far from it! But I figured it was time to bust out some nail art fun again with some nail foils from Born Pretty Store!

The foils I'll be reviewing for you today come in several different patterns (you can see them all on the Born Pretty website HERE) and the one I chose is A24. This design features some pink and blue rosebuds over a silver holo background, plus a small tiger stripe design along the sides, for some extra fun and variety. I had to snap a picture of the foil in low lighting, because the holo was too intense for my camera to focus on in direct light:


As you can see, it has a nice, strong holo effect, even in dim light! Unfortunately top coat does dull the holo considerably (I tried both Seche Vite and Deborah Lippmann Addicted To Speed--same effect) so I had to sacrifice some holo to gain some longevity. Here's how the foils look on my nails, using OPI 4 In The Morning as a base. I went for kind of an abstract, grungy look.



According to the directions with these foils, all you're supposed to do to apply them is press them against slightly tacky (as in, not all the way dry) polish and then peel off, leaving some of the foil behind on your nail. Now, I've reviewed some other Born Pretty nail foils in the past and those worked exactly as described. But these were quite a bit trickier. When I tried pressing them against some not quite dry polish, barely any of the foil came off onto the nail--and I was pressing so hard it hurt. So I tried doing it when my polish was a little wetter and all that accomplished was the destruction of my manicure. I tried putting some topcoat over 4 In The Morning, waiting for the topcoat to get tacky, and then giving the foils another go. Still no luck!

Ultimately, I resorted to using some nail glue I got with a Born Pretty caviar mani set. That at least allowed me to get some of the foil onto my nails, but I still had some difficulty getting the foil to apply exactly where I wanted it to. I felt like I didn't have any control over where the foil would leave an imprint. I tried getting certain parts of the foil, like the bits with flowers on them, to transfer onto my nail but application was very imprecise.

I wanted to love these foils, but they were a lot harder to work with than I'd expected, to the point that I nearly gave up a few times. They make for a nice enough mani (I got several compliments on this mani from my co-workers) but I wish they were easier to use.  I would recommend the other foils I reviewed from BP over these. They look great and apply effortlessly!

If you would like to purchase anything from Born Pretty, they offer 10% off for Nailed readers:

www.bornprettystore.com


Disclosure: This product was sent to me for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

China Glaze The Giver Preview

If you went to school in America, chances are you read Lois Lowry's The Giver at some point in your educational career. For me, it was seventh grade in English class. Well, now the movie adaptation is on its way and China Glaze is releasing a tin-in collection, available August 1. This ad doesn't give us much of a feel for the colors, but don't forget to click to enlarge to see things a bit better!

http://askarsgard.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/TheGiverChinaGlaze.jpg 

While I loved CG's Hunger Games Collection, this latest movie collection doesn't have me all that excited. It just seems like kind of an odd pairing to me. I enjoyed the book (although it's been years since I read it), but it's not something that strikes me as a natural fit for a beauty-related tie-in. But hey, if there are some cute colors here, I'll still get 'em. 

Are you looking forward to this collection? Plan on seeing the movie?  

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday: Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Tribal It On

This week's Twinsie Tuesday theme features my nail art nemesis: stripes. For some reason, I have extreme difficulty drawing straight, even lines. I don't know why it's so hard for me, but it is!

So rather than make us all suffer through a terrible manicure with sad, lumpy stripes...I took the easy way out and cheated with some Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail wraps. I know, I know, I'm awful. But hey, at least the wraps look cool! This particular design, which features a black and white striped pattern, is called Tribal It On.



I love all the different interlocking stripe patterns here. Plus the fact that these wraps are in black and white really makes the intricacy of the design stand out. As usual with Sally Hansen, the quality of the wraps themselves is excellent and they were very easy to apply.

So that about wraps it up for this week's TT! Hopefully you enjoyed my post, even if it was a bit of a cop-out. ;) If you want to see some real striped manis, take a look at what my fabulous Twinsies created!


Alaina at The Little Canvas
Amanda at Amandalandish
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Anna at Going to the Showing
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Kelly at Tuxarina
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Monday, July 7, 2014

OPI The Sky's My Limit

Hello everyone! Sorry for my absence this past weekend. I was battling a nasty stomach bug, but I'm feeling better now and I'm back with some brand new OPI: The Sky's My Limit from the Ford Mustang Collection! To be honest, the collection as a whole seemed pretty "meh" to me, but this polish was a standout to me. It's a rich metallic shade of blue with intense gold shimmer.




The formula here is outstanding, reaching opacity in two easy coats. I am in looooove with the shimmer in this polish! It looks beautiful in any light and really adds a lot to this already-gorgeous blue.

I wouldn't call this a dupe of OPI Catch Me In Your Net--and all the other shades in that same vein like Zoya Charla or Orly Haley's Comet. The Sky's My Limit looks darker, with less of a green tone to it than Catch Me In Your Net. So while The Sky's My Limit may not be a sister polish, it's definitely a cousin.

Friday, July 4, 2014

Butter London Brick Lane Collection Preview

Butter London's new Brick Lane Collection has just popped up on BL's website! There are some make-up items in the collection as well, but here we'll be focusing on the polish. This collection is notable in that it features BL's first forays into textured and satin finishes! Since we've got a variety of polishes here, I've labelled each color with not only the name, but the finish as well. Take a look!

Dubs (Textured)
 
Cor Blimey (Satin)
Brick Lane (Shimmer)
 
Bric-A-Brac (Glitter)

The collection is also available as a set of six 0.2 oz bottles, featuring two exclusive colors: East End, a "curry yellow" satin and Chocka, a plum shimmer.



East End looks awesome! I really wish it was available on its own, because I'm not quite ready to shell out for the whole minis set just to get it. But a yellow satin is definitely something unique and intriguing! 

I'm not a huge matte polish fan, but I can get down with satins if the formula and finish are nice. I thought OPI did an outstanding job with the satins from the Gwen Stefani Collection earlier this year, so I'll be curious to see how Butter's stack up! 

What about you? See anything you'll be snagging from this collection?