Twinsie Tuesday: Recreate Another Twinsie's Mani

This week, we were challenged to recreate one of our fellow Twinsies' manis. We could pick anyone and any mani we wanted. I did some looking and decided on a really cute mani done by Alaina from The Little Canvas!

I would like to preface this by saying that Alaina is a million times better at nail art than I will ever be. So while I am a big admirer of her manis, most of them are things I would never even attempt to try myself! But I really loved this mani of hers...

...and I thought it was something I could pull off. Here's my version:

I used the same base as Alaina, China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle. Then my pinky and pointer fingers are topped with OPI I'll Tinsel You In and my middle finger is Color Club Harp On It. Alaina drew the hearts on her ring fingers, but I cheated by fishing out heart glitter from Lynnderella Evermore.

I had a lot of fun doing this! I like searching my stash for the perfect polishes to recreate a look. I'm excited to see what manis everyone else picked! And please be sure to welcome our newest Twinsies, Alice and Sarah! :)

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Lisa at The Polish Playground

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Claire at Kerruticles

​ ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amanda at Amandalandish

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

 Alaina at The Little Canvas

Color Club Eternal Beauty

Color Club's Halo Hues are widely beloved as some of the greatest holographic polishes ever and I can't say I disagree. They're richly pigmented, buttery smooth and fast-drying. I really can't say enough positive things about them. You need to own at least one of these beauties!

I had a hard time finding the Halo Hues in my neck of the woods, so I've relied on friends for most of the ones in my collection. One of my very favorite Halo Hues is Eternal Beauty, a purple stunner that I received in one of our Twinsie Tuesday holiday swaps from Amanda. I could have easily taken dozens pictures of this polish basking in the sun like this. But as happy as I am with these photos, they still don't hold a candle to how mesmerizing Eternal Beauty looks in person.

 And a final parting shot in less direct sun:

The formula, as is the case with all the Halo Hues, is fantastic. You don't need a special base to get smooth application with intense holo pay-off, although I do skip the top coat with these to get the most out of the holo. What you see above is two coats.

Which brands make your favorite holos? Aside from Halo Hues, which really take the cake for me, I also love a-England's. I really want to try some of the holos in the Colors by Llarowe line!

Twinsie Tuesday: Color Club Miss Bliss

"You have so much nail polish! How could you possibly have trouble picking what to wear?"

In the life of a polish addict, we've all been there: dozens of polishes but you still feel like you have nothing to choose from. When you absolutely cannot decide, that's when you fall back on your old faithfuls, which is what this week's Twinsie Tuesday theme is all about: sharing our go-to polish!

I don't really have a specific go-to polish, but more of a go-to color. Whenever I am absolutely stumped on what polish to wear, I pretty much always reach for a pink. Yeah, it's a bit of a safe choice, but it'll work with any outfit or occasion!

And what better pink to choose today than one gifted to me by a fellow Twinsie? I received Color Club Miss Bliss from the fabulous Amanda as part of our Twinsie Tuesday holiday swap! This linear holographic pink is one of Color Club's much-loved Halo Hues. For my money, Halo Hues are absolutely the best holos out there! They're very vibrant and they apply effortlessly.

One of the many fantastic things about Halo Hues is that you don't need a special aqua basecoat to really bring out the holographic effect or to ensure streak-free application. I used Deborah Lippmann Fast Girls under two coats of Miss Bliss and it worked beautifully--no streaking, no dragging and the holo was still breathtakingly intense! I did skip topcoat to keep the holo nice and vibrant but luckily the dry time is quick so you're not waiting around forever with wet nails.

I really can't recommend the Halo Hues highly enough and a big thank you goes out to Amanda for helping me expand my collection of them! :) Color Club can be a tough brand to find where I live, so I was thrilled to receive more of these amazing holos!

Do you have a go-to polish? Or are you like me where you just have a go-to color or style of polish? If you're in need of some good workhorse polishes, be sure to check out what my Twinsies chose as their go-to's today!

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Casey at CaseyLane Loves Polish

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Erin at Paint Those Piggies

Heather at Peace, Love, & Polish

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Rachel at Top Coat It

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Traci at DrinkCitra

Born Pretty Moon and Stars Water Decals: Review & Swatches

I don't think I will ever get tired of Born Pretty Store's water decals. They're one of my all-time favorite nail art products and they come in a ton of different designs. The design I have to show you today features a crescent moon and some stars. You can check out the decals on Born Pretty's site HERE, where you also have the option of this same design but in white.

The decals are extremely easy to use and they work a lot like a temporary tattoo. You cut them out, dunk 'em in water for a few seconds, peel the backing off, then stick the decal to your nail. Seal with topcoat and then you have instant nail art! I love how simple they are to use and I always get a ton of compliments on them!

Here are the decals over Color Club Harp On It, a silver linear holo.

There's ten decals in this set, so it's a steal at less than $1.50! The decals were a bit large for my nails, so you can either do some trimming or just do what I did: wait until your topcoat dries, then pull off the excess parts of the decal.

As usual, I had an awesome experience with these water decals! The design is gorgeous and the quality is great. Whether you're a nail art n00b or a pro, I think anyone would love these! They're so quick and fun to use.

If you would like to order anything from Born Pretty, they offer a 10% discount to Nailed readers with this code:

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

Color Club Wicker Park

Color Club Wicker Park is a surprisingly tricky color to peg down. In the bottle, it looks lavender, but on the nail, it takes on a much more pink hue with lavender undertones and is a lot brighter than the bottle originally led me to believe! It's a surprisingly unique shade, amongst both my pinks and my purples.

The formula applies well and covers in three coats. This is a pretty unusual shade for a fall collection but I like it! You may have seen it earlier this week in my Twinsie Tuesday post with Naild'It Child's Play. Since it's both kind of pink and kind of purple, I think it has a lot of potential for layering!

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

Twinsie Tuesday: Naild'It Child's Play

This week's Twinsie Tuesday theme is cute and girly nails. I chose Naild'It Child's Play, which the brand describes as "random and full of glitter 'play' in all sorts of shapes, colors and sizes." It's an explosion of bright color, sparkles and heart glitter--a necessity for any ultra girly polish. ;) Here is three coats over Color Club Wicker Park.

The formula is solid, other than one or two of the white bar glitters curled on me. But the big glitter pieces like the hearts and the large hexes were surprisingly manageable and didn't taco or stick out. All of the different colors and shapes in this polish really do bring to mind something that you might see in a kid's drawing, so I think the name is spot on!

Be sure to take a look at what my Twinsies did for their girly nails today! I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of pink!

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Heather at Peace, Love, & Polish

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Traci at DrinkCitra

Color Club Pearl District

Color Club Pearl District is a rather interesting color, kind of like a metallic, mustard-tinged brass.  I can't lie, when I first put it on, I kind of hated it with my skintone. But then I realized what it reminded me of: a tiger's eye gemstone. In addition to matching it in color, Pearl District also has that same smooth, shiny finish you would expect from a polished tiger's eye stone. It took some warming up to, but it's definitely a unique polish and a great fit for autumn.

The formula is solid, if a little brushstroke-y, and covers in three coats.  I was surprised how much I came around to this polish and I have to applaud Color Club for releasing such an offbeat shade. This will be one of those shades that people either love or hate. Fans of unusual metallics like Butter London Wallis will want to check this one out!

So what do you think: eclectic or kinda ugly? It's definitely not something I would normally gravitate toward, but the more I look at it, the more I like it.

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

Color Club Pearl-spective

Color Club Pearl-spective is an iridescent topper from the brand's new Kaleidoscope Collection. If you like polishes like Essie Pearlfection, Pearl-spective is basically that on sparkly, color-shifting steroids! As the light shifts, it changes from pink to orange to purple to blue. It's a tricky effect to try and capture on camera, but trust me when I say that it's really lovely in person!

This is two coats over China Glaze Pool Party, a screaming neon pink. The formula is excellent and didn't give me any trouble. I was a little worried that such a bright color might overshadow Pearl-spective, but I actually think they work beautifully together!

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

Color Club Harp On It

I have wanted an intense, linear silver holo for about as long as I've been interested in nail polish. I longed for the days of collections like China Glaze OMG, where you could easily get rich, beautiful holos from mainstream brands. So major kudos to Color Club for fulfilling the wishes of nail addicts everywhere by making affordable, mass market holos that pack a serious punch. With Harp On It, I finally have the silver holo of my dreams!

Another thing I love about the Color Club holos is that they apply just as beautifully as they look. You don't need a special base coat to get smooth application and an intense holographic effect. This is three effortless coats.

I really can't recommend Color Club's Halo Hues highly enough. They are some of the best quality, most affordable holographic polishes out there. They absolutely live up to the hype and are a must-try if you love holos!

Born Pretty Watermelon Nail Art Decals: Review & Swatches

One of my all-time favorite nail art products has got to be Born Pretty Store's nail decals. They come in all kinds of different designs and are insanely easy to use: just wet them, peel them and stick them on the nail. It works just like a temporary tattoo and makes for an amazing nail art cheat. I've done several reviews on these decals already and I've got another fun design to show you today that gives you instant watermelon nails!

This particular set of decals comes in two designs: strawberries and cherries or watermelon. I opted for watermelon, but you can see what both sets of designs look like HERE. The sheet that I received looks like this:

The decals come in a few different sizes, but the "rind" part of the decal wasn't always wide enough to fit my nail. But you can easily do what I did: cut apart the decals and make new designs and patterns with them. The design on my middle finger below was created by splicing together the seed sections on four different decals. It was a lot of fun to mix and match and I think the designs are absolutely perfect for summertime. Here's how it all turned out!

My red base is OPI Red Lights Ahead...Where? and the green is Color Club Twiggie. These decals were a bit stiffer than some of the ones I've used in the past, but were still easy to work with overall.  I used up the whole sheet for my mani (done on both hands), but since each sheet is priced at just over two dollars, these are much more economical than a lot of similar decals out there. One of the things I love about Born Pretty is how consistently affordable their products are.

When all is said and done, this is yet another adorable, easy-to-use decal set from Born Pretty! I'm continually impressed by the huge variety of looks and techniques they create with these decals and can't wait to see what they offer next!

If you would like to order anything from Born Pretty, they've been kind enough to offer a 10% off code for all Nailed readers below:

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

Color Club Evolution

Color Club Evolution is a pretty sky blue creme from the brand's new Kaleidoscope Collection. It looks like a pastel blue in the bottle, but it's surprisingly vibrant on the nail. I absolutely adore bright blues like this! It's just such a cheerful-looking shade.

While I love the color, the formula was not my favorite. It is both streaky and thick, which makes for a less-than-ideal combination. I used three coats here. This is not the worst formula I've ever tried, but it could stand to be more workable. I've decided to use some thinner on this one for next time I use it. Hopefully that helps, because the color is truly gorgeous!

You can purchase Color Club from the brand's website.

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

Twinsie Tuesday: Fishtail Mani

I have been dreading this week's TT theme: a fishtail mani. But one of the goals of TT is to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and try things we normally would never attempt, so I checked out some tutorials and gave it a go. I always thought fishtail manis looked difficult and well, they are--at least for me! It took me a couple attempts to create something I would even dare to photograph! Here is the relative "best" of my fishtail manis.

For my base, I used Color Club Evolution (sent for review, with a full review coming soon) then I used Sally Hansen Celeb City and Pixi Very Violet for my braided stripes. I opted for brands that have thinner brushes, thinking that would make it easier for me to do my striping, but honestly I still had a hard time with this mani.

So there you have it. It's not the greatest, but I tried. I just don't think my hands are steady enough to freehand straight lines and--maybe this is me having a blonde moment--knowing where to alternate which color stripe was kind of confusing as I went along. Oh well, better luck next week!

In other news, if you check out the list of TT girls, you'll see there have been a lot of changes! We have three new members--Kelly, Lakeisha and Traci--so be sure to stop by their blogs and see what our newest ladies are up to his week!

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Brandi at The Beaulieu Review

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jamie at Polish, Please!

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Traci at DrinkCitra

Born Pretty Zipper Nail Art Sticker Water Decals: Review & Swatches

My love for Born Pretty Store's nail stickers is well-documented. I've done two rave reviews on them already (HERE and HERE) and I've been really curious to try out their water decal stickers too. Born Pretty has a ton of different water decal options on their website, but I was drawn to this zipper design. With visions of bad girl biker chick nails in my head, I decided to give it a go!

The decals come in two colors: gold and silver. I opted for the gold set. They work similarly to temporary tattoos: dip 'em in warm water, wet your nail, then press down wherever you want them to go. If you mess up, you can always peel the decals off and wet them again until you get it right. Once you're happy with how everything looks, just put on your topcoat and you're good to go! They're super easy to use, so much so that I was able to do them on both my right and left hands with no trouble at all.  Here's my finished mani!

This has got to be one of my favorite manis ever! I am so pleased with how it turned out. I used a-england Bridal Veil for my base and Color Club Harp On It for the little silver peek-a-boo. I put a sticker on all ten fingers and still had quite a few left over for another mani. At just $2.99, these are a total steal, especially considering that you can get more than one mani out of them!

I absolutely adore these decals! Like all of the Born Pretty stickers I've used, these are eye-catching, affordable, easy to use and high quality. Whether you're a nail art expert or a n00b like me, I think you'll have a ton of fun with these!

If you would like to order anything from the Born Pretty Store, they've been kind enough to offer a 10% off code for Nailed readers:

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