Twinsie Tuesday: Monochromatic Nails

I have to admit that I had no idea what monochromatic nails were. But when I looked it up, there seemed to be two interpretations of it: doing a mani with all different shades of the same color (like an ombre) or black and white nails. I was in the mood to go with the latter, so here's what I came up with:

My base is OPI Put A Coat On! with OPI Comet In The Sky over top. I did a matte top coat, just for kicks, but you can't really tell. I guess the effect isn't as dramatic with black and white. I know there are technically some little hits of color from the iridescent glitter in Comet In The Sky, but hopefully my Twinsies will let it slide. It's monochromatic enough, right? ;)

So yeah, I kinda sorta cheated this week. I honestly didn't mean to, it just wound up happening that way, hahaha. But be sure to give my Twinsies some love with their monochromatic nails!

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Erin at Paint Those Piggies

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

a-england Crown of Thistles

Have you ever looked at a polish collection and thought, "Yeah, I'm-a need all of that"? Well that was my reaction to a-england's newest collection, Elizabeth & Mary. I was lucky enough to receive two polishes from this glorious collection as a holiday gift from the wonderful Tiffany and the one I'll be sharing with you guys today is called Crown of Thistles.

It's a regal shade of amethyst with a stunning finish. I hesitate to call it a scattered holo; a-england's official description refers to it as "prismatic," which I think is more accurate. Whatever you want to call it, this polish is very glow-y (to use a technical term, haha) and it pulses when the light hits it. a-england Briar Rose has a similar finish and it's just as mouth-wateringly gorgeous with Crown of Thistles' lush purple as it is with Briar Rose's rich cranberry.

Crown of Thistles has a lovely formula that's actually almost a one-coater! I used two here. I wore it sans topcoat and I had some visible tipwear after one day, but no chips.

Born Pretty BP-05 Stamping Plate: Review & Swatches

My stamping mini-adventure has come to an end, 'cause today I'm reviewing the last of my Born Pretty stamping plates! These reviews were my first foray into the world of stamping. It's been fun and it's been frustrating. I can't say I'll ever be a stamping fanatic--I lack the patience and precision to really pull off anything impressive--but the plates themselves are nice quality and it was cool to try something new.

Anywho, the last plate I chose to review was plate BP-05:




I really liked the vine-like design (the one on the left) on this plate, so I decided to do a little accent manicure with it, using a-england Crown of Thistles as my base and then stamping with Essie No Place Like Chrome.

I tried to just do it so the vines were only on portions of my nail, almost like they were growing across the nail. It's nothing that'll wow a stamping aficionado, but I think it came out kinda cute!

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

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

Essie Spring 2015 Preview

Essie's spring collection is a study in pastels. The collection, launching in March, features six new shades that bring to mind a spring garden in full bloom.

L to R: Perennial Chic, Picked Perfect, Blossom Dandy, Garden Variety, Petal Pushers, Flowerista

Source

I of course love the mint and the turquoise, but that purple (Flowerista) looks really pretty too! I have a feeling this is gonna be one of those collections where I won't decide which ones I actually want until the moment I see them in the store.

How do you like the look of Essie's Spring 2015 offerings?

OPI Pink-ing Of You

I was in the mood for a palette cleanser shade, so what better pick than a good pastel pink? I went digging through my untrieds for one and found OPI Pink-ing Of You. I got this as part of the 2013 Pink Of Hearts Set (the other shade was a sweet pastel glitter called More Than A Glimmer) but it's been a mainstay in their core collection for years.

The formula was on the runny side, so my brush needed some wiping down after each dunk into the bottle. As far as application goes, it's your typical pastel: a little streaky and a little sheer. I needed four coats for total opacity here.

Not too much to say about this one. It's not a unique color by any stretch but it's a lovely example of a creamy baby pink. It's easy to see why OPI has kept this polish around for so many years. Simply put, it's a classic!

Twinsie Tuesday: Iggy Azalea "Black Widow" Nails

This week's Twinsie Tuesday has us replicating a manicure seen on a celebrity. I really had no idea what I wanted to do for this, so I just skimmed through Google images until something grabbed me. I came across a picture of Iggy Azalea's nails in the music video for "Black Widow" and it seemed like something I might be able to do.

It might be a little tricky to see here, but Iggy is sporting white nails with a black dot near the cuticle bed of each nail. I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Rimmel Black Satin and a dotting tool for my version. I did my dots a little larger than Iggy's, just as a matter of personal preference.

Other than some smudging when I went to apply topcoat (I'm always too impatient), this mani is easy enough. My dots didn't come out perfectly, but I don't claim to be a nail art aficionado by any stretch, so I'm happy with how everything came out!

Hope you enjoyed taking a look at my Iggy nails. Check out what my Twinsies did for their celeb-inspired manis this week!

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Lisa at The Polish Playground

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Erin at Paint Those Piggies

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

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Zoya Veruschka

Zoya Veruschka has been a lemming of mine since I first got into polish. So to finally be able to pick it up--on clearance, no less--felt pretty darn good. A recurring theme on this blog is my obsession with green polish and Veruschka is a very special one: a forest green satin. It's a really cool, different-looking polish that was absolutely worth the wait!

I wore Versuchka as-is for a day, then decided to try it with some topcoat, just for kicks.

I'm not sure how I prefer it, to be honest. The topcoat brings out that gorgeous shimmer, but I like how edgy and unique it looks without topcoat. So really, you win either way. Wear time without topcoat isn't great, however. After about half a day, I already had a decent-sized chip on my right index finger. The formula is absolutely excellent though! It's very easy to apply and not chalky in the slightest. I used two coats for this mani.

Do you like Veruschka better with or without topcoat? What was the last lemming you squashed?