Twinsie Tuesday: Shattered Glass

I'll admit, I had to look up what this technique was because I'd never heard of it before. But near as I can tell, a shattered glass mani involves large iridescent mylar flakes laid across the nail. The nearest thing I had in my collection to replicate this style with was Studio M Covered In Diamonds, which has a clear base filled with mylar pieces.

I like the way this polish looks but I don't wear it much because 1) it's a bitch to remove and 2) the mylar pieces are pretty jagged and easily get snagged on things. A thicker top coat is a must with this one. (I used Nubar Diamont.) My base was OPI Kitty White from the new Hello Kitty Collection.

This combination didn't come together quite as I envisioned it but it did make for an interesting pairing nonetheless. It has a cool, kind of opalescent look to it that like. It looks way more complex and multifaceted in person than my camera could pick up with all the colorful flakes. I had to layer up Covered With Diamobds to three coats to get it to stand out against the pearly white background of Kitty White, so my nails felt hella rough, but they looked sparkly and shiny so that's what truly counts. ;)

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Whim Midnight Wink

EDIT: So apparently I was asleep at the wheel and this polish is actually called Midnight Wink, not Midnight Walk as I originally wrote. I think Midnight Walk is a better name, but whatevs.

There's yet another "gel-alternative" polish on the block: a new brand called Whim. Whim is currently an Ulta-exclusive brand and boasts a full line-up of colors, as well as a gel-like top and base coat. Bottles retail for $10 each and clock in at .32 oz, so they're smaller in size than your standard polish.

The packaging is extremely reminiscent of Butter London: rectangular bottle with a rounded cut-out for the polish, then a rectangular top with a round undercap, so you have your choice of which style feels best for polishing.

I skipped the base and top coat, since I've got plenty already, but two of the actual polishes did catch my eye. The launch line-up has a really nice variety of cremes, shimmers and glitters. The one I've got to show you today, Midnight Wink, is a dark teal jelly base packed with iridescent glitter and flakie pieces.

Midnight Wink looked kinda sheer and muddled after the first two coats, so I was a bit worried the sparkle wouldn't come through enough, but they started to pop nicely after the third coat. It took four altogether, as the base is surprisingly sheer given how dark it looks in the bottle, but as you can see, everything came together beautifully! The finished look reminds me of sunbeams glistening on top of ocean waves. It's very dreamy and summer-y.

I was convinced this was going to stain like a mother, so I was shocked when it came off without a hitch! It didn't take any scrubbing to remove, either. Ya gotta love that. I used OPI Infinite Shine base and top coat, so I can't really comment on the wear-time promises, but for what it's worth, this polish seemed to hold up just fine over the three days I wore it--no chips or scuffs.

So far, Whim gets a thumbs-up from me. The other polish I bought is a glitter, so I look forward to trying that out soon. I don't know if I'd pay $10 for a .32 oz creme, but for a standout shade like Midnight Wink, I'm willing to invest a bit more. I'm curious to see where this line goes and what types of colors they come out with next!

Have you tried anything from Whim yet? I haven't seen any online buzz for this brand, so I'm curious to hear what everyone else's thoughts are!

Smitten Polish Huckleberry Gumdrop

Smitten Polish Huckleberry Gumdrop is a robin's egg blue crelly filled with delicate, pearlescent white flakies. I love the look of these soft, subtle flakies. I don't think I've ever tried a polish with this particular type before (all the ones I have are of the iridescent, color-changing variety), but it creates a beautiful effect that's fun yet understated. Coupled with the blue base, it almost reminds me of how you see little glints of sunlight dancing along the water during the summertime.

As I mentioned above, this is a crelly, so the formula is on the sheer side. I needed four coats to reach the level of opacity I like for photos, but if I was just wearing this polish out and about without swatching it, I probably would have stopped at three. The consistency itself is nice and workable.

Huckleberry Gumdrop is my first experience with Smitten Polish (courtesy of the wonderful Ms. Amanda) and it's already got me lusting after some of their other, equally gorgeous shades! I need their holos! You can purchase Smitten Polish from their website.

Twinsie Tuesday: Sephora by OPI 212-Sephora

For this installment of Twinsie Tuesday, we're featuring a polish that was given to us as a gift! I love receiving polish as a gift but I know I'm probably not the easiest person to buy it for, given the ridiculous size of my collection. So most of my gifted polishes have come from fellow bloggers, who share and understand the same obsession! The polish I chose for today's post, Sephora by OPI 212-Sephora, was a birthday gift from the lovely Nory!

If you ask me, 212-Sephora was the crown jewel of the now-defunct SOPI line. It's a very deep brown jelly with chunky silver holo glitter and iridescent green and orange flakies. This is a super unique polish. I can't think of anything else out there like it!

And then a really quick shot I snapped in natural light so you can see all the flakies better:

I'm not normally big on brown polish, but this one really won me over. You know me: I can't resist anything sparkly! I do wish my nails were still super long so I could show off this beauty properly, but I had a bit of a mishap at work this weekend that wrecked my right thumb nail, so unfortunately I had to trim down the rest to match. :(

But getting back to the polish itself, the formula is nice and can be built up to full opacity, no problem. I used three coats here. 212-Sephora is the only SOPI I own, but if there's one polish worth tracking down from the line, this one gets my vote!

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

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

Twinsie Tuesday: Barielle Elle's Spell

February is American Heart Month for heart disease awareness, so in recognition of that, all of the Twinsies are sporting red manicures for today's Twinsie Tuesday. Now, I don't necessarily dislike red polish but it's not something I reach for super often. There are too many fun glitters and crazy colors to play with instead! However, I recently got the chance to try out an awesome red that I thought would be perfect for this theme: Barielle Elle's Spell!

Elle's Spell is a rich red jelly filled with iridescent flakes that flash everything from orange to yellow to green as they bathe in the light. This is one of Barielle's most famous polishes and it's easy to see why! The flakies have a very strong shift to them that, when coupled with the red base, is nothing short of magical.

The flakes spread evenly across the nail with no dabbling or placing required. I did give myself a little extra drying time between coats though. I used four here but you could easily get away with three if you're not as picky about VNL as I am. It's rare for me to wear a red polish for three whole days but that's exactly what I did with Elle's Spell! It's such a stunner and I wasn't even remotely tired of it by the time I finally did take it off.

You can purchase Barielle from their website. And if you're in the mood for more beautiful reds, be sure to head on over to my Twinsies' blogs!

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

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

Lumina Lacquer The Snow Prince

For my money, Lumina Lacquer put out one of the best Christmas collections this year. Each of the brand's holiday polishes are so colorful and fun that I found them impossible to resist--and subsequently wound up with almost all of them!

The Snow Prince is a festive glitterbomb filled with white and blue glitters of all shapes and sizes. A few of the shapes I found in my bottle were snowflakes, hexes, hearts and squares. There's even snowmen-shaped glitter, although I wasn't able to fish any out of my bottle this time around. But seriously: snowmen glitter. How can you not love that?! There are also iridescent glitter pieces that flash blue and bronze, giving this polish a beautiful fire and ice look. This is two coats over a-England Tristam, a scattered holo in midnight blue.

The formula is a little thick, but the glitter pieces still spread evenly across the nail without any fuss. I am a little bummed I didn't find a snowman glitter (they all seemed to be handing out around the outside edges of the bottle) but there was plenty of other glittery goodness to keep me happy. This is an absolutely stunning polish that you could easily wear after Christmas too, since it's winter-y without being explicitly "holiday."

You can purchase Lumina Lacquer from their website.

Nubar Alter Ego Collection: Review & Swatches

I have been wanting to try Nubar for years (probably since I first laid eyes on Nubar 2010, a gorgeous iridescent flakie the brand released back in, you guessed it, 2010) so when I was given the opportunity to take some polishes from the brand's newest collection, Alter Ego, for a test run, I jumped at the chance! If you're unfamiliar with Nubar, the brand is based in California and is vegan, three-free and cruelty-free. Their Alter Ego Collection features a bevvy of iridescent flakie and glitter topcoats and have four of them to share with you today!

Although the polishes have a tinted base, they are quite sheer on their own, so I layered all of them. Plus I feel like having a base underneath really makes all the different colors in the flakies stand out.

First up is Blondie, a tinted light orange base which has iridescent pieces that shift from pink to green, plus a sprinkling of gold holographic glitter to amp up the sparkle and shine even more! Blondie has a very delicate, feminine vibe to it that I absolutely love. This is three coats over OPI My Vampire Is Buff, an off-white creme. Some flakies don't really pop over a lighter base, but I think Blondie pairs beautifully with a "blank canvas" shade like My Vampire Is Buff.

Gipsy is a green and blue iridescent glitter with dazzling flakes of gold. This is probably my favorite of the bunch. It is so ridiculously reflective and eye-catching! The crazy amount of shine Gipsy gives off made it a bit tricky to photograph without a glare, but trust me when I say this polish is absolutely stunning in person, especially when the sunlight hits it! This is one coat over OPI Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow, a blackened green.

Kristal is a pearly white flakie with pops of blue, green and pink, depending on your lighting. This is one coat over Revlon Lilac Pastelle, a lavender creme. I think these look like princess nails! :)

Roxy is a blazing blue flakie that shifts to a gorgeous shade of teal. This is one coat over OPI Suzi Skis In The Pyrenees, a deep grey shimmer. The beautiful colors in Roxy remind me of the ocean.

All four polishes applied flawlessly. The flakies and glitter pieces distribute evenly and effortlessly across the nail, without fishing or placing. There are tons of fun layering opportunities with these polishes and I think they'd spice up any base color! All of these polishes are lovely, but my top picks would be Gipsy and Blondie. If you are a flakie fan, then you should definitely check this collection out!

You can purchase Nubar from their website

Disclosure: These polishes were sent to me for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Born Pretty Dazzling Starry Magical Multicolored Shell Glitter: Review & Swatches

This polish has a rather long name, but I can sum up everything you need to know about it in just two words: "Buy me!" This is my first time trying actual polish from Born Pretty Store, one of my favorite one-stop nail shops, and let me say, it did not disappoint! If you're a fan of polishes like Essie's Shine of the Times, this is like that, but on crazy, color-changing steroids.

There is a whole line of these jaw-dropping iridescent flakies to choose from (see them all HERE). I chose #4. For $11.79, you get not only the flakie polish (which has a clear base), but a perfectly coordinated base shade too! I only have the flakie for review, but trust me when I say I think this beauty would look dazzling over just about anything! There are so many different flakie colors at play here and I'm sure you'd see more or less of certain colors depending on what you layered it over, which is always a fun experiment! Here I'm wearing one coat over Essie Bobbing For Baubles, a deep navy creme.

Pictures do this polish zero justice. Color shifts can be a tricky thing to pick up on camera (at least for me), but in person, it is so vibrant and multifaceted. I can see pink, orange, red, yellow, blue, green and teal. Even in dim indoor lighting, the different colors shift back and forth like crazy! It's seriously mesmerizing! Polish with caution, though; this is what I like to call a "car crash polish," where it can instantly steal your attention away from everything else! I have several other flakies in my stash and, gorgeous as they all are, this is the one to rule them all. If you love flakies, I'd say this is a must-have!

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

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

Twinsie Tuesday: Mish Mosh

This week's Twinsie Tuesday, a theme dubbed "mish mosh," has us doing a new technique/idea on each nail. The nature of this challenge allows for a lot of creative freedom, so I decided to take my Essie Using My Maiden Name mani from the other day and have a little fun experimenting with it; y'know, see where my mind and my stash would take me. :) It's definitely not my favorite mani I've done, but it was interesting to play around with some different ideas and combinations.

On my thumb, I layered Finger Paints Motley, a blue and green flakie, over Using My Maiden Name. The supremely gorgeous Zoya Stevie, a birthday gift from my Twinsie Maribeth, is on my index finger. My middle finger is a dry marble with Using My Maiden Name, Essie Bikini So Teeny and Essie Navigate Her. Another Twinsie, ChiChi, actually introduced me to the dry marbling technique for one of our marching orders challenges and I think it's pretty ingenious! You get effects similar to a water marbling, but without all the hassle. I probably could have used a bolder color in the mix to break things up, because it kind of came out like a watery-looking mess. I wanted the colors in the dry marble to sort of match up to the colors of the flakies in Motley. My ring finger is a caviar mani using beads from a Born Pretty set. For my pinkie, I did a simple glitter layering with OPI Pirouette My Whistle. (Phew! So much hyperlinking going on in this paragraph!)

So there you have it: my mish mosh mani! Some nails turned out well, others not so much, but it was a fun experiment and I like that I got to incorporate some techniques and polishes from some of my Twinsies!

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

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Traci at DrinkCitra

Darling Diva Regulus

I've been a bit lax on wearing all of my Halloween polishes. I don't really get into the spirit of holidays until just a few days before, so now I'm powering through the holiday polishes I've been neglecting. The one I'm about to show you today is a bit different from your normal Halloween fare though. Darling Diva Regulus is a bright magenta jelly filled with iridescent purple flakies, large red hex glitter and small green square glitter. I could not stop staring at this polish, it was ridiculous! The flakies are what really got me!

Ugh, don't those flakies just kill you?! So gorgeous! The overall formula is just about perfect and covers in three coats. I love that you can wear this alone without having to worry about that pesky VNL! As much as I enjoy coming up with combos for my indie glitters, sometimes it's fun to have a polish that takes all the guesswork out of of things for you.

Regulus is technically a Halloween polish and while normally I'm a bit OCD about wearing holiday polishes around their designated time of year, I would totally wear Regulus year-round. It's a really unique combination of colors, shapes and textures that I think works regardless of season.

Rainbow Honey Kawako

I'm extremely excited for today's post because I have an amazing sneak peek of Rainbow Honey's upcoming Yokai Collection! There are three polishes in the collection, all of which I'll be sharing with you this week! First up, let's take a look at Kawako. Kawako is a midnight blue shimmer filled with silver and blue glitter pieces, plus some larger purple-y iridescent flakies scattered throughout. In my experience, the flakies are pretty elusive and you can only see them when they catch the light at certain angles, but they give Kawako a little unexpected extra something.

The bigger flakies slide around a bit during application and you have to guide them away from the tips, but that's par for the course when you're dealing with flakies. Overall, Kawako applies beautifully and covers in two coats.

Kawako really grew on me. I liked it when I first put it on, but absolutely loved it by the time I took it off nearly three days later. I think there's something very elegant about this polish. They're not dupes , but if you've been lusting after Essie Starry Starry Night, I think Kawako would make a gorgeous (and much more affordable) alternative. I kinda get the same vibe from Kawako. The Yokai Collection is limited edition and will be available on Rainbow Honey's official website starting October 13!


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

Rainbow Honey The Worst Possible Thing

Let me start off by saying that if you love glitter, then you need The Worst Possible Thing, or, as I've taken to calling it "death by sparkle," since this polish is so chock-full of fabulous flakies, holo and glitter. The amount of sparkle loaded into just this single polish is truly staggering!

The Worst Possible Thing comes from Rainbow Honey's My Little Pony-inspired Equestria Collection. It's fitting that I love this polish so much since it's an homage to my personal favorite pony, the ever-glamorous Rarity. The Worst Possible Thing is a clear base filled with blue and purple flakies and a slew of holographic, purple, blue and iridescent glitter in various shapes and sizes. This is two coats of The Worst Possible Thing over OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!, a dark grey creme.

 And with flash:

My fellow glitterhounds will be in total sparkle heaven with The Worst Possible Thing. It is incredibly shiny and between all the glitter and holo pieces, it catches the light like crazy and almost even glows. My nails looked practically jewel-encrusted with this polish! Pictures don't do this polish justice because you can't see how beautiful it really is when the light hits it. I don't think I could ever pick a favorite from the Equestria Collection since all of the polishes beautiful and unique in their own ways, but The Worst Possible Thing is a stunner for sure!

You can buy Rainbow Honey at their official website.

Twinsie Tuesday: OPI I Lily Love You

This week's Twinsie Tuesday was a toughy: a polish from your favorite brand. It's really hard to pick a favorite from all the different brands I've tried, but ultimately I settled on OPI. OPI was my first love and the brand that got me really into polish. I still have a huge soft spot for OPI and I always get excited for new collections from the brand.

As for which polish to show, I went with something a bit rare from OPI: a flakie. I Lily Love You has a pink tinted base with several different colors and sizes of iridescent flakies. There's a nice mix of smaller flakes with larger mylar pieces and the flakies show up as different colors depending on your layering base. For this mani, I used OPI Play The Peonies, a pearly pale pink which, like I Lily Love You, came out in last year's Nice Stems Collection. This is two coats of I Lily Love You over three coats of Play The Peonies.

You could wear I Lily Love You by itself if you don't mind the lack of opacity, but personally I think layering it really makes the flakie colors pop. Over Play The Peonies, I see purple, pink and orange shades in the flakies, but over black, for example, you see more blue. It's interesting to experiment with this polish and see all the different sides it has to it. I probably do this particular combo the most though just because I think it looks so adorable and girly, like candy cupcake sprinkles!


Have you discovered any other fun layering combos with I Lily Love You? Which polish brand is your favorite? I can't wait to see which brands all of the other Twinsies pick as their favorites today!

 

Amanda: http://amandalandish.blogspot.com/
Anna: http://goingtotheshowing.blogspot.com/
Anne: http://grapefizz.blogspot.com/
Ashley: http://artevolve.blogspot.com/
Brandi: http://thecollegiatenail.blogspot.com/
ChiChi: http://beautystarr1009.blogspot.com/
Cordia: http://srslyswatched.blogspot.com
Jenn: http://allthatisgorgeous.blogspot.com/
Jenna: http://www.jennafroggy.com/
Katherine: http://hauloffame.blogspot.com/
Marisa: http://marijonails.blogspot.com/
Meredith: http://polishandcharms.blogspot.com/
Nory: http://fiercemakeupandnails.blogspot.com/
Rachel: http://topcoatit.com/
Sarah: http://seesarahswatch.blogspot.com/
Tara: http://polishyoftruth.com/