Lynnderella New Year's Eve Eve

It wouldn't be a New Year's mani without glitter and I figure there's no better choice than Lynderella New Year's Eve Eve! This is a rainbow explosion of glitter in all shapes and sizes that brings to mind the gallons of confetti that will be falling in Times Square tonight.

I layered two coats over Wet N Wild Break The Ice, a pearly white shimmer. I thought it was the perfect base because it lets the colorful glitters stand out while still adding some sparkle of its own.

New Year's Eve Eve didn't have any notable formula issues. Like any glitter polish of this type, you'll get some large pieces that need to be guided away from the free edge of the nail, but otherwise this has a nice 'n easy formula.

I absolutely love this mani and how it looks like a little party on my nails! A big thanks to my buddy (and one-time Twinsie Tuesday member) Tara for gifting it to me!

What's on your nails tonight? Any fun New Year's plans? I'm eating tacos and watching "Archer" with my boyfriend. My kind of night. :)

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

Twinsie Tuesday: Lynnderella Spumoni

Before we get things rolling for this week's Twinsie Tuesday, please welcome our newest Twinsie: Lisa from The Polish Playground! As for our theme, we're hopping into the kitchen for this week's TT with manicures inspired by a food or beverage! I was hoping I'd have my hands on the OPI Coca-Cola Collection by the time this theme rolled around, so I could celebrate the merger of two of my greatest addictions, but no biggie! I went with a dessert-inspired look instead!

 I apparently have a weakness for ice cream-themed polishes, because I own quite a few of them (could be because my first job was at an ice cream place). The one I decided to showcase for this theme is one of the newest additions to my stash: Lynnderella Spumoni! Spumoni is a sheer mint green base filled with pearly mint glitters, as well as red, white and black accent pieces. It was also a birthday gift from my fellow Twinsie Tiffany, so all the more reason to show it off this week!

This is two coats over Deborah Lippmann Flowers In Her Hair, a mint creme. I think it makes the perfect companion for Spumoni!

This polish does a great job capturing the look of the real deal! I actually don't care for Spumoni ice cream (Give me something with chocolate or peanut butter instead!), but this polish looks so good it almost makes me forget that. ;)

​

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace
Anna at Going to the Showing
Bridget at A Painted Nail

Casey at CaseyLane Loves Polish

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Erin at Paint Those Piggies

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

​Marisa at Polish Obsession

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Tiffany at Polished To Precision​

Twinsie Tuesday: Tip Nail Art

It's Tuesday so you know what that means... Time for another Twinsie Tuesday post! This week, we're doing manis featuring nail art at the tips. There are a ton of different ways this theme could be interpreted but I (unsurprisingly) decided to go the sparkly route and do a glitter gradient! Despite my obsession with all things glittery, I've actually never tried a glitter gradient before so this was a bit of an experiment for me. But I think it turned out pretty decent!

For my base, I used Barielle Fire My Up, a bright orange creme. Then I topped it off with Lynnderella Pentimento, an insanely diverse glitterbomb made up of countless shapes and colors. I won't even attempt to list them all, but there are dozens of different glitters in here! But the overall effect reminds me a lot of party confetti.

In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have picked a glitter as abstract as Pentimento is, because it was hard to get a consistent-looking gradient going when there are so many types of glitter in just one polish. But hey, live and learn. Considering this is my very first attempt at a glitter gradient, I'm happy with how it turned out! It's not perfect, but it'll do. :)

And if you're nursing a St. Paddy's hangover, I bet looking at some more nail art will help! So stop on by my Twinsies' blogs to see what they came up with for this theme!

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

Lynnderella Evermore

I've swatched Lynnderella Evermore once before on here for one of the Twinsie Tuesday posts, but I was never super happy with how those swatches turned out, so I figured she was due for some extra love this weekend. Evermore is a clear base with black glitter pieces in all shapes--everything from hexes to squares to circles to hearts to diamonds--and sizes, plus sprinklings of teal and magenta microglitter. This is a truly unique polish. I can't think of anything else like it! This is two coats of OPI Pink Friday.

Lynn designed this polish to mimic the look of an ink blot test and I think she totally nailed--avoiding a terribly obvious pun here--that effect. I wore this polish over white last time and while I think I prefer that combo over the pink pairing I did here, the layering possibilities for this polish are pretty limitless. I'd like to try it over a neon yellow next!

4th Of July Manicure

Happy 4th of July to all of my American readers! Do you have any fun plans for the holiday today? My boyfriend and I are going to visit with his family before catching some fireworks at a nearby park in the evening. Should be lots of fun! I've mentioned this on my blog before, but the 4th of July also happens to be my grandparents' wedding anniversary. They've both since passed on, but I always thought it was cute they got married on the 4th, especially since my grandpa served in the Navy during WWII.

I always like to have some fun with my nails on holidays, which can be a bit tricky sometimes if you're trying to avoid nail art. Earlier this week, I posted a 4th of July-themed mani for Twinsie Tuesday. I wasn't 100% happy with the results, so I wanted to give it another try for my actual 4th of July manicure. I decided to use some star glitter and a bit of shatter polish to mimic the look of the American flag on my nails. Here's how it all turned out!

I started with a base of China Glaze Skyscraper, a deep blue jelly filled with absolutely stunning silver glitter. Skyscraper had been in my untrieds for a long time now and I really don't know why I waited so long to try it. It's gorgeous! I'll have a full post about it later this week. Then I topped Skyscraper with one coat Lynnderella The Stars In Her Eyes... to create a star-spangled effect. To finish it all off, I did an accent nail on both my thumbs using OPI White Shatter over the classic China Glaze Ruby Pumps. I'm especially crazy about the combination of Skyscraper and The Stars In Her Eyes... It's full of so much gorgeous, glittery goodness. Talk about instant galaxy nails!

Well, that about wraps it up for me today! I hope you all have a safe and happy 4th of July! Did you do anything special with your nails for the holiday?

Lynnderella Glass Houses

Have you ever bought a polish for the name? I definitely have, but Lynnderella Glass Houses is a very special (and probably very weird) instance of me buying a polish for its name.

Yes, it's time for a tangent! I am a big Billy Joel fan, as is my dad, and I grew up listening to Billy Joel when my dad used to drive me to school. Billy Joel released an album called Glass Houses in 1980 and back in the day, my Pops used to jog down the mean streets of Philadelphia listening to this album on his walkman, because it was the 80s and that's what people did.

Glass Houses also happens to be my favorite Billy Joel album. Should someone in their early twenties even have a favorite Billy Joel album? Debatable. My boyfriend is the only other person my age I know who even listens to, let alone loves Billy Joel. (For the record, he prefers The Stranger to Glass Houses.) To answer your question, yes, we're both huge dorks. At one point we had a cactus named Leyna (R.I.P.), after the Glass Houses track "All For Leyna" and we even have this in our living room:

"Why yes, that is an authentic vintage 1987 poster for Billy Joel's landmark USSR concert. Thank you for noticing!" We've said to no one ever. Hey, at least we know we're nuts.

So naturally when Lynnderella released a polish called Glass Houses, my mind went to Billy Joel. Take that connection that my mind completely invented and throw in some mouth-watering swatches my friend Sarah did of Glass Houses for a guest post on my blog and I was sold! So there you have it: the long, strange tale of how Lynnderella Glass Houses came into my life. Hopefully you're still awake, because now it's time for some glitter!

Lynnderella Glass Houses is a metallic orange glitter with iridescent blue sparks. It's perhaps one of Lynn's simpler creations--there aren't dozens of different varieties of glitter at play here--but it's still as beautiful and sparkly as you would expect from the brand. This is one coat over Essie No More Film.

The iridescent flakes are my favorite thing about this polish. They are primarily blue, but flash magenta and teal at different angles. It's a really stunning effect and one that's difficult to capture on camera, although it's very noticeable in person. 

As a sidenote, I'm also am testing out a new peel-off basecoat, Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter A-Peel, with this polish. I'm going to try it with several manis before I write a full review, but so far I am impressed!





Lynnderella Early Halloween

Yes, I know, it's March and this is a Halloween polish. But I think it's awesome enough to wear year-round! Besides, Lynnderella Early Halloween is pretty unique in the realm of Halloween polishes. It features a lot of colors you don't typically see for the season, like purple and yellow.

Like any good Lynnderella polish, the exact components of Early Halloween are tough to nail down (no pun intended), just because there are so many different colors and shapes. From what I can see, there's small, medium and large hexes in black, purple, green and yellow; bars in orange and green; three different sizes of squares orange in colors like pearlescent white, purple; silver holo diamonds; yellow flowers; silver holo moons and stars; large gold holo stars...and I'm sure all kinds of other goodies in there somewhere!

This is two coats over OPI Did It On 'Em from the Nicki Minaj Collection. I was originally just going to layer Early Halloween over China Glaze Tart-y For The Party, which I had on at the time, but I thought a yellow or a green might be more fun and Did It On 'Em is a little bit of both!

With all the different shapes and sizes of glitter at play here, the formula is kind of a mixed bag.Some of the really big glitter pieces, like the purple square on my pinkie, and the green bars, which are thicker than the orange ones, are prone to curling. It's not so bad that it's taco city or anything, but it did create a few rough edges here and there. But the curling can be minimized by placing the larger pieces in the right position on the nail.

Overall, I really love Early Halloween! All of the different colors in it open it up to a ton of layering possibilities and it's just a super fun polish.

Lynnderella The Stars In Her Eyes...

Lynnderella The Stars In Her Eyes... has got to be one of the prettiest takes on star glitter I've ever seen. It's a clear base swimming with blue and holographic silver hexes, plus of course some adorable little silver holo stars. This is three coats over a-England Tristam.

Even in dim indoor lighting, this polish gleams! It's so gorgeously bright and sparkly. A lot of times I have problems with star glitter curling or the edges poking out, but since the stars in this polish are on the smaller side, they're much more cooperative. The overall formula is fabulous.

I like The Stars In Her Eyes... a lot. It's whimsical, yet somehow a bit sophisticated too. It's not your average star glitter!

Lynnderella Pentimento

Lynnderella Pentimento has a little bit of everything. I believe Lynn once claimed this polish has over 100 types of glitter in it and I'm certainly not going to dispute that or even begin to catalogue everything that's going on in this amazing polish. There's just about every shape, size and color imaginable. You've got bars, hexes, round glitter, microglitter and squares in red, pink, yellow, green, blue, purple, orange...you get the idea!

Since Pentimento has so many different elements, I wanted a base that wouldn't compete with it so all of the colors and shapes could really pop. But I also wanted something that had a little bit more character than, say, a nude base would. Painting nails is a very cerebral process, you know. ;) I ultimately went with Deborah Lippmann Waking Up In Vegas, which I think was a great compromise and goes very well with Pentimento, if I am allowed to say so myself! I used two coats of Pentimento here.

I found Pentimento's formula surprisingly workable. Even those notoriously pesky bars stayed flat without any trouble. I did have to do a bit of placing here and there to cover blank spots, but other than that, application went off without a hitch.

I think anyone who loves glitter will find something that appeals to them in Pentimento. Although there are a ton of different colors and shapes, Pentimento somehow manages to never look sloppy or overwhelming. I think the white pieces do a brilliant job of breaking up all of the other colors in this polish and I really like the abstract effect Pentimento creates on the nail!

Twinsie Tuesday: Lynnderella Evermore

This week's Twinsie Tuesday theme is a black and white mani. I am on a major white polish kick lately since I wore Rainbow Honey Spirit of Wonder, so I was dying to find the perfect polish to layer over white. Thankfully I had an awesome black glitter to use for this theme: Lynnderella Evermore! Evermore has just about every shape of black glitter imaginable in it, plus a sprinkling of teal and pink glitter to throw a little color into the mix. The overall effect of Evermore is very inkblot test. Hopefully the fact that it has a bit of color to it doesn't keep it from fitting the theme, because I think Evermore looks fab over white!

This is three coats of Evermore over Sally Hansen White On. Evermore has a good formula overall, but since it is so packed with different shapes, I did have to be careful not to overload the brush. I think I may have gotten a few too many shapes on my ring finger, but I digress.

I would love to wear Evermore over a neon--maybe yellow or green--next. It really is a kickass polish. I can't think of anything else out there like it!

Be sure to check out the other Twinsies' black and white manis too!

Amanda at Amandalandish
Anna at Going to the Showing
Anne at Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley at Art Evolve
Brandi at The Collegiate Nail
ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi
Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Jenn at All That Is Gorgeous
Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...
Katherine at Haul of Fame
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
Tara at Polishy of Truth

Guest Post from Sarah of See Sarah Swatch

I've got another awesome guest poster today to help you get your lacquer fix while I'm out of town: Sarah of See Sarah Swatch!

Sarah is one of the very first bloggers I had the pleasure of getting to know. We both share an immense love of all things glittery, as you'll see in the absolutely stunning mani she's sharing with us below! I absolutely LOVE this mani. Sarah always comes up with gorgeous layering combos, so brace yourself for all the awesome sparkle you're about to be hit with!

-----

Hello all! I'm Sarah from See Sarah Swatch :] Thank you to Chelsea for letting me guest post for her, and I hope her trip is going well! Today I have a really autumnal mani. It's really reminiscent of falling leaves, and definitely super glittery for Chelsea ;]

So first I started off with a base of KleanColor Metallic Mango [2 coats]

Then I added a fairly heavy coat of  Lynnderella Glass Houses

I think the base and the glitter are just about the same color, which is what I was going for this mani. But I can't wait to use Glass Houses over a contrasting base! Both polishes were pretty easy to use. The KleanColor dried pretty fast! And my nails look like fire balls! So no problems there;] What do you all think of Glass Houses? Any suggestions for a base polish for next time? 

Lynnderella Boy-Girl Party

How about a little Lynnderella to kick off your week? Lynnderella Boy-Girl Party is a clear base with various shapes and sizes of red, blue, purple and pink glitter, plus a dash of holo thrown in too. There are a ton of shapes in this polish, so I'm sure I'm leaving some out, but from what I can see, there's diamond, square, round, hex and bar glitter. This polish came highly recommended from my friend Tara over at Polishy of Truth. I'm so glad she convinced me to get it because it's such a fun polish!

For this mani, I layered Boy-Girl Party over Pixi Very Violet, a very red-leaning neon purple creme. Very Violet has become one of my favorite layering polishes (Darling Diva Raspberry Kami, anyone?) because it can lean more red or more purple depending on what you layer it with, which makes it pretty versatile. It always photographs way too pink-looking though. *sigh* Still, I don't have anything else like it in my stash and I love how it looks under Boy-Girl Party!

I do have one complaint about the formula for Boy-Girl Party: it has these pesky bar glitters in it that are prone to curling. The red bar glitter didn't give me any trouble, but for some reason it's the pink ones that kept wanting to curl and stick out, so I picked most of them off. I can stand a little grit from glitter, but I hate it when you get prickly glitter that snags and scratches because it sticks out so much.

The pros definitely outweigh the cons on this one though. Yes, Boy-Girl Party is a little tempermental and requires some extra attention while applying, but it's beautiful, so I think that makes it all worth it!

Lynnderella Golden Rules

Lynnderella Golden Rules is a super fun, super sparkly grab-bag of gold holographic glitter. There's just about every shape imaginable in here: hex, star, bar, heart, square, round, diamond--you name it! I had a blast discovering all the shapes as I painted my nails!

I debated for a while about what type of base to use for Golden Rules, but finally I settled on a super glam all-gold look, with Essie Good As Gold for my base. These are some serious diva nails! The overall vibe really reminds me of Beyonce for some reason. You'll definitely want to click to enlarge to fully appreciate the insane beauty of this polish!

I really cannot tell you how obsessed I am with this mani. You could probably tell by the big number of pictures I posted of it. I was super excited to try my first Lynnderella but also braced myself for the slight possibility that maybe I would come away disappointed. But sure enough, I fell for Golden Rules right away!

The formula is great, especially when you consider just how much glitter is in this baby. I did need to do a bit of placing for the large square and heart glitters just to make sure they weren't sticking too far out on the nail or lying in a funny position, but otherwise this polish applies very easily. I do, however, really recommend two coats of topcoat to smooth everything out and avoid any jagged edges from the bigger glitter pieces.

Between the glitter, the holo and all the shapes, Golden Rules packs some serious punch. I absolutely loooveee this polish! I could not stop staring at my hands. This is one of what I like to call "car crash polishes," where they're so gorgeous that you can't stop watching them flash and flicker in the light...even if you happen to be driving at the time. But we've all been there, right? ;)