Twinsie Tuesday: Formula X Hera

We're doing jewelry-inspired manis this week! I've kinda sorta obsessed with rose gold, so of course I love me some rose gold jewelry. It's my favorite metallic and I love the fun pop it adds to any piece. I figured I'd channel that love into this week's mani, featuring Formula X Hera.

Hera is an absolutely stunning rose gold from Formula X's Divine Stardust line. These polishes have large holo bits so that they almost look like glitters, but they feel silky smooth (no grit!) and have all the sparkle and shine of a traditional holo. I did a crappy job of explaining it, so lemme just show you this beauty!

Seriously, I want to bathe in this polish. I was constantly staring at my nails when I had this on. It's sooooooo gorgeous, you guys!

The formula is equally lovely. Opacity is reached in just two coats. I skipped top coat to maximize the holo.

I definitely need to check out more of the Divine Stardust line after falling for Hera! Hopefully you enjoyed this polish as much as I did!

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

Twinsie Tuesday: LynBDesigns Benedict

We're doing a romantic theme this week, so I decided to bust out the heart glitter! I actually only have one polish in my stash that prominently features heart glitter and that's LynBDesigns Benedict. Benedict is a glitterbomb with small blue and holographic silver glitters and then of course the aforementioned hearts in shades of holographic blue, silver and red. I layered Benedict over OPI Look At My Bow!, a bubblegum pink.

Benedict is a cute polish, but I honestly feel like the glitter is too dense. I usually can't get enough glitter, but since this is designed to be a layering glitter, I think the overall look would benefit from allowing the base polish to peek through more. I wiped down my brush for each nail and I still felt like I was getting a ton of glitter each time. The end result can get a little crowded-looking--and this is with only one coat of Benedict. Oddly enough, I really had to fish for the heart glitters. There's so much small glitter that they get kind of buried.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I like it, but I don't love it. Anything with glitter is never a total loss. ;)

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

Twinsie Tuesday: Mix and Match

The theme mix and match is pretty broad, so I tried to pick several polishes with different finishes in colors that I thought would be kind of unexpected and edgy together. That was the idea anyways. Instead, I think they just came out...well, I don't wanna go so far as to say ugly, but...it wasn't quite what I was going for. See and judge for yourself.

Index and pinky fingers: OPI DS Coronation
Middle finger: OPI Did It On 'Em with KBShimmer nail vinyls
Ring finger: OPI Metallic 4 Life
Thumb: Illamasqua Scorch with KBShimmer nail vinyls

The nail vinyls are by far my favorite part of this mani. They're a great nail art cheat--super easy and fast--and I love the variety of designs KBShimmer has to choose from. My main issue is with Did It On 'Em. I thought it'd be an interesting pop of color but it seems like it threw off the cohesiveness of the rest of the mani.

Anyways, I'm overanalyzing this. This mani had some hits and some misses, but I guess that's the nature of mix and match! ;)

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

Twinsie Tuesday: Grey and Gold

Kudos to whoever came up with this theme, because gold and grey is one of my favorite color combos! I kept this one pretty simple. I started with a grey base of Deborah Lippmann Chasing Pavements and added a sprinkling of holographic gold glitter with Nubar Gold Celebration.

I loooooove Chasing Pavements. Such a perfect grey! Not too much more to say on this one--like I said, it's simple, but hopefully pretty too. :)

Be sure to check out my fellow Twinsies' grey and gold manis today! I like these colors so much that I'm sure I'll be borrowing an idea or two of theirs for future manis!

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

Disclosure: The Nubar polish in this post was sent for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Madam Glam Color-Changing Gel Polish in Hot Hot Hot

I've been hardcore crushing on Hot Hot Hot after seeing it on Amber from Nails Like Lace, so when Madam Glam reached out to ask if I'd like to try some of their gel polishes, this one was at the tippy top of my wish list! It's been a while since I did some gel nails, but I was feeling the itch again. It's nice to mix it up every now and then and I love how invincible my nails feel with gel polish on--no worrying about chips or cracks!

Hot Hot Hot is a very unique shade: a thermal polish that goes from a poppy red shade to a warm orange when you expose it to heat. And the best part? It's got lots of silver glitter in it too! Because everything is better with extra sparkle!

Here's how the polish looks normally...

...and then here's what it changes to with heat. Please excuse the complete change in lighting here. I took these pictures at my bathroom sink so I could photograph my hands fresh out of warm water.

 

 

For the sake of completion, I wanted to throw in a shot of Hot Hot Hot mid-change too.

I could not stop staring at this polish. It's so much fun and I can't help but feel a teensy bit happier when I look at it. It's like a little dose of summer on my nails in the midst of all this terrible wind and snow.

I paired this shade with all Red Carpet Manicure products (base coat, top coat, lamp, etc.) and it worked great. I applied two coats of Hot Hot Hot for this mani. I was definitely impressed with how it went on. Gel polishes in general have thicker consistencies, but this one was still nice and workable. It even self-levels, which is super helpful when you're dealing with gels, as the thickness can sometimes result in bumpy, uneven application.

You can purchase Madam Glam from their website.


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

OPI Ce-less-tial Is More

I didn't do anything super fancy for my Christmas mani this year, but I did make sure to keep it nice and sparkly! OPI Ce-less-tial Is More definitely fits the bill. It's an explosion of silver glitter, complete with holographic accents.

I was expecting this to need several coats, so I was pleasantly surprised at how opaque it really is. I only needed two coats! It feels super gritty on, however, so you'll definitely want an extra layer of top coat. I'm never bothered by glitters feeling rough on my nails but even I found this distractingly gritty. It almost feels like a Liquid Sand polish.

If you celebrate, I hope you had a lovely Christmas today! Did you wear anything fun on your nails?

Twinsie Tuesday: Holiday Mani

The Twinsie Tuesday girls are checking in from our seasonal hiatus to bring you some holiday manis! This time of year is crazy for all of us, but we wanted to do at least one post for December.

For my mani, I went with my favorite holiday color combo of red and gold. Plus since it's the holidays, you know I gotta bring some extra sparkle. So I took the red and white glitterbomb goodness of Lumina Lacquer Candy Cane Lane and layered it over my favorite gold polish, OPI Glitzerland. Candy Cane Lane is such a great polish and I couldn't let the holiday season pass without wearing it at least once. Seriously, who can resist a polish with candy cane-shaped glitter?!

I plan to post again before Christmas but I wanted to take the opportunity to wish all of you a safe and happy holiday season. I hope whatever your plans are and whichever holidays you celebrate, that you feel happy and loved.

                        

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

Nubar Holiday Gala Collection: Review & Swatches

Hey guys! I wanted to start the weekend off right with some holiday swatches for you, so today we'll be checking out Nubar's Holiday Gala Collection! We've got four sparklies to talk about, so let's get to it.

Violet Sparkle is a violet glitterbomb. I like wearing polishes like this alone for a full-on glitter explosion, so I layered Violet Sparkle up to full opacity with four coats. Again, sorry for the cuts on my index finger. Most of these swatches were taken when the cuts were still healing. :-/

Petunia Sparkle is a magenta version of Violet Sparkle. I got soooo many compliments on this one. When the girl working the drive-thru window asks to see your nails, you know it's good. ;) This is four coats again.

Red Ruby Glitz is a classic holiday red shimmer, very much in the vein of China Glaze Ruby Pumps. Since this has a tinted base, it's much more opaque than the previous two glitters and only needed two coats.

The last polish is my favorite of the collection: Celebration Sparkles! This has rainbow hex and micro glitters. This is such a fun polish and would be perfect for a New Year's party! This is two coats over Sally Hansen Celeb City, a silver foil.

You can purchase the Holiday Gala Collection on Nubar's website. Which shade is your favorite? Do you have a holiday nail look planned out yet?


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

Twinsie Tuesday: Inspired By Your Pet

Hey guys! This week we're doing a mani inspired by our child or pet. I will tell you up front I'm not really happy with how mine turned out, but it is what it is. :-/ I did a mani inspired by my amazingly adorable fur baby, Sapphira!

We rescued Sapphira earlier this year. She is a Snowshoe cat, which is an offshoot of the Siamese breed. Snowshoes are known for their white feet (Sapphira has little "mittens" on all four paws--so cute!!) and often have white faces and stomachs as well. Sapphira's passions include napping, bird-watching, fluffy pillows and catnip. <3

To me, the most striking thing about Sapphira is her big blue eyes. So I wanted to incorporate that into my mani. I started with a white base of OPI Put A Coat On! for all of her white markings, then added Dollish Polish 3 Best Friends That Anyone Could Have, which is a blue and silver glitter, for her eyes.

I like the combo itself, but I don't think it captured my inspiration all that well. I feel like I maybe should have done something more literal. But hey, at least I tried to make up for it with cute cat pictures! ;)

                        

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

Halloween Nails With Lumina Lacquer Mick Or Treat

I didn't pick up any new Halloween polishes this year, so I decided to wear an old favorite: Lumina Lacquer Mick or Treat! It's a super fun glitterbomb with fall-colored glitters--think red, grey, orange, black and yellow--in all shapes and sizes. You've got hexes, squares, stars, circles, crescent moons and, the extra special cherry on top: Mickey Mouse-shaped glitters!

I wore Mick Or Treat over a deep burgundy in my original review, so this time I used OPI Take The Stage for my base. Above is one coat of Mick Or Treat. You have to really fish for the Mickey glitters (I only got one with this mani), but they are worth it!

Mick Or Treat was limited edition, so unfortunately it's no longer available. Lumina in general doesn't seem to produce new collections anymore. They were one of my favorite indie brands and I really miss having new Lumina's to look forward to!

Twinsie Tuesday: OPI Take The Stage

Hey guys! Sorry for the late post today. As you might have noticed, I must confess that it's been a struggle to fit in time with my blog lately. But I'm trying! So thank you for keeping with me!

I didn't want to miss Twinsie Tuesday, so I whipped up a little something for this week's theme, which was to do a season-inspired mani. For me, fall brings to mind rich shades of red and orange and burnished metallics. OPI Take The Stage, an orange-tinged bronze, incorporates a little bit of both. Bronze is my favorite nail color to wear in fall. It just makes me want to curl up in a warm blanket with a hot drink and a candle. :)

If you like the look of Take The Stage, you can still find it for retail pricing on Ebay. This was like the second or third OPI I owned. I remember buying it in a duo pack with Extra-va-va-ganza. This was back in 2010--Take The Stage was part of the Burlesque Collection--but it seems so much longer ago than that!

                        

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