Twinsie Tuesday: Pond Manicure

It's the first Twinsie Tuesday post of 2015 and we are back with some all-new Twinsies in our little group! So I want to give a big welcome to Amanda, Beckie and Savannah! :)

That's the good news. Now for the bad news: this week's pond mani theme was a huge exercise in frustration for me. I did a whole pond mani and it took me about an hour. It actually came out pretty nice...until I accidentally hit my hand against my polish table and two fingers of my still-wet, still-unphotographed manicure got completely dented and smeared. Gah!!!! I was so mad!

After I'd invested all that time and effort into the mani, I honestly didn't want to try again. I made another attempt, but my heart wasn't in it and before I was even halfway done with it, I knew it wasn't going to look as nice. But rather than give up completely, I cut my losses and used the pond effect as an accent nail.

Aside from the fact that it's time-consuming to wait for all the layers to dry, this is actually a pretty easy technique to do--and if I say it's easy, then it's something just about anyone can do! For the hearts, I just drew little V-like shapes using Illamasqua Scorch and a Born Pretty nail art brush. My base was OPI Too Hot Pink To Hold 'Em, a hot pink jelly. I'm not a huge fan of jellies (too sheer for my taste) but this is a really gorgeous pink and I love that it can be built up to complete opacity without losing that squishy shine.

After our holiday hiatus, we're returning to our regular TT schedule, so hopefully I'll see you back here next week!

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace
Beckie at Polished by Beckie

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

OPI Hawaii Collection Preview

OPI's Fifty Shades Of Grey Collection (yeah, that's happening) is just hitting stores, but it sounds like we won't have to wait all that long for another new batch of OPIs! The Hawaii Collection, launching in February, features 12 new shades. Let's take a look of what's in store for us this spring!

Top row, L to R: That's Hula-rious!, My Gecko Does Tricks, Lost My Bikini In Molokini, Pineapples Have Peelings Too

Bottom row, L to R: Suzi Shops & Island Hops, Just Lanai-ing Around, Do You Take Lei Away?, Is Mai Tai Crooked?

 

L to R: Aloha From OPI, Go With The Lava Flow, Hello Hawaii Ya?, This Color's Making Waves

There are already some swatches floating around for this collection and it looks like a beautiful collection. I wound up skipping last spring's Brazil Collection altogether but that definitely won't be the case with Hawaii! I'm thinking I'll need That's Hula-rious!, Suzi Shops & Island Hops, Go With The Lava Flow and maybe Pineapples Have Peelings Too--just 'cause the name is so stinkin' cute. 

What shades will you be getting? Is this an upgrade or a downgrade from the Brazil Collection?

Essie Strut Your Stuff

Essie has made some pretty fantastic blues over the years, but Strut Your Stuff might just top them all. This bold cobalt blue creme is a must-have for anyone who loves statement shades. I have something of an obsession with blue polish and this was an instant top five of all-time blue for me. It's that good!

Essie's neon shades have had some notoriously problematic formulas, so I was pleasantly surprised how nicely Strut Your Stuff applies! The consistency was perfect and I only needed two coats for complete opacity. Best of all, you don't need any white base underneath to make the neon pop. It's this vibrant all on its own! The only downside to this polish is it stains. I even doubled up on basecoat and I still had staining. I've had much worse staining, mind you, but it's still never a fun thing to deal with.

So yes, it stains, but you NEED THIS! Hats off to Essie for making such an amazingly bright blue. I can't wait to rock this during the summertime! I've already used Strut Your Stuff for some nail art, but wouldn't it make for a super fun pedi too?

Sinful Colors Sweet Dreams

When it comes to cheap beauty thrills, you can't get a much better bang for your buck than Sinful Colors. I usually wind up buying way too many of them whenever they have a 99-cent sale at Walgreens! At that price, how can you not?!

The Sinful Colors shade I'll be showing you today, Sweet Dreams, actually came from the ever-generous Amanda and it is a beauty! Sweet Dreams is an aqua blue glassfleck. I often say that China Glaze is my gold standard for glassflecks but damn if Sinful Colors doesn't give them a run for their money!

The formulas on Sinful Colors can be hit or miss in my experience, but I'm happy to say this one was spot on. This was two easy coats.

Unfortunately, I'm not super thrilled with how my swatches of this came out. They looked fine when I was taking pictures, so I went ahead and covered this polish with glitter (of course). But then when I looked at the swatches on my computer, they came out kinda crappy. My camera always has a really hard time with teals. They either make my hands look weirdly red on camera or the color photographs completely inaccurately. Ugh...

So I apologize if this isn't the best quality, but it is color accurate, at least! Yay! Sweet Dreams is too pretty not to try and share, so I hope you enjoyed taking a look at it with me. :)

Zoya Naturel Satins Preview

Happy New Year, everyone! Any big plans for tonight? I got invited to two parties, but I will be lying at home with the flu, probably watching trash TV. There's a pretty bad bug going around and just when I thought I was in the clear, it snuck up on me. Ugh! Anyways, please be safe tonight and remember to always have a designated driver!

Now onto some polish. I gotta admit, Zoya's annual Naturel Collection is not one of my most-anticipated releases. I love brights, so an all-neutral collection isn't really my thing. But Zoya switched it up in a big way this year, not only added more colors to the mix, but also making a whole collection of satin polishes!

L to R: Leah, Rowan, Sage, Tove, Brittany, Ana

 

These look awesome! Well done, Zoya! I love the satin finish and dusty pastels are some of my favorite colors to wear for spring. The collection's official release date is January 15, so look for it at your local nail haunts soon!

Do you like the new direction of the Naturel Collection or are you yearning for classic neutral cremes? See you in 2015!

Katy Perry "Dark Horse" Nails

 EDIT: So I jumped the gun and accidentally posted this waaayyyy too early for Twinsie Tuesday. I'll do something else when the theme actually comes up, so in the meantime, enjoy these. Also, I'm dumb. Carry on.

We're borrowing some looks from Hollywood for this week's installment of Twinsie Tuesday, where we've been challenged to re-create a nail look worn by a celebrity! So I turned to arguably the queen of celebrity nail art, Katy Perry. Her music is a guilty pleasure of mine and I love how much fun she has with her make-up and nails. Katy always has something fun and flashy on her nails, but for this challenge, I chose to copy a mani from the video for the song "Dark Horse."

Katy actually wears three different nail looks in this video. I chose her triangle-tipped nails as the ones I wanted to re-create:

It seemed like a relatively simple manicure to do and I love the contrast between the gold and the bright blue. I used Essie Strut Your Stuff, Essie Good As Gold and some scotch tape for my version. Here's how it came out:

I botched taking off the tape on my ring finger, so that one came out a little wonky, but otherwise I'm super happy with this mani! I tried free-handing a similar design a few months ago for some Lana Del Rey-inspired nails and I gotta say, the tape makes it soooo much easier. They may not be 100% perfect, but I'm still really proud of these nails!

Is there a celebrity you look to for polish inspiration? I would say my big ones are Katy and Zooey Deschanel. Their nail game is always on point!

Born Pretty Sailor Moon Stamping Plate: Review & Swatches

Sailor Moon, both the anime and the manga, was a huge part of my childhood and young adulthood. One of the only times I ever faked sick was so that I could stay home from school and watch a marathon of Sailor Moon on UPN. I think I was in 4th or 5th grade? Something like that. I still enjoy watching the new series, Sailor Moon Crystal, but the original show will always have a special place in my heart--yes, even the cringeworthy US dub.

So when Born Pretty asked me if I would like to review some of their stamping plates, I had to try the Sailor Moon-themed one! I mean, just look at how freakin' magical this is, you guys!

Before I go any further, I wanted to note that Born Pretty has actually changed up the design on this plate since I received it. The individual pictures are bigger now and simplified the overall design. I think that should make some of the images, like the one of Sailor Moon right in the middle, easier to pick up with your stamper. Here's how the plate currently looks:

The other thing I wanted to make sure I tell you guys is that I have never tried stamping before. I've always been too intimidated by it! But for Sailor Moon, I will try! 

So I looked at a couple tutorials online and then gave it my best shot. It's definitely something that takes practice and it took me quite a few tries to get it right. But damn if it wasn't satisfying when I finally got that first stamp right! I played around with stamping some designs, using Essie Good As Gold, over my OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls manicure that I showed you all yesterday. Here's a look at the designs I tried:

I really wanted to get that image of Sailor Moon herself onto my nails, but after at least two dozen attempts, I couldn't quite get it--although I did come close a few times! Any issues I had are completely due to my lack of experience rather than any defect with the plate itself, which is very nice quality. I just need to practice my technique more!

While it can be a little tricky, I still had a lot of fun finally trying out stamping! I think for a first try, I didn't do too bad. I've got two other BP plates to review, so hopefully I'll keep getting better!

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.