Snowflakes

I’ve gotten so many new polishes this month, it’s really hard to decide what I want to do with them. One of the polishes I got from a Secret Santa was China Glaze’s All Wrapped Up. I was eying it up for a while but was never sure if I wanted to get it for myself. I am very glad it was part of my gift! It’s such a pretty shade of super sparkly purple. I thought this color would be perfect for the background for some snowflakes. I wanted to do silver instead of white for the snowflakes, so I used another one of my new polishes, Enchanted Polish’s Dime Piece. I used dotting tools to draw on the snowflakes and add the dots.

Christmas Marble

Merry Christmas everybody! For all my Christmas celebrations I had to do a water marble mani. I used Milani Bet on Red, Zoya Holly and Piaf. Please excuse the worn tips. I did fill them in later with Piaf.

Candy Canes

Well it’s now less than a week until Christmas! I’ve been obsessed with using my striping tape, and candy cane nails are so easy with it. For this mani I used Zoya’s Purity and then Sparkle Gloss Top Coat which is a little hard to see in these photos, but it adds a little something and mellows out the white. Then I painted Chyna Pixie Dust over my striping tape and pulled it up. I did use a top coat over the entire thing, but Chyna looks good with or without it. If you want to do this or any other manicure with striping tape, make sure your bottom polish is completely dry and pull the tape up as soon as you paint on the top color.

Christmas Garbage Nails

Guys… I’m really sorry. For this entire post. The photos are awful cell pics and the mani is a disaster, but I felt the need to post my fail. I would have tried something else Christmasy, but with my hand in the brace for a week I couldn’t do much of anything. I knew I had wanted to do more than one Christmas mani for the blog, but this one did not turn out like I had wanted it to. I tried doing the watercolor method but it didn’t work all that well. I covered it up with glitter and that just made it busier. I did get a compliment from one of my regular customers who’s into doing her nails. She said the glitter is what attracted her. I used a base of Purity and the colors on top are Zoya Suvi, Milani Bet on Red, and China Glaze’s Paper Chasing. The glitter topper is Julep’s Shoshanna.

Wear It Wednesday Review: Royal Lacquer

All these reviews are tiring me out! It’s worth it though, I keep getting to try really awesome polish brands. Today I have a review of three polishes from a newer indie brand called Royal Lacquer. This brand is really promising. They also carry Vynails nail stickers/guides.

Fist Up I tried Minty. This one is a green jelly with a subtle shimmer. I really love this color when opaque. With one or two coats it comes out a little streaky because the consistency is on the thicker side. Once you get to three or four coats it’s perfect. The photo on the left is two coats and the left is four coats. This polish is perfect for doing jelly sandwich manis.

Next up is Jingle. This is a very sheer black base with green, red and silver holo glitter. This polish also needs a few coats for full coverage. The first picture is three coats of Jingle. The second mani was really fun. It’s one coat of Minty, a coat of Jingle sponged on, another coat of Minty and then once again, Jingle sponged on. I’m not sure how fond I am of the black base. I think I’d like it better as just a clear topper.

Lastly, Purple Squared. This is another jelly. A really pretty shade of purple with small holo glitter and larger holo squares. The only problem I had was there weren’t a whole lot of squares, and some of them were stuck to the sides of the bottle so I had to dig around for them. Three coats of Purple Squared gets a good opacity.

And here are a few things I did with the Vynails stickers. On the left I used the outer part of the sticker and filled in the heart then pealed the sticker off. The middle is a sticker just placed on my nail. They are plenty sticky and stay down pretty well. A top coat is recommended over the sticker, but I didn’t use one here. The right side is supposed to be a butterfly, but it didn’t turn out all that well. I placed down the sticker, painted over with a top coat and then used tweezers to peel it off. I don’t own needle nose tweezers, so it might have worked better if I did have them. There are a lot of different ways you can use the Vynails, they make nail art super easy when you don’t have the time.

One thing about all these polishes that’s good and bad is that they peel off easily. It’s good because it makes for easy removal that wont damage your nails, but I was getting some polish peeling off whole pretty soon after doing my nails. I’m not sure if this is a characteristic of jelly polishes or maybe because they need a few coats. Overall though, this is a great brand with really pretty colors and the Vynails are a must have. I’d love to try out some creams and other types of polishes from Royal Lacquer in the future. Check out the shop as well as their facebook page for more info and purchasing.

**All opinions are my own and 100% honest. I have not been paid or convinced in any way to give a positive review**

Stripes and Sparkles

I wouldn’t say I’m an incredibly lucky person, but I’d say finding a Zoya polish in the clearance section at Ulta is pretty lucky. Normally it’s all brands I’m not interested in, but this time I spotted one lonely Zoya polish. Roxy isn’t even a color I’d normally pick if I saw it with a group of other Zoya polishes, but this was a different case, I didn’t even care what the color was. But I am so glad I did find it, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I used the jelly sandwich technique so I could get Roxy dark enough without covering the stripes of Raven I made with striping tape. I love the way this turned out, I’m hoping I can find other colors similar to Roxy just so I can do this again.

Wear It Wednesday Review: Anne Kathleen

Today I have a review of 3 polishes from the Anne Kathleen Yuletide Wonders Collection. Leanne is another indie maker who’s great at putting together packages, no photos of that again, sorry. All the polishes have a smooth formula that dry pretty fast. I tried out three different types of polish from this collection.

First up is Crystal. This polish is named perfectly. It’s an icy blue shimmer that can be worn as a sheer coat over another color or on it’s own in several coats. If you are going to wear it by itself it will take 4 good coats to get full coverage, otherwise you will see you nail through it. The first photos are 4 coats of Crystal. The second photo set is Crystal over top Zoya’s Neve. I did use a flash for these because it was getting dark, but it looks the same in daylight. I thought that combination was gorgeous, the perfect winter mani!

Next is Joy, a pretty neutral holographic. In my opinion it’s a rosy brown, on the site it’s described as a mauvy-pink which I guess is pretty much the same thing. You get full coverage in two coats. This polish is perfect for any occasion since it’s a more neutral shade but it still has a little extra sparkle. These photos are without (left) and with (right) flash.

Lastly, I tried out Carol. This polish is a white shimmer chock full of blue and pink glitter. The base is a little on the sheer side, but because of how fine the glitter is and how much is in the bottle, you get full coverage in 2-3 coats. The left photo is two thinner coats. You can also do 1 coat over another color. On the right side is Carol over Zoya’s Sailor. You can’t see much of the bottom color, but it gives Carol a different tint. Despite this being a glitter polish, it was very easy to remove.

Overall I loved all of these polishes. I normally buy brighter summery colors, so these are a great addition to my collection. None of them had any lumps, they all went on, and covered nicely. I would absolutely recommend Anne Kathleen. There are currently 3 collections out and I’ve seen some of her upcoming stuff, they look great! Check out the facebook page for more info and updates.

**All opinions are my own and 100% honest. I have not been paid or convinced in any way to give a positive review**

Transparent Marble

I wanted to do a water marble since I hadn’t in a while. while at work I told my husband to pick some colors for me, or let my son pick before bed. I came home to an interesting group of colors that my son picked out. The colors are Jindie Nails’ Polo and Blue Ivy, Sinful Colors Envy, China Glaze’s White on White and Reggae to Riches. On some nails Polo came out transparent since I decided not to use a color underneath. After the first couple nails came out differently I started to control how much of the polish I was putting in the water so some would be transparent and some would be opaque.

Snow Day Nails

A few weeks ago I glanced over at a bottle of clear polish that I used half of. I stopped using it because it’s a little on the smelly side and I have my better clear stuff now. I decided to use it to make one more polish. It came out so sheer that I decided to try the jelly sandwich technique with it even though it’s not really a jelly. This is two coats of the polish, then Essie’s Set in Stones, with one more coat of the polish on top. I really like how it came out despite how simple it is. I think I’ll try the technique later with actual jellies.

Wear It Wednesday Review: Gothic Gala Lacquers

Today I have four awesome colors from Gothic Gala Lacquers for you. First of all, the packaging is so awesome. I would have taken a picture of it, but I was too busy ripping into it. The polishes were in little purple bags, and there was a homemade bat lollipop! Now on to the polishes. The formula for all of them dries super fast without bubbling, I don’t know how Samantha does it! I tried out two thermals and two holos. Sadly, the thermals didn’t work well for me because I’m always cold and I also filed my nails fairly short before trying these. So the colors you see for the thermals will be what color they look colder. Hopefully when I try them again when it’s warmer out the thermal will work better. To see how they look on long nails with the actual thermal gradient, plus other colors, check out the Gothic Gala Lacquers Facebook Page.

I’m starting with Lilac Dreams. This is a purple thermal polish that goes from a lilac when warm to a dark purple when cold. The color is very rich and only take a couple coats for full coverage, but it comes out matte when dry, as seen in the first picture. The second picture has a top coat which makes it smooth out very nicely.

The second color I tried is Vallis Frigada, another thermal. When warm it’s a bright mauve and when cold it’s a beautiful deep burgundy. Again, the color is very rich and it also comes out matte when dry. Here are photos without and with the top coat, also only two coats of color.

I’m not really that disappointed that the thermal didn’t work for me since they’re both beautiful colors. I did breathe on my nails to check out the color fading, but it went too fast for me to capture with my camera.

Next up, Vallis Sanguine. This one is a purpley red with a pretty holo shimmer. It’s already glossy so a top coat wont affect it and wont take away from the holo. A couple coats will give you full coverage.

And lastly, my favorite of them all, Liquid Violet. This duochrome holo is so gorgeous! One of my new favorites for sure. It’s a light pinkish violet that shifts into blue. The holo in this one is so pretty in direct sunlight. Again, a couple coats gives full coverage.

The only problem I had with all the polishes was that there were a couple tiny lumps in each, but that’s to be expected from indies because it already takes a lot to mix them. All the polishes dried super fast and only need two coats. Gothic Gala Lacquers has a good variety of finishes with a lot of purples and reds plus a mix of some other colors thrown in. I can’t wait to see what else Samantha comes up with, I will definitely be buying from Gothic Gala Lacquers in the future, I already have my eye on a few.

**All opinions are my own and 100% honest. I have not been paid or convinced in any way to give a positive review**