Holly Jolly Texture

I love me some texture polishes, and Zoya's Chita, China and Solange make a lovely giftwrap-style manicure.

IT IS FINALLY CHRISTMAS MUSIC SEASON (happy thanksgiving)

I love Christmas music.  I don't think I can ever get sick of every hokey, oft-heard standard (except for Christmas Shoes, that song is awful).  But I keep myself from listening to it until Thanksgiving; it just isn't time for Christmas music until then.

So, let's celebrate Christmas music season with a holly jolly manicure!

I bought these Sally Hansen Rent the Runway polishes (Red: Rosey Shooter, Green: Green Rocket) way back in October, as I thought they, along with Glitter Gun (a gold) were PERFECT Christmas shades.  I layered them over Zoya's Hunter and Livingston (green and red respectively), to create a pitch-perfect holiday mani.

Artsy Wednesday: Disney

I've been wanting to try a waterfall manicure for a while, and while I don't think I quite nailed it on the first try, I did end up with a neat manicure.

I used Disney's Snow White as my inspiration, with my middle nail as the skirt of her dress, my index and pinkie as the sleeves of her dress, and my ring as her face/lip/hair color.  I think this turned out a little eerie looking, but frankly the original Snow White story is pretty creepy, so I'm down with how slightly spooky this turned out!

Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E
Makeup and Masala
Every Little Polish

Happy 4th of July!

My favorite holiday; I'd been cooking up this mani for about a week, and I think it came off very nicely:

Textured fireworks!  I'm loving the textured trend, and JulieG's Hot Cinnamon, OPI's Solitaire and Zoya's Liberty are absolutely perfect.  I do wish the photo captured the deep aqua sparkle in Liberty, and the gold flecks in Hot Cinnamon, they're both so brilliant in person!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Artsy Wednesday: Sewn Patches

I've been a bad blogger lately, but I have a good reason!
Here's my reason:

My nails, in front of our chicken coop, while I stand on the front porch of our new house!

And here's my sewn patches manicure, close up!  I went for a gingham theme with this one, to adequately reflect the fact that my boyfriend and I have moved onto a lovely piece of land where we can raise our chickens and generally enjoy the outdoors!

Anyway, apologies for being AWOL for a while; with moving and renovating (we got a foreclosure), I've been too busy and too hard on my hands to do any nail art.  That changes today!

Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E

Artsy Wednesday: Re-do your first blogged Nail Art

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My first blogged nail art is here: Memorial Day Manicure.  Not too shabby for just starting out!  I decided an exact duplicate manicure would be boring, so this is more of an "Inspired By" type of thing :)

I busted out my good old Orly Stone Cold and Rock-It; these colors are so stunning I can hardly stand it!  Plus, they're one-coaters. I'll always fall in love with a one-coater.  The holo triangles and stars are Gosh Holographic Hero.

The white is Milani White on the Spot, and I just had to jazz it up a bit.  I won a  Shimmer Polish giveaway a few months ago, and that blue beauty was a perfect way to snazz up my manicure!  Shimmer Polishes are really impressive; packed with glitter, but not goopy, no taco glitters, easy application and not too topcoat hungry either.  Impressive!

Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work!  And welcome to our newest blogger, M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E

10 Day Nail Art Challenge Days 8 and 9: Holiday Watercolor and a Red and Green Manicure

First up, we've got a watercolor manicure.  I used the tutorial here from Nail Art 101: Watercolor Nails Tutorial to create a soft and sweet red, green and gold watercolor.  I do think this turned out a little more springtime than holiday, but hey, that just means I can use the same colors in a few months!

Next, a good ol' green and red manicure (it was supposed to be red, green and white, but I totally forgot to add white! Whoops!).  I stamped some radiant pointsettias onto a nice kelly green background; I wish my camera could accurately capture how lovely the raspberry red of the Kleancolor Red Metallic is for this manicure, it's just gorgeous!

10 Day Nail Art Challenge Day 6: Holiday Movie; The Santa Clause

I love The Santa Clause; a Christmas movie about doubt and belief, magic, generosity, good fun, family, falling off the roof, burnt turkey, ugly sweaters, snow globes and more? What's not to like!?

My little Santa suit nails are actually pretty easy to do, as evidenced by this video tutorial!

10 Day Holiday Nail Art Challenge Day 3: Gift Wrap

I don't actually own any gift wrap at the moment; I tend to use gift bags because they're so much faster.  So, I drew my inspiration from thin air and decided a nice gilted red would be a lovely giftwrap.

Using the Llarowe LeaLC stamping plate B and Kleancolor Metallic Gold, I stamped a whole bunch of gift-wrappey patterns onto Butter London's Knees Up.  Knees Up is SO gorgeous, and the Kleancolor metallics stamp like a dream!

Indie Spotlight: Pretty & Polished Holiday Polishes

One of my favorite things about indie polishes is that when you buy a bottle from a reputable indie maker, and get to see it in person and on the nail, there's always a little something special, a little extra, a surprise about the polish that makes it seem all the more fantastic to own.

When I was given the opportunity to purchase some of Pretty & Polished's holiday polishes, I chose polishes that I knew I didn't have in my collection, so I expected them to feel pretty unique to me.  But I really was surprised at how fantastic and unique these polishes were!

S'no Mans Land is a pearlescent white with satiny white hexes and tiny iridescent glitter.

I chose it because I only own creme whites, and wanted a pearly white to add to my collection.  Little did I know that this polish had these fabulous larger hexes that look like pearls on your nails, and that the iridescent glitter would really evoke the fresh-snow-in-the-sun look.

As for application, I did put the bottle on its side while I put on my basecoat, just to make sure the larger hexes were available to the brush when I polished.  I do this with pretty much all of my polishes with larger glitter, and it's a technique that has served me well.

The polish is thickish, to suspend the glitter, but not gloppy.  It isn't brushstrokey or too frosty either.  It really is more of a pearl finish than a frost, and is a nice soft white, instead of being stark or harsh.

Next, I chose Love Always, Candy Cain (what a fabulously sassy name!).  This polish contains white, red and silver glitters of various sizes in a clear base, obviously invoking the imagery of candy cane colors.  I don't have any larger red glitters, and have wanted one for a long time, so I figured it'd be a good choice.  Here, I layered it over S'no Mans Land:

When it arrived, I was thrilled by the mix of glitters; big white matte hexes, red hearts, white hearts, big, medium AND little red hexes, red and silver microglitter etc.  It's fabulous, but it's also a very thoughtful mix; it doesn't look like a glitter pinata broke over a bottle, it looks like a really appealing glitter topper.

The consistency of the polish isn't globby like some glitterbombs, but the thinner polish meant I ended up doing my "bottle on the side during basecoating" trick just to make sure I'd get a good blend of glitters.  Application was easy, and I found one coat sufficient, although going to town with 2 or 3 would be a lot of fun.

Overall, I was really impressed with these two polishes.  The colors fit the holiday theme, but they don't scream CHRISTMAS at you.  I know for a fact I can wear these other times of the year and not feel unseasonably elfish.  Application was pretty easy, especially for polishes with such large glitter, and the glitter itself is obviously well chosen and well thought out.  Dry time was surprisingly quick; I expected it to take longer, but with a good coat of Poshe I was all set!

The Pretty & Polished holiday collection is launching tomorrow, and can be purchased at the Pretty & Polished Etsy store.

Disclaimer: I purchased these items with my own money, at a discounted price for use in a review on my blog.  My opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way by Pretty & Polished.

Artsy Wednesday: Inspired by the season

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."-George Eliot

I love fall.  The colors, the smells, the cool air, my birthday, fun holidays, good food, cozy clothes, migrating birds.  Fall makes me feel calm, like the world is how it's supposed to be.

To celebrate, I now have a super super cute apple manicure!

It's like back-to-school, pies, changing leaves and a harvest wrapped into one.  Also, since a large portion of the Eastern U.S.'s apple crop was wiped out this year from an April frost, it's something of a memorial (no worries though, trees that are well rested should produce even better than usual next year!).

I don't think I've been happier with a manicure in a long time; every time I look at my nails I get a little surge of delight!   

Hooray for fall!

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

 Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin
Maria's Nail Art
Polished Genius
Valiantly Varnished
Unnaked Nails
Nail & Polish
Beauty Gnome
Kaka Beauty Blog

Swatchfest: Zoya Oranges, Pinks and Reds

I now declare this Zoya week at my blog!  It's gonna be all Zoya, all the time.  I have a whole bunch of Zoya polishes, and I wanted to swatch and photograph them all for you guys.  I did so in a comparison format to show you (and myself) the differences between the colors.  This post will be the oranges, pinks and reds that I own.  On to the swatches!

I've got Pru and Tess to show you first.  Pru is a purpley-pinky, soft dusty color with a gold shimmer in it.  It's a pretty unusual color, and I really like how different it is from the purples or pinks I own.  Tess is a pretty incredible rose metallic that I took a total gamble on buying, as I couldn't find many decent swatches.  Below is a SINGLE coat of Tess!  Incredible!

 Index/Middle: Pru,  Ring/Pinky; Tess

 Next, I've got Rica and Tiffany.  I was a little worried when I bought Tiffany that it would be too similar to Rica, but I was pleasantly surprised as to how different they were.  Rica has much brighter pink and orange tones, while Tiffany is a nice pinkish-gold shimmer.  I think Rica would be a great version of this pinky-orange-gold for the summer, and Tiffany a perfect option for the fall/winter.

 Index/Middle: Rica, Ring/Pinky: Tiffany

I recently discovered that I actually look okay in orange, so I bought a few oranges from Zoya to enjoy.  Kaufda is a reddish copper that is pretty unusual and very, very flattering.  I chose Pia to get a brighter orange that wasn't a neon creme.  I'm not sure how Pia compares to, say, Lianne, Elise, Ginger or Sienna, but I do like how brilliant it looks, and it has a nice shimmer.  I did have visible nail line with 2 coats, I think a third would be in order to make sure that's all covered up.

 Index/Middle: Kaufda, Ring/Pinky: Pia

These next polishes aren't similar at all, so the comparison part of the manicure is kind of moot, but they are both fabulous summery pinks.  Ali is a super neon pink that dries with a rubbery, semi-matte finish (like most neons), while Rory is a metallic lavender-pink that applies like a dream.  I could've easily gotten away with one careful coat for each of these polishes, but I did two to be safe.

 Index/Middle: Ali, Ring/Pinky: Rory

Sparkle pink!  I love both of these sparkly pinks.  Astra is packed with magenta and silver glitter in a clear base; it's kind of amazing how well it covers without being gritty or gummy.  With two coats of Astra, I didn't have any visible nail line.  I swatched it next to Gilda, which is hands-down the best pedicure pink ever.  It's a glassfleck cool-leaning pink that just pops without being a typical neon.  It's a great base color for watermelon nail art too!  The visible nail line in this picture isn't as noticeable in person, but a third coat would eliminate it for sure.

 Index/Middle: Astra, Ring/Pinky: Gilda

Next, the reds!  Jade is the first, a jelly-like red glitter polish.  The glitter is very subtle, but the tint of red is a particularly classic red, so it'd be a good go-to for glamour.

Next we have Nidhi and Reva.  Nidhi is a warm-leaning red with gold/blue microglitter in it.  This color is super hard to capture, as it has a subtlety in its blue flashes and gold shimmer that you probably need to experience in person.  Next is Reva, a darker red with straight gold shimmer, a simpler color but with a bolder impact.

 Index/Middle: Nidhi, Ring/Pinky: Reva

 Index/Middle: Nidhi, Ring/Pinky: Reva, Thumb: Jade

Finally the vampiest of the bunch, Blair and Valerie.  Blair is a deep burgundy with a glowing shimmer that looks just gorgeous, and is going to be perfect for winter drama.  Valerie, probably technically a cool color but very warm-leaning, is possibly one of the greatest polish colors ever, so I saved it for last (best for last and all).  Valerie is a dark purple/burgundy base with gold/silver/possibly some green shimmer to it.  I'm always surprised when I put it on, as to how fascinating a color it is.

 Index/Middle: Blair, Ring/Pinky: Valerie

Check in later this week for the cool-toned Zoyas I have!

Disclaimer: All products for this post were purchased with my own money.  All opinions are my own.

Swatchfest: Hot Mess Lacquers!

I got these polishes about two months ago, and I just love them to pieces.  Hot Mess Lacquers is an indie polish brand that has started up recently.  I'm picky about indies; I don't like milky bases, I don't like certain bottle types, I don't like ones that I think look "barfy", I don't like certain densities of glitter (too sparse/too dense).

Now, I'm just one person, and there's a market for just about any polish, but Hot Mess definitely satisfies my polish criteria; the bases of the polish I got were nicely pigmented jellies, the glitter was dense and easy to get out, but not so dense that the polish was unusable or gritty, the glitters were interesting sizes/shapes but didn't curl one bit, there was no bleeding and no staining of my nails, and the bottles are cute and easy to use.  Wonderful!

I want you all to note, none of these swatches have topcoat, so all the shine and smoothness you see is in the polish itself.  Seriously, awesome formulas!

I bought 4 polishes from the Hot Mess line.  From left to right in the photo below, they are: Red Headed Step Child, Aquanet, Cupcake and Yankee Star.

Red Headed Step Child is a strawberry red jelly base with medium red hexes and little black hexes.  The formula on this is super nice, and I didn't even have visible nail line after 2 coats!  This is one juicy looking polish, and a nice twist on the classic red nail.

Swatches include: Index, 2 coats RSHC; Middle, one coat Julep Glen, one coat RHSC; Ring, one coat Smoke and Ashes, one coat RHSC; pinky, one coat white, one coat RHSC.

Aquanet, aside from having a hilarious name, is a perfect synthetic, acidy pale purple jelly with a ton of different glitter shapes including HUGE hexes that are super easy to place and very, very dramatic.  I love the little square glitter too, and how the holographic effect shines through the jelly base.  

Swatches include: Index, 2 coats Aquanet; Middle, one coat Anise Total Temptress, one coat Aquanet; Ring, one coat Smoke and Ashes, one coat Aquanet; pinky, one coat white, one coat Aquanet.

Cupcake is a great way to encrust your nails in jewel-like glitter; I've tried to come up with a way to describe this corally, golden, pinky polish, and the best I can come up with is that it looks like some sort of gorgeous starfish.  It's textural, shimmery, shiny and beautiful.  It is the thickest of the four, so working to get a manageable coat can take a little bit of effort, but it's worth it.  This again has those big hexes, that I've really never seen before in a polish, and are an awful lot of fun to wear.

Swatches include: Index, 2 coats Cupcake; Middle, one coat Cos Bar Bronze, one coat Cupcake; Ring, one coat Smoke and Ashes, one coat Cupcake; pinky, one coat white, one coat Cupcake. 

Finally, Yankee Star.  When I bought this, I didn't realize that all the glitter in it would be holographic, so imagine my surprise and delight when I was expecting plain silver glitters and pulled out a veritable disco ball of rainbows and shiny prettiness!  Yankee Star has stars, bar glitter, squares, hexes, tiny glitter, you name it, all in a clear base.  

The base in Yankee Star is the thinnest, which means the bigger glitter will sink slightly (not all to the bottom, but they will settle toward the middle of the bottle), but setting the bottle on its side for a few minutes  makes the glitter totally accessible.  The thinner base also means that multiple coats don't result in too much polish on your fingers, saving you dry time.

Swatches include: Index, 2 coats Yankee Star;  Middle, one coat Orly Stone Cold, one coat Yankee Star; Ring, one coat Smoke and Ashes, one coat Yankee Star; pinky, one coat white, one coat Yankee Star.

Hot Mess Lacquers are available on Etsy, and are often listed on Copious, so any credits you have could be used to get your hands on some of this fantastic polish!

Disclaimer: all products for this review were purchased with my own money, and all opinions are my own.