LA Colors Blue Icicles

Hi everyone! Lately i’ve noticed that a lot of people are already gearing up for Spring, especially in the nail polish world. Lots of brands are already releasing Spring and even Valentines day collections. Especially Sinful Colors whose St Patricks day collection has already been spotted on the shelves. Still two months to go Sinful Colors..we’re not quite there yet. OPI has also been gearing up to release their summer Hawaii collection. It all just feels a little early to me.

It’s not that I don’t like Spring collections, in fact I love them. I find myself already longing for the soft shimmers and pastels that mark most spring collections. But..at the same time..I still feel like its too cold outside. As a blogger I find these transition times hard. Half of me wants to go full on into spring with you all from warmer places where it actually feels like Spring, but the other half of me is like nope it’s not spring until i’m not googling what the early signs of frostbite are while standing at the bus stop(true story).

So, to compromise, I’m going to start finding shades that walk the line between winter and spring, and share them with you over the next few weeks.

The first of these colors is LA Colors Blue Icicles. I saw it on the shelf while in Family Dollar. Backstory, I love LA Colors polishes. I have over 40 of them. They are one of my favorite brands of all time. The price and quality you get for that price is top notch in my opinion.

So when I saw a pretty blue crelly glitter in their lineup, I was excited.

That excitement started to fade when I started to put it on.

Application

Problematic to say the least. I quickly realized that you can't paint it on like other polishes. The base becomes sheer and the glitter drags off of your nail. In order to get this on you have to dab it on. Doing that makes it thick and lumpy if you're not careful. I tried to do this as a full mani because I swatched this at night and wanted my nails to match for the next day. I ended up scraping it all off of my right hand because of how bad it looked. I went with no polish on my right hand in public rather than deal with it.

Look

If you can successfully get it on without it looking lumpy than it's not bad, as you can see from my picture.

Price

$1 at Family Dollar and Dollar Tree

Overall

Nope. I love LA Colors, but this isn't their best. Because it was just a dollar, I'll let it go. All brands have off days I suppose.

I know that this isn't a productive post, but hey, now you know what not to buy.

Spoiled Are Mermaids Real? Review and Swatch

Hi everyone! Today I have to show you a polish i’ve had for a while. I picked it up in CVS one day and it’s been sitting in my untried pile for several months so I figured that I should swatch it, and I am so glad I did.

Meet Are Mermaids Real? by Spoiled. A beautiful purple jelly filled with gold flake shimmer.

Okay, first of all, can we just take a moment to appreciate that this polish has “mermaids”  in it’s name and isn’t blue or teal? I like that, it’s a refreshing change.

Now for the review..

Application

I used three coats for the pictures above, but it went on nicely overall. The brush was a little weird, as with all of the polishes from the brand, but in this color it wasn’t problematic. The one problem I had with this polish was the dry time. It appeared to be dry but hours later I was typing on my computer and the polish dented majorly. Seriously, after it’s been hours I expect my polish to not be that easily messed up. I didn’t use a top coat, so maybe that was my mistake. I recommend using one if you wear this polish.

Look

It’s really pretty. In certain lights the gold flakes even look slightly green. You might also see flashes of pink shimmer in there, but it’s very subtle. I really like how complex it is, and the shade of purple is beautiful. If you love purple, you’ll adore this.

Price

$1.99 at CVS.

Overall

I’m happy with this polish, although I will definitely use a topcoat next time I wear it. I think the color and the price make it worth the annoyances.

So, do you like the color? Would you buy it?

OPI With A Nice Finn-ish

Hi everyone. Guess what? This post was supposed to post last Monday. Apparently scheduling it in blogger did not work. Whoops. Anyway..You know what color I'm loving this winter? Brown. Normally I'm not a brown person but this season all the browns have been calling to me to buy them. Especially the ones from the OPI Nordic Collection. I've been slowly grabbing them one by one, and today I have to show you the first one I picked up.

OPI With a Nice Finn-ish

Okay. I know it's not exactly brown, but it's close enough for me to count it as one, since it's not yellow enough for me to consider it a true gold. To me it reminds me more of caramel. This is the color that first jumped out at me from the collection. I love metallic colors, and this one is so warm and pretty. It seems to have kind of it's own glow. Love!
The formula was good, at first I was nervous that it might show brush strokes but nope! The picture makes it look like that, but you really can't see brush strokes in person. It went on smoothly too, this was two coats.

So..what do you think of the color? You've probably seen it before since the collection has been out for a while, but I figured that I'd drop in my opinion of it. Tell me, what's your favorite nail color to wear this season?

Back To The Clearance! Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Eyes

Hi everyone! So..today I have a post that goes in a kind of series that I started last year. Back to the clearance! Does anybody else love sales as much as I do? I'm a bargain hunter. I got most of my polishes on sale or for less then their original price. These posts are for showing what I find and maybe helping my fellow bargain hunters get good deals too!

The polish of the day is Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Eyes.

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Eyes Sunlight

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Eyes Shade

This beauty was a part of The Mermaids collection for Summer 2013, released as part of four companion shades to the very popular Mermaid's Dream polish.

It's a metallic blue base with small dark blue hex glitters and tons of gold shimmer. It's almost a texture, and I swatched it above without topcoat to show the effect. It's a beautiful color, and there's something really awesome about using a Deborah Lippmann. You just feel so fancy.

The best part about this is the price. This polish goes for $20 on the Deborah Lippmann website, shipping not included. I got it for $6.99 at Marshall's. TJMaxx has it as well for the same price. I adore those stores. Every time I go in its like a treasure hunt to find the good stuff. I never know what's going to be there.

So, are you a bargain hunter or do you buy new polishes the second they hit the shelves? Or both?

Happy painting!

Zoya Pixie Dust Carter Swatch and Review!

Hello everyone! So..let's talk finishes. How does everyone feel about textured polish? For me..it highly depends on the type of texture. I love shimmery or..for lack of a better describing word, "sugary" textures. For example, the Nicole by OPI Gumdrops collection. It was actually that collection that began my nail polish addiction. But I'm not a fan of creme textures. I've gone back and forth on it for a long time.

From what I've seen, a lot of people seem to love how certain brands do textures. One of those big brands is Zoya with their pixie dusts. Specifically the original pixie dusts, since I've heard mixed reviews and opinions about the newer ones.

I also heard recently that Zoya is now discontinuing their entire pixie dust line. That was a surprise to me, since the Pixie dusts still appear to be really popular, but I guess they've decided that it's time to move onto other things.

Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity, before they all go away, to show you my one and only Zoya Pixie Dust polish, Carter.

Zoya Carter Sunlight

Zoya Carter Shade

 I received this polish as a RAOK(Random Act Of Kindness) from Michelle over at Manic Talons last year. I actually hadn't tried it on myself until now. My mom had me paint her nails with it a few weeks ago and I loved it on her, so I knew that I should swatch it while the polish is actually still available.

Application

This was two coats. The first coat tried to go on patchy so I recommend a thin first coat, followed by a thicker second one. That worked well for me.

Look

It's gorgeous. I would describe this as pink leaning purple micro glitter in a dark purple texture base. I love how it looks. The pink glitter really catches light so it looks so sparkly.

Price

$9.51 with free shipping on Amazon

Overall

If you love purple and glittery textures, then you need this in your life. But it's a bold texture so if you're on the fence about textures then look through swatches carefully to make sure that you like the effect. But hurry, they'll be gone soon!

Happy painting!

Orly Mirrorball! The hype is justified.

Hi everyone! I bet you're surprised to see me twice in one week! Well, I meant what I said in my last post. I'm going to make myself worthy of your attention, starting with posting more regularly.

Anyway, if you're familiar with the polish community, you might have heard about Orly Mirrorball. It's from the Orly Holiday 2014 Sparkle collection. When this baby came out, I and a lot of other people were intrigued at the idea of a new mainstream holographic polish. At first I didn't run out to buy it with everybody else. I'm not usually one to rush to buy a polish whenever someone says that it's a musthave. I definitely belong to the bargain hunter crowd, more because of my budget rather than by choice. I wish I could afford to buy from all the new collections the second they hit the stores, but I can't. Instead I can only afford to buy a few new polishes, and they have to be really good if i'm going to go for them.
That being said, I bought Mirrorball..and is it worth it?

...

Orly Mirrorball Sunlight

Orly Mirrorball Sunlight 2

Orly Mirrorball Shade

Orly Mirrorball out of focus(so you can see how sparkly it is)

Answer: Heck yes.

Here are some of the reasons why I think that this one is worth picking up while it's still available.

1. The finish. This is not just a normal linear holographic polish. It's a linear holographic polish..with small holographic glitter. Double rainbow..all the way across your nails..

2. The formula. It's opaque in two coats, and is really easy to work with. It dries nice and flat too so if you put on a coat that's too thick by accident it will correct itself. I used 3 coats in the pictures because I like it better that way but I still appreciate an opaque in two coats polish.

3. The price. I bought my bottle at Sally Beauty on clearance for $3.75. If you can't still find it there it's available here in the mini set with some others from the collection.

Now..just an idea, You could add a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust(or other holo topcoat) for a SUPER holographic effect.

So, those of you who don't have it, will you go for it? Those of you who have already snapped one up, are you happy you did?

Happy painting! :)

Sparkly Holographic Firework Nail Art

Happy New Year!
Yeah..I'm that girl who still wishes people happy new year on the fifth.

So, last year as you all probably know by now was not the greatest year for me blogging wise. I didn't post very often, and i'm not going to sit here and make excuses. You probably don't care all that much if I blog or not, since there are about eleventy bajillion other blogs out there to go to instead. But, if anybody is actually is reading this now, thank you. I plan to make myself worthy of your attention.  I've got some posts planned for the future already.

Now..I figured that it's not too late to show you the first manicure I did in 2015! I love it so much, i'm still wearing it!

When I think of the new year, I think of a lot of things. Glamorous stuff on TV..being at home chilling with my dog in my pajamas instead of actually doing anything glamorous..listening to people shoot off fireworks in spite of the fact that we live in a place with a lot of trees and they are illegal in my state..
Ah, there's some inspiration. Sparkly firework nail art that embodies awesome things about New Years that I know i'll actually probably take part in someday.
Or i'll just watch it on TV and eat ice cream. Yeah, that sounds like a good plan.
End pathetic paragraph.

So what I did for this design was first painted my nails black. I actually used a random LA Colors black..but you can use any black for it if you want to do this yourself. Then I used a nail art brush to paint swoops of holographic polish on top. I used Color Club Miss Bliss on my pointer, Layla Mermaid's Spell on my middle, Orly Mirrorball on my ring, and Layla Ultraviolet on my pinky. Miss Bliss worked the best, so if you have other polishes from the Halo Hues collection, they would work amazingly for this. This took some practice to get the lines to look right, especially since i'm not very experienced with a nail art brush. But overall it was pretty easy. To finish it off I dabbed on some China Glaze Fairy Dust for sparks and top coated it with Sally Hansen Insta dri.

So there you have it! One of my favorite designs yet! I might do a picture tutorial in the future if anybody wants to see one. In the meantime, have a great day and a wonderful start in 2015! :)