Alter Ego Penny Pincher!

Hello and good morning, readers! I have another gorgeous polish for you today from Alter Ego! This one is called Penny Pincher and the color is just STUNNING! I actually didn't even want to add any nail art to this because it was so gorgeous on it's own.

Also, I have to share the news! Cynthia just added 5 NEW colors to her shop last night! 12 gorgeous polishes for you to all choose from! I even have a 20% off coupon code for you to use! It is good for 2 weeks: MOTHER 2012. 

Onto the pictures!

This is the color accurate photo!

I had to add this sunny picture to show how it's glowing from within!!

Gorgeous!!

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of Alter Ego Penny Pincher

Cult Nails Wicked Fast

What do you think? I am in love with this gorgeous copper color! Tell me your favorite of the Alter Ego polishes in the comments!! Thanks for reading!

Come See Me At Nails Adored!

Hello readers! I did a guest post for Nails Adored today! Come see my post and show Jamie some love!

http://www.nailsadored.com/2012/04/30/guest-post-jacki-from-adventures-in-acetone/

Teal Gradient+Glitter Bomb!

Good morning, readers! I'm not sure that there can ever be TOO MUCH glitter, can there? As I was trying out ideas for this mani on a nail wheel yesterday, I was deciding between 3 glitter toppers for my gradient and I ended up layering all 3! Why not? Live a little-have super sparkly nails! LOL, that's my motto anyway!

Anyway, onto the nails. My camera couldn't focus on this glittery goodness in the direct sunlight this morning so I've got some indirect sunlight pics. They show the different glitters fairly well, but minus the crazy sparkle that only comes from seeing in person. You will just have to trust me on this one!

Ever since I received Zoya Zuza in the mail, I knew I wanted to do a gradient with Zoya Charla. As much as I love gradients, I can't seem to leave them alone. That's where the glitter bomb comes in. Take a look:

I used: 

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of Zoya Zuza

Ripped up damp makeup sponge and Zoya Charla for the tip gradient.

1 coat of Ozotic Elytra 528

I coat of Cult Nails Hypnotize Me

1 coat of Essence Edward

1 coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast.

I just love macro shots when you layer multiple glitters! You get to see so many different shapes and colors!

As I said, it's super crazy sparkly in person because of the holo glitters in Edward. I love the multichrome colors of the Ozotic Elytra peeking through as well! And I've decided that everyone needs Cult nails Hypnotize Me in their life. 

They are completely smooth after one coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast. Another reason these 3 glitters rock. 

I may have a teal obsession...but I just love how these turned out. What do you think? Thanks for reading!

Subtle Stamping

Good morning, readers! After swatching those gorgeous Milani cremes yesterday I knew I wanted so use one for a full mani. I decided to go with one of my favorites from the bunch, Violet Dash, and finally try out one of my new Tronica's for stamping. I went with Virtual Violet so it was mostly only noticeable in the sun and like the subtlety of it. It stamped really well and check out that holo!

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of Milani Violet Dash

China Glaze Virtual Violet and MASH stamp plate m64 for the stamp

Cult Nails Wicked Fast

I am impressed with how the Tronica stamped and now I can't wait to try out my other two! What do you think? Thanks for reading!

Milani High Speed Fast Dry Swatches and Review!

Hello readers! I have a collection of swatches to show you today from the new Milani High Speed Fast Dry nail lacquer line. There are 8 colors and 6 are bright and fun and seem perfect for summer!

I was impressed with the quick dry formula in these. The label says "Dries in 60 seconds," so I set a timer on my phone for one minute and then gently touched a nail. It was a teeny bit tacky but definitely didn't smear the color.

 Also, they dry so shiny, I didn't have to use a top coat for these swatches. They are categorized as "One Coat Formula," but I wasn't able to get a true one coater out of any. It may be the way I apply the polish because I don't like to do thick coats. Very close on some, though!

First up, we have Violet Dash. This is 2 coats, although it really wanted to be a one coater. The second coat was to even out the light spots from how I applied it. I just love this purple. The application was really great and didn't need cleanup at all.

Next, we have Rapid Cherry! This is definitely a bright cherry red and had a bit of jelly-ness to it. It covered completely in one coat but there was still visible nail line so I did a second coat. 

Fast Fuchsia is a gorgeous summer pink! My camera made it much brighter than it is so I had to adjust the photo to tone it back down. This also was 2 coats and no cleanup was required. I love it!

Hot Pink Frenzy is another pink in this collection, but its much more salmon pink. It is also the only one that has a shimmer to it instead of being a creme. This is another that was SO close to being a one coater. I love it!

Because it is hard to even compare two different swatch photos, I did a comparison with the 2 "pinks" so you could see how different they really are. 

Jiffy Orange is definitely orange! It's bright and fun for summer and I love it! 2 coats again on this one and no cleanup was needed.

Yellow Whiz was the problem child of this bunch. This was 3-4 coats to get rid of light spots. I find that is pretty common with yellows but it is still frustrating to do so many coats! It's awesomely bright and sunny if you want to deal with upwards of 4 coats. 

Those were the 6 colors that I said were great for summer! The other 2 colors in the collection are White On The Spot and Black Swift. Because it's not very exciting to see swatches of white and black, I decided to do comparison swatches instead. I compared both the white and black against 3 others in my collection to see which was most opaque in one coat:

The fingers are labeled. All are one coat. The Milani is definitely the most opaque! I am impressed! I usually despise wearing white for a base of nail art because its just a pain to apply and get even. I am so happy I have a good one coat white!!

The fingers are also labeled for this black comparison. All are one coat. Sinful Colors seemed to have been a tad bit more opaque but the formula was so much nicer on the Milani that I'd probably reach for that when I want black nails. The other two were harder to apply and had bald spots.

I have to admit, the only Milani polishes I had in my stash before these were some holographic ones and some glitters. I am so glad I was able to try out some of the nail colors because I was happily impressed! 

You can buy any of these from the Milani Cosmetics website here for $4.99 each or keep an eye out for any of your local stores that carry Milani. In my area, I have found Milani polishes at CVS as well as Target and some of our Walmarts. 

*These polishes were sent to me from PR to review with my honest opinion. For more information see my Disclosure Tab

Lynnderella Snow Angel!

Hello readers! I have a quick post for you today! I had  been trying to figure out what to wear my Lynnderella Snow Angel over that I won from BerryPolished. White on white(I tried it over Essie Marshmallow)  is too boring for me on my nails so I decided to try out this pastel periwinkle. This is over Julep Jessica. I like it much more than over white. It's very delicate and feminine.

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of Julep Jessica

1 coat of Lynnderella Snow Angel

Cult Nails Wicked Fast

What do you think? Thanks for reading!

Nostalgic Duckie!

Hello readers! Just a heads up, I added a ton more polishes to my blogsale tab yesterday! Come see what's now available! Thanks to all of you that have already purchased!

Today I am showing one of the Nostalgic polishes that I received in my swap with Marnie from Ambiance Shop! This was my favorite of the three based on the bottle and it had 3 different glitters in it so I chose this one to wear first. It's a sheer teal jelly so I layered it over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet.

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of SH Mint Sorbet

2 globby type coats of Nostalgic Duckie

Top coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

What do you think? The glitters definitely needed to be "fished" out of the bottle and as I'm looking at my photo now, I can see that globbing the glitters on caused a good amount of bubbling. Other than that, I really love this look and don't regret the swap at all! For me, the mid sized teal hex glitters were the little treasures I was fishing for in this polish so I am glad I was able to get some out! I can't wait to try the other 2 Nostalgics from the Bizarre Teenage Love Triangle set to see if the others are any easier. 

Thanks for reading!

BLOG SALE!

I added 30+ more polishes to my blogsale this morning! Come check it out!

Month Long Haul Post!

Hello readers!! It's been a while since I've done a haul post so I'm doing a big one today. These are all from the past month(give or take a couple of days). I sold a lot of blogsale items and had extra polish money to buy this month so this is not the normal amount of polish haul for me. I just received the last of my expected purchases yesterday so I can finally do this post! If I've already done a post with the polish, I will link the name of the polish to take you to that post.

Deborah Lippman Mermaid's Dream I purchased from Zappos.com

A-England Saint George and Ozotic 513 that I purchased from Llarowe.

Layla Ocean Rush Holo that I purchased from an ebay seller.

Dandy Nails Colorblind that I purchased from Sandy's Etsy shop!

Girly Bits Razzle Dazzle that I received in a swap with Rachel from Cherry Glam Girl!

NVL Floam that I purchased from Amy's Etsy Shop!

Lynnderella Boy-Girl Party that I won in Traci's 3000 Follower Giveaway and was sent to me from Llarowe.

Lynnderella Snow Angel that I won in the Berry Polished Nail Art Contest!

Whimsical Ideas By Pam's Seuss that I purchased from Pam's Facebook page.

Kiss Art polish, Cult Nails Wicked Fast, Nostalgics Duckie, Blane, Andie, and Pretty & Polished Cryptid that I received in a swap with Marnie from Ambiance Shop.

China Glaze Virtual Violet, Techno Teal, and Hi Def that I purchased from Gina at My Dirty Little Obsessions.

Avon Sizzling Sky, OPIs Black Onxy and Alpine Snow that I purchased from Ashley Is PolishAddicted's Blogsale.

Funky Fingers Teal Scales, OPIs Planks a Lot, Sparrow Me The Drama, and mini Austin-tatious Turquoise that I purchased from Cas at The Mani-Louges blogsale.

The Zoya Surf Collection(apparently Kimber was being shy for the picture oops!) that I purchased directly from Zoya.

Alter Ego Armed Forces Vet and Penny Pincher from Cynthia's new Storenvy shop!

Phew! That was a ton! As you can see, I've used most of them already so yay for using some untrieds! I have some more to show you in the upcoming weeks so stay tuned! What's your favorite of my new polishes? Thanks for reading!

Alter Ego Armed Forces Vet!

Hello readers! I am so excited! If you are on my Facebook page as well, you would have seen my postings about my friend, Cynthia's, new nail polish store: Alter Ego Nail Enamel. I was so excited when I was able to purchase and my order came today!!

I'm showing my favorite of her polishes today- Armed Forces Vet! As my husband is in the Army and is technically an "Armed Forces Vet" I couldn't resist this polish. But aside from the name, the small metallic red, iridescent white, holographic blue & holographic silver glitters were calling my name. Seems like the perfect glitter for 4th of July!!


I hadn't gotten to try out my Zoya Reva from a haul a bit ago so it seemed like the perfect red base for this mani! 

A sunny picture. Look at the holo blue and silver showing on the pinky!

A shady picture so you can see the different colored glitters a bit better.

Close up

I used:

Base coat of Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of Zoya Reva

1 coat of Alter Ego Armed Forces Vet on my accent nail

Makeup sponge and Armed Forces Vet to do the gradient glitter tips

2 coats of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

Would you believe that is only one of Armed Forces Vet coat over Reva on the accent nail? This is nice and densely packed glitter! The base is a bit on the thicker side but it wasn't hard to work with and it just made getting lots of glitter on easier. I am loving this mani!

Please visit Cynthia's online polish store to see what others she has available! You won't be dissapointed! You can find her shop here: http://alterego.storenvy.com/collections/69167-all-products

What do you think? What are you favorites in her shop? Thanks for reading!

Zoya Surf Collection Gradient + Stamping!

Hello readers! My entire Zoya Surf Collection came yesterday and I couldn't pick just one to use for my mani... so, I decided to use them ALL. They are all so gorgeous!! I can't wait to get some of the Beach collection.

I have never done a horizontal gradient but am really loving it!! 

Just look at how pretty they all are in the bottles together!!

I used: Orly Nail Defense

Torn up makeup sponge pieces to do a gradient in this order: Rory, Kimber, Myrta, Meg, Zuza, Carly, and then back around to Rory, Kimber, and Myrta. 

Cult Nails Wicked Fast Top Coat to smooth out the bumpy gradient texture.

Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and MASH Plate m63 for the stamp design.

Cult Nails Wicked Fast

What do you think? Do you have any of these new Zoya Surf colors? If you are new to Zoya, don't forget about their new account promotion! If you don't have a Zoya account yet, you can click HERE and sign up to get a free polish with your first order! If you want to get free shipping, all you need to do is pay for 2 more polishes(so 3 total, one is free) and then your order will ship for free as well!! Such an awesome deal!

Also, (especially for those of you that already have accounts) Zoya just announced their Earth Day Promotion for this weekend! You can find all of the details on their blog here: http://zoyanailpolish.blogspot.com/2012/04/its-back-earth-day-zoya-nail-polish.html

Basically, they are giving you a way to safely dispose of old polishes that you no longer like. They will let you order their polishes for half off($4 a bottle!) with a minimum order of 6 polishes(max of 24), and then you will send them some of your old polishes(The bottles you send in cannot be Zoya, Qtica or Nocti polishes) that you want to get rid of. Pretty good deal!! And a great thing to help the environment! This is only for Saturday and Sunday of this weekened(21-22).

What do you think? Will you be creating a new Zoya account and/or participating in the Earth Day Promo? Thanks for reading!

Tronica and A-England Comparisons!

Hello readers!! I don't often do comparison posts but after seeing the 3 colors of China Glaze Tronica polishes I got the other day, I realized they were similar to my 3 A-Englands! Apparently I have a thing for teals, blues, and purples. Haha. As my friend Ashley from Ashley Is PolishAddicted pointed out, you wouldn't have possibly guessed that from my blog header or page colors.

China Glaze Hi Def, A-England Tristam, China Glaze Virtual Violet, A-England Lady Of The Lake, China Glaze Techno Teal, and A-England Saint George.

In the bottles, the only ones that seem very different are the 2 teals right? Well look at how different they all are on the nail!

First up we have China Glaze Hi Def and A-England Tristam:

Index and ring finger: 2 coats of ChG Hi Def, middle and pinky: 2 coats of A-E Tristam.

Look how light the China Glaze transfers onto the nail! I was shocked when putting that one on. It seems that the China Glaze got lighter than the bottle and the A-England may have even gotten darker. They both have scattered holographic particles as well. At least they look pretty together!

Next up we have China Glaze Virtual Violet and A-England Lady Of The Lake:

Index and ring finger: 2 coats of ChG Virtual Violet, middle and pinky: 2 coats of A-E Lady Of The Lake.

Again, the China Glaze is much lighter than the bottle! Seems like China Glaze got sneaky with these Tronicas. Both of these have a good amount of scattered holographic particles and were gorgeous to see in the sun!

Our last comparison. China Glaze Techno Teal and A-England Saint George(2 of my most recent favorites):

Index and ring finger: 2 coats of ChG Techno Teal, middle and pinky: 2 coats of A-E Saint George.

This one wasn't that big of a surprise but I really wanted to see them together. They are just so gorgeous!!

As for some more information on comparing: the A-Englands had a much better formula. They all wanted to be 1 coaters but St. George is the only one that could possibly be a one coater for me. The China Glazes definitely needed 2 coats and they had some dragging if you tried to go back over a wet spot. That being said, I am still so glad I have all of these in my collection. They are beautiful and I love the scattered holo added into these colors to give them that bit of extra "jazz."

If you are looking for these, the A-Englands can still be purchased from the Llarowe website or directly from  the A-England site. The China Glazes, however, will be harder for you to get your hands on. Ebay and blog sales will be your best bet for finding them. 

What do you think? Any other comparison posts you'd like to see? Thanks for reading!

Knocked Up Nails: Mint Chip At Midnight

Hello readers! I have a new polish to show you today from an exciting new brand! Knocked Up Nails is a new polish company marketed to pregnant nail polish lovers! I've seen a few people asking about them in the Facebook nail polish community this past week so I am so happy to be able to review and share more info with you.

Knocked Up Nails polishes are 4-free. They don't contain toluene, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate, or camphor. They are also cruelty free(CF) and made in the USA. Although these polishes are marketed to the pregnant crowd, but are also safe for allergy suffers, cancer patients, and children. Who doesn't want less chemicals in their nail polish?

As you all remember if you read my post back in February, I am pregnant right now with our 2nd child! So of course I would love looking into safer alternatives for my nail polish habit to make it safer on my son. I also would feel better using this polish brand on my soon-to-be-4 year old daughter.

 There are 20 different colored polishes available, as well as a base/top coat. They have the cutest polish names!! Some of my favorites are Craving A Creamsicle, Mint Chip At Midnight, Knocked Up & Naked, and O-Blue-GYN. You can see the polishes and list of names in the photo below. Here is the link to the polish page on the Knocked Up Nails website for more info on each one.

I am going to show you Mint Chip At Midnight! "Mama’s love a little mint chip at midnight – right out of the carton and on their fingertips!" This is listed as a mint green creme polish, but while applying it seemed more like a "squishy" creme to me. It needed 3 coats to even out and be fully opaque for me, but it was so super shiny! I really like it! Would you believe the swatch photo below is without top coat? It's a bit less blue toned than I would have expected for a mint icecream color, but I really like the color on me!

I just love the bottle logo!

Look at that shine! No topcoat! Such a pretty color. 

And because you all know me, I can't leave a color(even a pretty color) alone on my nails for long! How could I not want to do some kind of mint chip ice cream design with this polish? 

I added one coat of Nubar Black Polka Dot to make the chocolate chips in my ice cream. For the accent nail I did 2 coats of OPI Happy Anniversary over Mint Chip At Midnight, OPI Wooden Shoe Like To Know? for the cone and then Knocked Up Nails Mint Chip At Midnight with Nubar Black Polka Dot again on the icecream scoop. Cult Nails Wicked Fast topped each nail after that.

A little closeup of my icecream cone. 

One more picture for you. My friend Charlotte suggested I do a belly shot picture with my nails for this post. This is Knocked Up Nails we are talking about! :)

27 week belly.

All in all, I enjoyed using this polish! The names and brand are so adorable and I love that they are 4 free and safer than other polishes. Even though this color needed 3 coats, the application wasn't tricky and it dried to a super shiny finish. What do you think about Knocked Up Nails?

Knocked Up Nails polishes retail for $10 each and can be found here at their online site: http://www.knockedupnails.com/. They are also on Facebook, so make sure to "Like" their page for updated information and upcoming promotions.

Thanks for reading!

*This polish was sent from the company for me to review with my honest and unbiased opinion. For more information, see my disclosure tab.