piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2012!!

Hello readers!! I have a super exciting post for you today! All over the nail blog world today, you will be seeing tons of posts for piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2012! All of their new shades are available for purchase today and I have 2 to show to you!

piCture pOlish is an Australian company that also sells Ozotic brand polishes on their site! They have a network of members all over the world that carry their polishes so you don't have to pay shipping from Australia, which is really great! They are also one of my favorite brands and I was so excited to be able to participate in this years Blog Fest!

I was lucky enough to receive these two gorgeous shades: Demeter and Tease! Check out the bottle shots before I go into more detail about each:

I just love the little sayings on the front of each bottle!

piCture pOlish even has these awesome QR code labels on each bottle! Scan them with your smart phones and you will be brought right to piCture pOlish online or the Network Member where the bottle was purchased!

First up I have Demeter! This is a special Holographic Shade from the Collaboration Collection and was jointly created by the Canadian Network Member, Katie, from Harlow & Co. This shade is exclusive to piCture pOlish online and Harlow & Co. It's a gorgeous brown with gold holographic flakes that is stunning inside and outdoors! This is 2 easy coats with top coat.

The holographic effect is more noticeable in person than in my photos.

Next I have Tease. This is a new Mesh Shade and will be available at piCture pOlish online as well as through all Network Members. It's a bright barbie pink packed with teeny silver glitter. I loved this more than I expected to once it was on my nails. They were so sparkly and seemed to glow. This is 2 easy coats with topcoat.

I had some inspiration while wearing Tease for some simple nail art. I wanted to bring out the silver glitter in Tease so I decided to do gradient glitter tips with teeny silver glitter! 

I used Ulta Sequins and a torn makeup sponge for the gradient glitter tips.

What do you think of the new polish shades? Which is your favorite? I love them and am so excited to see all of the other Blog Fest 2012 posts today. I'm anxious to see the other new colors! 

Thank you so much to the ladies at piCture pOlish for letting me be a part of Blog Fest 2012! 

piCture pOlish can be found:

online at www.picturepolish.com.au 

on Facebook piCture pOlish - a week on your tips never on your hips!

on Twitter http://twitter.com/picturepolish

on Pinterest http://pinterest.com/picturepolish/

Here is a listing of all of the Network Members for all over the world: http://www.picturepolish.com.au/information.php?info_id=11

*I was sent these polishes to review with my honest opinion.

Naild'it Summer Lovin Water!

Hello readers! I actually have a real post for you this afternoon! Thanks for sticking around during my absence and understanding that my posts won't be as frequent now that I am a happy momma to TWO kids. Owen is doing great and we are getting the hang of it around here, thank you all for the warm wishes toward him. Hailey is being an awesome big sister as well--a perfect little helper!

Okay, onto the polish! Andrea from Naild'it on Etsy sent me this gorgeous glitter to review and share with you guys. I love it so much! This is from the new Summer Lovin trio and is a wonderful mix of different colored glitters. As described by Andrea on the Etsy listing: "Summer Lovin Water is a loaded glitter nail polish with blues, teals, aquas, whites, greens, purples, blacks, with blue hearts and hexes." 

After seeing a few different base colors on the Etsy listing photos for Summer Lovin Water, I decided to go for something different. I decided on piCture pOlish Wisteria with accent nails of China Glaze Starboard. I like how they match their corresponding glitters and the blues stand out so much!

Look at the blue heart!

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of each piCture pOlish Wisteria and China Glaze Starboard

2 coats of Naild'it Summer Lovin Water 

1 coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

I just love the combo of colors and glitters in Water! It applied easily and was packed enough that one coat would have covered it. But we know how much I love glitter, so two coats for me! All in all, I definitely love this polish and I'll be adding some more Naild'it polishes to my wishlist! What do you think?

Andrea's Naild'it Etsy Shop can be found here, her full size(0.5 oz/15ml) bottles retail for $8.50.

*This polish was sent for me to review with my honest opinion.

Blogaversary Giveaway Winner Announcement!

Hello readers! Today is officially my 1 year blogaversary! Welcome to all of my new followers and thank you to my long time readers as well!

As many of you have guessed, we did indeed welcome baby Owen into the world this week! It's a big adjustment to add a newborn to the family so I can't promise when the next blog post will be(I'm currently typing one handed as I feed Owen lol) but once we start getting some regular sleep around here, I'll be getting back to my nails and posting.

Onto the winner for a $20 gift card to Born Pretty!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


CONGRATS TO SARAH C!

I've emailed the winner and she will need to respond in 48 hours. Thank you all so much for entering!

Whale Nails 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea!

Hello readers! I have another Sonoma Nail Art polish to showcase today! This one is 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and super gorgeous! My friend Kim at The Ides Of Polish recently wore it with a base color of Manglaze ILF and I loved the combo! So, I went diving into my stash trying to find anything similar to the Manglaze. I chose Zoya Zuza and I love how they looked together! And, because it was a sea themed glitter polish, I wanted to do a little bit of nail art on an accent nail for fun.

Cute little whale close up!

Just look at the gorgeous glitter combos in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea! LOVE!

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

1 coat of OPI Bubble Bath(trying to avoid the awful staining from Zoya Zuza I got last time)

2 coats of Zoya Zuza

2 coats of Sonoma Nail Art 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Cult Nails Wicked Fast

Whale Accent:

Milani Beach Front and a striper brush

Milani Black Swift

Milani White On The Spot and 2 dotting tools

What do you think? I was originally planning a whale on each finger but decided that I didn't want to cover up the gorgeous 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea that much so went with one whale. I think it works. 

Here is the Etsy Store for Sonoma Nail Art as well as the Facebook Page to keep up with shop openings and sales updates. She's closed up shop now so keep your eyes peeled for the next opening! They go FAST! I was lucky enough to have my friend, Ana, going to visit the store in Sonoma County where the polish is also sold and she picked this up for me! Thanks for reading!

My Sister's Harry Potter Nails!

Hello readers! I have a fun post today for you. My youngest sister, Chloe, is staying with us until Owen is born(insta-babysitter for Hailey when we go into labor!) and today we thought it would be fun to do her nails. She is a huge Harry Potter fan and was googling for Harry Potter nail art and came across this one from the Nailasaurus. We decided to try and recreate it! We didn't have the stamp for the diagonal stripes so I just had to use my striper brush to freehand them. I think they turned out pretty good, though!

Thumb has the Deathly Hallows symbol, Index has the Gryffindor colors, Middle has the Slytherin colors, Ring has the Ravenclaw colors, and Pinky has the Hufflepuff colors.  

I used:

Thumb: Milani Black Swift base color

             Milani White on the Spot for the design

Index: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Wined up

           Milani Yellow Whiz

Middle: OPI Jade Is The New Black

             Pure Ice Silver Mercedes

Ring: OPI Blue My Mind

         China Glaze Passion

Pinky: Milani Yellow Whiz

           Milani Black Swift

Top coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

Also, I received the Influenster Mom Voxbox a couple of weeks ago and inside were the imPRESS press on fake nails so we decided to try them out. Could you tell her nails were fakes in the photo above? Check out the steps:

They were surprisingly easy to apply, cut, file, and even paint over! No nail glue required, they have sticky backs! I'm curious to see how long they last on her nails while she is visiting. My favorite part about the nails were how flexible the plastic was--nothing like those hard fake nails that you can get at the drugstore. It made for a much more realistic nail. Have you tried these?

What do you think of her nails? Thanks for reading!

Sonoma Sunset!

Hello readers! I finally took off my 4th of July nails this morning(5 days later!) and decided to try out a pretty purple combo. I bought OPI Planks a Lot during Casandra from The Mani-louges blog sale a while back and hadn't tried it out yet. It seemed like a nice base color for the different glitters in Sonoma Sunset and I love how they turned out together!

Better angle without the glare on the glitters.

The blue shimmer in the clear base of Sonoma Sunset is my favorite part--I had no idea it was there until I wore it for the first time! 

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

3 coats of OPI Planks a Lot

2 coats of Sonoma Nail Art Sonoma Sunset

1 coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

What do you think of this combo? I love all of the different colored/shaped glitters in Sonoma Sunset!! This is definitely a favorite of my indie polish stash. 

Here is the Etsy Store for Sonoma Nail Art as well as the Facebook Page to keep up with shop openings and sales updates. She's closed up shop now so keep your eyes peeled for the next opening! They go FAST! I was lucky enough to have my friend, Ana, going to visit the store in Sonoma County where the polish is also sold and she picked this up for me!

Do you have Sonoma Sunset? What are some of the best base color combos you've used or seen used? Thanks for reading!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July, readers! I was unsure of what kind of mani I wanted to do for the holiday and then it hit me yesterday afternoon and I'm so glad I did it! I haven't done a splatter mani in a long time and I forgot how fun they can turn out with the right color combinations! And, this didn't take that long for me to do, either!

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of Zoya Posh(favorite red polish EVER)

OPI Alpine Snow and Blue My Mind for the splatter

An old pen barrel to blow through for the splatter effect

1 coat of CND Silver Sparkling

Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and my essence plate for the star stamp

Cult Nails Wicked Fast Top Coat

I think it will be perfect for our festivities today and fireworks tonight! What do you think? Have you ever done a splatter mani?

A group of friends of mine got together to do a collaborative mani day(today) so come see what Fourth of July designs my friends did as well:

Red and Gold Zig Zags!

Good morning, readers! I haven't been doing much nail art lately but felt inspired today! At first, I'd just wanted to try out my new Ozotic Elytra 530 over OPI I'm Not Really A Waitress. But, after seeing them together, I knew that adding some gold nail art would make me happier. At least stamping is a quick and easy nail art so it didn't take much time to do. (I'm 38 weeks pregnant today, and I find it hard to sit and do my nails for too long now, especially with anything involving nail art.)

Ozotic Elytra 530 is an awesome color shifting glitter. I'll try it over black or a darker color next time to see the full color shift, but this was more subtle and I liked it.

You can see a bit of the color shift in the glitter in this shot.

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of OPI I'm Not Really A Waitress

2 coats of Ozotic Elytra 530

China Glaze Passion and MASH Stamp plate m78

Cult Nails Wicked Fast

What do you think of this combo? Thanks for reading!

**DON'T FORGET TO ENTER MY BLOGAVERSARY GIVEAWAY!!**

The Prettiest Blue Glitter!

Good morning, readers! I think I saved the best of the three Not Too Polished polishes for last. This one is easily my favorite and I don't want to take it off, EVER. (I am a blue polish person, if you hadn't noticed). This is Bengal Fire from the July Limited Edition Firecracker Collection. It's a blue tinted base with royal multiglitters.

As you can see, there are glitters that aren't blue in the mix, but blue is the most prominent.

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of Not Too Polished Bengal Fire

1 coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

Would you believe how this is only 2 coats? Very pigmented jelly base and packed with glitter! I just love it and can't stop staring at my nails! It was easy to apply and is completely smooth with one coat of top coat. I really can't say enough good things about this polish. GREAT JOB, LIZ! 

Here is Liz' Not Too Polished Facebook Page as well as her Etsy shop for updates and purchasing. This is part of July's LE Firecracker collection so get it while you can! 

What do you think? Thanks for reading!

*This Polish was sent for me to review with my honest opinion.

Not Too Polished Dragonstone!

Good morning, readers! I have another polish from Not Too Polished to show you today! It's the other one from the Great Houses of Westeros Collection and it's just been released today! This is called Dragonstone! It's a black jelly base with different sized red glitters.

It's similar to Deborah Lippman Ruby Red Slippers, NYX Dorothy, Wet n Wild Behind Closed Doors, and Spoiled Ants In My Pants. But Dragonstone is the only one out of those with square red glitter instead of hex glitter! It's a great color combination!

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

3 coats of Not Too Polished Dragon Stone

1 coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

This did need 3 good coats to make the black base dark enough but it's so nice and squishy looking! I think one or 2 coats over a black base could get the same effect and you could save some of the Dragonstone that way. It was completely smooth with one coat of top coat! The red squares weren't too hard to get on the brush, either, as I didn't really have to "dig" them out but just dipped in the brush as usual.

Liz of Not Too Polished released this collection today! Go see the others from the Great Houses of Westeros Collection and get yours now! Here is the Not Too Polished Facebook Page as well as Liz' Etsy shop for updates and purchasing. 

What do you think? Thanks for reading!

*This polish was sent for me to review with my honest opinion.