Born Pretty Striping Tape Mani!

Hello readers! I have another awesome product from The Born Pretty Store to share with you today! This time I have a set of 12 rolls of striping tape. I've been wanting to try striping tape for a while now and I can see why everyone loves it!

You can use striping tape to add to your manicure, or you can use them as a tape line to paint over and peel back up to reveal the bottom color underneath. I'm showing both methods in this mismatched mani so you can see that there are tons of possibilities!

The index and ring fingers had striping tape over the base color and after painting the top color, I peeled the tape back off to reveal the design(make sure you peel off the tape as soon as you are done painting the top color. You want the top color to still be wet so only the tape peels back up). The middle and pinky fingers just have the striping tape added to the design.

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of Zoya Harlow

Zoya Savita

Born Pretty Store Striping Tape

You can see the different colored tape rolls

You can see how thick the rolls are of tape! I'll never run out!

And, of course because Zoya Harlow and Savita are matte polishes, I had to try top coat to see how it looked. I personally like the matte version better, though.

As for the striping tape, I just love it. I couldn't believe how thick the rolls were of tape when they arrived, I doubt I'll run out any time soon. I love the different colors as well. It makes it easy to add to a lot of nail designs. It's so easy to use! You just unroll the tape a bit, cut a piece, and then stick down to your nail. I then used cuticle nippers to cut close to the side of the nail so there wasn't any hanging off. Although they stuck down fine with my matte polishes, I would probably use a top coat to seal them in for longer use.

You can buy this set at the Born Pretty Store online, with free worldwide shipping! Here is the link to the striping tape, it's with the tons of other nail art accessories:

http://www.bornprettystore.com/color-line-nail-striping-tape-design-lines-p-231.html

Also, my old coupon code is now upped to 7% off instead of the previous 5% off! That code is JACJ61. I've added this new banner to my ride side bar of the blog so you will always have it accessable for any Born Pretty Store purchases you make!

What do you think of the striping tape or design I did? Do you have striping tape yet? Will you be getting some? Thanks for reading!

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

MASH Matte Top Coat Swatch and Review!

Hello readers! I have an exciting new review for you today! MASH just released a matte top coat and I received it in the mail today!

If you are unfamiliar with matte top coats, I'll explain a bit. It's a clear top coat that can be applied over any polish to take away the shine and make it look like a matte polish! Instead of buying a ton of matte polishes, you can always get a matte top coat and make any polish look matte!

My favorite thing to apply a matte top coat over is glitter! That's what I decided to do for today's post. I have done 2 fingers with a shiny top coat and 2 fingers with this MASH Matte Top Coat so you can see the difference!

Index and Ring fingers have a normal shiny top coat. Middle and Pinky nails have the MASH Matte Top Coat.

Close up of the matte middle nail.

Close up of the shiny index finger.

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of Milani Black Swift

1 coat of Sonoma Nail Art Sonoma Sunset

1 coat of MASH Matte Top Coat or 1 coat of NYC Quick Dry Top Coat

As you can see, using a matte top coat gives a neat look to an already gorgeous mani! I love how it adds versatility!

The MASH Matte Top Coat applied so easily and dried quickly to a nice matte finish! It's not so thick that it makes your mani look cloudy, which is a big plus in my book! I've had that issue with other matte top coats before. It comes in a 0.50 fl oz bottle and is 3-free. You can get your own from the MASH Nails website here. It retails for $7.99 USD. 

What do you think? Will you be purchasing this new matte top coat? Thanks for reading!

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

New BLOG SALE!!

Here's a quick post to tell you that I added a ton of polishes to my blogsale tab this afternoon! Click on the image to go there(or click the tab at the top!)

Flowery Water Marble!

Good morning! It's been a long time since I've done a water marble and I decided to try again last night.  It's pretty time consuming, at least 30 minutes a hand for me including clean up, which is why I don't do it that often. I have to admit, though, that I love the results of a successful water marble even taking the time into account.

I need to figure out new designs to do with water marbling because this is my "default" design. I even did a tutorial on it a while back, so check it out here!

I can't say enough good things about Milani White on the Spot. I always do a base color of white nails before dipping into the water marble to make the thin layers of color pop. Milani White on the Spot is a one coat white and it was so nice to use for water marbling as a base! No more 2-3 coats of white and waiting for them to dry before doing the water marble design.

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

1 coat of Milani White On The Spot

Watermarbled with:

OPI Alpine Snow

China Glaze Custom Kicks

China Glaze Traffic Jam

China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le

Top coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

I love how the Secret Peri-wink-le turned more purple toned because it was marbled next to the pink! What do you think? I only had to redo 2 nails out of all 10 so I call that a success! Also, I find that for me, taping around the nail causes air pockets between the edge of the nail and the tape and the design doesn't always stick to the sides of the nail. So I went with no tape this time and just did the cleanup with qtips and acetone after. Thanks for reading!

Saint George Gets An Attitude Adjust-Mint!

Good morning, readers!! I have another Lynnderella to show you today, but instead of just showing a swatch, I added some nail art that I am LOVING!

Ever since I saw this mani from The Nailasaurus in the Cult Nails contest, I knew I wanted to try it one day. Well, today ended up being the day and I can't stop looking at my nails! It's so simple and yet one of my favorite stamping manis to date.

First, let's see the subtle beauty that is Lynnderella Attitude Adjust-mint. This is 2 coats over 2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet. I really love the shimmer in this polish. You may need to enlarge the picture to see the shimmer on them.

And onto the added nail art that made me love this mani so much more:

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

Orly Nail Armor

2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet

2 coats of Lynnderella Attitude Adjust-Mint

1 coat of NYC Quick Dry Top Coat

Mash Plate m57 and A-England Saint George for the stamp design

A-England Saint George for the stripe on the side of the nail

1 coat of NYC Quick Dry

What do you think? I had no idea that Saint George would stamp SO well. I need to try out my other A-Englands for stamping soon! I also really want to try to add things to stamp designs like this because I love how this looks so much! Thanks for reading

Milani Spring 2012 Polishes!

Hello readers! I have some more Milani polishes to show you today! These are more new colors from this spring and they are so gorgeous! All swatches below are shown with top coat.

First, I'm showing one of my favorites: Sail Away. This is a gorgeous dark cornflower blue packed with silver shimmer! And the best part? This was ONE COAT! I really need more one coat polishes. This was very easy to apply and at one coat, it's definitely a winner in my book.

Next, we have one that surprised me: Silver Stilettos. I don't have a silver foil and didn't realize what I was missing until I put this on! This was 2 coats and was really easy to work with. I can't wait to use it for gradients and other nail art. It really is stunning!

Onto the problem child of the set: Juno. It is a baby pink with the slightest golden pink shimmer that I don't even think my camera picked up. It was a bit harder to apply, needing 3 coats to full coverage of all areas.

Here is another of my favorites: Mint Candy. This was the base of Haze Glaze Flutter in this post. It has a gorgeous shimmer and applies very easily. This is 2 coats.

And for the last of my favorites: Key West. This polish has quite the hype around the nail polish community and now I can see why! It's a gorgeous teal foil that really makes me think of summer beach visits. This is 2 coats. You may have seen this as a base color for one of the Jordana glitters I posted a few days ago!

The only other 1 coater in the bunch: Beach Front. This was also a base color for a Jordana glitter in my post a couple of days ago. A gorgeous sky blue with silver shimmer. If you are careful, it covers in one coat. That is all you are seeing in the picture below. It's on the thicker side so that's why I say "if you are careful." Very pretty and I like that the shimmers set it apart from my other light blues in my collection.

Lastly, this is Orchidia. Again, you got a sneak peek during my Jordana glitter post of this one being used as a base. This has the same silver shimmer in it that Beach Front and Sail Away have, but it's not as packed so it's more subtle. It was easier to work with as well, since it was thinner. This is 2 coats and a gorgeous light purple.

What do you think? Which are your favorites? Any that you will be picking up now? I still have a couple more Milani Spring 2012 polish posts to show you soon so keep an eye out for those. 

Milani can be found at some local US stores such as Target, CVS, and some Walmarts. You can also find these on the Milani Cosmetics website.  They retail for $4.49 each. 

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

KBShimmer Proud Peacock!

Good morning, readers! I have a new indie brand to show you today! I was lucky enough to snag both Proud Peacock and Shipwreck from the KBShimmer restock last week and couldn't wait to try them out! Seriously fast shipping as well, I ordered on Wednesday night and they were delivered Saturday morning!

I went with Proud Peacock first and it's just gorgeous! This was 3 coats because its a sheer base and next time I think I'll try a base color so I'm not using so many coats of this pretty polish.

Look at all of those different glitter shapes, sizes, and colors! So pretty!

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

3 coats of KBShimmer Proud Peacock

1 coat of NYC quick dry top coat

What do you think? Were you able to get any of the KBShimmer polishes during last weeks opening? You can go "like" the facebook page to keep up with info on the polish. Also, this is the etsy shop(and she has tons of cool bath stuff available right now!). Thanks for reading!

Jordana Glitters Swatches and Review!

Hello readers! I have an awesome set of glitters to show you today! If you follow my Facebook Page, you would have seen my picture I posted on the 10th that all of the Jordana Glitters are now available on Jordanacosmetics.com! I have 6 to show you today and I really like them!

I've done base colors on 4, and then 2 of them are built up on their own. All swatches are shown with one layer of top coat.

First up we have Confetti. Chunky magenta hex glitter in a clear base. This is one coat over Milani Key West. I had to push them around a bit but didn't have a hard time getting them onto the brush at all. Love the color combo possibilities with this one!

Next, we have Outer Space. A clear base with fine blue glitters and chunky gold and pink hexes. This is 2 coats over Milani Beach Front. I think this is my favorite out of the 6 because of the unique color combo of the glitters and the different sizes.

Red Flash is next. It has very fine red glitters as well as chunky hexes in a clear base. It's much less orange toned than this picture, for some reason my camera wanted it more golden. This is one coat over Milani Morning Coffee. As you can see, it's very dense for one coat! Great coverage.

This is Galaxy. It's the gunmetal grey version of Red Flash. The same fine glitters paired with chunky hexes in a clear base. This is one coat over Milani Orchidia. I've been wanting a layering glitter of this color for a while now and am really excited about this one! I love it!

This is Purple Party. 2 coats on it's own, its very dense and easy to work with. When I was looking at the bottle, I thought it was only fuchsia and silver glitters but when I was loading these pictures, I realized that it had so many other colors hiding in there! Very pretty!

Lastly, we have Carnival. This is 3 coats on its own and very pretty! A navy blue jelly base with small blue and chunky green, blue, and silver hexagon glitters. It was easy to apply.

And if you saw the swatch of Carnival and thought it looked familiar...

Seems very close to the pricey Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe! Below I've done a comparison:

Jordana Carnival on the index and ring fingers, DL ATU on the middle and pinky fingers! The Jordana only took 3 coats while it was 4 for the Deborah Lippmann to get to full coverage. I LOVE when there are $3 alternatives to $18 polishes!! 

So what do you think of these new glitters? I really love them! I know you can find Jordana polishes at most Kmart stores, and of course these and more are all available at jordanacosmetics.com. They retail for $2.99!

What's your favorite? Thanks for reading!

*These polishes were sent to me to review with my honest opinion.  

Today is Holo Day!!

Good morning, readers!! A group of nail friends and I decided to make today Holo Day! We are all posting manis using holo polishes and you can see the rest of them at the bottom of this post!

I decided to go with scattered holo polishes because I hadn't used all of my new Tronica polishes yet and they were begging to be used! They are great for nail art as well, I decided to try out this design from Kayla Shevonne! 

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of China Glaze Hi Def

striping brush and dotting tools with Virtual Violet and Techno Teal

1 coat of NYC Top Coat

What do you think? Check out the rest of my friends' Holo Day manis!!

Dandy Nails Wonderwall + Stamping!

Hello readers! I have an exciting new indie polish to share with you today! Dandy Nails recently released 5 new glitter colors and this was my favorite so I was so glad to be able to order one when her shop opened!

Wonderwall is a clear base with teeny matte white and periwinkle glitters. I am a sucker for periwinkle so I knew I had to have this one! I wanted to do something different with Wonderwall so I was looking at some of my new polishes to get a different base color to contrast with the white and Periwinkle. I chose to use OPI Houston We Have A Purple so the periwinkle and blue glitters popped. I also used a black stamp design to add a bit more. I don't love this look, the black seemed too harsh for me, but at least it was interesting.

The sun wasn't out when I took the pics, though. :(

Look at those glitters!

I used:

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of OPI Houston We Have A Purple

2 coats of Dandy Nails Wonderwall

1 coat of NYC Quick Dry Top Coat

Sinful Colors Black on Black and Mash Plate m73

Top coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

What do you think? Wonderwall is definitely the best part of this mani. The hubby and a few friends told me it looks kind of like stained glass with the black stamp on it. 

Don't forget to check out Sandy's Etsy shop and Facebook page to try and get your hands on this and more of her awesome polishes! Thanks for reading!

Born Pretty Stamping Plate Review!

Hello readers! Time for another double post day! I have a large stamping plate from the Born Pretty Store to review for you! I took lots of pictures and I'll explain along the way.

I requested plate CK-04 and it can be found here among other nail art tools and accessories on the Born Pretty Store website. This is what it looks like when you open it:

It has a nice blue plastic protective film to protect the plate during shipping. Don't forget to remove it before you try to use it! 

A nice addition compared to the round plate I have from Born Pretty, they have a backing on it now so you can't easily cut yourself on the edges!

Here you can see all of the different images on the plate! 42 images.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the plate was that the full nail images seemed a good deal smaller than the other plates that I am used to stamping with. So I did a test on paper with black polish. As you can see below, the middle is from this plate, these images are much smaller than other plates(you could lay this on it's side and do a double on top and it would be just a teeny bit bigger than the normal image size of the other plates!). I'm unsure of why they are so much smaller than their round plate images(shown on the right) but it really narrows down who is able to use them when it comes to nail width and length.

Bundle Monster 2nd Set plate image, Born Pretty CK-04 image, Born Pretty round m79 plate image. 

Now, time to try them out on my nails to see how the smaller size worked out: 

At first glance, not so bad. I found that if I was really careful and straight on my stamping, it was the perfect size for my pinky nail.

Onto the close ups: 

As you can see, the image didn't fit my index finger. I really love this image! Kind of sad that it didn't fit. It stamped really well, though!

The image on my middle finger looked pretty neat because it wasn't that noticeable that it was too small for the nail. just looked like the stars and arrows were coming from one side. 

I didn't do a very good job transferring this image but it's another that wouldn't look as bad if you put it on part of your nail since it doesn't have "edges."

My pinky fits these images perfectly. I just have to be very careful to get the image on straight so the sides aren't showing on the base color. 

I didn't even bother trying to stamp my thumb because even the bigger plates shown in the comparison don't always fit my thumb.

 So all in all, these plates stamp really well, but the images are just too small for most nails. You could get creative with them like Lindsey from Neverland Nail Blog and do parts of images on the nails instead of trying to use them as full images. 

I'm a little unsure why these images are so much smaller than the other Born Pretty plates that I have but I felt you should all know that before you buy them if you don't have teeny nails. I'd just go for their rounded plates if you were wanting to order from them.

As far as Born Pretty goes, they have great customer service and FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING! You can't beat that. They have tons of other nail art accessories and tools so go check out what you want to order!

WAIT, there is more! I have a 5% off coupon code for you to use on your order! It's JACJ61. It's on the sidebar of my blog as well if you ever want to come back and find it to use!

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

Haze Glaze LE Spring Color Mani!

Good morning, readers! Time to start using some of that awesome nail mail I showed yesterday! When I saw the new spring Haze Glaze colors that were releasing 2 weeks ago, I knew I had to get my hands on these 2. And let me tell you, they did not disappoint! Flutter and Blossoms are dusty jelly bases with tons of different glitters. Flutter even has BUTTERFLY shaped glitters! How awesome is that?!

I knew that I'd need some base colors so I wouldn't have to use too many coats of these beauties, so I went digging in my stash and found 2 Milanis that seemed good for the job. They were both brighter than the jelly bases in the Haze Glazes but that was toned down once the mani was finished.

Milani Orchidia, Haze Glaze Blossoms and Flutter, Milani Mint Candy.

I was suprised at how much I liked the 2 colors at one time. I tried 2 accent nails and like that much better as well!

Look at the different glitters!

Awkward thumb pic to show how cool the 2 accent nails look together! 

I used:
Orly Nail Defense
2 coats of each Milani base colors
2 coats of each Haze Glaze
2 coats of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

The butterflies in Flutter weren't that hard to get out of the bottle, just needed a few dips of the brush for some nails to get lucky and have a butterfly on the brush to apply. I have very rounded nails so it needed 2 coats of normal top coat to sink the edges of the wings but the jelly base helped a lot with that. Flutter was much more sheer than Blossoms.

Blossoms was a more opaque base that didn't even need 2 coats. You can see how much more glitter there was on the nail as well. I am definitely loving these polishes--my very first Haze Glazes! I can see myself buying more in the future!

So what do you think? The glitters in these make both polishes LE so make sure you check out Hazel's Facebook and Etsy shop to see when you can grab your own before it's too late. Thanks for reading!

Nail Mail Post!

Hello readers, ready for a 2nd post of the day? If you didn't hear the news, Adventures In Acetone is now on a custom domain!! You can find us at adventuresinacetone.com now instead of blogspot!

 I mentioned a few days ago that I had some nice nail mail waiting for me when I got back from vacation. Now I can show you!

First up, she lovely Sheila at Pointless Cafe was so sweet and sent these OPI sorbets[Big Hair...Big Nails and Houston We Have A Purple] my way(and included some of my favorite Julep scrub)! I was wanting more to add to my Do You Think I'm Tex-y that I already have and love for jelly sandwiches. THANK YOU, Sheila, for being so kind!!

Next up, another sweet lady I've met through the nail polish world, Ana, offered to order Lynnderella Attitude Adjust-Mint for me! She even threw in this NYC quick dry top coat! I've wanted to try it, so THANK YOU SO MUCH, ANA!

I was able to snag these Haze Glaze polishes from Hazel's spring line and love them! They are both LE and I'll be showing them to you tomorrow! Flutter has butterfly glitters in it!! 

I ordered Zoya Arizona from Bloom.com. It's my first of the Beach collection and I can't wait to try it!

As you saw in my post a couple of days ago, I was able to snag Pretty & Polished Sand Art! If you missed my post, you can find it here. I love it!

And last but certainly NOT least, I was able to buy one of Sandy's new Dandy Nails polishes! Wonderwall was my favorite out of the new 5 and I'm so glad I got my hands on it! Can't wait to try it out for you!

That's all of my new mail! A big thanks to all of the lovely ladies I received mail from. I can't wait to try out these beauties for you all! What do you want to see next? Thanks for reading!