Happy Halloween!!

Hello readers! Ready for my Halloween nails? I have only been able to do one Halloween nail design this year, but I love how it turned out! I asked the hubby for some help to come up with a nail design that was a little different than the common Halloween designs (candy corn, pumpkins, etc) and he ended up designing something on GIMP for me to try! A spooky tree, moon, and bats over a killer gradient! Love love love!

It was super hard to photograph so I have a few pics for you.

And because I am wearing this as a full mani for the holiday festivities, here is a kind of crappy shot of my right hand! SO hard to take pics with the opposite hand! Same gradient but I stamped on a house and some bats! 

I used:

Duri Rejuvacote

Base color of Zoya Reagan

Gradient with Zoya Reagan, Zoya Monica, and Milani Black Swift

Black Swift for the freehand tree and bats, as well as the stamped house and bats on the other hand.

Orly Lemonade for the moon.

Top coat of NYC Grand Central Station

What do you think? Show me what your Halloween nails on my Facebook Page today! Thanks for reading!

Green Comparison Post!

Hello readers! I have another easy comparison post for you! I recently was able to get the gorgeous Essie Mojito Madness from my dear friend Jen at My Polish Obsession. I thought I would compare it to some others to see how close it came to others in my stash!

Julep Leah, Essie Mojito Madness, Illamasqua Noble

2 coats of each

As you can see, Julep Leah is pretty close but has added shimmer. Illamasqua Nomad looked more similar in the bottle but definitely not on the nail. Yay!

Do you have any of these? Thanks for reading!

MORE Shimmer Polish Swatches!

Good morning, readers! Cindy from Shimmer Polish recently sent me an epic package with 17 more glitters to share with you! This is a spam post of 9 of them! Hope you enjoy!

Adrienne is a mixture of blue and gold glitters! There seems to be a tiny bit of other colored glitters thrown in as well! This is 3 coats on it's own, with one coat of Shimmer Glass top coat.

Brooklyn is next! It's mainly teal and bigger gold glitters, with smaller blue and purple glitters mixed in! I loved this one on so much more than I expected! It is more complex than my first look at the bottle and it's a really gorgeous color combo! Shown as 3 coats on it's own with one coat of Shimmer Glass top coat.

Onto Cristina. She's described as a "deep forest green with a hint of red and fuchsia." This is a little different than most Shimmer polishes because its mostly small glitters of the same size. This is 3 coats with one coat of Shimmer Glass top coat.

Erica is described as "crystal peridot glitter." This is such a pretty combination of colored glitters and I love it! It would look great over a green base! Shown below as 3 coats alone with one coat of Shimmer Glass top coat.

Julia makes me think of Cinderella's dress. Icy blue with holo glitter mixed in, so pretty! Shown as three coats alone with one coat of Shimmer Glass top coat. Another favorite of mine!

Kim is one of my favorites of this bunch! It's a gorgeous mix of blue and purple glitter! Shown as three coats alone with one coat of Shimmer Glass top coat.

SOO PRETTY!

Leslie is similar to Kim, but it has a more periwinkle tone with the lavender glitters instead of the deeper purples in Kim. This one was less dense than the others in this group. Three coats alone with one coat of Shimmer Glass top coat.

Strength is a charity polish and donations are made from each purchase to support PCOS. It's a gorgeous teal and silver glitter with big silver hearts mixed in. The silver hearts are the thickest heart glitter I have come across and therefore stick off the nail much more than I'm used to. This is the most dense of the set, shown below as only 2 coats with one coat of Shimmer Glass top coat over.

Lastly, we have Taylor. This is an interesting combo. It's a reddish purple tinted jelly base with greens, reds, blacks, and blurple colored small glitters. Shown with 3 coats and one coat of Shimmer Glass top coat.

What do you think of these 9 Shimmers? Which are your favorites and least favorites? If you've missed them, here are my other posts on Shimmer polishes:

Shimmer Round Up

Shimmer Spam

I have 8 more Shimmers to show you soon so keep an eye out for those!

Each bottle retails for $12 and you can even order a custom polish for $15! You can find that listing HERE in Cindy's Etsy Shop.

For more info and purchasing, here are Cindy's Shimmer Polish Contacts:

Shimmer Polish Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ShimmerPolish?ref=top_trail

Shimmer Polish Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ShimmerPolish

Shimmer Polish Blog: http://www.shimmyshimmer.com/

Overall Beauty Shop: http://www.overallbeauty.com/catalog/nails-brands-more-shimmer-nail-polish-c-193_255.html?osCsid=f97dc579d156bdc64c09f59d89ab43ee

Thank you for reading!

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

Butter London Slapper and Teal Comparison

Hello readers! I have a quick post for you tonight before I head to bed, yawn! I have Butter London Slapper  and then the teal comparison I did after I wore Slapper and thought it was similar to others in my stash.

Two coats of Butter London Slapper

Comparison of Essence Bella, Butter London Slapper, and Milani Fresh Teal

As you can see, Essence Bella is much more green than the other two. Milani Fresh Teal pulls more blue than Slapper but they are very similar that I doubt you would need both. Shown as 2 coats of each, Bella is the only one that has the potential to be a one coater. 

What do you think? Do you have any of these? Thanks for reading!

Illamasqua Fishtail Nails!

Good morning, readers! I recently got some new Illamasqua cremes from Sephora.com and couldn't decide which to wear, so I picked all three! I love how they look together!

Index: Noble, Ring: Nomad, Pinky: Cameo

I used:

Duri Rejuvacote

2-3 coats of each Illamasqua Noble, Nomad, and Cameo

1 coat of Poshe

What do you think? I love how it turned out, but the fishtail design nails are a bit too thick because these weren't one coat polishes so it took a few layers of each color swipe. I ended up denting a couple of them because they didn't fully dry. :( Next time, I'll do this design with one coat polishes. Thanks for reading!

*Here is a link to a fishtail tutorial at Lucy's Stash if you'd like to try your own: http://www.lucysstash.com/2012/06/fishtail-nail-art-manicure-with.html

Periwinkle Comparison Post

Hi readers! I've recently acquired some new polishes and after seeing them in person, I thought they looked similar to others in my stash. I've got 3 comparison posts planned to show you in the next week. Hopefully they will be helpful for you!

Today's comparison post is on periwinkles. I was wondering how close Butter London Sprog was to China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le before I got it in a swap and it turns out they are pretty close. I also recently got Zoya Jo and Illamasqua Cameo so I threw those into the comparison as well!

Butter London Sprog and Illamasqua Cameo are 2 coats, China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le and Zoya Jo are 3 coats, no top coat. As you can see, Sprog and Secret Peri-wink-le are very close, with Sprog a hair lighter. Sprog had a much better formula(and should, for the price being about double the China Glaze) out of the two. I like that Zoya Jo fits well with the first two, but the added shimmer sets it apart. Cameo is obviously too dark and bluer but I wanted to add it in because it is a new Sephora exclusive that is described online as a periwinkle and maybe this will help anyone deciding to buy it. 

I love periwinkle colors! I can probably do without the China Glaze now, though. Thanks for reading!

Mommy NOTD Post: Illamasqua Fern!

I have a quick post for you today! These are my Nails Of The Day. Well, technically they've been my nails for the past two days. But they are so pretty that I didn't mind that I didn't have time to change them today! Kim from The Ides of Polish is a rockstar polish fairy and found some Illamasqua Fern at a local store and sent one to me!! It's discontinued and GORGEOUS so I feel really lucky to have it in my stash! Thank you Kim!

I used:

Duri Rejuvacote

2 coats of Illamasqua Fern

1 coat of Poshe

Same flawless Illamasqua application, needing only two coats. Love the shimmer and this color blue! What do you think? Thanks for reading!

Anyone Thirsty For Pink Lemonade?

Hello readers! I have a cute and simple nail art post for you today. I received Amy's Nail Boutique Pink Lemonade in a swap and decided to do some "pink lemonade" nail art!

I did a base color of Milani Yellow Whiz, waited for it to dry and applied my circle stickers. Painted a generous coat of Milani U Pinky Swear and then carefully peeled off the sticker. I did a coat of this Amy's Nail Boutique Pink Lemonade glitter over U Pinky Swear. For some added fun, I did some quick white lines to make my half moons into lemon slices.

I used:

Duri Rejuvacote

2 coats of Milani Yellow Whiz

1 coat of Milani U Pinky Swear

1 coat of Amy's Nail Boutique Pink Lemonade

Milani White on the spot with a striping brush

1 coat of Poshe

What do you think? Not very fall-ish, but pink lemonade is yummy all year round! Thanks for reading!

Too Early For Christmas Nails?

Hello readers! I'm sharing my mani today after using some awesome polishes that came in the mail yesterday from a swap with my friend, Gina! She sent me the two I wanted from the new OPI Skyfall collection(You Only Live Twice and Goldeneye), along with some cute customs polishes(Sticky Sharts and Unicorn Sharts), Butter London Bluey, and Kleancolor Holochrome! I was so excited to use some and picked three that looked neat together to make this look.

After I was done, I noticed they were screaming Christmas at me. Oh well, we can call it practice for December. At least OPI You Only Live Twice is raspberry and not a true red, that would have been even more holiday themed.

I used:

Duri Rejuvacote

2 coats of OPI You Only Live Twice

Torn makeup sponge and OPI Goldeneye for the gradient

Sticky Sharts and more torn makeup sponge for the chunky glitter 

Top coat of NYC Grand Central Station

OPI You Only Live Twice is such a gorgeous raspberry jelly with glass flecks in it that I almost just wore it alone! What do you think? Thanks for reading!

Maya Cosmetics Swatches!

Today I have some pretty polishes from a new indie brand called Maya Cosmetics. If you are a follower of Michelle over at Things I Love At The Moment, you should know what I am talking about because she recently did an awesome interview with the creator, Kat, and swatched the entire collection of polishes!

Kat was kind enough to send these 4 my way to share with you all! I have: Commotion, Kung-Fu Treachery, Hyperbole, and Last Call. 3 glitters and 1 gorgeous color shifting shimmer!

First, I have Commotion. This glitter topper is crazy packed. What you are seeing below is less than one coat on each finger over Butter London Sprog. Yes, so packed that I ended up wiping some glitter off the brush before I applied because it was so dense. Very pretty color combo here of blue, purple, pink, silver glitters in a clear base. I bet in 2-3 coats you could wear this alone if you preferred. Shown with top coat.

The square glitters seem to have "reflective curling" because with one coat of top coat, they were smooth to the touch.

Next up is Kung-Fu Treachery. I chose to layer one coat over Deborah Lippmann Footloose. The unique part of this multishaped black and white glitter is the added tiny gold glitters. So often it's a silver added into this color combo and having gold was a nice change! I did have to arrange some of the glitter but it wasn't bad. Shown with one coat of top coat.

Onto the last of the glitters. This is Hyperbole. It has a blue jelly base and its packed with different colored and shaped glitters. This was another with so much glitter that I wiped some off for easier application. I'm showing 3 coats below with top coat. It has pink, orange, blue, and chartreuse glitters. The only glitters I had an issue with were the big chartreuse hexes, some seemed to be curling a bit because they were visible off the nail with top coat. I'm sure a thicker top coat would alleviate this. I love this color combination of glitters to base!

Look at how much glitter is in there!

And finally we come to the shimmer of the group: Last Call. Last Call is a gorgeous color shifting shimmer and I love it! It's a blackened violet and the shimmer flecks shift from blue to purple to pink on the nail. The best part? Just 2 easy coats and it doesn't have to be worn over black to see the color shift! That's my least favorite part of duo and multichrome polishes. Shown with top coat.

How gorgeous it is even in the bottle!!

So pretty!!

So what do you think of these new Maya Cosmetic polishes? They retail for $8 each and can be purchased here: http://www.maya-cosmetics.com/

 For the month of October, $1 for each polish bought will be split up and donated to Fisher House and Wounded Warriors.

Don't forget to follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MayaCosmetics?fref=ts

And Twitter: http://twitter.com/@mayacosmetics

Also, less than a day and a half left to enter to win some of these beauties over at Things I Love At The Moment! Go enter now!! 

http://thingsiloveatthemoment.blogspot.com/2012/10/maya-cosmetics-giveaway-five-winners.html

Thanks for reading!  

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