Christmas Guest Post by Destany of Manifest Destany!

Good afternoon my fellow lacquered lovers!  Merry Christmas to those of you who are celebrating today!  I am in Ohio having my very first Christmas with my boyfriends family so you will hear all about it if you follow my social media!  Today, my very lovely friend Destany of Manifest Destany has done a super cute Christmas post for you all!  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!


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Hello all you Lacquered Lovers out there! My name is Destany, and I am so honored that Carly asked me to guest post for her wonderful blog! I thought I would try something special for you guys - so I got out my crazy nail art skills (I call them fail art skills!) and tried some Christmas trees for you! :)

First I started with a base of one of my favorite reds, Cult Nails Evil Queen - it's just an amazing color :) I topped that with Seche Vite for quick drying. Once it was dry, I used Scotch tape, and taped off triangles on my nails, with the base of the triangle at the tips of my nails. Now, all my trees are varying sizes...cause, well, Christmas trees come in all sizes! (It's absolutely NOT because I tried and tried and tried to get them symmetric, and I just couldn't do it...) Once everything was taped off, I used Wet n Wild Sagreena the Teenage Witch and painted two coats over that. Once that was done, I took the tape off. I let that dry for just a little while, but then I used a Stripe Rite silver glitter (which was provided to be by It's So Easy) and swiped it a few times across the "tree" to represent garland, and then used a dotting took with Milani Signature Gold (which was provided to me by Milani) and put a topper on the tree. The final touches were dots in Pure Ice French Kiss (blue) and Zoya Pippa (yellow). So here it is!

Have you guys tried art like this? I need to do more of it! It was really simple and so cute when it's done! Thanks Carly for letting me show your readers my Christmas trees! :)

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How cute are these???  I love it!  Thank you again to Destany and I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday!  Stay tuned for more posts!


What did you think of this manicure?

SoFlaJo Red Carpet Swatches and Review!

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers!  Happy Thursday!  I hope you are all getting into the holiday spirit!  I am leaving tomorrow to go visit my boyfriend's family in Ohio for my very first Christmas and then to spend time with my family so I'm a busy lady!  But not to worry, I have a bunch of fun stuff including some amazing guest posts lined up for you all!  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

Above:  2 coats of Red Carpet

Red Carpet is a gorgeous deep red matte polish with a hint of holographic glitters in it!  I love how rich and warm this polish feels.  Plus even with the tiny glitters it dries super smooth and level and has an almost suede like texture!  The formula was great, opaque in 2 coats and very easy to apply!


Red Carpet and the rest of the Party Time Nail Polish Collection (which are all GORGEOUS) are on sale now at the Soflajo website HERE for $10 for 15 ml or $5 for 5ml.

What did you think of this polish? Must have? Any Dupes?

The products in this post were sent to me for my unbiased review. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

I Love Nail Polish Glitter Toppers: A Selection of Swatches and Review!

Good afternoon my fellow lacquered lovers!  Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend!  I'm hurrying around trying to get everything ready for the holidays and going away so please excuse the absence of some posts recently!  Today, I have something really fun to share with you all!

I Love Nail Polish is a fabulous indie brand that has the cutest packaging and bottles (not to mention fabulous glitters!)  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!!!

 Above:  1 coat of Fully Turqued over 2 coats of Zoya Kristen

First up is my personal favorite, Fully Turqued!  It has everything I love about glitter polishes, black and white matte glitters, blue and squares!  I love all the different size and shaped glitters and the turquoise squares really add something unique!  The formula was super easy to use and I had no trouble getting out the glitter!

 Above:  2 coats of Goldie Boo...Boo! over 1 coat of Finger Paints Black Expressionism

Goldie Boo...Boo! is a great Fall polish!  This clear base is full of different sized hexagonal glitters in black, silver, orange, yellow and red.  Also, the name cracks me up because I am addicted to that show!  The formula was good, didn't have much trouble with the glitter although I did use two coats to get the amount of glitter I wanted.

Above:  1 coat of Little Mermaid over 1 coat of Finger Paints Black Expressionism

Next up is Little Mermaid.  This definitely has a scaley effect to it!  There are multiple sized and shaped silver, light blue and a hint of purple, pink and holographic glitters in this clear base.  There are even two different sized/thickness of bar glitters!  This was a very densely packed glitter and with three coats,  you could probably make it opaque!

 Above:  1 coat of Something About Merry over 1 coat of Finger Paints Black Expressionism

Something About Merry is a fabulous Christmas polish!  The combination of red, white and green glitters in a clear base is really fun and I love the white matte shards!  The formula was great, easy to use and the glitter came out well.

Above:  1 coat of Matthew Peri over 2 coats Zoya Kristen

Ah Matthew Peri.  What a stunning polish!  It has different sized and shapes of holographic, silver, gunmetal and light blue glitters in a clear base.  I love how soft it is but still fun!  The formula was really good, only required one coat to get a lot of glitter on the nail!


All in all, I'm really impressed by this brand.  The bottles are great, printed on and have a rubberized cap to open them easily.  All of the formulas were great for glitters, not too thick and easy to use.  I also really like the unique color combinations!  I Love Nail Polish is available now on their website HERE for $10 for a 12 ml bottle which also comes in a really cute box!

What did you think of this polish? Must have? Any Dupes?

 

 

The products in this post were sent to me for my unbiased review. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

KBShimmer: A Selection of Winter 2012 Swatches and Review!

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers!  Happy Sunday to you all and Happy Hanukkah to my fellow readers who began to celebrate last night!  Today, I have a wonderful indie collection to share with you!

KB Shimmer released their Winter collection last month and I have five of these glitter beauties to share with you today!  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

Above:  1 coat of KBShimmer Candy Cane Crush over 2 coats LCN Tokyo Expression

First up is Candy Cane Crush.  Since this is a glitter topper, I put it over a dark grey.  Candy Cane Crush is multiple sized glitter from tiny to large in a bright red and pure white in a clear base.  It's adorable and really does look like a crushed Candy Cane!  Also, it's scented like peppermint!  This polish was pretty easy to use, some of the really large glitters required a bit of fishing out but they went on smooth and evened out with top coat!

Above:  2 coats of Cocoa Nut

Cocoa Nut is a gorgeous milk brown chocolate base full of multi colored pink glitter in different sizes and shapes, including irregular flakes.  It's also full of a gold micro shimmer that really adds a lot of depth.  It reminds me of truffles or hot cocoa with raspberries!  I love how rich this color looks on the nails.  The formula was great, opaque in two coats and evened out with one coat of top coat!

Above:  3 coats of Hex Appeal

I think Hex Appeal is my new favorite glitter nail polish!  Hex Appeal is a navy almost jelly like base full of magenta, blue and silver hex glitter in different sizes with tiny bar glitters as well.  I LOVE it!  I used three thin coats since the base is fairly sheer but with three coats, I had full opacity.  The glitters came out really easily and evened out with one coat of top coat!

Above:  3 coats of Snow Way!

Snow Way! is an adorable polish that actually looks like falling snow to me!  The base is a light milky blue full of multi sized hexagonal white matte glitters.  I love it!  The formula was a bit thick so I found that 3 thin coats worked best for full coverage.

Above:  2 coats of Sugar Plum Faerie

Sugar Plum Faerie is a pink toned plum milky jelly base full of purple, bright green an pink glitters in different sizes and shapes.  I really love how the green is so contrasting!  This polish is really rich and fun for winter time!  This polish was really easy to use, no fishing for glitter is necessary and it was opaque in 2 coats!

All in all, I LOVED this collection!  Really great showing from KBShimmer for Winter!  The glitters are fun and different and all of the formulas were really easy to use.  All of these polishes and the rest of the Winter collection are available now at the KBShimmer Website for $8.75 each!

What did you think of this polish?  Must have? Any Dupes?

The products in this post were sent to me for my unbiased review. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Pretty and Polished How Do You Spell Chanukkah? Swatches and Review!

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers!  Happy Friday!  I hope you have all had a nice week so far and are looking forward to the weekend!  Today, I have a really special nail polish to show you!  My friend Chelsea, the creator behind one of the best indie brands Pretty & Polished, has created a Hanukkah polish!  I was so excited when she asked me to review it since being a Jewish blogger, most of the holiday collections I see are Christmas themed so I loved this.  PLUS, I got to help name the polish which is after a hilarious song by the band The LeeVees who got together a few years ago after realizing there were no good Hanukkah songs and they released an album of all funny songs for the holiday season!  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

 

Above:  2 coats of How Do You Spell Chanukkah?

 

How Do You Spell Chanukkah? is like the snowy winter sky and Hanukkah had a baby and this nail polish was the result!  The base of this is a light blue and it's full of small silver, gold, blue and white glitters and then has really large white hexagonal glitters as well!  It truly looks like the falling snow with the large white hexes and I love that it incorporates all the Hanukkah colors without just being a full on glitter.  Two coats made this polish opaque and the white glitters were surprisingly easy to get out of the bottle!

 

 

All in all, I love this polish!  It's super adorable for winter and I love the Chanukkah theme!  This polish is now available in the Pretty and Polished store for $9.00 a bottle and is perfect for you or a Jewish friend for the holidays!  Even if you're not Jewish you can enjoy the fun colors and wintery feel!  And, let's be honest, no one ever knows how to spell this holiday's name so I will leave you with the hilarious music video by The LeeVees for your viewing and listening pleasure for a new kind of holiday song!

 

 

What did you think of this polish?  Must have? Any Dupes?


The products in this post were sent to me for my unbiased review. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Nicole by OPI Kardashian Kolor Holiday Collection 2012 Swatches and Review!

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers!  Happy Tuesday!  I hope you are all having a good start to the week!  Today is supposed to be cold and snowy in NYC so hopefully the weather won't be too bad!  Today, I have another Holiday collection to show you!

Nicole by OPI has done another collaboration with the Kardashian family for the holiday season!  There are three jewel toned shimmers and three glitters in this collection for an array of holiday shades. Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

 Above:  2 coats of All is Glam, All is Bright

First up is All is Glam, All is Bright which is a mix of very small red, silver and what looks like some blue glitters.  The overall look of this polish is almost a light pink or purple which is really unique!  The formula is good, opaque in two coats but a bit gritty so you may want to use 2 coats of top coat.

 Above:  3 coats of Deck the Dolls

Deck the Dolls is a vibrant bright teal shade that definitely leans more blue than green.  I like the color payoff but it did require three coats to be fully opaque as the formula is quite sheer.

 Above:  1 coat of A Gold Winter's Night over 2 coats of Keeping Up With Santa

The strangest thing is that my bottle labels this gold as being Good Tidings We Bling and not the actual name of A Gold Winter's Night!  This polish is a sheer base full of tiny gold glitter, gold bar glitter and turquoise bar glitter.  I definitely do not own anything like this in my collection!  You'd probably need 3-4 coats for full opacity but one coat like pictures above is a great glitter topper!

 Above:  2 coats of Here We Kome A-Karoling

This was a bit of a problem polish for me.  Here We Kome A-Karoling is a dark shimmery purple.  I loved this shade in the bottle but on the nail it was too blackened, the shimmer didn't stand out enough and the formula made the polish really patchy.

 Above:  1 coat of Kardashing Through The Snow over 3 coats of Deck The Dolls

Kardashing Through the Snow is a mix of small silver, gold, red, green and blue glitters in a clear base. This is by far the most festive polish of the bunch!  The glitter is great for a topper but would probably take at least 4 coats to be fully opaque.  The formula was good, easy to use and no need to fish the glitters out!

Above:  2 coats of Keeping Up With Santa

Last but not least is Keeping Up With Santa, the quintessential red shimmer that every holiday collection needs.  I have a million polishes like this but I always love them!  The formula was good, opaque in two coats.


All in all, this was a decent holiday collection from NOPI.  I'm never a huge fan of the bottle shape or brush on these and was disappointed that 2 out of the 3 shimmers were fairly sheer but the glitters were cute and pretty unique for Winter!  This collection is now available where Nicole by OPI is sold for $7.99 each.


What did you think of these polishes?  Must have?  Any Dupes?

The products in this post were sent to me for my unbiased review. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.