The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
HEEYYYYYY everybody!! Long time no see!! So I'm pretty embarrassed about not posting since February...I even missed my bloggiversary. :-( I guess this "school" thing is pretty distracting! But here I am, and I've done my nails! Everything is as it should be!
Before I show you my swatch, I just want to link to my destash sale! I realized that I was running out of room in my second Helmer, so I went through my whole collection and culled about 10% of it. (There's some non-nail stuff too.) You can find everything here for super cheap! Enjoy!
OK, on to the swatch! I caved and bought four polishes from the recent ILNP summer collection. My polish purchasing is much slower these days than it used to be, but I couldn't resist these! Here I have Ruby Sky, which is an indigo jelly with purple/red/gold shifting glass flecks! Ooof, just look at it...
ILNP Ruby Sky. Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.
Isn't it delightfully squishy and mysterious? I did need three coats to even out the color, but the formula was great. Love it.
Ruby Sky is available here for $10 (12 ml). I promise to post again soon! I have a lot of untrieds to go through!
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Hi gang! Sorry for the radio silence--we took a little trip to visit my in-laws. We ate a TON of barbecue, and I'm pretty sure I gained a few pounds...
Anyway, today I'm showing you a polish I got in a swap recently! This is F.U.N Lacquer Reunion (H) (my first from this brand!), which came out around New Year's. It has a multichrome base that shifts blue-purple-red-orange, as well as LOTS of gold holo microglitter, so it's incredibly sparkly!
F.U.N Lacquer Reunion (H). Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.
I did my best to capture some of the color shift! Look at how strong the holo is, even in artificial light!
The formula was pretty much perfect--barely any cleanup required. It was on the sheer side, so I used three coats to make sure the color showed up well.
This polish is so eye-catching and definitely a great intro to F.U.N Lacquer for me!
Reunion (H) is available here at $12.90 for 12 ml.
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans! I hope you get to relax and enjoy some fireworks, BBQ, or whatever floats your boat! We went into Boston for a few hours to walk around and get some burgers.
I did a quick mani to celebrate the occasion. I started with a base of KBShimmer Pimp My Pride, added stars to my middle finger with China Glaze Hanging in the Balance and a vinyl from the For the Love of Polish Box, and painted some flag stripes on my ring finger with Nailtini Bloody Mary and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. Simple!
Heya gang! Yesterday was my and Mr. ALIQUID's second anniversary--it definitely doesn't feel like two years already! We celebrated with some big steaks at a nice restaurant (OK, I ate about a third of my steak and took the rest home). And of course I wanted to do a nice mani for the occasion!
The other day I watched this tutorial about how to make stamping "decals" without actually having to let them dry and peel them up. This kind of blew my mind (I'm probably the last person to discover this technique, right?). So I decided to try it out, and it actually works! Stamping decals without bubbles and wrinkles, hooray!!
I started with a base of Zoya Song and added a coat of Out the Door. While that was drying, I used the peacock feather stamp from MoYou Pro 03 with Julep Harley and colored in the spots with Zoya Ziv and Ivanka. I let the stamp dry on the stamper for a minute or so, then stamped it directly onto the nail. I guess the topcoat grabs the stamp even after it's mostly dry!
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Happy Memorial Day weekend to my fellow USians! I hope you're spending the time with your favorite people! We made some amazing lamb burgers that I posted on Instagram--definitely a fun alternative to the typical cheeseburger!
This weekend I'm wearing a very fun summery color from one of my favorite brands, Indigo Bananas! Twice as Bright is a hot pink crelly with intense glassfleck shimmer that shifts cyan-blue-purple-magenta. Seriously, this shimmer is so bright that it glows even in indoor lighting! The name of the polish is definitely fitting! To me, this is classic Indigo Bananas.
Indigo Bananas Twice as Bright. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
The formula was great, as usual--it stays exactly where you put it. It's also pretty chip-resistant compared to most other polish (I usually lose chips off the corners of my nails after a day or so). It was still a little sheer at two coats, but I was too busy staring at that shimmer to notice!
Here I tried to get a pic of the color shift in the shimmer, but I couldn't get it all the way to magenta. I definitely noticed it a lot in real life though!
Seriously, if you like pink--or even if you don't--you need this polish. I got a compliment from a stranger on it yesterday! (It's available here in full and mini sizes.)
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm wearing a mani featuring the polishes from May's For the Love of Polish box! This is a new indie box by Illyrian Polish and Polished For Days, plus a different guest brand each month, and some nail vinyls to match the theme. The theme for May's box was "galaxy", and when I saw swatches, I fell in love with all three polishes!
So the polishes in the box were: Starrily Gravity (index and pinky), Illyrian Polish Orion Nebula (middle and ring fingers) and Polished For Days Out of This World (stars). The box also came with a sheet of star-shaped vinyls that I used on my ring finger. Love how all three polishes are holos, but they got such different effects for each one!
Unfortunately this box is now sold out, but definitely keep your eye out for the next one!
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Hey guys! Just a quick pic of what I'm wearing right now--KBShimmer Funky Cold Patina. It's no surprise that I LOVE this color! Even though there's a lot of blue in the polish, it still feels very cheerful and springlike to me.
KBShimmer Funky Cold Patina. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Happy Hump Day! Recently I grabbed a few glitter crellies from KBShimmer when they were having a sale. KBShimmer does crellies like no other brand, in my opinion--perfect color combos and glitter density! Mauve On Over is no exception. It's a pale warm purple base with dark blue, turquoise and red-orange glitter (some holographic).
KBShimmer Mauve On Over. Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.
Doesn't this have the most amazing speckled-egg-like appearance? I didn't mind needing three coats; since the base is pretty sheer, there is a lot of depth from the lower layers of glitter. Some dabbing was required to get the biggest glitter in place, but as you can see, I got very even glitter coverage. The formula was thin but not too runny.
And of course, it looks great matte too!
KBShimmer Mauve On Over. Three coats with Revlon matte topcoat.
This polish was a winter release, but I think it's totally perfect for spring! It's available here for $8.75!
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Hey gang! My nails finally got long enough that I could reshape them into squares again, which makes me very happy! I tried out one of the new polishes I bought myself as a reward for getting into grad school. I am absolutely in LOVE with this shade...check it out!
Smitten Polish Figgy Pudding is a bold indigo jelly with shifty gold-copper-orange flakies and shimmer. I honestly can't keep my eyes off my nails...they are so sparkly and the base color is gorgeous--dark, vibrant and sexy! (It looks a little brighter here than IRL due to my lighting.)
Smitten Polish Figgy Pudding. Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.
Amazing, right? Sort of like fireflies or sparks from a bonfire!
The formula was on the thin and runny side for a jelly, and I still had some visible nail line after three coats (it looks worse in the photo than it actually is). It went on very smoothly and evenly.
Seriously, guys, if you're a purple/indigo lover, you have to go buy this one ASAP! It's available here for $11.50! This was definitely a good introduction to Smitten Polish for me!
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Hi folks! Hope you've been having a great week! Here we've finally been getting some sunny weather and a little bit of snowmelt...I'm really dying for spring to come!
So as you can see, I broke a nail this week and had to cut everything down to nubs. I hate the way my nails look when they're this short, but I thought I owed you guys a post. So try to ignore the nubs (and my torn-up skin...I've been shoveling a lot of snow lately).
I recently bought my first-ever Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes when they were having a sale. I would never shell out $20 for a bottle of polish, so I was glad to get these for a more reasonable price! This one is Lucciole, a sheer dark blue-grey with strong purple shimmer and gold flecks. Totally gorgeous and magical!
Rescue Beauty Lounge Lucciole. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
What's the most money you'd be willing to spend for a single polish?
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
The product in this post was given to me as a gift. All opinions are my own.
Hey guys! Right now we're slowly being buried under a mountain of snow thanks to Winter Storm Juno. All the public transportation in the Boston area is shut down, and my husband's work was canceled. It reminds me of when I was a kid and used to hope for a snow day every time snow was forecast. I would wake up early and watch the news to see if my school was on the list (this was before you could just check on the Internet). Of course, now that I work at home, it's not quite as exciting anymore! :-D
I thought a perfect way to "celebrate" the blizzard would be to try out one of my latest acquisitions, KBShimmer Snow Much Fun. This is a light blue (slightly aqua-leaning) jelly with lots of white and blue glitter, including snowflake glitter, plus silver holo microglitter.
KBShimmer Snow Much Fun. Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.
This polish is absolutely gorgeous, perfect for a snow queen! I had a couple minor issues with the formula. First, it was very sheer, even at three coats. Second, I definitely had to fish a little to get the snowflake glitters. But it applied very smoothly, like all KBShimmers I've tried!
I hope my fellow New Englanders are staying safe and warm today! Here are a couple shots I took of the snow:
The product in this post was given to me as a gift. All opinions are my own.
Hi gang! Just a quick swatch for you today! I recently got a bottle of Picture Polish Unicorn as a Secret Santa gift, and it is just as pretty as I was hoping! It has a minty blue base with small pink and silver glitters and purple shimmer. My pic doesn't really do it justice.
Picture Polish Unicorn. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
I have literally nothing bad to say about the formula. It was basically perfect, not too thick or too runny! I did have to use two coats of topcoat to smooth out the glitter. My nail line is just barely visible with two coats.
Enjoy your evening!
The product in this post was given to me as a gift. All opinions are my own.
The products in this post were sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.
Happy Friday! Today I'm excited to show off an upcoming collection from a new-to-me indie brand, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer! I was so honored that Julie asked me to review for her!
The Spark in the Dark collection is perfect for winter because it's full of different shades of blue, which made me really happy! Of course, blues are the hardest shades to photograph, so I had to color-correct some of these, and the colors still might not be 100% accurate. So I would definitely look for multiple swatches before purchasing if that concerns you!
A note on the formula: the brand states that their polishes are "designed to be opaque in one to two coats, so they may need to be thinned to your desired consistency." I found that they were definitely on the thicker side but still perfectly workable, so long as I was careful to wipe a lot of excess polish off the brush. I didn't feel the need to add thinner to any of them, but that's just my preference!
OK, let's start with an LE polish called Hypothermia! This polish will ONLY be available if you purchase the entire collection. It's described as a purple holo with purple shimmers, although to me the base color is more like faded indigo.
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Hypothermia. One coat with Out the Door topcoat.
The purple shimmers were hard to catch on camera, but they're definitely there in real life. The holo effect is nice and strong. This polish was a great one-coater!
Next is Bound to the City Life, a dark teal jelly with multicolored holo microglitter. It has great depth and sparkle!
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Bound to the City Life. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
Since this is a jelly, it was thicker than the others and took a little more finesse to apply evenly. I didn't find it unpleasantly goopy or sticky though.
This is Counting Down Until I See You, which has a clear base packed with pink microglitter, as well as some larger pink glitter, gunmetal grey glitter, and silver reflective beads. Definitely the blingiest member of the collection!
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Counting Down Until I See You. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat (left) and Revlon matte topcoat (right).
Since this one's very sparkly, I added matte topcoat to my ring and pinky nails so you can see the details a little better. (Plus I think it looks great matte!) The glitter applied very evenly, and two coats was sufficiently opaque for my taste.
Next up is It's Almost After Midnight, a smoky dark grey with strong blue shimmer. This is definitely one of my favorites in the collection--it's so moody!
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer It's Almost After Midnight. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
This polish was sheer on the first coat but built up well on the second. I couldn't stop staring at my nails. :-D
Here's Never Danced Like This Before, a navy holo with teal shimmer. It's gorgeous, with a jeweltone-like quality to it.
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Never Danced Like This Before. One coat with Out the Door topcoat.
This was another one-coater. I'm really impressed with how she manages to get such depth and opacity in a polish at the same time! The holo particles here are a little bigger and less dense than in Hypothermia.
Next is She's Electricity, a hot pink holo with pink and aqua shimmers and purple-blue iridescent microglitter. This one feels like a splash of summer in amongst all the blues!
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer She's Electricity. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
The extra shimmers and glitter are visible, but they don't pop out quite as much as I was hoping. Maybe if I added some thinner? The holo effect here is the weakest of the three holos in the collection.
Next up is The Years Have Been Short, which is a slightly white-tinted base with blue, white and iridescent microglitters, blue shimmer, and silver reflective beads. This polish just screams "snowstorm" to me!
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer The Years Have Been Short. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
Again, the glitter applied very evenly and I was happy with the opacity at two coats. I think this would also look nice layered!
Finally, here's Wanna Fall in Love Tonight, a red-toned purple with golden red shimmer. This dries to a semi-matte finish, so I've left it au naturale on the two left fingers and added topcoat on the two right fingers. (Pardon my huge nail ridges!)
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Wanna Fall in Love Tonight. One coat with Out the Door topcoat (ring and pinky fingers).
Although my nail line is visible here, I couldn't really see it in normal lighting. I probably could've gone for two coats though. As you can see, the shimmer is very fine and adds a luminous quality to the polish.
In addition to the Spark in the Dark collection, I also received a limited edition polish in the Siren Series, which will only be restocked once. Sirens Are Made For Water, Not Snow is a blue creme with a purple flash that dries semi-matte. As above, I added topcoat only to the ring and pinky nails.
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Sirens Are Made For Water, Not Snow. One coat with Out the Door topcoat (ring and pinky fingers).
I was a bit disappointed to find that the purple shimmer is much weaker on the nail than in the bottle. (My camera couldn't pick it up at all because it was confused by all the blue.) This might be another case where adding thinner could help.
Overall, I think this is a really solid collection, especially with all those gorgeous blue polishes! My favorites would have to be It's Almost After Midnight, Never Danced Like This Before, and The Years Have Been Short. Which do you like best?
All these polishes will be released on January 12 at Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer's shop! You can get the entire eight-piece Spark in the Dark collection for just $67 (13 ml size) or $37 for minis.
The product in this post was given to me as a gift. All opinions are my own.
Hey guys! I'm posting on vacation! I'm having a great time so far. I just wanted to show you what I'm wearing on my nails right now (and please ignore my mediocre paint job!).
This is Emily de Molly Absent Minded. It's a purple jelly with copper, red, blue and iridescent hexes. I absolutely love it, so deep and sparkly! Unfortunately there was no sun today, so I only have shade photos for you.
The formula was terrific, really nice for a glitter jelly.
See you guys soon! Safe travels if you're going somewhere for the holidays!
Good evening and happy Hanukkah! Although I'm only Jewish by proxy, I decided it would be fun to do a Hanukkah manicure since I'm seeing my in-laws tomorrow. Plus, the blue/white/silver color combo looks really good on me!
I decided to try my hand at an ikat-style mani for the first time. I have to say, ikat is a lot harder to do than it looks! It's supposed to be a little messy, but not too messy, and that's the hard part. I'll definitely have to work on this!
The colors I used were Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, OPI My Signature is "DC", Zoya Sailor and OPI My Vampire is Buff.
We'll be traveling starting tomorrow, but I'll do my best to keep you up-to-date on all my nail-related activities!
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Happy Friday! Did you have a good week? Mine was pretty good, other than the constant precipitation we've had here! At least we don't have a foot of snow like some places yet!
Today I've got a swatch that my fellow blue polish lovers will enjoy: Powder Perfect Grief. This is a denim blue scattered holo with hidden blue-green iridescent glitter that only pops out in certain lights! It's very understated but still fascinating to look at.
Powder Perfect Grief. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
The formula is good as long as you keep your coats thin. I noticed a tendency for the polish to drag with thicker coats. The opacity and dry time were good.
The product in this post was given to me as a gift. All opinions are my own.
Happy weekend!! Is it cold where you are? This week it finally started feeling wintery here in Boston, and I had to break out my big puffy coat for the first time. It always makes me a little sad, because I really hate cold weather.
Anyway! I decided to swatch one of the polishes I used in my stamping decal mani from this week. It's my only Scofflaw polish, and I got it in a Secret Santa swap. Wraith Pinned to the Mist is a pale mint/seafoam with gold, copper and blue flecks. It is so beautiful and delicate!
And yes, my nails are short again...I ripped one while rummaging through my laundry basket. Go figure.
Scofflaw Wraith Pinned to the Mist. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
It's fairly sheer, so I probably could have used one more coat. The formula was great, on the thicker side but very easy to use. I loooove polishes with subtle flecks like this, and I think this particular shade is perfect for the upcoming season!
Scofflaw only restocks rarely, but you might be able to get this one through one of their stockists.
The product in this post was given to me as a gift. All opinions are my own.
Happy Monday! I don't know about where you live, but August has not been very August-like here. It feels more like early June than the middle of summer! To make up for that, I thought I would do a mani that reminds me of the beach.
Last weekend we actually got to visit the beach in our town for the first time since we moved here. It's the oldest public beach in America!
For my mani I started with a base of China Glaze Seahorsin' Around, a bright aqua textured polish with gold sparkles. I added some stamps from the MoYou London Sailor 04 plate using Maybelline Bold Gold. It's a little hard to see the stamps here, but there's a variety of seashells, starfish and other beachy stuff.
The pictures don't do justice to how sparkly Seahorsin' Around is. Definitely recommended if you like more in-your-face textured polishes!
Last but not least, here's Trudy hanging out in bed (she likes to sit there and look out the windows onto the street, just to make sure there are no bad guys hanging around)!
The products in this post were sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.
Hope you're having a lovely week so far! Today I have a brand-new makeup kit to show you. It's a limited edition One Direction set called Up All Night! I have to confess that I can't name a single song by One Direction, so I had my husband sing me one (he keeps up on pop culture much better than I do). Anyway, I'm sure there are a ton of One Direction fans out there who are dying to hear about this kit!
The set comes in a tin with a plastic sleeve, which you have to remove every time you open the box--slightly annoying.
Here's the inside of the tin. You can see all the products are in there pretty securely.
Let's look at all the makeup you get in here!
Nail Polish: Na Na Na
Makeup by One Direction Na Na Na. Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.
Na Na Na is a teal/green shimmer. As usual my camera is making it look more blue than it actually is. In real life it's a pretty mermaid green. The formula was pretty sheer for my taste; even at three coats there is still visible nail line. Other than that I had no problems.
Eye Products
From left: Stand Up, More Than This, Gotta Be You, Save You Tonight, Another World, Up All Night
Stand Up eye and body crayon: This is a fat denim blue crayon that can be used as eyeshadow, liner or for body art (along with the included stencils). In my opinion the crayon is a little too fat for eyeliner, but hey, I'm old. The pigmentation seemed good; the arm swatch lasted through 24 hours and a shower.
More Than This: A peachy pink eyeshadow with slight shimmer. It was hard to tell how pigmented this was because it matches my skintone almost perfectly.
Gotta Be You: A taupe-grey shimmer. This one barely showed up on my eyelid when I tried it.
Save You Tonight: This one is my favorite shadow in the palette. It's a shimmery light turquoise. I found that this one went on my eye nicely, but tended to fade when I blended.
Another World: A sparkly royal blue. This one had MAJOR fallout problems. The bits of sparkle basically don't cling to skin (even with primer), so as soon as I blended the shadow it lost all its color.
Up All Night: Blue glitter in a clear base. I didn't try this on my eye, but I'm skeptical about how well it would stay on.
Little Black Dress mascara: Forgot to take a picture of this one! It's a pretty decent mascara. Not the most amazing one I've ever worn. More on the wet side than the crumbly side.
Lip Products
I Should Have Kissed You: A bubblegum pink creme lipstick. Good pigmentation, but on the dry side; after a little while I got creasing. Seems to be long-lasting. I thought the stick was a little too wide, as I had some trouble staying in the lines.
Taken: A hot magenta lip gloss with tiny glitters. This one glows orange under UV light, although unfortunately I couldn't test that! Formula seemed typical for a lip gloss, not too sticky. The glitters are really hard to remove!
My Verdict: The eyeshadow palette was a disappointment, but everything else seems to be of decent quality. While the nail polish is sheer, it could be pretty over a base color. The colors in general definitely skew toward a younger crowd, not surprisingly!
The three Makeup by One Direction kits will be available at the following stores in the US:
Macy's - now available!
Stage Stores - August 25th
Dillards - August 25th
Beauty Brands - August 25th
Lord and Taylor - August 25th
Hi everyone! Long time no talk! We finally got back home on Friday and I've been working on a variety of projects since then, so I'm just now getting back to the blog. I've got a swatch for you, plus some photos from my trip to Michigan!
First of all, here's Painted Sabotage The Mermaid's Song, which was made to celebrate The Mercurial Magpie's first bloggiversary! This is a teal crelly with purple, blue, copper and silver holo glitter.
Painted Sabotage The Mermaid's Song. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
I liked the formula on this one. I had to dab a little to place the largest glitters, but I had no trouble getting them on the brush. If I had to change one thing, I'd make the base slightly more translucent so the glitter showed through more. But that's a very minor thing! This polish is available here for $10.
I'm going to put the rest of the post behind a jump because it's very photo-heavy!
