July 2017 Favorites!

Another summer month has past, and I managed to not melt in the process. This month's favorite's have a bunch of warm weather staples, and some warm weather colors.

February 2017 Favorites!

I've gotten SO many new things over the past few months, it's been a bit overwhelming. Because I have so many new goodies, I haven't had a chance to really give everything a full test yet. My favorites from February are some past staples, and some new products I haven't mentioned yet.

Nails of the Day - 3.24.16

I am all about springy colors lately! I also recently picked up Mini Mani Moo liquid latex to help with my nail art, and it really made clean up so much easier. I'm not looking forward to taking the actual nail polish off, because glitter polish is the worst. (I know, I know, tinfoil trick...but ugh.)

Here's what I'm wearing:

• OPI Nail Envy
• OPI Bubble Bath
• Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening
• Seche Vite

Nails of the Day - 09.03.15

I've been having some trouble with my nails - breakage, peeling, just all around unpleasantness. Due to that, it's been a while since I've done my nails! Here's my latest mani, which is a bit worse for wear since I didn't photograph it right away!

Products Used:

• OPI Nail Envy
• Deborah Lippmann creme nail polish in You've Got A Friend
• Deborah Lippmann glitter nail polish in Some Enchanted Evening
• Seche Vite

I actually didn't use a makeup sponge for the glitter tips, I used the brush that came with the polish, and it came out quite nicely!

Nails of the Day - 6.24.15

I'm super excited about my very first Femme Fatale nail polish! This one is from the new The White Witch collection, based off of the Chronicles of Narnia. I ordered mine via Shiro Cosmetics - and while this particular shade isn't available, there are still others. This shade is Heart's Desires. The official description is a rose-coral crelly with green-gold crystal flakies and copper-orange highlights. I used two coats here. It's a really pretty toned down summery shade.

Products Used:

• Formula X base coat
• Femme Fatale Cosmetics Heart's Desires
• Seche Vite

Nails of the Day - 6.15.15

Happy Mani Monday! About time I upload my nails on a Monday! I actually too this picture right before I took this polish off. I've really been into gradients lately, and my favorite addition to gradients is a glitter topping. I really wish I had a solid glitter for this, but I made due with the shimmer finish of Hunny Bunny.

Products Used:

• OPI Nail Envy
• OPI Bubble Bath
• China Glaze Rose Among Thorns
• Lit Cosmetics glitter in Hunny Bunny
• Seche Vite

Nails of the Day - 5.30.15

Starting the week off with a fresh mani. Less summery, more icy this time. I love adding glitter on top of nail polish instead of using glitter polish, since it comes off much easier when it's time to remove everything! I put on a thin layer of top coat, let it dry for about 30 seconds, and then dab on loose glitter using a makeup wedge. I seal everything up with a nice layer of top coat.

Products Used:

• OPI Nail Envy
• OPI Go On Green!
• Glitter Injections in Mystic Butterfly
• Seche Vite

Nails of the Day - 5.28.15

It's been a while since I did a standalone Nails of the Day post, and I happened to like the mani I did last night!

This was a sponge ombre effect. I layered the champagne shade on first, added some pink to the tips, and then had both shades on a sponge to blend them together. This technique is super easy, yet comes out looking great.

Products used:

• OPI Nail Envy
• Kiko Nail Lacquer #303
• Zoya Kimber
• Seche Vite

Victoria, Victoria Beckham x Nails Inc. Bamboo White Collection nail polish - Review

A few weeks ago, Beauty.com was having their 20% off sale, so I picked up the Nails Inc. collaboration polish with Victoria Beckham. I hadn't even heard of it until I saw it on a couple of YouTube channels, but then I thought hey, you know what - 20% off, might as well.

When I opened my package, I was wondering what the hell the big white box was - I had ordered a nail polish and a cream eyeshadow stick, nothing huge! Then I noticed the lid.Very Posh Spice, indeed.

All of this packaging for one little nail polish! There are two in the collection, Bamboo White and Judo Red. I picked up Bamboo White, as I currently don't have anything like that in my collection, while I have a few orangey red shades. For $25, I don't need to be buying more than I need.

Here's the bottle! The large top pops off to reveal a smaller top you screw off that's attached the the brush. The bottle is pretty heavy and feels nice, the face is concave. I like the clear glass on the sides to see the shade. I really dig the brush, its more of a paddle shape than a straight cut, helping you to get an even coat on your nails more easily. 

The polish itself was a little difficult to work with, maybe it's because I'm not the best with creme polishes. It was a little streaky, and I needed 2-3 coats on some nails to get it to look solid, with a few gaps. The shade is gorgeous though, a very chic off white almost baby pink but not quite, but possibly kind of gray? A sort of je ne sais quoi nude nail polish, if you will.

I wore this for about four days without any major chips. I have a feeling it would have lasted longer, but I did do some cleaning and dish washing without gloves (I'm the worst...) so four days it pretty good to take a chemical beating like that.

The VVB x Nails Inc. collab is of course, limited edition. You can pick up each shade individually, or as as set, if you can still find those floating around. I have Judo Red in my cart right now, waffling on whether or not to snag it from Sephora. I also have that huge box sitting around, because I sort of dig it. Totally wasteful, but still kind of cool. 

Victoria, Victoria Beckham x Nails Inc. Bamboo White Collection nail polish (Limited Edition) - $25.00 for 0.47 oz

Review - 3.5/5

Here's a quick mani I did using Bamboo White. Excuse my trash cuticles. I'm happy to report that after about three weeks to a month of having a few nails break, I'm back to being able to do my nails again!

• OPI Nail Envy
• VVB x Nails Inc Bamboo White Collection
• Seche Vite

Sugarpill Celestia Nail Polish

Sugarpill released their new Heavenly Creatures nail polish line at IMATS NY, and I made sure I picked up a bottle while I was there. I picked up the shade Celestia, which looked like a rose gold shade - and I am  such a sucker for rose golds.

Sugarpill Celestia nail polish

The Heavenly Creatures nail polish line is 5-free, cruelty free, and vegan. The bottles contain 15 mL of product. I''m not too sure on the final price, since I picked mine up at IMATS and am unsure if I received special pricing. There's currently no release date on when they will be available online for purchase, but Sugarpill tends to drag their feet a little when it comes to releases - here's hoping they don't take too long!

Celestia is a gold sparkle polish with large flecks of rose gold hexagon glitters. It is very similar to Maybelline Color Show in Gilded Rose. I find that it is best over a base color, otherwise the nail will show through due to the lack of base color in the polish itself.

Manicure using Sugarpill Celestia

Here's a manicure I did on myself using two coats of Celestia over a coat of China Glaze Poetic, a metallic rosy shade.

I'm a little disappointed that the shade I picked up was basically a dupe for something I already had in my collection. A lot of the other shades seemed to be creme bases with glitter mixed in - not my sort of thing. We'll have to see what the actual release brings!

Cirque Colors Spring Release - Love Stone and New Moon

I love new nail polish collections almost as much as new makeup collections, and I fell in love with the new Cirque Colors Awakening Collection for Spring. I picked up two of the shades, Love Stone and New Moon.

Love Stone (left) and New Moon (right

Love Stone is a beautiful petal pink with gold sparkles. The base is a pink cream, and it took two coats to build to full opacity, and it comes to a shimmery finish with the glitter building up and overtaking the cream base.

New Moon is a stormy grey with silver shimmer mixed in. The base is a grey cream, and two coats was enough to build to full opacity. The finish comes to a nice shimmer.

I like Cirque polishes, and they have yet to disappoint me. I am happy with the spring colors I decided to pick up. They're a little pricey, but they do occasionally run sales, so keep an eye out!

Love Stone topped with Lit Cosmetics Oprah glitter in size 3

Here's a quick mani I put together for Love Stone. I topped it with Lit Cosmetics glitter in Oprah, size 3. It comes together to create a lovely shimmery pink look that reminds me of sakura petals.

The Awakening Collection is Limited Edition from Cirque Colors. Each nail polish is $13 for 0.45 oz.

Haul and NOTD - ILNP

So after my good friend Nicole posted some nail looks with ILNP nail polishes, I had to pick some up for myself. I picked up two polishes - Fall Semester and Supernova.

ILNP Supernova (left) and Fall Semester (right)

The thing that drew me in were the ILNP Ultra Chrome Flakies. I am a sucker for glitter polishes, and the range that these had was unreal. I picked Supernova because it has a deep purple shift in it, and it seems like it would be great over black. ILNP claims that in a few coats the flakies will be opaque, which I have yet to try.

I also picked up Fall Semester, a blue shimmer polish. I felt it would pair nicely with the teal end of Supernova - I didn't want to get a mismatched set of polishes for my first purchase.

Shipping was quick - the polishes were enroute to me by the evening on the day I placed my order.

Nail look using Fall Semester and Supernova

For the nail look, I used Fall Semester on every nail, and then loaded up Supernova on the ring finger. The flakies were indeed opaque with a few coats, and unlike other glitter polishes, they were not uneven and chunky. I did need an extra layer of top coat for smoothness. I loved how Supernova would catch the light and change colors at different angles, you can see a bit of that in the photos with the purple shift.

The polish lasted about a week on me, including my very hard on nail polish days of typing at work. The polish went on smooth and was easy to apply. I will definitely be purchasing from ILNP again - I need more flakies!