ABC Challenge 'N' - Nails Inc. Sweets Way

Hi all!

Still being a pretty terrible blogger/nail enthusiast but I did manage to find a super old post that coincided with this week's challenge so here it is!

This mani was done in a rush for my neighbor's baby shower and while I truly enjoy the braided nails look, for the love of polish, don't ever use a sheer base glitter polish for the braid. This mani would have been so much better if I would have just used a solid white as an accent nail. Oh well.

Two coats of Nails Inc. Sweets Way, Essie Bikini So Teeny and Bettina Cotton Candy.

Thank you all for still being here despite my slightly irregular/sparse posting and I will answer all your comments soon, it annoys me to no end to have unanswered comments! I'm actually  pre-scheduling this and I'm nodding off as I type so I'm off to bed and feeling productive :D

Have a great day!

New Year's Nails - I Love NP 11:59!

'Ello!

Today I'm sharing the mani I was wearing while I rung in the new year! I meant to do nail art but I was short on time and inspiration so I went with some really awesome polishes instead. I had recently received a package from Barbra, creator of I Love Nail Polish brand (you might have seen it as I Love NP or I <3 NP) and inside was this awesome glitter from her New Year's collection called 11:59 and I immediately knew I'd incorporate it into my NYE nails someway, little did I know it would be the whole mani!

I layered one coat of 11:59 over Nails Inc. Baker St. for this look. 11:59 applied beautifully, no clumping or dragging and it wasn't too thick at all. I just dabbed lightly and then polished normally to get an even coating. I topped it with just one coat of top coat and it was completely smooth! It's worth mentioning that her polishes have a different smell than most. It hit me when I first opened the bottles but it sort of dissipated after a while and it wasn't noticeable after top coat (at least to me, I always have a stuffy nose and don't really smell everything 100%).

11:59 has a variety of black glitters and gold glitter, including some type of gold flakies and CIRCLE GLITTER. I die for circle glitter, it's my new obsession. IT'S SO ROUND. I'll give you another macro so you can see the magic again. 

I love this combo so much! These pictures were taken on day 3 and you can see there's no sign of tip wear, just the tiniest amount of growth and I'm actually still wearing it as I type! Although I am itching to change it out and try some of the other I Love NP polishes I got. When I post those polishes I'll go more in depth about the packaging, which is so top notch you could forget it's an indie brand.

You can find I Love NP on Etsy and Facebook. Since I found the brand a couple of months ago her shop is always stocked and she has amazing customer service. She also has a blog where she shares swatches of her polishes as well as regular manis!

Are you as into round glitter as I am? Let me know your thoughts in the comments and I hope you all had a great and safe new year's!

*I Love NP polish was sent for review. For more information, please refer to my Disclosure policy*

Comparison Mini-Spam!

Hello there!

Today I have some simple comparisons for you. This is mostly newer polishes I've acquired that bear a big resemblance to others in my stash. Maybe this could help you save some moolah. Yeah, I just said moolah.

First up, some comparisons to the new Essie Winter Collection. On my pointer I have Where's My Chauffeur, middle Turquoise and Caicos. Ring finger is Butler, Please and pinky is Nails Inc. Baker St.

Where's My Chauffeur definitely stands alone in my stash since it's bluer than its other mintier turquoise counterparts. Although, if you have China Glaze Aquadelic you might not need this one. Butler, Please is very close to Baker St. but, maybe this was just my experience, BP had a hoorrible formula! Streaky, pulling up polish and it dries to this weird lumpy semi matte finish. Baker St. is still just a touch brighter and the formula is absolutely wonderful so, while I don't regret having Butler, Please, Baker St. is the clear winner for me.

Next up, a reader request! It's some blue jellies. You know I love me some blue jellies. Pointer finger is Sation It's All Navy Baby, middle is China Glaze Ride the Waves, ring is Nina Ultra Pro Cobalt and pinky is Revlon Royal.

As you can see, no real dupes here. Sation is definitely the darkest and every polish was 2 coats except Ride the Waves, which needed 3. I'm wearing the Nina polish as I type and it's absolutely beautiful, a welcome addition to this blue jelly hoarder's stash.

And finally, some Illamasqua comps! Pointer finger is Revlon Jaded Night from a LE collection a while back, middle is Illamasqua Kink, ring finger is Sation Little Miss Emo and pinky is Illamasqua Prosperity, from the newer Rubber Brights.

Kink and Jaded Night are extremely close, I could barely tell these apart IRL. In macro mode, the rubber finish sets them apart and it looks a little lighter. Little Miss Emo is not quite as blue as it photographs, so its really just a touch darker than Prosperity. These would make for a very subtle gradient.

All in all, I'm happy with the polishes I have. The little differences are enough justification to keep them all. I may have a problem.

Hope this helps and please be smart tomorrow when voting. I know people here get involved in the fanaticism and euphoria and vote 'for the color' (the political parties here are very associated and identified by their colors), not the leader so I can sincerely hope it's not the same in the US.

Have a good day!

31 Day Challenge Day 8 - Metallic

Hey all!

Continuing on with our 31 day challenge, today's nails were metallic! Originally, I did a mani with metallic polishes (which you may see in a separate post) but then I saw that Sarah at Chalkboard Nails used magnetic polishes for her metallic challenge, and I remembered something from my 'manis to do' list and decided to use that instead.

It's a magnetic gradient! As Sarah said, magnetic polishes use metallic particles for the effect so it kinda counts :P. I know I've seen this somewhere before, but I didn't save the bookmark apparently so if you know who I should credit, let me know in the comments!

EDIT: Big thanks to Lani who knew it was at Esmaltes da Kelly that I saw this originally! (Clicky) 

I started with one coat of Nails Inc. Houses of Parliament (purple) and then sponged Nails Inc. Whitehall (teal/green) on top. When I was happy with the gradient, I applied top coat one by one and applied the magnet immediately for the effect. I used a slow drying top coat just in case so the polish wouldn't dry without producing a strong effect.

The gradient was a bit too subtle for my liking but the other contrasting magnetic polish I have has glitter and it's a huge pain to clean up, so I decided against it. Otherwise, I really love the effect! Magnetic polishes are still cool in my eyes, especially since it looks 3D a lot of the time :D.

What do you think? Something you would try?

Remember to visit the other ladies participating for their metallic manis!

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles  

31 Day Challenge Day 5 - BLUE!!!

Hi ladies!

If you read my blog with any sort of regularity or even if you've just seen my haul posts, you'll know of my love affair with blue polish. It's just so pretty and there's so many different blues and I need them all. So imagine my surprise when I realize I've never posted the bluest blue that ever blued.

I used two creamy delicious blue coats of (one of) the most perfect blues - Nails Inc. Baker St!

The only problem I have with this polish is that I never know what to combine with it. I've tried stamping in gold, silver, black, white and another blue and it just never looks *right*. Like the color is so electric it just doesn't play well with another polish. This is the only combo I liked - Sally Hansen White Veil (Bonus: it's an untried). 

It's difficult to describe the glitters in this polish, they're pale white but matte-y and the golden hexes. Very pretty. I almost bought this once but left it in the end, then I saw this post at Imperfectly Painted and needed it. Of course, then it was nowhere to be found. I finally found an intact display at a random K-Mart.

In reality, Baker St. is a bit deeper in color, think more of a Superman blue. I took this cellphone pic to try and show the color a bit better.

The color is still a little darker but photoshop was NOT cooperating in altering the color either. If you even admire any blue polishes - you need this one.

Also, YAY for a long weekend! Do yo have any plans? I'm going to a beach house in the south of the island. Just learned about this last night, but still pretty cool :D

Now go check the other ladies and their blues!

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 

How to Remove Glitter Easy Peasy feat. Nails Inc. Pudding Lane

Hi ladies!

Today I have something that will change your polishing life FOREVER. I mean it, its big stuff. How many of you love glitter? How many of you hate removing said glitter? Well I’m here to tell you NO MORE aluminum foil, NO MORE dried out sad acetone soaked cuticles, NO MORE wasted cotton balls! For the special introductory price of $1.25 (on sale at your local Walgreens), I present to you: GLUE!

Lol, but seriously you guys. You might have already seen a couple of blogs mention the Essence Peel-Off Basecoat and how it’s really good for removing glitters since you just peel them off without any damage to the nail (Oooh Shinies has a good post*clicky*). Well, a lot of these blogs also mentioned that it just seemed like glue. Cue LabMuffin and other smart ladies who did some research and found out that yeah, it’s basically PVA glue. Then Pretty Purple Polish did this post and shit got real. 

Cue to present day, I decide I can wait no longer to try this myself and I run to my Walgreens where a 4oz. bottle of glue is on sale for $1.25, then I run back home to grab the Nails Inc. sprinkles polish I’d been neglecting for fear of removal. I do my little PVA glue basecoat and polish normally. Ain’t it pretty?

I took these pics on day 3 of wear and it’s exactly the same as when I applied it. I do have one important tip though: make sure to apply your top coat as fast as possible after doing your nails. I did 2 coats of Pudding Lane and went to bed. When I showered the next morning I saw I was missing little pieces on 2 nails, so you definitely have to protect them from water! Now, for the good stuff- the removal.

So easy! All you have to do is lift up a little corner (some people start at the cuticle line) and remove it! I used a rubber cuticle pusher to lift it up and it all came off in one piece! And you can see there is no damage to the nail at all. There was no tugging or anything that made me feel like I was removing the top layer of the nail like I would if I was peeling off polish. FUN FACT: I used to almost exclusively remove my polish by just peeling them off before I learned that it’s really bad for your nails. I believe that’s the main reason my nails have grown. 

I know I might exaggerate but this really changed things for me. I absolutely LOATHED glitters like you have no idea. Sure, I could look at swatches and think wow that’s pretty/sparkly but I would never bring myself to do a full glitter mani. Only problem is now I want ALL THE GLITTERS!

What do you think? Will you be trying this out? 

Have a good day and enjoy the weekend! I’ll see you tomorrow for blue nails!

It's a Blue Jelly Smackdown! (Comparisons)

Hey everyone! I survived the night of San Juan so I'm back with another posty post for you!

Today I have the blue jelly battle royale. I'm comparing the whopping 3 blue jellies that I own in an effort to remind myself they are indeed different and I do need them. Ok, technically I'm comparing only two that might have sort of been dupes and two that were similar for different reasons, but let me flow with it, I was excited to sound like a wrestling announcer.

I'll be comparing Nubar Blueberry (BB) vs. China Glaze Ride the Waves (RtW) vs. Revlon Royal (r) vs. Nails Inc. Baker St. (B St.). I know Royal isn't even close color-wise, but it did earn it's place here for (possibly) being my all-time favorite polish. Baker St is also different since it's a creme and not a jelly, but the vibrancy of the color also merited inclusion into this comparison.

Onto the show:

As you can see, Royal is definitely darker but I also wanted to compare formulas so that's why it's there. Baker St. is fully opaque in two coats and I feel it has a hint of more purple to it? Like it's SO BLUE it's right next to the purplier shades. The two worth noting are Nubar Blueberry and China Glaze Ride the Waves. Although they're definitely not dupes, one might be enough if you can't find the other (and aren't a blue jelly collecting fiend). Blueberry is a tad more opaque than Ride the Waves and RtW is also a straight up jelly, while Blueberry is tad more "creme-y". Not quite enough to be called a true hybrid but a difference that makes Nubar's formula superior to China Glaze's

In this close up you can see the slight differences better, especially in the VNL. I used three coats of Blueberry and Ride the Waves while I only needed two for Royal and Baker St. Overall, do I have a favorite? Hellz to the nah. Royal is a little higher up on the list maybe but I couldn't in good conscience say I prefer one above the other. I guess the difference comes down to availability, pricing and personal preference of course.

I hope you all had a great weekend and enjoyed this post! I'll see you tomorrow for a nice pool party!