Color Club Halo Hues Collection Swatches

Hey lacquerheads! Today I have Color Club's Halo Hues collection to show you. I've been wanting this collection for a couple months now, but the nail store I always go to took too long to get it so I ordered one from another polish blogger selling a few sets on Instagram. Thanks Yamii! This collection consists of 6 linear holos. My photos are shown at 3 coats, without topcoat, and with flash.

Here's the photo collage I made for my Instagram in case you want to see a side by side. 

Angel Kiss-light green linear holo.

Blue Heaven--light blue linear holo.

Cloud Nine--light pink linear holo.

Halo-Graphic--pink linear holo.

Cherubic--tan linear holo.

Harp On It--silver linear holo.

I'm completely in love with all of these and so glad I finally added these to my stash!

Orly Frisky & Frolic Gradient & MASH 45

Hey beauties! Today I have a gradient with some stamping to show you. I haven't done a gradient in awhile and thought I'd do one today. I did the gradient using Orly Frisky & Orly Frolic and then stamped using MASH 45 in Konad White. I love the way gradients look with a full nail design stamped over it!

Guest Post for Blog Nailed It

Happy Friday! I did a guest post for the lovely Katy over at Blog Nailed It. To see what I used for this Koi fish nail art check out the post here.

China Glaze Holly-Day & Bundle Monster 04

Merry Christmas loves! Here's what I wore for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. I used China Glaze Holly-Day and stamped using BM 04 in China Glaze Passion. My accent nail is China Glaze Angel Wings. Hope everyone had a lovely holiday and got lots of nail polish!

Peppermint Candy French Tips

Merry Xmas Eve everyone! Short post today because I have 3 family parties to go to today. For this mani I used Zoya Purity and stamped using Red Angel RA 110 in Konad Red. Hope everyone has a lovely day with their family and friends!

Pure Ice Iced Copper & Pure Ice Tease

Hey loves! In early 2013, Pure Ice will be discontinuing 23 polishes and renaming 5 polishes to make room for some new ones. They will be introducing 29 new shades to replace the discontinued ones. Today I have 2 of the shades that will be discontinued to give them a good send off--Iced Copper and Tease!

Pure Ice Iced Copper--2 coats

Pure Ice Tease--4 coats

Farewell polish pretties!

***Products provided for review***

Pink & Black Tape Mani

Hi beauties! I'm trying to use different methods to do nail art other than stamping so today I have a tape manicure to show you. I used OPI Mod About You, China Glaze Dance Baby, and OPI Black Onyx. I could use a bit more practice at this, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I want to try this again already with different colors! Also, don't forget to enter my current giveaway here.

Zoya Toni & Natty Giveaway Sponsored by Verve 360 Hair Salons in Pittsburgh

Good news ladies--I have a giveaway for you today! I was contacted by Verve 360 hair salons in Pittsburgh and they are kind enough to provide the prize for this giveaway. One winner will receive Zoya Toni and Zoya Natty from their fall "Designer" collection. I unfortunately do not own these myself to show swatches, but you can head over to Mimi/Makeup Withdrawal's blog and check out her swatches here.

This giveaway is open to the US (contiguous US only, no Hawaii or Alaska) and will end on 12/29/12. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me to claim their prize, otherwise another winner will be chosen. Fill out the widget below to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

China Glaze Winter Berry & Bundle Monster 314

Happy Friday everyone! Today I decided to use an image I've wanted to use for a long time, but I guess I've kind of been "saving it." Do any of you ladies ever do that when you like an image so much, but don't want to just use it for a random mani and "waste" it? Maybe I'm just a little crazy. For this mani I used China Glaze Winter Berry and stamped using BM 314 in Essie Good as Gold. My accent nail is OPI DS Indulgence, it's such a beauty!

China Glaze For Audrey & Bundle Monster SE1

Hi beauties! I'm totally enjoying the beginning of my break so far because I have so much time to do my nails now. I got the special edition Bundle Monster plate last week and have been dying to use it. Here's my first mani with it. I used China Glaze Glistening Snow and China Glaze For Audrey and stamped using BM SE1 in Konad White. It's so girly and sparkly!

Christmas Chevrons

YAY, I'm officially on winter break! I have one more semester left and then I'll be an RN! Anyways enough about school, I'm pretty sure my last few posts included me whining about it lol. I have been wanting to do some festive manis so I got right to it. I did this one really quickly so I can do another mani, so don't mind any imperfections =P I did a simple chevron design using A England Perceval and Zoya Holly. It's simple, but I really like how it came out.

Christmas Sweater Nails

Happy Friday! The holidays are just around the corner so I did some festive nails for today. I saw a Christmas sweater inspired mani by The Nail Network and I just had to re-create it because it's brilliant. Here's China Glaze With Love stamped using BM 14, BM 214, and Konad M57 in Konad White. I did a full mani so I ended up stamping 30 times! A little time consuming, but the end result is so worth it. My final is on Monday so you won't hear from me until after it's over. Wish me luck!

Born Pretty Store Dual Sided Stamper & Scraper--Review

Hi beauties! Today I have an item from Born Pretty Store to review. I have the dual sided stamper and scraper for stamping nail art. One side of the stamper has a large rubber surface for big images and then the other side has a smaller rubber surface for small images. I tested this item out once and had pretty bad results. Before making this post, I gave it a second try. I used Konad Special polish and Konad image plates to test out the item. Here are my results:

First attempt:
On my index finger, this is how the image came out after doing one scrape over the image and then stamping it. On my middle finger, this is one scrape. On my ring finger, I tried to scrape the image multiple times before attempting to stamp it--it came out a bit better. Pinky is just one scrape.

During this first attempt, the rubber part of the stamper from Born Pretty Store kept getting squashed and lop sided. Here's what I mean:

It was quite annoying and this has never happened to me before using my Konad stamper that I've been using for about 2 1/2 years. I would have to remove the rubber and stick it back in the right way, but it kept happening again. You can also see bald spots on the stamped images on my nail.



Second attempt: This is all done with the Born Pretty Store stamper.

As you can see, this did come out better than my first attempt, but this is with me scraping the image four times before picking it up with the stamper. Having to scrape the image so many times to come out fairly clean scratched my image plate. There are quite a bit of bald spots and smudges too.

This is what my image plate looked like after scraping the image 4 times. When I scrape with my Konad scraper, I only have to scrape 1 time and the only polish left is what is in the actual design. This makes it hard to tell when your image is ready to be picked up.

Here's a quick comparison of a Konad stamper/scraper (top) with the Born Pretty Store stamper/scraper (bottom)

Overall, I would not be able to recommend this item. Stamping is my main method of doing nail art and I really like my stamping to come out clean. Most of all, stamping is supposed to be an easy method of creating nail art, but scraping the image several times or having to constantly put the rubber stamper back in place created more work. If you are not a blogger, this item may be okay for you to use since it is unlikely anyone will look closely at your nails to see bald spots or smudges.

You can purchase this item here for $3.03. You can use my code "NV7X31" for 10% off of your purchase.



***Product provided for review***

OPI Suzi & the 7 Dusseldorfs and Konad M77

Happy Friday! I've had naked nails for 2 weeks and I'm kinda dying over here without polish on my nails. My final is in 11 days and when it's over, I'm going to go nuts and paint my nails like a madwoman. Anyways, here's my much needed paint job. I used OPI Suzi & the 7 Dusseldorfs and stamped using Konad M77 in Essie No Place Like Chrome. My accent nail is OPI Crown Me Already. I feel so fancy with these!

Firmoo Glasses--Review

Hi ladies! Today I have something that is not nail polish related, but still something you can all definitely benefit from. I got a pair glasses from Firmoo provided for review, but the cool thing is you can also get a free pair of glasses from their promotion here. Firmoo is an online site that offers eyewear including glasses and sunglasses, including prescription sunglasses.

The pair of prescription sunglasses I got fit me very well. I have a small head and face, so sometimes when I'm looking for a new pair of shades, I'm limited with what fits me. They work very well to block sunlight, but the lenses are a bit too see through for my preference. In addition to the glasses, I received a cleaning cloth, screwdriver tool with extra screws, soft fabric bag, and a hard plastic case to protect the glasses. They are comfortable, lightweight, and most of all affordable. Of course we would all love a pair of designer sunglasses, but at a fraction of the cost, these will get the job done.

***Sunglasses provided for honest review***

China Glaze Desert Sun & Models Own Disco Inferno

Happy Sunday. Today I have something you don't usually see me wearing--glitter! I have started experimenting with using glue as a base coat to avoid painful glitter removal. I did this on Thanksgiving as a full mani using glue as a basecoat. Too bad after I showered and started getting ready they started coming off lol. At least I didn't have any trouble removing the glitter =P Here's China Glaze Desert Sun topped with Models Own Disco Inferno.

Snowflakes

Happy Sunday! Today I have a mani to go along with this cold weather! I used a base of China Glaze White Out and then did a white to baby blue gradient using acrylic paints. I stamped using BM 323 in Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep. I added a rhinestone on one of the snowflakes and some round silver studs to jazz it up a bit. I originally had all my nails the same, but I flubbed up 2 of my nails while washing the acrylic paint off of the sides of my nails =[ Don't you hate it when that happens before photos lol?

I also entered this mani in Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Challenge. If you like my mani, please vote for me here. Thank you!

My Golden Birthday

Happy Saturday. I hope everyone is having a lovely Thanksgiving weekend. I sure am. Today I turn 24 so it's my golden birthday! I got OPI The Man with the Golden Gun last month and wanted to save it for a special occasion and I decided to use it for today's mani. I used OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, OPI Black Onyx, and OPI The Man with the Golden Gun. I added some gold studs from Born Pretty Store. I love how these turned out, I feel so glamorous!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day loves! I did a quick Thanksgiving mani that I'm not even wearing today. I only have a few days off from school so I'm gonna try to do my nails a few times while I can lol. I used OPI Call Me Gwen-ever, Color Club Almost Famous, China Glaze Adventure Red-y, and China Glaze Mahogany Magic. Hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving with their families. I'm so thankful for all of my followers and for my husband who buys me all the nail polish I want <3

OPI DS Classic and Bundle Monster 318

Hi loves. I'm so sorry I haven't been posting much lately. This month has definitely been the toughest month of the nursing program so far and it's still not over. I promise lots of posts when finals are over mid December. Until then, here is a mani I had to find time to squeeze in. I used OPI DS Classic and stamped using BM 318 in Konad Black. My birthday is in a week on the 24th so at least I will make time for some birthday nails!

 

Here's a swatch of OPI DS Classic on its own. Such a beautiful tan holo!