Lyn B. Designs Our Little Infinity

Hey Y'all!!  Happy Wednesday!  How is your week going?  Mine's going.  This time of the year is so nuts...finishing this school year, planning next year, dance everywhere...I'm ready for a nap!

So I want to get to right to today's post because I'm so excited!!  We just had a swap and the incredible Natalie of Over the Top Coat got my name, and holy cow!!  She spoiled me!!  Here is what she sent me:

!!!!!!  Isn't she amazing??  LOVE HER!!  There was candy too, but it didn't make it to the photo...someone ate it all.  And today I have the first polish I tried, Lyn B. Designs Our Little Infinity (warning, this is picture heavy cause this polish is gorgeous!):

Pictures show two coats with top coat.

First off, the color of the polish is true to life in ALL the above pictures!  Yep!  Our Little Infinity is a duochrome jelly that shifts between a dark indigo to purple with small holographic glitters.  EEKKKK!!!  This is like, my perfect polish!  And the formula is incredible.  I was so surprised to have complete coverage in just two coats.    There was no streaking, no bald spots, just a dream!  And it wore so well.  These pictures were taken a day after putting it on, and there was doing great.

This was my very first Lyn B. Designs, and thanks again to Natalie, not my last!  Thank you again Natalie!!!  Love you!!

Hope y'all have a great day!  Happy Polishing!!

Review: I Love Nail Polish Birefringence & Cygnus Loop

Happy Monday Y'all!!  And yes, I'm determined that today is going to be a happy Monday!  So the radiator on my van is busted, and that's an expense we don't need (but then who does, right?), the now-a-teen has two dance classes, and for some reason I can not stop sneezing!!!  But it's going to be a good day, dang nab it!

Anyway, today I have two polishes from I Love Nail Polish's Ultra Chrome collection.  These went on presale about a month ago and I was lucky enough to get the two I wanted most...which was a feat!  It took me over an hour to get on the site and they sold out fast!  But they are back in stock now!!!! They are $12.50 each, click here! 

The formulas on both of these are great, a little thicker than normal, but not too thick to work with or need thinner.  There aren't any visible brush strokes.  The first coat will be streaky with some balding, but the second coat will clear that all up...just be sure to allow the first coat to dry.  The shifts in these polishes will knock you out!  All the pictures show two coats with top coat.

Bierfringence

Birefringence is mainly a shimmery blue chrome that shifts to purple (the most obvious shift), green, red and gold:

Isn't this incredible???  The picture above and the two below were taken under water because it seemed to be the only way to capture the shift with my camera.  But it is there in real life, promise.  I was able to get it with Cygnus Loop.

 

Cygnus Loop

Cygnus Loop is a purple based shimmery chrome that to blue, red, gold and green.  For me, the shift in Cygnus Loop seemed to be more apparent in real life, it just seemed to shift a little more.   Or it could just be that because the main color is purple, I liked it more, lol.

I know this is a bit picture heavy, but these polishes are gorgeous!!!  It was all I could do to cut it down to these!  As far as my experience with ILNP, it was fabulous!  They kept me informed as to the delivery and status of my order and it arrived in gorgeous packaging.  I wish I had a picture of the tissue paper and boxes, but I was so excited over these Ultra Chromes, I kinda of ripped into it to get to them.

 

If you want your own, they are available now for $12.50 on the I Love Nail Polish website.  But hurry, they won't last long!  Happy Polishing!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 









Review: Orly Angel Rain & Digital Glitter

Hey Y'all!!  TGIF!!!  So here in the USA it's Labor Day Weekend, which means a long weekend.  Here in Georgia there is a lot going on, sadly, none of which I'm going to.  I would love to go to Dragon Con, but crap it's expensive!!  There is also a book festival going on, but oh well.  Still not sure what we will do...

But in the meantime I have two of the polishes from Orly's Surreal Collection (I have two more for you later).  When I went to Ulta last week I couldn't resist picking up four out of the six.   First up is Angel Rain:

This is a beautiful light blue duochrome that shifts between light blue to lilac.  There are even hints of a pastel green in some light, but I couldn't get a picture of it :(  The pictures show three coats with top coat.  Even at three coats, there was still some visible nail line showing through.  But if you wanted to add a fourth coat, that would be fine, as the polish is on the thin side.  Despite the polish being a little thin I didn't have any problem with it running.  There was no balding and no streaking.  And unlike most frosty polishes, I didn't have a problem with visible brushstrokes.

I really love Angel Rain!  But just as a warning, the shift in this polish isn't very obvious, it's more of a subtle shift.  But it's still a very pretty polish!

Next up is Digital Glitter:

Digital Glitter is a very unique glitter!  It consist of micro pink/lilac glitter, really small red and purple/maroon glitter and small square silver holographic glitter in a clear base!  Whew!  It's actually really hard to see the separate glitters, what you see is just a whole bunch of glitter awesomeness!! 

Each nail shows the coats listed below with top coat:

I liked it better with three coats, but liked it with just one or two also.  The formula was great, I didn't have to fish for glitters.

The holo effect is subtle.  And despite all the fabulous glitter, this isn't a glitter bomb, it is more subtle, but more glittery than a matte. 

I really loved both of these polishes!  I love the dark look of the glitter, making it perfect to place over lighter colors.  Be sure to check these out!!  Next I will have the other two polishes I bought from this collection.  Until then, Happy Polishing!!!!

Review & Comparison: OPI Peace & Love & OPI and Elle Dancing Queen

Hey Y'all!!  A quick note, if you have entered my giveaway (and if you haven't shame on you, click on the giveaway tab above and enter), please click here to tell me which prize you prefer!  Thank you!!

I'm so excited to see all the new faces!!  Thank y'all for following me!  I really appreciate each and every one of you!  Now on to today's post because I'm so excited to show them to you.  Now this will show you how little I seem to get out, I had no idea that Elle made make up and no idea Kohl sold it!  But on a recent trip to Kohl's I found Elle Dancing Queen:

Elle Dancing Queen is a duochrome metallic.  For the most part it is silver but there is a subtle shift to lilac.  The pictures show two coats with top coat.  I thought this was gorgeous in the bottle and just had to have it despite the $10 price tag.  And it was wonderful, until I got it home and tried to swatch it.  These pictures show my second attempt at swatching Dancing Queen.  The formula on this polish was horrible.  It was thick and hard to control.  And no matter how much time I left in between coats, I didn't want to dry.  It was so easy to nick.  And if that wasn't enough, it was very streaky and showed brush marks.

This is one case of the pictures making the polish look better than in real life.

Now on to the good news!  On my recent trip to Ulta, they had the new San Francisco collection from OPI and I had to have Peace & Love & OPI ($9 at Ulta):

Peace & Love & OPI is a gorgeous duochrome of dark silver/pewter and purple and every shade in between the two.  The formula was fantastic, not too thin or too thick.  There was no streaking, balding or brush strokes visible.  And the color shifting was amazing!!  So obvious!  Want to know how much I loved this polish??  I wore it for FOUR days without nail art on it!!!!  Yep!  I rarely wear a polish for more than 24 hours and even more rarely wear it alone without some kind of nail art or glitter, but this polish was just too gorgeous on its own!

LOVE THIS!!!!

One More!

You have to see this polish in real life!  It has quickly become one of my all time favorites!!!  OPI Peace & Love & OPI is a must have!!

As for the Elle Dancing Queen, I don't know if I just got that one whacky bottle that wasn't right or if all of their polish is that bad, but at $10 a bottle I don't see myself trying it again.  Have y'all tried Elle?  What did you think of it?

I hope y'all have a fabulous day!!  Happy Polishing!!

Orly Space Cadet

Happy Monday Y'all!!  How was your weekend?  For me, it kind of stunk.  I have a cold and all I did was sleep.  All weekend.  And I'm still sick so it didn't help.  And it's our last real week off before school and dance start back up.  Oh well. Hopefully I will be over it soon.  Besides, my van is being worked on so I can't go anywhere anyway.  Bummer.  Now on to today's post!

I just recently acquired this pretty.  It has been on my wish list forever, Orly FX Space Cadet:

Orly FX Space Cadet is from Orly's 2010 Cosmic Collection, and y'all, it is gorgeous.  Pictures just don't do it justice.

Space Cadet is a dark, teal-like jelly base with this incredible duochrome shimmer in it.  The shimmers go from purple to orange, to gold, to green, to amber, to every color in between.  The most notable colors are the purple and greenish gold.

The formula was fantastic.  The pictures show three thin coats with Seche Vite top coat.  And the best part?  It dried so quickly.  I just love this polish and am so happy it's mine!  I bought it at Ulta for $10.00.  I know, a little high, but it's so pretty.  I hope y'all have a fabulous Monday and I will see you tomorrow with Try It On Tuesday!!  Happy Polishing!!

Simple Scroll

Hi y'all!!  See?  I told you I had a post for you today!  But I have to hurry, the now-a-teenager has dance soon.  So I wanted to try one of my new polishes, but it was so hard to decide!!  I finally chose one that I had seen in the Ulta catalog, OPI Significant Other Color, and a simple design to go with it:

I Used:
OPI- Significant Other Color
OPI- Purple With A Purpose
Acrylic Rhinestones (light green and purple)
Fine Liner Brush

I love this polish!!!!  OPI Significant Other Color is a pale lilac duochrome polish that shifts between a light pink and green!!  And the shift is incredibly obvious in person.  I'm so upset that I couldn't get a good photo of the shift.  But see that green rhinestone?  That is the shade of green in the duochrome.  The polish is fabulous!  The formula was perfect.  The pictures show three coats, but two would have been fine. 

Then just using a fine detail brush and Purple With A Purpose, I drew a scroll and added 3 dots.  Then using my top coat (and the same technique for rhinestones I described here) to apply the light green and purple acrylic rhinestones.  Sadly, since I was doing this mani around midnight, my other hand didn't turn out as well:

I really like this design, and it reminds me of two wonderful ladies I know.  I will see y'all later!!  Happy Polishing!!!

ABC Challenge: Q is for Quartz (sort of)

Hi again!  Yay!!  Second post of the day!  I'm on a roll.  Now if I can just get up and get ready for tonight's rehearsal madness, I'll be doing great.  Is it wrong that I just want to crawl back into bed until Friday?

But I have today's challenge ready!!  Today's ABC Challenge from the fabulous Kimber's Lacquer Korner is Q.  Really?  Q?  I think we should be able to skip Q and X, don't you?  But I was worried about Q.  My little smug self walked around all these weeks knowing that in my 400+ bottles of nail polish rested one from Sinful Colors called Queen of Beauty, a fuchsia glitter in a clear base (yes I actually know all 400+ of my babies).  Guess what?  I can't find it!!!!  I tore everything apart looking and it is gone!  So my gal Liz at A-Mani-Maniac came to my rescue!  So here are my nails, Q is for Quartz:

I Used:
Sinful Colors- Black on Black
Sinful Colors- Faceted

I started with two coats of black then one coat of Sinful Colors Faceted.  I just found Faceted last night and it reminded me of quartz, the kind in a geode.  It contains duochrome bar glitter that changes between gold and green, and micro blue glitter in a clear base.  YUMMY!  Although it didn't come out looking as much like quartz as I hoped.

But I still like it!  Be sure to check out all the fabulous ladies and their designs below.  I have to tell you, I can't wait to see what they come up with!!  Happy Polishing!!

Orly Fantasea & Sinful Colors Scene Stealer (Review)

Happy Monday y'all!!!  How was your weekend?  Ours was great!!  The little one had ballet rehearsal Saturday, then Sunday we just rested.  We all have a big week coming up, so it was nice to take it easy.  But before we made it home, I had to hit Sally's one more time for their buy 2 get 1 free polish sale!  As a result, I have two new polishes for you.  One is new to me, Orly Fantasea and the other is brand new, Sinful Colors Scene Stealer.

First up is Fantasea by Orly.  It's part of their permanent collection and some how I missed it.  But it's such a gorgeous polish!!  It's hard for me to describe the color...kind of a purplish mauve with gold and pink shimmer.  It is pretty sheer, but was opaque in three thin coats with no visible nail line.  The polish was thin, so be careful of flooding your cuticles.  It also has an almost metallic finish but without any brushstrokes.  I love this, such a pretty color and it would be great for the office:

Isn't it pretty??  It almost has a pink/purple duochrome look about it.  Pictures show Fantasea (on index, middle & pinkie fingers) in three coats with top coat.  If you don't have this, what are you waiting for?.

Scene Stealer is from Sinful Colors new Diamond Lust Collection.  I found them at Walgreens for $2.99 each.  Scene Stealer is a packed glitter polish with bright pink/fuchsia and light pink small glitters and medium sized, light pink, diamond shaped holo glitter.  It is such an unusual polish.  It actually looks almost like a rose colored glitter.  The formula was great, not thick at all.  And the glitters were easy to get out although I did do a little dabbing.  The pictures show one coat of  Scene Stealer (with top coat) over two coats of Orly Fantasea.  Out of the entire collection, this one was by far my favorite.  The others were all pretty typical...one color small glitter with matching diamond shaped holo glitter.  They had a light pink, silver, green, gold, light blue and violet and are all $2.99 each.

I hope y'all enjoyed this.  Let me know if you pick up any of them!  Happy Polishing!!!

Review: Pure Ice Deja Vu & Never Satisfied

Hi all!!  How are you today?  The little one and I are trying to stay warm as we keep recuperating.  Can you believe there have been snow flurries??  And remember...I'm in Georgia!!  Snow!  On March 26th!  I want my Spring!!!

Ok, sorry for the whining, but seriously, there is a reason I live in the south.  Anyway, as you may know, Pure Ice just released 29 new polishes.  And out of those 29, Deja Vu was the one that I was most excited about.  From the pictures, I couldn't tell if it was a glitter, shimmer, duochrome...what it was.  Then came the St. Patrick's Day swap I participated in and I got Deja Vu!!  Thanks to the incredible and fabulous Gini at Sassy Paints 2012!  (Check my facebook page to see all the fabulousness that Gini gave me!!  LOVE HER!!!)

You can see the incredible duochrome in the bottle.  Isn't that incredible?  For some extremely frustrating reason, my camera refused to pick up all the color shifting wonderfulness on my nails, but it was there in person.  Deja Vu is a bright blue metallic with a purple/fuchsia shimmer.  The formula was a bit on the thin side, and it had a tendency to pool at my cuticles (sorry for the bad clean up job, but my hands were shaking too much).  But that isn't anything that I can't live with, especially with how gorgeous this looks.

My accent nail is Pure Ice Never Satisfied.  This is a micro blue glitter with small silver and purple/fuchsia hexagon glitters in a clear base.  The photos show one coat with top coat.  This was beautiful too.  What's not to like?  Glitter, blue, purple...love it!  The formula was great on this.  I didn't have to dig for glitter and got fabulous cover in one coat.

I hope y'all are having a wonderful and warm day!!  Happy Polishing!!

Review: Hard Candy crush on lava

Hi y'all!  Well, it's Monday, which means it's time to start running around to our doctors again.  I just want all the wheezing the now-teenager and I are doing to stop.  And because of the wheezing and the medicine, my hands are shaking really bad, so it's going to be reviews for a bit.  Just until I get control of everything.

And on that note, I have crush on lava for you today.  crush on lava is from Hard Candy's new collection:

crush on lava is a gold/copper duochrome that shifts to mauve/red in an extreme shimmer.  This polish is gorgeous!!!  But first the polish formula, it was fabulous, not too thin, not too thick.  It flowed on smoothly without any pulling or balding.  Loving this polish!!  The glitter is magnificent!!  And the shifting color is incredible!!  So I'm going to let my pictures do the talking:

Isn't it fabulous????  Don't you just love it???  It is gorgeous!!  Hard Candy polishes can be found at Walmart for $3.99.

**Polish was bought and paid for by me.

It's Here!!! Review: Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Happy Monday Everyone!!!  I hope y'all had a fabulous weekend.  Mine was great!  It was the hubby's birthday Friday (which if you follow my facebook page you know because he couldn't help commenting on my nail polish purchases that day, lol), son I took the day off.  Despite gross weather, rain, wind and cold, it was fun.

But the big news is that my biggest lemming ever, Max Factor Fantasy Fire finally arrived!!!  This is picture heavy because this polish is unbelievably gorgeous!!!

Isn't it gorgeous??  And yes, the pictures are true to life!  This is two coats of Fantasy Fire over two coats of Orly Wild Wisteria, a very dark, vampy purple crème.

Fantasy Fire is a purple jelly with duochrome iridescence.  It's considered a dupe for Clarin's 230, but I love it just as much as the pictures I've seen of the Clarins.  Yes, only a picture...Clarins starts on ebay at $70.00 a bottle and goes way up from there.  Although duochrome means two colors and this polish gives off way more than two colors!!  There is green, blue, yellow, gold copper and red sparkly goodness in Fantasy Fire!!!

Even in low light there is glittery love!  The polish was a perfect consistency and went on smoothly and leveled perfectly.  I have no complaints about it!  It was everything I hoped for!  Since Max Factor is no longer sold in the USA, I did have to order this through ebay with an overseas seller.  Everything went perfectly.  I had no issues. The seller was from Poland and the polish cost me $11.99 plus $3.00 shipping and handling for the mini (this polish only comes as a mini, darn it).  Worth every penny!!!!

I will warn you that it's dangerous to wear this polish and drive.  Even though it was rainy and dreary on Friday, I couldn't stop looking at my nails because they were still glittering and shifting colors.  Thought the hubby was going to freak.  Bottom line on this polish?  If you have $15-20, buy this polish!!  It is SO worth it!!  Happy Polishing!!

Half Moon Tutorial

Hi Everybody!!  I decided to go with a more classic look today, well classic for me.  The half moon design has been popular for a long time.  It originated in the 20's and was the height of fashion in the 40's.  I remember my grandmother wearing her nails like this all the time. (She was so ahead of her time, she always painted the back of her nails, and she knew the secret to white iodine and your nails.)  So I have the steps for the classic half moon, but you know I had to change it up some. (The classic look-half moon color first- is nude and white, black and white or red and black.)  This is a very easy manicure, you just need to know the trick.

I Used:
China Glaze- No Plain Jane (purple/beige duochrome)
Icing- Golden Age of Glitter (gold and black glitter)
Diamond Cosmetics- Black Glitter
Pure Ice- Jaguar (gold)

So here's the finished manicure:

I started by painting two coats of China Glaze No Plain Jane.  This is such a pretty frosted purple with a slight beige shift.  This base color will be the color of your half moons.

Make sure that has dried completely, then grab your secret weapon: hole reinforcements!  Yes, those things you used in school are what you need to make this manicure perfect.  Place them down by your cuticles like in this picture:

Make sure they are down firmly so the polish doesn't leak underneath them.

Then I painted my nails with two coats of Icing Golden Age of Glitter, a gorgeous gold and black glitter in a clear base.  Because I painted two coats of Icing, I kept the hole reinforcements on until I painted the second coat.  Remove them immediately after the second coat.

To really show the half moons, I added black and gold lines.  Start with black and using a liner brush or very thin brush, follow the line made by the half moons.  Then follow the black line with the gold.  I used Pure Ice Jaguar.  It's the perfect gold and matched the glitter perfectly.  Don't forget the top coat!

So what combination are you going to use?  Let me know!  Happy Polishing!!