Finger Paints Masquerade Affair Collection Swatch and Review

I have a beautiful collection to share with you today! I have been seeing swatches (Betty's Beauty Bombs and Lavish Layerings) all over of this gorgeous collection and I knew I had to swatch and review these for you as well. Finger Paints Nail Polish is new to the blog. I do own one other, but never posted about it for some reason. It is sitting in my vault of unused photos! I'll have to pull that out again someday, but today I have the entire Masquerade Affair Collection! Finger Paints is only sold at Sally's Beauty Supply, so hopefully you have one near you. The collection features four colors with some vampy tones but also some brightness to it that I didn't expect. 

Nail Art: #31DC2014 Day 12 Stripes- Tweed

Today, the daily challenge is stripes. Since fall is coming on, I feel like tweed would be appropriate. I've been wanting to try tweed for a while, so I thought this was a great excuse. I used Sinful Colors Hot Spot as a base, which is a gorgeous dark blue with shimmer and then alternated stripes both horizontally and vertically of Enchanted, Sail La Vie, and Tantalize. I also added some bow studs from the Born Pretty Store. 

Nail Art: #31DC2014 Day 5 Blue

Today I have a fun blue look to share with you for #31DC2014! The prompt for Day 5 is blue, which happens to be my favorite nail polish color! I decided to use all Essie polishes for this look. I started with a gradient of Rock the Boat and Avenue Maintain. Over that I laid out what seemed like miles of striping tape and then painted Aruba Blue over that. I top coated and added some rhinestones over the pointer and pinky fingers. 

Tutorial: Euro Mod

So, my Euro Mod post seemed to be the most popular this week so far, so I decided to do a quick tutorial for you! I really enjoyed this look and I hope you do too!

Nail Art: Blended Tape Mani for Tri Polish Tuesday

Are you getting tired of Tri Polish Tuesday yet? This is the last one of this month, which means it is the last one with red, yellow and blue. I really loved these colors and was glad I got to use colors that blend so well to make so many more colors! I knew I wanted to create a blended sponged on mani for this last one, so that is what I did! I started with a white base (Sinful Colors Snow Me White) and added a tape pattern. Then I sponged on Sinful Colors Sail La Vie, Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, and Butter London Come to Bed Red.

Nail Art: Euro Mod

I hope you all had a lovely weekend! Yesterday my husband and I stuffed ourselves silly for an event called Savor the Pearl, which is a fundraiser benefiting cystic fibrosis. We had one of those passport things where you go around to several places getting "tastes" and stamps. You have a week to do it, but since we don't live in the Pearl District in Portland, we went up for one day of binge eating. Oh my goodness, I still feel like I am recovering, but it was fantastic. I wore these nails out for it. I'm calling them Euro Mod because the look Mod, but I also inadvertently used all OPI polishes from their Euro Centrale Collection, which was one of my favorites! I used a base of You're Such a Budapest, which is the lilac/blue color, then I free hand painted vertical stripes of Vant to Bite My Neck? which is the deep purple color and then I free hand painted horizontal stripes with a deep blue I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw. Finally I finished it with a large dot and smaller dots on each nail. Every nail is slightly different and I love how it looks so simple but complicated at the same time.

Swatch and Review of Morgan Taylor: Sapphires, Rubies, and Emeralds Oh My

 Today I have to share my first and only Morgan Taylor polish! I bought this a while back and just haven't thought to use it. I'm not sure where these are normally sold, but I found this one at a salon. Sapphires, Rubies, and Emeralds Oh My is a glitter bomb. It is loaded, and I mean loaded with glitter. The best part is that it has a good base color so you don't need many layers. I think the base is a blue/purple, maybe more blue than purple. I only needed two coats for the photos below.

Swatch and Review of KB Shimmer: I Got a Crush on Blue (LEMMING CRUSHED!)

I have been lusting after this polish for a long time now, and finally it is mine!! KB Shimmer I Got a Crush on Blue, took my breath away when I saw swatches a while ago. This is so gorgeous,  I am just going to let the photos do the talking. More comments after the photos.

Nail Art: Bridal Inspired Foil Stamping

Have you all heard of the Sally Hansen Color Foil Collection? It has been out for a while, but for one reason or another, I haven't gotten my hands on them until now. I have a nail art look today using Leaden Lilac as a base color. This polish is different from the usual polish where you use a base and top coat. This one specifically states to not use a base or top coat. The polish dries to a very metallic foil looking finish which has a really cool effect. The color is an interesting mix of blue and purple, I would call it more blue than purple. It reminded me of the blue/purple Pure Ice Laven-Dare because I couldn't really tell if it is was more blue leaning or purple leaning. I decided to pair the two for this look. Turns out Laven-Dare stamps really well, so I used my MoYou Tourist Collection Plate 07 for this design.   

Born Pretty Store Review: Pressed Flowers

Press Sample 

I have another Born Pretty Store review for you today! I received some dried flowers from the Born Pretty Store to try out. They come in 12 different colors and in their own protective containers. They come as whole pressed flowers, so you could really use the whole thing, but I decided to break them up and combine two colors to make a more detailed design. I created something similar to my Sideways Moons, but with flowers. I started with a base color of Nails Inc. Sheraton Street, added top coat, and placed the flowers in the still wet top coat. Then I top coated over the flowers and voila! 

Swatch and Review of wHet: Facetious

So I have a quick post for you today. As a follow up to my post yesterday: Primary Colors Unite!, I have wHet Facetious up for review today. I had never heard of wHet, but received this beauty in my Ipsy bag. Ipsy is a makeup/beauty product subscription for $10 a month you get about 5 good sized products to try and a makeup bag. I love it! If you would like to sign up through my referral link you may do so here: IPSY. Disclaimer: I do receive points if you sign up through my link. Facetious is a gorgeous deep blue crelly. There aren't any shimmers or glitters in it, it is just a solid gorgeous blue crelly. I only needed two coats for the photos below. 

Born Pretty Store Review: Nail Stamp Plate QA 90

Press Sample

I have another Born Pretty Store review for you today! The Born Pretty Store has tons of nail stamping plates. One of which I bought myself and shared in my Turquoise Stamping post. I decided to try QA90, which has this interesting spike design along with some other interesting elements. I really liked the look of that spike design, but I ended up using the filigree look for today's mani. I used a base color of Sephora Formula X in Zing and stamped with Sally Hansen White On. In the last photo I used Mentality Pop as a base and Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme for stamping.

Swatch and Review of Mentality: Pop, Legislate, and Fervor

I have another indie brand to share today! Do you all love indies as much as I do? I feel like I have been promoting indies a lot lately, but that is because I love the idea of supporting a small business. I feel like I can relate more to them. Don't get me wrong, I love my mainstream brands, but indies are pretty amazing too. Today I have Mentality Nail Polish in Pop, Legislate, and Fervor. I had never tried the brand before, but when they recently had an amazing sale, I had to pick up a few. 

Nail Art: Chevrons with Street Art and Nail Studs

I have a fun and different (for me) combination to share today! I'm finding that I don't actually own that many glitter polishes, but when I saw the unique Maybelline Color Show Street Art collection, this blue and black glitter combo caught my eye. It is called Nighttime Noise. I wanted to showcase it in this mani. I started with a white base, I used Pure Ice Superstar here and on my pointer and pinky fingers added triangle shaped studs from the Born Pretty Store (use my code: HANDX31 for 10% off). I then used Nail Vinyls and painted Sinful Colors Black on Black on my thumb, middle, and ring fingers. 

Nail Art: Pacific Blue Glitter Gradient

So, I wan't sure if I wanted to share this look with you today. I wouldn't call this a successful manicure. I had a difficult time getting the gradient to look right for some reason, probably because I was creating this look for a purpose. Sally Hansen recently changed the formula on a well loved polish called Pacific Blue, but are still marketing the new color/formula as Pacific Blue. From what I gather, it seems similar to Blueberry Blast, which I reviewed a little while ago. I didn't buy the new formula because it seemed so similar. The problem is the new formula takes several coats more and is a much darker shade with shimmer. Regardless, getting rid of a cult classic color just seems wrong to me. I collaborated with a large group of other nail polish fanatics to create this awesome collage! Can you pick mine out?

Nail Art: Fourth of July Designs

Patriotic nails galore! I have been seeing a ton of patriotic nails for the Fourth of July and I am going to add mine in as well. I did one yesterday that I loved, but wasn't overtly patriotic. These today are meant for Independence Day. I used the same red, white and blue for all of these designs. I used Ruffian: Ruffian Red for the red which is exclusively sold at Birchbox. I actually have the classic colors set (along with some others), but it doesn't appear to be available at the moment. For the blue, I used Sinful Colors Into the Blue, which is amazing! It really is a perfect navy blue. It has a weird scent, but the coverage and gorgeous color help me get over the scent. For the white, I have actually been liking my China Glaze White On White. I know in the past I have said I don't like it, but something about it has changed my mind. It is a little thinner than other whites I have, maybe in the warm weather, it has thickened slightly and now I love it. I love how I have a range of drugstore to high end brands here! 

Nail Art: Spring Inspired Water Marble

I'm so happy, I finally got water marbling to work again!! Water marbling is a struggle for me. It is probably because I refuse to buy bottled water just to water marble, so really it is my own fault. However, I got two OPIs to water marble nicely in Brita filtered tap water. Winning! I used Gargantuan Green Grape and Can't Find My Czechbook to create a sort of spring inspired look. I started with a white base on the fingers I was going to marble and the other nails have two coats of GGG and dots of CFMC. Sorry the names are long, so I am abbreviating.

Swatch and Review of JulieG 2014 Summer Collection

I have to say, JulieG hasn't been a brand I've been really excited to try out. I see it at Rite Aid all the time, but I am usually scouring for other brands. I never thought to look at JulieG until Young Wild and Polished professed her undying love for the polish on her youtube channel. You should check her out, she is really funny and gives really honest (brutally honest) reviews of makeup, skin and nail products on her channel. I am constantly checking to see if she has uploaded a new video yet. Anyway, after she talked about JulieG non-stop, I figured I should try it out. It is really affordable at $3.99 a bottle and available at Rite Aid, like I said. I saw a deal on Groupon for the whole Summer Collection for $12, so I figured this was my chance to see if I like it. I received 6 polishes and I have swatches of all of them for you today!

Swatch and Review of Northern Star Summer Collection and Cuticle Oil

Press Sample

Introducing (part of) the Summer Collection from Northern Star polish! Kristin sent me four of her very soon to be released Summer Collection along with one of her scented cuticle oils. I received Appletini! I have to say the first thing I noticed was that she packaged all of these products really well, each polish came in its own box, was well wrapped in bubble wrap and tissue paper, if you order, you will see. 

Nail Art: Marble Effect for #hepicksmypolish

Once again, I have decided to participate in #hepicksmypolish. Once a month you have a "he" in your life pick out polishes for you and you have to use all of them in some sort of nail art design. It is a fun challenge because it is always a surprise and you can't swap out any colors. I had my husband pick out three and he choose Deborah Lippmann Swagga Like Us (Amazing!), China Glaze Blue Sparrow and Sinful Colors Mint Apple. I played around a little at first but settled on a marble type design using the saran wrap technique.