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 4 Green

For the #31DC2014 daily nail challenge, Day 4's challenge is the color green! I love greens, especially deep forest greens. My all time favorite polish is St. George from A England, so today I paired it with another favorie Essie First Timer. I thought the contrast between the two would work really well. St. George is a holographic deep forest/emerald green and First Timer is a minty creme with no shimmer. I started with a base of First Timer and used the dry brush technique to brush St. George all along the outer perimeter of the nails inward. 

Swatch and Review of Zoya: Chita

Hello! I am sorry I haven't posted for a few days, my husband and I went camping! We have been wanting to go to Crater Lake for a while now and Labor Day weekend was the perfect excuse. Camping is really hard on your nails, so I thought I would go with just a plain textured polish this time. Zoya Chita is a forest green textured polish from their PixieDust line. It has a lot of gorgeous sparkle! I took the photos below in our camp site in full sun.

Nail Art: Green Dotticure for #fightforlifeandlive

Because of the tragic suicide of Robin Williams, the nail community has decided to band together to create green manicures for mental health awareness. The ribbon for mental health awareness is green, hence the green manis. I think all of us have been touched in some way by someone we love or suffer themselves from depression. It is very tragic that Robin Williams felt he had to take his own life, but I hope that with his passing, others can learn that they are not alone in this battle and that the stigma of mental illnesses needs to be lifted. If you or anyone you know is seeking help and is in crisis visit: Save.org. 

Video Credit: Moderngreen

With that, I would like to share my nails. I meant to post these earlier in the day, but I went on a hike and suddenly, it seems, it is 8pm! I started with a white base and dotted a gradient effect with two sizes of dotting tool. I used Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, Color Club Wild Cactus and Sinful Colors Calypso. I staggered the dots a little to give more of a gradient effect.

Swatch and Review of Sinful Colors: Peppered Amazon and Let's Meet

Today I have two Sinful Colors polishes that I have swatched and reviewed for you. I have Peppered Amazon and Let's Meet. I think Peppered Amazon is a new summer color, but I don't think that Let's Meet is new. They are both bright, summery colors that stood out to me in the store and looked unlike anything else I had. Let's Meet (yellow) is up first.

Swatch and Review of Pop Beauty: Loud Lime

Is summer all about neons for you? I go through phases of obsessing over neon colors and today I have a gorgeous one for you! I have Pop Beauty Loud Lime to share today! I have never tried this brand but have heard really great things from other bloggers. Loud Lime is just that, a bright lighter green shade. It definitely looks neon indoors and out. I started with a white base for these photos but on my other hand didn't use a white base and I didn't notice a difference at all.

Swatch and Review of Deborah Lippmann: Swagga Like Us

I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July! I'm glad it was sunny and beautiful where I live! I have a simple swatch to share with you today, one that I have actually had but forgot to share from quite a while ago. Remember this look? I loved the base color so much I had to take separate pictures before I added my nail art. This is Deborah Lippmann Swagga Like Us. My husband bought this for me for Christmas, and it is literally one of my favorite polishes. You know how I love glowy polishes, and this one definitely glows! It is a duochrome that shifts from gold to green. 

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: Plant Inspired

Do you ever see something inspiring and you just can't get it out of your head until you do whatever it was that you sought out to do? The nails I have for you today were just that. I have this house plant called a Sansevieria (I had to look at the tag) and I have been wanting to try to create its coloring on my nails for a while now. I used Color Club Wild Cactus, Sunrise Canyon and Sinful Colors Let's Meet. 

Nail Art: Green Chevrons and Dots

Recently I did a fun mani that mimicked the two manis I did for my mom and my mother in law for Mother's Day. I did polka dots for my mom and chevron stripes for my mother in law, so I felt like combining them into one look. I used all green polishes. I started with a base of Julie G Tahiti and on my pointer and pinky fingers added dots with China Glaze The Grass is Lime Greener and finally added chevron stripes with OPI Gargantuan Green Grape. 

Swatch and Review of Zoya Bubbly Summer Collection

Press Sample

Today I have the second part of the Zoya Summer 2014 collection, called the Bubbly Collection. If you missed the Tickled Collection you can view that post here. Unlike The Zoya Tickled Collection, Bubbly consists of jelly polishes packed full of glitter! There are six in all.

Swatch and Review of Zoya Tickled Summer Collection

Press Sample

I have something very special to share today. I am so excited to share that Zoya has accepted me as a media partner and sent me the new Ticked and Bubbly Collection for Summer 2014! I literally squealed when I found out! I am a huge Zoya fan, I have not yet met a Zoya I didn't like and now I get to swatch for them! I am just blown away. Zoya is a great company committed to keeping harsh chemicals out of their polish. They sent me these polishes in exchange for my honest review. Now on to the polish, there are 12 colors in all and I have broken the swatches into two posts. Up today, I have the entire Tickled Collection. The Tickled collection includes all of the bright creme polishes. The Bubbly Collection includes all of the bright glitterly polishes. This may be my longest post to date, but it is worth it! There are some great colors in this collection.

Nail Art: Emerald City

Hello readers! This past weekend I took a trip to Seattle and wanted a simple mani to wear for the trip. I, of course wanted to make sure the mani was suitable for the trip, yes, I'm weird like that. I thought since Seattle is the Emerald City, I would do some emerald nails. I used butter LONDON British Racing Green (they are based in Seattle!) and Color Club Apollo Star and my dotting tools for this look.

Nail Art: Galaxy Nails for #hepicksmypolish!

I came across a challenge called #hepicksmypolish, and I knew immediately I wanted to participate! The premise of the challenge is to have your husband/boyfriend/whoever pick out your polish for you. He picks three colors which you have to use and no others except base/top/glitter coats. My husband picked out China Glaze Black Diamond, OPI Vant to Bite My Neck and Essie First Timer. It seemed like a somewhat odd assortment until I realized that he picked them based off of our wedding colors! They aren't exactly our wedding colors, but he did pretty good picking them out.

Nail Art: Jelly Sandwich

I have finally created my first jelly sandwich!! What is a jelly sandwich? It is a mani using a jelly formula polish which is sheer but build-able and layering glitter in between layers of jelly polish. I used Zoya Frida and Revlon Heavenly for today's look. I first applied three coats of Frida to come close to full opacity, then applied one coat of Revlon Heavenly and one more coat of Frida. I then applied NYC's matte top coat and there you have it!

Comparison of Mint Greens

I have a slightly different type of post for you today. I was going through my spring colors and one of the colors I go to often for spring is mint green, it is such a nice light color and goes with everything! I realized I have several minty green colors and wanted to do a quick comparison post for those inquiring minds out there! I swatched five different colors: Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet, Orly Jealous Much?, China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On, butter LONDON Fiver, and China Glaze Re-fresh Mint.

Nail Art: Chevrons and Clovers

 St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow!! I love St. Patti's Day, there is just something about corned beef, cabbage and potatoes that is so comforting. Being Irish helps too! I created this look with OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby and my favorite polish ever: A England's St. George. I was inspired by @nailsofjessiek's (Instagram) chevron designs! I never thought to do sideways chevrons until I saw her amazing designs!

Swatch and Review of Julep: Celia

I have a Julep polish to share today! I mentioned the Julep Maven Box subscription in this post previously. There you can learn how to receive your first box for free! I find the monthly fee to be a bit much for the colors offered, but sometimes there are a few beautiful, unique ones. Celia, below is a nice foiled green color.