Swatch and Review of Island Girl Trio

So a while ago I created a Neon Tribal Print design with these three Island Girl polishes that I received from a good friend (hi Hollie!). I just realized that I never did a full swatch and review for you! I can't believe I didn't realize this earlier because I love these colors! Unfortunately I don't have names of these polishes, but they come in a set and are sold wherever Island Girl is sold- predominately in Hawaii and Las Vegas as far as I know. I did hear from a reader that they are sold in Guam as well. So, for this post I will call them pink, coral and teal. 

Neon Week Nail Art: Neon Gradient and Rhinestones

Can you believe it is the last day of Neon Week already? It went by so fast for me. I enjoyed creating every neon look this past week and I think I learned a bit as well. Today I have a simple gradient with Color Club Flamingo, Wham! Pow! and Mrs. Robinson. I topped the gradient with China Glaze Fairy Dust and added some rhinestones on my thumb, middle and ring fingers. 

The Perfect, Creamy, Soft Pink: Zoya Dot

Hello! Today I have a very lovely soft, baby pink to share with you! I have swatches and a review of Zoya Dot. Zoya Dot is part of their Spring Awaken Collection and is available for purchase on their website. For the photos below, I applied three coats. Two coats are probably sufficient, but I wanted to be sure I had full coverage and no visible nail line. 

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!

Born Pretty Store 1 of 3: Rose Tuxedo Nails!

Press Sample

So excited to share with you some nail art products! I have been seeing these sweet little nail studs all over the internet and I've been wanting them all! Turns out, a lot of them come from the Born Pretty Store. This is the first of a three part series on Born Pretty Store products. They sent me three items for review and I have broken them up into individual posts. The first item I have to share is black acrylic studs. I decided to use the bows, but it comes with 12 different shapes. They are pretty small but fit in perfect proportion to my nails. I created a tuxedo like nail design but instead of making it solid, I stamped a rose design with my MoYou stamping plate! Applying the studs was really simple, I just applied top coat over the design, placed the stud where I like it and added another layer of top coat over that.

Swatch and Review of Zoya Magical Pixie Dust Summer 2014 Collection

Press Sample

Summer 2014 is shaping up to be beautiful! Zoya sent me three new polishes from the Magical Pixie Summer 2014 Collection and I have them to share with you today!  Zoya provided these for my honest review. The Magical Pixie polishes are very textured polishes, but even if you don't like textured polish you should definitely check them out. I have photos of all with and without top coat, and I think you'll be surprised!

Nail Art: Richter Scale Nails with Orly Baked Collection

Today I have three of the six colors from the latest Orly Summer 2014 Baked Collection. I have Ablaze, Hot Tropics and Saturated. I wanted to share swatches first, but since I got these lovelies I have had this design in my head and had to do it first! I have created what I like to call Richter Scale nails. I think it looks like the zig zag line that measures earthquakes, maybe I have my terminology wrong, but Richter scale is what came to mind. I painted half of my nail with Ablaze and half with Hot Tropics. I didn't use tape or anything because the center line is covered with Saturated. I used a striping brush to just lightly brush the color with tons of little lines. 

Nail Art: Zoya Tickled and Bubbly Gradient Tape Mani

Press Sample

Oh Zoya, how do you make such fantastic polish? I recently reviewed the Tickled & Bubbly Collections on my blog and was so inspired by the colors I had to do some nail art right away. For this look I started with a base of Jesy from the Bubbly Collection and created a gradient over that with Rocha, Rooney and Kitridge. I used striping tape to create my design. 

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.

Swatch and Review of Island Girl: Tropical Magic and Tropical Dream

Today I have two special polishes! Island Girl is a brand only sold in ABC Stores in Hawaii and Las Vegas. I was very lucky to have received these several months back and I have only now been able to try them out. I have a deep blue shimmer called Tropical Magic and a baby pink shimmer called Tropical Dream.

Nail Art: Chevron Stripes

Hello friends! Have I told you how much I love Stardust Polish lately? I feel like I am posting about Stardust a lot, but I have another goodie to share with you. Today I have Flowers Can't Talk, from her Alice in Wonderland Collection. I have previously shared Mr. Rabbit and Simply Mad from that collection, both of which I loved! Flowers Can't Talk is similar to Mr. Rabbit, but had a pale pink base rather than white and different glitters. I realized it has been a while since I have done chevrons, so I added those as well using China Glaze Harmony.

Swatch and Review of Stardust Polish: Simply Mad

Happy Valentine's Day! Today I have a really fun polish to share! It is my first time using a thermal-color changing polish. This one is by Stardust Polish and it is called Simply Mad from her Alice in Wonderland Collection. I don't see this polish listed on her site right now, that may mean it is discontinued. I love Stardust Polish so much! Drema has such great and unique creations, I want them all! Simply Mad goes from a light pink to a hot pink color with many different glitters incorporated. The colors of the glitter remind me of the Cheshire Cat in the cartoon version of Alice in Wonderland. 

Nail Art: Gradient Hearts

Valentine's Day is tomorrow! Whether you love it or hate it, you can celebrate it with nail art! I picked a particularly girly look. I created a gradient and added a reverse gradient of hearts over top. I used Color Club Endless, Sally Hansen White On, Sally Hansen Punch Drunk, and OPI Miami Beet. I only used three colors for each gradient, but swapped out White on which I used in the base for Endless which I used for the hearts.

Swatch and Review of butter LONDON: Fiddlesticks

Today I have something slightly unusual for me: pink! This is a very unique pink though. It is butter LONDON's Fiddlesticks. It looks like a basic glittery magenta pink until you look closely. I love that it is a little surprising. Check it out:

Nail Art: Be Merry Glitter Gradient

Hello! I hope you all are in the midst of a wonderful holiday season! Now that Christmas is over, I miss it already. I want to share a design I created with some polished I got as Christmas presents. The base color is Revlon Pink Chiffon and the glitter is China Glaze Be Merry, Be Bright from their holiday collection.

 

I thought this glitter was a great alternative to the usual green and red colors of the holidays. It reminds me of the kitsch decor that Target came out with for the holidays- bright colors in traditional Christmas designs. It is a nice alternative that I can use year round. The base was a little sheer, it took three coats for this design, but I probably would have done four if I was wearing it alone. One thing I changed in my routine this time was that I topped it all off with Just Ricarda's Glossy Glam, an indie top coat. I heard great things about it and I haven't quite figured out how I like to use it best, but I really love the shine. Maybe I'll post a review of it or a top coat comparison at a later date. Hope you like the design and thanks for reading!

Swatch and Review of Sephora by OPI: The Way Tutu His Heart

With the discontinuation of Sephora by OPI, I now have a stockpile of it. There were too many good sales for me to let the deal go by, but now I am teasing you with discontinued polish just forewarning you. I have SOPI The Way Tutu His Heart, which appeared to be a milky white with a sheer finish online, however in real life it is a pinky-white with an opaque finish. This polish reminds me of a white that just got a tiny drop of color.I applied four coats to get this look.

As I was painting my nails I noticed a striking resemblance to Essie Fiji- which I adore. So, I thought I would do a comparison. Below I have Essie Fiji on my pointer and ring fingers and SOPI on my middle and pinky fingers.

 

These two are really similar! I can barely notice a difference in real life, I wouldn't say these are dead on dupes, but they are so close I wouldn't buy both. I prefer Essie to the SOPI. The Way Tutu His Heart had such great prospects, but it was really streaky. Not the endearing- we'll get there- streaky, but the -I hate this polish- streaky. I thought I could get away with three coats, but there was just a streak here or there that drove me crazy. I would actually be really upset if I spent the full amount on this polish, but I got it for $3, so I can't complain. Since it is discontinued, Essie is a great option. Essie is one of those- we'll get there - streaky polishes. The first coat is not pretty but a thicker second coat does it. I added a third coat here just for extra coverage. I do love the color of both, even though it wasn't as sheer as I had hoped, The Way Tutu His Heart is a lovely soft shade that I know will go with anything. Thanks for reading!

Swatch and Review of butter LONDON: Trout Pout

Trout Pout is a color from butter LONDON that I have been eying for quite some time. It is a pinky coral color with a smooth creamy finish. It is one of those interesting colors that could swat either more pink or more coral. I think I hesitated buying this because I wasn't sure how it would look on my skin tone. Turns out, it looks great! The website claims that it looks great on everyone and describes the color as a cantaloupe. I'm not sure it looks like a cantaloupe color, but I do think this color would look great on all skin types!

 

In these photos the color does lean a little more pink than it looks in real life. It really depends on the lighting, but I found it to be mostly pink, most of the time, while in some lights it definitely had more of an orangy hue to it. The polish was a little thin, I had to use three coats. It doesn't usually bother me when I have to use three coats, but for some reason I expect butter LONDON to do better since the price is so much more expensive. Great quality polish, there was no tackiness or balding. I just wish I had used this more in the summer! Of course I discover a great summer color just as fall is kicking in. Oh well, such is life. Hope you enjoy this!

Swatch and Review of Sephora by OPI: Henna-thing Is Possible

Today I have Sephora by OPI: Henna-thing Is Possible!  Currently, Sephora just further reduced the Sephora by OPI polish!! Now you can get it on sale 3 for $10. Go get that! I bought mine when it was 50%, so I got Henna-thing Is Possible for $4.50. SOPI always seems to have a great formula and some unique colors. Henna-thing Is Possible is from the Indian Summer Collection 2012.

Direct Sunlight

Direct Sunlight

Macro Shot of the Bottle

This is a bright color for summer! I love how in some light is looks pink or fuchsia and is some it looks purple. It definitely has some blue leaning glitter micro-flecks. I applied two coats of this polish and it covered really well. It had a thinner formula than I am used to, but it evens out great in the second layer. This is one of those polishes that you are happy to apply because it is to wonderful and smooth. I actually wore this color much longer than I usually do and I had no staining. Colors similar to this have left stains on my nails, but this is stain free which is always a plus. Like I said, Sephora by OPI is one sale now for the same price as Sally Hansen polishes, so go get some girl!

Swatch and Review of Ruby Wing: Poppy

Hello everyone! Happy Father's Day to all the awesome dads out there!

I have an amazing polish to share with you! I was only recently introduced to the fabulous polish that is Ruby Wing. I think they are owned by Color Club, but I'm not 100% positive on that. Ruby Wing makes these transitions nail polishes, which are simply the coolest thing I have seen in nail polish for a while! I heard about it through my Birchbox subscription and was so excited to receive a sample! Except, I wasn't one of the privileged few to receive a sample. This story does have a happy ending, with my Birchbox points I was able to get it for free. Behold! This is Poppy:

 

This is indoors in the shade. Poppy turned out to be a lot more bright indoors than I expected, but still very pretty. The transition happens with sunlight not heat, I actually like that better. Here is Poppy in full sunlight:

 Amazing isn't it?? It changes so quickly too! I love the contrast from bright pink to deep maroon. It really does feel like I am wearing two different polishes. Here is a shot side by side:

 Here is a shot of my toes with Poppy indoors, it was a little difficult to capture the brilliance of it:

Here they look really dark, which I love. In direct sunlight:

I definitely need to get some more Ruby Wing, because this has me won me over! I think normally it retails for around $12 and on Birchbox $10, but they have limited colors. If you want to sign up for Birchbox you can follow this link: http://birch.ly/17elJL4. It is a $10/month beauty box. I have enjoyed it so far, particularly when they send me nail polish! Disclaimer: I get points if you sign up though my link.

Thanks for reading!