Dragon Egg!

Dragon Eggs!! Okay, I might be a little excited about this post. I have been coveting these dragon eggs for a long time. Accio Lacquer created a tutorial for these things that look like what I imagine a dragon egg could look like. Definitely go see her tutorial if you want to learn how I made these! I decided a blue toned egg would be perfect for me, so I found some polish I didn't really see myself using, a glitter topper and had at it!

Revlon Parfumerie: Italian Leather and Espresso

Man, do I have some apologizing to do! I have been so bad about blogging lately! Our internet went out after a storm recently, but it still took me a few days to get motivated to get a post finished! So sorry about that. The holidays are a killer for getting anything other than holiday things done. 

Today I have two colors from the Revlon Parfumerie line. These polishes are scented polishes with colors that are supposed to correspond with the scent. I have Espresso and Italian Leather to review and share swatches today. I have older reviews of Autumn Spice and Pink Pineapple, you can follow the links to see what I thought about those.

My Top 10 Fall Nail Polish Picks

Today I have a top 10 list to share with you! I love fall and I really enjoy all the collections that come out in the fall. So, I decided to pull together a list of my top 10 favorite fall colors. These aren't all from this year or even from a fall collection. I just love these colors for the season! They remind me of all the things I love about fall: the cooler temperatures and rain, the pumpkins, apple cider and harvest festivals. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Nail Art: #31DC2014 Day 27 Inspired by Artwork

I love Alphonse Mucha. I have been a fan of his work since the first moment I saw it, and have been lucky enough to visit the Mucha Museum in Prague, Czech Republic. I knew that his work was what was going to be my inspiration for today's "Inspired by Artwork", but I kept lamenting over the fact I can't paint like Mucha. Finally I realized that inspired by doesn't mean reproduce or copy. Therefore I based my design on the tones and shapes I saw in two pieces of which I have small prints: Poetry, from the Four Arts (1898) and Lorenzaccio (1896). I started with a base of Color Club Mod in Manhattan, a favorite off white. Then I stamped with Born Pretty Store plate QA90, which I have had problems with in the past, but served it's purpose here. I used Maybelline Bold Gold for that stamp. Then I stamped another image from Born Pretty Store plate QA88 in Revlon Trendy. I think the tones and shapes mimic what I am seeing in these two pieces.

Nail Art: #31DC2014 Day 6 Violet

I almost posted this one the same day as the challenge for #31DC2014! At least now I can say I am caught up with this daily challenge. I can't believe how difficult it is to keep up with this, but I think I am creating some really interesting new looks! Today the challenge is violet, I'm not sure what shade of purple violet is, so I just went with a purple I love and haven't used recently. I started with a base color of Orly Saturated from their recent Baked collection. Love this deep purple crelly. It is so luscious! I have been seeing a fabulous take on the turquoise nail look by Oh My Gosh Polish and The Nailasaurus, and I thought, why should that effect be restricted to a turquoise look? I decided to recreate it for today's challenge! Instead of using black and gold I used a shimmery somewhat sheer red and a gold. I used Revlon Blackberry, which I got ages ago, you can't even read the front of the bottle anymore! I did this separated water marble with that color first then again with OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby. which has fast become one of my favorite gold colors. This was from the Gwen Stefani collection. It was an amazing collection!

Swatch and Review of Different Dimension 50 Shades and That Is So Fetch!

Today I have a new to me indie brand to share with you! Different Dimension is a brand I have been following for quite a while, but never purchased, until now! I have two shades to share with you today: That Is So Fetch! and 50 Shades. I'm not really sure what to classify them as, but maybe a glitter topper with a jelly base? The base is pigmented but not entirely a full coverage type of polish. That Is So Fetch! was inspired by Mean Girls character: Gretchen Wieners. So funny! 50 Shades was inspired by 50 Shades of Grey. 

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 Revlon Parfumerie: Autumn Spice

I love fall! I am one of those people who want to pumpkin spice everything! Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin spice brownies, pumpkin spice candles and now pumpkin spice nails! Revlon recently came out with Parfumerie- a new line of scented polish. I saw this at my local Fred Meyer on sale for $3.99, so I had to try it! Autumn Spice is a brown based polish with orange and red toned flakie glitters. Take a look:

I love the subtle flakie glitter in this polish! The formula was amazing! I only needed two coats, and it was wonderfully self leveling. I really liked the way this polish applied. However, the selling point of this polish is the scent. I made the mistake of inhaling the polish fumes by trying to smell it from the bottle- not recommended! The fragrance starts to come out as the polish dries. I am not sure if you are or aren't meant to add a top coat, but instinctively I added a top coat. It had a great scent after everything dried. It reminded me of a pumpkin spice candle more than a baked good or a drink. I was really happy that the scent was good and it seemed to work. The problem was that halfway through day two, which was really less than 24 hours later, I couldn't smell it anymore. Now, after a full day of work I can only catch a faint scent coming off of my nails, but not even enough to really notice. I think this polish fails in that sense. If you are looking for a really strongly scented polish that lasts, this isn't it, but it has a beautiful color and an amazing formula which makes it worth buying!

Battle Royale: Drugstore Duochrome Metalic Polishes

Today's battle royale features some drugstore duochrome polishes! A while ago Revlon came out with a line called Chroma Chameleon and Sally Hansen came out with Lustre Shine. Recently, I found some of these duochrome polishes on sale, so I thought I would try them out. I really can't resist a sale on nail polish! I picked up two Chroma Chameleon polishes from Walgreens for $3.99 and the Lustre Shine polish from Rite Aid. I got one a while ago for full price, and one more recently for 40% off which made it around $4.50 or so. I can't remember the exact price. Regardless, I got these for a pretty good price and I couldn't resist sharing:

Revlon Chroma Chameleon Topaz. This one took three coats, but probably would have been fine with two. I just felt the need to add and extra layer. It is a nice green/gold/aqua polish. The shift from the three colors is really more prevalent in person, but it was very distinct. I felt like one of those shiny color changing beetles. That is kind of a creepy analogy, but trust me when I say it was a good thing. Really enjoyed this one.

In direct sunlight

Revlon Chroma Chameleon Cobalt. This one didn't really have a strong color shift. If I had to say what the other color besides blue was, I would say purple. It isn't a strong shift by any means, but it is still a gorgeous and vibrant color. Really is a true cobalt color. If you are looking for a blue duochrome, this isn't your polish. If you are looking for a gorgeous blue, this is a great contender. Photos below were two coats. 

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine Copperhead. Don't mind the shrinkage on the tips of my nails. I didn't carefully apply my Seche Vite. I applied two very wonderfully pigmented coats. The Sally Hansen brushes are shaped and flat, which make application nice and easy. Of the bunch, Copperhead had the biggest and most prominent color shift. It is hard to capture in photo, but it went from a metallic brown/bronze color to a burgundy. It is really beautiful! It has a nice warm feeling to it.

In direct sunlight

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine Firefly. I also applied two pigmented coats here. This one was an interesting shift from pink to gold to a hint of green. I'm not sure if that is really what a firefly looks like, but I'll take it. This one seems the most girly of the group.

I would say the winner of this group is Revlon Chroma Chameleon Topaz! I just thought that it was the best mix of easy application, color shift and value. I enjoyed all of these polishes but I did notice the Sally Hansen polishes were more prone to bubble. I think all of these are a great value, but some didn't really have as strong of a duochrome effect that you would expect from a polish labeled as such. I hope you enjoyed this post and try some of these polishes!