Dandy Nails Betrayed Desires - Swatches and Review ♥

Personal Collection

Happy Thursday! Boy do I have a treat for you today! 

The second I put on Dandy Nails Betrayed Desires it automatically jumped onto my favorites list! This polish is seriously a must-have for everyone! The formula is perfection (I could have gotten away with one coat but I used 2 out of habit) and it is so gorgeous. It's a medium-to-deep steel blue with an amazing holographic effect. This type of holo is my favorite - it's there and stunning but doesn't cover up the color of the polish.  No topcoat for the photos.

Dandy Nails Betrayed Desires (in the sun)

I loved this so much that I took way too many photos - see more after the jump!

Dandy Nails Creep and Crawl (LE) - Swatches and Review ♥

Personal Collection

If you follow me on Instagram and/or Facebook  you saw that I received some awesome nail mail last night! Dandy Nails launched a new collection last week and I dove in head first knowing I wouldn't regret it! Sandy's polishes are among some of my very favorites and these are no exception!

Creep and Crawl is a limited edition polish because after creating an issue came up with one of the ingredients. So, unless she finds a new source this color is limited to only 20 bottles (some of which are already sold). My point is, if you want this one, you need to HURRY! 

Creep and Crawl is a black jelly polish packed with silver flakies (although on me they look more gold than silver). I love the look of this one and how the flakes sparkle through the black! The formula was wonderful and I used 3 coats for opacity and one coat of topcoat for the photos. 

*Any bubbles in my photos are from my topcoat.

Dandy Nails Creep and Crawl

More photos after the jump!

Nail Pattern Boldness The Girl With The Most Cake - Swatches and Review ♥

Press Sample

Happy Wednesday! I have a pretty combo to show you today!

Nail Pattern Boldness The Girl With The Most Cake is a mix of light pink, lavender and turquoise square matte glitters and small hex glitters in a clear base.  The glitters are well suspended in the base and everything was easy to apply and laid flat on the nail. I used one coat over Cult Nails Morning Glory and topped it off with one coat of Poshe. I LOVED the way the light glitters popped over the deep magenta base! 

*The bubbles in my photos are from my topcoat, not the polish.

Nail Pattern Boldness The Girl With The Most Cake

Continued after the jump!

Girly Bits Spring It On Me! - Swatches and Review ♥

Press Sample

Good evening! (Or morning or afternoon, depending on when you're reading this!) I have a fun polish for you tonight that I did not expect to love when I saw it in the bottle, but I ended up loving it a lot! 

Girly Bits Spring It On Me! (from the Spring It On Me Collection) is described by Pam (the creator of Girly Bits) as, "Spring It On Me! is a lightly tinted, lavender leaning milky base, with pink, pink holo, green, white, silver, and purple holo glitters. It's meant to be layered, and looks best over light pastel colours, or white or grey." Perfect description!  If you know me, or if you have been following me for a while, you know that I'm not a huge fan of pastels or crellies so honestly I wasn't expecting to love this one. Surprise, I do! I really liked the color of the base and the mix of glitters is so pretty!

I'm sure this looks awesome layered but I wanted to try it on its own first. I used 3 light coats and had no problem with formula or application. I used one coat of topcoat and everything was smooth, this is not a hungry glitter. 

NOTE: The bubbles seen in the photos are from my topcoat, not the polish.

Girly Bits Spring It On Me!

More after the jump!

NOTD: Cult Nails Morning Glory ♥

Personal Collection

Good evening! I have spent the long weekend cleaning and organizing (so NOT fun but it feels good to have it done!) so I am exhausted and I have no nail art MANIc Monday post for you tonight. I do have a gorgeous Nail of the Day to show you though! 

(As a side note, I put on an Elevation Polish on Saturday night and it has survived the last 2 days with no chips and very little tip wear! I will be sure to take a photo to show you when I post the polish I am currently wearing.) 

Cult Nails Morning Glory is from the In The Garden Collection. It is a gorgeous berry/magenta/purple with a lovely wax finish. The formula on this one was amazing and I only used one coat for the photos (and it dried super fast!). I wore this for Part 1 of my cleaning weekend and also had excellent wear with it which surprised me because I used no topcoat and these types of finishes generally don't have great wear time. Stupendous job, Cult Nails!

Please excuse the doggy hair - it's impossible to avoid it completely but they're worth it!

Cult Nails Morning Glory

Continued after the jump!

Dior Bird of Paradise Bahia and Samba Duos - Swatches and Review ♥

Personal Collection

Happy Hump Day! I am super excited about the polishes I have to show you today! 

When I first saw the promo pics for the Dior Bird of Paradise Duos I was certain I would be able to pass them up. They didn't seem overly unique and I thought WHEW! Well I was SO wrong! The second I saw swatches on Pointless Cafe I knew I HAD to have them. And I am so glad I bought them!

Continued after the jump!

Fun in the Sun Multi-Blogger Giveaway! ♥

Fun in the Sun Multi-Blogger and Shop Giveaway!

Ready for an awesome giveaway?  I have partnered up with some of my favorite bloggers and shops and it's EPIC!  MANY MANY thanks to Jen at The Jedi Wife for putting this together and doing ALL the work! She ROCKS!  

There are prizes for both US and international participants, so scroll down to see everything we have in store for you.  Some of us decided to send out a mystery package, and who doesn't love a good surprise?!?  Check these out!

The rafflecopter widgets are long but most of them are easy entries. It's not a requirement that you follow my blog via the GFC widget but I sure would appreciate it!

US ONLY

Prize 1 from Things I Love At The Moment

Girly bits Boo-berry, Colorama Gota and Sombra, Jindie Nails Mini Swoon

Prize 2 from Pointless Cafe

ButterLONDON Champers and Poole

Prize 3 from BeautyPopShop

Shop exclusive Maya H2pOp polish and a Do-Mo Panda Coin Purse

Prize 4 from Cosmetish

Coastal Scents Reach Mascara, NYX Butter Gloss in Strawberry Parfait, NYX Lip Cream in Strawberry Parfait, NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Strawberry Milk, Revlon Scented polishes Strawberry and Cherry

Prize 5 from BeautyGnome

$15 Llarowe Gift Certificate

Prize 6 from Princess Polish

China Glaze Bump and Grind and In the Rough

Prize 7 from College Polished

Zoya Yana and Bobbi

Prize 8 from Galactic Lacquer

KBShimmer Vegas Bomb, Pretty & Polished Phoenix, and 

Nicole by OPI Strike a Pose and Ladies in the Limelight

Prize 9 from Polished10

Orly Space Cadet, Essie Leading Lady & OPI Meet Me On The Star Ferry

Prize 10 from Beyond Beauty Lounge

THE NEW BLACK NEONS SET

Prize 11 from Manicurator

Dior Vernis Riviera

Prize 12 from Rain Down On Me Beauty

$20 Gift Certificate to Sephora

Prize 13 from Above The Curve Nail Polish

Your choice of ATC colour from bigcartel site

Prize 14 from SoFlaJo

Two full size polishes from upcoming collection

Prize 15 from Jindie Nails

Jindie Nails polish from jindienails.com

Prize 16 from 6 Harts Craft Company

Full size bottle of 6 Harts Bat Crap Crazy and 6 Harts Sea Glass

Prize 17 from Girly bits

Franken Starter Kit

Prize 18 from Lacquistry

Polish from Lacquistry

Prize 19 from Literary Lacquers

Polish from Literary Lacquers

Mystery Prize

Prize 20 from Musings of the Wife of a Jedi

Prize 21 from Polished Cousins

Prize 22 from Pretty In Paint

Prize 23 from The Nail Files

Prize 24 from Colorsutraa

Prize 25 from Jilltastic Nail Design

Prize 26 from Mandie's Manicures

Prize 27 from You Had Me At Makeup

International

Prize A from The Lacquerologist

$15 Gift Card to Llarowe

Prize B from Glisten & Glow

$25 Gift Certificate to Glisten & Glow

Prize C from Puzzled & Polished

Two custom polish pieces

Prize D from My Life In Polish

$20 Gift Certificate to Llarowe

Prize E from Ashley Is Polish Addicted

Illamasqua Raindrops

Prize F from Girly bits

Polish from new upcoming collection

Prize G from Cosmetic Sanctuary

Prize H from Love For Lacquer

Prize I from Musings of the Wife of a Jedi

Enter Here:

US Only Rafflecopter

International Rafflecopter

Layla Gel Effect No. 11 - Tropical Island ♥

Press Sample

Good evening! I have one of the new Layla Gel Effects to show you tonight!

The Layla Gel Effect Collection is supposed to give you the same shiny and chip-free effect as a gel nail polish without having to use a UV lamp. This means they should be super shiny and long-lasting. It could have been a little shinier on its own (although this is easily resolved with topcoat) but it did have amazing wear. I did a wear test on myself without topcoat and on my mom (who chips her polish faster than any person on the planet) with topcoat. I wore it without topcoat for 3 days and only had minor tip wear and my mom wore it for nearly a week with topcoat, also with minor tipwear. 

Tropical Island (#11) is a turquoise shade that does remind me of a tropical island and ocean water! Application was easy and I only needed 2 coats for complete opacity. No topcoat for the photos.

Layla Gel Effect Tropical Island

Layla Gel Effect Tropical Island

Layla Gel Effect Tropical Island

Layla Gel Effect Tropical Island

Layla Gel Effect Tropical Island

What do you think? Will you be grabbing any of these?

Layla Gel Effect shades (available in 12 shades), as well as all the polishes and "effects" from Layla, are available at Ninja Polish. You can also follow Ninja Polish on Facebook and Layla Cosmetics on Facebook for information.

Thanks for reading and happy polishing! ♥

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Celiac Awareness Blogger Collaboration Mani ♥

Personal Collection

Good morning! May is Celiac Awareness Month and some fellow bloggers and myself thought it would be a good idea to do some Celiac Awareness manis. Celiac disease is widely misunderstood and is often misconstrued as someone just being a "picky eater." From the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, “Celiac disease is an autoimmune digestive disease that damages the villi of the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. What does this mean? Essentially the body is attacking itself every time a person with celiac consumes gluten.” Gluten is an ingredient found in bread, pasta, anything wheat-based, and even items such as soy sauce. Basically gluten is in much of our daily food. When someone with Celiac eats gluten, it can take the intestine up to a year to heal from the gluten attack. Learning that fact blew my mind.  You can find more info at http://www.celiaccentral.org/ 

The colors for Celiac Awareness are green and yellow. I chose to wear a green color-changing polish called Impulsive that my friend Jin from Superficially Colorful sent me as a gift. She makes several of these (she does not sell them) and they are great! As you can see in the photos, it goes from light green to dark green. The lighter color is when you are warm and the darker when you are cool. It actually stayed looking like this on me. Obviously the darker green is where my "growth" starts on my nail (I have super short nail beds). I think the golden shimmer in this polish made it even more perfect for the green and yellow for Celiac Awareness.

Superficially Colorful Lacquers Impulsive (no topcoat)

Superficially Colorful Lacquers Impulsive (no topcoat)

Superficially Colorful Lacquers Impulsive (with topcoat)

Superficially Colorful Lacquers Impulsive (with topcoat)

Make sure to check out all of the other Celiac Awareness manis throughout the week!

Thanks for reading and happy polishing! ♥

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