Guest Post: Courtney from Polished Lifting

Hello everyone! I hope all of you who celebrate had a wonderful Christmas!  I am still having computer issues so my posting will still be sparse for a bit, but I am hoping now that the year is coming to a close I can get back to posting on a more consistent basis again. However, today I have a guest post from the super sweet and talented Courtney from Polished Lifting. I love Courtney's blog! She has beautiful nails and photos and does fun nail art! I will list her social media links at the end of this post so make sure you check her out and give her a follow if you don't already! 

------------------------------------------

Hey there! I'm Courtney from Polished Lifting. I obviously do not run Ashley Is PolishAddicted, but I adore her and her blog. I feel absolutely privileged to have the opportunity to share some nail art with you guys today.

Over the last few months I've been challenging myself to do more nail art. Part of the challenge is picking out color palettes that are interesting. No matter how many combinations I try, I always end up paring something light with something dark. Here's the result this time:

I started with a base of Zoya Noot, and applied a glitter gradient to my index and pinkie fingers. I worked the gradient in three coats so that I could have more control over the glitter placement. Once I was happy with the gradient, I stamped over the remaining fingers with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Cherry Fast. The whole mani was then topped with Bohemian Polish Flash Dry. 

Products used

• UberChic UC 4-03 
• UberChic Uber Mat
• ILNP- Road to Awe 
• Zoya- Noot 
• Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Cherry Fast
• Bohemian Polish- Flash Dry

I would love to hear what you think of this mani, and what kind of nail art you would like to see in the future. Leave us a comment below with your thoughts.

Thank you Ashley for letting me takeover you blog for the day! You are welcome to "hang out" on mine anytime.

---------------------------------------------

Thank you so much for the beautiful nail art, Courtney! I love your mani and it really makes me miss my nails being this length and shape since I suffered a bad break on Christmas Eve.

If you don't already follow Courtney, please make sure to check her out at the links below!

Blog
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter

.

Guest Post: Michaela from The Mani Café

Hi everyone! I'm sorry I've been so absent lately. I've been out of town, as you may already know, and then when I got home I was covered up in work and had a lovely visit from a friend on my birthday. To top it all off, while I was out of town, my laptop faceplanted on the pavement in a random parking lot, so it's basically out of commission permanently. So, for now, I'm at the mercy of friends and family for computer access and photo editing programs are totally out of reach. So for now, my blogging will be sporadic, but I am itching to get back to it so I'll be back as soon as possible. In the meantime, I would love to keep in touch with you on Instagram so give me a follow over there if you don't already! Now that you know why I've been MIA, I have a fantastic guest post to share with you today from the lovely Michaela over at The Mani Café! 

She has some fun and wintery nail art, which fits the weather pretty perfectly right now. Michaela has beautiful swatches and nail art, she is absolutely amazing at creating one stroke flowers. If you don't already follow her I will list all of her links at the bottom!

---------------------------------------

Hi everyone! I'm Michaela from The Mani Café and I'm excited to be guest posting for Ashley today! She's an awesome friend and blogger! Hope you'll enjoy my post! 

I decided to do some simple nail art and try out the nail vinyls I got from the Pshiiit Boutique a little while ago. I love the simple triangles! They are so quick and easy to use and I love a good geometric mani!  

Paint Box Polish Polar Bear Club & A England Excalibur

For this design, I started out with one coat of A England Excalibur. This is a really nice one-coat silver foil. The formula, like all A Englands in my experience, was fantastic. 

I then used the triangular vinyls and one coat of Paint Box Polish Polar Bear Club. Polar Bear Club was part of the Christmas in July box put together by Ellagee and is therefore a box exclusive polish. 

Paint Box Polish Polar Bear Club & A England Excalibur

It is described as a 'squishy blue packed with blue, purple and fuchsia micro glitters and holographic pigment'. The formula is fantastic. Bear in mind this is just one coat over a light base colour. It is more intense and squishy when worn alone. The shade of blue and the sparkles are just so pretty! I finished things off with a coat of topcoat. 

Paint Box Polish Polar Bear Club & A England Excalibur

I really enjoyed this simple mani and I'm totally in love with this Paint Box Polish! What do you think of it? 

There are still a few Christmas in July boxes available here if you want to snag this beautiful Paint Box Polish! 
A England polishes can be purchased from A England (UK shipping only) and Various retailers (see list here).

Thank you to Ashley for having me today! I hope that you enjoyed my post! If you did, feel free to come see more at The Mani Café or on my Facebook or Instagram! 

Michaela 
xoxo 

---------------------------------------

Thank you so much for the fabulous post, Michaela! Make sure to give her a follow at the links below!

Blog
Facebook
Instagram

.

Guest Post: Jacki from Adventures in Acetone

Hello everyone! I am visiting my family in Oklahoma this week so some lovely bloggers have stepped in with fabulous guest posts for you while I'm away!  Stay tuned all week and show them some love! I also have a brand new collection post scheduled for Thursday, you won't want to miss it!

Guest posting for me today is the super sweet and talented Jacki from Adventures in Acetone. She does some of the most amazing nail art I've ever seen and is also a mom of 2 adorable kiddos! I will link all of her social media info at the bottom in case you don't already give her a follow!

--------------------------------

Hey, everyone! I'm Jacki from Adventures In Acetone and am so happy to be here! I just adore Ashley and was excited to be able to write a guest post for her. I know that we are getting deep into Autumn and most everyone is grabbing their darker polishes, but I don't conform. That's why I was so excited to see that OPI included some unconventional "fall" colors into their Venice Collection this year. OPI Gelato on My Mind and Purple Palazzo Pants paired beautifully together and I really enjoyed wearing this mani.

   

For this mani, I followed The Lacquerologist's Splash Floral tutorial in her nail art book: Idiot's Guides Nail Art. There are a ton of easy to follow nail art tutorials and I highly recommend it. You can see my review of her book HERE.

• I started out with two coats of OPI Purple Palazzo Pants and let that dry.
• Next, I wiped most of the polish off of the brush and dry brushed OPI Gelato on My Mind from the cuticle corner outward.
• Salon Perfect Nail Art Striper White Out was used for the easy florals and a small dotting tool for the dot details.
• I used a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top to seal the design and add shine.

  

 Are you a typical "fall color" polish wearer, or do you wear whatever you like? Thank you so much for reading and to Ashley for having me! You can follow Adventures In Acetone on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Adventuresinacetone.com.

---------------------------------

I am a typical fall color kind of gal, but I also wear whatever I want no matter what the calendar says so I love Jacki's mani for any time of year! Make sure to visit her at the links below!

Blog

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

.

Guest Post: Jen from My Nail Polish Obsession

Hello everyone! I am visiting my family in Oklahoma this week so some lovely bloggers have stepped in with fabulous guest posts for you while I'm away!  Stay tuned all week and show them some love! I also have a brand new collection post scheduled for Thursday, you won't want to miss it!

Today Jen from My Nail Polish Obsession has a fabulous nail art mani perfect for fall to share with you! Jen is one of my go-to swatchers and I also love to follow her on Instagram. She has some of the cutest kids ever and she's an amazing athlete. I always tell her I want to be like her when I grow up! ;) I will link her blog and social media accounts at the bottom of the post in case you don't already follow!

------------------------------

Hello dears!  I am Jen from My Nail Polish Obsession and I am excited to be guest posting for Ashley today.  I enjoy doing guest posts because it forces me to step up my game and get out of my comfort zone.  I love to paint.  That's it, just paint.  But now and then (especially for a guest post) I will give a college try at some nail art.  So that's just what you'll get today!  I am very pleased with how this turned out and it was easy enough that even the non-artist like myself can manage it.  So lets jump in and check out my mani!  Oh and before I go...a big thanks to Ashley for featuring me on her awesome blog.  Hope you're having a fabulous vacation!

*nothing to disclose*

Different Dimension: Shop, Mei Mei's Signatures, Rainbow Connection, Facebook, Instagram

Sinful Colors: Website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

When I sat down and thought about what kind of mani I wanted to do all that came to mind was something very Fall, possibly Thanksgiving-ish.  So I saw browns and golds and those rich earthy tones.  I dug through my helmer drawer and found these beauties...I knew they'd be a perfect match!  I started out with Sinful Colors Leather Loose, a matte brown full of gold and red shimmer.  This color is gorgeous both matte and with topcoat!  I left it matte because that was the look I wanted.  I used 3 coats of Leather Loose.  

I then used some gold nail art tape to create "V" shapes on all my nails.  I usually pull the tape off but I decided to leave it as part of the mani this time.  Next I used Different Dimension Pilgrimatic from the Shooting Star series.  This glitter bomb is gorgeous!  It's full of gold, red, copper orange and holo glitters.  I dabbed one coat of Pilgrimatic inside each "V".  I finished it off with a layer of matte topcoat. 

-----------------------------------------

Thank you so much, Jen! I love this mani! Check her out at the links below if you don't already follow her!

Blog
Facebook
Instagram

.

Guest Post: Kim from The Ides of Polish

Hello everyone! I am visiting my family in Oklahoma this week so some lovely bloggers have stepped in with fabulous guest posts for you while I'm away!  Stay tuned all week and show them some love! I also have a brand new collection post scheduled for Thursday, you won't want to miss it!

Today I have a guest who lives in one of the best places ever - England! She is from New York and visits her family in the states often, so she has the best of both worlds! Kim posts often on her Facebook page. She posts manis often and also shares some beautiful scenery photos. I highly suggest giving her a follow if you don't already!

--------------------------------------

Hello! I'm Kim from The Ides of Polish. I'm really excited to help out Ashley with a guest post while she's helping out her family. I've know Ashley for several years and I know she LOVES Autumn colors, so I thought that this dotticure would be right up her alley. Instead of going through all my polish, I decided to just stick with one brand and since I have a lot of Illamasqua in many different colors, I thought that would be my best bet! I've used all these colors: Alarm, Aorta, bacterium, Charisma, Faithful, Insanity, Melange, Radium, Self, Stagnate (base color) and Whack. Base coat is Pure Ice Bottom Line and top coat is Pure Ice Girl On The Run (2 coats and in second and third pictures). Hope you like this dotticure!

I don't tend to post very often on my blog any more but I do post a few times a week on my Facebook page, so go check me out over there! 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kim is right, I love me some Autumn colors! This was such a fun mani! Thanks, Kim! Make sure you check out her Facebook page below!

Facebook 

.

Guest Post: Sheila from Pointless Cafe

Hello everyone! I am visiting my family in Oklahoma this week so some lovely bloggers have stepped in with fabulous guest posts for you while I'm away!  Stay tuned all week and show them some love! I also have a brand new collection post scheduled for Thursday, you won't want to miss it!

To kick off the week the amazing Sheila from Pointless Cafe is here to share some nail art! Her blog features a little bit of everything - fabulous swatches, gorgeous nail art and sometimes a rambling or two. She likes to keep it fun and fresh and has a great writing style. I will link her blog and social media accounts at the bottom in case you don't already follow her - but I'm sure most of you already do. ;)

----------------------------------

Hi everyone! *waves frantically* I'm very honored to be guest posting for Ashley today on her lovely blog. I have some random nail art for you that I did one day a week or so ago because it was chilly and gloomy outside - a floral seemed just the right juxtaposition of happy and gloomy.

With Girly Bits What a Rush top coat...

With Girly Bits Polish Matte'rs...

For this one, I started with a gradient using 2 green Zoyas. Unfortunately, I've put them up and I forgot to write down which ones they were. The rest was done with cheap acrylic paints just in a random way.

So how about you? Do you restrict your nail art to seasonal things? Or do you just do whatever makes you happy on any given day?

I hope Ashley is having a great break...stay tuned for more guest posts from some great bloggers!

...polish and puppy kisses,

Sheila

---------------------------------

Thank you so much, Sheila! I love this fun look! Check her out at the links below if you don't already follow her!

Blog
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter

.

Guest Post from Sheila at Pointless Cafe featuring Above the Curve Thrilling ♥

Between life being hectic and not feeling well I have fallen a bit behind in my posts so my dear friend Sheila stepped in to help me out tonight! If you don't already follow Sheila, make sure you head on over to Pointless Cafe and check her out! Thank you so much, Sheila! 

-------------------------------------------

Nothing to Disclose

*This product is Cruelty Free 

♥

Hi everyone!!! I'm so excited to be doing a guest post for Ashley and you guys! I have a really pretty one for you and it's available now and ON SALE! Love it when that happens!

Above the Curve

Thrilling

Thrilling is a bluer version of Husbands Just Don't Understand and it's a gorgeous blue-leaning teal with loads of shimmer and a bit of scattered holo. Formula and application were flawless! It can be a one-coater even, but I've used two coats and no top coat for the photos.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow, this one really got me. It's just really pretty and sparkly and it's saturated enough that it even looks good on my bleached flour skin! What do you think?

It's ON SALE right now at Above the Curve's site for $7.00 for a full-sized bottle!

Above the Curve polishes are available on their Big Cartel shop here and their Etsy shop here. You can also follow them on Facebook here to stay up-to-date on availability, new collections, promos, etc. The BEST part? $1 of every bottle sold goes to Shriner's Hospital for Children! Other polishes in full-sized bottles retail for $9.00. 


When you have time, come on over and visit me at Pointless Cafe!

Thanks for having me Ash!

Sheila

---------------------------------------------

Well that one is going directly on my wish list! Thanks again for the gorgeous pics and great post, Sheila! ♥

.

Guest Post Featuring A England St. George and Elevation Polish Ama Dablam!

Hello everyone! I did a guest post for the lovely Mira at Pamper with Polish featuring Elevation Polish Ama Dablam over A England St. George! Check it out here!

.

Guest Post Saturday! Lauriestrodes Fun With Nails with a Lovely DuoChrome and Glitter Layering Combo!

I have a guest post for you tonight from my very sweet friend Marie-Luise! Her blog, Lauriestrodes Fun With Nails, is super fun and she is awesome at nail art! Plus her nails are gorgeous! I definitely recommend that you check her out and give her a follow. And did I mention she is a sweetheart? ;-) Thanks Marie for this amazing post!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I am a sucker for British polish. One of my earliest purchases when I started out collecting back in 2009 were two Leighton Denny polishes, Sex Kitten and Diamond Diva. I remember being less than impressed due to heavy bubbling, but I loved the colours so I kept them. Then half a year later I saw The Heiress and simply had to have it. It was a lovely blue based lilac that was absolutely breathtaking - and after trying the other two colours again and having no problems at all, I haven’t looked back. If I come across a Lenny Deighton polish I fall in love with I will, at some point, buy it.

I am also a sucker for duo/multichromes, so when I saw the Space themed Atmospheric Collection I fell in instant lust with Your Planet or Mine, an oil slick like polish, flashing dark teal and purple in the bottle, that seemed like nothing else I have come across.


And since I am also a glitter ho’ I couldn’t help being attracted to Big Bang as well. The dark teal jelly base, black and silver glitter with microscopic teal shimmer particles makes this totally worth the price tag (11 £).

Your Planet or Mine was extremely hard to photograph but I was lucky enough to have both overcast weather and sunshine the day I took pictures which showcases all it’s awesomeness.

A little warning if you decide to buy Big Bang: it dries VERY gritty and it really is a top coat eater if ever I saw one, even some of my Lynnderella’s require less than this one. I poured two heavy layers on, and I could still feel slight grittiness. I recommend you use Gelous or something similar in order to save on your top coat.

But onto the pictures, I am sure you’d rather feast your eyes on some polish gorgeousness than reading my winded post :D

Sometimes the purple likes to come out and play:

But mostly it is just the awesome teal shimmer that shows up:

If you feel like trying this lovely British brand you can purchase polishes and other nail care products (the glass file is outstanding) at www.beautybay.com, www.lookfantastic.com and www.feelunique.com. All three etailers have free worldwide shipping.

A huge thank you to you Ashley, for letting me share some of my polishes.

My Guest Post at Nails Adored!

I am the guest blogger over at Nails Adored today! Click HERE to check it out!

Guest Post Saturday! Jen's Wonderland with Layla Hologram Effect Jade Groove - Swatches and Review

It's time for another Guest Post Saturday! (If you missed GPS last week you can see that post HERE) Today is my dear friend Jen from Jen's Wonderland. Jen has done a guest post for me once before (you can find it HERE) and today she is back with another AMAZING holo. I have known Jen for almost a year now and have nothing but wonderful things to say about her. If you don't already follow her you should definitely check her out. Now let's get to the stunning post. Thanks so much for the post Jen!! ♥

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello everyone!!!!  I was very excited (and honored) when Ash asked me to guest blog again.  Boy, do I have a gorgeous holo to show you!  Layla Hologram Effect "Jade Groove."  The holo effect on this is insane, it makes other holos look kind of weak.  Ones that I did not consider weak!  I will admit I did not use the buffer that is recommended, no base coat either.  I might try the buffer next time to see if it does make a difference.  I applied 3 coats and it definitely required patience, I experienced balding and dragging.  The less brush stokes, the better with this.  The extra effort is worth it though, SO awesome. 
I topped it off with 2 coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat.  To me, I didn't notice it weaken the holo effect.  The wear (on me) was great too.  I wore it for 4 days with no tip wear or anything!!! 

Have a great weekend everyone!!  Thanks again Ash for having me!

Xoxo,
Jen

Guest Post Saturday! Pointless Cafe with Dior Plaza - Swatches and Review

I mentioned in my post earlier today that I would be starting Guest Post Saturdays for the next few weeks. I will be doing a series of guests posts from some of my favorite bloggers and women I consider friends. For my very first guest poster I have Sheila from Pointless Cafe. This is one of my favorite blogs, her nails and swatches are stunning. Plus she is Cruelty-Free and a true sweetheart. Well, no need for me to keep going on and on, you will be able to see it for yourself. Thank you so much for the guest post Sheila! ♥

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


When Ashley said she was thinking of doing guest posts on some Saturdays, I jumped at the chance! And then I sat there thinking “what on earth am I going to post about?” I was like Horshack from Welcome Back, Kotter! “Oh oh OH! ME!” That’s always the way with me. Speak first and think later. 

I’d just received Dior Plaza and I think I may be at least partially to blame for Ashley’s recent, um...interest? in Dior (Okay, FINE! I’m an enabler) so I thought it would be quite appropriate to post about it. So here she is!

Dior Plaza is part of Dior’s Color Block for Spring 2012 Collection (along with Riviera, Lucky and Incognito) It’s a very saturated, bright hot rosy pink crème that applied in typical Dior fashion – like buttah! Two smooth coats for full opacity. Very creamy formula. Because it’s one of those bright colors, I had a bit of a hard time photographing it.

All photos showing two coats and no top coat.

Gratuitous Twinkie shot. Murphy just wasn’t interested in showing off nail polish. He’s such a boy!

This Dior collection, including Plaza, is currently available in the US at Dior.com and various other retailers such as Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, etc. for $23.00. Dior bottles are .33 ounces.