Zoya PixieDust Swatches/Review & Giveaway!

Hey guys! I finally have swatches of the Zoya PixieDust polishes to share with you! If you aren't familiar with these, they are textured matte polishes but they are sparkly too. These are definitely something different and while I'm not completely crazy about them, I know there are a lot of you out there who will love them!

Godiva is a sandy beige color that needed three coats for opacity. This would be perfect for some beach nail art *wink wink*

Dahlia is a black with silver sparkle. I needed two coats.

London is a smokey gray shade that needed three coats.

Nyx is a lovely shade of periwinkle and needed three coats.

Vespa is a fresh, minty shade. It reminds me of those sugary spearmint candies! Three coats here as well.

Here's a close up shot of Vespa so you can get an idea of how textured these are.

 
Chyna is the final shade in this collection, a deep red sparkler. This one needed two coats.

Here is Chyna with top coat. If you decide to wear these shiny, make sure you use at least two coats of top coat. I did one for the photo and as you can see, the polish already started eating the top coat on my pinky and ring finger within a few minutes of applying it.

So overall, I think these are a great representation of the texture trend. They are much more sparkly than I was able to capture on camera; you truly have to see them in person to appreciate them. I'm still not personally 100% on the texture train, but I would love to wear these are an accent with a shiny mani! Are you guys into these polishes? How would you like to win some? Enter below and five of you will each win a PixieDust polish of your very own!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Products provided for review

Disney Princess Nail Art Series: Rapunzel

I have more Disney Princess nail art today! Yay!! :) Today's princess is Rapunzel from the movie Tangled. I'm not picking these princesses in any particular order, I'm just going with which ones inspire me at the time and Tangled has become one of my favorite movies as of late!

I started out with three coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz on my pinky, middle, and index nails. I stamped those with Zoya Ziv to represent Rapunzel's hair. On my thumb, I painted Zoya Mira and then stamped a swirly design with Zoya Suri and painted the sun symbol with acrylic paint.

On my ring nail, I decided to recreate the front of Rapunzel's dress, starting with Essie Nice is Nice as the light purple. I stamped over that with Zoya Julie for the subtle flower pattern of her dress, then painted China Glaze Tart-y for the Party for the middle part. Once that was all dry, I very carefully dotted some eyelets and painted the ribbon of the corset with Zoya Kennedy.

Have you seen Tangled? Did I nail it? No pun intended! :P

Some Random KBShimmer Swatches/Review

Happy Friday all! I've got a couple of random KBShimmer swatches for you guys today, starting with Clown Puke, a glitter top coat with very carnival-like colors. I layered one coat here over Rescue Beauty Lounge Coral.

Berry Patch is a lovely, creamy light purple/pink with magenta, purple, and silver glitter. This is three coats of it by itself.

Lilac Dreams is a beautiful purple polish that shift colors depending on the light. This is three coats of it alone, but I bet this one would look amazing over a dark purple.

Band Geek is the last shade I have for today and it's probably one of the most unique. It has gold, silver, and copper glitter suspended in a deep brown jelly base. This is three coats.

KBShimmer polishes retail for $8.75 and can be purchased on the KBShimmer website. Do yourself a favor and go buy one or two! ;)

Products provided for review

OPI Euro Centrale Collection Swatches/Review

Good morning all! I've got swatches of the OPI Euro Centrale collection for Spring 2013 for today so I hope you'll enjoy them!

My Vampire is Buff is a creamy off-white shade that needed two coats for opacity. The formula was pretty good for how light it is.

Suzi's Hungary Again! is a super bright and cheery pink. Two coats here.

Vant to Bite My Neck? is a gorgeousssss deep eggplant purple. I love this one so much! Two coats.

You're Such a Budapest is a soft, periwinkle blue shade. There's a little bit of very hidden shimmer in here. Two coats.

Can't Find My Czechbook is an amazing shade of turquoise that needed two coats for opacity. I can never have enough turquoise!

Polka.com is a glitter top coat that has magenta and blue glitter with purple micro glitter. I layered it over Hands Off My Kielbasa!

Hands Off My Kielbasa! is a rosy shade packed with bronze shimmer. Two coats.

My Paprika is Hotter than Yours is a HOT hot hot orangey red. You will not be ignored wearing this color! The formula was fantastic and just about a one-coater.

OPI... Eurso Euro TARDIS BLUE TARDIS BLUE! Sorry, had to get that out. This is a fabulous royal blue, needed two coats for opacity. 

A Woman's Prague-ative is an absolutely stunning warm coppery orange shimmer that needed three coats for opacity.

Oy-Another Polish Joke! is a shimmery gold polish that I think would be best suited for layering over another shade. This is three coats and as you can see, it's still not close to being opaque.

I Saw... U Saw... We Saw... Warsaw yeeeeeeesh that is one long name. This is a lovely deep blue shade; two coats.

The Euro Centrale collection is available now in stores and salons and retails for $9/each. Do you see any must haves here?

Products provided for review

Disney Princess Nail Art Series: Ariel

Hey guys! I am so super excited to finally share this with you! I decided last week that I'm going to start doing a nail art series based off of Disney princesses. :D I hope at least some of you are as excited as I am about this. It's been a while since I've done any serious nail art and I really miss it. Disney always seems to jump start my creativity, so I figured I'd roll with it! The first princess to inspire me was Ariel, so that's where I decided to start.

For the mermaid tail nails, I used Zoya Wednesday for my base and stamped over it using Zoya Zuza. The skin tone is Essie Sand Tropez and I used acrylic pants for Ariel's shell bra top. I used Milani Rapid Cherry for her hair on my thumb and acrylic paint again for her starfish hairpiece.

So what do you guys think? I'm really excited about this series and I hope you all will enjoy it too!

KBShimmer Spring 2013 Collection Swatches/Review

Hey everyone and happy Friday! I'm SO glad that it's the weekend. School seems to be dragging even more than usual now that I'm in my last semester. If you're as ready for Spring as I am, I have some beautiful KBShimmer polishes for Spring 2013 to share with you! There are 9 shades in this collection and they come in KBShimmer's new printed bottles! They are so professional!

Lottie Dottie is a mix of turquoise and magenta glitter in a white base. There is round glitter (my fav!) and super tiny bar glitters in here. This one needed three coats to be opaque, but had a great formula. Honestly, all the KBShimmers I've ever used have great formulas.

Where My Peeps At is a light yellow crelly (cream jelly) that has round and micro glitter in soft, Easter-y colors. This needed three coats for opacity. I love the name!

Spring Training is one of my favorites; it's a pastel green crelly with purple, pink, yellow, blue, and green glitter. This one has a little surprise: it has a light floral scent! Nothing that will make your head spin, but it's there! This was three coats.

Iris My Case is a pastel lavender crelly packed full of purple, blue, magenta, and silver glitter. The glitter payoff in this is amazing! I used three coats here.

Get Clover It is an emerald green jelly with micro shimmer and green, yellow, and turquoise round glitter. I did three coats of it on my own for swatching purposes, but you could easily layer this over a matching base for a more opaque look.

Pastel Me More is another one of my very favorites. This is a glitter topper consisting of pastel glitter! I layered two coats of it over OPI My Vampire is Buff.

I Got a Crush on Blue is very similar in finish to Get Clover It, although it is a royal blue jelly and has much larger glitter in it. This one has giant holographic silver hex glitters in it, as well as smaller hex glitter and micro shimmer. This is three coats, but again, you could easily layer this over a matching base for opacity.

Squared Away is a glitter topper with a bunch of different sized square glitter in purple, blue, and pink shades. This is two coats over OPI Vant to Bite My Neck?.

Last but not least is A Dot Mess, a mixture of round black and magenta glitter with micro round and bar glitter. This is two coats over OPI Suzi's Hungary Again.

All of my swatches are shown with one coat of KBShimmer's Clearly on Top, a great quick dry topcoat. These shades go on sale today on KBShimmer's website and retail for $8.75. If you have been hesitant about buying from indies before, please take my advice and take the jump with these! KBShimmer makes awesome polish with none of the problems that some other handmade polishes seem to have. Do these scream "Spring!" to you?

Products provided for review

Zoya Valentine's Day Water Marble Mani

Happy Valentine's Day everybody! I'm not normally that into V-Day, but I love a good reason to do some nail art. I haven't done a water marble in a long time so I thought that I'd break out what little skills I have for a holiday appropriate mani.

I used Zoya Reagan, Lara, and GeiGei for the marble, with just Reagan on my index and pinkie nails. I was going to marble all of my nails, but I really like using them with accent nails better. So, do any of you have exciting plans for tonight? :P

Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate & Rhinestone Review

I got this stamping plate from the Born Pretty Store a while ago for review because I loved the adorable mustaches on it, but I knew it'd also be perfect for a Valentine's Day mani since it has a bunch of different lip images on it. I love how the mani turned out!

I started out with the Zoya ombré that you see below, using Reagan on my pinkie, followed by Lara, Shelby, and GeiGei. I stamped lips and mustaches over my base and added some rhinestones in two different size; the larger ones are here and the smaller ones are here.

If you are going to order from the Born Pretty Store, don't forget to use my discount code for 10% off! You can find it over in the left hand sidebar of the blog. :)

Products provided for review

Nail Candy Nail Art Pen Swatch/Review

Good morning all! I've got a review of some neat nail art pens for you guys today. These polishes from Nail Candy have a regular brush applicator and and a pen tip as well. I received the "Love Letter" set to test out and I have to say that they are really cool!

Here's a photo of the pen tip applicator. I think the polishes work best when you use the pen; the brushes are pretty wide and mop-like. I really like how the pen gives you a puffy paint look.

These dual-ended pens are sold on www.nailcandypen.com and retail for $10/each.

Products provided for review

Milani Color Statement 2013 Lipsticks: Reds & Oranges Swatches/Review

Hola! This morning I have swatches of some awesome new lipsticks from Milani to show you guys! Milani recently revamped the packaging for their Color Statement lipsticks and they now come packaged in beautiful gold tubes with a clear piece at the bottom that shows the color of the lipstick. Today I have the red and orange shades to share with you. All of these lippies have great pigmentation and smell like watermelon in the tube! The scent doesn't stay on the lip, but I love it!

Sweet Nectar is a bright orange creamy shade. I thought orange would be too crazy for me, but I actually kind of like this one.

Orange-Gina is a metallic warm orange with a "pearl" finish.

High Voltage is a seriously bright red with a "vinyl" finish. It is so shiny!

Red Label is a pretty even-toned red to my eye. Nice and saturated.

Cherry Crave is a warm metallic red shade. I generally prefer cream shades over shades with shimmer, but this one is very pretty and flattering.

Best Red is my favorite of the set and the first one that I wore. This is the most matte shade out of all of them (I actually gently patted a tissue over my lips to take away a bit more of the shine when I wore this). It matches perfectly with the True Red lip liner.

Ruby Valentine is the last and darkest of the shades. This one has a vinyl finish and is very shiny! However, you can see that it doesn't match too well with the True Red lip liner.

Here are swatches of all the shades on my arm. From left to right on the top: Sweet Nectar, High Voltage, Cherry Crave, and Ruby Valentine. From left to right on the bottom: Orange-Gina, Red Label, Best Red, True Red lip liner, Nude lip liner.

These lipsticks retail for $5.49, which is incredible for how nice they are. You can view and order them on Milani's website, or find them in your local drugstores. Do you rock red lips?

Products provided for review