Shimmer Polish - Kelly

Happy Friday! To kick off the weekend I have another Shimmer Polish to share with you today. This one is Kelly, and it's utterly amazing. Kelly is made up of medium green and gold glitter in a clear base. The formula was easy to work with and it was completely opaque in two coats. The glitter laid flat as well, even before I topped it off with Seche Vite. This may be my favorite Shimmer Polish yet!

You can purchase Shimmer Polish on Etsy, here. You can also check out all of the polishes offered by Shimmer Polish on her website, www.ShimmyShimmer.com. They are full size bottles that retail for $12.00 each.

This polish was provided for my honest review.

Twinsie Tuesday - Saran Wrap Mani

Good Morning! The challenge for today is a saran wrap manicure. Honestly, I dreaded this. While I think the outcome is pretty cool the idea of making a mess is what has always held me back. I got my saran wrap cut and slathered the Vaseline around my cuticles to ease clean up. At first, I used OPI La Boheme and Deutsch You Want Me Baby. The colors were too close and I could barely see the Saran Wrap effect. I pulled out Zoya Ziv and went to work. Here's what I ended up with....

This reminds me a little bit of a Christmas ornament, but I like the outcome. If it wasn't for this challenge, I would have never done it on my own. The clean up was pretty minimal, I basically just wiped the polish off the Vaseline each time I finished a nail.

Check out my Twinsies and their Saran Wrap manis:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jamie at Polish, Please!

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

Shimmer Polish - Elsa

Good Morning, all! I hope everyone had a good weekend. I'm still sick so I laid low this weekend. Today I have another Shimmer Polish, this one is Elsa. Elsa has different size glitters in a mix of red, turquoise and gold. All of the glitter in Elsa ranges from small to absolutely tiny. The base is ever so slightly tinted red. The formula was easy to work with and I found the dry time to be quick. Two coats was almost fully opaque, but I chose to go with three to get everything completely covered. I topped this off with a coat of Seche Vite.

You can purchase Shimmer Polish on Etsy, here. You can also check out all of the polishes offered by Shimmer Polish on her website, www.ShimmyShimmer.com. They are full size bottles that retail for $12.00 each.

This polish was provided for my honest review.

China Glaze Medallion

Happy Friday everyone!! I've had these photos kicking around for the last few weeks, and with all of the posts on the Zoya Guilty Pleasures set I decided it was time to post this. First off, I'm not a huge fan of gold nail polish or gold glitter but I was in Sephora a few weeks ago and tried the Sephora by OPI 18k gold top coat and instantly fell in love. I couldn't bring myself to spend $30 on it, so I came home and decided to look through my stash. I figured I could find something to fill the void.

I pulled out China Glaze Medallion which I had bought during one of my first trips to 8ty8 Beauty. It has been sitting in my stash, untried, for about 1.5-2 years. I layered one coat over Misa Dirty Sexy Money and fell in love. Obviously it's not a dupe for the 18k gold top coat but the price is fair and friendly. I scored this beauty for $3.88. Medallion has small gold glitter and holographic glitter in a clear base.

I have two coats of Medallion on my pointer finger and one coat of Medallion on the remaining nails.

 

 

Is it exact to any of the gold flake top coats? Nope. Does it work for me and my wallet? Sure does.  :)

What do you guys think? Will any of you be purchasing the new 18k gold top coats that are coming out (by OPI and Zoya), or does anyone own the Sephora by OPI polish?



A England Princess Sabra (Tristam Eyes) and a Comparison Swatch

Hey ladies! I have another fabulous polish from the land of Llarowe. Llarowe brings the most magnificent international polishes to us US girls again and again. When the A England The Legends collection went up for sale last week I had to grab them all, right away. I was shocked to find how quickly they sold out. I had a hard time choosing which to swatch first. Do I save the best for last, or start with the one that speaks to me the most and work my way down? They are all amazing and I couldn't chose, so I decided to mix them up based on color.

Princess Sabra (Tristam Eyes) is one of the polishes that completely caught me off guard. I'm not a fan of gold polish, but the olive undertones in this made this one of my top lemmings. The holo in this is present both indoors and outdoors. Formula was amazing and easy to work with. It was completely opaque in two coats and dried smooth as glass. This polish reminded me of something antique, or something I would find in a treasure chest at the bottom of the sea (lol)

Enough yapping for now.... (3 indoor, 1 outdoor photo)

A quick comparison for you guys as well. Before I got this in the mail I thought it would be similar to China Glaze GR8 or FYI from their discontinued OMG collection. I knew the holo in A England wasn't linear, but I figured the base color would be similar. I was completely wrong! lol.

First a bottle shot:

And now swatched on the nail:

From pointer to pinky:

China Glaze FYI, A England Princess Sabra, China Glaze GR8, A England Princess Sabra.

Completely different! The green undertone in Princess Sabra (Tristam Eyes) is prominent. So even if you own FYI or GR8, you need this one. While the formula on the China Glaze polishes is fine, I definitely prefer the smooth, glass-like finish of the A-England. Even without a top coat every A England I have tried dries with a shine.

I was trying to wait until my nubbins grew out to swatch these, but I couldn't wait. I plan on doing a comparison shot for each one from the collection, so stay tuned! Once again, you can pick these A Englands up from Llarowe for $12.00 each. The bottle size is slightly smaller, at 4 fl oz. As far as pricing goes they are a little more than some other polishes, but worth it. (Shipping within the US is also free with orders over $50). They will also be available on the A England website with free worldwide shipping.

Julep 'Sienna'

Happy Sunday! Back to work tomorrow :(  Today's post is the final review of the Julep polishes I received this month.  I'm excited to see what is going to come in September's box. I googled the 'It Girl' box for September and it's coming with a yellow polish. I may request another box pull lol.

'Sienna' is a gold shimmer polish. I wasn't expecting to like this. When I got the box I loved it in the bottle. On my hands I hated it. I swatched it and took it right off. Maybe I could wear this around the holidays but not now.

Formula on 'Sienna' was great. This could have been a one coater if I was more careful.
The swatches below are two coats of 'Sienna' and no top coat.

(Check out the last photo - this window like decal is on the side of the bottle. I HATE it!)

What the hell is this window like decal on 1 side of the bottle?!?! I hate it lol.

NYX Girls 'Shimmer'

Today I have NYX Girls 'Shimmer' for you. There is no better way to describe this polish than it's name. It's jam packed with shimmer.

When I picked this up it looked a little like OPI's 'Rally Pretty Pink' under the lighting in the store. When I got it home I realized it's nothing like 'Rally Pretty Pink'. A little disappointing, but it's still nice. It looked a little more pink in the store (as well as in the bottle), where as when I got it home it's a little more of a rose gold color.

The photos below are two coats of 'Shimmer' with no top coat.

OPI 'It's My Year'

Today I have OPI's 'It's My Year' for you. It's from the new 'Miss Universe' collection. Lately I've been a little 'blah' and 'meh' with all of OPI's collections. I expected to LOVE the 'Katy Perry' collection and when I finally got my hands on it I was a little disappointed. This polish? It totally steps right up to the plate. This is the first OPI polish that I've been overjoyed about for a while now.

'It's My Year' is a medium purple with beautiful gold micro-shimmer. It looks amazing inside, and even more amazing outdoors. The thing is it never stops looking amazing. I've read that this is 'Rally Pretty Pink' but more purple, and I think I may just have to buy 'Rally Pretty Pink' too. That's how much I enjoyed this polish.

Sorry for the lack of clean up in the one photo. My nails always look ok IRL and then the macro shot brings every little thing to my attention lol.

The photos below are two coats of 'It's My Year' with a coat of Seche Vite.