Last Post of 2013! New Year's Eve Nail Art

Hello Reader(s):

First, I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Second, I've seen numerous blogs doing a list of their favorite polishes/brands of 2013 (well at list in a lot of the blogs I read), but I am not doing that this year. I first started my blog back in July, so part of me feels like that's just not a long enough time in the indie/blogging scene to do that kind of post justice. Especially since I haven't gotten around to even swatching some of the polishes I've received and I just know at least a few would make it on my list. 

So with that I have decided not to do a list of my favorite polishes or brands this year, but I will do a shout out to the brands that I have reviewed this year, and I can't thank these brands enough. Some of the makers I have gotten to speak to and some I have not, but I am truly thankful for these lovely people who work so hard to give us such pretty paints for our nails ^_^

But before I get to the shout out... 

Here is my nail art for New Year's Eve. It is nothing elaborate by any means. It is just very simple. I used Girly Bits' Giggity Giggity Goo as a base, and I used My Ten Friends' First Contact as an accent. I had a different plan for my nails but sadly my package didn't arrive in time so I went with Plan B.

natural light

full on sunlight

I used 1 base coat, 2 coats of Giggity Giggity Goo, 1 coat First Contact, and 2 clear top coats. Everything went smoothly and I think overall it looks great. I think the next time I use this technique though I will put the full glitter coat on my thumb and just dab the tips of all my fingers with glitter. 

Still.. fabulous polishes and so sparkly! ^__^

And now onto my shout outs, and in no particular order (I apologize grately if I end up missing anyone!). Thank you to:

My Ten Friends

Above The Curve

Dollish Polish

Literary Lacquer

Darling Diva Polish

Girly Bits

Lucky 13 Lacquer

Delush Polish

Sea Lore

BB Couture

Ruby White Tips

CrowsToes

Also thank you to these stores that helped me get my lovely polishes:

OverallBeauty (thank you Kim!!!)

Llarowe

As well thank you to Brie who has made me so many beautiful nail polish jewelry!

BKD Signature

One final thank you to... YOU! My readers!!! You guys are awesome, and I hope to share more with you all soon! <3

Until next time.

-Andi

PS. My New Year's resolution is to work on more nail art ;)

Review: "Jack Frost" from Ruby White Tips

Hello Reader(s):

I hope you're all enjoying the holidays. I honestly can't believe how fast this year has gone by. Today I've got a new to me brand. It is called Ruby White Tips. I've been wanting to try them for awhile now, and so glad I was finally able to get my hands on some of their polish. They are a company that was started by a mother and daughter. Their polishes are cruelty free and 3-free. They also take custom polish orders.

Ruby White Tips Logo

The first Ruby White Tips polish I had to try was their Jack Frost polish, and is an electric blue. It caught my eye immediately and I knew I had to have it for the winter season! 

1 clear base coat, 2 coats polish, 1 clear top coat

Isn't this polish absolutely gorgeous?!?!? I love it sooo much! It's so beautiful. I feel like my photos and my words just don't do it enough justice. I can't wait to wear this polish again, and I'm already thinking of ideas to use it in some future nail art. 

I had the unfortunate accident to not give it enough time to dry properly and I dented my nail polish on my other hand (hence why no shots of that hand), so please do let this beauty dry properly. If you would love to get yours hands on this stellar blue or maybe just interested in some of their other polishes go check out their ETSY shop or to keep up with future sales/releases like their Facebook page. I know you won't regret it.

Until next time

-Andi

Nail Art For Christmas

Hello Reader(s):

It is now Christmas Eve Eve and I wanted to show you the Christmas nail art I had done. This one is much simpler than my last, and I love it ten times more. I think it turned out GREAT ^_^ I definitely need to work on it but still my most successful nail art to date.

In this nail art I used BB Couture's Sloth, Above the Curve's Anona, and Girly Bits' Giggity Giggity Goo. 

Love, Love, love this! Super simple and totally gorgeous! I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday! I'll try to sneak on before the New Year to do one last post before 2014 arrives, but no promises.

Until next time.

-Andi

Review: "You Don't Smell Like Santa" from Girly Bits

Hello Reader(s):

Happy Holidays! I hope you are all ready for the holidays. I know I can't wait for them. My goodies are all made, almost all my presents wrapped, and the tree is lit. Now, onto today's post.

During Girly Bits' Black Friday sale, they announced that a certain number of order's would receive their Limited Edition mystery polish. I was one of the lucky people to be given their LE polish. It was inspired by the holiday movie "Elf" and was named after the scene from the clip below.

"You Don't Smell Like Santa" is a dark green base polish with holo glitter, and some larger gold glitter.  Here is a macro shot of the polish I took so you can better understand what it looks like:

Sadly, I've had nothing but overcast weather the passed few weeks so I won't have any photos that show off how sparkly this polish really is. Nonetheless this polish is so gorgeous!

1 clear base coat, 2 coats polish, 1 clear top coat

you can see some of the awesome sparkle in this one

I didn't have any issues with this polish. It went on easy and smooth. I did have chipping on one nail but I don't think it had anything to do with the polish. I had been extra hard on my nails today since I was cooking the majority of the day. I really do love this polish, and I couldn't wait to put it on. This is definitely a great holiday polish, and I may just try out some nail art with it down the road.

I hope to do one last post before Christmas comes but if not I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday!

Until next time.

-Andi

My First Nail Art! (A holiday theme!)

Hello Reader(s):

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Y'all are probably getting ready for the holidays coming up. I had a busy but nice weekend myself. Today I'll be posting something a little different. I know so far I've only done reviews of brands so far, but I finally got myself some dotting pens. So I've tried my hand at nail art. I've actually tried doing some nail art freehand twice before but it was so bad I got rid of it right away and went back to basics. Now that I have some tools I actually got a decent nail art mani.

It is by no means perfect as it is my first time using dotting pens but I had fun and am proud of what I accomplished for my first try with them. I wanted to do a holiday mani. I originally wanted to do snowflakes on a navy background but it just isn't doable for me without one of those skinny brushes or needle pens so I had to improvise. Instead I decided on a navy background with silver polka dots with a silver ornament accent nail.

Natural Light

Sunlight

I know this isn't the best photo but it really showed the holo sparkle!

The mani turned about a little more nautical themed color wise than I expected, but overall I really like this mani. I used Darling Diva Polish's Limited Edition: Early Riser, and Darling Diva Polish's Diamond (from their diamond collection). So much sparkle! ^_^ 

If any of you have tips for using the dotting tools or if you have any easy (beginner) dotting tool mani suggestions please feel free to let me know.

Until next time.

-Andi

Review: "Sugar Plum Fairy" from Dollish Polish

Hello Reader(s):

I have a holiday polish for you today. It is the monthly limited edition polish for December from Dollish Polish. The polish is entitled "Sugar Plum Fairy", taking its name from its inspiration; the sugar plum fairy from the ballet: The Nutcracker.

img source: google images

Sugar Plum Fairy has a pale pink base with a plethora of different shapes, sizes and colors of glitter.

It has circles, squares, stars, hearts, hexes, diamonds, triangles, squares, bars, strips; and in colors of pink, blue, green, purple, etc. This polish is just chalk full of goodness.

I used 1 base coat, 3 coats of polish, and 1 top coat. This polish goes on smoothly, however I did have trouble getting the larger pieces of glitter (ie, heart, big blue circle, etc). I had to dig them out and place them on my nails. I thought I had turned it upside down long enough (I did it for 30mins) but I think because this was my first use of the polish there wasn't much room for gravity to do its job. So you may want to let it stand upside down for an hour during your first use to limit your digging for big glitter. 

Isn't this polish just FABULOUS?!?! I love it so much. It may not be your traditional holiday colors but I think this polish embodies the spirit of the sugar plum fairy exquisitely! ^_^ Now I'm not a huge ballet enthusiast or anything but there's something about the Nutcracker that really... gets stuck in your head lol Sadly this polish was only available for a limited amount of time, but you can still visit Dollish Polish to get one of their other many wonderful polishes.

Are any of you huge Nutcracker fans? Or a fan of ballet in general? I'll admit I'm pretty ignorant on the subject. I only Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.

So I shall leave you all with the one ballet song that makes me smile every time I hear it.

Until next time.

-Andi

              Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

Review: "Master of Disguise" from Delush Polish

Hello Reader(s):

Today I have a special treat. A new indie brand!!! (well new to me). I'm featuring Delush Polish, which is a 3free (free of formaldehyde, toluene, and dibutyl phthalate) and cruelty free brand. They have so many amazing polishes to choose from. I immediately fell in love with their Halloween collection (aka Slice of Life Collection) which was inspired by the show Dexter (what two Dexter inspired posts in a row?? Yep! lol).

Delush Logo

 Today we have "Master of Disguise" which is a deep chocolate jelly polish with orange, gold and copper glitter.

artificial light

I used a clear base coat, 2 coats of polish, and 1 clear top coat. I probably would have used 3 coats for a little extra opacity but I did this at night so I thought I had full opacity.  You'll see the difference in the daylight photos. Overall I had no problems with this polish. No curling glitter, and it all went on smoothly.

Daylight shot

I apologize for the close up shot of my thumb being a little blurry. I was trying to get a good macro shot so you can see how awesome the glitter is. I really love this polish. It makes such an excellent fall shade and is easy to work with. It'll definitely be a staple polish for me.

If you'd like to have your own bottle of this polish or any other Delush polish go check out their website and to keep up with any giveaways or up coming collections follow them on Facebook.

Until next time.

-Andi

Review: "Dark Passenger" from Dollish Polish

Hello Reader(s):

I apologize for my absence. I've been making some minor changes to the look of my blog, and I've had an unexpected busy week so far. So I haven't had the time to work on my post. Also I apologize ahead of time I don't have as many photos as I usually do. The majority came out awful and I didn't want to post those.

Today's polish is inspired by the (now ended) show Dexter.

So for all those fellow Dexter fans here is Dollish Polish's "Dark Passenger".

Dark Passenger is a deep plum (or eggplant) polish with blue and red micro flakies. I used two coats over a clear base coat, with a clear top coat. The only issue I had with this polish is that it pulled back from the tips of my nails, but otherwise it went on smoothly. 

I love this deep purple color. It's so pretty! And the micro flakies give it a nice shimmer. Even if this wasn't a Dexter related polish I'd want to have it. I also think this is a great color choice for the inspiration of Dexter's dark passenger.

Anyone else think this embodies his dark passenger? 

Sadly Dollish Polish has since discontinued this polish with the ending of Dexter, but she still has some fabulous polishes to get your hands on, so go checkout her website.

Until next time.

-Andi