Free Gel Polish from SensatioNAIL!

Today, I got a free gel color in the mail from SensatioNAIL's fan appreciation contest on Facebook! And it's not like they sent an icky color either. It's one of the limited edition beauties, Heirloom Lilac. Oh it's gorgeous. I can't wait to use it! I'm just so excited about it. Anyone else use SensatioNAIL's gels? What do you think of them?

In this case, I did not buy this polish with my own money or my own time, however I won it in a contest. I am not associated with SensatioNAIL or Nailene in any way.

All of my reviews are from the heart and not monetarily swayed. :)

Faceted Sapphires

I was messing around with my polish collection, and I came across two polishes. One, Sapphire Blue by Wet 'n Wild, was nothing special. Just a shimmery navy blue, the kind everyone has. Then I saw a stunning glitter, Faceted by Sinful Colors, part of their limited edition Winter Shimmers Collection. Clear jelly with purple flecks and holo strips. Fabulous. In my mind, I thought, what could go wrong if I mixed these? I tried it, and well, I think it looks pretty good, don't you? And don't forget to vote in my poll! What polishes are your favorites? Vote, and whichever category wins I'll do a design tutorial unique to that category! :)

Just the base color by itself.

Completed manicure! So fun for the holiday season!

I bought this polish with my own money on my own time, and I am not associated with Wet 'n Wild or Sinful Colors in any way.

All of my reviews are from the heart and not monetarily swayed. :)

Jelly Sandwiches, A Tutorial

Alright everyone, today I'm focusing especially on the technique of "jelly sandwiching". This is a method which includes a base polish (jelly) and a glitter polish. The chunkier the glitter, the better [in my humble opinion!]. It's fun, it looks good, and you can do it with any of your polishes. Let's get started, shall we?

What is a "jelly" polish, you ask? I looked up the best definition I could find and I stumbled on another blogger who found a great way to explain it. Let me quote her here:

"Jellies are like glazes and are basically pigment added to a clear base. To make a jelly polish, about 25% opaque creme polish is mixed with 75% clear polish. Most jellies are still translucent after several coats and I think the best analogy would be to say that jellies are like lip gloss for nails while cremes are like lipstick."

And here is the website in case you wish to read more.

First, pick out your colors. I picked out Minted by Revlon as my base, and Kaleidoscope by Wet 'n Wild, a holo glitter. So cute. I'm only doing the sandwhich on my ring finger and thumb, due to the busyness of the Kaleidoscope. And I also really like my ring finger and thumb being the only ones glittered. Then when you pick your colors, paint all of your fingers with your base. You can put another base color on to make the intended base pop more without putting a ton of layers on if your base is sheer. I won't because my base has good pigment to it, thankfully. Once you're done painting your fingers with the base, cover in your glitter polish of choice on your fingers of choice. Want them all? Paint them all! Only one? Good for you! I'm only doing one. Lastly, topcoat if you so wish, and you're all done! Congrats! You did a jelly sandwhich! Enjoy the delicious nail design worth drooling over! :) Take a look at the pictures, and if you have questions, feel free to ask!

I just did it on the thumb and ring finger for an accent, but you can do it on all your nails!

I bought this polish with my own money on my own time, and I am not associated with Revlon or Wet 'n Wild in any way.

All of my reviews are from the heart and not monetarily swayed. :)

My OPI and Sephora by OPI Shatter and Blasted Collection!

So I was transferring my beautiful OPI and Sephora by OPI Shatters and Blasteds into it's new home, my dubbed "OPI Box", and I figured I'd share my collection and a swatch of the shatters! Cute new box though, right? Definitely beats sitting in an old SpaceMaker pencil box. Wooden boxes are classy! Especially cedar.

All my pretties!

My version of a swatch. Bobby pin + nail glue + acrylic tip = good enough. Here's the swatch from left to right: OPI Silver Shatter, OPI Black Shatter (Didn't do Blasted Black too, they're the same formula and color!), Sephora by OPI Blasted Indigo, OPI Blue Shatter, Sephora by OPI Blasted Turquoise, Sephora by OPI Blasted Red, and OPI Pink Shatter. These are all on a coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White. Like my nails? Look at the post before! :)

These are my favorite shatters/crackles/whatever you want to call them. The formula is great, OPI has a great brush, the colors are stunning, and they crack the best in my opinion. They get their own special box because they have a special place in my heart. The Sephora by OPI Blasted Collection is the same as the OPI Shatters, you just buy them from Sephora instead. These aren't the only colors I have, just the OPI ones. If you want to see the rest of my collection, stay tuned and I'll work on it! It's a big one. (I'm a shatter-addict, give me a break!) Cheers until next time!

I bought this polish with my own money on my own time, and I am not associated with OPI, Sephora by OPI, or Sinful Colors in any way.

All of my reviews are from the heart and not monetarily swayed. :)

Snow Inspired Water Marble!

As some of you may have heard on the news recently, the Ohio River Valley just got a huge amount of snow! Here where I live, we got about 4 inches or so of just perfect snow. Perfect snowballs, perfect drifts, perfect for snowboarding. Just fantastic. It inspired a new water marble design for me! Just like the swirls of the snow being blown around by the wind!

So, with this freezing off my fingers during one of my photo shoots, I decided to make an icy nail marble!

We all know how to water marble by now I'm sure, so I won't bore you with another tutorial. I'll just give you the colors, and you can try it out for yourself!

It's a crappy picture, I know, but it was hard to capture the iridescent quality of the manicure.

Base and white marble: Pearls by CQ[A pretty creamy white shimmer]

Silver marble: Metallica by Wet 'n Wild [Your basic silver. I find that Wet 'n Wild is nice to marble with]

Top Coat: Hula by Chameleon [A sheer gorgeous duochrome shimmer with shades of pink, green, and purple]

And just in case you don't know how to do marble, here's a Youtube tutorial that I feel explains it pretty well. This video is by cutepolish, and we all love her tutorials. So here you go! Happy marbling! [Click on her name to check out her awesome website!]

I bought this polish with my own money on my own time, and I am not associated with CQ, Wet 'n Wild, or Chameleon in any way. I'm also not associated with cutepolish, just a huge fan!

All of my reviews are from the heart and not monetarily swayed. :)

What a Steal!

I just happened to walk into Rite Aid today, walking in the lovely snow that has just fallen, and just to my luck, a pretty famous polish was 75% off, and it was the last one, screaming my name! The lovely mint green, Minted by Revlon. Most have heard of it, and I've seen it on Youtube many times, and I needed it. I think its lovely, don't you? Well, I think so. And of course, knowing me, I can't buy just one polish, I had to get a three more as well, making this a mini-haul. :) All of these polishes collectively, cost less than $6. What a steal, right?!

The beautiful creamy Minted. Perfect consistency, nice brush, all around a great polish. So glad I got my hands on it. Definitely another springy color for me to use! Maybe even a little for the summer. I find mint to look great as a pedi when your feet are nice and tan. :)

Here are the other polishes I bought. I will explain a little about each polish then.

Pink Lady by CQ, Pinky Glitter by Sinful Colors, and Bali Mist by Sinful Colors . I guess I had a thing for pinks today. But look at that glitter! And that rainbow! Fantastic!

 Pink Lady is a very nice bubblegum pink. It's nothing particularly special, but I don't have a pink like this and it was on sale. Go figure, me saving money. It is a smooth cream color, no shimmer, no glitter.

Bali Mist. Where to start. It's gorgeous. I haven't seen a shimmery duochrome like this one. It's almost an olive-purple (if that makes sense) with pink shimmer all throughout, and a bit of a gray-rainbow (again, if that makes sense) reflex. It's very sheer, however, I'd definitely put this on top of another pink or purple. Or a blue, that could be interesting...

Finally my last one, Pinky Glitter. Come on, the name is so cute I'd buy it just for the name. It's a cute hot pink jelly with lots of glitter! By looking and eyeballing it, I can see at least 3 different sizes of glitter. I have the blue version of this, also from Sinful Colors called Hottie, and I loved it. So who can go wrong with pink?

I bought this polish with my own money on my own time, and I am not associated with Revlon, CQ, or Sinful Colors in any way. 
All of my reviews are from the heart and not monetarily swayed. :)

Sally Hansen Smooth and Perfect in Sea

So, as you might have gathered, just from the looks of things, this is my very first post! You can probably tell by the title of this blog, that it's all about nail polish, nail care, and hauls and deals to perhaps save you a penny or two! Who doesn't love saving money? This first polish I have for you here today is an awesome one in my opinion. I just bought it at Rite Aid on sale, 75% off! So about a dollar and some. This is Sally Hansen Smooth and Perfect in Sea, a sheer pastel green with a light silver shimmer. I also got another one from the same collection on sale, called Air, which is a pastel blue. The formula in my opinion is nice, but definitely sheerer than I thought. The picture shown is 3 coats. And the brush is a very thick, tapered brush, just like the Sally Hansen Salon Manicure line. I like the color though, reminds me of a minty sorbet or ice cream. Very smooth. It advertises that it hides ridges, and that it does. My nails are still repairing from a mishap that happened with a supposed "UV-free Gel Manicure". That story's for another post though. But I do recommend this line! It comes in many colors, they're all shimmery pastels, and I feel they'll be a hot pick for the upcoming spring.

I bought this polish with my own money on my own time, and I am not associated with Sally Hansen in any way.

All of my reviews are from the heart and not monetarily swayed. :)