Very Belated Birthday Manicure

When I say belated, I mean belated. My birthday was back in August. Better late than never I suppose.

I started with Pure Ice Wild Thing, the closest polish I had to my birthstone. On my index and pinky, I have OPI Rainbow Connection. Not only is it colorful, its a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday. How perfect?! The glitter on my ring finger is a little less colorful with ICING Glitterati. Some cute cupcakes topped it off with the use of stamping plates BM-H19 and BM-H20.

Mint Manis for Talia Joy (featuring Funky Fingers Mrs. Mint)

Tuesday July 16, 2013 the beauty blogging realm (and ultimately the world) lost a very talented young woman. Talia Joy Castellano was only 13 years old and battled two forms of cancer over half of her lifetime. She accomplished so much and inspired so many people in her short life. Its always sad when anyone is taken too soon, but especially at her age.

Her last Instagram manicure was a mint polish, thus Mint Manis for Talia was born. Today many of the people she reached are wearing mint manicures in her honor, including myself.

For my mint mani, I chose Funky Fingers Mrs. Mint, a mint green creme filled with subtle gold shimmer. Mint with a little something extra (just like Talia).

She will be dearly missed. In her life she accomplished so much. Her family and friends plan to see all of her dreams fulfilled.

Talia's Youtube Channel and Instagram can be found here.

F4 Mint Chocolate Chip

I'm still here! A week behind, but I swear I'm still here. I've been a busy little bee. Work (aka insanity lately), family, and my new budding relationship. Yep, dating. :) I've had a lot on my mind blog wise, which I'll cover at the end.

Today I have F4 Mint Chocolate Chip to share with you. I'm a sucker for anything mint chocolate. Its my favorite flavor ice cream. So when I saw this polish, I had to have it! It looks as good as mint chocolate chip ice cream tastes. That's really saying something! Mint Chocolate Chip is a mint green creme filled with brown micro glitter. The creme is just sheer enough to see the glitter of the coat beneath, giving it amazing depth. The application was great.

F4 polishes are sold in their Etsy store and retail for $8 (15ml).

Edit: What blogger forgot the stuff she was going to cover at the end? This one. I've had so many ideas circling around in my head. Should I do weekly stuff? Like Nail Art Wednesday or something like that. A couple of weekly installments. Also, should I attempt vlogging? The thought of being on camera scares me. But it could be fun. Maybe I'll post a test video and see how it goes.

I really want to do things other than nail polish too. But right now, I'm leaving my blog nail related. I'm going to post all other stuff on my Instagram. Makeup, jewelry, and such. Hopefully I can get better at makeup shots. So far, mine suck. So please tell me what you want to see! Tell me here, or on one of my many social sites. Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus there's Youtube and Pinterest (but I suppose those aren't great places to tell me something, just wanted to throw them in.) And as always, there's email.

Bright Skittles

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! Most of the pictures you will see over the next week or so are old-ish. This particular manicure is from February. Poor thing is happy to see the light of day. Or at least the light of the blogosphere.

These bright skittles were fun and easy to do. From thumb to pinky: Cosmetic Arts Limelight, Zoya Pippa, Color Club Poptastic, Ulta Blue Streak, and Julep Anne. Each is two coats. The little design on my ring finger is an Essence French Glam Nail Stickers. Each sheet has several designs.

Barielle Brilliant Colors Collection

I have an awesome Summer collection to share with you today! Normally, I swatch each color separately; however, when I saw this one, I knew I had to do them all together. They just screamed skittles.

The Barielle Brilliant Colors Collections consists of five creme shades perfect for all the Summer days to come.

Barielle Smarty Pants Pink is a bubblegum pink creme. Literally the perfect bubblegum pink. Not too bright, not too pastel. The formula is perfection and opaque in two coats.

Barielle Straight A Coral is a red toned coral creme. I love corals for Spring and Summer! The formula on this one was just as great as the last.

Barielle High Marks Purple is a grape purple creme. Describing the formula will get redundant. I can tell you right now, they were all amazing. High Marks Purple looks a little uneven on my nail, but that is my fault.

Barielle Magna Cum Laude Turquoise is a bright aqua creme. Puts me in the mood for a fun day of playing in the water.

Last, but definitely not least, we have Barielle Head of the Class Green, a seafoam green creme. I cannot say enough how much I love this collection. I wore it for days on my fingers. So many people randomly questioned what polish I had on my nails. It was a big hit!

This collection retails for $8 individually, $25 for the whole set at Barielle.

Disclosure: The products in this post were provided to me for consideration. All opinions are mine and honest.

Barielle Summer Brights Collection & Swatches

I'm back! :) I hope you enjoying the beginning of your week. I am currently under the weather, but trying to persevere through. Today I have Barielle's gorgeous new summer collection to share with you. Summer Brights consists of five fun cremes for the coming warm months.

Barielle Cosmic Kiss is a bright classic pink creme. Basically the perfect Barbie pink. Perfect formula and opaque in two coats.

Barielle Pink Flip-Flops is a soft pink creme. Not quite pastel. It does have a bright punch to it. As with Cosmic Kiss, the formula was perfect and opaque in two easy coats.

Barielle Lemondrops is a bright yellow creme. Who doesn't need a bright yellow in their life for Summer? The formula was great; a little patchy at first, but most yellows are. It evened out nicely and was opaque in two coats.

Barielle Sweet Addiction is a teal creme, leaning much more toward green than blue. It is a great addition to a collection of bright Summer colors. Its bright without being hot or neon. The formula was good and opaque in two coats.

Finally, we have Barielle Blue Capri, a bright blue creme. The formula was great. I did two coats here, which is enough for in person. However, up close in macro, I could have used another coat.

Overall, I am loving the Barielle Summer Brights Collection. Gorgeous cremes, with staple colors that every polish loving person should own. Ranging between good and perfection formulas, opaque in two coats.

This collection officially releases May 1st. It retails for $8 individually, $25 for the whole set at Barielle.

Disclosure: The products in this post were provided to me for consideration. All opinions are mine and honest.

Barielle Sweet Treats Collection Swatches & Review

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! I am very excited to share the new Barielle Sweet Treats Collection with you. It is their Spring collection, consisting of four cremes and one shimmer.

Barielle Green Apple Chew is a bright chartreuse green creme. The name is perfect. The color reminds me of green apple flavored Laffy Taffy. The consistency is a tad thick, but nothing a little thinner cannot fix. The application is good and opaque in two coats.

Barielle Banana Drop is a pastel yellow creme. I swear someone at Barielle has a thing for Laffy Taffy because this one is reminiscent of the banana flavor. The application is perfection and opaque in two coats.

Barielle Lilac Jelly Bean is a gray toned lilac creme. Its pastel with a twist; lilac with a splash of dove gray. The application is perfection and opaque in two coats.

Barielle Blue Cotton Candy is a peacock teal with micro shimmer. My favorite of the collection. The application is wonderful and opaque in just one coat. The last picture is topped with the new Barille Matte-inée. Its a matte base coat that doubles as a satin finish top coat. I will have a review on it soon.

Barielle Orange Parfait is a salmon orange creme. The application is perfection and opaque in two coats.

The entire collection is wonderful. No complaints, other than a thick formula on one, easily fixed with thinner. Lovely pastels and nice Spring colors with a fun twist. I love them all. But for the sake of picking favorites for those who do not buy whole collections, Blue Cotton Candy and Lilac Jelly Bean are my two favorites.

The Sweet Treats Collection will be available starting March 1st. Individual bottles retail for $8, and the entire collection retails in a pack for $25 on Barielle's website.

What do you think of the new collection?

Disclosure: The product in this post were provided to me for consideration. All opinions are mine and honest.

Barielle Myrza's Meadow

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday!

Barielle Myrza's Meadow is a chartreuse green jelly like creme with small scattered holographic glitter. This polish is perfection. Definitely one of my favorite Barielle Shades. The application is perfection and opaque in three coats. The glitter catches the light nicely and adds a delicate sparkle to this lovely spring green.

Barielle retails for $8 on their website.

Neon Flowers

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! 

Nothing says the warm weather is coming like a bright neon manicure. Claire's Flashy and Milani Fresh Teal go together nicely, especially with the dried flower accent I added. Fresh Teal matches the flower perfectly. I used two coats of each polish. I love these smooth creamy neons, no white needed underneath.

Claire's nail polish retails for $5 at in store and online. Milani retails for $3-5 at various stores (a list can be found on their website) and sites. The dried flowers retail for $6.08 (for a set) at Born Pretty Store, and they offer free shipping worldwide. Use the code AHL91 to receive 5% off your Born Pretty purchase.

Polish by Franken Femme

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! Today I have a gorgeous polish to show you. 

This beauty was made by Becca of Franken Femme. She makes amazing frankens, all featured on her blog. This particular lovely is a blue jelly base with matte lime green, matte turquoise, and matte lavender hex glitter. I was in love from the moment I unwrapped it. The application is perfection and opaque in three coats. The glitter spreads out evenly and the jelly base lets the layers of glitter show through adding depth.

Check out her blog Franken Femme for more awesome frankens.

OPI Mermaid Tears

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! We are three weeks into my new-ish weekly posts, which are voted on by you. Every Wednesday I add new polishes to vote for, and on Friday I post the polish you all voted for. I'm a day behind this week. Next week's poll is already up and consists of nail art.

OPI Mermaid Tears is a dusty turquoise sea foam green creme. The application is perfection and opaque in two coats. I cannot believe it took me this long to wear this beauty. I purchased it back when the Pirates collection was still in stores. I obsessed over getting it then never wore it. I kept staring at my nails, in love with the color.

Naild'It SSSNot What You Think

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! Today I have a lovely indie polish to share with you.

Naild'It SSSNot What You Think is a green tinted base filled with three different sizes of hex glitter in pastel green, yellow, orange, red, blue, and silver. I initially wore it alone; however, I just was not wowed by it. So a few days later, I searched through my green swatches for the closest to SSSNot What You Think's base. I found one that was nearly perfect.

The first three pictures feature two coats of SSSNot What You Think over one coat of Sinful Colors Mint Apple (after one day of hard wear). The next two pictures are three coats of the indie polish on its own. The last is a close up to showcase all of the lovely glitter.