Monday, April 30, 2012

Zombie Girl

I hope everyone is enjoying their Monday! I have a cute design to show you today with stamping. Getting a decent picture of the stamping was a challenge though.



For my ring finger, I used two coats of Zoya Pippa then stamped on a zombie girl with Color Club Hot Like Lava and plate N.Nail m39. For the rest of my nails, I did two coats of Hot Like Lava. 

Hot Like Lava is part of the Color Club Foiled Collection. It retails for $4-8. I purchased mine in a collection set of all six for $8 at Ross. Zoya retails for $8 on their website. N.Nail Stamping Plates retail for $5.05 on KCenterHK.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Everything Blue

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! Today, I have a layering combination to show you with nothing but blue polishes.





I am really enjoying wearing this combo! I started off with two coats of Ulta Mint Condition. Next, I did a layer of Finger Paints Motley. You can see some of the flakies peeking out behind the crackle. Finally, I did a coat of Funky Fingers Teal Scales. It is a gorgeous crackle with tons of shimmer. The application on all of these is wonderful.

Ulta Nail Lacquer retails for $6 at Ulta. Motley is part of the Finger Paints Special Effects Collection and retails for $5 exclusive at Sally Beauty Supply. Most stores are sold out (given it is Limited Edition)  though some sites online will have them. Funky Fingers Crackle retails for $4 at Five Below.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

KKCenterHK Stamping Plate Review

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! Today, I have a review for a stamping plate I received from KKCenterHK. This is the first time I have used their stamping plates. They offer a wide variety of plates, 217 in total to choose from.



This particular plate (N.Nail m39) has an interesting variety of images. Two characters, skull, jack-o-latern, rose, flower, vines, drops, and a planet/stars. I stamped all of these images with Sinful Colors Black on Black and the N.Nail Scraper and Stamp Set. The boy character, jack-o-latern, flower, rose, and vines stamped wonderfully. I had a little trouble with the girl character. Though it does stamp if done a certain way. I could not get the skull to stamp completely. I do plan to use it as part of a design, so I will see if it does better in the future.

Overall, I am happy with how the plate worked. The stamper is wonderful. Even better than the Konad stamper I own. I did not have to do anything to it before stamping for the first time.

N.Nail Stamping Plates retail for $5.05 and the N.Nail Scraper and Stamp Set retails for $4.50; both are available on KCenterHK. They also carry large stamping plates for $15.97. This particular plate is item number SPPMM39 and the scraper/stamper set is item number JR1055.

Maggie from KKCenterHK was nice enough to give me a unique coupon code for all of you. Just enter coupon code followtheyellowpolishroad to get 10% off through January 31, 2013.

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

Friday, April 27, 2012

Finger Paints Hipnotic

I hope you're enjoying your Friday! Sorry that I have been absent from posting for two days. It has been a crazy week. I helped a friend move across state Monday through Wednesday. Plus, I interviewed for a job yesterday and started it today. So very hectic.

On to the polish! :) I am in love with the idea of magnetic polish. I prefer the richer and lighter colors, so when I see them, I snatch them up. I have a very pretty berry red to show you today.




Finger Paints Hipnotic is a lovely shimmering berry red. The application was great. I did one coat on each nail. Then doing one nail at a time, I did a generous coat and held the magnet over the top. The cap comes off so doing this is very easy. Holding the magnet for thirty seconds is best. It gives the polish time to dry slightly so that the pattern stays. All of the magnetic have a wave pattern.

If anyone has seen the Color Club Magnetic polishes, all four Finger Paints magnetics are dupes are four of the six Color Clubs. The bottles are exactly the same, as are the names.

Finger Paints Magnetics are limited edition and retail for $7 ($6.30 with your Beauty Club Card) at Sally Beauty Supply.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Tipped with Glitter

I hope you're enjoying your Tuesday! I'm starting a new weekly challenge called Monkey See, Monkey Do. Its a nail challenge for Monday (though mine will be on Tuesday since I already do one for Mondays) where we take inspiration from or recreate a mani done by someone else. Anything you see on blogs, Facebook, Pinterest, or anywhere else online. 





I was inspired by this gorgeous mani I saw on Pinterest from The Nailasaurus. I would have never thought to pair gray and glitter together. I'm not even a gray fan. I have this polish (my only gray) for nail art. For my nails, I started with a base of Julep Dendrie. Its a lovely gray creme with great application and is opaque in two coats. Next I sponged on Jordana Gemstones. I've found that for glitter, it is best to paint the polish on the sponge. I absolutely love this combination. Its given me a whole new appreciation for gray polish. I actually love it. Now I don't have any colors I won't wear. I only shied away from brown and gray.

Julep retails for $14 at Julep and Sephora. Jordana Specialty Glitters retail for $3 at Jordana and Kmart

Please check out the other lovely bloggers participating in this challenge. :)

Amber Did It
Angelina's Nails & More
Beauty Bumbles
Dressed Up Digits
Fancy Phalanges
Fanning the Fumes
Geeky Owl
Gnarly Gnails
Jen's Painted Tips
Kawaiinize Your World
LeSamowen
Macabre Manicures
Maquiclub Girl
Nail Polish is my Crack
PishPosh and Polish
Polish Crazed
Polish Lover
Tales of Knit and Nails
The Clockwise Nail Polish
The Crumpet
The Manicured Monkey
The (mis)Adventures of a Wanna Be Martha
Toxic Vanity

Monday, April 23, 2012

Funky French Glitter Bomb

I hope you're enjoying your Monday! The Monday Nail Art Challenge is here again. The theme this week is Glitter Bomb. I have done many glitter filled manicures so I wanted something a little bit different. A funky french glitter bomb.


I absolutely love this glitter combination. It reminds me of my high school colors. Though I think it will remind most people of LSU. I used L.A. Colors Nuclear Energy and Pure Ice Cheatin as my purple base. I did one coat of the former and two coats of the latter. Cheatin has blue glitter, along with the purple. I free-handed the gold tips using Color Club Gingerbread Man and Funky Fingers Golden Coast. Along with the gold glitter, there is also holo glitter. The applications on all of these polishes is great.

L.A. Colors retail for around $1 and can be found at most Dollar stores. Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics. Funky Fingers retail for $2 or 3/$5 at Five Below. Gingerbread Man is part of the Color Club Scent-suous Collection and retails for $4.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

For the Love of Train

Its Stamping Sunday! Yes, it is that time of the week again. :) The theme is Inspired by Music. It could be our favorite artist, album, artist/band, et cetera. I chose to do a song by Train. Given I have a limited amount of stamp images, I listened to my favorite Train songs to see which one I could do.





Not perfect considering my limited collection, but it was fun to do. I was inspired by Save Me San Francisco by Train. I based each nail on a different piece of the lyrics as the story goes along. Index: "We took the highway to the One, up the coast to catch some sun." I did a base coat of Cosmetic Arts Sky High with Sinful Colors Snow Me White clouds. Then I stamped a sun with Konad Yellow and plate BM01. Middle: "I drove into Seattle rain, fell in love then missed the train." I did the same base as my index finger, then stamped on the Seattle Space Needle with Sally Hansen Night Flight and plate BM15. Ring: "If I could wish upon a star." I did a base coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black with Midnight Blue sponged on and a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust. Next I stamped on stars with Wet n Wild Silvivor and plate BM21. At the time, I had misplaced the plate with a single star, so I used my full nail design and just stamped one of the stars. Finally, Pinky: "But there's a wide-eyed girl back there, and she means everything... everything." I used  Look by Bipa Metallic Matt as my base before I stamped on Love with Love My Nails New Love and plate BM09.

Wet n Wild retail for $1-2 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their websiteCosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry CultureKonad Special Polish (for stamping) retails for $6.80 on their website. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri retails for $3-5 at Walgreens, Walmart, Riteaid, Target, and Ulta. China Glaze retails for $5-10 a bottle at Sally Beauty Supply, Ulta, and various other stores/sites. Love My Nails retail for $1 at Bari Cosmetics.


If you want to listen to the song that inspired my nails, click the song title you see above. Or click here if you would rather see lyrics. :)

Saturday, April 21, 2012

My Stash - Color Club

Welcome to another installment of Ashley's Stash! :) I'm kind of behind on doing these each week, but I'm going to catch up soon. Today you will see all of my Color Club polishes.

All stacked in rows

Boho Mojo, Nouveau Vintage & Voodoo You Do

Artsy Crafty, Blue Topia & Rebel Spirit

Perfectly Mol-ten, Antiquated & Cold Metal

Hot Like Lava, Foil Me Once & Lumin-icecent

Sugarplum Fairy, Beyond the Mistletoe & Holiday Splendor

Jingle Jangle, Candy Cane & Gingerbread

Up close to see the holo glitter

Poptastic, Revvvolution, Worth the Risque, Gingerbread Man & Orna-minted

I love Color Club! All of the polishes I own have great application. All of the sets I have are from Ross. You can get an entire set for $8. Most sets are complete collections. The first six pictures are the Back to Boho Collection B (there are two sets for this collection), Foiled Collection, and Beyond the Mistletoe. For each set, I've used two pictures. Each has a topcoat which I decided not to photograph individually, but you can see it in the group picture.

The last picture is of my individually purchased bottles. Poptastic from the Poptastic Collection. Revvolution and Worth the Risque from the Femme Fatale Collection (both of these are linear holos). Finally, Gingerbread Man and Orna-minted from the Scent-suous Collection (both are scented, gingerbread and peppermint).

Clicking the linked polish names will send you to a post containing a swatch/review of it.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Essence Bella and Edward

I hope you're enjoying your Friday! Let's think of today as Flashback Friday. I'm wearing a polish I originally posted about back in September. Normally, I don't blog about swatches twice, but I think this combination warrants a second look. Plus, my nail photography skills have improved, so better swatches this time around.





These two polishes are part of the Essence Nail Art Twins Collection. A base color and glitter topper are paired together and named after famous couples. They have pairs such as Bonnie and Clyde, Chuck and Blair, and Carrie and Mr. Big, plus several others. This particular pair is Bella and Edward, from the Twilight novels/movies. Even if you dislike them, don't let that bias you against this gorgeous combination.

Bella is a lovely one coat teal creme with perfect application. Edward is an amazing glitter polish with silver and teal hex glitter, teal square glitter, and small holo glitter. I'm wearing one coat of each. This combination is without a doubt one of my favorites. I've been wearing it since Tuesday and plan to remove it tonight, though I honestly don't want to despite the tip wear.

Essence Nail Art Twins are available in Europe. Given I'm not located in that part of the world, I am unsure of which stores carry Essence in Europe, but their website has a store locator for you. I'm also unsure how available the collection currently is. If someone knows, please let me know. Thank you!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Claire's Candy Shop

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! I have a pretty glittering pink polish to show you today.





Claire's Candy Shop is a pink jelly packed with multicolored and multi-shaped glitter. The application was great. The glitter spreads out evenly and it only took two coats to be opaque. I honestly expected more layers being a jelly. I absolutely love this polish! Throwing glitter into a neutral color is just genius.

If you've been searching for Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop, this Candy Shop is ironically a dupe for it.

Claire's retails for $5 in store.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Sinful Colors Cinderella

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! I have a very pretty polish to show you today. I'm a little late to the game with Sinful Colors Cinderella, but one can never have enough swatches of such a nice polish.



Cinderella is a gorgeous light blue creme with pink glass flecks. The application was good and opaque in three thin coats. Its absolutely lovely in person. I love the combination of pink and blue.

Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Cinderella was made part of their core line, so if you do not have them at your local store yet, they will show up. 

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

World Inspired Colours by Herôme Bogota

I hope everyone is enjoying their Tuesday! I have a gorgeous polish to show you today. If you saw my spring surprise gift, I received two polishes. I immediately wanted to try out World Inspired Colours by Herôme Bogota. I took so many pictures trying to capture the beauty of this polish. And I'm doing something I've never done before. Leading with the up close shots.








Herôme, a Dutch hand and nail care brand, created a line of polishes inspired by the beauty and uniqueness of the world. There are 79 World Inspired Colours (W.I.C.) all named after different cities. This particular polish was named for the capitol of Columbia, Bogota. Given I have never traveled to Columbia, I am unsure what inspired this polish, but regardless, it is gorgeous.

This is three thin coats of Bogota. In person, it is opaque, no visible nail line. It is a subdued periwinkle with rose gold glass flecks. It has a lovely sparkle. The application was perfect. Not too thick, not too thin.

W.I.C. by Herôme retail for € 7,99 on their online store. I am unsure where else they are sold and where the website delivers. If anyone knows, please let me know and I'll add the information.