Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day and I have a love/hate relationship. I cannot completely hate a day that gives me an excuse to cover my nails in cute colors and hearts. Who can?

This particular manicure is a Barielle polish explosion. Seriously. All Barielle shades. Six, in fact.

Barielle Enduring (white), Smarty Pants Pink (light pink), Eli's Magic (hot pink), Vivacious (red), Grape Escape (purple), and Black Rose (blackened burgundy).

There is quite a bit going on. Hearts, dots, gradient, and stamping (using plate BM-317).

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.

Ulta Devious with Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter Accent

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! I have yet another Ulta brand polish to share with you today.

Ulta Devious is a dark eggplant purple creme. It goes on smooth and creamy like butter, opaque in two coats. I used Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter as an accent over Devious. Pinky Glitter is a light pink jelly filled with holo glitter and shimmer. The glitter really pops over a dark shade.

Ulta polishes retail for $6 at Ulta, in store and online. They frequently go on sale for as inexpensive as $2. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens, Walmart, Target, and various other stores (a complete list on their website.)

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.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, and I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! I am single on this particular Valentine's Day, and while I usually playfully do anti-Valentine designs, I decided to dive into the hearts.

My backdrop for the stamping is a watercolor marble. I have seen it everywhere, but never attempted it until now. Rebecca Likes Nails has a great tutorial. I started off with one coat of Pure Ice Super Star! as my white base. My watercolors are Barielle Grape Escape, Pink Quartz, and Life of the Party. Finally I stamped on hearts and love with Essence Stamp Me! Black, stamping plate BM02, BM-317, and Essence stamping plate. All plates are listed for designs index to pinky. The Essence plate has no number or label (it was used for the last two designs).

I love the look of the watercolor. And I think the black really pops off the soft color background. What do you think? And did you do anything special for Valentine's Day? 

Ulta Vintage Violet

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday!

Ulta Vintage Violet is dusty pastel lavender creme with pink undertones. The color is fantastic and makes me anxious for Spring. The application is perfection. It goes on smooth and glossy, opaque in two coats.

Ulta nail polish retails for $6 at Ulta, in store and online. They always have a sale, so you never have to pay full price. I got this shade (along with several others) during their recent $2 sale.

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.

Zoya Aurora

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! I took advantage of Zoya's promo and received my order on Thursday. The sale ends on 1/13 at midnight est. You get three free and just pay $10 for shipping and handling, using promo code ZOYA2013. 

Zoya Aurora is a medium purple jelly with dense holographic glitter flakes. I cannot express how gorgeous this polish is! The application is perfection in two coats. The glitter flakes are small and flat. They do not apply like glitter or remove like glitter equaling easy application and removal. Aurora is a must have!

Essence Colour 3 Boys Are Back in Town & It's Just a Little Crush

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! Its almost the end of the year. Can you believe 2013 is almost here?!

Ulta is having a huge clearance event (it started Wednesday). The majority of the Christmas stock is on clearance along with other goodies. I grabbed several Essence polishes that were shipped to Ulta specifically for the event. They are all from collections seen earlier this year, even late last year. To give you an idea of what there is (if you have an Essence obsession like me): Colour 3, Special Effects Top Coats, Colour & Go  (original discontinued small sizes), Magnetics, nail art stickers, and press on nails. Selection may vary by store. I scooped up several goodies and backups for almost all of them.

Essence Colour 3 polishes are a duo sticks. The name Colour 3 comes from the notion that you can have three polishes from this one stick. The two polishes, plus a third shade if you layer them. Boys Are Back in Town is a very dusty grayed purple creme. The application is perfection. Almost opaque in one coat; I used two for good measure. It's Just a Little Crush is the layering polish. A clear slightly milky base filled with purple and blue-toned violet shimmer micro glitter. As you can see, just one coat makes it seem like a different polish. I love this duo stick! I cannot wait to try out the other two I found.

Lex Tuileries

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! I need to get myself into the Christmas/Winter spirit with nail art. It does not feel very much like the holiday season. And our weather just recently started to feel like December. Louisiana weather... But I do have a very pretty pink polish to show you today!

Lex Tuileries is a sheer pale pink base filled with orange, red, silver, and purple medium hex plus orange, red, and silver small hex glitter. The sheer base easily builds to be opaque in three coats, while allowing you to see the underlying layers of glitter. The application is perfect. Absolutely gorgeous!

Lex Cosmetics lets you submit an idea for a nail polish. If chosen, it is voted on by you and other polish lovers. If it wins, they will create the polish. How amazing is that?! Each polish retails for $10, with 10% of that donated to a charity.

The story behind Tuileries is: "First, tulips are one of the first signs that spring is really, truly, finally here! Second, they always remind me of my mother..... I would love to have a color that can represent her in every way: in beauty, in color, in her favorite things, and in her uniqueness. My color would be light pinkish-red with glass-like flecks of silver, red, pink, and orange within it to showcase the depth of both tulips and my mother."

Zoya Katherine and Wet n Wild The Gold and the Beautiful

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! I have what I discovered to be a popular manicure to share with you today. I wore this for two days and had an usually large amount of people compliment me on it. Some actually reaching to grab my hand to get a better look.

Zoya Katherine is a sheer eggplant jelly. It starts off very sheer and light colored. As you build it, it grows darker and more opaque with each coat. Four coats to reach opacity for me. In person, there is no visible nail line, completely opaque. This polish is a dream to work with. It does not look or feel thick, even after four coats. Given it is a sheer build-able jelly, the layering possibles are endless.

Wet n Wild The Gold and the Beautiful is a clear base filled with small (almost micro) gold glitter flakes. I absolutely love this polish as a glitter gradient! I am so happy I grabbed it to use. It is perfection. It easily gives solid tips, while also making it easy to fade the glitter out.

I originally planned to wear Katherine alone. I painted it on with a fast dry top coat as my last step. However, I did not give it ample time to dry. I ended up with a few exposed tips from push back, a couple of dents, and smudges. All toward the tip of my nails. I did not want to wear a mangled mani to work, but did not want to take Katherine off either. A glitter gradient was my solution. Before work, I quickly sponged The Gold and the Beautiful on. It saved my manicure and turned out so lovely that I am glad I messed up my polish.

Barielle Carnival Fiesta Collection and Swatches

I hope you enjoyed your Wednesday! The day is nearly over, probably will be over for me by the time I hit publish. Today I have Barielle's new winter collection to share with you. Carnival Fiesta. It consists of five metallic polishes varying between shimmer, frost, and duochrome.

Wanna Samba? is a purple to steel blue duochrome. It even appears teal at certain angles. It has a frost finish and applies opaque in two coats.

Jillian's Jammin' is a bright teal glass fleck that reflects purple at certain angles. The blue/purple duochrome is very strong in the bottle, but not quite as noticeable on the nail. Though it is more visible in person than in photos. The application is great and opaque in two coats. This is my favorite of the collection.

Lindsay's Dancin' is a shimmering red. Every holiday collection needs a red. I love the shimmer in this. Adds something extra. The application is great and opaque in two coats.

Holiday Madness is a metallic light olive green frost. The application is great and opaque in two coats. I love that it is not the typical holiday green. But rather something different.

Rio's Rockin' Bands is a medium purple shimmer. As with the rest, the application is great and opaque in two coats.

All in all, I love this collection! I wish the duochromes was stronger and that Wanna Samba? was a tad less frosty. But its a fun grouping.

Barielle polishes retail for $8 each an sets (including Carnival Fiesta) retail for $25 on their website.

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