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.

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.

Essence Ticket to the Show & Front Row or Backstage?

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday!

Essence Ticket to the Show and Front Row or Backstage? are one of the Colour3 duos. A double ended polish. Ticket to the Show is a black jelly like creme base filled with rainbow shimmer. The shimmer was hard to capture on camera, and rather subtle. Front Row or Backstage? is a grey brown filled with gold flakes. It is the layering polish and while meant to be used over a base, I decided to showcase it on its own. The application on both is perfection. Ticket to the Show is opaque in two coats, while Front Row or Backstage? took three.

Zoya Tallulah - In Memorial

December was not the best month. The holidays are stressful, plus working in retail during the holidays. Then it got worse. Very early Saturday morning at midnight my grandma passed away. The visitation was last night and the funeral was this afternoon. I managed to post Sunday, but am literally pushing myself to type at the moment. 

It felt appropriate to paint my nails a color she would have liked. Blue was her favorite color. She preferred sapphire and navy blue. I do not own too many of those shades, so I compromised and chose something we both liked.

Zoya Tallulah is a medium electric blue shimmer. The shimmer in this is beautiful. Mostly blue, but occasionally green and purple. The application is perfection and opaque in two coats.

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.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! And that you had a Merry Christmas, if you celebrate. Otherwise, Happy Tuesday! I wanted to do nail art for Christmas, but I have been utterly exhausted lately, so I settled for Christmas colored polishes.

Ignore the tip wear and band-aid. I usually take photos within an hour or so of doing my nails. However, I did not remember I needed pictures until the next day after work. By then, I had tip wear and a bandage from a cash register related injury.

For my green, I used Barielle Date Night, a jewel toned emerald shimmer. My accent nail consisted of Essie Head Mistress and As Gold As It Gets. I love this combination! So simple, yet very appropriate for the holiday.

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.

Pure Ice Iced Merlot

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! I know my posts this month have been a little sporadic. Its the time of year for colds and the holidays. Things have been a little hectic. Things should level out soon. And I'm going to do a few nail art designs soon. Expect plenty of nail art for December between Christmas and New Years.

Pure Ice Iced Merlot is a raspberry wine with pink and silver shimmer. The application is great and opaque in two coats. Its a gorgeous polish, but honestly based on the color in the bottle I was expecting a deep red foil or metallic.

Pure Ice retails for $2 at Walmart and Bari Cosmetics.

Essence Modern Romance

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! I do not feel well enough to attempt any nail art or you would be seeing poppies today for Veterans Day. I deeply appreciate each and every individual who has fought for our country. My grandpa served in World War II. He died in 2005.

Essence Modern Romance is a very light peachy pink shimmer. The formula is a bit streaky, but does even itself out. It is opaque in two coats. This particular polish is from the old Colour & Go line, not to be confused with the new line that has a polish of the same name, but not the same color.

Tip Top Swatches & Review

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday! Today I have several polishes to show you. A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Joan Kahn (Director of Tip Top Nails CC and Founder of Tip Top Products) after she saw my Facebook page. She offered to let me try Tip Top polishes. Honestly, I had not heard of the brand before. But after seeing the Facebook page and website, I knew I definitely had to try them.

Tip Top was founded in 1981 in South Africa. The products were originally exclusively for professional nail technicians and is now available to everyone. All the polishes are vegan, containing no formaldehyde, toluene, DBP (dibuthyl phthalate) or camphor. So they are Big 4 Free, in addition to being cruelty free (no animal testing).

I received five polishes from the NailChic line, two crackles (not pictured above), base coat, and a top coat to try. My immediate reaction upon opening the box and unwrapping these bottles was how gorgeous they look. Believe it or not, they look even better on the nail.

For all of my swatches, I used the Toughen Up Maxi Growth Base Coat and Top Coat (for dry, brittle, and damaged nails). The base coat goes on very smooth, as does the top coat. I will let you all know later if they increase growth. All of the polishes come in a 10mL/0.33 fl oz bottle and contain vitamin E for extra moisturization.

Meringue Surprise is a light pink creme, a tad dustier than most pale pink polishes. The application is smooth and opaque in two coats. Its a gorgeous neutral shade and honestly different than the other pale pinks I own because of the slight dustiness. 

Rough Melon is a dusty melon orange frost like shimmer. The name fits this polish perfectly. It leans toward being a frost, but with minimal visible stroke lines. The application is good and opaque in one coat, though I used two for good measure. Its a beautiful color though I'm still on the fence about whether or not its a good color for me.

Decked Out is a bright red toned orange jelly filled with gold shimmer. Its a bit sheer with slight visible nail line after three coats. The VNL is not nearly as noticeable as it seems in the first picture, much more subtle like the second. I had a hard time capturing just how much shimmer this polish has. Its simply gorgeous. The application is a dream.

Chocolate Truffle is a deep red toned brown jelly. The application is smooth and glides on like a dream, opaque in two coats. I honestly thought this was a simple brown creme when I saw the bottle. I was blown away to see how amazing it looks on the nail. Its absolutely gorgeous! Smooth and glossy even before top coat.

Jeepers Creepers is a darkened teal with green and blue flecks. The application is perfection and opaque in two coats. I love the shimmer in this one. Very aquatic. Its stands apart from the other darkened teals I own.

White Confetti is a white crackle creme. A basic crackle color. However, the application and crackle effect are much better than the most of the whites I have tried. Gold is a gold shimmer crackle. I expected it to be sheer, since shimmer crackles tend to be sheer. It went beyond my expectations and applied opaque with a gorgeous shimmer.

The application on all of these polishes is perfect, with the exception of Rough Melon. It was not bad, just not up to par with the rest. Let's not forget the brush. The brushes on these was very easy to work with. Flat, flexible, and just the right width.

After trying all of these polishes, I have to say I am very impressed with the brand. Honestly. If I have a bad experience, I let others know because I hate for people to buy something when its not worth purchasing.

Make sure you check out Tip Top's Facebook page. They hold nail art contests on a regular basis.

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