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.

Colorful Leopard Print

I'm back! If you want to know why I was gone, see this post. Its too much to summarize again. Oh my goodness, I missed you guys so much! To all of those who stuck with me during my absence, thank you! To those who left, I hope you come back soon. And to those who are new, welcome!

So many of the upcoming posts are old-ish manicures. However, this one is brand new. I hit the blogs for inspiration and ended up wanting to recreate this gorgeous leopard print by Chalkboard Nails. For mine, I used Zoya Pippa, Essence Let's Get Lost, and Sally Hansen Black Out. Leopard print is an easy design, even for the nail art challenged. I love it!

I'm trying out a new watermark technique. Let me know what you think.

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.

Sunshine and Bows

I hope you are enjoying what is left of your Tuesday, most likely Wednesday by now. I know I've absent recently, but I'm back and ready to blog.

Today, I have a cute design to share with you featuring some 3D nail bows.

Very 3D nail art. I started with China Glaze Lighthouse then added a full nail design with Essence Stamp Me! Black and stamping plate BM-310. Finally with a little nail glue, I added these cute black bows from the  Born Pretty Store. How cute are these?!

The bows come in twelve different colors with a rhinestone in the middle of each. Each set comes with ten bows. The bows stay on well when applied with nail glue. The bows (Item ID: 1675) retail for $2.38 on Born Pretty Store. They have a ton of other fun nail art related items as well. Shipping is always free worldwide. You can also use my coupon code AHL91 to save 10% on your order.

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

Spongebob! Born Pretty Stamping Plate Review

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! Or what is left of it. I have a very fun stamping plate to share with you today. A Spongebob Squarepants themed plate. I will admit; I am twenty-three years old and I love Spongebob. Its a part of my childhood. I was ten years old when it first aired.

I used each of the designs, except for one in the middle. Eleven designs and only ten fingers. As you can see, the designs are adorable and transfer well. The smudging you see on a couple of fingers is from the polish I used to stamp with, not the plate itself. I used Zoya Pippa as my yellow base and Sally Hansen Black Out as my black stamping polish.

If you like Spongebob, this is a definite must have. It makes a fun manicure!

This particular plate (Item ID: 4936) retails for $2.99 on Born Pretty Store, as well as all other single plates this size. They have a lot of fun designs to add some fun to your nails. Shipping is always free worldwide. You can also use my coupon code AHL91 to save 10% on your order.

Disclosure: The product 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.

Ninja Polish NVL Floam

I hope you are enjoying your Monday! I recently came across a lovely lady on PAA selling some of her polishes. Included was Floam. Needless to say, I was quite happy to be able to get it. It is my first indie polish.

Ninja Polish NVL Floam is a clear base filled with neon matte blue and yellow-green glitter. Unlike most glitter, it is matte and gives off to sparkle or shine. That's what I love about it! It is so much fun! The application is good. I was a little hesitate to wear it alone to begin with, so I layered. Two coats over Pure Ice Wild Thing. I have seen some people get Floam opaque by itself in two to three coats. I plan to wear it on its own soon.

The wear of this polish was very good, especially for a glitter. I wore it for three days with no tip wear or chips. For me, that is miraculous. It even survived me doing truck today. Which normally mangles my polish. The removal was no harder than any other glitter.

Floam was originally created by Amy of I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous. It is now sold on Ninja Polish, in their bottles. So if you are looking for this polish, there are two different bottle styles.

Floam is currently in stock (if you see it out of stock, do not worry, it will come back in) at Ninja Polish for $9.

"This Is Halloween" Challenge: Trick or Treat

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! One day closer to Halloween! I have another post for the This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge. Today is treat or treat.

When I think of trick or treating, candy comes to mind first. And the first Halloween candy I think of is always candy corn. So I decided on a candy corn gradient. Fun, easy, and just screams candy corn.

I started with a coat of Pure Ice Super Star! as my white base. Then I painted wide stripes of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, NYC Times Square Tangerine, and Super Star! onto a makeup sponge. Gradients are one of the easiest nail art techniques. The only hard part is the cleanup if you end up with too much polish on your skin.

I looked yesterday at some of my nail art and realized that an Asian site had stolen one of my images. They very badly tried to erase my watermark and then added their own. I've been considering adding a watermark  closer to the nail, something that cannot be cropped out and is hard to photoshop out. Let me know what you think of the new watermark.

A Glowing Pumpkin Tangled in My Web

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! I have an awesome combination to show you today. Plus, I finally found a setting on my camera that allows me to capture the light from glow in the dark polish. YAY! In case you are having trouble with your camera, I managed to do it with the setting for candlelight.

Check out how bright the polish is in the dark. Very noticeable! For this glowing combination, I started with a coat of white polish (Pure Ice Super Star!). I tried the polish on its own earlier in the month. Incredibly sheer. I took pictures, but didn't want to post them. I wanted to try layering it over a creme. The picture below is five to six coats and you can still see visible nail line.

I love the jelly finish it has when used alone, but it was way too sheer. Not to mention too thick after six coats. I want to experiment with different colors and see if I can find something that lets it keep the jelly appearance, but be opaque.

Back to my layering combo... I started with white then painted on two coats of Pumpkin Polish Orange. I topped it off with a layer of Wet n Wild Tangled in My Web. All of the polishes have great application, other than the sheerness of the pumpkin polish.

Pumpkin polishes can be found only at Rite-aid during this time of year. Tangled in My Web is from last fall's Wet n Wild On the Prowl Collection. There should be a few bottles to be found online.

Born Pretty Store Dried Flowers Manicure and Review

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! I was contacted by Daisy from the Born Pretty Store to review a product for them. I chose the dried flowers. I have been dying to try dried flowers in a manicure for a long time.

Each order contains twelve different flowers, each in small plastic containers. The quantities vary slightly; however, there should be at least five of the small flowers and two of the large cluster flowers. Plenty to do more than one manicure.

I decided on pairing the large yellow cluster flower with Finger Paints Where Art Renoir?. The yellow really pops against the black backdrop. The flowers are very easy to apply, much easier than I expected. They are also sturdier than I anticipated, so I had no issues with crumbling.

I went with accent fingers since this was my first experience with dried flowers. After painting my nails and letting them dry, I used tweezers to pick up one of the flowers. It was large enough to use for two fingers, so I carefully cut it in half through the middle. Each half stayed intact. I painted on a thin coat of clear polish before placing a flower half on my nail. They were easy to press down. I let it set for a minute before adding one coat of top coat. Once that was completely dry, I added another coat to make it smoother.

Application was easy and the flowers stay on very well after top coat. I took a shower, washed my hands several times, and went to work without them budging at all. If you love dried flowers or want to try them, you will definitely enjoy using these.

Dried Flowers (Item ID: 129) retail for $6.08 at Born Pretty Store, and they offer free shipping worldwide.

Daisy even gave me a code to share with all of you for 5% off your purchase. AHL91