Polished by KPT - Color Therapy

Apart from "Glow The Blues Away", this polish was the other Polished by KPT beauty I couldn't wait to try! I always thought the glitter mix in this one was super funky and interestingly bright.

It's called Color Therapy and it's a mix of neon pink, coral and green square and hex glitters. The clear base is also packed with scattered holographic pigments and the glitters glow under UV and black lights which makes it all the more fun.

At first I tried it over a white base on a nail wheel but fell in love with this colour combo the most. The blue base is Miss Sporty Pop Fiction.

You can purchase Polished by KPT directly from their website, (US & Canada shipping) but they are now also available at Shoppe Eclectic and Harlow & Co.

*The product featured  in this post was sent to me for review.

Shimmer Polish - Karen

It's been a while since I've worn a Shimmer Polish. I still have a few left to try out and some of the darker glitters I have coming up will be perfect for Fall.

Today I'm wearing "Karen". A purple and pink glitter bomb with some additional scattered orange, blue and silver glitter. I layered one coat of Karen over La Femme Angel which is a vivid pink with purple undertones and compliments the colours in the Shimmer Polish nicely.

Shimmer Polish are very dense glitters and can be worn on their own if you apply 2/3 coats.

You can purchase Shimmer Polish directly from Cindy's Etsy store. There are also lots of beautiful swatches and product information on their website and Facebook page.

*Some of the products featured  in this post were sent to me for review.

  

Polished by KPT - Glow The Blues Away

Today I have another creation from Katherine at Polished by KPT to share with you. This pink is so bright and vibrant that I had to wear it before the summer here ends.

Glow the Blues Away is a super saturated pink jelly packed with scattered holo glitter. It glows in the dark too but I don't have one of those black UV lights to show you. This is two coats but I would recommend three for complete opacity. Definitely one of my summer favourites!

You can purchase Polished by KPT directly from their website, (US & Canada shipping) but they are now also available at Shoppe Eclectic and Harlow & Co.

*The product featured  in this post was sent to me for review.

Polished by KPT - Kelvin Bleu and Hot Like Wasabi (thermal polishes)

The wonderful Katherine from Polished by KPT recently sent me some of her polishes to try. If you visit her shop, you'll see an extensive line of bright and dark thermals, funky glitters and toppers as well as holo and neon/ glow polishes.

Today I'm showing you two thermals - Kelvin Bleu and Hot Like Wasabi. All Polished by KPT polishes are 3 free (no toluene, no formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate) and cruelty free.

Kelvin Bleu is a medium periwinkle blue when "cold". Capturing the transition in this one was easier than the others. My hands were really hot when I applied it, thus the very pale shade of blue...

...but as soon as I dipped my hands in ice cold water, the blue transition became much more evident and darker. In the winter it would permanently look like this as my hands are always cold.

The transition for "Hot Like Wasabi" was much more difficult to capture. Maybe it was because I swatched these when the weather was really, really hot here and by the time I removed my hands from cold water, they were instantly hot again.

Hot Like Wasabi is is a yellow/ green scattered holo thermal polish. I didn't layer this one over white which I think would have made it slightly paler. The first picture is what it would look like "hot" and I just about managed to capture the tips transitioning to a brighter green in the second picture.

You can purchase Polished by KPT directly from their website, (US & Canada shipping) but they are now also available at Shoppe Eclectic and Harlow & Co.

*The product featured  in this post was sent to me for review.

 

Pastel Blue & Sparkles on a Snowy March!

Time to show you another Shimmer Polish beauty, and in yet another gradient! I really need to stop it with the glitter gradients but I like them so much! It's one of my favourite ways to wear glitter!

Although it's nearing the end of March, it's still snowing here so I guess this is the only way I can wear a pastel without getting depressed about the horrible weather! I used two coats of Erre Due No.94, a lovely pastel blue creme and brushed some Shimmer Jenny onto the tips. Shimmer polishes are perfect for glitter gradients!

You can purchase Shimmer Polish directly from Cindy's Etsy store. There are also lots of beautiful swatches and product information on their website and Facebook page.

*The products in this post were provided to me for review.

Fuchsia Garden - Terrestrial Nails

Today I have a somewhat bright mani to show you, featuring an indie polish from Terrestrial Nails called Fuchsia Garden. It was sent to me by a wonderful lady on Instagram (@nic_tchelly) and you can also find the creator of Terrestrial Nails on Instagram (@newieee), on Etsy and on Facebook.

Fuchsia Garden is a medium green base with mircro and medium hex fuchsia glitter. You need 3 coats for full opacity but you can also layer it over any green or teal polish to achieve instant opacity. One thing I like about this polish is definitely the colour combo, it's different and original as I haven't seen a lot of green bases with fuchsia glitter. I just wish there were a bit more of the larger hex glitter swimming around in it.

I used a bright neon purple polish to complement the glitters in this polish and to also break up the green a little bit. It's by Justy Cosmetics No.422. This polish was only €1 and I absolutely love the colour and the formula. I'll have to do a full mani with it soon.

Midnight Masquerade - Pretty & Polished

Pretty & Polished Midnight Masquerade was one of the first indie polishes I ever purchased. Well, the one that really got my attention was Elvis Pink Cadillac but as I made my way to the checkout, I saw this blackened base packed with magenta and green glitters so I knew I had to buy it too!

Although this polish is opaque on its own in two coats, I still layered it over a coat of black creme. I like my polish very opaque. The formula was slightly thick but not too difficult to apply. It dries quite glossy and its not even that gritty at all, considering all the hex glitter packed into it!

I wish I could have got the glitters to show up a bit more on camera but I really couldn't work around the glare on this one. However, the last picture which was taken with my iPhone in natural daylight, shows the depth of the glitter better.

What do you guys think of this polish?

You can find Pretty & Polished products (polishes, cuticle balms and oils, etc) on Etsy.

I'm Still Here...With a Bunch of Swatches!

Hi guys! Yep, so I'm checking in to let you know I'm still around. Sorry I've been MIA lately and haven't been updating my blog often. Sometimes life just happens, I've been extremely busy lately and probably won't be able to post as often as I'd like to.

Although I haven't had a lot of time or patience for nail art, I have been painting my nails regularly (can't stand the sight of my naked nails, lol!) and I've been posting all those pictures on Instagram. My IG name is '@nailstories', if you have an account you can follow me there too :)

Here are some of the polishes I've been wearing for the past few weeks. Apologies about the quality of the pictures, I don't use Photoshop or crop pictures before posting on Instagram.

Butter London - The Black Knight

Jade Holographic - Rosa (sent to me by Bia)

Nails Inc - Baker Street & Essence Prince Charming

OPI - It's My Year

Tip Top Nails - Fairy Dust & Nubar Violet Sparkle

Homemade gold leaf top coat (sent to me by @bedizzle)

The Hungry Asian - Strawberry (sent to me by @nic_tchelly)

Essie - Brooch The Subject

Essie - Splash of Grenadine & OPI Crown Me Already

Color Club - Glitter Wonderland

Thanks for visiting
xxx

Popular and Belle Kind Of Week

This week I've been in the mood for really soft, girly colours so here are a couple of polishes I wore.

Revlon Popular (a.k.a Starry Pink). Two coats over a coat of a baby pink creme polish as I didn't want any vnl. The silver micro and hex glitters add such a nice touch to the rose tinted milky base.

For the last couple of days, I've been wearing Belle by The Hungry Asian. Belle is a white jelly based polish with pink micro glitter and brown hex glitter. I thought the brown glitters were so different and unique. This is 3 coats over a coat of Nails Inc Elizabeth Street. I also placed some extra loose brown glitters to the accent.  You can find The Hungry Asian polishes on Etsy.

Once Upon A Time...

Today I thought I'd dig out an indie polish and voila...Once Upon A Time by Lush Lacquer. A light pink base with lots of different sized pink, purple and silver glitters.

I used one coat of Jessica Samba Parade as a base and two coats of Once Upon A Time. I loved this polish much more in the bottle than I did on my nails, so I decided to only use it on accent nails and mix it up with black. You can't really go wrong with black polish!

Purple Thursday

Today is "purple day"! Lol! Not intentionally of course, I just happen to have swatched two fantastic purple based polishes today and couldn't wait to upload the pictures.

First up is a Cult Nails beauty sent to me by the wonderful Bridget from Luxe Beauty Forever. This is one coat of Seduction, from the Divas and Dramas collection, over Milani Devoted 2 U. It's a purple jelly base polish, packed with copper and blue flakies that shift green! Awesome doesn't begin to describe this flakie. I know I'll be layering this over pretty much anything throughout winter!

The first picture is in direct lamp light and the second was taken with a white sheet partially covering the bulb. The flakies are much more evident in the second picture. That's pretty much how they show irl too!

Secondly, I have another stunner from Polished By KPT. I've posted about Katherine's other creations here and here. Midnight Kiss is a darkened grape purple jelly packed with holographic micro and medium sized round glitters. This is 3 coats on it's own. It sparkles so much, I couldn't stop staring at my nails. Check out Katherine's shop here and her Facebook page here.

Some of the product(s) in this post were provided by the manufacturer or their PR for my honest review.

Lovely Lacquer - Blue Gem & Fruity Pebbles

Today I have another two indie pretties to show you. These were sent to me by the lovely Lauren, the mastermind behind Lovely Lacquer.

Lets get straight onto the swatches. First up is Blue Gem. The first thing I noticed as soon as I opened the bottle was how dense the colour changing pigments were. One coat of this is all you need to get that blue/ purple duochromeness to show. I am in love with how evident the duochrome is on this one!
Lauren also has other colour shifting polishes for sale in her Etsy store, a pink/ copper called Princess Cut and a green/ gold one called Gold Rush.

Fruity Pebbles (love that name) is a multi glitter topper consisting of large hex and square as well as micro-glitter in different colours. This is one coat over white. The glitters aren't hard to work with at all, they don't curl or stick up nor do you need to fish them out.  I mattified it in the last picture as I was curious to see what it would look like matte.

Both of these and many more Lovely Lacquer polishes can be found in Lauren's Etsy shop. All full sized polishes are $8 and minis are $4.50 (plus shipping).

The product(s) in this post were provided by the manufacturer or their PR for my honest review.

Muted Green With a Stroke of Sparkle

Today I have another Polished by KPT pretty to show you. This is her Spectraflair top coat which is also for sale in two grades in her online shop.
This is a mini bottle but both grades also come in full size bottles. And because Katherine is a sweetheart and wants to share the luuurve, there is also a step-by-step tutorial on her instagram page on how she mixes up her Spectraflair top coats. So if you have Instagram, check it out. Her username is @kptran.

Here I layered one coat of spectraflair over OPI Thanks a Windmillion (Holland Collection) which was sent to me by the lovely Bridget from Polish oh my! I only layered one coat because I don't want this pretty baby to finish but I really like the subtle sparkle effect. If you want a stronger holo effect, more coats will be needed.

Bridget couldn't quite believe I didn't own a muted green shade like this so she immediately sent me a bottle. I love it! It has a slight pastel look to it, although probably a little too dark to qualify as a pastel! Maybe a murky pastel?!

The product(s) in this post were provided by the manufacturer or their PR for my honest review.