Maybelline Brocade Collection - Lavishly Lilac

Hola! Remember I'm Feeling Sashy from yesterday? Here's how I wore it!

Maybelline - Lavishly Lilac
I added two accent nails in this beautiful glitter from Maybelline's Brocade Collection. It only needed two coats for full coverage on top of my purple base, but you may need three on a bare nail.

The glitters in this collection are really different, with blends of different glitters and shimmers, creating a really unique look. Don't you love it when you see a new polish in a display and can honestly say you don't already own something like it? I actually bought three of them... Haha.

I also added a quick gradient to my thumb to complete the look. I just did the gradient with the polish brush - making sure there was very little on the brush to blend the glitter down onto the base.

Don't these polishes go well together?

Did you pick up any of the Brocade glitters? At only 3 or 4 bucks a piece, they're pretty hard to resist! I'm itching to wear the green one now... I think I will go put it on!

Maybelline - Nighttime Noise

Hey guys! Hopping on late tonight to get this post up for you because I love this polish!

Maybelline - Nighttime Noise (over Lime Crime - Once In A Blue Mousse)
This is a new matte glitter topper from the Street Art collection of Maybelline's Color Show line. The collection has four or five cool glitters but the two blues really stood out to me and followed me home.

As you can see there are many different shapes and sizes of glitter, plus the formula was wonderful. I did two coats for my mani for the coverage I wanted. It's so fun!

I definitely recommend these glitters! Plus they're so affordable, just around $3. Pick them up if you spot 'em.

31DC2013 - day 6

Yoooooooo, sup. Today is Purple day and purple is my fave.
I decided to use one of my untried purple polishes, a beauty from one of my fave brands, piCture pOlish!

piCture pOlish - Warning
Hot damn, this is a good one. Shimmery purpley bluey goodness. Really happy with it! It needs three coats to cover completely but I don't even mind.

I didn't just wanna leave this solid today so I added some glitter and stickers!

Hello Kitty!!! The nail stickers were from Born Pretty. And the glitter is Maybelline - Lavender Sparks.

This mani was a little hard to photograph but I didn't have much time because my camera battery was about to die... Haha!

Ain't nothin' better than purple glittery HK nails. Am I right?

Maybelline Color Show - Pink Polka

The Maybellne Polka Dots collection is a trendy offering, trying to win the hearts of milky glitter lovers. I hadn't heard of the collection until I walked into a drugstore and saw the display.
When I first saw the display, it was fully stocked... Except for one row of polishes.
I said to myself, "Damn, I bet that one polish that already sold out was probably the best one!"

Turns out, I was right. I found a full display in another store and realized the one I hadn't seen yet was PINK. Immediate impulse purchase.

Maybelline - Pink Polka
For some reason, I really can't decide if I want to write a good review or a bad review for this polish. 
I love the concept, love the look, but the polish is a different shade on the nail than in the bottle (less purpley - boo) and the formula is really difficult when you factor in the not-so-stellar brush.

So... Like... I like it. But it could be better.

I think the first photo was a fluke and makes it look a bit nicer than it actually is. The following two are more accurate I think.

Don't get me wrong - it is a very nice polish and I did enjoy wearing it (plus you can't beat the $2.99 price tag.)
But I just wanted it to be more of a purple-toned color like the bottle shows and I would like the formula to be easier to work with.

That being said - I still like it enough to consider picking up the green one if I stumble upon it.

Have you picked up any of these Maybelline Polka Dots?
This was actually the first Maybelline polish I tried since their rebranding! I'll definitely pick up more if they continue to come out with fun polishes like this one. I won't let my so-so review of this one turn me off.
At least not yet... Haha!

Elixir Lacquers - Betty Brutality

Hey guys! Are you in the mood for some rockin' glitter polish today? Of course you are!

Elixir Lacquers - Betty Brutality
This awesome glitter topcoat is from the upcoming  Roller Derby Ruckus collection from Elixir Lacquers, which will launch on February 1st.

Burgundy, blue, purple, iridescent... Awesome! Love the purple squares especially. 

Seriously loved wearing this polish! I found the glitter suspended well and was easy to apply - 2 coats, no extra fishing. Hooray!

Here's the base color alone because it is also awesome:

Maybelline - Cool Couture 

I recently picked up this beauty in a blogsale and I'm super pumped about it. 2 coats. Yum.

Check out swatches of the rest of this collection here from Nicole of Elixir herself!

I've got another one still to show you as well so keep an eye out for that.

The collection launches on February 1st and you can find 'em at elixirlacquers.com!

Product provided for honest review.

i'm home! / april haul!

Hey everyone! Back to live posting here from RLN headquarters.

I had a fantastic time on vacation, spent a ton of money, ate a whole bunch of good food, and of course brought home a lot of polish.

I'm gonna start this post with my usual monthly haul list, and then move on to the stuff I got while on vacation!
Before I left for vacation, I wasn't really being as good as I should have been...

As Seen On... Kiss My Acetone

(This is a scheduled post. I'm on vacation!)

Hello everyone!
This is my second last scheduled post which means this is my second last day in Toronto. Ho hum.

The blogger I'm featuring today is a blog I looked for for a long time but I couldn't find her. (I'll explain in a minute.)
Then one day she posted something in a Facebook group I was in and I recognized her nails! I immediately followed her and left her a comment about how much I loved her nails. (Sometimes I'm a nerd. You know that already.)

Who is this blogger I am talking about? Kiss My Acetone. (Cute name, huh?)
Dori loves cupcakes. And I love cupcakes. Match made in heaven!

Now, to explain.
Long before I had my own blog and was just stalking nail Tumblrs and stuff, I came across the photo of the mani I am recreating in this post.
No watermark. But I was in love. With the mani AND with the base color.
From the picture, you can see that it is Maybelline. And it is limited edition. So I went to a few stores that carry Maybelline hoping to get lucky but nope. I didn't even know the name!
I googled, and googled, and could not figure out who the picture belonged to so I couldn't just ask what it was.
So again I googled, and somehow I found the polish. Goody Plum Drop. I needed to have it. But it was no longer available in stores and there was none on eBay. I thought I was doomed.
But then my polish fairy Caroline came along and she found it and sent it to me and I couldn't be happier about it!

So. Now I have the polish. Now I know the blogger. Now is time to recreate the mani!

And I did pretty darn good!
(Besides the index finger... I screwed it up THREE times while doing this mani. So the frosting looks a little wonky.)
Dori first did these nails when she went to Sprinkles Cupcakes! How cute?
She did them again here. And again here. AND even a tutorial, here!

I've done cupcake manis before but usually just on thumbs because they're a good shape for cupcakes.
But this version is extra special and cute and I love it and I NEED to do it again and actually wear it. For a week at least.

For this recreation I wanted to make it as close to the original as possible. Dori didn't list her polish colors, but I think I used the right shades.

A lot of polishes were involved in this...
Maybelline - Goody Plum Drop (base)
China Glaze - Fairy Dust (over the base for some extra sparkle)
China Glaze - Something Sweet (light pink)
China Glaze - Lemon Fizz (yellow)
China Glaze - Rich And Famous (medium pink)
OPI - Dim Sum Plum (dark pink)
OPI - Mermaids Tears (green, and mixed with white for light green)
OPI - You Don't Know Jacques! (brown, and mixed with white for light brown)
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Whirlwind White (...white)
Kleancolor - Twinkly Love (hearts!)

Opening and closing all the bottles is what ruined my damn nail three times!

Here are the three cute ones. No wonky one to ruin the photo.

Thank you for the inspiration Dori! Even if I did drive myself nuts trying to figure out what the hell the purple polish was.

I'm seeing Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj tonight!
Funnily enough, Dori saw the same tour, and she rocked some super blingy nails at the concert.
Hopefully by now I'll have found some super blingy polishes, and I can be blingy at Britney too!

swatch spam! swap with Shadow's Nail Art

Good morning!
Today I'm going to be showing you some awesome polishes from an awesome girl.

Caroline from Shadow's Nail Art sent me all those goodies! All in the cute pink box!
We agreed to swap 2 bottles - and then she went overboard! (But I got her back, don't worry.)

All of the things she sent me were on my wishlist! And they're all so awesome!

This is China Glaze - Custom Kicks which I've already posted about on its own but I had to include it again!
Very gorgeous teal with gold shimmer, very well pigmented, 2 coats.

Sinful Colors - Green Ocean. See the pretty blue flash on the flakies? So great!
This is really sheer though so I chose to layer it for this swatch.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear- Going Green. Not a polish from the swap, but here is a swatch anyway! This is one of those awesome Xtreme Wear polishes everyone should have! 2 coats!
And then I added one thick coat of Green Ocean.

Amazing.

I'm not normally a huge flakie fan but these ones are just awesome. The colors of the flakies are so pretty.
And the different sized flakes and glitter makes it much more interesting.

Love it!

Maybelline - Goody Plum Drop. This was my number one want at the time of our swap and I never thought she was going to find it because it was from last spring. Limited edition polishes from drugstore brands are hard to find once they're gone from stores.
Somehow, she found it. My little polish fairy!
Best purple ever. The shimmer is so lovely and the shade is perfect.

It's not identical to any other polish in my collection but it is close to OPI Planks a Lot and China Glaze Spontaneous.

Ah, another polish crossed off the wishlist. Orly - Halley's Comet.
I've included a bunch of photos of this one because it is too pretty!

Just look at it! The above picture shows you the colors it shines in person. The green flash is really noticeable.

So sparkly and pretty. This is three coats.

All these pictures are really similar but I had to include them. It's teal, what else can I say.

If you don't have this polish (or one of the dupes) I really think you should get it!
As far as dupes, there is OPI Catch Me In Your Net and Zoya Charla, but I don't have either of those.
There are also these two:

Essence - Choose Me! and Wet N Wild Fast Dry - Teal of Fortune.
The Essence one is very close but a bit less sparkly, and the Wet N Wild is further away, being a bit deeper and does not have the nice green or somewhat gold shimmer. It does have the glassflecked quality to it, but not near as intense or pretty.

Blurry photo was the only one to (somewhat) show the difference. The WnW is deeper and less sparkly and has less green flash. Not as pretty. But a good, cheap alternative if you have Wet N Wild available near you.
If you have Essence available, go for that one! It is even cheaper, and much more dupe-y!
And there are even more dupes too but I don't know them all!

Caroline also custom painted me this bottle for my Rebecca Likes Cupcakes franken! I squealed when I saw it! Hello Kitty in a cupcake. It's just perfect!

Caroline received a franken from me with a cupcake sticker, so she had to go one better and make me a HK one.
How awesome?

Thanks again, Caroline! You know how much I loved everything.
You spoiled me so bad! <3


I'm off to schedule posts for while I'm on vacation! I've got some awesome posts lined up. Keep a look out for them starting on Tuesday!
(And also make sure you drop by tomorrow - I've got a very special post then too. Hint: Holo.)