Love, Angeline: Ocean Breeze - Sea Escapes

Hey there! I wanted to share a gorgeous matte shimmer polish from Love, Angeline. This beauty is, Ocean Breeze, a polish from her Sea Escapes collection.  The whole collection is currently available in her shop and all the polishes in this collection are matte with a different contrasting shimmer.  Very unique and gorgeous and now I'm pining for the beach with these!
Anyway, on to Ocean Breeze:

Love this green aqua shimmer!  Here's my thoughts on everything else:
Formula was very easy to work with and gets extra points that it was so easy considering it's a matte (and that AZ is a million degrees right now!)
 
My swatches are 3 coats, no topcoat!  The first coat was pretty sheer but built up really well on the second coat.  I did 3 to be safe, but could probably get away with 2 coats.

Dry time was great and I didn't need any other matte topcoat but was tempted to put a glossy one over it to see how the shimmer popped with it.  I will next time!  I was happy that the shimmer translated so well on the nail.  You see it in any lighting - indoors and outside.

If you've been interested in Love, Angeline this would be a great collection to try as minis or full size.  I also recommend her Topped With Love topcoat.  Lighting fast dry time and so shiny.  Would love to know your thoughts as always!  I linked her shop here too for your enablement. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

~ Hayley ~ 

Summer shades with Pahlish and SpaRitual

* Polishes purchased by me *

Hello, hello!  I haven't been wearing anything super interesting lately and mostly just posting them over on Instagram.  These are 2 shades I have been loving for summer so I wanted to share!
This first shade by Pahlish was a limited edition mystery shade, so unfortunately is not available.  This beauty is Test Batch: Wild Roses and gives you an idea about the spectacular polishes you can find on her site though!  This was a test batch, so they get named and sometimes they are prototypes for later releases. Fingers crossed!

If memory serves this was just 2 coats and of course I'm in love with the flakies in this one!  It reminds me of an older Pahlish, Sarey's Berry, and I wish I had that one to compare the two. 

Next is a mainstream that is still available.  Now that textures are making a comeback for summer, I had to pull this one out because I adore the color.  This is Wilderness by SpaRitual - a pinky melon texture with a microfine gold shimmer.  This was 2 coats of Wilderness and is a go to polish because it dries so quickly without a topcoat.  My perfect summer pinky coral! (It looks orange on their site, but mine definitely has pink in it).

Shades like these are what I have been loving lately.  What are your go-to summer shades or colors you tend to reach for time and time again lately?  Thanks for stopping by!

~ Hayley ~ 

KBShimmer Spring 2016: Prints Charming

*PR Sample

Just a quick post today to show off another Spring polish from KBShimmer! KBShimmer is known for their amazing crelly combos and Prints Charming does not disappoint! This white crelly has pops of colors in fuchsia, turquoise, and sapphire. I used three coats for full opacity and depth. First I topped it with Rica Glossy Glam for a high shine finish. 

 Then I had a genius idea to use NYC Matte Me Crazy. I have to say I love this one matte! It was so Spring-y and perfect!

 Prints Charming is Rarity approved. I noticed as I was cleaning up some toys how much this one encompassed her colors so I had to post for a quick photo.

 You can purchase Prints Charming on KBShimmer's website. You should also follow them on Facebook so you'll know about their future releases and contests! Additional places you can follow KBShimmer Bath and Body are:

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram

YouTube

and the KBShimmer Blog

Is it finally Spring where you are? We've had some crazy weather where I am, so I've been hot and cold about Spring colors and pastels. I think we are in the clear now though so I'm excited to put aside my dark colors and wear some bright and happy ones. 

xoxo

Jackie

Happy Easter! Whimsical Ideas by Pam Hatched

Hello sweet friends!  Every year I wear this polish, and finally decided this would be the year I would blog it!  This is an oldie but such a goodie...Hatched from Whimsical Ideas by Pam.  This is still to date my only Whimsy but she makes so many adorable polishes that I don't know why that is.

Sadly, Hatched was from a few years and is now discontinued.  In an effort to conserve my bottle I just used 1 coat of Hatched over 2 coats of Revlon Buttercup, a pale Springy yellow.
Because matting makes this one even better, that's how I wore it but did snap a pic below before putting the matte topper on.

Hatched (on its own) is a pale yellow glitter crelly of about this same color base. You need about 3 coats on its own to build to opacity.  It reminds me of a Peeps yellow and the glitters are perfect pops of color.

If you're interested in checking out the fun and very unique Whimsical nail polishes, I linked them for your viewing pleasure!  Whimsical Ideas by Pam sells through their Facebook page here.  

I hope you have a very Happy Easter or, if you don't celebrate, a great day of college basketball watching.  I'm excited for both!  Easter is my very favorite! :)  Thanks for stopping by!

~ Hayley ~

Simple and Sweet Valentines Day Manis

Hello sweet friends!  I hope that you're having a great weekend regardless if you have something elaborate planned or you're just counting down the days to 60% off chocolate (which is the real MVP!)  I'm a February baby, so I do love seeing all the bright pink and chocolate love during this month.  I'm sharing two different manicures that are super simple and sweet, but I really love these colors.

First up is True Love's Kiss from Pure Ice.  This is from that very elusive LE Fairytale Forest collection that came out around November/December.  I hate to post this one, because it's impossible to find now (it took me no less than 4 WalMarts before I found one that even had a display!)   However, if Pure Ice is reading this.....
Why aren't you re-releasing this collection!?!?  Help some polished sisters out!

I adore True Love's Kiss. It takes 3 coats, but is fully opaque and the gold shimmer is perfection in this pale pink.  IF you know of any similar polishes that are opaque like this one, let me know!  I'd love to own a few others.  This was 3 coats on its own with KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

Next, are a few older polishes but this look will be v easy to recreate.  This is an older CoverGirl Outlast polish I found on clearance, Crushed Berries.  The formula is amazing! This is 2 coats and I have never had a berry polish that was so easy to apply.  I hope other CoverGirl polishes are like this.

I topped it with SinfulColors Love Sprinkles that was from their Valentines Day collection last year. I love the pastel matte glitters they did. The small glitters are light pink, but very pale.  This was 2 coats of Love Sprinkles and fishing out the hearts are so worth it!

So that does it! Let me know which was your favorite. If you know of any other similar indie polishes to True Love's Kiss let me know that too!

XOXO - Hayley 

SinfulColors Truth or Lavendare and Night Owl

 *Provided for review*

I'm back with another installment of gorgeous new SinfulColors to show you.  This new 'A Class Act' collection is right up my ally with all these blues, purples, berries, and mattes!  With that said, I have been missing seeing some oldie but goodie SinfulColors being re-released.  So what better place than here to start my campaign? 

I pulled SinfulColors Zeus out of my melmer the other day and gazed at the bottle for awhile. You should look up swatches of Zeus if you haven't seen it.  I will definitely post a swatch of it in an upcoming post (+ untried!).  Bringing back Zeus, Verbena, Seaweed, and releasing some international shades - like Lagon (spelled correctly) - would make me super happy! *hint, hint*
But I digress....

These new shades are also gorgeous; keep up the good work, SinfulColors! Just take a look at Truth or Lavendare, one of the recent demi-mattes:

Love the name, and the formula was pretty good.  The above was 2 coats of Truth or Lavendare and I used 1 coat of a matte topcoat to make it fully matte because the dry time was a little longer than the others from this collection.

A couple of days later, I had to see how Night Owl looked over top of it.  What you see here are two accent nails of Night Owl and you can see that Truth or Lavendare wore well over that time.  Truth or Lavendare did start to revert back to its demi-matte finish after a few days of washing and cuticle oil.  I love the bottle shot of Night Owl below, the gold that the iridescent flakies pick up is amazing!

Are there any older SinfulColors polishes you would love to see re-released?  What do you think of these?

To keep up with all things from SinfulColors, check their social media sites below.  Thanks for stopping by!

SinfulColors Social Media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Website

 

~ Hayley ~

 

*Polishes were provided for review.  All opinions are 100% mine.* 

SinfulColors Hazed - Chalkboard Diaries

 *Provided for review*

Happy Friday!  As promised, I'm back with a new polish from the Chalkboard Diaries collection that SinfulColors just released.  This is Hazed, one of the new demi-matte finishes, and it is a pretty one!  I'm going to keep this short and sweet so here you go:

It's such a soft satin finish....like an Instagram filter for your nails!  This was 3 coats (no topcoat), and had a wonderful formula. The formula was thin, but unlike a lot of mattes you have a lot of time to work with it without it dragging.  The 3 coats made it fully opaque so don't let the formula deceive you.

Admittedly, I have tried all the demi-mattes just yet, but I really like this one!  Dry time was a little long, but the formula is forgiving so I didn't mind it. This plum color is flattering on so many skin tones.

SinfulColors Hazed - sunlight

Indoors - SinfulColors Hazed

Below are more of the colors from the larger A Class Act collection.  The demi-mattes are part of SinfulColors' sub-collection, Chalkboard Diaries, and I'll be back with more from that collection!

Did you try any of these demi-matte polishes?  What do you think of this one and the new collection?

To keep up with all things from SinfulColors, check their social media sites below and have a great weekend!

SinfulColors Social Media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Website

~ Hayley ~

*Polishes were provided for review.  All opinions are 100% mine.*

SinfulColors: A Class Act and Night Owl

 *Purchased by me*

 *Provided for review*

 

It's August!  Which means it's time for me to start getting exciting about the promise of Autumn (maybe not in AZ so much), football, and most importantly Fall polishes!  My guess is that it's still hot where you are, and bright colors are still on your nails.  SinfulColors is with you!  They just released their brand new back to school collection; 'A Class Act' and it's a great transition collection.  The colors are bright but soft, and they included 9 new demi-matte polishes!  
I'm posting this quickly, so you can see all the polishes in this collection and scoop up a bunch since they are on sale at Walgreens for 99 cents this week!  I will have swatches up soon, but here are the details and some bottle shots:

I don't think I need to say anything about Night Owl, one of the new glitters....I mean just look at it!

Night Owl

Photo courtesy of SinfulColors

The full A Class Act collection consists of 27 shades grouped in sub-collections, and while some are re-promoted colors, there are 15+ new glitters, creams, demi-mattes, and shimmers.  I purchased A-Crush and tried it as soon as I got it home (the light blue demi-matte) and I liked the formula.  The best way to describe the finish is right in between a matte and a cream; sort of waxy. There is no shimmer, and it's not quite flat, but doesn't have the shine of a cream polish.  A-Crush took 2 coats to be opaque and you have to work fast because of the matte quality.

The sub name of the matte collection is called 'Chalkboard Diaries' and 3 of the demi-matte shades (black, white and pink) are to be exclusive to Walgreens - so go, go, go!

Which colors are you picking up from the sale this week?  What did you think of this collection and the new mattes?

I'll have swatches up soon.  In the meantime, check out SinfulColors social media sites:

SinfulColors Social Media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Website

~ Hayley ~

Love, Angeline - Almond Darling

*All Polishes Were Purchased*

I have some pretty pastels from indie brand Love, Angeline to share today! Oh, and they're matte.  Oh, and they have some subtle shimmer.  Excited yet?  Maybe just take a peek below.

This is almost the complete Love, Angeline Chateau Macaron collection that released a few months ago for Spring 2015.  In retrospect, I should have just gotten the complete collection because the only one I'm missing is Confection-ary Yellow and I've seen a lot of really cute manis on Instagram using it.  *Sigh* but I digress...

The first color I tried from the collection is Almond Darling.  I used 3 coats and no topcoat in order to leave it matte.  Almond Darling is a very pink leaning lavender.  It's extremely close to the pink in the collection, Baiser de Mousse, but is just slightly more lavender.  The formula was thin, which I liked because it was easy to control and lets a peek of shimmer show through (though very subtle).  I left some dry time between coats so they didn't pull.  This polish self leveled very well and the wear was fantastic!  I had no chipping even after a few days.

Natosha, the creator behind Love, Angeline is very engaging with her polished fans, so I definitely recommend stopping by!  The story behind her brand name is so sweet too!  You can still purchase the Chateau Macaron collection from her shop here.  If you are drawn to brighter shades for the summer, not to worry, because she's releasing a sister collection of summer matte neons called Meet Me At The Tea Salon.

Check out her Facebook and Instagram and if you have any Love, Angeline polishes I'd love to hear which ones you have!  Thanks for stopping by! 

~ Hayley

Black Cat Lacquer: Let Them Eat Cake (Besides, it's my Birthday!)

*Purchased by me*

If any day is a day to eat cake, it's on your birthday!  Since that day is today for me, I couldn't think of a better nail polish to wear than Black Cat Lacquer Let Them Eat Cake!  My nails aren't in the greatest shape right now, but I still wanted to share with you.

Let Them Eat Cake was my very first indie polish, and can you believe after over 2 years this is the first time I've used it?  Every time I looked at my bottle I thought I'd have to bring it back to life with some thinner or buy a new one.  I decided to be brave and open it anyway just to see how bad it was, and to my surprise it still was easy to apply.  It was somewhat thick (possibly just my bottle), but very manageable even without thinner!  I think that's a testament to a great quality polish!  Pictures shown are 1-2 coats of Let Them Eat Cake over China Glaze's Dandy Lyin' Around.  I did matte this with NYC Matte Me Crazy.

I love the mix of pastel pink, baby blue and light green glitters and a scattering of holo micro glitter for a subtle sparkle.  If you want some cake of your own, you can still purchase Let Them Eat Cake from Black Cat Lacquer's website or keep updated on all the new creations on their Facebook page.  

I'd love to know what your favorite polish is to use on a special day, like your birthday!  Thank you for already making my birthday happy just for stopping by!

~ Hayley

SpaRitual Arroyo

  *Purchased by me*

I'm excited to announce that I found another SpaRitual that I wanted from the Wander collection.  This one is called Arroyo, it is another "sandy matte shimmer" and this time I left it matte!  SpaRitual Arroyo is a pink that leans to the mauve spectrum, and has a golden shimmer to it. 

Sunlight - no topcoat

I had to look up the definition to Arroyo (which I'm a little ashamed to say, since I live in Arizona) but it means: A dry creek or stream bed—gulch that temporarily or seasonally fills and flows after sufficient rain.
Yep, we have those all over the place here....and now on my nails. 

This is two coats with no top coat.  Dry time is nice and quick because of the matte finish.  There are some great swatches of Arroyo with top coat, and like Nomad, the shimmer really pops with a shiny top coat.

Again if you wander into an Ulta (see the first sentence for what I did there) and find these on clearance, I absolutely recommend getting them!  The sale price definitely makes these worth adding to your collection! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

~ Hayley

SpaRitual Nomad

Happy Friday!! This brand is completely new to me.  I walked into Ulta's clearance sale on New Years Eve with the intent of getting some Zoyas, and walked out with this one also. I am sure you can relate. :)
I remembered admiring some of SpaRitual's Wander Fall 2014 collection, particularly Nomad, Arroyo and Starry Night.  I didn't see the other two, but grabbed the last Nomad because I have nothing like this in my collection.  I'm pretty infatuated...

Macro! (with topcoat)

The bottom of the bottle says sandy matte shimmer.  I read that and I acknowledged it but it didn't register.  Then when I tried it and saw it drying matte, tears of happiness welled up and I immediately messaged Jackie.  All the swatches of Nomad were mostly shown with topcoat (it is awesome this way).  I planned to leave it matte, but top coated it to make sure I could get pictures the next morning.

These swatches are 2 coats of Nomad and 1 coat of Out The Door.  It has a great formula and no clean up was necessary with this polish.  Nomad looks olive green with rose shimmer outdoor light and warmer greenish gold with rose shimmer indoors. Leaving it matte makes the polish softer looking and a unique, but very wearable olive.

Inside: polish accurate, not skin accurate!

 

If I had bought this before New Years Eve it would have definitely been on the Favorites post!  I would consider this beauty if you see it, or send me over a back up bottle! :)  My SpaRitual obsession starts now.

~ Hayley

Forget Me Not: OPI Thanks a Windmillion

The OPI Nordic collection is all the rage right now, but I wanted to remind you all of another OPI that would also be great as a transition color into fall. This is OPI Thanks a Windmillion from the Holland collection.  I am so ready for fall, football, scarves and pumpkin everything! Side note: I am burning a new Bath & Body Works candle right now called Tailgate...and I am OBSESSED with the scent!  If you're a fan of their candles I would highly recommend checking it out! Anyway back to this lovely polish...

OPI's Holland collection is a few years old, so that's why I'm titling this as a 'forget me not'.  The formula for Thanks a Windmillion is perfect and this is 2 easy coats. I wanted to make a glitter sandwich but until I get a hold of a bottle of Glitter Off, I am hesitating using a chunky glitter.  I decided to at least try it matted, so these photos are all with one coat of Essence Soft Touch matte topcoat.  So, it's not the most intricate look but still super pretty!

Shade

I love the dustiness that Thanks a Windmillion has; it's very greyed looking in indoor light.  Really almost a sage color, but with just enough blue in it for me to still classify it as a borderline seafoam.  I would grab this, if you can still find it in store...OPI had transitioned this into their core collection.  Otherwise, I imagine it would be fairly easy to find on Amazon. 

I hope you all are enjoying fall where you are!  Thanks for stopping by :)

~Hayley

*All polishes and items in this post were purchased by me.