By The Way...'You're Blushing'

I'll be snapping out of these greyed, wintery pastels soon!  Before I do, I wanted to show you this combination of polishes that you can still easily find.  This is Orly's You're Blushing and I topped it with OPI's  Pirouette My Whistle.  We all know I love those greyed lavenders, but I love this one because most of the ones I own are blue undertoned and (to me) this has a red undertone.  I think it results in the polish leaning more to the lavender on me than grey, unlike some of the other lavenders of this type.

You're Blushing was part of Orly's Cool Romance collection in Spring 2012 but recently, after Orly updated their bottles, Sally's Beauty included this in their core line. It applied very easily and the pictures are two coats.  I love the name of it too, because it evokes that first stage of a spring fling when everything is new and you melt over every sweet thing they say.  I'm a romantic...it's not a surprise. 

Pirouette My Whistle was part of OPI's NYC Ballet Collection also in 2012, but is still at Ulta in their core line.  I just love how soft and subtle this glitter is!  I initially got the mini collection and loved Pirouette My Whistle so much I had to have a full size bottle!  The 'larger' glitters are sparse and I had to fish a few out of the mini bottle, so this is two coats also.

  
Thank you for stopping by and for the support so far, it means so much to us!  Have a great day!

Spring Trend: Pretty Pastels

Are you as excited as we are about all the pretty pastels being released for Spring? I know Hayley and I have both talked about loving the subtle washes of purple and mint. Well...when Walgreens had their Sinful Colors on sale for a mere 99¢ I jumped all over their new Sugar Rush collection and bought every color. Yep. I needed them all. So first up is the bright and cheerful teal color called Sweet Nothing.

At first I wasn't sure I really needed this color, but I'm glad I decided to get it. I have a very similar shade that is also from Sinful Colors called Savage. However, Savage dries to a matte finish and is darker on the nail than  Sweet Nothing. I have to say this color cheered me up during the dreary days we've been having. It has a nice shiny finish as well, so I *gasp* skipped the top coat. The photo was taken with flash and unfortunately those taken without turned out too dark. You can really see how shiny this polish dries though.

This is an okay shot of Candy Coated (ring finger) and Sweet Tooth for a preview. I polished my nails last weekend right when my package from Llarowe arrived (I won a giveaway!!) so I had to snap a quick pic to commemorate the occasion!

Look for more swatches of the Sugar Rush collection coming soon. What are your polish picks for Spring?

What We Loved...in February

We thought it appropriate that for the month of love we should share what we loved.  We plan to continue this if you decide you would like to see end of the month product posts.  Please let us know what you think!

Jackie's favorites:

In early February I found myself reaching for bright blue shades of polish - CG's Man Hunt being the main one. I love this color. It looks great under many of the glitters I own and it is also a nice cheerful color on it's own.

I've also been obsessed with Rainbow Honey's Sweet Talk collection this month. Appropriate, no? With it's creamy white and glitter polish, Sweet Talk was the perfect polish for my Cupcake Nails (posted on our Facebook page) while the shimmery Be Mine and blingy XOXO were perfect paired together for a sweet V-Day mani.

It is winter (stating the obvious!) and I've been trying to find the perfect hand cream. I've tried several this month, but the standout products are Neutrogena's Hand Cream and the Josie Maran Argan Balm. I've been putting the balm on my dry and rough spots before bed, including my cuticles, and then adding the Neutrogena on top to kind of seal it all in. It seems to be working so far! I also want to give a shout out to 365 Days of Color because I've been using the hand cream I received in my Valentine's bag off and on as well. While I am in love with the rich formula, the scent I received is not really my thing (I'm REALLY picky because most things give me a headache and/or can lean to a migraine). I will definitely be ordering some in the future though! Note: I ordered a sampler of her balms as well, but have only been using them for a few days. The scents I chose are so yummy that I just know I need them in some hand cream!


Hayley's favorites:

The one polish, of all those I tried, that I found myself looking at again and again was this Love, Charlotte one I posted about at the beginning of the month.  I loved how the color popped when I was wearing a white or cream sweater.

Of course, I grabbed a second one to share the love! :)

With winter (hopefully) winding down, my hands need serious moisture.  I love this cream from J.R. Watkins.  It is absolutely the perfect lemon cream scent!  It's indescribable; not too sweet and not too citrusy...just perfect!  I found this at Ross for just $3.99 but I've seen it at other random stores for around $8.

This next one is a late decision.  I was all set to mention OPI's Pirouette My Whistle (I know I'm late to the party) and how I wanted to use it over everything. 
BUT...on Monday I received the mini bottle of Pastoral I ordered from Cagedbird Nail Lacquer and I died when I saw it in person.  Just look at this polish!!  Matte seafoamy mint, white and lavender w/ pastel green and silver.  This could have just been named 'Hayley'.  Instantly my favorite!  I will be wearing this all Spring I can tell.  You can purchase this polish from her Etsy store.

Lastly, I just adore these little cupcake key caps I received around my birthday.  How can you not smile when you see these on your keys?! 

They were purchased at Forever 21 and I believe you can find them on Amazon as well.

What were your favorite finds in February? 

 

Love & Beauty Seafoam, A Perfect Color

Anyone who has known me for any length of time (like a couple of hours), probably knows my favorite color is seafoam.  I bought a scarf a few years ago that was the perfect shade of seafoam, and have been in love ever since!  I'm even enjoying coffee in a seafoam mug as I write this!
We all know that mint started popping up on everything last year, and this year continues to be a hugely popular color.  This somewhat helps my cause, because everyone wants to do different shades of mint...so you end up with a few seafoam things thrown in the mix.  I do love mint also, and have quite a few polishes and accessories in mint; but there is a definite distinction between the two colors.  (This is coming from the child who, in kindergarten, lined up all of the shades of blue from her 64 count box of crayons on her desk before she could choose the one to use for coloring her picture.  This led to a parent teacher conference I'm told, where they were requested to get me a smaller box of crayons.  But I digress....)  
Now, is it any wonder why I love polishes and all the shade variations?! 

Here I have for you a representation of the color I love:

This is Love & Beauty from Forever 21, in Seafoam.  If you have never tried any polishes from Forever 21 before, please do yourself a favor and get a few!  This was the brand that I said in a previous post was highly under publicized.  1.) They're only $2.80 a polish!  2.) They have a fantastic formula  3.) Just look at all the colors and they constantly add new ones!  They carry the polishes both online and in their stores.  For these pictures I used 3 coats.  The formula on this is pretty sheer but builds up very nicely and the shimmer gives it depth.  

Look at that shimmer!

I will say Forever 21 could use some help in naming their polishes, they're not very original and you may end up with a few different polishes all with the same name of simply Mint or Lavender etc...  This Seafoam shade is still available here if you would like to add it to your collection!

*Don't forget about the linky party that happens every Friday!  If you are a fellow polish blogger go link up and share your fabulous Friday mani! 

 

Disclaimer: Since we are just getting started we are learning about lighting and such. Please bear with us as we get better at the photography. Thanks! 
This pretty polish was purchased by me and is my favorite!

Valentine's Day Nails (Part 1)

I went out of my color comfort zone for this one!  I wanted to do something different for Valentine's Day, so I picked a few colors I have not tried yet.  I like that polish is such a subtle accessory that you can do something a little different and not feel too uncomfortable. :)

I decided to use Stunning by Pure Ice, which is a pink and slightly silver velour finish polish from their Runway Collection.  I used 2 coats and the dry time was fast!  I've never used a polish with this type of finish before, but it was pretty amateur friendly!  
For my accent nails I used The Bigger The Better from L'Oreal.  It's a mix of fine black and silver glitter in a clear base.  The glitter is pretty dense so this was just 1 coat and I wiped the brush a few times before applying.  I did have to dab glitter on a few spots, but it was to avoid getting too much on my nails so the base color would still be visible.  

Claws in effect :)

I don't know that I'll be wearing Stunning very often, only because I lean more toward lighter colors.  The layering options with The Bigger The Better are endless, so I'll likely be using this one quite a bit!

Outside - natural light

Both of the Pure Ice and L'Oreal polishes came out late last year (around October/ November).  I still see a few bottles of The Bigger The Better here and there at Ulta and Walgreens.  In fact, I just purchased mine about a month ago, so chances are decent that you can still find one!  Stunning was part of a limited edition collection, but there could still be some bottles lingering around.  Pure Ice really keeps up on their social media presence and you can visit their Facebook page here.

What do you think?  Do you go out of your polish comfort zone when there's a holiday?  

Disclaimer: Since we are just getting started we are learning about lighting and such. Please bear with us as we get better at the photography. Thanks! 

An Inspired Manicure

This manicure was truly made up of inspiration from a few sources.  I recreated this awhile back when the idea of a blog was more whimsy than anything and it was the first one that I was really proud of.  I was perusing a few nail blogs and came across this post from Polished Cousins.  It took me all of 10 seconds to decide I HAD to try and recreate it!  I had a few grey cream polishes already thanks to iHeartPrettyPolish (including Essie Chinchilly that was originally used, but wanted to try a different grey).  I did not have the glitter, so I promptly ran to Walgreens to purchase Essie Luxeffects Set In Stones.
See? Inspiration was abound!

 For my recreation of this grey sparkle manicure I chose Wet n Wild  Megalast polish in Wet Cement; also in the greige cream family of polishes.  This was two coats of Wet Cement with no top coat because it dried pretty shiny on its own. Then I dabbed Set in Stones around the base of my nails just using the Essie bottle brush since it's already pretty small.  I think the Polished Cousins version is way more gorgeous than mine, but for a first try I was pretty happy with the result!  Please excuse the skin around my cuticles, I had no idea I'd ever be posting pictures of this on a blog! :)

 

Both Wet n Wild Megalast Wet Cement and Essie Set in Stones are widely available at Walgreens, Rite Aid and Ulta.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Disclaimer: Since we are just getting started we are learning about lighting and such. Please bear with us as we get better at the photography. Thanks! 
These pretty polishes were purchased by me and I am in no way affiliated with either company.

Love, Charlotte: A Deborah Lippmann Dupe Alert!

I'm not a snob when it comes to nail polish brands.  I've tried some expensive polishes and struggled with the formula and have tried others that were incredible.  The same can be said for less expensive i.e. drugstore brands (there is one brand, I'll post about in the coming weeks, that I feel is extremely under-promoted).
So, if I can find a less expensive version of a higher end polish I love, I'll certainly give it a shot.  And that's where this unnamed bottle of love, charlotte comes in.

For a long time Sea Dust, the Urban Outfitters version of Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream, sat on my wishlist.  It seemed a more reasonable option to try cost-wise to determine whether I wanted to spring for the real thing.  Mermaid's Dream is on my wishlist too, because it's beautiful!  However there are no Urban Outfitters in my area, so when I happened upon this polish for $3.50 at Charlotte Russe I was excited to try it.

I wish I could do a comparison to either the Mermaid's Dream or Sea Dust but since I don't have either, you'll have to let me know what you think.  The formula was pretty easy to work with and I used three thin coats for the pictures.  Dry time was quick, but a little gritty with the glitter, so I added a coat of Poshe.  The color seems pretty close to me, but here are the swatches! 

Disclaimer: Since we are just getting started we are learning about lighting and such. Please bear with us as we get better at the photography. Thanks! 
This pretty polish was purchased by me, to appease me until I can get my paws on the real Mermaid's Dream!

Winter Blues NOTD

Do you ever feel blue in the winter? I know I do. All this cold and "hibernation" in my house can get a girl down! So to combat that I've been wearing China Glaze Man Hunt over and over. Man Hunt was a part of the Safari Collection from Summer 2012, but I got it for Christmas from my husband. {Funny story: he knows I love nail polish but didn't really feel like looking at my wishlist, so he just went to Ulta.com and bought all the China Glaze colors they had in stock online (I got 12!). I don't think I would have asked for Man Hunt, but I'm glad I have it now!} Man Hunt is a rich, royal blue polish with a nice glossy finish. Today I decided to pair it with Jessie's Girl Confetti.

Confetti is a beautiful blue-purple (or blurple, if you will) shimmer. As you can see from the photo below, Confetti gives Man Hunt a nice sparkle that would make any girl's blues go away! I must say I love the effect and find myself asking...what else can I layer it over?

 

After looking at my nails for a few minutes I thought, "Whay stop there?" and added an accent nail of Rainbow Honey 20% Cooler. I have to agree with her description of this polish - it really did make (me feel like my) manicure was 20% cooler after adding it.

 

I purchased Confetti at Rite Aid, but the Jessie's Girl site says they are also avaailable at select Walgreen's, Fagen and Tiffany Drug stores.

20% Cooler can be purchased from Rainbow Honey's store here.

Although Man Hunt is no longer available online at Ulta, you might be able to find it on clearance at your local store as well as online at Amazon.

***Edit***I just discovered a linky party that happens every Friday! If you are a fellow polish blogger go link up and share your fabulous Friday mani! I'm off to check out all the pretties!

Disclaimer: Since we are just getting started we are learning about lighting and such. Please bear with us as we get better at the photography. Thanks! 
These pretty polishes were purchased by me and I am in no way affiliated with any of these companies.

Sinful Colors: Mauve

I don't know about you, but I am really into wintery pastels lately.  I decided this would be an appropriate first post for me, since this is a color that is still widely available and fits my current polish obsession!  This color can easily be transitioned into spring as well.

Sinful Colors recently came out with the Haute Rebel collection.  It is mostly all re-promoted colors with the exception of a couple.  The color I have here today, Mauve, is a very light, greyed out, cool toned lavender.  Beautiful, but hard to photograph without it looking more grey than what it really is.

The formula on this color was fantastic and this was two easy coats.  I also added accent nails of a Sally Hansen glass fleck topcoat called Diamonds.  It glistens opalescent pinks and greens and gave my nails a very icy look.  I added one more photo below, that shows off  Diamonds better and shows how lavender Mauve can sometimes look.  Both Mauve and Diamonds are still readily available at Walgreens and I highly suggest you go check them out!

Disclaimer: Since we are just getting started we are learning about lighting and such. Please bear with us as we get better at the photography. Thanks! 
These pretty polishes were purchased by me and I am in no way affiliated with either company.

Rainbow Honey: The Sweet Talk Collection

I was super excited to receive my very first Fab.com order today of the Rainbow Honey Valentine's Day collection polishes. A friend invited me to the sale and I was able to score $10 off so a huge thanks to Polish Monster for that! :)

Of course I couldn't wait more than an hour before putting at least one of these pretties on my nubbin nails, so here is be mine with an accent of xoxo. Completely cute for a V-Day manicure. If you are into that, or just for a pink day. Side note, pink is not something I typically wear on my nails and I was surprised at how much I really like this pink! It has a nice subtly shimmer that makes it more fun than just a bubblegum color. Anyway, on to the swatch!

Ignore that tiny speck on my pinky finger - I started to add the glitter to all my nails and then changed my mind. I wasn't quick enough though and I left a tiny piece on that finger. That is my indecisiveness for you!

Here is a close up of my accent finger so that you can see the different sizes of glitters a bit better.


Do you have any Rainbow Honey's in your stash? If you love The Sweet Talk Collection it is available here starting today.


Disclaimer: Since we are just getting started we are learning about lighting and such. Please bear with us as we get better at these things. Thanks! 
Also, these polishes were purchased by me and I am in no way affiliated with rainbow honey. I just own a few of her polishes and think they are beautiful.