Bubbles and Baubles Giveaway!

My friend over at Bubbles and Baubles is giving away a Halloween mini-pack from Different Dimension Polish.

Its super easy to enter, and the polishes in her giveaway are gorgeous!

Whatcha waiting on? Vist her blog to enter!

Secret Headquarters - a franken

Press Sample

I've lemmed a Nerd Lacquer for what feels like forever, so I finally tried to franken something close to it. Meet Secret Headquarters.


How'd I do?

Blogger photo published in Wall Street Journal

Its happened again.
Remember the Sinful Colors debacle where they photoshopped blogger nails into their marketing flyers and displays?

Wall Street Journal published an article with a photo from blogger Steffels, which they say was sourced from Staceybendet's fancy stream.

See complete article here:
http://www.manicuremommas.com/2012/09/wow-wsj-article-has-such-incorrect-info.html

I went digging and found the original fancy photo here:
http://www.thefancy.com/things/163409868848369635/Glitter-Nail-Polish

That photo was "fancied" from Steffel's blog here:
http://steffels.blogspot.ca/2011/09/lynnderella-glittering-crowd.html


Oy vey!

I have contacted the Wall Street Journal to tell them about this, if you want to do the same click here for their contact form.

Birthday Brownies!

My birthday was September 19th and Jason made some very special brownies for me in lieu of cake.

He used the brownie recipe I blogged about previously and topped them with a chocolate ganache and coconut shreds.



The brownie was very moist and fudgey, the ganache felt like silk against the roof of my mouth and the coconut gave it that extra pop of flavor.

The brownie piece in the photo was the very last one. Hmm what can I do to get him to make more?!

Revlon: Haunted Heart

Stunning spicy pumpkin color and gorgeous golden shimmer, this is what Haunted Heart is made of!


This is three coats topped with HKG topcoat from Amazon.


The formula is nice on this one, very smooth application. Plenty of time to do extra brushing to smooth out those shimmer streaks a little.

Fall is one of my favorite seasons - leaves changing color, light breezes, the smell of bonfire smoke and toasted marshmallows! Plus all the beautiful new polish colors to feast our eyes on!

What is your favorite season and colors of polish to wear with it?

Polish Haul Bottle Shots

I did a late night run to Walgreen's last night in my ongoing search for Halloween/Fall polishes and finally scored some!



All Aglow and Lava
These are the shimmery-est, most glowy looking colors in the bottle. I'm so excited to have found them! I ended up getting four of the lava and two of the All Aglow - its all they had!


Haunted Heart, Spooky Skull, Wicked Star
I just love the golden shimmer in the Green and Orange colors and while Spooky Skull may not look special, I really think it is. Swatching will tell, but it looks like a jelly white and I absolutely LOVE Revlon's matte white in Powder Puff so I'm super excited about this one!

Wicked Star reminds me a lot of CC's Magic Elf from a few years ago. I wasn't ever able to get my hands on that one, but I think this one will do nicely in its place!


Just look at the delicious shimmah!


The Mystic's Fortune, The Muse's Attitude, The Temptress' Touch, The Temptress' Power


I especially love the The Mystic's Fortune. Its so deep and dark yet very glowy and its the most beautiful blurple I've laid eyes on.


I may or may not have a near dupe of The Muse's Attitude, but I got it anyway because it too is deep dark and still glowy looking.


The Temptress' Touch seems pretty unique to me. Its a dirty lime green with chartreuse shimmer inside. Excited to see how it looks on the nail.



The Temptress' Power looks like oxidized copper to me. The green flash is more prominent than I can show in a photo, absolutely stunning!

I am in love with each and every one of these, what do you think of them?

Guest Post: Becacine makes our glitter removing lives easier!

One thing that I consider valuable as a nail polish lover is a quick, easy way to remove a very glittery polish. I'm not talking about what kind of acetone or cotton balls to use, or that foil method I've blogged about, but a simple and fun method that uses neither! Becca mentioned that she was having yellowed nails and I suggested that she try the Yellow Stopper that I had seen at Sally Beauty. Yellow Stopper is intended to be worn as a top coat over natural nails and any type of enhancements. I would also surmise it could be used as a topcot for white polish to help it keep looking white. She tried it as a base coat and made a very surprising discovery that she shares in her tutorial below.


Yellow Stopper (quick glitter nail polish removal)
Please note Yellow Stopper was discontinued sometime in 2022 or 23

I'd like to share a happy mistake that happened to me while I was searching for the perfect base coat. Sally Beauty Supply carries a product called Yellow Stopper by American Classics. It has UV protection and looks really pretty on it's own when there is no time for a manicure. It casts a beautiful shade of super light purple over your nails so they look naturally "pumped up" white, similar to a French manicure.

The happy mistake occurred when I attempted to do a manicure over it. This is the best product if you want to have a 2 or 3 day manicure of heavy glitter but don't want to use the acetone/foil method of removal. As you can see in the second picture, the entire manicure peels right off! The more coats you apply under the mani, the more quickly it wants to peel.

What a great find for those of us who don't want the same nails for more than a couple of days. Just be very careful when you peel the entire manicure off - don't rush it. If the polish doesn't want to come off, it's not ready yet and you will need the foil method. If you rush it, your nails may peel with the entire manicure so please be very careful.

Yellow Stopper by American Classics (bought at Sally Beauty Supply)




Cirque Tibetan Nights & Lynnderella When The Moon Was A Star REMOVAL after 3 days. One nail popped off during the day and the rest were gently coerced into coming off later that night.




Becacine, I'm so glad you shared your discovery with us, thank you!
To visit Becacine, you can either click this link or the image below. Thank you for visiting!

2022 update: There are so many options now for peel off base. Many indie companies offer latex or latex-free options, PVA glue (Elmer's is one example of this) mixed with a little water to thin works well too!
2024 update: ASP has picked up the entire line of American Classics and sells them at Sally Beauty! ASP Nail Fortress is similar to Gelous, and Block It! is similar to Yellow Stopper.

Wishlist!

Are there any polishes that you've searched for swatches of and came up empty handed?

Are there tutorials or tricks of the trade you're looking for but can't find?

Anything in particular you would specifically want me to blog about?

Now's the time to comment with your blogger post wishlist. I'm listening!

Haus of Gloi: Summer 2012 order

My summer order came a while ago, and I'm quite pleased with it! Here's a bit of pic spammage for you. :)

Packaging...



Zazz, Beguiled, and three lip balms in Beguiled, Banana, and Strawberry Lime



Custom blends where I chose each fragrance note. I quite like how they both turned out!

Campfires and Music

PR Sample

Warm, happy, and comforting.

These are the inspirations from which the next two polishes were drawn.

Sweet Baby James is a very light baby blue sheer cream filled with pink squares and blue and white hex matte glitter.




Sweet Baby James was fairly easy to apply, a little thick but not at all goopy. I didn't have to dig for the pink squares which is always nice!

Two coats over Revlon Blue Lagoon.


Mattified with Hard Candy matte top coat.


A few complete strangers complimented my polish! I really enjoyed wearing it.


Miss Wohelo is a sheer pink candy lollipop color flecked with glowy purple shimmer.





Miss Wohelo is an absolutely gorgeous polish! I wanted to lick my nails while I was applying it. :D
Seriously, I thought about it and wondered if it would taste as good as candy!

Four coats on most nails three on some, topped with Hong Kong Girl topcoat (available at Amazon.)



Mattified with a Lynnderella Bride of Franken topped accent nail. It goes perfectly as a topper for this polish.


I have really enjoyed the recently released polishes from Whimsical Ideas. The whole collection is made of win, take a look!



If you love these as much as I do, what are you waiting for? Click on over to Whimsical Ideas and get some!

Peace, Love and Altruism

PR Sample

That is what the Flower Child symbolized in the 1960's, but I've got a different sort of Flower Child to show to you!

The base is a creamy almost periwinkle lavender filled with lots of hot pink glitters in all sizes.



Oo check out that chunky one near the bottom!


Flower Child applied like silk, and in two coats it was opaque and gorgeous!


And what would a post of mine be without it mattified? One coat Hard Candy matte, of course!


Hop on over to Pam's facebook page to see all the Whimsical Polishes and get some for yourself!