Red Dog Designs does Mardi Gras!

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I am having a great time working with Gina from Red Dog Designs! I'm writing this entry while she's listing the polishes, teamwork!

Her polishes are so well thought out and planned for the theme she has in mind. She sent five polishes to me, and I'm going to share two of those in today's post. So come join the Mardi Gras party with us!

Gina describes King Cake as: Circle glitters in shades of purple, green, and yellow, sprinkled with micro holo glitter, in a milky white base. Builds to opacity in 2-3 coats. (4 Different Glitters)

This polish has depth and looks exactly like the frosting on a King Cake! I had a cake and compared them side by side. Lol I have been craving more cake since its all been eaten, its quite tempting to lick my nail and see if it tastes good! I better not, but I can always remember that cake with this polish! I wore three coats for the photos below.

Gina describes Harlequin Ball as: Various sized circle and diamond glitters, in shades of holo green, holo gold, and purple, sprinkled with micro holo glitter, in a clear base. (10 Different Glitters)

I cannot express how much in love I am with this polish. When I first held the bottle in my hands I was mesmerized by it. Such sparkle and the colors! They're my colors! Connie, if you're reading, you definitely need this one! The tiny diamond shaped glitters are just too cute!! The glitter went on easily, no fishing unless you want more of a certain glitter. I wore one coat over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.





The Mardi Gras polishes are limited and only available for the month of March, so grab it while you can!

Red Dog Designs polish is 3-Free & Cruelty Free
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Glitterfied Nails: Beautiful Blues

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Andrea from Glitterfied nails sent some beautiful shades of blue and a glitter topper to me to review. I found the formulas to be smooth and easy to paint with the wide flat bushes in her polish bottles. Her shop has a nice array of polishes too!

Shall we take a little peek at these blues from her polish line?




First is Tempest which I thought was a blue with metallic green and gold flakes, yet it looked foil-like after application and I could see the shimmer changing color! Its not green and gold, its shifting flakes! This polish really reminded me of something but I wasn't sure what.

After playing with it under different lights, it hit me. I remembered! Its what I saw as I rode in my dad's boat on the lake at the end of the day, as he drove us back to the shore. The last bits of sunlight reflecting on the surface of the water. I miss my dad, and I miss those boat trips.

Isn't it amazing the memories and feelings that surface just while admiring a nail polish? I love this polish for helping me remember those times in my life.
(two coats)




Golden Aquamarine is a turquoise leaning baby blue packed full of gold shimmer. This polish reminds me of a clear blue summer sky, sun shining just overhead. I wore three coats of this one and it does have a few brush strokes but they are not as noticeable in person. The shimmer is very noticeable and eye-catching, several gals at work grabbed my hand to see it! On the flip side of the light reflecting, there in the shadowy areas it looks like a vibrant shade of perwinkle! Cool, eh?





The glitter topper that she sent to me is Special Delivery, a pink and blue matte glitter bomb in an iridescent shimmered base. The shade of pink kind of leans orchid or lavender, but I'm still calling it pink! I tried it out over both of the polishes above and I think it looks great over both dark and light colors.










Glitterfied Nails is 5-Free, uses cosmetic grade mica, solvent resistant glitters, flat wide brushes, and a textured cap for easy opening. Andrea is also offering readers of xoxojen.com a generous discount of 15% when you use code XOXOJEN15 at the checkout!

You can find Glitterfied Nails at the following links!
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Pipe Dream Polish

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April had a dream.
It was filled with fantastical color and sparkling mirages.
Some might have referred to such a dream as a pipe dream.
When she woke up she realized this dream and the Pipe Dream Polish company became reality.



April is the founder of Pipe Dream Polish, a place where polish dreams really do come true! She's currently earning her nail tech license and she's a mommy. She must have amazing time management skills to be doing all those things and still takes the time out of her busy schedule to be friendly, kind and caring to others. April even let me choose the polishes to share with you!

When the Pipe Dream package arrived to me I arranged the bubble wrap burritos and snapped a teaser photo for my facebook page. I challenged my readers to see if anyone might recognize the brand without being able to see the labels or the polish. One of April's loyal fans guessed the brand within a minute of the post! Awesome, right?

First is a charity polish called Twigs and Berries that April created to raise awareness of Prostate Cancer. $1.00 from each bottle sold will be donated to the Movember Foundation. Their vision is to have an everlasting impact on men's health.

I used one coat of Twigs and Berries over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (love it when polish names work well a theme!). I chose a light colored base to signify spring and the celebration of new life. Application was quite surprising, I was expecting to dig for the larger dot glitter but I didn't have to! It all just landed there as I polished. I think everyone will be able to apply this awesome chunky dot glitter topper with ease.





Sapphire Attire is a beautiful glitter topper with sapphire, black holo, and sliver holo glitters dusted with holo pigment in a clear base. I chose this polish because the sapphire is my birthstone and I think navy blue goes so perfectly with my favorite color, purple. So this is one coat of Sapphire Attire over CbL Feelings Whoa Whoa Whoa. Yummy together, aren't they?





Home Sweet Home is a multitude of medium and small orange and white glitter in a clear base. The glitter is so plentiful that I only used one coat and at times, was able to do the next nail without redipping the brush! Speaking of the brush, all of these polishes have the flat brush that I love so much!

The first set of photos of Home Sweet Home show it worn over WnW Listening to Blue Reed. I chose blue as a base because the combo reminds of beautiful koi ponds at the Japanese Rose Garden I visited as a kid. My best friend, Graciela, and her family took me there and I'll never forget it. I learned about origami and watched a man as he folded a crane for each of us. Viewed all the beautiful roses and other flowers as we strolled along. Home Sweet Home, to me, is that place in your heart where warm memories live and this polish definitely takes me there.





Next I wore Home Sweet Home over a gradient of Pipe Dream's Electric Soul, SC Dream On, and ChG Pink Voltage. It reminds me of the summer sunsets I watched from the swings in my back yard as I grew up in Texas. Such fond memories were made there. Where is your favorite place to watch a sunset?






Electric Soul. UNF. That is all.

Ok who am I kidding? I have to say more than that!
Electric Soul has several colors of micro flakies, blue, green, and purple micro iridescent glitter, and a touch of color shifting pigment all swimming in a beautiful indigo base. Each ingredient gives the polish depth and adds to its complexity. A breeze to apply and with just two coats it was opaque.





Pink Elephants and Lemonade is one of April's best sellers from what I've read and I can see why! It has hot pink and deep yellow matte glitters floating lazily down a teal river. I wore just two coats for the look below.





Last but not least, a bonus set of photos of Twigs and Berries. I wanted to show off how flexible a glitter topper this is. I've topped the very same mani from the first set of photos with Loreal Berry Nice. I just used one coat of the purple jelly polish and its got a whole different look!





From initial contact with April to wearing the polish, the whole experience was fantastic. I was excited about the brand so I spent some time reading anything I could find about Pipe Dream. I picked up a little tidbit of info that may be obvious to some but it wasn't to me - Did you know that all of Pipe Dream's polish names are derived from songs? Can you guess them all?

Shop: http://pipedreampolish.bigcartel.com/
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Happy Valentine's Day!

Whether you go it solo or are with a loved one, I hope your Valentine's day is awesome!
One of my personal goals for 2014 is to do more nail art and I've done some nifty accent nails here and there but today I'm sharing my first full mani where I used a few different techniques to achieve the look.

When I set out to do this nail art, the first inspiration that popped in my mind was the Floral Grunge mani that Missy from Gnarly Nails did last year in April. It was so well received by her readers, that she wrote a tutorial to show how to do it! I've often thought of that mani and how beautiful it was and so here's my take using some of the same techniques she used.




The base color is a PR Sample from Glitterdaze Winter collection called Pop-Pink Bubbly which is a very hot pink color. I think its neat how the matte topcoat transforms it into a darker shade. I then stamped it with Vivid Lacquer VL001 plate's plaid design with Konad black and again with Orly Shine. After that I used the heart design with SH Whirlwind White and then sponged on WnW Black Creme for a grunge effect. I let it dry for a bit and then added matte topcoat. Huge thanks to Missy for inspiring me! It was fairly easy and a lot of fun to create!

I created the nail art a few weeks ago so I could have it for today's blog entry so I'm also going to share what I'm wearing today!

How to make a special day more special to me? Add a splash of purple somewhere! Colors By Llarowe's Feelings Whoa Whoa Whoa is that splash of purple. And oh how I love it! The formula is wonderfully opaque and smooth. Not only is it purple, but it has a very vibrant holo rainbow that I'll be enjoying all day! One coat will do, but I used two cause I'm habitual like that. :)




What's on your nails today? Add your image to the inlinkz below!


(Disclosure: The Glitterdaze polish was previously sent for review purposes and then used again with this nail art design)

An InLinkz Link-up