Thursday, January 30, 2014

Zoya's everywhere!

Hello lovelies!!  I decided to start doing a special segment every Thursday.  I will pick five colors from my MASSIVE collection and swatch them for you all to enjoy.  Now these could be indies, main stream, drugstore or even dollar store polishes.  I need to get through all of my untried polishes and see what I absolutely love and what doesn't work so well!  Every swatch will be strictly two coats except for jelly polishes.  Those I will allow three coats for full coverage.  I will also use seche vite on top of all polishes unless they are textured as these are not supposed to have top coats.  These will be picture heavy posts of course but I will keep the wording to a minimum.  At the end of the pictures I will rate the brand on three major things:
  1. Formula
  2. Staining
  3. Usability
I will rate them from 1 - 5 one being bad and 5 being good.

Today I am going to share five Zoya's.  4 of these are pixie dusts so the formula is going to be a bit different than other polishes.  However I am looking more for streaks, pulling, and coverage.  So here we go Lovelies!

Godiva - "a soft nude with a sugared sparkle"

  1. Formula - 4 - two coats still shows visible nail line
  2. Staining - 5 - no staining at all though the sparkles are impossible to not get everywhere
  3. Usability - 5 - no issues at all with these polishes

Tomoko - "a romantic champagne silver with a matte, textured, sparkling metal finish"
  1. Formula - 4 - again visible nail line
  2. Staining - 5 - no staining at all
  3. Usability - 5 - no issues
London - "a fog grey with a sugared sparkle"
  1. Formula - 5 - just perfect coverage
  2. Staining - 5 - no staining at all
  3. Usability - 5 - no issues
Dahlia - "a black beauty with a sugared sparkle"
  1. Formula - 5 - just perfect coverage
  2. Staining - 5 - no staining at all
  3. Usability - 5 - no issues
Storm - "a full coverage, holiday black with a high concentration of micro fine diamond holographic glitter"
  1. Formula - 5 - just perfect coverage
  2. Staining - 5 - no staining at all
  3. Usability - 5 - no issues
Well there is my first installment of Five Untrieds.  I hope you all enjoyed this because it really is a lot of fun for me!  I will see you again son Lovelies!
a romantic champagne silver with a matte, textured, sparkling metal finish. - See more at: http://www.zoya.com/content/Search/?Description=Tomoko#sthash.0BOfodgm.dpufa ro
a soft nude with a sugared sparkle
a soft nude with a sugared sparkle
a soft nude with a sugared sparkle

Monday, January 27, 2014

Pipe Dream Polish - Clouds in my Coffee - plus a pretty big announcement!

Hello Lovelies!  Well today was supposed to be an amazing day since it is my two year anniversary with my boyfriend.  However, that didn't pan out at all like I had hoped so I am shutting myself in my nail room and ignoring his stupid existence!  My daughter did however enjoy the anniversary dinner I had made him so I guess there is that!  Also I have some pretty huge news so make sure you read all the way to the end!

Today I have a new to me polish brand that I am DYING to share with you all!  Pipe Dreams Polish is a big 5 free polish based out of Tennessee.  Now some people may be wondering what 5 free exactly is!  Well here is a clip I copied and pasted straight from their welcome page!
All of pipe dream polishes are are "5-Free". This means they are free of formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), formaldehyde-resin, and camphor, as well as carmine. We never test on animals ...
Now the polish that I have is a glitter topper.  The unfortunate thing is that it is the only polish that I own from this brand (so far)  so I had to pair it with another brand.  However, I really like the way it came out!  I paired Zoya's Anja underneath Clouds in my Coffee and the results are just stunning!! 

The formula is amazing!  The glitters came out so amazingly well that I almost didn't do two coats.  The color combination of the glitters is so versatile and could be paired with so many colors underneath!  I think my next mani with this will be with a grey base!  Enough with the words enjoy the pictures!


Well there is the review!  Can you get over the gorgeousness of this polish?!  The glitters are just out and out stunning!  I highly recommend getting this polish on your fingers asap!

Now onto the big exciting news!  I have been working with Samantha over at Gothic Gala Lacquers on a collaboration line.  It will be a line of five polishes that we have worked together closely in creating and naming!  She is the master mind behind the creation of the polishes!  I can not wait to share more with you Lovelies but for now that I all of the information I can give out!  Keep checking back for updates!

I will see you all back here tomorrow Lovelies!  Tootles!!

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Colors by Llarowe - Tank Tops and Flip Flops

Hello Lovelies!! I had a wonderfully boring weekend filled with watching silly movies with my daughter! I was also lucky enough to get my one bunny to sit still long enough to trim her nails!  She has a very very bad attitude and being able to do it all by myself made me really happy! 

Today I have a polish that I honestly never thought I would buy.  I received it on Saturday and swatched it right then and there.  Now Let me do a little back story here.

A couple of months back I had pre-ordered a polish from this same maker.  When it got to me it was so horribly gloopy and disgusting I will most likely never use it again.  The first mani that I did with it took forever and though the results were pretty in my opinion if I pay $12.00 + shipping  the polish should be dreamy right out of the bottle.

I decided to give Colors by Llarowe a second chance and ordered Tank Tops and Flip Flops.  Let's face it a purple holographic polish just screams my name! 

So there I am on Saturday afternoon when the mail comes.  I open the package and the polish is just as beautiful in person as the swatches online are.  I open the bottle to do my swatch and the formula is FANTASTIC!  So here I am wondering what in the world happened to my other bottle.  I had emailed the company and got no where at all when my other bottle was a mess.  Having this bottle be so perfect honestly left a bitter taste in my mouth.  Was the other bottle a bad bottle that they refuse to say they messed up on or is this good bottle just a fluke?  How is it that the other bottle was hand made and still passed quality control?  How can an independent maker have such a vast inconsistency in their polishes?  It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever and honestly this will be the last time I purchase from this brand.

Between bad customer service and inconsistent formulas I am better off spending $14.00 on two bottles from a maker I trust.

Here are my swatches of Tank Tops and Flip Flops.  They are all two coats with one coat of seche vite on top.  I also matted my pinkie for fun in the last couple of pictures!


So there you have it lovelies.  My honest review of the brand.  This polish was great but honestly the inconsistency and bad experience with customer service made it so that I refuse to buy from them again.

Tootles for now!!

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Jindie Nails - Swoon

Hello lovelies!  I had another boring day at home and didn't get very much accomplished.  I did get my downstairs bathroom cleaned and made an amazing meal for my family!  However while cooking said meal the potato peeler and I had a disagreement on how long my nails should be.  Let's just say I lost the argument.

Today I want to share with you a new to me indie polish!  Jindie Nails in "Swoon" is stunning!  They have restocks a couple times through out the month and also stock with Llarowe.  Swoon is described as "a cream/jelly pale baby blue with large orange, blue and yellow transparent neon hexagonal glitter and blue round dot metallic glitter."

The formula was perfect and had little to no streaking and the glitters were very well behaved.  My swatches show three coats of swoon over a white base.  I prefer to put pastels over white because it seems to make the color pop just a bit more! I really wanted to be over the moon in love with this polish but it just doesn't look right on me.  I really think that it will work on a lot of other people just the color combinations don't agree with my skin tone or something.  Please do not let that sway your judgement on buying!  The polish itself is amazing and the colors are gorgeous just not my thing!

Now onto the pictures!  You can see just how short I had to go with my nails!

Well there you have it Lovelies!  Tomorrow I am planning on doing a comparison post for the ever elusive OPI Catch me in your net! 

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Gothic Gala Lacquers - Odin

Hello Lovelies!  I had a pretty great day again even though it was colder than cold outside!  I spent the day painting my blogging/bunny room!  It isn't done yet but I got enough done that I could put my shelves and everything back where they belong.  I was even able to do a touch of rearranging!  I am planning on adding girly swirls all around the room in a bright turquoise to set off the purple!

Anyway I have a rather picture heavy post for you all today because I am so in love with Odin from Gothic Gala Lacquers!  This polish is a blackened purple holographic dream!  You all know that I really love this brand and for very good reasons!
  1. The formula is super rich and creamy!  No gloopy mess and almost all are 2 coaters!
  2. The dry time on these polishes is incredible!  I don't have to wait ages to put the second coat on!
  3. The bottles are just so elegant!  The longer handle makes swatching a breeze for me because my swatch hand is my dominant hand.  I am a lefty and when I am swatching I always use my right hand to paint.  Some brushes make that nearly impossible.
Those are just a few of the reasons honestly but I really want to get to showing you these amazing pictures!

First up we have no flash indoor lighting!
And now indoor lighting with flash -
Finally we have it in natural sunlight.  The pictures that are out of focus are like that to show you the rainbow holo effect!
So there you have it Lovelies!  I tried to do some stamping and while my skills are improving it really isn't what I had hoped for.  I will see you back here tomorrow for another review and maybe a sneak peak at my not so finished blogging room!