Snow Covered Windows - Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Contest

Purchased by Me

Helloooo Everyone!

This is a super late post from me, but I wanted to make sure I could get these nails into Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Contest Week 1! The theme this week is SNOW! I couldn't narrow down my idea for this week until I was chatting with my roommate and she came up with snow covered windows! Like when all your window panes have snow built up in the corners. All I can imagine is sitting in a cottage somewhere with a hot chocolate curled up by a fire staring out at the evergreen trees through the snow.

These nails were quite easy to do and pretty cute from a distance! I started off with Pure Ice Bikini on all my nails to mimic the beautiful blue sky I imagined. Then I freehanded on the evergreen trees using China Glaze Running In Circles and my favourite cut down small nail art brush.

I then freehanded on the window sills using China Glaze Desert Sun to mimic wood that would be in this winter cabin I'm dreaming of. Finally I added the snow on the sills using Cult Nails Tempest and then added a layer of Pretty & Polished S'no Mans Land from last years holiday collection to give the snow a little texture.

I had a lot of fun doing these, partly because this is the first nail art I've managed to get done in a long while! I'm really glad I was able to get them done :) If you'd like you can vote for me HERE in the Snow week for Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Contest! Or just vote for whomever's nail art you like best! Hope you're all having a fabulous week!

Pretty and Polished is Moving! And having a Massive SALE!

Afternoon friends!

No more polish this afternoon, but I have an awesome public service announcement about one of my favourite indie brands Pretty & Polished. The brand is moving and does not want to transfer all of their current inventory with them so they are having a massive sale. Most products are now near wholesale prices!

Once July 1st comes around Pretty and Polished will be changing a lot! They will be releasing a slew of new colors and products but will also be discontinuing some as well. The following is a list of polishes that will no longer be available once they sell out:
Punk'd Up Betty
Boy Bleu
Sand Art
Parting the Red Sea
Spring Fling
Ruby
Sea Spray
(Plus all polishes in our Say Goodbye and From the Vault sections)

So if you want to grab some gorgeous polishes at some great prices, this is the time to do it! You can shop HERE and check out all of Pretty and Polisheds updates at their Facebook page HERE. As well you can follow them on twitter HERE and their new Instagram account prettyandpolishd HERE.

Will any of you be taking advantage of this awesome sale?

Pretty and Polished May Flowers

Press Sample

Today I have one of my favourite polishes ever to share with you today. It's green, (my new favourite polish colour), glittery and CHANGES COLOUR! I'm talking about Pretty and Polished May Flowers. When the colour change hype started happening I didn't jump on board, they looked cool but I never felt the need for one. This has all changed. First lets take a look at what May Flowers looks like on me naturally.

It is almost like a mint green getting darker near my tips. I am generally a colder person so I think that is why the polish is pulling green rather than white on me.

This is 2 coats of May Flowers with one coat of Seche Vite. Ugh I love this polish SO MUCH

Now let's take a look at how amazing this colour change is. First I ran my hand under cold water.

It changes from this light pastel green to this hot vibrant green, while still allowing the glitter to show through! Speaking of the glitter I'm loving the flower shaped glitter in this one. Usually I'm not a fan of different shaped glitter, but it is totally working here.

In the above picture my hand was starting to warm up again so you can slightly see the transition back to its 'natural' state on me.

Then I ran my hands under some hawt water.

Now I love this green, and pastel, but OMG how amazing is this white!? the colour change is fantastic and I'm really impressed with how opaque this stays when it goes to white. I was completely expecting this to not be as opaque white but it really impressed me.

I am completely loving this polish. I had it in the middle of a swatchfest and I honestly did not want to take it off. I'm heading home for the weekend and I'll be putting it on again in a bit because I want to wear this baby all weekend and just oooohh and aahhh over the colour change.

I have to share with you my swatch notes,
UNREAL, love the colour change, seriously so freakin cool.

lol just thought that would show how much I love this polish. You can pick up May Flowers here or here for $9.50 for a full 15mL bottle.

This is awesome and I highly suggest you pick one up! What do you think of May Flowers? Make sure you follow Pretty & Polished on Facebook!

The products in the post provided for my honest review.

Pretty and Polished Spring Sonata Selections

Press Sample

Goooood Morning!

Today I have some swatches from the new Pretty and Polished Spring Sonata Collection. This is a beautiful collection full of pastels and glitter and glittery pastels. Sounds awesome right? Let's jump in!

First up we have Pretty and Polished Candy Carnation. Chels describes this polish as, a lovely soft candy pink creme with holographic sparkle. This pretty much hits it right on the nose. I really love the soft holographic sparkle to this polish. My camera did not pick it up, but it is extremely subtle in real life. Just enough that it is completely work appropriate but gives you that little bit of extra something that I love.

Formula on this was wonderful, this swatch is 2 easy coats with NYC topcoat. This is a beautiful spring polish that will be perfect as a base in nail art in the future.

Next up we have Pretty and Polished Lady Lavender. Chels describes this polish as, a luscious medium purple creme with several shades of purple glitters in it. I love this shade of purple and my camera actually captured this accurately! This will dry a little bumpy so a thick coat of top coat is definitely necessary.

This is about 2.5 coats of polish. I say 2.5 because I went back and tried to add some of the larger glitters to my nail so you could see them. I had trouble getting them out of the bottle, which could be because I had a mini bottle. This issue could be resolved with the full sized 15mL bottle or with some more vigorous shaking to loosen up the larger glitter from the sides of the bottle.

Lastly we have my favourite, Pretty and Polished Bashful Bouquet over Candy Carnation. Chels describes this polish as, a fun pastel glitter topper packed with spring shades. I absolutely LOVE this glitter. It is completely unique in my collection and is a perfect topper to some of the other pastel shades in this collection.

This is 1.5 coats of Bashful Bouquet. I went back and dabbed a few more glitters to get a fuller coverage. I really enjoyed the combination of satin pastel glitters and the micro green sparkly glitter. Extremely unique and perfect for spring. I'll be busting this out again.

Pretty and Polished was the first ever indie brand that I purchased from and they continue to be one of my absolute favourites. Constantly innovating and creating unique and beautiful polishes. This collection is absolutely no exception.

Pretty and Polished Spring Sonata can be purchased here or here for $9.00 for a full sized bottle or $25.00 for the whole mini collection.

These are gorgeous and I highly suggest that you pick some of them up! Make sure you keep up with Pretty and Polished on Facebook. Have a wonderful day!

Products in this post provided for my honest review.
 

Pretty and Polished Let Them Eat Cake and Hameau

Morning my dears! Today I have 2 polishes from the upcoming Pretty and Polished Marie Antoinette Collection to share with you. I'm really excited about these so let's get to it!

First up is Let Them Eat Cake. This is a light pink crelly with yellow and hot pink medium sized hex glitters, smaller white glitter and small iridescent glitters which end up looking a little like bubbles. This polish is really cute! I think the iridescent glitters make it look a little like fluffy cake.

This was 3 coats. If you have little or no free edge then you could probably get away with 2 coats, although the more coats you use the more complex it becomes. I quite like this pretty little polish!

Here I have my favourite of the collection, Hameau. This polish is really unique in my opinion. It is a similar formula to Let Them Eat Cake, a nude crelly with purple and green glitter and a gorgeous shimmer.

This is three coats and again if you have little free edge you will be able to get away with 2. I adore this polish. Funny thing is when I swatched this originally I wore it for 3 days because I just couldn't bear to take it off. Then I did and a few days later I uploaded my pictures only to find I didn't take pictures! So I went to swatch this again and wore it for another day. It's just too pretty for words.

What do you think of these lovelies? One note to make is that these will dry a little gritty. You will need 2 coats of top coat to even it out.

The polishes will be available to purchase starting January 16th in Pretty and Polished shop. Will you be picking either of these up?

Hope you're having a wonderful Sunday!

Pretty and Polished Pink Cupcake Super Balm

Afternoon ladies and gents! I have a little review of an awesome product to share with you today.

Awhile back the lovely Chels of Pretty and Polished sent me some of her new cuticle balm in pink cupcake. I've been using it religiously for about a month now and it's nothing short of fantastic. Here is the balm courtesy of Chels's Facebook page.

In order to test this out I used Pink Cupcake on my left hand and my go to Burt's Bees Cuticle Balm on my right hand for a week and took notes on the differences. I honestly wasn't expecting much, but there was a difference for me. My left hand felt smoother and my cuticles needed to be moisturized less than my right hand. This surprised me because I did swatches and everything while I tested this, using my left hand. After my week I ditched my Burt's and went to full on use of P&P Super Balm.

I also love the pink cupcake scent. Sometimes the lemon scent can get overwhelming and the cupcake scent is light and sweet. When I run out of my sample I will for sure be purchasing a full size balm to use! You can purchase this on the Pretty & Polished shop!

Products in this post were provided for my honest review. 

Pretty and Polished It Gets Better and Mannequin Hands

I'm back! With more Pretty and Polished Swatch Spam to share with you today! I received these polishes at the same time as the Holiday Collection, but didn't feel right putting them up in the same post. So you guys get two posts from me today! Let's jump in!

First up we've got It Gets Better. It Gets Better was created to help raise money for the It Gets Better Project. 50% of the profits of this polish will go to the Project. From the Etsy listing, "The It Gets Better Project was created to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach – if they can just get through their teen years." I think this is a great project and message to be sending out! As well the polish is just beautiful!

It Gets Better has a minty green shimmery base filled with hex glitters in yellow, blue, purple, green and red. The base is sheer enough that the hexes in the first layer still show through, although it is not sheer enough to be considered a jelly. I love this polish! It's absolutely beautiful. I will be wearing this with pride! This was two coats.

I also have Mannequin Hands to share with you. This is a milky sheer beige pinkish base with small pink hexes throughout. I love the idea of this colour, although I'm not 100% sure this works with my skin tone. Although my hands do look mannequin like!

The pink hexes in this makes it really unique. It is soft and delicate enough to be work appropriate if you can't wear crazy colours, and the glitters make it just fun enough if you want that little something extra! This was 3 coats. If you have longer nails over a lot of VNL you might need 4 coats or use some undies.

I love It Gets Better and think it's the perfect polish to wear year round. I also love the message that goes along with this and that it is for a good cause. Mannequin Hands is beautiful, I wish my hands didn't look so pink against it!

Mannequin Hands is in stock (at time of publication) and can be found on Pretty and Polished Etsy store for $8.00 US for a full 15mL bottle and $4.75 US for a 7mL mini bottle. It Gets Better is not currently in stock, but I believe there will be more coming! Remember to like Pretty and Polished on Facebook and follow on Twitter to keep up with the latest news!

Do you like either of these? Would you wear them? Hope you have a great day!

Pretty and Polished Holiday Selections

Pretty and Polished released their holiday collection a few weeks ago and I am so excited to share some of them with you today! These are all awesome so let's jump right into it!

First up we have Island of Misfit Toys. Chels describes this as, "Island of Misfit Toys is gorgeous glitter topper with a plethora of shapes, sizes, colors, and finishes. This represents all of those amazing toys we have lost or forgotten over the years". It's pretty much awesome.

There is so much glitter in here that you don't have to fish out for any of it. I would call this one and a half coats. I dabbed some extra glitter in a few places that I thought could used a little more. I layered this over China Glaze Blue Bells Ring (review coming soon), although this would look amazing over pretty much any base. What really separates this from other multi coloured glitters is the different shapes and sizes of the glitter. The various shards and bars and hexes make this look really cool and set it apart from your other Happy Birthday glitter types.

Next we have S'no Mans Land. This is described as, "creamy velvet white polish packed with shiny satin white hex glitters and gorgeous sparkling iridescent glitters. Chels says this can be worn alone or over other lighter colours, but I was really interested to see how it would look over black, which is what I have shown here! This is just one coat with NYC Top Coat. I quite like this over black. It brings out the shimmery blueness in this polish, which makes it quite unique!

Last up we have Love Always, Candy Cain. This is such a cute glitter topper! Chels' description is, "Love Always, Candy Cain is a tasty love letter of a polish. Sweet and enticing. You will find several shapes and sizes of white and red glitters in this clear base. No fishing required for these chunks of glitter." I love the various sizes of red and white glitter, and I layered this over Barielle Date Night to give this a super Christmasy feel.

My only complaint about this is that I did have to do a little fishing to get some of the larger glitters. I was only able to get one of the white hearts on my thumb. This would be about 1.5 coats as I did place some of the glitters. I have a mini bottle, so this might be resolved with a full sized bottle.

I quite like these picks from Pretty and Polished's Holiday Collection! I think Island of Misfit Toys takes the cake, but Love Always, Candy Cain is a close second for me. These are all in stock (at time of publication) and can be found on Pretty and Polished Etsy store for $8.00 US for a full 15mL bottle and $4.75 US for a 7mL mini bottle. Remember to like Pretty and Polished on Facebook and follow on Twitter to keep up with the latest news!

What are your favourites from these polishes?

Born Pretty Store Glequins

Morning folks!

Today I have a review of some fabulous blue glequins from Born Pretty Store. These are really just medium sized hex glitter, but were dubbed as glequins by Sammy of The Nailasaurus and the name has stuck in the nail art community. Before I get to the review let me just say I am in love with them. They instantly spice up any manicure and are so easy to use and put on.

I kept it relatively simple and started off with Sally Hansen Green With Envy, a pastel green creme and then added two accents of Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!.

Then I started adding the glequins in varying patterns on my nails. All you do to put them on is dip a dotting tool in a little water and then place the glequin into a slow drying top coat. Finish off with another coat of your favourite quick dry and you have glitterific nails.

I was planning on glequinifying (ya I'm on fire today with words I know ;)) all my nails, but it was late and I wanted to go to bed so I looked for a glitter to accent it and remembered that I still hadn't used Pretty and Polished Sand Art! I kind of can't believe it, but I'm really glad that I did use it finally. Sand Art is filled with an array of matte glitter in pink, blue, purple, green and yellow! This would be dense enough to wear on it's own, but I like these kinds of glitters best layered.

Trigger finger glitter accents with Born Pretty Store glequins? This kinds manicure is right up my alley lately. I'm going through an I'm obsessed with accent nails phase if you couldn't tell ;)

Born Pretty Store is my go to source for nail art supplies. And these glequins are a steal at only $2.38 a bottle. You will get a lifetime supply of glitter. Your nails will look fabulous and there is not much work involved. Seriously guys, go get these now! Also you can use my newly upgraded 10% off coupon SA7X31 to make your glequins even cheaper!

What are your thoughts on glequins? Do you love this loose glitter trend?

Hope you're having a terrific Tuesday!

Products in this post were provided for my honest review