A girl and her love of nail polish

Archive for November, 2012

Essence Twilight Breaking Dawn 2: Edward’s Love

The last installment of the Twilight movie franchise hits theaters Friday with the release of Breaking Dawn Part 2 (yes, I have secured my tickets). This week I’ll be showing some of the Essence Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 nail polishes.

First up is Edward’s Love. It’s a black polish with a lot of silver shimmer on it. Nothing too special here but it’s a good choice if you want something more than basic black. This is two coats plus one coat of Poshe fast-dry top coat.

Essence Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 Edward's Love nail polish

I will say that the formula is not that great, and neither is the brush. The formula is very thick, nearly goopy. The brush is on the short side, more like a mini bottle, and the bristle part is a bit too big for my taste.

Essence Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 Edward's Love nail polish

But if you’re a fan of Twilight and/or $1.99 polish, have at it! I bought these at Ulta; I’m not sure where else they might be available.

Essence Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 Edward's Love nail polish

Come back tomorrow for a look at another shade from the Twilight Breaking Dawn 2 lineup.

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Swatches

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Restock Radar: Week of Nov. 12

Here’s a look at some of the indie nail polish restocks scheduled for this week. Check back every Monday to see what’s coming up.

Monday, November 12
3pmET and 9pmET
LUSH LACQUER (On Llarowe)
Notables: Holiday collection, including Peppermint Kisses — a Llarowe exclusive.

time not specified
APHRODITE LACQUERS (On Etsy)
Notables: Launch of a new Birthday Collection, including Icing On The Cake; It’s My Party; Make A Wish; Never Too Old and Wrapping, Ribbons, Bows

Thursday, November 15
evening (time not specified)
CHAOS & CROCODILES (On Etsy)
Notables: Launch of new Winter Collection, including Evening Flurries, Polar Bear In A Storm,  Fireside Nights and several others.

time not specified
KBSHIMMER (On kbshimmer.com)
Notables: Launch of nine new polishes in the Winter Collection, including Cocoa Nut, Snow Way, Sugar Plum Faire and We Three Blings

Friday November 16
time not specified
KUNIMITSU/NAIL POTIONS (On Etsy)
Notables: Lucky Goldfish, HIM

time not specified
CIRQUE (On cirquecolors.com)
Notables: Launch of the Objet d’Art collection, including Au (23k gold leaf), XX, Cypress and Planet Caravan and seven others

time not specified
365 DAYS OF COLOR (On 365daysofcolorpolishes.com)
Notables: launch of the scented Holiday Collection, including Trimming the Tree (pine); Santa Baby (candy canes) and Gimme Some Bubblies (champagne and strawberries)

time not specified
DANDY NAILS (On Etsy)
Notables: A full restock, plus introduction of new Winter colors, including Chilled Down, Higher Ground, Cashmere Night (matte finish), Moonglow and Bory-Alice

Saturday, November 17
5pmET
HAPPY HANDS (On Etsy)
Notables: Stuffed and Lady Goodman

And Keep An Eye Out For …
SONOMA NAIL ART is launching two new polishes this week, day/time as of yet unspecified: Tiny Tangerines and Powlish

ELIXIR LACQUERS has a holiday trio available now for pre-order ahead of the November 23 launch.

ENCHANTED POLISH is launching a new line within the next two weeks.

WHOOZ POLISH is offering 10 percent off all month with the code FACEBOOK713

If you know of any planned restocks coming in the future, please let me know at polishgroupie@gmail.com Thanks for stopping by!

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Indies

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Ulta Hide And Go Sequins

I’ve got a short and sweet one for you this morning. I recently picked up the Ulta Glitterati Minis collection on sale for $4. If there’s an Ulta near you, I recommend running out to see if they have any left because it’s a great little set.

Ulta Glitterati Mini: Hide And Go Sequins

Ulta Glitterati Mini: Hide And Go Sequins

This is Hide And Go Sequins, a lovely blue jelly with tons of blue and green glitter packed in. It’s basically a jelly sandwich in a bottle. Some bloggers have said this is a dupe of Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe but I don’t have it to compare. It does look close based on swatches I’ve seen. At this price, who cares whether it’s exact or not; it’s close enough! Now I wish it was a full-size bottle.

Ulta Glitterati Mini: Hide And Go Sequins

I’m showing three coats here with no top coat. Awesome color! The other three colors in the set are all similarly glitter-ific.

Ulta Glitterati Mini: Hide And Go Sequins

Ulta Glitterati Mini: Hide And Go Sequins

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Swatches

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Pretty & Polished Island of Misfit Toys; Love Always, Candy Cain; and Pretty As A Peacock

This morning I’ve got three new shades from indie nail polish maker Pretty & Polished. All of these go on sale today, so feast your eyes and then high-tail it over to Chelsea’s Etsy shop (the restock is scheduled for 10amET today). I’m showing two holiday shades: Island of Misfit Toys and Love Always, Candy Cain, plus another new one called Pretty As A Peacock. Even though some of these are officially “holiday” colors, there’s nothing about them that would keep you from wearing them any time you want.

First up is Island of Misfit Toys, a fantastic multi-color glitter topper in a clear base.There’s too much stuff in here to really describe it all. Hexes, squares, bars … red, green, blue, purple, pink, silver, gold. Pretty! This one is my favorite of the three, and I think it’s easy to see why.

This is two coats of Island of Misfit Toys over three coats of Zoya Jolene, no top coat.

Pretty & Polished Island Of Misfit ToysPretty & Polished Island Of Misfit Toys

Pretty & Polished Island Of Misfit Toys

Pretty & Polished Island Of Misfit Toys

Next is Love Always, Candy Cain, another glitter topper in a clear base. This one has primarily red and white glitter in it, including large white and red hearts, as well as large white hex glitter. I did have a little trouble fishing out the larger pieces, especially the white hearts. There are a ton of them in there, I just couldn’t catch one!

This is two coats of Love Always, Candy Cain over two coats of Sinful Colors Exotic Green, for a classic Christmas look. It’s topped off with one coat of Poshe fast-dry top coat.

Pretty & Polished Love Always, Candy CainPretty & Polished Love Always, Candy CainPretty & Polished Love Always, Candy Cain

Pretty & Polished Love Always, Candy Cain

Finally I’ve got Pretty As A Peacock, which is kind of hard to describe. It’s got a gray-green shimmer base with purple, green and teal glitter. It’s not really glossy, more of a satin finish. Really lovely.

This is two coats of Pretty As A Peacock plus one coat of Poshe.

Pretty & Polished Pretty As A Peacock

Pretty & Polished Pretty As A Peacock

Pretty & Polished Pretty As A Peacock

Pretty & Polished Pretty As A Peacock

Hope you enjoyed these, they’re all really fun. Happy hunting!

Category:

Holiday, Swatches

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OPI Skyfall Collection: The Living Daylights & Live And Let Die

When the first glimpses of OPI’s recently launched James Bond-inspired Skyfall Collection went public, I immediately added The Living Daylights to my wish list, so it’s no wonder that it’s the first bottle I picked up.

I also threw in the Bondettes mini collection, which includes GoldenEye, The Spy Who Loved Me, The World Is Not Enough and Live and Let Die (and here’s a curious bit about why there’s no Goldfinger polish in the Skyfall Collection). Today I’m showing you Live and Let Die.

OPI Skyfall Collection: Live And Let DIe

Let me say upfront that this was the first polish application I did after repairing a cracked nail, and realized after seeing these photos that I hadn’t buffed the nail enough. So that’s why my middle nail looks a bit weird; please forgive the awkwardness.

OPI Live And Let Die is a really dark almost-black shade. In the bottle you can see strong teal undertones but on the nail it really just looks like a dusty green-black. It’s got lots of gold shimmer. Vampy!

OPI Skyfall Collection: Live And Let DIe

And if you’ve already read it elsewhere, let me confirm that Live And Let Die is in fact a one-coater. It goes on beautifully. These photos show one coat, no top coat.

OPI Skyfall Collection: Live And Let DIe

Then on to the glitter!

The Living Daylights is a unique glitter topper. I don’t think I’ve seen a glitter color combo like this before. My eye reads it as more peach or copper than anything else, but there are also silver and teal hex glitter in there as well.

OPI Skyfall Collection: The Living Daylights

These photos show two coats of The Living Daylights over Live And Let Die.

OPI The Living Daylights over Live And Let Die

My thumb in this photo has two coats of The Living Daylights on its own so you can get a sense of the coverage.

OPI The Living Daylights over Live And Let Die

So far I’m loving the OPI Skyfall Collection, can’t wait to try on the others!

 

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NOTD

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Patriotic Election Day Caviar Nails

Happy Election Day to all of my readers in the U.S.! I hope that you will all be able to get out and vote.

In honor of today’s festivities, I’ve got some patriotic red, white and blue nails to show you. They are blinged up a little bit with some microbeads, also known as caviar nails.

Patriotic Election Day Caviar Nails

Here are the base colors: blue – Nails Inc Baker Street; red – Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby; white – Ulta Snow White and A England Morgan Le Fay.

The microbeads are Recollections brand, which I bought as part of two different sets at Michaels. The red beads are called Cherry; the white are actually Clear. [UPDATE: I did this manicure late last night, and when I woke up this morning, most of the red microbeads looked like they had changed color to a metallic bronze-silver shade. Not sure if it was rubbed off, washed off or what.]

Patriotic Election Day Caviar Nails

I started with one coat of polish on each nail. For the white thumb, I used Ulta Snow White for the first coat. Then I added a second coat to the blue nails and sealed them with one coat of Poshe fast-dry top coat.

Patriotic Election Day Caviar Nails

Then onto the beads. With a paper plate underneath to catch the stray beads, I painted one nail with a second coat of polish and then poured the beads over the wet nail. I gently tamped them down with my finger to make sure they were all settled into one layer and sunk into the wet polish a bit. I then sealed off just the tip edge of the nail with a regular clear top coat. Rinse and repeat.

I poured the extra beads from the plate back into the bottle. Make sure the plate is clean before you switch colors or you’ll end up mixing your beads.

Patriotic Election Day Caviar Nails

One word of caution: be careful when you open these bottles. When I opened the first one, the beads kind of shot out and got all over the place. Not the easiest little suckers to clean up!

Patriotic Election Day Caviar Nails

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Holiday, NOTD

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Restock Radar: Week of Nov. 5

Here’s a look at some of the indie nail polish restocks scheduled for this week. Check back every Monday to see what’s coming up. (P.S. – Sorry about missing last Monday’s post. All of the storm prep errands took up a lot of time and I couldn’t get to it. Luckily we made it through fine.)

Monday, November 5
time not specified
THE POLISH BAR (On Etsy)
Notables: Launch of a new holiday collection

Wednesday, November 7
between 8pmET and 10pmET
CANDY LACQUER (On Big Cartel)
Notables: New polishes, including Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Bunny

time not specified
PRETTY & POLISHED (On Etsy)
Notables: Pretty as a Peacock, Mannequin Hands and It Gets Better

Friday, November 9
10amET
PRETTY & POLISHED (On Etsy)
Notables: Launch of new holiday polishes, plus several others on sale. New polishes include S’no Mans Land; Love Always, Candy Cain; Xmas Wreath; Everybody Loves Penguin; Island of Misfit Toys; and Happy Holodays Duo

Saturday, November 10
5pmET
HAPPY HANDS NAIL POLISH (On Etsy)
Notables: General restock

And Keep An Eye Out For …
SONNETARIUM plans to launch the new Winter 2012 collection early this month.

ALL THAT GLITTERS is offering Halloween shades for $5; limited quantities are left.

RAINBOW POLISH is prepping the launch of a new collection to be released … soon.

F4 POLISH has lowered prices on several shades to $6 to clear out inventory.

WHOOZ POLISH is offering 10 percent off all month with the code FACEBOOK713

If you know of any planned restocks coming in the future, please let me know at polishgroupie@gmail.com Thanks for stopping by!

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Indies

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