piCture pOlish :: Tiffany

This is my first piCture pOlish and I love it! It’s an Australian brand and I purchased mine from llarowe.com (which also sells other “exotic” brands of polish – worth a looksee!).

Anyway, this is Tiffany.

The color is just a bit more minty in real life. It applied just a bit streaky on the first coat but it evened out by the second. And I thought the brush was really long, but it didn’t cause a problem with application.

Have you ever tried piCture pOlish brand polish? Check them out on Instagram!

Square Hue :: Madonna Collection

What an odd box this month. Square Hue’s May box was an all pink collection. Called the Madonna collection – not for the woman with the cone bustier, but the for “the lady.”

The three polishes were:

• Happy Creme :: a bubblegum pink creme
• Mother’s Pearl :: a medium pink frost
• Day Glow :: a dark pink neon jelly

Well, Happy Creme was streaky and finally smoothed out after three coats, Mother’s Pearl was a matronly frost that showed every.single.brush.stroke and imperfection on the nail and Day Glow was an uneven jelly and even after three coats was still showing VNL (visible nail line).

Not terrible in these pictures.

But I was determined to like these polishes because the colors are so pretty, so I forged ahead…

Here’s my May Square Hue Skittles mani.

The pointer finger is two coats of Happy Creme, a little thicker than normal. The middle finger has an undies coat of Milani White on the Spot. That seemed to smooth things out for the two coats of Mother’s Pearl. The nail imperfections and brush strokes don’t show here! Just a smooth frost finish. I like! The ring finger is a watermarble with Happy Creme and Day Glow. Day Glow is super bright here! The pinkie finger also has a base coat of Milani White and then two coats of Day Glow. It’s still pretty bright, but a much darker pink that what came up on the watermarble. And the thumb (pictured in the circle) is my first try at sugar spun nail art. I used Mother’s Pearl and Day Glow for the stringies. And I haven’t put a top coat on this one…it’s super textured.

What do you think? Have you signed up for Square Hue yet?

Lancôme Review :: Simply Aqua

Remember when I posted the press release about Lancôme’s new Aquatic Collection? Well I received a polish from the collection to review!

First of all, this is my first Lancôme polish. Second, this color is amazing. Third, I’m back to shortie square nails. I had a disaster of a break on my right hand (I know, first world problems) and I instagramed a pic. Fourth, nail mail is just plain fun!

Here is Simply Aqua

I used three coats here. The first coat was pretty streaky, but I almost expect that anyway. Everything evened out nicely with the second coat but I thought I could still see bare spots. (Maybe I shouldn’t be painting my nails at night to the light of the living room lamp?)

The brush on this is a wide, flat one. I really prefer those. They cover my nails better.

The accent nail here is Blue By You from Sinful Colors. I just found this color in my stash and thought it would be a great complement!

Have you used Lancôme polish before? Which of their colors are your favorite?

Alanna Renee at Color4Nails

I received these two polishes from Sisi at Color4Nails. They are by Alanna Renee and are from her Magical World Collection.

This is Reptar. Apparently it’s a Rugrats reference…

Here’s the description from the website:

Reptar has orange and lavender hex glitter and smaller black, white and neon green hex glitter in a light blue base. Reptar dries gritty, giving it the texture of a real T-Rex (or so I imagine).

I used a base coat of a light mint green and I think it made it turn out quite nicely. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this, but it’s really pretty! And I used Seche Vite on top to smooth out the grittiness.

Here is Mardi. Just look at that sparkle!

Mardi is a mix of pink hex glitter and small gold glitter in a pink base. The small gold glitter helps build up the opacity and this one only needs two coats.

I fell in love with this one as soon as I unwrapped the bottle! The pink, sometimes fuchsia, sometimes purple glitter looks great with the gold glitter and pink jelly base.

Go check out Color4Nails on Facebook and Instagram .

Thank you, Sisi, for the chance to review these polishes!

Press Release :: Lancôme Aquatic Summer Summer 2013 Color Collection

Lancôme
Aquatic Summer
Summer 2013 Color Collection

Plunge into a turquoise pool. Jump off a yacht into the deep azure of the Mediterranean. Lancôme’s Aquatic Summer Collection transports you to the warm climates and refreshing seas of the world’s most luxe destinations. Embrace the season and dive into an aquatic summer with Lancôme.

Vernis in Love in Simply Aqua, Ultramarine Green, Aqua Bleu and Plunge Pool, $15 –These new limited-edition shades of Lancôme’s iconic polish brighten up your nails with brilliant turquoise and azure tones.

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*sigh* Aren’t these colors just beautiful?

I have not tried any of the Lancôme brand polishes. Have you?

The Zoya Nail Polish Exchange* is BACK for Earth Day 2013!

Hooray for Earth Day! Once again, Zoya is helping you do a little spring cleaning with the return of the Earth Day Zoya Nail Polish Exchange* for 2013. Clean out your nail polish wardrobe and get rid of old nail polish that may not be BIG5FREE (Free of Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Toluene, DBP and Camphor) and exchange it for a greener alternative – long lasting, award winning, healthy Zoya Nail Polish bottles!

Now’s the perfect time to make the switch to an eco-chic beauty routine! From April 19, 2013 – April 26, 2013 (11:59PM EST), exchange your old, unwanted nail color for toxin-free ZOYA Nail Polish for only $4 per bottle plus shipping and handling fees. Rest assured – ZOYA will properly dispose of your old polish.

Here’s all you need to do!

1. Go to www.zoya.com and pick out the polishes you would like (excludes all Zoya PixieDust™ Collection shades) and add them to your cart. You must select at least 6 bottles and no more than 24 bottles of polish (Salon accounts minimum 12 maximum 48 bottles.)

2. Apply the code (copy and paste for best results):
ZOYAEARTH2013

3. Your order value will be adjusted to reflect a 50% discount (we use these funds to properly dispose of the old nail polish).

4. SUBMIT your order!
Then Zoya will ship out your NEW polish! HOORAY!

Once you get your order
Here’s where the exchanging* happens…
1. Ship back the equivalent number of bottles you received to the return address below (ie. If you ordered 6 bottles of Zoya – you would send us 6 NON-ZOYA polishes). Please check with your carrier on the proper way to ship nail polish.
2. Include a copy of your order.

To clarify the exchange: You do not have to send us the exact amount of bottles that you are ordering. You can send any quantity up to that amount. You can also donate. If you decide you don’t want to do either, it’s ok “Offer is not contingent on customer returning polish” we will still love you and will send the Zoya polishes… we’ll just send you on a guilt trip for a while

Thumbs up or Thumbs down?

So, I thought I’d try a water spotted mani to look like turquoise. The base is mint, then a water spotting with gold and a water spotting with a jade. I’ll have to admit it looks much better with top coat but this came out much better when I imagined it.

What do you think?

Is this hot or a hot mess?

UPDATE: Here’s the full mani

Flower Power

Have you tried Square Hue yet? It’s a polish subscription service that sends you three exclusive polishes each month. The polish is not available anywhere else.

April is my third month to be subscribed and again, I am in love with the colors, the formula and the cute square bottles!

Here is the April Bloom Collection!

• Yellow Submarine – shimmery yellow
• Groovy Love – pastel purple
• Flower Power – leafy green

As soon as I saw these gorgeous pastels together I knew I wanted to try another watermarble. But, I didn’t have 2 hours to spend so I decided on just an accent nail. It went much faster this time!

It looks gorgeous, if I do say so myself!!

And a closeup of the swirly goodness. You can have pretty painted nails and nail art on shorties!

As I said above, the formula on these is just great. The applied smoothly and didn’t bubble. The brush on the Square Hue bottles is a little shorter than what I usually like, but I’m getting to where I like their short brush, too!

Have you subscribed to Square Hue or are you a part of any other beauty subscription service?

No words necessary…

Color Club – Halo-graphic

Zoya PixieDust :: Vespa and Dahlia

I was provided this collection by PR in exchange for my honest review.

I really love these new textured polishes and PixieDust is my favorite! I’m really glad I gave them a try because I was just sure that I wouldn’t like them. But we know what happens in Green Eggs and Ham!

This is Vespa (minty green) and Dahlia (black). I used a base coat and then three coats of Vespa to get this look. I can still see some VNL (visible nail line), but it was too much for me at two coats. Three coats is just right for me.

What it is about PixieDust that makes me love it? I think it’s the sparkle. Set against the texture. That’s matte. It all works together to make this great look. I feel like I’ve got crushed diamonds on my fingers!

I think no light is the only Kim of light where they wouldn’t look good. They sparkle like crazy in the sun and there’s an elegant glitter in lower light. LOVE!

And how about an in-your-face picture so you can really get up close and personal with the sparkle and texture!

You can purchase these online at Zoya’s website. And if you use that link (which is my referral link), and set up a new account, you’ll get a coupon for a FREE bottle of Zoya polish in your account. And if you use the coupon and add two more polishes to your order, you’ll get free shipping, too! You can find your coupon in the “My Coupons/Promos” section of your “My Account” page. You can also find Zoya on facebook, twitter and instagram. The Zoya Fairies are always up to something!