Neon Lime Crime

This is Pastelchio by Lime Crime. Isn’t it lovely? I posted a skittles mani on Instagram with most of this collection back in February when I bought them.

I’ve really wanted some neon polish for my nails since the middle of the month when I bought the China Glaze Sunsational Summer Collection 2013. But I’ve been busy with volunteer work so there wasn’t too much time to paint my nails. I haven’t received the CG neons yet, so to my stash I went. This was perfect! And perfectly bright!

The accent nail is done with acrylic paint and a little tiny nail art paint brush. Nothing fancy and since it’s acrylic paint, I can just wipe it off if I mess up! Bonus! This was attempt #3. Then I put on a top coat of Seche Vite to seal in the art. Easy peasy!

Have you tried any of the Lime Crime polishes? What’s your favorite neon polish?

SquareHue SoBe nail art

This mani is inspired by one I saw on Polish You Pretty. Right after I saw this fun design I got my SquareHue June box. Yea for new polish and a nail art idea!

A few observations:

• I clearly need to work on my dotting skills.
• This orange is waaaay brighter on the nail than it looks in the bottle. Yay for neon!
• I’m really enjoying the SquareHue boxes each month. Fun colors, good formula and great monthly teasers!

Here’s a teaser for next month.

So red, white and blue is the obvious choice. But how will they punch it up? A white shimmer? Blue and red glitter?

Any guesses?

Super Stunning Summer Neon Nails with Zoya

I’ve been itching to do another watermarble. But I’ve had so many things I needed to do (as opposed to painting my nails, which is not *really* a necessity…I keep telling myself that) I didn’t have the time to sit down and do it. This long weekend was a great opportunity to have a little fun with the great Zoya Stunning collection plus Charisma (the neon purple).

The base is Milani White on the Spot. The white underneath makes all the colors pop!

See my pinky up there? I was going for a mermaid fin design that I’ve seen from Mucking Fusser. I sorta got it.

I think my right hand looks so much better than the left. I did the right hand second. And of course, my thumb, which I did the very last, is my favorite. After cleaning up I topped everything with a coat of Seche Vite. So shiny!

I’m in love with these! I’ve gotten so many compliments on them and I have to really refrain from telling the person *exactly* how I did them…unless they ask me the process.

You can purchase this collection 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!

I received the Stunning Collection from Zoya PR.

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