Pretty and Polished Spring Sonata Collection!

Hey guys! Do you guys remember the amazing Adventure Time Collection by Pretty And Polished? Well, another amazing collection is being released March 1st! The Spring Sonata collection! Along with some other amazing collections. Spring Sonata consists of four beautiful pastel colors and an amazing pastel glitter! You can get them at the link here. Check it out! I don't know about you, but I love pastels and can't wait for this collection!

OPI Black Spotted

Hey guys! I am so happy today, finally finished all my exams for the the semester! Woo! And I got the last stuff I needed for my Napoleon Dynamite collection! So be watching my etsy shop! I'll hopefully have it up by Tuesday. Here's the link.

Today I've got for you something special! Some foreign nails! Kind of. I got the Sephora France exclusive OPI Black Spotted for Christmas and I've finally gotten around to wearing it. It's so cool! I layered one thiiiiin coat (or else theres no spots) over a neon rainbow gradient I did, which there is a tutorial for here, on my post for my friend's blog, The Fabulous Magazine. You guys should definitely check it out!

It's obviously a lot brighter in real life, as most neons are impossible to capture correctly. I really love the effect of this polish and I hope they do end up selling it in the US.

That's all for today! If you want more details of this manicure as well as how to recreate the spots without this polish check out The Fabulous Magazine!

Zoe

Rainforest Nail Art: Tutorial Included

Hey guys! Today I've got some good ol' fashioned nail art for you guys! It's pretty random, I just asked my sister's friend what her favorite animal was then built the idea around her answer. I'm really happy with how it turned out actually. My brushes are pretty crappy, but I ordered a nice new one that will hopefully arrive soon!

The base color is Julep Popova, with Ciaté Mojito sponged on. Now that you've seen the mani can you guess which animal it was based on? The parrot, it was the parrot. I know, you would have never guessed. Anyway, I have some tutorials for you if you would like to recreate any of the animals. Yay!

First up is the parrot. 

• Step 1: Take a dark green(Popova) and sponge on a lighter green/yellow green(Mojito).
• Step 2: Take a tan and draw a kind of three quarter circle with a little pointed tip. Then take a red and trace around the face and make a little neck.
• Step 3: Add a large black dot in the top left of the face, and make some thin squiggly lines surrounding it. Then make a triangle with a roundish side on the bottom of the face, and connect a thin black line to the tip of the beak, which you also paint black.
• Step 4: Add a smaller yellow circle inside the black one and add a few red splotches on the line between the face and the red. Then add some lighter red streaks to the head and neck.
• Step 5: Add yet another small black circle inside the yellow one, and paint some red streaks over the lighter streaks. The trick to less opaque streaks is to take your paint, and paint a few strokes on a plastic bag or something, then paint on the actual nail.
• Step 6: Finally, add a few darker red streaks, clean up around the cuticles a little, and add a top coat. Done!

The next nail is the monkey.

• Step 1: Paint a white head, shoulders, and ears.
• Step 2: Take a dark grey, and trace the top part of the head, filling it in so there are two small holes for the eyes. Also paint a circle in the middle of the body. Then take a tan and make some pentagonal like shapes tight under the dark grey eyeholes, also fill in the ears with the tan.
• Step 3: I widened the eyes a little, but you could do that in step 2, then i took a lighter grey and kind of outlined the outside of the eyes and the mouth, you can also make a little light grey triangle under the mouth. Take an even lighter grey and paint the shoulders and add a few strokes in the grey triangle.
• Step 4: Add some less opaque streaks outlining the dark grey head. Then take black and add some oddly shaped eyes and a little nose and mouth in the dark grey circle. Also take a super light grey, and make some less opaque streaks to blend the shoulders and chest together.
• Step 5: Add some tiny dark grey spots inside the eyes and take a little dark grey under the head to make a little shadow of the neck. 
• Step 6: Clean up the cuticles and add a top coat. Done!

Third is the Toucan.

• Step 1: Make a green sponged nail.
• Step 2: Make a chair like yellow object and outline most of it in black, making the outline on the left side thicker than on the right corner.
• Step 3: Take a mint color and make a roundish rectangle connected to the corner of the object. Also take the mint and paint the top of the head making it fade into the yellow.
• Step 4: Make a light blue spot in the mint area of the head, and make an orange round rectangle in the middle of the beak. Also add some black tufts to the top of the head.
• Step 5: Add a black almond shaped spot in the blue spot and make a black line right under the orange rectangle. Then make a few dark green lines under the rectangle. 
• Step 6: Add some less opaque light green streaks to the beak, and yellow orange streaks to the neck.  Then clean up the cuticles and add a top coat. Done!

Last is the tree frog.

• Step 1: Make two large dots on both sides of your nail, then outline three quarters of the eyes and fill in between the eyes and a wide rainbow line with a yellow green. Take a white and make a large rectangle connected to the green face, connect some little arms to the side.
• Step 2: Make some almond shaped black spots inside the red spots. Then trace the line between the white and the green with black. Color the arms in with blue and outline the top of the head in a dark green. Also make some very light peach and grey splotches in the white body.
• Step 3: Shade in the face a little with green, clean up the cuticles and add a top coat. Done!

Man, that was excruciating to write, but it's done! Hope you found this somehow helpful, I made it as detailed as I could. 

That's it for today!

Zoe

OPI Mariah Carey Liquid Sands Review

Hey guys, I didn't have a chance to put this up yesterday, but today I have for you the four liquid sands from the OPI Mariah Carey Collection. I only picked up the liquid sand mini four pack because I had a $10 gift card to Ulta and didn't feel like spending any more money. The liquid sands dry with a slightly textured feel to them. The polishes include The Impossible, Get Your Number, Stay The Night, and Can't Let Go.

From Left To Right: The Impossible, Get Your Number, Stay The Night,  and Can't Let Go.

First up is The Impossible. This is a pink base with a mix of pink and holographic glitter. I know there are also supposed to be stars in this, but I couldn't find any. I literally fished around for at least ten minutes for one, but I couldn't find any. I was a little disappointed to be honest. It is still a lovely color though.

I also have a macro shot for you guys:

I decided to add a topcoat to see what it would look like.

I think I liked it without the top coat better because it was a little lighter and the texture was nice.

Second, I have Get Your Number. Get Your Number is a blue base chock full of lovely holographic silver glitter.

Here's a macro shot:

And with the topcoat on:

It almost looks like some sort of jelly color, I like this one without the topcoat also.

Third is Stay The Night. Stay The Night is a black base full of beautiful red hexes.

Here is the macro:

Here's a picture with the topcoat on:

I personally think that this one looks the best with the topcoat on. Although, without the topcoat, it does look kind of like leather, with a red sparkle, which I really love.

Last, but certainly not least, is Can't Let Go. Can't Let Go is a purple base with purple and holographic glitter. This one and Stay The Night are probably my favorite of the collection.

Here's the Macro shot:

And here is Can't Let Go with a topcoat:

I honestly don't know if I like it with or without the topcoat better. I like just the liquid sand, but I don't really know if it works that great with this color. And I like it with the topcoat also, although maybe just a little bit better with the liquid sand. I'm not really sure. It is still a beautiful color.

All in all, I really love these polishes. They are all great in just two coats and the texture isn't really as rough as it may look, it's really quite nice. I can't wait to see any other liquid sands that may come out through the years!

That's it for today! 

Zoe

Wicked Polish Review

Hey guys! Today I've got for you a few polishes from Wicked Polish on Etsy. Right now Riley's got the Pestilence collection out, and I've been lucky to snag three of them. The three I've got--Pox, Hematoma, and Gangrene-- are basically the same, but in different colors. And the labels are so cute! I'm very excited to show you these beautiful polishes!

First up is Pox. Pox consists of slightly transparent neon orange and pink different sized hexes in a transparent white base. This is one of her first few if I remember correctly and it doesn't quite have a lot of glitter compared to Hematoma, which I purchased later, and there was quite a bit of glitter fishing involved. Although the turn out was quite beautiful. This is one coat (with some fishing) over white.

Next up is Hematoma. This one definitely had more glitter that Pox, and also Gangrene. Hematoma is made up of neon purple and blue hexes in a white translucent base. This is one coat over white.

Third is Gangrene. Gangrene is super super neon yellow and green hexes in a translucent white base. This color is probably my favorite of the three, but also the most difficult to wear. This color is like Pox in the sense that it is a little low on glitter. There was definitely fishing involved to get this to look nicer, and with fishing comes excess polish, and with excess polish comes bubbling. I wore this polish longer than the others, so this was the only one I noticed bubbling with. Unfortunately there was also a little problem with the larger glitters. They seemed to have rubbed off the polish underneath, and since they're translucent you could see some dark spots underneath. I'm not really sure how that could be prevented, except two coats of white under it or something. Again, this is the only one I wore long enough to notice this, so I'm not sure if this happened with the others. Onto the actual polish though!

This is one coat plus fishing over white.

That's it for today! I'll hopefully have the Mariah Carey Liquid Sands up tomorrow.

Zoe

Julep January Box Review

Hey Guys! I'm really sorry I haven't been posting as often, but school just started and our semester doesn't end until the end of January so I've been studying for finals and stuff. I'll definitely try to get on here more though. On to the fun stuff though!

today I've got my Julep January box! The theme was nudes and neons, so obviously there was one nude and one neon, and the beauty product. (Unless your an It Girl and got three polishes.) My maven style is Classic With A Twist and thats what I decided to stick with for this box. It came with neon Madison, and nude Grace. It also came with an awesome cuticle stick and some cute, bright hairties, and some swatching stickers. I guess you paint the stickers and place them on the cap of the color you painted it with, pretty nifty.

First off is Grace. Grace is a sheer light pink nude that is definitely meant for French Manicures and jelly sandwiches. Here is just one coat to show how sheer it is.

You can only really see the color a little bit. 

I then took Essie Set In Stone and A Cut Above and did a reverse glitter gradient. You just take a little bit of your glitters and paint about halfway down the nail, trying to spread the glitter out so halfway down the nail there is just a little glitter left. I topped off the gradient with another layer of Grace for a jelly sandwich.

Grace is certainly a nice color, but I have so many sheer pinks, they're starting to annoy me. All I want is a nice solid nude to match my skin tone. I hope I find it one day.

Next is Madison. Madison is a beautiful electric watermelon pink neon. I really love this color, a lot. I layered two coats over white for good opacity.

Ugh, I am so sorry for that nasty cuticle work.

Anyway, I wanted to do some nail art with this color since it was so beautiful, so I took some gold caviar beads, some tweezers, and a top coat to create this mani.

I liked the studs way more than the full on caviar, but I didn't have the time or patience to do the whole thing. If you're wondering how I did it, here you go: After painting you color and letting it dry, take you top coat and paint a relatively thick coat. Then quickly take your tweezers and beads, and place them in the top coat and arrange them how you want. I also have a pictorial on how to do the ring finger in my tutorials tab.

If you want to join julep so you can get awesome boxes like this for just $20, click here. Then enter this code if it asks --> 3863244. But wait, there's more! If you enter the code PENNY at checkout you can get your box for $0.01!!! One cent! Enjoy!

That's it for today!

Zoe

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody! What are your resolutions? I resolve to be more positive and more social this year. There was also this super hard thousand piece puzzle that me and my cousin were trying to finish before 2013. We didn't do it. But we came pretty close!

I decided to some fun, and pretty simple, nails to ring in the New Year, so here they are!

For the base I used one coat of Butter London Black Knight over black. Black Knight is a black jelly jampacked with pink, blue, and silver glitter. I then took some acrylic paint and painted the numbers. Lastly, I took Color Club, Harp On It, and made some random dots and lines. They didn't turn out to be quite as I had hoped, but they're still pretty cute.

Also, there is a sale going on in my etsy shop, all full sizes $5 and $4, and all minis $2.50.
Here's the link-----> www.etsy.com/shop/SmartyLacquer  Sale ends today so don't miss out!

Happy New Year!
Zoe