Quick Update!

I'm not done posting on here...I know I haven't done a post in a good 9 days, but I have valid reasoning...

 

WE DON'T HAVE INTERNET!

Lucky us right? I should get it on Thursday, so hopefully I'll have some blogs up then! :)

Indie Spotlight: LynBDesigns.Etsy.Com!

I received a package in the mail the other day in which I was sent two GORGEOUS polishes from the lovely LynBDesigns at Etsy.com to review and swatch for my blog. I would have had this up earlier, but had since broke my pinkie ON MY SWATCHING HAND and it's a little difficult to type since it's all bundled up. Luckily I was able to swatch the colors BEFORE my pinkie got messed up :) The two colors I received were Black Tie and Oswin Oswald. The owner of LynBDesigns, Jenna Miller, makes all of her polish by hand with blends from multiple glitters and pigments. Jenna has some great collections made in honor of different shows, games, or things in general. Some of her collections include the Baker Street collection, which is for Sherlock Holmes, the Dweam Wiffim a Dweam collection, which is for Princess Bride, and the Doctor is in collection, which is for Doctor Who. She carefully chooses different color combinations to match certain things from the media that she bases it off of. So with that said, here are the polishes I received:

As you can see, I received Black Tie and Oswin Oswald. Black Tie is from the "Dressed to Kill" collection, and Oswin Oswald is from the "Just Stories" collection, which is another Doctor Who collection.

Black Tie is a beautiful, creamy black, with gold flecks in it. The flecks in it, depending on the light that you look at it in, sometimes come off as  greenish gold color.

This is a better picture to show the beautiful gold flecks in it. The formula for this polish is awesome. This polish isn't thick, but it's also not thin like a lot of regular black polishes I have, it's the perfect consistency. You get a lot of flecks on your nail, which is always good so you don't have to keep layering polish which in turn makes it harder to dry fully. However, I do wish the flecks were more prominent, and by that I mean I wish they shined more. When applying them to your nail, they show wonderfully, but as it dries they become more dull or almost sunken into the polish. Although I do wish they had a little more shine to them, I do like the result that it brings. I'm someone who will wear just plain black polish, and sometimes it's a little too dark and dull, so the extra shimmer that this polish puts off while still bearing that creamy black is beautiful.

From left to right, nails 1 and 3 have two coats of Black Tie, and one coat of NYC clear coat. Nails 2 and 4 have two coats of Black Tie, and one coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy. I wanted to do a matte top coat to see if it could bring the gold out a little more, and as you can see it did end up dulling it just a tad so you could see that the gold flecks are in it, as nails 1 and 3 are kind of too glossy to see them. I had a really hard time trying to capture this polish on camera.

Here you can see a few flecks, but it looks predominantly black. My camera wasn't picking up the gold, so I tried taking another picture:

Usually I only take 2 pictures per swatch, but I had to do a third to try and get it the way it's supposed to be, and I didn't really have luck unfortunately :(



Oswin Oswald is a sheer, red, almost jelly polish with large white diamond confetti, silver hexagons, small red glitter and small holographic glitter. Now, I say holographic glitter because the silver hexagons give off a silver reflection, while the small glitter gives of a rainbowy effect in certain light. This is my new favorite polish EVER. I'm so in love with this color! :)



In this picture, the hexagons are showing up white, but they're aren't, they're silver :) Once again, this is a fantastic formula. It goes on extremely smoothly for a chunky glitter polish. I love that this can work as both an over coat, or it can be buildable to opacity to be worn alone. This polish really reminds me of one of Batman's nemesis' Harley Quinn. I however wish that the white diamonds came out more, BUT I actually like it doesn't overload the nails with them. It's a nice added touch to have just a few diamonds on the whole manicure rather than a bunch on 1 nail.



For my swatch I did two coats of Oswin Oswald over the first two fingers, two coats of it over 1 coat of Shades of the Season black on the third finger, and two coats of it over 2 coats of Hard to Get by Sally Hansen on my pinkie. I then put 1 coat of NYC New York Color clear coat over fingers 1, 3, and 4. Personally I like this polish over nothing, just on my normal nails. I feel that having it over white makes the color more pink, and I feel that it takes away from the shine and sparkle of the polish. I'm not crazy having it over black, but I'd definitely wear it like that. I'd love to put it over silver :)

Here you can see the awesome diamonds plastered on my nails :) I really love it! I think it looks awesome. This polish literally dries lightning fast. I was so shocked at how fast it dried.

Overall I feel that these polishes are a great addition to any polish fan's collection. Although I found a couple things I wish were different, I think that the pros out weigh what I didn't like!

I'd like to thank LynBDesigns for sending me out the bottles, I enjoyed swatching and working with them :)

If you're interested in purchasing these or looking at her other creations visit:

LynBDesigns.Etsy.Com

Wet N' Wild Wildshine Saved by the Bell collection (-1) swatches and review!

Let me start by saying I'm a HUGE Saved by the Bell fan, I used to watch it ALL the time with my sister, and even before school. When I was extremely sick and stayed home from school, I'd still wake up at 6am just to watch it! I loved everything about it, and in the summer, when this collection came out, I freaked out and went to every single store that sold Wet N' Wild stuff and could NOT find it in my area! I was distraught! I had to have it, yet couldn't find it. I looked everywhere online and people were saying they were having a hard time finding it as well. So the other day, I was randomly thinking "Huh, I wonder if Ocean State would have them..." because they often have collections that go under the radar. So I went there, and low and behold I found ONE! Literally 1! That was it...it was Pom Pom Kelly. I was so excited I almost cried! It was the last one left. So a few days later we went to another Ocean State and they had 4 OTHERS!!! I was so happy, so now I only need 1, Nerd Alert: Screech! Anyways, here they are in all their glory!

These are the ones I have, from left to right: Chick Magnet Zack, Straight A Jesse, Pin'em Slater, Pom Pom Kelly, and Fashionista Lisa. Look at how bright and beautiful they are! Now if you don't know, with neon colors or bright colors, you should layer them over 1 or 2 thin coats of white. It helps make the colors stand out brighter.

 

This is Pom Pom Kelly, and the picture, as usual, is not doing this ANY justice. This is a gorgeous neon pink color.There's nothing too unique about this color, but it's still beautiful! 

I tried dimming my lights just a tad bit to see if I could get it's true color, but I couldn't. This is showing up as a corally color, but it is actually very bright. For this swatch, I didn't think to do the white coat underneath because I was just too excited to swatch it. So this is 2 coats over my regular nails.

In this picture, it's perfect to see how sheer this color is. With two coats, you can still see my nail line. Something that I don't like, but with the white underneath, it would fix the problem! This formula is very thin/sheer, so three coats might be best. All of the colors in this collection dry to a satiny finish. This meaning it's not glossy, yet it's not completely matte.

This is Pin'em Slater, which almost confused me. I would have thought that Zack's color would be yellow because of his hair...but whatever! Pin'em Slater is a beautiful neon yellow, of course, like Pom Pom Kelly, this is a very very sheer color. 

Now you can see the real colors! The first two have no white underneath, while the last two have two thin coats of Sally Hansen Hard to Get. You can see that the first two still show my real nail below the polish. 

I'm totally in love with the brightness of this color! This will be a perfect summer color. The formula, is thin, and also sheer (as I said before) but spreads on very easily.

Fashionista Lisa is a color that I'm not too crazy about...possibly because I have multiple different colors that remind me of this. I would describe this color as a fuchsia, plumy, violet color. I have two dupes in mind for this, Fuchsiarama by Wet N' Wild Fast Dry, and Vibrant Violet by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear. This again, is a very sheer color.

With this one, I did three coats. First 2 are by themselves, the last two fingers are over two thin white coats. Although this color is thin and sheer as well, in this picture it doesn't look like there is much of a difference if you wear it alone or over white.

I guess in this picture you can see a little difference as to the last two nails are brighter. I think it's an okay color, but not one I'll run to...I'm really not crazy about it. It of course dries to a satin finish.

Straight-A Jesse is a BEAUTIFUL neon orange! I'm diggin' this color a lot! Like it's partners above, this is another very sheer/thin polish. It's not unique, just a great, neon orange.

Once again, the first two nails are just 2 coats of Straight-A Jesse, and the last two have Straight-A Jesse over two coats of white. I'm loving the neon orange pay off this has over white. It's actually almost like the perfect carrot color...if carrots were neon... 

Another thing I'm loving about these polishes is the satin finish. I like it a lot...it makes the neons almost brighter in my opinion. This is another I can't wait to wear in the summer...or now ;)

This is Chick Magnet Zack, and my absolute FAVORITE one from the collection. Holy beautiful. This is a gorgeous dark teal color with light teal micro glitters in it. Now with this drying satin as well, it really makes the glitters look awesome!!! 

Now, there's a little saying that goes "One of these things are not like the other..." and this is the definition of that. This polish is NOTHING like the others! It's a little bit thicker, opaque, and dark. I'm not quite sure where this fit in...but I could care less because I love it! This was just 2 coats of it on my natural nail, no white underneath. Beautiful right?

The first finger on this photo shows the satin finish perfectly. I just, the satin finish, with the glitter, and the color itself really works for this polish. I'm currently wearing this on 4 fingers (and will be painting the rest tomorrow...I'm too tired ;D) but I'm curious to see how this would look with a matte top coat on!

 

I bought all of these polishes at my local Ocean State Job Lot for $.88 a piece! Crazy steal! :)

 

 

 

 

Influenster: Palmolive Fresh Infusions unboxing and review!

Today I received my second package from Influenster! This was a special box put out by Palmolive about their new Fresh Infusions dish soap. I've passed these in the stores a lot and always wanted to try them but never had the money to pick it up so needless to say I was estatic to get this in the mail. If you don't know what Influenster is, please check out this article I wrote on what it is.



This is the box I received this morning and I was so happy! When I opened the box I was pleasantly surprised. The first thing I spotted was the card!

If you can't read that tiny tiny print it says:

"Congratulations! You have been hand-selected to test the new Palmolive Fresh Infusions dish liquid!

Palmolive Fresh Infusions was designed with elegant simplicity and the freshest scents in mind. The clean you've always trusted from Palmolive blends with naturally inspired fragrance for the freshest kitchen around!

In your box, you'll find three naturally inspired fragrances:

• Ginger White Tea


• Lemon Thyme


• Lime Basil

Choose your favorite scent to keep for yourself, then select one to share with a girlfriend. We wouldn't want to make your other friends jealous though, so you'll also find 5 coupons for $1.50 off to share with others.

...

Happy Dishwashing!"

So I was like, wow okay cool! Not only do I get to use it, I get to share it with friends as well! So I chose my "girlfriend" to be one of my bestfriends, my memay. I know she washes her dishes all the time so I figured I'd let her get in on this new fresh action!

So followed by that, I saw the next item.

There were 5 of these bad boys in there! This is save $1.50 on ONE! That's half off! Talk about generous! These are awesome as they do not expire until May. I thought that was a very nice thing for them to throw in there. I do feel bad for some of my fellow influenster girls as their boxes didn't have any coupons because they had slipped out of the box (they were placed on top of the contents). I'm very thankful that my box came together very nicely.

Now what you've all been waiting for...the soaps!

These are the gorgeous dish soaps! 3 FULL SIZED BOTTLES (16 FL OZ)! How awesome is that?I love everything about the bottle. They really are so simple and I like that they're not shaped awkwardly like most dish soap bottles because they can stand up without knocking everything off the sink. There was one thing that a lot of Influenster girls experienced and that was when they received the package one or two of the bottles had actually spilled all over the box and the rest of the contents. As much as I love the bottle design, I believe they need to change the nozzle of it. I opened my Ginger White Tea (the pink one) and closed it as much as I could, and it still leaked out. They don't click shut like they should and there is no protective cover over them in case they were to spill. I almost wish it had a close top like Dawn has.

Of course, this is the Lime Basil scented dish soap. This smells so good! You can definitely smell the Lime and the hint of basil, but it's not too overpowering. The lime scent isn't an artificial lime aroma, you can tell that it is indeed natural which is something I like a lot because some dish soaps can smell chemically or just fake in general. This is prominently lime but at the end of the sniff you can smell the basil lingering around. It's actually a quite pleasant scent. This is one of the two I've decided to keep.

This, obviously, is the Lemon Thyme. I love lemon, and this is a very soft lemon scent. It's the perfect amount of lemon, but oddly enough I cannot get the Thyme smell. To me it smells like straight up lemon. My dad said that he could smell it, but I think he's looney :) I do however enjoy it, but will be giving this one to my Memay. Like the Lime soap, this one most certainly has a natural scent compared to an artificial.

Last but certainly not least, is the one I tried out myself, Ginger White Tea. May I ask you something Palmolive? Have you thought of making perfume? I mean...I guess people wouldn't want to walk around smelling like dish soap, but this scent is just so amazing I want to wear it :) I don't think walking around all soaped up will work though...things might get slippery. ANYWAYS, this is a very beautiful florally (once again, another word not in the dictionary, I should really become a dictionary writer huh?) scent. As I've said, I already tried this out, and can honestly say I love it.  I have gotten red bumps whenever I used various dish soaps throughout the years, and those red bumps would itch, and then I'd scratch them, and my arms would turn into a giant mess of red welts. Well, with this I had NO bumps which in turn equalled NO itching! :) So not only am I a happy camper about that, but it cleaned my dishes AWESOMELY! I had a dish that had caked on chocolate (or something else brown...I hope it wasn't...well...) and I threw it in the soapy water, took it out about a minute or so later, and it was almost gone without me having to scrub it at all (of course I did anyways to get the residue off of it). I found that this soap left my dishes sparkling clean, I was literally so impressed by it. I can't wait to use my coupons!

I would like to thank Influenster again for sending me this AWESOME package, I'm so grateful to be a part of this awesome program.

These awesome soaps can be purchased at ANY Walmart! :)

Visit Palmolive's website HERE

Visit Influenster's website HERE

ZOYA Lovely Spring Collection 2013 On the Nail Swatches & Review!

Okay, so earlier, I had a post about the swatches and bottles of the new ZOYA Lovely Spring 2013 Collection, but this is the real deal. What they look like ON the nail. This is super important because sometimes you don't get the same payoff on the plastic wheel that you do in real life. So without further ado (P.S. these photos were taken BEFORE I had my lightbox fixed, all will be taken in there now):

2 coats of Piaf. Something about all of ZOYA's polishes is that they all go on smooth as can be. I'm very impressed with the quality of their products. I know you can't tell in the picture, but this is a shimmery polish. It has some silver shimmer into it. One thing I don't like about this, GieGie and Julie is that the shimmeryness (once again...not a valid word in the dictionary, but in mine it is ;)) stays on after taking the polish off. I really don't like that, because my fingers are all shimmery and shiny afterwards, not just my nails.

2 coats of Gie Gie. This is another one of the shimmery polishes. I expected this color to be a little brighter, like in the bottle, instead it came out a very pale, nude color. It's still gorgeous nonetheless :)  This polish was actually a little thinner than the others in the collection, if I would have worn this out, I would have done 3 coats just to be on the safe side.

2 coats of Julie. What a beautiful shade of purple, huh? I can't get over this color, and I'm so excited to actually wear it and not just swatch it. It being the last shimmer polish in the collection, I'd have to say that the added shine and shimmer works very well in it's favor. This is without a top coat by the way. The formula was good, but if I were wearing it out, I might do 3 coats just to be on the safe side.

2 coats of Jacqueline. Okay, so this was the polish I was very confused about, and actually still am. However, I'm infatuated with it...it's such a gorgeous, pale color. I'm still not sure the actual color, because on here it looks pale pale green. I just don't know...it's still a good creme, spring color :) I did do 2 coats, but really could have gotten away with 1.



 

2 coats of Blu. Such a gorgeous, gorgeous creme blue color. I'm so in love with creme polishes, but with light blue and mint green colors as well. I know this will be one of my go-to's for spring. The formula was awesome as usual, and although I did 2 coats, I could have gotten away with 1.  That's one thing I like about ZOYA's creme polishes, the opacity is fantastic.

2 coats of Neely. This is my baby, my signature color. Any mint green polish, I must own. I think I have about 6 or 7 different brands of mint green polish. The color is just beautiful. The formula is perfect, I used 2 coats but could have used 1. This is a color that I wear all year long, I'm just so obsessed with it. It's gorgeous. I can't say that enough, and the creamy factor reminds me of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream...maybe I'll add some Zebra Kisses by Laquerlicious to it... hmm ;)

 

 

 

 

 

Indie Spotlight: Laquerlicious!

I was lucky enough to receive a few samples from an indie polish maker Michelle Neasbitt or known by her Etsy shop as Laquerlicious! These are beautiful, handmade polishes made with the high quality, cosmetic grade glitter. Not only are these handmade, but they're also 3 Free meaning her formula has no toluene, formaldehyde, or dibutyl phthalate which is AWESOME because if you're a polish maniac like myself (Haha...wordplay on my blog name...I'm awesome) and change your polish on an almost everyday basis, you'll know that it's important to not saturate your nails with harmful chemicals (even though you really shouldn't be doing that in general anyways.) So there is a little background on the polish itself.

These are the three polish samples I received (P.S. I fixed my light box...so now I can take better pictures, still need a higher MP camera):

The three polishes, if you can't see, are Zebra Kisses, Salt Water, and Stained Glass. Holy beautiful, right? Now, I won't lie if I don't like a polish that has been sent to me for review, or that I bought for review, and I have to honestly say, it's very very hard to find a single flaw in these polishes.

Salt Water is a clear base with large white & teal hexagon glitters, medium sized teal  & white square/hexagon glitters, and small teal & white square/hexagon glitters. This beautiful polish (which I should add, teal is one of my FAVORITE nail polish colors) is a buildable polish and by its density, I believe it could be buildable to almost opacity.

With full glitter overcoats or polishes, it sometimes can be a pain in the butt to get them on the brush to actually apply them to the nail, but this polish is beyond easy to apply. It spreads on perfectly without keeping the glitter all on the brush. One little dip into the bottle and the brush is covered greatly. One thing I find interesting is that in certain lights and angles, some of the teal glitters have a beautiful blue shimmer to them. It really adds to the effect of "Salt Water" a.k.a the ocean.

For my swatches, I decided to do it over 1 coat of Julep's Harley. I thought the combo of white & teal with silver would give a futuristic look. The first two nails have one coat of Salt Water, while the last two have 2 coats. You can see that in another coat, it filled up the nail very well which leads me to believe it could be built up to almost full opacity.

On to the next beauty!

Another beautiful polish, this is Stained Glass. This is another clear base with HUGE/large chunky glitters in a variety of colors (pink, blue, orange, silver, yellow, green, teal). But this isn't just a normal glitter overcoat polish...these glitters are friggen HOLOGRAPHIC!!! Yes. I'm a HUGE holographic fan, and when I got this I nearly squealed in excitement. I can't stop looking at it. And in advance, my camera could NOT pick up the beauty of these glitters...so these pictures won't compare to the real thing. You'll have to go and purchase it on her Etsy shop which I will link below (trust me, you'll love it).

For a thick based super big glitter polish, this goes on surprisingly beautifully. I found only having to dab a few glitters onto super bare spots on my nails. Other than that, just brushing them on worked perfectly for me. This is a polish that would look great over anything and would be perfect for birthdays, new years, ect.

This is over 2 coats of Sinful Colors Inkwell. The first two fingers again have 1 coat, while the last two fingers have 2 coats :) This justifies me saying it wouldn't capture the beauty...

Last but not least, my favorite:

ZEBRA KISSES!!! Totally head over heels in love with this polish. I can't even explain my joy. I really can't. This is a beautiful clear base with black and white glitter shreds. These shreds are awesomely MATTE though! This is honestly my favorite overcoat of anything I've ever tried out, EVER. The confetti flakes remind me of when I sharpen crayons (yes...I love coloring) and you get the little shreds of crayon everywhere.

Now I found a minor flaw with this, that actually turned to work out in the polish itself's favor. The problem was that I couldn't get a lot of the flakes on my brush/nail, BUT I find that the effect this gives off with LESS of the glitters is better than a ton of it. So it's not really a "con".

UGH LOOK AT IT! So friggen beautiful! It really, oddly, reminds me of something out of the 80's or 90's! I love it so so much! This is over 2 coats of Sally Hansen Pretty in Hot Pink!

Once again, first two fingers are 1 coat of Zebra Kisses, last two fingers are 2 coats.

Another widespread pro about all 3 of these polishes is that they all dry super fast, and they all come off extremely easy. I found that I didn't even have to soak my fingernails like I've had to do with Sally Hansen glitter overcoats.

These are super high quality nail polishes, and I would recommend them to any polish fanatic/addict.

To buy these polishes, go to:

www.etsy.com/shop/LaquerliciousUnity

or

www.bigcartel.com/laquerlicious

Follow Laquerlicious on their social media sites:

Instagram- @CreativeNailChick #Laquerlicious

Facebook- www.facebook.com/laquerlicious

Twitter- www.twitter.com/nailchickmich