Hi guys!  Today I've got swatches of a gorgeous polish I received in my last package from Norway Nails.  This is Femme Fatale Vortex Remnants.  I was instantly in love, and I definitely didn't want to take this off.  I kept staring at my nails all the time when I was wearing it.

Vortex is a gorgeous purple jelly base with purple and red glitter.  I layered one coat of it over one coat of Kiko Nr 255, which is a rich purple with a scattered holo shimmer.  These two made a fabulous match.







You can purchase Femme Fatale polishes from Norway Nails for 159 NOK per bottle.  You can always use my special code, SMASHLEY10, for a 10 % discount on your entire order from Norway Nails.

I definitely need more Femmes in my collection, because this and the other one I have were both so impressive.  Let me know which ones you think I can't live without!

Hi guys!!  Today I can finally reveal a secret I've been keeping for a couple months now.  I was one of the lucky bloggers chosen to participate in this year's Blog Fest event!  I'm super excited about this, because I love piCture pOlish, and I didn't get to participate last year because I was on my blogging break.

This year, we were tasked with creating some amazing nail art and a tutorial using the three polishes they sent us.  The polishes I received were piCture pOlish Majesty, Mallard, and Voodoo.  I have to admit, when I first saw these three together, I went "Oh shit, why did I get Christmas colors?... What am I supposed to do with these?"  I puzzled over this dilemma for almost a month.  I finally decided floral was the way to go, and thought of some Betsey Johnson inspired rose/leopard print combination.

An added bonus to this year's Blog Fest is a chance to win a collaborative piCture pOlish shade to be released next year!  There will be three participants selected for this, one based on a fan vote via Pinterest, one based on fellow participant's votes, and one based on the choice of Jules & Megs of piCture pOlish.  So you know what this means... if you want to see a Smashley Sparkles piCture pOlish collab I need your votes!!! <3

Scroll down to the bottom to read my step by step tutorial for this mani and see a Pinterest friendly tutorial graphic!





Step 1.  Gather your polishes and tools.  In addition to Majesty, Mallard, and Voodoo, you will need a stamping plate (I used Mash-40), a stamper, a scraper, a dotting tool, a small paint brush, a black polish, and a white polish.

Step 2.  Polish all your nails with two coats of Majesty.  Allow to dry completely.  You can add quick dry top coat to speed up this part of the process.

Step 3.  Stamp leopard print onto all your nails using black polish.

Step 4.  Make the basic shape of your roses and leaves in white.  This will allow the darker polishes to pop more when you layer them.  I used the dotting tool to make the rose and the paint brush to add the leaves.

Step 5.  Layer Voodoo and Mallard over the white base you made in the last step using your paint brush.  I find it helpful to thin out my polishes a bit on this step so the art doesn't get so thick on your nail.

Step 6.  Add details to the roses and leaves with the small paint brush and black polish.  Add top coat.  And you're finished!


I hope some of you will try out my tutorial, and if you do I would love to see your versions of it.  Please feel free to share them on my Facebook page!

piCture pOlish can be purchased at their own site (shipping info here), as well as any of the websites found on their worldwide network page.

You can also keep up with them on , Pinterest, , , and .

Phew... now that you've got all that info, don't forget to get ready to vote for me so you can help me make my own piCture pOlish collab shade!! :)

Here are links to the other participants in Blog Fest 2013:

Hi guys!  Today is me and Mr. Sparkles' one year wedding anniversary, so this is just a quick post to share what I'm wearing for the occasion.



Our wedding colors were a combination of our favorites, green and purple, so of course I needed to do a green and purple mani!  This is a base of two coats of China Glaze Def Defying, and one coat of Lynnderella Peridot Power from the new Talismans & Birthstones collection.  PP is just gorgeous, I know I will be using this one often.  It also happens to be my birthstone, so that's pretty fun!  For the purple tips I used Kiko Nr 255 and Lynnderella Love Potion 99.9.  I started off trying to just use the glitter on the pinkie, which didn't turn out to crisp so I added the Kiko as undies for the rest of the nails.




Lynnderella polishes are available for purchase from Norway Nails if you live in Europe, and from the Lynnderella eBay shop if you live in the US.  If you order from Norway Nails you can feel free to use the code SMASHLEY10 for 10% off your purchase!

Hi guys!  Today its time for part two of this month's Back In Time feature, which I am doing with Missy from Gnarly Gnails.  For part two we are recreating one of each other's manis from this time last year.


So, here is my recreation of one of Missy's manis from last summer.  This was part of her Rockabilly Luau series.  She did some nails inspired by a paint job on a hot rod, which I thought were just super awesome!


My base color for these was two coats of Zoya Dovima.  After that was dry I stamped the flames on with my MASH Nail Art Polish in black and MASH-48.  On my ring finger I freehanded some pin striping with MASH Nail Art Polish in white, and Zoya Sooki.

Hi there lovely people!  Today I bring you more neon-y goodness!  Its a neon splatter... how fun!


This mani involved one coat of Cult Nails Nevermore as a base, and then I splattered with China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard, China Glaze Towel Boy Toy, and China Glaze Beach Cruise-r.  Once the splats were fairly dry I added top coat to everything.




Once again, don't forget to have a look at all these other awesome neon manis my friends and I have been working on this week!

I think this green looks a little more eye-searing in person, but I did my best to capture the brightness in the photos.

Woohoo, a new feature!  I'm now going to be taking part in a fun series with my buddies The Crumpet and Gnarly Gnails.  How this works is that each month, on the first of the month, we will choose one of our own manis from a year ago to have a do-over on.  Then, on the 15th of each month, we will choose a year old mani from one of our partners to recreate!  I've seen a few other people doing these posts where they redo old nail art and I think its super fun to see how far our skills have come in a year.

For my first post I couldn't actually go a year back, because last summer I was preparing for our move overseas and wasn't posting at the time.  So we decided it would be a sort of free choice, so I chose to redo one of the first nail art attempts I made.


I did the original LEGO mani at the end of last November for Mr. Sparkles' birthday party.  I had a much more limited polish selection at the time, so I knew I should redo this now that I have more colors to choose from.

The colors I used today are:
Green - Essie Mojito Madness
Red - Zoya Sooki
White - Finger Paints Papier Mache
Blue - Kiko Nr 336
Yellow - Cult Nails You're My Dandy Lion

I custom mixed each color with black or white to make the shading or highlights.  I used a small nail art brush to paint the shading/highlights.  I finished with a coat of MASH Matte Top Coat to give them a more LEGO like finish.



Redoing this mani made me feel really great about how my art skills with a brush have improved, and how my nail shape and health has improved!

Don't forget to peek over at Debbie and Missy today to see their blasts from the past!