Hello there!  I've got a quick swatch for you today.  This is a lovely polish from Lilypad Lacquer.  LL is based in Australia but does ship internationally when her Etsy shop is open and also has some international distributors.

This is Lilypad Lacquer Vixens Wear Violet, which is a purple holo with some extra sparkle to it.  It looks to me almost like a bit of glass fleck in it.  On her Etsy site she says it has a pink sparkle to it... To my eye the sparkle can look pink or purple depending on the light though.  This polish was easy to apply, no issues with formula at all, and I've shown two coats here.



Lilypad Lacquer is available from Norway Nails.  If you decide to purchase from Norway Nails you can use my code, SMASHLEY10, to receive 10% off your entire order.

Hi guys!  This past month I got some fabulous news... I was accepted to the blogger network of one of my favorite brands, Zoya!  Here is the first collection I got to swatch for them, the Naturel collection.


Before I start I'll just let you know that these all had the same formula, opaque in two coats and perfectly self leveling.  No issues at all with application.


Zoya Chantal - Described by Zoya as "French Vanilla Cream".  This is a lovely light beige with a yellow undertone.  These type of yellow undertones tend to clash with the pink in my skin, but this would be lovely for a more warm skin tone.  Shown is two coats, no top coat.


Zoya Taylor - Described by Zoya as "Light Toffee Cream".  This one is the same tone as Chantal, just a few shades darker.  Still not the best color for my very pink skin, but would work well for warm toned skin.  Shown is two coats, no top coat.


Zoya Rue - Described by Zoya as "Boudoir Blush Cream".  Ah, this one is much better with my skin!  Its a light tan with pink undertones.  This was one of my favorites.  Shown is two coats, no top coat.


Zoya Brigitte - Described by Zoya as "Bombshell Mauve Cream".  This might be the first mauve polish that I haven't hated instantly guys!  I normally loathe mauve, but this was really lovely on.  Shown is two coats, no top coat.


Zoya Odette - Described by Zoya as "Sultry Maroon Cream".  I'm not too sure I would classify this as maroon though.  More like a dusty orchid color I think.  In real life this is a touch more dusty than it appears in the photo.  Another favorite!  Shown is two coats, no top coat.


Zoya Normandi - Described by Zoya as "Sable Mauve Cream".  I definitely see more sable than mauve.  Its a really nice greige color.  When I saw this in the bottle I thought, no way that's going to look good on me.  When I got it on it was my surprise favorite!  I love this one!  Something about it makes me feel so cozy and warm, like a big, soft sweater.  Shown is two coats, no top coat.

Overall I think this collection is a lovely palette cleanser for post-holiday manis.  My favorites were Rue, Odette, and Normandi.  What are yours?

Zoya polishes are available from Zoya.com for $9 each or $54 for the set of 6.

Hellooo there!  So, some of you may know that I'm a Lynnderella fan.  I know not everyone is, but I still feel like she is one of the most innovative polish creators out there, and I'm always amazed at the new combos she comes up with.

You may or may not be aware that she sometimes takes custom orders.  Well, I've seen some other custom polishes by her, and they are always gorgeous... I mean check out this one that my friend Hazel from Sweet Southern Haze had made.  I'm sooooo dying for a bottle of that one!  Anyway, back on track... after much begging, Mr. Sparkles agreed to let me order my own custom as my Christmas present! :)  They were finished MUCH quicker than expected, and of course I just couldn't wait until Christmas to try them out.


These gorgeous polishes were inspired by my wedding day!  Mr.'s favorite color is green, and mine is purple, so those were our wedding colors.  More specifically, lime green and royal purple.  I sent over a little collage of our wedding photos to Lynn, and she worked her magic.  I ended up with the two polishes you see above (the bottom one looks SLIGHTLY different, and has a green heart label instead of purple), as well as two bottles of a more purple based glitter mix with green accents, called Love in the Limelight.  You'll see that one very soon!


This is one coat of the purple heart labeled polish, which was dubbed Lynnderella Rad-iculous by my buddy Missy from Gnarly Gnails when she saw the first photos of it, over two coats of OPI Smitten with Mittens.

So Rad-iculous is a super holo glitter mix containing mostly lime green holo glitter, with a couple different shades of purple thrown in, as well as some cyan to represent the water since we were married on the beach.  (See that cyan moon on my thumb? LOVE!)




So what do you think?  Would you like to own a custom Lynnderella if you could?  If not Lynnderella, what brand would you love to own a custom from?

I hope you've enjoyed seeing this, and keep an eye out for this polish's sister on the blog soon!

Hi again!  Trying to get a little caught up with posts today, so this is the second post of the day, and it is full of awesome!

I have reviewed some Super Black Lacquers in the past, and Natalie was kind enough to send her fall collection over for me to try out as well.  As was the case with the last few I tried, these are fabulous.  No problems with formula, they all apply like a dream.  All swatches in this post are two coats, without top coat.



 3rd Degree is a gorgeous, glowing orange with a gold shimmer.  I loved this one so much it went onto my toes as soon as I opened the package with all these.



Guilty is a gold holo, which leans a little towards yellow-green.




Heather is a cool-toned purple holo, and you know I loved this one!




 Spanked is a cranberry holo, and this was my surprise favorite of the bunch.  Mr. Sparkles saw this while I was swatching it and said he liked it a lot too.  If I could only choose one of these polishes to get, it would be this one!




Finally, a comparison.  I thought that Guilty reminded me a little of China Glaze GR8, so I thought I'd do a side by side.  GR8 is shown on my pinky and middle fingers, and Guilty is on the rest.  Guilty was a little deeper in color and not quite as linear as GR8, but they are definitely in the same color family.

Super Black Lacquers can be purchased for $12 each at http://superblacklacquers.com/.  Also, you can follow them on for more info about upcoming or new releases.

Hi guys!  Sorry I got behind with my DD manis this week, but here is my 4th mani for Red, Green, and Gold week.

I wasn't super satisfied with how this turned out... I am attempting to use a rectangular squishy stamper now and though it is easy to know how to orient it, I still ended up with wobbly lines.  If any pro stampers out there have a suggestion for avoiding this, please let me know!


Anyway, the details about this mani are that I used two coats of Ulta Professional Green With Envy as my base.  Once that was dry I stamped vertical stripes with Bundle Monster plate BM-411, and Zoya Isla.  Next, I stamped the horizontal stripes with the same design, just turned it sideways, and Color Club Gingerbread Man.


I think this would have worked better with more constrast between the red and green underneath, since you can hardly tell that there are two colors, but I don't actually have any green polishes that stamp, and I only have the one red polish that stamps.  Or I didn't when I did this mani anyway, but a lovely package of stamping polishes I ordered arrived two days ago, so those should be fun to play with!


What red and green polishes do you guys have that work for stamping?

Don't forget to check in with the rest of the DD crew this week if you haven't already!

Hello there!!  Today I'm combining my DD post with my final Picture Polish Wednesday post.  For this mani I started with a base of Picture Polish White Wedding, a white with some gorgeous multi-colored flake shimmer.  I found it impossible to capture the gorgeousness of this polish in photos, but trust me about how pretty it is in person!  As usual, the formula was lovely to work with.


After that was dry I did some stamping, and applied a couple stamp decals that I made.  For the decals (the ornament accent nails) I used CND Gold Chrome and BM-H03 plate from the Bundle Monster Holiday collection.  I filled the ornaments in with Picture Polish O'Hara and Picture Polish Mallard.


The rest of my fingers were stamped with Gold Chrome and BM-H02 plate, also from their Holiday collection.


Picture Polish is available from a number of online retailers which can be found on their network page.  You can also choose to purchase directly from their website.

Don't forget to check out the rest of our member's manis for today!

The bloggers from the Beauty Blog Coalition are at it again and want to give you the opportunity to win a little money right before the holiday season!
All terms and conditions are listed in the Rafflecopter widget below. The giveaway is open from 10 December until 21 December, internationally to all those ages 18 and up. You may tweet using the Rafflecopter option once a day until the giveaway is over for extra entries. One winner will receive a $500 prepaid Visa gift card. Two more winners will receive a $200 prepaid Visa gift card. (Both are available as a one-time PayPal transfer if the winner so chooses.)
Please take time to visit the bloggers who made this giveaway happen and good luck!

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Beauty and Fashion Tech
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Kat Stays Polished
KellieGonzo.com

Lawless Lacquer
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Lipgloss Break
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Hi there!  Today I have another DD mani which was inspired by the lovely Emma from Manicurity!  This time I've tried out the nail art dubbed an earthquake mani, because it looks like the lines on a seismograph.  I saw her do this on a past DD challenge and I thought it looked really fun, so I gave it a go.

This mani started out with two coats of China Glaze Poinsettia, then I painted half of each nail with China Glaze Holly-day.  I didn't use tape or anything, just freehanded it on with the polish brush.  Then I used a nail art brush and CND Gold Chrome to make the zig zag lines down the center.

Hello there lovelies!  Welcome to December's DD week.  Our theme this month is Red, Green, and Gold, so I've got some fun Christmas-y nail art to show you this week.

This first mani was inspired by some art the amazing Emma from Manicurity did for DD Skittle week.  She made this gorgeous rainbow garland art, and I thought it was such a cool idea, so I decided to recreate it using these Christmas colors!


For this mani I used a base of 2 coats of OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow, and then the dots were made with Nailtini Kir Royale, CND Gold Chrome, and China Glaze Twinkle Lights.  In retrospect I think this would have looked better if I used a smaller dotting tool for the small dots.  I don't know that I got enough contrast in the size difference.  But I still liked the overall effect.  This was a great quick and easy art to do.


Now that you've seen this, please go have a peek at what everyone else came up with for today!

 

Hello there!!  Here is the second Glam Polish I promised to show you yesterday.  This beauty is Glam Polish Lucky, and was definitely my favorite of the two.


Lucky is a turquoise jelly base, with turquoise, green, and peridot colored dot glitter in it.  It also contains small turquoise squares and large holographic turquoise dots.  I didn't fish for the large dots in this mani, but I did shake the polish between fingers for my second coat.  I ended up with one large dot on my middle finger, and one on my thumb.  If you want to see more of the big glitters you'll have to do some manipulating.  I've shown two coats without top coat.


Glam Polish can be purchased at Norway Nails.  If you decide to make a purchase at Norway Nails you can use the code SMASHLEY10 to receive 10% off your total order.