Saturday Spotlight: Texture

Good evening.  Hope Saturday has treated you well.  Didn't really do much over here, a little running, a little tv watching, a little cooking, a lot of lazing around.  I really only wanted to leave the house for froyo, so maybe I'll rally the troops to make that happen soon and that totally just happened.  But I really do need to kick it in high gear to share my Saturday Spotlight with you!  For this one I decided to feature texture polish!  This became a trend about 2 years ago, but I still thoroughly enjoy a nice texture polish.  I like how they have a great matte finish and have a slight sandpaper feel.  Of course most have sparkly glitters or shimmer so that helps in my adoration towards texture polish.  So whether it's a fad or not, I still like the finish and will continue to buy new ones that I feel are pretty and unique.  Let's jump in to the post and check out some textures!
*nothing to disclose*
First is China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla.  This came out last spring as part of the Sea Goddess collection.  This is a lovely whitish-pink full of dark pink, white and blue glitters.  The texture is a bit loose but it's still there.  The formula was easy to work with and I used 3 coats.  No topcoat. 

Rimmel London came out with a set of texture polish (last year?) and the collection was called Sweetie Crush.  I think it was Soda Shop inspired.  I picked up a few because the soft pastel shades were nice and I liked the metallic finish.  This pretty yellow is called Sherbert Sweetheart.  The formula was a bit sheer but despite that I enjoyed the color, especially the golden shifty-iridescent glitters.  The one thing I would complain about was the wide brush, it was like a Dior brush but bigger and the texture polish saturated it more so it was wide and thick causing it to be a little difficult to manage.  I used 3 coats and no topcoat.  

Kiko also answered the call to texture polish (a few times) and released the Cupcake collection.  It's actually one of my favorite collections because the colors were so different.  I actually have the majority of this collection (and would love the rest!).  This one is 655, AKA Menta.  Yup, this color is definitely refreshing and minty, like a mouthful of Colgate.  It's full of blue and red glitters for added interest.  The formula and application were both great, very on par with all the other Kiko's I have tried.  I used 3 coats and no topcoat.  

Another great brand from across the pond that also threw their hat in the texture ring was Barry M.  The Royal Textured Glitter Collection (fancy pants name) came out in 2013.  Princess is from that collection and it's a soft pink full of gold shimmer.  It really screams princess to me, it brings up  memories of a satin pink princess gown with gold trim I wore one Halloween.  The formula and application were both great.  I used 3 coats and no topcoat.  

Ok ok, I was totally in love with this polish when I put it on!  It's L'Oreal I Like It Chunky and it's a coppery-orange dream!  It it going to be a perfect Fall polish.  It makes me think of caramel apples, or basically anything drenched in caramel.  Not only do I love the base color, but the gold and pink shimmers and gold glitter are just breath taking.  Also the feel is exactly what I have come to expect from a great texture polish.  Formula and application were both fabulous.  I only needed 1 coat for full coverage!  No topcoat.  

And rounding out the post is the deep and vampy Chameleon Crush from IsaDora.  I wish IsaDora were easier to obtain, but I am very happy with the few that I have (all textures actually).  This is a totally gorgeous polish and the finest texture of all the ones in this post.  The colors are a deep purple with some green shift and loads of gold shimmer.  The first coat was sheer but it built up perfectly in 3 coats.  No topcoat used.  

Kiko Real Glare 04 Keen Cobalt Blue

Good morning.  I am being lazy and avoiding a run.  I'd pulled my quad so took some time off from running and now my body doesn't want to get back into it.  Also I'm fighting a cold, thanks kids.  So I decided to share a quickie post - maybe I'll get off my heiney afterwards and hit the pavement.  I wore this gorgeous cobalt blue texture polish from Kiko to an Earthquakes game recently.  Does your city have am MLS team?  If they do you should definitely go to a game, they are really fun to watch!  So The Earthquakes are white and blue, I figured this was the perfect matching shade to show my team spirit.  I picked up this Kiko, as well as a few others when I was in Miami in December.  Imagine my utter shock when I happened to walk by a Kiko store while we were window shopping.  Yup, that ended the window part of the shopping.  Well I came home with quite a haul.  Hopefully I can show you some of the others soon - my untried pile is out of control these days.  So ashamed.  

*nothing to disclose*

Kiko: Website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

This is Real Glare 04 Keen Cobalt Blue.  It seems to have been a special edition because it was displayed with a makeup selection and other polishes, all done up with this gold accenting.  But I don't know for sure so don't quote me on that.  Keen Cobalt Blue is a gorgeous cobalt blue with an interesting texture finish.  It almost looked like I was painting tiny beads onto my nails.  But it didn't feel like beads, just a light texture.  Definitely different from the Pixie Dust and Sands we are used to.  I used 2 coats for full coverage and no topcoat.  Keen Cobalt Blue had a nice formula, it was easy to apply and very opaque.  It didn't have any staining issues, thankfully.  

Summer of Untrieds Day 2: Glitter Topper

Hullo!  I'm moving along in this Summer of Untrieds challenge!  The theme for Day 2 was "glitter topper."  I'm sure you'll believe that I have a zillion glitter toppers but I wanted to use something simple, dainty, not overwhelming.  So let's check out what polishes I used!  But before we do, if you are interested in joining the challenge just use #summerofuntrieds in your Facebook or Instagram post! 

For this simple and quick mani I started with 2 goats of Barry M Blueberry, one of the fabulously shiny and creamy gelly formula polishes.  I'm in love with all the gellys I have and want to hoard them all.  I then used a sparkly silver and holo micro glitter topper Kiko 271 on top!  It was a perfect touch!  I actually think this Kiko would be lovely in a 4th of July mani.  I used 2 coats of Kiko 271 and no topcoat.  

SoFlaJo Teal Me a Bedtime Story

Good evening all!  Sorry for going MIA for a while there...I tried to keep up with posts but that flu bug I caught really had me down and out.  It's been 3 weeks and I am about 90% back to my regular self.  The good news is that I'm back with some posts to share and I hope you like them!  Tonight's post features a brand new SoFlaJo polish from the recently released Just Love Her Collection!    

SoFlaJo: Shop, Facebook, Instagram

*PRESS SAMPLE*

This is Teal Me A Bedtime Story.  I love the name of this polish because as a mom to a bunch of little's this is definitely something I am asked every night, and I sure do love cuddling up for story time with my babies.  Teal Me A Bedtime Story is described as "iridescent hexs, holo silver stars and blue moons" in a "sheer teal base that builds up in 3 easy coats."  Jody, Miss SoFlaJo herself, also recommends trying it over black for extra sparkle!  Well I've already seen swatches of it alone (check out the gorgeous pictures at Pointless Cafe) so I decided to try layering it over some different colors.  Teal Me A Bedtime Story surprised me with it's versatility!  The teal base color is sheer enough that it adds a lovely touch of shimmer and blue depth to other colors.  I did find the formula a tad thin.  This did cause me to dig for the glitters a little.  But as you can see I still got plenty on my nails and am happy with the outcome.  Other than that the formula was easy to use and application was great.

This first set of pictures shows 2 coats of Teal Me A Bedtime Story over 2 layers of Barry M Navy.  I used 1 layer of topcoat to finish.   

This second set of pictures shows 2 coats of Teal Me A Bedtime Story over 2 coats of Kiko 388.  I used 1 layer of topcoat to finish.