Stella Chroma, The Basics Collection - Classic Red & Hey Sailor

Afternoon guys!  I'm back with a second Stella Chroma post to share today.  Because not only is Stella Chroma laughing the American Muscle Collection (post HERE), but there are new shades being added to The Basics Collection!  Yay!  The initial colors for The Basics Collection were High Noon and New Moon (black and white).  Now we have Classic Red and Hey Sailor (red and navy).  Guys!  The timing on these colors couldn't be better.  They are going to make a killer 4th of July mani!  I am currently working on something fun using both of these and New Moon.  You will be able to purchase these starting 6/21 at noon EST as a set for $18.  The discounted price will only be available from 6/21 - 7/5.  After the it will be full prices.  And you can save 15% using my code MNPO!  Let's see the polish!

*press sample*

Stella Chroma: Shop, Facebook, Stella Chromatics Facebook Fan Group, Instagram 

KBShimmer November Polish Pickup Exclusive: Some Like It Scot

Morning friends!  Man, I am tired.  Yesterday was a long and exhausting day with an ambulance ride to the ER and 9 stitches in my middle little's leg.  Chunk of glass - 1, Julian - 0.  Definitely hope that's the last time I have to call an ambulance for any of my kids.  I was up all night helping him as adrenaline and meds wore off so as you can imaging, this hugely pregnant mama is wiped out and fighting a headache.  But that will not deter me from starting to share the November PPU shades I have to share with you.  November's theme is Badass Women and it covers real and made up characters.  The first polish I have to share with you is KBShimmer's Some Like It Scot, inspired by Claire Fraser from Outlander.  If you haven't read the books I highly suggest you do, they are a rich blend of history, fantasy and romance.  The show is great too but it does skip parts from the book - might be hard to follow if you haven't already read them.  Always, Claire is this badass time traveler who is a doctor/healer and a woman who can totally take care of herself!  You can pick up Some Like It Scot for $10, available from 11/2 - 11/5.  Let's jump in and check it out!

*press sample*

Polish Pickup: Shop, Facebook

KBShimmer: Shop, Harlow & Co, Live Love Polish, Color4Nails, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest

KBShimmer May Polish Pick Up Exclusive: un-Staple

Alrighty y'all, we're getting close to the start of May and you know what comes up then...the newest Polish Pickup!  So let's get this started tonight with KBShimmer's polish for May.  KBShimmer was inspired by the movie Office Space, particularly the character Milton.  This beauty is called un-Staple. un-Staple will be available from 5/4-5/7 for $10, no cap.  Alright, let's check out the polish!

*press sample*

Polish Pickup: Shop, Facebook

KBShimmer: Shop, Harlow & Co, Live Love Polish, Color4Nails, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest

Winter Mani with KBShimmer Snowflakes Navy Blue Water Slide Decals & Alloy Matey!

Good morning lovelies!  My vacation continues but I am down to 1 guest blogger left and about 6 days to go until I'm back home on US soil.  So I promise to try and share some posts but there's no guarantee since this trip has been go-go-go, see-see-see, eat-eat-eat, do-do-do ALL THE THINGS!  My post for today is another easy mani using KBShimmer Water Slide Decals.  I truly love how easy these are to apply and how they make even a novice nail artist like myself feel like I have something to show off! I also like that these were cute for the holiday as well as the season.  I was also thinking these would make for some amazing Frozen/Elsa nails!  Ok well leave get on with the post!  The Snowflake Navy Blue Water Decals are available in the KBShimmer shop now for $2.95.  Alloy Matey! is also available for $8.75.  And now pictures!
*press sample*
KBShimmer: Shop, Harlow & Co, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest

The Painted Nail: Marie-Claire & Coco

Hello again dears!  I just had a lovely afternoon at the park with some friends after school and now I'm home watching Hocus Pocus.  I figured I should make good use of my time while sitting here and realizing with my kids and share pretty polish with all of you!  I picked these up at another CosmoProf North America After Party.  This one was hosted by Katie Cazorla from The Painted Nail!  It was very exciting to meet her and hobnob with other nail bloggers.  I feel very fortunate that I was able to attend this event and learn more about her products.  Now let's take a look at some polish!

*PRESS SAMPLE*

The Painted Nail: Nail Bar, Shop, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

Let's start with Marie-Claire.  This is a gorgeous deep, dark navy blue creme (maybe it's a crelly?).  I love this color and oddly don't have any polish quite this shade.  So I'm happy it's unique to my stash.  Marie-Claire had a flawless formula and applied like a dream.  It built up to complete opacity in 2 coats.  I'd guess that Marie-Claire could easily be a one-coater if you use more polish on your brush than I typically do.  I did not use topcoat for my pictures.  Did I mention that I am digging the bottle shape too?  It has a nice feel and is easy to hold.  

*direct sun*

*shade*

*artificial light*

The other polish I received was Coco. This is a beautiful shimmery color shifting polish.  I used it as a topper thought it's possible it could build up nicely on it's own in 3-4 coats.  I went ahead and put Coco over Marie-Claire because I thought they'd work nicely together, I was right!  Love when that happens.  I see so many colors in this bottle - gold, red, fuchsia, green, teal, purple.  I even saw some deep greens and a deep blackened color in specific lighting alas I couldn't catch any of that in my pictures.  Regardless, Coco is stunning.  I used 1 layer of Coco and no topcoat.   

*direct sun*

*shade*

*artificial light*

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.