Stella Chroma October Polish Pickup Exclusive: Playing With My Emotions, Smokey!

Hullo out there!  Happy hump day!  My morning wasn't the greatest, and I have 2 sick kids dealing with nasty coughs right now.  But you know what...I heard Ice Cube Today Was A Good Day on the radio AGAIN today!!  I think it's a sign that I am indeed having a good week!  And really, minus cranky, sick kids I can't complain.  And right now I have a totally awesome polish to share with you that was created for the Villain themed October Polish Pickup.  Stella Chroma was inspired by Big Worm from Friday (best movie EVER!).  He just wants his money or his stash back, can you really fault him for that?  This polish is Playing With My Emotions, Smokey! and it will be available from 10/5 - 10/8 for $12, no cap.  Alright, let's check it out, shall we?

*press sample*

Polish Pickup: Shop, Facebook

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

Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer August Polish Pickup Exclusive: It's Good

Afternoon!  It's time!  PPU is OPEN!  Have you shopped yet?  If not, I have one more polish offering to interest you.  Just one more quick run through, the theme for August is Musicals so any type of movie, cartoon or live show that has singing worked.  BEGL went with the movie Enchanted, a very interesting and fun take on the whole princess theme that most Disney movies are based around.  I haven't seen it in a while, but I do remember that I enjoy the movie and the songs.  It's Good will be available starting NOW until 8/6 for $12, no cap.  Let's jump in quick so you can finish shopping!

*press sample*

BEGL: Shop, Facebook, BEGLove, Instagram

Polish Pickup: Shop, Facebook, Instagram 

Alter Ego Body Care Products; Apricot Emperor

Morning beauties!  I've got a few more posts up my sleeve and today I have a real beauty from Alter Ego Body Care Products.  Cynthia has been working away perfecting her formula and adding new products to her shop.  If you haven't checked her out before you should definitely peruse her polish, soap, fragrances, lotion and scrubs.  But today I have Apricot Emperor to share with you.  You can pick this lovely polish up in 2 sizes; 8.5 ml for $4.50 or 17 ml for $9.  Let's jump in and check it out!

*press sample*

Alter Ego: Shop, Facebook, Instagram

Cirque Colors Coven

Good evening dears.  I hope you had a lovely Sunday.  Mine was so very meh.  Second day out here in the middle of nowhere and my sons soccer team took a whooping all weekend.  And it rained on us the entire second game today.  I sure hope none of us end up sick.  Anywho, I've got a gorgeous deep, jewel tone purple from Cirque to show you tonight.  It looks like the sky I see out my car window right now (I promise I am the passenger and not the driver).  Coven was actually part of the All Holo's Eve Trio (a set with Lacquer Lust and Serum No 5).  The trio was limited edition and these collaboration boxes have been pretty popular so they do sell out.  I am hopeful that there will be a Christmas trio from these loverly ladies on the horizon soon!  So let's jump in and check out Coven!

*nothing to disclose*

Cirque Colors: Website/Shop, Mei Mei's Signatures, Facebook, Instagram

Coven is an "indigo jelly with an orange to green shimmer effect."  Holy moly this is a gorgeous polish!  I love it's dark, broody shade of purple and the shimmer are what really make the polish.  I wore Coven for a few days and it was such an eye-catcher.  I spent a good portion of my daylight hours o moving my hands around to see the glints of colors changes.  The formula and application were really great.  On par with a jelly, a bit sheer, but buildable.   No issues with application.  I used 3 coats of Coven and finished with a layer of topcoat.   

*artificial light*

I had several friends who were curios if Coven was a dupe for Coronation.  I am happy to report that it's definitely not.  I've got some pictures to show you too!

I've got 3 layers of Coronation on my accent nail to show how it looks net to Coven.  You can see the color is completely different - more magenta.  And there is no green shift in the shimmer.  

*indirect natural light*

*artificial light*

Colors by Llarowe Las Vegas 2015; Charity Polish

Good evening!  I know most of you are in bed right now because it's pretty late, but I am on Hawaii time so I am 3-6 hours behind the rest of the USA.  I really wanted to share this gorgeous charity polish with you now because tickets to win it go on sale tomorrow!  Let me fill you in on all the details.  Las Vegas 2015 will be live from July 23rd at 1pm MDT to July 26th at 5pm MDT.  The polish is NOT available for sale.  You are purchasing a $5 raffle ticket for a chance to win the polish.  There are 50 bottles available and it will never be made again.  All tickets purchased will be entered into a list and Random.org will select 50 winners.  You CAN purchase more than one raffle ticket but it's suggested that you purchase them separately as it's the order numbers that winners will be chosen from.  There are no shipping charges for the raffle ticket and you can add a ticket to any Llarowe order.  All proceeds will be donated in equal portions to: RSDSA (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy research), The Shady Tree (domestic violence shelter in Las Vegas) and the Kathleen Foster Trust (trust account set up by the daughters of a member of the polish community that passed away suddenly).  Winners will be chosen and notified on Monday 7/27.   Now that you've heard all the info about how the raffle works let's look at the polish!  Oh and good luck to all of you out there purchasing raffle tickets!

*press sample*

Colors by Llarowe: Shop, Harlow & Co., Facebook, Instagram

Direct Link: Las Vegas 2015

Las Vegas 2015 is a "turquoise green jelly base with intense red to green shimmer with a touch of holo."  This polish is really lovely.  The color is perfect for summer!  This particular teal-green reminds me of tropical waters, poolside cabanas, serene lagoons and...umbrella drinks (ok ok everything reminds me of umbrella drinks).  Las Vegas 2015 is also the perfect subtle/not so subtle blend of shimmer and holo.  Great for day or night time!  The coppery-red shimmer is really gorgeous and more noticeable in real life.  This is a fairly sheer jelly but it has a really great formula.  It applied easily and evenly.  There was very slight staining to the skin around my nails upon removal but a little scrubbing cleaned it up easily enough.  I used 4 coats of Las Vegas 2015 and finished with a layer of topcoat to gloss everything up.

Indigo Bananas SPAM!

Good morning all!  I have another big post for you today.  Indigo Bananas is one of my favorite indie brands.  Andrea comes up with really gorgeous colors and her collections are fun.  I am itching to get my fingers on her new collection inspired by Willy Wonka (the original with Gene Wilder, not the weird new one with Johnny Depp).  But until I can get some of those I will show you the Indigo Bananas that I currently do have!  

Indigo Bananas: Shop, Mei Mei's Signatures, Facebook, Instagram

Up first I have Electric Unicorns.  Electric Unicorns is a "periwinkle blue (or a medium, leaning lavender) creme packed with pale green duochrome glass flecks that also shift a green blue."  This is a very pretty polish with lots of personality!  My pictures are showing it much more blue that lavender - the macro is closets to the actual color.  Electric Unicorns had a great formula that was fantastic to apply.  I used 3 coats for full coverage.  It did dry a bit dull so I used 1 layer of topcoat.    

This beauty is A Thousand Dreams from the Endless Summer 2013 collection.  I loved this entire collection and have been slowly picking them up one at a time.  A Thousand Dreams has a pink/red base that shifts to "coral red, orange red and golden red."  I adore the color but what I love most about it is the mixed linear holo and metallic finish.  It's so fun and unique.  The metallic finish almost gives  it a frosty look, and it totally works.  The formula on A Thousand Dreams was a little thin, but it built up perfectly in 3 layers and no topcoat.  

With A Spoon In It comes from the Executive Holo collection.  This is an amazing polish - the color, the holo effect, it's all fantastic.  With A Spoon In It is described as a "light brown ('late' or taupe), with two kinds of shimmer in it: a greyish brown shimmer that has a slight pink shift (giving this polish a slight pink highlight) and small amounts of gold shimmer particles throughout."  Formula and application were both great on this polish.  I used 2 layers with no topcoat for complete coverage.  

This is Moonlight (Clair de lune).  Moonlight is a "super shiny, real silver flakie based polish that has purple, black and holographic microglitter in it."  Despite this being a dense glitter polish it is very smooth.  I really adore this polish and look forward to getting it's rose gold sibling, A Star To Sail By.   Moonlight was a breeze to apply, so much glitter comes out with each brush dip and it all spreads nicely on the nails.  You can use this polish on it's own or as a glitter topper.  I used 3 coats alone for full coverage and no topcoat.  

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas!  Did Santa come to your house?  He came to mine and my kids are ecstatic!  So this will be quick!  I wanted to wish you a very Happy Holiday and good tidings to you and your loved ones.  I look forward to watching the joy in my kids faces and eating the delectable tamales I made with my family.  Enjoy your day and hope you like my mani!

a-England: Website, Color4Nails, Overall Beauty, Llarowe, Ninja Polish, Mei Mei's Signatures, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

Elevation Polish: Blog, Shop, Llarowe, Instagram

Pretty Serious Cosmetics: Website, Color4Nails, Llarowe, Mei Mei's Signatures, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

I used some pretty fabulous polishes for this mani!  I started with a-England Tess D-Urbervilles, a very dark hunter green with mini emerald green flakes.  Tess is a stunning color full of depth and glamour.  I used 2 coats for full coverage and optimum depth.  Formula and application were both flawless.  I used Tess on my thumb, index and middle fingers.  I topped Tess with Elevation Polish Yeti <3's the Holidays.  Holy moly this is a gorgeous Christmas glitter mix.  It's packed full of satin and matte white glitters in fun shapes like hearts, circles and squares.  There are also red and green matte circles and gold holo stars.  But the best part of Yeti is the gold shimmer.  It's absolutely amazing.  And it has the perfect amount of shimmer so that it doesn't turn frosty or block out the base color.  Lulu really knocked this one out of the park, it's truly amazing.  Formula and application were both fabulous.  I used 2 coats.  I then used Pretty Serious Cosmetics Santa's Sunburn on my ring and pinky finger nails.  Santa's Sunburn is a scorch your eyes "red foil with tiny flecks of silver."  I adore this red!  I used 2 coats for maximum eye-burnage.  Formula and application were wonderful.  I finished this mani with 1 layer of topcoat over Santa's Sunburn and 2 coats over my glitter nails.