Candy Coated Plaid

Exciting reviews are coming up at Nailed It! I've got polishes, embellishments, new brands, contests, and kits coming down the pipeline, so any chance I can get to squeeze in a 1-hour nail art post to share is clutch in my book. I also bought a new video camera that I'll be using to create some videos with to share tutorials!

A simple plaid look is tonight's. The base is Candy Coated (Sinful Colors) and the stripes were done freehand with a black striping polish from Color Madric. I love straight lines, especially those done with a striping polish. It really couldn't get much easier and simple.

But like I said...the simplicity will be short lived, and the excitement is just beginning!

Favorites: Blue!

Hello again!

Oh yes oh yes, it's time for the next installment of my favorite polishes I've found over the past year! I thought it was only fitting that I do blue this time, given the focus on Autism awareness this month.  There are so many blurples that I love so much, I'll do a separate post on them. I'm also not doing any glitters; I found I have a bunch of blue glitters I fell for, so I'm going to do them separately, too, otherwise this will be far too long! :)


China Glaze Deviantly Daring

China Glaze Deviantly Daring in the shade

This is from China Glaze's Bohemian collection, and is a slight green-blue duochrome. Honestly, in most lights it's just blue, but it's a gorgeous blue and when the green does show, it's like a bonus. Plus, it stamps!!


Barielle Blackened Blue

Barielle Blackened Blue; indirect light

Bad picture of a very pretty color. Dark and darker blue flecks in a blackened finish, going almost black at the edges. Sublime. :)


China Glaze Hanging In The Balance

China Glaze Hanging In The Balance; direct sunlight

A brilliant, energetic, fun blue creme from China Glaze's Cirque Du Soleil collection. This is such a versatile blue; it looks great with a lot of my wardrobe and is amazing for nail art. Yum yum yum.


China Glaze Man Hunt

China Glaze Man Hunt; direct sunlight

Oh yeah. That'll work. Deep like the lapis lazuli in an ancient Egyptian necklace. It pulls me in and I can get lost just staring into it. So rich and elegant and amazing. One of the many beauties from China Glaze's Safari Collection.


Zoya Zuza 

Zoya Zuza; direct sunlight

This is such a happy color, it makes me smile when I wear it. It's almost like a dark robin's egg blue with silver shimmery flecks in it. And the formula was so amazing I have nothing but positive associations with it.


Zoya Crystal

Zoya Crystal; in the shade

Slate blue with gold flecks. I went back and forth about including this one here, not because I don't love it, but because it's such a unique polish. It's not *quite* right to call it a blue, because the gold is such a force, but it's not a glitter or anything like that, so I stuck it here. Because it has to be recognized somewhere, it's such a beauty. :)


Sinful Colors Ciao Bella

Sinful Colors Ciao Bella; partial sunlight

Sinful Colors Ciao Bella; in the shade

I don't quote catch phrases that often, and I'm not a huge Rachel Zoe catch-phrase fan, but when I look at this polish...well...I die. I mean, like, bananas. Totally Maj.

Okay, now that I got that out of my system, ahem, seriously, this polish is transformative. Gorgeous in any light, and it makes my nails look flawless. All for $1.99, $1 if you get it on sale? How can you argue with that? I have $20 polishes that are nowhere near this maj. Oops, another one slipped out...Sorry!!


Layla Green Fever (CE07)

Layla Green Fever (CE 07)

Another one I wasn't quite sure where to put, and the (unofficial) name makes it even more confusing. It feels pretty blue to me, although it clearly has a strong green flash. I'm sticking with blue on this one...It reminds me of the ocean with that shimmer and green flash...I can hear the waves and feel the sea breeze on my face.


A-England Tristam

a-England Tristam; direct sunlight

This one flirts with the line between purple and tries to reach over it, depending on what you put it next to. A deep holo blue of that special sort a-England makes. Another richly pigmented polish that makes me think of precious jewels. :)


Polished Components Psyche

Polished Components Psyche; indirect sun

Polished Components Psyche; direct sunlight

And to end with a stunner, I give you Polished Components Psyche. This is a electric blue that feels like it's gonna zap you when you touch it. It has a sort of a satin, matte-ish finish, but isn't a full-on matte. It also has a pinky-purpley shimmer that makes it extra special. It's the sort of polish I hope for when I buy a non-glitter indie--something that has the extra components (no pun intended) that make it just a bit more special. If you need a lift in your day, a prance in your step--this polish will give it to you. :)

So there you have it! My favorites of the blues I've encountered the past year. I hope you saw something here you liked!

Thanks for reading. Big hugs!
M.

NOTD: Kiss Me, I'm Irish :)

Hello!!

Here's a quick post for a quick, simple St. Patrick's Day look; I've actually been preferring simple manicures lately, so you may be seeing more of them. I do worry they don't make the most interesting posts, though, so maybe not...

Anyway, I like this one even though it's simple, it still has enough kick for me that I like it. :)

I started with a base of China Glaze's Budding Romance, and put a coat of Sinful Color's Pirates' Booty over it. Then I stamped using Barry M Silver Foil and Cheeky plate CH29.

Simple, pretty, fun. And on St. Patrick's Day, we're all Irish! :)

Thanks for taking a look,

Xoxox,
M.

Dupe Or No Dupe? Spoiled Pirate's Booty vs. Sinful Colors All About You

Hello!

I promised you that it would return before month's end, and so it has! I also promised to introduce another new feature this month called 'Fix My Fail', which will be an interactive feature on my facebook page, so stay tuned for that!

But in the meantime, Dupe Or No Dupe returns, and I have an all-drugstore installment today. My drugstore world is slowly getting smaller and smaller since I discovered there seems to be some lack of clarity about whether or not Revlon is involved with animal testing in China. There seems to be no clear answer for this, but Revlon is now selling product in China, and animal testing is actually *required* there for cosmetics, although there do seem to be some cosmetic types that are exempt from this. Revlon hasn't clarified this, and I hope they do (clarify) and I hope that they don't (test on animals).

Anyway, point is, other drugstore brands like Wet n Wild that are definitely cruelty-free play a bigger part in my life when another brand goes to the darkside! So let's return now to the actual dupe-or-no-dupe post. :)

When I recently began re-swatching my polish collection (before my life exploded into a haze of packing boxes and moving madness) I noticed that these two polishes seemed to be awfully similar...Take a look at Spoiled's Pirate's Booty and Sinful Colors' All About You in their bottles:

Spoiled Pirate's Booty vs. Sinful Colors All About You

Both are pretty glitters that consist of mostly gold, with bits of orange thrown in for good measure. Here they both are layered over China Glaze's Budding Romance; can you tell which nails have which polish?

Pirate's Booty vs. All About You

Pirate's Booty vs. All About You...which have which?

What's the verdict? I CALL DUPE. I can't tell them apart in the bottle, in the pictures, or in real life. These are exactly the same as far as my little eyes can detect. Even the formulas were dead-on the same.

So which should you get? Well...these polishes are the same price normally ($1.99), and periodically go on sale at the drugstores such that you can get them for $1. So I'd say, whichever you get on sale first! The other issue I should mention is that Sinful Colors is now owned by Revlon if that controversy matters to you; it seems that Sinful Colors still doesn't test on animals themselves, but are owned by a parent company that does. (If you want more information about my position on these issues, please visit my Cruelty-Free Stance page. )

(Oh, yeah, btw...All About You is on my index and ring fingers, and Pirate's Booty is on my middle and pinkie. :) )

Thanks for taking a look, and Happy Tuesday!

Xoxox,
M.

Polish Days: Back To Nature

Hello!!

It's that time of month again, time for Polish Days! This month's theme is 'Back To Nature', and I took this opportunity to execute something I've been wanting to try for a while now, my version of a Monet-esque design on my nails.

I started off with a base of Maya It's Not Easy (every time I see that name, my brain adds on 'being green' lol). This is a pretty medium green with green and off-white glitters:

I wore this for a while on its own and I'm glad I did, because my nail art covered all of the pretty glitter, lol.

To give layered dimension, I stamped some daisies over the base color in Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime, and put yellow dots in the center with Sally Hansen Lightning. Then, using first the green, I saran-wrapped over the stamping, and then followed with a second layer of saran-wrap texture with the yellow:

Then I stamped over the background using Konad plate m57; first I stamped with Sinful Colors Dancing Nails, and then I stamped overlapping with Ana Hickman Escandalo!. Finally, I put dots in the center of the dark flowers using Julep Sienna:

I am in love with how this turned out, it reminds me of a beautiful impressionist garden scene. I love the play of texture and color, with little peeps of the underlying flowers showing through a tiny bit here and there. Hope you like it, too.

Thanks for looking, and please check out the other 'Back To Nature' manicures gathered together for this February Polish Day!

Xoxox,
M.

Before & After: Glitter splatter

Hello!

Today's prompt in the 31 Day Challenge is 'splatter'. I wasn't super enthusiastic about this, because when I previously tried the splatter method, I found it to be a lot of mess, waste, and fuss for an effect you can mostly get other ways (you can get a fairly similar look from the saran wrap method if you're strategic about it). But, it's part of the challenge, and I want to do every prompt if possible, so I settled in to do it. And I figured I'd try it with a twist, and see how it looked with a splatter of glitter.

I have one very important piece of advice for any of you who are considering doing a splatter mani with glitter, at least with very small glitters:

DON'T DEW EEEEETTTTT!!!!

No, really. Trust me. The clean-up was demonic--I'm not joking, I fully expect to wake up screaming in a cold sweat from nightmares about not being able to remove the glitter from my fingers, where the more I clean the more it just spreads and spreads and spreads and spreads all over my fingers and my hands until my whole body is covered in teeny pieces of glitter...::sobs frantically::... Clean up on a regular splatter mani is bad enough, but when you introduce glitter into the mix, it's just abso-flippin-lutely insane. If you decide you must try it, please please please at least put tape on your fingers first. Promise me...Don't be stupid like me...::sobs again::

Okay, end rant.

For my base color, I used Mentality Seduce, a really beautiful blue indie linear holo that I will be reviewing shortly--I have several of Mentality's holos and want to review them all together, but the sunshine is not cooperating, lol! So for now I'll show you this one quickly:

Mentality Seduce

On top of that lovely base, I decided to splatter some Sinful Colors Call You Later, a teeny green glitter that has yellow-gold glitters mixed in. After that, I stamped over it using Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime and Cheeky Plate D:

Splish-Splash I was takin' a glitter bath...

Note the glitter left on my fingers after ages and ages of clean-up...grrr...

Hmmm...which way is up?

What do you think? I really love how it all works together. I'm in a very green + blue mood lately, and I like how the stamping works with the glitter to create as similar pattern with a different texture. The truth is, I decided to stamp on it because I had some bald spots from the splatter technique, and I'm glad I did, because I think this is way more interesting than if I'd just left the glitter alone.

Thanks so much for reading, and please check out what the other challengers did, linked below! :)

Xoxox,
M.

NOTD: Things that go bump in the night

Hello!

Things that go bump in the night...the creepy spooky things that come to get you while you sleep...you can never quite catch sight of them--you might see one move out of the corner of your eye, there in the closet whose door you forgot to close--but you never see them full on. You can only image what they look like...what horrible, monstrous beasts they might be...hiding under your bed...in your closet...outside your window...waiting for you to make a mistake, waiting for you to sleep. But they come to you in your dreams, you see them as shadowy figures lurking...coming closer...

What do those beasts really look like...Maybe something like...this?

They're coming for you...

Ahng! Ahng! Ahnggggg!!!

Hideous! And I'm not just referring to the skill level of the freehanding! They are an icky, nasty, frightening cross between zombies, the creature from the black lagoon, sleestaks, and The Fly. ::shudders::

To make this, I started with a basecoat of China Glaze Elephant Walk, and then freehanded with Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris, Finger Paints Go Van Gogh, and Sinful Colors Tapping Nails.

Thanks for stopping by...::still shuddering::...don't forget to check the other 'things that bump in the night' manicures linked below--if you dare!!!

Xoxox,
M.

Happy Plants

You've seen a few ColourLover-inspired designs here before. If you're new, or don't recall, ColourLovers is a fantastic site to browse color palettes and patterns. It's my go-to for inspiration.

Every Tuesday, an email to members is distributed, which they call Happy Huesday. They feature six or so popular patterns in the emails.

Yesterday, I liked one so much I decided to make it into a manicure.

Here's the manicure:

 And here's the pattern it was based on:

Image source: http://www.colourlovers.com/pattern/2958888/happy_plants

It's pretty obvious which part of the pattern is being shown on the manicure, but if I hadn't told you, would you think they were tiny mustaches?

Here are the colors I used: Ancient Jade (ORLY), Load (Illamasqua), Get in the Expresso Lane (OPI), Pull Over (Sinful Colors), and Front Row Flasher (Sation).

Fancy Phone Pattern

Remember my iPhone case tribute? It's one of my most popular images, with over 15,000 reblogs on Tumblr. That's pretty unheard of, but I loved that simple manicure.

About six months later, it was time for a new case. I decided to buy this case because I loved the patterns and the colors. Of course, when it arrived, my mind went to which polishes I owned that could be used to recreate the pattern on my nails. I used a few colors:

• Twiggie (Color Club)
• Light Green (Love & Beauty) 
• Something Sweet (China Glaze)
• Bubble Gum (Savina)
• Soul Mate (Sinful Colors)

I really love the way the pattern turned out. And the colors...not so appropriate for fall, but lovely nonetheless. 

Popular Polish Company 'Borrows' Bloggers' Images - Readers Revolt

Updates are live. Continue checking for more.

UPDATE 8:44AM 7/26: Mary and Jeanette have both taken their posts down until the issue is resolved. This is likely a result of the Facebook post made by Revlon.

In the wake of Lynderella and Julep, Sinful Colors comes riding in with a whole new nail controversy to shake up the polished world.

Sinful Colors stole images from bloggers The Swatchaholic and Swatch and Learn without express permission for use in their promotional pamphlets.

I strolled into Walgreens after my workout yesterday to pick up a Gatorade. (I swear that was my only intent.) The draw of the polish aisle was too strong, so I meandered over. I'd read about the 99 cent sale Sinful Colors was having, so I looked at the colors. What caught my eye was a small flyer that read "Nail It" on the front. I couldn't not pick it up, it being so close to this blog's moniker.

The alarm bells started ringing immediately after seeing the first image in the centerfold.

I said to myself "I know those nails!" The shine on the nails, the shape of the nails, and the curve of the fingers are signature The Swatchaholic. But where's her watermark? Where's that curved text that I myself emulate in my own pictures? It's certainly not on the picture, and there's no mention of her in the pamphlet.

I raced home, took some phone pictures and promptly emailed her inquiring about this possible copyright infringement. I calmed down a bit, did my own manicure, and headed to bed.

Waking up the morning revealed that there was indeed a blatant case of copyright infringement. She'd written back and informed me that they had indeed stolen the pictures.

Twitter further fueled the fire lit under all the bloggers butts when Mary at Swatch and Learn alerted us that her image was also lifted without permission. Here's hers:

Now read that text accompanying Mary's picture.

Using a toothpick, gently swirl the colors together to create a fun and unique design.

Or...ya know...buy a stamp to get it perfect, like Mary did. 

So not only has Sinful Colors pilfered images without permission and removed watermarks, they've flat out lied to their readers, claiming that the technique used in Mary's stolen picture can be accomplished with a toothpick. That's clearly a stamp, which they'd known if they'd read Mary's post.

Let's go back to Jeanette's picture. What's up with that bottle Sinful Colors? Did you change your branding since publishing this picture? Oh that's right, it's a COLOR CLUB bottle. In fact, both of the images use no Sinful Colors polishes. Wow. 

The kickback from readers has already been uproarious and angry. Check out Sinful Colors's Facebook page and their community page for just a bit of it. 

So what can you do? Share this info with your friends and reconsider your purchases of Sinful Colors. This is outright theft and copyright infringement.

If you have additional updates you'd like to share, leave a comment and I'll edit this post accordingly. If you know who the owner of the following image is, please let me know so we can contact her in case her work was also stolen:

 
Also for your reference are some helpful links:

---

Updates

• Reddit (I'm the author of this post)

The Swatchaholic Links

• The Swatchaholic Blog
• The Swatchaholic Twitter
• Original post with image stolen by Sinful Colors
• Post detailing the theft

Swatch and Learn Links

• Swatch and Learn Blog
• Swatch and Learn Twitter
• Original post with image stolen by Sinful Colors
• Post detailing the theft

 Sinful Colors Links

• Facebook Community page
• Facebook Page
• Website - currently under construction

Revlon Links (purchased Sinful Colors)

• Contact form
• Phone number: 1-800-473-8566
• EDIT: 7/25 Revlon's apology

Walgreens Links

• Contact information 

change.org Links

• A petition to properly credit the bloggers, destroy the pamphlets, and issue an apology

Pull Over Farah

I would absolutely love it if you took a second to vote for my submission to the Bundle Monster nail art contest! Thank you!

Onto the aaaaaaart (said in a deep, low, drawling voice, swirling a glass of wine or brandy, nose straight up in the air).

I wanted to use my dotting tools again. I love those guys.

The colors I used were Farah (Zoya), Cote D'Azur (Icing), and Pull Over (Sinful Colors). Ok, odd coincidence. As I typed that, an ambulance drove by outside somewhere, and the sirens echoed right into the windows. Cosmic voices from the nailiverse have spoken!

If you're around a Claire's, or a Claire's Club, or an Icing store, I recommend stopping in. While the formulas on the polishes are a bit lackluster, the colors actually are quite eye-catching. Plus, they're pretty cheap, and it's fun to relive your little girlhood with the goodies they have there. I went for the sole purpose of picking up Candy Shop, but wound up with four bottles of colors I was really quite excited about. It's worth the trip!

Born Pretty M71 Plate Review

Tonight I'm doing a review for you! Are you excited? You should be, it's good stuff.

Born Pretty has tons of amazing nail products, as most of you have seen and probably partaken in. One of these products is their stamping plates, which is what I'm reviewing today. In particular, I'm taking a look at plate M71.

The plate consists entirely of small images not meant to cover your whole nail. Perhaps the most famous and well-known design on the plate is the Hello Kitty head. You've seen it before though, so I decided to use a different design (more on that later).

The designs on the plate are all quite cute, and they design I tried is cut at just the right depth. Picking up the design was not an issue, and it transferred beautifully (taking user error out of the picture).

The plate is slightly larger than Konad plates, and is obviously a different shape. There is no backing on the plate, but it's never bothered me. Here's what I'm sad about, which probably won't affect anyone else. The larger size doesn't fit into my little round container where I conveniently keep all my plates. :( Sad.

In addition to the plate, they sent me a scraper and stamper.

 

The scraper measures and acts exactly as the Konad scrapers.

They're both metal, both easy to handle, but unfortunately, they both scrape the plates to death. I still recommend cutting up an old gift card and using that to scrape your plates.

The stamper's rubber piece used to pick up the design is the same size as both the original Konad stamper, and the extra large stamper, as you can see here.

The length of the tool itself is much shorter than the other stampers though.

At first I thought I'd hate the size, but it's actually nice to work with. You can kind of cup it in your free hand's fingers, and it maneuvers well. I don't like the texture of the rubber. It doesn't provide as much give when you're pressing it down on the surface of the plate, so if you've got polish you're stamping with that's a bit less thick in consistency, you won't have as easy as a time picking it up. I ran into this problem with the first polish I tried as stamping polish, and eventually wound up switching to the Konad stamper.

Like I mentioned earlier, the design transfers quite well with the right polish. I used Black on Black (Sinful Colors) for my design.

The base is Carey (Zoya) and the yellow dots are Happy Go Lucky (China Glaze).

Overall, I would recommend buying the plates. They go for about $4.00, and even if you only grab one, you won't have to pay for shipping. What's even better? You can use the coupon code given to those readers of my blog: C10X31 for an additional 10% off. 

Oh the good things just keep on coming!

The Born Pretty products shown in this post were sent to me for review by the company.