Pink on Thursdays (because it isn't Wednesday)

All my days are starting to blend into one. I chose, cropped and watermarked photos, to load into this post that I would call "We wear pink on Wednesday's". Except it isn't Wednesday. So we are going to do Throw Back Thursday to WWPOW!

I received this lovely light frosted pink in a Julep Maven box ages ago. I didn't think I would even like it, but it has become one of my favorite nude pinks and one that I reach for over and over.

Meet Lois.

This is the absolute perfect sea shell pink that is the perfect shade for my skin tone.

It has a bit of a subtle shimmer to it, but is still a "barely there" type of shade. It is so simple and classy!

Surprisingly, it was perfectly opaque in 2 coats. 

Shown here with a base coat, 2 coats of color and a top coat.

Since this one, I have been snatching up any Maven boxes that come with nude frost type shapes. I received 2 in my past box, and neither disappoints! If you are looking for a great nude shade, Julep is my go to!

What is your favorite nude shade?

Until next time,

Christa

My very first Chanel!

Today was probably the most relaxing Sunday I have had in awhile! I did nothing but lay all over the house and read books. I am in the midst of the Divergent series and finished the 2nd and am now onto the 3rd! I dreaded every text I got today, because I was hoping no one would text me to suggest any activities that required me to put on real pants. Hah.

Tonight I have my very first Chanel polish to show you. My mom surprised me with 3 polishes for Christmas. I was definitely really surprised!! I never ever would have guessed what was in the box!

Tonight I have one of them to show you, Rouge Moire!

 This is a gorgeous raspberry red, shown here with 2 coats and 1 coat of the Chanel Topcoat.
I loved the top coat! It made this polish shine beautifully!

I used Loreal's new textured polish The Statement Piece as an accent nail. I have reviewed a few of those before and you can see the others HERE. 

Hint: I love them!

I absolutely loved this polish. It was so beautiful on. The only qualms I have with it, is that for such a high end polish, the formula was kind of runny, the brush was really small and wear was not what I would have expected. I got 3 days at most out of it before some chip page started to happen. 

Even so, I loved this and am happy to have it in my collection! I will definitely be putting it on my toes!

Happy Sunday!

Christa

2013 Favorites

I am back from my 2 week Holiday hiatus! I am not sure what happened, but all of my days just started to bleed into one and now here we are, in the bright shiny New Year!

A short silly story, but one of my friends said it bothers her when bloggers disappear because she thinks they've died.

I am alive.

Anyway...

Some of you might have noticed, I keep a Category on the right side of my blog for "Favorites". I don't always remember to link up a favorite, but every now and again I do. 

Lets take a look back on some of my favorite indies from this past year!!

Carpe Noctem Cosmetics

Man in White was the polish that sparked the 'My Favorites' Category. It has since been discontinued, and I promise you, I will make one of my life's missions, to find a dupe.

…to be continued...

See more photos HERE.

My friendship with Emily however, started a bit before MIW, with Star Spangled Banner and Liberty.

The polishes I wore for the 4th of July!

See more photos HERE.

I have reviewed bunches of Emily's polishes and have dozens of them!

I highly recommend all of her polishes and she makes FANTASTIC customs!

See my Customs HERE.

Spellbound Nails

 One of the very first polishes I purchased from Ashley was Pishsalver from her Alice in Wonderland Collection.

This is still one of my favorite nail art designs to date. It came out so cute and summery! I have tried a fair amount of Spellbound polishes and my collection of her polishes is second only to Carpe Noctem's. All of them are awesome! She has a lot of different polishes that will appeal to everyone's tastes.

Daphine Polish

Another brand that made it to my favorites, was Daphine Polish with Skating.

This one was so pretty and even in the midst of winter, it gave a nice minty summer feel. I am still all about this mani! See more photos HERE.

Glitterfied Nails

One of my other favorites from this year was Glitterfied Nails Diamond Ring.

I used this glitter topper in one of my favorite Galaxy manis to date. That galaxy mani produced an onslaught of friend's and cousins requesting the same design!

But even on its own, over a solid shade, this polish was so beautiful and was a rainbow of colors!

She has so many polishes to choose from, it would be hard to not find something you like!

So my reader, I will leave you with this Indie recap of my past 6 months or so of blogging!

I couldn't be more thankful for all of you and all of the support you have given to me so far! I can't wait to see what the new year brings forth!

**Disclosure: Some of the products in this post were provided to me by their manufacturer for my unbiased review. Please see my Disclaimer page for more info**

L'oreal Colour Riche Gold Dust Textures

I love it when color is spelled colour. Even though my American computer just tried to correct that to 'color'. Seems much more classy to me when there is a 'u' in there. I don't know, I guess I just like to spice things up sometimes.

I had seen a spoiler for these polishes on someone's IG awhile ago. When his name comes to me it will get posted here. 

I scooped up 3 of L'oreal's new Colour Riche Gold Dust Textured polishes. In the bottle, these looked very similar to the Julie G Gumdrops, which are my favorite textured polishes. I was happy to add some new textured shades to my collection.

First up is Sexy in Sequins. 

This was a really deep purple. It had gold shimmer in there that was pretty dynamic, flashing to shades of pinks. There were also larger purple bits, which is what reminded me of the Julie G Gumdrop collections.

I liked this one but I felt it was a little too dark for me. I think it almost ended up appearing black.

However, I loved the textured feel. It was similar to Julie G as in it was a light sandy texture, without being too gritty or annoying. It also dried quickly and retained much of its sparkle and shine!

Next up is Pop the Bubbles.

This is more teal in person. I missed out on the teal Julie G, so I just had to snag this one!

I loved it! It is a nice light teal shade, with silver shimmer and teal bits that give it a more multi-dimensional feel.

Like Sexy in Sequins, this went on smooth and dried to a nice sandy smooth textured finish.

Since the first dark purple I chose was a dud for me, I was glad to have picked up this gorgeous purple.

Meet Reign of Studs.

This is an awesome purple. It wasn't too dark but wasn't too light either. It was perfect. 

Reign over me has a silver shimmer with lilac purple bits. 

This one also dried in a reasonably amount of time with the same sandy finished as the rest.

I didn't try these with top coat, as I expect I would need 18 coats (kidding, but no, really) to get it to smooth out.

Overall, I loved this collection. If you missed out on the Julie G Gumdrops and have had a lemming for them, I suggest you check out these!

I found mine at CVS, but I have seen them turning up in other drugstores too!

Sad you missed out on the Julie Gs? What do you think of this collection?

Talk to you soon!

Christa

'Twas the Night before…Another Giveaway

The only terrible part [for me] about all these awesome giveaways I am involved it -- is that I can't enter ANY of them!

So yes, this makes FOUR giveaways that you, my lovely readers, can enter!

Did you miss one?

Nail Art Goodies up for wins is HERE.

$100 Sephora or Ulta Giftcard is HERE.

Holiday Themed Prizes is HERE

and read on to see the latest!

Tonight I have 4 polishes from Spellbound Nails 'Twas The Night Before Christmas collection!

Let me start off by saying that while I love very a many indie polish brands, none inspire nail art, like Ashley's do. Maybe it is the collection or polish names or the colors or whatever, but I am always itching to get one of her latest on my fingers with some cutesy nail art.

Tonight I will show you the latest nail art inspired swatches!

I will show them in the same order they appear in the poem:

First up is Visions of Sugar Plums.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danc'd in their heads,

VSP is actually a bit of a softer, lighter purple in person. It leans more dusty lilac than the purple in this photo. Suspended in the jelly are pastel pink hexes and stars, that really give it depth! 

Shown here is 2 easy coats, with base and top coat used. You can see that it built up nicely. There is not much visible nail line at all. Unfortunately, I don't think I mixed it well enough because I wasn't able to get any stars out :(

On my accent nail I used one of the L'oreal Nail stickers from their summer candy collection.

Next up is Eight Tiny Reindeer.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a minature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,

Eight Tiny Reindeer is a red-brown jelly with dark brown and light brown hexes suspended throughout.

Shown here is 2 coats with base and top coat used. I think is built up nicely and while there was a bit more VNL on this polish than VSP, it still isn't very noticeable. I tried my hand at a Rudolph accent nail, but was kind of meh about it. Eh, I tried!

Next up is my favorite one of the bunch!

Bowlful of Jelly!

He had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly:

I used 2 coats here, with a base and a top coat. I loved how squishy this one appeared. It is filled with red hex glitter and gold holo glitters. I will gladly put up with the VNL for this red. 

Everything about this red is just perfect!

I made a Santa Accent nail to go with this awesome polish!

Last but not least is

And to All a Good Night.

This is a deep blue jelly with blue holo glitter and even holo moons! I had a bit of trouble getting the moons out but other than that it built up nicely in 2 coats. It is dark enough that no VNL is showing. This one was a surprise like for me. The first coat went on kind of murky and it wasn't until 2 coats that the blue really came out.

I added a Rudolph and another reindeer as accent nails. Santa is heading home!

Ashley also has a ton of scents that she offers for her polishes! For these 4 I chose Hot Cocoa, Red Hot Cinnamon, Peach and Christmas Tree! I loved all the scents. They are nice and light, not over powering, but truly smell like the description.

You can find links to the other Bloggers who have swatched other polishes in this collection in the Rafflecopter widget below!

Now on to the giveaway!

Good Luck!

**Disclosure: Some of the product(s) in this post were provided to me by their manufacturer for my unbiased review. Please see my Disclaimer page for more info**

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Holiday Giveaway!

It's that time of year, ladies & germs! We're bundling up, gettin' toasty by the fire, and best of all, we're wearing our HOLIDAY polishes! And, since we can never have enough holiday ANYTHING, here's a giveaway for you to enter with LOADS of prizes up for grabs to keep your nails nice and festive this holiday season!

The giveaway is open internationally, so feel free to enter no matter where you're from! <3

Here is the snapshot of the prize pack I am offering!

2 Ulta polishes, and EOS lip balm, a mini Carmex cream and a Purell hand sanitizer!

You can enter to win this prize a bunch more using the Rafflecopter below!

Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck! =)

Indie Review: Daphine Polish Holiday Collection

*Press Sample

*3 Free & Cruelty Free

*Daphine Polish

Hello! I just had my after dinner snack. I was going to munch a Swiss Roll, but I opted for a yogurt instead. I am trying to make healthier choices. My nephew happily shared it with me. He just recently started eating solid foods and he sure loved my peach yogurt!

Tonight I have 3 lovely Holiday polishes from a new-to-me indie, Daphine Polish. I really loved these. I swatched each of the 3 over 2 different shades of polish, so you could really get a feel for them.

You bet your butt this post is photo heavy!

First up is Skating, swatched over 2 coats of Essie Turquoise & Caicos with 1 coat of NYC Top coat.

Skating is an awesome glitter topper made up of metallic, matte and holo blue glitters in 3 different shades, metallic silver glitter and silver holo diamonds. It is all in a clear base with a nice subtle gold shimmer.

The above macro gives you a good look at all of the different glitters and the

gold shimmer.

This is 1 coat of Skating. Shown here in the shade.

The formula on this polish was awesome. All of these polishes were packed with glitter and are well suspended in their base. There was no sinkage what so ever. I gave the bottle a good shake before use and using the glob and spread method, I still got plenty of the diamonds out.

Next, I swatched it over Sinful Colors Hot Spot. I used 2 coats  of Skating for this swatch. 1 coat of NYC topcoat over all. I used a BM stamp plate for my accent nail.

I like it over the mint polish the best!

Next up is Rudolph's Nose. I swatched 1 coat over 2 coats of SH Pink Satin, with 1 coat of NYC topcoat over all.

Rudolph's Nose is made up of red metallic and matte glitters, with a sprinkle of holo glitter and a green iridescent glitter, all in a clear base! I enjoyed this over the metallic pink.

Here is another shot in the shade. I like how this glitter will be able to be used for several different holidays. I love a versatile glitter!

The formula on this one was also great. It went on smoothly and I felt I got plenty of glitter out of the bottle, even with just one coat.

Next I swatched this over a nice Christmas green, for a super holiday feel! The green polish I used is a Maybelline Express Finish, which I don't think exists anymore.

I used 2 coats of Rudolph's Nose for these swatches! ! coat of NYC topcoat over all.

I think the next one, might have my favorite swatches. But you can decide which you like best!

This one is called Christmas in a Bottle. I am not sure how the name could be any more appropriate!

This glitter is made up of green and red matte glitter, gold and silver holo glitters and even gold holo stars. 

Shown here is 1 coat of CiaB over Loreal Charmed, I'm Sure in the shade. 1 coat of NYC topcoat over all.

I am dying. I loved this combination. I used 2 coats of CiaB over Julep Misti from the December Maven box. 1 coat of NYC topcoat over all.

So pretty! The formula on this one was just as good as the others. It was a little difficult to get some of the stars out, but I did just a little fishing and I was able to get at least one for each nail.

On my accent nail, I painted a small silver Christmas Tree and I placed one of the stars at the top of it.

Overall, I absolutely loved these polishes from Daphine Polish. I can't wait to see what polishes and collections she comes out with next! She is a an indie maker to watch, that is for sure!

You should follow Daphine Polish on Facebook and check out her Etsy for more looks at her polishes!

Facebook | Etsy

Did these polishes get you in the Christmas spirit? I keep hearing Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree in my head. 

:)

See you soon!

*Christa

**Disclosure: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by their manufacturer for my unbiased review. Please see my Disclaimer page for more info**