OPI Skyfall Collection Magnetic Polishes: Is That Silva? & Morning, Moneypenny

Happy Halloween! Hope you're all having a great Halloween so far! Anyone doing anything fun tonight to celebrate? I'm sure not, unless you count watching the Face Off finale a fun time. We're not even handing out candy, it seems like when I was a kid there were 100's of us trick or treating in the neighborhood but the last few years it seems like the kids are going elsewhere so we don't bother now. I am rocking some Dexter-licious nails though, you can check them out on my Instagram if you're interested! I did the Ice Truck Killer skittles mani with a little bit of blood splatter, you can't have Dexter nails and not have blood splatter!

Today I have 2 of the 3 magnetic polishes OPI is doing as part of their Skyfall Collection for Holiday 2012. Hopefully I'll get the third eventually but I could not seem to find it anywhere around here. None of my local supply shops had it and the sales girls at all 4 Ulta's I went to looking for it looked at me like I had 37 eyes when I asked if they had them in stock. I love Ulta but man, some of their employees are seriously so incredibly unhelpful...it's kind of amazing how clueless they are to the products they carry.

To see swatches & reviews of both polishes click the read more button below.

China Glaze Holiday 2012 Holiday Joy Collection: My Picks!

Hi guys! Today I have my picks from the China Glaze Holiday Joy Collection for Holiday 2012 to share with you! I saw these at a local beauty supply a couple weeks ago and picked up most of the collection. There are 4 that I do not have swatches of, all 4 are red and they just didn't do anything for me so they stayed at the store. I'm sure about a billion other blogs will have swatches of them soon, if not already, if you're interested in seeing them also!

I usually really like what China Glaze does for Holiday every year and these are no exception, if you like glitters like I do I think you'll really like this collection also! Check out all the swatches after the jump!

Ulta Whatever Floats Your Moat

Hi guys, hope you all had a good weekend. I'm also hoping all of you over on the east coat are staying safe...that Frankenstorm you've got going on over there looks crazy! Today I have an Ulta polish to share with you guys. I was at Ulta a couple weeks ago and as I was paying this polish caught my eye.

Whatever Floats Your Moat is a bright vibrant blue jelly/creme finish. This was part of what looked to be a new collection of the Ulta Professional line of polishes called the "When The Knights Come" Collection. I didn't even realize Ulta was still doing any collections so this was a nice surprise. I really love the color, it's like a dark version of Nails Inc Baker Street. It ended up being darker on the nail that I thought it would be, and also a bit of a jelly finish....think Revlon Royal but more vibrant. The formula was good, since it's got that jelly quality to it it was a little bit sheer but it was opaque in 3 coats. In photos you can see some visible nail line but in person I couldn't see it.

My only complaint...the cap of the Ulta bottle, it sucks. The cap is big and square and it makes it incredibly hard to polish. After 2 coats on most of my nails I managed to get that big square cap off...not sure if it is actually supposed so to come off or if I just managed to pry it off out of rage (it was not easy to get off lol). Once the cap was gone it was much easier to work with. :)

Both photos below are in the shade...my apologies, the weather here was crappy when I wore this.

For the sake of comparison below is Whatever Floats Your Moat alongside Essie Butler Please and Nails Inc Baker Street. It's vibrant like both of the other polishes but darker!

Whatever Floats Your Moat is available at Ulta and Ulta.com, the professional line of polishes retail for $7.50 each.

Girly Bits Fall Calendar Girls Swatches

Happy Weekend! Anyone doing anything fun this weekend? It's supposed to be really hot here, we're still waiting for some version of Fall to happen here. It was like 90 degrees yesterday, what the heck!

Today I have Girly Bits September, October & November Calendar Girls polishes to show you guys...along with a little bonus called Black Eyed Susan. I was going to do a spam post today but I keep forgetting to post these and they are so pretty I wanted to share them instead!

Check out more photos & reviews of each shade by clicking the read more button below!

Degen's October 2012 Barkbox!

Happy Friday! Today in a non polish post I have Degen's October Barkbox for you! This came in the mail the other day along with another doggy type of box. Degen was so excited, it was like freaking dog Christmas up in my house...I was a little jealous, not gonna lie.

If you've never heard of Barkbox and what it is please check out this post where I go into more detail. To see everything Degen got this month click the read more button below!

Jessica Gold Leaf Top Coat Swatches!

Hi guys! Today I have another one of the 18K Gold Leaf top coats that are so hot right now to show you! This one is from the brand Jessica, I mentioned seeing it in a supply shop in my The Man With The Golden Gun post. I originally passed this up because the OPI packaging was blowing my mind. I was surprised when a few days later the Jessica arrived in my mailbox, it was fate haha!

Jessica's Gold Leaf top coat was easy to apply, the flakes weren't too small which was nice. I did find the best method for me was applying a coat like normal then going back and dabbing on more flakes where I wanted them. I'm a big fan of these gold top coats, they are pricey but I think it's something good to put on a birthday list or a fun splurge...that kind of thing! The first couple photos below are the Gold Leaf top coat over Ulta Whatever Floats Your Moat. Clearly I am still obsessed with this blue gold combo...I don't think I will ever tire of it.

Below is Jessica's Gold Leaf top coat over Revlon Colorstay Spanish Moss!

Jessica can put purchased at JessicaCosmetics.com, the Gold Leaf Top Coat retails for $29.95. If you have a nail supply shop near you that sells Jessica you may be able to find this there for a bit cheaper. I've seen it at several of the stores in my area that carry Jessica for around $15 (still expensive but not as bad!)

Cellairis Nail Art Series #2: Leather Ruby Gold + Tutorial!

Hi guys! Today I have the second of 3 Cellairis phone case inspired nail art posts for you! You can check out my last one here if you missed it! The case today's nail art was inspired by is from the Elle & Blair line, and it's called Leather Ruby Gold. I have a photo of it down below, but basically it's looks like red leather and is has gold square studs down the right side.

I tried so many different things for this manicure, I could not figure out how to mimic the texture to save my life. If anyone knows an easy way to recreate a leather look on the nail please let me know! I finally figured out a method I liked and am pretty happy with the result! I used Pomegranate Nail Lacquer in Fiery as the base of this manicure along with Essie She's Pampered and OPI GoldenEye to complete the look. For a tutorial on how I did this please click the red more button below the photos!

The Inspiration!

Pomegranate Nail Lacquer can be purchased at PomegranateLacquer.com for $9 a bottle! Cellairis phone cases can be purchased at Cellairis.com, the prices vary depending on the case....Leather Ruby Gold retails for $27.99.

OPI, Zoya, Essie & China Glaze Winter/Holiday 2012 Collection Comparisons

Hi guys, today I have a massive comparison post for you! It's full of comparisons you all requested for the OPI Skyfall Collection, Zoya Ornate Collection and Essie Winter 2012 Collection. I also have a few for the China Glaze Holiday Joy Collection which I haven't had a chance to swatch in full yet but I did pull comparisons to include with this post. Be on the look out for swatches of that collection next week!

There were some comparisons that were requested that I was unable to do because I either don't own the polish you wanted to see compared or I do own the polish and it's loaned out to a friend (or missing in my house haha). I hope this is helpful for you guys! This post is VERY picture heavy, my apologies if it takes a while to load after you click the read more button below.

Whimsical Ideas by Pam Once Upon A TIme

Hi guys! Hope you all had a good weekend, mine started out good...if you follow me on instagram or Facebook you probably saw the photo of what had me in a good mood haha! Then on the way home from my shopping trip I got a call that my parents found a home for Steve. It's kinda bitter sweet, it's good because here he had to stay outside (because of our other cat Oreo) which can be dangerous since we have coyotes that like to roam the neighborhood at night. I'm still bummed though, I'm going to miss that little guy :(

Anyway, today I have another one of the Whimsical Ideas by Pam Halloween polishes to show you guys. It's called Once Upon A Time and I bought this one because I liked the fun pastel twist on traditional Halloween colors. Once Upon A Time is pastel green and purple glitter in a clear base. I think this would look awesome over so many different base polishes but I decided to keep with the pastel kind of palette and layered it over Milani Dressmaker. The formula was great, I had no application issues. The glitter payoff was also great, I used 1 coat over Milani Dressmaker for the photos below

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Whimsical Ideas by Pam polishes are available over on their Facebook Page, each polish is $10!

Steve hopes you enjoyed this post and his little appearances on the blog since he showed up and adopted me in July. I took this photo yesterday before he went off to his new home...he was sitting on the roof watching me take swatch photos in the shade. As much as I'll miss him I'm pretty sure Degen was like BYE as he left...the other day Steve straight WWE style jumped off a table onto him, pretty sure Degen is traumatized for life because of it lol (I laughed really hard when it happened, this is why I have pets and not kids...I'm mean)

Saturday Spam: Random Swatch Spam!

Happy Weekend! Anyone doing anything fun and exciting this weekend? I've got a little shopping planned and I was thinking about going and searching for Bradley Cooper. They are closing one of the freeways here all weekend to shoot The Hangover 3, I doubt I'd actually find Bradley Cooper...but hey, ya never know! Today I have a bit of random spam for you, no particular brand! A lot of these you might have seen recently (or will see soon) as a base for layering. What I learned from this post is that I have been a bit obsessed with green and purple recently, enjoy!

Check out all the swatches after the jump!

Girly Bits Halloween 2012 Collection Swatches

TGIF! Today I have a break from all the Winter Collection I've spammed you with this week, it's the Girly Bits Halloween 2012 Collection! Pam has cooked up some seriously gorgeous glitters for Halloween, I hope you guys like them as much as I do! It looks like Pam also recently added another polish to this collection called Holo'ween, I don't have it to show you but you can see it in her shop here. It looks just as awesome as these 5!

To see swatches & reviews of each shade click the read more button below.

Essie Winter 2012 Collection Swatches

Good morning guys! The other day I was shopping at Target and a new endcap display caught my eye, there was a crazy beautiful cobalt blue that screamed to me so I wandered over to see what it was. Much to my surprise it was Essie's Winter 2012 Collection, I think the name of it is the Leading Lady Collection but I'm not 100% sure about that. The collection as a whole is kind of random color wise but I really liked the majority of them in the bottle so they all came home with me. Check out all the swatches after the jump!

JulieG Holiday 2012 Collection Swatches

Hi guys! Today I have swatches of the JulieG Holiday Collection to share with you! If you follow Jesse's Girl Cosmetics on Facebook you might have gotten a little sneak peek of this already! For Holiday Jesse's Girl Cosmetics is putting out 5 brand new JulieG polishes, 3 gorgeous shimmers, a foil and a glitter bomb! In addition to swatches I did a few festive looks with these, hope you like them!

To see swatches & reviews of each shade click the read more button below!

OPI Holiday 2012 Skyfall Collection Swatches

Hi guys! Today I have swatches of OPI's Holiday/Winter Collection for 2012 inspired by James Bond called the Skyfall Collection for you! Each polish in this 12 piece collection is named after a James Bond movie to celebrate 50 years of James Bond. I was pretty excited about this coming out when I found out the theme, but I think you guys were even more excited than me! I've never gotten so many tweets and emails asking about when I would have swatches up for a collection...hopefully you guys aren't disappointed.

In addition to these 12 shades OPI is also releasing The Man With The Golden Gun, a gold leaf top coat that I've already shown in this post. They also have 3 magnetic polishes and I believe some nail polish apps also. I haven't picked up the magnetic polishes yet but I have seen them at my local supply store and I might go back for them...we shall see!

Also- a couple other things....I have a dentist appointment again today (ugh) so if you comment on this post (or try to talk to me on Facebook or Twitter) and I don't reply or you don't see your comment approved today that's why! I've also changed up how I'm doing my little collection collages, hope you guys like them this way!

To see all my swatches & reviews of each shade click the read more button  below.

Zoya Winter 2012 Ornate Collection Swatches

Hi guys! Today I have Zoya's Winter/Holiday 2012 Ornate Collection to share with you guys! I am so excited for these, back during Fashion Week  I saw a little teaser photo floating around on the interwebs  showing tons of holographic goodness and I've been waiting for them to get into my hot little hands ever since. In addition to 3 gorgeous scattered holos Zoya is also giving us an amazing green shimmer, a glitter topper and a golden foil like polish!

Check out all the swatches & reviews by clicking the read more button below.

OPI The Man With The Golden Gun

Hi guys! Hope you're all having a great weekend so far! Apologies for the lack of a spam post this weekend, I went to a concert Friday night then I got home and our cat Oreo was sick so I was too preoccupied to edit and write a post. Anyway, today I have an awesome new OPI polish to share with you guys called The Man With The Golden Gun...I'm sure you've heard of it, right?

The Man With The Golden Gun is an 18K gold leaf top coat. It seems like these gold leaf polishes are all the rage right now, Sephora by OPI has one out and Zoya just recently put one out also (I believe it's sold out now). When I went into my local supply store to pick this up they showed me one that Jessica has out now also, I posted a bottle shot of it on my instagram here if you want to check that out...it's also on their website here.

I went back and forth about which of these gold flake top coats to buy (I actually talked myself into only getting one...amazing!), they all seem to be pricey so I went with the one in the prettiest packaging for my purchase. I have to give it to OPI for the way they have packaged this polish...the bottle is to die for, it's gold and all reflective and beautiful! It also comes in a nice collectors kind of box...it's a nice touch, makes me feel a little better about the hefty price tag.

I've layered The Man With The Golden Gun over a few different polishes, click the read more button after the photo to see all of them!

Butter London Bluey & Pillar Box Red

TGIF! Anyone have big plans for this weekend? I'm going to a concert tonight but the rest of my weekend is still up in the air! Today I have a couple Butter London polishes for you guys! I picked these up when Coterie was having that awesome deal a few weeks ago!

First up is Bluey which is a dark teal shimmer. I had this one on my wish list for so long...it's kind of underwhelming me though. I thought it would be more fantastical or something. It was much more sheer than I expected, I used 3 coats for the photos below but out in the sun I could still see visible nail line. Maybe it's better layered? I haven't tried that yet...

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Pillar Box Red is a really gorgeous basic red creme. Sure the color might not be exciting but the formula was pretty great! It was nearly a one coater for me and it flowed so nicely on the nail! I used 2 coats for the photos below.

Bonus photo, this is how I ended up wearing Pillar Box Red. Below is 1 coat of Butter London West End Wonderland over Pillar Box Red! Loved this combo!

Butter London is available a ton of places including ButterLondon.com, Nordstroms and Ulta...and many more places! Each polish retails for $14!

Enchanted Polish Ciao Milano and Ola Rio!

Hi guys! Today I have a couple polishes from the Big City Lights Collection from Enchanted Polish. The Big City Lights Collection is 4 gorgeous multichromatic glitters! I'm a big fan of these kinds of glitters, I own 1 from Ozotic and a few from Hits. I like polishes like these because they are a great way to prolong a manicure plus lets face it...all that color changing goodness is just awesome. I'll have the other 2 polishes from this collection for you soon, I've already swatched them but I'm not in love with the photos so I'm going to re-do them and post them another time!

First up is Ciao Milano, it shifts between green, blue, purple and pink. It's by far my favorite of the 4 polishes in the collection. If you only get 1 get this one! It's a great dupe for Ozotic 528 which I think is discontinued now and it's also a good dupe of Hits Moonbow. The formula was great, and the glitter payoff was pretty unbelievable! I used 1 coat over OPI Sapphire In The Snow for the photos below, all photos are in the shade.

Ola Rio shifts between red, orange and gold. This one is also all kinds of gorgeous, it looks like glittery fire! It's a good dupe to Hits Air Glow...I actually prefer this one because the glitter payoff was much better in 1 coat. I used 1 coat over OPI Black Tie Optional for the photos below, all photos are in the shade.

The Big City Lights Collection is available at Llarowe, Harlow & Co and Mei Mei Signatures the price varies depending on where you buy, please check the individual etailers for that :)

Girly Bits Hulk Smash!

Hi guys! Today I have a brand spanking new polish from Girly Bits to share with you called Hulk Smash! Last week I got an insane package in the mail from Pam (the wonderful maker of Girly Bits) and I seriously about died when I unwrapped this one. If you've read my blog for a while you probably know that green is hands down my favorite shade of polish, throw in some crazy awesome glitter and I am done for!

Hulk Smash is a green jelly full of purple shard glitter and small bits of holo. On it's own the green while it looks very dark in the bottle goes on a bit lighter and more yellow toned than I was expecting, I decided to layer this to try and get it closer to the green in the bottle. I ended up picking Electric Emerald from Icing as my base, it's a gorgeous emerald green with blue/purple duochrome shimmer. For the first 2 photos below I used 1 coat of Hulk Smash over Electric Emerald. The formula of Hulk Smash was a little on the thick side but easy to apply when layering, the glitter payoff was great and it was smooth with a coat of top coat.

Hulk Smash over Icing Electric Emerald (Sun)

Hulk Smash over Icing Electric Emerald (Shade)

For the 2 photos below I used 3 coats of Hulk Smash on its own. If you want to wear this on it's own the formula is a little harder to work with....you will want to let it dry for a few minutes between each coat so you don't drag the polish off. I really love this layered and on it's own...it looks great both ways!

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Hulk Smash is a brand new colors from Girly Bits, it should be available very soon in Pam's shop here. Make sure you like the Girly Bits Facebook page for restocking information!

Cellairis Nail Art Series #1: Studded Quilting! Tutorial + Giveaway!

Hi guys! Today I have a fun post for you, 3 things I haven't done in a while all in 1 post! It's some nail art, a tutorial and a giveaway woohoo! A couple of weeks ago the owner of Pomegranate Nail Lacquer approached me and asked if I'd like to collaborate with her and Cellairis, a company that makes cell phone cases, on some nail art to match Cellairis cases using Pomegranate polishes. I said heck yes, I really love the polishes I've tried from Pomegranate and I'm also a big fan of Cellairis, I've had one of their cases on my phone (this one in case you're wondering!) for months and I love it to pieces!

This is going to be a little series, I will be doing nail art to match 3 cases in total along with the giveaway today and 1 more giveaway coming up! I thought it would be fun to also show you how I did the manicure in case you want to recreate it!

The first phone case I used as inspiration is from the Elle & Blair Collection of cases and it's called Whimsical Fairytale in the color Sea Breeze. I picked this case because I love the quilted look it has to it along with the rhinestone details...plus the color is to die for, it matches my car!

The color I used for the manicure is Beach House from Pomegranate Nail Lacquer. I used it for both the base and top of the quilting pattern, for the base I mixed a little bit of Beach House with a white polish. I lightened it enough that you could see the pattern but not so light that it stuck out like a sore thumb!

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Here is the manicure with the Cellairis phone case, it's a pretty good match I think!

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Below is the manicure and case out in the sun, depending on the lighting the case and polish go between blue and green.

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Pomegranate Nail Lacquer can be purchased at PomegranateLacquer.com for $9 a bottle! Cellairis phone cases can be purchased at Cellairis.com, the prices range depending on the case....Whimsical Fairytale retails for $27.99.

To see how I did this manicure and to enter to win your own Whimsical Fairytale case and bottle of Pomegranate Nail Lacquer in Beach House click the read more button below!

Whimsical Ideas by Pam Wicked

Hi guys! Hope you all had a great weekend, I did! I started working on a couple fun projects that you guys will see soon, if you follow me on instagram you might have already gotten a tiny bit of a sneak peek!

Today I have one of the Halloween polishes Whimsical Ideas by Pam recently released, it's called Wicked! As soon as I saw a photo of this pop up in my Facebook feed I needed it! Wicked is a shimmery green base packed with red, white and black glitter. What I was omg-ing over when I saw this is the black glitter...it's big circular glitter! It my gigantic stash of nail polish I had exactly zero polishes with this kind of glitter, clearly we can't have that so I had to buy it.

On it's own the green base was very sheer, I tried out a couple of coats on it's own and wasn't loving how it looked so I decided it would be best to layer. I went with a darker green, OPI Don't Mess With OPI, I wanted something that was darker than the base of Wicked so that the shimmer would pop! The glitter was easy to get out of the bottle, however the big circles didn't want to stay where the brush put it so placing them was necessary. It was a little bit of extra work, but well worth it! I wore this on Saturday and while I was paying at Target the cashier actually grabbed my hand to get a look at this, I think her mind was as blown as mine over the circle glitter haha!

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Since you can't see the green base of the polish in any of the above photos here is a bottle shot I posted a few days ago on instagram! Steve the photobomber even makes an appearance!

Whimsical Ideas by Pam polishes retail for $10, ordering info can be found over on the Whimsical Ideas by Pam Facebook Page!