Deborah Lippmann Rockin' Robin

Hi guys! Today I have a brand new Deborah Lippmann polish to share with you called Rockin' Robin, this is part of Deborah's Spring 2013 offerings. I think there are a few different collections coming out for Spring from Deborah Lippmann but I honestly cannot seem to keep track of them, I know that in this particular group there are 3, Rockin' Robin (which you can see below), I'm Not Edible (which is pink) and Polka Dots (which is white).

Rockin' Robin is a minty blue/green pastel base with small black glitter. I can't tell if the black glitter is circular or hex because of how small it is. I really like this combo it looks like mint chip ice cream, my favorite! The formula was good, a bit on the thick side but this was very opaque and easy to apply. I used 2 coats for the photos below! Both photos are in natural sunlight.

As far as availability goes this polish is not on DeborahLippmann.com yet. I cannot seem to find any info as to when these are launching...if you know please let me know in the comments and I'll update this part of the post. If you are in So Cal like me you might be able to find this at Planet Beauty stores, that's where mine is from! Deborah Lippmann polishes range in price from $18-$20, since I can't find this online I'm not sure if it will be one of the more expensive ones or not!

Edited to add: These polishes were available for pre-order on neimanmarcus.com for $19 a bottle but have since been taken down. According the the pre-order page they supposed are to ship out no later than 3/22/13! Thank you to Mel for the info!

Orly Spring 2013 Hope and Freedom Collection Swatches

Hi guys! Today I have Orly's Spring 2013 Collection to share with you! I'm pretty excited about these, I saw a promo image of them a little while ago and have been eagerly waiting to find them in real life since then. When I went to ISSE over the weekend the Orly booth was literally my first stop as soon as I got into the show. I don't think I even stopped to look at anything in their booth I zoomed in on the Spring display and pretty much was like hai girl working the booth, I want one of each kthx. I'm pretty sure she was scared of me.

Anyway, the Hope and Freedom Collection brings us 6 new shades from Orly. 2 are cremes, 2 are shimmers and 2 are glitters. Check out all the swatches after the jump!

ISSE Long Beach 2013!

Hi guys! Today I have some photos from ISSE to share with you. I went to ISSE over the weekend and it was fantastic! In case you don't know what ISSE it's the International Salon & Spa Expo. It's a trade show for the latest and greatest in hair and nails. There are also a few more general beauty exhibitors there like Crown Brush & NYX. ISSE is a pro only trade show meaning you have to have a cosmetology license in order to attend. It's pretty neat overall, there are a lot of new products and tons of demos, education and competitions plus great shopping. I think they do an ISSE Midwest also but I'm not sure if they do more than those 2 shows.

This post is VERY picture heavy so the majority of it will be after the jump!


My favorite booth of the show this year was OPI, it was huge! Not only was it eye candy because of all the polish but they had a big jumbo tron like thing above their booth that played clips of OPI photoshoots and had their logo flashing and stuff. It was awesome.

piCture pOlish Mallard giveaway!

Hi guys! Today I have a giveaway for you for a bottle of piCture pOlish Mallard. In case you didn't already know, Mallard is my collaboration shade with piCture pOlish! You can see my post with more photos along with the backstory of the color here.

Rules:

• This giveaway is open internationally. If you are under 18 please make sure you  have parental consent as I will need your mailing address if you win.
• This giveaway is open from January 28th 2013 until February 4th 2013 at Midnight EST.
• The winner will be chosen at random by Rafflecopter and has 72 hours to respond to my email or a new winner will be chosen.
• You may only do each entry option once, I will be checking...cheaters will be disqualified. :)
• Full rules & terms and conditions can be found here.

How To Enter:

• To enter this giveaway please use the Rafflecopter widget below, entires left in the comments will not count.
• Mandatory Entry: Tell me what your polish would look like if you got the opportunity to do a collaboration like this!
• Mandatory Entry: Let me know the email address that is best to contact you at if you win.

That's it! Good luck everyone and a big thank you to the lovely Katie at Harlow & Co, I am providing the prize and she is sending out the prize so that this giveaway is able to be open internationally!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Degen's January 2013 BarkBox

Happy weekend! Anyone doing anything fun this weekend? I'll be at ISSE all weekend, ISSE is a salon and spa expo that is open to professionals only...I went last year too and it was great! If you want to check out my post from last year about it you can see that here. I'll be posting about this years show also some time next week! I seriously cannot wait to see how fantastical all the booths are this year!!

Anyway, today I have Degen's January BarkBox for you. Sadly there are no photos of Degen in this post because he was kinda meh about this box :( It actually turned out to be a bit of a MeowBox this month haha!

To see more of Degen's BarkBox click the read more button below.

Chaos & Crocodiles Fireside Nights

Hi guys, happy Friday!! Today I have an awesome polish from a new to me indie brand called Chaos & Crocodiles to share with you. A couple weeks ago I posted Elevation Polish Stay Behind, Catch A Wave and became pretty much obsessed with circular glitter because of it. Shortly after that post a reader posted a link to this brand on my Facebook page and told me I needed to check out a polish called Fireside Nights. I went over to the Chaos & Crocodiles etsy page and after a short OMG freakout I bought a bottle.

Fireside Night is a mix of red and gold glitter of different sizes & shapes. Clearly I needed this because of the various sizes of circular glitter. Jessica was right about this...I'm so glad she linked me to their etsy! The formula was great, not thick and very easy to apply. I used 1 coat over Nicole by OPI Plum To Your Senses! for the photos below. Both photos are in the shade.

Chaos & Crocodiles is available on etsy here. Prices range from $4.75-$10.50 and they offer both mini's and full sizes polishes! Their polishes are a bit on the pricey side but I think the unique ones like this are worth it! Looks like they also do some pretty shimmers if you aren't into glitter bombs!

I Love Nail Polish Swatches

Hi guys! Today I have a relatively new to me indie brand to share with you called I Love Nail Polish...great name yes? This is my first time trying these but I have seen them quite a bit on other blogs, what caught my eye about these is the great packaging. Each polish comes in it's own super cute box, it's a nice touch!  Check out my swatches and thoughts by clicking the read more button below the collage!

New Nicole by OPI Polishes for 2013!

Hi guys, happy hump day...we're half way through the work week!  Today I have 4 new shades from Nicole by OPI to share with you! These aren't a part of any collection, just new core colors I believe. Check out the swatches after the jump!

Different Dimension Swatches!

Hi guys! Today I have 4 polishes from an indie brand called Different Dimension to share with you! A couple of weeks back I picked these up during an awesome sale Missi (make of Different Dimension) was having. I had my eye on these for a while and was just waiting for something to make me buy them...I can't pass up a sale so I finally pulled the trigger!

Check out all the swatches by clicking the read more button below!

Nails Inc Feathers Collection Swatches

Hi guys! Hope you all had a good weekend, mine was great...I kinda feel like I'm coming down with something now though so I've been taking Zicam like nobody's business, fingers crossed it gets rid of whatever is trying to infect me. Today I have swatches of 3 of the 4 polishes from Nails Inc. new Feathers Collection. These will be launching at Sephora in February according to the press info I got...I can't wait, I'm dying to get my paws on the last polish!

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

IMATS LA 2013

Hi guys! Today's post is a bit off different for me but I wanted to share some photos from IMATS Los Angeles that I went to yesterday! IMATS stands for International Make-up Artist Trade Show, it's a show that is open to the public...you can pick up makeup and tools from fantastic brands for a nice discount. In addition there are also informative panels and classes along with competitions. IMATS is held all over the world, I believe the other cities that do IMATS are New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney and London. This was my first time going to IMATS and it was quite the experience! Hope you guys like my photos, I'll also show you what I ended up buying while I was there at the end of the post!

Saturday Spam: OPI DS

Hi guys! Today I have a bit of OPI DS Spam for you! Before I get into the swatches I wanted to mention that the huge majority of this post is HTF polishes. They are are all old and most of them are expensive on places like ebay. Most of these I happened across in random beauty supply stores or they were gifted to me from friends. I know some people don't like seeing posts with hard to obtain things so if you're one of those people...sorry!

Anyway, I really love OPI's DS line, the older shades from it are usually pretty awesome! It's kind of been my mission to collect all of them...there are still a bunch I'm missing but one day I'll have them all!

Check out a ton of photos of these polishes by clicking the read more button below!

Pretty Serious Swatches!

Happy Friday! Anyone doing anything fun this weekend? I'll be at IMATS in LA this weekend, I haven't decided which day I'm going yet but I can't wait! I've never been to IMATS but I've always heard how amazing it is so I'm excited to finally go!

Today I have a few polishes from Pretty Serious to share with you guys! Pretty Serious is the brain child of a fellow blogger you may know, Kaz from Pretty Random! Last year Kaz launched Pretty Serious with polishes, eye shadows and lip glosses. I managed to convince myself I didn't need anything until their Christmas Without Snow Collection and my self control went out the window.

To see swatches click the read more button below!

Zoya Spring 2013 Lovely Collection Swatches

Hi guys! Today I have Zoya's Spring 2013 Collection called the Lovely Collection to share with you! I feel like I've been holding onto these for a while, I swatched all but 1 in December.....I bet you'll never guess which one was swatched later ;) haha! I'm really excited to finally post this collection, I love the color palette Zoya went with for this Spring. These remind me so much of Easter, specifically of that grass that you put in Easter baskets!

To see all the swatches click the read more button below!

Emily de Molly Swatches

Hi guys! Big thank you to everyone for the support on yesterdays post of Mallard, I was so nervous about that post. The positive feedback from everyone floored me, I'm so glad that everyone loves Mallard as much as I do!

Today I have some swatches from an Australian indie brand called Emily de Molly to share with you! A little while back Llarowe started carrying these and I kept getting cart jacked every time I tried to buy any...I was finally successful in buying 4 (persistence pays lol) and today I have swatches of them!

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

piCture pOlish Mallard by The PolishAholic

Hi guys! I am so excited for this post, keeping secrets is something I'm not good at and I've been keeping this one for months! Actually, I take that back...I did tell Degen, however he offered no opinion on this polish other than licking the bottle when it came in the mail (dogs aren't helpful with nail polish). A few months ago piCture pOlish and I created a polish together called Mallard and the time is finally here for me to share it with you! Mallard is part piCture pOlish's Collaboration Collection and it will be launching on their website on January 16th (January 15th for those of us in the States) as a limited edition shade!

Mallard is pretty much the epitome of everything I love in terms of nail polish all put it one bottle.  If you've read my blog before I don't think it's any secret that I love green polish. When I was brainstorming about what I wanted green was my jumping off point. One of my other favorite things in polish is a strong shimmer, I love the depth a good shimmer can give an already beautiful color. Last but not least you all know I love me some flakies so we couldn't not include those...right?

For the name of this polish originally I was going to go with something a little dark that referenced something I love but that not many people would have gotten. When we decided to change the name I was scouring my brain for what this shade reminded me off, I started thinking about my childhood and things I used to do with my Grandparents. I'm really lucky to have grown up down the street from my Grandparents, I pretty much spent every moment of my summers with them until I was in High School. One of the things we always used to do was visit the local park with loaves of bread and feed all the ducks, I always loved it! While I was thinking about that it hit me...the shade of green along with the shimmer reminds me of the green iridescent like feathers that Mallard ducks have on their head! I think the name is pretty fitting!

To see a bunch more photos click the read more button below!

Nutra Nail Gel Perfect Review

Hi guys! Today I have a review of one of the worst products I have EVER tried for you, I'll be back later tonight with a much happier and very exciting post. I am literally so excited about tonights post I could just explode :D

Apologies for the wall of text you are about the see, I have a lot of thoughts. My intent was to wear test this product before I properly swatched it so the photos you'll see are of my right hand, this polish is not one I'll be properly swatching...ever. I think this might actually be the first time I've ever shown my right hand on here! I tend to break nails on my right hand a lot at work going in and out of file cabinets so they don't look as fantabulous as my left hand that you always see!

I received Nutra Nail Gel Perfect in the shade Raspberry to review. I've seen this product in drugstores and it's always something pick it up then decide not to buy it. I was pretty excited to finally get to test it out! Gel Perfect is marketed as a hybrid gel color that applies like a polish and protects nails from breaking with a rock solid shield. It also says it sets to a "brilliant patent leather shine" in just 5 minutes. Sounds fantastic...too good to be true right? Well it is.

The Gel Perfect kit comes with 3 bottles, an activator, the gel color and a brush cleaner. I have to mention, the bottle of color is tiny...it's bigger than something like an OPI mini but not by much. The instructions say to apply a thorough coat of Activator over the entire nail. I have a strong feeling that this "Activator" is brush on nail glue...it smells exactly like it. Not only did it stink but it went everywhere, I couldn't keep it off my skin and cuticles no matter how careful I was. I should have just stopped then but in the interest of being able to wear test this and tell you guys my thoughts I went on. The instructions say to do one hand at a time and paint all 5 nails with the Activator before moving on to step 2...so that's what I did. Next you "immediately" apply a thin coat of the color but with slight pressure so that the Gel Color and Activator can blend. It says the first coat might be streaky...it was.

After applying a coat of the Gel Color to 5 nails you wipe off the gel color brush and switch it with the brush in the brush cleaner...you are supposed to switch the brushes after every 5 nails to prevent build up. After you do the above steps of Activator and Gel Color on the other hand you go back and start the second coat of Gel Color. With 2 coats the color looked fine so I left it at that. There is no top coat that you apply after the second coat...however there is another card that says it's the new & improved step 5 where you are supposed to apply a coat of the Activator over the Gel Color to help it last and improve the shine. I decided to put the Activator over my thumb and leave the others without to see if there was any difference.

After 5 minutes I was expecting that beautiful patent leather shine and rock solid shield advertised but my nails still felt sticky and they looked dull...including the nail with the Activator as a top coat. After an hour still the same...they felt sticky and had a dull look. After 3 hours...still the same. I made the mistake of picking up Oreo (our cat) around the 3 hours mark...the manicure was so sticky I had cat hair stuck all over it. After 4 hours I thought maybe it was supposed to be sticky and went grocery shopping. When I got home and inspected my nails I was pretty horrified...on my right hand 4 of the 5 nails still felt sticky. The 1 nail that didn't feel sticky was chipped. All of my nails looked like I had tip wear I normally get after a few days...I wrapped my tips with both the activator and the gel color as per the instructions so I'm not sure why this has happened. The nail with the Activator as a top coat was the worst, I must have put my hand in the pocket of my hoodie while I was shopping (4 hours after application remember) and I got all kind of marks from it. As I type this post 6 hours after applying Nutra Nail Gel Perfect my nails are STILL sticky, still dull looking and now chipped.

Overall, this product is crap...period. Enjoy the photos below...my nails looked much worse in person. Please excuse what looks like dryness around my cuticles...it's not. It's the Activator, I couldn't get it off the skin.

For removal you can either buy their remover pads or do the Foil Method for 2 minutes. I'll be doing this as soon as I finish editing this post :)

Nutra Nail Gel Perfect is available at most drugstores and places like Ulta. I strongly suggest not wasting your money on this. I can say with absolute certainty this is the worst nail product I have ever tried.

Goodies from the CVS Nail HQ!

Hi guys! Happy weekend! Today I have a few goodies from the new CVS Nail HQ to share with you. If you haven't been to CVS lately you've been missing out on their awesome new nail polish display. The Nail HQ contains all the brands that CVS carries including Sally Hansen, Essie, Nuance by Salma Hayek, Nicole by OPI and more. You can see some great photos of it in real life over on Frazzle and Aniploish, I tried to take photos at my local CVS but I was getting serious side eye from an employee so I stopped haha! I pretty much love that nails have been a big enough deal to get their own HQ in a drugstore, it seems like a lot of the time displays are just shoved where ever (I'm talking about you Walgreens, putting them on the top of shelves where you can't see them). It's pretty great that not only is CVS making everything easy to find but everything is so organized, I'm really impressed by the whole thing.

Check out more photos of the above polishes by clicking the read more button below.

Layla Ceramic Effect & Softouch Effect Swatches

Happy Friday! Anyone have fun plans for this weekend? I'm not sure what I'm doing, probably a lot of blog stuff. This is my last weekend that I'll have time to do anything until February because IMATS and ISSE are both happening back to back and I'm going to both! My wallet is already weeping for the damage that will happen to my bank account because of these 2 shows.

Today I have 3 polishes from Layla to share with you guys, 2 are from their Ceramic Effects line and 1 is from their Softouch Effects. Check out the swatches after the jump!

piCture pOlish Tease

Hi guys! Hope you're all having a good day so far, I'm typing this up on Wednesday night but given how awesome my night has been I'm sure my Thursday is going to be all kinds of wonderful also! Actually, I think the whole rest of January is going to be really great...I've got all kinds of things in the works and fun events to go to! You'll be hearing all about it soon!

Today I have a gorgeous piCture pOlish shade called Tease to share with you! Tease is a bright fuchsia pink with silver glitter. It's very similar in finish to Orbit that I posted last week.  I really love the color of this and it was so bright! Since I wore this after I wore Orbit I decided not to layer it because I thought it might be just as opaque as Orbit was. Good news, it was crazy opaque...like whoa. The formula was so nice, it wasn't thick and application was a breeze. I used 1 coat (yep, you read that right) for the photos below!

 

Shade

piCture pOlish is available a few places including their official website, www.picturepolish.com.au You can also find the brand at several of their network etailers like Llarowe and Harlow & Co. For a full list of network members check out the piCture pOlish website.

Elevation Polish Swatches!

Hi guys! Today I have 3 polishes I picked up from Elevation Polish to share with you. I heard about this indie a while back but I finally got around to ordering at the end of December. Elevation Polish is known for doing cremes, which in indie world seems to be somewhat of a rarity. Apparently I was in a very blue polish mood while shopping because all 3 I got are blue...I didn't realize that until these arrived at my door and I opened the package! Check out more photos after the jump.

China Glaze Glitz Bitz 'n Pieces Collection Swatches

Hi guys! Today I have a new collection from China Glaze called Glitz Bitz 'n Pieces to share with you. I was at my local beauty supply last week stocking upon nail polish remover and they had just gotten these in and were putting out the display. I haven't heard a whole heck of a lot about these so I wandered over to check them out. I saw black glitter and bought all of them based solely on that lol! I'm beginning to think I have a glitter problem, pretty much anything with black glitter, square glitter or circular glitter has to come home with me. It's getting out of control. Check out all the swatches after the jump!

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

OPI Mariah Carey Collection Giveaway

Hi guys, hope you all had a great weekend! Today I have a giveaway for you! I've teamed up with Planet Beauty to give away a full set of OPI's Mariah Carey Collection which you can see swatches of here.

To enter this giveaway click the read more button below the photo!

Enchanted Polish Mean Mr. Mustard

Hi guys, happy weekend! Anyone have big plans for this weekend? I'm planning on organizing my polish...and buying another Alex or Helmer (I can't decide which I want to get). Today I have a polish I meant to post like 3 months ago, somehow this beauty got lost in my drafted posts back in September and I stumbled upon it last night.

It's Enchanted Polish Mean Mr. Mustard! This polish is one of the great duochrome holos that Enchanted Polish does so well! It flashes from gold to green, very reminiscent of Chanel Peridot but with the added awesome of holo. The holo is more obvious in person, it was a bit camera shy. The formula was nice on this polish, you can wear it on it's own or layer it over a dark base which will really make the duochrome pop. I used 3 coats of Mean Mr. Mustard on it's own for the photos below. Both photos are in my lightbox, back when I took these I was toying with the idea of using a lightbox for my photos....I decided against it but I like how these turned out!

Enchanted Polish is available at EnchantedPolish.com, Llarowe and Harlow & Co.

piCture pOlish Orbit

Hi guys, TGIF! For a short week this one one sure has felt super long! Today I have a gorgeous shade from piCture pOlish called Orbit to share with you!

Orbit  is a dark navy blue with silver glitter. This kind of kills my lemming for Essie Starry Starry Night, I figure it's probably as close as I'll get to owing that  haha! The formula was fantastic, I wasn't expecting it to be as opaque as it was! I layered 1 coat of Orbit over Contrary Polish Santorini for the photos below. On it's own I think you might be able to get away with only 1 coat, I couldn't even see my base polish though Orbit!

Shade

piCture pOlish is available a few places including their official website, www.picturepolish.com.au You can also find the brand at several of their network etailers like Llarowe and Harlow & Co It looks like Nail Polish Canada has also started carrying piCture pOlish (Love them!) For a full list of network members check out the piCture pOlish website.

Jessica Spring 2013 It's A Girl Thing Collection Swatches

Hi guys! Before I get into today's post I just wanted to mention that I haven't really slept since Monday so if there are any random or weird typos that's why haha! I don't know what's been up with my body lately, I'm so tired all day then I lay down to go to bed and have so much anxiety and stress about my job that I just lay there, tossing and turning. It sucks, I wish I had some kind of off switch for my brain, I'd also happily take a job that didn't stress me out and give me anxiety but I don't see that happening unless I win the lotto or something.

Today I have Jessica's It's A Girl Thing Collection for Spring 2013 to share with you! This collection is 6 shades that range from bright orange to pastel purple!

To see swatches of this collection click the read more button below!

OPI Mariah Carey Collection Comparisons

Hi guys, so is everyone else back to the real world today? I've had the last 4 days off so today going back to work is going to pretty much suck haha. I wish we had 4 day weekends every week, that would be ideal I think. I feel like I never actually get to relax and unwind with a 2 day weekend...a girl can dream right?

Anyway, today I have a few comparisons for the OPI Mariah Carey Collection to share with you! Hope you find them helpful!

Click the read more button below to see the comparisons!

Nails Inc Noho (Leather Effect Polish)

Hi guys, Happy New Year!! Hope you all had a fantastical and safe New Years Eve last night! Today I have a brand new polish from Nails Inc to share with you! Nails Inc is doing a whole ton of different kinds of textures and I am SO excited, I love different kinds of textures. It makes me excited that so many brands are giving us a variety of them for 2013!

This polish is what Nails Inc is calling their Leather Effect, it comes in a set at Sephora called Bling It On: Rebel, I have a photo of the packaging at the end of post! The set is $25 at Sephora and it comes with a bottle of Noho (the leather effect polish) a bunch of different studs and rhinestones you can glue to your nails and 4 crystalized skulls. It also has a little bottle of nail glue and a couple orange wood sticks.

The whole effect of this polish is that you paint it on and when it dries you have a texture that is supposed to resemble leather. You don't wear a top coat with this as it will affect the texture. The formula of Noho was good, I used 2 coats for the photos below. I found it to be a little slow drying so that's something to keep in mind...you can't just paint it on and run out the door. This reminds me of the liquid sand polishes OPI just recently put out but to the touch it doesn't feel as gritty.

If you like texture I think this is pretty neat...the effect was pretty subtle in real life. Since it's so dark it looked like a matte black unless you were somewhat close and really looking at my nails.

Shade

Shade

As you can see in the sun this still had a little bit of a shine to it. The photo below is almost a full 24 hours after application.

Here is what the set looks like! As far as I know you can't get the polish on it's own, at least not on Sephora's site. Hopefully they will sell the polish individually eventually. I'm pretty sure I'll never use all the extra stuff so it seems like a waste of product (and money) to me.

The Bling It On: Rebel kit is available at Sephora stores and Sephora.com now, it retails for $25. It looks like if you buy from Nails Inc there is also a tan version of this but I don't see it available at Sephora (hopefully it is eventually...I want it!). I'm crossing my fingers that it ends up at Sephora soon, there are so many cool textures Nails Inc is doing but they don't ship to the US from their official website :(