30 May 2018

Glisten & Glow: The Dark & Delishious Collection Swatches

The Glisten & Glow Dark & Delishious collection released on May 11th. It's still available so I suggest you head to the website and buy some! The collection is a collaboration with Delishious Nails. It features 6 polishes with a black base and all sorts of goodies added. My mom and I picked up 4 of the 6, and I've got swatches of those to share with you today :)


These all applied in just 1-2 coats for me! They were slightly dull after applying so I would recommend a glossy top coat like I used here. I did see some awesome swatches with a matte top coat so that would be an option too :)

First up is Black. Color of My Soul.
It has that black base and is loaded with olive shimmer and silver micro glitters. This one is probably my favorite of all of them. 


Next up is Leather and Lucille. It has the same black base, but this time with emerald shimmer and those silver microglitters.
This is one of my mom's picks because she loves The Walking Dead, even if she hates sexy Negan lol. Right, mom?


This one is Sarcasm. My Second Language. It's a black base with those silver micro glitters and a violet base.


The final polish is Sparkles & Skulls. This polish has fuchsia shimmer combined with the black base and silver microglitters.


28 May 2018

Copper Gold Butterflies

For today's mani, I went with a simple butterfly style mani. I used Zoya Blu for my index and middle fingers. It's a pastel blue and suprisingly went on well in 2 coats! The copper-y gold color is Barry M Copper Mine. I used it with the advanced stamping technique to add in some color to the butterflies.


And I had to share something from my other hobby, crochet! I just finished these adorable butterflies. The pattern is from one of my favorite pattern designers, Spin a Yarn Crochet. 


21 May 2018

Doctor Who Bad Wolf Nail Art | 500 posts!

This is my 500th post!!!! I should have done something special to commemorate it, but totally didn't think about anything until I saw in my Blogger dashboard that this would be post 500. Oh well, lol

A bit of info about me as a nail polish addict/collector: I've been into polish all my life. But I didn't really get into the community until late summer/early fall 2011. It's been almost 7 year since I fell down the rabbit hole! Throughout all of that, I've sought to keep my collection on the smaller side. I lend toward minimalist, and my family of 3 (and a cat!) live in a 850 square foot apartment. It's plenty of space of us, but only if we don't fill it up :) So right now my collection is at 292 polishes and usually hovers right under 300 at all times.

Part of why I enjoy keeping my collection small is that I can give love to all my polishes!

Today I am giving love to a polish which I first bought in 2013: LynBDesigns Time and Relative Dimension in Space. What's awesome about this polish is that it's still being made!


Even though this is a Doctor Who themed polish, I've never actually used it for Doctor Who nail art!
I changed that today by adding some simple Bad Wolf graffiti over top.


Glitter Chevron Nail Art

Today's mani is inspired by Wondrously Polished. I cannot find the link to her exact blog post despite searching for quite a while. But you should totally follow her! She does amazing stuff.


I used China Glaze I'm Not Lion for my glitter. It was released in Fall 2012, but I adore it! My bottle is sadly more than half gone.
For the cremes, I used Painted Polish Stamped in Guava and Stamped in Seafoam. Alexa makes some amazing creme polishes that are 1-2 coaters and stamp wonderfully as well. I'm a sucker for a good creme and have quite a few of her "Stamped in" polishes.


16 May 2018

Zoya Sage

I'm here today with another swatch. I try to do these once a week to just enjoy my polish colors in all their own glory. Lately, I've been drifting toward my matte finish polishes, and today I have another polish along those lines.


Zoya Sage is part of the Satin line from Zoya. They are semi-matte polishes that have sort of a low shine to them. They aren't my favorite finish, but the colors are super pretty. Sage is a dusty mossy green. It applied really nicely in 2 coats.

14 May 2018

Mother's Day Nail Art: Holographic Gradient

I hope you had a good Mother's Day yesterday, whether you're a mom or a mom like figure or have a mom or mom like figure in your life.

For today's manicure, I did a super simple holographic gradient.



A few years ago, I had a custom polish made with Daily Hues Nail Lacquer (now closed). I had a bottle made for my mom and I. My mom adores holographic polish so of course that was the finish of the custom polish. The maker and I decided on the super cute name Mom! You're Grape! to go with the color of the polish.


I combined the custom polish with Cupcake Polish Look at You Go-Go.

13 May 2018

Cactus Nail Art

Have you noticed that cacti seem to be a trend lately? Perhaps it's just a new one in the Midwest, but I've seen cactus nail art ideas popping up on Pinterest lately too.
There are so many cute designs that I decided to do my own.


For my design, I used Illamasqua Load as a base coat. The cactus are done using Zoya Wyatt, and I added an accent of Zoya Chita.

10 May 2018

ManGlaze Santorum

For today, I have a swatch of ManGlaze Santorum.
Have you heard about ManGlaze? They've been around for a while but have kept their core small line the same for years. Still, they have some of the best matte polishes around! I have about half of their polishes in my collection. All of ManGlaze polishes are matte, and they have some dirty names too. Go ahead and Google Santorum, but be careful! Lol. Also of the polish bottle also have really cool art on the labels too.

Santorum applied really nicely in 2 coats. I did a top coat sandwich as I do when applying all my matte polishes to increase the wear time. A top coat sandwich is when you layer a coat of the matte polish, followed by top coat, followed by the matte polish.


07 May 2018

Disney Up! Inspired Nail Art

I was browsing Disney manicure ideas on Pinterest (my favorite place to find new nail art ideas!) and found some super cute ones inspired by the Disney movie Up. I love that movie, and the nail art looked cute and easy to do.
For today's manicure, I also have a photo tutorial so be sure to scroll down to check it out.



1. Start off with clean nails and apply your base coat. I use Glisten & Glow Base Coat.


2. Next apply your sky color. I'm using 2 coats of Barry M Blueberry.


3. Add clouds using a white polish and your dotting tool.


4. Create overlapping dots of all different colors for your balloons. I used acrylic paint for my balloons, but feel free to use nail polish.


5. Draw white lines coming from your balloons. They don't have to be perfect.
6. Let dry for a bit, and add a thick layer of top coat.






06 May 2018

ILNP Citrus Punch Flower Mani

Today's mani features ILNP Citrus Punch. Citrus Punch is an absolutely stunning coral holographic polish. It has a gold shimmer in it that makes it super pretty. As you move your nails, it catches the light and the color almost changes between more pink and more orange. This is a great summer color! 



I was inspired by a mani I found on Pinterest, but unfortunately there was no watermark on the image. It didn't let anywhere to credit the creator, and reverse image search didn't lead me anywhere either.

03 May 2018

Glam Polish Go Ahead...Make My Millennium

Hello! Sorry that my posting has been sort of spade. Kiddo got his tonsils out last Tuesday, and it was sort of rough. He was waking often in pain so I was pretty sleep deprived.
But he’s mostly better now, so back to regular posting!




This swatch is Glam Polish Go Ahead...Make My Millennium. I picked it up at Polish Con Chicago last September. I’ve actually worn it a few times since then, but I always forget to snap a photo before it chips or don’t get a photo that does it justice.


But I finally got a great shot of it! It’s a gorgeous, complex polish, and I’m so glad I own it. Unfortunately, this one is available in destashes only now.