Newsie Nail Novice Blogiversary Giveaway!

Hey guys! I've made it a whole year, can you believe it?! I can't even believe it. While this blog has in one form or another been around for a few years, today marks my first complete year of nail blogging! And of course, you better believe I am celebrating with a giveaway!


It's been quite a year and I've totally enjoyed my journey toward getting here! I've improved with my skills quite a bit, and my photos a ton! Let's take a walk down memory lane shall we?



I've definitely grown in my mani skills, each square equals a mani I chose from each month I've been blogging. As you can tell, I've grown in my skills, my range and my creativity! Especially in my photography too – getting a good light/light box combo was the total key!

In celebration of my one year Blogiversary, I reached out to a number of my favorite brands I have purchased from quite frequently over the year to see if they'd be interested in contributing to a celebration of my first year of nail blogging. I was so out-of-control happy that they all were so generous with their offers and I couldn't be more pleased. In honor of their generosity, I created a manicure highlighting my favorite indie polish brands.







Have you figured out which brands I love yet? Well here they are, starting with the thumb we have Literary Lacquers Megatron, then we have Indigo Bananas Galactic Halo (holo), Smitten Polish Figgy Pudding, Painted Polish Blinded by Bubbly and finally Fair Maiden Polish Merry Plum and Bright. Which polish here do you like the best?!

There is so much I can say about these brands! Literary Lacquers creates her polishes while being inspired by books!x How awesome is that? Indigo Bananas continues to impress me with creativity and unique polishes! Smitten Polish has the most awesome creamy holos! Painted Polish is holo microglitter heaven – perfect for an accent or just the craziest bling ever! And Fair Maiden Polish was a new-to-the-scene indie last year and they just blew everyone away with their quality and inventiveness. I could go on and on, but seriously, just look at the mani above, their polishes clearly speak for themselves. Not only are their creations spectacular, the ladies behind these brands are so kind and I have been such a happy customer over the past year.

Now, clearly I purchase and love a lot of other indie brands, these are just a few I have felt a special/more personal connection with the makers, which is half of what makes this nail polish world so extremely amazing!

My Blogiversary is just half a week before my actual birthday (March 4), so I consider this a combo giveaway, a way to say thanks to all my lovely readers and a way for all of us to celebrate together. In addition to the indies I've mentioned above, Beatometry, a USA based stockist of International brands (including the buzz-worthy Creative Shop Stamper) contacted me about a contribution as well! This world of nail polish is just so special and everyone is it just the best!

So let's celebrate by me showing you the goods! This giveaway is open internationally for some prizes only (I'll specify in the description). No giveaway only accounts, following just to unfollow after the giveaway (I know your game and you will be disqualified) and you must be 18 or older to enter.

Literary Lacquers – Three Polishes of the winner's choosing – Open Internationally

Indigo Bananas – Two prize packs of two polishes of winners' choosing (in stock only) –
Open Internationally

Swatches courtesy of Lavish Layerings

Smitten Polish – The recently released Valentine's Day collection – US Only

Painted Polish – A $20 Gift Certificate – Open Internationally, excluding shipping costs

Fair Maiden Polish – One bottle of Total Eclipse of the Heart – US Only

Beautometry – A nail plate of the winner's choice (she stocks Messy Mansion, Emily de Molly and more) – US Only

And finally from me, your Newsie Nail Novice – Two prize packs of a bottle of L'Oreal Masked Affair. Which I know is not an indie polish, but is a much-sought-after hard-to-find drugstore holo. – US Only

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Ok the Rafflecopter widget is listed above, if you can't load it, you can always link to it here.

Model City Polish Review

So at the beginning of this year, I said I wanted to try some new-to-me indies and I wanted to share my experiences with you all. Today I am pleased to be fulfilling that goal a bit!



I first discovered Model City Polish when one of their glitter toppers was included in my Santa's Secret Stash bag (which included a few indies I hadn't tried before). Impressed with the quality/beauty of the glitter topper, I decided I should check out this brand.

Then on Instagram I started seeing some amazing swatches from Model City Polish's spring collection. I seriously wanted to buy more than I did, but I settled on three polishes, and I'm here to share some shots of them with you today!





This beauty is Primrose and trust me when I tell you that my photos don't really do it a ton of justice. This polish is a gorgeous light yellow (though in some shots it leans green, on me it leans more yellow, my guess is it depends on your skin color) with matching flakies and a subtle holo finish. The formula is a tad on the thick side, but not difficult to work with, more like it applies like a creamy butter. The swatch above is two coats.





Next up is Dark Roast, which isn't part of the spring collection but is a stunning holo so I had to have it! Brown is not a color I typically gravitate toward, but there is something about this creamy brown that made it stand out from other brown holos I have seen. Application was just absolutely gorgeous and this reached this opacity in two thin coats. Side Note: Please excuse my cuticle on my middle finger, it was not cooperating the evening I swatched this!



And last but certainly not least is the color that drew me to the spring collection in the first place. This is Fritillaria – a gorgeous peach polish with darker coral flakies and a subtle holo finish. Application was similar to Primrose above, a little on the thick side, this is two coats. This polish has a lovely golden flash and there is just so much going on. And of course I had to add some art to this polish, because I can never leave well enough alone!





I used a small nail art brush to apply this waterfall design using various spring colors! I had to add in the coral to bring out the coral flakies and then I added the purple and green colors because I thought they were all bright and fun and reminded me of springtime.

An additional note, Fritillaria was a bit more difficult to remove than your average polish. Not glitter difficult, but not creme easy. Just somewhere in the middle, my guess is the flakies make it this way. Not enough of a reason not to go for this gorgeous unique beauty though! 

So in conclusion, I really enjoyed checking out Model City Polish! You should check out the rest of the spring collection, there are some serious gems in it (I reaaaaaly wanted to get Pennyroyal, but I had to hold myself back!). I will definitely be watching out for this brand in the future!

Let me know, have you tried out Model City Polish? What are some of your favorites?!

Gold to teal gradient with stamping

So I was cleaning out my phone yesterday and I couldn't believe how many looks I had created that I never actually got around to blogging to!

So here and there, I'll be updating you guys with a post from the vault. Please be kind to me when posting these, most were before my better lighting and photo set up, so the photos are much more amateurish than what I've been striving to post.



To start today's look, I started with three thin coats of ILNP Iconic. Iconic is a gorgeous gold holo polish with really subtle violet undertones. I just love this gold, it is just a spectacular holo! I remember application being on the sheerer side, so I think it needed at least three coats for this application (but I did this mani back in October, so it is completely possible I am remembering this incorrectly).



For the next step I used KBShimmer Up and Cunning to sponge on the teal gradient. I believe this was my first holo gradient and I can't believe I haven't revisited this technique since. Definitely need to break out the makeup sponges again soon! Oh and that polish bottle was some nail mail I had just revived from Aliquid Lacquer, another vault look I'll be showing you at some point!



To finish off the look I used Essie The Perfect Cover Up to stamp this geometric abstract design using my Lily Anna 08 plate!

That's it for today, I hope you liked this look from the vault! Tomorrow I've got a review of polishes from Model City Polish, a new to me indie! One of my goals was to try a bunch of new indie polishes, and this is a review of just one of those experiences. And you'll definitely want to check back in at the end of this week for my very first Blogiversary, including an epic giveaway!

Green and Gold Skittle Nails

Hi everyone, today I am featuring two polishes I paired together using nail vinyls to create a fun skittle nail look.



To create this look I used two really amazing polishes, which unfortunately are not available for sale anymore. So I'm sorry to make you drool at these hard to find polishes, but they just paired too well together!



Ok so this amazing green polish is Octupus Party Nail Lacquer Chimera. This lovely polish is a olive-leaning green polish with a holo finish and various multicolored flakies scattered throughout and subtle gold flashes of color. The mastermind behind Octupus Party Nail Lacquers, Dave, released this beauty on his birthday and I'm not quite sure if it will be back at some point or not, but you never know with him. He likes to keep his fans happy!



The gold polish I used was Different Dimension Armstrong, part of the Shooting Star Series which was inspired by Astronauts. Armstrong is a beautiful bronze holo polish with tiny copper flakies scattered throughout. The holo in this one is very strong in direct sunlight, below.



Overall I just really loved how this skittle came together. I like how each polish had its own subtle hint of flakies, which I'm really starting to like the most regarding this whole flakie craze. I think that flakies are best served as a subtle extra to a color or look which gives it an extra unique little something. I like when there is a just a tiny scattering of flakies, because flakies all on their own look a little textured to me, and I was never much into the textured trend. I like smooth shiny nails! I also really like how the gold flashes of Chimera complimented the bronze shine of Armstrong.

I also just really love skittle nails because I wear them longer because it takes me longer to get bored of them!

What do you think about this whole flakie craze? You like it in your face, or as a subtle extra? Or with added holo?

P.S. Stay tuned everyone! I've got my blogiversary coming up on Friday and you won't want to miss the epic giveaway I am hosting to celebrate!

Geometric and Blue/Green/Yellow Leadlight Nails

This week's Pick N Mix Challenge was Geometric and Blue/Green/Yellow. Also in the Stamp One, Stamp All Ten group, the prompt was leadlighting. I combined all three to create this look I'm sharing today!



To begin, I pulled out Indigo Bananas Bridal Veil, which is a silver flakie polish that glows indoors and has a great holo finish when outside or under direct light!



For the next step, I stamped my nail with geometric images from Bundle Monster Plate BM-605.



Then to complete the look, adding in the leadlight technique and the Blue/Green/Yellow combination, I broke out my Rica Squish the Rainbow jelly polishes and filled in various geometric shapes!

I really liked the overall look, it reminded me a lot of the 1980s, with it's almost neon various shapes!

That's it for today, my internet at home has been terribly spotty lately (and I haven't had the time to duke it out with the cable company), so I won't write much more. I got some awesome nail mail this week (if you're following me on Instagram, you most likely got a preview), and I hope to play with some of those as soon as I get some time!

As always, don't forget to check out the others taking part in this challenge, listed below!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Literary Lacquers Review

*Press Sample*

Today I am honored to share with you some polishes that were sent to me to review from an indie brand I have been a frequent customer of.

Literary Lacquers is a nail polish brand that combines the best to two worlds, books and nail polish. For a true book nerd such as myself, this is super exciting. Amy, the wonderful creator, gets the inspiration for her polishes between the pages of books, making her creations special on a whole new level.



I have three different polishes to share with you today and a nail art look I created with one of them, let's dive in shall we?





This gorgeous polish is named Rebecca, Always Rebecca is an eggplant, deep purple holographic polish. This polish has a linear holographic finish with medium-sized scattered holographic sparkle throughout. I used two coats for the opacity above and used HK Girl Top Coat. There were zero application issues. I really really love the color of this polish, it is so vampy and beautiful, I just know I will wear it frequently in the future.

Amy created this polish in inspiration of the book "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier. Here is what Amy shares about the novel in the description of this polish.

In the novel, our unnamed narrator, a young girl known only to us as The Second Mrs. deWinter becomes obsessed with the supposed perfection of her husbands deceased first wife, Rebecca. She is constantly comparing herself to Rebecca and supposes that everyone that she meets in her new life is also comparing her unfavorably to the accomplished, beautiful and socially connected Rebecca who has been dead for less than a year.





Next up we have Porco Rosso from Literary Lacquers 2014 Community Collection. The idea for this polish was from Schette of Schette EssaisBeauté, in inspration of Porco Rosso, an animated character from a Japanese adventure film.

This polish is a lovely Earthy red toned holographic polish with gold flakies which come out to play in indirect light. This polish went on well in two coats and is pictured with HK Girl Top Coat. I really love the tone of this polish, it is definitely unique in my collection, and really reminds me of Pantone's Color of the Year – Marsala.





And last but certainly not least, we have Mysterious Irrevocable Sacred. This polish is just an amazing blurple holographic polish with these lovely blue and violet glass fleck flakies, which give it such beautiful flashes in the shade. This polish looks purple most of the time, but in outdoor lighting, it leans more navy blue, almost the perfect shade of jean holo. This polish went on like butter in two coats and it topped with HK Girl Top Coat.

This polish was inspired by "Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail" by Cheryl Strayed. Here is what Amy shares about the book.

Wild is Cheryl Strayed's first-person memoir of her 1,100-mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail through California and Oregon to the border of Washington State. After Cheryl’s mother died, she spiraled down into heroin one night stands which led to the destruction of her marriage. After her divorce, with very little left to lose, she decided to embark on a challenging hike despite having very little experience, hoping to save her own life as she explored the wilderness. This book is jam packed with truth and vivid description, from the importance of the right footwear to how to accept grief without allowing it to obliterate us. This book literally made me laugh and cry, sometimes in the same paragraph.

And because I cannot leave well enough alone, I had to add some sort of art to at least one of these polishes! I hope it doesn't steal the beauty away from the polish itself, but I think it just adds dimension to it!





That last shot is one I took outside yesterday, which shows how in some lighting Mysterious Irrevocable Sacred can lean more blue than purple. This polish is definitely a chameleon, but in the best way possible. I have nothing like it in my collection.

For this nail art I broke out a Bundle Monster QA88 plate I won from Cathy at More Nail Polish, and stamped various designs from different parts of the plate. I stamped using a white polish, and when I used a quick dry top coat, the pigment did bleed into the stamped image a bit, but I like the effect. To give it more dimension and to help the look pull more blue, I added dots using OPI Eurso Euro.

Literary Lacquers polishes can be purchased at the Literary Lacquers Etsy Shop. These polishes retail for $12 for a 15ml bottle of polish. Literary Lacquers are 3 Free, meaning it is free of Formaldehyde, Toluene, and Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP).

For more information and photos of upcoming collections, make sure to follow Literary Lacquers on Facebook and Instagram.

So what do you think of these polishes? Have you ever tried Literary Lacquers before? What polishes are your favorite from Amy?

*This polish was sent to me for my honest review.

My Anti Valentine's Nails

So we have finally reached the last day in the Love is the Air Challenge Your Nail Art prompts! And today is Anti Valentine's Day nails. Well after a week full of pink and hearts and lovey-dovey nails, I consider anything that doesn't include pink, hearts etc. anti-Valentine's.


So for this look, I wanted something grey, monotone and the opposite of anything pretty and love related. So naturally I turned to Pintrest and typed in "grey nail art" and was eventually connected to this LOVELY look by Pshiiit!  

And I had Zoya Evvie, and a holographic similar to FNUG Psychedelic - ILNP Mega (L) - so I was determined to make this my Anti Valentine's Day look, which humorously enough, I'll actually be wearing on Valentine's Day (I'm typing this the night before Feb. 14). It's perfect though because I am so over pink at the moment.

I used nail vinyls to create the lines separating Evvie from Mega and then used acrylic paint to freehand the black lines. This was my first time using acrylic paint in a nail art look and I have no idea why I waited so long! Look at how opaque that black looks! So crisp!!!

Anyway, so we've reached the end of another Challenge Your Nail Art challenge! I enjoyed it! I think though, this was a bit too much Valentine's theme (though I sort of did that to myself by joining all those other prompts with V-Day looks).

Coming up, I'll think I'll still continue the 52 Week Pick N Mix challenges once a week, but I need to show you guys some swatches of some new to me brands I've been testing out!

Don't forget to check out the other Anti Valentine's Day nails below, I'm sure they were more creative than mine were! 

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Happy Valentine's Day

Well we finally made it to Valentine's Day! I hope you have a happy one, whether you celebrate it or not! It's a three day weekend here in the United States, so me and my husband will be celebrating that with some much needed time away!

So let's get to today's look. Obviously, the prompt for the Challenge Your Nail Art Love is in the Air is Valentine's Day.



To start this look I used two coats of Fair Maiden Polish Total Eclipse of the Heart. This polish is bright pink and it is so beautiful! It has purple flashes with it's holo and it is just so pretty! It went on in two lovely coats, a buttery perfect application.



Inspired by those violet flashes, I used Essie No More Film to stamp the images using Bundle Monster BM-H17 (cupid and hearts) and Winstonia 102 (birds).



I wanted to keep it very simple for the final Valentine's Day look! I'm not going to lie, I'm super happy to be done with hearts and love for awhile. Not that I don't appreciate it all, it's just all a little too cutesy for me to do so many days in a row!

Don't forget to check out the other gals of the challenge!

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Love Letters Nail Art

Today's Challenge Your Nail Art Love is in the Air prompt is Love Letters. To start my look out I broke out one of my newest polishes Smitten Polish Accidental Nudist.



Accidental Nudist went on in two thin coats and has a great formula. When I purchased it I thought it would lean more on the gold side, but I guess it just leans pink on my skin. Or it could have been the lighting I was using. Either way, it's a gorgeous pink leaning nude holo polish!



I started the look by stamping all of my nails with the cursive writing from MoYou London Scholar 02 plate. I love this plate, but am really disappointed with how large some of the images are. I bought it specifically to use it for the typewriter image it has on it, but the image is far too large to fit on one of my nails. A true disappointment.



To finish off the look I stamped various heart designs over the writing, to make it a love script sort of look. For the images I used Bundle Monster H-18 and Winstonia 102.

This look was really really lovey-dovey to me, almost too much so. But I am truly in love with the base, so I'll definitely have to pull that out again soon.

Don't forget to check out the other gals in this challenge at the inlinkz below!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

I Love the Color Teal

Today's prompt for the Challenge Your Nail Art Love is the Air challenge is I Love the Color... And if anyone knows me I really love the color teal (especially on my nails!).



So instead of just choosing one hue of teal, I chose them all! To start the mani, since I can't do without holo, I started with two coats of Painted Polish Trashed on Teal, which is a teal jelly polish packed with holo microglitter! It is really beautiful on it's own!



Then I decided I wanted to do stripes over the Trashed on Teal, in sort of a ombre look! For the stripes I used straight nail vinyls with the polishes: Sally Hansen OMGhost, Essie Mint Candy Apple, Zoya Wednesday and OPI AmazON AmazOFF.



And since it's Valentine's week, I decided to use dots to create a heart. I started with two thin coats of Mint Candy Apple and then used a dotting tool to appy a heart using OMGhost, Wednesday and AmazON AmazOFF.



I really looooooved this look! One of my favorites I've done in awhile, probably because it features sparkles and my favorite color, teal!

What is your favorite color and have you ever put it together in a single look? I'd love to see it! Also, don't forget to check out the other ladies participating in this super fun challenge!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up