San Jose Sharks Playoff Nails

You guys, the San Jose Sharks are in the Stanley Cup Finals. You don't know how special that statement is to me. Their playoff run has been my life for the past 6 weeks.

They have never ever been to the finals, meaning they are the one of the top two teams in all of the National Hockey League. I know my nail friends aren't that excited about this, but you guys, this is such a special moment in my and my husband's life!

So of course I had to do some nails to commemorate this special experience.

I actually did these nails for Game 6 of the conference finals, which we have never won before either. Mike and I were at the game and I wanted to sport some unique fun supportive nails for my team.

I have been seeing pond manis all over the place and have always had the technique on my to do list for the longest time! So this is a pond mani using ILNP Harbour Island, another perfect Sharks teal! I started with one layer of Harbour Island, then stamped white sharks using a Bundle Monster plate, then I painted another layer of Harbor Island, then stamped black sharks using the same plate. I topped the whole thing off with another layer of Harbour Island.

I love the whole effect. It looks like sharks swimming in the water and they are out for blood. And my boys on the San Jose Sharks are out for blood, this is their year!!!! (I HOPE).

You see my team has had a really long history of performing so well in the regular season then falling short every playoff season. This year is different, this year they have proved everyone wrong and I'm just so happy to be here experiencing it all.

Want to know something else amazing. I did these nails LAST TUESDAY. It's not Monday, Memorial Day, and there isn't a chip on them! Can you believe it. I sported them all weekend for this girls weekend away I am wrapping up right now and I just took the above photo ten minutes ago.

The Sharks are starting Game 1 of the playoffs tonight and I can't wait to see them play! I'm nervous and excited and I just knew I had to get these nails up on my blog stat!

I hope you all had fabulous weekends, and sorry I'm gushing so much about my team, but you guys, it's the STANLEY CUP FINALS. AHHHHHH. Can't wait for tonight!!!!!

Bow Polish Review

Hey everyone! Happy Friday, I hope you're all getting ready for a fun three-day weekend. I'm headed down to San Luis Obispo with some girlfriends and we are going to have some super R&R!

Today I've got two polishes I purchased a few months ago from Bow Polish via the Color 4 Nails website. Bow Polish is part of Dance Legend, a Russian nail polish brand, which is why I order through Color 4 Nails, a US stockist of the brand.

Let's get to the pretties shall we?

For my first try of the brand I purchased two polishes from the brand's Out of Space collection. These are both purple and definitely remind me a bit of galaxies, so totally on theme.











My first impressions of this brand. Unique polishes, different finishes but the bottle. OY VEY the bottle. Impossible to pose with and that square lid?!? Makes application a bit difficult as well. If these polishes weren't so pretty, I would just say screw it!

This is Bow Polish Good God. It is a purple to orangish to green shifty multichrome polish with holographic specks in it. It is sooooooo shifty and beautiful and was opaque in two coats. If the cap didn't make the application so awkward, I might pull this one out more often. But man is this galaxy in a bottle. This is just begging for some awesome star and constellation stamping for sure!













Next up we have Bow Polish Zodiac (currently sold out on Color 4 Nails, sorry). This is a gorgeous royal purple jelly polish with holographic specks and red shifty flakies. The red flakies make this polish glow like WOAH. This polish was beautiful. Being a jelly it needed three coats for opacity but the flakes didn't stick up or make application at all difficult.

The sun shot I have above is a tinge on the golden side because it was late in the day as the sun was setting, but man, it really shows how much this polish sparkles and glows in the sun. But even in indirect light this polish is a stunner.

So overall, happy with these polishes as they are unique to my collection, but the bottle really turns me off from the brand. If you're going to go with that square bottle, at least have an easier cap to apply with (like Butter London).

Have you tried any Bow Polishes? Which did you like that I haven't checked out?!

Tis the Season for Neons!!!

Hey everyone, it's that time of year again! Time to break out those amazing neons and making screamingly bright and happy nails.

For this look today I broke out some of my favorite neons, the Indigo Bananas The 10th Element. If you ever wanted a complete collection of neons – this is it my friends. It has everything from a searing red to even a neon teal! This set is awesome, and it is available in mini size too, something I love about Indigo Bananas. For full disclosure, part of this collection was sent to me last year to review, but I loved them so much I completed the collection myself.

So this is the first time this year I've broken these bad boys out and the Bundle Monster Festival Plates collection to create this super awesome look!!!



This is a look I've been wanting to do for the longest time. I just never had the perfect tree stamp and with the newest Bundle Monster Festival Plate collection, I finally do. I'm absolutely in love with this look – it is everything.



Now to the details. To start with, I painted my ring finger with three coats of Painted Polish Sleigh Bells Silver (which I'm thinking is retired now, but it's beautiful!). Sleigh Bells Silver is packed with silver holo microglitter and bar glitter (which I typically don't like but like that it helps with the coverage here). Then I stamped the single chevrons from BM-S305 plate using Painted Polish Midnight Mischief.



For the gradient I started with one coat of LiLoo, the neon orange. Then on a makeup sponge I applied LiLoo, Neon the 10th Element (pink) and Phlogiston Paradise (the BEST purple creme there is) and I moved up and down on the LiLoo nails to create the gradient. To create a starry sky atmosphere I added a single layer of ILNP My Private Rainbow X. Then I used Painted Polish Midnight Mischief again to stamp the tree image from BM-S306.



This scene is quitessential summer to me and boy I know it is just around the corner. My main beat at work is education, so when the summer comes work tends to be a little lighter hearted at least. Looking forward to it this year! And these nails are the perfect way to do so! :)

What gets you and your nails in the summer seasonal spirit?!

San Jose Sharks Hockey Nails

Hey guys, I'm gonna be real with you for a second. I'm having a real awful day. Like my single down day for the month where everything just weighs super heavy on my shoulders and all the bad things have happened all at once and I'm just in a super awful head space at the moment.

But in an effort to turn that around I thought I'd try and focus on something happy that's currently going on in my life for the moment – one of my other big hobbies: Being a San Jose Sharks Hockey fan!

Of course I  had to do nails in support of my team which is in the Western Conference Finals (third round of the playoffs) in the National Hockey League. Our team has never gotten this far and been this successful (we've been in the third round before, we've just never been as good as we are now).

In the gloomy mind space I'm currently in, the San Jose Sharks are my one ray of sunshine and thankfully I'm headed to Game 3 in the Shark Tank tonight and I cannot wait!!!



So let me get to the details of these nails! I really like how subtle they are but also how well the coordinated with my jersey and the team colors! I started with a base of Literary Lacquers Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster (the perfect Sharks teal). This is a gorgeous bright teal linear holo with matching micro glitter and a matching blue flash. Opaque in two perfect coats. This polish is one of the only in my collection with a super visible fill line! Uh oh, I might actually neeeeeeed a back up!

For the tips I used a nail vinyl guide for the black tips, then carefully with another guide, added the light orange color (a Kiko color I got in Europe).



The San Jose Sharks have been a big part of my life for such a long time. It's where my husband and I go on most of our date nights (we have a 10-pack of tickets), or if we're not at the game, our night out will be watching it somewhere.

We even got engaged at a game! Super cute story, he was a text away from putting it on the jumbotron, but I would have kiiiiiiiillllllled him. Instead it was during the national anthem, he pulled the ring out of his pocket and said, "Let's do this!" Totally low key and perfect for me! No one noticed which is just how I prefer it!



A few weekends ago my bro and his girlfriend came up for the game we went to in Round 2 (which we won, yay!) and we had so much fun.





In San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose, they have all these signs out. Playoff atmosphere is in the air.

True story, after that game I lost my voice for two days since I was cheering so loudly. We'll see if I have a voice tomorrow! Hahahaha!



So Cheers to the Sharks! I think this might actually be their year and I couldn't be more excited to be a part of it!

Red Berry Holo Indie Comparison Post

So this has been awhile coming. Over the last few months, I have been gravitating toward a particular shade of polish – red/berry/coral etc. I thought it was finally time to compare them side by side as I have done in the past. So here we go!



I thought for the longest time I kept buying the same color over and over, but I discovered, I'm actually not!

Although a lot of these colors look similar, they actually have subtle differences and are all special in their own special way!

Just some information to get started with, each of these is show in direct light to show the holo finish and indirect light to show any other characteristics. I used no top coats in this post so you can see each polish's original finish! I've linked to the polishes that are still for sale, identified which are limited edition or a Hella Holo Custom and might not be available for sale at the moment. So let's get started with the first set of five polishes shall we?!?!









First up we have red/coral holos! From left to right is Dreamland Lacquer Out, Damned Clot!, ILNP Closure, Dreamland Lacquer Coral of the Story (an HHC special), Fair Maiden Polish Worth Fighting For and Fair Maiden Polish Rio Carnival (E).

The most similar in holo finishes are the Dreamlands, Out, Damned Clot! and Coral of the story have vivid holo flames but the similarities stop there. Out, Damned Clot! is a classical red (like a Coke bottle), while Coral of the story is a bright pink leaning coral with a bit of an orange flash. Closure and Worth Fighting For are a similar cool leaning red, but their finishes are totally different. Closure has larger holo particles creating a scattered holo finish along with the linear finish and Worth Fighting For has a gorgeous blue flash in indirect lighting. Rio Carnival E is the one that is the most different in this group, being more of a more orange/brown leaning brick red holo polish.









Next up we have some more reds, but these tend to be more on the berry leaning side without acutally being berry! From left to right we have Darling Diva Polish Sexy Mother Fucker, Literary Lacquers For the Rest of Us (an HHC special), Smitten Polish (now Dreamland Lacquer) Kenyan Sunset (another HHC special), Carpe Noctem Cosmetics I Wish You the Berry Best and Darling Diva Polish The Queen Diva (a special with purchase polish).

I think Sexy Mother Fucker is clearly the most classic red of this group, though it is still darker than Out, Damned Clot!, from the last group. For the Rest of Us and Kenyan Sunset look similar in color, but For the Rest of Us has more of a metallic finish and a less visit linear holo finish. I Wish You the Berry Best was the sheerest of this group, and leans just a tad more magenta lighter than the previous two. The Queen Diva is the pinkest of this group, but it has those holo shards that were not so popular and dry really textured (but this was a free with purchase polish I think).









Next up we have our more purple/berry/orchid/magenta holos! From left to right we have Smitten Polish Radiant Orchid, Dreamland Lacquer Dragonberry (an HHC special), Indigo Bananas Polish of Unusual Quality (P.O.U.Q), Painted Polish Mystery Holo Un (a limited edition special) and Fair Maiden Polish Pirate Queen.

The most similar here are Radiant Orchid and Dragonberry, but they are made with a different holo pigment an I think Radiant Orchid leans just a tad more purple while Dragonberry leans just a bit brighter. POUQ is the vampiest of the group an dlooks a bit similar to Pirate Queen, but I think POUQ has a bit more linear holo glow to it. Mystery Holo Un has the most holo pigment in it but also has matching microglitter in its finish.









Now for the final grouping, the vampiest/wine purple holos of the bunch. We all know I have a TON of these colors lying around. And I've spoken about them in previous posts, but these were newer additions to my stash so I thought it was time for their day in the sun! From left to right Cupcake Polish Blood Hound, Firecracker Lacquer The Unbeatable Wand, Literary Lacquers Soul Within Me Burning (The Color Box special), Glam Polish Forbode and Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Evil Live!

Now the first two look similar in color, but Blood Hound is a straight super vivid wine colored holo. The Unbeatable Wand has these red sparks of color in it and dries down to a slightly textured finish. Soul Within Me Burning is more a classic purple leaning vampy wine with a golden glow to it. Forbode has actual golden flakies in it which gives of a super golden flash but dries down completely textured. Evil Live! is the most black leaning of the bunch, but it has a really beautiful muddy red/brown glow to its linear holo finish.

If you are interested in any of my other comparison posts, come check out the Indie Fall Holos, Coral Polish Showdown, Indie Metallic Holos and my vampy holo polish comparisons.

Well that's it for today folks, that sure was a TON of work to type up so I hope I've had a chance to highlight the similarities and the differences between these polishes!!! I'd love to know which color family is your favorite and which of these you think fills a hole in your collection!?

Anchor & Heart May Fan Favorites Duo

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today I have a fantastic pairing of polishes to share with you!

*Press Samples*

These polishes are the Anchor & Heart Lacquer May Fan Favorite Duo. The Fan Favorite Duos are limited edition polishes that are released monthly by the brand and are usually inspired by Sunken Treasures (mystery polishes) that have attracted a lot of attention from the Anchor & Heart Facebook fan group. 

The duo will be available to purchase 9 p.m. EST Thursday May 12and will cost $18 plus shipping.

Let's get to these beauties shall we?!

First up I have Anchor & Heart Lacquer Mermaid Kisses. This is a light and bright pink with pink (looks blue/violet to me) glass fleck and pink shimmer. This polish was a delight to see indoors and out. In direct light you can really see the shimmer out to play and in the shaded light you can see the glass fleck in all its beauty. 

The polish was on the thicker side, consistency wise, but was not difficult to apply and for me worked perfectly in two coats. 

Next up I have the queen of all glitter toppers. This is Anchor & Heart Lacquer Swimming Pool Mermaid. This polish is packed with different types of glitter (gold, holo and matte) in all different sizes and shapes (circles, hexes, rhombus, square). The application was not difficult, I used one coat over Mermaid Kisses and I thought they looked swell together. 

For someone who isn't into glitter toppers too much, I really enjoyed this special treat because it had so much going on and was fun to examine what made it on to each nail! 

This polish was originally crafted for the group admin of the Facebook fan group. She said it reminds her of when she was a child and pretended to be a mermaid while swimming in her grandmother's pool. 

I think both of these are bright and fun and perfect for the incoming warmer weather. It's always pool weather in California, so I definitely see myself breaking these out for a fun pool outing soon! 

Once again, in case you scrolled through, these limited edition polishes will be available for purchase from Anchor & Heart Lacquer 9 p.m. EST Thursday May 12 for $18 plus shipping. 

So what do you think? I was super impressed with these and have really enjoyed my interactions with this new indie brand so far! I hope you check them out soon!

Anchor & Heart Lacquer – Etsy Shop – Facebook – Instagram – Facebook Fan Group