Spring Créme á la Mode Box

Happy Spring everyone! It's finally here, sunshine and warmer temps time for some bright and happy nails and I've got just the box to satiate your bright fun desires!

*Press Samples*

This is the Spring Créme á la Mode box featuring four creme polishes from four super fabulous indie brands – Indigo Bananas, Literary Lacquers, Octopus Party Nail Lacquer and Digital Nails. All the names have a fun water related names and they are great!

The box will be available for preorder at the Créme á la Mode shop starting Sunday March 27 until Sunday April 3 and retails for $26 plus shipping. What a steal!!!!

Now let's get to the swatches shall we?!





I'll start off with this beautiful pastel blue leaning periwinkle creme, this is Digital Nails Water You Wading For? This beauty went on great in two coats, formula was a dream. Just a note, this photographed a bit darker blue than it actually is so I did color correct, which I don't do ever, so I just wanted to let you know if my skin looks a little off that is why. :)





Next this gorgeously bright mint green is Octopus Party Nail Lacquer The Algae-atic Sea. This also went on in two easy coats, was a smidge thinner than Digital Nails, but not difficult to work with at all! I wore this the day before St. Patty's so it was part of my green for the holiday! :)





The neutral in this box is the lovely Indigo Bananas Smoke on the Otter and this is a gorgeous light grey creme. This polish went on well in two coats, was a bit more watery than the last two, but still reached opacity with no issues at all. This polish plays great as a base for nail art, but is also lovely on its own.





And last but certainly not least we have Literary Lacquers Salmon Chanted Evening. This, my friends, is my spirit color. I am a sucker for pinky corals and this is bright and totally fits the bill. When I think of happy, I think of this color! This also went on quite easy in two coats!

These colors not only are great for spring, but I think they all pair nicely together as wells so I thought I'd use them all in a nail art look to show you some ideas of how to tie them all together.



I started this look out on all the nails using Smoke on the Otter as the base. On the pinky and thumb I used the dry brush method to create random brush strokes of all the colors – turned out rather 80s I think. Then on the ring an pointer fingers I sponged on a gradient of Salmon Chanted Evening, Water You Wading For and Algae-atic Sea over Smoke on the Otter – they made such a pretty gradient! Then to showcase how they stamp, I used one of my new Bundle Monster Festival plates and stamped using Algae-atic Sea, Water You Wading For and Salmon Chanted Evening – I think that nail ended up looking a bit like an Easter Egg.



Algae-atic Sea didn't show up to too well over the grey, but I bet it would stamp well over either a darker color or even white. They all stamped really well actually! And I think they all tie together perfectly and you could create any number of looks. I actually hear they water marble well too, but you know me, I cannot for the life of me do that well at all!

So yes, you all need this box. At $26 plus shipping it is a steal for these great spring colors. Once again the box is available for preorder starting Sunday March 27 until Sunday April 3 at the Créme á la Mode shop.

Créme á la Mode Box – shop – Facebook – Instagram – Facebook Fan Group

40 Great Nail Art Ideas – Red

Happy Friday everyone! We've made it. It's about 3 p.m. and I'm sneaking in this blog post between stuff at work on deadline. This weekend I'm headed to LA to visit my bestie and I can't wait. I leave later tonight. I didn't want to leave though, without putting this look up!!!



Today I'm sharing with you another Crumpet's Nail Tarts look with the prompt red + stained glass/mosaic. So I broke out my UberChic Beauty UberMat (You guys, if you don't have this there is a sale going on today I think you should check out!!!) and made some decals.



I'm still not a pro at the decal stuff guys, I need to find scissors to cut my decals closer to the size of my nail. I'm having so much difficulty with the transfer/clean up part.



So on to the details here. The three fingers that aren't decals are Fair Maiden Polish Holiday 2015, a lovely gift from the makers for past swatching work! This is a lovely red metallic glass fleck that just sparkles so much.



To make the decals I used Holiday 2015, Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Universal Loner and Darling Diva Polish The Alchemist trying to go for a three-finish red look. It was just so-so in my book. The stamp I used was from the UberChic Collection 2, plate 2-01. I think that looks like a mosaic right?

Anyway, I don't have much more time to chat, so I better get back to work now! But don't forget to check out all the other amazing red nail art looks at the inlinkz below!

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

40 Great Nail Art Ideas – Three Shades of Purple

Today I've got another nail art look to share with you in my 52-Week Crumpet's Nail Tarts Challenge.



My prompt for the week was three shades of purple and leopard. I know the natural thought here was, sure, go with a gradient. But I was not going to give in to that thought.

I thought, let's really get challenged, time to play with reverse stamping decals.



To start with this look, I painted two quick coats of the gorgeous Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Petal to the Metal on each nail.

Then I stamped a leopard image using KBShimmer Eyes White Open on a clear coat on my UberMat. Then I filled in the leopard spots using Glam Polish Daily Dilemma and Lemming Lacquer I'll Give You Darkness (which I admit almost looks black here but is actually a dark violet, I'll have to swatch it on a whole nail soon).



Then I put a quick dry top coat on the image, and waited a minute or two and then ta-da! I created a reverse stamping decal!





Then because I was getting tired and the idea of creating more decals seemed like it would take too much time, I wanted to round out the look on the remaining tow fingers. So I just freehanded stripes of the purples in an attempt to show them off better.



I think the final look was ok, but it wasn't really what I was hoping for. But I feel I actually challenged myself with this look, and I feel like I might be getting my nail art mojo back!!! What do you think?!?

And of course, make sure to check out the other talented ladies to see what they came up with for this fun three-purple prompt!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Créme á la Mode Winter 2015 Box

Happy Friday everyone! I have today off my day job, but I'm spending the day with my mom working with her dressed as an elf selling Christmas ornaments at a craft fair!

*Press Samples*

Today I have a super awesome box full of indie polish cremes, perfect for nail art and also just so beautiful on its own. This is the Créme á la Mode box, winter edition, which takes somewhat of a twist on normal holiday colors! Indies in the box are super great brands Indigo Bananas, Literary Lacquers, Octopus Party Nail Lacquer and Digital Nails.

And stay tuned until the end because I've put together some stamping to show off how these work in the nail stamping department!







First up we have the ever sultry Indigo Bananas Scarlet Night. This is a lovely squishy oxblood red polish, which is a bit crelly in consistency. Since it is a thinner formula this took three coats for opacity, but just look at that shine!







Next up we have is Literary Lacquers Breathing Dreams Like Air, this is a dusty purple creme polish with a lovely formula. Thicker than Scarlet Night, but applies like buttah in two perfect coats. Love this one, I want a sweater in just the same color!

Now we have a very non traditional holiday color, this is Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Malibu Stacy's Mom. Now while this isn't typical for winter, in California this can be a year round color. Especially since we're supposed to get a lot of rain this year, this will cheer me right up when I'm longing for some sunshine. This was also a lovely two coat formula, has a nice shiny finish.







Finally we have Digital Nails Arboreal. This is my type of color for sure, a lovely green leaning teal almost makes me think a bit of a bright juniper. I love this color with the oxblood red of Scarlet Night, they make a non typical Christmas pairing I hope to play with later this season for sure. This was also a great two coater formula.

Now to show you how they stamped, I used the same stamp to over three of the colors to show you how best to used these as stamps.



This is from right, Malibu Stacy's Mom, Arboreal and Scarlet Night over Breathing Dreams Like Air.



This is from right, Arboreal, Breathing Dreams Like Air and Scarlet Night over Mailbu Stacy's Mom.



Finally we have from right, Malibu Stacy's Mom, Breathing Dreams Like Air and Scarlet Night over Arboreal.

This is an amazing group of polishes for a super affordable price! The box, which is available for preorder starting on Sunday, is only $26 (plus shipping). The preorder is open for one week starting November 15 through November 21 at the Créme á la Mode Box Bigcartel site. Each of these polishes will be available in each of the brand's individual sites for regular price, but I would get them all now because the discount is so worth it! Since this is a preorder, the box will ship in the two weeks following the end of the preorder period.

Keep up with the Créme á la Mode Box via their Facebook page, Instagram account and the super fun fantabulous fan group!

What great nail art do you want to create with these four colors? The possibilities are endless!

I Trust Indies and You Should Too!

I know there has been a whole lot of negativity in the nail polish world, all thanks to a bad seed in the mix. I am here to say I have been wearing indies almost exclusively on my nails for more than two years. I have had zero issues.

Indies are amazing, you get to know the actual people behind the beautiful polishes you get to sport on your nails. And guess what?! The makers are amazing people who give awesome personalized service and put all their heart behind their wonderfully run small businesses.



So today I've joined forces with some other blogger friends to spread the indie love and show to you some very trusted brands I have purchased from – so if you're ever wondering if you should order or not from a brand, check out some of these posts! This is a guide that will show you frequent indie purchasers and their most trusted indie brands!

So let's get to it – these don't include alllll the brands I've purchased from, but this definitely includes many of my top favorites that I purchase from again and again!



1. Indigo Bananas



2. Smitten Polish



3. Literary Lacquers



4. Fair Maiden Polish



5. Octopus Party Nail Lacquer



6. Great Lakes Lacquer



7. ILNP



8. Darling Diva Polish



9. Ever After Polish



10. Painted Polish



11. Elevation Polish



12. Pahlish

Now like I said, I purchase from many more brands than these, but I just wanted to make a decent sized list of some brands that I trust and have had good experiences with. So go, shop away and have a ball. These brands will take care of you!

And don't forget to check out the other ladies participating in this round robin of love!!!

An InLinkz Link-up