The Pines at Midnight Nail Art

Hey everyone, how are you all doing?! I hope you're well. My life has been super busy as of late, between work, Sharks games and volunteering at a Christmas tree lot, I've had zero time for nail art, which makes me sad. This is the perfect time of year for festive nail art, and I've zero chances to create something special.

But today I'm sharing with you a look I created earlier in the fall when I visited Lake Tahoe, quite possibly my favorite place on earth. Since pine trees are slightly seasonal, I thought I would share these now.



I call this look The Pines at Midnight, because just look at the gorgeous sky scattered with stars.



Anyway to get this look, I started with a base of ILNP Interstellar, which is the perfect name for this polish since it basically is the night sky! It is a multichrome that shifts from teal to indigo with scattered holo pieces, which totally look like stars to me. I think this is opaque in three easy coats.



To create the trees and their shadows, I broke out my UberChic plate 2-02 and used Painted Polish Midnight Mischief and Essie No Place Like Chrome and a clear stamper to do layered stamping.



I really liked this final look, really reminds me of a cold winter sky. The high here in the Bay Area is 53 degrees today, and for California that is mighty cold. So this look seems appropriate for today.

Now concerning holiday nails – what do you think I should create – once I get an evening to myself?!

Fall Leaves Nail Art Extravaganza!

Since holiday nails are just around the corner, I needed to get all my fall leaves manis into one quick post!



Fall colors and nail art are just my absolute favorite so I just had to purchase the UberChic Beauty Lovely Leaves plate and create all the fall manis! So here we go! Since all the looks are made with the same plate, I'll just focus on the polishes and techniques used in each mani.





I kicked off the season with this beautiful look. The base of this mani is Illyrian Polish Blue Moon. I used a clear stamper to create this double stamping look using an Essie polish (the purple) and Jolie Polish Orange Dahlia Flower stamping polish.





For the base of this one I did a gradient using Dreamland Lacquer Red Jamie and Dreamland Lacquer Sassenach. For stamping I used Kiko Melon, a polish I picked up in Europe a few years ago.





This next look has a base of Fair Maiden Polish Throwin' Elbows (sorry not available anymore) with a layer of ILNP Glory (flakies) on top. Then I used my MoYou London Pro Plate 1 and KBShimmer Eyes White Open to stamp the lines. Then I used a clear stamper an created a decal on the stamper which I later used for placement. I filled the leave image in with Smitten Polish (now Dreamland) The First Lobster, one of my all time favorite polishes, but is no longer available.





For this look I began by painting my pointer, middle and pinky nails with Painted Polish Tide Pool Teal and I painted the thumb and ring finger with Color Club Cosmic Fate. Then I used the opposite polishes to stamp on the images.





For this look I started with a base of ILNP Greatness and then stamped the image using Color Club Beyond.





And last but not least, we have my favorite of the bunch. This is featuring Fair Maiden Polish Shadow of Your Heart as a base, more stripes from my MoYou London 01 plate, and leaves colored in with Fair Maiden Polish Roaming Fire. I used a clear stamper to create and place the leaves on the nail.

And that is it everyone, quick and easy, but some of my favorite looks and polishes of the year. I'm dying to know, which are our favorites?!

ILNP Summer 2016 Picks

Hey everyone, happy hump day. Hope your weeks are going swell so far. Today I have three polishes from ILNP’s latest summer release.

Sorry this is a bit, late, I got these three beauties during the INLP preorder last month, and I’ve been meaning to share them ever since. They are all now readily available to purchase. I’m running this blog on a more inconsistent basis, and I guess I’m sorry, but every time I do sit down to type it’s because I want to post and share with you – so I think the quality of my posts are better. And I hope you do too.

Anyway, let’s get to the swatches shall we?









First up we have ILNP That Other Girl. This is a blinging rose gold holo polish packed with gold, holo and pink iridescent flakies to create an almost metallic beautiful rose gold polish. Since this polish depends on flakies for opacity, I needed three coats to avoid visible nail line. Formula was easy to work with.









Next up we have ILNP Storytelling. This is a vampy plum purple which has subtle red shimmer and scattered holo flakies that ILNP does so well. This polish was not as shifty as I hoped it would be, but it is still pretty gorgeous. I need to wear it out a bit more before I can really judge just how shifty it is. It is also sheer, so it took three coats for opacity, but it had an easy to work with formula.









Last but not least we have ILNP Interstellar. What a perfect name for this polish because it literally the perfect base for galaxy nails. This polish is sooooo shifty and beautiful, I was in love at first stroke. This is a beautiful teal polish that shifts to a dark navy almost indigo blue with scattered holo flakies. The holo particles look like stars and the shifts in this remind me of the night sky. I’m so in love with this polish. Also on the sheerer side, three coats for opacity. Easy to work with formula.







And because I thought these three polishes would look good together, I took a few single chevron nail vinyls and created this look to see them paired together.

So what do you think? What did you pick up from the INLP Summer release? A lot of their shimmers were pretty, but they seemed pretty sheer to me so I held back. Shimmer and shift seem

Summer Nails with Bundle Monster

Hey everyone Happy Friday. Sorry I've been so sporadic on my blog lately, the NHL playoffs and end of school year wrap up pieces at work have really put a crimp in my posting schedule. I've still been playing with polish in my off time, just haven't had the moments needed to craft a post!

But that changes today! Last week I received a Bundle Monster order and I just couldn't wait to put together a look using my new products!



To create this look I used Bundle Monster's new Electric Pastel Electro Glo Nail Stamping polishes, plate BM-S310 from the Festival Collection, Bundle Monster's new double-sided glass stamper, Painted Polish Midnight Mischief and ILNP My Private Rainbow X.



To start this look I painted a single coat of Midnight Mischief, a wonderful one-coat black creme polish. Then because it pains me a little to have a look that has no holo at all (even if it does boast neons), I added a coat of My Private Rainbow X to all my nails.



Then I placed a dab of each of the six Electro Glo stamping polishes over the stamping image and scraped a bit back and forth.



After picking up the image with the new clear stamper, I did my best to place the image on the nail. I know I probably could have done a little better, but to be honest when I was creating this I was in a hurry for sure!



Looking at it again now I can see that I was a little too excited about these stamping polishes and I didn't pick up the most crisp images. No fault of the stamper at all, just my excitement of the brightness and my bit of a hurriedness while creating these nails. This stamper is pretty cool, I had one other clear stamper, but the clear handle really does help you place the image perfectly a lot better.

To be honest I'm not the biggest fan of this being double sided because I'm always have to take out the side I'm not using so I can look through for placement. I do however like that each side comes with a protective cap.



So what do you think? It's really heating up here in California and all I can say is I'm super excited for the summer weather, things at work slow down a bit and I just love bright fun summer nails. These totally fit that bill I think! And these stamping polishes, for just $20 for the set of 6 are an absolute steal – the possibilities of what they can create are endless. I've got on a gradient base using some of them right now!

Edited to add, as of just posting this on IG I saw that Bundle Monster is having a sale this weekend on everything in their shop. 15 percent sitewide using the code Weekend15 – so seriously, what are y'all waiting for?!?!

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!!!!!

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!?