KB Shimmer Midsummer' Night and Party

Happy Sunday lovely polish people! I don't know about how the weather is where you live, but here the humity is enough to smother you. I've been taking pictures of when I get in my car after work and taking pics of the temperature on my phone. So far I have 107, 108, 111, and 117 degree!! Holy Schnikes!! So, I haven't been spending that much time outside unless I have a pool close by:) I'm working on getting my husband to get us a pool by devising a wonderful win-win situation: I go walking and get all hot (my biggest problem when I work out is cooling off!) So, I go walking and then jump into the cool water and continue my exercise by swimming while simultaniously cooling off! How are you staying cool this summer or warm in the winter?

So, I have a lots of pics to share today. Last week I received my order from K.B. Shimmer, a new indie brand that has just taken off- which has really awesome products besides nail polish. I just figured out how to upload and edit my pictures in Google+, which is the old Picnik.com- my fav photo editing site that closed in April. Well, now I have them saved but not on my hardrive, so my pictures haven't really been consistent lately...or maybe at all, but I'm working on it and getting good advice from those blog pros. I think I have come to the conclusion that I need a better camera, also.

Well, I was lucky enough to get to choose from ANY of KB Shimmer's polishes they had, but unfortunately couldn't spend a lot of money, so I only got 2 for now and a pack of 6 sampler soaps (which I will show later cause they're so cool!) , but as soon as they open up I want more polishes. I got KB Shimmer's Party and Midsummer's Night. I tried to get ones that I hadn't already seen swatches of- like The TraceFacePhiles has like ALL of them, but I really want Vegas Bomb, but she did such a great post on it, I wanted to try something different.

Direct sunlight, no flash

Here is Midsummer's Night, which I had to have when i saw the star glitter in it! I love purple to begin with, but this color is phenomenal. I used Gelous basecoat to give me a good thick start. I expected this to be a very sheer being hard for the brush to grab the glitter, but that wasn't the case, quite the opposite! I first tried it out on a wheel using other a base polish to help add color, but this polish doesn't need it. This was 2 coats along with a thick coat of Seche Vite. This neon jelly-like purple is infused with big hexo blue and silver glitter, blue microglitter, and of course the big silver stars, which give it the perfect name- Midsummer's Night. Love it! I was going to just swatch, remove and swatch my other KB polish, but I loved this so much I kept it on for 2 days (which is what I normally do). It chipped, but not anymore than any other polish. I was VERY pleased with this polish:)

Closeup of KB Shimmer Midsummer's Night

The second polish I swatched is Party, which is a white jelly filled with all colors of square glitter. I'm not big on glitter and I'm not big on white polishes, but this just clicked and I thought I'd try something different...this polish doesn't disappoint!

Direct sunlight, no flash

 Just as with Midsummer's Night, I tried it out with different color base polishes to see what would bring out the best of this polish. I tried a dark blue, bright blue, coral, and white, then by itself. The white looked the best to me. Again, i used Gelous basecoat then I used one coat of Pure Ice Platinum, which is a white kind of sheer, shimmery white. I used 2 coats of Party with Seche Vite, of course. This white jelly like color had so much glitter in it that I actully had to wipe some of it off or back into the bottle. I liked that it wasn't hard to grab the glitter, but it kind of make it goopy and thick and left my manicure kinda clumpy (as you can see on my thumb in the picture below). But, overall I like it. It's unique with all colors and sizes of glitter. Some of the square glitter turned up as you can see on my middle finger, which I didn't like, but overall it's a neat combination- so this polish is like a Party!! Heeeyyy!



Closeup of KB Shimmer Party

Hope everyone has a super week, as we head into the 4th- which is a national holiday we are so blessed is a government holiday, so I will not be working that day:) yay!

 

Indie Love! Where To Buy What!

Well, I it seems I'm always looking for websites, blogs, facebook pages, or etsy shops that sell Indie brands. Here I'm compiling a list of links to make it easier for myself and others where to buy:

I will be updating this as I find more brands and places that sell them. I will probably end up making this into a separate page to I can keep up with it better, but this is just to start off...
All That Glitters
Alta Costura Vernis
Amy's Nail Boutique
AquaDaisy
Black Cat Lacquer
Candeo Colors

• Facebook
• Llarowe- coming soon

Crows Toes

• Overall Beauty

Cult Nails

• Overall Beauty

Dandy Nails

• Facebook

Darling Diva Polish
Daring Digits
Dollish Polish:

• Overall Beauty
• Llarowe- coming soon

Elevation Polish

• Etsy

Elixir Lacquer
Enchanted Polish
Glitter Lacquer
Glitter Daze
KB Shimmer
Lac Attack
Lacey Lou's Nail Stockpile
Lacquistry
Lush Lacquer
LynB Designs
Lynnderella
nAil'Dit
Nail Venturous

• Blog

Nerd Lacquer (not available right now)
Nostalgic

• Overall Beauty

Pam's Girly Bits
Rainbow Honey

Maybelline Color Show Denims

Good Sunday to all! I hope everyone is having a super weekend. So, I have quite a post to share, so let's get to it! Warning: pic heavy!
Today I wanted to show you a couple of new Maybelline polishes that I got a while back. I've never worn Maybelline before- maybe when I was a teen, but they release a new Color Show line that sales for only $2.99 a bottle. Couldn't pass that up! I got a bunch of them, nothing really special and unique. But, I did get a couple grouped as Denims, which are shimmery, flaky blues that I thought looked great and were blog-worthy.

First, is Denim Dash, which is the lighter of the two:

What impressed me about these polishes was that I only used one coat for both! It was a wonderful opaque shimmer and applied very smoothly.

Denim Dash closeup

Then I thought I'd get all fancy and add one coat of Sally Hansen HD DVD, which is a micro-flaky iridescent purple and blue- this is meant more as a layering or top polish as it is very sheer and doesn't look good on it's own.

Denim Dash                                                  Denim Dash with DVD

I just loved this combination and took like a million pictures...I still had to narrow it down and I could do any less than this! sorry!

Just a side note: I think it's' time to thin out my bottle of Seche Vite- it was so goopy it was stringy almost like a glue gun. Since I don't have any polish thinner, here's my system real quick:
I keep about 5 bottles of it on hand (available at Wal-Mart and Sally's for about $8 a bottle, but if you have a Sally's card, there are usually deals to get free top and basecoats) and use about 3 at a time. I have them listed on the bottom from thickest (oldest) to newest. When one becomes too thick I just add more from the second bottle...and so on. It works for me until I come up with something better! Ok, back to the polish...

Next, is the darker of the Denims, Styled Out:

Again, I used one coat of Styled Out and a thick coat of Seche Vite. I just loved this little polish and can see myself using it for stamping.

Styled Out closeup

Here is Styled Up with DVD on top:

I liked this one with no top coat. Gives it kind of a matte look. I love the iridescent shimmer of the different shades of purple and blue. Here they are compared side by side:

Honestly, I couldn't really tell the difference since the polish was dark to begin with. But, nevertheless, this was a fun swatch. Lastly, here are the Denim Dash and Styled Out together:



Denim Dash                                                                           Styled Out

I don't really wear these brands I guess because they're so well known and usually not unique. Most of the colors have been around for a while, but I really liked these and at such a great bargain they are great polishes and I was impressed enough to take a ton of pictures! Let me know what you think? Have you tried any of the new Maybelline Color Show line?

NERD LACQUER GIVEAWAY!

Well, I have been pondering this decision lately and I have decided to GIVEAWAY my extra Nerd Lacquer polishes!! (FYI: These aren't the actual polish I've used- I have 2 of each, so they are NEW). I have been looking ALL OVER the internet and blogs for people/sites selling Nerd Lacquer polishes (like Ninja Polish and Harlow & Co.) and I've yet to find any that are actually in stock! So...I decided instead of auctioning these beauties on ebay or selling them privately I have decided to give them away because I'm just awesome like that...jk. I don't feel it's fair to those who can't pay $40-$60 for ONE  polish that would normally sell for $10.

Well, without further ado, here is what I'm doing:
There will be 4 WINNERS- ONE POLISH PER WINNER. The giveaway starts now and will end on July 23- one month. So, enter all you can and good luck!!

ENDS JULY 23!!!

UPDATE: THIS IS AN INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY

Above are the polishes Resolutionary, Carbon Allotrope, Event Horizon, and Gorramit. I have swatched these polishes previously . These polishes are new, but very sought after and they are FREE! All you have to do is enter through the Rafflecopter below:

UPDATE: THE BUTTON ON RAFFLECOPTER TO "LIKE" THE FACEBOOK PAGE WASN'T PUT IN CORRECTLY. YOU CAN CLICK ON THE "LIKE" BUTTON WIDGET IN THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER.  THEN PUT YOUR FB NAME. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF ANYONE ELSE HAS ANY PROBLEM WITH ANYTHING ELSE!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

UPDATE: IF YOU DON'T ENTER THROUGH RAFFLECOPTER, UNFORTUNATELY I CAN'T COUNT YOUR ENTRIES. WHEN I PICK A WINNER I WILL USE A RANDOM GENERATOR THAT WILL USE ENTRIES FROM RAFFLECOPTER ONLY. IF YOU'RE HAVING A PROBLEM WITH THE RAFFLECOPTER PLEASE EMAIL ME @ sassylacquer@hotmail.com. SORRY AND THANK YOU!!

Please email or message me with any questions!!

Dollish Polish Random Dancing

Good Wednesday to all! So, we're halfway done with this week, yesterday was the first day of summer and we are already breaking records with this awful heat! It was 100 degrees today in northern Louisiana. I got in my car after I got off work and I had to roll my window down and hang my head out just to be able to breathe!!

Well, I have been shopping for the past couple of weeks for some new polish and finally decided on the indie brand K.B. Shimmer, who just opened their shop back up for a while. I also got some soap samples that I'm super excited to try!

Today, I thought I'd post on some old swatches from another indie brand- Dollish Polish. I have been trying to catch her again when she has some polishes in stock, but I always seem to just miss her:( But a while back- when she was still on Etsy I got a couple of polishes, one of which I am showing today, Random Dancing.

 If I had painted all my fingernails with this wonderful glitter I would have used to whole bottle! It's got so many different glitters in it, but it took me a LOT of layers to cover my full nail. I didn't use any color as a base so this ended up being VERY thick, but looked awesome once I applied like 10 coats! For my other nails I used 2 coats of Color Club Warhol, which is actually a bright, almost neon pink, but appears bright red in these pictures. No matter what kind of light I used it came out red, but with all the different glitter colors it matched. I would apply a few coats of Random Dancing then kind of push it around with my fingers since the base of this polish has a jelly-like consistency that I very much like. I made it easy to put the glitter where I wanted it on my nail. And I finished it off with Seche Vite, of course:)

Sadly, a couple of weeks ago my step-son, who likes to get a couple of my polishes and carry them around...he happened to get this polish and had it in his mouth and the ate the "Dollish Polish" sticker right off the polish, so now it looks like it has no name or brand:( BUT, I did manage to take these pictures before it was "destroyed"...

China Glaze Pink Plumeria

Hello all polish lovers!! Hope everyone had a good weekend! Allen and I took Kade to his cousin's birthday party- Princesses & Pirates was the theme. We didn't dress him up, but they had pirate hats for all. Here's my lil mate!

Kade

Then, today we went to eat in Ruston to kinda celebrate our 1 year anniversay, then we did some fun grocery shopping- NOT. Never again will I ask Allen to help me with groceries lol. He was ready to leave after 15 minutes! So...anyways, I made him stop by Sally's, so I could try to pick up some new polish. I found a few of CG Summer Neons. I am actually showing you the one I wasn't looking for, but really liked, Pink Plumeria.

If you've been following other nail blogs, you've probably already seen this collection. Neons seem to be the trend for this summer, because every popular polish brand has a collection. I'd really like to get my hands on some Orly and OPI, but haven't really seen anymore in stores, but haven't had a lot of time to shop. By the time I get around to it, something else will be in...oh well. Story of my life. Ha.

So, since the closing of Picnik.com :( I have been using Picmonkey.com, which is from the same people, but free.  They don't have as much, but enough to edit my pictures. I finally decided to use the new collage option and found it very useful for this review.

Left: Direct Sunlight                                                       Right: Outside in shade

I used Seche Clear as basecoat, then 3 generous coats of CG Pink Plumeria, then finished up with a thick coat of Seche Vite. As you can see, the direct sunlight really brings out the coral and shimmer. I love both and think this is a great polish. As always I love China Glaze, but it's not always as opaque as I think it should be. After 2 coats I could still see an outline of my nail beds so I used one more coat just to be sure. Maybe I should have used white as a base color, but I didn't think I needed it.

Left: Direct sunlight                                                 Right: Outside in shade

When comparing these two up close side by side I couldn't believe this is the same nail color! You can see the flecks of gold, purple and pink on the left. So beautiful and girly. Such an awesome color! You can't see it on the right picture but the pink is very neon shimmery- which I haven't seen alot of. It's very pretty and classy looking when inside under artifical light. So, it's like I'm wearing a different polish depending on what kind of light or setting I'm under....how cool!

Left: Direct Sunlight                                                          Right: Outside in shade

And if I dared, I could upload a picture I took on my phone to upload to FB. It was so bright it look it like I was in the dark and showed up really neon- which I suppose this color made it to the Summer Neons Collection...

DS Extravagance

Hello ladies!! Did everyone have a good Memorial Day? It was so nice with this 3 day weekend! Saturday my cousin had her 2nd child, Reese, Sunday was my birthday (which just makes me a year older and that I don't look forward to), but it was nice to see family. Allen and I went up to Arkansas to see my mom and grandparents. I gave my mom a manicure and showed her what I enjoyed doing in my spare time lol.
I wanted to out her camera- she has a brand new Nikon DSL. I wanted to see if I just couldn't take pictures or if I need a new camera. Ha! So...I guess I need to start saving up!

So, I used Seche Clear basecoat then 2 coats of OPI DS Extravagance, and 1 thick coat of Seche Vite. This was my first OPI DS. I found it at a Ulta when I first started polishing earlier this year.  I have found one other that I really liked that was available in stores, Mystery. Anyways, I've never worn this until  now, and I can say that it's MUCH more beautiful on my nails that it is in the bottle! I LOVE it! It's much more holographic than I expected. I just thought it would be shimmery and glittery, but it's really  more holographic than anything.

I was amazed how easily and awesome photos were to take and ended up looking with my mom's expensive camera (of course).  The difference in hers and mine is uncanny. I just need so many other things than a $1100 camera! Guess I should really start playing the lottery...

Color Glaze and Rhinestones

Well, I have been getting really behind in posting swatches, but I have been a busy girl. Nothing out of the norm, just not enough time to do everything...
I really enjoyed doing this look and thought it turned out really well.

As I was reading one of my favorite blogs, the Nailasaurus, it dawned on me how she got her nails so shiny...I felt so stupid. Use a thicker coat of topcoat, duh. So, I started combining my bottles of Seche Vite and came up with 3 bottles from oldest to brand new. Works like a charm and it dries much faster than I thought. I mean, that's why it's a top coat, right? Anyways...

This look was created by using a basecoat then used 2 coats on 3/4 of my nail using Color Club Rad Nomad, which is the purple grayish color and then 2 coats of China Glaze Kinetic Candy on the other quarter. I used 3small black rhinestones and then used 2 thick coats of SV! Voile!

Zoya Birchbox Blogger Collection

Hey there polish people!! So, I have a few posts, but I wanted to share this first! I have googled this and nothing comes up so here is what I received as an email yesterday and I couldn't resist!

If you are subscribed to Birchbox you will get this email as well. A couple of months ago they had a contest to introduce 3 colors exclusive to Birchbox for Spring 2012 that is designed by bloggers. How awesome is that! You can get the collection for $22 with free shipping. I thought it would have been pretty cool to give an extra discount if you have a beauty blog, but all is well and I already ordered mine! In fact, I got an email about an hour ago saying that my package has already shipped!!! Yay!

ALSO, check out Birchbox Facebook page and you will find this:

I haven't entered yet, but I found it AFTER I had already purchased my collection so I would only do it for fun. You should check out the 3 bloggers that won: The Small Things Blog, Eleventh Gorgeous, and Capitol Hill Style.

I can't wait to get my collection, swatch it and share! Happy polishing!!

Well, Shift Happens...

FINALLY my Girly Bits order came in!! I waited about 2 months, but it was worth it! These are the Frankens that make polishing worth waiting for lol. No, seriously people, this polish is craved for, along with many other namesless indie brands that are being sold on ebay for 3 times what Chanel and MAC are priced at (like Lynnderella). These are polishes that aren't avaliable in stores and I think it is sooo cool that I have to wait 2 months to get 1 polish! That means that Pam, the creator/maker of Girly Bits, sits there and mixes these bottles herself. Then she writes a little "thank you"note to every buyer! How sweet is that?!! I got my package all wrapped in purple tissue paper with a purple ribbon tied around it with a sticker and a hand written note thanking me!

Well, I wanted to buy like ALL of them, but then I had to pay bills too....so I bought Shift Happens, which was her new popular polish and I got an older but awesome Sailor's Delight, which is not shown here today, but I have worn it and can't wait to swatch it and post about it!! You can see it here on her blog.

You might be wondering, well this is not what it looks like on other blogs...EXACTLY. I wanted to catch this sheer shimmer in all of its beauty- au naturale. Plus, this week I've been on this sheer shimmery thing, so I wanted to try out Shift Happens naked. Other blogs have it over black, which I think looks awesome and really shows the "shift" in colors, so I thought I'd do something different. 

Ever since I saw the post by Jen from thepolishaholic.com I knew I had to have a bottle! One day I noticed while on facebook, Pam's Girly Bits page showed up on my news feed. I saw that she was having a facebook pre-order sale for her polish. I got my email ready and saved to be sent off at 8 a.m. sharp! I wanted to make sure I got this polish!!!!

So, I did the most simple mani with this polish I could think of for this look.  I used Seche Ridgefiller because it had a pearly tint to it instead of just clear and I thought would give a slight tint to help the sheerness Shift Happens.  Then I applied 3 coats of Shift Happens and used 1 coat of NYC clear polish as a top coat.  I probably could have used 2 more coats of Shift Happens, but I like the sheerness that I got, so I stopped at 3. It ended being this pink, peachy color with a hint of orange and purple *hint the shift*.  Pam is very talented and I can't wait to buy more from her collections!

Spring Layers

It has been a while since my last post. Things are still crazy and not much has changed.  That hasn't stopped me from painting my nails every other day, but I haven't had time to take pics and post....or I'm just too damn tired...BUT! Good news for me...I FINALLY made a lightbox!! Yay! I tried waiting around for a box, but I finally bought one at Wal-Mart...how sad. My husband makes fun of it, but it's just a box to him. So, I had to take some pictures after I made it. So, without further ado, my first post with a lightbox! (I can't tell much difference if you ask me, which is rather depressing.)

I used CC Stuck on You as a basecoat. I've been experimenting with basecoats lately, but I never keep my polish on long enough to really tell a difference other than the application of my first layer of polish, which does make a bit of difference depending on what kind of polish I'm using (glitter, creme, sheer, etc.) I then used one coat of Finger Paints Pop Rock Pink from the Spring 2012 collection, which is actually more a peach color than pink, i think. I love this but wanted to try some layering witht this mani, so I continued with one coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (419, the new color release). I bought this a while back, but haven't worn it yet. I LOVE it, and can't wait to try it again. It's this beautiful light sheer shimmery pink that makes me think of sparkly cotton candy lol. At this point, I didn't want to go too far and change the color I had created.  So I used another color I had bought a long time ago but  haven't ever worn. One coat of Pure Ice Busted, which is a very shimmery iridescent purple and pink. Lastly, I finished with a coat of Northern Lights Cut the Door Holographic Top Coat Silver. I've seen this in Sally's and finally decided to try it. I only used one coat, so I didn't get much out of this, but I will try again with a darker color to really see what this offers.  I had fun with the layering and will try again soon with some different combinations. 


without my flash, in lightbox

Hope everyone who is in this part of the US is enjoying this beautiful weather (minus all the devastating tornadoes and storms). I was reading an article on global warming yesterday and how this March's warm weather has broken thousands of heat records in the US and is an exact example of global warming. So, with this, enjoy your week wherever you are and happy polishing!!