Seize the Sparkle

Polishes Used: 1 Coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 2 Coats Zoya Perrie 1 Coat Borghese Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite You know, if Radiant Orchid wouldn't have been picked as Pantone's color of the year... I think I would've overlooked Perrie. But I was on the hunt for an orchidy lacquer, and Perrie fit the bill... Yes, I just totally went there! Might I add that my 1 year old thinks I'm hilarious and laughs at all my jokes?!? Haha!!! Sorry I'm not sorry, but Agent P is all I can think of when I hear the name Perry(ie). And if you don't know Perry... you might need to google Phineas and Ferb ASAP. (And then watch every episode!) So, yeah... Zoya Perrie is an awesome way to add a little orchid-hued radiance into your life. Not only is a great shade right now because of the trendy factor, but it's also one of those colors that you can wear in any season. Application was awesome. Perrie wasn't a one-coater for me, but it sure was

Fruitopia - The Grape Beyond Fruitopia - Lemonade Love & Hope Fruitopia - Strawberry Passion Awareness Anyone remember these? I loved Fruitopia. Like, REALLY loved it! Coca-Cola introduced these funky fruit fusions in 1994. I was totally obsessed with trying every flavor and collecting all the labels. These are the ones that survived the great collage tear-down of 2002*... Strawberry Passion Awareness was my favorite, largely because I used it to make a Strawberry Julius-like drink... juice, ice, a little bit of sugar, and an egg white for froth... it was delicious!!! Fruitopia drinks are definitely up there on my bring-it-back list. You know, along with Mistics that looked like wine coolers! :) Do you miss Fruitopia juices? * I should really post about this sometime...

Polishes Used: 1 Coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 3 Coats Zoya Frida 2 Coats Spinoff (franken) 1 Coat Zoya Frida 1 Coat Borghese Clearcoat 1 Coat Seche Vite I've been drooling over this shade for a very long time. Thanks to Zoya's recent Color Your World promotion, it is now a member of the Stash. Originally released in Fall 2012, Frida is one-third of Zoya's NYFW Gloss Collection. Paloma and Katherine are her sisters, and I'm glad I finally own all three! (Dear Zoya, please make more. LOTS more. Like, in every color and shade of the rainbow. Thanks! <3 S.) Frida is a blue teal jelly polish. It's sheer. Really sheer, but that's the point. I'm pretty sure these were made for jelly glitter sandwich addicts like myself. Zoya polishes are always awesome to work with. Really, I've yet to come across a problematic Zoya! The formula is great, and when it comes to jellies, they've got the perfect amount of sheerness. Seriously

Color Your World is quite possibly thee best promotion Zoya offers all year! For one week, you can get 3 Zoya polishes absolutely free, you just pay shipping. Sadly, this promotion is no longer available, but Zoya does a ton of promotions throughout the year. My picks this year were Paloma , Frida , and Perrie . Paloma and Frida are jelly polishes that I've been lemming since their release! Perrie is a beautiful Radiant Orchid-esque shade that I can't wait to try! It was seriously hard to pick, but I'm really happy with my choices. Stay tuned for swatches... :) -S

So, okay... I finally cleaned out my bag the other day. You know, actually threw away all those receipts and other junk, put back Peanut's toys, organized my hair ties... so I thought I'd share my can't live without it, carry it everywhere with me stash-o'-stuff... Enjoy. :) Completely empty, taking a well-deserved rest! 7 Glosses... Seven! Les Contents 1. Commonplace Book (basically a Flexible Composition Book) WalMart 2. Polish Stash List Target 3. Old Passbook Borders 4. 2013-2014 Academic Planner Target 5. New Passbook Target 6. Wallet (Kenneth Cole Reaction) TJ Maxx 7. Sony Cybershot W330 (inside) Best Buy 8. Sony Cybershot Battery Charger Best Buy 9. Contacts Case (filled with solution) 10. Glasses Case 11. Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Berry Smoothie KMart 12. Smashbox Lip Enhancing Gloss in Hot Pink (so sadly discontinued. It's thee perfect pink!) Gift 13. Express Lip Gloss in Black Cherry Ice Express 14. Philosophy Pep

Today's swatches are brought to you by my iPhone 5s... Why you ask? Well, my Cybershot is convinced this polish is teal. Soooooo not... Natural Light Natural Light Sunlight Natural Light Natural Light Sunlight Polishes Used: 1 Coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 2 Coats SinfulColors Emerald Envy 2 Coats Borghese Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite Emerald Envy is part of the SinfulColors Crystal Crush Collection. It's a glittery, yellow-leaning, texturized grassy green with fine gold glitter. The shine on this is ridiculous , and you know me and shine! I also bought Treasure Chest, but I'm kinda regretting not buying the entire collection... For some people, this polish might be a one coater. With all the glitter, it was hard to tell if there were bald spots or patchy areas, so I used two coats. This is a really pretty polish, and I kinda regret not wearing it during the Holidays. I've had it for over a month, so... I really don't have

Polishes Used: 1 Coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 3 Coats Zoya Kennedy 1 Coat Borghese Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite So, the last time I wore Kennedy, it was part of a layering with Essie As Gold as it Gets on top. This time, it's just Kennedy in all her pale pink super-femme glory. Plus a healthy dose of shine! Kennedy was part of the Zoya Feel Collection from Winter 2011. Their latest collection of nudes was honestly tempting when it came time to order during the 3 Free promotion. Odette and Rue especially, but I couldn't help but think how I don't really wear colors like this very much. Like I said yesterday, my idea of the perfect neutral I don't know what shade to paint my nails color is almost always black.  So, why did I pick up Kennedy? I haven't really worn anything neutral in a while, and it just felt like it was time. Check off that box and on to the next one... :)

Polishes Used: 1 Coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 2 Coats SOPI What's a Tire Jack? 2 Coats Orly Intergalactic Space 1 Coat Borghese Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite Black is one of my favorite colors of polish to wear. It's right up there with pink and purple. Honestly, if I don't know what color to paint my nails, they usually end up black. Sometimes just plain old black, usually with a good helping of glitter on the side! Intergalactic Space was an absolute must-have polish when I first saw it. It's a black jelly polish with a really pretty and unique blend of glitters, PLUS circular white glitter. The formula is pretty opaque on its own, but I opted to use it over one of my trusty black creme polishes, What's a Tire Jack from SOPI. Part of Orly's Galaxy FX Collection, Intergalactic Space is supposed to be a one-bottle-stop for a galaxy look on your nails. It's a gorgeous polish, don't get me wrong, but it's no substitute

Today's manicure is brought to you by the background shade in all the press images for Radiant Orchid. That shade tends to stick in my head and I'm constantly confusing it for the Color of the Year! Polishes Used: 1 Coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 3 Coats China Glaze Sweet Hook 3 Coats Pure Ice Busted 1 Coat L'Oreal Lilac Coolers 1 Coat Borghese Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite This is probably the second time I've worn Sweet Hook since I bought it, which is kind of sad. It's from the China Glaze Electropop Collection, released in Spring 2012. It's a warm pastel lavender/lilac color that's really pretty on its own. Busted added pink shimmer and a little more purple to the mix. Three coats made it a little more shimmery than I had intended, so I added a coat of Lilac Coolers to tone it down and make the purple just a smidge darker. Not gonna lie, I had Radiant Orchid in mind when I was painting this, but it's definitely clo

Polishes Used: 1 Coat Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler 3 Coats Revlon African Tea Rose 2 Coats China Glaze Your Present Required 1 Coat Borghese Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite This shade is sooooo 80s and I really, REALLY love it! Seriously!!! It is thee perfect bright pink polish. This was a Christmas gift, along with 3 other Revlon Parfumerie polishes. (Thanks Dan!) If there's one thing Revlon knows how to do well, it's knocking red and pink polishes waaaaaay outta the park. African Tea Rose is an incredibly pretty, slightly blue-toned bright pink with a very faint purple shimmer. (And, yes. I'm back to my Cybershot! Could you tell?) It's brighter and more neon in my pictures, but this pink definitely leans a bit more blue in real life. You can see the shimmer pretty clearly in the bottle, but on the nails, it's much more subtle. It adds a glowing softness to the color that actually came across very well in my photos, despite the color non-