Seize the Sparkle

I'm guessing most of you have already heard about The Mentality Thing ... Long story short, thanks to one irresponsible independent nail polish brand, indie polish is being given a very bad name right now. And that's not quite fair. There are too many brands who consistently work hard, delivering above and beyond other businesses with far more resources. Many of them were born out of this very same nail blogging community. So... a handful of bloggers started this linkup to give a little love back to their favorite brands. It's a way to (figuratively) stand up and say... #itrustindienailpolish Let me just say upfront that I have only tried one indie brand so far. Rainbow Honey was a brand that I had seen on a lot of other blogs and was all over my Instagram. It took a long time for me to take the plunge and finally order. There was definitely a little trepidation there at first. But I ordered, fell in love, and ended up subscribing to their monthly Mystery Bag. 

It's fiiiiiinally weekend o'clock! That magical time when you can say buh-bye to alllll that workweek stress and drama and just do whatever you want to do. Ahhhhh! Magical, I tell you!!! It's been a beyond crazy week for me, and the person who helps me through all that crazy is none other than Mr. Sparkle. Yep. Fresh back from Texas y'all, I can't tell you how great it has been to have him back and home. And back. Did I mention home? He was in charge of picking the prompt for me this time around. I give you the ever-so-ambitious-why-did-I-put-this-in-the-fishbowl 8 COLORS prompt... Polishes Used: 1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler 2 Coats Orly On The Edge China Glaze Mingle with Kringle Color Club The Uptown OPI Indigo Motif SinfulColors Dream On SinfulColors Jolt SinfulColors My Buoyfriend SinfulColors Rise & Shine SinfulColors Thimbleberry I think it was my love of layering polishes that made me write prompts for more

September is just around the corner, and that means that it's time again for the 31 Day Challenge! The prompts are broken down into three groups. One prompt each day for 31 Days. The final manicure culminates the entire challenge on October 1st. Last year was the first year I participated, and I'll admit, it's a challenging Challenge! I finished a couple days past the deadline, but I'm still really proud that I made it through and finished every prompt . Especially that dreaded watermarble. I'm not sure when the challenge originated, but Sarah from Chalkboard Nails sort of coordinates the whole thing and puts out graphics to use if you're participating. Check out her blog for the 31 Day FAQ if you've got more questions, or to download this year's graphics ! Here's what the schedule looks like... This year, I've got stamping plates to play with, so that's definitely going to help me out a LOT. I grabbed a small set last year to he

Polishes Used: 1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler 4 Coats Sally Hansen La Vida Polka 1 Coat SinfulColors Out of this World (accent) 1 Coat Revlon Diamond Texture (accent) 2 Coats Revlon Holographic Pearls (accent) 1 Coat SinfulColors Clear Coat (non-accent) 1 Coat Seche Vite On Wednesdays, pink is usually the last color I end up wearing on my nails. So today worked out nicely! I needed something a little girly and a little sparkly. I've noticed that pink nails with glittery accents are my girly go-to manicure. But I'm constantly finding new pink polishes to try, and this time is no exception! La Vida Polka has been sitting in my stash for a little while. I think I bought it for Peanut and then she decided she didn't want to sit still for nail painting. It was part of the Xtreme Wear Color Xpression collection from earlier this Summer. Application wasn't bad, just a little frustrating. I kept seeing bald spots that I thought needed fixin

Polishes Used: 1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler 3 Coats Wet n Wild Keep Vinyl Alive 1 Coat SinfulColors Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite I love black nail polish. It's been my Fall/Winter neutral for a really long time. The color to wear when you have absolutely no clue what color to wear! I've got a couple in my stash with different finishes. This one is a great mix of metallic edge and shimmer! Part of Wet n Wild's Here's to the Wild Ones collection, Keep Vinyl Alive is an almost-black metallic shimmer. Up close and in photos, you notice the shimmer, but not so much in real life. Looking down at my nails as I type, they read as a very shiny dark graphite. Keep Vinyl Alive went on nicely. It was opaque in two coats, but I added a third to smooth out some lines and make extra sure that there weren't bald spots. While I do like this shade, I'm not totally over the moon about it on its own. I'd love to see it mattified, because

Polishes Used: 1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler 3 Coats Wet n Wild I Moss Have It 1 Coat SinfulColors Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite I am not normally the biggest green polish fan, but this metallic mossy olive green from Wet n Wild? It's gorgeous, and it really does glow! This just might be my new favorite neutral for Fall... and Winter. I Moss Have It is part of Wet n Wild's Here's To the Wild Ones collection for Fall 2015. I just read a post about these polishes on Nouveau Cheap late last week, so I was a little surprised to find it at my local Kmart. This time around, I remembered to take a picture of the display before I transferred one of each shade into my shopping cart. Stop and Mel-the-Roses, Gettin' Inked, Pop-Up Bluetique, I Moss Have It, Keep Vinyl Alive, and Thrift Shopaholic I tried to take a picture of all six polishes on my newly cleaned off nail desk last night, but between the glowing of the polish and the glare

Here we are, back at my most favorite day of the week... Fuh-riday! It feels like I say this every week, but it was definitely a crazy one this week. I would blame it on the full moon, but that's not happening until next week, so........................ Anyway... I finally pulled a gem prompt for Fishbowl Friday! When I first created the fishbowl prompts, I included birthstones and a couple of other gemstones I thought would inspire fun manis! This one is especially special, because it happens to be Peanut's birthstone... TOURMALINE ! Polishes Used: 1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler 3 Coats Cover Girl Emerald Blaze n.y.c. Sweet Candy Pure Ice Lucky Charming Rainbow Honey The Master 1 Coat n.y.c. Sweet Candy 1 Coat SinfulColors Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite Technically, Peanut's birthstone is Pink Tourmaline. My manicure is not only TOURMALINE inspired, it's specifically watermelon tourmaline inspired. Look the stone up if you get

Polishes Used: 1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler 2 Coats SinfulShine Most Sinful 1 Coat SinfulColors Night Owl* 1 Coat SinfulColors Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite While I was brainstorming how I would layer Night Owl, I originally thought navy blue or black, possibly even a really dark purple. I've been dabbling in more fall-like colors, but I just couldn't do it with this one. So, I chose the amazing bright cobalt blue-ness of Most Sinful. Just like the other 3D glitters in the All Nighter Collection, Night Owl is made up of opalescent hex and bar glitter mixed with opalescent flakes inside a sheer lavender base. Glitter payoff was excellent, just one coat gave me full coverage (and sparkle!) on every. single. nail. Night Owl is part of SinfulColors Class Act All Nighter Collection. You can find it on display at Walgreen and other mass retailers for $1.99 a bottle. The full All Nighter Collection also contains Blue Sensation , Casablanca , Da

Polishes Used: 1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler 3 Coats SinfulColors Blackboard* 1 Coat SinfulColors Clear Coat (accent only) 1 Coat Seche Vite (accent only) Black nails are always edgy. Black matte nails are somehow edgier and soft all at the same time. Out of all the Demi-Matte polishes in the Chalk Board Diaries Collection, Blackboard is definitely my favorite. Just look at that finish! In the bottle, Blackboard looked like a really dark charcoal gray, but it's the demi-matte formula that makes that illusion. The Demi-Matte finish was definitely made for this shade. Application was great, too. Very little streaking, and that all evened out at the second coat. I added a third just to be sure I wouldn't have any visible streaks upon drying. Like the other Demi-Mattes I review, I added a clear coat and Seche Vite to an accent nail so you could see what Blackboard looks like all glossed up. To me, it almost looks like a jelly. Oddly enough, I

Polishes Used: 1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler 4 Coats SinfulColors Purple Diamond* 1 Coat SinfulColors Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite When I first tested this polish out on a swatch wheel, I think I must've been half asleep or using a different polish. I had the idea in my head that it was really sheer, more along the lines of a sheer topper. Thankfully, I tested it out again before using it in a layering and found that not only did it have a lot of shimmer, it had great coverage. I quickly scrapped the plans to layer it so Purple Diamond could shine all on its own! Application was great, Purple Diamond was easy to manage with very little cuticle pooling while polishing. I probably could've stopped at three coats, but I was a little worried that my yellow tips might show through. I always prefer to err on the side of one coat too many rather than one coat too few! I really love this shade of lavender. It's a really feminine shade, and the sh

When I sit down to paint my nails, there are times when my vision works out and translates correctly on the first try. Then, there are times that I get way too many layers going or really don't like the finished product. Last night was a combination of the both of those, with a little bit of old, gloppy formula and poor color choice mixed in. Thankfully, version 2.0 turned out much, much better! Polishes Used:  1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler 1 Coat OPI Turquoise Aesthetic 1 Coat Fingerpaints Daubigney's Garden 1 Coat Pure Ice Iris 1 Coat OPI Turquoise Aesthetic 1 Coat Pure Ice Iris 1 Coat Seche Vite For the past couple of weeks, I've been wanting to do a mermaid inspired manicure. Not gonna lie, several attempts never saw the light of day. Some attempts turned into something completely different. This particular layering is version 2.0 from last night, and I'm really happy with how it turned out!  Starting out,