Seize the Sparkle

Have I ever mentioned my love of duochrome polishes? Because after this prompt, I'm feeling a renewal of that love. And surprise, surprise! Would it really be me if that love wasn't coupled with a desire to DUOCHROME all the things... glitter included?!? (No. No it would not!)  Polishes Used: 1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler 3 Coats Hard Candy Beetle 2 Coats KBShimmer Look On The Night Side 1 Coat Pahlish Autumn People 1 Coat SinfulColors Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite I'm having a major DUOCHROME moment here, guys. When I see how fun a layering like this can be, and just how much the whole look shifts depending on the angle of my hands, I want to buy more. All the duochrome polishes, and let's throw in some multichromes for good measure, too! And just in case you're wondering what in the world I'm talking about when I say duochrome and multichrome, let me clear things up for you! Duochrome and multichrome polishes are color-

For a nail blogger and polish collector, there's nothing worse than getting home with a polish and discovering * GASP * that you already own a polish in that exact same color and finish, just produced by a different brand. That is what we call a dupe. (Dupe = Duplicate) Not to be confused with backups, which are additional (intentional or not) bottles of the exact same nail polish. When I ordered my bottle of Essie Starry, Starry Night, I was trying to add more to my order and China Glaze Moonlight the Night was the only other thing that ended up in my cart. It's part of the Spring 2016 House of Colour Collection from China Glaze. It looked glittery and interesting, and it just had to have a place in the sparklestash. Between the time of ordering and receiving, I noticed that Moonlight the Night looked suspiciously familiar. As in... Daubigney's Garden from Fingerpaints familiar. It came out last year as a new addition to Fingerpaint's core line. When I used Moo

When I was creating the prompts for Fishbowl Friday... I might have gone a little bit overboard with the possibilities for glitter manicures. I snorted when I opened up this prompt, because I didn't even remember creating it. My second thought?  Challenge accepted!  So here they are, nails that aren't really all that different than any other day of the week here at Chez Sparkle. A slightly mermaid-esque layering mani that SPARKLES... Polishes Used:  1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Out Ridge Filler  2 Coats KBShimmer Up & Cunning 1 Coat Zoya Muse 1 Coat Pahlish Gumdrop Rooftop 1 Coat China Glaze Moonlight the Night 1 Coat Pahlish Gumdrop Rooftop 1 Coat Zoya Muse 1 Coat SinfulColors Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite Part of me wishes that I had a mermaid stamping plate so I could properly give this sparkly ocean on my nails the send-up it deserves. Aaaand the other part of me likes it just the way it is. Then there's that tin

Happy Friday to you! There's always a big sigh of relief when the end of the week rolls around and it's time for the weekend. When I pulled this prompt last night, I actually forgot that I had even created it. So, it was a nice surprise, considering my January Mystery Bag from Rainbow Honey just arrived! So here it is... my NEWEST UNTRIED polish... (well, one of them, anyway!)  Polishes Used: 1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler 3 Coats Rainbow Honey Planet M 1 Coat SinfulColors Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite Planet M is one of two polishes in my Mystery Bag this month. It's a blue-toned raspberry pink shade that I just love! And yes, while I do have a lot of this shade in my stash, the finish is what makes Planet M unique. Tons of tiny little glass flecks, mainly in pink, but I caught some violet and gold flashes in there too. It's a little more amped up than your average shimmer polish. The formula on Planet M was really good. Just a smid

It's Zoya promotion time again! This is one sale that I just have to jump on every year. Usually, it's because I try to do a no-buy around the Holidays and I'm just itching to buy all of the polish. I didn't really set out specifically to do that in 2015, but that's how it ended up. So I was pretty excited to get the email about Zoya's one week only Free4You sale! The premise of the sale is simple, choose 4 Zoya shades, (excluding pre-packaged sets, Naked Manicure, Zoya Treatments, and the Spring 2016 Whispers Collection) enter 4YOU at checkout, and pay just $15 promotional shipping. That's the equivalent of $3.75/bottle with free shipping. Zoya polishes normally retail for $9-$10/bottle, so this is a pretty sweet promotion! Now I know you're wondering... what shades did I pick out? I thought you'd never ask! I swear, I didn't set out to only order purple and blue polishes. And I know that exactly none of these were on my Lemmings list! T

It feels so good to be doing one of these posts after two weeks off! I had such a great Holiday with my family, I hope you did too! I don't know about you, but I miss the coziness of the season. There's just something magical about it! But alas, January came just the same and brought a cold front with it. While I was off, Peanut also had some time away from daycare, and that meant a whoooooole lot of watching My Little Pony. While playing My Little Pony. So, when I drew the 5 COLORS prompt... is it any wonder that Princess Celestia and her rainbow-colored mane popped in to my brain? Polishes Used: 1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler SinfulColors Lavender SinfulColors Mint Apple SinfulColors Tempest Zoya Rocky Zoya Tomoko 1 Coat SinfulColors Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite Peanut's big gift for Christmas this year was Canterlot Castle, home of Princess Celestia. I had been looking for a themed playset for Sparklegirl for a while, and when I

Something very magical happens when you layer a sparkly multichrome flaky glitter topper over a holographic polish with hidden shimmer... Polishes Used: 1 Coat Fingerpaints Smooth Over Ridge Filler 4 Coats KBShimmer Fleece Navidad 2 Coats Pahlish Gumdrop Rooftop 1 Coat SinfulColors Clear Coat 1 Coat Seche Vite See what I mean? I want to apologize for my lack of a creative name here... Flaky Fleece? Gumdrop Navidad? Fleece Rooftop? Yeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhh, no. When I first put Fleece Navidad by KBShimmer onto my Christmas wishlist, I knew it was a gorgeous soft silver gray holo polish. But I had no idea that it also has a subtle shimmer that flashes blue to purple. I'm so glad that this bottle was included with my Secret Santa goodies! Holographic glitter, subtle flashing shimmer... some people might stop there, but not me! No, I needed to add a little more shifting glittery fun to the mix. That's where Gumdrop Rooftop comes in. Square iridescent glitter, s

Where did 2015 go? It's so hard to believe that we're already saying bonjour to 2016! I don't know about you, but my feeds have been littered with all sorts of "top... favorite... and best of..." posts. Can I just confess for a minute that I can. not . get. enough! I already posted about the Best Polishes of 2015 . If you follow me on Instagram , you got to see my # bestnine . That one is actually cool because it consists of the nine photos you guys liked the best! I'm not sure if comments are counted in there or not? Either way, as soon as that collage was compiled, the wheels in my head started to turn.  And it has been a little while since I did a  f a v o r i t e s post...  You know, looking at this collage gives me a real sense of accomplishment! My techniques have definitely improved over the past year. And I think I'm slowly becoming more adventurous with my nails. I mean, I probably would've laughed at water spotting a year