Nail Art. Swatches and Reviews. Honest love of nail polish and all things beauty.
Helloooooo October!! YESSSS IT'S HERE. Before I deep dive into Halloween, I want to share this manicure I wore a few weeks ago. I loved it so much and so many people grabbed my hands. In fact, I don't even know if I needed the stamping, so this is "art" anyone can do!
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Heyyy! Polish Pickup returns and Stella Chroma was inspired by...shoes. Can you guess which ones? This is a deep and moody polish and it releases Friday so let's get to it!
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It's the 90s! Everything from the 90s is back so it makes sense this is the theme for Polish Pickup. This will be a quickie post and I will let the pictures do the talking. I love this color so much so have fun browsing the pictures!
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Hi all! It's a case of, why don't I ever take pictures after I do a manicure? Also, why did I not take pictures of the dress these nails were inspired by? Silly on all accounts!!!! This is what I wore for my dad's surprise birthday party and he loves orange. So yay!
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Hi everyone. As I was watching the new KBShimmer collection., I felt that some colors reminded me of others. I love to do a comparison post. If you missed my life update, I am currently enrolled in a doctorate program so my time is limited. Instead of swatching comparisons on my nails, I’d rather save time to do my actual nails, so I put these comparisons on my nail mat.
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Oh hello! I had all these posts in my drafts and I disappeared for like ten days and never posted any of them. My b! Anyway, I had some different random nail arts I have been doing, so it's time to share. I absolutely love this weird funky art. I had no idea what to call them but then someone said it reminded them of geodes, so that's where we are!
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Despite receiving this Zoya Gelie Cure kits months ago, I kept delaying using it because I wanted to see other reviews. Well, as of August 27, when I’m trying this out, I still cannot find any legitimate reviews. I see people post on Instagram that they like it but that doesn’t really help me. I also cannot find any blogs using this new system only the one from 2019. So I finally decided to sit down and try out this jelly care kit.
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As summer ends and we move into the school season, this week starts a brand, new chapter for me. If you’ve been a reader of my blog, you know that I graduated with my second masters degree last December. I walked in my cap and gown this past May, and shared my special manicure. Well now I’m opening up another door and beginning my journey as a doctoral student. I have officially completed my first week of course work!
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Apparently I had this sitting in drafts, just waiting to be published, but I truly thought I published it. My fault! Luckily, this polish is available this Friday, so you are all good to still get it. Polish pick up is inspired by my favorite holiday, Halloween. The theme this month is spooky with Haunted History.
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Stella Chroma does a monthly mystery polish that she sends out to subscribers. I don’t currently subscribe to this, but I have subscribed to her mystery boxes in the past and loved them. It’s a chance for you to try new polishes that you might not otherwise purchase. I find that sometimes I love polishes so much more once they’re on my nails than in a bottle. For April’s color, Pam did an amazing pink neon. People went crazy for it and so she surprised everyone by creating a special, limited edition polish that is slightly different from the monthly mystery. She sold out in just a few hours. I know I’m going to be moving to autumn polishes soon, so I wanted to put on this polish before I no longer was in the neon mood. I don’t like my polishes sitting around untried. I only have two untried polishes right now and this is one of them.
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Ok so this might be the last Barbie-inspired manicure. I know I had the Totally Hair Barbie but I could not find that one. Well, looking at the dress online, I realized that the Zoya Beachy Brights were basically the same colors! So I set out to create a manicure like her dress!
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It's been a hot minute since I have done a dotticure. I had the KBShimmer Sugar Rush collection on my desk waiting to be put into my spreadsheet when I realized I hadn't officially done any art with the majority of the collection. I did do watermelon nails with the two reflectives from the collection, but I wanted to do more!
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She's the prettiest present of all! So I still have not seen Barbie movie but the movie inspired me to look at Barbies, including my own, and create nail art. Well I have one particular Barbie that I loved so much, I never even opened it! Yup! It was the 1994 Birthday Barbie and for some reason, I thought it was so special, I did not want to play with it. I just wanted to look at it. Weird? Maybe. But who knows why we do things when we are little. So I fished out this Barbie and decided I needed to do nails based on her dress that I found to be so mesmerizing as a little kid!
Right off the bat, I need to tell you this polish is amazing and there are too many photos and go add it to your wish list. I know an orange polish is not everyone’s favorite, but I love it and I love it especially when fun stuff is added to it. Let’s just get to the beauty!
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Hello all! Here with KBShimmer's Polish Pickup offering for August, which arrives Friday, August 4th. This month's theme is Dreamscapes, whatever that means! As always, I usually pay attention to the polish and not the inspiration and this one sure is pretty! So let's take a look at too many photos!
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Like I mentioned the other day, I am getting a million promotions and ads for all things Barbie. One I see a lot is this neon bathing suit that Barbie and Ken wear while rollerblading. Well, you knew I needed that on my nails. So I did my best to mimic the colors, style, and dotting of this super fun look!
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So I sat down with so many ideas for some Barbie inspired nail art. Barbie is everywhere. I read that Barbie movie created 180 collabs for the movie! WHAT!? So I put on my base and then glitter colors, and then I fell in love and decided to just leave it be. Things can be funny like that, but then again, not everyone is gifted at nail art so it’s great to know that you can just slap on a glitter and say this is really pretty. Also, I have to tell you I’ve been wearing a lot of glitters again lately and it’s totally out of character but I guess I’m here for it. Is 2012 indie glitter back? Can we make removal easier?!
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Lovely follower and amazing commenter Tami knows how much I love fruit print: on my nails and on my clothes! She alerted me to a fantastic bathing suit with lemons and you know I absolutely saved the image of the bathing suit to eventually put on my nails!
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Gone are the days when I used to use multiple nail arts for one holiday (beyond Halloween, lol). I have many ideas for Fourth of July nails, but alas, I only got one done! I do love a good red, white, and blue colored combo, so I was excited to get something down on my nails.
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Hello everyone! I have a quick post here because Polish Pickup rewind is coming up! Every July, makers can bring back fan favorites and sell them for the month of July. KBShimmer has some gorgeous offerings and both that will be available are stunning, so let's take another look at these polishes!
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Where to begin?! Well, I was on vacation for two weeks traveling around new cities on a fun road trip. I loved it! 3 days later, I had an academic conference where I presented some really fun research and then supported other academics for four days. It was actually in NYC (last year was Brasil!) so I would leave my place at 8:30am and get back at 9pm! So nails took a backseat really for all of June. I swatched what I had before I left for vacation and well, just wore plain colors. I actually wore KBShimmer You Wanna Peach of Me for the conference and it held up so well despite hauling around books and turning lots of pages. THEN my modem died and I lost Internet for a few days. And because I have been so busy, I did not hit my 2 books a month, whomp! So I plan to read double in July. Anywho, all those life updates, but I finally did my nails. SHOCKING!
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When I got the press release for this collection, I saw neons and immediately went yay! What I failed to read is that these were minis with a new gel prep system. So when they showed up so small I was like huh, OK. I am literally an English professor, so I probably should read better, right? To be honest the first press release did not mention a size, but the second one did once I looked back. Anywho, I will review the gel system later and just share the colors for now!
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Hi all! Today is 11 years since my first post ever on this blog. Like always, I post my birthday manicure on my blogging anniversary since that is how I started this blog. Last year, I posted a recreation of my very first manicure and it was so fun to do! Then I did a look back at all ten years! So I am back with my tradition and sharing this year's birthday manicure.
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It's summer time! Or almost. KBShimmer was inspired by candy for her most recent collection, and that seems like fun to me! I also laughed when I opened the press package and it was filled with candy that inspired this collection. No chocolate, because that melts in the summer! So let's check out this bright and fun summer collection. While I do miss neons, this one is filled with bright shimmers, reflectives, and holos!
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Hey all! Just wanted to pop on to share this bit of art. It seems like the 90s are back and I definitely had stickers just like this in the 90s. Lisa Frank flowers with smiley faces, yes! I wanted some fun flowers and smiles so here we are.
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So I have been so busy in May. And like...totally forgot to swatch the KB Polish Pickup because I am terrible. I turned in pictures way late and well, I am posting this last minute. But alas, this polish is available this Friday, so you still have time to add it to your wish list and grab it!
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I just looked through my May posts, as sporadic as they have been, and the colors have all been soft and pale so I guess that is my mood! Anyway, I'm crazy and decided to get a second Masters degree. I completed it in December, but the ceremony was in May. So although the diploma has been in hand for months, I decided to walk in the cap and gown! These were my nails!
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May is just an exhausting month for anyone in higher education. This is why I fell off the radar. I am still doing my nails but as you’ll see in today’s post. I did my nails for a wedding and guess I wore black pants the next day and while I have washed these pants a hundred times, some of the dye rubbed off on my nails. I probably won’t share these in Instagram, but I figured I would give them a quick share here.
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Apparently I am in the mood to stamp over a dry brush art. Originally, I wanted to do a different look but I wasn’t with my nail polish collection and I didn’t quite have the correct yellow. I plan to do it eventually but I have two event next week, so I'll be doing white or pale pink nails.
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Well it appears I am on a 90s kick. I had the colors still out from my fun 90s look last week and well, I felt like wearing them again! This time, in a cotton candy color wave. And just like my other 90s mani, I intended on wearing it matte and then loved it shiny and stuck with it. Would it photograph better in matte? Probably. But I stuck with the shiny!
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Hey all! Sorry I completely disappeared. I scheduled my PPU posts way ahead, and really just haven't posted in a while. But today I have a fun look. Now for real, is this 80s or 90s? I feel like the neon and squiggle look is like 1985-1995, so it's both! I was really not inspired and almost put on yet another plain color. I had a bunch of colors out for a nail art I never ended up doing though and then I saw a manicure on Instagram, and boom, that's what I wanted!
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Hello all! What a fun and bright color for you today! Polish pickup’s theme is junk food and what is more fun than that? I have to say that ice cream is probably my favorite junk food and both offerings I have to share with you are inspired by that junk food. I’d say my next favorite are Cheetos but I tend to avoid purchasing them because I like them so much.
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So the two Polish Pickup offerings I have on my blog are both inspired by ice cream which pretty much shows that ice cream is the best junk food! I used to give up ice cream during the winter months because it is def a favorite of mine! LOL. This is so pretty though so let's check it out!
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Today I am sharing a different type of post. Normally I share art or new colors but lately I’ve just been wearing plain manicures for a couple days at a time and switching them up. So why not share what I wear on my off-season lol because lately that’s just what I’ve been in the mood for. I’m sharing older swatches because I honestly put them on broken nails, uneven nails and so it’s not beautiful but I’ve been enjoying wearing them. I've linked all my original posts!
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I seriously cannot get over how much I love this manicure I am sharing with you today. Because I love it so much, I will get approximately eight likes on Instagram lol. This woodland spring nail art is also super on trend as I see mushroom decor is like everywhere right now. This is like a muted spring look but still flowers and leaves, I love it.
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A frequent commenter on my blog (I don't know your name because it's labeled Anonymous so please let me know your name!!) mentioned loving the method I did on my Naturel 4 nails and when I looked at it, I immediately said it's been too long; I must do that look again! Well, I am FEELING spring pastels so that is what drove this look.
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April is definitely going to be a slow month on the blog. I've done my nails two different whites (two Stella Chromas) over the past 2 weeks. I didn't even bother taking pictures of them because I have both swatched on the blog. Usually I love doing holiday-themed nail art, but who knows if I'll just keep painting my nails white lol. But I DID wear this fun look for a bit.
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Oh hey now. Can you believe that March is over? Like I do not even understand this. Well that means it's Polish Pickup time, which is back on April 7th. KBShimmer has a gorgeous contribution that I am here for, so let's take a look!
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So as I mentioned in my Toasty post, I had been meaning to re-organize and go through my Zoya drawers. As collections come in, it's hard to organize and I just throw them in a drawer. So I pulled them all out, was quickly overwhelmed, and tried to reorganize. I still have A LOT of comparisons to do but I wanted to show the ones I did for the most recent collections. I did these on my nail mat because my back hurt so much from organizing hundreds of Zoyas.
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Are you so proud of me? I am 100% caught up on Zoya swatches AND showing a collection early! To me, March isn’t really spring since it’s usually still pretty cold. But since these polishes released just a few weeks ago (and they released them before I even had them), I am here to share. This 6-piece collection is full of unexpected shades of shimmer. So let’s take a look.
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I have a lot of Zoya posts this month! I wanted to do some abstract Zoya Toasty nail art. It literally snowed last week and it's been freezing so my brain is not all about pastels and spring yet, despite it literally being spring. So after it snowed last week, I put on these nails!
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I took over 625 pictures of these polishes because I have problems lol. That's how many different angles I wanted to share. I narrowed them down to just over 100 photos, because well, that's all I could do. I get so excited to share photos in all different lighting that I take too many. But really, these polishes are so sparkly and have so much dimension, I just have to share them.
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Hi all! St. Patrick's Day is this Friday and I figured I could squeeze one look in. As I mentioned last post, I cut my nails down, then had a break, so I have super shorties. I wanted a quick mani and loved KBShimmer's Looking for Love for Polish Pickup. As I wore it, I realized, perfect base for some simple art!
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Hello everyone and meet my new shorties. I was just sitting at home and I said I don’t want long nails right now and so I chopped them off. I go through phases but it felt really nice to start fresh. So you might see my nails go back-and-forth between long and short because I chopped them off after swatching three collections in one week. That’s probably what prompted me to chop them off. And would you believe, that I had A BREAK with these short nails. I bet you can see it. So my nails are even shorter now.
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Oh my, I am actually on time-ish with my Zoyas. I am so proud. While I just shared last year's transitional collection, now I have this year's. I actually love these transitional collections. They are year round to me and I just love how clean and pretty they look. So let's get to Toasty.
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So I just did two very loud Mardi Gras manicures and then I swatched a nine piece collection with lots of sparkles and shimmers (coming soon!) so I really wanted something that was soft and calming. I didn’t put away KBShimmer Lightning Strikes yet and I really loved this polish. This is her March 2023 Polish Pickup color. It’s so soft and beautiful and so I decided let’s put that on and do some simple stamping. It’s been a while since I’ve stamped so I really wanted something light and pretty.
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Polish Pickup has a theme of Rainy Days for March. Sure, why not? I feel like April would have made more sense! Well, I do love the KBShimmer contribution, so I can't be made. I love sparkly neutrals and this one is amazing!
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Hello everyone! I am very excited because Stella Chroma makes her return to Polish Pickup after a few months off. And she is back with the most glorious color, that I have already worn twice! I used it in my Mardi Gras abstract art and my Mardi Gras leopard print. And honestly, I'll probably use it again for St. Patrick's Day. It is the perfect green, so do not miss out!
