Shrooms!

Unknowingly, I have been on a hippy streak.

T'as not planned, despite was yesterday was!

Anyway, I have some fun stamping for you today.

I'm slowly but surely getting better at stamping,

but still have a lot of work to do.

I wanted to use my new Winstonia plates some more,

so here's ya go!

This is Winstonia plate W110 in Konad black stamping polish 

over China Glaze's 'Flip Flop Fantasy',

which is one of my top 10 favorite polishes :)

I LOVED these little toadstools.

It's so cute, fun, and different that I didn't want to take it off.

What do you guys think about this stamp?

A Psychedelic Saturday

Happy Saturday, everyone.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend!

I haven't really gotten to play with my Aquataenia palette that much,

so I decided to create a look using mainly that today.

I started with no plan and just kind of let things come to me,

and it turned out reminding me very much of a psychedelic color combo.

( & seeing how it IS 4/20, that worked out rather well... :D)

This turned out bright and super great for a show/rave.

I can't say enough about Lime Crime's shadows- they blend like butter!

And the unnamed purple Sephora shadow worked impressively, too.

I used:

Too Faced's Shadow Insurance

Lime Crime's 'Pear-Ple' & an unnamed purple matte Sephora shadow- crease

Lime Crime's 'Seahorse Discourse'- lid

Sugarpill's 'Tako'- inner corners

Lime Crime's 'Coral of the Story'- waterline

What do you guys think?

Too crazy?

Or just enough crazy?

Namaste!

'Daisy Lilacs It'

Hey guys,

I've got another mini from my set from Above the Curve today.

This is 3 coats of 'Daisy Lilacs It' over 1 coat of Sinful Colors' 'Candy Coated'.

'Daisy Lilacs It' is a pastel purple jelly filled with turquoise & gold circle glitter, fuchsia, burgundy, and aqua hexes, pink & turqoise hexes, and medium black stars. It's a unique color combo, and I love the stars :)

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: Above the Curve

Type: Glitter

Formula: Great!

Opacity (1-5): 2

Application: Amazing!

Price: I bought the set of 5 minis for $19.50; full size bottle retails for $9

Get This: her Etsy site

I think it's going to be a given that these polishes have great consistency & apply very well.

Super easy to build up.

And like I said, I like the unique color combo of glitter.

:)

What do you think about this polish?

Let me know!

NEW Maybelline Vivids- 'Brazen Berry'

Alright guys,

as you know if you've been following my blog in the past month or so,

I'm in LOVE with Maybelline's new line of Vivids lipsticks.

I've recently added to my collection 'Brazen Berry'.

It looks like it would be MUCH more purple than it really is,

which kind of bummed me out.

But I suppose for crazy, rich colors like that-

 you'll have to go somewhere like Lime Crime.

(which is my next venture!)

Anyway, here's several 'coats', if you will, of 'Brazen Berry'.

Pretty! No doubt, but not anywhere near the purple shade I thought it would be.

Humph.

Even so, it applied perfectly and was super soft,

which (aside from the awesome colors),

are the big selling points of this line.

IF you for some crazy reason haven't tried at least ONE of the lipsticks from this line,

you need to change that immediately.

They are definitely worth their small price tag!

:)

'Field of Tulips'

Happy Monday!

Today I have my first polish from the indie maker Above the Curve.

I found out about her polish during a giveaway she helped host (i believe),

and I purchased her Spring collection mini set.

After swatching them all, I've been super impressed!

Here's the first of 5, 'Field of Tulips' over Essie's 'First Timer'.

'Field of Tulips' is a milky, super light green base filled with differently sized yellow, red, blue, orange, green, pink, & purple hex glitters. It reminds me EXACTLY of a hillside covered with tulips, and I love it!

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: Above the Curve

Type: Glitter

Formula: Great!

Opacity (1-5): 1-2

Application: Amazing!

Price: I bought the set of 5 minis for $19.50; full size bottle retails for $9

Get This: her Etsy site

As I said, this was the first polish i've tried from ATC,

and I've very impressed! 

Very easy to build up,

and the consistency was fantastic.

Can't wait to try more!

Have you guys tried this indie maker?

What are your thoughts?

Essie 2013 Resort Collection- 'First Timer' & 'Under Where? '

Time for pt. 2 and the final two polishes from Essie's Resort Collection!

I've been SO impressed with this collection.

Essie is really stepping their game up!

Here's 2 coats of 'First Timer'.

'First Timer' is a beautiful & bright teal green.

It was easily opaque in two coats,

and was just all around great.

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: Essie

Type: Creme

Formula: Pretty good!

Opacity (1-5): 5

Application: Great!

Price:  $7-$8

Get This: local drugstores like Walgreens!

Next up is 2 coats of 'Under Where?'.

'Under Where?' is a lovely, almost neon, medium lavender creme.

I REALLY liked how this looked in daylight.

Inside it looks like a soft lavender,

but once outside it really pops.

Love it!

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: Essie

Type: Creme

Formula: Pretty good!

Opacity (1-5): 4

Application: Great!

Price:  $7-$8

Get This: local drugstores like Walgreens!

What do you guys think about these polishes?

I'm beyond pleased!

Game of Thrones series- House Lannister

One of my favorite characters from GoT is Tyrion Lannister.

(& I even like Jaime quite a bit, as well, despite his wayward ways right now).

He's cunning & hilarious,

and definitely worthy of inspiring the next look in my GoT series!

Here is the Lannister's sigil:

Using the rich crimson and gold,

I created my Lannister look.

I chose bright and bold shades of red & gold that reminded me of strength,

which the Lanniesters definitely have in one form or another.

I added the bright red lip because, well, I just had to :P

I used:

Too Faced's Shadow Insurance

Covergirl Line Exact liquid eyeliner

L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes mascara

crease:

Sugarpill's 'Love +', Lime Crime's 'Siren', & SYN Cosmetics' 'Ruthless'

lid:

SYN Cosmetics' 'Blaze' & 'Legend'

browbone:

SYN Cosmetics' 'Synfused'

lips:

Covergirl 'Hot Passion' lipstick

Lime Crime Carousel gloss in 'Candy Apple'

What do you guys think?

Who/what house would you like me to do next in my GoT series?

Let me know! :)

GIVEAWAY WINNER !

Drumroll please...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats Amy K. Starke!

She will have 48 hours to respond,

after that another winner will be chosen.


I appreciate all that entered the giveaway,
though I didn't have any where NEAR the turn out I thought I would.
I would like some feedback, if you can give it to me...


Do you like indie polishes, or would you prefer bigger brands like OPI and China Glaze?
Do you want nail art items to be in the giveaway?
Would you like makeup in the giveaway?
WHAT WOULD you like to seen giveaway?


Answering ANY of those would be very helpful to me!
Thanks again everyone!

Essie 2013 Resort collection- 'Come Here!' & 'In the Cab-ana'

I've got 2 beauties from Essie's 2013 Resort collection for you today.

They're all 4 so gorgeous that I had to scoop them up.

(The other two will be posted later this week!)

Here's 2 coats of 'Come Here!'

'Come Here!' is a vivacious coral with pink undertones that leans bright red in some light.

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: Essie

Type: Creme

Formula: Pretty good!

Opacity (1-5): 5

Application: Great!

Price:  $7-$8

Get This: local drugstores like Walgreens!

I really liked this polish. Though in the sunlight it looks more red, I still love the rich, coral color. Formula was great, too- MUCH better than I'm used to :)

Also, 2 coats of 'In the Cab-ana'.

'In the Cab-ana' is a gorgeous, vivid robin's egg-blue. It's just amazing in the sunlight! :)

Brand: Essie

Type: Creme

Formula: Pretty good!

Opacity (1-5): 5

Application: Great!

Price:  $7-$8

Get This: local drugstores like Walgreens!

I loved this color. It's lovely and perfect for summer!

And again, formula & application was sooooo much better than other Essies. 

Very impressed!

What do you guys think about these two polishes?

Let me know! :)

Autism Awareness look

Hey everyone,

in case you didn't know already, it's Autism Awareness month!

This issue is close to my heart as my major is special education,

and I'll work with kids that have autism daily.

Not to mention that I have a couple members of my family that have autism, also.

(Notice I didn't refer to them as autistic people/kids- we want person-first language here!)

SO, it's well past time that I did a look for Autism Awareness.

The color of the month to wear is blue, so I used different shades of blue for today's look.

I wanted to make this look bold and bright to reflect the bold movement towards autism awareness and the greater understanding of the spectrum over the years. I also wanted it go be hard and almost fighter-ish :)

I used:

All but 'Delusion' & 'Manic' are Urban Decay- the others are SYN Cosmetics.

What do you guys think about this look?

I'm certainly planning on doing at least one more look before the month is up-

is there something in particular you'd like to see?

Let me know! :)

Lush Lacquer- 'I Lost My Marbles'

Hey everyone.

I've got the other polish I'm giving away to show you today.
I love Lush Lacquer, but i've been especially impressed with the spring/summer neon glitters they've released. So amazing!

Here's 4 coats of one of them, 'I Lost My Marbles'.

'I Lost My Marbles' is a hot, light pink base with neon orange, yellow, green, pink, blue, and purple different sized matte hex glitters. It's AWESOME :)

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: Lush Lacquer

Type: Glitter

Formula: Pretty good!

Opacity (1-5): 3

Application: Great!

Price:  $9

Get This: their Etsy site

I CANNOT wait to go back & buy all the other neon glitters.

Shipping can sometimes take awhile with LL since they're so popular,

but this baby got shipped out to me very promptly.

What do you guys think about this polish?

What's YOUR Favorite LL polish?

Have you entered the giveaway yet?!?!
It ends April 12!

Game of Thrones makeup series- House Tyrell

Happy Saturday!

I've got the next installment in my GoT series today.

After last week's show, I was even more impressed with Margaery.

I love how she handles Cersei and really gives her a run for her money.

Today's post is all about the Tyrell's & their saying, "Growing Strong".

I used the colors of the Tyrell's sigil as well as their saying for inspiration.

Margaery is soft & ladylike, yet very cunning- and she's growing stronger and more powerful in the kingdom every day. I tried to portray that here. I wanted to have the softness/wearability, but also represent the boldness that is Margaery.

I used:

UD Primer Potion

UD 'Bender' & Sugarpill 'Midori'- crease

UD's 'Eldorado'- browbone/lid

SYN Cosmetics's 'Legend' & UD's 'Urb'- lid

Covergirl Line Exact eyeliner

L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes mascara

ATG- 'Goody Gum Drops' !

Happy Friday!

What a beautiful day it is here. FINALLY feeling like Spring!

I'm super excited today to show you my latest favorite polish from All That Glitters.

If you follow my blog regularly,

you know that ATG is one of my FAVORITE indie polish brands.

Well, today's polish is a great one, & one that i'm giving away in my Spring Giveaway!

This is 'Goody Gum Drop'.

'Goody Gum Drop' is a magenta base filled with variously sized & shaped red, blue, green, and purple glitters. Here I've got 3 coats of 'Goody Gum Drop' by itself on my ring finger, & 3 coats of it over CG's 'Rich & Famous' on the other fingers. As you can see, they both look the same :) Either way, it looks great.

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: All That Glitters

Type: Glitter

Formula: Awesome!

Opacity (1-5): 4

Application: Great!

Price:  $9.500

Get This: her Etsy site

As usual, I was very impressed with this polish.

It looked even better on my nails than I thought it would :)

If you haven't tried All That Glitters yet,

YOU NEED TO. 

Her stuff is amazing & she ships fast.

Plus,

you can win this very bottle in my Spring giveaway here!

Game of Thrones Makeup Series- 'Winterfell'

Okay, so you guys may be getting totally sick of my Game of Thrones-themed posts,

but now that the season has started, you better just brace yourselves for more!

(Although I will take a break from it in tomorrow's post :P)

I've wanted to do a makeup series based on the show/books since last summer,

but by then the show had ended & I figured i'd just wait until it started again,

because it just feels better to me to do it while the show is running.

Although some looks may be a little crazy & bold,

I'm going to do my best to make most of them wearable! :)

Today's look is for Winterfell- the stronghold in the North of House Stark,

and I used their House's colors, white and grey.

I really want a better camera or lighting so that you can see all the dimensions of this look.

Many of the shadows just aren't picked up that well :/

For instance, there is chunky silver glitter on the lids/eyelashes that, in real life,

looks so much like snow- but it just does not translate in these pictures :(

I used:

Too Faced's Shadow Insurance

Sugarpill's 'Tako' & Urban Decay's 'Polyester Bride'- brow bone

UD's 'Gunmetal'- crease/outer corners

2 greys from Sephora palette, UD's 'Strip' & 'Uzi'- lid

Covergirl Line Exact eyeliner

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on eye pencil in 'Gunmetal'

L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes mascara

It's simple (kind of), & wearable,

and it definitely reminds me of Winterfell.

If you don't watch Game of Thrones- YOU SHOULD.

The books are even better! :)

'Direwolf'

WHEW.

Sorry for that mini hiatus, guys.

I found out I have strep throat, so i've been out of commission since saturday.

I'm somewhat on the mend, though, so it's time to jump back into posts.

Today I have my first ever polish from Fanchromatic Nails, 'Direwolf'.

Here's 3 coats!

'Direwolf' is a sheer grey base with tiny white, black & grey circular glitters and a few medium sized silver hexes mixed in. I used it by itself (& it was easy to build up), but I think next time it will look better layered over a dark grey base. The direwolf is  the sigil of house Stark of Winterfell, one of my favorite families from the show Game of Thrones :)

POLISH INFORMATION

Brand: Fanchromatic Nails

Type: Glitter

Formula: Great!

Opacity (1-5): 3

Application: Great!

Price:  $11.25

Get This: her Etsy site, though it's currently closed for nowtsy site 

I was pretty pleased with this polish. It lived up to it's name & the formula was just lovely.

However, I did not feel it merited the $11 price tag. There are cooler polish on llarowe that I'd rather spend that hefty a price on... but if her prices go down a bit, i'll definitely be revisiting her shop!