Laziest Post Ever: Studio M Glitters

Posted on January 2, 2013 by kimberlyp

Studio M polishes are not found in my area. Lucky me, I have a swell friend that lives in Michigan who does, however. I can’t say anything about these polishes that you won’t discover yourself after you pick your jaw up off the floor…

I couldn’t find any names on these. Now, that’s a shame! If you love glitter, and you have to love bar glitter too, then you’ll want to keep looking…

Next yummies…

Everyone got 3 coats. All of them all together…

It’s a cruel world that these polishes aren’t available to everyone. It’s a wonderful world to have friends that share my passion for polishes.

Icing: Flower Child

Posted on December 28, 2012 by kimberlyp

Do you throw confetti at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve? Naw, me either. But, those ‘rockin’ parties seem to. I’ll settle for confetti on my nails. That hangs around longer…

I found ‘Flower Child’ at an Icing store. I don’t know why I keep looking for more, new polish. I have more to-be-swatched than days of the week. Probably everyone can agree that there isn’t enough time during the Holiday season to get everything done. So, my nail-painting has slacked!

‘Flower Child’ is the perfect polish for those that like lots and lots of glitter…

There’s round glitter, hexagon-shaped, and lots and lots of shards. I see teal, orange, silver, fuchsia, green and gold colors.

This glitter polish is the kind I love painted over a dark, creme polish. And, ‘Nevermore’ from Cult Nails is my all-time, only-one-I-need, one-coat black creme polish. But, I was fascinated to see it on a dark blue creme (I don’t remember which brand I used), as well…

I did have to do a bit of placement as the glitter wanted to all collect at the tip. You can see how this made the topcoat not as smooth. Of course, with ‘Nevermore’, I only needed one coat but, the blue polish got two. Then I put on two coats of ‘Flower Child’.

Since I didn’t wear this on my own nails, I can’t judge how it would wear for real. However, for a one-night event, such as New Year’s Eve, being a ‘Flower Child’ might be the new bling.

Do you think you’ll ever NOT like glitter polish?

Revlon’s Bubblegum Days Urban Nights Might Be Hidden In Plain Sight; Know Where To Look

Posted on December 18, 2012 by kimberlyp

During the Holiday season, you have to keep in mind the rule of ‘Look Up!‘ That’s what I did yesterday at Walgreens and found the new display for Revlon’s Bubblegum Days Urban Nights collection… That’s ‘Girly’ and ‘Heavenly’. I picked them right off the top shelf, thankyouverymuch. Seems silly to find full, new displays staged for placement on the floor when there are several displays that don’t have a lot of product left. Merchandising law says that’s a No No! And there’s your inside secret to finding new products.

I will have swatches coming, I promise. These are just too cute to tuck back into the Vanity Vault!

Studio M: Sparks Fly For A Holiday Look

Posted on December 13, 2012 by kimberlyp

It’s a crying shame that there are no Rite Aid drugstores in Florida. However, it’s a stroke of luck that I have a friend in Wisconsin, where there are RA, who can pick up some polishes for me. And when I saw the new Studio M polishes, I was burning up my email begging my friend to snag me some. I made this one into a Holiday manicure…

“Sparks Fly’ is very unique in my collection. The name is cute and I love hairy glitter. It doesn’t seem that many folks like bar glitter, but I do!

Using Revlon’s ‘Cosmic’ from their Moon Candy collection, I whipped up some Holiday cheer for my nails. This dark green creme is almost a blackened green on the nails. But it does allow the red and silver glitter to twinkle…

I did have to do a bit of glitter fishing as the bars would all end up at the tip. And, up close you can see that the clear base didn’t always smooth out.

Using Lumos Instant Impact Base Coat, I applied 2 coats of Revlon’s ‘Cosmic’and then two coats of Studio M’s ‘Sparks Fly’…

A lighter green shade would have given me the perfect look I was going for. But, Revlon’s Moon Drops creme polishes are some of the easiest cremes to work with. I don’t mind this creation.

Do you like hairy glitters? Does this manicure make you think of a big, mess of curly Christmas ribbons?

Kleancolor: City Never Sleeps

Posted on November 1, 2012 by kimberlyp

Kleancolor polishes continue to amaze me with the glitter combinations they create. I was very surprised to find this one at the independent store, Red Lips, at the mall…

Lots of crazy stuff going on here! And what is showing up as teal in the photo is, actually in real life, more of a blueish teal shade…

Named ‘City Never Sleeps’, this polish is jammin’ gold and magenta hex glitter. Within a purple transparent base, I find the blueish teal glitter.

Even though ‘City Never Sleeps’ has a lot of glitter in it, I wanted to try it as a top coat rather than apply it on its own. I took a shimmery light green from Color Club and got this…

Kind of fancy shmancy! I liked how this one turned out…

It’s both frosty and glittery. I used two coat of the green from Color Club (some of their polishes don’t have labels on them and this just happens to be one of them), and two coats of ‘City Never Sleeps’. With a polish that has multiple glitter colors such as this, I will most likely be playing with ‘City Never Sleeps’ again, soon.

Have you seen this polish from Kleancolor in person? How do you like it?

Is Halloween Getting Rust-y? Try Forever 21′s Version

Posted on October 30, 2012 by kimberlyp

Oli Oli In Come Freeeeee!

Only one more day left to call out Halloween polishes. After that, I’m doing ‘Fall’ manicure swatches. OK, maybe they could be Halloween ones still. And, just because I didn’t get in all the Halloween looks I wanted to, doesn’t mean I can’t morph them into Thanksgiving/Fall swatches. I’m getting into this ‘my blog, my rules’ thing. Bwaahaaahaaa!

This polish definitely fits into both categories…

‘Rust’ is a copper glitter overload from Forever 21′s love and beauty. And one thing about Forever 21 polish, most of the glitters are dense and easy to use. This one makes coverage by using a lot of different sizes of glitter. Look close…

Hex, micro and regular sizes galore. And these babies didn’t have any issue laying down on the nail.

I swatched up some orange and black fun…

Starting from the left: Forever 21′s ‘Rust’ over Cult Nails’ ‘Nevermore’; ‘Rust’ all by itself; ‘Rust’ over Zoya’s ‘Arizona’; Pure Icing’s black crackle over Zoya’s ‘Arizona’; ‘Arizona’ all by itself; and last is Cult Nails’ ‘Nevermore’ all by itself.

I really liked how ‘Rust’ seemed to be glowing orange embers with ‘Nevermore’. I did a manicure with it and it was definitely THE Halloween look…

How’s that for some fire on the fingertips? ‘Rust’ wasn’t terribly hard to remove. Since ‘Nevermore’ is a one-coat polish (love that!!!) and I only used one coat of ‘Rust’, this was a quickie.

Are you finished with Halloween looks and ready to move one? I feel I am.

Icing’s Sunlit Pairs Up With Revlon’s Cosmic For A Swamp Thing Look

Posted on October 28, 2012 by kimberlyp

I found this random polish immediately say to myself that this is a great one for Halloween! I found this one at Icing and saved it til now…

Wild, isn’t it!? This is ‘Sunlit’ and I found it on the clearance shelf. Because it is so unique, I had to get it…

Let me see if I can describe this one. It’s a jelly and the base is a murky olive color. There is iridescent micro glitter in this along with a lot of bar glitter. The bar glitter is holo and some is medium green. And the green looks to be transparent. (Remember Toxic Seaweed from Cult Nails? This looks like the ‘real’ stuff!)

I didn’t feel that ‘Sunlit’ was going to turn out so good alone. So, I paired it up with a Revlon dual-end polish. I used the creme end of ‘Cosmic’…

I like this green so much! And, it is perfect for ‘Sunlit’…

My thumbnail has a hangnail and it didn’t get noticed until doing the posting. Groan…

I used two coats of Relvon’s ‘Cosmic’ and one coat of Icing’s ‘Sunlit’. That looks so much like stagnant, murky water. And, I’m sure there is some sort of swamp monster in there!

Does getting into water where you can’t see your feet creep you out too?

Icing’s Sipping On Bubbly; Cheers With Champagne

Posted on October 27, 2012 by kimberlyp

Icing is a sister store to Claire’s. There used to be another sister store called ‘Topkapi’. I managed one of those stores, way back. For a very short time. It was terrible. They didn’t have makeup or polish back then. It was terrible.

What’s not terrible is checking out Icing for their funky nail polishes. It is always a delight to find something new. This is a rather new addition for me…

‘Sipping On Bubbly’ is a cute name for a very unique polish. This one has a lot going on…

Lots of micro glitter. I see iridescent, gold and bar glitter that flashes from magenta to orange then to a sparkly iridescent look. I meant it when I said it was complex!

On the nail, it isn’t as fantastic as it is to look at in the bottle…I have two coats over bare nails. No top coat here and surprisingly, this polish was not difficult to remove. I did experiment with different base coat colors. And, I found some shades did better than others. However, I decided to go naked…

I didn’t work on trying to get a lot of the bar glitter out. I just applied like I would any other polish. So, this is a rather demure glitter manicure. I can see how the name reference to champagne is used; the micro glitter looks just like a pale bubbly drink.

Even though it isn’t all that flashy…

It does have a different look. Maybe I don’t need to always wear ‘out there’ colors. Maybe a sophisticated ‘Sipping On Bubbly’ fits the bill once in a while.

I like champagne, most of the time. Do you like it? How about Icing’s ‘Sipping On Bubbly’? Do you like that better?

China Glaze’s Glitter Goblin Or, Cursing Camera Capturing

Posted on October 25, 2012 by kimberlyp

Allow me to do this post with my phone camera. I think it takes pretty good photos, however, I want to see how it translates to the blog.

China Glaze’s ‘Glitter Goblin’ looks so cool that I wanted to find a base color that would promote it efficiently…

Zoya’s creamy ‘Arizona’ worked quite well.

This is ‘Glitter Goblin’…

And ‘Arizona’, a perfect orange creme in my stash…

Using two coats of ‘Arizona’ and two coats of ‘Glitter Goblin’, the marriage produced a whimsical Halloween manicure…

Removing this glitter is exactly what you’d expect: nail scrubbing. Nothing to make me curse at a goblin, however. I cast my vote that it was worth the effort.