Jeweled Tips

Fairy Dust Feng Shui

2011-10-10T22:48:00.002-04:00

I've been a very bad blogger lately, not because I don't love you all haha it's just been a little crazy lately. I've steadily been taking pictures, swatching, and polishing so I have plenty of stuff to share with you :) Thanks for bearing with me during the unintended absence!

So what I have for you today is a layering combination that I la-la-love. Perfect for fingers or toes! This is 2 coats of OPI - Suzi Says Feng Shui and 1 coat of China Glaze - Fairy Dust. It's glittery but not overwhelmingly so; colorful but not in your face because of the dusty quality of Suzi Says Feng Shui. It also makes me very happy that the glitter in Fairy Dust lays flat, I hate bumpy glitter.

outside, sunlight

more sunlight outside (the pictures were too pretty to just pick one)

outside, shade

inside

There's just something about the dusty blue color and the light hitting the holographic glitter that makes me very happy. I need to wear this combo again ASAP! Do you have any colors or combinations that have that an effect like that for you?

I was interviewed!

2011-09-04T19:00:00.004-04:00

The lovely Kimberly over at Libby's Pink Vanity, has an amazing series going called A to Z of Me. Every Sunday she highlights a different blogger and shares The A to Z's of them with us. I love love love things like this and seeing other bloggers be recognized and celebrated by our peers is awesome.

I was lucky enough to be this week's focus of her A to Z of Me series! Please go check it out here (and if you've missed any of the past ones read them as well, they're all fabulous.) Even if you don't care all that much about what I have to say, she has included a pretty phenomenal picture of some penguins at the bottom of the post. That alone is worth a click ;-)

Click here to check it out!

Thanks again Kimberly!

This Definitely is My Kind of Cool Aid

2011-08-23T23:50:00.008-04:00

I have no idea why it's taken me so long to post this beautiful polish. I'm sure you've seen Cult Nails - My Kind Of Cool Aid before and have heard about how Maria of R3Daily started the company, so I won't go too much into it. Maria is a fellow blogger who did what I think we all dream of and started her own line of incredible nail polish! This was her very first polish to hit the market and I made sure to order as soon as it came out. I then proceeded to fall in love with it haha.

My Kind Of Cool Aid is a pretty lavender-gray shade with delicate silver, blue and pink shimmer in it. The shimmer is borderline, what I would think of as, secret; so it is subtle but still very pretty. I wish I could have gotten it to show up more in my pictures; my camera wasn't having it though haha. Next time I wear this I'll try to catch the shimmer, but in the mean time check these pictures out!

sunlight
shade

indoors with flash

indoors

I couldn't get the shimmer to come out to play much but it's beautiful, subtle, classy, and glamourous. I am not exaggerating at all either haha. What do you think of My Kind Of Cool Aid - do you already own it or plan on picking it up one day?

Also, When Cult Nails gets 5,000 likes on Facebook they are going to have a major sale where the polishes will be $5 (aka 50% off!) so please be sure to like them on Facebook so you too can get your hands on My Kind Of Cool Aid and some of the other gorgeous shades!

Layering with... Orly- Fowl Play (picture heavy!)

2011-08-18T19:04:00.008-04:00

So Orly- Fowl Play is one of the star polishes of the fall collections and has been hotly anticipated ever since the lovely Carina over at Gilded Nails put promos and swatches of it up. It started trickling into stores recently and I'm sure you've all seen swatches of it by now, be it on other blogs, the nail board, etc. It has kind of a squishy, jelly-like finish, which made me curious about how it would look layered over some other colors. I wanted to try and lighten up the dark purple base color of Fowl Play too. I rummaged through my stash and asked on twitter if there were any colors you wanted to see it over and came up with a nail wheel full of choices :)

Enough with the words, on to the pictures right? haha. So here is a picture of the nail wheel before I put Fowl Play over everything...

(remember you can click to enlarge all of the pictures!)

1. Orly - Fowl Play (3 coats)
2. Orly - Royal Velvet (3 coats)
3. Diamond Cosmetics - Crushed Velvet (1 coat)
4. China Glaze - Light As Air (1 Coat)
5. OPI - Done Out In Deco (1 coat)
6. China Glaze - Spontaneous (2 coats)
7. China Glaze - Grape Pop (1 coat)
8. Essie - Sexy Divide (2 coats)
9. Zoya - Demi (1 coat)
10. OPI - Manicurist of Seville (1 coat)
11. SpaRitual 0 Devil Inside (1 coat)
12. OPI - Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ (2 coats)
13. Orly - Enchanted Forest ( 2 coats)
14. China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint (2 coats)
15. Avon - Vintage Blue (2 coats)
16. Wet n Wild - Blue Moon (2 coats)
17. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On (2 coats)
18. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Black Out (1 coat)

Now let's check out how Fowl Play layered shall we? Since it's kind of a complex polish with the flakies and shimmer and all that good stuff, I'm giving you pictures in sunlight and in the shade with flash, to try and capture the differences and nuances of each combo.

1-4 in sunlight

1-4 in shade, with flash

4-7 in sunlight

5-8 in shade with flash

8-11 in sunlight

8-11 in shade with flash

12-15 in sunlight

12-15 in shade with flash

15-18 in sunlight

15-18 in shade with flash

17-2 in the shade with flash

Did you make it this far after all the pictures? :) Out of 17 possible choices on this nail wheel, which ones are your favorite? I liked a lot of these! I think China Glaze - Spontaneous (number 6) gave me the perfect purple base color I originally was looking for, but I also really loved how Orly - Royal Velvet (number 2), Essie - Sexy Divide (number 8), and Wet n Wild - Blue Moon (number 16) looked because the shimmer in the base colors added to what Fowl Play already had. The most surprising ones for me were the red shades I tried, (thank you Allibally for the suggestion!) OPI - Manicurist of Seville (number 10) and SpaRitual -Devil Inside (number 11) I looooooved how pretty and burgundy looking those turned out. I can see myself wearing these combos during the fall/winter for sure. I like the idea of those manis with sweaters and fall clothes for some reason haha.

Demure Vixen vs. Venus di Violet (comparison)

2011-05-19T17:46:00.005-04:00

Every now and then I post spam on MUA (MakeUp Alley) of random polishes, and in one of those posts I had OPI - Venus di Violet (which I showed you earlier here) Someone asked to see how it compared to Essie- Demure Vixen. So here we go!

Three coats of each color, Venus di Violet on index and ring fingers and Demure Vixen on middle and pinky fingers.

sunlight

shade

indoors

bottle shot!

The Verdict? Obviously they aren't dupes, Demure Vixen is darker and more mauve, but they are relatives. Demure Vixen is somewhat of a darker version of Venus di Violet. The shimmer in DV is a little more "secret" and VdV is a little more obvious. Also the shimmer isn't 100% the same, although it is very similar. It feels almost identical but VdV is a little pinker, more of a purpley-pink shimmer.

If you like one you'll probably like the other polish, I hope this helps :) Are there other comparisons you'd like to see? Tell me in the comments!

Venus di Violet

2011-05-16T16:25:00.000-04:00

So, it's been a while, eh? Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging and as much as I wish this could be my number one priority, realistically other things have to come first. But everything has settled down (or at least as much as it's going to haha) so I'm back! I never intended to go on that hiatus, so sorry for no heads up.

Today I have OPI - Venus di Violet to share with you. This is a polish I had put on my wishlist early on in my nail polish addiction and never really got around to getting until one day I found it on sale at a Trade Secret store. I was pleasantly surprised by it!

sunlight

shade

indoors (and apparently a little rough on the clean-up, sorry!)

This is a soft and sophisticated color, kind of a palette cleanser if you will. The application was good for such a pale color, sometimes they can be streaky and tough to work with but this wasn't. I used three coats in these pictures. Venus di Violet is a pale pink with pretty shimmer that is purple-leaning pink. I'm glad I ended up picking this polish up, because I ended up really liking it :) I'll do a comparison with this in my next post, so check back for that! What do you think of Venus di Violet?

Just a couple of other little notes - I will be notifying the winner of the crackle polish giveaway hopefully this weekend. I have some new reviews coming up as well as another giveaway very soon!

Matte-Suede Fest '11 - Day 3

2011-03-14T20:55:00.008-04:00

Matte-Suede fest rolls on, day 3 brings us Revlon - Ruby Ribbon, no topcoat. This is my absolute favorite of the matte suede finish polishes. It's the perfect red with gorgeous shimmer....oh I could gush on about it for a while haha. This is a red I actually will wear on my fingers, normally I only rock red on my toes. In my book, Ruby Ribbon is perfect...see for yourself!

sun

shade

inside

and something fun I noticed while swatching, Ruby Ribbon matches the color of my front hall!

cool, right? :)

If you think Ruby Ribbon is pretty now, while it's matte suede (and of course, you do) just wait until I show it to you with a top coat. So pretty. I bought a back-up of Ruby Ribbon already... I did it just a few days after I tried it, same as with Perplex. Revlon, you have been bringin' it lately with the colors and quality! Ruby Ribbon was super easy to work with, I used two coats - but just like Emerald City, you can get away with one coat. Day 4 of Matte-Suede fest is going to be the first of the top coated versions of these polishes, so check back for that!

Do you have any polishes that match wall colors in your home? I plan to use some polishes as guides for choosing paint colors in the future though for sure!

Matte-Suede Fest '11 - Day 2

2011-03-11T17:56:00.001-05:00

It's Day 2 of my Matte-Suede fest! I've got Revlon -Emerald City to show you today. And it's beautiful matte/suede or shiny Emerald City is more opaque and easier to work with than Powder Puff, which I showed you Day 1. I used two coats for this swatch, but you can probably get away with just one if you're careful. I also didn't have any issues with drying time, like a lot of people had with Powder Puff - so that's another bonus.

sunlight

shade

inside

This is one of my favorite greens, no doubt about it. I love how even without a topcoat, it's still very lit from within looking because of the shimmer it has. My favorite thing about these Matte-Suede polishes is that they aren't flat, like most mattes, there's still some shine and shimmer to them. I haven't decided what my St. Patrick's Day mani is going to be, but Emerald City is definitely in the running!

In my next post I'm going to show you my favorite of the three matte-suede polishes I have.

Matte Suede-fest '11: Day 1

2011-03-04T20:05:00.002-05:00

Welcome to a little week I'm calling Matte Suede-fest 2011. I love most of the shades from Revlon's Matte-Suede line that came out a few months ago, a very serious love. So instead of sporadically posting them at random, I'm making it a Matte-Suede palooza! Woooo! I own 3 of the 4 shades (Fire Fox didn't appeal to me) so you'll be getting six days of fun. Let's get it on - Day 1 brings us Powder Puff, without topcoat

sun!

shade

indoors

This is without topcoat, which means it's Matte-Suede, so kind of flat. To me the whole Matte-Suede concept is really like a hybrid of the flat almost plastic looking matte finish, and the more suede like finishes (like Zoya Matte Velvets and OPI Suedes). So when these Revlons are topcoat-less, they are more interesting looking than a full on matte polish, in my opinion at least. I don't know if you know that I pretty much hate the look of matte polishes, so I always wear topcoats on these types of things, but the Revlons I like enough that I've contemplated leaving them Matte-Suede-y.

Powder Puff seemed to be the shade that got the most attention out of the four when these first came out, because it's one of the most interesting looking white polishes on the market. There's this really pretty blue flash to it. My pictures are three coats of polish, but I know a lot of people need four and Powder Puff is sloooow to dry. I'm pretty sure this can be solved by layering a coat or two of Powder Puff over a regular opaque white, but I haven't tried yet (I keep meaning too...) White it tricky for me to pull off because I'm ridiculously pale, but I like how Powder Puff looks on me. Tomorrow I'm going to show you the shiny topcoat-ed up version!

Fun WIth Layering Wednesday: Gray by Gray and Star

2011-02-23T18:24:00.000-05:00

Happy Wednesday? I've got one more final left to take tomorrow and some end of semester work to finish this week and then I can breathe for like one minute haha. Next week I start more classes and the 2 baseball radio and webshows I co-host start up. Phew! But I do have a cool thing planned for this weekend - it looks like Mimi from Makeup Withdrawal and I may be meeting up for a nail polish playdate!

I've got another Fun With Layering Wednesday post for you today, using Sally Hansen - Gray by Gray from the Complete Salon Manicure line. In case you want to check it out on it's own and missed my post about it the other day, here is the link.

sunlight

shade

inside

I used two coats of Revlon - Star overtop of Gray by Gray. I think the glitter in Star really works well with Gray by Gray, the colors work really nicely together. I'm not super into the random hex glitter in the polish, I need to figure out a way to make it a little more symmetrical or something next time I use it. The polish Star has special meaning for me though, a few months ago when one of my cats Starlight passed away, a really really sweet MUA-er sent me this polish to cheer me up. She included a poem and a little note with it too which was so wonderful. Do you have any polishes with special meanings to you like I do with Revlon - Star?

A Little Crack(le) Giveaway!

2011-02-21T21:34:00.006-05:00

Heyyyy! I should be studying for a final I have tomorrow afternoon (yes, final, my schedule is silly) but my back is being highly uncooperative. Shooting pain in my back and legs is preventing me from focusing - so my lack of productivity is your gain! Somebody should be getting something good out of this situation, don't you think? :)

So I came across some old Cover Girl Crackle Polishes recently and decided to give them away to one of my awesome readers!

the prize!

close-up of the bottles

One reader will win 1 bottle each of Cover Girl Crackle in Boo! and Ghost. Boo! is a black crackle polish and Ghost is a white crackle polish

This giveaway is open internationally! So as long as you have a mailing address, you can enter

Mandatory: You MUST be a follower! New or old, either works.

Tell me how you follow and what name you follow under. You also need to leave me your email address. (1 entry)

For additional entries:

1. Follow me on twitter (@JeweledTips) & tweet about the giveaway (must include a link to this post and @JeweledTips so I can see that you did!): (1 entry)

2. Blog about this giveaway! (putting it in your sidebar counts): (1 entry)

3. Add Jeweled Tips to your blog roll and leave me a link: (1 entry)

4. Tell me what your all time favorite nail polish is and why :) (1 entry)

So a possible 5 total entries! You will be disqualified if you do not at least leave the mandatory information. I had to disqualify some people in the last giveaway for this, so READ this whole entry please!

The giveaway will be open until midnight on March 17, 2011. As long as it's March 17th where you live, you can enter. Please leave you entries in ONE comment if possible (I know sometimes you may blog about it later or something so I understand that, but please do your best here). Also, once I contact you that you've won - you have 72 hours to respond or else I will have to pick a new winner.

Good luck everyone! I can't wait to see the answers to the favorite polish question :)

A belatedly Sinful Valentine's Day (pic heavy)

2011-02-17T21:27:00.000-05:00

I hope you all had a fun Valentine's Day or Monday.. however you chose to think of the 14th :) Unfortunately, my laptop crashed so I couldn't post these on the 14th like I had planned too. My mom is great with computers, so she got it back up and running - yay! So I have three colors from the collection of six that Sinful has put out for Valentine's Day. All 6 appear to be repromoted shades, but they are very pretty and definitely worth checking out. This is picture heavy! Just fair warning

sunlight

shade

inside

Beautiful Girl: This is definitely less peach in real life than it's looking in pictures, it's a little brighter and a little more pink. This was three coats and a little thin, but I like it a lot. All three swatches are without topcoat, and you can see how shiny they are on their own, which I'm a big fan of. I was on the fence about this color in the bottle but it was really pretty once I had it on!

sunlight

shade

indoors

Pink Forever: This is more vibrant in real life and a little brighter than the pictures wanted to show. I only needed two coats for Pink Forever, and it was definitely the easiest of these three to work with - so yay for that. It feels very spring-y to me, I want to konad some flowers on my ring fingers when I wear this :)

sunlight

shade

indoors

Boom Boom: I found this to be the most difficult of the three to work with, it was streaky the first two coats. It did eventually even itself out and I ended up really liking it. Boom Boom is a color I'll be wearing a ton in the summer; doesn't it seem like a cute pedi color? It's very bright in real life, a little more vibrant and a little more blue than I could capture in pictures. I think using a white base or some other underwear color will help cut down on coats needed. It does have a jelly feel to it, which a lot of people will like (I'm not into VNL so I'll use underwear)

Overall I really like all three of these colors from the collection, I can see myself wearing all of them! Which of the three is your favorite? Will you be picking up any of the six pinks from the collection? At $1.99 a piece, there's no reason not to! :)

(these were provided to me for an honest review)

Gray by Gray

2011-02-05T21:17:00.014-05:00

I'm so excited that we got sunshine here TWO days in a row! No, I don't live in Alaska haha, but the east coast has been rocked with gross overcast weather and a lot of snow and rain the last few weeks and there hasn't been sun for weeks. So I haven't been swatching in a few weeks and that made me sad. (Having no sun isn't an excuse for not posting much of late, I have plenty back-logged on my computer, it's just been hectic lately). But I've got a bunch of posts set up for the next few weeks so stick with me :)

Today I'll be showing you Sally Hansen - Gray by Gray, which is from the Complete Salon Manicure line. It drives me absolutely crazy that Sally Hansen has 8947493647 different "lines" of nail polish and that every bottle is a totally different shape. Add in the fact that their distribution plan seems ridiculously random... but I digress.

sunlight

shade

indoors

Gray by Gray sat in my untrieds for a looong time. I picked it up when it first came out and then it just sat, never really calling my name. I'm glad I finally did try it though because it sure is pretty. A kind of dusty blue-gray slate color. I'd much rather see this color on my nails than in the the weather outside haha. Gray by Gray is so easy to work with too; 2 coats of creamy goodness. I hope it's sunnier where you live right now!

Also, just a heads up, under the About Me section on the right side of my blog, I've added some new pages. My Stash spreadsheet and Contact Info are both there now, as well as my Wishlist/Swapping Info. I also will have a new giveaway up soon, so keep an eye out for that!

When Nail Polish And Jewelry Come Together...

2011-01-31T17:45:00.017-05:00

I've been a little MIA this week, sorry about that. I've had a ridiculous amount of work to do and my back is not playing well with the rest of my body. But I'm back! Get excited because I have some incredible necklaces from GingerKitty Designs to share with you! I seriously can not get enough of her jewelry, it's phenomenal. My biggest problem is trying to narrow down what I want from a wishlist of, well everything haha. At the end of November I finally got my act together and ordered a necklace from Tracey and then a few days later, I won a second through the Overall Beauty Scavenger Hunt!

I'm going to show you the one I originally ordered first. It's even more stunning in person than in pictures, but I tried to capture it as best I could in the late afternoon sun

look at it sparkle in the sun!

more sun

a deliberately blurry indoors picture to show the holo and glitter sparkle

Holy moly, how insanely pretty is that?! It's made with China Glaze - Octa Gone Wild, China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle, OPI - Ink, and OPI - Purple With A Purpose.

Okay, the second necklace I won through the Overall Beauty scavenger hunt at the beginning of December and it's so perfect for the holidays and Valentine's Day!

quasi-sun haha

inside, so you can see the design

inside, blurred some to show the sparkle!

This one is red and silver, made with Color Club - Art Of Seduction and Zoya - Trixie

Ever since I got these pretties in the mail, I've worn them a couple of times a week, I can't get enough of them! They add a pop of color and sparkle (without being over the top) to everything from jeans and a t-shirt to dresses. I seriously cannot say enough about how much I love these and they are even more stunning in person.

You have to go check out the GingerKitty Designs Etsy Store and you can read her blog too. (You definitely want to do that, she has great giveaways!) Tracey has a huge list of polishes that you can have her make pretty much any kind of custom piece for you, or you can pick from some of the gorgeous ones she's come up with. Lately a lot of pieces with crackle polish has been ordered I believe.

What polish (or polishes) would be in your dream piece of jewerly from GingerKitty Designs? I want more holo ones!

Marbled Nail Tutorial

2011-01-18T21:26:00.009-05:00

I've got a great tutorial to share with you today from Alexandra. It's a short video showing step by step how to get marbled nails! It's not water-marbling, this gives you the same kind of effect but a lot faster and way less messy. Big time selling points for me haha.

Check out the video!

so to recap, here's the picture of the supplies you'll want to have:

and here's two different versions of the finished product...

After I watched the video Alexandra made for us, I feel like this is something I could definitely do. I can't wait til my midterms are over this week so I'll finally have some free time and can try this! I'm thinking maybe using purples... China Glaze - Grape Pop and Light As Air perhaps?

How about you, have you ever tried marbling like this or with water? Are you brave enough to now after watching Alexandra's tutorial?

Three Press Releases that I'm Excited About!

2011-01-13T16:18:00.021-05:00

I've got some new information about collections from China Glaze, Color Club, and Cult Nails to share with you. There are a lot of colors I'm excited about from all of these brands and I want to know which ones are on your wishlist! Check them out:

First up, China Glaze - Anchors Away

Sail away this spring in 12 nautically-inspired colors from China Glaze. These bold and confident brights are reminiscent of a carefree natural getaway, with soft ethereal hues that inspire leisurely thoughts of sand and sea. Colors in this collection include:

· Life Preserver: Highly pigmented and luxurious poppy crème.
· Hey Sailor: Vibrant crème red.
· Ahoy!: Delightfully intense pink that flashes with reflective glass speck.
· First Mate: Sophisticated and rich navy crème.
· Starboard: Hip and playful green crème.
· Lighthouse: Multi-dimensional, bright yellow glass speck.
· White Cap: Whimsical and sparkling multi-dimensional white.
· Pelican Gray: High shine, cool toned grey crème.
· Sea Spray: Calming pale blue crème.
· Below Deck: A flirty mix of taupe and violet.
· Sunset Sail: Delightful peachy pink high shine crème.
· Knotty: Micro-particle beige shimmer.

This collection is available at your favorite etailers now! Keep in mind that snow has slowed down some shipments, so if it's not listed yet give them a few days, I know for sure Victorias Nail Suppy is slowed down by snow right now. And it will be showing up in stores soon, if immediate gratification is your thing. I'm looking forward to Below Deck, Sea Spray (feeding my Essie-Sag Harbor love in a big way haha), and First Mate!

Color Club also has just released the information about their Alter Ego collection for Spring

Color Club lets you create high-fashion looks for every identity with Alter Ego, their latest collection of diverse, long-lasting lacquers!

Alter Ego’s consists of 12 shades! Go incognito with our opaque shades or rendezvous in full view with our sheers of Alter Ego ‘LIGHTS’ and ‘DARKS’!

Alter Ego’s ‘Reveal Your Mystery Collection’ 7 piece salon pack includes Get a Clue, Revealed, Incognito, Secret Rendezvous, Sheer Disguise, and Give Me a Hint shades plus Milky White Base Coat. Their ‘Keep It Undercover Collection’ 7 piece salon pack includes Alter Ego, Secret Agent, Total Mystery, Alias, Ulterior Motive and Masquerading plus Vivid Top Coat.

Those purples! I'm also really into how Incognito, Secret Rendezvous, and Sheer Disguise from the lighter collection look too. I think a lot of these Spring colors are going to be coming home with me as soon as they are released in February :)

As you may know, one of our own nail bloggers, Maria from R3Daily has been hard at work on her own line of polish called Cult Nails. Her first color, My Kind of Cool Aid is finished and ready to be purchased! It looks seriously incredible! You can read more about it and see pictures HERE at Maria's blog. And if you want your own bottle of My Kind of Cool Aid, it can be purchased HERE. How cool is that?

Are you planning on purchasing any of the new colors from China Glaze or Color Club? Have you or will you be ordering My Kind of Cool Aid?

Yasmeen and a bonus!

2011-01-10T21:10:00.011-05:00

I think Zoya - Yasmeen was my first ever Zoya lemming. (Thanks to Scrangie of course!) After you see these pictures, you'll totally understand why. For one reason or another, it took me a long time to get my hands on this, but a few weeks ago I finally ordered it from the Zoya site...when they had that buy one get one free promo. I was getting Nikki for a gift for someone and got Yasmeen as my free polish, yay. So of course I had to put it on as soon as it got here. Yasmeen definitely lived up to my lemming, check it out:

sun (look at the sun! and grass! it's been snowing a lot here lately and more coming tomorrow afternoon)

shade

inside

Dark purple with lighter shimmer? I'm so there. It has a lit from within feel to it. And by that I mean it's darker at the edges and lighter in the middle. Yasmeen has a similar feel to China Glaze - Let's Groove, one of my all-time favorite polishes, which I showed you in the very first post here :) But that's not why I felt like I had seen the color of Yasmeen somewhere before...

It turns out that a ring I bought from an Etsy seller last year is an exact match for Yasmeen! Clearly I like the color, eh? Haha. Here it is on:

I'd normally wear it on my right hand, but for swatch pictures I use my left. Exact match! It felt pretty chic to have a matching ring while I had this on as a mani. Do you have any jewelry that matches a polish? What do you think about being matching like that? I think it's neat when it's something small like this (although I'd never tried something bigger, so I can't say for sure...)

I have three new Zoyas coming in the next few days from the latest promo :) So you'll be seeing those swatched soon! Did you order any during the sale last week?

The One In Which I Declare My Love For Perplex

2011-01-06T16:57:00.012-05:00

The first polish I'm showing you in 2011 is currently my favorite polish, period. I've got Revlon - Perplex for you today! As I'm sure you have heard by now, Perplex is very similar to Chanel - Paradoxal. They aren't exact dupes but close for sure. (There are several blogs with comparisons if you want to see for yourself.) I have a few extra pictures in this post to show you the depth of Perplex, check it out!

two sun pictures
shade

2 indoor pictures to show you how it can look different on the lighting.

Ahhh, so gorgeous. Perplex is a gray-ed out smokey purple with subtle (or secret) purple shimmer. It's complex and sophisticated and perfect! Depending how the light hits it, the shimmer can be seen more or the polish can appear more purple, I tried to capture that in the pictures above for you. I wore this for my birthday mani last month and am wearing it again for a concert next week, it seriously works for every occasion.

When I first found the Perplex display at CVS, I bought one bottle. I tried it that night and liked it so much that I went back to CVS two days later and bought two back-up bottles. Big time love haha. Do you have Perplex or its sister polish Paradoxal? What do you think about the gray-purple trend of late?

Mistletoe Kisses for New Year's Eve

2010-12-31T20:32:00.000-05:00

Hello lovelies! Just a quick post for you tonight before 2011 is upon us. I've got China Glaze - Mistletoe Kisses for you today. I won this a little while ago from Mary at Body & Soul and it's so pretty! Maybe my favorite from the Holiday collection this year.

sun (you can see how the silver glitter is more apparent sometimes depending on the light)

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inside

Pretty right? Sorry there are a few stray glitter pieces on my ring finger in the pictures. I'm actually wearing this on my toes right now. It's easy to work with, sometimes glitters can be a little gloopy but the formula here is good. Mistletoe Kisses is one of three I have from this collection, I'll show you the other two soon. Do you have any from this collection? What's your favorite?

I hope you all have a great New Year's Eve! I won't be kissing anyone at midnight since I'm sick, but hopefully you will be :)

Diamond Cosmetics Winter Collection, Part Two

2010-12-22T23:02:00.000-05:00

I've got the second half of Diamond Cosmetics' Winter Collection for you. If you missed part one you can find it here. I've got pictures of Starshine and Hypnotic to show you today! Have I mentioned how much I like the names of the polishes from this collection? Because I definitely do. If you've been reading JeweledTips for a while, I'm sure you've noticed that polish names that don't make sense drive me crazy haha. Yay for logical names!

First up, Starshine!

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(click to enlarge all of these to see the glitter better)

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Diamond Cosmetics describes it as, "Dark blue like the cosmic abyss, flecks of glitter in this polish twinkle like stars." I'd say that's pretty accurate! The bits of glitter aren't quite as obvious on the nail, it's more subtle but you can definitely tell they are there. These are all without topcoat, which I think would make it even prettier. The application was good, I used three coats but could've gotten away with two. I have polishes in my stash that are like a cousin to Starshine but no dupes. I'm a sucker for any polish with Star in the name too haha. As soon as I put this on, I thought it would make a really cool base color for something similar to the Space Nails that Asami did a while back.

Now let's check out Hypnotic!

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Oh myyyy goodness is this gorgeous or what? Diamond Cosmetics describes it like this: "Get lost in your fantasy with this shimmery blue green hue." Cute! Shimmery definitely fits this, although I'd say it's more a green that leans blue than a true blue-green, if that makes sense? There is a little more blue to it than my camera captured, but still predominately green I think. Application was great, very easy to work with and full coverage in two coats. I don't have any dupes to this for sure, it's crazy pretty though haha I can't wait to wear this as a full mani!

I don't think I can pick just one favorite from the collection, they all fit different holes in my collection (if you can have holes in a collection closing in on 300, you know what I mean though) I do know for sure I'm going to wear Moonsand on New Year's Eve! Do you have a favorite out of the four? Will you be picking one or all of them up from Diamond Cosmetics? If you're celebrating this weekend - I hope it's wonderful! And if not, I hope your weekend is amazing too :)

(these were sent to me for an honest review)

Diamond Cosmetics Winter Collection, Part One

2010-12-20T22:56:00.000-05:00

Hello lovelies! I've been buried in a pile of papers, articles to edit, and school work for the last week and a half, but I think I've finally conquered it haha. I did get a bunch of swatching done in the meantime, including the beautiful Winter Collection from Diamond Cosmetics. I'm breaking it up into two parts, today and tomorrow, so it won't be too picture heavy for you. So today I'm going to be showing you Moonsand and It's Electrifying, check out the pictures below!

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I love Moonsand! Everything from the name to the color to the application I like. I've been jonesin' for a charcoal-y silver polish for the last few weeks and I think this fits the bill! It only took two coats to get full coverage and wasn't bad to remove either. Diamond Cosmetics describes it as, "This charcoal foil shines like the full moon; eye catching and magnificent." I think this is going to be the base for my New Year's Eve mani, maybe with some glitter on top.

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"It's Electrifying... do do doo, better shape up dun dun dun cause I need a man, do do do, and my heart is set on youuuu" hahah, doesn't this name make you immediately think of Grease? Maybe it's just how my brain works. This color is fantastic. The formula gave me fits a little bit though, this picture is four coats. The VNL (visible nail line) is a little visible in pictures, but not in real life. This was a little bit patchy when I was applying it, but I was rushing a little bit so that could be partially my fault. It's Electrifying is a squishy color for sure, I know a lot of people will love it even with less coats, but I'm not into VNL so four was what I needed. Diamond Cosmetics describes it, "Give him chills with this powerful and sassy blue." Perfect description right?

What do you think of the first two colors from the Winter Collection? I hope your holiday shopping is almost finished! :)

(these were provided to me for an honest review)

Festive!

2010-12-08T23:21:00.010-05:00

Hi again! Second post today... told you I was playing catch up here haha. I just finished my radio show and I'm sneaking in really quick to show you a perfect holiday mani that Alexandra just did! And it's super easy, I promise.

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close - up of some of the stickers

finished product!

Alexandra alternated Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Emerald City and Orly - Bus Stop Crimson for the green and red base colors. And then topped it off with some holiday Cina nail stickers from Sally's Beauty Supply. I think most of the time you can find these seasonal style stickers by the registers at Sally's if you want to pick some up to try this yourself!

I love it! I need to get to Sally's to get a pack of these stickers, they are so adorable :) Thanks again Alexandra!! Have any of you started doing holiday manis yet?

Lots Of Neat Stuff Happening Right Now!

2010-12-08T17:03:00.016-05:00

Hey everyone! Sorry my computer has been uncooperative the last few days... the display settings changed themselves and four days of various techs and people working on it and it's still not fixed, yuck. So my laptop is now hooked up to a separate monitor and keyboard so I can finally start playing some catch up here! I've got a few press releases to show you of some cool stuff that's going on in the nail polish/beauty world.

First up, some of the amazing people in the beauty blogging community have put together BeautyBloggers.org

"BeautyBloggers.org is the collaboration of almost 50 different beauty bloggers and brands. In the spirit of the holidays, we wanted to make a meaningful contribution to charity — knowing that the most effective donation to any charity is cash.
So we’re putting our makeup on the auction block. Winning bids will be donated directly to Doctors Without Borders.
We’re raising money for Doctors Without Borders because women are always disproportionately affected in any disaster. This organization is committed to bringing quality medical care to people in crisis, regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. They treat rape victims in Papua New Guinea; they make sure women don’t die in childbirth in Pakistan; they helped flood victims in Mexico and earthquake victims in Haiti. They work in 65 countries around the world, and your donation will make an immediate impact. "

So go check out all of the amazing make-up and nail polish that's being auctioned off at BeautyBloggers.org to donate to a great cause and get yourself something pretty in the process :) The auctions are live now and run through December 20th at 5 pm CST.

Color Club has exciting news about their partnership with Amethyst Jeans, and a contest!

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"Enter to win on of 20 holiday totes given away over the next five weeks!
You and your BFF will each receive an Amethyst Jeans tote filled with a pair of Amethyst Jeans, shimmery lip glosses and a holiday set nail polish set from Color Club and a shampoo and conditioner set from Totally Texty!

Contest runs from November 29th through December 31st, 2010. Go to http://www.facebook.com/amethystjeans to enter! Happy Holidays!"

Glitter Gal has a new partnership to announce as well! They have teamed up with Australian shoe brand, Wanted Shoes!

"Glitter Gal custom created Limited Edition nail polishes for “Wanted Shoes”
We have collaborated with “Wanted Shoes” and custom created six nail polishes to compliment this season’s shoe collection.

Stockist: Wanted Shoe Stores
Available now"

Toxic Seduction

2010-12-02T22:16:00.000-05:00

Hi lovelies! Sorry it's been a few days, my back has been crankier than usual :( but I'm sneaking on here for a minute to post for you! Today I have Misa - Toxic Seduction to show you. This is my first Misa and a lemming that I've had for a while that was recently fulfilled, a really sweet lady on MUA gave this to me as an EXTRA! Honestly I can't get over how kind people are sometimes, that was so sweet. I love that when I get amazing things like this, everytime I use the polish, I'm reminded of how nice and generous the person was. Enough of me rambling haha let me show you how gorgeous this color is:

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Toxic Seduction is this great dark green lit from within polish. It was super easy to work with formula-wise, I only needed 2 coats. I've really only branched out into using dark-er colors over the last 6 months or so; this is kind of perfect in my opinion haha. It's dark but you can always tell it's green, it doesn't look black in shade or inside. All the pictures are accurate representations of how it looks in the different settings. I think the name is a perfect fit too, Toxic Seduction... I feel kind of seductive with this on my nails haha :) Names that fit the polish make me so happy. But after finally getting this in my hot little hands, I definitely want to get some more Misa polishes soon. Maybe a post holiday haul?

Don't forget!! My giveaway ends tomorrow December 3rd at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time! If you haven't entered yet, what are you waiting for silly goose? Go and enter here: http://jeweledtips.blogspot.com/2010/11/giveaway-nail-art-style.html

I have some great things coming up... some gorgeous necklaces from Ginger Kitty Designs, Revlon - Perplex swatches, holiday manis and nail art, and showing you one of my all-time favorite polishes for my birthday mani on Tuesday! Yay for lots of pretty upcoming things :)

Let's Boogie, Bogie

2010-11-27T22:36:00.013-05:00

Haha I really like this post title! China Glaze - Bogie is the color I was most excited about when the Vintage Vixen collection came out; I'm always drawn to purples. But then once the collection actually came out, my lemming sort of hit the back burner - I don't really know why though. Eventually I came to my senses and bought it thankfully, because I really really love it.

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My fingers look big in these pictures, yeesh. But I'm totally into Bogie! I don't really have anything like this in my collection. It's a dark purple eggplant color with pretty pink and green subtle shimmer (which by the way I've noticed this shimmer in multiple other polishes, but that's for another post, I digress) My neighbor came by when I was wearing this and liked it on me so much she borrowed it! If that doesn't say it's a pretty polish, I don't know what will haha :) This was easy to work with too, 2 coats and you're good to go, which is always a bonus especially with dark colors.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving/weekend (depending which applies to you :) ) and don't forget about my giveaway!

I'm Sew Psyched Guys

2010-11-24T23:36:00.005-05:00

I really thought I posted about this weeks ago, but I guess not haha. So I have Essie - Sew Psyched to show you today! This is a gorgeous dusty green with what I call secret shimmer. The shimmer is very subtle and not unlike what many Chanel colors have shimmer-wise. I've worn this twice already and really like it a lot - check out the pictures!

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If you click on the first picture you can see the silvery hints of shimmer the polish has, which gives it some added depth. Many people have said this is a dupe for Rescue Beauty Lounge - Diddy Mow, but I don't have that to compare myself. There are a lot of pictures out there that are enough for me to say just owning one or the other is probably good for most people. :) This was very easy to work with, Essie's formula has gotten a lot better with the last few collections. I used to really not buy them at all because of it, but I'm changing my stance on that now. Essie has been putting out some awesome greens lately, don't you think?

Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already! And have a Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate, and if you don't then have a great weekend!

Have You Ever Woken Up In Vegas?

2010-11-22T20:55:00.009-05:00

Well, I haven't, but if I ever get married I already told my dad that it's happening in Vegas haha. I have an incredible polish to share with you today. I'm sure you've seen it other places, most notably on Lady Gaga. It's Deborah Lippmann - Waking Up In Vegas. I was lucky enough to win this from the lovely Kellie over at Also Known As... and honestly I didn't expect to like this color on me at all, but was I ever wrong about that! Check out these pictures first

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GUYS! The application is out of this world on this. I've heard people say "it practically applies itself" about polishes before, but this is the epitome of that phrase, seriously. 2 coats and it looks perfect and dries fast all on it's own. Now before I got Waking Up In Vegas in my hands, I really thought greige would never work on me, because I'm so pale I thought I'd look like a corpse. I think it actually ended up looking very elegant and sophisticated! I can't gush enough about this polish. I think it would be an interesting base for a little konad or nail art too. Looooove it!

Have you ever tried Deborah Lippmann colors? What are your favorites or number one on your wishlist?

Catherine The Grape

2010-11-20T14:55:00.012-05:00

Today I have an older OPI polish to show you! It's OPI - Catherine The Grape. This isn't easy to find, but it's not incredibly hard to find either... kind of in between haha. It's not readily available in stores, but you can find it online still I believe. I got this with a few other polishes in a swap with a really sweet MUAer and I'm so excited to finally have my hands on it! I also like the name, it fits the polish. The color absolutely reminds me of a grape, so I have pretty nails that also make me a little bit hungry for fruit haha!

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As you can see, Catherine The Grape is reddish-purple with soft gold shimmer. Depending on how the light hits this on your nails, it's going to look a little different, which is fun. Like in my shade picture it seems like a slightly darker purple, but indoors you can see the shimmer and it picks up more of the red in the color. I really like how this has character but is still a somewhat subdued color, you know what I mean? This feels perfect for fall to me right now, just fits with the weather :)

First Ever Franken! - Stormy Waters

2010-11-15T18:08:00.028-05:00

If you follow me on twitter, you probably saw that yesterday I finally got my courage up and made my very first franken! I'm really excited about what I ended up making and can't wait to share it with you. I also took some pictures of the supplies I used to put it together so hopefully I can help inspire some of you to get your franken on :) This post is picture heavy, just giving you fair warning!

Okay first some pictures of the franken, which I've lovingly named "Stormy Waters" and then I'll tell you how to make it!

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bottle picture

The bottle shot is color accurate for the base color, it's a teal with scattered holo. I like scattered holo better than linear holo, so I like using the Milani holographic polishes for frankening purposes. I'm going to make a second bottle of this I love it so much. Stormy Waters is a sibling to China Glaze - DV8 and China Glaze - Atlantis (only holo instead of glitter, obviously) So it's similar to other polishes out there but still fairly unique. Remember the franken I showed you a few weeks ago that Alexandra made for me? This is basically a teal version of that!

Now for how I made it... It's about half a bottle of Milani - HD (silver holo), maybe a fifth of a bottle of OPI- Ski Teal We Drop (pigmented dark teal), and 5 drops of Milani - Hi-Res (purple holo). You don't really need to use Hi-Res, I just thought it gave it a bit more depth. Very easy and inexpensive to make haha, just how I like my polish. It's totally opaque in two coats and was very easy to apply!

you can see in the picture exactly how much of HD and Ski Teal We Drop I used, they were both brand new and never used bottles, I bought them just to make this franken with. Ski Teal We Drop is super pigmented so you don't need much of it.

If you want to take the foray into making your own franken, I suggest you pick up some ball bearings for mixing. I'd recommend stainless steel, anything else is going to oxidize in your franken and ruin it! Here's what I use:

And I hit up my local Dollar Tree (a dollar store) and got a few 2-packs of old style NYC bottles, because I like the shape of them and the labels peel off easily. But you can buy empty bottles online - places like ebay or polish e-tailers as well. Also you can clean out old base coat/topcoat bottles or polishes that are old and you won't use again. Here's a picture of my NYC bottles before I cleaned them out:

I like the shape of these a lot

I also used a small glass bowl and orange stick to mix to figure out an idea of the ratio before I make a whole bottle. All very easy to find things! I couldn't be happier with how Stormy Waters turned out, I'm wearing it right now and honestly can't take my eyes off my nails :) Do any of you franken or are you planning to in the future?

Giveaway! Nail Art Style

2010-11-12T19:25:00.015-05:00

I've got another little giveaway for you all today! This one is a bit different from the last few that I've had, it's going to be for nail art, specifically stamping. I'm not very good at freehanding nail art designs, but I do love konad and faux-nad plates; they are much more my speed :) I recently heard about a place to get different kinds of nail art materials and stamping plates http://www.bf-beauty.com/ A few weeks ago I placed an order for a few plates, and got them earlier this week (about a week and a half after I ordered, pretty good for coming from Hong Kong!). Everything arrived perfectly and I've already played with the plates and they are wonderful! No problems at all, and since I (and many others) have had such great experiences with BF Beauty, I'd like to give you the opportunity to as well

Win your choice of FOUR stamping plates from www.bf-beauty.com!

(these are the four that I recently got)

you can go to: http://www.bf-beauty.com/en/category/165_172/index_home.html to view all the different plates - and there are a TON of choices! (the website is a little slow loading, don't let that discourage you!)

Now on to the best part - how to win! This is open internationally!

1) You MUST be a public follower! Please tell me how you follow and the name you follow under along with an email I can contact you at (1 entry - Mandatory)
2) Let me know which four plates you would choose (1 entry - Mandatory)

For additional entries:

1) Blog about this giveaway or put it in your side bar - please leave a link in the comments (1 entry)
2) Put Jeweled Tips in your blog roll - leave a link in the comments (1 entry)
3) Follow me on twitter (@JeweledTips) and tweet about this giveaway (make sure to include the link to this post and @JeweledTips) - leave a link in the comments (1 entry)

So you can have a total of FIVE entries!

This giveaway will be open until 11:59pm (that's Eastern Standard Time) on December 3rd and is open to all! Good luck everyone :)

Fun With Layering Wednesday: My Version Of Chanel Riva

2010-11-10T23:42:00.017-05:00

Once bottle pics of Chanel's newest offering, Riva, came out I've been intrigued by it. I don't spend that much on a single nail polish so I never planned on actually owning it, but I loved the concept. A pale blue with shimmer? Pretty! So I set about figuring out a layering combination that would satisfy my craving, and I think I came pretty close - at least close enough for me. Check it out!

I started with a base of Color Club - Take Me To Your Chateau, which I showed you yesterday, but here's a refresher:

And I picked NYC - Scandalous Blue Glitter to layer over it. The name is a little deceptive, it's not actually glitter, but more of a shimmer with a hint of pearl finish. Very pretty and very excellent for layering.

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I personally love it! I think it turned out pretty well, and cost me about $4 total for both polishes, much less than a Chanel would set me back. I've got another one or two layering ideas that could produce something close to Riva that I'm going to try out soon too. I'll post those and let you guys decide which ones you like best! Whether or not you buy Riva, you should try this combo out, it's very delicate and pretty. So what do you think, did I get close? What do you think of Chanel - Riva, will you be buying it?

Would You Like To See My Chateau?

2010-11-09T19:09:00.012-05:00

Color Club - Take Me To Your Chateau is from the Pardon My French Collection, which was the first collection I bought all of. This is probably the most popular color from the collection and for good reason. It's a pale blue that's pretty easy to work with, a definite bonus since many pastels can be streaky. Take Me To Your Chateau dries to a somewhat chalky finish, so I used a topcoat for the swatch; glossy finishes are more my taste :)

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The sunlight picture is the most color accurate, although it's just a hint blue-er in real life. I used three coats for the swatch, but if you're careful you can absolutely get away with two coats. Whenever I am in the mood for a pastel blue mani, this is always the first bottle I reach for, even though I have a few that are similar - this one's my favorite!

Tomorrow I'm going to show you how I made my own version of the new Chanel polish, using Take Me To Your Chateau as a base so make sure to come see what you think of it! And I'm taking the plunge into the wild world of Franken-ing in the next few days, so I will keep you posted on how that goes...cross your fingers for me ;-) haha. Andddd I have a new giveaway for you guys! I'll post that in the next day or two, so get excited!

Rodeooooo Fanatic!

2010-11-07T17:17:00.014-05:00

Left Hand Alert! My left hand is making a rare appearance in today's post. Why? Well mainly because when I wore this, the sun didn't come out for like four days. And I was playing around with different layering combinations on my right hand and the sun came out for a few minutes so I decided to take pictures. So I apologize for two things, number one- that my hand positions are a little screwy, I need to practice with my left hand haha; and two - that the mani looks a little raggedy around the edges, this was the fourth or fifth day of wearing it. (Yes, I generally wear manis for 4-5 days - I very rarely get chips, just growth)

On to the color... This is China Glaze - Rodeo Fanatic; it's from the ah-mazing Rodeo Diva collection. I got this in my first ever e-tailer order when my nail polish addiction first took off.

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This is a color I wear frequently, I loooove it for pedis and rock it on my tips in the fall/winter. It's a dark blue-green (more so blue, but there is some green in the mix for sure), but it never ever looks black, you can always tell what color it is. Nothing makes me crazier than a color that looks black, I don't wear black polish and don't like my colors to look black inside, just my preference. I have a few colors that are siblings or cousins of Rodeo Fanatic, but no dupes. I definitely would recommend picking this beauty up it's soooo worth it!

I hope everyone's Sunday is going well :) Go Cowboys!

I Have Concrete Evidence That This Is A Pretty Polish

2010-11-01T22:08:00.010-04:00

Sally Hansen - Concrete doesn't really look like concrete to me, and that's a good thing. This was a part of the last "limited edition" Xtreme Wear release. It came out with the much coveted Mystic Lilac (which I will be showing you another day.) This color initially didn't really jump out at me, and it wasn't until I saw a display for the second or third time that I picked this up. Mainly because it was purple and I think I had a coupon haha. But oh man am I glad I did!

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This a really nice gray-ed out purple with hints of pink. Very interesting neutral color. Application was good, two coats and you're good to go. This is like the little sister of colors like OPI- Parlez-Vous OPI? and Confetti - Moonstruck. A nice color for work, job interviews, or any other places you would need a neutral nail look.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T21:52:00.010-04:00

Just a quick post today with some Halloween nail art! I hope you're having a fun Halloween or October 31st, whichever you observe :) Today I've got some more great nail art compliments of Alexandra for you. There is a ton of really cool Halloween manis around the blogs and MUA that I've seen and been inspired by, but this is one I haven't seen around. Check it out!

Alexandra used Pure Ice - Kiss Me Here as the base color and if you click to enlarge the picture you can see the round little black rhinestones on the tips. T he skulls are clay fimo slices and there's a stripe of black and silver glitter to finish off the look.

I really like this mani! I'm very into how colored french tips look lately and this feels a little more managable for me to try than a lot of nail art. Slowly working my way up in the nail art world haha, luckily we have Alexandra to put together fun nail art like this. What are you doing for your nails today? Are you dressing up?

Pretty BCA Polish

2010-10-29T16:07:00.015-04:00

I know it's almost the end of October, but I wanted to wait to do my breast cancer awareness post because so many happen at the start of the month. I have been fortunate enough to never have a member of my immediate family affected by breast cancer, but many other kinds of cancer have taken people that I love from me. Please make sure to check yourself periodically and remind your friends and family to as well! It's not about saving boobies, it's about saving lives.

Today I have one of the polishes from this year's China Glaze - Fight Like A Woman collection, Encouragment. This is a very delicate and sophisticated looking pale pink color.

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I love just about everything about Encouragment. As I said above, it's very delicate looking, at least in my opinion. Although, it is a little sheer, so maybe next time I wear this I'll use a pale pink base and layer a coat or two of Encouragment on top, but I will definitely be wearing this color a lot! It's appropriate for any setting and a little more interesting looking than regular pinks, because of the silvery shimmer. I have two weddings in my future and this is a front runner for my mani for them especially since I will be a bridesmaid. What do you think? Did you get any of this year's Breast Cancer Awareness polish offerings?

Suzi Says..

2010-10-25T21:03:00.011-04:00

I have to be honest, I hate how many OPI polish names have Suzi in it. I get that it's her company, but I find it a little obnoxious how often it's used. That being said, I do love the color of Suzi Says Feng Shui. I've been wanting this color ever since it was released but never got my hands on it. Last week I got a mini of it as an extra in an awesome swap I did, so I finally got to try it! Now I know for sure, I absolutely positively need a full-size bottle of this ASAP - I loooove it.

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I didn't mind painting with the mini brush and holding the mini bottle as much as a lot of people seem to. I also think it funny how similar these three pictures ended up looking - almost identical hand position, that almost never happens for me :) I just really like everything about this color, I think it looks good with my skintone. Must get the full size!

Beautiful Dusk...A Tale Of Fate.

2010-10-22T21:59:00.024-04:00

When I was first getting into nail polish, I saw a picture of China Glaze - Dusk and it immediately went on my wishlist. I was so totally in love with it, just from pictures. But it's an older China Glaze for sure, and pretty hard to find. It's one of those polishes I had on my list that I never really thought I'd get my hands on, but oh man did I ever search for it. I've never even seen it on ebay. But then I found it on a blog sale so I was elated, then saw it was pending, rats! I took a chance and emailed the lady selling it, luckily her original buyer ended up changing their mind so I finally got my hands on this beautiful, beautiful polish. Nail polish karma is real people! Whenever I have access to something someone is lemming, I help them get it...build that nail polish karma and your lemmings will find a way to you! Haha it's for real. Now that story time is over, would you like to see the pictures? ;-) There are a few extra, just a heads up.

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You know how it feels when you finally find something you were looking for and then it doesn't live up to what you hoped? Well I totally don't haha. This is even better than I thought it would be! Love love love love it. It's a smoky dark purple with this wonderful subtle shimmer in it. It's not too dark that it looks black inside, you always know it's purple, which is important for me - I hate when colors look black inside, makes me crazy. Thank you for listening to me ramble on and on about this, but I just can't help it! What do you think of Dusk? Do you have any favorite older China Glaze colors?

Frankens are fun for everyone!

2010-10-12T23:02:00.012-04:00

I really love when people post pictures of their frankens. I've always been intrigued by the idea of making a totally unique polish, but the idea of figuring out what works and what doesn't stresses me out. Crazy? A little bit, but I'm working on it. So anyway, Alexandra (who does the awesome nail art posts here) posted pictures of a couple of frankens she did on MUA one day. And I fell soooo in love with this one I'm about to show you. I messaged Alexandra begging her to make me one haha. I sent her the ingredients to mix, thanked her roughly a thousand times, and now am the proud owner of two bottles of this gorgeous franken!

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The sunlight pictures are pretty accurate; it's a darker purple holo. This is one of my top five favorite polishes EVER! It's a mix of Milani - Hi-Res (the purple holo) and OPI - Lincoln Park At Midnight. So it's easy to make, which is excellent because I feel like I need a few more bottles... I wear this a lot! I think it would be fun to use all of the Milani holos to make frankens... I want to make a dark blue holo! Any suggestions on what to mix with it?

Have you made any frankens? What are you favorites?

I'm Watching You, Color.

2010-10-08T19:49:00.007-04:00

Today I have OPI- The Color To Watch to show you. This is also from the Swiss Collection, just like Diva of Geneva which I showed you the other day. Now this is the color I was most excited about when the info for the collection first came out, mainly because I love me some purple. But it's just not doing a ton for me in person. I like it, but I don't love it; you know what I mean? Check out the pictures and see what you think.

sunlight

shade
indoors

It's a pretty purple with heavy blue flash. I love the base color of The Color To Watch, but the blue flash is just too heavy for me to love this polish. If it were toned down a little I think I would like it a lot better. Many people on MUA said this was really sheer, but my bottle was fine. This was three coats. I did try to see if it would layer, but it wasn't sheer enough in my opinion. I put one coat over two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear- Concrete and it was exactly the bottle color.

Well, The Color To Watch...I'm a little bummed about you. Pretty, but didn't wow me. Not too crazy about the name of the polish either. I think I'm going to wait a few weeks and try this again to see if I feel differently about it.

What do you think of The Color To Watch? Have you had a polish you were excited about not wow you in person like this did for me?

Diva of Geneva

2010-10-05T22:15:00.008-04:00

I had a ridiculous amount of things done to my back today (injections, acupuncture, physical therapy) so this is going to be short and sweet. I've got a gorgeous polish to show you today, OPI - Diva of Geneva from the Swiss Collection. I like a number of the colors from this collection but so far only have this and The Color To Watch (which I will be showing you soon). There are a few more that I'm looking to get my hands on ASAP though!

I love Diva of Geneva. It feels very rich and fall to me and is pretty for fingers and toes. Check it out below and tell me what your favorites from the Swiss Collection are!

sunlight
shade
inside

Subtle Holo

2010-10-03T18:52:00.008-04:00

I don't think it's any secret how much I love holo polishes. I go bananas for them. I'm always on the hunt for new ones to add to my stash, but I was surprised to find one at Rite Aid! I had been eyeing CQ- Gem Green in the store but hadn't purchased it until someone posted pictures of it on MUA and pushed me over the edge. It looks pretty unassuming in the icky Rite Aid lighting, which is part of the reason I hadn't gotten it until I saw pictures online. Let's see if my pictures push you over the edge too :-P It's a pale green subtle holo and I don't have anything like it! Here it is, CQ- Gem Green

sunlight
shade

inside

You can click to enlarge all the pictures to check out the holo out. As you can see, the holo shows up in sunlight and inside, but not so much in the shade. I didn't expect to like this as much as I did, but ooooh is it pretty in person. The sunlight picture is pretty accurate color-wise. I'm thinking this was a few dollars well spent! The holo in this is scattered, which I actually prefer more than linear holos. Which type of holo is your favorite? And what do you think of Gem Green? I always feel like I'm typing the name wrong, that it should be Green Gem; that seems to just have a better flow to it, in my head at least haha.

Layering, Paradoxal style.

2010-09-29T22:45:00.016-04:00

Today I have a layering combination to show you that is my version of Chanel's Paradoxal. The actual Paradoxal isn't my style because the shimmer is too "secret" for my liking. But I like the idea, so I've been hunting for the perfect combo of layering to give me my own version of it. This is the first try, which I think turned out pretty well :) First check out the base color, which is perfect, Nina - Never Glum Plum.

sunlight
shade

inside

Look how shiny it is - no topcoat! It's very pigmented too, only need 1-2 coats for perfect coverage which made me happy. You can see my reflection in some nails even haha. I like this on it's own way more than I thought I would. It feels so fall to me! I want to have this on my nails while I'm wearing a sweater and going to football games or sitting by a fire or apple picking or something. Yes I'm crazy, but the happy good kind of crazy ;-)

Want to see it with shimmer now? It's prettyyyyy! I layered Pure Ice - Busted over top of Never Glum Plum.

sunlight

shade

inside

I really like these two polishes together. I think I will get a lot of wear out of the combo (hopefully while wearing a sweater and doing stereotypically fall things hahah). I think there are one or two other things I want to try layering over Never Glum Plum to see which will be my favorite, so we'll see what wins. What do you think of these two polishes?

So my latest giveaway has ended; tomorrow I will go through all the entries and announce our winner!

I'm Not Much Of A Rule Breaker, But I Love To Wear It!

2010-09-21T22:11:00.010-04:00

Hello lovelies! I've gotten a bunch of new polish lately, so I will be showing you a lot of cool stuff in the next few weeks. I tend to buy polish as a pick me up when I'm frustrated and I've been going to a new back doctor that I haaaate, so a lot of new polish has made it's way into my stash haha. But today I want to show you a polish I've had for a while and really like. It's Color Club - Rule Breaker. A pretty dark-er green, that has a leeeeetle bit more blue in it than these pictures show.

outside

outside, shade

inside

I bought this when I was first getting out of my color comfort zone, if you will. I like wearing this year round, especially on my toes. This has a hint of frost to it; I hesitate to say the word frost because most people run screaming as soon as they read it. But I think this is pretty! AllYouDesire did a great comparison between this, China Glaze- Emerald FItzgerald, and OPI - Cuckoo For This Color, so you can see that this is different from those two. What do you think of Rule Breaker? Enjoy the pictures and check back for a layering post tomorrow! I'm off to edit two more articles, work never ends!

My First Ever Zoya!

2010-09-19T21:21:00.009-04:00

I really like swatches I've seen of Zoya polishes on blogs, MUA, etc and I have a bunch on my wishlist but I never actually had any of my own - until recently! I was able to swap for a brand new bottle of Zoya- Robyn. (I've since gotten Freja and Harley but haven't gotten to try them yet.) I apologize for the slightly messy cuticles, clearly my cleanup wasn't so hot the day I swatched this - sorry. But check out how gorgeous this polish is!

sunlight

shade

indoors

Soo pretty! This color is just a bit darker in real life, but these pictures are close. And it's unbelievably shiny - this is without topcoat. I love when polish is shiny on it's own. The application was good. I haven't worn this for a full mani yet so I'm not sure how the wear will be. Some people have terrible luck with Zoya's wear but it's perfect for others - hopefully I'm one of the ones it will work for! I really like how this shade of blue looks with my skin tone; it reminds me a little of a slightly darker, creamier version of Color Club - Pure Energy. Obviously this isn't a neon like Pure Energy, but similar blue don't you think? Robyn ended up being everything I hoped it was going to be, which is awesome. I hope I'll get more Zoya polishes someday soon :)

Layering with... Wild Orchid

2010-09-17T23:14:00.008-04:00

The other day I showed you Color Club- Wild Orchid. Since it was such a dream to apply I wanted to see how some other polishes I have would look layered over it. Wild Orchid has silver shimmer in it which I thought would bring an added dimension to any layering combination! So I tried out four different sheer polishes over it; all from Savvy Femme Couture.

sunlight

shade

inside

So I have a different color on each finger. From index to pink they are...

Index: Prince Ala Charm

Middle: Fairy Twinkle

Ring: Glass Slipper

Pinky: Knightly Armour

I think the ring finger with Glass Slipper on is my favorite combo, I think you could get a similar effect with Pure Ice- Heartbreaker (which I can swatch if someone wants to see as well). I also really like Knightly Armour, which is kind of like a ramped up version of Wild Orchid.

I picked all four of these up on clearance from Sallys (yay clearance!) Do you have any? Which of the four pictured are your favorite? I can't wait to try them over some other colors!

Wild Orchids Are Gray?

2010-09-14T20:40:00.008-04:00

If you've ever talked to me about nail polish, you know I have a pretty serious love affair with Color Club. My first ever back up bottle of polish was a Color Club (Wild At Heart, naturally). So everytime they come out with new collections I get excited. Today I'm going to show you Wild Orchid from the latest collection, Untamed Luxury. This ended up being the only color that was a 100% must have for me, but I'm sure eventually some more will make their way to my stash one day haha.

The only thing that I don't like about this color is the name. Orchid in my mind is kind of a pinky-purple color, right? Otherwise this is perfect! Check it out.

outside, sun

outside, shade

indoors

This is a gorgeous color! Can you see the shimmer? It's a little subtle, but still awesome. Click to enlarge the pictures to see it better. I think I'll be wearing this shade a lot. I also think there are a lot of interesting ways that layering could be used, with Wild Orchid as the base color. In fact, I'm going to show you four different layering ideas tomorrow! Get excited :)

Did you get any colors from the Untamed Luxury collections? If not, which ones are on your wishlist?

Is A Giveaway Something You Might Be Interested In?

2010-09-12T13:24:00.009-04:00

Happy Sunday to you! Since I'm a sports fanatic, Sundays in the fall are good times for me haha. Plus I co-host a football radio show each week so I can sit on my couch all day and watch football and consider it research ;) Yay for that. But even if you're not a football fan like I am, I've got something here to brighten your Sunday up a bit! A Giveaway! Just a little somethin' somethin' for you.

I'm giving away five Confetti polishes! I figured amongst all the drama with Sally Hansen suing them now would be a great time to give some away. If you haven't heard, Confetti and Pro 10 are not going to be sold anymore because the lawsuit, so grab whatever colors you've been eyeing now before they're gone.

Check out the pretties that are up for grabs!

-Masquerade Ball, a really pretty lit from within vamp

-My Favorite Martian, one of the most popular shades

-Crimson Cutie, really nice shade of red

-Happy Birthday!, a glittery purple

-Tiara, an awesome layering polish; adds sparkle to anything

How To Enter:

1) You must be a follower!
2) Leave a comment on this post with your email (so I can contact you if you win!) 1 Entry
3) Tweet about the giveaway, make sure to link to this post and have @JeweledTips in the tweet so I can see it! (Please let me know you tweeted in the comments) 1 Entry
4) Blog about the giveaway! (Please enclude a link to the entry in the comments) 1 Entry

This is open to US and Canada (The next giveaway is big and will be worldwide, I promise!)

You must have your entry in by midnight on Septemeber 28th. I'll announce the winner on September 30th. Good luck! :)

Light As Air

2010-09-10T22:36:00.008-04:00

An unoriginal title, but descriptive haha. Today I'm going to show you China Glaze - Light As Air from the Up & Away Collection. This is one of FIVE polishes I have from the collection. I didn't really realize how many I had from Up & Away until now, I really liked it huh? haha! It's entirely possible another one or two could find their way into my stash one day soon... But for today we'll focus on Light As Air! It's a kind of stark pastel purple. Really light, which I thought I wouldn't like from the original swatches, but I definitely did in person. This is one of the best pastels in my stash, application wise. Gotta love a light color that isn't a total pain to use!

sunlight

shade

I didn't post an indoor picture because it was pretty much identical to the sun picture. No need for overkill :) I like using this as a base for konad or to use for konading over a darker purple. I think light colored polka dots are cute over their darker counterparts. Because this is nicely pigmented it's good for nail art. A pretty polish with multiple uses, yay! Have you ever bought a whole collection or a large chunk of it? Which one(s)!

I've got some cool stuff coming up in the next few days... a new giveaway! And I was able to kill one of my big lemmings so I have that to show you, and my own version of Paradoxal via layering. I'm realllly excited about all of these and can't wait to show you!

Monarch Masquerade... Perfection in a bottle?

2010-09-06T16:45:00.010-04:00

I have a serious love for Diamond Cosmetics' Monarch Masquerade. Like indescribable love. Whenever anyone on MakeUp Alley mentions making a Diamond Cosmetics order, I am always saying they have to add this to their cart. Have to! Why? Because in my humble opinion this is perfection in a bottle. I can never get enough purple polishes in my life, but I keep coming back to this one. I wear it a lot. This pretty was what made me decide I needed back up bottles. I'm considering building a small army of bottles of this; it's a little sick haha. Do I even need to mention that this is in my top 5 favorite polishes? Because it is.

outside!

outside, shade

inside

Looking at these pictures makes me want to wear it again. It's super opaque, 1-2 coater. That makes me happy. Less coats= less of me making a mess around my nails. But seriously, if you order from DC, do yourself a favor and include this one. If you like purple even the tiniest bit, this color won't disappoint. And I'm done gushing about this now. I saved my favorite for the end of Diamond Cosmetics week! Could you tell? ;-)

Let's Get Drunk On...Sparkling Sherry

2010-09-05T18:52:00.010-04:00

Well helllooooo Sparkling Sherry. I'm pretty excited to show you this Diamond Cosmetics polish. I fell in love with it from a post that Scrange did (the same way many lemmings are born haha) and got it in my first Diamond Cosmetics order. I love looking at it in the bottle but when I first swatched it, I hated it on me. Thankfully I came to my senses! It's a foily red that leans a little pink. It looks a little bit different in each of the three lights I'm going to show you, but all three ways are prettttyyyy. Wanna see?

outside, sun

outside, shade

inside

Really nice right? 2 coats! The first picture makes it look a little brush stroke-y which is really isn't in person. Top coat makes it look smooth. These pictures kind of say it all I think. I am not really into reds at all, there are maybe 5 I truly like and this is definitely one of them. It's one of the few I'd actually wear on my fingers (most of my reds are relegated to toes haha). High praise coming from me :) Tomorrow I'm going to show you one of my absolute favorite polishes! And there's a giveaway coming later this week!

A Hidden Treasure of Diamond Cosmetics

2010-09-03T19:45:00.024-04:00

I've had such a gnarly 2 days. My next door neighbors were having people digging in their front yard looking for the water on/off thingy. Very technical soundng right? Haha I'm not totally clear on what they were attempting to do, just on how it affected my life. Long story short, the workers cut the cord that controls my internet, tv, AND phone (silly me for bundling my services with one company!) at 11 am yesterday. After several phone calls someone came to fix it this morning around 10 (originally they said they wouldn't come til SATURDAY..because I don't need a phone or anything). By noon today, the same worker crew had cut the cord AGAIN. I couldn't make this stuff up, my goodness. So finally around 4 I had services again and the workers were gone and I could breathe a sigh of relief. But I had no way to post yesterday, so today I'm giving you twice as much!

I'm done venting now :) Let's move on to pretty picture shall we? I've got another Diamond Cosmetics nail polish to show you, Don't Teal My Heart Away; which I looooooove. But for some reason, it made my camera insane... so these pictures are way way greener than it is in real life. This is a true teal in person, much bluer than these pictures reflect. So make a little mental adjustment, kay? Great!

sunlight

shade

inside and closer to the actual color

Now how about some Hidden Treasure on top? Yes please!

wheeeee, flakies in the sun!

shade - look at the colors!

inside!

I also showed you Don't Teal My Heart Away in the very first Fun With Layering Wednesday, with Sinful- Nail Junkie on top (another magical layering combo). I really like working with this color because it's so opaque in just 1-2 coats so it's easy to use and it's gorgeous! Once I got my hands on this I stopped buying teals like crazy...I used to buy pretty much everyone that came my way but now I think long and hard about it. Mainly because this is my perfect teal creme, so reach for it the most, so why mess with that? :)

Do you have any go-to colors for layering for a favorite polish for one kind type of color, like me and teal? Let me know in your comment!

Twilight Violet

2010-09-01T23:32:00.011-04:00

Day three of Diamond Cosmetics week! I know that layering is usually for Wednesday, but it's comng tomorrow, so stay tuned :) I was in the mood to show you pink/purple today! Despite the word Twilight in the name, this polish has nothing to do with vampires or anything of that nature. I'm absolutely not a fan of vampires, Twilight, or any of that stuff but I do like Twilight Violet! When I got this I thought it was going to be more...violet haha. And on some people it pulls a little more purple, but on my skin it seems to be mostly pink; with purple influences though haha. Once I got over my purple expectations I realized I like this color a lot! See the prettiness below...

sunlight!

shade, which made the camera decide the polish was a whole other color haha. Clearly the purple part of this polish is making the camera nutso in the shade, sorry!

indoors

I think my index finger in the first picture is color accurate. The best part about this color? It has secret shimmer! I know some of you are big into the secret shimmer, so this is right up your alley. And for under three dollars, how can you go wrong?

Metallic Blue and Good Customer Service

2010-08-31T20:39:00.009-04:00

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are always the busiest days of the week for me. I co-host a radio show on Wednesday nights so on Tuesday I have all kinds of prep work to do. Twice as much today because we have a guest co-hosting with me this week, which is fun but time consuming getting ready. I'm almost done with this week's stuff but I need a break, so I'm going to show you one of my favorite blue polishes!

When I first found Diamond Cosmetics, the color I wanted most was Metallic Blue. I placed an order for that and five other of their polishes; but when got my package, Metallic Blue had gotten broken in transit...a sad blue explosion. So I emailed DC to let them know what happened, not expecting them to replace it, but Marissa immediately offered to send me a replacement bottle! And she also explained why she thought it had broken. I've never had a problem with any breakage in any other order from them, it was just a freak accident I think. But it was handled so easily and nicely. Customer service is usually such a hassle to deal with and frustrating, so this was a refreshing change of pace haha. Want to see pictures of the lovely Metallic Blue?

sunlight

shade

indoors

The macro pictures make it look a little brush stroke-y, but it's not with a top coat on at all. This is such a vibrant, kind of lit from with-in color. I love it! It's a darker blue, which I don't have a lot of - but this is the one I reach for most often. If you make a Diamond Cosmetics order, do yourself a favor and add this color to it. Other than that, I'm gonna let these pictures speak for itself :)

Oh, and the giveaway winner was the lovely Raelena! Congrats and I hope you love your new polish!

It's Diamond Cosmetics Week!

2010-08-30T21:16:00.000-04:00

Guess who's back, back again. That would be me, haha. I'm about to pick the giveaway winner, and after I contact them tonight - I'll post the winner in the next day or two (whenever they get back to me!) I already have the next... 5 giveaways planned for you guys! One is coming veryyyy soon, so keep watching here.

This week I'm having a theme week - featuring Diamond Cosmetics polishes, 6 different colors and some layering (for Wednesday, of course). This is one of my favorite brands and all of these colors are 1-2 coaters, so I wanted to share them with you. First up is Diamond Cosmetics - Free N Easy. I actually didn't love this color when I first swatched it but now I really really do. Check out the pictures below!

Sunlight

Outside, shade

Indoors

The first picture is color accurate; the shade made my camera go a little nutso. This is a very pink leaning purple. When I ordered from the little swatch on the Diamond Cosmetics website, I thought was getting a light purple, but I still like the color it actually turned out to be. :) It's very simple, elegant, and pretty in my opinion. Reminds me a lot of the base color of Essie- Demure Vixen - but wthout the same shimmer. If you like Demure Vixen, I imagine you would probably like Free N Easy as well - I know I do! This color is very appropiate for work and any other formal setting. Everyone needs a couple of polishes like this in their stash. What do you think of Diamond Cosmetics and Free N Easy? Have you tried this brand before? If not you're missing out! Hopefully after this week I will have convinced you of that :)

Strawberry Fields Forever

2010-08-22T15:48:00.008-04:00

How on earth did it manage to be a week between blog posts?! This last week was a little insane. I helped move my brother into his new house, which was exhausting. But as a thank you gift he gave me an autographed hockey puck I'd been hunting down. One of our friends plays with this player in a summer league so he arranged everything and got it personalized for me, pretty sweet. I collect nail polish and autographed hockey pucks.. I'm a strange girl :) Luckily, no nails were broken in the process! Boo for Mother Nature lately though, any day I have free to swatch it ends up overcast...annoying. I need to make a light box or something soon I think.

Today I have a quintessential summer color for you, China Glaze - Strawberry Fields. I fell in love with this when Brooke, over at Babbling Brooke, posted swatches of it. And this is one of those colors that just screams summer time to me. I even have flowers in my backyard that match this color perfectly! Check it out!

Sunshiiiine

Shade, and the matching flower :) I love this picture. Please excuse my slightly crooked middle finger.. it's compliments of a flag football league haha

Inside

Pretty in all lights I think. But I also think it's a color I love wayyy more on other people than I do on myself. I think we all have one of those, where it looks amazing on everyone and than you get it and it just doesn't look quite right on you. So this might be mine. I waffle on whether or not to swap this. Maybe I will like it better on my toes? Only one way to find out haha. Do you have a color that you liked more on other people than yourself?

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!! Only a few days left!

I've Got A Fever.. And The Only Cure Is... More Holo!

2010-08-15T18:36:00.009-04:00

Hooray if you got the Saturday Night Live reference! I love that skit. Today I'm going to show you one of the Milani Holos, Hi-Res. It's chock full of purple and holo goodness - for under five dollars! Life doesn't get much better than that in my book.

Silly hand postion in the sun, to try and get the holo on as many of my nails as possible for the picture haha.

Shade, the holo sometimes shows in the shade/indoors (which you'll see below) and sometimes doesn't so I wanted to show you what it looks like without the holo showing. Still very pretty I think.

Inside!

I really like the Milani holo polishes, especially this one. I think they were really well done. It's extra awesome that Milani made them core, unlike some nail polish companies we know... Whether or not you're a holo addict like I am, I think these are a great buy. A lot easier to find than those elusive China Glaze and OPI counterparts. I know these have been out for a while, so which ones do you have?

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway :)

Giveaways you need to know about!

2010-08-14T21:09:00.011-04:00

There are a few really awesome giveaways that are happening right now and I wanted to make sure you all knew about them and entered! They are wayyyy too good to pass up, that's for sure :) So check them out below!

First up, Magic Maid's 700+ Followers Giveaway!
She's giving away 23 gorgeous polishes - definitely something for every taste here. Plus some Mango Mend products! Here are the pictures of the polishes, click on the link to the giveaway to see the names and to enter!

This ends September 3rd. Click here to enter: http://www.magic-maid.net/2010/08/700-follower-giveaway.html

Next up I have Lacquerized's Kiko Giveaway to show you!
She has four seriously pretty Kiko nail polishes all the way from Germany! What a treat it would be to win these! It's open internationally, so go enter and get your hands on some international gems :)

This is open til August 31st click here to enter: http://www.lacquerized.com/2010/08/kiko-giveaway.html

Katrina is having a 400+ Follower Giveaway!
Really pretty stuff here! Lots of different brands, shades, and finishes - plus lace stickers. I'd love to try those lace stickers - they are so elegant looking! Check out the picture below to see what goodies she has to giveaway and go enter!

This giveaway is open until August 29, click here to enter: http://katrinasnailblog.blogspot.com/

Megan over at Kitschy Suburbia has teamed up with CSN Stores to giveaway a $40 Gift Card!
This is such a cool giveaway! There are literally hundreds of items to choose from. You can get wheatever suits your needs best :) All you need to do is go over and let her know what you would want to get if you won, simple as that!

This is open until August 21, click here to enter: http://kitschysuburbia.blogspot.com/2010/08/giveaway-time.html

OH MY POLISH is having her very First Giveaway!
A great mix of stuff is up for grabs in this giveaway - some HTF polishes like Hidden Treasure and Absolutely Alice, some minis, different brands, nail rhinestones, etc!

this is open until August 24th, click here to enter: http://ohmypolish.blogspot.com/2010/08/first-ever-giveaway.html

Good luck!

I'm not a Demure Vixen, but I play one on TV.

2010-08-12T19:53:00.009-04:00

Okay, I lied I don't play one on tv. But I was in commercials as a baby, does that count for anything? hahah. I do really like this nail polish though. I have a handful of pictures of Essie - Demure Vixen to show you because it can look so different! I'm sure you've seen a million pictures of this before, but here are mine.

both in sunlight; sometimes you see shimmer and sometimes you don't! I like it both ways

shade (that's shine at the edge of my nails, not unpainted spots haha)

indoors.. see how different it can look in the same spot of my house? Same time of day even!

I'm assuming by now everyone pretty much has decided whether or not they like this color, so what's your take on it? I love it! I feel like it's super versatile, you can wear it anywhere. I like the pink shimmer, it gives this a little extra oomph, if you will. Normally I'm not a huge Essie fan. I have about 10 colors in my stash. The streakiness of Essie drives me insane, but the formula on this wasn't bad. I felt like I could control it better than most Essie colors. Any big time Essie fans out there? I make exceptions for buying Essie when I find a color that really wows me, like this and the recently released Sew Psyched; or for a staple like Madamoiselle. And the North Fork collection, love that one. But maybe now that the brand seems to be branching out into more bold colors I'll try more of them? Guess there's only one way to find out ;-)

Just a reminder - don't forget about my giveaway! And I updated my stash spreadsheet yesterday, the link is on the right side of the page - feel free to let me know if you want to see a certain color or a comparison.

Giveaway!

2010-08-11T19:02:00.006-04:00

Wow, I can't believe that I have over 50 followers already! I seriously cannot thank you all enough for taking time to read my blog :) So I have a (small) giveaway for you! I'll be having another giveaway when we get to 100 followers, I've already started to collect things for that too.

Here are the goodies!

Rimmel - Deliciously Dark
Cover Girl Boundless Color - Crystal Mist
Essie - Geranium
Rimmel - Climax

I tried to have a mix of colors and finishes so there would be something that hopefully appealed to everyone... a vamp, glitter for layering, a bright, and a shimmer.

The rules are going to be easy for this! Everyone gets one entry, if you would like to mention it on your blog/twitter/etc I certainly won't complain, but it's not a requirement for winning.

All you need to do is 1)Be a follower! and 2) leave a comment telling me how you follow (I will be checking) and with your email address (so I can notify you!) if you'd prefer to email me with your address instead of posting it, that's cool just mention that you did so in your comment, and make sure you tell me your follower name in the email, of course. You can send that to me at JeweledTips (at) yahoo (dot) com

That's all you need to do! Easy right? :) I'll have the contest open for two weeks. So you have to enter by midnight on August 25th. Unfortunately, this contest is only open to the US and Canada, but the 100 follower giveaway will be open worldwide! (So I hope that makes up for this a little bit for my international followers)

These are all brand new polishes and I will post a swatch of Rimmel - Climax soon, that's the only one of these I own myself but there are swatches of the others floating around if you want to check them out. Again, thank you all SO much for following!

Galaxy Girl, I am in L.O.V.E.

2010-08-09T21:26:00.011-04:00

I've been kind of on the fence about whether or not I wanted any of the Orly Cosmix collection, ever since the promo pics started coming out. And I went back and forth on which colors I wanted. Finally about two weeks ago I realized I wanted Galaxy Girl badly haha, so I put it on my MUA wishlist and figured I'd get it eventually. Then I was at Ulta on Wednesday or Thursday? I forget which, but I digress. So I found myself face to face with a brand spankin' new Cosmix collection display, totally untouched. And Galaxy Girl just jumped into my hand! Who am I to fight with fate? I had a coupon too. And I tried to resist putting it on so that I could get some swatching done, but that lasted about 36 hours. It's too pretty to resist. So here it is, in all it's glory! Lots of pictures because I can't get enough of it, just fair warning :)

Those are all in the sun, can you see the pink and blue/green shimmer!

shade

Indoors

First things first, I apologize for the tip wear, this is day three of the mani and I was kind of rough on my hands during those three day. Also I don't know why my hands look so old in these pictures. But I am sincerely in love with this nail polish. I don't have anything like it at all in my stash. I need back ups. Lots and lots of back ups. I want to wear this forever. I can't stop staring at it! Different angles let you see different colors (one or two!) of shimmer. It's so sparkly and wonderful :) Isn't it fun when a color makes you so ridiculously happy? This totally does for me. (If you couldn't already tell that, haha) What colors make you that happy? Are you getting any Cosmix colors? If so, which?

I have more exciting news! I have 49 followers, yay!! Thank you all of you lovelies who take time to follow and read my blog. I'm going to be having a giveaway at 50 followers, so hopefully I can post that soon! And I've already started gathering things for my 100 followers giveaway too.. hopefully that's not too far off either. So keep an eye out for the giveaway.

Alexandra's back with Fruit Salad!

2010-08-05T21:19:00.011-04:00

Today I've got another amazing tutorial from the lovely Alexandra. Last time she brought us pretty flowers on a Paradoxal background. This one we have for today is adorable summer Fruit Salad! She even made a video to go along with the tutorial, how cool is that? Also, this is a special kind of nail art called 3d Nail Art. Basically that means it's not under a lot of topcoat, that it's going to be raised on your nail a little bit. Which means this probably mean this mani won't last you 7 days, but how cute would it be for a weekend?! Read on!

Here's the video that goes with the tutorial, it's just under a minute and definitely worth the watch. Alexandra I NEED to know what the mani you have on in the video is! It's really nice!

Fruit Salad
Level: Intermediate
Materials: Adhesive tape, clay slices (4 different fruits), nail glue (AKA crazy glue), paper and pen.

Step 1: Color the tips of your nails in white (french style) or any bright color that goes with the fruits you chose. The advantage of this form of nail art, is that you don't have to make perfect lines, because the fruits will cover most of it. There are french tip guides available in certain stores, if you want to make sure to have all the tips be the same size.

Step 2: Apply top coat, and let the nail polish dry. This step is important because when you apply the fruit slices sometimes the glue is slippery and they move around, until they are secured by the tape.

Step 3: (Optional) calculate the width of the nail you are working on. Using a piece of paper measure it and draw lines at both ends with a pen. When working on your own nails place paper over the nail, press and make marks with your thumb and middle fingernails at the sides, then write lines on the dents made on the paper. After practicing with one hand this step becomes optional because one already has a sense of the width.

Step 4: Place a piece of the tape with the sticky side up, on top of the paper with the markings, holding it be the edges. Make sure to cut a piece that is big enough to be wrapped around the nail (or around th finger, when working on your own nails) so that the ends stick together to hold the fruits in place.

Step 5: Place the fruit slices on the sticky side of the tape one by one, with approximetely one third of each slice above the next.

Step 6: Apply Nail glue on all the clay slices.

Step 7: Grab the strip with the fruits and place on top of the nail, covering part of the base color and part of the tips. When using artificial nails, place the nail on the tape instead, as shown in the video.

Step 8: Join both ends of the tape to hold the fruit slices in place and check that they look straight while the glue is still wet, rearrange when needed.

Step 9: After approximately 10 minutes, or when you feel the glue has dried, carefully remove the tape. No top coat needed.

Tips:
-You can also apply the slices one by one, but this takes more time, because, depending on how thin the clay is, they tend to wrinkle outwards with the wet glue, so one has to press, wait for the glue to dry, making sure the fruit is stable and then proceed to do the others.
-To make mirror images on both hands, note the order of the fruits. For example if on the left hand you started with apple, lemon, kiwi and strawberry from left to right, when doing the right hand start from right to left.

Colors used for this tutorial: Video was made on french falsies, but any white polish would do the trick.

Here's the finished product!

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Thanks again for another amazing tutorial and cute nail art, Alexandra! I though the video was a great addition for this one, it helped me understand exactly what to do after initially reading through the steps. What do you guys think? I love it for summer!

You know what day it is...Wednesday!

2010-08-04T21:24:00.009-04:00

Which means times for layering fun! Yay. This week's layering combo has taken over as my favorite one. Sorry, Teal My Heart Away with Nail Junkie on top, you are number two in my heart now. This mani is just SO PRETTY! At least in my opinion haha. But let me show you the pictures and you can decide what you think :)

The base color is Wet n Wild - Eggplant Frost, which on it's own is really nice. A deep purple with a strong blue flash. Super easy to apply too!

Then I thought, "Oh hey, wouldn't Nfu-Oh #51 look good on this? Maybe I should find out." AND I did. It's magical!

sunlight

shade

inside

I love this! Squishy, flake-y, magical goodness. So what do you guys think?

Red Light, Green Light...Blue Light?

2010-08-02T17:53:00.007-04:00

Happy August everyone! It feels like summer has gone by really fast doesn't it? I'm sick of it being so ridiculously hot and humid all the time, so I'm not too terribly sad to see it go. Seasons don't effect my life in that I don't have summers off from anything. I work and take online classes pretty much year round so the only thing different for me is the temperature. Although this month is going to be kind of busy for me since I'm starting new classes online and I co-host a weekly fantasy football radio show (online) that premiered last week; so I have lots of stuff to do for that now. My sports addiction is why I have two seperate twitter accounts, my main one where I mostly ramble on about sports and my JeweledTips one where I can keep track of all my nail polish loving friends :) Speaking of the JeweledTips twitter account, I spent some time today trying to find everybody to follow but I know there are more of you lovelies out there I can be following- so if you want, leave me your twitter name in your comments so I can follow you! I set up the JeweledTips account on my blackberry now too so I will be using that much much more! Now that you've read my rambling, want to see some nail polish? :)

Today I have pictures of Color Club - Blue Light to show you. It's a pretty light blue. Actually this was one of my first ever Color Club polishes. I saw a swatch somewhere and had to hunt it down immediately. Sorry I was chasing the sun the day I swatched this (and Strawberry Fields, but that's for another post) the clouds got the best of me, so the "sun" pictures are a little weak today haha sorry about that.

sun, kind of.

shade

indoors

I like this a lot. Pastel/pale blues really appeal to me; and I like how they look on. I was lemming the light blue, What's With The Cattitude, from the OPI Shrek Collection pretty hard but I think the light blues I have already are close enough to it. I have the new light blue and lavender polishes coming from Avon this week so I can do a light blue comparison when that arrives for you guys.

One last thing for today, I have a handful of really great new nail polish blogs that I have added over the last few days to My Blog List (on the left side of your screen). If you have a few minutes try to check them out, there are some really sweet bloggers behind them!

Obsessed with this color.

2010-07-30T22:42:00.007-04:00

I have a serious love affair with China Glaze - Cowgirl Up. Right now in my mind there aren't a lot of things prettier in the world than this nail polish. I know it's completely not summer-y in the traditional sense, but ever since I got it 2 months ago all I've been thinking about doing is wearing it for a full mani, haha. These are swatches from a few days after I got it and earlier today I finally gave in and put it on so it would stop haunting me! It's going to rain for a few days here anyway so I won't be able to swatch - this is a perfect opportunity. :) Check out this beauty!

Look at that shimmer! Perfection in a bottle. I got this and Let's Groove at the same time and it was like sensory overload trying to decide what to wear first haha. Another thing that made me ridiculously happy today was the layering combo I put together for Wednesday for you guys... just wait til you see it! And on Thursday I've got some more nail art from Alexandra to show you.

Also... I all of a sudden started to really like OPI - Glitzerland today, from the new Swiss collection. I originally liked three or four of the colors, but Glitzerland never appealed to me; until today. For whatever reason, the two pictures I saw of it on MUA today just made me want it so bad! Has this ever happened to you? Where you really weren't into a polish and then all of a sudden something made you love it? What polish had that effect on you?

Fun With Layering Wednesday comes on Thursday this week.

2010-07-29T17:18:00.008-04:00

Shiny! Glittery! Possibly close to a hard to find OPI color?! Purple! Today's (day late) Fun With Layering Wednesday combo has everything I could possibly want. And I actually don't know for sure if it's close to the OPI..but we'll get to that in a minute. I'm pretty jazzed about this mani, so there's a lot of pictures. Prepare yourself accordingly.

What wonders lay ahead? China Glaze - Light As Air with Sinful Colors - Purple Diamonds on top. Looking at all these pictures makes me want to wear this again ASAP.

ohhhh the sun makes it looks so nice!

outside in the shade

inside

Now, let's chat. I found a slightly used bottle of OPI - Vio-Let's Surf in a local nail salon a month or two ago. I haven't swatched it yet. (It's going to be a part of Hard To Find Week that I'll be doing in the future) But once I put these two colors on, it made me think about Vio-Let's Surf. So I grabbed my bottle and took it outside to hold next to my nails to see if it looks close in the bottle or not.

So it could be close. It intrigued me enough that I may need to swatch Vio-Let's Surf sooner than I had planned and compare these. Wouldn't that be cool if they were close? Those pictures make my hands look huge too, which is strange because I have really small hands in real life haha. But I digress. Would you guys want to see a comparison of this layering combo and Vio-Let's Surf soon? I could make that happen :)

Blue because I'm blue.

2010-07-27T21:12:00.007-04:00

So sorry I haven't posted in a few days guys. I lost one of my kittys on Thursday night. We had to put him to sleep :( I had him for 16 years and it was pretty heartbreaking. His name was Starlight. I posted on MUA asking for suggestions for nail polishes with the name Star or Starlight and got a lot of great ideas, but if you have any - please let me know! There was even a really wonderful NBer (nail board-er) who is sending me a bottle of the new Revlon - Star glitter topcoat. How amazing and kind is that? I love that there are such sweet people out there! So hopefully I will be using that soon for a Fun With Layering Wednesday post.

What I do have for you today, on a lighter note, is a nail polish I bought on a whim and haven't fully decided if I am going to keep or not. It's FingerPaints - Add & ABstract. A nice blue with slight green flashes. It was a kind of overcast day when I took these pictures so I have two inside and one outside, I tried my best to capture the green flash for you!

It's a really nice and I like it a lot, but I think it is close (but not a total dupe) of Rimmel - Marine Blue. I think I like Marine Blue a little more so this Finger Paints may end up in my swap pile. I'll have a comparison of the two and a swatch of Marine Blue up soon for you guys to make your own decision!

Busy Days and an Interesting Polish

2010-07-20T15:18:00.008-04:00

I feel like I have 800 things happening all at once right now. Ugh, I am not a fan of that haha. But one thing that de-stresses me when I get really busy like this is painting my nails...or just rearranging my stash! It's nice to have some pretty on your nails to look at during the day too :) One thing I did get to do though is help someone fulfill a long time lemming! (A lemming is something you really really want) She had posted about trying to find an older China Glaze color that I recently saw in a nearby nail salon, so I'm going to pick it up for her and send it to her tomorrow. I love doing this!

Today I have a really pretty OPI nail polish for you, called "Sheer" Your Toys. Oddly enough, it's not a sheer polish at all haha. It's a very wearable gray color (even on my ridiculously pale skin tone!).

sunlight! (looks longingly out the window while it rains.. when will the sun come back?)

Shade.. see how shiny it is in the shade? That's without top coat!

Indoors

Here's a different angle outside to showcase the copper pieces that are in this. (click and enlarge to see it better)

Amazing how shiny "Sheer" Your Toys is without a top coat! From some angles this looks like just a creamy gray color but then you can see the copper bits when you move your hand. It's really nice, I was actually suprised how much I liked this. When I first got it from a blog sale, I was kind of meh on the copper part, and waited to try it for a couple of weeks but then voila! Magic! In my opinion, this is a color you could wear year round and to a myriad of different events. What a versatile little polish this one is haha. So what do you think? Like it? Hate it? And how weird is it that the name Sheer is in it when it's actually a really opaque color? Pretty, but strange haha. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Nail art, a tutorial, Paradoxal swatches.. oh my!

2010-07-15T13:26:00.018-04:00

Hello lovelies! I'm all kinds of out of wack today. Why you may ask? Well, I've been up since 4 am (on purpose!) to watch golf. The Open Championship in Scotland started today and TV coverage started at 4 am EST, so I'm rocking 2 hours of sleep and have happily been watching golf all day. Yes, I am very aware that this is insane behavior; but I love it! My sports addiction might be a wee bit out of control haha.

But since I knew all week I was planning to do this, I figured today was the perfect day to introduce you all to my friend Alexandra and show you all the wonderful things she has in store for us. First up Paradoxal swatches! I asked Alexandra if she would mind taking a couple of Paradoxal swatches inside because, 1) I can't get enough of this polish! and 2) I feel like every picture highlights the shimmer in Paradoxal, but most of the time the shimmer isn't very visable. So Alexandra indulged me and took pictures of Paradoxal to show us what it normally looks like :)

Ahhh, I can't get over how pretty this nail polish is!

Are you up for some nail art? Alexandra provided an incredible step by step tutorial to create some really really pretty flowers. Here are her instructions:

Basic Flowers
Level: beginner
Materials: Rhinestones, tooth pick and 2 small bottle caps. If you don’t have rhinestones choose another color for the center.

Steps:

1) Start by getting a table lamp or getting close to a well illuminated place. Add 1 coat of the nail polish you like to all of your nails.

2) Add a generous second coat to only one nail, it is costumary to start with an average size finger, because you can get a sense of the layout.

3) Fill a little container with water and dip the toothpick, this will help for picking up the rhinestone, although you can also get a “picker-upper” at a beauty supply store.

4) Place the rhinestone on the nail while the polish is still wet, and press slightly.

5) Make sure the rhinestones follow a curved pattern, and not a “/” or an “L” pattern, a “moon” shape looks more subtle.

6) Place a drop of a contrasting color of nail polish in a small container, I use a bottle cap. Dip only a tiny portion of the toothpick and “touch” the surface of the nail, the color will transfer much like a refrigirator magnet, there is no need to press or sink it in. Some people use dotting tools and press on to make an effect, but usually for bigger flowers. Nail art brushes also work well, some even come within a bottle of nail polish.

7) Work each nail one by one, or add the rhinestones to all your nails and then start the dotting process. Add top coat.

One last thing, don’t be afraid to try it, the previous picture was made very cautiously to show the detail, but the following ones show flowers made really fast and not so perfect. The big picture is what matters, the overall look is still very good, even if the close-up shows some flowers are missing petals and some dots are bigger than others.

Tips: - to keep a more together look, draw flowers on the outside corners only, meaning the flowers on the right hand will be on the right side and the ones on the left hand will be on the left side.

- try on one nail first, with just clear base/top coat, or on a fake nail, so you can get a sense of the separation of the rhinestones.

- the polish used for dotting dries really fast, since it is just a drop, so you must work fast and use a new drop when it does. However, when I first pour the drop it is too watery, not optimal for dotting, I wait about 20 seconds. It takes practice, but it’s a good idea to always try the first flowers on a piece of paper.

- when in doubt, make very tiny dots first and put your hand about two feet away to see the overall picture, and if the flower petals need to be thicker, just dip in the polish again and dot over it.

Colors used for this tutorial: Chanel 509 Paradoxal and OPI Alpine Snow.

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How pretty is that?! Thank you SO much for the tutorial and swatches Alexandra! What do you guys think? Are any of you going to try this? I think I am, hopefully soon. I'll be sure to post pictures when I try it. I think it looks so classy and professionally done... I hope mine turns out just as nice!

More Layering fun, and exciting things coming!

2010-07-14T18:16:00.008-04:00

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday! I'm back with another new layering combo for you :) And after I show you that, I've got cool news- new stuff debuting here tomorrow! The excitment is radiating off this blog post, I know you can tell, haha.

So today I've got a green and some glitter for you. I was rummaging through my nail polish boxes last week trying to figure out what layering things would be interesting for you. I'm trying to mix it up, I don't want to show you the same colors or finishes each week. Plus I want to mix it up between easy to find, hard to find, inexpensive, etc so that there's something for every taste. (Well, unless your taste is yellow - I look awful in yellow.) Last week I gave you flakies, so this week - glitter!

I give you, Sinful Colors - Rise and Shine

Sorry it's a little messy, wish I had noticed before I took the pictures :) haha, oh well! That's two coats, with top coat because it dried a little matte. I like shiny.

Now, Rise and Shine, with Color Club - Hot Couture over it!

Inside

Outside

Ah! Extreme close-up!

I really really like this combination. I was worried this might turn out looking awful, but I had a feeling it might be cool. Lucky for me it ended up really pretty! Hot Couture is from the Pardon My French collection and is still pretty easy to find in case you want to try this for yourself.

Do you want to know a secret? Until about two months ago I almost never wore glitter nail polish. I read too many horror stories online about what a pain it was to remove, so I figured there were plenty of other glitter-free nail polishes in the world that were easier to deal with. Luckily I wised up! I still don't really go full-on glitter yet, but I'll get there. (Yes, I know about the foil method for removing..but it just seems like a lot of work haha) I'm really into glittery top coats right now though.

The one good thing that came out of me not wearing glitter was that I got really into holos! I'm going to be doing a holo week pretty soon to show you my favorites, which include an incredible frankened holo from a really amazing Make-Up Alley (also known as MUA) friend, Alexandra. Which bring me to my really really exciting news! Alexandra and I got to talking, and she is going to be doing guest posts here for the amazing nail art she does! Tomorrow I have the first post from her, which gives us cute nail art, a tutorial for it, AND Paradoxal swatches!! I'm not great with nail art, all I do is Konad, but Alexandra has such pretty and creative nail art - I'm so honored that she wants to be a part of Jeweled Tips! So be sure to check back tomorrow afternoon for it.

The Wonder of the One-Coater.

2010-07-12T16:45:00.005-04:00

The one-coater is a mythical, magically creature. Spoken of in hushed, reverent tones. Find a true, opaque, no visible nail line (or VNL as it's referred to) vibrant color in one coat and you hold on for dear life! But I have found one. Actually I think I have 5 or so in my stash, but that's just not as dramatic to say. I'll show you those eventually in less dramatic posting fashion.

Our one-coater is SpaRitual - Must Be Lust. I've heard only good things about this brand, but sadly this is the only one I have. So today, not only are you getting a one coat polish today BUT you get to see my ENTIRE SpaRitual collection. Wooo, exciting!

(indoors)

(outside on a cloudy day)

The day I swatched this the clouds kept coming and going. Eventually I threw in the towel and you guys got shade pictures and no sun ones, sorry! Pretty color though, right? Applys like a dream! This looks so strange to me though. Why you ask? I never wear red on my fingers. I'm very pale (practically translucent) and I always feel like red just makes that more apparent. I wear it on my toes all the time though, go figure. But this red seems a little softer, more pink-ish so it might be something I can pull off. If you look hard, you can see a little VNL in these pictures, but you can't actually see that in real life. And it was so easy to take off. Most of the time I feel like reds never get completely off haha but this was nice.

I really need to get some more SpaRitual polishes one of these days. Do you have any? Let me know what you think!

Oh and a little tidbit I find exciting. (And the word tidbit makes me happy.) I already have four polishes, well three and a treatment, together for a giveaway! When I get some more followers I'll be ready for one! Yay! I probably will add another one or two polishes to this. But I'm pretty stoked on it. And I'm up to 27 followers already, so cool :) Thank YOU for that!

Rain Rain Go Away...

2010-07-10T14:47:00.005-04:00

It's been raining the last two days in New Jersey. I did catch a pocket of sunlight for like 25 minutes yesterday and got two swatches in. But allegedly, it's supposed to be sunny the next two days before raining for a few more. So I'm going to swatch like crazy for a few days haha. I like to stock pile swatches because I've got ridiculous back problems, so I never know when I'm going to have a day where I can't get out of bed. This way I won't get behind on posts! Everybody wins (well except my back, but it's not a team player anyway so it shouldn't win.)

Anybody up for a nice little purple creme? I sure am.

Today I have for you the very simple, yet very pretty Color Club - Uptown Girl. This a polish I got at Bed Bath & Beyond when Color Club displays magically started appearing there. Last week I discovered a whole wall full has sprung up in one of the aisles - yay! Color Club is one of my favorite brands of nail polish. I've never found one that gave me application trouble.

I think this is photographing a little darker than it actually is in real life, but still pretty close. There's something kind of soothing about this color in my opinion. And I feel like it's appropriate for pretty much any setting. What do you think about it? Is it a color that you might where to work? Sometimes I think it's something I'd wear, sometimes I think it might be too much. So I'm appealing to you all!

One of the many things I'm putting together for the blog is a list of work appropriate colors from my stash. I want to post the pictures all in one place so that people can reference it when they need something for interviews or just something new to wear to work.

Also, another fun little thing I have for you today is my Google Spreadsheet with all of the nail polish and konad plates that I own. It's broken down by brand and it has a brief description of each color, the collection it's from, and any other miscellaneous notes I have about the color on there. There is a link on the right side of the site, right under my contact information. Feel free to take a look and email me with any colors you want to see, comparisons, etc that you'd like!

And don't forget the giveaways I posted a few days ago are ending soon! I've got one more for you to check out: rmcandlelight is giving away a few polishes over at her blog; http://nailsbeautiqued.blogspot.com so go enter now! :)

Fun With Layering Wednesday!

2010-07-07T19:59:00.007-04:00

It's Wednesday already again... I feel like that week went by so fast! But I think I've found the only color that Sally Hansen - Hidden Treasure does NOT look good layered over. Yes, there actually is one. And I'm going to show it to you.

Essie- Sag Harbor with Hidden Treasure on top

Sorry I had to squish my fingers up to get the light to hit my nails in the right way to really show Hidden Treasure. This manicure kind of looks scaley right? Not such a good look in my opinion. What's weird is that Hidden Treasure looks good over other light colors... over white it looks like Opals! And I wore it over China Glaze - Something Sweet for a wedding I was in last month. (Demure enough for a bridesmaid but interesting enough looking to keep me happy haha).

I really thought this was going to work. In theory it was an awesome idea. Sag Harbor is one of my favorite polishes of all time. Hidden Treasure is chock full of flakey goodness. Maybe it was too much of a good thing to put these two together?

But since those pictures weren't very exciting, here's some bonus Sag Harbor pictures! Yay bonus pictures!

This is inside and yikes did I catch the worst possible angle for it haha, excuse my hasty and not so hot clean up here.

Like I said, Sag Harbor is one of my favorite polishes. I like it so much I went and bought it's L'oreal counterpart, High Tide, so I'd have a back up bottle. The Essie North Fork Collection is what really started my nail polish addiction. When I googled it to find swatches I discovered the wonderful world of nail blogs and never looked back :) I have the other two polishes from that collection (Shelter Island and Greenport) which I will show you all together at some point in the future!

I hope everyone is staying cool; it's disgustingly hot still in New Jersey. Now I'm off to finish two articles for the hockey site I write for!

Color Club neons and what I learned about neons in general.

2010-07-06T19:52:00.021-04:00

Double post today to make up for my little hiatus! I told you in the last post that I would "kind of show you neons" today. What did I mean by kind of? Well I have pictures of three different neon polishes. But the kind of part comes in because they seem to make my camera crazy so they aren't 100% accurate. Also, I learned that most neon polishes look absolutely horrendous on me. Almost everything is going to get swapped haha.

Okay the first polish I have to show you is Color Club - Electro Candy.

Outside in direct sunlight

Outside in the shade

Inside, artificial light

So...Electro Candy. What a pain to photograph! None of these three pictures fully show how BRIGHT this color is. Think hot pink highlighter bright. But you can see how different the color looks to my camera in different light. And it sort of made me look like a corpse, so this is going in the swap pile haha. I'm super pale, but I imagine this would look awesome on someone tan (aka most people in the summer).

Next up: Color Club - Ultra Violet!

I thought I was going to love this, but was kind of meh on it. But here are pictures for you to decide for yourself...

Outside direct sunlight

Outside in shade

Indoors, artifical light

Normally I'm a purple fanatic but this I didn't love. Liked, yes.. but it was a little bright for me too. The actual color is closest in real life to the first picture. Again, these pictures don't come close to capturing how bright it is and you can see the different ways the camera thought it looked, just like Electro Candy. This has a fairly strong blue flash which you can definitely see in the sunlight picture (the first one).

Last but certainly not least, Color Club - Pure Energy

Pure Energy was my favorite and the only one I'm going to keep. This is supposedly a dupe for China Glaze - Towel Boy Toy, but I don't have that to compare them.

Outside in sunlight

Outside in shade

Indoors, arificial light

So pretty! Still a little brighter in real life than in pictures, but not as blinding as the other two colors I showed above. Pure Energy is much more flattering on my skintone, but still a color that I probably will mostly use on my toes. Perfect for summer though! I've had Towel Boy Toy on my wishlist for a while but I think this will be a very good (and cheaper) substitute for me.

All three of the swatches were done with 1 coat of OPI - Alpine Snow and then 2 coats of color. I've read that it makes the colors more vibrant and uses less coats if you use a white underneath them. I'd also heard that neons are notoriously streaky and tough to work with for the most part; but all three of these were a dream to apply- very easy! The first coat was streaky but it evened out nicely after the second. Oh, and don't forget you can click on all of the pictures to enlarge them if you'd like.

I got these at Ross in the Electro Candy set so it was an low-risk way for me to try out neon polishes. So the verdict is that I don't like how neons look on me (with Pure Energy as the exception.) And they make my camera crazy haha. What do you guys think? Love neons or hate 'em? If you have found ones you love, let me know your favorites - maybe I will get brave enough to try some more one day :)

I hope everyone is having an amazing day/night - it's over 100 degrees here in New Jersey.. ridiculously hot. So I'm hiding out inside and eating ice cream!

Some amazing Giveaways are happening in the blog world!

2010-07-06T18:53:00.004-04:00

Hello world :)

Sorry that it's been a few days since I posted. I went on a mini road trip with my best friend. We went back to our old college - neither of us has been back since we left 2 and a half years ago; I went on a medical leave (stupid back problems, grrr) and my friend transferred after I left. So it was kind of weird to be back, it felt like it had been lifetime ago, but it was really nice to be there again too. If someone had told me four years ago that all the things that have happened to me, were going to happen... oh man I would've had a nervous breakdown haha! So it was a busy few days with that and two Independence Day bar-b-ques (yum!).

But now I'm back! I've got some really cool giveaways to tell you about in this post. Then I have some neons to kind of show you next. And tomorrow is Fun With Layering Wednesday again, already!

First up... an anniversary giveaway from BabblingBrooke!

Brooke writes: "Babbling Brooke celebrates its 2nd Birthday/Blogaversary (aka: Blog Anniversary) on July 14, so I'm having a HUGE giveaway to thank all my wonderful followers! Blogging has been awesome these past two years and I am really looking forward to many more to come. Thank you to all my long-time, recent, and brand-new followers!!

There will be TEN winners total!
Total value of ALL prizes: $648!!
42 Nail Polishes in all"

How good does that giveaway look?! I'm entering nad I highly suggest you do too! Also, keep an eye on her blog all day July 14th because she will be giving away even more prizes throughout the day - so there are a ton of things to win!

Enter here: http://www.caracita.com/2010/06/babbling-brookes-big-2nd-birthday.html

And the other giveaway I want to share with you is from The Hungry Asian for her birthday and blog anniversary.

She is giving away 7 Color Club polishes, 6 Eyeko polishes (which I'd love to try!), a set of Nailene fake nails, China Glaze- Black Magic, a Hello Kitty polish, and two of her frankens! What a collection of things to win! You can see all of the items pictured at the link to the giveaway below - go check it out.

Enter here: http://thehungryasian.blogspot.com/2010/07/giveaway-nail-polish-and-frankens.html

Both of these end on July 14th, so be sure to enter within the next few days!

Fun With Layering Wednesday!

2010-06-30T21:51:00.005-04:00

Hey there :)

First of all - THANK YOU to you sweet ladies who commented and started following my blog; I can't tell you how much that means to me! You rule!

Now, onto today's post... I figure that for most people Wednesday is generally a not so fun day at work because Friday seems so far off. So I thought having some different layered polish combinations would give you something fun to try come Friday, or you know, today if you don't have a strict dress code haha. I work from home so I'm lucky in that respect.

The idea of layering wasn't something I was ever into until recently. I'm not very good at imagining how colors would work together. But the wonderful ladies of tPF and MUA post all these great pictures of combinations that have helped inspire me to get creative and try some out! And I would LOVE to hear any suggestions you have for layering ideas. Onto the pictures? Yes, please!

This is 1 coat of Diamond Cosmetics - Don't Teal My Heart Away with 2 coats of Sinful Colors - Nail Junkie on top. Don't Teal My Heart Away is exactly what it sounds like, a teal creme. It's very opaque so you can get away with one coat. Nail Junkie has a sheer green base color with green, gold, and silver glitter densely packed in it. Very pretty but for me I'll probably only ever use it as a layering tool, less glitter to remove that way haha. I'm excited to try this over some other colors too, although I don't know if it will ever look as good as this did!

Oh how I loved this manicure. So very very much. It lasted a week without chipping and wasn't gritty feeling at all after using my Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat. And at the end of the week I didn't want to take it off at all haha. My nails were so sparkly and fun looking! This is a manicure I will be wearing again soon for sure! One of the best parts about this manicure? The two colors cost $4.24 total. Pretty good deal right? Diamond Cosmetics are $2.25 and Sinful Colors are $1.99. Both are inexpensive and were great quality; you can't go wrong with that.

Do you have any go-to layering combos? Share them with me in your comments - I'm on the lookout for new ones!

First Post Deserves A Gorgeous Polish!

2010-06-29T20:52:00.006-04:00

Today I have China Glaze - Let's Groove to share with you. This is one of my all-time favorite nail polishes; it's so pretty! It kind of reminds me of grape jelly, expecially indoors. Which then makes me crave a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, haha!

You can click to enlarge the photo

You can see the red and blue shimmer where the sun hits my nails directly. This was two coats and I probably could've used just one if I were a little more careful. I know Let's Groove isn't a typical summer color, but right now I'm in a darker color phase. What do you think about dark colors in the summer? Do you wear them too or just stick to more usual summer colors like neons?

Now for a little introduction:

My name is Jana and I really got into nail polish when I stumbled upon Essie's North Fork collection (and promptly bought all three). Searching for swatches of the colors before I bought them took me into the wide world of nail polish blogs and Make Up Alley. After that there was no turning back :) I've done a few guest posts over at Babbling Brooke and will still post over there occasionally, in addition to here of course! My first love is sports though. I also write for a hockey website and will be co-hosting a fantasy football show starting in late July.

I've got some great ideas and swatches already together for you all, so keep checking back! I hope to be able to do some giveaways as I get more followers too.

So I showed you one of my favorite polishes, share with me some of yours!

Coming up tomorrow... Fun With Layering Wednesday!