[Review+Swatch] Sally Hansen Triple Shine Color (flakies & glitter)

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Hi guys! When I saw this new line of polish from Sally Hansen, my eyes zeroed right in on the pretty flakies and glitters. I finally got around to trying these iridescent beauties, and I love them. See for yourself!

[Press] OPI, China Glaze, Seche, Salon Perfect Spring 2014 Collections

Hey guys! Are you ready for spring colors yet? Well, you better be, because there are a ton of pretty colors being released next month. See what's new below! :)

CARNAVAL OF COLOR!

OPI Launches Brazil Collection For Spring/Summer 2014

L to R: Red Hot Rio / Live. Love. Carnaval / Kiss Me I'm Brazilian / Toucan Do It If You Try

Next Stop...Bikini Zone / Where Did Suzis Man-Go? / 

Don't Bossa Nova Me Around / I Just Can't Cope-acabana

Taupe-less Beach / I São Paulo Over There / OPI Scores a Goal / AmazON...AmazOFF

Brazil by OPI brings the colors of tropical rainforests and warm sandy beaches to nails and toes for Spring/Summer 2014. This new collection features a palette ranging from bright hues of red, pink, coral, orange and yellow to earthy tones of taupe, sienna, mocha and jungle green. In addition to 12 nail lacquers, the Brazil launch includes a set of four limited edition Beach Sandies Liquid Sand™ mini neon nail lacquers in bold purple, pink, turquoise and yellow shades with a textured, matte finish.

“With sun-soaked shores, tropical fruits, and lush flora/fauna, Brazil is such an inspiring locale,” exclaims Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Co-Founder & Executive VP.  “I wanted women around the world to embrace the energy and playfulness for which Brazilian women are known. Through the Brazil collection, with shades drenched in color and charged with shine, women can express themselves, showing off their sexy, mysterious, fun and exciting natures.

 “On spring runways, models were seen wearing lots of black and white, with bold accents of orange and yellow and muted elements of taupe and clay,” continues Weiss-Fischmann. “Brazil by OPI provides vivid hues to add a pop of color to a neutral-toned wardrobe, as well as earthy tones that easily transition from day to night.” 

Brazil nail lacquer shades each feature OPI’s exclusive ProWide^™ Brush for the ultimate in application. Liquid Sand nail lacquers should always be worn without top coat. Brazil by OPI will be available in both nail lacquer and GelColor formulas beginningFebruary 5, 2014. Nail lacquers will retail for $9.00 ($10.95 CAN) each at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, jcp Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, ULTA and ulta.com. Beach Sandies Liquid Sand mini pack will retail for $12.95 ($14.95 CAN). GelColor is an in-salon, professional service only. Prices depend on the salon and range from $28 - $38 for a manicure and $35 - $45 for a pedicure.

♥ ♥ ♥

HEAR THE SIREN’S SONG WITH CHINA GLAZE® SEA GODDESS

Swim into Spring with Six Sparkling Shades 

Top row (L to R): Shell We Dance / Sand Dolla Make You Holla / Wish On a Starfish

Right column (top to bottom): Tail Me Something / Seahorsin’ Around / Teal the Tide Turns

Discover the hidden treasures of the ocean this spring with China Glaze® Sea Goddess. Six vibrant matte and glistening glitters take you from the sandy, sunny shore to the depths of the sea where the mermaids play.

The shades in the collection include:

• Shell We Dance – Flip those fins across the sea floor in this bright rose pink with silver and pink glitter
• Sand Dolla Make You Holla – The tide meets the sand in this white polish filled with fine multi-colored glitter
• Wish On a Starfish – Make dreams come true with a light pink and gold shimmer polish
• Tail Me Something – Listen carefully to the whisper of the secretive sea in this glistening light lavender
• Seahorsin’ Around – Splash around in this mermaid-tail turquoise with soft gold shimmer
• Teal the Tide Turns – Swim through a seaweed maze of light teal with green glitter 

China Glaze® Sea Goddess will be available in February 2014 at fine salons and beauty supply stores.

♥ ♥ ♥

BRING ON SPRING WITH SECHE®

Seche Nail Lacquer Introduces New Spring 2014 Collection: Perfectly Poised

Top: Effortlessly Styled / Perfectly Poised / Keep It To You 

Bottom: Buttoned Up / Conquer The World / Head To Toe

The Seche® woman can Conquer the World, one perfectly polished nail at a time. She is dressed Head to Toe in confidence as she steps out to take on the day. Buttoned Up in her best, this Effortlessly Styled woman is smart, sassy, ambitious and quick-witted. She is Perfectly Poised – always looking for the longest-lasting, fastest-drying seasonal shades that remind her to “Keep It You.” To stay true to who she is, she turns to Seche®.

The collection includes: 

Effortlessly Styled: Melon sherbet cream

Perfectly Poised: Soft marigold cream

Keep It You: Deep rose pink with purple shimmer

Buttoned Up: Lavender cream with purple shimmer

Conquer the World: Light teal with gold shimmer

Head to Toe: Creamy nude

Seche® is the leading global brand most trusted by professional nail technicians and the women who desire and demand superior quality, exceptional technology, unparalleled performance, and beautiful results for the care of natural nails. Seche® Perfectly Poised will be available February 2014 nationwide. For more information, visit www.seche.com. 

♥ ♥ ♥

THE LOOK OF LOVE 

Valentine’s-Inspired Lashes and Polish from Salon Perfect®

Top: He's With Me!

Middle: In Love / Cosmic Black / Loves Me, Loves Me Not

Bottom: Touchy Feely / Hearts-a-Flutter / One Love

They say that true love comes from within, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make that special someone fall in love at first sight. When it comes to making others swoon, it’s all in the wink of an eye and a kiss blown from a perfectly polished hand. This February, add a little spice to your sugar with the new Salon Perfect® Love, Lashes and Lacquer collection, available at select Walmart stores nationwide.

Complete your look of love with lust worthy lashes embellished with black crystals, or natural lashes to highlight your eyes – top it all off with a pretty polish. Choose from metallic and matte glitter lacquers, rich crème, and special effects top coats. Whether you’re a sweetheart or a saucy tart, Salon Perfect® has enough Love, Lashes and Lacquer to help warm even the coldest heart.

Salon Perfect® Love, Lashes and Lacquer collection features:

Lashes
· Demi Wispies – Softly feathered lashes create an eye-catching gaze
· 602 Black Diamonds Diva Strip Lash – A full lash with a black jewel band for a touch of glamour
· 105 Glamorous Strip Lash – Long, lush lashes that are undeniably glamorous
· 53 Natural Strip Lash– A petite and graduated lash for subtle length and volume
· 110 Natural Strip Lash – A light full lash creates a soft natural look

Lacquers
· He’s With Me! – Metallic red micro-glitter
· In Love – Bright pink crème
· Cosmic Black – Black and silver multi-dimensional glitters
· Loves Me, Loves Me Not – Pale pink and black matte micro-glitters
· Touchy Feely – Black and white matte micro-glitters
· Hearts-a-Flutter – Fuchsia micro-glitter and gold heart glitter top coat
· One Love – Iridescent holo-effect hex glitter and micro-glitter top coat

Salon Perfect® Love, Lashes and Lacquer collection will launch in February at select Walmart stores nationwide as part of a limited edition promotional display. Individual polish will retail for $3.98, lashes will retail for $2.98.

From lashes and brow products, to nail color and beauty tools, Salon Perfect® has the products needed to look effortlessly beautiful at an affordable price. View the complete Salon Perfect® collection at www.SalonPerfect.com. Follow Salon Perfect on Facebook (@SalonPerfectLashes), Twitter (@Salon_Perfect), Instagram (@SalonPerfect), Pinterest (pinterest.com/salonperfect) or YouTube (youtube.com/salonperfect).

[Swatch+Review] Barielle Banana Drop, Satin Glow, & Blue Cotton Candy

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Hi guys! Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend. Mine was super cold, and it's currently snowing again. I wish it would be spring already! Unfortunately, that won't be for a few more months. In the meantime, I've been enjoying these lovely colors from Barielle.

Banana Drop, 3 coats: pastel yellow creme. Most pale yellows aren't very flattering on me, but this one looked okay! It was a tiny bit streaky, but the third coat evened it out just fine. It was fairly easy to apply and has a smooth, shiny finish. I wore mine with base coat and didn't have any staining either.

Satin Glow, 3 coats: sheer, warm pink crelly with gold shimmer. First off, I really love shimmery creme-jellies, and this one is no exception. It's a bit sheer, but builds up nicely in three coats. It's also a little slow to dry, but expected for this finish. (Think Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely In Love, Sinful Colors Cinderella, Essence Grey-t To Be Here.)

Blue Cotton Candy, 2 coats: teal blue with silver shimmer. I love this one. It reminds me of Cult Nails Let Me Fly, but lighter and dustier. The formula was excellent, as was the opacity. Dry time was good as well.

Verdict: I'm glad I got to try all three of these. None of them were disappointing and lived up to my expectations in both color and consistency.

Availability: Barielle polishes are 5-free and are available for purchase at barielle.com for $8 each.

[Reswatch] OPI When Monkeys Fly

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Hi guys! Remember this polish from OPI's Oz The Great and Powerful collection? It actually got a lot of heat last year because of curling glitter. But look! Flat gold glitters! :D If you didn't send yours back, take a look at it now. You may be in for a happy surprise. ^^

This is one coat of When Monkeys Fly over Nicole by OPI Promises In The Dark. So pretty!

If you own When Monkeys Fly, let me know if your glitters uncurled too! I'm so curious, haha. :P

Liz

[Review+Swatch] Nicole by OPI Better After Dark & Promises In The Dark

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Happy Saturday! Hope everyone's weekend is going well! Today I'm showing you two chocolate-y shades inspired by Dove Chocolate. Nicole by OPI is currently doing a promotion with Dove to celebrate the launch of a new year and their new line of dark chocolates. You can enter their sweepstakes for a chance to win a bar of Dove chocolate and the lacquers shown above. They're giving away 25,000 of these kits, and you have till Feb 5 to enter. :D

I actually got a sample of Dove's regular dark chocolate, as well their new salted caramel version. Oh my gosh, you guys. These are so good. I was already a fan of Dove chocolate, but I think the salted caramel is my new favorite.♥

But enough about the chocolate, let's talk about the nail polish!

[Review+Swatch] OPI Gwen Stefani Collection

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Hey guys! It's already Friday - TGIF! Today I have swatches of the new Gwen Stefani for OPI collection. This collection features several different finishes, so there's something for everyone. There's also nail art at the end, so keep reading!

[Nail Art] Foxy Valentine

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Hi guys! I can't believe Valentine's day merchandise was already up in stores this year as soon as Christmas ended! Now that it's actually getting closer, I decided to partake in some cutesy nail art. Nothing too pink or red (yet), just some super amazingly adorable fox nail art. ;)

Polishes Used

Pointer | Nicole by OPI Half-Charming Half-Alarming

Fox | Milani Colorful Coral (new 2014)

White details | Milani White (new 2014)

Black details | Milani Black Swift

Ring | OPI Don't Touch My Tutu

Middle + Pinky | China Glaze Kinetic Candy

As expected, the Milani cremes were excellent for nail art due to their high opacity and easy-to-work-with formula. Isn't the coral color just perfect for the fox? Oh, and if you're wondering what "Chu♥" means, it denotes a kissing sound in Korean. Like "mwah" in English. I think it was made popular by Kpop group f(x).

If you're wondering what I used for all the drawings, it's this BPS brush set*! I can't recommend this set enough. It's my favorite from BPS so far, because the brushes give you so much control. I had no problem getting every detail exactly where I wanted. The tips are small and pointed, so you can get some pretty precise lines.

As always, you can use my code F10X31 to get 10% off your order. :)

What do you think? Are you a fan of Vday nail art? :)

♡ Liz

[Review+Swatch] Zoya Naturel Collection

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Hi guys! Today I'm reviewing a collection of neutral cremes from Zoya's spring 2014 collection. The formula on these are on the thinner side, but they still apply very nicely. Generally, these are opaque in two to three coats depending on the thickness of the coat. All of my swatches are shown without top coat.

[Review+Swatch] China Glaze Your Present Required

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It's finally the weekend! Today's look is a bit festive with this pretty glitter top coat from China Glaze's Holiglaze collection. Here's I'm wearing 2 coats of Your Present Required over Precision I'm Addicted To You. YPR is a clear-based, multi glitter top coat with colors like blue, orange, purple, green, silver, gold and white. Both the formula and glitter pay off was great, and I'm really digging the color combination in this one.

Have you tried this polish from ChG's Holiglaze collection? If you did, let me know how you wore it! :)

Liz

[Review+Swatch] China Glaze Iron Out Details

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Hi guys! I'm excited to show you today's polish from China Glaze's new Crinkled Chrome collection. It's essentially like a foil version of the texture polishes we've been seeing - only better in my opinion. These look just like crinkled aluminum foil on your nails, so you're in luck if you're into that look. :P

[Nail Art] Painterly Stars

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Today's look was inspired by the blue details in my last nail art look. I love how well Milani Blue Zoom and Aqua Brisk mixes together, so I expanded that look onto the full nail. I also added in some gold accents to pull the whole look together.

What I Used

Milani Blue Zoom

Milani Aqua Brisk

China Glaze Mingle With Kringle (gold accent)

Born Pretty Store gold star studs*

BPS drawing brush*

To get this look, I started out by painting my nails with 2 coats of Blue Zoom. Once it was dry, I added a drop of Blue Zoom and Aqua Brisk next to each other on a piece of paper. After lightly swirling the colors together, I used rough brush strokes to create the mixed effect. I finished off the look, by adding light strokes of gold to complement the gold studs and accents.

By the way, these gold star studs are the same as the neon ones I used here. These are much more versatile since they're gold. They also hold up well to acetone - so yay for recycling. :) If you're interested in purchasing them, use my code F10X31 to receive 10% off your order.

What do you think? Is this a look you would wear?

Liz

[Nail Art] Hello!

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Have you guys seen the new 2014 lacquers from Milani? I love using Milani's cremes for nail art because they are usually opaque in 1-2 coats. So I put together this quick nail art look with a few of the new shades.

Polishes Used

Base: Peach Innocence + Vanilla Almond

Hello: Power Periwinkle + Blue Zoom

Arrows: Aqua Brisk + Blue Zoom

Glitter: Sugar High

This color combo kind of reminds me of a desert sunrise. I'm pretty sure MS Word Art is responsible for me making that association. I used to play around with it quite a bit for my elementary/middle school projects. Oh, dear. Haha.

By the way, the cremes I used here were all opaque in 2 coats! I'll have my full review up in a few days, so look forward to it! :)

♥ Liz

[Nail Art] Neon Starburst with BPS Studs

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Hi guys! I haven't done a nail art post in a long while, so this post is going to fix that. :]

[NOTD] China Glaze: Be Merry, Be Bright + Elfin' Around

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Hey all! Today I'm wearing this pretty coral-red from China Glaze's Holiglaze collection (Holiday 2013). I love warm reds like this, and the metallic finish gives it an extra oomph in the shine department. This is one smooth coat without top coat.

I topped it with a coat of ChG Be Merry, Be Bright for some added sparkle. Be Merry, Be Bright is filled with multi-sized red and purple glitters. It's hard to see on Elfin' Around, but I liked how the cooler red glitters in BMBB added some depth to the warmer base.

What's on your nails today? Let me know in the comments below! :)

Liz

Healthier Nails for 2014: Tips & Products

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Hi guys! I hope you all had a wonderful time with the holidays and the New Year's celebrations. Now that we're officially in 2014, it seems like a ton of "New Year, New You" posts are popping up everywhere. Have you made any New Year's resolutions?

I'm personally not a fan of the whole resolution thing. I used to make them, but never acted on them. So I learned not to make them in the first place. Haha. Don't get me wrong, I always have goals I want to accomplish regardless of whether it's a new year or not. In the end, I believe a resolution won't change anything, but a right mindset will. At least this has been true for me.

But if you're the type who likes the little kick in the pants New Year's resolutions can give you, here are few tips for healthier nails.

Oh hey, you get to see my bare nails! I don't think I've ever shown them on my blog, because they were always badly stained. So that's where the lemon comes in. To preface this, December 2013 was a bad, bad time for my hands and nails. Not only were they dry and flaky, but something odd had also happened to my hands.

My home uses pumped well water, which needs to be softened regularly as it can contain a lot of iron. I guess we had a few days of hard water, because one day I noticed that my hands were speckled black along my cuticles, under my nails, and anywhere with dry skin (which I had a lot of). As a result, it looked like I had a play-date in the dirt and didn't wash my hands.

After a lot of fretting and searching, I decided to give the old lemon trick a try. I actually did this before for my yellow stained nails, but didn't see an improvement. So I was doubtful, but guess what? It worked! On top of that, my nail tips are whiter than ever!

Here's what I did:

Dove Chocolate and Nicole by OPI Ring in the New Year with an Irresistible Sweepstakes

25,000 winners to receive DOVE^® Dark Chocolate-inspired nail lacquer kit

HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. (Jan. 3, 2014) – DOVE^® Dark Chocolate and NICOLE by OPI^® celebrate the New Year with the launch of the “Discover Your Dark Side in the New Year Sweepstakes.”  The Facebook-based promotion will randomly award 25,000 entrants with two exclusive NICOLE by OPI^® nail lacquer shades inspired by DOVE^® Dark Chocolate: “Better After Dark” and “Promises in the Dark.”

As the #1 solid dark chocolate on the market[1], the unique, silky-smooth taste of DOVE^® Dark Chocolate lives up to people’sexpectations of what chocolate should taste like. Available in four varieties, including new DOVE^® Silky Smooth Sea Salt Caramel Dark Chocolate, DOVE^® uses carefully selected cocoa beans to deliver its signature taste and a special process that delivers the unique, silky-smooth texture.

“In 2014, we want to encourage people to discover the delicious taste of DOVE^® Dark Chocolate, which offers a creamy taste experience that shatters the perception that dark chocolate tastes bitter,” said Roy Benin, Chief Consumer Officer, Mars Chocolate North America. “With this sweepstakes, we’re putting the silky-smooth taste of DOVE^® Dark Chocolate at people’s fingertips with the always smooth nail polish experience from NICOLE by OPI^®.”

Enter the “Discover Your Dark Side in the New Year Sweepstakes”

From now through February 5, 2014, DOVE^® Chocolate Facebook fans can enter once per day for a chance to win one (1) of the 25,000 NICOLE by OPI^® kits, which include:

§  A coupon for a free DOVE^® Dark Chocolate Bar (1.34 oz. - 1.44 oz.)

§  Better After Dark NICOLE by OPI^® Nail Lacquer Bottle

§  Promises in the Dark NICOLE by OPI^® Nail Lacquer Bottle

To enter, simply “like” the DOVE^® Chocolate Facebook page and click on the Sweepstakes tab (https://www.facebook.com/dovechocolate/app_548734081871225) to enter your name, email address, shipping address and date of birth.  The Sweepstakes is open to legal residents of the 50 United States who are age 13 or older on or before December 27, 2013. All winners will be selected at random by an independent agency in the week following the sweepstakes. 

For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/dovechocolate or www.facebook.com/nicolebyopi.