April Showers Bring May Flowers - May Flowers

Hello again!!
Change is in the air!! I've been working with a friend to customize my blog which is exciting, and Spring is turning into Summer fast over here for us in NY. Which brings me to the next challenge in this series. MAY FLOWERS. Oh how I brainstormed for this one. I really wanted to pick a Springtime flower. Something that will ultimately make everyone think Spring. I narrowed it down to tulips and daffodils...and then....became obsessed with DANDELION SEEDS. Who hasn't made a wish on those ubiquitous icons of Spring? This is one of the images I used for inspiration: "make a wish!". And this is the other dandelion image!

I started by sponging (my first time!) Revlon Royal and Barry M Blueberry Ice cream for the sky. I guess I did good, because when my 3 yr old saw it he yelled "OH blue sky on your nails!" :)  Then there was the clean up :/ After that I used nail art brushes for the stem and wishes. It came out ok, but as always I'm very critical of my own stuff. sigh.

 Sally Hansen White On, Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Revlon Royal, Zoya Yara and Midori, China Glaze White Cap

 Sponged blue skies. And with this one, I can't help but think of my brother. So, these "blue skies" are for you Cliff!!

Do these make you think of Spring? What wish would you make? I've got only two more manicures left in this challenge!! And then...bring on the summer challenge :)

Hope you all are well!
~Victoria

Here are the other ladies in this challenge with me!
Hannah from Polished Prisms
Amanda from Mandy's Polish
Heidi from DIY Polish & More
Katee from A Girl and Her Polish
Charlotte from Charlotte's Nails
Tess from Football and Fingernails
Karine from Karinea0a
Sharon from What Color is My Coat? 
Ashley from One Nail To Another
Dani from Rustic Comfort
Sue from Creative Nail Design by Sue
Amanda from Counting Down to Bliss
Kayono from Neues vom Kellerkind
April from Munia's Nails
Sharra from The Blahg
Jess from Nearly Natural Nails
CR from Color Me Silly
T from Mami Blogs
Alyson from Beads. Nails. Food.

The New Black Ombre-Floyd Nail Art

Helloooo
So excited to show you this set from The New Black! This is part of their Ombre collection which retails for $22 at Sephora and Beauty.com. The Floyd set contains 5 (4ml) mini bottles in pink shades. I know it's called an ombre, but I found it to be not a true ombre because the shading of light to dark in the same color family was a little bit too "jumpy" for me. However...I LOVE this set and the colors complement and look great together.

 There are no color names on them, so here is my break down (I named them myself to keep track as I was planning my design): from left to right in the picture directly above -
Pink - Carnation pink with silver shimmer. Perfect in 2 coats.
Fuschia - A jelly neon, this one is a darkish pink with a hint of purple.
Hot pink - Another jelly neon, gorgeous bright pink. I had a  hard time photographing the jellies, this one kept wanting to be red in photos.  Both of the neons are very pigmented and dry somewhat matte. You can get away with one coat of these if you wanted.
Rose - Beautiful medium pink with gold shimmer. Perfect in 2 coats.
Light pink - Very pretty light pink creme. This is the only one of the bunch that gave me application problems. Streaky and needs 3 coats. But not a deal breaker by any means.

 I had to play around with the color balance a bit to try to get the photos to be as color accurate as I could. Like I said, the jelly colors did not want to cooperate. The photo above I think, is pretty accurate!

Thumb - pink and fuschia

Index - rose and hot pink

Middle - all 5 colors

Ring - light pink and fuschia

Pinky - pink and rose

I'm loving this look, different nail art on each finger with the same set of colors. This was fun to do, and looks even better in person and also, I heart pink :)

Glad to have you reading!
~Victoria


*DISCLOSURE* This set was sent to me for my honest opinion and review. My loyalties are always to my readers first and foremost.

April Showers Bring May Flowers - Eggs and Chicks

Hiiii!
I'm almost done with this challenge and after spending my afternoon turning my nails into eggshells, I'm glad :P Just kidding..but it's true this one gave me troubles.

I achieved my eggshell with Illamsqua Load, and it was a pain. Streaky and generally uncooperative. But it is the perfect yellowish off-white. Striping tape for the cracks aaaaand I cheated with the chicks. I saw these nail polish stickers pop up on etsy and snagged it!! Nail Candy Plus makes the cutest little stickers for those who want nail art but are artistically challenged ;) I had a troublesome application. Maybe it was user error, but my nail polish sticker...um..smeared when I applied top coat :'( Bummer because these are SO cute. I got a few others so hopefully I figure out how to apply without any melting.

So, what do you think? Good idea, but it certainly didn't turn out how I had hoped.

Thanks for reading :)
~Victoria

Utopia's Polish Cupid's Arrow swatch and review

 Hello!
Today I have the last of my Utopia's Polish, for now, to show you.  Virginia from Utopia's Polish is a creative powerhouse!  Shop her Etsy store and find her on Facebook! She has both large (15ml) and small (5ml) bottles on sale. If you see something you like, I recommend grabbing it while it's there. I get the feeling Virginia makes what inspires her but can't guarantee that they will always be available.

This polish has A TON of glitter in a hot pink jelly base. Silver hearts, white bar, white, fuschia and silver hexes,  small black and holo glitters too. I probably left some out even. This is perfect for Valentine's and I bet this would make that little girl in your life super happy!! This is a fun and very girly polish with a lot going on :)

 This is base coat, 2 coats of Cupid's Arrow and 2 coats of Seche Vite. When I was putting this on I *almost* thought to myself..my god..is this TOO much glitter? But I breathe glitter so it's all good :P

 Pretty, right? Thanks for reading :)
~Victoria


*DISCLOSURE* This mini bottle was sent to me for my honest opinion and review. My loyalties are always to my readers first and foremost.

April Showers Bring May Flowers - Butterflies

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I've love participating in this challenge but I have to be honest...procrastinated on these butterflies. So many beautiful butterfly wings already completed by others, that I wanted to try something different. And I'm sorry to say, I'm not thrilled with it. This was only my second time stamping, and yeah, I need some more practice. Also, it took me forever to figure out the colors I wanted to use. I love those blue butterflies...so this was my inspiration.

 Sparitual Howl, Delight and Ripple Effect, Elixir Lacquer Foxy

I used a base coat and 2 not so nice coats of Sparitual Delight. I'm quite surprised because I'm a big fan of Sparitual, but this one did not flow easily. As you can see the 2nd coat`did not self level well. Had I not been going to go over this with another color..I would have taken it off and tried again. Perhaps it was user error...I was being impatient.

 I topped off the Sparitual Delight with 2 coats of Elixir Lacquer Foxy. I really wanted to get that butterfly green/blue from my inspiration pic! These took forever to dry and I even got sleep lines in it overnight :/

 And then of course, I tried my hand with stamping butterflies with Sparitual Howl and flowers with Sparitual Ripple Effect.

Hope you like it better than I do. LOL! And check out the others in this challenge:

Hannah from Polished Prisms
Amanda from Mandy's Polish
Heidi from DIY Polish & More
Katee from A Girl and Her Polish
Charlotte from Charlotte's Nails
Tess from Football and Fingernails
Karine from Karinea0a
Sharon from What Color is My Coat? 
Ashley from One Nail To Another
Dani from Rustic Comfort
Sue from Creative Nail Design by Sue
Amanda from Counting Down to Bliss
Kayono from Neues vom Kellerkind
April from Munia's Nails
Sharra from The Blahg
Jess from Nearly Natural Nails
CR from Color Me Silly
T from Mami Blogs
Alyson from Beads. Nails. Food.

Have a great night :)
~Victoria

Utopia's Polish Oh What a Circus swatch and review

Hi!

I don't know what it is about white or milky polish with glitters that is making me go so ga-ga lately, but I can't get enough. And this one is no exception. Virginia from Utopia's Polish is quite the creative polish maker! Shop her Etsy store and find her on Facebook! She has both large (15ml) and small (5ml) bottles on sale.

From her description: "This polish has a white base with blue, yellow, pink glitter hexagons, some micro purple, blue glitter. Named this Oh What A Circus as the colors make me think of a Circus tent or a birthday party and i like the song from Evita Oh! What a Circus."

 She wrote me that she was out of glitter suspension base so my sample was sent in regular base. It did prove to be a challenging application, with thin spots and pooling, and the glitter not suspended evenly. EVEN so, I love this polish and was able to get it looking good in 2 coats :) I do intend to purchase the full bottle and Virginia has assured me that ALL polishes are made with glitter suspension base now, so there should be no issues with the formula. This is base coat, 2 coats of polish and Seche Vite top coat. 

What do you think? Are you being swept away by the current Indie explosion? Do you love milky glitters too?


Thanks for reading :)
~Victoria


*DISCLOSURE* This mini bottle was sent to me for my honest opinion and review. My loyalties are always to my readers first and foremost.