Jamberry Nails Giveaway Winners!!!

Sorry for the delay in posting these winners, I have the flu and am dragging behind a bit! The first winner, the lucky lady who gets to pick which of the two designs she would like to receive, is KB, of Darling Nails! The second winner is GFC follower A Tiny Blog! So ladies, email me with your addresses so I can send you your prizes! KB, make sure you let me know if you'd like to receive the peacock feather design or the chevron pattern.

Thanks to all those who entered! I will have a giveaway for everyone (international followers included!) in mid-January.

Happy New Year's Eve!!

 Base: one coat CND Stickey
Color: two coats China Glaze Glitter All The Way
Top: one coat NYC Grand Central Station
Application: good (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! I'm still debating what polish to wear tonight, but China Glaze Glitter All The Way is a possibility. Glitter All The Way is from China Glaze's holiday 2012 collection. It is a clear base packed with purple, green, red, and gold glitter. It seems really festive, without screaming "red and green Christmas polish!".

This is just two coats of Glitter All The Way and it is definitely full coverage. The base seemed a tad thick, so later in the life, this may need a bit of thinner. Nice opaque glitter though! I apologize for the not great pictures. I took these Saturday when before the snow and rain started and the sky was so overcast.

Do you have any exciting New Year's Eve plans? I'm usually pretty boring on NYE!!

China Glaze Glitter All The Way is available at a Sally Beauty near you.

Pretty & Polished Hameau

Base: one coat Zoya Get Even
Color: three coats Pretty & Polished Hameau
Top: one coat Poshe
Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Today's polish is the gorgeous Pretty & Polished Hameau. Hameau is part of the Marie Antoinette-themed Save the Dauphine collection, scheduled to release on January 16. I am always a sucker for these "glitter in a milky base" polishes, and Chels managed to make Hameau different from other polishes in the same vein. For one thing, this milky base has some delicate shimmer. For another, she used some very pretty jewel-toned emerald green and  cobalt blue glitters. According to Chels, "Hameau is the cottage built by Marie Antoinette. This was made to resemble the color of the cottage and the surrounding flowers." I did a Google image search of "Hameau" and this polish really does a good job of representing the property!

I found the formula of this polish to be really excellent. This is three coats and as you can see, there is not a streak in sight. The base is nice and smooth-looking, and the glitter shows through really well. If you're looking for this to have no VNL, you could do a fourth coat, or maybe layer it over a white or off-white. However, I like the squishy feel of this as it is. I purchased the mini bottle of this polish and it was as easy to work with as any full size similar polish I own. This will be available in the full size as well, of course.

The Pretty & Polished Save the Dauphin collection will be available online at shopprettyandpolished.com on January 16. You can check out bottle shots of the whole collection on the Pretty & Polished Facebook page.

I received this product early and for a slight discount in exchange for an honest review. For more information, please read my Disclosure Policy.

More Nicole by OPI Selena Gomez Pretties

Base: one coat Zoya Get Even
Color: three coats Nicole by OPI Selena
Top: one coat Poshe
Application: good (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Thanks to a blast of winter sunshine, I have the rest of the Nicole by OPI Selena Gomez polishes for you today! I had a serious swatch-a-thon this morning. With snow coming tomorrow, I couldn't pass up this sun! These polishes made it pretty easy to pretend it was a warm spring day, especially Nicole by OPI Selena. Selena is a pretty peach crelly (creme+jelly) with very delicate shimmer. I am not a huge pastel fan, but even I have to admit this is gorgeous. Something about the not quite creme, but not full on jelly finish is really lovely with this peach color. Also, the peach is less orange and more pink than some peach polishes I own. In the bottle, I thought this was a snooze, but once I put it on, I loved it!

Selena applied pretty well for such a pale color. This is three coats, and there is a tiny bit of VNL. I think that is purposeful VNL though, with the jelly-ness of the polish, and I don't mind it. The first coat had a bit of streaking, but as you can see, that evened out completely with the second coat and there are no streaks in the finished look.

Base: one coat Zoya Get Even
Color: three coats Nicole by OPI Selena, two coats of Nicole by OPI Inner Sparkle
Top: one coat Poshe
Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Nicole by OPI Inner Sparkle is another great glitter topper from this collection. Like the gold glitter Kissed At Midnight, Inner Sparkle has a couple different sizes of glitter in a clear base. This time, the larger glitter pieces are a lavender pink, and the tiny glitters look like they are a pale gold. It's kind of an interesting "dainty" color for a glitter polish. I like it! I think I will try it over a lavender polish next, to really bring out those tones.

Inner Sparkle was nice and easy to apply. This is two coats over Selena. I did not need to do any dabbing or special application methods. There were no problems with bare spots or needing to fish around for glitter. Overall, a very nice glitter topper!

Base: one coat Zoya Get Even
Color: two coats Nicole by OPI Scarlett
Top: one coat Poshe
Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Nicole by OPI Scarlett is a pink-leaning red glass fleck-like shimmer. On me, this looks more like a fuchsia than a real red. Either way, it's bright and shimmery! Maybe not the most unique polish in the collection, but definitely a must have color for every polish lover.

If you're in the market for a fuchsia red shimmer like this, Scarlett has a fantastic formula. You can't go wrong with this one. You can tell how excellent the formula is by how close I was able to get to my cuticles. These pictures were all taken with absolutely no clean-up. This is one of those formulas that feels a little gel-like, so it's so easy to work with. Scarlett has great pigmentation too, this is just two coats.

Base: one coat Zoya Get Even
Color: three coats Nicole by OPI Mi Fantasia
Top: one coat Poshe
Application: good (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Nicole by OPI Mi Fantasia is an interesting polish. Mi Fantasia combines lots of medium blue-purple glitter and small holo bar glitter in a clear base. Being a bar glitter hater, I am never sure how I will feel about polishes containing bar glitter. I like this one though! I think it's because there is more purple glitter, and the bar glitter can't look hairy with all that non-bar glitter. It just adds a holo flash now and then.

Just for kicks, I wanted to see if I could wear this alone, and it turns out, I can! This is three coats of Mi Fantasia, and the coverage was a bit better looking in person. My camera always like to make glitter seem less dense. This was pretty easy to apply. The glitter is pretty packed in there, so it doesn't take long to build up the coverage. I think this would also look fantastic over black.

Base: one coat Zoya Get Even
Color: two coats Nicole by OPI Here We Kome A-Karoling, two coats of Nicole by OPI Heavenly Angel
Top: one coat Poshe
Application: average (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

Nicole by OPI Heavenly Angel contains irregular sized shards of iridescent glitter in a clear base. The glitter pieces are very iridescent and almost look like they are changing color every time you move your nails. I have used other polishes similar to this, but I sometimes find the glitter doesn't look as rainbow-y on the nail as in the bottle. Heavenly Angel looks way MORE rainbow-y on the nail.

Now for the down side, Heavenly Angel was not the easiest polish to apply. It definitely needed some dabbing and placement of the larger shards. It also seemed like the shards didn't want to come out to play, so I needed to do a bit of fishing to load up the brush. This is two dabbed/pushed coats of Heavenly Angel and in my opinion, the glitter could be more dense after two coats. If you're willing to put a little work in, the effect is gorgeous though! The glitter shards look like they're glowing!

Base: one coat Zoya Get Even
Color: two coats Nicole by OPI If the Blue Fits, two coats of Nicole by OPI Sweet Dreams
Top: one coat Poshe
Application: excellent (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

I love when Blogger thinks my pictures aren't fun enough and flips them sideways! Cool!!! (not). Anyway, I saved one of my favorite in the whole Nicole by OPI Selena Gomez collection for last! Nicole by OPI Sweet Dreams is a super cool and unique mix of teal, purple, and violet glitter in a clear base. The silver glitter is a largest, the teal is a medium size, and the violet glitter is small and really adds a lot to the mix. Look at the close-up below, doesn't this look like an indie glitter?

Sweet Dreams had the same great formula as Kissed At Midnight and Inner Sparkle. Just apply like a normal polish and go! This is two coats. I think you could wear all three of these glitters by themselves in 3-4 coats, I just like layering them! This combination made me remember how much I like If the Blue Fits too! I may actually wear this combo for New Year's Eve!

If you missed my two other posts about the Nicole by OPI Selena Gomez collection, you can check them out here and here. My favorites from the collection are Confetti Fun, Hit the Lights, Kissed At Midnight, and Sweet Dreams. Now that the spring collections are all coming out, it's interesting to see how Nicole by OPI decided to stray from the all pastel creme collections that other brands are doing, while still making this feel spring-y.

Nicole by OPI Selena Gomez lacquers have already been spotted for $7.99 each at retailers including select Target, Walmart, CVS, K-mart, Rite Aid, ULTA, Sears, Meijer, Fred Meyer, Kroger and H-E-B locations. In Canada, this line will be available for $10.99 each at Shoppers Drug Mart, Walmart Canada, Jean Coutu, Loblaw, and London Drug.


Products sent for review. For more information, please read my Disclosure Policy.

One More Christmas NOTD with OMG Nail Strips!

There are a TON of fun things about being a blogger and one of them is getting to try new brands and products. OMG Nail Strips is a new website that sells nail polish stickers. They contacted me to see if I would be interested in reviewing some of their polish stickers, and I really had a hard time picking just one design to try. OMG Nail Strips has a HUGE selection of really cool and unique designs, ranging from fantastic animal prints to patriotic and holiday-themed stickers. Aside from the excellent designs, OMG Nail Strips are only $4.29, with free shipping on ALL orders, less than half the price of most other nail stickers!

I selected my design a few weeks ago, so I was in a Christmas nail mood. I selected these red foil stickers with white Christmas trees. These are SO cute! Foil nail stickers are sometimes much harder to apply than regular polish stickers, but they always look extra beautiful when they're done. OMG Nail Strips gave me some application tips to make the process easier, and I have a few to add to this list also.

1. Clean and manicure nails and cuticles prior to applying nail strips
2. Peel nail strips from the flat side of the strip, the rounded side
will be placed just above your cuticles.
   (If you have shorter nails you may want to cut the nail strips to
length leaving about 3/4" hanging off the tip of your nail)
3. Place the round side of the nail strip at the base of your cuticle,
Applying pressure from the middle of the cuticle press around in one
direction and then the other.
4. Holding the nail strip at the cuticle base stretch the nail strip
over the tip of the nail while smoothing out any creases on the side
of the nail.
5. Using a cuticle pusher tuck the nail foil in along the cuticle base.
6. Hold your nail so it is facing up and with a thin nail file, filing
in a (downward only) direction remove the excess nail foil from the
tip and around the sides of your nail.
7. Now that your nail foil is applied use a hair dryer on high heat
and your finger to smooth out any remaining imperfections.
(for Nail Polish Stickers heat is not necessary)

I would also recommend warming the sticker up with the hair dryer BEFORE you apply it. I find it makes it lay more smoothly. I used nail clippers instead of scissors to clip the excess strip (before filing). I find scissors to be harder to control. The excess strip filed off pretty easily with these stickers, so that wasn't difficult at all. I did get a bump on my ring finger nail that I couldn't smooth out all the way, but other than that, they were pretty smooth. If you're noticing that the trees are too big to fit on my nails, I have to mention that there were two smaller sized strips. I messed up my application with those first two and had to toss them. The sizing would have been much better had I not messed up the first time! Also, other OMG Nail Strips have just overall patterns, so those of us with small nail beds might want to stick with those.

Overall, I like these strips a lot. Foil stickers are often very hard to use, and almost unwearable. I could actually apply these without too much trouble and I could (and did!) wear them for a few days. I think I'll be ordering some of OMG Nail Strips regular polish stickers to try. I would love to see how they compare to other more expensive brands. They certainly have more interesting designs than some pricey brands!

OMG Nail Strips are available online at omgnailstrips.com.

Product sent for review. For more information, please read my Disclosure Policy.

Merry Christmas and Happy HoloDaze!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Lynnderella Happy HoloDaze over OPI The Spy Who Loved Me, accent nail China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

Lynnderella Happy HoloDaze is available on her eBay Store.

OPI The Spy Who Loved Me sent for review. For more information, please read my Disclosure Policy.

Born Pretty Store Christmas Water Decals!

How's this for adorable Christmas nails?? I love these water decals from Born Pretty Store, my go-to place for nail art supplies, so much! This one sheet of decals has a TON of different cute holiday designs. For this mani, I picked Santa in his sleigh, a snowman with a glittery hat, the cutest penguin ever, and a green sparkly stocking.

OMG this penguin... so adorable. I love penguins! The base color for this look is two coats of OPI The Spy Who Loved Me, my current favorite shimmery red. These water decals are super easy to use. You just cut out the decal you want and remove the plastic sheet. Then, dip the decal in some water to detach it from the paper backing. Apply the decal to your nail and apply your top coat of choice! Water decals are my favorite way to get cute nail art. I never seem to have enough time for stamping and all that jazz, so these are perfect for me.

This one sheet of decals has so many cute designs, I had to take pictures of some of the others for you. There are some Disney characters on the right here, along with another snowman and an ice skating girl. "Merry Christmass" is also spelled wrong here, but hey, Born Pretty Store is in Hong Kong! There are other decals on the sheet where it is spelled correctly, so no worries.

You will DEFINITELY be seeing a full mani with the cats in the lower left corner below. They ARE SO FREAKING CUTE!

Overall, these water decals are both adorable and exceedingly easy to use. If you're looking for Christmas Nail Art for Dummies, here it is. I'm a little sad I couldn't get this posted in time for you to order these for Christmas, but I just received them the other day. Definitely order them for next year though! Plus, the black kitties are not all Christmas kitties, so they're good for the whole year.

These water decals and many others are available online at Born Pretty Store. Don't forget to use the code "ERJ61" for 10% off your order!

Product sent for review. For more information, please read my Disclosure Policy.

Lac Attack Holidays in Hogsmeade

Base: one coat Nicole by OPI Base Coat Plus
Color: two coats L'Oreal Silver Star, two coats Lac Attack Holidays in Hogsmeade
Top: one coat NYC Grand Central Station
Application: good (out of poor, average, good, excellent)

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my freak out over the Lac Attack Magical Musings collection. The Magical Musings collection is a collaboration between Anastasia of Lac Attack Nail Lacquer and Kirsten of Glitta Gloves. The collection was inspired by HARRY POTTER!!!! Being that I am the biggest HP nerd of all time, I bought the entire collection the minute it came out. Literally, it was release at 9 a.m., I had the whole thing in my cart at 9:01. Since it's so close to Christmas, I had to wear Lac Attack Holidays in Hogsmeade first! Hogsmeade, by the way, is the all-wizard village that the Hogwarts students visit on weekends. Holidays in Hogsmeade is an assortment of red, green and white hex glitters in various sizes in a clear base. I layered it over a silver foil to make all three colors pop.

This is two coats of Holidays in Hogsmeade over L'Oreal Silver Star (an LE from years ago). It was pretty easy to apply, I did some dabbing to get a lot of glitter on my nails. I started out with regular wiped coats, but I did the second coat by dabbing. All of the large glitter pieces came out of the bottle easily and I didn't have to do any fishing for them. All in all, a lovely glitter for the holidays, even if you don't like Harry Potter.

I am so glad Kirsten and Anastasia did a holiday polish in the MM collection. For me, Harry Potter and Christmas will always be connected. I got the first 3 HP books for Christmas years ago, and spent the rest of my school vacation memorizing them by heart reading them. The descriptions of Hogwarts at Christmas-time and the annual Christmas feast are also some of my favorite images from the books. I'm super happy to have a Harry Potter holiday polish in my collection, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

You know what else makes me feel warm and fuzzy? The fact the Zoya and Qtica sent me Godiva chocolates for Christmas! What sweethearts!!! Zoya must be an awesome company to work for, everyone there is so nice! Thanks Zoya!

Some of the Lac Attack Magical Musings collection (including Holidays in Hogsmeade) is available now on the Lac Attack Goodsie shop. Anastasia has said that the collection will be around for awhile, so if the polishes you want are sold out, she'll restock again soon I'm sure!