Smitten Polish Seasonal Lattes

*Purchased by me*

As soon as fall officially started, I was allll about the pumpkin coffee. I haven't had a Starbucks PSL yet this fall, but I have sampled Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Creme Brulee latte and Doughnut Inn Pumpkin Spice coffee. I am a huge coffee drinker and do love when pumpkin coffee drinks start showing up in the fall, so naturally, I love the name of this gorgeous polish- Smitten Polish Seasonal Lattes. Seasonal Lattes is a warm coffee brown linear holo. It is more of a reddish brown, although in low lights, it looks more like a very dark chocolate brown. The holo effect is CRAZY with this polish. My camera was having a heart attack trying to process all the rainbows!

 This is three coats of Smitten Polish Seasonal Lattes. Two was opaque in person, I really did the third just for my camera. When I wear it as a full mani, I'll stick with two coats. I have had nothing but great experiences with Smitten holos, and Seasonal Lattes is no different. Application is smooth and easy, no patchiness or dragging like you get with some holos. These swatches are with no base or top coat.

*Purchased by me*

I know Noelie is waiting to receive some more bottles before she restocks the gorgeous fall collection, but check the Smitten Polish Facebook page for restock info. Seasonal Lattes is available at the Smitten Big Cartel store.

EOS Lip Balm and Nicole by OPI Partner for Breast Cancer Awareness!

Beauty with a Cause.

EOS Lip Balm & Nicole by OPI Nail Lacquer Partner Together to Support Young Women Fighting Breast Cancer

eos Products (EOS) and Nicole by OPI have come together to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer support with a limited edition pack.  This pack includes an EOS all-natural, USDA-certified organic Strawberry Sorbet Smooth Sphere Lip Balm and salon quality Nicole by OPI Nail Lacquer in a soft, sweet pink shade Feeling Berry Pink Today. 

“Both the EOS Smooth Sphere Lip Balm and Nicole by OPI Nail Lacquer are “must-have” products for college students and Millennial consumers alike and the two brands felt that there was a natural fit in making a collection together to benefit such an important cause,”  explains Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, Nicole by OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director.  “These products make a delightfully pink statement for a great cause!”

This eye-catching duo, which is in the signature pink color, will benefit young women fighting breast cancer as 5% of proceeds from the sale of this item will be donated to Young Survival Coalition to support and educate young women with breast cancer.

The pack will be available starting September 2014 at ULTA stores and Ulta.com for $9.99 suggested retail.  

About EOS

EOS is a leading skincare brand based in New York. Known for its unique packaging, elegant design and superior products, EOS is #1 lip balm brand in the United States. EOS’ products include lip balm, hand lotion and shaving cream. Its bestselling Smooth Sphere Lip Balm (“The lip balm that makes you smile”) blends iconic design, organic ingredients and delicious, natural flavors for moisturized lips. EOS’ purse-friendly, fast-absorbing natural Hand Lotions give hands the moisture they need all day long. EOS Shave Cream is so moisturizing, you can shave wet or dry, leaving your skin softer and smoother long after. For more information visit www.evolutionofsmooth.com.

About Nicole by OPI

Nicole by OPI offers a salon-quality range of bold, fashion-forward nail lacquers. The brand’s heritage is based on OPI’s well-established foundation of excellence in both color and technology, providing premium products to a broad range of consumers looking for trendsetting nail lacquers.  Known for its celebrity collaborations and partnerships, the brand invites consumers to be creative and confident by expressing themselves through color. Currently, Nicole by OPI range boasts over 120 shades, including retailer-exclusive lacquers, and serves as the color authority for the younger demographic.  For more information visit www.nicolebyopi.com.

About Young Survival Coalition

Established in 1998, Young Survival Coalition (YSC) is the premier global organization dedicated to young women diagnosed with breast cancer. YSC offers free resources, connections and educational materials so women feel supported, empowered and hopeful. Through action, advocacy and awareness, YSC seeks to educate and influence the medical, research and legislative communities to address the disease in young women and ensure no young woman faces breast cancer alone. For more information visit www.youngsurvival.org. 

Win OPI Peanuts Halloween or Pink of Hearts and New DS Shades!

It's time for a fall giveaway!!! For this giveaway, there will be TWO lucky winners! One winner will receive the OPI Peanuts Halloween collection (four lacquers) and the other winner will receive the OPI Pink of Hearts collection, OPI DS Tourmaline and OPI DS Titanium (four lacquers and a glittery pink nail file). This giveaway is open only to readers with a US shipping address (my apologies to my international readers). The giveaway will end at midnight EST on October 11, 2014 and the first winner to email me their shipping address after winners are announced will receive their choice of the two prizes. Please use the Rafflecopter form below to enter. Good luck and happy fall!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Zoya Fall 2014 Ultra PixieDust Swatches!

 *Sent for review*

I am really excited about today's post- the fall Zoya Ultra PixieDust polishes! I have liked the past Ultra PixieDusts for their extra sparkly large hex glitter, but for me the pastel-ish colors have not really been calling my name. However, these three are just gorgeous jewel colors and I love them! Zoya Oswin is a red textured matte base with large holo hex glitters. Oswin is a cool toned red with a nicely sparkly finish. One thing I want to mention about all three of these new Ultra PixieDusts is that I found them to be less rough than the Magical PixieDusts. They feel more like a matte jelly base with glitter, rather than so much texture. I actually happened to be wearing Zoya Bar the week before these arrived and felt that these new ones were quite a lot smoother. These aren't likely to be snagging on your clothes or anything, so if you thought the Magical PixieDusts were too rough, still give these a chance.

Oswin was really easy for me to apply. It was nicely pigmented- this is two coats. When I use textures, I typically do not use a base coat (unless I think the polish will stain). I think some people were having trouble with these drying when they were applied over a base coat, but without base coat, they dry quickly. For me, part of the appeal of textures is that I don't need to use base or top coat. Nail pajamas!

Below is Zoya Oswin with one coat of Gelous. This felt pretty smooth to the touch. If you wanted a 100% glassy finish, you might want to use another layer of top coat. I personally liked Oswin better matte. The hex glitters kind of fade away with top coat.

Zoya Arianna is a raspberry red matte texture with large holo hex glitter. Arianna definitely has a pinkish/purple cast on me. Zoya describes this polish as "blue-toned red wine" and classifies it in the "red" color family, but I probably would place it more in the purple category. Or at least red-plum. It's a lovely color for fall! I do love a good red-plum!

This is three coats of Arianna. It had good coverage in two coats, but I felt like I could see a hair of VNL and the color just popped more with the third coat. You may be fine with just two coats though.

Below you can see Arianna with one layer of Gelous. Now this one I LOVE with top coat! I'm not sure why I like Oswin better matte and Arianna better shiny, but I do! It looks so juicy and kind of mysteriously plummy at the same time. Gorgeous! The top coat really gives Arianna great dimension and depth.

 OMGEEEEEEEEEEE.... This one has me drooling all over the place!!! Zoya Noir is freaking beautiful. Noir is a vampy purple base with red small glitter and large red hex glitter. The contrast between the plummy base and the red glitter is what makes this so fabulous. Noir just jumped into the list of my top 5 favorite textures EVER and I think it is by far the best and most unique of Zoya's Magical/Ultra PixieDusts.

Happily, Noir applied really well too. This is two coats and there was plenty of the pretty red glitter. If you have longer nails, I could see you needing a third coat to cover up any VNL, since the base is kind of a matte jelly. My nails are pretty short right now, so two coats was perfect. As was the case with the other two Ultra PixieDusts, Noir was easy to apply. Zoya recommends not using a base coat with these and allowing each coat to dry before applying another. 

Here is Noir with one coat of Gelous. I like it with top coat, but I think I prefer it without. The top coat darkens the plum base and lessens the contrast between the base and the glitter. I really like how the red glitter pops against the vampy purple. This was smooth to the touch with one layer of top coat.

Now, let me apologize for this picture below, but I wanted to show you Zoya Oswin (left) vs. Zoya Chyna (right). It was about to rain when I was finishing up these swatches, so I just slapped them on two nails on my right hand and my right middle nail cuticle and I were having an argument that day. You can see that Oswin and Chyna are similar in color, Oswin is more cool-toned and blue-based (making it look pinker). The glitter is also different, Chyna ends up looking a bit more sparkly, even though Oswin has the larger glitter. You probably don't need both of these, so it just depends on if you want a pinker red or a more true red and how much sparkle you like. I like the finish of Oswin myself, it has a kind of frosted glass effect to it.

*Sent for review*

These three Ultra PixieDusts are definitely my favorite of the Zoya textures with larger hex glitter polishes. Noir might be my favorite Zoya texture period (including the regular PixieDusts!). If you like sparkle and texture polish, you definitely need at least one of these for sure. These aren't too rough feeling and they look gorgeous with top coat, so even if you aren't a texture fan, you might see one or two you like! The Zoya Fall Ultra PixieDusts are available now on zoya.com.

Zoya Ignite and Entice Tone on Tone Dot Mani!

 *Sent for review*

My Zoya Ignite and Entice bottles are sitting on my dresser right next to each other right now (still need to go get Helmer #3) and I love the way they look all together. I decided to try a kind of tone on tone dot mani with Zoya Claire and Teigen. I applied two coats of Claire and used a Born Pretty Store dotting tool to apply Teigen. The effect is subtle, but fun.

I think this looks a bit better in person, but I still like it in the pictures. The Ignite and Entice polishes are fun to play around with. I can see this idea working well with Remy and Ryan, or for a less subtle look, Claire and Autumn.

*Sent for review*

I'm loving my Entice and Ignite polishes. I think they'll become some of my most worn polishes this fall! Zoya Entice and Ignite collections are available at zoya.com.

Lynnderella ChelSea of Love

 *Sent for review*

Happy first official day of fall! Although fall doesn't really arrive until 10:29 pm tonight, I did a fall mani and pedi yesterday to kick off the start of my favorite season. I am in LOVE with my current mani, Lynnderella ChelSea of Love over Zoya Remy. Hubba, hubba, ChelSea of Love is STUNNING. Lynnderella describes it as a "holographic teal microglitter with small tonal accents in a teal base". It is more teal than it looks here because I used a more blue-leaning base. I need to find a good blackened teal in my stash to try it with next time. But no matter what base you use (or if you wear this on it's own), ChelSea of Love is a really gorgeous holo glitter paradise. The teal microglitter is super sparkly and I love the addition of the larger teal hexes and squares.

I took the blurry picture below to show you the holo-ness. So pretty and sparkly!

This is just one coat of ChelSea over one coat of Zoya Remy. Such a nice easy mani, both are very pigmented and beautiful to apply. ChelSea is dense enough to wear alone in just two coats. I'm going to do another post where I show you just ChelSea with no base, but once I put this combination on my nails, there was NO way I was removing it. I immediately made it my first fall mani of the season.

*Sent for review*

Happily, Lynnderella ChelSea of Love is from the new fall core collection, Fall in Love with New York. That means it is readily available and easy to get for a buy it now price of $21 with free shipping. Lynnderella ChelSea of Love is available now at lynnderella.com and the Lynnderella StorEnvy. For more information about Lynnderella collections, check out Lynn's blog.

OPI Peanuts Halloween 2014 Swatches!

*Sent for review*

I'm starting to get in the Halloween mood. I ordered some new decorations, including a skeleton cat and a large hanging Pirate ghost, and I'm rocking these OPI Peanuts polishes for Halloween 2014. "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" is a classic Halloween movie and I still try to watch it once every year before Halloween, so I was excited to hear about this collection. With two cremes and two glitter toppers, you can create a wide variety of looks with these lacquers. One of the cremes is OPI Good Grief!, a marigold yellow creme. Good Grief! was inspired by the yellow of Charlie Brown's t-shirt and it looks like a perfect match for it. It also reminds me of the yellow mums I have out on the patio right now! 

Good Grief! applied fairly well for a yellow. The first coat was a bit streaky, but it definitely evened out by the second coat. This is two coats and the pigmentation was really great. Some yellows really require a third coat, but not this one. As long as you let the first coat dry before applying the second, you should be able to get a streak-free finish in two coats. Just as a note- this polish has no shimmer. I know in the above shot it looks a little shimmery, but it must be residue from my top coat.

OPI To Be or Not To Beagle is Snoopy's glitter polish, with an assortment of colored matte hex glitter and tiny black glitters. This dries to kind of a matte/satin finish and I like that a lot. If you prefer shiny, you can always put a layer of top coat over it. These glitters lay nice and flat and don't feel rough.

This is one coat of To Be or Not To Beagle over Good Grief!. To Be or Not To Beagle applied really well. The ratio of glitter to base polish was perfect, not gloopy at all. I love this combination. It's graphic-looking and bold. Love it!

OPI Who Are You Calling Bossy?!? is a glossy black creme inspired by Lucy's black hair. I actually needed a new black creme, so I'm happy this is part of the collection. I use a lot of black polish around Halloween!

I used two coats for these pictures. I think this could be a one-coater if you were topping it with glitter or nail art of some kind. It was nearly opaque and smooth in one coat, but I did feel like I wanted the second coat to make it more even and dark. The formula was really great though, perfect consistency. I HATE runny black polishes, there's nothing worse than trying to clean up black polish out of your cuticles. Grosssss! I did not do any clean up in these pictures. If I were actually going to leave this on, I would have fixed the shape of the ring nail there a bit, but I thought I'd show you how well it performed with no clean up.

This collection didn't come with an orange creme, but I always love glitter over orange for Halloween, so I thought I'd swatch OPI Where's My Blanket??? over OPI A Roll in The Hague. Where's My Blanket??? is a mix of yellow, peachy orange and black hex glitters with small black glitters in a clear base. This looks perfect for Halloween over orange! Like To Be or Not To Beagle, this was easy to apply and had a good consistency. The glitter lay flat and feel smooth with a layer of top coat.

For these swatches, I did one layer of To Be or Not To Beagle and one layer of Where's My Blanket??? over Who Are You Calling Bossy?!?. I wanted to see these mixed together just for fun and I like them together!

 *Sent for review*

Overall, I love the inspiration for this collection and I can't wait to watch "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" this year. I wish the collection included an orange creme called "The Great Pumpkin", but it probably wasn't possible for them to license that name. I do own enough orange cremes anyway haha! These four shades are also available in a mini pack ($13.95, $17.50 CAN) that comes with ten nail decals with designs ranging from popular Peanuts phrases like “Good Grief!” and “Pow!” to sketches of Snoopy and the signature squiggle of Charlie Brown’s shirt. The OPI Peanuts Collection is available now at professional salons.

Barielle Myrza's Meadow

*Sent for review*

Barielle Myrza's Meadow is one of those really popular polishes that I've wanted to try for ages, but just never got around to it until now. I'm not sure why I didn't get this lovely polish sooner, it's very unique and pretty. Myrza's Meadow is an avocado green with teeny iridescent sparkles. These sparkles look gold, blue, silver and tons of other colors depending on the light and how you move your hands. It's a really pretty effect, but it's not too crazy or blinged out. It's more of a soft sparkle. I thought this would be a good transition shade for me to wear to ease myself into fall. It's not a neon or a bright, just a nice medium green shade that seems perfect for all seasons.

This is three coats of Myrza's Meadow. The base is a bit on the sheer side, probably to let the sparkles show through. The first coat seemed very sheer, but it was buildable to full opacity in three coats. The formula was a nice consistency and was easy to apply. It was a little hard to capture the exact green shade of this polish for some reason, possibly because the glitter reflects back at the camera in the sunlight. The photo below looks a bit too minty and pale.

*Sent for review*

I definitely see why this is such a popular shade. It's totally unique in my collection and if you like interesting green polish, Barielle Myrza's Meadow is a must have! Myrza's Meadow and other Barielle polishes are available at barielle.com.

One Last Blast of Neon with Lynnderella Fairy Kitty

*Purchased by me*

OK OK after this, I promise it'll be all fall manis on here! I just always hate to see summer go. The end of summer means it starts to get dark and cold and stays that way for what seems like forever here in CT. I needed one more neon mani to prolong the feeling of summer, so I made it a good one. This is Lynnderella Fairy Kitty over China Glaze Highlight of My Summer. Highlight of My Summer is one of my favorite neons, because it's a neon mint! And I knew I needed Lynnderella Fairy Kitty just for the name, but it's also a gorgeous polish. It has a mix of soft lavender, mint, blue, white, a few black glitters and some silver holo star glitters in a clear base with tons of tiny lavender and green sparkles.

 This is just one coat of Fairy Kitty over three coats of Highlight of My Summer. Fairy Kitty was easy to apply and has plentiful glitter. When I use polishes with star glitter, I usually have to press the corners of some of the stars into the polish when it's damp, especially if I end up with a star on the curving area of my nail. But I love star glitter, so it's worth it!

*Purchased by me*

So I guess this is see you later summer and summer manis! I better start building my igloo for the winter.

China Glaze Highlight of My Summer is still around on some polish sites, like 8ty8beauty.com. Lynnderella Fairy Kitty is a LE Lynnderella, but I believe there are still some bottles of it left. It will be available again at lynnderella.com or possibly on the Lynnderella Storenvy.

Lynnderella Williams-Burgundy Swatches- New Fall Microglitter!

 *Sent for review*

I'd been trying to ease myself away from the summer neons and I admit, there was some reluctance. But when Lynnderella Williams-Burgundy showed up at my door, the reluctance went away and I had to try it out immediately. Williams-Burgundy is a stunning vampy burgundy microglitter with assorted other larger glitters in several different colors and sizes. Williams-Burgundy is from Lynnderella's new Fall in Love with New York collection and it is a core polish, so it will be readily available and easy to get for quite awhile (yay!). 

This first swatches show one coat of Williams-Burgundy over two coats of OPI William Tell Me About OPI (see what I did there with the two Williams? Haha!). I loooooove this combo, I think it really makes the holo glitter pop. Williams-Burgundy was a dream to apply and can also be worn alone (as you will see in a moment).

 The three pictures below are three coats of Williams-Burgundy alone with no base color. It was pretty opaque in two coats, but my camera picks apart microglitters, so I did a third. It was very easy to build to opacity, the glitter is quite plentiful. This is just one coat of top coat (Essie Good to Go) on top and it felt smooth to the touch.

Sometimes I feel like microglitters fall flat when I wear them alone with no base polish, but not Lynnderella Williams-Burgundy. I think the pops of color from the larger glitters look really gorgeous and the burgundy holo glitter seems to be extra holo!

*Sent for review*

If you haven't seen the rest of the excellent Lynnderella Fall in Love with New York collection, here's a picture from Lynnderella's blog. I think it's a perfect fall collection and I am really looking forward to trying the rest. I really love William-Burgundy, so if the others are equally awesome, I'll be thrilled!

Lynnderella Williams-Burgundy and the rest of the Fall in Love with New York collection is available now at lynnderella.com and the Lynnderella Storenvy.