Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer collection + Welcome back post!

Hello my dear sweeties! It’s been WAY too long, right?! I took a loooong break from blogging and the nail polish world for, what, 3 months? Sheesh – so long! I went on a long vacation, moved down south, and started a new job where I can’t wear nail polish. So yeah, it was break time from the blog. I’m back though! I think I’ll be posting less frequently than 3 times a week, but I’m definitely going to continue blogging!

Aaaaanyways, one thing that got put off a bit longer than I meant was the sharing of this lovely new collection, Leave the Sun Behind Me by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. The always lovely Julie sent me her new polish collection for review, and it was released 8/24 (see? Bad blogger, I should have posted this awhile back!). It is still mostly available, so I don’t feel as terrible for sharing it late – you can still get your hands on these beauties!

This collection is based on the Wes Anderson movie, The Darjeeling Limited. I heart Wes Anderson and while this isn’t my favorite movie of his, it’s still great! And it’s a perfect movie to base a neon collection around – with all the vibrance of India as the inspiration (where the movie is set), you need an equally vibrant polish collection.

BEGL Leave the Sun Behind Me collection + extra

BEGL Leave the Sun Behind Me collection + extra

As a disclaimer, I just moved so my lighting setup is all wonky. I tried to edit the pics so the polish is as color accurate as possible. But I’ll let you know if the color is a bit off. Also, all polishes dried satin matte, so all swatches have top coat. Phew – enough jibber jabber, let’s get to the pics!

First up is Rubby. This is 3 coats with no white undies:

Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Rubby

Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Rubby

This neon pink is just plain stunning! It has a subtle blue-purple shimmer/ flash that comes out in the sun or whenever the indoor lighting hits it just so. The formula was perfect – no complaints!

BEGL Rubby

BEGL Rubby

Next up is Look at These @#$holes (amazing name, right?!). Swatched with 3 coats, no undies:

BEGL Look at These @#$holes

BEGL Look at These @#$holes

This polish is a fluorescent (FOR REAL fluorescent) red/coral pinkish orange creme with very subtle pink glass flecks. Look at These @#$holes is light sensitive, so make sure you keep it hidden away until you use it… like a ninja. Julie is so great with her customer service that she makes sure you know about the risk of the color change AND discounts the polish to boot (imagine that, a polish company who warns you thoroughly about any possible defects… so lovely… I’m looking at you Mentality ahem *cough* *cough*).

My lighting and camera could NOT pick up the accurate color at all. It’s more pinky red in real life than it looks in these pics. If you look at the bottle, that’s closer to how it looks but adding in much more of a NEON vibe. Plus the glass flecks didn’t show up so great in the pics either.

blue eyed girl lacquer look at these @#$holes swatch, begl leave the sun behind me collection review, neon manicure, nail polish

BEGL Look at These @#$holes… more color accurate

^ That’s a bit more color accurate ^

Macro of BEGL Look at These @#$holes

Macro of BEGL Look at These @#$holes

There! See there really are pink glass flecks!

Next up is Stop Involving Me! This one, again, is 3 coats without undies.

BEGL Stop Involving Me!

BEGL Stop Involving Me!

This polish is like a banana chartreuse neon yellow with gold glass flecks and some coppery shimmer. It is stunning! I could have really used a 4th coat to cover up the visible nail line better, but I’m lazy and 3 coats is usually my max. So I might end up using a white undie for this polish in the future.

Macro of BEGL Stop Involving Me!

Macro of BEGL Stop Involving Me!

^ That macro for some reason picked up more of the greenish tinge of the polish. It’s more banana yellow in real life. But look at those golden glass flecks!! So gorgeous! ^

Next one up is Thanks for Using Me. Same story – 3 coats, no undies.

BEGL Thanks for Using Me

BEGL Thanks for Using Me

This beauty is a fluorescent kelly green creme with golden blue-green microshimmer. The formula is perfection, and I just love this one on! In real life, it’s a bit less pastel and really more deeper neon kelly green.

BEGL Thanks for Using Me

BEGL Thanks for Using Me

Last from this collection is It’s In The Itinerary. Broken record here – 3 coats, no undies.

BEGL It's In The Itinerary

BEGL It’s In The Itinerary

This stunner is a vivid Barney purple jelly filled with multichrome flakies. The flakies shift from aqua to blue, green, pink, and even gold. Even though my pics show some visible nail line, it wasn’t apparent in real life. I just adore this one! I think it’s my favorite in the collection – the flakies give it so much depth!

BEGL It's In The Itinerary

BEGL It’s In The Itinerary

Love that one!!

Now for the BEGL portion of the Destination Polish collaboration with Monster Polish! Monster Polish & BEGL released the Wish Upon A Star Duo on 8/31, and it’s still available! BEGL As Dreamers Do is based on a night view of the Cinderella castle at Disney World.

BEGL As Dreamers Do

BEGL As Dreamers Do

This is 2 coats of the polish – it’s a black jelly base with pink and blue microshimmer and pink glass flakies. For a fairly simple polish, it really is surprisingly gorgeous! I love the depth that the shimmer gives.

 

BEGL As Dreamers Do

BEGL As Dreamers Do

Love!

OK… and last but definitely not least, I wanted to share a limited edition polish. This unfortunately is no longer available, so I’m sorry for inducing polish envy. But you have to see how beautiful this is and what a polish genius Julie is!

BEGL Limited Edition: 40/41

BEGL Limited Edition: 40/41

My lighting made this look all wonky, so I tried to color edit it. In real life, this polish is a deep vivid green-leaning teal crelly with bright blue glass flakies. My pic makes it look a bit more greyed / washed out than it really is. This was 2 coats with no undies, and I love it so much! I wore this to the beach and got so many compliments!

BEGL Limited Edition: 40/41

BEGL Limited Edition: 40/41

So much love!!

Phew! Alright, for my first post back after an extended break, this was a long one! Geez, I promise they’ll be back to the normal length soon. But wasn’t it worth it?! This collection is amazeballs – neon + shimmery flakie goodness? YES please!

These polishes are all still available (except the limited edition teal, sorry again about that!), so hurry up and grab them!!

Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer – SHOP HERE

OK, and because you know my obsession with David Tennant will NEVER be over:

David Tennant Oh I'm pretty boy, doctor who

Yes, yes you are 😉

Rosette manicure: May NCC #4

Hello sweeties! Today I’m sharing with you my last floral manicure for May’s Nail Challenge Collaborative theme.

Roses and stripes and dots and neon... oh myyyyy

Roses and stripes and dots and neon… oh myyyyy

Yeah, there’s a whole lot going on here! I got a little lazy and didn’t want to do the striped floral design on all my nails, so I just dotted up the rest of my nails.

Rose manicure

Rose manicure

I think it’s a bit too busy for my taste. And is it just me or does it remind anyone else of Easter eggs? Not really the look I was going for, but I really do love how the floral nails came out!

Rose manicure

Rose manicure

Oh and excuse all the pink on my ring finger’s cuticle. I got a bit messy with painting the flowers on, and that neon pink was a beyotch to remove!

Polishes used/ how I did this:

  • Index finger:
    • Base color: KBShimmer Rum Me the Right Way… This yellow is crazy awesome! Yellows don’t tend to flatter my skin tone, but this banana bright yellow that borders on neon looks good on me! The formula is pretty good – it’s not KBShimmer’s usual amazing creme formula, but it’s better than most pastels or neons. It took 3 coats to get a smooth opaque nail.
    • Dots: KBShimmer Sarong Place, Sarong Time… Another gorgeous polish from KBShimmer’s Summer 2015 collection. I love this fuchsia! It worked perfectly for dotting and the flowers, and I can’t wait to wear it as a full mani!
  • Middle & ring finger:
    • Base color: KBShimmer Rum Me the Right Way
    • I put striping tape down, then painted ellagee Snoozing in the Hammock over… I LOVE this  polish! Snoozing in the Hammock is a gorgeous light periwinkle, and it’s beautiful.
    • Roses:
      • Pink roses: Virago Varnish Tsunami Mommy with accents of Virago Varnish Bikini Boardwalk… These neons are both from the most recent collection by VV. I saw reviews on this collection on YouTube and promptly bought all of the polishes! Neons continue to be a weakness of mine. Tsunami Mommy is a beautiful hot pink, almost magenta leaning. And Bikini Boardwalk is a gorgeous neon baby pink.
      • Purple roses: KBShimmer Sarong Place, Sarong Time with accents of Polish my Life Muscat Martini… Muscat Martini is my favorite pastel almost white purple. LOVE it!
    • Leaves: Zoya Hunter… A beautiful hunter green creme.
  • Pinky:
    • Base color: KBShimmer Rum Me the Right Way
    • Dots: Virago Varnish Tsunami Mommy

Check out more floral manis from the talented ladies of the NCC:

And now for your daily David Tennant:

David Tennant Brilliant doctor who

Holo Humpday: Chaos & Crocodiles City In The Clouds

Hello sweeties! Happy Wednesday! Today I’m sharing with you another gorgeous holo from Chaos & Crocodiles new Once Upon a Unicorn collection. This stunner is City In The Clouds, and it’s fantastic!

christopher eccleston fantastic doctor who

You can’t forget your first Doctor! And Nine really was absolutely fantastic 🙂 But so is this polish, so let’s get to that!

Chaos & Crocodiles City in The Clouds

Chaos & Crocodiles City in The Clouds

Right? I mean, wow! It’s such a gorgeous vibrant blue AND it’s holo! Be still my holo-loving heart!

Chaos & Crocodiles City in The Clouds

Chaos & Crocodiles City in The Clouds

This shade of blue is definitely right up my alley. It’s not too dark, not too light, and it’s like this cornflower blue but better 🙂

Chaos & Crocodiles City in The Clouds

Chaos & Crocodiles City in The Clouds

Oh and please excuse that little cut on my middle finger. I’ve been packing for my upcoming move, so my hands are not immune to injury. I’m honestly surprised my nails don’t look worse than they do!

And here’s the closeup!

Chaos & Crocodiles City in The Clouds

Chaos & Crocodiles City in The Clouds

Just look at that gorgeous holo! It’s like a perfect mix of scattered and linear.

What do you think? Are you as smitten with blue polishes as I am? I need all the blues… ever in existence!

And now your daily David Tennant:

David Tennant licking lips doctor who

You’re welcome.

Summer Daisies: May NCC #3

Hello sweeties! I feel like each recent post has started with an apology for not blogging as frequently. Soooo, again I’m sorry for the infrequent posting! It will unfortunately continue for awhile. I have a very very busy June coming up – I’m going on a 2 week vacation and we’re moving out of state. So yeah, pretty busy! But I’ll try to post at least a little bit!

Today I’m showing you my third floral look for May’s Nail Challenge Collaborative. I love daisies, and they’re super appropriate for Spring & Summer. So time to put them on my nails!

Neon daisy manicure

Neon daisy manicure

I love this mani! It just makes me happy to look at! I was afraid that my daisies would come out looking like little fried eggs, but my husband assured me they looked like daisies. And I don’t think he was placating me either 😉

Neon daisy manicure

Neon daisy manicure

I am REALLY feeling neons recently. I mean, I always love a good neon (they’re pretty much always on my toes), but there are SO many good neons coming out in collections now. So my neon love has resurfaced with a vengeance!

Neon daisy manicure

Neon daisy manicure

Polishes used/ how I did this:

  • Base color: KBShimmer Lei It Again… This is from KBShimmer’s new Summer collection. It’s a gorgeous vibrant Barbie pink. If baby pink could be charged with neon energy, this would be it! The formula is great too! I did 3 coats on most nails, but I was able to get away with 2 coats on a few where I used thicker coats.
  • Daisy leaves: Rica Whiteout… As always, this is my go to white nail polish for nail art!
  • Center of daisies: KBShimmer Rum Me The Right Way… Another gorgeous polish from KBShimmer’s Summer 2015 collection. This is a very vibrant banana yellow. It’s not quite neon, but almost! I haven’t used it for a full manicure yet, so I can’t speak to the formula yet. But it was perfect for dotting.

What do you think? Are you feeling all the neons that are coming out? Do you like daisy manis?

Check out more floral manis by the talented NCC ladies:

And now it’s time for your daily David Tennant:

David Tennant sexy doctor who

God that man brings so much sexy! Yum yum yum!

Holo Humpday: I Love Nail Polish Happily Ever After

Hello sweeties! I’m so excited to show you today’s holographic nail polish! I Love Nail Polish‘s recent Spring collection was not one of my favorites (although making all their flakies holo? Yes please!), but there were definitely some gems. One such gem is this beauty I’m sharing with you today – Happily Ever After.

George RR Martin They all died the end

Not George RR Martin’s version of Happily Ever After… ILNP’s is much less gruesome! 😉

I Love Nail Polish Happily Ever After

I Love Nail Polish Happily Ever After

Isn’t that stunning? Happily Ever After is a gorgeous silvery lilac linear holo packed with small silver chrome flakies. Initially I wasn’t that excited about this one – I was worried that the chrome flakes would make this look too frosty or like a messy chrome. I’m so happy that I was wrong!

I Love Nail Polish Happily Ever After

I Love Nail Polish Happily Ever After

This looks so great in every lighting ever! The holo comes out strongly in the sun, and the flakies really shine in shade and low light. It’s just a win-win all around 🙂

I Love Nail Polish Happily Ever After

I Love Nail Polish Happily Ever After

And you knew it was coming:

Closeup of I Love Nail Polish Happily Ever After

Closeup of I Love Nail Polish Happily Ever After

I’m so happy I picked this one up. It’s totally worth it!

What do you think? Do you like holos with something extra like flakies or are you a purist? Did you pick up anything from this collection?

And now I leave you with your daily David Tennant:

David Tennant smile

Mmmm just look at that smile!

Gladiola manicure: May NCC #2

Hello my sweeties!! Sorry for the break in blogging last week. I had eye corrective surgery on Friday, and it was a much longer recovery than I expected. So I couldn’t stare at a computer screen to write any blog posts! But I can see now, woo hoo!

And here's your daily David Tennant a little early :)

And here’s your daily David Tennant a little early 🙂

So to make it up to you, I have a gorgeous floral manicure for you today! I decided I wanted to paint gladiolas on my nails. Why gladiolas you ask? Because they remind me of Drop Dead Fred! *Please tell me someone remembers Drop Dead Fred!*

Drop Dead Fred!

Drop Dead Fred!

So yeah, gladiolas it is!

Gladiola Manicure

Gladiola Manicure

I loved doing this manicure – simple but pretty!

Gladiola Manicure

Gladiola Manicure

I love purple and blue flowers! I think this came out pretty great if I do say so myself!

Gladiola Manicure

Gladiola Manicure

Polishes used/ how I did this:

  • Base color: Zoya Carey… This is my favorite light grey creme polish. It has a perfect formula!
  • Vines: Zoya Hunter… This is a great dark hunter green creme.
  • Leaves on vines: Essie Vested Interest… This is an underutilized polish of mine, but I love it! It’s a great medium sage green with grey tones.
  • Flower buds:
    • Zoya Charisma… This is probably one of my most used polishes. I love this deep fuchsia polish!
    • Essie Play Date… A beautiful medium lilac purple.
    • Essie Strut Your Stuff… Such a beautiful bright blue!

So what do you think? What’s your favorite flower to paint?

Check out more floral manicure from the NCC ladies:

Huge Giveaway!!

Hello my sweeties!! I’m so excited about this post, and you should be as well! Kirby at The Mercurial Magpie has organized an amaaaaaazing giveaway through a Facebook group I’m in. And without further ado, the ladies of The Nail Polish Blogger Connection present you with the chance to win one of two crazy amazing prizes!!

Giveaway pic

Prizes:

-$250 grand prize that can be sent either as an gift certificate to your favorite e-tailer or directly through paypal.

-$60 runner up prize that can be sent either as an gift certificate to your favorite e-tailer or directly through paypal.

Sponsors:

The Mercurial Magpie

Manna’s Manis

Manicured And Marvelous

Tales Of Coffee, Lacquer and Beauty

PolishandPaws

BruisedUpDollieNails

Lacquer Or Leave Her!

The Polished Hippy

Delight In Nails

The Procrastinating Polishr

Doctor Crafty

Curb Appeal Nails

Les Essais Beaute De Schette

Newsie Nail Novice

Lauriestrode’s Fun With Nails

Moni’s Mani

Lacquered Geek

Rules & Info:
-The giveaway is open internationally.
-The giveaway will run from today until midnight on Monday, May 18th. The winner will have only 48 hours to respond to my email claiming the prize, after that a new winner will be selected.
-You must be 18 or older to enter.
-No giveaway-only, empty or spam accounts, those entries will be disqualified. All winning entries will be verified.
No following and unfollowing once the giveaway ends. Unfollowers will be banned from future giveaways.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

^^ Go on over to Kirby’s site to enter!! ^^

Teal Dotted Skittlette

Hello my sweeties!! It’s Friday! I’m SO excited because today I’m getting LASIK done! I have awful vision – I’ve worn glasses since 3rd grade, and I’ve wanted to have this done for years. And I’m finally biting the bullet and doing it!

This won't be me anymore! PS- That isn't actually me above lol

This won’t be me anymore! PS- That isn’t actually me here lol

So today I just have a simple but really pretty skittlette to celebrate my new look on life (pun intended 😉 )

Teal & grey dotted skittlette

Teal & grey dotted skittlette

I knew I wanted to wear my favorite color, and I just built this mani from there. How can you go wrong with adding some dots and some sparkle?

Teal & grey dotted skittlette

Teal & grey dotted skittlette

I really like how this came out! It’s simple but still fun and cheerful!

Teal & grey dotted skittlette

Teal & grey dotted skittlette

Polishes used:

  • Index finger: Floss Gloss Wet… This gorgeous polish is a bright minty teal. I love this color so much! The formula isn’t the best ever. It’s really streaky on the first coat and requires complete dryness in between coats. But it’s not the worst formula ever either! It took 2-3 coats for opacity.
  • Middle finger:
    • Base color: Floss Gloss Wet
    • Dot: Zoya Carey… This is my favorite light pure grey polish!
  • Ring finger:
    • Base color: KBShimmer Eyes White Open… This is really neck & neck with Rica Whiteout for my favorite white polish. The formula is perfect, and it’s fully opaque without streaks in 2 coats!
    • Dots: Floss Gloss Wet & Zoya Carey
  • Pinky (& thumb):
    • Base: KBShimmer Eyes White Open
    • Glitter: Orly Sparkling Garbage… This is an amazingly gorgeous scattered holo polish. Unfortunately it’s super sheer! I really wish that it was more opaque! It took like 5 coats to look opaque over white. I also don’t enjoy it over white – I wish I had layered it over a similar color so it would blend better. Ugh, this polish has so much potential!

What do you think? Have you worn Orly’s Sparkling Garbage before? If so, do you know of a good undie for it? Please share if you do!!

And now for your daily David Tennant (and Donna too!):

Doctor Who donna and doctor, david tennant, catherine tate

Holo Humpday: F.U.N. Lacquer 24 Karat Diamond (H)

Hello sweeties! Get ready for some picture-heavy nail porn! Today I’m sharing with you this crazy awesome new (to me) glitter bomb by F.U.N. Lacquer. I had seen pics on the Interwebs of 24 Karat Diamond before and always was blown away by how sparkly and holo it was. I finally decided to pick it up when I saw it was restocked on Live.Love.Polish, and I’m so glad I did!

F.U.N. Lacquer 24 Karat Diamond (H)

F.U.N. Lacquer 24 Karat Diamond (H)

Crazy pretty right? F.U.N. Lacquer’s 24 Karat Diamond (H) is a beautiful combination of silver holographic microglitter and tiny holographic particles!

F.U.N. Lacquer 24 Karat Diamond (H)

F.U.N. Lacquer 24 Karat Diamond (H)

The formula is a little bit thick, but it’s definitely still manageable. I only needed 2 coats for this full opacity manicure! So I guess it’s good that it’s a bit thick!

F.U.N. Lacquer 24 Karat Diamond (H)

F.U.N. Lacquer 24 Karat Diamond (H)

And here’s a slightly blurry picture to show of how crazy sparkly it is:

F.U.N. Lacquer 24 Karat Diamond (H)

F.U.N. Lacquer 24 Karat Diamond (H)

It’s so beautiful in the sunshine, but it doesn’t lose any beauty indoors. I got SO many compliments on this polish! And I could barely stop looking at my nails while I was wearing it!

A closeup:

F.U.N. Lacquer 24 Karat Diamond (H)

F.U.N. Lacquer 24 Karat Diamond (H)

So this polish comes in a non-holographic version, which looks just as sparkly. But I’m loving the addition of the small holo particles – it adds a little something extra! And F.U.N. Lacquer has come out with multiple different colors in this same holo microglitter finish. I picked up a few others too, and I can’t wait to wear them!

As a mini warning, this polish acts more like a glitter than a holo in terms of removal. So I’d recommend using a peel-off basecoat if you have! I use Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter A Peel, but I know there are many others available in addition to any DIY glue base.

What do you think? Do you have any of these beauties? What’s your favorite peelable base coat?

And now for your daily David Tennant:

Doctor Who, David Tennant sticking tongue out

Purple floral manicure: May NCC #1

Hello sweeties!

Moriarty did you miss me, sherlock

I decided to take a quick break from blogging, so there was no post on Friday. I needed some rest after working on those monster presentations! They went well, and now I’m back with some manis for all y’all!

May brings another Nail Challenge Collaborative theme, and this month we’re doing FLOWERS! I love floral manis so much, and it’s such a perfect theme for spring! For my first look, I’m doing a mani inspired by Marisa of Hey Darling Polish (see her post here). Marisa always does the best floral manis, and this one is one of my favorites of hers!

Spring floral manicure

Spring floral manicure

As you can see, I used a different base color. I recently picked up this almost white pistachio color, and I’ve been dying to use it. So I did! I kept the flowers as close to my inspiration as possible though!

Spring floral manicure

Spring floral manicure

So the white flowers barely show up against the really light pistachio background, but I still like the overall look! I wish I would have used something other than white, or maybe a darker green/ teal background.

Spring floral manicure

Spring floral manicure

Polishes used:

  • Base color: Floss Gloss Glowstar… This gorgeous polish is a very light pastel pistachio green, verging on a green-tinged white. It’s a bit of a tricky formula – streaky on the 1st coat and requiring 3 smooth coats. But the beauty is worth it! And it makes me look more tan than I am, and I’m always a fan of that!
  • Flowers:
    • Light purple: Essie Play Date… This is a great light purple polish. And it has one of the better formulas for Essie! It’s one of my favorite Essies ever!
    • Dark purple: OPI Vant to Bite My Neck?… A gorgeous dark purple creme with a perfect formula.
    • White: Zoya Purity… A nice white creme – not my favorite, but still a nice one.
    • Yellow: Sally Hansen Lightening… This is a great opaque pure yellow. It has a great formula, and it is my favorite yellow to use for stamping!

What do you think?

Check out more floral manis from the NCC ladies:

And here’s your daily David Tennant:

David Tennant Hello, doctor who

Hellooooo gorgeous 😉