I Heart Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, so I got a head start on design ideas last night in my premier Instagram live video! It was fun, and with the help of a few lovely viewers, I freestyled all 5 fingers with a heart-theme. (Thank you in particular to @terranceburger and @zeeohee, who helped me come up with the thumb design and the name for it.) To make it a little more fun, I invited viewers to join me for a beer. I enjoyed a Liquid Paradise IPA from a Colorado brewery, New Belgium. I also played music from the Spotify "Creamy" playlist for the first half, but due to Copyright issues, I was asked to turn it off if I wanted to continue live streaming.

The full live feed (broken up into two design videos and one "apologies-to-Instagram-for-playing-music" video) will only be available until around 8:00 MST tonight), but for those of you without Instagram, here's the final look!

I used only 3 colors for the look, including Baylor (nail & bone), Love is in My Cards, and My Vampire is Buff (both from OPI). 

I'd love to do a live video again sometime. Any ideas or requests you'd like to see? 

LVX Fall 2014 Collection - Swatches and Valentine's Day Nail Art

Still yearning for some grey polishes, even after Tuesday's Fifty Shades tribute? Then check out today's post for the 2014 Fall collection from LVX, featuring a few more greys, pinks, and more, inspired by Fall 2014's runway looks. As you're well aware, LVX polish draws inspiration for all of their colors from runway looks and trends. I wonder what they're finding at this year's NYFW!

For swatches of the whole LVX Fall 2014 collection, keep scrolling. For some Valentine's Day fun, scroll no further! The collection's perfect pink, Peony, was just right for the world's favorite flower-bearing holiday. I paired it with another shade from the collection, Espresso, then accented it with Cerise. How adorable are those little lub-dubs?!

Though you can't see it, my thumbs also had a little red heart hidden among the chocolate hearts.

Let's look at the colors without art now.

LVX - Cerise

Cerise (2 coats) is a bright fuschia. Initially I thought it was more of a bright cherry, but the pink tones are pretty apparent.

LVX - Anthracite

Anthracite (2 coats) is a dark and rich charcoal grey. I like what LVX suggested - using this as an alternative to black. It's really dark!

Next is Peony.

Serum No. 5 Swatches and Review

I've got some swatches and nail art for you today! I've actually had these swatches ready for a while, so you'll notice a discrepancy between the length of my nails in the swatches and the nail art. Don't worry, they're still my fingers.

The swatches today are from Serum No. 5. I've got twelve colorful and glittery swatches today. The consistency of the polishes ranged a bit, and you can get the details on that in the description of each polish.

My favorites in this batch include Mint to Be, Happy Special Day, Thanks for the Memories, and Girl's BFF. I used three of these in today's nail art, which I'll tease you with first.

The nail art was done with Mint to Be, Thanks for the Memories, and Girl's BFF. I also used a few other polishes: Mahogany Magic (China Glaze), Neely (Zoya), Case Study (Essie), and Black Onyx (OPI). I also busted out some micro beads from ages ago to outline my two little leopard hearts.

Now onto the swatches! You can get each of these at the Etsy Serum No. 5 store here.

Fallen

Fallen

Fallen - A fall glitter mix, this features copper shimmer with gold, red and orange metallic glitter pieces. It's thin, and looks best worn over another polish. I've used two coats of it over the complementary Life Preserver (China Glaze).

Mint to Be

Mint to Be

Mint to Be - I used four coats of this soft mint shade with nothing underneath. Though a bit streaky, the mix is a great concoction! The base is a sheer mint opaque polish with very subtle darker mint shimmer, plus larger hexagonal silver glitter mixed in. The sheerness of the base makes it perfect for jelly sandwiches, without the extra steps and bottles.

Call It a 'Treuse

Call It a 'Treuse

Call It a 'Treuse - If a dinosaur had chicken pox, I imagine it would look something like this. This is definitely something you want to layer, like I did over Def Defying (China Glaze). Green metallic shimmer base and larger pieces of magenta glitter. I didn't have any trouble getting the purple pieces onto my nails either, which was great!

Forest Lights

Forest Lights

Forest Lights - The shimmer quantity in this formula could probably be used on its own, though I imagine it taking about 4-5 coats to reach opacity where visible nail line wouldn't be seen. So, I used another base color for this swatch (Jade is the New Black from OPI). There's gold shimmer in the mossy green suspension, with larger hex pieces of glitter in colors from silver, kelly green, and teal. I love the name for this polish, as it describes it perfectly!

Spring Into Love

Spring Into Love

Spring Into Love - I love this one! Again, I prefer it over a base color (I used Portia from Zoya here). I used two coats of Spring Into Love for this swatch but I think I actually like it better with just one! I'd call this a princess polish, because not only does it have the pink shimmer base, but also pink, purple, and gold glitter pieces.

Rise and Grind

Rise and Grind

Rise and Grind - I think this may also be a perfect fall color to lay over some fall bases. I used Forbidden Fudge (Avon) as my base, plus two layers of Rise and Grind. Light brown and gold shimmer, plus copper and matte white glitter. I'm crazy about the matte white glitter, which you'll see in two other swatches from Serum No. 5 later.

Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather - If this is bad weather, then get me a raincoat, I'm ready to get out there. I really enjoyed this polish a lot. There's a silver shimmer base, with bits of blue, purple, black, and even a bar glitter, which is silver. The black is my favorite piece, and makes it pop, especially over the base I chose, which is Super Nail-tural Powers (Sation). I used two coats of Stormy Weather.

Pretty Blue

Pretty Blue

Pretty Blue - Honestly, I think Beautiful Blue would've been more appropriate. This thin, clear base suspends blue, pink, and magenta glitter and even holographic flecks. You can see that it didn't tarnish the base color at all (which is Tobey from Zoya). I hate it when glitters have weird shimmer that discolors the base color, but this one doesn't do that at all.

Starry Nights

Starry Nights

Starry Nights - Unfortunately, my picture isn't translating this polish well. The polish is a blue shimmer base, but it also has an irridescent purple shimmer to it, that comes out at certain angles. The holographic glitter are different than in most of the other Serum No. 5 polishes I have today, in that they're oddly shaped. There's a mix of square and stars! The stars are sparse and difficult to find though, and they do kind of perk up at the edges and don't lay flat. I used Celestial (Pure Ice) as my base.

Girl's BFF

Girl's BFF

Girl's BFF - Such a dreamy and lovely polish. I showed it over white, but it would bring a fabulous sparkle to any color! My base color was Purity from Zoya. BFF is a holographic conglomoration, with differing sizes and a wonderful consistency of various holographic glitter and shimmer.

Happy Special Day

Happy Special Day

Happy Special Day - Loving the name of this too. It's a very joyous and fun polish, perfect for a party or some other joyous day. It's made primarily of white matte glitter, but a full spectrum rainbow of metallic glitter and a few bars here and there really bring the party out. There's also some flecks of transluscent holographic shimmer as well, which you can see when you pair it over a dark base, like Raven from Zoya.

Thanks for the Memories

Thanks for the Memories

Thanks for the Memories - Black and white matte glitter in a variety of shapes and sizes, this one's classic. I will always love black and white glitter mixes. This one also has some holographic shimmer, which adds a little more depth when you use it. I used it over Almost Famous (Color Club).

So there's the glitter extravaganza that is Serum No. 5 polishes. Only one of them really worked as a polish by itself, and that's Mint to Be. The rest are best enjoyed with bases.

Which is your favorite? You can pick them all up at the Serum No. 5 Etsy store for $7 for a 9ml bottle and $12 for a 16.7ml. Right now, 20% of your payment will also be going towards a charitable donation! You can see some of the donations in the Facebook album.

These products were sent to me by Serum No. 5. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

Zippy Boyfriend Valentine

Happy belated Valentine's Day! I had this manicure on all day yesterday, but never the chance to edit and upload the pictures. Apologies for that, but maybe you can use this next year as inspiration.

The dripping heart and french tips were done using an awesome color from Zoya, Zippy. The base is My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw this yesterday, so again, apologies for the late post. I'm also sorry for the empty week of posts. I've been busy with some wonderful nail art related business I hope to be able to share with you soon. Keep an eye on Pinterest and my other social media sites for some clues! ;)

(Apologies for the sad pinky as well. Sadly, what nails break in Vegas, stay in Vegas.)

Nail Candy Review and Swatches

Can you believe it's almost the end of January already? This year just started! Where is the time going?!

Next month is a lovely month,  and Valentine's Day is just around the corner. I've seen a few Valentine's manicures already, and today I've got another, as well as a review of some new tools you may enjoy.

Nail Candy polishes are new to me. They combine a normal polish brush and a tiny nail art pen into one tool, with two different colors. That's a lot huh? Let me help you understand with some pictures.

Each pen comes with two colors, and the set I'm showing you today is called Love Letter. Pens...love letters...get it?

Each color has the capability of a brush, and the capability of a nail art pen. You can pull apart each pen at its base to get a solid base to stand your pen on.

Though this definitely helps keep the pen balanced, it's tricky to balance because they are such thin bottles.

Here's how the brush looks:

And here's how the nail tip looks:

See how teeny the tip is? That's great! It's smaller than my smallest dotting tool, and I think its size will be ideal for beginners. Whereas a normal striper brush or detail brush requires a steady hand and an unusual grip, these tools are thicker and easier to use, especially for beginners.

The nail tip does have a tendency to clog up, which Nail Candy has thought through very nicely. Attached to each tip (both colors on each pen), they've taped a tiny metal needle that you can use to unclog the tip should it get too stuck up.

I found that as new bottles, the polish was trying to get out before I could squeeze the little plastic bottle to get the polish out. I imagine this is because the bottles were still new, so I just made sure to squeeze a little drop off onto a paper towel first. You don't want to get globs of polish on the tip, as that'll mess up your designs.

The consistency of the polishes were all surprisingly nice! I've heard bad things about nail art pens such as these, where the polishes are just cheap and runny. These were great consistencies and that was pleasantly surprising.

The colors I'm showing didn't have names, but they all came in the set called Love Letter.

This creamy pink was a lovely shade! I used two and a half coats. (I say half because the last was very intentionally thin just to cover up a bald spot or two I'd left behind.)

 

This neon pink has a little bit of blue shimmer in it, and I liked it a lot. This was three coats.

The red is so rich and lovely. I almost want to call it a jelly, and it's so perfect for Valentine's Day. That's three coats.

Finally this is the white color. This was probably the best color for me. Though it had a tendency to get a little streaky due to its shimmer, it was still beautiful. I only needed two coats for this.

I really like these pens, and I highly recommend them if you're trying to get into nail art, but aren't quite comfortable with striping brushes.

Nail Candy sets are all available through their website here. They've got lots of colors, as well as a bling set using some 3D rhinestones! This would be a great gift to bring up for a clueless boyfriend...so start a Valentine's Day list! I hope to try some other colors at some point, and I hope you try some too.

These products were sent to me by Nail Candy. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.

A Full 'Hand'

I want to start this post out by thanking everyone who nominated and voted for me in the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards! I was not chosen as the Best New Beauty Blog, but a fellow nail blogger, 10 Blank Canvases took that honor home.  Congratulations Jenny! Maybe if I play my cards right, I'll be chosen as Best Established Beauty Blog next time around.

Speaking of cards...check out my mani!

I used some fun colors for this manicure: Rochelle (Shimmer Polish), Strumming My Nails (Sation), Adventure Red-y (China Glaze), Potting Soil (Lacquistry), and Black Onyx (OPI).

My favorite finger would have to be my pretty little pinky. The diamond shapes are amazing. They're right...on point.

This night of bad puns has been brought to you by: Friday.