Cirque Colors Julep

Hey guys!

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The last green from Cirque Colors is Julep, a mint holo. Another untried for way too long, shame on me. And another perfect formula, opaque in 2 coats.

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Bliss Polish Sweet Senti-Mint

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Today's green is from Bliss Polish, called Sweet Senti-Mint, a lovely mint green crelly with gold hex glitter. This was 3 thin coats. I really love these colors together! I don't believe this polish is available for purchase any longer but if you happen to own this, you should definitely wear it :)

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

SinfulColors Works Like A Charm

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Another new polish from SinfulColors, this time from their St. Patrick's Day promotion. This is Works Like A Charm, a mint with gold shimmer. The formula on this was a bit thin and needed 3 coats. Still really pretty, though!

Have you spotted this collection yet? There is also a fun glitter topper in the mix that I didn't purchase but if you love seasonal glitters, it looks really cool!

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Cirque Winter Bloom and Ambrosia

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I was lucky enough to received a few Cirque Polishes from a two different people for Christmas. These first two were from a Secret Santa through a polish blogging group that I'm in on Facebook! Both of these had been on my list for a while so I was so excited to receive these!!

Winter Bloom is a gorgeous minty holographic. It was a little sheer and needed 3 coats to cover completely but oh my goodness.... so stunning.

Ambrosia is an oxblood holographic. This was amazing and covered in 1 coat! ONE COAT! Gasp!

Have you tried Cirque Polishes yet? What is your favorite??

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Fair Maiden Polish Antique Charm

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I have another Fair Maiden Polish to share with you today. Antique Charm is an antiqued mint holo with silver glitter. This is a beautiful dusty looking mint polish and it really does look antiqued! I used 3 coats, plus top coat.

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Wet n Wild Lettuce Be Friends

Hey guys!

Nothing To Disclose Affiliate Link

To round out Wet n Wild week, I have Lettuce Be Friends from the Summer Sizzle 2016 collection.

This is more of a minty green than a lettuce green but either way... I like it. 2 coats with a nice formula.

I've said it multiple times but the Wet n Wild Megalast polishes are some of my very favorite from the drugstore. They have great formulas and are very consistent.

Rite Aid is running a 25% off sale with your Plenti Card and free shipping on orders over $34.99 through 10/8/16. Use code OCT25.

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Twinsie Tuesday: Chevrons

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Nothing To Disclose P

We are doing some chevrons today and I cheated a bit because I was off on my Twinsie Schedule and did these last week, thinking I needed to do this post for last week. So.... here is a reminder of the color I posted last Tuesday as a refresher: Wet n Wild Kiss My Mints, two coats, great formula. I LOVE this color!

Then I added the new Finger Paints Holographic Top Coat and some KBShimmer Chevron nail guides and did some chevrons and random dots.

Simple and cute, right? I love these colors together!

                                                                      Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes 

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sarah at Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Lisa at The Polish Playground

Claire at Kerruticles

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Amber at NailsLikeLace

Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Wet n Wild Kiss My Mints

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I have a quick nail of the day on super nubs to share with you! (This is why I paint my nails: I pick at my nails when they aren't painted!)

This is Wet n Wild Kiss My Mints from the.... Spring 2016 collection, I believe. A minty blue creme, 2 coats and a very nice formula. I added one coat of Topped with Love by Love, Angeline and boom. Done.

I LOVE this color! How do you feel about mint??

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Round 25: Bestie Twin Nails With The Little Canvas!

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Hey hey hey, it's time for another BTN with my buddy Alaina from The Little Canvas!

For this BTN, we chose a simple dotticure and striping tape mani, inspired by Nicole from Young Wild & Polished.

We went with mint and purple versus the brighter green and purple. I used three colors from Virtuous Polish (which is no longer open for business, unfortunately): Purity, Queen Ester, and Rahab. 

This is a pretty straightforward  manicure so I won't really go into too much detail: I used a dotting tool and some striping tape, lol. The polishes I used are matte polishes so a glossy topcoat was required. 

Be sure to check out Alaina's nails!

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Sanchez Says... Day Date Nails

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It's time for another edition of Sanchez Says... and this time, she requested nails for a Day Date. I think of something sort of fun but delicate so I decided to do a saran wrap mani!

I used 3 Nails Inc Polishes: Lexington Gardens (purple), Mayfair Lane (blush), and Soho Place (minty teal).

Starting with a base of Lexington Gardens, I used 2 coats and let that dry for a minute. Then, I blobbed Mayfair Lane and Soho Place onto the nails and used a piece of Saran Wrap to smoosh the colors together. Simple as that! Top coat and done. Boom. You've been nail arted. These Nails Inc bottles are not easy to pose with, by the way :-p

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Twinsie Tuesday: Inspired By Your Childhood

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If you noticed, the Twinsies didn't post last week. We are going to be posting every other week going forward for a while, to sort of give everyone a bit of a break.

But today, we are being inspired by our childhood. Now... I couldn't really pick something because I'm old and forgetful but I do have something that I think totally fits.

I don't have an actual memory of this and after asking my mom, she claims that she never planted this plant or that we ever had it around but every single time I smell Lantana, something in my childhood is instantly brought to my mind. Truly, every single time! LOL I've started planting it in my garden bed just so I can smell it and be taken back to a non memory that apparently didn't exist in my childhood hahahha!

Anyway, I started with two coats of Illamasqua Nomad, a bright mint green... dare I say neon mint.

Using the picture linked above, I used Illamasqua Scarab and Optimist to dot some sad excuses for flowers onto my nails. Yes, I know these look nothing like the lantana flowers but you didn't think I could replicate something so delicate and lovely!

What is one of your favorite childhood memories??

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Twinsie Tuesday: Monochrome

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Today we are doing Monochromatic manicures and I'm not really sure if mine counts but I'm calling it monochromatic anyway.

I used 4 different China Glaze polishes for an ombrè dry brush mani. From ring finger to pinky:
- At Vase Value
- Aquadelic
- Treble Maker
- Gaga for Green

All were 2 coats, except for At Vase Value which was prettttyyyy tricky. I did three coats but it was kind of a mess: patchy, chalky, and didn't level very well. So my coats were very very thin. Such a gorgeous color though!

Then I reversed the colors for a dry brush so I used Gaga for Green on my index finger, Treble Maker on my middle, Aquadelic on my ring, and At Vase Value on my pinky. The colors didn't contrast as much as I would have liked but I guess that just makes this better for monochromatic, right? LOL

Alaina at The Little Canvas

                                                                 Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

                                                                   Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes 

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Twinsie Tuesday: Glitter Placement

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Today we are doing Glitter placement, which I enjoy even though it's painstaking. So I took the easy way out and did little flowers.

I started with 2 coats of Orly's Snowcone, a beautiful cornflower blue creme.

Then I dotted Orly's Jealous Much? in a flower pattern and added circle gold holographic glitters in the center. I reversed this for my pinky and index fingers. Added some topcoat and there are some cutie little glitter placement flower dots.

                                                                  Alice at Nail Art in Wonderland

                                                                   Amanda at Amandalandish

                                                                     Amber at Nails Like Lace

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Claire at Kerruticles

​Lisa at The Polish Playground

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Megan at A Beauty in the Business

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Sara at The Call of Beauty

Sarah at Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Lacquer

Savannah at Addicted to Polish
Sharon at Behind Green Eyes 

Steph at Lovestruck Lacquer

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Orly Melrose for Spring 2016!

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Today I have the Spring 2016 Orly collection, called Melrose, to show you! I have been really loving Orly's collections this past year. They are concise (always 6 polishes) and I really like the colors and themes!

Beautifully Bizarre is just that: a beautifully bizarre color. A pale pink that leans almost lavender and has a beautiful blue flash that is much more apparent in person than it's photographing. This was also much more opaque than I was anticipating! This was two coats, plus topcoat.

Trendy is a neon coral pink with silver flecks... a beautiful color but kind of a dreadful formula. It was thick and chalky and also patchy AND it didn't level well. I had to redo a few nails twice before it looked acceptable. This was 3 coats plus topcoat.

Feel The Funk is a violet holographic polish. This was opaque in 2 thick coats plus topcoat and is so sparkly in person.

Window Shopping is a vibrant bright red toned pink. This had a great formula and was opaque in two coats, plus topcoat. It appears more pink in person than it is photographing but the bright color is throwing off my camera.

Vintage is a beautiful neon mint creme. This also had a bit of a tricky formula and needed 3 coats to level out properly. Plus topcoat.

Hip and Outlandish is a bright teal green. This is another that is too bright to capture accurately but very pretty. This formula was also good, two coats plus topcoat.

Aside from the bummer formula on Trendy and Vintage, I do still love this collection! It's springy but not pastel and I always love that because I just can't get into pastels for too long, lol.

What do you think of this collection?


Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Sanchez Says... Tea Party Nails

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Today I am starting a new series on the blog called Sanchez Says...

What is this, you ask? I'm here to tell you. My friend Sanchez recently asked me if I had some manicures that fell into certain categories and by some, I mean she asked for about 15 different topics/themes, etc., lol. As you know, I am trying to expound on my nail art techniques and practice so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to hold myself accountable and also try some techniques and art that I wouldn't normally (because I literally groaned at one of the suggestions, lol!!)

I started with one of my favorite suggestions: Tea Party Nails. After a quick search, I came across these nails and they were so cute, I didn't even keep looking for others.

The polishes used: (All Zoya)
- Wednesday
- Purity
- Lidia
- Odette
- Logan

I applied 2 coats of Wednesday, the gorgeous minty blueish green, to all of my nails except for the pinky nail, which was the recipient of Odette, a lovely dusty purple color.

Then I used some large dot nail vinyls and some stripe vinyls on my index and ring fingers and applied Purity over those, and then removed the nail vinyl before the polish could dry. I'm still working on getting super crisp lines in this aspect of nail art and you wouldn't think it is that difficult but for me, it's a challenge!

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Essie Dots, Stripes and Flowers!

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I am sharing another guest post today! I fail at sharing these on my own blog, lol. Whoops.

I found 5 Essie's that I wanted to use to recreate this manicure from Bad Girl Nails.

I started with Essie Pret-A-Surfer on my pinky and pointer finger, which amazingly covered in one coat. Then I painted 3 coats of Ballet Slippers on my middle finger, and then 2 coats of Coat Couture on my ring finger. After those dried, I dotted Blanc on the index and pinky fingers. THEN I free hand/crookedly drew some lines on the middle finger with Mint Candy Apple and filled in the stripes. Finally.... the flowers with Blanc on the ring finger. Annnnnnd topcoat.

Phew. Catch all that? Let's look at the final product, lol.

I quite liked these! I know they aren't at all seasonally appropriate but I don't even mind because I love this so much! LOL

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Dashing Housewife Swatches

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I have two polishes from a new to me indie brand, Dashing Housewife Polish. I purchased two colors from her store a while back and here they are. I'm slow, lol.

Not Just A Filler is a mint creme with green shimmer. This was 2 coats plus topcoat. The formula on this was a little bit thick but not unmanageable.

Holy Ships Ahoy is a medium blue with green shimmer. This was also 2 coats plus topcoat. This polish was the opposite of Not Just A Filler and was a little thin, lol. But it was not difficult to work with and still covered in two coats.

Are you familiar with Dashing Housewife?

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Round 16: Bestie Twin Nails with The Little Canvas!

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It's time for another Bestie Twin Nails with my buddy Alain from The Little Canvas. You know the drill: let's get to the good stuff.

Alaina mentioned something about how it was Childhood Cancer Awareness month and that gold was the color for awareness. She then found this picture on Pinterest and we both said "YES" immediately when the time came for selecting our manicure. I then had the brilliant idea to make some of our BTN's focus on charity/cause awareness because who doesn't love crying?! I'm only kidding about crying (sort of), but I thought it was a nice idea to do manicures that focus on awareness and if it helps to bring awareness to some people even a little, that is an accomplishment.

The first organization that pops into my head when I hear "childhood cancer" is St. Jude Children's Research hospital. I know there are many many many hospitals and organizations devoted to helping children with cancer but St. Jude is always the one I think of the most. I am so very blessed to have not personally dealt with such a situation such as childhood cancer and cannot imagine the stress, coupled with the crippling medical costs. St. Jude provides cutting edge medical options and care while freeing parents from the burden of the cost of these treatments. Did you know that 75% of St. Jude's budgeted costs are covered by public donations? I didn't realize until just at this moment of drafting this post that they relied so heavily on public contributions.

I'm giving you this information as a PSA to seek out an organization that you care about and donate! I don't have a lot of money to donate but even $10 is better than nothing. This sounds preachy and it is not intended to be but I know that a lot of people think if they can't donate hundreds and thousands of dollars, that it's not worth it to donate at all and that is not the case. Every little bit adds up!

Okay, longest post ever! Now onto the nails!!

I used Orly Highlight, Gumdrop and Bling, along with some KBShimmer Chevron Nail Guides.

To start, I painted all of my nails except my middle finger with Orly's Highlight and let that dry. I painted 3 coats of Orly Bling on my middle finger and applied two coats of top coat.

Once my other fingers were dry, I used Gumdrop and Highlight on a makeup sponge to apply a gradient to my pinky and index fingers, and applied the chevron nail shields to my ring finger and then blobbed on two quick coats of Bling. Topcoat all the nails and boom. Done.

I really love this manicure and I'm not sure if it's because the colors are so light but this gradient is one of the most perfect gradients I've ever done! LOVE!

Go check out Alaina's nails and leave her wordy comments :)

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Round 14: Bestie Twin Nails with The Little Canvas!

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We're back again with another BTN and this time, we are attempting the dreaded WATERMARBLE! DUN DUN DUN!!! I suck at watermarbling, regardless of how well the polish performs. I'm just bad at it. There is no reason other than... I'm just bad at it, lol. But I want to get better and that's partially what this Monthly BTN is for so let's get to it.

I used all Orly polishes for these except that I Salon Perfect Sugar Cube as my white base. I alternated Gumdrop and On the Edge and attempted a sad water marble design. Water marble masters: WHAT IS THE TRICK TO DESIGNS? Like, I don't get it. As quickly as I drop the polish, it crusts over and the toothpick or water marble tool doesn't make a line, it drags the polish??? Ugh. Anyway.

Then since I was already liquid latexing my nails, I figured that I might as well do all the nails and did a gradient using the same colors. I added a coat of Mirrorball because duh. It's Mirrorball.

My watermarble is just never going to be perfect but I thought this looking passable! My liquid latex messed up the marble on my middle finger when I took it off but whatever. I marbled. It happened, lol.

Now everyone go look at Alaina's nails and comment that she has to at least do one finger for a glitter placement manicure for an upcoming BTN! She's just being stubborn and difficult in this area. LOL.

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Stardust Polish Week! Shipwrecked, Plundered Treasure, Stormy Seas

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Welcome to Stardust Polish week!! I decided while I was swatching last week to throw in a week of some of my favorite brands every now and then. Hopefully you will enjoy Stardust Polish Week! (Twinsie Tuesdays will continue as whatever brand I had already used for the prompt).

Shipwrecked is a medium tan linear holo with gold shimmer. This was opaque in two coats and I did not add topcoat.

Plundered Treasure is a light teal crelly with gold glitter. This was 3 coats plus topcoat. I love the teal and gold combination in this polish, so pretty.

Stormy Seas is a dark blueish grayish jelly with blue and green micro glitter. This is a jelly so it will be sheer on the first few coats. Next time, I will layer it over a darker color just to save some steps. I used about 3 and a half coats here, plus top coat.

You can purchase Stardust Polish here. Be sure to follow her on Facebook and Instagram for sneak peeks are upcoming restocks and new releases!
Talk to you soon!
Amanda