Round 33! Bestie Twin Nails with The Little Canvas!

Hey guys!

Nothing To Disclose

So last month's BTN was super late and this month's is super early, lol! We wanted to do something for the Super Bowl and were inspired by a post from Kelli Marissa (formerly the Nail Polish Challenge).

I used my trusty Zoya polishes again. They have the best colors and creme finishes for nail art! I also like to use the same brand for nail art, I know it's weird. And I have the most Zoya creme polishes, lol.

Willa (black)
Emilia (Brown)
Purity (White)
Hunter (Green)

Clearly I need a better detail brush and to practice straight lines, lol!! I also used the Pretty & Polished Wax topcoat to mattify this mani.

Are you a fan of the Super Bowl? I don't have a pony in this race but I'm rooting for the.... (insert team here that won't upset anyone) LOL!!

Be sure to check out Alaina's post to see her nails!

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

OPI Oh My Majesty

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Since my post a few weeks ago featuring this polish was not something I wasn't terribly proud of, I had to do it again on my swatching hand.

OPI's Oh My Majesty is a beautiful pearly white with a strong orange shimmer. It needs 3 coats for complete opacity.

I just think this is so pretty and dainty!

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Twinsie Tuesday: Non-Dominant Hand Mani

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Today we are discussing my worst nightmare, the non-dominant hand manicure. I could lie and say that I take care of my right hand, even though it's never photographed. But that would be a lie and I don't like to lie. My right hand looks like garbage. I am SUPPPPPPPPERRRRRR right handed, so doing anything with my left hand is basically a talent worthy of a medal. This task would not receive that medal.

Sigh.

I used OPI's Oh My Majesty which I will absolutely have to reswatch using the hand that is worth a darn. This was 3 coats.

Everything felt wrong about this... holding the bottle, posing the hand, cleaning up... everything. LOL!

What about you? Are you non-dominant hand challenged like I am??

An InLinkz Link-up

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Nine Zero Holiday Collection + POTM

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Nothing To Disclose Press Sample

I have 9 Nine Zero polishes to show you today! The November and December Polishes of the Month and the Holiday Collection! Let's get to it!

November 2016 is a fuchsia linear holo. As always, the formula was perfect and it was opaque in 2 coats.

December 2016 is an icy blue linear holo. Same as always, perfect and opaque in 2 coats.

Jess brought back her Thanksgiving trio from last year and made a crelly version of Stuffed so I had to buy that, obviously. This is 2 coats. The glitter is packed in this polish so the formula was a little thick, which I prefer.

Then Jess so kindly sent along her Holiday Collection for this year. 6 polishes, a perfect collection size lol.

Sugar Cookie is a white crelly with red, green, and yellow glitter shards. This was 2 coats plus topcoat.

Pink Christmas is a medium pink with tons of gold shimmer. This was 2 coats, plus topcoat.

Midnight is an indigo purple with tons of holographic glitter. 2 coats.

Frost is a teal jelly base with holographic glitter. This was 3 coats.

Balsam is a pine green holo and opaque in 2 coats.

Golden Lights is the gold version of last year's Twinkle Lights. 3 coats, plus topcoat.

Have you purchased any of these or any other Nine Zero polishes? What are your favorites?

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Salon Perfect Christmas Cookie

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Continuning with red and/or green swatches for December, this is Salon Perfect Christmas Cookie over Colors by Llarowe Jo Jo. This is one coat blobbed onto the CBL. Like delicious little sprinkles, right?

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

KBShimmer Holo Swatches!

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I am continuing my KBShimmer untrieds and this week, I have some gorgeous holos to show you!

Run! It's The Coppers! Is a beautiful copper linear holograph. As per usual with KBShimmer, the formulas on all of these polishes were fantastic. This covered completely in 3 coats.

Rust No One is a rusty orangey red holo. This is 2 coats!

Kringle All The Way is an assorted red, green, silver glitter topper that was released a few years ago and the proceeds went to charity. And yep, it's been untried for that long. Sigh. This was one coat with a few of the larger glitters blobbed on.

Poppy Kisses is a bright red holo. This had an AMAZING formula and covered in two coats. I Love love love this red!

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

KBShimmer Crelly Swatches!

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I have a few more KBShimmer untrieds today! These are the untried crellies in my helmer drawer.

Let's Sleigh Together is a nude gray crelly with blue, green, and white glitters. This was 3 coats plus topcoat.

Smoke Signal is a gray crelly with orange, red, and aqua glitters. This was 3 coats, plus topcoat. I love this odd color combination!

Funky Cold Patina is a turquoise crelly with blue, copper, and purple glitter. This was 3 coats, plus topcoat.

Merry Pinkmas is a blogger collab from a few years ago with Cristina from Let Them Have Polish. This is a pink crelly with green, pink, white, and lime green glitters. This was 3 coats plus topcoat. The crelly on this was a bit thin but all of the packed glitters recquired careful placement with each coat.  

Do you have any of these crellies from KBShimmer? Tell me your other fave KBshimmer polishes!

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Round 26: Bestie Twin Nails with The Little Canvas!

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BTN Time with Alaina from The Little Canvas!

This time we wanted something simple but still sort of bright and summery.

I used Zoya Ling as my base color (two coats), then used Purity and Willa on a fan brush and did little half lines on my nails. It's SO SIMPLE but I honestly loved these nails so much!

Do you love these? I don't now why I love these so much but I really do!

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

Nine Zero Lacquer June 2016 and Patriot

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Today's post is a quick one, but I have two beautiful polishes to show you from Nine Zero Lacquer.

First, I'll share the Polish of the Month for June 2016. This is a light purple linear holograph. By now you should know that Nine Zero has just about perfect formulas, especially for holos, and this was no different: 2 easy coats, plus topcoat.

Patriot is the Limited Edition polish to celebrate the 4th of July. It is a silver holographic base with semi-transparent red and blue glitters. This was 3 coats, plus topcoat. I love this and I want it in every color combination possible, mmmmkkay?

These polishes are both available now! I'm not sure how long Patriot will be around but I'm guessing not long after the 4th of July, but you should order it now so you can wear it on the 4th, duh!

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Twinsie Tuesday: Inspired by Fabric

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Today we are being inspired by fabric and I had a super cute pattern all picked out and then it was just a dramatic disaster when I went to create the manicure so I had to start from scratch, lol.

I was thinking about what I could do when I looked down at my pajama pants and thought "oh! I can do that in like 5 minutes time!" because of course it was Monday night at 10:30pm when I remembered that I hadn't completed my mani!

So my fabric manicure is inspired by my pajama pants, ha. I'm not sure where these pants are from but they are lightweight for the spring and super cute!

I started with a base of China Glaze Aquadelic, 2 coats. I let that dry for a few minutes and then dotted China Glaze Make Some Noise and used Call of the Wild for the cherry stems. Then I used Kalahari Kiss for the leaves and attempted to use Sally Hansen OMGhost for the cherry shine thing and also for the dots.

Yeah yeah, not very neat but I was in a hurry lol! If I had taken my time, I think this would have been super cute! Maybe I'll try again when I'm less hurried!

                                                             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

Round 24 of Bestie Twin Nails with The Little Canvas!

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WOW!! It's been 2 years of Bestie Twin Nails with Alaina at The Little Canvas! I have thoroughly enjoyed these prompts and while my nail art is certainly not amazing, I am glad that I've been doing these BTN's!

For this month, Alaina and I decided to recreate one of our favorite manicures and do a new one so it's DOUBLT BTN! WHHHAAATTTT???!! So get ready....

Let's start with the recreation manicure. I honestly have no idea why I love pineapples so much but I just really love pineapple decor and graphics and pineapples pineapples pineapples! So of course, we decided to recreate our pineapple manicure! And since we are watching Psych, it is very fitting.

This time, I used all KBShimmer polishes for this manicure. The green holo is Ins And Sprouts, the gold is Sun & Games, and I used Eyes White Open and Chick Me Out for the pineapple. I don't have a black KBShimmer so I had to use an Art Club black striper for the detail.

Yep, still love the pineapples, lol.

For the next manicure, we wanted to do something bright because as I was looking through our hashtag on instagram (#fftlcbtn, if you're curious), I noticed we hadn't done a lot of bright manicures.

We decided on a diagonal gradient with black splatter. For this, I used all China Glaze polishes:
Yellow - Celtic Sun
Pink - Bite Me
Green - I'm With The Lifeguard
Blue - DJ Blue My Mind
Purple - That's Shore Bright
Black - Liquid Leather

I did use a Sally Hansen Insta-Dri for my white base, OMGhost.

Uhmmmmm what?! I freaking love these, if I do say so myself. But who doesn't love a neon splatter, amiright?!

Be sure to check out Alaina's BTN post and leave her a single word comment. She'll know who sent you.

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Stardust Polish Yes Doctor

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Today I have a polish from one of my faves, Stardust Polish. Now I will warn you that this polish is no longer available so I apologize but it's too pretty to not share.

Stardust Polish Yes Doctor is a white crelly with black glitter and it's just lovely. This was 3 coats, plus topcoat.

I always forget how much I enjoy a black and white glitter polish until it's on my nails! Lovely!

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Round 23 of Bestie Twin Nails with The Little Canvas!

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You know what time it is: BESTIE TWIN NAILS TIME with Alaina from The Little Canvas. Guys. GUYS... we've been doing this feature for almost 2 years!! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!? Oh boy, I guess we need to do a giveaway at Round 24, eh? ;-) And lookie!! We have a fancy graphic, courtesy of Sarah from 25_Sweetpea! Thank you!!! We love pineapples.

For this BTN, we decided to do some cute little clouds, inspired by this blog post here. Usually, I would say because this is springtime but it's been snowing and gross here lately and is just now finally starting to resemble spring. Come on, buddy... you can do it! Just warm up and give me some sunshine!

For my base, I used two coats of Zoya's Rocky. I forgot I owned this polish until I was organizing in my helmer drawers last week and it's just so pretty. It's a bright blue but with a hint of gray to it.

Then I dotted some little clouds with Zoya's Purity and drew the little smiley faces on with Willa.

Aren't they cute??

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Twinsie Tuesday: Inspired By A City

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For inspired by a city, I chose to attempt to recreate one of the gorgeous Michigan sunsets that are often photographed by the Mackinac Bridge and Mackinac Island (and if you are curious as to how to pronounce that, it's pronounced "mack-in-aw"). Mackinac Island is a Michigan treasure for several reasons, but one of the things that I love most about Mackinac Island is that there are no cars allowed on the island! The only vehicle is an ambulance. Everyone else uses horses and bicycles. Even the mail and UPS carriers! So be careful where you step, lol. The Island is beautiful and easy to walk or bike and let's not forget all of the delicious fudge shops. Seriously, there are probably about 30 and the island is only 9 miles in circumference! Anyway... this was the city that first came to mind for this prompt!

I googled Mackinac Bridge and this picture caught my eye. Immediately I knew this would be difficult for me to recreate for lots of reasons, primarily because this requires lots of small detail work but I couldn't stop thinking about this so I had to try!

I grabbed some Pretty Serious Cosmetics polishes for this manicure! The polishes used were:

• Forbidden Fruit
• Generally Hazardous
• Cuddle Bunny
• Gloomy Kitty
• Yuletide of the Machines
• Morning Java

I started with Forbidden Fruit as my base color but you obviously can't see it since the gradient covered it up, lol. Then I used Forbidden Fruit, Generally Hazardous, Gloomy Kitty, and Cuddle Bunny for my gradient on a cosmetic sponge. One coat of topcoat and waiting... waiting.... Then I used Morning Java to draw the Mighty Mac and the suspension lines and then highlighted the golden parts of the bridge that represent the sun shining with Yuletide of the Machines.

And don't ask my why I decided to switch bottles in between pictures, lol!!

These are by no means perfect but I guess they aren't terrible? I am always on the look for the tiniest detail brush possible and I thought I was using one small enough but the lines still aren't small enough for me, lol. 

What is your favorite city??

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

Colors by Llarowe Chasing A Unicorn

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Today I have a Unicorn polish to share with you, a white holo polish. A true white holographic polish is very difficult to find, as most holographic pigment changes the color to a grayish hue, thereby making the white holo unattainable.

Colors by Llarowe recently released the Chasing A Unicorn duo, the base color is to be used as a color correcting base and the holo topper creates the illusive white holo.

I applied two coats of the base coat, as it needed to be leveled out a bit with the second coat. Then I applied one coat of Chasing A Unicorn and boy. I was not really expecting this to be as white and fabulous as it turned out. It's really really stunning.

Have you searched for the illusive white holographic polish? What do you think of this beauty?

Talk to you soon!
Amanda

Bestie Twin Nails with The Little Canvas Round 21! Arrows!

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It's time again for a Bestie Twin Nails with The Little Canvas! This time, we were inspired by Paulina's Passions and her fabulous arrow manicure, as I made Alaina start watching the tv show Arrow and now she's hooked ;)

I grabbed some of my Virago Varnish polishes for this mani and got to work. I used Bloody Mary, a very very dark red burgundy creme. I did two coats so it appeared as dark as possible. Then I used 2 coats of Crave, which is opaque in 1 coat! Amazing.

Next I applied two coats of Don't Turn On The Light, a stunning dark teal holo glitter. For the arrows, I used Bloody Mary and Scandalous. My arrows are really wonky but I can't seem to find a small enough detail brush for things like this. What's your fave detail brush??

I definitely need to practice my detail work but I like this manicure! Also, if you don't watch Arrow, you should. It's pretty awesome :)

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