HARD CANDY: Beetle & Cheeky Plates

Pin It Hope ya'll had fun with the giveaway. What kind of things are you looking for in the next giveaway? :] Let me know! I know thing's I'd like to win, but I'm different from other people ;]

I drove 20 minutes away to grab Hard Candy Beetle because the closer Walmart's suck at stocking polish :[ Hands down? Totally worth the drive!

LOOK at this beauty!

 Hard Candy: Beetle, 3 coats

I was actually able to get the duochrome flashes when taking the pictures. It flashes purple, green and gold. Even then, the pictures don't do any justice to how gorgeous this is! For $4?! I'll take it! Maybe even 2 haha. I went to Walmart's website and searched for "Hard Candy nail polish" and then looked for stores in my area, pretty handy so you don't have to drive everywhere for a polish!

I've heard around the interwebs that this is a pretty good dupe for Orly's Space Cadet. I usually am not a fan of darker colors on me so I didn't want to dish out money for a polish I was iffy about. Nope, need Orly's version, totally in love! I stamped a design on as an accent nail, review of the stamping plate below also :]

Hard Candy: Beetle with Cheeky Plate C Stamping

I also picked up and decided to try a Cheeky Plate, this is Cheeky Plate C. If you're unfamiliar with Cheeky's nail stamping plates, they're pretty large plates with 42 images. You can find them on amazon :]

 Cheeky Stamping Plate C

I like these plates because the designs are pretty unique, the stamps seem larger to me than Konad or bundle monster's stamps (which is good for me because I have pretty large nail beds haha). The quality was OUTSTANDING. I can't even tell you how much I LOVE the plate I chose! There wasn't a stamp that didn't pick up, or didn't come out super clear. The detail in these stamps is awesome!

Here is another manicure I did (forgive the cotton ball string that ruined one of my stamps boooo!) using a full nail design. LOVEEEE!

Revlon Colorstay: Rainforest with Cheeky Plate C Stamping

Hope you guys will give Cheeky a shot if you're into stamping! It seems these plates don't disappoint!!

Until next time,
Lacey

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!

Pin It The Spring Break Giveaway has officially ended as of 24 minutes ago!

Thank you EVERYONE for entering and following my blog! I have lots planned, more manis, more DIYs, more swatches and of COURSE more GIVEAWAYS! Thank you, each and every one of you, it means a lot - seriously!

Well, Rafflecopter & Random.org have officially spoken!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

Congrats, Brittney S.! You have 48 hours to email me with your details, I have sent you an email! I will have your package shipped out by the end of the week!

Until next time - Stay tuned!
-Lacey

Giveaway Ends Tonight!

Pin It Sorry I didn't give heads up sooner! The Spring Break Giveaway ends at midnight est!

-Lacey

New Zoya Promo! (And Polishes I can't wait to get!)

Pin It I'm a little late posting the new Zoya promo, sorry! I've been doing some spring cleaning around the house.

So, if you haven't heard, you have until MIDNIGHT (eastern), March 14th (tomorrow) to buy 3 Zoyas and get THREE for FREE! No, it doesn't include shipping, but how could you pass up a Zoya promo?!

(Image via Zoya's Blog)

So, head on over to their blog for more details :] What colors did you get?!

I had to get my 6 Zoya's OF course haha, I also picked up some polishes from some Etsy sellers: NerdLacquer, Dollish Polish and PrettyandPolished! I can't wait!!! I'm a big fan of hand mixed colors and just like small businesses, I'm all for supporting these shops! Here's the new babies I grabbed between Etsy and Zoya:

Any Etsy polishes you're lemming after? I can't wait to swatch these babies! My poor wallet! I'm polish grounded until April!!

Until next time,

Lacey 

PS: Has anyone seen the 2012 New Bohemian Collection?! I NEED THEM ALL NOW!!!

[CLOSED] Spring Break GIVEAWAY! [March 12-19]

Pin It I told you guys I'd have a giveaway soon! So here it is - the SPRING BREAK GIVEAWAY!

Complete the entries in Rafflecopter below and you will be entered to win all brand new: (1) Bottle of Zoya Trixie, (1) ELF Matte Top Coat, (1) Shiny Top Coat and a (1) 5 Piece Double Ended Dotting Tool Set!


a Rafflecopter giveaway


[All items are provided by me - this is not a sponsored giveaway. Trixie was won in a Zoya giveaway. Please be aware that upon selecting a winner, all entries will be verified. Open to US residents 18+ only.]

Super Easy Lace French Tip Mani (with Konad)

Pin It Okay, so I'm not a big nail art person. But I'm figuring once I get a "big girl job" my opportunity for awesome nail art will drop greatly. Sooooo I'm trying to take advantage. After swatching a few colors I honestly had ZERO idea what I wanted to do with my nails. Then I remembered Plasmaspeedo's mani she posted a few days ago and decided to give it a go.

Straight up, I suck at stamping. I just do lol. I'm thinking it's because I have the mini stamper over the larger duo end stamper (on the to buy list). Bit I was able to execute this easily without having to redo 5+ fingers haha.

Here is the video Andrea posted:


I used Zoya Avril as my sheer base. Then I used the same Konad plate from the video (m57) and chose the lace design. I used Sinful Colors Black on Black to stamp with (always do!). I stamped just below the nail tip line and then filled from the top of the design up with the black.

Way easy. Way cute!

I could have done some detailing with glitter or rhinestones, but I just wasn't feeling it haha.

I love the look of this! LOVE! It's girl but still edgy at the same time. It's just do perfect! I want to try it in white sometime to see how that looks. :)

I hope you find this as easy and stunning as I did if you do give it a shot!

Until next time,
Lacey

CHINA GLAZE: Hunger Games Capitol Colors Collection

Pin It I'm keeping this short and sweet! ONLY because there's a bunch of people reviewing these. But I couldn't buy these and NOT blog about them because I love the colors so much! I don't even know the first thing about Hunger Games haha, I haven't read the books yet and I'm not sure if I will BUT I couldn't pass these babies up!

(Image from Chinaglaze.com)

I didn't buy all the colors, I am still going to buy one more (my Sally's was out), I only bought them because I had a $10 off $20 coupon which made them cheaper than online with my Sally's card :] (That coupon is expired but here is a $5 off $25 coupon that is valid until the end of this year)

ANYHOW! I picked up 5 colors:

Thumb to pinky: Electrify, Luxe and Lush (over a black), Harvest Moon, Riveting, and Fast Track

These colors don't look like anything I have in my 250+ collection, that's why I bought them. They all have 2 coats except for Electrify has 3.

Electrify: I love this glitter, perfect balance of gold and glitter not too much or too little of either. I thought of Christmas! haha

Luxe and Lush: This is so unique. I consider it a flakie polish, but when it's on the nail it looks like shards of glass! SO cool!

Harvest Moon: Very, very, very pretty copper color! It honestly reminds me of a penny :P

Riveting: This reminded me a lot of polishes from Zoya's Sunshine Collection, I really like that collection and this color. It's red jelly, but not too red it has a lot more orange in it.

Fast Track: Probably my favorite. I just love this taupe color with the gold glitter flecks through out! It's just SO pretty!

I'm loving all these colors I picked up :] I am going to buy Argo, the green shimmer but that was the one color missing from the store, how rude! (just kidding). You can purchase these from Transdesign.com or Head2ToeBeauty.com, and of course SallyBeauty.com (there may be more, these are just where I've personally seen them).

Hope this helps some of you who are interested in the colors! :]

Until next time,

Lacey

(PS: Was this even short? lmao)

LACQUISTRY: It's a Friggin' Circus and REVLON: Carbonite

Pin It Ahhh! I finally got my Lacquistry beauty, It's a Friggin' Circus, in the mail on Tuesday! I was so stoked I ran from my mailbox and up 2 long flights of stairs to my 3rd story apartment haha

It's a Friggin' Circus is one of the Jenna's polishes I've lusted after for a bit. She describes it as "12 different colors of mini hex glitters swirl around in a sheer blue jelly base". TWELVE COLORS. OF GLITTER! I about died when I saw it in person! By the way: 12 DIFFERENT COLORS OF GLITTER!! Haha

Now, it says a blue jelly base, however mine is in a pink jelly base. Not a big deal to me, really!

But the glitter colors equals a wonderful rainbow circus on your nails! A Friggin Circus if you will ;) I actually prefer THIS over Happy Birthday (Deborah Lippmann), Rainbow Connection (OPI) and all the dupes in between.

2 Coats of Lacquistry It's a Friggin' Circus

I layered IAFC over Revlon Carbonite, which was kindly sent to me as a "random act of polish" by Love for Lacquer. I saw Carbonite for like $1.99 at Big Lots in August, never saw it again and kicked myself for not getting it, so I was way happy when my surprise came in the mail!

I love how Carbonite looks! It's got this gritty, dementional looking, silverish-goldish-black color. Yup, that's how I'm describing it haha. I honestly could have gotten away with 1 coat but I always do 2 for good measure and out of habit. I expected Carbonite to be streaky but it wasn't one bit, and I was happy about that for sure!

Once I layered IAFC over Carbonite the color changed into a almost rosey gold/silver color thanks to the pink jelly base of IAFC. I didn't mind it a bit, I actually welcomed the color change haha.

I hope you guys get a chance to get your hands on a Lacquistry polish. They are truly amazing glitters!

Until next time,
Lacey

PS: Did this mani remind anyone of the rainbow fish book character thingie? ...Or is that just me? Haha

Bundle Monster Set #2 Review & REVLON: Midnight, MAC COSMETICS: Immortal Gold

Pin It Hey guys! Sorry I've been MIA for a few days, my NEW MacBook charger crapped out on me and I started P90x, so I've been so tired! But Husband is gone for the weekend on Navy duties so, I get his laptop all to me! :D

ON an AWESOME note! I have 7 followers! Awwww so sweet <3 That made me smile! As lame as it seems, it has been my dream for like 5 years to make a nail blog, and 7 followers makes me feel like gold! :] Still planning a giveaway, I gotta find a few other things for it ;] Planning it to be a "Spring Break" giveaway!

Annnnyyyyyyhowww! I FINALLY got a Bundle Monster set! :O

I grabbed the 2nd Bundle Monster set on Amazon for $22 for 25 plates. They also have a first set, $18 for 21 plates. I got the 2nd one because I've seen better reviews on them than the first set anndddd you just get more haha! However, I DID speak to someone on Instagram who purchased the 1st set last week and said they work PERFECTLY! Hmm, might grab those soon ;]

I played around with a good chunk of the designs. I painted, scraped and stamped for about an hour and a half. I didn't use all the designs, almost one from every plate to check to see how well they were engraved and if they were even. I didn't have a single problem with ANY of the plates. Everything came out wonderfully! For Konad stamping or any stamping at all,  I never use Konad Special Polishes. I always use regular nail polish and I never have a problem using them, so just letting you know these plates are fine with regular polish. When I do stamp, I'm a big fan of Sinful Colors black and white polishes, they're cheap and they get the job done right!

SOOO I got down to business!

Here are a few of the stamps I tried out. Please excuse the crazy combos! I was messing around with some of the polishes I haven't tried yet haha (note large bowl of polishes)

Everything came out great! I threw on a coat of Seche Vite and wore it for a day because I wasn't in the mood to change polish. I bet my apartment office thought I was a nut! Here is the mani I ended up with 2 days later on:

Zoya: Rica, Sinful Colors: Black on Black, BM #208

Overall: I have ZERO complaints about bundle monster and the quality of their stamping plates. I tried about 85% of all the plates and everything came out awesome. If you're someone looking to try stamping, or you already do some stamping, I suggest you try Bundle Monster. After using these plates, I'm never buying a Konad plate. (Never say never.) The quality of these seems to be VERY close to Konad's plates. I usually can only find a Konad plate for about $4-5, if not more. You get SOOOO many Bundle Monster plates for what you would pay for a few Konad plates. If you're hesitant, try it!

So, 2 days later I got sick of my manicure... mostly because I suck so bad at stamping my thumbs haha. I decided to do a half moon mani. I let my husband help me choose the color of the half moon.

MAC: Immortal Gold, Revlon Colorstay: Midnight

I LOOOOOVE this manicure so much! Especially the Revlon Colorstay Midnight. It's a beautiful inky navy blue. SOOOO gorgeous! I grabbed it at CVS with 2 coupons I had, so instead of $8ish it was only about $4ish. Let me just say, ONE FREAKING COAT!!! ;] 

Before this mani I haven't used the Mac Immortal Gold too much, just for accents and stamping. My sister got it for me for Christmas. I love it! It's SO SO SO pretty! The only downside I thought was the drying time, so I finished it off with Seche Vite before I applied the blue (also so it wouldn't smear when I added a top coat to the whole thing).

I'm off to do some housework and do my P90x stretching (rest day today! WOOT!)

Talk to you guys later!

Until next time,

Lacey

SINFUL COLORS 2012 Spring Collection: Cast Away

Pin It Ok, so on the hunt for polishes for some friends I noticed a Sinful Colors display that wasn't there when I stopped by on Sunday. It's a new collection of theirs called Cast Away. Offff course I had to snap a picture and grab a few.

I grabbed Grecian Sun, a beautiful blue that's not too light and not too dark... Kinda like a cornflower blue. Be Happy, a lot like China Glaze For Audrey, a Tiffany blue color. Olympia, a pistachio green (big color for spring!), very similar to Essie Navigate Her. I'm actually a pretty big fan of the Cast Away collection, blues and greens are my polish loves!

I swatched a few. Along with the Sinful Colors Cinderella I grabbed (NOT part of this collection) its a light blue with pretty pink glass fleck shimmer!

From left to right above, SC Be Happy and CG For Audrey, SC Cinderella, SC Grecian Sun, Essie Navigate Her and SC Olympia.

SC Be Happy, CG For Audrey, SC Olympia, Essie Navigate Her

Ok, now I initially thought Be Happy would be a dupe of For Audrey. They also had 2 darker shades close to For Audrey, the middle shade available might be a lot closer (2 colors away from Olympia on the display). Be Happy is a tad bit lighter than For Audrey. I think I'm a bigger fan of Be Happy. I thought that Be Happy is close to Sinful Colors Mint Apple, but this doesn't have the shimmer Mint Apple has and Mint Apple seems to be a little darker.

SC Cinderella is really pretty! I'm glad I grabbed it! It'll take about 3-4 coats for full coverage but I think it's worth it! The pink glass fleck shimmer it has is awesome! It reminds me of a flip flopped version of Nicole OPI Kim-Pletely in Love (Kardashian Kolor), which is pink with blue glass fleck!

SC Grecian Sun, just a great cream, cornflowerish blue. It's not light, and not dark. Haha I don't know how to describe it! My swatch was only one coat and it seemed like it would be a one coater on the nail. I just am in love with this blue!

Ok, now Essie Navigate her and SC Olympia. Again thought they'd be dupes. Navigate Her seems to have more yellow than Olympia, which seems to be more of a true light green color, lesser on the yellow side.

Overall if you're looking for dupes of Navigate Her or For Audrey, these are pretty close. But if you're on a budget then these can work for the same effect :) like I said before, Sinful Colors did have 2 more bottles similar to For Audrey, one looks a lot closer (more medium than light) than Be Happy and the other was a shade darker than the medium.

I didn't see any swatches for the collection online yet, besides a Nouveau Cheap post from yesterday, so I kinda feel special that I have (somewhat) swatches up ;]

I also got my Zoyas in from the BOGO Valentine's promo! EXCITEDDDD!

Red: Jade, Blue: Charla

Until next time,

Lacey