a England: Excalibur Renaissance and Hurt No Living Thing AND a Giveaway! *SWEEPSTAKES ENDED*

Press Sample 

*These products are Cruelty Free 

♥

Today I have two beauties to show you from a-England and a chance to win them with a GIVEAWAY at the end!

*SWEEPSTAKES ENDED*

CONGRATS DEBBIE S.

a England

Excalibur Renaissance and Hurt No Living Thing

Continued after the jump...

Dior Porcelaine 204 and Pampille 192 - from the Dior Trianon Collection for Spring 2014

Nothing to Disclose

*These products may NOT be Cruelty Free 

♥

Dior Trianon Collection for Spring 2014

Porcelaine 204 and Pampille 192

Porcelaine 204 is a bright, creamy pastel blue with a creamy, self-leveling formula. Seriously, all of you pastel lovers know how hard it is to find any pastels that aren't a bit too thick or ones that are self-leveling. This formula is great! Two to three coats and no top coat for the photos. (I used 3 light coats for the full swatches and 2 coats on the comparison photos with Pampille.)

Pampille 192 is a sheer shimmer that looks mint in the bottle but has very little color on the nail. The blue shimmer really gives is a blue tint when worn alone but over Porcelaine, it does give a greenish tint that you can see when they're next to each other. The formula is good though and easy to work with. I'll be showing you this one alone in one, two and three coats and over Porcelaine as a topper.

Continued after the jump...

Elevation Polish Mount Feathertop with a Daisen Jelly Sandwich!

Press Sample 

*This product is Cruelty Free 

♥

Good Evening! Tonight I have another great Elevation Polish to show you from the May 2013 restock - Mount Feathertop!

Elevation Polish Mount Feathertop
with Daisen and Daisen Jelly Sandwich

Mount Feathertop is described by the maker as follows:

Color: Mount Feathertop

Description: Light pink sheer build-able color. 1 coat for subtle glowing natural looking nails, 2 coats medium sheer pink, 3 coats for a pretty pink color (slight visible nail line), 4 for full coverage. Great for Jelly/glitter sandwiches.

Finish: Sheer/Jelly

Inspiration: Part of "Australian Sunrise & Sunset Collection"

The description is accurate. I was totally prepared not to like this one because it's sheer and it's pink, however, I was quite surprised to find that it didn't really read pink on me it turned out to be my perfect "mannequin hands" polish. Because of how pale I am - it reads as a neutral/nude on me in most lighting!!! The application and formula were both perfect, so I didn't mind the number of coats. I used three coats first and then I layered on 1 coat of Daisen and then one more coat of Mount Feathertop to make the "jelly sandwich." You could layer one more coat on top for a more muted "sandwich." No top coat for any of the photos. Adding Daisen does really bring out the pink more.

More swatch photos after the jump...

NOTD: NerdLacquer Eight Gates

Sorry to be showing you another great NerdLacquer that's not available, but since I still hold out hope that Amanda will return and since there are still blog sales, I thought I'd go ahead and show you my Nail of the Day: NerdLacquer Eight Gates.

Eight Gates is a great glitter polish with a semi-sheer violet pink base that looks like an orchid. The glitters are black, silver and white squares and hexes. I've used two coats alone with one coat of Poshe, but next time I believe I will layer it over a like-colored base for full opacity. Application was great and I had no issues - all glitters laid perfectly flat and I didn't need to dab or fish for any of them.

NerdLacquer Eight Gates

NerdLacquer Eight Gates

NerdLacquer Eight Gates

NerdLacquer Eight Gates

NerdLacquer Eight Gates

NerdLacquer Eight Gates

NerdLacquer Eight Gates

This polish from NerdLacquer was a Ninja Polish exclusive. I still miss her and hope she comes back, so like Ninja Polish on Facebook to stay informed...just in case.




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Megan Miller Lemon Ice - Swatches and Review

Photo from The Winthrop Chronicles
Great summer recipe!

Today I have another Megan Miller polish to show you...Lemon Ice!  The bottle design is unique and pretty darned cute. But it's more than that. It holds a full .5 ounces of polish, has a great cork cap, which naturally provides a non-slip grip and has a little hand-tied raffia bow. The brush is round and cut well and the stem is short enough that it doesn't collect too much polish. It holds the perfect amount of polish for each nail.

Megan Miller's logo is a peacock feather, as shown on the bottle and the top of the cap. Here's their story behind their logo:

Inspired by the display the peacock portrays when its feathers are in full bloom, the Megan Miller collection aims to inspire you to show your grandest side with confidence and ease. Like the peacock, we look to blend a natural elegance in order to make you look good, feel complete and ‘Be Colorful’. 

Yes, that's Megan Miller Roja you see here!

Lemon Ice is a sheer, jelly-like, pale lemon yellow. Formula was typical of a sheer jelly but went on easily with no issues. I am a fan of 100% opacity, which you will not get with Lemon Ice on its own, so I'm showing you how the color builds on its own, using 3 coats here AND on one nail I've applied two coats over one coat of an opaque white creme.

Megan Miller Lemon Ice

Megan Miller Lemon Ice

Megan Miller Lemon Ice

Megan Miller Lemon Ice

What do you think of this one? Are you a jelly-lover? If so, I think you will love this one.

Megan Miller polishes, including Lemon Ice, can be purchased at MeiMei's Signatures and you can also visit Megan Miller's site. The polishes are available online and in some Anthropologie stores. You can follow Megan Miller on their Facebook page, and MeiMei's Facebook page, for availability, updates, new collections, etc. 

Disclosure: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. 

For more information, please visit my Disclosure Tab.

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Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed - Swatches and Review

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed is part of Maria's latest collection - Let's Get Nekkid Collection 2012 and was the least "nekkid" of the group as you will see!  It can be worn alone or as a topper and since I don't care much for "building color" I opted to show it to you over black.

Toxic Seaweed is a teal jelly packed full of all sorts of goodness from color-shifting flakes to various glitters and shimmers.  The flakes are irregular in size and shift from gold to copper to red to green depending on the lighting. There are also color-shifting micro glitter pieces and shimmers and it's just really difficult to tell exactly what is in it. The micro glitter seems to shift from green to blue and others from red to gold. And I think I see silver micro glitter as well. It's just really something best seen. One thing I do know, at least one or two of the ingredients are the same as Clairvoyant aka Unicorn Puke and are no longer available. So this one, as well as Clairvoyant, may very well be limited editions unless Maria finds a suitable, comparable alternative. If you don't have it, go NOW to cultnails.com and get it ordered!

See if YOU can pick out the ingredients! I've taken a lot of photos trying to capture everything.

First with no top coat:

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

And with top coat:

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Yes, ALL of that is packed into one bottle!

Just for reference I've snapped a photo of Toxic Seaweed with no "underwear" so you can gauge the opacity. It's messy - sorry.

Toxic Seaweed is still available at cultnails.com for $10.00 - but it's limited. If you want it, you better grab it.

What do you think? Did Maria at Cult Nails hit another one out of the park? Let's hope she finds a suitable replacement for the defunct ingredients.

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Orly Passion Fruit & Butter London Disco Biscuit

Orly Passion Fruit with Butter London Disco Biscuit on top

I've been wanting to try Orly Passion Fruit for a while and I finally saw it the other day and picked it up. I forget which collection it was in - I know it was several years ago - but it's part of their permanent collection now.  I was expecting a creme, but it's more of a crelly (jelly/creme) and took three coats. It dried to a semi-matte finish, like most fluorescent polishes. I don't know if I would call it a full-on neon exactly, but it's close! Passion Fruit is a good color description - sort of a coral/hot pink that's really a fantastic pop of color.

The only problem was that I absolutely could NOT capture the color. I tried every possible way under ever possible lighting. The only thing I didn't do was read the manual for my camera. LOL!

The best I could do is below. I've circled the part of the bottle that is showing the actual color. It is not orange.

Orly Passion Fruit

I'd just gotten Butter London Disco Biscuit last week (part of Butter London's Spring/Summer 2012 Collection) so I thought I'd see how it looked layered over the top. Disco Biscuit is a sheer raspberry jelly with lots of light blue/lavender iridescent micro glitter. It does dry to a sandy-feeling finish, so you will need Seche or Gelous as I don't think a regular top coat will do the trick.

Butter London Disco Biscuit over Orly Passion Fruit

Butter London Disco Biscuit over Orly Passion Fruit

Butter London Disco Biscuit over Orly Passion Fruit

Butter London Disco Biscuit over Orly Passion Fruit

Butter London Disco Biscuit over Orly Passion Fruit

As I was editing photos and writing the review, I was eating some new Pink Lemonade frosting I spied in the store last night. Yes, I was eating it straight out of the tub with a spoon. Don't judge me! So I took this photo just for kicks. I'm a sucker for anything pink lemonade flavored. YUM!

*giggle*

Over all, I loved the end result of the manicure. It's a great color! I was a tad disappointed to find out that Orly Passion Fruit wasn't a straight-up creme, but I know all you jelly lovers will adore it. I don't mind Butter London Disco Biscuit being a jelly because I only intend to use it for layering over other polishes.

What do you think? Do you have either of these?


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Oldies! China Glaze Sex on the Beach - Swatches and Review

I think Sex on the Beach came out in 2008, but don't hold me to that.

It's a sheer peachy sort of metallic/foil looking finish with peach, pink and gold shimmer.  Application was rather tedious as it's sheer and it was quite runny. I still had visible nail line after 3 coats so I applied a 4th coat and called it good. I did wait a decent amount of time between coats and still it took FOREVER to dry.  I finally gave up, removed it and put something else on. I really don't know if it would have ever dried.

I love China Glaze, but this one was definitely a MISS for me. Which isn't easy. I'm pretty forgiving with nail polish unless it's just really a PITA.

I put on China Glaze Westside Warrior and I was in love with them all over again. =)

China Glaze Sex on the Beach

China Glaze Sex on the Beach

China Glaze Sex on the Beach

China Glaze Sex on the Beach

China Glaze Sex on the Beach - blurred to show shimmer

As you can see, it not a bad color and the finish is interesting. Not sure I'd call it "sexy" though. What do you think?

Click here to enter my Winter Giveaway - ENDS FEBRUARY 8TH!

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