Jindie-Dollish Collaboration: Batman & The Joker Duo

Press Sample 

I first need to apologize for being a bad blogger. I promised Jindie (& Dollish) I'd swatch this amazing duo and I didn't get it done in time for the release. Doesn't Life know that blogging is very important?? But! As of this posting there are still duos left so go go go!

In case you haven't heard of this duo, here is the good stuff--swatches!

Shelby Lou Nails
Dollish Polish
"Why So Serious?"
Batman & The Joker Collaboration with Jindie Nails

Dollish Polish mixed The Joker half of this duo called "Why So Serious?" I never saw the movie because I'm not really into superhero movies (gasp!) but I am into this polish. Why So Serious? is described as "A vibrant purple crelly, jam-packed with micro glitter of varying shades, including holographic lime, burnt orange, indigo, blue, black, holographic purple, iridescent blue, plus sprinkled in are olive, orange, and indigo flakes."

For my swatch I used a base of China Glaze Grape Pop with two easy coats of Why So Serious. I turned my bottle upside down before swatching to get the good stuff that had settled a little. The charms are from Daily Charme. I am surprised by how much I like this! It is such a fun color, and I will totally be wearing this on Halloween.

Shelby Lou Nails
Jindie Nails
"Ever Dance with the Devil in the Pale Moonlight?"
Batman & The Joker Collaboration with Dollish Polish

Jindie Nails designed the Batman half of the duo called "Ever Dance with the Devil in the Pale Moonlight?" I can't even with this polish! The shimmer is insane. Jindie describes this stunner as "A light, moon gray jelly packed with classic-light gold and silver flakies, banana yellow squares and small hex, black triangles and small hex, classic and light gold small hex, ultra fine and fine black and yellow matte hex, black small and medium dots, gunmetal small hex and flakies."

For "Moonlight" I started with a base on all fingers of KBShimmer How You Dune? I then did two thin coats mostly of the base and smaller elements of the polish, followed up with some fishing and dabbing of the bigger glitters which were easy to grab. For the accent nail I made a decal using MoYou London Fashionista 04. I stamped with Rica Blackout, painted in the chevrons with Sally Hansen Insta-dri Lightening with a teeny detail brush, then topcoated it and peeled it up when dry. It's my first successful decal! I think it is the perfect accent to this beautiful polish, which I can't wait to wear again.

This duo is very limited and close to sold out, you can follow the links below to grab your set from your preferred indie gal!

Products: 
Jindie Nails
Dollish Polish

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Pahlish Ticker Tape Parade Duo for March 2015

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

I love me some Pahlish! I've been trying to share more of her duos since I own EVERY SINGLE ONE (like a psycho) since they started in April 2013. I'm still waiting for a sub-box. I go back and forth on sharing duos since I usually get mine too late in the month to share it in time to be nice to any lemmings it would create. I have concluded though that you can use this as more of a reason to purchase future duos, yes?

Shelby Lou Nails
Pahlish Ticker Tape Parade Duo
Confetti Cannon over Tissue Paper Flowers

This month's duo was created to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of Pahlish. I can't believe it's already been that long! And at the same time it seems like it must be longer. Pahlish is quickly catching up to my Hare stash and they happily share one overflow drawer together. The Ticker Tape Parade Duo consists of Tissue Paper Flowers and Confetti Cannon.

Shelby Lou Nails
Pahlish Ticker Tape Parade Duo
Confetti Cannon over Tissue Paper Flowers

Tissue Paper Flowers is a white crelly with bright blue, purple, and hot pink flake shimmer. I can't even with this polish, I love it so hard. Lovely formula, I did three thin coats and wore it for a day alone.

Confetti Cannon is a mix of blue, purple, pink, and aqua glitters in all shades, shapes, and finishes. Perfect formula for a glitter gradient! It is always my tradition to wear my duo base for a day and then add the glitter gradient the next day.

Shelby Lou Nails
Pahlish Ticker Tape Parade Duo
Confetti Cannon over Tissue Paper Flowers

I took a macro on my instagram, make sure you check it out to see all the goodness up close and personal. As far as I know this should be restocked along with other goodies on Sunday March 29th at 7pm Central. If you even kind of like this, get it while you can! I really think this might be my favorite duo like, ever, guys.

Products:
Pahlish

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Zoya Naturel Satins for Spring 2015

Press Sample 

I have some exciting news! Two of my BFFs are expecting this year. I knew one was having a girl and we just found out my other friend is having a boy yesterday. Basically I get to have a niece and a nephew this year! I've never been baby-crazy, but seeing my friends so happy and getting to be an auntie just has me so jazzed. Yes. Jazzed.

Speaking of babies, I've been kind of a baby about swatching the Zoya Naturel Satins, but I finally have them to show you guys today. I promised myself I would do these before I did the Delight samples and it's only been over two months haha. The bottom line is: I dislike mattes. Yeah yeah, these are satins, but they are not shimmery or glossy and that how I like my nail polish.

Application was essentially the same for all of the Satins. I started with a thick coat of ridge-filling basecoat, as one does for any matte polish. The formula is thick and creamy and surprisingly opaque. They start to set fairly quickly so it is important to be fast, steady, and decisive in your application--any little mis-stroke will show. This can be corrected on your second thick coat which is all that is needed for opacity, but if you need to smooth things out you can do a third coat. I had a little trouble with Leah and Rowan not self-leveling very well, which none of them really did but these especially, but I'm not sure if that was the formula or user error.

I am not happy with some of my swatches, however, I also did not want to baby the polishes too much so that I had an inaccurate experience to share. I have the swatches shown as intended without topcoat and then with topcoat. Color descriptions are right from Zoya's website.

Zoya Ana
"light toasted almond" satin
I swear this is the same polish.

Zoya Brittany
"rose mauve" satin

Zoya Leah
"lavender tinged taupe" satin

Zoya Rowan
"suede taupe" satin

Zoya Tove
"misty slate gray" satin

Zoya Sage
"mossy sage" satin

For me personally, I love the colors. So perfectly dusty! However if I was trying to apply these three years ago I would have thrown them across the room because there is no way I would have made them look even halfway decent. Having applied so much polish over the years I did alright, and the finish is quite pretty from normal viewing distance. I would like to add topcoat to these before they set to smooth them out, or use them as a base for nail art or glitters.

I would say if you loves mattes, satins, or other novel textures, definitely give one or two of these a try. If you are going to do just one manicure instead of swatching six I think the experience would not be nearly has frustrating haha! Give yourself some practice time and plenty of dry time and you can have a lovely satin manicure. I'll be sure to share mine on instagram at least when I do!

Products:
Zoya Naturel Satins

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Stamping Saturday: Vintage Wallpaper

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

I am a fan of contrast: black & white, new & old, modern & vintage. I love putting opposite elements together for a new look. I do this in my clothing, accessorizing, home decorating, and of course my nails. There is something about awesomely ugly vintage prints used in the modern medium of nail art that just tickles me.

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday: Vintage Wallpaper
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
a-england Fotheringhay Castle
MoYou London Mother Nature 02
Without Flash

When I first saw A-England Fotheringhay Castle from the newest collection, I knew it was meant for some vintage stamping goodness. For this mani I started with a base of Polish My Life Birthday Suit. Birthday Suit is one of my new go-to nude cremes, I used three creamy coats for perfect coverage. For my stamping I used part of a branch image I liked from MoYou London Mother Nature 02.

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday: Vintage Wallpaper
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
a-england Fotheringhay Castle
MoYou London Mother Nature 02
Without Flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday: Vintage Wallpaper
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
a-england Fotheringhay Castle
MoYou London Mother Nature 02
With Flash

I'm pretty happy that I was able to successfully use a full-image plate and place the image on my nails in a uniform way. I wish I had gotten the image down the sides of my nails better though. I used my Vivid Lacquer squishy rectangle stamper and it didn't quite smoosh enough down the sides of my crazy curved nails. I guess everything about me is curvy haha! Who else out there loves awesomely ugly vintage nails?

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday: Vintage Wallpaper
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
a-england Fotheringhay Castle
MoYou London Mother Nature 02
With Flash

Products:
Polish My Life
a-england
MoYou London

Have you loved your cuticles today?

An InLinkz Link-up

My Favorite Nudes Comparison

Purchased By Shelby Lou 
Press Samples--Some of the Zoyas

Remember me freaking out about having to renew my social work license unexpectedly this month? Well I also just found out I need to renew my driver's license next month. Birthdays used to be fun! Now they are going to be full of boring adult chores and expenditures, like license renewal and doctor appointments. I am bitter, friends.

Anyways, today's post is about nudes! I used to think they were useless, but now I practically hoard them. My favorite combinations are neon and nude, nude and glitter, holo stamping over nude... (say this to yourself in Bubba's voice from Forrest Gump. You'll like it, I promise). Top photos in this post were taken without flash and bottom photos taken with flash. I am also impressed with myself because I only messed up numbering one set of photos, teehee.

Shelby Lou Nails
Mah nudes!
Without Flash

1. Color Club Silver Lake
2. OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls
3. OPI Angel With A Lead Foot
4. KBShimmer Eyes White Open

5. Polish My Life Birthday Suit
6. OPI My Vampire Is Buff
7. Polish My Life Nude Lace
8. You're So Vain-illa

9. Zoya Chantal
10. OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons
11. Zoya Taylor

12. Zoya Rue
13. Polish My Life Mauve Rose
14. OPI Don't Bossa Nova Me Around
15. OPI My Very First Knockwurst

Shelby Lou Nails
Nudes--With Flash

I am pleased to find I didn't have any dupes in my carefully curated collection. How many of these do you own? I think the most iconic ones everyone should own are OPI My Vampire Is Buff, My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and My Very First Knockwurst. The Zoyas all have great formulas and their Naturel line has a great variety of darker tones if you are not fair like me. My new favorites are my indie nudes from Polish My Life! What are you favorite nudes or some others I might need to check out? I am eyeing OPI Do You Take Lei Away this year, I'm waiting for an Ulta coupon to come my way...

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

While I am not Irish I still enjoy decorating my nails for St. Patrick's Day! My husband is 1/4 Irish from his mom. He randomly gets red hairs in his beard, which is extra weird because he is very dark skinned with black hair haha. I also believe St. Patrick's Day was around the time my husband and I dated for the first time way back in 2005 (holy crap we are old) because I remember it being a stupid date for an anniversary. Anyway, here are some St. Patrick's Day polishes I acquired this year and wore from late last week until today!

Shelby Lou Nails
Pahlish Fields of Gold
Multiple tones of golden flakes, gorgeous!

Shelby Lou Nails
Pahlish Fields of Gold
Check out that holo!

Shelby Lou Nails

Contrary Polish Shamrock & Roll

*This is not color accurate. Bottom picture is closer but not quite

Shelby Lou Nails
Contrary Polish Shamrock & Roll
Just a hint of VNL at 4 thin coats, not noticeable in real life.
*Not color accurate, the color near the moon of my index finger is closest.

Shelby Lou Nails
Renaissance Cosmetics Prototype 71
Shamrock from Love, Angeline
I adore this microglittered crelly!

Shelby Lou Nails
Renaissance Cosmetics Prototype 71
You can see the hint of shimmer in this picture, love it!

What is on your nails for St. Patrick's Day today? Don't get pinched!

Have you loved your cuticles today?

HPBloggers Presents: St. Patrick's Day Dotticure

Purchased By Shelby Lou

I am getting a holiday mani up before the holiday, go me! I love green polishes and my new edition of OPI Damone Roberts 1968 was begging to be worn last week. This was recently re-released and I almost missed out. Luckily my nail gal @joyrserio somehow knew I would be a failure and picked up an extra for me. You have to help your girls out in this life!

Shelby Lou Nails
St. Patrick's Day Dotticure
OPI Damone Roberts 1968
Rica Whiteout, & Love Angeline Decal

For this festive mani I started with a base of OPI Damone Roberts 1968. I suck at dotticures and apparently I can't stamp them either... I used a tiny dot image from MoYou London but my dots didn't stamp too well. So I took a small dotting tool and redid all of them with Rica Whiteout. At first I thought I was clearly being anal-retentive, but it ended up being a genius guide to do perfectly-spaced dots! I will be trying that again. I also stuck on a Love, Angeline shamrock that I picked up last year and never used. I wish it stood out more, but I still like it.

Shelby Lou Nails
St. Patrick's Day Dotticure
OPI Damone Roberts 1968
Rica Whiteout, & Love Angeline Decal

No, I'm not Irish. At least not a lot. But any excuse to wear green! Make sure you check out some of the other lovely manis from the Hobby Polish Bloggers.

Have you loved your cuticles today?

An InLinkz Link-up

Hump Day HARE: Ghostwood National Forest

Purchased By Shelby Lou

I am annoyed by many things this week. I just found out that I need to renew my social worker license before the end of this month--almost a year sooner than I should have to--due to some new changes made by the licensing board. I am beyond annoyed. Not only am I basically get cheated out of money by having to renew sooner (I hate the government), I also have to shell out for a continuing education class. All unplanned expenses this month. Guess I can't buy the new Super Chic Lacquers after all, boo.

And then I got a papercut right by my cuticle on my middle finger swatch-hand. Really?! I covered it up though, I wouldn't subject you guys to that haha.

Today's Hump Day HARE is Ghostwood National Forest, one of the newest additions to the Welcome To Twin Peaks series. I was pretty sure I would dislike this, but it was the only green I had untried of my Hares. Ghostwood is a very dark olive green jelly with gunmetal glitters in dots, hexes, and squares, gold and gunmetal flakes, and purple shimmer.

Shelby Lou Nails
HARE polish Ghostwood National Forest
Accent of Essie Nothing Else Metals
Without Flash

My swatch shows three thin coats. In some lights this polish looks black, in brighter lights it is definitely dark green. The gunmetal dots took on a super-pale lavender hue to me, so I did some edgy triangles with Essie Nothing Else Metals. I used regular old scotch tape for those--much easier than striping tape! I must have been inhaling too many fumes though because I forgot how smooth of a surface one-coat metallics need--oops. It still looks better than those China Glaze Crinkled Chromes though haha!

Shelby Lou Nails
HARE polish Ghostwood National Forest
Accent of Essie Nothing Else Metals
With Flash

You can check out the macro I posted on my instagram to get a better look at all the goodies inside this polish. I like this much more than I thought I would, but it is much darker than anything I've worn in awhile. I'm not pumped about this mani, it leaves me feeling a little meh.

Would you rock this super-dark polish? Do the Crinkled Chromes still give you nightmares? I'm sorry if I retraumatized you.

Products:
Hare Polish

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Girly Bits Serendipity

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

I know Daylight Savings is only one hour of lost sleep but I am going to gripe about it anyway. I want my hour back! I will be a mess for the next two weeks. I much prefer to fall back.

Anyway, this is Girly Bits Serendipity, an exclusive to an indie box. I'm being mean since you can't get this anymore, but it is too beautiful to not share! Plus it reminds me of a lovely Barenaked Ladies song called "Serendipity" that I start singing to myself every time I see the name. I wasn't sure I was going to like this because it is trying to be a glitter and a holo--too many things! I believe the base is a champagne linear holographic with a generous helping of lavender and rose glitters.

Shelby Lou Nails
Girly Bits Serendipity
With Flash

So opulent, like jewelry on my fingertips! I didn't even add anything to it and you know I love an embellishment. I was really surprised by how easily this applied, too, with all the glitters. Just a light touch and they spread perfectly all by themselves.

Shelby Lou Nails
Girly Bits Serendipity
Without Flash

You can also check out the macro I posted last week on my instagram. Seriously, you want to. I can't believe how magical this polish is. And I was going to sell it off on my blog sale--that would have been a shame!

Shelby Lou Nails
Girly Bits Serendipity
With Flash

What polish were you unsure about but ended up loving lately? What do you think about the new angle in my second photo?

Products:
Girly Bits Cosmetics

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Baroque-n Record

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

Have I mentioned how sick of the weather I am yet? I saw this in a post on From Polish With Love and wanted to share. It sums up my feelings exactly.

Have y'all heard of Octopus Party Nail Lacquer (OPNL) yet? I don't own many, but the ones I have I love. This is Baroque-n Record, described by the maker as "an icy-teal linear holographic, with strong emerald undertones and golden shimmer." So much shimmer! I shared a macro earlier this week on my instagram if you are interested as well. This polish applied so easily and was practically no clean-up for me.

I wanted to do something bold with black for this polish, so I broke out the tribal sheet from my KBShimmer Vinyl Nail Decals. I haven't ever just stuck the decals right on my nails and left them, I'm so glad I did though! I cut down the one of the chevrons for my teeny pinky. I used some KBShimmer Clearly On Top over the whole mani and the vinyls stayed on just perfectly. I have a few photos with and without flash for you.

Shelby Lou Nails
Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Baroque-n Record
KBShimmer Tribal Vinyl Nail Decals
Without Flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Baroque-n Record
KBShimmer Tribal Vinyl Nail Decals
WithFlash

I'm so glad to have my square nails back! The flash photos make my skin look really red, just focus on the holo and shimmer. I love how much of a chameleon this polish is with the silver, blue, gold, and green in it. OPNL is sold out right now, make sure you follow them for restock news. The maker, Dave, has been doing some amazing collaborations with other indies and is really making a name for himself, I can't wait for more!

Shelby Lou Nails
Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Baroque-n Record
KBShimmer Tribal Vinyl Nail Decals
With Flash

Products:
OPNL
KBShimmer

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Nail-Aid No-Rub Acetone Gel Review

Purchased By Shelby Lou's Husband (Isn't he wonderful!)

I interrupt today's regular programming to bring you a review on Nail-Aid No-Rub, advertised as the first acetone power gel. When I saw cutepolish's video, being the nail addict I am, I immediately asked Hubby to pick it up from Wal-Mart on his next trip. So! I don't have any fancy videos, but here is my experience with this product. I recommend watching cutepolish's video because she shows you exactly how to use this product according to manufacturer's directions and I will refer to it in my review.

Nail-Aid No-Rub
Acetone Gel

I decided to remove the mani I happened to be wearing the day I got this--Painted Sabotage Happy Hearts and Hooves Day. You can see what it looks like here as worn by one of my nail pals, In Jeeb We Trust, and she actually gifted this to me, too! You can see that it doesn't have a very heavy glitter load, and teeny glitters at that.

Here were my first impressions:
--Jelly feels like the consistency of ultrasound or sonogram gel. Not unpleasant.
--Strongly smells of acetone. The directions clearly tell you to put the lid back immediately after dipping your fingers hehe.
--So cold! But apparently that's normal.

I had the best results by:
--Dipping my nails and leaving a generous, heaping glob on top.
--Keeping my hands flat... or the gel slides off.
--Leaving gel on for 5 to 6 minutes.
--Rubbing off the nail polish with felt (as show in cutepolish's video, but she uses a papertowel) followed by regular remover on a new, clean cotton round.

Cons:
--Not available in acetone-free.
--Acetone wreaks havoc on cuticles.
--Very gooey on removal, which can quickly become a mess (complete with glitter herpes) if you are not careful. A few of my other nail friends also confirmed this gooey mess.
--Still had to follow-up with felt and remover after initial gooey mess is taken off.

Pros:
--No need to mess with tin foil and cotton.
--Inexpensive.

In the epic battle, my method still wins!

Sorry guys, but for me this does not remove glitters better than my method. I'm sure there was much more rubbing involved than cutepolish showed to get her results... I also ended up using MORE cotton rounds and felt than with my method. In conclusion, this is not magic and has not solved the problem of removing glitter polish for me. Boo, this is why I hate writing reviews on things I don't like. Such a bummer!

Products:
No-Rub Gel
Or just get it at Wal-Mart for $3.88

Have you loved your cuticles today?