First Blogiversary Celebration!

All items and prizes were purchased By Shelby Lou 

One year ago today I finally started my blog and posted my first manicure. It has been one exciting, scary, crazy, and fun year! I've met some lovely people and learned so much from so many. I have a lot of plans for the next year and I hope you will stick with me. I love connecting with other polish-aholics and escaping reality through pretty polish! Every like and follow still makes me smile and I thank you from the bottom of my Pretty & Polished Swift Sparkle topcoat ;-)

I will be continuing to have guest posts all month long in celebration, but for today I decided to recreate my Queen Skittlette from this day last year. It's almost exactly the same, just a few updates (hello, triangle studs!).

Darling Diva - We Will Rock You
Dance Legend - Argentum with one coat TC
Stamp - Vivid Lacquer
Stamping Polish - Pure Ice Silver Star

I am pleased that my photography and poses have improved, but there are still a lot of things I'd like to get better with. Check out We Will Rock You with flash--rainbows! That multichrome shift though...

Rainbows and shift, oh my!
Darling Diva - We Will Rock You
(with flash)

So you know I can't celebrate a first blogiversary without having a giveaway! I have been hanging on to a few special polishes for a couple months now. There will be three lucky winners! Check out the photo captions for more details about prize packages. And yes, I had to track down some Dollar Tree Essie Sleek Sticks.

Three prize packages will each include:

1 feature polish

1 of my favorite mani must-haves

3 sheets of Love, Angeline Nail Shields/Stickers

2 Essie Sleek Sticks
Paper stars made by me, inspired by Chaos & Crocodiles!

A closer look at the feature polishes:
Pahlish Bespoke Batches: One Billion Day Funeral & Favorite Kind of Smile
Hare Polish For the Love of Lisa

Giveaway begins NOW and will end at 11:59pm Eastern on November 1st--Note that the rafflecopter says November 2nd at 12am, I'm just making it easier since 12am always confuses me. Must be able to supply a US address and be 18 or older to enter. For more specifics check out the terms and conditions on the rafflecopter form. Good luck and thank you for your support!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Have you loved your cuticles today?

Dance Legend Termo TRIO #1

Sorry about my unexpected absence this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday I was ill. I did a little swatching but didn't feel like sitting down at the computer. So I kinda laid on the couch and may or may not have binge-watched the Harry Potter boxed set my mom just got. They were okay, the books will always be my favorite though.

Last Friday I went with my mom to the nearby botanical gardens. It was like summer and a completely wonderful respite from the mid-winter doldrums of February (seriously, Winter, I am done). I need something quick but also wanted something fun so I wore Dance Legend Termo Trio #1. I lemmed this so hard when it came out and I was pumped to see the color change really did happen just as advertised! Here is a picture I took in a fountain at the gardens.

Dance Legend
Termo TRIO #1

Halloween Mani: I Love Nail Polish So Ghoul & Vivid Lacquer Stamping

I have had some Halloween inspired polish on top of my melmers all month in the hopes that it would inspire some holiday manis. I am not one to mess around with freehand art or anything, I prefer to do graphic manis with bold contrasting colors along with some stamping and stud accents. Quick, easy, and looks awesome at the end--that's my kind of mani! I should do a post soon on how I put these together...

Anyway, I have had I Love Nail Polish (ILNP) So Ghoul, unused, for so long that it is still had the old formula. I love the gray, yellow, and black palette of this polish so much and used it as my inspiration. Since I wanted it a little Halloween-y I decided to go with Vivid Lacquer plates in the skulls and hounds tooth patterns--because I couldn't decide what would be more awesome at the time.

Halloween Skittles

Pinky: Dance Legend Ash
Ring: Barielle Lemondrops, 1 coat ILNP So Ghoul, KBShimmer Clearly On Top
Middle: Ulta Concrete Evidence, Vivid Lacquer 001 stamping with Mentality Scoundrel, Glisten & Glow HK Girl Topcoat
Index: Ulta Concrete Evidence, Vivid Lacquer 005 stamping with Mentality Scoundrel, Glisten & Glow HK Girl Topcoat
Thumb: Ulta Concrete Evidence, 1 coat ILNP So Ghoul, KBShimmer Clearly On Top

This is seriously one of my favorite manis of all time! It's like the perfect marriage between Halloween and Fall. I don't know what the deal is lately, but my right hand has been turning out better than my left for the photographs. Maybe I have just been taking my time more on the right hand because I know I'll make it all sloppy if I don't?

So Ghoul has a great formula, but does ILNP make anything with a bad formula? I was surprised to find some short bars in here. So I pretty much hate bars, but these were short enough, sparse enough, and spread nicely so I was okay with it. I believe So Ghoul is retired but you can purchase other ILNP polishes here. There is also a pre-order for holos, ultra-chromes, and holographic ultra-chromes on November 1st!

I was also pleasantly surprised by Barielle Lemondrops, I only used two thickish coats. It wasn't self-leveling but it covered well and a thick topcoat would take care of it.

I want to also take a minute to plug HK Girl Topcoat. I don't know how they do it, but it doesn't smudge my stamping. You must try some, it's amazing! Buy it here.

And of course you know Vivid Lacquer makes my most beloved stamping plates. You can purchase Vivid Lacquer here.

That was a lot for one post, I hope you aren't sick of my skittles yet!
As always, remember to moisturize your cuticles today :-)

Skittlette with Scofflaw Nail Varnish Sturm Und Drang

Today I have a skittlette featuring Sturm Und Drang from Scofflaw Nail Varnish. Scofflaw informs us that "Sturm Und Drang" is German for "Storm and Stress" but the name reminds me of Durmstrang Insititute from Harry Potter...hmm, maybe Durmstrang came from the German. Anyway, Scofflaw is an indie maker with very unique polishes which I love using in skittlettes. This one even looks a little Halloween-y to me!

Skittlette featuring Sturm Und Drang

Scofflaw describes this polish as "a pewter polish full of shimmer and scattered silver holographic highlights. It features glitters in aqua, silver, gunmetal, lavender, violet, and lime green."

For this manicure I used:

Pinky--3 thin coats of Dance Legend Argentum

Ring & Middle--Sturm Und Drang, 2 coats with one coat topcoat

Index--3 coats SquareHue Flower Power, stamping is with Vivid Lacquer plate VL-002 and Pure Ice Silver Star

Thumb (not shown)--Sturm Und Drang 

Hmm, didn't realize that the oil I used was going to show up so much in my photos. I supposed I over-loved my cuticles haha!

If you look really hard I nicked my index finger and my star on the tip is missing an arm, oops! There was no way I was going to do that all over again so I just used the green to cover it hehe. I have been working really hard on reminding myself sometimes "good enough" is more enjoyable :-)

You can find out more about Scofflaw Nail Varnish at their website.

You can also purchase Scofflaw at their etsy shop.

Have you tried Scofflaw Nail Varnish? What do you think?
Over-loved cuticles are better than under-loved!

Darling Diva Polish Queen Collection: We Will Rock You Skittlette

Darling Diva has recently come out with an epic nail polish collection inspired by Queen. Because, well, QUEEN. What can I say, my father instilled in me a healthy love and respect for awesome classic rock. Here is my skittlette homage to Queen.

Darling Diva Polish

We Will Rock You

Holographic Super Multi Chrome

I used two coats (yes, just two), no undies needed. I actually tried black undies for another polish in this collection and it did not look as nice at all. Anyway, imagine this even more epic in real life, there were so many colors and people noticed without me waving my nails in their face. I see blue, teal, purple, magenta, and rainbows. I stared at my nails all day. 

I think Queen would have approved of my studs and skull stamping, using Vivid Lacquer plate 001 and Pure Ice Silver Star. The silver pinky is textued using dance Legend Argentum. I am quite proud of these nails. Darling Diva even shared them on their facebook wall!

You can purchase Darling Diva Polish here. Hurry before the Queen polishes are gone! I promise they are worth every penny... I've already purchased them all.

You can purchase Vivid Lacquer plates and polish here. You will notice I use a lot of Vivid Lacquer plates, they are my favorite.

Have you loved your cuticles today?
What do you think of my Queen skittlette?