Renaissance Cosmetics: Sweet & Sassy Duo

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

Hi guys! I hope everyone had a fun Valentine's Day. Since the hubs was working I actually had more of a Galentine's Day with my cousin (and fellow polish addict) and one of her friends. We braved the blizzard and spent the afternoon in a couple classes making some yummy chocolate cherry bread and then a stained glass heart with local artisans--you can see my heart on instagram. Otherwise Sunday was so cold (it stayed well below 0 degrees Fahrenheit all day and was even colder at night) that I pretty much just hibernated all day and played with polish. I am trying to let my nails grow out in their natural shape, but not sure how I'm liking the flare at the end... but maybe I'll break my corners less? We shall see.

This year Renaissance Cosmetics came out with the Sweet & Sassy Duo for Valentine's Day. I love these because while they are lovely for this holiday they are usable in all different ways all year! They also feature those amazing multichrome flakies. Let's take a look!

Shelby Lou Nails
Renaissance Cosmetics Sugar and Spice
from the Sassy & Sweet Valentine's Duo

First up is Sugar and Spice, the Sweet half of this duo. It has white satin and holographic rose glitters along with a generous helping of multichrome flakes. I can't get enough, it is so beautiful and delicate! For this mani I started with two coats of Polish My Life Pink Sandals and three on my accent nail. I did just one coat of RenCos Sugar and Spice, dabbing just a few of the larger satin and rose glitters where I wanted them. I did not have to do any fishing and everything spread so nicely. I added the Pegasus charm from Hex Nail Jewelry as my accent. Sweet enough for a toothache!

Shelby Lou Nails
Renaissance Cosmetics Sassy With A Vengeance
from the Sassy & Sweet Valentine's Duo

Sassy With A Vengeance is, obviously, the sassy side of this duo. It has matte black and fuchsia holographic glitters as well as those gorgeous multichrome flakes. This is the perfect Maleficent nail polish! For this look I did two luscious coats of KBShimmer Pansy-Monium. I did one coat of Sassy and dabbed some of the black glitters where I wanted them. Again, everything spread very nicely and it was easy to grab a few black glitters on the neck of the bottle for perfect placement. The bow is from Born Pretty Store. I love how dark but shimmery this came out.

The Sweet & Sassy Duo is exactly what I've been waiting for with the multichrome flakes. Make sure you check out my instagram for some amazing macros! Meghan, RenCos genius, does plan on restocking these towards the end of the month and Sugar and Spice is still available along with a Sassy-looking prototype.

Products: 
Renaissance Cosmetics
Polish My Life
Hex Nail Jewelry
KBShimmer

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Hump Day HARE: A Surreal New Year

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

So tonight I am taking my pistol course with my husband, woo! My grandfather and my aunt used to be professional target shooters (they used to walk their guns across the bridge to Canada for competitions, can you imagine?!) so this is something I've always wanted to do. My husband has to have his permit for work now, so it's time. I am going to need a latte the size of my head to get through the evening class though--just like old times for night classes in college haha!

I am super-excited for today's edition of Hump Day HARE because they have metallic flakies! I know a ton of indies have been coming out with them, but these are in beautiful shades of delicate jellies (wipes drool from mouth). This year Hare released a trio for New Year's entitled A Surreal New Year. All of these beauties are based on famous works of Salvador Dali and they come with a limited edition gold bunny label!

Shelby Lou Nails
Hare Polish Rosa Meditativa
New Year's 2015: A Surreal New Year
Charm from Hex Nail Jewelry

Rosa Meditativa is a mauve jelly with assorted ultra chrome flakies. On Hare Polish's website it looks more rosy, but mine definitely looks more purple in my photos and it did so in real life. I haven't thought to contact Nikole about it before now--oops. Either way, I like it! Imagine all the beautiful metallic flashes with every hand motion in person.

Shelby Lou Nails
Hare Polish When the Melting Clock Strikes Midnight
New Year's 2015: A Surreal New Year
Charm from Hex Nail Jewelry

When the Melting Clock Strikes Midnight is a white jelly with ultra chrome flakies, gold flakes, and iridescent gold glitter as well as purple shimmer. Ahmahgahd! I can't even. Image this making you pant, it's that much more beautiful in person. I think this is going to be my new go-to neutral!

Shelby Lou Nails
Hare Polish Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening on New Years
New Year's 2015: A Surreal New Year
Charm from Hex Nail Jewelry

Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second before Awakening on New Years. Yup, that is indeed the name of the polish and the famous work! Dream, as we shall call it, is a smokey blue-toned purple jelly filled with all colors of ultra chrome flakies. I was especially delighted to see this polish because not only does it make my heart race, it is based on one of my favorite Dali pieces. I wanna stamp it...

The jelly formula on all three of these polishes is perfect. I did three to four thin coats in all of my swatches, no pooling or uneven application. All of the charms are from Hex Nail Jewelry, I thought they fit the collection well. So tell me what you think of the metallic flakies in jelly!

Products:
Hare Polish
Hex Nail Jewelry

Have you loved your cuticles today?

SquareHue Rovaniemi Review

Purchased By Shelby Lou (Hex Nail Charm)
Press Sample (SquareHue Polishes) 

Have you entered my Christmas Trio Giveaway yet? There's not much time left to enter!

You will notice I rounded out my nails this weekend. I'm not sure how I feel about them, but this attempt at rounding has been more successful than past ones haha. Square/Squoval is just so much easier to shape. I lost two corners this weekend though that I couldn't work into the squoval. Oh well!

Today I have a review of the December 2014 Box: Rovaniemi. I was so flippin' excited when I opened the box and even more so when I realized there were three different finishes inside. I also appreciate that this last installment of The Passport Collection is a town on the Arctic Circle where Santa Claus visits during the holidays! So did the polishes live up to this nail polish/childhood mash-up I concocted in my head?

SquareHue Sampokeskus
12.14 Rovaniemi
The Passport Collection

First is Sampokeskus, a pale gold textured microglitter. These are Finnish names I can't even begin to pronounce, so I am just going to affectionately refer to this one as Sam. I had to swatch this one twice. The first time I didn't anticipate how quickly it would dry. I tried to do a thin first coat but that ended up a clumpy mess. The second time I did two medium-thick coats. Once I got over that application hurdle I was pretty pleased with Sam. It is a unique shade of gold and looked lovely on. Now I could not personally wear this because the texture is quite rough, but I think texture lovers would enjoy it.

SquareHue Revontuli
12.14 Rovaniemi
The Passport Collection

Revontuli is an evergreen suede. This application was rough. I had to redo this swatch because I got a lumpy mess the first time. When I applied this the second time I started with a ridge-filling basecoat and applied a medium-thick coat. Then I repeated the ridge-filler and did a last thick coat. And I also dumped a little of the polish and added a ton of thinner. This is a really fast-drying formula, much more like a plain old matte. It drags and clumps so easily. It's not often a polish application makes me want to scream but this one did. It looked passable but not as good as I would like. Revontuli, oh how much I wanted to love you... but alas I cannot. Especially when I have Zoya Veruschka which applies like butter. Hey, the little Hex Nail Jewelry tree is cute though!

SquareHue Joulupukin Pajakyla
12.14 Rovaniemi
The Passport Collection

Joulupukin Pajakyla is a blue-toned red jelly with red microglitter shimmers. I am going to nickname this one JP haha. I did three easy coats of this beauty, clean-up was easier than I anticipated with the red because of the jelly-type formula. Is it unique? In my collection it is. I like the subtle microglitter shimmer of it very much and it was easy to apply. I think I might be wearing this one to work tomorrow!

So a bit of a mixed review here. To have two polishes with application issues kind of makes this box a fail. This really mystifies me though, because when I subscribed in 2013 I can't remember any formula issues with their polishes (you can check out previous posts about SquareHue on my blog here). All I can think is the mattes threw them off their game. I'm sad that I have to post about this experience for a review when I had 12 good months last year! I'm still personally thinking about starting up my subscription for 2015. We will see what the nail budget brings. Any other SquareHue subscribers or veterans out there? Thoughts?

Products:
SquareHue

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Zoya Naturel Deux--Owl Chevrons

***Press Sample
***Purchased By Me

I just finished working a 6th day in a row and I am exhausted! I had no idea I was also about to be typing up my 100th blog post this week either. Go me! I do have plans to be more consistent through August with posts. I think I do need to get back to posting the looks I wear and enjoy on a regular basis, which is how I really started out and what I enjoy the most. I've also been thinking of switching to actually wearing the color for my swatches and posting several times a week instead. We shall see what August brings!

Here is a look I did with the browns from the Zoya Naturel Deux collection. I had a tough time coming up with something for the browns. These shades are gorgeous but totally out of my comfort zone--which was good because I needed a challenge! Of course I needed some gold to accent these lovely chocolate shades. I haven't worn my little Hex Nail Jewelry Owl yet, which is a shame because he is adorable. I also decided to use the browns in a very graphic, color-blocked kind of way to show off the colors the best and not end up looking like a grandma mani--like in a bad way.

Owl Chevrons
Featuring Zoya Spencer, Chanelle, & Emilia

On my pinky I used Emilia with a lilttle gold stud accent.
For my ring finger I used a base of Chanelle with the owl charm from Hex Nail Jewelry.
For my index and middle finger I chose a base of Spencer. I used a chevron nail guide and painted Emilia on, making sure to wrap the tip. Then I used a striping brush to freehand the second stripe in Chanelle. I know I wasn't pumped about Spencer when I was swatching, but she sure works well for nail art!
If you are interested, you can see my swatches and review of the Zoya Naturel Deux chocolate shades here.


I am pretty pleased with what I ended up with! Trust me, there were many redone nails in this process.

Products:
Hex Nail Jewelry
Zoya

Have you loved your cuticles today?

A Box, Indied: The Deadly and the Beautiful

I know I've been regaling you all with my misadventures of body aches and pains, but I seriously can't catch a break. I was out sick on Thursday this week with laryngitis. Go me! I have felt awful all week, but I'm still very protective of my caseload at work and made myself go in yesterday. Anyway, again, legit reason for lack of posts...

Before May is over I thought I'd show you my favorites from this May's A Box, Indied. I get the box because I don't want to miss out on exclusive shades, and anything I don't like I can usually just get back what I paid for it on my blog sale (go look! I also have a cheapie cheap board).

The first, and my favorite, will come as no surprise: HARE polish The Blooming Desert. I love me some HARE! The Blooming Desert is a hot pink jelly with orange and white glitters as well as golden flakies and shimmer. I used three coats for my swatch, starting thin and building up coverage. HARE polish does have a learning curve for application, so if you're new to glittered jellies & crellies check out this post. My accent nail is Sephora by OPI Hi-Def with some pearls.

HARE polish
The Blooming Desert

Contrary Polish Darling Wildflower was a surprise favorite for me, as I am not usually a purple person. Darling Wildflower is a purple jelly with microflakies and microshimmer. I see golds, pinks, and reds making this one of those beautifully complex shimmers. I did a first thin coat, a second thicker coat, and a third generous coat. In the photos you can see a little VNL but it was much less noticeable in person. I couldn't resist adding an owl from Hex Nail Jewelry.

Contrary Polish
Darling Wildflower

I just looked and there are still May boxes available, go grab yours if you like what you see! June's A Box, Indied goes on sale Monday May 26th. If you can swing the cost, it is a super fun treat every month. I am already dying over the HARE and Jindie previews for June!

Products:
A Box, Indied

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Polish Addict Nail Color: After The Rain & May Flowers

**Provided for honest review**

Yup, I'm still here. I thought last weekend was bad when I woke up and couldn't move... this weekend I pinched a nerve in my right arm and had this horrid shooting nerve pain keeping me from doing anything, including sleeping, for days. Last night I was also certain I was getting the flu only to wake up and feel fine (except for sore throat from allergies, but that's another story). Blah, anyway. Here are some long-overdue swatches from Polish Addict Nail Color (or PANC). You know I added a lil something to these swatches, too ;-)

First I have May Flowers, a glitter topper with pastel purple satin flowers and glitters in assorted shapes and sizes of purple, blue, teal, white, and yellow-green. I have it shown over OPI Eurso Euro, the dots on the accent nail are China Glaze Def Defying. I tried this topper over some lighter shades but all of the glitters just stood out the best to me against the darker color. The base is packed with glitter but easy to apply. I used one coat of the glitter and it painted it on like I was applying a color, if that makes sense. I did just a little fishing and dabbing for the flowers, which is the reality of big glitters. I only placed two but there are enough for more if you'd like. I also did a little dabbing for the green glitters which were more sparse and I wanted more green (because green!).

Polish Addict Nail Color
May Flowers
Shown over OPI Eurso Euro

The blue and green are actually colors of my teenage bedroom (navy and lime) so I am still loving this topper and mani!

After The Rain is an LE polish. I'm sorry to be showing you a limited edition, but hopefully this will help you to decide if you need to put out an ISO. There are also similarly formulated holo-glitter-jelly PANCs (such as Unicorn 2.2) for which this review would also apply. After The Rain is a blue holographic base with blue and gold flakies, iridescent glitters, and matte microglitters. After The Rain also reminds me a lot of Violets Are Blue, another beloved PANC of mine. Just look at all of the goodness going on in After The Rain *drool* I don't want my holos without flakies and glitter ever again. I added a gold Hex Nail Charm on top of my polish, but I didn't use any TC over it as this was for swatching purposes (I have a short review of Hex in this post here).

Polish Addict Nail Color
After The Rain (Limited Edition)

I have to admit I was confused by the formula at first and was a little like what-? when I was trying to apply it. I realized that I was going at this all wrong though--I wanted to think it was a metallic creme but it is definitely a jelly! So, once that confusion was over, and because jellies and I sometimes hate each other, I added a few drops of thinner to help me out and everything was fine after that (disclaimer: I am a thinner addict). The formula is easy to control, I did three coats (start thin and build up). I only did a quick cuticle sweep for clean-up. From the little clean-up I did do I can see this being a sparkle nightmare, I recommend painting carefully and the tin foil method for removal. Overall I'm so glad to have been able to review this baby.

Anyone else have thoughts on the holo-glitter-jellies from PANC?
Any polishes remind you of being a teenager?

Products:
Polish Addict Nail Color

Have you loved your cuticles today?

KBShimmer All Elf'd Up

It's practically Christmas! Since I just started my job I wasn't able to take off Christmas Eve, which is a bummer but hopefully I can get out a little early. Christmas Eve is really when my dad's side of the family celebrates Christmas and it is always my most cherished day of the year. I have to work this weekend but I have Thursday and Friday off. I have a list of last-minute things to do and I think I'm on schedule, so that's good!

Today I have All Elf'd Up from KBShimmer. This is my perfect Christmas polish! A white crelly with red, green, and silver hexes and micro bars. I hate bar glitter but I love the microbars, weird.

KBShimmer has a mind-blowing crelly formula you have to try to believe. It is completely loaded with glitter but so spreadable and never gloopy. I layered two coats over a white creme.

You may recognize my little tree from Hex Nail Jewelry. What can I say, their charms add the perfect little something special to any mani, even glittery crellies.

Where to purchases selected products:

KBShimmer

Hex Nail Jewelry

Have you loved your cuticles today? Mine look like they needed a little more TLC in these photos haha!

Zoya Posh & Savita with Hex Nail Jewelry

Short on time so I'll get right to some pictures! Here are a few swatches of the other Zoya Matte Velvets that I purchased in the trio--they came in the lovely Zoya trio box, too! I highly recommend Zoya Get Even ridge-filling basecoat for a smooth finish.

Zoya Posh

Beautiful berry matte shimmer

Pegasus charm from Hex Nail Jewelry

Zoya Posh with topcoat

 

Zoya Savita

Deep royal purple matte shimmer

Horseshoe charm from Hex Nail Jewelry

 

Zoya Savita with topcoat

Links for selected products:
Hex Nail Jewelry
Zoya Nail Polish

Remember to moisturize! I'm loving my cuticles several times a day right now. Ugh, winter.

Zoya Veruschka with Hex Nail Jewelry

Zoya recently re-released some of their Matte Velvet shades. I don't remember if I saw it on a blog or on Zoy'as facebook, all I know is as soon as I found out I was buying all four shades 10 seconds later. I have been dying for Veruschka for so long and now she is mine! I will be showing you two other shades tomorrow, Veruschka needed her own post.

Zoya Veruschka is a perfect hunter green matte suede. Please excuse the lobster hands, you know what greens do to hands in photos!

I used a nice thick basecoat, Zoya Get Even ridge-filling basecoat. For mattes and suedes this is definitely a must for a flawless finish since you can't use a topcoat to smooth it out. I have also found Zoya works best for me when I use only their basecoats and topcoats with their polish.

While Veruschka was perfectly beautiful, I just got a second order of Hex Nail Jewelry and really wanted to play with them so I added Hex's "Christmas Tree." I have several Hex charms now and I am so pleased with the quality and detail. I anchor mine on with nail glue and for extra staying power, if needed, you can put a topcoat on as well. Obviously I did not use topcoat here, just dabbed on some nail glue with a toothpick and placed it with tweezers.

 
Here is Veruschka with topcoat. You can really see how much shimmer is in the formula to give it depth whether matte or shiny.

 I wanted to lick my nails, they just looked so damn perfect. I love this for a winter or holiday manicure, understated but so chic!

The Matte Velvets are sold out, did anyone else grab some?
Have you tried Hex yet?

Links for selected products:
Hex Nail Jewelry
Zoya Nail Polish

I hope you've shown your cuticles some love today!

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Nails feat. Hex & Covergirl

I really underestimated how much adjustment my new work schedule was going to need. I am literally waking up when I used to go to bed UGH. I apologize for my unplanned weekend off from posting anything. I lamely tried to get people to post on my facebook page but that appears to be a fail as well. Then I had a bad break and my nails are beyond nubby at this time.... I have some ideas for nail care this week though which I hope will help everyone with the dropping humidity!

So who hasn't seen Catching Fire yet? I went on Saturday with a friend and of course I needed some appropriate nails. They needed to be quick though because that is the story of my life... I wait until the night before to figure out what I want to do hehe. I have two new-to-me brands which I purchased and received at just the right time to inspire this quick look!




For these nails I used:
Undies--Sephora by OPI Hi-Def
Covergirl Rogue Red from the Capitol Collection, 3 thin coats
Gold Studs from Born Pretty Store
"Free Bird" Gold Charm Hex Nail Jewelry

Rogue Red is a foil-metallic polish made up of red, orange, and golden-yellow flakes. I had swatched the Covergirl Capitol Colors on a piece of paper and they are very very sheer. Plus the undies make the polish super bold and they literally look like an ember's glow!
 

Let's talk about the bird charm. I am in love with Hex Nail Jewelry and I am going to be ordering more for sure. I stuck on my Free Bird with a dab of nail glue a couple hours before I left the house, which is important so the glue is good and dry. I did make sure I was careful when wearing it and it stayed on well even through mitten changes (it went into single digits that night, brr!). When I went to remove the charm I found it popped off fairly easily and I was able to peel off the glue without damaging the polish. I was able to stick it back on the next day, but I wasn't paying attention and it popped off when I opened a cereal box... luckily it just fell into the box and I didn't lose my bird!

Oh, and Catching Fire was amazing and even better than the first!
You can purchase Covergirl Capitol Colors in most drug stores.
You can purchase Hex Nail Jewelry from their website. They are very affordable!
Cuticles should never be on fire, sooth them with some moisture today.