Purple Franken

Hello all! I'm back after a very long, very unscheduled hiatus! You wouldn't believe the madness that was happening...but you didn't come here to hear me talk...you want polish!

Today's polish is a gorgeous franken made by Becca over at Franken Femme! If you haven't checked out her blog yet, click the link and follow her blog! She makes creative and gorgeous frankens!

I just died. So pretty! This is 3 coats on the nail wheel. Those sparkles are to die for. 

Pic Spam Ahead! BEWARE!

And because it reminded me of OPI Visions of Sugarplum, I did a quick comparison. The OPI is more blue-toned and doesn't have as much dimension as the franken...which I should really name. Any suggestions?

Don't forget to go visit Franken Femme!

Janelle

Valentine's Day Nail Art 2!

Oh yes, I'm back with another nail art post, this time for those who don't want to be quite as obvious with their nails. We're doing leopard print today!! Leopard print is one of my favorites, and I finally got a decent looking leopard print now that I decided to use a dotting tool! So you can use any colors you'd like, but seriously, what nail polish is sexier than a holographic polish? I started off with a base of Nfu Oh 459, intending to do hearts or something girly, but I decided not to waste my time since the formula was a pain in the butt. It would have been easier to apply glue. The color is a gorgeous, almost neon coral though, so I had to photograph it with flash and the lights off. I then topped it with Seche Vite, since I was at work and needed it to dry fast. I only kept it on because I really needed to sleep after work. Later, I added Sea Lore Arista, a gorgeous peach jelly base with golden flakies. Of course, I needed to add more, so using Color Club Beyond, a black holographic polish, and Color Club Cosmic Fate, a peachy copper holographic polish, I created leopard print! Hope you like this, and if hearts aren't your style, maybe this will be!

Hopefully that last picture shows you how annoyingly thick the Nfu Oh was. And how gorgeous the holo is! See you soon with part 3!

Janelle

Valentine's Art Idea 1

Sorry for the sudden absence again but life was getting a little hectic so I had to stop blogging for a bit, but as always, I kept painting my nails.
So this nail art idea came from a picture one of my friends found on facebook here. I changed some things up but feel free to do it like the original or add your own twist on it!
I used China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Champagne Kisses as my base colors, A-England Perceval for the hearts, loose glitter from Born Pretty Store, and acrylic paint for the black details. Then I decided it needed a little more and added Lynnderella Undead Red to the tips for a glitter gradient on my red nails. Ok, onto the pictures! Hope this gives someone an idea for nail art!

And, just because I can, a glitter macro!

I love Undead Red! If you want a similar glitter for a lower price, Sea Lore Arista is very similar! The glitter shapes aren't exactly the same, but the types of glitter are super similar including the holo pieces.

Hope you enjoyed the first of my nail art series, and let me know in the comments if there's something you want to see in this series or otherwise!

Janelle

KBSHIMMER ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF NINE NEW POLISHES

KBShimmer is excited to announce the addition of 9 new colors to their 3-Free glitter polish line.  Owner Christy Rose says “With Easter, warmer weather, and Spring Break fast approaching February is the ideal time to introduce softer pastels to our line up, but also to add a splash of bold color.”

The spring lineup includes three glitter top coats, two bold jellies, and four creamy pastels, one of which is scented.  “Our new line was created to play off the softer palette of spring, but also to accent unique glitters like small black dots and spring 2013 Pantone colors like the color of the year, Emerald Green.  We are also excited to debut this collection in our new printed bottles.  With the printed bottles, and our glitter grabbing flat brush, we feel our polish is a solid addition to any collection.” says Rose.

KBSHimmer – spRING 2013 COLLECTION
A Dot Mess– Fuchsia and black dots, hexes, and micro slices in a clear base – Top Coat
Pastel Me More –Pastel colored glitters in a rainbow of colors and range of sizes – Top Coat
Squared Away –Square glitters in a variety of sizes, colors and finishes including metallic and holographic in a clear base – Top Coat

Spring Training – Soft green crelly full of pink, purple, blue and green floral toned glitters, scented with a floral freesia note - Full coverage in 2-3 coats
Where My Peeps At –Soft yellow crelly with circle and tiny hex glitter in fun jelly bean like shades - Full coverage in 2-3 coats
Lottie Dottie – Turquoise and fuchsia dots and coordinating glitters micro slices in a soft white base - Full coverage in 2-3 coats

Iris My Case –Violet pastel crelly with glitters in purple, pink, silver and blue  - Full coverage in 2-3 coats
Get Clover It – Emerald green jelly with micro shimmer and circle glitter in shades of green, gold and turquoise- Best in 3 coats or layered over coordinating polish to cover nail line
I Got A Crush On Blue – Royal blue jelly with holographic silver glitters ranging from micro to extra large- Best in 3 coats or layered over coordinating polish to cover nail line

Shipping February 15, 2013
KBShimmer products can be found at Http://www.KBShimmer.com.  For sales outside of the US visit http://www.HarlowandCo.org.
KBShimmer was founded in 2008 by the husband and wife team of Jason and Christy Rose.  KBShimmer offers unique and colorful nail glitter nail polishes that are Big 3 Free, with all glitter formulas being completely free of chemicals such as toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin and dibutyl phthalate (DBP).  KBShimmer glitter polishes feature a flat glitter grabbing brush for easy application.  KBShimmer also offers a 2-free quick dry polish top coat, olive oil lotion, sugar scrubs, lip balms, cold process soaps and other skin care products.
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If you would like more information about KBShimmer, contact Christy Rose by emailing sales@kbshimmer.com or visting Http://www.KBShimmer.com.
© 2013 KBShimmer. All rights reserved

Zoya Carly

I'm slowly but surely getting swatches of the Zoyas I own posted. I figure they'll come in handy when Zoya is having its next promo - which I'm sure is just around the corner. Plus, if you're anything like me, you'll be ordering a ton of Zoyas during the Earth Day promo!

Look at the foily goodness! The silver looks prominent in the bottle but it's a perfect foil on the nail, so don't worry about your bottle being unmixed.

This pic does not do Carly justice!

Slightly better, but nowhere near as beautiful as it is in real life.

Ok, I tried. Carly is a plum colored foil that is opaque in one coat if you do thick coats, but I tend to do thin coats, especially with Zoyas, so this is two thin coats. No topcoat here, and it still dried shiny. Is Zoya awesome or what? This is like the foil version of Zoya Keiko, just darker. Keiko and Carly would look good together...perhaps in a tape mani? 

Happy Polishing,

Janelle

Nail Art Say What?

I apologize in advance for the quality of these pictures! My camera was on the wrong setting (for some strange reason) and these pictures came out grainy and I didn't realize until after the design was removed from my nails. I plan to have more nail art on the blog in the future, so I will make sure the settings on my camera are right before photographing next time. =)

So, Valentine's Day is coming up and I figured it was a good excuse to do some nail art! I started out with a base of Zoya Pippa on my nails and my accent nail was one coat of Deborah Lippmann Ray of Light over 2 coats of Color Club In The Limelight (a supposed dupe for DL I Know What Boys Like). The hearts were drawn with acrylic paint and then topped with topcoat. Pippa had a decent formula, a little streaky, but if you let it dry a little between coats, it evens itself out. It was very strange. I used 3 coats here but it was fine with 2 to the naked eye.

I really wish I had better quality pics to show you. Well, that's all for today, have a wonderful weekend and since it's a three-day weekend for me, I'll see you all on Tuesday! 

Happy Polishing (and MLK day!),

Janelle

Back to Blue

I bring to you today one of my favorite layering combos ever! First, the creme, the famous Nails Inc Baker St!

Oh yes, the glorious blue! Nothing will ever compare for me...

I drool every time I wear it! I may need a backup bottle...

And it dries so shiny! No topcoat here, just two coats of glorious blue!

Now, what makes everything better? Flakies! I finally used my bottle of Nfu Oh 53!

I could just drown in this polish! It's so pretty! It's like a glass-flecked polish had a baby with a flakie polish like Nubar 2010 or Essie Shine of the times!

Taken in filtered sunlight

So pretty! At least it is to me! 

I took this pic in the shadow so the flakies would show better.

And, since I know somebody out there wants to know if this gets opaque by itself, I used 3 coats of the Nfu Oh by itself on my thumb. I still had some VNL, but my short-nailed friends will be able to wear this with ease. Beware that it is sort of thick, so I would definitely recommend layering rather than building it up by itself.

Side shot of my thumb! Catch a load of the shimmer and the flakie color shift!

Looks so pretty! You can hardly even see the VNL!

And who doesn't love macro shots? I know I love them!

I hope you enjoyed this splash of color in the middle of winter, and if you want to know anything, just ask below in the comments! I purchased Baker Street from Sephora and Nfu Oh 53 from Fabuloustreet.

Happy Polishing,

Janelle

Another Pink...and it's Wednesday!

I break all the rules over here at Life.Love.Nailpolish, because it's my blog and I can do what I want! But today, I'm actually posting a pink polish on a Wednesday! So I guess I can say "On [some]Wednesdays, we wear pink!" Ok, onto the rambling about the polish. Nubar Pink Lily is a very light pink creme with fine shimmer that lines up in strands. I'm terrible at descriptions. It's got shimmer like Zoya Marley. That's the best I can do. I got this in a grab bag I purchased in a Facebook group. I used 3 coats for the pictures. It was streaky on the first, but managed to get mostly evened out by the third. I've shown it without topcoat. I also have a comparison for you after the inital swatches!

It's really light! And the fine shimmer is really invisible. I just thought of a better description of the shimmer - pearly shimmer! But it still looks like a creme.

It makes me look so tan! 

Here you can see it was a bit lumpy. I'm sure topcoat would help with that. I think it may also need a 4th coat. Keep in mind that these were pretty thin coats though, so maybe I just needed to polish a little thicker and I might have been able to get away with 2 coats.

Comparison time! I compared it to 2 other light pinks in my stash, just to see how similar it was. I have China Glaze Something Sweet on my index finger and OPI Mod About You on my ring finger. I used 3 coats of each.

This pic came out a little too dark and warm, but you can clearly tell the differences between the polishes. The China Glaze and OPI have some lavender in them and are more cool-toned compared to Pink Lily.

The China Glaze and the OPI are more similar to each other than to Pink Lily. 

Verdict: No dupes of Pink Lily here, but Something Sweet and Mod About You are interchangeable.

Hope this helped at least one person! Have a marvelous day!

Happy Polishing,

Janelle

So Many Photos, So Little Time...

I couldn't decide what to post today, I figured I'd show you the gross swatches now and the nice ones later. I feel like I've been showing a lot of work-appropriate polish here lately, so why break that streak? I promise I'll have something brightly colored later on this week! I have no idea why I took so few photos, so hopefully, you get the gist of this polish - Zoya Erika.

Erika is a light pink with gold shimmer that sort of looks green at certain angles. It's like the pink version of Zoya Gaia! This photo is a little too pale but the bottom two are more accurate. I've shown it at two coats in all the photos. There is VNL at 2 coats but I liked how it looked. If you would like to build it up more, I believe it was opaque in 4 coats the first time I wore it.

I love gold shimmer....sigh....

Very work-appropriate, and not boring at all! And I'm sure you could use it for jelly sandwiches! It's very versatile!

Hope you like pink polish, because I've got another one for you tomorrow!

Happy Polishing,

Janelle

Three In A Row

Hope you don't mind, but it's the third Orly polish on a row here on Life.Love.Nailpolish! Nite Owl was one of my must-haves from the Birds Of A Feather collection released in Fall of 2011. I've worn it before, but as with most Orly polishes on me, it chipped in a few hours so I don't wear it very often. It's a sort of chocolatey taupe color with silver shimmer. I thought it would be more nude but it's a bit too dark and cool-toned on me. I'll have to look it up in my notebook later, but I used either 2 or 3 coats here. It was a little thick and lumpy, but I don't know if that's because it's been sitting around for so long since the last time I used it. On to the pics!

It's really packed with shimmer, so no need to worry about this being a hidden shimmer polish!

See what I mean about it being a little lumpy? I'll thin it next time before I wear it. I hope my bottle of Royal Navy thickened up a bit since it was on the thin side.

Hope you liked the polish, and if not, I hope you at least liked the larger pic size! I widened the blog so that it could fit larger pics. If the pics still aren't large enough for you, you can always click on them and make them even bigger (although, that is slightly more complicated now that I use flickr for pics).

Happy Polishing,

Janelle