Deep Space by Two Birds One Store (Sarah from See Sarah Swatch)

Happy Friday! Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been super busy and I'm trying to keep up. Today I have a super special indie polish for you, this is Deep Space from Two Birds One Store on Etsy. Two Birds One Store is run by two sisters, one being Sarah from See Sarah Swatch. I've been a follower of Sarah's blog for quite some time and her layering and frankens always amaze me. If you aren't familiar with Sarah (you should be, she's a fellow Twinsie!) you have to check out her blog.

The first time I saw Deep Space swatched on Sarah's blog I fell in love. I've been obsessed with blue glitters lately (mostly sulking over not owning Essie SSN lol) and I've bought a few. This is hands down my favorite. Sarah described Deep Space as "a deep deep blue jelly with purple holo hex glitter and blue iridescent smaller glitter. This is what space SHOULD look like! Blingy, blue, and fabulous." I couldn't agree more. The jelly base on this is gorgeous and the glitter gives it such depth. I'm training a new guy at my job and he even commented on these nails. Formula was smooth and this did not dry gritty one bit. The photos below show two coats of Deep Space and a coat of Seche Vite. This post is a little picture heavy, because this polish shows depth differently at each angle. So enjoy.....

I'm glad I broke my no-buy to get my hands on this. Sarah's frankens are all limited edition with no custom or special orders. The polishes are full size bottles and retail for $8 with reasonable shipping. I also have a bottle of Kiss De Girl which is SO gorgeous, I look forward to posting those swatches. (Even though she is a fellow Twinsie, this review is completely unbiased. Even if I knew nothing about Sarah this polish would leave me more than satisfied with my purchase). She has some amazing frankens up her sleeve so keep your eyes open. Per the announcement on her page, the store will open again in late May/early June with new and permanent colors. She still has quite a few gorgeous polishes available so check them out.

What is on everyone's nails this weekend?
I'm rocking Zoya Wednesday with Lynnderella Shape Shifter and my nails are blinging! lol. I'm hanging out with my bestie tonight (who is also polish obsessed) and planning on going to Bushkill Falls tomorrow in the Poconos with my boyfriend. We went last weekend but missed closing time.
Does anyone have any fun plans this weekend?

See you all soon :)

Twinsie Tuesday - Favorite Polish (China Glaze Atlantis!!!)

Good Morning! I can't tell you how relieved I was that this week the Twinsie Tuesday theme was an easy one lol. The theme for this Tuesday is our favorite polish. I own expensive polishes and I own cheap polishes. This cheap(er) gem has a permanent home in my collection, and two back up bottles.

China Glaze Atlantis is my favorite polish. Teal jelly base, holographic glitter....what more can a girl ask for in appearance? This polish dances in the light like nothing I've ever seen before. While I hands down love love love this polish, the formula is hands down a-w-f-u-l! It's one of those polishes that doesn't just chip, you lose the entire nail. I wore this last week. I painted my nails around midnight and went to bed. I woke up the next morning, showered and started my drive to work. By 8:15am I noticed I was already missing an entire nail (luckily, I found it on the floor in my car and stuck it back on lol). By 9:30 I was missing a second. The thing that saves this polish is layering it.

For the photos I wanted to keep this polish in it's original unlayered state. I used three thin coats of Atlantis and a coat of Seche Vite.

If you don't already own Atlantis, what are you waiting for?!?!

Be sure to check out the other Twinsie Girls! I'm excited to see what everyone picked.

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing
Anne at Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley at Art Evolve
Brandi at The Collegiate Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Srsly Swatched

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Meredith at Polish and Charms
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Top Coat It
Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

Thanks for stopping by!
And a big special THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased from my blog sale! <3  

Zoya Paz......Orange Perfection!

Good Morning! Happy Monday! How many of us feel like this this morning?

LOL! This is one of my favorite photos, ever! I've had this saved on about three phones now and I've taken it with me to about three different jobs over the years. It makes a bad day better haha.

Anyhow, I got my package from the Zoya Earth Day promo last week. I ended up getting 14 polishes in order to qualify for free shipping, the Zoya Remove + and the Qtica grapefruit scrub. I picked up Arizona, Zuza, Meg, Heidi, Lianne, Ali, Renee, Wednesday, Paz, Elodie, Shelby, Rory, Kimber and Myrta. I was definitely in a bright coral/orange/pink mood when I ordered. When I got my package and unpacked them Zoya Paz jumped out at me. I have found my perfect orange.

Zoya Paz is a bright orange. It's exactly traffic cone orange. On top of being a great color the formula is perfection! The Zoya website calls this a creme but during application it feels so much like a jelly. It's so buttery smooth and it flows off the brush onto the nail with such ease. It's opaque in two coats but dries with a dull finish, looking almost rubberized. I topped this with a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri and it's amazing!

This polish gave my camera and the three other cameras in my household a hard time! I was finally able to get a color accurate photo outdoors with my cell camera (go Android!). For whatever reason, the top coat reflects strangely in these photos. I didn't realize it until after I removed this polish and came indoors.

Enough rambling....on to greatness!

I feel like I can swap all of my other oranges now. I have found my go to orange. I love this so much, how could I ever use another orange? lol

Does anyone else own Paz?

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Good Morning! Today I have Max Factor's Fantasy Fire for you. This is a UK exclusive, as Max Factor no longer available in the US. I did a swap with an amazing girl who lives across the pond and she was nice enough to send me Fantasy Fire (FYI - it is available on Ebay for $16+).

I held off on using Fantasy Fire for at least 1.5-2 months. The bottle is SO small I didn't want to use it. I finally got the guts to crack it open last week and I've used it twice since. I used one coat of Fantasy Fire over two coats over Revlon Royal, which is a layering combo I saw on LTHP. I'm loving this polish, it's pretty much draw dropping.....

The Revlon Royal looks pretty sheer by my cuticles but in person it's not that bad. Royal just doesn't like to be photographed! As I'm sure everyone is aware Fantasy Fire is supposed to be a dupe of Clarins 230 aka Unicorn Pee. I actually *accidentally* won Clarins 230 on Ebay last week, so I will eventually have a comparison post once I have the guts to use that one.

I hope everyone has a great day today!

Twinsie Tuesday - Skittles Mani

Hello! It's another Twinsie Tuesday post. This week's theme was a skittle mani, another mani that pushed me beyond my comfort zone lol. While I wouldn't typically wear a skittle mani on a regular basis, I would definitely rock this on my toes! I decided to go bright and summery with some of my Color Club polishes.

In person, these went together SO good. On camera, I had trouble getting them to photograph accurately. I'd like to blame it on the fact that some are creme and some have a bit of a jelly finish. I must have taken at least 30 photos, so here are the best of the bunch......

Thumb: The Lime Starts Here (3 coats)

Pointer: Jackie Oh! (3 coats, not 100% color accurate. This is HOT pink, no signs of coral)

Middle: Age of Aquarius (2 coats, a shade darker IRL)

Ring: Disco Dress (2 coats, just slightly more purple IRL)

Pinkie: Wham! Pow! (2 coats)

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsie  Tuesday ladies:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing
Anne at Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley at Art Evolve
Brandi at The Collegiate Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi
Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...
Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Meredith at Polish and Charms
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Top Coat It
Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed

Happy Friday!! Today I have a truly fantastic polish for you, Toxic Seaweed by Cult Nails! I picked this two of these up the night they went on sale and it just may be one of my favorite polishes so far in 2012. To be perfectly honest, I love this much more in person than I do in any swatches I have seen.

Toxic Seaweed has both of the best worlds....flakies and glitter all together in one polish. Everything is mixed up in a dark green jelly base. At times the base leans teal and the flakies flash red/orange for the most part. This is absolutely gorgeous and I love it even more than I expected to. Formula was easy to work with and I found this to be opaque in two coats. If you like this polish don't wait too long because it's limited edition.

The photos below show two coats of Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed and a coat of Seche Vite.

 I la-la-love this! You can pick this one up at www.CultNails.com for $10.00.

I hope everyone has a good weekend!!! Me and the boyfriend go on mini day trips every Saturday, and if the weather holds out I'm looking for something to do outside   :0)

Twinsie Tuesday: Jelly Sandwich

Good Morning! It's that special day of the week again, it's Twinsie Tuesday! When I originally looked at the schedule for this week I saw jelly sandwich as the theme and though to myself this would be a disaster. I had only tried one jelly sandwich before, using Essie Marshmallow and it was a FAIL. Besides Marshmallow, I only own 2 other jelly polishes due to the fact I had sold/swapped the rest of them. I had Revlon Royal to work with (too dark to sandwich anything) and Deborah Lippmann Yellow Brick Road. I remember seeing swatches of a jelly sandwich featuring Yellow Brick Road on Goose's Glitter and I was blooooown away. Deborah Lippmann's Yellow Brick Road was in a pile of polishes I was going to sell/swap, so I decided to give it another chance before I had to try and franken a jelly. I originally tried to sandwich DL YBR with Lynnderella's Connect the Dots but the white didn't stand out enough, in my opinion. I layered two coats of DL YBR and a coat of Jordana Sequins and came out with this......

 

To complete my jelly sandwich I added another coat of DL YBR and voila!

Visible nail line and all, DL YBR can keep it's home in my helmer. I may put Essie Marshmallow in the swap/sell drawer instead lol.

As always, don't forget to check out the other Twinsie Tuesday ladies. We've also added Brandi from The Collegiate Nail to the rotation, so make sure you check out everyone:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

On a side note, my no/low-buy was going so good and I was getting really proud of myself. I've been saving my dollars for the Lynnderella polishes that I want, and I've probably only purchased about 10 polishes in the last month (down from the 400-500 I bought in 2011 lol). Sometimes, rules must be broken. And if you have some extra money to spend RUN to Aveyou.com because they have the entire Hologram Collection from Layla up. My bestie alerted me to this last night and I whipped out my credit card like it was on fire lol. I was trying to hold out and buy them in Ulta for the sake of the $3.50 coupon, but with the coupon code Gimme25 you get $25 off $100. You can get all 8 Layla holo polishes for $99 + $1 shipping. Just figured I would share to anyone who has been waiting for these.
 Thanks for stopping by! :)

Duri Icicle

Happy Wednesday!  Sorry for missing posts. I'm hoping everything will be back to normal asap. I haven't had a moment to really breathe, and I'm typing this up before I head to bed so I can schedule it for tomorrow morning. I worked 7-4:30 today then had to drive 90 minutes in bumper to bumper traffic (in the pouring rain) to pick up my boyfriend from the airport. It's 11:00 and I'm now catching Teen Mom 2. Does anyone else watch this??

Speaking of rain, we've had absolutely no snow in New York so far. The closest thing to snow I've seen is the ice encapsulating my car in the morning hours. I wanted a snow themed mani, so I chose Duri's Icicle to be my 'snow'. Icile is part of Duri's winter collection, based upon the new Girl With The Dragon Tattoo movie (which I'm excited to see) but I think it may be a re-release because my beauty supply store already had it in with the rest of their polishes.

Duri Icicle is a milky sheer polish, with gold/silver/iridescent shimmer. The formula of Icicle is extremely easy to work with, and I'm in love with the brush. It's pretty sheer, so I decided to layer it over Essie Marshmallow. Essie Marshmallow is a white jelly polish. It's my second time using it, and I really dislike the formula. I find it to be hard to work with and streaky, and it remains streaky even after 2 coats. It's thick, doesn't dry well, etc.

The photos below show 2 coats of Essie Marshmallow, 2 coats of Duri Icicle and a coat of Seche Vite. This mani was so thick (I blame Essie Marshmallow), that I couldn't wait to pick it off. The photos show two coats without polish.
Luckily, I have quite a few swatch photos left, so I don't have to post my pure nubbins just yet! lol

Holiday Nails Day # 5. China Glaze Mrs.Claus

Happy Wednesday! Today is day # 5 of the holiday manis, and today I have China Glaze's Mrs.Claus for you. I'm sure most of you know this polish, and the fact that it is a dupe for OPI DS Bold (but, it was out before and it was the original lol)
Mrs.Claus is what I would consider a washed out red. The color is somewhere between red and pink. The base is a jelly and it's packed with red glitter pieces. Formula was easy to work with, and I only needed two coats to get it opaque. I did find that the wear on this was pretty bad, which is something I normally don't experience with China Glaze. I put this on my nails around 1am, and before I went out the next day I had lost an entire nail. I spent the day at the mall and the night in NYC, and by the time I got home 6 out of 10 fingers were chipped badly. I really thought I would love this polish, but I'm a little disappointed. Someone in the stores commented on my nails, and I actually thought about reaching in my bag, grabbing Mrs.Claus and gifting it to them LOL.

The photos below show 2 coats of Mrs.Claus and a coat of Seche Vite. This was a little difficult to photograph, as my camera wanted to show it more red than it was IRL. I couldn't get a lot of accurate pics, which explains the lack of multiple angles :0/

The missing polish. This is how clean it came off. Don't mind the tear with Glittering Garland stuck in it.
I'm going to have a nubbin soon  :***(

Holiday Nails Day # 4. China Glaze Glittering Garland

Good morning! Today is day # 4 of my holiday manis, and I'm actually having a lot of fun doing this. I think I may do a 30 days of untrieds sometime soon. Today I have China Glaze's Glittering Garland from their Let It Snow collection that came out recently.

Glittering Garland looked a little boring to me in the bottle, to be honest. I could see the shimmer of the lighter green, but was thinking it wouldn't translate to the nail correctly. I assumed that this would look dark and lifeless. I was so wrong. Glittering Garland is really gorgeous on the nail. The dark green jelly base really helps the lighter green and olive microglitter stand out. The finish gives off a glass fleck look. Formula was fantastic and it was completely opaque in two easy coats. I didn't buy the entire Let It Snow collection, but I'm thinking I will have to pick up the remainder of the collection after the holidays.

The photos below show 2 coats of Glittering Garland and a coat of Seche Vite. Photos are with and without flash.

Thanks for stopping by today :)

Hare Polish Brisbee

Good Morning! Today I have another polish from Nikole over at Nailing It! This is another gorgeous one and I recommend you check out her shop on Etsy.

Brisbee is a gorgeous teal jelly with golden hex glitter. It totally reminds me of gold coins in the Caribbean sea. Not that I've ever been to the Caribbean, but this is what I imagine lol. You can see the glitter more in Brisbee than in Pegasus due to the base being a little more sheer.

This is three coats of Brisbee and a coat of Seche Vite.

Ozotic Elytra 528 (Over Color Club Blue-topia)

I had been stalking the http://www.shop.llarowe.com/ page for Glitter Gal's Lizard Belly to come back in stock when I saw that they now carried OZOTIC and shipped within the US. This was a DREAM come true. I've been lemming the Ozotic polishes for as long as I could remember, and at the time I thought I would never get them. I wanted to buy from PicturePolish but hated the thought they could possibly get lost in transit and I would be out of luck.

I was on my 10am break at work when I saw these. I immediately ordered Ozotic Elytra # 528 and # 529. I was so excited I missed the multi-chromes. (I still have yet to order them, shame on me). I checked the USPS tracking site multiple times a day for updates, and when I saw it was delivered I drove an hour home just to grab them out of the mailbox. It was love at first sight! It's the most gorgeous multichrome glitter I've ever seen.

I've seen 528 layered mostly over black, so I wanted to try something a little different. I figured I would try Color Club's Blue-topia which is a dark blue jelly. I used two coats of Color Club Blue-Topia and three coats of Ozotic Elytra 528. Over blue, the green/teal is very prominant. I have since tried two coats over black, which I now prefer as all the colors have a chance to really show (I will have swatches up of that in another post).

Without further rambling.....here we go! (I couldn't narrow down the photos on this one either, so enjoy the extra photos!)

Up first is Blue-topia by itself, just for your reference.