It's winter time, so how about a "thermal" to keep you warm? A review of Split Personality by Smokey Mountain Lacquers!

Hello lovely readers! Have you missed me? I have been super busy! My Noah (the wrestler) went to the National Dual tournament in Virginia! He did great! Since I go back, we have been busy getting ready for family to come. I just got my tree up yesterday! I usually have it up in November on Black Friday!!! SO I am way behind! Now on to today's review!

Today, I have a lovely Pink/Purple thermal called Split Personality for review from Smokey Mountain Lacquers. It is a thermal!!! I have two thermals in my collection already from other makers, and I can get the thermal to show pretty easy on my nails, so when Kim asked me if I was comfortable with doing a review of a thermal I was fine with it. What I didn't know was that when I put my hand in my warm light box I would lose the pretty duo colored nails. LOL! Anyhow, I think I still have some great photos for you.

Let's talk about formula. The first coat was a little streaky for me. However, the second coat fixed that for me quite nicely. So there really was no issue with application. The polish is a pretty bubblegum pink with small micro silver glitters when cool. When warm, the polish turns a bright shade of purple. Of course, the silver micro glitters stay in tact.

Here is the first photo I took in my light box. As you can see, my tips had no color change because it was so warm in there.

 

Here are some out of the light box photos. You can see the color of the cool tips very well in these!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This beauty will retail for $9 at Smokey Mountain Lacquers, so keep your eyes peeled for its release! You can visit Smokey Mountain Lacquers for tis lovely and others below

https://www.smokeymountainlacquers.com

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SmokeyMtnLacquers

 

You can also visit their Facebook page for updates!

https://www.facebook.com/SmokeyMtnLacquers

 

What do you think? Do you like thermals? I really do! Leave a note in the comments section and tell me your feels! :)

This polish was provided to me for review by the maker.

Cold Hands..?... Warm Mittens!

Hello again lovely readers! I have had a BUSY week! Had a great Thanksgiving holiday with the family! I stuffed myself with turkey and all the fixins, BUT...We got some GREAT and exciting news this week. So, I told you about my son who wrestles and his exciting win a couple of weeks ago, and his wrestling successes and last week we got contacted by the coach for the International Youth Dual Team! My son has been invited to join the team! He will be representing the state of Oklahoma on the team! I am so excited for him. The only hitch is raising enough funds for all of his travel. So, I will be adding a link on the right side of the page for my son's Fundrazr page where you can donate, or anyone can donate if you feel you can. :) I also have a Pinterest board with a bunch of my stash up for sale to raise the funds. http://www.pinterest.com/coveredbycolor/pretties4sale/ If you see something that interests you, you can email me at anxi0tee at live dot com or send me a PM on Facebook, or leave me a comment on the CbC Facebook page.

Now, on to the mittens! Since today it was 66 here in Oklahoma, and we are expecting some severe winter weather, I got to thinking about my mittens and scarves. I have a new love for scarves lately. I now have four, and not even sure why I need so many when I have one neck! :P But why do I need 700 bottles of polish when I have only 20 nails? HAHAHA!

For this mani I used two new holiday polishes. Here is my supplies below.

 

 

The polishes are Sinful Colors Holiday Rebel, China Glaze Just Be-Claws, HK Girl Top coat by Glisten and Glow, and Pure Ice Loose fine glitter (I found these at Wal-Mart). I also Used China Glaze Pelican Gray for the base color and Sinful Colors Snow me White for the base of my accent nail.

 

To begin, I painted my base colors of my nails. I then used a small paint brush and painted the red mittens (China Glaze Just Be-Claws) on all but my accent nail. I added the Sinful Colors Holiday Rebel on top of the Snow me White on the accent nail. I waited for everything to dry and on a piece of wax paper mixed the fine white loose glitter with a drop of HK Girl. I then painted the white fluffy trim of the mittens on. The texture of these is a little 3D this way. You could use a white glittery polish to get the same look but without the fluffy 3D look.

 

 

Here is a close up of  Holiday Rebel (please excuse my very awful looking cuticles this close up):

 

 

What do you think of these lil cute warm mittens? How about Holiday Rebel? It is super pretty for the holidays and it put me in a festive mood for sure!

 

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to check out the ongoing giveaway if you haven't already!

 

 

 

This giveaway is so big that there are 3 separate Rafflecopters and 50 prizes totaling up to a whopping $1233 approximate value!

Starts now! And goes until December 26th at 12AM

http://happyinholospolish.blogspot.com/2013/11/super-mega-holiday-giveaway-50-prizes.html

Remember fill out as many options as possible for more chances to win!!!! 

 

~Jennifer

 

 

Snow way....? Are you kidding me?

Hello lovely readers! First of all I want to welcome all of the new readers to the blog! It is GREAT to have you and I hope you find something you enjoy and will stick around! Today, I want to address something I am going through... TOO MANY HOLIDAY POLISHES BEING RELEASED!!! LOL! I want to buy them all up! On top of those, there are all of the limited edition Black Friday polishes coming this weekend. I cannot keep up. Unfortunately I will not be able to buy any of them. The ones I have already purchased back in October and November are it for me. You see, this week my son, who is really talented, was invited to join the International Youth Dual Team for wrestling. This is a BIG DEAL!!! It is also very expensive! So, I cannot buy any polishes for myself this holiday season. I am buying for my gift exchanges, a special someone, and that is it. So, I went to my stash to look for some polishes I could use for a holiday type mani that was not too Christmas-y (since it is so early) and this is what I did, and what I used.

Here is what I used for this mani, with of course HK Girl Topcoat by Glisten and Glow:

 

They are I Love Nail Polish "Up to Snow Good" (how can you go wrong with a seasonal look with a polish that has THAT name, right?), Sparitual "Energy", and The Little Pure Ice loose white glitter pot I found at Wal-Mart a couple months back.

 

All I did was use the Sparitual Energy for my base color, which I love. It was not very opaque, so it took me two coats. I then painted the Up to Snow Good by I Love Nail Polish on my accent nail and thumb (which went on super easy for a glitter topper), and then top coated the other nails and dipped them one at a time into the pot. Once I pulled them out I shook off very gently the extra glitter and top coated over the rest. So, we have snowy looking nails.

 

Here is one with flash:

 

Without Flash:

 

As you can see, I still have loose glitter all over my hands. I thought I had cleaned it up pretty well, but then I rubbed my arm which had it all down the side of it, and it was back all over my hands again... LOL!

 

I hope you enjoyed this little mani for the holiday season. Let me know what you think of the polish and or the method.

 

In the mean time how about this giveaway (if you have not already entered):

 

THE SUPER MEGA HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY

 

This giveaway is so big that there are 3 separate Rafflecopters and 50 prizes totaling up to a whopping $1233 approximate value!

Starts now! And goes until December 26th at 12AM

http://happyinholospolish.blogspot.com/2013/11/super-mega-holiday-giveaway-50-prizes.html

Remember fill out as many options as possible for more chances to win!!!! 

In the mood for.....a GIVEAWAY and Candy Canes?

Hello lovely readers! Today, since I am in the spirit of giving and the holiday season is upon us, I am going to share a quick and easy holiday mani with you and a giveaway!!! For this mani, I used the polishes below:

They are KB Shimmer Candy Cane Crush, Zoya Gei Gei, China Glaze Just Be-Claws, a white striper, and a thin paint brush. You could use any pink or red polishes and you could also substitute any of the colors to get the same look.

First I painted the pink Zoya Gei Gei on each of my nails as a base color. I then used Candy Cane crush on my ring finger and thumb as an accent.

On each of my other fingers, I painted lines/stripes in varying thickness to mock candy cane stripes. I didn't make them straight across and gave them kind of the twisted warped look of a candy cane stripe.

Here are my results:

 

 

With flash:

 

Without flash:

 

What do you think? Will you try this look for the holidays? Do you love candy canes? I do!!!

 

Now onto the giveaway!!!

 

 

THE SUPER MEGA HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY

This give away is so big that there are 3 separate Raffle-copters and 50 prizes totaling up to a whopping $1233 approximate value!

Starts now! And goes until December 26th at 12AM

You can find the list of prizes, sponsors, and the rafflecopters at Happy in Holos:

http://happyinholospolish.blogspot.com/2013/11/super-mega-holiday-giveaway-50-prizes.html

Remember fill out as many options as possible for more chances to win!!!!

 

GOOD LUCK READERS!!!

 

Patience is a virtue... or is it?

Do you have patience when it comes to polish and nail art? I somewhat do when it comes to doing nail art. When it comes to waiting on shipping for an order (unless it's a pre-order) I want what I order ASAP. I have held off on ordering from Born Pretty Store for this exact reason until the first of this month. I broke down and ordered a bunch of nail art supplies and a phone cover, which without my coupons and discounts would have cost me over $25. I ended up paying $16.94. So, I couldn't resist. It is not the 22nd, and I still don't have my package. So, Since I have no patience, I did a nail art design that required a TON of patience... LOL.

Here is what I did and how I did it.

Step 1: Choose a base color and then a glitter polish that has a decent size circle, square, or hexagonal shaped glitter inside. Make sure the two polishes compliment each other. (For this how to I chose Zoya Blu and OPI Polka.com)

Step 2: Have a piece of wax paper or a glass plate handy that you can place some of the glitter polish onto.

Step 3: Paint your nail the base color.

Step 4: Paint some of the glitter onto the wax paper or plate as shown in the picture below. Just paint a small spot. The polish dries up quickly when you paint it that thin, so you will need to paint more spots as you move on. Since the coats are thin, you don't waste much polish.

 

Step 5: HAVE A TON OF PATIENCE AND A STEADY HAND!!! Using a toothpick or orange stick place glitters on your accent finger covering your entire nail in a pattern you desire. Since Polka.com has pink, teal, and purple glitters, I did pink alternated with random purple and teal.

 

Step 6: On the other nails, create a French tip look using two rows of the glitters.

 

Finished product no flash:

 

 

Finished product with flash:

 

I found the faster I went and the less I focused on the glitters, the easier it seemed. Now, I think I will wait for my larger glitters from Born Pretty Store! LOL! What do you think? Will you try this method?

 

Leave me comments below! I love reading them and I will always try to reply! Also don't forget to follow me on Facebook and with GFC and Bloglovin. I am also on Instagram @covered_by_color.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

 

GO-Juss Colors by Llarowe!

Let's face it readers, there are sometimes those indie polishes we try, and want to cry when we put it on because it is so pretty! HAHA! Seriously though, I don't really cry, but when I first tried on my very first Colors by Llarowe, I was staring at my nails for hours! It was so pretty!!! My very first was True Colors, along with Burnt Sugar, which I swapped because brown and my skin tone just clash BAD. No matter how many times I try brown... even though it looks beautiful in swatches and in the bottle, it looks horrible on my nails. Anyhow, True Colors is so gosh derned pretty. I decided to swatch it and a couple other CbL polishes for you today since yesterday was another pre order day over at Llarowe. Please, excuse my awful cuticles though and my short nails. My hands have dried right up this last week. The weather has been so dry. BLAH!

So. True Colors. It was not available at todays pre-sale. It is a retired shade, but I have seen it for sale on swap and sale boards around the nail community on Facebook. If Purplish pinks are your thing, I highly recommend it. I used two coats on the swatches below. I also had a few bald spots with the first coat, but those were fixed with the second coat. I also used Seche Vite base coat and HK Girl by Glisten and Glow as my top coat.

Without Flash:

 

With Flash:

 

 

 Next up we have Dirty Diana. This is a gorgeous pink color. I walked around in my fancy rich lady accent all day saying Go-juss dah-ling all day when wearing this one. Not to mention singing the Dirty Diana song when no one was looking or listening! :P Since I had no sunshine the few days I swatched these, I had to use my LED lamp. This is two very thin coats on top of Seche base coat with a coat of HK Girl top coat by Glisten and Glow. The shine and holo of this polish is beautiful!

 

Without flash:

With flash:

Finally we have Smooth Criminal. This polish also gave me a few bald spot on the first coat, but the second coat fixed those right up and everything smoothed right out. This is a purple holo polish that I sang the song Smooth Criminal the whole time I was applying the polish. This is two coats on top of Seche base coat with a coat of HK Girl top coat.

 

With Flash:

 

 

Without flash:

 

 

What did you think? Did you get to order any of these goodies at the Llarowe preorder yesterday? I know that she will be opening up to regular orders again in the near future. When she does, I hope you are able to score some of Leah Ann's beauties. You can order HERE on the Llarowe website. You can also order HK Girl from the Llarowe website, or HERE at Glisten and Glow.

Let me know what you scored from the pre-order, and please comment down below and follow me on Facebook and via GFC and Bloglovin ... both located in the right hand column of the page over there ----->

-Jennifer

Swatch you doin'?

Hello lovelies! Today, I want to talk about swatches and how we keep track of our pretties. But first I want to brag a little bit. This last week has been crazy! I got into a bit of a financial bind, and my son had a national wrestling tournament to attend. He is 14. Anyhow, I sold off over 25% of my stash to make enough money to take him! Crazy right? NOT AT ALL! So worth it! He won 1st place, and now he is ranked 1st in the nation for his age and weight class. (proud momma moment)

 

Ok, now what you all came here to read about... something polish related! :) Let's talk about nail polish swatches. I wanted to share with you today how I store my swatches, and keep track of my polishes. I started out swatching on nail wheels. What a disaster that was for me. I tried matching numbers on the wheels to numbers I placed on small stickers on my bottles and then numbers in my book (I will get to my book later in the post). It was to much. A friend of mine offered me to join in a group buy of swatch sticks from an eBay seller, and I took the plunge and ordered 600. They were 50 for just under $3 a piece I believe.  I then decided on a method of storage for all the sticks once they started piling up. Here is what I came up with.

 

These are curtain rings found at any department store or Lowes. I paid $1.57 at Wal-Mart for them a package, and 12 come in each package.

 

 

I then started swatching most of my polishes. I paint the underside of the stick, and let me explain why. By painting the underside, you can see what the polish would look like with a shiny top coat. You can then paint a matte coat on top of the paint and the reverse side shows what the polish looks like with a matte coat. Here is one of my rings (China Glaze)

 

 

 

After I started swatching and putting the swatches on the rigs, I was then struggling as to how to arrange them. I decided to stick to arranging them by brand, then by color as they were on my polish shelf/rack. For a few brands, I have four or five rings. Each ring holds approximately 18 sticks comfortably. I then needed a place to hang all these rings, and something that wasn't going to cost an arm and a leg. Ideally I wanted something that would hang above my polish shelves. I thought, curtain rings for the swatch sticks, why not a curtain rod? So off to Wal-Mart I went, and the hubby hung it from two studs above my polish shelves.

 

 

Once it was hung and I alphabetically arranged my rings, I could not decipher which ring was which brand. So, I bought some labels at Wal-Mart, and broke the nail part off from a few nail sticks and labeled the first stick of the first ring of each brand. Allowing me to see each brand.

 

 

Finished product.

 

 

Now, this is a page from my "Holy Book of Polishes" (named by my kids and husband). I have a binder where I keep track of what polishes I have, which I have owned, when I have updated it, which I need to swatch, when I have gifted, swapped, or sold a polish, etc. This is an example page from the book, and actually what my Emily de Molly page looks like.

 

 

In this photo you can see that I have a tab for each brand. I then list the polishes I have purchased in each tab it belongs. For brands I only have one or two of, I have a tab titles Misc. Mainstreams and a page titled Misc. Indies. I also have a corresponding swatch ring for each.

 

 

There you have it. My swatch stash and my holy polish book! How do you store your swatches. How do you keep track of what polishes you have and have had? Post down there in the comments and be sure to follow me via Bloglovin and/or my Facebook page! If I can hit 150 followers on Facebook I will host another giveaway! :)

 

 

KB Shimmers With This Year's Winter Collection!

OK Lacquer lovers... I am in true blue stuck like glue in love. KB Shimmer is one of my favorite brands. I only had, yes I said had, 12 of their polishes, before the release of their winter collection a couple of weeks ago, and I was first in line as soon as they were available on the site to purchase some of them. Since I could not choose. I first picked 6 and checked out, but I kept going back yearning for more. So, I went back for a seventh and final purchase as that is all my budget would allow. Tonight I am reviewing five of them for you.

Let's get to it shall we?

First up is the absolutely adorable All Elf'd Up. It is a superb blend of teeny bar and different size hexes in red, white, and green. I loved this and think it is perfect for the holiday season. It reminds me of the red and green balls hanging on the outdoor Christmas tree, covered with that little bit of snow, reflecting the lights hung around its branches.

The KB Shimmer web site describes All Elf'd Up as, "Hex glitters and micro slices add festive cheer to this polish.  Sliver glitters add a unique twist, almost appearing to be a metallic white.  Best in 3 coats or layered over white."

Here is the one photo I have of this polish because my camera decided to take a trip to crazy town during the shoot and all of them but this one were super blurry. This is two coats with HK Girl by Glisten & Glow on top.

 

Next up is another glitter polish from the collection called When the Doves Sigh. This is a really pretty gray polish with super sparkly pink, teal, purple, and silver colored circles and squares in various sizes packed inside. There is also some very teeny slivers in there. This polish reminds me of mittens and scarves I wore as a child in winter time.

The KB Shimmer site describes this polish as, "A warm gray color, this creally is filled with fuchsia circles, square and hex glitters.  Turquoise, sapphire, and chrome hexes, micro slices and circles swim among micro holographic sparkles."

I have to honestly say I have wore this polish a few times now and unless the hexes are super duper teeny, I have no hexes in mine. I am not sure if this is an error, or if some batches don't have it. I love mine the way it is though.

 

 

 

 

 

Next we Have two of my favorites from the collection, only because I have always had a thing for multi chromes. First off, we have Pretty in Punk. Now, I don't think this is necessarily a "holiday/winter" polish, so it could be bought any time :)

This polish has too many shifts to list all of the colors, and I just could not capture all of them on camera. So I will just get to the description and the photos.

KB Shimmer describes this polish as, " This polish shifts from a pretty pistachio green, to a bright green, to silver, to a soft pink almost lavender color depending on the light and viewing angle. Best in 3 coats, or 1 coat over black, this polish is one you will have to see to believe!"

Let me start off by saying that I tried this polish over black, and for me holo multi chromes over black ruin the holo effect for me. I prefer to do a couple layers of the polish all by their lonesome. So for this polish I did two coats with a top coat of HK Girl by Glisten and Glow. 

 

No flash:

 

With Flash:

 

 

This next one is my FAVORITE of the new releases and it's called Myth you Lots. IT IS BEAUTIFUL! Why? Because of three very important things... its a holo, it's a multi chrome, and it's purple!!!

 

Here is the description from the KB Shimmer website, " This polish shifts depending on the angle and the light, from blue, to purple, to red, and more.  I most often see a beautiful indigo color. Best in 3 coats, or 1 coat over black, this polish is one you will have to see to believe!"

 

I used two coats over clear Nail Envy by OPI, just like above, topped with HK Girl by Glisten and Glow.

No Flash:

 With Flash:

 

 

Finally, for your viewing pleasure I have I Only Have Ice for you. A GORGEOUS Icy Holo Glitter topper. It goes over just about anything and makes it sparkle like diamonds. This polish reminds me of the sun shining on top of a fresh layer of fresh snowfall and the flakes sparkling.

 

KB Shimmer described this polish on their site as, "Shimmering white flakes are set in a clear base.  Holographic glitters in small sizes mimic the sparkle you get from snow.  Layer this topper over any color to add sparkle and shimmer."

 

I layered this over the top of Myth you Lots and OH EM GEE ladies!!! I was mesmerized!!!!I then added a coat of HK Girl by Glisten and Glow.

 

With Flash:

 

 Without Flash:

 

That's all I have for you tonight. What do you think? Do you have a favorite from the new collection?

If you're new to KB Shimmer and would like to purchase these or any of the other amazing polishes or bath products they have available (the cuticle oil is AH-mazing) you can find them at www.kbshimmer.com.

 

Disclaimer: These products were not provided to me for review. These were purchased by me for my own collection. The opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.

 

 



See me nekkid!!! ...Well my nails anyhow! And read my nail story!

Hello lovely ladies of the nail realm! First of all I want to explain my week long hiatus. As many of you know or have read, I suffer from depression. Last week, I started new meds, and they are KICKING MY ASS! xxxxx Is it OK to say that? EEEEK! I hope so. I don't want to be rude, but I want to be me. Anyhow, I have felt like a zombie all week, because mixed with the upped dosage of my other meds, I have been so drowsy. Anywho.... let's get on to my nakedness!!!

So, it has been a WHOLE YEAR since I have last chewed my nails. I am 39 years young, and I chewed my nails my entire life until last late October when I had extensive dental work done which changed the position of my front teeth. I went to chew my nails as usual, and guess what was not happening? I could not chew my nails!!! So... for the first time in November, I started growing little nubs. I was so excited! I am not going to lie, this is a picture heavy post, but I wanted to take you on a journey with me through this last year and show you what a transformation I have been on.

First up is where I began, and this about a week after I couldn't chew them anymore.

 

Next up, is December. My mother in law and sister in law took me to a spa for a massage and manicure as a Christmas gift. I didn't have much for nails, but I went with it and ended up selecting Essie No Place Like Chrome with the Silver Essie Glitter. You can see a HUGE improvement in my cuticles in this photo.

 

 

Next we have early January and late January. I really hit a growth spurt in January. I also started acquiring polish then too when my mother in law handed me her stash of about 6 polishes.

 

 

February nails. My nails were funny shaped. I really believe it was because I had so much skin for my nails to grow over and because I just did not know how to shape them. I was so excited to finally have nails. I missed out on all this for 39 years? I MUST GO BUY MORE POLISH!!! <--- That's what I was thinking and what I did. At this point I had about 150 polishes.

 

 

March nails. Also my first attempt at water marbling. Not too shabby. This opened the door to nail art and more possibilities to me. I NEEDED MORE POLISH AND STRIPERS AND DUCT TAPE AND EMBELLISHMENTS AND DOTTING TOOLS AND STRIPING TAPE AND OMG!!!!

 

 

April nails. Finally long enough to do some decent looking French nail art! These are some of my favorite to do! As you can see, I have one shorty. Because I was not used to long nails, I was not used to keeping them strong. I began searching the groups and Facebook for tips. So many helpful ladies out there! My hubby at this point is saying, "WHY DO YOU NEED 300 NAIL POLISHES?" I am saying, "I MUST HAVE THAT POLISH, AND I NEED MORE OF THAT BRAND TOO!"

 

 

May's nails. This is about my third or fourth water marble now. This was one mf my favorite designs and color combos this year. I am now up to over 400 polishes at this point.

 

 

June's Nails. Love these simple flowers. I had lots of compliments on them too. Collection is now at about 475. SCARY!!! I think I have a serious problem at this point! LOL!

 

 

I did not paint my nails much in July and August due to moving. :( That did not stop me from buying polish though. I brought my number up to around 600 by September 1st. So, September's nails.

 

Yes, I like to water marble. It relaxes me. It helps take my mind off other things. So Octobers mani is also a water marble. At this point I am over 800.

 

For November, let me explain. today was my weekly Sunday nail maintenance day. Each Sunday I strip my nail of polish, remove cuticles (the safe way, not by cutting), I wash my nails with a brush, peroxide, and baking soda, I do an intense moisture treatment of Sunny's Hand Cream inside a pair of gloves for 15 minutes, and I then do my mani. I also treat my cuticles with Pure Nail Oil. Before I do my mani though, I use a wide paint brush with acetone to remove all of the oils from my nail. My base coat is always a nail strengthener (one of the three in the photo). Here is a photo of my nail necessities.

 

Here is my naked nails today, and my painted nails today with one of my new favorite polishes, KB Shimmer Myth You Lots.

 

 

 

 

What was your nail journey like? Have you always had nails or did you struggle? I love that I now have nails and wouldn't dream of biting them now. I tried everything to stop biting them for years. One thing I never dreamed of stopping me did! I give my dentist praise every time I see him. The hubby always tells him thanks for costing me a fortune in not only dental bills but in nail polish as well! LOL!