The Time Has Come...

I have been contemplating writing this post for a while now, and I can't put it off any longer. I have been blogging for a long time, si...

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

OPI Mustang Collection 2014 Swatches & Review

Hi folks! Today I wanted to show you the new OPI Mustang collection, a collaboration they did with Ford to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Ford Mustang. This collection has six colors. The retail versions have cute shrink wrapped handles with a print of the Mustang horse on it but mine came without them. Hope you like these!

First up is Angel With a Leadfoot, a bright white crème. I was hoping there was some type of hidden shimmer in this when I saw the press release, but alas it is a plain white. A bit thick, and I had some streaks on the first two coats. Not the best white I've ever tried, but far from the worst. This makes me look incredibly tan. Also, I have to mention, shouldn't it be "lead foot"? Just sayin. I ended up using three coats.
OPI Angel With a Leadfoot | kelliegonzo

Next is Girls Love Ponies, a cute fuchsia pink crème. I wish all crèmes were this consistency, thin but very opaque and really easy to apply. I tend to get bubbles in my manicures during the hot summer months so thin coats are a must to avoid that, and colors like this are perfect imo. This is two coats.
OPI Girls Love Ponies | kelliegonzo

Here is 50 Years of Style, a gold metallic. This one is pretty brush-strokey but that doesn't make it look bad in my opinion. It is less noticeable in person than the photo shows. I usually love golds of all types, but this one doesn't really do it for me for some reason. I used three coats for maximum coverage.
OPI 50 Years of Style | kelliegonzo

This is Race Red, a lovely orange poppy red crème. This had the same formula as Girls Love Ponies, just perfection in a bottle. I don't usually wear reds, but the orangeiness in this one makes it seem more wearable to me. This is two coats.
OPI Race Red | kelliegonzo

Next is Queen of the Road, a black with a light pearly metallic shimmer. This one played tricks on my eyes, in some lighting it appeared to have a dark green tone, then in others I thought maybe I saw navy blue. For some reason I had a really hard time getting a good photo of this, and unfortunately it ended up reflecting the sky a lot. I had some patchiness on this one, so I used three coats.
OPI Queen of the Road | kelliegonzo

Last in the collection, and my favorite, is The Sky's My Limit, a medium slightly tealish blue with tons of metallic shimmer in blue, green, and gold. This is similar to OPI Catch Me In Your Net, but it is more blue. This formula was fantastic, perfect in two thin coats. I was worried about this staining my nails but I wore it for a few days with two layers of base coat and didn't have any problems.
OPI The Sky's My Limit | kelliegonzo

So what do you think? Are you a Mustang fan? I have to admit, I'm not really into cars so I don't have an opinion based on that, but I do like most of these colors and think this is a pretty nice collection. These should be available now wherever OPI is sold. See you next time!

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Product samples were provided for consideration.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

JulieG Santorini

Hi folks! I'm back today with a review on a new polish I got a few weeks ago from the brand JulieG by Jesse's Girl Cosmetics. The JulieG nail line is created by YouTube beauty blogger JulieG, check out her videos if you haven't heard of her, she's a doll! I haven't tried a ton of the brand's polishes, but the ones I have I really like.

This is Santorini from the 2014 Cruise Collection that came out this summer. I had seen pics of it on blogs and heard some of my favorite YT girls rave about it so I definitely needed to try it. It's a gorgeous pale cornflower blue with a pearly silver shimmer floating on top. Very beautiful, but unfortunately I wasn't impressed with the formula at all. It was streaky, gloopy, thick and didn't self-level. I had to work to get this to look nice, and I only think it turned out well (finally) due to my choice of top coat.
JulieG - Santorini | kelliegonzo

This is seriously my third attempt at getting a good manicure with it and that is going above and beyond what I will usually tolerate. I haven't heard complaints from anyone else with this formula though, so it makes me wonder if it was just a bad bottle or if maybe someone opened it in the store and "compromised" the formula, which can happen in public stores when products are not individually wrapped. This is four coats with top coat.
JulieG - Santorini | kelliegonzo

JulieG nail color is sold only at Rite Aid stores and online at the Jesse's Girl website for around $4. I don't live near a Rite Aid right now but my sister does and when we last saw each other she was kind enough to pick this up for me. Hopefully the next JulieG polish I try will work out better for me. Have you ever tried this brand? What do you think? Talk to you soon!

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Thursday, July 24, 2014

My 9 Favorite YouTube Nail Vloggers

Hi friends! I have been really busy lately and even though I have lots of swatches done, I haven't had time to edit them and post anything lately :( But I thought I'd pop in and put up a fun little post on something different today while I had a minute. I used to be a YouTube junkie, like watched at least five videos a day if not more. I love YouTube for teaching me how to apply makeup, get great product recommendations, for helping me tame my crazy curly hair, and for just lots of entertainment! I stopped watching almost altogether for a few years but this past year I have gotten back into it in a big way. Nail vloggers have become more prevalent on YT lately and I've discovered some awesome ladies that I love to watch. I wanted to share a few of my favorite channels with you in case you are interested in watching videos about nails too!

The first name that comes to mind is Young Wild and Polished. This girl is HILARIOUS and has seriously fabulous nails. I don't usually do nail art, but her tutorials are simple, beautiful and straight forward enough for me to follow easily. She has a crazy awesome sense of humor and at the end of all her videos she has a "bloopers" section with her voice high like a chipmunk and I die laughing every time at them! She does a lot of makeup videos and hauls in addition to her nail vids too if you're into that. One of my favorite videos of hers is her April Polish Favorites!!, I feel like it's a fun video and a great introduction to her style :)
Image via Young Wild and Polished on YouTube


Next my brain goes automatically to MissHollyBerries. This is a girl that I have come to watch so much and interact so much with on social media that I really consider her a friend. She's very genuine and beautiful and she loves nail polish! I just adore her. I find her really easy to watch, like I'm sitting down to chat with a girlfriend. A great video of hers that I really like is her Favorite Yellow Nail Polishes of ALL TIME!!, it is part of a series she does of all her favorite polishes in color categories, rainbow order (ROY G BIV). She's so great!
Image via MissHollyBerries on YouTube


A gal I learned about from Holly is JessFACE90. She has been making beauty videos for a long time even though I just discovered her. She has some really awesome live swatch videos that I like a lot, it is so helpful to see how a polish acts when applied before you buy it! Blogs are great for seeing how they turn out and telling you how they applied, but it's a great concept to really see it put on for yourself. A great example is her Zoya Magical Pixie Dust Summer 2014 Swatch and Review video.
Image via JessFACE90 on YouTube


Total Polish Junkie is a gal that I just barely found on YT and have really enjoyed watching her videos. She has a great point of view and I love hearing what she has to say about polish. I find her very thorough in her reviews/opinions. An example of a great review video she has done is the Nicole by OPI Roughles Collection Review & Swatches. I can't wait to see more from her!
Image via Total Polish Junkie on YouTube


Another channel I discovered from Holly is Lindsay Does Nails. She's a Canadian gal so it's interesting to hear the differences they have with availability and such up there. She's doing a series right now where she's showing her entire collection and I love watching those videos, to see what colors we have in common or what ones I need to get. She actually introduced me to a new indie brand that I have come to love, Loaded Lacquer; here is the video link to her Loaded Lacquer collection video.
Image via Lindsay Does Nails on YouTube


Next is Zenorah. This chick is so awesome. She is from Trinidad & Tobago and her accent is seriously so beautiful (she lives in Canada now). Plus she's just a knockout stunner. I first heard of her when she put out a gutsy video on the controversy regarding a well known nail "guru" (I hate that word haha) that is notorious for copying other people's nail art designs and claiming they are her own. I don't really want to go into that because I'll just get mad, but if you're interested I'm sure you could find out more easily. She is just so sweet and nice and I love her nails. One of her recent videos that I really like is her Top 15 Essie Nail Polishes video.
Image via Zenorah on YouTube


Phoebe Moon is the most recent person I've discovered on YouTube that I really like. She posts a ton of videos, like multiple uploads per week, and she usually includes live swatches, which I find so helpful. I found her by chance one day looking for videos about the OPI Coca-Cola collection and proceeded to immediately watch all her videos one right after the other haha! Check out her China Glaze The Giver Live Application and Review video on the new CG collection for the movie The Giver. I saw her video on them before I even heard about this collection! She also does awesome piano versions of popular songs for the background of her videos.
Image via Phoebe Moon on YouTube


LifeinPolish is run by Dani who is a New Jersey/New York singer and actress who just happens to love polish too! She is a legit star, she played Tracy Turnblad in the national tour of Hairspray in 2010. She is fun to watch because she's so excited about polish, I love her energy. You should watch her Essie Summer Polish Favorites video.
Image via LifeinPolish on YouTube


And I have to mention my pal and Nail Blogger Queen, Michelle of All Lacquered Up. She has just started making videos again and they're so good! I love her live swatches. She did a great video on the Essie Summer Neons that you definitely need to check out. I bow to her, she is seriously the top of the top.
Image via All Lacquered Up


Back in the day I made a few YT videos, mostly just of slideshows of my collection swatches set to music. One day maybe I might venture into face-to-face vlogs or reviews but no plans for that right now. I'm content to sit back and watch these awesome ladies do their thing :) Do you watch any of these gals? Are there any other awesome nail video creators that you love to watch that I didn't mention? I'm always looking for more content! Take care, and I swear I'll be back soon with more swatches!

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Thursday, July 17, 2014

KBShimmer Summer 2014 Collection Part 2 Swatches & Review

Guess who's back, back again, Kellie's back, tell a friend ;) I am back today with the rest of the KBShimmer Summer 2014 collection! I reviewed the first half here, be sure to check it out!

First up is Sea You Around, an emeraldy sea green jelly filled with fuchsia, light blue and chrome circles, sky blue squares, hexes in sliver, blue and fuchsia, fuchsia microbars, and holo glitter bits. Phew, this one is a stunner! I love green polish and the teal undertones in this one are just gorgeous. The glitter mix distributes evenly on the nail which was nice. It does dry down to a satiny matte so a top coat is a must. Two coats.
KBShimmer - Sea You Around | kelliegonzo

Next is Peak My Interest, a rosey pink crelly with triangle glitters in white, pink and dark aqua, with hex glitters in periwinkle, white and dark aqua. I am in love with the triangle glitters KBShimmer used in this collection, they're so fun! I was surprised at the coverage I got in two coats here. You might see some visible nail line in the photo, but in real life it was not noticeable at all.
KBShimmer - Peak My Interest | kelliegonzo

Here is Mint-al Vacation, which at first glance I thought was a straight up holo but I was only half right. It is a lovely seafoam mint shade that plays a sort of split personality, it's got a ton of white shimmer and also linear holo particles! So in low light/indoors, it's a beautiful ethereal shimmer and in the sunlight it's a fabulous shimmery holo. It applies very easily and has great opacity with only two coats.
KBShimmer - Mint-al Vacation | kelliegonzo

Over Mint-al Vacation I layered one coat of Sweet Wave, a glitter topper with matte yellow and coral bits and matte white, periwinkle and mint hex glitters. I wasn't sure what to layer this over at first, but I love the combo over the soft mint shade. Like all KBShimmer glitters, this one is densely packed but I didn't have any trouble with it. I use the method I learned from Cristina of Let Them Have Polish in this video. I find that with this method only one layer is enough for most chunky glitter toppers!
KBShimmer - Sweet Wave over Mint-al Vacation | kelliegonzo

This is Periwinkle In Time, a glitter crelly inspired by blue hydrangea and periwinkle flowers. I see this as a perfect pastel periwinkle, that ambiguous shade between sky blue and lilac purple. There are holo, silver, violet, teal, and blue glitters in circle and hex shapes in different sizes. This is very pretty but it's not a shade I love on me. Very nice coverage in two coats.
KBShimmer - Periwinkle In Time | kelliegonzo

And last is Look High and Holo, a raspberry pink jelly chock full of a rainbow explosion of holo glitters in squares and hexes. Square glitter is one of my favorite things and I'm in love with the variety of glitter this has, without making it look too disjointed as can sometimes happen with crazy glitter mixes. Since there is so much glitter in this polish, it can clump on top of each other so be mindful of that with your application. This is two coats.
KBShimmer - Look High and Holo | kelliegonzo

These are available now at www.kbshimmer.com for $8.75 a bottle. I find this collection to be really fun and happy and just perfect for summer. As far as indies go, these guys have a stellar reputation and put out really excellent products, I can't recommend them highly enough! See ya next time :)

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Product samples were provided for consideration.

Monday, July 14, 2014

KBShimmer Summer 2014 Collection Part 1 Swatches & Review

Hello dears! Today I have the next awesome polish collection from KBShimmer to show you, their summer 2014 collection. You remember when I reviewed the early summer collection here and here? Well I guess because we're so awesome KBShimmer is giving us another huge collection of summer polishes before this season is over! This post will include the first half of them, as there are twelve polishes in the group.

First is Radiant Orchid, which is based on the Pantone color of the year. It's a pink toned purple crème that has fuchsia and mauve undertones. It's ridiculously buttery and really nicely pigmented. Two coats provided excellent coverage.
KBShimmer - Radiant Orchid | kelliegonzo

On top of Radiant Orchid I layered Happily Ever Aster. This glitter topper is made up of periwinkle, light aqua blue, purple, lavender and white glitters with holographic bits in a clear base. Really super lovely and I love the combination of these two together. The glitter was really easy to spread and one coat gave plenty of coverage. I use Cristina from Let Them Have Polish's method of applying chunky glitters, which you can watch here.
KBShimmer - Happily Ever Aster over Radiant Orchid | kelliegonzo

Next is You're So Shellfish, a near-neon peachy orange crème. This was a teeny bit streaky and on the thick side, but it even out on the third coat. I really love this color, I'm a sucker for bright corally oranges and pinks! I used three coats here.
KBShimmer - You're So Shellfish | kelliegonzo

Over You're So Shellfish I used Scribble Me This. Another glitter topper, this one is quite unique to my collection. This glitters are a mix of pink, greens, purple, aqua blue, and black mini stars, triangles, circles and hexes. This immediately reminded me of graffiti and reading their website, that's exactly the inspiration they used. I wasn't sure this color combo would work with the bright orange base, but I saw it used on Fierce Makeup and Nails' blog so I had to try it. I love it! One coat.
KBShimmer - Scribble Me This over You're So Shellfish | kelliegonzo

Next is Americana inspired Red, White & Blue-tiful. This glitter topper has red, blue and holo small star glitters with micro red, blue and silver glitters swimming in the clear base. This was a little harder to apply than the other glitters as it is quite dense and the stars can get stacked on each other. But it wasn't really all that difficult relatively speaking, I've had chunky glitters that were much worse. This is one coat on top of sky blue JulieG Santorini. I wore this combo on the 4th of July :) This is limited edition and only available through the end of July!
KBShimmer - Red, White & Blue-tiful over JulieG Santorini | kelliegonzo

And last of this half is Mixed Peelings, a crelly off white with matte glitters in neon green, lemony yellow and watermelon pink. Pretty great formula for a crelly, I didn't have any issues. I love the overall look of this, the color mix is very summery. This is three coats.
KBShimmer - Mixed Peelings | kelliegonzo

These are available now at www.kbshimmer.com. The glitters are $8.75 each and the crèmes are $7.50. What do you think of these beauties? Any catch your eye? Be sure to stay tuned for part 2 of this collection to be posted soon.

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Product samples were provided for consideration.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Sally Hansen Satin Glam - Crystalline & Silk Onyx

I have two polishes from the Sally Hansen Satin Glam line to show you today. These polishes combine sparkle with a soft satin matte finish, a unique and beautiful combination. The bottles are long and tapered, they remind me a bit of genie bottles or something. It always annoys me a bit that SH puts out so many bottle shapes/different product lines with their polish, but that's just a personal issue haha. I got these in a swap I participated in around Easter time in Facebook group and I really love them.

Crystalline is a gorgeously stunning white pearl shade with shimmer bits that gleam purple, blue and pink. It's a touch on the sheer side, but that makes it usable as a topper which is nice. Without top coat, the natural satin finish is really lovely and understated. With top coat it positively beams! I could almost mistake this stunner for a holo polish, it's that blingy in the sun! I don't know if you can really tell the difference in the photos with the top coat, but there's a noticeable difference in real life. This is three coats.
Sally Hansen Satin Glam - Crystalline | kelliegonzo
without top coat
Sally Hansen Satin Glam - Crystalline with top coat | kelliegonzo
with top coat

Silk Onyx is a charcoal black shade with little shimmer flecks that appear mostly silver to me but some purple and blue bits are in there also. Without top coat it's sexy and mysterious and with top coat it's very flashy and makes me think of a galaxy! This is two coats. The label on my bottle is wonky and off-center and it makes my OCD tendencies explode :/
Sally Hansen Satin Glam - Silk Onyx | kelliegonzo
without top coat
Sally Hansen Satin Glam - Silk Onyx with top coat | kelliegonzo
with top coat

I had a little trouble with the brush on these, it is a medium flat shape but the bristles were a little uneven and mop-like. I am not a big fan of most brushes on Sally Hansen polishes so this wasn't a surprise. However it wasn't really a big deal and wouldn't stop me from buying more of these, but I figured I'd mention it. These cost around $6 and are sold in stores like CVS and Walmart. What do you think of this soft satin finish? Have you tried these or something similar? See you next time :)

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