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...

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Guest Post by Lavish Layerings: Belle of the Flowers

Please enjoy the following guest post from my friend Jenny!

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Hi everyone! I'm Jenny from Lavish Layerings and I'm so excited to be guest posting for Kellie today! I've been a long-time follower of Kellie's blog and have had the pleasure of getting to know her a bit better this year and she is SUCH a sweetheart! I've always admired her picture perfect swatches and her ability to rock her nails at any length...they ALWAYS look amazing! I feel like my wishlist grows every time that I read her blog, so I thought it would be appropriate for today's post to be about a polish that Kellie featured recently that I have been drooling over ever since. 

When I think about Kellie, I think about bright, happy colors. I almost went with neons for today's post, but I know that she has a particular affection for corals. For her Valentine's Day mani this year, Kellie featured KBShimmer's Belle of the Mall and I fell instantly in love with its squishy, sparkly goodness. When KBShimmer recently had a 20% off sale, it was one of the first ones to go in my cart and when it arrived, I knew it was the perfect choice for this post. For my mani, I wanted to include some stamping but I also wanted to keep it simple so as not to detract from the gorgeousness of the base. I used an open floral design from MoYou London's Pro XL plate 10 and Mundo de Unas Black for the stamping. I adore the contrast of the black against the bright coral base and the fact that the stamp doesn't cover up all of the sparkle, but allows it to shine through. Sometimes the simplest manis have the most striking result. 

And here is Belle of the Mall on its own. It's a squishy, bright corally pink jelly filled with silver holo glitters in different sizes. The formula is perfect in classic KBShimmer style with great glitter density and spread. I used 3 thin coats for this mani. Just look at the fabulous sparkly depth! This polish is perfect for spring and summer. It would make a gorgeous pedi color as well.

I want to give a huge thank you to Kellie for inviting me to post today and to all of her readers for having me! Thanks so much for looking everyone!

Jenny's Blog | Facebook | Instagram 

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Thank you Jenny for your beautiful post! I'm so glad to have met her, she's such a genuine person and she has fabulous skills!

❤ Kellie

Monday, March 30, 2015

Guest Post by Very Emily: Minty Stamping

Please enjoy the following post from my friend Emily!

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Hi everyone! My name is Emily and I run the blog Very Emily. I'm kind of fangirling to be guest posting for Kellie today, she was one of the very first blogs I started following way back when her blog was still called Also Known As... I think we started blogging around the same time so I'm proud of us both for still being around after such a long time!

I wasn't quite sure what to create for my guest post but ended up feeling inspired by some nail art I spied on the Pet'la Plate Facebook page. I ended up with something slightly different but I really loved the concept so I had to recreate something similar!

I started with Icing Mintage as my base, a gift from my friend Deborah (Love Varnish) who brought this back for me from NYC. We don't have this brand here, which is a shame because I loved this polish! Then I stamped over it with a diagonal stripes image from Pet'la Plate Loomy Sunday using Mundo De Unas black and white stamping polish. Finished it with Glisten & Glow HK Girl top coat. While they didn't turn out perfect I loved how these looked from a short distance. So unusual and almost 3-dimensional looking.

Hope you like them Kellie and thank you so much for having me!

Emily's Blog | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

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Thanks to Emily for her beautiful work, she is one of my best blog-o-sphere friends and I just adore her!

❤ Kellie

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Rescue Beauty Lounge Je t'aime! Je t'aime! Partial Collection Giveaway

Hi everyone! I'm going on vacation tomorrow for a week so you won't see me, but I have a few blogger friends that will have guest posts up for ya! I'll be heading to Disneyland and the beach down in southern California, yay! I might even get to meet up with my friend Jen from The PolishAholic :D I'm so flippen excited!

But today, I have an awesome giveaway for you! It is for the four released colors from the Rescue Beauty Lounge Je t'aime! Je t'aime! collection that I posted about a few days ago. The RBL bloggers are all participating so you can enter on any one of our pages.

Rules: *Begins today and ends 4/14/15 at 12a est. *Open internationally to those 18+. *Must leave a comment on my blog letting us know your favorite shade from the collection. *Additional entries for following each blog or social media page.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for coming by sometimes and supporting my blog :) Love ya!

❤ Kellie
The products being given away were provided by the company for  the giveaway.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Shleee Polish Maud Pie Swatch & Review

Hey there you pretty thing! Today I wanted to show you a cool indie glitter polish from the brand Shleee Polish. It's run by my internets friend Ashley, she is like uber cool. Her polishes are super glittery and fun and usually have a theme. This polish is called Maud Pie, which is a character on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic the animated series! I love that show and I love her interpretation of the character into a polish.

Maud Pie has a clear base with matte grey, lavender, purple, and teal glitters, metallic silver and lavender glitters, and holographic micro glitters. There are different shapes of glitter in there, I see hearts, triangles, circles, hexes, stars, and diamonds, oh my! I layered two coats over a white base. The glitter is dense so it's a bit thick but it wasn't hard to apply. I did have to place some of the glitter bits with my brush though.

As it looks now, there is only one bottle available of this polish in Shleee Polish's shop so RUN if you want it! I don't know whether she restocks sold out colors or not. Her polishes cost $10 each and she sells via Etsy. Have you ever tried this brand before? Do you love My Little Pony Friendship is Magic like I do??

Bye friends!

❤ Kellie
The product mentioned was given to me as a gift.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Zoya Spring 2015 Delight Collection Swatches & Review

Hey folks, today I wanted to show you the Zoya Spring collection called Delight. It's a six shade collection of pastel-ish "eastery" shades that are right at home in this season. There are three crèmes and three shimmery shades that compliment each other really well. Let's find out how they worked for me!

This is Daisy, described as a lemon yellow metallic shimmer with a turquoise flash. I like this color, but the formula was pretty streaky. It's kinda runny which made it pool in my cuticles more than once and when I did clean up around the edges, the teeny shimmery glitter bits went all over my skin. It took a lot to get them off :( This is three coats.

Next we have Eden, a floral-like pink crème. This one was creamy but didn't self-level for me, which isn't my favorite thing. This is two coats.
Zoya Eden Delight collection

This gal is called Leslie, she's a lavender metallic shimmer with a turquoise flash. I normally love lavenders so this one was an automatic winner in the color department for me. It was creamier than Daisy but still on the runny side. This is two coats.
Zoya Leslie Delight collection

Lillian is a pastel aqua blue crème. Same formula as Eden, but I ended up needing three coats to cover streaks. I love this color but was disappointed in the formula.
Zoya Lillian Delight collection

Here is Rayne, a really fabulous dewy spring blue metallic shimmer with a turquoise flash. This would be my favorite but the runny formula just is not working for me on these. Three coats.
Zoya Rayne Delight collection

Last is Tiana, a pistachio spring baby green crème. I got this covered in two coats, but it was also non self-leveling, making application more difficult than it had to be. Gorgeous color though right?
Zoya Tiana Delight collection

I know pastels are pretty commonly hard to get great formulas with, but I am just not impressed with the usability of these. However, I've heard from a lot of my fellow polish lovers that most of these worked out well for them, so it could just be me haha.

These are available for purchase on Zoya.com for $9 each. They are also being offered in mini bottles right now for $5 each, though I don't know for how long. What do you think of these springy shades? Spring might be my least favorite season for color palettes, but I know a lot of people adore them.

Ta ta for now!

❤ Kellie
The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Starry Night Comparison: Pretty Serious vs. Colors by Llarowe

Hey there! Today I wanted to show you a quick comparison of two polishes I've reviewed in the past that seemed similar to me. Colors by Llarowe Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Pretty Serious Eye of Copernicus. They are both supposed to be a recreation of sorts of iconic and discontinued beauty Essie Starry, Starry Night. Let's see how they compare shall we? **EDIT: I have since learned that Eye of Copernicus is actually supposed to be a reimagined version of Chanel Ciel De Nuit, not SSN.**

Left - CBL Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star , Right - PS Eye of Copernicus
Pointer & Ringer finger - Eye of Copernicus, Middle & Pinky finger - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

The photo shows two coats of each shade. The main difference is that EoC is a shade or two darker navy than TTLS. It's also more opaque. TTLS is more squishy and jelly-ish but it's thicker. There seems to be more glitter in EoC.

You can purchase Pretty Serious polishes from their website for $9.50 AUD and you can get Colors by Llarowe from their website for $12 each. I like both of these but I've gotta pick EoC because it's easier to apply, it's more affordable and Pretty Serious has cuter packaging. Which one of these would you pick?

Love ya!

❤ Kellie
Some of the products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Color Club Love Tahiry Collection Swatches & Review

Hi folks! Today I wanted to share with you the Love Tahiry collection from Color Club. This wasn't specifically described as a Valentine's Day collection but it definitely has those types of shades. These are all designed by Tahiry Jose, who I just learned is on the reality show Love & Hip Hop: New York (sorry, I don't watch it). These all have a special scent to them when they dry. Let's take a look shall we?

First is Sweet Getaway, a very neon pink shade. On the nails it appears hotter & glowy-er than the pink color in the bottle. It seems to go on very opaque, but there was still some streaking with two coats so I needed three. It does apply very easily for such a neon color though. This one has a "pink rose" scent. I love rose scented things normally, but unfortunately this scent was too overwhelming for me to want to wear this again.
Color Club Sweet Getaway Love Tahiry

Here we have Tall Dark & Handsome, a dusty deep grey crème. It has a thin formula but is very opaque. I used two coats. This scent is described as "cologne" and that is right on. I like men's scents but I don't know if I want my nails to smell super masculine haha. It was a bit too strong for me.
Color Club Tall Dark & Handsome Love Tahiry

Seal It With a Kiss is a strawberry scented peachy pink light coral crème. This is so my type of color. It was a little on the thick side but manageable. I used two coats. This scent was pretty subtle, but nice and sweet.
Color Club Seal It With a Kiss Love Tahiry

This is 50 Shades of Love, a topper with metallic red and pearl white heart glitters in a clear(ish) base. You can see how the color on the red hearts has flaked off some and infiltrated the base. I actually like how the red bits look in the base but I wish the hearts didn't look scratched. I had to kinda place the hearts on, but this is one coat over Seal It With a Kiss. This one says it smells like "candy" but it's a very lightly scented one.
Color Club 50 Shades of Love Love Tahiry

Next is Red-Handed, a cool red crème. This is pretty basic, but a staple kind of shade. It had a great easy to apply formula. This is two coats. It's labeled as smelling like "cinnamon" but I didn't smell anything except nail polish on this one.
Color Club Red-Handed Love Tahiry

This is On Cloud Nine, a squishy white jelly crème. It was still a bit streaky on two coats so I used three. This has a "white chocolate" scent, it was probably my favorite of the scents.
Color Club On Cloud Nine Love Tahiry

And last is Jitters, my favorite shade of the collection with my least favorite scent. It's a rosy pink and silver holographic microglitter with full coverage in two easy coats. I love the way it looks! Unfortunately the "bubbly" scent they put in it, which I'm assuming is supposed to smell like champagne, just overpowers me and it actually gave me a headache. To be fair, I'm pretty sensitive to a lot of scents, but I had to mention it.
Color Club Jitters Love Tahiry

These are available on the Color Club website for $8.50 each. I also know they are stocked at some e-tailers like Llarowe and HB Beauty Bar (though I have never ordered from HB). What do you think of these colors? How do you feel about scented nail polish?

Have a fly day!

❤ Kellie
The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

FingerPaints Bright Lights Big City Collection Swatches & Review

Howdy! I hope you are doing well :) I wanted to show you the FingerPaints Bright Lights Big City collection today! It came out around the beginning of the year and it features six shades.

In the City Lookin' Pretty has a clear base filled with holographic silver and pale rosey pink metallic glitters. It's quite dense, a little thick but not hard to work with. I layered two coats over Color Club New-tral.
FingerPaints In The City Lookin' Pretty

Paint the Town Purple is a light cool lilacy purple glass fleck. This is pretty sheer, I had to use three thick coats to reach this level of opacity. It may be better suited as a layering polish, over a black would probably be very pretty.
FingerPaints Paint the Town Purple

This gal is called Dance Floor Diva, a clear base filled with metallic glitters in small purple squares, large silver and blue hexes and larger black and silver hexes. It's also nicely dense and easy to spread out on the nail. This is two coats over Color Club Midnight Mulberry. It's not really my style of glitter, but I ended up liking it with the base color I used.
FingerPaints Dance Floor Diva

Next is Hey Mr. DJ!, a black jelly with silver microglitter and red and blue tiny hex glitters. This was one I didn't expect to like that much but it's very pretty on the nail. This applies easily and is opaque in two coats.
FingerPaints Hey Mr. DJ!

Urban Lights is a real stunner. It has a black base with loads of colorshifting tealy blue to purple shimmer duochrome large shimmer bits. This photo does it no justice, it's a must have trust me. It was opaque in one coat, but I used two here because well, I always do haha!
FingerPaints Urban Lights

Here is Urban Lights with indirect lighting from behind, to show the duochrome. It's CRAZY how different it looks in another light huh!
FingerPaints Urban Lights

And last is What A Night, a copper/gold/pink duochromey foil. This is really gorgeous, very firey and autumnal. It seemed a little sheer on the first coat but was opaque on two. This would be another great one layered over black probably. I'll have to try that.
FingerPaints What A Night

This is the indirect light shot of What A Night. No words. Stunning.

FingerPaints is sold at Sally Beauty Supply for $5.49 each. This was more of an end of winter collection, I was a little late getting these swatches up. Hopefully you'll still be able to find them in stores if you're interested in picking them up. Let me know what you think of these colors! Any favorites?

Bye friends!

❤ Kellie
The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Pretty Serious Naileontology Collection Swatches & Review

image via Pretty Serious Cosmetics

Hey there! I'm super hip-hap-happy to bring you today's dose of pretty, Pretty Serious to be exact! Their newest collection is called Naileontology, an ongoing collection where they will be "unearthing vintage classics and creating new works of art inspired by these long lost treasures!" Kaz, owner of Australian based company Pretty Serious, is a vintage polish junkie and I love this idea of coming up with newer versions of polishes of the past! They are starting out with a trio of iconic shades, and there will be more colors added to the collection in the future.

Khepri's Amulet is a mermaidy blue green duochrome with a robust tealy gold metallic shimmer. This totally takes me back to the days of super chemically old school shades! But it's also current and just oh so smooth. This was completely opaque for me in two coats, but if you have super white free-edges you might need to layer on another.
Pretty Serious Khepri's Amulet Naileontology

Eye of Copernicus is a very dark blue jelly polish filled with itsy bitsy silver glitters. This is truly a night sky in a bottle. I love the fact that it's very dark but you can still tell that it is blue, not black. This had a perfect formula, not too thick or thin, and it is completely opaque in two coats.
Pretty Serious Eye of Copernicus Naileontology

The Dragon's Curse is a minty green with a strong gold shimmer. I was expecting this to be sheer, but they really hit it out of the park because it's almost opaque in one coat! I used two here. This is lovely and the shimmer is nice and bold.
Pretty Serious The Dragon's Curse Naileontology

These are available now on the Pretty Serious website. They ship internationally, and also have a warehouse they can ship from in the US which is really convenient for us in the States & Canada. Plus they have other stockists you can purchase from as well. What do you think of these stunning shades? I hope you like them as much as I do, I'm seriously head over heels! I cannot freaking wait to see the next installment of colors for this collection!

La la love ya!

❤ Kellie
The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Fortune Cookie Soap Cuticle Butter Review

What's up folks? I know I just reviewed a cuticle butter the other day, but I actually have another one to tell you about already! The company it's from is called Fortune Cookie Soap, you may have heard of them because they're pretty popular online, but I just discovered them. They're a bath & body company whose signature product is soap shaped like fortune cookies! They have lots of amazing scents with really fun themes like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Alice in Wonderland, etc. They have tons of products like bath bombs, shampoo bars, body wash, bath salts, leave-in conditioner, perfume oil etc.

image via FCS

Fortune Cookie Soap puts out a subscription "soap box" previewing the different themes of their major collections every quarter of the year; their most recent was the Spring "Wonderland" box. I had just heard of them from a YouTube video before the box came out and was lucky to be able to sign up for it before they sold out. I'll have to do a full review of the next box I get, let me know if you'd be interested in that!

The cuticle butter I purchased comes in a 0.8 oz jar for $8.95. The ingredients are: "Shea Butter, Beeswax, Organic Coconut Oil, Lanolin, Soya Oil, Cold Pressed Avocado Oil, Mango Butter, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Castor Oil, Olive Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Vitamin E, and Fragrance." It seems like a very little amount in the jar, but you seriously only need to touch your finger to it to get enough for a few fingers so I know it will last a long time. It's thick and stiff at first touch (heh heh) but melts instantly into a rich oily texture when applied. It does stay greasy for longer than I would normally care for, so it might be better suited for a nighttime treatment.

image via FCS

I got it in the scent Twisted Tea Party, from the Wonderland collection. It's described as "a light, refreshing, green tea with notes of sweet herbs, vanilla bean, cucumber, golden amber, and hints of neroli and geranium, stirred with a bright sprig of spearmint." I am addicted to this scent, so I end up using it all throughout the day even though it's more oily than I prefer, just so I can smell it! I usually rub it in, wait a few minutes, then rub it in again, which helps it sink in faster. I just placed another order to get one in the Off With Their Heads! scent, which smells like roses and lemons :D

They also do lots of little collections in between the large ones that the "soap box" previews; their newest is an Easter theme. You can purchase their products from www.fortunecookiesoap.com. Stuff sells out fast but they do lots of restocks. Let me know if you've ever tried this brand before, I think it's just the coolest!

A special treat if you are ordering for the first time, you can get $5 off a minimum order of $30 using my referral link: http://r.sloyalty.com/r/u3Swp30VtTsE. You must using the special coupon code the website shows you to get the $5 off. (I only get points if you use the link, not money. :) )

Until we meet again!

❤ Kellie
Some of the above links are affiliates.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Girly Bits Seriously Sassy Swatch & Review

Today I have a Girly Bits polish to show you called Seriously Sassy. This is a collaboration shade with blogger Shelly from Sassy Shelly. She is so talented and I just adore her, check her out if you don't already. It has a royal purple jelly base with glowing blue-to-purple color shifting glitters and purple microglitter with just a hint of holo pigment in there. It had a great formula and was opaque in two coats. It does dry a little gritty so be sure to use a good thick top coat.

I love the look of this, the glowy glitter makes it unique to my collection. You can purchase this from the Girly Bits website. They also stock their products at places like Llarowe, where I bought mine for $13, and at Harlow & Co. Have you tried this shade yet? This is only my second polish from Girly Bits, but I need to get more because they are great!

Talk to you soon!

❤ Kellie

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

SuperChic Lacquer Serendipity Collection Swatches & Review

Hi kittens! Today I have a new collection from SuperChic Lacquer to show ya! It's called the Serendipity collection and it consists of eight new "dewy day-glow" neon pastels and one holographic top coat. I swatched each color and, since they dry semi-matte, used a shiny top coat, then layered two coats of the holo over my ring fingernail. The crèmes all had similar formulas so I'll discuss that toward the end. They all make me look super tan too so I thought I'd mention that ;)

First up is Cause & Effect, described as a "stunning cross between a tangy tangerine and pink grapefruit". Indoors this looked completely orange to me, but in bright light it does have more of a pink tone than I thought. Love this! I applied the holo tc a little unevenly as you can see, but I didn't notice until I went to edit these photos :(
SuperChic Lacquer Cause & Effect

Crystal Blue Persuasion is a "heavenly ethereal crystal blue". Sky blues look good on everyone. So you need this!
SuperChic Lacquer Crystal Blue Persuasion

Next we have Dumb Luck, a "jaw-dropping most incredible retro green". Uh, this is right on, so retro and I love it!
SuperChic Lacquer Dumb Luck

This is Happenstance, an "over-the-top hot popping bubblegum pink". It seems to have more of a slight purple tone on the nail than it does in the bottle. It's just adorable, reminds me of cupcakes.
SuperChic Lacquer Happenstance

Here comes Law of Nature, a "lush citrusy lemon yellow". Pastel yellows are hard to do well usually, but this one is pretty painless! Yellow is such a happy color :)
SuperChic Lacquer Law of Nature

Nothing Ventured is not a neon, it's a "sultry silvery light to medium gray". At first I would've told you that joint don't belong in this collection, but I just don't care! It's awesome and way prettier on than I expected.
SuperChic Lacquer Nothing Ventured

This gal is Pleasant Surprise, a "most luscious retro teal blue". Another retro color?! Yes please! I imagine if I lived in the 50's this would be the color of a lot of my kitchen appliances.
SuperChic Lacquer Pleasant Surprise

Synchronicity is the last of the crèmes and it might just be my favorite. It's more low key than the others in terms of neon-icity but it's still quite bright. It's described as "an amazing electrified grape". Everyone needs this.
SuperChic Lacquer Synchronicity

All of these apply mostly the same, they are semi-matte so they dry quickly. They have a thin formula which could make for some streaky-ness. You'll need two coats, possibly three depending on your application. I used two coats for all of them except for the yellow & orange, which needed three. There is a pearly shimmer to them all (hence, the dewy moniker) that subtly twinkles when they are in their matte state, but really pops out with top coat. One layer of the holographic top coat might be a better way to go when layering, as it does get a little grey on some of them at two, but it looked good on all of them. My favorite holo + color combo is with Pleasant Surprise.

Ride The Neon Rainbow is meant to be a layering top coat, but I wanted to try it on its own for kicks. It totally works! It looks brilliant and very blingy. It's thin but easy to work with. If you want complete and total opacity you might use one more coat, but it looked good to me at three.
SuperChic Lacquer Ride the Neon Rainbow

This collection is the collaborative brainchild of owner Jennifer and YouTuber JessFACE90, so please go check out her video review of these colors and give her some love if you like this collection! These will be available for purchase today on the SuperChic Lacquer - Wonder Beauty Products Etsy store at 4pm PST for $10 each. What do you think of these Spring shades?

It's a good day to have a good day ;)

❤ Kellie
The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.
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