A England Sparks Divine and Whispering Waves

*Press Samples*

Hi everyone! Today I have two beauties from A England to share with you Sparks Divine and Whispering Waves! I have been a huge A England fan since the very beginning and their velvety holos have always been particular favorites of mine. Both of these gorgeous A England holos are available now from Color4Nails!

Green Spam for St. Patrick's Day!

*Purchased by Me*

Hi everyone! I fully intended on having a cute St. Patrick's Day mani for today's post, but didn't feel well yesterday so things didn't go as planned. Instead, I'm going to share some fabulous greens that I've been wearing lately and haven't blogged yet. I really hope I can make the time to do some St. Patrick's nail art before the end of the week. Gah, just looking through to find all of these has reminded me of the RIDICULOUS amount of unblogged manis that I have in the arsenal. One day I will have them all posted!

Glam Polish Elixir is a lime green holo packed with lime holo glitters. Formula was excellent with full coverage in 2 easy coats. I feel like I've said this a million times, but I'll say it again...Glam Polish's Cast a Spell Collection(s) are probably my favorite series of collections EVER and this one is probably one of my favorites so far! I just can't say enough how pretty and sparkly this polish is! This one is actually part of the Cast a Spell Part 2 Collection, which is still available from Glam Polish's shop.

Born Pretty Store Colorful Rainbow Flower Full-Nail Water Decals

*Press Sample*

Hi everyone! I recently reviewed my first ever full-nail water decals from Born Pretty Store, and today I have some more to share with you. These water decals are the Colorful Rainbow Flower pattern (product #16211). Like the decals I reviewed previously, the design is just gorgeous and looks like a mini painting on your nails. I will say that the color of the decals is a bit more muted than the pictures on the website, but I actually prefer the more muted look (it looks more like a painting). I really love using these decals as accents instead of as a full mani, but you certainly can do that if you prefer! On the nails that didn't have the decals on them, I used a-England Galahad.

a-England Dancing With Nureyev with Subtle Stamping

*Purchased By Me*

Hi everyone! Today I have for you the subtlest stamping ever. When I put on a-England Dancing With Nureyev, I thought that the perfect thing to use to stamp would be China Glaze Strap On Your Moonboots from the Hologlam Collection because it just seemed like they would pair perfectly for tone-on-tone holo stamping. Well, they almost paired too perfectly!

30 Day Challenge, Day 30: Something That Makes You Happy

Hi everyone! After a grueling 30 Day Challenge, the thing that makes me the most happy is something clean and fresh. I'm about nail-arted out. So for today's challenge, Something That Makes Me Happy, I went with a clean, nude holo. This probably wasn't really the point of this prompt, but at this point, I couldn't think of anything that would make me more happy for a mani.

a-England Her Rose Adiago is a pink-toned nude scattered holo. As usual, the a-England formula is impeccable, covering completely in 2 easy coats. The subtle, glowy holo adds some extra fun to this work-appropriate shade. It was the perfect palette cleanser after this 30 day adventure!

a-England polishes can be purchased from a-England's official website if you live in the UK as well as from several international e-tailers (see full list here).

Well that wraps up the 30 Day Challenge! Be sure to check out what the other ladies have in store for today! Thanks for following along!

An InLinkz Link-up

a-England Princess Tears Nail Art

Hi everyone! Today I have a nail art post for you featuring a-England Princess Tears. I've actually had this polish since it came out and have never worn it, but now I've used it in two nail art manis in the past few weeks. 

The first mani I've used Princess Tears only as an accent in a mixed texture mani. First, I used OPI Baby Please Come Home from the Holiday Mariah Carey Liquid Sands for the textured nails. Then I used Essie St. Lucia Lilac as a base for my pointed and pinky nails and came back and did dots with a-England Princess Tears. I really enjoyed the monochromatic look of this mani. 

Next I have a tape mani that I did a few weeks ago with Princess Tears as the base and another a-England on the tips, Lady of the Lake. First I taped off the corners with painter's tape and then I placed a single strip of striping tape parallel to the painter's tape for this lined effect. This mani was inspired by @faustgil on Instagram. 

I do have some pictures of Princess Tears by itself as well. It's a very greyed out lavender scattered holo with a pink flash. The pink flash is very apparent in real life, but got a little washed out in my pics. The formula is perfect like all of my other a-Englands. This is two easy coats. 

a-England polishes can be purchased from a-England's official website if you live in the UK as well as from several international e-tailers (see full list here). Thanks for looking everyone!

a-England St George with CrowsToes Triple Black Diamond

Yes...this is a tip of my hat to one of my favorites (that I miss so much and wish would post again!) Steffels. I remember when she posted this combo, it was so droolworthy (see it here). My pictures didn't want to capture it very well, but it was a gorgeous combo in real life. So here is CrowsToes Triple Black Diamond (1 coat ) over a-England St George (2 coats). 

Here is St George on its own...just STUNNING! It looks like velvet on your nails. 

CrowsToes polishes are available from Llarowe and Femme Fatale Cosmetics. a-England polishes are available from creator Adina's website if you are in the UK as well as from a whole list of other e-tailers if you are an international customer. Thanks for looking everyone!

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

Today's mani had to be inspired by the supernatural and I chose dragons for my inspiration. And being all cheesy (as I am), I had to use a polish with dragon in the name to make it even MORE in theme! The base of my mani was a-England Dragon with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Golden-I used for the stamping (I used the scale design from the Bundle Monster 215 plate). For the accent nail, I decided that my dragon had to be breathing FIRE so I did a base of China Glaze Crimson and then used some oranges, reds, and yellows with a fine paint brush to create flames.

Here is a-England Dragon on its own. So pretty! This is 2 easy coats. Look at the pretty gold flash in it!

Almost there!! Only a few more manis left in the challenge!

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 21: Inspired By a Color

So to make up for my lack of completing a water marble for day 20, I decided to give you 3 purple manis to celebrate this day (and since purple is my absolute favorite color, it wasn't too hard.)

First up I decided to do some nail art with one of my new stripers. I think purple and gold were made for each other, so that is what I did for this mani. I used Finger Paints Plum Startled as the base and a gold Stripe Rite striper for the accents. These pictures don't show how gorgeous and glowy Plum Startled is, but it is a winner. I recommend picking it up from Sally's before the fall displays are cleaned out.

Up next I did some layering with a fabulous new glitter I got from Darling Diva Polish called Carrie. It reminds me of a glitter version of OPI I Lily Love You with added blue shimmer. I have swatched it over red, pink, purple, and dark blue so far and it looks amazing over all of them. I highly recommend it because it is gorgeous and versatile. 

This is 2 coats of Carrie over OPI Funky Dunkey (my favorite purple creme)

And last but not least, I decided to do some subtle stamping over one of my other favorite purple cremes, OPI Planks a Lot. I used a-England Princess Tears to stamp and I was very pleased with the results.

I used the flower design on the right of the Bundle Monster 204 plate (from the second Bundle Monster set).

So I hope you enjoyed the many sides of purple in this post. I am always happy to devote any post to purple, so this was an easy one! Thanks for looking!

Hits MTV Collection Swatches

I recently got the Hits MTV Glitters in the mail to swatch and I wanted to share them with you.

First up is Pink Pop. This had a mix of small pink and silver glitter with larger pink holo and silver holo hexes with some medium red hexes in there for some interest. I really loved the color combo of the glitters. This is 1 coat over China Glaze Hyper Haute. The formula was good on this and as you can see there is a nice glitter density at one coat.

Up next is Blue Jazz. This has blue microglitter as well as blue and green hexes in a blue jelly base. You might be thinking it is a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe but in fact, it is a little different (and in a good way I think). Some of the larger hexes are holo which I think makes this polish a little more special than Across the Universe. Also, the base of Blue Jazz isn't as pigmented, so I would definantly recommend layering. This is 2 coats over Zoya Ibiza.

Golden Disco is up next. This one is a mix of gold and copper microglitter with larger gold and silver holo hexes. I think this one is very cool and I can imagine it would look nice over a dark wine color or red for the fall. It just reminds me of Autumn. This is one coat over a-England Princess Sabra.

Speaking of Princess Sabra...let's have a look at that one! This is my first time wearing it and I adore it! I was worried I wouldn't even like it because I'm not typically a gold person, but it pulled really neutral on me which I loved.

Last up is Synth Pop. This is silver microglitter with larger silver holo hexes. This was my least favorite of the collection. It is pretty, but just didn't stand out to me. I think it was mainly because the larger hexes were so sparse in it. This is 2 coats over Color Club Worth the Risque.

I wanted to show of the glitter more in Synth Pop since it blended so much into the base color of Worth the Risque so I layered it over purple (China Glaze Virtual Violet).



Overall I really liked these glitters. My top picks are Pink Pop and Golden Disco because I found them unique and fun. Also, I definantly recommend Blue Jazz if you are looking for something similar to Across the Universe (but better I think) at a lower price. The formula on all of them was good for chunky glitters and I will have to say (and I can't believe I'm saying this) that the Hits brushes seem to be IMPROVING! What is happening? Maybe they have heard enough complaints about them? Who knows, but I hope that it stays true with any new lines they release because the Mari Moons and No Olimpios were just a travesty (but so worth dealing with for the amazing polishes!).

These are available at Llarowe for $5 each (sale price). What do you guys think of these?  

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 16: Tribal

Did I warn you there was more stamping? Yes? Ok...good!

For my tribal mani I first did a base of a nice coral creme, Nails Inc Brook Street. Once that dried I sponged a-England Galahad (THE perfect turquoise creme) about halfway down my nail with a piece of a makeup sponge and allowed it to dry completely. I used Fingerpaints Black Expressionism and an image from Cheeky jumbo plate A for the stamping. I thought it turned out really well! Even my husband, who is a total stick in the mud about nail polish and nail art in general, said "I have to admit...that is cool." Haha! I know that took SO much for him to admit that.

Whew! I can't believe I'm almost caught up! I still have a few more posts to go to get totally caught up with my challenge! I have already decided that a new computer must be purchased soon since my husband is having to take this one to work with him every day now that school has started back and he doesn't get home until about 8:00 each night. Doesn't leave much time for me to do ANYTHING! Thanks for hanging in there with me though!

Blogger-Inspired Mani: Holo Gradient with Stamping

I recently saw this post by The Swatchaholic and was just mesmerized. I knew I had to try to do a mani to pay homage to this amazingness. Now...I will start this off by saying that my stamping skills are next to non-existant, so don't be expecting too much from me! :)

I started off with a base of a-England Tristam. The formula on a-England's polishes is just stellar. If you haven't tried them out yet, you just don't know what you are missing! This could have easily been a 1 coater, but I applied 2 coats out of habit. The holo in a-England's polishes gives them a wonderful glowy quality and they look almost like velvet on your nails.

Next I used this excellent tutorial by The Nailasaurus that makes really simple work of doing gradients. I used a cut up make-up sponge to sponge on the polishes. For this mani, I sponged the two colors on vertically instead of horizontally. For the gradient I used my base color, a-England Tristam, as well as a-England St George. 

Finally, I used and image from the Cheeky Jumbo Plate A and stamped over the gradient with a-England Princess Sabra. The results were very subtle, but lovely (and extremely difficult to photograph!)

Here are the results:

To purchase any of a-England's polishes you can order them directly from a-England's website, which has free international shipping. Be on the look out for excellent sales from time to time. They are also available from Llarowe.