InstaFranken Friday: "Sparkle Merlot" holo glitter franken

Hi all! Time to show another one of my frankens. I should not be given a job naming polishes. It's really gorgeous though!! I recommend clicking on the pictures to really see the awesomeness.

Here are the polishes I used for this.
Pure Ice Iced Merlot
Sally Hansen Strobe Light
L.A. Girls 3D Sparkle Ruby
Love and Beauty Faded Rose/Multi
Spectraflair Franken but this didnt do much

I made it in the same fashion as the others. Single use batch in a little foil cup. I'm going to show you more pictures in different lights. The one above was in sunlight. The next one is in shade.

And in the lightbox...

Then inspired by Lisa from Polished Elegance by this post, I added a cut out stamped design with hand placed glitter borders. Design is from the Pueen plate 19. For that red base, I used a mix of WnW Everybody Loves Redmond and Urban Outfitters Blood.

Mentality Nail Polish Rascal review and gel pen swirls

                                 *product sent to me for review

Hello lovelies! I am excited to show you guys today, my first polish review!! I am not going to fool myself. I'm not so prolific in my posts or so dedicated to swatching the newest and greatest polish out there that polish companies would be knocking on my door to swatch their polishes for me. My main objective for this blog was to just have a place to put all my nail designs and fun polishes and share it with other like-minded people. That being said, what nail blogger out there doesn't secretly (or not so secretly) want to be sent all the latest polishes for review, not having to spend a dime, not having to hit refresh on the page trying to get the most desired polish in the first few minutes of a restock before it's completely sold out? So, when Mentality Nail Polish asked on IG if there were any nail polish fanatics that wanted to review polishes for them and then actually sent me a bottle, I was beyond happy. And I actually really like this polish!

This is Mentality Rascal. On the website the polish is described as "a black matte with a very subtle shimmer". Believe it or not, this is the first matte polish I have tried, and I like it! It is a one coat matte black that dries fast in a typical matte fashion (from what I gather). Application was easy but since it was my first matte, I did have some issues and had to do a nail twice. I think it could be better still but...you know, new baby.

Because of this polish's finish, you can see that I actually have some ridges in my nails *blushes*. I think a second coat would have hid that. This looked so much like a chalkboard that I wanted to write on it. And write I did! I had a bunch of old Sakura Gelly Roll pens from my obsession with pens in college and I used a bunch of the sparkly ones to doodle. I found out the hard way that the design won't stay on without a top coat so I had to redraw the designs after I took the pictures and seal it with a topcoat, which is seen in the first picture. Alas, I smudged it with topcoat too!! I have since heard that applying a peel off basecoat then applying topcoat after it dries will help not to smear. Haven't tested it for myself but will have to soon!

Rascal and other Mentality nail polishes can be purchased at their bigcartel website.

And now, here is my secret weapon in being able to type up these posts. My little guy is in a stage of his life where he wants to be held all the time. The only times he will tolerate being put down is if he is in a deep sleep and the act of putting him down doesn't actually wake him up or in those precious few minutes during the day when he is dry, fed, not sleepy and in the mood to play. Then I can put him down and wave toys in front of his face and make sickening googly noises...that is until one of the above changes and he starts crying again. By babywearing, however, I can actually have more than a few minutes in the day in which he's happy and I'm not stuck in one place holding him. I posted this picture on Instagram a few days ago. So peaceful, isn't he?

* I was not financially compensated for this post. I received a sample for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*

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Adventures in Stamping Sunday Stamping: Autumn Nails

Hi everyone! Happy no more summer...at least in the northern hemisphere. (Do I have any below the equator readers?) Today's mani is along those lines. I'm part of a Facebook group called Adventures in Stamping and every Sunday participants are asked to submit a stamped mani with a theme. This Sunday, the challenge theme is autumn nails. I gotta say, I'm not too proud of this one. I love the colors of the gradient but the stamping is waaaayyyy too subtle. Oh well. 

The polishes I used are 

Sinful Colors Courtney Orange

Sinful Colors Mercury Rising

Stamped with SC Mercury Rising, SC Sugar Sugar, KC Metallic Green, L'Oreal Because You're Worth It

Plate used BM 04

I am really loving the gradient colors though. Did I already mention that?

Instafranken Friday: Sation Super Nail-tural Powers based franken

So, I know I suck at coming up with creative titles for my posts. By the time I'm done taking the pictures, uploading, cropping, watermarking and putting together the post, my thinking power is shot in terms of the post title. Where I do like to get creative is thinking of combination of polishes that come together to create something unique and interesting. I completely understand why there are so many indie polish makers out there now. Frankening is awesome!! I'll never get into it to the point where I'd mass produce and sell my creations. (I'm not sure they are really sell worthy anyway). I just love knowing that for a time, I had something completely unique on my nails. 

To create this look, I mixed the following polishes in a little foil cup. Sation Super Nail-tural Powers, Jordana Copper Blaze, Love and Beauty Purple Holo glitter and matte neon hex glitter. I would add more drops of polish if I ran low, thinner if it got too goopy. To see a summary of the process, go to this blog post. I haven't included pictures of what the mixed product looks like in the foil cup. If you guys are interested in that, let me know!! This is two coats.

Here it is in sunlight.

This is my first Sation polish and it did not disappoint. I can't comment on it as worn by itself because this is my first time using it. I got it on discount from TJ Maxx sometime recently. I love these colors that are a cross between blue and purple. They make me feel happy :-) In this particular franken, the addiction of neon green glitters make me extra happy!

Nubar Duochromes: Wildlife with black saran wrap design

Hello polish lovers!

I can't believe I'm getting a post before one week from the previous post! Having a child is wonderful but it's seriously a moratorium on free time for the forseeable future! A little update, last weekend we got some professional photography done with our little guy. I am so excited to see the pictures!! The photographer we worked with was wonderful. She had him quiet and mostly sleeping for most of the photo session, which was the better part of four hours. I was sorely tempted to ask her to come by at night and put him to sleep at bedtime too :-)

This is the last of the Nubar Duochromes that I have. To see the posts for the others, follow the links below.

                Indigo Illusion

                Purple Beach

                Iris Dust
                Moon Eclipse

Onto today's look. This is Nubar Wildlife. It has a pink/bronze shimmer head on with murky green edges. As the light shifts, you can see the shift towards brighter and brighter green.

I embellished this one a bit by adding black with plastic cling wrap. I painted it on the plastic and then carefully dabbed it onto completely dry base. On the ring finger, I added a coat of Jessica 18K gold flake polish.

And here are the collages and the video.

Nubar Duochromes: Moon Eclipse

Hi folks! Today's Nubar Duochrome feature is Moon Eclipse. This one has got a much more wine colored base to it. It starts off as an eggplant purple shimmer that shifts through burgundy then bronze then a greenish copper tone. Another beauty!! Here are the links to the others I've shown so far:

                Indigo Illusion

                Purple Beach

                Iris Dust
                Wildlife

Nubar Duochromes: Iris Dust

Hi everyone!

I'm back with another installation of the now seemingly endless swatches of the Nubar duochrome polishes in my possession. Or maybe it just seems endless to me since that's the only thing I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. Follow the links below to see the other posts:

              Indigo Illusion

              Purple Beach

              Moon Eclipse

              Wildlife

Today's polish is Iris Dust. The duochrome effect in this polish starts off with a warm fushia glow with edges of darker purple. It then transitions to a burnt orange color that glows like fire and finally ends at a yellow that has a hint of green in it. The color shift of this polish is amazing in real life. When I was swatching, I was tempted to just stop with this one and keep it on my nails for a full manicure. You can see this progression below with the collage and video at the end.