Illamasqua Serenity Rubber Brights & Stamping

I got my first Illamasqua today! I went to Sephora and tried all the testers and decided on Serenity.  I would've loved to take them all home with me but at $14 a piece, I decided one would be a good start.  I also really like the rubbery finish and mattes in general, so this was a really fun addition to my stash.

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Photos seen here are two easy coats over Orly Bonder, no top coat. I say easy because I was anticipating some difficulty and it wasn't! My middle finger has three coats because I messed up while doing it, but opacity is reached in two.

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I jazzed it up with some stamping. This is BM306 with Konad Special White.  Since my nails have a pretty dramatic C-curve, I usually can't stamp a full image design without messing it up.  My thumb cramps and I try, every time and then it dries so fast on the stamper that not all of it picks up.  I fix this by filling in the gaps with dots and rhinestones usually.  I have no issues with smaller designs, just the full image ones. Such a shame!

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Only three fingers here because I royally botched my index nail.  Pro-tip: use the bathroom before doing your nails.

My first Illamasqua experience was a positive one.  I really like how the bottle fits in my hand too, although that's not really relevant to application or formula.  I also really like the color of this blue even though  I wanted to take all of them home with me!

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I still have polishes in stock at my Etsy store!

Oopsie Daisies Nail Polish Shop 

Bomb Pop by JayBird

This is one of the yummiest polishes I own!  I bought this beauty from a friend, details on how to get one yourself will be at the bottom of this post.

Bomb Pop is a blue based polish with white and red glitter as well as blue shimmers.  It's also really squishy and had the smoothest application for a glitter that I've seen in a long long time.  The photo above was take by a different friend, but I couldn't handle the squeaky toy bomb pop, so adorable. Used with permission.

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My bottle is a little bit different but it contains the same lovely polish.  This is 3 coats over Orly Bonder and sealed with Out the Door.  You could definitely get away with two coats, as I did on my right hand.  I always seem to apply much more generously with my right hand, so my swatch had usually has an additional coat.

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There is some VNL with this polish but I think it adds to the concept. I really wish I had this polish for the Fourth of July, it would've been absolutely perfect!

Macro Bottle Shot

Click HERE for ordering info.

China Glaze Ride the Waves

This China Glaze is what I was hoping Revlon Royal was going to be.  It's much more sheer, a more layerable jelly if you're trying to make a sandwich.  Royal is more pigmented and for me, hid the the layered affect when I tried.

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This is 3 thin coats of Ride the Waves over Orly Bonder and sealed with Out the Door.  Even at three coats, there is still VNL, which, depending on what you're looking for, can be a good or a bad thing. I preferred the VNL as I have lots of opaque blues.  This one brings something different to the table.

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The formula on this one was really nice, too. Good drying time, decent wear time, etc. No complaints!

Holographic Accent Nail Mani (Layla & Hits)

I was looking forward to writing this post all day!  I wore this mani for two days and it still is beautiful. That never happens, uh, ever.  I got Layla Flash Black in a swap with my friend Melissa and Hits Apolo from Llarowe's 49% off sale. They're such a cute couple.

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This is two coats of Hits Apolo and two coats of Layla Flash Black over the Jessica Hologram Base Coat. I sealed these off with NYC Grand Central Station.

Flash

I took these photos after an 8 hour shift at the daycare and after my shower (hair washing included). No chips! I was not expecting such awesome wear-time.

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Both had really nice formulas, Apolo was a little bit runnier, but not in a bad way - it just made it easy for thin coats.  Both applied so nicely and wore so well.  They were shiny and sparkly and holo-y! As with most holos, they both dried really fast.

Flash

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I am so happy to have these in my collection! I want to play with more holos really soon :D

Have you entered my 300th post giveaway yet? 
ENDS THIS FRIDAY!

Funky Fingers Glass Fleck Collection

I picked up this set at Five Below.  There may or may not be dupes in these from the Color Club Take Wing collection. The Funky Fingers polishes are named after fairy tale and princess-y type stuff.  This set consists of five glass fleck sort of polishes. I used Orly Bonder and Brucci Nail Dryer for all of the swatches.

Prince Charming - Mirror, Mirror, Pixy Dust, Kiss the Girl - Belle

Prince Charming was the sheerest of the bunch needed a total of 4 coats.

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Bottle Macro

Not only was it the sheerest, it's the most difficult to describe. There are hints of blue and pink in there too.  And it's a bit glowy! The macro shot of my nail captures best what you can really see in real life.  It's got multi-dimensions to it. It loses points though for being a 4-coater, but you could probably get away with three.

Mirror, Mirror is a fun, vivacious blue that also is a bit glowy.  This is only 2 coats of polish in these pictures but I think if I applied slightly thicker coats that the bare spots or VNL you might be seeing would be eliminated.

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I was thinking this could possibly be a dupe for Color Club Sky High but upon closer inspection, I'm not so sure.

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 This one did stain though, just a warning.

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Pixy Dust, which I think is a nod at Tinker Bell, is the second sheerest out of this collection. This is 3 coats and could've used a fourth. I didn't really like how it looked on me that much. I'm sure there's an audience for this color, I'm just not a part of it.

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The next one, Kiss the Girl, is my favorite from this set.  Not just because it's pink, but the formula is incredible.  This is ONE coat of Kiss the Girl.  Out of all of them, this one has the most "glowy", least "metallic" look. It was slightly difficult to photograph. It behaved like a neon when I tried capturing it.

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Belle is the one I thought I'd like the least but it actually is pretty impressive for a yellow.  It's a direct reference to the Disney princess, Belle from Beauty and the Beast and I think they nailed it.  I stopped at 3 coats here. For as fun as this color is, I'm surprised I don't have one like it already.

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 I'm pretty sure this is a dupe for Color Club Daisy Does It.

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Yeah, it looks pretty bad on me but it's such a cool color. I love yellow so much, just wish I could wear it.

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So my overall take on these is that they're pretty awesome.  I got all of these for $9 and I'm pretty impressed with some of them. I'll run down their qualities again.


Prince Charming: Super sheer 4 coater with lots of depth.
Mirror, Mirror: Opaque 2 coater that stains.
Pixy Dust: Sheer green at 3 coats, not the best color.
Kiss the Girl: Super opaque one coat wonder that glows.
Belle: Decent opacity at 3 coats for a yellow. Has a CC dupe.


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Brucci Kathy's Baby Blues vs Essie Something Blue Comparison

I had this as an untried for a while so decided its number was up and put it on. I just love pastel cremes, they're so "Me!" and I love see them on my nails.

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As usual, not a bad thing to say about Brucci. I'm always impressed with their formulas and price.  This was about $2.35 at my Rite Aid, you can get them online too, ImageBeauty sells them for sure, as I've bought a few from them.

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This is two coats over Orly Bonder sealed with Out the Door. It went on smoothly, and opaque in two coats! Yay!

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Then I thought it looked a bit like Essie Something Blue, so I did a swatch comparison.

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Brucci has more green in it, Essie is more of a powder blue.  But pretty, but not dupes!

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Which do you like better?

Color Club Hydrangea Kiss

I got this pretty in a swap, it's a lovely addition to my collection!

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Color Club bottles are my favorite in existence, seriously.

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This is 2 coats over Orly Bonder sealed with Out the Door. A pretty flawless application and a lovely creme, no complaints! :D

China Glaze Sea Spray & Funky Fingers Accent Nail

My friend Gaby suggested doing this mani, I'm so glad I did! Instead of gold glitter, though, I used a gold foil. It's so beachy!

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This is two coats of Sea Spray over Orly Bonder and sealed with Sally Hansen Diamond Flash. Which sucks, LOOK at the bubbling. No fan or air was blowing at me when I did my mani, so.. I'll give it one more shot one day, maybe.

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For the accent nail, I used Funky Fingers Down to Earth. This is two coats as well. I really wanted to do white horizontal stripes on the blue nails but they chipped before I had a chance to. Sadface.

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I really loved how this turned out, minus the damn bubbles. Thanks Gaby!

Fresh Paint Emo and KleanColor Blue Satin

I found the Fresh Paint polishes at Five Below, I'm not sure if they're sold anywhere else. And I feel like I hit the jackpot, my sister informed me that our local dollar store had a display of KleanColors. So today's mani is a layered one using both brands.

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This is two coats of Emo over CND Sticket and sealed with Beauty Secrets Top Coat.  It's a dark blue jelly.  I swatched it on some tape on my arm so you can see that it really is blue.

See? Blue!

I figured KC Blue Satin would look nice over it, so that's what I did.

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Such a pretty combination!  This is one coat of Blue Satin sealed with OTD.  This was just a swatch and remove, so I don't know how they did with wear.  I can't wait to play with the rest of my new beauties!