Illamasqua Radium

Hello! Going to keep this somewhat brief today since it's pretty late and I am pooped. Today I have another lovely Illamasqua polish to show you. This is Radium, an intense chartreuse green with great shimmer. As always, the Illamsqua formula is fantastic and this is 2 coats with no top coat.

close up shimma!

If you are a fan of this kind of green like I am, then Radium is a must have. Thanks for stopping by!

JulieG Hot Cinnamon

Happy happy Friday! I am so happy that the weekend is finally upon us. Time to relax a bit and catch up on some swatching and reading. Also excited because I plan on going to the beauty supply store this weekend to use a giftcard and buy some new polishes. Hoping to find some of the new China Glaze and Color Club holos and the Sation Candylandia collection. 

I am kicking off the weekend with my first foray into the textured polish trend. Last week I saw that Jesse's Girl had a pre-order set for the new Julie G Gum Drops collection at a discounted rate and free shipping. I love anything associated with candy and the swatches looked good so I decided to give them a go.

Hot Cinnamon is a really pretty red with orange shimmer/flicks. You can see in the bottle pic how the shimmer really glows. It doesn't translate as much onto the nail except to give it a really nice, rich tone. It's recommended that you wear these without base or top coat, which is what I did. Below is two coats (no top coat).

This polish also photographed really well, which was awesome. Formula was very smooth and I had no issues with it. I have heard that textured polishes really need to be dry between coats, so I made sure to wait a few minutes before putting on the second layer. I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. It does feel a little bit like really fine sandpaper, but you get used to it. For the most part, it felt just like normal polish.

Wear time on my wasn't great. It started to chip after a few days (usually I can go 4-5 days with most polishes). Some people have reported amazing wear time with textured polishes. I just might not be one of them. But I didn't mind too much and removal was pretty painless.  All in all I am very happy with Hot Cinnamon. I am excited to try the other colors in the set and am also now lusting after the Zoya Pixie polishes. 

Anyone else into the textured polish trend or are you waiting for the next big thing? For me, I am enjoying this new look and plan on trying a few more polishes in this finish. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

My Ten Friends Goldilocks Planet

Happy hump day, friends! We are halfway through the work week, which is a really awesome thing. Today I have another polish from indie brand My Ten Friends. I am a very big fan of this brand. I love the awesome space themed color combos that they think up. 

This is Goldilocks Planet, a really pretty lime green (with slight shimmer) that has generous amounts of blue and gold glitter. 

pardon my dry cuticles

Sorry, my cuticles are a bit of a mess in these pics. I think it was really dry that week when I took these. Goldilocks Planet was a little sheer but evened out a lot after the second coat. I did three here just in case and topped it off with top coat. As usual for this brand, no fishing was required. 

Overall I really like this color and am looking forward to more My Ten Friends polishes making their way into my stash. If you're interested, you can check out the My Ten Friends etsy shop. Looks like they are out of a lot of things right now but sign up for the mailing list for updates. 

macro, just cause

St. Patty's Day Mani with China Glaze Four Leaf Clover + Medallion

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! I hope you're all wearing green today. Green is actually one of my favorite colors so I am all for a holiday requiring you to wear it. For my St. Patty's Day mani, I blatantly copied this mani from Glitter and Nails. Luckily I had China Glaze Four Leaf Clover in my stash already. And though I did not have CC Gingerbread, I made do with China Glaze Medallion which is a super sparkly cool toned gold glitter.

The formula on Four Leaf Clover was actually super watery and a bit hard to control. China Glaze is usually great so I was surprised by the watery texture. The color makes up for the difficulty though I may leave this open for a few minutes before I use it next time to see if I can thicken it up. Below is two coats with top coat. Medallion is a pretty dense glitter and I only needed two coats to get it this bling-y. Used two coats of top coat on it as well since it is gritty. 

I really like this combo and Four Leaf Clover is a really unique, blue toned green. I wish the formula was better but they color payoff makes it worth the trouble.

Anyone else have a St. Patrick's Day manicure? What's your favorite green polish? Happy St. Patty's Day!

Sinful Colors Unicorn

Good morning and happy Saturday! Does anyone have any fun plans today? It's pretty gloomy out where I am so I think swatching is out of the question. Therefore I think I shall lounge about and read for a while until a birthday party tonight. And tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, which I don't normally celebrate. This week I went to 3 or 4 CVS's in search of the new Milani textured polishes, but no luck. :( So the search continues.

Today I have Unicorn by Sinful Colors. This came out with their most recent Sugar Rush collection but it is part of the core collection as well, so you can get it any time. I think the only color I don't have from this collection now if the orange creamsicle one. I am not usually one for yellows but this was pretty and I thought I would give it a try. Below is three coats with no top coat. 

Now I know what people mean by lobster hands. Haha. This isn't usually an issue for me but dang if my hands don't look red in this picture. Yellows are notoriously streaky and this one was no exception. It was somewhat patchy but I was able to even it out after three coats. I think it's pretty but not the most exceptional on my skin tone. For $1.99 though, it's not too bad if you like soft yellows. It kind of reminds me of a fuzzy yellow chick.

Yellow polish - yay or nay? Let me know in the comments below!

Birthday Nails with Illamasqua Jo'Mina

Hello! My birthday is this week and I decided to delve into my new Illamasqua stash to celebrate. I chose Jo'Mina, a bright lilac for the occasion. Jo'Mina was a longtime lemming of mine and I was so happy to find it on sale at JCPenny Sephora last week. Please excuse any wonkiness with this photos. I had to do some color correction because it was just not photographing right. So the nail color is pretty accurate but not so sure about my skin tone. Haha.

This is such a fun, bright color. It's perfect for spring or for when you need a pick me up. This is two buttery coats with top coat. So far the formula is living up to Illamasqua's rep and I am loving it. Seriously, Illamasqua is my current brand obsession. I want every single color they make, please.

Has anyone else tried out Jo'Mina? What other Illamasqua shades are musts for my collection?

**ETA - noticing now that my skin tone looks really green in these (esp that last pic). Sorry about that. However, the polish color is pretty accurate. Just know that I am not an alien. :)

butter LONDON Scuppered

Happy Friday! Wow this has been an extremely long week. Work has been super stressful so I am really happy to be able to just chill out for a couple of days. Hopefully the weather starts to perk up as well.

Today I have a polish that I wore a little while ago. It was part of the butter LONDON holiday collection last year. Scuppered is a really beautiful copper bronze shade with tiny green glitter. It's such an unusual combination and I love the finish of the copper. Below is two coats with top coat.

Isn't that close up so pretty? I really have nothing like it in my collection. Formula was wonderful and I had no issues with it. Definitely one of the most unique colors in my collection. 

Anyone else love unusual color combos as much as I do? 

Sinful Colors Sweet Nothing

Hello, everyone! I am back today with a polish from the new Sugar Rush collection by Sinful Colors. Sorry if these photos look grainy close up. There's something going on with my camera and I am still trying to figure out the best setting for taking nail swatches.

Anyhoo - this is Sweet Nothing, a super pretty med blue creme. The formula on this was a tad thick but it wasn't too hard to work with. I was actually surprised by how much I liked this one. I know pastels are pretty par for the course for spring so I don't get too excited about them, but this one was fun and made me think of Easter eggs. Shown here is 2 coats with no top coat.

Anyone else loving pretty pastels this spring?

butter LONDON Jack The Lad

Hello again! I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I can't believe we're already into March. This year is already flying by. Today I have another polish from the butter LONDON Sparkle Sparkle collection.

Jack the Lad is a dark blackened green filled with fine green, turquoise, and black glitter. Out of all of the polishes in this collection, I expected to like this one the most. While I still like it, it didn't end up being my favorite (that one will be coming up in a later post). This one ended up being a bit sheer so I did 3 coats to get it fully opaque.

I found the formula on this one to be a bit watery and yes, ended up doing 3 coats. I might have gotten away with two thicker coats. Overall a very pretty and very "me" color. 

So far I am really enjoying this collection. Next post will be the last and my favorite color from Sparkle Sparkle. Thanks for stopping by!