Laquerlicious Blowin' Bubbles

I hope you all had a great Easter. Mine was very laid back but I didn't mind one bit since I worked a lot the week of and a break was more than welcome. I'm finally back today with another pretty glitter from the indie brand, Laquerlicious. It's Blowin' Bubbles, the second of the three new glitters I mentioned in a few posts back. After doing a nail wheel test swatch of it over Zoya Carter, I fell in love with the combo and had to do a full mani of it. Here it is!

Blowin' Bubbles is an super girly and sweet glitter topper. There are circle glitters, but they're "donut" glitters. I've never had a polish with them before but I like it! It's a fun shape. There's also silver, blue, and black stars, silver holographic glitter, pastel hexes, super tiny circle glitter, and neon pink glitters. I just love this polish!! It's so pretty and I especially love how it looks over Carter. At first I thought about using it over a lighter base but I'm glad I went with a darker one. It shows how versatile this glitter is. Application with Blowin' Bubbles was a breeze! I let my bottle sit upside down for a bit and it really did help because so much glitter came out. All I needed was one coat. Honestly though, I mainly turned it upside down for the circles. I'm sure I would have gotten great results regardless.

If you've never tried Laquerlicious before, you are definitely missing out! Michelle's glitter bombs are worth checking out but if you're not into glitter, don't worry. She's got something for just about everyone. I have so many I need to wear and show here.

Here's the link if you're interested!

http://laquerlicious.bigcartel.com/product/blowin-bubbles-handmade-custom-glitter-indie-nail-polish

Zoya Carter

My puppy Carter is a year old today! I can't believe time went by that fast. Long gone are the days where he was small enough for me to carry. He's such a moose. He weighs almost 70 pounds but he's still super affectionate. He loves hugs, kisses, sitting on top of me, and he's my shadow, always following me around. Even though he can sometimes be naughty, I couldn't ask for a better dog. Adopting him was the best decision I could have ever made. To celebrate his birthday, I am wearing Zoya Carter, which is an obvious but perfect choice. I love it not because of the name but purples are my favorite and this one is gorgeous.

Carter is from the Zoya Fall Pixiedust collection of 2013. As you can see, it's a beautiful and rich purple texture with an amazing pink sparkle. The color is so pigmented and just downright perfect. It's easily the prettiest texture I own. I can't stop staring at it. I have literally no complaints whatsoever about the formula. I went into expecting to have some problems with it because I had heard that it dries slow and that it's sheer. It did take a while to dry but I also put on coats that were somewhat thick. Still, I wasn't as impatient as I normally am when waiting for my polish to dry. I busied myself and before I knew it my nails were completely dry. As for sheerness, I didn't experience that with Carter. My first coat wasn't fully opaque but the second coat made it all better. Another bonus was that I had almost no clean up.

If you're a purple lover and you happen to be as equally in love with textures, you're missing out if you don't already have Carter. Go and get yourself a bottle! I normally would show it with some top coat but I am planning to show you an amazing indie glitter topper over it, which I'll be posting soon.

Now because I'm feeling nostalgic, here are some pictures of Carter over the past year. The last one is the most recent. For some reason that I don't understand, my dog has now developed a fear of having his picture taken but I managed to get that shot of him, but from far away. Usually once the camera comes out, he runs away.

I almost get sad just looking at these pictures because my baby's gotten so big! Okay, I'm done being all gushy and emotional. I hope you're having a great week so far! I'm going to be busy working over the next few days but I have some scheduled posts which will be up very soon.

My first nail mail!

About two weeks ago I commented on a post by Rach over at stuff i (s)watched on her swatch of Color Club Wild Orchid. I simply said how it was gorgeous and I needed to add it to my wishlist. Later, I saw that Rach had sent me an email wondering if I wanted her bottle as a gift. I was really surprised by the sweet gesture and I said yes! I was even more surprised when I got the package to not only find the beautiful polish, but other amazing goodies Rach sent me! I was too excited that I couldn't not share with you, so here they are!

 Color Club Wild Orchid, ULTA Orange You Glad It's summer?, Revlon Just Tinted Shiny Top Coat

I was only expecting Wild Orchid, so I'm super grateful for the others! I have literally no orange polishes in my stash, no ULTA close to me, or any ULTA polishes, so I'm very pleased with the orange polish. As for the top coat, I go through more than I realize and could always use more, so I'm happy to have another bottle.

Rach was nice enough to add in a sample pack of Sephora by OPI Restorative hand moisturizer. I will admit, I hardly ever use lotion on my hands. I know I should, so maybe I'll end up buying it if I like it. I also got a Zoya Smoke & Mirrors nail plate. I never got around to getting any polishes from this collection, but I really want to. This gives me a better idea at what looks good on me.

Now for the cute stuff! I got a really cute card with a sweet message inside from Rach. I also got some super adorable owl stickers! I have a feeling my niece will be begging me for these.

So there you have it, my first nail mail! I was very excited and surprised to have received all of this awesome stuff. The whole package was very well put together and extremely thoughtful. Thank you Rach for everything!

If you haven't already checked out Rach's blog, please do so! Here's the link:http://stuffiswatched.blogspot.com/

Have a great day!

Zoya Harley

I finally got around to using Zoya Harley! My other colors wouldn't stop whining for my attention, but she got her time to shine. Harley now gives company to Crystal, my previous lonely Zoya. In my last haul post I mentioned that it was only $2.99! For some reason it was marked down. Score!

Pushing the price aside, the color is gorgeous!! If it wasn't, the price wouldn't have even mattered. It's a light concrete gray with silver, bronze, and gold flecks, but they're very subtle. It also seems to have iridescent purple shimmer from what I've seen in certain lighting, but I could be wrong. I've learned that it's a baby sister to OPI Sheer Your Toys, which also has similar flecks in a gray base. They're not exact dupes but they're very similar. Sheer Your Toys is a tad darker and the flecks are bigger and stand out more, while the flecks in Harley are finer like shimmer. A part of me wanted Sheer Your Toys, but now that I have Harley, I'm content! I don't have any gray polishes, so it's perfect!

The formula was great too! It was easy to apply and it was opaque. I only used two coats, but a third wouldn't have hurt. Some brushstrokes are a tad noticeable, but hardly, so I don't mind. I put on one coat of my Color Club top coat on top to finish it off.

I'm very happy with Harley! While gray may not be the most exciting, eye popping color, it's a refreshing change from all of the dark colors I've been wearing and it's beautiful! It's the first gray in my collection and I'm sure it won't be the last! 

After Christmas Haul!

This is a super late post, but I finally managed to take decent pictures. Bathroom lighting didn't want to cooperate! These are just some finds of mine that I was able to score for great deals over the few days after Christmas. This was my idea of after Christmas shopping!

Orly Androgynie. I got it from Sally Beauty the day after Christmas for $2! It was 70% off because of the Red Tag clearance sale, as were other colors from Orly Holiday Soiree and China Glaze Let It Snow. 

Witches Brew. It's my first Icing polish that I got at the mall, which was on sale for $2. There wasn't a sale tag, so total surprise to me! Too bad it's red equivalent, Vampire's Blood was full price, but there's always next time!

Zoya Harley. I got it at a newly discovered beauty store that I went to after the mall and it was only $2.99!! It was in a bucket of old formula polishes, even though it's 4 Free, but it was discounted for some reason.

Well that's it! I love getting surprised with a great deal! Sometimes it makes it that much better. Were any of you able to get some great after Christmas deals?

Zoya Crystal

I don't have much experience with Zoya, but I've always loved their colors. One of them was Crystal which I wanted for a long time. 

I thought you could only buy Zoya online but I was wrong. Where I live there's this small beauty store that I went to this summer for the first time and they had tons of Zoya! I snatched Crystal up right away. The owner also told me that if there's ever a Zoya that I want that isn't there, she'd order it for me. I can't wait to go back!

I love Crystal and I'm so happy I own it. It's gorgeous in the bottle, but even better on. I love the shade of blue, but the gold flakes make it special. It reminds me of an iced, non-glitter version of OPI Absolutely Alice. Because of it's cold and icy look, it's perfect for winter. It's also a dupe for the hard to find OPI Reflecting Pool.

I did three coats. It was sheer at first, but it built up well. I had a fun time photographing it. I took about 50 pictures! I couldn't help myself, it's that beautiful. Lots of pictures coming up just to warn you. They were taken after I painted my nails and cleaned them up.

Sad news now. A few days after wear, I broke my middle finger nail digging for a box under my bed. The lid always gets stuck under the bed frame and my nail broke when I pulled too hard. I filed the rest to match. Sucks because I was really happy with my length. I was planning on filing them down eventually because some of them were peeling too much. Just didn't think I'd have to file them so short.

Here's a picture with the new length. This was taken almost right after they broke so they look a little haggard. My middle finger nail looks crooked, but it's only some some chipped polish that makes it look that way.

After wearing it, Crystal has become one of my favorite polishes. I really didn't want to take it off! If you don't already have it, what are you waiting for!?