It just wouldn't be the holidays..

without Elle's Spell.

We swatched this lovely earlier in the year but I had to share it again now that the holidays have rolled around.

I started with a base coat of Revlon Devil's Lure, which is one of my favorite dark vampy red (almost black) polishes.   You can find it swatched on our blog.

Then I applied one coat of Barielle Elle's Spell, which is a gorgeous flakey in a sheer red base.  You can use it on it's own without layering, but you'll need multiple coats to build the opacity.  Behold - instant holiday cheer!

In sunlight..

And in shade..



It's snowing at the end of March...

Yes, you heard right. March 30 and it's snowing here in good old Indiana. AWESOME

Anyway, sorry for being MIA this week. I have a nasty cold that just keeps hanging on and on top of that, copious amounts of school work that has to get done which makes for a real inconvenience in my blogging life. I really just haven't felt up to doing my nails until today, and I'm still a little under the weather so pardon the messiness of this one.

I started with 3 coats (yes, three...) of China Glaze's Peachy Keen. Then I put Sinful's Queen of Beauty over it for some bling and made leopard spots with Barielle's Get Me To the Party. Leopard seems to be my go-to art when I don't know what else to do. I initially tried to do a ruffian manicure with the peach and China Glaze's Cheers To You using the little reinforcements to make the line, but....that didn't work. Those reinforcements do NOT work for me. I've tried using them for half-moon manis too. Boo :(

Anyway, here it is. I know it's not very original or creative but I just wanted to get SOMETHING up to let you guys know I'm alive! Even though Mama's been doing a very good job keeping the blog up to date in my absence :)

-Amanda

Jess' Champagne Toast

Hi all! Today I have for you a polish that I received from my mama (aka co-owner of this blog!) for Christmas. It's Barielle's Jess' Champagne Toast. I really like this color, but I do think it has some downsides. It's extremely thick, for one. The first time I tried this polish over Christmas break I actually gave up and took it right off because it was SO difficult to get even. It worked better this time, when I used very thick coats, but still...annoying. Also, it has these teeny tiny pink glitters in it, which make it sparkle and reflect and look pretty, but it also does this funky thing where it feels AND looks gritty. It's like the glitter got stuck in the actual color so you can't visually see it, but you can feel it and see the grittiness of it. I don't know how to explain it. Oh well, it's still a pretty color, just needs a top coat over it.

I realize that this is very similar to my tiger stripe mani... I didn't realize that until I finished this. Also, apparently a black striper is easier to use than a white one, because these kind of look like I did them with my eyes closed. Oh well :)

Here's a close up of the color/texture of this polish...

What do you think? Any fun plans for St. Patty's Day???! :)

Barielle's Elle's Spell

I bought this polish at Christmas but haven't gotten around to using it till today. I've seen it swatched on various other blogs and always wanted to try it myself. It's a red jelly with gold and red flakes and, as always, I started with Orly Bonder and finished off with Seche Vite top coat. I'm wearing it over Wet n Wild Fast Dry Ebony Hates Chris.

The dark colors show tip wear so much faster than lighter colors. I wore it to work today (I type a lot) and already had noticeable tip wear when I got home even after sealing the tips. One day of wear. So I added OPI Lincoln Park After Dark matte funky french tips. I'm still getting the hang of the tape manicures and notice on the photos that I did have a tiny bit of bleeding through the tape. Welp - still a beginner. So do you like it better before the french tips or after?