My First Twinsie Tuesday Post!

Good morning everyone! Today I have some very exciting news. A couple of weeks ago I was asked to join the blogger group called Twinsie Tuesday! For those of you that don't know, Twinsie Tuesday is a group of about 20 nail bloggers that post together every Tuesday following prompts.

I've been following this group for a while, and had become friends with some of these lovely ladies already. I can't tell you how excited I was when I saw that email from Marisa asking me if I would be interested in joining. Lately I've been doing so much swatching that I haven't done much (if any) nail art. I love following prompts with a group of people too, seeing all the different interpretations is so much fun.

So, for my first Twinsie Tuesday post the prompt is Favorite Color Combo. I saw this and was immediately stumped..... I have way too many favorite color combos to pick just one! So I decided to go with one that I see a lot but haven't done much of on my nails. And since it's been so long since I've done nail art, I went with a "mix-n-match mani": one of my favorite nail art techniques.

More pics and details after the jump!

Pipe Dream Polish Caribbean Dreaming and Bijou Baccate

**press sample**

Good morning everyone! I want to start with a warning/apology/complaint. This morning I broke my middle nail on my swatch hand and now I have a split on it too. That's my favorite macro finger! So far it looks pretty okay, but if you see some weird dryness or redness that's why. Time to start doubling up on my Sweet Baby cuticle products!!! ASAP!

Today I have 2 more polishes from the upcoming Glitterandom Collection from Pipe Dream Polish. This collection releases this Friday, January 3rd, at noon EST. Set your alarms! 

Today's polishes are Caribbean Dreaming and Bijou Baccate. Details and pics after the jump!

Pipe Dream Polish Sapphire Attire

**press sample**

Good morning friends! Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend. We spent the weekend with my in laws celebrating Christmas. I have been really bless with a very sweet set of in laws, I know not everyone feels that way. But they really are very kind and fun people. (That explains my exceptionally fun and kind hubby huh? :) ) The highlight of the weekend was when a family friend (who is a farmer and farm equipment mechanic) started asking me details about nail blogging. He then wanted to see an example of a "swatch and review", so I showed him my recent review of Red Light. He read it out loud to the room and it was hilarious. Hearing a man that is normally talking to my husband about farm equipment, cars, or the 3 Stooges say "I don't usually like red polish on myself but this is gorgeous" really had me giggling. And on a side note, it's a little embarrassing hearing your posts read out loud. Anyone else feel that way? 

Anywho, lets move on to the polish and start this Monday off with some GLITTAH! 

Today I have Pipe Dream Polish Sapphire Attire. 

For this mani I started with 2 coats of Orly In the Navy on my pointer and middle finger, and 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls on my ring and pinkie finger. I put 2 coats of Sapphire Attire on top of those. Then I topped it all off with Just Ricarda Glossy Glam. (Shout out to my sweet friend Elena from ecklipsed by color for giving me Orly In the Navy for Christmas. It is INCREDIBLE! And I never buy Orly so I wouldn't have gotten my hands on it if it wasn't for her. Thank you sweet friend! You should all be following her Instagram and blog, she's the sweetest and most fabulous fashionista I know. :) )

Sapphire Attire is a clear based polish filled with bright blue, black holo, and silver holo glitters. 

You guys, this blue. I can't even describe it... the best thing I can compare it to is blue LED Christmas lights. You know how they almost hurt to look at? Like your eyes can't register their awesomeness? It's kind of like that. They look like they are lit up. It's incredible. My birthstone is sapphire, and I have a weakness for them. This polish looks like it has little glowing sapphires in it, it's amazing. Then you add not only silver but black holo to it too?!? Insane genius! 

Sapphire Attire is part of Pipe Dream's upcoming Glitterandom Collection, releasing this Friday January 3rd at 12 pm EST.

Pipe Dream Polish can be purchased through their Etsy store here. 

Glossy Glam can be purchased through their Etsy store here. 

Be sure to follow April on Instagram for updates and more pictures. I've got the remaining 6 polishes from this collection coming to you this week... trust me, you are going to want them. :) That's all I'll say for now. 

I hope you all have a lovely day! Thanks for reading! 

See you tomorrow!!!

~casey

**The Pipe Dream Polishes in this post were provided to me in exchange for a fair and honest review. Please see my disclosure policy for more details.**

Pipe Dream Polish Twigs and Berries

Good morning friends! Happy Monday to you! I say that with the hopes that I will make it be a good Monday. We have slick roads here, I'm still fighting a cold, and I'm supposed to have surgery in 2 days.... So I'm a little strung out. I'm sure that everything will be fine, I just have so much I want to do before then. Even though I'm supposed to be back up and around in just a few days, I'm panicky trying to get everything all planned out. And they may not even want to do it since I've had this cold, who knows. 

So what is the cure for all that ails you? Or, for all that ails me? Polish. If there's glitter in that polish, even better. If its a Pipe Dream polish that was made in collaboration with one of my favorite nail gals Amy (@indie500nails) AND $4 from every bottle goes to the Movember Foundation, my day is made. Plus, the name really gives me a case of the giggles. 

This is Twigs and Berries. 

Birthday Bash

Good morning everyone! 

Today I have a swatch of one of the polishes that the lovely Elena (check out her blog and Instagram, she's great) sent to me for my birthday. It is an indie brand called 365 Days of Color and the color is Birthday Bash. How perfect is that?!? Elena is seriously one of the most generous people I've met through this nail blog business, and I am so thankful for her friendship. And, she sends me great polish!!! 

Full Sun

Natural Light, Shade

Natural Light, Shade

Natural Light, Shade

This glitter polish is made up of a white base with shredded glitter in various colors and fine turquoise glitter. Normally I'm not a huge fan of shredded glitter, but it works in this polish. And really what is a birthday bash without a little confetti?!? Although there were a few stubborn pieces that wouldn't lay flat, I just picked those out and it was no big deal. 

This is 3 coats of Birthday Bash topped with 1 coat of Glossy glam. 

I really like this one, I can see myself pulling it out in the future anytime I've got something festive to go to. I'm glad that Elena sent me some new indie (and mainstream) brands to try for my birthday. She's branching me out and I love it! 

Birthday Bash can be purchased on 365 Days of Color's website here. 

Glossy Glam can be purchased on Just Ricarda's Etsy shop here. 

What do you all think? You can't really go wrong with glitter in a white base in my book. This one is a definite keeper!

Thanks for reading! Happy Wednesday!

~casey

**The polishes in this purchase were sent to me as a gift by a sweet sweet friend. :) **

Cut the Lights

Good morning everyone! 

I'm so excited about today's polish that I'm just going to jump right in. Today I have Pipe Dream Polish Cut the Lights. This is from April's Rob Zombie collection. I'm sorry to say that this one is no longer available, but I do still have pretty pictures to share! So here we go. 

Full Sun

Shade

Shade

Glowing! (after about 5 minutes in the sun)

Glow glow glow.

Glowing MACRO!

Look at all of that glitter! I love that this polish looks great even when it's not glowing. Then when it is glowing, well it's just super awesome. I love that it glows purple instead of the typical green. Love it so so much. 

For this mani I used 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, 2 coats of Cut the Lights, and 1 coat of Glossy Glam. 

As a side note, if you have already purchased this polish but haven't used it yet. Do yourself a favor and thin it. April recommended that to me and I thinned it quite a bit. I used my Seche Restore thinner, because I trust it to not ruin my good indie polish. I would say I used about 20 drops, maybe a little more. I just added some until it was a workable consistency. The reason it is so thick is because she packed SO MUCH glow pigment in there. And even after lots of thinning it glowed like crazy. My husband commented on how weird it was to see me walking around in the dark at night, just seeing my fingernails floating around. ;) Hehe 

Even though this isn't available anymore you really need to check out April's Etsy store. Her polish is amazing, she is super sweet, and she has amazing customer service. Seriously, go check out her store here. 

Glossy Glam can be purchased on Just Ricarda's Etsy store here. 

What do you all think? Do you love it? I love it so much, I'm gonna have to come up with some awesome Halloween nail ideas for this one. :)

I hope you all enjoyed this one! And again, thanks for sticking with me even though I've been slacking lately on the posts! 

~casey

**The polishes in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use. I did receive a discounted rate in exchange for an honest review.**

Clouds In My Coffee

Good morning friends! I hope you are all having a good week so far.

Today I have a swatch of Pipe Dream Polish Clouds In My Coffee. April made this custom for a friend a while back and posted it on Instagram. The response was so good she decided to sell it in her shop, and I am SO glad that she did! I love it!

All of these pics were taken outside on an overcast day.

For this manicure I started with 2 coats of OPI Berlin There, Done That. Then I topped it off with 1 1/2 coats of Clouds In My Coffee and 1 coat of Glossy Glam to seal it all in. The formula on this glitter is great, it flows over the nail flawlessly and needs very little placement. I think any placing I had to do was due to user error. 

Clouds In My Coffee is made up of varying sizes of hex glitter in turquoise and brownish copper. It really is so so pretty, it just screams fall!

Pipe Dream Polish can be purchased through their Etsy store here. 

I hope you all enjoyed this mani as much as I did!

Thanks for reading!

~casey

Feed The Monster

Hi everyone! Long time no see!!! Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. We were on vacation from September 27th through October the 5th, and of course as soon as we got back I had a ton of stuff to do. And between training and catching up at work I ended up working 10 hour days every day.To top that off I've been under the weather too. I think its just my allergies, and I'm starting to feel better. But either way I've not been able to do much polish stuff. (which makes me very sad) 

Today I have a Pipe Dream Polish swatch to share with you. I will start this post by saying I'm really sorry that I didn't post this sooner, because this polish is no longer available. But I'm still sharing it with you because it is so pretty and it shows the greatness that is Pipe Dream. :)

Full Sun

Shade

Shade 

Full Sun

For this mani I started with 2 coats of Wet-N-Wild Black Creme. Then on my ring finger I added 2 coats of Feed the Monster. On all of the other fingers I decided to go with a glitter gradient to mix it up some. Then I topped it all off with 1 coat of Glossy Glam topcoat.

I love this glitter. It is packed with varying sizes of hex glitter in orange, pink, and silver. It is "halloweeny" but not too much. And check out the macros, see how squishy it is? You can see the layers of glitter floating around in there. All of her polishes are that way, it's fantastic. 

Pipe Dream polished can be purchased in April's Etsy store here. 

So what do you think? I really love this glitter and plan to wear it a lot this fall. 

Thank you for sticking with me even though I haven't been posting. I appreciate your patience while I get back into the swing of things. :) 

Have a great day! 

~casey

**The polishes in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use. Feed the Monster was purchased at a discounted rate in exchange for an honest review.**

Guest post from Indie500 Nails

Hi everyone! For my last day of guest posts I have the wonderful Amy from Indie500 nails! Amy and I met on Instagram and became fast friends. (well, I became fast friends.... I have a tendency to be a bit of a creep when it comes to my beloved Amy's.... aka Indie500 and McPolish. ;) ) 

Check out this fantastic mani! 

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Well hello, people of the internet! A big thanks to Casey for asking me to guest post while she is off in the wilds of Colorado living it up. Despite forgetting the submission deadline and having an overwhelming fear of being too awkward for the bigtime (i.e. this blog!), I really am excited to be here. Casey is one of the best banterers I know on IG and it's a pleasure to hijack her little corner of the interweb for today. Let's dive in, shall we?

Casey gave no requirements for this post, which was a veritable invitation to run absolutely amok. However, due to the aforementioned nearly forgotten deadline, I have a fairly sedate fall mani to share. As a Texan, it's a little tricky for me to get excited about the changing of the seasons as there is rarely if ever an appreciable difference in the Lone Star state. But all the cool kids seem excited about it, so I'm hopping on the bandwagon and trying to at least swatch the fall collection polishes I just *had* to have prior to ordering the holiday collections that I will likewise need :)

For this fall skittlette mani, I used Zoya Hunter as my base. Formula was exactly what you'd expect from a Zoya creme and beautiful coverage and opacity were obtained in two easy coats. For the glitter gradient on the middle finger and thumb, I used a copper glitter topper sent to me by an IG friend, one of the Face of Australia Glitterati Nail Enamels. Upon researching for this very post, I discovered it is unnamed. This sort of conundrum probably explains why I am a guest blogger as opposed to a regular blogger :) The ring finger was stamped using the leaf image from Winstonia plate 119 with Mentality Nail Polish Proper.

Well, we've made it to the end together. If you weren't deterred by my awkward, stream of consciousness rambling, er *blogging* up to this point, I'd love to have you stop by my semi-defunct blog over at indie500nails.com. And if you'd like to actually see semi regular posts, please follow me on Instagram! 

Happy Fall Y'all!
Peave, Love and Polish!

Amy aka @indie500nails

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Ok, first of all, can we agree that Amy is hilarious? This post had me giggling the entire time. Second of all, I'm big time? Really? Dude, you've got like a for real blog and over 4,000 followers on Instagram. If that's not big time I don't know what is. ;)

Amy thank you so much for helping me out and doing this mani for me! 

Everyone I hope you have enjoyed my 10 days of guest posters! I wanted to share some of my favorites with you!!! And hopefully they'll be some of your favorites now too! 

I should be back on a regular posting schedule very soon, as soon as things settle down from our vacation. 

Thanks for reading!

~casey

Guest Post from A Painted Nail

Good morning everyone! Today's guest poster is the LOVELY Bridget from A Painted Nail! I met Bridget on Instagram and fell in love right away. She is super funny, sweet, and does great nails. Lets see what kind of fun mani she came up with for me today!

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Swirls, and Stars, and Glitter! Oh My!

Hello friends of Casey Lane! My name is Bridget, and I have a blog called A Painted Nail. I am so pleased to have a guest post for you all while Miss Casey is away on vacation! I did a little nail art design to share, something inspired by the lovely Casey, herself!
I met Casey on IG after her original account was deleted (boo!) and I am so glad I did. She is a wonderful person and always manages to bring a smile to my face. I wanted to do a mani that reminds me of her, bright and fun, and shiny!

Used:
Essie - Beyond Cozy
Color Club - Coral Cascade
Julep - Lexie
Essie - Mint Candy Apple
Essie - Play Date
Born Pretty Star Studs
Nail Art brush

The inspiration for this came from So Nailicious (http://sonailicious.com/swirl-nails/), which is an amazing website for lots of amazing nail art designs. I changed it up a little to suit my taste, but kept the concept pretty much the same. 

I love star studs! And the swirls! They are kinda tricky to keep evenly spaced, but I’m sure it is something that gets easier with practice.


I hope you guys liked what I came up with, and I hope Casey and her hubby have a fantastic vacation!

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I LOVE that bright and shiny and fun manicures make you think of me Bridget! :) This is incredible! I LOVE this style, I've gotta try it someday. 

Thank you again for doing this for me friend! 

~casey

Frozen Over Gradients

Good morning everyone! Happy Monday! Sorry I've been kind of sporatic with posting lately. I'm hoping to get back into a schedule very soon.

Today I have a Pipe Dream Polish glitter topper to show you all. I wanted to do something unique with this one, so I opted for gradients. I love a glitter gradient, they aren't difficult at all and they have a big impact. (my favorite combo)

Natural light, sun.

Light box.

Light box, macro.

Light box, macro.

For this mani I used Wet-n-Wild Blank Canvas and Teal Slowly and See. (I really don't understand the name of that one, this color is all blue, no teal...) 

I started with 2 coats of each of the colors. Then working with the bottle brush, I painted the glitter on halfway down the nail lightly, then slightly more a little ways up, etc. Glitter gradients take a little practice, but they are definitely one of the easier nail art techniques to do. After I was satisfied with my glitter I topped it all off with a coat of Glossy Glam topcoat.

Here is what April says about Frozen Over in her Etsy listing: This polish is from the Like the Weather collection - all these polishes are taken from song lyrics of songs that have a reference to the weather! 'frozen over'' is from Kate Bush's Under Ice. It is made of teal, aqua, frost white, and silver flakies in a clear base. I love this glitter. It's sparkly but not super sparkly, the blue, silver, and white combo are so nice. It's just a really pretty glitter. 

The application was easy, I didn't have to fish for any glitter and it didn't go on too thick. (that can sometimes be problematic with gradienting with glitters) And, I have to say that April has restored my faith in the mini bottle. These bottles are a nice size and the brush is actually workable, nice change from some of the mainstream brand's minis. (you know who you are...)

Pipe Dream Polish can be purchased through their Etsy store here. 

Glossy Glam can be purchased through their Etsy store here. 

What do you think? I loved this mani, it was perfect for "Mall Day" shopping on Saturday!

I hope you all enjoyed this post. 

Talk to you soon!

~casey

**All polishes in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use. I purchased them at a discounted rate in exchange for an honest review.**

Believe In Believing

Good morning everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. 

Today I have another Pipe Dream Polish for you. This is Believe In Believing from the Like The Weather Collection. (All of the polishes in this collection are named after lyrics in songs about the weather.) Believe In Believing is taken from Paula Abdul's Blowing Kisses In the Wind. 

Believe In Believing is a gorgeous blood orange base packed with glitter. I mean PACKED. It's so packed that you can hardly look directly at it for all the sparkle. (Any polish lover worth their salt will know that this is a good thing!) According to April's Etsy listing it is full of fuchsia and raspberry glitter with pink and fuchsia micro flakies. (Fuchsia... there's that word again. I don't like that word! The spelling!!!! Ugh!)

This polish feels very holiday-ish to me. It's the color of glittering cranberries.... how perfect would it be for Thanksgiving and Christmas? I love it. 

Direct sunlight.

Natural light, shade. 

Natural light, shade.

Light box.

Light box.

Light box.

See what I mean about all the glitter??? It's fantastic. This is 3 coats of Believe In Believing topped with one coat of Glossy Glam. You can see in the macros how nicely GG smooths these glitter polishes out. 

So what do you think about this polish? I love it, as I love all of April's polishes. (I think we've been over that a time or two.) This one was a bit thicker than some of the others, but that is to be expected with a polish this packed with glitter. It was thicker but it was easy to work with, I just had to be careful to use thin coats. It leveled out nicely and I had no issues. It was a complete pain to remove, but again, that's a glitter polish thing. I would be really worried that April had sold her soul to the devil if she'd made polishes this packed with glitter that glided off the nail as easy as a cream. ;) 

Pipe Dream Polish can be purchased through their Etsy store here. She just put up some Halloween lovelies that I'm getting sometime soon, I can't wait to see them and share them with you!

Glossy Glam can be purchased through their Etsy store here. Ricarda also has some great polishes in her shop along with this awesome topcoat. 

I hope you all had a great week! I'm going to try to get back on my posting schedule. 

From 9/27 to 10/5 I am going to be MIA, but I have some amazing guest posters lined up so keep an eye out for that!

Talk to you soon!

~casey

**All polishes in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use at a discounted rate in exchange for an honest review.**

For the love of the jelly sandwich...

Okay I admit it, I've never been a fan of jelly polishes. For those of you that don't know, a jelly polish has a transparent consistency. On the nail it looks a bit like jelly... there's color, but it's see through, and it's kinda shiny and squishy. My first jelly was Essie Marshmallow. That was back before I realized what different types of finishes there were and I have to say I HATED that polish for the longest time. I couldn't master it... it was streaky and never built up to full opacity. I don't like being able to see my nail line so I used like 5 coats. It was just awful. So it went in the polish drawer for like a year and a half. 

Fast forward to the time in my life when I started discovering nail blogs and learning about all things nail polish. I started seeing these manis called "jelly sandwiches" and they were incredible! But I couldn't find any explination or definition of what they were. After much searching and asking stupid questions I found out that a jelly sandwich mani is simply a mani that sandwiches a glitter polish between a couple of coats of jelly. Oooooh.... that made sense. And they are great! But, I never really tried one until one fateful day a couple of weeks ago when the lovely Amy McPolish on Instagram decided to do a giveaway. (Go check out her Instagram, trust me she's amazing.) She reached 2000 followers and decided to do a giveaway with "I Love Jellies" as the theme. So, I decided to get on board and enter a few times. Now you should keep in mind that since I discovered what this jelly sandwich thing was I bought a couple more jellies but hadn't played much with them. 

When Amy posted this giveaway I decided it was time to give a few a try. I knew I had a few amazing glitters that would work well, and I've got a handy dandy macro lens for my iphone that I absolutely love. So I went to work. 

First up is OPI I Theodora You with OPI Polka.com sandwiched in between.

Second is one that I did with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then Lush Lacquer Freckles, then Essie Marshmallow. 

And last but certainly not least is my quadruple decker jelly sandwich. I used OPI Don't Burst My Bubble and OPI Lights Of Emerald City. One coat of DBMB, one coat of LOEC, one coat of DBMB, one coat of LOEC, and topped it with DBMB. This one was my favorite. 

All three of these manicures are topped with Glossy Glam from Just Ricarda on Etsy. My very favorite topcoat ever. Yeah that's right, I said it. It's hundreds of times better than Seche Vite, my former favorite quick dry topcoat. Go check out her store here, buy yourself a bottle. Trust me, you won't be sorry. All the glassy shine of Seche but without the shrinkage and scuffing/scratching. Yeah, it's that good. 

So what do you all think about jelly sandwich manicures? I love them. I'm wearing one now that I will post tomorrow. :) 

Talk to you soon!

~casey

**All polishes in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use.**

Zoya Neve

Good morning everyone! How's your week so far? Mine isn't great, but it isn't terrible, so I can't complain too much. 

Today I've got a swatch for ya. A couple of weekends ago Zoya did their yearly BOGO sale and I bought a few (ahem, 8) polishes. Neve was one of the first polishes to hit my cart that day. Ever since I started seeing swatches of it I knew I had to have it. I have a weakness for blues and purples, this is something in between... with amazing sparkle. It reminds me of sapphires, which is my birthstone, so it was a no brainer. 

Zoya describes Neve as a sapphire blue metallic. There are lovely little purplish pink sparkles mixed in there, it's lovely. I'll let the pictures do the talking. :) 

Sunlight

Shade 

Light Box

Light Box macro

Sunlight macro!!!

See all those pretty colors in the macro? Oh my. This polish is a stunner. It would work for any season in my opinion. Application was a little watery, but I think that's just the formula on polishes like this. It wasn't unmanageable, and my clean up brush helped fix things for me. The coverage was great too, this is only 2 coats, which is big for me. I almost always need 3. 

I topped this off with Glossy Glam, which is why you can see my camera lens in the reflection in some pics. :) 

What do you think of this polish? I love it. Can't wait to create something with it! 

Talk to you soon! 

~casey

**The polishes in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use.**