Twinsie Tuesday: Favorite Glitter Topper

**press sample**

Good morning friends! How is everyone doing? Hopefully things are going well in your part of the world. Things are good here. We are prepping for me to have a minor surgery on Friday, shouldn't be a big deal... but I'm a planner so of course I've been working on things like laundry and worrying about making sure we have food for the weekend. ;) 

AND I've been working on manicures. I got tons of swatching done this weekend, and hopefully I can get some posts queued up for your reading pleasure. Thanks for sticking with me everyone! 

So for today's Twinsie Tuesday post we are supposed to showcase our favorite glitter topper. Man was this a challenge. So much of a challenge that I gave up picking one favorite, and opted for a favorite for this season. I'm an indie swatcher, and I love my indies. And some of them make the most amazing glitter toppers. Heather over at Loaded Lacquer is one that has sent me the most I think, and every one of them is amazing. So I opted for a springy/Eastery glitter topper she has called Fluffy Macaroons. 

For this mani I added 2 coats of Fluffy Macaroons over 1 coat of OPI Don't Bossa Nova Me Around and sealed it in with a thick topcoat. 

Do you see why I picked this glitter for spring? It's screams Easter to me! I love it so much, but I haven't tried a Loaded Lacquer topper that I didn't love. Even the ones that aren't really my style were great, you should check her out. 

Loaded Lacquer polish can be purchased through her website here. Her shop is temporarily closed but should be opening up in another week or two. 

What do you all think? This mani got me kind of excited for spring colors, hopefully I can do some spring nail art soon! 

Be sure to check out the other Twinsie's blogs linked below to see their favorite glitter toppers too! 

Until next time.

~casey

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Casey at CaseyLane Loves Polish

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Erin at Paint Those Piggies

Heather at Peace, Love, & Polish

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Rachel at Top Coat It

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Traci at DrinkCitra

**The Loaded Lacquer in this post was provided to me in exchange for a fair and honest review. Please see my disclosure policy for more details.**

Sincerely Polish Snow Day Trio!

**press sample**

Happy Friday night everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I'm ready for the weekend for sure. 

I'm really excited about the trio of polishes I have for you tonight. This is the Snow Day Trio from Sincerely Polish. Before I get started I want to let you know that for today only there is free shipping in Karen's store on her complete collections, including this one. 

Personally I used to think I wasn't a fan of shaped glitter or bar glitter. But these polishes have completely converted me. Especially for snowflakes. I'm still not sure about skulls or other shapes, but snowflakes I am a definitely fan of. At least the way Karen does them I'm a fan of. 

We will start with my favorite, Icy Blue. 

For this manicure I started with 2 coats of OPI This Gown Needs a Crown on my ring and pinkie finger and 1 coat of OPI Eurso Euro on my pointer and middle fingers. I then added 2 coats of Icy Blue and topped it all with Glossy Glam.

Icy Blue is is a glitter topper filled with blue micro hexes, winter white micro bars, winter white hex glitters in various sizes, matte white hexes, and white snowflake glitters.

The formula on this one is great. I did have to do some fishing for snowflakes, but I think that was just because I didn't give it a good enough shake before I applied it. I feel like some of the hexes are kind of translucent, which I LOVE. I really just love this one all around. It's like all the best things about winter in glitter form. 

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Next up is Pink Frost.

For this mani I started with 2 coats of OPI This Gown Needs a Crown on my ring finger and 1 coat of OPI Miss You-Niverse on my other fingers. Then I topped it with 2 coats of Pink Frost and 1 coat of Glossy Glam.

Pink Frost is a glitter topper filled with micro silver glitters, winter white micro bars, winter white hex glitters in various sizes and pink snowflake glitter.

The formula on this polish was the same as Icy Blue, very easy to work with. All of the glitter distributed evenly and a decent amount went on with each coat. I had to fish for snowflakes in this one too, but like before I think it was mostly due to user error. 

This polish is so girly and dainty. I love that the snowflakes are pink without being in your face pink. Soft subtle colors like this are perfect for winter. 

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Last up is Glistening Snow.

For this mani I started with 2 coats of OPI This Gown Needs a Crown on my index finger and 1 coat of OPI Black Onyx on my other fingers. Then I added 2 coats of Glistening Snow and topped it off with 1 coat of Glossy Glam. 

Glistening Snow is a glitter topper filled matte white hexes, winter white hex glitters in various sizes, winter white micro bars, and holographic snowflakes.

Some of the hexes in this polish have that translucent quality too. I absolutely love it, over black it has a very monochromatic effect. And the holographic snow flakes add just the right amount of sparkle. 

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I think the hardest part of having this entire trio will be choosing which one to wear! The formula and application was great and they add just the right touch of winter wonderland to your nails. 

Head over to the Sincerely Polish store here to check out these and other great polishes. And remember, for today only her full collections have free shipping! 

Follow Sincerely polish on Instagram for updates and more pictures. 

Glossy Glam topcoat can be purchased through their Etsy store here. 

Let me know what you think! I hope you love these as much as I do!

Follow me on Instagram for more pictures and weird little tidbits of my life, if you're interested in that. :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

~casey

**The polishes in this post were provided to me in exchange for a fair an honest review. For more details please see my full disclosure policy.**

Loaded Lacquer The Last Frontier Collection

Good morning everyone! It's here, the 5th and final day of Loaded Lacquer week 2013!!! Heather's store is launching in just a couple of hours at www.loadedlacquer.com and I have just 6 more polishes to show you. 

**Press Sample.**

I saved The Last Frontier Collection for last, because I feel like these are Heather's favorite polishes.

More pics and details after the jump.

Loaded Lacquer Christmas 2013 Collection

Hey everyone! Tonight I have the Loaded Lacquer Christmas 2013 Collection. 

**press sample

More details and pics after the jump!

Loaded Lacquer Week!!!

Hello everyone! Sorry I've been gone for over a week. The time change threw me for a loop, and I've been spending all of my free time on the weekends swatching Loaded Lacquer polishes! 

Loaded Lacquer is a new indie brand that is launching this Friday, November 15th. Heather is the brain behind these beautiful glitters and she graciously asked me to swatch these babies for her store opening. I am absolutely honored to have this opportunity and can't wait to share these lovely polishes with you! 

I've been super impressed with the formula on these and Heather is ridiculously sweet, so I'm sure her customer service will be top notch. I hope you all enjoy this week of glitter fabulousness! Thanks again Heather for giving me this opportunity!!!

She's a Thriller

Good morning everybody! 

Today I have another Pipe Dream Polish to show you. If you're tired of seeing these, well, I'm sorry. You are just going to have to find another nail blog to read because I'm not done with my collection and I plan to buy many many more! 

Today's polish is She's a Thriller. This polish is part of Pipe Dream's Rob Zombie Halloween collection, and it is still available! I think this type of polish can be worn anytime of the year though, so you definitely need to go buy a bottle. 

Natural Light, Shade

Natural Light, Shade

Natural Light, Sun

For this manicure I started with 2 coats of Wet-n-Wild Lavender Cream (which is really very pink, that name confuses me...) and I topped it with 1 coat (YES, that says 1 coat!) of She's a Thriller. I topped everything off with 1 coat of my favorite top coat, Glossy Glam. 

Now I know everybody and their brother has put out a black and white glitter these days. Even main stream brands are putting them out... which they should be. Black and white glitters are FANTASTIC. But this one still manages to be unique in that crowd because it mixes large circle glitters with varying sizes of hex glitters. I love the combo! It's dense but you can still see your color through the glitter. I don't think I'll ever get tired of these types of polishes. 

She's a Thriller can be purchased on Pipe Dream's Esty store here. 

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

I hope you all love this glitter topper as much as I do! I can't wait to use it more, it's going to be so versatile! 

Have a great day!

~casey

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

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.**

Mas Fina

Good morning polish friends! I hope you're all having a great week so far. Saturday I had a swatch-a-thon and I am really excited for the next few posts that I have for you. 

Today's post is the one that I am probably the most excited about, it was so hard to wait to share this. In fact I shared a sneak peak on my Instagram Saturday because I just couldn't wait. 

This beauty is Pipe Dream Polish Mas Fina. Mas Fina is part of April's "Just a Girl" collection. All of the polishes are named from song lyrics by female artists with "girl" in the title. This one is from Madonna's Who's That Girl. According to Pipe Dream's Etsy listing, "this polish is made up of blue-green and purple iridescent with teal and lilac in a violet base with a hint of turquoise shimmer". I have looked at dozens of pictures of this on taken by many people, and while every picture is beautiful, I haven't seen any that are truly color accurate in real life. April and I talked about it and she put it perfectly when she said the iridescent shimmer kinda makes the camera freak out a little. I don't know how to describe it other than to say that the violet base is much more vibrant in person. Maybe deeper would be a good word. It is seriously one of the most beautiful color and glitter combos that I have seen. April's iridescent glitters just blow my mind. Oh who am I kidding, all of her polishes have been blowing my mind. I have the BIGGEST crush on Pipe Dream Polish. So I hope you don't get tired of hearing me dote on them, because I won't be stopping anytime soon. I'm already planning to order all 6 of her fall collection. (She's been posting sneak peaks on Instagram but I CAN'T WAIT to see them in person!)

So, on to some pictures. 

Full Sun (LOVE these bottles!)

 

Full Sun

 Light Box

Bottle Macro

Nail Macro

SERIOUSLY, those macros. This polish is just so so pretty. Application is flawless, it glides on just where you put it, no glitter placement needed. The first coat is a little thin, but it builds nicely. I used 3 coats here but you could probably get away with 2. (I have this thing for 3's... yeah, I'm a little crazy. But not too much.)

This is 3 coats of Mas Fina topped with one coat of Glossy Glam.

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

Glossy Glam (the best top coat EVER, especially over indie glitters) can be purchased on Etsy here. Looks like she's out of stock right now, but watch her Instagram for restock updates! 

I hope you all love this one as much as I do! 

**The polishes in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use. The Pipe Dream Polish was purchased at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.**

Freckles

Good morning everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope everyone is having a nice weekend so far. 

Today I have a fabulous indie polish for you. It's no secret that I love indies, and my love for them started with Lush Lacquer. The first indie I ever purchased was their polish Clowning Around. It is a fabulous neon glitter in a clear base with varying sizes of hex glitter in all different colors. I fell in love with it the very first time I saw it, and I remember how excited I was when I finally decided to purchase it. Once I got it on I still loved it, but large hex glitter isn't my favorite. I love the way it looks on others, but I think because my nails are relatively small it just doesn't always lay right on me. Plus it is a little trickier to work with. 

So, when I found out that Lush Lacquer was releasing Freckles, the little sister to Clowning Around, I was ecstatic. Clowning Around has 6 different sizes of hex glitter, Freckles only has 2; and they are all small. This polish is amazing. If you are on the fence about trying an indie, I highly recommend this one because it's really versatile. I bought it for myself as my "birthday polish gift" to myself. Sounds weird, I know. I've been planning a birthday manicure since my birthday last year, and this polish is perfect for what I've got in mind. 

Freckles is densely packed with neon hex glitters, there is no need to place this baby. It flows on all by itself in a nice, dense, layer of colorful goodness. For this manicure I decided to layer it over my favorite blue, OPI Can't Find My Czeckbook. You don't see a lot of people layering these neon glitters over color, and I have no idea why. The result is fantastic; it totally changes the look of the glitter! They are such chameleons, I can't wait to try it over many more. 

For this mani I used 2 coats of Can't Find My Czeckbook and 2 coats of Freckles. I could have left it at just 1 coat of Freckles, but really the only thing better than glitter is more glitter... So I couldn't help but add 1 more. Then I topped it off with my beloved Glossy Glam. I've had this one for 3 days and it is still just as shiny and bright as the night I put it on. 

Here are some pics. I'm going to apologize here because I feel like I need to. I'm still working out how all of this works and I feel like my lighting isn't always the best. Sometimes I have lobster hands and other times my fingers look like ghosts. I think I'm getting better, but it's a learning process. But, even with lobster hands you can see how awesome this combo is! 

Light Box 

Light Box

Light Box Nail Macro

Light Box Bottle Macro (look at all that glitter!!!)

I took these light box photos the night I painted them, but then the sun didn't show up much the next day. So this picture is after a full day and a half of wear, including my usual routine which USED to really scuff my nails. Check out how great Glossy Glam holds up! It's amazing stuff, I can't say enough good things about it. 

What do you all think? Isn't this glitter fun? I can't wait to incorporate it into my birthday manicure. Or maybe birthday manicures, because I'm getting so many ideas that I might have to do them for the whole month of September. 

Lush Lacquer can be purchased on their Etsy store here. 

Glossy Glam can be purchased on their Etsy store here. 

OPI can be purchased at salon retailers, Ulta, and many other online retailers. 

**The Lush Lacquer in this post was purchased by me for my own personal use. I did receive a blogger discount in exchange for an honest review.**

Rad Cloud...

Hello polish friends! I hope everyone is having a great Sunday! It is stormy and dreary here, but that is perfectly ok with me. I actually really like dreary weather, as long as it doesn't last for days and days at a time.

I'm trying to get into a routine with blog posting, it's trickier than I thought it would be; coming up with a schedule, deciding what to paint, what to post, getting pics, etc etc. So bare with me while I get into a routine.

Today I have a swatch and review for you. I'm going to go ahead and admit it, I'm addicted to indie polishes. I've only got a few right now, with a few more on the way, but I love them. Something about having something that you know was created by hand by someone with the same love of polish as you... I don't know, I just love it. Plus indies for the most part have a very different look than mainstream brands. Maybe because they are created for polish lovers by polish lovers? Who knows.

This lovely polish is by Hare Polish, it's called Rad Cloud. I bought this at the recommendation of my friend Alysia. You should really check out her Instagram, she posts AMAZING manis and macros. This isn't a color I would have normally picked on my own, so I'm glad she recommended it to me. This is 2 coats over 2 coats of OPI Pedal Faster Suzi and topped with one coat of Glossy Glam. I love the finish on this polish. It's got a milky candy pink base filled with an awesome mix of glitters: green and purple squares with pink and orange hexes of all sizes.

What do you think of this polish? I love the fun mix of shapes, sizes, and colors. 

HAREpolish can be purchased from their etsy store. Follow them on their Instagram to stay up to date on restocks and sales.

Thanks for reading! Happy polishing!

~casey

**all products in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use.

Glossy Glam...

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all having a good week so far. We’re halfway through it!

I’m very excited about today’s mani!!! OPI Can’t Find My Czeckbook is one of my all time favorite colors; seriously, I’d put it in my top 5. And those of you that have as many polishes as I have know how special that is. About a month ago I did a polish swap with the lovely Alysia when I was able to find the new Salon Perfect glitters and she couldn’t. In the goody box she sent me in return was Color Club Very Merry Berry. As soon as I saw it I knew I’d have to pair it with CFMC someday, that day is today, and I am so happy with the results.

Another reason I am excited about this mani is because I used my new topcoat for the first time. Now I have been a diehard Seche Vite user for over a year now, maybe 2 years. But, we all know about Seche’s fickleness. It tends to get thick, it can shrink your mani, and sometimes it gets bubbly. I’ve been working around this for a while now, because even with all of its faults Seche Vite is AMAZING stuff. It dries your nails (all layers) in minutes and has a thick, glassy finish that just can’t be beat. But, a couple of weeks ago I saw a post on Instagram from Rica that she was going to start selling a quick dry topcoat in her Etsy shop. I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first. I’ve been devoted to my precious Seche for so long… so I decided to wait until some bloggers started reviewing Glossy Glam. The reviews have been incredibly positive. Everyone was saying it was as glassy as Seche but NO SHRINKAGE! So when I saw she restocked again last week I quickly ordered 2 bottles. I got my purchase 4 days after I ordered it too, so very fast shipping. As soon as I got it I had to try it out. Now I will say Glossy Glam doesn’t dry as fast as Seche, but it does dry pretty fast. I didn’t time it, but within 5 or 10 minutes I could touch them w/ no problem, I just had to be careful to not hit them on anything too hard. I painted my nails around 30 minutes before bed, they were still a little tacky feeling, but dry enough that I was comfortable going to bed. (carefully) The next morning I checked them first thing, and WOW! It is so glossy!!!! And it had set completely and was rock hard. Some fast dry top coats I’ve tried never really feel like they have “cured”, that is not the case with this stuff. I gotta say, after just one use I’m amazed. I’ve had this mani on for 3 days and I have almost no signs of wear, none of my usual scuffing on the top, it’s still just as shiny as it was that first day. I really love the bottle and clean labeling.

So, on to the mani so you can see it in action.

For this manicure I used 2 coats of OPI Can’t Find My Czeckbook, then 1 coat plus some placed glitter of Color Club Very Merry Berry. I topped it off with Glossy Glam and it was good to go! Look how well GG smoothed out this chunky glitter!!!!

And of course, a macro of the glitter; because that’s what macro lenses were made for. Duh.

Be sure to check out Rica’s shop on Etsy! Glossy Glam is $6.50 per bottle plus shipping. And check her out on Instagram! She’s super sweet and posts updates on her stock.

Thanks for checking my blog out.

Until next time, happy polishing!

~casey

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