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.**

Sweater Stretchers

Good morning everyone! Happy Monday! I'm hoping that this will be the week that I get back into a groove with blogging. Thank you again for hanging in there with me! 

Today I have a beautiful glitter topper from Pipe Dream Polish called Sweater Stretchers. 

Sweater Stretchers is a limited edition polish that April created to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research. This polish will only be available through the month of October and $4 from every bottle purchased will be donated to The National Breast Cancer Foundation. 

Now that the serious part is over, lets see some pictures shall we? 

All of these pictures were taken in my light box. 

This is 1 coat of Sweater Stretchers over 2 coats of OPI Berlin There, Done That. I topped this all off with 1 coat of Glossy Glam. 

The base of my bottle of SS had a pink tinge to it, I'm not sure if that is intentional or not. But it wasn't enough to bother me. I just noticed that when I put it over white it turned the whole thing pink. Which is definitely not a bad thing. I just wanted to mention it. 

I think there are 5 or 6 different shades of pink in here and varying sizes of hex & square glitter. It is so pretty. And just like all of Pipe Dream Polishes, the formula was a dream. I didn't have to dig or place glitter, and it maintained "squishiness" even though the base was clear. 

Sweater Stretchers can be purchased through Pipe Dream's Esty store here. Be sure to grab your bottle before they're all out!

Glossy Glam can be purchased through Rica's Etsy store here.  

Thank you for reading! I hope you all have a great week!

**The polishes in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use. I did receive a discounted rate on some polishes 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.**

Sweet Baby by Donna Cuticle Oil

Happy Friday night everyone! I know, this is a late post... I just realized I hadn't told you all about this stuff and I couldn't wait any longer! 

A couple of weeks ago Donna from Working Girl Nails on Instagram launched a line of cuticle oils called Sweet Baby by Donna. I decided to go with a limited edition scent, Apple Pie Ala Mode. From her Etsy description: Because the smell of essential oils aren't for everyone I am offering some limited edition fragrances. These limited editions are not all natural because they include a scent that is both natural and synthetic. However, they are still vegan and animal friendly, as well as paraben, soy, and nut free. As with any allergy though, you should test a small amount before using a large amount. 

I'll be honest, part of what initially drew me to this oil was Donna herself. I've been following her for a while on Instagram. She's fun, sweet, and posts great manis. So when I saw that she was starting this line I had to check it out. Then I saw that it was cuticle oil in a roller ball bottle. WHY aren't more people making this????? Seriously. It keeps you from using too much oil (a regular occurrence for me) and it's mess/spill free. I had planned to carry this in my purse, but it hasn't made it to my purse yet. I'm afraid I'll forget about it in there, so I've been keeping by my favorite spot at home. I've been really impressed with this stuff. First of all the scent is fantastic, but it's not overwhelming. Which is perfect. I'm sensitive to scents and this doesn't bother me at all. Once it soaks in there is just barely a hint of the scent left. And then there is the formula: the roller ball dispenses just the right amount of oil and it soaks in fast. there is no oily residue left behind, just nice, soft, moisturized skin. 

I don't have any before pictures, honestly I can't tell a huge difference in my cuticles. But, I am a little obsessive about moisturizing my hands and keeping my cuticle and nail area all nice and soft and clean. But I can say that this is my new favorite oil. We are going on vacation next month and I had been worrying about what kind of nail care products to take with us. This will be my cuticle moisturizer for sure! I plan to keep it in my purse and I'll probably use it ever 30 minutes for the whole 13 hour drive. (Hubby isn't letting me drive, and I can't read in the car, what else am I going to do? :) )

Here is a pic with the bottle to show you how nice the packaging is. It came in a box with the fragrance labeled, the bottle is nice and heavy and the roller ball isn't lose. I used the oil about 10 minutes before I took this pic, rubbed it in a little, and as you can see it's soaked in already. (Polish shown is Zoya Hope, I'll be posting more pictures and a review of it sometime in the next week)

Sweet Baby by Donna can be purchased through her Etsy store here. She has several scents to choose some, including some that are made with all natural aromatherapy essential oils. Go check it out! You won't be sorry. Also check out her Instagram! Her manis are fantastic!

I also want to add that Donna had some tracking issues with USPS with my order. She sent me a message through Etsy as soon as she knew and apologized. She was genuinely concerned with me having a good experience and getting the product in a timely manner. I ordered the oil on Sunday and received it on Friday, so even with the glitch I got it really quickly. So customer service gets an A+ from me! 

**The product in this post was purchased by me for my own personal use.**

It's Not Sane

No, it's really not sane. :)

Happy Monday morning everyone! This morning I've got an extremely cheerful mani to brighten my Monday, and hopefully brighten yours too. 

I recently discovered Pipe Dream Polish on Etsy. You can see my post on Pink Elephants and Lemonade to read more about how much I love this shop, today I'll try to not ramble too much. 

This yellow beauty is called It's Not Sane. I have never been a fan of yellow polish, I like it in theory, and on some people it looks great. But I've never found one that looked right on me. Actually I don't even wear yellow clothes. I love the color, my handbag is daffodil yellow, but yellow clothes just look weird on me. So I'm really not sure why I picked this color out, but boy am I glad that I did. I was only planning to wear this as accent nail or two every now and then. I was planning to swatch my left hand but I never saw myself wearing an entire mani of it. That all went out the window as soon as I got it on one nail. 

It's Not Sane is a bright lemon yellow crelly with a lovely subtle shimmer that softens the yellow just a bit. It is jam packed with a mix of medium hex glitters in orange, a pretty turquoise blue, fuchsia, purple, and iridescent. Let me tell you about these iridescent glitters. I didn't realize they were in there because when I ordered this I didn't read the description. I saw the picture and thought "want" and bought it. So when I was applying this I thought I had a couple of pieces of dud glitter on a couple of nails. I couldn't really tell, but I kept powering through. I try to never judge a polish until it's top coated. After topcoat these little things turn into the prettiest little subtle hint of color. I couldn't capture any of them in pictures but trust me, they're awesome. As I said in my last post about Pipe Dream, April really has a knack for the "jelly sandwich in a bottle" type of polish. Her polishes are jelly enough to show the glitter in every layer, but opaque enough to build to full coverage. 

For this mani I applied 3 easy coats of polish and topped it with one coat of Glossy Glam. I didn't have to dab this glitter at all.

Light Box (sorry my hands are a little lobstery)

Light Box Macro

Bottle Macro

Sunlight

Sunlight Macro

What do you all think of this polish? I am so in love with April's polishes and can't wait to order more!

Thanks for reading! 

~casey

**the polish in this post was purchased by me for my own personal use at a discounted price in return for an honest and unbiased review**

Pink Elephants and Lemonade...

Hello everyone! It's Thursday!!!! Which means it's almost the weekend. I'm always excited about that. 

Tonight I am VERY excited to bring you a new to me indie polish, Pipe Dream Polish. Pipe Dream is owned and operated by April, a full time dental assistant and full time polish lover. This is what I love about indie polishes, they are made by polish lovers with love. April is no exception. My interactions with her have been nothing but positive. I emailed her asking about blogger discounts and her response was fast and sweet, my order went through quickly and was shipped to me SUPER fast, (4 days from payment to delivery) and every time I've talked to her on Instagram she's just been an absolute doll. I'm already making a list of the polishes I want to order next, not just because I like her so much, but also because I love her polish. 

So far I have purchased four of these polishes, and the one I'm swatching tonight is called Pink Elephants and Lemonade. April describes this polish as "made up of medium and small hot pink and deep yellow matte glitters in a dusty turquoise crelly base." That is spot on. She has mastered the "squishy" look that we all look for in an indie. It's jelly enough for all of the layers of glitter to show through but opaque enough to give you full coverage. The application was flawless, it flowed on smooth and stayed where I put it. I used 3 coats for full coverage, but you could probably get away with 2. I topped it with 2 coats of my favorite topcoat, Glossy Glam by Just Ricarda. (Glossy Glam can be purchased here. Watch her Instagram for restock updates.)

We have had a ton of rain here lately, but I was able to catch a sliver of sunlight tonight to snap a quick pic. 

The rest of these pics were taken in my light box. 

I love the packaging on these. Little details like polish bottles and labels mean a lot to me, look how cute her logo is! 

Here is a nail macro. You can see some bubbling in this picture, but I can't see those on the nail, just with macro lens.

And a macro shot of the bottle. Look at that squishy goodness!!!

Pipe Dream Polish can be purchased through her Etsy store here. I swatched the other 3 colors that I got on a nail wheel and I can already tell that I'm going to be buying many more of these!!! If you can't tell I absolutely love this polish and highly recommend this one and the others to all of you. Go check her out! 

Stay tuned for more swatches from this little mini haul! 

Thanks for reading!

**the polish in this post was purchased by me for my own personal use at a discounted price in return for an honest and unbiased review**

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.