Happy 4th of July!!

***Nothing to Disclose***

It's Independence Day here in the United States!!  No...no, there's no Will Smith and a bunch of aliens (dammit) :P

Source

I created 3 different manis in celebration of the 4th - I'm pretty stoked that I made myself sit down and do these.  I rarely ever make myself use polish I purchase right when I purchase it, and most of it ends up sitting, neglected in a drawer :( 

But not this time!!  Bwahaha!!

Here's the first mani:

I used Laquered Up's "Liberty Belle" over all my nails and did a glitter placement accent nail using "Star Gazer" on my ring finger.  Those took me FOREVER - but worth it, I'm so happy!!  These stars were holo, too, so they stood out a lot outdoors :D

Next mani:

I used Envy Lacquer's "Bang," "Sparkle," and "Grand Finale" for this mani, as well as vinyls from Vibrant Vinyls to make the curved lines - there's no way I could do that freehand and it would look okay :P  This trio sparkles like nobody's business, and I'll have a video of it up on my Instagram later today, so keep an eye out!

And my final (and favorite) mani:

I used Frenzy Polish's 4th of July Trio for this mani.  I did glitter placement on the pointer nail to represent the stars in the American Flag, and straight line vinyls from somewhere (it's not marked on the back so I have no idea where I got them) to make the stripes pattern on the remaining nails.  The holo in this one was incredible!!  I left this mani on the longest ^_^

I'm on my own this year with the kidlets while the hubs is out of town, so we won't be doing much by way of fun activities for the holiday.  They're a bit young yet, anyway.  What are your plans for the 4th (if you celebrate it)?  

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All polish purchased by me for funsies.  

Polish Post/Press Sample: "Chimera" by Octopus Party Nail Lacquer

*Giveaway prize, upgraded to full size for swatches*

Hiya!  Long time no post I know - I've been such a slacker >.<  This weekend my family and I went to our property in Flagstaff to relax and celebrate my dad's upcoming birthday ^_^  It was lovely!  Gorgeous view of the Painted Desert:

Today I wanted to share with you the beautiful "Chimera" by Octopus Party Nail Lacquer!  I recently won the mini size in a giveaway in the fan group on Facebook, and Dave (owner and alchemist) was so awesome that he sent me a full size instead and asked if I'd like to swatch it for him.

I am no fool, I (over-zealously) said YES!  And here they are!

BEHOLD - Chimera:

Direct Sunlight

Indoors

Chimera was created as Dave's birthday polish :)  It is a beautiful shaded olive-colored holographic polish with some amazing multichrome flakies that pack a real sparkly punch!!  Application was amazing - very smooth, and this polish was nearly opaque with just one coat!  I am wearing two in the photos above.  It dried in under 5 minutes to a shine, though an added topcoat really made that linear holographic effect pop!  It's an all-around gorgeous polish :D  I added a 15 second video to my Instagram account of the amazing holographic and sparkly goodness of Chimera in the sunlight, if you wanna check it out!

Currently the OPNL shop is out of stock, but I know Dave's working on lots of upcoming goodies, and will be re-stocking soon, so make sure you check back frequently- better yet, "like" the Facebook page so you won't miss ANY re-stock and new polish announcements!

Hope you all enjoy/survive your Monday!  See you soon <3

Challenge Your Nail Art: Glitter

Pretty sure it's safe to say that anything glitter is a huge hit in the nail community :D  I have yet to come across someone who DOESN'T like glitter.  You can imagine, then, the excitement from all the ladies in this nail art group who saw today's theme:

I am surprised the universe hasn't exploded yet from this prompt :P  I was pretty excited for it - so much so that I have *2* designs to show you! In the first design, I used my polish from the Festive Fortification Box and created a twist on the traditional candy cane nail design:

I used nail tape to make the smooth lines - I couldn't freehand that accurately straight to save my life :P  While this design has gorgeous glitter polish, it just was glittery enough for me.  So, I came up with this design:

I used a silver polish for the base coat and topped it with "Guys and Galaxies" by Nicole by O.P.I.  I then used my O.P.I. sheer tints and layered them to make the green color over the glitter (about two coats of the blue tint and two of the yellow tint on top).  I freehanded the red swirls using a red glitter art polish by Salon Perfect.  And there you have it!

The biggest aggravation with glitter polish (aside from trying to remove it) is trying to photograph is AND capture all its sparkle.  The fact is, it just won't happen.  My second mani is soooooooooo sparkly, and I just couldn't convey that through my pictures.  So I guess you'll just have to trust me ;)

Hope you enjoyed this design!  Be sure to check out the other glittery goodness through the links below!  See you soon <3

An InLinkz Link-up

Polish Post: Mentality "Marie," "Theia," and "Dyad" Swatches & Review

Praise be, it is FRIDAY!  W00T!  I am so happy for the weekend.  This was a very long week for me - I am happy to see its end ^_^  Let's celebrate with a little Polish Post on a few polishes from the indie company Mentality Nail Polish.  Recently they shifted their product from one site to their main site, and had an uber sale while doing so - like, polishes were less than $4 a bottle with stupid cheap shipping.  I may or may not have gone a little crazay and bought, like, 10 bottles O_o  Ssshhh, don't tell my husband!

We're gonna take a look at 3 of those polishes today!  One of those is "Marie," and she is quite a looker!  Check her out:

Outdoors 

 Indoors 

Eh? Eh? Amiright?  Marie is a beautiful dark teal metallic polish that goes on smooth like butter.  It was super thin, but opaque after 2 coats.  In the sunlight, and even indoors, this color pops!  Dries to a semi-satin finish.  I did not use a topcoat in the photos.  Because it is a metallic, make sure when you are applying it, you brush in the same direction, or you will get streaks.  Unless you want to be a little streaky, then by all means, get your streak on!

...Okay, I'll never say that again, I promise :-/  Let's move on!  Next up is "Theia:"

Outdoors

Indoors

I'm gonna be honest here, because you're a bunch of fine folks.  This polish was a big ole pain in my big momma butt.  It is super freakin' thick.  I mean SUPER thick.  And it does not dry quickly.  In fact, after a good 45 minutes AFTER I applied it WITH a quick-dry topcoat, it was still not dry - you can see a nick in my pointer finger (I left it there on purpose to show you) that happened right before I started taking pictures.  And I only applied 2 coats.  They were as thin as I could get them, but the polish was pretty goopy to work with and still came out a bit thick.  Application aside, I think you can agree this color is absolutely  gorgeous!!  I established a love/hate relationship with this polish.  In the sunlight, it is much more sparkly/shiny than my camera could capture.  There are tons of silver micro flakies mixed in the blue and it really makes this polish amazing.  Clean-up's a pain, but what glitter polish isn't?  I'd say if you find yourself really digging this color, GET IT!  Just expect a little work involved :)

Last, but definitely not least, is "Dyad:"

Outdoors

Indoors

Dyad is a lovely dusty-blue/green metallic with a very subtle scattered holo in the sunlight.  While I certainly love a good in-your-face holo, I also appreciate the more undertoned holos that don't take away from the color and other features of the polish.  I like that this one mostly stands out as a metallic.  The application was almost identical to Marie, though a tad bit thicker.  Not hard to work with, though, and was opaque after 2 coats.  I've had this color on the longest, so I can tell you as far as wear time, it's pretty great.  Still has yet to chip or wear and we're going on day 3!  Definite keeper!

Here are some links for you to keep up and shop with Mentality:

Facebook: Hey There!

Shop: Thanks for Stopping By!

Instagram: Hope You Enjoy!

I had planned on a super awesome nail design to accompany these, however I was on my own with my two young children this week since the Hubs was out of town on business.  I turn into a pumpkin around 9:30 during those weeks, which leaves me pretty much less than an hour every night to do a nail design.  Takes more than an hour on average for me to do something worthy of showing off :P  I do apologize, but now that he is home, I will have the time to come up with more amazing designs next week!

As far as this weekend, though, I need YOUR help in deciding what to paint next!!  I have decided that (most) every Friday, I will be posting up 3 pictures on my Facebook Page as inspiration for my nail design I will do that weekend.  YOU get to vote via "likes" on which one you want to see me recreate!  First set is up TODAY!!  :D

Also, don't forget about that sweet Giveaway I've got going on for the next 3 days :)  Have a great Friday, and an amazing weekend!!! <3