Author: RiaG

Some Summer Lovin’ for Holidays

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It’s time for a one more Holiday manicure :) This time I used indie glitter, Polish Addict Nail Color Summer Lovin’. There’s some red and green glitter on this as well as neon pink and neon green. It’s a summer polish but in my opinion it also goes great for this time of the year. Application was perfect and dry time was fast. I used two coats of Summer Lovin’ and HK Girl top coat for this manicure

For the Christmas tree I used several different greens applied with a dotting tool. I added a star stud on the top and some micro-pearls as decorations. Quick and simple :)

Polish Addict Nail Color polishes are available at their store. International customers can shop at Mei Mei’s Signatures and UK customers have Rainbow Connection to turn to with their polish shopping needs.

 

 

 

***Summer Lovin’ was sent for review, HK Girl was gifted to me. I don’t benefit from clicking the links on this post in any way.

Not your usual Holiday nails and Born Pretty Store pink bow review

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Since I got to try the Glitter Gal Big Smoke polish from their Holiday in OZ collection I decided to use it as a base for a different kind of Holiday nails design. I also got some pretty pink bows with rhinestones (#K242) from Born Pretty Store to try out. I added some silver micro-pearls and rosy pink studs to the mix and this is what I came up with. I guess if you use your imagination you can call this some kind of gift package with flashy bling bling decorations design ;)

 

 

Who says Holiday nails always need to be red-green-gold/silver :P

The bows are metallic and easy to attach on the nail. They are curved instead of flat and therefore follow the shape of you nail better. I quite liked these! This time I just used a top coat to attach the decorations since I wanted to be able to remove the bows easily and stash them away for another use. If you want them to properly stay on your nail I suggest you use nail glue (tip glue) on top of your manicure to attach these bows. They are quite big and won’t stay on for long without proper glue. Just remember never to glue any decorations straight on your natural nail. Always make sure you have a few coats of polish between your natural nail and the glue.

You can buy these bows from Born Pretty Store and they also have a wide range of other nail art supplies. Born Pretty Store offers free worldwide shipping. Please use the code “NZL91” when you order and get extra -10% discount.

 

 

www.bornprettystore.com

 

 

***Big Smoke, Gloss Boss top coat and metallic bows were sent for review, micro-pearls and pink studs purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Glitter Gal Australia – Tart Yourself Up and Big Smoke

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Today I have two new Glitter Gal Australia polishes for you. They are Tart Yourself Up from the Celebrate Sydney Style collection and Big Smoke from the Holiday in OZ collection. These two are not your typical holiday colors here up north but never the less they are gorgeous.

Both of these are creme polishes. Formula is excellent and application is absolutely perfect. Both took two coats for an opaque result and dried very quickly and shiny. Top coat used on these manicures is Glitter Gal’s own Gloss Boss.

Tart Yourself Up which apparently in OZ means “Get dressed, were going out for dinner”! (I just love this name :D ).

 

Big Smoke
The application and dry time on this are really right next to all the best cremes out there. Just flawless!
And then to the top coat, Gloss Boss. I will review this properly on its own later on. But here’s my first impression of it.

Thick-ish formula but still good application. Evens itself out perfectly leaving insanely shiny gel like finish. This is not mentioned to be a fast drying top coat but still dried very very quickly when I used it on both of these manicures. So I had quite a positive first experience with this top coat. Next I’ll try it with a holo polish since it is supposed to enhance the holo effect. I’ll also try this with some chunky glitter since it is quite thick and might even out some of the glitter polishes nicely too.

You should also know that “All Glitter Gal Australia’s polishes are 5 free and do not contain Formaldehyde, DPB, Toluene, Formaldehyde Resin or Camphor”

Glitter Gal polishes and more info is available at their website. You can also find Glitter Gal from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

***All the products used for these manicure were sent for review. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Essie – Toggle To The Top

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Looking for a great shade for Holidays but feel like the usual bright red isn’t really for you? Essie Toggle To The Top might be an answer for that polish problem. This deep dark red jelly with a lot of red glitter and shimmer is absolutely stunning. It just glows!

Application was a little weird and I had to keep moving the polish on my nail for a bit to get the glitter to apply evenly. BUT one(!!) coat was enough for the result you see on the photos. One very generous coat also dried very quickly. This one is a bit of a top coat eater so I used two coats of HK Girl top coat. Base coat was IsaDora Peel Off Base.

I absolutely loved this vampy red shade!

 

 

 

***Toggle To The Top and Peel Off Base were sent for review, HK Girl was gifted to me. I don’t benefit from clicking the links on this post in any way.

IsaDora – Peel Off Base (on gel nails)

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I got to test new IsaDora Peel Off Base coat and it worked excellently on my nails with UV-gel layover. Application was very easy and I allowed the base to dry about 5 mins before applying the nail polishes and fast drying top coat. I wore this manicure for three days and it stayed on perfectly. I washed my hands, showered and did everything I usually do and I had no issues with my polish chipping or starting to lift from the edges. Removal was easy and there was no need to use force or scratch the polish off.

I have nothing negative to say about this product. Unlike some other peel off base coats this works perfectly with gel nails. I’m very happy and now I just need to go find several back up bottles so I never run out of this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

*** Peel Off Base was sent for review.

Glitter Gal Australia – Marine Blue

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Today I have a new to me brand Glitter Gal Australia and their holographic polish Marine Blue. This is a great quality blue linear holo. Application was flawless and two coats was enough for an opaque result. Unfortunately at this time of the year we don’t have enough sunlight to photograph holos here in Finland. So all the photos are taken with daylight bulbs.

Glitter Gal recommends not using a top coat with their holos (except for their own Gloss Boss), but I love the glossy shine a top coat brings so I did add HK Girl top coat. I only applied it to two nails at first and waited for a bit. I then compared the holo effect with and without top coat and didn’t really see a difference so I applied the top coat to the rest of the nails too before taking the photos. In the future I hope to do a comparison with this polish using Glitter Gal’s Gloss Boss and no top coat at all.

So on the photos I used no base coat, two coats of Marine Blue and HK Girl top coat.

Glitter Gal polishes and more info is available at their website. You can also find Glitter Gal from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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***Marine Blue was sent for review. HK Girl was purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat – Fuzz-Sea

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It’s December and it’s time for all the Holiday manicures and posts but first let me get this Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat manicure out of the way. This is two coat of Fuzz-Sea dabbed on to Color Club Poetic Hues finished with a coat of HK Girl top coat. This would’ve looked a lot better if I used a tape to help make a crisp line instead of freehanding it. I love the colors though and I’ll most certainly dig Fuzz-Sea out of my polish drawer when spring gets here again.

 

 

***Fuzz-Sea and Poetic Hues were sent for review. HK Girl was purchased by me.

Blog under construction!

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I’m redesigning my blog layout and this is going to be an ongoing project so you will see some more changes for next couple of weeks. Again comments and suggestions about the new look are welcome :)

Color Club – Poetic Hues

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Today’s review is Poetic Hues from the Color Club Harlem Lights collection for Winter 2013. This is a cream colored good quality creme. Again great looking alone and a good base for nail art or glitters. I don’t have anything like this in my stash so this was a welcome addition.

On this mani I used two coats of Poetic Hues with G & G HK Girl top coat.

 

 

Color Club seems to have found a good formula for these new cremes cos the application on this was also excellent. You would think this was a nightmare to apply looking at the color but it really was anything but. A little bit streaky on the first coat and evened out perfectly on the second coat.

 

 

 

***Poetic Hues was sent for review. HK Girl was purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Overall Beauty Minerals Eye Shadows

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A while back lovely Kim from Overall Beauty sent me some of her mineral eye shadows to test. Today I’ll show you swatches of these pretties and later on there will be more detailed reviews and makeup photos using these products. These are loose eye shadows and they come in a 5 g sifter jar. You can also purchase samples.

I’m very happy with the quality of these eye shadows. They are smooth, shimmery and very pretty on their own and eye shadow primer brings out a whole new side of these.

Camelot is a perfect natural day eye shadow. It’s shimmery peachy pink on it’s own and it has a blue flash. With a primer the blue flash is more visible. I actually like to wear that one without a primer cos it’s almost nude looking but makes my eyes look brighter. It just wipes that tired “My kiddos kept me up all night again” look off my face ;)

Up All Night is a super pretty lilac but it’s also very glittery so you will want to wear this by tapping it over a primer or a creamy eye shadow. I prefer to apply eye shadows like these by tapping them on instead of brushing them. That way all the glitter sticks to the base and there is minimal fallout of glitter on your cheekbones.

Last I have to mention Last Exit. This one makes me go “Ohh!” every time I look at it. It’s is totally unique in my collection and it’s just gorgeous. Last Exit is medium grey with amazing pink shimmer. I’ll show you swatches of this over different bases in a near future.

 

 

So here are the swatches of these pretties and keep your eyes peeled for more detailed reviews in the future. Overall Beauty Minerals can be purchased from their store (worldwide shipping) along with other cosmetics and several nail polish brands. You can follow Overall Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram.

 

 

***These eye shadows were sent for review. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.