Ellison's Organics: On the Town and You Jump, I Jump Swatches & Review

-Press Sample-

Hey polishers! 

I've got a couple polishes to swatch for you today from the indie brand, Ellison's Organics! Ellison's Organics is owned by a really nice women named Carleigh, who sells all kinds of things from nail polish (she has quite a beautiful assortment to choose from and they're all 3-free!), to organic soaps and bath salts!

So the first polish I wanted to show you today is On the Town, a deep burgundy-colored polish that is both 3-free and naturally pigmented. I don't have anything like this in my collection, and I just love the vampy, deep color to it! On the Town has a wonderful formula, and I only needed one coat for the pictures below!

Next up is You Jump, I Jump, a clear glitter consisting of red and blue-colored squares and hexes with holographic glitter. Carleigh said that this polish was actually inspired by the Titanic movie, and that the blue squares and hexes reminded her of the water, while the red represent the dress Kate Winslet's character wore in the movie. How cool is that?! I used two coats of You Jump, I Jump in the pictures in order to spread out the glitters a little more on my nails. In the photos, You Jump, I Jump is layered over On the Town.

Because Carleigh was inspired by the Titanic movie for this polish, I wanted to show you You Jump, I Jump over a navy blue polish (Sinful Colors Cold Leather) to further represent the water in the Titanic!  Again, I layered two coats of You Jump, I Jump over the navy blue polish.

You can find Ellison's Organics on their website, follow via twitter, or feel free to like them on Facebook!

Thanks for reading!

♥ Colleen

Miss Sporty Metal Flip Collection Swatches: Aurora Borealis, Beetle Wings, and Fiery Blaze

Happy Tuesday, polishers!

I have three duochrome polishes from the Miss Sporty Metal Flip Collection to show you today! I actually won these polishes in a giveaway from the nice girl behind the Nails From Fairy Tale blog, which is pretty cool since I don’t think this brand is sold where I am in the United States!

Anyway, on to the swatches! Just a heads up, sorry about all of the random hand positions in the pictures. I wanted to try to have the light hit it my nails just right so that you can see the color shift better.

First up is Aurora Borealis, which is an icy blue color that flashes a purple/pink when the light hits it. It reminds me a lot of Orly Angel Rain, but I think that Angel Rain is a little brighter of a blue than Aurora Borealis. I needed to use three coats for this polish to be opaque, and I didn’t have any problem with the formula.

Next is Beetle Wings, which is an olive green color that shifts to gold and a little bit of pink. I had no problem with the formula, and I used two coats for the pictures below.

The third and final polish I’ll be showing you from this collection is by far the most striking, and also has the most noticeable shift. Fiery Blaze is a bronze color that shifts purple. It is incredible to look at, and probably my favorite of the three. I just love this polish, and I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off of this polish when I had it on! I used ONE coat for the pictures below (one-coat polishes will always hold a special place in my heart) and I had no problem with the formula.

 So if you had to choose, which one of these three do you like best? Thanks for stopping by!

♥ Colleen

#NailArtMar Challenge: Neon

Hey polishers!

I hope your weekend has been going well! I know I've been a little lacking with my March Nail Art Challenge posts, but I'm going to try and catch up this week! So today I have my belated neon manicure.

I decided not to do this all neon, and just paint the chevron neon. I messed up a little on the chevron, but as a nail blogger, I'll still show you my fails! :)

Even though I messed up on the chevron, I love the colors in this!

Polishes used:
China Glaze Seahorsin' Around
China Glaze Pool Party
Pure Ice Superstar!

I can't wait to start wearing neon a lot more now that spring is nearly upon us and summer will be here shortly! Do you have any favorite neon polishes for the spring/summer?

I hope you have a great rest of the day!

Colleen

#NailArtMar Challenge: Ombre

Hey polishers!

Today is the second day of Californails'  "Totally Doable I Have A Life" March Nail Art Challenge and the today's theme is ombre!

For the ombre theme, I thought I would do vertical stripes using a couple of blue polishes.

Here it is:

Polishes I used:
-a light blue polish by California Colors
-Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!
-L.A. Colors In A Flash
-OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby

Although this isn't the best mani that I've ever done, I really like the blues in here and I think the little gold hearts really make it. :)


Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great rest of the day!

-Colleen

#NailArtMar Challenge: Dotticure

Hey everyone!

I can't believe that it's finally March! Hopefully the spring weather will also be coming soon...

Anyway, I decided to join Californails'  "Totally Doable I Have A Life" March Nail Art Challenge!

Today's theme is Dotticure so I decided to do a multicolored polka dot design.

I think I might have used a few too many colors in here, but I love the blues, purple, and sparkly gold polishes together!

The polishes I used were:
-a sky blue polish by California Nails
-a teal polish by Body Central
-In A Flash by L.A. Colors
-Blue Me Away! by Sally Hansen
-Strapped by Sinful Colors
-Love.Angel.Music.Baby. by OPI
-What A Pansy by China Glaze

So what do you think of the color theme I used? Will you be taking part in a March nail art challenge?

Have a great rest of the day!
-Colleen

Seahorsin' Around from China Glaze Sea Goddess Collection Swatches & Review

Hey polishers!

Long time no blog! I guess I just let pretty much all of February get by me without doing very much posting... :(

But on the bright side, I have an awesome polish to swatch for you today! It's called Seahorsin' Around from the new China Glaze Sea Goddess Collection!

Seahorsin' Around is a turquoise metallic texture polish with a gold shimmer. Personally I think this polish looks like it has a silver shimmer, but in China Glaze's description of it they say "Splash around in this mermaid-tail turquoise with soft gold shimmer." But either way this polish is definitely a beauty! I didn't have any problems with the formula and I used 2 coats for the pictures below.

The following two pictures are of Seahorsin' Around with a top coat. I love, love, love this polish! The turquoise color of it reminds me of the ocean and summer!

I had never used a textured polish before and I didn't think I would like it because I normally like having smooth nails, but I ended up liking the textured finish of this polish. I really wish I would have bought a couple more from this collection! (I probably still will lol)

I hope you have a great rest of the day and a good start to your week!

-Colleen

Snowflakes

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Even though it's already near the end of November, here in Chicago we've already had one day where we saw some snow flurries. So in hope that we get more snow in time for the Holidays, I chose to do a snowflake design to post for today.

Here it is:

Polishes used:
-Orly Angel Rain
-Pure Ice Superstar!

Although I really like the icy blue with the snowflakes, I think I'll have to try a snowflake design on a darker color too, such as navy.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend....Thanksgiving is coming up soon! :)

-Colleen

Argyle Nails (plus announcement)

Hey blog readers!

I came across some really cute Argyle Nails on the GirlKarma website (which you can see here), and decided that I would try and recreate it!

Here it is:

Aren't these colors gorgeous together?

The polishes I used for this mani are:
Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!
Sally Hansen Ruby Sequin
China Glaze Pool Party
and a dark blue polish by Charlotte Russe

I absolutely love that Sally Hansen Blue Me Away! (the turquoise polish pictured). I just picked it up at Walmart the other day, and even though it has been out for a while, I think I'll try to swatch it this coming week for those of you who don't have it yet or have forgotten about it!

Anyway, as for the announcement, I'm unfortunately not going to be able to finish out my challenge, the National Day Of...Challenge. When I decided to start it, it was the end of summer and I thought it would be a good idea, but now that school has started, I don't really have the time anymore. With senior year, I'm busy with everyday homework, AP classes, college apps, orchestra rehearsals, and trying to squeeze in a little bit of a social life, so I just don't have the time to commit to the challenge anymore. I'm so sorry. I should have thought about all of this before I started the challenge. Sooooooo big shout out to the girls who did take part in the challenge (here are their blogs): The Nail Polish Sleuth, A Girl And Her Chicken Named Betty, and The Nail Snail. Thank you guys so much for taking part, it means a lot! Sorry I have to end the challenge so soon :(

Thanks for reading,
Colleen

N.A.I.L. Challenge: Sea

Hey guys!

I hope you've been having a great day so far! Today I have for you  a 'Sea' themed mani for the NAIL linkup challenge. When I thought of 'Sea' somehow this is what came to my head: seaweed and Jelly fish. lol.
Here it is:

I wasn't sure which one I liked better, the Jelly fish with or without polka dots, so I decided to show you both... :)

The blue background is L.A. Colors In A Flash; the two greens used for the seaweed were Essie The More The Merrier and China Glaze In The Lime Light;  the light purple of the jelly fish is Sinful Colors Tempest; and the polka dots is L.A. Girl Hustle.

I hope you like it! ;) And by the way, I got a little bored today, so earlier I made a little blog collage that I wanted to show you!

Have a great rest of the weekend!!

-Colleen

Lily Pad Nails

Hey all!

Today I have for you another nail design that has been on my summer bucket list: Lily Pad Nails. Although it didn't really turn out like I had in mind, it looks okay nonetheless. Here it is:

For this mani I used a pastel blue color from California Colors, China Glaze In The Lime Light and Sinful Colors Black on Black for the lily pads, a gold/pink color by Love & Beauty for the flowers, and a dark blue color and grainy silver glitter by Charlotte Russe. It's pretty cute...but I might have overdone it a little bit with all the polka dots...

Anyway, I hope you have a great rest of the day!

-Colleen

N.A.I.L. Challenge: Sun

Hey guys!

Brigits Digits, eeeeknailpolish, and Crafty Nail are doing another challenge, this time a mini August challenge called N.A.I.L. (Which stands for Nail Art Ideas Linkup). You can see the post on the Brigits Digits blog here. And, the theme for Aug. 7th-11th is Sun.

So, here's my mani....it's definitely NOT my best mani, but it's all I could do tonight...I'm insanely tired from walking around all day at the college visit I went to and I'll leaving at 5 am tomorrow to attend another one (yeahhhhh). But with out further ado, here it is:

I didn't really know what to do after I finished the sun, so I decided to do chevron for the rest of the nails. The polishes I used were:

-Nicole by OPI Hit The Lights

-Delia's Coral Cascade

-a grainy glitter polish by Charlotte Russe

-a sky blue color by California Colors

I have to say though, do you remember the Mr. Sun song from like preschool? Because this mani reminds me of it lol :)

I also bought a few new polishes at Sally's the other day, and unfortunately I probably won't be able to get around to it until Monday Night, because I'll be doing some more college road trippin' and visiting family out of town and won't get around to it. 

Thanks for reading!! I'm off to bed....Good Night!!

-Colleen

NOTE: I don't think the link up is open yet, so I'll have to add my link tomorrow morning when it is

Basketball Themed Nails

Hello nail enthusiasts!

Today I guess I was feeling a little sporty and decided to do basketball themed nails. I modeled my mani off of Mattania's basketball nails from her blog at qtplace.com . You can find a link to her basketball nails and tutorial for them here.

Here's mine:

I really kind of like how they turned out. I think if I ever do basketball themed nails again, I will actually add a rim to the net like lines. The nail polishes I used were California Colors Pastel Blue, the white was L.A. Girl Disco Ball, the black was Sinful Colors Black on Black, and the orange-y color was Delia's Coral Cascade. To do the lines for the basketball and the nets, I used a striper brush. For the shape of the basketball itself, I just dabbed it on in a circle with the end of a bobby pin.

Hope you like it :)

-Colleen


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USA Independence Day Nails

Happy Independence Day, fellow Americans!

This morning I gave myself a red, white, and blue mani using: L.A. Colors Static Electricity (Blue), Nail-licious Holly Berry (red), L.A. Girl Disco Ball (white), L.A. Girl Celebrate (red, white, and blue glitter on my thumb), and N.Y.C. Starry Night (silver glitter on my pinky and pointer fingers...this is my favorite glitter!!).

Here's my mani:

Side Notes about my mani:
-the white polish I used, L.A. Girl Disco Ball, was a PAIN. It was very streaky and runny, which is weird because my other two L.A. Girl polishes aren't like that at all. I mean, the formula was so bad, that when I started painting my sister's 4th of July nails, in her exact words she said "Ummm, Colleen? It feels like you're pouring milk on my nails." Soooo it looks like I will have to find another white polish.
-The red I used, Nail-licious Holly Berry, was awesome. I literally only used one coat, and it was stunning. You probably can't tell from the picture, but it has a really pretty shimmer in it.
-I used the end of a bobby pin for the polka dots
-please don't judge my ring finger. I messed up, and had already spent so much time on my nails, I reeeeally didn't feel like redoing it.

Peace, love, and FREEDOM,

-Colleen