Blog Love

UPDATE!!!
Shannon Thompson won! Thanks everyone for entering.

As a token of my thanks I want to offer a giveaway for YOU, the people who follow my blog and read my posts. Thank you! It means so much to me. Please continue to support me and I promise to get better and better. Thank you again. The prize is any bottle of polish from the Zoya Beach & Surf Collection. :-)

Zoya GMA Deal

Right now there is a deal on Zoya polishes for a pack of 3 colors for $12!! Use code: GMAZOYA at check out. This offer is valid until Friday March 30th 11:59 PM!!

If you are new to Zoya click HERE to sign up and receive a $5 coupon to spend on a future order.


*also there is a three pack that includes some of the new Beach & Surf Collection 2012. Go check it out!!

Tamala

NOTD -Simmer and Shimmer

I was going through my collection of polishes and came across Simmer and Shimmer.

Do you guys remember this polish from the OPI Burlesque Collection 2010. It is a Teal blue, 

silver and multi-colored glitter polish. It's so pretty!! 

I've had this polish since then and it called my name, so I felt it necessary to wear it today!! 

Simmer and Shimmer has the perfect name. It is definitely Shimmery!!

Pics below:

Simmer and Shimmer applied beautifully :-) 

But once I went to do cleanup the sparkles went 

everywhere. Can you then them?

This is a natural light pic with no flash. This is the closest

I could get to the true color. 

This picture has a flash.

Artificial light and flash make Simmer 

and Shimmer  appear silvery. 

Close up of swatchicle to show the chunkiness 

of the glitter. Check out the rainbow glitter.

It's beautiful!! 

As I stated, the only problem I had with this polish is that when I went to do cleanup the sparkles went everywhere. I tried several times to clean it up, but they did not want to come off. I hate when that happens.

Any thoughts on Simmer and Shimmer? Do you own it? Please share your comments below.




xoxoTamala

Essie Resort Collection 2012

I received this Promo email from Essie about their new Resort Collection. I wanted to share with you guys. 

  

She's Picture Perfect:

 

 Sure Shot:

 Pink-a-Boo:

No More Film:

These are available now. Do you have these already? Which one will you be getting? Share below.

Thanks for reading,

xoxoTamala

3 Flakies & a Luxeffect

Here are some pictures I captured of Twisted, Asylum and Motley Flakies by Fingerpaints. I have also included an Essie Luxeffect Shine of the Times. I was doing my swatchicles and I loved how these turned out and I wanted to share with you guys.

They applied so wonderfully on top of this black and I loved the colors! Check them out:

                                                              Twisted:

Motley:

Asylum:

Finger Paints Flakies Twisted, Motley and Asylum:

There are two others, Flashy and Flecked, but I didn't want them all. If you can still find these they are available at Sally Beauty Supply.





Essie has there own line of Luxeffects. This line was from the Holiday 2011 line and included: Shine of the Times, Set in Stones, A Cut Above, Pure Pearlfection, and  As Gold As it Gets. The only one bought from this line was Shine of the Times (pictured below.)

                                                           Shine of the Times:

My favorite of all of these would be Twisted and Motley comes in a close second. These are top coats and should be applied over a nice base color. Each of these were applied over e.l.f. Black. I chose Black because it tends to bring out the colors more and the different colors show up better using black. Each was once coat of black, the "fleck" and another clear top coat.

 What do you think of these? Did you buy a lot of these Flecks? What is your favorite?

As Always thanks for reading :-)

xoxo Tamala

Pretty & Polished

Are you aware that they're lots of people out there making and creating their own polishes and brands? This is a fun idea and a lot of their work is good and in fact, a lot of them sell out as soon as they open their Etsy shops.

I recently bought four mini polishes from Pretty & Polished. Two that I have today are Forgery and Toy with Me. The other two I just purchased two days ago so I don't have those yet. I'll show you the pictures of the polishes so you can see them. I applied them to my swatchicles (will post about these later) to show them off.

Forgery is, according to Pretty & Polished, "a matte glitter top coat." The glitter is also suppose to shift from  green to purple with a hint of gold flecks.

Pretty little mini :-)

These next  two pictures are Forgery over Black from e.l.f. Showing the Fleck effect. This polish has a matte finish so there is no top coat. Can you see the Flecks?

This is a really pretty fleck. The flecks are very small, yet Prominent.

This picture has Forgery with no base color and a top coat.

Side by side: Black base color matte finish vs. no base color and Top coat. Which do you like better? I love it as a fleck!











Toy with Me, "This is a magical matte polish that changes colors (purple to green) and has the smallest hint of tiny green micro-glitter. Can be layered or worn as a top coat."  In the picture below I can see a Holo effect with a green and purple mix.

This picture shows the matte finish of Toy With Me. Can you see the tiny Purple and Green?

This picture shows Toy With Me with a top coat. I truly think I would wear this either way. I think it's gorgeous both ways plus you can wear this over another color if you choose.













What do you think of the Pretty & Polished polishes? Do you have any? What colors do you have? I'm currently waiting on Hemi-sphere and Jawbreaker :-)


xoxoTamala

Through The Grapevine

I have already told you guys about 2 of the Wet n Wild polishes (here and here), but I'm back with another one. This one is "Through The Grapevine." Can you say Love? I can and I love this one! OMG! This is the perfect shade of pinkish-purple. This is a creme polish and it is opaque in one coat, but I did 2 coats.

Lovely brush, perfect strokes and smooth finish. The pictures will show 2 coat of Wet n Wild's "Through The Grapevine" and top coat of Seche Vite.

Below is in Natural light.

Wet n Wild says this about it's MegaLast colors:

"Sophisticated, classic colors beautifully accent any look. Long-lasting, opaque color provides 5 days of chip-resistant wear. A revolutionary resin polymer system creates exceptional color adhesion to nails. This resilient polish is calcium and mineral fortified to rebalance and prevent nail discoloration. Comes with a unique, full-coverage brush that glides on smooth for one-stroke application. Toluene, phthalate, and formaldehyde free."

As I've stated on my Facebook page, if you don't own any of these polishes go get some now!! They are wonderful and the price is only $1.99. These can be found at you local drugstore.

xoxo Tamala

*All opinions are my own and this was purchased with my own money.

Leah & Oscar

I have a recommendation if you're looking for a perfect green and gold combination for St. Patrick's Day. Please forgive me because I totally forgot I had these two colors. Therefore, I have no swatches for you, but Leah and Oscar by Julep would be a nice combination. 

I would suggest doing a Leah manicure and Oscar accent nail. Or perhaps get a little funky and do Leah nails and Oscar tips, a twist to the French Manicure. 

Here they are side by side:

No Flash

 With Flash

Don't they look like a nice couple? LOL! Leah and Oscar could be a great combination for your St. Patty's Day Manicure.

:-) Tamala

Mermaid's Tears & Golden Goddess

OPI's Mermaid's Tears and e.l.f Golden Goddess is the 4th manicure for the St. Patrick's Day series. I'm so into mint green these days so I had no choice, but to add one of these to the series.

Mermaid's Tears is beautiful. It applies very well and their is no streaking. I have always been a fan of OPI! Mermaid's Tears is an absolutely beautiful mint green. The color is a deep mint green. There are several mints out there, but Mermaid's Tears is a darker one. I must say I love this shade of Mint.

 e.l.f. Golden Goddess is amazing as well. The only thing about Golden Goddess that I hate is the smell. It smells  horrible. It has a strong smell like Seche Vite, but different. Even when it dries you can still smell it, but the beauty of Golden Goddess makes you forget the smell.

Golden Goddess is a gold, of course. It has small golden sparkles throughout with big hex glitters that capture the light and reflect the light. This causes the nail to appear gold with hints of rainbow. It's amazing!! I love it!!

Okay here are the pictures:

Check out the rainbow sparklies!!  

What do you think of this choice?

Thanks for reading,
Tamala xoxo

Color Club "Kiss Me Mistletoe"

Color Club "Kiss Me Mistletoe" is St. Patrick's Day Manicure #3. I fell in love with this color when I saw it. It is a green color with tiny silver shimmer throughout. There is also a little surprise with this shimmery polish. Once you hit the sunlight there is an explosion of rainbow shimmer. It leaves your manicure GORG!!

One problem, sorry, is it is hard too polish your nails with this Color Club color. it comes out of the bottle thick and goopy. No matter how thin you make your coats, it still seems to goop up on the brush. This made me sad. I really liked this color, but my bottle just didn't cooperate.

 If you have a better bottle and yours didn't act this way please let me know. My manicure was hard to control and in turn hard to clean up afterward :-/. It was also a tad streaky. I tried to work with it as best as I possibly could.




Here are the best pictures:

Kiss Me Mistletoe looks like it's metallic in this light with the silver shimmer.

Rainbow shimmer can be seen in the natural sun light. Almost makes up for the goopy polish.

What do you think of this color?

Thanks for reading,
Tamala xoxo

St. Patrick's Day Manicure #2

The second polish I chose for the St. Patrick's Day themed manis is a polish with no name, but it's beautiful. This polish has "SNOWMAN" written on the back of it. I found it in Meijer around Christmas time with many other polishes like it see this post.

 He's cute, right? I think so. I have never used it before and thought this combo would be perfect. There are green and gold small glitter sparkles throughout. The green and gold are evenly distributed. Check out this close up. The sparkles are so pretty.

The polish is very shiny without a top coat, but I added one just to get rid of the rough texture. Below is one coat with no top coat. You can see how that one coat covers very well.

Here are a some more to show the sparkles in different lighting.

This one has a low light and flash. 

High lighting and flash. And this is gorgeous!!

Close up with light and no flash. It's still really pretty. 

(a little blurry sorry)

See how tiny this snowman is? He's a cutie!!

Sorry, I am not able to tell you the name of this polish, 

but it was so pretty I wanted to share it with you. 

The main thing about this polish is that the consistency is okay and the brush is horrible. I couldn't get a good picture of it to show you guys. The brush is thick and flimsy. I had to do major cleanup around my nails. It was very hard and tedious because the tiny specks of glitters didn't want to move. I'm still happy with the way it turned out though. What do you think of this polish? Have you seen these before?

Thanks for Reading as always,

Tamala xoxo

Camouflage

So, I decided to do a couple (2, 3, 4 or 5) post of green polishes for St. Patrick's Day. I am starting with Rimmel London's 60 seconds "830 Camouflage." This polish clearly states, "One-coat, quick and easy to apply" right on the back. I got this polish for fairly cheap at Meijer and I liked the color. I have never tried a Rimmel London polish before. Have you?

This was one of the polishes I decided to try today for the purpose of St. Patrick's Day. It went on easy not much clean up. This polish wasn't too thick or too thin. I'd say just right. I didn't feel it needed two coats nor a top coat. Maybe if I was going to wear this manicure I would've decided on a top coat, but for this purpose it didn't need one.

The polish didn't dry in 60 seconds, but that didn't matter to me. It still dried very quickly and the one coat promise was met! I love this green polish. It's nothing to scream about, but still pretty. It's a green slight duochrome mixed with a slight shimmer. It's almost metallic.

Take a look:

Close-up with no Flash.

(This picture reminds me of Julep Megan.) 

                                                    This is the color zoomed-in with Flash.

What do you think of this color? Have you tried a Rimmel London's 60 seconds polish before? Comment below please.

Thanks for reading.
Until next time

xoxoTamala