February 17, 2013

Gelish Sweet Chocolate & Mint (Seafoam) 1

by Andrea • Gelish Swatches • Tags: ,

These two colors combined remind me of my favorite ice cream flavor… mint chocolate chip! I’ve had these on my wishlist for a while and finally was able to purchase and swatch them. I’ve seen so many pictures of Seafoam online and they all look different, so I had no idea what to expect. I’m not sure if this one should be classified as blue or green because it’s kind of both. I really thought it would be greener, but it has a touch of grey in it.  Regardless of what you call it, I think this is an awesome color for spring.  You can see how it compares to Mint of Spring here.

Gelish Seafoam Swatch
Gelish Seafoam Swatch

Sweet Chocolate is a rich, shimmery dark brown.  This is a good fall/winter color and the shimmer has some copper hues to it.

Gelish Sweet Chocolate Swatch
Gelish Sweet Chocolate Swatch

February 16, 2013

More Gelish “Love in Bloom” Comparisons 8

by Andrea • Gelish Swatches • Tags: , , ,

At the request of many, I have some more Gelish color comparisons for you today.  First up are the oranges.  Here I compared A Petal For Your Thoughts, Tiger Blossum, Tiki Tiki Laranga, Orange Cream Dream and Sweet Morning Dew.  A Petal For Your Thoughts is actually pink, but it does have some orange undertones so I thought I would include it here.  You can see here that they are all very distinct and different colors, and the new Sweet Morning Dew is more of a peachy shade.

Chickettes.com Gelish orange comparisons

I also did some purple comparisons. Here we have He Loves Me He Loves Me Not, Starburst, Carnival Hangover, and Samuri.  Again, they are all very different colors.  I hope this helps you when deciding whether to purchase colors from the new Love in Bloom collection!  He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not is a very unique shade and is one of my favorites for this spring.  :)   It’s actually slightly lighter than it appears in this picture.

Chickettes.com Gelish purple comparisons

February 15, 2013

Video: A peek at my stash & nail station 14

by Andrea • Nail Care Tips & Tricks, Videos

I thought I’d make a quick little video to give you a glimpse of my work area and nail polish stash.  I always find it interesting to see how other people store their polish and what their work areas look like.  I’m thinking of doing a few video tutorials, so let me know if there’s anything specific you’d like to learn about.  Thanks for watching!

February 12, 2013

Gelish “Love in Bloom” Nail Art 7

by Andrea • Nail Art • Tags: , ,

I decided to use the whole “Love in Bloom” collection in some nail art.  The colors were very cohesive, so I did some alternating striped gradients.  I like the way this turned out, and hope you do too!

The colors on the orange/pink fingers are Sweet Morning Dew, A Petal For Your Thoughts, and All Dahlia-ed Up.  The colors on the blue/purple fingers are Mint of Spring, Garden Teal Party, and He Loves Me He Loves Me Not.

Gelish Love in Bloom Nail Art - Striped Gradients

Chickettes.com Gelish Love in Bloom Nail Art - Striped Gradients

Update 2/21/13: I created a video to show the technique behind this design. Enjoy! :)

February 8, 2013

Gelish “Love in Bloom” Color Comparisons 13

by Andrea • Gelish Swatches • Tags: , , ,

I finally got my hands on the Gelish Love in Bloom collection and couldn’t wait to start doing some comparisons to other colors.  First off, you are going to absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this collection… I will post the full list of swatches very soon, so stay tuned for that.

There’s been a lot of speculation that some of the new colors were dupes of existing Gelish shades, so I did some comparisons and found that they are indeed unique… although there are some similarities.  I don’t own every Gelish color available but let me know if you would like to see colors from this collection compared with any other shades.  If I have them, I’ll post them.

The first comparison I have is “Mint of Spring” vs. “Seafoam“.  Mint of spring is a much brighter shade and looks to me more like a light teal blue than a minty green.  Seafoam is lighter and has more of a grey-ish tone to it.

Gelish Mint of Spring Color Comparison to Sea Foam

Next up is “Garden Teal Party” vs. “My Favorite Accessory“.  They are similar, by Garden Teal Party is clearly lighter and brighter.

Gelish Garden Teal Party Color Comparison vs My Favorite Accessory

And finally, I have a comparison of pinks.  “All Dahlia-ed Up” was thought to be a dupe of “Gossip Girl“.  Again, these are close, but Gossip Girl is a brighter pink and the finish is slightly more shimmery (which is hard to see here), where All Dahlia-ed Up is a pure creme finish.

And I thought “A Petal For Your Thoughts” was going to be a dupe of “Passion“, but they are very different once applied.  I have mini bottles of each of these and the color on the labels is almost identical.

Gelish Pink Dupe Comparisons

These are all of the colors in the collection…

Gelish Love in Bloom Collection Swatches

February 7, 2013

KBShimmer Spring 2013 Swatches 1

by Andrea • Indie Polish Swatches • Tags: , , ,

Today I have a few polishes from the KBShimmer Spring collection to share with you.  The collection will be officially released on February 15th, and you can preview all of the colors in the press release. Here is a bottle shot to show off the new labels.  The lighter color polishes have a black label, and darker polishes have a white label which provides great contrast for easy reading.  The new polishes also come with a new flat brush.

I love glitter polishes that build up well without having to apply a base color underneath.  The first two colors are just that and they applied flawlessly.  I applied three coats of each to get a nice layered glitter effect and for full coverage.  Each of these manicures are also topped off with two coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top, which smoothed out the glitter for a nice glossy finish.

This is “Iris My Case” a light purple crelly (creamy/jelly) base loaded with purple, pink, silver and blue glitters of different sizes.

KBShimmer Iris My Case - Spring Collection

KBShimmer Iris My Case - Spring Collection

KBShimmer Iris My Case - Spring Collection

“Spring Training” is a light green crelly base with pink, purple, blue and green glitters of different sizes.  The color combinations of both of these crelly/glitter polishes just scream spring!

KBShimmer Spring TrainingKBShimmer Spring TrainingKBShimmer Spring Training

And finally we have “A Dot Mess”.  First, love the name… second, love the circle shaped glitter!  This one is a top coat that’s meant to be layered over other colors and it’s loaded with fuschia and black glitters and microglitter.  I layered it over OPI Fly for a nice contrast.

KBShimmer A Dot MessKBShimmer A Dot MessKBShimmer A Dot Mess

So what do you think? Do these put you in the mood for spring?! I can’t wait to also get my hands on “Little Dottie” and “Get Clover It”!

* Products provided for review.

February 4, 2013

Nail Pattern Boldness “Oodiful” 6

by Andrea • Indie Polish Swatches • Tags: , ,

This is the first polish that I’ve tried from indie maker Nail Pattern Boldness.  “Oodiful” is a light grey jelly base with pink and white hex and square glitters.  I love the color combination and the subtleness of the glitter.  This polish layers well and the application was smooth and effortless.  I applied three coats for full coverage, and topped off with one coat of Seche Vite.  I’m extremely pleased with my first Nail Pattern Boldness experience and can’t wait to try some of their other creations.

Nail Pattern Boldness "Oodiful"

Nail Pattern Boldness "Oodiful"

February 3, 2013

GIVEAWAY! Rainbow Honey Limited Edition Valentine’s Day Gift Lacquers 68

by Andrea • Giveaways, Indie Polish Swatches • Tags: , ,

For as long as supplies last, order $40 or more of Rainbow Honey Nail Polish or Cuticle Stick from Esther’s Nail Center and you will receive a free bottle of Rainbow Honey special limited edition Valentine’s Day Gift Lacquers! “Dearly Beloved” and “My Love” were designed as limited edition gifts for the month of February.  We’re offering a chance to win one bottle of each of these lovely lacquers (details below)!

Chickettes.com & Esther's Nail Center Rainbow Honey Giveaway

Rainbow Honey “Dearly Beloved” is meant for layering and includes various shades and sizes of gold shimmer, gold microglitter, and red hearts and squares. I think it looks particularly great over metallic gold polishes and black, as seen below in my swatches. It also works well as a topper on lighter colors such as pink and blue.

Rainbow Honey "Dearly Beloved" Special Edition Valentine's Day Polish

Rainbow Honey "Dearly Beloved" Special Edition Valentine's Day Polish

Rainbow Honey “My Love” is Multichromatic and pink shimmers along with iridescent and gold glitters in a clear base, adorned with white and pink hearts.  This polish is also great for layering and looks great on dark and light colors.  The swatches below show one coat of My Love over dark purple and light blue.

Rainbow Honey "My Love" Limited Edition Valentine's Day Nail Lacquer

Rainbow Honey "My Love" Limited Edition Valentine's Day Nail Lacquer

And now for the giveaway!  One lucky winner will receive one bottle each of Rainbow Honey “Dearly Beloved” and “My Love”.  The giveaway is open internationally, and one winner will be selected at random through Rafflecopter on Monday, February 11th.

Please note that contest entries will be verified and the winner will be announced via Facebook and email. The winner will have 48 hours to claim the prize.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Products provided for review, and giveaway sponsored by Esther’s Nail Center.

February 2, 2013

Julep February “It Girl” Swatches 1

by Andrea • Nail Lacquer Swatches • Tags: , , ,

I’m totally in love with my Julep box this month!  I chose the “It Girl” box and it came with three polishes, a top coat, a cute little travel eyelash curler and two chocolate heart candies (which I devoured instantly!).  If you’ve considered signing up for the Julep Maven program, I highly recommend it.  Each month you receive a box of goodies worth at least $40 in retail value for only $19.95.  They send you an email to preview the boxes that are available and you can select a different box than the style profile they match you up with, or you can gift the box to someone else, or if you are strapped for cash or just don’t like the selections you can opt out for that month.  Pretty simple.

Here are the gorgeous polishes that were in my box this month.  First up is Joan, which is described as raspberry plum with rose gold shimmer.  The shimmer on this one is really amazing.

Julep "Joan" Swatch - It Girl

Next is Marion which is described as a smokey blue with silver shimmer. My swatch doesn’t do this one justice!

Julep "Marion" Swatch - It Girl

And I saved my favorite for last… this is Rebel.  At first I thought this was just a silver shimmer, until I applied it and it dried.  Hello… this is a stunning silver holographic polish.  It dries with a semi-matte finish, but with a top coat it’s nice and shiny.  I can’t stop looking at my nails and playing with the holo effects in different lighting.  Holo effects are so hard to capture on camera, so here are a few shots.  I’m thinking about doing some nail art over this one.  :)

Julep "Rebel" Swatch - HolographicJulep "Rebel" Swatch - Holographic

Julep "Rebel" Swatch - Holographic

January 31, 2013

Candeo Colors Jellybean 0

by Andrea • Indie Polish Swatches • Tags: , , ,

I recently purchased a couple of indie polishes from my wishlist at Llarowe, and today I have a swatch of Candeo Colors Jellybean.  When I saw this it reminded me of spring and Easter… it’s just so cheerful!  It has a pale yellow base with pink, blue and purple hex glitters, and some pink micro-glitter.  The yellow base isn’t nearly as bright as the swatches that I’ve seen… I expected it to be much more yellow.  It layers beautifully – this swatch is three coats, but it was almost completely opaque with just two coats.  And of course I topped it off with Seche Vite.

Candeo Colors - Jellybean Swatch

Candeo Colors - Jellybean Swatch
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