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Shimmer Polish Part 1

Posted on 17 May, 2013 by Cynthia

Guess what? I am a total mess because I just finished watching the series finale of The Office. I nearly had a heart attack when Michael showed up an uttered his signature line, “That’s what she said.” I seriously lost it at that point because he uttered it with so much emotion that I felt it touch me. Isn’t it funny how a television show can become a part of your life to the point where you feel like you almost know the characters and you look forward to catching up with them every week? Ok, I don’t want to sound like a total weirdo, but I know there are tons of The Office fans out there so you know how I feel. I felt this was a perfect way to end the show–I’m just say it’s the end of it. (I know Lesley and Amanda are shedding a tear with me right now!) So anyway, as I watched the last episode of The Office I had a bunch of polish out trying to decide what to swatch next so I decided to try some new pretties from Shimmer Polish. Those of you who have known me since the beginning of my blogging days–as if it were that long–know that I was a serious glitter hater. I used to cringe at the idea of wearing glitter polishes and a few people always teased me for it. (I’m looking at you, Nicole!) Then one day, it’s like something in my brain just clicked and I saw the error of my ways. All of a sudden, the more glittery and shiny something was, the more I loved it. Yes, ladies, I am reformed glitter hater.

I had seen so many lovely swatches of Shimmer Polishes all over the place so I am super excited to be sharing these with you today. I don’t normally like to wear glitterbombs on their own so I decided to layer these over a colored base. The formula on all of these polishes can be summed up in one word: delicious. The glitter applies very smoothly and is plentiful; one coat gives you beautiful coverage over a colored base. If you want to wear these sparklers on their own, I do recommend applying one thin coat and then dabbing on a second coat to get even and full coverage. Let me show you these sparkling gems before I talk your ear off.

Shimmer Polish Valerie (Sation Heather)

Shimmer Polish Sarah (Sation RV There Yet?)

Shimmer Polish Kim (Sation Board Girl Blue)

Shimmer Polish Alice (Sation Strumming My Nails)

Aren’t these gorgeous combinations? It pained me to remove them as I moved from swatch to swatch because they were all just so glittery and decadent. What is your preferred method for wearing glitterbombs? Do you layer them on top of colored bases like I did or do you just jump in full force and wear them alone? Do you have a favorite Shimmer Polish? Let me know!

For news on Shimmer Polish and to keep up with all the gorgeous beauties that Cindy creates, don’t forget to follow her on all of her social media sites:

Website: http://www.shimmyshimmer.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShimmerPolish

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShimmerPolish

Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ShimmerPolish

I’ll be posting a couple more installments of these Shimmer Polishes in the coming weeks so I hope you enjoy the glitter overload. Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a great weekend!

Illamasqua Speckled

Posted on 20 March, 201320 March, 2013 by Cynthia

Well, today I have a polish to share with you that I had been seriously lusting over since I first saw the promo images. I know it’s been out for a bit now so I’m sure that you have seen plenty of swatches already, but I was still super excited to try it out. Since I’ve been a little slow lately with my polish swatching and such. So without further ado, here is Illamasqua Speckled!

There is no denying that Illamasqua Speckled is gorgeous and the formula is perfection which I have come to expect from the brand. The finish is extremely smooth and you only need two coats for full opacity. As soon as I photographed this, I had a strange feeling of déjà vu so I looked through my stash, which is no easy feat, and I realized that I already did a similar mani a few months ago. Want to see what I used?

I started with 2 coats of Cacee BFF Kim. Sorry about the greasy looking fingers–I went a little heavy with the Solar Oil.

I then applied one coat of Nubar Black Polka Dot and then topped it with one thin coat of Kim. Since I wanted the black to show up a little more, I went back and applied the thinnest coat possible of Black Polka Dot.

I think it’s pretty obvious that I am very loyal to Illamasqua, but it can be a little painful to purchase all of their newest colors when they are $14-$16 a pop. I also know that not everyone can afford those prices, so I wanted to give you a cheaper alternative. Even better, you can make every polish speckled with one bottle of Nubar Black Polka Dots. I’ve seen this polish being sold online for anywhere between $4 and $8 so that’s a pretty good deal if you ask me. And here they are side by side:

The choice is yours. Let me know what you think!

Discolsure: All products featured in this post were purchased by me. For more information, please see my disclosure policy tab here.

Cacee BFF Nail Lacquer Kim

Posted on 15 January, 201315 January, 2013 by Cynthia

I don’t know about you, but I get pretty excited when I get to try new brands of nail polish. There is a moment right before I open up a bottle of nail polish where I whisper a little wish into the universe hoping that the formula is great: not too thick, not too thin, not streaky, not smelly (I’m looking at you, Kleancolor!)…who am I? The Goldilocks of nail polish? Anyway, a couple of my nail places have some huge fully-stocked displays of Cacee BFF nail polishes, and I have kind of resisted purchasing them even though they have some pretty colors. Well, I finally caved so today I have a beautiful pastel to share with you: Cacee BFF Nail Lacquer Kim.

Before I get into the details of this polish, I was looking up this polish line on the Cacee website and they call it BFE and the bottles do look like they say BFE but mine is clearly BFF. BFF = Best Friends Forever. Ehhh…I am kind of confused. Does not compute. Moving on from the naming confusion, I want to say that the formula on this polish is pretty darn fantastic. Colors like this always scare me because I imagine streaky nightmares. However, this polish is extremely smooth and self-leveling. After the first coat, I could barely see any VNL so I decided to apply a second thin coat which made it look perfect. This line of polishes claims to be a one coat lacquer and maybe some of the darker, more saturated colors are, but this one looks best with two coats. This polish is a smooth and milky lavender tinged creme that is PERFECT for that demure and soft look–very girlie yet work appropriate. It also dries to an incredibly high gloss shine.

And now I just wanted to spice this up a little with a polish that literally looks like black pepper. This cute dot top coat is Nubar Black Polka Dot. I really love this little gem of a top coat. It was refreshing to not see bar glitter in this kind of polish and best of all, it was super smooth and not thick at all. It was a little hard to get the bigger black glitter so I just had to make sure I blended the polish well before using it.

So what do you think about the look of this polish combination? Have you ever tried Cacee polish or even seen them in your area? Holy Toledo, I can’t believe I’ll be starting work next Monday! I am thoroughly enjoying my last week of freedom so today I had lunch with a friend, and we went to see Silver Linings Playbook. That movie is pretty darn fantastic. I have noticed that after my experience with being in mental institutions, I can get a little touchy about watching movies that depict mental illness or scenes of being in a psychiatric facility. Both my friend and I have been hospitalized in these types of facilities, but we both really enjoyed the movie despite certain scenes really hitting close to home. If you haven’t gotten a chance to see this movie, I highly recommend it.

Anyway, I hope your week is going well, and I will talk to you later!