The New Black Waves

Have any of you heard of The New Black? If you haven't, they have awesome polish sets that work off of the latest trends, such as newspaper manis and ombre nails, and they are available at Sephora! I've never tried the ombre trend before, so I knew that I wanted to give the Waves set a try.

Turns out that I really, really love this look! I used two coats for all the colors except the shimmery one on my ring finger (which is actually my favorite) where I used three. These colors don't really follow the true ombre trend of same color and finish, just lighter and darker shades, but they really work together anyway. 

Overall, I think this set is really cool. It fits very well with the current trends in the nail world and consists of really gorgeous colors! These 5-piece sets retail for $22 and can be purchased at Sephora. The New Black is a relatively new presence in social media, so please join the following sites if you are interested in hearing more from them:

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/thenewblackchannel?feature=guide
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thenewblack.tv
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/thenewblacktv/

*Product(s) in this post were provided for my honest review.*

Tweezerman Review

Good morning everyone! I have a review of some neat Tweezerman products that were sent to me today. Let me tell you, I was totally not expecting the awesomeness that I received! When I opened up the box, this is what I found...

 

This awesome fold up case houses all the products that I was to review. This is a great case; there are tons of little pockets for all sorts of tools, as well as a large zippered pouch on the right hand side. The top piece folds down before you fold the entire thing up so nothing can slip out and get lost! 

 

The first tool that I tried out was the nail clippers. They came in two sizes: the larger one cuts straight across and is meant for toenails (but you could easily use it to cut your nails straight instead of filing them!) and the smaller one is rounded and meant for finger nails.  This first photo is meant to show you the cool zebra etching on the handles and the second photo shows you the shape of the clipping edge.

I used the toenail clippers the last time I gave myself a pedi and they worked great. They clip cleanly and with minimal effort. The only issue I had was that the top piece was a little difficult to maneuver into clipping position, but I think that is only a problem because they are new and they should loosen up a bit with more use. 

These tweezers are INCREDIBLE. I knew Tweezerman made great tweezers but I've actually never tried them until now. I swear I will never use anything else. And luckily, I won't have to, since Tweezerman offers a free sharpening program on their products!

The design is really cute as well. These two photos show the two different sides of the same pair of tweezers. If I'm not mistaken, Tweezerman is based in New York, so it's really neat that they included what I'm assuming is the NYC skyline on their product. 

Up next is the Pushy, a double ended cuticle pusher. One ended is rounded and one is squared to accommodate different nail shapes. This is a really solid and useful tool. I usually use an orange stick or my own nails to push my cuticles back, but now I have a great tool to use instead.

Embarrassingly enough, the ingrown toenail tool was the tool I was most excited about. I've been a ballet dancer for most of my life and have always had problems with ingrown toenails since I keep them trimmed so short all the time. One end of this tool has a little hook that you can use to clean underneath your toenails and the other end has an angled file that you use to file down ingrown toenails so that they don't poke into your skin. This thing is great. If you are like me and have a problem with ingrown toenails, I would definitely recommend it.

These files are all fabulous. I go through files like crazy and it's nice to have some higher quality ones at my disposal. I particularly like that the Eco Friendly File is biodegradable and the SanSation File is washable!

 

Okay, so I never nip my cuticles. So you would think that I wouldn't have a use for a cuticle nipper, right? Wrong. This little guy has been so helpful if I get a cut or peeling skin near my nail that I want to nip sharply so it doesn't keep peeling. These are really sharp and easy to control since they are spring-loaded.

  

And check out the gorgeous zebra etching on these too! 

Lastly, we have the Pedro. The Pedro has a really comfortable handle for you to use when you're scrubbing away at your feet. The first photo shows the finer side of the stone and the second shows the rougher side. I don't really have a lot of rough spots on my feet, but I did use the fine side of the Pedro and it made my heels really soft, so I will definitely use it regularly when I give myself pedis.  

Here's the rougher side of the Pedro:

So there you have it! A glowing review for incredible products. If you are interested in purchasing Tweezerman products, you can do so at http://www.tweezerman.com/. You can also keep updated with them on Twitter and Facebook if you are interested.

*Product(s) in this post were provided for an honest review.*

All That Glitters Swatches

MORE GLITTER! I hope you guys aren't getting sick of all this crazy glitter because I'm definitely not! Today I have some beauties from All That Glitters to show you. At the time that I'm writing this, there are a bunch of polishes up on Etsy, so go check them out (after you finish reading this post, of course!).  ;P

First up is two coats of Rebel Rebel on top of Essie Nice is Nice. Rebel Rebel has a tinted purple base with purple, white, and silver glitter mixed in. As you can see, there's a bunch of different shapes of glitter, such as square, bar, and hex. Since the base is tinted, you could probably wear this on it's own, but I wanted a more opaque look so I chose to layer it.

Ziggy Stardust is one of my top picks out of these five polishes. I layered two coats of it over Sinful Colors Luminary and just loved it. Like the previous color, Ziggy Stardust also has square, hex, and bar glitter, but this time it's white and gold and suspended is a slightly coral-tinted base.

Here is The Jean Genie, same situation as the first two polishes, but blue! I have it over Zoya Kristen here. The base is slightly tinted blue and has a bit of a pearly finish to it, so it spices up the creme underneath. I learned with this bottle that I should leave it sitting upside down before I plan to use it; the big glitter is easier to get out!

Very Peacock-ish is an interesting polish. I layered two coats of it over Essie Go Overboard and as you can see, it altered the base color a lot! It looks really neat though, almost mermaid-like. The large hex glitters were pretty difficult to fish out of this one. There are large black hexes in there too, but I wasn't able to get any onto the nail.

Last but certainly not least is two coats of Cha Cha Twist over CND Anchor Blue. This one was the easiest to work with; all the different glitters came out easily and laid perfectly on my nails. This glitter combo is also very unique (to me at least) and I really enjoyed wearing it.

Overall, I really liked all of these colors and would definitely recommend them. However, my very top picks would be Ziggy Stardust, Cha Cha Twist, and The Jean Genie. Which ones caught your eye?

*Product(s) in this post were provided for an honest review.*

Polished Perfection Swatches

Are you all ready for some more pretty indies? Well, it's your lucky day because I have some! These beauties are from Courtney at Polished Perfection and let me tell you, they are perfection! The colors I have to show you are six new ones that are now available on her Etsy shop!

Up first we have two coats of S.O.L. layered over OPI Flower to Flower. I liked this combo a lot; it's so fun, girly, and blingy! S.O.L. has a really interesting glitter combo... It has bar, hex, round, and diamond shaped glitters that are all really reflective. The glitter was surprisingly easy to apply as well.

Here we have Gamera over SpaRitual Twisted Vine. Gamera has a very similar composition to Grapefruit Sorbet, which you'll see later on in this post. It's packed with shimmer and has a bunch of iridescent flakies in it. I love polishes like this; they are fantastic because you can layer them and create new looks with polish that you already have.

This sparkly red beauty is called Servo. I have it layered over Zoya Carey for this swatch and I am loving this combination! I couldn't figure out what to layer Servo over at first, but the gray jumped out at me as I was scanning my polishes and I knew it would be a winner. This was two easy coats.

Tide Pool... mmmm... this is a gorgeous mix of aqua and silver glitter, as well as some silver diamond and bar glitter. I layered two coats of Tide Pool over Essie Go Overboard. Go ahead and swoon, I know you want to!

Next we have Crow, an interesting mix of black and gold glitter. You're seeing two coats here over China Glaze Life Preserver. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what to layer Crow over, but I think it looks pretty neat over this orange.

Grapefruit Sorbet is a very pretty layering polish with lots of shimmer! I have it layered here over Zoya Jana (pinky and middle) and Petra (ring and index) to show you what it looks like over both a light and dark shade. Grapefruit Sorbet also has iridescent flakes mixed it with the shimmer, giving it a really neat finish.

*Product(s) in this post were provided for my honest review.*

Rescue Beauty Lounge Piu Mosso

Mmmm another RBL! Today I have Rescue Beauty Lounge Piu Mosso for your viewing pleasure. Piu Mosso is a gorgeous deep blue with copper/red shimmer. Great formula, great wear, what else is there to say? Oh, Piu Mosso is currently sold out on rescuebeauty.com, but will be coming back in November, so mark your calendars! :P I know today's post is short, but I'll be back next week with some more indie glitter awesomeness!

OPI My Private Jet over black

This is kind of unbelievable, right? I've had this OPI My Private Jet holo for a couple months now and still kinda can't believe that I own it. I really need to wear it on it's own, but I layered it here over Zoya Raven in order to conserve as much of it as I can. I know I'll probably never run across another bottle in my lifetime! I also like that layering MPJ over black makes it seems like more of a black holo than a charcoal one.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie

I have a new-found obsession with Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes. There, I said it! Ever since I purchased and wore Aqua Lily, I have been on an insane quest to track down other precious RBLs to add to my collection. My persistence has paid off and I have managed to add 5 more RBLs to my collection, which I will be swatching and posting throughout the coming weeks. For today, we have Scrangie...

Scrangie is a stunning purple shade with intense blue/green shifting shimmer. Not only is Scrangie a gorgeous polish, but it's also named after one of my all-time favorite nail bloggers, double win! The formula here was great, though a smidge sheer, so I used three coats for this mani. I will leave you with a pretty macro shot to enjoy! :) 

Super Sweet Sonnetarium Swatch Spam!

You guys know by now that I've been taking a ride on the indie polish bandwagon recently and that that I've found some pretty incredible stuff on Etsy, but believe me when I say that these polishes from Michelle at Sonnetarium blew me away. Not only are her polishes amazing, but Michelle herself is a total sweetheart, please read on...

Samurai Princess is Michelle's take on Lynnderella Connect the Dots/Stick & Stones/whatever other dupes are out there. It will not be for sale in her shop, as she would like to avoid the drama associated with duping Lynns (understandably!!). However, a week or so ago when I was trolling the Facebook polish groups looking for CtD or S&S, Michelle kindly messaged me and asked if I'd like her to send me the dupe that she created, as well as some of the other polishes she was working on to review. Of course I said "yes, yes, yes, please!" and you will not believe how excited I was to get her package! Not only is Samurai Princess everything that I was looking for, her other polishes turned out to be INCREDIBLE. But you'll see them in a minute! First, here is two coats of SP layered over China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy. I know the photo is a little under-exposed, but I think the neon in FFF shows up a little better that way. This combo is so freaking awesome!

Up next is two coats of the beautiful Snowfall over my favorite neutral, Zoya Kennedy. I could not believe how gorgeous this was when I started applying it. It is perfectly "winter" but I can't stop myself from wanting to wear it right now! Snowfall is made up of different sizes of white hex glitter and small round iridescent glitter.

If nothing else, I love Big Girl Panties just for the name! This one consists of large black hex, black bar, silver hex, and small black and silver glitter. I have two coats of it here layered over Essie Mesmerize. This would look insane layered over a neon!

It's so hard for me to pick a favorite from these polishes, but This Land, a mix of turquoise, teal, and blue glitter, is definitely up there in the ranking! Since I've had it sitting on my desk, I've picked it up a dozen times just to spin it around and watch all the glitter sparkle in the bottle. I've layered two coats of This Land over Zoya Zuza for these photos (and I've made myself a pair of earrings with this combo already :P).

And lastly, we have Weapons of Mass Consumption, a mish mash of large, small, silver, and gold glitter. I love the name of this one too and how the glitters remind me of little silver and gold coins. I did two easy coats here over Zoya Tru. I originally was planning to layer Weapons of Mass Consumption over a gold foil, but decided the gold metallic finish would compete too much with the glitter.

Michelle will be restocking her Etsy store in mid-to-late June, so make sure you mark your calendars and check it out! I'll post a reminder on my FB/Twitter pages when she opens! :) 

*Product(s) in this post were provided for my honest review.*

Candeo Colors Joker

You guys already know that this post is going to be awesome, right? I've posted about Candeo before; basically, it's a small indie company that makes incredible glitter polishes! Candeo opens up shop every few weeks here and if you're quick enough on the re-stock, you could find yourself the owner of some of these brand new, sparkling beauties! Today I have Candeo Colors Joker to show you :)

Joker is one of the newest shades released by Candeo; it's a clear base with glitter that is both multi-sized and different shades of purple. There's also some large silver hex glitters in there as well. If you've been around my blog for a while, you've probably caught on to my love of purple, so you also probably know that I'm giving this one two thumbs up! My photos show two coats of Joker over two coats of Essie Nice is Nice. I love this combo!

F4 Polish Swatches

Today I have some more (you guessed it!) awesome indie polish swatches for you! These are from F4 Polish, which is run on Etsy by three awesome ladies. I have some really awesome glitters to show you from them, so let's get to it!

First up is S'mores and I love it! It's named after one of my very favorite summer treats and it is a totally awesome polish to boot! S'mores is made up of dark brown and golden brown glitter, as well as larger white hex glitter (the marshmallows!). I have two layers of it layered over OPI Espresso Your Style here.

I just love that F4 Polish has so many food-inspired polishes... This is Mint Chocolate Chip and can I just say that they totally nailed this one?? I prefer mint chocolate chip ice cream with chocolate flakes in it instead of chunks and this polish is a perfect match for it. I believe I did two coats here, but it may have been three. Either way, it applied easily and I had no issues with glitter placement.

Last but not least is Party in the USA, which consists of blue glitter, red hex glitter, and large diamond-shaped glitter suspended in a clear base. I haven't seen diamond glitter like this before and it is soooo cool! Here I have layered two coats of Party in the USA over two coats of Soulstice Cape Cod. I did have to fish around for some of the white diamonds, but it wasn't anything too difficult! ;)

So what do I think of F4 Polish? I think you know what I'm going to say, but I'll say it anyway: GO BUY SOME! They are awesome!! I'm completely impressed.

*Product(s) in this post were provided for my honest review.*

365 Days of Color Swatches

Good morning everyone! Today I have some more handmade polish swatches to show you, this time from a new maker, Sanaz from 365 Days of Color. The colors I have to show you today are Summer Dream and Cotton Candy, two shades that are perfect for summer!

Let's start with Summer Dream, a dreamy turquoise blue/green base with multi-colored and shaped glitter. There's hex, square, bar, and micro glitter in a myriad of different colors! What's really neat about both these polishes is that the bases are pretty opaque (I did 3 coats for each) and each layer "hides" the glitter underneath so that it ends up being really dimensional!

Cotton Candy is the same concept as Summer Dream, but with an opaque white base and pink and blue hex glitter. I loooove this! I might consider layering this one over a white base, but it was okay in three coats. It just depends on how much "sandwiching" you want for the glitter. You can check out and order 365 Days of Color polishes here on Big Cartel!

*Product(s) in this post were provided for my honest review.*

The Hungry Asian Swatch Spam!

Hiiiiii guys! Today I have some awesome swatches for you from an Etsy seller called The Hungry Asian! :) The founder of The Hungry Asian polishes, Kae, was kind enough to send me some of her beauties to review for you all! Let's start, shall we? First up is Sneeze Breeze, a very unique and original polish consisting of blue and black glitter. I used two coats here over Zoya Robyn; it does get a little rough, so make sure you have a good top coat to even it all out (I used Seche Vite for all of these).

Next is Vote for Purple, an awesome purple and silver glitter. Here I have it layered over Zoya Kendal and I was seriously not expecting to like this as much as I do! I love the mix of the really tiny glitter and the larger glitter pieces. Vote for Purple is really shimmery!

Pony really impressed me as well. Duh, it's a purple! It's a mix of different shades of purple but the glitter appears to be all the same size. I layered Pony over Zoya Mira, but I think it would look really awesome over a white or a light purple, or even a yellow, as well!

Sea Creature is my favorite of the bunch! I layered it over Essie Go Overboard for this mani and it completely won me over. It spread out perfectly and wasn't all that gritty; top coat smoothed it out completely. I really don't have any teal glitters, so I'm really excited to add Sea Creature to my collection!

Last but not least is Twenty Ten, which is comprised of red and blue glitter in a black jelly base. I layered it over an opaque black cream because I'm not totally on the jelly-train yet :P I really, really am a fan of this one too. I don't usually like wearing black polish very often, but this is such a cool twist on black! All in all, I would strongly recommend that you go and check out The Hungry Asian and get at least one to try! Would you like the link again for easy clicking? Here you go!

*Product(s) in this post were provided by the company for my honest review.*

Sally Hansen Calypso Blue

This polish always caught my attention in stores, but every time, I convinced myself that I had too many blues as it was and that I didn't need another. I was wrong on two counts: 1) You can never have enough blue polish and 2) Calypso Blue was one that I needed!

  
Calypso Blue is a gorgeous ocean blue polish with a flash of green shimmer within it. I used three coats here and I was able to do them very quickly thanks to the wide brush in the Complete Salon Manicure bottles. I decided to do some quirky nail art with the SH nail art pen that I also received. I love these pens; they make freehand designs so much cleaner and easier to accomplish. I had two issues with this one: it was a little thin, I should have gone over a couple spots a second time to get better coverage and it cracked in a few places. I'm not sure if this is a result of something I did wrong or if it was a defect with the polish in the pen, but regardless, the pens are useful little tools for anyone who is interested in creating their own nail art and I will definitely keep using them. 

*The product(s) in this post were provided by the company mentioned for my honest review.*

Spongebob Squarepants Bikini Bottom Mani

Confession: I'm a giant child and I still watch Spongebob Squarepants by choice and I loooooove it (I know it's mindless garbage, don't judge me!). I've had the idea for this mani for a long time now and I finally just sat down and did it over the weekend. I'm really happy with how it turned out :D

I started out with two coats of Zoya Wednesday and sponged RBL Aqua Lily and CND Anchor Blue to make the underwater gradient. I freehanded the flowery shapes with a small nail art brush using China Glaze Lemon Fizz, Zoya Lotus, Shelby, and Arizona. My gradient looks smoother in person than in the photos, but that's really my only complaint with this one! 

Here is the image I looked at for inspiration (quality is crappy, sorry!):