My Top Five Favorite Fall Polishes

I know we're still a few weeks out from it being "technically" autumn, but lately I've been so in the mood for fall colors that I decided to put this post together. These are my top five absolute favorite polishes to wear during the fall. I do have a lot of other shades that I enjoy wearing around this time, but I find myself reaching for these five very frequently every year.

OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest is a super dark, super shimmery blackened shade of garnet. The formula on my bottle is incredible and covers great in two coats.

Essie Very Structured is kind of my "wild card"; I never expected to like this dark pumpkin spice shade, but I actually love it! I'm wearing two coats.

A England Dorian Grey is an absolutely stunning gunmetal grey metallic. Two easy coats are all you need.

Zoya Monica is a stunning aubergine crème. I have such a thing for purples and I wear this all the time, fall or not. The formula is fantastic and it covers perfectly in two coats.

A England Tess D'Urberville is one of my all time favorite shades. This deep, dark shimmery green is absolutely breathtaking! I'm wearing two coats.

What's your favorite fall polish? Did it make my list?

KBShimmer Men Are From Mars-ala Swatch & Review

In case you are living under a rock (or are like me and just don't care), Pantone released their Color of the Year for 2015 and it's... marsala. Marsala is apparently a reddish brownish wine shade that I definitely am more into than the orchid shade they picked for 2014. KBShimmer created a wonderful representation of the Color of the Year with their new shade Men Are From Mars-ala.

Men Are From Mars-ala is a gorgeous red-brown holographic polish. As always, the formula was perfect and I got excellent coverage in two coats. KBShimmer never disappoints! This shade is available now, so check out KBShimmer's website!

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 11: Glittery Reindeer Nail Art

Happy Christmas Eve everyone! I hope you have all of your affairs in order and are all having a wonderful day. I'm working until 1 o'clock and then heading over to our annual family Christmas Eve party later tonight and I can't wait! This is my absolute favorite time of the year. Anyway, these nails were inspired by my obsession with glittery reindeer this season. I know it's weird, but I can't help it! I'm hoping to pick up a couple on sale after Christmas. ;)

I used Zoya Godiva on my pointer and ring nails and plain black on my pinky and middle nails. I wish Godiva had photographed the way it looks in real life; it's so sparkly but it doesn't translate at all in the photos! I used Godiva to paint my little reindeer as well and finished him off with a China Glaze Just BeClaws nose. I also did some Just BeClaws dots on the rest of my nails to tie the look together.

See you tomorrow for the last day of the Twelve Days of Christmas nail art series!!

China Glaze Twinkle Collection Swatches & Review

Good morning! I have an absolutely lovely winter collection to share with you today, the Twinkle collection from China Glaze. Winter collections are often hit or miss for me and I'm glad to report that this one is a hit!

I'd Melt for You is a beautiful silver chrome. Be careful with brush strokes on this one, but two coats covers well if you're careful. This is also great for stamping!

Tip Your Hat is a bright festive red. I'm wearing two coats.

Chillin' With My Snow-mies has different sizes of white hexagon glitter in a clear base. Too much base, not enough glitter. I love how this looks but I had to pretty much dig out each of these glitters and place it on the nails. I'm wearing it over Tip Your Hat.

A December to Remember is a turquoise-leaning blue metallic with pink micro glitter. This is two coats.

Define Good... is a rich red shimmer with a hint of pink. I know I normally hate reds, but I do love this type. It just glows! This is two coats.

Dancing & Prancing is a beautiful confetti glitter. I'm wearing one coat over Define Good... and I love this combination.

Out Like a Light is a muted deep teal. I absolutely love this shade! This is two coats and the formula was great.

De-Light is a golden glitter topper with silver bar glitter. This is two coat over Out Like a Light.

Feeling Twinkly is an icy blue glitter topper. I'm wearing two coats with no base; this would probably cover pretty well in three or four coats.

Meet Me Under the Stars is so stunning! This is a super dark blackish blue with tons of glitter. I'm wearing two coats.

Pine-ing for Glitter is a glitter topper in a unique green shade. This is two coats over no base.

No Peeking! is a silvery purple almost metallic shade. I had a little bit of an issue with brush strokes here, so be careful. This is two coats.

There's a lot of winners in this group, but I have to say my favorites are Meet Me Under the Stars and Define Good... How about you? Are any of these shades on your wish list? You can get yourself this collection anywhere that China Glaze is sold.

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 9: Festive Negative Space Nail Art

I've seen this "negative space" nail art popping up a lot recently and thought I would give it a try with a holiday twist. I wasn't sure how I felt about them before I tried one, but it turns out that I really love them! I might even wind up wearing this as my actual Christmas manicure.

To create this design, I applied one coat of KBShimmer Basic Training base coat and let it dry completely. Once that was done, I used KBShimmer straight nail vinyls to block off the parts where I wanted my natural nail to show through and painted Zoya Ziv near the cuticles, China Glaze Jolly Holly in the center, and China Glaze Cranberry Splash near the tips (can you tell that those are my absolute favorite holiday polish shades?).

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 3: Red & Green Snowflake Gradient Nail Art

Hello hello and happy Friday! I'm so excited that it's almost the weekend! I've got a lot of relaxing and crocheting to do the next few days. ;) Anyway, for today's nail art I decided I wanted to try some stamped snowflakes over a gradient. I debated a bit on the colors for the gradient but ultimately went with red and green to keep it festive instead of just wintery. I'll probably do some winter gradient snowflakes at some point, so don't fret.

I used Zoya Evvie, Hunter and China Glaze Jolly Holly for the green gradient, although Hunter doesn't show up that well as the middle color. I used OPI Coca Cola Red and China Glaze Tip Your Hat and Cranberry Splash for the red gradient. Once those were all done and dry, I stamped over each gradient using snowflakes from Born Pretty plates QA57 and QA58 and Konad special white stamping polish.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out but I wish the three colors in the gradients would have stood out more. I just don't have that many shade options in green and red!

SquareHue December Box Review & Swatches

This month's SquareHue box was inspired by the Finnish town of Rovaniemi, which is supposedly the hometown of Santa Claus. Not surprisingly, the three shades in this box are Christmas-themed!

Joulupukin Pajakyla is a beautiful ruby red with a stunning red shimmer. Great formula and coverage in two easy coats.

Sampokeskus is a textured straw gold with glitter. It dries more matte than textured, but still very pretty. This first picture is two coats with no top coat and the second is with one coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Revontuli is my favorite color in the trio, but had the worst formula. It dries to a pretty suede finish, but the formula is thick and doesn't even itself out. I like it best with top coat, as seen in the second photo. It has so much dimension when it's shiny! This is two coats.

Are you digging these shades? I have to say that I love them even though the formula was a bit lacking this month.  You can sign up for your own SquareHue box by visiting their website, www.squarehue.com!

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 2: Candy Cane Nail Art

I did candy cane nails two or three years ago and remember being so disappointed in how they turned out, so I decided to revisit them this year! I'm happy to say that I'm much more pleased with how these turned out! I decided to stamp them instead of trying to use tape and I'm way, way happier with them.

I used China Glaze With Love as my base color and stamped over it using a wavy stripe pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM-207 and Konad Special White polish. I topped everything with a coat of Zoya Sparkle Gloss and KBShimmer Clearly on Top and called it a day! I'm always surprised at how vividly the Konad white polish stamps over colors, but I guess that's what it was made for.

Are you all decorated for the holidays? We have our annual ugly sweater party coming up next weekend so I've been decorating for a while trying to get the house perfect!

Dotted Thanksgiving/Autumn Nail Art

I know, I know, it's not Thanksgiving yet, but this is what I will actually be wearing on my nails for tomorrow. I do have something adorable ready for tomorrow's post, but they aren't what I actually went with for my Thanksgiving nail art so I wanted to post these today. I've been loving dotted designs lately, so I figured I would try one with some autumnal colors!

I started out with a base of my favorite neutral, OPI My Vampire is Buff. I used a medium sized dotting tool to create half moon shapes with China Glaze Harvest Moon and then another half moon shape inside of the first ones with SquareHue Crown Street. To finish the design, I dotted Zoya Ziv with a tiny dotting tool inside the larger dotted arches and applied my top coat.

I love dotted nail art because it looks so intricate but is so simple to create! What are you wearing on your nails for Thanksgiving?

Cirque Metropolis December 2014 Release Swatches & Review

Good morning everyone! Today I have the latest release of the ongoing Cirque Metropolis collection, two beautiful creme shades. These polishes both have outstanding formulas and great coverage!

The Devil Wears Cirque is a medium red creme, perfect for the holidays! This is two easy coats.

Tavern on the Teal is a fabulous medium teal shade that leans a bit to the green side to my eye. I'm wearing two coats here.

You can purchase these shades directly from Cirque beginning on December 1st  (www.cirquecolors.com/) or you can visit their stockists page (www.cirquecolors.com/stockists) for a full list of brick and mortar and online sellers.

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

China Glaze All Aboard Collection Swatches & Review

Hello! This morning I have the China Glaze All Aboard collection from fall to share. I'm going to go ahead and spoil it, but this collection is so awesome! I feel like I do usually like fall collections, but this one is so diverse and excellent that I absolutely love it!

Nice Caboose! is a warm magenta with lovely shimmer. I'm wearing two coats and the formula was fabulous.

Conduct Yourself is a burgundy shade with almost non-existent hidden shimmer. I love this color, but this would have been a knock out if the shimmer was more noticeable on the nail! This is two coats.

What Are You A-Freight Of? is one of my favorite types of colors, a grungy grayed out purple. This is two easy coats.

Well Trained is a fabulous muted teal that covered great in two coats.

All Aboard is a medium purple with a slight bit of gray in it to make it more muted and wearable for fall. I'm wearing two coats.

Stop That Train! is a stunning orangey red metallic with golden shimmer. I have two coats on here, but I didn't let that middle nail dry long enough before I applied top coat, so ignore that!

One Track Mind is a beautiful navy blue shade. It had a great formula as well and covered well in two coats.

Loco-Motive is a glitter topper with silvery shimmer and light pink glitter. This is one coat over One Track Mind.

Mind the Gap is easily my least favorite of the bunch, although it is unique so it gets some points for that. This icky olive green has some pretty shimmer, but the formula is lacking a bit and I needed three coats for what you see here.

Choo-Choo Choose You is a very pretty shade with gold to green duochrome shimmer in a navyish base. This one has a slightly sheer formula as well; I went with two coats here but would do a third if I was going to wear this as a full mani since I like my polishes opaque.

Lug Your Designer Baggage is such an interesting shade! This slightly-grayed brown has golden flakes and shimmer in it and was perfectly opaque in two coats.

Don't Get Derailed is an awesome muted olivey army green shade. I love greens like this and I feel like we don't see them that much so it's great to have this in my collection! This is two easy coats.

The All Aboard collection is available wherever China Glaze is sold and should still be available now. My top picks are Don't Get Derailed, Stop That Train!, and What Are You A-Freight Of?. Which ones are you loving? Did you pick any up already?

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

SquareHue September 2014 Box Swaches & Review

Good morning! I hope you guys had a great weekend! I started getting my Christmas decorations out, so that was fun. :X I know a lot of people get bent out of shape about decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving but it's my favorite holiday and I can't help myself! But anyway, I have the SquareHue September box to share with you today. The theme is Sydney and these three shades are stunning!

King Street is a dark brick shade that has a fantastic formula. This is two coats.

Oxford Street is a warm golden orange shimmer polish. Two coats here.

Crown Street is a stunning burnt orange shade with gold shimmer. Absolutely perfect for your Thanksgiving mani! I'm wearing two coats.

If you aren't familiar, SquareHue is a subscription service that sends you three gorgeous nail polishes each month for $19.99 shipped. These shades are all 5-free, made in the United States, and not tested on animals. Plus, SquareHue donates a portion of every monthly subscription cost to a great cause: the awareness and prevention of human trafficking.

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.