Illamasqua Viridian Swatch and Review & Half Moon Heart Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have a swatch and review of Illamasqua Viridian and some nail art on top to share!

Hey guys, how are you doing? I'm a little nervous and very curious to get my organic chem midterm back today! They are only worth 10% so I'll try not to beat myself up if I don't do super well! Every time I finish a midterm in that class I tell myself I have to start studying sooner than the night before for the next one but it never happens! :P

If you follow me on Instagram you'll know I actually painted and wore these nails about two weeks ago, but I got a bit ahead of myself and kept not posting them. So here they are today! Because these are older pictures they were just automatically white balanced after being taken (not custom white balanced in my light box prior to being taken) so they might be a little off. I'll take a little off any day when I look back at how off my white balance has been!

I remember wearing just one coat of Viridian the first time I wore it, but this time I wore two coats and a coat of top coat! It had a perfect formula and consistency and it seemed to dry quickly! I really love this polish and I've since bought another Illamasqua polish because of it (Facet if you're wondering)! Props to my friend Sarah for buying me this lovely and making me want a ton more! ;)

I think this polish is prettier and glowier than it looks in these pictures, too bad my light box is where pretty shimmer and glitter go to die!

Another thing I love about Illamasqua polishes are their bottles! They look so classy and ritzy. I also quite like the brush that they come with, it made application very easy!

Now for the nail art! Using the bottle from the brush, I painted heart-like shapes in Zoya Kristen over my base. I was going to go in with another heart shape with another polish, but I decided I really liked these as is!

Kristen is a grey blue hybrid and it can lean one way more than the other depending on what you pair it with. It looks colour-accurate here, but I did feel like it looked more grey next to the green in real life!

What do you guys think of these nails? They're super quick to do but really interesting to look at. I think they look quite chic! Also, does anyone know the proper term for these? I've called them half moon hearts in my title because I have no idea haha!

Thanks so much for reading everyone, I hope you're all having a lovely start to the week! I'll be back soon with a super bright pink polish (Rainbow Honey Apple Kid) and some nail art on top! Happy Tuesday! =)

Above the Curve Valentine's Collection Swatches and Review: UPDATED!

Hey everyone! Today I have swatches of the Above the Curve Valentine's Collection to share!*

I'm just going to start off by saying these all had perfect formulas and consistencies (apart from a little glitter settling) so I don't have to repeat myself throughout this post! Another thing I really love about this collection is that Shawn and Angel (the makers) didn't include a pink (because I don't really like pink on myself and it's my least favourite colour). Purples, plums and browns are definitely more my thing! I loved each and every one of these and didn't want to take them off as I was swatching, but stay tuned to find out my favourite!

UPDATE: I found an easy way to white balance my pictures using GIMP (a free photo editing program) so most of these pictures are now white balanced (it made the Sun and flash pictures worse)!

First up is All You Need is Love! Wine, a lovely plum-coloured polish with holographic microglitter and a bunch of different sized and coloured glitters!

What you see here is two easy coats and a coat of topcoat! I probably got less glitter on my nails than I would have from a perfectly mixed bottle but I love the look of it this way! I think it's harder for glitters to redistribute in small bottles because of the brush and mixing balls in the way!

This is my favourite from this collection! I'd love to know your guys' favourites in the comments!

Here's a shot of this baby in the Sun! Check out all the holographic glitter! Are you guys as in love with this as I am?

Next up is Circle of Love, a clear-based glitter polish with metallic pink and holographic silver microglitter and a bunch of circle and heart-shaped glitters in different sizes, colours and finishes!

This is one thick and dabbed coat of Circle of Love over one coat of American Apparel Mount Royal! Now that there is a bit of product gone from the bottle I think it will be easier to redistribute the glitters when I use this again! Even still, I managed to get quite a bunch of glitter on my nails including some of the hearts!

I was very tempted to keep this one on but I think I have to go on a bit of a glitter strike. Even when I use the foil method and have three or so coats of polish under a glitter topper my nails end up peeling where the glitters were! Then I have to buff my nails smooth and I've been buffing them probably more than is good for them. It's really frustrating, I wonder if I should go on a Nail Envy break and use it as directed for a few weeks. Do you guys have any advice for me? Let me know!

Next up is You Java Me Crazy (love the name!), a warm brown holographic polish!

You know what I said earlier about my peeling nails? Even after buffing them you can see what I mean in these pictures! Since this polish was so opaque (I only used one coat and a coat of top coat) you can really see the places my nails are peeling. Anyway, my peeling nails aside haha, this polish is another lovely Above the Curve one-coater brown polish like Friday the 13th, so naturally I love it!

Unfortunately the Sun went down before swatching these last few polishes so a flash picture and a picture above my light box is the best I could do!

Lastly, we have Truly Madly Deeply, a metallic and holographic warm-toned purple polish! I am actually wearing this right now (as I often do with one polish per swatch fest) and it's definitely unlike anything I own which I love! I've been trying to get a picture of this in the Sun all day but it only came out once and I missed my chance! I hope it comes out again, if so I'll post the picture on my Instagram!

What you see here is two easy coats and a coat of top coat, it was very easy to work with like the rest of this collection!

You can't see the holo effect too well here, but you can see it's metallic aspect!

Thank you so much for reading everyone! What do you think of these polishes? I think you could wear them year-round and that they're gorgeous! Happy Friday everyone!

*These polishes were provided in exchange for my honest review.

Black Sheep Lacquer Lips Like Sugar and Valentine's/anti-Valentine's Day Nail Art!

Hey-lo my lovely readers! Today I have a gorgeous Black Sheep Lacquer thermal called Lips Like Sugar to share, as well as some Valentine's/anti-Valentine's day nail art!

I've been getting increasingly excited about my upcoming giveaway! It's kind of funny because it seems like I was steadily gaining followers on Tumblr until I mentioned that once I reached 150 I would launch my giveaway haha! I'm now at 149 and I'm so dang excited to launch this giveaway so if you have a Tumblr and you'd like to follow me (link here) I'd be so happy! Anyways, onto the nails and buttload of pictures!

Lips Like Sugar is a shimmer-stuffed sheer light pink thermal polish that turns a dark coral colour when cold! I think my hands/fingers are so warm that the polish doesn't even look very pink when I'm at my normal temperature, it looks more like a nude colour which I love!

The formula on this polish was amazing just like all of the other Black Sheep Lacquer polishes I've been reviewing lately! It dried really fast and had a perfect consistency! What you see here is three easy coats and no top coat!

My camera cannot handle taking pictures of reds or corals, it freaks out! Does anyone have any tips on photographing red polishes? I'd love to know!

The shimmer really comes to life and appears gold when this baby gets cold!

I then decided to put some matte sweethearts on top with a mix of nice and not so nice sayings! These were inspired by these nails by Fab Fatale and these nails by Petite Marine! After I painted the hearts on and let them dry, I painted a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy over just the hearts (not the Lips Like Sugar base).

The polishes I used here were: Julep Blake (yellow), American Apparel Office (green), Color Club Take Me to Your Chateau (blue), OPI You're Such a Budapest (purple), OPI Mod About You (pink) and OPI Lost on Lombard (red).

I couldn't be bothered to matteify the red letters, and that's why I decided to just make the hearts matte. Red polishes seem to smear on me no matter how long I allow them to dry and no matter the top coat, so I left the words/symbols slightly shiny!

I think the heart shapes came out better on my left hand, but funnily enough, I think the writing on my right hand looks better! I can't for the life of me write with my left hand, but apparently I can paint letters/symbols with it? So strange!

I'd love to know what you lovely people think of these in the comments! I quite like them, they're a bit girlier than I'm used to but I'm loving the sheer nude base with nail art on top! You may see some more manis like this in the future!

Yesterday my boyfriend gave me twenty dollars to buy something for me and something for him, so I picked up OPI Muir Muir on the Wall and bought him a mini grater and a knork(knife and fork combined)/spoon (does anyone get the Clone High reference? The knork episode? I LOVE that show). So that's what we did for Valentine's day! Do/did you guys have any plans for Valentine's day?

Thank you so much for taking a look everyone! Let me know what you think of these manis and whatever else you'd like to tell me in the comments! :)

Rainbow Honey I Miss You over OPI Lost On Lombard!

Hey everyone! Today I have a swatch of OPI Lost On Lombard and Rainbow Honey I Miss You to share!

I went on a small shopping spree yesterday and (finally) spent some of the money I got for my birthday! I picked up some leggings, a cardigan, a polish (Lost On Lombard) and an Avojuice lotion! I've since spent the rest of my birthday money online on another cardigan and some comfy pants and I can't wait until they get here! I have a sweater and cardigan obsession in case you didn't know! :P

I'm really loving the Avojuice lotion by the way guys, I've heard really good things about it and they're all true! It soaks in incredibly fast and they have super festive holiday scents such as Holly Berry, the one I picked up yesterday!

Onto the nails! All I did was two easy coats of OPI Lost On Lombard and a coat and some dabs of Rainbow Honey I Miss You!

How cute is I Miss You? I think it would look even cooler over a black because there would be even more of a contrast of pastel and dark!

Also, what do you guys think of me putting a square version of the picture I'm going to Instagram instead of the original pictures in my posts? I kind of love the whole square picture thing because they show up bigger than normal-sized pictures! I might like to try using all square pictures so they're bigger and all Instagram friendly!

What have you guys been up to lately, done any shopping for yourselves or just for others? Thanks so much for reading guys! :)