Review: Born Pretty Store Rhinestones

*press sample*

Hello lovelies!

A couple months ago I was kindly contacted by Born Pretty Store to review a few products of my choice! I had been eyeing some studs so I happily accepted! Here are a couple of quick and easy looks that I did!

The blinged out accent finger is something I had wanted to do for a long time but didn't have the rhinestones to do it! I used Zoya Hudson for the base coat on these and used a pair of nail art tweezers to set each rhinestone where I wanted. I was impressed with how well these stayed on!

I love that that the first set of rhinestones came with a whole rainbow of colors! I used the clear ones for this look but the options are endless when you have so many options! I chose the smallest size which is 1.5mm.You can purchase the same wheel by clicking here.

The 2nd set of rhinestones I purchased are the swarovski style and they really are what makes the nail so blingy! These are the 2.5mm size but I really want to add some smaller ones to my collection as well. Although it only came with 20, these can easily be reused! You can get these by clicking here.

If you place an order be sure to use code WBX31 for 10% off!

I have a couple more fun nail art goodies to share with you so keep a look out!

xo

Brittany Raquel

*These polishes were provided to me in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*

I Love Nail Polish Army Surplus

Hello lovelies!

I hope the month is treating you well! We have been super lucky in the Pacific Northwest, we have had so much sun! The last month has been ridiculous especially since this time of the year generally means lots of rain. We had some rain over the weekend which was actually really nice and the sun appears to be back again, yay!

Anyways I just wanted to pop in real quick and share this awesome polish from I Love Nail Polish! Army Surplus is described as:

an amazing army / forest green colored holographic nail polish. It's like a sparkle grenade went off in here!

Shown is 2 coats of Army Surplus over Duri Rejuvacote and topped with HK Girl. Application was great! The holo in this is not super super strong but definitely still has a visible linear shift. The only downside is that this color seems to have been discontinued! ILNP has a great lineup of holos but I really think this was a unique one that should have stuck around! I am so glad that I got my hands on it while I could!

xo

Brittany Raquel

Color Club Twiggie

*purchased by me*

Hello lovelies!

It's that time again where I get to show you an awesome nail polish! I don't own many colors from Color Club, as a matter of fact this is the only one I own aside from a few of their holos! I had my eye on Twiggie for months so when I saw it in a blog sale (hence the bottom sticker) I had to swoop it up!

Color Club Twiggie is described as a "retro shade of green". There is so much win in this color for me! I think it could be considered a mint green and it's also nearly neon! Check it out!

Shown is 2 coats of Twiggie over Duri Rejuvacote and topped with HK Girl. I read some reviews that said the formula was bad, but I had no issues at all! There was no streaking and two thin coats was perfect! I fell in love instantly and got tons of comments on this polish, it's a hard one to overlook!

What are some of your favorite Color Club colors? Thanks for stopping by!

xo

Brittany Raquel

Review: Aly's Dream Polish

*press sample*

Hello lovelies!

So back in April I got a surprise package. I hadn't ordered nail polish for a while so it completely threw me off. I opened it up and was shocked to find 4 beautiful polishes sent to me to review from Aly's Dream Polish! I had put in a blogger application months ago and didn't hear back at all so this package was a complete surprise! I was having a horrible day when it arrived too so it was quite serendipitous that it arrived when it did!

I had intended to post this review much sooner so I wanted to apologize to Aly and to all of you for not sharing these pretties sooner! Let's get on with it, shall we?!

A quick note-all swatches are shown with Duri Rejuvacote for the base and 2 coats of polish. No top coat was used.

First up is Garnet Dreams from the DreamStone Collection. Unfortunately this was a very limited edition polish and it is sold out so I apologize for teasing you with pics of this beauty! Garnet Dreams is described as:

a dark gray holographic polish with a flirtatious red flash of shimmer

I love love love this color so much! It applied beautifully and dried quickly. This is such a stunner and quite a unique shade as well. I don't own anything like this and am so happy to have it in my collection!

Next we have Malachite which sadly I no longer see anywhere on the website, but hopefully it will make a come back because it is gorgeous! Malachite can be best described as:

a deep, kelly green polish with scattered holo

This green!!! A perfect shade of deep green and the scattered holo adds so much depth! It's fitting as well since Malachite is one of my favorite stones! Loving this! Application was just as perfect as I have come to expect from Aly's Dream Polish!

Next up is Ocean which can be best described as:

a teal blue polish with scattered holo

If I could properly describe the beauty of the ocean that would be the description for this. This blue reminds me of shimmering waters and really has me dreaming of the perfect beach vacation! Application was pure perfection and again this is such a perfect color for me! Aly did an amazing job picking out colors that I would like, these are all outstanding!

Last but not least I was also sent Invite Diamond which is a top coat from the Ballad of Serenity Collection. Invite Diamond is described as:

a scatter Holographic Top Coat polish /This lovely top coat polish contains 3 different types and sizes of cosmetic holographic pigment and 5 different types of holographic glitters

Shown is 1 thin coat of Invite Diamond over Malachite, Ocean and Garnet Dreams and on my ring finger I used 3 thin coats alone for full coverage. I love that the thin coats still allow the base color to come through while adding extra oomph! And even alone it is so gorgeous and really easy to build up to get full coverage! And not super chunky and textured feeling either!

Overall I am super super thrilled with this package! I was already a fan of Aly's Dream Polish and I am even more so now! I will absolutely be using all of these colors again in the future! A huge thank you to Aly for picking out these pretties for me and providing them to me for this review! This is just a small sampling of what Aly has to offer, be sure to check out her store here:

Aly's Dream Polish Webstore

And you can keep up with all Aly Deam Polish happenings here:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Do you own any polish from Aly's Dream Polish already? What are your favorites?

xo

Brittany Raquel

*These polishes were provided to me in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*

Cult Nails Grunge

*purchased by me*

Hello lovelies!

Great timing for me to share this mani with you, I just saw that Cult Nails is having a 50% off sale this weekend to celebrate reaching 100K likes on Facebook! I may have to pick up a couple for myself!

Cult Nails Grunge is described as:

the perfect military green creme that is blended with just the right amount of femininity

Shown is 2 coats of Grunge over Duri Rejuvacote and topped with HK Girl. I probably could have gotten away with 1 coat! Application was a breeze and little to no clean up was needed. I have had a hard time in the past finding a good shade of military green that doesn't clash with my skin tone and I think that I finally found it! I love this muted shade and it is definitely one I will wear again!

xo

Brittany Raquel

Emily de Molly Soon

*purchased by me*

Hello lovelies!

I figured I should take a break from editing photos and share a quick mani with you! No joke, I have at least 20 different manis that I still need to share! Why can't photos crop and watermark themselves?!

Emily de Molly Soon is described as:

Gray creme with lime, pink, purple and blue glitter

Shown is 2 coats of Soon over Duri Rejuvacote and topped with HK Girl. Application was great which was impressive considering the glitter density! I love that I didn't have to fish around or have to place glitter!

xo

Brittany Raquel

Review: Spring 2014 Zoya Magical Pixies

*press sample*

Hello lovelies!

I finally have my review of Zoya's new PixieDust polishes for Spring 2014: the Magical Pixies! These are a new take on the classic Pixies, they still have a textured finish but have been amped up with larger hex glitters and holographic glitter. See for yourself! (all photos are shown with 2 coats over Duri Rejuvacote and no top coat)

First we have Cosmo which is described as:

a silver crystal sparkle, textured PixieDust with mega hex iridescent particles

Next is Lux which is described as:

a rose quartz sparkle textured PixieDust with mega hex iridescent particles

And the final color is Vega which is described as:

a blue opal sparkle, textured PixieDust with mega hex iridescent particles

I have to admit I was not that excited about these at first. I thought the texture might be too much and assumed that application and removal would be a pain. But I was wrong! Application was great and required little to no clean up. Removal was also much easier than I expected. And even more of a surprise was how much I actually loved this super textured and blingy look! Cosmo is the big winner for me as it is more versatile and I could see myself wearing it to some type of an event! Now I am even more excited about the Summer colors that are being released!

You can purchase the new Zoya Magical Pixies for $10 each here:

Zoya Website

And also be sure to check out the following links to keep up with everything Zoya:

Facebook

Blog

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram

YouTube

Have you tried any of the new Pixies yet? What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

xo

Brittany Raquel

*These polishes were provided to me in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*

Pahlish Blood of the Mountain

*purchased by me*

Hello lovelies!

I have a quick post for you today featuring a gorgeous polish from one of my favorite indie brands!

Pahlish Blood of the Mountain is described as:

Garnet red holographic with gold and pink metallic microflakes

Shown is 2 coats of Blood of the Mountain over Duri Rejuvacote and topped with HK Girl. I don't tend to wear these type of shades but the addition of the microflakes just did it for me! I kept seeing photos and knew I had to have it! The holo is a bit stronger than what I was able to capture here. Flawless application as well! Another winner from Pahlish!

xo

Brittany Raquel

Review: Zoya Spring 2014 Awaken Collection & Monet

Hello lovelies!

*Press Sample*

I am super behind on this review but hey it's still Spring, right?! And the Summer collection has not arrived yet so I'm not THAT behind! ;)

I love spring time! Rain showers, leaves returning, flowers blooming, birds chirping, more daylight...it just all makes me so happy! And of course I love Spring nail polish collections! Zoya's Awaken Collection has some beautiful colors that are so perfect for this time of the year, and honestly many of them I would wear all year round! Let's get to the swatches and at the end I will share my attempt at some nail art using these beauties as well! :)

All swatches are shown with 2 coats over Duri Rejuvacote, no top coat.

First up is Dot which is described as:

a full-coverage pink petal cream

Application was perfect! Zoya has such a great cream formula! I actually really like this light shade of pink too, so subtle and girly!

Next we have Cole which is described as:

a full-coverage peach whisper cream

Another perfect Zoya cream! It was hard to capture this shade accurately, it's definitely in between the 2 I captured here. It reminds me so much of orange sherbet! I love it!

Next up is Brooklyn which is described as:

a full-coverage, white-gold shimmer metallic

Application was a bit tricky and even though it has such a lovely molten gold effect I have a hard time with the brushstrokes. I should note that the spots on my pinky and ring were no fault of the polish, I'm pretty sure I had a piece of fuzz that got stuck in the base coat. I really did like this shade of gold on me but I won't wear again due to application.

Next we have Dillon which is described as:

a full-coverage, green mint metallic with a silver shimmer

I'm sure it's no surprise that this was one of my favorites of the bunch! I can never have too many minty greens! Application was great as well even though the shimmery particles were a little more difficult to clean up.

Next is Rebel which is described as:

a full-coverage blue sky metallic with a silver shimmer

Another instant favorite! I have really been loving these sky blue shades lately! Application was also great and not much clean up was needed.

Now for the last of the metallics we have Hudson which is described as:

a full-coverage, purple orchid metallic with a silver shimmer

Another really gorgeous metallic! Same application as the last 2, the 3 of them make a lovely trio!

Zoya also created a Special Effects Topper for Spring, Monet is described as:

a multi-colored, cellophane holographic special effect topper

I wasn't sure how I would feel about it but I actually really love this topper over the creams! It gives it a nice touch without being over the top. It kind of has a princess-y feel to it and I adore it!

Before I go I did promise to share some nail art that I did to test out some of these. I am very much a newbie when it comes to nail art but I had fun with it and do love how well these shades go together!

Next time I will be sure to let my base coat dry completely before using nail vinyls and striping tape! I had never done any sponging or a dotticure before so I had fun playing around with those ideas and am excited to do some more in the future!

Do you have any of the Zoya Awaken Collection or Monet yet? If you would like to own them you can purchase them for $9 each (Monet is $10) here:

Zoya Website

And also be sure to check out the following links to keep up with everything Zoya:

Facebook

Blog

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram

YouTube

What are your thoughts on this collection? Any favorites? Also do you have any nail art tips or tricks for beginners? Let me know in the comments!

xo

Brittany Raquel

*These polishes were provided to me in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*