Love Month. Day 17: Pink & Gold Chevrons.

Hi friends!

I am so sorry. This post was supposed to go up yesterday. I thought I'd have time earlier today to get a post up, but my fiancé and I ended up spending the whole day getting wedding things done! I'm really glad that we were able to do that, though. :)

Today will be a quick post to show you a manicure from about two weeks ago that I didn't share here! I can't believe I didn't, because I really loved this mani.

For this manicure I used OPI's Mod About You - one of my all time favourite pink polishes. 

I paired that with a chevron accent nail using China Glaze's I'm Not Lion, a gold holographic glitter. I have a picture tutorial on how to do a chevron nail here, but I actually used a different method for this manicure which is a bit less time consuming. Nailsofjessiek on Instagram has a video tutorial for the method I used, which you can see here. I find this way to be a bit easier & less time consuming.

Hope you enjoyed. :) ♥ Hopefully I will be able to get back on track with my posts tomorrow.

Born Pretty Store Neon Stud Wheel {Review}

Hi lovelies! Today I have a nail art product to show you from Born Pretty Store that is perfect for summer. We've been experiencing a few days of cooler {but still warm} weather the past few days, and it has been so nice. I love when the weather is sunny and warm, but not hot, in the day time, and then cool, but not too cold, in the evening. Perfect. But we're about to have a heat wave here, so there goes that!
Anyway, let's get into the nail art!

I received this nail wheel including 400 x 2mm neon coloured studs ($4.19 USD) from Born Pretty Store to show you guys. You get purple, green, yellow, orange, blue & pink studs, in both square and round shapes.

I've only used studs on my nails a couple of times, so I definitely would not call myself an expert. You can apply them by picking a stud up with tweezers and placing on your nail while your polish is still wet, and then add a top coat over or around the stud, or you can apply them with nail glue after your polish is dry.
I have tried to apply studs on my nail with top coat before and they only lasted an hour or two before falling off, but I don't have any nail glue handy at the moment so I applied them with top coat for the review. I painted my nails a few different neon colours, and white, to go with the studs. I think they'd also look cool over a black manicure.

The colours I've used are China Glaze That's Shore Bright, Highlight of My Summer, Bottoms Up and Too Yacht to Handle {all from the Sunsational Collection from 2013} and Ulta3 Lily White.
You can get 10% off your Born Pretty order if you use the code CAL91 at checkout. They also have free worldwide shipping.

What do you think of these neon studs? I think they are so fun!

*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review.  For more info please read my Disclosure Policy*

Cyrene Lovette Lacquers {Swatches & Review}

Cyrene Lovette Lacquers is a new indie brand in the US, being manufactured by The Juice Box Lacquer. I have 6 polishes from their line to show you.

Cyrene is a coral red. The formula on this colour was quite thick which threw me off a bit but it wasn't so bad. I would probably add a couple drops of thinner before I use it again, though. Thankfully it dried pretty fast. It also dried to a satin-y finish.
I used 2 coats + 1 coat of top coat.

Grace is a vibrant {but deep - is that possible?} purple jelly. As it's a jelly formula, it was quite sheer on the first coat but the second one built up nicely. The formula on this one was nice, it was a bit thick still but not as thick as Cyrene.
I used 2 coats + 1 coat of top coat.

Jewel is a cobalt blue jelly. The formula on this was pretty much the same as Grace.
I used 2 coats + 1 coat of top coat.

June is a yellow toned nude jelly. Again, the formula was pretty much the same as Jewel and Grace.
I used 2 coats + 1 coat of top coat.

Lovette is a standard black. It had a similar formula to the other jellies, but a bit thicker. It was pretty much opaque in one coat, so that's all I did! {Under the bright lights it might look a bit patchy but in normal daylight, it looked opaque.
{This was so shiny I could actually see my reflection in it, haha!}
I used 1 coat + 1 coat of top coat.

Taja is an olive green with gold shimmers. This one was similar in formula to Cyrene. It's pretty thick, but that makes it basically opaque in one coat. But for me, I wouldn't wear this again without putting some thinner in it. But it is a really pretty colour!
I used 1 coat + 1 coat of top coat.

These polishes are all available to pre-order from the CLL website. They are offering worldwide shipping {excluding Italy}.

Cyrene Lovette Lacquers

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*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review. For more info please read my Disclosure Policy*

piCture pOlish Friday #1 - 'Siren Song'

Hey lovelies!
Every Friday for the next 4 weeks I will be sharing a new piCture pOlish shade with you! They have sent me four for review and I'm sooo excited! :D

PS. Most of the photos in this post are taken in my new light box setup! Let me know what you think. :) I still can't resist taking a few shots outside like I usually do.

This is Siren Song, which is a collaboration shade made with Rebecca from Rebecca Likes Nails. Rebecca was one of the first bloggers I ever followed so it's really cool to own a polish she helped design! The inspiration behind it actually has something to do with Blink 182 which I think my fiance would find pretty cool haha.

Siren Song is a beautiful mint green with lots of silver micro glitters throughout.
The polish is a little thin and sheer, and to be honest, quite streaky on the first coat, so you will need 3 coats for opacity. The glitters dried slightly gritty but one coat of top coat sorted that out.

In the pictures, it looks like this polish gave me total lobster hands but in person it really doesn't so I don't know what's up with that!
The shimmers were so shy in my photos. :( But in person it is really sparkly and the shimmers are very visible.

piCture pOlish

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*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review. For more info please read my Disclosure Policy*

Getting Back Into Stamping.

I've been wanting to get back into doing more nail art recently, but I'm not very good at coming up with ideas; hence why I'm always doing 'inspired' manicures.
Well, today's nail art is inspired by something - but it's not somebody else's nail art.

I started by creating a gradient with Essie A Crewed Interest, Revlon Buttercup and Essie Mint Candy Apple. My gradient was inspired by this picture from Pinterest. :)

{ I have a gradient tutorial video here if you are interested in seeing how I did this. }

I have been wanting to work on my stamping skills also, and I felt the gradient was too plain.
I stamped over the gradient using the flip flop images from Bundle Monster plate BM-309. I used this black polish from Born Pretty to stamp with. I kind of wish I hadn't stamped over the gradient - it looked prettier on its own. Oh well. *sigh*

Thanks for visiting! ♥

Birthday Cupcake Manicure ♥

Hi guys! Happy weekend. :) Hope you have a great one.

Yesterday it was my awesome friend, Danni's, birthday! :) We had a surprise party for her and I did some nail art especially for it.

This manicure was totally copied from just1nail from Instagram. {I know that a lot of lovely ladies all did similar manicures like this to celebrate a birthday, but I first saw it on just1nail.} If you don't follow her already, by the way, her nails are so cute and she does amazing designs!!

The polishes I used in this manicure are:

OPI Pink Friday

OPI You're Such a Budapest

OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips

OPI Princesses Rule

Essie Mint Candy Apple

Essie Bikini So Teeny

Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Essence Make It Golden

I have a tutorial {here} for the chevron/zig zag design if you are interested in how to do that. But that's not actually the technique I used this time, as I hadn't prepared any decals beforehand. This time, I did this:

1) painted my base colours & let them dry totally.

2) cut up some little strips of sticky tape with my pinking shear scissors into the zig zag shapes {the same way I did in the tutorial}.

3) applied the tape to my nail and made sure I stuck it down really, really well.

4) painted over the tape with white polish.

5) quickly peeled up the tape to reveal my zig zag design! :)

Hopefully that little faux-torial was easy to follow. Haha. If you'd like to see a quick video tutorial I would be happy to do that for you some time soon!

Thanks for visiting! ♥

Essie Chinchilly

Hi guys!
The weather keeps changing its mind lately, it is SO annoying. One day it'll be so warm and feel almost like summer, and then the next day it's raining and cold. I can't wait for the nicer weather to stick around! I hope it makes its mind up soon. >:(
On one of the icky, cold days I took the opportunity to swatch a few wintery colours that I've had laying around forever.

Today I'll be showing you Essie Chinchilly. This is a taupe-y / purple / brown colour. It looks a bit different depending on the lighting. Sometimes it looks very purple and other times it looks very brown. These types of colours were very popular a couple of years ago for autumn and I think they're still fairly popular.

The formula on this was kind of strange. It was a little sheer, but thick and not the nicest to apply. I will probably put a little bit of nail polish thinner in it, so that it applies a bit smoother. It was opaque in two coats, so even though it was sheer, it covered nicely on the second coat.

So although the formula wasn't that nice, I really like the colour. It's nice and neutral for the colder months, and it would go with almost any outfit. I don't think it really suits my skin tone that well, but I still like it.

By the way, over the next week or two, the nail posts on my blog will be a bit sporadic. :( I decided I want to get my beloved square nail shape back, and in order to do that I had to shorten my nails as low as they will go and it does not look nice. Not blog-worthy in my opinion. I also did something very stupid, and peeled off a gel manicure. I've done it before without any damage really, but this time I must have done a really good job (with the manicure, it was adhered on very well. Usually they peel off so effortlessly for me) and my nails were left looking peel-y and weak, and my nails never peel. I'm really upset because my nails used to be so healthy and strong, but lately they are just disgusting.
So in the meantime, I'll be doing some other beauty related or miscellaneous posts. There will still be some nail related posts, but they will most likely not be swatches. 'm sorry guys. :( You can keep up with me on Twitter & Instagram, though!

Thanks for visiting! :) ♥

Powder Perfect Nail Polish & Cosmetics Review

Hi ladies!
I have some products to show you from a pretty new Aussie indie cosmetics brand Powder Perfect. The owner, Jacinta, sells handmade lipstick, cuticle balm and nail polish. Her lipsticks are organic & vegan, as are the cuticle balms. The nail polishes are big 5-free! (This means they contain no toluene, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate, camphor & tosylamide/formaldehyde resin.) I have 5 nail polishes, 2 lipsticks and 2 cuticle balms to show you today! :)

nail polishes

I'll show you the nail polishes first! :) The nail polishes come in a 12mL square bottle like most Australian indie brands use. Powder Perfect has a lot of different nail polish colours and finishes so there's bound to be something that everybody likes in their line.

Powder Perfect Jace

Jace is a yellow gold base with a ton of bronze gold micro glitters. On the Etsy listing, it says that you can wear this polish alone in 2 coats, or you can wear it as a topper over another colour. I did try it over another colour and in my opinion I didn't really like the look. I think it's a little too opaque to be worn as a topper. For me anyway. This is from Powder Perfect's Shadowhunter collection.
This is a very pretty colour, I don't feel like it looks super good on my skin tone, however.
I used 2 coats of Jace (no top coat).

Powder Perfect Lake Lyn

Lake Lyn is also from the Shadowhunter collection. It's an aqua base with blue & green glitters, as well as little rose gold flakes. This one was very pigmented!
I used 2 coats of Lake Lyn (no top coat).

Powder Perfect Raspberry Whorl

Raspberry Whorl is a gorgeous fuchsia hot pink creme. This one comes from the Spring collection. This is a perfect perfect perfect hot pink! I will love wearing this in summer. :)
I used 2 coats of Raspberry Whorl (no top coat).

Powder Perfect The Clave

The Clave is a beautiful grey with a subtle holographic shimmer! This comes from the Shadowhunter collection. I absolutely love this colour. It's super unique; I don't own a grey holo! When I swatched this I did not want to remove it, haha.
I used 2 coats of The Clave (no top coat).

Powder Perfect Water Wraith

Water Wraith is an amazing aqua and teal glitter. I think some of the glitters in this are also iridescent and holographic. I think this would have to be my favourite of the ones I tried, it's AMAZING. ♥ My camera couldn't even handle how gorgeous this is! :( You'll just have to take my word for it. ;)
I used 2 thick coats of Water Wraith alone with top coat.

lipsticks

This is my first time ever reviewing lipsticks so please bear with me!

The lipsticks came packaged in cute little boxes which is nice. I accidentally ripped one of the boxes because I was too excited to get into it LOL, so I only have a photo of one of the boxes. ;)
The tubes are really nice, with 'Powder Perfect' printed on in silver. The packaging feels like nice quality to me.

The lipsticks come in loads of different shades from light to dark colours. I have two colours to show you. Granita and Pink About It.

Granita

Granita is a coral colour with a bit of a pink sheen to it.
A really nice colour for spring/summer in my opinion!

Pink About It

Pink About It is a mauve-ish sort of colour, with a subtle sheen also.
I thought this one would look a bit funny on me, but it's actually a very wearable colour!

Both lipsticks were super easy to apply, they glide on really nicely. They also feel really moisturising on the lips. They're buildable, so you can wear them sheerer, or build them up to be more opaque. Pink About It is more opaque than Granita, however.

Pink About It also had a slightly longer wear time than Granita, possibly because it's more pigmented? They won't last on the lips through a meal, but I haven't really found a lipstick that will last on me through a meal so that's not that bad. Before eating, I think it would last about two or three hours before needing to reapply.

I had planned on doing swatches of these on my lips, but I could not get the photos colour accurate that way, so below I have swatched them on my arm. As you can see, they are quite pigmented and moisturising.

I thought I should also mention that when I was applying Pink About It, the lipstick actually broke. :( But this was entirely my fault! Jacinta recommends to wind up the lipstick minimally because they are so soft and creamy that they may break like mine did. So definitely be careful with yours. :) A broken lipstick is fixable though!

cuticle balms

I love that Powder Perfect calls their cuticle balms 'Cute-icle Balms'! Because they really are cute! Haha. The packaging is so adorable! :) There's 5 scents to choose from including Unscented, Raspberry, Sweet-Orange, Chocolate, and Jelly Bean.
I have the Organic Chocolate Cute-icle Balm and Organic Raspberry Cute-icle Balm.

These are so lovely! Both cuticle balms smell absolutely delicious! Good enough to eat! :D They have a really lovely buttery texture. In the tin, they look like they might be waxy in texture but they're much more buttery and soft. The balm melts right into the skin so nicely and moisturises the cuticles/skin right away.
These can also be used on any other dry patches on your body like elbows, knees and are even safe to use on your lips! :) Yummy.

I am absolutely in love with all of the products I tried. I 100% recommend these to all of you! Jacinta has a bunch of other colours / scents in the store apart from the ones I have shown, so even if the ones I showed aren't your style she probably has one that you'll like! :)

Powder Perfect

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*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review. For more info please read my Disclosure Policy*