a-england Whispering Waves

It's become easy to tell if I'm not really excited about a polish because it sits in my swatch folder for ages. It's usually the polishes that are good just not overly interesting or polishes that didn't really wow me like I had expected. This was the case for this a-england polish which is really unfortunate because this brand always exceeds my expectations. I should say that it's really not a faulty polish. The finish of it just didn't turn out to be a favorite of mine.

Whispering Waves

Whispering Waves is a vibrant aqua polish with subtle prismatic shimmer and a duochrome flash that shifts from blue to pink.

Color: The color isn't the issue here. I love this bright and vibrant aqua I also really love the subtle duochrome and holo. I think the issue here is there a little too much going on. The addition of the shimmer is just a bit heavy handed for my taste so it does end up getting this more frosty and metallic look than I'd prefer.

Formula: The formula was nice and easy to use. I used 2 coats above.

Price: This can be purchased from Color4Nails for $11.

Overall: This isn't a bad polish by any means. The shimmer is just too intense for my liking and I don't feel it was really needed. I really wanted to love this one more as it was a part of my wishlist for awhile but I ended up a bit disappointed in it. Formula wise and everything else is great, so if you like this color you won't be disappointed!

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Paint Splatters

Happy Thursday!

Fresh Paint Purple Rain

I have a Fresh Paint polish to share with you today. This a brand that can be found at Five Below. If you've been following me a little while you know I've been a fan of these polishes. I think they make excellent cremes and for a great price. I picked up this one a little awhile ago.

Purple Rain

Purple Rain is a dusty orchid creme.

Color: Remember Pantone's 2014 Color of the Year Radiant Orchid? This is what this color reminds me of just a hint more muted and dusty. I adore colors like this and I've really been into dusty/muted colors lately. I think they really do read as neutrals which make them so versatile. This is a gorgeous purple color and I'm in love with it!

Formula: This had an excellent and smooth formula. I used 2 coats above.

Price: Fresh Paint polishes are 3 for $5 at Five Below, so why buy one when you can buy 3 for the price that is less than one mainstream polish!

Overall: This is a beautiful color. I love the dustiness of this purple shade and I think it's a winning polish!

My Rating: 5 out of 5 *Golden* Paint Splatters

Happy Tuesday!

Sinful Colors apPEAsing

Tis the season for mint green! I definitely consider this time of year mint green season. I know you can wear any color any time of year, but I'm someone who gravitates toward seasonal colors so mint greens are really appealing and "apPEAsing" for me right now. I have new Sinful Colors for 2017 mint green to share with you today that's called "apPEAsing". I see they were trying to get some green thing in the name, but it is rather silly don't you think?

apPEAsing

apPEAsing is a bright mint green creme.

Collection: Sinful Colors Core 2017

Color: I know mint greens are a dime a dozen, but it's one of those colors I just can't get enough of. I like this one because it has a brightness to it and it veers more to the green side than blue. I know those are harder to come by. This is a great mint!

Formula: This had a fairly nice formula. It was streaky on the first coat and was opaque by the second. I do find I still see some streakiness and unevennesses on some nails even with 2 coats, but it's not the big of a deal.

Price: I purchased this for $1.99 at Walgreens.

Overall: This is an all around great mint green creme. It's bright and refreshing. The formula isn't perfect, but it's $1.99. I can't complain too much.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Paint Splatters

Happy Thursday!

Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer A Long Time Ago Tomorrow

*I received the following product in exchange for my honest review.

I had the pleasure of working with Julie from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer for the most recent Color Box. In addition to making a beautiful color for that box, she kindly sent me a handful of her polishes for me to try and review. I have one of those colors she sent to me to share with you today. It's a real stunner!

A Long Time Ago Tomorrow 

A Long Time Ago Tomorrow is a sheer tardis blue base filled with bright blue flakies with a subtle pink shift.

Collection: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer It Got Away From Me, Yeah... 2014

Color: This is a rich and beautiful blue. Tardis blue is definitely one of my favorite blues shades. What I love most about this is the finish. Those flakies even though they're in the same color family as the base really glow and stand out against it. This color really has a beautiful bejeweled look to it.

Formula: This formula was sheer and thin with a satin finish. I needed 4 coats to get the opacity I liked. However, because of this type of formula, it dried quickly between coats so the application was a breeze. Usually, the more coats the more likely you are to have dragging or thickening. This was not the case with this polish. I know 4 coats is a lot for many people, but they truly were effortless thanks to this type of formulation.

Price: This is $12 on Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer's site.

Overall: I'm really impressed with this polish. It looked pretty amazing in the bottle, but it looked even better on the nail. I love the vibrancy of this blue with those bright flakies and I appreciate the thoughtfulness put into this formula to make sure it performed its best.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 *Golden* Paint Splatters

Happy Tuesday!

Weekly Wax Wrap Up: 3/12/17-3/19/17

I think I'm going to settle on doing less wax each rather than posting every other week. When I'm melting too much new wax I'm  running out of new things to review too quickly and I'm not really using up wax I already have. I hope you all are not too disappointed with less wax to review each week!

Ten Digit Creations Ocean Mist
Scent Description: blue ocean water and sea spray
My Thoughts: This is a wonderful scent. This smells like a blend of ocean, fresh air, soft florals, and some fresh laundry notes. To put it simply it's like ocean laundry! It's a very fresh, crisp, and happy scent. This is the perfect clean type scent that I think would please many noses and scent preferences without it being boring or common. I love it!
Throw: 4/5
Where To Buy: Ten Digit Creations

American Home Above The Clouds
Scent Description: N/A
My Thoughts: This is a nice scent. It doesn't have any scent description which makes it hard for me to pinpoint anything specific. It reminds me of a very general hand soap like Softsoap. It's clean and fresh, but it's also very generic unlike the TDC scent above. The throw was also virtually non-existent.
Throw: 1.5/5
Where To Buy: Walmart

Happy Sunday!

KBShimmer Nauti by Nature Spring 2017 (6 of 12)

* I received the following products in exchange for my honest review. 

I have a few of the colors from the new KBShimmer Nauti by Nature collection for Spring 2017. This collection is truly topical. It was inspired by Christy's trips to the Bahamas. These colors are bold and vibrant. I appreciate that in a spring collection because I've been over the typical spring pastels ages ago. Spring can be bold too! This collection has KBShimmer's perfect mix of holos, shimmers, glitters. This collection along with a new Caribbeans inspired seasonal mani shot called Knotty Girl will be released this Saturday, March 18th on the KBShimmer website.


Latitude Adjustment 

Latitude Adjustment is a periwinkle holographic. (2 coats)

Show Me The Mahi

Show Me The Mahi is a deep aqua blue jelly polish is loaded with scale inspired holo glitters in lime and teal, and color shifting iridescent glitters that morph from golden greens to vibrant red orange colors. (3 coats)

Tropic Like It's Hot

Tropic Like It's Hot is a turquoise blue water holographic. (2 coats)

Macaw Me Maybe

Macaw Me Maybe is a scarlet red holographic. (2 coats)

Saved By The Shell

Saved By The Shell is a soft, sandy peach color is accented by a coppery pink shimmer. (2 coats)

The Girl Is Tiki

The Girl Is Tiki is a rusty coral holographic. (2 coats)

Collection: KBShimmer Nauti By Nature Spring 2017

Colors: I love these vibrant colors. All of these colors are rich and saturated. I really enjoy this take on a spring collection and it's a nice change to have a pop a color. The holographics in this collection are so bright and crisp. You cannot go wrong with holo and this is the most holos in a collection I remember seeing from KBShimmer. I like!

Formula: Most all of these colors had smooth and easy to use formulas. They applied opaques and cleanly in 2 coats. The only trickier one was Show Me The Mahi being it is a jelly glitter. It is thicker but manageable. I recommend waiting a few minutes between each coat so you don't drag the polish from previous coats.

Price: These will be $9.25 on the KBShimmer website and will be available for purchase on Saturday 3/18. Be sure to check out the other colors on there I didn't review!

Overall: I really enjoyed this collection. I love the theming and the use of holo. It's punchy and tropical collection that really catches my eye for this season. I'm thankful for the bright and fun take on a spring collection, not the expected pastels. My favorites from this lot are Latitude Adjustment and This Girl is Tiki. The latter is definitely a unique color to me!

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Paint Splatters

Happy Thursday!

Sinful Colors Tempest

Sinful Colors is known for repromotes. It's one of my biggest gripes with the brand, but I'm going to eat my words a bit today. I always see Tempest. Every year they put it some display as if it's some brand new polish. It's not. It's been around for ages. Despite it being around for ages and me griping I never ever purchased it until now. It's actually a pretty purple and I always just bypassed it because it's just always been there. I decided to give it a chance.

Tempest

Tempest is a bright lavender creme.

Color: I love the brightness of this color. There are tons of lavender cremes out there. I'm well aware, but I like how this one isn't so pale. It has this nice pop to it. I love lavender cremes.

Formula: This had a very nice formula. I used 2 coats above. It was smooth and easy to apply.

Price: This was $1.99 at Walgreens.

Overall: Yes, it's been around forever and it's a lavender creme. They're a dime a dozen, but for the price, this is a nice color. I love the vibrancy of this lavender and it had a really nice formula. If you're not someone with 1000+ bottles of nail polish and want a shade like this don't spend your money on pricier ones this one will suffice!

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Paint Splatters

Happy Tuesday!

Weekly Wax Wrap Up: 2/26/17-3/12/17

Sorry, I missed you all last week. I had a busy week and did not get around to melting much new stuff. I want to forewarn you all that in the future I will probably either be doing these posts every other week or reviewing less wax every week. I don't want to review too much new stuff each week because then I'll be left with nothing new to review! The past 2 weeks I did have some really nice wax melts. I'm definitely in a tropical/beachy/ocean scent mood lately as you'll see with my selections! 

Ten Digit Creations Pineapple Sage & Citrus

Scent Description: fresh pineapple slices and clary sage topped with lemon and orange wedges

My Thoughts: This scent is heavy on the pineapple with sage being the secondary note. I'd say this is 70% pineapple and 30% sage. I'm really not getting citrus from this because the pineapple and sage are so strong. I like this scent. It's bright, juicy, and the sage gives it a nice earthy edge. I will say this is a scent I can only melt for a few hours because it does start to becoming overpowering after awhile.

Throw: 4.5/5

Where To Buy: Ten Digit Creations 

American Home Catch A Wave

Scent Description: An inviting scent of salt air that will make you want to wiggle your toes in the sand.

My Thoughts: This smells exactly like Coppertone Oil paired with a salty floral ocean water scent. I'm not usually a fan of  Coppertone-type scents because they can go really artificial. This does not. It's the real deal and that ocean water scent balances it out perfectly. It's probably one of the most natural beachy scents I've come across. The downside is the throw isn't that strong. I melted it twice just to be sure. If this were stronger it would an absolute winner.

Throw: 2.5/5

Where To Buy: Walmart

Ten Digit Creations Garden of Eden

Scent Description: red mac apple + green apple + garden dirt

My Thoughts: This is a winning scent. I don't have the most luck with apple scents. They're either too artificial smelling or they go into that fall apple/cinnamon type territory I don't care for. This apple scent is very natural. The red apple and green apple blend are perfect because you get the balance of sweet and tart. The garden dirt note is subtle, but it gives the scent a freshness that makes it more of a clean scent than a straight up fruity one. 

Throw: 3/5

Where To Buy: Ten Digit Creations

Ten Digit Creations Bora Bora

Scent Description: sweet pineapple, acai berry, mango, passion fruit, yuzu, green apple

My Thoughts: This is a straight up bright and fresh tropical fruit scent. The strongest note I'm getting in this scent is pineapple, follow by mango, yuzu, and green apple. It smells like a tropical fruit salad. There is a nice balance of sweetness and tart in this scent which I appreciate. I really like this one!

Throw: 4/5

Where To Buy: Ten Digit Creations

Happy Sunday!  

Zoya Zanna

I may have spoken too soon when I said I was starting to fall off the nude/neutral polish train. Nope, that's not the case. After a few weeks of playing with some bolder colors, I wanted to retreat to some neutrals again! I found a Zoya one I really like for the upcoming spring season. I purchased this one during Zoya's Black Friday sale back in November.

Zanna

Zanna is a muted light rose-mauve creme.

Color: I love this shade of pink. It's not your typical pale sheer pink or baby pink. It's not too nude or skin tone like of a pink either. It's a medium soft cool pink that does make a statement, but it's still muted enough to read as a neutral. I hope that makes sense! It goes with anything which I appreciate these days as I don't change my nails as often anymore.

Formula: This had a nice and easy to use formula. I used 2 coats above.

Price: This is $10 on the Zoya website.

Overall: It's rare my mani coincides with the review I post that day, but I've been wearing this color for a few days and I'm in love! When I look down at my nails I'm really happy with how this color just makes me feel put together. It's simple, but it's pretty too! I appreciate colors like this because of the simplicity factor.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 *Golden* Paint Splatters

Happy Wednesday!

The Color Box: Blue + Giveaway

* I received the following in exchange for my honest review

As I announced a little while back I was one of the bloggers selected to participate in The Color Box this quarter. This box was founded by Manna from Manna's Manis, Jen from xoxo, Jen, Amanda from Amanda Loves Polish, and Julie from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. This box is a collaborative effort between 5 bloggers and 5 brands to create polishes based on a color theme. The theme for this round was blue! I was really excited to be asked to join in this collaboration because I love blue! I got to work with the talented and sweet Julie from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. This blue box excellent. There are a variety of shades of blue and different finishes.

This box is pre-order only between 3/10-3/17. There will be 20 boxes to purchase at the upcoming Indie Shop in Atlanta on 3/11. After the pre-order boxes have been shipped some makers will make these polishes available individually on their website.

Let's get started!  Stay tuned for a giveaway at the end!

Niagara Sunrise 
Imperfectly Painted + Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer

Niagara Sunrise is a faded denim with copper fine and medium shimmers and gold microflakies.

Color Inspiration: I really wanted to honor the spring season with a color from Pantone 2017's Color Report, so I chose the serene blue Niagara from the lineup.  I came up with the collage above for Julie. She did a spectacular job capturing the inspiration. You know I love copper and gold paired with blue. The shimmer contrasts beautifully while still maintaining the dusty softness of the blue base color.
Formula: This had a very nice and easy to use formula. The formula was a touch on the thicker side, but it applied easily and opaquely in 2 coats. This does dry to a satin finish, so I recommend adding top coat!

Manna's Mystical Masterpiece
Manna's Manis + Tonic Polish

Manna's Mystical Masterpiece a cobalt blue duochrome that shifts to purple with a fine linear holographic finish.

Formula: This had a easy to use formula. It was sheerer on the first coat, but built up to opacity in 3 coats for me.

Texas Treasures
Polish Galore + Supermoon Lacquer

Texas Treasures is a dark navy with holo copper microglitter, metallic copper microglitter, spectraflair and holo clear microglitter.

Formula: This had a very smooth and easy to use formula. It applied perfectly in 2 coats.

Sakura Skies
xoxo, Jen + Baroness X

Sakura Skies is a sky blue base with pink to peach to gold shifting glass fleck/shimmer with a dusting of holo pigment.

Formula: This also had a nice formula. It was a thicker formula but applied easily in 2 coats.

Blue A Fuse
Bruised Up Dollie + BLUSH Lacquers

Blue A Fuse is a deep blue base with blue micro flakies, holo flakies, holo and a hint of black shreds. Great formula and such a shimmery, sparkly shade! I wore two coats with topcoat.

Formula: This had a sheerer formula but built up nicely in 2 coats. The black shreds can move around a bit when painting your nail, but I didn't find this to be a major issue.

The Color Box will be released for preorder 3/10-3/17 on The Color Box site. The cost will be $45 + shipping and this can be shipped internationally. Don't forget 20 boxes will be sold at The Indie Shop Atlanta this Saturday, 3/11! For more information and updates be sure to join The Color Box group on Facebook and follow The Color Box on Instagram!

***GIVEAWAY***

One Color Box will be given away to one of you! This giveaway is sponsored by the brands involved in this Color Box.

Rules:
1. Open internationally.
2. NO giveaway accounts, spam, or empty accounts. Winning entries will be checked and those will be disqualified.
3. You must be 18 years or older.
4. You will have 48 hours to respond to email to claim your prize. After 48 hours another winner will be chosen.
5. The Color Box hold no responsibility once the package has been dropped off at the post office.
6. The only required entry is your email address, all others will then be unlocked and are optional.
7. If you are already following someone, be sure to still put your info. That's basically a free entry!
8. Giveaway runs from March 5th until 11:59 pm EDT March 10th.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Happy Monday!