ILNP Sandy Baby

Sandy Baby is a subtle and sophisticated peach beige jelly.


Collection: ILNP Spring Jellies 2016

Color: This is a perfect my nails but better with some added glam type of shade. I'm in love with the color and it's made a home for itself on my makeup vanity because I'm using it so much. It's a great shade if you want a clean, fresh, and sleek look on your nails.

Formula: This formula is sheer but it works for a polish like this. I used 3 coats above. What I like about the sheerness of this polish and the color is that it will be very forgiving if I'm wearing it for several days. If I get some tip wear or a tiny chip it won't be as noticeable as if I wore a creme.

Price: This is $10 on the ILNP website.

Overall: I love Sandy Baby. It's the perfect go-to nail polish when you want a clean and natural look on your nails that still offers a touch of bling. I really adore ILNP soft jellies shades and I will be stocking up on more. This polish is perfection!

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

Happy Tuesday!

Ever After Stuffed

When I went to Ever After Polish's website to buy Burning Twilight, I knew I didn't want just one polish. I'm not usually someone who buys full collections or multiple polishes at once because I'm on a budget, but I hate just buying one. I feel like I'm missing out. I saw Stuffed on the website too then and it intrigued me, so I picked that one up as well.

Stuffed

Stuffed is a sheer pale aqua crelly base with blue and green multichrome flakes, bronze glitter, aqua shimmer, and some holo dust.

Collection: Ever After Polish Thanksgiving Mystery Polish 2015

Color: If you know me well enough you know why I love this polish. Do I even need to tell you? It's because of that cool-warm metal color combination. I love blues, greens, or purples paired with gold, bronze, or copper. I also love all these little magical bits in this polish. The flakie, the bright aqua shimmer, and the bronze glitter really come together to make this special. Sometimes less is more, but done correctly more is more!

Formula: I was a bit surprised that the formula on this was sheer. That being said, I think it's meant to be sheer and I still really like it. I do wish it had a bit more opacity. The formula was very smooth and easy to use. I did not have any application issues. To achieve this look I used 4 coats.

Price: N/A. This was available on the website a few months ago, but it's gone now. I'm not sure what the future of this polish will be?

Overall: This is a gorgeous polish with a great color combination and lot of great glitter/shimmer effects that give it dimension and depth. I still really like it despite being surprised it was sheer.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Paint Splatters

Happy Friday!

L.A. Colors Ever After

Another brand I've had my eye on lately in stores L.A. Colors, in particular, their Color Last line. I've only seen this line at Walmart and it has a good range of maybe around 15-20 colors. The cost of them is only $1.98 per polish so that's a steal. I saw this shimmery purple shade last time and decided to check it out.

Ever After

Ever After is a sheer lavender packed with golden-purple-pink shimmer.

Collection: L.A. Colors Color Last Core

Color: I love this soft purple shade, but it's that intense shimmer that sold it for me. I love shimmers that really light up within a polish. I also really love the softness of this shade. It's shimmery, but it's still delicate.

Formula: I wasn't sure when I bought this if would be sheer or not, but it a sheer polish. That being said, this built up to this opacity in 3 coats. You may need a 4th if you have longer nails. The formula on this was superb. I absolutely love the brushes in this polish as they really pack in the polish and apply so smoothly.

Price: $1.98 at Walmart.

Overall: I was expecting to be disappointed with the sheerness and softness of this shade, but I actually really love it. I really like the softer look, especially with the shimmer. The formula on this was amazing and I really love this line of polishes.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Paint Splatters

Happy Friday!

Pacifcia Unicorn Horn

I have a polish from a new brand to share with you today. The brand is Pacifica. Pacficia isn't a new brand at all, but the nail polish is. I love the Pacficia band. I have many of their body butters and spray fragrances. My favorites are California Star Jasmine and Malibu Lemon Blossom in case your curious. Pacifcia is known for being 100% vegan and cruelty free. They recently released a line of nail polish that is 7-Free which means it has no phthalates, toluene, xylene, parabens, camphor, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, and animals. This is one of the colors I picked up.

Unicorn Horn over OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid

Unicorn Horn is a sheer opalescent pink shimmer.

Color: This is a sheer shimmer topper. I know these are not really popular in nail polish world these days, but this is a beautiful polish. The shimmer is in this is perfect, it's not too subtle where you can barely see it, nor is it overwhelming where it ruins your base color.

Formula: This was a very nice and easy to use formula. I used 2 coats over a base.

Price: I paid $9.00 for this on the Pacifica website.

Overall: Beautiful shimmer topper. This is the type of polish that has endless combinations and can look different dependent on what you layer it over. I love the contrasting color of shimmer I used with OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid, but you can create more subtle looks with light complimentary colors or even more dramatic with dark colors. I'm liking Unicorn Horn!

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Paint Splatters

Happy Friday!

Way-Cool Mani Wednesday- My Name in Polish

Some people wish for their name in lights, I'm just happy with my name in polish. Ok, well my name in polish isn't intentional towards me, but I like it just the same!

How many of you have a polish with your first name in? I'm sure there are quite a few of you, but how many people have a polish with their last name in it?

I have both! I don't mean that to sound boastful, it's just pretty cool.

My name is Stephanie Merlin. Yes, my real last name is Merlin just like the wizard. No relation, unfortunately (hehe). I used to hate my last name because everyone would make a big deal out of it. Now, I think it's flipping awesome. It's the kind of name if I get married, I'm sorry tradition, I'm keeping my cool last name!

Anyways, so what polishes sport my name?

Zoya Stephanie and a-england Merlin

I decided for this Way-Cool Wednesday to sport my namesake in polish! I think that's way-cool, huh (hopefully not egotistical)?

Polishes Used: Zoya Stephanie & a-england Merlin

Manicure Description: Went pretty simple here. I painted my thumb, index, and pinky with Zoya Stephanie and painted my middle and ring finger with a-england Merlin.

I had fun with this. It's so simple, but it's just so fun to be able to wear my name in polish. It's probably a bit corny, but I love it!

Anyone else out there who has their first and last name in a polish?

Happy Wednesday! 

NYC Fuchsia Glamour

*I've added a new rating system on my blog. I'm now breaking down my review, and rating the polishes on scale of 0-5. I hope you like this change! 

I would say the trickiest category of nail polish I've found over the years are sheer pinks--the "your nails but better polishes".  I don't want a sheer pink that is going to show every flaw and stain in my nails. I don't want sheer pink that is streaky and uneven. I don't want a sheer pink that takes 5-6 coats to get any sort of opacity, only to find out 3 hours later that it hasn't dried fully and is smudged and full of cat hair. No. I want a sheer pink that can build up nicely in 3 coats, cover up my nail flaws, dry in a reasonable amount of time, and make my nails look fresh and clean. That's what I want. This has been almost impossible to find. I did find it recently with JulieG Bubble Bath, but I also found it with NYC and for under $1!

NYC Fuchsia Glamour *

Fuchsia Glamour is a pale sheer pink with a golden iridescent glass fleck glitter. 

Color: The color of this is beautiful. I absolutely love the addition of this gorgeous iridescent glass fleck glitter. I  also find this shade of pink to be very forgiving and flattering. 

Formula: Pretty spectacular considering how elusive good quality polishes like this can be. I used 3 medium-thick coats in this swatch, and I got almost full opaque coverage. I'd say you'd need 4 if you're doing thin coats, but I don't find that unreasonable   There are some thinner areas, but nothing that I would make a fuss over at all. This formula was smooth and easy to work with.

Price: I paid $0.97 for this at Walmart Neighborhood Market. I think in other stores it's $0.99. This price is amazing for a polish like this. I can't get an $8 sheer pink Essie to even get remotely close to this type of coverage in 3 coats. 

Overall: Absolutely awesome polish! I really can't complain for that price!

*I've read on Nouveau Cheap that this polish is actually supposed to be called Pink Champagne. That makes sense since there isn't anything fuchsia about this, but from what I gathered they were all mass mislabeled as Fuchsia Glamour. Ooops NYC!

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Paint Splatters!!!

Happy Wednesday! 

OPI Pink of Hearts Breast Cancer Awareness Collection

I have for you the OPI Pink of Hearts Breast Cancer Awareness collection today. This set caught my eye immediately when I saw it. The glitter in it is just gorgeous, and it's always a plus when there are polishes created in honor of a great cause.

I Think in Pink

I Think in Pink is a milky pale pink sheer.

This polish is sheer, but it's not as sheer as some other pinks in this category. This is 3 coats, and you can still see tiny bits of my nail showing through in the photo. I didn't notice this in real life, and I actually found the application pretty good. I love the milkiness of this shade. A lot of pinks like this tend to give me lobster hands (red fingers), but this one played nicely with my skin tone!

You Glitter Be Good To Me over I Think in Pink

You Glitter Be Good To Me is a mixture of pink micro glitter and medium fuchsia hex glitters in a clear base.

I was so hoping this wouldn't be a glitter top coat. I was wanting this to be a glitter bomb you could get opaque in like 2-3 coats. Realistically, I think you'd need to have 4+ coats of this to get near opacity, and I think even then you'd have tiny little bald spots. That being said, it is a pretty glitter. I love the color combination and how it looks layered over the pink!

Happy Tuesday!

Nfu Oh 51

Some of the coolest polishes out there when I first got into nail polish were Nfu Ohs.  They have had an awesome range of colorful flakies and holographic polishes for years now. I was always fascinated by their flakies, but it took me a few years to finally decide to crack down and get some. Nfu Oh 51 was quite a popular color, so I knew I had to get that first.

#51 over L.A. Girl Hustle

Nfu Oh 51 is a sheer purple base with with color shifting multchrome flakies.

This color is often compared to Clarins 230, because of it's similarity in color and it's color shifting abilities.. You could use this on it's own, but it is better layered.  I have to be honest I really was not wowed by this. In fact, this has been sitting in my swatch folder for months because I never felt inspired to post about it.

The reason this didn't wow me is because I got it too late in the game. The Clarins 230 craze has been stifled by Max Factor Fantasy Fire and Girly Bits Shift Happens. I'm sure there are other indie polishes out there that replicate the whole Clarins 230 effect too. Also, the best flakies I've seen are right out of Cult Nails Unicorn Puke/Clairvoyant and Cult Nails Seduction. The flakies in the Nfu-Oh I found pretty weak. Meh, I've been completely spoiled by new polishes out there.

This is certainly not a bad polish. It actually is very beautiful, and I would even recommend it especially if you do not have some of the other polishes I listed above. It really is a classic in the nail polish world. I just don't know if this measures up to some of the awesome polishes we have available to us currently.

You can find this on FabulousStreet.

Happy Thursday!

Once Upon a Polish: Scuttle

If you were not aware, The Little Mermaid is my absolute favorite Disney movie. In fact, outside of my nail polish collection I do have a bit of an Ariel collection. I love Ariel. I first saw that movie when I was 3, and I wore out my VHS tape of it along with my cassette tape of the music. Don't worry, they were quickly replaced. I can attribute my love for swimming to The Little Mermaid. I was a fast learner and great swimmer when I was a kid. I know at summer camp they always put me in the highest level of swimming lessons, while the other kids my age were in the lower levels. Thank you to The Little Mermaid I probably will never drown.

I'm rambling, back on the polish track. This is a polish from Once Upon a Polish. She released a handful of The Little Mermaid themed polishes. This one is Scuttle, and I must say she did a great job with it. 

Scuttle

Scuttle is sheer, yet buildable light gray base with a mixture of white, black, and micro iridescent glitters. 

I did notice this polish had these teeny tiny iridescent micro glitters. I thought that was a cool touch. This polish is really unique and fun. The gray base is great, it is on the sheer side, but I was able to build it up in 3-4 coats. It's certainly a polish I recommend you check out. It's very different than most indie polishes I've seen.

Here is some Scuttle for you too!

Scuttle is currently available on Once Upon a Polish's etsy site for $8.50
Happy Monday!

Cult Nails Seduction

Are you all glad that flakies are being represented in nail polish this year? It's nice to see companies embracing the flakie. Cult Nails does a great job with the flakie.....Unicorn Puke/Clairvoyant...come on! That polish was insane. Maria always impresses me with her Cult Nails creations. I know many missed out on Unicorn Puke/Clairvoyant, but I think Seduction, though it's not a dupe is spectacular in its own right.

Seduction over Urban Outfitters Bandeau

Seduction is a sheer jelly purple base with light blue and red iridescent flakies. 

Amazing! The depth these flakies make this absolutely stunning and multi-dimensional. I do think this is most definitely best layered. You could definitely wear it alone, but I think the magic of this polish comes alive over other colors. The main difference between this and Unicorn Puke/Clairvoyant is the absence of green flakies. I also think the base on Seduction is more red toned than the Unicorn Puke/Clairvoyant. Seduction is pretty amazing, it may not be Unicorn Puke, but it will surely impress! 

*This product was given to me for review by Cult Nails.

Happy Friday!

Models Own Indian Ocean

Let's face it I'm impulsive at times. I saw press releases of these new Models Own Beetlejuice colors, and it was an instant "Need!". I ordered two of them Tropical Sun and Indian Ocean. I love that these were duochrome-like colors with a more summery-flair. Here is Indian Ocean.

Indian Ocean over Revlon Coastal Surf

Indian Ocean is a sheer baby blue with a hot pink shimmer that shifts to purple and gold.

Let's all be honest here. This is absolutely ridiculously sheer alone. Honestly, unless you have magic nails, magic polish skills, or are some magical creature you're going to see your nail through this polish after 3-4 coats.  I don't mean visible nail line either. I mean your entire nail. If you don't mind that look that's fine, but I know a lot of people do not care for that. This does look beautiful layered though. Outside of the sheer factor, I think this polish is beautiful and unique. 

I got this on the Models Own site. The polish itself is not overly pricey, but the shipping was over $20. In hindsight, I wish I would of found another option to purchase this. It's a beautiful polish, but it's not all that! 

Happy Thursday!

Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love

Well...isn't this awkward. -Rolls eyes- I don't think Kim is Kim-pletely in love anymore. I did not shed any tears. I'm sure many of us didn't. There are far more important and significant things in the world than that topic. Anyways, I actually was drawn to this Nicole by OPI polish when first I saw swatches. I've always liked the sheer-jelly pale pinks and nudes, so this one was on my list.


Kim-pletely in Love

Kim-pletely in love is light sheer pink with micro blue glass fleck. (At least this is what I think it is?)

I've seen other peoples swatches of this and they get a an even look with 3 coats. I still had streakiness with 3 coats? I always have this problem with shades like this, and it really ticks me off. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Maybe, I need polish underwear? Maybe I need to wait longer in between coats? Maybe I need to stand on my head, bark like a dog, and make a cucumber salad? Do I need to praise some polish unicorn mermaid fairy goddess?  Whatever the magic secret is to this please let me know? This is a beautiful polish. I recommend it if you love polishes that give you a clean look that have a touch of pizazz. I'm just annoyed that colors like this are such a pain in the acetone!

Happy Friday!

Cult Nails Unicorn Puke (Extremely Pic Heavy)

I think with this post the less words the better.

Introducing everything you love adore to the infinite power in a little bottle.....

Cult Nails Unicorn Puke over Orly Wild Wisteria

over black

4 coats on its own

Unicorn Puke is a sheer purple jelly base loaded with red,blue,green, and perhaps other multi-colored flakies.

This polish looks great layered, it's great on its own if you don't mind putting on 4 coats.

Unicorn Puke was a limited edition polish, only 275 were released and it was sold out quickly. Fear not, it will be re-released under the name Clairvoyant in the Cult Nails Winter collection. I'm unsure of the release date of the winter collection, but follow Cult Nails and Maria's blog for updates.

My advice to you is you absolutely 100% need this polish. This is probably a bit pushy, but if you're debating this between some other polish, who cares about the other polish! Get this one!. This is undoubtedly the best polish I have ever seen in my life. I know with my excessive pictures here and my absolute dedication of love to this polish it may seem like I'm exaggerating or pushing it a bit. I'm not, it really is that amazing. I mentioned this on Twitter, what you see in pictures is amazing, but in person it is 10x that!

Happy Wednesday!

Barielle Buddha-Ful

If there is any type of polishes I still cannot control my impulses on it is flakie polishes. I have that same urge I had to buy them all like I did with all types of nail polish when I first got into blogging. I cannot turn down a flakie, so when I found Barielle had one out I had to get it.

Buddha-ful

Buddha-ful is a milky nude sheer with iridescent green/pink flakies.

This polish is awesome. This to me has the similar effect as Revlon Starry Pink. It's a subtle shade with a punch, but not so much it takes away the softness of the color. I sure hope that makes sense. What is great about this it's opaque in 3 coats. You don't have to layer this on until the end of time to get opacity. It looks great on its own, but you can layer it too if you'd like.

Here is it layered over China Glaze Sea Spray

 

Very pretty! I'd really only recommend layering this over lighter shades. The reason I say this because the base of Buddha-ful is a nude not clear, so if you layer it will alter the shade of the polish underneath. It will do the same for lighter shades as well, but it's not as noticeable.

If you like flakies I think this one should be on your list!

Happy Monday!