Swatch and Review: The New Black Week - Haze Collection

Hello again, everyone! Today's post is Day 2 of The New Black Week here at Princess Polish and I'm very excited to bring you this next set because it is my FAVORITE color on earth: purple!

It's one of the five piece sets from TNB and is an ombré collection called Haze. It makes me think of Jimi Hendrix, so that's another reason for me to love it already. The purples range from a jewel-toned blurple (!!!) to a dusty lilac. Unlike yesterday's Graffiti Set, there are no glitters in this collection and it's all cremes with a slight metallic in the blurple.

Oh man, do I love this set of nail polishes. I took this picture in the sun of my backyard and the plant you're seeing is of one of my blueberry bushes. I though that it was kind of appropriate for purple because when I think of blueberries, all I think of is "You're turning violet, Violet!" And there are definitely shades of violet in this set!

While I love the Graffiti set, I think Haze has officially overtaken it as a favorite!

All of The New Black sets are available at Sephora, Nordstrom, and Beauty.com. The ombré sets, like Haze, include five 0.125 fl oz. bottles of polish. All polishes by TNB are 3-free, cruelty-free, and vegan friendly! All sets range from $10 to $32.

One of the super smart things TNB is doing is that they offer polish duos for $10 called the Glimmer Twins, where they take the two darkest or two lightest shade from a set and offer those two together! FYI, The two blacks and two silvers from Graffiti are available in these sets!

So what do you think of the Haze set? Do you like it better than Graffiti?

Tomorrow... we go to the beach with The New Black!
Princess Polish

PS: Be on the lookout for more upcoming photos of my nails around my garden, as it's finally getting to be that time of year!

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information please visit my Disclaimer page. Product photos provided by The New Black.

ANNOUNCING: The New Black Week at Princess Polish + a Giveaway

Good morning, everyone! Hope you've had a wonderful weekend so far!

I'm very happy to announce that today kicks of The New Black Week here at Princess Polish!

The New Black is a relatively new presence in the world of nail polish, but I am being entirely honest when I say that their products are incredibly unique. Instead of offering singular polishes, they created specially-themed sets that are highly affordable, yet offer the ability to re-create hot nail trends at home.

So this week, I'm going to be showcasing a different set of nail polishes from The New Black every day, culminating in an awesome giveaway on Saturday. Excited? Me too!

First up is a set that caught my eye right from the start. It's one of the five piece sets from TNB and is an ombré collection.

As you can see, this is definitely an ombré effect at your fingertips. It goes from a black creme all the way to a silver glitter. At first glance, I wasn't sure how this would look on me. The idea of mixing cremes, glitters, and metallics to make the ombré nail effect was a little perplexing. But then I figured... what the heck and tried this one out first.

Holy grail of nail polish... I LOVE it! The colors blended SO well into one another as I progressed from thumb to pinky. In fact, the black on my thumb was a one-coater. When does THAT ever happen? (I apologize for the squishy photo... so hard to get my thumb in there)

Everything dried relatively quickly and I had ombré nails in under 15 minutes. With the polish-mixing technique that is what most of us rely on, it takes me that amount of time to mix two shades. With the Graffiti set, I had five manageable bottles to work with that created an outstanding effect that was not only show-stopping (in one class alone, I had to pass on the polish info at least twenty-five times), but drop dead gorgeous. I honestly felt like a rock star.

All of The New Black sets are available at Sephora, Nordstrom, and Beauty.com. The ombré sets, like Graffiti, include five 0.125 fl oz. bottles of polish. All polishes by TNB are 3-free, cruelty-free, and vegan friendly!

So what do you think of the Graffiti set? Are you excited as I am for The New Black Week?

Until tomorrow!
Princess Polish

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information please visit my Disclaimer page. Product photos provided by The New Black.

101 Dalmatians Theme Nails

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful start to your weekend!

Today is Rutgers Day at my university, a huge open house on all four campuses in which school organizations run various tables and events. There's music, food, and a lot of fun to be had.

I live on Cook Campus, the agricultural campus complete with a farm and greenhouse. It is also where we live with our puppies that are being trained as Seeing Eye dogs. Some of you may remember Pebbles, who came to live with my family and I this past Valentine's Day. For those of you who are new, here is what the seven week old, 7.2 pound Pebbles, a female black Labrador retriever, looked like on the day she arrived:

 

And here is Pebbles today:

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's SUPER PEBBLES! Pebbles turned four months old yesterday and weighed in at 22.5 lbs. She's still petite and small, but she has a really big personality!

So where does the 101 Dalmatians nail art come into play? Well, as the treasurer of the Rutgers Seeing Eye Puppy Club, Rutgers Day has been my event to run for the last two years. Because I'm graduating in two weeks, this will be my last event as a Rutgers undergraduate student. So instead of using our club colors (green and white) and simple paw prints, I wanted to do something really different.

And after checking out a Disney nail art contest (woo Amber!) for some inspiration that's how the 101 Dalmatians Manicure was born!

I used nail art polishes in red, gray, black, and white, as well as Revlon Gold Coin for the details and Sally Hansen Cherry Red, Sally Hansen White On, and NYC Water Street Blues for the base colors.

Here's a shot in which you can see the thumb in better focus. I used Dazzle Dry top coat, which I am currently obsessed with at the moment, and it tried very quickly. (Review of DD coming soon!)

This mani was a HIT at work today, so I'm very excited to see how all of the kids react tomorrow at Rutgers Day.

Hope you all have a great Saturday!

Princess Polish (and Pebbles... and Dakota too!)

Essie Limited Edition: Cosmo's PSS Shimmer

A couple of weeks ago, Cosmopolitan magazine gave away 1500 bottles of a Limited Edition nail polish by Essie. At midnight, a group of fellow bloggers/polish addicts and I entered our information in a form and crossed our fingers that it would arrive in the mail.

Well, the mailman came on Tuesday and dropped off this beauty:

 

Essie Cosmo's PSS Shimmer definitely lives up to its name!

Cosmo's PSS Shimmer (say that three times fast) is a gold glitter nail polish suspended in a thick clear base.

The application of this polish was kind of on the thick side and hard to photograph because it was so jam-packed with glitter! Now don't get me wrong, I liked the fact that this was not a loud gold glitter, like Julep Oscar, but rather a delicate glitter. I just wish it wasn't as gloppy on the nail. It took four coats to be opaque and I recommend waiting until the previous coat is completely dry before proceeding. It would have saved me a headache.

So what do you think everyone? Is Essie Cosmo's PSS Shimmer a shade you'd rock?

Until tomorrow!
Princess Polish

Hump Day Holo: a-England Ascalon

Thanks to a swap with a lovely fellow blogger of mine, The Nail Files, I snagged this lemming and nearly cried tears of joy when I opened the box!

I mean, how could you not LOVE this color? I loved it so much, I had to take a picture of it immediately. That's the shipping box it arrived in behind the bottle.

Dear GOD, look at that holo!

On the nails, it's just gorgeous. Seriously, a-England Ascalon has a nice linear aspect about it, as well as scattered quality, depending on the light. The base of the actual nail polish is pretty similar to Deborah Lippmann Wicked Game/OPI Not Like the Movies/Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy in that it's a gray-lavender duochrome. But the holographic quality cranks it up to 11.

Polishes by a-England are 13ml bottles and available from their official website and through Llarowe. They retail for $12.50 each.

Swatch and Review: Cult Nails Iconic

Today, I have a polish that I have been looking to snag for a while. So when Cult Nails had their $5 sale, I snatched it up immediately!

Cult Nails Iconic is a rich berry polish with subtle flakies suspended in the nail polish, as well as iridescent gold shimmer.

Look at that macro shot! Isn't she lovely? Mhmm.

Iconic applied wonderfully and took two thin coats to be opaque. This was an indoors picture, due to the rain here for three days. Though, I wish it had been sunny. The nail polish was a STUNNER. Really, is there anything Maria doesn't make beautiful?

Swatch and Review: Justice Magnetic Polish in Purple Shimmer

Lady Polish's birthday was April 7th, so I spent most of my time shopping for her at Justice. But what is it that always catches my eye at the checkout counter? Nail polish, of course.

This time around, I noticed that not only did Justice carry magnetic nail polish with a variety of patterned magnets, but there were also glitters. Since everything was 40% off, I snatched up a purple with red glitter and stashed it in my swatch drawer as soon as I got home.

At $8.50 each before the discount for a 0.25 fl oz bottle, considering China Glaze and Color Club's $10 and $12 price tags, respectively, for a 0.33 fl oz bottle.

The nail polish went on pretty smoothly, though was a little thick. That seems to be pretty common with magnetic polishes, though. The magnet was very strong, so strong that you really have to watch how long you hold it, as the polish is literally drawn up OFF THE NAIL towards the magnet. It was crazy to watch.

The color was pretty, though I wish the red glitter was a little more prominent. It also had a little bumpy of a finish, though I suspect a coat of Seche Vite would take care of that.

I liked the star magnet a lot. You can see that I moved it all around my nail to show you the different ways it looked, depending on where you held it. Like most magnetic nail polishes, it takes a little practice.

In the end, at $5.10, the Justice Magnetic polishes were well worth it at more than half the price of the big brands, like China Glaze, Color Club, Nails Inc, etc. The only issue is that you have to either snag a 40% off coupon OR be in the store during the 40% off everything sale. That being said, those sales aren't exactly hard to come by at Justice, as those of you who have younger siblings or children will attest.

Ten times out of ten, I would opt to buy the Justice Magnetic polishes over the kind of found at Claire's, which was such a disaster that I could not even swatch it. Never dried, lumpy, just disgusting.

They offer Purple Shimmer, Purple, Turquoise, Red, and Blue shades.

So what do you think, everyone... will you be trying these out?

Until later!
Princess Polish

ZOYA ALERT: Birchbox Exclusive Blogger Collection

 

This is a limited edition collection by Zoya for Birchbox, so once it's gone, it's gone!

Exclusive - Zoya BirchBox Blogger Collection by Birchbox - now available exclusively on BirchBox.com for $22 with FREE SHIPPING! Three custom Zoya Nail Polish shades designed exclusively for Birchbox - order your trio at BirchBox today.

Hurry - supplies are limited on this special LE collection! But wait! There's a bonus offer!

You will receive 200 Share the Love Points from Zoya.com! 

Forward a copy of your Zoya Blogger Birchbox Trio proof of purchase (confirmation email showing the purchase) along with your Art of Beauty (Zoya/Qtica) Customer Number (you can create a new  account here) to sharethelove@artofbeauty.com. Zoya will deposit 200  "Love Points" into your account, redeemable for free items!

DEAL ALERT: 50% off Instant Cover from Dr. Remedy

 

I've heard pretty good things about this product, especially from those who need to cover tattoos for work. Enriched Instant Cover is available in Light, Medium and Deep. You can order the product through May 1st for 50% off using the code ICSpring2012 at www.remedynails.com.

Swatch and Review: Hot Ticket Petunia

While it may be gray out today in the northeast, this color is anything but.

Back in January, popular cosmetic company TheBalm launched its nail polish line with a collection for Spring 2012. The polish I'm showing you is called Petunia. Now while its namesake is the flower, it reminds me more so of Little Pete's tattoo from the old Nickelodeon show, The Adventures of Pete and Pete!

Here's a picture of petunias from my garden last season:

And here's a picture of Little Pete's Petunia:

Here's the swatch of Hot Ticket Petunia:

Hot Ticket Petunia is a gorgeous coral creme shade of nail polish. It was hard to photograph because it was so bright that my camera went into overdrive. The application was very smooth and opaque in two coats. This is without a top coat.

The finish on Petunia is very interesting. I wouldn't say that it's matte because it's definitely not, but it's not glossy either. It's kind of in-between.

Hot Ticket nail polish is $10 for .5 fl oz. and is available from The-Balm.com.

Swatch and Review: Essence Wake Up and and Walk on Air

Today I have two awesome nail polishes by Essence Cosmetics for review called Wake Up and Walk on Air. They are from the Colour & Go Collection.

According to Essence, the Colour & Go Collection features a flat brush and requires only one application, as well as possesses an extra fast-drying formula.There are ten new colors for the spring, bringing the total offerings of the collection up to 22!

Wake Up is on the left and Walk on Air is on the right.

First up is Walk on Air, a Dodger blue creme. This applied like butter and was opaque in two thin coats. I'm super manic about thin coats, so with one decent coat this probably would have been opaque. At first, I thought this was going to take more than two in order to be opaque, but it layers VERY well. I love this shade because it's a muted blue that I feel like I could wear all year long and not feel like I'm wearing too loud of a color.

And you see how shiny that is? Yeah, that's WITHOUT a top coat. Gorgeous!

This is Wake Up, a bright rust colored nail polish. You may remember this from my New York Sports marble earlier in the week. Again, the application was perfect and even with a thin coat was opaque with one coat. I liked this shade a LOT. First off, it's a richer orange than any other orange I have and feels completely wearable. I didn't feel like I had a neon shade on my nails when I went outside. And you know it's a stunner when Queen Polish and the Queen Mum (aka, my Nana) are fawning over it. 

 

Again, look at how shiny that is! Both polishes dried fairly quickly, which was a plus for someone running after two dogs. Granted, it's usually the nearly four-month old Pebbles who gets into trouble, but it's Dakota who always manages to find some piece of paper to run around the house with. 

There are two things I LOVE about this polish, aside from how beautiful it was. Number one, you can can get the entire collection of 22 nail polish shades for JUST UNDER $22 DOLLARS! Number two, I love the fact that Essence offers all of its products (including polishes, as well as eye, lip, and face products) within the $0.99 to $3.49 range. You can barely buy a gallon of milk for $3.49 these days, so that's super refreshing!

The Essence Colour & Go line of quick drying nail polish retails for just $0.99 and is sold in the United States at ULTA, HEB, and Fred Meyer. It also recently launched in Canada, where it will be available in Shoppers Drug Mart locations nationwide. Please visit Essence-Cosmetics.com for more information on their full line of products.

So what do you think, everyone? Are you going to be on the lookout for these polishes? Or have you already fallen in love? I, for one, have still yet to find Blue Addicted and it is officially a LEMMING!

Princess Polish

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information please visit my Disclaimer page.

Swatch and Review: OPI Grape Set Match and Serving Up Sparkle

Hi everyone! Sorry for the late post... it has been a stressful day at home!

Today I have a duo that I searched for, to no avail, last year, but managed to find at TJ Maxx on sale, along with another duo I swatched a nail polish from earlier in the week, OPI Love is a Racket. So here is the Serena Williams Glam Slam Duo: Grape Set... Match and Servin' Up Sparkle!

OPI Grape Set... Match is a gorgeous royal purple nail polish with blue shimmer that gives it the appearance of a blurple! When pictures of these duos were first released, I knew this was the one I wanted more than anything. And I'm SO happy I got it!

The application was a dream and with two coats, I could not have asked for better opacity.

 

OPI Servin' Up Sparkle is definitely a nail polish meant for layering. If you want to build it up to see if you can ever get it opaque, you are a far braver soul than I am. It was a little tough to take off, but was not the worst I've ever seen. (I'm looking at YOU, Nubar Night Sparkle). Zoya Remove + got the job done. That being said, I imagine it would be very difficult to take off after 8 coats for opacity's sake. *Shudder*

The glitter was a little too sparse for my personal taste (above was one coat), but I loved the inclusion of hexagonal glitter. Hex glitter seems to be very on-trend this year, so OPI was ahead of the curve in 2011.

Overall, I'm glad that I finally managed to get the duo and would definitely recommend Grape Set... Match.

Hump Day Holo: Color Club Wild at Heart

Hump Day Holo is back with my first Color Club swatch on the blog. It's a gorgeous purple holo called Wild at Heart.

This was borrowed from a friend of mine, so I do not have the bottle. But it looks much nicer on my nails than in the bottle!

Depending on how you look at your nails, the nail polish looks either like a super scattered holo or a linear holo. Sometimes, it even looks like both. But do I care which one?

New York Sports Water Marble

It was a weekend full of water marbles for Princess Polish, having rocked the Relay for Life Water Marble Friday and Saturday and a new water marble Sunday and Monday.

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of sports. I love it all. But my two biggest loves in life are the NY Knicks and the NY Mets, the latter of which I am fortunate enough to call my employer. So with the Knicks clinging tightly to a spot in the playoffs and the Mets off to the best April start since I was in high school, I thought it was time to break out the blue and orange.

Selecting the actual polishes to work with was much harder than you would think it'd be. The shades used by both teams are very similar and vivid. So I couldn't choose something too pastel in the orange family and it was difficult to find a blue that wasn't too light or too dark on the spectrum.

The orange was easier to select, since I only have a handful in my orange polish drawer. But the blue... well, it's the heaviest of the drawers. That should pretty much spell it out for you.

In the end, I went with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue It and Essence Wake Up (more on that shade a little later in the week).

I found out that blue and orange are hard colors to marble together because if you're not careful, they'll blend together to look brown. But I figured that out only one nail in and was super careful after that.

This is my right hand all marbled up. Unfortunately, I thought my left hand came out nicer, but managed to crack a nail shortly before I was ready to take a picture. The whole hand looks like my middle finger. So you're stuck with my right for now. Sorry, everyone. This was (Daniel?) Murphy's law at its best. (Mets fans will get that joke)

Now here is the ultimate problem: REMOVAL.

Essence Wake Up applied like butter and came off as easily as it should have. Sally Hansen Blue it made me want to cry. It stained my cuticles to the point I had to take a shower, use cuticle remover, and then soak my hands in warm water. And that was before I even tried to take the polish off. (Confession: I got a manicure so the nail tech had to do that for me. Bless her heart.)

While I love my Mets (Oh hey, David Wright!) and my Knicks (Oh, welcome to the party, old Carmelo Anthony. So nice of you to join us with 15 games left in the entire season.), I don't think I would ever do this again. It was too much of a headache to remove and clean up. I'll just stick to my good, old-fashioned Metsicure.

Although, if the Mets make it to the World Series, I'll double barrier with tape and Vaseline. May this be my problem come October.

Until tomorrow!
Princess Polish

Relay for Life Water Marble

On Friday afternoon, as I sat down to do my nails for that evening's Relay for Life, I was stuck trying to decide what I wanted to do with my manicure. I couldn't pick a shade of purple, the color of Relay. Should I go dark or light? Glittery or creme?

And then I could have smacked myself. Duh. DO ALL OF THE ABOVE!

I picked out Essie Bangle Jangle for the light, Orly Fowl play for the dark and glittery (FLAKIESSSSS!),  and Zoya Mira for the in-between.

After doing a quick coat of Bangle Jangle for opacity's sake, I got to work.

 

And this was the end result. I was really happy with it overall. 

First and foremost, Bangle Jangle was a nail polish dream and applied beautifully. The other colors seemed to play off each other rather nicely and make an impact. My nails were the talk of relay, especially once word got around that they were the reason I was the #2 fundraiser.

I was a little upset at the event, truth be told, because in years past, they had recognized the top 3 individual fundraisers and top 3 teams. This year, they only recognized the top individual, while doing all three teams again. My team, the Rutgers University Seeing Eye Puppy Club (hey Pebbles!), was the top team. And that was awesome. But I was a little sad they skimped out. I really wanted them to mention that I had raised the money in honor of my dad. 

But at the end of the day, the good of what this money did far outweighed my minor disappointment. It only lasted a few minutes. I just hope that the nearly $80,000 raised overall at the Rutgers event really makes a difference in people's lives. I know a lot of you donated in honor of a loved one lost, currently battling the disease, or a survivor. And I thank you for allowing me to honor them on your behalf that night. It was truly a wonderful experience that I will treasure.

Much love and appreciation!

Princess Polish

Cosmetics for a Cure Raffle: The Winners!

Before I go ahead and post the winners, I just wanted to thank you all for your support and generosity! We raised $1831 together and I couldn't be more thrilled!

When I started the raffle with a goal of $500, I would have been happy just to raise that much. But to triple that goal and meet every target I set after was just mind-blowing. So thank you!

I think I'm going to be doing another charity fundraiser at the end of May, beginning of June, for an Autism-related organization. So be on the lookout for that.

Here are the winners!

Start: LE Zoya Peter Som Collection (Jaime Mayer)

$100 - OPI DS Ruby (Shelby Krakoff)

$200 - $10 Gift Certificate to Llarowe (Sydney Spann)

$300 - Butter LONDON The Black Knight (Rebecca Geer)

$400 - Orly Dark Shadows Collection (Casey McNulty)

$500 - Choice of 2012 Essie Wedding or Resort Collection (Katelyn Parker)

$600 - OPI DS Chiffon (Layla Fronz)

$700 - Princess Polish's Favorite Things Pack (includes polishes, nail treatments, and other fun stuff!) (Amanda Huerta)

$750 - Floam by Nail-Venturous (Katie Winters)

$800 - One month of Julep Maven box (Rachael Cavanagh)

$900 - $10 Ulta Gift Card (Emily Flynn)

$1000 - Lynnderella Boy Girl Party (Amy Reason)

$1050 - Deborah Lippmann Dream a Little Dream of Me (Melanie Li)

$1100 - Lynnderella Connect the Dots (Julie Branish)

$1150 - HITS Trendy (Tracie Solarte)

$1200 - Lynnderella Mysterious Ways (Lisa Snider)

$1250 - Nicole by OPI Duo: OMB and Eenie Meanie Marry Me (Virginia Rogers)

$1300 - Lynnderella Very Pretty Vampire (Samantha Krist)

$1350 - OPI DS Opulence (Jessica Dowling)

$1400 - Deborah Lippmann Dream a Little of Dream of Me (YES... ANOTHER ONE!) - Jillean Key

$1450 - Custom Mary Kay Compact  (Amanda Jarvis)

$1500 - Cult Nails Seduction (Jen Nielsen)

$1550 - Essie Shine of the Times (Nicola Murray)

$1600 - butter LONDON Knackered (Mary White)

$1650 - OPI Glam Slam duo: Pros & Bronze/Love is a Racket (Jaci McCoy)

$1700 - Lynnderella Funny Money (Jade Cruci)

$1750 - Cult Nails Scandalous (Heidi Tomlinson)

$1800 - Cult Nails Clairvoyant (Cynthia Cheng)

Bonus: $10 Mary Kay Gift Certificate (Madison Geil)


Please be sure to email me at PrincessPolishBlog@gmail.com with your mailing address so that I can ship out your prizes. Between this raffle and my birthday, I have a TON of prizes to ship out. Some were also donated. As a result, it may take up to five weeks (also depending on your location), to receive your prize. But I promise it will get to you.

Thank you again for the love and support! It means so much to me!
Princess Polish

Freebie Deal Alert: Free Zoya Nail Polish!

 

You read correct! Get one bottle of Zoya nail polish for FREE!

In a special promotion only for th month of April, if you sign up for a new account using this link, you will get one FREE Zoya nail polish of your choice! The coupon code will be automatically added under My Promotions tab! Free polish is literally ONE CLICK away.

AND if you buy 2 or more additional bottles, you even get FREE SHIPPING! Normally, you have to spend at least $55 to get free shipping, so this is a discount of $39! Can't beat that!

Please Note: It is for FIRST TIME users, OR new accounts only.

Click here to sign up and claim your free shade of Zoya! Tell me what bottle or bottles of nail polish you picked after you signed up!

You can also share the link with your friends so they can claim a free bottle too: https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/0104CE19

Swatch and Review: OPI Love is a Racket

Hi everyone! I'm going to post my manicure for Relay for Life tomorrow (once I fix up my cuticles a little bit more hehe), so I'm going to post a swatch of one of the prizes for the Cosmetics for a Cure raffle that ended this more.

Here is one half of the OPI nail polish duo from last summer, Serena Williams Glam Slam: Love is a Racket!

 

I'm not a person who regularly wears reds, but this had a slight blue shimmer to it that makes it perfect for me! I LOVED this nail polish and wore it for a few days before Valentine's Day!

Hope you're all having a great Saturday! Can't wait to announce the raffle winners!

Princess Polish

How to make a Glitter Sandwich!

With the popularity of polishes like Jawbreaker, I thought it would be fun to see if I could recreate the look with polishes I already had.

So I started with the manicure I had on yesterday, which consisted of Lynnderella Boy Girl Party over L'Oreal Sweet Nothings. I figured I wanted to keep in the pink range, but needed a relatively sheer polish to coat it. Enter: Revlon Cotton Candy, a scented pale pink that takes at least five coats to be opaque.

I like how it turned out. It's inadvertently Easter-y, like a speckled egg, but it definitely accomplishes what I wanted to do. I can't wait to try out my next glitter sandwich!

Revlon Cotton Candy is available at most drug stores, including CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens, as well as select Target and Ulta locations. To learn more, you can visit Revlon.com.

So what do you all think? Are you going to try out the glitter sandwich? Post a picture to Facebook if you do!

Be sure to keep an eye on the Cosmetics for a Cure Raffle, to which the new Orly Dark Shadows collection was added, and vote in March Madness!

Princess Polish

March Madness Top 32: Midwest and East Divisions

Kicking off the Top 32 for the Midwest and East divisions.

Game 1:

Online Surveys & Market Research

Image Credit: AllLacqueredUp.com and NailsNeverFails.blogspot.com

L'Oreal Sweet Nothings + a Lynnderella Fix!

If you read yesterday's post, you'll remember how unhappy I was with the application of L'Oreal Sweet Nothings and that I was in need of a way to salvage my manicure.

So I reached for one of the newest additions to my polish drawer...

Lynnderella Boy Girl Party!

Just LOOK at that macro shot!

I think that the softer look of Sweet Nothings really compliments the brightness of the BGP's glitter. It's not SO in your face that I feel like it won't match my outfits for class. But it definitely has a warm-weather pop to it!

Tomorrow, you'll see how I toned it down even more, but discovered something really cool in the process!

Lynnderella is available exclusively through Llarowe at shop.llarowe.com and retails for $15.

And remember, only four days left until the Cosmetics for a Cure raffle ends! We're only $45 away from the Orly Dark Shadows collection being thrown in!

Until later!
Princess P

Swatch and Review: L'Oreal Sweet Nothings

Hello, everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend!

When I first saw this polish in the store, I was on the search for a base color similar to Essie Marshmallow for a french. Granted, it was two years ago and long before this blog began, also meaning my knowledge of other brands extended only as far as my local Harmons.

So I chose a L'Oreal I thought was pretty similar for about $3, rather than the price tag of Essie Marshmallow.

While the name is adorable, I only wish the polish was as nice. It's not so much the shade itself, as the application. It was streaky with three coats and no matter what I did, just would not even itself out. Not even Seche Vite could accomplish that task. I got it to look decent enough for a photo, but not to the point that I'd wear it outside.

L'Oreal is available at most drug stores, including Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS, as well as at select Target and Ulta locations. For more information, check out LorealParisUSA.com.

So it was a polish fail. But just wait until tomorrow... when I show you how I made lemons out of lemonade with this polish. HINT: It involves a lot of glitter!

And remember to please keep sharing on the Cosmetics for a Cure Raffle! I'm a little over halfway to my goal of $500 raised, and we're only $45 away from activating the soon-to-be released Orly Dark Shadows Collection as a prize! All money goes to the American Cancer Society!

Until later!
Princess Polish

Easter Mani Day 6: Top 5 Reader Submissions

Congratulations to all of the ladies who made the Top 5. I received a ton of emails with some beautiful work and I'm sorry I couldn't post them all! GREAT JOB!

In no particular order:

Easter Marble by Diana L.

Easter Patterns by Katee from A Girl and Her Polish

Funky French by Heidi P.

Peeps by Ashley

Bunnies by Amanda B.

Congratulations to the top 5! And a very Happy Easter and Happy Passover to you all!

Princess Polish

Easter Mani Day 5: What's New at the Zoo?

And here is the last day of the Easter manicures that I have done. Please remember to email me your pictures by 8pm EST tonight!

I wanted to go with a rainbow theme for this one, so the end result is below:

 

Clearly, this picture was taken pre-Dad's camera. In fact, it was done back in January and was the hit of where I work! But I still love it a LOT. One of these days, I'll re-do it and post it on my Pinterest page.

There's a panda, a frog, a pig, a hippo, and a penguin. I just wanted something with a lot of animals that was still fun, but it was still art you could wear beyond Easter and no one would know this difference.

If anyone tries to re-create this or change it up, I'd love to see it on the Facebook wall!

Have a great Friday!
Princess Polish