Swatch and Review: Milani Color Statement Skittle Nails

Good evening to you all and a very happy weekend!

Over the course of the past few months, I've been doing a lot of nail art with my new Milani Color Statement polishes. I've used blues and reds and greens and sheers... but there are so many more shades in the collection. So to keep this post relatively short and sweet, while having all the colors in a single post, I decided to skittle swatch the polishes. However, I kept them in color groups for easy viewing.

All polish names are listed from index to pinky finger and have two coats applied.

Swatch and Review: Alessandro Bubble Gum

Princess Polish is back in action after a brief break for finals. I am SOOOO glad that is OVER!

Today, I have a polish from a European brand called Alessandro to share with you! Alessandro wasn't available in the US until very recently, so us Yanks couldn't get our hands on it. Now, Alessandro is available here and it is pretty exciting!!!

I was sent Bubble Gum to review, which is a bright pink creme. I'd venture to call it hot pink, in fact!

The application on this shade was great! I used two thin coats to achieve full opacity, but could have probably done with one slightly thicker coat.

It's also a little hard to tell from the photos, but the bottle is square and has an indentation for your finger that makes the bottle much easier to hold. LOVE IT.

Here is Bubble Gum in the sunlight.

Here is Bubble Gum in the shade. It has a little more of a reddish, coral look in the shade and inside.

Alessandro polishes can be purchased at alessandro-international.us, for $12 each. I think that's a little on the pricy side for creme shades like this, which aren't terribly unique. But for some more of the interesting and unique shades, it would be worth it to me.

So what do you think of Alessandro coming to the US?

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: Zoya Summer PixieDust Collection

Happy Saturday, lovelies! As I teased last night on Facebook, I received some amazing blogger nail mail yesterday afternoon from Zoya and I immediately went into swatch mode! Despite the rain!

 

Warning: THIS WILL BE PICTURE HEAVY!

July Julep Maven Boxes Reveal and a CRAZY Deal

This month, Julep is featuring a combination of cremes, pearls, shimmers, and sparkles in their boxes, with four out of the five also featuring a duo of nail polishes with a matching lip vernis.

But the biggest surprise of all was shared earlier in the week on my Facebook page with the news that Julep would be including one of the following glitters (depending on your shipping address) in ALL Maven Boxes!

HOLY STAR GLITTER, BATMAN!

And of course, Princess Polish is bringing you the deal! If you click HERE and enter the code COLOR2012 to sign up, you will receive one of the two glitters above (retails for $14) PLUS one of the Maven boxes (that retails for around $42) for A PENNY! Seriously, $56 worth of products for $.01 and that's not including the bonus freebies Julep always includes.

You can also cancel at any time, meaning you don't have to continue after your July box arrives and pay any more than the penny.

So take a look at the following boxes:

This is my box! I'm not a fan of the nude colors, so I'm probably going to switch. It will be my first time switching a box.

I'm on the fence about which box I'm going to pick instead, but I'm really leaning towards Bombshell because of my love of purple. Although...

I don't think I own any shades similar to Daphne, though I'm not sure I really am in love with Mila or Kate. Kate is the common denominator between It Girl and Bombshell. Downside... no lip vernis. And yet...

I also like Classic with a Twist. I think my main attraction is to Freida. But I'm not sold on Audrey (which will likely be sheer) and can't see myself ever wear Camellia on my lips.

I'm REALLY thinking about Bombshell. Which box would/will you pick?

Princess Polish

Swatch and Review: The New Black Week Day 6 - Typography Manicure

Good morning to you all! Thanks for sticking by me during my sick day yesterday. I still feel a little blah, but at least it's minus the pounding migraine.

Today, I have for you the last set of The New Black for the week. It's more of a nail art set, unlike anything else I have tested out this week, and is called the Times Late Edition set.

Newspaper manicures have become all the rage in the world of nail polish. It's pretty easy and relatively anyone can do it. Unfortunately, there are a few problems.

1) You need to use nail polish remover to do it, leaving an unpleasant smell on your hands or drying out cuticles.

2) The newsprint is from an article of your choosing, but there are bound to be words and phrases you don't want on your nails.

3) Most importantly, THE PRINT IS BACKWARDS! The only way to read your nails is with a mirror!

The typography set, which includes a transfer solution and topcoat, solves this. It includes custom sheets of newsprint with phrases like faith, peace, and believe, printed mirror image style so it comes out readable on your nails. And trust me, if you mess up a few times like I did, it's okay. There are enough sheets in there for at least 40 manicures. I swear.

It also comes with a putty-colored gray that makes your nails look just like a newspaper. I wanted to keep the AWESOME fire gradient from the Runway collection and figured this would be a good opportunity to test out the set on other shades.

It's very simple to do. You cut the print the size of your nail, apply transfer solution all over the nail (don't be stingy with it), place the print on the nail, and apply pressure with a cotton ball so that the print saturates. Thirty seconds later, you're done!

As you can see, the end result was decent. I think with a few more manicures of practice, I could get it perfect. My only issue with the set was that it seemed like I could never get enough transfer solution on my nail to make the full rectangle appear saturated so that the print was dark enough to be visible. I tried to apply the solution over the square when I noticed this, but that was more hurtful than helpful. The harder I pushed with the cotton ball, the more the liquid spread over the paper, so perhaps this takes more practice.

Believe me, I'm going to try this again to get it right because the idea is super smart. That being said, it actually faded with the gradient, so it looked somewhat intentional. Just be sure not to move the print once it's on your nail, as you will wind up with smudged text like on my index finger.

Overall, I think this set has a lot of potential. It just takes a little time to get the hang of.

*SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT*: Be sure to come back to Princess Polish tomorrow, when I'll be giving away a special prize from The New Black. I'm not going to tell you what it is until then, BUT I will say that you should probably go ahead and like TNB's Facebook page to get an early start!

All of The New Black sets are available at Sephora, Nordstrom, and Beauty.com. However, this collection is currently exclusive to Beauty.com. All of the sets, like Graffiti, Haze, Waves, and Runway include five 0.125 fl oz. bottles of polish. Polishes by TNB are 3-free, cruelty-free, and vegan friendly! The sets range from $10 to $32, with the Runway Collection retailing for $32.

Remember to check back in because the fun continues tomorrow with a freebie!
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.

Swatch and Review: The New Black Day 4 - Runway Collection Part 1

Hello again, all! The New Black week presses on with part one of the AWESOME Color Barometer 8-piece Runway Collection.

When evaluating how to write about this collection, I realized that while I could definitely wear a different color on each finger, the first four and last four kind of went together. It's a very tropical feel for the first four shades, which are a pinky coral frost, tomato red creme, tangerine frost, and a bright sunny yellow creme.

This was entirely confirmed when I put them on my nails. Not only are the shades gorgeous, but they scream tropical vacation to me! I felt like an island girl with these nails.

Only the red needed two coats, the others I used three to even out the color and make it more opaque. But with a top coat, it came out perfect.

But was I done? No. When am I ever?

I realized that these four were a gradient waiting to happen and that in the spirit of TNB, what I needed was an ombre on each nail. So I got to work and here is the end result:

Oh MAN, I love this! It's like my nails are on fire... and it almost has a watercolor-like effect. You can't make me take this off!

For those of you who had emailed me or commented on the Facebook page to ask if the whole bottle is gone in one mani, I assure you that it's not. The bottle usage in the picture is from TWO full manicures at three coats per nail. You can easily get somewhere between 8-10 manicures out of a TNB bottle of nail polish from any set.

All of The New Black sets are available at Sephora, Nordstrom, and Beauty.com. However, this collection is currently exclusive to Beauty.com. All of the sets, like Graffiti, Haze, Waves, and Runway include five 0.125 fl oz. bottles of polish. Polishes by TNB are 3-free, cruelty-free, and vegan friendly! The sets range from $10 to $32, with the Runway Collection retailing for $32.

Overall, I LOVED the range of nail polish shades in this half of collection and for a cost of $4 a bottle, I think it's worth it.

Stay tuned for part two 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.

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.