Easter Chevrons

Happy Easter, my lovelies!

For my Easter nails, I used two different sized Chevron nail vinyls over a base of OPI Skull and Glossbones, plus Colors by Llarowe Good Fortune and Smooth Criminal.

I really loved how this came out. It's sparkly and pretty and very springy!

Swatch and Review: Colors by Llarowe Beam Me Up Scotty

I hope that Monday is treating you all well!

I'm unfortunately STILL sick and can't take virtually any sort of medication post-surgery. *Sighs heavily* I hate this weather.

What I don't hate, however, are holo polishes and Star Trek. In fact, when I found out that Colors by Llarowe named a polish Beam Me Up Scotty, I knew I just had to have it!

(In case you've forgotten, I totally fangirled over Karl Urban, who plays Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the reboot movies, at NY Comic Con)

Beam Me Up Scotty is an icy blue linear holo polish, with tiny flecks of turquoise glitter sprinkled throughout. The glitter was a bit of a surprise, but I really like the extra pop it adds!

All Colors by Llarowe polishes are available at Llarowe.com for between $6 and $12 dollars. (The holos tend to run on the higher end of the price range).

Are you ready to be beamed aboard the Enterprise?

Valentine's Day and Anti-Valentine's Day Nail Art

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I'm still recovering from both my surgery and the flu, so I can't stomach any chocolate or other candy. However, that doesn't mean I can't celebrate the holiday with a little sparkle!

When I asked over on the Princess Polish Facebook page what you all wanted to see from my Valentine's Day manicure this year, it seemed lots of you wanted something non-traditional, possibly holographic. So I came up with something that could be both in celebration or opposition of the holiday, depending on how you look at it!

The base color is Colors by Llarowe Dirty Diana with Sinful Colors Black on Black on top.

I thought that the slash of magenta could be something sassy and fierce for a night out with a special someone, but also could be anti-Valentine's Day because it reminds me of a broken heart.

I was really happy to rock this look at least for a day around school and work. Unfortunately, being sick meant I basically was the only one who got to stare at it this week. But oh well! Now you all can see it too!

Would you wear this non-traditional mani?

Swatch and Review: Colors by Llarowe Dirty Diana

Here's some swatches of a lemming I squashed last week when I picked it up in a swap. This shade comes from the Michael Jackson Collection from Colors by Llarowe and it's absolutely stunning!

Dirty Diana is a magenta linear holo that is honestly one of the most vivid holo polishes I have ever seen!

Dirty Diana is currently in stock over at Llarowe for $12! Scoop it up while you can!

Swatch and Review: Jade Mystic Gold

TGIF! And to celebrate, I wanted a little sparkle on my nails. So what better choice than a little linear holo in what I affectionately call Command Gold (after Star Trek)!?!

Jade Mystic Gold is a gold linear holo polish. The above is with three coats, but you can still see some visible nail line. It's just as visible in person as in the photo. Here, it has a marigold sort of tint indoors, but you can see below that it has a much truer gold look in sunlight.

I actually wore Mystic Gold last weekend when, as many of you saw on Facebook, I underwent surgery. I was only allowed to wear nail polish if they could still see my nails underneath and I thought this was a good compromise. The doctors and nurses LOVED it, actually. It was kind of funny.

I have a bunch of different Jade polishes in my stash, though this is the first one I've swatched. Jade is a Brazilian company that makes a ton of different finishes, but my favorite are the holos in the Holografica collection. They're also reasonably priced at a price of $7-$8, which is right on par with a lot of salon brands. 

The only downside is that you can't purchase them in stores, but can purchase them from stockists such as Llarowe. (Link will take you to the Jade Holograficas collection). I know that Llarowe offers free shipping on orders over $50, so with six or seven polishes, you'll get them shipped for free.

What do you think of Mystic Gold? Would you like to see other Jade holos on the blog?

Swatch and Review: Layla Ocean Rush

Here's some holo for this hump day! I'm finally up to doing some swatching again, so while I build up some new posts, check out one of my favorite holos to date!

Check out Layla Ocean Rush!

The above is an indoor shot with three coats. I love how quickly this polish dries. It was ready to go at around 10 minutes, which was fantastic dry time for me!

And here is the same, but outdoor. Ocean Rush truly is a stunner!

I haven't seen Layla Holographic polishes in stores in a few years, but these are still floating around on Amazon.

Up Your Nail and Holo Nail Art

Happy Saturday! Today is my first new post since I've gotten home from the hospital and I'm really glad to say that I'm starting to feel leaps and bounds better than my first day after surgery. My pain is minimal and I'm sleeping through the night, plus most of my nausea is completely gone! Woo hoo!

This post features two of my favorite things: holographic polishes and nail vinyls.

The nail vinyls used to make this manicure were fancy chevrons from Up Your Nail. Up Your Nail is pretty much my go-to store for the vinyls because their prices are ridiculously awesome. These chevrons came in my mystery bag but are 100 vinyls for $2.50. I haven't seen anyone else's prices come remotely close to that!

To achieve this look, I used three coats of Layla Ocean Rush as my base with one coat of a-England Tristam on top. I like the look of the scattered holo on top of the linear holo, though I'm interested to see how this would have turned out with two linears.

What's your verdict on this color combo and pattern? Have you tried Up Your Nail?

Swatch and Review: L'Oreal Masked Affair

TGIF! And in honor of the weekend, I have a VERY exciting swatch to share with you today. It appears that there is now officially a linear holographic polish that is available at drug stores and other national retailers!

And it comes from a very surprising source: L'Oreal!

Masked Affair was released as part of the Dark Sides of Grey Colour Riche collection, which I assume is in honor of the novel "50 Shades of Gray." But whatever the reason, I am incredibly excited that they did!

L'Oreal 701 Masked Affair is a silver linear holo with pinkish undertones.  I used three coats to achieve full opacity, but this dried INCREDIBLY quickly. I honestly could have gone about my day after fifteen minutes and not even remotely dinged it up.

The above photo was taken indoors without a top coat. Please continue to scroll for more indoor photos, a photo with top coat, and an outdoor shot.

Swatch and Review: Orly Miss Conduct

Happy Hump Day!

Sorry my posts have been somewhat inconsistent. I am now officially at my summer internship and our office is crazy busy all the time. I have to say I am so grateful for this job because I never thought, even though I love law, I'd ever be in the position as a lawyer to wake up every morning and be excited to go to work. The old saying "if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life" never appeared to apply to lawyers. But I can safely say that I roll out of bed every morning and can't wait to get into the office. It's a wonderful feeling.

I also knew it was going to be a good job when my boss was wearing lime green polish on her tips and toes. Good omen, right?

Today, I'm bringing you some Hump Day Holo in the form of Orly Miss Conduct!

Orly Miss Conduct is a magenta linear holo nail polish. It has some major pop to it and is opaque in two thin coats. The first time I wore it, I honestly got away with one!

Drool-worthy, I'd say so! What do you think of Orly Miss Conduct? I just love the name, too!

Criss Cross Striping Tape Mani

TGIF, my lovelies! I'm so ready for this week to be over. Aren't all of you?

Today's post is going to be a bit short. It is my first foray into striping tape and I was pretty happy with the end result. I think with a little more practice, I'll be ready for a how-to post!

I used Nfu Oh 61 as a base with Rimmel Black Satin as the top coat. I like Black Satin because it dries with a rubbery texture that is a nice contrast to the linear holo of Nfu Oh.

I know there's a little jaggedness to some of the lines, stupid macro! They're not this noticeable in person.

Is this something you would try? Would you want to see a tutorial?

Top of 2012: Green

Merry Christmas, everyone! I thought this installment of the Top of 2012, bringing you the top 3 greens of 2012, was a perfect way to celebrate!

Zoya claims a spot on the Top 3 with Zoya Ray, a deep pine green metallic!

R. Hobby Cosmetics takes the title for most unique green polish with Twiggy, a gold metallic polish with green hexagonal and microglitter, along with pine green and brown bar glitter. It looks like a forest on my nails!

And how could it be a top 3 without a holo? The limited edition shade from butter LONDON called Fishwife takes the last spot. A dusty blue-green linear holo polish, this was a stunner!

Hurricane Sandy Polish Fundraiser

Hi, everyone! It has been a long time since I was able to post on here. Thank you for all of your kind words of support as we work through Day 7 of no power or heat in my house! I was very fortunate to incur very little damage to my home, with only one tree falling away from our house and a few lost shingles/pieces of siding.

However, it is horrifying to see the devastation only a few miles away from me at the Jersey Shore. The Jersey Shore and areas of Staten Island, Queens, Manhattan, and many other places were decimated by Sandy. While I'm unable to currently travel to these areas at daylight to volunteer because law school has resumed for me, and they are scheduling us for weekends to make up for days lost, I wanted to do my part and raise money to help those in need.

Subsequently, I have created two holographic shades that I'm now selling called Empire Strong and Jersey Strong, with 100% of the profits going to two government-verified charities. The money will be evenly divided between the Sandy NJ Relief Fund and the Mayor's Fund for Hurricane Sandy Relief.

I apologize for the lackluster photos, but as my power is out, all I have at my disposal is my iPhone. I will post better ones when my power returns. For some reason, Blogger is making the photos a little wonky. However, they are accurate on the store page.

Empire Strong is an icy blue linear holographic polish.

Jersey Strong is an electric emerald green linear holo polish.

Empire Strong and Jersey Strong are sold in full-sized, 15 mL bottles for $15 each on the Princess Polish Online Store. If you purchase both bottles, any additional bottles of either ship for free. $1.50 is flat rate for the Hurricane Relief polishes. :-D

I know that these bottles are more than my regular LE shades, but my goal is to ensure that each bottle sold ensures at least $5 goes to each charity. I hope that you understand. :)

Please be sure to pass this along to friends and share on Facebook. I promise to update you with our fundraising progress with each passing day!

With love, gratitude, and well wishes,
Princess Polish

Hump Day Holo Swatch and Review: butter LONDON Fishwife

Happy Hump Day!

Today's polish is a US web-exclusive from butter LONDON called Fishwife!

Fishwife is a dusty sage linear holographic polish with some major pop! It applied incredibly smooth and was opaque in just two coats, which surprised me immensely. It builds up really well.

Here is a sparkle shot so you can see how pronounced the linear holo is in actuality. If you follow my Facebook page, you know that this was stopping people in their tracks inside of a Starbucks. I repeat... INSIDE of a STARBUCKS. They're not exactly known for their bright interiors, now are they?

So what do you think of BL Fishwife? Is it your cup of tea?
Princess Polish

PS: On the subject of butter LONDON, check out my current Breast Cancer Awareness month giveaway, where you can win Disco Biscuit amongst other prizes!

Swatch and Review: Hump Day Holo - HITS Mari Moon Cutie Pie

Happy Hump Day! Hump Day Holo has returned once again, but this time, we're going to holo-fy a color for you. It's a little throwback!

I'm bringing you HITS Mari Moon Cutie Pie, which is normally a blue-purple-magneta duochrome.

See:

And with a little help from OPI DS Shimmer, I have turned into sparkly holo goodness!

Here, you can see the MAJOR POP the OPI DS Shimmer added to the color!

And even here, you can tell the shift in color.

 

This one, lastly, shows just how much duochrome the DS Shimmer pulled out. It's not nearly as much as the original polish, but it's still a gorgeous shift nonetheless!

So what do you think? Would you rock a holo-fied Mari Moon Cutie Pie?

Enjoy your Hump Day!

Princess Polish

Swatch and Review: Hump Day Holo - Nfu Oh 61

Happy Hump Day, everyone!

I'm bringing to you my VERY first Nfu Oh with those scandalous bottles!

It's Nfu Oh 61!

Here is Nfu Oh 61, a silver linear holo polish. When it goes on the nail, it looks pretty flat and just like chunky metal. But then, as it dried... something magical happened. And BOOM! It looked like it does above INDOORS!

And here is Nfu Oh 61 in natural light. It was gorgeous both indoors and outdoors. I had to put a top coat on over the polish, due to its tendency to crack and disintegrate with the slightest brush up against anything.

Truthfully, it's lack of durability was the major drawback for the polish. Though, I'd probably wear it again. Certainly, layering another polish over it didn't hurt.

So what do you think of Nfu Oh 61 for Hump Day?
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.

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?