SWATCHES

Alrighty! Are you guys ready to see my swatches?? I'll warn you now, there are alot :P j/k. It's all of the polishes I won from the contest. So there are only 7 polishes, but 3 of them are color changing polishes, so there are alot of photos...but everybody likes nail photos, right!?

China Glaze

Angel Wings - I absolutely love this polish! When I first saw it after opening my package from @thary_xoxo I thought it would be kind of like Fairy Dust, just gold, but it's not. Where Fairy Dust is a silver sparkle, it has a clear base, so it can go over any nail design...Angel Wings has a gold base, so it wouldn't be a good (top coat) glitter polish. So even though this wasn't what I expected it to be, I still love it! The glitter is so dang small it almost looks like sand, or dust! And you'd probably expect a polish like this to need several coats for full coverage, but I only used 2 coats, so I am super impressed with this polish!

Urban Outfitters, Magnetic

Sphere - This color is very pretty, I love the small sparkles in it. For the most part, the sparkles are pink, but when you look at them from different angles they are rainbow colors. The one thing that did throw me off about this color was that in the bottle the color looked more pink than purple, so when I started painting and realized it was purple I was a little confused, plus there is a silver undertone, which isn't to noticeable until you start painting with it.

Intercosmic - This is a nice charcoal, silver. It has the same small sparkles that Sphere does, they look mostly pink, but are all colors of the rainbow. I really like how the magnet pulls out a darker color, but overall I'm not super excited about these 2 polishes.

These 2 magnetic polishes are my very first magnetic polishes. I was really excited that they were part of the prize because I have wanted to test them out for so long, and have debated on buying some, but I could never bring myself to buy any. I love magnetic polish on other people, but the thought of doing it on myself just wasn't enough to make me buy any. It just seems a little to plain...(I know, I'm so picky lol!). 

So my first attempt proved that obviously I didn't follow the instructions to well, because I was left with no design. I didn't shake the bottle very well so the polish was very thin and runny, which meant the magnet didn't leave any design...I decided to start over and before actually trying again I watched some YouTube videos to see how others applied the polish and worked with the magnet. Second attempt was much better! I applied one (thick) coat and then quickly held the magnet over the polish...I did mess up again because the magnet touched the polish and ruined it...but I was getting the hang of it. The only thing that made me not like these so much (which isn't any fault of the polish itself) is that my nail beds are so long and curved, that the magnet could only leave a design on the center of my nail. If you look closely at the photos you'll notice the design didn't show up on my entire nail. So if my nails were shorter, maybe it would work better for me...I do like these polishes and I will keep playing around with them until I find a way to make them work for me. If you have any suggestions or tips on magnetic polishes, I would love some feedback :)

Urban Outfitters

Lollipop - This is the Cutest polish! I love everything about it! :P The sparkles, the color, even the bottle! I've never had such a fun sparkle polish before lol. The pink base of this polish is very sheer, I used 3 coats and it still wasn't very opaque, but I actually like that. The sparkles (as you can tell) are the best part! There are 3 different size sparkles and they are all rainbow colors! The 2 bigger size sparkles are a hexagon shape, which makes them so unique...they're not just circles. I give this polish an A+ :P

Ruby Wings

Eclipse - Eclipse is the perfect name for this polish :) This is a gorgeous blue polish with more of a purple base (which isn't noticeable in the photos). It only took 2 coats to get the full coverage, and it applies so smoothly. 

This is Eclipse in the sunlight, it turns from a medium blue to a dark, midnight blue!

Sweet Rose - This is a pretty baby pink. I applied 2 coats for full coverage, and honestly, I didn't love this color when I first put it on, it made my skin look super pale. But once it changed colors I was IN LOVE!! :P (and I love the way it looks next to the gold cap so I may have to pair it up with gold...).

This is Sweet Rose in sunlight, it changed to a dark, kind of coral/pink. I need a polish that is this color all the time because it is absolutely stunning! :) I could stare at this color for hours! Haha.

Desert Valley - This was the polish that really caught my eye the second I saw it! I was most excited about this one! Which is sad, because this polish was the hardest polish to work with/figure out. The very first picture of this color (right below my description of Sweet Rose in sunlight) was my first attempt with this polish. I painted over a base color of Ulta, Set the Nude, and the reason I didn't like it so much was because it was very difficult to get the polish evenly over my nails. The consistency of the polish is like jelly (and not like jelly polishes). I don't know how many coats I used because I was more focused on trying to spread out the sparkles and make them all lay flat...That is one thing I do really like about this polish though, the sparkles are more like translucent shardes, they aren't all the same size or shape. Which is what makes it so unique and eye catching.

My second attempt with this polish I put it over Revlon, Peach Petal. Both colors I put it over were good choices in my opinion. I really like the way it looks over each color...and you may be looking at the pictures wondering why I don't like this polish...

When I saw it in the sun this is how it turned out...the dark purple it changes to is really pretty, however, you can see every mistake/flaw once it changes colors. And because this polish doesn't apply like a normal polish you can see how thick it is. The second to last picture of this color over the pink is to show how thick the polish is, and how the shardes don't all lay flat...even the picture doesn't do it justice though...I don't ever have many complaints about a polish but this one was just horrible...but at the same time I think it is so pretty! I totally have a love/hate relationship with this polish! So I will keep it and use it, I'll probably just avoid putting my hands in direct sunlight hahaha!!

This was the first time I have ever seen or heard of Ruby Wing polishes, and I am super impressed with them! (I'm talking more about Eclipse and Sweet Rose right now) I love the consistency and the fact that they change colors in sunlight! ...I used to have color changing polishes, but that was like 10 years ago, and they weren't the best polishes. So these colors are super fun and gorgeous! And even though I am disappointed with how Desert Valley looks in sunlight, I do love it in normal lighting.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post and found it helpful if your looking into magnetic or color changing polishes! If you have any questions, comments, recommendations or even some tips please don't hesitate to share! :) And Thank you for taking the time to read this! Have a great night!

CONTEST WINNER!!

Hey guys! I'm excited to share with you today's post because it's a first for me :) But before I tell you about it you'll have to forgive me...the past few months I have really slacked on updating my blog :( I sincerely apologize for that...so you never saw this design (unless you follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram). I'm shocked that I didn't ever put it up on the blog, but instead of kicking myself more than I need to I want to share the design and why I'm so excited about it!

Isn't it so fun!! This has been one of my absolute favorite designs!! I didn't take it off for about a week! :P I did this in between a few of the days of the March Nail Challenge. All I did was paint my nails with Sinful Colors, Snow Me White, and then used a tiny paint brush and my acrylic paint to paint all of the lines :) My left hand was pretty easy to do and it actually didn't take me very long...it was doing my right hand that took alot of time! Haha...so overall I think this took me 2-3 hours, but I had a nail appointment with someone at the same time, so I did have a break from my nails for a little bit...I think doing nails that entire night probably ended up being 5-6 hours :P But I love doing nails so much that sitting for that long, never feels that long to me.

I was inspired to do this design for a contest on Instagram, hosted by @thary_xoxo. The theme (if you can't guess lol) was Rainbows. She had a prize for Beginners and for Advanced nail artists :) I put my design into the beginner category because even though I'm not really a beginner, there were so many good designs in the advanced category, and I had put a few designs into advanced before and was never in the top finalists because there are so many amazing artists out there! ...so to give myself a chance I submitted it into the beginner (I wish more contests had an Intermediate category).

So here is the picture of my entry...one of the rules of the contest is that you have to have a hand written note (in the same frame as your nails) of the contest your entering and your username.

I had completely forgotten all about this contest, because (as you can see in the pic below) the contest didn't end for 5 weeks after I had entered this design. So one day when I was on vacation, I was sitting with my fiance and his family watching a movie, and I had a notification from someone on Instagram. Someone had tagged me in a photo, so I pulled up Instagram and this was the picture I saw! I WON!! I have entered so many contests in the past and have never won anything so I was in shock!!! I was almost in tears I was so excited! (you're probably wondering why I would be that excited over winning nail polish huh!? :P) I immediately emailed her claiming my prize.

This is the prize I won :) It did take her quite awhile to send it to me, but she was in communication with me the entire time so I didn't mind. I was just too excited about winning to be upset about that. Plus, she threw in an extra polish for me having to wait a little bit longer.

My next post will have all of the swatches from this prize so check back later on today! And I just have to give a huge thanks to Thary (even if she doesn't ever see this) I am so grateful to her for sending me so many great polishes! And for hosting the contest in the first place!