Link Love

Happy New Year's Eve! Here are links to some great blog posts from some of my friends. See you in 2013!

• exclusive and stunning new cirque / fashion polish


• ready to party hearty / the nail network 


• beautiful attitude collaboration / very emily


• winter round-up / gotham polish 


• a cake inspired mani / the polished perfectionist 

My 2012 Holiday Manicure

I hope all of you have enjoyed your winter holidays! Here's a peek at my holiday manicure. If you follow my Instagram account you might've seen this already. I used Chanel Diwali for the base color. Diwali is a gorgeous metallic pale gold shimmer. The glitter is Rainbow Honey Glittering Rapture, a blend of red and golds and shimmers in a clear base.

You can buy Chanel lacquers at your local beauty counter or online at www.chanel.com for $30, although I got to try mine from the new rental service Lacquerous.com. (I will most likely be doing a post regarding my experience with them soon in case you are interested.) You can purchase Rainbow Honey lacquers at www.rainbowhoney.com for $10 for a full size bottle or $5 for a mini. What did you wear on your nails for the holidays this year? Are you planning on a fancy mani for New Year's?

Some of these products were provided for review.

Jade - Mystic Gold

Hi everyone! Getting close to the end of the year and Christmas, and yay we made it through the "apocalypse"! Glad to still be here ;) Wanted to show you this unbelievable polish from Brazilian brand Jade. This is called Mystic Gold, an uber holographic gold polish. Best gold holo I have hands down. A nice true gold. Fab formula, this is two coats!

I bought this from Llarowe for $7. La la love!

A Few Polishes from Maya Cosmetics

Hi friends! I have another indie polish brand that is new-to-me to show off today. Maya Cosmetics is a husband and wife team that offers unique, hand-blended nail lacquers made with cosmetic-grade pigments and glitters.

Like a Boss, which is one of my favorite sayings ever, is described as a delicate peachy-pink nude with subtle scattered holo. This is a great band-aid-but-better shade for me, very close to my skin tone with a pretty subdued holo shimmer. This is three coats.

Redemption is from the January collection called the Crescent City Collection and all the polishes are New Orleans-themed. It's for the New Orleans Saints fans out there, and even though I don't follow any sports I can appreciate the color combination the team has as it makes a lovely polish. This is two coats of the glitter polish over a black base. This has black glitter in micro and small sizes, with larger gold hexes and holo white/silver squares and hexes. Very fun and yay for team spirit!

Treme is also from the Crescent City collection, named after a neighborhood in New Orleans that is known for its brass bands and mixed culture. I love this so much, it's really gorgeous in real life. It's base glitter color is a brassy champagne and the rest of the glitters are in varying shades. The "mardi gras" colors of purple, green, and gold are all represented nicely. This is three coats. I again stress how beautiful this is, I am really intrigued by it.

Maya Cosmetics is sold on the website http://www.maya-cosmetics.com/ for $9 each. Like a Boss is available now and the other two were sold in a pre-order last month but will be available for sale in January. What do you think about these polishes? Have you tried anything from Maya yet?

Products provided for review.

BB Couture Holiday 2012

Hey friends :) I hope your holiday season is going well and that you are staying warm! I have some new BB Couture polishes to show you today! Some are revamps of previous holiday colors. This one is called Blue Christmas, a selection from the Men's line. I love this guy, it's really gorgeous. It's a cornflower blue jelly with greeny blue and silver glitter. This is two coats.

This is called Santa's Sak, heh heh. I absolutely love this one too. It's a beautiful yummy candy apple red jelly with holo bar glitter and round silver and gold glitter. Fab "jelly sandwich" look with one polish! Two coats here.

This one is from the ladies line, called Icicle. I'm guessing it's a revamp/makeover from the first version that came out, which was more sheer and frosty. This is a definite upgrade, it's a white jelly with silver glitter. Very classic and wintery. This is three coats.

Plums & Sugar is really sexy and gorgeous! It's also a revamp of the previous version, which was frosty. This is pure rich shimmer. Plummy purple with micro silver glitter and firey pinky red glitter bits. This is super shiny and just luxe. Two coats.

This one is Silver Star, one of the brand new holiday polishes. It's a sheer silver holo glitter. It can be a layering shade or be worn by itself. This is three coats. It's a little thick and can gum up so apply in thin coats for best results.

This one is called Gold Bells. It's a frosty champagne holo micro glitter. The base is a little more opaque than Silver Star but I think you could probably still layer this one. This is three coats.

Frosted Gingerbread is a perfect name for this polish. It has a frosty nutty brown metallic base with holo glitter. I don't love this one but it's very seasonal and has a great formula. Two coats.

This one is Under the Mistletoe is a spring green jelly with micro holo glitter. This might be my favorite of the new polishes, it's lovely. I can tell you that the photo doesn't do this one justice, it's stunning in real life. The rich yet bright green makes it really unique. Two coats.

You can purchase these from www.bbnailpolish.com and www.overallbeauty.com for $10.95 each. I want to wish everyone a happy holiday season and be sure to stay safe and hug your loved ones!

Products provided for review.

Lynnderella - Undead Red

This is one of my few Lynnderella polishes. I didn't know if I'd ever get to own one of her beauties but she recently started selling her collection polishes at set prices on Ebay, which is nice for us casual buyers. Some of her limited edition polishes go crazy high, like whoa. This is from her Halloween collection this year, Early Halloween Resurrected. UnDead Red is a "complicated mix of metallic and matte reds as well as holographic and iridescent blue glitters in a red base." I knew I had to get this one when I saw the gorgeous blue popping out from inside the red. This is two coats over BB Couture Univited.

Lynnderella polishes are sold on her Ebay store http://stores.ebay.com/lynnderellalynnderella, the set price ones go for $22.50. Mucho dinero for an "indie", but sorry 'bout it haha. I love it. What do you think of this red beauty?

A Few Picks from Nostalgic Lacquer

Nostalgic Lacquer is the brand I will be featuring today, one of my top indie brands. They are a line of 3-free nail lacquers inspired by things from the creator's past, such as: movies, music, cartoons, iconic figures, or even toys from the 80′s. I am in love with taking ideas and aspects of the past and twisting them until you get something new. Here are a few picks from their collection of polishes.

Bitchcraft is part of NL's Halloween collection, a creepy pea-soupy green jelly with various shapes and sizes of glitters in purple, magenta, blue and black. It's hands down the best Halloween polish I've seen this year! I've never seen a glitter with a base this outrageous, I love it. This is three coats. It has a tinge of visible nail line but the glitter and tint of the base distracts enough that you can hardly tell. This is such a bad ass polish!

This is The Basketcase from the Saturday Detention collection of lacquers, inspired by the iconic 80's classic, The Breakfast Club. TBC is one of my absolute all time favorite movies! I am thrilled to see it as a polish collection inspiration. This girl is a mixture of gunmetal, pink, and burgundy glitters suspended in a clear base. I adore this polish, the combo of pink and grey just really works together and the different sizes and shades of the mix create awesome depth. This is two coats over China Glaze Immortal.

Like Lovin' the Dead is another polish from Nostalgic's Halloween offerings. It is a bright yet soft green creme with various shapes and sizes of white, black and green glitters. I really like this shade and it's unlike any other I have. The small darker metallic green glitters accent the soft green of the base and make it pop even more. Very Halloween apropos. This is three coats.

Rayanne is a part of the My So-Called Lacquer collection of jelly based glitter bomb lacquers, inspired by the 90's teen drama, My So-Called Life. She is a purple based jelly with bright purple, lavender, burgundy, gunmetal, and pink glitters in various shapes and sizes. Awesome! I love how it has so many layers and bits to look at. I layered two coats of the glitter over Cult Nails Nevermore.

Nostalgic Lacquer is sold on their website http://nostalgicnaillacquer.bigcartel.com/ and their Etsy store http://www.etsy.com/shop/NostalgicLacquer for $9.75 each. Have you tried any of their products? What do you think of these? They have a new "New Wave" collection of 80's song inspired polishes out right now and I just know I'll have to try them! Have a safe and happy weekend, and don't get too cold!

Some of these products were provided for review.