Deborah Lippmann - Raise Your Glass

Howdy folks! I wanted to show off a recently acquired polish love of mine, Deborah Lippmann Raise Your Glass. This was created for Holt Renfrew celebrating their 175th anniversary back in 2012. I didn't know who/what that was at first, but I found out it's a Canadian department store. So this was a Canada exclusive polish, making it double hard to find as it was also very limited edition. I finally was able to get a hold of it by purchasing it on a blog sale a while ago, after trying to get it for almost two years, score!

Raise Your Glass is a deep magenta creme that has glorious small fuchsia hex glitters running through it. Since it's a creme rather than a jelly, I find using a ridge-filling base coat helps make it more even, so the glitter doesn't sink into the color as much. I also find it to be a "thirsty" glitter and dry a little flat so I used two coats of top coat to give it a more glass-like surface. This color is darker indoors, almost murky looking, but with the bright sun shining on it you see through the depths and the suspended glitter just radiates. This is two coats.

This was one of my major lemmings and I am so glad I finally own it. I really love how it looks with my skin tone. It's also an interesting color, leaning cool and warm at the same time and the base & glitter color combo is unique to my collection. Lippmann polish usually retails for $18-20 but like I said, this particular one is a little hard to find haha. Have a great weekend!

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Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue

Greetings gorgeous! It's my birthday today and I am officially 28 years old! Yikes! I wonder when I'll start feeling like a "real" adult and not like I'm perpetually 19 anymore... Anyway, I decided to put this polish on today, Pacific Blue from Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear line. It's really beautiful and a cult classic. I haven't owned it until the other day and I can't believe I waited this long to get it.

Pacific Blue is a stunning slightly dusty cobalt blue crème with a perfect formula. It's a one coater but I used two here, per my usual routine. Creamy, dreamy and buttery. I love it!

This beauty has unfortunately been the source of much controversy in the beauty world recently, as SH is reformulating a lot of their Xtreme Wear line and this was one of the first to go. The weird thing is that they are keeping the same names for the colors, which is really the only reason I have a problem with the whole thing. I hear the new formula of Pacific Blue is gummy and thin and generally unwearable. Great polishes get discontinued/retired all the time, but the fact that SH is trying to pass it off with the same name is basically deceitful and unnecessary. It's a "first world problem" but hey, the nail polish community is made up of some very passionate folks! If you're interested, you can read more about it on Nouveau Cheap and watch this YouTube video from YoungWildandPolished.

What do you think of this polish? Do you own it? If you don't yet and you want the original formula in all its glory, be sure to hurry to your local drugstore and pick up a bottle or two. The new formula is darker and has a shimmer to it, you can see pics online I'm sure. Have a great day and cheers to another year for the life of Kellie :D Thanks for coming by!

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Rescue Beauty Lounge Anatomy of a #KDrama Collection Swatches & Review

Press Sample

Hooray, a new Rescue Beauty Lounge collection! This collection is called Anatomy of a #KDrama and is inspired by Korean melodramas. Please enjoy the press release from creator Ji Baek, swatches of all the colors and my reviews below the jump: (FYI, this is a long post)

The Beauty Blogazons Summer 2014 Giveaway - $500 Prepaid Visa Gift Card

Hi friends! Today I am bringing you another awesome giveaway! You have the opportunity to win a $500 Visa prepaid gift card brought to you by The Beauty Blogazons! The Beauty Blogazons are a group of beauty, fashion and lifestyle bloggers that have connected to give away $500 to get you ready for the Summer!

One lucky person will win, you can add your name to the mix by entering the giveaway via the rafflecopter widget below. Open internationally, must be 18 years or older to enter. Ends June 30th at 9pm pacific. Make sure you read all the rules/terms and conditions detailed in the widget.

Good luck!!

**CLOSED** 
The winners have been chosen and emailed! :) Thank you everyone for entering!

Sinful Colors - Blue Crushin

Hello there! I have another Sinful Colors polish to show you today! I decided to take a closer look at them based on my previous experience and found another I had to have. This is Blue Crushin, which I always read wrong as "cruisin" haha.

This deep teal creme has a perfect formula. Smooth, buttery, shiny and totally opaque in one coat. I did two for this swatch though, because of habit mostly. I immediately thought of Rescue Beauty Lounge's Teal when I first saw this but I think it's a bit lighter. I don't have Teal (I borrowed it from a friend when I swatched it) so this is a worthy substitute for me considering the RBL is retired. It's close to OPI's Ski Teal We Drop also, but leans a tad more toward the green side of teal.

You can buy Sinful Colors at most drugstores for around $1.99. What do you think of this color? P.S. I will have swatches of the new Rescue Beauty Lounge collection up this Wednesday, June 18 at Noon edt, be sure to pop in and take a look!

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Sinful Colors Cream Pink + Painted Polish Drunk on Holo

Hi friends! Today I wanted to show you a mani I wore a few weeks ago that I really loved. I used Sinful Colors Cream Pink for my main shade and did accent nails on my thumbs and ring fingers with Painted Polish Drunk on Holo.

I tend to overlook Sinful Colors because I see their stuff mostly as "basic" colors that I already have a million of but sometimes they'll have something that catches my eye. I saw this color on a fellow lacquerista's instagram and knew I had to have it. I adore pinks with gold shimmer and this bright warm toned stunner is really perfect for me. I don't know why they named it "cream" pink because it's a shimmer, duh. This is opaque in two coats, perfect formula. I guess this isn't even new, it's from their core collection. And they are cheap! Usually $1.99 at Walmart, Walgreens, etc.

Painted Polish is an new-to-me indie that I also discovered on instagram. This is a super intense silver holographic glitter. It's like CRAZY blingy, I wish I could convey it in my photos but for real. You need this. The formula was good and it covered really nicely in three coats. You can get Painted Polish on their website for $10.

Do you like Sinful Colors? I need to look at them more often and stop being a snob haha. Have you ever tried anything from Painted Polish? I have already spied a few more of their colors that I need. I hope your weekend is amazing and I'll see you next time :)

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Zoya Magical PixieDust Summer 2014 Swatches & Review

Hi friends! You know how much I loved the Spring Magical PixieDust glitters from Zoya, so I was excited to hear they were releasing more of them! In this Summer Magical PixieDust trio there are three awesome textured glitter polishes filled with chunky holographic glitter bits and plenty of shimmer for us to welcome all that summer sun!

Press Sample

My favorite of the three is Ginni, a light pink. A perfect girly pink. I love how the base of the shade is so pigmented, really ringing that pink through the shade. The glitters in this really bling out with rainbows, but I end up seeing a lot of purple in it and I love it! This is three thin coats.

Next is my second favorite, Bar. It's a light beige nude shade that is just a bit lighter than my skin tone. I love nudes and glittery nudes are even better in my book. This is three thin coats.

And last to round out the collection is Arlo, which to me sounds like a man's name but whatevs. This shade is a light purple amethyst color. I like the shade alright but I don't feel like it goes very well with my complexion. This is also three thin coats.

I found the formula on all of these to be good, not hard to use at all. You can purchase these from the Zoya website for $10 each. What do you think of these chunky textured honeys? I'm into them. I'm pretty sure they're into me too ;) See ya!

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Product samples were provided for consideration.

HARE polish - Elysian Fields

Hi there! Today I wanted to show you a new polish from one of my very favorite indie brands, HARE polish. This color is called Elysian Fields from the Viva Los Angeles collection for spring/summer. It's a teal green with light neon green glitters, subtle blue and gold flakies and shimmer for days. I have a soft spot for greens and the neon glitter just pushed this over the edge for me--I had to have it. I really have an obscene amount of polish from this brand, but I can't help it, I just adore them! This is two coats.

You can purchase HARE polish from their Etsy page for $10 each, or from stockists like Llarowe and Rainbow Connection. What do you think of this beauty? I'm in love!

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Neons by OPI Collection Swatches & Review

Today I have the new Neons by OPI Collection to show you. This is the first time OPI has released a full-size neon collection, they have previously released neons in mini bottles pretty much exclusively. I personally love mini bottles, from most every brand except OPI, their little brush and bottle is a pain in the butt to use. So I was excited to see these six shades were all full sized!

Press Sample

They were released with a white base coat called Put A Coat On! meant to be worn underneath so the colors will "pop" more. I don't really like using white base coats, but I wanted to see if it really made a difference with these colors, so I did these swatches with two coats of white base underneath the ring fingernail. They dry to a satin matte finish so I used top coat for all of these swatches.

First is Life Gave Me Lemons, a neon yellow with green undertones. It's quite bright and was hard to capture on film, as most neons can be, and it makes my skin look so tan. The formula was nice, I used three coats for full opacity. I see basically no difference when used over the white base. I even posted a shot of this on my instagram and asked if people could tell which finger I used the white base on and there wasn't a clear consensus, meaning to me that they couldn't really tell.

I also wanted to show what one coat looks like so here is a shot after one coat, pre-clean up of course. You can definitely tell a difference when it's layered over the white base, but to get fully opaque I needed three coats so I don't feel like it makes a big difference in the end.

one coat, over white on ring finger

Juice Bar Hopping is a beautiful bright vivid orange, not sure if it's a real neon. This one was a little thick but manageable. I love oranges and this one looks very juicy and yummy. Three coats. I don't see a difference when used over the white, although it looks like a little lighter, the pinky looks the same to me so it might just be how the lighting is hitting the different fingers. Trust me, in real life there is no difference.

Push & Pur-pull is a lovely deep bold purple. I wouldn't classify this as neon. It dries darker than I expected. This formula wasn't good, I found it to be very streaky and quite thick. It took effort to get a nice result. This is three coats. I see no difference with the white base.

Hotter Than You Pink is a bright blue toned pink with a bit of shimmer and a purpley blue flash. This is pretty gorgeous and the formula was fine. I used three coats. There is a small difference when used over white, it's a tiny bit more opaque and there's less of a flash.

You Are So Outta Lime! is a bright medium eastery green neon. This is unique to my collection which is cool, I like this. Ok formula, no complaints. Three coats. No difference over the white base in my opinion.

Down to the Core-al is a fiery neon coral with slight shimmer. I love corals and this is no exception. It dries a bit more pink toned than it looks in the bottle. Patchy formula unfortunately. I used three coats. With the white base, the color appears a bit more opaque and not as "juicy", also a tad more orange toned.

Put A Coat On! is a fine white base coat, I needed two coats to get it fully opaque without any streaks. Personally I don't like to have the extra step of trying to cover all of the white base with my polish. I don't really think it makes that big of a difference under any of these polishes. If you did want to use a white underneath, I still wouldn't really say you needed to purchase this one if you already have a good white in your collection. If you do thicker coats than I do you could get away with only two coats of color if you use the white base, but I think three coats of color on their own looks the same. I will say that the white base dries really quickly so that was nice.

You can purchase these now for $9 ($10.95 CAN) each. I believe these are being added to the OPI permanent collection so they won't be disappearing anytime soon. What do you think of this collection? Do you think you would prefer using the white base or not? See ya next time and thanks for stopping by :)

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Product samples were provided for consideration.

Comparison: KBShimmer vs. RBL

I thought that KBShimmer Low & Be Bold looked quite similar to Rescue Beauty Lounge's IKB:2012 when I reviewed it here, so I wanted to do a comparison. I also added in KBShimmer Right as Reign for kicks. Take a look at how they compare!

Press Sample

Low & Be Bold is a bright cobalt blue "near creme", an almost jellylike finish. It's very smooth and shiny. IKB:2012, which came out in the first Rescue Beauty Fan Collection, is a bit darker and more of a creme. It's also harder to manipulate because it's super pigmented. I find it difficult to make the coats even and the result is not as smooth as I'd like. Right as Reign is much darker and has a more purple tone. It has a similar finish to Low & Be Bold, very smooth and shiny. I used top coat over all three.

Right to left: Right as Reign, Low & Be Bold, IKB:2012

You can purchase KBShimmer lacquers on their website for $7.50-8.75. This particular RBL polish is retired but you can purchase other shades from their website for $18-20. Do you prefer one of these over the others? I'm glad I have each of them, but Low & Be Bold might be my favorite of the three.

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Product samples were provided for consideration.