6 Year Blogiversary Giveaway

Sponsored Prizes

It's been six years since I started my blog! That kinda blows my mind. Many ups and downs have happened along the way, and I have to tell you that things are a LOT different than when I started this crazy ride, but I still love it! I am grateful for all of you, for anyone who has ever visited my blog or looked at a photo. I blog for you, but I blog for myself too. It's been a great constant in my life the last six years, and I look forward to continuing the journey. To celebrate, I'd like to have a little giveaway for my readers!

Four prizes available, one of these will be awarded to four different individual winners:

• One $50 gift card for KBShimmer.com, sponsored by KBShimmer (a US shipping address is needed for this prize)
• One $50 gift card for HarlowAndCo.org, sponsored by Harlow & Co.
• One $50 gift card for Llarowe.com, sponsored by Llarowe
• One $25 gift card for Llarowe.com, sponsored by Llarowe

Rules:

• Open to those age 18 and older, please read all the rules & regulations in the Rafflecopter widget.
• Entries by "giveaway accounts" will be disqualified at my discretion.
• Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below, there are a TON of ways to enter.
• Giveaway ends on Sunday, June 14th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Please click HERE in case the widget does not load.

Thanks for joining me, whether you've been around for one day, all six years, or any time in between! Love you all and good luck!

❤ Kellie

The prizes for this giveaway are sponsored by the respective companies.

Cirque Colors The Metropolis Collection June 2015 Swatches & Review

Hey kids! I've been kinda crazy busy and the weather has been super rainy so I haven't gotten to swatch anything new in a few weeks. :P I did get a teeny bit of sun on Monday though, so I was able to get a few photos done! I have the two new polishes from Cirque Colors, their June shades for the Metropolis collection, a collection of crèmes they add to with new colors every month.

Press Sample

This color is called Golightly, a robin's egg blue crème named after my all time favorite movie character, Holly Golightly from the movie Breakfast At Tiffany's. This is such an iconic, classic color and it's perfect for this New York company's New York themed collection. :) Two easy, perfect coats.

And this shade is called Nolita Lolita, a bright medium pink crème. I find this to be a perfect kind of "daily" pink, not too loud, not too soft, just cute and feminine enough to wear anytime. I had a bit of streaking with this on the second coat, so I used three to even it out.

These will be released on June 1st for $13 on CirqueColors.com. What do you think of these two classic crèmes? Are you more of a blue or a pink person? I'm both!

Love ya!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Zoya PixieDust Fall 2013 Collection Swatches & Review

Hello and welcome :) Today is the last of my PixieDust posts that I never got around to putting up the year they came out. This is the Fall 2013 collection from Zoya, six textured polishes called PixieDusts, now discontinued. This collection might be my favorite of them all so let's take a look at the pretties!

Press Sample

Arabella is described by Zoya as fuchsia, but I think it's more magenta with fuchsia and silver glitter accents. This is different than Miranda from the summer PixieDust collection because of the metallic edge of the glitter. It doesn't dry as "sugary" as some of the other pixiedusts but that's ok. Two coats, very opaque.

Next is fan favorite Carter, which I literally cannot believe I haven't worn before. This is a blackened royal purple texture with pink glitter bits. I LIVE. Two coats.

Chita you've seen from me here, and I still love it. It's a fantastic pine tree green with silver glitter. This is very opaque, I only needed ONE coat. A little thick but not difficult to use. Dries incredibly sugary.

This gal is named Dhara, a faboosh shade of orange with gold glitter. It's darker than the tangerine of Beatrix from summer and not as coral as Destiny, so she owns her place in the PixieDust family. I love oranges, so natch I love this. Two coats.

Sunshine is the name of this gorgeous americana blue texture with silver shimmer. I don't get that name with this color, but it's of little importance because this is such a winner. She is creamy like Chita, but thinner and less glitter dense. This is two coats.

And last is Tomoko, a stunning blingy pale champagne silvery gold texture. It's a bit sheer because I think it might have a clear base rather than a colored one like the others, or just a much lighter one. This is two coats, but I probably should've used three.

As I've said before, since these are discontinued, Zoya is not making any more of them. The Zoya website has them up for sale at the time I am posting this for $10 each, so if you want them, do not hesitate because they won't be there forever. Did you like this little trip down memory lane with the PixieDusts? I love them and am sad they aren't making more colors, this brand really did the texture thing right.

Laters gators!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Zoya PixieDust Summer 2013 Collection Swatches & Review

Hi everyone! I posted about the Zoya PixieDust premiere collection the other day, so I'm continuing with the Summer 2013 collection! These are six textured glitters that are still available on the Zoya website, but the PixieDust line is discontinued so they won't be making any more. When they are sold out they are gone! Gotta grab 'em all while they're there!

Press Sample

First is Beatrix, a tangerine orange texture polish with gold glitter. The name Beatrix always reminds me of the Bride character in the Kill Bill movies, which I love. This is so bright and happy, just perfect for summer. I used two coats.

Destiny is a hot orangey coral texture with sugary looking bits and gold glitter. Oh my. This is so gorgeous and it makes me instantly happy to look at it. The base is kinda jelly-ish so it looks like candy! Two coats.

Next is Liberty, a happy bright blue with silver glitter. The base on this one is very jellyish. A little more sheer than the others but I still only needed two coats. I was afraid this would stain but it didn't on me.

Miranda is described as a rose, it leans kinda dark strawberry for me with silver glitter. This is lovely and looks almost sophisticated. Two coats here as well.

Buckle your seatbelts cuz here comes Solange! It is a gold metallic foil sparkle texture. This is supposed to have a special exclusive to Zoya gold pigment in it, it's stunning. This is a yellow gold, but it leans cool. Two coats of bling!

Stevie is a pale muted lilac with the sugary silver sparkle texture look. This is more of a crème base than jelly, more like the ones in the first PixieDust collection. I think this taffy pinky purple is kinda unique when it comes to textures so I really like it. Two coats for full opacity.

You can get these, for the time being, at Zoya.com for $10 each. What do you think of these shades? Did you get any of them when they came out? If you didn't, which one would you choose now? I still enjoy the texture trend, so these are still on my radar :)

Have a great Memorial Day weekend if you're in the US, if you're not have a great regular weekend!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Zoya PixieDust Spring 2013 Collection Swatches & Review

Hey there! I've got a different kind of Throwback Thursday post for you today. Since Zoya has discontinued their PixieDust line, I thought it was high time that I should put up swatches for them! Late 2012-early 2014 were kinda hard years for me so I was absent from my blog way more than I had ever intended, and that meant a lot of collections got left out :( I apologize to anyone who looked forward to these swatches and was disappointed when I didn't post them around the time of their release, but I hope you will enjoy them now even though they are quite tardy.

Press Sample

When I say discontinued, I mean that Zoya announced they are no longer making these textured polishes back in December 2014, but it looks like they are still available (except one) for purchase on their website. I loved these "regular" textured finish PixieDusts, and their special editions like the Magical PixieDusts and the Ultra PixieDusts which actually made it to my blog already, so I'm sad they aren't making any more. If you want these, you should grab them up soon, I'm not sure when they will be out of stock for good.

First we have Chyna, a ruby slipper red texture polish with red glitter. This had excellent pigment and opacity. I used this polish in this nail art manicure I did for a guest post on my friend Leslie's blog a few years ago and I just love it. These all dry to a matte, gritty textured finish; all swatches are without top coat.

Dahlia is a black texture polish with silver glitter bits. This is less of a jelly consistency than Chyna was. A little thick but easy to apply, two coats.

Next is Godiva, a soft beige nude texture with silver glitter grains. This was a showstopper when it first came on the scene, pretty unique at the time. I think it's so elegant! This is two coats, but you may need three depending on your application style as it's a little thin and not as pigmented as the darker shades.

London is a rainy day grey texture with silver glitter. This name is spot on, it totally makes me think of London skies! This one is unfortunately the only one I can't find on Zoya's website :( so if you are lusting after it you might try Ebay. Two coats.

Here we have Nyx, a periwinkle denim blue texture polish with icy silver glitter. This is a fan favorite and for good reason, it's really lovely! A little on the sheer side, but I only needed two coats.

Vespa is last in this premiere collection, it's a light mint green texture with silver shimmer. I showed you this back in a manicure post I did in 2013 as an accent nail, which texture polishes are great for in my opinion. I love this shade, it reminds me of a spring meadow! Another one that's a bit more sheer, but only two coats.

Chyna is probably my favorite of these just because of the coordinating colored glitter, it just gives it something extra I think. These are available for purchase on Zoya's website for $10 each, at least they are for now. Like I mentioned above, they are discontinued so they won't be there forever. When they are sold out, that's it. Let me know if you will miss the PixieDusts! Or if you are over textured polishes in general, or even if you didn't like them to begin with haha. Or any other opinion at all :)

Thanks for looking!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Nail Polish I Wore In Real Life Vol. 1

Sometimes I forget to wear polish. It sounds ludicrous but it's true. When there is good weather I spend the majority of my weekend days swatching polishes I have gotten for review, sometimes upwards of 40 polishes go on and off my nails in the course of a few hours. It gets tiresome to be honest and sometimes I don't have the energy to put on a full manicure at the end of the day. Then during the week, I blog and edit photos most evenings so that leaves manicures to the last priority. As a result, I have naked nails more often than I care to admit.

I've decided that this is not cool and pretty ridiculous considering the obscene amount of nail polish that I have. I am really trying to be better at actually wearing my nail polish instead of just "trying it on" for swatching. These "in real life" posts are to show off the polishes I've actually worn recently, photographed for evidence or it didn't count haha. So the polishes will be random choices and maybe even ones I've shown before, hope you don't mind.

First is FingerPaints One In A Melon from their spring collection from this year called Picnic In the Park. I picked this up in a Sally Beauty store, where they are exclusively sold, when I was out of town a while back. I am so sad I don't have one near me, it's really tragic. This is a fabulous watermelon pinky red jelly crème. It's got a great opaque formula, this is two shiny coats.

This is Essie Stones N Roses, one of the four shades in this year's Resort collection. It's a peachy muted pink crème. I have a lot of pinks, it's probably the shade I have the most of, but this one just kept kung fu'ing into my mind and I had to have it. I'm so glad I bought it because it's really great. I put a pic of it on my instagram and it's gotten the most likes of any photo I've ever posted haha. This was a tad streaky so I needed three coats to even it out.

And last for this post is OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender from the Hong Kong collection that came out in 2010. I didn't pick this up until very recently though, I saw my friend Zenorah talk about it in one of her YouTube videos the other day and I decided to go put it on, but I realized I didn't have it! Blasphemy! I bought it on Amazon and put it on as soon as I got it in the mail. I like that this lavender is slightly pink toned, it makes it more unique in my collection. Two easy, thin but opaque coats and I'm in love!

Thanks for joining me today! Let me know what you think about these three pretties :)

❤ Kellie

My Picks from the KBShimmer Summer 2015 Collection Swatches & Review

Hay girl hay! Guess what I have in store for you today. Lots o' KBShimmer! They have a massive collection out for the summer, it's made up of three parts for a total of 28 polishes all together. They are all available for purchase today, 5/15. I picked 19 of the shades to show you, so let's get to the swatches!

Press Sample

First up is Lei It Again, one of the seven tropical neon crèmes in this collection. Neons are very hard to photograph so please know these may look a little different from what you would see in person. It's hard to capture them totally accurately. These dry very quickly and with a matte finish, so use a top coat for shine. This faded electric pink was streaky on one coat but was relatively easy to even out with two.

This is going to be a beyond huge post so I'm going to put a jump link to the rest of the swatches here :)

#TBT: My Favorite Black Label OPIs Part 5

Th-th-throwback time! It's the last day of my and manigeek's five-part series of our favorite black label OPIs! I'm happy and sad at the same time. I've saved my favorites for last so I'm quite excited to show you these two. I'm equally eager to see which two Karen picked for her post today, I am the worst guess-er so I'm not even going to try to predict which she's going to show but I'm dying to find out! Her post is located here at the blog beautygeeks, go look!

Jasper Jade came out in the 1996 Rocky Mountain collection for Fall/Winter. I was 10 years old when this came out! I have wanted this ever since I started blogging. I don't even remember how I found out it existed but I wanted it. I finally found it as recently as last December at a decent price on a random nail site. The label is nice and worn so it's definitely an oldie. It's a blackened dark forest green metallic shimmer. It has that watery old chemically formula so it's a bit sheer, but dries so fast there's no reason to fear multiple coats. This is three.

Check out this old-as-hell label! Yaaasss :D

BEHOLD the splendor that is Peel Me a Gobi Grape! This might be my favorite OPI polish of all time. Not. Even. Kidding. It is from the 1998 Painted Desert collection for Spring/Summer. This is a red toned purpley bruise kinda shade with massive amounts of shimmer that reflect coppery orange and bronze. You can't even see the amazingness, it's impossible to translate in a photo. It's very very hard to find, at least at a price you could live with paying, and I looked for it for a long time before I found it on a blog sale last year. Thin but easy formula, this is three coats. I LOVE IT!!!

My poor label must've fallen off at one point so it looks like someone put tape over it to keep it on. No matter, this doesn't bother me one bit as long as it stays on haha.

To recap, here is my 1st post, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Here is Karen's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and last today. Please go check them out if you haven't yet :)

So there you have it folks! Thanks so much for joining me and Karen during this collaboration series, I've enjoyed the heck out of it! I might keep going with the throwback posts, glob knows that I've got plenty of vintage polishes to pick from. What do you think?

Cheers!

❤ Kellie

OPI Soft Shades 2015 Collection Swatches & Review

Hey babes! Are you into nudes?? The colors I mean ;) Neutrals? Bridal shades? Then this collection is for you! The OPI Soft Shades 2015 collection brings us six new light and soft lacquers for the tail-end of Spring/beginning of Summer. Let's see how these stack up shall we?

Press Sample

Act Your Beige! is a milky pale slightly beige cream color. This was pretty streaky for me on the first two coats. This is three, and while you can still see my nail line I'd call this pretty opaque. I like this, even after having to kinda finesse it. I never think that I like the demure nail look until I am wearing it, then I don't want to take it off.

Next is Make Light of the Situation, one coat over Act Your Beige!. It's a stunning crystal-like shimmer and glitter topper, it's iridescent nirvana! This would be such a great bridal manicure, it's a very dainty and delicate look but with that somethin' somethin'. You could build this up on it's own if you wanted to, it's got great glitter payoff.

This gal is called Chiffon My Mind, a shimmery white. The shimmer is sorta duochromey from silver to blue and purple in certain lights but it doesn't really translate to the nail as well as I had hoped. This was quite streaky for me, I used three coats and it still didn't self-level very well. It's kind of a fail for me.

Put It In Neutral is next, another sheer milky shade, but this one is a pinky nude. I love this color, it reminds me a little of some shades in the Color Club Shift Into Neutral collection I showed you not too long ago, maybe a little more feminine. This was a little streaky, better than Act Your Beige! but I still had to use three coats to even it out.

Here we have Petal Soft, a clear based topper with matte pale pink and white hex glitters in different sizes and large matte white flower shaped pieces. I got a good amount of the hexes out upon swiping my nail, but I had to fish to get any flowers. This is two coats over Put It In Neutral. This got a little thick for my taste because of all the coats. I might layer this over something different if I wear it again.

Last is This Silver's Mine, a silver leaning pewter frost metallic. In my notes for this color I have in capital letters "BRUSHSTROKES!" haha. I don't necessarily think brushstrokes are the final word in a polish being crap, at all. This however just doesn't work for me. I like the idea of it, but if only it were smooth! You have to paint your last coat on super perfectly and straight or else it's going to look bad, no buts about it. Two coats.

This collection should be out in stores like Sally Beauty, Ulta and professional salons now, retail price is $9.50 each. I usually end up liking the Soft Shades a bit more than the ones in this collection, but I would say Make Light of the Situation is an absolute MUST have. Seriously, you need it. Let me know what you think of these and if you are into collections like this or if you crave bold colors more.

Love ya!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

Cirque Colors Hustle Swatch & Review

Hi friends! Today I wanted to pop in and show you the newest edition to the Cirque Colors Metropolis collection. May's color is called Hustle it's a yellow chartreuse crème. This had an absolutely perfect formula, which I wasn't expecting because these types of colors are notorious for being difficult. This was opaque in two coats.

Press Sample

You can purchase this and the rest of the Metropolis collection crèmes on the Cirque Colors website for $13 each. What do you think of this offbeat yellow-green babe? I'm head over heels!

Have a great Sunday!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

SuperChic Lacquer High Voltage Collection Swatches & Review

You're going to be positively invigorated by what I've got to show you today! SuperChic Lacquer is at it again, concocting some of the most fabulous lacquers out in the indie polish world right now. Their newest collection is called High Voltage and is made up of 8 neon chrome holographics. Yep, all those three words happen to describe these beauties and it equals GOOD STUFF!

Press Sample

All of these have the same formula so I'll just mention that first. They are incredibly easy to use. They apply like butter and are that perfect consistency between thick and thin so you can easily get super close to your cuticles without getting any pooling or dragging. They were all opaque in two coats; they dry satin-y matte so you'll need a top coat for maximum glossy-ness. I used SuperChic Lacquer's own Marvel Liquid Macro top coat.

Jolt is a blue toned purple. Stunning with a really strong holo rainbow!

This is Live Wire, a lime green. This is perfect for spring!

Here is the first of three blues in the collection, Short Circuit. It's a hot ocean blue that's bound to flatter anyone.

Hot Finger is one of my absolute favorites of the collection, it's a warm rosy pink.

The polish with the best name in the collection is Electrifried, get it? Fried? Haha, I'm an easy to please person ;) This is a slightly mustardy lemon yellow.

Splice is a turquoise blue that totally makes me think of summer and hanging out at the pool!

I wasn't sure I was going to like Reverse Polarity at first glance, but I actually love it! It's a coppery tangerine orange.

Last is Tripped, a radiant blue with a hint of deep periwinkle. This looked pretty close to Jolt in indoor lighting in the bottle, but they are very obviously different on the nail.

This collection goes on sale today, May 8 at 4 pm PST for $10 each on their Etsy site and their website SuperChicLacquer.com. There are a lot of bloggers & vloggers that have a 10% off code for ya, if you search for one you can save a little bit on these babies! Tell me which colors you are loving from this awesome collection! I can't say enough about them, they are all winners :)

Xoxo!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

#TBT: My Favorite Black Label OPIs Part 4

Yay, it's everyone's favorite day of the week again, it's Throwback Thursday! I'm so glad you've decided to join me for another installment of this series, where my friend Karen aka manigeek from beautygeeks and I show off two of our favorite black label OPIs! Have you met Karen? She's from Canada eh and she has the best nails and polishing skills and basically non-existent perfect mutant cuticles. I love her! Check out the first post for an explanation of what a black label OPI is if you're not sure and then let's move on to the picks for this week :)

Blue Moon Lagoon is from the 2003 It's Summer for Shore collection, which was one of the best collections ever. It was full of holographics! If only OPI would do something like that now, the world would be stunned and probably drop dead! This is a sheer light blue holographic. The holo is strong, but it takes quite a few coats to built it up. This is three coats and it could use another even. I don't care though, I love it! I think I got this one in a swap when I was a swapping fiend on MakeupAlley back in the day.

Someone inked over my label! Don't worry tho, it's still legit.

Movin' Out is also from 2003, it came out in the Holiday on Broadway collection (another incredible OPI collection where every polish seriously ruled). I've actually featured this guy on my blog before here, but it deserves to be shown again. Just LOOK! It's a very sheer pinky fuchsia with red shimmer bits and a multichrome flash that turns green, gold and barely blue. I've shown two coats over a black crème here. It's more purple with this base color. What I adore about sheer chameleons like this is that they can look so different depending on how you use them.

Here you get that delicious shift to icy green with gold glimmer. Mmmmmm :)

Let me know what you think about this week's BLOPIs! And if you haven't yet, make sure you stop by Karen's post and see which beauties she's decided to dazzle us with today! We've got one more week to go in this collaboration series, I am so excited to show you the two I've saved for last :D

Catch ya later!

❤ Kellie