China Glaze Angel Wings and Glistening Snow Swatches & Review

Happy Sunday Funday everyone! Today I wanted to show off two of my favorite glitter polishes to use for accent nails. Both are from China Glaze's 2012 Holiday Joy collection. Whether you have seen them before or if this is the first you've heard of them, I just had to share! I bought both of these from an online retailer a while ago.

This is Angel Wings, a yellowy gold holographic microglitter. This is a very densely packed glitter polish, you could use it for layering with one thin coat but I prefer to wear it opaque. I used three thin coats for this swatch. This dries gritty so you will need top coat. It's a "thirsty" glitter and absorbs top coat like crazy, so I prefer to layer on a really thick top coat like Gelous or Glitter Food first, then I put on a regular top coat over that to get a very smooth surface. You could leave it gritty, it does look cool that way, but I've noticed that the glitter can kinda flake off leaving little glitter trails everywhere.

Next is perhaps the more popular of the two, Glistening Snow, a stunning silver holographic microglitter. It has the exact same formula as Angel Wings, dries gritty and everything. I think silver goes with a lot more colors than gold, so I tend to use this more often as an accent nail. If you don't know, an accent nail is just one or two nails painted a different color or design than the others. I usually do my thumb and ring fingernails. This is three thin coats.

What do you think of these awesome dense glitters? Did you pick them up when they first came out? They are still available on a lot of online retailers if you want to get them. Do you do accent nails? What are your favorite polishes to use for them?

Happy holidays!

❤ Kellie

OPI Skyfall Collection for Holiday 2012 Part Two

I showed you the first half of the OPI Skyfall collection celebrating the 50th anniversary of James Bond the other day and now here are the rest!

This is On Her Majesty's Secret Service. This is a way complex shade, a dusty blue effect that is a combination of a blue, green, and gold microsparkles that duochrome with a slight pink and purple hue and a silvery cast. Very cool! It was quite thin and a bit sheer, but I build it up using three coats to a reasonable finish.

Here is The World Is Not Enough, one of my favorite Bond movie songs. The polish has the same type of interesting microsparkle look as the one above, this time in a taupey shade. The sparkles are in copper, pink, gold, and green. This one ended up being more sheer than I liked, even with three coats it doesn't give the impact I would've preferred.

You Only Live Twice is a beautiful deep pink magenta shade with massive amounts of shimmery glass fleck particles buried within. The flecks bling out in fuchsia and gold and compliment the base shade beautifully. I like this a lot but seems almost out of place with the other colors in this collection. Two coats.

This polish is called Live and Let Die. Unfortunately, my bottle broke in transit so I had to decant what was left of it into an empty bottle. I actually have about 80% left which was lucky because this shade is so amazing! It's a deep dark green with flecks of metallic gold and green. I love this look, almost like a night sky but in green! This is two coats, but you could get away with using one because it's so buttery!

The Spy Who Loved Me is a gorgeous bright apple red with gallons of gold fleck shimmer bits. This one really glows and unfortunately I couldn't capture it's fabulousity in a photo. You really need to see this in real life to get the hotness! Two coats.

This is Goldeneye, on longer nails because I mistakenly left it out when I was swatching the previous 11 polishes from this collection. This is almost two weeks later (see that growth? all thanks to Duri Rejuvacote). This blingy shade is made up of flat flakelike metallic bright gold glitter bits that build up on themselves to produce such a beautiful gilded effect it's unbelievable. It's on that orangey side of yellow gold and it just screams luxury! This is three coats. It can get a bit messy when time to remove, so be careful.

You can buy OPI products in salons and professional retailers like Ulta, Trade Secret, etc. for $8.50 for a 0.5 oz. bottle. So after seeing all the swatches from this collection, which one is your favorite? I think my pick is Live and Let Die. Or maybe Goldeneye. This collection had a lot of solid colors and is a welcome asset to my stash!

Products provided for review.

OPI Skyfall Collection for Holiday 2012 Part One

OPI came out with a James Bond themed collection for the Holiday 2012 season. It marks the 50th anniversary of the Bond franchise and the release of the new Sony movie Skyfall starring Daniel Craig. The collection is made up of 12 shades that are as dazzling and daring as 007 himself ;) Here are the first half for your viewing pleasure.

First, the namesake of the collection, Skyfall. This is a warm, brown toned shiny red creme. I find this a very luxe shade, a bit reserved but rich. It was a little thin so I used three coats. I love how shiny it is!

Next is Casino Royale, which was my personal favorite Bond movie. Another super shiny creme, this time in a plummy purple. I love red-toned purples like this! This one is a little more buttery than Skyfall. Two coats.

Here is the notorious Moonraker, a polish that many of my fellow lacquerista bloggers have voiced negative opinions about in their reviews. I can see why it won't work for everyone, but I actually happen to love it! It's a slightly steel blue silver chrome. It's got a formula that will show every brush stroke you make if you're not mindful, but dries beautiful and soft if you take extra care. Maybe it's because I knew it would be a problem child before I used it that I was able to achieve this look. *shrug* It reminds me of the Essie chromes, but this was easier for me to use. Two coats.

Here is glitter topcoat The Living Daylights. I attempted a gradient effect over Moonraker, but I don't know how successful I was haha. The glitter in this are medium sized hexes in faded colors of silver, gold, turquoise, and orangey copper. Interesting and unique! I love seeing big brands go outside their creative boxes. I just dabbed this on, so it's not really any more than one "coat".

This guy is called Die Another Day, a orange toned bright glowy shimmer. I love formulas like this, glassy smooth, shiny and easy to control. I didn't think I would like this as much as I do, it's really stunning. That shimmer just glistens! Two coats.

And the last of this half is Tomorrow Never Dies, a blue toned purple metallic shimmer. If you're not aware, I have a long standing disdain for blue toned purple polishes, but somehow this one gets a pass haha. It has an ultrafine threadlike shimmer that glistens blue and pink and just makes this baby pop! Uber hot. Two coats.

You can buy OPI products in salons and professional retailers like Ulta, Trade Secret, etc. for $8.50 for a 0.5 oz. bottle. Did you pick up any of the polishes in this collection? Which of these six are you liking the most? I am pretty happy with this collection, and the rest will bring even more hotness to see. Stay tuned for the next half of the collection!

Products provided for review.

A Butterfly Holiday Hoopla Moment

Today's post is a layering nail polish combo that I truly adore. If you follow me on Instagram, you might've seen this mani a few weeks ago. The glitter layer is Hare Polish Holiday Hoopla, from their holiday 2012 duo released in December. It is a mix of red squares, red hexes in several sizes, satin pale pink hexes, gold glitter and gold shimmer in a clear base. The base color is OPI A Butterfly Moment from the new Mariah Carey collection. It's a lovely peachy nude shimmer frost. The frost is very fine and not streaky at all. I think these two lacquers compliment each other so well!

Hare Polish can be found on Etsy and from US stockist Llarowe. You can buy OPI polishes from salons and professional retailers like Ulta, Trade Secret, JCPenney etc. How do you like my glittery combo?

Some of these products were provided for review.

Rainbow Honey 2012 Holiday Collection

Rainbow Honey, one of my favorite indie polish makers, came out with a holiday collection a while ago and I was lucky enough to get to review them. There are four shades that are meant to capture the brilliance of the season.

Annual Emotion is a metallic silver made with "aluminum coated flakes" and a light holographic sparkle. Gorgeous and very festive. A little thick but I expected that with such an uber metallic. This is two coats.

Gilded Angel is the same type of polish as Annual Emotion but in gold. You can pick up the holo a bit more in this as it's a silver color so it stands out. It was the best formula in the bunch, applied very easily. Two coats.

Spirit of Wonder is a while cream base with glitter bits in two shades of blue. There is also a subtle blue shimmer and larger holo hex glitters, but honestly those elements get lost in the thickness of the white base, you can't even tell they're there. In the end the polish looked too chunky and it made it hard to apply. Two coats plus topcoat.

Glittering Rapture is one I've shown you before, in my holiday mani post. This time I layered it over Spirit of Wonder, which ended up looking like I just layered it over a white. It brings out the awesome gold flakes and is a nice contrast to the multi-shaped deep red glitters. This is a bit on the thick side so take care. Two coats.

You can purchase Rainbow Honey lacquers at www.rainbowhoney.com for $10 for a full size bottle or $5 for a mini. Right now shipping is free with orders of $25 or more. Have you picked any of these up?

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.

Elixir Lacquers

I have a few polishes to show you today from Elixir Lacquers. They are an indie brand run by the same gal who has the blog Nail Polish Wars. She has awesome nails btw. This is a new-to-me brand and these are the first shades I've tried.

The first guy is from their holiday selection, called Snowman Suite. This guy has a clear base with smallish satin orange hexes, medium matte white hexes, large matte black circles, and tiny iridescent micro hexes. I wasn't super excited about this in the bottle but I like how it looks on the nail. I'm never going to be a fan of large circle glitters though, haha. This is two coats with topcoat over BB Couture Black Velvet.

Next is Red Nose, which has a clear base loaded with fiery copper orange holographic micro glitter. I was expecting this to be red but it is definitely orange. I had to work to get the glitter to be opaque, but it wasn't as hard as I had anticipated. My swatch shows three coats with topcoat. This is part of Elixir Lacquer's Lov-a-Bully charity bottles, where 10% of each sold will be donated to the Atlanta Bully Rescue, an organization that works to reduce the number of unwanted bully breeds (including pit bulls) in Atlanta and surrounding areas.

Another polish that helps with the above mentioned charity is Happy Tears. This polish has a slightly shimmery royal blue sheer base packed with mini blue squares and medium matte white hexes. I think this would work best for layering but I tried it on its own and I liked it. This is three coats.

Smokey Coat is another Lov-a-Bully polish. A fun part of these is they are all named after and inspired by a sweet pit bull doggy that was rescued by the foundation being supported! This polish is a deep charcoal grey with a dash of silver holographic bits. This one went on like butter, very nice. Two coats here.

Here is Forever Home over Smokey Coat. This polish, also one who benefits the Atlanta Bully Rescue, is named so in accordance with a rescued pets' home that will be theirs forever! It has a clear base with large red hearts, mini blue squares, and medium black & white hexes. I really love this one and it might be my favorite of Elixir's so far. I wish the hearts were a little easier to grab in the bottle but larger glitter is always a challenge. This is two coats.

You can get these and other polishes at their website http://www.elixirlacquers.com/. The full size bottles are $10. It doesn't appear as if they are selling minis right now. What do you think of these? I think it's such a great thing that here Lov-a-Bully polishes benefit such a worthwhile cause, I am such a dog lover! Have you tried Elixir yet?

Products provided for review.

Pretty & Polished Holiday Picks

Hi friends :) My girl Chels who makes Pretty & Polished lacquers and accessories has some new polishes out for the holiday season, here are two of them.

Love Always, Candy Cain is a glitter topper in red and white, 'natch considering the name. Anyone who knows me knows I'm obsessed with peppermint and this time of year it's friggen everywhere and I love it. This polish has small round white and red matte glitter, large red and white heart glitter, medium & large red hexes and large white hexes in a clear base. I used three coats over Cult Nails Nevermore.

This is called Island of Misfit Toys, which I get is a cartoon reference but I just watched Perks of Being a Wallflower (unbelievable film, btw) and they mentioned it in there so it was fresh in my mind when I picked these out. This glitter is a mega hodgepodge of colors shapes and sizes, but it really works. I was surprised at how much I like this. Three coats over Wet n' Wild white.

You can buy Pretty & Polished nail lacquer at their Etsy store www.etsy.com/shop/prettyandpolished. Minis are $4.75 and full size bottles go for $7. I haven't been disappointed by any P&P polishes, and these are no exception. Go check out the rest of her holiday selection on her blog www.prettynpolish.com.

P.S. I know my nails are SUUUUPER long in these picks, cray cray right?! I just cut them but you might see another few posts with them this long. I credit Duri's Rejuvacote.