ILNP Supernova Swatch & Review

Hey thanks for stopping by today! I wanted to show you an awesome new polish from boutique nail brand ILNP (I Love Nail Polish). It's my first bottle of their polish with their new formulas and their brand new chic-as-hell bottles. They are a hot ticket right now, very popular in the nail polish world.

This is Supernova, one of the new shades from their 13 piece collection of Ultra Chrome Flakie polishes. These are seriously magnificent. They have an awesome color shift and can be worn layered over any color, not just black like traditional flakies. This has an awesome range of colors reflecting in it, you can see blue, teal, green, purple, and a little bit of red and gold on the edges. I layered two coats over Nubar Indigo Illusion.

In the shade photo you can see another aspect of the color shift. Trust me when I say that I couldn't even come close to capturing how awesome this is in real life. You need to see them with your own eyeballs! They lay nice and smooth on the nail too, in case you are interested, little to no texture.

I purchased this from the ILNP website for $12.50. I also bought one more from the collection, so you'll be seeing that on here one of these days. I just can't get over how hawt this is! If you haven't tried these metallic multichrome flakies, you need to get on that bandwagon! Let me know what you think :)

Hope to see you again soon!

❤ Kellie

Nubar Jellybeans Collection

Hi there and hello my friends :) I have another Spring collection to show you today, the bright and vibrant Nubar Jellybeans collection. It includes 8 polishes inspired by those yummy treats we find in Easter baskets this time of year.

First is Strawberry, a delicious milky pink. Very pretty and I like it very much. It reminds me of strawberry milk, yum!

Next is Grape, a medium purple glossy lacquer. The texture of this one was weird, runny but thick and not really a jelly but not a crème. I used three coats and it was still rather translucent.

My least favorite of the collection, Toasted Marshmallow, is a shiny light caramel brown. I feel like this color is very out of place with the rest of these. This is three coats.

Here is Blue Raspberry, a gorgeous milky turquoise blue. This formula was thin but I got it mostly opaque in three coats. I love this color.

And this is Lemon, a super bright cornpop yellow. This one is nicely opaque and shiny in two coats. I found myself smiling when wearing it. It's a very "happy" color!

Blueberry is a vivid bright medium blue. It's got a nice jelly crème finish and dries very shiny. This is three coats.

Kiwi is a flavor of jellybean that I've never come across in a snack bag haha, but this color is truly fun. It's a milky pastel green jelly that has nice yellow tones. I don't have another polish quite the same color, which is nice. This is three coats.

Last is Cherry, an opaque squishy dusty red with orange tones. I don't really feel this is a true "cherry" red, but it is pretty. This is three coats.

You can get these on www.bynubar.com as a set for $64 or individually for $8 each. Hope you enjoyed this review everyone!

Products provided for review.

Nubar Polka Dots

Just a quick post today folks :) I reviewed the white polish from Nubar's Polka Dot duo in this post, but here are both of them together. White Polka Dot has satin opal hex glitters and iridescent tiny glitter. The Black Polka Dot has black hex glitters and tiny black glitter.

I layered the White Polka Dot over Wet n' Wild Black Creme and I layered the Black Polka Dot over Wet n' Wild French White Creme. You can get the polka dot lacquers in a set from www.bynubar.com for $20.

Products provided for review.

Nubar White Polka Dot

Is it really "spring"? Because it's been a freaking winter wonderland for the last few days. I swear we have over 2 ft. snow on my lawn. No bueno. Mostly for picture taking. It's no secret that I am hard on myself and I really hate putting up photos that are not up to my perfectionist standards (yeah like they're perfect, gag) and honestly I tend to hate every photo I take that isn't in direct sunlight. I just don't like how they look in comparison. However I've been really trying to get my lightbox and light set up to work to get some good photos so I can continue swatching with the absence of sun. Not to ramble, just thought I'd let you in on my thought process, and give you a glimpse into how crazy I am. In summation, I hope you don't hate these photos cuz I have obsessed over getting them to look good haha!

Today I wanted to show you this polish, which I've been lusting over for a LONG time. Nubar White Polka Dot is a clear polish with opal/white satiny hexagon pieces and tiny silver and blue iridescent glitter. At first glance you don't see the blue tint to the small glitters but once it's on the nail it sparks to life. I personally love the idea of satin finish glitter, meaning it's non-shiny.

I did a gradient with the glitter over one of the new Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes (which is not out quite yet) called IKB:2012, a vibrant blue jelly. I know OPI has a similar glitter topcoat coming out in their SoftShades collection, but the small glitter is different I believe.

You can get this Nubar polish in a two-pack with it's black counterpart (to be reviewed soon) for $20 on http://www.bynubar.com/, or you can get The Painted Nail's version of this polish called Moon Drops for $12.50 on http://shop.thepaintednail.com/.

Products provided for review.

The Jeans Collection by Nubar

Hi dear readers, hope you are all doing well these days :) The Jeans collection by Nubar is similar to the much hyped Chanel Les Jeans collection, similar in that it basically dupes the three shades completely. I rarely shell out the dough for a Chanel lacquer so I wasn't too interested in the three seemingly ordinary blue polishes, even though there was significant hubbub before their release. I was more than happy to see more affordable dupes come out soon after. Nubar is a brand that I whole-heartedly adore for their bottle shape, color selection, and formula, so I was excited to see their take on the "denim" collex.

Faded Jeans is a light sky blue shimmer. I have to say I don't own any jeans this color and if I did it was probably back when I was in middle school haha. This is two-ish coats, it was a tad streaky. Beautiful subtle shimmer, though gosh.

Boyfriend Jeans is a gorgeous grayed out cornflower blue. It's a perfect jelly crème formula, two coats. This is probably around the color of most of the jeans I wear, standard and casual. Two coats.

Dark Wash Jeans is a deep blue jelly crème, almost peacock in color. I wore this for almost a week, it is so gorj! This reminds me of my deeper colored "nice" jeans, haha. This is my favorite of the collection. Two coats.

The retail price for the set of three is $19.99 on bynubar.com which is cheaper than one bottle of the similarly colored Chanels. That equals awesome in my opinion ;)

Products provided for review.

CosmoProf North America in Las Vegas: Part 1

I am beat. Literally and figuratively. My feet, shins, and shoulders are dying from all the walking and hauling around Las Vegas, more specifically, the CosmoProf North America convention. I went with my bestie, my sister Clarrisa, and we stayed at the Mandalay Bay where the conference was being held. It was overwhelming to say the least, there are a bazillion exhibitors of beauty brands, lots of products to look at, and about a billion and a half people. Not to mention, miles and miles of ground to cover in a short time. I arrived on Sunday morning, and while my sister kindly checked us in, I took off straight for the convention center.

I met up with Jen from The Polishaholic first thing and we went off to explore. Both her and I were a little confused as to what we should do at first, like what questions we were "supposed" to ask the exhibitors and brand reps. It turned out, I mostly got enjoyment out of discovering new brands and products and looking at the new collections from some of my favorite nail polish brands and meeting the people behind them.

I will be posting more pictures soon, along with a more in depth post on the conference and who I met, what I learned, yadda yadda, but here is a bunch of pretty photos for now. (Picture heavy, so they're after the jump.)

Polish Redemption: Barielle Elle's Spell

I had written off the red flakie polish that Barielle put out in their Holiday collection last year, Elle's Spell. It was just too thick and goopy and blech. But then I saw my girl Nailing It on tumblr layer it over a dark blurple, Orly's Wild Wisteria, on Tumblr. Um, WOWZA! I had to track it down again (I had foolishly swapped mine, 'doh!). Polish Pauper was gracious enough to trade with me and I got set layering this baby on everything I could get my hands on! Here is it is in it's original red splendor, one coat layered over two coats of Nubar Sateen.

Have a lovely day dearies :)

Some of the products used in this post were provided for review.

Nubar Spring Garden Collection

Nubar's Spring Garden collection is full of gorgeous soft tones named for beautiful flowers. I can honestly say that I loved every single one of these lovely polishes. Pastels are notoriously hard to control and streaky, but these were not! They covered remarkably well in two coats (expect one) and were easy to paint with. I am ridiculously happy with this collection, it has beyond exceeded my expectations!

White Peony is the most perfect ivory creme. This is the only one I used three coats on. I painted on a coat of Dewdrop, the collection's multi-colored (in soft tones) glitter topcoat, for this and all the other polishes. I liked how it brought out a different tone on each polish.

Pink Lily is a pale but vibrant pink crème. These colors usually look really mod to me, but this one still appears very feminine and delicate.

Baby Sprout is an adorable soft pastel green with a slight sheen, almost a pearl quality. Just darling!

Blue Hydrangea is a sweet pastel blue with that pearl-like quality that Baby Sprout has. I find this so charming!

Earthen is a taupey grey crème with that nice glint of pearl. I was excited to see this one on, and it was different than I expected from the promo images. Very surprising and pretty!

Yellow Primrose is a dainty pale yellow crème. It reminded me strongly of Illamasqua Load, but this is definitely more creamy while that one has more of a jelly texture.

Purple Aster is a dusty pastel purple pearl. This is strongly reminiscent of Zoya's Marley but she was more of a cool lilac while PA has a warmer tone.

Honeysuckle is the token color of the year, the Pantone color of the year to be exact  haha. This cheerful bright crème is really striking and beautiful. It was definitely hard to choose, but this has to be my favorite out of the collection. I'm a sucker for bright pinky crèmes like this.

This collection is now on sale (until Friday 3/18/11) for $39.95 on nubar.com :)

These were provided for review.

Nubar Spring Garden collection Sneak Peek

The Spring Garden Collection

Take a leisurely stroll down the Earthen path through The Spring Garden, the scent of Pink Lily in the air. The fresh colors of early Spring abound, with the soft green of the Baby Sprout, gentle shade of Blue Hydrangea, delicate Yellow Primrose, silky Purple Aster, fresh White Peony, and the lively Honeysuckle, each enhanced with the elegant sparkle of Dewdrop.

Always free of formaldehyde, phthalate and toluene, the nail lacquers in nubar's The Spring Garden Collection are:

Pink Lily – vibrant pink creme

Earthen – subdued earthen grey creme

Baby Sprout – soft pastel green

Blue Hydrangea – muted pastel blue

White Peony – ivory creme

Yellow Primrose – delicate pale yellow

Purple Aster – dusty pastel purple

Honeysuckle – cheerful honeysuckle

Dewdrop – fine glitter top coat

nubar nail lacquers feature an ergonomically designed cap and a 299 bristle brush built for comfort and performance.

xoxo,
kelliegonzo

Nubar Diamont - FINAL VERDICT

Do you remember my review of the top coat by Nubar called Diamont Seal & Shine that was not so good? The once loved and highly sought after quick-dry formula had been changed some time ago and the bottle I had gotten was sadly the "new-bad" batch. I was unhappy with the fact that it never dried, it stayed gooey for ages! It also really lacked shine.

Much to my surprise and delight, the people over at Nubar have gone back to the "old-good" formula! They definitely listen to their customers, like any great company should! The latest bottles have all been replaced and updated to the good formula. I can attest that this top coat is just as good if not better than the other fast dry top coats on the market. I have been testing it out for about two months and really like it. I have never had bubbling, a huge pet peeve of mine. I have never had tip-pull. AND I have never had my polish peel off in sheets, which another well known top coat is notorious for doing. It dries really fast, almost as fast as my go-to topcoat Poshe, and is a hint shinier. The smell is rubbery, but pleasant. I also really love the bottle design, as it is ergonomic. I give it a 9 out of 10! If I could buy it in stores, it would get a 10.

You can get Nubar products like Diamont at bynubar.com :)

xoxo,
kelliegonzo

Nubar Peacock Feathers

This is a swatch re-do, as my previous ones sucked :) Nubar's Peacock Feathers is a gorgeous deep purple with a blue tinge that has a stunning green duochrome.  Very popular color and kind of a cult classic.  The formula is a bit watery so be careful that you don't flood your cuticles. This is three coats.

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Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it :)  I'm very thankful for my wonderful readers.  You make my hobby very fulfilling and I love getting to know all of you!! 

xoxo,
kelliegonzo

Nubar Holiday Jewel Basket swatches

The folks over at Nubar have put out a gaggle of glitz for your holiday enjoyment this year :) Always free of formaldehyde, phthalate and toluene, the nail lacquers in Holiday Jewel Basket offer four fine glitters, two glitter top coats, a classic red crème, Foundation Base Coat, and Diamont Top Coat.

Competition Red is Nubar's classic red crème, a re-promote like a few of these others, so if you missed picking this guy up in your last Nubar order, now is a great time to snatch it up. This red has a great formula, spreads easily with no drag, awesome pigmentation, and is supremely flattering. This is two coats.

 

Pixie Dust is a super delicate sparkly diamond shimmer topcoat. Really subtle but still glam for that sugar frosted look this holiday season. This is two coats over two of Competition Red.

Nubar 2010 is a fantastic flaky glitter, reminding me of fish scales. This color would look amazing over any color, but I of course had to try it over Competition Red. The outcome is ga ga gorgeous, no? Two coats of topcoat over two coats of red.

Grass Green Glitter is pretty but sheer. This level of opacity took four coats.

Silver Glitter on the other hand, is ANYTHING but sheer. Chunky and thick and ridiculously opaque for a glitter. If you like glitter, you'll love this! This is two THIN coats.

Gold Glitter is another super opaque glitter, on the more yellow side of gold. This is two thin coats.

Red Ruby Glitz is my favorite from the collection. It has a colored base, which is usually how I prefer my glitters. This polish is reminiscent of classics like China Glaze's Ruby Pumps. This is two coats.

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I used Foundation Base Coat on all of these swatches.  I've been using it for every manicure since I've gotten it and I like it very much.  It dries quickly and helps my polish adhere.  The Diamont seal and shine topcoat is not my favorite.  It doesn't dry quickly, which is my number one priority in a product that totes itself as "fast drying".  I have heard that previous versions of Diamont were amazing and dry fast, solid, and shiny.  This is a new batch and in my opinion they should go back to the original.

This set goes on sale November 15 for $49.95 on bynubar.com :)

****UPDATE: Today through Nov 30th, save 30% on retail orders of $30 or more with code NOV3030 at www.bynubar.com.

xoxo,
kelliegonzo

These products were provided to me for an honest review.