Sunday, February 28, 2016

Oceanic Nail Art with Grace-Full polish


After my review of the True Blue collection, I was inspired to do a little nail art. I went with an oceanic theme, and used the polish called Barrier Reef Coral as the base. I hope you enjoy it!

xoxoJen's swatch of Oceanic Nail art

xoxoJen's swatch of Oceanic Nail art

To stamp, I used my clear jelly stampers from Aliexpress. They are fairly squishy and have clear handles - such a brilliant idea! I especially like that the one came with a cap.

xoxoJen's jelly stampers

The plates I used are:
Finger Angel V09 for the octopus
Finger Angel V15 for the foamy water design, fish, starfish and jellyfish
Vivid Lacquer 24 for the bubbles

Stamping was done with Mundo De Unas stamping polishes.

What do you think of the sea life motif?

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Destination Duo: Boston Mass


This month the Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Destination Polish Duo is a collaboration with Ever After. Their polishes were based on a photo that Julie took of the lavender windows on Beacon Hill while visiting Boston, MA.

Blue-Blood Brownstone - Brick red linear holo with purple shimmers and a strong purple flash.
I wore one coat with topcoat, the formula was smooth and easy to apply.

xoxoJen's swatch of Blue-Eyed Girl Blue-Blood Brownstone
xoxoJen's swatch of Blue-Eyed Girl Blue-Blood Brownstone

The Lavenders - A purple jelly with scatter holo, lavender holo glitter and red shimmer.
I wore two coats with topcoat and love the squishy depth and red sparks that flash with movement.

xoxoJen's swatch of Ever After The Lavenders
xoxoJen's swatch of Ever After The Lavenders

The duo will also include Ever After Cuticle Crelli in a lavender scent. It will be available for a limited time beginning tomorrow, February 25th through 29th at the Blue-Eyed Girl shop. The box will cost $25 shipped within the USA or $25 with a prorated shipping fee outside the USA.

I love the inspiration photo and I think the polishes were really well executed. I hope you've enjoyed the review and will follow me for more!

Monday, February 22, 2016

Grace-full: True Blue Collection


I have a beautiful collection of Grace-full polishes to share with you! Grace-Full has quickly become a favorite of mine and I'll tell you why. The formula is consistently smooth and fluid. Many of the holos are one coaters. I like the brush and bottle and the creative genius behind the brand, Theresa, is a sweetheart.

The True Blue collection is inspired by nature around Australia. The polishes are available at both the AU and US webshops!

xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full True Blue

All the shimmers and holos were one coat wonders. I topped each with a layer of quick dry top coat. I've used the brand's own descriptions for each color.

Bondi Beach – is of course inspired by Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach or Bondi Bay is a popular beach and the name of the surrounding suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Bondi Beach is a blue based linear holo with a metallic look that flashes green and gold in different lights which gives the polish an ocean look.

xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Bondi Beach
xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Bondi Beach

Cootamundra Wattle is based on the quintessential Australian colours of green and gold as seen in our national floral emblem the Golden Wattle. It is a yellow green-based linear holo with teeny gold holo glitter and gold flakes throughout.

xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Cootamundra Wattl
xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Cootamundra Wattl

Jacaranda Tree – whilst Australia isn’t the only place you will find Jacarandas there are beautiful streets full of petals through Spring. Jacaranda Tree is a linear holo with a lilac base, it has a slight colour shift to pink and a metallic look.

xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Jacaranda Tree
xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Jacaranda Tree

Pink Lake is well based on Pink Lake. Pink Lake is a salt lake in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia. This is a bright pink linear holo with a metallic look.

xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Pink Lake
xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Pink Lake

Daintree – based on The Daintree Rainforest is a tropical rainforest region on the north east coast of Queensland, Australia north of Mossman and Cairns. Daintree is a linear holo green teal with a metallic look and specks of blue flecks throughout.

xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Daintree
xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Daintree

Uluru - Uluru, or Ayers Rock, is a massive sandstone monolith in the heart of the Northern Territory’s Red Centre desert, 450km from the nearest large town, Alice Springs. It’s sacred to indigenous Australians and believed to be about 700 million years old. This polish is a multichrome linear holo with slight metallic look. It moves from red to gold to orange perfectly reflecting the colours of Uluru.

xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Uluru
xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Uluru

For the next two jelly polishes I wore 3 coats each. These would also make for interesting pond manicures or perhaps a topper to a matching cream.

Southern Cross - deep Blue Jelly packed with holographic flakies

xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Southern Cross
xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Southern Cross

Barrier Reef Coral – is a gorgeous perfect deep turquoise base based on the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, with tiny lavender and silver holo glitter and specks of crystal in purple.

I could not get the color exact for my photo, I feel that Barrier Reef Coral is a much richer, more vibrant shade than pictured below. Unfortunately, this is the closest I could get without it being too blue or too green or too dark. This shade really needs to be seen in person for full effect, and is definitely a must have for turquoise lovers!

xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Barrier Reef Coral
xoxoJen's swatch of Grace-full Barrier Reef Coral

I hope you've enjoyed my review and swatches and come back to visit or follow me on facebook!


Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Pink Hibiscus Beauty: Snow Flakies Collection


I had the opportunity to review the Snow Flakies collection from Pink Hibiscus Beauty and it's such a fun collection.
Jes, the owner, grew up in the northeast where they had heaps of snow. To make the winter more fun, she has created the Snow Flakies polish collection where every single polish has flakies in it!
These are all available at the Pink Hibiscus Beauty Storenvy.

xoxoJen's swatch of Pink Hibiscus Snow Flakies

24 Karat Snow- A gold metallic with rainbow illusion flakies and a scattered holographic finish.

xoxoJen's swatch of Pink Hibiscus 24 Karat Snow
xoxoJen's swatch of Pink Hibiscus 24 Karat Snow

Alien- a fuchsia cream with multicolored UCC (ultra chameleon chrome ) flakies and a scattered holographic finish

xoxoJen's swatch of Pink Hibiscus Alien
xoxoJen's swatch of Pink Hibiscus Alien

Rainbow Eclipse - A black cream with pink and gold UCC flakies and a linear holographic finish

xoxoJen's swatch of Pink Hibiscus Rainbow Eclipse
xoxoJen's swatch of Pink Hibiscus Rainbow Eclipse

Frozen Sky- A light blue slightly matte shimmer with blue holographic flakies and sapphire blue/green/cyan UCC flakies, with a scattered holographic finish.

xoxoJen's swatch of Pink Hibiscus Frozen Sky
xoxoJen's swatch of Pink Hibiscus Frozen Sky

We're all a little flakie- A pink and gold UCC topper. (Top coat)
From index to pinky: four coats alone, 1 coat, 2 coats, 3 coats - over Frozen Sky

xoxoJen's swatch of Pink Hibiscus We're all a little flakie
xoxoJen's swatch of Pink Hibiscus We're all a little flakie

I wore two coats with topcoat for each polish except for the topper (noted near photo). The formula was good with no issues to report.

With each collection, Jes has also sent a bottle of her cuticle oil to me so I've been using it for a while now and I can say I really enjoy using it! They smell delicious and absorb super fast, which is important to me since I need to shoot fairly quick after the swatch is done. If you haven't tried her cuticle oil yet, give it a shot!

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Nail Polish Meme

I posted a meme on facebook a few nights ago and so I thought I'd share it here too.

xoxoJen's swatch of xoxoJen's Walgreens Nail Polish Meme

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Nail Art: Dotticure

Is anyone still visiting my blog?

I ask, because I've been absent.
Life is happenng. Adulting is being done. Blog was neglected.
For that, I am sorry.
I expect the coming month to allow me to post more frequently.

With that, how about some delayed nail art from around Christmas time? Maybe I should pretend it's a Valentine's day look..Red for roses and green for leaves?
Either way, it's still cute and was very easy to create!

xoxoJen's swatch of Nail Art: Dotticure with Digital Nails, Indigo Bananas, and Literary Lacquers
xoxoJen's swatch of Nail Art: Dotticure with Digital Nails, Indigo Bananas, and Literary Lacquers

The base color is two coats of Literary Lacquers Stinky Litte Truck from the 2015 Community Collaboration Collection. The dots were created with polishes from the Crème à la Mode winter box - Digital Nails Arboreal, a glass like jade green and Indigo Bananas Scarlet Night, also glass like but red. I used a dotting tool to apply the dots and then topcoated to finish. Easy peasy and all the polishes played nicely together!

I hope you've enjoyed the mini review and will be back to visit me again!