Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm grateful for my family and friends and all the love and support I've received through this tough year.




Inspired by a customer's mani posted on the Vivid Lacquer facebook timeline. Supplies I used for this pond mani: Pipe Dream Polish Lava Lamp stamped with MDU and the leaves from the VL013 plate.

Neon Rainbow Water Marble Nail Art

I bought the A Night in Vegas neons from Pipe Dream Polish in October of last year and finally had an opportunity to use them to do a water marble. I chose a rainbow design and learned how to do it from a video by Yagala on Youtube. She gave some really great tips and her technique is great!

I have worn these since Friday and don't plan to remove them until I absolutely have to. I'm in love!





This is the second water marble I have ever done and I have to say I'm proud of it! Will you try water marbling?

Cupcake Polish: Sweet Addictions September box

Press Sample

September's Sweet Addictions collaborative box from Cupcake polish has a Marie Antoinette theme. Featured guests in the box are Pipe Dream Polish and Serum No5 along with the box's creator, Cupcake Polish. The box includes 2 full sized polishes, one mini polish and a sugar scrub. The box is packaged very well with bubble wrap around the polishes and pink shreds in the bottom of the box. There are also a few business cards included from the brands.



Dauphine is made by Pipe Dream Polish and is a cool toned nude crelly packed with small pastel blue, teal and white glitters. The polish was opaque in two coats and topped with Gelous and KBShimmer topcoat for a smooth glossy look. The formula was good and easy to apply with the flat brush. The cap of the bottle has some texture which makes it easier for me to open and her logo and label are splashy!





Versailles is made by Cupcake Polish and is a lavender linear holo with a smattering of pink and purple shimmer. The holo is very strong even under studio lighting. I used two coats and KBS top coat for the finished look. The formula is very easy to control and applies smoothly. The square bottle allows for easy opening and is adorned with a fanciful label.






Cake Revolution is made by Serum No 5 and is a mini sized vanilla crelly with a rainbow of pastel glitters and gold micro glitter. This polish also glows purple in the dark!
I wore two coats over Illamasqua Scorch. The formula was a little textured due to the gitd pigment which dries quickly so you'll need to use fewer brush strokes and work quickly when applying each coat. The polish has a matte finish so I topped it with Gelous and KBShimmer top coat for a smooth glossy look. I used a flashlight to charge the glow for the glow in the dark photo.






Serum No. 5 also contributed a 2 oz. sugar scrub in the delicious scent of dark chocolate hazelnut. SO in love with this scrub - read why below the photo. :)



Other than nail polish, I'm a bath and body junkie and I love scrubs. I've used hundreds - from commercial to indie; I've even made a few! I've been working through my scrub stash for about two years now without buying more and still have two shelves full. I was super excited to see a scrub included in this box, but also skeptical because I've found my holy grail scrubs already.

And well...this one zoomed right up to holy grail status.

If you're familiar with scrubs, you know that there are a few different kinds: oily, bubbling, and somewhat bubbly yet moisturizing at the same time. Some scrubs contain salt while others are sugar scrubs and then there are also different sized granules of salts and sugars from large to very fine. Some granules are more square and have rough edges, those work well on callused skin but can feel harsh to softer areas. Some granules are rounded and soft which feel amazing to softer areas of skin like the hands, arms and legs.

The Serum No5 scrub has soft bubbles and a velvety cream feel. It contains fine sugar granules which are rounded and feel good on the hands, arms and legs. I tested this with handwashing first and then on my legs. I like to use a scrub on my hands about once a week to help the skin feel soft and smooth and I always use a scrub on my legs before shaving for a really close and smooth shave.

Using a spoon, I scoop about half a melon ball's worth of scrub into my hands. I use a spoon because when other oils and/or water are introduced into the scrub jar it can cause the scrub to go bad fairly quick. Rubbing the scrub into the skin without water first allows the skin to absorb the moisturizing oils in the scrub; this one contains Jojoba Oil and Sweet Almond Oil along with the oils from the soap. After I've rubbed it in a bit, I add a splash of warm water to work up the suds and creaminess from the scrub and when most of the sugars are melted I rinse and pat my hands dry with a towel. After using the scrub, my hands felt moisturized and soft and smelled of delicious chocolate. SO much love for this scrub, I can't even. If you get this box, I'd love to hear what you think of the scrub!


scrub ingredients: Organic Refined Sugar; Shea Soap [Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Safflower Oil, Glycerin (kosher, of vegetable origin), Shea Butter (refined naturally crushed), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), Oat Protein (conditioner), Titanium Dioxide (mineral whitener used in opaque soaps)]; Jojoba Oil; Sweet Almond Oil; Mica; Fragrance; Phenoxyethanol (and) Caprylyl Glycol

The September Sweet Addictions box will be available at the Cupcake Polish shop August 31.

If you've enjoyed this review, please let me know!

Pipe Dream Polish

Press Sample

April had a dream.
It was filled with fantastical color and sparkling mirages.
Some might have referred to such a dream as a pipe dream.
When she woke up she realized this dream and the Pipe Dream Polish company became reality.



April is the founder of Pipe Dream Polish, a place where polish dreams really do come true! She's currently earning her nail tech license and she's a mommy. She must have amazing time management skills to be doing all those things and still takes the time out of her busy schedule to be friendly, kind and caring to others. April even let me choose the polishes to share with you!

When the Pipe Dream package arrived to me I arranged the bubble wrap burritos and snapped a teaser photo for my facebook page. I challenged my readers to see if anyone might recognize the brand without being able to see the labels or the polish. One of April's loyal fans guessed the brand within a minute of the post! Awesome, right?

First is a charity polish called Twigs and Berries that April created to raise awareness of Prostate Cancer. $1.00 from each bottle sold will be donated to the Movember Foundation. Their vision is to have an everlasting impact on men's health.

I used one coat of Twigs and Berries over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (love it when polish names work well a theme!). I chose a light colored base to signify spring and the celebration of new life. Application was quite surprising, I was expecting to dig for the larger dot glitter but I didn't have to! It all just landed there as I polished. I think everyone will be able to apply this awesome chunky dot glitter topper with ease.





Sapphire Attire is a beautiful glitter topper with sapphire, black holo, and sliver holo glitters dusted with holo pigment in a clear base. I chose this polish because the sapphire is my birthstone and I think navy blue goes so perfectly with my favorite color, purple. So this is one coat of Sapphire Attire over CbL Feelings Whoa Whoa Whoa. Yummy together, aren't they?





Home Sweet Home is a multitude of medium and small orange and white glitter in a clear base. The glitter is so plentiful that I only used one coat and at times, was able to do the next nail without redipping the brush! Speaking of the brush, all of these polishes have the flat brush that I love so much!

The first set of photos of Home Sweet Home show it worn over WnW Listening to Blue Reed. I chose blue as a base because the combo reminds of beautiful koi ponds at the Japanese Rose Garden I visited as a kid. My best friend, Graciela, and her family took me there and I'll never forget it. I learned about origami and watched a man as he folded a crane for each of us. Viewed all the beautiful roses and other flowers as we strolled along. Home Sweet Home, to me, is that place in your heart where warm memories live and this polish definitely takes me there.





Next I wore Home Sweet Home over a gradient of Pipe Dream's Electric Soul, SC Dream On, and ChG Pink Voltage. It reminds me of the summer sunsets I watched from the swings in my back yard as I grew up in Texas. Such fond memories were made there. Where is your favorite place to watch a sunset?






Electric Soul. UNF. That is all.

Ok who am I kidding? I have to say more than that!
Electric Soul has several colors of micro flakies, blue, green, and purple micro iridescent glitter, and a touch of color shifting pigment all swimming in a beautiful indigo base. Each ingredient gives the polish depth and adds to its complexity. A breeze to apply and with just two coats it was opaque.





Pink Elephants and Lemonade is one of April's best sellers from what I've read and I can see why! It has hot pink and deep yellow matte glitters floating lazily down a teal river. I wore just two coats for the look below.





Last but not least, a bonus set of photos of Twigs and Berries. I wanted to show off how flexible a glitter topper this is. I've topped the very same mani from the first set of photos with Loreal Berry Nice. I just used one coat of the purple jelly polish and its got a whole different look!





From initial contact with April to wearing the polish, the whole experience was fantastic. I was excited about the brand so I spent some time reading anything I could find about Pipe Dream. I picked up a little tidbit of info that may be obvious to some but it wasn't to me - Did you know that all of Pipe Dream's polish names are derived from songs? Can you guess them all?

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