Elevation Polish - Minneapolish Collection

Well, hello there! It's been awhile. I haven't written a formal post in so long! I swear, I would get my nails all grown out, or moderately grown out and one or two or more would break. Winter is tough for a nail blogger, particularly winter in Minnesota.

 Instagram has been a favorite of mine lately. It's quick and easy and super straight forward. If you don't already, make sure you find me over there, @landof10kpolishes!

Anyway, I have three polishes from Elevation's Minneapolish collection. Of course, this would be a collection near and dear to my heart, considering it's a local theme.  

Lake of the Isles

 Isn't this just a perfect blue? I love everything about this color. The shade, the tone, the texture. It's a wonderful polish all around. It's somewhere between a jelly and a crelly, and I used three thin coats topped with Seche Vite for great coverage.

Yeti Hides in the Minne-apple

That yeti, that beautiful red yeti. Here's a beautiful candy apple red holo that, in my opinion would look great on just about anybody. I used two coats, and topped it with Seche Vite.

The Walker

The Walker is most certainly the stunner of the Minneapolish collection. This color is a dazzling bright purple ultra-holographic polish. It is named after the Walker art center in Minneapolis.

I'm sure you can tell that these pictures were from after all of my nails broke ;-)

That sun shot though......isn't it GORGEOUS???

With the exception of the Red Yeti, all of the 5 remaining colors in the Minneapolish collection are available in the Elevation Polish online store NOW. Take it from me, you'll love the Walker. 

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

Model City Polish - Spring Bouquet Collection

Well folks, are you ready for spring weather? I know I am! 

The new collection titled "Spring Bouquet" by Model City Polish is just the breath of fresh air I was needing. It's a six polish collection, full of colorful, pastel crellys.

I am so impressed with how the colors are the perfect representation of their inspiration.

All six polishes have a nice, sheer formula, with flakes and a soft holo sparkle throughout. I used three coats of polish in all of my photos, with one coat of Seche Vite on top. 

One thing to be said about all of these colors is that if I didn't wait a bit between coats, they tended to grab and make bald spots. Also, I feel like a topcoat is absolutely necessary to smooth them out.

Wanna see what they look like?

Pennyroyal

Pennyroyal is a light lavender purple with dark purple flakes and scattered holo. I love that the flakes add an iridescent flair to this polish.

Azalea

Azalea is a bright pastel pink crelly with dark magenta flakes and scattered holo throughout.

Just look at all those pretty flakies!

Primrose

Primrose is a very cool yellow that likes to look green on me. Primrose is a naughty little polish. She and I fought a bit, when it came time to photograph. This color has golden flakies and scattered holo throughout. My skintone is very pink, so it wouldn't be a personal first choice, but I got a lot of compliments on it when I wore it.

Frittilaria

 Holy crap you guys! It's an orange that I actually like, and I feel like it looks good on me!

Just to give you an idea of how warm my skintone is, someone commented on the "nude" polish I was wearing. I had to correct them and say that it is in fact, orange. Ha.

Frittilaria is a soft orange crelly with orange/bronze flakes and that scattered holo.

Hellebore

Hellebore and I fought a little bit as well. Even still, I really like the look of this lime green polish. It's got subtle yellow gold flakes and holo throughout, just like the rest of the collection.

Himalayan Poppy

This one is my personal favorite! Sky blue with bright blue flakes and holo! You just can't go wrong.

For whatever reason, this color applied easiest for me.

I just love it.

Well? What do you think?

My favorites are Himalayan Poppy (of course, it's blue) and Frittilaria (Holy crap, I like that orange)!

All of these colors will be available from Nina's online shop this Saturday, February 7th at Noon CST.

MODEL CITY POLISH

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Essie Cashmere Matte - Coat Couture

Sometimes, you see a polish on someone and feel that you must have it, immediately.

That's what happened with today's color. Ashley, from Emerald and Ash posted this color on her blog's facebook page, and I knew I needed to have it. You can click [here] to see her lovely nails.

I definitely wasn't expecting this brand new color by Essie to be in a Walgreens I happened to be in yesterday.  It was a right place, right time situation. 

Here's "Coat Couture" and it's part of the Cashmere Matte collection by Essie.

"Coat Couture is a purple leaning grey that has a lovely aqua shimmer throughout.  It's not super matte. I'd call it more of a satin finish. A major bonus for me is that it dried super fast! I put on two coats over a base coat, bumped one on accident and was pleasantly surprised to see that it hadn't been smudged!

Isn't it lovely? I don't normally go for matte polish, but this one and the others in this collection looked unique to me. I'm glad I was able to find it.

Happy Monday, have a great week!

Picture Polish - Tail Feather

Guys. This winter is ridiculous. My hands are so dry, and so are my cuticles. Today's swatch, is mediocre at best...in my opinion. Please do pardon my wretched cuticles...I moisturize, I really do. The polish I have for you today is super lovely.

It's "Tail Feather" by Picture Polish, and my friend Jenne at Polished Pathology nabbed it for me. She knew I'd wanted it for a long time.

I love the formula of this polish. It went on smooth and even. I am wearing three coats and one coat of Seche Vite.
Isn't it beautiful and springy? Tail feather is a mint green crelly with little bits of rainbow micro flakes.

Thank you Jenne! I love this polish!

See you next time!

Northern Star Polish - Let's Get Kraken and Charybdis (or Dat)

Hello there! Are you ready for the weekend? This Friday evening I have for you two polishes from the Northern Star Polish "Ocean Fantastic" collection. I love both of these polishes, and I have seen the other two in the collection and they are just as nice!

A little sidenote about Northern Star Polish...her cuticle oil is really nice and her polish comes in these adorable turquoise boxes.

Shall we get right into it?

Let's get Kraken

This is a lovely green jelly with a holographic finish with multi colored flakes throughout. 

I have on three coats of "Let's get Kraken" and one coat of Seche Vite.

 Charybdis (or Dat)

Here we have a lovely and shimmery dark teal with lots of holo and some gold and green flakes as well. I have on three coats of "Charybdis (or Dat)" and one coat of Seche Vite.

As I said earlier, there are two more colors in this new collection, "Krill me now" and "Marsala".

They are going to be available on Northern Star Polish's Etsy site on January 19th! Do yourself a favor and pick up some "Doctor Yum" cuticle oil while you're at it!

Have a great weekend!

NORTHERN STAR POLISH

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Elevation Polish - SBP MPLS

I've got a quick Sunday SBP Swatch-eroonie for you today!

I was given this polish. It's called SBP MPLS. My dear friend Jenne at Polished Pathology nabbed it for me on the July 22nd restock, which was my birthday. It's fitting because I'm from the MPLS area and the color is pretty dang awesome. I'm sorry, but this color isn't available any longer, but I still wanted to share it with you.

SBP MPLS is a dove grey creme with gold shimmer and blue micro flakes and a lovely holo finish.

It went on amazingly in two coats and with one coat of Seche Vite.

Isn't it beautiful??

Sorry it's been a quiet week around here. Work has been pretty busy and I am finally feeling better after swearing off sugar and carbs this year. Yikes! Gotta get healthy, right? Thanks for checking in today!

Elevation Polish Gradient, plus stamping!

Good evening! I'm writing you a Monday night post to show you my gradient mani I had on over the weekend. I think gradients are a fun and easy way to wear some eye-catching nail art!

The colors I used in this manicure were all by Elevation polish. They are "Tre Crime de Lavaredo" "Sunset Among the Palms" and "Haleakala" 

First I put down "Tre Crime de Lavaredo" as my base, and then sponged on all three colors on top of that.

I think it turned out really nice, don't you?

On top of my gradient I used the Cheeky jumbo "Princess Charming" plate and the gold Sally Hansen color foils polish, they are my favorite for stamping.

Below is a picture in the sunlight, you can see all the holo!

Elevation Polish has a restock coming up on the 7th, will you be picking anything up?

ELEVATION POLISH

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OPI - Fifty Shades of Grey Collection - Swatches and Review

"Sometimes I wonder if there's something wrong with me. Perhaps I've spent too long in the company of my literary romantic heroes, and consequently my ideals and expectations are far too high."

-E.L. James Fifty Shades of Grey

Well, the highly anticipated (for some) movie adaptation of the popular book will be hitting theaters soon. With that said, it's no surprise that there are tons of products out there that are marketing themselves around the movie's release.

I was in a Cosmoprof store and saw that they had the new Fifty Shades OPI collection set up. For some reason, I felt like I needed to have them. There are six polishes, and I wasn't really prepared to get six OPI polishes today. That's where the boxed set of mini bottles comes in, for a really great price.

Ready to see?

At first glance, it seems like a pretty unassuming collection. I mean, it's four variations of the color grey (of course) a red and a glitter. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the colors in this group of polishes.

My Silk Tie

"My Silk Tie" is a silver metallic polish. It looks very similar to Push and Shove, from an earlier OPI collection. It's pretty, but metallic silver doesn't knock my socks off. 

In my pictures I have on 3 coats of "My Silk Tie" and one coat of Seche Vite.

Dark Side of the Mood

"Dark Side of the Mood" is a dark grey that leans just a teeeeeeny bit blue and has a very soft silver shimmer that would absolutely not cooperate. This one definitely needs three coats.

I have on three coats of polish and one coat of Seche Vite in my pictures.

Romantically Involved

"Romantically Involved" is, in my opinion a perfectly balanced red. It doesn't lean red violet, and it doesn't lean orange. It's just a tiny little bit too dark to be a primary red. It applied like a dream. I have on two coats of "Romantically Involved" and one coat of Seche Vite.

Embrace the Gray

"Embrace the Gray" is a slightly blue leaning medium gray creme polish. I had a little bit of trouble with application on this one. I am thinking it could be because I was using a mini bottle, but it got a little streaky and didn't level out well on its own. Even after topcoat, I felt like it didn't get totally smooth.

In my pictures I have on three coats of "Embrace the Gray" and one coat of Seche Vite.

Shine for Me

Shine for me is a clear based glitter polish filled with royal blue micro-glitter and lots of silver shimmer. I used it alone, but I think that this color would look great with tons of different colors as a topper. Application was great, I felt like all that tiny glitter spread out very easily.

I have on three coats of "Shine for Me" and one coat of Seche Vite.

Cement the Deal

"Cement the Deal" is a light dove gray creme polish. Okay. This one. This polish was the troublemaker of the group. Like I said earlier, the problem could have been the brush or the mini bottle, but the way this polish applied left something to be desired. It wouldn't level out on its own. I also needed two coats of topcoat to get it to look like it does in my pictures. So, that makes three coats of polish and TWO coats of Seche Vite. Gloopy Gloop. I don't think that this color is redeeming enough to make up for its weird application.

So, what do you think? All in all, the collection is pretty nice. There were a couple that I could take or leave, but I like the rest.  

My favorites? Romantically Involved and Dark Side of the Mood, for sure. 

Will you be jumping on the Fifty Shades of Grey bandwagon too?