LLPT's Best Nails of 2014!!

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LLPT's Best Nails of 2014

  Ahhhh!!  I finally feel like I'm emerging from the tornado of activity and subsequent mini hibernation that has composed the last five days.  C and I are fortunate to have the next few days off so we slept in until 11ish yesterday and 10ish today (and I'm sure a nap is in order, again).  Hosting Christmas dinner is a LOT of work, especially when both of us have full time jobs and especially when I'm stubborn and insist on doing it all myself... Thankful for a mom who understands the work and brought over one of my favorite desserts and appetizers to supplement (as well as a Christmas chicken... thanks, Dad).  Anyhoo, time marches on, New Year's is imminent, and my nails are roached.  Sounds like a perfect opportunity to list my favorite nail polishes of 2014, no?

Halloween Nails featuring Glam Polish

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  Hi everyone!!  One fabulous Halloween nail look has been jumping out at me this year, and that is the light green base paired with a bold glitter.  You all know I'm not really a glitter person, but what better time than Halloween to step outside your norm and be a little different?  I was stoked to find I had a perfect pairing in my stash-- Glam Polish Tinker Bell, a super shimmery spring green, and Glam Polish Graveyard Smash, a bright mix of red, purple, and kelly green glitters.

Halloween Nails featuring Glam Polish

Glam Polish Pixie Hollow (partial)

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Hello everyone!!  One of the things to think about when perusing new collections from international artists is their time and their season.  While we US and European gals are in the thick of winter, other parts of the globe are experiencing their summer right now.  That would make the introduction of Aussie based Glam Polish's Pixie Hollow collection a late spring release and summer collection.  This set of five bright and shimmery shades is sunny weather perfect and makes me excited for June, but it's also a fun and colorful break from the glitz and the drama of the holidays.  I've been having a blast playing around with three of them.

Happy New Year!! Glam Polish Cast A Spell (partial)

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Happy New Year!!  C's been sick for the last week but we stayed up through midnight and rung in 2014 singing to the BeeGees on youtube karaoke, lol.  The best thing about not partying down on new Year's Eve is waking up feeling great, ready to face the day.  I've got lots of prettiness to share with you all within the coming weeks!  I mentioned a couple days ago that there's much awesomeness coming from Glam Polish lately, and the gorgeous Cast A Spell collection is a huge part of that.  I've got two from this mesmerizing collection to share today.

Cast A Spell is a set of five monochromatic scattered holo-shimmer-glitters in tonal jelly bases.  The effect is multidimensionally twinkly, almost glassfleck-like, and as if you're gazing into into a deep and mystical pool.  There's a LOT going on in these, but for all the busyness, the tone on tone quality makes them elegant and very wearable.  These polishes are truly something else.

Conjuring is a dark kelly green.

LLPT's Best of 2013!! Indie Polishes

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Hi everyone!!  Before I get into it today I just want to chat about something happening in the blogging community right now.  I'm not a nail artist but I do know this-- crediting is important.  Whenever you take a design or technique that you found on the web and recreate it on your own blog/channel/IG/whatever, you credit and link back to the source of inspiration.  It's the decent thing to do and moreover, it's illegal not to.  When a big, well known blogging entity takes that and throws it out the window it is a big deal.  And for those of you who think it's okay,  check your references and consider that spending more time deleting and blocking anyone who suggests your designs aren't original than actually addressing the issue is as big an admission of guilt as anything.  No one is too big to credit, to follow the law, to be a decent person.  Here's a link to a video made by blogger/vlogger Zenorah fully addressing this issue that I shared on my fb yesterday, if you're interested.

Okay, moving on to my next installment of my favorite polishes of 2013... This was the year I had the opportunity to be immersed in the world of indie polishes.  I got to play around with some international as well as domestic brands and the things that impressed me the most are the sheer quality of these polishes (it seems a lesson in testing your product before marketing has been taken to heart by many) and how well defined the individual brands have become.  The gals who succeed and will succeed have a strong and distinct vision of who they are and it's been a joy to discover their world a little bit for myself.  Here are my top picks, in no particular order.

Glam Spam!!

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Hi everyone!!  Glam Polish creator Rachel has been a busy little bee, churning out one amazing set after another.  I've got three polishes to show you all today, two from specialty collections and one core line.

First up is the core line polish, Aquanaut.  Aquanaut is a super fun glitter topper just begging to be made into a jelly sandwich.  I'm showing it over OPI Don't Touch My Tutu and under a thick, clear topcoat to fully demonstrate the complete and utter cuteness of this one, but even with just the clear topcoat, this one still gives the illusion of free floating glitters.  This polish is lavender, fuschia, and satiny silver squares and hexes and large satiny silver stars and butterflies in a clear base.  The stars and butterflies are wonderfully abundant and come out of the bottle with ease.  I used one coat of Aquanaut.

Glam Polish Pacman

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Hi friends!!  Ahhhh the weekend....  I try to avoid kicking my posts off with statements like such, but my gosh, yesterday was trying, in part because of folks I spoke with who likely had no idea they sounded the way they sounded.  C and I watched some Office reruns last night, and one of the episodes featured one of many priceless Michael Scott quotes-- "I don't understand how anyone can have so little self awareness."  (Priceless when taken in context.  If you've never seen The Office, you are seriously missing out.)  It fit my communications from the day so hilariously and perfectly.  Coming home to awesome nail mail always helps matters, too.  I've got a completely beautiful set of fall cremes on deck that I'm very excited to wear and to talk about, and my first bottle of HK Girl Glisten & Glow topcoat arrived yesterday, too.  I have high hopes for this one.  But first, I've got another fabulous Glam Polish creation to show you all.

This is Pacman, another beaut from the Fun and Games collection.
 

Pacman is another creme-jelly hybrid with matte glitter, a style Glam is remarkably good at creating.  This one is a medium toned purple leaning periwinkle, a shade notoriously difficult to capture accurately on camera.  I'll be honest and say that this post from Ten Little Nubs contains a much more accurate representation of the base color than I could come up with.  There's a lot going on in this polish and the glitter used is similar to that of Glam Polish Leapfrog, which I posted earlier this week.  I'll try to say this in an accurate size scale.  Pacman's got three different sizes of white circle glitter ranging from very small to specklike, small and medium yellow, spring green, and hot pink hexes, and a few large spring green hexes interspersed.

After now having tried four Glams, I feel I can safely say the formula is consistent-- the "crelly" makes for a little bit sheer look and three coats is optimal for reducing visible nail line.  It also gives these polishes the most awesome looking depth and Pacman is one of the coolest in the Glam lineup.  It applies nicely, with a slightly thin consistency that allows the glitters to evenly distribute.  The tiny white specs are somewhat textured so the polish on its own will be a little on the rough side, but two coats of a nice, thick topcoat (like Seche Vite) will smooth the finish out perfectly.  You might notice the large green hex on my ring finger; it most certainly isn't a major, or even a minor, curl, but it isn't laying flat, either.  It's a very small chink in the armor of an otherwise fantastic polish.

Glam Polish Pacman and the rest of the Fun and Games collection are available internationally for $12 each through color4nails.com.
Like color4nails on facebook to stay up to date on specials and new releases.

I hope you all are having a lovely weekend and as always I thank you for reading ♥♥

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Glam Polish Leapfrog

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Good morning, everyone :)  When I was a kid, my mom gave me a poster of a little kitten yawning to the caption of "Morning always comes before I'm awake".  I guess I've never been an early morning person.  I honestly think it'd be wonderful to wake up at 5:30 and be excited and motivated and ready to hit the ground running, not to mention getting to watch the sun rise on a regular basis.  I keep thinking it's something I might grow into, but it hasn't happened yet.  At the very least, today is not that day, lol.

The Aussie indie polish scene is just about the most exciting one to watch right now.  There's a very nice selection of well defined brands who've made or are in the midst of making their marks, each as unique as the last-- and they're all good polishes.  I've honestly not come across an Aussie indie that wasn't easy to fall in love with.  I'm excited to get to share a couple fun and fanciful Glam Polishes with you all over the next couple days.

This is Leapfrog, from the Fun and Games collection.

 Leapfrog is a light-medium shaded turquoise creme-jelly hybrid filled with matte glitters in sizes spanning the scale-- there are tiny yellow specks, very small magenta dots, small yellow and spring green hexes, and medium, large, and the occasional extra large spring green hex.  The "crelly" formula makes for a bit of visible nail line, and I used three coats to bring it to this opacity.  This gives the glitters the wonderfully fun look of free floating, and because it's so packed, the layers can get a little thick.  Glam's base seems to run a little on the thin side but this makes for foolproof placement of the glitters and absolutely no work on my part in getting them to look good.  What you see is what you get, and it looks fantastic.

Glam Polish Leapfrog and the rest of the Fun and Games collection are available internationally for $12 each through color4nails.com.
Like color4nails on facebook to stay up to date on specials and new releases.

Thank you for reading and may this post find you well-rested and alert ;)

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Glam Polish Neon Nubs and Ba-na-na

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Hi everyone!  This post truly gives me great pleasure to write and share with you because I've been made privy to a little of the journey it's taken Glam Polish to get to where it is now.  The fact that I get to wear these pretty little creations and show a couple of them off to you is exciting to me and I'm truly stoked for everyone involved in the creative process.

You all know that indies aren't necessarily my forte but the opportunities I've been afforded to try new brands has been really fun.  There's an abundance of unique and creative indies coming out of Australia right now, and they each have distinctive and very different personalities.  Glam Polish is full of colorful bases and whimsical glitters that speak to the child in each of us.

This is Neon Nubs, a sky blue creme with tiny matte magenta glitter, small satiny spring green hexes and squares, pale pink and orchid colored hexes, large green and royal blue hexes, and large magenta stars.

Neon Nubs is another chunky glitter that applies beautifully!  I'm a fan of not fishing for the big, fun pieces and this one delivers, even if they do benefit from a tiny, tiny bit of placement help (and when I say that I mean, basically, only if you want to; they're fairly well behaved and plentiful on their own).  I used two coats and a generous layer of Seche Vite topcoat.  The base is a little thin; when you first place the brush on your nail, apply a bit of extra pressure and wait a second before following through and you'll be fine.

This is Ba-na-na, a sweet and creamy looking crelly packed with bright and neon confetti-- tiny, small, medium, and large fuschia hexes, small spring green and cerulean hexes, medium satiny pink and orange hexes, small and medium orchid hexes, and yellow and spring green circles.  This one is pure fun in a bottle and I was excited to play with this one the minute I unwrapped it.

 Ba-na-na's also got a thin base, and it's a little on the sheer side.  Use the same amount of pressure and slight pause before following thorough on each nail to avoid pooling.  I used three coats plus a thick layer of Seche Vite topcoat.  The glitters apply like a dream, coming out plentiful and different every time.

What can I say to wrap this up except that I think every polish lover needs a bottle of Glam Polish in his or her stash?  My personal tastes run on the more classic, grown up side but I didn't want to take either of these off!  The energy surrounding these is wonderfully warm and playful.

Glam Polishes are available internationally through color4nails.com for $12.50 for a 12 ml bottle.

Like color4nails on facebook to stay up to date on specials and new releases.
  

Thank you for reading and may you embrace your inner child today.  We'll be taking our nieces to the zoo ♥♥

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