L'Oreal Sparkling Soirée Holiday 2014-- Almost Midnight

  As much as I love to wear purple clothes, sweaters, coats, shoes, bathrobe, lol, purple nail polishes have never been my forte.  Maybe it's because of the superfluity of the color in my wardrobe-- I'd rather something more complementary and less matchy-matchy.  Maybe it's those elegant bottles and brushed gold caps, or maybe it's the fact that this purple leans warm and dusky and not cool and royal.  L'Oreal Almost Midnight, from the holiday 2014 Sparkling Soirée collection, spoke volumes to me.

L'Oreal Sparkling Soirée Holiday 2014-- Almost Midnight

L'Oreal Sparkling Soirée Holiday 2014-- Bring The Rubies

  L'Oreal polishes are always kind of a treat for me.  I love the elegance of the rectangular bottle and the brushed gold cap, the small, flat, tapered brush is a perfect fit for my nails, and the formulas are consistently nice, regardless of finish.  For $5.99 a bottle, it's a treat that's totally affordable, too.

   L'Oreal's holiday 2014 collection is made up of eight different polishes, including four glitter toppers and four corresponding solid colors, including the rich and lovely Bring The Rubies.  This color isn't unique.  As prolific as metallic reds are, and as much as I adore the shade in the first place, though, I've never actually managed to land one in my stash until now.

L'Oreal Sparkling Soirée Holiday 2014-- Bring The Rubies

Repin Any Of This and It's Curtains For Ya. Independence Day Manicure #3

*contains press samples

  Hi all!!  All these pretty Independence Day manicures all over the place, featuring, like, art and whatnot, made me want to try some new stuff, leopard print in particular.  THIS POST by Ruby's Nails pushed me over the edge to remove my nearly fresh Magical Pixie Dust manicure (no small feat, if you've ever worn one of those polishes) and give some red, white, and blue spots a try, especially upon reading how easy they are. 

  I looked up a tutorial first (not doing so being a mistake I've made in the past that I wasn't interested in replicating).  Jezebel.com was the first link I clicked on, and indeed, the technique looked simple enough.

Independence Day Manicure #2 featuring Zoya

*press samples

  Hi guys and gals!!  Zoya's having another big promotion for Independence Day, get three polishes free for the price of shipping, now through July 6.  The fact that I did another Fourth of July manicure in all Zoya shades was pure coincidence (though I suppose I should have their sale times memorized by now, lol).

  I'm pretty much still over the moon about the summer collections this year, so I decided to do a skittlette using this summer's blues and Livingston, a consummately perfect summer cherry red creme.  On index, Ling, a royal/cyan blue creme; middle, pinky, and thumb, Livingston; ring, Muse, a rich cerulean glassfleck with holo glitters.

Independence Day Manicure #1

  Hi everyone!!  Independence Day is right around the corner, so we US gals are busy playing around with our reds, whites, and blues in anticipation.  I admit I hadn't put much thought into anything until a link to THIS POST from I Heart Pretty Polish showed up in my facebook newsfeed.  Yes, folks, Essie is back, not blogging, but back interacting and resharing some of her favorite manis, and it is AWESOME to have her.

  So I was initially going to more or less recreate the skittles mani she posted last July, as I have a similar blue (or three) and I picked up the red she used shortly after she first posted.  Instead, I decided to go with one of my all-time favorite duos and throw that gorgeous red into the mix.