Presenting... Smitten Polish

Hello, my faithful readers! I know that I have been absent a lot lately, and this announcement is part of the reason why. =) I have been wearing lots of repeats, and I have also been having camera issues (new one still hasn't arrived either, boo!). But the biggest thing is that I've been hard at work formulating my own line of indie polishes. So I present to you, Smitten Polish!

 My first collection is called Nommy Noms, and it consists of four dessert inspired milky glitter polishes.

I haven't gotten to wear all of them as full manicures yet, but I do have nail wheel swatches of all of them to show you. All swatches are shown at three coats plus top coat. 

First up, Blueberry Crumble. I have worn this one as a full mani. 

Next up - Mint Chip. I love this one SO much. =D 

Huckleberry Pie

And finally, Strawberry Tart.

I have a limited number of these up on my Etsy shop now. I'm in the endless cycle of waiting for more supplies to come in, and I'll be furiously making more polishes when they come in! My Etsy can be found at www.smittenpolish.com.

I have several more shades in the works already, including these two, Aquarius and Bluebird.

Whew. So there's my big announcement! I'm excited, but also incredibly nervous. 

Hope you all are doing well, and I apologize for my absences and sporadic posts. Hopefully now that I'm getting into the rhythm of doing this, things will calm down a little bit for me. And hopefully my new camera will show up soon!

Born Pretty Store

I'm very pleased to announce my affiliation with Born Pretty Store. They have an incredible array of makeup and nail art products, and they're offering a 7% discount to my readers with the code RA7X31.

 Happy shopping!

Also... stay tuned for what I hope will be another VERY exciting announcement! =D

Maybelline Sapphire Siren

My stores have finally started getting the new Maybelline Color Show polish displays, so I was able to pick up a couple of them to try out. Side note: I'm finding it pretty irritating that the vast majority of my stores have some sort of mini display with only about half the colors. There's a metallic blue that I have my eye on that's proving quite difficult to find in my neck of the woods.

ANYWAY. The one I have to show you today is Sapphire Siren. I picked this one up because it really looks like a navy jelly in the bottle, but it really isn't. Still though, it's a pretty nice navy creme.

The formula on Sapphire Siren is quite nice. Two easy coats, no cuticle pooling or other shenanigans. 

My only real complaint is that I've had Sapphire Siren on for only about 18 hours now, and I already have tip wear. It's not shrinkage either, it's definitely tip wear. I don't think that bodes particularly well for the wear of this polish, but I guess only time will tell.

So... yeah. If I seem pretty meh about this polish, it's because I am pretty meh about this polish. It's not bad or anything... but it's certainly nothing remarkable either. *sigh* Oh well, they can't all be winners, I guess.

I'm sorry I haven't been posting as many pictures lately. I've been wearing a lot of repeats lately, plus I've been having trouble with my camera that has progressively been getting worse and worse. I've ordered a new camera on Saturday, so hopefully it'll be here soon!

Hope you all are doing well, and thank you for reading!

The Great Mystery of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu!

OPI Don't Touch My Tutu! is a mystery to me on several levels. 

Mystery 1: How is the formula so perfect? Three easy coats, no streaking, no weirdness. Just perfectly smooth application.

Mystery 2: How is this so flattering on me? Even though I do wear some white polishes, they're not normally particularly flattering. But this is amazingly flattering on me, maybe because it's kind of cooler toned? I'm not really sure, but I absolutely love how this looks on me.

Mystery 3: I hate visible nail line with the fiery passion of 1,000 suns. Why doesn't it bother me with Don't Touch my Tutu? I have no idea.

Mystery 4: Why do I like this?! If you read my blog, you probably know what I normally gravitate to in the world of polish - blue, green, holo, glitters, duochromes. Sheer white jellies are really not normally my thing. But holy cow, I love THIS. LOVE. I really want more from this collection. Honestly, I've found the last few OPI collections less than thrilling. But this collection really rocks my socks. How very odd. 

Perfection. Well played, OPI. Well played.

Jaybird's Bomb Pop!

My sweet buddy Jaybird makes the most amazing frankens, and the one I have to show you today is called Bomb Pop. In case you don't know, this is a Bomb Pop:

This is the polish that Jaybird made that was inspired by the Bomb Pop:

Pretty awesome, no? These pics show Bomb Pop at three coats. I took pictures of both my left hand and my rarely seen right hand so that I could show how the glitter distribution is on both hands.

The formula is fantastic, completely non-fussy. As with a lot of chunky glitters, I just made sure to give it a good shake to get the glitters well distributed in the polish before application. Bomb Pop also wore like iron on me. I think I wore it for four days straight, and it looked just as good on Day 4 as it did on Day 1.

Jaybird hasn't set up a shop, but you can contact her through her blog. 

TGIF, and thanks for reading!

Blog Sale Update

I've updated my blog sale. You can find it here. Happy shopping! =)

FingerPaints Inkblot Blue

FingerPaints has introduced a collection of neons for summer. I'm normally not a neon girl, though occasionally a blue or green one will grab me (go figure), and Inkblot Blue practically jumped into my hand the last time I was at Sally's. =)

Aw, yeah! The formula is perfect in two coats and dries mega fast, like most neons.

I love that once I added top coat, it almost looks like a jelly. It's really squishy in real life, even more so than these pictures show.

I snapped a couple of pictures of it in the shade as well.

I'm very, very impressed with Inkblot Blue. Great formula, gorgeous color, just stunning and cheerful and bright.

Once I had it on, I thought that it looked similar to Ulta Blue Streak (which is also very, very close to OPI Ogre the Top Blue), so I did a quick nail wheel comparison. As you can see, they are similar, but they're not dupes. Inkblot Blue is brighter and more squishy looking, and the difference is slightly more pronounced in person. But depending upon your tolerance for similar colors, you might not need both. =)

Hope you all are doing well! Thanks for reading!

Guest Post at Stuff I (S)watched!

My buddy Rach over at Stuff I (S)watched asked me to do a guest post on her blog, and it's posted today! You can see it here.

Happy Sunday and, as always, thanks for reading! =)

butter LONDON Victoriana

I actually wore Victoriana for the first time months ago, and completely forgot to post my pictures. Whoops! 

Perfect formula, two easy coats.

I love the silvery shimmery finish on this one. It makes me think of brocade, which I suppose is the idea with a polish named Victoriana. =)

I don't own many Butter London polishes. I find the price tag a little hard to take on their more standard colors, but I will pony up when the finishes or shades are more unique. I guess that's true for me with a lot of brands though!

Sorry I didn't have more to say on this on. It's really a great polish, but I'm just coming off of a 2-day migraine, and I'm finding it difficult to summon much enthusiasm. Trust me, it's not the polish - it's me!

Hope you all are doing well. Thanks for reading! <3