Shimmer Polish: Marilyn!

 Press Sample

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Hello lovelies! Another late night post for ya! I've had an insanely busy weekend, and I managed to finally fall over exhausted, hence the lack of posts for a few days. I should be back on track with daytime posts tomorrow, unless I fall over dead or something. Today was busy busy as well, with my oldest starting 7th grade tomorrow and my youngest in crazy baby mode. Even had a client's foster puppy crash through a screen door!

But alas, polish makes it all better, am I right?

Today I have Shimmer Polish Marilyn to share with you all. Now, you know how much I adore Shimmer Polish, and Marilyn is one of my personal faves. A stunning mix of burgandy red glitter in a red jelly base, Marilyn is truly gorgeous! The moment I unpacked this little gem I knew that I couldn't just wear her alone. So I decided to borrow a manicure idea from the amazing Amy Grace at The Polished Perfectionist. However, her mani is a good 10 billion times more awesome. My tape wasn't as troublesome this time, but impatience is my ultimate nemesis and I decided to clean up before my polish was dry. Big mistake. My clean up lines ended up sloppy and a bit goopy. Lesson learned. I knew I should've just irished up my coffee and read TMZ or something. ;)

This is Shimmer Polish Marilyn over A-England Camelot my very favorite Black. Topped off with a coat of Glitter Food and Glossy Glam (I received my replacement bottle of GG on Saturday. Muuuuuuuch better!).

I love this polish....love! It is a touch brighter IRL - my camera really wanted to dull this one down. It has issues with reds, ya know. I also really like this paired with black, but really want to swatch this again on her own.

Marilyn's formula is thick, but not to thick that it's problematic. It actually works well with as far as suspending the glitters. Application is easy peasy as well, with no dragging or balding, and no clumps of glitter. It is a touch sheer on the first coat, but evens out nicely with the second. Even though I used tape for this mani, I used 2 coats here, with no issues. Dry time is incredibly fast, but Marilyn dries to a matte finish, so you definitely need top coat. It's also a bit gritty, so I added a coat of Glitter Food before my coat of Glossy Glam. Wear is excellent with no chips or signs of wear at 24 hours. I also need to mention that in sunlight? Yeah, this girl is so sparkly it's blinding!

If you haven't grabbed any Shimmer Polishes yet, Run, do not walk, over to ShimmyShimmer.com, take a look at the polishes and order away! Ordering is done via email, and the info you need is listed on the ordering tab on the site. Full size polishes run $12 each, and are worth every penny. Don't forget to follow Shimmer Polish on Facebook for updates and swatches!

What do you think of Marilyn? Do you have any Shimmers?

I'll be be back tomorrow with TIOT! I'll also have that luscious potion I promised you all this week, as well as another Mish Mash Challenge mani and some Fandom Cosmetics and Polish TBH.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber



*Product(s) Featured provided for review. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information**

Press Sample

Pink Wednesday! (Better Late Than Never Version!)

I almost missed posting today due to inadvertently forgetting what day of the week it was. The city was basically shut down on Monday so my daughter didn't have school, and that always leaves me a day off. Thankfully I realized it wasn't actually Tuesday at the very last minute, and threw together a quick mani.

This is Sally Hansen HD in Byte layered over Wet N Wild Black Creme. I loved it on it's own, but had to see what it would look like taped off with some more black. This is what I ended up with:

This was definitely a fun mani, despite having some OCD issues with it. My OCD is raging lately and when "Pro Manicure" woman basically destroyed my cuticles, the cuticle area on my middle finger became swollen and is still rather puffy and red. That makes my nail bed somewhat shorter than the rest, which in turn drives me insane (Good thing I always place my watermark over my middle finger, right? haha!). I can handle losing my length due to carelessly whacking my hands on things, but having one nail bed shorter than the rest is making me a bit crazy! I'm working on it, though. Wish me luck. OCD can be a bear.  At least I'm not letting it take over everything and I'm working hard to get it back under wraps.

Enough about that though! I am loving Byte layered over Black! This is actually 3 coats over the black, since I wanted it to really pop. It looks amazing with just 1 coat as well, but has a bit more purple to it. If you want the pink to really shine over that black, I would use at least 2 coats. However, don't go past that if you can't handle your polish looking a bit heavy and thick.

I'm still editing pics for tomorrow's post! It's taken awhile since I took hundreds of pics of all 3 polishes that I'm planning on sharing with you, and I've had such a hard time narrowing it down! Until then....

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Sally Hansen Gem Crush gets taped!

I have been dying to do this mani for awhile now and finally found the time. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am just loving scotch tape manis at the moment.  Between those and water marbling, my nails have been looking pretty fab! In fact, when I wear a plain color I feel like I have slacked off, ha ha! I will say that I have a swatch post for tomorrow that is full of colors that are so awesome, they just have to be worn by themselves! But being me, I have plans for 2 of the 3 colors already.

I actually did this mani yesterday morning, so forgive the pushed back cuticles please! It has been snowy and dark here, and this morning was the first glimmer of decent sunlight so I took the opportunity to take pics of this mani. My lightbox pics just didn't show as much of the color as I wanted, and this combo deserves to be seen!

For this mani I used Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Showgirl Chic as my base. I love this glitter! It's already well known that this is a dupe for China Glaze's Lorelei's Tiara from the Eye Candy Collection, and IMHO it's a great alternative if you can't get your hands on the China Glaze. Showgirl Chic is a serious glitterbomb, absolutely loaded with glitter on even the thinnest coat. This polish is jam packed with small silver glitter (and in very low light it flashes a tiny bit of holo!) and larger blue hex glitters. The blue/silver combo is one of my favorites, and alone (damn! I wish I had taken pics of this one on its own!) it looks like a winter wonderland on your fingertips. However, it's rare that I'm able to leave a polish alone and I just had to see what it would look like with some Cobalt Blue! Since Showgirl Chic is a bit of a thirsty glitter, I topped it off with a coat of Gelous and 2 coats of SV, then I taped off my nails and added Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue It. I'm very happy with how this mani turned out, even if my lines aren't perfect!

This is indoors in natural light:

And a night-time shot with flash:

Isn't Showgirl Chic awesome? I love dense glitter, and this did not disappoint. This was 2 glitter packed coats. Application was fairly easy for such a dense glitter, the only problem area being the very tips of my nails - lots of drag there.  I need to pick up Lorelei's Tiara to compare formula! Gem Crush is available at CVS for just under $7.00.

I really like how this turned out, and can't wait to try out some more checkered manis. The combination of the bright Cobalt Blue and the sparkly glitter is so eye catching that it has caught me off guard a few times!


Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

31 Day Challenge, Day 31: Re-create your favorite challenge

Ahhh, such a bittersweet post! However, I have found a form of nail art that I am just loving, and will inundate you guys with all too often, I'm sure! For today's challenge, I chose to re-create the Inspired By A Tutorial Challenge, this time with Patchwork!  You can find the tutorial at Chloe's Nails, under the Tutorials tab. :)

I am just loving these scotch tape manis! I have a bunch I want to do, so I apologize in advance for inundating you with them. But, since Erika is on hiatus, someone has to play with tape! Gotta keep the scotch tape manis alive! ;)

For this mani I started with a base of Wet N Wild Black Creme, then taped off my nails and added Sinful's Purple Diamond. Then I taped my off my nails again, and added Wet N Wild Buffy The Violet Slayer, topped it all off with SV, and voila! Patchwork Mani! If you like tape manis, Erika is the queen of all scotch tape manis, and has awesome tutorials on her page.

And with that, I bid adieu to the 31 Day Challenge. It's been awesome, but I'm really looking forward to creating some awesome tape manis as well as swatching my collection.

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

31 Day Challenge, Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

Hi guys! I don't have a whole lot of time to post tonight, so I'll get right to the mani!

I chose a design by Erika of Chloe's Nails for this challenge, since he is the queen of all Tape Mani's and I just love her nails! I had wanted to use this color combo for awhile as well, and I couldn't think of a better way to combine them than by doing one of her awesome tape manis. This is the mini tutorial I chose, and this is my final product:

In sunlight:

And Indoors in Natural Light:

For this mani I used Sinful Colors What's Your Name as my base, and Pixel Blu Ray. I love this particular teal and have been dying to wear it. However, the formula on Blu Ray is just a huge mess! It works better as an accent than as a base. I may try thinning it a bit and see if that helps.

Despite Blu Ray's thick and gloppy application, I love love love how this turned out! It's been awhile since I have done a tape mani, and I think this challenge has rekindled my love for them.  It has also helped me get into the habit of posting daily, instead of just taking pics of all my manis and posting occasionally. I can't guarantee I'll still post daily, but I'm sure I'll post at least every other day. Daily has been tough since I have two kiddos and own a business - life happens sometimes. But I'm going to strive for at least one post every 36 hours or so.

My last challenge is to re-create my favorite challenge, and I'm torn between 2 of them. I may just have to flip a coin. The end of the 31 day challenge is bittersweet since I have learned so much and stepped outside of my comfort zone in such a big way that it makes me a little sad to go back to picking and choosing on my own. On the other hand, I have a ton of ideas and so many polishes that I have been dying to use! I have been dying to test out my Gelous system, as well as a bunch of glitter and wintery polishes.  I'm sure you guys will be seeing more stamping, tape manis, and freehand work after all of this. :)

Happy polishing!
-Kimber