Hey y'all! Welcome back to my neck of the woods. Today I am sharing the link for an awesome giveaway - the entire Zoya Sunsets and Seashells collections! I teamed up with some of my favorite bloggers to bring this to you guys. Special thanks to +Mannas Manis for setting it all up! All you have to do is enter below!
I've joined with some of my favorite bloggers to bring you this amazing Zoya giveaway!
Rules:
1. US only.
2. No giveaway accounts, spam, or empty accounts. Winning entries will be checked and those will be disqualified.
3. You must be 18 years or older.
4. You will have 48 hours to respond to email to claim your prize. After 48 hours another winner will be chosen. Make sure you sign up with an email that you check frequently.
5. Giveaway entries are OPTIONAL. The only required entry is your email. However, the more entries you do, the more chances you have for winning.
6. Giveaway runs from May 23rd until May 30th at 11:59 pm EST.
Hey y'all! Welcome back! I hope that spring has been lovely to you and that you're ready for summer because its coming...supposedly. Right now we have been dealing with what feels like nonstop rain which is great for my new flowers but awful for my poor, bored boys who just want to be outside all the time! Here's hoping that some drier days are ahead!
So while its been pouring rain, Elizabeth over at My World Sparkles Lacquers has been pouring us a new collection (see what I did there??) and all of these polishes are inspired by the wonderfully imaginative and somewhat tragic stories of Shakespeare. I think you'll recognize some of these polish names from excerpts you were forced to try to understand loved to read in high school and college. Shakespeare's stories are MUCH more enjoyable and easier to understand as an adult than I did as a 16 year old high school student. Amirite?
So I'm just gonna show you the pics now and tell you about the polishes already since I've been rambling too long at this point. :)
All That Glistens is a black jelly base filled with translucent flakies that show pink, purple, blue, and gold reflects in different lights. The formula was an easy, medium consistency with no lumps or difficulty self leveling. The shreds of glitter all laid flat on my nail and there was no fishing required to get tons of it on my nail. I used 3 coats but it was opaque in 2. I added the third for some extra squishiness and depth. It dries a little flat, but not totally matte so I added a topcoat to make the glitter really shine.
A Winter's Tale is a frosty white cruelly filled with various sized blue and black glitters with a surprise translucent star glitter here and there. The formula was a little thinner on this one but it was still an easy formula. All of the glitter came out easily with the exception of the large star glitter but there aren't many in the bottle so I think that was intentional on the maker's part to only put a few. The stars are also iridescent so they give a little something extra in certain lights. I used 3 coats plus topcoat and still had a slight VNL which I didn't mind for this one because the shimmery base made it so delicate and ethereal.
Merchant of Venice is a medium pink jelly base filled with various sizes and shapes of blue, pink, and purple glitters. A true, girly glitter bomb, Merchant of Venice was one of my favorites which was a surprise for me because I don't usually love pink on my nails. I only needed 2 coats to get tons of glitter and to reach opacity. I loved how squishy this one was - the perfect jelly consistency! All of the glitter laid flat on my nail and spread easily with no fishing. I added a topcoat for extra glossiness.
Love is Blind is a red shimmery crelly with bright and dark red hexes and red bar glitter. I know what you're thinking - BAR GLITTER!? Listen, y'all...she took a risk when she added bar glitter. Bar glitter is a dirty word in the nail polish world - you either love it or hate it and most people hate it. I have to be honest...in Love is Blind, I DIDN'T hate it. With the shimmery-ness of the base and the fact that she used it very sparingly, the result wound up being a unique mani that I actually really liked. I used 3 coats of Love is Blind as it was a little on the more sheer side and it gave just enough glitter to feel finished. I added topcoat for extra glossiness here too.
Mid-Summer Night's Dream is a shimmery lavender crelly with various sized and shaped purple, pink, and gold glitters along with some flower glitter and moon glitter. This one was totally my favorite! I used two coats of Mid-Summer Night's Dream plus topcoat for a perfectly delicate and feminine mani. The glitter came out relatively easily - even the larger flower and moon glitter. I believe I got two of each without trying super hard to get them out. They all laid nice and smooth on my nail which made the formula on this one very easy and smooth.
Such Sweet Sorrow is a medium blue crelly with light blue and dark blue iridescent microflakies and glitter. I LOVE THIS ONE! Yes, I'm yelling - ya'll know blue is my favorite nail color. This one looks like the ocean on your nails and the flakies dance across your nail in different lighting. I used 3 coats of Such Sweet Sorrow to reach opacity as it is a little on the sheer side but it built up nicely. The glitter all laid flat on my nail and the formula self leveled well. I added a glossy topcoat at the end as well.
If you'd like to see a live swatch and review, click below:
Now this brings me to a very important point - are you a part of the Sparkleistas group on Facebook? This is the fan group for My World Sparkles Lacquers and its a very good place to be. Why? Because we hear about new polishes, see swatches, hear about sales before anyone else! And we get to interact with the maker, Elizabeth regularly. In addition to that, we get to buy special LE group custom shades! YAS. So let me show you our current group custom, Sparkleistas LE 2016.
Sparkleistas LE 2016 will only be available to group members (join HERE!). Its a gorgeous medium purple linear holographic polish with silver micro glitter and larger holo glitters. I only needed ONE coat plus topcoat for this mani. It went on super smooth and the larger glitters laid flat with no formula issues.
Also don't forget to check out the Pamper Gems that she offers as well! They're huge so you can get two uses out of them and the scent changes each month! This month's is called April Showers and has the best fresh, light scent. I thoroughly enjoy using the MWS Pamper Gems because they always do wonders for my dry hands and cuticles. They always arrive to me in one piece and not crumbled because she double wraps them. She also includes a list of the ingredients directly on the package. Mine is little crumbled in the photo because my kiddos were trying to convince me that it was theirs. #kids These retail for $1.50 for one, $2.50 for two, or $3.75 for three.
The Shakespeare Collection launched on May 1st and is available now! You can get it through the My World Sparkles Lacquer store and if you buy the entire collection, you save $8! The polishes retail for $8 each or $40 for all six. I have a code for y'all too, PPP10 will save you 10%. Be sure to follow My World Sparkles on Instagram and Facebook and join our Sparkleistas Facebook group so you can be eligible for the group exclusive polish when it launches.
Do you like Shakespeare? Which is your favorite polish?
Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have some polishes from a new to me brand called daniPro to share with you. I was contacted by a PR company that specializes in doing promotions and campaigns for nail polish and other cosmetic brands to swatch and review 3 polishes and a topcoat from daniPro.
daniPro is a uniquely formulated nail polish brand that was originally created by a doctor, Dr. Gary Evans. It is 5-free and has undecylenic acid added for the prevention of nail fungus growth. I haven't used it enough nor have I struggled with nail infections so I can't speak to its effectiveness in that department but that certainly makes it a different kind of lacquer! I have a ton of pictures to share and a live swatch video linked below so let's jump in!
Forever Girl is the newest shade by daniPro and was launched in Spring 2016. It is marketed as the perfect shade of pink for spring. While I would agree that the shade is beautiful and perfect for spring, the formula on this one was awful for me. Very streaky from the first coat all the way through the third. It could have used a fourth coat but I do not do four coats of any polish so I skipped it. The topcoat helped smooth out the streakiness a bit. I find most polishes in this color range to have difficult formulas so I wasn't surprised that this one was streaky and didn't want to self level. Dry time was about 5 minutes for it to be dry to the touch despite how many coats it took. I would describe Forever Girl as having a more crelly than creme formula. I'm sorry to say that Forever Girl was a forever nope for me. :/
Perfect Pink is what I would call a bright medium pink creme. While the formula was still a little on the crelly side, it was more of a creme than Forever Girl was. I did 3 coats of Perfect Pink and unlike Forever Girl, Perfect Pink did not need a fourth coat. For this reason, I will say the formula is *better* but still not my favorite. The first coat was very streaky for me but the second and third evened it out. Dry time was about 5 minutes to the touch despite it needing 3 coats. I was pleasantly surprised with the color of Perfect Pink since the bottle made it look a little more mauve-y than it shows on the nail.
First Kiss Red is a bright cherry red with orange undertones that makes it the perfect shade of red for the summer. This one completely blew the others out of the water and exceeded my expectations. The formula was absolute perfection only needing one super easy and creamy coat for complete opacity. I had no staining from First Kiss Red despite it being a OCW (one coat wonder) and I wore it for 3 days because I wound up doing nail art over it. I had no issues with self leveling and this one was definitely dry to the touch in 5 minutes.
The final polish I reviewed was the topcoat which was just called Top Cover. While it is not marketed as a quick dry topcoat, I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly it dried. It was dry to the touch in a minute and a half. As far as wear time, I can't speak to that as I was only swatching and didn't wear it for more than just a few minutes but the glossiness was unreal and dry time was much faster than expected.
If you'd like to see my live swatch and review, click below:
Final thoughts on daniPro - I think the concept is interesting and definitely sets it aside from your typical nail lacquer. The formulas for the pinks were disappointing but the red and the topcoat were phenomenal. I am a little put off by the price ($18 per bottle for colors and topcoat, $20 for the base coat) which puts it up there between Butter London and Deborah Lippman price ranges. I don't want to pay that much for nail polish unless its fabulous and has a flawless formula. The only one out of the bunch that I would pay that much for is First Kiss Red because its absolutely perfect. I also really didn't care for the brush as it was very thin, think like Essie brush skinny. I had to do way too many brush strokes for coverage on my nail.
If you're interested in knowing more or purchasing some daniPro nail polishes, you can find them at danipronails.com or on Instagram.
