Bornprettystore rose stamping plate review!

BP-73

Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have a review of a round stamping plate from bornprettystore.com to share with you. As per usual with these round BPS plates - I was very happy with the quality of this plate. Along with the cohesiveness of the plate, the etching was deep on all of the images which means a clear image upon pickup! YAS! Let's jump right into the specifics of the plate, how my mani turned out, and where you can find this little guy! 

BP-73 from bornprettystore.com with blue plastic film

BP-73 from bornprettystore.com after blue film was removed 

The theme of this plate is ROSES! I was drawn to this plate because I feel like roses can be used in a multitude of different mani ideas, adding a classic and beautiful twist to your nails. This plate in particular is nice because it can be used just for the outline, for advanced stamping decals, or for lead lighting purposes. With such a versatile plate - the possibilities are endless, making this plate good for any stamping lover. 

I started out with a base of Lorelei Lacquer Hypnotic on my middle and pinkie, and Liquid Chrome by Shinespark Polish on my index and ring. Once my base was dry on the index and ring, I stamped the image from the top middle of the plate using M Polish Cayuga and my Creative Shop Stamper from whatsupnails to create the base for my rose lead lighting. Once my stamping outline was dry, I went back in with Shinespark Ballerina Bunny and Max Splash from the 90's Kids Collection to create the color on the petals on the roses. Once that was dry, I top coated with Seche Vite and that's it! 

I highly recommend this plate for anyone that enjoys that floral look in your manis - especially if you love making stamping decals. If you'd like to pick this plate up, you can find it HERE. Don't forget to use my code, PPPQ10 for 10% off your order of originally priced items! 

What do you think of this mani? Do you like rose images?

Thanks for reading!

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Monthly Indie Spotlight Series - Meet the maker of Shinespark Polish!

Hey y'all! Welcome to the second installment of my new monthly Indie Spotlight Series! This month, I had the honor of interviewing Molly, the creator, owner, and maker of Shinespark Polish. I've swatched for Molly before, and purchased lots from her - I really love her creativity and vision for her brand. I love that everything is made with such care and love! So without further ado, have a look at our little chat! 

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1.What inspired you to start Shinespark Polish? 

Actually, the ladies at the BHB (...nail group) and my own do it yourself spirit.  I'm one of those who will see something, and see if I can make/recreate it just to see if I can.  After hearing all the things the ladies talked about wanting/looking for in polish, I wondered how difficult making polish would be.  As I looked, I started thinking things like, "If I was making polish, I would try..." and it just snowballed from there!

2. How do you decide what to do for future collections?

Honestly, it's just an ongoing process.  The 90's Kids collection was created from an accident when I had issues with the 80's Neons cremes collection.  There was an initial formula issue with the cremes, and I had to switch it from being the maiden collection, and I was actually trying to recreate it without the trouble pigment.  Instead, I ended up with richly pigmented jellies.  Other randomness has provided inspiration: Childhood memories (Lisa Frank for the 90's Kids colors and names!), the old Hypercolor shirts (The Light, the Heat collection!), splatter paint t-shirts (80's Fun glitter bomb!), Sailormoon, and more.  I still have a ton of ideas and actually find myself having to restrain myself from releasing collections too rapidly, because I just want to make all the pretty polishes!

3. What goes into the testing/prototype phase? 

For me, it's usually a pretty short phase honestly.  If I'm trying new things like formulas, I'll mix a very small batch (2-3 bottles) and see how it works.  If it works out, then I'll consider it good to go, and keep notes on how to recreate it.  If I'm playing with things like mixing pigments for something really new, I'll usually play with it in liquid form before adding the suspension base, so that I can see just how the pigments are going to work together.  I've had an occasional hiccup where things haven't worked together, but most of the time the sight I see in my mind and the actual result are pretty spot-on!

4. How do you come up with the names of your polishes?

90's Kids was very much Lisa Frank.  :)  The Sailormoon-inspired collection, Inner Beauty, actually took its individual polish names from songs from the Seramyu (Sailormoon Musicals).  Very few people probably recognized them, but each polish name was actually the name of an image song for that senshi.  They also happen to be some of my favorite songs from the musicals.  Additionally, there will eventually be a second Sailormoon collection for the outer senshi and Chibimoon, which will be somewhat of a companion collection to Inner Beauty.  I don't have an ETA on it yet though.

5. What do you think makes Shinespark Polish such a success?

It's fun, it's different, and it's something that I absolutely love doing.  I mean, I literally get a shipment of supplies in, and typically I go through them within a few days, because I go crazy mixing!  In fact, the last shipment I got, I literally went through a full gallon of suspension base that day, just mixing up new and restock polish!  

6. I know you work by day and make polish by night. What drives you to keep going with Shinespark Polish? 

It's fun for me, and I love doing it.  I love to paint in general, one of my favorite aspects of painting is the actual mixing of the colors.  This is similar, but so much more involved, and working with the pigments gives so much more control!  It's also a bit of a humbling experience, because there are times when you think, "Oh wow!  This would be so awesome!" and you try it, and...nope, they just don't work that way!  I had that realization in mixing shimmery pigments with a thermal pigment: for example Dusk.  It was a super surprise, because I had honestly expected it to be a deep mauve, and I wondered what I had done wrong to end up with purple!  In the end though, it ended up being absolutely gorgeous, and much better than my original plans!  It was most definitely a happy accident!

7. Can you give us a behind the scenes peek where Shinespark Polish is made?

I can and I can't.  It comes and goes!  I actually use a small dresser as my work surface, and mix in small batches, and when I'm done everything gets stored away.  I store all my inventory in a Helmer, and am contemplating getting a second one to help contain everything!  I can give a few pictures from when I was doing my last mixing batch, when I was reformulating/re-mixing the 80's Neons cremes collection!  I don't usually take pictures of my work area, so it's really just a picture of when I had finished bottling, and had poured my own set of minis to test with water marbling!

Molly emailed me a couple of weeks later when she was finalizing her fall collection with some more pictures! She said I could add the sneaky peak pics! 

Work station! 

Testing them out on the swatch wheel! 

Left to right: Autumn Sky, Ever Green, Harvest, Pumpkin Spice,  Hot Cocoa, Jack O' Lantern, Black Cat Sparkle, and Gilded Rose 

And that concludes this month's Monthly Indie Spotlight Series with Shinespark Polish, make sure you go follow her on Instagram for news on new releases and swatches of the fall collection! I hope you guys enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy putting them together. Look forward to next month when I'll be interviewing Lorelei Lacquer! 


Thanks so much for reading!

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Random Nail Art Roundup!

Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have a few manis to share with you just for shiggles (thank you Tamara at Dancerspolishedlife for that fun word). These are just some manis I've done recently that don't have much purpose in a post of their own so I thought I'd pile them all together. Quick and easy and fun for y'all to look at! Let's take a peek, shall we? 

Here's a watermarble using Shinespark Polish's 80's neon cremes with white stamping using UberChic Beauty stamping plates - these were so fun and summery. I love how easily the Shinespark neons watermarble! 

And one of my most favorite manis ever using China Glaze Inner Beauty and Lorelei Lacquer Faithless Lover in a jelly sandwich and stamping over it with M Polish Guilded and Dancing in the Streets. I loved how they looked matted but I also have the glossy macro to show you! 

Lastly is a clean and simple dotticure using Orly White Tips and Shinespark Polish Totally Teal. Dotticures are one of my favorite quick and easy nail art designs. I love teal and white together! 

And that's it! See, I told you it was a quick and easy post! I loved these manis but I am sort of backlogged at the moment on posts so while I wanted to write about each of them, I didn't have the time. I still didn't want them to fall through the cracks! 

Which was your favorite? 

Thanks for reading!

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Bestie twin nails with Acidicice!

Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have these bestie twin nails with Acidicice to share with you! I usually do a few of these a month and she and I have been talking about collaborating so we finally took the plunge. We are true nail besties IRL. Well, semi IRL since she's in South Africa and I'm in the U.S. but we are as close of friends as two people can be a world apart! We talk nearly every day and share a love of white crellies - how much more foundation do you need for a best friendship?! Haha. So anyway, we came up with the idea to do a butterfly wing over a neon base - specifically using the nimbus technique (inspired by thedotcouture) and I really love how they turned out. Make sure you click over to her blog to see her post about our collab and keep reading after the break to see how I did my half of our bestie nails!

I started with a white base of Orly White Tips on my middle fingers and two coats of Shinespark Polish Glitter Shake on my outer fingers. Once the middle fingers were dry, I took Shinespark Pumped Pink and Psych'd Purple on a palette and used a cotton swab with a bit of acetone on it to thin them out a bit. I started placing the tip of the cotton swab in random dots on my nail, alternating between Pumped Pink and Psych'd Purple until I had filled in the entire nail. Once that was dry, I used black acrylic paint to draw on the wing and white acrylic paint to add the white dots. I top coated everything to bring it all together and that's it! 

I was really pleased with the effect that the nimbus technique created for the butterfly wing. It was one of those few manis that turned out exactly how I planned. 

What do you think of this mani? Have you ever done nimbus nails? 

Thanks for reading! 

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Shinespark Polish Swatch And Review: Reformulated 80's Neon CollectionPart 2

Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have part 2 of my swatch and review of the reformulated 80's Neon Collection by Shinespark Polish, you can see part one HERE. As I stated in Tuesday's post, Shinespark Polish originally released this neon collection back in March for her spring launch. As a new indie, Molly got a lot of feedback from her testers, swatchers, and customers about her neon collection - some of the feedback was lack of opacity in certain shades, some requiring up to 4 coats for full opacity, other feedback was that many were hoping to watermarble with their 80's neons and were having difficulty. She took the 80's Neon Collection back to the drawing board and completely revamped the formula on this beautiful collection. She added pigment to the 4 coaters, changed the suspension base to make them easy to marble, and she added a color - Totally Teal! 

I purchased the original 80's collection back in March and loved them as they were so when Molly asked me to swatch and test the watermarble capability of her reformulated version, I gladly accepted! So let's get into the second half of this collection, shall we?

Swirl watermarble using Glam Green, Totally Teal, Bouncin' Blue, and Psych'd Purple

Glam Green 

Glam Green 

The fifth polish in the collection is Glam Green, a fluorescent neon green creme with subtle micro shimmer throughout. This swatch shows 3 coats plus topcoat and no white undie. The photo makes it look almost pistachio but its not quite that light in person, its actually a little deeper but definitely a wearable green. It would look FAB in a pedicure with a tan. Again, as has been the case with all of the reformulated versions of this collection, this formula is on the thicker side but I didn't experience any difficulty applying in thin coats. 

Totally Teal 

Totally Teal 

The sixth polish in this collection is Totally Teal which is a newly released shade that was not available in the original 80's Neon Collection. I love that she added a teal! Totally Teal is a bright blue leaning teal creme with a jelly-like finish This swatch shows 2 coats plus topcoat with no white undie. Looking at the swatch now, I am sure that a 3rd coat would have brought complete opacity but in person, it looked opaque with 2 which is why I left it like this for the photo. A little VNL doesn't bother me but a 3rd coat would easily take care of it. The formula on this one was nice, a little thinner than the others in the collection and very easy to apply.

Bouncin' Blue 

Bouncin' Blue 

The seventh polish in this collection is Bouncin' Blue, a bright cornflower blue creme with subtle micro shimmer throughout. This swatch shows 2 thin coats with topcoat and no white undie. Ughhhhh this blue is everything that is right and good in the world. I love this color and kinda just want to take a bath in it. Too much? Well...its really pretty. Don't judge me! The formula was a little thicker on this one like most of the others but applied nicely in 2 coats.

Psych'd Purple 

Psych'd Purple

The final polish in this collection is Psych'd Purple, a vibrant orchid creme with subtle micro shimmer throughout. This swatch shows 2 coats with topcoat and no white undie. The formula on Psych'd Purple is identical to the others in the collection - thicker but easy to apply. Each of the polishes in this collection self levels well and leaves no bald patches or brush strokes behind. 

That concludes part 2 of my two part review of the newly reformulated 80's Neon Collection from Shinespark Polish. I really enjoyed swatching these and playing around with them for watermarbling! You can pick up this collection for $55 for the full sized set, $24 for the mini sized set, $8 for full sized individual polishes, or $3.75 for mini sized individual polishes. 

What do you think of the colors in this collection? What's your favorite neon shade?


Thanks for reading!

**These products were sent to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own.**

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Shinespark Polish Swatch and Review: Reformulated 80's Neon CollectionPart 1

Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have a swatch and review of the newly reformulated Shinespark Polish 80's Neon Collection. This collection was originally released in March by Shinespark Polish and consisted of 7 colors - Pumped Pink, Radical Red, Outrageous Orange, Yuppie Yellow, Glam Green, Bouncin' Blue, and Psych'd Purple. After receiving some feedback that some took 3-4 coats to become opaque (I'm looking at you Yuppie Yellow and Glam Green), she decided to change up her formula. She recently redid this to add more pigment so they were more opaque and she added a teal color. She also changed suspension bases so now....THEY WATERMARBLE! YAAAAAAS! Who doesn't love a neon collection that watermarbles? 

Pumped Pink, Radical Red, Outrageous Orange, and Yuppie Yellow 

Flower design with Pumped Pink, Radical Red, Outrageous Orange, and Yuppie Yellow 

I personally purchased the original 80's neon cremes but Molly asked me if I would swatch the newer version and watermarble with them. I was absolutely honored to do so as she is a good friend of mine and I love her polishes! So let's get started with the swatches! All photos are taken inside my light box, the difference between the swatch with the bottle and the swatch without comes from the slight angle change of my hand.

Pumped Pink 

Pumped Pink 

The first polish in the collection is Pumped Pink, a neon Barbie pink creme with subtle micro shimmer throughout. My swatch shows 2 coats with topcoat, no white undie. Look how bright! The formula on this one is a bit thicker than the original formula but I had no trouble doing two thin coats for complete coverage.

Radical Red 

Radical Red 

The second polish in the collection is Radical Red, a neon coral-ly red creme with subtle micro shimmer throughout. My swatch shows 2 coats with topcoat and no white undie. This one is easily one of my favorites of the collection and has been since the original release of this collection. It is so very bright in person and applies evenly with no streaky spots in 2 thin coats.

Outrageous Orange 

Outrageous Orange 

The next polish in the collection is Outrageous Orange, a true neon orange creme with subtle micro shimmer throughout. My swatch shows 2 coats with topcoat with no white undie. This one reminds me of those orange creamsicle ice creams that I used to get from the ice cream truck in the summer. Again, the formula on the newer ones is a tad thicker than the original version but they go on easily in thin coats.

Yuppie Yellow

Yuppie Yellow 

The fourth polish in the collection is Yuppie Yellow, a fluorescent highlighter yellow creme with subtle micro shimmer throughout. I ADORE this polish. I usually stay away from wearing yellows because they clash with my skin but this one is phenomenal. My swatch shows 3 coats with topcoat with NO white undie. 

That concludes part 1 of my two part review of the newly reformulated 80's Neon Collection from Shinespark Polish. I will have part 2 up later this week to show the green, teal, blue, and purple. You can pick up this collection for $55 for the full sized set, $24 for the mini sized set, $8 for full sized individual polishes, or $3.75 for mini sized individual polishes. 

What do you think of indies reformulating existing collections? 

Thanks for reading! 

**These products were sent to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own.**

Want to see more? Follow me on Instagram for more swatches and nail art!

My top 5 favorite indie polishes!

**Girly Bits Save Your Scissors was a gift and MPolish Pish Plashin' Around was a press sample**

Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have a very special post to share with you! First off, its a post sharing with you my top 5 all time favorite indie polishes and that alone is super exciting but its also a link up with a bunch of other bloggers that are sharing some of their favorites, too! Make sure to look at the bottom of this post for a link to see everyone's posts. Go see what their favorites are and show their blogs some love! 

Much like my top 5 mainstream polishes post, I had every intention of putting these in order, but unfortunately, it was hard enough to narrow down my top 5, and after that, I just couldn't put them in order. So in no particular order, keep reading to see my top 5 picks!

Delush Polish A Night At The Asylum 

My first pick for my top 5 indie polishes is definitely Delush Polish A Night At The Asylum. This polish is a jelly glitter polish that consists of a small circle and square glitters as well as some large holographic circle glitters suspended in a dark teal jelly base. This is 2 coats of ANATA with Seche Vite topcoat. I immediately had to have this polish after I saw swatches last fall, this polish is a part of the Delush Polish Scream Supreme collection. I do have to leave this one sitting upside down for a bit before using it as the glitter does tend to settle, but as long as I leave it upside down for a little while before using it, I don't have to fish for the glitter, it distributes beautifully on its own. This polish is still available from Delush Polish!

Shinespark Polish Radical Red 

The second polish in my top 5 is Radical Red by Shinespark Polish. This is from the 80's neons collection that released this spring and definitely one of the most beautiful neons I've ever seen. The color of Radical Red reminds me of the original China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy though with a MUCH better formula. This is shown in two coats plus Seche Vite. This polish does dry to a matte finish like most neons, but a topcoat glosses it right up. My photo is almost color accurate but Radical Red is even brighter in person, it glows in the shade! I wish I had purchased the full size rather than the mini. This polish is still available from Shinespark Polish!

Girly Bits Save Your Scissors 

My third pick for top 5 indie polishes is Girly Bits Save Your Scissors. This polish is a lavender crelly polish with a ton of different colored glitters through out. The absolute best thing about this polish is its glitter displacement, absolutely ZERO settling. I don't even have to shake it or roll it before polishing. I do not have to manipulate the glitter placement either, it just glides onto the nail. This is two coats with Seche Vite topcoat. Just a stunning formula for a stunning polish. I was gifted this by my beautiful friend, Dancer during a polish swap. I need to see what other crellies Girly Bits has to offer because unfortunately, Save Your Scissors has been discontinued. :(

MPolish Pish Plashin' Around 

I wasn't sure if I should add in stamping polish to my top 5 indies but MPolish IS an indie brand, so I decided to go ahead. Obviously this one had to make it because 1. its blue and I adore blue polish and 2. its named after me! Please disregard my index finger, I stamped it funky, completely user error as you can see from the other fingers, this polish stamps fabulously. I have a full review on this polish in a previous post that you can find here. This is a perfect summer color for stamping, it picks up easily on the first try even with finely engraved images. Here is is pictured over China Glaze Inner Beauty with Seche Vite topcoat. This polish is still available from MPolish, though I think it is out of stock at the moment and will be restocked in coming weeks.

KBShimmer To Peach His Own 

The final polish to make it to my top 5 favorite indie polishes line up is KBShimmer To Peach His Own. This polish is best described as a nude leaning baby pink crelly polish with various glitters throughout. I actually purchased this one with a bit of trepidation because its not a color I tend to gravitate towards. I was completely in love with the swatches but I wasn't sure how it would look on me or if I would like it once I got it. I have to say that I was completely blown away when I first put this one on. This pic shows To Peach His Own in two coats plus topcoat. I love the various sized glitters in it and the way it looks against my skin. Its my go to polish to put on when I don't feel like doing nail art because it stands so well alone and makes me feel beautiful and classy when I wear it. I don't have to do any fishing for glitter with this polish nor do I have to leave it upside down before using it. The glitter displaces well on the nail with no extra effort. To Peach His Own is still available from KBShimmer. Quick...if you love crellies, GO BUY IT! You won't regret  it. 

And that completes my top 5 all time favorite indie polish line up! Did any of my favorites make your top 5? Don't forget to check out all the other posts this week featuring various bloggers' top 5 favorite indies as well! Just click on the link up below!! 

Thanks for reading!

Love, 

Pish 

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An InLinkz Link-up