April SquareHue Box

The Passport Collection: Amsterdam

The preview for this month looked very colorful, and as you can see, it is!

The first color is Beethovenstraat, a neon green high gloss creme. This color is so bright and fun! It's not my favorite, I don't usually like greens on myself, but it's perfect for summer nail art! The formula was a bit thin, I used 4 coats for full opacity, no top coat.

Next up is Kalverstraat. A beautiful, hot pink, almost a touch the salmon side. This one is also very bright, perfect summer color. I used 3 coats, no top coat.

Last color is P.C. Hooftstraat, they call this one a duochrome, but it almost looks like more of a shimmer to me. It's a gorgeous purple with bright blue shimmer in it. This one was also a little sheer, I used 4 coats, no top coat.

And here's a fun little dotticure with all 3 colors! I also used Sinful Colors- Snow me White.

Stay tuned next month for The Passport Collection: RIO!

butter LONDON- Scallywag

Awhile back on my Facebook page, I mentioned that butter LONDON was having a sale. I picked up two polishes for 50% off! This is one of those.

This is two coats of Scallywag. Isn't is incredible?!? It's the most gorgeous teal glitter. It's really dense, so you don't really need undies with it. It does dry a bit gritty though, so I used a thick coat of HK Girl on top. It really enhanced the sparkle too!

 

 A blurry shot to show that sparkle!

I added a simple stamp so I didn't cover up all that gorgeous glitter. I used Sinful Colors- Snow Me White and BM-313.

I love this color so much, but it chips like crazy! I can usually get a pretty solid 4 days out of a polish without a chip, this polish was chipping the next morning. Such a disappointment :(

Royal Lacquer-Love Me Tender and Such a Lady

Today we have two more gorgeous shades from Royal Lacquer. Love Me Tender from their Valentine's collection, and Such a Lady. I love these! They are so girly and beautiful!

 

I actually did these nails right before Valentine's Day with the intention of posting them before then, but time got away from me and it just didn't happen.

Both of these colors were opaque in two easy coats. They had a special  with their Valentine's polishes, you got a sheet of heart decals with each purchase. I chose these with Love Me Tender, and they threw in Such a Lady and some cute pink hearts too! I love how easy these decals are, and these two colors looked perfect together!

There are all these pretty iridescent  glitters that didn't really show up in my pictures :( It was much more sparkly in real life.

Check out their Etsy shop here for other colors and decals!

Zoya-Tinsley with Pueen Stamping

Awhile back when Zoya had their big sale, this is one of the colors I got. I'm so glad I did because it is gorgeous! I love the golden shimmer it has.

Seriously, I can't get over how pretty this is.

I have been craving some new stamping plates, so I got the Pueen Love Elements set. I love all the girly images! Lots of hearts and swirls. This ruffled image I've seen others use before and loved it, so it was the first one I tried out. I used Sinful Colors- Snow me White and Pueen 32.

February SquareHue Box

The Passport Collection: Tokyo

Nails Ablaze, Harajuku Style

I don't know much about Tokyo, or about Harajuku, but from a little googling, I could tell it was a little wild and very colorful. And SquareHue didn't disappoint!

The first color is Roppongi, a bright green glitter with a hint of golden shimmer. It's full of iridescent glitters. I'm not a big fan of this shade of green. It may look better layered over something rather than on it's own though. The formula was a bit sheer, I used 3 coats for the photo below and there is still slight VNL.

Next up is Shibuya, a bright pink/magenta with blue microglitter. I really love this one! This one started out a little sheer, but built up easily. I used 3 coats for full opacity.

Last is Ginza. A kind of sky blue shimmer. I think this one is gorgeous. Its almost got more of a frost finish than a shimmer, as you can tell by the slight brush strokes. I used 3 coats for full opacity.

Overall, I think this box is very fun! It's bright and glittery, a nice change of pace for the yucky winter weather we're having!

Next month is The Passport Collection: Paris. Sign up now so you don't miss it!

Zoya- Aurora with a heart

I finally got my Zoya order in the mail and was so excited to play with my new gorgeous colors! 

I used two coats of Zoya- Aurora for all but the accent. That is two coats of OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls with a heart in Aurora. I just used a dotting tool for the heart. I absolutely LOVE this color!! It's amazing! I'm glad it's one of the three I ended up going with.

I'm happy that Valentine's Day is around the corner, lots of hearts and girly colors on their way!

Simple Swirls

I did these nails a few weeks ago, on pretty short nails. The base color is a mini that came in a 7 pack from Ross. They don't really have a brand, but the color is called Cranberry. I stamped with BM-314 and Sinful Colors- Snow Me White.

In other news...after the big share the love event last weekend, my Facebook page just hit 500 likes! I'm in shock! Before the weekend, I think I had 73! I'm so excited and hope everyone likes my work! I also started posting a little on Instagram. You can find me there @kickacetone.

Go Niners!

To be perfectly honest, I don't care much about football. But my husband is from Sacramento and is a huge 49ers fan, so these are for him :) They're playing the Seahawks tomorrow and he says he thinks this game is going to be bigger than the superbowl, so I decided I probably should do some nails for the occasion.

I'm really loving the braid look lately. It's easy and just looks so cool! For this one I used OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Color Club- Berry and Bright, and SquareHue- Honor. My accent nail was done with Berry and Bright and black and white Nail Ritz pens. My husband loved them, so mission accomplished!

 My girls also wanted 49ers nails! This picture is of my almost 2-year-old's nails. I had to be quick for obvious reasons, so don't mind the messy job with lack of cleanup :) I've been painting her toenails since she was 3 months old, but this is only the second time I've done her fingernails. It's cute how she wants to show everyone :)

This one is my other two girls. The top hand is my 4-year-old, the bottom is my 8-year-old. They thought it was so fun that they all had matching nails. I tried to get a picture of all 3 of them, but my baby wasn't having it.

Anyone else rooting for the Niners??

Glitter Chevrons!

I started out with the intent of doing a pond manicure for today. It reeeeally didn't work out. My layering polish was a little too sheer. I'll give that look a try another time. So after one failed mani, I completely switched directions and started over about 10:30 last night. I absolutely love how this turned out!

I started with 2 coats of OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then used the large chevron Vynails nail decals. I used them as guides for this look. They were super easy to use, and it went really quickly. I painted one coat of Nina- Twinkle, Twinkle over the guides, then peeled them off with tweezers while the polish was still wet.

This is something I would definitely do again! But I'll need more of those chevron stickers! And that blue glitter! Isn't is amazing?? I was surprised how opaque it was in just one coat as well! I picked this gem up on clearance at Sally's a few weeks ago.

Double Holo Houndstooth

Sometimes I just don't want to do "seasonally appropriate" nails. Sometimes I just want something that will make me happy. And what's more happy than sparkle, holographic, and pink!

I started with 2 coats of Orly- Miss Conduct, by far one of my very favorite polishes. I stamped with BM-322 and Color Club- Cloud Nine.

I love how this looks in direct light, as well as indirect.

Miss Conduct is a scattered holo, and Cloud Nine is a linear holo, I wasn't sure how they would look together, but I think it turned out pretty awesome!

Now those are happy nails :)

Holo Snowflakes

I've been wanting to do a winter nail art look, but wasn't really feeling like the usual blues and grays that go with winter. I needed something happy and fun. So I went with China Glaze- When Stars Collide, a beautiful, rich, holographic purple. I used Sinful Colors- Snow Me White and BM-323 for the snowflakes.

 I really love how these turned out. They're very "happy winter". I like that.

January SquareHue Box

 I realized when I got the shipping notification for this box that I never did post the swatches from last month's box! So if anyone is interested in seeing those, just let me know and I'll post them :)

The Passport Collection- London

I was pretty excited to see what was in store for this box. I went to London with my brother when I was 17 and it was incredible! So it was fun to see the names of the polishes were places that I've been to :) To be completely honest, I was slightly underwhelmed when I saw the colors, and then I swatched them...and it totally changed my mind!

First up is Buckingham, a gorgeous deep burgundy. I absolutely love this! Upon first glance, I wasn't too impressed, but on the nail it was incredible. It's so rich and dreamy, and once again, crazy awesome shine. This is 2 coats, no topcoat.

 

 Next up is Westminster, sort of an off white, cream color. The formula on this one was a little streaky and probably could have used one more coat to even it out more. I used 3 thin coats for this photo. I don't love this color on it's own, but I think it will be great to use for nail art!

 Last, we have West End, a dark blue shimmer. I thought this one looked the most interesting at first glance, and it's an absolute stunner on the nail! You can see a hint of the bright blue shimmer in this picture, so pretty!! I used 3 coats, no topcoat. Even thought this one isn't one of the hi-gloss cremes, it still has great shine.

Have you signed up for SquareHue yet?!?

Do it!!

Last Hurrah

 Since it's the last day of the year, I have to get a post in. I cut it pretty close on this one. I'm putting Christmas and New Year's Eve all in one post since it's kind of my last shot.

On the left is my sweet little Chloe's nails. She's 4 and really wanted some Christmas nails, so we did these one evening while she watched Mulan 2. She loved them and was excited to take pictures just like Mommy. On the right are my Christmas sweater nails. A very popular trend this season, I really liked how they turned out. I used Color Club- Berry and Bright, then stamped with Sinful Colors- Snow Me White and W120.

 Next up is my look for New Year's Eve. My mom bought me a pack of 7 mini polishes at Ross awhile back. I don't know what brand they are, but this is one of them. It's called Grapevine. It's such a gorgeous dark purple and in direct light you can see the beautiful pink and blue shimmer in it. I just love it!

 I started with 2 coats of Grapevine, then decided to do a skittle, something I rarely do. On the index finger I added Hard Candy- Hip Hip Hooray, very fitting for party nails, I think! The other images are stamped with Pure Ice- Silver Star and BM-311 and W117.

Better late than never, right?? 

My goal for my blog in the new year is to start posting more regularly. Hopefully we're doing with sickness and surgeries for awhile, so things can calm down. I do my nails, I just have trouble finding the time to post! Maybe once the older kids go back to school, I can start carving out some time during Sesame Street for blogging :)

Happy New Year everyone!!

Royal Lacquer Swatches & Review

Back in October I posted about Suds n Stickers, they did the great Vynails decals. They recently started a line of polish called Royal Lacquer and I was lucky enough to receive a few colors for review! Unfortunately, I got them the same day I had my tonsils out, so I've been out of commission for a couple weeks, so sorry ladies!

On my index and middle finger is Aura. A gorgeous purple glitter topper. I layered it over OPI- You're Such a Budapest. This color is so sparkly and the glitter payoff is great. The larger circle glitters take a little fishing, but that's to be expected.

 

 

 On the ring and pinky fingers I've got this cute little unnamed mini. It's a delicate glitter topper, some pink, purple, blue, very pretty. It's also over You're Such a Budapest. 

 

 I really loved this next color, it's gorgeous! This is three coats of Inner Glow. A gorgeous berry colored jelly with some redish micro glitter and some copper and holo glitter. It's so pretty! It dries to kind of a waxy finish, which is cool, but I really love it with top coat!

No topcoat

Topcoat

 The last one is another cute little unnamed mini. It's a pretty teal color packed with black, white, and silver glitters. All different shapes, hexes, squares, circles, stars, although I didn't manage to get any of the stars. I really like this color, the larger glitters do require a little fishing of course, but it's worth it :) This one also had a waxy finish to it.

No topcoat

Topcoat

Thank you to the ladies from Royal Lacquer for giving me the opportunity to review your polishes! I absolutely love them!!

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