*Press Release* Zoya Naturel Satins

*Press Release*

Zoya Naturel Satins

The next generation of Zoya Naturel is almost here! Introducing, Zoya Naturel Satins, a collection of six new, neutral nail polish colors in an ultra wearable, low sheen, chic satin finish. A hybrid between matte and glossy polishes, the new Zoya Satin* formula provides opaque coverage and is longer lasting than traditional matte shades. The flawlessly smooth finish hides imperfections and creates a longer lasting, satin finish nail look.

New Year's Eve Manicure

I have a great New Year's Eve manicure option to show you today! I have Zoya Storm and Cosmo on my nails. I think this is a great combination.

Storm (L) Cosmo (R)

KBShimmer Belle of the Mall

First of all, I apologize for the lack of a post yesterday. Some sort of virus is going around our house and my three year old and I both have it. Luckily, we are feeling somewhat better today! Now, on to this pretty polish! I have KBShimmer Belle of the Mall to show you today. This is definitely not a Winter polish, but sometimes you just need to use a color that will brighten up your day!

Indoor, indirect lighting

DIFFERENT dimension Shooting Star Cetus

Today I have a polish from DIFFERENT dimension's Shooting Star range to show you. The Shooting Star polishes are limited release polishes that she typically releases on Friday night for a limited time. Last Friday the Shooting Stars were available for a 24 hour pre-order. The previous Shooting Star polishes (like the one I'm about to show you here) were made in small batches of 30-60 bottles, and once they were gone, they were gone. This polish is called Cetus and was a Shooting Star polish from a few weeks ago.

Indoor, indirect light

Julep Naughty and Nice Mystery box

I'm going to share what I received in my Naughty and Nice Mystery box from Julep today. Julep typically releases one Mystery box per month and you do not have to be a Julep Maven to be able to purchase one. This one was $24.99 (I think most of the time that's what they are) and Julep said it would be a $150 value. Let's take a look at what I got.

I received four products (all new to me) and five polishes (also all new to me, I don't currently have any of these in my collection.) First up is the Hand and Cuticle stick. Julep describes this as a product that moisturizes and protects in one easy no-mess step. I have some issues with dry cuticles so I am excited to try this out. The retail price of this item is $22.00, but it is currently on sale for $9.99 on Julep's web page here.

Next up is a full size Rock Star hand cream. Julep describes this hand cream as being anti-aging, non-greasy, and fast-absorbing. They say that it keeps hands hydrated even after washing them. This is another good product for this time of year since the cold weather always makes my hands drier. This retails for $20.00 but is also currently on sale for $9.99 here

The last two products I received came in a set called Time Machine. It includes two full sized products; Facial for Hands Peel Off Glycolic Mask and Solace Oil Free Sunscreen SPF 30. I'm excited to try out the mask. I would love to have smooth, more moisturized hands so hopefully this product works! As for the sunscreen, I don't often think of using sunscreen on my hands, but it makes so much sense. I feel that you can really tell the age in someone by looking at their hands. People often think of taking care of their faces with sunscreen or other products, but how often do we think of our hands that way? I will definitely be trying this out. This set retails for $40.00 but is on sale currently for $14.99 here.

I received five polishes in my box, in a variety of finishes. The polishes I received are:

Sue, a light lilac purple with a pink shimmer exclusive to this Mystery box, Fiore, an Espresso brown creme, Mary Lou, an Oxblood polish with a satin finish, Patricia,  a deep purple metallic exclusive to this Mystery box and Jessie, a deep reddish brown creme. Julep's polishes retail for $14.00 but the Maven price is typically $11.20. Jessie is on sale currently for $6.99.

The total value of this box (going by retail prices) is $156.95, which is above the $150 Julep claimed it would be. I do think these Mystery boxes are a great way for someone to try Julep for the first time or for someone just starting out with Julep. If you have been a Maven for a while or just have a lot of Julep products or polishes, this might not be for you. It is still a really good deal though, even with using the Maven pricing. There is no way I could get this much stuff from Julep for only $24.99 unless it was in a box like this. 

What do you think? Would you give Julep a try? Let me know if you have tried any of these products and what you think of them. I'd love to hear!

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KBShimmer Christmas Polishes

Today I have the last four polishes that I picked up from the KBShimmer Winter Collection to show you. Three of them I would say are Christmas polishes and one is a Winter polish.

Christmas Manicure

I have a super cute Christmas manicure to show you today. I almost wish I had saved this idea for right before Christmas so I would have it on Christmas Day. I might just have to wear it again if I don't find anything else I like better!

Direct light

December Julep Maven Box

Today I have my December Julep Maven polishes to show you. Julep Maven is a subscription service that is mainly nail polish based but they are branching out in to more makeup and skin care items as time goes on. There are several different profiles, and each profile has a box each month with different nail polishes and/or makeup and skin care items. The It Girl, which is my normal profile, typically comes with three polishes. The other boxes usually have a combination of polish and other items. You can also add on items with your monthly box for a reduced rate. I chose to add one polish, so I have a total of four to show you today.

December Nailed Kit

I started a new subscription service this month. It is called Nailed Kit and it is $10 with free shipping if you are in the U.S. If you are outside of the U.S. it is $10 with $5 shipping. Each month you get two sets of nail decals. They apply with water, like a temporary tattoo, but for your nails! The sets for this month are really cute and perfect for Winter!

Cute Packaging!

BOGO Zoya Pixie Dust Polishes

If you ever wanted to try the Zoya Pixie Dust polishes, now is the time to do it! I just got an email that they are discontinuing them. It's hard for me to believe because they are fantastic polishes! They go on easily, last a long time, and if you don't care for the texture, just put on some top coat and you're good to go!

Please let me know if you want to see swatches of any of the Pixie Dust polishes. I have all of them so anything you want to see, I can do! Here is a link to the posts that I currently have up that use the Pixie Dust polishes.

Here's what Zoya had to say in the email:

2014 is the year we say goodbye to Zoya PixieDust. But before PixieDust is gone forever, we're having a PixieDust BOGO.
Now's your last chance to stock up on all your favorite PixieDust shades! If you're a textured nail polish lover or have been wanting to try
texture for the first time, don't miss this great deal and make sure to get them before they're gone! 

Offer is valid on all Zoya PixieDust, Magical PixieDust and Ultra PixieDust Colors.
Valid Now – Sunday, December 21st (11:59pm EST) Exclusively on Zoya.com. Use Code: PXD at Checkout!

Here's a couple pictures of the polishes I had together. I do have the pink Magical Pixie dusts, but they may be loaned out at the moment. Again, let me know if you want to see swatches of any, I'd be happy to do them!

Indoor, without flash

Indoor, with flash

Indoor, with flash

Colores de Carol Winter Collection Picks

Today I have a brand that is new to me to show you today! These are my picks from the Colores de Carol Winter/Holiday Collection.

L-R: Mittens, Glitter Garland, and Blanca Navidad

Snowflake Stamping

Today I have another stamped manicure to show you! In one of the nail groups I'm a part of on Facebook, there was some discussion about stamping today and it made me want to try it again. For this look I used Zoya Song and Color Club Over the Moon,

Indoor, direct lighting

December Rainbow Honey Mystery Bag

I have my December Rainbow Honey Mystery Bag to show you today! Rainbow Honey's Mystery Bag contains a mix of nail polish and nail and skin care items. The theme of this month's bag was inspired by fictional characters from Russian literature. There are two polishes, a scented top coat, a solid perfume, body lotion, and cuticle balm in the December bag.

Zoya Mystery Box Revealed!

I have my Zoya Mystery Box to show you today! This was a promo that Zoya had on Cyber Monday. The cost of the bag was $15.00 and it sold out the same day it was released. If you are interested in my original post about the promo, you can take a look at it here.

Graduation Themed Stamped Design

Today is an exciting day for our family. My husband graduates from college with a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing. I'm so proud of him. It has been a lot of work, plus with two little guys at home, he didn't have much time off. It will be awesome to see him get his diploma and Nursing pin today. 

 

In honor of his graduation, I decided to try my hand at some stamping. I recently bought a Konad stamper and a set of Holiday plates from Bundle Monster. I purchased both off of Amazon. For this look I used plate BM-H23. I used Zoya Dovima (one coat) as a base and stamped with Color Club Kismet from the Halo Hues collection. I topped it off with one coat of HK Girl.

Thumbs! 

Thumbs!

This ended up looking pretty good. It is much more of a design than I could do free hand. My favorite out of the ones I used is the one in the middle picture above. It has so many different things in it. I will be doing some practicing with this set and I'm sure you'll see more soon!

DIFFERENT dimension Black Dahlia and Squarey Hexy

Today I have DIFFERENT dimension Black Dahlia and Squarey Hexy to show you! Both of these polishes are part of the regular line and are set to be restocked tonight, December 12, 2014, at 9 pm EST.

Black Dahlia (L) Squarey Hexy (R)

Butter London All Hail The Queen and Dubs

Today I have a neutral and very pretty combination using Butter London polishes. I needed a little neutral pallet cleanse after all of the beautiful bright colors I've been wearing.  This is All Hail The Queen and Dubs.

All Hail The Queen (L) and Dubs (R)

Glisten & Glow Holiday Trio

Today I have the Glisten & Glow Holiday Trio to show you. This is a set of three holographic polishes that are perfect for the holidays or year-round! I these in a set of three, but I think they will be available separately soon. I will link the Glisten & Glow page here.

CDB Lacquer Holiday 2014 Collection picks

Today I have my picks from the CDB Lacquer Holiday 2014 collection to show you. I have three polishes to show you. First of all, I wanted to show you how they were packaged when they came to me.

Glitter Guilty Christmas Bells Will Be Ringing

I have a polish to show you today from Glitter Guilty. I got this polish last year around Christmas time in a Glitter Guilty Pleasures box. You can check out their site here.

KBShimmer LE Flakie Polishes

Today I have the new Limited Edition KBShimmer Flakie top coat polishes to show you. There are six polishes in this collection. I swatched all of them over a black polish (Zoya Black Swan.) I did two coats of the flakies with one coat of HK Girl, but you could do one coat of the flakie polish for a more subtle look. Let's get into them!

I Survived Black Friday LE Box

I have the I Survived Black Friday Limited Edition Box to show you today. This box contains three polishes and two sheets of NailVinyls. This set is inspired by Black Friday shopping, which I think is so cute and unique!

First up is Cupcake Polish Trampled By A Shopping Cart. This is a pink holographic polish with what looks to me like iridescent flakes in it. I had a hard time capturing the flakes in my pictures, but they are visible to the naked eye. All of these pictures are in direct, indoor light and are two coats of polish with one coat of HK Girl top coat to seal everything in.

Next up is Glisten and Glow First In Line. This is a deep purple holographic polish. The holo in this polish is amazing. The formula on all of these polishes was really good. Not too thick or thin and covered well in two coats. 

The last polish in the group is DIFFERENT dimension Up All Night. It is a dark teal holographic polish. Just beautiful. The holo in this polish was really strong as well. On my ring finger I used one of the NailVinyl decals as an accent. There was a sheet of gold and a sheet of silver decals, and both are holographic. There are shoes, perfume bottles, nail polish bottles, dollar signs, and a few other designs. I used a nail polish bottle in gold for my accent. My nail beds are fairly small, so there are a few decals that I don't think would fit on my nails. If you have medium to large nail beds, I don't think you will have a problem.

So Cute!

I really enjoy this box. As of now, this is available on all four collaborators web sites. This is limited edition and the polishes and decals are only available in this box, they are not sold separately. The I Survived Black Friday Box is $40, which is a good deal for these polishes and decals. Here are the sites you can pick this box up at:

Cupcake Polish website here.

Glisten and Glow website here.

DIFFERENT dimension website here.

NailVinyls website here.

I went a little crazy with the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, so I will have a lot of new polishes to show you coming up. I have a few brands that are new to me, and I'm excited to try them out. Look for them to be up soon!

KBShimmer Holly Back Girl

I have one of the polishes from the KBShimmer Winter 2014 collection to show you today. This is Holly Back Girl.

Doesn't this look like Christmas in a bottle?  I think so! It is a white crelly base with green and red metallic glitter in a few different sizes. None of the glitter is very big, which makes it really easy to get out of the bottle and get onto the nail. 

For my accent nail, I used a candy cane nail decal. I chose it off of KBShimmer's Winter Holiday Vinyl Decal sheet that is available here. It has a variety of shapes to choose from-candy cane, snowflake, and Christmas lights are just a few of them. I just used a tweezers to remove the decal from the sheet and placed it where I wanted it on the nail.

This is three coats of Holly Back Girl and one coat of HK Girl.  Holly Back Girl is available here. If you're looking at purchasing polishes from KBShimmer, keep in mind that you can get Holly Back Girl free with any $70 purchase until December 31, 2014. I like this polish so much that I actually wore it for an extra day! Typically I change my polish every night after my boys go to bed, but I just didn't want to take this off. I have really enjoyed all of the polishes like this that I have bought from KBShimmer.They have just the right consistency so that the glitter is still able to peek through while having a decent coverage base polish. Is Holly Back Girl something you'd wear for the holidays? I'm sure I'll get more use out of it before Christmas comes!

DIFFERENT dimension Heavenly Waters

I have a gorgeous cobalt blue holographic polish to show you today. This is Heavenly Waters by DIFFERENT dimension.

Outside, direct sunlight

KBShimmer Hexy Bikini and Orly Teal Unreal

Today I have KBShimmer Hexy Bikini and Orly Teal Unreal to show you. These polishes work well together because Hexy Bikini actually has teal glitter in it!