Nail Pattern Boldness Boop-Oop-A-Dupe over Revlon Royal

Hey guys! Quick swatch post today, because it's my day off and I want to enjoy it! :)

I know, I know, everyone and their brother has shown Nail Pattern Boldness Boop-Oop-A-Dupe over Revlon Royal, but I had to try it for myself. It did not disappoint! (Sorry for the greasy bottle haha, I used 365 Days of Color Hand Creme right before these photos, and I've since realized it's much better as a night creme!)

In case you didn't know, Boop-Oop-A-Dupe is a near-perfect dupe of Maybelline's Fantasy Fire, which those of us in the states don't have access to (that I know of). I don't own Fantasy Fire, but I've looked at a lot of comparisons, and I actually think NPB's version is better! The effect is stronger, it's a bigger bottle, and it's much more affordable for US customers, rather than payng shipping from Australia, etc. 

These photos show 2 coats of Revlon Royal, topped with 1 coat of NPB Boop-Oop-A-Dupe, with the exception of my index finger, which has 2 coats. I topped with Seche Vite.

I was mesmerized by the shimmering firey effect this mani had! I can't wait to try Boop-Oop-A-Dupe over other colors!! I bet it will look stunning over black.
What are your thoughts on this polish? Do you have Fantasy Fire? How do they compare in YOUR opinion?

Thanks for looking! <3
Kelly

EDIT: Forgot to mention, Boop-Oop-A-Dupe is a Llarowe exclusive! It retails for $9, and you can pick it up here, but it is sold out at the moment. Also be sure to check out the Nail Pattern Boldness Etsy shop for Allison's other wonderful creations, and follow her on Facebook to keep up to date on restocks, new shades, and other information! :)

Mentality - Seduce and Tease swatches

Good afternoon everyone! Today I've got some swatches that are long overdue. Mentality has quickly become one of my favorite indie makers of this year, with their amazing customer service, super affordable prices, and of course their quality polishes! Today I have two of their stunning holos from the Precious Holo Collection, Seduce and Tease.

Seduce is described on the website as: "a radiant blue holographic polish with dark red accent flecks."

These photos do NOT do this polish justice! The holo was super strong, just look at it in the bottle!

I hurried up and put this polish on when I saw it was sunny on this day, and unfortunately in my haste I got some bubbles. I blame it either on user error, and not letting the layers dry completely in between, or the topcoat I used - it's not the fault of the polish itself! These photos were taken indoors, in direct sunlight, and they show 3 coats of Seduce with Out the Door topcoat. I'll have to do a review on this topcoat soon - I kind of hated it...more on that later.

Here's a blurry shot that really shows the holo! DROOL.

And now we have Tease! 

"Tease is a delicate purple holographic polish with bright blue accent flecks."

Again, this is 3 coats of Tease, but 2 would have been fine. I wanted to make sure I had absolutely no bald spots or VNL - I hate that! I used SV on this hand because I hated OTD so much. I didn't notice that the topcoat took away from the holo effect at all! These photos were taken outside, in direct sunlight.

Both of these .5 oz polishes retail for $8 SHIPPED. Yes, shipped. I love that about Mentality - their shipping is included right in the price of the polish. They use all recycled shipping materials to save on shipping costs so they can provide affordable products to customers - how great is that!? I also love that they don't play into all that restock madness - their store remains stocked, all the time. And be on the lookout for more swatches from me...as I'm typing this, I'm putting in another order haha! Mentality just came out with an amazing line of both matte and sparkly microglitters, and 3 dark, vampy holos, and I could not resist! Not to mention, they currently have 24K Gold and 12K White Gold topcoats in their shop. If you haven't already, be sure to check them out - you'll be glad you did. :)

Mentality on Big Cartel
Mentality on Etsy
Mentality on Facebook

<3
Kelly

Jindie Nails Candy Land & Swoon

Hello loves! Today I've got the elusive Candy Land and her little brother Swoon from Jindie Nails! 

Jindie Nails was the first brand that I saw to use these neon translucent hexes, and they are awesome! It's such a unique look, especially in the white base that Candy Land has. These are two really fun polishes! :)

First up is Candy Land. This polish has been CRAZY popular, and it sells out like immediately, so when it is in stock, be sure to snatch it up! It's a kinda off white crelly base with pink, purple, blue, green, and yellow neon translucent hexes in different sizes. The following swatches show 3 coats of Candy Land with no undies, and with 1 coat of SV.

The larger hexes are a bit tricky, but if you use the upside bottle trick, they come out on their own, no problem. I let the bottle sit upside for a couple hours before I did this mani, and between coats I sat it upside down, too. I didn't do any fishing or mess with placement at all. You could if you're picky, but I kind of like the way it looks random. :) 1 coat of SV made this completely smooth.

Next up is Swoon. This polish has a light blue crelly base with the same translucent hexes plus round blue glitters and small blue squares. These photos show 3 coats of Swoon with no undies, and a coat of SV on top.

The neon hexes gave me a bit more trouble in this one, which is weird, because they are the same glitters as Candy Land has, but Candy Land didn't give me issues. They just seemed to not want to really lay flat, and some of them stuck up at the corners a bit. If I would have added one more coat of topcoat, it probably would have been fine. Other than that, no other issues with this formula!
I thought it was cool to see how these polishes built up, but I think in the future, I will layer Candy Land over white and Swoon over light blue to conserve polish. I definitely think these two are both worth picking up if you haven't already. The shop is closed at the moment, but be sure to follow Jen on all her social media sites to keep up to date on restock info! :)


Jindie Nails on Etsy
Jindie Nails on Llarowe
Jindie Nails on Facebook
Jindie Nails on Instagram

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these two! Which one is your favorite of the two? :)

Kelly

Some of these products were provided for review. I am not being compensated in any way for this post. This review is a statement of my honest opinion of these products, based on my experience. For further information, please see my Disclosure Statement.

Pokemon Challenge: Grass Type

You guys, I'm so proud of these. It's Grass-Type week in the Pokemon Challenge I'm doing, and I had quite a few ideas of what I wanted to do this week. Because we are sticking to the original 151, there are really not many choices to pick from - sometimes I forget just how much the game has changed since then! I wanted to do Tangela, but I thought it would be too hard to freehand all those vines - of course, I didn't think of the genius idea Sharra had to use Sharpie!! Amazing.

Anyway, here's what I came up with:

I had wanted to do Oddish, then I noticed a few of the other girls chose him too, so I thought I'd do it a bit differently. So, here's Oddish, and his Gen 1 evolutions, Gloom and Vileplume! :)

I ended up being SO happy with these! I wasn't sure if I could pull it off, especially with how short my nails are right now, but they turned out a lot better than I had expected! I thought Dollish Polish The Hero of Time was an perfect accent for these Grass pokemon. I used a combination of dotting tools, striping brushes, and nail art brushes to create this mani.

What do you think of these nails? Do you have a favorite Grass-type pokemon? I'd love to hear your thoughts below! <3

Kelly

Let it Snow Challenge: Day 8 - Icicles

Hello hello! Happy Saturday! I hope you are all having a lovely weekend, I've been relaxing and spending time with the boyfriend, so I"m happy. :) Today I have my 8th mani in the Let it Snow Challenge - this week's theme is Icicles. Here's what I came up with!

I was searching for inspiration on Google Images (this is becoming a theme), and I found these lovely nails done by Top Coat It. Click the photo to see the full post!

So, I definitely wanted to do these, but I wanted to spice them up just a bit. I decided to use a darker base, and I settled on Sinful Colors . It's a blackened shimmery teal blue that reminded me of the night sky. I was searching through my Helmers for a snowy-looking polish (but trying desperately to avoid using DP You'll Shoot Yer Eye Out, Kid again) and I spotted this Studio M polish called Covered in Diamonds. In the bottle, it looks like snow. On the nail....well, it didn't really turn out as planned. You can see what I mean...

I should have realized flakies are never what they initially seem, haha...oh, well - use your imagination! It's rainbow snow. :) Anyway, then I just painted on the icicles using a white striping brush, and topped with a coat of HK Girl. Oh, and by the way, when editing, I noticed a stray bristle from my cleanup brush stuck to my middle finger, so I tried to cover that with the watermark, lol.

Here they are flipped "right" side up!

I really loved how these turned out!! I wasn't that excited about the theme this week, but then I surprised myself. :) I'd love to hear your thoughts on these below! And don't forget to check out everyone else's take on icicles.

Kelly

Julep Suedes - Hailee & Minka

Hello everyone! Today is my Friday so I'm very excited to have the next two days off work!! :D 

I wanted to let you all know that I recently had two nasty breaks (one on each hand!) so I've had to trim down to nubs. I hate it when that happens! Fortunately, I've got a huge backlog of posts, so the majority of what you will be seeing for the next couple weeks will be manis that I've done over the past month or so. I want to grow my nails out a bit before I do any new swatches. 

Today I've got some gorgeous polishes that came out a while back - my picks from Julep's suede collection! I got Hailee and Minka, which you will be seeing today, and Nora, which I will show you in another post soon. 

First up is Hailee. Julep describes this as a khaki green suede, and I kind of disagree. I picture khaki with more brown tones to it, this to me looks like a straightforward green with silvery shimmer. The following photos show 2 coats of Hailee with base coat (Poshe) but no topcoat.

This polish is gorgeous at different angles! Like I said, it's got that silvery shimmer to it in certain lights.

Here's a close-up to really show the depth. I adore this polish, I imagine it will be making many more appearances on my nails.

And now, onto Minka! Julep describes this as an oxblood red suede, but I think of oxblood as being a darker, "vampier" red. This polish seems more coppery to me, but you definitely pick up the red. I love it! Again, this is 2 coats of Minka over Pose basecoat, but with no topcoat.

I was incredibly impressed with these polishes! The only deterrent is the price, because I'm not a maven. But the formula was perfect, they're unlike anything else in my stash, and I could not believe how long they lasted without chipping. I am extremely addicted to my topcoats, and I thought I would have a much harder time not using one. Typically, matte polishes with no topcoat have not worked well for me - I always have to use the "sandwich" method. However, with these gorgeous suedes, it's not necessary. Two coats of the polish and you're good to go! I'm amazed if you can't tell. These made it 3 whole days with no chips, and they may have lasted longer, but I changed my mani. 3 days is an eternity for me, so that's saying something! :)

These polishes retail for $14 each (if you're a member, they'll be cheaper) and you can pick them up at Julep.com.

<3
Kelly

These polishes were purchased by me, and the above review reflects my honest opinions. I am not being compensated in any way for this post. Please see my Disclosure Statement for more information.