Lavish Polish - Peek a Boo

The polish used in this review was purchased by me, with a blogger review discount, under the promise I would test, swatch, and provide an honest review.

This post features Lavish Polish - Peek a Boo

lavishpolish.etsy.com

From the listing:
A really cute and girly light purple jelly based polish with fine purple glitter, small silver holographic hex glitter and large purple hex glitter.

This polish is fun. I love the soft purple jelly base. Though, I'm still pretty new at jelly based and to boot, I thought the white polish was dry but it wasn't so that particular nail looks not so great. The jelly is a little thin, I thought, so I used generous coats. I love the glitter combination in this, though, as with all larger glitters and my super round nails, the larger ones don't lay completely flush. A thick coat or two of top coat solves the issue.

The formula, application, and dry time for this polish were wonderful. It's low odor also so that's a bonus. I've run into some strong odor polishes lately. The glitter disperses well and I didn't have to fish for large glitters. I had a few throughout the manicure, and that is great for my style. You would have to fish a little if you wanted them on every nail.

For swatching, I used one thin coat on my thumb. My pointer finger had a white base, middle finger a shimmery nude base, and ring finger a warm gray base. I left the pinky finger naked.

This was the first polish I swatched and the pointer and ring nails look gradient and streaky due to my error thinking undies were completely set. I apologize.

I took the first photo of the nails with just one generous coat. The rest of the photos (except the macro of the thumb nail) are two coats with a thick top coat. They will be in thumb to pinky order.

Overall, this is a nice feminine polish, especially if you aren't looking for a pink or a red. The holographic glitters would really flare in some bright light, but it's very dreary here today. Can't wait to try it again, all with one base. I would likely choose gray or a lilac color I have for undies next time.

Lavish Polish - Kitty

The polish used in this review was purchased by me, with a blogger review discount, under the promise I would test, swatch, and provide an honest review.

This post features Lavish Polish - Kitty!

lavishpolish.etsy.com

From the listing:
A blue pearl based polish with fine silver glitter, small white matte hex, small turquoise hex glitter and large turquoise hex glitter.

This polish is beautiful. I love the pearly finish. It's gorgeous both in the bottle and on the nail. Overall, of the three I swatched today, I think it's my favorite. My only critique is that the large glitter doesn't lay flush with the nail on me. But I have very rounded nails, so I have that problem more than some do. With a thick coat of top coat it was no longer catching, and I think with a second, it would have been perfect. It wouldn't stop me from using the polish, that's for sure.

The formula, application, and dry time for this polish were wonderful. It's low odor also so that's a bonus. I've run into some strong odor polishes lately. The glitter disperses well and I didn't have to fish for large glitters. I had a few throughout the manicure, and that is great for my style. You would have to fish a little if you wanted them on every nail.

For swatching, I used one thin coat on my thumb. My pointer finger had a white base, middle finger a shimmery nude base, and ring finger a warm gray base. I left the pinky finger naked.

I took the first photo of the nails with just one generous coat. The rest of the photos (except the macro of the thumb nail) are two coats with a thick top coat. They will be in thumb to pinky order.

Overall, this polish is fabulous. I love that it's a softer blue, almost bordering on periwinkle. It's so fresh and whimsical!

Lavish Polish - Chocolate Bunny

The polish used in this review was purchased by me, with a blogger review discount, under the promise I would test, swatch, and provide an honest review.

This post features Lavish Polish - Chocolate Bunny.

lavishpolish.etsy.com


From the shop listing:
Chocolate Bunny is our first polish for Lavish Polish! It is a gorgeous brown jelly based polish with small iridescent hex glitter, small gold hex glitter and gold bar glitter.

When I saw this polish, I fell in love. I love brown polishes, and I love aqua, and together- yes please! The gold and iridescent I thought was a fun twist. I'm not generally a fan of bar glitter, but I overlooked that detail and decided to give it a go.

It was the polish I was most excited about if my set of four.

It arrived, gorgeous to look at in the bottle, but upon closer look, it seemed the bar glitters were a bit warped. My suspicion was confirmed upon application.

I have emailed Emely to see if she intended them to be this way, as they don't appear to be on the etsy listing, nor in the description

That said, application was easy enough except for the bars. I tried a few times to flip them but was getting a bit frustrated so I just left them as they laid.

Low odor. Nice jelly. I'm not the best at painting with jelly polishes because they are very new to me, so there was a little streaking on the white nail for sure. The polish dried with an average time, I would say.

Unfortunately, the bar glitters stuck up even through one coat of thick top coat.

For swatching, I used one thin coat on my thumb. My pointer finger had a white base, middle finger a shimmery nude base, and ring finger a warm gray base. I left the pinky finger naked.

I took the first photo of the nails with just one generous coat. The rest of the photos (except the macro of the thumb nail) are two coats with a thick top coat. They will be in thumb to pinky order.

Overall, I like the idea and look of the polish... Except those darn bar glitter! I will update when I hear back from her on the issue. I think I liked this color best over the nude base. What about you?


UPDATE: Emely will be removing the bar glitters because of the curling issue.

Hot Pink and Purple Gradient

I did this manicure with polishes I purchased.

I guess I could have done this as a picture tutorial... But I didn't. And I did it yesterday so the photos show tiny chipping on a few nails.

Goodness, was this more of a process than it needed to be. Started with spilling acetone in my coffee. And then using the wrong color for the base and needing to remove it and then smudging it immediately and needing to reapply the base. And then dripping polish on my shirt.

What on earth?! So... It took hours from start to finish. But, I persevered.

I used:
Finger Paints (a hot pink color I forget the name of but will hopefully remember to look)
OPI - Casino Royale
OPI - Road House Blues
Sinful Colors - Pinky Glitter

The correct method I used (correct for my standards), was:
Two coats hot pink FP. Let it dry.
Soak a makeup wedge in water and squeeze it out. Helps keep it from absorbing all the polish.
Brush three lines of polish onto a plastic cottage cheese lid (it's what I had on the counter anyway)- hot pink, dark pink, dark purple. Sponge it up with the wedge, and press firmly against the nail a few times. Repeat as necessary.

When that was dry, I used the smallest amount of the glitter I could get on the ring nail, because its a hot pink and using a lot was screwing with the visual of the gradient and I only wanted slight sparkle.

Two coats if Sally Hansen Insta-Dry top coat sealed it off.

The last photo was post sponging before any clean-up. Haha.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Blue-Away"

While shopping at CVS for the giveaway earlier this week, I couldn't help but get a little something for myself! Plus, there was a "Spend $10 on Sally Hansen, get $5 extrabucks rewards" so I had to take advantage of that. They basically gave me $5 to spend later! I'd never tried the Insta-Dri polishes, so I picked two of those. I got  Blue-Away and Rose Run.

 I'm always looking for blue polishes, so that one was a no brainer. It's very similar to China Glaze's "For Audrey", but "For Audrey" has a bit more green in it.

I have very few pinks/red in my collection (just not "my" color), though, so it was a little surprising that I was drawn to "Rose Run". It's a pretty mauveish pink. I've got it on my toes now, and I love it, but I'll spare you that picture. ;)

 I literally threw this polish on while trying to get a very stubborn 2.5 year old to nap yesterday. It's not perfect, but this is typical of a Desi mani...I'm too anxious to move on to something else to let it dry properly, so it's almost always immediately smudged or chipped.

 I was a little put off by the brush at first. It's short and rounded and kind flat--not at all what I'm used to--but it applied the polish very smoothly and easily and I had very little clean-up to do. That's a winner in my book!

After a day's wear (playing with my boy, doing housework, etc.), they're already a bit chipped and dented, but like I said, that's par for the course here. Still, you get the idea. Love the color, formula, & brush, so I'll definitely be looking to add more Insta-Dri colors to my collection!

One Hundred Facebook Likes Giveaway

All prizes were purchased by Desi & Nik. This is in no way a company/product endorsed/sponsored giveaway.

When we started out our blogging and Facebook manicure community adventure, it was completely on a whim.

The fact that people read our blog and interact with us, both here and on Facebook, honestly, is somewhat flattering.

We started out inviting our friends and family, and because they like us well enough, they joined us. Then, "strangers" came along, too! (I don't really care for the word strangers, but I couldn't think if a synonym...)

The fact that people we don't really know are interested in our words, photos, and community is so cool!

Because there are now 100 of you who joined us in our nail blogging/community adventure, we decided we would like to thank you!

How?

A giveaway, of course!

Rules:
~Must be 18 or older or have written parental permission (email is at mommiesmanis@gmail.com).
~Must live in the United States or have a US military address (postage is expensive for international, but maybe someday we will be able afford to send internationally... We will see).
~We will verify entries. No cheating.

Out of courtesy to our loyal community, please don't enter if you are going to just unlike our page or unsubscribe from our blog. That's crazy rude!

Now... What will you have a chance at winning?

One of four different prize packages! All items are brand new. We will package them in a way that they arrive safely to you, the winners, but we can not be held responsible for any damage that may happen once in the care of the USPS. And again, we purchased each item in the prize packs. We were not sponsored.

Prize Package 1-
Dotting tool, striping tape, Zoya "Coraline", That One Nail Polish "JAM", Sinful Colors "Cinderella", & Daring Digits "Gene"

Prize Package 2-
Dotting tool, striping tape, NYC "High Line Green", Daring Digits "More Dots", Finger Paints "Blank Canvas Cream", Mentality "Holo Top Coat"

Prize Package 3-
L.A Colors Polish Remover Pads, L.A. Colors Color Craze "Dazzle", Revlon "Smoldering", Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "The Real Teal", Zoya "Cynthia", NYC Long Wearing "Skyline Blue", and Sally Hansen Salon Effects "Check It Out".

 

Prize Package 4-
L.A. Colors Polish Remover Pads, Zoya "Edyta", L.A. Colors Color Craze "Cobalt", Revlon "Celestial FX", Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "VIP Pink", NYC Long Wearing "Lexington Lilac", and Kiss Gradation kit.

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! Thanks again for joining us!

Daring Digits - Star Gazer

Awkward disclaimer: I bought this. Not a sponsored post.

I googled earlier and found no swatches of Daring Digits - Star Gazer. What?! It's SOOOO pretty! I couldn't believe it. Maybe they are just buried somewhere.

Anyway. My other mani was too flashy to keep, and because I was all jacked up on caffeine during nap time, I decided to paint my nails again.

I chose NOPI - Khloe had a Little Lam Lam as my base. Two coats. It's a rich, dark teal. It's fab.

And then... The beauty that is Star Gazer.

Can be purchased at www.ddpolish.com if you're interested.

It's a clear base with teal tiny glitter, copper small glitter, and little black stars. It's gorgeous in the bottle!

It applies smoothly. Dries quick. Goes on fairly evenly. The stars in my particular bottle seem plastered to the side and even though I had it sitting upside down for quite a long time and rolled it between my palms a while, I only was able to get two stars out. It was kind of disappointing in principle, but you can't see them well over this super dark teal anyway so it was kind of nice to save them for another time!

I love it glossy. Love it matte. Matte photos are last.

Yes, indeed, this polish is amazing. It reminds me of a galaxy when over the teal. Or Cleopatra. Or a peacock that got whapped so hard it's seeing stars. Haha.

If it wasn't currently sold out, I would recommend you go buy it now.