Freckles Polish - I'm the Fairest

Back in November I had purchased a Paint The Rainbow box.
Paint The Rainbow is a monthly box filled with specially made polishes from indie nail polish makers based on a theme that changes every month.

Since I was so busy with my "24 Days Of December" count down to Christmas Day with nail art, I completely forgot about it, and it went unopened for a long time. 

I pulled out the first polish, Freckles Polish - I'm The Fairest. A gorgeous purple glitter polish. Happy with the polish I closed my Pain The Rainbow box and it's been like that since. I still have no idea what the other polishes are...

Next time I want a new polish I can just open the bag. Hehe.

This was a very chunky glitter polish, and I needed to go in with a bit of dabbing to cover any bald spots, but a generously amount of topcoat and it looked divine. 

The following morning I took my suitcase to the shuttle bus to the airport and noticed a chip on my thumb. From there on, the chipping got worse and by the time I had arrived at the birthday party, mere 3 days after I had applied the polish, there was barely anything left.

I spoke to the maker of Freckles Polish about my experience and she kindly offered me a discount to her store, if I was willing to give them another try.

Ended up ordering a couple of polishes from her site, because I believe in giving second chances, and that a first impression does not tell the whole story.

This is not the last you will see from Freckles Polish on my blog. The customer service that I received from her was great, and she was very understanding and easy to talk to. I did not have any problems with chipping on any of the other polishes that I bought from Freckles Polish.

Freckles Polish - I'm the Fairest

Freckles Polish - I'm the Fairest

Check out Freckles Polish Etsy Store over here. 

Color Club - Barely There

This post contains a "Refer A Friend" link, nothing else to disclose.

Last year I received this polish in my April (?) Glossybox. I blogged about it, and even did a little nail art with some waterdecals from BornPrettyStore. I wasn't wowed by the shade and felt it looked odd against my skin. It was placed in my Helmer, filed under C for Color Club, and I forgot all about it.

Color Club - Barely There

I have been subscribing to Glossybox for well over a year now and I am fairly happy with the service.
Pay 10 £ a month and get sent makeup, lotions, cleaners, face masks and what not, every month, sometimes they even include nail polishes. So far I have received 3 nail polishes, and one of them broke when I was upgrading my storage and adding more shelves to my nail cave.

Collection - 30 - Ice Queen

I could of course go out and replace it, but I am not. I have moved on. 

I had decided to give Color Club - Barely There another chance. 

I have to say I do like it a lot better when my nails are longer, and my skin winter pale. 

What is your favorite nude polish? Do you ever wear them?

Color Club - Barely There

Color Club - Barely There

This post contains a "Refer A Friend" link, nothing else to disclose.

Travelling Storage Solutions for Nail Polish Addicts

As some of you know, I travel quite a bit. Whenever I go on my journeys be it a long weekend or a month I always pack some nail polishes. Because of this, having proper storage for my stampers, stamping plates, and polishes is really important.

This post will not be about how I store everything at home in my Nail Cave, that will be covered in another post, another time, but this post is about some of the storage solutions I have come across that also doubles up and works great for travelling.  Be it across town for a girls night, or on holiday.

Below you can find a Youtube video that I recently made talking mostly about Jumbo Stamper Storage, but I am also showing a box that I think is great for storing polishes in when heading for a girls night, or when going on a holiday.

The first box that I mention is from  Really Useful Box and is the second smallest box that I have seen. the label says "0.55 litre". I think they come in clear, pink and blue box option with clear lids.

This box is perfect for holding polishes and little bits and bobs for nail art, like dotting tools and cleanup brush. Whenever I am visiting GuestNails to do her nails, this is the box I bring with me.

The second box that I use is for my stampers. It has the perfect height to store the stampers standing in the holder, and they don't move around and touch the other stamper heads so they are sitting safely in there. It is also from Really Useful Box and has the label "0.3 Assorted" and is 0.3litre.

I purchased my boxes from Eason here in the UK, but the boxes are also available many other places, including in the US. Check out reallyusefulproducts.com for more information .

The last containers and the smallest ones are from Superdrugs Travel section. They are called Cream Jar 25ml, and are the perfect size for spare/replacement stamper heads for your jumbo stampers.
There is room enough for them to be easily taken out of the container, and the lid does not close over them, so there is space for them to breath and contain that oily surface that they often have.

Storage Solutions: Containers and boxes for nail polish addicts.

I hope this post was helpful for some of you. If you, like me, have been searching for a better way to store your supplies for travelling and at home, these products might be something to look into.

For you UK ladies looking for containers for your XL stampers, Superdrugs has some that is a 👌 fit. Cream Jar - 25ml. 😍 #Superdrugs #getorganized #stampingnailart

A photo posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Mar 26, 2016 at 5:04am PDT

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Blueberry

This is the last polish in the Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection. Today I am showing you a nail art look using Opulent Essences - Blueberry.

For the other polishes in this collection head over here:
Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Orange

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Grape

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Strawberry

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lime

Or you can check out my Live Swatch and Review:
Live Swatch and Review on the blog.

Live Swatch and Review on the Youtube Channel.

For this swatch I used 2 coats over one coat of Sinful Color - Snow Me White and UNT - peelable basecoat.  This polish is super glossy and you can actually build it somewhat on it's own to get a darker and more vibrant shade. 

If you choose to wear it without the white undie this will cover perfectly in 3-4 coats.

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Blueberry

I decided to switch things up a little for today's post, and instead of just doing some fancy stamping on top I decided to go for a marbled design.
I grabbed a large angled brush for this, and dipped one side in Sinful Color - Snow Me White, and the other in Opulent Essences - Blueberry - like you would when doing a one stroke mani.
I then used the brush to wiggle the polishes across my nails for this marbled look. 

Wiggle, Wiggle. 

Wiggle, Wiggle.

For the matter of documenting I did not use UNT basecoat for this look as I was expecting guests and needed my mani to last a long hiking trip in the mountain, bad weather conditions and the occasional grasping a tree-trunk or rock in order to follow the trail. I wore this look for almost 2 weeks with no chipping. 

Marble nails using Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Blueberry and Sinful Color - Snow Me White.

@opulent_essences - Blueberry marble nails. 😱 💙 I absolutely love these #marblenails #opulentessences - Blueberry made the job so easy, just tapped in the polish with a large angled brush and then in white and swirled on my nails. #secretarysnailart #nailartoohlala #nailart #nailartaddict #nailsoftheday #nailsoninstagram #nailsoninstagram #nails #manicure #drymarblenails

A photo posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Apr 19, 2016 at 9:48am PDT

Pretty Serious - The Pink One

I thought we would take a little break from all the neon polishes that you have been seeing on the blog lately. While I have been doing awesome stuff with the Taste The Rainbow collection from Opulent Essences, I have been doing some shopping, and the nail mail has given my mailman a good workout. One of those parcels contained this gorgeous polish from Pretty Serious , you might have seen my Halloween manicure using a Pretty Serious polish, and I loved it so much, that I decided to get some more. The choice fell on Pretty Serious - The Pink One.

Pretty Serious - The Pink One

I used 2 coats for this swatch, and you can see just how amazingly bright pink this polish is. The blue shimmer is vibrant and makes this polish very unique. The closest thing that I had in my collection was H&M - Pink, which is probably 6-10 years old by now, and no longer around, but the blue shimmer in Pretty Serious - The Pink One is even more vibrant.

The packaging to the Pretty Serious nail polishes are super cool. Just take a look at this.

Pretty Serious - The Pink One

I could not get myself to do nail art over this polish, but it really is amazing on its own.

@pscosmetics - The Pink One Gorgeous bright pink #indiepolish #indieswatch #prettyseriouscosmetics #secretarysnailart

A photo posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Apr 13, 2016 at 2:32pm PDT

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lime

Hope you are not sick and tired of neon'd cause I have loads more to show. Today I am showing you another neon polish from the Taste The Rainbow Collection by Opulent Essence. If you are feeling the tug towards this collection, head over to the Opulent Essences Etsy store. They have so many cool polishes (!), I am sure you will find one that is right for you.

A huge bonus in my book is that they are Vegan friendly!

You can find a Live Swatch that I did over at my YouTube Channel for the entire collection, by following this link.

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Lime

This gorgeous neon green is lusher than an oasis, and greener than the greenest grass. Super glossy, your friends are sure to be green of envy looking at your nails. 

Sometimes my brain just comes up with these kind of things, it has to be written somewhere. 

My nails and my breakfast drink. I didn't like the Mango flavour so added some delicious wheatgrass and crushed gojiberries to it. @joylentshake #wheatgrass #joylent #joylentshake #handinframe

A photo posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Mar 20, 2016 at 3:51am PDT

Some of you, if you are stalking me on Instagram that is, might have seen this sneak peek at today's nail art. If you are not a regular stalker on my Instagram, and you hang out on that platform, I would recommend it.
Shameless plug over. Hehe.

For this nail art look I used 2 coats of Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lime over 1 coat of Sinful Color - Snow Me White. Then I took Barry M - Chai, Barry M - Quick Dry - Pit Stop (horrible alone, great for stamping), L'oreal - 819 - Sublime Platine. Bundlemonster - BMXL204 (Beaching Nails), and BMXL202 (ChitChat Nails).

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Lime with BMXL202, BMXL204 stamped using Barry M - Chai, Barry M - PitStop and L'oreal - Sublime Platine

Take a deep breath cause this might sound complicated...

So all the nails was stamped using Barry M - Chai with the chevron design from the Bundlemonster - BMXL204 (Beaching Nails). Once that had dried, I grabbed my jelly stamper that I purchased from Nail Artisan UK (It is very soft, so works great for curved nails) and went in with the solid triangle image from Bundlemonster BMXL202 (ChitChat Nails) using Barry M - PitStop. Since I was already doublestamping I wanted to advance a little bit more.
From the same plate, Bundlemonster BMXL202 (ChitChat Nails), I went in with the outlined triangle using  L'oreal - 819 - Sublime Platine, and used that as an outline for the solid triangle that I did with Barry M - PitStop. Next to the triangle images on Bundlemonster BMXL202 (ChitChat Nails) is a full nail image with some triangles with horizontal and vertical lines through. I used this image, and isolated one of the triangles with a horizontal line and went in with L'oreal - 819 - Sublime Platine just below the previous triangle.

One coat of Out The Door Topcoat and the look was finished.


Below you can see the short live swatch that  did for my Instagram Channel. You can find a Live Swatch that I did over at my YouTube Channel for the entire collection, by following this link.

@opulent_essences - Lime. If you are looking for the perfect neon green polish for the Summer, be sure to check out this badboy. #neonpolish #neon #nailstagram #nailsofinstagram #indiepolish #ukpolish #supportindiepolish #supportindie #swatch #indieswatch #secretarysnailart

A video posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Mar 28, 2016 at 11:11am PDT

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Orange

Today I am showing you another neon polish from the Taste The Rainbow Collection by Opulent Essence. If you are feeling the tug towards this collection, head over to the Opulent Essences Etsy store. They have so many cool polishes for sale, I am sure you will find one that is right for you.

A huge bonus in my book is that they are Vegan friendly!

You can find a Live Swatch that I did over at my YouTube Channel for the entire collection, by following this link.

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Orange

Here you can see Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Orange applied in 2 coats over 1 coat of Sinful Color - Snow Me White. The swatching stick has one coat.

I wanted to use some of my newer stamping plates, so I grabbed two plates from my Bundlemonster pile. BMXL178 - WORK IT! and BMXL204 - Beaching Nails. 

Let's do some doublestamping again!

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Orange with doublestamping using Bundlemonster BMXL178 - WORK IT! and BMXL204 - Beaching Nails with Beyu 377 and Wet n Wild - Black Creme

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Orange with doublestamping using Bundlemonster BMXL178 - WORK IT! and BMXL204 - Beaching Nails with Beyu 377 and Wet n Wild - Black Creme

For the stamping this time I used a duochrome polish Beyu - 377, I have had it forever and really wanted to use it for something, I think it worked great for this background image. The black from Wet N Wild  against the duochrome gives a nice effect when paired with a neon. 

Little reminder of what it looks like alone.

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Orange

@opulent_essences - Orange This super glossy neon orange takes only two coats. Check out my full Live Swatch and review of the Taste The Rainbow Collection from Opulent Essences on my Youtube channel, link in the bio #secretarysnailart #neon #neonpolish #indiepolish #indieswatch #opulentessences #ukpolish

A video posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Mar 27, 2016 at 3:07pm PDT

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon

The first thing that comes to my mind when someone mentions neon, is a traffic-stopping yellow neon. I have several yellow neons in my collection and not many other neon shades. Why that is, I don't know, but I often feel that you can really tell how good the maker is, and what to expect from the collection, by looking at their yellows.

So today I am showing you Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon

You can find a Live Swatch that I did over at my YouTube Channel for the entire collection, by following this link.

 

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon

On my swatch you can see 2 coats Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon, over 1 coat Sinful Color - Snow Me White. On my swatching stick you can see one coat alone.

This really reminds me of those Gel Sharpie Markers, and I think if anyone turned those into a polish, this would be it. Super glossy, high shine, and easy application.

I noticed that the bottles from Opulent Essences has a bit of a shattered look in the middle of the lettering. So I thought, what better than pairing it with a shatter / crackle polish? I pulled them all out of my Helmers and decided to use OPI - Shatter - Super Bass Shatter, and stamp an accent with Bundlemonster BMXL202 using Sally Hansen - 640 - Plum Luck, as it pairs very well with OPI - Shatter - Super Bass Shatter, only difference being that OPI - Shatter - Super Bass Shatter has some glitter specs in it. 

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon with OPI - Shatter - Super Bass Shatter and Sally Hansen - Plum Luck with Bundlemonster BMXL202

The above picture is without topcoat, and the glittery specs in OPI - Shatter - Super Bass Shatter really came out of hiding when topcoat was added, but sadly I also smudged my accent, as it had not been given proper time to dry.

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon with OPI - Shatter - Super Bass Shatter and Sally Hansen - Plum Luck with Bundlemonster BMXL202

When I did the Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Strawberry and tried using Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Lemon to stamp with I promised to do a proper stamping test. Below you can see it stamped over Sinful Color - Snow Me White and Wet N Wild - Black Creme. 

Stamping test over black and white with Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Lemon

Here comes the Sun! Check out my Youtube channel for a full Live Swatch and review of the Taste The Rainbow Collection from @opulent_essences link in the bio. #neon #opulentessences #indieswatch #swatch #indiepolish #ukpolish #neonpolish #secretarysnailart

A video posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Mar 27, 2016 at 2:57pm PDT

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Grape

Many of the girls in the nail art community that I talk to almost daily has a love for purple. With this is mind, I am today showing you Opulent Essences - Grape. This neon purple is totally badass, so to soften the edges, I decided to combine it with glitter.

You can find a Live Swatch that I did over at my YouTube Channel for the entire collection, by following this link.

The following swatching picture is taken with one coat over one coat Sinful Color - Snow Me White.

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Grape

@opulent_essences - Grape. Weak for purples? This super glossy #neonpolish is sure to win your 💟. #secretarysnailart #opulentessences #ukpolish #indiepolish #indieswatch #supportindiepolish #supportindie #swatch #nailpolish #neon #nailsoninstagram #nailsofinstagram

A video posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Mar 28, 2016 at 12:57pm PDT

I had recently purchased OPI - DS Lapis, and wanted to do some stamping with it, I thought this would be the perfect shade to match it up with.

I grabbed my Bundlemonster - Work It! BMXL177 and used the Ballett-work collage and one of the smaller ballerinas on the plate. I used OPI - DS Lapis for the ballerina, and Wet N Wild - Black Creme for the word collage over the ballerina.

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Grape stamping done using OPI - DS Lapis and Wet N Wild . Black Creme with Bundlemonster BMXL177.

I showed this nail art to one of my friends who happen to be a ballerina, and she absolutely loved it.

Did this nail art look dance it's way into your heart?