Autism Awareness Day - Light It Up Blue

April 2nd is Autism Awareness Day and to show my support to those affected, while still keeping up with the beauty aspect of my beauty blog, I'll be showing you some blue manis plus what I'll be wearing on my nails for however long I can make the manicure last! I meant to post this earlier but it just kept slipping my mind for some reason. Better late than never though.

 The polishes I used were Layla Hologram Effect Polish in Ocean Rush and Mercury Twilight.

Yes, I got a case of the nubbins.

For this mani I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pacific Blue and as an accent nail I used a franken I made (I call my frankens "AM Polish") called Tysen which is the name of my puppy.

This is Barielle Falling Star, one of my favorite polishes ever because of how unique it is. This will be the polish I'll be wearing as long as possible!

Fellow beauty bloggers, can you light it up blue?

Milani 3D Holographic Polish Swatches - Part 2

Hello everyone! Guess who's back!? Today I have the 2nd part of the Milani 3D Holographic Polishes. Unfortunately these aren't sold in main stores like CVS anymore but you still should be able to find them online! I guess that's what happens when you go poof for like 3 months...

The polishes I'm swatching for you today is HD, Digital, and Hi-Res.

HD

One thing about this polish is even in low light/indoor settings, it still glows and is extremely holographic!

HD is a mix between a linear and scattered holo polish. It's the most concentrated holo out of the collection since it has a clear base, but it's also the most sheer. It takes a TON of layers to get this opaque but surprisingly it doesn't look thick on the nail. One of my favorite polishes of all time. I was able to use some of this to make a Zoya Storm franken!

Hi-Res

I don't usually like purple but this is gorgeous!

Hi-Res isn't a polish I'd normally go for but this one is just stunning. One of the more holographic polishes of the bunch. It contains the usual holo flecks within a purple base.

Digital

You can still see VNL even though I believe this is 3 coats.

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Digital isn't really one of my favorites. It's very sheer and the color just isn't my thing. A muted medium pink based polish with holo flecks. 

And there you have it! The 2nd and final installment of this collection! I'm so bummed that these are discontinued but I know Cherry Culture sells them so don't be dismayed! Hope you enjoyed my swatches and glad to be back!

Milani 3D Holographic Polish Swatches - Part 1

Lately, these polishes have been selling at CVS for a whopping $1.49 and I had to pick myself a couple of them. In other words, I now have this whole collection, hehe. I'm just gonna do some quick swatching just in case someone else is interested in picking these up as well! Hurry though, they're going fast!

The 3 polishes I bring to you today are 3D, Cyberspace, and Hi-Tech.

3D

3D is a gold shimmer base with holographic fleck pieces. Scattered holo effect but not a very strong one either. Not very concentrated holo pieces. Wasn't a very big fan of the color but it was a good 2-3 coater.

Hi-Tech

Holographic goodness.

Hi-Tech is a bright green semi linear, semi scattered holographic polish, and possibly the most holo of the bunch! Another easy 2-3 coater.

Cyberspace

Another gorgeous polish. But I'm a sucker for blues. Meh.

Cyberspace is a dusky pale medium blue scattered holographic polish. It went on a little sheer but had no issues. More concentrated holographic fleck pieces in this one.

I love these polishes, especially Hi-Tech! Hope this helped! On to part 2!

Quick NOTW + My Everyday Make-Up

As the title states, a quick NOTW; keepin' it simple with a gorgeous light grey with pink-fiery orange colorshift flecks within it. The polish is Grey-T to Be Here from Essence. 

You can see some tip wear, but it hasn't chipped which is wonderful. Can't find good polishes like these anymore. I absolutely adore how quickly these dry; one of my favorite polish lines by far.

Now onto my everyday look. I work at Hollister and they're very particular about their look policy. Technically I'm not supposed to be wearing any make-up at all but I just look atrocious without any at all. 

I'm so scared of posting pictures of myself online because they always get stolen. Sigh. Anyway, as far as make up, I've been wearing Revlon Colorstay (in Golden Caramel) to cover up my under eye circles and a chemical burn under my mouth (yeah... don't ask) and for eye make up, my Sleek Palette is still going strong, using the brown to add definition to my eyes without making it look like I have any eyeshadow on at all. I smudge some black shadow to the outer corners and blend as well as I can. Mascara wise, I use Maybelline Full 'n Soft, one of my favorite mascaras of all time, to keep it natural but still noticeable enough. This is literally my everyday look that takes 4 minutes to do.

Whatcha guys think of my current profile picture on FB? :)

Layla Hologram Effects - Ocean Rush Swatch + Mini Review

Ocean Rush is the only other one besides Mercury Twilight that I own of the Layla Hologram Effect collection. It's a gorgeous medium blue (that leans more towards green) with a strong linear holographic effect. 

Can you believe this [picture above] is an unedited picture (excluding the water marks)? Ugh, these polishes photograph beautifully.

The application was so much easier than with Mercury Twilight, this being 3 coats. The formulas a tiny bit thicker which makes for more opaque coats, but the holo effect is not as strong, not saying that this isn't extremely strong. The wear time was just as bad as MT. I can say this because I didn't even wash my hair in the shower 3 minutes ago and I still got severe tip wear. 

I bought my bottles off of HauteLook when Layla was selling on there for around $9, with each bottle being accompanied by a free Layla buffing board. Normal retail price is $15.50 each bottle.

Here's an overly edited picture that I thought was cool looking. (Above)

And lastly, a picture of it on a cloudy Sunday morning. Extremely color accurate from my perspective. 

Hope you enjoyed my swatches! Adios!

Layla Hologram Effects - Mercury Twilight Swatch and Mini Review

Today I'm going to be swatching this beauty for you, as well as reviewing it a little, with an explanation  on application. 

Mercury Twilight is a silver holographic polish with a very strong linear effect. Isn't it a beaut!

For my application, I didn't use any base coat. I don't currently own an aqua base, and using any other base coat has only made application more difficult for me, personally. The trick for me is to seriously just be more patient. Also, buffing your nails smooth is a very important factor for easier application and just overall better looks. You don't need the specific Layla emery board; anything will do.

- When applying coats, make them somewhat thick and NEVER go over one place twice; if you have a bald spot, just go over it with the next coat. Let it dry. When it's try, it'll lose it's sheen and will become more satiny looking in the light. After the desired amount of coats, put your hands under low light and you should be able to see your missed spots. This is when you spot coat. With a decent amount of polish on the brush, go from the top of the nail, all the way to the end, going over your bald spots. The beauty about this polish is that it evens out by itself and it dries extremely fast. Last thing, NEVER apply a top coat for this holographic polish, I've tested it out and yes... it does dull the holo effect.

I added this picture for the sake of it being cool lookin'. Haha, expect this as my next banner for when I update my blog layout.

This is a gorgeous, GORGEOUS polish and it would be my favorite one of all time if the wear time wasn't horrendous. Without a base coat or top coat, this polish chipped ridiculously. This mani held through for a good hour with no chipping, but once I showered, so much had chipped off. I still kept this polish on for 3 days afterwards though because it was so pretty even with all the horrible tip wear. The application for me was extremely smooth because of how fast it dried. This can be a little pricey at $15.50 USD for such a small bottle and considering how much polish you actually use per manicure. Would I buy this again? I'm not too sure. I feel like I could get a longer lasting strong holographic polish for a cheaper price (Color Club, I'm looking at you) but for my strongest holo of my collection, I'm in love and I don't regret buying it.

Hope you enjoyed my swatches! How do you feel about this polish?

Swatch: OPI DS Reserve

I only got into the whole DS polish scene recently because I just never wanted to shell out that much money for a nail polish, not that I had the money in the first place! But since drugstore.com was having a 40% beauty products sale, I got this for a little less than $7 (with OPI DS Classic still on the way!) and I'm SO glad I did. I'm not sure about the other polishes but this is a GORGEOUS polish.

This polish is one of those where they chance color with lighting. Depending on the lighting it could look warm in lower lighting, and can look cooler in more natural lighting. 

It has a scattered holo effect that shows as silver glitter/shimmer in darker lighting but in bright lighting it glows with holographic goodness! The formula was immaculate! If you really wanted to you could make this a 1 coater but I prefer doing 2 thin coats always. It dried super fast and still hasn't chipped even though I am absolutely brutal with my hands. I'm trying to work on getting them healthier though. You can see by my cuticles...  

You can see the gorgeous scattered holo effect here. 

And here! 

See how in certain lighting it could look cooler? 

Love this polish.

Maybelline Color Show Nail Polish - Boho Gold

Just going to be doing a simple swatch spam of the Maybelline Color Show LE 2012 Nail Polish in Boho Gold, the famous "dupe" of Chanel Peridot. I've read a lot of reviews and apparently they're not the same but they're somewhat similar, both with their own beautiful touch. All of my swatches are over a black base (Essence Colour & Go Black is Back) and then 4 extremely thin coats.

Probably the most gorgeous polish (bottle wise) that I own.

Six coats (including the black) and still doesn't look thick on the nail.

This polish is going to show streaks so if you want it to look at its best, apply super thin, clean strokes. 

In the two pictures you can finally start seeing some blue! Light has to hit it at the right spot though.

The polish in direct sunlight

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Can you see some pink on my middle finger showing?

I was worried I'd never find this polish since I wasn't able to find it anywhere until I went to Tops (a grocery store) but I'm so glad I did. I'm just so in love. I can't stop looking at my nails right now!