Breedlove Hoops

Bohemian Polish Summer of Love Collection- Press sample

I promised two collections, so here's the second one. Summer of Love is a five-piece collection from Bohemian Polish inspired by Courtney Love. Each shade was inspired by a song, but I'm not going to tell you which ones. If you can guess any of the songs, be sure to leave me a comment below.

I'm Miss World

Girl Germs

And the Sky Was Made of Amethyst

The Girl With the Most Cake

Covered in Loser Dust

I don't know if you guys will remember this, but practically eons ago Firecracker Lacquer gave me her very first Halloween themed collection for review. It contained We All Float Down Here, which ended up being one of my favorite Firecracker Lacquer shades to date.

Today's nail art challenge prompt calls for unicorns. I wanted to go for something light and playful, and I think I achieved that as long as you don't get the reference behind that Firecracker Lacquer shade.

Products used

Bohemian Polish Washed Out 3.0 Collection- Press sample

I don't think I've been this excited about neons since the Bohemian Polish Washed Out 2.0 collection. There have been a couple of minor changes to this collection, but they are all for the best. What's new with the third release? These are much brighter and more opaque than their predecessors. There's also an eight polish (Maisie) joining the collection.

I'm going to do this review a little differently. I felt it was unnecessary to have a "notes" section under each polish since they are fairly self-explanatory. Without further ado, here's the latest and greatest from Bohemian Polish:

Love You

Long Gone

Golden Hair

Terrapin

Maisie

Birdie Hop

Here I Go

Octopus

Conclusion

Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer May Destination Trio- Press sample

I know this is crazy late, but USPS decided to take my polish on vacation before it landed here. I'm a little bit jealous that my package got to visit Alaska before I did. Anyway, let's dive into the Destination Polish Trio.

This month's trio is a collaboration between Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer, Northern Star Polish, and Darling Diva Polish. The inspiration for the trio was this photo that Kristin took while in Chicago:

Moon Glow

Make A Wish

I thought I would do something a little bit different today. I decided to pair the @clairestelle8challenge prompt (purple) with a stamping decal tutorial. Things didn't turn out quite how I intended, but I figured I would post it anyway as sort of a cautionary tale.

I'm not going to string you along, so here's what happened. The decal went as planned until I went to apply it to my nail. The top coat I used in my first step was the same one I used over the top of the decal when I applied it to my nail. Some kind of chemical reaction happened, and it dissolved a good portion of the decal. I've never, ever had this happen so I'm going to chalk it up to being an incompatible top coat. The rest of the tutorial is full of sound advice, so I felt it would be silly to scrap the whole project.

Step 1

Apply a generous coat of top coat to a silicone mat or a clear, clean sheet protector. I would recommend using a traditional top coat over a quick dry one in this instance. Quick dry top coats have a tendency to crack. Whatever you do, do NOT use a Rainbow Honey scented top coat. That's what caused the disaster you will see in the final photos.

Step 2

Gently stamp over the dry clear coat with a non-sticky stamper. It's especially important that your stamper isn't sticky otherwise you may accidentally lift the whole decal off the mat.

Step 3

Select the tools you wish to use to fill in your decal. I opted for a combination of a small nail art brush and dotting tools.

Step 4

Fill in the blank spaces of your decal. I personally prefer to fill in sections by color so that I don't have to clean my brush off multiple times. In this case, I started with purple.

Step 5

Fill in the rest of the decal with your desired color(s) while being mindful of boundaries. Unlike painting walls, it's generally best to paint slightly over stamped lines to ensure full coverage. The only exclusion to that recommendation would be if your stamping color is sheer. While the decal above looks incredibly sloppy, I assure you that the right side (the one facing the mat) is crisp.

Step 6

Apply a generous clear coat (or base color) to the nail you wish to apply the decal to. If you are applying decals to multiple nails, you will want to repeat steps 6-8 for each nail individually.

Step 7

Gently press your decal onto the nail. Be mindful and try to avoid using too much pressure as it will tear the decal. I apply pressure starting from the middle of the nail and work my way out. At this point, you may find it necessary to clip the decal at the middle point at the tip of your nail to ensure a flat application. Once you feel as though the decal is reasonable adhered, you may trim the edges of the decal so that there is less overhang.

Step 8

Products used

Bohemian Polish- Press Sample

I recently got a wonderful package of bleached neons from Bohemian Polish to share with you guys. I haven't had time to swatch them yet, but I really wanted to showcase them in my entry for today's @clairestelle8challenge prompt. With fruit being the prompt, I had a multitude of ideas flowing through my head. Should I do strawberries? Watermelon? Grapes? After some debate, I came to the conclusion that citrus slices would probably be the most interesting. Here is what I came up with:

Products used

Different Dimension All American Collection- Press sample

Missi did such a wonderful job with the All American collection that I had to use all of them in some nail art.  It's been a while since I've done a drag marble, so I figured it was time to give that a try once more.

I took a lot of liberties with the second @clairestelle8challenge prompt. Sometimes I don't like being boxed in, and other times I just end up following a wild idea. This is a little bit of both. Today's prompt calls for a color you don't usually wear. I'm not big into orange or yellow, so Lacquer Lust Unicorn's Brew seemed like a perfect fit.

Lacquer Lust Unicorn's Brew

Products used

I decided last minute to join the June @clairestelle8 challenge. When I decided to join I thought I had plenty of time to get things sorted out. I totally spaced out on how the dates would fall, and eventually came to realize the first prompt would coincide with my youngest sister's high school grad party. I didn't want to miss out on the rest of this month's challenge prompts, so I decided to do the "squares" prompt even though I knew it would be late.

ILNP Rolling Hills

Being short on time I wanted to pick something that would stand out while not require a lot of time on my part. I started with a base of Rolling Hills, and finished it off with some punchy pink stamping.

I am still having issues with my UberChic plates despite the fact that they replaced sets 7 & 8 for me. The image used in my manicure was on the corner of a warped plate, which made it difficult to get a clean scrape. This is also why I opted to only stamp two out of five nails in this manicure. For every nail stamped, I averaged about four attempts before I could get a clean transfer. If you are struggling with your UberChic plates please refer to this post.

Products used

Conclusion

I needed a substantial amount of sparkle in my life, so I decided to wear Cupcake Polish Folies Bergère today. Folies Bergère is from the Las Vegas Showgirls collection that was released in the summer of 2015. I swatched and reviewed three shades from the collection shortly after CosmoProf last year, but I just recently picked up this pink.

I could honestly sit here and gush about Cupcakes forever, but I'm sure you guys have an idea of how wonderful they are. Everything from the formula down to the application is spot on, which is why Sara's shades are such a delight to wear.