My Picture Polish!

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Today is a special day: it's My Picture Polish day!

Zoya Spring 2015 Delight Collection

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The sun is shining and it's trying to be a tiny bit warm where I live, so I think that makes it an especially apropos day to share these fresh & colorful swatches from Zoya's Spring 2015 Delight Collection.

Liquid Nail Art Tape: Four Options

I'm continually amazed by the ingenuity of nail bloggers. If there's a problem to be solved in the nail art world, bloggers are on top of it! One of my very favorite nail blogger hacks (for lack of a better phrase) is the idea of "liquid painter's tape" for nails: or, to put it less simply, a substance you can paint onto your cuticles/fingers that dries into a polish-masking barrier on your skin. Anyone who's dabbled in nail art knows what a mess it can be (helloooo, water marbles and splatter manicures), so tools that help cut down on cleanup time are invaluable. I'm already a slow enough nail artist—I'll take any help I can get to be more efficient!

I don't know who first came up with the idea of liquid nail tape or what product started it all, so unfortunately, I can't give proper credit where it's due. However, I've seen and tried a variety of options for my own manicures, so I thought I'd do a roundup of them for you guys here, comparing things like price, ease of use, and effectiveness. Each option definitely has its own pros and cons, so I hope this helps you find a solution that works best for you.

I'll be discussing four liquid nail tape options in this post: white glue (also called Elmer's Glue, school glue, or PVA glue, depending on where you live), OPI Glitter Off, Liquid Palisade, and liquid latex. These are the four options I've seen used most often in the nail art world, but I'd love to hear about others out there—maybe this post can have a part two someday!

From left to right: white glue, OPI Glitter Off, Liquid Palisade, and liquid latex.

Born Pretty Store Stamp & Glitter Review and Nail Art

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Born Pretty Store is an amazing nail art resource and one of my favorite online shops, so I'm really excited to be able to review some of their products for you today. I couldn't remotely fit everything into one post, so expect to see another Born Pretty review post from me soon!

Now that I have my stamping mojo well in hand, I was especially interested to review some of Born Pretty Store's stamping plates. You can never have too many good sources for plates, right? BPS has also started offering plates with larger, full-nail images, which is very exciting for those of us with longer/wider nails.

And since Born Pretty Store is the place to go for all kinds of nail art supplies, I wanted to highlight that in my review by adding another element to what would otherwise be a typical stamping manicure.

SUPER BLACK Lacquers Fall 2014 Collection: Swatches and Review

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I'm so excited for today's post! I've been a huge fan of SUPER BLACK Lacquers since the brand launched back in 2012—in fact, I think I can definitively trace my indie polish obsession back to my first SUPER BLACK purchase—so it's a pretty big deal for me to be swatching and reviewing the fall 2014 polishes on my very own blog now. Natalie has always put together the most amazing, unique collections, and this one is no exception.

Vegan Cuts Nail Box Review

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Nail-product-by-mail boxes are quickly becoming a huge business: whether you're into polishes, nail wraps, nail care, or some combination of the three, there's probably a box out there that suits your tastes and can get you a collection of complementary products shipped right to your door.

Personally, I love that we're seeing more and more of these curated boxes—I think there's a certain artistry to putting together & packaging up just the right items, and it's so much fun seeing what different companies come up with. So when I heard from Vegan Cuts recently asking if I'd be interested in reviewing their vegan nail box, I jumped at the chance!