2000 followers!

Holy crap! I've made it to 2000 followers!

2000 is a lot of people, and I want to thank all of you for checking out my little piece of the internet.
I remember when I started this blog, my favorite blogger/my inspiration for starting my own blog, Emerald Sparkled, had around 2000 followers.
And back then it seemed impossible to one day reach 2000 like her! But the day has come and I am actually so excited. (Deniz has 3300 now! I guess that is my next goal!)

So, dear followers, thank you for following and helping me reach this awesome goal. I hope that I can be an inspiration for some of you the way Deniz inspired me just 10 months ago.

Can I say it again? Thank you!

P.S... I will be having a small celebratory giveaway but I can't start it yet... I am missing a key ingredient... Stay tuned!

OPI - Chatters Me Up (Canadian exclusive!)

Good morning! Today I am going to show you a swatch of a pretty OPI polish that you probably haven't heard of!

Chatters is a salon/beauty supply chain in Canada, and they recently got their own exclusive OPI polish!
It's supposed to be given out free when you get some sort of hair treatment done at Chatters but you can also just buy it if you ask. (I've bought several now to send away to fellow polish addicts!)

Without further ado, here it is!

OPI - Chatters Me Up.
This is a glassfleck polish - quite a blackened base with plum/berry colored shimmer.

But wait! It's a duochrome!

Pretty! There is a magenta and then orange flash on certain angles. It is really lovely. I know a lot of you are obsessed with duochromes!

Sorry if I have just created a lemming for some of you! But I just had to show this baby off ;)

paisley nails inspired by Chalkboard Nails!

Hey guys! Tonight I'm going to show you some adorable paisley nails I did, which were inspired by my polish bestie Sarah from Chalkboard Nails. (If you aren't already following her - check her out. Seriously. Her nail art is awesome and her photos are beautiful!)

She recently posted these paisley nails and I knew I had to try it.

Tada! I think they came out really nice.

For this design I used:
OPI - Skull and Glossbones (base color)
China Glaze - Shower Together (blue)
China Glaze - Rich and Famous (pink)
China Glaze - Spontaneous (purple)

I used a super tiny brush and dotting tool for the design. It took a while!

Look! I even copied Sarah's hand position ;)

I didn't even bother to attempt this design on my other hand... Here's what I did instead:

Big messy dots in matching colors. (I was in a hurry.)

I thought it looked cute after I did the first two rows so I snapped a picture of that too.
(As you can see, I am still awful at taking pictures of my right hand.)

That's all for today!

guest post: A Nerd and her Lacquer

Hi everyone! I have a special guest post today from my friend Marcy. Marcy doesn't have a blog, and she really wanted to show off her new Nerdlaquer polishes! Me and some other friends have let her take the reins on our blogs for a day to show off all she wants! Enjoy :)
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Hello Rebecca Likes Nails followers! My name is Marcy the Blogless and I’m very happy to be posting here and sharing this amazing polish with you.

Today I am showing Argentum by Nerdlacquer. Nerdlacquer’s are available from Amanda on her Etsy shop. Amanda combines two of my loves -- nail polish and all things geeky -- into one amazing package. She has a line of glitter polishes all based on “sci-fi faves and other geekery.” For me it was love at first sight.

Argentum is part of the Alchemist series of polishes inspired by heavy metals. For the non-nerds Argentum is the Latin term for silver. Nerdlacquer describes Argentum as “multiple sizes of square and hexagonal silver glitter in a glistening foil-spiked base” and I’d call that accurate. It’s not a true silver base but more of a pewter foil loaded with tiny hexagonal and square silver glitter as well as large hexagonal glitter.

Argentum applied easily and was opaque in 2 coats. The glitter spread out nicely on the nail and the large pieces didn’t have to be individually placed as they often do in these types of polishes.

This is Argentum taken in the shade, base coat, 2 coats of Argentum and one coat of Seche Vite. Despite all the glitter my nails feel perfectly smooth with just one coat of Seche Vite on top. There is no pink in Argentum. It is so shiny that it actually reflected my bright pink camera on my nails!

Here is Argentum in full sun. You get a hint of how sparkly and reflective this is here. I had a hard time getting a picture where the polish wasn’t just a big silver reflection.

And finally Argentum in indoor lighting.

Here is a close-up so you can see the various kinds of glitter. I reiterate that this was completely smooth with one coat of Seche Vite. The three dimensional look is the glitter suspended in the two different coats. It doesn’t protrude at all. Again the pink is my pink camera reflected in the polish.

This is the contents of my package from Nerdlacquer. It is a lousy phone picture as I wasn’t planning to write a blog post about the polishes when I opened the package. I just wanted to share the Nerdy goodness with my polish buddies. Everything was nicely wrapped and tied with a cute ribbon. Amanda included a nerdy flashing ring that my 3-year-old is enjoying.

These are all the polishes I ordered from Nerdlacquer.

Argentum, Don’t Blink, Outed by a Probot, 500, Event Horizon, I Think You Call Me … Sexy, Cold & Calculating, Pinin’ for the Fjords, All of Time and Space and Crunchy Frog. I got 500 because I bought Nerdlacquer’s 500th bottle of polish! It is a custom bottle she made for me on the spot and included for free.

Just to make you jealous here is a picture of 500, in all its magnificence. Sadly you can’t order it. It’s all mine.

Nerdlacquers are available at bystringtheory and are $8 for a full-size 15ml bottle or $12 for a set of four mini 5ml bottles, including a little gift box. If you like glittery polishes you won’t be disappointed in these. And if you are a nail polish geek who revels in Doctor Who, Monty Python and the like in addition to polish you'll be thrilled. Nerdlacquer has a brand new HOLOday collection you should check out as well!

-Marcy

kleancolor neon splatter mani!

Hi guys! Super short post for you today because I only have one picture of this mani... So here it is!

I did these nails on my friend Jill a few weeks ago and they were super cute!
They ended up a bit lumpy in places but the overall look was awesome. Enlarge the photo to see it better!

For this manicure I used all six of my Kleancolor neon minis which I showed you yesterday. I dipped a coffee stir stick into the polish and blew it off really quickly onto the nail.

Splattered nails are easy but really bold! Have you tried a splatter mani?

Kleancolor Mini Swatches!

Good evening! I hope you all are well.
Today I have twelve - yes, twelve - Kleancolor swatches for you.
I decided to just swatch each of these on one nail because they are minis. I don't normally do that but I figured hey, you won't mind this one time, right? ;)

I got each package of these minis for just $5 at Dominion! (That's a Canadian supermarket chain, for those of you not familiar.

Here is the first set, Candy Cast. The backs of the sets show the colors included and also have a funny saying about the type of girl who would wear these colors. It also is not grammatically correct. Enlarge the photo and see it!

Kleancolor - Neon Aqua (1 coat,) Kleancolor - Neon Yellow (2 coats,) Kleancolor - Neon Orange (2 coats.)

Kleancolor - Neon Pink (2 coats,) Kleancolor - Neon Amethyst (2 coats,) Kleancolor - Neon Lime (2 coats.)

You might remember that I used these polishes for my watercolor mani!
I also have another super cute mani to show you guys that I did with these polishes - I will post it tomorrow!

This is the Techno High mini set. Again the colors are on the back as well as a grammatically incorrect saying about the type of person that would wear these polishes!

I know that the Kleancolor Metallics are awesome for stamping so I was pumped to get these ones!

Kleancolor - Metallic Brown (1 coat,) Kleancolor - Metallic Navy (1 coat,) Kleancolor - Metallic Jungle (1 coat.)

Kleancolor - Metallic Purple (1 coat,) Kleancolor - Metallic Yellow (1 coat,) Kleancolor - Metallic Pink (1 coat - causes pink staining!)

Overall, the formulas are really great, much better than you would expect from such cheap polish!
The neons are great for nail art and the metallics are awesome for stamping. 
They are a bit stronger-smelling than most polishes and they aren't super quick-drying on their own, but those are minor flaws in my opinion.

Kleancolor is sold in some dollar stores and clothing stores and supermarkets - all sorts of places!
And you can also get it online at Beautyjoint.com which is where I ordered my other Kleancolors.
Cheap and good! Just how I like it!

yet another gradient leopard!

I've posted a lot of swatches lately, so today I will post some nail art!
I should make a tally of all the gradient animal print manis I do. 
This is one of my favorites! I'm still wearing it as I type this post.

I did this gradient manicure using:
China Glaze - 100 Proof Pink
China Glaze - Shaken Not Stirred
China Glaze - No Way Jose 

I stamped from BM-221 with Wet N Wild Black Creme.

If you haven't seen it before, check out my tutorial on how to do a great gradient mani like this one! 

I seriously think these old China Glaze's are the prettiest polishes. They are all way up there in my favorites list!

Color Club - Back To Boho Collection B - swatches and review

Good afternoon!
I have yet another Color Club collection to show you today.
I should be Color Club's spokesperson. I own so many!

Today I'll be showing you the Back To Boho Collection B.
(See the other half here.)

This set consists of some really interesting shades, most of which are very dark.
Let's get right to it!

Boho Mojo. Unfortunately this set starts of with a really gross polish.
This is a taupe pearl frost... Just yucky. Not sure what Color Club was thinking with this one.
3 streaky coats.

Nouveau Vintage. This is a very interesting, reddish brown with green and gold shimmer. Totally unique.
Not the sort of color I like to wear but I can respect how pretty it is. Does that even make sense?
3 coats, it's a bit sheer but builds well.

Dark blue-gray shimmer that is borderline frosty but not in a gross way. I really like this one. 2 coats.

Artsy Crafty. Dark blue-toned green creme. Love this so much. Not like anything else in my collection. 2 coats!

Blue-topia. This is a deep inky blue jelly with shimmer. If any polish should be called "Ink" - this is the one.
Here's where I am a little confused. My polish clearly has shimmer. Every other swatch I have seen was straight up jelly - no shimmer. Where did this shimmer come from?
I used 2 coats for these photos but I should have done 3, as you can see.

That's one coat vs 2 coats. It really builds quickly.
Mystery shimmer, where did you come from?
I think I like that it has the shimmer though.

Rebel Spirit. Deep brown creme. Probably a bit darker than chocolate. 2 coats for full opacity. Not something I would wear alone but I am happy to have it for nail art and stuff that would require this color!

Overall, this collection is not the most "me" out of all the collections I own - but I still like having it.
Boho Mojo is not worth anyone's time, but the rest of them are!
Artsy Crafty is my overall favorite - I love it!

If you own this collection, does your Blue-topia have mystery shimmer? Let me know!

some delayed birthday swatches

Good evening everyone!
Today I'm going to show you some pretty polishes that I got for my birthday.
These were sent to me by a lovely gal named Caroline who you all may know as Shadow's Nail Art.

Caroline bought these three polishes for me from my wishlist! She is the sweetest, and we share a love for all things Hello Kitty. Check her out!

Sinful Colors - Forget Now. This is a hot hot pink jelly, jam packed with very sparkly shimmer.
Super pretty!

And this is how it looks with China Glaze - Techno over it!
Techno is large and small silver holo hex glitter in a clear base. OPI's Servin' Up Sparkle is a dupe for this.
I wanted this polish for a while and I thought I would get it next year (because it is being re-released with the Electro Pop Collection) but then Caroline beat me to it!
I love it. Great glitter topper.

I took this so you can see the glitter better.

Sinful Colors - Daddy's Girl. This is officially one of the most difficult polishes to photograph.
I did these swatches about a month ago so I don't even remember which picture is more accurate.
I know it is not as sheer as it looks in the photos - and I know it is really pretty! It's quite purple and has great fuchsia shimmer. It is a jelly but not as jelly as it looks.

In the bottle, the shimmer shows all those great colors but you don't see that on the nail.

And here is how it looks with Techno! I promise that Daddy's Girl is actually great but I am just not capable of showing that, apparently!

Thanks again, Caroline! You're awesome.