29 Apr

Useful Tools: Tilted Nail Polish Bottle Holder

Hello lacquered ladies!

Today I’m going to tell you about a super cool little tool that I have in my nail art stash. I bought this tilted nail polish bottle holder. from Born Pretty Store a while back, and it has come in quite handy, so I thought I would share it with you in case you wanted to get your hands on one too.

It’s flexible enough to hold several different shaped bottles in. China Glaze might give you a problem because the base of the bottle is so wide, but all the other imported and local brands that I own fit fairly well. A big plus is that it can hold skinny little bottles. Those little tubes of polish that come in nail art pen sets are so hard to hold while you polish your nails with them. This little gadget solves that problem.

Titled Nail Polish Bottle Holder

The downside to this design is that it doesn’t tilt the bottle as far as I would like. When the bottle is about half full (See my optimistic view on that?) you are going to need more of an angle to get the product near to the neck for easy dipping. But you can set the edge of the bottle holder on a thin book or coaster, and it will tilt a bit more and still feel pretty sturdy.

Tilted Nail Polish Bottle Holder with small and large bottles

I also love to use this to hold my bottle of nail glue. Nail glue usually comes in small, lightweight plastic bottles that tip over easily. When glue spills into the threads it makes the cap stick and hard to open. I used to need a pair of locking pliers to open my nail glue after a few uses. This bottle holder keeps it upright, and I don’t have any problems with spillage and sticking anymore.

This particular tilted nail polish bottle holder costs $2.46 from Born Pretty Store and is totally worth the small price. I would definitely suggest getting your hands on one if you are searching for something like this. BPS gave me a coupon code to share so that you can get 10% off your entire order from their store.

Born Pretty Store Coupon 10% Off Code, TEAW10

I hope you found this post useful. Have a great day and don’t forget to make someone smile!

Hugs,
Rach

20 Apr

Chic Pastel Collection Skittles


Hello lovely ladies!

I wanted to pop in and show you not one but TWO skittle manis I’ve done using the Chic Pastel Collection by Chic Centre. My husband purchased these for me for part of his Valentine’s Day nail polish bouquet. ♥

Each of these shades is a lovely creamy pastel that doesn’t go on streaky at all. I would even describe them as crellies because they were a bit jelly-like but still pretty opaque. The only one that I found needed 3 coats was Daisy Wazy (yellow). The collection consists of these 5 shades:
Sweet Pea – Purple
Hula Hoop – Green
Daisy Wazy – Yellow
Baby Doll – Pink
Marionette – Blue (on thumb not pictured)

Chic Pastel Collection Skittles

I loved these and the fact that the colors fit together perfectly for a look that just screams romance and spring time! I added one coat of L.A. Girl 3D Silver because…well because WHY NOT? Amiright?

Chic Pastel Collection with holo

I sported these with my gorgeous, pastel, vintage dress that I bought from Best Finds Thrift Shop.  (They get a shout out because I am such a happy customer.)

Chic Pastels and my dress

I also want to show you the skittles that I did for the Shutterbug. We added some gorgeous stamping using my awesome MJ XXVIII stamping plate from My Online Shop.

Photo Feb 22, 9 33 55 PM

The stamping is in white, so it is subtle (especially over the yellow), but it is oh so pretty!

What do you think about this collection? I usually shy away from yellows and greens, but I can pull off a pastel yellow and pastel green. I love these colors! Oh and here’s a shot of the bouquet my husband made for me on Valentine’s Day.

Valentine's 2015 Nail Polish Bouquet

Have a great week! I hope that you get some coffee and some chocolate to help you cope with the fact that it is Monday. Ugh! Keep smiling anyway!

Hugs,
Rach

15 Apr

Quick and Easy Nail Art (featuring Caronia Shades of Summer)

Hi girls!

Just a super quick post tonight as I’ve got some chores to catch up on so that we can run out sometime tomorrow to get my hubby a rash guard. He and I are headed to the beach in Moalboal for a kid-free day-trip on Saturday to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary! Yay! I’m super excited and we are both looking forward to some snorkeling, kayaking and lazing about.

I thought I’d show you a few of the quick and easy nail art ideas I came up with using  the Caronia Shades of Summer Collection (See my swatches and review here).
Caronia First Crush with subtle holo stamping

First up is First Crush with a bit of subtle stamping using Color Club Eternal Beauty.  This is an extremely easy way to add a little something extra to your nails.

Caronia Sweet Surprise with water decal

Next, I added a water decal I purchased from Hokee to add a funky contrast for my accent nail. Fun, don’t you think?

Caronia Sun Kissed with Stickers

I saved my least favorite of this bunch for last. I try and try again to love stickers for a quick nail art fix. But stickers really seem to be a hit and miss for me. Honestly the local brand, Wish, is always a miss for me. These didn’t want to cooperate, had bits of glitter on them, and I can clearly see the line from the edge of the sticker. That really bothers my OCD self. They looked pretty cool though.

I told you it would be a quickie! That’s all for today. I hope you are all having a wonderful week. Just two more days until the weekend y’all! You can do it!!!!

Keep smiling!
Rach

04 Apr

Caronia Shades of Summer – Swatches and Review

Greetings fellow polish lovers!

I’ve got a lovely summer collection of polishes to share with you today. Caronia sent me their new Shades of Summer Collection which consists of six fun shades and includes something for everyone. I’m just going to get right into the swatches and tell you what I thought. All these photos were taken in my light-box.

Summer Fling

Caronia Summer Fling Swatch

Summer Fling is a very pretty pinkish-plum creme. Its formula was just right, and I almost got away with using just one coat. I went ahead and used two to ensure no bald spots—because I’m OC like that. This shade is a fun color to sport during the summer without being too loud and crazy.

Rainbow Tan

Caronia Rainbow Tan Swatch

Rainbow Tan is a work-safe tan/beige frosted polish. It has me a bit confused with the choice of name as this isn’t rainbow-y at all. It is tan though, so we’ll just go with that. The formula on this one was thinner than the rest and is the only one that needed 3 coats for full coverage. Frosted polishes tend to show streaky brush strokes and this one does just that, as you can see. If you are into more muted shades and don’t mind frosted polishes then I’m sure you will love Rainbow Tan. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Sun Kissed

Caronia Sun Kissed Swatch

Sun Kissed is a vibrant orange creme that screams summer! It was an easy two-coater, and I’m surprised how much I ended up liking it despite it giving me lobster hands (making my skin look pinker than normal). This one is not for the faint of heart. Ha!

Sweet Surprise

Caronia Sweet Surprise Swatch

Sweet Surprise is right! This is a fun, bright yellow creme. It has a shimmer in the bottle that can’t be seen on the nails. But that’s not a problem for me. Application was fine with two coats to full coverage. I love this shade for summer. So bright and happy!

On-the-Go

Caronia On-the-Go Swatch

On-the-Go is a fabulous teal green creme that is almost perfect in just one coat! When I first used On-the-Go a while back, it really did have me “on-the-go”. I went to several stores looking for a bottle for my sister and a couple of back-ups for myself. I love, love, LOVE this polish! I don’t like many green polishes, but I do love this cool dark teal.

First Crush

Caronia First Crush Swatch

First Crush is a very pretty, lilac purple creme. Who doesn’t love a pretty purple polish amiright? (Have I mentioned that purple is my favorite color to wear on my nails?) The formula on this one was just fine needing only 2 coats for full coverage. This one if perfect for all you girly girls out there!


Promotional image for Caronia Shades of Summer

This collection has sophisticated, work-safe shades, bold pops of color, and cooler hues, too. There is something for everyone, I’m sure! These polishes have been reformulated and are 3-Free and dry fairly quickly. They are sold individually in 8ml bottles for (SRP) Php31 ($0.69) each at local department stores and grocery stores. The durability of this polish for the price is well worth it. It’s definitely a great budget buy. You can follow Caronia on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with them and their products.

I hope you enjoyed this review and that you found my input helpful. Let me know in the comments which shade is your favorite. Keep your eye out for some nail art featuring these babies.

Have a great weekend and don’t forget to make someone smile!
Hugs,
Rach

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