Breast Cancer Awareness - Skittles

Hey dolls! Today I have for you the BCA mani that I wore to my local Making Strides walk. This look was inspired by Marta of ChitChat Nails. She always does the cutest skittles looks (where each nail is different) and I wanted to give it a try. I pulled out Barielle Eli's Magic, Barielle Cotton Candy, Zoya Kimber, and OPI Excuse Moi. I received Excuse Moi as a surprise gift from my polish friend Lola over at Burb Beauty (thanks doll). Two coats of Excuse Moi was used over one coat of Eli's Magic while two coats were used of the remaining polishes.

As Marta inspired this look, I had to take a few pictures with some BCA jewelry!

I loved the way this turned out! I finally got a chance to do the "saran wrap" marbled look. I started with a base of Cotton Candy, added stripes of Kimber and Eli's Magic, then dabbed with the saran wrap. I'm ready to try this look with other colors!

Here are a few pictures from the BCA walk. I have more, but they are with my high school mentoring group and I don't want to put them on the net all willy nilly. :)

Happy hump day dolls!

Breast Cancer Awareness ~ Pretty & Polished You Are Beautiful + BCA

Hey dolls! I hope you all have had a great week so far. Tonight I have another extremely special breast cancer awareness combo for you all. Pretty & Polished has created a BCA duo where 100% (yes, 100%) of the proceeds will benefit a local organization called Little Red Door of Delaware County Cancer Agency, which offers a variety of support for those who have cancer. This includes cancer screenings and detection, as well as client education and support.

The first polish in this duo is You Are Beautiful, which is a light pink shimmer. The formula is somewhat thin, but not problematic at all. I would recommend applying You Are Beautiful with a careful hand to minimize brushstrokes. I used two coats for the photos below. 

The other half of the duo is BCA, a gorgeous glitter filled with pink hex glitter and tiny purple glitter. The formula on BCA was great; it was the perfect glitter to base ratio. I was pleased with the amount of glitter on the nail after just one coat, so I left it with that. To make this look even more special, I pulled out my new Bundle Monster stamping plates. Using Color Club Hot Like Lava, I stamped on pink ribbons from plate 321. 

I absolutely adore the way this turned out! I've always liked the way subtle stamping looks on others, so I decided to give it a go with this mani. Truthfully, I purchased the third set of BM plates specifically for this image. I barely use the second set, so I didn't think it made much sense to by the third. Luckily, I had a few Amazon gift cards from using Swagbucks, so I got the plates for a good price. The Pretty & Polished BCA duo will be available for the rest of this month so I hope you all will support her efforts.

Cult Nail Nevermore + Charlatan

Hey dolls! Today I'm wearing a great Cult Nails combo in celebration of their sale over the next week. Nevermore is absolutely the best black polish I have ever tried. The formula is just the right consistency and it is completely opaque in one coat. I then applied one coat of Charlatan, which is from the most recent Deceptive top coat collection. Charlatan is a sheer top coat with a magenta to violet color shift. The pictures below were taken outside in the shade.

Love Charlatan! The color shift is visible in all lights, which is awesome. I'm glad I picked this one up because I see it looking great over so many different shades. At the top of this post I mentioned a Cult Nails sale. You can get 20% off using the code CULTOBER. Happy weekend dolls!

Breast Cancer Awareness ~ Glequins

Hey dolls! Today I have for you my first of several breast cancer awareness manis, which will take the place of Pink Wednesdays this month. Most of my long-term readers know that my mom is a two-time breast cancer survivor, so these looks are near and dear to my heart.

I recently received a set of loose glitter, affectionately known as "glequins", from BornPretty to review and I knew immediately that I wanted to use them for a BCA look. I started with two of my favorite Zoya pinks: Gilda and Flora. Three coats of Gilda were used and two coats of Flora for the accent. After Flora was dry, I applied the glequins individually by dipping a small dotting tool into top coat and placing them on the nail. I must admit that this process was extremely tedious. It took about 30 minutes to complete the accent nails.

Although this took way more effort than I expected, I love the final product! The glequins are small, but still very easy to apply to the nail. The pots are jam packed with glitter, so they are well worth the price. I barely made a dent in the glitter that was just stuck to the lid with this mani. This set comes with 12 different colors of glitter for $6.45. If you'd like to order this set from BornPretty, feel free to use my coupon code of TPJ61 for 10% off your order.

Ladies, please take the time each month to complete your self-examinations. Early detection is the key! For more information on breast cancer, how you can make donations, and to get involved locally, please check out Susan G. Komen and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.

*BornPretty products in this post were provided by PR for review*

Pink Wednesday ~ Candeo Colors Melonball

Happy hump day dolls! Today I have pictures of Candeo Colors Melonball, which is a Llarowe exclusive color. I first saw a bottle shot of Melonball on Instagram (follow me @refinedandpolished). Pink and green glitter is ALL me! Melonball is full of various shades and sizes of pink glitter, red hexes, and smaller green glitter. The formula was extremely thick; I had to dab the glitter onto my nails, so I can't really say how many coats it was. This is Melonball over Essie Mojito Madness.

I really love Melonball! It's almost at my chunky glitter limit (you guys know I don't really do super chunky glitters). Mojito Madness was the perfect base color, but I do have a complaint. I got the most horrible staining I've ever had from Mojito Madness. It's extremely weird because I wore it last month and had absolutely no staining. I used a base coat both time, although I can't remember which one because I rotate between two. So weird! Has this ever happened to you?

Pink Wednesday ~ Claire's Candy Shop

Hey dolls! Hope your week is going well. I'm finally starting to get used to my new job. Today I'm wearing Claire's Candy Shop, a bubblegum pink that is filled with multi-colored glitter. Candy Shop's formula was decent, but the brush was somewhat stiff. This is my only polish from Claire's, so I'm not sure if they are typically that way. I applied two thin coats of Candy Shop over Zoya Flora.

I like the look of Candy Shop! I wanted the original Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop, but that need has been met with the Claire's dupe. 

What are your thoughts on cheaper dupes? Do you only buy the high end originals?

Guest Post on Karinea0a ~ Plaid Mani

Hey dolls, just wanted to let you all know that I have a guest post over on Karinea0a. We met through several facebook groups and I just love her blog and her amazing nail art. Please check out my post over there to see my take on plaid nails!

Happy weekend dolls!

Pink Wednesday ~ ManGlaze Fuggen Ugly + Pretty & Polished Custom Punk'd Up Betty

Happy Pink Wednesday dolls! I hope that all of you are having a great week. Today I'm wearing a combo that I'm not absolutely thrilled with. I started with ManGlaze Fuggen Ugly, which is a gorgeous charcoal gray matte. It is filled with silver shimmer. There is also a little blue shimmer that is apparent at certain angles. The formula of Fuggen Ugly was typical ManGlaze greatness. I used two coats in the pictures below. These are without top coat.

To include some pink, I added my custom order of Pretty & Polished Punk'd Up Betty. My version is exactly the same as the original, except it doesn't include the large white hexes. The formula was thick and goopy; it was almost as if there was too much base for the density of the glitter. This is one coat of the custom Punk'd Up Betty over Fuggen Ugly.

Eh...I'm not sure how I feel about this. Actually I am sure; I don't like it. I can't put my finger on what I don't like though. I'm not sure if it's the combination of the two polishes or if I just don't like the glitter. I like the size of the glitter and I've been looking for just pink and black, so I'm not sure why I'm not vibing with it. I may need to try the custom polish layered over white. On the other hand, I adore Fuggen Ugly. Look at how gorgeous the shimmer is with top coat added! Everything about Fuggen Ugly makes me happy.

I'm starting to get used to the light box pictures. Let me know your thoughts on them. Happy hump day dolls!

Pink Wednesday ~ Cult Nails Untamed

Happy Pink Wednesday dolls! Today I'm wearing a super girly pink. Cult Nails Untamed is a bubblegum pink filled with subtle multi-colored shimmer. The formula is a creme/jelly hybrid and I used three coats. I almost stopped at two coats, but I wanted to see if the shimmer would be more visible at three.

shade

Untamed is a fun polish that most pink lovers will like. I wish the shimmer was a little more visible indoors, but it's still really pretty.

Hope you all are having a great week!

LEX Cosmetics Tuilleries

Happy Pink Wednesday dolls! Today I'm wearing a cute pink polish I received in a swap with a friend. LEX Cosmetics Tuilleries is a light pink polish filled with pink, red, silver, and fuchsia hex and micro glitter. The formula was relatively thin, so I layered one coat of Tuilleries over one coat of Zoya Kennedy. The glitter in Tuilleries was somewhat sparse, but not very difficult apply to the nail.

I actually love how subtle and sparse the glitter is in Tuilleries. It's a nice girly look when you want a little sparkle, but don't want to wear a bright color.

Happy hump day!

Zoya Gloss Collection

Hey dolls! Today I have pictures of the Zoya Gloss collection. I was most excited about this set because they are all jellies and you all know how much I love a jelly sandwich mani!

Paloma is a deep fuchsia-berry jelly. It had the best formula out of this collection. Three coats of Paloma were used in the pictures below. The visible nail line is much more apparent in the pictures than it was in real life.

I then sandwiched two coats of Orly Spazmatic between another coat of Paloma. Spazmatic is a blue hexagonal glitter that also has a blue-violet shimmer. These two looked great together!

Zoya Frida is a dark, warm-toned teal blue jelly. I was most excited about this shade because it is not one we typically see in a jelly formula. Frida's formula was the most sheer and problematic. Five coats were used in the pictures below. Luckily, Frida dried relatively quickly so I did not have to wait long in between coats.

For the jelly sandwich, I added one coat of Milani Hot Pink and another coat of Frida. Hot Pink is filled with silver and pink hexagonal glitter. I wore this combination for several days and it garnered lots of compliments.

Katherine is a dark red-toned aubergine. This shade was just okay to me. Four coats of Katherine were used in the photos below.

I have wanted to attempt a jelly sandwich using flakies for awhile, so I pulled out Zoya Chloe. Chloe is from Zoya's Fleck Effect collection and is a sheer pink base filled with flakies that flash red, orange, gold, green, and blue. Two coats of Chloe were used and then an additional coat of Katherine.

I love all of the jelly sandwich combos that I came up with! If you are a fan of jellies, you will probably want to add a couple of these to your collection. Frida and Paloma were my favorites. Zoya polishes can be purchased for $8.

Only one more fall Zoya collection to go!

*Zoya products in this post were provided by PR for review*