Glisten & Glow - Winter Nights in Indieland

Hi everyone! It's been super long since I posted! There's just been so much stuff going on in the "real" world that I haven't felt motivated to take photos or put up a new post. But I'm planning on changing that and getting right back to making bi-weekly posts! So for tonight's post I have Glisten & Glow's Winter Nights in Indieland.

This polish was released as part of Llarowe's A Box, Indied, however I acquired it through their A Box, Indied Grab Bag. This polish is a beautiful dark blue holo. I have never tried Glisten & Glow's nail polish line but I do really like their HK Girl Top Coat. Therefore I was really impressed with this polish in both color and formula. Even though I used both a base coat (OPI Nail Envy) and a top coat (Poshe), the holo rainbow effect really stands out.

I was actually distracted at work today when the sun hit my nails and there was rainbows! I remember when I first used holo polishes (Layla Holograms to be specific) and how you couldn't use either base or top coat or else it would completely dull the holo and I thought that was such a pain in the ass! So I'm super duper impressed with the beautiful holo that I got with this polish.

Today's prop was a Hello Kitty chapstick because you already know my love for Hello Kitty! However, there is also a dual purpose to using Hello Kitty as a prop because I will be visiting Hello Kitty's birth place next week, which is.....JAPAN!!! That's right: I'll be flying off to Tokyo in a week and I can't wait. It's my second time visiting and I can't wait to go shopping and visit so many places (hopefully Sanrio Puroland, which is a HELLO KITTY THEME PARK!!!!). A Sailor Moon cafe also just opened up in Tokyo so you know I'll be visiting that!!! Hopefully I'll be able to pick up a bunch of nail goodies and then I can share them all with you!!

First Ever Gradient!

Good evening readers! I'm especially excited about tonight's post because it's the first ever successful gradient manicure that I've ever done! I've tried doing gradient manicures so many times and always failed. I tried a wet sponge, a dry sponge, white base, colored base, you name it! I could never get both colors to show up on my nail. However, I was determined to succeed and finally did!!

The colors I used for the gradient were Lime Crime's Peaches & Cream and Once in a Blue Mousse. I started off by using two coats of Peaches & Cream with a base coat underneath. I waited for that to dry. Then I used a dry makeup sponge and painted both colors horizontally on the sponge allowing them to overlap. I sponged it on the nails a few times and kept adding more of Once in a Blue Mousse onto the sponge and just focused on the top part of the gradient.

I found that if I squeezed the sponge a little more, that the polish would come out more opaque and thus helped the blue stand out in the gradient. I also recommend switching to a new sponge after one hand. Once I finished all my fingers and let them dry, I added a coat of China Glaze's Fairy Dust to make it stand out a little more (because who doesn't love glitter?!).

I love this manicure! It's so pretty and reminds me of a sunset! I know it's not perfect, but it's my first successful one! With practice, I know that I'll be a gradient pro! I was also dealing with staining from Orly's Kristoff He Goes from the previous post so that was annoying and didn't help in achieving the perfect lines that I want to have. How do you feel about gradients? Do you love them or want the trend to go away?

Orly Elsa Collection

 Happy Saturday everyone! Today I have on the blog four of the polishes from the newly released Orly Elsa collection.

This collection is exclusive through Walgreens, so you'll only able to find it there. I had been on the hunt for these polishes for a few weeks until I finally found them! There's a total 12 polishes in this collection. They can be purchased individually or in packs of two. It's actually cheaper to purchase them in the two pack because they're $11 in the two pack and $7 individually! On to the swatches:

First up we have the movie's name sake polish Frozen! This is a frost polish and I'm wearing one coat of Frozen over a coat of OPI's Black Onyx. I'm not using a top coat in this image because when I tried putting on a top coat the polish started wrinkling! I'm definitely not a fan of frost polishes because of the difficulty that comes in applying them, so this one definitely wasn't my favorite.

My second least favorite was Free Spirit. The color is a gorgeous magenta and would be perfect for warmer weather! However, the formula wasn't the best. It was a little too thick for my taste. You'll need very light coats with this one.

Kristoff He Goes is a beautiful dark teal blue. I love this color! I swear I probably have a million bottles that look exactly like this one, but the colors is too beautiful to pass up!! The formula was great on this one and could probably be a one-coater if a thicker coat was used. I'm wearing two coats in the photo plus Glisten & Glow HK Girl top coat.

My favorite of the four was definitely Watch Out, Or Elsa!. It's also a magenta but this time there's little gold flecks! The formula on this one was also excellent and again I'm wearing two coats in the photos. I love how the flecks give the color more dimension and make it a little more magical, which is befitting for Elsa!!

All in all I liked the collection. I wish it was more Frozen or Elsa themed, since there seems to be a lot of Summer-y colors, but there is a pretty wide variety of colors. I also wish that these were sold other than Walgreens, mostly because Walgreens is so wishy-washy as to when they stock which stores, and also because Walgreens doesn't even carry Orly! Will you be picking up this collection?

EDIT: Turns out that these colors are not exclusive to Walgreens. They are actually already part of Orly's Color Blast line that is sold in multiple stores. It appears that they were only renamed in order to create a Frozen/Elsa theme.

Nicole by OPI - Scarlett & FUN Stamping Plate #9

Good evening everyone! Up on the blog today I have a nail polish that had zero expectations from me. This polish is Nicole by OPI Scarlett. I actually received this polish during Secret Santa this last year and put it away in my Helmer to be forgotten. The only reason I reached for this polish was because I received my FUN #9 Hello Kitty themed stamping plate. I wanted to do a pink and white manicure with my stamp to embody Hello Kitty's colors. When I looked in my Helmer to pick out my pink, this was one of the first polishes I saw and I thought, why not? Turns out, this is a gorgeous polish!!

The name of the polish is Scarlett, which I would assume to be red, but it's actually more pink in reality. It has these beautiful shimmer flecks that reflect in the light and gives the polish this really beautiful dimension. This color was part of NOPI's Selena Gomez collection from 2012. I used two coats of Scarlett for these photos. The white polish that I used was Wet N Wild French White, which is my go-to white.

As for the FUN stamping plate, this was my first time trying this brand of plates. I was shopping on Llarowe.com when I realized that this plate was Hello Kitty themed. Those of you who know me in real life know that I am Hello Kitty obsessed, so I obviously had to have the plate! I was also wonderfully surprised by this plate because it stamped really easily and the image was super crisp and clear. The stamp you see in the photo was on my first try with this plate. The black polish that I used was from Mundo de Unas. The only unfortunate part of this plate was that it was a bit pricey coming in at $18. Why are all the awesome stamping plates so expensive?!!?

All in all this is definitely one of my favorite manicure's that I've done this year. It pays an homage to my Hello Kitty obsession while not being super obvious. The color was also a really unexpected surprise and I can safely say that this one is staying in my collection!

Revlon - Whimsical

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while since my last post! I'm trying to do two posts a week, but I was super busy last week. Last week was Lunar New Year and on Sunday there was a big parade in Chinatown. I stopped by and had lots of fun watching the dancers and dragons pass by! 2015 is the year of the Sheep and I managed to pick up the cutest little sheep plushy! Sheepy is going to help model tonight's nail polish, which happens to be Revlon Whimsical.

I've had this polish for about three years now and never tried it on. The color in the bottle is a mint crelly with blue and pink glitters. I thought it looked really pretty in the bottle which led me to keep it for as long as I did. It's even supposed to be a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Glitter in the Air. The polish on my nails, however, did not look as pretty. 

I ended up with more of a greenish hue than mint. The glitter's were pretty but they were a little sparse and did need fishing. I used FOUR coats for these swatches and you can still see my nail line. These swatches might have looked better if I had used an undie instead of using this polish solo.

Right after I took these photos and started writing tonight's post, Whimsical smudged everywhere and I decided to just take it off. Sadly this makes this polish a dud in my book and will be going in the destash pile.  

I'm a little saddened that this color didn't work out for me. I loved the name and felt that the color in the bottle looked really cute. It might have even been a great color for Easter! Hopefully Friday's manicure will work out a lot better for me and I think that I'm going to just rock my naked nails for the next couple of days!

Sinful Colors Nail Junkie & Rise and Shine

Hello everyone! Did you have an excellent weekend? I had an extra day off yesterday so it feels like Monday! Up for swatch today is Sinful Colors Nail Junkie and Rise and Shine. I love Sinful Colors! It is such a great budget brand. The formula is for the most part excellent (there are a few dudes here and there) and the price can't be beat (retail for $2, but are usually on sale for a $1). There's also a great array of colors and they're always coming out with new collections! Today's colors are part of their permanent collection and they're both beautiful, together and separately.

Rise and Shine is a beautiful green creme with shimmery flakes. Nail Junkie (which I am!) is a glitter topper in a blue base. The blue base really doesn't show up unless you wanted to layer this a thousand times. My bottle of Nail Junkie was a little thick, but I've also had it for a few years. This extra thickness did lead to some pulling and wrinkling. In these photos I used 2 coats of Rise and Shine and  1 coat of Nail Junkie. I topped it all off with Glisten & Glow's HK Girl.

I decided to model today's swatch with a Kingdom Hearts Donald Duck bottle topper that I picked up last year when I was in Tokyo. It's from the Little Mermaid level, so Donald Duck is actually an octopus! These colors gave me an underwater feel, so I thought that octopus Donald Duck fit the bill!

Sinful Colors can be bought at Walgreens and Rite Aid for $2 a bottle. However, as mentioned, there are plenty of sales throughout the year that bring these babies down to a $1. These are perfect if you're starting out your collection or if you need specific colors for a low price!

Fair Maiden Careless Whisper and Eternal Flame

Hi Readers! For today's swatches I have the remaining two polishes from my Fair Maiden order: Careless Whisper and Eternal Flame. Both of these polishes are part of the Valentine's Day Trio and are Limited Edition.

Eternal Flame is described as a "micro flakey color shifting topper." In these swatches I used two coats Eternal Flame over OPI's Black Onyx and topped off with a coat of Gelous and Glisten & Glow's HK Girl top coat. 

This was such a hard polish to photograph! I was trying to catch the color shifting properties but my camera was not picking up on it! I wouldn't say that the shifting is super strong or even that noticeable, but it does turn to a more golden color when you turn your hand. 

The second color for today is Careless Whisper! I have to admit that I'm not a giant fan of pinks, but this color is gorgeous!! This polish is a soft, light pink with these little pink flecks. Again, the flecks were impossible to capture on camera but they are noticeable in the light! 

I'm going to be wearing Careless Whisper for Valentine's Day because it's such a perfect pink! I decided to model Careless Whisper with my Sailor Moon Crescent Moon Wand chapstick because Sailor Moon is the Guardian of LOVE and Justice and who better to be a part of my Valentine's Day manicure?

Unfortunately, I don't think that Fair Maiden is going to do a re-stock of their Valentine's Day trio, but you can check out their other gorgeous polishes on Fair Maiden's online store and each bottle sells for $9.

Fair Maiden Polish - Frozen Heart

Happy Sunday everyone! I'm excited for my first official blog post! I'm actually going to start off with one of my newly acquired polishes because I was so excited to try it on when it arrived yesterday. The polish in question is Fair Maiden's Frozen Heart.

Frozen Heart is described as "bright and bold blue holographic nail polish." Frozen Heart is part of the Be Your Own Heroine collection which is inspired by Disney Princesses. Frozen Heart screams the movie "Frozen!"

The polish went on super smoothly and I used two coats in the pictures below. I used a gel base and Glisten & Glow's HK Girl top coat.

Sadly it's another snowy day here in NY so there was no sun to show off the holo-ness.

Fair Maiden is a relatively new indie company but the polishes are excellent quality. I also love the bottle and the artwork on their logo!  The TAT was fairly quick. I ordered on a Saturday and it arrived in my mail box the following Saturday and this was during the release of their Valentine's Day collection. I also picked up Careless Whisper and Eternal Flame, which are part of the Valentine's Day trio, so I'll be reviewing those in the next couple of days! You can purchase Frozen Heart and other gorgeous polishes through Fair Maiden's online store and each bottle sells for $9.

Mission Statement for Jade Elephant Polish Blog

All those that know me, both personally and online, know that I am crazy obsessed with nail polish. Throughout my years of using and collecting nail polish, I have found a hobby that I love. I've also found myself with a large collection of nail polish that I haven't even tried. This last year (2014) I have been on a nail polish no-buy, which although wasn't a 100% success, definitely curbed my nail polish spending and hoarding. However, I am still left with the 450+ bottles of nail polish in my two Ikea Helmers that are rarely, if ever, used. This is where this blog steps in. In writing and creating this blog I hope to go through my nail polish collection and swatch and curate my collection. This blog will also help me realize which brands and types of polishes that I truly love and want to further collect, while at the same time, showing me which polishes I'm not really a fan of. Once my collection swatching is completed, I will most likely resume my polish purchasing (hopefully at a not too crazy pace!) and will start working on my nail art skills! This should be a fun and exciting journey and I'm ready to get started!!!