Nailed Kit - Halloween

Press Sample

While I was at iFabbo's #iFabboSFcon, I had this lovely woman come up to me and ask me about my nails, then show me hers. She had on a skittle of different decorations and colors that made me say "What are you wearing!"  Then she handed me the above envelope with a smile on her face and told me that all the information is inside.

Okay so it wasn't totally as clandestine as that, but it was pretty close to that. She was from Nailed Kit, a company that provides nail art kits that are simple for the beginner (hello, me) but can be used for advanced nail pros too!  The company has 4 different categories of kits - Birthday, Bachelorette, Baby Shower and Girls Night which are based on the decals that in the kit. Pick a category, pick a design and then the rest is auto-generated by the Designer. Each Nailed Kit includes the solid base decals, the design you've selected, rhinestones, a nail file and a shaping stick (orange stick).

Inside my Halloween Kit which HOLY COW, GOES AWAY TOMORROW SO GO NOW IF YOU'RE INTERESTED, was the Spooky Spiders design (USD $12.00) which came with a yellow base decals.

Back to the kit. I love the packaging.

I told you yesterday how much I love branding. Super easy here - it's all written out in steps.

Step 1 - Start It!
Their website says that these are real nail polish strips but they are definitely soft and pliable like nail polish stickers. It reminds me of the NCLA decals vs say the China Glaze nail polish appliques. You do have to be careful during the filing or you will tear the strip (did that one on my pinkie, right off the bat).

Step 2 - Personalize It!

This was my first experience with water decals. I immediately didn't pay attention to instruction 1 and cut my decal too far away from the actual printed image. I used tweezers to drop my decal in the water and remove it, and then when I tried to transfer it to my nail, it was all over my cuticles. I decided to take it off, trim it, put it back in the water for a second and then reapply. It worked but don't do it that way.  I decided to put another water decal over a bare nail and trimmed it properly first. It worked better. I sealed both with essence gel-look top coat.

Step 3 - Bling It Out!
The kit includes a sheet of multicolored rhinestones that are attached in a chain but you can break it apart easily. I added a single rhinestone over the nail polish decal and then a row of rhinestones to my bare nail and sealed both essence gel-look topcoat.



So Nailed Kit - not only can you buy the kits when you wish but they also offer a Monthly Club for $14 a month (currently in a waitlist). They are also available on social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest

Overall, great for a look, great for a night out, not something that I would buy on a regular basis but that's mostly because I'm still terrible with the solid base decals. Until I master that, I have very little business trying this out. But I definitely think it's a great stocking stuffer kit for the upcoming holidays and I really hope they have some holiday themed kits coming up soon.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

I ♥ Nail Polish Update

I really hadn't heard of the brand I ♥ Nail Polish, also written as I Love Nail Polish or ILNP, before this year but boy, have they quickly become one of my favorite brands.

For starters, founder Barbra is very specific about branding. When you purchase from I ♥ Nail Polish, your box is branded, the tissue paper is branded, and each bottle shade is very professionally labeled. It's the little things that make me really enjoy a company - the attention to detail is exquisite.

Next let's talk about the founder. I got to meet her this summer at the Ninja Polish blogger dinner in Vegas and she is the sweetest woman ever. She was very humble and kind and that's something else that really sticks out for me. If you've been following her social media, specifically the I ♥ Nail Polish Facebook Page, she will share manicures that she enjoys - even when her brand is no where in the photo. It's no question to me why her brand has been so successful (over 182,000 fans on Facebook alone!).

Now I own quite a bit of I ♥ Nail Polish that I bought straight from her website and then she did it to me with the Ultra Chromes (especially Birefringence, which is my new love). Now she's completely outdone herself by adding holographic goodness to the mix, bringing back 2 retired shades AND introducing 10 more shades that will be available for pre-order on November 1st. Let's look at the lovelies, shall we? (All images courtesy of I ♥ Nail Polish)

Absolute Zero

AC Slater (originally retired)

Admire Me

Birefringence H (now with holographic goodness!)

Bottle Service

Contraband

Cygnus Loop H (now with holographic goodness!)

Exodus

Grapealicious (originally retired)

Indie Go

Molly

Mutagen H (now with holographic goodness!)

My Little Glacier H (now with holographic goodness!)

Pt 78

Purgatory

Sweet Serenade

Washing Ashore

But wait, there's even more! If you pre-order on November 1st, each polish will be $1.00 off the official release price. EVEN BETTER THAN THAT if you pre-order at least 3 pre-order polishes in a single order, you will receive a limited edition, not-for-sale holographic polish totally FREE!

And there's even more. If you sign up for the I ♥ Nail Polish newsletter here, 5 lucky winners will win the complete set of 16 polishes announced on November 8th.  Already bought them? Well you will get a total refund of your order if you win and you don't have to pay for shipping AND YES this is open internationally! (PolishGalore is not affiliated with this giveaway in any way, shape or form.)

I'm exhausted. So much amazing goodness in one posting.  For more on the I ♥ Nail Polish brand, be sure to following their various social media platforms: Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Gelish MINI Trends


I stopped in Sally's this past weekend and was intrigued to see this new collection of Gelish MINI polishes for $15.95 each. I had to reach out for more information because we all know how knowledgeable some employees can be.

This new collection is called Trends and it's a seasonally-inspired grouping of the most sought after colors and textures for layering on top of other Gelish colors or wearing alone. Sixteen brand new colors, people!

No more talking, LOOK AT THESE. (Images courtesy of Gelish)

All That Glitters Is Gold
Gold glitter

Candy Shop
Green & blue glitter

Let Me Top You Off
Purple, red & blue glitter

Too Tough to Be Sweet
Magenta glitter

Girls' Night Out
Chunky silver glitter

Concrete Couture
Black & silver glitter

Rough Around The Edges
Iridescent holographic flakes

Am I Making You Gelish?
Silver holographic glitter

A Pinch of Pepper
White & black dots

Feel Me On Your Fingertips
Purple glitter

Lots of Dots
Fine multi-colored dots

Sweet 16
Pink glitter

Life of The Party
Red glitter

#PartyGirlProblems
Blue, pink & silver glitter

Getting Gritty With It
Blue, pink and turquoise glitter

Are You Feeling It?
Turquoise, blue & green glitter

-dies- I seriously had to stop myself from just buying them all. My must haves are Are You Feeling It?, Rough Around the Edges, Am I Making You Gelish? and A Pinch of Pepper. Don't even pretend like you know I'm not obsessed with black and white glitter.  LOVE.

Bonus: Did you know Gelish MINI has their own website now? 

NOTD: 24 October 2013

Press Sample 

I finally updated my polish spreadsheet earlier this week when I couldn't sleep and realized I have a LOT of nail polish. Additionally, I have a lot of nail polish that I haven't worn. So a few nights ago I decided to just randomly grab a color and GO.

I had a base coat of Cult Nails Get It On when I decided to grab Morgan Taylor Bronzed & Beautiful, a metallic gold polish. I used two coats and realized metallic gold and I don't go well together. The polish was fantastic - great formula, didn't pool in my cuticles, nice opacity... but my skin tone and gold? Nah.

So I decided to add dots! I can do this. I used Morgan Taylor Lost In Paradise a beautiful Tiffany blue creme. I placed a drop of polish on a plastic nail wheel and dipped my essence dotting tool to add random dots on my ring finger. Okay, not bad - but I just wasn't feeling the dots. The blue didn't pop against the gold as well as I hoped. I topped my manicure with Cult Nails Wicked Fast and decided to sit awhile and think about what I could do when it hit me.

I have a tiny striper brush in my ORLY Instant Artist polish! Now this was apart of the Nail Art Society relaunch kit and it's a funky but awesome concept. The polish (or paint as they call it) is water based so if you mess up, you can just wipe it off with water. Oh yes, you heard me right. Also it's super opaque (which is SO RARE) and then it's a thin brush so you can really draw some lines. So I decided to draw lines around my dots and BAM a leopard mani that Snooki would be proud of.

I attempted to photograph this today but I learned that I've gone WAY too long without taking photos and just about every single one was blurry. Lame.  But I did get this.


Yay! I was actually really proud of this manicure. I was even able to paint my Cinderella hand with the accent too. That's saying something.

PS: Super cool random fact, this is my 1500 post on PolishGalore! Yay milestone!

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Morgan Taylor: Brand Overview

Taylor Daniel & Morgan Haile
While out at Cosmoprof North America this year, I had the opportunity to meet Morgan and Taylor of the new professional lacquer line Morgan Taylor. Morgan Taylor is produced by Nail and Hand Harmony, the company that produces Gelish & Gelish MINI. Morgan is the daughter of CEO & founder Danny Haile, and Taylor is the daughter of David Daniel, Nail and Hand Harmony's President. Added family connection - Morgan and Taylor are cousins!

These girls are amazing. You can already see how fashion forward they are - both are college educated and have a passion for polish. (Added fun fact: Taylor has a YouTube channel here)

Morgan Taylor came out of the gate running this summer with 100 core polishes and 5 treatments. They boast a 7-10 day wear & are highly pigmented with only 2 coats needed for full coverage. They are also big-3 free.

The Fall 2013 collection was part of the core 100 polishes and the photo I grabbed was of course, blurry. I did, however, get a shot of this massive display that I believe held all 100 colors and some of their treatments.

Taylor was especially excited about this color that she created - Something to Blog About. (Only in the bottle, not the color on my nails.)

The 5 treatments include a matte top coat which is all the rage right now among polish companies.

The Royal Life collection (press release here) will be launching November 1st and includes 6 brand new glitters.

Morgan Taylor has also been teasing the new Glam Rock collection on their Facebook, which will be launching in winter.

For salons, they offer this beautiful 48 piece wall display to showcase Morgan Taylor on the wall.

Now I'll be honest, it breaks my heart that this brand is only available to the professional, but that just means you need to ask your favorite salon to carry the brand - or um, ask a professional to give you gifts. -cough-

I have 59 lovely press samples from Morgan Taylor and believe it or not, I came home with a few duplicates so stay tuned to PolishGalore for a giveaway!

Back to the polish - Morgan Taylor's website is new but contains a lot of information. Additionally you can like them on Facebook, follow on Twitter, subscribe to their YouTube and follow them on Instagram.

For the professional, you can purchase Morgan Taylor at CosmoProf and some etailers. The retail price is $8.50 per bottle.