Sparitual: Drift- Summer 2014 Collection

✯ PR Sample ✯

SpaRitual was kind enough to send me a few of their nail polish collections, topcoats, and even a hand serum. I will be breaking these up into about four different blog reviews, so not to overwhelm everyone. This is the first time I've tried SpaRitual, though I have heard of them. 

Today I have the SpaRitual Drift: Summer 2014 Collection. It features six different colors: Blue Lagoon, Buoyant, Low Tide, Barefoot, Sea Glass, On the Dunes.

Inspired by a day at the beach, Drift features colors found in the frosted, semi-translucent pale greens and blues of sea glass. Multi-dimensional when layered, they catch the light just like in the shallow waters of the ocean.

My thoughts on the bottle design: The round bottle is easy to hold, and I especially like the rubber grip lids. The brush is a bit small, but easy to manage. 

Blue Lagoon an ocean blue cream. I really adore this color! Three thin coats and it's opaque. I did a little design with striping tape and On The Dunes. (Ignore my wonky striping tape lines... wahhh...)

Buoyant is a peach cream. It applies much like the other creams in this collection, three thin coats and it's opaque. I also paired it again with On The Dunes and another striping tape design.

Barefoot is described as a sandy shimmer. It's a nude cream, with little bits of orange and silver glitter. It's really a unique color, I was surprised by how much I liked it. It was opaque in just two coats.

I was also sent the Mattify Matte Topcoat, here is two coats over Barefoot. (I'll be using the matte topcoat in a few upcoming posts too).

Low Tide is a very pretty turquoise cream. Three thin coats and it's completely opaque. I decided to do a gradient with On The Dunes.

On The Dunes: a sandy gold color, with tiny silver specks. As you can see, On The Dunes really pairs well with all of the colors in this collection. This is two coats.

Sea Glass is a sheer shimmery green/purple duo chrome, with glass fleck. It's very very sheer, so if you want to wear it on it's own, 3-4 coats will get it semi-opaque. (I did 4 coats below). You could probably also layer this over black or green polish for a stronger effect.

SpaRitual products are vegan. And their nail lacquer doesn't have a very strong scent, which is nice. You can read more about SpaRitual's philosophy here.

We formulate our body care products with vegan ingredients from around the world, including many specially sourced and selected plant essences that are Certified Organic and Fair Trade. Our nail lacquers and nail care essentials are vegan and formulated without DBP, toulene, formaldehyde and formaldehyde resin. 

Click below to read more!

Have a Happy 4th!

Have a Happy and safe 4th of July tomorrow! My husband and I will be heading up to my parents new place tomorrow (2 hours away), to celebrate.

This years 4th of July design, I created with OPI Solitare, Zoya Chyna & Liberty, and Painted Polish Drunk on Holo. I stamped with Konad white and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue. I used Winstonia Store stamp plates W107 & W110.

And... since this was stamped over texture, I decided to fairy dust & topcoat my design. Stamping over texture looks pretty, but it usually only lasts a day at the most.

Mwahahaha. If you haven't read The Mercurial Magpie's blog post on China Glaze Fairy Dust, you need to. I made the above graphic for her, in honor of how popular her catch phrase has become! ;-)

Winstonia Store: Pastel Impressions, Nail Wraps.

✯ PR Sample ✯

Winstonia Store recently gave me the opportunity to review some of their new nail wraps. A few weeks ago I reviewed the 'Americano' design. Today I'm reviewing the 'Pastel Impressions' nail wraps. 

They are similar to Sally Hansen Salon Effects, and apply in the same manner.

I love Winstonia Store products, I adore their stamping plates. That said; the 'Pastel Impressions' design performed worse for me then the 'Americano' design. 

When I reviewed the 'Americano' design, I used Seche Vite fast dry topcoat. What I thought happened, was that the fast dry topcoat shrunk the wraps, and accelerated the creasing, and peeling. The 'Americano' wraps only lasted me one full day. When I would run my fingers through my hair, it would snag on the strips because they were peeling up. So at the end of the day I ended up removing all of the strips. (They remove very easily, peeled right off). 

To give a fair review this time for the 'Pastel Impressions' design, I used a regular topcoat. Sally Hansen Triple Shine Topcoat. But... this did not help the creasing or peeling. As you can see below in my photo the wraps were peeling up at the sides, no matter how much I pressed them back down. Sadly; these also, only lasted me one day of wear. 

Honestly, I think these nail wraps are best for a evening out, or a one day event. They are affordable and there are many designs to choose from, without going through all of the trouble to paint your nails yourself. It could just be nail chemistry, but these do not last me 14 days. If I had to choose, I would say I liked the 'Americano' design better. I also think that particular design helped hide the imperfections better. 

Pro's:

• Price is much cheaper than Sally Hansen Salon Effects.
• Lot's of pretty designs & colors to choose from.
• Strips are thicker, so if you align it incorrectly you can fix it easily. 
• Plenty of extra strips to find the right fit for your nails, (or in case you mess up).

Con's:

• Even though I followed the instructions exactly, and used a regular topcoat, the strips creased, and started peeling up after only one day of wear. 
• Because the strips are thicker, I had to be very gentle when using the emery board to file off the excess. As you can see from the photos the 'Pastel Impressions' seemed to tear more easily, so I am missing some at my nail tips. 

Don't forget to check out Winstonia Store's Facebook & Instagram.

Ice Polish: Jasmine & Jafar.

✯ PR Sample ✯

Today I have some holographic pretties from Ice Polish to share with all of you. Erin is coming out with the  'Dreams Come True... Not If I Can Help It' collection. It will be made up of 6 duo's representing Disney princesses & villains.The collection will be out June 30th. I was sent Jasmine & Jafar (from Aladdin) to review! 

I was in my kitchen when I opened the package, and my kitchen lights really show off holo's, so I literally went "Wow!!! Ooooh!" when I saw these gorgeous holo's. I have a huge weakness holographic nail polish. :-)

First up is.... Jasmine! Since Jasmine is a princess after all, I thought the addition of some rhinestones would be perfect. (Sally Hansen). Jasmine is a light aqua or sea foam linear holographic polish, it's very reminiscent of Princess Jasmine's outfit. I used three thin coats and it went on smoothly and dried pretty quickly too. I topped it off with Seche Vite. It's stunning in the sun! 

(Who else wanted to BE Princess Jasmine growing up?)

(Sun)

(Natural light shade)

And... the evil villain Jafar! Jafar is... wow, wow, wow! It's a purplish/magenta berry colored linear holo, but what makes it interesting, is there are also little bits of gold shimmer mixed throughout. It's hard to see the gold shimmer in the sun, but it really shows up in person in the shade. I also did three thin coats, plus Seche Vite topcoat. Application was the same as the first polish. I thought some holographic studs would look nice with this color. :-)

(Sun)

(Natural light shade).

You can purchase Ice Polish on Etsy, 

and don't forget like the Facebook Page or follow on Instagram!

UPDATE: Use code: IMGOINGTODISNEYLAND for 15% off your Ice Polish order until 7/7/14. 

Blogging Break Over!

✯ PR Samples Mentioned ✯

If you haven't guessed, my little blogging break is over. ;-) It was nice to chill out and take a break. Not worry about scheduling posts, getting things swatched every weekend. I noticed by taking a break, my creativity for nail polish came back. Since I was usually only creating one look to wear for the entire week, I was able to better plan out my designs and put more thought into them.

I love blogging about nail polish and I love doing reviews, but I'm no longer going to push myself to get several posts up a week. It was draining me out and I was starting to become frustrated with blogging. Instead I'm going to blog when I want. If I only get one post up a week, so be it. If I get on a stretch of posting a few times a week, so be that. I want blogging to be fun for me, and I want to be excited about sharing things with you all.

I have a few reviews coming up. Look for a review of two stunning polishes by Ice Polish and another review of Winstonia Store nail strips!

Today I wanted to share with you some of the looks I created while on break. Some of these were taken with my regular camera and others are cell phone photos.

Zoya Wendy with Zoya Jesy, and Winstonia stamp plate W-04.

Orly Glowstick with Painted Polish Drunk on Holo, Messy Mansion stamp plate MM12.

KB Shimmer In Bare Form, (Nude Holographic) with ILNP Admire Me, and Winstonia Store stamp W108

ILNP Purple Plasma, Painted Polish Drunk on Holo, with Emily de Molly stamp EDM03. 

 

The Mermaid's Song (win a bottle!)

A year ago I started reading The Mercurial Magpie, after Kirby commented on one of my blog posts. I've watched her blog grow and change over the past year into something amazing. I've also enjoyed getting to know Kirby, who is one of my good blogging friends. I've enjoyed seeing pictures of her dog Mugen, and discussing the little quirks of our Filipino significant others, talking about blogging ups & downs, (our love for CG fairy dust), and we both have a wicked sense of sarcastic humor, lol!

The Mercurial Magpie blog is turning 1 year this month! Kirby will be having a huge giveaway including some amazing custom nail polishes based on her blog, that she had created by several indie makers. I was sent a bottle of The Mermaid's Song that she had created by Painted Sabotage. Kirby has a great love for mermaids that is perfectly captured in this polish. It's a stunning aqua green, with holographic shimmer, holographic circles and plenty of pretty gold, purple, green, silver glitters.

I used 3 coats for the photos below, plus Seche Vite topcoat. This is the first time I've tried a Painted Sabotage polish and the formula was great to work with, and evens out nicely. I also decided to forgo the usual bottle pose shot, in favor of these pretty "mermaid" beads- I'll call them! ;-)

I also tried it with a matte topcoat, and I adore the way it looks! (For best results I always use a regular topcoat to smooth things out, and then I use the matte topcoat). 

Make sure to check out The Mercurial Magpie this Monday, Kirby will be getting things started with a huge giveaway! You could win a bottle of The Mermaid's Song, among many other awesome prizes!

The Mermaid's Song is also available for sale in the Painted Sabotage shop!

Blogging Break Extended

✯ PR Samples Mentioned ✯

I know I posted this a few weeks ago, but that was before I was hit with several product reviews that needed to be completed, so I wasn't "technically" on a break. I've decided to extend my blogging break until sometime around the end of June or early July. We'll just call it my "Summer Break". :-p 

This also means IG Sunday will be suspended for a few weeks. I've run out of scheduled posts for now, but I'll be back with some new bloggers when my break is over. 

So... If you want to keep up with me, give me a follow on the Tunay Na Mahal Facebook Page, or my Instagram. I'm not totally going silent! :-p

I am also having a blog sale on Storenvy! There's still quite a bit of nail polishes left. You can view my blog sale here: http://tunaynamahalblog.storenvy.com/

Also, catch up on all the current reviews I've posted on the blog!

• Zoya: Tickled
• Zoya: Bubbly
• Nie-cy Polish
• Poshinality Review
• Zoya: Magical PixieDust Summer Collection
• Winstonia Store Nail Wraps

And don't forget I have an Instagram Giveaway ending May 31st! It's open internationally!

P.S. Here's a peek at some beachy nails I did with Zoya Magical PixieDust in Bar (press sample), and Ellagee Dolphins of the Caribbean! 

Winstonia Store: Americano Nail Wraps

✯ PR Sample ✯

Happy Memorial Day! Hope everyone is a having a relaxing Monday! One of my favorite nail art companies, Winstonia Store recently gave me the opportunity to review some of their new nail wraps.

I was sent Americano & Pastel Impressions. Today, because it's Memorial Day here in the USA, I'll be reviewing Americano! :-)

You get 20 nail strip wraps & an emery board. These can be purchased on Winstonia Store's website or Amazon.com. 

They are very similar to Sally Hansen Salon Effects and apply in the same manner. It took about 10-15 minutes to do all ten of my nails. I love how festive & sparkly they are!

Pro's:

• Price is much cheaper than Sally Hansen Salon Effects.
• Lot's of pretty designs & colors to choose from.
• Strips are thicker, so if you align it incorrectly you can fix it easily. 
• Plenty of extra strips to find the right fit for your nails, (or in case you mess up).

Con's:

• Even though I followed the instructions exactly, and used Seche Vite topcoat, the strips are peeling up a little on the sides of a few nails, after only 1 day of wear. (I'm not sure if they will actually last 14 days, I will let you know in my next review). 
• Because the strips are thicker, I had to be very gentle when using the emery board to file off the excess. I was too rough on my thumb nail, and tore off a corner of the strip.

In a few weeks I will be reviewing the Pastel Impressions design, so stay tuned! And don't forget to check out Winstonia Store's Facebook & Instagram.