Apologies and polish reviews!

Hello friends!

So a week went by without a peep on here, I'm so sorry!  I fell behind on blog posts and as soon as I would turn my thoughts to posting something, I caught an extreme case of writer's block!  But I'm back and I have a few new polishes to review plus one layered manicure that was so froofy I couldn't NOT post it!

The good:
Essie Mojito Madness!


How gorgeous is this?!!?




This is a part of the "Bikini So Teeny" collection, and I had been wanting a color like this for a while and I'm so glad this is the polish I picked up!  It applied like a dream and I barely needed 2 coats for it!  I did apply over a ridge filler, but I use that more to protect from staining.  Either way I bet it would still apply really well, this polish didn't get goopy or drag and it looks BEAUTIFUL.  Definitely recommend it.

The Bad:
Revlon Runway Pearl


4 coats!
I wanted to love this polish, it's a beautiful LE white/ivory with a red/orange/gold shimmer.  It's really stunning in the bottle.  BUT it goes on so thick, a little streaky, it took 4 coats to build opacity AND IT BUBBLED LIKE CRAZY.


THE BUBBLES! (editing note: I cropped and sharpened this using flickrs editing tools)

And you can see a little bit of the bottle in the above shot, the shimmer is really beautiful but the formula isn't worth the headache.

The Awesome:
Here are my "prom dress" nails!  Every time I looked at my nails I kept picture a puffy skirted sky blue dress with baby pink tulle that was covered in bits of silver glitter.  I have a major soft spot for froofy dresses, let me tell you.




This is OPI What's with the Cattitude topped with 2 coats of Pirouette My Whistle from the NYC Ballet Soft Shades collection that just came out and CND Raspberry Sparkle on top of all that.  I really like PMW, it's a mix of silver microglitter and white pearl hex glitter.  It's really beautiful and looks lovely over pastels.  It's the best picture I could get of my nails before I took this off but isn't it lovely?

And that's all I've got for today!  I've got another beauty post in the works for Wednesday and of course there's Friday Jams!  Thanks for stopping by!

love and cupcakes,
Ms. Meghan

Funky French manicures, are you my arch-nemesis?

Hello friends!

I'm here today with a confession: I have a love/hate relationship with french manicures.  While I do love the soft, clean look of a classic french manicure, I can't stand 75% of the french manis out there.  It has gone from "my nails but better" to "BIGGER BLINGIER TACKIER PINK AND WHITES OMG."  GROSS.

I really think a funky french can be quite chic if done well, black is the go-to choice for many women but really there's a whole rainbow of colors out there, experiment!!  I wish I could just get the hang of doing a french; I've used guides and even when I freehanded it, I just didn't feel like it looked as neat as I wanted.  So here is a brief history of my french manicures, in all their glory:

FF #1: Going green!

Zoya Rose with China Glaze Entourage tips.

Rose is a sheer pale pink-y beige shimmer with a green flash.  It's really nice by itself, but I thought that green tips would coordinate really well, and Entourage is a pretty spring green with green shimmer.  I like it a lot and it did look nice with Rose, but can you tell I had never done this before and I free-handed the tips?  Because I totally did.

FF #2: SPARKLE ALL THE TIME edition

Essie Vanity Fairest + OPI Your Royal Shine-ness + OPI Servin' Up Sparkle

I actually really love this look.  This was my first time using guides and I thought it came out really well, not perfect but still lovely.  Also it is SO FREAKING SPARKLY.   Vanity Fairest is a good go-to french base, it's not streaky, has a little bit of shimmer and it brightens up your nails overall.  And how can you go wrong with a silver foil and silver holo glitter?  I used 2 coats of Servin' Up Sparkle, and it applied really nicely.

FF #3: Black like my soulless heart

Vanity Fairest again + OPI Baby It's Coal Outside + China Glaze Fairy Dust
Again with the Vanity Fairest and the silver holo glitter!  I lovelovelove Fairy Dust, it's so pretty and goes with so many colors.  I really like Baby It's Coal Outside, it's a rich black that has a lot of shimmer and still manages to look black and not dark grey.  Oh man the edges here are super messy looking, even with guides being used.  I like the look and I may try this again but I took it off after a day, it was too messy for my tastes.

So there are my 3 attempts at french manicures.  What do you think of french manis?  Do they make your skin crawl, or are they still chic?  Do you have any tips for a french mani n00b such as myself?  Let me know in the comments!

love and cupcakes,
Ms. Meghan

Nail Polish, blues and greens

So I've decided to post some polish swatches, everything is 2 coats + base and top coat.


OPI Russian Navy. Deep navy blue shimmer with pink/red sparkle. It's okay, but nothing I would write home about. It's hard not to love a dark blue shimmer though, I think it might be ingrained in my dna.


OPI Blue My Mind. It's a little too primary, I was looking for a dupe of a wet n' wild shade I used to have. It was a bright navy shimmer, and all I need with it is some red lipstick and bangs and BOOM it's 1996 again. I used the opi ridge filler with this and I think that's what caused the bubbling.


OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue. Navy shimmer with blue sparkle. Really wonderful blue, better than Russian Navy. I need to re-swatch this because this pic is terrible.


China Glaze Sky-High Tops from the Custom Kicks collection. I really love this color, and I didn't think I would. It's a beautiful shimmery blue. Forgive the chips and tip wear, that was after at least 5 days of wear.


Misa The Grass is Greener on My Side. How fun is that name? So much sass. And the color lives up to the name, it's a gorgeous deep green/teal shimmer. Forgive the visible polish lines it was SO HUMID when I did the mani. Despite giving them drying drops and 20+ minutes to dry, I still smudged my thumb so bad I had to re-do it.

I have ~12+ nail polishes to swatch that I haven't even worn yet, let alone what I own that I haven't swatched. And the 8 bottles of Zoya polish on their way (including the MatteVelvets!!!). And I'm eyeing a few more bottles of CG, Color Club and Misa. It's a terrible addiction.