Mi Amor Polish - Swatches & Review

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Happy Monday! Today I have some swatches to share with you from an indie polish maker, Mi Amor Polish. If the name doesn't explain it enough, Mi Amor Polish was started by Courtney out of her love of nail polish, glitter, and her simple love of creating something beautiful. I've got several of her glitter toppers to share, so lets dig in!

Work / Play / Polish Guest Post - A Wintery Scene for Polished Girlz

Good Morning everyone!! I have been dying to share to today's post with you since I did it a few weeks ago. Leslie from Work / Play / Polish contacted me back in November about partaking in a blog series she was working on. There is a wonderful organization called Polished Girlz and they work with all sorts of young ladies, like those with special needs or ladies who are cooped up in hospitals for long stays with some pretty yucky illnesses. Leslie is generously donating $10/blogger that accepted her invitation to the Polished Girlz...and all 25 of us accepted! That's $250 to this wonderful cause and if you're able, consider ways in which you can donate or participate in a chapter near you. :)

We had to keep with a "Festive" theme for the blog series so I went with a wintery scene and am just so proud of how these turned out! You can read my guest post here as well as the introductory post by Alanna, the 13 year old nail art enthusiast who started Polished Girlz :) 

Image via Work / Play / Polish and Polished Girlz

Happy Polishing! :) 

A Winter's Morning

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I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas filled with family, friends and laughter :) 

Today I've got a reject post of sorts. I had originally done this look with the intension of it being a guest post, and while I liked the look, I just didn't like it for the guest post. 

I was inspired by an image that I found online of a snowy tree scene that had the sunrise light shining through the trees and I fell in love. Despite my attempts, my take on this photo ended up being a bit more abstract and vibrant than I had intended.

Bright Fair Isle

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Merry Merry Christmas!! And if you don't celebrate, it's just a wonderful excuse to be with family and friends :) 

I've got another fair isle print look to share with you all today. I'm sure you can all tell by now that I tend to obsess over certain patterns and prints for awhile and will do them over and over agin until I get sick of them (I tend to do the same with music)! 

The Hunt New Year's Eve Style Guide Giveaway

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Hello, all! If you follow me on social media you've probably seen the New Year's Eve mani that I put together for The Hunt's fabulous NYE Style Guide. 

If you did miss it, you can check out the online glossi magazine for some style inspiration. 

The best part? Read through to the end of the glossi to find out how you can enter for a chance to win 1 of 4 $50 gift cards to your favorite makeup and fashion stores (like Julep or Sephora!). 

Here's the look I put together as inspiration for New Year's Eve and be sure to read the tutorial by clicking here :) 

Happy Polishing! :) 

Winter inspired Tutorials - Deb Shops Mani Mondays

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I've got a super quick post for you all tonight to share some winter inspired manis if anyone is looking for some inspiration (and how-to's!). I put together 2 easy looks that will help you get in the spirit of the season over at Deb Shops!

As you all probably know by now, I'm pretty much OBSESSED with Christmas sweater inspired manis right now so I put together a Fair Isle print look that anyone can master. I loved wearing these! You can find the tutorial here, or by clicking the photos below.

 And I couldn't let the December go any longer without doing some snowflakes ;) I did my first snowflake look over a year ago now and it was definitely time to revisit them! Link to the tutorial here or click on the photos :)

What do you think of these? Have you be sporting any wintery looks? 

Happy Polishing! :) 

The Digital Dozen does Red, Green & Gold - Day 5: Lace

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Happy Saturday, Everyone! I'm so sorry that I failed in getting the final day of Digital Dozen week completed on time. But, better late than never! As I've mentioned (I think in everyone post this week...haha) I struggled majorly with this theme. I actually tried to do something on Thursday and Friday night after work but I wound up spending some time relaxing with the boyfriend instead which was really great. 

So, for my final look, I actually ended up scrapping the red from my mani all together and chose instead to use just green and gold...though I am holding a red bottle in some of my pictures so you still get the feel for the theme ;) After several failed attempts through out the day, I finally ended up with this simple lace look. The fabulous Missy over at Gnarly Nails also did a lace look for this week's challenge :)

The Digital Dozen does Red, Green & Gold - Day 4: Tribal-esque Print

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So, I'll be honest, this challenge theme has gotten me a bit discouraged - I'm REALLY struggling with coming up with unique and different concepts for this Digital Dozen week. I wasn't very pleased with yesterday's mani and I was hoping to redeem myself with tonight's look, but once again was so stumped on what to do. 

I found myself procrastinating on tumblr and came across Karina Manarin's tumblr and this image. I think by now we all know I have a major love for tribal and aztec prints and always enjoy painting them and this style of print is one that it can work well with any color scheme. 

The Digital Dozen does Red, Green & Gold - Day 3: Scribbled Holly

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Yay! It's Wednesday...albeit midnight on Wednesday...but still Wednesday, so it's officially hump day here! It's also the midpoint of the Digital Dozen does Red, Green & Gold week and I must say, I'm struggling with this theme! I like festive manis as much as the next person, but I feel like I can only do so much with strict colors like red, green & gold (I think we're all feeling like this!).

Back during the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, I did this sketched floral mani and for whatever reason, this concept popped into my head tonight. In my mind's eye this was a perfect take on some of the holly nail art I've been seeing lately and I was really excited to try and execute it.

The Digital Dozen does Red, Green & Gold - Day 2: Galaxies!!

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Today is day 2 of the Digital Dozen does Red, Green & Gold and I mentioned in my post yesterday that I really wanted to challenge myself to do something that wasn't "christmas-y"so...it's possible that you're about to see some of the weirdest/ugliest/most awesome (??) GALAXY nails ever! 

The Digital Dozen does Red, Green & Gold - Day 1: Sweater Print...again

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Holy cow, I can't believe it's been a month since I took part in my first Digital Dozen challenge! They didn't kick me out after last month so today marks the beginning of my second challenge with this wonderful group and our theme for the week is Red, Green & Gold. Get ready for what will surely be a very Christmas-y week here on Wondrously Polished ;)

December Nail Art Challenge - Day 2: Lights

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I've got another post for you tonight in hopes of getting caught up with the December Nail Art Challenge. I suppose some things never change because I'm positive that I was useless last year as well and was always behind. 

I was supposed to have my "Lights" themed look done between the 4th and the 6th but...well, it's almost the end of the 7th so clearly I'm not one for punctuality. 

I've been seeing tons of super cute Christmas Light manis floating around and that was my initial thought when I was considering the light theme. But I was talking with the boyfriend last night and we were discussing places we would love to travel and my bucket list includes Iceland. I started looking at things to do there and apparently you can take guided Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) tours! It was then I knew two things for certain: that I was in fact going to make it to Iceland one day and take that tour and that I was going to paint the northern lights on my nails for this theme...such meaningful epiphanies I have! ;) 

  

Aurora Borealis - Source

Landlia Polish - Swatches & Review

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Hello, all! I'm sorry I've been lacking in posting. I've been...I'm not even sure what. Trying to find my sanity, perhaps? ;) But! Tonight I've got a great little indie brand to share with you all! 

Landlia Polish was created by the husband/wife duo, Shannon and Dustin, in an effort to create colors and finishes that weren't being produced by the big name brands...and I'm so jealous of this! I think we all know this frustration of not being able to find that perfect color and wish we could just make it ourselves. Thank goodness for indie makers like Landlia who help lazy bums like me fill out my collection with beautiful polishes. Shannon has been swatching on her Instagram @shan3270 for over a year so she knows what does and doesn't work when it comes to polishes...and she has some awesome nail art to boot :)

Christmas Tree

This was one of my favorites of the polishes I was sent. Christmas Tree is a green jelly with green hex, square, bar and micro glitters and has some large multi-colored round glitters mixed in as "ornaments" I'm assuming. I think this is such a fun polish for this time of year. The application was a breeze and easy to apply. The green jelly base of this polish is very sheer so I would definitely recommend using this over another polish, though I'm sure with enough patience you can build up the opacity and wear it on its own.

I decided to have some fun with this one so I did a green gradient as my base and put a coat of Christmas Tree on top of it, and yes, instant Christmas tree! My only complaint with this one was that I had to really fish the colored round glitter out as they sunk to the bottom.

One coat of Christmas Tree over a green gradient

December Nail Art Challenge - Day 1: Pattern

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Way back in December of last year I decided to give a nail art challenge a try. I would never have thought that it would spurn this mad love of nail art, but I can fully attribute those nail art challenges to my improvement and advancement as a nail artist. They pushed me to go outside of my comfort zone and try things I never would have on my own and for anyone looking to improve their skill and range, a challenge is by far the best way to go about that. 

The Challenge I took part in last year was one put on by Californails on Instagram and I remember being so incredibly proud of the snowflake nail art I had created. I had just gotten my first set of nail art brushes and had finally figured out how to use it and I created this mani. I've decided to continue the cycle and participate (if I can!) in this year's December Nail Art Challenge as well! It's all done on Instagram using tags to show your looks but I really enjoy doing them. 

NPC 2nd Annual Holiday Nail Art Challenge - Day 1: Snow

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I'm so excited for tonight's post if only for the fact that I'm doing nail art again! It's been far too long since I've gotten to be creative and it felt so wonderful to sit down with all of my polishes and just paint. 

Today's mani was done as an entry into Nail Polish Canada's 2nd Annual Holiday Nail Art Challenge! The first theme was "snow" and we could interpret that in any way we wanted. Sadly (or perhaps to those who dislike the snow, luckily), I don't live in an area that gets snow...but I love it. I am particularly fond of how snow looks piled atop branches and while browsing for inspiration, I came across an image of a red cardinal perched on a pine branch that was covered in snow. Needless to say, I fell in love with the contrast of the red, green and white of the snow and knew I had to do it. So, here is my "snow" themed look inspired by that image :)