Bee Polished: September 2015

Doux et subtil...

This is a technique I've seen a few times and I've been wanting to try it out but just hadn't gotten around to it. It's basically a softer, more subtle, more modern version of your classic French mani. I love how clean a great French manicure can make your nails look but I also think that they can look really dated. Color choices are also a MAJOR part of what makes your French look wicked posh versus horrific flashback. There are also a million and a half ways to wear a French and now with glittery tips and colored tips and everything else it's just endless the things you can do with one. For me this was a really nice change. It does give off the appearance of a French manicure but it's so much softer and it looks really fashion forward. It's professional AND fun. :) I jazzed this up ever so slightly with a gem stone and after I did it I wished I hadn't but what can you do? :P Thanks for following along! Have you tried this look?

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Sparkles and stripes...

Barry M

This is another remnant of my vault cleanout! I think ultimately after I had this one on my computer I just didn't think it was clean enough or that it photographed well enough to make it on the blog. That being said I really loved this mani too and I wore it for a considerable period of time. I started out with just wanting to do the stripes and then I decided later to jazz it up a bit with some glitter. I hope you enjoy it!! :)

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Splash Marble

Essie

Most of you probably know that I picked up some sheer shades recently and I.LOVE.THEM. I've had so much fun playing with them. They blend, they can be layered, you can color with them... the possibilities are just endless. One of the ways I played with them was in doing something I'm calling a splash marble. This may well have been done previously, it's difficult to create a new nail technique these days, but if it has I haven't seen it anywhere. You can use it to make multiple effects and I've sort of fine tuned it for a future mani. Basically what you want to do is to do a standard water marble and then use alcohol to spray the surface so that the marble separates. My index nail was a bit of a fail but you can use it to do a random sort of marble like on my pinky OR to make sort of a blended leopard type effect like my middle two fingers. The sheers make it extra interesting because if you don't make a full bulls-eye in your cup but rather, just do a few sheer drops, you can then dip your nail repeatedly to make a layered effect. I think it might be fun to use this in conjunction with stamping like a pond mani but I haven't gone that far with it yet. At any rate I hope you like the art!! :)

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Swatch This! Butter London Fiddlesticks

butter london

Here's a little swatch post for you! Haven't done one of these in a bit so I thought I might start again. Originally the intention was to swatch my entire collection and weed out dupes and colors I don't wear or won't wear. I'm not sure that's really a viable option at this point -- especially as I'm in the midst of a move -- but it's still a great way to see the pretty colors I have. :P So this one is Butter London Fiddlesticks. I believe it was a holiday release but for the life of me I can't remember the name of the collection. It came out in 2012 along with a plethora of other glittery shades. This is a perfect shade for fall and for the upcoming holidays so it's definitely a keeper!! What do you think? Do you have Fiddlesticks?

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Suitcase of memories...

essence

Ok so today I'm cleaning out the vault and while most of the things I did ages ago were deemed not worthy of the blog, this was a look I thoroughly enjoyed and so, despite the nubs and the not so great lighting (and that TEENSY chip on my thumb!) I wanted to go ahead and share it with you. I actually did this art last fall and I'm not sure why they never made it on here because I really LOVE them. At any rate I digress. I hope you like my little fall birdies! Thanks for following along!!

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Nature Week: Flowers

It's the final day of Re-creation Week with The Digital Dozen!! This was a mani that I KNEW I had to do as soon as I saw it. It's been on my list of things to try and what better a time than now? This is actually another two for one because the original was done by Kirsten of The Geeky Owl using a tutorial from the Idiots Guide: Nail Art by our very own Lacquerologist. I really love the colors Kirsten used and the way her art looked sort of grungy and feminine and just...EVERYTHING. That being said I did not have the stamp she has, nor the exact colors AND her nails are quite different from mine so it wasn't as exact as I'd have liked but it was still really fun to do and I LOVE the results. I didn't want to take this one off...like...EVER!! Alas I eventually did have to...but now it's immortalized here for all time. :P Please check out the original art by clicking the link above and don't forget to check out the other amazing art from this week's re-creations! I wish I could've done a mani by every girl in our group but unfortunately, that's it for this week! Thanks for joining us!!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Bare Trees

OK guys...today we're going ALL the way back to December of 2014 for a re-creation from Hannah at The Dalai Lamas Nails. This came from our Winter Wonderland theme week. Now...I LOVE Hannah's art. I fangirl HARD over her blog but let's face the facts here; I'm no Dalai Hannah. I actually chose THREE other designs of hers first and failed hard core at all three. Then I arrived at this one and thought...OK maybe I can handle that. I've actually done tree mani's before and really hated them but I think this came out rather decent! I used two tones of gray and light brush strokes to try to give it some depth and a little more of a bark like feel where I think the original was more of a silhouette kind of thing but overall I think this turned out great. You can head over to Hannah's blog by clicking the link AND don't forget to drool over her other mani's while you're there!! More re-creations can be found below!! :)

An InLinkz Link-up

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Arrows, Mustaches, and Dots!

Today I have a re-creation for you that was pretty tricky! I really loved this mani from A Girl and Her Polish but that struggle I told you about on day one...yeah that one REALLY came into play here. See, I don't actually have a mustache stamp. Or rather, I do have one but it makes GINORMOUS mustaches and I needed little tiny one. So....you get this. This mash-up of large and little stache. I actually loved the way this came out although the original is arguably better and far more precise. I love the way Katee can put patterns on patterns like a boss so I'm extra proud that I even attempted this. That stuff can go so badly so quickly!! At any rate, you know the drill!! Click the link, check out the original and leave your thoughts below! Try not to judge me too harshly ;P Check out more re-creations below!!

An InLinkz Link-up

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The Princess and the Pea

It's day two of our Re-creation Week with the Digital Dozen and for today's look we're going back to Fairytales week!! I remember being absolutely TERRIFIED of that week!! It seems like an easy theme until you try to put tiny princesses on your nails! :P I knew I couldn't finish this week without doing something by the amazing Debbie of The Crumpet. She's the reason I get to be in this crazy amazing group and I knew right off I wanted to do a tribute mani to her. I thought this one was a great choice because we often joke about my own little princess -- The Duchess of Chunk-- and her pillow situation. I did mine a bit different and I think my princess had some issues BUT all in all I rather liked this one!! You can head over to The Crumpet and check out Debbie's version and then let me know if you think I did alright on it! ;P Check out more re-creations below!

An InLinkz Link-up

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The Digital Dozen DOES...Recreations!!

This week is kind of an interesting week with The Digital Dozen! That's because this week you're going to see alot of our old mani's but in a new way! The challenge this week is to re-create art from other members done in previous challenge weeks. I'll be honest and say I had a rough time with this for a few reasons. One being that we all have such different styles and skills and while that's something I really love about the group....it also makes it really hard to choose art to attempt!! Two being that I have WAY less stamps and brushes than a lot of people in our group (something I'm working on!). Three being that when you're recreating someone's art that you love you want to do it justice and I'm not so sure that I did! Lol...but hopefully they're not too hideous. If you haven't already put two and two together, the above art came from Nature Week over at Adventures in Acetone. I love so many of Jacki's mani's but I chose this one because it seemed the most accessible to me AND because I love doing leopard!! This is also a bit of a two in one (turns out I have two of those this week!) since the art she did was based on a tutorial from Idiots Guide: Nail Art by our very own Lacquerologist! :P Head on over to her blog by clicking the link to see her original design. Then let me know if you think I did it any justice! :) Check out some more re-creations below!!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Simple Leopard

Today I have a nice, simple leopard design for you! I actually rock leopard quite a bit of the time and I often wear a neutral leopard design like this on my right hand and then change up the designs on my left hand. Leopard goes with just about everything (or no...it goes with absolutely EVERYTHING!) so it works for me since I'm not able to do quite as many intricate things on my right hand and I don't always have time to do both hands anyway! This one was super extra sparkly which means it lasted forever, was GORGEOUS and was an absolute nightmare to remove!! I both love and hate glitter! Anyway I hope you enjoy this design!! I'm on holiday next week but there will be loads of posts so don't miss them! :)

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Swatch This! OPI DS Temptation

Today I have a swatch post for you. It's been awhile since I've done one of these. Admittedly, it's been awhile since I've used quite a few of my colors and I'm slowly working my way through using them again. I'm in the middle of packing for a move so no promises on how quickly that will happen but here's one for today at any rate! This is OPI Designer Series in Temptation. This color was released in 2011 and it's basically a deep purple jelly base with blue, silver, purple and violet glitter throughout. It's a VERY dense glitter and dries incredibly sparkly but also quite gritty as you can see. This is with no topcoat but I'd imagine this one will be a hungry glitter so it might take quite a bit of top coat to get it glassy and smooth. I do really like this one but it's a bit too dense for a gradient and I rarely wear glitters for bases. At any rate so far as I can tell it's pretty hard to find (the only bottles I found online were selling for upwards of $55) so it's going to be staying with me a little longer!! Do you have this one? How do you like it?

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Super Saturday: Maple Holistics Giveaway!

It's time for my very first Super Saturday blog post and I decided to kick things off with a bang! A few weeks ago, I was offered the opportunity to review a few items from a company called Maple Holistics. I don't often do reviews for non-polish companies but this is right up my alley because these products are holistic and vegan! If you follow me on other mediums then you're probably aware that I use essentials oils A LOT. In fact this past week I made up a new pain blend that smells just like root beer! At any rate I also try to use vegan products whenever possible so I was really excited to try these. I got to choose what I wanted to try out and I chose the Sage shampoo and Silk 18 conditioner. I have to say I'm really impressed with them. Sometimes when you use holistic products you find that they're less effective than standard products and I didn't find that with these at all. The shampoo is sulfate free which I LOVE and it's safe for color treated hair (I don't so I can't vouch for this!). The sage scent is pretty subtle which I also liked because even though I love the smell of sage, I don't think I want to smell like it all day! This one is formulated for dandruff, which I also don't have BUT the water where I currently live SUCKS and I find my skin to be really flaky, especially around my hairline. This took care of that in just a few washes. It's super gentle but got even my super thick, curly hair clean in one wash. The conditioner smells like vanilla and it's super luxurious but not heavy. My hair definitely feels silkier after using these for a week. Since I really loved these I thought you might want to give them a try too! I chose the Winter Blend line for my giveaway

It feels appropriate since we're headed into Fall! Again these are paraben and sulfate free, vegan, cruelty free and safe for color treated hair. Some important notes about this giveaway: you MUST like or follow Maple Holistics on at LEAST one public forum. You must like or follow Bee Polished on at LEAST one forum. You must live or have a shipping address within the US, Canada or the UK. These products will be shipping to you directly from Maple Holistics. This contest ends on September 19, 2015. The winner will be contacted within 72 hours and must respond back within 72 hours or I will draw a new winner. Good luck and thank you for following! You can learn more about Maple Holistics by checking them out at Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Barielle Mirror Mirror

barielle

Today I have another fall collection to show you! This one is by Barielle. Barielle polishes are three free and vegan and they've released a five polish collection for Fall called Mirror, Mirror. It's mostly a creme collection with one jelly which you see above, Blushing Beauty. One thing I always love about Barielle is how opaque and pigmented their line is. With the exception of the jelly shade above these are all swatched as ONE COAT. That's right guys, these are one coat polishes. I'm guessing they'll be great for my fall stamping and marbling manis!! So on with the show!! Blushing Beauty is a gorgeous red jelly shade. I did two coats for the swatch above and you can just BARELY see my nail lines so it's a very buildable shade and certainly wearable on it's own.