Nail Polish Therapy

My Ten Friends Lunar Love Song

2013-02-17T12:33:00.001-05:00

When I first saw Lunar Love Song I thought it was a lighter version of Pew! Pew! Pew! but it completely is not! I had every intention of polishing all my nails with this color but honestly I didn't want to waste it. By far Lunar Love Song and Dirtball are my favorite of MTF. Lunar Love Song is a very light teal base with orange, pink, red, and gold hex glitter. I love this polish because it's sweet, fresh, girly, and a great spring or summer color. The rest of the nails I used OPI My Address is Hollywood with Zoya Ziv sponged on top to compliment the color combos in Lunar Love Song. Check out all the other polishes in the Kiss of the Cosmos collection at MTF shop here. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

My Ten Friends First Contact

2013-02-17T12:07:00.000-05:00

Recently My Ten Friends released their Valentines Day collection and as always Mei-Lynn didn't disappoint. I purchased First Contact, Lunar Love Song and Close Encounters. The first review is of First Contact. I applied First contact over one thin coat of Zoya Cho because I didn't want a layered look to this polish, I wanted all the glitter to stand on its own. First Contact is easily opaque in 2 coats. To use the exact
description MTF gave this polish: "First Contact" is a beige nude polish that has black,
silver and holo glitters in various sizes. Inspired by imagining French lingerie in outer
space. Super sexy and sparkly! This polish is so feminine, simple yet not boring or understated. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Happy Valentines Day!

2013-02-17T11:45:00.002-05:00

I had all these creative ideas for Valentines Day manicures and I ended up getting lazy and just going with heart glitter over a dark pink polish. OPI DS Reflection is a gorgeous firey hot pink. My basic camera and the lighting did not capture the beauty of this polish, but it's definitely worthy to be in the Designer Series of OPI. Savina Hearts is a color I got from the Nordstrom's Outlet and its very simple. Clear based with pink and red hearts and micro rainbow glitter as well. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Happy Anniversary NPT!!!

2013-02-06T21:14:00.001-05:00

A year ago today I began this blog and never knew how much I would enjoy it until now. Being a blogger has allowed me so much creative freedom and connections in the blogger world that I am so grateful for. I can't think of another hobby that has brought me so much excitement, joy, and peace all at once. Thank you to my followers and family who continue to compliment my work and encourage me to do more. I look forward to more years as a Nail Polish Therapist to you all.

This post is one that reflects my patience with my nails. I used manicure tape and created designs in no particular fashion on each nail. My goals was to create an 80's inspired retro look with spring colors. I used American Apparel Office, Summer Peach and Urban Outfitters Virgin. The only thing I dislike about this manicure is that it took me so long and in some parts the lines were not as clean as I would like. I'm such a perfectionist. Overall I'm happy with the look and will be putting my tape to use more often. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

OPI Mariah Carey line Part 1

2013-02-03T23:57:00.000-05:00

Something that I don't do is buy the entire line of any brand. There are few lines where I love every single color. I'm not interested in having a full line just for the sake of having it, but I understand why some nail polish enthusiasts would. They are also probably fortunate enough to get products to review, but this girl tries to be sensible so I stick to what I absolutely love. OPI and Mariah Carey teamed up to launch the Liquid Sand polish which I think is going to be the next nail polish effect to spread to other lines in much the same way that crackle and magnets did. Here are 2 colors from the collection.

The first one is Stay the Night, which is the black liquid sand with fuchsia pink and silver flecks. I added a top coat to the ring finger so the difference in texture could be noticed. I really like this effect and it was easy to apply, dried fast and easy to remove. The best part is despite the rough texture, it did not crumble off or scratch me.

The second color is Sprung which I couldn't get to photograph correctly. It's a beautiful copper color with the most subtle pink and gold shimmer. The finish I would describe as a textured duochrome. It does not feel textured but it looks like it. Again this did not photograph well. Without further adieu here they are:

My Ten Friends Clusterfrak

2013-02-03T23:43:00.000-05:00

Here is another MTF for you that I am so in love with. Almost as much in love as I am with Dirtball. Clusterfrak has a similar formula which goes on in 2 easy coats for full opacity. It is CHOCK full of amazing combo of purple, green and gold glitter. What I love about this polish is the green base and the XL purple and gold hex glitter. I think XL glitter makes the color pop. Unfortunately the glitter has been prone to curl, so Mei-Lynn being the perfectionist she is let me know if this problem and gave me the option to get another color or put the glitter on the side. I love those large hex glitter so I took it on the side. I'm glad I did that because it allowed me to place those babies exactly where I wanted to and didn't have to fish them out the bottle. I had no problem with the glitter curling when I sandwiched them between two coats. This is such a beauty! I can't wait for the next order of MTF to arrive.

My Ten Friends Carbon Based Life

2013-02-03T23:35:00.000-05:00

You can probably guess by the previous posts of MTF Pew!Pew!Pew! and MTF Dirtball that I really like this Indie polish line. The owner, creator and distributor Mei-Lynn is so creative and great to do business with I have decided to continue purchasing from her. Recently I placed a pretty large order and I can't wait to get them so I can share them with you. In the meantime here is Carbon Based Life paired with Sation Capuccino on the base of some of my nails. MTF Carbon Based Life is a peach iridescent based polish with gold XL hexes and smaller holo micro glitter. The formula was a breeze to apply and removed alot faster than other heavy glitters. My favorite part of this polish is the XL gold hexes. Another beauty from MTF. You can purchase Carbon Based Life at her Etsy shop and they are $8.88 per bottle.

This guest appearance is PHYRE!

2013-01-22T01:18:00.006-05:00

Pam from Whimsical Ideas by Pam is having a kids contest and I just had to participate. The deadline for this contest is 1/31 and the prize is a bottle of the new Sparkly Markly which is "oh so beautiful". My favorite girl Phyre Kwong (pronounced FIRE) who is 8 years old is the epitome of girly girl. She has more makeup than I do and knows how to do a mean smoky eye. She has her own fashion sense and is truly creative just like both her parents. So it was only natural that she was my subject. I did both her hands with two different Whimsie polishes and I'm pretty excited by how they turned out. The first set of nails is Wicked (my personal fav) and the second hand is Seuss (a must have classic). Here are Phyre's hands:

Nuance Prickly Pear with Lush Lacquer Camo Queen

2013-01-20T19:24:00.004-05:00

Salma Hayek has a beauty line called Nuance that includes, haircare ,skincare, makeup and now nail polish. This line is exclusive to CVS and not available in all CVS stores just yet. I found the line at CVS pharmacy in the Florida mall and I was so excited to see what she was going to come up with. I was not overly impressed but I purchased 2 polishes from her line that were unique enough for my collection. Prickly Pear is a dark green, almost like a hunter green. Under the lights at CVS it looked like a deep teal with a cream finish and that's why I bought it. The formula was a little thick throughout the application but not overly so. The brush was mediocre but workable. I layered Lush Lacquer's Camo Queen over this and immediately felt like I created a Christmas ensemble lol which was not the look I was going for lol. It's okay I guess.

Revlon Zealous and Heavenly

2013-01-20T19:14:00.005-05:00

I said I was not going to purchase any more drugstore brands unless they were on sale. Well Walmart always has the lowest prices so I guess that would constitute a sale lol. Here is Revlon Zealous with Heavenly. Zealous is a very light lime green barely yellow with rainbow shimmer. It's so bright but not obnoxiously so and I needed it with the recent gloomy weather. This is 3 coats because the formula was on the thin side. Heavenly is a clear base with glass rainbow dots (if that even makes sense lol). This color can go on just about anything and look great. The formula was consistent with Revlon and easy to apply.

100th Post!!

2013-01-20T18:44:00.002-05:00

My goodness, 100 posts in less than 1 year. I never even thought I could get to this point. I thought I might loose the love of polish by now at the rate I was acquiring it, but my hobby gives me so much joy and is my creative relief, so I will continue to share and enjoy all my beautiful polish. Incidentally I am up to 724 polishes as of today and that doesn't count what's coming in the mail to me :) . This might sound like a lot to some of you but this is completely normal in the nail polish blogging world. I'm fortunate to have a supportive husband who doesn't give me a hard time about the time I spend on my nails, and I have no (human) children yet so I have more time than the average working mom to indulge in my nails.

For this 100th post I have a combination of OPI Live and Let Die and Milani Signature Gold stamping design. I used a plate I got from Amazon.com and chose the circles because they reminded me of gears. I forgot to take a pic of OPI Live and Let Die on it's own but if you google images of it you can see it's a gorgeous deep teal with gold shimmer. It's from the James Bond collection and truly unique easy 1 coater. Please forgive me for just having 2 pics. These were the best I could get.

Thanks for following and your kind words.

Whimise I Love NY and Essie Power Clutch

2013-01-20T18:27:00.000-05:00

Here is another Whimsie and this one is I <3 NY. This was a no brainer for me to get because even though I'm from NJ and not NY I have always loved this city and have so many special memories with my husband and family members spending time there. This is a polish that mimics the iconic I <3 NY t-shirts and mugs that are all over the city. Clear base with black and white small hexes, and red hearts (of course). This was very easy to apply and in each removal of the brush I got at least 2 hearts which was nice because I didn't have to go fishing for them. I did 2 accent nails of I <3 NY over Essie's Power Clutch. That polish was thin (like most Essie polishes) and with a heavy hand I had full opaque coverage in 2 coats. Here you will see the shiny and the matte version. I preferred the matte as it reminded me of concrete in the city.

Zoya Cho and Whimsie Once Upon A Time

2013-01-20T18:14:00.002-05:00

This year my goal is to acquire more Indie polishes. If I purchase anything from the drugstore it will be on sale and if I go to the nail supply store it will only be for the latest OPI line. So here is the first of many Whimsies that I'm going to be featuring. Whimsical Ideas by Pam is an indie line that I have seen for awhile and finally decided to support based on the sheer creativity of every single polish. The creator Pam takes so much time and effort to create polishes that are "whimsical", beautiful and unique. This is Once Upon a Time which is a clear base with lilac and lime green hexes and purple micro glitter. It was a little thick but not difficult to spread. I used a dabbing mechanism as I do with other glitters and had no problem with application. Underneath I used Zoya Cho which is a doughy nude color that easily covered to opacity in 2 coats.

Zoya Yasmeen

2013-01-20T17:56:00.002-05:00

Many of you know that I have no set schedule for blogging but I try and post at few entries at a time to make up for absence. I'm also employed full time and pursuing my Masters so as much as I would like to blog more I can't. I also think I'm going to start to make my posts shorter and to the point. So in the effort of brevity I will still to the point and not bore you with my exploits and nail polish hauls. If you have any questions about the polish I've used that I didn't address in the post, please feel free to comment or email me. Without further adieu: here is Zoya Yasmeen.

This was on my wishlist for some time and I was glad to finally get it. Its a gorgeous deep purple/plum color with the slightest gold microshimmer. Easily went on in 2 coats for full opacity and and excellent formula.

My Ten Friends: Pew! Pew! Pew!

2013-01-05T20:45:00.000-05:00

I have another creation from My Ten Friends for you and this one is called Pew! Pew! Pew! The name alone had me intrigued and when I saw it on the site I had to add it to my order. Just like Dirtball this polish had a great combination of colors that I love and it was very easy to apply. I picked it because it looked like something you could wear for Christmas or any other time of the year since the base is not very dense. I applied 3 thick coats to my nails and they were not as opaque as Dirtball when applied in 2. I probably will put it on top of a black or teal color next time to showcase the color better, but I wanted to show it alone.

The great thing about this color was that you didn't have to fish for the glitter. Each stroke had enough glitter and a variety of shapes as well. Even after 3 thick coats of application the polish did not get gloopy in the bottle and stayed in it's original moving form. I added 1 coat of Seche Vete as a top coat and even with 3 coats this dried pretty fast and smooth and didn't eat the top coat. Once again My Ten Friends has impressed me. What are your thoughts? feelings? concerns?

Butter London Jack the Lad

2013-01-05T20:29:00.000-05:00

If you thought I was done hauling Butter London think again. Ulta had a 20% off anything in the store until Christmas Eve and for the first time I was able to use the coupon towards some Butter London colors. There are only 2 times a year when their coupons are valid on Butter London colors, so I was taking advantage. I had admired Jack the Lad on a few other bloggers sites and decided to get that, along with Lady Muck, Muggins, Fash Pack, Dosh and Marrow. Jack the Lad in the bottle is a gorgeous emerald green packed with gold, green and blue mica glitter. While this sounds beautiful the consistency is too thin for my taste. I wish it were more like Wallis, but it wasn't. It applied pretty streaky and I thought I was ok with 2 coats, but then in the light as I was photographing it I could see the patches. Nevertheless the color is beautiful and next time I'll just add a 3rd coat. On the ring finger I added LA Colors Dizzy for a little extra something. What are your thoughts? feelings? concerns?

OPI Black Satin & Boho Turquoise

2013-01-05T19:40:00.000-05:00

A long time ago I found this site on Ebay that sells glitter and I got this one called Boho Turquoise (or something like that). I ordered 2 others that I didn't like as much and made the mistake of adding them to a cream based polish and they were lost never to be seen again. I learned my lesson and put this glitter into clear polish because I didn't have the proper suspension base. I am in love with this glitter because it combines so many of my favorite elements. It's in the order of My Ten Friends "Dirtball" but it's not the same in formula or size glitter. The brown and turquoise elements are there along with small gold glitter and holo hexes. It went perfect over OPI Black Satin which is a gorgeous deep gunmetal gray. What are your thoughts? feelings? concerns?

Urban Outfitters Silver Holo

2013-01-05T19:28:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!!! The first post of the year and I couldn't be more excited! My first true holo is from Urban Outfitters and it was a mission. I went to Urban Outfitters a few times looking for the silver holo and they only had the pink and green. I got those too, but I REALLY wanted the silver one and finally while exchanging Christmas gifts I found it. So while my husband and I were sick for 3 days after Christmas, and I didn't get to do my NYE nail designs I had planned, I mustered up enough energy to put this gorgeous color on. As you can see my nail are very curved and this helped when catching the holographic rainbows. The formula on this was thinner than I expected but very consistent, and went on in 2 easy coats with full coverage. I couldn't stop staring at my nails. What are your thoughts? feelings? concerns?

Winter Wonderland

2012-12-29T19:54:00.000-05:00

I love glitter. I've grown to love it more that I have discovered some wonderful Indie lines and the power of white felt and acetone. Now it's not such a chore to take off so I'm not intimidated to use it in most of my manicures. For this manicure I wanted to try the swoop design for just touch of glitter. The blue I chose was from American Apparel American Denim and it's a really creamy sky blue. The glitter was from the OPI Ballet collection called Pirouette My Whistle. This glitter is so soft and subtle; when paired with a light color it adds the right amount of bling without taking away from the color. I think I will try this design with a different color combination that is more bold to see the effect. I enjoyed the glitter side and non-glitter side of the nail as well. It's a great way to enjoy two colors at the same time. What are your thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Vintage yet Modern

2012-12-29T19:28:00.001-05:00

This year my husband and I decorated the house in lights, and put up some fuss in the house in the way of decorations. Unfortunately we didn't get to partake in so many Christmas parties as we'd hoped. Our neighbors invited us over for a viewing in their backyard of It's a Wonderful Life. It was our first time going there for a social event and I wanted to make a good impression. So I set out to make a vintage yet modern Christmas tree art. I used Julep: Glen for most of the nails and then Cynthia Crowley for the accent nails. Both of these colors are absolutely glorious. The formula was great and dried super fast. My only complaint was that the Cynthia Crowley (green color with no name) was HORRIBLE to take off. Stained my nails something awful. The other colors I used on the tree and snow were: American Apparel Galaxy, OPI Golden Eye, Milani Black Sketch, Revlon Calla Lily. The shape of the tree was modern to me and the overall look with the OPI Golden Eye added a vintage touch. What are your thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Christmas Triple French

2012-12-29T19:17:00.000-05:00

Merry Belated Christmas! Your Nail Polish Therapist has been hard at work and doing some festive manicures. The collection is expanding and thanks to my wonderful husband I have another Helmer to grow into. He's so thoughtful and knows just what I need. It's probably my favorite gift of all the ones I received. This first manicure I created for my love of the french. I don't do it as much as I used to and figured it would be a good time to come up with a Christmas version of this classic nail design. The base color is Love & Beauty Vanilla, the gold stripe is LA Colors Art Deco 24K Glitter, then Pure Ice: All Nighter and the last stripe is Pure Ice: Femme Fatale (from the suede collection). I used these colors because together they looked vintage to me like an old Christmas ornament. I was pretty happy with how neat it came out. What do are your thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Penelope Luz Giveaway

2012-12-20T11:05:00.000-05:00

Hello wonderful followers :)

Today's post is a little different from the norm. I'm trying to win a prize, and it's a big one. Penelope Luz is a Brazilian nail polish blogger and indie polish creator. She doesn't sell her polishes directly in the US but sometimes sends shipments to the Brazilian stores in the states. So basically unless you have a swap with her or have a connection with someone in Brazil then it's pretty difficult to get her polishes. This Christmas she is having a huge giveaway and this girl wants to win. Click here to find out more details about the contest. Although the page is in Portuguese you can translate it by using Google Chrome and get the jist of the contest. Good luck to all who enter, but really good luck to me! lol

Stay tuned this weekend for my Christmas manicures.

OPI Don't Pretxel My Buttons and Fanchromatic Stealing From Charity

2012-12-16T00:32:00.002-05:00

The next company I bought from on Cyber Week was Fanchromatic Nails. They are another Indie polish line that I discovered from Chalkboard Nails. She was wearing Between Two Worlds and Pack of Freaks and they were both so unique to my collection I had to have them. In addition to those I also purchased 3 minis of Heart of Gold (which is similar to Between Two Worlds), Dire Wolf, and Stealing From Charity. I wish now that I had purchased a big bottle of Stealing From Charity because it's really a gem. I got this one particularly to accent a nude color. With all the dark colors I was wearing I wanted to do something soft and feminine.
I started with OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons which turned out to be another great nude in my collection that I didn't know I would like so much. Then I added Stealing From Charity in a V-shape at the tips. This is a great rose gold with small and large gold round glitter. It went on pretty easily and was full opaque in 2 coats. So I decided I have to use this sparingly since it's only a mini. I would repurchase from this company as well because the colors are unique and the quality of the polishes are great as well. Stay tuned for future posts with Between Two Worlds and Pack of Freaks. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

My Ten Friends Dirtball

2012-12-16T00:08:00.001-05:00

The second company I purchased from during Cyber Week was My Ten Friends. I heard about them from Chalkboard Nails and I fell in love with Dirtball. The color was so unique and I love the combination of brown and turquiose which are two of my favorite colors. With Dirtball I also purchased: Carbon Based Life, Pew!Pew!Pew! and Clusterfrak. The owner of the shop contacted me before shipping my order to let me know there was a problem with the XL hexes in 2 of the colors that I order and was nice enough to give me the choice of what I wanted to do with those two polishes.
Good thing for me Dirtball was not affected. Because of the excellent communication and customer service I would definitely repurchase and to say nothing of the polishes, they are truly must haves. Dirtball made me gasp, and I don't do that with many polishes. Application was a dream and I could not get over how GORGEOUS the combination of glitter with the light brown base was against my skin. I could not stop staring at my nails and I almost put on a third coat but you really don't need too. I enjoyed this polish thoroughly and can easily say it is one of my top 5 fav of all time. It's the turquoise hex glitter with the silver and copper glitter together in the brown base that make this so special. I'm so happy to have it and I hope you'll like it too. Thoughts?Feelings? Concerns?

Pahlish Sitting In a Tin Can

2012-12-15T23:55:00.001-05:00

On Black Friday I did not partake in the mayhem that many people in this country do for the sake of a good deal. I was however planning my Cyber Monday shopping with the various Indie polish companies that had great deals. One of the companies who was having a sale was Pahlish and from them I purchased Sitting In a Tin Can and Dark Parades. Their polishes are sold on Etsy and are between $7-$9 per bottle.
Sitting In a Tin Can is a grey (barely) jelly base with a chock load of multi-shaped white, black and holo glitter. My favorite parts of the polish were the color and the diamond shaped glitter. This polish was fun to apply because with every single swipe there was a lot of glitter that came out. I hate fishing for the cool pieces in a bottle of glitter and this was not the case with this polish. I used 3 coats because I wanted an opaque layered look. I enjoy building the glitter and making some of them look like they're buried or peeking out from under the base. The only thing with this polish, as with many glitter heavy polishes, is that it got very thick after the second coat. Over all it's a great polish and I would repurchase from them since the shipping was fast and I had no major problems with the application as I have with other Indie polishes. Stay tuned for Dark Parades in a future post. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?