When Nail Polish And Jewelry Come Together...

I've been a little MIA this week, sorry about that. I've had a ridiculous amount of work to do and my back is not playing well with the rest of my body. But I'm back! Get excited because I have some incredible necklaces from GingerKitty Designs to share with you! I seriously can not get enough of her jewelry, it's phenomenal. My biggest problem is trying to narrow down what I want from a wishlist of, well everything haha. At the end of November I finally got my act together and ordered a necklace from Tracey and then a few days later, I won a second through the Overall Beauty Scavenger Hunt!

I'm going to show you the one I originally ordered first. It's even more stunning in person than in pictures, but I tried to capture it as best I could in the late afternoon sun


look at it sparkle in the sun!

more sun

a deliberately blurry indoors picture to show the holo and glitter sparkle

Holy moly, how insanely pretty is that?! It's made with China Glaze - Octa Gone Wild, China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle, OPI - Ink, and OPI - Purple With A Purpose.

Okay, the second necklace I won through the Overall Beauty scavenger hunt at the beginning of December and it's so perfect for the holidays and Valentine's Day!

quasi-sun haha

inside, so you can see the design

inside, blurred some to show the sparkle!

This one is red and silver, made with Color Club - Art Of Seduction and Zoya - Trixie

Ever since I got these pretties in the mail, I've worn them a couple of times a week, I can't get enough of them! They add a pop of color and sparkle (without being over the top) to everything from jeans and a t-shirt to dresses. I seriously cannot say enough about how much I love these and they are even more stunning in person.

You have to go check out the GingerKitty Designs Etsy Store and you can read her blog too. (You definitely want to do that, she has great giveaways!) Tracey has a huge list of polishes that you can have her make pretty much any kind of custom piece for you, or you can pick from some of the gorgeous ones she's come up with. Lately a lot of pieces with crackle polish has been ordered I believe.

What polish (or polishes) would be in your dream piece of jewerly from GingerKitty Designs? I want more holo ones!

Three Press Releases that I'm Excited About!

I've got some new information about collections from China Glaze, Color Club, and Cult Nails to share with you. There are a lot of colors I'm excited about from all of these brands and I want to know which ones are on your wishlist! Check them out:

First up, China Glaze - Anchors Away

Sail away this spring in 12 nautically-inspired colors from China Glaze. These bold and confident brights are reminiscent of a carefree natural getaway, with soft ethereal hues that inspire leisurely thoughts of sand and sea. Colors in this collection include:

· Life Preserver: Highly pigmented and luxurious poppy crème.
· Hey Sailor: Vibrant crème red.
· Ahoy!: Delightfully intense pink that flashes with reflective glass speck.
· First Mate: Sophisticated and rich navy crème.
· Starboard: Hip and playful green crème.
· Lighthouse: Multi-dimensional, bright yellow glass speck.
· White Cap: Whimsical and sparkling multi-dimensional white.
· Pelican Gray: High shine, cool toned grey crème.
· Sea Spray: Calming pale blue crème.
· Below Deck: A flirty mix of taupe and violet.
· Sunset Sail: Delightful peachy pink high shine crème.
· Knotty: Micro-particle beige shimmer.

This collection is available at your favorite etailers now! Keep in mind that snow has slowed down some shipments, so if it's not listed yet give them a few days, I know for sure Victorias Nail Suppy is slowed down by snow right now. And it will be showing up in stores soon, if immediate gratification is your thing. I'm looking forward to Below Deck, Sea Spray (feeding my Essie-Sag Harbor love in a big way haha), and First Mate!

Color Club also has just released the information about their Alter Ego collection for Spring

Color Club lets you create high-fashion looks for every identity with Alter Ego, their latest collection of diverse, long-lasting lacquers!

Alter Ego’s consists of 12 shades! Go incognito with our opaque shades or rendezvous in full view with our sheers of Alter Ego ‘LIGHTS’ and ‘DARKS’!

Alter Ego’s ‘Reveal Your Mystery Collection’ 7 piece salon pack includes Get a Clue, Revealed, Incognito, Secret Rendezvous, Sheer Disguise, and Give Me a Hint shades plus Milky White Base Coat. Their ‘Keep It Undercover Collection’ 7 piece salon pack includes Alter Ego, Secret Agent, Total Mystery, Alias, Ulterior Motive and Masquerading plus Vivid Top Coat.

Those purples! I'm also really into how Incognito, Secret Rendezvous, and Sheer Disguise from the lighter collection look too. I think a lot of these Spring colors are going to be coming home with me as soon as they are released in February :)

As you may know, one of our own nail bloggers, Maria from R3Daily has been hard at work on her own line of polish called Cult Nails. Her first color, My Kind of Cool Aid is finished and ready to be purchased! It looks seriously incredible! You can read more about it and see pictures HERE at Maria's blog. And if you want your own bottle of My Kind of Cool Aid, it can be purchased HERE. How cool is that?

Are you planning on purchasing any of the new colors from China Glaze or Color Club? Have you or will you be ordering My Kind of Cool Aid?

Lots Of Neat Stuff Happening Right Now!

Hey everyone! Sorry my computer has been uncooperative the last few days... the display settings changed themselves and four days of various techs and people working on it and it's still not fixed, yuck. So my laptop is now hooked up to a separate monitor and keyboard so I can finally start playing some catch up here! I've got a few press releases to show you of some cool stuff that's going on in the nail polish/beauty world.

First up, some of the amazing people in the beauty blogging community have put together BeautyBloggers.org

"BeautyBloggers.org is the collaboration of almost 50 different beauty bloggers and brands. In the spirit of the holidays, we wanted to make a meaningful contribution to charity — knowing that the most effective donation to any charity is cash.
So we’re putting our makeup on the auction block. Winning bids will be donated directly to Doctors Without Borders.
We’re raising money for Doctors Without Borders because women are always disproportionately affected in any disaster. This organization is committed to bringing quality medical care to people in crisis, regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. They treat rape victims in Papua New Guinea; they make sure women don’t die in childbirth in Pakistan; they helped flood victims in Mexico and earthquake victims in Haiti. They work in 65 countries around the world, and your donation will make an immediate impact. "

So go check out all of the amazing make-up and nail polish that's being auctioned off at BeautyBloggers.org to donate to a great cause and get yourself something pretty in the process :) The auctions are live now and run through December 20th at 5 pm CST.

Color Club has exciting news about their partnership with Amethyst Jeans, and a contest!

click to enlarge

"Enter to win on of 20 holiday totes given away over the next five weeks!
You and your BFF will each receive an Amethyst Jeans tote filled with a pair of Amethyst Jeans, shimmery lip glosses and a holiday set nail polish set from Color Club and a shampoo and conditioner set from Totally Texty!

Contest runs from November 29th through December 31st, 2010. Go to http://www.facebook.com/amethystjeans to enter! Happy Holidays!"

Glitter Gal has a new partnership to announce as well! They have teamed up with Australian shoe brand, Wanted Shoes!

"Glitter Gal custom created Limited Edition nail polishes for “Wanted Shoes”
We have collaborated with “Wanted Shoes” and custom created six nail polishes to compliment this season’s shoe collection.

Stockist: Wanted Shoe Stores
Available now"

Fun With Layering Wednesday: My Version Of Chanel Riva

Once bottle pics of Chanel's newest offering, Riva, came out I've been intrigued by it. I don't spend that much on a single nail polish so I never planned on actually owning it, but I loved the concept. A pale blue with shimmer? Pretty! So I set about figuring out a layering combination that would satisfy my craving, and I think I came pretty close - at least close enough for me. Check it out!

I started with a base of Color Club - Take Me To Your Chateau, which I showed you yesterday, but here's a refresher:

And I picked NYC - Scandalous Blue Glitter to layer over it. The name is a little deceptive, it's not actually glitter, but more of a shimmer with a hint of pearl finish. Very pretty and very excellent for layering.

sunlight

shade

inside

I personally love it! I think it turned out pretty well, and cost me about $4 total for both polishes, much less than a Chanel would set me back. I've got another one or two layering ideas that could produce something close to Riva that I'm going to try out soon too. I'll post those and let you guys decide which ones you like best! Whether or not you buy Riva, you should try this combo out, it's very delicate and pretty. So what do you think, did I get close? What do you think of Chanel - Riva, will you be buying it?

Would You Like To See My Chateau?

Color Club - Take Me To Your Chateau is from the Pardon My French Collection, which was the first collection I bought all of. This is probably the most popular color from the collection and for good reason. It's a pale blue that's pretty easy to work with, a definite bonus since many pastels can be streaky. Take Me To Your Chateau dries to a somewhat chalky finish, so I used a topcoat for the swatch; glossy finishes are more my taste :)


sunlight
shade

inside

The sunlight picture is the most color accurate, although it's just a hint blue-er in real life. I used three coats for the swatch, but if you're careful you can absolutely get away with two coats. Whenever I am in the mood for a pastel blue mani, this is always the first bottle I reach for, even though I have a few that are similar - this one's my favorite!

Tomorrow I'm going to show you how I made my own version of the new Chanel polish, using Take Me To Your Chateau as a base so make sure to come see what you think of it! And I'm taking the plunge into the wild world of Franken-ing in the next few days, so I will keep you posted on how that goes...cross your fingers for me ;-) haha. Andddd I have a new giveaway for you guys! I'll post that in the next day or two, so get excited!

I'm Not Much Of A Rule Breaker, But I Love To Wear It!

Hello lovelies! I've gotten a bunch of new polish lately, so I will be showing you a lot of cool stuff in the next few weeks. I tend to buy polish as a pick me up when I'm frustrated and I've been going to a new back doctor that I haaaate, so a lot of new polish has made it's way into my stash haha. But today I want to show you a polish I've had for a while and really like. It's Color Club - Rule Breaker. A pretty dark-er green, that has a leeeeetle bit more blue in it than these pictures show.

outside

outside, shade

inside

I bought this when I was first getting out of my color comfort zone, if you will. I like wearing this year round, especially on my toes. This has a hint of frost to it; I hesitate to say the word frost because most people run screaming as soon as they read it. But I think this is pretty! AllYouDesire did a great comparison between this, China Glaze- Emerald FItzgerald, and OPI - Cuckoo For This Color, so you can see that this is different from those two. What do you think of Rule Breaker? Enjoy the pictures and check back for a layering post tomorrow! I'm off to edit two more articles, work never ends!

Layering with... Wild Orchid

The other day I showed you Color Club- Wild Orchid. Since it was such a dream to apply I wanted to see how some other polishes I have would look layered over it. Wild Orchid has silver shimmer in it which I thought would bring an added dimension to any layering combination! So I tried out four different sheer polishes over it; all from Savvy Femme Couture.

sunlight

shade

inside

So I have a different color on each finger. From index to pink they are...

Index: Prince Ala Charm

Middle: Fairy Twinkle

Ring: Glass Slipper

Pinky: Knightly Armour

I think the ring finger with Glass Slipper on is my favorite combo, I think you could get a similar effect with Pure Ice- Heartbreaker (which I can swatch if someone wants to see as well). I also really like Knightly Armour, which is kind of like a ramped up version of Wild Orchid.

I picked all four of these up on clearance from Sallys (yay clearance!) Do you have any? Which of the four pictured are your favorite? I can't wait to try them over some other colors!

Wild Orchids Are Gray?

If you've ever talked to me about nail polish, you know I have a pretty serious love affair with Color Club. My first ever back up bottle of polish was a Color Club (Wild At Heart, naturally). So everytime they come out with new collections I get excited. Today I'm going to show you Wild Orchid from the latest collection, Untamed Luxury. This ended up being the only color that was a 100% must have for me, but I'm sure eventually some more will make their way to my stash one day haha.

The only thing that I don't like about this color is the name. Orchid in my mind is kind of a pinky-purple color, right? Otherwise this is perfect! Check it out.

outside, sun

outside, shade

indoors

This is a gorgeous color! Can you see the shimmer? It's a little subtle, but still awesome. Click to enlarge the pictures to see it better. I think I'll be wearing this shade a lot. I also think there are a lot of interesting ways that layering could be used, with Wild Orchid as the base color. In fact, I'm going to show you four different layering ideas tomorrow! Get excited :)

Did you get any colors from the Untamed Luxury collections? If not, which ones are on your wishlist?

Red Light, Green Light...Blue Light?

Happy August everyone! It feels like summer has gone by really fast doesn't it? I'm sick of it being so ridiculously hot and humid all the time, so I'm not too terribly sad to see it go. Seasons don't effect my life in that I don't have summers off from anything. I work and take online classes pretty much year round so the only thing different for me is the temperature. Although this month is going to be kind of busy for me since I'm starting new classes online and I co-host a weekly fantasy football radio show (online) that premiered last week; so I have lots of stuff to do for that now. My sports addiction is why I have two seperate twitter accounts, my main one where I mostly ramble on about sports and my JeweledTips one where I can keep track of all my nail polish loving friends :) Speaking of the JeweledTips twitter account, I spent some time today trying to find everybody to follow but I know there are more of you lovelies out there I can be following- so if you want, leave me your twitter name in your comments so I can follow you! I set up the JeweledTips account on my blackberry now too so I will be using that much much more! Now that you've read my rambling, want to see some nail polish? :)

Today I have pictures of Color Club - Blue Light to show you. It's a pretty light blue. Actually this was one of my first ever Color Club polishes. I saw a swatch somewhere and had to hunt it down immediately. Sorry I was chasing the sun the day I swatched this (and Strawberry Fields, but that's for another post) the clouds got the best of me, so the "sun" pictures are a little weak today haha sorry about that.


sun, kind of.


shade


indoors

I like this a lot. Pastel/pale blues really appeal to me; and I like how they look on. I was lemming the light blue, What's With The Cattitude, from the OPI Shrek Collection pretty hard but I think the light blues I have already are close enough to it. I have the new light blue and lavender polishes coming from Avon this week so I can do a light blue comparison when that arrives for you guys.

One last thing for today, I have a handful of really great new nail polish blogs that I have added over the last few days to My Blog List (on the left side of your screen). If you have a few minutes try to check them out, there are some really sweet bloggers behind them!

More Layering fun, and exciting things coming!

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday! I'm back with another new layering combo for you :) And after I show you that, I've got cool news- new stuff debuting here tomorrow! The excitment is radiating off this blog post, I know you can tell, haha.

So today I've got a green and some glitter for you. I was rummaging through my nail polish boxes last week trying to figure out what layering things would be interesting for you. I'm trying to mix it up, I don't want to show you the same colors or finishes each week. Plus I want to mix it up between easy to find, hard to find, inexpensive, etc so that there's something for every taste. (Well, unless your taste is yellow - I look awful in yellow.) Last week I gave you flakies, so this week - glitter!

I give you, Sinful Colors - Rise and Shine



Sorry it's a little messy, wish I had noticed before I took the pictures :) haha, oh well! That's two coats, with top coat because it dried a little matte. I like shiny.

Now, Rise and Shine, with Color Club - Hot Couture over it!


Inside


Outside


Ah! Extreme close-up!

I really really like this combination. I was worried this might turn out looking awful, but I had a feeling it might be cool. Lucky for me it ended up really pretty! Hot Couture is from the Pardon My French collection and is still pretty easy to find in case you want to try this for yourself.

Do you want to know a secret? Until about two months ago I almost never wore glitter nail polish. I read too many horror stories online about what a pain it was to remove, so I figured there were plenty of other glitter-free nail polishes in the world that were easier to deal with. Luckily I wised up! I still don't really go full-on glitter yet, but I'll get there. (Yes, I know about the foil method for removing..but it just seems like a lot of work haha) I'm really into glittery top coats right now though.

The one good thing that came out of me not wearing glitter was that I got really into holos! I'm going to be doing a holo week pretty soon to show you my favorites, which include an incredible frankened holo from a really amazing Make-Up Alley (also known as MUA) friend, Alexandra. Which bring me to my really really exciting news! Alexandra and I got to talking, and she is going to be doing guest posts here for the amazing nail art she does! Tomorrow I have the first post from her, which gives us cute nail art, a tutorial for it, AND Paradoxal swatches!! I'm not great with nail art, all I do is Konad, but Alexandra has such pretty and creative nail art - I'm so honored that she wants to be a part of Jeweled Tips! So be sure to check back tomorrow afternoon for it.

Rain Rain Go Away...

It's been raining the last two days in New Jersey. I did catch a pocket of sunlight for like 25 minutes yesterday and got two swatches in. But allegedly, it's supposed to be sunny the next two days before raining for a few more. So I'm going to swatch like crazy for a few days haha. I like to stock pile swatches because I've got ridiculous back problems, so I never know when I'm going to have a day where I can't get out of bed. This way I won't get behind on posts! Everybody wins (well except my back, but it's not a team player anyway so it shouldn't win.)

Anybody up for a nice little purple creme? I sure am.

Today I have for you the very simple, yet very pretty Color Club - Uptown Girl. This a polish I got at Bed Bath & Beyond when Color Club displays magically started appearing there. Last week I discovered a whole wall full has sprung up in one of the aisles - yay! Color Club is one of my favorite brands of nail polish. I've never found one that gave me application trouble.






I think this is photographing a little darker than it actually is in real life, but still pretty close. There's something kind of soothing about this color in my opinion. And I feel like it's appropriate for pretty much any setting. What do you think about it? Is it a color that you might where to work? Sometimes I think it's something I'd wear, sometimes I think it might be too much. So I'm appealing to you all!

One of the many things I'm putting together for the blog is a list of work appropriate colors from my stash. I want to post the pictures all in one place so that people can reference it when they need something for interviews or just something new to wear to work.

Also, another fun little thing I have for you today is my Google Spreadsheet with all of the nail polish and konad plates that I own. It's broken down by brand and it has a brief description of each color, the collection it's from, and any other miscellaneous notes I have about the color on there. There is a link on the right side of the site, right under my contact information. Feel free to take a look and email me with any colors you want to see, comparisons, etc that you'd like!

And don't forget the giveaways I posted a few days ago are ending soon! I've got one more for you to check out: rmcandlelight is giving away a few polishes over at her blog; http://nailsbeautiqued.blogspot.com so go enter now! :)

Color Club neons and what I learned about neons in general.

Double post today to make up for my little hiatus! I told you in the last post that I would "kind of show you neons" today. What did I mean by kind of? Well I have pictures of three different neon polishes. But the kind of part comes in because they seem to make my camera crazy so they aren't 100% accurate. Also, I learned that most neon polishes look absolutely horrendous on me. Almost everything is going to get swapped haha.

Okay the first polish I have to show you is Color Club - Electro Candy.


Outside in direct sunlight


Outside in the shade


Inside, artificial light

So...Electro Candy. What a pain to photograph! None of these three pictures fully show how BRIGHT this color is. Think hot pink highlighter bright. But you can see how different the color looks to my camera in different light. And it sort of made me look like a corpse, so this is going in the swap pile haha. I'm super pale, but I imagine this would look awesome on someone tan (aka most people in the summer).

Next up: Color Club - Ultra Violet!

I thought I was going to love this, but was kind of meh on it. But here are pictures for you to decide for yourself...


Outside direct sunlight


Outside in shade


Indoors, artifical light

Normally I'm a purple fanatic but this I didn't love. Liked, yes.. but it was a little bright for me too. The actual color is closest in real life to the first picture. Again, these pictures don't come close to capturing how bright it is and you can see the different ways the camera thought it looked, just like Electro Candy. This has a fairly strong blue flash which you can definitely see in the sunlight picture (the first one).

Last but certainly not least, Color Club - Pure Energy

Pure Energy was my favorite and the only one I'm going to keep. This is supposedly a dupe for China Glaze - Towel Boy Toy, but I don't have that to compare them.


Outside in sunlight


Outside in shade


Indoors, arificial light

So pretty! Still a little brighter in real life than in pictures, but not as blinding as the other two colors I showed above. Pure Energy is much more flattering on my skintone, but still a color that I probably will mostly use on my toes. Perfect for summer though! I've had Towel Boy Toy on my wishlist for a while but I think this will be a very good (and cheaper) substitute for me.

All three of the swatches were done with 1 coat of OPI - Alpine Snow and then 2 coats of color. I've read that it makes the colors more vibrant and uses less coats if you use a white underneath them. I'd also heard that neons are notoriously streaky and tough to work with for the most part; but all three of these were a dream to apply- very easy! The first coat was streaky but it evened out nicely after the second. Oh, and don't forget you can click on all of the pictures to enlarge them if you'd like.

I got these at Ross in the Electro Candy set so it was an low-risk way for me to try out neon polishes. So the verdict is that I don't like how neons look on me (with Pure Energy as the exception.) And they make my camera crazy haha. What do you guys think? Love neons or hate 'em? If you have found ones you love, let me know your favorites - maybe I will get brave enough to try some more one day :)

I hope everyone is having an amazing day/night - it's over 100 degrees here in New Jersey.. ridiculously hot. So I'm hiding out inside and eating ice cream!