Square Hue Bike Amsterdam -February 2016 Collection

Press Sample

Good hello!
Okay, is it just me or is anyone else's allergies going insane right now?! Mine are and it feels like I am dying...okay not really but anyone with allergies can totally relate. The worst part? If it is outside, I am allergic to it! ...Oh, I'm also allergic to my cats but I will never get rid of them! Muhahaha. I'll suffer. 

This months SquareHue at first glance was uneventful to me...That was until I actually painted my nails! These polishes are so pretty all in their own ways and the one polish I thought I would like the least, is actually the one I like the most! Surprise, surprise! 

I saw someone say that they were disappointed in the fact that there was no green in the collection. I'm not disappointed, but I am surprised...but also at the same time, I can understand why there isn't a green in the collection. Ya know? 

Waterland District -

 A municipality in the Netherlands consisting of 9 village, cities, towns, and/or districts.

With this polish, depending on the length of you nail, you could get away with one coat, but I did two coats as a just in case...because that it what I prefer.  The formula was amazing as well! It was not too thick or too thin and it dried pretty quick. 

Vondelpark - 

Largest city park in Amsterdam

I love how dark this polish is! It is such a deep grape purple! In certain lights though it can look black, but that is okay! This is also a 1-2 coat polish depending on the length of your nails. I used two coats. I also want to mention that the formula is the same as Waterland District.

The Nieuwmarkt - 

A square in the center of Amsterdam

 This is a two coater. This is the polish that I was talking about. I really thought that I would hate this color, because I am just so over red nail polishes. However, this has such a lovely pink shimmer to it, which you can see that it makes it unique to my collection...I think. Regardless, it is a very pretty nail polish! Since this polish is a shimmer, the formula is thinner than the others, but I didn't have any issues with it at all!

Even though in the beginning I was feeling quite "meh" about the polishes, they all grew on me! I'm glad that these were in the box as well as Nieuwmarkt is PERFECT to wear for Valentines day! I also want to mention that the accent fingers were stamped with SquareHue polishes from the same collection. I used the MoYou Holy Shapes 01 Stamping plate. I would link it, but I don't know if there is still that issue going on with them. 

What do you think of this months collection?! If you missed last months collection, I posted pictures on my Instagram

Oh! Oh! Sheesh, I almost forgot to mention this! Did you know that you can now buy old collections of SquareHue?! That made me ridiculously happy to know! You can buy last years collections as well as a few collections from 2014 AND their nail care system! Woohoo! SquareHue Shop

Best,
Autumn 

Wet n Wild Art In The Streets - Swatch & Review

Purchased Myself

Wet n Wild is not a brand I gravitate towards much for eye shadows. I know they have some gems, but most of the time, the ones that I purchase are mostly disappointing. I was searching for their new spring collection to pick up the palettes for it as per request from Jessica (you can read her blog HERE). Unfortunately, I can't find the spring collection anywhere, so I just grabbed a palette that I thought would be really fun too play with. It was this one (Art In the Streets) or the 5-pan neutral palette. I'm trying to re-introduce color back into my repertoire, so I went with the bold and bright colored one.

Art In The Streets is a 5 pan palette with a purple, bright orange, yellow, medium green and a sky blue. 

I don't think these have any ACTUAL names so we shall just number them in order of how they were swatched.

This particular set is swatched without a primer. As you can tell, the colors are not particularly pigmented. This WAS two swipes though. Like two straight down (or across depending on the pan) swipes to get shadow. NORMALLY I only do one swipe, but I wanted to build them up a bit. I despise when people build up shadows and make them look all pretty, that is misleading and I don't do it. BUT I had to give this a second swipe.

Two swipes again over Milani's Eye shadow primer. Much better right? I did have a bit of trouble with the orange, which I'm sure you can tell. All 4 of the 5 shadows are matte. The purple has a little bit of shimmer in it, which you can see, so I'm not calling it matte.

The shadows themselves are very smooth but there is one drawback, they're kind of chalky. You don't get any fall out, or at least I didn't but these are still chalky. They're very easy too use and blendable. However, you're going to see my biggest issue with these in un momento (aka the next picture)

Le sigh. Okay, I had to be careful to NOT over blend this or the shadows would disappear. I used every color in the palette, with the yellow in the inner corner. I couldn't get the yellow to show up much except for what you see. Honestly, I'm kind of disappointed. I've had a few Wet n Wild palettes, and they've all been duds for me. I think the I<3Matte was the only good one out of all of the ones that I've tried. I don't know. I'm still going to search for their Spring Collection, but I am not having high hopes for the quality of it. 

Have you tried this palette? Do you have the same opinion on Wet n Wild shadows? What are ones that I should try?!

Purchased myself. All opinions are my own.

Cult Nails Just Because

Before we get into this post, I do want to apologize for being very quiet on my blog the past week, it wasn't my intention nor was it planned. I considered getting guest bloggers, but part of me kept stopping myself from posting in a group and asking. If you're following me on my Facebook or Instagram, then you know what's going on...or well you know some of what's going on. I don't want to get into it right now but basically there was a death in the family and it's hit my family pretty hard. I'm not a very religious person and I do believe that there is some greater being out there, but I don't specifically practice, but God (whatever god you believe in) always has a plan for everything and unfortunately it was her time to go as sad as that is. I wont go into much more detail than that, but since I'm now crying let's get into the actual post shall we?

Purchased Myself

I know that I should feel really bad showing you a polish that you can't get, while a part of me does, another part of me doesn't. That's mean of me to say! D:

Just Because was a polish that was never meant to be sold. Originally it was just given out to a few people then late last year Maria decided to add it too orders then put it up for sale! I had to wait until I started working before I could buy it. As soon as the Cult Nail's Crypt sale started and I saw Just Because still in stock, I jumped on it quicker then a fly on poo. Let me tell you, I am so glad I did! Just Because is so gorgeous! I wish I had a backup bottle!

Just Because is a red polish (kind of like a jelly I guess) PACKED full of glitter!

You can get away with 2 coats if you had shorter nails, but if you have longer ones (like pictured) you will need 3 or more coats. In my pictures I only did 2 coats, which is why it's not fully opaque. Both nail swatches were taken in the shade.

Did you get Just Because?!?!

Oh! Don't get all excited, yes this is my hand but I put on fake nails. I have some polishes to swatch and I didn't want them to look crappy because my nails are all different shapes and lengths. I did this for some uniformity, plus hello they look amazing right?!

I purchased this polish with my own money.

Cult Nails Midnight Mist

Gift

This is one of those polishes that I will probably covet for...well forever. These were a gift from someone that I really look up too. I don't want to say who, because I don't want her inbox flooded with emails and what not. I'm just super grateful to have this polish! :D

Midnight Mist is from the Midnight Masquerade collection that was released late last year and was extremely limited edition. 

MM is described as an olive green creme with a coppery shimmer.

Myself personally, I don't get the olive green, I can't even describe what it looks like to me. The word is failing me at this moment. Maybe a dusty brown? Anyways beside the point. This polish is absolutely spectacular! The formula is amazing. It's opaque in two coats.

Now, in all of my pictures, I used Duri Rejuvacote on all of my nails EXCEPT my ring finger because I wanted to show you 1) how shiny it was and 2) I was going to matte it but couldn't find my matte top coat. Look how shiny! You could most definitely get away with not using a top coat. 

Here's another picture just to show the shine.

Do excuse the different length/shape of my nails, I'm in the middle of growing them out and I don't feel like cutting them to make them the same length, even though they're all pretty much the same except for my middle finger. Boo on that nail. I'm still trying to decide on my nail shape as well, I'll probably go squoval because that's how they grow out for the most part.

Anypiddle, all of that aside. Cult Nails polishes are AMAZING! Don't forget their Cult Crypt sale is still going on (as of 1/16/14) Unfortunately you can't get any of the Midnight Masquerade collection because they completely sold out of their bottles.

What do you think?! Were you able to snag the collection?!

This was given to me as a gift. All opinions are 100% my own

ORLY MatteFX Iron Butterfly

Purchased Myself

Today we have the second ORLY MatteFX polish (out of the three that I have). This one is Iron Butterfly.

Iron Butterfly is a charcoal matte shimmer.

Cult Nails All Access Collection

Purchased Myself

I haven't post a Cult Nails collection in a while, this is only the second one I have purchased actually. It's been a $$ thing more than anything, I would have given anything to get her previous collection. Anypoodles. While at The Makeup Show I decided to pick the entire collection up for a discounted rate. I lusted over 3 out of the 5 picture wise, but when I saw them in person I knew, no doubt they would be coming home with me. Random story, while I was really sick last week, I kept finding bottles in the bed with me. Unopened thank goodness, but weird right?

Oh! All of the pictures are going to be weird and probably not the same poses. I've been having huge issues with BOTH cameras that I use for blogging. I'm going to try and get a new camera so this doesn't happen again. I'm really sorry and I know it probably will annoy you! 

Without further adieu.

Grunge  is a greyed out mossy green creme.Depending on the light this is a bit of a chameleon, sometimes leaning more grey than green. 

Can I tell you how much I actually really LOVE this polish? This was one of the ones I was iffy on, but once I got it on my nails I was extremely grateful I did buy it! In the swatches above this was 3 coats. I did relatively thin coats, so it would dry quickly.

Lamestain is a vampy a red. Depending on the light it can look a bit brown.

On me Lamestain leans more towards a brown, which I don't mind at all. For my collection at least this is VERY unique.. It does lean towards red though depending on the light! This was 3 coats. 

See what I mean by it looking brown?

Wack Slacks is a blue creme. There are some nice purple undertones. Depending on the light it can look like a dark Navy blue as well.

This by far is my favorite polish out of the lot. This has the most amazing formula and you could definitely get away with doing 1 coat. I did 2 coats in the picture below just because my nails beds were a bit messed up and peeling for some reason. I did leave my middle finger with no top coat so you could hopefully see that with a top coat is does lighten slightly. Still a gorgeous color though!

My index finger had no top coat because this polish is so shiny!

Shout out to my Mom for letting me use her nails for this swatch so I didn't have to re-do my manicure! This was ONE .. yes ONE coat of Wack Slacks on her nails. I told you this polish was amazing.

Disillusion  is hot pink shards of glitter in a black jelly base. The base is a little bit sheer but it easily builds up to be opaque. 

This took 3 coats. My only issue with this polish is that the base is thick so I had a bit of a problem getting it to apply evenly. The shards also gave me a bit of a hassle. A few of them stuck up off of the nail, which if you put an extra thick layer of top coat or an extra layer of top coat you wont notice it. Like I mentioned before with the base, since it's on the thick side, it does lay on the nail a bit thicker than a regular polish. I'm sure you could thin this out though if you wanted. 

I'm not sure why I got only one picture of Disillusion by itself.

Feedback is golden and iridescent shards of glitter in a clear base

This is such a gorgeous topper. It does apply randomly though, you each nail will be different. Some nails get covered more than others, which for me is not a problem. I do suggest that you don't do too many strokes with this or you will take the shards right back off of the nail, you could definitely use the dabbing method. The base is a little thick like Disillusion, but this is more manageable. All pictures are with 1 coat of Feedback.

Over Wack Slacks

Over Lamestain

Over Disillusion

Over Grunge

We're going to revisit Disillusion again because you can do it two different ways. You can layer it by itself with the 3 coats, which gives it depth and it looks so gorgeous when it's used alone. You could also layer is over a black nail polish that way you only would have to use one coat of Disillusion. In these pictures I used Disillusion over 2 coats of ORLY Liquid Vinyl.

Sexy right?! Ugh I love this polish, my Mom even loves it with the shards in it. She didn't at first because of how sheer it was but once she was it over the black then layered by itself she loved it. :D Woohoo

Overall, I love love LOVE this collection! I'm so glad that I picked it up! You can purchase each polish individually at cultnails.com. Each individual polish above in the post has a link to where you can purchase or check out each polish alone.
The polishes retail for $12 each or if you purchase the entire set it would be around $60 not including shipping. Spend $75 and get free shipping though! So pick up Mayhem and holographic it out! Me gusta!

I purchased these with my own money

Nubar Green/Silver Glitter

 
Hello Darlings!

Before I even get into this post, please excuse my cuticles. I had done some hard yard work earlier in the day, which included digging up a palm tree. If you know anything about palm trees you know they are a complete pain in the tucka to dig up because their roots go really far down. AND since it had been raining for the past week the ground was still sopping wet, I wound up digging through mud. So you can tell, it was totally fun... I actually had fun doing it hah, but really it took me about 30-45 minutes trying to dig up the roots to get it out! Then I had to cut roots from another tree.. okay see, off topic. Let's get back onto why you are here!

Nubar's Green/Silver Glitter (unique name no?) was one of the polishes that I picked up from Premiere Orlando. I just HAD to have it, I knew if I didn't purchase it I would have regretted it instantly. Let me just say, now that is it on my nails I am so glad I did!
Look at how absolutely gorgeous this polish is!

You can see just how packed this is with green and silver glitter, not to mention the sheer amount of holographic glitter! It's all finely milled so it doesn't leave you with that textured effect, which is nice.

I wanted to capture the silver aspect of this polish, because it can get a little lost BUT it does appear depending on how you hold your hands in the light, which is nice!

The one thing I definitely love about this polish is the fact that is looks like it is JUMPING off of your nails! It is that sparkly and holographic. No lie. You have to buy this for yourself just to be able to see it. The jumping off of your nails aspect of it, wouldn't capture in pictures or video. *sad face*

This is a scattered holographic polish, but it does look linear in the bottle, but it's not when you put it on the nails, which I don't mind. It would be gorgeous if it was linear anyways.

This is 3 coats over OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener with two coats of Nubar Diamont Seal & Top coat.
Since this is a glitter polish, it isn't that easy to remove. I would suggest doing the glue thing that people are doing (?) I've never tried it but people keep telling me about it. I just take it off by wrapping my finger in aluminum foil, with a cotton ball soaked in remover of course.

I know this video is totally out of focus but it was the only way to capture the complete awesomeness of it. And I still wasn't able to capture it all! (I forgot to turn my phone sideways to make it full screen... can you tell it's the first time I used the camera? Lol)

I really love this nail polish like I said before, it is absolutely fantastic! and so gorgeous!
You can purchase Nubar from their website bynubar.com This polish retails for $8, like the rest of Nubar polishes. You can purchase Green/Silver Glitter HERE

Sidenote, I was going to do this as a comparison post with ORLY Sparkling Garbage, but I did not get one good picture of Sparkling Garbage earlier when I was taking pictures and I lost sunlight. BUT I can tell you that Sparkling Garbage is a darker green polish, it is also more linear than GSG is. I love both of them. 

Nubar is Formaldehyde Free, Toluene Free, (DBP) Phthalate Free.They are also Vegan and Cruelty Free.

Zoya Gie Gie

Hey everyone!

Today I have Zoya's Gie Gie for you today!

This polish is from their 2013 Spring Lovely collection. 

I do want to mention that I did have to color correct these a little bit to make them more accurate.

This is the 3rd Zoya I have ever tried and honestly, I'm not a fan of the formula of this polish. Now, it's not how all of their polishes are, this one in particular is just on the thicker side, so it makes it a little bit more difficult to work with. 

This polish is a gorgeous bubble gum pink with silver shimmer. I really love this polish, but like I said the formula makes me not want to use it.

Has anyone else experience this polish as being thick or was it just me? I've got other Zoya's that are absolutely fantastic and I wouldn't trade them for anything, but this one is a little undesirable

. 

Zoya Blu

Hey everyone!

Blu is from Zoya's Lovely for Spring 2013 collection. Blu is a pale pastel blue color with a cream finish.

When I first saw this color, I wasn't sure what to think of it, I don't have ANY pale blue shades like this, or really any blues in my collection (shame on me).

I want to warn you before we get farther into the post. Don't judge my application skills, I seriously applied this in half darkness with only my computer screen as a light. I don't suggest it, but that is how I did it. So it's kind of messy. Don't be too harsh on me!! *shields self*