I thought about doing some stamping for St. Patrick's Day, but in the end I decided to keep it rather simple this year. I'm wearing Emily de Molly: Oceanic Forces- (hey... it's greenish!), and China Glaze I'm Not Lion on my accent nail.

Cait from Polish Hound is an enabler. :-p Because as soon as I saw her post about Emily de Molly, Tread Lightly. I had to go hunting online for it. None of the U.S. stockists had it. (Emily de Molly doesn't ship directly to the USA). I took a chance and ordered it from Mei Mei Signatures for the first time. They are located in Singapore, but it only took 2 weeks to receive my order.

This is 2 coats, plus Seche Vite Topcoat. I did a thin coat of polish, then I did a thicker coat, dabbed on a few of the bigger circles, and topped it off with topcoat. These sort of glitter polishes require a topcoat, or else you will end up with a very bumpy mess. (I probably should have paid better attention to the tips of my nails when applying this, it wasn't smooth enough, and I had some shrinkage with the Seche Vite.)


And here it is with NYC Matte Me Crazy Topcoat. (Always use regular topcoat, before the matte topcoat, so the polish will have a smooth finish).

I cut down my nails this week (the tips were peeling a bit), so it's going to take them 1-2 weeks to get back to normal length. Also my skin and cuticles have been really dry from the last three collections I swatched... damn you pure acetone! I'm taking a little break while I give my swatching hand some TLC! :-)

So instead... I decided to give you guys a little macro spam! (My pinky says hi!)

✯ PR Sample ✯

Today I have the Zoya Naturel Deux Collection. This collection is meant as a palette cleanser as we transition from summer into fall. The Naturel Deux Collection is darker than the first collection. (Click here to see last years Naturel Collection). All of the colors in this collection go on smoothly and evenly in two coats. I used Seche Vite topcoat on all the swatches below.

✯ PR Samples Mentioned ✯

If you haven't guessed, my little blogging break is over. ;-) It was nice to chill out and take a break. Not worry about scheduling posts, getting things swatched every weekend. I noticed by taking a break, my creativity for nail polish came back. Since I was usually only creating one look to wear for the entire week, I was able to better plan out my designs and put more thought into them.

I love blogging about nail polish and I love doing reviews, but I'm no longer going to push myself to get several posts up a week. It was draining me out and I was starting to become frustrated with blogging. Instead I'm going to blog when I want. If I only get one post up a week, so be it. If I get on a stretch of posting a few times a week, so be that. I want blogging to be fun for me, and I want to be excited about sharing things with you all.

I have a few reviews coming up. Look for a review of two stunning polishes by Ice Polish and another review of Winstonia Store nail strips!

Today I wanted to share with you some of the looks I created while on break. Some of these were taken with my regular camera and others are cell phone photos.

Zoya Wendy with Zoya Jesy, and Winstonia stamp plate W-04.




 

✯ PR Sample ✯ 

Today I have 3 pretty spring colors from Nie-cy Polish to share with you today! I was sent Pace Mates, You are my Lady, and Le'le girl.


Le'le girl: a pretty pastel pink. It reminds me of ballet slippers. Even though it's such a light color application was no issue. Formula is quite nice, not runny at all. I used 3 coats, plus topcoat. Personally- you could probably even use 1 coat of this if you wanted a nice sheer nail color. I used Messy Mansion stamp plate MM18.


You are my Lady: Nice light green color. I thought it leaned towards aqua in the bottle, but it's more green on my nails. Again, application was great- I used 3 coats, plus topcoat. I used Emily De Molly stamp plate EDM04, and topped it with a bit of China Glaze Fairy dust on my accent nails.


Pace Mates: is a bright colorful yellow. I ended up using 4 coats with this one, it was a bit streaky, but no other issues. I used Emily De Molly stamp plate, EDM05. I stamped with Rimmel 60 seconds- Hot Chili Pepper.


 

I have not scheduled any other posts this week... I know... I'm a bad blogger. I ended up spraining my middle finger the weekend before, and it's still bothering me. I have plenty of pictures taken, I just haven't gotten around to editing them.


There's also been a lot going on personally besides my finger... I had a co-worker pass away on the 28th (I worked with her for 6 years), my Mom is healing from kidney stone surgery, my cousin had a carbon monoxide scare at her job, my grandmother is in the hospital in ICU and is not doing well. And some other little personal issues, so I'm just feeling a bit burnt out. Could use your well wishes & prayers.

I do have super awesome pictures of all these mani's from my real camera, when I get around to editing them... but I thought I'd share them in their natural light Instagram shots for now. You can follow me on Instagram at @tunaynamahal82

I started getting into nail polish in late 2010, after a back injury left me on bed rest for a whole week and I had nothing better to do then read nail polish blogs & paint my nails. I now own 183 polishes and I wanted to share my top favorites out of my collection.


1. Butter London: Two Fingered Salute


2. Zoya Aurora


3. I Love Nail Polish: Birefringence (H)


6. Layla Hologram: Mercury Twilight


7. SindiePop: Golden Raspberries

Emily De Molly: Comic Forces, was the last polish I purchased before my 'No Buy' went into effect 3 weeks ago. I was browsing Llarowe one night and was so excited to see it in stock! I've been wanting Cosmic Forces for a good while now. It's super hard to find in stock in the USA, since Emily De Molly polish is made in Australia. You can find it selling for $30 on eBay... but I'm not crazy enough to pay that. It was $13 on Llarowe.com.

Cosmic Forces is a dark purple jelly polish with pink and purple glitter and holographic circle glitter. The circles almost look like planets suspended in the jelly base. It's even prettier in person! This is 3 coats and 2 coats of Seche Vite topcoat to get that glossy look.


 A few months ago I purchased a similar polish from Nire's Desire called Bubble Berries. I wanted to do a comparsion with Bubble Berries & Cosmic Forces. Cosmic Forces is a darker purple and Bubble Berries is lighter. Bubble Berries has more silver glitter & other shapes, than Cosmic Forces. If you're having a hard time trying to get Cosmic Forces, Bubble Berries is a good alternative.