Indie Thursdays: KBShimmer Oh Splat! and Lottie Dottie

Hey everyone! For today's blog post I will be featuring a couple of polishes from my favorite indie brand, KBShimmer!

I have only been more serious with my nail polish collection early this year. I've been collecting here and there, but only got really into it fairly recently. So I didn't know about indies until I started reading nail blogs and went on Instagram. What are indies, you might say? Well, indies are nail polishes that are hand-blended and custom made by very talented ladies (and gentlemen, probably?) as opposed to the commercialized, mainstream brands like OPI, China Glaze and the likes. Indies are almost always exclusively sold by the maker through their website, Etsy, Shopenvy, or if they offer international shipping, through websites like Llarowe, Harlow and Co and MeiMei Signatures. Indies are unique in the sense that anything is possible with them! The polishes are only limited by how far a maker's imagination goes. What I love about indies is that they are unlike those polishes you see in stores.

Well, KBShimmer is probably my most favorite indie polish brand, because I am in love with almost all of her polishes! I'm kinda picky with glitter; I don't like glitter that looks like someone just threw a bunch of different glitter in a base and called it a day. But with KBShimmer, it's.. orderly, for a lack of a better word. Like... an organized glitterbomb. Also, the brush is one of the best I've used! Flat and stumpy, it's perfect for me. The formula is always on point too. So, without further ado, here they are!


First up is Oh Splat!

Oh Splat! is probably KBShimmer's trademark polish. It's a sheer white base with glitters in the different colors of the rainbow. It's like a rainbow exploded on your nails! This is three easy coats with some fishing for the bigger hex glitters, plus top coat. Formula-wise, it's easy to work with. I love it!


Next up: Lottie Dottie.

Lottie Dottie is a sheer white base with magenta and turquoise round glitters, plus some really tiny bar glitters of the same color. This is actually my first KBShimmer polish, along with another one (that will come in the next Indie Thursday post lol.) Shown is three easy coats with some fishing for the round glitters, plus top coat. Formula is pretty much the same with Oh Splat! I love round glitters!

There you have it for my first Indie Thursdays post! :) KBShimmer is available through their website and retails for USD 8.75 for a 15ml bottle. She only ships in the US, so for international customers, you can try Harlow and Co. I seriously recommend this brand.

*I bought these polishes with my own money.*

*Disclaimer: Due to variations in screen resolutions, polishes may appear different to each reader. I try my best to capture colors as accurately as I can, and if I can't, I try to describe as much as I can.*

Nail Art with Fimo Flowers

Back so soon? ;) Since I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, I figured I will give you guys back-to-back entries! Yay.

Anyway, I have a simple nail art to show you today.

Ta-dah! I used Sinful Colors Easy Going for the base: a light, creamy pinkish nude. Well... I'm not sure if it's considered nude... More like... buff? Ah. You be the judge.

I'm pretty sure most of you in the nail art world know what these flowers on my nails are, but if not, then I'll tell you. These flowers are made of fimo. Fimo is a brand of polymer clay. To make these flowers, the fimo is shaped into rods and baked, then sliced thinly to create a 3D art you can place on your nails (and anything else you can think of.)

 

Image source: Google

These are fimo rods, and that's what they look like before they are cut.

If you are interested in purchasing fimos, you can search for them on eBay or Amazon, but I'm pretty sure there are other websites offering these too, such as Winstonia and other nail supply stores. They are pretty cheap and come in bundles, so you get a lot for your buck. It's an easy way to add some pizzazz to a manicure! :)

Mainstream Mondays: Sinful Colors Sail La Vie Collection

Hi there! First of all I would like to apologize for neglecting my blog... There are so many polishes, I don't know where to start! But, I realized a solution. I will have a theme for each day! Well, maybe not EVERY day, but certain days. And... For the first day of the week (which I totally realize was YESTERDAY) I present to you...

Mainstream Mondays!

Mainstream Mondays will be posts consisting of, you guessed it, mainstream polishes, or brands that you can  find in major retailers and drug stores. And for today's post, I have one of my favorite cheap drugstore polishes: Sinful Colors.

Sinful Colors can be found at most drugstores (Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid to name a few,) Target, and Walmart. They retail for $1.99 each (plus applicable sales tax, depending on your state.) I love Sinful Colors because they are relatively inexpensive, therefore I don't feel bad if I buy a bunch at a time lol... And they have a wide array of colors, plus limited edition polishes that they re-release from time to time. Ok, without further ado, here are three polishes from the recently released Sail La Vie Collection.


First up, the namesake of the collection: Sail La Vie.

Sail La Vie is a pretty light blue that leans just a smidgen periwinkle in real life. I used three coats for this, plus top coat. Being the heavyhanded person that I am, I had to do three coats when using light colors. You can probably get away with two if you're careful enough. Formula was a bit runny, and you need to really make sure to wipe the excess polish from the brush stem because it will surprise you and just drop this huge glob of polish when you least expect it.


Next up is My Buoyfriend.

My Buoyfriend is a little less brighter than it shows in pictures. Formula was a little bit thick but runny at the same time. Again, be sure to wipe up the brush stem because it will threaten to do the same thing as Sail La Vie. Shown is two thickish coats with top coat.

Last but not the least is Into the Blue.

Into the Blue is a gorgeous dark blue. Not quite navy blue, it has a bit of purple in it. Only thing was, the polish got a little thicker as I kept working with it, so this is two thickish coats with top coat. Nevertheless, it wasn't too much of a bother, and nothing a little thinner couldn't fix.


Overall, I am pretty satisfied with these polishes. The colors may not be the most original of all, but hey, you can never have too many blues! I have actually looked in my stash if I can find a dupe, but I didn't find any. Bottom line: I recommend these if you love blues.

Oh! Here's a bonus gradient I did with these polishes.

Then I added China Glaze Fairy Dust, just because glitter makes everything better, lol.

I hope you enjoyed these swatches and gradients!


*Disclaimer: Due to variations in screen resolutions, polishes may appear different to each reader. I try my best to capture colors as accurately as I can, and if I can't, I try to describe as much as I can.*

Welcome!

Hello everyone! After a few months of going back and forth on writing a blog, I have decided to finally put up my first post!


First, let me introduce myself. My name is Bianca, I am a proud Pinay living in sunny California. I work as a night shift private duty LVN. I have been with the love of my life, LT, for almost five years. My favorite things to do are reading (lifelong lover of books, I discovered I loved reading at an early age and loved hanging out at the library ever since,) eating (it's one of my and LT's shared interests,) shopping (I think I actually have an addiction,) and of course, painting my nails!

The face behind the nails

If you have been following me on Instagram, you know me as @tinkybellgotlacquered, formerly @tinkybell_nails. (If you're not following me yet... Well, what are you waiting for?!) I started my Instagram on February 2013, as a way to share my budding love for nail polish. I didn't want my followers on my personal IG to be inundated with nail posts because I know not everyone is interested in nail polish... travesty, right?! Just kidding. But anyway, I found that I enjoyed posting my nail pics on IG and decided to venture out into the world of blogging as a way to reach more people and be able to share more details about the pics I post.

I will try to post as frequently as I can, but you know how life can sometimes get ahead of you! I post mainly swatches (and reviews too, but I'm such a noob that I probably won't be of much help to you) but I will be sure to post some nail art too. Still thinking whether I should have a theme for everyday such as Mani Mondays or Untried Tuesdays, but for now it'll be just whatever goes.

I hope you decide to join me on my adventure, and stay with me the rest of the way!