Northern Star Polish review and swatches

*Products were sent for review purposes, All opinions are my own.*

Today I have one of the polish reviews I had promised you. This is a new to me polish company that has been in business for a little over a year now. I had seen swatches and drooled over some of the polishes. I have no clue why I had never made a purchase, but I know there will be in the future.

Northern Star uses a 4 free base, solvent resistant glitters, and potential products are tested for months before being released. Polishes come in two sizes: Petites are 9ml for $6.00 and Full sizes are 15ml for $9.00. 

I was sent TRUSTNO1, Wuv, Twoo Wuv, and Sunburst to review. 

TRUSTNO1- A purple base with electric blue flakie glitter. It was inspired by the X-Files.

This is a gorgeous polish! I would say it leans toward being a blurple shade and is what I would consider a jelly polish. The electric blue flakies look like they are micro flakies and really make this polish dazzle, especially in sunlight. I love this polish and can't get enough of it, it makes a great summer time polish. I used 2 coats and got full coverage, no streaks, no hassle or fuss with it at all. Hopefully you can see the flakies in the picture above, it is really hard to capture them.This is a new polish to the Northern Star Polish lineup that will be available on June 28th at noon CST.

Wuv, Twoo Wuv is a milky based polish with pink, red, silver and white glitters in different sizes. It was inspired by The Princess Bride.

This is again a no fuss polish, the glitters went on evenly for me. I did have to use 3 coats to get full coverage, you could also use a white coat underneath to keep from having to do so many coats. Above I used 2 coats of  Wuv, Twoo Wuv alone and then I used 1 coat over OPI Big Apple Red and I really liked how it came out.

Last but not least we have Sunburst. Sunburst is a a glitterbomb that is a burst of bling with glitters in gold, holographic gold, orange, neon yellow plus a dash of silver and pink.

 

I would call this a glitter explosion of epicness.There are different sizes of hex glitter, there are micro glitter and bar glitter. Before someone says they hate bar glitter, give this a chance, it isn't alot of it in there at all. This is definitely a bling filled polish that will turn heads. My favorite part of this polish is those micro glitters that sit off in the background, they bring something extra special to this polish. I really like it alone, but when I put it over a black polish O.M.G! I think it was a marriage made in glitter heaven. I recommend dabbing the glitters on with this one, the glitters seemed to have a mind of their own and of course their idea of perfection was different than mine LOL. It is definitely worth the little bit of extra work though.I also had to use 2 coats of Seche Vite to even it out.

In the pictures above I used 3 coats of  Wuv, Twoo Wuv, 2 coats of TRUSTNO1 and 1 coat of Sunburst on the ring finger, 2 coats on my thumb. You also get to see my little nubbin nail, it was broken down into the nail bed. OUCH!!! I refuse to chop all the others off to match it better though. I'll probably give in soon and do it. The wear time of this polish was great, I had it on for 3 days before taking it off. I had no chips and no tip wear. The formula was terrific with these polishes. This is a company to keep your eyes on, I can see good things happening for them!!!

You can find the Northern Star Polish shop here.

You can find the fan page here. 

The shop is closed right now while Kristin get all prepared for the launch of her new colors at 12pm CST on June 28th. Ohhhh I almost forgot to tell you about the cuticle oil that was included in my package. This stuff smells so good, it is Tangerine Honeysuckle. I don't believe this is sold in the shop, I think a bottle is included in with every purchase as a thank you. I am having great results while using it. I probably apply it too often, but I love the scent and can't resist. 

I am rating this polish based on packaging, formula, and wear. I can't rate customer service since this was a blogger pack, but Kristin has been a joy to work with. I give Northern Star Polish..... 5 cupcakes. 

Have you tried Northern Star Polish? If so, what are your favorite polishes?

Peace, Love and Cupcakes!

Not your typical cupcake nails!

For our challenge in one of my favorite groups we were asked to do something inspired by cupcakes. Of course the same day the challenge was posted I broke almost all my nails down to extreme nubbins. I had really wanted to do cupcakes on my nails, but my nails are so short it would have never happened. A couple of girls convinced me to use my creative side and do something different, so I did. I decided not to do the typical white with different colored glitters that most think of when they do cupcake nails. I decided to do my nails based off of cupcake flavors! I'll link to the different indie shops that were used at the end of this post.

See I told you it is not the typical cupcake mani. It is different that's for sure. My honest opinion on the overall look of it, I hate it. I do however like the combos, so I thought I would still go ahead and share it with you because of that.

My thumb is a base coat of OPI Pink Friday with a coat of Nerd Lacquer Warrior Ethos, a layer of Hit Polish Wildberry Tart and another coat of Warrior Ethos. This is my Cherry chocolate chip nail!

My index finger is a base of Sinful Colors Nirvana with a coat of Amon by Little Mouse Ears. This is my German Chocolate nail!

 My pinky finger is Def Defying by China Glaze as the base with a coat of Hit Polish Tag Me on top. This is my Kiwi Coconut nail!

My ring finger is a base of Pastel Yellow by KleanColors with Silly Lily Tequila Sunrise and Hit Polish Pink Lemonade on top. This is my Lemon Raspberry nail!

My middle finger is a base of Sally Girl Orange, it is one of the scented they put out last year, topped with a coat of Tangerine Ice by Hit Polish. This is my Orange Dreamsicle nail!

Like I said, these are fun color/glitter combos. I like them all, just not together :o( Oh well, better luck next time huh? 

Here are the shops so you can go grab you some of these fun glitter toppers.
*Hit Polish

*Nerd lacquer

*Silly Lily

*Little Mouse Ears

What is your favorite cupcake flavor? What is the most unusual flavor you have tried?

***All products purchased by me, all opinions are my own.***

Peace, Love and Cupcakes!

Hit Polish Arabian Nights

Today I have another polish from Hit Polish to show you, Arabian Nights. 

As you should know by now I am in love with the polishes from Hit Polish. You can see some other posts by clicking here. Rachel released 12 new polishes plus 6 collections and a cuticle oil on November 21st for their big week long Black Friday sale. Once again the glitter wizard didn't disappoint with her creations. I believe there was something for anyone in her creations. Of course I had to grab a few, though not as many as I would have liked. I will list the new polishes below, click the name to see what each looks like. These are a limited edition group of polishes, some may be brought back at a later time. Best to grab any of them that grab your attention now though. If you have a problem with the links not working, try going to the Etsy shop sales section and finding them there. Their sale ends tonight at 7pm EST So hurry! These will be listed until they are sold out, but not at sale prices.

*Wonderland
*Irisation
*Sundance
*Arabian Nights
*Peacock Plumage
*Lolita
*Liberty Among Us
*Forest Of Feelings
*Painted Desert
*Pink Lemonade
*Light show
*Rockabilly

There was also the release of the 6 new collections. These I also believe are limited edition, but may be brought back sometime in the future. 

*Princess Collection
*Dessert Collection
*Powerpuff Girls Collection
*Natural Beauty Collection
*Animal Stripes Collection
*Alice In Wonderland Collection
Then there is the new Nourishing Nails Cuticle & Nail Oil Treatment

I think I got some of the fastest shipping ever with this order, it was crazy fast. I was expecting it to take a week or so given that it was a huge sale and prime shopping and shipping time of the year. Nope! I think it took like 4 days including the holiday. Heck I didn't even have time to get impatient and stalk the mailman...YAY!

So let me show you my Arabian Nights combo that I put on almost immediately after opening the package. I started with a base color of Dim Sum Plum by OPI, which I bought because the name made me giggle. Now that I've had it on my nails, I love it, plus I only needed one coat. I also got these in a buy one get 2 free sale at the hair salon inside of Walmart, then the nice cashier gave me a $5 off coupon so I only ended up paying $4.13 for 3 OPI
polishes...SCORE!

OPI Dim Sum Plum

Hit Polish's Arabian Nights over Dim Sum Plum

Arabian Nights over Dim Sum Plum.

I will be honest, I don't think I would have paired these two together. I already had Dim Sum Plum on my nails from the night before, and I just couldn't wait to get Arabian Nights on. Me being me couldn't take the time to take it off, repaint in a different color and then put Arabian Nights on. I mean that would have taken an hour longer, I NEEDED it on NOW! I actually like the end result though. I've been wearing it for a couple of days now. As usual with Hit Polish I didn't need a top coat. Just because I had to see it over black and white too, here it is swatched over those too. In person you can really see the micro gold glitters shine.

Arabian Nights over black and white.

What do you think of this combo? What colors would you pair Arabian Nights with?

Peace, Love and Cupcakes!

Silly Last Minute Thanksgiving Dinner Tragedy

So Sunday my family had our Thanksgiving dinner and Dad's birthday. It was pretty much a last minute plan thrown together due to some family having to work on Thanksgiving and others who live hours away from the rest of us being in town. Normally Thanksgiving is something I love to plan for, shop for and cook for. Usually it is my mom and I who do the majority of the cooking and then the cleaning afterwards too. This year not only was it last minute, but I am just not in the mood for festivities. I have so much stuff going on that the Grinch seems to have taken possession of my body and spirit. Not to mention my anxiety issues with crowds and being crammed in a tiny place. 

Sunday morning came, my alarm goes off, and.....I turned it off. So an hour and a half later I wake up and run to the kitchen to throw the turkey in the oven. Half way there it hits me, I feel like a truck of manure has run over me. My chest hurts I'm all rattly and wheezy, I have that oh crap I'm sick cough going on. Now mind you I have been doing this for over 2 months now, I just can't shake this whatever it is that keeps clinging on to me. So I get the turkey going, praying it gets done in time. My phone rings, it is the neighbor wanting to do their laundry. I explain that I have to be out of the door in just a few hours, and what happens? Yep you guessed it, there they are at my door baskets in hand. I honestly don't mind under normal conditions, but today of all days, Ugggggggggggh!!! I smile and give the polite "You know where everything is" and try to go about doing what needs to be done. NOPE, he wants to chit chat. OK fine, I chit chat, smile and nod, finally he leaves. Oh did I mention that I am still in my PJ's commando????? Yep sure was, and boy did that feel awkward hahaha! I get back to the task at hand only to minutes later here my phone ringing, it's mom wanting to shoot the breeze. Finally hang up with her only to have another knock at the door, neighbor again with more baskets, and yes I am still commando. Repeat this same scenario a few more times and add in random text messages, kids and cats. Oh and in between all of this I STILL HAVE TO DO MY NAILS!!!!!!!! 

I finally decide on what I think will be the perfect easy as pie mani. OPI's Suzi Loves Cowboys topped with Silly Lily's Candy Corn. I had swatched it the night before on a nail wheel and it looked amazing! I grab the OPI bottle and get to painting only to realize I am using the wrong color. Take that off and start again, one coat, two coats, dry dry dry would ya. Nope this girl has no quick dry drops or sprays, but after this I will be buying some. Finally it is dry enough to put the glitter on. I start putting it on and it just isn't going on as easy as it did the night before (insert pouty lip here), with every swipe the glitter is just coming off WHY WONT YOU STAY PUT?????? I keep fighting and finally get it on and let it dry enough to put my Seche Vite on only to look up and see I now have 15 minutes to get to my moms with the food that is still in the oven. Carefully I pull the turkey out of the oven and sit it on the stove, throw the pot holders on the counter. Ummm they are stuck to my fingers, OMG my nails are all messed up on my right hand. I have no time to fix it, so we pack everything in the van and take off. Hannah is in charge of watching the pies that refuse to set up in the whole 15 minutes they had before we ran out the door. She yells "Mommy the lemon pie is all to one side!" my response you ask? Tell her "I don't care what you do, just don't let it get all over!". As we are driving I see one of my elderly neighbors walking back from the little neighborhood store a mile up the street. I can't let him walk all the way back, so I tell the girls we are taking him home after I get Granny's cigarettes.  By time I come out of the store it is raining, cold and windy. I rush back to where he was walking and he is gone, so I have to drive almost home to turn around. Get to moms and start to get out, where the hell is Hannah? I'm starting to panic thinking maybe she got out at the store and I hadn't realized it, nope she had decided to get in the way back where the pies were. 

As usual we didn't start dinner on time, probably an hour or so later than what was planned. I did my best to keep at the outside borders of the crowd in moms place, you know so that I could escape if needed. Let's see in total there were 22 of us crammed into an apartment sized living room and kitchen, that isn't even all of us, some didn't or couldn't show up. We ate, celebrated Dad's birthday (a day late), talked, laughed, and I only had to escape a handful of times. 

What about my nails? Well I am not going to give a full review of the polish itself because I don't think it would be fair to. I had to do such a rush job and messed some up because they were still wet. I did love the combo though, so I will try it again soon. I will show you a picture I was able to snap before the tragic circumstances happened. 

Oops I guess I rushed cleanup too :o( OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys topped with Silly Lily's Candy Corn.

So there you have it, a crazy Sunday family dinner and my nail tragedy. This is where you can find Silly Lily Polish on Etsy, click here. I will do a full non crazy family dinner involved review soon, I promise! They have an awesome Christmas polish that I want BAD, so you may see that soon too!!!

Do you have any funny nail tragedies to share? What are your favorite quick dry products?

Peace, Love and Cupcakes!