A Girl Obsessed Swatch & Review Post - AGO, Mt Dew, and OompaLoompa Love

Hey hey peeps! I have another sweet AGO review for your face. I've had these polishes for a minute, but after ripping off my nail and butchering the rest of 'em I opted to wait till they grew out a bit more before I swatched these pretties. Then I got crazy busy do to unexpected bullshit circumstances. Grrrr! Anywho, the dealio is this...after reviewing Sock Monkey I had to buy the full-size. Since I was able to use a 20% off discount code I went ahead and ordered another one of my AGO lemmings - appropriately named AGO. I was also eye-ballin' Mt Dew and Oompa Loompa Love hard core. Lucky for me, Sam was awesome enough to send me the minis. SCORE! Now I honestly can't say for sure which is my favorite, I love them all. I'll start off this review with those two sweet, sweet minis. Ready for it?

BAM!

That's 2 coats Oompa Loompa Love over OPI Ridge Filler, with a coat of OTD. I love this stuff yo, I'm not even kidding. And, this may be the best formula EVER. It's just perfect, for lack of a more detailed description. You may or may not have noticed crellies are my absolute fave, and this one may have surpassed Sock Monkey on my favorite crelly list. I love the light nude-colored base, the mix of glitters is adorable too. I have an irresistible urge to show you a closeup...

 See - adorable, right? Bright green, copper, and silver hex glitters are mixed in with bright orange bars and red hearts. I totally feel the oompa loompa love, I think. That or I've developed hypertension. Hmm, regardless I fuggin' love this polish. And check this out...select shades are on sale 25% off at AGO's Etsy shop, Oompa Loompa Love being one of 'em! Click here to open up the shop listing, better hurry though - there's only 4 full size bottles left at $6 a pop! All these back and forth trips to Texas are starting to get expensive, or I would've already snatched up one of these babies.

Next up is Mt Dew. This one is special. Sam made this in honor of a friend. I decided I wanted this polish after seeing Lacey's gorgeous swatches at My Boyfriend Hates Makeup. Check out her post here. I love the yellow jelly base. The red, bright green, and neon yellow hex glitters are friggin' perfect. Those white bar glitters make it even more perfect. Ha, they remind me of straws. I love it! The formula is perfect too, no surprise there.  Anywho,  my eyes are thirsty - must have Mt Dew! (Ugh, sometimes I am so lame).

 

I decided to try it over Sinful Colors Irish Green. I personally think I rocked it :) That's 2 coats btw. Delicious would be a good word for it. Now I need to tell you guys something. I actually had a very hard time swatching this polish. OMG, I love it! I couldn't make myself take it off, but I knew I needed to try Mt Dew with different undies. So after 2 days I finally forced myself to remove it. I decided to try it over Sinful Colors Unicorn. The hubs snatched it up for me a couple weeks ago and I hadn't tried it yet, so I figured why not? I got my answer to that real quick. Mt Dew has an awesome formula, but I believe my blogger buddy Cynthia from Of Life And Lacquer hit the nail on the head when she described SC Unicorn as having a "shit-tastic" formula. They should've named it Streaker or something. And wtf, am I the only one that couldn't get the crap to dry? Retarded. Oh well, it still looks awesome when I throw some Mt Dew on top. Check it out yo...

I love this swatch too. At first I was afraid to try yellow undies with Mt Dew. I thought it would drown out the bright yellow hex glitters, but I think it turned out pretty dang cute. Even though yellow isn't really my color, I'm totally diggin' this. Here's another closeup for your face...

Last, but not least is AGO. It's a flippin' adorable mix of white, black, and neon pink glitters, with iridescent flakies that shift from blue to green to yellow in a clear base. As with all the other swatches, I used 2 coats of AGO and a topcoat. Since it's so bright, I felt adventurous and decided to try it out over the brightest friggin' yellow I had - that being Lightening from Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri line. Not sure what my deal is with yellow lately, the color looks horrid on me. For some reason I keep finding ways to implement them in my reviews though. 

 

Something that does agitate me about this...for some weird reason I can't get the neon pink hex glitters to actually show up neon in my photos. What's up with that? Oh well, you're gonna have to trust me on this one. They are crazy bright. My photos don't do it justice, I've tried. AGO's formula is awesome too, as I figured it would be. Since I kinda had a theme going on with the Sinful Colors, I decided to see what AGO looked like over Cinderella...

This one's my fave combo. The pink shimmer in Cinderella goes perfect with AGO. But I do gotta tell ya, I did try AGO over a bright pink. It looked awesome. Unfortunately, I was unprepared and didn't get any photos. Oopsies, sorry 'bout that peeps. But here's a closeup of AGO over Cinderella...

So, my verdict on A Girl Obsessed Oompa Loompa Love, Mt Dew, and AGO....I love 'em! No joke, every AGO polish I've tried has blown me away. I recommend any polish addict try out at least one of Sam's creations. I'd be willing to bet you'll go back for more. Remember that 25% off sale I mentioned earlier? Well, that's to make room for some brand new AGO pretties and I can't friggin' wait to get my hands on some of those! Click here to see what's currently available at AGO's Etsy shop. Better hurry up and score some cheap indies while you still can! Now comes the annoying part...time for the interrogation. Which swatch is your favorite? Got any AGO polish yet? Got any lemmings? Gonna take advantage of the 25% off sale? And dudes...did you catch the sneak peek of the new AGO pretties? You should definitely like A Girl Obsessed on Facebook to stay up-to-date on shop news yo. If hand-made jewelry is your thing, be sure to check out Cooley Jooelry on Facebook too. Let me know whatcha think in the comments. I like comments, they make me feel like I'm not just talking to myself  :) Until next time peeps...

Liebsters Award Post

Hey peeps, I've been nominated for the Liebsters Award by Tabitha from Kiss on the Chic! That's so sweet, Thank you so much Tabs! If you haven't checked out her blog yet, might I suggest you do so here. She posts some serious swatches, no kidding. She's an awesome nail artist too btw. 

This award was designed to be a blog award in the "pay it forward" fashion. Once you've been nominated, you award it to five blogs that you like that have fewer than 200 followers, to encourage new visitors to visit these blogs.

The rules for accepting this award are:

You need to thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog. Post the award onto your blog. Give the award to five bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know that you have given them this awesome award!

So, without further ado - my nominees:

 Melissa at Claw of Cthulhu

 Nicole and Desirae at Mommies' Manis

 Lynda at The Nail Files

 Stephanie at At Peace With Polish

 Brianna at Breezy The Nail Polish Lover

Each of my nominees are awesome nail artists and polish bloggers, so please check 'em out yo. They're totally worth following I promise :)

Lace and Lacquers March Glitter Guilty Pleasures Box Review + Giveaway!

Hey Peeps! Check out Lace and Lacquers review on the March Glitter Guilty Pleasures Box. If you haven't heard of it yet, Glitter Guilty Pleasures is a new monthly polish subscription, kinda like Julep - only better. Each month you get a "monthly mini" that goes out to each subscriber, a full size "monthly me" polish customized based on your preference. They also include some guilty pleasures, cooler months you get artisan chocolate. Sounds good right? It get's better though...Immediately following the review from Lace and Lacquers, she got a rafflecopter widget posted. One lucky-loo will win the April Guilty Pleasures box! Score! Click the image to be directed to the review and giveaway. Did I mention it's open internationally too? Yeppers, so hop to it. The giveaway closes March 26th, 2013 11:59 PM EST. Good luck peeps!

Another SWEET Indie Review featuring Pinkey Nails Lenore and Poppy

So, Wassup peeps? Kinda out of character for me to publish more than one polish review in a week, but I did not want to put this one off - tiny nasty nubbins or not. My awesome friend Sara has been experimenting with hand-mixed frankens for a while. The big news is, her hobby has recently become a small home business venture, Pinkey Nails officially opened on Etsy barely a month ago, and I appreciate the opportunity to show you guys a new indie that you may not know about yet. A couple added bonuses are that I get to try out some awesome new polish and help my friend gain some exposure! So let's do this review, shall we?

First swatch is Lenore. It's like a metallic mint green with a slight blue undertone to it, and a healthy dose of holo blended in. In certain positions and lighting, you can see a subtle pink shimmer. I love that base color, it reminds me of the base in Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream, although I don't have the DL to compare it to. I guess I could be totally off on that one. The glitter combination in Lenore is interesting. There's black matte diamonds, red matte hearts, white matte hex glitters. I'm not exactly pleased with how the photos turned out. I've swatched this 2 times and I still can't seem to pick up the holo or the pink shimmer. Bummer. Anywho, just trust me - it's in there. At least the photos are pretty dang color accurate. I wouldn't bulls**t you about polish, it's serious business! Check out mah nubby-nubs!

See, told you I have retarded short nail beds. One of the reasons I was so upset about ripping the nail on my bird finger down to the nub. Lame. Super lame. I let my OCDish tendencies get the better of me and I hacked 'em all off. Don't laugh, it's not funny! I decided to post a closeup shot even though my nubs look stupid and I couldn't capture the holo. I feel I should tell you that I don't think my photos due Lenore justice. It's a gorgeous color. Here's some nubs for your face...

 I'm still frustrated about my inability to photograph the slight pink shimmer and holo. You'd think it wouldn't be an issue with the new fancy-smancy camera. I think I should enroll in a class or something to learn how to use this damn thing correctly. It still takes pretty decent shots considering I don't have a clue what I'm doing and I'm constantly playing around with the settings. I'll improve over time (I hope). Anywho, the formula of Lenore is awesome - perfect consistency. I didn't have any issues with glitter placement, but I only added a few since my nubbins are so damn small anyway. It's pretty sheer. I used 2 coats of OPI Ridge Filler as a base and layered 3 coats of Lenore over it for both swatches above. I decided to swatch it over Seche Clear out of curiosity. Check it out yo!

 I was relieved to be able to catch some of the holo in this shot. Even 3 coats comes out pretty sheer using a clear base coat. Not that I'm complaining, I'm interested to try Lenore out over some other shades. I have a feeling it will look amazing over a dark blue or green shimmer. I intentionally left off most of the glitter in the swatch above, the black diamond and white hexes were accidental and I was feeling a bit lazy so I didn't bother brushing them off. I think I may prefer to wear it this way. I would love to see a version of Lenore containing green matte diamonds, I'm not even sure if you can get those but the more polish I see with little diamonds, the more I like 'em. Now I shall tell you about my second, and favorite Pinkey Nails polish...Poppy! I love that name btw. It's a sheer pearl white loaded with pink shimmer and holo micro-glitter, topped off with the perfect amount of little black matte diamonds. I think this one will look awesome layered over other shades too. For this swatch, I opted for a tinted base and used 2 coats of OPI Ridge Filler then layered 3 coats of Poppy over that. I figured this one was a bit too sheer to try with a clear base and no undies. I love the way it turned out....

Nice, but I can't wait to see how Poppy looks over other shades - a pastel yellow in particular. Hmm, might have to try that in a couple days actually. The only thing I don't like about the swatch above is my photo. Anywho, trust me...Poppy is much prettier in person, and I'm sure it looks best on longer nails. My tiny stubs look gross, I hate 'em! Anywho, here's a closeup for good measure...

I did manage to capture a tiny bit of the holo and pink shimmer in that shot. Those black diamonds are adorable. Poppy's formula is just as awesome as Lenore, perfect consistency to work with. Dry time seems good. It's just such a bummer to have to swatch with these itty bitty stubs, there's not much there to paint! Anywho, I've spoken with Sara about it and she's generously agreed to extend her 20% Off Promo for my blog stalkers! Awesome huh? Use code OPEN2013 at check out to receive 20% off your order from Pinkey Nails on Etsy.com. Hold on a sec though, I made it even easier for ya...Here is the link to her Etsy shop. Sara not only sells her hand-mixed polish, she's got several listings for some cute and unique hand made jewelry. You'll also find some nail art and frankening goodies at decent prices so check it out! To stay up-to-date on shop news you can like Pinkey Nails on Facebook if you'll gimme a click here.

Now, here's the part where I give you my honest opinions on Pinkey Nails as a new indie brand...The two I tried were awesome to work with, and I love the sheer, shimmer-holo finish. Lenore and Poppy are both gorgeous alone and I'm sure they're just as awesome used as layering polish. I love how Sara implemented holo into both of them, and I plan to try more of her pretties in the future. In fact, there's an awesome holo-glitter top coat listed on the shop appropriately named Shiny Star that is at the top of my wishlist, and I have a feeling that one will be one of her best sellers. I love layering polish, make it a holo and I'm sold! Okie dokie peeps, you know me by now (so to speak). I can't end this post without interrogating you guys. What do you think of Pinkey Nails? Did you check out her Shiny Star listing yet? Don't you friggin' love it? Comments make me happy, let me know if you're using the coupon code. I'd love to know what you decided to order ;)  I want to order Shiny Star real bad but I'm poor till payday, again. Stupid bills! It's ok though, I can live vicariously though you. Anywho, I should tell ya these polishes were given to me for review. All these opinions are my own, and my opinion is Pinkey Nails is pretty darn awesome! Hey, don't forget the vote-like-share contest is still going on Facebook! Share it each day for an extra entry. Mmmkay, I think that is all for now folks...'Till next time.

Of Life And Lacquer - Nailtiques Moscow Review & Giveaway

Guys, by now you know I always try to blog about Of Life And Lacquer's current giveaways. Besides being crazy generous and constantly showing her appreciation to her loyal blog-stalkers, Cynthia is just a badass blogger and a super-awesome swatcher. If you're not already subscribed to Of Life And Lacquer on WordPress click on her giveaway photo below, and...You're Welcome. You can thank me later  :) While you're there, check out her blog sale to score some pretties at a sweet price!

Zoya Lovely Collex Swatch-A-Thon - Gei Gei, Piaf, Julie

Hey hey peeps! I mentioned on my last post that I won one of Love for Lacquer's blog giveaways. Prizes being 3 bottles from the Zoya Lovely collection. You can check out Jess's review on the full collection here. You should follow her blog while you're at it, she always posts awesome swatches and hosts sweet giveaways. I used the 3 bottles I won to swatch AGO Lacey for my last review, you can check that out here if you're interested in seeing some awesome indies. Anywho, I'm relieved  I swatched these before breaking not one, but 3 of my nails a couple days ago. I call that a friggin nailtastrophe! It's totally ridiculous, I ripped the nail off my bird finger on my swatch hand all the way down to the skin. Still hurts too, and I'm very pissy about the whole ordeal so the hubs took me shopping. I bought a bunch of new nail care crap. Hopefully I won't be rocking these nasty little nubbins too long. When I publish my next review, you'll notice I was cursed with crazy short nail beds, hence one reason I got so pissed about ripping my middle fingernail down to the skin. I'm OCDish about my nails, they have to all be the same length or I can't stand it, so I had to butcher ALL of them down to the nubs. Yep, I'm not a very happy polishaholic at the moment although it was pretty cool of the hubs to take me on a mini shopping spree. He even grabbed me 2 of the Sinful Colors Sugar Rush Collection polishes that I didn't have while I was busy shoving my sad excuse for nails in my Walgreens Lady's face. Gotta love a dude that goes out of his way to buy some polish for his chick, especially when she's being such a spaz. Wait a minute...Me thinks me gets it now... He buys me polish, I quit bitching. I'm all "Ooooh, new pretties!" and forget what I was originally pissed about. Well played Mr Willis, well played...Anywho, enough about my stupid tiny nubbins, lets get on with the review shall we?


My first swatch is Zoya Gei Gei. It's a delicate, pastel pink packed with shimmer. I'll be totally honest with you guys, cause I feel like I can without you judging me. Or maybe you will, I don't care - to each his own! Until November 2012 I didn't own a pink nail polish other than a couple bottles of neon pink nail art paint. It's just never been one of my favorite colors. I have several bottles of glitter polish, some of those contain pink glitter I just didn't care for any pink solids I've seen. I've started to change my mind recently though, and I was stoked to add Gei Gei to my ever-growing polish stash. Check it out to see why...

It's so delicate looking, surprisingly I love it though! Pastels were not my thing for the longest time. I always went for darker colors before, but this is so friggin pretty! I've been really into nudes and pastels lately. I love Zoya's formula too. As I expected, application and dry time were awesome. I used 2 coats OPI Ridge Filler as a base and one coat Out The Door top coat for each swatch of this post. I think it sounds better for me to give you all this info from the beginning rather than repeating it with every swatch description like I've done on past reviews :) See? Told ya my blogging would improve with time. The new camera is a nice improvement too, don't you think? I've still got a lot to learn about it, but I've managed to go from taking 20-80 shots trying to get the best swatch photos to just taking 10-20 to get blog-worthy swatch pics. I'm really happy about that! Anywho, back to the review...


Zoya Piaf is the second polish I'm reviewing from Zoya's Spring 2013 Lovely Collection. If you've read any past reviews of mine, you'll know yellow is not my color at all. Most gold shades look icky on me too. I suppose I could change that with a tan but I'm not fond of wrinkles or skin cancer. Besides that, I have lots and lots of tattoos. Tons of uv exposure isn't great for the pigments. So, if yellow-intolerance is the price I have to pay to be wrinkle-free, skin cancer-free, and have bright ass tattoos then so be it. Anywho, Piaf is the one shade from this collection I figured would set in one of my polish drawers forever, never being used. In my opinion, yellows are gorgeous, just not on me...

I was pleasantly surprised by Piaf. Although I'm sure it would look better on someone that wasn't basically transparent, I didn't think Piaf looked that bad on me. I totally rocked it when I layered AGO Lacey over it! Piaf is another delicate pastel packed with metallic shimmer. Very light and creamy looking, for lack of a better description. Here's Piaf described by Zoya (insert from Zoya.com)... 

Zoya Nail Polish in Piaf can be best described as a full-coverage, fresh forsythia yellow metallic. A light, cheerful yellow that's soft and easy to wear thanks to the subtle shimmer finish. Originally created as a custom runway shade for fashion designer Zang Toi.

As expected, Piaf has an awesome formula. It's opaque after 2 coats, I added a third for just to touch up. Dry time was great, a big plus when you drink as much coffee and soda as I do. Yeah, I'm a huge health nut if you haven't noticed (I'm extremely sarcastic too). I'll probably be using Piaf to swatch with glitters quite a bit this spring/summer, I'm thrilled to finally have a yellow polish that doesn't look totally awful on me! Because of Piaf the hubs decided to grab Unicorn from SC Sugar Rush collection yesterday. I haven't swatched it yet. I have my doubts since it's a cream. I think Piaf's metallic finish definitely aids in the wear-ability for me. Oh well, soon we shall see. You know what comes next right? If you've ever read a PDALT review you know I like to save my favorite swatch for last. So, without further ado feast your eyeballs on Zoya Julie...

 I love this one! Purple is my favorite color, although lately I've been branching out and trying to acquire other shades. I actually think green is becoming my new favorite, but damn I love the way Julie looks! I really want to try it as a stamping polish, I think it's the perfect formula for it. Speaking of stamping, am I the only person to acquire one of those Salon Express stamping kits and NOT be able to get the damn image to transfer? I've tried stamping polish, regular polish, wtf am I doing wrong here? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated btw! Ok, sorry I keep bouncing off subject. Too much coffee, Woooo! As with every bottle of Zoya I've ever had, the formula of Julie is nothing short of awesome sauce. The lilac shimmer is so pretty. I'm fairly certain I'll end up ordering the other 3 from this collection during Zoya's next promo. I still surprise myself at my sudden fondness for pastel shades. Like Gei Gei and Piaf, Julie is also totally passable with 2 coats. The coverage is awesome, I chose to use 3 to touch up any light spots. Quick dry time is one of my favorite things about the Zoya polishes I have tried. They definitely rank up there with Sation as one of my favorite mainstream polish brands. Come to think of it, I don't recall EVER trying any of their glitter polish, only their creams and shimmers. Oh no! I need to change that! I'm beginning to think I might like the Pixie Dust collection, still not 100% sold on them yet though. Anywho, because I'm so thoughtful, I've included the direct link to Zoya's site listing for the Lovely Collection  here. You can pick 'em up for $8 each, awesome quality for the price peeps. BUT - before you make a purchase I do recommend creating an account via the link I provided above. You will automatically be enrolled in their reward program to earn points for Zoya freebies. To get you started, Zoya will immediately add a coupon code for one FREE bottle of polish to your account! Sweet deal right? Remember, you must sign up using the link above to take advantage of this promo! It will help me out too. I'll get 100 reward points after your first purchase goes through. SCORE!

So, what do you guys think? Which swatch is your favorite? Let me know in the comment section, I like comments :) Be honest, I'd like to know...how many bottles of Zoya nail polish do you own? Are there any of them you don't like? Any lemmings? Don't forget, I'm trying to get up to 300 Facebook likes so I'm doing a vote-like-share contest. I was pretty broke at the time I started it, so the original deal was to like and share, leave a comment telling me which polish prize you want to win, then I was going to use the other polish for a future Twitter giveaway. Tell ya what. This contest has being going for quite a while and I'm stalled at 180 likes. I'm thinking about switching things up a bit and ending the contest early so I can get started on my next giveaway, which will be happening some time in April. I'm trying to get it worked out now, hopefully there will be some sweet indies included :) I'll also do what I can to make this one open internationally. Just bare with me folks, I'll keep you updated! Be sure to like Polished Dreams and Life Things on Facebook here to stay up-to-date on contest info and stuff! Until next time Peeps...

A Girl Obsessed Swatch-A-Thon Post : Lacey, Mile High Club, Sock Monkey

Hey peeps! I planned to have this post published on Walking Dead Day, but I couldn't stop swatching...Anywho, I'm re-watching yesterday's TWD episode as I speak, er type...Am I the only one that thinks Andrea is a self-righteous ass monkey that needs to be sacrificed to the walkers for the sake of all mankind? Ok, maybe that was a little harsh, but seriously that chick annoys the hell out of me. So, let me get to the subject of this super-awesome blog post...A Girl Obsessed creator Sam gave me the opportunity to review some of her hand-mixed polish! She mailed me 3 minis in the most adorable little bag, check this out....

 I love it when an indie maker takes the time to add a little extra touch to the packages they ship out :) And, I got extra lucky. The day after receiving my AGO minis I also got my new Zoyas that I won from Love For Lacquer's blog giveaway. I haven't got a post published for these yet, but you can check out Jess's review here. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, I knew exactly what I was going to swatch Lacey over! I think they were good choices too. I used one coat of Out The Door top coat for all of my swatches, figured I'd go ahead and throw that out there so I don't have to keep repeating it.


First I swatched AGO Lacey - inspired by Sam's friend, another awesome blogger/polish addict Lacey of My Boyfriend Hates Makeup.  The polish that is the result of Sam's inspiration is a prissy, pretty pink glitter mix along with a few random iridescent shreds and large hexes in a clear base. You've got some bright pink circles, small red squares, matte hex glitters and the slightest bit of micro glitters for a little extra sparkle. To be totally honest, Lacey is not a polish I would have thought to purchase. I like pink, but I didn't think I liked it that much. I was wrong, dead wrong. I love it, and the Zoyas I won from the Lovely Collection couldn't have been more perfect to layer it with. Check this out...

I'll admit I got a little glitter happy with this one, but it's so pretty and shiny I couldn't help myself. The swatch above shows 2 coats of Lacey (and some extra glitter dabbing) over Zoya Gei Gei. I wasn't surprised to find the formula of Lacey was awesome. I expected it would be, I've tried 2 other AGO polishes and haven't been disappointed yet. The next swatch is something I never would've thought I'd be able to wear...Yellow and pink, together, on my own fingers and I loved it. I don't usually do yellow polish, it clashes with my pallid skin tone but I'm really diggin' Zoya Piaf. Throw some Lacey on there and you got some serious awesome sauce....

 

See what I mean? Awesome sauce. I love that combo! That's one coat of AGO Lacey (again, some extra glitter dabbing) over Zoya Piaf. It totally makes me think of Easter 2004. I had bought my daughter the cutest (and brightest) yellow and pink Easter dress. It rained like hell so we had to hide the Easter eggs in the house. We used plastic eggs too, so for like a month straight my 3 year old kept asking for us to hide her damn eggs :) Nostalgic. Anywho, back to the task at hand! Lol, see what I did there? Task at hand, nail polish swatches? Ok, ok... I saved my favorite swatch of Lacey for last because that's just how I roll, so here's a shot of Lacy over Zoya Julie...

Again I used one coat of Lacey, this time I didn't dab on any extra glitter. I thought it came out perfect, no need to fix what ain't broken, right? I'm thinking of doing my Easter mani as a Julie/Piaf gradient topped with Lacey. I think it'd be adorable. Here's another shot in different lighting and no backdrop. The pink shows up a little better...

The next AGO polish I'm reviewing is Mile High Club. It's a unique mix of medium and large sized blue matte squares and hex glitter in a clear base. There's also small shiny blue squares, medium white matte squares, matte silver hex glitters, large iridescent hex glitters and...Sam just reformulated Mile High Club and added holo to the base! I had already been waiting to try this one, and the moment Sam announced she'd added holo I had to announce my excitement! She was awesome enough to send me this one to review, isn't that sweet? Check it out yo...

The swatch above shows two coats of AGO Mile High Club over Sation Stirring Silver. Again, perfect formula. Minimal fishing involved with getting the larger glitters, another thing I love about AGO's polish. And speaking (or writing) of love, I love this combo! It's so gorgeous. But like Lacey, Mile High Club is versatile so you know I had to do it up right and try it out over more colors. Here's a shot of Mile High Club over China Glaze Red Satin...

I love this, I think I have my July 4th mani picked out already. It's so patriotic looking. Did I mention I love how versatile this polish is? Of course I had to see how it looked over a dark blue...

I used 2 coats of Mile High Club over Pro10 Starstruck. This is my favorite combo yet, my photo does not do this justice. Serious eye candy! Mile High Club is definitely going on my wishlist, I must have the full-size bottle! I have to see it over more colors...

The next AGO I have to review is Sock Monkey. Yep, I saved my favorite for last. I squealed like a pig when I pulled this one out of my little bag. I've been dying to try Sock Monkey, I'm a sucker for black glitter, matte glitter, circle glitter, and crelly polish...Sock Money is all of that plus some. It's stupid cute, and I mean that as a compliment.

See what I mean by stupid cute now? I had to include my thumb on this one, four fingers is not enough Sock Money! I LOVE those big black circles! This polish is so cute and unique. Besides the black circles, there's red matte hexes, small copper hexes and red micro glitter. As with any polish containing large glitters, they tend to sink to the bottom of the bottle so you need to shake it up good before you use it. And obviously you have to do a bit of fishing for the black circles, but I found that shaking the bottle after painting each nail helps cut down on a lot of that. The formula of Sock Monkey was awesome, perfect consistency. It's very creamy and easily spread across the nail even with the tiny mini brush, sweet! Undies aren't a must with this polish, I like that too. It's pretty damn opaque after 2 coats when I layer it over 2 coats of OPI Ridge Filler. I added a third coat anyway for a little more glitter and depth. I love Sock Monkey so much, it's going right to the top of my wishlist. It's so cute and fun, totally takes me back to the days I carried around my own sock monkey. Awww, more nostalgia. Just for good measure, I cannot resist showing you guys a closeup...

Have I mentioned I love that polish? I will have the full-size Sock Monkey soon, you can bet on that. So, my verdict on A Girl Obsessed....Obviously, I love each one I've tried. I had never tried an indie polish till Sam created Faery Farts aka Fae for me. Check out my review on that here. I also did a review on The Walking Dead polish, click here to check that one out. The 3 free base, awesome application, and fun, unique mix of glitters make A Girl Obsessed one of my favorite polish brands EVER. I totally recommend any polish addict give AGO a try, your polish collection isn't complete without at least one of them  :)  You can check out what's for sale on AGO's Etsy shop here. To stay up to date on shop news you can like A Girl Obsessed on Facebook. Check out Sam's other venture, Cooley Jooelry also on Facebook to see some sweet handmade jewelry too! 

The minis I wrote about were given to me to review. All opinions are my own, and yes I do LOVE AGO! So, I wanna know what you guys think. Which swatch is your favorite? Do you own any of the AGO pretties yet? Got any lemmings? Leave me a comment, I like comments  :) Oh, don't forget about my vote-like-share contest on Facebook. Help me get 300 FB likes peeps, I wanna give away some polish ;) I may just go ahead and give both away and buy something else for a Twitter giveaway...

Revlon Swatches - Girly, Ritzy, and Scandelous

Hey peeps! I decided to swatch some of my untrieds from my shopping spree a couple weeks ago. I figured I'd start things off with some Revlon swatches. I finally found Girly, Ritzy, and Scandalous. Sadly my search continues for Whimsical, I'm starting to think I'm not meant to have that one. Seriously. Anywho the Revlon's I did snag are pretty damn cute. Check it out....

Here's a swatch of Revlon Girly from the Bubble Gum Days Urban Nights collection. Now I have to be honest...This is one of those creations that look better in the bottle than my nails. I first tried 3 coats of Girly over Seche Clear. I really did not like it, kinda washed out with my pallid skin tone. So...I decided it would look better with a tinted base. Props to Melissa of The Claw of Cthulhu, I got the idea from reading her swatch post. Check it out here. Since I really like the way OPI Ridge Filler looks on my nails I figured, why not? I think it was a good choice...I used 3 coats of OPI Ridge Filler (I love the creamy matte finish, don't judge me), then 3 coats of Girly, and I topped it off with 2 coats of OTD.

The mix of purple, light pink, gold, and bright pink glitters is fun but I think I'll keep my eyes peeled for some indie dupes. The formula of Girly wasn't the best, but not their worst either. It was streaky and, is it just my bottle, or do all of them have taco glitters? I mean, it's not to bad but they are definitely not flat. I didn't have a hard time smoothing them out so I guess it doesn't matter. Another thing I dislike about Revlon, not just Girly, is those skinny ass brushes. I have a really hard time not streaking the hell out of my finish with those things, yet I continue to buy Revlon because they always manage to release something I think I can't live without. Here's another one of those...

Revlon Scandalous has about the same formula as Girly, only this one doesn't have the slightly curled glitters. It's a black base with medium purple hexes with purple micro glitters mixed in. This one was streaky like girly (thanks to the skinny brush I think), dry time seemed a bit slow too. Overall it's still pretty but I doubt I'll wear it much. Next up I'm gonna show you a swatch of Revlon Ritzy....

Ritzy was another Revlon shade I thought I couldn't live without. I was wrong. Nightmare formula! I found this one to be thick and streaky, a complete pain in the ass to work with. I don't know if there's just a bad batch that I happened to get into or what, my bottle of Ritzy sucks! Dry time was slow, and it took 3, yep 3 coats of OTD to halfway smooth it out. I'm definitely going to add polish thinner to this one if and when I decide to use it again. The base is black, obviously. It's not a black jelly either, more opaque, maybe a crelly? Anywho, the mix of silver and black hexes with the silver micro glitter is cute, but the base is too opaque. The black glitters don't show at all and the base covers up a lot of the silver. Overall Revlon Ritzy is my least favorite of the 3. FAIL. So, do you have any of these? If so, do you like 'em or hate 'em? Did you have the same issues I had? I'm interested in hearing your opinions, lemme know in the comments!

 Oh hey, I almost forgot to mention the vote-like-share contest I'm having on Facebook! Last weekend I had to go to Texas with the Hubs so he could visit his mom and stepdad whose health is failing rapidly. While we were there we took the mother-in-law to Walmart and of course I had to check out the polish aisle. There wasn't much I was impressed with but I did find some Hardy Candy Matte Topcoat. SCORE! If I heard correctly Hard Candy is discontinuing it so I snatched up the last bottle! I figured it would be a sweet prize for a like and share contest. So, here's what ya gotta do...Like Polished Dreams and Life Things Facebook page, like and share the original contest post pinned to the top, be sure to leave me a comment on the post thread letting me know you liked and shared. Tell me which prize you want to win while you're at it. I'm going to let this one run for a little while, I've decided to close it once I reach 300 Facebook likes. After this contest is over we will do a "follow-tweet-share" contest on Twitter. Winner will get whichever polish wasn't picked by the winner of the Facebook contest. Sound good to you peeps? I'm sorry, again I'm only able to ship within the US. I'm kinda poor right now, but I will make it up to my international polish pals soon :)

Like, Share, and Win Giveaway from Pinkey nails - by sara

Hey hey peeps! Here's another sweet giveaway I wanted to share with you. This one is hosted and sponsored by my friend Sara of Pinkey nails - by sara. You can check out what she's got listed on her brand new Etsy shop here. There's some uber cute indies she's just started adding on there, along with some nail art stuff so be sure & check it out yo! Now, more about the giveaway....It's a Facebook contest, not affiliated with FB of course, but the dealio is...head over to Pinkey nails - by sara on Facebook and like her page, you can do that here. You must like the post, click the image below to be directed to it. Share it publicly on your Facebook page, then leave a comment on the original post thread saying "liked & shared". Easy Peasy! Contest ends on March 10th, so get to liking & sharing mmmkay? Here's the prizes! There's 2 winners, Each winner gets a new Sinful Colors polish and a Pinkey nails - by sara mini! USA only peeps. You know shipping rates are nuts!

OPI Oz The Great And Powerful swatches and giveaway from Of Life And Lacquer!

Hey peeps! I'm really excited about this giveaway, I've been eyeballing swatches of OPI's Oz The Great And Powerful collection since the release. Go figure, one of my fave bloggers actually thought of us and picked up a set of minis for a giveaway! SCORE! So, if you are not already subscribed to Of Life And Lacquer, you better get to it. Cynthia posts some of the best swatch photos out there and she's always having these awesome giveaways! Click the image below to be directed to her swatch post and rafflecopter widget! Good luck yo!

Giveaway Winner Announced!

Hey peeps! My first giveaway ended at 12am CST.  I've just finished verifying and emailing the winner. Wanna know who it is?

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Congrats to the winner! Please respond to the email with your shipping info within 48 hours or I'll have to pick another one...This was a lot of fun, I'll have to do it again soon :) Thank you to everyone that entered, and to all that are following me. Hope you'll stick around!

Shimmer Polish long overdue swatch and review post

Hey peeps! HAPPY WALKING DEAD DAY!!!! Long time no swatch post huh? Sorry about that, I've been a bit busy lately and to be totally honest...my nails have been looking like s**t because of it. Shhh, that's my dirty little secret. I did do a guest post last week for Of Life and Lacquer, I'm pretty stoked about that. If you didn't catch it, you can do so here. Anywho, I won several awesome bottles of Shimmer Polish a couple months back. Yes, shame on me for not blogging about it sooner :(   But, they are awesome polishes and I figured I really needed to make time to swatch them! So here's the dealio...I entered the Nasty Nail Art contest, hosted and sponsored by several awesome bloggers and indie makers. I only entered because it sounded like fun. I'm a horrible nail artist and had absolutely no intentions on actually winning anything...Crazy thing is, I did! LMFAO! Peeps actually liked my Bushy Beaver nail art, you can check out my entry post here but be forewarned...it's vulgar and disgusting, not meant for young eyes. Anywho, I won 5th place which happened to be several bottles of Shimmer Polish. SCORE! And a couple weeks later I ended up getting lucky again and winning one of Shimmer Polish's Facebook contests, so the awesome Shimmer ladies ended up sending me a total of 8 bottles of polish! Nice, very nice! For that reason, I'm going to make this a 2 part post. Without further ado, how 'bout those swatches?!?




Here's a shot of Shimmer Jenny over Sinful Colors Cinderella....This swatch shows 2 coats of Jenny over Cinderella, with 2 thin coats of OTD. It's really impossible for me to tell you all the colors used to create Jenny, I found it equally as hard to get a photo that captured the true beauty of it. I decided to take bottle shots of each polish so you could get a better look though.

Not the greatest bottle shot, but It's not easy to get photos of glitter bombs. Regardless of the sub-quality photo, you can see the base is basically just blue glitter. There's also red, purple, orange, gold, teal, holo, and who knows what else packed off in this one bottle. I love it. Sizes range from micro to medium hexes, it's so much prettier in person.

Next I want to show you my fave. This one is just simply Shimmer "Giveaway" polish. I'm assuming that means it's limited edition, which makes it all the more special to me :) I found OPI on sale at a local Targe. Yes, I totally meant to leave the "t" off. I watch too much American Dad, so ever since I heard Francine call it Targe I had to start saying it too. Don't judge me! Anywho, I found OPI's Not Like The Movies for $5.95 and knew I had to rock it with Shimmer's Giveaway polish. I think it was a good choice, check it out yo!

 

 

I personally think they look perfect together. The swatch above shows 3 coats of Shimmer Giveaway polish over OPI Not Like The Movies, with 2 coats of OTD. Now, there's a couple reasons why the Giveaway polish is my fave...For one thing, it's the most unique Shimmer Polish I have, and another reason is because there's small holo bars in there! Wooo! I know lots of folks have a love-hate relationship with bar glitters but I love 'em when they're mixed with other glitters. Here's another impossible bottle shot... besides the small holo bars, there's a healthy mix of gold, orange, green, purple, blue, red, large lilac hexes, medium holo hexes...There's probably more. But you get the jest of it...Glitter Bomb!

Next swatch is my second fave of my SP collection. Shimmer's Marilyn would make Misses Monroe proud. It's a gorgeous deep burgundy red jelly, with red and burgundy micro-glitters. Alone this polish actually dries to a gritty, matte-like finish reminiscent of textured polish in my opinion. For my swatch I used 3 coats of Marilyn with 2 coats of Seche Vite. I thought the formula was a little too thirsty for OTD, not that I'm complaining. Check it out...

And my best bottle shot yet...This one was much easier. Good grief that's gorgeous! I actually like this one better than CG's Ruby Pumps...Marilyn has much more depth to it. I'm like, apparition-white though...I'm sure ladies with darker skin tones could rock this better than I do, but I still love it!

Now here's my 3rd favorite Shimmer polish...It's another "giveaway" polish, therefor has no name so I shall call it Fat Tuesday because that's what it makes me think of. It's an awesome base of orange micro-glitter with green, purple, and possibly other small glitters mixed in. There's also medium gold and holo hexes, which totally sells it for me. Unfortunately, it's impossible for me to capture the full awesomeness of this polish. The hubs just bought me a nice, crazy-complicated camera a couple weeks ago. You'd think I'd figured out how to take better photos with it by now. Obviously I have a lot to learn...

Sorry for the awkward angle of that one, I wanted the purple and holo glitter to show up. I need not say more. Here's a bottle shot at a different angle,using a flash with some nails thrown in...

 

So the verdict on Shimmer Polish...I love 'em! I'm a sucker for glitter bombs and these rock my socks. If you're interested in trying out Shimmer Polish yourself, you can check out what's in stock at their Etsy store by clicking here. Prices are $12 per bottle, custom polish is $15 per bottle. You can also check out whats for sale on the Shimmer Polish website here. Keep up with the latest Shimmer Polish happenings by liking their Facebook page here. Sooo...What's your thoughts on Shimmer Polish? Do you own any? Thinking about buying some? I'd love to get your opinions!

MilaniSweet! Limited Edition Naturally Chic Nudes Runway Eyes

Hey peeps! Long time no swatch post. Sorry 'bout that, I've got some stuff that's come up but I'll try to have something swatched and published by the end of the week. For now I figured I'd give you ladies a heads up on Milani's launch of the new Naturally Chic Nudes Runway Eyes Fashion Shadows Limited Edition Collection! I'm excited about it since I've been ogling UD's Naked pallets. The Milani collection is available only through the month of March and is exclusively sold at Walgreens and Fred Meyers. Of course, you can also order on Milani's website by clicking the image below.  Since they're just $8.99 each, I'm definitely going to buy at least one (probably both) of these pallets while they're available. Who's with me? Btw, there's just a couple days left to enter my giveaway! If you haven't done so yet, you can do that here. Good luck!