Black & White Nails for the #31DC2016Weekly

Happy Saturday!

Purchased by Me

I hope you all are having a lovely weekend.  I sure am!  Today, for the Black & White prompt of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge (which I am going weekly instead of daily), I have some stamping.  But not your typical stamping.  Today, we are stamping over textured polish.  I have done this once before and was stunned that the images came out so crisp over just a rough surface.  It's magic!

For this mani, I did two coats of Zoya "Dahlia" which is a black textured polish with a little bit of silver sparkle.  It is one of the original Pixie Dust formulas which Zoya isn't making anymore of but you can still find this on their website.  

Then I used Konad White Stamping Polish and UberChic Far East 01 plate and stamped right over the textured polish once it dried.  No top coat was used at all.  Look how crisp those white lines came out?  You would think they would be jagged the bumpy surface but they look super clean.  I really, REALLY liked how this turned out.

Have you ever done stamping over textured polishes before?  It is not a new idea but I just hadn't been doing it a lot.  I anticipate doing manicures like this more often.  Be sure to check out the #31DC2016Weekly tag on your favorite social media platform: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.  You can jump in and join me on this nail art journey any time!

Thanks!
- Amy McPolish McG

*all products purchased by me*

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Barielle and Color Club NOTDs

Hi lovelies!

Press Sample   Purchased By Me

I have two excellent fall collections to show you today!  I have heard of Barielle polishes before but I had never seen them in real life nor had the opportunity to try them.  So, I was very excited when they sent their new fall collection, Me Couture, for review.  The day I received the package,  I had also picked up the new Color Club Seven Deadly Sins collection from Bed, Bath and Beyond.  I thought these two collections went beautifully together!  If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I just love to use textured polish as an accent nail.  So the pairing of these two collections was a no-brainer.  You may notice that my nail length is a little different in each of these photos.  That is because I actually wore all of these looks to work for a day.  They were very work appropriate and wore well.  (Polish typically only lasts one day on my nails before it starts chipping or peeling off)  So let's get into these fall colors!  I can't wait to hear which shade is your favorite.

Click through for all the fall goodies!

My first P2 Cosmetics!

Guten Tag!

I recently participated in my first international nail mail swap.  My buddy, Beninga, and I swapped drug store brands that neither if us could get in our respective counties very easily.  She wanted Hard Candy, Sinful Colors and Orly from the US.  I wanted P2, Essence and Catrice from Germany.  I was so ecstatic over the amount of awesome in my box from Germany!  Tons of textured polish and lots of orange and coral colors.  I love textured polish :)  It makes great accent nails and I use them in all of my skittlettes.   But I had no idea just how awesome P2 Volume Gloss line was.  Holy hell!  These polishes have the most perfect, creamy, glossy formula ever.  I seriously want them all!

So here is my very first P2 mani!  I used 2 coats of Business Woman from the Volume Gloss line and 2 coats of Strict from the Sand Style line.  I did not use a top coat.  Repeat...I DID NOT USE A TOP COAT!  Look at that perfect shiny finish!!!!  I'm in love!

Don't you wish you could just run out to Walgreens and pick up this whole line of polishes?  I do.  But I will have to wait for another package from Germany :) 

Danke Freunde!
- Amy McG aka McPolish

Julie G Gumdrops Collection: Blueberry Fizz

I'm sure everyone has been seeing the Julie G Frosted Gumdrop collection textured polishes around lately. I ordered the full Gumdrop collection when it was available on Groupon, but Julie G is also available at Rite Aid and I'm even starting to see these polishes show up in the nail polish sale groups on Facebook. Overall I'm very happy with the collection and I happened to get them for a great price, making them even better in my book!

Today I'm wearing Blueberry Fizz, a beautiful light blue textured polish with a sparkly finish and a silvery base. It's definitely blue, but has just the slightest purple hint to it. I adore light blues in the summer and Blueberry Fizz is absolutely perfect. The formula was great, opaque in two coats, and it dried very quickly. I decided to wear it with topcoat (the textured finish actually annoys me) and was happy to discover that it doesn't look much different with top coat, but it's smooth and shiny.

The first few pictures are without topcoat, and the last couple are with a single coat of Seche Vite. It is a bit less sparkly with topcoat, but since this polish in particular is very silver-based the topcoat didn't change it too significantly.

With topcoat:

Have you tried any of the Julie G textured polishes? These were my first Julie G purchases and I'm impressed!