Hot Little New York Color Clouds

(**Press Samples**)

 ... is my apartment a TARDIS? 

 Today I am sharing some hot little clouds because I need something bright, shiny and cheery to combat this dark and gloomy day in "Sunny" 'ol Fl. For this mani I got to play with a brand I had never tried before, New York Color. IDK why I'd never tried them.... But these were AWESOME! 

 I had been wanting to rock a cloud mani for some time now. I just love how cute these always turn out. Anyhow, I saw these three shades together and I just knew they would be my trio for my hot little clouds. These three shades come from the NYC In a NY Minute City Samba collection for Summer 2014. 

 I started with a base of NYC Copacabana, which is an amazing shade of bright, true primary yellow creamy shimmer. This shade reminds me, a lot, of Catrice's Birdie Reloaded; which is supposed to be a dupe of Chanel Mimosa (but, with a significantly better formula). By simple powers of deduction, one could then say that NYC Copacabana is a possible dupe for Chanel Mimosa. As for the formula on Copacabana, it is PERFECT. I only needed two effortless coats (insanely fast dry time). 

 For the middle cloud I used NYC Sweet Melon. This shade is an adorable shimmering true melon shade. There is no better way to describe this color that "melon". For the top cloud I used NYC Tropicoral. This pretty is a super vibrant and saturated shade of vivid, orange leaning, coral creme. I finished my clouds off with a good coat of Seche Vite to make them really shiny and smooth. 

 I feel like I have to comment on the amazing formula on all three of these colors. They were so easy to work with. These suckers retail for $1.99, but apply like a much more expensive polish. Tropicoral is especially amazing. The formula is really shiny and self-leveling. I really enjoyed this shade. These three shades also do live up to the "In a minute" claim. They dried really quickly which made for even easier clouds. 

 If you guys have any suggestions for other NYC In a NY Minute shades I should check out, definitely let me know! Thanks for coming by! 

PS- I am taking requests for nail art tutorials!! What do you guys wanna see? Let me know in the comments!

Friday Fun with Nicole by O.P.I Nail Color

(**Press Samples**)

Happy Friday!! 

  I'm sorry this has been such a quiet week around here. I'm just starting to feel slightly better from that nasty little cold I caught. It could not have come at a worse time. I was supposed to be packing up stuff for our move this Saturday. LTHP and husband will be relocating to the South East coast of Florida. However, it is not a huuuuge move as we are only relocating from Sarasota, FL; from coast to coast... exciting stuff... 

  Anyhow, I wanted to check in and share these looks I've worn recently. I've been slacking some this past week since I was so sick... But, my nails were looking FAAAAAB! Sometimes I really dig manis that are really simple, with just a hint of something sparkly to make it special. 

 This first look is just a simple sparkling gradient with Nicole by O.P.I Sweet Surrender as the base color and Fab is my Middle Name sponged on the tips for a sparkling gradient look. Both of these shades are part of the Nicole by O.P.I 2014 core line expansion. Sweet Surrender is a beautiful mily off White. The formula is nice, very smooth and surprisingly opaque. I used two coats of this color. Fab is my Middle Name is a re-release. This glitter was originally created for the core line back in Spring of 2012 [original review can be found here]. I finished this look off with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top. 

One can never really go wrong with a nice chunky glitter, now can they? These two pretties also come from the Nicole by O.P.I 2014 Core expansion. The awesome diamond- shaped topper is called Be Awesome. It definitely lives up to its name. This glitter is just so much fun. The diamonds are Pink, Blue and Coppery shifters. There was no fishing or troubles with the pieces. What you see was completely random :D. A video on my glitter application technique can be found [HERE]. Finished off with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top. 

 Last but not least is this Nudey- with- a- pop- of- Teal cloudy look. These shade also come from the same collection. The base color is Nicole by O.P.I That's Putting it Mild. I only needed two coats of this beautiful Almond toned creme. For my pop of Teal I used Emerald Empowered which is a beautiful shade of shimmery metallic.... TEAL. Definitely not Emerald. Still gorg though. The final cloud is Nicole by O.P.I Taupe of my Class. Which is your classic shade of brown-tone Taupe-y goodness. I finished these off with KBShimmer Clearly on Top. 

Thanks for stopping by today my painted beauties!! I hope I can be back up and running very soon. Our move should be a smooth one since we don't have much to move, or a very long way to go.. Still, send some good vibes our way ♥. 

Have a beautiful weekend everyone! 

Truffle Thursday! Bettina Watermelon- Swatch & Nail Art

(**Bettina press samples**)

Happy Thursday! 

  And today it is a Truffle kind of Thursday. I'm severely "out of it" as I am trying to type up this post, so I will keep it short and sweet today.Truffle refused to pick a color, so I went with the shade that the husband kept wanting her to pick. He kept telling het to pick the Pink one lol. This look features Bettina Watermelon. 

 This look started with a base of Two coats of Watermelon. Then I did some tri-colored clouds a'la Nailside. For the clouds I used all Bettina shades as well. The Blue is Pond, the Purple is Butterfly and the Teal is Sparkle. I finished the look with a coat of Seche Vite to smooth the surface and bring out shine. 

 Cat-stacking level: nail polish.

Bettina Watermelon

 This shade is a hawt shade of hot Coraly- Pink creme with strong Pink and coral micro shimmer. The formula on this shade is really saturated and creamy. I used Two easy coats for my base.

Oh and here is a quick vid to show how I paint my nails :D.

Thanks for stopping by today my loves! I'm off to work on swatching a ton of Fall collections! 

Lovely Looks with the Zoya Lovely Spring 2013 Collection

Happy Humpday!! 

  Today I have some looks featuring the shades in Zoya's new Spring Collection. The Lovely Collection is made up of Three gorgeous cremes, and Three beautiful shimmering pastels. The second I saw these shades I knew I would be doing some looks with them. I couldn't bring myself to just swatch them, I had to play with them :D. Zoya's Lovely is definitely Lovely!!   

 For my first look I went with a cute half-moon look. I might be a *tad* obsessed with half-moon manis. This simple, but eye-catching, look started with a base of Zoya Blu. Blu is the most perfect shade of light, light Blue creme. I wanted to do something with interesting contrast and a bit of an edge so for my accent color I went with Zoya Piaf. Piaf is one of those shades that are so ugly they are pretty. Piaf is a neat, light Mustard- Chartreuse Yellow with complimenting shimmer. I was pretty sure Piaf would not look good on my skintone but combining it with Blu really made it work for me. I love this combination.

 How could I NOT do a cloud mani with these babies?! For this look I started with a base of Jacqueline. Jacqueline is a pretty, light shade of creamy Ivory. There is a very slight, barely there shimmer in Jacqueline. For my clouds I used Zoya Julie and Neely. The finished look is really subtle, but so perfect for Spring!

 For my final look I wanted to do something striped and simple. I started with a base of Neely. Neely is a gorgeous, light Seafoam creme. For the color accents I used Zoya Julie and GeiGei. I used fine striping tape to create the color-blocked look. On my index and Pinkie I filled in the taped gaps with fine brushes. I really like the end result. These remind me of the girly notebooks I used to carry in High School.

 Here are quick swatches of my base shades. From left to right: Neely, Blu and Jacqueline. These were all two coats and I ran into no issues with the formulas.

 I have a few more looks planned for these pretties. Zoya's Spring Collections are always just gorgeous and inspiring to me. As always, the formulas are a joy to work with. These shades all compliment each other and it makes wearing just one at a time impossible for me!

Did you pick up any of Zoya's new Spring shades?

(**Zoya products provided for review**)

31 Day Challenge 2012! Day One: Red Nails

Hi hello!! 

  Oh yeah... That's right.. You may have read on my challenge partners blogs yesterday that we are taking on the 31 Nail Art Challenge once again. Last year we started on this exact same date. This year we will only be doing a challenge prompt Four times a week. I am so excited to take this challenge on once again with Sam of The Nailasaurus and Rie of Nails and Noms. It has been exactly one year today! I am so excited to see how much we all have improved! Last year we all did amazing and had a blast so this year should be even better and even more fun! 

  The prompt for Day One is Red Nails. Red is not a color that inspires me, at all. So, in true LTHP fashion I waited until the last minute to work on my Day One nails... I ended up with Three different "Red" looks and loved none of them. So I figured, why not show all Three? It's not that they were bad, it's just.... Red..... Can you tell I'm not into Red? Anyway's I've whined enough lol! Onto the nail looks! 

Indecision 2012! LOLOL!!! 

Red Look One: Sunset Clouds

 For this look I started with a base of The Balm's (Hot Ticket) That's Rediculous. To create the clouds I used The Balm's Pink or Swim and Coral Reef-ined. Pink or Swim (in the middle of the cloud) turned out to be a little more jelly like than I was hoping but still opaque enough for the cloud technique. That's Rediculous and Coral Reef-ined  have a really nice, opaque and dense(not thick) formula. And there you have look one, Sunset Clouds :D. 

Red Look Two: Kissy Face!

For this look I started with a base of Twee & Honey's Hallow (LOOOOOVEEEE) which is just lovely and I will cover later on. For the kisses I used Bundle Monster Plate BM02 and Konad Red Special Polish. On my pinkie I used an ebay plate, Chinese brand QA, plate QA28. I topped it all off with some Seche Vite, followed by Twee & Honey's This is Matteness, matte top coat (new fave matte top coat!!!). This is a cute look, but not really my style. I wanted to try something different though. 

Red Look Three: Ornate Steampunk

 For this look I started with a base of O.P.I Danke- Shiny Red. I followed the Red base with the cling wrap technique with O.P.I Mourning Glory. For the stamp I used Konad plate M83 and China Glaze Passion. This look was pretty severe and eye-catching, but again, not my thing. My stamping is SO sloppy! It's been a while since I've stamped o.O.

 And there you have Day One of the 31 Day Challenge! I can't believe we are doing this again! I believe we shall be back on Saturday with Day Two of the challenge which I am looking forward to more so than this one. ANYTHING but Red!!! 

  Here is a list of the prompts we will be following! 

 Now don't forget to stop by my challenge partners Rie and Sam's to see their Red looks for day One! Hopefully they are doing better than I am lolol!!! I can't wait to see what they came up with!! 

(**Some products provided for consideration**)

Barielle Summer Fun Set goes Miami Art Deco

Happy Friday! 

  Today I have another cloud mani for you guys. It's pretty safe to say I am obsessed with the cloud mani technique. It is fun and easy to do, you get striking results and the color combinations are as endless as your imagination. So I received this cute little set from Barielle made up of Five, very Art Deco, pastels and I just had to do something with all of them together. I went with Clouded Skittles. 

 The base colors from thumb to pinkie are: Berry Go Round, Ocean Breeze, Peach popsicle, Mint Ice Cream Cone and Pink Flip Flop. All five of these colors came together in a little set called Summer Fun. All Five shades are pastels with the most fantastic formulas. I couldn't bring myself to separate the colors because they looked so good together. These are straight out of South Beach Miami!
 Here are some skittle swatches of the Barielle Shades.

  [RANT ALERT]
Since theft fuckery on Instagram (everywhere really) is at an all time high I've added an extra mark to these photos.... Which I'm not thrilled about and I don't plan on doing to every photo, just the ones I feel might need it. BTW! There is ONE AND ONLY LTHP Instagram account and the user name is: Letthemhavepolish. I've also started using the hashtag #officialletthemhavepolish and if you'd like to share your nail art with me on IG you guys are welcome to use this tag! Sadly I've come across many thieves claiming my site to be theirs as well as my work.... Yay.... Instagram gives me frown lines.... So there's that.
  I'm also not loving the part where Instagram doesn't give an absolute crap about the reports that are filed and they never respond to tweets Waaahhh Waaahhhh... And here I was thinking Instagram was all in good fun. Nope, even there, there are douche bags looking to piggy back off of your success. I had a panic attack the other day where I almost shut down the blog and walked away. It is so hurtful to see someone claim my work when I work so hard on what I do for this website. And for the enablers(IG) to not carry through with enforcing the rules is an even harder slap on the face. I guess if it's on the internet it's fair game but I've still not come to terms with that fact... And it still breaks my heart everyday to know that
[END RANT]

  Here is a shot of the Five polishes used for this manicure.

 Barielle cremes are the shiz! They always apply like butter. I was really pleased to work with these. Pastels can be such a pain in the butt to apply but these were just fab!

Thoughts?

(**Barielle products provided for review**)

With my Nails in the Clouds

Happy Monday! 

  Those words really don't belong together do they? ..... Hhhmm lol... Anywho, today I'm sharing a mani that is totally out of character for me. I've been all about trying new things lately. This style of manicure was made popular by the ridiculously talented Nailside. If you have not been to this blog you should go ahead and get on that! She is so very creative, takes beautiful photos and shares lots of tutorials that are easy to follow. 

  So Nailside features these amazing manicures in this style which she refers to as "cloud manis". I absolutely LOVE the look but had not had a chance to try one out myself. 

  I had these Two L'Oreal colors that aren't really my thing so I was trying to think up a way to use them but make it work. The Two L'oreal colors are the soft Pink (I Pink I'm in Love) and the Red I am holding which is called He Red my Mind. To take it out of Valentine's day territory I added clouds in China Glaze Midnight Kiss and Bettina Onix. This is not the cleanest cloud mani ever but for my first try I am actually really pleased with the finished result. While the colors that originated the mani are not my thing the finished color combination was pretty striking. My husband thought this was some kind of stamp lol.

I really hope you check out Nailside to see some MUCH better versions of this manicure lol. This girl is so talented! She gives me serious creative envy haha! I can't wait to try this look again!!

Thanks for stopping by!

(**L'Oreal products provided for review**)