Holy Bright!! LA Colors Flicker with OPI Black Shatter

Okay, okay, okay, I know you're first going to say "ERMAHGERD NO MORE CRACKLE/SHATTER/FRACTURED/SHREDDED!!!!!!" But! This is to amazing to pass up, even though its probably coming off tonight because its a little much for a school counseling office, lol. (I wanted to save it for a party Friday night, but I'm supposed to wear red on Friday...)

I took the brightest polish I own and crackled on it, but what is the brightest, you may ask?  Well, here you will find LA Colors in Flicker. This is the essence of highlighter neon yellow, and its generally only $1-2, I got it for $1 at Dollar General! Now, the formula is kind of thin and sheer, so I did one thick coat over Sally Hansen White On to make it POP, but it looked amazing. I then was hoping the shatter would dull it down a little, but it really just made it very edgy and bold (*cough*80's!*cough*).

Like I said, this would be fantastic for a party, just a LITTLE much for a school setting. What do you think?

Peace!
-Jessica

PS. The pictures are captionless at the end because I'm using my phone app to write this post.

Pokemon Nail Art Challenge: Week 2 Fire Type

Good evening! I know this is coming later at night (well, 10:00 p.m.-ish EST), but I'm very excited to share these tonight! So you all know I'm part of a Pokemon Nail Art Challenge (more details found in this post). Last week was grass, and this week is fire!!

Now, I thought I was going to do Charmander or Charizard for this one, becaus Charmander's so fricken cute! I also thought I might do Vulpix, because Brock has a pretty sweet one, and she's very pretty with her tails.  HOWEVER, looking at some of my fire options, I remembered Eevee's evolution options, and how pretty Flareon is. So I figured I could try freehanding a Flareon, some flames, and the Fire Pokemon symbol!

Polishes used include:
Orly Sparked (yellow)
China Glaze Roguish red (orange)
Sinful Color black shimmery nail art polish
Fingerpaints gold/holographic glitter nail art polish

I hope you enjoy his adorableness, and if you do, check out the other fabulous bloggers!

Peace!
-Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)

Pokemon Nail Art Challenge: Week 1 Grass Type

Sooooooooo I've been going a little crazy lately getting my school counseling internship started, but I found something fun to do on the weekends! Adventures of the Nail Friends and The Blahg are hosting a Pokemon Nail Art Challenge using the original 151 Pokemon!

Didn't know I had that much nerd in me? I totally do, and I think I did my nerd self proud this time around. Now, the introduction to the challenge was just pokeballs, and then the first week is Grass type. Each week is a different type of Pokemon (there is a picture at AofNF's blog that outlines it), but I ended up combining my grass type with the introductory post to get things started :-).

So, without further ado..

Bellsprout!

Blurry closeup.

I used lots of different polishes for this one. The pokeballs are OPI Alpine Snow and Big Apple Red, with a Sinful Colors black striping polish. Bellsprout is a yellow Sinful Colors striping polish for the head, Zoya Angelina for the stem-like body, Wet 'n Wild Sage in the City for the leaves, and OPI Pink Friday for the mouth.

Here's the links to everyone else's posts!


Peace!
Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)

Polly Polish Polish Days!! A New Tried Mani

Good afternoon! So I haven't posted in Hannah of Polly Polish's Polish Days mass post in a while, and I almost forgot to today! But I got a quick picture in here at my internship site after hours (something else new I'm at!), and wanted to get in on a never-tried polish!

This is China Glaze Pull Me Close, a slate blue magnetic polish. I have tried magnetic before, but never this color and boy was I not disappointed! I did try a new technique holding the magnet, and got better results :-)

Peace!
-Jessica

I'm very sorry you can see where I might have bumped my pinkie with the magnet!

*EDIT* So I couldn't figure out how to add all the links to everyone's mani's. BUT I am including Polly Polish's link to her entry, and she has them all on her page :-)

Polly Polish "Something New" Post

Quickie for approximately $4.00!

Good morning! So as an attempt to be more active, I did a quickie mani last night that I'm actually loving today! I knew I had a lot of cleaning and work to do today that was going to ruin my nails, so I wanted something quick, easy, and honestly, cheaper.

Now, I don't want to present myself as a polish snob. Every polish I own has a special place for me, because all brands have something unique to bring to the table. However, it is a fact that some brands cost more than others. While I don't own any "high end" brands such as Deborah Lippman, Dior, or Butter London, my OPI's and Zoya's cost more than my Wet 'n Wild's and Sally Hansen's (even if I didn't pay full price for them, hehe).

Now, why would I want my nails painted at all if I'm just going to be home cleaning all day? Well, my friends, I have come to notice something interesting. My nails tend to break off LESS when they have polish on. Even though generally chemicals are not good for our bodies and nails, nail polish acts like a little shield for my nails.

However, I digress. I'm home cleaning today, still wanted my nails pretty so I could share them, and didn't want to spend a lot to do so (even though technically I spent this money long ago...). SO I have decided to try an untied, and LOVE IT.

 This little gem is Wet 'n Wild Fast Dry in Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire. These generally retail for $1.99, though the pharmacy I get them at often has them for BOGO 50% off. Now first of all, I love this line of polishes for the simple fact that they are named after TV shows. I have two favorites because of their names (Sage in the City and Saved by the Blue).

Second, the colors are all super pretty! Blue Wants to be a Millionaire is a very sheer blue base with fabulous holographic mircroglitter throughout. Now, it's very sheer, and may be opaque in three to four coats. However, I didn't have the time to do that, so I just did one coat over a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Black Out, my current go-to black. That's another cheap polish, ranging from $2-3 dollars (I spend $2 on mine). And the combo is fabulous!

No flash.

No flash and blurry to show that FANTASTICAL holographic sparkle!

Wet 'n Wild and Sally Hansen polishes are easily available at most drugstores/pharmacies and chain department stores like Wal-Mart or Target. For a combined price of $4.00 and total painting time of ten minutes before bed, I think this is a winning cheap, quick mani that is ADORABLE.

Peace!
-Jessica

Happy New Year! A Random Update Post

Good afternoon (at least it is here!). So I have five more days until I start my graduate internship!! I will be dividing my time in half, the first half in a high school guidance office and the second half in the middle school guidance office. While this past semester was very hectic, I feel this one will be busy in a different way.

That being said, I'm hoping to have some time to bring some different things to the blog. First of all you can see the new design. I have had a current obsession with neon rainbow designs for the past year or so, and finally brought that to the blog :-)

But the biggest change is my new polish access. I will not be working in the city I have been in for the past two and half years, which has access to fabulous places like Beauty PLUS, Sally Beauty, and Ulta. Those stores are 45 minutes from my home, but the school I'm interning at is 45 minutes in the OTHER direction, and I will be riding to work with my husband who teaches at the school and probably doesn't want to take the 20 minute detour to the next closest city, hehe. Finances will also be somewhat tighter, so ordering online is limited as well.

BUT I have MANY pretties that I have yet to try which I want to share, and some new ideas to try. I also want to be more active in conversing with my readers and fellow bloggers for new ideas with the polishes I have. I FINALLY have a page on the blog that shows my collection (up to 246!), and who knows, maybe I'll weed out pretty soon and venture into buying/selling/swapping. Not only that, but after doing my first review for an independent polish maker (the lovely Lacey at Penguin Polish), I thought it might be fun venturing into the PR world...

Besides all of this, March 1st is my one year blogiversary, so I'm hoping to have something fantastical to bring and have two months to get it together. My ultimate goal would be to have 1000 Facebook followers and 200 GFC followers, which really is plausible.

Anyone with questions, comments, advice, ideas...I want to make the blog much more interactive so I'd love to hear from you all!!!! Peace! -Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)

Polish Review: Penguin Polish Penguin Poopies and Happy New Year Baby!

Good evening! So I was supposed to do this review sooner during the weekend, but between finishing Christmas wrapping and a sick husband...hey, it's here now, hooray!!!!

So I got a message a little over a week ago from a fabulous lady named Lacey who is the creator of Penguin Polish (the link takes you to her Etsy). We connected by our similarity of love for all things sparkly, hehe. She asked me to review a couple of her polishes, and boy did she pick polishes for me to a tee! She is all about fantastic glitters, and even has some SCENTED polishes, one of which I get to share :-)

I'll post a few bottle shots of the polishes, to give you an idea of what to expect. The bottles are almost exactly the same in shape and size to a Seche bottle, to give you a comparison. (Pardon the cuticles in some of these shots, undoing staples on a bulletin board at school and a change in weather patterns have left my fingers in dire need of more than the treatment I normally do!)

Left: Happy New Year Baby Right: Penguin Poopies

As a note, I was wearing China Glaze It's a Trapeze when I got these in the mail :-)

First we have Penguin Poopies. This is a mix of medium black, white, and purple hex glitters with larger purple hex glitters in a clear base. Now, what I LOVE about this first of all is the name, hehe. That and the color combination, because purple is my color and I love me some black and white glitter (I need to buy a few of the ones I've been eyeballing after Christmas). The glitter was also very good quality, no "tacos" or curling whatsoever! AND the polish smelled like sugarplums after it dried, even after topcoat. It isn't the "OMG I want to eat this" kind of smell, but definitely a delicious "Bath and Body Works" type smell :-)

What I didn't love but could deal with is that, because of the nature of the large hex glitter, you kind of had to dab it on and place it the way you wanted. Here is a base of Seche Clear, two coats of OPI Steady As She Rose, one dabbed on coat of Penguin Poopies, a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche Vite.

Artificial light, with flash.

Artificial light, no flash.

Thumb shot!

Artificial light, with flash.

Happy New Year Baby! is a rainbow mix of shard glitter, with some micro-glitter, a few holographic shards, and small holographic hexes mixed in. This is the streets of New York City on New Year's night, with confetti all around. The mix of glitter has an abstract, haphazard feel but at the same time is distinct and not just "thrown together," because you can tell what's in it. I LOVE it, it is so fun and festive, it works for almost any special occasion even though it's a New Year's polish.The coverage was also GREAT in one coat!

The only thing I didn't love was it does stick up in a few places, even with topcoat. That's due to the shark glitter, but as with Penguin Poopies, there are certain qualities about glitter nail polish that come with the territory which I have long since set fort in, hehe. Here is Seche Clear as a base, two coats of OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, one coat of Happy New Year Baby, and two coats of Seche Vite.

Artificial light, with flash.

Artificial light, no flash.

Thumb shot!

Artificial light, with flash.

So if you are like me or Lacey and love all things sparkly, these polishes are for you! You can find them at here Etsy shop which I will post again here. Penguin Poopies, as well as her other Christmas and Hannukah polishes are selling for $5.00, but generally they are $9.00 for a full size. She has some other scented polishes, fantastic glitter polishes, and even a polish specially made for Alana on "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo."

Happy Holidays!!
-Jessica