Sassy Polish and Scrubs Swatches and Review

Hey there!  I have some polishes today that I received to swatch and review.  These aren't a specific collection , I just randomly selected different colors and finishes.

Sassy Polish and Scrubs are a 3- free formula and all dried very quickly.  I love a good quick drying polish!! However,  even though these dried to my liking,  I had several issues with the formulas.  I'll make mention of those with each one. All are three coats with a topcoat of HK Girl.

First up is Penny Lane.  On the website,  this was explained as a gorgeous copper with sparkle and linear holographic glow. Unfortunately I didn't have any holographic sparkle in my bottle.  For me,  the polish just contained a subtle blue shimmer.  The color also wasn't a good choice for my skin tone. There were also these weird chunks in the polish,  which you can see on the nail.

Next is Grape Day for Fun,  a purple polish with pink and blue shimmer.  This formula was thin and riddled with pigment streaks.  It had a nice little shimmer to it,  but the pigment issues were a major problem for me.

Mermaid's Tan is a turquoise shade with scattered holo. Again,  it dried quickly and it did have a great subtle holo sparkle.  The glitter was slightly rough,  so it definitely needed a topcoat. I also wore a glitter peel off base because I don't like to scrub with remover.  Sorry about the one finger that I goobered on my way outside to take the pics.

Ruby Red Roses was supposed to be a rich red with a holo sparkle.  The color I received was a rusty red tone.  It didn't look great with my skin color.  The formula was streaky and did bald in a few spots.

Honeysuckle Hideaway is a yellow jelly with holographic shine.  Sorry,  I really didn't care for this one at all.  It was very thin.  If you looked at my nails in a low light,  it looked like I had nakie nails.  Too much VNL for me.  The holo was the only bonus,  it was plentiful in the sunlight.

Finally,  Let's Take a Dip is a bright blue that has some subtle blue and magenta shimmers.  This one was my favorite,  it reminded me of Different Dimensions Tulips are Better Than One,  as it has somewhat of the same duo chrominess of that one.  The formula...  I feel kind of like a broken record,  but it was thin and also had pigment globs.

Overall,  I'm sadly disappointed in these.  The ones that were OK still had too many issues.  I did enjoy how quickly they dried.

Sassy Polish and Scrubs can be purchased on Etsy here.

April

Fantastic Floral

I was inspired by Pshiiit the other day, when she posted these awesome Hawaiian floral designs... well, I frigging loved it. Even though she posts in French, I still loved it! I went to the world wide web to on find my own floral... and found this little bugger:

Source : The Sewing Directory

Here's what I did.

I painted 3 of my nails with Nails, inc Baker Street which is an amazing super pure royal blue.  My two accent nails I did a base of OPI Road House Blues. Then I went at the pattern. I think I used 6 different colors for the design.  Let's see some pics, ok?

Dude, I'm totally in love with this. It's one of my favorite looks I've ever done.  I need to look at fabric more often.


Hope you like it!
April

Picture Polish Imperial and an Update

Hey guys! So, I have a killer mani to show today, but I also want to make an announcement regarding the blog.

I was seeing a large hit count when I was doing the tri daily challenges through Instagram,  but I just don't have the time anymore to do them that often and also to plan in advance.  I started just randomly trying to post at least twice a week, but I realized I in post more in Instagram.  It's just easier for my busy lifestyle.  So, having said that,  I tried something new this week by posting on Instagram and then sharing that pic on my FB page. I want to do it all, I really do. But this year is proving to be pretty difficult.  So, please make sure to check out my Instagram,  at gawkishpolish,  and then I'm also going to post on Twitter, since all of those are so similar in posting style.  Twitter will be gawkish_polish. I did have a twitter account a while ago,  and it kept getting hacked so I forgot my password.  Whoops.


So, anyways,  here is a beauty that I've never worn. I'm such a loser for never wearing this. It was on my polish wishlist,  and a lovely woman got it for me in a swap a couple of months ago.  Its a true purple with copper glitter and a blue / purple shimmer. It's so pretty and just sparkles. I of course need a swag nail or I will get all twitchy,  so this is a base of OPI Samoan Sand and then I added some purple and copper colored glitters to compliment the sparkles in Imperial.

Picture Polish is what you call an indie, as in an independent polish maker that isn't super mainstream (like OPI, Essie,  etc). PP is based out of Australia,  so the polish temds to be on the pricey side. I'm a fan. I love Imperial,  the color was so unique and I guess if I needed to pick one negative,  is that it dried semi matte. I slop my HK Girl Topcoat on everything if I don't want it matte, so that didn't bother me.


So, anyways,  please make sure to check in on the other social media sites that are for this account.  I'm not going anywhere,  just easierwhere.  =)

Happy Monday girls... have a great day
April

Mosaic Do-Over

Tuesday,  yay! How was your Memorial Day weekend?  I had to work Monday,  but whatevs.  I got a lot of stuff done which was cool.

So, my cue for this week is inspired by the season.  Since it fluctuates so much here in Iowa,  I wanted something that would be between spring and summer.  I then remembered that I wanted to redo the mosaic mani that I got for vacation. I picked a bunch of cm colors off the rack, and went to it.

I started out with a white base and then I took My Boyfriend Scales Walls (light white-grey) and outlined my blocks. After that I went in and colored the blocks in.

That neon green is a total pain in my butt. This is the second time I've used it. The first time, it stained terribly.  This time, it bled into the white. What a jerk.

Light green: OPI Did it On 'Em
Neon green: Sephora X Radioactive
Turquoise: Essie In the Cab - ana
Purple: Color Club Unnamed Purple Neon
Gold: Cult Cosmetics Stay Gold
White: OPI Alpine Snow

I totally love this because it looks like fun and warmer weather without being totally cheeseball.

That's all I've got. Ta ta for now!!

April

Back from Vacation! !!

Hey everyone!

I've finally recouped from vacation and back in action.  I did get a gel manicure,  and I was so disappointed! The polish started to lift the next day.  Since I was hopping on a plane, I couldn't have her fix it. You can kind of see here where the polish didn't stick. I was mega bummed. The pattern was super cute though.  I will definitely re-do this on my own with regular polish soon.

So when I got back, I removed whatever was left still on. (Yes, it was only on for a week, and I had significant chipping as well as two nails that had large chunks that just popped off!) One of the polish groups I belong to, we do a weekly theme for Mani Mondays.  We were doing the alphabet,  but we ran out of letters!  So, then we just started to list other themes and ideas, so this week's theme is Emerald,  which was the color of the year last year. This is what I did:

This is Zoya Ivanka and my new Different Dimension Money polish as the accent nail. These were really pretty together.  Why do I love accent nails so much?? Oye.


Well I've mentioned before that I'm a polish picker. I can't help it!  I think it's from the millions of years that I was a nail biter. So I started picking at this last night, and had to replace it.  My last swap I received some super lovely Different Dimension polishes that were on my wish list,  (which is where Money came from) and this was another one I received. First two are in full on sunlight,  second two are in the shade.

This is Tulips Are Better Than One.  How pretty is this??? I fell in love with this polish when I saw a swatch posted, I cannot recall who it was from, but it was so stunning.  This polish is a super shimmery duo chrome shifter from violet to aqua to indigo. I've caught some dark pink / purple colors here too, but that's on some odd angles and on the far edges. And look! No accent nail. Well, yet. I wanted to swatch this in it's pure form before I do that.  =)


So that's all for today,  hopefully I will get back to posting twice a week now that I'm back and not freaking out about flying.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend,  and see ya soon
April

Pink Roses and Gradient

I fail again,  I know. I am getting ready to take a vacation here starting tomorrow.  I fly out to Georgia to visit my sister on Thursday,  and I'm so incredibly excited.  I haven't had a real vacation in forever,  so this is pretty huge for me.

Did anyone do anything fun this weekend?  We had a group trail ride, called Cinco de Biko... it basically was a bar crawl on bicycles.  It was awesome.


Anyways,  I have an appointment on Tuesday to get gel nails because I don't want to worry about polish and stuff on vaykay. The gal that I've made the appointment with also does nail art, which I of course have to have. Well,  I have to have something super cool for her to see, right?

I recently put on my wish list neon polishes because I strangely didn't have many. So, I've been dying to use them.

I started with a base of My Vampire is Buff from OPI, and then sponged on a gradient of two tones of hot pink. I purchased a holo topcoat, I'm Drinking Stars by Literary Lacquer,  not too long ago, so I put that on to give the gradient a little sparkle.

My roses are completely free handed on, using the two pinks in the gradient.

I love how sweet this looks while still looking totally rad with the neon fade. Plus that holo just pops in the sunlight.

Hope you like this, and I hope my nail tech is impressed, ha.

And I know I post here sporadically,  but I will for sure be MIA until I get back. I will probably do a quick post of what the nail tech did for me (I'm thinking about mosaic) but we'll see...

Thanks for reading,  and miss me while I'm gone!! =)
April

New Nail Art Challenge

Hey all! I'm keeping this kne short & sweet.  Im going to do a different IG nail art challenge for this month (or at least partially, because I'm going on vacation soon) and this one is put on by Jamlynnails. It's called the Random Nail Art Challenge,  and follows the same sort of timeline that the Californails one did, so its about every 3 or 4 days.

First cue, paisley!  Back when I did the 31 Day Nail Polish Challenge,  I did a paisley design for the pattern cue. At that time, itwas one of cm my more popular designs,  so I was pleased to see this on day 1.

I hopped on the Internet and googled paisley. I found this pic:

Source : Maeve Parker

And I loved it! So springy, and still a paisley look without being so over the top. Here's my attempt.

I was going to do something on the pink nail, but I liked it by itself,  since it had some shimmer in it.

Hope you like this, and I'm looking forward to this new challenge!

Have a great day,
April

Springy Flowers

Did you all have a good weekend?  I was non-stop and I'm paying for it this morning.  A service organization I'm a member of had a work day and we dug holes for a retaining wall, scraped and painted a porch, removed debris and tons of yard waste all for an 80 year old woman that just couldn't do it anymore.  It waas so satisfying although I could only help for a few hours.  Worst part? The news station interviewed me. It was like my worst nightmare came to life.

Anyways,  I have a ome floral nails for you today.  I tend to gravitate towards purples and lavenders, so that's what I grabbed here. This is probably one of my top favorite polishes, OPI Do You Lilac It? and OPI My Vampire is Buff.  I just freehanded on some dots and stripes,  and topped with the flowers on two nails. It was really kind of boring and flat, so I added a topcoat of Essie's Pure Pearlfection to give it a light shimmer.

Sunday was great until about 4 pm hit. Then the skies opened up, the wind kicked up into overdrive and now it is supposed to rain for the next like 10 days. Good thing I snapped this while I still had some sunshine!

Have a great Monday!
April

Swap Swatch

Rain, rain go away. Why do we expect 80 degrees and sunny every day? I know I don't live in San Diego,  but a girl wants to have nice days.

So. I'm in a polish swap group, and we put together a wish list and go at it. I've been blessed to be in this group for a few months now, and I want to share two different wish list items that I've received,  and they are AMAZING!

First off, let me tell you, I am new to the indie world. I've been gawking at indies for probably 2 years at least,  but I never purchased because I'm not a good online shopper.  I like to touch, see, feel things. Online, you take a risk and hope that you like it.  It seriously makes me sweat buying online.

Which is why I love this group.  I can place those indies that I am so nervous about purchasing on my wishlist,  and then sometimes I get them! Now, I have kind of created an indie monster.  I want them all.

One of my OPI lemmings was Roadhouse Blues.  It's a dark blurple cream. I love it that this doesn't have shimmer in it like most blurples do. Pure creamy goodness.

Then, I have one of the prettiest glitters to slop on top.  This is Crowes Toes Drahon in Drag. Holy amazing sparkle and flash. This is a teal, green, blue and purple glitter topper that just speaks for itself.  Check out this stunner:

Of course I used my OPI Glitter Off,  so this should come off really easily.  I would have chewed this off in the past. Thanks, OPI!

Well, I just can't help but stare at this, and shine it at different angles.  So pretty.  Tell me, is there an indie that I need to try? Something that isn't like over $40 like an Enchanted Polish,  but something cool. Lemme know in the comments!

Have a great weekend!
April

Doctor Lacquer Dopamine

Hello!  Did you have a good weekend?  Easter weather here was amazingly beautiful.  But wait for it, it's Iowa, so we went from 90 degrees back down to 50-60. Sigh. Oh well, at least I know summer is coming.

What I have for you today is a polish that I ordered last week. It's made by Doctor Lacquer,  and this one is called Dopamine.   Doctor Lacquer is known for their thermal polishes, and I've been dying to try one. So of course,  I gravitated towards this one... I mean, come on. Purple base, circle glitter,  golden yellow, bright yellow glitters AND then it turns aqua when warm? This should have been called April.

Cold, purple

Transition

Warm, aqua

Here's what I learned with thermal polish:
1. Don't apply this sitting outside on an almost 90 degree day. That was weird.
2. My hands are apparently mostly cold all the time. I pretty much knew this, because I'm that annoying girl in your office that no matter how warm it is, I still whine that I'm cold. But I thought it was interesting that my thumb and pointer would be in the transition phase, when  my pinkies would stay purple almost all the time.
3. Taking it off was cool. I used my OPI Glitter Off,  so I was able to peel this, and it at the time was blue since I just came home from the gym, and then it would come off purple. Fun!


I would totally recommend this brand. I purchased this polish from their Store Envy store, but they also have an ETSY store.

Now I need more thermals. Pronto. =)
Cheers,
April

OPI Glitter Off Review

Hey guys! I'm sure someone guessed that I purchased a bottle of OPI's Glitter Off. There has always been that Pinterest tip out there to use Elmer's glue as a base coat, because it peels off when done. I was always skeptical,  I mean, glue? That's weird.  I saw that this came out and I knew I wanted to try it. Plus, my nail polish buddy for the month had it on her wishlist,  so that gave me an even better excuse,  lol.

I believe I've mentioned it before,  but hi, my name is April,  and I'm a an polish peeler. I know how bad it is for your nails, because I would see little white bumps after I peel. So bad. That's why I was so excited for this product.  Here we go!!!


The bottle is the same size as a regular OPI. The brush is shorter and not as thick. It's not even comparable to their base or top coat brushes, as those are bigger too.

Open the bottle, and I smelled it. Yup, it smells like glue. You put on a thin coat of this on your bare nails, and let it dry until it's clear.

Then you tackle the glitter polish.  I used a Different Dimension polish that is super glitter dense, and also a glow in the dark. It has so much glitter in it, I've been nervous to try it out, because who likes to take off glitter polish?  Ugh, not me. This is two coats of Merry Go Round over the Glitter Off.

I wore this for several days. I believe I did this on a Thursday evening,  and then took it off Sunday night. It stayed on the entire weekend without chipping. Here's what the removal process was like:

So you are supposed to take an orange stick and push and nudge the edge of the polish. I chose to use another nail because my cuticle pusher is metal.  It lifted off right away! It's a polish peelers dream!

Here's my nails after I peeled it all completely off.

So... verdict.  I never used the glue method,  so I'm not sure if that works. This product reminds me of white glue, but I'm sure there is probably something else in there that makes it work so well. I'm totally hooked, and I've been wearing glitter polish all the time now. I've heard of some people say that the base lifted before they forced it to come off. I didn't have that problem.  One weird thing that I did notice was that the first coat of polish crackles a little. I'm wearing another glitter this week that I did late Sunday night,  and it's still going strong. Bottom line: it has my stamp of approval.

I purchased this bottle at Beauty Brands. I couldn't find it at my Ulta. (Although they've really been sucking lately. They still don't have the Zoya Cosmos pixies. WTF)

Let me know if you've tried this and had the same success. I'd also like to hear any fails too.