Morgan Taylor Party At The Palace

 

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This March Disney is taking Cinderella to the next level with their all new, live action adaptation of Cinderella. Morgan Taylor (and its parent gel company Gelish) is releasing a joint nail color collaboration launching in February. Today I have Party At The Palace, a light turquoise blue with golden shimmer.

I used a base coat of Seche Natural, 3 thin coats of polish and finished with Digital Nails Ain't Nobody Got Time For That top coat. The formula was good and I could have probably gotten away with only 2 coats but I decided to add a third to make sure I had total opacity on all nails.

When I wore this polish, the sun decided to run away for the day so I had to use my Mystudio light kit instead. As you can see the shimmer isn't nearly as pronounced but does give the polish a light glow about it.

Outside in the shade it basically the same story - a very ethereal look with the blue base.

Indirect light gives you a tiny glimpse of that shimmer but I don't think this polish was decided to be a pronounced shimmer polish, rather the golden shimmer enhances the base color. Almost reminds me of the "mermaid" fabric that was popular in the early 2000s (think prom dress overlays). Quite lovely a great add to my collection.

Morgan Taylor [Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | YouTube] is available at CosmoProf for $8.50 a bottle. Online, non-professionals can purchase Morgan Taylor at Ulta Beauty. 

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Liquid Palisade by Kiesque

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Full disclosure - I am not the person to come to for nail art. I have very little patience, I have very little creativity. Anything I can use to make it easier, I am ALL for. That being said, when I first heard about Liquid Palisade by Kiesque back in 2013, I wanted to get some pretty badly. 

Think of it as painter's tape for nails. You brush on the purple liquid where you don't want polish, polish your nails, then remove the now dried protective barrier. Sounds great for gradients and water marbles, right?! However, as always, people smarter than I have even used it IN their nail art, painting designs on the nails with the Liquid Palisade, and painting, then removing the design. Think nail vinyls before we had nail vinyls.

Thankfully, this product is super easy to use - really doesn't take much effort or thought. I'm wearing Morgan Taylor Party At The Palace from the upcoming Cinderella collaboration collection and thought that I'd sponge over Morgan Taylor Watch Your Step, Sister! Now this is maybe the third gradient I've ever done so I'm still learning what colors go well together, how far up to sponge your gradient blah blah blah. My color theory isn't quite there yet - sorry art majors!

Krystal's mistake #1, not getting the Liquid Palisade isn't close enough to the cuticle. This winter I finally put together my new computer desk and monitor stand and then I had to replace my lamp. The lamp I replaced it with, is terrible. I simply do not have enough lighting anymore - and with a gloomy day outside, I don't have my natural light streaming in. I needed to get the Liquid Palisade a little closer to ensure that no polish was on the cuticles. As you can see, it paints on in a light purple and turns a darker purple (on the edges) as it dries. You should let it dry for about 30 seconds before starting your gradient or other nail art so that you don't get paint in your Liquid Palisade.

Now go crazy! I sponged my colors a total of three times and as you can see I got a little messy - should have probably added a bit more Liquid Palisade or been more careful around the edges.

Then just grab a corner of the dried purple Liquid Palisade using tweezers and peel cleanly off!

Enjoy your nail art!

So the bottle looks a little big, right? It's a 10 g/0.35 oz bottle of Liquid Palisade. To compare, Morgan Taylor has 0.50 fl oz in its bottle.

Basically it's tall but much skinnier. Think more of a striping brush. However, Kiesque says that you can get 50 manicures out of this one bottle. I'm not sure how they are measuring a manicure, but considering it's a little more than half of the Morgan Taylor bottle and I have never emptied a bottle of polish in my life from use, I'd say you have some wear time with this product.

The brush itself is quite thin, which is great for getting precise lines but less fun if you want to cover an entire area (like your entire first knuckle if you're doing a water marble. It is flexible enough to get into that little space between your nail and your cuticle but not so flexible that you're all over the place.

Additionally, the product is a bit stinky, being latex based. Make sure you use in a well ventilated area. Keep away from eyes and DO NOT USE if you have a latex allergy.

Now, I am fully aware that other bloggers have used Elmer's Glue, Liquid Latex (available online or at party supply stores) and even Sally's Hair Glue in place of Liquid Palisade. Indies are even getting into the mix like ellagee who is using a re-packaged material but in a familiar nail polish bottle and with a larger brush. Unfortunately, I have not tried any of them, so I can't confirm or deny any of the claims that they work just as well.

You can purchase Liquid Palisade directly from Kiesque on their website here for $22.00. It is also available on Gloss48 as well as a few international stockists too. Please see the Kiesque website for more. Join in the conversation with Liquid Palisade on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

butter LONDON Glitter Scrubbers Textured Remover Wipes

I love glitter. I love textured polish. I hate removing both.

Chaos & Crocodiles Nail Art with Subterfuge & Sleeper Cell

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I got to meet the sweetheart behind the indie brand Chaos & Crocodiles last summer in Vegas, and slightly before I went, I was lucky enough to get my hands on a pre-order of the Secret Agent Collection, a set of 10 holographic polishes that came in a gold-foiled cardboard box with a foam insert. Frankly, it was fantastic. 

In October, with my alma mater's Homecoming fast approaching, I decided to pull out Subterfuge (gold) and Sleeper Cell (blue) in a great homage to my school's colors. Now, since I'm not the best at nail art, I knew it had to be simple and what looks amazing but is simple? NAIL VINYLS!

I had received a bunch of nail vinyls from KBShimmer, so I chose a scalloped lines design and decided to just go crazy on my accent nail. Now because I was in a huge rush, I decided to top my nails with a gel top coat (cured in a LED lamp) which caused a little wrinkling but nothing terrible.

For Subterfuge and Sleeper Cell, I used 2 coats of polish for both.

HELLO HOLO. I was a huge fan of this manicure and ended up wearing it for days.

In the shade, the holo disappeared but at least you can see the scalloped design better (and the wrinkling).

Either way, I was a happy camper and will definitely be repeating this combination for Homecoming 2015. It helps that I live in the same town that I went to college in, hah!

Chaos & Crocodiles can be purchased on her website. Prices range from $10 to $12.50. You can like her on Facebook, follow on Twitter and follow on Instagram as well.

China Glaze Mind The Gap

Nothing To Disclose
From the Fall 2014 China Glaze collection "All Aboard", was Mind The Gap, a unique olive with green shimmer inside. It reminded me a lot of China Glaze Out on Safari so I had to pull a swatch comparison with my sticks.

Ooooh very close but not the same! @chinaglazeofficial Out On Safari vs Mind The Gap. MTG is from the upcoming Fall 2014 collection.

A photo posted by Krystal Emery (@polishgalore) on Jul 7, 2014 at 7:02pm PDT

For this manicure, I used a base coat of Cult Nails Get It On, 2 coats of polish and finished with Digital Nails Ain't Nobody Got Time For That. Formula was a little thin but mostly opaque in 2 coats. 

The green shimmer isn't as prominent in the sun as I had hoped and I'm not a huge fan of the brown on my nails but it's still a pretty unique color.

But then you get in the shade and I'm a big fan! The green shimmer takes on a bit of a life of its own and starts to really push through the brown, giving a glowing look. I was much happier with this in the shade!

China Glaze [Website] [Facebook] [Twitter] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty, Sally's Beauty Supply as well as TransDesign.