Super Lemming Haul

 I got my limited edition Lynderella Remember in the mail today!!! <3 <3 <3

Pretty much my biggest lemming ever. What's your biggest lemming and have you ever gotten one that seemed impossible to get?

If you didn't know, I have been wanting Lynderella Remember since it came out earlier this year for Memorial Day. It was a limited edition polish with a grey jelly base, red, white, and blue glitter, and white stars. It is the only actually designated military polish I have found. Someone suggested I write to her, just to see if she had anymore or or planned on making them again, can't hurt. I did...

She and her brother wrote back to me and said they had made extra ones that they planned on auctioning off for a Veteran charity...and that they would like to give one of those to me...as a gift in thanks for our service because my husband is in the Navy. I'm still bouncing off the walls and overwhelmed by their kindness <3 <3 <3.

I'm Famous! Kind of...

Lol! I feel famous anyway. I got published in an online newsletter that a popular website just started sending out. This is my first time really being anywhere other than on my blog or guest posts on other blogs. 

Here is a thumbnail of the newsletter where my swatch is featured on NailPolishCanada.com.  You can view it here :).

 How awesome!
 They featured my remembrance manicure for September 11th which you can view my post on here.

To view the latest "Favorite Swatches of the Week" newsletter check out their site.

I ALSO got my swatches featured on a big company's website for the first time! I have had them on Indie Facebook pages and such, but never quite like this. I know there are ~34897 other people with swatches on Llarowe, but it's cool to me :D. 

My swatches are the second and third currently and are of Sea Lore Aquata, which I love. Awesome!

Thank you, nail polish world, for making me feel special lately :).

Shimmer Polish Jenny

 I legit, no exaggeration, love every single Shimmer polish I have put my little hands on!
This is Shimmer Polish Jenny.
Jenny is a clear base with large hexes in blue and holo silver and medium hexes in gold. There is a rainbow of small hexes including purple, red, green, holo silver...and small squares in bronze and baby blue. The microglitter is in purple, baby blue, gold, green, and silver holo. This is two coats.

 
Have I mentioned how cute the little color coordinating hearts are on her polish labels? What a cute trademark. These swatches may look patchy especially if you click to enlarge, but it was one of those cases where to the naked eye two coats seemed to cover my nails nicely. So you could do 2 or 3 I suppose :).

 Super glitter bottle shot!!

This is one coat of Jenny over Zoya Lotus and Nail the Bytch Caught in Candy. Like all of the other Shimmers I have tried, you can wear them alone or over another color for totally different looks!

I had no issues with anything. Great formula, no sinking/bleeding/curling glitter. Seriously....her polishes don't disappoint!

You can buy Shimmer Polish in her lovely Etsy store for $12 each and see more info on her blog. She even makes custom polishes! How do you like them? Do you have any?

This item was provided to me for my unbiased review.

Haul: Custom Polish Jewelry, Barielle, Butter London

I've been having good nail mail days lately!
Today I got my three pieces of custom nail polish jewelry from To Polish or Not and I freaking LOVE them!

This pic isn't even in sunlight. She does awesome custom work and will put pretty much anything you have in your head into a piece of polish jewelry...as you can see :D.

I also got the two new Fall/Winter collections from Barielle: Runway Fever and New York Style.

I just reviewed Runway Fever (on the left) and am working my way through the second collection. Fun!

And I grabbed two Butter London polishes from the recent sale at Ulta: Knackered and Black Knight. This makes four total for me. Did you get any?

Who doesn't love getting pretty much any package, especially nail mail!?

Barielle Runway Fever Collection

Barielle has two new collection out for Fall/Winter and this is Runway Fever! As far as I can tell these aren't sold in a set on their website yet, but you can still buy them separately with the ever popular buy one get one 50% off sale. 

One Shade of Gray is a medium/dark grey creme. I can see why they call this one shade of gray. If there could be such a thing as true gray, this would be it. 

 This is two coats. If you noticed, I had a wee bit of bubbling with with one on my second nail. BUT...


I got Barielle Ultra Speed Dry Manicure Extender recently and I have tried it more than once on top of bubbles with awesome results. Voila, no more bubbles! It's a great top coat that I have had absolutely zero issues with.

 Ahhh my absolute favorite from this collection...Rusted Vintage Boots - This is a lovely russet brown rusty orange spice with a tinge of red. Overall it's mostly orange. It's sunset meets pumpkin spice meets crunchy fall leaves meets awesomeness. Or you could just call it Rusted Vintage Boots...lol.

 This was a perfect two coater with a great formula.

 I tried a little nail art with this collection and did a quick half moon mani with Rusted Vintage Boots and Erica's Pencil Skirt. This picture is the most color accurate for Rusted Vintage Boots as it's a bit more orange than the previous photos in most lights.

 Alli's Lace Cover Up - Light fairy pale blue-toned pink creme with a slight touch of lavender. It's pretty pale for my skin tone, but surprisingly I don't think it looks bad on me! I'd love to see this on a nice tan person.

 These swatches are 3 coats not for opacity so much as it didn't self-level perfectly. It wasn't thick, just not as self-leveling as it could be.

I love finding fun things that match my polish. My mother got a cherry blossom flower pot for us as a wedding gift and they look so cute together :D. 


I tried more nail art again, this time a chevron french with Alli's Lace Cover Up and One Shade of Gray. Yeeeaa this might be a fail haha. I had never tried this and just broke some nails so had to nub them...This would look way better on longer nails. Definitely using tape next time, and it would have looked nicer with a topcoat to smooth things out.
I also started to get some bubbles with this one, as you can probably tell. I honestly thought it was my application when I had this issue with some previous polishes, hastily applying them for swatches and not waiting in between coats, so I haven't mentioned it before. I really waited in between coats this time and tried not to apply layers too thickly. I've only had this issue with some of their cremes, so I recommend following some bubble prevention tips when applying them. The topcoat probably would have fixed it. You know polishes and body chemistry though, who knows what's going to happen!

Jordana's Skinny Jeans -  A medium/dark sapphire blue with a foil metallic shimmer that makes it sparkle a much brighter blue with any light. Truly a gem!

You can see some of that silver shimmer here on the nail and in the bottle that makes me think of acid wash jeans, hence the name. This was a perfect one coater! I love polishes that only need one coat :).

 Erica's Pencil Skirt - A very dark maroon wine with a vampy brown side. Makes me think of Pinor Noir :). This polish is dark enough to look black at first glance and to the eyes of the average bystander (via a test with my husband lol). A glance from a polish connoisseur would see an extremely dark brown with a red tinge. You can really see the red jellyness in brighter light, and it does look more red on the nail vs the bottle. When I just looked at the bottle I thought it was a dark brown.

Here is the darker side. This one seems to be a jelly, but I'm not sure you could make a jelly sani with it considering how dark the color is. I had some issues with balding and patchiness, so this is three coats. It is a pain to remove from skin/cuticles, though most reds are sadly! Definitely a color for Fall and Winter. I think very dark colors like this are becoming more popular. The jelly finish makes it uber shiny as you can see in the pics (without a top coat).

You can buy Barielle polishes for $8 on their site, or $25 for this collection. You get %15 off for registering with your email, and they're pretty much always buy one get one 50% off! Ulta also sells them and you can use their coupons if you'd prefer to buy them in person. Don't forget to check out Barielle's Facebook page too!

These products were provided to me for my unbiased review.

Polish Jewelry Glitter Bomb Ring

 I love making anything crafy, and polish jewelry is extra fun! I just did custom request for a super glitter bomb pretty much every color ring :). Here is my happy customer and friend Amanda wearing it :D.

I packaged it up all cute too, I love doing that :D.
(Amanda's Instagram)

 I used 15 polishes in this ring! Here is a pretty close up view of the glitter.

I use a UV resin and love how cool it makes everything look :P.

I love how you can see the detail even in the shade, right down to the tiny particles of holo glitter!

If you'd like to order anything I do basically everything crafty you can imagine, including of course jewelry (beading, wire, polish, etc). You can pop me an email at itsrainingstars13@hotmail.com with an obvious subject like "crafting/polish jewelry" or something like that so I don't miss it. Feel free to comment here too so I know to look for your email! You can also Facebook message me.

How do you like my latest creation?! :D

Shimmer Polish Vanessa

 I can't get over Shimmer Polishes! It makes me think of Pokemon lol...gotta catch 'em all!!!
This is Shimmer Polish Vanessa.
This is two coats of Vanessa. Vanessa has a charcoal tinted base filled with charcoal microglitter. There are medium black hexes and small hexes in red and holo silver...microglitter in blue and red.


Here's her lighter side. The overall color shifts from charcoal great to silver to holo.

 
I love super glitters like this!

I actually wore this polish while writing our wedding thank you cards! So glittery I could die!

Here is a close up of Vanessa where you can see all her different glitters.

This is Shimmer Polish Vanessa over Diamond Cosmetics Silver and an unnamed Funky Fingers red shimmer. I love how you can use these polishes either on their own or as a top coat for a totally different look!

The formula is always great on every Shimmer Polish I have tried so far! I expected this one to be a little more rainbowy because I had NOPI Follow Me on Glitter in mind when I chose this one, but it's more of a card game kind of black/silver/red polish. Still awesome!

You can buy Shimmer Polish in her lovely Etsy store for $12 each and see more info on her blog. She even makes custom polishes! How do you like them? Do you have any?

This item was provided to me for my unbiased review.

Love & Happiness Giveaway

I've been planning a giveaway for you lovelies for months now! It was actually supposed to be a Happy Wedding/Honeymoon giveaway (I just got married 6-23-2012), but I couldn't manage to get it up right before or after the wedding, so here I am two months late ;P. So I'm calling it a love and happiness giveaway because I love you guys, I love my new married life, and I want to hear about your love and happiness too!

Prizes: Barielle Elle's Spell, Barielle Falling Star, Barielle Gotta Have Fate, Barielle Decadence, Barielle Nail Strengthening Cream, maybe some other random stuff :D.
All of the products pictured except Gotta Have Fate were provided to me by Barielle for either my personal use or a giveaway, so I wanted to give them away to you lovelies! I chose what I think are their best and most popular colors :D.


Many of you said you'd like to see pictures from my wedding, and this giveaway was meant to celebrate it, so I have way too many for you here haha. :D



Walking down the aisle

His first look...he was so nervous :).

We did a handfasting as our unity ceremony and Jeremy and I made the cord.

The first kiss as husband and wife!

We're so happy!

This is love!

And here are some from our honeymoon in San Diego, California!

Sunset dolphin cruise :)

Our rings (can't get enough of them) next to a lily pond in Balboa Park

Balboa Park cactus garden

My favorite pic from the zoo - BABY HIPPO! I even kissed his little face through the glass lol. He was right up against it with his momma.

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean

On the beach! It was way colder there than I thought it would be so I had to buy this awesome rainbow hoodie!

Megan and Jeremy :)

We took a ride in a lovely horse and carriage :)

And here is the giveaway form! All entries must be entered into this form to count. Comments on this post (like the fun questions) will only count if you have already entered them into the Rafflecopter form. I added lots of ways to get entries, some of which are kinda fun, so don't forget to look at them all!

Remember I would REALLY love to hear your romantic stories and see the pics in the comments as well so everyone can see!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway