Share With You Sunday: 7/14/13-7/21/13

Imperfectly Painted Posts:
Mon- Cult Nakizzle's Shizzle
Tues- Color Club Port-folio
Fri- Mint B-day Mani for Talia 
Sat- Glitt-A-Licia Guest Post

Posts I'm Loving:
nail loopy shows us her one stroke flower nails.
The Polish Playground shares with us her gradient nails.
Nail A College Drop Out shows us her neon gradient and gold stars nails.
Sparkly Vernis swatches Gloss 'n Sparkle Cotinga.
MandysSecrets swatches Urban Outfitters Silver Holo.

Posts You're Loving:
The Clockwise Nail Polish shows us her double stamped Zoya Neely nails.
The Beauty Case shares with us her Bastille Day nails.

You can submit your blog posts for Sunday posts here.

Reader Manis of the Week:

Name: Victoria Oen
Location: Indonesia
Manicure Description: First, I painted my nails black using OPI I Only Date Werewolves. For the dots, I used acrylic paints. Then I applied OPI Matte Top Coat, let it completely dry, and taped my thumb and ring finger. I painted them black again and did french on the rest of my nails. Last, I applied top coat only on the glossy parts.
Favorite Polishes: NYX Girls Sunday Afternoon, OPI Come to Poppy, OPI Rally Pretty Pink, OPI He's My Boo, OPI Pussy Galore, OPI Japanese Rose Garden, ...and many more!!
Blog: http://vicandhernails.blogspot.com/

I need manis for July! You can find information on how to submit your manicures for Sunday posts here. 

Happy Sunday!

Glitt-A-Licia: Introductory Post

I want to introduce a new feature for Saturdays. Every other Saturday, we will have a regular guest poster, Alicia. Alicia is part of the Hobby Polish Bloggers group and has a guest posted for me. I feel  that Alicia and I have a lot in common, not with just polish, but with personal experiences with imperfection. Alicia is an excellent writer, but being a busy mom she doesn't have the time right now to blog. I decided why not give her a regular feature here! Alicia is calling her guest posting spot "Glitt-A-Licia" in the spirit of her love of glitter! 

Hi! My name is Alicia and I am thrilled to be a guest blogger for Steph. Imperfectly Painted was the first beauty blog that I started following, and I love this blog because the emphasis is "imperfection." Come on, how many people can really paint their nails totally blemish free?! Not me!

I really enjoy writing, but I just do not have time or the attention span to have a daily blog. I started one and quickly became overwhelmed and gave up. I do have a little Tumblr account, but Tumblr (much like Twitter) is like trying to tell your husband about this new neon pink nail polish when his favorite team is in overtime at the Superbowl...you can talk till you are blue in the face, but nobody is listening.

This is why I am so grateful for Steph giving me this opportunity to be a regular guest blogger!

So, let me introduce myself. Most fairy tales begin with "Once upon a time..." and since my life is a combo of different fairy tales, that is how I will begin.

Once upon a time, a princess kissed a frog and he turned into a prince. They got married, bought a castle, and had two babies. All was magical in the kingdom, and everyone's dreams came true...

If you believe that, I also time travel, I hate pizza, and everything I touch turns into gold. Obviously I don't live in a dreamy/delusional fairytale, but I do live in a fairytale...of sorts. I look like Shrek, I work like Cinderella, and I would kill to be Sleeping Beauty for just one day!

(A steering wheel can make a nice cushy pillow when the kids are asleep in the back)

I have a two year old, a nine month old, two weenie dogs, a big kid of a husband, and if I keep all of the above alive and get a bath, I am doing my job!

(This pic shows a good day...I am awake and hair is washed! Yay me!!)

As many women do, I slowly realized that my life revolved around everything and everyone BUT me. Almost all women, not just moms or wives, get caught in this trap. It is our curse, because we care too much. It is true! We care too much about everyone else to the point that we are too tired to care for ourselves.  You could definitely tell if you saw me. My appearance was rather unappealing. My life was actually draining all the life out of me! I was turning into a zombie. If you have ever seen a zombie movie or tv show, you know it's just easier to stick your arm out and say "Come get me zombie! Gnaw that sucker off! " than to fight a never ending battle. So, I let myself give in to the zombie. Then I morphed into the creature you see in these pics.

(Eeek! Zombie!!! Just look at those eyes! She must be the walking dead for sure!)

So one day, I was feeling especially frisky, and I put on a swipe of a very natural looking pink lipstick. My son did not recognize me. He tried to wipe the lipstick off! This was my "light bulb" moment. He was so used to me looking homely that he did not recognize me with lipstick on! I made it my mission from that moment on to kill the zombie!

My blog posts will focus on life, beauty, and glitter. Especially how cosmetics (nail polish of course!) and appearance influence our self esteem. I have been trying to take more beauty risks to save myself from my zombie rut. I can't wait to share my experiences with you!

Heck maybe we can kill a few other zombies out there! I know you're out there!! I have found the easiest way to kill a zombie is 100% pure glitter, and I am locked and loaded with my sights on you!

 -Alicia

Be sure to follow Alicia on Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram. 

My Mint Birthday Mani in Honor of Talia

*Lengthy post ahead*

It's my birthday today! Woo hoo! I turn 27 today, and while I'm happy it's my birthday, I think the older you get the less eventful birthdays become. Birthdays are a little more exciting when you're little, now it's just another day, but a day I choose to spoil myself rotten. Nevermind, it's kind of exciting!

Today is also the day many bloggers and I have chosen to post mint manis in honor of Talia Castellano. Talia was a 13 year old girl and beauty Youtuber who bravely fought cancer for 6 years of her life. Sadly, we lost Talia this past Tuesday, but she certainly impacted many of our lives.

I want to talk about what Talia has meant to me in my life. 2013 has been a very difficult year for me. Earlier this year, I faced the scariest moment of my life. Since then, things have been tough for me emotionally. My anxiety, depression, and emotions have been on high. I have found it difficult to live outside of my head and truly enjoy the moment.

This is where Talia comes in. I discovered Talia's videos in early March and I watched her segment on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. I immediately became inspired by Talia. Talia had faced unimaginable challenges at her age, yet she remained positive, energetic, and full of an absolute love for life and every moment. Talia became a tangible reminder to me to stop and smell the roses. Talia helped me to realize just because bad things may happen in life it doesn't mean your life stops. I couldn't allow negativity and fear to take away the joy I could experience.

What I also love about Talia is she was able to express herself , connect with others, and fulfill herself through her passion with makeup. There is so much more to beauty bloggers/youtbers than what we swatch or what we review. Our passion goes deeper because it allows us the platform to connect and share a part of ourselves with the world. The things we share with the world can potentially help, encourage, and inspire others. That is exactly what Talia did for me, and I know she touched many of us in the same way as well.

This is the mint mani I've done for my birthday in honor of Talia.

I started with Essie Mint Candy Apple and topped that off with Krafty Gurl Totally Neon and China Glaze Make A Spectacle. I wanted to make it lively because it is my birthday, and Talia was fun-spirited and full of life!

 

I think this is very fitting mani. It's a great start to 27 with Talia as my reminder to start living and enjoying my life. Talia's life, while unfairly cut short, was certainly not wasted. She positively touched my life in ways I will always be grateful for. Thank you Talia.

To see other bloggers sporting mint manis for Talia or want to add your blog to the list check out below!


Happy Friday!

Color Club Port-folio

Have you ever continuously called a nail polish by the wrong name? Let's say you just assumed it was called something because you didn't bother to fully read the name? Ever happen to you?

This happened to me with Color Club Port-folio. I guess I just saw the "Port" part and started calling it "Porto-fino". I don't know why that caught on for me. I live in Orlando, and Universal has a resort hotel Portofino, so I just stuck with that. I don't think I bothered even looking at the name until I purchased the color (months after the release) and then felt like an idiot. I'm sure I called this polish "Porto-fino" to a bunch of people who thought I was strange..especially since this came in the Fall 2012 In True Fashion collection...and Portofino a small Italian fashion village, has no relation to fashion. Oh well! I digress.


Port-folio (there I got it right!)

Port-folio is a blue-toned purple with an intense green/aqua duochrome shimmer.

Color: Awesome possum! This color is intense, pigmented, and the duochrome shimmer absolutely pops! I've heard comparisons to Zoya Adina (I don't own it), but based on swatches of seen Port-folio is so much richer in color.

Formula: The formula on this was very good. I was worried it would be sheer, but it wasn't at all. I used 3 coats for the swatch above.

Price: I paid $5.50 for this on Amazon.

Overall: Love this one, despite my name confusion! This is one of those stand out polishes for sure. I can't see anyone really going wrong with this one.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Paint Splatters

Happy Tuesday!

Cult Nails Nakizzle's Shizzle

I'm back! Well, to you I wasn't really gone. The majority of last week my parents were visiting, so I had scheduled posts in advance. I think I was on the computer maybe 20 minutes total the 5 days they were here! I felt so far removed from blog world, but it was a nice little vacation. :)

I have for you today, Cult Nails Nakizzle's Sizzle (that was hard to type, my 7th grade keyboarding is failing me a bit) from the Dance All Night Collection.

Nakizzle's Sizzle

Nakizzle's Shizzle is a bright soft blue creme.

Color: I love this shade blue. It's always clear to me I like a color when I'm always gravitating towards it. I've worn this color twice as mani so far, and it's always coming to mind when I'm thinking of doing any layering combos or nail art. I can't get the color out of my head. It's so fresh and bright!

Formula: The formula on this was good. I did notice this one was a tad thicker than my other Cult Nails polishes. I'd say the same goes for the rest of the cremes in this collection. I'm assuming it's because of the pastel-like quality(?), but these are still very easy to work with. I just noticed they were thicker.

Price: I bought this in the pre-sale set, but you can purchase this now on the Cult Nails website for $12.

Overall: Lovely bright blue! This is a great color, and I think it's a great stable light blue for any collection.

My Rating: 4.5 out 5 Paint Splatters

Happy Monday!