Introducing Formula X for Sephora + Teardrop Nail Art Tutorial

I'm always flattered when I'm contacted by a company to do a review.  This was even more than that, an introduction for a completely new nail polish line.  Formula X for Sephora is the next in nail, a 3-free polish that has a wide range of colors, finishes, and products extending to nail appliques & nail care treatments.  Sephora sent me a selection of colors from both the New Classics, and the Celestials.  You can see my thoughts on the collection as a whole, a close up look at the polishes, as well as a tutorial for my teardrop design in this vid:

One thing I forgot to mention in the vid is that the caps are not really square - that's just for looks & can be removed to reveal a normal cap, which makes application much easier.

Here's a closer look at the manicure - I used Pyrotechnic for the base color & Sparklebomb for the teardrops:

So what do you all think?  Have you been in store to see the awesome display of the full collection?  Let me know in the comments!

If you don't live near a store you can always order online from Sephora's website:
http://www.sephora.com/formula-x-for-sephora

Or, if you're just looking for some inspiration, check out the Formla X site:
http://www.formulax.com/

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette
(These were sent to me for review)

NOTD: Pink & Blue Easter Dots + Tutorial

This was kind of a last minute design, at the time I didn't want the purple swirls on my nails for Easter LOL.  For the base white I used Orly Au Champagne, then the dotting is done with Revlon Coastal Surf & Revlon Passionate Pink:

Here's the tutorial:



Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

NOTD: OPI La Paz-Itively Hot Matte (& w/ Dots & Top Coat)

Started out just wanting something less ... pastel than my Easter mani LOL.  So I picked out one of my recent purchases, OPI La Paz-Itively Hot Matte.  This is 3 coats & honestly I would have gone for 4 if wearing it alone because there was surprisingly a little bit of VNL:

 

 

It was ... not boring, but plain.  So I decided to add a little something.  Sometimes that turns out good - sometimes that turns out bad - and I'm still not sure which this ended up to be LOL.  I did some little dots at an angle in white & then some more in black, then top coat,  but it just didn't end up the way I imagined it.  Even when I took it off, I wasn't sure I actually disliked it ... and I actually got a ton of compliments ... but I did decide it looked a little better from a distance:

 

Thanks for reading =)

 

~Colette

Happy Easter! NOTD: Blue Zig-Zag Funky French

I hope everyone had a great Easter!  I did this before I left but did not have time right then for the editing =)  So I'm putting it up now.  Last year when I did this design in purple & pink, I got a lot of requests for a tutorial, so I did one this year in blue - base color is Milani Cloud 9 (my blue one, since I also have a lavender Cloud 9 from Milani...), and the tips are done with Milani Cyberspace:

Here's the tutorial:

Bonus pic!  Here's just one of the delicious things we ate today, my contribution:

Pink are lemon cake with lemon coating, blue are lemon cake with lime coating - yummy both!  Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Easter NOTD: Zigzag Funky French w/ Dots

I think this has to be the most adorable mani I've ever done.  And for once, it came out on my nail exactly as I pictured it in my head.  I think I could even rock this with some less-pastel colors & be quite pleased.

I started out alternating nails between China Glaze Light as Air & Something Sweet, both from the Up & Away collection.  Excuse my lack of cleanup in most of these pics LOL:

Then I used pinking shears on some blue painters tape, and did french tips with matching holo colors, using Milani Hi-Res & Digital.  After I took off the tape, I added dots with the creme base color & this is the final super-cute result:

I added a matte topcoat again for the 2nd day.  Although they do have kind of more an eggshell finish with the Matte Magic, I think I really prefer this mani glossy.  You can make your own call:

I had a great Easter & hope you all did as well =)  Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Clovers/Shamrocks + Tutorial

Uhmmm... oops on taking a pic of this green pre-nail art.  I think that's pretty much always a sign that I'm really up too late doing my nails LOL.  So of course there are some things I would fix with this - but overall I liked it, it was super-festive & fun to wear.  I stuck with just 3 leaves except on my thumbs with I did lucky 4 leafed-clovers.  (I also made the mistake of connecting them in the center on the thumbs ... it made them look much sloppier)

For my base color, I used Nina Ultra Pro Emerald City (I did just get this, I swear, my hauls post is coming soon LOL).  Then for doing the clovers (or shamrocks ... although apparently clovers can have 3 or 4 leaves & shamrocks always only have 3), I used China Glaze GR8.  The holo was not super-apparent, but it was still a nice sparkly gold:

On another note, have I mentioned lately that I am a complete spazz 95% of the time? I JUST noticed today – after almost 4 months mind you – that I mis-spelled my name for my YouTube account…. Instead of SimpleLittlePleasures it shows as SimpleLittlePleasues.  I don’t know how my eyeballs managed to skim over that for so long but talk about irritating … of course, since I’m already at the character limit, I actually could not have it the way I wanted, it would have to be SimpleLittlePleasure … grrr.

Anyway, that’s my little mini-rant.  Since there’s no way to change it I’ll probably just complain about it at random intervals.  Because no way in hell would I start over, lose my subsribers & all the views my tutorials have received.  Especially since I can’t even have the name I want anyway.  My consolation is that my channel name does match the proper name of my blog, so … yeah.

That’s out of the way, enjoy the latest tut =)



Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Sinful Show Me The Way

So, in the interest of St. Patrick's day, I've been trying to work my way through some of my unworn greens =)  This mani lasted me a couple of days, I started out with Sinful Colors Show Me The Way, then I added a coat of Matte Magic ... then I thought I'd do some nail art in glossy topcoat, but I really wasn't thrilled with it, so you'll see in the last pic that I ended up going over that with MM again:

I haven't had anything that my nails look like lately, but this little butterfly thing was on a co-worker's desk & I was immediately struck by how similar the color was =)

For the 2nd day of this mani, I added some Konad, with image plate m72.  I used L'Oreal Yellow Buzz for the stamping.  I was originally going to use Ghetto Fabulous, but when I tested it on the pinky it was almost invisible, so I switched from gold to yellow.  This is the first time I've used this design, I like it a lot better on my nail than on the plate.  I also used a glossy topcoat this time,:

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: ChG Thunderbird

Well, I chose this color for my Friday National Wear Red Day mani, then I decided since the day is about heart disease awareness, a few hearts would not be out of place - so I think it really could stand in for Valentine's Day also, with the red & gold color combination.

Base color is China Glaze Thunderbird, which is a perfect red, from this past fall's Retro Diva collection.  I just wanted a little bit more, so I used my dotting tool to create hearts on my thumb & ring fingers with OPI Dazzled by Gold (and boy am I starting to wish I had a backup of this LE polish):

It was a really good match for my red boots:

And I also decided to do a comparison swatch vs. Zoya Isla.  Here is Isla on index & ring, Thunderbird on middle & pinky:

They are pretty close, but I think Thunderbird is a little darker (especially in person), so I'm not willing to call them dupes - I'm glad I have both because this is such a perfect tone of red for me =)  Thanks for reading.

~Colette