Spellbound Nails Harry Potter Inspired Book 1 Collection

Hello lovelies! I am so very excited for today's post. It's part one of my Christmas gift to you and something I've been planning for months and months ... pretty much since I started making nail polish I knew I wanted to do this collection. The idea has grown since then to be a massive, multiple collection idea that has taken so much planning but I'm finally ready to start sharing this with you. What is this massive top secret idea? Harry Potter, of course! Those of you who know me even a little know how utterly obsessed I am with Harry Potter! So many years after the last book and I still pick them up occasionally for a re-read.

I started this series in a way I thought was very appropriate - with Book 1. I took some of my favorite things from the book and turned them into polish. And in an attempt to be symbolic, I created 7 polishes. 7 books, 7 horcuxes, 

Since this will be such a long, image heavy post please click the Read More below. If you'd like to simply skip this post and check out the polish for yourself you can find it here.

Spellbound Nails Christmas 2014 Collection

Hello lovelies!!! Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate. I don't know about you but I'm more than ready to eat my weight in turkey and stuffing and all the fixin's today!

I'm also really excited to announce that my Christmas Collection is finally being released. :) I'm going to attempt to keep this short and to the point as I know a lot of you will be spending the day with family, some of you resting up for late night or early morning Black Friday shopping. So onto the polishes!

I used a little of everything Christmas in this collection and then added a dash of carefully chosen scent for each polish - optional of course.

I've always admired theses kinds of bottle/brush close ups so I decided to try my own. They're not hard to do and they look amazing so you'll definitely be seeing more of them in the future. Now I just have to work on getting the angle of each picture the same. :)

Reindeer poo is a brown tinted jelly with gold and tangerine flakies. The optional scent for this polish is reindeer poo - a slightly fruity scent with hints of woods and vanilla.

Candy Cane Kisses is like crushed candy canes for your nails with rainbow shimmer, red micro-glitter, white hex glitter, and red and white bar glitter. This polish comes with optional candy cane scent.

Elf Sweat is like candy in a jar. It has a clear rainbow shimmered base with dots in a variety of sizes and colors. This polish comes with optional elf sweat scent - like candy, candy canes, candy corn, syrup, and soda. It's a very sweet scent.

What Happens Under the Mistletoe (shortened to Under the Mistletoe to fit on my labels) is a green tinted base packed full of micro-flakies. The gold-green and red-gold flakies create an amazing gold shimmer that has an almost rainbow effect in various lights. This polish comes with optional mistletoe scent.

And last but not least is Frosty's Melting. I created this polish to look like a melted snowman with orange triangles for the nose, large and small black dots for coal eyes, mouth, and the buttons down the front. All packed into a white crelly base with blue shimmer and blue micro-flakies. This polish comes with optional snow/snowman scent - a vanilla mint with a hint of woods.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving ya'all. Be safe, happy, and healthy. :)

Until next time,
Ashley

Barielle Jetsetter Collection | ZigZag Gradient Nail Art

*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Barielle. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Hello lovelies!! Some of you may have seen the black & white sneak peek of this mani on my Instagram account (@spellbound_nails) - now see it in full color! I was sent some really gorgeous fall colored polishes by Barielle from their fall/winter Jetsetter Collection. I'm not a great swatcher, but I pride myself on my nail art. With this in mind, I set myself the challenge of using them all in one mani. 6 polishes in one mani? It was a little challenging, but I love the final product!!

I started by painting my index and my pinky nails with my all time new favorite brown Autumn in Seoul. This is seriously the most gorgeous brown. It's a little bit red and a little bit gold with a light shimmer and a metallic-y finish that does streak a little but a good layer of top coat took care of that. This color leaves me wanting to paint my nails and just leave them that color all fall long so you know it's an amazing color!! While the brown was drying I took a sponge and created a gradient using (from cuticle down) Irish Eyes, Gondola Ride, Rain in Spain, and lastly Kiss Me Kate. There's not a huge difference between the green shades of Irish Eyes and Gondola Ride but the fade between greens is actually more visible in person than in pictures so I was pleased! I added some Born Pretty 2mm round gold studs to help it compete with the pattern I knew I was adding to the gradient. And lastly I did the pattern with Midnight in Paris.

I found this really awesome pattern while browsing for zigzag patterns to use. I was going to do a simple zigzag but then this one popped up in my search so I ran it through my Silhouette software and printed/cut it with my Silhouette vinyl cutter. It was tricky because the pattern was nowhere close to the simple peel and stick patterns I've been using but thankfully I had some vinyl transfer paper on hand and after 4 trials and errors before this I managed to get the pattern on my nails nearly perfectly. After that it was the simple paint over and peel off of regular vinyls. :)

L-R: Autumn in Seoul, Kiss Me Kate, Irish Eyes, Gondola Ride, Midnight in Paris, Rain in Spain

Here are the shades I used in case you were wondering. And I'm very sure I'll be finding all kinds of fun things to do with these all fall and winter long ... and probably longer because most of these are such great basic shades that can be used all year long and ones that everyone should have in their collection.

And I leave you with one last mani pic. ;)

What do you think? Do you have a favorite color from the Jetsetter Collection? As always, let me know in the comments.

Until next time,
Ashley

*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Barielle. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Happy Halloween!!! Candy, Nail Art & My Halloween Costume - Image Heavy

*Post contains affiliate links. Purchases made via affiliate links provide small commissions to me but do not affect the purchaser's end of the transaction.

Hello lovelies and happy Halloween. This is my favorite time of year so boy do I have a post for you! It has candy and nail art and my Halloween costume! Are you ready?

Candy is essential to Halloween. No matter if you're manning the door for the hordes of fairy and monster (or Anna and Elsa this year) dressed trick or treaters, going out and knocking on doors yourself (with or without kids), or turning off your lights and gorging yourself on it while vegging with a night of horror movies this holiday kinda revolves around candy. So I thought, besides chocolate covered candy bars, that I would share one of my favorite candies with you.

I am being completely serious when I say Torie & Howard have some of the best, most amazing hard candy - and it's organic too if that makes a difference to you. The d'anjou pear & cinnamon candy (as seen in the Halloween bowl above) is my favorite of favorites.

How did I get enough to fill a Halloween bowl ... and still have some left over you ask? Is this a sponsored post where you get free candy to feed us a line? NO! I was subscribed to the Love with Food monthly box and got a sample in last year's Halloween box. Love ... there's no more to say. I searched and searched but couldn't find them around here and couldn't talk myself into paying shipping for candy (yet). I was at my breaking point when Love with Food had a sale on their website. I immediately used my referral and review points ... and bought a 5 pound bag. Yes, you read that right - a 5 pound bag.

Image Credit: Torie & Howard

Torie & Howard were so nice. They sent me my 5 pound bag of candy, a handwritten letter, a sample bag of all their flavors and an info packet that told me they were getting a new flavor! Meyer Lemon & Raspberry. How will I ever live without trying this new flavor? I don't know. If you can't live without trying these hard candies (and believe me you really can't!) head over to the Torie & Howard website and pick up some of your own or use their store locator to see if they're being sold near you. ;)

Halloween (at least for us nail people) is about what Halloween inspired nails we're wearing. Mine used a base of Instant Primordial Soup Mix from my Casper inspired Give Up The Ghost Collection.

Very simple to do with the right tools. I used my Silhouette machine to cut out spooky pumpkin faces and used the outside shape as a guide to sponge into instead of using the vinyls themselves. I just like the smoother feel this gives my nails better than painting over vinyls. As for the pumpkin faces ... I'm seeing Jack Skellington, Oogie Boogie ... and oddly The Snowmen from Doctor Who. Not sure about any others ... what do you see in the faces?

But the very best part of these nails ... they glow in the dark!!! And since I painted black over the glow you can see the faces perfectly when they glow. :)

And what Halloween is complete without a costume? For me - no Halloween! It's a tradition of mine to dress up and hand out candy and last night was the night for our community. Sadly, we live on the outskirts of a small town and the kids around here have pretty much outgrown trick or treating. We got one trick or treater and they came early so I wasn't fully in costume. :( So I'll share with you in hopes of curbing my disappointment.

I was a deer/faun this year. And I spent a few days and a few dollars crafting my leafy headband and my own ears. And then I took a day earlier in the week to test my makeup (if you follow my instagram @spellbound_nails you've already seen this test) so I'm very very happy with how I looked.

What did you or will you be getting up to this Halloween? Did you dress up? Leave me comments and/or pictures in the comments section below. ;)

As always, have a safe and haunting Halloween.
Until next time,
Ashley

*Post contains affiliate links. Purchases made via affiliate links provide small commissions to me but do not affect the purchaser's end of the transaction.

Happy Birthday To Me - Sale & Giveaway

Hello Lovelies!!! For those of you who don't know my birthday is November 3rd and I thought to myself what do I want for my birthday? Besides a new pair of boots and some jeans? Both of which I bought for myself ... how about a giveaway? And how about a big one day sale too??

Let's do the sale info first as it's a quick one. It's one day only - the day of my birthday from midnight to midnight. Use the code HAPPYDAY for 29% off your entire order on any of my sites. That's my main store plus Storenvy and Etsy :)

Now the giveaway!

The Prizes: 

A zebra print OPI makeup/nail polish bag, 2 packs of nail stickers, and a pack of Sally Hansen Gel Strips in Hooray Ombre (opened only for pictures).

Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara in black, Baby Lips Dr Rescue Medicated Balm in Pink Me Up, and a mustache necklace.

2 packs of Revlon 3D Jewel Appliques, L'Oreal True Match Crayon Concealer in Light/Medium (unopened but the tip does have a small amount of damage), and Maybelline Super Stay 24 2-Step Color lipgloss in Forever Chestnut.

*All items are brand new, never used. They were either purchased for this giveaway, given to me, or free gifts (usually with a purchase).

The Rules:

Giveaway starts 12:00am EST October 29th and ends 12:00am EST November 4th. Giveaway is open worldwide - however it is up to you to check your own country's customs requirements. I take no responsibility if your package is destroyed by customs.

Once the winner is contacted, they will have 24 hours to reply and claim their prize. If they do not reply within that time period, a new winner will be chosen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Barielle Nail Polish Remover Towelettes Review and Video

*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Barielle. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Hello lovelies! This post has been a while in coming - almost a month to be exact. Some of you will remember the maple leaf nails I did with the Barielle polishes I received from the company. Well, I also received a tub of their Love Your Nails Acetone-Free Nail Polish Remover Towelettes to try. I actually used them to remove said maple leaf nails but my phone ran out of space while I was trying to record it.

Retail Price: $10.00

It took me a while but I finally gave it another try with some candy corn gradient nails I've been wearing since vacation ... almost 2 weeks ago. I'm a horrible, horrible nail artist.

So, honest opinions. These wipes aren't horrible! YAY!! The small size really does make it easy to tuck them into a purse or suitcase with no risk of a cap coming off and spilling nail polish remover all over your clothes or god forbid your electronics during a trip. It's a horror story we either tell or hear about all the time so this more than anything else gets my thumbs up! 

I haven't counted but the tub states it has 25 towelettes. I found one wipe removed my polish from all 10 nails but I needed a second wipe to do a thorough clean up of stubborn polish and even more stubborn base coat ... so each tub is good for about 12 manis for me.

And on the subject of cleanup it was seriously a breeze! I haven't tried these wipes with chunky glitter yet but it removed shimmer polishes and dark polishes really well and quickly too. You'll see this in the video. What you won't be able to know from the video is the scent of these wipes. So much better than nail polish remover! Their website says it's a citrus scent and I was a little scared because I'm not a fan of citrus scents. I usually find citrus too cloying, but all I get from these is a light citrus/berry scent that's actually really nice.

Let's all ignore the fact that my nails need filed and shaped.
That comes after this post. ;)

The above picture was taken after wipe one but before the thorough clean of wipe two. You can see my index finger has some stubborn base coat and my middle finger has some stubborn polish clinging to the tip. That said, this would be fine if I was rushing out the door. Quick and easy and nearly completely clean ... you really can't ask for much more in a hurry!

And any worry about drying out my nails was put to rest as soon as I started removing the polish. These towelettes have an almost lotion-like residue that you can see in the picture. Honesty again ... I wasn't sure I liked it at first. It felt really different to liquid nail polish remover and different is always met with resistance lol. But after using the wipes I noticed that my fingers were amazingly soft with no dried out feeling that liquid removers (even the best non-acetone remover I've tried) give me and best of all it did wonderful things for my cuticles! It really reminds me of the Essie cuticle oil pen I have and love but with the Barielle towelettes it gets all over your hands without any extra work. It was like skipping a step in my nail care routine without giving up any of the benefits!

The only downside I can find is the price tag. $10.00 is a little out of my price range for everyday use, but these are definitely a must have for any lengthy trip. That said, Barielle has a 4oz bottle of a liquid acetone-free remover for the same price. I might splurge and buy myself some for my birthday on the 3rd to see if it's just as good as the wipes. If I do, I'll definitely let you know!

Check out the video and see the magic in action for yourself. Remember that I've been wearing this polish for almost 2 weeks so if you're squeamish about chips and nail polish growing out it's best to turn away and not watch. *cringe*

So, what do you think? Let me know your thoughts and comments in the box below. ;)

Until next time,

Ashley

*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Barielle. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Haunted Nighttime Nail Art

Hello lovelies! I'm excited to bring you my very first Halloween mani. I did this one for the 1st and I'm sad to say I only managed to get one good pic and it's not completely color accurate. :(

I started with a base of Crisp Morning Air from my 2014 Fall Collection and used an eyeshadow applicator to dab a few splotches of Autumn Sunset. Autumn Sunset is a gorgeous purple polish with a blue shift and that just doesn't show here. It created such an amazing nightime-y effect for this creepy Halloween scene. :( If you're like my mom and you just don't see it ... my index nail has a spindly tree, bats on my middle finger, a haunted mansion on my ring, and a graveyard on my pinky finger with Happy Halloween written on my thumb complete with a raven perched on it. :)

I topped the sponged base with a coat of Seche Vite top coat and once the whole thing was completely dry I used some homemade Halloween vinyls to create the designs. Unlike my maple leaf nail art I used the outlines of the images this time and dabbed them with black. I apologize for the horrible camera quality pic but this is what I'm talking about when I say outline. I simply dabbed black into the outline and peeled the vinyl off leaving behind a perfect design ... so much easier and less time consuming than trying to hand paint everything. A time and place for everything, right? Be sure to get into the edges of the outline though for nice clean and crisp lines.

And for the thumb I simply used the vinyl image itself, sticking it to my nail and painting over it with two coats of top coat to smooth it all out.

If you want to see these colors as close to accurate as I think pictures can possibly capture head over to Painted Nubbs' blog post on the 2014 Fall Collection. She has some truly stunning swatches.

What kind of nail art are you most looking forward to seeing or trying this Halloween? Let me know in the comments. ;)

Until next time,
Ashley

Fall is Here with Maple Leaf Nail Art

*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Barielle. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Hello lovelies!! More nail art? Yes, I'm really trying to get back into doing my nails and how can you possibly paint nails without doing some pretty nail art?

I bring you maple leaf art for fall. I actually did these on the first day of fall but things have been busy so this post got pushed back.

I was given the opportunity to test and review a few Barielle products. At the time, I had this idea in my head for a fall mani so I requested Dinner at 8 (red), Hawaiian Sunset (orange), and Lemondrops (yellow). All perfectly beautiful fall shades!

I started out with 2 coats of Lemondrops and used some cheap Dollar Store bought eyeshadow applicators to lightly sponge on some Hawaiian Sunset, Dinner at 8, and some green China Glaze Holly-Day. Build lightest to darkest as you don't see the lighter colors as well over dark as you do the other way around! In some places I sponged and then used a clean side to sponge over it again - especially the green as this gives it a slightly watercolor smudged look that works perfectly on the maple leaf idea. A little clean up and you have a perfect base for this mani.

I applied top coat over this and waited for it to dry completely.

While I waited (and being extra careful not to ruin my mani) I used my Silhouette cutter and some handy sticker vinyl to cut out some maple leaf shapes in various sizes for my nails.

Once my nails were completely dry - I repeat completely dry - I applied my homemade maple leaf vinyls. I positioned them much like choosing the swirl in a watermarble ... over the best sponging. ;) Once I had them where I wanted them I painted over the entire nail with China Glaze Holly-Day. If you aren't comfortable painting over the entire nail you can simply sponge the green over the entire nail and clean up any mess. Just be sure to get in good around your maple leaves. You want nice, sharp lines. Also, if you really don't feel comfortable doing peel off vinyls you could totally leave the vinyls on and simply add top coat over them.

It was much simpler than I thought to use a pair of super sharp tweezer while the green was still slightly tacky, grab a leafy corner, and peel the vinyl right off leaving behind a perfectly fall colored maple leaf on each nail.

Add a layer of top coat and you are set. ;)

A note about wear - it was excellent! I did this mani Tuesday and loved it so much I wanted it to last until Saturday so I could wear it to the local potato festival. I honestly didn't hold much hope because polish just doesn't wear well for me anymore. Mixing polish and running Spellbound Nails opens up a ton of chances for me to get splattered with polish or chip a brand new mani. BUT! This mani lasted not just until Saturday but with only minimal tip wear (and one minor splatter on a thumb). And I reallllyyy didn't go easy on them either. I mixed polish as usual, put together a new entertainment center, did some major fall cleaning, and went about my business. Seriously, forgive the phone pic (taken this morning before heading to the festival) but just look at those tips. A little touch up and another layer of top coat and I could wear these for at least another few days if not longer! Many thanks to Barielle for letting me try their must be magic polishes.

Links to Barielle

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram (because what is life without Instagram?)

Until next time,

Ashley

*Some products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Barielle. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Break Out The Crackle

*gasp* What foul magic is this?? A nail art-ish post after so long? Yes, my lovlies, yes.

Yep, I did it. And I have no shame about it. I broke out the crackle. China Glaze Cracked Concrete released in 2011 (if I remember correctly) to be exact. Again, no shame because it's so pretty paired with this old tester blue that never made it into my shop and takes next to no work! When life is so busy next to no work is perfection. :)

Source: Undiegamer

I would also like to point out that I spent most of the night rounding out my poor square nubbins in the hopes that a new shape with less edges will stop them from breaking. Grrrr!! Nail shape is all a matter of preference, and I freely admit that round really isn't mine, but we all do what we have to do to get our nails to grow.

Any followers out there still rocking the crackle?

Until next time,
Ashley

PREORDER Give Up The Ghost - Halloween Collection

Hello lovelies! Anyone who knows me or follows me knows I LOVE Halloween. Can you hear my squeal of excitement from there?? Why am I so terribly excited? Because I have another awesome Halloween collection. Last year's collection was inspired by the most amazing Halloween movie ever, Hocus Pocus (collection still available only on spellboundnails.com). This year's collection is inspired by probably the second most awesome Halloween movie ever ... I think it ties with Nightmare Before Christmas for second favorite but that's kinda Halloween and Christmas.

But ... Casper!! I am so proud and excited to introduce you to the Give Up The Ghost Collection.

Pre-sales: 9/15-9/22

Pre-orders will ship after 9/22

Full release: 9/27

www.spellboundnails.com

Also available on:

spellboundnails.etsy.com

spellboundnails.storenvy.com

Do you see? Do you see?? Isn't it awesome??? There are 6 polishes, each one inspired by one of my favorite scenes, quotes, or things about the movie ... and 5 of them glow in the dark! It's practically a rainbow of glow!

Here is where you get to choose. You can either immediately run to spellboundnails.com and preorder these beauties (because you know you want to!) or you can continue on the road of discovery with me and see more of these polishes. I warn you now it's heavy on the image. ;)

Still here? Okay, moving on!

This is Unfinished Business. It's an earthy, hunter green polish with a gorgeous green shimmer that glows green in the dark. Can any Casper lover seriously say they didn't love the part in the movie where Kat and Casper trick the ghostly Carrigan into admitting she has no unfinished business? Nothing to tie her to Earth?

Pinky Promise is a bright bubblegum pink crelly with white and holographic black hexes and holographic black triangle glitters. This polish glows yellow in the dark.

Boo is a glitter topper but glitter topper just doesn't do this polish justice. Awesome topper? Still doesn't come close! It has holographic orange, holographic green, fuchsia, black, and a sprinkling of white glitter in hexes, squares, dots, and skulls! Inspired by that moment the human Casper turns back into a ghost, gives an awkward laugh, and questioningly says Boo? and everyone at the party goes running. I thought this moment was a perfect way to wrap up this year's Halloween collection. :) Boo is shown here over Unfinished Business.

Can I Keep You? is a lovely warm purple with banana yellow stars and hexes and orange shreds. This polish also glows purple in the dark. What person doesn't know the inspiration for this one? Most people who grew up during the movie's release or had a child of viewing age knows this question! Casper whispers it to Kat as she falls asleep and then again as the human Casper dances with Kat.

Get An Afterlife is a beautiful baby blue with holographic blue and black hexes, holographic silver squares, and fuchsia dots. This polish glows bright baby blue in the dark. The inspiration is more the slogan for the movie but I still think it fits perfectly ... and it makes an amazingly beautiful polish. :)

Instant Primordial Soup Mix is a red/orange jelly with holo orange glitter that glows orange in the dark. That long (fun looking) ride to the Lazarus machine and our first glimpse of the formula that brings back the dead - and Casper's words that it's basically an instant primordial soup mix - is just brilliant! And is what inspired this polish.

Anddd that's all folks! What do you think? Have a favorite of this collection? If so, let me know in the comments. ;)

Until next time,

Ashley