Nail polish jewelry from Polish Findings!

I have a special post for you guys today! Amanda, who is the author of Fashion Footing, also has an Etsy store (Polish Findings) where she creates and sells nail polish jewelry! She recently put out a call on Twitter asking for reviews of her jewelry. I responded that I would love to review some of her jewelry, so she sent me three pieces. This is my first time reviewing jewelry, so hopefully I do a good job! 

**Disclosure: the following products have been provided for review**

First up, Amanda sent me this lovely ring! I don't have 'official' descriptions for any of these, so I can't say what polishes were used to create them. This ring looks to have a white-gold flakie top coat on a soft sea green background. I love how this ring is sparkly and soft at the same time. To me, despite the gold flakies, I think the color combination is subtle and neutral enough to be worn with almost anything. The ring size is adjustable and so should fit a variety of fingers, though you may have issues if you have super tiny fingers. My only issue with the adjustable rings (and this is ALL adjustable rings, not solely the one I received from Amanda) is that they sometimes get pinchy after you have adjusted them-- but I think some gentle tweaking with a pair of pliers would solve that problem. I am probably not aided in this area right now by the fact that I'm pregnant and therefore prone to swelling in my feet and fingers!

Up next, I have a subtly gorgeous pendent. This one features various sizes of white hex glitter and some small holographic glitter on a grey background in an antique brass-looking setting. This one is so pretty-- I love the white against the grey, it's subtle and sparkly. I like the added touch of the purple bead-- you could coordinate it with an outfit or just use it as an every day piece! The subtly of the colors is actually one of the things I really love about this.

Lastly, I have a eye-catching orange and gold pendent necklace! It consists of a gold glitter (small circle glitter and very fine glitter) on an orange background. I would go so far as to guess that the gold is Julep Vivien, but am not 100% positive. Anyway, this pendent has a silver setting/chain and from a distance I love that this pendent looks like a little bit of captured fire, or even a piece of amber. I'm wearing it right now to give a pop of color to a very neutral outfit. I love it!

Each of the pieces came individually wrapped in bubble wrap and it's own little organza bag. While certainly not as fragile as a bottle of polish, it was nice to see the pieces wrapped up so they wouldn't be at risk for breaking and the organza bag was a nice way of 'dressing them up' a bit! I find the pieces to be well-made-- the glass cabochons are well seated within their respective settings and I like that Amanda has a variety of settings and shapes available in her Etsy shop. One thing I especially like about the pendents is that they have large clasps, so they're easy to get on and off. Over all, I respect Amanda as a beauty blogger and I'm highly impressed by the pieces from her shop-- I've definitely added a few to my Etsy favorites list!

Thanks to Amanda's generosity, she made a coupon code for all my readers! You can get 10% off your entire order from Amanda's store using the code LACLAND10. Go forth and shop at Polish Findings! Amanda has lots of different pieces available in her store, including necklaces, rings, and earrings and she is willing to make custom pieces if you contact her directly. 

These products were received for honest review!

American Apparel Zuma Beach

Tonight I have the last polish from the American Apparel Sheer collection, Zuma Beach. I think this is a case of saving the best for last, because this was probably my favorite of the six. I would describe Zuma Beach as a sheer, chartreuse green jelly. Or maybe funky 1960's avocado green jelly? Either way, it's ugly pretty and proud!

I used three coats here and Zuma Beach is definitely on the sheer side-- I wouldn't recommend a single coat because at least with my skin tone, it made my nails look like they had a weird fungal infection. Application was a little bit more uneven with the first two coats, but three evened everything out pretty well. Even after three coats there is still some visible nail line, which may or may not be a deal breaker.

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Despite the funky color, I think this was my favorite just in terms of the final look. Actually, the fact that it's a funky color probably helps. Similar to Pacific Beach, I think this is a pretty unique color for a jelly polish (in fact, moreso than Pacific Beach). In fact-- I have another manicure featuring this as part of jelly sandwich to share with you later!

Birthday manicure!

This past week I turned the big 3-0!! I'm no longer a 20-something! In a brief moment of reflection, given that turning 30 is supposed to be a big deal, I have to say-- I'm not that bothered by moving from my 20's to my 30's. I have a lot of great things to look forward in this next year and really, age is just a number, right?

I definitely have too much polish and was stumped to come up with something special for my birthday. Because the weather has been so nice, there was a color combination calling my name-- coral and gold. I'm ready for summer! I decided on the following polishes: Rescue Beauty Lounge Smile and Cult Nails Walk of Shame. Smile is described as a "dazzling red light, a neutral red, and full of sunny, shimmery goodness," while Walk of Shame is described as a "clear base with medium sized, blingtastic gold glitter sprinkled with holographic microglitter." I used two coats of Smile and then layered a coat of Walk of Shame on my ring finger.

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Smile is gorgeous and just seem appropriate-- I'm happy and content with life right now. And Walk of Shame is also gorgeous and was easy to  apply-- luckily, I'm too old to be doing any real walks of shame and will just wear it on my nails instead! I really liked this combination. A manicure that's slightly grown up but also has a fun side. And failing all else, at least I started 30 being perfectly polished-- on my nails, anyway!

Julep Clara

I was out of town all weekend celebrating my birthday with family, so I'm way behind on posting and on reading my blogs. Tonight I have Julep Clara, which was an add-on to my May Maven box. Julep describes Clara as an "opaque peach creme." I apparently didn't take any notes on this, but since I applied it last Thursday, it's still fairly fresh in my mind!

I used two coats here and while it generally looks pretty good, it was a still slightly streaky. I just didn't feel like putting on another coat. I used a light touch when applying this, because otherwise I feel like this polish would have dragged and been even streakier. In my pictures I am also wearing Cult Nails Wicked Fast top coat.

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Today is my last day in 20s-- I turn 30 tomorrow! How crazy is that?! It's amazing how quickly the time passes. This was the manicure I wore on my last weekend as a 20-something and I love how springy this looks. I felt it made my fingers look a little bit more tan and was a great neutral-ish polish to wear that went with pretty much everything!

OPI Eurso Euro

I figured since I just used this as a base, it might be a good idea to actually show it to you! This is OPI Eurso Euro, which is a luscious looking cobalt blue creme from OPI's Spring 2013 Euro Centrale collection. I know this isn't a "new" polish because it's been blogged about a lot, and even though I liked a lot of polishes from this collection, I hadn't really made an effort to search them out. But then I made a random stop in a drug store and saw the collection and decided I needed Eurso Euro because I'm a sucker for these blues.

The formula of Eurso Euro is absolute perfection, but with OPI that's basically what I expect (though of course, it's not always the case). But here it is. I used two coats here, and the polish went on smoothly and easily, no problems at all. This color has such depth to it, I love it. It dries down to a nice shiny finish as well.

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Ahhhh, I just love this. What a gorgeous blue! It's deep, but never too dark. Even though this was released in the spring, I think Eurso Euro would look great year-round.

American Apparel Pacific Beach

Another polish that I swatched ages ago but am only getting around to posting now. This is American Apparel Pacific Beach, another polish from their sheer line. This definitely fell on the more "jelly" side of polishes, as you'll be able to see from my pictures. Pacific Beach is a bright jelly teal green and despite being a darker color is actually fairly sheer when applied. This definitely has a more syrupy formula and goes on smoothly. I used three coats here and while my camera picked up a lot of visible nail line, my notes tell me that it wasn't so bad in real life. Those pesky cameras! Pacific Beach has gorgeous, juicy, squishy appearance once applied that I love. It's pretty and perfect for sumer!

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It looks like I had some bubbling issues with this polish, but I'm guessing that I probably didn't wait long enough between coats as I tend to be a little impatient when applying polish. It's frustrating-- I am hating looking at my photos right now, which is probably why it took me so long to get around to posting this.

If you're not a fan of sheerer jelly polishes and don't like any visible nail line, I would still recommend checking out Pacific Beach as a layering polish for jelly/glitter sandwich manicures.

Star Wars Special Part 2: Amy's Nail Boutique Galaxy Far, Far Away

Alright, since we're on a Star Wars theme (sorta) I have one more themed polish to share with you-- Galaxy Far, Far Away by Amy's Nail Boutique. Named for first words that come across the screen in any of the six Star Wars movies, this is described as a " blue jelly polish with silver and holographic glitter."

I decided to layer Galaxy Far, Far Away over OPI Eurso Euro because I wasn't sure how if I would be able to build up GFFA alone. The formula on GFFA was a little thick, but it's packed with glitter and spreads easily over the nail. It dries down quickly but to a more matte-like finish so a top coat is definitely needed to make this one shiny and sparkly (I used Cult Nails Wicked Fast here).

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I love how this looks! Over the dark blue base it looks like sparkling stars in the night sky, but I'm curious to see how it looks on its own or over a lighter blue base. This is so, so pretty though. I think I would be constantly distracted if I wore it as a full manicure.

This was my first time buying anything from Amy's Nail Boutique and I have to say I'm very pleased with the whole experience. She sold out of this polish before I got around to buying it, but when I contacted her via her facebook page to see if it would be available again, she offered to make me a bottle and set up a private listing at her Etsy store. Her polish retails for $8-10 and the shipping was reasonable and quick. Being pleased with both the polish and the customer service, I would happily buy from Amy again. She's got some gorgeous holos available at her Etsy store right now.