Butter London- Thames

Hey all!

So I don't know if this polish has a big following or anything like that but my local TJ Maxx had Butter London polishes for $6.99 (orig $15) and I definitely wasn't going to pass up that deal.  They had a shades which included Thames, No Waity, Kaitie, and a few others. I almost got NWK but I decided Thames was enough for me. 

This polish is so gorgeous, I would describe it as a blue-toned metallic green. It does appear more teal in the bottle than it applies to the nails though.

I applied a base coat and then did one and two layers of the polish.

One Layer of polish

Two Coats of Polish

I also applied Orly Matte Top on my index and ring fingers, which is an effect I really like.

Matte Top

No top coat.

and finally a picture of matte and no top next to each other.

Matte index and Ring

Overall I'm really happy with this find! This is the second Butter London polish that I've tried (the other is Lovely Jubbly) and I mean for about half off who can complain? Definitely check out your local TJ Maxx and Marshalls to see if you can score some sweet polish deals!

Until next time,

Ashley

Instagram: ashtreepolish

Nail Polish Tag

So I was going to do a review post today, but the pictures ended up being awful so instead I'm just going to make a tag about nail polish. I tried to look up tags and only saw a few so I'm going to make up some questions and borrow some of the ones I found.

1. How old were you when you first started collecting/wearing polish?
    - I was probably 13/14, before that I was such a tomboy and wanted nothing to do with it and then I started wearing it and I would seriously change it every week.

2. What was the first brand of nail polish you owned?
     - I think mine was probably the Claire's nail polish, as awful as it is, it was cheap enough and had a lot of colors to choose from.

3. What is your signature manicure?
    -When I first started wearing nail polish, it was neon blue and neon green. Luckily I've out grown that but I really don't have a signature now. I love metallics, glitter, cremes, everything really.

4. What is your favorite current nail trend?
      - I'm really loving glitters and mattes. Which is kind of funny because I used to dislike both, like I used to hate the look of matte but now I really like it.

5. What is your favorite brand of nail polish?
     - I love Sally Hansen because there are so many different types of polish within the Sally Hansen line. China Glaze and Orly are definitely up there too.

6. What was your first indie polish?
    - My first was Pipe Dream Polish Clouds in My Coffee and a mini of Capture a Moment (disco remix)

7. Favorite indies?
    - Um..all the indies!! haha Right now I own Pipe Dream Polish, Loaded Lacquer and one from Bliss Polish and I love them all. I really don't think you can get better glitters than from an indie brand and I just love how sweet all of the ladies behind the brands are.

8. Indie Brands you would like to try?
   - I have been eyeing up Love, Angeline for literally months and Rain City Lacquer and Arcane. There are probably more but those are the ones I can think of now.

9. What is your favorite cuticle/nail care product?
    - Hard as Hoof Nail Strengthening cream. It smells sooooo good! I buy mine at walmart.

10. What is your biggest nail fail?
     - I chew my cuticles..... :/

11. Biggest nail pet peeve?
      -When my nails break like wayyy down and I either have to cut them super short or wait it out. Drives me crazy!

12. What is your favorite kind of nail art to do?
       - I love stamping, I think it is a fun way to easily do intricate designs and I also really love dotticures.

13. How many polishes are in your collection?
      - 110 Regular size polishes and 8 minis

14. What is your favorite color polish to wear?
       - I love blues and teals I would say that they dominate my collection.

15. Do you have a favorite polish?
       - I think I have two: Orly's Halley's Comet (used in last post) and Essie's Meet Me at Sunset

Scotch Tape Mani

Hey all!

So it's that time again..

Time for this weeks blogpost that is!! Today, I decided to do a mani. I don't really know what this type of design is called and it reminds me of like one peak of a chevron, so although I didn't create the idea of it, I'm going to call it the "Not Quite Chevron Mani."

So I started out with a base coat like all good nail polish users do.

Don't mind my shorties, had to trim them
down with my nubby middle finger.

Then I used Orly Sweet Peacock as my base color.

awkward hand pose. :P

Next is the tricky part, make sure the base polish is completely dry before proceeding or else you'll pull the base polish off and have to start over. Place tape on dry polish to form a point, like so:

If you find you're having trouble with the polish pulling off the nail, try sticking the tape on your shirt or pants to remove some of the sticky, you can also use nail tape if you have some. Unfortunately mine is in another state.

Make sure you press the tape down so none of the next polish leaks under the tape. Then paint the top of your nail with the next color. I used Avon Nailwear Pro in Midnight Plum.

Again, wait until the paint completely dries or it's going to ruin the work you've already done and then you will have to start over. If you are anything like me, when you mess up a whole nail, you tend to get a little angry (ok, a lot angry). 

When the paint is COMPLETELY dry, tape another triangle. Like so:

Press that tape down and paint your final color. I used Orly Halley's Comet (So beautiful, if you find this polish buy it! I promise you won't regret it.)

Top it off with your favorite top coat, I used Sally Hansen Nailshine Miracle. Clean up the edges (I didn't :/) and voila! Your manicure is complete. I really liked using a cream between the two metallic/shimmery colors, plus I just love how these colors looked together!

Before I head off, I just want to thank all of you who have read the ramblings that are the start of my blog, I'm almost up to 100 views on it and I'm so thankful!

If you are a return reader, don't forget that you can follow me through Google and on Bloglovin'

Also, if you found me through the internet and not Instagram, I do have an Instagram and I am thinking about doing a giveaway when I reach 50 followers. So, please check it out if you're at all interested!

Until next time,

Ashley

Pipe Dream Polish- Feed The Monster

Alright so today's post is all about the glitter bomb Feed The Monster. And if I do say so myself April really hit this one out of the park. She describes it as "various sizes of orange, gunmetal, and jewel colored metallic glitter in a clear base." A little more specifically there are medium-sized orange, gunmetal, and purple hexies, as well as smaller hexies of all colors, and tiny little circle glitters. The formula is as always beautiful. Now on to the swatches...

Bottle Macro

So I swatched this polish of a multitude of shades, some neutrals and some brighter shades. Although this polish is really perfect for Autumn and Halloween it is a truly gorgeous one that could be worn year round. All swatches show two layers of base polish and one coat of Feed The Monster.

Over Sinful Colors- Snow Me White

Over Sally Hansen- Silver Sweep

Over Sally Hansen Golden-I

Over Sally Hansen- Anenome of Mine

Over China Glaze- Fancy Pants

I honestly really love this polish. My favorite combo out of the swatches was over Fancy Pants and second to that was over Anenome of Mine. The polish went on so smoothly no dabbing or digging necessary. The different size polishes really give it great dimension. So, so beautiful!

You can purchase Feed The Monster and plenty of other glittery pretties at Pipe Dream Polish.

To be in the know of new collections, follow April on Instagram and like on Facebook.

That's all I've got so until next time,

Ashley

Follow ashtreepolish on Instagram and on Bloglovin.com.

Mani Monday-Dotticure

Hey all!

I hope you are enjoying MLK day, maybe even relaxing a bit. With the long weekend I had some extra time to plan out a post dedicated to a mani. I know plenty of people have done dotticures before which is basically making a design using dotting tools, so I just want to make a disclaimer saying that I didn't take inspiration from anyone else, and if there are similarities it is purely by coincidence.

Now on to the design--

Products I used- Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat, Sally Hansen Triple Shine Statemint and Vanity Flare,
Sally Hansen Nail Shine Mirale, Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Dry & Go Drops, Dotting Tools.
Not pictured: Konad Special Black Polish

So to begin, I prepped my clean nails with Revlon's Quick Dry Base Coat, which if I'm honest, I'm not a huge fan of so please leave recommendations of your favorite.

Next, I painted the main colors. I chose to do Sally Hansen Vanity Flare and chose Statemint as my accent nail.

I then started the dots. I chose to do alternating colors so I dotted Statement onto the Vanity Flare nails and Vanitiy Flare on the accent nail. On the accent nail I did a diagonal pattern, while the rest had a linear dot pattern.

Then I dotted Konad Special Black over the dots I just made.

I took the Konad Special black again and added linear dot patterns (diagonal on the accent) next to the previously made dots.

Finally I dotted a tiny dot in the center of the black dot with opposite color. I let it dry a bit and then topped it with Sally Hansen Nailshine Miracle.

Macro of Right Hand Thumb

Macro of Right Hand accent nail

 So that is the manicure I'm sporting right now, I'm sorry if the pictures are a little messy but I was actually painting my left hand (Fun fact: I'm left handed). Also quick review on the Sally Hansen Polishes, Vanity Flare( Purple) is opaque in one coat but a bit streaky and Statemint (yellow) was really streaky. Personally these aren't my favorite out of the Sally Hansen line but there are some nice colors and the formula isn't terrible.

Well that's all I have for today, so until next time,

Ashley

Don't forget to follow on Instagram!

MoYou London Stamping Plates

Hey all!

This week's blogpost is a review/demo of The MoYou London Sailor 06 Stamping plate. I first saw MYL on Instagram and since I was in the market for some new stamping plates I decided to take the plunge and purchase one. I bought mine off of Amazon for $9.99 plus shipping but have since realized that it's cheaper to just buy from Mo You London's Website. When you sign up for their website, they email you a 15% off code and you can also find 20% off codes online. And yes, even with exchange rates it's still cheaper to buy directly from them than Amazon (if you don't believe me Google convert it). There is also a much larger selection on their website than on Amazon so keep that in mind if you have only looked for them on Amazon before.

In this review/demo, I'm going to show you the plate, the differences between MYL and Bundle Monster plates, and demo swatches and a mani I created using the plate.

**Warning: Stamping not perfect, paint job kind of ratchet, cuticles-Oh good lawd it's winter and they're dryer than the Sahara desert***

And now on to the nitty gritty...

The first thing I noticed about the plate is how adorable the packaging is.

I really like that this plate comes in a sleeve. I don't know about you but I tend to just toss my nail art tools into my storage (if they're not breakable) and that's that, but with these I know that the plate isn't going to be scratched while being stored. 

As for the actual plate, this one specifically is the XL designs. That basically means that they are larger (duhh) and are especially useful if you have long talons. The metal plate is attached to a plasticky (nice plasticky not bad plasticky) board. It is made of nice quality materials and feels substantial but lightweight enough for easy use. I was a bit worried about staining when I saw the board was white but I found that the plasticky material makes for easy removal of misplaced polish with a swipe of a cotton pad and nail polish remover, which is great because I'm kind of anal about staining and whatnot.

In the next two pictures, you'll see my MYL plate next to one of my Bundle Monster plates I believe from 2011. Obviously the BM plates are circular and much smaller so they contain less designs. Also the square designs are much smaller than the MYL designs which you can see more clearly in the second photo.

As for actual image quality, MYL blows BM out of the water. Some BM designs are pretty good depending on the polish you use and others are complete garbage. While not all of the designs in the MYL plate were perfect (I'll go into more detail in just a sec), overall they are of much, much better quality than BM.

On to the demo......

Started with Sinful Colors- Rich in Heart
w/ Orly Matte TopCoat over it

Stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri-Silver Sweep, Sinful Colors-
Snow Me White, Loreal-The Muse's Attitude,
Revlon Colorstay-Provence, and Revlon-Smoldering

Silver Sweep

Snow Me White

Smoldering

The Muse's Attitude

The Fail:

I tried multiple polishes and different ways
of scraping the extra polish off and it would
not create a clear image

I really can't explain why this one didn't work.
I plan on trying it again in the future but it was
really a fail for me.

Now the other hand...

Sinful Colors-Snow Me White

Konad-Black, Orly-Sweet Peacock (originally tried
but scrapped), Bliss-Tiffany Who,
Loreal- The Muse's Attitude, Sinful Colors-Rich in Heart

Konad-Black, One of my favorite designs

Tiffany Who (shoddy stamping job)

The Fails:

The Muse's Attitude

Again this design just would not stamp,
either way the scraper would dig into the design

Rich in Heart

This design was just messy and unclear.

Overall these made me really happy, most of the designs were really clean and came out really nicely, some had to be worked with and finagled while some were just downright sad. Just a note, I have a metal scraper and sometimes certain designs on BM plates work better with a plastic scraper because they scrape away less polish from the design (usually a problem if the design was not engraved deep enough), my thought is that if I had had a plastic scraper or an old gift card, these failed designs might have worked better. No worries, I will definitely test this thought in the future. Another thing to note is that if you use a metal scraper on these plates they will scratch. Ultimately that won't affect the design but if you don't like scratches on your plates, then don't use a metal scraper.  

Finally, the mani I created with the MYL plate:

I again used Sinful Colors- Rich in Heart as my base (I've really been liking it...obv.), and stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-dri- Silver Sweep (Insta-dri's are really great stamping polishes). As I didn't want all of my nails to look exactly the same, I used different sections of the design and rotated the design to get the effect I desired. I really really look forward to using this plate some more and hopefully trying out other MYL plates in the future.

You can find MYL at Amazon and MoYou London.

Don't forget to follow ashtreepolish on Instagram for swatches, videos, and other polish delights.

Until next time,

Ashley