Monday, June 30, 2014

Mani Monday: Leather and Studs

Guys, I have some terrible news.  My ring finger had a gnarly tear that I've been managing to keep patched up and I've been nursing for about a week, but it finally broke all the way though.  If you're following me on Instagram, you would have seen the break when it first happened.  So now I'm back down to nubbins.  I'm going to try to grow them out and hopefully be back to swatching for you guys soon.  In the mean time, I do have a couple of back ups and older pictures I hadn't been able to post yet.  This is one of those!


I like to pretend that I'm a badass.  I really am the exact opposite.  I'm more of a fluffy, cute, pink princess, glitter and sparkles, unicorns and rainbows kind of girl.  Once in a while though, I do like to be cool.  This manicure did that for me.  

I am wearing Bliss Polish Jax with Nails Inc Noho as my accent nail.  Jax is from Bliss's Son's of Anarchy collection and it's awesome.  For the picture I used two coats, but a careful one coat would be enough.  I just had the odd bald patch, so the second coat was done one nail at a time so that I could press a stud at the base of each nail.  It dries to a matte finish and its a really nice gunmetal shimmer.  A layer of top coat would have made this a lot more shimmery, but I loved it just the way it was.  Noho is from Nails Inc's Leather Effect line that came out late last spring/early summer.  This is my go to black texture and I love it.  This painted on the same way as Jax, almost completely opaque in one coat.  I placed four studs on my accent nail in the shape of a diamond and called it a day.

I got the studs from Born Pretty Store a while ago and they are awesome.  I got a plastic zippered pouch full of them for about $3 and they are great to have around when a rhinestone isn't quite what I'm going for with my nails.  

As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Friday, June 20, 2014

Hard to Find Friday: Max Factor Sunny Pink and Dazzling Blue

I've always wanted Max Factor's Fantasy Fire, which is the most well known dupe for the infamous Clarins 230.  Let's be honest, there is no way I'm spending $100 plus on a nail polish.  I'm not THAT crazy.  :-P  I already own Color Club's The Uptown which is pretty similar to Clarins 230, but Fantasy Fire is supposed to be the closest.  So when one of my best friends went to England for her honeymoon earlier this year, I kindly requested (demanded) that she bring me back a bottle of Fantasy Fire.  Unfortunately, she could not find it, but she did bring me two other gorgeous polishes.  As a side note, if you have any interest in screenwriting, she has a tumblr blog called WriterLyn.  Check her out!  She has a fancy Master's degree and totally knows what she's talking about.

After thinking about it for a while, I decided that these two polishes should still be considered "hard to find".  While it is true that it is available in drugstores, it is only in English bookstores.  There is no other way of getting it.  I know, I've looked.  Last I checked, flying over the Atlantic Ocean for a nail polish makes it a bit hard to find. ;-)


First off today I have Dazzling Blue.  This is a shimmery blue polish with a bit of green duochrome.  I love these kind of colors in my polish.  It just screams mermaid to me.  I used two medium coats for the picture.  


This is Sunny Pink.  It is another shimmery polish with a duochrome finish.  In this case it's a delicate baby pink with gold duochrome.  It's just such a pretty princess color that I can't help, but love it.  This was four thick coats for this level of opacity.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may already know that one of my biggest pet peeves for polish is the dreaded visible nail line.  Now while my nails were shorter this was not that big of an issue, but now that my nails have gotten longer, VNL is something that happens far too often for me.  You may be looking at these pictures and know that I'm going to start whining about the VNL.

Yes, my nail line is driving me crazy, but I suspect that these polishes are more toppers than polishes that are meant to be worn on their own, especially considering that I had to use four coats for Sunny Pink.  

So if you happen to be in England or know someone who is, these polishes would be very pretty additions to any collection.  Their sheerness makes them a little different than more commonly available similar colors.  

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Untried Wednesday: Essie Van D'Go

I own lots of bright colored polishes.  I am a fan of strong statements when it comes to color, so I am fond of picking bold colors for my nails.  Once in a while though, I do need to use a palette cleanser sort of color and that's why I picked Essie's Van D'Go as my polish.


Van D'Go is a baby pink cream with a bit of peach undertones that takes two coats for opacity.  On the first coat, the polish was a bit streaky, but by the second it was fine.  My  issue with this polish is that pretty quickly I got some almost spiderweb cracks on some of my nails.  I've noticed that this has happened to me before with cream polishes.  I don't know if it's the formula itself or if the polish is getting old.  Also if you notice that on the tip of my index finger, the polish didn't end up completely smooth.  The formula was a little thick so it was a touch difficult to apply.  Hopefully a couple of drops of polish thinner will fix both of these problems though.

Van D'Go was a pretty color.  Right off the bat, the color was pretty different from what I am used to wearing, so it put me off. Though it quickly grew on me.



As the usual kind reminder, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Monday, June 16, 2014

Mani Monday: Minty Polka Dots

I love trolling Pinterest.  I think most people do.  One of the things I search the most is nail art, you know other than wedding stuff, and today I have decided to recreate one of the first ones I have pinned.


First off, forgive my terrible edge clean up.  I've been using the well known ELF concealer brush that everyone knows, but it's always been a bit of a pain.  I got a new one that I've started using and getting the hang of.  Maybe I'll eventually do a comparison post later.

Now, let's start with my base color.  This is Morgan Taylor Mint Chocolate Chip.  It is a mint cream polish that is actually not as bright as it shows up in the picture.  I don't know if it's my lighting or my camera was just freaking out, but it would not capture correctly.  My next picture does have the proper shade, so maybe the camera needed the contrasting colors.  I've heard before that the Morgan Taylor cream polishes stunk and to only invest in the glitter polishes.  Using this polish as my reference point, I would have to agree.  It took three coats for this polish to be opaque, some nails needed four.  It was streaky and patchy.  I keep trying to find a good solid mint polish, and I have yet to find one.


This is actually what Mint Chocolate Chip looks like.  Yeah, I don't know what is up with my phone.  

So on to how I actually did this.  As soon as nails were dry, I took a piece of scotch tape and placed it diagonally across my nails.  You want to be sure that your nails are really dry before you place down the tape.  If not the polish will lift and it's a huge mess.  I swiped a quick coat of Cult Nails Fetish (black) across the top of my nails, and quickly removed the tape.  If you let the polish dry with the tape still on, then THAT polish will lift.  Really, using tape is difficult and stressful and I have no idea why I do it.  :-P  

Once that was all dry, I used a dotting tool to stamp white dots over the black and swiped a line of silver glitter with a random striping polish where the mint and black met.  This manicure was not particularly difficult, just took some time.  


As the usual kind reminder, all of these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Swatch Saturday: OPI OPI Ink

I am so sorry about how late this is guys.  My computer has gone and died on me completely and I hate doing full blog posts on my iPad.  I finally managed to steal the boytoy's computer so I'm back!  So let's get on with it.

I love wearing purple.  Between the combination of my skin tone, black hair, and not quite dark brown eyes, purple has always looked good on me.  I am a sucker for purple make up, usually eyeshadows, but especially nail polish.  Whenever I want to try a new brand, I usually judge them on the quality of their purples.  While OPI is not a new to me brand by a long shot, OPI Ink is a fantastic polish.


OPI Ink is a dark, vampy, purple polish with purple and blue shimmers.  After taking close to twenty pictures, this was the only one that came close to showing the blue.  In the sunlight, from the right angle, this polish also looks navy thanks to that shimmer.  It was so pretty and shimmery that I actually managed to keep it on my nails for three days.  It probably would have lasted longer on them, but I had to move on to my next post for you guys. ;-)  For me that is a huge deal because I am quick to get bored with a color.

The final selling point of this polish?  It only required two coats!  I am so used to polishes that need three coats that when I find one that is a two coater, I am in love.  One coaters are glorious.



As the usual side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)

Friday, June 13, 2014

Hard to Find Friday: Pop Culture Cosmetics Fairytales

When I came up with Hard to Find Friday, I thought that they would be useful to my readers because hopefully my reviews and swatches would tell you if that rare polish was worth the effort of finding it and the excessive amount of money it probably cost.  But today, after I had swatched this polish and had started planning this post, I discovered I could not find any trace of this color anywhere.  I couldn't find it on the Pop Culture Cosmetics site or any blogger swatches.  Amazing nail buddy CinnamonKandy sent me this polish earlier this year with other polishes from the same collection, which are still up on the site available for sale.  So who knows what happened to this poor polish?



This polish is a teal blue crelly with various sized circle glitter in fuchsia, baby pink, blue, and purple.  It sounds like this polish would be awesome, but no.  The formula sucked.  That may sound super negative from me, but oh my, it was so bad.  The polish was very goopy, to begin.  It was really difficult to work with, so even after the two THICK coats you see on there, there was still bald patches and VNL.  Also the circle glitters stuck together and came out onto my brush in thick globs.  On my nail they would all stick together and refused to be placed.  There was no way to spread them out around my nail.  As a result of this, the glitter would not lay flat on my nail and kept it looking very bumpy.  Even after I did a thick coat of HK Girl as my top coat.

My guess is that they figured out the formula sucked and pulled it from the store.  I have other Pop Culture Cosmetics polishes, and they tend to be on the thicker side, but the formulas are not as terrible as this one.  I am still able to move around the glitter and make my nails pretty.  This polish was just a big dud to me, and not worth trying to find it.

As a kind reminder, while this polish was not purchased with my own money, it was given to me by a friend.  I am still not cool enough to get free polish from companies.  :-)

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Untried Wednesday: Zoya Storm and Nina Ultra Pro Holographic Top Coat

Hey guys, sorry this is coming up later in the day, but it's been a busy couple of days.  My laptop wouldn't work and I couldn't get it to stay on for longer than a couple of minutes at a time.  Monday's post was actually done on my iPad.  Also yesterday, I fell down the stairs.  >_<  I sprained my ankle, so I've been hobbling around.  Today's post is being written from my phone while the boytoy pushes me around the San Diego County Fair in a wheel chair.  Yeah.  The luxury that is my life.  :-P

So last Sunday, I went on a road trip up to Orange County with some of my other nail junkie girls out here.  It was awesome, we went crazy, and spent far too much money.  So now I'm on a no buy again until I make a very large dent in my untrieds.  Hence why today I bring you two polishes!


I wore Zoya Storm and Nina Ulta Pro Holographic Top Coat.  I got Storm at my meet up and was so glad I had managed to find it.  I had been lemming for it for a couple of years now and I hate ordering from the Zoya website, unless there's a sale going on.  The Holographic Top Coat I bought in my search of Butter London dupes.  Butter London has some of the prettiest glitter polishes, but the formula SUCKS on me.  Within hours it will peel off my nails in sheets.  The Nina Ultra Pro Holographic Top Coat looked identical to Butter London's Tart with a Heart.  


For my nails I painted two coats of Zoya's Storm and one coat of the Nina Ultra Pro as an accent nail on my ring finger.  I loved both of these polishes.  Let's just start with that.  Black polishes are usually difficult to use in my experience.  More often than not, they will take three coats.  Not only did Storm only require two coats, but it also had glitter?  There was no way that I couldn't love it.  The Holographic Top Coat was amazing for multiple reasons.  First off, it has holographic glitter and hexes.  Second, it is a really good dupe of Tart with a Heart.  I am not heartbroken anymore that I can't wear the original Butter London polish.  It is a quarter of the price to boot!  The final reason I loved this polish was the brush.


The top brush is the Nina Ultra Pro brush and the bottom one is the Zoya one.  This brush is HUGE.  I know there are some people that don't like brushes this big, but I love them.  One swipe and my nail is painted, I can move on.  It makes me very happy.

As the usual kind reminder, all of these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Mani Monday- Solitaire Spectrum

Happy Monday everybody!  My computer is spazzing out right now, so I'm trying to do this post on my iPad.  So far so good, but here's hoping nothing gets messed up in the process.  Also I've just noticed that I can't add links on here.  Damn.

Yesterday I went to a meet up with all my fellow San Diego nail junkies and had a blast.  Of course I spent way too much money, but I regret nothing.  We had decided to do blue manis for the event.  All I knew was that I had to use Bliss Polish On the Spectrum as my base.  



On the Spectrum is a beautiful blue polish with a linear holo.  I almost want to call it Crayola blue, if that makes sense.  I love it because it is holo AND a one coater.  The only other one coat holos I own are the Color Club Halo Hues.  

 I knew that I wanted to do some sort of nail art for the meet up too, but for the life of me couldn't come up with an idea.  Finally I just went with my stand by, rhinestones and polka dots.  

First I dropped a glob on top coat on my nail and placed eight pink rhinestones on my nail in the shape of a flower on my nail.  I also made sure to swipe on a coat of top coat before moving on to seal the stones in place.  On my ring finger, I used two coats of OPIs Solitaire on my ring finger.  It is their white texture polish from the 2013 holiday Bond Girls collection.  On my thumb and middle fingers I lined up my polka dots.  On my pointer and pinko I scattered them on the nail.  I made sure to do my polka dots on top on my top coat because it gives my nails some extra dimension.  
When you touch them you have smooth and rough bits.   I think it's fun.  

As the usual kind reminder, all of these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Swatch Saturday: Zoya Lux

I love textured polishes.  Ignoring the fact that they are glittery and play up to my need to be constantly touching things, textured polishes wear on my nails like iron, and they don't require top coat!  As much as I love textured polish, I love holographic glitter even more.  Rainbows and glitter??  Ah I love it.  So when I saw that Zoya was coming out with their Magical Pixie Dusts I was so excited.  Until reviews kept pouring in that it was a super bumpy and would constantly snag on stuff.  My work clothes would not be okay with snagging polish. :-P  So I made peace and told myself that I did not need them.  UNTIL MissHollyBerries described Zoya Lux has OPIs Teenage Dream on steroids.  So no matter what everyone else said, I needed to have this one specific Magical Pixie Dust.


Oh. My. Goodness.  This is three coats of Lux inside my not all that bright kitchen.  This is the only only holographic polish that I've ever seen actually be holo in doors.  I tried taking pictures outside in direct sunlight, but my poor camera was just not having it.  

Lux is a very sheer, blush pink base with tiny, matching glitters and holographic, large hexes.  I don't know if my third coat was just too thick, but the texture feels the same as any other Pixie Dust.  The larger hexes did not snag on my clothing or anything else.  I may need to get my hands on the rest of the Magical Pixie Dusts.  

Also MissHollyBerries was right, this is totally Teenage Dream on steroids.  It's like a dupe, BUT BETTER.  My huge lemming for it is pretty much non existent now.  

As the usual side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)

Friday, June 6, 2014

Hard to Find Friday: Essie The More the Merrier

Hey guys!  Today I have for you one of the polishes from Essie's 2013 summer collection, Naughty Nautical.  This is The More the Merrier.


The More the Merrier is a bright chartreuse green cream and it took two coats for opacity in the picture. The formula was really easy to work with and dried to a semi matte finish, like most of the other Essie "neons" do.  I know that all over YouTube right now people have been going on rants about nail polish companies calling polishes "neon" when they're really not.  Young Wild and Polished said it the best.  If you have to wear a white base under a neon polish, then it's not truly neon.  The More the Merrier may not be a true sear your retinas green neon polish, and for that I am grateful.   I'm not the biggest neon person, but I do love bright polishes.  

If you run into this polish, it would be a good one to purchase.  I probably would not go out of my way to buy it.  There are already similar ones around.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Untried Wednesday: China Glaze Dorothy Who?

When it comes to picking colors for some reason I gravitate to blues.  I don't particularly like the color.  If you were to ask me what my favorite colors, blue would not be on the list.  For some reason though, when I buy clothing or polish, I always seem to pick blue.  I have no idea why I do, but for some reason I love wearing blue.  This polish strikes that same, strange "gotta have this blue" cord for me.


This is Dorothy Who? from China Glaze and it is the blue sister of the cult classic Ruby Pumps.  The color on my nails is a bright blue with small, silver glitters.  I used three coats for the pictures, and it left the polish perfectly opaque on my nails.  Dorothy Who? looks like clear shimmering waters on my nails and I adore the look of it.  Unfortunately, a lot of China Glaze polishes will peel off of my nails in big chunks.  This polish is one of those.  I usually paint my nails at night, the next morning my pointer finger was already chipping.  By the end of the day, I was missing big pieces.  I don't know if other people have this same problem with China Glaze polishes as I do, but this was the only disappointment for me.

As the usual side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Random Post- May Empties

Hey all!  I hope you guys didn't think that I was just a nail polish junkie.  True, I don't really have a compulsive need to stock pile beauty products quite as much as polish, but it's still there.  I had the brilliant idea that I should show you guys what I finished every month and let you know how I felt about them.  For May I have ten products, so let's get started.



1. Dove Go Fresh Restore Body Wash with Nutrium Moisture in Blue Fig and Orange Blossom Scent:  My first response was meh.  It was a body wash and it did the basic job of making me feel clean, but I was not impressed.  I didn't feel like it left me any more moisturized that other body washes and the scent was not anything special.  Would I repurchase?  Nope.

2. Batiste Dry Shampoo with A Hint of Color in Dark and Deep Brown: This is my go to dry shampoo.  I love it.  My hair is almost black, so I shy away from dry shampoos that are white because I do not need my roots looking gray.  Batiste uses cocoa powder to create the darker tint to the dry shampoo, so it leaves my hair smelling good.  The boytoy says my hair smells tasty.  Would I repurchase?  Considering this is probably my eighth can of it, absolutely.  

3. The Body Shop's Tea Tree Skin Clearing Facial Wash: I've used this for a couple of years and it's really good on oily and acne prone skin.  It has a strong tea tree scent, which I love in the mornings when I'm trying to wake up.  The boytoy would also use this every day.  He says that he liked it, but I suspect it had more to do with him not having to go buy his own.  ;-)  Would I repurchase this?  Not right now.  My skin hasn't been breaking out as much and it has shifted to combination instead of oily, so it is a bit too drying for me.  If I go back to oily and breaking out constantly, I will be running out to get this in a heart beat.  

4. Simple Protecting Light Moisturizer with Broad Spectrum SPF 15 Sunscreen:  This is my usual moisturizer at the moment.  I really like it.  It doesn't leave me feeling greasy at the end of the day and goes well under my make up.  Would I repurchase?  If I can ever find it in stock, I totally would, but Target is always sold out and Ulta sells it for $5 more than Target does!  That's like a bottle of nail polish right there! ;-P

5.  Rimmel London Stay Matte Primer: I don't like spending lots of money on a product that I could get cheaper.  I don't think most people do.  When I look at make up primers, I want something that will keep my make up looking smooth and fresh without making my face oily.  I feel that the Stay Matte primer does that.  I don't think that high end primers do that much of a better job than this does for their price tag.  Would I repurchase?  Already did.

6.  Lorac Front of the Line Pro Liquid Liner in Black:  OMG I fell in love with this liner.  It is a brush tipped applicator as opposed to the usual felt tip and I feel that it makes everything go on so much smoother.  If you wear it from the crack of dawn to midnight it will begin to smudge, but for everyday wear it is awesome.  I got this in the Christmas gift set that Lorac had been selling at Ulta with the Lorac Pro Palette, so I pretty much got it for free.  Would I repurchase?  I don't know.  It is a $22 liquid liner, so it is kind of pricey.  If I can't find a good dupe for it, I may have to though.  

7. Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in 69:  I got this lipstick as a deluxe sample size in an Ipsy bag a while ago.  First off, I love red lipstick.  It is my make up crack.  I have seven red lipsticks and they are all just slightly different shades of the same thing.  This one may have been my favorite.  It is a perfect almost matte shade of red that would wear all day.  I would wear this to work and just have to touch it up a bit after lunch.  Would I repurchase?  Quite possibly.  Though I did just get my hands on Lime Crime's Velveteen Liquid Lipstick in Red Velvet.  It it's as amazing as I hear, I probably wouldn't be getting the Urban Decay one any time soon.

8.  Nivea Lip Butter in Raspberry Rose Kiss:  Out of everything in this empties post, this may be my favorite product.  I love the scent of this lip balm and it just works so well on me.  I cannot use the EOS lip balms at all because they totally dry out my lips and just leave them all cracked.  This Nivea lip balm I can just smear on my lips right before bed and in the morning, my lips are smooth and perfect.  Would I repurchase?  Yes!  A thousand times yes!

9.  Neutrogena Ultra Soft Eye Makeup Remover Pads:  These guys are usually in my travel bag because they are small and come in a sturdy case.  I got these on clearance at CVS I think during their end of year clearance and finally got around to using them.  Yes I stockpile beauty products, especially when it comes to getting them for less than I would normally pay.  I am cheap.  They were really soft and did a pretty good job of getting my make up off, even my mascara, dark liner, and red lippy.  They didn't leave my face feeling oily afterwards, which I always appreciate in a make up removing wipe.  I did have to go back over my face with some Bioderma, but I have to do that with all of the different wipes I've used.  Would I repurchase?  Yeah, I would, especially if I can find them on sale.  They were great for travel and I didn't have to worry about them drying up on me.  

10.  Soap and Glory The Fab Pore Facial Peel:  I love face masks.  I try to make it part of my weekly routine.  Every Sunday and once in the middle of the week, I putter around my apartment with my mask, and every time the boytoy will gasp "g-g-g-g-g-g-ghost!"  How did I feel about this mask?  It was a disappointment.  I didn't really feel like it did much of anything.  I didn't notice any difference in my pores at all and I don't feel like it did anything for my skin as a whole.  I guess that's why I found it on clearance at Sephora....  Would I repurchase?  Ummm... Nope.

I feel like I've gone through a lot of products this month, but then the boytoy does use a fair amount of my stuff too.  I enjoyed going through all of my empties and letting you guys know how I felt about them.  Hopefully I've helped you make some decisions about stuff you may want to try out.  What did you guys think?  Did you enjoy my little (big) #notpolish post? :-P

As the usual side note, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me stuff for free just to review them. ;-) 

Monday, June 2, 2014

Mani Monday- It's a Boy!

My little sister is having a baby!  It's pretty exciting.  So over the weekend we had her baby shower, and of course I needed to rock some cool baby themed nail art.  Because everyone is there to look at my nails, not oh and ah over my sister's belly.  :-P


On my thumb I am wearing two coats of Julie G's Canary Islands from her new Summer Cruise collection.  Right off the bat, I am in love with this polish.  Yellow polishes are notorious for being difficult to work with.  Canary Island was almost a one coater, I just did a second one to cover up the odd streak or bald patch.  I topped this nail with Black Cat Lacquer's Let Them Eat Cake.  It is a clear base with pastel pink, yellow, and blue hexes and holo glitter dusted through it.  It screams spring and baby showers to me, so it was a must.

My pointer finger is Julie G's Santorini from the same collection as Canary Islands.  It is the perfect pastel, robin egg blue cream with just a hint of shimmer in the bottle.  Unfortunately the shimmer didn't translate to my nail.  Like the yellow, it was two coats for opacity, but if I had been careful, I could have been fine with just one.  On the blue I drew two footprints with Zoya's Jacqueline and my dotting tools.  I basically just painted two big commas and dotted five little toes over each.

My middle finger is two coats of Zoya's Jacqueline.  It is my favorite cream colored polish and what I reach for when I don't want stark white.  I topped it off with more Let Them Eat Cake and was pleased.

My ring finger is three coats of Essie's Hors d'oeuvers.  It is a dense gold glitter with large silver hexes. Hors d'oeuvers was released in Essie's Winter 2013 collection.

Finally, my pinkie began with two coats of Milani's Mint Candy, which is a dark mint cream with a blue shimmer.  The shimmer does not translate onto the nail at all, but it was perfect after that second coat and it is a really pretty color.  Mint polishes have always given me a bit of trouble, so I do not regret this purchase at all.  If you are interested in this color, I would head to your local Walgreens or CVS because it is on clearance right now.  The stars are filmo bits that I actually got at Walgreens in their bargain beauty extras endcap.  To apply, I just dropped a glob of top coat and placed the star on top, pressing down on the edges with some tweezers to leave them flat against my nail.

As the usual side note, these polishes and products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)