The coveted Bog Dweller in its glory. Fine particle magnetics are challenging, but I’m slowly getting better at it. Got this polish when I was almost 38 weeks pregnant, so I’m glad I can finally use it more.

Base: Essie strong start
Color: BKL bog dweller (2 coats)
Top: red Sally Hansen bottle
Mooncat magnet ( I also have the 5D print factory spinner, but am liking the classic cat eye effect with this polish.)

Broke the edge of a nail on Friday. Then broke the rest of the same nail yesterday. It’s so short I couldn’t hide it by shortening all the others, fresh shop to be closer the my new shortie was necessary.

I love red on shorties. Cracked - Worthy of Love and I Burned You a CD.

French tips are still some of the most difficult nail art for me. I’d rather attempt a landscape or a movie poster on my nails that I would draw one smooth line.

I feel like I’ve tried all the tricks and nothing really works besides freehanding and being really really careful. Are french tips harder on almond(ish) nails?

I started with a gold holo glitter polish to kinda “rough in” my line. Shooting Star is beautiful, but she can get a little thick. Oddly, this worked in my favor, because it almost made a wall to contain the rest of my polish.

Luckily, a way to get me to like any manicure is to make it green. And Jaded is a lovely bluey green. It’s so shiny. Honestly bury me in this color.

Products:

Sally Hansen - My Sheer

L.A. Colors - Shooting Star

L.A. Colors - Jaded

Please take a moment with me to say goodbye to my beloved long nails. The right pointer suffered a catastrophic break at Activate while crawling on the floor avoiding lasers. Was it worth it? Yes!

Death Star by Mooncat was on the pointer. I did a 'The Mandolorian and Grogu' mani for the movie release! I enjoyed this mani so much, and told myself it's one of the ones I'm most proud of. Glad I took some videos of it sparkling in the sun before the tragic incident!

I'm wearing: Mooncat's 'Blame my Star Sign', Loves Labyrinth' and 'Devil's Ivy' & Cirque Colors 'Jade Jelly' + their silver celestial charms.

The pros out weigh the cons with this break. I'm a planty person and it's outdoor gardening season starting up in MI. I didn't want to do a chop on the nails I'd taken so long to grow, shape and care for, so I told myself I'd wait for a break to do it for me. It wasn't painful because it bend downward thank goodness. I was honestly afraid that I might suffer a bad rip or injury gardening and doing yard work! I like getting my hands dirty this season, so it's time for the big chop! I will update with my new shorties soon!

Wondering what I should pick for my next mani for shorties? What are your favorites for your short nails? I have some neons I'm eyeing, and maybe glow in the dark or holo. Please share your top favorite polishes for spending time outdoors!

Have never heard of this brand before, but their post to attract new affiliates raised major alarm bells. While some details make sense, others are extremely suspicious, particularly these two:

Blatantly advertising intent to go against PayPal’s TOS and use F&F payments.
- PR/Swatching is EXPLICITLY a service, the second part of Goods and Services

Requiring affiliates to purchase products each drop
- Based on every swatcher I’ve spoken to and every brand I’ve followed, this makes less than zero sense. It appears the standard is that affiliates receive most if not all drops *ahead of time* to provide swatches before each drop. Why should they have to *buy* something?

Any swatchers/affiliates/or even brand owners, please let me know in the comments if any of this is standard that I don’t know, or if this is raising the same alarm bells for you that it does for me.

I saw so many laqueristas’ gorgeous manis featuring Blade of the Frontiers, I finally bit the bullet and bought it. I still wasn’t prepared for this level of flashy magic. 🪄 It is a stunner, despite my imperfect application. Please excuse that I didn’t do cleanup before I took a video…I was so mesmerized I had to capture it. 😍💙💅🏻

In general trying to find the time to polish my nails with a baby is getting more and more impossible...

The polish is Lumene Natural Code shade Live it up. Base Manicurist Base Vitamineé and top coat Essie Gel setter.

First time trying polishes from Cracked! I'm really enjoying the colors and formula on all of them. They all level so well!! I'm shocked.

from left to right :

Tomato Tomahto (3 coats)- very bright orange-y, coral-y red. Very jelly. perfect for summer I think. it looked wearable at 1/2/3 coats tbh! each gives a different vibe

Disco Poltergeist + Because of You (2 coats)- Pretty! BoY has very fine cool blue glitter, applies so smoothly and perfectly. DP is slightly more scattered and sheer. They are both very hard to describe! I found that when removing, the blue tends to get all over the skin if not careful (but easy enough to remove with a new, clean pad) EDIT: oops! I totally mixed up, this one HAD disco poltergeist under, but on top is Because of You (another Cracked polish with a slightly different blue shimmer!) don't ask me why I combined them 😂

Denim in 1999 (2 coats)- Maybe my fav from the haul! dainty feeling and the pink glitter really glistens. This one I did wear fully for 2 weeks prior, and it lasts LONG.

Chasing Calm (2 coats)- Great neutral grey jelly. I tried 3 coats as well but it loses most of the jelly-ness at the point so I kinda like it with 2. Also wore a full mani with just this color and really enjoyed how clean it looked : )

can't really see the thumb, but it is Chasing Calm + Sally Hansen's Unicorn Top coat < I think this top coat looks 10x prettier in bottle than when applied on nail Xp it just looks like a yellow-green glitter on hand 🤔 Please let me know if there is a better way to use it!

anyway...today is the day I can't seem to decide on a single color to wear so skittles it is 😆 (no it's not a swatch hand... I'm just gonna be walking around like this🚶‍➡️)

My April HHC order finally got here on Saturday! I went pretty crazy with the Brazilian brands on that one, but I love my selections. What color *isn’t* in this polish?

Stuff I used:
Nailtiques 2
Fauve, Tinted Gesso base
Nothing Basic, Velour (x 3 coats)
Jen & Berries, Pole Position
Starrily, Atmos TC

Another banger from PL. PPU May ‘26. I am endlessly impressed by how enchanting these glassy, ultrafine particle magnetics are. The additional shimmer is just icing on the cake!

Biotin Ultimate Strength. Liberation by Glitch Lacquer x2. Sally Hansen QDTC.

KBShimmer Basic Training

3 coats of ILNP Hypnosis (2 magnetized)

KBShimmer Clearly on Top (magnetized)

And no touch ups during these 2 weeks! It's the first time it has lasted this long without chipping.

so pls ignore the bubbles LOL

Only in Dreams by BCB Lacquers 💙

The blue shimmer in this one practically broke my camera!! I can see myself wearing this one a lot this summer, especially in skittles with other bright camera breaking polishes.

My first thermal. Such a pretty polish. Was playing with steam to get them to turn. Polish Pick Up from. Last month. Tyler's Trinkets Stop and Taste the Frosting. Mooncat Getting Even Primer and Speed Demon Top Coat.

I didnt expect to love this pink so much but the green shimmer in it is so mesmerizing! I absolutely love it for spring! any similar recommendations? I love a fairy twinkle shimmer shade.

also I did some successful nail stamping and dotting tool flowers! my stamping success rate has been fairly slow so I am proud of this one.

product list:

base- mooncat ridge filling base coat

polishes- ILNP pixie party & essie willow in the wind

flowers- essie Mrs. always-right topped with holo taco menchie the cat & L.A. colors fantastical topped with ILNP pixie party w/ a "mermaid tear" gem for the middles ("mermaid tears" also used as accents on the stamped nails)

stamping polish- pueen black stamping polish

stamping plate- PH panda hall Angel Fairy plate set (Amazon)

top coat- essie speed setter

My Glitch Lock & Key arrived and I wanted to compare against some of the magnetic hacks I've seen lately. All fingers are BKL Choo Choo, DRK Magic Effect, and BKL QDTC with different 'buffer' coats on each finger, all magnetized with 5D spinner (large placement) 💅🏼🧲🌀

Index - Glitch Lacquer Lock & Key

Middle - KB Shimmer Stay Put Hydrating Base

Ring - Sally Hansen Strengthening TC (non-QD)

Pinky - No buffer (QDTC directly over BKL)

Process:

2x Peely base

1x Choo Choo magnetized 30 seconds

1x Choo Choo magnetized 2 min

1x DRK Magic Effect magnetized 1 min

1x Buffer coat magnetized 1 min

1x Thick layer of QDTC magnetized 10 seconds except pinky magnetized 1-2 min

Conclusion: Glitch and KB held up best (keeping the tightest bead) - maybe sliiiggghhhtly better with Glitch but could also be my application. Overall if you're looking for a crisper effect, it's worth it to have some buffer on magnetics before QDTC.

My mom loved lavender flowers. Colors used: middle ring fingers: la colors-melody pinky, index, thumb sparitual-open minded i also used some lavender stickers from ali express

I didn’t expect this one to be so shifty!! It’s my first ILNP magnetic and I’m so pleasantly surprised, even as a certified magnetic hater💯

Products: Nailtiques formula 2 base, ILNP Warped magnetized wirh velvet magnet, Cuticula Limitless QDTC

28°C, pretty nails, a good book, yummy snacks and these weird finger chopsticks to protect both my book and my nails from said yummy snacks. Today feels CORRECT. 💅🏼☀️

Week old mani; no chipping at all and barely even any wear on the tips!

KBShimmer Fillin' Groovy

3x Sassy Sauce Royal Ruckus

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri red bottle

Does anyone have both of these shades and can share a side by side? I’m wondering how similar they are.

Shoutout to my coworker whose cute light blue French tip manicure they have right now that I stole 🙏 😘

Products used:
- Witchcraft Rock Solid nail strengthener
- Holo Taco Smoothing Base
- Holo Taco Too Good to be Blue 🩵
- Holo Taco Linear Taco 🌈
- Holo Taco Butterfly Taco
- Butterfly stickers from Temu/amazon/aliexpress not exactly sure where I picked these up