Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day to those who celebrate or does something special on this day. :) I spent my morning at work until 2 and then had lunch with the bf :) walked around and shopped around-ish. Saw this cute bag at Aldo which I'm sooooo going to buy the next time I'm near my workplace, lol. Anyways no Valentine's Day mani. but I do have a nail wheel full of colors. These nail polishes were brought back to me from Bangladesh from my bf. :) I love the colors despite wonky brushes and weird-ish formula. But the colors came out great and I don't even know which ones to use first! :P So hard to choose!!

1-5 were from the same brand and I love the formula

I also looooove 8-13! Definitely awesome metallic streaky finish which came out nice. During the process of swatching, it didn't look as nice until the finish product! 

Hope you all enjoyed your Valentine's Day! & happy polishing!

<3katherine

Rodeo

I received these 3 precious babies from a swap because after seeing swatches, I definitely wanted them. Can you guess, here's a hint... Fall 2008 Rodeo Diva!

China Glaze Branding Iron
extremely beautiful burgundy! 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat.

China Glaze Cowgirl Up
shimmery red toned purple. 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat.

 

China Glaze Side-Saddle
brown-plum with gold shimmer. 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat.

Overall, the formula was great and the application was smooth and easy! I love love love these polishes and I'm so glad I got these! My babies haha♥ ;)

Don't forget to enter in for a chance to get Manhattan 610K! Just click the picture on the sidebar :D

Happy polishing!
<3katherine

Blingish Mani.

In my previous mani, I didn't want to overload with pictures. So after a day of wearing it, I wanted to add something to it, more specifically, a crown, you know.. McQueen, yep. So on my right hand I put rhinestones in a shape of a 'crown' but the funny thing is that when you look at the nails regularly and not sideways, it looks like the letter E. :P And on my left hand I made a bow with pink rhinestones and a larger clear rhinestone.

hope you enjoyed & happy holidays (again)! :)
<3katherine

Christmas Mani

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is doing well :) Tomorrow's Christmas day, so here's my better-late-than-never mani. for Christmas! I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and happy holidays for those who celebrate something different :)♥

On my left hand is 2 coats of China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses and on my ring finger is 2 coats of Sinful Colors Show Me White topped with OPI Jade is the new Black, the yellow is China Glaze Lemon Fizz, the red is Kiss Nail Art in Red and the brown is OPI Black Cherry Chutney.

On my right hand is 2 coats of China Glaze Phat Santa and 1 coat of China Glaze Mrs. Claus on top. On my ring finger is 2 coats of Sinful Colors Show Me White and the red is Kiss Nail Art in Red.

I hope you enjoyed, happy polishing & most of all, happy holidays!♥(:
<3katherine

All Hail McQueen

Today's post is a recent mani. that I've been wearing for the past few days just because I couldn't resist. I originally found it at Ricky's but then I felt like it was too expensive so I didn't get it. And then when I wanted it, it wasn't there until a few days ago when I found it in the store again. I quickly bought it and I'm so glad I got it because I love it! I'm also wearing the heart ring I got from Amanda (from Fiercely Fresh Fingertips) :P♥

So here is Butter London All Hail McQueen. It's a light brown with a warm subtle holographic. I love it! It looks like a conservative color but when the light hits it, BAMM BEAUTIFUL. I used 3 coats for this because I wanted full coverage, but you could probably get away with 2. I'm seriously thinking about getting a back up bottle, or maybe for my giveaway *hint hint* LOL it's not decided yet.

hope you enjoyed, happy holidays and happy polishing!
<3katherine

Catrice Week [Day 3]

Catrice Week Day 3.

Catrice Clay-ton My Hero

light brown taupe with gold shimmer. 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat. I really like how it suits my skintone and shimmers!! Another one of my favorites♥

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Random Swatches Part 3 - OPI

This is my last post for my random swatches because I think almost everything's been swatched in my collection and onto my blog. Except for my recent purchases which I haven't swatched since I'm stuck with short nails for a while until they grow out. After having my nails kind of longish for a while, I don't like having short nails. Reason being that, I can't pick a color that would really look nice with short nails & there's not much room as a canvas. :\

But if there's anyone that has any nail art for short nails, please email me pictures & links to your blog and I'll have a feature post! :) I'm very interested to see what people would do with their short nails! and it might inspire meee ;) (email: findkatherinewu@gmail.com)

OPI Holiday Glow

brown with gold glitters. The swatch is 3 coats and no top coat. The formula was a little on the shin side so I had to use a third coat. I bought this a while back but I haven't touch it. I don't know why I haven't picked you out earlier! :( I'm sorry♥

OPI I Only Drink Champagne

gold champagne frost. The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat and a small sign of VNL but it still looks amazing. I use to have OPI Kyoto Pearl and it's just the light champagne version of it. A bit streaky though.

OPI Italian Love Affair

light pink shimmer creme. The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat. This is a favorite of mine. I love this and I'm so glad I picked it up. I got it for half the price too! 50% off from Duane Reade a long time ago. I did my cousin's toes with this and Hidden Treasure on top and it looked amazing.

OPI You're A Kabuki Queen

hot medium pink creme. The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat. I also picked this up on clearance and I'm glad I did. This color is so good!

Sephora by OPI Mermaid to Order

medium blue-green. The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat. My first Sephora by OPI polish and one of my long time favorites.

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Inspired

After doing my nails with Orly Country Club Khaki, the new addition to my collection, I was thinking about a design to go with it. I tried leopard but I've already done that and I couldn't replicate it with a regular brush; the last time I tried it that came out nice, I used a thin nail art brush. My friend happened to update her nail album on Facebook and I was inspired to create my own version of it. Here's her version:

And here's my version:

I didn't add stars though because my nails are kind of rounded so the ends of the stars would poke out and scratch me :(

Orly Country Club Khaki

Zoya Trixie

LA Colors Nail Art Silver Glitter

Cover Girl Boundless Color Disco Dazzle

I hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Teal & Taupe

Hope everyone enjoyed their July 4th weekend! Yesterday, I went to Rite Aid to print out pictures for my scrapbook that I'm giving to my boyfriend and I saw that Sally Hansen, Revlon and Sinful Colors were buy one get one 50% off. Of course I couldn't resist so I picked up 2 bottles Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure.

Here are the swatches for

Fairy Teal #450

teal. The swatch is two coats and no top coat. At first I didn't really like the brush for Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure when using Hidden Treasure but it was sheer so I didn't mind. So I was kind of hesitant on using the brush when I was swatching them, but turns out better than I expected.

Commander in Chic #370

dusty grey brown - taupe. The swatch is two coats and no top coat. This is one of the only taupes I own besides Essie Chinchilly. I absolutely adore this color and after I saw swatches of this, I wanted it soo bad!

hope you enjoyed!
<3katherine

Sunflower

So I got a few items at Forever21 today, yay! This is a yay moment for me because I like the stuff I see online for Forever21 but I never have the patience to shop there, especially in NYC, there's TONS of women shopping there, it's always piles of mess, the lines are always long for both the fitting room and the cash registers. It's hard to look around there because it's not really organized, probably only color but that's too complicated when they stack different tops with the same colors. I haven't gotten to buy clothes in a while :P Busy day today and didn't get a chance to come home and post until now. I took the permit test and I didn't pass :( I guess that's what I get for studying for 1-2 hours the night before! I think I was pretty close to passing too. Oh well, I'm just going to study a bit more and take it again next week.

I attempted to make a sunflower, which was an epic fail in my opinion lol.

OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Banana Bandanna,

OPI Espresso Your Style & CoverGirl Boundless Color Disco Dazzle

opinions? comments? :)

hope you enjoyed!

<3katherine

Espresso Your Style!

So I figured out why I haven't been feeling good about blogging. I felt like I lost hope because it's so hard to get my hands on Hidden Treasure. I've been resorting to eBay and it cost so much money there but I want it so bad. After wanting something so bad and almost losing hope, I guess that's what made me so 'bleh' (sorry I can't find a word to describe it) or stop caring about my blog as much as I used to. I also feel uninspired for any design ideas.

So for a few days, I did Zoya Zara as my manicure. I couldn't think of any design to go with it since the color was so beautiful, and I'm not kidding. :p My mom saw my nails and she loves the color and recently I did her toes OPI Rumple's Wiggin'.

Today, well yesterday I decided to do my nails again. I haven't posted about this one yet so it's something new. :) I first tested it out on one nail because I wasn't decided on the color. Here's my manicure: OPI Espresso Your Style!

I love the color because it's dark chocolate/espresso brown with hints of gold shimmer. The first picture is how it looks in real life and the second picture is with flash. The flash picture makes me think of mahogany brown. This was 2 coats of Espresso Your Style! and one coat of Seche Top Coat.

I then added Sinful Colors Green Ocean which is similar to SH's Hidden Treasure but it only shines green and blue. Not bad and I feel a little awkward with my nails but maybe it'll grow on me, if not I'll probably end up taking them off soon.

Katrina from Katrina's Nail Blog talked about the 2 basecoats she's tried. Poshe Base Coat and Nail Life Gripper. I agree with her that Poshe Base Coat works wonderfully. I've been using it ever since I got it from Sally's (probably sometime in May?). My nails are stronger and I really do have weak nails because I inherited that from my mom. They haven't chipped or break as much as they used to. But I'm not sure about Nail Life Gripper because I started using it today. I'll try this out for a month and then I'll post about my experience with it.

Hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

{WARNING: IMG HEAVY} Major Swatch Post!

My titles are corny and not funny, I know I'm not funny :(

However, I do bring swatches! Nail tutorials on some of the polishes in this post will be up shortly

Don't mind the shortness of my nails - I had to chop them off {not literally, I cut/trimmed and filed them down} they're getting brittle and chipping easily, so I bought OPI Natural Nail Strengthener in hopes that it will strengthen my nails! Also don't mind the edges of my nails where there's excess nail polish since it's only swatching :P

Misa Teddy Bear - {L-R} no flash & flash - 2 coats no top coat
I love the color from the look of the bottle. I don't think it necessarily fits me well because my skin is tan-ish for an Asian { it's true! T_T; } and it makes the polish look like a shiny natural neutral color. :x Or maybe it's the light I'm looking at it under in my room. Hopefully I'll be able to get a picture with it outdoors - maybe it'll look better. The application wasn't difficult to use - it was actually an smooth application and the color even looks good with one coat of polish. :) The color comes off a little streaky but I think it's also because of the micro-micro-glitter in the polish.

Misa Wishing on a Star - 3 coats no top coat
The reason why it's 3 coats is because the polish is jelly-like and the first layer was clear-ish. So it took 3 coats to reach the color you see in the bottle. It wasn't a real pain in the *ss to apply since it dried kind of fast. I really like this color beause it has micro-micro glitters of silver so it's not completely black and some people avoid full black creams {since my mom is a conserative and thinks that my nails look 'punk' if I wear black creams} - this polish is similar to Sinful Color's Secret Admirer but darker and jelly looking. Nonetheless, I love the color and how the final color. :)


Misa Disco Queen - 2 coats no top coat
Very quick and easy application. It's gold glitter in clear polish and when you put 2 coats the glitter forms together and covers the whole nail. I really love this color ever since I saw a girl on the NYC Subway with gold glitter nails. :D

Misa Rinse, Lather and Repeat - 2 coats and top coat
A neon pink color. Easy to apply and dries very quick. I don't have any pictures of this swatch with flash because it comes out soooo weird when you use flash. So only pictures without flash but different settings.

It's very suitable for summer - which reminds me of Hollister's neon pink one piece swim suit. Very cute with the swim suit however, I don't think I could pull off the swim suit. :P



Essie Pop Art Pink - 3 coats and top coat
This color is very sheer so it takes 3 layers. It's a cute sheer pink and it might even look good as the base for a french manicure :). Very cute and it doesn't take long to apply since it dries kind of quick. It doesn't remind me of pop art because it's not very bright and doesn't give me the 'BAM' vibe, lol. But it's a cute color that I'd keep and use from time to time - unless my nails become tainted yellow, I'd kind of avoid it but if you use it as a french manicure you could hide the yellow-ness :)


Essie Lilacism - 3 coats and top coat
The color is sheer but dries REALLY fast. It took me 3 coats to get it to the bottle color. I like the color and it's lilac/dull-purple-ish.


Essie Van D'Go - 2 coats and top coat
The color is a peach-y orange color but more peach. It's thicker than Lilacism and Pop Art Pink. The color is so cute because I don't own any peach colors in my collection. However, the color doesn't match well with my skin tone. :( In the flash picture, it looks weird because of my skin tone. :\

Essie Mint Candy Apple - 2 coats and top coat
Absolutely one of my favorite colors! The color is like mint / light jade green. Easy to apply and very cuuuute! The color and the word 'mint' makes me feel refreshed, haha! It was hard to capture with flash but I got it! :D

China Glaze Four Leaf Clover - 2 coats and no top coat
It's a very bright and vibrant green - it does remind me of the color of a leaf but more neon-ish. The application was good for this! Two coats and without top coat and it still looks good (:


China Glaze Ruby Pumps - 3 coats and no top coat
The formula was a little bit thin so it took 3 coats to reach the bottle color. But nonetheless it's a very beautiful color & it's my favorite red DESPITE the fact that I'm not a big red fan. Also, applying Ruby Pumps was NO problem at all. So smooth and easy to apply. :) There's no flash picture for Ruby Pumps because my camera couldn't focus on the glitter and it came out too bright. ):> Maybe one day..

China Glaze Luna - 2 coats and no top coat
VERY BEAUTIFUL COLOR! I LOVE IT! ?? It's thin cots but it's silver with small glitters of silver that shine in different colors in light. Easy and smooth application. The bottle makes the color look silver blue-ish but it just looks silver in my opinion. But nonetheless, one of my favorites in the China Glaze Glitter collection. (: Also, unlike Atlantis - it was EASY to remove!


China Glaze Cleopatra - 3 layers and no top coat
The polish is clear with gold glitters and it took 3 layers to cover my nail completely, or almost completely. I'd suggest to have a base color under Cleopatra unless you're going for the gold glitter manicure. Very thin but easy to apply. I adore Cleopatra because it's thin and easy to remove. The ultimate dream for me, easy removal of glitter nail polishes! :) I couldn't get a flash picture because my camera wouldn't focus so the only picture I have is without flash.

China Glaze Techno - 2 layers and no top coat
Clear base with silver hexagon glitters and silver micro glitters. This definitely reminds me of Cover Girl's Boundless Color Disco Dazzle (which I believe is discontinued since I haven't seen any Cover Girl nail polishes in the drug stores in my neighborhood. Should use over a base color than by itself. Very cute and it's great to use for gradients! :D Easy application and dries really quick.

China Glaze Cosmic - 2 coats and no top coat
Black base with silver micro glitter. I LOVE LOVE LOVE COSMIC. AHH. It's so unique compared to the other black base glitter nail polishes that I have, especially from Sinful Colors. It's definitely one of my favorite & here is it with Essie's Matte About You.




China Glaze Atlantis - 3 coats and top coat.
The COLOR IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING? Sinful Colors has a similar color called Nail Junkie. The formula for Atlantis is jellier than Nail Junkie and it took 3 coats just to reach the bottle color & because I wanted to cover the white 'ends/tips' of my nails. It's mainly silver glitter I believe in Atlantis but shines in different colors. Glitters are hard to capture with camera but I tried my best. Picture does not do justice for this polish! Absolutely love and now a new member of my favorites list (located at the bottom of this blog). Although I love Atlantis, it's the hardest out of the China Glaze Glitter batch that I have to remove. -_-

~♥~

EXTRA BONUS SWATCHES OF
*DRUMROLL*
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AMERICAN APPAREL NAIL POLISHES!



American Apparel came up with 18 nail polishes that sell for $6 a bottle or 3 for $15 in their stores. They are DBP, Toluene and Formaldehyde free.

American Apparel Nail Polishes are 4.5 out of 5 stars. Many of the reviews say that they like/love the colors & the polish.

So I decided to try it out myself and I ended up getting: Office, Factory Grey and Peacock.

I'm debating whether or not I should splurge another $15 for 3 more if I like the 3 I have now.. :\ Any suggestions to what other polishes I should get?

Here are the 3 swatches of the ones I own:

Office - 3 coats and no top coat
Very beautiful dusty mint green - reminds me of Essie's MCA but a bit dustier. Love ittt~ ♥

Factory Grey - 2 coats and no top coat
The color is like a light dusty gray and it's great because I don't own any grays except for Essie's Chinchilly and Opera. I love this gray and I'm so glad I got it. It's thin but since the color is darker it's easier to cover over and it's quicker to reach the bottle color. A favorite♥ It's darker in real life compared to the flash picture. In real life, the color is closest to the picture without flash.


Peacock - 2 coats and no top coat
This color is amazing. It's a dark teal blue and it's absolutely beautiful. I haven't encountered any color like it, yet. In the flash picture, the color is a lot darker in real life but still breathtaking. ♥

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the colors I got & I'm thinking that I might get more! The formula is really thin and watery looking~ but the application was so easy! The polish dries really quick and it's easy to take off the excess nail polish on the edges for a cute manicure.

On my next post, I will introduce some of the tutorials of nail art that I created with some of the polishes that I introduced in this post.

I hope to get some feedback or comments or suggestions from anyone :) whether it be good comments or constructive criticism. Anything is acceptable!

Until next time♥~,
KATHERINE*