Fail Mani

So I've been MIA because of finals! :( Studying my butt off and I hope it pays off! Anyways, a while back when I had my first giveaway some people suggested that I should post up fail mani's as well because sometimes not all mani's go the way you want it to! I had this idea for a Christmas/Winter theme where it was white but gray-ish base with glittery top coat over it to make it look like snow. Well, that was a complete fail!

What I used:
Catrice London's Weather Forecast
China Glaze White Out ("sponged" with a bounty LOL)
Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor
China Glaze Nova

hope you enjoyed & happy polishing! (:
<3katherine

Essie Batch

• Smokin' Hot - Break the rules with this stone-cold fox gray that burns hotter than any flame.
• Masquerade Belle - Fascinating, mysterious and seductive, this black ruby sparks the imagination and inspires intense devotion.
  
• Silken Cord - You've got the world on a string with this stunning risqué red wrapped around your fingers.
• Hot Coco - Paint on this tawny sepia and channel the roaring '20s for a look that's timelessly flawless.
• Luxedo - Suit up in this deepest plum and boldly go where no man has gone before.
• Going Incognito - Your identity may be secret, but your style and panache are impossible to conceal with this deep emerald green.

Which are your favorites? Or which ones are you looking forward to?

Today I will have a few swatches from Essie, including the Winter 2010 Collection's Going Incognito. :)

Essie Going Incognito

a foresty emerald green creme. The swatch is 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat. I love this green! The formula and application was excellent. The color is really nice too! :)

Essie Sew Psyched

According to Essie it is a cashmere-soft sage pewter. It's more like a dusty deeper jade creme with a small shimmer. The swatch is 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat. Awesome color! Formula and application is really good. :)

Essie Wild Thing

red fushia base with slight glitter. The swatch is 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat. The color is very chic. Excellent formula and application.

Essie Jackie Oh My

a pale off white with shimmer. The swatch is 4 coats and 1 coat of top coat. The formula was a bit opaque but the application was great. :)

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Jackelin $0.50!!

So I stopped by Walgreens today after work and after I bought a palette at Inglot for a swap, and I saw these babies for 2 for $1! I must confess that I saw these before but didn't bother with them because they lack color range! :( and they looked old because the polish separated. But these 2 were the good ones out of the batch.

On the left we have, Jackelin Allure and on the right we have Jackelin Pear. Allure is a grayed out blue with silver shimmer but it's very pigmented like they added fyrinnae in it to make this polish. The swatch is 2 coats of Allure and 1 coat of top coat. Pear is a metallic bronze with a green tone to it. Pear was on the harder side to capture but you can see the color perfectly from the bottle color. The swatch is 3 coats of Pear and 1 coat of top coat. Pear is a little opaque, but you could've gone with 2 coats but I decided to do 3 because a small VNL.

If anyone is interested in any Inglot Cosmetics (they don't sell their products online), I will gladly agree to a swap or custom purchase for you. Just write me an email & I'll email the store for a price quote. Please note that if you want the Freedom Eyeshadow Palettes, let me know how many eyeshadows, the number & it's color family and back up colors in case the store doesn't have a color that you wanted.

The reason I started putting it out there that I'm willing to get custom Inglot Cosmetics is because of a MUA swap. If you're more comfortable swapping with me on MUA just write me a message to itsofluffy (that's my MUA username).

I'm bringing this up because Inglot in the US is only available in 2 stores, one in NYC which is an hour train ride from my home and I work & go to school in the city so I'll be there frequently.

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Something Sweet

Hello there! :) I'm posting my current manicure/nails! I received this nail polish in a swap and ever sine I got it, I've been wanting to try this!

China Glaze Something Sweet

it's a pastel light pink with hints of lavender and a slight hint of gray because it isn't as bright as Wet N Wild's Tickled Pink although it seems very similar (I'll be doing a side by side comparison soon for these two cute pinks). I started off my manicure with base coat, 2 coats of Something Sweet and 1 coat of Seche top coat on my pinkie, middle fingers and my thumb. (*Note: the pictures of the manicure isn't as accurate. The closest to the actual color is the pictures of my manicure+nail art. My camera's wonky on certain colors x___x & notetoself:savemoneyandbuynewcameraandmakelightbox)

To add a little "nail art" to my manicure, I decided to do simple white stripes. I used Kiss Nail Art in White for the stripes, although they aren't perfectly straight, they look amazingly cute! I finally topped it off with Essie's Matte About You on my ring and index fingers. :) How cute is that? It reminds me of those round peppermint mints that are red and mainly white. :P

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

My Favorite: Dots

I did these when my nails were long, which was a while ago. I haven't gotten around to posting these and other swatches because there are more important updates haha. :)

Again, design credits to Pan; I think I really like doing this when I don't feel creative. :P

The base for my ring finger is Essie Playa Del Platinum (2 coats), which I finally got my hands on and I love it. The dots are Essie Splash of Grenadine, OPI Alpine Snow and OPI You're Such A Kabuki Queen. I used a dotting tool to make the dots :)

The other nails are Essie Splash of Grenadine (2 coats).

we can do this! 5 more followers ;) until giveaway♥

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

[Part II] Barielle Swatches

This is the last group of Barielle's that I got. :) I really like the bottle that you'll see in some of my swatches. It's a glass water bottle that I got from a restaurant. I love the bottle and I filled it up with paper stars that I made a long time ago.

Belly Dance. a light taupe shimmer. It looks really cute but it looks neutral compared to my skintone T__T; maybe if I get whiter over the winter haha! Or whitening soap ;) This is 2 coats and no top coat.

Blackened Bleu. the name says it all, except that the black is jelly. The thing I love about it is that the blue shimmers A LOT. :) The swatch is 3 coats and 1 coat of top coat.

Myrza's Meadow. a lime yellow green jelly with gold glitter that shines rainbow. I read a review about it and someone said it was one of the worse ones from the collection to work with. But generally, I had no problems with this nail polish except for the VNL - it shows the white tip but if you have short nub nails, you'll have no problems. The swatch is 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat. A little bumpy when it dries, but that's no problem if you always seal your manicures with top coat :). Still love it though! *my picture might not be as good; probably will redo this swatch.

Slate of Affairs. medium grayed out cornflower blue water-y base but not jelly (probably glass flecked; I'm no good with identifying finishes =x)with blue shimmer. OH HOW COULD I HAVE DOUBTED GETTING YOU? :( I'm sorry but I'm glad I decided to get you. :) You're totally awesome and beautiful. The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat.

Swizzle Stix. a greyed out sky blue/turquoise thin but not jelly base. This reminded me of Brucci's Kathy's Baby Blues but then that was more sky blue than this. :P The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat on my index and middle fingers & 3 coats on my ring and pinky fingers (for full coverage on my nail tips). Good formula, not hard to apply though it seemed a bit "water-y" but not really.

Overall: Barielle's formula is a thick, but mostly it's opaque when you apply it. You get a glob of polish when you're about to apply but it won't ruin your manicures. I still like the formula a lot despite the 'thickness.'

5 more followers until my giveaway!! & tell me your favorites in this group :)

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Swap & Mini Haul

A mini haul at the beauty supply store and one nail polish from a swatch. Sorry if I'm boring you with swatches you've probably already seen. I cut my nails yesterday because they were breaking a bit on the edges and hopefully they'll grow back soon. I still have some swatches that I took before I cut my nails so it won't be dead around here *hopefully*. Looking at the swatches makes me sad because I miss my nails! T_T

Essie Demure Vixen

dusty grayed out pink with a purple iridescent shimmer. 3 coats and no top coat. I've been lemming this a while and finally got my hands on it at a beauty store. The formula was a little thin but the third coat evened it out. It wasn't that bad applying it and it gave me no troubles. :)

OPI Cuckoo For This Color

medium jungle blue-green shimmer. 2 coats and no top coat. It's from OPI's Swiss Collection that I picked up in a beauty store by my boyfriend's pick♥ Application and formula was OPI great. :) One of my many favorites from their collection.

OPI I've Red The Script

first picture is one coat & no top coat and the second picture is two coats & no top coat. It's a one coater except that there's a small slight sign of VNL, but I'd still use it with one coat. Lovely color and I'm happy I swapped for this polish. :)

OPI Yodel On My Cell

medium blue with slight green shimmer. This is from their Swiss Collection also that I was able to pick up. My boyfriend picked this color out :)♥ The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat. AMAZING. I took the swatch pictures in my bathroom because the lighting worked better than my room. But for the rest of the pictures, the lighting worked better in my room, LOL. Anyways Amazing application and formula by OPI.

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Random Swatches Part 2 - Essie & Misa

More random swatches from my collection:

Essie Barbados Blue

light blue frost. The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat. This was one of my first Essie bottles that I own. Back then, this was my favorite and now I've grown out of it a bit. But I still have some love in my heart for it. :)

Essie Chinchilly

light/medium gray creme. The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat. The formula and application was great. I love this polish!

Misa No Shrinking Violetta

light pink with gold shimmers. The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat.

Misa Runway Diva

dusty rose / muted mauve color. The nail polish is darker and dustier in real life. The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat. It was taken with the sunlight. I'm going to have to take another picture of this to show you the true color. But amazing formula and application.♥

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Franken #1

I picked up a bottle of Wet N Wild Clear and Wet N Wild Black nail polish today at Walgreens. I've been wanting to franken polishes for a long time, and that's why I got fyrinnae samples a while back and I've been saving them. The day has come where I finally tried frankening for the first time. If you don't know already, frankening is the term used to describe the mixing of nail polishes to create your own; you could use nail polishes, glitters, fyrinnaes or any other cosmetic powders.

For my first franken, I used:

• half a bottle of Wet N Wild Clear
• some (no measuring instrument) of Meerkat fyrinnae sample
• some of Android Angel fyrinnae sample
• some of Chrome fyrinnae sample

TADAA~ the finished product:

metallic purple gray. The swatch is 3 coats and I love it! It's my first franken and I'm proud of myself! :) I absolutely love this color and it's so unique. I'm really glad that I tried frankening. This is one of my grails now haha! :P?

Would anyone like to name it? I'm open to suggestions! :)

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

Summer Launch

This is my first post on this blog and basically this blog is for pictures of nail polishes that I own, reviews, pictures and tutorials of my nails. I don't have a large collection of nail polish but I own some China Glaze's, OPI's, Essie's, Cover Girl Boundless Color, &Sally Hansen. I'm hoping to expand my collection as well as sell off some of the nail polishes that I do not use. I'm only a beginner at doing nails and I found it to be a hobby of mine when I started to do them myself, which saves me money and I'm able to use the nail polishes over, and I got compliments on my nails frequently so it brought up my self esteem! (: I hope my liking of nail polish may leech onto you and you may have beautiful nails also!

Here are a few pictures of my nails that I have done.

For the neon zebra nails, I used two coats of Sinful Colors' black nail polish as my base and then I used neon nail art colors to make the zebra stripes. Sinful Colors is a pretty nice brand and it can be found in drugstores for about $2-3 dollars. :)

OPI Time-less is more

Black nail art

Glitter gold nail art

For this white tiger design I used OPI's Time-less is more as my base coat. OPI's Time-less is more is very sheer, so this took me about 3-4 coats. It takes a while since you're waiting for them to dry before applying the next coat but its a very nice color! I haven't had any whites or off-whites and this is a perfect one in my opinion. (:

China Glaze Passion

Black nail art

Glitter gold nail art

For this set, I attempted to do a leopard print with China Glaze's Passion as my base coat. It could take only ONE coat and it'll come out as the natural color! Overall, it's a very nice color & the brand is absolutely awesome. There's such a wide range of colors and I have my list of wants from them! :D

Sally Hansen's Gunmetal

CG Boundless Color Disco Dazzle

Glitter silver nail art

This set is my current nails. I was really surprised at Sally Hansen's Gunmetal, and I LOVE it! :D The color comes in one coat also. For these, I attempted at a "gradient" look by striping the tips of my nails with glitter silver nail art like french tips and then I would use CG's Disco Dazzle and brush away from the tips of my nails and trying to move some of the glitter silver nail art with it. I got many compliments with my current nails! (:

I hope you enjoyed looking at some of my works!

hope to update soon!~