Born Pretty Review Series: Matte Polish

Here is another product from Born Pretty Store...matte nail polish. I got a light purple color. It doesn't have a name, just a number (01). Even though this is a matte formula, there is a lot of multi color shimmer in the polish which I really liked about it. The flash from my camera brings that out and lessens the matte effect a little. 

Since I have begun experimenting with sponging lately, I decided to give it another try. I used Maybelline Express Finish in Violet Aluminum (from Dollar Tree) and sponged a gradient from the tips down. Then I added a tiny bit of Color Club Fashion Addict to complete the gradient.

Finally, I wanted to see what the matte looked like shiny, and it really darkened the whole thing up! I still like it though.

The formula on this was really good...almost a one coat polish! Application was very easy, coming from someone who is a messy polisher! haha This retails for $4.36 and there are a lot of unique mattes to choose from. Overall, I recommend this!

Matte polish sent to me for review by Born Pretty. 

More about → Born Pretty Review Series: Matte Polish

Once in a Chartreuse Moon...I need your help!

Lame title I know, but I need your help! I've had this idea in my head for such a long time, chartreuse moons. 


I've had a play around this morning and picked out what I think looks best. Think of this design as a prototype ok! Not the final product. It was about 4 degrees this morning and my fingers have been frozen all day.

From left to right:
OPI Dating a Royal, OPI Sapphire in the Snow, Skull and Glossbones, Essie Big Spender.


I love the two middle ones, Sapphire and Skull. What about the Skull one reversed? I think that could look quite cool?


Any opinions, please, let me hear them!

More about → Once in a Chartreuse Moon...I need your help!

China Glaze - Dorothy Who?

I don't know why it took me so long to add this to my stash. It's absolutely stunning. I wore it to work and got tons of compliments. I didn't want to cover up too much with art, so I just added some rhinestones.

I've learned that my favorite color nail polish is blue. I never knew that before this obsession. 

Favorite nail polish? Essie Coat Azure! 

But do you have....

a go-to nail polish to perk you up when you're feeling down? Nubar Reclaim!

Share your perk-me-up polishes in the comment section, I'd love to hear!

More about → China Glaze - Dorothy Who?

Cool skittle

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing fine. For this post I have a skittle to share with you from some time ago. I was playing around with some cool toned colors, trying to find an interesting color scheme, and these are the polishes that I used:

China Glaze - For Audrey

H&M - Hunt Me Down

Essence - Tryin' To Be Cool

China Glaze - Secret Peri-winkle

Essence - Movie Star

Then I used my favorite chunky glitter topper from Essence: Blaire! I love the different sizes of glitter and they're even prettier when they're mattified! Speaking of matt, I just bought a new matt topcoat from Claire's and I used this opportuntity to try it out (see last picture). But I think I'll stick to my #1 matt topcoat from Essence, the finish from the one from Claire's is more satin-like and that's just not matt enough for me ;)

I do feel like the combination of colors I used is a bit odd, but at the end of the day it's not that terrible, right? Hahah. What do you guys think of it?

More about → Cool skittle

Typical French Mani with a twist....

June 30, 2011

Today I have the typical french manicure for you but with added flare. I was happy with the way it turned out and curious to know what you think of this mani....(P.S. Sorry for the red cuticles... some red/fuchsia polishes can be staining/hard to remove.. Right Brandy?!)

Step 1: Using OPI Metro Chic, I painted on messy tips. I did not use stickers to define my tips. Once you put on the glitter polish, it hides the "unevenness". So save your time with the stickers. I did two coats on the tips. I have also included a photo with this color on my entire nail. This is a very soft purple/grey color. 

Step 2: Put one THIN, layer of OPI It's Bouquet with Me on the entire nail. 

Step 3: Place a generous amount of OPI It's Bouquet with Me on the tip of your nail (see photo to the right). Then smear the "ball" to cover your entire tip. You can add a second coat if you want. I did not in my final photos.

Here is the final product again!!!!

More about → Typical French Mani with a twist....

OPI Nice Stems Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

Wow, today is the last day of June. Where did June go?

Today I have OPI's Nice Stems Collection for Summer 2011 to share with you guys. This collection consists of four gorgeous pinks in a variety of finishes.



I Lily Love You is a sheer jelly pink with holographic glitters and flakes. This was three coats.


Play the Peonies is a soft shimmery pale pink with iridescent finish. 2 coats. It has sort of a pearly finish. A very interesting color and finish actually. It was a little bit streaky but after the 2nd coat everything evened out.


I Lily Love You over Play the Peonies. I love how the color just changes because of I Lily Love You.


Come to Poppy is a vibrant coral pink shimmer. 2 coats. It was actually opaque in one coat. But you know me ^_^


I Lily Love You over Come to Poppy. Here you can see some of the flake glitters they have.


Be A Dahlia Won't You? is a bright fuchsia shimmer with plenty of gold specks. 2 coats.


I Lily Love You over Be A Dahlia Won't You?

Overall, this collection is very cute and very girly. I loved all the pinks and they are actually wearable for me. They're great for summer. I love how I Lily Love You adds sparkle to the others. As you all know, I love all things glitter. The formula for these are excellent. They were fully opaque and only needed two coats for full coverage. My favorite happens to be Play the Peonies because it's such an interesting color and interesting finish. Don't have any similar polishes like that. Which ones do you like?

Well that's all I have for today!

(These were sent to me for review)

More about → OPI Nice Stems Summer 2011 Swatches and Review

june haul

Hi guys!
I'm already in Montreal by now, almost on my way to Ottawa - but I've scheduled this post and some others so you don't miss me too much while I am gone!

Obviously I won't be able to reply to comments or many emails, but I promise I will answer all questions and emails when I get back, on the 6th of July.

I'm sorry if the spacing of this post is really bad - I've been having trouble with blogger doing that lately and I can't fix it for my scheduled posts.

This is the last day of June, so I'm going to post this month's haul!
I might be buying some polish tonight in Ottawa, but I'll include that in July's haul. (Or maybe a separate vacation haul!)

As you may know, I was on a low-buy this month to save for my trip.
I did pretty well on my low-buy (minus one purchase...) but I got a lot in swaps or giveaways or just as gifts!
Here we go:

Icing Duality Stick - Force of Love/Magnetic Attraction

Giveaway:
Catrice - Sold Out Forever
LA Colors - Metallic Purple
Nfu-Oh - #60
p2 Color Victim - Attraction
Flormar - 393
Etos Effect Nails - 006
Etos Effect Nails - 010
Etos Effect Nails - 011
Etos Effect Nails - 013
Essence (Metallics) - Steel Me
Essence (Metallics) - Nothing Else Metals
Essence (color&go) - No More Drama
Essence (color&go)  - Choose Me!
Essence (color&go)  - Where Is The Party?
Essence (Multi-Dimension)- All Access
Essence (Sun Club) - Meet Me At The Club
Hema - 18
Hema - Jip en Janneke

Gosh - Holographic (swap!)
Gosh - Fix Basecoat (swap!)
Mash plate m21 (gift!)

Essie - Smooth Sailing
OPI - What's With The Cattitude?

China Glaze - Emotion (gift)
China Glaze - Adore (gift)

Essie - Lapis Of Luxury (gift!)

Essie - Going Incognito (swap!)

Orly - Lollipop (gift!)


(This is where I went wrong... I spent $76 on these 6 polishes. Which is actually a good deal, considering what they are. They haven't arrived yet.)
China Glaze - TTYL
China Glaze - TMI
China Glaze - FYI
China Glaze - GR8
China Glaze - L8R G8R
China Glaze - QT

Color Club Alter Ego - Reveal Your Mystery (set):
Milky White Basecoat
Get A Clue
Give Me A Hint
Revealed
Secret Rendevous
Incognito
Sheer Disguise

OPI - Turquoise Shatter

Swap with Caroline from Shadow's Nails! (I just got this on Tuesday! I'll post more about it when I get back!)
Orly - Halley's Comet
Maybelline - Goody Plum Drop
China Glaze - Custom Kicks
Sinful Colors - Green Ocean
Custom painted Hello Kitty franken bottle!!


So, as you can see, I got a LOT of polish this month, but out of all those things, I only bought 4 single polishes, one Color Club set (12.99) and the OMG's. 
The OMG's ruin the low-buy but it was a deal I couldn't pass up.

Besides stuff for myself I bought around 16 things for swaps. So that ruins it too.
Overall I'm pleased with how I did!

Total # of bottles acquired for myself this month: 46
Total # of bottles I bought for myself: 17

More about → june haul

Flintstones 2.0

Flintstones is what started out this entire epic cartoon series. I did a design based off of them here, on my natural nails. I decided it deserved a spot in my mixed media art project as it will also be well recognized.

I hope you can tell which characters that they represent without me having to list it.

Dino was actually painted using Zoya Keiko and Orly Lollipop. None of my acrylic paints were the right color, and I didn't feel like mixing for thirty minutes to get it right. I looked up on my shelf and those two colors just jumped out as perfect.

I hope you like them!

More about → Flintstones 2.0

Summer Chic mani

Hey guys! Today I wanted to show you yet another funky french, lol. The oh so sweet Kim from Color Club sent me a bunch of fun new nail art items to try, and this was one of them. Now, I love these little things, but really only like to use them on my accent finger when I do funky french manis. They are so cute, but too many, IMO, can be overkill. So I went for what I am calling, a Summer Chic mani :) The little orange slices are just adorable!!!

I also love the fact that these are so thin. I've used others that were on the thicker side, and were just too big and bulky.

I started with my go to base of Professional 10 #415 Pinky Promise. I get mine from CVS. Then after a coat of SV and about 10 minutes, and taped my nails off, and did black tips. I hen did one more coat of SV, and when it was dry, and added a tiny drop of nail glue on my ring finger, and set the orange slice over top.

More about → Summer Chic mani

450 polishes swatched

Today I’m sharing a little project that I have been working on for the last few weeks. 

I was sick of not being able to readily see each of my polishes to decide what to wear, what to layer (or stamp) over what. Of course I could look at swatch pictures, but that would take way too long, and what then to do about all those untrieds? I could swatch them all out on colour wheels, but how do I sort them for swatching? Sure I could swatch similar colours on a wheel, but what would I do when I got a new polish, it's not like I could insert it into the colour wheel in it appropriate place if that wheel is full. 

So this was my solution.  I bought many sets of nail art sticks off ebay.  Each tray holds 64 sticks.  The beauty of this system is each stick is totally removable and they can be sorted and moved around on the trays allowing for new polishes at any time.

Here they all are lined up on our dining table. Yes, it took weeks to paint these.

Now here they are in colour groups.

Yes, it took ages to sort these into colour groups. Actually it didn’t take ME very long before I said “that’ll do”, but my mum (as a painter) sat there for hours (upon hours) adjusting and sorting. Anally retentive anyone?

So this is what the little sticks look like. Nice clean and shiny Perspex.

There is even a little flat spot to write on. I wrote numbers, which correspond to numbers listed in a spreadsheet that details brand, polish name and the number of coats. I love the fact that I can look among all my sticks of a similar colour, and then take them over to my outfit and pick the best complementary colour. 

So, what do you think?  Do you have a system in place to see what all your polishes are and to help choose a colour to wear?  I used to paint a falsie and sticky tape that to the top of the bottle.  See some old stash pics.

*edit* for those interested, the ebay seller was "4ushop777", they were called "Nail Art Tips 64 Stick Display Stand Rack Practice Tool" I paid $7.65AUD for each set of 64, with free postage.

More about → 450 polishes swatched

pre-vacation mani

hi! how has everyone been? i've been neglecting this little blog like crazy :S but i was on vacation last week. took a family trip to California for a week...it was nice. here's a mani i did the week before vacation. and to tell you the truth, i havent painted my nails since then! -_________-



OPI’s Stranger Tides & Orly’s Pure Porcelain.

thats it for now..
have a good one!,
<3KATRINA

More about → pre-vacation mani

Fellow nail bloggers... I have a question for you...

June 29, 2011

Does anyone have a post about how they store their nail polish collection? I am seriously outgrowing my current storage idea, and I have no clue what to do next. I am not talking about just the polish, but the stickers, polish remover, cotton pads, stamping plates, dotting tools, etc.....please share your storage solutions with me. I need something I can grow into as well. Thanks for sharing!!!!

More about → Fellow nail bloggers... I have a question for you...

Adventures of Tin Tin

Jessica suggested these, which I don't really remember as a child. I thought I would include just two nails for those that do.

Background polish is a franken I made. It's a black base with two different sized holographic glitters.

More about → Adventures of Tin Tin