think we kissed but i forgot

Here is something I discovered that I wish I realized about 3 days ago when I dropped $10 on this polish.

The new Katy Perry for OPI blue shade, Last Friday Night, has a near-dupe.
And it is 8 dollars cheaper. And I own it already.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Shooting Star.
Here are the swatches next to each other.

As you can see there is more glitter in Last Friday Night, but that might also be due to the fact that in these swatches LFN is 4 coats and SS is only 3, but I thought the base color matched after this many coats.
So close that it wouldn't be noticeable to the non-polish-obsessed eye.

Dying for some Katy Perry polish but not into the pricetag? Go to Walmart instead and save money.

More about → think we kissed but i forgot

NOTD: Color Club Pucci-licious + Confetti

I am in a good mood today and wanted a bright color with some glitter. I looked in my collection and Color Club Pucci-licious stood out to me and since I have never used it before it was a perfect pick. I love this color so much now. It went on smooth in 2 coats and the color is like no other purple I own. I then looked for a glitter and I had recently bought Jesse's Girl Confetti which has purple and blue bar string glitter.

More about → NOTD: Color Club Pucci-licious + Confetti

Lisa Frank Inspired, Inspiration?

I took the idea from Dollface, she has done 4 different looks so far inspired by the bright colors and animal prints of Lisa Frank. You gotta love it! I was also one that was mildly obsessed with Lisa Frank stuff as a kid. Who could resist? Click here for her design: Dollface - Lisa Frank

I love how her's turned out and sadly I only kind of like mine. :(

What do you think?

I started with an Essie basecoat and then Sally Hansen's "Lavender Cloud"

Then using a thin nail art brush, brushed on the following colors:

All China Glaze -

Lemon Fizz

I Wanna Lei Ya

Laced Up

Bahaimian Escape

Spontaneous

I wanted to see how it looked with Essie's Matte About You topcoat, that's on the ring & pinky nail.

Out the Door topcoat on index & middle.

I much prefer this look being glossy so I topped the whole thing with OTD.

I'd like to revisit this mani in the future but use brighter neon shades with a green thrown in there. And I'd much prefer a shatter topcoat that would seperate more and in bigger chunks to show underneath.
What do you think? Do you prefer it matte or glossy? Which colors would you like to see under shatter?

More about → Lisa Frank Inspired, Inspiration?

Orly Rage

Another that I swatched a while ago.  There are lots of swatches out there of this, but here are mine.

And indoors...

Love this polish.  I also have done a comparison with this against Ulta3 Envy.

More about → Orly Rage

Weekly Giveaway Roundup

I love giveaways. Each week I'll post giveaways that I think are awesome! I'm trying to catch any giveaway that has nail polish & I always post them on the Monday before they close. I figure some publicity towards the end of the entry period is a good idea, so don't worry that I've forgotten yours if I don't post it immediately! On the other hand, I know that I will occasionally miss a giveaway or two. If I miss yours, please know that it was accidental and nothing personal!

NAIL POLISH & MORE

• Black Nail Polish & Lip Gloss is giving away the Zoya Intimate Collection!!! Ends 2/3.
  
• Polished Lyrics is giving away a French Tip Dip Kit! Looks like fun!! Ends 2/4.
• nails 4 fun is giving away 2 Essence metallic polishes! Ends 2/4.
• Hell Candy Make Up is giving away 3 Accessorize polishes, 2 Barry M polishes & Urban Decay's Naked palette! (Mac Venomous Villain dupes and Chanel Paradoxal dupe in here ladies!) Ends 2/4.
• Girly Addictions is giving away GOSH Holographic & base coat! GOSH HOLOGRAPHIC!!! Ends 2/4.
• The Nail Experiment is giving away 12 Ludurana polishes! Ends 2/4.
• Socialite Dreams is giving away 5 polishes and much more! Ends 2/5.
  
• Nails Beautiqued is giving away Revlon Perplexed! 2 winners!! Ends 2/6.
• Biba's Beauty Corner is giving away 7 polishes & more! Ends 2/6.
  
• I'm giving away 8 red & pink polishes! Ends 2/15.

MAKEUP & SKINCARE

• Beauty Crazed is giving away over $400 worth of Make Up For Ever products!! Ends 2/3.
• Thoughts of Beauty is giving away $72 worth of Reviva Labs skincare! Ends 2/3.
• Prime Beauty is giving away a Redpoint Air Effects Blushwhip! Ends 2/4.
  
• Perfectly Polished is giving away Dove Hair Damage sets! 5 winners!! Ends 2/6.
• Polish Galore is giving away Urban Decay pigment sets (12 in each set)! 3 winners!! Ends 2/7.
  

ACCESSORIES, SHOES & JEWELRY

• novonova is giving away your choice of one of their super awesome charm necklaces! I really think a lot of you would love these. Option include a skull, scissors, wing, fleur-de-lys, spider star & pistol! Ends 2/4.
  

THINGS FOR YOUR HOME

• In the Know Mom is giving away a beautiful Middle Colors Humidifier! Ends 2/1.
  

MISCELLANEOUS

• Sogni e Sorrisi is giving away a $65 CSN GC! Hurry, ends soon!!
  
• Glamorous Geek Chic is giving away a $45 CSN GC! Ends 2/2.
• shortwidenails is giving away a $35 CSN GC! Ends 2/4.
  

Please feel free to post your giveaways in the comments of the Weekly Giveaway Roundup posts! Let's keep them all on these posts and not on regular posts.
Thanks for reading!
April

More about → Weekly Giveaway Roundup

XOXO Parisky Birthday Giveaway

Helena from XOXO Parisky has turned 23 years old and wants to give her followers a chance to win a boat load of wonderful things! I was so amazed my the size and variety of this giveaway. In the giveaway is my most sought after collection The Essence Metallic collection!. Take a look at what you could win. Visit her blog for the rules and to enter.

Click Image to take you to the giveaway!

More about → XOXO Parisky Birthday Giveaway

Zoya Intimate Collection 2011

Ah Spring collections are coming out, which means Spring is somewhat near. I am sick of Winter. I hate the cold weather since I get sick very easy. I lost count of how many times I got sick this Winter -_- I actually starting to feel a little better from being sick for two weeks.

Today I have the Zoya Intimate Collection for Spring 2011. I noticed a lot of spring collection consists of gray-ish soft nude tones. The Intimate Collection consists of 6 gorgeous colors. Take a look:


Danni - a purple shimmer with gold and pinkish shimmers. This one is so gorgeous, I love it. Two coats


Jules - a taupey shimmer mixed with golden shimmers. Looks dull in my picture but in person it's stunning! Two coats


Caitlin - a gray creme with purple tones. Looks semi-blue in my pic but it's really purple. 2 coats


Dove - like its name, it is a dove gray creme. 2 coats


Marley - a light lavender creme with gray tones. Two coats


Gemma - an olive green creme with purple shimmer duo-chrome. Two coats. I loved this one and wish the purple shimmer showed more in my picture. But there's like absolutely no sun and that's why I hate Winter!!

Overall I think this collection is awesome. The colors are gorgeous. And the formula is perfect as usual. I had no streaks and no problems with the semi-metallic foil finishes and the cremes applied wonderfully. I loved all the colors, not a single one I didn't like, which I love because I know I spent my money on the right products. I hate when I buy polishes and the colors are disappointing.

My favorites do happen to be Gemma and Danni. Those two stood out the most for the collection. What's your favorites?

That's all I have for today!

More about → Zoya Intimate Collection 2011

Possible V-Day mani and Konad tutorial

I decided to do a tutorial on nail stamping, since I have had a few request. This is the mani that I did. For this I used China Glaze Naughty and Nice as the base. Then for the red/pink lip image, I used Sally Hansen Color Quick pen in Red Chrome, Silver lips are China Glaze Millenium, and the tips are OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Matte.

I get all my items together first

This is the image plate I'm using

Once you choose the image, you take your polish and and cover the image.

Then with your scraper, you scrape over the image, removing the excess polish

Then with your stamper, you place the rubber part and press, transferring the image to your stamper

Excuse the pup hair, I didn't remove it before I took the pic, eeek

Finally, all you do, is place the stamper above your nail, where you want the image to appear on your nail, and in a rolling motion, press it onto your nail.

The best tip for stamping, is to only use 100% acetone. After you stamp, wipe the scraper and stamper onto a cotton ball/pad, that has been soaked in acetone. I use a green coaster, and pre-soak the cotton pad in acetone, and set it onto the coaster. Then after I scrape, I swipe the scraper onto the pad, removing the polish, and then after I stamp, I wipe the stamper on the pad as well. You should also clean the image plate in between each stamp. Although I'm guilty of not doing this, lol. Oh and you do need to work fairly quick, because the polish, since being so thin on your stamper, dries quick.

Here I did the rest of my nails, and then did it over again with China Glaze Millenium.

Once I'm done, I take my mani double pointed q-tips, dip them in acetone, and clean up the excess polish from stamping, around my nails. I then do a coat of SV, and TADA

Last of all, I added tips in OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Matte



More about → Possible V-Day mani and Konad tutorial

Butterflies and Bubbles

Another design idea from my amazing husband! Not many girls can say their man enjoys nail art/polish as much as, if not more than they do...I never thought this would become a hobby we share but I'm not complaining!

We did a slight gradient look with this mani, and I had to make sure there was glitter involved...this past month I don't think I bought one polish that didn't have glitter. I'm obsessed!

Polish used: E.L.F Smokey Brown with Love and Beauty glitter

Konad White and Black for stamping

Plates: Konad M36 andBorn Pretty Store M26

More about → Butterflies and Bubbles

Copycat

This stamping idea was taken from DizzyNails. Thanks for the cute idea!

Polish Used: E.L.F Mint Cream

Stamped using Konad White

Plate: BM 20

Dots with nail art brush using love and beauty copper, and LDL yellow

More about → Copycat

Reds & Pinks Valentine's Day Givewaway! Ends 2/15. (Closed)

I'm giving away 8 lovely reds & pinks that are either just not my style or are dupes for colors already in my collection. All new and unswatched. One lucky reader from anywhere in the world will receive the following.

1. China Glaze Spitfire
2. Color Club Red Velvet
3. Finger Paints Sketched & Etched
4. Catrice Caught On The Red Carpet
5. Essie Bordeaux
6. Sally Hansen Flame Opal
7. Color Club Resort To Red
8. Sally Hansen Royal Opal

RULES:
PLEASE READ ALL OF THE RULES BEFORE ENTERING.

• This giveaway is open to followers worldwide!
• This giveaway starts today, January 30th, and will end Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 at 11:59PM Central Time.
• We'll select the winner with random.org's random number generator and notify the winner by email on Wdnesday, February 16th.
• The winner will have 24 hours to respond. If the winner doesn't reply within 24 hours, that winner will forfeit the prize and an alternate winner will be selected via random.org.

HOW TO ENTER:
Everyone has the opportunity to earn up to two entries per person. You only need to fill out the form once. This works MUCH better than comments, so I've turned them off for this post to avoid confusion.

• Mandatory Entry. Leave your name and email in the form below. That's all that is required for this one!
• Optional Entry. Like my new Concrete and Nail Polish facebook page!

Thanks for reading!
April

More about → Reds & Pinks Valentine's Day Givewaway! Ends 2/15. (Closed)

Christmas Nails

This is our lame attempt at photographing my week old manicure, but Dustin came up with and executed this super cute design.

Polish: E.LF. Pearl with E.LF. Golden Goddess on top

Bundle Monster Plate BM14

Stamped with Sinful Colors Innocent

More about → Christmas Nails

January Haul!

I have a whole bunch of stuff to show you that Ive gotten since my last haul post. First up is my new little army of Zoya polishes I ended up getting 9 because I used the code 3 times with different accounts thanks to my cousin and boyfriend. These are the first in my collection.

(Right to Left)

* Shivon * Crystal * Valerie

* Cheryl * Indigo * Adina

* Happi * Perrie * Robyn

I will be buying more Zoya from  now on as well as the Color Lock System to get the best out of these. I had an unfortunate thing happen to one of my bottles in the shipping process my baby Crystal came damaged and spilling its was too bad take a look.

Next up is the very popular OPI Katy Perry Collection I managed to get 4 out of 5 of them before they were sold out. I pre-ordered Black Shatter from Mbeauty lounge and the other I had my local Ulta put whatever polishes they had of the collection left on hold. I got there and unfortunately I am missing The one that got away and it did literally.

* Last Friday Night * Not like the movies * Teenage Dream * Black Shatter



Now for some beauties I picked up at the drugstore some are from Rite Aid and some are from Walgreens. I have been struggling to keep my nails long and healthy but I change polish so often that my nails are weak and are always breaking I am going to be testing out Total Nail Rx see if it works for my nails.

Jesse's Girl Confetti (old rectangle tops)

Borgehese Mediterranoe sea

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Collide-O-Scope

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Fly with me

Total Nail Rx



I received a Hot Topics gift card a while ago and I finally decided to use it and on the website they had the mini nail sets for 98 cents so I could resist on getting 2 of each, one for me and they other for a future giveaway. Then I took my usual trip to Dollar Tree I found sets LA Colors Nail Dazzling its polish and glitter I ended up getting every color they had.

I saved the best for last as you all probably know the Hello Kitty by Sephora collection has been released at stores and online. I was unable to purchase anything when they had the preview event for Beauty Insiders and I'm glad I waited. Ive been able to see swatches and comparisons of the polishes and to me out of the whole collection only one polish was worth the $10 they each go for and that was Purple Sprinkles. I also bought some HK decals and since I use my Beauty Insider card often I had more then 100 point and I receive the Hello Kitty Travel perfume for free!

Aren't they soo CUTE!!!

That's all for now still waiting on some Essie's I ordered and the release of the China Glaze crackle collection. 

More about → January Haul!

TBN Ultramarine blue

Today I have a frankenpolish that I made up ages ago and never got around to posting.

I made this up using a bottle of white polish from Totally Beautiful Nails (a cheap Aussie brand) and then added about a teaspoon of Ultramarine Blue pigment that I got from TBK Trading.  It made a a strong creamy bright blue polish.  A really simple frankenpolish that anyone could do.

Below shows the first time I swatched this.  This was two coats without a top coat.  As you can see, there were still tiny granules of pigment left on the nail which made it look slightly rough.  A nice layer of Seche Vite covered that right up, as you can see in the top picture.

More about → TBN Ultramarine blue