Hypnotix Boutique Acrylics Review

Hey Y'all! I received some acrylic samples from Hypnotix Boutique to review for you! The online store offers a full acrylic line with over 115 gorgeous colors to chose from. In addition to Acrylics they also offer nail art supplies, handbags, accessories, jewelry and make up.

The color swatches I am showing today are Live it Up Sparkle, Dark Blue, Icey Blue Metallic, Chromed Out Metallic, Illuminati Metallic and Bright White. They are all gorgeous!





Here are the swatches of each color together, Below I have posted the video review. Be sure to visit the online store! Stay tuned for some designs using these products!

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My First Haul

Well, this was my first and probably last haul! It isn't my last because I had a bad experience, just because I'm cheap! I heard about Kleancolor and went to their website and found about one million things that I *needed* so I bought them all. I didn't do any swatches because I kind of find swatches boring, but if you're curious about ANY of these products, feel free to ask me to do a swatch of something and I'll happily post it!!!

This is everything I got! You'll notice in the background the Hair Polisher, which ended up kind of sucking. It was very thick and a bit greasy. I got it for my boyfriend because he likes a silky product in his hair, but it was definitely a bust. 

Here from left to right we have: Cuticle Remover, Calcium, and Madly Matte

The Cuticle Remover doesn't seem to do very much, I'm honestly not sure what the difference between good cuticles and bad cuticles is. I only know what the difference between average cuticles and INSANELY GOOD cuticles looks like. The Calcium works nicely, I like to use calcium as a base coat, and this one doesn't allow staining any more than any other base coat, so it works nicely for my purposes. Madly Matte is wonderful. I have been wanting a matte topcoat for some time now because I LOVE how matte nails look (so much so that sometimes I don't top coat my acrylic paints so that they keep their matte-ness). Madly Matte does what you would think it would do, but I've never used any other matte topcoats, so I can't compare it to other things. 

And here is the reason I went to Kleancolor in the first place: Chunky Holo Black, Chunky Holo Bluebell, and Chunky Holo Fuschia

Oh man, oh man. I love these so much. Chunky holo black is like my favorite thing ever. I like the picture that I took here because it gives you a good idea of what these colors look like if you don't use a base coat. The "black" is almost like a mustard-y brown, the bluebell is a light-ish blue with hints of red, and the fuschia is vibrant with hints of blue. Over a solid color base coat, these all look essentially the same. The one difference is that the black has multiple sizes of holographic hexagons where as the bluebell and fuschia only have one size. This makes the black almost look like a flakey.

An important thing to know about these is that they stink, literally not figuratively (figuratively they rock). When you open up the polishes there is a pungent smell that can easily over take a room. This didn't bother me too much, but I could see how some people might not like that. But for the price, about $2 each, can you really complain?

Left to right: Born to the Purple and Blue-Eyed Girl

I really like both of these. They are both full of two sizes of hexagon glitter and have dark jelly bases. The colors look a lot like how they do in the bottles. The only problem that I had with these two polishes was that the polish dries really really slow. For me, that was a hassle because I generally don't have a huge amount of time to paint my nails so having to sit around without moving my fingers was really annoying. On the plus side though, the hexagons easily came out of the bottle and applied thickly to the nails, so there was no lack of glitter!

Left to right: Holiday Jingle, Golden Nightmare, Holo Orange

Holiday Jingle is totally un-holiday. In the bottle it appears to be a dark green glitter, making it perfectly Christmas-y, however on the nail it is really bright green. It is neon enough that I wouldn't call it a holiday green. What I do love about it though is that the glitter is SUPER dense, so your nails just look like glitter, not at all like polish. Golden Nightmare is a black with gold sparkles. It applied nicely and looks almost like a night sky, I like using it as a background for galaxy nails! Holo Orange is gorgeous, it is what it says it is, a holographic orange polish. It isn't as dense as some holos are, so it works really nicely over top of another polish. It can definitely also work alone, and if you want to wear it by itself it looks very much like it does in this picture and only takes a few coats to become opaque. 

I also got this set of tiny tiny beads for nail accents, they are hard to apply, but I love how they look. I also go a package that looks exactly like this of holographic glitter, but it was insanely hard to photograph, so there are no pictures.


Anyways, I hope this was interesting, and like I said, if you want to know more about any of the products, feel free to ask!

More about → My First Haul

Friday Haul!

Hey! Long time no post! My husband had finals this week and it's just been crazy! But we are leaving for our much needed 7 week vacation on Tuesday. :)

I just wanted to stop by real quick and show you my haul for today! Exciting because I hardly EVER do hauls...it's always a little here, a little there. haha But this is definitely the more exciting way.

Fred Meyer- Sally Hansen Insta Dri Limited Edition Fall 2011 polishes 

LA Girl Metallics

Wet N Wild Limited Edition Dreamweaver Eyeshadow Trios (still hunting for the rest!)

Maybelline the Falsies Flare Mascara

Ross- Color Club Minis Wicked Sweet (Am I the first to know Color Club made minis?!)

Have you guys tried any of these? What do you want to see? Also, what do you ladies think of me showing you makeup every once in a while?

More about → Friday Haul!

I'm back!!!!

So I made it in last night around 6 pm. But of course I had to head over to my parents and fill them in on the details, so I'm just now getting around to uploading my pictures from the trip. I had a blast! The two girls I went to visit are loads of fun and have some crazy friends that we got to do lots with, and it was all just pure entertainment. :) A friend of mine went with me so it was four girls all 24 y/o within a few months of each other. 2 of the girls ended up getting manis throughout the week, so I'll have pictures of those up later in the week. I wish I had brought more of my polishes and stuff! 

To start things off I have my mini haul from the week. There weren't any great nail art places to scope out.... :( It was only Kentucky after all, but I did manage to snag a few good deals at various drugstores.

I now own a Justin Bieber polish.... It was randomly thrown on the shelf at a CVS, clearanced for $2. They didn't even have a display of Nicole by OPI, so I was really confused as to how they had this one polish. But it's a lovely shade of blue with holographic glitter! This pic is 3 coats, but that's my fault for snagging on the 2nd coat and needing to touch it up. Normally, would cover in 2 coats. Topcoat used.
"Me + Blue"

Sinful Colors Thimbleberry - It's a neon orange leaning coral color. I was sifting through a large bin of Sinful Colors at the Walgreens and I picked this same one up 3 times, so that was a sign enough for me that I should just go ahead and buy it! I have it on my toes right now :) 3 coats, no topcoat.

Essie - Absolutely Shore. I had been wanting this polish, but waiting it out to go on clearance. I found it for $4 at their Rite Aid and snatched it up. I wore it as a full mani while I was in Kentucky. Pictured is just one accidentally thick coat.

China Glaze Refresh Mint on the left. Similar, but obviously lighter.

More pics to come!!!!! I missed you guys!

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Recent Haul!

Happy Monday everyone? If Mondays can be considered happy...haha 

I'm excited to show you my recent nail polish/art items. I mentioned in my last post that I will be doing a series of reviews for products from the Born Pretty Store and these are the items I will show you throughout the week. 

I also forgot to mention that I hit 100 posts a few posts ago! Woo hoo! haha

Next are the Fingerpaints my sweet husband bought at Sally's for me. This is  Add and Abstract, Chroma Coral, Artist's Sapphire, and Coral Compliment. I will show you Chroma Coral tomorrow!

Cherry Culture was having a sale for Memorial Day so I decided to try some of the Milani holos,one of the jewel fx polishes, and another One Coat Glitter. Dustin bought me the gold one at Kmart. <3

And finally, the randoms of the bunch. The first is from Forever 21, the next 2 from Cherry Culture. I found it interesting that the LA Girl and F21 bottles are nearly identical!

I can't wait to show these to you! <3

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Trade Secret - Hauling Essie!

I scored at Trade Secret monday night. I did a video to brag a bit! I hope you don't mind! :)

Some of it is for you guys!

Don't forger to enter my Nail Art Contest!

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The Life of a Construction Worker

Basically I went slap nuts buying stuff I needed to reorganize my polish room... It started out being just two things that I "needed," and then morphed into a spring cleaning fiasco of that entire room and closet. When I woke up earlier and walked into my hallway to find this mountain of garbage... I actually startled myself. Lol. "Ah! I've been robbed! ....... Oh yeah, I did that"

Two of the pieces that I bought required assembly, so that's how I felt like a construction worker. I only have one piece done so far, but it's the most important, so here it goes:

I got a Melmer! Or Michael's Craft Store - Helmer!
(It was 40% off in store if you go before Sunday!)
I was sick of looking at all of the massive overflow and disorganization of everything. I don't want to store all of my polishes in this, but I did want to put a few unruly bottles in here. I thought that if I bought this now, it will benefit me down the line if I do decide to store my polishes that way.

All of the pieces can be a little overwhelming:

Hahah! 15 minutes!? Who do they think I am? Al Borland from Home Improvement?! It took me more like an hour, but you'll see why at the end.

Wally approves of a new hiding place halfway through.

It took me a bit longer because I decorated the fronts before attaching the handles! While in Michael's I picked up some scrapbooking paper that I liked the look of and felt matched somewhat. In hindsight, I wish I had matched it closer to just blue and brown. The purple kind of overwhelms the other two colors in what I did pick out. Whatever! It's still cute!

How I did it: While the drawer fronts were still flat before applying the handles I cut the paper to fit. Then applied them to the drawer fronts with "Mod Podge" which is a decoupage medium that I already had. (If you don't have this, you can water down regular white glue and it works the same). Once the paper was in place and smoothed down, I applied another coat of Mod Podge over the top to seal it in. Waited for it to dry and applied the handles!

I realize this has been done before. I got the idea from reading someone else's blog, but I don't recall where it was, and frankly I'm too lazy to google it right now because my second construction project is still in the box! I want to get to work on it right away. It's a cute "gaming table" from Pier1Imports. It was on clearance, I plan on using it for when I have a friend over to do their nails, not games. That way I can face them with a small table in between us and the few supplies I need. The table is convertible from a standard decorative tray top table, to a backgammon board, to a checkerboard. Here's the pic from the website.

Here is to hoping that mine ends up looking remotely like the above picture! Lol

*edit* SCORE one for me! Here's to opening the box and finding it already assembled! Apparently the box was the exact dimensions while I thought it was bulkier! It's the perfect size! I'm very pleased!

*edit #2* Harri of TrailerHood Chic was kind enough to point out that she recently did a post on her Melmer that she decorated here. So check it out! While I did remember her post after looking at it a second time, the one I'm thinking of was this girl that covered the front of her Helmer drawers with paint or paper, here.

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Nail Art Gifts

My mom is addicted to eBay. If only costs $1 and ships from Hong Kong, she is going to buy it! Normally it just makes me roll my eyes, but she recently got me some nail art stuff I'd been meaning to try anyway! 

She got me a set of 12 two way nail art pens. I'd seen these reviewed by Rebecca here and was curious how this type of pen would compare with the felt tip type nail art pen I've been using. I'd read on several blogs that the brush part to these pens is crappy. That the bristles fall out and are worthless. So my first step was to open them all up and remove all the bristles. I just used tweezers and it grabbed all of the bristles at once, a gentle tug removed them without any trouble.

Of what little bit I've used them so far, they seem like they will come in handy at times.The polish itself stinks to high heaven and the glitters are pretty sparse and "bleh," but the pen tip is nice. I wonder if the bottle can just be emptied and filled with a different polish?

 She also bought me a set of nail art brushes that comes with a super tiny dotting tool. I also have the multicolored set of dotting tools from eBay (also reviewed by Rebecca here) and this is about 3/4 the size of the smallest in that set. I was excited about these because of the different sizes in the brushes! I don't know how much use I'll get out of the flat square brush, but it must be included for a reason.... And I want to find some ways to use the fan brush, I think that will be the most fun!

These have short, fat, yellow handles. I find that it makes them easier to control with the fat handle! Big plus!

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Further Proof That Rebecca is Awesome

RebeccaLikesNails and I like Rebecca, it's as simple as that. 

This girl is an amazing person. She sent me a thank you present in return for me having sent her a thank you present. I mean really? Who does that now a days? Rebecca does! 

First of all, she got me a polish off of my wishlist!

OPI We'll Always Have Paris Suede

This was the only polish is the Suede line I was really interested in. And I couldn't find it locally. I'm not too much for matte finishes, but with a topcoat this is stunning! So I can't wait to try it out.

Then she included several items from "Nail Art Diva!" I've never heard of this brand or seen it used on a blog before, so that's exciting too!

 This is the image plate she included "From the Heart" 1. It's got a large heart (on the left) and then all of the little sayings like you find on chalky valentine heart candy. Very cute! I'm a little confused by the thing in the center of the plate. Is it just showing you different combinations to try? The instructions on the back of the packaging were worn off, so if it said it there I'm missing out. If you know what it is, just leave me a comment please!

 Lastly she included these 2 stamping polishes also from the "Nail Art Diva!" line. I've had the same gripe as Rebecca about trouble finding a red creme polish for stamping and here it is! Below I've compared it to a standard size polish.

 I tested their opaqueness on paper because of what's currently on my nails (more to come at the end). They're both fantastic over white but don't really show much over dark colors. :( That's ok though, I will definitely get some great use out of these!

So what's on my nails that I didn't immediately test these goodies out on my nails?

 That's Rebecca's combo that won in the Bundle Monster contest here! After Rebecca won in that contest, she posted a wonderfully detailed tutorial on how to do a proper gradient manicure. I loved how her entry to Bundle Monster looked, so I tried it with similar colors and the newest version of Bundle Monster zebra print (BM 223).

I used the following colors : Zoya Areej, Zoya Mira, Zoya Breezi, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away. (Konad black stamping polish for the zebra)

I also recently bought this really pretty LA Colors in "Jewel Tone" that falls in the same color family. I can't figure out if I should add it somehow to my mani or leave well enough alone....

More about → Further Proof That Rebecca is Awesome

What to do?

I found these really cute Goldie polishes at my local Marshall's store. They are must haves if not just for the bottle itself! 

But.... I have an idea..... 

Would any of you guys be interested in participating in a nail art contest hosted by me? I've been entertaining the idea for a while now, and my sis helped brainstorm and come up with some good additions. But would you guys want to even do it? Would this make a good prize for the winner? Or is there something else (reasonably $ and accessible for me) that y'all would rather win? I'm open to suggestions as this is still in the planning stage.

I'm thinking of one main winner and then several other secondary prizes. What do you think? Just let me know in the comments please!

*What little you can see of my nails in these pics is still OPI Dating a Royal, I took all these pics that same night.*

 A set of 8 polishes for only $7.99! At 99 cents, heck yeah! I'm buying it! (They had a second set identical to this one, I'm almost regretting not buying both.... I'll have to go back for sure)

 What are those colors, you ask? Sadly they don't have labels or names on the bottom of them. :(

Medium Pink

Barbie Bright Pink

Peachy Pink Nude (with shimmer)

Beige Nude (it looks more orange here than it actually is.)

A very intriguing Dusky Pale Pink/Lilac shade.

Classic Red 

Very cool Aqua with lots of shimmer, almost metallic look.

You may think this is black, but it's not! Enlarge it and look along the top edge of the bottle. It's a very deep, vampy, Purple! This was exciting to me because I at first thought it was black. Lol

So again, what should I do? Use these as a prize for a future contest in the making? Or keep them for myself?

P.S. Sorry gals but I seem to have caught up to myself once again. I don't have any extra pictures archived to use in my posts just yet. I might not even get to work on it for the next few days. I've got a busy weekend planned, but I promise to get something good posted on Sunday at the least.

More about → What to do?